Anne-Marie Woolley has settled into her new role at Standard Chartered Bank in London, having left Barclays Africa at the end of last year (see GTR, Nov/Dec 2003, p4), where she was director, structured trade and commodity finance. Talking exclusively to GTR, Woolley says of the move from Barclays: “Barclays relocated the Africa head office function to South Africa and I did not want to move from the UK.”

As director for structured trade finance, Africa, at Standard Chartered, her role is deal origination for structured trade deals, primarily in east Africa, Ghana, Zambia and Indian Ocean region. She will support the structured trade finance team in developing the bank’s business into Africa and strengthening its presence there, while supporting clients’ international trade financing needs.

On business opportunities, Woolley comments: “Africa is a vast continent filled with opportunity. Every market has its challenges for doing business, with some providing more opportunity than others. The recent changes we have seen in Kenya (relating government policies for public sector companies) and the hike in copper prices in Zambia may lead to promising growth in structured trade. With Standard chartered’s strong presence in these markets, I am sure we will be able to harness these.”

The African structured trade finance team is headed by Anil Dua. Others in the team are John Goodridge covering the oil and gas sector, and recently arrived from East Africa is JP Benichou, who will cover French speaking West Africa and Nigeria.