Rupert Sayer
Co-founder and CEO of GTR Ventures
Rupert is co-founder and director of GTR and GTR Ventures, based in Singapore.
He has over 20 years’ experience within the emerging markets trade, commodity and export finance markets. As co-founder and director of GTR, with offices in London and Singapore, Rupert has helped create the leading global media force in trade, commodity and export finance: GTR-Global Trade Review, including launching and managing the annual GTR Asia Trade & Treasury Week in Singapore, the world’s biggest single trade finance-related event, plus events from Brazil to Mongolia, Sweden to Australia, Nigeria to China, US to India, Indonesia to UAE.
He was also founding editor of GTR-Global Trade Review magazine, supplements and e-news. Before GTR, Rupert was founding editor of Trade & Forfaiting Review and editor of Project &Trade Finance at Euromoney Institutional Investor. He was also parliamentary assistant in the House of Commons, research assistant in the European Parliament and research fellow at The Atlantic Council, Nato’s UK representative body. Rupert has an MA in International Studies and a BA in International Relations & Strategic Studies.
Kelvin Tan
Co-founder and Board Member of GTR Ventures
Kelvin is co-founder of GTR Ventures, based in Singapore. Currently, he is the group CEO of Straits42 Group – with activities ranging from asset management, to cross border transactions, corporate advisory/services and risk management. Specific to trade and trade finance, he has over a decade of experience across various institutions.
At the Monetary Authority of Singapore, he worked on technology, data, digitalisation, and product innovation in supply chain finance, alternative lending, B2B payments, procurement, and SME finance. As the secretariat for the MAS-led trade finance committee, he was deeply involved in Singapore’s Networked Trade Platform (NTP) project. At the International Finance Corporation, Kelvin worked on structured trade finance deals, bilateral trade finance programs with banks, providing liquidity support to underserved emerging markets.
At the Ministry of Trade and Industry, he covered and steered trade policy and diplomacy. Kelvin handled cases related to WTO, international trade disputes, customs tariffs, as well as negotiated free trade agreements with ASEAN, India, Ukraine, and Peru. As deputy director for emerging markets, he managed top corporate and government relationships in over 120 countries.
Peter Gubbins
Co-founder and Managing Director of GTR Ventures
Peter is Chief Executive Officer of Global Trade Review (GTR), based in London. He has over 20 years commercial experience in publishing and events across the global trade, commodity and export finance markets. As co-founder of GTR, Peter is responsible for sales and marketing of the company’s publishing activities and global conference portfolio, also playing a central role in wider strategic planning.
Before establishing GTR Peter held senior sales and marketing positions at Euromoney Institutional Investor and Ark Publishing, where he also launched Trade & Forfaiting Review. He is a co-founder and Executive Director of GTR Ventures, the world’s first venture-building and investment platform specialised in trade and supply chain finance.
Peter holds a BA in History from Newcastle University, UK.
