Randolph W. Pinna
President and Chief Executive Officer
Gerhard S. Barnard
Group Chief Financial Officer
Wade Bracy
Managing Director, CXI
James Devenish
Managing Director, EBC
Khatuna Bezhitashvili
Vice President, Human Resources
Farzana Esmail
Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Anti-Money Laundering Officer
Katie Davis
Treasurer
Dennis Winkel
Chief Risk Officer, Chief Privacy Officer
Randolph W. Pinna
President, Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Pinna was appointed the Chief Executive Officer, President and Director of Currency Exchange International, Corp. (“CXI”), EBC's parent company, when it began operating in October 2007. From 1989 to 2003, Mr. Pinna was President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Foreign Currency Exchange Corp., and remained in this role after the friendly acquisition by Bank of Ireland Group until October of 2007. Mr. Pinna was responsible for the growth of Foreign Currency Exchange Corp from a small, one-location operation in Tampa Bay, Florida, to being a multinational publicly-traded company on the TSX with over 30,000 customer and client bank locations.
At Bank of Ireland Group, Mr. Pinna was Chief Executive Officer for the North American Foreign Exchange Business and was involved in all aspects of the North American business, including asset management, lending, foreign exchange, and accounting.
Having graduated from the University of Central Florida with a bachelor's degree in finance with a focus on international business, Mr. Pinna has over 30 years of experience in international banking with an emphasis on foreign exchange.
Gerhard S. Barnard
Group Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Barnard’s primary focus is to oversee the responsibilities of the CXI Group of Companies’ Financial and Treasury operations, including regulatory and financial reporting, investor relations, cash management, liquidity and capital resource requirements, business intelligence and planning.
Mr. Barnard worked as a senior finance leader in South Africa in various industries ranging from pathology at Ampath Laboratories to shared services and financial management at Standard Bank of South Africa. He immigrated to Canada in 2007 where he worked as CFO and SVP of Olympia Financial Group Inc. for 15 years.
Mr. Barnard graduated with a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Pretoria, an honors degree in accounting from the University of South Africa and a master's degree in financial management from the University of Johannesburg. He holds the Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) designation.
Wade Bracy
Managing Director, CXI
Mr. Bracy is the Managing Director, CXI. Mr. Bracy is a seasoned executive and has been with the CXI Group since its inception in 2007. Mr. Bracy has held a variety of roles in the organization and throughout his time, has successfully demonstrated his ability to achieve the organization’s strategic goals. He has extensive experience and an in-depth understanding of the Company’s infrastructure and processes as well as the industry’s current market trends.
Mr. Bracy is intimately familiar with the critical partnerships for CXI, which are essential for future growth. His customer-first mentality coupled with his technical capability have helped him in building strong relationships with clients, employees, and other stakeholders. In the past, Mr. Bracy has held the titles of VP Finance and Controller where he oversaw growth from the Company’s founding when the Company had eight retail stores to more than forty retail locations and nearly 1,000 wholesale relationship. He also was critical in assisting the Company during its public offering in 2012 as well a secondary offering 2015. Mr. Bracy contributed extensively to the banking application and helped secured Exchange Bank of Canada’s banking license in 2016. During his role of Treasurer and VP of Process improvements, he helped implement a Treasury Management System to support the growth of the payments business of the group as well as assisted in launching FX Forwards for EBC.
Mr. Bracy graduated from the University of Central Florida with a bachelor's degree in accounting with a minor in economics.
James Devenish
Managing Director, EBC
Mr. Devenish is the Managing Director, EBC responsible for leading sales and operations with strategic focus on global distribution of wholesale international banknotes and payments in Canada. He brings over 20 years of experience and extensive knowledge of the financial industry, coupled with strong leadership, talent development, and program delivery. Prior to joining EBC, he held senior leadership positions at Innovation Credit Union, FIRMA Foreign Exchange, Western Union Business Solutions, and HSBC Financial Canada, where his operations and sales skills were honed through both national and international client relationships.
Mr. Devenish has consistently demonstrated his passion for delivering bottom-line results by focusing on the development of high performing teams, sales management, and strategic planning. His success is proven through numerous sales, business growth, and profitability achievements throughout his career. Within his role, Mr. Devenish is focused to drive sales and operations, build a strong team, uncover new business opportunities, and to ensure the EBC continues to provide a best-in-class sales and service experience to all clients.
Mr. Devenish graduated from the Kellogg School of Management, Advanced Management Program.
Khatuna Bezhitashvili
Vice President, Human Resources
Mrs. Bezhitashvili is Head of Human Resources, responsible for recruiting, diversity, learning, talent development, benefits, compensation and employee relations. Prior to joining CXI, she worked for Bank of Ireland's FCE as well as a major Orlando international law office specializing in international business law.
Mrs. Bezhitashvili is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS), Society for Human Resource Management Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP), and Board Member of ACAMS Central Florida Chapter. She graduated suma cum laude in economics (1999) from the Technical University of Georgia, earned a bachelor's degree in international affairs from Rollins College in 2005, and attained her MBA from Webster University in 2011.
Farzana Esmail
Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Anti-Money Laundering Officer
Ms. Esmail is responsible to oversee the AML/ATF and Compliance program at EBC. Ms. Esmail's role evolved from the Deputy CAMLO in 2019, to CAMLO in December 2020. In March 2022, her role was as Interim CCO and CAMLO and is now the CCO/CAMLO for EBC. She has over 20 years of experience in regulatory compliance and AML/ATF through several projects within financial industry segments, including mid and large size banks in all three lines of defence.
Prior to joining EBC, Ms. Esmail oversaw the Capital Markets AML at BMO for four years, and was in the AML and Risk advisory services with Deloitte for over 12 years. Ms. Esmail is CAMS certified.
Katie Davis
Treasurer
Ms. Davis is the Treasurer of EBC and CXI, responsible for managing the financial risks across the organization through the development of policy metrics and procedures that reduce exposure to foreign exchange and liquidity risks. Ms. Davis oversees both corporate treasury and trading functions at EBC and CXI, which include liquidity risk management and cash flow forecasting, global banknote inventory hedging and risk management, and trading activities related to the international payments business segment. Ms. Davis is the Chair of the Liquidity Management Committee of EBC and CXI, with oversight responsibility of the organization’s global cash and liquidity position.
Ms. Davis brings to the Group her experience working in investment banking and commercial banking in New York’s money center banks, where she advised corporate treasury teams with best practice risk mitigation strategies. In her role as Treasurer, Ms. Davis applies her risk management-centered experience to enable informed decision-making across the organization.
Ms. Davis has lived in France, Italy and in various locations across the United States. She holds her bachelor’s degree in economics and French from Rutgers University, Douglass College, where she completed her honors thesis in economics.
Dennis Winkel
Chief Risk Officer, Chief Privacy Officer
Mr. Winkel is the Chief Risk Officer and Chief Privacy Officer of EBC and its parent company, CXI. Mr. Winkel has more than 25 years of risk management experience comprising financial and non-financial risk in a variety of cultural and linguistic contexts: Netherlands, Australia, Spain, Japan and Canada. Mr. Winkel started his career in a Dutch business of ING Group in the Netherlands, followed by roles at the corporate headquarters of ING Group, ING Direct, and ING Direct Australia. Mr. Winkel subsequently worked as market and operational risk manager at the ING Direct Treasury in Spain, and was the head of financial risk management for over two years in Japan during the start-up of ING Direct Japan. In 2009, he continued his career in Canada at ING Direct in financial risk and enterprise risk management. He moved to Scotiabank in 2013 as Vice President of liquidity and interest rate risk. He was the secretary of the Bank ALCO at Scotiabank and recognition ambassador of the global risk management group in 2017 and 2018.
Mr. Winkel earned a master's degree in financial economics from the Free University in Amsterdam and is a Certified EFFAS Financial Analyst (“RBA”). He is a member of the Canadian Asset and Liability Management Association (CALMA), and the North American Asset and Liability Management Association (NALMA). He has been teaching a banking simulation course for executives at the Advanced Risk Management Program of Wharton University / RMA since 2011.