OpRisk North America

Deborah Hrvatin is CRO and the Global Head of Institutional Clients Group (ICG) Operational Risk Management at Citigroup, reporting to the ICG Chief Risk Officer. Deborah is responsible for improving risk management, strengthening controls, and enabling profitable growth within risk appetite.

Deborah joined Citigroup in July 2017 from Deutsche Bank where she most recently was Managing Director and Head of Operational Risk for the Americas and the Global Corporate Finance division. During her 21 year tenure at Deutsche Bank, Deborah held numerous other roles including Head of Operational Risk for the Corporate Banking and Securities division where she was responsible for developing and implementing the division's operational risk management, supervision and information security framework. Deborah also held leadership roles within the business, including Chief Operating Officer for Deutsche Bank's Global Securitization Group.

Prior to joining Deutsche Bank in 1999, Deborah was an Equities Controller with Bankers Trust Company and also served as a Commissioned Bank Examiner with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Deborah received her BBA and MBA in International Finance from Hofstra University.

Flora Sah is the Chief Risk Officer for Global Risk Management at Bank of America. She is the lead risk partner and central delivery conduit, responsible for driving ownership, execution, and oversight between the technology teams and the horizontal risk functions to provide a holistic view of all risks and create robust future state strategy and implementation roadmap.

Before joining Bank of America, Flora was the executive advisory council at Gerson Lehrman Group, responsible for business advisory and technology consulting. Prior to that, Flora held multiple leadership roles at State Street Corporation, including COO of Enterprise Risk Management, Head of Risk & Regulatory Technology, and CTO & Head of Vendor Risk Management. Before joining State Street Corporation, Flora spent several years at Cambridge Technology Partners where she led consulting practices in financial services, retail, and healthcare industry.

Flora holds a M.S. in Engineering Management from Northeastern University and a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and Information Systems from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Born and brought up in Mumbai India, Bala Ayyar has worked in the field of Finance & Accounting and Banking for more than thirty years. Bala holds professional accounting qualifications from both India and the United States. He has an undergraduate degree in mathematics from the University of Mumbai.

Since joining SG in 2009, he has held a range of positions. Currently, he is the Chief Data Officer, SG Americas, with responsibility for data management and governance within the Region. This function is responsible for implementing the requirements of BCBS 239, establishing sound data governance framework that meets Group needs and local supervisory expectations and creating a solid platform for the data to be leveraged for strategic business decisions. Prior to that, he headed up the Project Management Office for the SG US Transformation project. Roles before that included Head of Finance Offshoring in SG Bangalore and Deputy CFO of the Americas Region of their Corporate & Investment Bank.

Prior to joining SG, Bala was with the Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) for fourteen years in a range of positions in Toronto and New York. As Senior Vice President of the Wholesale North America Finance, he headed up the controllership function for CIBC's World Markets and Treasury & Risk Management Strategic Business Units within North America. With a total team of about 175 individuals across Toronto and New York, he was responsible for establishing a SOX-compliant industry-leading Finance control environment as well as supporting the efficient execution of business initiatives and managing the Finance related US regulatory relationships during a very demanding period. Prior to that, he also had stints as the business-line controller for the Bank's US origination businesses (Corporate Lending, Investment Banking, Merchant Banking, Structured Finance and High Yield), as well as the 2/ic to the Chief Accountant, with responsibility for consolidated financial, management and regulatory reporting at the corporate level.

Prior to CIBC, he was with the public accounting firm of KPMG for 10 years, mostly in Bahrain in the Middle East. He held a range of positions culminating in Senior Manager. Responsible for assurance and consulting engagements for offshore banks, focused on technical excellence, customer satisfaction and practice profitability. He was the Engagement Senior Manager for the region's second-largest bank and also played a key role in setting up a Treasury consulting specialization within KPMG Bahrain.
Bala Ayyar lives in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, is married with two children and enjoys long-distance running.