Speakers of the SCHUMANN Conference

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.

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.

Christiane von Berg is the Head of Economic Research for the Dutch and German speaking countries at Coface. With over 14 years of experience, she is a generalist in the field of political economics. Von Berg holds a German Magister degree from the University of Mainz with majors in Economics and Political Science (equivalent to a Master's degree). She completed her studies with an Advanced Master's degree in International Economic Research Policy at the renowned Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

During her studies, she worked as an assistant to the financial policy spokesperson of the CDU parliamentary group in the state parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate. She also gained several years of experience in the media sector as an editorial assistant at the political TV channel PHOENIX, focusing on election coverage.

After her studies, she moved to the State Bank of Bavaria (BayernLB), where she worked as an economist with the regions US and Japan for financial market-oriented macroeconomic research. There, she specialised in financial and monetary policy as well as political risks.

In 2019, von Berg joined Coface, where she first focused on country and sector risk analysis in Northern Europe and then turned to the BeNeLux-region as well as Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Since summer 2022, she has also appeared as an expert on the stock market news programme NTV.

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.

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.

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.

Susanne Ermer has a remarkable career in banking. Currently serving as Deputy Vice President Corporate Credit at GRENKE AG, she brings extensive experience, including roles at Deutsche Bank AG and L-Bank.

She completed her training as a bank clerk at Friedrich-List-Schule Karlsruhe, obtained her diploma in Banking, Corporate, Finance, and Securities Law from Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, and later studied Economic Law at Mannheim University of Applied Sciences.

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.

With a doctorate in business informatics, he managed the development of business areas as well as marketing and sales for the business unit Industry & Trade.

Since January 2023, Dr. Stefan Gröger has been responsible for the sales management of the business units Industry & Trade, Financial Services and Credit & Surety in his role as Commercial Director and member of the Executive Board at SCHUMANN.

Tobias Greller (born 1977) has been Head of Process and Product Management at the MeinAuto Group since 2018.

He is responsible for the overarching optimization and automation of business processes within the group. Previously, between 2012 and 2018, he was responsible for process implementations in the business segment Sixt Neuwagen as well as for logistics and process management at Sixt Leasing SE.

His diverse experience in the field of processes as well as organization is complemented by seven years at REWE Group and as a management consultant for process simulation in the automotive and logistics industry.

Dr. Werner Grünewald is an experienced managing director (CFO) with a wide range of business literacy. He has many years of management responsibility in a medium-sized family owned company.

Knowledgeable in the implementation of market and financial topics, such as M&A transactions, strategic controlling, risk management and compliance as well as in the sustainable development of transformation and change processes, strategy development and compensation systems.

Experienced, result-oriented, entrepreneurial and international manager with strategic competence, paired with pragmatic implementation know-how.Total turnover/ profit responsibility: EUR 10 bn or EUR 140 m EBT. Beginning April 2020 working as an independent consultant.

Frank joined Radius in July 2022 as Managing Director Mainland Europe and became Chief Revenue Officer in October 2023.

Starting his career at Roland Berger Global Consulting, he has held leadership roles with companies in the European mobility and payment sector, including European Sales Director of DKV Mobility, Global Sales Director at Forbo AG, and CEO of Hofmann-Menu.

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.

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.

Andreas Lüer has been working for BAUKING GmbH since 1997, during which time he has been responsible for customer management, receivables and restructuring management, insurance management, major loss processing and fleet risk management.

Due to his many years of experience in the building materials trade, he is considered a proven expert in risk management in this industry.

Katharina Knehr has been with the TRUMPF Group since 2001. After completing her studies as a graduate in business administration, she began her career in TRUMPF’s own captive for sales financing.

After various roles within the TRUMPF Group, including CFO at TRUMPF Brazil, she returned to TRUMPF Financial Services in 2020. There she is now responsible for corporate governance, information security and risk. As the world’s only full-service bank owned by a machine tool manufacturer, the bank now serves corporate clients in 17 European countries and also offers deposit services to all German employees.

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

Sabrina Kuss was initially responsible for coordinating further developments in the area of sustainability at Creditreform Rating and then moved to the Business Development department of the Creditreform Association, where she is currently coordinating a project to develop a management tool for international supply chains and is particularly responsible for business management issues.

She previously worked at the auditing and consulting firm PWC and in the banking sector. She completed her Master's degree in business administration, specialising in finance, at the University of Duisburg-Essen.

Thomas Marloh began his professional career in 2002 at Deutsche Leasing AG. Just one year later, he moved to R+V Allgemeine Versicherung AG, where he has worked ever since. At R+V Versicherung, he started as a group leader in credit assessment for trade credit insurance and then rose to become group leader for key accounts in the area of surety insurance. Since 1 January 2021, Marloh has been head of surety insurance and has been appointed authorised signatory and department director. In this position, he is in charge of surety insurance at R+V Versicherung, a market leader that provides guarantees to over 100,000 corporate customers.

Mr Marloh holds a degree in business administration and banking. He has successfully completed his A-levels. He is 50 years old, married and has two children. He lives with his family in Wiesbaden.

During his studies, Lukas Martin started as an IT consultant in the business unit Credit & Surety. Today, he works as a Sales Manager, supporting and advising companies on the digitalisation and automation of their business processes relating to financial statement analysis.

He studied business administration at the Georg August University in Göttingen and supports companies with the implementation of the financial statement analysis software FINOYO at SCHUMANN.

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.

Michael Mohr has decades of experience in the banking, leasing and factoring business. Within the Werhahn Group in Neuss, Michael Mohr was responsible as Managing Director for the abcfinance group of companies with abcfinance GmbH and abcbank GmbH. During this time, abcfinance developed into one of the market-leading leasing and factoring providers in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. In addition, Michael Mohr has represented the leasing industry for many years as a board member of the Bundesverband Deutscher Leasingunternehmen e.V. (Federal Association of German Leasing Companies).

Michael Mohr has distinctive experience in the strategic development of financial services, complemented by extensive M&A activities and expansion into other European countries. All aspects of risk management and information technology have also always been focal points of his work. In particular, Michael Mohr has massively advanced the digital transformation, among other things by founding a corporate start-up.

Since mid-2021, Michael Mohr has retired from the active management of abcfinance and has since been advising companies in the financial services industry and SMEs on strategy and management issues.

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

Heidrun Odenweller-Klügl is Head of the Banks and Financial Service Providers market unit at SCHUFA. She has held senior posts in both public- and private-sector banking, acquiring comprehensive experience in the areas of risk management, corporate finance and M&A business during her many years in private banking.

In her present role as Head of Banks and Financial Service Providers, she is focused on the transformation process within the banking industry in the areas of creditworthiness, fraud, compliance and identity from a data- and process-driven perspective.

Marinko Prljic advises and supports industrial and trading companies in strengthening their credit management processes - from business partner onboarding to KYC checks and credit limit authorisation.

After studying business administration at the Georg-August University in Göttingen, he joined SCHUMANN, where he supports companies in implementing the credit management software CAM.

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.

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.

Carmen Rothenberger is responsible for the Underwriting Service of Credit Lines for trade credit and surety activities at Zurich Germany.

She gained her first professional experience in the international business division of Commerzbank. During a one-year stay in the USA, she obtained her CAM License and took on initial roles in organizational and service-oriented management.

Upon her return, she began her career in credit insurance at Coface. She managed international key accounts, established the international Key Account Management organization, and led teams in the Global Solutions segment. At last, in collaboration with the corporate headquarter, she built and led the Commercial Underwriting for Northern Europe. After two years as a Senior Underwriter for Multinational and Strategic Accounts at AIG, she joined Zurich in 2023, where she now heads the Underwriting Service for Trade Credit Insurance and Surety Insurance.

André Schiller studied Business Psychology and is responsible for the business development of KYBP.

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.

Since 1991, Prof. Dr. Matthias Schumann has held a professorship in Business Administration and Information Systems (Chair of Application Systems and E-Business) at the University of Göttingen. He also heads the joint computing center of the Faculty of Economics and the Faculty of Social Sciences. He is a shareholder of Prof. Schumann GmbH.

Prof. Schumann's research interests include information systems at financial service providers and systems for credit management, as well as issues related to knowledge and education management. Prof. Schumann has a wide range of experience in consulting companies, extensive lecturing activities and more than 350 publications.

Dr. Martina Städtler-Schumann has been the managing director of SCHUMANN since its foundation in 1997. After graduating with a degree in business administration, she earned her doctorate and worked in her parents' consulting and software company. She has now been managing SCHUMANN for 25 years. With her company, she supports national and international companies in the digitalization and automation of processes in credit and credit risk management. Her years of experience hold cross-industry expertise for the optimal processes, whether for insurance companies, financial service providers or industrial and retail companies.

Städtler-Schumann is married, lives with her husband in Göttingen and has two grown-up sons.

Mr Jonathan Szejnmann is Managing Director of Trustlog GmbH and has more than 15 years of digital expertise: After working in the digital unit of a corporate group, he recently built up the Digital Business & Company Building division for a management consultancy, where he advised clients on the development of digital business models.

With the founding of Trustlog, Jonathan took over the management of the company and, together with his growing team, is responsible for the development and operation of Trustlog, the digital platform for guarantees. Jonathan holds degrees in Economics and Strategy for Business (MSc) from Imperial College London and Business Administration (BSc) from FH Nordakademie.

Felix Wittpoth began working in the Netherlands at Reed Elsevier and Morgan Stanley.

Since 13 years he is working in the mobility services sector. Initially in the areas of controlling and M&A at the DKV Mobility Group, before moving to Edenred in 2017 to lead the integration of acquired sales organizations in the role of CFO in Poland.

Since 2022 he is Finance Director of the of the Edenred Mobility Business Line in Europe, leading the Finance, Credit Management and Legal & Compliance departments.

In 1989, after completing his degree in economics at the University of Dortmund, he started as a trainee at the then Thyssen Schulte GmbH. Switched to credit management in March 1990. Involved in the topic ever since. Since November 2016 Head of Accounts Receivable Management in the Materials Services segment - the trading and services division of thyssenkrupp - with a sales volume of EUR 14 billion and a permanent receivables portfolio of EUR 1.8 - 2 billion.

The Accounts Receivable Management division combines all functions relating to account receivables - master data management, credit management, accounts receivable accounting including collection and dispute management, non-performing debts, net working capital management and strategic issues relating to receivables.

Tom Würfel is Director Solution Sales at Dun & Bradstreet Germany. As a data native, he has 20 years of experience in establishing data-driven business processes. A current focus of his work is supporting global B2B companies in creating AI-Readiness for their data and automating risk management processes.

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.

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.