Samar Baasiri
Head of Compliance Dept
Bankmed, Beirut Lebanon

Responsible for anti money laundering controls, processes and procedures for BankMed Group, including BankMed, Saudi Lebanese Bank, Bankmed for Investment, and Med securities; Responsible for conducting investigation of complex financial transactions, suspicious activities and related enforcement actions; assisting the management in their responsibility for complying with all relevant regulations, including the provision of advice on compliance issues; signing off on new products & services; reporting all material and significant suspicion; working closely with the regulators; overseeing the development and implementation of Bankmed Group AML, CFT and CDD (Customer Due Diligence) initiatives on a risk based approach.

• Member of the Advisory Board of ACAMS (Association of Certified Anti Money Laundering Specialists), since 2006.
• A founding member of the Association of Banks in Lebanon (ABL) Committee.
• A founding member of the Group of Certified Compliance Officers Best Practices Committee for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Souren Hayriyan
CEO
UNIStream

Souren Hayriyan is the CEO for the international money transfer system UNIStream, Moscow-headquartered system, one of the CIS market leaders.

A graduate in economics from the Institute of National Economy of Armenia, Souren started his career in the Ministry of Finance and Economy of Armenia to work later as the first deputy director for the United Stock Exchange in Armenia. He is the founder of the first on-line trading system at the United Stock Exchange. He became the CEO for the UNIStream in 2001. With a great his contribution, the system that started from a scratch, grew into a solid international player, with 5.5 million clients served per annum and operating in 90 countries around the Globe. In 2008, UNIStream’s turnover soared to nearly $5 billion. The system currently controls nearly 30 percent of the CIS actively participating in development of principal world transmittances corridors.

John McRoberts
Director and joint founder
Aurora Russia Limited

John is also a Director and owner of Aurora Investment Advisors which manages Aurora Russia Limited.

Aurora Russia Limited is an AIM listed private equity fund focussing on Russia. It has five investments one of which is Unistream the leading money tranfer company in Russia. John sits on the Board of a number of Aurora Russia’s investments including Unistream, Kreditmart, Flexinvest Bank and Variant Invest (Superstroy).

John has over 12 years experience working in Russia. Prior to setting up Aurora Russia, he was Head of Corporate Finance Advisory at Deloitte & Touche in Moscow. He joined Deloitte in early 2004 to build a corporate finance team to focus on advising mid-sized Russian companies in raising capital, as well as foreign strategic investors in making acquisitions in Russia. In 1998, John set up Apax Partners’ corporate finance operations in Russia (later changing its name to Altium Capital) which provided corporate finance advice to Russian and international clients investing in Russia. He ran the business until late 2003. In his capacity as a corporate financier, John advised over 40 clients on transactions in Russia, completing fundraisings for private equity funds, equity private placements for Russian companies and M&A transactions for both international and Russian clients.

Bernd Waizenhöfer
Director and Head of the Financial Institution Market Product Management - Global Payments Global Transaction Banking - Cash Management
Deutsche Bank

Bernd Waizenhöfer is Director and Product Management Head of the Financial

Institution Market within Cash Management’s Global Payments Group. As part

of the Global Transaction Banking division, Bernd is responsible for the design, development and positioning of clearing solutions which Deutsche Bank offers to its Financial Institution clients worldwide. The products he covers include commercial and treasury payments in euro, USD and multicurrency, as well as solutions for SEPA clearing.

Bernd joined Deutsche Bank in 1985 and is based in Frankfurt.

Jonathan Knaus
Regional Vice President, Eastern Europe and CIS
Western Union

Based in Moscow, Jonathan C. Knaus is Regional Vice President Eastern Europe and CIS for Western Union. In this capacity, Jonathan is responsible for the expansion of the Western Union network and delivering business volume targets across 22 countries of the region with five key Western Union offices in Istanbul, Kiev, Moscow, Tashkent and Zagreb under his supervision. Jonathan develops key strategic initiatives in the area of consumer loyalty and implements key account management strategies in order to meet the needs of Bank Partners and consumers in a highly competitive market.

Jonathan's experience in Finance exceeds 20 years. Prior to his current role, Jonathan spentseven years working for American Express in Moscow, lastly as General Director of American Express International Services, Moscow. In this capacity, Jonathan was responsible for growing the Global Network Services operations across Russia and the 11 F.S.U. republics. Before that, he was Director of New Business Development and Merchant Services Expansion, Russia & CIS and Finance Director, Russia & CIS for American Express in Russia. From 1996 to 1998, he worked as Finance Director for Eastman Kodak, from 1994 to 1996 as Finance Director for Unisys and from 1991 to 1994, as Financial Controller/Finance Director for the Aeromar Joint Venture. All positions were based in Russia.

Jonathan holds aBachelor of Science in Commerce, Accounting and Business Administration from Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. He also holds the following Certificates: Certified Public Accountant, Certified Internal Auditor, Certified Management Accountant, and Certified in Financial Management. Jonathan is a native English speaker and fluent Russian speaker. He is Chairman of the Finance Committee and a Board member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia. He is also a Board Member for Junior Achievement Russia.

Anna Podolskaya
Senior Product Manager
Collections and Information Services, ZAO Citibank

Anna Podolskaya joined Citi Cash Management team in Russia in October 2007 as Senior Cash Product Manager. Anna is responsible for Collections and Information Services products. Anna graduated from Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics and brings over 5 years of Citibanker experience including managerial responsibilities in operations and technology departments.

Kai Thygesen
Senior Relationship Manager
Eurogiro A/S

Kai Thygesen is Senior Relationship Manager within Eurogiro with responsibility for Sales in the CIS region, Americas, Africa and parts of Europe. Main function is maintaining and developing the Eurogiro payments business with one third of the existing and potential Eurogiro customers as well as organising international payments seminars for posts and banks. In recent years Kai has been speaking at external Postal Financial conferences in Tashkent, Minsk, Geneva, Bangkok and Singapore.

Kai worked three years at the Danish Girobank before joining Eurogiro in 2002 and is based in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Elena Gladkaya
Product Manager, Channel Solutions
Visa CEMEA

Elena Gladkaya is Product Manager within the Channel Solutions department for the Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA) region, for Visa Inc. She is responsible for developing and implementing new Visa money transfer products and initiatives with Visa Inc clients – banks and financial institutions – in the 87 countries that make up the region.

Elena has over 15 years of sales, product development and management experience, 10 of which have been gained at Visa Inc, working in diverse areas including Business Development (with responsibility for 14 countries) and Digital Commerce (with responsibility for e-commerce across the CEMEA region). For the last five years, she has worked in Money Transfer as part of a global innovation team, building a service with 28 active programmes in the region.

Elena joined Visa from Ukraine’s Central Faculty for Architectural Design, where she was involved in the development of innovative electronic solutions for the building industry. She holds an MSc in electronic engineering from the University of Kiev.