Global SME Finance Forum

QAMAR SALEEM heads SME Finance Forum, managed by IFC at World Bank Group, working to expand access to finance and services for small and medium businesses globally thus steering economic growth and job creation. Prior to this role, Qamar Saleem was heading IFC’s Financial Institutions Group Advisory Services business for Asia and Pacific leading a large team across 20+ countries aimed at providing integrated client solutions across SME, Gender, Climate, Digital, Housing, Trade, Capital Markets, and Supply Chain Finance. Qamar has been with IFC since 2012 and served in his previous roles as global technical lead for SME and Supply Chain Finance.

Qamar has overall 30+ years of global financial services experience having supported clients across 80+ countries internationally, managing large business lines while leading multi-cultural and cross-functional teams. He is a recognized thought leader, featured speaker, and an industry mentor with several publications and thought pieces to his credit. Prior to IFC, for a period of two decades, Qamar was associated in leadership roles with international organizations like HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank as well as large regional banks in MENA while serving in several emerging markets where he also led SME Banking, Transaction Banking, and Commercial Banking Divisions.

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.

Jane leads the Global Product and Engineering team serving the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) segments at Mastercard. Her team drives innovation, strategy and product development, building on Mastercard’s strengths in card products and multi-rail payments as well as extensive data, cyber, software and network assets.

Small and medium businesses account for 90% of businesses and more than 50% of employment worldwide, and contribute more than half of GDP in most markets. Hence Mastercard views supporting the growth and resilience of SMEs as a critical means to achieve broad-based and equitable growth across markets worldwide.

Jane’s team develops high-value, easy-to-use products that meet SMEs’ key needs across a range of financial and operational areas. In her role at Mastercard Jane leverages her deep expertise in lending to the SME sector as well as in data products, developed through 20 years of financial services leadership experience.

Business Administrator, CEO, and Co-founder of Celero, with over 10 years of experience in the financial sector. Through Celero, responsible for the first BFM in Latin America, works on developing banking solutions for the portfolio of SMEs of Financial Institutions, standing out in Brazilian Open Finance as the best banking customization solution for SMEs.

Marcela Pinori is Executive Director of Commercial Solutions at Visa do Brazil. She is responsible for expanding Visa's role in B2B payments through the creation and monetization of new solutions for SMEs, Large and Medium-sized companies. With over 20 years of experience in the payments market, she began her journey at Visa in 2013 as a B2B Product Manager and for the past six years, she has been responsible for relationships with major Brazilian private clients. Previously, she held positions at BankBoston, Itaú, and Alelo in the areas of Sales, Product Management, New Business, and Partnerships.

Marcela holds a degree in Economics from Mackenzie University, a postgraduate degree in Marketing from Insper-SP, she is a Startup Mentor, and an Innovation Advisor for Gonew.

Patrick Reily is an elite mathematician, an economist and a 30+ year FI veteran building and maximizing the potential of loan portfolios. He is an early AI pioneer in financial services, whose work to predict macroeconomic expansion & contraction is being used by the US Federal Reserve today.

Over his career, Pat has held several senior level positions within a number of the world's largest financial institutions and has advised the US Government & World Bank on matters related to credit lending, as well as being a thought leader for global organization driving economic health.

Since the late 1980's, Pat has led the use of unstructured & alternative data for predictive modeling in applications for underwriting, utilization, retention, optimization, offer management, cross-selling, customer service & fraud prevention.

Pat is one of the rare recipients of The Malcolm Baldrige National Award, which recognizes U.S. business performance excellence. The Baldrige Award is the only formal recognition of performance excellence given by the President of the United States.

Sandy is the founder of C2FO and serves as Chairman of the board and CEO. In addition, he is Chairman of the board of The Collectors Fund, a private equity fund focused on alternative asset classes. Prior to founding The Collectors Fund and C2FO, Sandy founded Perfect Commerce (fka eScout.com) and served as the company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer from 2000-2006. Prior to founding Perfect Commerce, he served as Chairman of the board and CEO of UMB Bank and CEO of UMB Financial, a NASDAQ-traded financial services company with more than $40 billion in assets.

Sandy began his career with UMB after graduating from Northwestern University. Sandy is an active angel and venture investor and serves on the corporate boards of UMB Financial (NASDAQ:UMBF), UMB Bank and Dwolla Inc. He previously served on the board of NIC (NASDAQ:EGOV), AXA Art Americas (NYSE: AXA), and Cboe Global Markets Inc. (Cboe) and BATS Exchange, two of the largest stock exchanges in the world. Sandy and his family are active in academic, civic and philanthropic endeavors. He serves on the board of the Agriculture Future of America (AFA), a nonprofit scholarship and leadership development organization that he co-founded.

Alexa Foglia joined Banco Atlantida in December 2016 as the Regional Vice President of Corporate Bank of the Northern Region. Recently she was appointed as SME VP. She has a banking career of over 30 years.

She is currently an active member of the Rotary Club San Pedro Sula, member of the Board of Directors of the Centro Cultural Sampedrano, Honduras Digital Challenge, Puertos Maritimos de Honduras, and serves as an Advisor of Cortes Chamber of Commerce and the Honduran Association of Financial Institutions - North Chapter. She is also a member of AMCHAM´s Gender Equality Committee and a mentor of Cipotes, a young professional’s organization.

Alexa has volunteered in Operation Smile, Vital Voices, TEDx (SanPedroSula, SanPedroSulaWomen) and Women do Tech.

Alexa holds a Bachelor´s degree in Management and International Business from Florida International University.

Since 2015, Alexandre Magnani leads PagBank, a complete digital bank in financial services and payments solution and one of the largest digital banks in Brazil. Magnani initially managed the acquiring division of the company, later becoming the COO, and currently serves as PagBank´s CEO. Before that, for more than 15 years, Magnani led MasterCard's initiatives with retailers and fintech’s and had relevant contributions to the companies RedeCard and CrediCard. Magnani has a degree in administration from FGV-SP and an MBA from the same institution.

Alfonso Garcia Mora is IFC’s Vice President for Europe, Latin America & Caribbean in the World Bank Group (WBG).

In this capacity, Mr. Garcia Mora is responsible for all IFC operations, advisory and investments in the two Regions covering all sectors (Financial Institutions, Infrastructure, Manufacturing Advisory and Services, Disruptive Technologies and Funds and PPP), building a strong program for private sector investments, and fostering collaborative opportunities with key stakeholders to maximize impact. He also serves as Chair of the Sustainable Banking and Finance Network (SBFN).

Previously, Mr. Garcia Mora was IFC Vice President for Asia and Pacific, and before he was the Global Director for the Finance Competitiveness and Innovation Global Practice at the World Bank. He led the World Bank’s work on financial stability and integrity; financial infrastructure, inclusion and access; long-term finance and capital markets; and crisis and disaster risk finance across all regions.

Since joining the WBG in January 2013, Mr. Garcia Mora has led different regional responsibilities as Manager and Director in Latin America, Middle East and North Africa, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, advising governments, supervisors and regulators on projects related to financial-sector development, access to finance, banking crises, capital markets and financial regulation. Mr. Garcia Mora managed the Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP), leading several assessments, and represented the WBG in different committees of the Financial Stability Board and other standard-setting bodies.

Before his WBG career, Mr. Garcia Mora worked in the private sector for over 12 years, including as Partner-Managing Director at Analistas Financieros Internacionales Consulting Group.

Mr. Garcia Mora holds a PhD in Economics from Universidad Autonoma de Madrid and served as a visiting PhD student at Boston University. He also holds a Master of Finance from the Catholic University of Leuven. Mr. Garcia Mora has lectured and published extensively on banking and financial- sector issues.

Aria is the Chief Risk and Sustainability Officer (CRSO) of Amartha group. Started as a financial technology start-up, Amartha focuses its mission on providing affordable and flexible financial services and for women micro-entrepreneurs living in rural areas in Indonesia. As of early 2024, Amartha has disbursed more than US$1.4 billion (Rp. 23 trillion) in working capital to more than 2.5 million women borrowers in 55,000+ villages across Indonesia.

Aria is also the Advocate for Women Empowerment at G20 EMPOWER, representing the private sectors of Indonesia at G20.

Before joining Amartha, Aria worked as a banker in Jakarta for the Japanese MUFG Bank and Citibank NA. Aria received the YSEALI Fellowship award from President Obama in June 2015 for his contribution to promoting public-private partnerships, particularly in rural finance sector innovation, financial inclusion, and women's empowerment.

In 2017 he received the International Alumni Impact Award from the U.S. State Department and the Frontier Innovators Award from the Australian Government (DFAT) for his contribution to the development of a framework to accelerate poverty alleviation initiatives.

Aria holds a Bachelor's degree from Gadjah Mada University, a Master's degree in Sustainable Development from SOAS University of London, and is a Ph.D. candidate in international and rural development at the University of Reading, United Kingdom.

Chioma Kema OGWO is the Head of Emerging Businesses at Access Bank PLC. She is responsible for the development, deployment, and management of innovative, cost effective and value-adding solutions targeted at helping Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) grow their businesses. Although she works out of the Head office in Lagos, Nigeria she also oversees the deployment and development of Emerging Businesses teams in Access Banks 12 subsidiary African countries. In addition to this Chioma is responsible for building and maintaining strategic partnerships required for creating non-banking opportunities for these MSMEs.

Chioma has over Eighteen years’ experience in the Financial Services sector, spanning critical business functions such as Business Development and Sales, Product Development, Internal control and Compliance, Customer Service Quality and Relationship Management.

Prior to joining Access Bank, she worked in Bond Bank and Diamond Bank PLC.

Chioma strongly believes that MSMEs are the lifeblood of every economy and are imperative for job creation. She is passionate about working with them, especially women-led businesses and Youth entrepreneurs. She has facilitated several programs for women and young people on access to finance and non-financial services such as the Cheri Blair Foundation’s Road to Growth Program, in partnership with the Enterprise Development Center (EDC) and the African Women Entrepreneurship Cooperative (AWEC).

She is a lawyer by training. When she is not working, she enjoys spending time with family, reading, solving puzzles such as Sudoku and working with charities such as Max Care Nigeria (involved in the treatment of Leukemia).

Shanker Ramamurthy is the Global Managing Partner Banking & Financial Markets in IBM Consulting. He leads a consulting practice with revenues in excess of $4.0 billion and with a particular focus on bank transformation, core banking & payments.

Over the last 25 years as a consultant and business executive he has worked in all the six continents across forty plus countries in the intersection of strategy, information technology, and financial services. He is a well known thought leader with five patents relating to addressing complexity, has authored several white papers, and been ranked as one of the 50 most influential financial services consultants worldwide by Euromoney magazine.

Shanker currently serves on the Board of Directors of BIAN.org (Banking Industry Architecture Network), a global standards organization developing industry standards for banking services.

Shanker has a MS in Information Science from the University of New South Wales in Australia, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad and a BS in Mathematics from the University of Madras. He also qualified as a Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.