Alex Nascimento, MA, MBA is an author and faculty member & Co-founder of Blockchain at UCLA where he lectures on Blockchain Business Applications and Security Tokens in addition to his role of Managing Director of 7CC - Blockchain Investments, a company focused on supporting & fostering the Blockchain industry. Alex got his MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management and has developed training, marketing & blockchain strategies for companies in the United States, Latin America, and Asia. Alex can be found lecturing at UCLA and speaking at main Global Blockchain conferences and Corporate events demystifying securities issuance and investments on the blockchain for business leaders and entrepreneurs.
Rami is a futurist proud geek, cross-industry innovation and lean exponential growth advisor, investor and executive. He is the senior vice president and chief innovation officer at Jordan Ahli Bank, also he is CEO of Ahli FinTech the 1st Bank fully owned financial technologies company and fintech accelerator in the middle east.
Rami is an Innovation X speaker at NASA's cross-industry innovation summit, a mentor at 500 Startups, Unreasonable Future, and Startupbootcamp fintech, chairman at Arcoten, Octonius.com, member of the board at Al Raed Arabi School, and member of the advisory board of Think Barter Network, Roybi AI-Powered Robots, and WAKE International in San Francisco.
Rami founded his 1st startup at the age of 19, he holds an Electrical Engineering degree from University of Jordan, and completed the Venture Capital Executive Program at HAAS UC Berkeley, and “The Leading for the future”, and “The Leading, Organizing for Action” Executive Programs at Harvard Kennedy School, and the Senior Executive Education Program at UC San Diego. Rami is a passionate advocate of the Lean Startup movement and is a regular judge, mentor & keynote speaker at the region's important innovation, entrepreneurship & technology events.
Dotun is part of the blockchain division of the emerging technologies team at LSEG. He's responsible for co-steering adoption of blockchain and DLT across internal group businesses as well as the wider capital markets landscape through partnerships and external initiatives. He has a 13 year career history in video games and financial services (derivatives trading & quantative market-making infrastructure & execution), with expertise that includes software engineering and architecture, product design and delivery, blockchain and DLT, high performance, real-time and scalable distributed systems.
Dotun has been deeply immersed in blockchain technology at multiple levels (development, architecture, product design and strategy) over the past 3 years with executive roles in two commercial ventures over the past 2.5 years.
Elie Beyrouthy is Vice President of European Government Affairs at American Express since June 2017 where he leads the company’s engagement with European Union Institutions and advises senior leaders on EU regulatory and public policy matters. Elie also represents American Express’ interests in several EU trade bodies and professional associations. Since March 2018, Elie is Chair of the European Payment Institutions Federation (EPIF).
Prior to joining American Express, Elie was Director of International Regulatory Affairs at Western Union for 5 years. From 2007 to 2012, Elie held leadership positions at the World Savings Banks Institute and the European Banking Federation.
Elie began his career as an intern at the European Commission and the United States Federal District Court of Minnesota. He holds two Masters Degrees in Law from the University of Minnesota and from the Jean Moulin University in Lyon - France. Elie is also a graduate of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Lyon, France
Joel Telpner is a Senior Partner in the New York office of the global law firm, Sullivan & Worcester. He is chair of the Firm’s Fintech and Blockchain Practice.
Joel is a highly-regarded trailblazer in the fintech, blockchain, and cryptocurrency space. His clients’ size and nature vary from governments, top cryptocurrencies, and large enterprises to smaller startups, who describe him as a “very sharp and very experienced partner” who is “super pragmatic” and can “sort through the chaff and get to the nub of things impressively quickly.”
His representative client work includes advising the Marshall Islands in creating digital sovereign currencies; helping to launch ndau, a buoyant stablecoin virtual currency; structuring for Gita Holdings/GreatX a structured, principal-protected tokenized investment product allowing investors to obtain upside exposure to hotel room blocks in various hotel properties; as well as providing regulatory advice to prominent blockchain projects including Aeternity, IOTA, NEM, and Celsius.
Richard Self worked in the aerospace sector for thirty years supporting the business with innovative approaches to the use of analytics to model aspects of decision forming and making.
He then made the transition into academia in 2002, where he now has small teams of Undergraduate and Masters students researching to identify the best frameworks of questions for developing strategies for the governance of analytics and data in order to deliver ethical and trustworthy business solutions.
Richard was co-chair of the IBM sponsored Big Data Analytics Educational Conferences between 2014 and 2018.
Richard is a regular invited keynote speaker at UK and international business conferences where he always provides the audience with the important questions for evaluating their business needs and technologies.
Leo is a Vice President on the Digital Partnerships team at BNY Mellon, where he works across the organization to execute partnerships and strategic investments, working on transactions including integrations, alliances, and co-development with companies ranging from fintechs to large technology firms.
Previously, Leo worked at BNY Mellon in Asset Servicing, supporting the firm’s clients in the Asset Owner segment with a focus on Public Funds. Leo began his career at BNY Mellon in 2016 as part of the Emerging Leaders Program, a year-long management training program. Leo is a graduate of the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University.
Innovative, agile and multi-award winning banking leader with over 25 years' international financial services experience with leading blue-chip institutions across three continents in progressive leadership roles, both executive and NED, in Investment Banking, Wealth Management, general management, business development, strategy and latterly in FinTech. His value proposition is centered around enabling challenger banks to establish strategic partnerships with FinTechs to create profitable financial products using an 'open architecture model.' Expert in driving digital banking transformations both in terms of creating 'best in class' digital customer experiences, and transforming key internal support functions to fully align with the overall digital transformation programs of financial institutions.
Nearly 20 years of growth hacking building new business models to achieve scale and profitability. A cross-cultural leader with diverse experiences in life.
Areas of Expertise: #OPENBANKING - #DIGITALTRANSFORMATION – #STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT & IMPLEMENTATION – #DIGITALPAYMENTS - BUSINESS MODEL REFINEMENT – TOP LINE GROWTH – NEW BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT – #ENTREPRENEURSHIP – PROCESS DIGITIZATION - #FINTECH
Ramy AlDamati is a Cybersecurity & Blockchain expert holding master’s degrees in Information Security from University of Hertfordshire. He has 17 years’ experience in the field with a strong focus on smart and resource efficient systems. During those years, he has worked in multiple International CyberSecurity vendors like ( PaloAlto Network, FireEye & Kaspersky Lab ). Presently, he works as Chief Technology Officer at GloryThink Group and is involved in several research collaborations with international Blockchain & Financial Entities or ACADEMIC partners.
Ramy AlDamati is also an expert in emerging technologies, including: FinTech, IoT, CyberSecurity, Blockchain/Cryptocurrency & AI. And Certified Trainer for many courses related to these Technologies. With his experience in analyzing, securing, designing and implementing such technologies he was able to deliver them in both languages (AR & EN) for many local and international organization to help raising the awareness to all level of people.
Julapa Jagtiani is Senior Economic Advisor and Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. She is also a Fellow member of the Wharton Financial Institutions Center, and a Central Bank Research Fellow at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). At the Federal Reserve, Julapa has conducted research and participated in several supervisory policy and implementation projects, including serving on the Federal Reserve Fintech Task Force and a member of the Risk Council Fintech subgroup. Julapa has published influential research articles in top finance journals. Her recent research has focused on issues related to Fintech, such as the use of alternative data and AI/ML in credit decisions. Jagtiani has a PhD in Finance and an MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business, where she held the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship.
Mahesh Sashital is the founder & president of the Houston Blockchain Alliance as well as cofounder of Smartereum.com, an online news company catering exclusively to the blockchain and cryptocurrency community. Having jumped full-time into the blockchain space in 2016, Mahesh and his business partners started Smartereum in 2017 when they saw the gap in coverage of blockchain in the mainstream news media. The Houston Blockchain Alliance is a non-profit with a goal of increasing blockchain adoption in Houston.
After earning his MBA at the University of Texas-Austin, Mahesh left his relatively cushy job at J.P.Morgan to pursue entrepreneurship. With over 250,000 users worldwide getting their blockchain news from Smartereum each month, and over 100 members at the HBA, he is finding this experience very rewarding!
Mahesh is a software engineer by background, having worked at Fortune 500 companies such as Ford and Chrysler, in addition to J.P.Morgan. A native of Mumbai, India, he has called Houston home for over 13 years.
Sharat Chandra is an emerging tech evangelist, keynote speaker, mentor and advisor to multiple startups in blockchain, fintech, and automation domain. He is recognized as Top 50 Global Thought Leaders on Digital Disruption by Thinkers360 and Top 100 Global Blockchain Leaders by Lattice80. He is associated with various policy think tanks and advocacy bodies (Government Blockchain Association, Data Security Council of India, Fintech Connector and Hyderabad Fintech Forum).
Marc Kaufman is a patent attorney based in Washington, DC. Marc’s practice focuses on Fintech, and blockchain technology in particular. Marc is a Co-Founder of the Blockchain IP Counsel, an initiative of the Chamber of Digital Commerce that is focused on managing intellectual property issues in blockchain ecosystems. Currently, Marc is introducing the Community Patent Protocol, his plan to manage patent risk in blockchain implementations, to the blockchain community.
Marc has spoken throughout the world, including at the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the European Union Intellectual Property Office and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He has also been quoted in notable publications such as the New York Times, the Financial Times, Forbes, and Newsweek. Marc has been named to the IAM 350 Top Patent Strategists every year since its inception and has been named Fintech IP Lawyer of the Year in Washington, DC for 2019 and 2020 by Global Law Experts.
Kamesh Moola is a Senior Vice President in the Innovation and Operations Optimization Group at Barclays, where he is responsible for the digitization of Global Capital Markets operations. He is an acting fintech advisor at RISE NY- Home of Fintech by Barclays. Prior to joining Barclays, he held various management positions at Big four consulting firms. He has over fourteen years of experience in providing management consulting services to financial services firms across I-Banking Operations, Asset Management and Wealth Management in the technology strategy and digitization areas.
Kamesh graduated from the University of Rochester with a Masters in Business Management and holds a Bachelors in Computer Science and Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, India.
Abdulaziz is a banker with over 15 years of experience in banking technology and Payments. He is successful transformation and strategic-thinking leader with a proven track record, credited with bringing a significant increase (Approx.140%) in usage of payments and reduction of cash usage on a national level by implementing an effective business strategy. Currently, He is working as head of Digital Banking and Payments in HSBC-Saudi Arabia (SABB) and one of his main responsibility is driving FinTech partnership, prior joining SABB, he was working for the central bank of Saudi Arabia (SAMA) and leading the national payment modernization program which sat the foundation for FinTech to play a role in payment space. He is member of a number of financial committees and actively participated in a number of studies related to FinTech such as FinTech role in Retail Payment published by Bank International Settlement (BIS). Abdulaziz holds a bachelor degree in computer science and Master Degree in Business (MBA).
Yariv is a VP at Goldman Sachs Financial Crime compliance where he leads the development of a new innovative technology-driven Anti-financial crimes solutions and programs. Previously, Ten-Ami held various leadership roles at IBM and PwC, where he led the development of innovative anti-financial crime solutions. He also led successful engagements to assist risk, compliance, and finance departments of Fortune 500 companies with implementation, optimization, and assessment of their anti-financial crime solutions and programs. Prior to that, Ten-Ami was part of the analytics group at the industry-leading anti-financial crime software company, NICE Actimize.
Ten-Ami holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Financial Engineering from New York University. He is also a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS).
Manish Mehrotra as Geo Head – Americas. Manish is responsible for developing new strategies to broaden our footprint in the digital business and strengthening current engagements, thus consolidating our dominant presence in the digital transformation space.
Manish is an industry veteran and professional who has made a mark in the global technology arena with over 25 years of diverse experience in management consulting and IT services. Before joining Happiest Minds, he was with Sasken as P&L Head of Digital business, where he headed. Prior to that he has held leadership positions at IBS, Infosys, Wipro and Sabre. Manish has led several strategic projects across industries including M&A initiatives, penetrating into the emerging digital in Fintech space.
Manish has a BS in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, MS in Computer Science from Michigan, and an MBA from Cox School of Business, SMU. Manish is currently completing his Doctorate in AI – Neural network and is also visiting professor.
Jeffrey Batt is the Cyber Insurance Practice Leader for the M&T Insurance Agency, part of M&T Bank. He provides cyber insurance and risk consulting solutions to M&T’s commercial customer base. In addition to insurance brokerage and product development, Jeffrey also creates cyber and privacy risk assessments and quantification tools. Jeffrey additionally leads client cybersecurity trainings for M&T, and is a frequent speaker at cybersecurity, privacy, and cyber insurance events in the U.S. and Europe.
Prior to joining M&T, Jeffrey was a Vice President in Marsh’s Cyber Center of Excellence, where his work focused on privacy-related product development, advising clients on the scope of their cyber and privacy risk, and thought leadership. Before Marsh, Jeffrey was an Associate Deputy General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Defense for nearly six years, where his work concentrated on national security and information law.
A graduate of Hamilton College and the Georgetown University Law Center, Jeffrey also received a Certificate in Cyber Leadership from the DoD-affiliated National Defense University. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at the American University Kogod School of Business, where he teaches on cybersecurity governance.
