Speaker Biographies

Alan Andrews serves as a business development manager in PNC Bank’s Global Trade and Equipment Finance Group. Based in Pittsburgh, he focuses on providing U.S. exporters customer finance solutions to increase their sales in emerging markets. Alan has contributed significantly to PNC Bank being the most active user of U.S. Export-Import Bank programs for the past several years resulting in PNC being awarded Ex-Im Bank’s 2008 Lender of the Year. Alan has over twenty years of experience in trade finance. He has lived and traveled overseas and is proficient in Mandarin Chinese. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from Boston University and a Masters Degree in International Management from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird). Alan has been an active Board Member of FCIB, an association of executives in Finance, Credit, and International Business, for many years. He is also active in the Cleveland Foreign Credit Group and is a Southwestern PA District Export Council Board member.

Nicolas Barrandon joined Coface North America in 2007 as Vice President Commercial focusing on business information, receivables management and collection services. Since 2000, he held several positions at Coface’s Paris headquarters, where he worked to expand Coface’s worldwide network and to develop an international credit management software for international clients. Nicolas also managed a team within the Coface France sales department dedicated to implementing customized credit management solutions (receivables management and collection, business information and credit insurance) for the company’s largest clients. Prior to joining Coface, Nicolas worked with the French Trade Commission in Toronto, Canada. He is a graduate of Sorbonne University in Paris.


Dr. Hans Belcsák is President of S. J. Rundt & Associates and is the publisher of “Rundt’s World Business Intelligence Briefs” - “Rundt’s Financial Executive Country Risk Alert” and ” FX-PRO Foreign Currency Forecasts.” He holds a Doctorate in Jurisprudence and Political Economics. His firm ranks among its clients the top names among multinational corporations and banks in Europe and North and South America, the Middle East and Asia. He is a regular contributor of articles to international trade & financial journals and has made extensive contributions on foreign exchange strategies, and country risk assessment to several books on international finance. Dr. Belcsak is the 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. He is a much sought-after keynote speaker on global developments and has been a frequent lecturer and conference chairman for the American Management Association in North & South America the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Asia. He has developed two specific courses to aid in the training of international executives, ”The Basics of International Credit Management” and “The Fundamentals of Foreign Exchange.” He continues to provide ’Intelligence Briefings’ for corporate CEO’s worldwide. Dr. Belcsak is a past member of the Board of Directors of the FCIB-NACM Corporation and continues as regular contributor to NACM’s Business Magazine. He helped midwife FCIB China.

Hermelinda Gonzalez is the International Trade Finance Manager of the Scoular Company. The Scoular Company is a 115 year old marketing agricultural company located across North America and shipping goods around the globe. Hermie has over 13 years of experience in international credit and over 9 years of experience in banking. She holds an undergraduate degree in marketing from Texas Lutheran University and an MBA from the University of Incarnate Word. She has been an NACM member since 1995, and became an FCIB member and earned the CICP certification in 2004.

 

 

Jeff Jankowiak is a Partner in the firm of International Risk Consultants, Inc. headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, with offices in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Indianapolis, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, China, London, Sao Paulo Brazil, and Monterrey Mexico. IRC is also a member of the International Credit Brokers Association, the largest global network of trade credit insurance brokers with 42 offices in 27 countries. The firm specializes in credit and political risk insurance, credit risk mitigation and trade finance structuring. Located in San Francisco, Jankowiak leads the firms’ efforts in California and the western region. Previous to joining the firm he was Vice President of Marketing, Finance and Administration, Cozzini, Inc., Chicago, IL, a capital equipment manufacturer serving the food industry. During his tenure he developed and operated a trade finance and credit group for short and medium term credit exposures. He also led a team, which created structured trade programs with EXIM Bank and ECA’s for Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Russia. Prior to this he was Chief Operating Officer, The National Provisioner, Inc., Chicago. IL an agricultural consulting service for meat, poultry and seafood industries. Education: Graduate of Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, Food and Human Nutrition, economics and finance. Jankowiak is an active member of FCIB and is a member of the Board of Directors.

George Kelakos is the founder and Managing Director of Kelakos Advisors LLC, a strategic M&A advisory firm that focuses on cross-border advisory services and the monetization of IP assets such as technology patents and consumer brands. Prior to the formation of Kelakos Advisors, George was a Managing Director in the Corporate Finance Group of Ocean Tomo resident in the firm’s Greenwich, Connecticut office where he chaired the firm's Distressed M&A Advisory and International practices. George has had over twenty five years of experience in the insolvency and cross-border insolvency fields with a particular emphasis on company-side reorganizations and both buy and sell-side distressed M&A. Prior to the formation of his advisory practice, George practiced law for over twenty two years, most recently as Of Counsel to the law firm of Heller Ehrman, LLP where he practiced law as a member of the Bankruptcy, Corporate Finance and International practice groups. Prior to joining Heller Ehrman, George was a founding partner of Cohn & Kelakos LLP of Boston, Massachusetts, concentrating on complex business bankruptcy and reorganization matters and providing cross-border advisory services.

On the international front, since 1998, George has assisted the government of the Kingdom of Thailand on matters relating to bankruptcy law reform and alternative dispute resolution procedures and practices. In that capacity, George has worked with the Thai ministry of Justice, the Thai Central Bankruptcy Court, the Thai IP/IT Court, the Thai Business Reorganization Office and the Thai Office of the Judiciary. From 2000 to 2002, George also served as the Managing Director of Tonson Planners Ltd., a Bangkok-based consulting firm that provided consulting and advisory services to clients involved in commercial and real estate loan work-outs and Thai business reorganization and debt restructuring cases. A frequent international and national speaker on programs involving cross-border and alternative dispute resolution topics, George was listed in the Guide to the World's Leading Insolvency and Restructuring Lawyers 2003 and is a Founding Member of the International Insolvency Institute (www.iiiglobal.org) and Co-Chair of that organization's Asian Developments Committee. George also served as the Vice President of International Affairs of the American Bankruptcy Institute (www.abiworld.org) and on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of that organization from April 2005-2007; he continues to serve on the Board of the ABI. George is fluent in French and Italian, and is conversant in Thai. George is also a 35+ year practitioner of external and internal martial arts and is the lead guitarist of the ABI’s captive rock and roll band, the “Indubitable Equivalents” (www.abiband.com).

Chris Kuehl, Ph.D. Managing Director, Armada Corporate Intelligence, USA is the co-founder (with Keith Prather) and Managing Director of Armada Corporate Intelligence, a company created in 1999 to provide strategy foundation, competitive intelligence, business analysis and economic forecasting for corporate clients. Chris is the Chief Economist for Fabricators and Manufacturers Association. This includes writing Fabrinomics and serving as a keynote speaker for their conferences and meetings through the year. Chris is a frequent commentator for the media-locally and nationally. He is a regular economic/business analyst for KMBZ radio, KSHB-TV (local NBC affiliate) and has been extensively quoted in national newspapers, magazines and trade publications. He holds a Masters Degree in Soviet and East European Studies, a Masters in East Asian Studies and a Ph.D. in Political Economics from the University of Kansas. He has been on the faculty of universities in the US, Hungary, Estonia, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan. He has been on the local steering committee for the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals and has been active with a number of business and finance organizations.

William Kulkens, CCE, CICP, is the Director of Export Credit with Milliken & Co, a textile and chemical manufacturing company, with headquarters in South Carolina. He has over 25 years experience in the credit field and has been a member of FCIB since 1994, presently serving on the board. He has a BS degree in Finance and a MBA degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University, graduating with honors and now serving on the University’s Silberman College of Business Advisory Board. On May 12, 2006 he was inducted into the “Beta Gamma Sigma” International Business School Honor Society as FDU’s Chapter Honoree. He completed both the Executive Advanced Management Training Program at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at U.N.C. - Chapel Hill, NC and the Leadership of Textile Technology Program in the Institute of Textile Technology at the University of Virginia. He achieved the Certified International Credit Professional (CICP) designation from FCIB, as well as the Certified Credit Executive (CCE) designation from NACM. He is an Executive Board Member of the N.Y. Institute of Credit. He is the former Chairman of the International Textile Credit Clearing House organization, the former President and now board member of the 475-Esquire-Toppers organization and a former Chairman of the 1245 Credit Club.

Josefina F. McEvoy is a partner in Fox Rothschild LLP’s Financial Restructuring & Bankruptcy Practice. She concentrates her practice in the representation of debtors, trustees, unsecured creditors (including bondholders), financial institutions (including funds and investment banks), distressed asset investors, equity holders and municipalities in domestic and cross border bankruptcy and insolvency restructurings. Prior to joining Fox, Josefina was a partner in the bankruptcy and insolvency group with K&L Gates. She also served as a law clerk to the Honorable William J. Lasarow, United States Chief Bankruptcy Judge, United States Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California, Los Angeles Division.

Josefina serves a Director and International Vice President of the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI), as well as a member of the ABI’s executive committee. She is a contributing editor to the American Bankruptcy Institute Journal, Founder and editor of the Journal’s Latin America Update column, and an ABI columnist for the Daily Bankruptcy Review (Dow Jones). She currently co-chairs the ABI’s first China conference (Beijing); she is the co-founder of the ABI’s Caribbean Insolvency Symposium and serves on the Symposium’s Advisory Board. She serves in The World Bank Insolvency and Creditors Task Force – Working Group on Insolvency of Non-Bank Financial Institutions. She served as co-chair of the ABI’s International Committee (1998-2006), Vice Chair of the Secured Creditors’ Committee of the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association (2005-2008), and Instituto Brasilerio de Gestáo e Turnaround (IBGT) Chair, International Affairs.

Darin Narayana co-founded ANSR Source along with three former senior executives of global corporations. ANSR acts as a managing partner for offshore captive operations for multinational corporations. Darin has 32 years of global banking experience, dealing with multinational corporations and financial institutions. He recently retired from Bank One where he served as the President and C.E.O. of Bank One International Corporation. In this capacity, Darin was responsible for its Global Banking business (1996 to 2002). Prior to joining Bank One, Darin was Executive Vice President of Norwest Corporation (since merged with Wells Fargo Bank) responsible for its World Banking Group, which included the Fortune 500 clients and other multinational corporations and Global financial institutions. Darin currently serves on several corporate advisory boards as well as boards of charitable organizations including the Global Advisory Council of the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird). Darin also serves on the Board of Target Corporation India Private Limited (a subsidiary of Target Corporation). Darin is a past President of the Bankers Association of Trade and Finance, a member of the Advisory Board of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, and served as an advisor to the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee headed by the late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown. Darin attended the University of London and the University of Wisconsin where he obtained a master’s degree in business. He is also a graduate of the management development program from Harvard University’s School of Business. Darin has written articles and lectured extensively on the subjects of global trade and economics. In addition, he is a guest lecturer at various universities around the world.

Bruce Nathan is currently a partner in the Bankruptcy, Financial Reorganization and Creditors’ Rights Group of the law firm of Lowenstein Sandler PC. Mr. Nathan concentrates on all aspects of creditors' rights and workouts in bankruptcy, out-of-court matters and other types of insolvency cases for secured creditors, creditors' committees, unsecured creditors, trustees and other creditors. Mr. Nathan serves as counsel to the unsecured creditors’ committee in Interstate Bakeries Corporation and Advanced Marketing Services Inc., represents substantial creditor interests in the Bally, Linens n Things, and Lyondell Chapter 11 cases, and has represented substantial creditor interests in the Enron, WorldCom, Solutia, Metromedia Fiber Network, Adelphia, Calpine and Heilig-Meyers chapter 11 cases. Mr. Nathan also negotiates and prepares letters of credit, guarantees, security, consignment, bailment, tolling, and other agreements for credit departments of institutional clients and is also involved in the negotiation and preparation of loan, letter of credit, and factoring documentation and other matters for banks, asset-based lenders and factors. Mr. Nathan holds combined J.D./M.B.A. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the Wharton School of Management. He is an active member of the American Bankruptcy Institute (“ABI”); is a member of ABI’s board of directors; is a former Co-Chair of ABI’s Unsecured Trade Creditor Committee; is a contributing editor of ABI Journal’s “Last In Line Column” and ABI’s “Second Circuit Cases Update”; and is the author of ABI’s Manual On Sellers’ Rights of Reclamation, Stoppage of Delivery and New Administrative Claim. Mr. Nathan is also an active member of, and regular lecturer for, the National Association of Credit Management (NACM); is a member of NACM’s Editorial Advisory Board; is a frequent contributor to NACM’s Business Credit; is a contributing editor of NACM’s Manual of Credit and Commercial Laws; and co-authored The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention And Consumer Protection Act of 2005: An Overhaul of U.S. Bankruptcy Law, published by NACM. Mr. Nathan has also spoken at the 4th China International Credit and Risk Management Conference and on other occasions on the People’s Republic of China’s 2006 Law on Enterprise Bankruptcy, discussing the law’s key provisions, the improvements over China’s prior bankruptcy law, the law’s similarities and differences with United States bankruptcy law and the upcoming implementation challenges.

Karen Ostad is a partner in the New York office of Morrison & Foerster LLP and a member of the Bankruptcy and Restructuring Practice Group. Ms. Ostad has extensive experience in representing significant stakeholders in large and complex U.S. and multinational insolvency proceedings, including Chapter 11 and Chapter 15 proceedings, and out of court restructurings of distressed companies. She advises on both the corporate and litigation aspects of restructurings. Ms. Ostad was recently featured in an exposé published by The Deal entitled “Breaking Ground,” which recognized her precedent-setting work in the cross-border restructuring area. Ms. Ostad speaks regularly on issues of corporate restructuring and insolvency. She is a member of the faculty of the Practicing Law Institute’s Bankruptcy Skills courses and has been a speaker and author on topics of insolvency law and creditors’ rights. She is a member of the Panel of Mediators of the United States Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York. Additionally, she is a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, the Creditors’ Rights and Insolvency Committee of the International Bar Association, and the Corporate Restructuring Subcommittee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. She is admitted to practice in the states of New Jersey and New York. Ms. Ostad received her J.D. from New York Law School in 1988. She received her B.A. from New York University in 1985.

Eugene (Gene) Perry is Director of Global Credit and Collections for Exterran, the largest operator of contract compression equipment in the United States. Formed recently by a merger of Hanover Compressor and Universal Compression Holdings, Exterran operates in every major hydrocarbon region of the world. Perry has more than 30 years of experience in domestic and international credit operations. Before joining Exterran, he was division credit manager of the Crouse-Hinds Division of Cooper Industries, and before that he was credit manager at Pennzoil (now International Specialty Products) and international credit manager at GAF Corporation (now Shell Oil). He is the author of Practical Export Trade Finance, a reference for international credit and finance professionals. He has been an active member for over 30 years and currently serves on its Board of Directors.

Byron Shoulton is the Vice President and International Economist at FCIA Management Co, Inc. FCIA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Great American Insurance Company, underwrites and services the trade credit and political risk insurance policies. For 45 years, FCIA has offered an array of flexible coverages against commercial and political non-payment risks for companies and financial institutions. Byron joined FCIA in 1980 with focus on the Latin America debt crisis. Later on he assumed the responsibility for global risk analysis for the global credit and political risk portfolios for FCIA. Byron monitors the global economics, trade and political trends impacting trade finance. He also conducts quarterly country rankings, and speaks at various trade seminars. Byron has a monthly publication, ‘Major Country Developments’ available to FCIA brokers and policyholders which is posted on FCIA’s website.

John Walsh, Vice President of U.S. Bank's International Banking Group, is currently the country manager for South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa and is responsible for all sovereign and bank risk in this area. John received his BA from Dickinson College with a major in comparative religion and an MBA from the University of Washington with concentrations in both Finance and International Business. Prior to joining U.S. Bank, he served as the Chief Financial Officer for Cruising Equipment Company, a high-growth, high-tech company in Seattle, and as an International Lending Officer at Seattle First National Bank. John is also a graduate of the Pacific Rim Bankers Program, an executive program at the University of Washington. John gives presentations to trade groups and corporate clients to inform them of current events in emerging markets and develop appropriate international strategies. He has been a guest lecturer at numerous colleges and universities, including the University of Washington, Seattle Pacific University, North Seattle Community College, and Everett Community College.

David Weidinger is the Senior Director of Credit & A/R for The McGraw-Hill Companies, a premier provider of information and products in financial services, education and business information markets through leading brands such as Standard & Poor’s, McGraw-Hill Education and Business Week. David coordinates a team of 120 credit, collections and receivable professionals dealing with McGraw-Hill’s Education and Information & Media divisions. He previously spent 13 years with DuPont, most recently as DuPont’s Global Credit Manager overseeing DuPont’s worldwide receivables portfolio. His background includes years of international business and management expertise in varying financial roles. He has lived abroad for nine years, seven of which involved finance and credit management in Central and Eastern Europe. David holds an undergraduate business degree from Southern Methodist University and an MBA from Thunderbird. David is also the current FCIB Chairman and on the National Association of Credit Management (NACM) board.