On Thursday, 9th April 2026, at the Crowne Plaza Riyadh Palace, we will convene for an executive briefing designed to harness disruption in supply chain finance.

Welcome to the inaugural Middle East edition of Factoring & Leasing in the Digital Age – an exclusive, invitation-only C-suite symposium.

For over a decade, this esteemed forum has steered the conversation at the highest levels of European finance. Now, MERGE, in strategic partnership with global technology leaders efcom and PixelSoft, is proud to bring this legacy of insight to the heart of the GCC.

Date: 9th April, 2026

Time: 8:00am

Crowne Plaza Riyadh Palace, Riyadh

Sponsors

Partner

Speakers include:

Federico Avellán Borgmeyer, Chief Partner Officer, efcom

Federico Avellán Borgmeyer is a consultant and entrepreneur in the FinTech ecosystem. After studying engineering in Berlin, he was a visiting scholar at the University of Illinois, where he researched the first artificial intelligence applications. Further positions included Managing Director for Southern Europe at DataCard Corporation (Madrid), Member of the Board at FidelioNetworks S.A. (Madrid) and Managing Director at Postbank POSTransact (Rhine-Main area).

For 20 years, Mr Avellán Borgmeyer has been working as a partner at the management consultancy Amontis AG for clients in Europe, the Middle East, South America and China. As an entrepreneur, he is the founder of Factoring Blockchain Solutions and Tech4Fin Germany in Kronberg.

Dr. Mohamed El Beltagy, CEO, Egyptian Islamic Finance Association

Dr. Beltagy, CEO of the Egyptian Islamic Finance Association, has over 37 years of experience in the field of Islamic banking and finance. After obtaining his PhD and LLM degrees in accountancy from Al-Azhar University, in Egypt, Dr. Beltagy was heading the Planning & Studies Department of Al-Rajhi Bank. He worked also as programs manager of Shari’a Compliant Banking in Saudi Arabia Monetary Agency. Then, he was the Vice chairman of Shari’a Board in both National Bank of Development and GM of Shari’a Board Banque Misr. Furthermore, Dr. Beltagy has several publications in the field of Islamic finance (e.g. basics of development of the planning budget in Islamic banks, concepts of Islamic banking and financing formulas used in Islamic banks, etc.)

In addition, Dr. Beltagy was a Certified Expert at Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions and an Expert approved by the Islamic Development Bank.

Amr Samy, Deputy CEO, PixelSoft

Amr Samy works as a Deputy CEO at PixelSoft. He has been involved in designing and implementing of software for non banking financial services for several years, focusing on Implement and deliver the software for the whole organizations covering all departments. Samy enjoys sharing experience with others in the field and contributing where possible, with the hope of supporting progress in both technology and finance industries.

Neal Harm, Secretary General, FCI

Before joining the FCI as Secretary General at the end of 2023, Neal Harm spent over 30 years working in trade and receivables finance. He held various senior positions at financial institutions in the United States, including President of BB&T’s (now Truist Bank) international banking division and Bank of America’s Business Finance Corporation.

Most recently, Neal was Managing Director of Strategy at CIT Commercial Services, where he was responsible for factoring, ABL and supply chain finance. Neal lives in Amsterdam with his wife Bren.

Abdelrahman El-Beltagy, Islamic Factoring Expert and Sales Manager MENA Region, efcom

Abdelrahman El-Beltagy has been breathing Islamic Finance for his entire life. Born in Ryad and growing up in Cairo in a family of Islamic Finance scholars, he has a Bachelor Degree in Finance and Investment from Cairo University. During his young professional life, he has had stations at Contact Financial Holding, First Abu Dhabi Bank Egypt and is now a member of efcom’s team with focus on Islamic Factoring and Sales in MENA Region.

Dr. Vinai Biju, Data Scientist: Risk Analytics Specialist, efcom

Vinai George Biju is a data sciaentist with experience in academia and industry. He received his PhD in Computer Science from Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) in India in 2021 and earned a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the National Institute of Technology in Rourkela, India, in 2010. In 2023, he completed a second master’s degree in artificial intelligence at the Technical University of Würzburg-Schweinfurt (THWS) in Germany.

Symposium Agenda

08:30 Registration and Tea & Coffee

09:00 Welcome and Opening Remarks

09:15 The Saudi path to the future – insights and overview

09:45 Global and regional industry market trends

10:30 Western Versus Islamic Financial Products: Competing or enhancing the financial institutions landscape?

11:15 How technology, especially Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, is changing the way financial products are sold and managed by financial institutions and large corporations

12:00 Latest trends in the leasing industry – from automation to AI

12:30 Coffee Break

13:00 Presentation

13:30 Tech demos

15:00 Networking Lunch

16:30 Networking Space / 1:1 Presentations

”Well organised from start to finish. Delegates were proactively informed of events and agenda with the event itself being executed in a timely manner. Only a lot of hard work put in by the organisers would have made it possible!”

- Finance Director, McDermott

"The summit as a whole added real value by bringing together stakeholders from across sectors to exchange perspectives and collaborate on practical solutions that support Qatar’s financial and economic transformation."

- Group Chief Treasury Officer, Power International Holding

Testimonials of our past events

"Thank you for hosting us at the East Africa Trade, Treasury, and Commodities Summit 2025a. The session was very captivating and particular to details. I appreciated the Trade session highlighting the different challenges that traders and manufacturers go through in their businesses. I look forward to next year’s gathering”

- Trade Finance, UBA Bank

Attendance is strictly limited to ensure meaningful dialogue. To express your interest in joining, please submit an application.

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