In fall 2022 the SCF Community Board nominated me as new Chairperson for the following two years, effective as of January 2023. I replaced Michiel Steeman, our founder and long-lasting Chairperson, and I felt both honoured and apprehensive, since it is impossible to replicate Michiel’s energy, spirit and charisma, as well as his deep knowledge of the industry and vision of the future. Luckily Michiel has remained on the board and will continue to support the SCF Community. I was relieved to inherit a well-organized and functioning team of highly committed people, and a board of international colleagues whose advice and support have been crucial during this transition.

The Community would not exist without the daily work of four wonderful people: Luca Gelsomino (Academic Director), Angelica Parra Cuadros (Head of External Relations & Community Enhancement), Rea Bosco Vaz (Head of Product and Market), and Christiaan De Goeij (Researcher & Project Manager)

The first step of my term has been to focus on and clarify the mission of the SCF Community: we aim to bring together the professionals involved in Supply Chain Finance (in its broadest sense), from all over the world, creating a meeting point to discuss the emerging challenges and elaborate on new solutions, creating a bridge between research and its practical applications. The Community brings around the table SCF managers from the corporate world, who face the daily challenges with global supply chains and experiment with new SCF  solutions to improve their performance; the leading financial and technology providers who develop and offer innovative answers to such challenges; researchers from academia who are focused on SCF and provide their scientific contribution to the debate; and representatives from industrial associations and regulatory bodies.

The SCF Community is a not-for-profit organization whose goal is to contribute to knowledge creation and dissemination.

To ensure alignment with our stakeholders, we have created 3 boards to gather their perspectives: The Advisory Board- groups together SCF managers in leading corporates, who actively participate in the community. The Leadership Group consists of key representatives of SCF providers. The Academic Board brings together SCF professors and researchers.

To pursue our mission, we have developed a clear plan of action, in 3 main directions:

1. Engagement: we have extended our reach by organising a series of events around the world, covering multiple geographies, including Europe (3 events: Germany, The Netherlands, Italy), US (New York), Asia (Singapore). In addition to our own, we have also contributed to other events (e.g. in South Africa and Spain). The choice has been to focus on small-scale events, targeted to corporate managers, to facilitate networking and an open exchange of experiences.
2. Research: the academic members continuously develop cutting-edge research on SCF, and make it available to the community in the form of white papers and presentations within our events. This year, we worked on SCF disclosure and deep-tier finance, and more will follow.
3. Recognition: the well-established SCF Awards are an effective way to give adequate visibility to the most successful experiences of SCF adoption by corporates, the most innovative solution developed by providers, and the individual SCF leader of the year, to a person with a phenomenal contribution to the field.

In addition to these directions, we are also devoting additional efforts to establishing relationships with institutional bodies, to contribute to the decision-making process and share the experience and knowledge of the Community with regulators.

The fall events will take place in New York, Utrecht, and Milano, we are looking forward to meeting our Community members in person and continuing the exchange and debate on the latest news, developments and challenges of Supply Chain Finance.

While the year is not over yet, we are already looking ahead to 2024, planning the events and the research activities, so we are eager to hear back from our Community about your expectations and suggestions, don’t hesitate to contact us!

The value that the Community provides grows with the contribution of all the members, so we are looking forward to hearing from you!

Federico Caniato