Symposium Speakers and Panelists

James A. Forese is President of Citigroup and Head of the Institutional Clients Group. Mr. Forese is a member of the Citigroup Operating Committee and is based in New York. The Institutional Clients Group encompasses the Markets and Securities Services business, Treasury and Trade Solutions business, and Corporate and Investment Banking activities as well as the Citi Private Bank. Mr. Forese first joined the Salomon Brothers division in 1985 and began his career in securities trading. He was named a Managing Director in 1992 and has held various management positions throughout the Markets division, including head of that division, before being named to run the Securities and Banking unit in 2011. Mr. Forese graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1985 with a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering and computer science. He serves as a Director of the Princeton University Investment Company (PRINCO), the University’s endowment management company. Mr. Forese is a member of the Board of Trustees of Colby College. He and his wife, Jennifer, have four sons.

Stephen Holzer, is Citi’s Global Head of Digital Strategy, where he is responsible for defining and delivering a unifying and compelling digital vision and strategy across Citi, the deployment of world class digital capabilities, and the accelerated transformation of the enterprise to a digital-first organization. As part of his mandate Steven is responsible for the coordination of Citi’s strategy and investments across a range of digital domains including Blockchain, Advanced Analytics, Big-data, and API’s / Open Banking. Prior to Citi, Steven was Director of Corporate Strategy for Amdocs, where he led their diversification, financial services and payments strategies among other high-profile engagements. Before Amdocs, Steven worked for more than 10 years in Management Consulting, most recently at Booz & Company where he ran numerous projects focused on growth, innovation, and operational excellence for clients in Europe, North America, and the Middle East. Steven has an MBA with distinction from the University of Southern California and he holds B.S. degrees in Information Systems and International Business, with Honors, from the University of Maryland.

Mariona Vicens has been the Head of Innovation at CaixaBank since October 2012. Before joining CaixaBank, Mariona worked for over four years at Novartis in China and in Switzerland. Whilst in China, she was Head of Business Development Strategy and an Executive Committee member of the Pharma Division. In Switzerland she was Director of Group Strategy. Previously, Mariona worked for over 8 years at McKinsey & Co, where she specialized in Banking, Insurance and Health Care. Mariona holds an Engineering Degree from Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.

After studying Dutch Law Annerie Vreugdenhil started her career as Account Manager Large Corporates with the Nederlandse Credietbank NV 1987. In 1992 Annerie Vreugdenhil started at ING and held various positions, all of which revolved around maintaining and expanding relationships with clients in ING’s fastgrowing Commercial Banking division. She has advised clients in various industries, most notably shipping and oil exploration. In 2000 Annerie founded and expanded ING’s Leveraged Finance team in the Netherlands – providing financing for private equity companies.

In 2006 she became Head of Corporate Clients Netherlands, a client group that consists of the listed and privately-owned large companies with annual revenues of over EUR 250 million. In 2010, Annerie was appointed Head of Commercial Banking Netherlands and became a member of the board of ING Domestic Bank Netherlands. In this role she was responsible for all of ING’s wholesale banking activities in The Netherlands. In February 2016 Annerie was appointed Global Head of Real Estate Finance within ING Wholesale Banking.

The ING Real Estate Finance team is focused on long-term strategic partnerships with clients, leading market knowledge and significant client commitments. In January 2018 Annerie was appointed Head of WB Innovation. In this role Annerie is responsible for taking ING’s culture of innovation to the next level by developing new and innovative propositions for Wholesale Banking. In addition to her current role, Annerie Vreugdenhil is member of the Advisory Board of the Rotterdam School of Management, member of the Supervisory Board of the Mondriaan Fonds and member of the Executive advisory Board of Squirro. Annerie is married en has two sons. Education Annerie Vreugdenhil holds a Master’s Degree in Dutch Law from the University of Amsterdam.

Huy Nguyen Trieu is the CEO of The Disruptive Group, a business builder and advisory firm in innovation and finance. He has navigated between startups and large organizations, from CEO of a startup to Managing Director in international banks, from mentor to entrepreneurs to Associate Fellow at Oxford. He believes that in a world led by technology, we shouldn’t forget the importance of people and is the co-founder of CFTE, the Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship, whose objective is to help people understand our fast changing world, improve their skills and find opportunities. He writes the blog Disruptive Finance, is an Associate Fellow at Oxford Said Business School, a Fintech Fellow at the Centre for Global Finance and Technology at Imperial College, a member of ESMA’s Consultative Working Group for financial innovation, and a board member of Fintech HK. He is also a founding member of the Asian SuperCharger, one of the largest Fintech accelerators in Asia. He was previously on the Fintech Advisory Board of the World Economic Forum. Prior to The Disruptive Group, Huy was a Managing Director at Citi, and previously at RBS and SG. Before banking, he was the CEO of Ukibi, a VC-funded startup in the US. He is a frequent keynote speaker in Europe and Asia, likes to teach and share with young students and entrepreneurs, and is regularly quoted in articles on innovation and finance. Huy is a graduate from MIT (US), École Polytechnique (France) and Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees (France).

Oliver Hughes is heading the team that is building Russia’s leading financial ecosystem. He joined Tinkoff as CEO in 2007 right at the start of the project and has been at the helm every step of the way, helping Tinkoff grow into the world’s largest independent digital bank with 7m customers. Before joining Tinkoff, Oliver worked for Visa International for a decade, including as Head of Visa in Russia from 2005 until 2007. Prior to Visa, he held various positions including at Reebok, Shell UK and the British Library. Oliver holds a Master of Arts degree in International Politics from Leeds University and a Master of Science degree in Information Management and Technology from City University in London. He also has a Bachelor of Arts (First Class) degree in Russian and French from the University of Sussex.

Tinkoff Bank - Tinkoff is Russia’s first and only direct bank with nearly 7 mln customers. The bank was founded in 2006 by the Russian entrepreneur Oleg Tinkov. TCS Group Holding PLC, the bank’s holding company, has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since October 2013. In addition to the bank the Group includes mobile virtual operator Tinkoff Mobile, Tinkoff Insurance, and Tinkoff Software DC, a network of development hubs across Russia. With no retail branches, the bank serves its customers remotely via online channels and its call centre, and operates a network of over 1,800 representatives to ensure smooth delivery of its products. The network covers all of Russia and allows next day delivery to most customers.

Ronit Ghose - is the lead analyst on HSBC, Standard Chartered and the Nordic Banks. Since joining Citi in 1997, Ronit has covered banks in the Benelux, Canada, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Scandinavia, Spain and the UK. Ronit previously worked at the British Bankers™ Association and as a research assistant in Parliament for Sir Edward Heath. Ronit has an undergraduate degree in Modern History (University of Oxford), a postgraduate diploma in Economics (University of London), and is a CFA charter holder.

James has spent the last 10-years involved in a number of start-up banks, most recently the with Atom Bank. Prior to this James ran Treasury functions for a number of hedge funds and asset managers.

A founding member & VP of Products and Services at Leumi Group’s Digital Bank, Pepper. Gak Bar Dea is responsible for the banking products, digital products and the customer service operations. Previously, he founded a Fintech start-up, spent some time in Strategy & Innovation Consulting in NYC & Tel Aviv, and received an MBA from Columbia Business School in NYC.

Three decades ago, Anne Boden pioneered the UK’s first same-day payment service – and in the process transformed the future of electronic money. Today, that revolutionary zeal continues to inform her work at Starling Bank, the mobile-only current account app she launched earlier this year. Recently recognised as one of the Global Power Women in FinTech, Anne’s worked at a senior leadership level across some of the world’s best-known financial heavyweights, among them Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland. It was during her tenure as CEO of Allied Irish Banks, however, that she begun to explore the exciting potential of financial technology for transforming customer’s everyday lives. At heart a tech start up with a banking licence, Starling is a challenger bank built on a foundation of disruptive emerging technology, working to take on traditional legacy banks and help people to develop a healthier relationship with their money.

Matthew is currently Head of Product at Tandem. He was previously Founder & CEO of Pariti, a money management app which (pending regulatory approval) has been acquired by Tandem Bank. Matthew started his career in strategy consulting, advising corporate and private equity clients across the financial services, technology and media sectors. He later also led user acquisition at OnTrees, a personal finance startup which was acquired by MoneySuperMarket.

Laura Noonan has been the Financial Times’ Investment Banking Correspondent since February 2015, covering major themes affecting investment banks across the world, and some of the world’s biggest banking institutions. She is a regular contributor to the FTs Fintech newsletter and fintech coverage, and has covered emerging financial technologies and innovations across major global centres including New York, Singapore, Dubai, Dublin, Hong Kong and Zug. She holds a BA in Journalism from Dublin City University, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Jonathan Larsen is now Chief Innovation Officer of Ping An Group and Chairman and CEO of the Ping An Global Voyager Fund. Jonathan spent 18 years at Citigroup where he was most recently Global Head of the firm’s Retail Banking and Mortgage businesses, generating ~$12Bn in Revenues and spanning 19 countries.

He has been at the leading edge of the financial services industry for the last 29 years across the Asia Pacific region and globally. He brings a unique blend of strategic vision, operational depth, and understanding of the new technology landscape. He has led multiple large-scale, successful businesses across a wide range of markets and has extensive experience in negotiating and managing partnerships and M&A transactions. Prior to Citi, Jonathan was a Principal in the Financial Services Practice of global management consulting firm, Booz Allen & Hamilton where he spent eight years advising large banks and other financial institutions across Asia, Australia and New Zealand and in the United States and Europe. Jonathan is a Distinguished Fellow of the Institute of Banking and Finance, Singapore and was named Retail Banker of the Year in 2011 by Asian Banker magazine. He has been widely quoted in major business publications including the Financial Times, Bloomberg, Reuters, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Economist as well as local media throughout Asia Pacific. Jonathan holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from the University of Melbourne.

Chris is currently the Executive Chairman for Global Digital, Aviva Asia and Friends Provident International (FPI). In July 2015, Chris was appointed to the newly created role of Executive Chairman, Global Digital. In this role, he leads Aviva Group’s global drive in digital, and has transformed the 321-year-old insurer into a leading InsurTech disruptor. In addition to leading the Group Marketing function, he is also responsible for driving the implementation of Aviva Group’s True Customer Composite strategy. As Executive Chairman, Chris works closely with senior leaders on setting strategic directions and managing the operations of Aviva and FPI across Asia. He is also actively involved in making decisions on initiatives that have significant implications for the business, customers, employees and other key stakeholders across the region. Before joining Aviva in October 2014, Chris was Group CEO and Executive Director of Great Eastern Holdings Ltd (listed on SGX) and many of its key subsidiaries from February 2011. During his tenure, Chris was responsible for successfully growing the company’s business and further entrenching its leadership position in its home markets of Singapore and Malaysia. Chris also served as Deputy Chairman of Lion Global Investors (a leading South-East Asian asset management firm), and was a Director of Singapore Reinsurance Corporation Ltd (listed on SGX). Prior to this, Chris was the Executive Vice President and Group Chief Marketing Officer of AIA Limited. He also previously held the position of CEO at AIG United Guaranty Insurance (Asia) Limited and held various positions at ING Canada and Allstate Insurance Company of Canada where his roles included Chief Risk Officer.

Professional qualifications and memberships - Chris holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons) from the University of Toronto in Canada majoring in actuarial science. Chris is an associate of the Casualty Actuarial Society and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries.

Mark joined Munich Re in 2010, leading the Asia, Africa and UK life businesses until May 2016 when he took up his current role. Digital Partners is a global business working with, and investing in, start-ups, digital verticals and the sharing economy, with the ambition of building a more engaged proposition for insurance customers. Prior to joining Munich Re, Andrew was a partner and head of the EMEA insurance practice at Oliver Wyman.

James Shuck has been an analyst covering the European Insurance sector for over 15 years, firstly with Bear Stearns then with Jefferies as head of team. James then led the successful build out of the UBS team from 2013 before moving to Citi in May 2017. He is a qualified accountant and studied French and Management at Reading University.

James Bardrick is Citi’s Country Officer for the United Kingdom and is Chief Executive of Citigroup Global Markets Limited and UK Branch Manager of Citibank Europe Plc. He has been with the firm for over 30 years and is a Senior Credit Officer. James is a member of TheCityUK, FICC Markets Standards Board Advisory Councils and is a Board member of the UK Finance /British Bankers’ Association and is a nonexecutive Practitioner Member of the Banking Standards Board. He also sits on the Bank of England PRA Practitioner Panel.

Frans is a serial fintech entrepreneur with a focus on financial inclusion. He is the CEO and founder of dopay, a startup that democratizes finance by giving everyone a premier banking experience. The company launched a service in Egypt that simplifies and streamlines payroll while empowering unbanked employees with a financial account and mobile app.

dopay belongs to the Top 100 of European Fintech Companies. The company was part of the Barclays Accelerator program in London, which is powered the world’s largest accelerator. The company won the Barclays Innovation Award in 2016.

Prior to dopay, Frans was involved in a start-up that built the automated clearing house of Egypt, which handles the country’s interbanking payment transactions.

Before he became an entrepreneur he worked at ACI Worldwide and ING’s smartcard business.

Matthew Saal is head of Digital Finance within the IFC’s Financial Institutions Group, covering investments in financial services innovators as well as advisory services across the range of digital financial services, including mobile money, agent banking, digitally enabled products and services, and broad digital transformation. Matthew was previously Associate Director in the Local Currency and Capital Markets Development initiative of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Prior to joining EBRD in 2010, Matthew worked in emerging markets finance, private equity, venture capital, strategy and business development, consulting, and international economics. He has had a longstanding focus on financial services and financial technology, including:

• Automated valuation and portfolio optimization systems at Morgan Stanley
• FIG strategy consulting, including technology strategy and payments infrastructure for global banks
• Strategy and business development for a fintech startup and co-inventor of its patented business processes for invoice financing
• Venture development at LabMorgan, JPMorgan’s e-financial services venture arm
• Private equity fund focused on emerging markets banks
• Mentor at Startup Bootcamp and Barclays Techstars Fintech accelerators in London

Earlier in his career, Matthew was an economist at the International Monetary Fund in Monetary and Exchange Affairs, providing advisory services to central banks on banking supervision and regulation, monetary policy instruments and other areas.

Matthew has written on fintech-bank partnerships, banking, macroeconomic policy, financial systems structure, trade, and monetary policy instruments. He holds an A.B. in Chemistry from Princeton and an M.Phil. in Economics from Oxford, where he studied as a Marshall Scholar.

Charlotte Crosswell is CEO of Innovate Finance. She has spent most of her financial services career in market infrastructure roles. Most recently she was CEO at Nasdaq NLX, a London-based startup derivatives market, and sat on the board of LCH Ltd. She has held a number of management positions at Nasdaq and London Stock Exchange across international capital markets, equities, fixed income, OTC derivatives trading and clearing. In addition to her work with Innovate Finance, Charlotte advises and sits on the boards of technology and FinTech startups. Charlotte holds a BA (Hons.) in French from the Southampton University. She has been included in the list of top 100 Women in Finance over many years.

Sopnendu Mohanty is responsible for creating development strategies and regulatory policies around technology innovation to “better manage risks, enhance efficiency and strengthen competitiveness in the financial sector”. Prior to joining MAS, Mohanty was with Citibank as their Global Head of the Consumer Lab Network and Programs, which included driving innovation programs and managing innovation labs across multiple geographies globally.

Mohanty has spent 20 years in the APAC region and held various roles in technology, finance, productivity, and business development. He was Citibank’s APAC regional head of Branch operations along with heading the Consumer Innovation Lab in Singapore. He spent a significant time in Japan, where he was Citibank’s Retail Business Development head and also did leadership stints in various functions within operations and technology. Globally, he played a significant subject matter expert role in driving Citibank’s global smart banking program, to transform bank’s physical network to digital first, smart & innovative, client centric and highly delightful customer engagement center.

Mohanty has co-authored various patented work in area of retail distribution of financial sector. He is based in Singapore, loves travelling, reads history and pursues culinary innovation as a hobby. He was in the list of Fintech’s Most Powerful Dealmakers of 2016 by Institutional Investor.

Tram Anh Nguyen is the co-founder of CFTE, The Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship. She started her career on a trading floor in New York where she was a trader and main market maker for Standard Chartered. She then moved to Dresdner Kleinwort London before joining UBS Wealth Management where she worked with UHNW families in London. She has navigated between the corporate and entrepreneurial world, and knows the excitement and challenges of entrepreneurship. Tram Anh strongly believes that in a world dominated by technology, people must remain at the centre of society and organisations, and that education and training are key to help individuals adapt to a fast changing world. That motivation drove her to launch the Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship, an education platform supported by senior leaders from the largest institutions, startups and universities. CFTE helps finance professionals upskill, find more opportunities, build better finance and be part of the Future of Finance. She is a frequent speaker in universities and organisations and likes to share about the importance of lifelong learning in a fast changing job market. Of Vietnamese origin, Tram Anh was born in France, lived in Paris and New York, and is now settled in London with her husband and three beautiful daughters.

Stephens global responsibilities include all Consumer and Commercial Banking businesses in 19 countries, including Retail Banking and Wealth Management, Credit Cards, Mortgages and Operations and Technology supporting the business. He is a member of the Citi Operating Committee.

Previously, Mr. Bird was CEO of Asia Pacific, responsible for all of Citi’s consumer and institutional businesses across 17 markets in the region. As CEO, he established Citi as Asia’s leading bank, pioneered digital innovations and accelerated Citi’s expansion in China. In China, Citi doubled its branch network, was the first global bank to issue sole-branded credit cards and was one of the first foreign banks to open a branch in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone. Under his leadership, Citi was named “Best Bank in Asia” by FinanceAsia for six consecutive years.

From 2009 to 2012, he served as joint CEO of Citi Asia Pacific with responsibility for North Asia, served as Head of Consumer Banking in Asia Pacific from 2006 to 2008, responsible more than 30 million customer accounts across the region, and served four years in Citi Japan as CEO of Credit Cards and Consumer Finance. Earlier, he was Head of Operations & Technology for Citi Latin America, covering all of Citi’s businesses in 23 countries.

Mr. Bird joined Citi in 1998 in Singapore as the Asia Pacific Head for Operations & Technology. He successfully built Citi’s technological and operational capability to deliver outstanding customer service and market-leading Internet and mobile capability. Citi’s award-winning e-commerce capabilities continue to win customer and industry recognition. He relocated to Latin America in 2001.

Prior to Citi, Mr. Bird held senior management positions in GE Capital and British Steel in the United Kingdom. At GE Capital, Mr. Bird launched its 6 Sigma program and established a client focus and continual improvement culture in GE Capital Fleet Services before becoming its Director of U.K. Operations. He is a recipient of GE’s “Pinnacle Award” for pioneering work in establishing joint commercial ventures between GE Capital’s different businesses serving the financial needs of the U.K. automotive sector.

Mr. Bird is an alumnus of Citi’s Chairman’s Executive Forum and GE’s European Advanced Leadership program. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Asia Society and the U.S.-China Business Council. He is both a graduate and Honorary Fellow of University College Cardiff.

In this role, Mr. Montemagno leads the strategic development and operations of Amazon Pay in Europe. With 18 years of management, operations and strategy experience, Giulio has a distinguished career as technology executive in commerce, payments and online media. Prior to joining Amazon Pay, Mr. Montemagno served as SVP International at RetailMeNot Inc. and held various senior management roles within PayPal’s business development and corporate strategy teams in Europe during his 8 years with the company. Prior to PayPal, he spent 4 years leading the development of eBay’s subsidiaries in Italy and France. Mr. Montemagno received his MBA from Columbia University in New York, and the London Business School.

Marcus Treacher is SVP of Customer Success at Ripple. Marcus has over 30 years of experience in transaction banking and payment technology, including 12 years in global leadership roles at HSBC. He served as a member of the Global Board of SWIFT from 2010 to 2016. Prior to joining Ripple Marcus was HSBC’s Global Head of Payments Innovation, applying emerging fintech to solve customer challenges in digital payments, trade and supply chain. Prior to HSBC, he held leadership positions at Citigroup and Accenture. Marcus also works with industry communities, organizations and governments to help shape new payment practices. He chaired SWIFT’s global advisory body for corporates from 2010 to 2016 and is an independent non-executive director of CHAPS Co, the UK’s RTGS clearing company, where he chairs the CHAPS Security committee & User Group.

Tony McLaughlin joined Citigroup in August 2004. He is responsible for Emerging Payments and Business Development, based in London. He has been Core Cash Head for Asia Pacific based in Hong Kong and GTS Head for the United Kingdom. Tony was responsible for the design and development of ABN AMRO’s Third Party CLS offering. At HSBC Holdings, he fulfilled a key strategic planning role for the global Payments and Cash Management business. Before that he was a Senior Product Manager for Barclays Bank with responsibility for electronic collections products.

Chae is the VP and CTO of IBMs Global Financial Services Sector having worldwide responsibility for the technical strategy and architecture for business solutions for IBMs customers in financial services. Chae is providing architectural guidance and strategy on new technical innovations such as blockchain and digital transformation with APIs relevant for financial services clients. Chae is a member of the board at BIAN (Banking Industry Architecture Network), a global standards organization aimed at developing industry standards for banking services. Prior to Chae’s current position, he has held technical and executive management positions at IBM Software Group and IBM Research, where he led research activities in robotics, supply chain optimization, eCommerce technologies and analytics for decision support. Chae received his PhD at MIT in electrical engineering and computer science with focus on robotics.

Dave Fleming Senior Vice President & Global Head of R&D Mastercard Labs Mastercard. Dave has 20+ years' experience in Technology and R&D focused on the financial domain including consumer banking, corporate banking, payments, point of sale, eCommerce, digital etc. He has a background in Computer Science and started his career working in Microsoft as a member of the team porting the Windows OS to new chipsets. He has held key leadership roles in a number of startups and in major Technology and Financial multinationals. In 2017 Dave joined Mastercard as SVP, Global Head of R&D, Mastercard Labs. In this role Dave is responsible for leading Mastercard’s R&D teams globally to identify and experiment with future technologies, startups and trends in order to unlock the benefits for Mastercard and our clients. Prior to joining Mastercard, Dave was a Director at Citibank with responsibility for Technology R&D and where he led the establishment of R&D in Citi’s First Innovation Lab network.

Manuel Anguita (MA), CFA has extensive experience as a capital markets investment professional across asset classes, including foreign exchange, interest rates, volatility, credit and equities. From 2009 to 2015, MA was the Founding Partner of Aguila Capital, an investment advisor focused on opportunities arising from the European debt crises. Previously, MA worked for Proxima Alfa Investments, a $3 billion hedge fund platform, as Managing Director and Portfolio Manager of a global macro hedge fund. From 2003 to 2007, MA worked for Vega Asset Management, a $13 billion hedge fund, as Managing Director and Global Head of Structured Investments. From 1998 to 2002, MA was at Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs in London and New York, where MA held various responsibilities in investment advising. MA received an MBA as Fulbright Scholar from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1998 and an M.S. in Engineering (Honors) from the Madrid Polytechnic University in 1992. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

Peter Randall is spearheading the SETL initiative as SETL’s CEO. Credited with revolutionising the equity exchange market in Europe through the establishment of Chi-X Europe Ltd, Peter led the company’s growth as founder and CEO, from an unknown multilateral trading facility to become one of the top 5 trading venues in Europe by volumes traded. Subsequently, Peter was appointed CEO of Equiduct, where he restructured the business, and turned it into the fastest growing trading platform in Europe in 2012. Prior to Equiduct and Chi-X, Peter was COO at Instinet Europe Ltd, and Executive Director of FIX Protocol Ltd.

Tom is Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of AMP Credit Technologies ("AMP"), a leading financial technology platform enabling banks and non-bank financial institutions to improve profitability, increase efficiencies, and expand the product scope of their lending activities. Prior to starting AMP, he was a cofounder of Planet Payment, Inc. [Nasdaq: PLPM], a payment processor enabling processors, banks, and merchants to process credit card transactions in multiple currencies. Tom previously worked in the legal department of American Express, where he provided legal and strategic advice to the merchant services division. Tom received his B.A., J.D. and M.B.A. from St. Johns University and his LL.M. in international trade and business transactions from Fordham University in New York. He is also currently a member of the Advisory Board of the SME Finance Forum, established by the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) and managed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as a knowledge center for data, research and best practice in promoting SME finance.

Freddy Kelly, founder and CEO of Credit Kudos, a challenger credit bureau developing a Financial Behaviour Score for use in consumer lending. Prior to founding Credit Kudos, Freddy spent the first years of his working life in Silicon Valley. After his time at cloud infrastructure startup, Bitnami, Freddy joined the transaction analytics platform, TXN as their first engineer. At TXN, Freddy was responsible for building models to better understand consumer behaviour through credit/debit transaction data. Freddy has been a regular contributor to the development of the UK’s Open Banking Standard – the initiative that will enable consumers programmatic access to their financial information.

Paul Russell, has more than 25 years’ experience in the credit industry in the UK, EMEA and Asia-Pacific. During that time he has led the development and implementation of credit bureau scoring systems (for credit risk, fraud and identity), custom scoring system for new business origination, customer management and collections/recoveries and regulatory analytics solutions for provisioning and capital adequacy. He is an expert in data driven decision making for consumer and commercial lending and has designed and built credit decisioning systems in markets around the world. In recent years he has become interested in the application of new data and advanced algorithms to the decisions that consumers and businesses make in their day to day activities. He is particularly interested in the interface between utility, consent and value exchange in the use of data and analytics to improve our lives. Paul holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Nottingham.

Marc is the founder and CEO of Underwrite.ai. Underwrite.ai applies advances in artificial intelligence derived from genomics and particle physics to provide lenders with non-linear, dynamic models of credit risk which radically outperform traditional approaches. Prior to Underwrite.ai, Marc founded College Loan Market, the first auction platform for student lending; cofounded LeaseQ, a marketplace for equipment leasing; served as CTO for CollegePublisher and Y2M Networks; CTO for Alumni Loan Consolidation Program and Student Loan Consolidation Program; and as an SVP and CTO at JP Morgan Chase Education Finance. A long, long time ago, he worked on space shuttle development at NASA and wrote the interface between digital cable television and the Emergency Broadcast System for the FCC. Marc’s career has always revolved around deep interests in artificial intelligence, quantum physics, genomics, sugar cream pie, and all ice cream flavors found at Berthillon and the challenge of how to combine all these in practical applications.

Josh Levin is a Director with Citi Research who covers European Financial Technology companies and Frontier Market banks. From 2012 to 2014, Josh covered U.S. regional banks and trust banks. From 2008 to 2011, Josh covered the U.S. homebuilding and building products sectors. Institutional Investor named Josh as a runner up on its 2011 All-America Research Team, third on its 2010 All-America research team and Best Up and Comer on its 2009 All-America Research Team. Before joining Citi, Josh spent almost four years on the buyside at Lord Abbett where he worked as a debt analyst and trader. He has a BA degree in History from the University of Chicago, an MBA degree in Finance and Accounting from NYU and is a CFA Charterholder.

Igal Rotem, CEO and is a serial entrepreneur of Credorax Inc. a global merchant acquiring bank that is active in the eCommerce cross border space. Igal also co-founded PowerDsine (Nasdaq:PDSN) that pioneered Power over Ethernet (PoE) technology and is the global leader of this space. Igal led the successful NASDAQ IPO in June 2004.And subsequently the acquisition by Microsemi (Nadsaq:MSCC) for over $250M. Prior to that Igal was the CEO of Butterfly Communication (that pioneered Bluetooth semiconductors)that was later sold to TI for $50M.

Michel has over 25 years of international experience in electronic payments. Michel Léger (1963) was appointed EVP Innovation in January 2015. He joined the Group in 2010 to take over management of the company’s EMEA segment and became EVP Marketing & Global Sales in 2013. He began his career with Schlumberger in 1985 where he was in charge of sales and marketing for the North American market. In 2003 he was named General Manager of the Payment Terminal Division for Axalto (ex Schlumberger) and held a similar position at Gemalto until 2009. He also helped develop Gemalto’s e-payment market on a global scale.

Hemlata leads the growth, strategic development, and account management for some of Visa’s largest acquiring relationships across Europe. She focuses on bringing together the technical, commercial, and strategic aspects of payments and Visa solutions to drive growth and innovation for clients. Prior to joining Visa, Hemlata spent six years at American Express across the UK and the US. In this time, she managed a portfolio of large B2B clients in the US as well as worked across the co-brand issuing and strategy parts of the business. Her previous experience includes strategic consulting at the Boston Consulting Group in the US and Australia where she led sales/commercial engagements across key clients in healthcare and services sectors.

Susanne Steidl began her professional career at Axxom Software AG, today part of PSI Logistics, in 1998. Beginning in 2006, she works as Senior Product Manager at the Wirecard Group. Following various promotions in the last years, she has held the position of Executive Vice President since January 2015, responsible for essential product innovations as Wirecard. Most recently, she also assumed responsibility for the successful expansion of Wirecard AG in the US market. As of 1 January 2018, Susanne Steidl will join the management board of Wirecard as Chief Product Officer (CPO).

Marc-Henri Desportes is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique and of Ecole des Mines de Paris. He was the Deputy Program Director of the Copernic program at the French Ministry of Finances from 2000 to 2005, and was then in charge of audit coordination at BNP Paribas from 2005 to 2006. Mr. Desportes then became the Chief Information Officer of BNL, BNP Paribas’ Italian subsidiary. He joined the Atos group in 2009 as the Director of the Global Innovation Business Development & Strategy Global Business Line (GIBS), and then became the Director of the High Technology Settlement Services and Specialized Activities Business Unit in July 2011. Mr. Desportes is a member of the executive committee of Atos SE and has been the General Manager of Worldline since July 2013.

Francesco Burelli is the Global Payments Strategy Lead at Accenture Payment Services and he is a member of Accenture’s First Annapolis team. He works across retail and corporate digital payments, cash management and distribution channel challenges to assist organisations with corporate and product strategy development and M&A. With over 21 years of payments and transaction banking experience, previously held senior roles with other advisory firms, before at Midland Bank – later HSBC – after his MBA in the mid-90s, transitioning from earlier TMT career. Fellow at the Institute of Financial Services, Francesco was awarded as Industry Consultant of the Year 2014 by the ATM Industry Association (ATMIA) and Mentor of the Year 2015 by Fintech Boothcamp. He is a member a number of industry editorial and advisory boards.

Ruth Wandhöfer is a regulatory and FinTech expert in the financial services space and one of the foremost authorities on banking regulatory matters. Ruth’s key responsibilities include driving regulatory and industry dialogue and developing product and market strategy in line with the evolving regulatory and innovation landscape.

Ruth chairs a number of influential industry bodies such as the Global Public Policy and Regulatory Affairs Committee of BAFT, the European Banking Federation Payments Regulatory Expert Group and the European Payments Council (EPC) Payment Security Group. She is also a board member of the EPC and the EBA Association, a member of the European Commission Payment Systems Market Expert Group (PSMEG), a member of BAFT’s Global Innovation Council, a member of the European Biometrics Advisory Council and a member of the UK Bank of England RTGS renewal board.

She is a non-executive director at Pendo Systems, a US data analytics company. She is also member of the advisory board of Coinfirm, a blockchain AML and risk analytics firm and she sits on the advisory board of B2C2, a cryptocurrency market maker.

In her spare time she pursues a PhD on blockchain/distributed ledger technology in relation to financial market infrastructures at CASS Business School London. She is a founding member of the Global Blockchain Business Alliance, a Fintech Fellow and lecturer of the Centre for Global Finance and Technology at the Imperial College Business School London and a fellow lecturer at Queen Mary London School of Law.

Ruth was named as one of 2010s ‘Rising Stars’ by Financial News; named in Management Today’s 2011 ‘35 Women under 35’ list of women to watch (Sunday Times), and one of the 100 Most Influential People in Finance 2012 as named by Treasury Risk Magazine. In 2015 she was the recipient of the ‘Women in Banking and Finance Award for Achievement’ and in 2016 and 2017 she was named on the global ‘Women in Fintech Powerlist’ of Innovate Finance.

She speaks five languages (EN, DE, F, ES, IT) and has completed studies in various countries, including an MA Financial Economics (UK), an MA International Politics (FR) and an LLM in International Economic Law (UK). She published two books: “EU Payments Integration – the tale of SEPA, PSD and other Milestones along the Road” (2010) and “Transaction Banking and the Impact of Regulatory Change: Basel III and other challenges for the global economy” (2014), both Palgrave MacMillan.

Peter is Global Head of Linklaters’ Financial Regulation Group and is one of the firm’s global Investment Managers sector leaders.

Peter has developed close working relationships with the firm’s banking and investment management clients. His practice includes all aspects of financial markets regulatory advice for broker-dealers and investment banks. Peter advises investment managers, private banks, hedge funds and private equity funds on regulatory issues affecting them. He also advises clients on regulatory investigations into areas such as market conduct, client money compliance and transaction reporting failures.

Peter has particular experience of new product development and marketing, trading issues such as market abuse and regulatory structuring advice.

Earlier in his career, Peter was seconded to both Bankers Trust and Nomura, advising and assisting with the establishment of their respective securities financing businesses.

Work highlights

Peter has developed a wide-ranging financial regulatory practice. The breadth of his practice includes, advising on, amongst others:

• Regulatory change: advising numerous banks and investment firms on the implementation of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MIFID2) and other regulatory reform initiatives.
• New structures: advising on the creation and structuring of trading and clearing platforms, both internal crossing systems operated by firms and new market entrants including Turquoise (an equities trading platform created by nine major investment banks) and ForexClear, an FX clearing platform operated by LCH. Clearnet (acting for a consortium of clearing banks).
• Cross-border work: advising international banks on their European structures, to comply with regularly changing European regulations affecting financial institutions, including Brexit .
• Contentious regulatory: advising clients on both LIBOR and FX manipulation investigations, and before that leading the team advising Citi in the first multi-jurisdictional manipulation case, involving Euro sovereign bond trading, which involved negotiating with eight different regulators.
• Financial sector corporate activity: advising RBS on its ongoing structural reorganisation that has involved sales of businesses, including Worldpay, and the ring-fencing of its investment and retail banking operations.

Leon Muis is COO of Yolt: a smart money platform built to harness the power of open banking. Yolt, which is owned by ING, was born in 2016 and is currently available in open Beta in the UK. Having worked as consultant for Retail Banks worldwide, Leon joined ING in 2011 before moving to Yolt in April 2017. Leon is currently responsible for all bank data connections that Yolt makes, and is Yolt’s representative for Open Banking and PSD2. As a driven Fintech and Retail banking professional, he is committed to bringing a frictionless banking experience to Yolt users.

Leon has vast international experience both professionally and personally, and currently resides in The Netherlands with his wife and 3 young children. When he’s not sharing his Open Banking expertise, Leon enjoys sports, and is himself an active runner.

Ashwin Shirvaikar, CFA has been with Citi Research since early 2000 and has worked in or written about the Services sector (both Computer Services & Business Services) since 1991. Before joining the firm, Ashwin worked at AlliedSignal for three years, within its defense/aerospace M&A group and was responsible for the P&L at the New Ventures group. Ashwin also has over six years of consulting and account management experience working with several blue chip clients. Ashwin earned an MBA degree from Cornell University in 1997. In addition, he holds a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati. He is also a CFA charter holder.

Itai is a seasoned senior manager with a track record of forming and leading large R&D organizations to high performance and sustainable business impact. Over 15 years of managing complex software R&D in leading global companies, delivering critical technology to multi-billion dollar businesses. Prior to joining Citi Itai was leading the cyber-security strategy at IBM Research – Haifa, overseeing all security related activities in the lab, and was part of the global team directing the world-wide security research strategy. Itai is the author of over a dozen US patents and many scientific publications in top conferences & journals. Over the past decade Itai received outstanding technical achievement and invention awards, as well as the IBM corporate award for his work in system-level simulation. Itai holds degrees in computer science and in mathematics from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

Dave Palmer is the Director of Technology at Darktrace, overseeing the mathematics and engineering teams and project strategies. With over ten years of experience at the forefront of government intelligence operations, Palmer has worked across UK intelligence agencies GCHQ & MI5, where he delivered missioncritical infrastructure services, including the replacement and security of entire global networks, the development of operational internet capabilities and the management of critical disaster recovery incidents. He holds a first-class degree in Computer Science and Software Engineering from the University of Birmingham.

In his current role, Greg Day is responsible for regional cybersecurity strategy and the development of threat intelligence, security best practices and thought leadership for Palo Alto Networks in EMEA. With 25 years of experience in the area of digital security, Greg has helped organisations, large and small across the public and private sector, to understand risk posture and put in place strategies to manage it. He is widely acknowledged as an industry thought leader and experienced practitioner, capable of translating technology challenges into actionable business solutions. Greg began his career with Dr Solomon’s, later part of McAfee (now Intel Security) as a technical support analyst, and in a career that spanned 20 years he held a number of positions including information security consultant, global best practices team leader, security analyst and director of security strategy. He currently sits on the UK National Crime Agency steering committee, the UK-CERT/CISP advisory team and the VFORUM research community. Previously Greg has been part of the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, and participates in a number of other industry and advisory groups. Greg holds a BSc (Hons) in Business Information Systems from the University of Portsmouth.

Paul is a Security Strategist for Symantec across Northern Europe within the CTO team. In this role, Paul serves as a trusted advisor to the leaders of Symantec’s clients, helping them understand the cyber threat landscape, providing expert industry insight and enabling them to bolster their enterprise security strategy. Prior to joining Symantec, Paul served as a Consultant and Advisory Security Principal for DXC Technology (formerly Hewlett Packard Enterprise), and as a Senior Security & Network Analyst for QinetiQ.

After graduating from the LSE Erkin worked at Chatham House, Goldman Sachs and MAN/GLG. He founded Behavox, in London, in 2014. The company remains Headquartered in UK and has expanded into the US and APAC with offices in NY and Singapore.

Shalom Sagi brings more than 15 years of experience in enterprise software solutions, augmented by strong banking domain expertise, specializing in Business Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Analytics Algorithms. Prior to Personetics, he was Managing Director of APAC region in Actimize, the leading worldwide provider of financial crime, risk and compliance solutions. In his last role at Actimize, Shalom was responsible for Sales and large scale implementation of Actimize solutions in APAC countries. Prior to Actimize, Shalom led and managed large-scale implementations in Banks and insurances companies at Ness Technologies. Shalom holds B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and Management from Tel Aviv University.

Helen Yu is an experienced leader with a track record of transforming organizations, whether it's accomplishing a turnaround within a Fortune 1000 organization or coaching a startup to profitability. Known for her passion and sharp strategic thinking, Helen is able to operationalize her vision and oversee successful end to end execution, from building brand awareness to landing significant customer deals. By improving and scaling business models, Helen has delivered millions in incremental revenue growth and profitability in sales, consulting and education businesses.

David Robson is a partner in IBM’s consulting division where he is responsible for IBM’s Cognitive Process Transformation practice in UK financial service. Prior to this role, David was in IBM Watson Group where he led the European financial services practice.

Andrei Kirilenko is the Director of the Centre for Global Finance and Technology, a visiting Professor of Finance at the Imperial College Business School, and a Research Fellow in the Financial Economics Programme of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). Prior to joining Imperial in August 2015, he was a Professor of the Practice of Finance at MIT Sloan and Co-Director of the MIT Center for Finance and Policy. Before MIT Sloan, Professor Kirilenko served as chief economist of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) between December 2010 and December 2012. In his capacity as chief economist, Kirilenko has been instrumental in using modern analytical tools and methods to improve the Commission’s ability to develop and enforce an effective regulatory regime in automated financial markets. In 2010, Kirilenko was the recipient of the CFTC Chairman’s Award for Excellence (highest honor). Professor Kirilenko’s scholarly work focuses on the intersection of finance, technology and regulation. His scholarly work has appeared in a number of peer refereed journals and received multiple best-paper awards. Kirilenko received his PhD in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, where he specialized in Finance.