Governing Council

Sopnendu Mohanty

Sopnendu Mohanty, currently the Chief Fintech Officer at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, is responsible for creating development strategies, public infrastructure, and policies around technology-driven innovation. Mohanty has over two decades of public and private sector experience in technology, operations, digital Finance, and investment strategies. 
Mohanty extensively engages with global technology and financial services ecosystems and has championed notable collaborative public goods like API Exchange (APIX), Singapore Fintech Festival, 
Payment Rails, Data exchange platforms, and experimental programs like Project Ubin. In addition, Mohanty advises many international global advisory bodies on Fintech, Innovation and Inclusion. 
Within five years of his leadership, Singapore has become a leading global Fintech hub producing unicorns and home to many vibrant fintech companies.
He has co-authored several patented works in the application of digital technology in Finance and won many industry recognitions.
First name
Sopnendu
Last name
Mohanty
Photo
Sopnendu Mohanty 0
Position
Chief Fintech Officer, MAS & Group Head - Fintech and Innovation Group
Team role
Governing Council

Syed Abdul Momen

Mr. Syed Abdul Momen took over as the Head of SME Banking on July 13, 2017.
Syed Abdul Momen joined BRAC Bank in August 2005. He has 13 years of multifaceted experience in the Banking Sector primarily concentrating in Technology, Operations and Business Functions.
During the first 2 years in BRAC Bank, he restructured technology infrastructure and played a crucial role in the Core Banking Platform migration. In August 2007, Momen was posted in BRAC Afghanistan Bank as Chief Operating Officer (COO) on a 2 year secondment. During his tenure in Afghanistan, he looked after the bank's SME Business & expanded bank's network in three provinces. He has also contributed in the development of SME Banking Policies & Guidelines of Central Bank of Afghanistan.
After his return from Afghanistan in 2009, he joined BRAC Bank's SME Division and ran a special collection project, which was portfolio's prime concern. After successfully driving the countrywide collection initiative, he was appointed as the Head of Small Business in July 2010 and since then he is leading the industry's largest small business portfolio. His team was awarded Chairman's Excellence Award in 2012 for extraordinary business achievement.
Mr. Momen started his career in ANZ Grindlays Bank in 1999 where he played an instrumental role in the migration of Core Banking Platform in Middle East & South Asia region including Bangladesh, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, Nepal, Sri Lanka after the acquisition of Grindlays Bank's operation by Standard Chartered Bank. He was also instrumental in Standard Chartered Bank's IT service delivery & business process centralization Project.
Mr. Momen is a Computer Communications Graduate from Middlesex University, UK with distinction. During his 13 years of banking career, he attended numerous seminars, trainings and workshops in and out of country.
First name
Syed Abdul
Last name
Momen
Photo
144449 151
Position
Deputy Managing Director & Head of SME, BRAC Bank Limited
Team role
Governing Council

Sameer Vakil

Sameer Vakil has worked in Banking, Payments, Consumer Goods industry in leadership roles in multiple geographies (India, Japan & USA in a global role) for 20+ years, before starting his own venture - GlobalLinker.com.
In his earlier roles, Sameer worked as President & Regional Director Citi Cards Japan & MD Global Direct Banking, Citibank New York; President MasterCard, South Asia; Founding CEO GE Capital JV with State Bank of India; Regional Head Consumer Banking HSBC & National Sales & Marketing Head HSBC Cards.
Sameer Vakil, Cofounder & Chief Executive Officer of GlobalLinker is a strong believer & practitioner of the 'Partnership Growth Model' and of digitally delivered customer centric solutions.
GlobalLinker is a unique SME networking portal that invites financial organizations & banks to offer co-branded versions of their platform to assist their SME customers in growing their businesses and accordingly becoming an integral part of their ecosystems.  In a short span, GlobalLinker has been launched in 3 countries, and the partners include 4 financial institutions, the Government of India, & significant trade bodies.
First name
Sameer
Last name
Vakil
Photo
Sameer Vakil
Position
CEO, GlobalLinker
Team role
Governing Council

Rachel Freeman

Rachel Freeman is Executive Director and Chief Growth Officer of Tyme Global.  Tyme Global is both the technology and solutions firm powering Tyme Bank, the first digital bank in South Africa with now 2.3 million customers.   Rachel Freeman is an experienced and internationally recognized financial expert, particularly in the areas of financial inclusion and innovative financial technologies.   Before joining Tyme, Ms. Freeman served as the IFC Financial Institutions Advisory Manager for Asia since 2014. In her role, she led IFC’s advisory program for existing and potential investee clients for value enhancement and development impact, to achieve IFC's goals in financial inclusion and climate change mitigation. In her role, Rachel was one of the founders of AFIN and the APIX Platform. Since 2001 she had several senior positions at IFC in Central Asia, Africa and Asia.  Prior to joining IFC, Rachel was involved in several entrepreneurial ventures in the US and Russia  She holds an MBA from the University of Michigan Business School and a degree in International Politics and Economics/Russian from Middlebury College. She also attended Executive Education at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

First name
Rachel
Last name
Freeman
Photo
Tyme RachelFreeman 0136R scaled e1587980872768 560x560
Position
Chief Growth Officer, Tyme
Team role
Governing Council

Ayodele Olojede

Ayo Olojede is the Division Head for Retail BankingWema Bank Plc. and she was the Group Head of Emerging Businesses at Access Bank until August 2023. She has been responsible for the strategy formulation to deliver the bottom-line factor of the division. Ayo has over 20 years operational banking experience in Africa and North America at HSBC and Skye Bank (now Polaris) prior to joining Access Bank. She is very passionate about the sustainable growth of MSMEs and possesses strong knowledge and hands on experience of best practices in SME banking, value propositions and risk management approaches to expand financial access to SMEs and women led businesses. Her work has achieved recognition for “best in class” SME specific credit assessment methodology both locally and internationally to expand lending to “new to Borrowing” SMEs. She is a member of the bank’s Digital Council which has overall responsibility for the bank’s digital strategy, approved partnership with fintech companies and monitoring the implementation of digital initiatives.  She is a university scholar, a Fellow Chartered Accountant and holds an MBA degree from Kellogg School of Management, Evanston. She speaks globally on SME Finance and Business services. 
First name
Ayodele
Last name
Olojede
Photo
Ayodele
Position
Division Head for Retail Banking, Wema Bank Plc.
Team role
Governing Council

Nadia Sood

Nadia Sood has more than 20 years of emerging markets debt and equity investment experience. Through her career she has successfully executed and managed complex investments ranging in size from several million $USD to several billion involving a range of investors and financiers such as IFC, Citibank, ICICI, IDFC, ADB, the largest of which was theestablishment of an USD 8 billion JV with Tata Power in India. Nadia has founded and built a number of successful businesses including Impact Investment Partners LLP. In 2018 Nadia was admitted into the Young Presidents Organisation, and in 2019 received a runners-up award at Techpreneurs Women in Tech Awards. Nadia holds a BSFS from Georgetown University and a MIA from Columbia University.

First name
Nadia
Last name
Sood
Photo
Nadia Sood
Position
CEO, Creditenable
Team role
Governing Council

Rajeev Chalisgaonkar

Rajeev Chalisgaonkar is the Group Head of Business Banking for Mashreq Bank, and he also heads Mashreq’s highly successful SME focused digital neobank, NeoBiz. He was previously Global Head of Business Banking at Standard Chartered Bank. Rajeev has more than 29 years of experience in Corporate, Commercial and Retail Banking across diverse geographies including Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and India. In his previous assignment, Rajeev was Head of Corporate Banking with Barclays Bank India and before that led the SME and Business Banking for Barclays Emerging Markets across 14 countries in Asia, Middle East and Africa. Prior to joining Barclays, Rajeev worked for Citibank and Export-Import Bank of India holding leadership positions in Central Europe and India. Rajeev completed his MBA at IIM Calcutta. His academic achievements also include a Bachelor of Engineering (Metallurgical Engineering) from Malaviya National Institute of Technology, India.
First name
Rajeev
Last name
Chalisgaonkar
Photo
Rajeev Chalisgaonkar
Position
Head of Business Banking, Mashreq Bank
Team role
Governing Council

Magda Bianco

Magda Bianco is Head of the Bank of Italy Consumer Protection and Financial Education Department since June 2020. She is responsible for banking conduct supervision, complaints management, the banking ombudsman, financial education programs. She holds a PhD in Economics from the LSE. At the Bank of Italy since 1989, she worked in the Research Department until 1999. She then moved to the Law and Economics Unit, which she headed since 2007. Since 2014 she had been responsible for the Consumer Protection and Anti-Money Laundering Directorate. She has published articles on corporate governance, corporate finance, bankruptcy, economics of civil justice, regulatory matters and gender issues. She served as economic advisor to the Italian Minister of Justice in 2012-2013. She is consultant for economic and financial matters for the President of the Republic. She is a member of the Financial Consumer Protection Network (FinCoNet), the OECD International Network for Financial Education, the Italian Committee for financial education. She is Co-Chair for the G20-Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion for the years 2021-23. Married, with a daughter and a son, she has coordinated the Bank of Italy’s Equal Opportunity Committee for the years 2014-2020.
First name
Magda
Last name
Bianco
Photo
Magda Bianco Banca d Italia
Position
CO-CHAIR AT GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR FINANCIAL INCLUSION (G20)
Team role
Governing Council

Homam Hashem

Mr. Homam Bin Abdulaziz Hashem, Director General of The Small and Medium Enterprises Financing Guarantee Program by Kafalah.
Mr. Homam has earned a Bachelor of Information Systems from King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals in 1990 AD. He worked at several Saudi banks and financing companies for 24 years, and attended many advanced training courses in the field of finance, risk mitigation and financial consultancy. He also served as an international consultant for Visa International, and representative of the Middle East and North Africa region.
Mr. Homam held many leading positions in the field of finance, until he joined the Kafalah program in 2017.​
​The small and medium enterprises (SME) sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia receives great attention and care by the government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and His Highness the trustworthy Crown Prince, may God protect them, and we see that clearly in providing all means of success, growth and prosperity for small and medium enterprises (SME) and in supporting all hardware and software pertaining to them.
The Small and Medium Enterprises Financing Guarantee Program by Kafalah is one of the national programs specialized in serving the SME sector in the Kingdom. We are happy to serve, through this program, this generous country and participate in increasing the percentage of SME's contribution to the Growth Domestic Product (GDP) from 20% to 35% according to Saudi Vision 2030.
First name
Homam
Last name
Hashem
Photo
Homam Hashem
Position
CEO, Kafalah
Team role
Governing Council

Anna Zelentsova

Anna Zelentsova is Head of the project consultancy group assigned by Russia’s Ministry of Finance to implement the National Financial Literacy and Financial Education Project being run in partnership with the World Bank. Dr. Zelentsova is also a Member of the OECD-INFE Advisory Council, and since 2012, has represented Russia as Co-Chair of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion. She was previously Head of the Russian branch of the Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) and co-chaired the Coordination Committee on Financial Literacy, a platform organized with the support of the Ministry of Finance and the Federal Parliament to advocate public policy, share best practices and coordinate activities on financial literacy among key stakeholders.

Dr. Zelentsova has about 20 years’ experience managing and participating in international and national projects and holds a number of awards from Russian and international organizations. She has written or co-authored over 30 publications, including the recent Overview on the International Experience and Russian Practice in Financial Literacy (2012).

Dr. Zelentsova has an honours degree in Social Studies and a PhD in Education. She also completed a course in Public Policy and Economics at the Moscow School of Political Studies and participated in the Global Leadership Program at Stanford University. She has been accredited by the UK’s Overseas Development Institute, as well as by the IBLF, as a broker of multi-sector partnerships for sustainable development.

First name
Anna
Last name
Zelentsova
Photo
Anna Zelentsova
Position
Co-chair at Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (G20)
Team role
Governing Council
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