Michael Miño, CCE, Director, Credit and Collections, Suntech

Mike is a veteran credit professional although he never expected to be one when he graduated from Cornell University in 1979. At that time, he was more interested in international trade and finance.

In the 1980s, he was a banker collecting, renegotiating and selling the debt of developing countries to brokers on the secondary market. He established himself as a maverick in the field when, early on, he recommended non-accrual treatment and write downs on impaired Latin American debt. In the following decade, he worked for a subsidiary of Sumitomo Chemical as its Americas credit manager where he managed United States credit and started up credit operations in Mexico. Mike went to the high tech industry when in 1999 he joined Adobe to start up and staff its European credit operations. He spent almost four years in Europe as an expatriate running EMEA credit. Upon repatriating, he ran APAC credit.

Mike joined Oracle in 2009 as director global trade credit with responsibility for credit operations and over 30 people in Oracle’s shared service centers in Latin America, Europe and Asia.

Mike has been active in various NACM groups and in the ECF in Europe. He is fluent in Spanish, spoken and written, and resides with his family in San Jose, California.

Kelly Bates – Director, Global Credit & Collections, Chiquita Brands Inc.

Kelly started her career in corporate credit over 20 years ago working for Procter & Gamble. During her career, Kelly has amassed a broad range of experience for all facets of credit, collection and deduction management. Most recently, Kelly’s role expanded to include global offshore outsourcing for over 10 countries. Kelly is an active member of NGMT, FCIB, NACM and the Credit Research Foundation.

Regine Hilgers, Credit Controller EMEA region, Ashland Specialty Ingredients (formerly ISP)

Regine Hilgers has been a regular delegate at FCIB conferences in Europe since attending her first in 2004. Before commencing her career with ASI / ISP as European credit controller, Regine was team leader for UPS in the billing and accounts receivable department. During this time, she studied economics at the DAA in Dusseldorf. In 2008, Regine joined the German Association for Credit Management and completed a certified credit controller course.

Regine is a member of the German Institute of Credit Management (Verein für Credit Management e.V) and recently passed her exams, qualifying as Certified Credit Manager, in 2010. A longstanding member of FCIB, Regine also acted as a panelist at FCIB’s Annual Summits in Istanbul and Barcelona.

Martine Zimmermann, ICCE – Credit Risk Insurer, F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG

Martine has enjoyed 30 years’ experience in international credit management and credit risk insurance. Before joining Roche, Martine held different positions in credit management and countertrade at Ciba-Geigy, Switzerland. Martine is in charge of Roche’s credit risk insurance scheme worldwide, supporting the sales and marketing organizations when it starts new business activities in high-risk countries. She also handles special projects in debt collection.