Speakers line up 2025

Hakim Berrah

Senior Lawyer at Clyde & Co's Africa Desk, UAE. He specializes in advising clients on legal matters related to business operations and investments across the African continent. His expertise encompasses navigating the complex legal, social, and political landscapes in various African jurisdictions. Berrah has participated in discussions and briefings addressing key opportunities and considerations for companies entering or operating in Africa.

Luca Castellani

Legal officer in the Secretariat of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). He serves as the secretary of UNCITRAL Working Group IV (Electronic Commerce), where he oversaw the preparation of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR) . He has also contributed to drafting the Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Cross-border Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific.

Marina Comninos

Co-Head, ICE Digital Trade (formerly essDOCS). Marina joined essDOCS on a part-time basis in 2006 as General Counsel and took a full-time role as Head of Solution Delivery in 2013. Later in the same year, Marina was appointed Chief Operating Officer, and in 2018, was named Co-CEO & Chief Operating Officer. Today, Marina serves as Co-Head of ICE Digital Trade – a role she has held since the acquisition of essDOCS by Intercontinental Exchange Inc. in 2022 – taking on joint leadership duties with Co-Head, Alexander Goulandris. Marina is a member of the Law Society of England and Wales, and a member of the ICC Commercial Law & Practice Commission. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Government and Law from the London School of Economics and an LLM in Maritime Law from University College London. Marina is admitted to practice as a Solicitor in England and Wales, and prior to ICE Digital Trade, had worked as a solicitor for Clifford Chance.

David Cuckney

Director - ICC- Commercial Crime Services (ICC-CCS), Assistant Director – International Maritime Bureau (IMB) UK. David assists in overseeing the daily operations of the International Maritime Bureau and co-ordinates with the IMB’s banking, shipping, and insurance members with regards to trade finance fraud, document manipulation, cargo misdelivery, theft, sanctions issues and loss prevention. Supervises IMB investigations and casework and has carried out investigations into several large-scale shipping and financial frauds and conducted on the ground investigations into smuggling and cargo misdeclaration. He has provided expert testimony and witness statements to financial regulators and law enforcement. Leads IMB training seminars and regularly speaks at conferences and seminars about trade finance fraud, cargo theft and maritime sanctions. 

Omer Guy

General Counsel for Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA), responsible for providing advice and guidance on all legal matters, guiding business strategy, and managing legal risks. Prior to joining DCSA, Omer practiced as a lawyer specialising mainly in maritime and aviation law, while handling a broad range of both contentious and non-contentious matters, acting on behalf of insurance companies, carriers, ship owners and operators, cargo owners, and airlines. With over two decades of experience in supply chain, transport, and logistics, Omer brings his expertise and experience from both the business and legal perspectives into practice, contributing to the transformation of the container shipping industry through the work of DCSA. Omer is educated in business, international relations, and law (LL.B, LL.M).

Gabriele Katz

Director, Deutsche Bank AG, Germany; in charge of Global Transaction Banking in Product Management for the Documentary Trade Business for Europe & MENA; has a more than 25 years’ experience in the LC and BG business. Member of the ICC Germany Banking Committee;

Michael Lehotzki

Managing Associate General Counsel at HSBC – acts as global Wholesale Lead for Digital & Transformation projects using new and emerging technology such as DLT, digital assets or AI.

Stephanie Powell

CSDG, Senior Consultant Trade Finance Advisory at Siemens Mobility GmbH, Germany.  Stephanie joined Siemens in 2010 and after various operative roles moved to trade finance in 2017, where she gained substantial experience advising Siemens’ large-scale projects on guarantee and suretyship topics as well as corporate risk mitigation measures. Since 2019, she has been specializing exclusively on mobility projects, providing guarantee advisory to projects as well as providing internal trainings on guarantee-related risk and risk mitigation.

Glenn Ransier 

Principal Product Manager, Wells Fargo Bank NA, USA: 1 of 5 Technical Advisors to the ICC, One of the authors of URDG, ISBP, e-rules e.g. eURC, etc. Vice-Chair of ISDGP WG. In addition to ICC, he provides strong support to global community with organizations such as SWIFT (MT798 WG); BAFT (various committees), IIBLP (speaker), etc. Has led global operations and/or product management with 44 plus years of experience.

Judith Schmalnauer

Senior Trade Finance Advisor, Linz. Judith joined Primetals Technologies (former Siemens VAI) in 2011 where she gained extensive experience in trade finance activities as well as export financing for projects all over the globe. In 2015, when MHI became the main shareholder of the former Siemens VAI and when Primetals was founded, Judith was greatly involved in setting up the new centralized Center of Competence for guarantees and LCs in Austria, Linz, incorporating headquarter responsibility. Since then, Judith is servicing the Primetals group on all trade finance related questions as well as globally responsible for harmonizing guarantee and LC wordings with Primetals’ customers worldwide, executing and updating of the internal processes and guidelines hereto and majorly involved in shaping the digital future of Primetals’ trade finance.

Christina Elisabeth Seierup 

Vice President, Trade Finance Operations, Dankse Bank AS, Denmark; Member Danish Banking Committee. Since 2010 Head of Training & Education for Trade Finance, Danske Bank Group - responsible for corporate Trade Finance and related subjects as AML trainings; She joined Danske Bank A/S in 1985 and has been working with International corporates since 1989;

Evgeniya Sharkova

has been leading the RBI Trade Finance Sales Team since 2022. She oversees driving the end-to-end sales process of conventional and sustainable Trade Finance solutions from pitch to closing for corporate and institutional clients, implementing sales and marketing initiatives. Evgeniya has over 15 years of experience in corporate and investment banking, origination and client coverage, business development, and sales management. She started her career at VTB Bank and joined RBI Group in 2010.

Sharad Sinha

Part of the Global Product Management Team at Standard Chartered. Based out of Singapore, his primary responsibility is to manage and commercialise Guarantees and Standbys portfolio for the bank globally. Additionally, he represents bank in industry discussions on trade digitization and trade facilitation. He has been with the bank in various capacities within the bank including in Head of Trade Operations, Mumbai; Documentary Trade Head, Group Trade Operations, as Head of Trade AML Advisory and as Head of Global Operations for supply chain and receivable services, a back-office vertical which he helped establish for the bank. With close to 25 years of experience as a trade finance professional, he has been actively engaged with industry bodies and associations in rendering technical expertise and product innovation. In recent years, led industry discussions on SWIFT FileAct partnership for e-presentation of docs. At present, Sharad is actively engaged in industry discussions on evolving digital trade standards; ICC-SWIFT group for API standardization for Trade products and ICC Digitization Committee on commercialization of e-rules.

Lorna K. Strong

Managing Director, Strong Consulting Group (SCG) & Associate Programme Director, MSc Law & Finance, London School of Economics (LSE), UK. For over 20 years, Lorna Strong has advised financial institutions on legal and regulatory risk, including international trade finance, financial crime compliance (AML & sanctions), int disputes, ESG, digital innovation, and policy development, and risk management and played a lead role in the finance industry’s regulatory and policy debates. For the last ten years, Lorna Strong has held the position of Managing Director and global lead counsel for HSBC Global Trade, As Deputy General Counsel, she managed HSBC legal counsel in over 50 jurisdictions. In 2024, Lorna left HSBC to join the Finance Department of LSE as Associate Programme Director of the MSc Law and Finance Programme and to set up Strong Consulting Group She continues as a member of the ICC Legal Committee and is also a regular lecturer with the ICC, IIBLP, LIBF, and BCR Receivables Finance & Alternative Finance Forums.

Mireille Troosters

Head Expert Trade Finance at KBC Bank Belgium, Board Member of ICC Belgium. Mireille started working in KBC bank in 1992 and switched to Trade Finance in 2005, as a Trade Finance Officer (a commercial job), then as Head of Operations Documentary Credits. In 2015 she switched to being Risk Manager Trade Finance and today is combining this with being Head Expert trade finance again.

Martin Wolfbauer

International Legal Department of STRABAG Group (CML). Martin is an Austrian and New York qualified lawyer. In STRABAG’s legal department he is in charge of guarantees in international projects. He gained extensive experience in reviewing, drafting and negotiating guarantees for major construction contracts in various countries but also advises and supports STRABAG entities in litigation and arbitration proceedings related to guarantees. Martin holds lectures on international law and securities.

Keynotes:

20th Global Conference on Bank Guarantees

Sabine Koszteczky

Head of Trade Finance at Raiffeisen Bank International AG. With over two decades of experience, she has held various management positions, gaining a deep knowledge of the banking sector. Since 2001, Sabine Koszteczky has been a key member of the RBI Group, dedicating 15 years to management positions where she successfully led initiatives to enhance customer satisfaction and drive product innovation. She has built up extensive knowledge about the importance of the secondary market business for banks in the trade finance sector and the opportunities that arise from this business area.

Shona Tatchell

Director, Trade Facilitation Programme, EBRD
Shona Tatchell leads the Trade Facilitation Programme at the EBRD, bringing over 30 years of trade finance experience from senior roles at Chase Manhattan, HSBC, and Barclays. She is the founder and former CEO of Halotrade, a Barclays fintech spin-out that developed ESG-linked financing solutions tied to supply chain sustainability data. Shona has worked across the UK, Middle East, and Asia, and holds an MA in Modern Languages from the University of Oxford.

19th Global Conference on Letters of Credit

Yanying Li

Legal Officer at the International Trade Law Division (ITLD), Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations, which serves as the secretariat to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). Since 2019, she has worked on the development of a legal instrument on negotiable cargo documents, a project assigned to UNCITRAL Working Group VI in 2022. The draft UN convention aims to introduce a new type of document of title — the “negotiable cargo document” — to serve a function similar to a maritime bill of lading across all modes of transport, and to establish a legal framework for the use of electronic versions. Yanying currently serves as Secretary of Working Group VI and oversees the organization of UNCITRAL’s annual sessions and its matters before the UN General Assembly. Prior to joining ITLD, she worked in banking and international arbitration at the Asian Development Bank (Manila), Clifford Chance LLP (London), and the Permanent Court of Arbitration (The Hague).

Florian Witt

Managing Director, Head of International & Corporate Banking and Member of the Group Business Executive Committee at ODDO BHF.
The business division combines corporate finance, trade & export finance, strategic international clients, correspondent banking business as well as selected capital markets activities. Before joining ODDO BHF, he was a Managing Director at Commerzbank: After developing and heading Commerzbank´s African corporate and institutional franchise including the set-up of various offices on the ground, he became Head of Business Management of the global transaction banking and FI area. Until 2006 he worked at Deutsche Bank as a Global Relationship Manager within Deutsche´s FIG. He started his career at Deutsche Bank within Asset and Wealth Management in Frankfurt Head Office as well as in Hong Kong Branch.

Florian is Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce Banking Commission and Board Member of the German-African Business Association. He holds a Master in Business Science (Corporate Finance, Banking, International Management) from University of Muenster, Germany. During his studies he was also trained at AfDB in Abidjan.