David Birch

Consult Hyperion

David G.W. Birch is an internationally-recognised thought leader in digital money and digital identity. One of the 2014 “Power 50” in European digital financial services and a NextBank Fintech “titan”, in 2013 he was named one of WIRED magazine’s global top 15 favourite sources of news from the world of business and finance and was ranked the no.1 influencer in European emerging payments by Total Payments magazine. Dave is a Director of Consult Hyperion, the technical and strategic consultancy that specialises in electronic transactions. Here he provides consultancy support to clients around the world, including all of the leading payment brands, major telecommunications providers, governments bodies and international organisations including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Before helping to found Consult Hyperion in 1986, he spent several years working as a consultant in Europe, the Far East and North America.

Described at the Oxford Internet Institute as “one of Britain’s most acute observers of the internet and social networks”, in The Telegraph as “one of the world’s leading experts on digital money”, in The Independent as a "grade-A geek" and by the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation as "one of the most user-friendly of the UK's uber-techies", Dave is well-known for his thought leadership blogging, podcasts and events for Consult Hyperion’s Tomorrow’s Transactions series.

He has lectured to MBA level on the impact of new information and communications technologies and contributed to publications ranging from the Parliamentary IT Review to Prospect. He wrote a Guardian column for many years. He is a media commentator on electronic business issues and has appeared on BBC television and radio, Sky and other channels around the world. Retail Systems magazine said that his recent book “Identity is the New Money” is bold, forward thinking [and] grapples with weighty issues in a concise and accessible way.

He graduated from the University of Southampton with a B.Sc (Hons.) in Physics.

Dr. Rainer Deutschmann

Dialog Axiata PLC

As Dialog's Group Chief Operating Officer, Rainer leads the Group's Businesses as well as Corporate Planning, M&A, and Corporate Strategy. Dialog is Sri Lanka’s largest and fastest growing fixed, mobile, pay TV and digital services provider and an innovation engine in Axiata, a leading telecommunications group in Asia. Rainer has over 20 years of in-depth experience in Telecommunications, Digital and IT Services, Media and Entertainment, e-Commerce, Digital Marketing and Corporate Strategy in mature and emerging markets, across start-ups and multi-nationals.

Prior to joining Dialog, Rainer served as the Chief Product and Innovation Officer at Reliance Jio in India and was directly responsible for setting up Jio's business units and for leading the commercial launch program to acquire the initial 100 million customers in 170 days. Preceding Reliance Jio, he was the Senior Vice President Core Telco Products at Deutsche Telekom AG, Germany, building and leading Deutsche Telekom's core product portfolio across 14 European markets, serving 90 million customers and 30 million households. He also served as Chairman of the Board of Directors, Deutsche Telekom UK Ltd, as Senior Vice President Mobile Products, Deutsche Telekom AG, as Senior Vice President Mobile Internet, T-Mobile International AG, and as Vice President Strategy Development, Deutsche Telekom AG. During his 5 years at McKinsey & Company, he served high-tech and telco clients across Europe.

Rainer is an advisor and investor in digital telco, fintech, adtech and analytics companies, and serves as Non-Executive Director at rain, South Africa’s first digital mobile network operator. He holds a doctoral degree (Dr. rer. nat.) in Physics from the University of Technology Munich, and worked as a computation and neuroscience researcher at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) / USA.

Benoît Legrand

ING

Benoît Legrand began his career as an investment banker at Bank Bruxelles Lambert in 1994, before it became ING Belgium. He rejoined the Group a few years later, after founding his own start-up company in retail distribution.

Benoît has an extensive international experience within the ING Group having worked in Investment Banking, Retail and Private Banking covering diverse areas such as Marketing, Sales, Branch Distribution and Product Management in Belgium, Singapore, Poland, the Netherlands and France.

In 2007 he was appointed to the Executive Board of ING Nederland where he lead the total make-over of Private Banking and Securities and took an active part in the merger of Postbank and ING Bank.

He was appointed CEO of ING Direct France in 2010 and Country CEO ING France in 2013, after merging all retail, commercial banking and real estate activities in France into one single integrated entity.

In October 2015, Benoît has been appointed President of ING Bank France and Head of FinTech of the ING Group, playing a leading role in the digital transformation of the Group.

Benoît graduated in Economics from Catholic University of Leuven and in International Relations from the London School of Economics.

Don Ginsel

Holland FinTech

Elsa Said Armanet

Stripe

Elsa Said-Armanet leads Business Development and Partnerships for Stripe in Europe.

Working with Stripe’s leadership team in Europe, Elsa steers the strategy and execution for distribution, technology and ecosystem partnerships for the company in the region.

Earlier, Elsa helped Twitter grow in Western Europe through strategic partnerships leveraging Twitter’s APIs (including the development of chatbots and TV content integrations). Before that, she helped bring Chromecast to market in Europe as part of Google’s product partnerships team. She started her post-MBA career at Samsung in the Global Strategy Group in Seoul, Korea. Elsa holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an MSc. in Engineering and Computer Science from Telecom Physique Strasbourg.

Connie Chan

Temasek

Connie Chan is a Managing Director at Temasek based in Singapore and is responsible for investments and portfolio management in the Financial Services space, covering both FinTech and traditional financial sectors. Temasek’s investments in FinTech include Adyen, Billdesk, C2F0, Funding Circle, PolicyBazaar, and SoFi.

Prior to joining Temasek, Connie worked at JPMorgan in Hong Kong advising financial institution clients across subsectors including banks, insurance, brokerage, and asset management. Before relocating to Hong Kong, she was based in New York covering banks and specialty finance companies in the US on a range of corporate finance activities including mergers and acquisitions, ratings advisory, and debt and equity capital raisings.

Craig Fox

Silicon Valley Bank

Craig Fox is a Vice President at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) where he specialises in providing banking solutions and debt finance to growth stage Fintech companies in the UK and Europe.

For more than 35 years, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has helped innovative companies and their investors move bold ideas forward, fast. SVB provides targeted financial services and expertise through its offices in innovation centers around the world. With commercial, international and private banking services, SVB helps address the unique needs of innovators.

Danny Gilligan

Reinventure Group

As both a serial entrepreneur and experienced venture capitalist, Danny Gilligan is at the forefront of driving disruptive innovation in Australia’s financial services sector. Through Reinventure Group, co-founded with Simon Cant in 2013, he is pioneering a new model of corporate venture capital. With $100m of capital over two $50m funds, Reinventure is focused on backing proven entrepreneurs leading disruptive technology ventures within FinTech and adjacent areas, whose growth can be accelerated through a strategic relationship with Westpac, the fund's lead investor. 10 investments have been made in Reinventure’s Fund 1, and three from Fund 2 so far, across verticals such as data, payments, artificial intelligence, real estate, crime prevention and human resources.

Gilligan is also co-founder of Data Republic, a trust platform for secure data exchange between companies that is seeking to lead the transition to a data driven economy, and a founding director of Stone & Chalk, an independent not-for-profit Fintech hub whose overarching objective is to help foster and accelerate the development of world-leading Fintech start-ups in Australia.

Gregory Vincent

INTL FCStone

Gregory started working in the cross-border payments space in early 2001 before his team was acquired by INTL FCStone in 2004. Previously, Gregory had been working for a global banking institution. Initially working on and then running the Trading desk, Gregory is now responsible for the FX Payments business in the EMEA region and is primarily responsible for the team’s relationships with many of the world's leading banks, who rely on INTL FCStone for FX payments in up to 140 currencies. This exposure has given Gregory a rare perspective on the requirements of both the banking sector and many of the world's largest tech companies, with regards to their cross-border payments needs.

Ben Davey

Barclays UK Ventures

Ben Davey is CEO of Barclays UK Ventures, a recently formed business unit within Barclays UK which has a mandate to drive growth by identifying, incubating and growing transformational and innovative new business lines. Ben joined Barclays in 2010 as Co-Head of the Financial Institutions Group EMEA in the Investment Bank, becoming sole head in 2014. He became Chief Strategy Officer for the Investment Bank in 2015, responsible for the development and execution globally of the Investment Bank’s strategy, as well as becoming a member of the Investment Bank Executive Committee. He was appointed Group Head of Strategy in 2016 with responsibility for the development of Barclays’ commercial and cost strategy and sat on the Group COO Executive and Group Finance Management Committees. Prior to joining Barclays, Ben was Co-Head of UK FIG at Rothschild. Prior to joining Rothschild, Ben practised as a Chancery Barrister for six years specialising in banking, trust, company and insolvency law.

Eoin Fitzgerald

Enterprise Ireland

Eoin Fitzgerald is a Senior Development Adviser – Fintech for Enterprise Ireland. Enterprise Ireland is the Irish Government agency responsible for helping Irish companies scale and internationalize and invests in 200+ companies per year. Eoin works with a portfolio of Fintech clients across areas such as Blockchain, KYC, Payments, P2P Lending, Trade Finance, etc. Eoin previously worked as Fintech Lead and Product Manager in Deutsche Bank. Prior to that, he worked as Head of Underwriting for Future Finance, a large Irish Fintech start-up which raised over €100m for its online lending platform.

Eoin is also co-host of the popular podcast ‘MoneyNeverSleeps’ which aims to go inside the mind of entrepreneurs and figure out what makes them do what they do. Available on iTunes and Spotify.

Craig Ramsay

HSBC

Craig joined HSBC in 2014 and is Global Innovation Lead for Global Liquidity and Cash Management. In this capacity, his role is focused on identifying new opportunities for HSBC to leverage technology from the Fintech community and deliver value to HSBC’s corporate clients. His past experience of delivering innovation within Financial Services gives him a great perspective on the challenges that Fintechs face in working with global international banks.

Craig has over 12 years of experience of leading innovation and change within financial services. Prior to joining HSBC Craig was responsible for technology delivery at Citi. Prior to Citi, Craig was part of the Innovation team at Barclay’s where he launched the first integrated contactless credit numerous first-to-market innovations in consumer and merchant payments.

Craig attended the University of Hertfordshire where he obtained a Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering. He is a regular guest lecturer on the topic of Innovation and Change at the London Business School.

Irene Arias

IDB Group

Irene Arias is the CEO / Manager of the Multilateral Investment Fund - MIF- , a member of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). MIF invests in early stage ventures, helps to develop innovation ecosystems and supports projects to test pioneering approaches that create economic opportunities for poor and vulnerable populations in the Latin America and Caribbean Region.

Until December 2017, she was Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the International Finance Corporation (IFC). IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector (www.ifc.org). Irene had P&L responsibility for the region and was IFC’s main counterpart and peer to CEOs/key Ministers in the region. She managed a US$5.5 billion annual investment program and a US$16 billion portfolio, the largest in IFC, with 300 staff over 13 offices covering over 450 clients, and with a strong focus on innovation, risk capital and fintech.

In her previous role as Global Director for Financial Institutions, Arias led IFC’s financial institutions’ strategy globally, overseeing an investment program of over US$6 billion per year across emerging markets and a US$15 billion portfolio, including US$4 billion in private equity. She led IFC’s FinTech strategy and pioneered innovative local capital markets offerings including local currency solutions for debt and quasi-equity, new asset classes (e.g., green bonds) and taking first time issuers to market. She managed a team of 461 investment professionals across all regions with a focus on active talent management.

Arias joined IFC in 2001 and since then she has been managing high profile investment projects primarily in the financial sector across the world, from Sub-Saharan Africa, to the Middle East and Latin America and the Caribbean. She was part of core IFC group that developed IFC's Asset Management Company (AMC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of IFC which manages over US$9 billion of capital across six investment funds.

Arias, a Spanish national, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Carlos III University in Madrid, an M.A. in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University in Washington DC, and an M.A. in Advanced European Studies from the College of Europe. She is a CFA Charterholder.

Jake Kendall

DFS Innovation Lab

Jake is the Director of the Digital Financial Services Innovation Lab (DFS Lab) housed at Caribou Digital. The DFSLab engages in seed stage investing and rapid prototyping of internally-generated ideas to create the breakthrough fintech innovations that will profitably bring households in developing countries from the cash economy into the digital financial realm.

Formerly Jake was Deputy Director of Research and Emerging Technologies within the Financial Services for the Poor Team at the Gates Foundation where his team helped create the global data architecture for tracking financial inclusion, fund the critical research to inform the field, and create high potential emerging technologies to power new financial inclusion models. Prior to joining the foundation, he spent time as an Economist with the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) within the World Bank and in two start-ups in the field of cryptography.

Jake is a published researcher and author and holds a PhD in Economics from UC Santa Cruz and a BS in Physics from MIT. After MIT, he spent two years in Zambia as a fisheries extension agent with the US Peace Corps. Jake has also worked as a brand analyst for a major advertising firm and, throughout his youth, a salmon fisherman in Alaska.

Gerben Visser

The Singapore FinTech Consortium

Gerben is a Co-Founder & Managing Partner at The Singapore FinTech Consortium.

He is also a Managing Partner at IncubAsia and an advisor to a number of early stage technology companies.

He has gained over 12 years of international experience in private equity, mergers & acquisitions and corporate finance at RBS, Bank of America and Citigroup in Amsterdam, New York and London.

He received a Masters degree in Business (Finance & Economics) from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and dual Masters degree in Business (Finance & Economics) from SKEMA, a Grande Ecole Superieure de Commerce in France.

Gerben is a member of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment and has been a registered Securities & Regulations, Corporate Finance Advisor with the Financial Services Authority in the UK

Frederik Pfister

Mambu, Berlin

Amy Neale

Mastercard Labs

Amy Neale is Vice President at Mastercard Labs where she is responsible for the award-winning ‘Start Path’ startup engagement program. She leads a global team to identify, mentor and partner with leading later stage startups, connecting them with Mastercard and our customers to create breakthrough solutions.

Amy joined Mastercard in 2015, bringing 15 years’ experience in technology commercialization. Prior to joining Mastercard, she was part of the founding team and Director of Communications at the National Digital Research Centre in Ireland, a centre of excellence for University spin out companies and research with industry.

Amy also worked with Universities in the UK to develop commercial engagements and technology transfer, including her role as Head of Business Development at Queen Mary University of London. Here she led a team to identify commercially viable research from across the University and develop engagement programs with businesses of all sizes.

Amy was recently recognized in the Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars Top 100. Amy has a PhD in computational linguistics from Cardiff University, has been a visiting lecturer at Maynooth University, Ireland and is a published academic.

Claudia Bate

Claudia specialises in helping ambitious companies build their brands, having advised global banks including HSBC and Citi and fast-growth FinTech startups such as Currency Cloud, Future Finance, MoneyFarm, Ripple and WorldRemit.

Harrie Vollaard

Rabo Frontier Ventures

Harrie Vollaard is managing partner of Rabo Frontier Ventures; a 150M EURO fund focusing on FinTech and AgTech. Harrie has a tremendous background in innovation at Rabobank as he spurred innovation in his role as Head of Innovation.

He co-founded WeHelpen which is a marketplace for informal care and Fundipal; a crowdfunding comparison site. In his current role as managing partner of Rabo Frontier Ventures Harrie established several partnerships with startups, manages the Fintech (e.g. we.trade, Facturis) and Agtech investments (e.g. JoinData, ProducePay) for the Rabobank, is involved in Fintech accelerator programs around the globe and created several spinoffs (e.g. Peaks, Tellow).

John Hucker

Swiss FinTech Association

John Hucker, CFA is President of Swiss Finance + Technology Association (Swiss FinTech). He is also Managing Director at Taussig Capital, the global leader in hedge fund reinsurance, as well as CFO/Director of StatSure, a startup captive (re)insurance platform. Previously, he led FinTech Scouting for Credit Suisse Private Banking, and worked in various roles in wealth and asset management with UBS and TD Bank in Canada. John received an MBA from Said Business School at the University of Oxford and is a CFA charter holder.

Chris Wheatcroft

Angels Den

Chris is FinTech Club Manager for Angels Den, matching software entrepreneurs with value add investors. He is experienced on both sides of the funding equation having raised investment for his own business and helped many others raise funding over the past four years.

Part of the investment committee for an SEIS Fund and mentor at several accelerators, Chris is well-connected within the London tech scene, with a strong network of angel and institutional investors.

For the past three years, Chris has been a member of Investment Committee for Ascension Ventures.

Alastair Lukies CBE

Pollinate

Alastair Lukies CBE is a UK businessman and entrepreneur best known as a pioneer and champion for the UK’s globally renowned FinTech industry. Alastair has been at the forefront of the UK’s Financial Technology industry, working with financial institutions, investors and regulators to promote collaboration and mutual benefit across the ecosystem. Alastair is Founder & CEO of Pollinate International. Pollinate was created in 2017 to turn the tide for the world's largest and most complex financial services institutions. Working with banks and their legacy platforms, Pollinate helps launch new services that reinvent the payments and financial services sector. Alastair is Chair of the Fintech Alliance, a government backed multifaceted digital engagement platform launched in 2019 which aims to bring the global FinTech ecosystem together in one easily accessible digital marketplace.

In January 2014, Alastair was appointed as a Business Ambassador to the Prime Minister for the financial services industry by the UK Government, and remained so until 2019 when he moved across to join the Prime Minister’s Business Council. In September 2015, Alastair was part of the founding team of Motive Partners, an investment firm based in London and New York focused on investing in and building the next generation of financial technology. Alastair remains the Vice-Chairman of the Global Advisory Council at Motive Partners, alongside John Thompson (Chairman, Microsoft) and Larry Summers (Former Secretary of the US Treasury).

Ben Luckett

Aviva Ventures

Ben Luckett is the Managing Director of Aviva Ventures – Aviva’s Corporate Venture Capital Fund. His role is to invest in early stage, high growth potential companies for strategic returns. Ben set up the £100m fund in 2015 as part of Aviva’s Innovation Strategy.

Prior to this Ben was the Strategy Director for the UK General Insurance Business and has also held roles in Enterprise Risk and Finance.

Prior to joining Aviva Ben was Senior Marketing Manager at Centrica where he was responsible for the online channel for British Gas.

Ben started his career at Accenture where he was a change management consultant specialising in Customer Experience Design for Banking and Insurance clients.

Chris Skinner

The Financial Services Club

Chris Skinner is an independent commentator on the financial markets and, as Balatro, Chris assists clients as an advisor, as well as sometimes being commissioned to write or speak on their behalf at conferences and tradeshows.

As well as being Chief Executive of Balatro, Chris chairs the European networking group the Financial Services Club. The Financial Services Club is a prestigious meeting place, and allows networking between members and regulators, practitioners and futurists. Our guest speakers include Charlie McCreevy, John McFall, Angela Knight and other luminaries shaping the future of banking and insurance.

Chris is well-known for his regular columns and for his daily blog, which can be found at The FinanSer.

He has also written several books on banking, covering retail and investment banking, payments and the supply chain, and general technology trends. Current titles include Digital Bank and the new best-seller DIGITAL HUMAN

Chris is a Judge with the TradeTech Awards and with the Asian Banker's Excellence in Retail Financial Services program, and a contributor to the World Economic Forum.

He is a Fellow of the British Computer Society, a Fellow of the Institute of Management Services, an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute and a Chartered Insurance Practitioner.

Jan Hammer

Index Ventures

Jan joined Index in 2010. His investments include Adyen, BitPay, Credit Benchmark, Just Eat, Novus, Robinhood, Socialbakers, Zendesk and Zuora. Jan is particularly interested in financial services disruption and information services across all stages. Jan works with The Prince's Trust as a business mentor to young startup entrepreneurs. Prior to joining Index, Jan worked at General Atlantic in London, where he was involved with investments with Kaspersky Lab, Northgate Information Solutions and Torex Retail. Before joining General Atlantic, Jan worked at Morgan Stanley in M&A, TMT, and Capital Markets divisions in London and New York. Jan holds an MBA with Distinction from INSEAD, and is a graduate of Oxford University.

Jan regularly contributes to The Startup Surgery on Tech City News.

Ajay Ramasubramaniam

Zone Startups India

At Zone Startups India, Ajay oversees the flagship accelerator operations as well as leads new initiatives, including corporate innovation programs and thematic accelerators under the Zone Startups brand. Currently, Ajay also oversees the FinTech accelerators of Axis Bank and Barclays Rise, as well as the Thomson Reuters EIKON Fintech Innovation Challenge being managed by Zone Startups.

Prior to Zone Startups India, Ajay was the Director, India Operations for SkillsDox Inc., a Canadian ed-tech company; where he helped the company set up in India and establish its initial partnerships, as well as raise INR 150 Cr.

In an earlier role, Ajay worked for the Government of Ontario, Canada for 5-years, where he was responsible for bilateral trade and investment relations between Ontario and India.

Ajay began his career working in Tanzania (East Africa) for 4 years, where he was involved in World Bank and African Development Bank projects..

Ajay is an MBA in Marketing & Finance and a B.Com in Financial Management from Mumbai University has 12+ years of cross-functional work experience with startups, international business and Governments, across North America, East Africa & South Asia

Andrei Brasoveanu

Accel

Andrei Brasoveanu focuses on fintech, software and data businesses. He helped lead Accel’s investments and ongoing work in Carto, UiPath, Celonis, Instana, Semmle and JobToday.

Prior to Accel, Andrei worked with Foundation Capital and KCG, the largest equities high frequency trading firm in the US. Previously, he helped build an algorithmic trading startup on Wall Street focused on commodity futures.

Andrei grew up in Romania and graduated from Princeton and Harvard Business School.

Accel is a leading venture capital firm that invests in people and their companies from the earliest days through all phases of private company growth. Atlassian, Algolia, Avito, Cloudera, Crowdstrike, Deliveroo, DJI, Dropbox, Etsy, Facebook, Flipkart, Funding Circle, Kayak, Kry, QlikTech, Rovio, Slack, Spotify, Supercell and WorldRemit are among the companies the firm has backed over the past 30 years. The firm seeks to understand entrepreneurs as individuals, appreciate their originality and play to their strengths. Because greatness doesn't have a stereotype.

Hisanori Ogawa

Mizuho Securities/VP Finovators

Prior to joining Mizuho Securities in 2016, Mr. Ogawa worked at Nomura Research Advisory engaged in research and support activities for IT start-ups in charge of unlisted companies. He has written over 560 corporate reports and has been involved in dozens of IPOs. He is Vice-President of Finovators at FinoLab Tokyo, which was founded to stimulate innovation in Financial Technology in one of the world's most prominent international financial centers.

Daniel Izzo

Vox Capital

Daniel is a partner, co-founder and CEO at Vox Capital, Brazil’s pioneering and leading impact investing fund manager, listed for 5 consecutive years as one of the most relevant players on the impact investing space Worldwide by the Impact Assets 50 and subject of a Harvard Business School business case: “Vox Capital: Pioneering Impact Investing in Brazil”.

Daniel is a member of the Global Executive Committee at ANDE (Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneur), member of the Board at the Brazilian Social Finance Task Force, leader of the Impact Investing Working Group at ABVCAP (Brazilian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association), and a professor at the Impact Investing Executive Program at the Said Business School in Oxford.

David Thevenon

Softbank