Asset financing the transportation industry

Gerard Melling is a California attorney and UK barrister working in Long Beach CA for Mitsui & Co.’s aerospace team principally for aircraft leasing and trading – working with offices in Dublin, Tokyo and Singapore – and is Treasurer of the IBA Aviation Law Committee - previously the Publications Officer. Counsel in charge of Mitsui & Co aviation business for aircraft and engine trading and leasing and related projects: and Mitsui Bussan Aerospace Co. helicopter and defense business. Based in Long Beach CA Formerly in Mitsui London Started off in Dept of Trade and Industry Member of CA bar and member of Gray's Inn LLB King's College London, Dip Eur Int. Amsterdam

Sybille Rexer has more than 20 years of experience as a lawyer in the transportation industry. She started her carreer as an attorney advising shipping companies in financing and sale and purchase transactions and has since then advised clients in transportation and aviation with a focus on contract work and international litigation. She is an experienced speaker in international conferences and webinars and is active in the Aviation Law Committee as well as the Maritime and Transport Law Committee of the IBA.

John is Managing Director of Oldendorff Overseas Investments, a sister company of Reederei Nord. OOI is an investment manager in real asset solutions, with particular focus on shipping. Founded in 2011, OOI currently manages EUR 300 million for institutional investors. Prior to joining Reederei Nord, John worked in the Maritime Transportation Team at Hawkpoint, a London based M&A boutique. John holds a Bachelor in Macroeconomics from Heidelberg University and a Master’s degree in International Management from ESCP in Paris.

Philipp Wünschmann is Head of Shipping in the Corporate Banking division at Berenberg. Philipp Wünschmann has around 20 years of experience in the industry, of which 6 years at Deutsche Schiffsbank, where he was responsible for a shipping loan portfolio of up to roughly USD 9.0 billion. Before joining Berenberg he was managing director at Erck Rickmers shipping group and responsible for business development, among others. In this role he initiated and structured various shipping projects, arranged the debt and equity financing, and assisted with their asset management as managing director following successful realisation of the projects.

Ayşe is currently the Deputy Chief Legal Counsel of Tutkish Airlines, She joined Turkish Airlines in 2009, having previously worked for several years on international transactions and aviation law in Turkey, acting for lessors, financers and owners on the financial and operational leasing of aircraft and engines to Turkish operators. Ayşe has 15 years of experience in aircraft and engine lease financing, operating leases and tax-based leases, export credit finance, aircraft trading, and a variety of other matters in both international and Turkish law. She worked on Turkey’s first enhanced equipment trust certificates (EETC) financing deal for the financing of three new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, with a certificate amount of nearly $329m, which has led to the company receiving 'Runner-up International Bond Deal of the Year' award at the Global Financial Conferences in 2015. Ayse has worked on the ratification period of Cape Town Convention and participated in the committee that designed the Turkish Law changes in order to provide the full application of the Convention in Turkey. Ayşe has extensive aviation regulatory experience and she is recognized as a leading aviation/asset finance practitioner in Turkey and listed as one of the most influential in-house lawyers in business in Turkey by The Legal 500 – The GC Powerlist 2017. She was a speaker in EALA (EUROPEAN AIR LAW ASSOCIATION), 12th Munich Liability Seminar on July 2019 and Aircraft Finance Seminar as arranged by the Aviation Law Committee at the IBA Annual 2020. Ayşe also wrote one of the first thesis in Turkey on aircraft finance, 'Financial Leases and Aircraft Finance in Turkey', published in 2012.

Dr Donal Patrick Hanley is an Adjunct Professor with the Institute of Air and Space Law at McGill University. He is also a non-executive director of several aircraft leasing and trading companies and an instructor in aircraft leasing and finance with the International Air Transport Association and others. He was previously managing director of the Irish operations of a large commercial aircraft leasing company and co-founded a commercial aircraft leasing company in Egypt. Qualified as a lawyer in Ireland, England and California, his career spans Europe, the Middle East, Asia and North America in both international law firms and aircraft leasing companies. A Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, he has over thirty years of experience as an aircraft leasing and finance lawyer and has negotiated and restructured leases and repossessed aircraft in many countries around the world during the course of his career as a practicing lawyer. His book on Aircraft Operating Leasing is the standard work on the law of aircraft operating leasing.

Ajay has around 15 years of experience in aviation transactions and has advised on leasing, financing, securitization and structuring of various cross border aviation matters. His practice areas primarily are transaction structuring, regulatory compliance, repossessions and litigation for Clients across the globe. He has extensively been involved in Kingfisher, SpiceJet, Jet Airways and other repossessions and bankruptcy matters and is preferred for his commercial acumen, straightforward advice and solution oriented approach. Appreciated by the Clients and all major Firms for his clean advise and is regarded as ‘a very reliable lawyer’ and one having ‘senior experience'. He is also consulted by the Ministry of Civil Aviation regularly.