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.

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.

Neal Harm is the Secretary General at FCI (fci.nl), the Global Representative Body for Factoring and Financing of Open Account Domestic and International Trade Receivables. He has over 30 years of experience in working capital finance, having successfully led and managed complex and large commercial finance, international, and payments businesses at leading US Banks.

Neal is a graduate of Lenoir Rhyne University in North Carolina, USA where he joined Wachovia’s Leadership Management Development Program.  At Wachovia (now Wells Fargo) he started his career in the Asset Based Lending division as a collateral analyst. This role led to his interest in working capital-based finance.

Neal later joined Bank of America’s factoring division taking on various leadership roles. He was responsible for all aspects of business operations to include client experience, partnerships with financial institutions, and product development ultimately becoming the President of Business Finance in 1999.

In 2005, he joined BB&T (now Truist) leading to his role as President of the bank’s international banking division to include Trade, FX, Factoring, and Correspondent Banking. While at BB&T, he was a member of FCI’s Business and IT Committee, serving as its Chairman from 2008 to 2012.  He later became a member of FCI’s Executive Committee to include a role as Vice Chairman.

Neal is married to Bren and they have 3 boys (Jordan, Andrew, and Jeffery) living in the USA.  Neal and Bren reside in Amsterdam, Netherlands.