ITFA Emerging Trade Financier Award 2023 – SHORTLIST ANNOUNCEMENT

The ITFA Emerging Leaders Committee and the ITFA Board are delighted to announce that the 2023 ITFA Emerging Trade Financier Award was a resounding success.

We received thirteen submissions from a diverse group of Emerging Leaders, including existing industry practitioners and students alike. This year our geographical reach grew massively, spanning across Australia, MENA and the US! This evidences once again the impressive work ITFA is doing to attract evermore talent into our industry.

After much discussion, we are pleased to announce that the following candidates would make the shortlist:

•            Charlotte Russo (American International Group UK) – ‘The Trade Finance Talent Gap’
•            Neha Saxena (DBS Bank) – ‘Unlocking the Potential of DTSCF’
•            Ruby Zhou (O’Connor) – ‘ESG Pricing Incentive for SCF’

The authors of the three shortlisted projects will now present their work and be subject to the scrutiny of our members during the forthcoming ITFA Annual Conference taking place in Abu Dhabi between 11 and 13 October. As an initial reward for their efforts, ITFA has decided to reward Charlotte, Neha and Ruby with a free ticket for the conference and we very much look forward to their participation and engagement during the event.

The two shortlisted projects will be presented by their authors in a pitch to conference participants (scheduled for 11 October at 5pm) and the winner will subsequently be determined through an online voting process. The big announcement will then be made during the Gala Dinner on 12 October.

We would like to take this opportunity to give an honourable mention to Yemi Paul for her efforts in her ‘Proposal for a Trade Finance Cross-Institutional Diversity Network’. The judging panel were very impressed with her proposition and will be reaching out to Yemi to put them into action! 

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this initiative. To the ten projects that did not make it through to the shortlist – your efforts did not go unnoticed and your merit for taking part in the competition is already a significant personal victory. 

A special thank you also goes out to GTR, who have been exceptional partners of ours throughout the process!

We look forward to seeing you in Abu Dhabi. If you have not yet registered, please do as soon as possible as this will undoubtedly be THE trade finance event of the year.