Professor Milind Rao is currently Professor of Business Practice in the Economics Department of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He has taught at HKUST since August 2003. He has taught extensively in executive education programs in mainland China, Hong Kong SAR and the US.？Professor Rao also has extensive teaching experience in EMBA and MBA programs in many premier universities. He taught at the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University and at the Stern School of Business at New York University. He was also a Fellow at the Levy Economics Institute. Professor Rao has won many teaching awards including, Professor of the Year, Kellogg-HKUST Executive MBA (seven times) best Professor Award, HKUST MBA Program and at the Graduate School of Business, Columbia University. Professor Rao has published numerous articles in leading international journals in the fields of economic theory, macroeconomics, international trade and international finance; and has been a contributor to the financial media such as the Wall Street Journal, The Economic Times, and the South China Morning Post.

David Tait was appointed CEO Designate of the World Gold Council in November 2018. During his 30 years in the financial services industry, David has worked for a variety of reputed firms, most recently？as Global Head of Fixed Income Macro Products at Credit Suisse. Prior to that he held senior trading roles at both Credit Suisse and UBS Investment Bank.？David began his career trading at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse and then built considerable asset management experience at Bluecrest Capital, Peloton Partners and Citadel Europe. He is currently an Independent Member of the Bank of England’s FICC Market Standards Board.？David is also a major supporter of the NSPCC and has raised over ￡1 million by climbing Mount Everest on five occasions. He was awarded an MBE by the Queen for his services to the charity.

Paul joined WPIC from Bain & Company, the global management consultancy, where he led the firm’s UK financial practice. Paul is an investment and wealth management specialist who has enjoyed considerable involvement in the broad financial services sector over the last 25 years. He has also been deeply involved in the precious metals market. While at Bain & Company, Paul helped raise the investment attractiveness of gold by leading the development of the gold market’s first and largest Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). Alongside his role at WPIC, Paul is a Non-Executive Director of AXA XL UK and Ireland insurance businesses, a group board independent director at Unigestion Holdings SA, and chair of their UK business. Paul is also chairman of Action Against Hunger (UK), a global charity.

Albert Cheng joined the World Gold Council (WGC) in March 1993 as Regional Manager, becoming Managing Director, Far East in 2003, witnessing and participating in the early development and establishment of the China gold market for over 20 years. Albert's marketing career began with Dentsu Young & Rubicam, Hong Kong in the early 80's, moved on to gold marketing in July 1985 when he joined the Royal Canadian Mint as Regional Manager for HK/Southeast Asia and help elevate Gold Maple Leaf to number one selling bullion investment coin in Asia Pacific in early 90’s. He was appointed honorary CEO of Singapore Bullion Market Association in Nov, 2015 after retirement.

Ruth was appointed Chief Executive of the LBMA in January 2014. She is responsible for the strategic development of the LBMA, in partnership with the Chairman and the Board. She is also responsible for maintaining accountability to and the quality of, the Association's Membership and Good Delivery Refiners as well as representing the interests of the Association in relation to regulators, investors, media and international precious metals markets. She was also responsible for the Association's work on supply chain due diligence, with particular regard to the creation and implementation of the LBMA’s Responsible Gold Guidance. Ruth continues to serve as Vice Chair of the OECD Multi-Stakeholder Governance Group for Responsible Minerals.

Derek Sammann has served as CME Group's Senior Managing Director, Global Head of Commodities & Options Products since 2014. He is responsible for leading the development, execution and management of CME Group's global Commodities portfolio, including Energy, Metals and Agricultural products. He also globally leads the company's cross-asset class Options business. Since joining CME Group in September 2006, he also has served as Senior Managing Director of Interest Rates and FX Products, and as Managing Director, Global Head of Foreign Exchange. Prior to joining the company, he acquired more than 16 years of experience in the global FX market, including serving as Managing Director, Global Head of FX Options and Structured Products at Calyon Corporate and Investment Bank in London. He also held senior level positions with Credit Agricole Indosuez in London, Banque Indosuez in Paris and Cooper, Neff & Associates in Chicago. In addition to serving on CME Group's Senior Leadership Team, Sammann serves on the Board of Directors of CME Europe Ltd., as Treasurer of the Commodities Markets Council, and on the COMEX Board of Governors in addition to serving as the Vice-Chairman of the Foreign Exchange Professionals Association (FXPA) when launched in 2014.

Igor Marich joined Moscow Exchange (then MICEX Stock Exchange) in 2000. Before MOEX, he held various securities operations positions at banks. He was involved in reform of the government securities market and the creation of the Exchange's repo market. As Head of MOEX's Money and FX Markets from 2011, he led a number of prominent initiatives such as the launch and rollout of CCP-cleared repo; the transformation of the FX Market (roll-out of a new risk-management system, agent-based model offering DMA and access for brokers, clearing membership for non-residents and new products with new currency pairs and deliverable FX derivatives); and the launch of a new Money Market instrument based on GCC repo.？ Igor Marich graduated with high academic honors from the Finance Academy under the Government of the Russian Federation. He has also completed INSEAD's Transition to General Management programm.

Dr. Haywood Cheung，Doctor of Business Administration, was awarded the “Honorary Fellow” by CityU in 2016. Dr. Cheung has over 30 years' experience in metal trading, securities and futures brokerage and forex dealing. He is the President of The Chinese Gold & Silver Exchange Society (CGSE)，Chairman of Target Insurance (Holdings) Limited - one of the largest car insurers in Hong Kong. He was the Chairman of Simsen International Corporation Limited from 1997 to 2011. During his tenure as President of CGSE, he initiated and promoted the launch of transaction code, Hong Kong Precious Metals Assay Centre, 9999-fine Gold Contract, Renminbi Kilobar Gold Contract (the first offshore Renminbi-denominated gold product) and Loco Silver 1 Contract, etc. These new initiatives have boosted the daily trading volume of CGSE to HK$ 100 billion in recent years. In 2015 CGSE jointly launched “Shanghai-Hong Kong Gold Connect” with SGE. Moving forward, Dr. Cheung will continue to implement its missions of promoting the commoditization of gold and RMB internationalisation through forging closer and further cooperation with the countries along “One Belt, One Road” zone and mutual accreditation of precious metal products.

Responsible for all aspects of HSBC's global precious metals business, including trading, sales, ETF's, physical and custody. Over 30 years’ experience in the industry having joined the bank directly from school in 1984. Initially based in London in various senior trading positions before moving to New York shortly after the banks acquisition of Republic National Bank of New York in 2001. In this new role Paul was responsible for developing and leveraging off the synergies of the combined banks precious metals businesses before being appointed as Head of Precious Metals for the Americas in 2006 and subsequently HSBC's Global Head of Precious Metals in 2012.？？

Matthew Hastings is the Global Head, Commodity Trading at Standard Chartered Bank. Matthew is based in London and joined SCB in August 2017 as the Global Head, Energy Trading. Matthew has over 20 years of experience working for Banks and Trading Firms, prior to joining SCB he worked for PetroChina in Houston. Before that, Matthew worked at Mercuria Energy, Barclays and Merrill Lynch.

Sergio Pagani is the Global Head of Commodity Sales and Trading at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ).？Sergio joined ANZ in 2012 in Singapore where he was initially responsible for the commodities trading business. Prior to joining ANZ, Sergio was Head of Commodities at MUSI (Mitsubishi UFJ Securities International) and a member of the Executive Committee. Sergio has over 20 years of experience in financial markets which range from fund management to sales and trading. He worked at UBS in Zurich at the Private Bank where he was fund manager with investments in bonds and equities and assets under management over CHF1 billion. After moving to London he joined Bankers Trust which subsequently was taken over by Deutsche Bank to market derivative products to European clients. At Dresdner Bank he was Head of European Derivatives Marketing and subsequently moved to trading as Head of Energy & Hybrid Trading. Sergio holds a Masters of Management from EAP (ESCP) and is a Certified European Financial Analyst.

As a senior executive with over 2 decades of experience in the banking industry, Mr. Lee was appointed the Regional Global Markets Head for South Asia in October 2019. In his current role, Mr. Lee provides business oversight for Global Markets business at Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Lee has held a range of positions with increasing responsibilities during his 20-year career span, including Maybank’s GWB Head of Compliance and Governance for 2019 and Maybank GWB Group Head of Business Management and Technology for 2017-2018. Head of Global Markets and Corporate Treasurer Bank International Indonesia (now Maybank Indonesia) for 2015-2016, Director of Global Front Office Management and Global Sales for 2009-2015 in Malayan Banking Berhad; and Group Head of Corporate Sales for 2005-2009 in Hong Leong Bank Berhad, and corporate dealer for 1998-2005 in Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Berhad. Mr. Lee has a considerable knowledge of the banking industry, including also the roles in project implementation of treasury risk management systems namely Murex and Kplus. Mr. Lee obtained Bachelor of Laws from University of London in 1995.

Scott Willig is the Global Head of Precious Metals Trading at J.P. Morgan. Scott has held a number of leadership positions within the J.P. Morgan Commodities division since 2008 including Head of US Macro Investable Indices Trading & Structuring and Head of Global Agricultural Trading. Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, Scott worked in Commodities and Interest Rates Trading at Lehman Brothers. Scott holds a B.A. in Economics with a concentration in Finance from Princeton University.

Justin Holland joined BNP Paribas 14 years ago into their Singapore office. Spending 7 years developing the Asian metals business for BNPP before relocating to BNPP NY office for another 5 years. Linking the western and eastern demand for commodities and commodity solutions has helped bring a global insight to his work. Justin moved back to Singapore at the start of 2018, to further the Asian commodities platform. As Managing Director, Commodities Trading APAC, Justin is responsible for all commodities trading activities across the region. Justin is part of the BNPP Asia Trading EXCO, under his remit in Asia is not only precious metals, but crude oil, oil products, base metal, iron ore freight and agriculture. Justin’s experience in precious metals dates back to his time at ANZ, where he began his career over 24 years ago. Justin has had previous experience at ANZ in FX options and precious metals, 1997 to 2006, Standard Chartered 2006 to 2008.

Raj joined ICBC Standard Bank Plc as a Managing Director in September 2015. ICBC Standard Bank is a leading financial markets and commodities bank that benefits from its unique Chinese and African parentage. Raj Heads up the Precious Metals Strategic Business Development and Clearing and Vaulting. Raj is also a Director of London Precious Metals Clearing Limited (LPMCL) and on the Board of the London Bullion Market Association. Prior to joining ICBCS, Raj held senior positions over 11 years at Deutsche Bank including the Global Head of Clearing and Vaulting, Head of Precious Sales and Physical Trading. Raj also represented DB on the LBMA Physical Committee and was a Director of the LPMCL. Prior to DB, Raj worked at Goldman Sachs for 11 years supporting the Metals and Commodities business in various roles.

CEO of MKS (Switzerland) SA since 1983 and member of the Executive Management Committee, he has developed the company into a leading integrated precious metals group. Marwan, who graduated from The Wharton School of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, with a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Multinational Enterprises, regularly shares his expertise on the gold and precious metals market as a keynote speaker throughout the industry on those global precious metals forums. He was a primary member of the Task Force Committee to prepare a report on commodities markets for the G20 summit in Paris in 2011. He is also an international consultant to the Shanghai Gold Exchange.

Steffen Voss is an experienced executive with an international track record and excellent leadership skills. Voss is now serving as Global Head of Business Line Functional Materials of Heraeus Precious Metals, mainly responsible for the global precious metal service and product business of the group. Voss started his career as R&D Manager of Varta AG in 1998 where he was responsible for R&D projects for the development of Li-Ion batteries for automotive applications and the analytical laboratory. He joined Heraeus in 2002 as a production manager, assuming several senior positions within the group. While he was in charge of the global precious metal refining business of Heraeus as Business Unit Manager Recycling from 2008 to 2011, he combined sales and production into one business unit and started the precious metal refining business in China. Voss holds PhD degree in Chemistry from the Philipps University of Marburg.

Dr. Kritcharat is the Chairman and CEO of MTS Gold Group. He was part of The Gem and Jewelry Institute of Thailand committee (public organization) and also members of various Precious Metal committee in Thailand such Thai Gold Trader Association. He also specializes in the analysis of gold prices and has been publicized through local television channels and radio. In his long career, Dr. Kritcharat has contributed much expertise to the innovation and improvement of the Thai gold industry. He received the AML/CFT Expert Award in Gold from the Thailand Stock Exchange and was the first broker to bring Gold Futures products in the Thai Futures Exchange and to support Gold Trading in the derivative market in ASEAN. He also contributed to setting the Thai Gold standard of 96.5% in Thai Gold Market and also promoted the internationalization of Thai Gold Market. Dr. Kritcharat graduated with a medical doctor degree, which earned him the nickname "Dr. Gold".

Alan McGroarty has been with Tower Research Capital since mid-2013 and is now serving as COO and CFO. Alan has over 20 years’ experience working in a range of top Finance institutions, including senior positions at Goldman Sachs, UBS and Merrill Lynch. The majority of his career has been spent creating/growing the electronic trading business, and more recently in the proprietary trading space. Alan has served on the board of European exchanges, and is a member of the executive of FIA-European Proprietary Traders Association and LME trading committee. He holds a D.Phil. in Neuropharmacology from Oxford.

John Humpherys is Managing Director, APAC Operations for the Jump Trading group. He has worked with the group since 2009 in Chicago, Singapore and Shanghai. In his current role, Mr. Humpherys manages Jump's operations across the Asia-Pacific region including the expansion of the group's trading business in the region. He has worked closely with external parties such as exchanges, brokers and regulators both in the US and the Asia-Pacific region to help foster market development.