Hugo is a permanent resident in South Africa and has over 16 years experience in the financial services industry in particular Corporate Banking and prior to the banking career he worked as a process engineer in the mining industry and in commercial sales in the oil industry for over four years. He worked in various roles in Standard Chartered Bank’s (SCB) Corporate & Institutional Banking division in Zambia, the United Kingdom and Africa Regional Office (based in South Africa) spanning origination & client coverage and credit risk covering various sectors that included the energy, commodity, telecoms and financial institutions sector. He has in the recent past been Executive Director managing Corporate Banking business units that included originating key deals in commodity finance and capital markets, with people, P&L and Balance sheet responsibilities and was instrumental in setting up the Commodity Traders & Agribusiness business unit in Zambia providing structured commodity finance as the flagship product and significantly grew the business at >25% compounded annual growth rate over five years. Hugo then moved to the Africa Regional Office in South Africa as Executive Director/Principal, Strategy & Business Planning/Execution for Corporate & Institutional Banking Africa Region responsible for strategy implementation, balance sheet management and human resource investment, a role he held until March 2016. Hugo is currently Executive Director and one of the three principal at VMS International (Pty) Ltd based in Johannesburg South Africa. VMS International is a diversified company specialized in Supply Chain Management and Optimised Sourcing providing specialized product and services to the SME sector and financial services sector, the Agricultural, Mining and Chemicals industries. VMS International creates customer wealth by leveraging its knowledge and expertise of the industries it services by adding value in the various stages of the supply and service chain. Its principals have an in-depth understanding of the markets and industries it serves. It offers tailor-made solutions to its clients’ business needs with expert application. In 2019 Hugo was engaged by the International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group) as Consultant on short term basis consultancy basis providing advisory on Corporate and Institutional Banking business to its bank clients on as-needed basis. Hugo is a Chemical Engineer and an MBA (International Business) holder from the University of Birmingham in the UK. He is also a professional member of the Institute of Bankers South Africa (IoBSA) and has undertaken Leadership training at INSEAD.