Symposium Speakers and Panelists

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

Martin Arnold has worked for the Financial Times since 1999 and been the FT banking editor since January 2014. Before that he was deputy companies’ editor for almost three years, overseeing business and financial coverage. Between 2007 and 2011, he covered private equity, winning the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association award of private equity correspondent of the year and being shortlisted for scoop of the year at the Business Journalist of the Year awards. His other roles at the FT have included Paris correspondent for five years, covering a wide beat including politics and finance. He has also written about technology, media and telecoms in London and consumer industries in New York.

Azeem Azhar is a strategist, product entrepreneur and writer with a passion for all things technological.

Outside of his day job, where Azeem is the Vice President at the global media company Schibsted Media Group, Azeem runs the very popular newsletter on the societal implications of technology called Exponential View which has garnered more than 11k subscribers including investors, academics, and journalists around the world.

Previously, I've been an award-winning entrepreneur, backed by VC, with a successful exit; an investor in many tech startups, especially in the AI sector; held corporate strategy roles at Reuters and the BBC. I've spoken on TV and radio (BBC, Sky, CNN, amongst others) and lectured or spoken at LBS, Harvard, TechCrunch, and dozens of other places. I started my career as an editor at The Economist and The Guardian.

The early part of Azeem’s career took him to journalism, where he covered technology at The Guardian and The Economist. Azeem has also had product strategy and innovation roles at the BBC and Thomson Reuters.

Recently Azeem was founder and CEO of PeerIndex, a venture-backed startup which applied a lot of machine learning to large-scale social graphs to make predictions about social web users. Brandwatch acquired PeerIndex in 2014.

Previously, Azeem has been an award-winning entrepreneur and an investor in many technology startups, especially in the Artificial Intelligence sector. Azeem has spoken on television and radio (BBC, Sky, CNN amongst others) and lectured or spoken at London Business School, Harvard, Techcrunch and dozens of other places.

Greg Baxter specializes in the development and delivery of digital strategy, corporate innovation and business transformation. He has held a number of senior technology, consulting and business roles across Asia, Europe and North America. Currently at Citi, he is Global Head of Digital, leading Citi’s digital agenda across businesses and geographies. Prior to joining Citi, Greg was a Partner and U.K. Board member at Booz & Company, where he held leadership roles across the financial services, public sector and technology practices. He is a regular speaker on digital strategy and technology, and the impact of disruptive innovation on business. Greg is a council (board) member of Chatham House (Royal Institute of International Affairs), a leading international affairs think tank. He holds a BSc and MBA from Monash and Melbourne universities, and has been a guest lecturer on strategy at NYU, Oxford and American University.

With more than 25 years experience in Asia Pacific, Shrihari Bhat is a seasoned and highly motivated leader with extensive experience in the financial technology space.

Currently, playing the role of Group Managing Director, Asia Pacific at FIS, he has risen within the ranks and has overseen significant growth in the Asia Pacific region over the past several years.

His contribution has not only been at an organizational level, but at a country level, where he created in- country debit infrastructure for APAC emerging countries. He also introduced cheque truncation by digitizing cheque clearance in Asian countries including India. He is also credited with creation of utility banking model technology platform and financial models for DeNovo banks in India on the pay per use model.

Combining customer relationship, a solutioning approach, delivery excellence, innovation and supported by a strong leadership team, he has led FIS APAC to become the fastest growing region for FIS globally. He also played a significant role in the APAC integration of SunGard, another fintech player in institutional and wholesale banking space, that FIS acquired in 2015.

Before joining FIS in 2008, Shrihari held leadership positions at global institutions such as NCR and First Data Corporation. He holds a degree in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering and a Post Graduate Degree in Marketing management from the prestigious Mumbai University.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amit is the Co-founder and MD of Let's Talk Payments (LTP). His vision for LTP is to provide the same level of analytical rigor that analysts put into their work and combine it with modern content delivery technology to offer unparalleled satisfaction for readers in this space. Amit has also built a FinTech Insights and startup discovery platform called MEDICI along with the LTP team. Before LTP, he founded a new consulting practice and has also worked for global consulting firms like Frost & Sullivan and in the strategy department of a Fortune 100 firm. He has advised leading clients (ranging from startups to Fortune 500s) in Financial services and technology space.

His other credentials:

1. Asia top 100 FinTech people by Visa, E&Y and Next Money
2. #10 FinTech Influencer in Asia
3. #45 in Global FinTech influencers list in 2017 / #70 in Jay Palter 2016 list
4. #40 in Onalytica's global 100 list in 2016 and #89 in Onalytica's global 100 list in 2015

• Mentor/judge for various FinTech accelerators, forums and contests
• Speaker at various international events such as HK FinTech Finals, Money2020, Paris FinTech Forum and India FinTech events.

Imran Gulamhuseinwala is a Partner in the Financial Services team leading their dedicated strategy and commercial advisory offering across EMEIA, and is the Global Head of FinTech for EY.

Imran joined EY in 2014 having spent 17 years focussed on the financial services sector. He brings a unique perspective on the sector having spent 8 years advising on the sector with Oliver Wyman and a further 8 years investing in the sector with Bridgepoint and latterly with Resolution where he led the M&A team.

Imran holds a Masters in Engineering from Cambridge University and is a CFA charter holder.

Imran received an OBE in the 2017 New Year’s Honours, for services to the financial sector and particularly for his role in helping to establish the UK as the world’s number one location for FinTech.

As Chief Executive Officer for EMEA, Poppy oversees operations across the region and has been critical to the rapid growth that Darktrace has experienced in just three years. Poppy is a co-founder and previously served as the company’s CFO. Prior to Darktrace, she was the Corporate Controller at Cambridge-based software company Autonomy. Poppy has extensive industry experience across several sectors, specializing in venture capital and technology companies, and is a qualified chartered accountant. She frequently speaks to the European investment community and recently accompanied the UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, on a trade mission to India.

David Hirsch is Head of Corporate Development at Klarna, Europe's leading provider of online point of sale financing and integrated checkout. David and his team are in charge of growing Klarna's geographic and product footprint through strategic partnerships, M&A and third party distribution. Prior to joining Klarna, David was with American Express and McKinsey & Company.

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

Eva Kaili is a Member of the European Parliament, elected in 2014. In her capacity as the Chair of the European Parliament's Science and Technology Options Assessment body (STOA) she has, been working intensively on promoting innovation as a driving force of the establishment of the European Digital Single Market. She has been particularly active in the fields of blockchain technology, m/eHealth, big data, fintech and cybersecurity. Since her election she has also been very active in the field of taxation, where she has been the Rapporteur of the ECON committee's annual tax report. As a member of the ECON committee she has been focusing on EU's financial integration and the management of the financial crisis in the Eurozone. Prior to her position in the European Parliament, she has been elected two times in the Greek Parliament (2007-2012), with the PanHellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK). She holds a Bachelor degree in Architecture and Civil Engineering and Postgraduate degree in European Politics. Currently, she is conducting her PhD in International Political Economy.

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

Jonathan Kramer is a member of the management team at Zopa, the world’s first and the UK’s leading peer-to-peer lending company. As an innovative consumer champion in personal finance, Zopa has helped over 245,000 people buy new cars, improve their homes, or take control of their finances with its award-winning personal loans. It has also helped over 59,000 active individual investors and several financial institutions lend over £2 billion directly to UK consumers and earn over £90 million in interest.

At Zopa Jonathan is responsible for capital markets and institutional lending. Jonathan joined Zopa in 2014 from Morgan Stanley, where he spent 12 years and co-led UK institutional equity derivative sales. Previously Jonathan was in the corporate finance team at Bank Austria, advising on cross-border mergers and acquisitions in Central and Eastern Europe. Jonathan holds a B.A. from Claremont McKenna College and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.

Jonathan Larsen has been at the leading edge of the financial services industry for the last 29 years across the Asia Pacific region and globally. He brings a unique blend of strategic vision, operational depth, and understanding of the new technology landscape. He has lead multiple large-scale, successful businesses across a wide range of markets and has extensive experience in negotiating and managing partnerships and M&A transactions. Jonathan spent 18 years at Citigroup where he was most recently Global Head of the firm’s Retail Banking and Mortgage businesses, generating ~$12Bn in Revenues and spanning 19 countries. Example achievements while at Citi include:

• Key player in leading Citi’s digital transformation: establishment of Citi Fintech, embedding agile development teams into all key businesses, and pursuing accelerated digitization agenda centred on customer journeys,
• Led transformation of Citi’s US Retail Business, to refocus on affluent clients and wealth management, a hub and spoke network model using Citi’s Smart Banking distribution model and rapid digitization of all key elements of client experience. Improved profitability from loss making to pre-tax earnings of $500MM in 2 years,
• Led Citi’s Asia consumer business for six years pioneering new distribution models, partnerships, and perceptual scale; delivering strong cost discipline and above peer revenue and earnings growth,
• Transformed Citi’s consumer business in Singapore from niche player to mainstream consumer bank able to compete with major local banks on equal terms,
• Completed numerous game-changing partnerships and acquisitions for Citi in Asia. Prior to Citi, Jonathan was a Principal in the Financial Services Practice of global management consulting firm, Booz Allen & Hamilton where he spent eight years advising large banks and other financial institutions across Asia, Australia and New Zealand and in the United States and Europe. His work with Booz Allen clients spanned strategy, operations and technology with a particular focus on achieving competitive differentiation through client segmentation. While at Booz Allen Jonathan was a recipient of the firm’s coveted Professional Excellence Award.

Jonathan has served as Chairman of Citibank Berhad in Malaysia, CEO and Director of Citibank Singapore Limited, a member of the Advisory Board of Visa International, a council member and Vice-Chairman of the Singapore Association of Banks, and as a member of the advisory board of the National University of Singapore Business School. He currently serves on the Advisory Board of YMCA Singapore.

He is a Distinguished Fellow of the Institute of Banking and Finance, Singapore and was named Retail Banker of the Year in 2011 by Asian Banker magazine.

He has been widely quoted in major business publications including the Financial Times, Bloomberg, Reuters, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Economist as well as local media throughout Asia Pacific. Jonathan holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons, 1st class) from the University Of Melbourne, where he received the Enid Derham Prize for 1987. He currently resides in Hong Kong and his personal interests include music, sailing, wine making and staying fit.

Joel Leonoff serves as Executive Director, President and CEO of Paysafe Group plc, a leading global payment provider quoted (PAYS.L) on the London Stock Exchange and listed on the FTSE 250 Index. Joel is an entrepreneurial leader and a visionary with a proven track record of managing high-growth technology companies, having served as CEO, COO and CFO of privately and publicly traded companies for nearly twenty years. In 1997, Joel founded SureFire Commerce Inc., which merged with the Optimal Group in 2003 to form Optimal Payments. In 2011, Optimal Payments merged with Neovia Inc. (NETELLER) and the Company completed the acquisition of the Skrill Group in August 2015 to form Paysafe Group. Prior to this, Joel created the e-commerce powerhouse BCE Emergis through the merger of Mpact Immedia Ltd with Bell Canada Enterprises. Joel also served as Group Operations Director and COO of Partygaming Plc, a FTSE-listed company at the time. Joel is a Chartered Accountant with a Bachelor of Commerce Degree (James McGill Award) and has a Graduate Diploma in Public Accountancy (C.D. Mellor Award) from McGill University.

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

Mark Litz is a Director in the Financial Institutions Group in London, joining in 2006.

Prior to Citi, he was part of the corporate finance divisions of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in London and Bear Stearns in London and Dallas.

Mark has focuses on strategic transactions including M&A and capital raisings for financial institutions He received a B.B.A. from The University of Texas at Austin

Mr Lundberg is an experienced and senior banking professional in the Northern European Region, before establishing NFT Ventures he acted as advisor to executive management teams of Nordic Banks regarding next generation payment and banking solutions.

He has a strong drive in identifying new generation of financial services due to deep knowledge and understanding of the banking infrastructure. This has showed in the development of NFT Ventures portfolio.

Mr Lundberg has also co-founded payment start-ups such as Betalo (first bill payment engine that combine card infrastructure with the giro systems in the Nordics) and Zignsek (security verification platform).

Mr. Malahay is the group director of Strategic Partnerships, Collaborations and Investor Relations at Equity Bank. In 2014 Equity Bank embarked on its’ Equity 3.0 strategy aimed at better servicing its customers and entailed the re-engineering of the bank value chain through technology. One of the key roles of Mr. Malahay is to ensure the value drivers of the Group are maintained as Equity Bank embarks on Equity 3.0. Mr. Malahay has over 13 years’ experience in financial services having worked in commercial banking, credit ratings, investment banking and fund management. Mr. Malahay has previously worked for Standard Bank, Fitch Ratings, J.P. Morgan and Investec Asset Management. Mr. Malahay joined Equity Bank in February 2016.

Lukas May works on International Growth and Regulation at TransferWise, the international money transfer platform. TransferWise is the low cost and fair way of transferring money internationally. Using peer-to peer technology and without any hidden fees, it makes sending money abroad up to eight times cheaper compared to using a bank. TransferWise customers send £800m every month using the platform, and it’s attracted $117m from investors such as world’s largest VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, Sir Richard Branson, Peter Thiel and Max Levchin, the co-founders of PayPal. Prior to starting TransferWise Lukas worked at the FCA, initially setting up the FCA from its predecessor, the FSA. Lukas then worked on the FCA's mandate to promote competition. Most recently he led a new team set up to promote useful innovation in financial services.

Patrick McGrory is president of the Amdocs Emerging Offerings division, responsible for leading Amdocs’ ventures in new areas for the communications industry, such as Mobile Financial Services.

Previously, Patrick served as division president for the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA) region, where he established Amdocs as the market leader for large-scale transformation projects. In this role, Patrick grew Amdocs’ presence in CALA, quadrupling the company’s revenues from the region in the space of just a few years.

Since joining the company in 2006, Patrick has also spearheaded a number of Amdocs’ major acquisitions, leveraging his more than two decades of experience as a senior executive in the global communications industry, which has focused mainly on fast-moving emerging markets and service providers.

A former CEO of eServGlobal, a publicly-listed company on the London AIM and Sydney ASX markets, Patrick also founded Integrator Pty. Ltd, a provider of systems integration software engineering services to communication service providers throughout the Asia-Pacific region that later merged with eServGlobal.

Patrick is a recognized industry expert in high performance, real-time convergent billing and value-added services solutions with extensive network and operational support systems (OSS) knowledge. As such, he is regularly asked to speak at major industry conferences, to brief analysts, and frequently comment in both the business and trade press.

Aditya Menon is Managing Director of Citi, Global Digital Strategy. A serial entrepreneur in transaction, retail banking, and payments systems, Aditya’s background has spanned opportunities with Tiger Systems(acquired by Sungard), Visual Web Solutions (acquired by ACI) and Obopay. As global head of product management at Obopay, he pioneered mobile payments rollouts in the US (MasterCard MoneySend Mobile), India (Nokia Money), Africa (Yu Cash) Kenya, (Warid Pesa) Uganda and (Yoban Tel) Senegal. In addition, Aditya helped successfully raise over $80MM in funding at Obopay. He spearheaded the launch of Yes Bank in India as their first CIO, now a leading retail and commercial bank in the country. He has also served as Group CIO of mPhasis. Since 2011, Aditya has been driving global digital strategy at Citi with a focus on digital disruption across consumer and corporate digital banking, mobile and digital payments, data analytics and dynamic offers. More recently, Aditya has been driving API strategy & architecture, open banking strategy, banking value added services, and closely collaborating on digital acceleration programs that promote innovation through labs and hackathons. Aditya is working on a Consumer digital engagement framework to leverage big-data insights to drive next best action, establish dynamic personalization, and provide strategic technology direction on digital platforms to Citi’s global financial technology initiatives.

Ken has 20+ years’ experience in International Financial Services across retail and corporate banking. Working for some of the world’s leading financial services companies Ken has lived and worked in over 15 countries and held executive leadership roles in Product Management, Technology Delivery, Strategy and Business Development.

In 2016 Ken joined Mastercard as EVP, Head of Mastercard Labs. In this role Ken is responsible for leading Mastercard’s R&D initiatives globally where he will look to further MasterCard’s leadership in innovation, monetize its innovation capabilities and leverage them to win core business and to drive new product development activities.

Prior to joining Mastercard, Ken was a Director at Citibank, where he established Citi’s First Innovation Lab and subsequently rolled this model out globally to create a network of collaborative innovation centres across Citibank.

David Nangle is CEO of Vostok Emerging Finance (VEF), prior to which he spent a career in emerging markets financials research at ING Barings and Renaissance Capital. VEF invests in early and growth stage fintech companies across emerging and frontier markets. We take minority stakes and board representation where appropriate. VEF is structured as a publicly traded investment company, trading under the ticker VEMF SDB and listed on Nasdaq First North in Stockholm. From a segment perspective, we look at all lines of financial services inclusive of payments, credit, mobile money, marketplaces, insurance and digital banks to name but a few. Geographically, we focus on the more scalable emerging markets, either by country or homogenous region. While being firm believers in the financial sector innovation and evolution, we had noticed a clear capital supply gap and opportunity in the emerging market arena irrespective of arguably a greater opportunity set., as most of the world’s capital playing the fintech theme was (and still is) very much focused on developed market opportunities. Hence the formation of Vostok Emerging Finance. We are emerging market and fintech dedicated and experienced capital. We are long term investors and generally look to back the entrepreneur (and their team) and stay with them through to exit.

Magnus Nilsson is a Swedish serial entrepreneur and Co-founder and EVP of iZettle.

Magnus started his career at the EF Education Group, where he headed up commercial activities in the US. He then became President of EF Europe and subsequently Executive Vice President of the EF Education Group. Magnus was with EF Education for over 13 years.

After leaving EF Education in 1996, Magnus was part of the founding team and also worked as an executive director at Novestra AB, a publicly listed investment company, as CEO at Wayfinder Systems, a consumer technology company and as founder and Chief Executive at Nordic Wireless, an investment company focusing on opportunities in the TIME (Telecom, Internet, Media and Entertainment) industries. Under Magnus’s leadership, Wayfinder floated on the Swedish stock exchange and the company was acquired by Vodafone in February 2009.

Since January 2010, Magnus has been fully focused on his work with iZettle.

Ebru Pakcan has been recently appointed as the Head of Treasury and Trade Solutions business for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) based in London. Since Nov 2011, Ms Pakcan was managing the Global Payments and Receivables business for the Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) business based in New York. Prior to that, Ebru was the Head of Payments for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region from 2008 to 2011. Ms Pakcan is actively engaged with Citi's clients across Corporate, Financials Institutions and Public Sector entities, developing payment, cash management and trade financing solutions to meet their evolving requirements.

Ms Pakcan moved to UK in 2004 to lead the Transaction Services EMEA Implementation team, responsible for the end-to-end delivery of new business mandated by Citi’s institutional clients in the EMEA region.

Before moving to UK, Ms Pakcan was the Securities Country Manager (SCM) in Turkey, managing the custody and clearing business and operations. She joined Citibank Turkey in 1997 as a Project Manager in Technology department and later expanded responsibilities in Operation and Technology division in various management positions.

Ms Pakcan holds a degree in Computer Engineering from Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey.

Ms Pakcan is actively engaged with Payments industry bodies and organizations, having served on the Board of CHAPS Clearing Company in UK until 2012 and currently serving on the Board of The Clearing House Payments Company L.L.C. in the United States.

Jing Pan is the Chief Marketing Officer of Dianrong, a leading online Chinese lending market place that originates more than $300 million in monthly assets for 3.7 million retail lenders. Founded in 2012, Dianrong offers individuals and institutions a comprehensive, one-stop financial platform supported by industry-leading technology, compliance and transparency.

As CMO, Jing is responsible for marketing, branding, public relations and customer acquisition. Under her direction, Dianrong emerged as one of the marketplace lending start-ups in the last three years and developed into one of the top three brands in the industry.

Before joining Dianrong, Jing was a founding management team member of AdChina, the largest advertising technology platform at the time that is now part of Alibaba’s advertising business. Prior to that, she worked at Ogilvy New York and Beijing office and was the first Chinese employee that the group ever transferred to the global market.

Jing was featured in the Campaign magazine’s “40 under 40, 2016 Asia”, and “Women to watch, 2012, Asia-Pacific.” In 2011, as a member of the Chinese delegation, she spoke at the United Nation’s internet governance forum on the topic of the Chinese internet advertising industry’s governance practice.

Jing holds a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts from Beijing Foreign Studies University.

She is a long-time supporter of improving children’s education in impoverished areas and homeless animal rescue.

Karen Pepper is the General Manager, UK for Amazon Pay. She is responsible for leading Amazon’s payment services for 3rd party merchants in the UK including Amazon Pay and the associated value added services.

Karen is a 15-year veteran of the payments and start up industries. Most recently she was Global Head of Alliance Banks at JP Morgan where she managed relationship with 22 banks across 41 markets. Karen has also held executive positions at American Express and her own multi-million pound start up in the health and fitness sector.

Karen sits on the board of Hatch, a UK incubator for social enterprises and on the board of Tamar, an anti-human trafficking charity.

Karen holds a MBA from the London Business School.

Alicia Pertusa is Head of CIB Digital Strategy for BBVA Corporate & Investment Banking. She leads global innovation and transformation projects for Corporate and Institutional Clients, bridging current business needs in the areas of Global Markets, Lending and Transactional Services, with cutting edge technology developments and new industry business models. Alicia is a Graduate in Law and in Business Administration and INSEAD MBA, with over 15 years of professional experience in strategy and banking. Prior to joining BBVA, she worked across Europe and in the US for McKinsey and Deutsche Bank.

Jean advises on all aspects of financial markets. She acts for retail banks, investment banks, building societies, private equity investment houses, asset managers, wealth managers, investment firms, life assurance firms and major retail and technology-based groups. She has a particular focus on regulatory issues arising in the wealth, retail banking, payments and regulated credit markets. Having recently spent four years at Barclays heading up the Financial Services legal advisory team within the Wealth division, Jean has an excellent understanding of the practical and operational challenges facing industry participants and is focussed on providing pragmatic and commercial advice. Jean advises clients in relation to regulatory change projects, structuring and internal investigations. She has provided the key regulatory support for purchasers in high profile acquisitions in the retail financial services sector, focussing on retail lending businesses and has also assisted a number of firms in their applications for authorisation by the FCA and potential acquirers seeking change of control in respect of authorised firms. Jean’s recent work includes advising: a major private equity house on all regulatory matters relating to its purchase of NRAM plc, including obtaining change of control a number of retailers to successfully complete their applications for full FCA authorisation a number of firms in relation to the implementation of PSD2 and general payment matters a major listed software supplier with its change of control application a major high street bank on its project to release retail banking and credit products through digital apps a number of firms in relation to industry-wide issues including breaches of the CCA, the impact of the decisions in Bank of Scotland –v- Rea and Plevin and FCA thematic work a number of banks on their implementation of the Mortgage Credit Directive.

Jorge Rubio-Nava is a founding member of the Citi’s Global Inclusive Finance Group based in London, UK, which was created in 2005 to spearhead the group's commercial efforts to support social and financial inclusion around the world. The group is responsible for Citi's financial inclusion strategy and to develop partnerships with clients across Citi's businesses in over 40 countries. Jorge has participated in the structuring of award winning microfinance capital markets transactions (2006 IFC/Financial Times Sustainable Deal of the Year Award) including the first investment grade local issuance for a microfinance institution and product partnerships. His work around social and financial inclusion spans sustainable value chain development and digital financial services reaching the unbanked.

Interested in digital financial innovation and the development of cashless ecosystems and mobile money, he has formed public and private sector partnerships to expand access through innovative channels. He introduced new crowdsourcing models to develop app solutions that leverage deeper Internet and smartphone penetration among the underserved, which constitutes a totally new approach to product development in financial services.

In 2009 Jorge was invited as an Associate to the David Rockefeller Centre for Latin-American Studies at Harvard University where he worked with thought leaders in the areas of impact investment and commercial solutions for lower income markets at the Graduate School of Education, the Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard Business School.

He holds a MBA from Columbia Business School in New York and the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empresa in Barcelona, Spain and a BA in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering from the Universidad Anáhuac Mexico.

Dr. Viral B. Shah is a Co-founder and CEO of Julia Computing and a cocreator of the Julia language. The Julia user base is now over 200,000 users. Viral has a Ph.D. in computational sciences from UC Santa Barbara, where his thesis was on interactive supercomputing. The technology developed in his thesis was licensed commercially by Microsoft. He also worked on the National ID project of the Government of India, and authored a book his experiences implementing a complex technology project in governance - Rebooting India.

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

Eric Tak is Global Head of ING’s Payments Centre, responsible for defining the bank-wide Payments Strategy and execution of the bank-wide roadmap for all segments across the ING network.

Eric joined ING as Global Head of Cards in 2011 following his experience as Director of Cards Products and iDEAL with Dutch payments scheme management company Currence from 2005 onwards.

Prior to that he has worked for ten years at PricewaterhouseCoopers/PwC Consulting as Associate Director, Financial Services Sector and after the acquisition by IBM as Associate Partner.

Eric started his career from 1991-1996 with ABN AMRO as Relationship Banker Corporate & Global Clients and Cash Management Consultant.

Eric studied Business Economics (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) and Business Administration (Nyenrode University)

Huy Nguyen Trieu is the CEO of the Disruptive Group, a business builder and advisory firm in innovation and finance. He has navigated between startups and large organizations, from CEO of a startup to Managing Director in international banks. After graduating from MIT, he co-founded and led Ukibi, a precursor to Linkedin – in 1999. After 5 incredible years, he joined international banks where he built high growth businesses for more than a decade, with his last position as MD at Citi. In addition to his day job in capital markets, he was very involved in the development of Fintech and is recognized as one of the thought leaders in that space. He has mentored dozens of Fintech entrepreneurs, invested in innovative startups and sits on several advisory boards. Huy also writes the blog Disruptive Finance, is the Fintech Resident Expert at Oxford SBS, a member of ESMA’s Consultative Working Group for financial innovation, and a board member of Fintech HK. He is a frequent keynote speaker in Europe and Asia, likes to teach and share with young students and entrepreneurs, and is regularly quoted in articles on innovation and finance. He launched the first Fintech lectures at Oxford Said Business School, and co-created the first Fintech programme for senior executives at Imperial College. Huy is a graduate from MIT (US), École Polytechnique (France) and Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees (France). He is married and a happy father of 3 daughters.

Yoav brings to JVP over twenty years of experience in enterprise software, cyber security, C5I, as well as digital media. With his hands on approach, Yoav works with and sits on the board of several of JVP’s companies including ThetaRay, Morphisec, Coronet, SCADAfence, Secret Double Octopus, SecBI, Uponit and SourceDefense. Past exits include CyActive, acquired by PayPal in March 2015. Prior to joining JVP, Yoav headed venture capital consulting business, Altus Media, and ahead of that, spent five years as General Manager/COO and CMO of Exent Technologies, a leader in the media digital distribution domain, working with multiple industry leaders, such as Verizon, Comcast, Intel, CBS and Time Warner. Prior to this, Yoav held multiple executive level positions with TeleKnowledge, an innovator in business support systems. Yoav spent six years in the Israeli Air Force, managing mission critical development projects including in the "enterprise" control, command & security space, and is a decorated officer. Yoav holds a B.Sc. in Mathematics (cum laude) and an MS in Computer Science (cum laude) from Tel-Aviv University, as well as an Executive MBA from the Kellogg School of Management’s international program in collaboration with Tel Aviv University.

Luis Valdich joined Citi Ventures in late 2015 as a Managing Director and leads its New York office and venture capital investing activities in the US east of the Rockies and in Europe. Luis is currently focused in Fintech, ecommerce and big data/analytics applications relevant to financial services. Luis actively looks for opportunities to invest in innovative startups that are pioneering new business models and technologies that intersect with Citi’s businesses and where Citi can eventually add value via a commercial relationship as a user, service provider and/or partner which in turn can help Citi innovate. As such, Luis actively partners with the venture capital and startup ecosystems and with Citi businesses and functions firmwide. From 2008 to 2015, Luis founded and ran JPMorgan Chase's Strategic Investments group; he was part of the investment committee, made over 40 investments, and participated in several boards. Previously Luis was a consultant at McKinsey and venture capital principal at Softbank. Luis received his MBA from Harvard University and BA from Franklin & Marshall College.

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

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

In her spare time she mentors FinTech start-ups in London and the US, while pursuing a PhD on blockchain/distributed ledger technology in relation to financial market infrastructures.

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

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

Mr. Carl Yeung has served as Qudian’s chief financial officer since October 2016. Mr. Yeung also currently serves as a director of Bumps to Babes Limited, a baby and maternity retail store chain in Hong Kong. Prior to joining Qudian, Mr. Yeung was a co-founder of Bababaobei Ecommerce Limited, a baby and maternity cross-border e-commerce platform in China since 2015. From 2013 to 2016, Mr. Yeung served as a chief financial officer and a chief strategy officer of BAIOO Family Interactive Limited, a children’s web game developer in China listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. From 2010 to 2013, he served as the chief financial officer of Sky-Mobi Limited, a leading mobile app platform in China previously listed on NASDAQ, and he was a director of Sky-Mobi Limited from 2013 to 2016. From 2006 to 2010, Mr. Yeung was the chief financial officer of ATA Inc., a computer-based testing and testing-related service provider based in China and listed on NASDAQ, and he was a director of ATA Inc. from 2006 to 2008. From 2008 to 2010, Mr. Yeung also served as an independent non-executive director of China Natural Gas, Inc., an energy company in China previously listed on NASDAQ. From 2002 to 2006, Mr. Yeung worked as an analyst and later on as an associate at Merrill Lynch (Asia Pacific) Limited. Mr. Yeung received his bachelor’s degree in economics with concentrations in finance and operations management from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and his bachelor’s degree in applied science with a concentration in systems engineering from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, in 2002.