Presenters
Alphabetical by Last Name

Amar Dhayatker, GE Money - Home Lending UK
As Forecasting Manager for GE Money Home Lending's $21 billion portfolio, Amar maintains risk models which forecast key risk metrics while taking into account business assumptions around micro and macro economic factors. The portfolio consists of first and second charge mortgages, and also unsecured personal loans. Prior to GE, Amar worked in retail finance with Cetelem UK.

Arturo Gayoso, Manager for Strategic & Economic Consulting, Soluziona S.A.
Arturo has a degree in Business Administration from the University of La Coruña, and completed his MBA at Instituto de Empresa in Madrid. An expert in financial and risk strategic management, Arturo has worked as a project manager for clients in banking, media, and infrastructure. He has experience with ERP´s and business intelligence implementations on SAP, SAS, and Hyperion platforms.

Jörg Günther, Manager of Structured Products, IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG
As manager of the structured products division of IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG, Jörg is responsible for developing a quantitative analysis tool for the banks global business in addition to producing a whole range of modeling tools in various markets. Jörg started as a strategy consultant before quickly entering project finance management within the banking sector. He was born and educated in Germany where he attained a masters degree in Business Economics. An experienced user of @RISK, he is also proficient in programming in Visual Basic for applications including Monte Carlo codes. He speaks fluent English and has a basic knowledge of Japanese in addition to his native German.

Salvador Huete, Manager for Strategic & Economic Consulting, Soluziona S.A.
Salvador is an expert on financial and management consulting, and holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.  He has worked as a project manager for clients in the energy sector (business analysis and process engineering) in Spain and Latin America, and has experience with SAP and other ERP’s implementations.

Dr Mirek Janusz, Palisade Corporation
Mirek Janusz is a software engineer at Palisade Corp. He holds a masters degree in computer science from Cornell University. He helped develop Palisade applications for risk analysis, statistical analysis and optimization, and has assisted other companies in integrating Palisade Developer's Kits into their own applications. He was the lead developer for Palisade's new Excel add-in for neural networks, NeuralTools.

Pierre Palmberg, Fire Protection Engineer, Pantektor AB
Pierre finished his Degree Programme in Fire Protection Engineering in 1992. For a period of 8 ½ years he worked with rescue service and preventive work at Lund’s Fire Brigade, starting the consultancy department within Lund’s Fire Brigade in 1993. He has also worked as a teacher at the Swedish Rescue Services College in Revinge outside Lund. Since the beginning of 2001, Pierre developed and lead Pantektor AB’s Department of Fire Protection Engineering and Risk Management and Safety Engineering. Today, this department offers a complete range of services within fire science and risk assessment to clients throughout the world. 

Neil Prophet, Partner, ioMosaic Corporation
Neil has over eight years experience in the field of process safety, having previously worked for Det Norske Veritas and Berwanger, Inc. His roles in the process safety field, prior to joining ioMosaic Corporation, included technical support, technical sales, training course presentation, and operations management. He has also assisted operating companies and consultancies with hundreds of projects, providing guidance in the areas of dispersion modeling, fire and explosion modeling, quantitative risk analysis, as well as application of theory, and results interpretation. Neil has presented over fifty training courses and seminars covering consequence analysis software and risk analysis software, to both operating and consulting companies. Neil has a B.Eng. (Honors) in Chemical Engineering, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Energy Systems & the Environment, both from the University of Strathclyde.

Shabab Qadar, Head of Research, UK and Ireland, Grosvenor Estates
As Head of UK and Ireland Research, Shabab’s key role is to ensure that business decisions and strategy are informed by the best possible understanding of the macro-economy.  He is responsible for forecasting performance in Grosvenor's UK and Ireland markets and financial modelling of development and investment appraisals. Shabab joined Grosvenor in 2002 as Research Analyst after working for three years as an Economist at the Engineering Employers Federation where he was responsible for economic analysis of issues affecting manufacturing companies, co-ordinating business surveys and recommending changes to government policy. Shabab has an MSc in Economics from the University of London, and is a member of the Society of Business Economists, and a member of the Society of Property Researchers.

Mehender Rawat, Risk Compliance Manager, London Underground
A chartered mechanical engineer with over 21 years experience, Mehender has eight years experience in various project risk and value management/consultancy positions on a number of infrastructure projects. With another eight years in the engineering contracting industry, Mehender’s experience includes complex projects in the oil & gas, air separation, and railway and construction industries; covering all phases of projects from bid/proposal, conceptual studies, detail engineering, site fabrication, to hook-up, and commissioning. Following five years in industrial R&D, specialising in fluid flow measurement, Mehender has authored and presented several international research papers. Current responsibilities at London Underground include total risk management services for all projects, facilitating risk workshops and carrying out project cost and schedule risk analysis studies. 

Dr Michael Rees, Palisade Corporation
Michael is one of Europe's leading experts in modelling and risk analysis for business and financial applications. He worked as a management consultant for 10 years in the areas of business strategy, organisation, and operations, and also worked as a senior equity analyst at J. P. Morgan. Prior to joining Palisade, Michael set up his own consulting business focusing on financial and quantitative modelling and risk analysis. Michael's wide range of practical experience is complemented by solid academic training. He holds an MBA with Distinction from INSEAD in France, as well as a Doctorate in Mathematical Modeling from Oxford University where he gained a 1st Class Honors undergraduate degree in Mathematics. Additionally, Michael has completed in-depth studies in the mathematics of financial derivatives, graduating top of Paul Wilmott's Certificate of Quantitative Finance Program, and was also awarded the Wilmott Prize in 2003. Michael has lived and worked in a number of countries, is a dual British-Canadian citizen, and speaks English, German and French. 

Kim Bang Salling, Ph.D Student, M.Sc., Centre for Traffic and Transport, Technical University of Denmark
Kim Bang Salling is currently a Ph.D. Student at the Decision Modelling Group - Centre for Traffic and Transport in the Technical University of Denmark. He holds a Master’s degree in Engineering within socio-economic evaluation methodologies and decision support systems with special emphasis on cost-benefit analysis and multi-criteria analysis. The Ph.D. study is entitled: Optimization of Decision Support concerning Large Infrastructure Projects. The main purpose of his Ph.D project is principles and methods for optimization of project appraisal including risk assessment and Monte Carlo simulation. By use of the COSIMA software a new risk-oriented methodology for assessment is developed.

Rebecca Seeley, Commercial Accountant, Serco
Rebecca is a CIMA accountant currently working in the commercial team within the Defence & Aerospace division of Serco, where her role is providing commercial support to projects, including both new bids, re-bids, and contract variations. Previously, Rebecca worked for Ford in the Premier Automotive Group, at Jaguar, and at Land Rover, holding various roles in this period, including providing program financial support, central financial consolidation, and profitability analysis. In the latter role she was involved in assessing program risk, including exchange rate sensitivities. 

David Vose
David Vose has been a specialist consultant in risk analysis since 1989. David started directly applying risk analysis as a marketing and new projects analyst to an oil and gas exploration company in New Zealand. Since then, he has applied risk analysis modelling principles to a wide range of problems and industries including oil, gas and LPG marketing and production, diamond mining, forestry, epidemiology and food safety, and more. David is based in Europe overseeing the Vose Consulting Group. His role is to supervise the technical aspects of their work as well as providing specialised consulting. He is also author of the textbook Risk Analysis, published by John Wiley and Sons.

Ian Wallace, Palisade Corporation
Ian’s careers in financial management and Big-5 management consultancy provide him with a wealth of project and programme management experience.  Ian has worked throughout Europe in both the private and public sectors. Helping managers to deal with uncertainty using Palisade products has therefore been a major aspect of his work, leading him to be an authority in these solutions. Ian has extensive experience working with project management methodologies, such as PRINCE 2, developing risk-efficient project appraisals, and project plans, thus ensuring that his courses are full of practical advice.

Tim Wells, Senior Coastal Scientist, Halcrow Group Ltd
Tim has been employed as Senior Coastal Scientist/Project Manager by Halcrow Group Ltd. at the Swindon office since start of 2005, where he specialises in coastal strategic planning and risk management. He is a member of the Environment Agency's National Risk Management System Development Group.

Erik Westwig, Palisade Corporation
Erik Westwig received his B.Sc. in 1991 and M.Sc. in 1994 from the applied and engineering physics department at Cornell University. In 1998 he published the book, Mathematical Physics with co-author Bruce Kusse, which was just re-released in its second edition. Since 1995 Eric has worked as a software engineer at Palisade Corporation as part of The DecisionTools Suite development team.

Colin Wheeler, Technical Director, Istria
Colin brings over two decades of experience from the field of risk management and is recognized as a leading member of the UK Risk Management community. He is a founding member of Istria Ltd., a risk management consultancy firm, acts as the UK Risk representative for the Programme Management Institute, and acts as a Subject Matter Expert for the rewrite of the OGC’s Management of Risk Module. Colin has extensive experience conducting risk management audits in the public and private sector.  Previous clients include the Ministry of Defence, the UK Passport Office, the National Health Service, British Telecom, DHL and Transport for London Colin has extensive experience with the defence industry, both as an independent risk manager and during a 28 year career in the Army.

Dr Paul Wilmott
Dr Paul Wilmott is founder of Wilmott magazine, and is a researcher, consultant and lecturer in quantitative finance. He is well known through his textbooks, Derivatives and recently Paul Wilmott on Quantitative Finance (published by Wiley). He is one of the most widely read quantitative finance authors, particularly popular for his ability to present complex subjects in an accessible and often humorous way. The Financial Times called him a “cult derivatives lecturer.”