Roy Weinberger, is widely recognized as a pioneer in the practice of credit research. His expertise has been forged over the past 40 years by some of the watershed events and developments in the history of fixed income. During his career Mr. Weinberger has worked for two international rating organizations. As Managing Director – Corporate Ratings with Standard & Poor's Corporation, he conceived and implemented the now common practices of "CreditWatch" and "Credit Outlooks," prepared the first guide to rating agency practices ever published, and developed the first platform for electronically delivering ratings and analyses. Mr. Weinberger was Director - International Business Development at Thomson Financial BankWatch. In that role, he participated in the formation and development of new rating agencies to support capital market development in Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe. In recent years Mr. Weinberger has served as an independent consultant and advisor on credit risk evaluation to institutional and private investors. He has developed a number of proprietary research methods to better serve clients needs, including "Default Risk Rankings" and "Event Risk Vulnerability Rankings".
Mahesh Kotecha, president and founder of the firm Structured Credit International Corp., a company specialized in structure finance and international ratings. He took Decorate studies in finance in New York University, has a Master's Degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) School of Business. During his ten years of stay at Standard & Poor's, where he held the post of Senior Vice-President, he was a pioneer in loan portfolio securitization ratings. He has a wide experience in rating government agencies. He advised the Inter-American Development Bank (I.A.D.B.) in creating guarantee programs, better known as Credit Enhancement.
Philippe Delhaise, Bachelor in Engineering, Philosophy and Economics earned at the University of Louvain (Belgium), Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Chicago. He served in the Beirut and the Teheran offices of Generale Bank, Belgium's largest bank, now Fortis. He moved to Singapore as General Manager of the bank's branch. He established a group of companies servicing the finance industry in Hong Kong and Singapore. Among these companies was Capital Information Services Ltd, whose rating business division was purchased in 1994 by Thomson BankWatch, then the world's largest bank credit rating company. As President of the BankWatch's Asia Division between 1994 and 1999, Mr. Delhaise was responsible for all ratings and research coverage of financial institutions across the Asia-Pacific. He is an expert on bank, banking systems and sovereign risk in emerging markets, in particular in Asian countries.
Sharon Ryan, Ms. Ryan is a former investment banker and ratings analyst with broad experience in debt and equity financings for US and non-US (particularly emerging markets) clients. She worked in the investment banking divisions of HSBC/James Capel Inc and Shearson Lehman Brothers on asset securitization and other capital markets transactions involving equipment leases, consumer and corporate receivables. She developed a pre-export financing vehicle for a Latin American supra-national financial institution to issue in excess of $200 Million of commercial paper into the US Money markets. In addition, she developed a financing vehicle to enable a Mexican manufacturer of auto parts to securitize future revenues arising out of supply contracts with US customers through the issuance of $ 100 Million of triple-A rated debt. Ms. Ryan's experience includes Capital Re Management Corporation, a financial guarantee company, where she developed underwriting guidelines for reinsurance of securitized transactions, Standard & Poor's, where she developed criteria for rating asset backed securities and other structured financings, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York where she was a bank analyst specializing in the analysis of the non-banking operations of money center bank holding companies. Ms. Ryan holds an MBA from Pace University, an MA in social sciences from Columbia University and BS in social psychology from Cornell University.
Santiago Gutiérrez Viaña, Bachelor in Economy from Universidad Javeriana, PhD at University of Minnesota. He served as vice-president of Banking Association, planning vice-president of Instituto de Fomento Industrial (IFI) and economic editor of El Espectador newspaper. Currently he is economic editor of Dinero magazine.
Gülnur Ücok, Now the General Manager and a member of the Executive Board of Turkrating, Gulnur Ucok has pursued her professional carreer in both the public and private sectors. Following long years of service at the Undersecretariat of Treasury in Ankara she joined a private bank as Assistant General Manager. During 1980 - 1985 Ms. Ucok took part in the coordination of the IMF Stand-By programs. In that capacity, Ms. Ucok took an active part in the successful international bond issuances of the Turkish Republic in many countries, including Japan and the U.S. In 1997 she undertook the representation in Turkey of Thomson BankWatch, an assignment she carried until the rating agency was sold to a competitor in 2001. In four years she successfully enlarged Thomson BankWatch's portfolio from a few banks to 31 financial institutions and significantly contributed to the development of the rating culture among financial institutions in Turkey. Since 2000 she has provided consultancy services to various international banks, including Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Export Development Canada and JBIC. Gulnur Ucok is a graduate of Istanbul University Faculty of Economics. She holds a Master of Science degree in Industrial Relations from London School of Economics.
Werner Zitzman, Bachelor in Economy from Universidad de los Andes, ICAME Graduate School of Business Administration at Stanford University. He served as advisor for several Colombian companies and international organizations like United Nations for the programs ONUDI and HABITAT. Currently he is dean of corporate finance post-graduated program at CESA university.
