Awards Event

Bobby Thomas is a seasoned Risk Management Professional with nearly 2 decades of extensive experience primarily in the insurance industry specialising in Risk Management, Internal Process Controls and Analytics.

He has primarily been with the Prudential Group in India (ICICI Prudential) where he was Vice President – Operational Risk before moving to Prudential Assurance Company Singapore as the Head of Risk Analytics and then moving as an Innovation Lead. In his current role, he is the Head of Governance and Analytics, Strategic Partnerships, Regional Technology with Prudential Corporation Asia. His passion lies in Risk mitigation and control using Technology and Analytics. In his last role in Innovation, he worked on solutions with various Fintech partners across the globe to identify best in class solutions.
By way of education, Bobby is an :

• MBA
• PG in Enterprise Management
• PG in Cyber Laws
• PG in Intellectual Property Rights
• ILPSE – INSEAD Leadership Program for Senior Executives
• CISA – Certified Information Systems Auditor

Bobby is also an ICICI Group Leadership Award winner and a subject matter expert in areas of Risk Management where he shares his knowledge on the subject with various external bodies as well

Julia is an Adjunct Professor at the NYU Stern School of Business, CEO of Data4Real, LLC, a Board Advisor to several startups and Chair of Technology Advisory Council of Women Leaders in Data and AI (WLDA). 

She is a recognized thought leader in data driven digital transformation with over 25 years of experience in building technology and business capabilities that enable business growth, innovation, and agility. Julia has led transformational initiatives in many financial services companies such as Voya Financial, Deutsche Bank Citi, FINRA, Freddie Mac, and others. 

Julia is a much sought-after speaker and mentor in the industry, and she has received recognition across the industry for her significant contributions. She has been named to engatica 2023 list of World’s Top 200 Business and Technology Innovators; received 2022 WLDA Changemaker in AI award; has been named to CDO Magazine’s List of Global Data Power Women three years in the row; named Top 150 Business Transformation Leader by Constellation Research in 2019; and recognized as the Best Data Management Practitioner by A-Team Data Management Insight in 2017.

She holds a Master of Arts in Economics from New York University.   

Maninder is a Chief Control Officer and Non-Financial Risk & Compliance Expert, leading the creation and implementation of commercially-aligned risk frameworks and associated systems and controls in global Financial Services.

Most recently she has been Chief Control Officer at Barclays UK. Her earlier career includes Finance Chief Control Officer at HSBC UK; and roles at Standard Chartered in Singapore as Executive Director – Operational Risk, Corporate Function and Head of Operational Risk Governance, Framework & Regulation.

Leveraging her deep enterprise risk leadership experience, she designs and innovates solutions to risk & compliance issues, including on conduct, climate risk and risk & control remediation. This includes leading the remediation of SOX related deficiencies at HSBC, identifying several duplicate and missing controls to create a sustainable, commercial control framework.

Maninder has a strong track record in distilling complex risk frameworks and regulations into easily accessible visuals to enhance stakeholder communications while nurturing credible relationships up to Board-level to build the bridge between risk / compliance and the wider organisation.

Additionally, she connects and clearly communicates the relationship between disparate risk, compliance and control data to drive compelling dialogue with Boards, NEDs and Heads of Business.

Minor Huffman is a technology leader with extensive executive management experience in capital markets with a focus on electronic trading, risk management, and fund management platforms.  Minor has a proven track record designing and developing new software products that increase revenue, improve efficiency and reduce operational risk in the financial services industry.  

Most recently, Minor served at the Chief Technology Officer at Instinet, where he was responsible for driving technology innovation, operating the firm's trading platforms, and managing the technology organization globally.  Prior to this, Minor served as a Managing Director at Citco Group where he led the development and application support teams for their fund services division.  

He was previous Global Head of Rates Technology at Credit Suisse and the Chief Technology Officer at FXall.  Minor holds an MBA in Finance and International Business from NYU Stern School of Business and a BS in Computer Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Olga Baldwin is a VP, Vendor Management at Axiom Bank with over 13 years of experience in third party risk management. Currently she is responsible for the third-party risk management program development, improvements, and implementation to ensure a proper oversight of the bank third parties is conducted in accordance with regulatory requirements including selection, risk assessment, due diligence, ongoing monitoring, and terminations. Prior to this role, Olga held a position of a Director, Vendor Risk Management at Sterling National Bank overseeing Vendor Risk Management Program.

Olga holds an MBA in Finance and International Business Development from Zicklin School of Business as well as BA in Economics from CUNY, Hunter College

Paddy Christie is a Governance, Risk and Control subject matter expert and leads Lloyds Banking Group’s Non-Financial Risk Technology strategy. Paddy has 12 years financial services experience leading teams across Business Transformation, Conduct Risk, Operations, and Investment Management. He has a proven track record of delivering complex risk management programmes and recently led the implementation of the company’s operational risk system. Paddy is driven to simplify and modernise non-financial risk by championing the use of data and technology. In his spare time, he enjoys outdoor pursuits and is an accomplished musician.  

Over 20 years of banking experience focused on managing credit and other banking risks in challenging markets.

Joined Banque BEMO in 1999, Lebanon’s most reputed corporate and private bank with a presence in Lebanon, Cyprus, Luxembourg, and Paris. Was a member of the group in charge of establishing the first private bank in Syria in a joint venture between Banque BEMO and Banque Saudi Fransi which is affiliated with Crédit Agricole. Nominated in 2006 as Chief Credit and Risk Officer for the new Syrian bank which expanded quickly to become Syria’s largest private bank. Managed successfully credit and all banking risks in times of expansion and during the crisis.

Joined the Lebanese Cedrus Banking Group in 2015 as Group Chief Credit and Risk Officer and helped in the consolidation and enhancement of credit and risk management activities of 2 banks, Cedrus Bank (commercial and retail banking) and Cedrus Invest Bank (private and investment banking) while escorting the expansion of the Group inside Lebanon in a challenging environment.

Recently, joined Afghanistan International Bank.