Agenda of the SCHUMANN Conference 2024

Robert Meters is Director of Global Business at SCHUMANN. He studied Business Administration and International Management at the University for Economics and Management in Düsseldorf and Essen. He has been in the credit risk management industry since 1993 and has worked for leading information service providers as well as in the telecommunications industry.

He advises and takes care of customers in the automation of credit risk management for the financial services sector with excellent references in leasing, factoring, banking and trade credit insurance.

As a Managing Director Evgeny is responsible for marketing and sales. He is also responsible for the business unit Credit & Surety.

Carol is General Counsel and a Group Board Director at The Texel Group, a specialist credit and political risk insurance broker. She is responsible for overseeing the Group’s legal functions across its offices in the UK, Europe, Asia and the US. With over 30 years’ legal experience in the insurance sector, she is highly regarded and respected in the industry.

Carol joined The Texel Group in 2015 having previously been a Partner at a London based law firm, where she was responsible for the political risk and trade credit insurance group. She specialised in dispute resolution in court and arbitration, handled claims from multiple jurisdictions under a variety of political risk and credit policies and regularly advised on coverage issues and policy wordings.

Since 2016 she has been an active member of ITFA’s Insurance Committee and part of the Regulatory Working Group when it was formed to look at regulatory issues that impact banks and insurance as a wider market, such as the implementation of Basel IV in Europe and its impact on the credit insurance market. She chairs the ITFA Documentation Working Group, which was established in 2023.

Silja Calac was born in Switzerland and studied in Paris, where she obtained a Maîtrise d’Ingénerie en Commerce International (Masters Degree in International Trade) at ILECI (Institute of International Economics and Commerce). She acquired her first taste of Forfaiting & Trade Finance when joining the secondary market distribution team of BDEI-Credit Lyonnais, Paris as a junior trader in 1996.

Before taking over in Munich the responsibility as Global Head of UniCredit Group's Center of Competence for Trade Risk Management, Forfaiting Financial Institutions and Secondary Market in 2007, Silja worked in Singapore where she assisted in the establishment of a new Forfaiting Department within Bayerische Hypo-und Vereinsbank.

In January 2015, Silja joined Swiss Re as Senior Underwrite Surety with the Credit & Surety team, based in Frankfurt, where she had the responsibility to further expand Swiss Re's Surety product offer for banks.

Presently, Silja is heading the private debt mobilization team for documentary trade and supply chain finance for Banco Santander. She started this position in 2020 which is located in Banco Santander’s Frankfurt branch.

Silja Calac is a Board Member of ITFA, Head of the Insurance Committee and Treasurer. She was chairing the German Regional Committee of ITFA from 2010 to 2012. Further, she was also member of the ICC Consultative Commission for the Drafting of the URF and Chairperson of the ICC URF task force until 2014.

Jakub Tomczyk has 15 years of experience in mathematical modelling and optimisation of industrial problems. His expertise in financial mathematics steered him to joining Australia's largest banks. Prior to joining GCD he worked as a Senior Manager in Model Risk and Assurance in Commonwealth Bank and as a Manager in Non-retail Credit Risk Modelling in Westpac in Sydney, Australia.

Jakub Tomczyk holds PhD in Financial Mathematics from the University of Sydney, Australia and two MSc degrees in Financial Mathematics and Mathematics for Industry and Commerce from Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland. His strong relationship with academia allows him to tap into the state-of-the-art techniques quickly and efficiently.

Robert Meters is Director of Global Business at SCHUMANN. He studied Business Administration and International Management at the University for Economics and Management in Düsseldorf and Essen. He has been in the credit risk management industry since 1993 and has worked for leading information service providers as well as in the telecommunications industry.

He advises and takes care of customers in the automation of credit risk management for the financial services sector with excellent references in leasing, factoring, banking and trade credit insurance.

Jesse Van Cleef is Head of Multi-Buyer Trade Credit Europe at Liberty Specialty Markets in The Hague. Previously, he served as Regional Director Special Products at Atradius in Amsterdam and Executive Manager at Special Products.

He holds a Master's in Finance from TIAS Business School and a Bachelor's in Finance from Amsterdam Academy for Banking and Finance.

Within the Nexus Group Samuel is responsible for the Trade Credit Insurance operation in German, Austria and Switzerland.

He has several years of experience as Credit Analyst and Credit Risk Underwriter, focussing on larger and more complex risks globally. Additionally, Samuel has been working as a Commercial Underwriter and Key Account Manager, focussing largely on international Top Up programmes and ‘Non-Can’ solutions for larger ‘Mittelstand’ clients.

Since early 2020 Samuel is heading up the German operation of Nexus Trade Credit.

Mike is an innovative, entrepreneurial Chartered Director with a strong track record of creating and growing businesses across Europe, USA and emerging markets.

Mike has 39 years’ experience in trade credit and political risk insurance, as well as in trade finance. He has been at the forefront of innovation in the industry and has been active in the Dutch and German markets as well as the UK and the US. He was a founder and CEO of trade credit insurer Equinox Global Limited.

Mike’s recent activities include being a director at Nexus Trade Credit, a consultant at Charles Taylor Adjusting, a director of a motor insurance MGA; providing advice to the Irish Government on credit insurance, and acting as Deputy Chair of the London Handel Festival (of classical music).

Mike recently became a Chartered Director after studying with the Irish Institute of Directors.

As Head of Sales Credit & Surety at SCHUMANN Lara Biermann is advising and supporting international credit risk insurer and surety bond provider in digitizing and automating their risk and business process management.

She studied business administration focused on finance, accounting and taxes and supervises international credit and surety insurance companies while implementing CAM Credit & Surety.

Nicholas Ayres is Chairman of Aon Reinsurance Solutions Global Credit reinsurance business, and is based in London. He began his career as a reinsurance underwriter in 1980, first becoming involved in the Credit market in 1989. He then moved into reinsurance broking, subsequently spent time as a Surety underwriter, before returning to reinsurance broking with Aon in 2008.

He works with clients across the global, including large corporate insurers, Lloyd’s Syndicates, MGA’s and Export Credit Agencies, across the spectrum of Trade Credit, Surety & Political Risks.

Paul Philand is the CEO and Founder of Vault MGA Limited, a London-based specialist MGA established in October 2022, focusing on surety, structured credit, political risks, and liability risks for financial institutions.

Before this, Paul served as Global Head of Surety at Howden Broking Group from 2016 to 2022. He previously founded PMG Financial Services Ltd, the largest independent surety broker in the UK, which was sold to Howden.

His earlier career includes key roles at Liberty Bond Services and AIG Europe, where he successfully established and grew their surety businesses across the UK and Europe.

Mike is an innovative, entrepreneurial Chartered Director with a strong track record of creating and growing businesses across Europe, USA and emerging markets.

Mike has 39 years’ experience in trade credit and political risk insurance, as well as in trade finance. He has been at the forefront of innovation in the industry and has been active in the Dutch and German markets as well as the UK and the US. He was a founder and CEO of trade credit insurer Equinox Global Limited.

Mike’s recent activities include being a director at Nexus Trade Credit, a consultant at Charles Taylor Adjusting, a director of a motor insurance MGA; providing advice to the Irish Government on credit insurance, and acting as Deputy Chair of the London Handel Festival (of classical music).

Mike recently became a Chartered Director after studying with the Irish Institute of Directors.

Carl E. Hoestermann has been Managing Director and in-house lawyer at Gracher Kredit- und Kautionsmakler GmbH & Co. KG in Trier since summer 2019. Alongside co-managing director and company founder Alfons-Maria Gracher, he is responsible for the operational business and, in particular, the international activities and international expansion of the group. Gracher is by far the leading German and European specialist broker in the field of surety insurance. The credit volume currently managed by Gracher amounts to more than EUR 18 billion and is growing continuously by around EUR 2 billion every year. Gracher serves more than 1,000 customers, from family-run craft businesses to large multinational corporations with sales in the double-digit billion euro range. Its business activities are complemented by other services such as general corporate financing, debt advisory, factoring and WKV services. Gracher has offices in Trier, Cologne, Bremen, Mannheim, Mainz, Amsterdam, London and Sofia. A further office is currently being opened in Zurich, Switzerland. International co-operations, e.g. in the Surety Alliance, also give Gracher a global presence for its clients.

Prior to this, Carl E. Hoestermann worked as a freelance interim manager for treasury and corporate finance for several years. In this role, he advised both medium-sized companies and corporate groups on all treasury and corporate finance issues. In addition to advising on all financing issues, he also focussed on pension and asset management. Prior to this, Mr Hoestermann managed the entire global treasury and corporate finance activities of HOCHTIEF AG in Essen for almost 20 years. This included global responsibility for all financing issues, liquidity and cash management, collateral management, debt and equity capital measures and project financing. In addition, for 13 years he was the Board member with operational responsibility for HOCHTIEF Pension Trust e.V., the financing vehicle for the HOCHTIEF Group's domestic pension liabilities. Before joining HOCHTIEF, Mr Hoestermann worked for 8 years at Deutsche Bank AG, as part of a management trainee programme, as an assistant to the management and most recently for 3 1/2 years as a branch manager.

Carl E. Hoestermann studied law and is still admitted to the German Bar. He is married and has three children.

An experienced professional with a proven track record within the insurance industry as well as trade finance and general credit. Jay is tenacious, driven and personable with the ability to develop relationships quickly.

His analytical skills combined with his pragmatic approach has led to have a highly successful career within the insurance industry, as well as with leading trade associations such as ITFA.

As Head of Sales Credit & Surety at SCHUMANN Lara Biermann is advising and supporting international credit risk insurer and surety bond provider in digitizing and automating their risk and business process management.

She studied business administration focused on finance, accounting and taxes and supervises international credit and surety insurance companies while implementing CAM Credit & Surety.

Annet joined Dual Europe in April 2023 as Head of Surety Europe. She is based in The Netherlands which serves as the central hub for surety operations in Europe. The hub is responsible for defining and disseminating guidelines, underwriting tools, and delegation of authorities.

With over two decades of experience in the surety industry, Annet has served in various capacities as a surety underwriter and reinsurance underwriter. In her previous role, she held the position of Head of Surety Europe at a credit insurance company. She has an MBA degree in Change Management.

Alessandro Rizzo, who is a Luxembourg citizen, is the founder and chief executive officer of EuroCaution, a leading (re)insurance broker and product manufacturer, specializing in bonds and surety in Luxembourg and Belgium.

More than 700 customers have subscribed to innovative bond and surety solutions developed by Alessandro with the help of cutting-edge technology and the assistance of renowned (re)insurance companies.

Paperjam, the biggest business magazine in Luxembourg, lists Alessandro as one of the 100 people who count in real estate.

He regularly speaks at numerous national and international summits on real estate development, project financing, or insurance-related topics.

Simon Barker joined the London insurance market in 1989 a broker with C.T. Bowring (Marsh).

He set up and developed an independent Lloyd’s Broker called EBA Insurance Services which expanded into the MGA arena in the mid-2000s with particular focus on European construction and surety business.

EBA joined the Nexus group in 2015 and has become a key component of the group’s European strategy. Simon’s role cuts across a wide range of insurance products and roles including product design, capacity sourcing and binding authority design.

He is a fluent French and Italian speaker and was the architect of Nexus’ post Brexit structure.

Since the acquisition of the Kentro group by Brown & Brown, Simon is supporting the Brown & Brown’s London and Asian brokers on strategic development.

As Head of Sales Credit & Surety at SCHUMANN Lara Biermann is advising and supporting international credit risk insurer and surety bond provider in digitizing and automating their risk and business process management.

She studied business administration focused on finance, accounting and taxes and supervises international credit and surety insurance companies while implementing CAM Credit & Surety.

After completing a master’s degree in economics, Richard Wulff started his career in 1989 as trade credit insurance underwriting manager and reinsurance director of NCM (a precursor of Atradius) in his native country, the Netherlands. He founded a reinsurance captive for the company in Ireland prior to moving on to Munich Re in Germany.

At Munich Re, he managed the non-European credit, surety and political risk reinsurance department until 2008. He then moved to India to become chief underwriting officer of HDFC-ERGO Insurance Company in India, a general lines insurance business.

Richard subsequently became group general manager, heading up the world-wide credit lines at QBE Insurance in Australia, before moving to Hong Kong in that role.

He returned to Holland in 2017 to found RW Consulting, a consultancy company for trade credit insurance, surety and political risk (re)insurance. In February 2021, Richard joined the International Credit Insurance and Surety Association (ICISA), an association with which Richard has been actively involved throughout his career in trade credit insurance, surety and political risk insurance, where he currently holds the title of executive director.

As a member of the executive board, the business information technology specialist is responsible for product- and business development for the business unit of Credit & Surety at SCHUMANN.

Neal Harm is the Deputy Secretary General at FCI (fci.nl), the Global Representative Body for Factoring and Financing of Open Account Domestic and International Trade Receivables. He has over 30 years of experience in working capital finance, having successfully led and managed complex and large commercial finance, international, and payments businesses at leading US Banks.

Neal is a graduate of Lenoir Rhyne University in North Carolina, USA where he joined Wachovia’s Leadership Management Development Program. At Wachovia (now Wells Fargo) he started his career in the Asset Based Lending division as a collateral analyst. This role led to his interest in working capital-based finance.

Neal later joined Bank of America’s factoring division taking on various leadership roles. He was responsible for all aspects of business operations to include client experience, partnerships with financial institutions, and product development ultimately becoming the President of Business Finance in 1999.

In 2005, he joined BB&T (now Truist) leading to his role as President of the bank’s international banking division to include Trade, FX, Factoring, and Correspondent Banking. While at BB&T, he was a member of FCI’s Business and IT Committee, serving as its Chairman from 2008 to 2012. He later became a member of FCI’s Executive Committee to include a role as Vice Chairman.

Neal is married to Bren and they have 3 boys (Jordan, Andrew, and Jeffery) living in the USA. Neal and Bren reside in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

John Beaney is Global Head of Receivables Finance Product Management for HSBC. As such he is responsible for ensuring the receivables finance product meets the needs of the bank’s customers across the HSBC network and can be delivered safely and sustainably. That includes overall responsibility for the trade credit insurance programme as well as future technology requirements, product design, product performance and education.

John has devoted his career to HSBC and worked across many countries and territories. John has supported the industry association FCI through past membership of its technical and executive committees.

Robert Meters is Director of Global Business at SCHUMANN. He studied Business Administration and International Management at the University for Economics and Management in Düsseldorf and Essen. He has been in the credit risk management industry since 1993 and has worked for leading information service providers as well as in the telecommunications industry.

He advises and takes care of customers in the automation of credit risk management for the financial services sector with excellent references in leasing, factoring, banking and trade credit insurance.

Malte Rüsing has been a member of the Management Board of abcfinance GmbH and abcbank GmbH, a medium-sized financial services provider specialising in leasing, factoring and vendor finance, headquartered in Cologne, Germany, and part of the family-owned Wilh. Werhahn KG in Neuss, since May 2022. In addition to overseeing the foreign subsidiaries in the Netherlands and Austria, he is responsible for all back-office operations, risk controlling and the corporate sustainability department. Prior to his appointment as member of the Management Board, he was Head of Corporate Development & Strategy since joining abcfinance/abcbank in 2013, having previously worked for EOS in Hamburg.

Malte Rüsing holds a degree in business and economics and resides in Wermelskirchen with his wife and two children.

Richard Knubben is Director General at Leaseurope, the federation representing the leasing and automotive rental industries at European level. He is also the Director General of Eurofinas, representing the consumer finance industry.

He has more than 17 years of experience in (corporate and political) interest representation at European and national level.

Robert Meters is Director of Global Business at SCHUMANN. He studied Business Administration and International Management at the University for Economics and Management in Düsseldorf and Essen. He has been in the credit risk management industry since 1993 and has worked for leading information service providers as well as in the telecommunications industry.

He advises and takes care of customers in the automation of credit risk management for the financial services sector with excellent references in leasing, factoring, banking and trade credit insurance.

Dimitri Zampetas joined Atradius in July 2005 in London as Head of Customer Segmentation and moved to Strategy & Corporate Development in 2010 as expert advisor. Dimitri and the team in strategy are originating, developing and implementing key strategic projects on growth & profitability, including AI. Throughout his career in Atradius, he has been exposed to almost every aspect of the organisation and has developed a wide and deep knowledge of the credit insurance business, products and markets. In recent years, as Atradius embraced technology in both the front and the back office, Dimitri had the opportunity to gain considerable experience on how new technologies and in particular AI can create value and increase productivity in the insurance world.

Dimitri started his career in finance and accounting and then as Head of Exports in steel products where he first used credit insurance as a tool to mitigate the credit risk in emerging markets. Prior to Atradius, Dimitri had exposure as a consultant to a variety of projects ranging from asset management in Allianz to the development of advanced data analytics software.

Dimitri graduated from the Economics & Business Administration University of Thessaloniki in Greece and holds a MSc from the Sloan School of Management at London Business School in the United Kingdom. He successfully completed an executive course in LBS London in Artificial Intelligence. He currently lives in London with his family.

Tobias Nießner holds a PhD in Business Information Systems from the Georg-August University of Göttingen. He studied mathematics and business information systems with a focus on data science. During his PhD, he worked on risk use cases in accounts receivable management.

He joined SCHUMANN in 2023 as Product Owner to enable the product landscape with AI capabilities

Micha Teweleit is Sales Manager for Credit & Surety and works as a consultant for international credit insurance companies that want to digitalise and automate their risk and business process management systems.

He completed his Master's degree in Business Information Systems at the Georg-August University in Göttingen.

Robert Meters is Director of Global Business at SCHUMANN. He studied Business Administration and International Management at the University for Economics and Management in Düsseldorf and Essen. He has been in the credit risk management industry since 1993 and has worked for leading information service providers as well as in the telecommunications industry.

He advises and takes care of customers in the automation of credit risk management for the financial services sector with excellent references in leasing, factoring, banking and trade credit insurance.