Ready To Hear Views From The Most Influential Payments & Regtech Experts?
#npf
The 23rd NextGen Payments & RegTech Forum
OUR SPEAKERS
Andrew Doukanaris
Chief Executive Officer at Flotta Consulting Ltd
Andrew has been a driving force in the digital payments and FinTech transformation for over three decades. Throughout his global career, he has held senior and executive roles in Singapore, San Francisco, New York, and London.
At Chevron, Texaco, and Caltex, Andrew established and led the global marketing and sales, payments and retailing division across three brands. At Visa, he served as the European and CEMEA head of Merchant Acceptance, Acquiring Services, and Commercial Cards, overseeing operations in more than 120 markets. As Senior Vice President at JCB Cards Europe, he spearheaded the transformation of its acquiring, sales, and marketing divisions. Additionally, he worked as a consultant for Mastercard in Saudi Arabia.
Andrew founded Flotta Consulting Ltd to provide tailored consulting services to start-ups, scale-ups, and established players within the payments ecosystem. He has been appointed to various leadership roles, including Chair, Director, and CEO of Pomelo Pay, Intellias, and as an advisor and CEO for start-ups focused on open banking and QR code payments.
A sought-after commentator and podcaster, Andrew also serves as a FinTech mentor and advisor at Level39, an ambassador and moderator at the UK Payments Association, and a board advisor, event chairman, and moderator at QUBE Events.
An Ambassador for the UK Payments Association and a Chair and Moderator at QUBE Events, Andrew is dedicated to fostering collaboration and knowledge-sharing within the FinTech community. As a thought leader, he has mentored many figures in the industry and is often invited to speak at major conferences and appear on podcasts and TV interviews.
Andrew considers his most significant achievements to be the development and success of his people. He has successfully led diverse teams across over 70 countries and is committed to leaving a legacy of new leaders.
Melissa Pottenger
VP, Payment Ops at Reach
Melissa Pottenger is an accomplished leader in global payments, with extensive experience
driving strategic partnerships, managing teams, and implementing payments strategy to achieve business objectives. Currently serving as VP of Payment Ops at Reach, she plays a pivotal role in applying industry best practices to maximize Reach's payment processing network.
Before her current role, Melissa held various positions at other globally recognized payments organizations, such as Visa and Worldpay, where she demonstrated proficiency in program management, operational process enhancement, and high-profile client relationship management.
Notably, at Visa, she led the program for Global Endpoint Review, optimizing timely decision-making for endpoint connectivity requests.
With a track record of success in global e-commerce and strategic partnerships, Melissa brings a
wealth of experience to her current role, where she continues to drive innovation and growth in
payment operations.
Steve Kenneally
Senior Vice President – Payments at American Bankers Association
Steve Kenneally works at ABA on a range of payment systems including check, ACH, card, wires, as well as coins and paper money. He spends an increasing amount of time focused on emerging payment technologies such as mobile payments, virtual currencies, and blockchain technology, with an eye towards making them faster, safer, and frictionless in the future. He is the staff liaison to two standing member committees focused on payments issues in addition to ABA’s Emerging Payments Advisory Group. He served as Chair of the International Banking Federation Payments Working Group and he is an elected member of the board of the Faster Payments Council and serves on Nacha’s Payments Innovation Alliance Consumer Payments Advisory Committee. Prior to joining the ABA in 2005, he served at the United States Department of the Treasury where he managed the private network of banks collecting non-tax payments on behalf of the federal government and drafted regulations and guidance on cash management issues.
Steve earned an MBA from The George Washington University and a BS in Finance from Boston College. He also is an Accredited ACH Professional (AAP).
Silvio Canto
Executive Director, Head of Fintech Banking at Texas Capital
Silvio Canto is Executive Director, Head of Fintech Banking at Texas Capital. He is responsible for leadership of the firm’s fintech banking efforts, providing working capital, treasury solutions and strategic advisory for fintechs nationwide from Series A through IPO.
Silvio joined Texas Capital in April 2024, bringing to his role 14 years of experience advising financial institutions across operating and strategic needs. Previously, he worked at Morgan Stanley where he was engaged with late-stage IPO preparation and M&A advisory. Prior to that, Silvio worked in the Commercial Banking Financial Institutions Group at JPMorgan Chase where he launched the firm’s early stage fintech practice in San Francisco, focused on helping startups achieve their growth potential through payment solutions and ecosystem partnerships. Throughout his career, Silvio has worked closely with several marquee fintechs, including Affirm, Brex, Coastal Bank, Chime, Coinbase, Mercury, Modern Treasury, Ramp and SoFi.
Silvio earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting and a Master of Science in finance at Texas A&M University. He is Series 79 and 63 certified.
Fariba Akrami
SVP. Fintech & Digital Payments AML Compliance Risk Management at Citi
Fariba Akrami is an accomplished anti-money laundering (AML) professional with 18 years of experience in compliance, risk management, and financial crime prevention. She has held key roles in the financial services industry, including managing a large Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and regulatory reporting team, and later serving as an AML compliance program manager at Citibank. During her tenure at Citi, she also led payments business risk management. For the past six years, she has specialized in FinTech and payments AML risk management, overseeing the North America FinTech portfolio. In her current role, she works closely with Big Tech and FinTech companies, providing AML and fraud risk management advisory services to clients. She is also deeply engaged in advising on complex cross-border solutions and regulatory requirements, leveraging her expertise to navigate evolving challenges and foster collaboration between traditional financial institutions and innovative financial technology firms.
Steve Mott
Principal at BetterBuyDesign
Steve Mott is a 40-year veteran of the electronic payments and security industry. His payments consultancy, BetterBuyDesign, specializes in payments landscape and strategic assessments; analyses of transaction economics and fees; innovative uses of debit and banking networks; evaluations of authentication, security and fraud mitigation technologies; and handicapping of business prospects for alternative payment types and venues—especially for online and mobile commerce and real-time payments. Steve is an acknowledged pioneer in online commerce (named one of “Top 25 Unsung Heroes of the Internet” in 1997 and one of the “Top 25 Most Intriguing Minds for the New Economy in 1998”) and has served as an SME in digital and mobile payments and security for the Federal Reserve and other industry organizations.
Steve also advises investment firms on industry trends and developments, conducts business valuations and M&A/due diligence support, and serves as an expert witness in patent, trade secret, antitrust and commercial agreement matters. He participated extensively with the Federal Reserve’s Faster Payments Initiative, including as an elected Steering Committee member of the Secure Payments Task Force. He is a founding member of the Faster Payments Council, where he has been elected to its Board of Directors twice. He has spoken at more than 200 payments conferences, and written extensively for publications such as Digital Transactions and n*genuity Journal, over the past decade.
Michael Heller
Head of Financial Crime Compliance Proposition at Dow Jones
Michael Heller joined Dow Jones in 2013 and currently serves as head of Financial Crime Compliance (FCC) proposition where he is responsible for corporate strategy including development and go-to-market, globally, for the FCC business. He draws from a background as an attorney, sales executive, and consultant to ensure clients building efficient compliance and risk management programs leverage the right data and technology.
Michael's career has been focused on bringing transparency to global business. Subsequent to completing his law degree, he worked as a consultant with the Business Intelligence Group, and later the Anti-Money Laundering Group at Goldman Sachs & Co. in New York City. Michael has also served as CCO and counsel at Abacus Wealth Partners in Los Angeles. He is a member of the State Bar of California.
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Freddie Frith
Head of Americas at Corlytics
Freddie Frith is Vice President, Head of Sales Americas at Corlytics, where he leads go-to-
market strategy for the region from Corlytics New York office, partnering with financial
institutions to tackle regulatory risk and compliance challenges. He joined through the
acquisition of Clausematch, where he served as Global Head of Sales.
Michael Galdo
Counsel at King & Spalding
Michael Galdo is a Counsel with King & Spalding’s Special Matters and Government Investigations team. He focuses on complex investigations, especially those with cyber, transnational, or national security implications. Mike recently joined King & Spalding after serving for over 15 years as a federal prosecutor, including as the Department of Justice’s Director of COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General. There, Mike led the Department’s criminal, civil, and forfeiture enforcement efforts pursuing those who committed or facilitated billions of dollars in fraud against pandemic relief programs, including transnational cybercrime networks. Mike was also the Assistant United States Attorney in Charge of Cybercrime for the Western District of Texas, leading investigations into malware distributors, cryptocurrency exchanges, business email compromise offenses, money launderers, and other cybercrime offenses. Mike spent nearly a decade as a national security prosecutor, investigating and charging export control violations for the unlawful export of sensitive technology and terrorism offenses, including the investigation and charging of the 2018 Austin Serial Bomber.
Lisa Lechner
Chief Compliance Officer and AML/BSA Officer at SpotOn
Lisa is the Chief Compliance Officer and AML/BSA Officer at SpotOn. Inc. She is also the Executive Chair for ACAMS Northern CA and an advisory board member for Unit21. She has over 20 years of experience leading compliance/regulatory, AML, content moderation, and risk management teams. Her career has included CCO and AML leadership roles with Mercari Inc, PayPal, Venmo, Braintree, Rabobank NA, and AVG creating, building and managing numerous facets of global compliance programs at unique financial institutions, MSBs and fintech companies from start-up through maturation.
She received her Juris Doctor from the University of Nebraska College of Law and has a B.S. degree in Political Science from Nebraska Wesleyan University. Lisa is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS).
Chastity Murphy
Senior Advisor for Financial Institutions at the US Treasury Dept
Chastity is a Senior Advisor for Financial Institutions, managing the cryptocurrency, digital assets, consumer protections, and financial inclusion portfolios. Chastity was previously a senior economic policy advisor for Representative Rashida Tlaib, pioneering legislation on e-cash, stablecoins and digital assets. As a policy advisor, she managed Tlaib’s Financial Services Committee and worked on anti-austerity, financial reform, racial equity, and financial inclusion policies. Chastity also worked with Representative Marcia Fudge as a legislative aide. Chastity has also been a cooperative education student and analyst at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. In 2020, Chastity was featured in the Forbes article “Women of Color Hill Staffers Talk New Economic Policy Making, Digital Cash Without Blockchain.” Chastity lives in Washington, D.C., and has a political science and economics B.A. from South Carolina State University.
Matt Van Buskirk
Co-Founder & CEO, Regulatory at Hummingbird
Matt is a regulatory futurist and advocate for the development of open-source and interoperable software solutions for the regulatory space. He is a frequent speaker on regulatory modernisation in venues around the world.
Hummingbird is on a mission to turn the tables against criminals who pollute our financial system. Modern criminals are sophisticated, tech-savvy, and agile. The tools used to fight financial crimes should be, too.
Prior to launching Hummingbird, Matt was the first compliance hire at Circle, where he built the compliance function from the ground up, a consultant with Treliant Risk Advisors, and a regulator with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Thrift Supervision.
His speaking credentials include government agency and financial industry events such as the Monetary Authority of Singapore's Fintech Festival, Money 2020 in the U.S. and Europe, Finovate Europe, the ABA Regulatory Compliance and Financial Crimes Conferences, and government agencies such as the World Bank, the U.S. Treasury Department, the Japanese, Irish and Dutch Central Banks, the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Federal Reserve. He has also appeared on the Nasdaq Tech Talks TV segment.
Richard Munassi
Managing Director at Tampa Bay Wave
Dr. Richard Munassi MD MBA is a serial Entrepreneur and investor. As Managing Director of the Tampa Bay Wave, Dr. Munassi leads both the CORE and Accelerator programs, focused on guiding software and hardware startups from throughout the US and abroad build, launch, and grow their technology companies. Partnerships at the Wave include have included groups such as JP Morgan Chase, Silicon Valley Bank, Bank of America, Raymond James, Encore Bank, Smiley Technologies, Curql, ICBA, and more.
His background includes time with NASA as part of their iTech program, as former Entrepreneur in Residence for Techstars, the University of South Florida (where he was also Adjunct Professor for the Graduate School of Business), and the University of Florida, and current Entrepreneur in Residence roles with University of East London and Vanderbilt University. He is also a mentor for programs such as FedTech, UCSF's Health Hub, MassChallenge, Founder Institute, and more.
Dr. Munassi is an active investor in early stage technology startups and several VC funds as well. Dr. Munassi has spoken at events run by and been featured in the Venture Capital Journal, TechCrunch, NASDAQ, Amazon re:Invent, CES, SXSW, and more.
Jairo Riveros
President, Americas & Global Head of Strategy at Paysend
As President for the Americas at Paysend, Jairo steers the company’s strategic direction across the U.S., Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean-bringing together global strategy expertise with a passion for financial innovation.
With a strong focus on partnerships, analytics, and growth, he works closely with teams and ecosystem partners to expand Paysend’s reach and accelerate the adoption of digital payments. Under his leadership, Paysend is building a truly integrated global payments network that connects billions of people, businesses, and financial institutions.
Paysend’s mission is bold yet simple: to make cross-border payments seamless, instant, and accessible for everyone. From pioneering Paysend Libre experiences to scaling Enterprise API solutions, his work is dedicated to transforming how money moves worldwide-empowering both businesses and consumers.
Anthony Vassallo
Senior Vice President, Crypto at Silicon Valley Bank
Anthony Vassallo is a senior vice president on Silicon Valley Bank’s Crypto team with 8 years of experience supporting the innovation ecosystem. He specializes in providing essential banking support to venture-backed blockchain pioneers. As an NFT collector and active voice in the crypto space, Anthony is passionate about the success of founders.
Prior to his current role, Anthony was a senior product manager at SVB, focused on commercial lending. Anthony also has experience in underwriting and portfolio management, supporting early- to late-stage technology and healthcare companies.
Anthony was born and raised in Silicon Valley and currently spends most of his time in Austin, Texas. He earned a post-graduate case fellowship, master’s degree in entrepreneurship and innovation, and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business.
Adrian Rizo
Director of Product, Data, Analytics & AI at Kestra Financial
Adrián Rizo is a fintech and banking leader with more than 15 years of experience helping financial institutions and technology companies build products that expand access and create sustainable impact. He has led product and strategy teams at BBVA, Experian, and Charles Schwab, where he focused on modernising financial systems and delivering inclusive, data-driven solutions. Today, Adrián leads enterprise data product management at Kestra Financial, supporting the company’s efforts to strengthen transparency, trust, and innovation in wealth management. Having worked across both global banks and fintech startups, Adrián brings a unique perspective on how to bridge legacy systems with modern platforms to reach underserved markets and drive responsible growth.
Jo Davenport
SVP, Fraud Director at Third Coast Bank
Jo Davenport is the Senior Vice President, Fraud Director at Third Coast Bank, where she spearheads the bank's efforts in fraud prevention and detection, managing investigations, and developing robust fraud mitigation strategies. With over a decade of experience in the financial services industry, Jo has a proven track record in fraud management, having previously served as VP, Manager of the Fraud Fusion Team at Texas Capital Bank. She is also an Advisory Board Member at the Unit21 Fraud Consortium. Jo holds the Certified Financial Crimes Investigator (CFCI) certification from the International Association of Financial Crimes Investigators (IAFCI), highlighting her expertise in fraud investigations, ACH payments, and risk management. Her leadership and strategic vision are instrumental in advancing fraud prevention initiatives and maintaining the security of banking operations in Dallas, Texas.
Angelena Bradfield
Head of Policy at the Financial Technology Association (FTA)
Angelena Bradfield is the Head of Policy at the Financial Technology Association. At FTA, she leads the organization’s policy development and regulatory engagement efforts. Previously, she was a Senior Vice President for AML/BSA, Sanctions & Privacy at the Bank Policy Institute, where she supported its regulatory affairs department and led industry efforts to modernize U.S. anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance requirements. She previously held a similar position at The Clearing House Association.
Prior to her bank policy roles, she supported comprehensive immigration reform efforts at ImmigrationWorks USA and worked on various domestic policy issues at the White House, where she served as a staff assistant in both the Domestic Policy Council and Presidential Correspondence offices. She received her MBA in International Business from the University of Edinburgh and a BA in Political Science from the University of California, Irvine.
Deana Rich
Co-founder at Infinicept
Deana is an accomplished thought leader in the payments acquiring industry, widely respected for her integrity, expertise in risk management, and deep knowledge of legal and regulatory compliance. As Co-Founder and former Co-CEO of Infinicept, she played a pivotal role in fundraising, strategy, board governance, and business planning. Her career has been driven by a passion for innovation in embedded payments, compliance, risk management, and SaaS solutions.
Deana founded Rich Consulting in 2004, advising banks, ISOs, and aggregators on risk tolerance, vulnerabilities, and policy implementation. With over three decades of experience, she has helped shape industry guidelines, educate regulators, and set new benchmarks for compliance and operational excellence. She holds an Economics degree from UCLA and has been a leader in the Association of Payment Professionals and the Electronic Transactions Association. Her contributions have been recognised through multiple industry honors, including ETA Member of the Year, MWAA’s Industry Achievement Award, and PayTech Women’s Making Waves Award.
Jelena Hoffart
Director of Identity Value Chain Expansion at Mastercard
Jelena Hoffart is an advisor, strategist and writer focusing on identity and fraud in financial services. Jelena currently leads identity strategy and growth for Mastercard. She also helps incubate and advise companies building new identity and fraud technologies and is an investor in many of the leading technologies.
Ian Schweid
VP, Client Relations - Head of FedNow Client Specialist Group
Ian is part of the Client Relations team within the Federal Reserve Financial Service group. He and his team of FedNow Client Specialists work with financial institutions, service providers and corporate originators as they join and expand their usage of the FedNow instant payment network.
Prior to joining the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, he was in the Product Management and Strategy team within the Financial Services Global Business Unit at Oracle. During the last 25 years, Ian has led business and product related efforts at numerous banks. His responsibilities have included the areas of deposits, retail lending, treasury management, payments, digital channels and credit/debit cards. He has managed retail banking and private banking regions, treasury management groups, merchant processing services, and client service departments. As part of these efforts, he has worked to define the strategic direction for the business, identify and manage key vendor relationship, work directly with clients to help them succeed, manage large scale projects including complete system conversions, and implement new operations and sales processes.
He has served in numerous community and industry organizations including as a Member of the Federal Reserve FedNow RFP workgroup, Federal Reserve Faster Payments Task Force, President of the South Florida chapter of the Association of Financial Professionals (SFAFP), Member of the American Bankers Association (ABA) Payment Advisory Committee and former President and Advisory Board Member of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center. He is a frequent speaker at industry events and conferences around the country. Ian has earned an undergraduate degree in business/finance from Eckerd College, and an M.B.A. from Florida International University.
Emily Stein
Senior Director, Financial Institutions & Fintechs at Onbe
Emily Stein is a fintech executive and partnership strategist passionate about modernising the way consumers receive and move money. As a senior leader at Onbe, she helps banks and fintechs deliver purpose-driven, regulatory-compliant payment experiences that reduce friction and increase access to funds. Automating payments, accelerating delivery to consumers, and reducing back-office workloads are daily conversations. Emily has spent a decade helping organisations replace paper checks — whether in B2C, C2B, or B2B flows — she's always focused on driving trust, choice, and impact.
Matthew Nutting
Head of Digital Sales, Americas at Verifone
Matthew Nutting is a senior payments and fintech executive with extensive experience across global financial and technology organisations, including Klarna, Citi, and Verifone. Throughout his career, he has led initiatives that drive digital transformation, optimise global payment operations, and deliver seamless customer experiences. Matthew has deep expertise in acquiring, alternative payments, and embedded finance, and is recognised for his insights into payments innovation, strategic partnerships, and driving growth in the evolving fintech landscape.
Christian Crisan
Managing Director – Financial Services Strategy and Advisory at Splunk
Christian is a seasoned executive with over 26 years of experience in various functions including Global IT operations management, technology planning, solution implementation and strategic consulting. Prior to joining Splunk, Christian has spent 8 years in various leadership roles at HPE, where he evolved the solutions and go-to-market strategies for the Financial Services vertical. Christian has also held leadership roles at Amdocs, IBM and Idhasoft. Christian has helped some of the largest global Financial Services companies to evaluate and adopt technology solutions and has extensive experience in Retail Banking, Capital Markets, Investment Banking and Trading.
Jason Honeycutt
Chief Compliance Officer and Senior Vice President of Compliance at Ouro (fka NetSpend)
Jason Honeycutt is a Texas licensed attorney and a board certified criminal law specialist. He holds both the AML (CAMS) and Advanced AML (CAMS-Audit) Certifications issued by ACAMS. He is a former chair of two Texas Bar Association committees: Minimum Continuing Legal Education and Advertising Review. His legal experience includes State prosecutor, Federal prosecutor (United States Department of Justice, United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas), and as a private practitioner of law in civil litigation and criminal defense work. His trial experience as a State prosecutor ranges up to murder, including numerous white collar criminal matters and drug cases. His federal prosecutorial experience on the U.S.-Mexico border includes public corruption, drug trafficking, and money laundering. He was involved in thousands of criminal cases while acting as a prosecutor. As an AML/BSA/OFAC Officer, Jason has implemented complete program overhauls of two financial institutions. Jason’s AML programs have received a total of 3 FinCEN Awards.
Prateek Khamesra
Director at Visa
Prateek Khamesra is a Director at Visa, where he leads the commercialisation of Value Added Services (VAS) products. Previously, he was a Senior Product Manager at Mastercard, driving innovation in digital payments with initiatives such as Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), Digital Wallets, and Tokenization across global markets. With over 14 years of experience spanning fintech, consulting, and technology, Prateek has held leadership roles at JPMorgan Chase, McKinsey & Company, and Infosys, specialising in product development, go-to-market execution, and business strategy. He holds a Master’s degree in Engineering Management from Johns Hopkins University, where he also serves on the Advisory Board of the Centre for Leadership Education.
Jordan Baltazor
Founder and CEO at Strategic CX
Jordan Baltazor is the Founder and CEO of Strategic CX, a consulting and advisory firm that bridges the gap between financial institutions and fintech innovators. With a background spanning customer experience, payments modernization, and digital asset infrastructure, Jordan helps banks and fintechs design compliant, scalable, and customer-centric ecosystems that support blockchain-based and embedded finance solutions.
Under his leadership, Strategic CX has guided community banks, BaaS providers, and emerging fintechs through the complexities of integrating stablecoin and digital asset capabilities into traditional banking frameworks. His work centers on regulatory alignment, operational readiness, and partnership strategy, empowering financial institutions to innovate responsibly within the evolving digital finance landscape.
Before founding Strategic CX, Jordan held leadership and advisory roles with Fortress Trust, Chime, Kasasa, and Sunflower Bank, where he led initiatives focused on customer experience, digital transformation, and fintech partnerships. He holds an MBA from Kansas Wesleyan University and brings a pragmatic, risk-aware perspective to discussions around crypto adoption, stablecoin impact, and the regulatory evolution of global payments.
Nicole Jimenez
Account Executive at Xplor Pay
Nicole Jimenez is an Account Executive at Xplor Pay, a payments software company under Xplor Technologies that helps businesses simplify and scale their operations through smarter payment solutions. With a background spanning community banking, business lending, and fintech, Nicole brings a unique perspective on how technology can drive financial inclusion and empower small businesses. She’s passionate about bridging the gap between traditional finance and digital innovation to create more equitable access to financial tools for entrepreneurs everywhere.
Ben Grout
VP of Payments & Tokenization Sales at zerohash
Ben began his career in corporate finance in London in 2011 before moving to New York, where he worked in various management roles within traditional finance and payments landscape. His passion for blockchain was sparked in New York in 2020, leading him to spend the next four years deeply immersed in the industry, including time with Chainlink Labs. In 2021, Ben relocated to Texas and made the full transition from traditional finance to blockchain payments. Today, as VP of Sales at zerohash, he combines over a decade of expertise in global finance with his passion for blockchain to help build the next generation of financial infrastructure.
James Dillard
Director, Sales & Business Development at The Clearing House (TCH)
James Dillard is part of the Client Relationship Management team at The Clearing House. He is
responsible for identifying and securing new clients.
James has over three decades of Treasury and leadership experience across a variety of roles and has previously worked at JPMorgan Chase and a regional financial institution.
James has presented multiple times on instant payments, for both the Association for Financial
Professionals, (AFP), and the US Faster Payments Council.
James is a Certified Treasury Professional (CTP).
Mark Majeske
Senior Vice President of Faster Payments at Alacriti
As Senior Vice President of Faster Payments at Alacriti, Mark leads the overall corporate faster payments strategy and product development of the Orbipay Payments Hub. Mark also currently serves in the Faster Payments Council Board Advisory Group and chairs their Cross-Border Payments Work Group. Previously, Mark led product development for the RTP® network, the FedNow® Service, and Zelle® at FIS. In addition, Mark was part of the team that designed, developed, and launched the RTP network at The Clearing House. He also worked in the financial industry in digital payments product development.
Lakshman Kannan
Financial Services Risk Technology & Analytics Leader (Partner) at PwC
Lakshman leads PwC’s risk and reg technology & analytics for the financial services
industry. He has more than 20 years of experience working with financial institutions and
advises senior executives on solving risk and compliance related issues using technology.
Lakshman represented a large global bank with CFPB, FRB and OCC on consumer lending related issues.
Julie Fergerson
Co-Founder and CEO at MRC
Over 25+ years of experience developing, delivering and promoting Internet-based technologies. Generates enthusiasm about new technologies. Adept at evaluating new technologies to determine flaws, competitors and obstacles. Proven track record of positioning existing technology to meet needs of audience without changing fundamental value of technology. Resourceful problem solver and motivating leader. Intelligent, articulate and passionate.
Madison Amador
Operations Generalist at 8am
Madison Amador is an Operations Generalist at 8am, where she leads data-driven initiatives in risk management, compliance systems, and operational analytics. With over five years of experience in fintech and payments, Madison focuses on integrating compliance technology, optimizing processes, and strengthening governance frameworks across global operations. She is passionate about bridging technology and regulation to create scalable, transparent, and ethical financial systems.
Stacy Armijo
Chief Experience Officer at Amplify Credit Union
Stacy Armijo is Chief Experience Officer for Amplify Credit Union, which stewards more than $3B in assets under management through fee-free banking, award-winning lending and excellence in loan servicing. Stacy is responsible for weaving together the teams who shape Amplify’s promises to its members, employees and community, with those who keep them, including marketing, retail, payments, human resources, training and social impact. Beyond Amplify, Stacy is active in her profession, having recently graduated from the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking at SMU’s Cox School of Business, and she was named one of 2023’s Most Powerful Women in Credit Unions by American Banker.
Stacy joined Amplify in 2018 and has a background in public relations and marketing, having spent 17 years as a leader in a regional PR & marketing firm in Texas. She is active in the marketing profession, including serving as the 2020 Chairperson of the Board for the American Marketing Association (AMA), among other local and national roles over 15+ years. Stacy was recognized for her involvement in 2019 when she was named AMA’s Ric Sweeney Chapter Volunteer of the Year. In addition, she was an instructor for three years at the University of Texas at Austin, teaching “Strategies in Public Relations” in the Moody College of Communications.
Beyond her profession, Stacy is involved in various aspects of the Austin community and has been named a “Woman of Influence” by the Austin Business Journal. Currently, she serves as a Member of the Austin Area Research Organization, the Legacy Circle for The New Philanthropists, the Leadership Circle for Communities in Schools of Central Texas. Previously, she was a Board Member for the Austin Chamber of Commerce and Communities in Schools of Central Texas as well as Board Chair for the American Red Cross of Central Texas and a McBee Fellow for the Austin Area Research Organization. Stacy is also a graduate of the Emerge and Essential programs of Leadership Austin and was a Trusted Advisor for Vistage International for 10 years.
Stacy earned a bachelor's degree in public relations from the University of Texas at Austin and is a proud mom to two boys, ages 13 and 9. She loves exploring Austin with them and finding opportunities to entertain friends with her amateur bartending skills and bad jokes.
Eyal Sivan
GM of North America at Ozone API
Eyal Sivan, also known as Mr. Open Banking, is one of the foremost global experts in the open banking space.
In his efforts to drive advancements in open banking worldwide, Eyal created the unique personal brand Mr. Open Banking. Under this persona, he hosts the only podcast dedicated to the open banking community, interviewing the key leaders, innovators and influencers who are driving the emergence of open banking around the globe. Since its launch in 2020, the podcast has grown to over 60 thousand subscribers, with Eyal being recognized by Open Future World as the number one Open Finance Influencer in the world for 2022.
Today, Eyal is the General Manager for North America at Ozone API, global pioneers of open banking who’s platform powers some of the largest and most advanced data sharing ecosystems on the planet. In his role, he is responsible for expanding the firm's global position as a leading open banking solution provider to the United States, Canada and beyond.
Shamieka Jackson
VP Enterprise Sales | Adyen for Platforms at Adyen
Mieka Jackson is a seasoned leader in the payments and fintech space with over a decade of experience driving growth across global banking and SaaS platforms. She recently joined Adyen, a fintech company you can bank on, following impactful roles at J.P. Morgan Chase and American Express, where she led strategic initiatives in embedded finance and digital commerce for Fortune 500 clients. Mieka is passionate about innovation, client success, and shaping the future of digital payments.
Kristóf Litavecz
Global Head of Business Operations at Wise
Kristof leads Business Operations and Continuous Improvement at Wise Servicing, operating at the pivotal intersection of product, operations, and compliance. He manages a global team of over 50 professionals, bridging the gap between product development and scalable, efficient service delivery.
His team is responsible for driving complex cross-functional initiatives aimed at deflecting, automating, and optimizing manual processes—ensuring Wise operates smarter and faster as it supports over 10 million active customers and facilitates £140 billion in annual transactions.
Kristof also oversees all Wise operations teams across the EU/UK and Americas regions, with leadership responsibility for sites in Tallinn, Budapest, Austin, and São Paulo. His focus is on building resilient operational systems and fostering a product-minded culture capable of supporting Wise’s 60+ global licenses and ambitious growth trajectory.
David Maw
Head of Bank Operations at Santander
A seasoned financial services executive with more than two decades of leadership experience in consumer payments, card and payment operations, and business transformation. Known for his ability to drive operational excellence, deliver profitability, and inspire cross-functional teams, David has built a career optimizing performance across major financial institutions, including Santander Bank, USAA, Synchrony Financial, Prudential, RBS Citizens, and Bank of America.
Currently Executive Director Head of Bank Operations at Santander, David leads strategy and execution across all bank products Cards, Payments, Loans and Deposits.
David’s earlier roles with Synchrony Financial, Prudential Annuities, RBS Citizens Bank, and Bank of America further demonstrate his expertise in strategic planning, product management, vendor governance, and large-scale transformation.
Ivy Gupta
Lead Product Counsel, Payments at Plaid
Ivy Gupta is Lead Product Counsel, Payments at Plaid, a financial services technology company that helps consumers connect their financial services accounts to apps that help them better manage their financial lives. Ivy focuses on legal and regulatory issues relating to open banking, payment processing, and fraud detection, risk mitigation, and account verification solutions to support payments use cases, with deep expertise in payments network rules compliance and consumer financial services regulations.
Linda Mahy
CEO and Founder at Connective IQ Inc. | Associate Partner at The Fintech & Payments Advisory Network (TFPA)
With over 35 years of global banking and payments consulting experience, Linda Mahy is the CEO and Founder of Connective IQ, a firm that assists Tier 1 Banking Executives and Fintechs in navigating core banking and payments transformation journeys. Linda is a specialist in these two supply chains and has an intimate knowledge of the needs and solutions across the Financial Services Value Chain.
Linda leverages her extensive talent network and deep domain expertise to deliver strategic, innovative, and customer-centric solutions for her clients. She also has decades of experience in alliance and partner management, M&A, and VC advisory. Linda is passionate about leading the industry's convergence and innovation, and empowering her clients to achieve their goals through Strong Customer Success experience.
Joseph Saahene
Vice President and General Counsel at Usio Inc.
Joseph Saahene serves as the Vice President and General Counsel at Usio Inc., bringing extensive legal experience in corporate law and compliance. Mr. Saahene is responsible for advising executives, senior management, and the board on various matters such as legal rights, complex regulatory frameworks, and developing strategies that align with the company’s business objectives. Previously, Joseph was a federally licensed litigation attorney and specialised in mediation, arbitration, negotiation, and dispute resolution. Mr. Saahene holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Texas Tech University, a Master of Business Administration and Juris Doctor degree with an emphasis on alternative dispute resolution from St. Mary’s University. Additionally, Joseph holds certifications in Accredited ACH Professional (AAP), Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), and Certified Payments Professional (CPP). Along with his professional achievements, Joseph actively engages in community service, supporting initiatives focused on providing legal assistance to underserved populations.
Ashley Jacobson
Head of Banking Operations & Partnerships at Cleo AI
Ashley’s expertise in business strategy and operations is built on more than 15 years of experience leading digital transformation and double-digit revenue growth. Over the course of her career, she has spearheaded M&A analysis, business planning, and technology strategy at companies ranging in size from enterprise to startup. In her role at Cleo, a high-growth, AI-native fintech, Ashley oversees teams delivering product innovation through bank and payment partners, as well as a customer service organization. Ashley is known for her ability to design and implement technology solutions and processes that scale globally. She earned her MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and is certified in Product Strategy, Organization Design, and Negotiations.
Trisha Asgeirsson
Fintech and Payments Executive, Ex MasterCard and JPMorgan Chase
Trisha Asgeirsson is the President is the of SKUx a payments technology company enabling seamless delivery of digital-first promotions and incentives at an item level. She an Advisor for Antuar a global lead developer of In-Branch teller solutions for Financial Services. She has worked with early-stage and emerging companies on strategy, value creation, partnerships, and the path to global scaling. Asgeirsson is a global executive with expertise in digital transformation, consumer financial services and payments, with a deep lens on loyalty and engagement.
She served as the North America Loyalty Lead for MasterCard from 2015 to 2019. In this role, she was responsible for commercialising MasterCard Loyalty services business through innovation, including launching MasterCard’s merchant loyalty business. Prior to this role, she served as the Head of MasterCard Advisors, North America where she oversaw all aspects of the company’s mandate for continued growth of the Services division for the company. She also developed and executed the Services strategy for the board.
Before joining MasterCard, she held the role of Head of Loyalty at JPMorgan Chase with increasing responsibility with JPM in their global consumer cards business. She led the road map, the development and the execution of the banks leading consumer value propositions, notably Chase Ultimate and Chase Travel Rewards. She has served and supported the Women in Consumer Finance organisation to help equip women with their career growth journey.
Trisha’s passion for local community, investment and entrepreneurship has resulted in investment and ownership of two successful small businesses, one retail store in New York, and the second a working Horse Ranch in Southern Oregon.
She grew up in Dublin Ireland and lives between both the East and West Coast with her husband Asgeir!
Holly Paulus
Corporate Counsel, Payments at Expedia Group
Holly Paulus is an attorney and native Austinite with over a decade of experience in payments and financial services. She currently serves as Payments Counsel at Expedia Group, where she counsels product and commercial leadership through key product initiatives and negotiates strategic partnerships agreements with acquiring banks and payment service providers. Prior to joining Expedia, Holly was Senior Legal Counsel at eBay, where she supported new product launches and global payments initiatives. Holly holds a JD from Emory University School of Law and is a Certified Financial Crime Specialist (CFCS).
Elena Teodorovich
Director of Payments at Neumo
Elena Teodorovich is the Director of Payments at Neumo, where she leads the company’s in-house PayFac platform, powering secure, compliant, and seamless payment experiences for government and public-sector clients across the U.S.
A builder at heart, Elena helped design and scale Neumo’s payments infrastructure from the ground up—now processing over $1 billion annually.
With a background spanning fintech strategy, growth, and product innovation, she brings a unique perspective on how compliance and creativity can coexist to drive real-world impact.
Elena is passionate about modernising legacy systems, unlocking new value through innovation, and helping established industries evolve with intention and agility.
Juvin George
Director Product at USAA
Juvin George, APRP, is a Director of Product Management, Bill Pay at USAA Bank with 15+ years of experience managing transformative initiatives across payments, banking, and technology. At USAA, he leads a team of product and risk management professionals driving a large-scale transformation of the payments ecosystem—modernising payment systems, enhancing compliance, improving operational efficiency, and elevating the customer experience through innovative digital solutions. Known for bridging strategy and execution, Juvin fosters collaboration across teams to deliver scalable, high-impact results.
Before joining USAA, he partnered with 20+ financial institutions across the U.S. and Canada as a management consultant at Argus Advisory, helping clients leverage data analytics and benchmarking to optimise deposits and payments performance. With a background in analytics and engineering, Juvin is passionate about building digital products that advance the future of payments and create meaningful, lasting impact for customers.
John Reyes
CEO and Founder at LoxFX
John Reyes is a fintech founder, software/data engineer, and recovering banker/attorney.
Currently, Founder of LoxFX (B2B FX) in Nashville EC's Project Fintech.
Former Director of Business Strategy Analytics, USAA Credit Card drove P&L impacts; Governed cloud pipelines ingesting ~5M statements/day; Owned production ML models and innovated auditable MLOps.
Shipped remediation and growth systems (Massive regulatory fees calculations; 2M+ offers per quarter).
Crypto operator: founding CTO/Legal Officer of a compliance‑first memecoin launchpad —first‑hand lessons pre/post Trump; built a stablecoin BNPL—first‑hand lessons pre/post GENIUS Act.
Full‑stack developer, cloud architect, dev/data/ML/AIOps, and web3; Texas Bar; JD (Baylor), MBA (UVA Darden), BA (Math).
Speaks on AI/ML governance, privacy‑by‑design data, compliant token/stablecoin programs, international payments, and data‑driven B2C outreach strategy.
Anuradha Gupta Ray
Senior Change Delivery Lead Consultant, Payments at Comercia Bank
Anuradha is a dynamic senior executive with over 25 years of leadership experience in risk management, compliance, and enterprise transformation within the financial services and technology sectors. She has led large-scale initiatives that align compliance with innovation, driving sustainable growth and operational excellence. Known for her ability to foster cross-functional collaboration and manage complex change, Anuradha builds resilient, risk-aware cultures that strengthen organisational agility. Her expertise spans governance, strategic planning, and stakeholder management, underpinning her data-driven approach to business transformation. She has successfully led digital and regulatory transformation programs that modernise compliance frameworks and enhance operational resilience. A trusted advisor to executive leadership, she delivers measurable results through forward-thinking, enterprise-wide programs and champions purposeful transformation that drives lasting business success.
Ekaterina Neustroeva
COO at Vivox.AI
Ekaterina Neustroeva has over 15 years of investment experience across private equity, credit, and cross-over assets out of Rothschild and Bluewater Private Equity, with a focus on B2B SaaS and tech-enabled buy-and-build strategies. An investor turned builder, Ekaterina is now the COO and GTM lead at Vivox AI. Vivox AI builds AI agents for financial crime compliance teams, which are now successfully deployed at several global fintech firms. Several customers have passed independent audits confirming that Vivox’s AI agents comply with regulatory requirements. In her role, Ekaterina is responsible channel partnerships, growth initiatives, and operations.
Aaron Kwan
CRO at Hapax (Ex-Q2, NCR)
Aaron Kwan is the Chief Revenue Officer at Hapax, where he brings more than 25 years of experience in enterprise sales, leadership, and financial technology to drive adoption of secure, purpose-built generative AI across community financial institutions. At Hapax, Aaron leads the company’s revenue strategy and go-to-market execution, community and regional financial institutions accelerate operational efficiency, strengthen regulatory compliance, and unlock new sources of growth through AI innovation.
Prior to Hapax, Aaron held senior leadership roles in technology and fintech organizations, where he built and scaled high-performing sales teams, forged strategic partnerships, and consistently delivered measurable revenue growth. His deep understanding of the financial services landscape and commitment to client success have made him a trusted advisor to executives navigating digital transformation.
Aaron holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the Baylor University.
Ali Ahmed
Account Executive at FreedomPay
Ali Ahmed is a consumer payments professional with over 8 years of experience in consumer payments technology & digital transformation. As an Account Executive at FreedomPay, one of the largest independent agnostic payment gateway platforms in North America, Ali helps organisations make informed decisions to align their payments strategies with secure, resilient, & scalable solutions. FreedomPay's platform unifies payments, analytics, loyalty, and omni-channel integrations to help some of the largest global hospitality and retail brands maximise their revenue.
Throughout his career, Ali has built a strong track record of surpassing business goals and exceeding revenue targets. He has worked with global teams to execute and deliver results that have led to business growth across competitive markets. With a strategic mindset and client-first approach, Ali has helped merchants to avoid payment-related pitfalls and improve their bottom line.
Allan Rayson
Global Head of Sales at Tailwind
TLDR; Global Head of Sales @ Tailwind I Investor In Banks and Fintech’s I Founder @ Finov8r I Co-Founder @ PaidUp I Ex-Encore Bank, Regions Bank, Simmons, BOK, BBVA, Comerica I American Banker Digital Banker Of The Year 2022
Over the past few decades, I’ve been all over the banking and fintech space as an executive, entrepreneur, consultant and leader.
There are many things I am proud of since 2001, but the most impactful include:
-being a part of at least $350MM in credit extended to small and midsize businesses in various industries across the U.S. and Canada (Comerica, Bank of Texas, BBVA)
-launching a payments fintech that supported small businesses in the U.S. that processed over $10MM in payments (PaidUp)
-leading a team of corporate bankers, commercial treasury and specialty finance professionals to over 30% YOY growth with a top 15 bank in the U.S. (Regions Bank)
-being part of a team that acquired a bank charter building the technology stack and innovation strategy which led to being recognized as American Banker’s Digital Banker of the Year in 2022 (Encore Bank).
Douglas Price
Payments Product Leader & Consultant
Douglas is a seasoned product leader who has defined and executed global Payments strategies with a keen focus on frictionless customer experiences, working with global brands such as Hilton Worldwide, Ticketmaster and Fiserv.
In recent years, Douglas has served as an industry consultant, advising private equity firms and companies across the horizontal marketplace on the Payments ecosystem. His insights help entities prioritise investments, evaluate emerging technologies, and navigate the evolving landscape of digital commerce.
His experience spans both merchant and issuer perspectives. On the merchant side, he has led the planning and implementation of digital wallets and contactless payment solutions across eCommerce and in-store channels. On the issuer side, he has driven initiatives related to wallet enablement, card feature development, and portfolio performance optimisation.
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Balazs Barna
Head of U.S. Engineering at Wise
Balazs Barna is the Head of US Engineering and Austin Site Lead at Wise. At Wise, Balazs oversees the US engineering team, which is building the tech and infrastructure needed to facilitate instant, convenient and affordable cross border transactions. He also leads Wise’s Austin office and serves as a board member on the Austin Technology Council.
Over his 8+ years at Wise, Balazs has led and helped his team build the company’s historic direct access integration to the Hungarian banking sector’s instant payment system, the first of its kind for a company with a payment service license. He also oversaw and built Wise’s core infrastructure that enables the company’s European operations.
Eduardo Villalobos
Senior Vice President Growth & Strategic Partnerships at Payall Payment Systems, Inc.
Seasoned executive with over 25 years of experience in the remittance and correspondent banking industries. As a leader of an entrepreneurial team, grew a startup to a top five industry-leading remittance company through strategic, organic growth and acquisitions. Focused on developing and expanding the payment network by establishing partnerships with major financial institutions across Latin America. Through these partnerships, created innovative, consumer-centric payment channels, including digital wallets and other digital payment solutions that increasingly replaced the use of cash payments historically associated with this industry.
Finn Veje
Director of Business Development at Thunes
Finn leads Business Development for Thunes in the Americas. Before this, he spent a number of years at PwC, advising Fortune 50 companies on their FP&A and Corporate Treasury strategies. Finn brings a strong background in financial technology and global payments to help the world’s largest enterprises modernize their cross-border payment capabilities.