Global Expert Briefings

Fred Dons has worked in trade finance for more than 30 years at various international banks like ABN, AMRO and Deutsche Bank and is currently Head of Structured Trade Finance at Aria Commodities. Fred started in trade finance operations in 1989 with AMRO Bank before moving to Albert de Bary Bankiers Rotterdam in 1991. In 1994, Fred and two colleagues started the International Trade Finance sales department at Deutsche Bank Amsterdam. In 2003, he became Head of Trade Finance Operations for DB Amsterdam but left the bank in 2004 to become Head of the European Document Check Team at ABN AMRO,  before returning to DB in 2006. At DB he served amongst others as Head of Trade Finance as well as Head of Commodity Finance.
During his banking years Fred Dons was a member of the National Committee for the ICC and the Dutch Bankers Association, working on the UCP, UDRG, ISBP and other rules and regulations for Trade Finance.

Dr. Christopher Mckee is recognized internationally as a reliable authority in the field of geopolitical risk and analysis. He received his PhD in international political economy from Queen’s University and has addressed audiences ranging from GE to the G20, from Harvard to Pepperdine, and from Saudi Arabia to Kazakhstan. Chris has lived and worked in over three dozen countries and has been interviewed and cited in such publications as the WSJ, CNBC, Bloomberg, The Financial Times, and The NY Times. His company, the PRS Group, has been the world’s leading quant-driven geopolitical risk forecasting and rating firm, appearing in nearly 1,000 published articles and book chapters. The firm’s clientele includes the world’s largest institutional investors, transnational companies, multilateral agencies (IMF), central banks, and the top universities.