OUR SPEAKERS
Hugh Burke has been appointed the CEO of Coface Asia-Pacific Region in April 2022. He is nominated as the Chair of the Asia Committee for ICISA in March 2023.
Hugh joined Coface as Chief Commercial Officer for the Asia-Pacific region in 2016. Based in Hong Kong, he successfully led the region’s commercial transformation, with record year-on-year growth since 2018. Coface is now recognised as a market leader by our clients and partners in Asia-Pacific.
Hugh has more than 20 years of experience within the trade credit insurance industry, where he has held senior positions at major specialist brokers. Prior to joining Coface, Hugh was Head of Aon Asia’s trade credit business.
Hugh has strong relationships within the global trade credit insurance industry and specialises in structuring and implementing trade credit solutions for both financial institutions and companies across all business segments.
Hugh holds an MBA from Alliance Manchester Business School.
A graduate of the École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris (ESCP) and the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Jean-Christophe Caffet began his career in the banking sector in 2005.
He spent 9 years within the Natixis / BPCE group as an economist specialising in France and the euro zone. In 2014, he joined the strategy and economic intelligence department of TotalEnergies as Deputy of the Chief Economist, which allowed him to become an expert in energy markets while continuing to make macroeconomic forecasts. In 2019, he became Chief Economist of the TotalEnergies Group before being appointed Coface Chief Economist in November 2021.
Bernard Aw is the Chief Economist for Asia Pacific region at Coface. In this role, he leads macroeconomic and country risk analysis of the Asia Pacific region, and manages the regional economic research team. He is a member of the region’s senior management, and contributes macroeconomic insights to the Group’s risk decision-making process.
Prior to joining Coface in Singapore, he was Principal Economist at IHS Markit. His other previous roles include Market Strategist for IG Asia and Regional Economist at 4CAST. Bernard has also conducted research on trade and economic issues at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. Bernard holds a M.Sc. in Economics from the Singapore Management University and a B.Sc. in Economics and Finance from the University of London.
Julia Coym leads Control Risks’ political and regulatory risk consulting team for Greater China and North Asia and is based in Shanghai. With 15 years’ experience in advising organisations on risk and corporate strategy, Julia specialises in responding to rising geopolitical risks, the politicisation of technology and data, industrial policy, and anti-competition, cyber security and other regulatory enforcement.
Recent tasks that Julia has worked on include:
- Global business strategy mapping for a multinational company involving the development of geopolitical scenarios, identifying risks and opportunities and designing recommendations to ensure the company’s future global competitiveness and resilience in key markets.
- China-oriented future-proofing strategic advisory for a technology manufacturer to ensure the long-term competitiveness of their operations in the country amid rising political risks. This involved a perceptions audit of the client among national and local regulators, customers and industry experts.
- Advisory on political, regulatory and security risks in China for a US client facing the possibility of being placed on the “unreliable entities list” owing to compliance issues with US sanctions against Chinese companies.
- Stakeholder mapping of key government institutions participating in intensified anti-corruption and anti-competition enforcement against a multinational healthcare company in mainland China.
- Development of a bespoke risk assessment tool with a multilateral financial institution investing in emerging markets.
Before joining Control Risks, Julia worked as a Principal Political Risk Analyst for Maplecroft, a UK-based global risk and investment advisory firm, where she wrote and oversaw risk assessments on China and other Asian countries and focused on the manufacturing, extractive, transport, financial, retail and other sectors. She was also previously a contributor of political and economic analysis for the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Julia speaks Chinese, is a native German speaker, is fluent in French and has previous experience in Frankfurt, Washington, Paris, Beijing, London and Berlin.
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