Robert Genetski, Keynote Speaker - A respected voice on the future trends of the economy and crowned a top-five speaker in the field of Economics and Finance, Robert Genetski's experience in the world of economics and finance involves a unique combination of business and academic expertise. He has headed asset management, and investment and economic research departments for several financial institutions. He has taught at several colleges including NYU and the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. He is known for his highly accurate economic and financial forecasts, from correctly predicting stagnation in 1977, economic revival in the 1980s and 1990s, to historically low interest rates during the past decade. In early 2008, six months before the financial collapse, he joined President Reagan s chief economic advisor in warning that it was too late to avoid a recession. He has made numerous appearances on Fox News and CNN. Alan Andrews serves as a SVP in PNC Bank's Global Trade Finance Group. Based in Pittsburgh, he focuses on assisting corporate customers in mitigating the various risks encountered when selling internationally. Alan has over 30 years of experience in trade finance. He has lived and traveled overseas and is proficient in Mandarin Chinese. Alan holds a bachelor's of science degree in Business Administration from Boston University and a master's degree in International Management from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird School of Global Management). Walter (Buddy) Baker, RGCP brings more than 35 years of experience in international trade finance to his current position as Vice President and head of Global Trade Solutions Delivery for Fifth Third Bank. Fifth Third is one of the 20 largest banks in the US and provides a full range of risk mitigation and financing products for exporters and importers. His professional experience includes earlier stints with Atradius Trade Credit Insurance, ABN AMRO Bank, Bank of America, Wachovia Bank, and The First National Bank of Chicago. 1
Buddy is a recognized expert in trade finance. In addition to teaching seminars, he makes frequent presentations for national associations of exporters, importers, bankers, and lawyers. He designed the online training/certification programs used by the ICTF and by the Association of Trade and Forfaiting in the Americas (ATFA) and the trade finance sections of the certification program used by the FCIB. Mr. Baker has authored numerous magazine articles and the books Users Handbook to Documentary Credits under UCP600, Documentary Payments & Short-Term Trade Finance, and The Regulatory Environment of Letters of Credit and Trade Finance. He serves as a member-at-large of the National Letter of Credit Committee of the Bankers Association for Finance and Trade and is actively involved in establishing national and worldwide standard practices for LCs, such as the current version of the Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (referred to as UCP600 ), the official ICC guide for examining letter of credit documents, called the International Standard Banking Practices for the Examination of Documents under Documentary Credits ( ISBP ), the eucp supplement to the UCP dealing with electronic documents, the International Standby Practices ( ISP98 ), and Article 5 of the Uniform Commercial Code. Buddy also serves on the Board of Directors of the ICTF, on the Advisory Council of the Institute for International Banking Law and Practice, and on the Council on International Standby Practices. Buddy earned his undergraduate degree at Yale University and his MBA at Northwestern. He can be reached at (312) 704-6942 or buddy.baker@53.com. Dr. Hans Belcsák has served as the President of S.J. Rundt & Associates, Inc., a New York headquartered consulting and publishing firm, since 1973. S.J. Rundt & Associates specializes in helping multinational companies, exporters, importers, banks and investors assess risks and opportunities in their international strategies and transactions. Dr. Belcsák is publisher of Rundt's World Business Intelligence, which focuses on global political and economic trends, Rundt's World Risk Analysis Program, a provider of country risk assessments, The Financial Executive's Country Risk Alert, and 2
Rundt's FXPRO Foreign Exchange Rate Forecasts. Additionally, Dr. Belcsák is Chairman of the International Council for the American Management Association, a consultant for the Management Center Europe in Brussels, and an advisor to a regional governor of the Russian Federation. Dr. Hans Belcsák is a renowned keynote speaker on global developments and is a founding member and supporter of ICTF. Dr. Belcsák was born and educated in Austria. He holds degrees in Commercial Law and Political Economics as well as a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree. Dr. Belcsák s dissertation in economics has received significant recognition and accolade as a critical appraisal of Keynesian fiscal policy applied to modern economies. David Huey is the President of Atradius Trade Credit Insurance, Inc. and also serves as the Regional Director NAFTA. In this leadership role, he is responsible for Atradius business activities throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. David joined Atradius Credit Insurance as Managing Director of Australia & New Zealand in 2006 after a distinguished 11-year career with National Australia Bank (NAB). David held primary responsibility across a number of NAB business units including commercial leasing, international trade, invoice discounting and retail banking in several Australian states and the NAB s subsidiaries in the UK. After seven years building the Oceania business and the support network for Asian expansion he transitioned to his role in the NAFTA region in May 2014. David is now based in Baltimore, Maryland David holds an MBA from Southern Cross University in Australia. Robert (Bob) B. Long, CCM works with the ICTF as North American Membership Coordinator. He is a lifetime member of the ICTF, one of the first two individuals to receive this prestigious honor. Formerly a member of the Royal Bank of Scotland s (formerly ABN AMRO 3
Bank s) Global Trade Services & Advisory Group as a Vice President in 1998, his responsibilities included new business development and managing existing large trade relationships for the bank, specifically with regards to import payment and export collection systems, trade finance, supply chain financing activities, and other cross border trade related services. He won a number of sales awards at the bank including outstanding quarterly deals (3 times), Million Dollar Club, and was a frequent contributor to in-house training programs especially with respect to export products and supply chain finance. He was promoted to Director (Senior Vice President) in 2003. Prior to RBS, he was employed by First Union Bank (formerly CoreStates Bank, N.A.) and working in the Export Cash Management International Trade Services Group. He is a former National Chairman of the FCIB International Credit Association, (at the time a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Association of Credit Management) elected in 1989 and was elected to the Board of Directors of this organization in 1986, and again in 2002. He was a frequent speaker to international credit and collection groups on international trade with emphasis on funds flows and credit/cash management issues. He is currently a member of the 12:45 Credit Group and was formerly active with the National Chemical Credit Association. He has been published and quoted in Business Credit, The Exporter, and other magazines and trade journals. Bob earned a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Drexel University in Philadelphia. He earned his Certified Cash Manager (CCM) designation in 1986. 4
Mark Miazga, CGCE is the Corp. Credit Manager for Parker Hannifin Corporation, headquartered in Cleveland, OH. Parker is a $13.2 billion diversified manufacturer of motion and control technologies and systems with a global receivables portfolio in excess of $1.6 billion. Mr. Miazga has a B.S. in Finance from Penn State University and has been working for Parker for over 24 years. Mark is responsible for Parker's two largest operating Groups, the Fluid Connector Group and Aerospace Group, along with Parker's subsidiary's in Latin America. Mr. Miazga is now an active member of the Advisory Council for ICTF and prior to that was a member for over 20 years with FCIB. He was also the former President of the Cleveland Foreign Credit Group and active with the Credit Research Foundation (CRF). Larry O Brien, CCE, RGCP is the Sr. Director of Corporate Credit at PotashCorp, the world s largest fertilizer enterprise by capacity, with responsibility for all domestic and international credit. Mr. O Brien has final credit decision authority for all sales and is also responsible for review and approval of all credit language in both sales and vendor contracts. With over 30 years of credit experience, Mr. O Brien has been a speaker and panel member at Credit Congress, FCIB Conferences, and National Association of Credit Management (NACM) conferences and industry meetings on the subject of domestic and international credit and financial statement analysis. Mr. O Brien is a graduate of Lewis University, Romeoville, IL with a Bachelor s Degree in Business Administration, and is a graduate of NACM s Graduate School of Credit & Financial Management, Dartmouth College. Mr. O Brien holds the Certified Credit Executive (CCE), Certified International Credit Professional (CICP), International Certified Credit Executive (ICCE) and the Registered Global Credit Professional (RGCP) designations. In his spare time, Larry is very active in the community and his local Knights 5
of Columbus Council and enjoys trips back to the family farms located in Minooka, Illinois. André Python is Senior Vice President of Underwriting for FCIA Management Company. He manages FCIA s Multi-Buyer Underwriting Operations. This group is responsible for working with FCIA s broker network to develop new business and the servicing of existing insureds from underwriting their buyer risks, to handling policy amendments and the renewals of existing policyholders. He is a member of FCIA s Senior Credit Committee, Claims Committee and Business Development Committee. André received his B.A. degree in History from Manhattan College and his M.B.A. from Pace University. Since completing his undergraduate studies at Manhattan College, Mr. Python has spent the majority of his career in the trade credit and political risk insurance field. Susan Seamands, CGCE experience has focused on the international arena, with several years at Mutual of Omaha, AMF, ConAgra Foods, and most recently Gavilon, LLC, where her responsibilities have included management of the international trade credit portfolios for LatAm, Asia, Europe, Australia and Africa. Trading Ag Commodities worldwide, primarily grain and feed ingredients, has called for skillful use of trade terms that span the spectrum from open credit to Letters of Credit and all options in between, including CMAs in some riskier destinations. Susan has also managed trade credit insurance policies for both ConAgra and Gavilon through US and foreign carriers. She has been involved in several long-term collection efforts, both pre- and post-2008 and was instrumental in developing new metrics for evaluating MTM and performance risk for trades ranging from $100k - $50mm. Over the course of her career, she has travelled extensively, including such destinations as Mexico, Brazil, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, Germany, China and Japan. She has also lived in France and England, and speaks French, Spanish, Italian, German and has studied Mandarin 6
Chinese. She has done freelance translation work for Virginia Power, Valmont and Nestlé. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in French and Spanish from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, 2ème Degré d'etudes Françaises from the Université de Dijon in France, and a Master's Degree in Business Administration with a focus on Global Trade from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She also earned her CICP designation from FCIB, her RGCP from ICTF, and has participated in ICTF's courses offered in conjunction with Thunderbird School of Global Management. Evan Young is the Corporate Director of Security for Parker Hannifin Corporation. Evan s experience and expertise encompasses the full spectrum of the field of Security. He began his journey with the Henrico County Division of Police in Richmond, Virginia. Evan spent twelve years with Henrico County and combined with three years of prior service, has a sworn law enforcement tenure of fifteen years. He left the department at the rank of Lieutenant serving as the Commander of Tactical Services under Special Operations and Homeland Security. During his career, Evan received numerous Meritorious Service Awards for leadership. He was also the recipient of a Bronze Valor Award, given for bravery and leadership during a rapidly evolving critical incident. After a distinguished law enforcement career, Evan transitioned to corporate security and worked as a Security Manager for Altria Client Services, Inc. located in Richmond, Virginia. He spent just over six years in this capacity. Evan supported several of the business groups and operating companies under the Altria Group portfolio, most notably the cigarette manufacturing enterprise for Philip Morris USA. In 2013, Evan started his career with Parker Hannifin Corporation. In his current position as the Corporate Director of Security, Evan is responsible for the design and implementation of Parker s global security strategy. Evan received a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Political Science and a minor in Criminal Justice from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. In addition to his undergraduate degree, Evan holds executive management certificates from the Southern Police Institute, 7
University of Louisville, the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, and the Professional Executive Leadership School (PELS), University of Richmond. He is a member of ISMA (International Security Management Association) a globally recognized member organization for security executives. He is also a long standing member of ASIS (American Society of Industrial Security), a preeminent organization for security professionals. Under the ASIS umbrella, Evan is a member of the CSO Roundtable, another professional security group consisting of Chief Security Officers from Fortune 500 Companies around the globe. Evan is also an active member and supporter of OSAC (Overseas Security Advisory Council), an arm of the U.S. Department of State focusing on global security threats and intelligence sharing. Evan has been a champion for security benchmarking and best practices. He helped develop the first corporate security council for MAPI (Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation), a highly respected member organization that focuses on building leadership and best practices in the manufacturing community. 8