Advisory Board

Dr Evgueni Ivantsov has a risk management career stretching over 25 years. He is an author of many publications on risk management including a book Heads or Tails: Financial Disaster, Risk Management and Survival Strategy in the World of Extreme Risk. His articles are regularly published in leading media including the Financial Times and the Banker magazine.

Prior to joining the European Risk Management Council in 2017, Dr Ivantsov held various executive positions at several global banks. His most recent role was Head of Portfolio Management & Strategy at Lloyds Banking Group based in London. Prior to this role, he worked at HSBC as Head of Global Analytics and Head of Portfolio Risk for Europe. Evgueni also was a Member of the Advisory Group on Global Risks and a Member of Cyber Working Group at the World Economic Forum.

Dr Ivantsov was also a visiting Professor of Cass Business School (City University, London), a visiting Professor of International Economics at the Boston University and a visiting Professor of Money, Banking and Credit at the United Business Institutes in Brussels.

Kevin O’Rourke is Group Head of Risk Management at Bank ABC. He is based in Bahrain, and his responsibilities cover all aspects of risk oversight including market, credit, liquidity and operational risks. Previously, Kevin was the Chief Risk Officer of Mizuho Bank EMEA and a Supervisory Board member and Chair of the Risk Committee of Mizuho Bank Europe based in Amsterdam.

Kevin O’Rourke has worked in the industry for over 30 years and has gained experience through a variety of roles, but his primary focus and discipline for the past 20 years has been in the area of risk management. He is a member of the PRMIA London Advisory Committee and a regular contributor and Advisory Board Member of the European Risk Management Council.

Bianca Wallace is US Chief Risk Officer for The Norinchukin Bank, a recognised leader in sustainability and headquartered in Tokyo. She is responsible for the Risk, Regulatory Reporting and Information Security teams. She has over 25 years of risk modelling and banking experience across the risk stripes. Her specialty is the intersection of all things Risk, Culture & Technology.

After studying Engineering and Math/Computer Science at Sydney University, her first real job saw her designing and programming a radar for submarines. Subsequent roles included Consulting, Market Risk, Credit Risk and International Structured Trade in the banking universe. She has been with Norinchukin since 2021 and her previous role was at Westpac Institutional Bank, as the Head of Financial Markets and Treasury Risk for Europe and Americas. She has held senior roles with responsibilities across the Americas, Australia, Asia Pacific, UK and Europe for foreign banks.

Melissa Sexton, CFA is an accomplished Risk Management executive with expertise in market, investment, credit, liquidity, and operational risk management. She has spent over 3 decades working at systemically important banks and asset management companies. She is currently Chief Risk Officer of BNY Wealth Management and BNY Mellon N.A. Bank. Prior to joining BNY, Melissa held senior risk management positions at Morgan Stanley and Bank of America.

Melissa has taught at Columbia University School of Professional Studies and serves as a Member of the Board of Trustees of Math, Engineering, and Science Academy (MESA), a charter school in Brooklyn.

Harry Rogers is  Chief Operations Officer at Bank of China UK. Previously, Harry was the Head of Risk Management of Bank Of China London Branch and Bank Of China (UK) Ltd.  Responsibilities cover all aspects of risk oversight including market, credit, operational and portfolio risk; as well as capital planning. A 30 year career specializing in Risk and Operations has included risk roles across Europe in Greece, France, Belgium and the Netherlands and the UK. After graduating from the University of Exeter he was with Barclays for most of his career, and joined the Eurobank Group before moving to Bank of China.

Chan Kok Seong is Chief Risk Officer of United Overseas Bank, one of the largest banks of South East Asia with the headquarters in Singapore. Mr Chan joined UOB Group in 1998 and currently is the Head of Group Credit and Risk Management. Prior to his appointment in Singapore in September 2012, Mr Chan was the CEO of UOB (Malaysia) from 2003 to 2012.

He holds a Bachelor of Accounting from the University of Malaya, Malaysia and is a member of The Malaysian Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He has over 30 years of experience in banking. Prior to joining UOB Group, Mr Chan spent 3 years working in a merchant bank, after serving the Central Bank of Malaysia for 9 years.

Silvia Pavoni is the Editor-in-Chief of The Banker magazine, the Financial Times Group. Silvia joined the FT Group in 2005 and has been on assignment in over two dozen countries, including as economics editor for The Banker. Most recently, she was the founding editor of Sustainable Views, a service by FT Specialist providing readers with insight into how environmental, social and governance principles are reshaping capital, and into the emerging sets of policy and regulations driving this change.

Her work was awarded with an honorary fellowship at City University of London in 2019 and with the appointment to the London council of not-for-profit WILL, Women in Leadership in Latin America in 2014. One of her high-profile interviews was with Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, who serves as UN General-Secretary’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance. She holds an MSc and a BSc in economics and finance from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.

Gino Abbruzzi is Group Chief Credit Officer at DBS, Singapore’s largest bank. He joined DBS in 2017 and oversees all the credit functions in both the institutional and consumer businesses across all markets. Gino has over 23 years of international banking and risk management experience with strong functional competence across credit risk, market risk, operational risk and governance frameworks.

Prior to joining DBS, he was with ANZ Hong Kong as Chief Risk Officer of Hong Kong and North East Asia. He also served as Group Chief Risk Officer at Mediobanca, one of the largest Italian banks. Previously Gino covered various risk and business roles in ABN AMRO, RBS and Paribas in Tokyo, London, Amsterdam and Hong Kong. Gino has a Master Degree in Economics from Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo.