Alfonso Garcia Mora is IFC’s Vice President for Asia and Pacific. In this capacity, Mr. Garcia Mora is responsible for all IFC operations in the region, including operationalizing IFC’s COVID-19 crisis response, building a strong Upstream pipeline rooted in country strategies and fostering more collaboration opportunities with a range of key stakeholders for broader impact. Previously, Mr. Garcia Mora was the Global Director for the Finance Competitiveness and Innovation Global Practice at the World Bank Group. 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. Before his World Bank Group 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.
Ana Maria Aviles is a senior financial-sector economist at the World Bank. She has more than 25 years of experience working in financial-sector policy, macroeconomics, sovereign risk, development financing, development financial institutions, and central bank operations. Prior to her current position, Ana Maria was an advisor to the Managing Director and CFO of the World Bank Group for five years. During her tenure at the World Bank, she also worked as a Country Economist in the Latin American Region and as a Sovereign Risk Analyst for the Credit Risk Department covering countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. Before joining the World Bank, she worked for a number of financial institutions including the Inter-American Development Bank (Washington, DC), the London Stock Exchange (London), and Citibank (Sao Paulo). She is a Colombian national and holds a master’s degree in international affairs from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a master’s degree in economics from the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia.
Cecile Thioro Niang, a dual Senegalese and French national, is the Practice Manager for East Asia and Pacific, covering Pacific Islands, Indonesia/Timor and Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia for the Finance, Competitiveness & Innovation Global Practice at the World Bank Group. Sincejoiningthe Bank in 2004,she has held various positions working on long term infrastructure finance, climate finance, financial inclusion; firm capabilities and innovation; markets and technology; investment and competition, telecoms and digital development, with her most recent assignment being Lead Economist in the LAC Finance Competitiveness and Innovation team.
Dato’ Charon Wardini Mokhzani joined Malaysian Industrial Development Finance Berhad (MIDF) as its Group Managing Director in July 2018. Prior to this he was the Founder Managing Director of the Khazanah Research Institute as well as an Executive Director of Khazanah Nasional Berhad. He was the Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Corporate and Investment Banking, CIMB Group and the Managing Partner of Zaid Ibrahim & Co. before that. Charon read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Balliol College, University of Oxford and Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is a Chartered Banker and a Fellow of the Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers, and a non-practising barrister of the Middle Temple and advocate and solicitor of the High Court of Malaya.
Syed Zaid Albar is the Executive Chairman of the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC). Prior to his appointment as the SC Chairman on 1 November 2018, he was the Managing Partner of Albar & Partners. Currently, Syed Zaid chairs the Capital Market Development Fund (CMDF) and is a member of the Board of the Financial Reporting Foundation. He represents the SC as the Asia Pacific representative on the governing Board of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), the global body of capital market regulators. Syed Zaid has a degree in law from the United Kingdom. He is a Barrister at Law of the Lincoln’s Inn, UK and an Advocate and Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya. He has over 38 years’ experience in legal practice predominantly in the fields of corporate law, capital market, conventional banking and Islamic finance.
Fiona Stewart, Lead Financial Sector Specialist, is part of the Long-term Finance Team in the World Bank's Finance, Competitiveness & Innovation Global Practice. Fiona provides policy advice on pension and insurance market reform to governments around the world, and is currently working on projects in East and Southern Africa, Indonesia and Georgia. Previously, she worked for the OECD’s Financial Affairs Division for eight years and led the Secretariat of the International Organisation of Pension Supervisors (IOPS). Prior to working at the OECD, Fiona worked in the pension fund industry. As head of American Express Asset Management in Japan she was responsible for investing $2bn in Asian equity markets, and, as part of an international team, for managing $20bn globally. She holds degrees from Oxford and Johns Hopkins Universities and a Chartered Financial Analyst qualification. She also served on the advisory board of one of the OECD’s own pension funds.
Kamarudin Hashim, Executive Director, Market and Corporate Supervision (MCS) is responsible for the supervision of market institutions and operators, and the surveillance of corporate and secondary market activities. MCS also drives market risk management and surveillance for the SC. Kamarudin Hashim has been with the SC since 1993 and has experience in various areas including derivatives, bonds, fund management, Islamic capital markets and supervision. He had previously also served as Secretary to the Commission and was seconded to Citibank Bhd where he was involved in bonds and sukuk transactions while supporting the regional Islamic finance business of the bank. Prior to joining the SC, he was with Bank Negara Malaysia after obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Law from the University of Kent, United Kingdom.
Noritaka Akamatsu retired from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in September 2018 and has been an independent financial policy advisor since then. He was formerly Deputy Head of Office of Regional Economic Integration (OREI) and Senior Advisor of Economic Research & Regional Cooperation. He first joined ADB in March 2009 under the External Service from the World Bank where he was a staff member since 1993, and formally moved from the World Bank to ADB in 2013. At ADB, he served as Chair of Financial Sector Community of Practice and guided ADB-wide financial sector operations. Concurrently, he led a team supporting financial cooperation and integration of ASEAN, ASEAN+3 and APEC, and served as Co-Chair of the Steering Committee for Capacity Building of ASEAN Central Banks.
Siew Suet Ming has more than 20 years of rating experience, covering various industries as well as corporate under restructuring. She is also the original architect behind RAM’s default and rating transition studies – the first in the region to be published. During her time at RAM Consultancy, she also covered projects relating to risk management and bond-market development. With nearly 15 years of experience in rating structured transactions, Suet Ming has a wealth of experience in evaluating new asset classes, including Sukuk ratings – many of which were the ‘firsts’ of its kind globally and in the region. In her career, she has commented regularly on securitisation issues and is a regular conference speaker on Sukuk ratings. Suet Ming holds a Bachelor’s degree in Banking and Finance, as well as a Masters in International Economics, Banking and Finance from the University of Wales, Cardiff.
Swee Ee Ang is a Senior Financial Sector Specialist at the World Bank, specialized in long-term financing for infrastructure and capital markets with the World Bank Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation (FCI) Global Practice Long Term Finance Division. She has over 4 years of experience in the World Bank providing technical assistance and advisory in financial sector programs that are focused on mobilization of long-term local currency solutions through capital markets for infrastructure, as well domestic capital-market development. Her program and experience in the bank extends across various countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa Region, South East Asia and South Asia. Prior to the World Bank, she spent 9 years as a credit analyst in RAM Ratings, a credit-rating agency domiciled in Malaysia and the largest in amongst (Association of Southeast Asian Nations – ASEAN) countries – covering project and infrastructure finance and asset backed securitization (ABS) transactions. In 2011, Swee Ee joined BNP Paribas Malaysia Berhad as the ‘Head of Credit Analysts’ but returned to RAM Ratings to head the Business Development team in 2013, focusing on the Malaysian and ASEAN bond market development.
