Current Board Members:
Adrian Ashurst is President at Worldbox Business Intelligence, an international provider of business and credit information, with operating units in many countries in the world, across Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa, and the Americas, managing the strategy implementation of the Group worldwide. Adrian Ashurst is also Senior Partner of Graham Associates AG, a Swiss consulting company which provides financial and consulting services to International companies doing business in Switzerland. He was previously Director and Chief Financial Officer with the Intrum Justitia Group based in Switzerland with responsibilities for IT development. He was CEO of Dun & Bradstreet in Switzerland until 1992.
Joachim C. Bartels, Co-founder and BIIA Editor-in- Chief in that capacity he manages BIIA’s Information Resources. Bartels is an information and business development specialist with 50 years of global experience. He spent most of his career in senior management positions at Dun & Bradstreet. He has served as volunteer in major industry associations in Europe and the USA since 1975. Joachim C. Bartels owns and operates Intrepid Explorers, Inc. a information business consultancy.
Markus Bergthaler is founder of MB and Associates, LLC. He has over 14 years of risk, fraud, and payments knowledge and has worked with numerous fortune 500 e-Commerce companies as well as Federal Agencies including the FBI, Interpol and the Secret Service. Markus previously spent a year at Global Data Consortium as VP of Solution Strategy and prior to that, over 6 years as the Global Director of Programs at the Merchant Risk Council. He also lead Risk, Fraud, and Payments departments at Wizards of the Coast, E. Breuninger, and Amazon.
Mark Cochrane is the Managing Director of Business Strategies Group (BSG), a business intelligence and strategy consulting firm which specialises in business media, information and events in Asia. BSG also represents UFI, the global association of the exhibition industry in Asia. Through its consulting practice and its relationship with UFI, BSG works with major exhibition organisers, venues and governments across Asia.Mark has been based in Hong Kong for 13 years and joined BSG in 2006. Prior to BSG, Mark worked in a variety of roles primarily focused on B2B media and market research including three years at Global Sources in marketing roles and three years at The Gartner Group as a senior research analyst.Mark earned an MBA from Thunderbird, the American Graduate School of International Management, in 1997.
Dev Dhiman is the Managing Director of GBG Asia Pacific. In this role, Dev is responsible to expand the business in this region, leading all business operations, building product synergies and augmenting strategic partnerships across APAC.
With over 10 years of experience in collaborating with diverse digital and traditional finance and banking organisations to drive growth, Dev joins from Experian where he was Managing Director, South East Asia & Emerging APAC Markets. In that role, Dev led the go-to-market strategy for Experian’s suite of solutions across identity verification, and fraud and compliance management, and was responsible for end-to-end sales, marketing, and broader operations in APAC. Prior to that, Dev held senior finance positions in Experian spanning both EMEA and APAC remit.
Anand Krishnaswamy, Vice President Product, International. Anand is a Digital P&L executive with a track record of building new businesses, new products, and new markets in Fintech, E-Commerce, Payments and Consumer Web. He conceptualized and launched groundbreaking innovative products that have reshaped companies business always, and produced patents sometimes. Taken several products from concept to successful launch – evaluating new technologies, building high-caliber teams, driving partnerships, focusing on monetization; often with limited budget and resources
William Lim Wah Liang is the Executive Director of Credit Bureau Singapore (CBS). He was part of the team that established CBS and has been managing CBS since the commencement of its operations in 2002. He has led the initiative to establish credit bureaus in Asean and has successfully obtained licenses and/or approval to operate credit bureaus in Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Myanmar and Indonesia. He sits on the board of Credit Bureau Singapore, Dun & Bradstreet Singapore, Dun & Bradstreet Malaysia (D&B), Infocredit Holdings, Credit Bureau Cambodia, Myanmar Credit Bureau and Asia Credit Bureau. William also serves on the Board of Advisors of the Financial Planning Association of Singapore.
Maria Liu is Managing Director, Greater China, North Asia South East Asia to serve on the board of BIIA. Maria is based in Beijing and Maria comes with 25 years’ banking experience, having worked in various leadership roles in banking management and client development, and supporting global financial services firms in various stages of their growth in China. She successfully led front line coverage teams to deliver outstanding business results during her leadership tenures with China’s key financial institutions including Bank of America, ANZ Bank, and HSBC.
Neil Munroe is Principle Consultant of CRS Insights Limited: Neil comes to BIIA with 35 years’ experience in the financial services and credit reporting industries. For 12 years he was responsible for External Affairs and Communications at Equifax, which involved extensive customer, industry body and government liaison, monitoring regulatory and other external affairs that could influence the credit reporting industry in the UK. Neil served as president of ACCIS, the Association of Consumer Credit Information Suppliers from 2009 to 2018. Neil currently serves as General Manager of BIIA.
Vincenzo Resta, is Regional Executive Director, ASIA 1 for CRIF Spa. In this role, he oversees CRIF companies in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Madagascar, Tunisia, Jamaica and Bahamas. He also oversees the international sales units for CRIF products, with a particular focus on credit bureau solutions.
Prior to joining CRIF in 2007, Mr. Resta worked in the field of internationally financed projects in developing countries for over ten years, as head of international programs for reputed consulting firms in Italy and the United States. In this capacity, he became an expert on international bidding and procurement rules.
Mr. Resta holds a Masters degree from SAIS at the Johns Hopkins University, and a Bachelors degree from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service. He has published articles in IR publications and newspapers on Multilateral financing, International development, and anti-corruption, and has provided numerous training sessions on Credit Risk Management, Credit Bureaus, Multilateral Development Banks funding and bidding, and international development marketing strategies.
Ingrid Riehl is a member of BIIA’s Executive Committee and Head of Membership Services / Administration. As an information industry expert she has been supporting BIIA as an ardent volunteer for some time. She comes to BIIA with more than 23 years Global experience in b2b2c data & insight driven business across industries. She has a proven track record in leading cross border and cross functional teams, in managing broad challenger in a wide variety of corporate situations. A catalyst in driving change, innovation and in making “it” happen by inspiring people and energizing them for success with collaborative leadership style.
David Worlock is Chief Research Fellow of OUTSELL INC., a USA and UK based information consultancy and founder member of BIIA. David Worlock has wide experience of print and electronic publishing in educational, academic and professional information fields. He has worked for the major international players in the information content industry, as well as many of the middle-ranking and smaller players across the UK, continental Europe and the USA. David Worlock is active in the information industry association world, serving currently as the Chairman of the UK based Digital Content Forum. He also is an advisor to the European Commission. He was founder and Chairman of EPS Limited, a founder member of BIIA until the company was sold to OUTSELL INC. in 2006. David Worlock served as BIIA chairman from 2007 to 2017
BIIA Expert Advisors
David Emery is CEO and Founder of Reciprocus and a member of BIIA. He was one of the key initiators of BIIA leading to its foundation in 2005. Due to his long-standing commitment to the association David is also a special Advisor to the Board of Directors of BIIA. In this capacity David is assisting the BIIA Board in the selection of Directors and in the strategic direction of the association.
Reciprocus is a Singapore-based global M&A advisory boutique. The word “Reciprocus” is the Latin origin for “Reciprocity” and represents the firm’s commitment to ensuring mutual benefit through cooperation. It is a core principle of Reciprocus and embodies the spirit in which it approaches transactions. Its mission is to advise investors and companies on cross-border growth acceleration throughout Asia Pacific by relying on local expertise and ensuring transparency when executing
BIIA Expert Advisors on Privacy and Regulatory Affairs
Tony Hadley Serves as Chairman of BIIA’s Regulatory Committee. He is Senior Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Policy for Experian. He leads the corporation’s legislative, regulatory and policy programs relating to consumer reporting, consumer finance, direct and digital marketing, e-commerce, financial education and data protection. Hadley leads Experian’s legislative and regulatory efforts with a number of trade groups and alliances, including the American Financial Services Association, the Direct Marketing Association, the Consumer Data Industry Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Hadley is Chairman of the National Business Coalition on E-commerce and Privacy. He can be reached at: tony.hadley@experian.com
Neil Munroe is Principle Consultant of CRS Insights Limited
CRS Insights Limited provides strategic and operational consulting services to all stakeholders involved in credit reporting systems, including data suppliers and users, credit reporting service providers (private credit bureau and public credit registers) and regulator/policy makers.
Neil comes to BIIA with 35 years’ experience in the financial services and credit reporting industries. For 12 years he was responsible for External Affairs and Communications at Equifax, which involved extensive customer, industry body and government liaison, monitoring regulatory and other external affairs that could influence the credit reporting industry in the UK. Neil served as president of ACCIS, the Association of Consumer Credit Information Suppliers from 2019 until 2018. Neil Munroe can be reached at: neilm@crsinsights.com
Peter Sheerin – is a member of BIIA’s Executive Committee
Peter co-ordinates member activities in the Asia Pacific region and he is also a member of BIIA’s global regulatory committee. Peter represents BIIA in APEC / ABAC events being a regular contributor on the subjects of financial inclusion and SME access to finance issues.
Peter comes from the IFC (World Bank Group) were he worked as Credit Bureau and Risk Management Advisor from 2005 to 2014. At IFC he was actively engaged in establishing world class consumer, SME and commercial Credit Bureaus in Egypt, Nigeria, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Ghana, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Haiti, and Pacific Islands. He was also involved in projects concerning the interaction between Secured Transactions Registries and Credit Bureaus.
Prior to joining IFC, his professional experience included working for one of the leading international credit bureau and decision solutions companies, Baycorp Advantage Limited as General Manager – International, and was the senior executive for the company based in New Zealand. As part of that role, he was responsible to oversee the development, delivery and implementation of Baycorp Advantages international deployment of credit bureau in Singapore, Malaysia, Fiji and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Ex Officio Board Members
Nandi Anthony formerly Director and General Manager of CRIB – Credit Information Bureau of Sri Lanka
Ruth P. Stevens was a director of BIIA for 10 years and the Chair of BIIA’s marketing committee. Ruth consults on customer acquisition and retention, specializing in B2B markets. She advises companies on go-to-market strategy, sales lead generation, customer and prospect data, content marketing and ABM. Crain’s BtoB magazine named Ruth one of the 100 Most Influential People in Business Marketing. Ruth also teaches marketing at business schools in the U.S. and abroad. She has taught at Columbia and NYU Stern business schools in New York, and abroad at Hong Kong UST, Singapore Management University, Athens College, San Andres University (Buenos Aires) and Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.
Ruth is a guest blogger at Biznology, Target Marketing Magazine, CustomerThink and Business 2 Community, and a contributing writer at AdAge. Her newest book is B2B Data-Driven Marketing: Sources, Uses, Results. Ruth has held senior marketing positions at Time Warner, Ziff-Davis, and IBM and holds an MBA from Columbia University. Learn more at www.ruthstevens.com.
Mohan Jayaraman was the Regional Managing Director, Decision Analytics and Business Information Services at Experian Singapore. In this role Mohan drove the collaboration across Experian’s Product, Consulting and Analytics business. Mohan was also responsible for Experian Japan’s Decision Analytics and Business Information business. Mohan first joined Experian in 2010 as Chief Operating Officer in India, before assuming the mantle of Managing Director a year later. In the role, he has been instrumental in growing Experian India’s multiple business lines to scale. He has also been an active participant in industry and regulatory forums related to the Credit information and the Analytics space. He was previously the Head — Payment Solutions and Analytics with ICICI Bank Limited, where he managed the debit and credit cards businesses and the enterprise analytics division for the bank. Mohan left Experian in mid 2022.
Gary Friedlander Retired Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel – International for TransUnion. In this role, he was responsible for providing legal and business guidance to all levels of domestic and international management and internal operation units. As a member of the TransUnion International Leadership team, Mr. Friedlander was a subject matter expert in dealing with a wide variety of legislative, regulatory and business issues including data protection and complex global intellectual property and technology transfer agreements.
Surapol Opasatienis currently the CEO of the National Credit Bureau Co., Ltd. (NCB) – the only one credit bureau in Thailand. He has joined NCB since 2008 as an Executive Vice President; and later as a Senior Executive Vice President of the Business and Operations Line before nominated as CEO in 2010.
He is experienced in financial and banking industry for more than twenty years as he was with the Thai Credit Retail Bank, TMB Bank, and other financial-related corporate before joining NCB. Besides taking his management responsibility as the CEO; he is also taking a social responsibility as a guest lecturer and speaker for many well-known institutions and organizations in Thailand regarding the SMEs development, financial-disciplinary and creditworthiness.
Peter Villa is a former member of Executive Board of SCHUFA Holding AG. He joined Schufa in May of 2011. At Schufa he is responsible for operations and international relations. Peter came from Bisnode where he was a member of the executive management team of Bisnode AB in Stockholm. He joined Bisnode Deutschland Holding GmbH in 2000 as managing director of Bisnode Deutschland Holding GmbH and Business Area Director of Product Information in Europe, including companies like Dun & Bradstreet, Wer Liefert Was and Hoppenstedt. In 2009 he became managing director of Bisnode in the German speaking countries. After his graduation from Uppsala University, the Swede Peter Villa started his career in the Bonnier group in 1991.
Satish Pillai is a former President of TransUnion Asia. He has accountability for operations in the Asia Pacific and India regions, the latter of which is TransUnion’s fastest-growing market. Pillai has served as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of TransUnion CIBIL, India’s leading credit information company, since July 2015, where he has helped grow TransUnion CIBIL by 30.4% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) over the last four years. In his new role, he will continue to drive TransUnion’s International strategy across Asia Pacific markets and extend our global solutions to consumers and businesses across the region.
Jane Foo served as BIIA Chairman from 2019 to 2021. Jane is an expert in ethics & compliance, operational risk and audit. Jane looks back on 20 years of experience in compliance, operational risk and audit across a broad spectrum of banking businesses, products and services. Her past affiliations include being a director of compliance at American Express International, Inc., Singapore. Head of compliance – retail and wealth management divisions, ANZ Bank. Head of compliance – retail and wealth management divisions, ABN AMRO Bank. Head, control & compliance, Citibank Singapore Limited. Divisional Head (Vice President), operational risk management & compliance division, UOB Group. Chair of the ABS operational risk management task force; a member of the ABS financial crime task force
Now retired from her professional activities she remains active by making her expertise available as a freelance trainer on MAS regulations and ethics with Salmon Thrust. Jane is a member of the Caritas Board of Trustees, the Caritas Advocacy & Research Committee and a facilitator & moderator at Caritas conferences. BIIA thanks Jane for her dedicated service on behalf of the membership of BIIA and the industry as a whole.
Dan Meder was a vice president of Product Management for Experian’s Business Information Services group. He joined Experian in May 2003. In his current role, Mr. Meder is responsible for the market planning and strategic development of Experian’s business-to-business credit offerings. Prior to joining Experian, he spent 20 years with Dun & Bradstreet in a variety of technical sales and product marketing roles, lastly as Vice President of Credit Solution Services. Dan has recently retired from Experian.
Enrico Lodi, General Manager, CRIF Credit Bureau Services. Enrico Lodi is the General Manager of CRIF Credit Bureau Services at the group headquarters in Bologna, with management over Credit Bureau Services in Italy and worldwide. CRIF is a global company which supports and cre
ates value for financial institutions, businesses and consumers, all over the world with a range of information services and solutions for credit and commercial risk management and for marketing.After graduating in Economics from the University of Bologna, Enrico studied in Milan for a Master in Advertising, and afterwards worked for various advertising agencies. He started working for CRIF in 1994, initially in marketing and sales.Enrico is a world class expert on Credit Bureau, with over ten years of experience in Credit Bureau Projects and Management, in countries such as Italy, Bangladesh, Benin, Czech Republic, Hungary, Jamaica, Morocco, Slovak Republic, Tajikistan and Vietnam.Enrico is currently President of ACCIS, the European Association for Consumer Credit Information Suppliers and holds the position of Director of SCB – Slovak Credit Bureau, Member of the Board of Directors of CCB – Czech Credit Bureau, Member of the Board of Directors of CRIF Beijing Credit Risk Consulting and President of AISReC, the Italian Association for Consumer Credit and Mortgages.
Lawrence Yee is co-founder and Director of Value Creation Center Co. Ltd. in Hong Kong, while serving as advisor to D&B Greater China region since March 2011. Value Creation Center (www.vc2.asia) builds on a new model investing in small and medium sized enterprises in China through strategic management, globalization, technology and funding leading to IPO. Its network of experts and advisors is mostly former senior executives of MNC’s with Asian exposure. Prior to Value Creation Center, he has been Sr. Vice President, Business Development of D&B International since Dec. 2006, after serving as Vice President & Managing Director for D&B Greater China Region for seven years during which its business has undergone successful turnaround and significant growth.
Lawrence Tsong was president of TransUnion’s East Asia operations. In this role, Mr. Tsong was responsible for promoting and growing TransUnion’s credit information and analytic and decisioning business throughout the region. Mr. Tsong holds a Bachelor of Social Science degree from the University of Hong Kong. He retired in July of 2019. We thank Lawrence for his support and service in the interest of our industry.
Mr. Thirachai Phuvanatnaranubala was chairman of BIIA from October 2017 to August 2017.
Mr. Thirachai was Thailand’s Finance Minister in 2011/2. He is currently Chairman of the Audit Committee of Thai Life Insurance Company, one of Thailand’s three life insurers. His opinion is highly respected and widely quoted in public media in Thailand and South East Asia.
He was Advisory Chairman to the Board of Directors, National Credit Bureau Co., Ltd., Thailand’s only consumer credit information provider. He was Secretary General of the Securities Exchange Commission of Thailand between 2003 and 2011 and Chairman of ASEAN Capital Market Forum. He obtained his first degree on Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science, London University, and later became a Fellow of Chartered Accountants after training at Price Waterhouse, London. He started his career at the Bank of Thailand, the country’s central bank. His last position there was Deputy Governor.
As former central banker, former finance minister and an advisory chairman to the board of directors of the National Credit Bureau means that BIIA will gain a competent resource from the user and regulatory side of our industry. We thank Thirachai for his valuable service.
Mike Cutter, BSc (Hons) SF Fin, Executive General Manager, Credit Risk & Advisory Services at Veda Group Limited (now Equifax)
Mike joined Veda in March 2015 with an extensive career in financial services, spanning more than 25 years, both in Australia and abroad. Mike’s roles have included time at National Australia Bank, CRO at ANZ (Australia), CEO at GE Money Australia & New Zealand and CEO of OAMPS Insurance Broking. Mike has knowledge of Comprehensive Credit Reporting from international markets and has been one of the original champions of CCR in the Australian market.
Mike has held numerous directorships and chairmanships with WesFarmers, ANZ and GE. He is a senior fellow of Finsia, served as Director of the Women’s Cancer Foundation from 2006 to 2015 and served as a Director of the Australian Finance Conference until 2009 and National Insurance Brokers Association until 2014.
In Memoriam: Hans P. Belcsak, President of S.J. Rundt & Associates, Inc., headquartered in New York City, a country risk and corporate intelligence consultancy passed away during the last week of February 2018. The credit management and credit information profession has lost one of their prominent experts.
Since 1973 he has been President of S.J. Rundt & Associates, Inc., of which he was the active principal. Dr. Belcsak, was publisher of Rundt’s World Business Intelligence dealing with global political and economic trends, Rundt’s World Risk Analysis Program of country risk assessments, The Financial Executive’s Country Risk Alert, and Rundt’s FXPRO Foreign Exchange Rate Forecasts.
He was a regular contributor of articles to international trade & financial journals and has made contributions on foreign exchange strategies to several books on international finance. He was a member of the International Advisory Council of the American Management Association, a past member of the Board of Directors of the FCIB-NACM Corporation and BIIA – Business Information Industry Association. Hans participated in several of our conferences.
Christine Christian is recognized as one of Australia’s leading authorities on business information & debt management practices. As former CEO of Dun & Bradstreet Australasia Pty Ltd (DBA), Ms Christian has specialised in this rapidly growing industry for over 20 years, both in Australia and overseas. Throughout her career, she has been noted for pioneering numerous groundbreaking services and setting benchmarks for standards within the industry.Today, Ms Christian is one of Australasia’s most respected business commentators. She is frequently quoted in national and international media and is a sought-after keynote speaker at conferences and seminars throughout the region. She holds a BA from the University of Melbourne and is a member of a number of associations both in Australia and internationally. Christine Christian can be reached at: Christinechristian@bigpond.com
Phil Cotter is Managing Director Financial Crime & Reputational Risk at Refinitiv. Until recently he managed his own consulting firm Cotter Consulting Ltd. He is based in the UK.Phil Cotter has extensive general management experience of driving profitable growth through innovation and leading change to adapt to market trends in the information industry. He served as Managing Director of Experian’s UK Credit Services and Business Information and Experian’s global leader of its Business Information line of business with responsibility for defining and executing global strategy. He was a former Director of BIGNET, a consortium of international Business Information providers. Phil was recently nominated to serve on the Board of Directors of BISNODE, a leading European business information supplier.Phil comes with a wide range of expertise in consumer and business information, data integration, analytics, decision systems, workflow, identity verification and fraud prevention. Phil Cotter served as deputy managing director of BIIA and represented BIIA in many external events. BIIA thanks Phil for his dedicated service on behalf of the membership of BIIA and the industry as a whole.
Gareth Jones served on the Board of BIIA until 2015 while being CEO of Dun & Bradstreet Australia and New Zealand. Gareth Jones worked at D&B since 2002 in various executive position in Europe and Australia.
David Knowles – An experienced marketing professional David spent ten years at Creditsafe Group where alongside developing marketing strategies as the company expanded across Europe, the USA and Japan he held responsibility for the external communications and public affairs brief representing Creditsafe on trade bodies and to legislators and regulators. Before joining Creditsafe David gained significant experience of building brands across borders, notably in the international drinks business. A popular presenter and multi-linguist David is a graduate of the University of Wales and lives and works in Cardiff UK.
Dr. Chris Kuehl, Managing Director — Armada Corporate Intelligence Chris Kuehl is the co-founder (with Keith Prather) and Managing Director of Armada Corporate Intelligence, a company created in 1999 to provide strategy foundation, competitive intelligence, business analysis and economic forecasting for corporate clients.Armada’s clients include YRC Worldwide, TranSystems, Spencer Fane Britt and Browne, KPMG, Hallmark International, Weitz Industrial among others.Chris is the editor and primary writer for several publications:
- Business Intelligence Briefs – a daily distributed through Chambers of Commerce throughout the US focused on US economic and business issues
- Strategic Intelligence Briefs – a daily distributed through World Trade Centers and international business organizations focused on global economic and business trends
- Fabrinomics – a bi-weekly industry analysis produced by the Fabricators and Manufacturers Association
- Daily industry analysis and assessment for clients such as TranSystems and YRC Worldwide
Chris is the Chief Economist for Fabricators and Manufacturers Association. This includes writing Fabrinomics and serving as a keynote speaker for their conferences and meetings through the year. He is also Chief Economist of the National Association of Credit Management (NACM). Chris Kuehl can be reached at: ckuehl@armadaci.com
Lu
z María Salamina is Principal Financial Specialist of the International Finance Corporation (IFC World Bank Group). She is based in South Africa. Luz was General Manager of Asociación Panameña de Crédito (APC), the leading credit bureau of Panama. She can be reached at: lsalamina@ifc.org
