Meet the 2026 speakers

Kortam is the Regional Treasurer for Middle East and Africa (MEA) region, one of Lesaffre’s largest, encompassing over 70 countries, 14 entities, 8 production sites, 7 Baking Centers and 7 Baking Ingredient Units, in key countries like UAE, Egypt, Turkey, South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe, and KenyaKortam has led several financing solutions for Africa businesses including Syndicated loans, ECA facilities, discounting facilities, supply chain financing facilities and bilateral facilities. In addition to formulating strategies and building business custom models to manage Liquidity, FX exposure and finance charges associated risks.Kortam is a Certified Treasury Professional (CTP) and a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), with over a decade of diversified finance experience in the areas of corporate finance, working capital management and financial risk management across various industries including Heavy machinery, FMCG and Pharma focusing on the region of Africa and the Middle East.

I am a Treasury Manager at bp, based in London. I have worked in treasury, accounting and audit roles across banking, consulting and corporate environments. My work covers cash management, liquidity planning, banking relationships and financial controls, supporting regional operations in different markets. Earlier in my career, I started as an external auditor. I enjoy doing hands-on treasury work, clear processes and working well with others. I am interested in improving day-to-day treasury operations, managing risk sensibly and helping teams make better decisions. I value clear communication, learning from experience and sharing what works with peers across industries and regions.

Pratibha leads The EIU’s Middle East and Africa team and is also the overall manager of the other regional teams. Pratibha has many years’ experience ensuring that The EIU’s forecasts and analysis for countries’ economies are closely integrated with our global macroeconomic outlook, with the analytical skills and the regional expertise required to diagnose problems and devise viable solutions. Pratibha has an MSc and a BSc in economics from the University of London. She also holds an MA in area studies from SOAS, University of London.

David Omojomolo is an Emerging Market Economist at Capital Economics, where he specialises in Sub-Saharan Africa. He joined the firm in July 2023, bringing with him five years of public-sector experience spanning local government, HM Treasury, and the Bank of England. His work focuses on macroeconomic trends, policy dynamics, and risk across African economies. David holds an MSc in Health Economics from the University of York and a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Nottingham.

Razia has over two decades of experience covering emerging and frontier markets. She is a well-known commentator on Africa and the Middle East and provides regular updates to central banks, finance ministries, institutional investors and corporates in the region. Razia currently serves as a trustee of Save the Children UK.She previously served on South Africa’s Presidential Economic Advisory Council (2022-24) and as a trustee of the Royal Africa Society (2012-24). She received the African Banker Icon Award 2024 for her contribution to macroeconomic research, and was named one of the ‘100 most influential Africans’ by New African magazine (2015). Razia holds BSc and MSc (Econ) degrees from the London School of Economics.

Pavel Knecht is Director, Head of Corporate Sales for Network & Inbound Business, Citi’s Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) in the Middle East andAfrica and is based out of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. In this role, Pavel is engaged with Citi’s Corporate Multinational Clients and is responsible for driving end-to- end TTS Sales Management activities across Middle East and Africa.• Pavel joined Citi in 2009 and held various positions in transaction services, relationship and risk management based in Czechia, UK, Russia & USand most recently, he served as the TTS Corporate and Public Sector Sales Head for Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan as well as interimhead for Israel.• Pavel holds master’s degree from Faculty of Economics and Administration, Masaryk University in Czechia and also studied MBA at ChongqingUniverisity in China and BA at University of Victoria in Canada.

Lucy Baldwin is a Managing Director and Global Head of Research at Citi. Lucy is responsible for managing Citi’s global independent research across all asset classes.

Lucy joined Citigroup in April 2021 from Credit Suisse, where she was Global Head of Equity Sales.

Prior to Credit Suisse Lucy was at Bank of America as Head of European Equity Sales (2015-2019), and at Goldman Sachs as a Director of European Equity Research and in a variety of research analyst roles (2006-2015). Lucy started her career at Cazenove as an equity research analyst covering the building materials sector. Lucy graduated from the University of Birmingham in Economics.

Lucy serves as a member of Council for the University of Birmingham and sits on the Investment Sub-committee. Additionally, Lucy is a member of the Advisory Council for the Mossavar-Rahmani Centre for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Saad is the UK Head of Transaction Banking Cash Sales at Standard Chartered, with a team managing a portfolio of complex global Corporate clients, to whom Standard Chartered offer innovative cash management solutions across Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe. He has held Corporate Banking and Transaction Banking roles at Standard Chartered and J.P. Morgan over the last 18 years.

Europe, Middle East and Africa. In this sector role, Steve is focused on supporting clients operating across these industry sectors delivering industry related content and thought leadership. Prior to this role Steve was the Global Cross Border Sales Head, based in London, where he managed a global team covering more than 90 countries responsible for designing and delivering cross currency solutions across all industry sectors including; Public Sector, Corporates and Financial Institutions. Steve has more than 35 years’ experience in the Global Cash Management business, with more than 25 of these spent at Citi. Steve has held a number of other positions throughout his career including, Corporate Cash Management Sales, Relationship Management and Cash Operations. During his career Steve also spent several years with Deutsche Bank based in Paris and London, and with Nat West Bank in the UK.

Simon has over 30 years of experience in finance, treasury and transaction banking across both developed and emerging markets. Simon was previously Chief Customer Officer at ClearBank and lead the client management, product & marketing teams at the UK’s first cloud based infrastructure clearing bank.

Prior to joining ClearBank in 2019, Simon spent over 20 years at JPMorgan. During his time at the bank, he was responsible for treasury solutions in EMEA, supporting clients around the world. He was also Head of Corporate Sales in EMEA from 2012 to 2015 and Asia Regional Executive for Treasury Services from 2006 to 2010, based in Hong Kong.

Simon is actively involved in UK FinTech as a Mentor for TechStars Accelerator programme.

Jyoti has over 25 years of expertise in corporate treasury management, treasury transformation, finance and strategic decision making. Jyoti recently led a multi-year treasury transformation program at Anglo American across both developed and emerging markets covering all aspects of treasury from technology and process transformation to governance, organisation structure and cultural change. Prior to Anglo American, Jyoti consulted and held several senior level positions for global multi corporates across a variety of sectors including financial institutions, mining & metals, publishing, retail and FMCG. Jyoti is an advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion. She is passionate about coaching and mentoring, is actively involved in the community as a trustee and chair of the risk and audit committee for a multi school academy and volunteers for the samaritans.