Nash Subedar Senior Director Moody's Analytics

Nash Subedar leads a team of Relationship Managers focusing on the Europe & Africa regions. Nash’s team is responsible for all commercial arrangements across multiple lines of business, with Moody’s Analytics’ customers.
Prior to his current role, Nash served as a Senior Relationship Manager in the Middle East from 2012 to 2018. Prior to joining Moody’s Analytics, Nash worked at DST Global Solutions in various roles during his fourteen years tenure there. Nash has spearheaded many business development campaigns throughout his professional career, helping open up new markets and increase brand awareness. His pursuit of customer satisfaction has enabled Nash to be the driving force for Moody’s Analytics to launch new products and services with significant commercial success. 

Nash relocated to the UK in 2019 to assume his current role. As a member of the Europe & Africa leadership team, Nash continues to develop our relationship strategy to ensure we are able to assist banks, regulators, corporates, insurance companies and other financial institutions leverage the growing data, software tools and expertise Moody’s Analytics has to offer. Nash holds a bachelors degree in Business Information Technology from Kingston Business School in the UK.

Prof. Brian Kantor Economist, Author and Professor Emeritus at the University of Cape Town Investec

Prof Kantor is an economist and is the former Chief Investment Strategist of Investec Wealth & Investment SA. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Cape Town, where he was the Dean of the Faculty of Commerce and Head of the School of Economics. He is the previous non-executive chairman of Acucap Properties and the founding chairman of the V&A Waterfront. Brian holds a B.Com and a B.A. (Hons), both from UCT.

Rajal Vaidya Chief Risk Officer CIB Absa Group Limited

As Chief Risk Officer CIB, Rajal is responsible for the consolidated Risk profile of the Group for the Corporate & Investment Bank across South Africa, the African continent, and International Operations.

In his role as Chief Risk Officer for Absa Regional Operations, he is responsible for 11 banking operations in 10 countries in Africa covering CIB and Retail & Business Bank.

Rajal’s responsibilities cover Credit Risk, Market Risk, Operational Risk and Treasury Risk for all business areas and segments.

As a member of CIB Exco and ARO Exco, he is accountable for alignment to the Absa Group risk appetite, policies and risk strategy, whilst enabling balanced growth and delivery on the RBB and CIB business strategies. In his capacity as a member of the Absa Group Risk Exco, he plays a leadership role in the development of Risk infrastructure, people and intellectual capital within the Risk organization.

Prior to taking on the CRO role in March 2016, Rajal was the Head of Consumer Banking for Barclays Africa (now Absa Regional Operations) covering 12 countries, in which capacity he led the design and execution of the Consumer Bank strategy, with overall business responsibility for balance sheet and P&L growth, Product development, Credit, Digital Strategy and Channels, and Sales and Distribution.

He has over 29 years of international experience, spanning multiple geographies covering Asia, the Middle East, and Africa in business and risk roles. Prior to joining Barclays and Absa, Rajal worked for 17 years with Citibank, where his last role was as Citigroup Senior Credit Officer and Chief Risk Officer for Citifinancial India.

Rajal has a BA Honours degree in Economics from Delhi University and a Master’s degree in Management Studies from the SPJIMR, Mumbai. He is married to Roopa and they have a daughter Nainika.

Corné Els Head of Financial Institutions GCR Ratings

Corné Els started his Debt Capital Markets career at Eskom Finance Company (SOC) Ltd as a Securitisation Officer. During his tenure he managed the Nqaba Finance 1 (RF) Ltd RMBS Securitisation vehicle from June 2006 to May 2013. He was responsible for the day-to-day management, servicing reporting, accounting, analysis and investor liaisons for the vehicle. Nqaba Finance 1 won the EMEA Finance ‘Best securitisation vehicle of the year’ (February 2012) and The Banker ‘Deals of the Year 2014 – Africa’ (April 2014) for the May 2013 refinance.

In June 2013 he started at Global Credit Ratings as a Structured Finance Analyst responsible for reviewing several structured finance transactions across multiple asset classes in South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Uganda. In March 2021 he transitioned to the Financial Institutions team as a Senior Analyst and was subsequently promoted to the Sector Head of Financial Institutions in 2023.

As Sector Head, Corné is responsible for overseeing the analytical work of a team of eight analysts located in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and Kenya who between them process more than 115 ratings per year.

Antonios Kastanas Senior Director - Banking Moody's

Antonios is a Senior Director in the Banking strategy group focusing on market development for climate and ESG solutions for banks. Previously with the Moody’s EMEA advisory team, he has led engagements on IFRS9 provisioning, portfolio modelling, stress testing and strategic capital and liquidity planning among others.

Prior to joining Moody’s he was helping financial institutions improve and develop their risk and capital management capabilities as part of the Financial Services advisory practice of a Big 4 firm in the UK, after a number of years in credit and analytics leadership roles in banking.

Antonios holds a Masters in Economics and Finance with focus in Econometrics from Warwick Business School.

Alexis Hamar Senior Director - Senior Strategist Moody’s

Alexis is a Director in the Moody’s Portfolio Product Management team. 

With a technical post degree in economics from the University of Panthéon-Assas in Paris, Alexis has 15+ years’ experience in risk management and valuation, having been working in sales, pre-sales, product, project management & strategy roles across various environments (banks, consultancy and software houses).

Prior to his current role at Moody’s, Alexis was leading sales and pre-sales for the French speaking region at Numerix, addressing derivatives pricing, market & counterparty risks as well as Insurance ALM risks solutions spanning both sell and buy side segments. In addition to this responsibility, Alexis also oversaw regulation topics (Basel III, FRTB, EMIR, Solvency 2), working closely with Quantitative Research and Product Management teams in order to foster both development and new generation of the Numerix Solutions. Previously and in particular, Alexis spent 7 years as a Portfolio Management & Valuation Sales Specialist at Moody’s, focusing on the Portfolio IP content across the EMEA Region. Alexis also worked at various consultancy and software companies, implementing and designing risk solutions for several major financial institutions.

Andre Steyn Chief Executive Officer Steyn Capital

Andre Steyn is the CEO and Portfolio Manager of South-Africa based Steyn Capital Management, which he founded in 2008. From 2004 to 2008, Andre? was the CEO of Temujin Fund Management UK, the UK arm of a billion dollar New York based hedge fund. At Temujin, Andre was responsible for all non-US investments comprising a long/short portfolio of approximately USD2 billion.

From 2002 to 2004, Andre was an investment associate at Ziff Brothers Investments, a multi- billion dollar hedge fund. At Ziff Brothers, he performed fundamental research for the purpose of recommending new investments for the firm's capital, and generated significant alpha by shorting companies with poor earnings quality.

Andre began his career at Andersen in 1998, completing his Chartered Accountant articles in Cape Town before transferring to the New York Mergers & Acquisitions practice where he advised companies and private equity funds on acquisitions. Andre? is a Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Steyn Capital has been investing in African markets since 2009, and manages over $700 million in South African long/short, and pan- African and global frontier long only funds. All of these mandates are managed with the same value orientated intensive research focus, and all have outperformed their respective markets since inception, with little to no overlap between each other. The company has a team of 16 with 10 on the investment side and 6 on the operational side.

Alexis Hamar Senior Director - Senior Strategist Moody’s

Alexis is a Director in the Moody’s Portfolio Product Management team. 

With a technical post degree in economics from the University of Panthéon-Assas in Paris, Alexis has 15+ years’ experience in risk management and valuation, having been working in sales, pre-sales, product, project management & strategy roles across various environments (banks, consultancy and software houses).

Prior to his current role at Moody’s, Alexis was leading sales and pre-sales for the French speaking region at Numerix, addressing derivatives pricing, market & counterparty risks as well as Insurance ALM risks solutions spanning both sell and buy side segments. In addition to this responsibility, Alexis also oversaw regulation topics (Basel III, FRTB, EMIR, Solvency 2), working closely with Quantitative Research and Product Management teams in order to foster both development and new generation of the Numerix Solutions. Previously and in particular, Alexis spent 7 years as a Portfolio Management & Valuation Sales Specialist at Moody’s, focusing on the Portfolio IP content across the EMEA Region. Alexis also worked at various consultancy and software companies, implementing and designing risk solutions for several major financial institutions.

Nelson Almeida Director, Solution Specialist Moody's

Nelson Almeida is a director product specialist at Moody’s. Nelson specialises in a diverse number of products, including the Enterprise Risk Management Solutions within the Moody’s suite of products. He is active within a diverse geographic area, covering the larger EMEA region, including developing and developed areas. He joined Moody’s in 2009, coming from a background within large CRM and ERP product implementation roles, including implementation consultant, Implementation team Manager and Principle Consultant. This covered a wide range of organisations from FTSE 100 and Dow Jones listed corporations to smaller local organisations. He holds a B Comm from RAU (South Africa), ACCA course accreditation, and a variety of IT and product qualifications to support his specialities, such Microsoft SQL administration.

Luis Mariottoni Sr Director, Industry Practice Lead Moody's

As a Banking Industry Practice Lead for Europe and Africa, Luis listens to the unique needs of banking customers. Luis believes that a close working relationship is the best way to improve performance and efficiency for Moody’s customers continually.

Luis brings 22 years of expertise in the financial services and technology industries, working with people and systems to solve complex business problems. His professional experience accounts for global, regional, and local roles dealing with IFRS17, IFRS9/CECL, Stress Testing, Supervisory Reporting, Capital Planning and Management, Financial Consolidation, Planning and Budgeting, Activity-Based Costing, Customer Intelligence, Marketing Automation and Optimization

Sophie Mahlogonolo Masipa Chief Executive Officer MwunganoESG

Sophie Masipa is an entrepreneur, marketing and communications specialist and speaker.

Sophie Masipa is the Co-Founder and CEO of MwunganoESG, the first a pan-African ESG specialist consultancy that assists local and international organisations to develop a curated holistic communications approach to ESG, and to have a sustainable, more prosperous and inclusive African economy.

Sophie is Founder of Kgommuu International, an environmental infrastructure development and investment company that aims to bridge the blue economy, circular economy, technology, and inclusive industrialisation.

Sophie also is the Founder of Fikira Consulting, a pan-African consultancy specializing in strategic brand and communications, market-entry as well as philanthropy consulting.

Prior to returning to her entrepreneurial endeavors in 2018, Sophie was the Head of Communications and Media Relations at the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. She has also occupied various brand and marketing positions within Brand South Africa Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive and Nedbank. She has solid experience and track record in areas of marketing, branding and communications.

Sophie is a non-Executive Director of Ocean Hub Africa. She is the Southern and East Africa Associate for the World Ocean Council. She sits on the Advisory Board of Africa Communications Week. She is a member of AfroChampions, the ULTRAMARINE Community, Women in Sustainability, the African Circular Economy Network, Africa 2.0 and the African Leadership Network.

Sophie was named one of the Top 100 Most Influential People of African Descent under 40 in the Diaspora under the Governance and Politics Category. She is a Crans Montana Forum New Leader for Tomorrow

She is passionate about African development.

Stephen Tanton Director – Senior Learning Partner Moody's Analytics

Steve Tanton is a Director, Senior Learning Partner (Credit Specialist) at Moody’s Analytics supporting sales of learning solutions in the EMEA region. 

Prior to joining Moody’s Analytics in 2020, Steve worked for 32 years at two banking institutions in South Africa. Whilst employed full time, he was involved in part-time skills training in South Africa and prior to joining as a full-time employee, was an independent contractor to Moody’s Analytics. 

Steve holds a Master’s degree in business leadership and is an associate of the Chartered Governance Institute (CGI) of Southern Africa

Nelson Almeida Director, Solution Specialist Moody's

Nelson Almeida is a director product specialist at Moody’s. Nelson specialises in a diverse number of products, including the Enterprise Risk Management Solutions within the Moody’s suite of products. He is active within a diverse geographic area, covering the larger EMEA region, including developing and developed areas. He joined Moody’s in 2009, coming from a background within large CRM and ERP product implementation roles, including implementation consultant, Implementation team Manager and Principle Consultant. This covered a wide range of organisations from FTSE 100 and Dow Jones listed corporations to smaller local organisations. He holds a B Comm from RAU (South Africa), ACCA course accreditation, and a variety of IT and product qualifications to support his specialities, such Microsoft SQL administration.