Specialist working capital advisory firm Silver Birch Finance has appointed industry veteran Michael Vrontamitis as senior advisor.

Vrontamitis’ career in trade finance spans almost three decades, the bulk of which he spent at Standard Chartered. After joining the bank in 1995 as an assistant relationship manager for UK-based oil and gas multinationals, he held numerous roles in London and Hong Kong before becoming head of trade for Europe and the Americas in 2017. Since leaving the bank in 2020, he has served in an advisory capacity for trade and technology platform Kountable, and spent 2022 as Finastra’s lead industry principal for syndicated lending and trade finance.

Vrontamitis has held a number of external industry roles, among them chairing Baft’s Global Trade Industry Council and co-chairing the ICC Banking Commission’s digitalisation in trade finance working group. He currently serves as the deputy chair of the World Trade Board.

In his new role, he will advise the Silver Birch team on strategy, product development and market engagement.

“I am very excited to be working with the team at Silver Birch, as well as their clients and partners,” says Vrontamitis. “The working capital challenges Silver Birch are solving for are more relevant than ever as companies deal with the transformation of supply chains, a move to a ‘just-in-case’ mindset and the challenges of elevated interest rates on cash flows.”

“I am absolutely delighted to be working with Michael again,” says Sean Hanafin, CEO of Silver Birch, who served as Standard Chartered’s European head of global corporate coverage during Vrontamitis’ time at the bank. “He is a significant global figure in the trade finance market and is hugely respected by banks and corporates alike. His knowledge and experience will be immensely valuable to Silver Birch, our bank partners and our corporate clients as we continue to grow the business.”