Ready To Hear Views From The Most Influential Payments & Regtech Experts?
#npf
13th NextGen Payments & RegTech Forum
OUR SPEAKERS
Robert Courtneidge
Independent Payment Industry Expert
Robert Courtneidge is valued and respected industry expert in the emerging payments industry. He is working with a number of businesses assisting them on their strategy and products using his 30+ years legal experience to give them practical and innovative solutions. He is co-author and Editor of The PAYTECH Book 2020. He was co-founder of the Prepaid International Forum and has worked with the Emerging Payments Association since it was founded.
He has been regularly featured in the prestigious Payments Power 10 (including being ranked #1 in 2015), a highly competitive ranking of the most influential contributors in payments. As a lawyer in payments he was voted in the top 10 in the world by US publication Paybefore in 2015 being the only European in the list. As a lawyer he has worked closely with The Payments Services Regulator, HM Treasury, UK Finance and Financial Conduct Association, in the UK as well as other compliance and industry bodies globally. Robert has deep expertise in electronic money and payment services and is highly skilled in all aspects of payment services including consumer protection, banking regulation and compliance, and AML/CTF. Robert is highly active on the conference front regularly chairing and moderating events as well as speaking on issues facing the European Payments’ Industry including laws relating to blockchain, digital assets and Central Bank Digital Currencies.
Adrian Calin
Head of J.P. Morgan Payments, Switzerland and Head of Treasury Services Corporate Sales, Switzerland, J.P. Morgan Payments at J.P. Morgan
Adrian Calin is an Executive Director based in Zurich. Joining the bank in 2014 Adrian is currently the Head of J.P. Morgan Payments as well as the Head of Treasury Services Corporate Sales for Switzerland.
Adrian is managing a portfolio of large corporate clients headquartered in Switzerland and is also responsible for the J.P. Morgan Payments Swiss franchise.
Adrian and his team are responsible for the delivery of complex, multi-regional solutions, that include: payables, receivables, cards, trade services, merchant acquiring, liquidity and short-term liquidity investments.
Before joining J.P. Morgan, Adrian worked at Citibank for six years in Zurich and in Chicago, and previously at ABN AMRO Bank in the US and in Romania, in a variety of corporate banking and treasury services roles.
Adrian graduated from Loyola University of Chicago Quinlan School of Business with a M.B.A. degree in Finance and Marketing and from Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania with a bachelor degree in Finance and Banking. He has earned the Certified Treasury Professional designation and the Certificate in International Cash Management (CertICM).
David Bundi
Partner - Legal, Regulatory & Compliance - Metaverse Strategy & Regulatory Leader at EY Switzerland
David Bundi is a Partner at EY Switzerland in the areas of Legal, Regulatory & Compliance. He is also the Metaverse Strategy & Regulatory Leader at EY Switzerland and an expert for Financial Crime Compliance, Digital Assets, Digitalization and the intersection of Law and Technology. David has advised clients in financial services and non-financial services industries for many years, particularly in Switzerland, the EU and the Middle East.
In addition, he is the Chairman and Co-Founder of the Swiss nonprofit organization MetaverseTalks, which is a leading space where Metaverse and NFT thought leaders and interested people connect, foster and promote ideas globally.
Before joining EY, he was the Head of Compliance & RegTech and a Member of the Leadership Team at PwC Legal Switzerland, the Chief Compliance Officer at an innovative Swiss Bank, and a Risk & Compliance Specialist in Zurich and New York at UBS. Prior to that, he worked as a Senior Compliance Officer at Swiss Private Banks, as an Advisory Board Member at RegTech Start-ups and in Legal at a Cantonal Court and in a Law Firm in Switzerland. In his spare time, he is a well-known speaker at leading conferences around the globe, an author of various books and other publications as well as a guest lecturer in Legal & Compliance and Metaverse, Digital Assets and RegTech topics at universities in Switzerland and the US, and at a Business School in Latin America.
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Urs Bolt
New Business Lead at Alpian SA
30+ years experience in wealth management, investment banking and related technology businesses. My core expertise is to develop and roll out new digital business platforms. My current focus is to help financial service providers and tech companies to review/refocus business strategies, advise on strategic projects, develop solutions and markets, and build business partnerships. Active as a speaker, moderator, lecturer, micro-blogger, and author; recognised as a global opinion leader in #WealthManagement, #WealthTech,#FinTech, #DigitalBanking, #DigitalAssets, and ecosystems in crypto finance. I am a member of advisory boards and jury panels incl. Boardowl, FT PWM WealthTech Awards, Global Wealth & Society, WealthBriefing Editorial Board and Swiss Awards, Blockchain Competition for Finance.
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Bob Reid
CEO & Co-Founder at Everest
Bob Reid is the CEO and Co-Founder of Everest, a licensed European crypto custodian with its own high-speed blockchain, and the world’s first global, programmable token to represent any asset (fiat, stock, commodity, real estate).
Its biometrics-based identity + transaction platform empowers partners to compliantly offer global onboarding and access to crypto trading, international payments, and investments.
Previously, Bob was a General Manager at BitTorrent, and an advisor to Kai Labs, a Singaporean-based blockchain & crypto accelerator. He also held roles as the VP of Strategy & Business Development at Neulion and DivX.
Jürg Baltensperger
Managing Director at JayBee Ltd
Jürg Baltensperger is one of the most experienced and well-known pioneers in the field of regulation & compliance for financial intermediaries in FinTech and Blockchain. As a graduated lawyer, risk manager & business economist and certified Blockchain expert, he covers regulatory aspects in his field of expertise in a holistic approach.
With the consulting firm JayBee he founded in 2017, Jürg and his team support around 120+ financial intermediaries in the areas of fintech & blockchain such as banks, asset managers and crypto exchanges. JayBee serves clients from startup level to international collaborations with regulatory consulting, licensing and outsourcing services. JayBee also provides staff lending & recruiting services and partners with various IT tool provider in order to offer implementation of RegTech solutions.
Jürg teaches in the areas of Corporate Governance, Risk Management & Compliance at universities of applied sciences and set up his own education CAS Digital Compliance Officer at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences, where compliance officers, auditors & regulators are made fit in the areas of FinTech & Crypto.
Sandra Tobler
Co-Founder & Partner at Futurae Technologies AG
Sandra is an entrepreneur who worked in the IT space for over 17 years. She worked for IBM in various international roles, then for different Swiss public entities to support companies with internationalisation, first out of Zurich and later in the diplomatic representation in San Francisco.
In 2016, Sandra co-founded Futurae together with two colleagues, both with a PhDs from the System Security Group of ETH Zurich. Futurae brings future-proof security to digital products. The company provides a continiously modernised authentication platform with a particular focus on user-centric approaches that provide a secure, frictionless customer journey.
Sandra is also in the board of Kick Foundation, Startupticker, the Swiss Startup Association and in the jury of various tech competitions. She founded the Swiss Cybersecurity Startup Map, an inventory of deep tech innovation in Information Security coming from Switzerland. Sandra fights for better framework conditions for Swiss tech companies, a more mature startup ecosystem and in particular to have more thriving innovative Information Security companies coming from Switzerland.
Fabian Meyer
Managing Partner at CORE SE
Fabian Meyer is Managing Director in Switzerland and a member of the board of CORE SE - a European technology think tank based in Berlin. As an expert in payment services and FinTechs, he is responsible for large projects with renowned clients in the financial sector in the DACH region and the United Arab Emirates. He has several years of consulting experience in the banking sector and in transformation engineering.
Olga Del Rio
Head of Compliance and MLRO at One
Olga is the Head of Compliance and MLRO at ONE - provider of a unified end-to-end financial services solution which allows traditionally underserved businesses to thrive. Prior to joining ONE, she gained more than 20 years of legal, compliance and management experience in a wide range of international matters, both in private legal practice and in-house. Enthusiastic and passionate about banking and financial services, as well as cryptoassets, Olga holds various certifications in these areas, including ACAMS certifications as a Global Sanctions Specialist and a Cryptoasset Anti-Financial Crime Specialist.
Freddie Frith
VP - Global Head of Sales at Clausematch
Freddie Frith joined Clausematch in 2018, where he has quickly progressed in different commercial roles. He now heads up Clausematch’s commercial proposition for Financial Services, focusing on accelerating the adoption across NeoBanking, FinTech, Insurance and Investment Management. Before working at Clausematch, Freddie worked in commercial roles as Silverfin, Ogilvy and Loreal. Freddie is also a thought leader in Regulatory Technology, regularly hosting podcasts and webinars, contributing to whitepapers and writing blog posts.
Koen Vanderhoydonk
CEO & Founder at The Connector
Koen Vanderhoydonk has a passion for innovation in the banking industry and he is a #FinTech and #RegTech influencer with a large international follower’s base. He is the author of “The RegTech: BlackBook” and released the sequel in 2022. The first edition in 2019, was the first physical and collaborative RegTech book co-written with several specialists worldwide (www.regtechblack.com).
In 2022, Koen started “The Connector” and is a linking pin between multiple start-ups, banks and regulators and connect the dots between people and businesses. He helps B2B FinTech companies to scale their business (www.jointheconnector.com).
Koen has been working at large market infrastructures Euroclear, where he was director of Customer Experience & Global Marketing and for many years, he headed the account management and client relationship team covering all Euroclear Bank clients in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Central Europe. Before he was General Manager at Binck Bank (now Saxo bank) Professional Services Belgium, delivering innovative banking solutions to financial institutions in the Benelux. Before he launched his own business, he was CEO Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany for the fast-growing WealthTech scaleup Blanco.
Overall, he has over 25 years of experience of successfully growing and managing B2B businesses in the global financial landscape.
Toni Caradonna
Partner & CTO, Board Member at Blockchain Trust Solutions, Porini Foundation
Toni is a DLT OG experimenting with mining bitcoin on Xbox in 2013 .He was the first to create a private digital Swiss franc on blockchain in 2018 and he wrote the first smart contract for United Nations. Toni build a mission critical DLT and payment network for the energy sector a city payment infrastructure with his company Blockchain Trust Solutions. Toni also created Porini Foundation to foster innovation technology in Nature conservation with the goal to finance nature conservation and bring SDGs to DLT.
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Giovani Panto
Senior Legal Counsel at Worldline Switzerland
Giovanni Pantò is a Senior Legal and Compliance Professional with over twenty years of professional experience in the financial industry, both in Switzerland and internationally. He has deep knowledge of the regulatory framework governing payment services and a strong expertise in AML/CTF Compliance. During his career, Giovanni has held various management roles within the Legal and Compliance functions in the payment industry. He has a proven track record in managing complex legal matters and regulatory proceedings and contributed substantially to innovation projects in the field of payments.
In his current role at Worldline Switzerland, Giovanni advises and supports the company in all legal matters related to its business activities with a particular focus on contract negotiations. Before joining Worldline, Giovanni held various roles within SIX Group. As the Head of Compliance of SIX Payment Services, he was responsible for the oversight and management of the Compliance function and served as Data Protection Officer. Previously, he served as Senior Legal Counsel and Deputy Head Compliance of SIX Group and was, among others, responsible for the roll-out of the Compliance program at the foreign subsidiaries of SIX. Prior to joining SIX, Giovanni served as the Deputy Head Legal of Swisscard AECS providing legal services for the Credit Suisse card issuing and American Express acquiring business in Switzerland.
Giovanni is a dual Swiss and Italian citizen. He graduated from the Law School of the University of Lausanne and holds an LL.M. in International Business Law from the University of Zurich and is admitted to Bar of the Canton Zurich, Switzerland.
Lucas T. Landolt
Managing Partner/COO at Lloyds & Partners AG
Lucas Landolt studied IT, law and business administration in Switzerland and is active as an entrepreneur and lawyer in Zurich for an international clientele.
Together with his team at Lloyd’s & Partners, he builds new Swiss banks and supports start-ups with a focus on fintech, crypto and blockchain.
With the team of Fintechnics he is building platforms and interfaces for financial institutions all over the world. He is a frequent speaker, expert and panelist at international fintech conferences in Europe, the US and Asia.
Esther Pfaff
Head of Product & Innovation at Cembra
Esther Pfaff joined Cembra as Head of Product & Innovation in May 2022. As a member of the Management Team, Esther leads the department covering Customer experience, Product value propositions, Data & Digital Cembra Mobile App. Together with her teams, Esther is responsible for defining the Bank's product vision and strategy and executing with a clear objective to secure future sustainable growth. At the same time, she is adopting new ways of working to gain agility and velocity in cross-functional teams, and to accelerate cycle time of product releases.
Esther brings two decades of experience in the banking industry where she advised and managed business critical transformations and led agile, cross-functional product organisations. From 2017 to early 2022, Esther worked for the global Dutch bank ING, most recently in the role of the Cluster Product Owner Sales, Engagement & FinTech Integrations. From 2014 to 2017, Esther worked as a Business Consultant at Deloitte Digital where she helped her clients - foremost banks - in repositioning their traditional businesses into the digital era. Before that, she was part of the strategy department of Crédit Agricole Consumer Finance and responsible for the transformation from an operational excellence factory to a customer centric bank. Esther holds a master's degree in politics, communication and organisation from the Vrije University in Amsterdam.
Norbert Perrot
Head of Risk Strategy & Validatio at Swisscard AECS GmbH
After studying artificial intelligence and machine learning in the 90’s at a time when very few people were audacious enough to imagine that IA would power anybody’s personal device, Norbert Perrot embarked on a career in the credit and payment industry. He worked for BNP Paribas, GE Capital, Cembra and Swisscard in various risk management and finance roles. His current challenges are to insure his business uses wisely the power of models and keep its focus on the risk/reward balance of its portfolio.
Olus Kayacan
Managing Director at IOKE
Olus Kayacan has more than 25 years of experience in Institutional Banking, Asset Management, Prime Brokerage, Regtech, Wealthtech & Data Analytics.
He held key roles in the launch and successful development of several B2B Financial Services Business Lines, with solid experience in building high-performing teams, people management and serving Global Institutional and Corporate entities.
As a Regtech and Data Analytics expert, he promotes adopting Digital, Data and Tech solutions to bring exponential efficiencies for market players.
He has a strong track record in Program Management within large and complex organisations, managing projects with up to 100 direct stakeholders involved, and acts as Board Level Strategic Advisor with several start-ups, scale-ups and established companies.
Alexander Brunner
President at Home of Blockchain.swiss
Alexander Brunner studied at the University of St.Gallen HSG in Switzerland before working many years in alternative investments. He is the author of the book “Crypto Nation Switzerland” (2019), the “Swiss Digital Asset and Wealth Management Report 2021” and the “Swiss Digital Asset Market Report 2022”. In 2022 at the World Economic Forum in Davos he launched the “Home of Blockchain” public-private partnership that promotes Switzerland’s blockchain ecosystem internationally. From 2015 until 2022 Alexander was a Member of Parliament in the City of Zurich. Today he is a senior executive advisor to international tech companies and governments.
Matthias Greiller
MLRO, Head Anti Financial Crime at Bitcoin Suisse AG
Matthias has over 20 years of experience in the Financial Services industry in Switzerland and abroad. He worked as a permanent employee and management consultant for Swiss international Private Banks, mainly focusing on Regulatory Compliance topics. Being passionate about Anti Financial Crime and in particular AML/CFT he specialized in this area and holds various certificates e.g. from ACFCS and ACAMS. Since end of 2022, Matthias is a member of the ACAMS faculty acting as an instructor for AML and Crypto AML classes. In 2021, Matthias joined BITCOIN SUISSE AG, the Swiss crypto-native pioneer and trusted gateway to crypto asset investing and is their Head Anti Financial Crime and MLRO.
Ella Adler
Regulatory & Oversight Affairs Counsel at EBA Clearing
Ella Adler is a regulatory lawyer with experience with EU, US and UK authorities. As Regulatory and Oversight Affairs Counsel at EBA CLEARING, Ella ensures that EBA CLEARING complies with all applicable sector-specific laws and regulations, as well as competition law. Prior to joining EBA CLEARING in 2020, she completed a traineeship at the European Commission. She then became an Associate at an international law firm in Brussels, where she advised clients on EU competition and trade law matters. In addition to a law degree from her native Ireland, Ella holds a Master in International Affairs from Sciences Po Paris, and an L.L.M. from Georgetown University Law Center. She is admitted to the New York Bar and is a member of the European Women in Payments Network.
Oscar Neira
Head Sales & Marketing at Incentage AG
Oscar Neira is Head of Sales & Marketing at Incentage.com a banking software provider for financial messaging, payments, securities processing, business activity monitoring and SWIFT.
The Incentage open banking platform together with the Fintech Adapter is especially focussed in B2B Transaction Banking solutions.
In his spare time, he is freelance correspondent for the Fintech and Banking news platform MoneyToday.ch. In social media he is a well-known Fintech influencer.
Oscar serves in different Fintech Advisory Boards. He helps Fintechs with Market entry strategies mainly in the German speaking area.
Oscar is a popular speaker on international events but also a distinguished host or moderator of events.
He spends his free time with his family, cats and Appenzeller Mountain dog.
As a lover of classic as well as Spanish guitar he started to learn to play it.
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Justine Scerri Herrera
Partner at MK Fintech Partners Ltd
Dr.Justine Scerri Herrera is a Managing Partner at MK Fintech Partners which Maltese entity forms part of the Top Tier International ‘Michael Kyprianou’ group. Incidentally, MK is Top ranked in The Legal 500 and according to Gold Magazine is the 3rd Largest in size in Cyprus. Her areas of expertise include Fintech, Blockchain, Crypto and investments sectors. Justine mainly deals in advising and licencing for issuers and service providers falling under the Maltese Virtual Financial Assets Regulations (crypto & blockchain), Investment Services Act (Capital Market players, Capital Raising etc) and Financial Institutions Act (EMI, PI). Justine’s love for fintech and decentralisation sprouted 7 years ago while conducting her Doctoral and Masters Thesis’s focusing on jurisdiction in cyberspace and the rise of technology. Justine’s past work experience includes working for a Top Tier Investments Firm (Exante), an International Bank and a leading criminal law firm. Other academic accomplishes include a certification with the Malta Stock Exchange in ‘Securities and Trading’ and certification in ‘Virtual Financial Assets’. Notably, Justine formed part of Malta’s Digital Think Thank (Taskforce set up by the Maltese Government) and was recently nominated to be on the VFA Executive Committee which is part of the Malta Chamber of Commerce. Justine is also a true academic at heart and in her spare times often publishes research and speaks at events worldwide. Her favourite quote is ‘knowledge is power’.
Kamran Hedjri
Group CEO at PXP Financial
The end-to-end payment platform: PXP Financial provides a single unified payments platform to accept payments online, on mobile and at the point of sale. Powered by inhouse acquiring, 200+ alternative payment methods & financial services, PXP processes over EUR 21.5 billion annually through our unified gateway. Whatever your business needs today or tomorrow, PXP Financials’ innovative payment platform will support your business growth with all the payment services you will ever need from one source, wherever your business takes you.
Beate van Loo-Born
Chief Operating Officer at Finance Arc
Currently Chief Operating Officer at Climate Arc, a philanthropic organisation focused on unlocking private capital to meet global climate goals, Beate is a seasoned executive with two decades of international experience in financial services, strategy consulting, data and sustainability. Fully impact driven, she focuses on long-term operational and strategic impact creation and leads climate transition efforts in organisations like UBS (as Head Strategic Programs), SIX Financial Information (as COO) and Climate Arc.
Having obtained a master’s degree from Cambridge University in Sustainability Leadership (CISL) while implementing ESG regulatory regimes in Capital Markets, Beate is an ESG thought leader with particular expertise in Climate Finance and carbon disclosure. In addition to her role at Climate Arc, Beate sits on the Board of Directors at FirstLight, a domestic abuse response organisation, leads the European Chapter of Women Data Professionals and chairs the global EDMC (Enterprise Data Management Council) ESG Working Group. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Antwerp researching systemic levers to expedite the climate transition and holds additional Master’s degrees from the Sorbonne in Paris, Cleark University in Massachusetts and the Swiss Finance Institute in Zürich.
Beate is a published author and sought after keynote speaker on sustainability, systems change, Climate Finance and data.
Romain Braud
Digital Assets Business Development Director at Arab Bank (Switzerland) Limited
Romain spent the last decade in the Blockchain industry, from building one of the first crypto start-ups in Switzerland to helping international organisations with new financial technologies. At Arab Bank Switzerland, he ensures the business development and the digital assets services expansion, serving a sophisticated clientele looking for a comprehensive bank with tailor-made services.
Diederik Bruggink
Head of Department, Payments, Digital Finance, and Innovation
at WSBI-ESBG
Diederik Bruggink works at the European Savings and Retail Banking Group (ESBG) and at the World Savings and Retail Banking Institute where he is responsible for all payments topics worldwide. In that role, he analyses the multiple dimensions of the payments market, proposing and assisting in agreeing member positions with respect to their payments’ and related businesses. He is also advocates the associations’ positions on payments with policymakers, regulators, standardisation bodies, industry associations, and enabling a constant member dialogue on developments, with a particular focus on innovation. He is a Member of the Board of the European Payments Council and he is a member of the Commission’s Payments Systems Market Expert Group and the European Central Bank’s Market Advisory Group on the Digital Euro, to name a few.
Simone Löfgen
Global Head of Payment Platforms at Commerzbank AG
Simone is the Global Head of Payment Platforms at Commerzbank. In her role, she is responsible for the product management, IT operations, development and delivery of Commerzbank’s global cash management activities for retail and corporate clients as well as for the corresponding banking network. Simone has over 15 years of experience in wholesale Corporate Banking. She has held several management positions including Head of Corporate Banking in Commerzbank France as well as Head of International Platforms. In Commerzbank’s agile transformation, she drives technological development combined with a customer centric delivery approach.
Simone and her teams represent Commerzbank in various German and European forums and working groups using in-depth payment knowledge, insights into customer requirements as well as technological development to provide thought leadership to the industry. She is a Board member at EBA Clearing and Fnality International.
Saskia Devolder
Managing Director Cross Border Payments at Swift
Saskia is a leading a new strategic programme to bring together the key components of the SWIFT strategy towards instant, frictionless payments. The programme will ensure the right attention, structure and alignment across the company and with the G20 agenda related to cross-border payments
Till December 2021, Saskia leads the teams, located on five different locations, responsible for business development and customer engagements reporting to the Executive Business Development. She was also responsible for the expert teams supporting the financial industry and market infrastructures focusing on payments, capital markets, ISO20022 and technological innovation across EMEA. She is also leading the strategic European projects within the SWIFT organisation.
Saskia is with SWIFT since 2006 and held several functions covering capital markets and banking sales activities, developing community engagement across different regions and maintaining close relationships with senior representatives of the banking and financial industry community.
Prior to joining SWIFT, she had different functions at Mastercard International and Sterling Software.
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Linas Beliūnas
Country Manager - Lithuania at Flutterwave
Linas Beliūnas is a business developer and FinTech strategist. He is currently Country Manager, Europe and GM, Lithuania at Flutterwave.
Nemanja Nikolic
VP EMEA at Telesign
Nemanja is EMEA Regional Director at Telesign, a company that connects, protects, and defends the customer experience with intelligence from billions of digital interactions and mobile signals.
Nemanja joined Telesign in 2015 is dedicated to helping EMEA largest online brands across banking, FinTech, BNPL, streaming, social networking, marketplace and ride sharing industries improve onboarding process, maintain account integrity, prevent fraud, and streamline omnichannel engagement.
Ashley Barnes
Head of European Regional Treasury Centre (RTC) Countries Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg & Switzerland at HSBC Bank plc
Ashley has 19 years of experience in International Cash Management covering Global Banking, Commercial Banking and Institutional clients. He joined HSBC’s Switzerland office in 2019, from where he heads the European Regional Treasury Centre Countries (Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg & Switzerland). Prior to this role, Ashley held various Cash Management positions with HSBC in France and Hong Kong and with a German bank in Europe.
Ashley holds a M.Sc. Finance & Tax with honors and a B.Sc. Management & Economics from the University of Paris – Sorbonne, and speaks French and English.
Carlos Navarro
Senior Manager - Block Chain & Digital Assets at Deloitte España
After completing Computer Scientist studies, Carlos joined Deloitte Spain 15 years ago and has
developed his career within the Financial Services industry, being always involved in
multidisciplinary projects.
Since 2021, he leads the services that Deloitte is providing in the Blockchain & Digital Assets
ecosystem, ranging from strategic advice to operational execution within different industries:
financial services, consumer, governments, etc.
He has provided services to multinational companies in different countries such as Spain, United
Kingdom, Switzerland and Germany.
He is an active member of the Deloitte’s Global Community of Practice (more than 1.000
professionals worldwide) and is the ambassador to Spain of the International Token Standardization Association.
María Sáenz de Buruaga Azcargorta
Senior Strategy Consultant - Digital Finance at Deloitte España
María joined Monitor Deloitte in Madrid in September 2020 and is working as a Senior Consultant in the Regulatory Strategy Practice. She holds a M.Sc. in European Economic Studies from the College of Europe and has extensive experience on projects related to the European payments regulatory framework. Prior to joining Monitor Deloitte, she has gained banking industry specific knowledge by working for Banco Santander in the European Affairs Department, based in Brussels, and for Uría y Menéndez law firm, based in Madrid.
For the last couple of years, María has specialized in the CBDC field, working for a wide variety of FSI players in the digital euro project and other wholesale initiatives related to the use of blockchain technologies in the financial markets.
Cedric Ming
Senior Consultant in Legal, Regulatory & Compliance/Digital Law at EY Switzerland
Cedric Ming is an experienced banking professional. Skilled in Legal Project Management, Regulation, IT, Sales, Payments, Financial Markets, Blockchain, Auditing, Risk Management, Compliance, AI and Cloud.
Currently he is a Senior Consultant in Legal, Regulatory & Compliance/Digital Law at EY Switzerland. Prior to this, he was a Senior Associate in the Compliance, RegTech and Managed Legal Services team at PricewaterhouseCoopers Ltd. (“PwC”) in Zürich, Switzerland. He is an experienced consultant in the financial services and non-financial services sector. His main areas of focus are Financial Crime Compliance, Digital Assets, NFTs, the Metaverse, AI, and Data Privacy. Within PwC, he has also worked as a Regulatory Auditor in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. He is a co-founder and the Vice President of MetaverseTalks Association. He is a Web3 SME for the Times Professional Learning, a division of Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd in India.
Prior to working at PwC he helped grow one of the first Swiss FinTech’s in the area of Payments, which today has over 4 million customers in Switzerland. He has also worked in the areas of Real Estate Investment, and as a Start-Up Entrepreneur and Coach.
Cedric holds a Master of Law degree from the University of Zurich in Business and Financial Law, a Bachelor’s degree in Swiss Law, and he did a Bachelors Program in International Management and Economics.
Barry Laden MBE
CEO at Remuno
Barry is the CEO of Remuno (Remuno.com) – a merchant acquiring business providing the technology enabling end customers to spend their crypto on goods and services.
After studying accountancy at Westminster University, he chose to go into business and for over 35 years he has focused on a range of industries including fashion and clothing retail; wholesale clothing; manufacturing; commercial and residential property and licensed premises.
For many years he was at the forefront of supporting young independent fashion designers at his London store and introduced and represented UK designers to ASOS.com, Topshop and NEXT providing a successful wholesale pipeline to the international online market. He has been interviewed in Press across the globe and on television including in France; Italy; Japan; China and the USA where a feature was filmed for Good Morning America. In 2013 he opened a clothing factory to revitalise London’s apparel manufacturing industry and this was launched by then Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.
He has spoken at two round tables at the House of Lords, on the subjects of crowdfunding and manufacturing.
He is a Freeman of the City of London, a Liveryman of the Drapers’ Company and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He was made MBE in 2011 by King Charles III (then Prince Charles) at Buckingham Palace and was awarded Honorary Doctorate of Design by Southampton Solent University in 2014.
Matt Van Buskirk
Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Hummingbird
Matt Van Buskirk is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Hummingbird. Matt is a regulatory futurist and an advocate for the development of open-source and interoperable software solutions for the regulatory space and is a frequent speaker on regulatory modernization in venues around the world.
Prior to launching Hummingbird, Matt was the director of compliance at Circle.com where he oversaw its regulatory function from pre-launch to its international expansion. Matt has also served as a bank regulator with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Thrift Supervision.
Joe Aoun
International Sales Director at Tag Systems UK
Joe Aoun has over 30 years experience in IT, Telecom and Banking in international markets. Joe’s working experience includes ex-Boeing financial analyst,
ex-Microsoft, and extensive experience in the Payments landscape (chip card manufacturing, issuing, processing, acquiring, and digital transformation). Joe’s expertise is managing large global contracts and he is a fintech and banking technology enthusiast.
Katerina Androutsou
Anti Financial Crime Compliance Manager & Deputy MLRO at Sygnum Bank
Katerina Androutsou is an Anti Financial Crime Compliance Manager & Deputy MLRO at Sygnum Bank AG, the world’s first digital asset bank founded in Switzerland and Singapore with a global reach.
Prior to joining Sygnum, she worked as Deputy Head of Compliance and Deputy MLRO in Crypto Finance (Deutsche Börse Group) and as AML/KYC Compliance Lead at Credit Suisse in Switzerland. She has been intrigued by the legal and compliance aspects of digital assets since her time at the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. Katerina’s prior experience combines the private legal sector, governmental sector, and the EU institutions.
Katerina is an EU qualified lawyer holding Bachelor and Master’s Degrees in Law from the Universities of Athens and Brussels, as well as certificates on blockchain and digital assets. Her focus is on financial markets law, KYC/AML, financial crime compliance, crypto compliance and blockchain forensic analysis.
Demetris Taxitaris
CEO at MAP S.Platis
Demetris Taxitaris is the Chief Executive Officer of MAP S.Platis, a leading consulting Group in the provision of solutions in licensing, regulatory compliance, internal audit, risk management, human resources, regulatory technology, information technology, business resilience, information security including cybersecurity, governance, executive training and innovation to regulated and other firms. In the past, he worked at Bank of Cyprus as Head of Asset Management with local and international clients, individuals and institutionals, across all industries. Prior to that, Demetris worked at Deloitte in London where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant, becoming a member of the ICAEW. Demetris is a member of the Boards of Directors of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Cyprus (‘ICPAC’), the Cyprus Investment Funds Association (‘CIFA’) and the Association of Cyprus International Financial Firms (‘ACIFF’).
Ugnė Buračienė
Group CEO at payabl.
Ugne has extensive expertise in fintech, with 15 years’ experience in complex banking and payments ecosystems. She also has comprehensive experience in business development, marketing and growth in the aforementioned areas. As the CEO of payabl. Ugne has directed the company to be one of the leading payment providers internationally. The company has experienced incredible demand over the past year, recording 182% year-on-year growth. Further, its employee base has doubled with offices opening across Europe as more companies recognise the importance of bespoke online payment solutions for converting sales.
Silvan Andermatt
Director at Sielva Management SA
Silvan is Director with Sielva Management. He is a FinTech enthusiast with several years of experience as consultant, speaker and lecturer. Silvan supports FinTech Projects, in particular with DLT/Blockchain, to domicile and prosper in Switzerland.
Martynas Bieliauskas
Co-founder & CEO at Klarpay AG
Martynas is an innovative leader with over 15 years of experience in the financial services and fintech industry. A serial entrepreneur, Martynas has a proven track record in building high-growth businesses through people leadership, innovation, and technology. In his last venture as one of the founders and key stakeholders of a multinational FinTech company, Martynas had successfully steered an organisation from inception to servicing over 1.5 million users globally with more than a billion EUR in daily transaction volume.
Martynas’ experience in scaling businesses has exposed him to the inefficiencies of traditional business banking, payment, and disbursement solutions. As one of the founders and current CEO of Klarpay, Martynas’ mission is to make B2B banking and payment solutions accessible to digital businesses of all kinds.
George Haralabopoulos
Head of Product, Payments at Kaizen Gaming
George is currently Head of Payments in Kaizen Gaming International being responsible for all aspects of Payments Product on a global level and for all the countries that Kaizen Gaming operates in (Europe, Latin America, North America, Africa). He has a vast experience in multiple finance-related areas with Payments being on the focus for the last years. Among the most important objectives currently being addressed in Kaizen Gaming, is to have in place a most customer oriented and also innovative payments product which will successfully serve the rapidly increasing needs of the company 's aggressive international expansion plan.
George holds a Master & Bachelor in Engineering, and also an International Executive MBA degree along with an Executive Diploma in Negotiations & Influence.
Dr. Stephan Niermann
Chief Compliance Officer at N26 AG and N26 Bank AG
Dr. Stephan Niermann is Chief Compliance Officer at N26 AG and N26 Bank AG. He has more than twenty years of experience in designing, implementing and executing innovative Compliance-Management-Systems at global banks and fintech-banks as well as running large scale implementation projects, e.g. MiFID, transaction monitoring and trade surveillance tools.
Prior to N26 Stephan was Chief Compliance Officer at J.P. Morgan AG, Deputy Group Compliance Officer at Commerzbank AG and Chief Compliance Officer and Group Money Laundering Reporting Officer at a former German public state bank. Dr Niermann is a lawyer and banker. He holds a doctorate degree in Money Laundering Prevention in Modern Payments.
Robert Oleschak
Advisor at Swiss Centre of the BIS Innovation Hub
Robert Oleschak is an Adviser at the Swiss Centre of the BIS Innovation Hub where he is working on projects related to Central Bank Digital Currencies. He is an experienced professional with a wealth of knowledge in financial market infrastructures, regulation, and project management. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Bern and brings 15 years’ experience gained through oversight roles at the Swiss National Bank (SNB) and Bank of England (BoE). As well as this, Robert has four years' consultancy experience under his belt at Ecoplan, an economic research and policy consultancy.
Nadia Manzari
Attorney, Partner at SCHILTZ & SCHILTZ S.A.
Nadia is a passionate pioneer in the FinTech space. In finance for more than 20 years, she contributed and assisted in the development of the FinTech ecosystem in Luxembourg.
Before joining the firm in 2018, Nadia was the Head of the Innovation, Payments, Markets Infrastructures and Governance Department at the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), where she started her career in 2001.
She is a regular speaker at national and international conferences covering payment services, financial technologies, remuneration policies, and corporate governance.
Nadia is a lecturer for Fintech and Digital Finance law and regulation in the Master in Finance and Economics (MScFE) and for Tech law at the University of Luxembourg in the Master in Space, Communication, and Media Law.
She graduated in law from the University Robert Schuman in Strasbourg and holds a master degree in private law (maîtrise en droit privé, mention “droit des affaires”) as well as a postgraduate DJCE diploma (Diplôme de Juriste Conseil d’Entreprise) degree with a focus on German-French business law. She holds the Certificate in Corporate Governance of INSEAD and is an ILA-certified director.
Jacek Trzmiel
Head of Business Development - Banking / Account Executive - DACH Region at Coinfirm
Jacek Trzmiel is an experienced professional with +15 years of professional experience in Banking and RegTech (AML, Regulatory Compliance). He is the Account Executive for the DACH Region and Head of Business Development at Coinfirm (a leading EU-based Crypto AML SaaS Solution for Virtual Assets Service Providers such as banks, crypto exchanges, OTC brokers, crypto custodians, payment processors, etc.). While having previously worked on large-scale projects with cross-regional teams across multiple jurisdictions at large financial institutions such as UBS Investment Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, Citibank and PwC Financial Crime Unit, he combines an expertise in regulatory landscape both for TradFi and Digital Finance across jurisdictions.
Roger Darin
Head of New Markets, Product Manager Brokerage & Custody at InCore Bank
With his first IT startup founded at age 17, Roger Darin has always been enthusiastic about technology and entrepreneurship. While he then pursued a more traditional career in Investment Banking, working in several major financial centres such as Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, and others, he continued to nurture his interests in technology, leading to a few startups and projects he co-founded and worked for, predominantly in the fintech and crypto space.
He was thrilled to pass on his experience first as a startup mentor, and later with his advisory team as Head of Digital Finance for Inacta, a Crypto Valley based consultancy. His team advised startups and established financial firms alike, guiding them on their journey through uncharted waters. In late 2022, he fully rejoined the banking industry as Head New Markets for InCore Bank, where he identifies and develops new lines of businesses.
Anne-Sophie Morvan
Head of Business & Legal Affairs at LUXHUB
After several years of practice as an IT/data protection lawyer at the Paris & Luxembourg bars, Anne-Sophie joined LUXHUB – Open Finance Hub based in Luxembourg – in 2019.
As Head of Business & Legal Affairs, she is in charge of commercial and legal activities and acts as Authorized Manager.
Passionate about Open Banking and more broadly Open Finance, Anne-Sophie is active in several professional bodies and regularly publishes on related topics. She is a notable representative of the Open Insurance Think Tank (OPIN) within the Expert Group on EU financial data space at the European Commission (DG FISMA) and Vice Chair of the Data Economy & Open Finance Working Group at the Luxembourg Bank and Bankers Association (ABBL).
Dimitrios Psarrakis
Co-Founder and President at the Brussels Council of Technology and International Development
Dimitris is Financial Economist. He was for seven years Financial Innovation and Monetary Policy Specialist at the European Parliament where he worked on the Digital Finance files of the EU, financial market structure regulations, including MIFID and the Crowdfunding Platforms Regulation. Dimitris was the draftsperson of the Blockchain Resolution of the European Parliament that set the framework of regulating DLTs in the EU. He was actively participating in the drafting and amending of the MiCA Regulation and his last file of responsibility before leaving the European Parliament was the DLT Pilot Regime that sets the framework of the tokenization of financial instruments in traditional markets. Dimitris was ranked among the 100-top World influencers in the area of RegTech and Blockchain and he is frequent speaker in top-tier universities, international organizations, the World Economic Forum and professional summits on FinTech, RegTech, Blockchain and the Digital Disruption of Banking and Financial Services, in Europe, America and Asia. He has published two books, one on Disintermediation Economics and the impact of Blockhain in Markets and Policies, and one on the Financing and Financial Reporting for the European SMEs in the era of the CMU and the new IFRS, both with Palgrave Macmillan. He is also the co-Founder and Director of the Brussels Council, an initiative that aspires to build a common technological innovation area between EU, Asia and Africa. Dimitris has a postgraduate degree in Finance from Harvard University, an Advanced Executive Diploma in Innovation and Technology Management from MIT and an Executive MBA at the University of Chicago, Booth.
Johannes Dohren
Partner Cyber Resilience and Defense at PWC Switzerland
Johannes Dohren is a Partner at PwC, leading the Cyber Resilience and Defense practice. Over the last decade he has gained comprehensive insights into offensive cyber operations and helped companies develop security strategies to protect their most valuable assets. He understands security as business enabler and the top management of various organizations has placed their trust in him when it comes to cyber security. Among other things, he was responsible for the cyber security of a financial services company, the attack detection and defense of a risk-exposed online portal and has extensive experience investigating complex cyberattacks. Johannes has in-depth technical knowledge as well as management experience and is a regular lecturer at various universities and universities of applied sciences.
Diane Siegloch
Head of Business Development at Sinpex
Diane Siegloch is Head of Business Development & Growth at Sinpex, the Pioneer for automated
ID- and Compliance Solutions in B2B. She is a FinTech Enthusiast and has a long history in
digitization projects within the financial industry. Together with her team she is developing and
executing the business and growth strategy for Sinpex. In her role for Sinpex Diane Siegloch is
taking her stake in fighting financial crime by digitizing and automating Know-Your-Customer-Processess for B2B clients and improving the quality of business relationships.
Before joining Sinpex, Diane Siegloch was Head of Partner Ecosystem Europe at Palturai, a provider of Business Network Analytics, and responsible for expanding Enterprise Sales and Partner Management in the Financial Industry. Further stations of her career were project for Salesforce implementation projects at the IT-consulting company aquilliance and various management positions in the product and sales area of Lufthansa.
Haoning Zhang
CEO at Fiat24
Harry Zhang is the co-founder of the company SR Saphirstein AG and holds the position of CEO. The company is one of the four Fintech companies in Switzerland with FINMA’s Fintech licenses and operate as a Neobank completely built on Web3 technology. He has held various technology and innovation roles at UBS and Coutts Bank in Zurich. He holds Master degree in Computer Science from ETH Zurich and is a CFA charter holder.
Thomas Müller
Co-Founder at Rivero
Thomas Müller is the CEO and one of the co-founders of Rivero, a Swiss FinTech company offering SaaS solutions for fraud recovery and dispute management as well as scheme compliance management.
As a former Chief Information Security Officer at one of the large Swiss card issuers, he has a proven track record in security, product design, and software engineering. In his previous roles, he led projects pertaining to digital transformation, authentication, and managing API products, among others. He played a pivotal role in the launch of mobile payment wallets and created the award-winning information security campaign “Phantom Buster” during his time at Viseca. Prior to this, Thomas served as a Senior Security Consultant at Hewlett Packard, where he and his team established the new business stream of Security Consulting for HP Switzerland.
Chris Crespo
Founding Partner at Nordic Fintech Magazine
Chris is a Founding Partner at Nordic Fintech Magazine a media company covering the fintech space across the Nordics and Baltics . He uncomplicates finance through jargon-free financial media in plain and simple language. Chris is also a guest lecturer at Stanford University and Singularity University where he speaks regularly on the Future of Financial Services, the Future of Money Disruption and Entrepreneurship.