Michiel Deurwaarder is Vattenfall’s leading finance procurement specialist and is the driving force in the roll-out and expansion of the company’s successful supply chain finance program. In the past, he has initiated and executed the sale of underperforming receivables in Vattenfall’s core countries.

Michiel holds an MSc from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam’s School of Business and Economics and combines extensive experience in procurement of financial and marketing services with senior marketing roles in B2B and B2C marketing for blue-chip brands such as PWC and KLM. He is a strong believer in keeping things simple, an ambition that he advocates at supplier meetings, but also in discussions on themes such as legal payment term reductions.

Univ.-Prof. Dr. habil. Dr. h. c. Michael Henke is Director of Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML in Dortmund and holds the Chair in Enterprise Logistics (LFO) at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at TU Dortmund University, Germany. Furthermore, he is Adjunct Professor for Supply Chain Management at the School of Business and Management of Lappeenranta University of Technology in Finland.
His research focuses inter alia on Management of Industrie 4.0 and Platform Economy, Blockchain and Smart Contracts, Financial Supply Chain Management, Supply Chain Risk Management, Procurement, Logistics and Supply Chain Management. Doing this he is combining his practical experience from entrepreneurial practice and his extensive knowledge from research.
Michael Henke studied Brewing and Beverage Technology (Dipl.-Ing.) and gained his doctorate and habilitation in Business and Economics at Technical University of Munich, Germany. During and after his habilitation, he worked for the Supply Management Group SMG in St. Gallen, Switzerland. From 2007 until 2013 he was active in teaching and research as a professor at EBS European Business School.

Ziling Liao is a PhD Researcher at Cranfield University (UK), specialising in sustainable supply chain finance. Her doctoral research investigates how sustainability objectives are designed, governed, and translated into practice within supply chain finance programmes, with a particular emphasis on ecosystem building and the interactions among multiple stakeholders.

Her research interests broadly cover supply chain finance, sustainable and inclusive finance, digital platforms, and risk management, with an emphasis on translating sustainability ambitions into operational and financial outcomes within global supply networks.

Prior to academia, she spent five years as a trade and transaction banking manager at China Merchants Bank, working closely with corporate clients on trade finance, liquidity management, and cross-border solutions. She later worked as a fintech solutions manager, contributing to the development of SaaS-based supply chain finance platforms with a focus on operational design and credit risk management.

She maintains strong links with the banking and fintech industry, bringing practitioner insight into research and industry collaboration.

Luca Gelsomino is an Assistant Professor at the University of Groningen and the Academic Director of the SCF Community. In this role, he oversees the Community’s research projects, international network and publication strategy.

His teaching interests include supply chain management, financial analysis and Supply Chain Finance. He holds a Ph.D. with merit from the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano (Italy), on the topic of measuring the financial performance of supply chains. While working for the School of Management, he directed the School’s permanent research program on Supply Chain Finance. His research focuses on the relationship between physical and financial supply chains.

Markus Hünig is Director Treasury at BESTSECRET, a leading €1.5bn European fashion e‑commerce platform backed by private equity investors. In this role, he is responsible for the company’s strategic and operational treasury agenda, covering liquidity management, financing, cash flow forecasting, financial risk management, and the implementation of a modern, audit‑secure treasury framework.

Before joining BESTSECRET, Markus spent more than five years at Wittur Group, where he ultimately served as Head of Treasury & Investor Relations, shaping global financing strategies, corporate funding structures, and capital‑markets communication. Earlier roles at Linde AG and Phoenix Solar AG further broadened his expertise across treasury, corporate finance, and international business environments.

Markus is passionate about building technology‑enabled treasury functions that create measurable value for fast‑growing organizations. At BESTSECRET, he recently scaled a Supply Chain Finance program approaching €200m, leveraging an innovative partnership model with cflox to enhance working‑capital efficiency and supply‑chain resilience.

Markus Schiffers is Managing Director & Deputy CEO, Head of Clients: Corporates & Funders. He will be part of the group of panelists during the SCF event.

Markus has over 25 years of experience in financial services. He started his career at Deutsche Bundesbank, before holding various management positions for 15 years at Siemens Financial Services in Germany and the US from 2000. As Head of Supply Chain Finance@Siemens, Markus worked in Siemens Treasury where he led global teams that developed and implemented the Siemens-wide supply chain finance program with Orbian. Prior to joining Orbian in 2018, Markus led the Business Development at an Asset Management and a Fintech Company in Switzerland

Thomas Krings will take part in the interactive workshop. He is a seasoned professional in the credit insurance industry with over two decades of experience. He began his career in 1994, holding various positions and leadership roles in the credit insurance market. From 2004 to 2009, Krings served as Head of Export Credit Management and later as Commercial Director and Head of Product Development and Controlling at Euler Hermes Germany.

In 2010, Krings was appointed to the Board of Management of Euler Hermes Germany and took on the role of Regional Risk Manager for the DACH region (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) within the Euler Hermes Group. In this capacity, he was responsible for the entire Credit and Risk Management of the DACH region, overseeing a portfolio exceeding 200 billion euros.

Since 2016, Krings has been serving as Managing Partner at cflox GmbH, where he is responsible for Clients & Partners. Under his leadership, cflox has successfully expanded its client base to include major corporations with more than 150 successful client programs. He has played a pivotal role in forging strategic partnerships with top financial institutions, enhancing cflox’s market presence in Supply Chain Finance.

His extensive experience in risk management and leadership positions has established him as a respected figure in the industry.

Michiel Steeman was selected in 2013 as the inaugural holder of the Supply Chain Finance Professorship at the Windesheim University of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands. He is also the founder and former chairman of the Supply Chain Finance Community that has already brought together over 30 leading business schools from more than 20 countries around the world who actively collaborate with companies, banks and governments in the developing field of Supply Chain Finance.