SPEAKER PROFILES
Robert Courtneidge
Industry Expert
Robert Courtneidge is an Advisor of the international payments business Moorwand Limited, following a distinguished career in the card and payments industry. 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. Robert has deep expertise in e-money, and is highly skilled in all aspects of consumer finance issues, including consumer protection, banking regulation and compliance, and anti-money laundering.
In the UK, he works closely with The Payments Services Regulator, HM Treasury and Financial Conduct Association, and other compliance and industry bodies globally. Previously, Robert achieved success as a senior legal professional specialising in matters relating to cards and payments. He regularly speaks on issues facing the European Payments’ Industry including laws relating to Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies and Initial Coin Offerings, and is a former co-host of the podcast ‘Fintech Unplugged’.
Harry Xenophontos
Head of Acquiring & Digital Payment Services at
RCB BANK LTD
A business professional with over 15 years of professional experience in Management Consulting, IT and Risk related services; including pragmatic senior management experience within the Banking and Card Services corporate environments.
A “Big 4” background that drives professional attitude and quality driven results. A leader with excellent people skills and very well known in the consulting environment and payments industry locally.
Passionate of the emerging innovation and transformation of the financial services industry, looking to empower the consumer payment experience and services, towards a better digital economy.
Matt Buchanan
Senior Vice President of Compliance at Checkout.com
Matt leads the global compliance function for Checkout.com and is its FCA-nominated Money Laundering Reporting Officer. Previously, Matt spent 10 years in the Asia-Pacific region leading financial crime compliance teams with Standard Chartered Bank, Fiserv and Deloitte.
Massimo Buonomo
Global expert in Blockchain, cryptocurrencies, FinTech and
RegTech at United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC)
Massimo is Senior Expert and Advisor in fin-tech, blockchain in finance. for several international organizations, i.e. United Nations agency Alliance of Civilization, United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT)-UNECE Italy, etc.
Massimo is a highly regarded professional in the blockchain field.Massimo solves business problems using a lateral thinking approach. Massimo promotes simple decisions which help customers solve problems from different angles, i.e. personal, financial, environmental sides. After working in international financial markets for 20 years as Senior equity banking analyst, Massimo has worked also as a university professor of fintech and international finance in Rio de Janeiro Brazil, Turin Italy and Wuhan China.
Chad Giussani
Head of Operations, FM Compliance at Standard Chartered Bank
Chad Giussani leads the Operations and Transaction Reporting Compliance team at Standard Chartered bank covering global post trade operations, trade and transaction reporting obligations. He has been involved with regulatory trade and transaction reporting since 2006, covering global derivative risk reporting and prudential jurisdictional requirements. Chad originally worked in the transaction reporting vendor solutions area before moving into a leadership role within investment banking technology, then onto business change and more recently into Financial Markets Compliance leadership.
Chad represents Standard Chartered at the trade and transaction reporting industry working groups with various trade associations including ISDA, UK Finance, FIA and AFME on the emerging rules and regulations and is the former Chairman of the Regulations Business Unit at ISITC Europe.
Matteo Mannino
Adviser, Innovation and Payments at European Savings & Retail Banking Group (ESBG)
Matteo Mannino joined the two savings and retail banking associations WSBI-ESBG at the start of 2020 as an adviser in the Innovation and Payments department. In that role, he supports savings and retail banks on FinTech and innovation topics, setting up business workshops and helping members engage in public policy exchanges, namely with regulators and policymakers. He is an observer in the joint-AMIs FinTech taskforce of the European Central Bank. Prior to joining WSBI-ESBG, he worked at Paris-based European Banking Authority, serving in its markets, innovation and products unit and focusing on FinTech regulation, SupTech/RegTech, innovation facilitators, crypto-assets, and cybersecurity. Before that, he completed a graduate programme at Crédit Agricole in Italy, working in the banking group’s digital transformation unit. While there, he participated in the launch of the startup accelerator LeVillagebyCA in Milan. He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in philosophy from Italy’s University of Pavia, a master’s degree in political management from LUISS School of Government, Rome, and a graduate diploma in economics from Birkbeck College, University of London.
Francis Gross
Senior Advisor at European Central Bank
Francis is Senior Adviser in the Directorate General Statistics of the European Central Bank where his immediate focus is on the “real world - data world” interface, primarily object identification.. His interests include developing vision and strategy for overcoming the dual disruption of rapid globalisation and digitisation, as well as designing and driving the implementation of concrete, feasible measures with transformational power to ultimately deliver measurement tools effective at the scale and speed of today’s finance, especially in a crisis. He serves on the Regulatory Oversight Committee of the Global LEI System (GLEIS) and has been instrumental in the emergence and development of the GLEIS. Prior to the ECB, Francis spent fifteen years in the automotive industry, eight of which at Mercedes, working mainly on globalisation, strategic alliances and business development.
Jon Asprey
Director at Promontory, an IBM Company
Jon is a subject matter expert and advisor specialising in the topics of Analytics, Data Governance and Information Management within the Financial Services sector. He is particularly focused on how data impacts risk management, financial crime compliance and controls automation, privacy regulation as well as regulatory reporting and submissions. Jon has a strong background in customer/client data management in areas such as single customer view, counterparty mastering, segmentation, predictive modelling and next best action.
During the course of his work, Jon has advised senior business officers at many global financial services firms on engagements related to KYC/AML, GDPR, FATCA, BCBS239, Dodd-Frank, CCAR, Basel II, Solvency II, customer deposit guarantee (FSCS) and credit risk data assurance. Prior to joining IBM, Jon was the Vice President of Product Management for Financial Solutions at Trillium Software and was previously a Senior Manager at Deloitte LLP, where he was the data quality lead within the Enterprise Risk Services practice.
Angela Johnson
Head of Risk for IT Change and New Technologies at Lloyds Banking Group
Prior to working at Lloyds, Angela worked At Deutsche Bank in the Cloud, Anti-Financial Crime Analytics, Data Quality and Finance Risk and Regulatory Reporting change and transformation teams. Before joining Deutsche Bank, Angela worked as a Senior Manager at EY across Asia Pacific and EMEIA within the Financial Services Organisation focusing on Corporate Banking and Capital Markets transformation and advisory programmes. Angela started her career at IBM in Australia working as a developer, tester, designer and then business analyst and project manager.
Angela has an honours degree in Mechanical Engineering (Mechatronics / Robotics) and Computer Science from the University of Melbourne, Australia.
Angelique Assaf
Head of Data Strategy at Cedar Rose
Angelique Assaf is Head of Data Strategy at Cedar Rose in the Dubai Office, heading the department with a demonstrated history of working in the information services industry. She is skilled in Business Planning, Data Strategies, Management, and Business Intelligence. She is also a strong analytical professional with a background in Math and International Accounting & Finance.
Angelique has been instrumental in helping to build the CR Score – the unique credit scoring model of Cedar Rose – in addition to some other algorithms, and in growing the company’s database into millions of companies using AI, machine learning and a team of analysts and translators.
David Cowland
Head of Compliance Operations at Fidelity International
David has spent more than 3 decades in Financial Services, covering Retail, Corporate, Wealth and International banking and Asset Management, in both business and technology roles. David is a passionate innovator and challenger, having been involved in several ‘step change’ initiatives to challenge the established order. Described, at times, as ‘absolutely focused on delivery’, he is all about getting the job done, while challenging the ‘How & when’. He is currently focused on how regulatory technology (RegTech) can improve efficiency and transform Compliance.
Damian Mifsud
CEO, Qgen
Damian is the co-founder of KnowMeNow, a blockchain based Digitial ID Wallet, and also the founder of QGen, an award winning global KYC and KYB solution provider. Damian has over 25 years experience in compliance and payments for regulated financial businesses including Barclays Merchant Services, Omnipay, and MasterCard.
Samrah Kazmi
Founder & CEO at Women in Sustainable Innovation
Samrah Kazmi is an award-winning Senior Executive in Risk Management, Risk Innovation and Sustainability. She is a change agent at the intersection of Innovation, Risk & Sustainability.
With more than two decades of leadership experience on Wall Street & Big Tech, Samrah has led, designed & executed complex Transformation projects & large-scale Regulatory Change Management programs reflecting industry best practices. Her accomplishments include many high profile strategic initiatives, notably:
- GE Capital's Project Hubble: The largest Risk Transformation in corporate history ($200Billion)
- The historic merger of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) & Intercontinental Exchange (ICE)
Samrah serves as a trusted advisor to Boards, C-Suite, Regulators & Govt Agencies on Enterprise Risk Management, Disruption, Sustainability, and the practical applications of Emerging Technologies. With an impressive global following, she has been widely recognized as a thought leader & influencer in both traditional banking and in the emerging FinTech & RegTech landscape. She is frequently invited to speak at industry conferences, participate in Risk Advisory Committees & Systemic Risk Councils.
Samrah has also served in multiple leadership roles and built, managed & mentored high-performance, multi-functional teams at complex global financial institutions, large technology firms, and within startups.
Luka Denic
Analyst Strategy Policy & Innovation at Malta Financial Services Authority
I consider myself a team player with a unique mix of confidence, logical thinking, deduction, and motivation that I’m ready to bring to the table. I have accented social and networking skills with an education background in finance and economics. I’m eager to learn and to improve upon myself in everything I do, and also strive to bring out the best in people I work with. Work experience in the past has shaped me in the ways of forming an astute work ethic and procuring deeper understanding of the importance of teamwork.