Meet the Executive Team Driving our Success

IFG was founded in 1972 with a simple mission:  to provide easy, affordable access to working capital for small and mid-sized companies.


Today, we’re a global, technology-driven provider of working capital solutions to Fortune 1000 and mid market companies and their suppliers.  Our leadership team has grown too, with deep expertise in commercial lending, invoice finance, and financial technology.


Here’s the team driving our success.

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George Shapiro

Executive Chairman

George was elected CEO and Chairman of The Interface Financial Group in 2007 and Executive Chairman in 2019. He is an accomplished international executive with over twenty five years of business-building experience in emerging markets. After serving for more than 6 years as CEO of assets management company, and then leading the company to a successful merger in 2000, George subsequently became the Chairman of the Board. George currently also holds board of director position of several other companies.

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Maurice Topiol

Executive Vice-Chairman, Board Member

Before joining IFG in 2017, Maurice Topiol spent 22 years at Rothschild where, as Managing Director, he led a number of major assignments including, inter alia, advising the Dutch government throughout the financial crisis which entailed the recapitalisation of ING (€10bn), Aegon (€3bn) and SNS Reaal (€750m), the purchase of a $28bn Alt-A securities portfolio from ING, the disposal of Fortis Corporate Insurance (€350m) and a €5bn partial repayment by ING of the capital injected by the Dutch state. Rothschild won Euromoney’s 2009 “Global Government Adviser of the Year” Award largely thanks to these mandates. Other assignments include advising Mitsubishi on the acquisition of a £4bn project finance portfolio from RBS, Rabobank on a $250m anchor investment in the IPO of Agricultural Bank of China and successfully negotiating with the European Commission the largest State Aid case (€8.5bn) arising out of the 2004 wave of accession when 10 new member states joined the EU.


Maurice holds a BA cum Laude in Government from Harvard University and a Master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of International Affairs.

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Sabeen Ahmed

Chief Operating Officer and Chief Credit Officer

Sabeen was promoted to Chief Credit Officer and Chief Operation Officer in December of 2010. Prior to joining IFG in 2008, she worked as a Senior Underwriter at Scotia Bank in Toronto and was a Financial Advisor to the largest Credit Unit in Canada.

Sabeen has a Chartered Management Accountant degree from McGill University (Montreal, QC) and a Masters in Accounting from George Washington University (Washington, DC). A native of Montreal, she of course speaks French fluently.

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Steve Deyoe

Chief Product Officer

Before joining IFG Steve has served as VP of Technology of the FrontPoint Security Solutions and before that Steve was the CIO of the Capitol Resource Funding where he built the IT system of the invoice finance company.

With the deep understanding of the invoice finance industry Steve is leading IFG Lab in creation of several new advanced technology driven financial products in order to provide IFG clients with 21st century “button-money” applications.

 

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Peter Jacobstein

Chief Revenue Officer

Peter joined IFG in 2018 from Folio Investing, where he served as Senior Vice President, leading all aspects of the company’s technology-driven retail brokerage business.   In that role, he drove a fivefold increase in customers through a strategy focused on strategic partnerships and acquisitions.  Prior to this, he was a senior leader at The Motley Fool, and as President of Motley Fool Asset Management directed the company’s move into financial services with the launch of its mutual fund complex.  Peter began his career with marketing and corporate strategy positions at Time Warner and Discovery Communications, Inc.
 
A graduate of Georgetown University, Peter received his MBA from Harvard Business School.

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Nancy Odonnell

Creative Director/Head of UX

Nancy is a seasoned designer with expertise in UX, User Interface, Multimedia, and Print Design. Her innovative and award-winning approach, coupled with a passion for creative thinking, allows her to excel in crafting intuitive and user-friendly solutions. Nancy's portfolio includes world-class web and mobile applications, multimedia projects, and brand identities tailored to diverse industries like FINTECH, Pharmaceutical, Healthcare, Entertainment, Government, and Fashion.

Prior to her role at IFG, Nancy served as Senior UX/UI Designer and Art Director at Citigroup in New York for 6 years. She has also made significant contributions to Fortune 500 companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Benetton, and Tommy Hilfiger.

Nancy holds a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Multi-Media Design from The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Master’s degree in Information Design from The University of Delaware.

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Anthony Murphy

Director IFG Australia

Anthony has joining IFG as a Director in 2017 and he is responsible for overseeing IFG Australia’s continued growth into the Asia-Pacific region.

As the CEO of the Lucerne Investment Partners he is responsible for overseeing and leading both Lucerne Group strategy and ongoing management. Previously, Anthony founded and led the Australian Wealth Management business at Canaccord Genuity – a global investment bank.

During this period, a key focus of Anthony’s was the development of cross-border relationships between Australia and Asia, and in particular, China and Singapore. Anthony’s initiative in co-founding Lucerne Investment Partners represents an extension of this work.

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Michael Houghton

Director IFG Australia

Michael is a senior finance and investment executive with more than 25 years’ experience in local and international private wealth management. He has previously held senior roles with Macquarie Bank, Citibank Switzerland, JB Were and ANZ and Westpac Private Banks.

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Martin Andersson

Board Member

Having graduated from the Stockholm School of Economics in 1989 and HEC Paris in 1990, Mr. Andersson worked as a consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton in Mergers & Acquisitions. From 1992-1993 he was seconded as an advisor to the Privatization Committee at the Government of the Russian Federation.


In August 1993 Mr. Andersson became one of the co-founders of Brunswick Group and was appointed CEO of Brunswick Brokerage in November 1993. He subsequently became Chairman of Brunswick UBS Warburg in 1999. He also chaired the Board of Directors of Brunswick Capital Limited (2002-2007) and Brunswick Rail Leasing (2005-2007).


He currently sits on the Board of Europi Property Group Ltd and is Chairman of Brunswick Property Partners Ltd and Charaat Gold Holdings Ltd. He manages an active investment portfolio with an interest in real estate, financial services and information technology.

David Vlerick

Board Member

David has joined IFG Board in 2024. He studied Law (in Namur and Leuven) followed by a Master in General Management at the Vlerick Business School.
David started his career at ING (International Wholesale Banking Traineeship) in 2007.
He then worked at 3i Private Equity in Amsterdam, and UBS Investment Banking and Moorgate Merchant Bank in London.
In 2015 he joined the Vlerick Group, and recently he founded a platform giving investors access to top Venture Capital funds. Next to being a CFA-Charterholder, David also obtained a CAIA (‘Chartered Alternative Investment Association’) designation.

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Barry Rudolph

President Capital Market

Barry was IFG Board Member from 2008 to 2023. Before this Barry was Head of Private Equity and Managing Director at The Presidio Group, a financial services and wealth management firm based in San Francisco, CA. Prior to Presidio, Barry served as founding CEO of Figure 8 Wireless and CFO of Chipcon Group, prior to its acquisition by Texas Instruments. He also served as vice president of corporate and business development at Widcomm prior to its sale to Broadcom Corporation. Barry was also a private equity investor at Chase Capital Partners, where he executed growth equity investments and was an investment banker at Merrill Lynch in both the U.S. and Asia.

Barry graduated magna cum laude from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN, and received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

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Vishnu Kumar

Chief Financial Engineer

Before joining IFG, Vishnu held a VP position at Clear Iris and prior to that he was VP of Information Technology at Instructional Technologies. With an MBA and Computer Science degree from the University of Michigan and experience in financial engineering, Vishnu is leading IFG’s team in creating cutting edge system architecture and platform expansion.

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Grace Yeh

General Counsel

Prior to joining IFG as General Counsel in 2018, Grace Yeh

practiced corporate law at Pillsbury Winthrop and Hogan Lovells where she represented corporations and financial institutions in the areas of public and private securities offerings, mergers & acquisitions, securities lending and options trading programs, and general corporate counseling.

She also practiced in the Office of General Counsel at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) where she was responsible for rule development and implementation.

A Harvard law graduate, she is admitted to the Bar in New York and DC.

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Bruce Williams

Director of IFG UK

Bruce Williams has over 30 years of experience in the accounting, finance and corporate recovery markets across the UK and internationally. He began his career in accountancy in London, followed by a 5 year spell in the Far East. Returning to the UK, Bruce had a successful career in the City working in the inter-dealer brokering market eventually becoming a member of the firm’s board. Following this and prior to joining IFG in 2010 he was for ten years an independent interim manager and turnaround specialist.

He has an MBA from Cranfield.

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Adrian O'Connell

Ireland Chief Executive

Adrian O’Connell has joined the IFG team as the Ireland Chief Executive in 2015. Adrian has over 25 years experience working in the Financial Sector in both Ireland and the UK. He began his career in branch banking in Bank of Ireland before moving to Bank of Scotland (Ireland) and then Certus, and has a wealth of experience in funding all sorts of businesses from SMEs to Corporate Property and Construction. Latterly he was head of Asset Disposal for Certus and has many years experience in insolvency and business turnaround.

Adrian has a Bachelor degree in Financial Services from University College Dublin and is a Licentiate of the Institute of Bankers in Ireland.