Ian currently holds the title of Head DLT/ Blockchain in the Innovation team at Standard Bank. He collaborates and partners with specialists and organizations locally and internationally as well as Standard Bank teams to determine how this emerging technology can be leveraged best for enhanced efficiency and controls including focusing on new business models focusing on customer first. He also performs in the role of Training Officer for the CA Graduate Training Program.
With more than 26 years of industry expertise, comprehensive academic training and practical professional development, Ian Putter is a future-focused Executive at Standard Bank, the largest financial institution in Africa, where he heads up Blockchain focusing on multiple use cases and platforms some in production and some starting - working and collaborating with local and global experts. He is a blockchain evangelist and has spent the last two years focusing on this technology.
In the past five years, Azra Kočanović has been working on improvements in communication solutions with banking and finance organizations. She is bringing customer-centric mindfulness that enables partners from the Middle East to innovate and thrive.
Before her role at Infobip MENA, Azra worked on similar projects in IT companies in Europe. Kočanović holds a bachelor’s degree in Macrofinancial Management and a master's degree in Economics from the University of Sarajevo.
Azra’s background and theoretical knowledge in business and people in addition to her experience in the field have given her a broad understanding of the market needs, pain points, processes, and the industry’s restrictions in delivering efficient communication.
Tawfiq Khalili is ProgressSoft’s Program Management Director and Kuwait Country Manager with over 21 years of field experience in large banking projects, portfolio management and successful delivery versus time, cost and quality.
Throughout his career journey, Mr. Khalili successfully completed numerous bank implementations of cross-border remittances using blockchain technology, as well as developed and analyzed ProgressSoft’s Blockchain Technology, Payments Hub Platform and Remittance Management Systems. Mr. Khalili has also provided business consultancy and integration services for over 45 banks for system customizations and integrations with different back-end systems.
Today, Mr. Khalili continues to play a key role in nationwide payment system implementations including the Electronic Check Clearing system in Jordan, Oman and Kuwait. This is in addition to participation in countrywide implementations for the Real-Time Gross Settlement and Automated Clearing House solutions in several countries.
Shadi Dababneh is ProgressSoft’s Business Development Manager with over 15 years of proficient experience in the field of digital banking and payment solutions.
Throughout his career journey, Mr. Dababneh has been responsible for managing entire project lifecycles, from initiation to closure, in Oman and other countries in the region. His expertise includes completing mega project implementations including Automated Clearing House, Mobile Payments, Wage Protection System and Electronic Check Clearing system integration projects. This is in addition to managing countrywide projects with the Central Bank of Oman and governmental entities.
Today, Mr. Dababneh excels in attaining relevant customer insights and contributing to the development of new solutions according to demand-driven and client-specific needs, including the newly launched Digital Banking and Corporate Banking Platforms. In addition, Mr. Dababneh continues to empower financial institutions with customizations and recommendations according to individualistic payment ecosystems.
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Snober is a seasoed industry professional with a rich experience of 18 years in markets of UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Yemen, Poland, Hungary. She has a qualified expertise in banking and Digital Fintech, and has served banking industry at an Executive level for 15 years. She has also worked with Citibank, ABN Amro, UBL & ADIB at senior roles i.e., Head Risk management & Head, strategy product development
She is currently placed as EVP- Head of products & Digital innovations at SBL International Fintech Digital.
Profiling- Rare with a mix of Banking and Digital technology experience
Successful track record in product roll out
Johnny is the founder and Managing Director of Várri Consultancy – a modern and independent management consultancy specialised in strategy and risk assessment. The consultancy is focussed on economic, societal and environmental sustainability to create stable and long-term opportunities for growth. In this time of uncertainty and volatility, we work with clients to identify new opportunities, to limit potential downsides, and create clear paths to the future.
Before establishing Várri Consultancy, Johnny spent over thirteen years in banking and FinTech in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, London and Stockholm. His credit risk experience spans over sovereigns, banks, mutual funds, pension funds, supra-nationals, government-related entities and corporate entities in a wide range of industries and domiciled in the Nordics, Ireland, France, Benelux, and the Middle East & North Africa region.
Johnny has extensive experience of credit risk assessment and sanctioning, loan restructuring, development of policies and procedures, interaction with internal and external auditors, central banks, and other regulators including the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), and the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) of Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), and projects related to credit application and trade finance software design.
Johnny holds a Master of Science (M.Sc.) degree in Business and Economics from Stockholm School of Economics and has a solid understanding of disruptive technologies within the financial services industry including FinTech, RegTech and Blockchain.
Tuncay is the Head and Executive Director of Group Online & Mobile Banking and Country Head of Digital Banking of UAE Standard Chartered Bank. He is responsible for driving Online and Mobile Banking Initiatives and Platform Management across the Group and Managing and driving Digital Banking Platforms and capabilities for UAE under Retail Banking.
As a Turkish National, he started his career in e-commerce start-ups and be a part of the team to develop World’s first Price Comparison e-commerce platform, which enabled online checkout from multiple e-commerce websites with single sign-on. After the E-commerce experience, he worked in TEB BNP Paribas Technology Department as Project Manager, Yapi Kredi Bank Alternative Delivery Channels Department as Cross Channel Coordination and Planning Specialist and worked at Akbank as Head of Mobile Banking in Turkey. Prior to his role at Standard Chartered, he was the Head of Mobile Financial Services, and Head of Agile transformation for Retail Banking at Emirates NBD for 5 years in UAE.
Tuncay has a degree in Management Engineering from Istanbul Technical University of Turkey. He is married to Ceren and he has a daughter and a son – Defne and Umut.
Outside the work arena, Tuncay plays different Turkish folk music instruments, interested in podcasting about technology, spend time in experiencing different cooking techniques and travelling
Technology Leader and Professional currently serving as Chief Information Officer for Standard Bank of South Africa. Khomotso is well known Industry Thought Leader in Digital Client Experience Transformation having led and being part of several such journeys in multiple roles previously held in Customer Experience, Digital Transformation and leading large technology teams.
Khomotso Molabe was trained as a Chemical Engineer and started his career in component manufacturing at Johnson Matthey holding several roles in Design and Production Engineering until becoming the Production Manager for the largest Johnson Matthey plant in the world at the time in his 20’s. It was during that time that studying and completing an MBL Degree triggered his interest to join Financial Services and this resulted in a 360° change of career to join Standard Bank in Group Operations in 2008.
Khomotso has had a very successful career at Standard Bank spanning across multiple business units and this demonstrate the true nature of the all-rounder he is. He has led large teams in Operations, Client Experience Transformation, large scale IT Transformations, CIO for the largest business unit at Standard Bank Group PBB SA IT.
Currently Khomotso is the CIO for SA. His demonstrated the ability to incorporate business and technical knowledge that will provide him with a strong platform to lead Technology for the SA franchise.
Khomotso is a recipient of DOW Sentrachem Award for outstanding Academic Achievement at Undergraduate Level and Quality Improvement Award as well as Standard Bank 2010 True Blue Top 100 Award. In 2016 he was selected as one of the top ABSIP Game Changers. Khomotso is also a board member of EFMA, a French based non-profit organisation for Knowledge Sharing and Thought Leadership on Digital Transformation & Innovation in Financial Services.
Khomotso has a wide range of interests in life which includes a soccer fanatic, the complex job of being a perfect husband, wrestling with fatherhood of his 2 children, a passion for long distance running and academia. Khomotso has completed 6 comrades’ ultra-marathons (90km) and more than 50 marathons. He is generally regarded by his colleagues and friends as a passionate lunatic. He is also a die-hard soccer fan of a local team Kaizer Chiefs, Chelsea and Barcelona.
Amber Naguib, a seasoned professional with more than a decade of work experience, is currently employed by Nestlé Pakistan Limited as part of the Innovation and Renovation Team within Strategy and New Business Development. She is currently leading the implementation of the FinTech strategy within the market and is supporting the business with the Innovation and Renovation product pipeline.
She has previously been employed by Pak Oman Investment Company Ltd, The Pakistan Credit Rating Agency Ltd and has also worked as a freelance author for Pakistan Today.
Yazad Khandhadia is Vice President, Security Architecture & Engineering at a leading bank in the UAE and is responsible for information security strategy and program execution, fostering DevSecOps culture, security automation and digital transformations in the information security space. He also has experience with governing & securing Blockchain initiatives that involve consortiums & off-premise public cloud implementations
He possesses 15 years of experience in the field of information security and has worked in cross functional domains of information security which include strategy, design, architecture, security awareness, security operations, governance, identity & access management and threat & vulnerability management. He has the fortune of being part of Blue, Red and Purple teams in Cyber Security.
Yazad holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics & a master’s degree in International Business and is certified for Data Privacy (CIPP/CIPT), Cloud Security (CCSK) and general information security disciplines (CISSP, CISM, CISA).
His current focus is on securing technologies like Blockchain, IAAS, PAAS, Public Cloud, Streaming, security automation solutions and embedding security culture (people, process, technology) into Agile methodologies. He is passionate about educating, mentoring and encouraging students to venture into Cyber Security as a profession and is currently Adjunct Faculty at Middlesex University in Dubai, UAE.
Batu Sat, Ph.D. is the Cofounder & CEO or Mall IQ, Inc. a venture-backed San Francisco based technology company serving Banks, Fintechs, Payment Apps and Retailers as a Location-Intelligence & AI platform. Dr. Sat earned his Masters and Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a Researcher at the Coordinated Science Laboratory. He is an expert in Machine Learning, AI, Distributed & Real-time computational systems and Location Intelligence. He held Technical Leader and Software Architect roles at Cisco Systems, Microsoft and Fuze, Inc. in Silicon Valley. In 2015 Dr. Sat co-founded Mall IQ, Inc. with his Cofounder Ferit Ozan Akgul, Ph.D. with the mission to empower financial institutions and merchants via purchase intent based actionable insights. Mall IQ is backed by prominent VCs such as 500 Startups and 212.VC and has received investment from and partnered with FIS Global. Mall IQ is serving customers in North America, Europe, Middle East, Asia.
Frederik Bisbjerg (born 1973 in Denmark) is a highly respected international business developer with expertise in digital transformation and business model innovation. His proven and numerous successes with worldwide business transformations comes from his belief in enabling and empowering people to execute on the change strategies
He is Executive Director, Digitization at Daman National Health Insurance company, one of the largest insurers in the GCC countries, where he oversees the company’s digital transformation initiatives, building a ‘digital-first’ flexible and resilient insurance company
Besides Daman, he holds the position as Head of MENA and Digital Transformation specialist with the Digital Insurer, the world’s largest knowledge base on digital insurance with more than 35,000 active members. With the Digital Insurer, he is part of the World’s first mini-MBA in Digital Insurance, where he lecturers in the topics of Strategy and Transformation, Big Data and Best Practice Tech Architectures based in the Middle East since 2013, he’s a sought-after keynote speaker and expert for local and international business innovation and development, working with companies seeking to leverage digital opportunities
Frederik has strong business acumen and is recognized for his ability to build businesses and create new, often previously unseen, alliances between business partners for mutual benefits; a skill refined and honed through many years of working internationally for a toptier management consulting firm
He’s and author on Insurance _Next, a practical guide on how to transform an incumbent insurer to a flexible, agile and resilient insurance company, prepared for the New Normal following the COIVD-19 outbreak
Vahid Monadjem is the founder and CEO of Nomanini, a pioneering fintech that is on a mission to improve the livelihoods of informal retailers by combining digital financial services and existing value chains. Vahid is a trained engineer with innovation and product design experience. Before founding Nomanini, he was McKinsey & Company’s global fellow for Emerging Market Product Development. He has worked in Africa, South East Asia, North America and Europe within a wide range of industries, including technical services, design, consumer goods, state-owned utilities, petrochemicals and telecommunications. He is passionate about working at the intersection of technology and design in informal markets, where Nomanini’s solutions can directly impact people's lives. Vahid’s vision for Nomanini is to provide platforms for transactions in emerging markets by empowering local partners to create the tools that best suit their particular needs.
Software development guru and entrepreneur. Elena has an extensive background of developing enterprise software solutions for government and law enforcement industries. She holds a Master of Computer Science degree and her specialties are in blockchain, cyber security and full stack programming. She has taken on the opportunity to found and lead the CryptoChicks organization and make it a success in 56 countries. Elena was featured in Globe and Mail, CBC Radio, and Global News for her outstanding contribution into blockchain industry.
Lauren Littlefield is the Product Consultant for the Emerging Markets team. Lauren has been with nCino for 6 years and in that time, she has helped banks to solve problems by understanding their unique business needs, showing how the product can be tailored to meet the specific requirements. Lauren has trained and certified nCino resources around the globe including onboarding pre-sales and sales team members in London and Sydney as well as enabling partners in South America and the Middle East. She received her BS from UNC Wilmington in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development
Leslie Standlee is the Director of Emerging Markets who brings 15 years of financial services, business transformation, operations and technology experience to nCino. Prior to joining nCino Leslie was a Senior Vice President at Bank of America where she served as an executive sponsor for Wholesale Credit Transformation, a global initiative designed to fully modernize and simplify the commercial credit product. Leslie holds a patent for delivering the Global Treasury Monitoring System a risked based application that protected the firm during the 2008 financial crisis and has previously led large global teams. She received her BBA from Texas A&M University in Management and Information Systems and serves on the Executive Board for Children’s Cancer Fund in Dallas, TX.
Thomas is a Member of the Executive Board of additiv AG, based in Zurich. He is responsible for additiv’s sales activities within Middle East and Switzerland. Thomas joined additiv from Credit Suisse AG three years ago, where he was a Managing Director within their Wealth Management Division. His positions held within Credit Suisse for the last 20 years have included Market Area and Market Group Head positions for various markets as Germany, the Netherlands, Nordics, Israel, Africa and Central and Eastern Europe. Thomas has an MBA in Banking and Finance from the University of Zurich (MA UZH).
Ronit Ghose is Global Sector Head for Banks Research, Co-Head of the FinTech Group and Head of MENA Research for Citi.
Ronit is the lead author of Citi's GPS Bank of the Future and FinTech report series - the first edition has had more than 350,000 downloads making it the most read report ever published by Citi, and one of the most read FinTech reports ever published. Since joining Citi in 1997, Ronit has covered banks in the Americas, Asia and EMEA. He is also an Advisory Board Member at the Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship.
Ronit previously worked at the British Bankers’ Association and as a research assistant in Parliament. He has an undergraduate degree from the University of Oxford, a postgraduate diploma from University of London and is a CFA charterholder
James has over 17 years of experience in Banking and Executive Search Recruitment. Having started his career in 2003, influential in driving the UK expansion for one of the UK's leading banking recruitment firms in London. He then joined one of the biggest Banks in the UK in 2007, as the Head of Talent Acquisition.
In this role, he designed and created a pioneering new in-house headhunting function for the Bank. James then moved to the Middle East in 2009 where he has been responsible for inaugurating three Global Recruitment firm’s operations in the UAE.
Today, James is an established figure within the UAE recruitment industry. He has designed and led some of the most successful and innovative projects in banking recruitment. His pioneering work in FinTech and his entrepreneurial ability has made him a key recruitment advisor to some of the region’s biggest Banks and financial institutions.
James is the Managing Director of Stanley Mac. He is passionate about re-imagining recruitment solutions for the FinTech and Banking industry in the digital age.
Mohd Shahnawaz is President of Government Blockchain Association UAE and has 15 years experience as an engineer with leadership roles in companies in Middle East, Africa and North America.
He has lead and worked on projects for both government sectors like DP World, US Army and Dry docks and private sectors .
He is graduate with Degree in Engineering Hons. He is also graduate from Hyperledger and Consensys Developer Programs.
Mr. Dache is the Executive Director of the Government Blockchain Association (GBA). The GBA is a global membership organization with thousands of members in the public and private sectors. He has traveled throughout the world assessing organizations and technologies. He has conducted extensive training and consulting for technology and business professionals.
Kashif is aUK graduate and possesses over 11 years of experience in Digital Banking and Mobile Financial Services.
Currently, he is employed as Head of Digital Business and Open Banking at JS Bank and held Senior Manager/Department Head positions at well renowned FIs such as Meezan bank and Easypaisa, Telenor Bank. His area of expertise are product development, transactional banking, Corporate Solutions, Payments, Strategic Partnership and Open Banking.
As the head of Western Union Network in the Middle and South Asia, Hatem Sleiman is responsible for the management of all agent relationships, with a continued expansion into new channels and a focus on increased productivity, optimized commissions and expansion of Western Union’s footprint in the region.
Prior to this Hatem led the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan, with responsibilities ranging from driving top-line revenue growth and bottom-line profit to overseeing business development, service delivery, compliance, and regulatory outreach in the region. In addition, he also tracks key cultural and geopolitical trends connected to the movement of money and enabling money movement digitally - via mobile phone, to an account, or to a mobile wallet, across borders and currencies.
With over 30 years of executive experience in the engineering and financial services industries, coupled with a deep understanding of cross-border payments, settlement, compliance and financial regulations across top global markets, Hatem has established a reputation in the region as a respected and distinguished leader of industry.
Hatem’s journey with Western Union began in 2003 when he joined the Dubai office taking on the role of Regional Operations Manager. He made an immediate impact, and after a few short yet successful years, accepted the role of Regional Vice President in 2009. It has been under his guidance and leadership that Western Union has evolved in the region, becoming a recognized brand and an innovative leader in the payment industry. During his tenure, Hatem has pioneered the launch of several new markets, both mature and sensitive, while delivering positive business turnarounds across the board. Beyond growing the retail network in the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan, Hatem has successfully expanded Western Union’s digital capabilities through payment gateways and electronic Know-Your-Customer processes, while growing successful partnerships across the region with major financial institutions.
Lean management and agile practices are at the core of Hatem’s leadership philosophy, while also recognizing the importance of fostering innovation, collaboration and value creation.
Throughout his career, Hatem’s commitment to corporate strategy has repeatedly been recognized, earning him several prestigious awards including; “Innovator of the Year”, “Excellence in Top Line Revenue Growth”, and the “President Award for Business Excellence.”
A citizen of both the United States and Lebanon, Hatem is fluent in both English and Arabic. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Colorado State University, as well as an Executive MBA from Boston Business School. Hatem is also a member of the Arab Union for Digital Economy under the patronage of the Arab League Economic Council.
