Counsellor, World Trade Organization

Marc Auboin is a Counsellor at the World Trade Organization (WTO) looking after trade and finance issues, including trade finance, and WTO’s relations with the IMF and World Bank. Prior to the WTO, he held several positions at the IMF, the European Monetary and Financial Committee and the French Treasury. He holds a Ph.D in Economics, and has written articles and reports on trade finance issues.

Lenders’ Solution Leader, Marsh

Alexia leads Marsh’s Lenders Solutions Group in Europe, which provides Financial Institutions with specialist knowledge on the structuring, syndication, and placement of credit related insurance solutions. Alexia advises lenders on bespoke solutions in line with their risk and local regulatory requirements, allowing them to free up valuable regulatory capital, mitigate credit risk exposures and enhance their risk appetite.
Alexia joined Marsh in 2021 after 13 years in banking. She worked for several leading banks in three different continents.

Head, International Financial Institutions – Banks, CaixaBank

Erik Frantz is the Head of International Financial Institutions – Banks at CaixaBank. Under his current role, Erik led the development of key international banking projects and products, such as international cash management for corporate clients, cross border payments, trade finance services, lending, clearing, risk distribution, etc.

Erik holds an MBA from the University of Barcelona, a Postgraduate Diploma in European Enterprise Management from the Dorset Business School – Bournemouth University, and attended Management and Leadership programs at ESADE, IMD and IE.

Chief Executive Officer, CaixaBank

Gonzalo Gortazar is CEO of CaixaBank since June 2014. He is also chairman of CaixaBank Payments & Consumer and board member of Banco BPI.
Prior to this position he served as CaixaBank’s CFO and CEO of Criteria CaixaCorp. He also had a distinguished career at Morgan Stanley, where he led the European Financial Institutions Group and held corporate and investment banking positions at BofA. He holds a dual degree in Law and Business from ICADE and an MBA from the INSEAD.

Head, Trade and Global Transaction Banking, Access Bank

Rowly is a Chartered Banker and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) with over 25 years of banking and financial services experience.

As a Trade and Transaction Banking specialist with working knowledge in over 20 African countries, he has played an important role in growing trade in various African markets and attracting foreign investments into Africa.

He has held senior management positions in leading banks in Africa and has presented several papers internationally.

Global Director, Trade and Supply Chain Finance, IFC

Nathalie Louat is Global Director of Trade & Supply Chain Finance in the Industries Vice-Presidency at IFC, based in Washington.

Prior to this role, she was Global Senior Manager in charge of Innovation, Capital Markets, Insurance, and Distressed Assets from 2014 until 2020. She was previously a Senior Manager for East Asia and the Pacific Portfolio Operations, supporting IFC’s clients in the financial sector, based in Hong Kong from 2010 until 2014. Nathalie also worked in IFC’s Structured Finance Department within the Treasury Vice-Presidency, in Washington and in Hong Kong.

Nathalie received the World Bank Group’s Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Award. Prior to joining IFC, Nathalie pursued a career with Credit Lyonnais Investment Banking after spending several years with the French Ministry of Finance. She holds a degree from the French School of Statistics and Economics and graduated as an Actuary from the Paris Institute of Actuarial Studies.

Director, Economic and Market Research Department, IFC

Paolo Mauro is Director, Economic and Market Research Department. Prior to joining IFC, he worked at the International Monetary Fund for almost thirty years, most recently as Deputy Director, Fiscal Affairs Department. In 2014-16 he was Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and Visiting Professor at the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School. His research has been published in leading academic journals such as the Quarterly Journal of Economics, on topics including corruption, sovereign bond spreads, and growth-indexed bonds. He has coauthored three books: World on the Move: Consumption Patterns in a More Equal Global Economy; Emerging Markets and Financial Globalization: Sovereign Bond Spreads in 1870–1913 and Today; and Chipping Away at Public Debt. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University and a B.A. in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from the University of Oxford.