Advisory Council & Speakers

Paul Chow, ex CEO, HongKong Exchanges and Clearing

Paul Chow has been a key architect in the expansion of Hong Kong’s modern securities and derivatives markets. He has also made significant contributions to the development of global financial markets. Mr Chow was former chief executive of the Hong Kong Exchanges between 2003 and 2010 and a founding member of the Hong Kong Securities Institute. He served as Chairman of the East Asian and Oceania Stock Exchanges Federation from 1994 to 1995 and was Chairman of the Working Committee of the Federation Internationale des Bourses de Valeurs (FIBV, now known as the World Federation of Exchanges, or WFE) from 1995 to 1996. Mr Chow was Chairman of the WFE Working Committee from 2007 to 2008 and became WFE Vice Chairman in 2009.

Thomas McMahon, MD & CEO, UD Trading Group Ltd Pte

Thomas McMahon is currently the Director/CEO of UD Trading Group Ltd Pte. He previously served as the CEO of the Singapore Mercantile Exchange (SMX) from 2009 to 2011. Before that Thomas was President, Deputy Chairman at the Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange HKEx from 2007 to 2009. In addition, he served as Director-Asia Vice President Tokyo, Singapore at New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) during 2003-2007. Thomas has also served as Advisor at the Dubai Mercantile Exchange and was Member, Board of Directors, and Chairman of the Natural Gas & Petroleum Advisory Committees a t NYMEX. Thomas has a combined 30 years of experience across U.S. and Asian exchange and regulatory frameworks with a focus on the development of exchange traded and cleared futures and OTC products as well as exchange architecture development

Lieven Van den Brande, ex-CIO, Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange

Lieven Van den Brande is a senior financial services industry executive with extensive market infrastructure and banking experience. He is the former chief operating officer of the Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange's (HKMEx) Clearing House Project after having served as its chief information and operations officer. Lieven has spent over 20 years as a strategy and management consultant in the financial services industry, focused on delivering business, risk management, operational and technology advice to select clients. During his tenure in Asia, Lieven developed an excellent understanding of business practices and processes unique to the region. He has an established track record as an accomplished manager, thought leader and people motivator managing complex industry projects amidst competing views.

Hans B Sicat, President & CEO, Philippine Stock Exchange

Hans B. Sicat was named president and CEO of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) in January 2011. He served as chairman and independent director of the PSE from May 2009 to January 2011 and is concurrent president and CEO of the Securities Clearing Corporation of the Philippines. Currently, he is non-executive vice chairman and director of LegisPro and also holds positions in various business entities such as Serica Balanced Fund and Master Fund. He also sits on the Euromoney Asia advisory board and is independent director of Philippine Dealing System Holdings among others. Sicat has more than two decades of experience as an investment banker and has worked for Citigroup and its predecessor firms Citicorp and Salomon Brothers in the Philippines, Hong Kong and New York City holding several key positions.

Shane Worner, Senior Economist, IOSCO, Spain

Shane Worner is currently senior economist with IOSCO, Spain. He has 18 years of financial markets experience, spanning the public sector, academia and private industry. Prior to joining IOSCO in 2011, he was employed as an economist at ASIC, Australia's securities market regulator. He was also senior economic advisor to senator John Watson, within the Australian Federal Parliament. Prior to public sector experience, he was employed at Australian National University where he taught and tutored several subjects in financial economics and finance theory. Worner spent 10 years working in with private industry firms including Swiss Bank Corporation, UBS, Citibank and ABN AMRO, covering equities, foreign exchange, futures, credit products, as well as a wide range of derivative products.

Richard Leung, MD & CO-Head IT, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd

Richard Leung joined Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing (HKEx) in October 2011 and is currently co-head of its IT division. He works with the platform development team to spearhead a number of strategic system developments. Prior to joining HKEx, Leung worked with a number of exchanges and financial sector technology over the past two decades including as chief technology officer for Chi-X Global which he joined in conjunction with their 2008 acquisition of Cicada. Prior to that Leung held a 14-year career with Dow Jones Telerate in the Asia Pacific region, where he served in various senior technical positions.

Satoru Yamadera, Principal Financial Sector Specialist Regional and Sustainable Development Department
Asian Development Bank

Satoru Yamadera leads the ASEAN+3 Bond Market Forum and Cross-border Settlement Infrastructure Forum as the secretariat under the Asian Bond Markets Initiative of ASEAN+3. In addition, he manages a project to support ASEAN financial integration, and supports capacity building of ASEAN central banks. He has over 25 years of professional experiences in central banking including research, banking supervision, payment systems, and international financial cooperation. Prior to re-joining Asian Development Bank in October 2014, he was director, head of international standardization group at Bank of Japan. He was also the chair of Committee on Evaluation and Standards for Legal Entity Identifier, which involved more than 60 regulators and central banks globally to formulate guidelines and principles to establish the Global LEI System in accordance with the G20 and FSB initiative.

Valerian Crasto, MD & COO, Treasury & Markets, DBS

Valerian Crasto is a seasoned banking professional with over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry. Before joining DBS in 2007, Crasto held key positions at BoA, CIBC, BMO, the Ontario Pension Board in Canada, Ernst & Young and Nomura Investment Bank in the Middle East. He has diverse experience in audit, finance, risk management, back and front office having worked in key roles in all the three lines of defence. He has also been chairing the Asia pacific committee of International Capital Market Association (ICMA) since January 2015.

Samar Banwat, Senior Vice President, National Securities Depository

Samar Banwat joined National Securities Depository (NSD) in October 1996. He has close to 15 years of experience in the depository world and works closely with market participants on both the buy and sell sides. He was instrumental in developing innovative products to meet the growing needs of the market participants. Banwat is also a member of the Corporate Bonds & Securitization Advisory Committee (CoBoSAC).

Alicia García-Herrero, Chief Economist for Emerging Markets, BBVA

Alicia García-Herrero is chief economist for emerging markets at Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA). She also serves as non-resident faculty at China-Europe International Business School in Shanghai, research fellow at Cornell’s Emerging Market Institute, special advisor to the European Commission on China economic issues and member of the advisory board of the Hong Kong Monetary Institute of Research. In previous years, García-Herrero has also been member of the Asian research program of the Bank for International Settlements, head of the international economy division of the Bank of Spain, member of the counsel to the executive board of the European Central Bank, head of emerging economies at the research department at Banco Santander and economist at the International Monetary Fund. She has also held professor positions at various universities including Johns Hopkins.

Micky Lo, MD & Chief Information Risk Officer APAC, BNY Mellon

Micky Lo joined BNY Mellon in July 2013 as chief information risk officer APAC. He has over 25 years of IT experience in the financial services industry spanning multiple disciplines, including regional and location management, IT and security architecture, distributed computing engineering, technology infrastructure operation, outsourcing/in-sourcing management, IT risk management and technology audit. Prior to joining BNY Mellon, Lo was the head of IT security APAC and head of technology Greater China for Deutsche Bank. He has also held various key management positions at JPMorgan and Citibank. Lo serves as an advisory board member of the information systems faculty at City University of Hong Kong and as industry advisor of the bachelor of management science and information management programme of Hang Seng Management College.

William Lawton, Founder and Chairman, Seagate Global Group, Hong Kong

William Lawton is founder and chairman of the Seagate Global Group, Hong Kong, a private investment company focussed on using global financial markets to help people in China and Southeast Asia. Lawton has 40 years of financial experience in Asia including: helping modernise the People’s Bank of China in the early 1990’s as a consultant; authoring a whitepaper for China Development Bank’s senior management on designing China’s financial system to support economic growth; becoming the founding CEO of China Everbright’s asset management company. He also sits on the board of various CITIC Capital companies. Lawton is implementing the Seagate programmes of global excellence, a unique comprehensive economic development approach with over 150,000 member families in the Asia Pacific region. He is currently working with the Malaysian Government to increase funding for SME’s there.

Jeffrey Yap, Managing Partner & Chief Investment Officer , Ark One

Jeffrey Yap is a recognized investment professional in Asia with nearly 20 years of experience in global financial markets across multiple asset classes. He has built and managed investment and trading teams for leading global financial institutions and a hedge fund with experience ranging from trading and investing in both Asian currencies and global fixed Income. Before joining Ark One, he was responsible for Asian fixed income trading for Mizuho Securities Asia and was instrumental in making them a key player in the offshore renminbi (CNH) fixed income market. He has held key positions in CIMB, Nomura, Rabobank and JL Capital and is regarded as the key authority and voice in the development of the CNH market.

Rebecca Terner Lentchner, Executive Director, Head of Policy and Regulatory Affairs ,
Asia Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association (ASIFMA)

Rebecca Terner Lentchner focuses primarily on global initiatives including extraterritoriality, cross-border regulatory coordination, shadow banking, resolution and recovery planning, cross-border data flows and privacy, OTC derivative rule implementation, market practice and standards, and the global Legal Entity Identifier. She provides regular updates on the global regulatory reform agenda and its potential impacts in the region to Asian regulators, market supervisors, industry participants and regional trade associations. She also coordinates ASIFMA initiatives and committees covering the ASEAN region and liaises regularly with representatives of ASEAN+3, APEC-ABAC, the US Treasury, the Asia Bond Market Forum Secretariat, Asia Development Bank, Global SMPG, Asia Securities Forum, regulators, exchanges, financial market supervisors and associations throughout the Asia Pacific region. Prior to joining ASIFMA, Lentchner served as a New Directions Returnship Fellow at Goldman Sachs and also held policy roles in the US Congress and industry and not-for-profit organisations.

Eli Cohen, SVP, Head of Legal (Regulation), Singapore Exchange Limited

Eli Cohen is head of legal (Regulation) at the Singapore Exchange, responsible for handling all legal issues related to the company. He also manages SGX’s relationships with all non-Singapore regulators including the European Securities and Market Authority, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission. Prior to this, Cohen was Asia General Counsel for Euroclear Bank, Hong Kong and Assistant General Counsel for Euroclear SA/NV in Brussels, Belgium. He was also Executive Secretary of the Euroclear Bank Management Committee. He also acted as a legal consultant to the Asian Development Bank to the ASEAN+3 Asian Bond Market Initiative Group of Experts in 2009-2010

Tae Seok Clement Yoo, MD, Head of Client Business & FIC Development, Global Markets Division , Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing

Tae Seok Clement Yoo serves as managing director and head of the client business development and FIC development departments at Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEx). These departments are responsible for IPO issuer marketing, exchange participant relations, development of fixed income and currency business and the development of index solutions across the organization. Since joining HKEx in 2011, he served as co-head of platform development and strategy and as head of product and index development. Yoo has over 21 years of exchange industry experience with 14 years at Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME)in clearing, risk management, business development and strategy and products and services in the US and Asia. Prior to joining CME, he held various positions at Sumitomo Mitsui Bank and Goldman Sachs in Chicago.

Aftab Ahmad Ch, Secretary General, South Asian Federation of Exchanges

Aftab Ahmad Ch. is secretary general of the South Asian Federation of Exchanges (SAFE). He is also MD/CEO of Lahore Stock Exchange. He has extensive capital market experience in the areas of regulatory oversight, enforcement, market operations and the management of stock exchanges, and has held several key advisory positions both within the country and abroad. Some of the projects he worked on included the conceptualization and implementation of a unified trading system and the establishment of a spot commodity trading eco-system. Aftab is also spearheading the project of the regional financial integration within South Asia under the umbrella of SAFE. He is also a member of the working committee of the Federation of Euro Asian Stock Exchanges.

Olivier Grimonpont, CEO HK Branch, Regional Head APAC, Euroclear 

Olivier Grimonpont is the CEO of Hong Kong branch and regional head, at Euroclear, overseeing offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo. Prior to this, he headed up Euroclear's collateral services, fixed-income, loan servicing and securities lending & borrowing product management teams in Brussels. Gimonpont’s financial career started in 1990 with JP Morgan Brussels, where he held various back and mid-office positions. In 1994, he joined the front office, first as liquidity manager, and later as a government bond trader responsible for the market making of Belgian government bonds.

Alex Medana, Director, Compliance Services, Asia Pacific, SWIFT

Alex Medana is director of compliance services for the Asia Pacific region at SWIFT, based in Hong Kong. He is responsible for the KYC Registry and sanctions screening strategy to drive the adoption of both products in the region. Previously he was the director of securities markets for the Asia Pacific region where he was responsible for the post-trade strategy (buy and sell sides). He also played a key role in promoting Rmb internationalisation within the global securities community. With more than 15 years’ experience in the securities industry, he has held a number of key roles in client services, middle office, settlements and project management in various prime brokers and broker-dealers operations. Prior to joining SWIFT in October 2013, he held several key positions at Deutsche Bank, DrKW, Merrill Lynch, Exane and Credit Agricole Indosuez.

Noel Chetty, Head of Asia Cash Equities Technology and Global Head of Program Trading and Analytic Macquarie Group

Noel Chetty is head of Asia cash equities technology and global head of program trading and analytic at Macquarie Group and has over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry. Before joining Macquarie he held various lead roles building and delivering business solutions for trading, middle office, risk management and business integration at leading investment banks across the APAC region. These include Credit Suisse, Barclays Investment Bank, Barclays Capital, Nomura Securities, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch.

Keith B. Carter, Visiting Senior Fellow of Decision Sciences, NUS 

Keith Carter is the author of the book “ Actionable intelligence: A guide to delivering business results with big data fast!” which lays out appropriate ways to establish a culture of fact-based decision making, innovation, forward looking measurements and appropriate high-speed governance. Keith Carter teaches as visiting senior fellow of decision sciences at National University of Singapore’s business school. He has led and established global supply chain initiatives on areas including: Knowledge management, transformation, governance and data management. He previously worked at Estee Lauder in supply chain, and Accenture in financial services and government.

Nick Ronalds, MD Equities, Asia Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (ASIFMA)

Nick Ronalds is MD of Asia Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association’s equity division and works closely with the equity committee. Prior to this, Ronalds was with RhoFinancial working with clients to develop their presence in Asia’s exchange-traded derivatives markets. In the past, Ronalds has held roles with Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s Asia office and ABN AMRO Securities. He negotiated with Japan’s Ministry of Finance for approval of GLOBEX, the first-ever offshore electronic trading system permitted in Japan.

Patrick Lau, Director of Investments, Khazanah Nasional Berhad

Patrick Lau joined Khazanah Nasional in January 2015 as director of investments. He has 15 years’ experience in cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) as well as corporate strategy. Between 2010 and January 2015, he was managing director and head of M&A at China Construction Bank International and was later promoted to assistant head of its investment bank. Before that, he served as executive director, investment banking (M&A Asia) at UBS Hong Kong and as a senior attorney at Skadden Arps and Baker & McKenzie based in Hong Kong.

Mark Law, Co-Head, Investor Services Sales, APAC, Deutsche Bank

Mark Law is jointly responsible for investor services sales in the Asia Pacific region within Deutsche Bank’s institutional cash and securities services (ICSS) business. He leads a regional team covering global custodians, asset managers, insurance, broker dealers and sovereign wealth funds. He is also responsible for cross-product and cross-divisional sales, working closely with the corporate banking and securities division. In his 12-year career at the bank, Law has held various roles in product management spanning a number of countries. These roles include leadership of the trust and agency as well as institutional cash businesses in Japan. He setup the bank’s hedge fund administration business in Asia and formed an outsourcing office for structured finance in Mauritius.

Chong Kin Tuck, Global Head of Securities Services, Transaction Banking, Maybank

Chong Kin Tuck joined Maybank in September 2014 and was appointed as director of global securities services / CEO of Maybank Trustee. He is responsible for spearheading the growth of securities services regionally, leveraging his knowledge, experience, network and drive to bring the business in Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines to the forefront and explore potential business in Singapore, Hong Kong and China. Chong has more than 20 years of experience in the banking industry, including a 20 years at Citibank covering loans operations, mortgage business, share financing and investment operations, securities and fund services operations and product development. He was also head of direct custody and clearing at JPMorgan Chase.

Filippo Santilli, APAC Head of Sales and Relationship Management, Markets Group, BNY Mellon, Hong Kong

Filippo Santilli joined BNY Mellon as head of global liquidity services for APAC in August 2009, expanding the Liquidity DIRECT business across the region. He is currently head of sales and relationship management for the markets group, covering margin segregation, tri-party repo, securities lending, collateralised loans, collateral upgrades, and FX. Santilli worked for Morgan Stanley Investment Management in Luxembourg from 1999 to 2005 as head of client services. He then moved to London and joined Lehman Brothers Asset Management in its start-up liquidity funds business, eventually spearheading efforts in Asia by moving to Hong Kong in 2007

Rachael Hoey, Head of Asia, CLS

Rachael Hoey is executive vice president, head of Asia for CLS. She is responsible for leading market engagement and strategy development in the region as well as heading the global strategic initiatives team. Hoey is also a board director of CLS Aggregation Services, established to provide trade aggregation services to participants active in the over-the-counter spot FX market. Her career has included various international roles in finance, general management, marketing and business development roles with institutions such as Royal Bank of Canada and Chase Manhattan Bank covering both custody and treasury transactional services.

Mark Taylor, Sales Director Asia Pacific, SmartStream

Mark Taylor works as Sales Director Asia Pacific at SmartStream and is responsible for working with customers across the region to improve their transaction processing efficiencies. Mark has been with the company for 9 years and prior to this role has been responsible for presales and business development. Mark has 18 years industry experience in architecting and implementing STP solutions, especially in Reconciliations and Trade Process Management across different business sectors and around the world. Before joining SmartStream, Mark has worked at Braid, Mercator and Singularity.

Hasan Rauf, Head of Sales – Asia Pacific, Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation

Hasan Rauf is head of sales for the Asia Pacific region at the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), managing and driving business growth for the company’s portfolio of leading-edge solutions in the region. He covers post trade automation, data management and collateral management. His responsibilities also include providing strategic direction to organisation by assessing and penetrating new markets, building alliances with key partners, managing P&L for the company’s sales and business development unit. Prior to this he played senior sales roles at Omgeo, focussing on South Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

George Jia, Chief Representative & China Business Manager, Shanghai Representative Office, Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation

George Jia serves as the China business manager for the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), responsible for managing their China business with a focus on sales, relationship management and industry relations. Before DTCC, Jia was with Omgeo since since April 2009. Prior to that he worked at Thomson Reuters, where he headed the China expert network business unit, focusing on providing primary research to the hedge fund industry. Before entering the financial services industry, Jia spent nine years in the semiconductor industry working for Future Electronics, the world’s third largest semiconductor distributor.

Brian W Tang, Managing Director, Asia Capital Markets Institute

Brian Tang is managing director of Asia Capital Markets Institute (ACMI), an industry-wide capital markets educational and policy platform that promotes professionalism, efficiency and innovation in the long-term best interests of corporate issuers and capital markets integrity. He is a corporate finance lawyer with nearly 20 years of experience in Hong Kong, New York, Silicon Valley and Australia. Prior to establishing ACMI, Tang was an award-winning investment banking counsel at Credit Suisse in Hong Kong and advised on some of the Asia Pacific region’s largest equity, debt and M&A transactions. He has also led inter-disciplinary teams to establish the bank’s Chinese investment banking joint venture and played a leading role in many industry-wide regulatory initiatives. He was previously at Wall Street law firm Sullivan & Cromwell in New York, as well as Mallesons in Perth, Australia, where he advised on cross-border capital markets, M&A, corporate governance and project finance.

David Millar, Risk Management Specialist, International Resource Director, The Asian Banker

David Millar is a risk management trainer, journalist and consultant with 40 years’ experience in international banking and financial markets who has worked for banks, financial utilities and central authorities on strategy, processes, change and risk management, research and outsourcing. He was an operational risk manager at a global British bank and subsequently Chief Operating Officer at the Professional Risk Managers’ International Association, PRMIA, a trade association focused on improving financial risk management. He is also an International Resource Director at the Asian Banker.

Sam Ahmed, Managing Director, Deriv Asia

Sam Ahmed is the managing director and founder of Deriv Asia, a technical management consultancy firm focusing on credit risk modelling, collateral management architecture, OTC regulatory implementation, Basel 3 liquidity solutions, CVA methodology and enterprise risk management. Prior to opening Deriv Asia, Ahmed was Citi’s head of collateral services sales for the Asia Pacific region. Ahmed’s career spans 18 years in Asia across top tier international banks such as Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch where he worked across various faculties from derivatives trading, risk management to middle office.

Andrew Pal, former Executive Director, UBS AG and CEO, UBS Futures Singapore

Andrew Pal is a member of the futures and options sales team with UBS Futures Singapore. As investment banks meet the challenge of increasing regulation and market re-structure, Pal is now focusing on leading the banks’ regional Over-The-Counter clearing (OTC) initiative to offer clients a total solution encompassing listed derivatives and OTC derivative products. Prior to this, Andrew held various roles including managing client direct execution risk; futures sales and execution and IT project management.

Peter Fuhrman, Chairman & CEO, China First Capital

Peter Fuhrman is chairman and CEO at China First Capital, a China-focused international investment bank and advisory firm. Fuhrman's insights and analysis on China, its capital markets and private equity industry are frequently featured in international media including New York Times, Washington Post, Bloomberg, and China Daily. Before moving to China he worked in Europe and the US, first as a journalist and editor in Europe for Forbes Magazine, then in the US as CEO of a California-based venture capital company, CEO of an entertainment finance company during its IPO process, and then as founder and CEO of an enterprise security software company.

Colin Savage, Head of Research, The Asian Banker

Colin Savage has nearly twenty years’ experience in research, analysis and strategic planning in Asia and Europe. Born and raised in Canada, he has lived and worked widely, most recently leading the corporate research and global strategy of a major Japanese life insurance group from the UK. Fluent in English and Japanese, Colin has advanced degrees in social anthropology (MA from SOAS University of London, UK) and business administration (MBA from Durham University, UK) in addition to postgraduate studies undertaken in China and Japan.

Mobasher Zein Kazmi, Editor, The Asian Banker

Mobasher Zein Kazmi is the editor of the financial markets publication responsible for coverage of global markets, exchanges, trading platforms, alternative trading systems and post-trade infrastructure on behalf of The Asian Banker. He is also the senior researcher overseeing the risk and regulation working group. Prior to joining The Asian Banker in 2013, Kazmi wrote on Islamic banking and finance topics for a range of media publications in the GCC and South-East Asia. He has an MBA (Investment Management) from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada and holds an Islamic Finance Qualification from the Chartered Institute of Securities & Investment (UK).

Programme Manager
Muhammad Usama
musama@theasianbanker.com

Delegate Registrations & Sponsorships
Janice Chua
jchua@theasianbanker.com