Speaker
Virtual FinCrime Festival: AML & Fraud | 16th & 17th March 2022

Abdallah Alomari is an Intelligence Analyst at FS-ISAC’s Global Intelligence Office. Before joining FS-ISAC, Alomari worked as KYC specialist at Credit Agricole, an Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) analyst at Thomson Reuters, Manager of professional services at the Red Flag Group, EDD analyst at Steele Compliance Solutions, and research assistant at University Putra Malaysia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in information technology from the University of Jordan and a master’s degree in geographical information systems from University Putra Malaysia. Abdallah is a Certified Cyber Intelligence Investigator (CCII), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), CREST Practitioner Threat Intelligence Analyst (CPTIA), and Certified Cryptocurrency Investigator (CCI).

Anirban currently heads the Financial Crime; Cyber; AML Compliance; Data and Initiatives team in Middle East North Africa and India-South Asia across 34 countries. Having joined SWIFT in 2017 with over 18 years’ experience in compliance, predominantly in servicing law enforcement and correspondent banking KYC. Anirban currently leads the cybercrime awareness & solutions initiatives at SWIFT for the regions. The community typically engages with the SWIFT FCC team to drive transparency and standardisation of process, provide assurance to existing controls as well as enable business critical insights to determine market share, growth and risk.

Prior to joining SWIFT, Anirban had worked for Dow Jones & Company, driving the Financial News and Financial Crime Initiatives across India & South Asia. He has also worked for the Economic Think-tank, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), driving economic; industrial and company data initiates in India. He has vast experience in working closely with Banking, Corporates and Government during this tenure.

Anirban is an MBA from ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from the University of Calcutta.

Ben Jafari is the Commercial Director for ComplyAdvantage’s business in Australia & New Zealand. Ben is an expert on the key role technology plays in financial crime compliance and has deep knowledge on AML/CFT best practices for payments, fintechs and virtual assets. He holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Sussex and an Executive MBA from Quantic. 

Brian Hsu is the Head of Due Diligence at the BNP Paribas Taiwan branch, leading a team of local and offshore KYC analysts to conduct customer due diligence for corporate and institutional clients throughout the relationship life cycle. He was previously a Production Quality Control analyst at HSBC Taiwan, where he was nominated as the subject matter expert for the due diligence team in Taiwan to provide policy guidance to the front and middle office. He also became a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) during his time at HSBC. Prior to joining HSBC, he was a sales support under the Financial Institution team at Standard Chartered Taiwan.   

Brian holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, International Relations Division, from National Taiwan University and graduated with honors. He interned at Assemblyman Lentol’s office, the chair of Codes Committee, at New York State Assembly during his time as an exchange student to SUNY Albany. 

Catherine is an integrity due diligence analyst and a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS). Since 2015, she has been managing the integrity-related work as well as leading the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML-CFT) initiatives of the ADB’s Trade and Supply Chain Finance Program. Prior to this, Catherine worked as an economic analyst for ADB’s Asia Regional Integration Center specializing in trade and investment. She has co-authored a number of short publications on topics around trade and regional integration and AML-CFT issues in trade. 

Dr. Marcus Pleyer serves as Deputy Director General in Germany’s Federal Ministry of Finance with responsibilities for policy development and international engagement pertaining International Financial Markets (including FSB, G7, G20 matters), Anti- Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CFT), Financial Sanctions Policy, Digital Finance including Payment Services and Cyber Security and national and international development banks. As representative of the Federal Republic, he is currently a member of the board of governors of the Development Bank for Agribusiness and of the Foundation for Financing the Disposal of Nuclear Waste. He is regularly invited as an expert on AML/CFT and took part in a number of international AML/CFT-missions. Before he assumed the position of President on 1 July 2020, he served as Vice-President of the FATF (July 2019–June 2020), and as the Head of the German delegation (2016–July 2019). Dr. Pleyer has also been serving in the Steering Committee of that same organisation since 2016.

Prior to his current position, Dr. Pleyer headed the Division for International Financial Markets from 2014 to 2015. From 2011 to 2014, he served as Head of Cabinet of Federal Finance Minister Schaeuble. From 2006 to 2011, he worked in the Federal Chancellery as senior adviser for Economic Law, International Financial Markets, Eurozone and G8/G20-Affairs and was part of a special team of Chancellor Merkel for the stabilization of the financial sector in 2009. Prior to that, he held positions as adviser in the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) after he had worked as a researcher in the field of public and capital markets law at the University of Dresden and as lecturer in criminal law at the University of Heidelberg.

With support of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation, Marcus studied law at the National University of Singapore and the University of Heidelberg from which he graduated in law in 1995 before he qualified for the position of a judge in 1997. He holds a Master of Laws degree from the University of Edinburgh, a Master of Business Administration from the University of Wales and a Ph.D. from the University of Dresden. He has also passed the admission exam as a stockbroker.

Douglas is the Head of Discipline for the Financial Crime Studies program at the Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security, Charles Sturt University and a PhD Scholar at the Australian National University. He manages the Masters of Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism, the Masters of Fraud and Financial Crime programs and a range of professional development Micro subjects of topics including Trade-Based Money Laundering, Financial Crime Intelligence and White-Collar Psychopathy. Douglas comes from a law enforcement background and has served in the New Zealand Police Service, National Services Scotland and the NHS Counter Fraud and Security Management Service in England. Douglas’s research interests focus on criminology, white-collar crime, money laundering, TBML and financial crime. 

Effa has over 16 years of working experience in Internal Audit, Fraud, Risk, Security & Project Management from Government Link Companies and Startups based in Malaysia. Effa was the pioneer Regional Internal Auditor & Fraud Investigator of Grab for South East Asia.

She started her career in 2007 as a Capital Market Graduate Trainee of Securities Commission Malaysia before venturing into Fraud Management in Banking (Maybank), Telco (Celcom Axiata ) and Startups (Grab, Billplz and Setel). A Master Degree holder in Forensic Accounting & Financial Criminology, a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and a SIRIM Certified Lead Assessor for ISO9001 Quality Management System.

She is currently pursuing her Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) with the ultimate goals in bridging the gaps between the industry and academia. She is passionate about creating and adding value to the world. Her strengths lie in managing and improving internal controls and developing fraud detection intelligence. She is dedicated to enforcing corrective internal controls, providing training, and raising awareness about maintaining high integrity in all aspects of life.

Eric is a Financial Crime Compliance expert and a Certified Public Accountant with the professional qualifications of CAMS, CAMLP and HKICPA in Hong Kong.  He has been working in the compliance and audit industry for more than 15 years, and taking various roles in country and regional roles in local and international banks.  Currently, he is the Head of FCC Controls at MOX Bank Limited, striving for an efficient and smart way to fight financial crimes through Regtech.

Frans Wiwanto is Flywire’s Managing Director for the Asia Pacific region. In his current role, he manages a team of professionals in the region with responsibility for all matters across the business. Frans has more than 20 years of experience covering payments, investment banking, corporate banking, private banking and global markets. He started his career with the Singapore Government where he was attached to the Inland Revenue Authority as a Senior Intelligence Officer and to the Monetary Authority as an Assistant Director in the Securities & Futures Supervision Department.

Prior to joining Flywire initially as its Chief Compliance Officer for Asia Pacific, Frans served in a similar role at Moneygram, where he was involved in several digital payments projects and conducted training for agents and regulators in the region.

Atty. Irene Isidoro-Torres’ career in compliance began as an AML Analyst for American Savings Bank (ASB) in Honolulu, Hawaii. She received her certification as an Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) consequently, in 2008.  

She retains over a decade’s experience in the AML compliance and the regulatory discipline and is a practicing Compliance and Data Protection Officer. She is connected with LBC Express, the country’s foremost logistics and money service brand. As the company’s Vice-President for Compliance, she is responsible for the enterprise-wide AML Compliance Program in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Australia, Taiwan, Brunei and the US. She previously served as a Manager for Compliance & Ethics in American Express International. There, she provided compliance oversight to American Express partners, ensuring compliance with US regulations. Her previous work experiences also include: Securities and Exchange Commission, as a Hearing Officer for intra-corporate and corporate recovery cases; and, lecturer on Partnership and Corporation at a State University.  

Prior to earning her Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of the Philippines, she received her Bachelor of Arts degree, with a major in Interdisciplinary Studies, from the Ateneo de Manila University.  

Julia Chin is the Chief Regulatory Affairs Officer at XCube.

Prior to this, she headed the Compliance team at Hugosave, Singapore’s first Wealthcare® and savings app.

A seasoned finance industry professional, Julia has over 25 years of experience in policy implementation with a focus on client due diligence and operational risk management. She is a subject matter expert on Correspondent Banking, Securities Services, and Fintech – in the areas of Financial Crime and Regulatory Compliance.

At XCube, Julia oversees the organisation’s legal and ethical integrity by ensuring compliance with the regulations of the industry and internal policies through enhancing governance processes and building a compliance culture.

Having worked in consultancy, global banking, and regulatory entities such as Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, KLOFFE and KPMG, Julia has considerable experience in implementation and design standards of control frameworks in Asia and Middle East.

She is a member of the secretariat of APAC GCFFC as well as the GDF AML Working Group.

Julia is passionate about promoting financial inclusion and giving back to the community through mentoring. She is a registered volunteer with Bankers without Borders, an initiative by Grameen Foundation that aims to equip the less fortunate in developing nations with tools to alleviate problems of poverty.

As a Sales Engineering Manager at Alteryx, Kane is responsible for helping to solve analytic challenges facing organizations today. Kane has a Bachelor of Mathematics with a Major in Statistics. Prior to joining Alteryx, Kane worked in the Financial Services Industry, and as a Consultant for a data consultancy firm.

Lee joined HSBC in the UK in 1997 and has since held several IT roles in the UK, Brazil, India and Hong Kong. Lee has been based in Hong Kong since June 2010 where his most recent role has been as the Head of Financial Crime Risk IT for Asia Pacific, the largest and most important region for HSBC Group. In this role, Lee was responsible for rolling out the compliance systems that helped HSBC meet its Deferred Prosecution Agreement commitments. Lee was also appointed as the Global Head of Anti-Money Laundering Technology for HSBC at the beginning of January 2018, in addition to his regional role.

Luke is an experienced anti financial crime professional, having worked in global banks and FinTechs for over 15 years. As an experienced MLRO and regular speaker at AML and fraud events, Luke is a subject matter expert (and self-confessed nerd) in the areas of anti-money laundering, fraud prevention, sanctions and PEP screening and anti-bribery and corruption. 

With a career spanning over Australian banks, as well as well-known FinTech companies such as Square, Airwallex and Wise, Luke is passionate about striking the balance between serving customers, protecting the firm from compliance breaches, and detecting and preventing crime. 

Malcolm Wright is currently the Chair, Global Practitioner Advisory Board for International Compliance Association  and also the Chief Compliance Officer at 100x Group. He was previously Chief Compliance Officer for Diginex in Hong Kong, and prior to that Revolut in London. In his earlier career, Malcolm held senior several leadership roles within Thomson Reuters’ (now Refinitiv) anti-financial crime business, including overseeing the delivery of World-Check One, a leading risk intelligence platform to mitigate financial crime and sanctions risk. He also sat on the leadership team that brought the world’s first KYC Managed Service to market.

Malcolm speaks internationally on a variety of topics in particular the FATF Recommendations for Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs). He also sits on international committees including chairing the Advisory Council and AML Working Group at Global Digital Finance (www.gdf.io), an industry-led initiative in setting codes of conduct and best practices for the virtual asset industry. In this respect, Malcolm has led industry and regulator conversations regarding FATF Recommendations for VASPs as well as developing an industry AML Code of Conduct. Most recently, Malcolm co-founded and co-led the Joint Working Group for interVASP Messaging Standards (intervasp.org) that developed the widely-adopted IVMS101 message data standard for FATF ‘travel rule’ compliance.

Malcolm is an Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute’s Centre for Financial Crime Studies in London.

Mark is an Assistant Vice President at MUFG Bank, where his coverage include Financial Crime Compliance related Outsourcing, Issue Management, MI Reporting, AML investigations and Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) filling etc.  He is competent in both internal and external stakeholder management, risk assessment and control, as well as crisis management.

Mark holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (Hons) in Banking and Finance.  He is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), Certified Cryptocurrency Investigator (CCI), Associate Anti-Money Laundering Professional (AAMLP), as well as other certificates accredited by the International Compliance Association (ICA).

Ming Quan is a Business Development Director at Jumio. Prior to joining Jumio, Ming Quan had worked in Mastercard, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and Bytedance, where he worked on scaling their payments and digital banking businesses. Ming Quan is passionate about the financial services and regtech industries, and believes there is a huge opportunity to deliver more value to consumers and businesses whilst keeping them secure. how technology transforms the way economy works today.

Neeraj Bansal is a management consultant focusing on providing strategy consulting. He is from Fintech and ecosystem team evaluating and aligning possible partners who are in line with the roadmap of bank focusing on digital and regtech solutions. This includes identification of the problem statement, market research, curation of matched fintech, conducting POCs, and stakeholder management . Prior to this, he had been focusing on providing solutions and assurance related to AML risk and compliance management for over a decade.

Nirmal has been with the Life Insurance sector since 2005. Presently he is designated as VP and Head – Fraud Prevention Unit & Claims Investigation at Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company Ltd managing all pillars of Anti Fraud Strategy.

Seasoned professional with rich 21 years of experience in 5 Industries namely Cards, Banking, Publishing, Forex and Life Insurance in the field of Financial Crime, Building and institutionalizing Culture of Ethics and Compliance, Forensics Investigation, Fraud Risk assessments, Data Analytics, Code of Conduct, Whistle Blowing Process, Prevention of Sexual Harassment, Compliance Audits.

Prior to his present assignment, Nirmal was with Max Life Insurance Company Ltd as VP and Head – Compliance Reviews and Investigations. He also worked with American Express TRS, Thomas Cook and Oxford University Press. He has been honoured with Best Compliance Team’ 2016 in Compliance 10/10 Awards, ‘Best Fraud Analytics Team of the Year’, ‘Best Fraud Intelligence’ award at 5th Annual Insurance India Summit & Awards 2020. Further, Holds reputation on hosting two Insurance Industry Meets and a Speaker on various Industry Forums.

Nirmal Paul has a double Masters degree with M.Phil in Zoology and M.B.A. in Marketing. He is also a certified Anti-Corruption Manager from The American Anti-Corruption Institute (AACI).

Paul Shelton – an experienced banking executive with a 30 year history of working for the Asia Pacific branches of major international financial institutions, 17 years in Japan, 3 years in Singapore and Australia (respectively) and 8 years in Hong Kong.

In addition to being a Head of Legal & Compliance and MLRO at these institutions Paul has concentrated, in the last 10 years of his career, on all aspects of the client on-boarding process, KYC, Transaction Monitoring, Sanctions and other related aspects of Financial Crime Compliance.

Paul is very experienced in working with financial regulators across Asia Pacific, interpreting their expectations, undergoing inspections and reviews, and ensuring the timely resolution of any regulatory issues.

Paul is now based in Taipei and provides consultancy services to Taiwanese financial and non-financial industry associations in all aspects of Compliance, AML/Sanctions, Governance, and additionally Employee Training, Speech and Press Release Writing and Editing, Coaching, Mentoring, Presentation Skills and Project Management.

Paul has degrees in law, commerce and arts from the University of Queensland, Australia and was an admitted Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Queensland before embarking on his Asia Pacific banking career

Ravin Kaur is the Senior Policy Advisor at Regulatory Authority in Malaysia with several years of experience working on issues of anti-money laundering/counter terrorism financing, corporate policy, serious corporate crime investigation, regulatory governance, and anti-corruption. Presently, she is a member of the Joint Committee on AML/CFT focusing on the revision of FATF’s Recommendation 24 on beneficial ownership. She participates in FATF’s Policy Development Group meetings on the revision to Recommendation 24 and its Interpretative Notes. She is a certified AML/CFT Trainer awarded by the Central Bank of Malaysia and Asian Banking School. 

Former Head of AML/CFT Policy Group and Sub- Committee on Non-Profit Organisations. She was appointed for two terms as Co-Chair of APG Typologies Working Group and in 2011 was appointed as a Co-Chair for Joint FATF/APG Typologies Workshop. She has worked closely with APG Secretariat in developing the APG’s Typologies report on NPO Vulnerability. She has also worked closely with many other international organisations such as UNCTED, APEC, USAID, and Global Center on Cooperative Security in various projects on Non-Profit Organisations Sector and Counter Financing of Terrorism.  

A lawyer by profession, Ms. Kaur has over 20 years of experience in various capacity-building projects and has delivered hundreds of trainings in areas of corporate regulation (anti-money laundering, anti-corruption, trade-based financial crime, and governance), policy, and practice. Her prior work includes her involvement in the working committee to develop legislation on beneficial ownership for the legal persons in Malaysia, assessing and evaluating the robustness of the policies. In her current projects, she is conducting research on ESG and its impact on legal persons. She holds Master’s Degree in International Law. 

Kumar Saurav heads the risk management function at Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance and is responsible for leading the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) initiative. The most crucial part of the role is to assess and mitigate significant competitive, regulatory and technological threats which the company gets exposed to. He also oversees and provides assurance to the Board and Management on company’s exposure to Key Risk Indicators. Saurav does extensive work on creating framework for Fraud Risk Management and ERM ensuring it is aligned to Committee of Sponsoring Organization (COSO) standard and Cyber Risk Framework adhering to the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

The role also mandates interaction with Risk Committee of the Board; setting up Risk Management Framework and collaborating with regulators. Saurav is a key member of the company governance council, including disciplinary panel, claim committee, and policy holder protection committee. The role ensures the organisation operates more effectively to make more informed decisions by taking calculated risks.

With years of experience in the financial services industry, Sebastian is passionate about how technology transforms the way economy works today. Backed with expertise in AML/Compliance/Trust/Payments knowledge, Seb believes that Fintech and Regtech will evolve into a more efficient and inclusive way of delivering financial services to consumers and businesses. 

Every Business Model has at least 1 revenue opportunity but many business risks. Seb enjoys finding solutions to solve the risk and turn it into opportunities. The lesser the risk, the faster a business grows. 

His studies in Engineering business management allowed him to reconstruct financial services with an engineering approach. His dissertation focused on how the client onboarding process can be conducted more efficiently and safely. 

Today, Seb help organizations disrupt how processes are looked at and done. Through a sound and scalable framework, Seb collaborates to show how others can transform their culture from surviving change to growing through change. 

Sharon has over 13 years of experience in banking and finance throughout Asia, with an extensive background in AML, Compliance, securities dealing and Quality Assurance. She has been with ANZ Banking Group for 8 years now, collaborating with a network of In-Country Compliance Officers across Asia Pacific, Europe and America Regions to ensure compliance with the legislative requirements and effective escalation of AML/CTF reports and cases. Over the years, Sharon has held several positions within ANZ — such as AML Operations  Manager of Financial Crime Threat Management – Manila, Country Head of Financial Crime & MLRO both in the Philippines and Cambodia, and Financial Crime advisory counsel for Indonesia and China. Sharon’s prolific career with ANZ continues as the current Hong Kong Head of Financial Crime and MLRO. She graduated with a degree in Consular and Diplomatic Affairs and finished a specialised course for International Development Studies.

With over 10 years of combined experience in digital Identity, solution architecture, and fraud prevention. Shawn is currently the Solution Engineer (APAC) in Telesign. Past experience includes digital identity and fraud prevention pre-sales at LexisNexis Emailage, fraud data analytic & leading payment solutions implementation at Apple.

He is passionate about risk assessment, protecting, and preventing online fraud through digital identity. He is currently based out of Singapore.

Sheetal Bhardwaj is a seasoned Risk & Compliance professional with over 19 years of hands-on experience managing successful Compliance Programs in the MENAT region. She is presently working with one of the largest banks in the New Zealand.  

She was an approved Compliance Officer & MLRO by the Central Bank of the UAE and Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA). As a Subject-Matter Expert, she has served in leadership roles covering various aspects of Regulatory Compliance & Financial Crime Risk, including regulatory audits & thematic reviews. She is an Executive Board Member and Communication Director of ACFCS (Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialists, US), MENA Chapter. 

She is an MBA in Finance & a mathematical science graduate in statistics from the University of Delhi. She is a Certified Anti Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS), Certified Global Sanctions Specialist (CGSS), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), Certified Compliance Officer (CCO), along with certifications in Compliance & AML from CISI, UK & ICA Manchester Business School, Henley Business School. 

Sheetal is a well-known speaker and has delivered several speaking & training assignments in various forums, including at the University of Bradford and the University of Dubai. 

 She has also volunteered in the Government of India initiative, “Mentor of Change,” to educate children in rural areas of India. 

Simon has over 22 years of Industry Experience. He is an expert in Cyber Security & Cyber Crime Investigations and is a member of the High Technology Crime Investigation Association. He is a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), IAM/RFID expert, insider fraud, biometrics, ISO 27001 Lead Auditor, Expert Witness and a first responder to major cyber crisis events. 
 
He has been engaged and appeared as an expert witness in numerous criminal and civil cases to analyse forensic digital evidence from VCAT level up to the High Court; some involving murder, CEM (child exploitation material), drug charges, catfishing, cyber stalking, and other alleged criminal activity where Simon has analysed evidence and given opinion on how well the procedure in the collection of digital evidence was followed by police. 
 
He is also a Social Media Expert, and is experienced and holds certifications in Ethical Hacking, Information Technology Professional, Penetration Testing, Splunk, Palo Alto, CyberArk, IBM B/C, Win32 API, C SQL, Java, Checkpoint Security Master (CCSM), and Google Analytics (GAIQ). He is a full SDLC Enterprise software and systems developer, and developer of business software since 1999.

An internationally recognized financial services expert, Soon Kit offers deep and wide experience accumulated over 15 years in the financial services sector. Bringing a global perspective enriched with grounded experience, he was Enterprise Resilience Officer at BNY Mellon assuring the firm broad business and operational resilience across multiple lines of business.

Prior to this, he was Risk Vice President of Fullerton Fund Management and Wolters Kluwer’s Asia-Pacific Risk Practice Director guiding regional risk and financial practices for its software clients. At OCBC Bank Group, Soon Kit was managing the risk of Global Treasury, Investment Banking, OCBC Securities and Bank of Singapore. He complements his expertise with international advisory experience garnered at financial software firm Misys / Finastra where he led the risk management teams to solve broader subjects of banking risk with financial firms, banks, regulators in Europe and Asia. Prior to this, Soon Kit provided consulting at Moody’s Analytics.

Recognized for his practical expertise by regional banking conferences and professional media, Soon Kit has contributed many live and case interviews to breaking news developments and industry best practice conferences.

Graduating with honors in Quantitative Finance from the National University of Singapore, he is also a certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist and an Energy Risk Professional.

Steven Beck is the head of trade and supply chain finance at the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He has managed exponential growth of the bank’s trade finance business and implemented its first supply-chain finance business.

While at the ADB, Steven initiated a tool that maps the entire supply chain for COVID-related goods to address shortages. He initiated the Trade Finance Register of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), which compiles the only industry-wide statistics on trade-finance default and loss rates. These statistics underpinned changes to the Basel III regulations, freeing billions of dollars to support trade in emerging markets. He created the ADB led study that, for the first time, quantified trade finance market gaps and their impact on economic growth and jobs. Under Steven’s leadership, a gender audit was conducted of ADB partner commercial banks to develop specific recommendations to attract, retain, and promote more women in banking. Steven undertook several initiatives to make global trade and supply chains more robust through digitization, including establishing the Digital Standards Initiative in partnership with the Government of Singapore and the ICC. He began his career with roles as a special assistant to the Canadian minister for international trade and as a senior manager at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). He left CIBC to help start up a new multilateral development bank, the Black Sea Trade & Development Bank (BSTDB), which focused on economic development in Turkey, Russia, and countries of the former Soviet Union. Following BSTDB, he took up roles as a senior consultant, including work with the United States Agency for International Development in southern Africa.

Steven is on the governing board of the Digital Standards Initiative, International Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Working Group for Trade Finance. He has an M.A. from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, USA and a B.A. from Queens University, Canada.

Yew Beng comes with more than 20 years of industry experience. He has worked in the consulting, software, and banking industry across a broad spectrum of roles which has provided him with a well-rounded professional experience. Besides delivering enterprise-wide programs in financial services, he also has significant experience in sales engagement and working with senior stakeholders on strategic initiatives. Due to his “customer first” approach, Yew Beng has become a trusted advisor for many of the clients he has engaged with. Customer advisory activities include roadmap building, new initiative identification and development, skills development, and conflict management.

Yew Beng is currently the Head of Value Engineering (APJ) in Alteryx working with customers to uncover quantifiable business value from their transformation initiatives.