The Institute of International Finance (IIF) has announced its 2026 cohort of the Future Leaders Group (FLG), naming 60 high-performing executives drawn from member institutions across 32 countries, with African finance leaders taking a visible place in one of global finance’s most influential leadership pipelines.
Now in its 13th year, the IIF Future Leaders Group is widely regarded as a bellwether for the next generation of global financial leadership.
Participants are nominated by their institutions based on proven performance and demonstrated potential to rise into C-suite and senior policy roles shaping global markets. Upon completion, the 2026 cohort will join an alumni network of more than 600 senior leaders spanning banking, investment, regulation and global policy.
For Africa’s financial ecosystem, the announcement underscores a growing recognition of African expertise, institutional depth and leadership capacity within the global financial architecture.
African Institutions on a Global Stage
Among the 2026 cohort are senior professionals from African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Commercial International Bank of Egypt and Standard Bank Group, institutions that play central roles in financing trade, infrastructure, entrepreneurship and economic resilience across the continent.
Celine Stino of Afreximbank represents one of Africa’s most strategic multilateral financial institutions, which has become a cornerstone of trade finance, industrialisation and intra-African commerce under the AfCFTA framework.
Adham Nada of Commercial International Bank – Egypt reflects the growing sophistication of North African banking systems integrating with global capital markets.
Kearabetswe Modingwana of Standard Bank Group, Africa’s largest bank by assets, brings continental experience from an institution deeply embedded in SME finance, infrastructure lending and cross-border investment flows.
Their inclusion reinforces Africa’s expanding role not only as a growth market, but as a source of global financial leadership and innovation.
“A Strategic Investment Into Global Finance”
Announcing the cohort, Tim Adams, President and CEO of the IIF, described the program as a core pillar of the organisation’s long-term strategy.
“The Future Leaders Group stands as one of the IIF’s most strategic investments into global finance bringing together exceptional talent, cultivating diverse perspectives and fostering the next C-suite of the industry. I’m looking forward to convening our 2026 class and the ideas they’ll bring,” he said.
The FLG is designed to push participants beyond operational roles, exposing them to the macroeconomic, regulatory, technological and geopolitical forces reshaping finance.
For African participants, this platform offers rare proximity to decision-makers shaping capital allocation, risk frameworks and policy norms that directly affect emerging markets.
A Program Built for Influence and Innovation
The Class of 2026 will convene at IIF-hosted leadership forums in New York City in June, followed by sessions in October alongside the IIF Annual Membership Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand. These gatherings are structured to encourage cross-border dialogue, strategic thinking and long-term professional alliances.
Participants represent a wide spectrum of expertise, including:
- Capital markets
- Corporate and wholesale banking
- Investment and asset management
- Research and strategy
- Regulatory affairs and global policy
- Business development and innovation
This diversity mirrors the increasingly interconnected nature of global finance, where African institutions now sit at the intersection of trade, development finance, fintech innovation and climate-linked investment.
Africa’s Growing Leadership Footprint
The inclusion of African professionals comes at a time when African financial institutions are playing a more assertive role in closing SME financing gaps, mobilising climate finance, expanding trade credit and supporting entrepreneurship across fast-growing economies.
As global investors reassess emerging markets and seek resilient growth stories, Africa’s banks and development institutions are increasingly shaping solutions rather than importing them. Programs like the IIF Future Leaders Group accelerate this shift by ensuring African voices are present where global financial norms are debated and defined.
The 2026 class includes executives from institutions such as Afreximbank, Standard Bank Group, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Société Générale, BBVA, Barclays, Morgan Stanley and many others placing African leaders shoulder to shoulder with peers from the world’s largest financial institutions.
For Africa’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, the signal is clear. The next generation of global finance leaders increasingly includes Africans shaping capital flows, policy direction and investment priorities.
As the FLG Network continues to expand, Africa’s presence within it reflects not potential alone, but performance and a growing confidence that African financial leadership belongs at the centre of the global system, not its margins.
Below is the complete list of all individuals mentioned in the IIF Future Leaders Group (FLG) Class of 2026:
- Celine Stino — African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank)
- Selim Yuksel — Akbank
- Tobias Rupp — Allianz SE
- Rula Refai — Arab Bank Plc
- Irène Herlea — AXA
- Mariana Doria — Santander Portugal
- Taweesak Mangkalachaiya — Bangkok Bank
- Abdulla Alahmed — Bank ABC
- Jella Reblin — Bank Julius Baer
- Sabrina Ali — Bank of America
- Ayman Jbail — Bank of Palestine
- Tomasz Kowalski — Bank Pekao
- Pippa Hannaby — Barclays
- Jaime Ribelles — BBVA
- Claudio Pompei — Banque et Caisse d’Epargne de l’Etat, Luxembourg (Spuerkeess)
- Rokhan Khan — BNP Paribas
- Jonny Urwin — BNY
- Ke Zhao — China International Capital Corporation Limited (CICC)
- Adyo Sampson — Citi
- Adham Nada — Commercial International Bank – Egypt
- Jack Jiang — Commerzbank AG
- Hwee Chuan Loy — DBS Bank (Hong Kong) Limited
- Emma-Jane Newton — Deutsche Bank
- Ali Al Jubeh — DIFC Authority
- Ida Paulsen — DNB
- Adam Cotter — DZ Bank
- Manuel Gerber — Erste Group Bank AG
- Konstantinos Mastrogiannopoulos — European Investment Bank
- Shuaib Albastaki — First Abu Dhabi Bank
- Santiago Leal Singer — Grupo Financiero Banorte
- Hala Alamdar — Gulf International Bank
- Isadora Arredondo — Hedera
- Ashleigh Collins — HSBC
- Clemens Röling — ING Bank
- Daniel Mendez Delgado — Institute of International Finance
- Francesca Diviccaro — Intesa Sanpaolo
- Katie Knight — JPMorgan Chase
- Tingting Liu — LSEG
- Richard Agabus Tolentino Ocampo — Malayan Banking Berhad
- Kaho Suzuki — Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group
- Takayuki Nishimuta — Mizuho Financial Group
- Megan Fox — Moody’s Ratings
- Gareth Lloyd — Morgan Stanley
- Zeyad Al Melaih — National Bank of Fujairah
- William Appleyard — NatWest
- Pending Nomination — Prudential Plc
- Amna Al-Kuwari — QNB
- Alicia Hanebach — Royal Bank of Canada
- Malin Jarl — SEB
- Nasrine Hassan — Société Générale
- Kearabetswe Modingwana — Standard Bank Group
- Lu Shi — Standard Chartered
- Simon Storey — State Street
- Tomotaka Nakayama — SMBC Group
- Kenta Kano — Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Inc.
- Huey Fang Chen — Swiss Re
- Keisuke Omori — The Norinchukin Bank
- Adam Shalaby — UBS AG
- Mirella Gallace — Westpac
- Teresa Yam — Zurich Japan Life Insurance
