FX Series Speakers

Ray Attrill is Head of FX Strategy within the Markets division of National Australia Bank. In this role, he advises the bank’s dealing rooms and institutional and corporate clients on developments in global foreign exchange markets. Ray has 30 years’ experience as an economist and market strategist, obtained in roles working in London, Sydney and the United States. Prior to joining NAB in 2012, he held a similar role at BNP Paribas, based in New York. He holds both Master and Bachelor of Science degrees in economics from the London School of Economics.

Tim Baker is Head of Australia/NZ Macro Research at Deutsche Bank, and is the G10 FX Strategist in the Asia-Pac region, with a focus on the Australian, NZ and Japanese currencies. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank in 2007, Tim worked as an economist at the Reserve Bank of Australia, providing analysis of developments in global macro, wages and inflation, and various industries. Before entering the RBA's graduate program, Tim completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree, with first-class honours in economics.

Kate Birchall is Head of Asia Pacific for LCH Ltd. In her role, she is responsible for LCH’s business in the region, including the CCP’s existing OTC derivatives clearing operations in Sydney and Tokyo. 

Prior to joining LCH in October 2018, Kate was Head of Portfolio Optimisation and Collateral at National Australia Bank. She has also held senior roles in Structuring, Portfolio Management and Credit Research in Australia and London. 

Kate holds an EMBA from the London Business School and a BA in Mathematics from the University of Queensland.

Paul Bloxham is HSBC’s Chief Economist for Australia, New Zealand and Global Commodities and is a Managing Director. He is chief spokesperson for HSBC on forecasts and trends for the Australian and New Zealand economies and their interaction with global financial markets and international economies. Paul is also a key spokesperson on HSBC’s unique view on global commodity markets and works closely with HSBC’s global equities team. He is also a member of the Australian National University's Shadow Reserve Bank Board and is an Adjunct Professor at Curtin University. In 2017, Paul’s team won Focus Economics awards for best overall forecaster for each of Australia and New Zealand. Prior to joining HSBC in 2010, Paul Bloxham spent 12 years as an economist within the Reserve Bank of Australia's Economic Analysis Department. Paul holds a Master's degree in public financial policy from the London School of Economics.

Charu Chanana is the Deputy Head of Asia Research at Continuum Economics, where her purview includes macroeconomic analysis for the emerging Asian countries, as well as analysing and monitoring the impact of domestic and external macroeconomic shocks to the region.

Charu has been highly ranked in Bloomberg’s forecasting polls for her coverage, and is regularly consulted by the media for views on markets and economies. She is widely quoted in press articles and has appeared on CNBC, Bloomberg TV, Channel News Asia as well as the Nikkei.

Mr KC Lam joined SGX in October 2013. He has overall responsibility for the FX and Interest rates derivatives business in SGX. He is responsible for rolling out successful and innovative listed FX and Rates products, driving product adoption globally, diversifying SGX’s customer base and expanding SGX’s platform as an integrated OTC FX and Futures offering

Mr Lam joined SGX from CME Group, where he was Executive Director heading the FX / OTC Business Line Management in Asia. Prior to CME Group, Mr Lam was Head of Sales for EBS Asia (ICAP E-Broking, now known as NEX group), where he led the firm’s new and existing product sales efforts throughout the Asia Pacific.

In SGX, Mr.Lam is the Board Observer for Cobalt DLT and a Board of Director for FXPA (Founders’ Council Member) since Feb 2014.

Mr Lam also previously held regional leadership positions with Siebel Systems and Commerce One, as well as consulting roles with Oracle Corporation and Booz-Allen & Hamilton.

Mr Lam holds a Bachelor of Engineering from the National University of Singapore and an MBA degree.

Sumaiya Choudhury is the head of In-Business Risk for the Prime Brokerage business at SCB. She has 17 years of global banking experience, specializing in market and credit risk in Fixed Income and Commodities markets. At SCB, she led Market & Traded Credit Risk function for the global commodities and house clearing business. Prior to SCB, she ran market risk for Credit Suisse’s commodities trading desk in London and the FICC market risk team in Bear Stearns in New York. She has extensive experience in portfolio, market and credit risk management, having managed own desk and client portfolios during the Global Financial Crisis. Sumaiya is based in Singapore.

A Barrister and ABC journalist before his election to the NSW Parliament, Peter Collins served for 22 years in senior roles including Minister for Health, Attorney General and Treasurer of NSW during his seven years in the Greiner/Fahey Government, and a further six years as Deputy Leader and Leader of the Opposition, before leaving the Parliament in 2003.

Peter has been a Director of Industry SuperFund HOSTPLUS since 2006. He is also a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (FAIST); Chairman of the Sydney Financial Forum; and founder of Barton Deakin Government Relations which he established in 2009. Other appointments have included, Board member of the Workers Compensation Insurance Fund Investment Board of NSW (2005 to 2012); Chair of St. John Ambulance NSW (2007 to 2013); and Chair of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2004 to 2011).

The NSW Government has appointed him Chairman of Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District; and to the Board of the INVICTUS Games 2018.

Jason has 20 years of experience providing investment and economic research and advisory at investment banking and asset management firms. He also has broad, multi-asset class experience across foreign exchange, equities and fixed income. Before joining SG, Jason was research manager at Mercer after working at Exelion Capital Management as Chief Economist in Singapore. Prior to moving to Singapore, Jason was chief investment officer - asset management & FX advisory at Royal Oak Capital Management. He previously worked at Merrill Lynch as a senior FX strategist and at Goldman Sachs as an FX strategist and economist. Jason started his career as an economic research analyst at The Central Bank of Canada

Divya covers Asia FX strategy, based in Singapore. He provides views on the latest developments in FX markets, and recommends trade ideas and hedging strategies for institutional and corporate clients. He is quoted regularly in the media on financial-market developments. Divya has often been ranked among the most accurate forecasters for EM Asia FX by Bloomberg. Prior to his current role, he was a G10 FX strategist for the Bank. He joined Standard Chartered Bank in 2010. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in computer science from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, and an MBA from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. He is a CFA charterholder.

Colin joined Eastspring Investments, the Asian asset management business of Prudential plc, as Chief Investment Officer, in January 2018.

Colin was responsible for the Multi Asset Solutions (MAS) team and had the overall responsibility for the investment process, philosophy, portfolio strategy and team management of MAS products for third party clients.

Prior to joining Eastspring Investments, Colin served as Chief Investment Officer, Multi-Asset Solutions at BNP Paribas Investment Partners in London.  Previously, he was Managing Director, Co-Head of Global Multi Asset Strategies, Multi Asset Client Solutions at BlackRock and a portfolio manager at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (formerly Mercury Asset Management). In all, Colin has over 24 years of investment experience.

Colin holds a BSc (hons) degree from Brunel University, London, UK. He is a CFA Charterholder and CAIA Charterholder.

Bill Goodbody, Jr. is the Chief Operating Officer and advisor to the Board of AE Capital. Bill is responsible for Risk & Compliance, Investor Relations and all day-to-day operations of the business. 

Bill has 25 years of experience in the financial services industry and joined AE Capital in November 2017.

Prior to joining AE Capital, Bill was Senior Vice President & Head of Foreign Exchange at Bats Global Markets, Inc. in New York. Bill joined Bats in March 2015 as part of its acquisition of the Hotspot FX business from KCG Holdings, a business that Bill led since 2008. Before Hotspot, Bill spent more than 15 years in senior leadership roles within the Equities businesses of KCG Holdings, Knight Capital Group and Jefferies & Company.

Bill was a founding member and Secretary of the Foreign Exchange Professionals Association (FXPA), an organisation which represents the interests of FX industry participants. Bill has also previously served as a director on the boards of NSX Holdings, Inc., and the National Stock Exchange, Inc., an electronic stock exchange in the United States.

Bill has a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Georgetown University.

Challenger Limited is an ASX-listed investment management firm managing around $81 billion in assets, focussed on providing customers with financial security for retirement. Prior to joining Challenger, Carla was Senior Policy Manager for Investment and Global Markets at the Financial Services Council. Carla has previously worked as a ministerial advisor to the NSW state government, at Henry Davis York law firm, and in various product development and corporate strategy roles across the financial services sector. Carla is a practicing solicitor and holds a Masters of Law (Hons) and Juris Doctor from the University of Technology Sydney, an Executive MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management, a Bachelor of Applied Psychology from the University of Canberra, and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Dr Alex Joiner is the Chief Economist at IFM Investors and also sits on its Investment Committee. He is responsible for the firm’s economic, financial market, policy and geopolitical analysis and forecasting that underpin its investment and portfolio management processes. He represents IFM with domestic and global clients as well as with governments, central banks, financial institutions and corporates. He has over 15 years professional experience and prior to joining IFM Investors, Alex was the Chief Economist (Australian & New Zealand) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, a senior economist at ANZ Bank and an economist at the Victorian Department of Treasury. He holds a First Class honours degree in Economics and a PhD in Econometrics from Monash University. Alex is a committee member of Australian Business Economists and sits on the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment Macroeconomic Risks Advisory Group.

Christopher Kent is the Assistant Governor (Financial Markets) at the Reserve Bank of Australia, a position he has held since December 2016. In this role, he is responsible for the oversight of the Bank's operations in the domestic and global financial markets, including the management of Australia's foreign reserves. He briefs the Reserve Bank Board on developments in financial markets at the monthly Board meetings and participates as the Bank's representative on the BIS Markets Committee and the BIS Committee on Global Financial Stability.

Prior to this, Christopher was the Assistant Governor (Economic) for five years and as such was the chief economic advisor to the Governor and the Board. Christopher has also worked as Head of Payments Policy Department and earlier as Head of Economic Research Department and he spent two years with the International Monetary Fund working on the Italian desk.

Based out of Singapore, Mitul Kotecha was a TD Securities Senior Emerging Markets Strategist with a wealth of experience. His career as a strategist and economist extends over 25 years and across offices in London, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Prior to joining TD Securities, Mitul held the position of Head of FX and Rates Strategy for Asia-Pacific at Barclays, and prior to that, served as Head of Global FX Strategy and Head of Asia Research at Credit Agricole CIB.

Mitul has developed strong client relationships across the region focusing on Asian macro strategy and global emerging markets. His coverage of financial products spans bonds, interest rates, equities, and foreign exchange. Mitul has been highly ranked in various FX research and forecasting polls including FX Week, Bloomberg, Reuters, and Asiamoney.

He is a frequent speaker at various economic and financial global conferences, is regularly consulted by the media for views on markets and economies, has given a TEDX talk, and authored the book “Chronology Of A Crisis.” Mitul has appeared on business channels such as CNBC and Bloomberg TV and is regularly quoted in the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, Associated Press, and Dow Jones.

Mitul holds a Masters of Science Degree in Economics and Finance from the University of Warwick and an Honours Degree in Economics.

Rick Lakhiani manages the implementation of the major regulatory reform initiatives in Asia Pacific region for Citi's Markets and Securities Services business. This includes the regional implementation of Dodd-Frank, EMIR, MiFID2 and derivative regulatory reforms being implemented in individual Asian jurisdictions. Mr. Lakhiani has spent nearly 15 years at Citigroup and has over 20 years capital markets experience. He has worked in variety of roles in functions across the bank that has included Sales, Business Management, Financial Control & Compliance. Mr. Lakhiani holds a MA in Law from Oxford and was admitted to NY Bar in 2005.

After completing a degree in Computer Science and International Management at Sydney's University of Technology I joined UBS as a graduate developer building Fixed Income pricing, trading and risk management applications.

In 2001 I spent a year in London with the global Securities electronic trading technology team then returned to Sydney to build out the offering in Sydney, Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong and China along with expansion into derivatives and eventually algorithmic.

In my current role I am responsible for Fixed Income technology for the region and globally for our market making, pricing and execution platform in Rates and Credit.

Justin is an investment manager within the fixed income and currency team at Sunsuper. Justin joined Sunsuper in October 2013 and has over 11 years of industry experience. Prior to joining the firm, Justin worked at Legal & General Investment Management (London), J.P. Morgan (Sydney) and State Street (Sydney). Justin holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) at Macquarie University, Masters of Financial Analysis at the University of New South Wales, is a CFA Charterholder, Certified FRM and Chartered Alternative Investments Analyst.

Currently an Executive Director, Global Markets at the Commonwealth Bank, and also a Director and Member of the Investment Committee.

Previous roles at State Street Global Advisors, AMP Capital, BT Australia and the Reserve Bank of Australia.

As CIO at Avant Mutual Group, John has primary responsibility for managing Avant’s investments. Leading the investment team in delivering an investment strategy, including portfolio construction, manager selection and asset allocation activities.

Prior to joining Avant, John spent over 10 years working for ING Investment Management and later ANZ Wealth responsible for managing teams that provided asset allocation and currency management active overlay expertise, portfolio execution, dealing across products and services within Australia, New Zealand and Asia.

John has been in the investment industry since 1999 and his previous experience includes working with Bank of Ireland Asset Management (Dublin), where he led teams and held various positions in portfolio management and execution with specialist responsibility for active currency management.

Wilson is a Director for BNY Mellon Markets where he is a FX Strategist Sales, Asia Pacific, joined BNY Mellon in mid-2017. Based in HK, he has hybrid responsibilities between FX strategist and FX sales roles in the APAC FX Sales & Trading team. His FX strategist role covers global macro events, views and ideas, with primary focus on G10 and Asian markets. His FX sales role focuses on institutional client sector, spanning across hedge funds, real-money asset managers, and sovereign entities.

With over 20 years international banking and financial markets experience, Wilson has held various dealing and sales positions including senior macro sales of World Markets at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce building its institutional FX & Rates business in Hong Kong. Wilson also served as FX & Rates sales of FICC at Morgan Stanley Hong Kong covering institutional and prime brokerage clients sectors. Prior to that, Wilson had also worked as MM and STIRT dealer at the Treasury Desk in Morgan Stanley Hong Kong. He started his finance career as an institutional banking Management Trainee at Citibank Hong Kong.

Wilson holds an Honors Bachelor of Mathematics degree from University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

Tony Morriss is a Director and Head of AUD/NZD Economics and Rates Strategy. He is responsible for the forecasting and generation of analysis covering the economy and direction of interest rates and represents the bank’s views in the financial media.

He joined BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research in July 2014. He was previously Global Head of Interest Rate Research at ANZ. Prior to that, he was Senior Economist at New South Wales Treasury Corporation; Market Strategist at Bankers Trust Australia and Managing Analyst Asia for Thomson Financial.

He has a Master’s Degree in Government from The College of William & Mary (US) and a BA in Economics & Politics from Exeter University (UK).

Bruce joined Insight in February 2015 as Director, Australia and New Zealand to lead Insight’s business in Australasia. Prior to Insight, Bruce was a Managing Director at BNY Mellon and has held Director positions at Macquarie Funds Management, Deutsche Asset Management and Deutsche Life where he chaired the investment committee. He is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Bruce’s career has spanned the armed services, credit analysis, audit, product development and distribution. He holds a BSc and MCom from the University of New South Wales, a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from MGSM and is a CAIA charter holder.

Kia Oboudiyat is a Vice President and responsible for FX Client Servicing and Sales.

Kia is responsible for promoting Northern Trust's FX product to institutional clients within the APAC region. His role includes maintaining existing and developing new FX relationships, targeting growth of both custody and third party flow. Other responsibilities include marketing the Bank's e-commerce strategy and maintaining a consistent customer calling programme. 

Kia joined Northern Trust in Chicago in 2014 and relocated to Sydney in 2016. Kia has over 10 years’ experience across Capital Markets, FX and Investment Operations.

Prior to joining Northern Trust, Kia worked in Sydney, New York and Miami for Macquarie Group, holding various product & business development positions in the institutional brokerage, equity arbitrage and credit trading businesses with a focus on Emerging Markets & FX.

Kia holds a Bachelors degree in Finance together with a Bachelors of Law from Macquarie University.

Gaayathri Periasami is a compliance manager for wealth investment products at the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited. She works in a highly dynamic environment with daily responsibilities including managing and monitoring the compliance framework for superannuation, assisting the business unit with its compliance obligations, and assessment of operational risk events.  She is also admitted to practice law in Victoria and has held several diverse roles including a stint in politics where she was a legal research adviser for the Hon Senator Bridget McKenzie and a media adviser for Dr Sharman Stone, the former member for Murray. Gaayathri is very passionate about female empowerment and serving the communities she works with, especially in terms of securing financial and economic independence for women. She also has a special interest in projects and programmes affecting regional and rural communities and affairs.

A seasoned financial markets professional who has lead Trading, Treasury and Sales businesses globally and regionally encompassing Interest Rate Derivatives, Foreign Exchange, Fixed Income, Money Markets and Funding & Liquidity. Diverse background in Market Making, Portfolio Management, Proprietary Trading and Risk Management.

Currently hired to lead a start-up business for BOQ, as the Head of Financial Markets & Trade Finance. Previous mandates included Head of Financial Markets (APAC) at Lloyds Bank plc and Global Head of Swaps Trading at NAB.

Catherine Rich works within the Fixed Income, Currency and Commodity team (FICC) team, based in Sydney. In her current role, Cath is responsible for the Foreign Exchange sales business and serves a diverse client base of domestic and international asset managers, superannuation funds, corporations and commercial banks. 

Cath joined Goldman Sachs in Sydney in 2013 from Deutsche Bank where she worked across FX sales in Sydney and Singapore. Cath began her career as a graduate at Commonwealth Bank of Australia and has also lived and worked in London & New York.

Paul is the Head eFX, he is responsible for maximising trading across all electronic FX products, including spot, forwards, non-deliverable forwards and client algo offerings.

Paul has over 25 years’ experience in Financial markets, which includes being a Senior FX Trader for National Australia bank, before moving to Kaiser Trading as Head of Trading and establishing their execution trading team.

In 2007 Paul moved to Singapore to join Dresdner, where he spent 10 years, initially as Head of eFX Trading for Asia. As part of the Commerzbank merger, Paul was then promoted and spent the next 8 years as Global the Head of Spot Foreign Exchange and e-Trading.

Prior to Paul joining ANZ, he was a financial market and e-trading consultant, and an advisory board member at Spark Systems in Singapore for almost two years. Paul holds an MBA from the Australia Graduate School of Management (AGSM) 2005.

Saktiandi is Head, FX Research & Strategy, in Global Markets, Maybank Singapore, covering G3 and regional currencies. Prior to joining Maybank, he was Senior Treasury Economist in United Overseas Bank (UOB) Group, covering global markets, specializing in the G3 (United States, Japan and Eurozone) economies.

From 1999 to 2009, he was a Lead Economist in the Economic Policy Department of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), where his portfolios comprised coverage of Singapore’s financial stability, macroeconometric modelling, foreign exchange markets and Singapore dollar exchange rate policy.

He was a board director of SPRING (Singapore), a statutory board responsible for helping Singapore enterprises grow as well as a member of the CPF Advisory panel.  He was also a member of the steering committee on the Future Economy chaired by the Minister for Finance, to review Singapore's future economic strategies.

He currently sits in the following three government parliamentary committees - finance & trade industry, culture, community & youth as well as national development. 

He holds postgraduate and undergraduate degrees in Economics and Finance from the University of Cambridge, National University of Singapore and University of Melbourne, Australia respectively. 

Keeve is the Head of Futures and FX for OCBC Securities. He looks after more than 30 staff over the two departments, where he oversees the growth and development of the cleared Futures and OTC FX businesses.

Prior to joining OCBC, he was most recently the Director of Sales at UOB Bullion and Futures, looking after the Business Development of listed derivatives and OTC clearing for UOB Global Markets. Keeve was before that, a trader in proprietary trading firms, heading market making desks and algorithmic trading desks. His buy-side experience coupled with his current role in the sell-side, gives him a wholesome view of the industry and its developments.

Keeve is married and has a daughter. He holds a BSc with honours from the Nanyang Technological University and graduated with an MBA on the Dean's List from the Singapore Management University.

Leo Tay is Managing Director and Head of FX, Rates, and Derivatives Trading in ING Bank NV, based in Singapore. He manages a diverse and inclusive trading team across Asia, and is also responsible for eTrading and digital asset initiatives. In a broader capacity he is the Lead of Sustainability FM Products, championing the integration of ESG principles into financial market offerings. Leo holds an MSc In Financial Mathematics from the Technische Universitat Kaiserslautern, Germany and BS/BA from the Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines.

Magdalene Tay is the APAC Custody Product Manager for Asset Servicing based in Singapore. In her current role, Magdalene is responsible for core custody related product development and key market initiatives in the region. Magdalene is a specialist on the China market and is currently developing a China access roadmap for BNY Mellon clients.

Magdalene has over 18 years of experience in the Asset Servicing and Transaction Banking space. Prior to joining BNY Mellon, she was with the Bank of America Merrill Lynch for 6 years and was responsible for procuring banking services for Global Market and Treasury Services. She also worked in Deutsche Bank as the Head for Network Management for Asia Pacific Region.

Magdalene has extensive custody and cash knowledge and has worked closely with Global Custodians, Broker/Dealers and Private Banks. She also has a good rapport with the network of sub-custodians and cash providers, across the globe.

Magdalene is a frequent speaker at industry and client events. As a thought leader in the custody space, she has been actively involved in regional industry discussions and contributed to research papers and consultation papers initiated by regulatory bodies.

Rory Winston is a Director at Commerzbank AG working on eFX liquidity management, automated trading algorithms, analytics and TCA. He has experience in financial markets, telecommunications, and technology start-ups spanning Europe, Australia and Asia. He has a Masters in Finance from London Business School and a Masters in Applied Computing and Physics from the National University of Ireland, Galway.

Brittany Wigmore joined State Street Global Markets in 2007 as part of their leadership development programme in Boston, gaining exposure to strategy, business development and securities trading before relocating to Munich for a rotation in structured products. After completing the programme, Brittany accepted a full time position in global account development in London. In this role, she led a project to develop a more strategic approach to client profiling and segmentation analysis. In 2009, Brittany moved into the London foreign exchange Sales team, where she focused on the institutional client base, before accepting her current role with the Sydney foreign exchange sales team in 2014. Brittany received her bachelor of science in business administration from Babson College.