Speakers at First WOA Community Convention - "A World of Opportunities"

Cedric Teissier is co-founder and CEO of Finexkap, a receivables financing service based in France and with operations in Western Europe. Since launching in 2015, 1,800+ companies have become clients of the service. Prior to that, Cédric was co-founder and Managing Director of Palico, the global leader among marketplaces for private equity funds and investors with offices in France, the UK, and the USA, and more than 15,000 active users in over 70 countries. In an earlier life, he was a private equity attorney with Debevoise & Plimpton LLC in New York, and a placement agent for private equity funds. Cédric is widely recognized as a leader of the French Fintech ecosystem. He is a co-founding member and former Vice President of France Fintech, a Fintech advisory member to the World Economic Forum, Vice President of the Fintech Commission of the French Association of Treasuries, and a member of the Forum Fintech of the French financial and prudential regulatory authorities. Cédric is a graduate of Cornell University. He is a member of the French and New York Bar, and a mentor at Fintech accelerators.

Director Working Capital Solutions at Arviem AG. Fabio Manca has over 30 years’ experience in Logistics, Banking, Management Consulting and Global Trade Finance, having extensive experience across clients and solutions in Europe, USA and Asia. Fabio worked for 25 years in DHL, covering various executive positions, including the role of Managing Director and CFO, latterly as Head of Supply Chain Finance. Fabio led the successful implementation of several large financial deals in the area of Inventory Financing, Commodity and Trade Finance, Financial Structuring and M&A. Over the years, Fabio has developed a solid network of relations across the corporate, logistic and finance sectors in Europe, Americas and Asia.

On 7 June 2002, Justine Henin entered history as the first Belgian player to win a Grand Slam tournament when she beat her countrywoman Kim Clijsters at Roland Garros. Semi-finalist at Wimbledon, she then moved on from victory to victory among which a second Grand Slam tournament: the US Open. By the end of 2003, these two feats had raised her to World n°1. In 2004, she continued along this successful way and won the Australian Open as well as Dubai and Indian Wells tournaments. After the cytomegalovirus forced her to stop playing, she took up competition again and won a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Athens. In 2005, she withdrew from Sydney’s tournament and from the Australian Open because of a knee injury. But she was back on Miami’s courts in March. She also got her second title at Roland Garros. In 2006, Justine reached the finals in the four Grand Slam tournaments. She won Sydney’s tournament but withdrew during the Australian Open’s final because of stomach cramps. She met up with her public again in Paris where she signed her third Roland Garros title. 2007 was genuinely Justine’s best year. She won 10 tournaments out of 14, two of which were Grand Slam championships. All in all, her victories amounted to 63 the last 25 of which were successive. She was also elected Belgian Sports Woman of the Year for the fourth time (after 2003, 2004 and 2006). In addition, she was awarded World Sports Woman of the Year for the first time as athletes such as Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods and Yelena Isinbayeva had been in similar categories. In 2008, the champion, tired and in deep need for knowing herself outside of tennis, announced her decision to retire although she was still the World number 1. It was a first in the history of tennis. Justine then dedicated herself to various charities. She became a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF Belgium. She also dedicated herself completely to her own association, « Justine For Kids », the purpose of which is to help develop and fund original projects meant to bring sick children and their families assistance, joy and comfort. From her professional beginnings in 1999 to her decision to retire, Justine Henin counted 41 victories in WTA 7 of which were Grand Slam tournaments (4 Roland Garros titles, 2 US Open titles and 1 Australian Open title), 2 Masters, 1 Fed Cup and 1 Olympic gold medal won in Athens in 2004. Throughout her career she won 424 matches 334 of which in two sets. In addition, Justine ranked WTA n°1 for 117 weeks.

Jörg Diewald is the Chief Commercial Officer and Executive Board Member of solarisBank, headquartered in Berlin. With more than 25 years of experience in banking, Diewald is an expert in building and managing commercial organizations in the banking and FinTech industry. Before joining solarisBank in September, 2018, he was 16 years Chief Commercial Officer and Executive Board Member of GE Capital Bank AG and TARGO Commercial Finance AG as well as involved in many FinTech initiatives and active on the Advisory Board of Billie. Diewald started his career with Commerzbank and was holding different management positions with Dresdner Bank and Landesbank Sachsen. Since 2007 he was a member of the Executive Board and CCO for Germany and Benelux for the US based General Electric group. He was responsible for all of the lending, factoring, leasing and fleet management units in the respective countries. Besides his commercial responsibilities, Diewald were focusing on FinTech-cooperations with a national and international scope. On the board he was also responsible for innovation and product development as well as for Tech and Operations. Diewald combines a strong commercial attitude with a high Tech affinity.

Vice President and Director International Relations and Networks, Port of Antwerp. Mr. Luc Arnouts was born on November 26th 1962 and lives close to Antwerp, Belgium. He is married and has three children. He obtained a Master in Law at the University of Antwerp and a Master in General Management at the University of Ghent. He has been active in the port and logistics sector ever since. He started his career and gained operational experience in stevedoring, warehousing and ocean freight forwarding at the logistics company Group Katoennatie from 1986 until 1992. In 1992, he moved to SGS-Group Belgium where he officiated as General Manager of SGS-Van Bree. He was Member of the Central Management Committee and the Strategic Committee. He was in charge of the logistics and port handling business of SGS in Belgium. Aviapartner, European leading airporthandling company became his new employer in 2000, where he held the position of VP Cargo Handling Europe and was Member of the Central Board. In 2007, he joined the Antwerp Port Authority as Chief Commercial Officer. Since mid 2017 he holds the function of Director International Relations and Networks. As Vice President he is member of the Management Board.

Margrith has worked in trade finance for most of her professional life. At WestLB, she was Managing Director responsible for their global trade finance activities and then as CEO of FIMBank in Malta, the trade finance specialist, for 12 years during which time they acquired London Forfaiting Company. She also served as Chairman of International Factors Group and supported the merger with Factor Chain International, now FCI, the One Voice for the receivable finance industry.

Michael Guerin is the founder and CEO of ClearPort. Based out of San Francisco in the US, ClearPort is a technology enabled lender providing cross border trade credit to SMEs. Prior to ClearPort, Michael headed international partnerships at Kabbage, the US’ leading online small business lender, and provided business development support to venture-backed firms through his consultancy, Red Bridge Ventures. Michael began his career as an exporter, eventually became an international trade specialist for the US Commerce Department, and was an international equity analyst before advising on LSE and NYSE IPOs as the Russian-regional head of London-based Financial Dynamics (now FTI). Michael earned his MBA at London Business School and his BA at Earlham College in the US.

Steve is an Industry Expert with over 35 years of extensive experience in banking and working capital in global markets. He currently holds several Senior Strategic positions for a number of NBFI fintech companies and industry associations, including: • Chairman of both Accelerated Payments Ltd. and Smart Business Link Ltd. • Strategic Advisor to WOA (World of Open Account), Lendscape, CF2H and OCI Ltd, • Ambassador at Channel Capital Advisors LLP • Founder and MD of Kata Executive Consulting Ltd. Steve has previously held a variety of domestic and international roles, including Head of Europe/UK at Falcon Group, International CEO of Europe/Asia and North America at Bibby Financial Services, Global Head of Receivables Finance at HSBC (operating across 30 countries), European Head of Trade, Supply Chain, Commodities and Receivables Finance and CEO at HSBC Invoice Finance (UK) Ltd, Trade Finance and Equipment Finance Ltd (UK) and has been a Strategic Adviser to Hitachi Capital, Drayton Finch and Muse Ltd. He was previously Chairman of the Asset Based Finance Association (UK), Board and an Exec Committee member of both International Factors Group and Factors Chain International.