Richard O’Donohue joined AFC’s team of senior industry thought leaders from the auto, equipment and asset finance industry at the end of 2024. Richard who lives in Ireland, stood down from Dell’s financial services arm earlier that year. At Dell he had global responsibility for strategic partnerships.

Richard will now assist AFC during H1 2025 in developing its European content starting with a series of podcasts which will focus on the equipment finance and captive market in Europe. 

Richard joined Dell in 2010 as part of the leadership team that transitioned Dell’s financing business in EMEA from an outsourced model to a captive operation. This was achieved by setting up a regulated bank in Ireland with Dell now offering direct financing in 23 countries in EMEA. Prior to joining Dell, Richard held a variety of sales, business development and risk management roles at Microsoft Financing and Cisco Capital. 

Björn is an experienced international business leader with a focus on leasing and added services.

He has worked at Sandvik since 2017 and prior to this, spent 10 years with GE in a variety of managerial positions.

Jon Souch is an experienced sales leader and financial services professional with a proven track record across multiple product, vertical and international markets. At Lenovo Global Financial Services, he leads the EMEA region, ensuring their cus- mers have access to a comprehensive range of commercial solutions that allow them to invest in industry leading technology in the most flexible, scalable and cost efficient manner.

I have over 15 years of global experience in Asset Finance, Mobility and Capital Markets. My journey spans from being an industry expert and trusted advisor to an entrepreneur Leader, with deep understanding of customer behaviours, Technology trends and industry shifts cross industries. 

I have engaged across the entire sales journey - GTM strategies, Pipeline building, RFP, Demos and Qualifications, Due-diligence to Pricing and Closing for delivering technology-led business innovations and Zero-to-One digital products for Global FSI Clients. 

She was twice nominated for the The European Women of Achievement awards at London's Grosvenor house Event , for the business category . The event aims to reward outstanding accomplishment with special accolades women in arts, healthcare, politics and various industries and the final short list is drawn from thousands of nominations from throughout the European Union.She is member of the Board of Directors at Amcham Finland. Representing the interest of member companies, the Board oversees the strategic direction of the Nordic region’s key international business hub .

John Rees has worked in equipment finance for over 40 years, most recently with Societe Generale’s equipment finance subsidiary, where he focused on the UK, Australian, and Chinese markets before joining the bank’s headquarters in Paris with global responsibility for sales and marketing.

John joined Asset Finance Connect in 2021 to assist with the development of AFC's European equipment finance member community.

Richard O’Donohue joined AFC’s team of senior industry thought leaders from the auto, equipment and asset finance industry at the end of 2024. Richard who lives in Ireland, stood down from Dell’s financial services arm earlier that year. At Dell he had global responsibility for strategic partnerships.

Richard will now assist AFC during H1 2025 in developing its European content starting with a series of podcasts which will focus on the equipment finance and captive market in Europe. 

Richard joined Dell in 2010 as part of the leadership team that transitioned Dell’s financing business in EMEA from an outsourced model to a captive operation. This was achieved by setting up a regulated bank in Ireland with Dell now offering direct financing in 23 countries in EMEA. Prior to joining Dell, Richard held a variety of sales, business development and risk management roles at Microsoft Financing and Cisco Capital. 

Christoph has over 15 years of international experience in financial services and management consulting. Prior to joining Invigors, he was a Principal at KPMG, focusing on performance and regulatory-driven transformation, including separation/integration, process automation, business and operating model restructuring, and operational resilience.Before his tenure at KPMG, Christoph held management roles at DLL, Rabobank Group, and Daimler Financial Services. In these positions, he enhanced commercial propositions and business models. Notably, Christoph was responsible for Athlon’s white-label business and led DLL’s and Rabobank’s greenfield operations in Turkey, where he established licensed bank, leasing, and factoring entities.

Formerly Global Head of Asset Management and Remarketing at DLL, Ian brings vast experience of all aspects of asset management and remarketing, across a broad spectrum of collaterals. Prior - DLL, Ian worked in the leasing industry for Dell Financial Services, CIT and Siemens Financial Services and is highly experienced in all aspects of vendor and direct leasing. Ian is an industry leader capable of bridging between high level business strategy and the practicalities of systems, risk management, information management, process development, organisational delivery. Originally a strategic business consultant he regularly supports OEMs and vendor finance companies in developing their business and financing strategies.

Nick has extensive international experience in asset finance, leasing, and financial services leadership. He specialises in vendor finance, captive finance, technology financing, embedded finance, and ‘as-a-service’ models. He began his career in leasing and commercial finance, working at a UK broker and bank owned lessor. He then spent 10 years at CIT on the Dell Financial Services (DFS) program, holding multiple roles across Europe and leading DFS operations in Asia-Pacific (APAC). After returning - Europe, he spent 11 years at Lenovo Financial Services where he set up Lenovo Financial services in EMEA and APAC. Later, he was responsible for the global strategy, development, and implementation of Device as a Service (DaaS) and Pay-per-use models, driving digital transformation in asset finance and system integration for enterprise technology financing.

Product and market owner in the asset finance industry with a computer science PhD in algorithm design and optimisation.

I’ve spent the last 12 years implementing software for lessors of all sizes within the asset finance industry globally, with an especially deep knowledge of the UK and EMEA equipment finance markets.

My background as a PhD computer scientist crossed with my experience of working closely with the full range of business users allows me to combine a deep understanding of business problems with the technical knowledge to lead software development teams.

I have over 15 years of global experience in Asset Finance, Mobility and Capital Markets. My journey spans from being an industry expert and trusted advisor to an entrepreneur Leader, with deep understanding of customer behaviours, Technology trends and industry shifts cross industries. 

I have engaged across the entire sales journey - GTM strategies, Pipeline building, RFP, Demos and Qualifications, Due-diligence to Pricing and Closing for delivering technology-led business innovations and Zero-to-One digital products for Global FSI Clients. 

Allegra Patrizi served as the Managing Director of all the business and commercial activities of Virgin Money from 2023 until the recent acquisition by Nationwide.

In 2025, Mrs Patrizi founded the Silver-Stripes Ventures which encompasses a portfolio of applications, developed under her leadership, and focused on deploying AI in different businesses. In particular, one of these, Claridora.AI has established itself as one of the leading news and insight platforms for Board Members and senior Executives on topics related to AI. In parallel, she has been holding various non-executive positions.

Prior, Mrs Patrizi held various management positions at Prudential PLC, first as a member of the CEO office, where she was involved in defining the group strategy and managing the US business, then as Prudential’s Group Risk Director from 2013 to 2015. Mrs Patrizi started her career at McKinsey, where she was among the youngest ever to be elected as a Partner, at the age of 29, and where she was a member of the leadership teams for banking, wholesale banking, asset management and insurance. 

Mrs Patrizi has over 30 years’ experience in the financial services industry, and extensive international experience, having worked in the USA, UK, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Romania and Russia.

Mrs Patrizi holds an MBA from INSEAD, and a Master and DEA in engineering from Ecole Normale Superieure, France. 

In her spare time, Mrs Patrizi has authored cook books and competed in horse-riding international eventing competitions under the Belgian flag.

Karan boasts over 15 years of experience in product management, following senior and executive roles in Diebold Nixdorf and Backbase..