Board Member
Paolo has held the role of General Manager of the Milan Branch of ABC International Bank Plc. since January, 2005. He has worked in the international finance market for over 20 years through different banking experiences; he started with Banca Commerciale Italiana in London and then moved to the Milan Branch of Deutsche Bank AG where he concluded in the early 80’s the first forfaiting transaction of the bank in Italy.
In 1988 he joined HVB in Milan as Operation Manager and then set up the Trade & Export Finance Desk with a focus on forfaiting and buyers credit transactions; during those years was member of the Board of Intrafin Ltd, Geneva. In 1993 he moved to Creditanstalt Bankverein AG Milan as General Manager and two years later he joined the Spanish Banco Sabadell S.A. where he was Managing Director of the Italian subsidiary and Regional Manager for Central & Eastern Europe.
He has worked with the IFA from it’s creation as Chairman of the Southern Europe Regional Committee, and is the organizer of the last Conferences in addition to his role as treasurer.
Board Member
Sema was born in Antalya in 1969, graduating from Bogazici University Istanbul with a bachelors degree in Economics. She started her banking career at T. Garanti Bankasi in 1992, where she held different positions in corporate marketing units until 1996. In 1996 she joined Societe Generale Istanbul as a senior manager responsible for corporate marketing.
At the beginning of 1998, she joined GarantiBank International (GBI) in Amsterdam to establish the Forfaiting Department. Until May 2007, she was the Head of Global Origination and Distribution at GBI, before becoming the Global Head of Financial Institutions EM at Rabobank International in July 2007. She was been elected to the Board of IFA NERC in 2002 where she has been responsible for membership until 2005.
Board Member
Sean Edwards
Sean Edwards is an English solicitor, formerly with Clifford Chance, and is now Head of Legal at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Europe Limited. He takes a particular interest in trade finance matters and as Chairman of the Market Practice Committee has been closely and heavily involved in the drafting of the IFA Guidelines and Introduction to the Primary Market. He is the author of the User’s Guide to the IFA Guidelines and has written articles on forfaiting for all the major trade finance magazines. He is a member of the editorial board of Trade & Forfaiting Review.
Board Member
Description to follow
Board Member
Description to follow
Board Member
Description to follow
Board Member
Description to follow
Board Member
Geoff Wynne
Description to follow.
Board Member
Following a wide range of responsibilities in commercial banking with a major UK based bank, specialised in forfaiting in 1986. Responsibilities included initially product development and market research, then marketing the product via International Banking Centers and trading with secondary market counterparts.
Moved to what is now HVB group (Head Office Munich) in 1991 to set up the forfait unit’s secondary market activity.
In 1998 transferred to Singapore to set up primary and secondary forfaiting in Asia Pacific as part of the HVB´s Regional Head Office.
In 2005 appointed head of forfaiting and trade finance business of HVB in Asia Pacific, which is now part of the Unicredit group.
Board Member
Brendan Herley
Director, Loan Distribution, Americas
Syndications, Capital Markets
Standard Chartered Bank
1 Madison Avenue, 3rd Floor
New York, NY10010
Board Member
Demetris A. Zouzoukis
Demetris Zouzoukis following a carrier in the Telecommunications sector, where he used Forfaiting as a major tool for financing the exports of telecom equipment in various regions of Eastern Europe and Middle East, he joined EFG Eurobank Factors in 2002 to establish the first forfaiting desk within a Greek financial institution, as Forfaiting & International Projects Manager.
Between 2004-2005 he also worked together with IFC, under their SEED (Southeast Europe Enterprise Development) program, for creating an appropriate legislative environment for Factoring in Serbia, Albania and FYR of Macedonia.
In 2007 he took the challenge to establish Forfaiting within Marfin Group, in the newly- then- established subsidiary of the Group, Marfin Factors & Forfaiters, as Dep. General Manager and Head of Forfaiting.
During these years he took part in the establishment of foreign branches in Bulgaria and Serbia, for both companies.
He has been a member of IFA since 2002, and in 2005 he was elected at the Board of South Europe Regional Committee (SERC) of IFA, first as Secretary and since 2008, as Chairman.
Board Member
Daniel Schär has been involved in TradeFinance and Financial Institutions in Emerging Markets for more than 15 years. He spent 13 years at Credit Suisse working within Financial Institutions Emerging Markets and Trade Finance group. 2001, after various assignments within this bank - in Switzerland, but also abroad - with focus on the Middle East region, he became a member of the Syndication and Forfaiting team Trade Finance of Credit Suisse, Zurich. In 2007 Daniel Schär joined Zürcher Kantonalbank assuming responsibility for the bank’s activities in Emerging Markets as a Director and Head of Emerging Market team, fostering on trade and export finance products, but also looking after all correspondent banking activities with financial institutions in all Emerging Markets.
Board Member
Paul Langford has been involved in Forfaiting and trade financing for in excess of 30 years having spent some 23 years at Moscow Narodny Bank Ltd, London (now VTB Bank Europe Ltd) working within Trade Finance, both in the back and front offices before assuming responsibility for the bank’s forfaiting portfolio in 1986. In 1998 he joined West Merchant Bank’s (now WestLB AG London Branch) forfaiting team with specific responsibility for C&EE business, before assuming his current role as Executive Director, Head of Global Forfaiting & EM Loan Trading in March 2007.
Board Member
Lixin Guo started his professional carrier from Bank of China in 1993 and since then he continuous to offer to BoC from various positions
in International department (international settlement, ICC and FCI affairs) sand Trade Finance products’ area (trade finance operations, product development, trading, LC’s etc.),
both in Beijing and New York, where he spent 5 years as vice-president of the LC department. Since 2006, he is back in Beijing and is the Head of Guarantee and Forfaiting.