Who we are - Associates
Syed Mohammad Ali
Syed Mohammad Ali is a seasoned banking professional with over 30 years of management experience in the financial services sector. His experience in corporate banking has spanned through investment and retail services management in Europe, Asia, Middle-East and North America. Mohammad spent over 20 years with Citibank in management and consulting roles. In the early to mid 1980s, he managed the implementation and development of IT applications in Brussels and Karachi. From the late 1980s-early 1990s, Mohammad served as Assistant VP of Country Operations in Oslo where he established and managed the implementation of centralized back-office processing and Swift operations for Citibank branches in Northern Europe.
More recently, Mohammad managed Country Operations for Habib Bank in London where he established Internal Control departmental functions and policies that helped improve back-office operations. After the merger of Habib Bank and Allied Bank in the UK in 2001, Mohammad served as the Project Manager of Process Re-Engineering where he introduced and improved workflows, achieving a reduction in operating costs by 20%. In 2007, he worked for MCB Bank in Karachi as Head of Internal Controls South and participated in setting up Internal Control functions under the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) frame guidelines.
With his extensive experience in multi-cultural environments, Mohammad has effectively used his strong interpersonal and communication skills to manage operations for various organizations within the financial services sector, improving their opertaions and workflows and reducing costs. He resides in Toronto, Canada.
Khalid has had a distinguished and long international career in both conventional and Islamic banking.
His Islamic banking experience spanning 20 years included creating new Islamic banks and non-bank Islamic financial institutions in various markets. He also transformed, merged, and divested existing Islamic banks.
Khalid directly managed Islamic Banks in UK and Malaysia. He also supervised Albaraka Group Islamic Bank's franchises in many countries including Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Malaysia. During Khalid's tenure as CEO of RHB Islamic Bank Malaysia, it won the 2007 Euromoney Award as 'The most Improved Islamic Bank in Asia'. This was one of the numerous industry awards won by the bank during Khalid's leadership.
Khalid's was one of the pioneers behind launch of the innovative house financing 'Diminishing Musharaka' product in 1991 at Albaraka Bank, London. This is now an established mortgage product in the Islamic banking industry. Khalid’s latest assignment involved setting up a new international Islamic bank in Malaysia for a Bahraini bank dealing only in foreign currencies, a first in Malaysia.
Prior to his Islamic banking career, Khalid spent 19 years working within the conventional banking industry in Kuwait and Bahrain and held senior positions for Citibank in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong and Pakistan.
Liz has over 20 years experience in financial services having worked for Citibank in New York and London in a variety of roles. Liz has financial market experience in B2B e-commerce payment systems, B2C financial services, Foreign Exchange, Money Markets, Equities, Warrants and Financial Information systems. Liz has worked with corporate, fund management, insurance and bank customers across Europe and North America. She currently provides consulting and mentoring on product management to financial service organisations.
Ian Cormack is currently serving as the Chairman or as a Board Director for a number of public and private organizations including Chairman of the Audit Committee, Aspen Insurance Holdings, Bermuda (a NYSE company) and of Aspen Reinsurance Ltd, London; Director, Pearl Assurance Group plc, and Director, Qatar Financial Centre, Qatar. He is also the Chairman of Pembroke College, Oxford, Campaign Committee and on the Development Council of the Royal National Theatre, London.
Previously, Ian was Chief Executive of AIG Inc in Europe and prior to that was co-head of Citigroup's Global Financial Institutions business. He also served as Country Head (CCO) for Citicorp in the UK. During this time at Citigroup, he was also the Chairman of CHAPS (UK clearing system), Chairman of the London Stock Exchange's Taurus review committee, served on the Boards of Cedel, the Association of Payment Clearing Services Board (APACS) and the Bank of England's Crest task force.
Ian received an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University and was a Foundation Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford.
Rudy Demper is a seasoned professional with a strong background in banking operations, operational risk, audit and controls, corporate services, and strategic (or tactical) change and project management in corporate and investment banking. His over 30 years with Citibank included postings in 8 countries in Asia Pacific, Europe and the Caribbean. Rudy has also been the Head of Operations in 3 diverse geographies.
After leaving Citigroup in 2005, Rudy has completed a number of consulting assignments with a focus on strategic and tactical changes in end-to-end processes and risks for a major international Funds Management company.
Rudy has participated in start-ups related to legal entities, new business processes, products and functions and extensively led transformation and process re-engineering in each of his assignments. In addition, he has managed a number of outsourcing, vendor and software solutions initiatives for his clients. He has also performed Disaster Recovery management roles, the implementation of associated improvements and business relocations.
Bushra Farooqui has over 14 years of financial sector experience. Bushra served as a master trainer for Citigroup’s global quality initiative and worked as a Financial Analyst, managing a high-spirited Banking & Credit Cards Operations Team and performing the challenging role of a corporate change catalyst as a Quality & Process Reengineering Manager. She has handled key projects as part of the Citigroup Global Quality Initiative and is also the proud recipient of the ‘Citigroup Quality Excellence Award’ year 2000.
Bushra has also had extensive training in Six-Sigma and is a Certified Six-Sigma, PDCA & Quality Instructor. She holds a recognized Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) qualification from the U.K.
Bushra has acquired training expertise in specific areas such as Six Sigma, Business Process Improvement, Team Management, Management Development and other soft skills. She brings with her a wide understanding of different working cultures within the developed and emerging markets, having worked on training and consulting projects in U.K., UAE, Belgium, Hungary, Pakistan, Srilanka and Egypt.
Over the last 5 years, Bushra has been extensively involved as a Graduate Recruitment and Development Consultant with some of the top institutions in the U.K. including Morgan Stanley, Barclays Wealth and Deutsche Bank. She is a great believer in experiential learning and her workshops encourage active participation and create a lively environment where even a potentially dry subject becomes exciting and fun!
Bushra holds an MBA from the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, Pakistan.
Sitwat has had over fifteen years of experience in Corporate Banking and Credit Risk Management. She worked for Standard Chartered Bank Pakistan as the Director and Head of Local Corporate Group on a pan-Pakistan basis, with responsibility for the largest corporate portfolio at SCB’s Wholesale Bank. Previous assignments included Corporate Banking Head, South for Union Bank (UNB) where she participated in the due diligence of the Emirates Bank portfolio when it was taken over by UNB. She also worked with American Express Bank in Pakistan. Since 2007 Sitwat has been active as a full-time consultant and trainer. Sitwat has an MBA in Finance from the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, and a Banking Diploma from the Institute of Bankers, Pakistan.
Philippe Goffin has over 30 years of international banking experience, primarily in the field of capital markets and leverage finance. Philippe joined Citibank in 1980, where he first worked in a Relationship Management position with Citibank/Saudi American Bank in Jeddah where he specialized in lending to international contractors and then as a credit instructor at Samba’s Riyadh training center. In 1985 he moved to London to join Citibank Investment Bank to become an originator for loan capital markets for European corporate clients.
In 1993 he joined the Chemical Bank/Chase Manhattan group (now JP Morgan Chase) as a senior transactor where he specialized in capital markets origination and structuring and relationship management for private equity clients. In 2000, he co-headed the European debt origination for industrial corporate clients.
In 2003, Philippe joined Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein as a senior relationship manager for private equity clients.
Since leaving Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in 2006, Philippe has worked as an independent consultant originating and executing a buyout of an SME in Belgium, advising and managing a real estate project in Poland and for a family office reviewing a hedge fund portfolio. Philippe holds a degree in Economics and Finance from University of Louvain, Belgium. He is fluent in English and French.
Mike Hallett is a senior international banker, having worked with Citibank for 31 years, primarily in the field of credit and risk management. Mike joined Citibank London in 1973, where he first worked in credit before taking a Relationship Management position with Citibank Saudi Arabia in 1975 where he specialising in lending to manufacturers. He returned to London as Relationship Manager for British contractors before moving back to the Middle East with Citibank Bahrain and marketing to Saudi contractors until 1983.
Mike was then asked to join Citibank’s Credit Audit division and managed over 20 reviews of the Bank’s branches in the Middle East and Africa. In 1985 he took his first senior credit risk management role in the Netherlands where he approved and controlled the Bank’s credit portfolio and was appointed Senior Credit Officer. Five years later he took a similar role in Japan, returning to the London in 1992 to staff the European Credit function, creating policy and reviewing the European corporate portfolio.
In 1994 Mike started a 3 year assignment in Milan, as Citibank’s Country Risk Officer for Italy, managing both the Bank’s credit and market risk portfolios. He then returned to London to a newly created role of Risk Manager for the strategically important Syndicated Loans business, including project finance, covering all its centres from Europe to Australia, including northern Hemisphere Emerging Markets. He was appointed a Senior Securities Officer, responsible for underwriting and distribution. Mike’s final and most senior position was Portfolio Risk Manager for Citibank’s multi-billion dollar global portfolio of Branded Consumer clients, UK industrials and Dutch clients.
Mike has worked exclusively with BankT&D Consulting since 2007. He has been a key member of the teams assembled to write credit policy, conduct portfolio scans and bring gravitas to client bank audit review management. His wide experience and success in managing credit risk in multiple markets and his ability to use and transfer his knowledge are key assets.
Petros Intas is a seasoned professional with hands on experience in banking and financial services, including over 20 years with Citibank, and has held a number of senior executive positions in Operations and Technology (O&T). His experience encompasses Software Development, Project Management, Test Management and Operations Management and he has extensive expertise in the Wealth Management, Asset Management, Cards and Retail banking areas.
While still at Citibank Petros managed the transformation to a new strategic Wealth Management platform for Citibank Greece integrated with Securities Brokerage and Mutual Funds product processors and he led the launch of Citi’s strategic Investment Sales Advisory Tool for EMEA countries. Prior to these assignments, Petros served as O&T head for the Wealth Management and Asset Management functions in Citibank Greece.
Petros combines both technology and business backgrounds and through his career has successfully led large multi-cultural and cross-functional teams from requirements-gathering and analysis through to User Acceptance Testing (UAT), Implementation and Application Support, applying Citi’s corporate framework and structured methodologies.
Petros holds a BSc in Mathematics from the University of Athens (Greece).
Peter has spent over 34 years in the banking, asset management and financial services sector. A Chartered Certified Accountant, Peter has broad experience in financial management and reporting, control and risk management, risk control and self assessment (RCSA), process improvement, cost reduction, audit and compliance monitoring and testing. Peter has been responsible for leading and building International, EMEA and CEEMEA based finance and country audit teams.
Peter spent 27years at Schroders involved in all aspects of finance, regulatory reporting, risk management and control. As Securities Finance and Operations Director, covering NA, Europe, Asia and Japan before being promoted to PLC Group Financial Controller and head of the finance function. As well as a number of board appointments he was a member of the group audit, compensation, ALCO and risk committees. At Schroders Peter worked with external auditors, analysts, rating agencies and regulators.
Peter spent 7 years at Citigroup firstly as director and CFO for the EMEA Private Bank, before undertaking a new Financial Controller role for the CEEMEA region (30 plus presence countries). He executed initiatives in risk and control across EMEA, setting up local Quality Assurance and Compliance monitoring and testing teams locally. Peter led the oversight and development of the RCSA policy, procedures and implementation across the EMEA Corporate and Investment Bank. Peter was the EMEA Regional Risk and Control officer, a member of the EMEA business operational risk and controls committee (BRCC) and chaired the CEEMEA BRCC.
John Karachalios is a former senior executive of Citibank Greece with international experience working in the U.S. and UAE/Middle East. During his long career with Citibank he served in key positions in Financial Control, Cards, Consumer Banking, Investment Products and Distribution.
For the period of 1991-2000 Mr Karachalios initiated and led Citigroup’s asset management and insurance businesses in Greece. Following this and up to 2003 he was appointed to the position of Wealth Management Director responsible for sourcing, development, positioning and distribution of investment and bancassurance products (in house and third party) in Greece.
John served on a number of boards and investment committees in Citi Europe and in his capacity as managing director of Citi Mutual Fund Company he was a member of the “Ässociation of the Greek Institutional Investors”.
John has also served as adviser to F&C Asset Management plc, a member of the Board of Directors of Intertrust Mutual Funds Company, and as a consultant to Metlife in distribution of unit-linked products. He continues to serve as a director on a number of boards, including F&C Portfolios Fund, The Indian Investment Company and Diners Club SA Greece, where he is Chairman of the Audit Committee.
John graduated from the Athens University of Economics and Business and he is a Greek resident.
Waseem A. Khan, PhD, CFA
Waseem A. Khan is the Managing Principal at a London based investment advisory firm, head of private equity at Silk Invest Ltd, a London-based specialist manager, and an adviser to an Islamic hedge fund.
Waseem has worked in international finance, global asset management, Islamic banking and finance and international private banking at major financial institutions in Los Angeles, London, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi. After serving as Vice President and Chief Economist for EMEA at First Interstate Bank (now Wells Fargo) in Los Angeles, he moved to the Middle East as Chief Economist and head of Capital Markets at the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), a Sovereign Wealth Fund. Following that, he joined the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), the largest Sovereign Wealth Fund with global investment interests, as Chief Economist and senior member of the investment strategy and asset allocation teams. He also served in an advisory capacity to the Treasury, Private Equity, Alternative Investments and Asian Equity departments. Waseem was also involved at an early stage in the establishment of the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank.
After thirteen years at ADIA, he joined Citigroup in London as director in the investment management function for high net-worth individuals. He also headed up the Islamic products and investments platform at Citigroup Private Bank. Following Citigroup, he joined RBS Coutts & Co., one of the oldest private banks with responsibility for managing ultra high net-worth individuals in South Asia.
Waseem has over 20 years of practical and teaching experience in the areas of asset management, investment analysis, fixed income management, equity valuation, financial risk management, private banking and portfolio management, corporate finance, and Islamic Banking and Finance. Previously, he taught corporate finance and investment analysis at the Graduate Schools of Business at the University of California and the University of Colorado. Waseem has an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker & Mitoshi Ito School of Management, a PhD in International Finance from Claremont University (California), and is a CFA charter holder. He has also attended Executive Management programmes at the Harvard Business School and the Stanford Business School.
Vijay Khanna is a Senior Treasury Professional and a Banking Consultant. He has about 40 years experience covering various countries in South and South-East Asia, Middle East and Europe. Vijay worked with Citibank for 26 years covering Operations, Corporate Banking, Financial Institutions business, Treasury and Treasury Risk Management. During his tenor at Citibank, He covered different regions, including, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, former Yugoslavia, former Czechoslovakia and then the Czech Republic. He also conducted the first Foreign Exchange Bourse Game for Citibank in Bombay in 1976 and was often invited to conduct training programs relating to Treasury at Citibank's Training Center in Singapore, while he was at Citibank, Bombay. He left Citibank in 1995 to join what was then Bayerische Vereinsbank, in Munich as Head of Emerging Markets covering the Treasury area. Vijay moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, next, as Treasurer for United Saudi Bank from 1996 to 1999. He moved back to Prague towards the end of 1999 to set up his own consultancy company in Prague. During the last 9 years, he has conducted extensive training covering banks in Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and the Far East. He has also helped banks to set up Treasury Risk Management systems as part of international consultancy teams including a World Bank sponsored project in Asia. Vijay is also a visiting professor at the S. P. Jain Center of Management in Singapore and has recently covered both the Financial Derivatives modules. Vijay has a Master's degree in Management from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management (attaining third rank at Bombay University), and a Bachelor's degree in mathematics, from St. Xavier's College, both degrees conferred by the University on Bombay.
Alexander Kobyshev has over 20 years of unique experience of management training in emerging economies of Eastern Europe. He is the founder one of the first Russian training and consulting institutions for top managers based in St. Petersburg. He has conducted international projects in cooperation with the World Bank, EBRD, and European Commission in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Alexander holds a position of an expert of the Federal Commission of Presidential Program - the major Russian program for management training of top managers. He is also a professor of St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University and a consultant to Governments of several Russian regions and foreign organizations. Alexander has lived in Japan, Ukraine, and Germany. He is lately focusing in cross-cultural management, project management and strategies. He is the co-author of the first book of Russian business cases, the third edition of which was been published in 2007.
Yaseen Lakhani has thirty-five years of international experience in all areas of banking operations, audit and technology. He was a Team Leader of the International Inspection unit of Citibank Head Office in New York that performed operational reviews of Citibank branches worldwide. In this capacity, Yaseen covered Citibank operations in Europe, Middle East, North Africa and Asia Pacific region. He also managed several Citibank Internal Control and Resident Audit programs.
Yaseen then headed the Operations and Technology Group of Citibank Australia and New Zealand, where he streamlined operations, introduced new systems and achieved the lowest cost of production in the region. He managed a team of 220 staff. Citibank’s business covered included Investment Banking, Treasury, Capital Markets, Corporate and Retail banking.
While working for the National Commercial Bank in Jeddah, he managed process rationalisation initiatives. He identified and implemented integrated front end and back office Treasury System, Accounting and Nostro Reconciliation System. These implementation projects resulted in significant staff savings.
Yaseen then joined Islamic Investment Bank in Jeddah as COO and CFO, responsible for Operations, Systems, Finance, HR & Admin functions. The company's main activities were in the areas of Funds/ Portfolio Management, Private Equity, Corporate Finance, Advisory and Custody services. While streamlining processes within the company, he identified and implemented fully integrated Asset Management system with integrated General Ledger. Yaseen is a registered person with the Capital Markets Authority of Saudi Arabia having passed the required exams.
Yaseen holds Master’s degree in Economics and has attended Advance Management Program at the University of Hawaii.
David has had a career of over 28 years in internal audit and financial management, all in the banking and finance industry. He has worked for major Australian, American and British financial institutions (Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Citibank and NatWest Bank), living and working in Australia, Hong Kong, Brazil, Mexico, Switzerland, Italy, the Philippines and the United Kingdom.
As Group Auditor (Chief Internal Audit Executive) for the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, David is credited with modernising the group's internal audit function in the years following the Bank's privatisation.
Presently, David sits on the Audit Committees of the Defence Materiel Organisation, the Australian Office of Financial Management, the Australian Trade Commission, the Australian Agency for International Development, the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority, National ICT Australia, ALE Listed Property Trust and Australian Settlements Limited (ASL). He is also an independent director of ASL and two securitisation vehicles.
David is a past President of the Institute of Internal Auditors-Australia, and a member of the Internal Auditing Standards Board.
Jack has been managing information technology and advising organizations on optimizing its use for over 35 years. For the past 15 years, he has been developing web-based products for the Banking industry. Most recently he served as the Chief Technology Officer of FXall where he was a key architect of FXall's successful growth from start-up to leading Internet Foreign Exchange system. He was responsible for software development, product management, technology architecture, system and network engineering, production services, customer engineering and quality management. He built FXall's global product development, solutions delivery and customer engineering teams in New York, London, Singapore and Tokyo.
Jack is founder and first chairman of the FIX Global FX Committee, has served on SWIFT advisory committees and spoken before the Federal Reserve Bank.
Prior to joining FXall, Jack served as Vice President of Product Development and CTO at CrossMar, Inc (a subsidiary of Citigroup) where he was responsible for managing CrossMar's global product development and delivery teams, as well as building software and product alliances around the globe. In this role, Jack's teams built and ran systems for electronic trading of foreign exchange, equities, fixed income and derivatives, for portfolio accounting and collateral management as well as providing treasury solutions for cash management to companies around the world. Prior to joining Citigroup, Jack held a variety of positions as an entrepreneur and executive in the information technology industry.
Jack holds a Master's degree from the Columbia University School of Business as well as a Master's degree from the University of Washington where he worked on Biocomputing and visual processing. Jack received his Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Columbia University.
Theodore Leventis is known as the “Bourse Master” having run over 560 seminars and training programs in over 65 countries around the trading simulation “Bourse Game” for Citibank staff, their customers and other organisations including Central Banks and Universities over the past 30 years. Theodore helped develop the simulation software and the”train to trainers” programs. The program introduces participants to the mechanics and terminology of Foreign Exchange and Money Markets. Through an intensive hands-on trading simulation they learn what impacts the markets, the risks and how to control them, how to manage liquidity, interpret economic news and formulate/implement a trading strategy.
From 1979-1986, Theodore worked for the Citibank Middle East and Africa Division Training Center in Athens. From 1987-1995, he conducted programs for Citibank's European Training Center in London and for the Center of International Banking Studies in Istanbul. Since 1996, he has continued to run training programs mainly in Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, in connection with Citibank's Training Centers in these regions.
Margaret is a business consultant with extensive senior human resource management experience and achievements in a global corporate environment. She focuses her consulting activities in four areas: Strengthening the Leadership Team, Developing a Leadership Pipeline, Aligning Organizational Values and Individual/Team Performance and Development, and Developing Business-Responsive HR Strategy and Practices.
Margaret held several senior HR positions in Citicorp, developing HR strategy, re-engineering, creating and implementing corporate-wide organizational and cultural change. She worked with the Board of Directors and senior executive levels of organizations in a career spanning over two decades, assignments in three continents with regional and global oversight. As Head of Executive Resources, she was responsible for designing and implementing Citicorp's Leadership Staffing and Development processes, the staffing of the top 300 positions and the assessment and development of these position incumbents. She also held the top HR position for the Citicorp's corporate and investment banking businesses in the emerging markets, and for Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Margaret holds an MBA from the London Business School.
Kiki Magireli is a management consultant with a strong background in general management and talent development. She has wide-ranging international experience in organisation development, start-up situations and working in multi-cultural, multi-lingual environments. She spent 25 years with Citibank in Greece and in the UK where her responsibilities extended across Europe. She also worked at the EBRD developing and teaching leadership and management programs for managers from the former Soviet Union. Kiki speaks Greek, French and Italian.
Ata Malik is a management consultant with expertise in Strategy and Human Capital Development. He brings experience in business development with expertise in consulting and corporate training. With expertise in the disciplines of Organizational Effectiveness and Human capital development, he has worked with various international clients in emerging markets across different sectors. Some of his engagements with clients in Dubai, Malaysia and Pakistan involved offering workshops to Senior executives generating the realization of HR as Strategic Asset, development and alignment of HR SYSTEMS with business strategy, design and implementation of Career Management and Performance Management Systems, and the development and execution of Business and HR scorecards.
Ata also worked as a Visiting Faculty member at the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi. Prior to this, he worked for Navitus, an organizational behavior and change management consulting firm in Pakistan, as a Consultant and Trainer.
Ata has a degree in Computer Sciences from FAST Institute of Computer Science in 2001. He completed an MBA (with Strategy major) from Cass Business School, City University, London in 2008.
Mirhan Mandour has more than 16 years of experience in the financial sector, including 10 years in Societe Generale Group’s Egyptian subsidiary, NSGB. Mirhan was a driving force behind establishing the retail banking business of NSGB, which is currently one of the largest banks in Egypt. Reporting to the Retail Banking Head, Mirhan joined the bank as it was starting its retail business, and was responsible for launching products, setting up channels, hiring and training staff, as well as creating an image for the bank.
Prior to NSGB, Mirhan worked at Exxon Mobil in the finance department, and later worked as a senior financial analyst in two leading Egyptian firms specializing in feasibility studies and conducting valuations for companies traded in the stock market.
One of Mirhan’s major deliverables at NSGB was launching the entire product portfolio for the retail bank, including a variety of deposits, loans and mortgage loans, a full suite of cards, bancassurance, and electronic services. She was also responsible for establishing targeted propositions for key segments including wealth management for High Net Worth clients, professional self-employed clients, payroll clients, and youth.
Mirhan has strong experience in setting the operations and processes of retail banking products, and has established relationships with key third party business partners. She also established the communication department for the bank, forging relationships with some of the world’s top communication and PR agencies.
Mirhan was involved in a multitude of strategic projects during her time at NSGB which included organic and inorganic growth of the bank’s delivery channels. She played a key role in NSGB’s merger with one of Egypt’s leading banks, handling the integration of the retail banking businesses. She was also part of the branches and ATMs management committee which was in charge of growing the bank’s network, and reviewing it to ensure it is rationalized and profitable.
Moving to Dubai, Mirhan remained with Societe Generale Group and joined their corporate and investment banking teams at the Dubai International Financial Centre. Mirhan holds an MBA from the American University in Cairo, where she also earned her BA degree in Economics.
Mohammed Farooq Maroof
Farooq has in-depth knowledge and experience of Treasury, Sales and Trading, and Market Risk Management gained over 31 years with Citigroup in New York and internationally. Prior to leaving Citibank in Sept. 2007, Farooq was a Managing Director and head of Market Risk Management in Global Emerging Markets, as well as the head of Cross Border Risk Management. He also served on Citigroup's Capital Markets and Banking Risk Management Committee representing Emerging Markets, and was a member of the Citigroup Country Risk Committee.
Farooq transferred to Riyadh as Head of Sales and Trading and Treasurer of Saudi American Bank (SAMBA) in1985. He built SAMBA into the pre-eminent bank for treasury products in KSA, and played a key role in assisting the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency in the creation of the Saudi Riyal domestic bond market.
In 1990 Farooq joined the Office of Corporate Finance within the CFO's Office in New York to head up International Treasury Coordination. Simultaneously, he became a Member of the Market Risk Policy Committee and Regional Treasurer for Citibank's CEEMEA Region.
Farooq became Head of Sales and Trading and Treasurer for Citibank Mexico in 1992. In 1995 Farooq returned to New York as Global Head of Trading for the Cross Border Finance Group. He became Regional Treasurer and Member of the Market Risk Policy Committee for Latin America in 1997. Upon the merger of Citicorp and Travelers, he was appointed as the first head of Market Risk Management for Global Emerging Markets.
Alok Mathur has over 30 years of experience with Asea Brown Boveri Limited. He established and managed a Financial Services Company in India and was on ABB's Management Committee that oversaw its Indian operations with $1 billion in sales and 5,000 employees. He closed two of the first private power projects and played a leading role in advising the Government of India on reforms for privatization. He spent seven years at ABB's worldwide headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, where he helped establish and grow ABB's project finance business to 140 professionals in 18 countries, closing $5 billion in financing each year. Before that, he oversaw investments in over 20 of the early IPP projects in the US and was also on ABB's Management Committee, responsible for approving equity in global infrastructure projects.
Alok joined ABB as a chemical engineer in the US where he worked in process design, plant start-up, and feasibility studies for world-scale refinery and petrochemical projects. He has an MBA in Management and International Business Negotiation from the Stern School of Management at New York University, an MS in Chemical Engineering from SUNY/Buffalo, a BS in Chemical Engineering from the Institute of Technology at Varanasi, India, and an undergraduate diploma in German. Alok presently manages Development Capital & Financing, LLC, which he founded in 2005, where he is engaged in developing and financing several infrastructure projects.
Geoffrey Morris has more than 40 years experience as an international banker in UK, New Zealand, GCC Countries, Greece and Nigeria. Over the course of his career he has served as the Managing Director of Societe Generale Bank Nigeria and as Managing Director of TEI South Pacific Ltd (a New Zealand mortgage finance company). He has also been Chairman of Buckland Leadership Development Centre specializing in financial solutions, consumer finance development including portfolio management and collections strategies, strategic planning, business and change management and service quality.
In addition to general banking management, Geoffrey has specialized in consumer finance and leasing and has undertaken several consumer finance corporate venturing assignments using bespoke software. This included five years with Citibank Greece to establish a country-wide auto finance business. During this time he also acted as Credit Cycle Director for the Citi Diners Club franchise.
Latterly Geoffrey has been advisor to the Chairmen of various banks and financial services companies on strategic development planning, business turn around and financial services applications software
Ali Muzaffar received his Bachelor of Science degree from Washington University in St. Louis, USA where he majored in Computer Science. He conducted research in the area of 'Distributed Robotics and Middleware', aimed to improve communication and efficiency within organizations by creating re-programmable hardware components which would have all the benefits of hardware and software without any of the limitations. After Washington University, Ali returned to Pakistan where he joined Union Bank as an IT Analyst / Programmer and worked in areas of E-Banking, Process Automation, Disaster Recovery and Basel II before joining BankT&D Consulting. He holds networking certifications such as an MCSE and CCNA. Recently Ali received his Bachelors of Law and Legislature degree from the University of London.
George’s career in banking and finance spans more than 20 years. He has spent over 10 years in wealth management and has a hands-on experience with every aspect of the business. He has served as Head of Fund Management of Citigroup’s Greek wealth management business. He has managed money; developed and launched investment products; designed and re-engineered sales and operational processes; trained and coached front – line staff of High Net-Worth (HNW) and mass affluent distribution networks. As Managing Director of Citi’s Greek wealth management business he was instrumental in growing the business to €1.5 billion AUM that included funds from institutional, HNW and mass affluent clients.
George has also established and managed consumer finance businesses, mainstream and alternative distribution channels for various banks in Greece that included Citibank, Société Générale and Marfin Egnatia. In addition to being an associate for BankT&D George is also a lecturer for the MBA and M.Sc. Distance Learning programmes of Leicester and Heriot-Watt universities.
He graduated Magna Cum Laude with an MBA from the Schulich School of Business, York University. He obtained his B.A. in Commerce and Finance form the University of Toronto.
Ingrid Pirlet is a senior banker with many years of experience in Operations, Compliance, Audit, Risk Management gained at various banking institutions including Citibank and Barclay bank.
She has held a number of senior positions including Head of Internal Control, Head of Internal Audit, Operations Risk Manager, Group Compliance Officer, Treasury Chief Operating Officer and Head of International Operations.
Mrs. Pirlet has been involved in successfully setting up a new investment bank, a compliance function at two investment banks as well as participating in integration, business process re-engineering and change management initiatives as well as creating and delivery training on Basel II Operational Risk, money laundering controls and best practice in a Treasury environment.
From April 2008 to February 2009, Mrs. Pirlet was involved in the ABN AMRO integration project at the Royal Bank of Scotland in London.
Her key strengths and area of expertise are operational risk, audit remediation, integration projects, business process re-engineering, technology selection and implementation, auditing, compliance, Treasury, risk and governance, business analysis, creating and documenting policies and procedures, Operational Excellence and evaluating Business Models and developing Target Operating Models.
In addition, Mrs. Pirlet has created a 2 day course on Operational Risk Management which she will be delivering for a London based Training Company
Jean-Charles spent seven years in the Credit, Corporate and Investment Banking areas of Citibank, including two years in the World Corporation Group in London as Vice-President managing a portfolio of UK multinationals on a global basis.
He subsequently worked as Director of Project Finance and Acquisition Finance for Security Pacific in Frankfurt, Germany, before moving to South Africa in 1993 where he became Senior Vice-President, Corporate Bank Head, for the local operation of ABN-Amro.
In 1997 his team was voted best Corporate Bank in South Africa by the annual PriceWaterhouseCoopers survey of eighty multinational companies operating in the country.
Since 2002, Jean-Charles has been providing consulting and training services to major financial institutions concentrating on Credit Analysis, Loan Markets and Basel II. He has also been assisting banks with the practical implementation of the new Accord.
He holds an LLB and an LLM in Tax Law from the University of Liège in Belgium.
Claude is a Belgian citizen who spent 40 years at Citibank in a variety of private banking and corporate banking risk management assignments.
From 1996 to 2009, Claude served as a Managing Director, Senior Risk Manager, and Senior Credit Officer Level 1. Based in Geneva, he was a member of various Swiss and regional management committees, and was responsible for providing independent strategic risk and portfolio management oversight to the Citibank Private Bank for Europe & the Middle East. During this time. he established risk limits and credit policies, approved product programs, reviewed large and unusual risks or transactions, and provided overall risk analytics. He led, or participated in, major projects such as Basel II preparation and corporate governance reviews.
Before 1996, Claude worked in Corporate Bank relationship management and regional senior credit functions in London, Paris, New York and Antwerp.
Claude has extensive risk management and lending experience in a variety of geographies and industries (including financial institutions), has worked through several economic cycles and has been involved in all aspects of the credit process. He participated in extensive corporate bank credit and risk audits in Australia, Brazil, South Korea, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.
Claude holds a degree in Business Administration in Commerce and Finance from the University of Antwerp and attended the Executive program of the University of Virginia. He speaks English, French, Flemish and German.
Raghav is the lead resource of BankT&D Consulting’s Retail/Consumer Banking and Payments practice. He is a senior banking industry leader with over 25 years of experience of building profitable, high-growth businesses and has led and advised businesses in Branch Banking, Wealth Management, Consumer Cards, Merchant Acquiring and Commercial Cards, across UK/Europe, Central Eastern Europe, Russia, USA, India, the Middle East and Africa.
Raghav is an Advisor to the Board of Visa UK and a Member of the Global Advisory Board of Commercial Payments International. He has held increasingly senior Strategic, P&L and Functional roles at Country, Regional and Global level with Citibank NA, Royal Bank of Scotland and WorldPay. His expertise spans both Consumer and B2B (SME, Mid/Large Corporate, Government and Multinationals) segments. Previously he was the Managing Director of Streamline, WorldPay the largest Merchant Acquirer/eCommerce business in Europe (processing in excess of GBP 75bn p.a.). In his last 18 months he delivered over GBP 23m in incremental revenue across a portfolio of over 200k SME businesses in the UK, implementing revenue enhancement and portfolio management disciplines across the business.
Formerly he was Managing Director, Global Commercial Cards, RBS, growing it from the second largest business in the UK to the largest in Europe and 10th largest globally, trebling spend to over GBP 6bn p.a. and raising margins by 30% across UK, Europe and the USA. He has expertise across the spectrum of SME Credit Cards and integrated small business loan products to complex Procurement and Supply Chain financing products. Critically, he built industry-leading capability in leveraging Retail Branch networks, increasing, by over 75%, the cross-sell of Commercial Cards and Merchant Acquiring within the 2500 strong RBS Branch networks in the UK and USA.
Prior to RBS, Raghav spent 18 years at Citibank. His last role at Citibank was as Country Manager – Consumer Banking, Citibank Egypt where he had responsibility for the entire Consumer Product set - Credit Cards, Branch Banking, Consumer Lending, Wealth Management and Insurance.
Raghav spent ten formative years with Citibank in Asia where his roles included Branch Banking Product Head, India and Divisional Marketing Manager, Citi Cards Asia Pacific. He was part of the team that launched Credit Cards in India and pioneered the Direct Sales Agency (DSA) model in India, building from the ground-up, a 1300-person network to sell Consumer Cards and Merchant Acquiring services.
Ashish Rath has been in the Banking and Financial Sector since 1989. He started his career with ANZ Grindlays Bank and has also worked with Emirates Bank International, ING Bank NV and Union National Bank- Abu Dhabi in various capacities, including Chief Operating Officer, India and Deputy Head of Operations. With a strong process background, Ashish is interested in Operational Excellence in the industry.
n his last assignment, Ashish was the Business and Delivery Head for Trade and Asset Based Finance in TCS E Serve Limited, one of the largest Banking and Financial Services Business Process Outsourcing companies in the world.
Ashish currently resides in Mumbai, India and has an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata, India.
Uma Relan's career of 33 years with Citigroup spans multiple geographies, various banking disciplines and diverse product groups. She worked in Dubai for 6 years as head of credit for the Gulf region where she successfully launched the first credit card portfolio in UAE.. The bulk of her career has been with Citigroup's consumer business where she was the principal architect of the growth story in several markets across the globe. She has the distinction of being a Level 1 Senior Credit Officer (the most senior credit designation) for both commercial and retail lending.
She has been part of many global forums where her leadership and rich experience has helped guide global credit policy and process. She also participated in Due Diligence projects for the bank's acquisition targets and sponsored development of many retail credit training courses at which she was senior faculty. As a key member of the global retail risk team, she has spearheaded a task force to rewrite portions of the global credit policy.
Uma started her career in the Citi's Corporate Bank in India and then moved to the merchant bank in Saudi Arabia. She then moved into Retail banking in 1986 and as head of credit, pioneered the launch of consumer lending in many countries in Central Europe & Middle East region. In 2000, Uma became Head of Credit for the Europe, Middle East, Africa region which constituted 14 countries with a portfolio of over US$20bn.
Uma left Citigroup in 2007 and has been working as a consultant on various international banking assignments. A major assignment recently completed for a leading banking group in Saudi Arabia involved a revamp of the retail risk organization structure and establishing roles and responsibilities for the senior retail risk team. Assignments completed in UAE, Egypt and Romania covered retail portfolio reviews, strategic recommendations and policy framework.
Yusuf is currently a training consultant teaching a wide range of topics in investments including fund selection and a professional trustee. He is a trustee of the Sodexo Pension Scheme and was previously a trustee of the Citibank (UK) Pension Scheme and a member of its Investment sub-committee. He also coordinates the activities of the Marathon Club, a group of trustees and senior executives promoting a long-term approach to investment.
Till February 2011, Yusuf worked as an investment consultant and has considerable experience in advising UK pension funds. He was an Investment Principal at Aon Consulting advising UK pension fund clients on investment governance, strategy, implementation, manager selection and monitoring. He also coordinated the research into asset classes and strategies and a weekly discussion on markets to formulate advice on current investment opportunities and risks. Previously, Yusuf was a senior investment consultant at Hewitt Bacon & Woodrow and a member of the hedge fund manager research team.
Yusuf has over 25 years experience as a banker with Citibank. He was a Senior Credit Officer and Managing Director for relationship banking with the fund management sector in UK and Europe and previously worked in corporate banking in Bahrain and Pakistan. At Citibank, he was involved in training as Program Director for the European Training Centre.
Yusuf received his MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1977 having earned his undergraduate degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the same university. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter-holder and a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst(CAIA). Yusuf is a Fellow of the Society of Investment Professionals(FSIP). He was Chairman of CFA UK and served on the board for 11 years.
Samra Shaikh has over 14 years of project management and business analysis experience managing full life cycle projects to successful conclusion. She started her career with American Express (Pakistan) as a Business Planning and Financial Analyst where achievements included coordinating the efforts of regional offices across the country to produce standardised management reporting for the organization.
Samra then moved to the UK and joined ITT Sheraton for a year before joining American President Lines - Europe as a Business Analyst. She worked for APL for the next 9 years and led various projects ranging from management reporting to operational efficiency enhancements. Her last achievement at APL was the development of a standardised European tariff for 15 countries across Europe. The final product offered point-to-point rates for more than 150, 000 tariffs on the web to be available to customers.
Samra left APL to join BankT&D Consulting in early 2009. Since then, she has been involved in Business Process Re-engineering assignments for clients in Egypt and the Middle East assessing processes, analyzing inefficiencies and recommending solutions. Samra is also an advanced user for Workstream Business Analyst (WBA), the proprietary software for analyzing business processes at BankT&D Consulting.
Samra holds an MBA from the Institute of Business Administration (Pakistan) and a MSc. in Business Finance from Brunel University (UK). She is also Prince 2 qualified in Project Management.
Shahram has over twenty years experience in the area of retail credit risk management and credit risk modeling in UK with Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland.
In the last 3 years he has been working as a credit risk consultants in developing markets in Middle East, East & Central Europe.
In 2003 He was recognized as credit risk manager of the year by Institute of Credit Risk Management in UK and was awarded the fellowship of the institute.
More recent experience includes centralized credit sanctioning for the UK retail market, credit policy requirements for personal lending and mortgages including matters relating to consumer credit legislation
Philip D. Sherman
Philip D. Sherman is an international banker with more than forty years' experience as an executive and financial services industry consultant. He specializes in the areas of strategy and risk management as well as all the issues involving corporate and investment banking.
Phil spent thirty years at Citibank, leaving in 1995 where he last served as a Senior Vice President and Senior Credit Officer. At Citibank, he was the country head for Korea (where he was decorated by the government for help during the 1970's "Oil Shock"), Italy and Germany. After serving as a senior staff member of the Citibank Investment Bank, he was the Global Business Manager and Acting Chief Investment Officer for Citibank Global Asset Management, which had USD 50 billion under management at the time. He led the teams which drafted the first Citibank global market risk and fiduciary services policy manuals and executed a major project for reorganizing the Citicorp internal corporate structure.
In 1996, Phil was the founding CEO of Asian Securitization & Infrastructure Assurance Pte Ltd, Singapore, Asia's first financial guarantee insurance company which was sponsored by institutional investors led by Asian Development Bank, Government of Singapore Investment Corporation and Capital Markets Assurance Corporation, which subsequently merged into MBIA Inc. Mr. Sherman joined Deloitte Consulting as Senior Adviser to the Global Financial Services Industry practice in Asia in 1999 and continued in this role when he because a private consultant in 2001. In this capacity, Phil specialized in risk management, delivering risk processes analysis and training projects to a variety of Asian banks as well as various financial market assessment projects and work concerning the financial guarantee industry. He was also the Asian adviser to the Rick Management Association (www.rmahq.org).
A New York resident, Phil holds an AB from the University of Michigan and MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Sitaraman, is a seasoned banker with over 19 years of international banking experience with Citibank. During this period, he held various senior management positions including that of Country Operations Officer and Financial Controller. Sita served on many task forces involved in developing strategies for development of new businesses, better employee relations, system re-engineering for greater control and productivity etc. He also conducted training programs for entry-level staff. Sita presently focuses on business analysis, development of banking applications and related training.
David J Smith
David Smith's 29 year international corporate banking career with Citibank began in Saudi Arabia in 1976 and included senior business management assignments in the Middle-East, Africa, Europe and Asia. David was part of the team that designed and set up Citibank's SME business in the Emerging Markets in the late 1990s. He also held a number of senior credit risk management assignments as the UK Corporate Division Credit Officer, the EMEA Audit & Risk Review Director, the Senior Credit Officer for Central & Eastern Europe, and the Management Board Vice-President responsible for risk management in Bank Handlowy, Citigroup's subsidiary in Poland. David was a Managing Director a Level 1 Senior Credit Officer, the highest level of credit authority granted by Citibank. David holds a Law degree from the University of Edinburgh and an MBA from Manchester Business School.
Since 2005 David has been working as an independent consultant advising international banks on how to improve their corporate credit infrastructure and running credit risk management training courses.
Funmi is banking professional with over 25 years’ of experience in Retail banking, SME banking Risk management, Microfinance and Relationship management functions. Funmi started her career as a management trainee with the Savannah Bank of Nigeria plc in March 1986. In Savannah bank her functions included operations management, credit administration and management of the banks special assets.
She later moved to the Risk management department of the United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) in Lagos, where she managed a portfolio of accounts, leading to the restructure and repayment of credit facilities. She set up and successfully managed a taskforce responsible for the restructuring and turnabout of past-due facilities, through the development of a new remedial management process. Also, whilst in UBA she collaborated in the set-up and successful implementation of a Mortgage division for the bank.
Most recently, Funmi served as Assistant General Manager, and Head of the SME and Consumer Finance function in Ecobank Nigeria Plc. In this role, working with consultants she had responsibility for the implementation of the Ecobank/IFC, African Micro, Small and Medium enterprise (AMSME) program. The project involved charting an SME business strategy, establishing a suitable SME business model, developing products and introducing an effective marketing strategy in order to deliver a profitable and sustainable SME business in Ecobank Nigeria as well as in the six other African countries on the scheme.
Other duties performed whilst in Ecobank included management of the banks private equity investment’ in Small and medium enterprises, and management of the Consumer and Microfinance businesses. Her responsibilities required a review of the business process as well as the development of new retail products and upgrading of existing ones. The banks Microfinance business involved the provision of a selection of services to Microfinance institutions and the solicitation and management of relationships with several development Institutions/banks in Nigeria.
Funmi has an MSc in Finance and Management, from Cranfield University UK as well as an MBA from the Obafemi Awolowo University Nigeria. Her first degree is a BSc (Hons) in Business Administration from Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria. Funmi also holds a Diploma in Insurance, from the same university.
Nick began his career at Cargill Investor Services in Athens, trading futures and options for private customers. He then joined Citibank Athens where he spent almost 10 years in Treasury, trading the full spectrum of FX and Interest Rate instruments. He developed a niche in structuring new products to suit customer needs in developing markets. He then served as Treasurer of the newly established Eurobank in Luxembourg. Nick then moved to Bank of America in Athens for two years, where he was a market-maker in derivatives and structured products along Greece’s way to EMU convergence. At the end of 1999 he set up an Asset Management Company for private customers.
From 2003 to 2006, he headed National Bank of Greece’s operation in the Netherlands overlooking a range of managerial and business tasks. A short private asset management effort was followed by rejoining Eurobank’s subsidiary, Bancpost, in Romania as their Treasurer from 2008 to 2010. He currently provides consulting on investment and financial market issues for banking and corporate customers.
Nick holds a degree and a Msc in Mechanical and Marine Engineering from University College London.
Scott Williams has had a thirty-two year career in international and domestic corporate banking. Scott spent twenty three years at Citibank where he devoted much of his time to credit and market risk management across a variety of clients, geographies, and products.
An initial five year assignment in relationship management developing a portfolio of middle-market clients in the Western-US led to a position led to his appointment as the manager of a Business Risk five-man audit team. Scott's team reviewed and rated the strength and quality of risk asset portfolios and business management of business units in Citibank's corporate and private banking divisions throughout North America and parts of Latin America. Scott then moved to Europe where over a thirteen year period he held a series of successively larger risk management positions beginning in Sweden, followed by all of Scandinavia, and subsequently across much of Northern Europe. Scott was also chosen to manage two highly successful global projects to deliver improved credit data accuracy against tighter reporting deadlines, and to improve credit policies and procedures affecting credit lines granted to the subsidiaries of multinational corporations providing non-binding forms of parent support. Both projects were delivered on time and under budget. Moving back to risk management, Scott then served as the Global Risk Manager for Citibank's Automotive & Heavy Industries, Forest Products, Scandinavian, and US Midwest portfolios. Scott earned a Senior Credit Officer title and worked in that capacity for thirteen years.
After leaving Citibank in 2002, Scott has worked for several regional banks in Chicago where he has focused his extensive risk management skills on implementing credit policies and procedures that address the issues of aggressive growth while maintaining credit quality in small and mid-sized company portfolios.
A resident of Illinois, Scott holds a BA from Yale University and an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley.