Where Finance + Technology Create Limitless Opportunities

Amnah Ajmal is the Executive Vice President, Market Development, EEMEA for Mastercard. In this role, she is responsible for acceptance, acquiring, merchants, digital partnerships, fintech’s, strategy and M&A for the region. Prior to this role she led the North America product organization, based out of the US, responsible for the development and management of consumer and small business payment solutions, including credit, debit, prepaid, small business and acceptance solutions, with a focus on creating sustainable competitive differentiation for Mastercard and its customers.
Amnah joined Mastercard in 2015 as Head of Products for Middle East & Africa where she focused on driving innovation across consumer and commercial payments based on technology, partnerships and delivering digitally integrated consumer experiences.

Prior to joining Mastercard she was heading the consumer bank franchise for Standard Chartered Malaysia responsible for end-end P&L. She was also responsible for retail banking strategy for Indonesia, Malaysia & Taiwan in a global role based out of Singapore. Prior to Standard Chartered, Amnah worked at Citigroup in UAE, Egypt, UK and Poland. She held a number of positions at Citigroup including Asset Business Head for Poland responsible for full range of consumer asset products, innovation and distribution including credit cards, co brands, personal loans and mortgages.

She was honored to be listed as the top 100 women in Fintech, across the globe, for 2019 by Lattice80 and recognized as the top 25 women leaders in financial technology by the Financial Technology Report US for 2019 & 2020. She was recently recognized as the top 100 women in fintech, across the globe, for 2021 by IBM & Fintech magazine. She also holds the honor of being in America’s top 10 women in Fintech by the Fintech Magazine for 2020.
She holds a master’s degree from London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE).

Soliman Aldukhil is a Group VP at Tap Payments, working closely with the Group CEO to drive greater collaboration and implement strategies to scale the company further. After graduating from the Queensland University of Technology in Australia, he started his career in the banking industry focusing on accelerating digital transformation and providing a seamless service across banks like the Saudi Investment Bank, Bank Saudi Fransi, and Bank Albilad. He then moved to Saudi Payments, the national payment operator of the local scheme ‘mada’, and was involved in developing the digital payment ecosystem in Saudi Arabia. Soliman enjoys new challenges and is a deep believer in “There are no limits other than the limits that you put on yourself” which is precisely the mentality he brings in everything he does within his role.

Khalil Alami is the Founder CEO of the leading online payment gateway, Telr Khalil has more than two decades of experience in the financial services sector, including 19 years in the payment and card industry, with a focus on payment infrastructure and system implementation Khalil has deep knowledge of industry structure, with emphasis on card processing and settlement, the four party system, international payments architecture, electronic and mobile payments, consumer touch points, and network security Khalil is also a Member of the Regional Fintech Working Group of the Arab Monetary Fund Khalil has an MBA from the American University of Beirut and a Bachelor of Science from Purdue University in Economics.

Ahmed Mohamed Al Naqbi is the Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Development Bank (EDB). As a seasoned banker with over 17 years of experience, he has led EDB’s journey of transformation into the key financial engine for the UAE’s economic development and industrial advancement. Ahmed focuses on initiatives enabling EDB to fill critical lending gaps by easing access to financing for start-ups, SMEs and large corporates in the UAE’s priority industry sectors of manufacturing, healthcare, infrastructure, food security, and technology. Since his appointment in May 2021, he has leveraged his experience in strategy, planning, digitisation and transformation to implement new workstreams to drive innovation throughout the Bank and enhance EDB’s products and service offering, for which he was recognised as “Best CEO for Banking Transformation in the UAE for 2021” by International Finance magazine. Prior to joining EDB, Ahmed served as managing director across retail, corporate, and investment banking at the National Bank of Abu Dhabi and First Abu Dhabi Bank. Ahmed is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture and Urban Studies, USA.

As Group Head of Mashreq’s Retail Banking Group (RBG), Fernando ensures that every Mashreq retail customer receives a superior banking experience. He is responsible for delivering profitable revenue growth and managing and executing the retail strategy across Mashreq’s personal banking, Mashreq Gold, private banking, SMEs, Islamic and Emirati segments, in addition to the bank’s digital propositions - Mashreq Neo and NEOBiz. Fernando brings almost 30 years of financial services experience to his new role at Mashreq. Most recently, he served as the Managing Director & Global Head of Retail Products and Segments for Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore. He began his career in McKinsey & Company where he focused on banking, insurance, retail and digital across EMEA and the US. In 2002 Fernando joined Bankinter where he held a number of senior positions in retail banking. 2011 saw him move to BBVA to lead their retail and commercial products and segments units across all of the Group’s banks. He enjoys widespread retail, digital and commercial banking experience having worked in a diverse range of specialist disciplines, notably private, affluent, emerging affluent, mass, SMEs and mid-market. In addition, he has also developed expertise in digital, CRM, analytics, marketing, and distribution. He holds a General Management Program (G.M.P.) from Harvard Business School, an MBA from Instituto De Empresa in Madrid, and a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering (specialization in Aircraft and Spacecraft design) from Universidad Politécnica De Madrid.

Ahmed Al Awadi is the Managing Director and CEO of FintX, the fintech arm of Emirates Post Group. He is responsible for setting the strategic direction, transformation, and management of the existing financial service entities within the Group including Wall Street Exchange, Instant Cash, and Vertex. A finance professional with over 20 years of experience in senior management and board level positions, Al Awadi drives the fintech vision of Emirates Post Group through FintX, identifying new venture opportunities and strategic partnerships within the fintech space. His expertise will allow FintX to contribute to the financial sector, both in the UAE and internationally, by driving digital adoption through technology, strategic partnerships, and unique product offerings. An MBA graduate in International Finance from the American University in Dubai and a BA in Finance Management from Georgia State University, Al Awadi was the CFO and CPO of Etisalat as well as the Chairman of Ubiquitous Telecommunications Technology (UTT) and of Digital Finance Services (DFS - eWallet). Al Awadi also serves as a Board Member of Emirates Post Group and is a member of various committees and boards.

After 24 years with the FBI, Chris Voss has assembled a toolbox of effective tactics for high-pressure negotiations. In his talk, Voss shares the specific things you can do to turn the tide of a negotiation in your favor—illustrating his points with both riveting, high-stakes stories of criminal negotiations and humorous, personal anecdotes from his trips to the mall alike. From why you always want to get your counterpart to say your name to why “yes” is the last thing you want to hear, Voss explains how to move a conversation along, how to startle people in the right way, and how to uncover what someone’s real motivation is. In this talk, Chris Voss takes his arsenal of tactics to help you succeed in deal making and high-stakes negotiations in to the world of banking and finance.

Renier Lemmens is the Group CEO of Geidea. Collaborating with Geidea’s Chairman and Founder Abdullah Al Othman, Renier is responsible for driving Geidea’s strategic growth across the region, strengthening its strategic partnerships within the region’s payments and financial networks, as well as identifying growth opportunities for the business. With extensive experience within the fintech and payments industry, Renier provides Geidea with a unique experience and insight in fintech innovation and hyper-growth companies. His past roles include serving as the CEO of PayPal Europe, Middle East, and Africa – and COO for Barclays International Retail and Commercial Banking. Renier was also a Board Member of Revolut, and still serves as Chairman of Divido and TransferGo, London-based Fintechs. He was also a partner with McKinsey & Company in London, New Delhi, and San Francisco. He is a Professor of Fintech and Innovation at the London Institute of Banking and Finance. He holds a Master of Science (MsC) with distinction in Computer Science as well as an MBA with Distinction from INSEAD, France.

Khalifa Hassan Al Forah Al Shamsi was appointed as CEO of e& life on 2 February 2022. Reporting to Hatem Dowidar, e& CEO, Khalifa’s appointment is part of e&’s ongoing digital transformation strategy to significantly expand Etisalat’s digital portfolio by growing the existing business, as well as capturing new opportunities in the consumer market, through its new dedicated vertical – e& life. e& life’s strength will lie in its various portfolios, starting off with our Fintech and TV & multimedia functions, including E-vision, under Khalifa’s leadership. Khalifa has over 28 years of experience in the telecom, media, and ICT industries. He led Etisalat’s first move into the digital space through the deployment of mobile services, fibre-based broadband and advanced data services. He has held several leadership positions within e&, including Head of Mobile Networks, Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Digital Officer. His role in building the business unit ‘Etisalat Digital Services’ was critical to generating new revenue streams and accelerating business growth. In his previous role as the Group Chief Corporate Strategy & Governance Officer, he was a key contributor to developing the vision and future strategic priorities of e&.

Yashish Dahiya is the Chairman & CEO, PB Fintech. He started Policybazaar.com in 2008 with a strong belief that customers in India need more financial cover for death, disease, and disability and the long-term profitability of the insurance industry depends upon how well the industry is focussed on these three. Under his leadership, the group company started PaisaBazaar.com, an online financial marketplace for investment and lending products in 2014. Before starting his entrepreneurial journey with PolicyBazaar.com, he was the Managing Director of ebookers.com, a leading pan-European online travel distributor, which was also an FTSE 250 company listed on Nasdaq. Yashish was also a management consultant with Bain & Co. in their London office. Yashish holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering from IIT Delhi, a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from IIM Ahmedabad, and an MBA from INSEAD. Yashish likes to spend his spare time outdoors, is the current masters national champion in swimming and is the fifth fastest Ironman from India across all ages.

Rodrigo Santos is an Information Security professional with over 15 years of experience in this area. Being able to easily move between the more technical and executive side, he is currently the Senior Manager of InfoSec at Nubank, one of the largest fintechs in the world with more than 65 million customers, leading the team called InfoSec Core, which encompasses several teams of security, such as Offensive Security, Defensive Security, Cyber Intel, SOC, Cloud Security, Mobily Security, Vulnerability Management, IAM Security, Cryptography, Incident Response & CSIRT among others. He also worked at Tempest Security Intelligence, one of the largest security consultancies in Brazil, in various roles such as Director of incident response and professional services.

Esraa Gamal is the Chief Operating Officer of Telr, the UAE based award winning payment gateway solutions provider. Gamal spearheaded many products for Local and International markets which helped classify the company as an e commerce best in class technology solutions provider for big, small and medium sized enterprises, focusing on growing markets across the Middle East and North Africa in addition to the Indian market. Gamal has a Bachelor of Science in Economics & Political Science from Cairo University, Egypt.

Arik Shtilman is CEO and co-founder of Rapyd, the leading fintech-as-a-service platform powering local payments anywhere in the world by bringing together 900-plus payment methods in over 100 countries. Arik founded Rapyd in 2016 with a singular goal in mind: to help businesses thrive in any local market around the globe.

Prior to starting Rapyd, Arik realized there was a massive need to create a way for fintech applications to scale globally so businesses could invest in expansion – not spend critical time attempting to build complex payments infrastructure. To solve this glaring challenge hindering growth in the payments space, Arik launched Rapyd as the first “Fintech-as-a-Service” product in the industry, the category-leading full stack of integrated payments, commerce and financial services capabilities that can be seamlessly embedded into any application. Now, by partnering with Rapyd, businesses and consumers anywhere in the world can easily engage in local and cross-border transactions in any market.

Before Rapyd, Arik founded ITNAVIGATOR, a cloud-based contact center and unified communications platform which was acquired by Avaya in 2013. Arik’s expertise in building high-growth companies leveraging cutting-edge technologies to meet global customer demand is proven in Rapyd’s fast-paced yet steady growth. Since Rapyd’s launch in 2016, Arik has taken the company global with offices in Dubai, Tel Aviv, London, San Francisco, Singapore, Reykjavik, and Miami, to name a few.

Ranjith K Shyamaladas is a serial entrepreneur with an expertise of 25 years in IT, Identity & FinTech Payments. He strongly believes in the power of innovation through technology, adhering to his background in software engineering. BIO-IDZ is actually the realization of his vision to seamlessly integrate security, payments & fashion through innovation.

Dr Ira is the founder of Fintech 4Longevity, a research and consulting community helping the financial sector be well prepared for the demographic trend of ageing. She is an expert in the economics of ageing with a particular focus on the role of fintech in improving the financial well-being of mid-life and older adults. In 2020, Ira joined a working group at the World Economic Forum on ‘Redefining Retirement’.
Ira is the founder of the International Financial Innovation for Ageing and Longevity Forum, an international forum which deals with the intersection of longevity, finance and technology. Her academic research deals with the effect of retirement and changing health on the economic outcomes of households within different pension and healthcare systems.
From 2008 to 2019, Ira served as a non-executive director to numerous public companies in Israel including the Bank of Jerusalem and worked previously as an accountant at KPMG.

In her current role at the AMF, Dr Youssef provides support to Arab countries in fields of Fintech, digital financial transformation, and digital financial inclusion. Moreover, she initiated the creation and development of the AMF’s ‘FinxAr’ index – a regional fintech index to track the development of the fintech sector in Arab countries.
A regular speaker in international fora, Dr Youssef has co-authored numerous fintech publications related to the Arab region, such as Open Banking and Open Finance, CBDCs, Digital identity, eKYC and Customer On-Boarding, as well as the tri-lingual (Arabic, English and French) fintech glossary; in addition to delivering regular training sessions on topics including fintech and digital financial services.
Prior to joining the AMF in 2016 she spent almost 12 years as Deputy Debt Manager for the Ministry of Finance in her native Egypt.

Sultan Alonazi is the Managing Director of the KSA office for Tap Payments, the leading paytech company revolutionizing online payments across MENA. After graduating from King Abdulaziz University, he has had over 24 years of experience in helping build and scale several successful companies in KSA and across MENA. With a wide range of experience in fintech, economics, marketing, and sales, his professional experience has revolved around banking, fintech, and government authorities with previous roles such as CEO of Geidea and other senior executive positions in Riyad Bank, SABB, STCpay, and Ministry of Justice. He is excited by the opportunity to participate in the journey toward realizing Saudi Arabia’s vision to become a cashless economy with Tap Payments.

Muaiyad is the Chief Executive officer & Co-Founder of Rasan & Tameeni. He brings 13+ years of transformational leadership experience inlaunching successful startups, creating market leading brands and introducing innovative life touching technology. Apart from KSA's 1st DigitalInsurance aggregation platform "Tameeni", he has introduced many industry first initiatives and brands such as Insurance Leasing aggregation platform for Banking & Leasing industry "Treza", Vehicle digital auction and market place "Awalmazad" and many more.
Muaiyad as an individual loves nature & wildlife photography and is an avid art lover. He is happier when he is with his family and his daughters "Lola & Amelia' and the happiest when he sees all Rasanians are enjoying life.

He is the CEO and Co-Founder of Velas, the fastest EVM blockchain and ecosystem for smart contracts and dApps. Velas is based in Zug, Switzerland and has grown quickly to become a leading technology company in the region. Since its establishment in just 2019, Farkhad has grown Velas to partner with the world-renowned Scuderia Ferrari F1 and IQONIQ, a sports and entertainment fan engagement platform. Farkhad has been featured on the educational tv-series ‘Behind the scenes’ with Host Laurence Fishburne. Before being appointed CEO this year, Farkhad acted as Director of Business Development at Velas. His strong motivation to invest in the crypto sphere began in 2016 and he has since gained significant knowledge and experience in the industry, becoming a leader in the space. He has also founded Alpina Capital AG, a leading regulated crypto brokerage firm, and BitOrbit, a decentralized social media platform. His other previous roles include Partner and Head of Business Development at Blockchain Suisse AG and Executive director at RF Enterprise SA. As a co-creator of the first crypto ISIN (international security identification number), Farkhad has paved the way for fellow crypto companies and regularly shares thought-provoking ideas of decentralization, Web3 and cryptocurrency.

Kartik has led large and complex businesses in the cards, payments and lending space. He is currently the regional head for payments at Mashreq bank. His previous assignment was to lead the global product function for credit cards and personal loans at Standard Chartered. In this role, he drove strategy and multi-market product engineering and business initiatives across 24 Asian and African markets. Prior to this, Kartik led the regional cards and loans business at Standard Chartered for the ASEAN region and has held GM roles in multiple markets prior to that. Kartik credits his success to his exposure to multiple verticals besides P&L Management- such as Analytics, Risk Management, Marketing and Sales. He is passionate about taking measured risks based on insights on how customers are evolving in their tastes and needs to create new products and services that enable serving these profitably. Some highlights include designing digitally optimized products, servicing and portfolio managing digitally and experimenting with new lending form factors. He launched all major international and domestic wallets in payments. Managed large payment deals like Singtel, Reliance Jio. Technology upgrade of e-commerce capability and rewards across all markets. The bank’s first open APIs in the rewards space. Global uplift of customer engagement through analytics and partnerships (notably Uber, Grab, Amazon, Apple)

Muhammad Nana is the Vice President, Fintech Partnerships for the Eastern Europe Middle East, and Africa region. In this role, he is responsible for managing Mastercard’s relationships with Fintech Partners across the region including but not limited to Enablers, Paytech’s, Neobanks, Payment Service Providers, eWallets etc.
Ngozi has over 15 years of experience in sales, marketing and operations holding leadership positions within the Financial Services industry within Banks and Fintech’s.
Muhammad joined Mastercard in 2016 and has held varied roles in the organization managing multiple product lines across several geographies and regional clients. Prior to taking up his current role, he worked within the Digital Partnerships business focusing on Telco engagements responsible for driving business development activities for non-traditional payment solutions and partnerships with a focus on financial inclusion and the growth of digital payments.
Muhammad’s career in financial services began at Standard Bank in 2004 in back-office operations, leading back-office operation activities across the sixteen African countries for the group. Right before joining Mastercard, he was responsible for the growth & operations of secure mobile remote payment authentication at MTN MobileMoney Holdings.

Lennix leads the business strategy and operations for OKX internationally.
With 15 years of experience in the world of crypto and financial services, Lennix plays a key role in OKX’s transformation from a standard centralized exchange into the largest hub for DeFi services, NFTs and blockchain gaming, as well as crypto trading.
Lennix is one of the earliest employees to join the company in 2017. Since day one, he has championed financial inclusion through the power of crypto and decentralized finance. He is responsible for driving OKX’s mission to remove the traditional barriers to wealth creation, empowering everyone to create and own their wealth in the most innovative, decentralized and secure ways possible.
Before joining OKX, Lennix served at JP Morgan, AIG and CASH Financial Services Group.

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lennix-lai-808abb1a
Twitter: @LennixOKX

Nayef Alabdulwahed is the Director of Regulatory Policy Development at the Capital Market Authority and Board member of Fintech Saudi, a member of the IOSCO Fintech Task Force (FTF) and chair of Fintech AMERC. His experience in over 17 years with the public service included the Ministry of Investment (SAGIA previously) to attract foreign direct investments, and managed projects in both public and private sectors.

Sailesh Malhotra is the General Manager for Geidea across GCC. In his current role, Sailesh oversees Geidea’s operations, strategic partnerships as well as business development.
With over two decades of extensive experience in merchant services and commercial payments across Asia Pacific and Middle East, his technical expertise spans areas such as Strategic Business Development, E-Commerce & Digital, Corporate, Marketing & Sales Strategy, P&L and Revenue Management, Strategic Partnerships & Negotiation as well as Conceptualizing and designing new products.
Prior to Geidea, Sailesh worked in a variety of senior-level positions at leading payment service providers and financial institutions including Paytabs, Wirecard, ADCB and American Express.
He is a holder of a Bachelors of Arts Degree in Mathematics and Economics from the University of Delhi.

Kashifu Abdullahi is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology – MIT Sloan – trained strategist with 15 years experience in IT operations, business transformation and solution architecture, across both private and public sectors. He attended Leadership and Management courses at Harvard University in the USA, University of Cambridge in the UK and IMD Business School in Switzerland. Mr Abdullahi has worked for nine years (2004 – 2013) at Galaxy Backbone and held several positions such as Network Engineer, IP Network Field Engineer, Senior Network & Lead, IP Operations Team, and Senior Solution Architect & Lead, Technical Solution Design. In 2014, Mr Abdullahi joined Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as a Technology Architect, where he dedicated his time to developing Technology Architecture Repository that gives 360 view of the Bank’s IT Infrastructure and facilitated ease of decision making on new IT investment. He was part of the team that executed software license rationalization that has increased cost savings for the Bank in license annual subscriptions. As the 1st Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) in Nigeria’s Public Sector, he is also a Certified Project Manager and Solution Architect. He also has many professional certifications in Networking, Telecommunications, Service Management and Solution Design.

Peter Englund developed a passion for emerging markets early in his career. Being an active ambassador for growth and development – and in setting high standards for himself and people around him – he has led numerous businesses in both dynamic and challenging environments. Together with his high performing teams, he constantly looks for ways to bring out the best in himself and people around him – a trait originating from his time as squad leader in a Swedish Attack Diving unit.

The Middle East & Africa region has a special place in his heart, and is also where he has spent most of his professional career. He is currently based in the Dubai International Financial Center, where he heads up Zurich’s regional commercial activities. In addition to his current role, Peter also remains active in giving back to a region that has been good to him and his business. He mentors start-ups and InsureTech companies; is an active speaker and contributor at industry specific and regional events; and also gives frequent lectures to foster Middle Eastern talent development.

Peter brings a wealth of expertise and experience in the areas of commercial insurance and reinsurance, investment management, financial lines propositions and Middle Eastern geopolitics. He is a Swedish national and holds a Master’s Degree from the Royal Institute of Technology and a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance from the Stockholm School of Business

Tan Bin Ru is the CEO (Southeast Asia) of OneConnect Financial Technology Co. Ltd. (NYSE: OCFT), a leading technology-as-a-service platform for financial institutions. OneConnect is an associate company of Ping An Group which ranks 21st on 2020 Fortune Global 500 and 7th on Forbes 2020 Global 2000. In her role, Bin Ru is responsible for expanding OneConnect’s fintech solutions outside of China. She is also a Co-Chairwoman of Blockchain Association Singapore. Bin Ru has over 20 years of experience in driving successful sales strategies and operational improvements at MNCs and startups. At Microsoft, she was the Regional Sales Director for One Commercial Partner and Small, Mid-market Corporate Customers for Southeast Asia. She also worked at Hewlett Packard for 10 years where she held various roles in Singapore and Houston in the areas of Sales Strategy, Alliance Management, Business Planning, Worldwide Operations, and Strategic Management. At the Singapore FinTech Awards 2019, Bin Ru has been recognized as one of the “Top 5 Women in FinTech” for her exceptional contributions to the Singapore fintech industry, and “Asia FinTech Leaders” for her leadership in building a sustainable company amidst its rapid expansion in the region. She is also named an exemplary female role model in the tech sector at the inaugural Singapore 100 Women in Tech List, 2020. Bin Ru graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Science (Statistics and Operations Research). She also holds a post-graduate diploma in Supply Chain Management and is a certified Master Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma.

Mohammad Alblooshi leads the development of the FinTech ecosystem at DIFC. He was previously Senior Manager of Corporate and Service Providers at the DIFC, has grown through the ranks and is now leading the charge towards deepening the Centre’s FinTech ecosystem in his position as Sector Head of FinTech. In his new role, Mr. Alblooshi has aligned the DIFC’s FinTech proposition with the needs of the startup segment in the UAE, which has led to the introduction of subsidised licensing schemes and a more integrated offering for FinTech firms. He has also been the fundamental driver in building DIFC’s reputation as a FinTech hub across the United Kingdom, United States, Singapore and India. Mr. Alblooshi, boasts over a decade of experience working with leading financial institutions, such as Barclays, Standard Chartered and Lloyd’s TSB.

Hussein Mohammed Al Meeza is an acclaimed award-winning banker with over 45 years of experience spanning the Islamic banking, finance and insurance sectors. A founding member of Emaar properties, Amlak Finance, Emaar Industries & Investments, Emaar Financial services, Dubai Islamic Insurance & Reinsurance Company (AMAN), Nawat, he was named Best Islamic Banking Personality in 2006. His professional career began in 1975 at the Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), where he spent over 20 years developing the bank’s services, and still serves as Executive Director.
As an emerging star of Islamic banking, he is the founder of Al Salam Banks in Sudan, Bahrain and Algeria, where he serves on various positions including Board Member, Vice Chairman and Chairman of the Executive Committee since 2015. He is also the Chairman of Al Salam Bank - Seychelles, Chairman of Top Enterprises L.L.C., Chairman of Lycée Francais Jean Mermoz L.L.C. Hussein Al Meeza excelled as CEO and Managing Director of Dubai Islamic Insurance and Reinsurance Company (AMAN), Chairman of LMC Bahrain, Chairman of the Executive Committee of Islamic Trading company in Bahrain, Board Member and Chairman of the Executive Committee in Amlak Finance Dubai and Chairman of Emaar Financial Services Dubai, Vice Chairman of Emirates Cooperative Society Dubai. He also served as Board Member of the General Council of Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions, Chairman of the Founding Committee of Islamic Insurance and Reinsurance Companies. He also held the position of Board Member of the Emirates Society for Insurance. Mr Al Meeza served as Chairman at Nawat Investments and Amity Health in Dubai, as well as Board Member of Al Salam Bank Bahrain and Chairman at Al Salam Bank Seychelles. Hussein Al Meeza is a graduate of the Beirut Arab University and holds an MBA degree from La Jolla University, USA.

Nezar is the director of Fintech Saudi. Nezar began his professional career as a consultant at Deloitte. For the past several years, he has been actively involved in developing Saudi Arabia's entrepreneurship ecosystem through organizations such as the Badir Incubator and the Small & Medium Enterprises General Authority (Monsha'at), and more recently through his role with Fintech Saudi. He holds an MBA and has experience in both the public and private sectors.

Drives the future state of financial services via strategic partnerships and measured R&D with fintech, entrepreneurs, and technology partners from around the world

Based in Dubai for over 30 years, Tanvir has established a track record earning trust and delivering value. his leadership has been recognized by The Banker Middle East, Cards International and Freddie Awards. He is Managing Director of The Partnerships Advisory, a team of global banking & finance experts advising on successful strategies across Middle East and Africa. Tanvir is also Founding Partner of TanGo Holding, a FSRA supervised, ADGM domiciled Real Estate Holding Company. Tanvir sits on the Decision Committee of Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund, a $ 545 M government venture debt fund of the UAE Ministry of Finance. Previously, at Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Tanvir launched and built one of the largest Payments & FinTech businesses in the region with $ 3 B in annual volumes, and over $ 600 M in peak unsecured lending. At ADIB he also managed and grew the Mortgage portfolio to $ 2 B in Real Estate secured lending book. Earlier he launched the Advisory division at The International Investor (TII) and built media assets at Motivate Media Group. Tanvir is an Instructor and Alumni of Harvard University (USA), a qualified Chartered Marketer (UK), holds a Business degree from Bombay University (India), and graduated high school from Dubai (UAE).

Mr. Khamis Buharoon AI Shamsi is a world-renowned expert in global finance that has built a solid reputation at the Central Bank of UAE, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and other leading financial institutions. Between 2007-2021 he dedicated his career to ADIB, serving as Managing Director, Member of the Board of Directors, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Acting CEO and Vice Chairman. With over 35 years experience, Mr. Al Shamsi has successfully led teams as the Head of the Settlements Committee, Member of the Executive committee, and Vice-Chairman of the Nominations and Remuneration Committee, among many other offices. Prior to Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Mr. Buharoon Al Shamsi served as CEO of Commercial Bank International and Head of Domestic Banking Division at the National bank of Abu Dhabi. Mr. Buharoon contributed to establishing several top level investment firms, including Arqaam Capital Investment in DIFC, UIB in the Kingdom of Bahrain and Naeem Holdings in Egypt. In 2020 he joined as Chairman of the Abu Dhabi National Takaful Company Board of Directors, Mr. Khamis Buharoon was born in the United Arab Emirates and holds a B.A in Business and Accounting

Brian is the Head of Technology and Data Governance at the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM). He works to develop the fintech ecosystem in the UAE by driving new regulatory initiatives and key technology infrastructure projects that improve the adoption of fintech. Prior to joining ADGM, Brian was responsible for macroprudential supervision of the banking system at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, paying particular attention to SME financing conditions, as well as data governance and architecture at both MAS and the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office in Singapore’s Prime Minister’s Office.

Roaa Shamlouli’s role as Fintech Solution Advisor at Investera focuses on introducing the company’s new ecosystem for investment transactions.
The overarching goal is for Investera to be the Swiss Army Knife for Investment Management Platforms in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, especially the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), with further expansion already underway. As an organisation, Investera Business Solutions is dedicated to the advancement of the financial services industry utilising the latest information technology and data science. Its business applications help family offices identify opportunities and optimise their investments by delivering reliable and straightforward solutions that enable them to make critical decisions based on a solid foundation. The platform includes a simple AI-based dashboard that investors can use to vet investments and conduct due diligence prior to making an investment, and where confidential documents may be uploaded.

Ana Monteiro is a General Manager at Huspy, a Dubai headquartered proptech platform transforming the home buying journey in EMEA. At Huspy she oversees mortgages, the company’s largest business unit, and a team of 100+ people. Ana joined Huspy in 2021 as a part of its early stage team, as the Head of Partner Sales, before her current role. A native of Brazil, Ana is passionate about being a part of big projects and solving complex challenges. With experience across sales, operations and growth in corporates and start-ups, Ana loves building high performing diverse teams and challenging the status quo. Prior to Huspy, she led the partner channel at the fintech SumUp, leading a team of 100+ people and managing over 15,000 partners. Previously she also worked in Brazil’s fast growing telecom sector, with operators Oi and Algar Telecom. Ana holds a MBA from Brazil’s Ibmec University and a Bachelor’s in Industrial Engineering from Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV). She’s currently a candidate at the Stanford Graduate School of Business’ LEAD program class of 2023.

Andrew Mortimer is the Country Manager and Chief Operating Officer for Barclays for the Middle East and Africa Region. He has Country Management responsibility for Barclays Investment Banking, Corporate Banking and Private Banking businesses based in the Middle East as well as all Risk and Support Functions and is the Senior Executive Officer with the respective regulatory authorities in the region. Over the past 30 years, Andrew held several senior positions at globally recognised financial institutions including SRM Global Fund, UBS Investment Bank, Credit Suisse First Boston, and Nomura International plc. In addition Andrew is the Chair of the British Business Group for Dubai & Northern Emirates, sits on the Advisory Council for the UAE Banks Federation and is a Committee Member of the UK/UAE Business Council. Andrew holds an executive MBA from the University of Sussex in Applied General Management and is married with four children.

Yoav Soffer has been with the Bank of Israel for 18 years. He served in various position as a research economist, advisor on behalf of the Bank at the executive board of the World Bank, and member of the Bank's Office of the Spokesperson and Economic Information, before becoming the Bank of Israel Spokesperson in 2014. He stepped down from this position in 2020 to become an Advisor to the Deputy Governor and the CBDC Project Manager. Since then, he has been coordinating the Bank of Israel's work on the digital shekel. Yoav has a B.A in Economics and Geography and an M.A in Economics, both from Ben Gurion University in Israel. He has taught various courses in economics in academic institutions in Israel.

Ahmad Alwazzan has been a part of Tap Payments since it was founded in 2014. Initially, he acted as an advisor on risk & financial operations until officially joining the team in 2017 as the GM of Financial Services to manage the relationship with financial institutions and regulators. 5 years later, he’s the Group EVP handling the regulatory strategy across MENA. Since graduating from the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver, USA, he’s worked in global companies such as Ernst & Young in audit and assurance services as well as the National Bank of Kuwait, until realizing his passion for Fintech and joining Tap Payments. He was also a competitive tennis player until the age of 16 and even played for the national team of Kuwait in 2002.

Beverly currently serves as CEO of Portfolio T, NEOM Tech & Digital Company’s Venture Studio & Fund. Beverly leads a team of top-tier entrepreneurs and C-suite executives in developing Silicon Valley-modeled ventures and disruptive, sustainable solutions to power the world’s first ecosystem of cognitive technologies. She is also focused on attracting investment and fostering long-term optimization.
As CCO and CMO of NEOM Tech & Digital Company since 2021, she is tasked with building and managing a world-class commercial organization comprising: sales and channels; ventures; solutions; delivery; communications, events, and product and field marketing. Her work enables the successful development and execution of NEOM Tech & Digital Company programs, which require the establishment of global partnerships to provide scale for NEOM’s growth.
Beverly’s deep experience and insights come from serving in the C-suite at Fortune 10 and Global 100 companies, including Hitachi Limited (Japan), General Electric (US) and Ericsson (Sweden). She was also CEO at C-level Consulting, an executive for CenturyLink/Qwest/US West, and an attorney.
Beverly has degrees in marketing, finance, law and taxation. She graduated JD Cum Laude from the Seattle University School of Law and attended the University of Washington LLM Program.

Mohamad joined the DFSA in 2008. He currently heads the DFSA Prudential Supervision team overseeing prudential risks across all the financial institutions operating in and from the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), with special focus on Banking and Insurance institutions, including the regional hubs of many of the Global Systematically Important Banks (G-SIBs) and Global Systematically Important Insurers (G-SIIs). Throughout his career at the DFSA, Mohamad has played a key role in developing some of the DFSA’s policies and regulations, and in shaping the DFSA’s supervisory framework. Mohamad has 20 years of experience in the banking and financial services industry. Prior to joining the DFSA, Mohamad held senior positions at Byblos Bank Lebanon, Lebanon’s Banking Control Commission, and the Arab Finance Corporation. Mohamad holds a Masters in Finance from the Saint-Joseph University in Beirut, executive education certificates from the Cambridge Judge Business School and the Wharton School, in addition to a number of professional certificates.

(Mr Paul McLeod) is the (COO) at (Emirates Insurance Company) with responsibility for Customer Service, Information Technology, Claims and Policy Administration.
Initially engaged at Emirates to design and implement an Operations function, Pauls role was expanded in 2017 to include the Information Technology function. A carefully managed change program has seen significant benefits in terms of productivity, service quality, and most significantly, Customer Experience. Tactical and strategic IT interventions have enabled and underpinned these changes, as Emirates Insurance looks to compete is an increasingly competitive market.
Prior to joining (Emirates Insurance Company), (Paul) worked with American International Group in a variety of roles in Europe, Asia, Middle East and Australasia. Prior to joining AIG, Paul worked as a Management Consultant, delivering change programs that make a difference.

Solandia is a Compliance and Anti Money Laundering Professional, specializing in building and overlooking the legal, regulatory compliance & AML frameworks of multiple Fintech and Digital Asset businesses across various jurisdictions. Solandia specializes in working alongside top regulators and specializes in creating and developing the most sustainable AML/CFT strategies and methods of operations for Fintech & Digital Asset businesses through the effective and efficient utilization of innovative technologies and automated systems that are powered by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. In her current role at LYOPAY, Solandia heads the Compliance & AML Department across its multiple businesses and platforms and implements her above-mentioned expertise in scaling the business from a regulated and licensed approach.

Nosaibah is Building a Fintech that’s redefining financial well-being. As the trail blazer within the fintech industry, Nosaibah founded the first female-led Fintech in Saudi Arabia. Forus Financial is a debt marketplace, where you can Invest in debt & Alternative Assets. The future of Islamic investing, one platform to manage your alternative investments in the debt market. Forus Financial allows you to earn attractive returns, create a diversified portfolio that you control, all is a safe State-of-the-art system.
Before being named CEO in October 2019, Nosaibah was Head of Securities at Albilad Capital managing over SAR 1 billion in Assets. Further, Nosaibah is an avid angel investor in innovative tech start-ups from around the globe, such names include Pipe, Float* and Signal Wire.

Currently leading the London Stock Exchange Group strategy for Refinitiv’s Risk Intelligence business. Has worked in the anti-financial crime industry for over 15 years. With experience working in all major markets globally. In 2022, relocated to the UAE from London, UK. Has acted as Group Secretariat for the MENA Financial Crime Compliance Group, since its formation in September 2016 and is a member of the Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime. Is also a member of the UAE Government Public Private Sector Partnership, Digital Working Group. Professional accreditations include being a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS), a Certified Global Sanctions Specialist (CGSS), CertPAY accredited from the London Institute of Banking and Finance. Holding a Diploma in Financial Crime and Compliance since 2014, an Executive Program with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT Sloan) on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and being a member of the Association of Fraud Examiners (ACFE). A regular speaker at industry events across the world, his areas of expertise include Risk Intelligence Data, Sanctions, Financial Crime technology, Beneficial Ownership, Fraud and IDV / IDP.

Robson Albuquerque works for Nubank as a researcher and a cyber security specialist in the INFOSEC business unit. He has more than 25 years of experience in the technology field. His professional skills include IT consulting for public and private organizations in information security, cybersecurity and computer networks. He is a member of the Professional Post-Graduate Program in Electrical Engineering at the University of Brasília. He is also a member of the GASS research group at the University Complutense of Madrid. He has researched and worked for the last 20 years in topics related to information security, cybersecurity, and cyber intelligence. He authored and co-authored articles published in research conferences and journals around the world.

Lynnette is recognized as an expert and thought leader in UAE’s real estate industry. She applies her unique blend of technology and real estate experience to optimize business performance through data and tech driven strategies. Her highly developed understanding of real estate data is sought by leading banks, developers, real estate professionals, institutional investors, consultants and governments. Her research and insights have been featured in Gulf Business, Gulf News, Arabian Business, The National, Khaleej Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Mansion Global to name a few. Lynnette spent her career in the technology sector for over 25 years and has specialized in the PropTech industry for the last 15 years in the UAE. She is an ambassador for the Dubai Land Department and advises on several committees and initiatives with the UAE government. She also lectures at the real estate institute in Dubai. Most recently, Lynnette was chosen as the top ten real estate consultants in the MENA region by Cityscape and named Woman Leader of the Year in PropTech. She also completed her executive studies at Harvard University in the Advanced Management Development Program in Real Estate. Lynnette currently is the Director of Data & Digital Transformation for Allsopp & Allsopp Group.

Omoke Adebanjo is senior vice president of the Merchants & Commerce segment across 80 markets in Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EEMEA) and a member of the EEMEA Operating Committee. She is responsible for strengthening some of the firm’s most critical merchant relationships, including leading airline carriers, hotel chains, retailers, retail fintech, and online travel agents, where she advances joint partnership goals. In addition, Omoke leads the development and execution of strategies and objectives, sales, business development, product go-to-market, market transformation, and thought leadership for the segment in the region.
Since joining Mastercard in 2011, Omoke has held several leadership roles across different geographies and functions. Most recently, as regional franchise lead for EEMEA, she was responsible for managing the ecosystem of stakeholders participating in the Mastercard network and payments platforms by supporting the creation and continued existence of a comprehensive series of value exchanges across the ecosystem. Her focus was a balanced ecosystem where all issuers, acquirers, fintechs, service providers, and other participants in the region benefit from the Mastercard network’s availability, innovation, safety, and security.
She has also had the opportunity to create business and social impact via strategic partnerships with fintechs, government regulators, technology companies, banks, and financial institutions to create digital transformation projects, enable cashless economy agendas across multiple countries, as well as to drive large-scale financial inclusion programs. As general manager of the anglophone West Africa cluster, Omoke also played a very significant role in the commercialization of new products and services in many emerging markets, fostering new business lines through strategic multi-stakeholder partnerships and new-market entry.
Before Mastercard, Omoke has held progressively senior positions across the healthcare, telco, and banking industries, affording her a broad understanding and appreciation of comprehensive customer needs in developing markets.
Omoke has received recognition for her impact and leadership as a senior female executive in the fintech sector. In 2021, she was named one of the top 100 Career Women in Nigeria. She was previously a member of Leading Ladies Africa’s ’50 Leading Ladies in Corporate Nigeria’s list and was honored as one of the ‘Top 30 Leading Women in Nigeria’s Fintech Industry’.
She holds an MBA from Lagos Business School (Pan Atlantic University) and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Ibadan. Currently, she is based out of Dubai, UAE.

Amardeep Thandi brings over a decade of financial crime investigations experience, having worked with some of the largest financial institutions to review, design and execute optimized responses to fraud investigations, disputes, litigation, and regulatory enforcement action, leading on Digital Forensics, eDiscovery, Cyber, advanced analytics and machine learning technologies. He has extensive experience in the blockchain and digital asset ecosphere, having supported large global crypto organizations navigate through exceptionally complex and contentious regulatory matters involving investigations into compliance breaches, AML/CTF assurance, monitoring and back testing. He also regularly participates in panel discussions and training sessions as an SME in this space. Recent matters include supporting one of the largest global cryptocurrency exchanges through several regulatory investigations, investigating allegations of insider trading prior to the listing of a new cryptocurrency on an exchange, supporting a large corporate investigate the loss of funds though the generation of a new cryptocurrency and investigating a multimillion dollar ponzi scheme, supporting the receivership with the recovery of millions of dollars’ worth of digital assets held by fraudsters across a number of wallet technologies. He now leads compliance and regulation across EMEA at Chainalysis, helping VASPs and financial institutions onboard digital asset services to their clients in a safe and complaint manner.

Alexandra Topalian is a Canadian presenter for conferences and other corporate events such as awards ceremonies gala dinners and expos, where she also interviews exhibitors, partners, and expo attendees. She also moderates panel discussions. With over 25 years of experience in North America, Southeast Asia, Africa and the MENA region in a variety of industries.

Ida has an MA in Peace and Conflict Studies. She has lived in eight countries and speaks five languages. Apart from her work at Journee, she is also a composer and a dedicated mover – she practices mixed martial arts, watersports, and teaches Budokon. Ida has worked for UNHCR, The National Assembly of the Republic of Korea, as a composer for contemporary dance, and she has been running design studios and consultancies focusing on the intersection between physical spaces and technology. She partnered with Dexter Studios in South Korea to develop the 3D interior screens for SLS Hotel & Casino Las Vegas. She has also worked with 3D musicals and early VR applications of architectural renderings.
Ida joined Journee in June of 2021, her work in the metaverse and web3 field is centred around the question “What’s next?”. She works with the bricks and mortar as well as the newest NFT use-cases to have a deep, vertical and horizontal understanding of the current developments. Together with the best partners in the web3 space, she is driving the cloud rendered Journee solution forward to keep developing the most immersive, seamless, and accessible solution, integrated with interoperability of assets and user ownership.
Ida is a frequent keynote speaker, panellist and moderator and has been speaking at events such as the World Economic Forum, Deloitte Innovation Day, Split X Summit, House of Beautiful Business, yWhales podcast, CityAge and many more. Apart from pixel streaming, immersive experiences and accessibility, Ida has a human-centred approach to metaverse and web topics. She believes that the new technologies should seamlessly support our daily life, and provide an immersive way to interact with the internet that replaces the clunky and flat interactions we currently have today. Her hope is that we can enable new ways of digital interaction that should spend less time online. She is also passionate about using new technologies to solve sustainability challenges and create new economies

Rolando Zubiran is an expert in exponential technologies and has been immersed in high performing ecosystems for the most part of his life. Innovation and emerging technologies specialist with 15 years of professional experience in both government and enterprise, specializing in Entrepreneurship, Economic Development and Economic Policy, Rolando is a Deep Tech Investor and a WEB 3 & Blockchain Business Ideation Consultant. His professional experience has revolved within the entire entrepreneurship and corporate ecosystem, now focused as an impact investor and scale-up consultant, particularly in developing economies. He is an Emerging Tech and Innovation advisor to several multinational corporations and high performing organisations. He is an active member of MENSA International´s High IQ Society, a certified Skipper and a Karate JKA Black Belt with an MBA from University of Oxford and a Master of Economics and Public Administration from the London School of Economics.

Ersoy has worked 17 years in asset management for top Turkish banks & is currently a financial correspondent for Bloomberg HT in Dubai where he delivers financial market updates to investors about GCC markets & Asian markets. The topics he covers range from stock markets, currencies, commodities, fixed income, & also include such reports as mergers & acquisitions, business & social headlines relevant to the region. Ersoy regularly interviews distinguished guests regarding financial markets. He has a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from Middle East Technical University & MBA from Bilkent University.

Julian Sauer, Business Architect for Blockchain DGC.
Julian is a Blockchain Engineer at the DGC with a strong passion for the decentralized world. He has multiple years of experience in the Blockchain Space with projects such as developing together with a state bank the first blockchain-based ABCP-issuance in Europe or developing together with the German Aerospace Center a blockhain-based protection for Intellectual Property.
Julian applies deep technical knowledge with experience in designing and building Smart Contracts as well as working with multiple Blockchain technologies such as Ethereum, Corda or Hyperledger Fabric on a network level. He participated and won the Price for the best Technical Implementation at the Blockchain Hackathon 2019 in Stuttgart. Currently focusing on Blockchain Security on the Web Application and Network Layer and bringing more Cyber-Security into the Ecosystem.

Hisham Al-Falih founded Lean Technologies to help catalyze the flourishing fintech ecosystem across the Middle East, which is achieved by distilling critical yet fragmented financial infrastructure into an intuitive and universal API suite. Hisham’s interest and experience in the fintech ecosystem predates Lean. As a Venture Capitalist, his focus and subsequent investments were in fintechs across the Middle East, Silicon Valley, and Europe. Prior to this, Hisham graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and was a Mayfield Fellow at the Stanford Technology Ventures Program.

The task force aims to enhance a unified framework between public and private stakeholders and provide intelligence to public agencies in discussions connected with AML/CTF regulation, like MiCA, or to provide best practices while executing sanctions on the Blockchain. Members include Europol, Interpol, Refinitiv, and World Economic Forum. Michal made it his mission to help solve challenges created by financial technology, which is developing faster than our legal system could evolve. In his capacity has
In his capacity as Chief Compliance Officer of a publicly traded crypto broker, together with the team, he learned to protect, warn, and educate 280k+ customers about the dark side while engaging with regulators and legislators to clarify regulatory frameworks and reporting obligations. He initiated and coordinated the Working Group on Digital Assets & Blockchain from the Swedish Fintech Association and initiated the Digital Asset Task Force of the Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime. Furthermore, he contributes what can become public to Forbes Europe in Fintech, Crypto, and Blockchain. Or co-launched and lectured a new DeFi component for MBA studies at the Stockholm School of Economics Executive Education program to further demystify this space for executives

Ron has over 30 years of experience in the IT, software and telecom industries, with in-depth knowledge of the Financial Industry. He has a broad background in cloud computing, databases, big data and high-performance computing. Ron has held senior positions in Marketing, Strategy, Sales and Development at Siemens, IBM and ROLM Telecommunications, along with startup companies in the database and SaaS industries.

Eng. Mohammed Alkaff AlHashmi is a computer science engineer with more than 18 years of experience. With this accumulative experience he focuses on Industry 4.0, Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, Industrial automation, and IOTs. He started his career as an Intelligence Network Engineer at Huawei. Other than the technology part, he has vast experience in Business and management. He is a serial Entrepreneur who believes in projects that have a purpose and could bring value to the community, so he started MCPM Automation in the MENA region that provides cutting edge techs to support Manufacturing, Smart Cities, Energy, Sustainability and Environment. At present he is the CEO of MCPM MENA, MCPM Holding and UI Ventures, he is also partner and board member of CYNAX labs, Kaptive, Co-Founder and Executive Board Member of IslamicCoin which considered one of the mega blockchain projects and others, taking care of the business development, growth and strategy. As Artificial Intelligence became an important pillar of Health technologies and R & D, Eng. Mohammed is also partner and a board member of Quant7 fund that invests in research and development within the medical and health care sectors, and blue ocean unique companies like Cellvera and Prepaire as well as finds opportunities for mergers and acquisition. Having a futuristic approach and unique perspective about things, he always believes in giving back to the society through his knowledge and by creating success stories. He is passionate about bringing top class technologies for the development of the region and thrives on making the Earth a better place to live.

Amit Sharma has more than ten years of experience in FinTech, primarily in technologies that serve financial inclusion, i.e. banking and transaction facilities for underprivileged, as well as building digital payment platforms for retail merchants, last-mile, and the under banked population. He is now focused on a mission of financial inclusion through enabling payment collections through cryptocurrency. Amit also serves as a visiting professor to a renowned Indian university over the subject fintech. In this sphere of fintech, he has taken up roles in transformation, operations, IT, business partnerships and market launch procedures for fintech applications.

Faisal has more than 15 years of experience in the marketing of B2B and B2C products working mostly in the real estate, big data, research, construction and manufacturing sectors and has undertaken positions in Germany, South Africa, Qatar and the UAE. He has also worked as an independent writer and consultant on marketing projects in the FMCG, Medical, Fashion and Hospitality sectors. Earlier on in his career he was involved in landmark projects like Burj Khalifa, the New Hamad international airport and Dubai Metro helping market and sell products from the American and European market. Graduating from the London School of Economics with a BSc Hons in business and marketing and completing my Masters, from the EBS Universität in Germany and the University of Stellenbosch in Cape Town where he majored in Marketing and Consumer Psychology. He has played a strategic role and lead in the creation of the partnership data partnership with the Dubai Land Department. As a result he launched Mo’asher, the first official house price index for the Emirate of Dubai and continued writing it for 3 years. In 2020, Dubai climbed up three places in JLL’s Global Real Estate Transparency Index and further strengthened its position as MENA’s most transparent real estate market. He wrote, designed and published Mo’asher on behalf of the government every month. I am currently also a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Dr. Obafemi Kadri Hamzat, was elected the Deputy Governor of Lagos State following the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the March 9, 2019 gubernatorial election. As running mate to the Governor, His Excellency, Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, the duo pulled three-quarter of the total valid votes cast in the elections to emerge winners. Born on September 19, 1964, ideologically progressive Dr. Hamzat joined the public service in 2005 from an impressive career in the academics, financial services and engineering. As a multidisciplinary professional with accomplishments in information technology and consulting, he is impressively established as a visionary leader with focus on excellence and performance. Dr. Hamzat brought into public service the energy and vitality of a private sector executive after over 2 decades of exciting career spanning different sub-sectors of the economy such as RTP Consulting Services, City of New York, Columbia University, Merrill Lynch Inc., Morgan Stanley and Oando Plc., as Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Group Head, IT Strategy. His headship as Commissioner at the Ministry of Science & Technology entrenched a new work culture among the staff who embraced his style of open and transparent leadership with enthusiasm.
In four years, he deployed a cutting-edge technology that integrated the entire Lagos State Public Service, and with that initiative Lagos became the first government institution in Africa to implement 11 modules of Oracle ERP. On the strength of his performance, he was retained in the first term of the Babatunde Fashola’s administration from 2007-2011 to continue with the technological innovation that brought efficiency to government activities in Lagos State. In the second term of the administration (2011 to 2015), His Excellency, Dr. Hamzat was appointed Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure to champion the State infrastructural revolution. He later served as Special Adviser (Technical) to His Excellency, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, when he became the Honourable Minister of Works, Power and Housing before his nomination and subsequent election as the Deputy Governor of Lagos State. Dr. Hamzat had his early education at Odu Abore Memorial Primary School in Mushin and Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo. For his tertiary education, he attended the Prestigious University of Ibadan, graduated with a B.Sc. (Second Class Upper) in Agricultural Engineering in 1986 and earned an M.Sc. in Agricultural Engineering in 1988 from the same University. In 1992, he earned a Ph.D. in System Process Engineering from Cranfield University, England and was the first student in the department to complete his doctorate within three years. He is also an alumnus of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, who has two publications in reputable Scientific Journals to his name, is a Microsoft Certified System Engineer, a member of the Nigeria Computer Society and Fellow of Nigeria Society of Engineers, with numerous exposures to international trainings including the World Bank Third Country Training Programme in Singapore to understand the challenges facing the developing nations of the world.
A best-in-class public administrator, Dr. Hamzat is a strategic thinker, who has coordinated execution of numerous world-class projects and developmental agenda towards transforming Lagos state into Africa’s model megacity and financial hub. He is a doer, who pushes the boundary for excellence in public service without seeking undue limelight. His Excellency, Dr. Hamzat finds joy in his public office achievements, only when the impacts of his efforts make life better for the people better, and overall public interest is adequately served. Highly revered and extensively decorated for his efficient resource utilization in the private sector and gallantry in public service, he was the winner of the 2013 edition of the Lagos State Man of the Year Awards. Beyond accolades, Hamzat’s extensive knowledge and leadership ability have earned him important seats at critical decision making and advisory tables both in the state and countrywide. The Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat is a devout Muslim and committed family man, whose marriage to Mrs. Oluremi Hamzat is blessed with lovely children. He is deeply interested in development economics, social welfare and gender empowerment, and has remained a strong voice against discriminatory policies that debase humanity.

Adrian Bialonczyk is a public markets investor and technology entrepreneur. He previously founded an AI Hedge Fund and Consulting firm and is currently growing a text analysis data provider for multi-asset class traders. Adrian believes that technology can remove the human emotion from investment decision making and thus optimizing the risk, return, and timing of alpha generation.

Vikram is Director FinTech at SP Jain School of Global Management where he has designed Asia’s first interactive classroom led FinTech program featuring Blockchain, API Banking, AI/ML and IoT labs. He has authored several white papers and articles on FinTech domain. He has an extensive experience in banking, financial services, Fintech, consultancy and training domain. He is founder and Director of Association for Emerging Technologies (not for profit ecosystem initiative). He is also associated as a mentor with various FinTech startups and Fintech focused funds across the globe. He is Fintech ambassador for Maharashtra Govt.'s Uday Fintech platform. He is also heading research arm of Fintech VC Fund Varanium. He has been a successful banker for more than a decade where he has made key contributions in Financial & Investor Strategy, Business Intelligence, Balance-sheet Management and Business Development & Technology Solutions. He has been a visiting faculty at various prestigious global institutes.

Lochan is a cross-functional payments expert who uses his 15 years of payments knowledge & customer centricity obsession to help Payoneer build market leading offerings that customers love. Having worked across product, commercial, marketing, strategy & support & run his own small businesses he believes the payments industry is still ripe for disruption. Today he keeps abreast of industry trends & merchant needs to drive innovation & disruption.

As Head of Group Digital at Banque Saudi Fransi (BSF), Grant is accountable for defining and executing the Bank-wide digital vision and strategic initiatives across the organisation. Originally from, Scotland, UK, Grant has worked in several executive roles over the last 20 years spanning the technology, consulting and financial services industry in Europe and the Middle East. Prior to joining BSF in March’20, Grant held a partner position with EY where he led the Technology Consulting practice for the financial services sector across the MENA region. Grant is a regular public speaker and prominent voice at leading events across the region on the topics of digital banking, Fintech, Open Finance and adoption of disruptive technologies in the financial services sector

Akshata is an Associate Partner at KARM Legal and has experience in the UAE and India. Prior to joining KARM Legal, She was working with the leading law firms in India and UAE. She has advised high net individuals and corporates on Banking, Mergers and Acquisitions, Corporate Debt Restructuring, and Corporate Governance related issues. At KARM, she leads the FinTech, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Open Banking and Emerging Tech practice.She has advised multiple clients on Security Token Offerings and Initial Coin Offerings; fundraising through seed and crowdfunding; setting up of crypto-currency exchanges and, deployment of public and enterprise blockchains. Additionally, she has also advised clients on artificial intelligence in the financial sector; and digital wallets and payments solutions.
EDUCATION:
L.L.M (Corporate and Financial Services Law), National University of Singapore.
BA.LLB (Hons.), National Law Institute University, India.
Fintech Revolution: Transformative Financial Services and Strategies, The Wharton School.
SELECT REPRESENTATION
• Panelist for Fintech Times on AI in Finance and Digital Investment Management;
• Panelist for BambucornBahrain on ’Angel Investing, Crowdfunding, and Tokenisation;
• Panelist for Indian Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law, 2020 by Indian Society of Artificial Intelligence and Law on Algorithmic Trading & monetization and Policy Constraints
• Speaker for RFMLR TechTalk: A Webinar Series on Digital Commerce and Fintech Law on ‘Open Banking and Open Finance’
• Panelist at Academic-Industry Fintech Conference hosted at American University in Dubai on “The Enablers and Challenges of Fintech solutions in the MENA region", Feb 2020;
• Panelist at the World Blockchain STO Summit, Dubai Oct 2019 for discussing ‘STOs-Good Bad and Ugly’ in October 2019.
• Panelist at the open-source ceremony of HLC public Blockchain for discussing ‘Islamic finance and Public Blockchain’, July 2019 https://medium.com/@QitmeerChain/hlc-public-chain-opensource-ceremony-was-successfully-held-in-dubai-hlc-officially-invites-638e2ae2978
• Co-presenter at Ministry of Communications and IT, Riyadh on ‘Reshaping Finance with Emerging Tech’; August 2019
• Conducted Roundtable Discussion on “DLT, Blockchain and Law” at a Legal Technology Event on the use of Smart Contracts, hostedand conducted by Forte Markets, April,2019
• Legal Trainer for credit courses on ‘Law , Blockchain and DLT’ at the Legal Affairs Department, Dubai.
• Conducted Training sessions for Deloitte (ME) on ‘Legal Aspects and Market Trends of Blockchain’.
MEMBERSHIPS
Member of the Regulatory Fintech Working Group of the Arab Monetary Fund
ARTICLES AUTHORED/ CO-AUTHORED:
• Legality of the Smart Contracts in UA, Smart SMB Magazine, January 2019 (https://issuu.com/smartsmb/docs/smartsmb__january_2019)
• Bahrain leads the Crypto Way, June 2019, The Oath Legal Magazine
• Regulating Digital Assets, May 2019,The Oath Legal Magazine
• Impact of UAE’s new FDI Law, Emirates Law Magazine, September 2019
• Tricking the Right to be Forgotten: One Blockchain at a time, Corporate Investment Times, October 2019
• The Indian Spring and Emirati Summer of Cryptos, Corporate Investment Times, March 2020
• Robo Advisory: A Legal Perspective-The Fintech Times

A specialist in inclusive economies, enterprise, civic innovation and leadership Francis has held public and ministerial appointments – including at cabinet level – under three UK governments and led training and development projects for the FCDO, the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, and many INGOs. He is presently an advisor to the Thames Estuary Growth Board (covering 22 local authority areas) and Pakistan’s SEED Ventures as well as working with the NGO Arise on its Nigeria programme. He holds Professorships in international studies, leadership and public policy at Roehampton (where he is a Head of College) and Birmingham Universities

Prabhakar Jayakumar is a VP at Payoneer who heads the go-to-market efforts in the Middle East & Africa markets. He was previously the VP of Worldwide Sales & Partnerships at DigitalOcean, a publicly listed cloud computing firm focused on developers and SMBs. He was also one of the seed team members responsible for launching Amazon's marketplace business in India.

Building localized go-to-market strategies to drive customer acquisition and revenue growth are among his primary areas of focus. He comes with over 16 years of experience across business development, marketing and technology consulting functions in Internet, Ecommerce & Public cloud domains. An entrepreneur at heart, he also co-founded a startup in the social networking & social commerce space for local neighborhoods.

Gilbert Ohana is the Co-Managing Partner of FinTLV Ventures, a global insurtech-focused fund that partners with the best insurtech and fintech companies through all phases, with a bias towards later-stage deals. Recent investments include leading or participating in investment rounds in some of the most prestigious companies in these fields, including Hippo Insurance, Next Insurance, Unqork, Corvus, Wefox, and others. Before establishing FinTLV, Gilbert served 26 years in the Israeli Intelligence Corps and was the Chief Technology Officer of one of the leading technology units, leading the unit’s Technology Strategy, Cyber Security and Data Analytics programs, and Joint-Ventures with technology vendors in Israel, Europe, and the US. Gilbert is also an advisor to several financial companies and the Israeli ICT Authority on innovative technology strategies and risk management.

Technologist & Innovator who has delivered rock solid software solutions for industry leading enterprises with lean and agile teams. His experience in various companies which includes Polaris Software lab, National Payments corporation of India, Syndicate Bank and State Bank of India which is one of the largest Bank in India. He is having Versatile experience with delivering highly available services on multiple technology Stacks & Emerging Technologies Cloud , BlockChain, IOT, Artificial Intelligence, Biometric , Analytics , Mobility , Security solutions. Also he is having rich expertise in Technical Architect with view in articulation & decision-making skills to choose from one of multiple technologies in the presentation, integration, service layers, operating platforms. He is also a Professional Banker having experience in Digital, Innovation Strategies. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering from Mumbai University and Master in Management Studies from Welingkar college, Mumbai University. He is pursuing his PHD from GLA University in Digital Transformation. Named TOP 100 CX leaders 2022, BFSI Innovation leader by VAR India, CIO of the year 2021, 2022 and Top 100 Transformation leader by Enterprise IT World.

Nizam is Chief Strategy Officer of Algbra, a values-focused, sustainable and Shariah-compliant Fintech headquartered in London and regulated in the UK. Nizam was previously the Senior Head of Mosaic and Community Integration at The Prince’s Trust. He is a 2019 Greenberg World Fellow at Yale University and a 2019 US State Department International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP) participant.

Nizam is currently Vice-Chair of the of SOAS, University of London Board of Trustees and a member of the Mayor of London’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Advisory Group. He holds an MA in Public Policy from King’s College London and was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s 2020 Birthday Honours list for services to social mobility and community integration.

Mohamad Kaswani is a pioneering business leader in the UAE innovation and technology ecosystem. He led the inception and launch of Cafu, Urban and is now the Managing Director of Mortgage Finder, the home financing arm of UAE’s leading search portal Property Finder.

Ian Evans serves as Managing Director for EMEA at OneTrust, is the largest and most widely used technology platform to operationalize privacy, security and third-party risk management. Evans is a diversified senior executive with deep experience in data privacy and CRM technology applications and services. He brings over 20 years of software industry experience to OneTrust as well as 10 years in direct and channel sales. In his role, Evans supports thousands of multi-national brands across the European, Middle Eastern, and African regions, leading the delivery of technology solutions to secure and privatize customer and employee personal information under new privacy and security regulations. Prior to OneTrust, Evans served as Vice President and Managing Director for EMEA at AirWatch (acq. by VMware in 2014 for $1.54B). AirWatch now serves more than 20,000 global customers and is recognized as the undisputed market leader in enterprise mobility management.

Analytics professional with over 20 years of experience in the analytics space. I am primarily working with large-scale enterprise data warehouses helping organizations across the globe to get business value out of their information assets. Responsible for AI, ML, Blockchain, RPA and advanced analytics processes in organization. He Successfully implemented Blockchain use cases in insurance and AI enabled damage estimator for claims settlement in Auto Insurance. He is a veteran of Big Data, AI & Blockchain, having created and led Data Science and Analytics teams. His experience in various companies including in the Fortune 100, having worked with India Infoline Group, Reliance General Insurance Ltd, EXL Services, Wunderman International, WNS & IBM. He has global experience with clients like British Gas(UK), Ford Motors(US), Suncorp Bank(Australia), TORM Shipping (Denmark) and holds a Bachelor of Engineering at Delhi college of Engineering, Delhi in India, an MBA (IT). Vivek Zakarde was named ‘Big CIO Leader 2019 & 2022”, "Top 100 CX leaders 2022", "Power CIO 2022", “BFSI Digital Innovation Leader by Express Computer & Dell 2020”, “CIO of the year of 2019 by IDG”, “Asia analytics leader of the year 2019 by Analytics India Magazine” and “Big 40 BFSI & NBFC” award winner.

20 years of diversified & impact-oriented experience, having worked in in expat and local roles in several markets across Europe & Asia, including Pakistan, Norway, Thailand, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Ukraine, Sweden, Malaysia, including 7 + years as CxO, in digital services, fintech/ banking, & telecommunications, assurance/consulting services covering customer facing digital services, digital platforms, mergers & acquisitions, startups uplift, marketing, communications, strategy, corporate finance, business planning & analysis, & risk management. Worked with high impact teams including roles with Telenor Group HQ Norway, Telenor Pakistan, Easypaisa, Telenor Emerging Asia Bangladesh, Myanmar and Pakistan, VEON Mobilink Microfinance Bank/Jazzcash, Cable & Wireless Communications Monaco & Maldives, and PwC Part of the core leadership team leading the historic ANT Financial investment in Telenor Microfinance Bank/Easypaisa. Extensive expertise and experience in managing and working with senior external regulators, including State Bank of Pakistan, PTA, Ministry of Science & Technology, & BoDs. A Graduate of the Harvard Business School On Campus Digital Strategy Program (DIGS), a Graduate of the INSEAD Digital Strategy Execution Program (SEP), a Graduate of Telecom Regulatory Master Class UK, and a Professional Degree Holder in the field of Accounting & Finance (FCCA UK).

Walid's first venture into the entrepreneurial space was in 2018 where he co-founded a blockchain Insurtech that was later acquired. In November 2020, Walid co-founded Hala Insurance with one simple goal: Insure the millions living in the Middle East. Since then, Hala has been disrupting the sleepy insurance industry one policyholder at a time through affordable, quick, and online car and home insurance.

People and technology enthusiast. A diligent and self-driven individual with over 8 years experience in the B2C and B2B industry. Ahmad understands the importance of Identity Verification to Establish a Risk Free Business Outlook and have excelled in the provision of Know your customer and AML screening services to hundreds of businesses globally with a track record of building and managing new channel programs and optimizing the onboarding experience. The served industries include but are not limited to banking, gaming, insurance, forex, crowd funding, digital payments, asset management, and investments

John Dourekas is Kitco's Media Division Director and Kitco's Digital Metals Group Chief Business Development Officer. He is responsible for all aspects of Kitco Media, including its programming, the division's expanding digital properties, mobile applications, editorial units, online assets, marketing, and overall operations. He leads media content, digital metals products, asset tokenization, business development operations, new product development, marketing, and the technology platforms and functions of the company's advertising sales and strategy worldwide. Since joining Kitco in 2008, John has orchestrated multiple ambitious IT, media, marketing, and digital metals strategies. John is an expert in complex transformations; he has lead content creation and oversight of media and distribution, crafted revenue-generating marketing strategies, developed programming, and negotiated key partnerships. John leads the VaultChain™ Gold and Silver products development for Kitco, one of the first precious metals trading platforms using blockchain technology, and Kitco.Gold is one of the first stablecoins backed by physical gold. Prior to joining Kitco, John spent 15 years in technology consulting, advising a variety of top global telecom clients on new product development, innovation processes, start-up strategy, information technology, and business issues. You can follow him on Twitter at @dourekas

Pradeep has been in the field of learning and development for around two decades now and spearheads the function with his able management. Being a Certified Professional Behavioural Analyst with experience spanning different verticals, including Learning & Development, Talent & Quality Management, Sales Training, Content Development, and Immersive Solutions. His passion for Learning and Development has paved the way for many awards and accolades for his exemplary work. He is currently heading Novac Learning, a digital learning vertical of Novac Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd. that supports organisations in implementing Learning Management Systems and transforming traditional training into digital formats. He also leads a centre of excellence team developing immersive technology solutions for businesses under the brand, Novac Immerz.

Mahmoud Sulaiman’s role as Director at Investera focuses on introducing the company’s new Fintech ecosystem for investment transactions. The overarching goal is for Investera to be the Swiss Army Knife for Investment Management Platforms in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, especially the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), with further expansion already underway. As an organisation, Investera Business Solutions is dedicated to the advancement of the financial services industry utilising the latest information technology and data science. Its business applications help family offices identify opportunities and optimise their investments by delivering reliable and straightforward solutions that enable them to make critical decisions based on a solid foundation. The platform includes a simple AI-based dashboard that investors can use to vet investments and conduct due diligence prior to making an investment, and where confidential documents may be uploaded.

Sabinije von Gaffke is a highly experienced, esteemed and awarded international Moderator, Facilitator, Speaker, Broadcast Journalist and Communications Catalyst in the intersection of Tech, Leadership, Sustainability, Impact and Health. She has extensive experience of global summits, digital summits, virtual meetings, live studio broadcasts, public speaking and leadership workshops. Sabinije has undertaken assignments on the stages of Europe’s biggest Conferences, Conventions, Summits and Conferences in Tech, Leadership, Impact, Entrepreneurship, Digital Science, Health, Space, Sustainability and Entertainment. Born in Sweden, raised in London and with several years of living abroad, Sabinije lends her international perspective and presence to any arena. She has interviewed everyone from game-changers, top politicians, CEOs, tech profiles, artists, spiritual leaders, successful entrepreneurs to philanthropists. Combining her strong commitment to her subject with a passion for communication, storytelling, rhetoric and the art of facilitating dynamic dialogues on stage and in front of the camera, together with a natural curiosity for a range of subject areas, Sabinije has established an impressive career in the Nordics as well as internationally. She is the founder of IMPACTFULNESS Ventures’, a global and collaborative platform, launch pad and ecosystem for impact initiatives, a co-author of a Swedish book on communications and meetings “12 Talares Tankar om Möten” (= “12 Speakers Thoughts on Meetings”), and host of the Radio Show “Conversational Stories”, and upcoming global TV series “The Game Changers”.

Anuscha has over 14 years of experience in investment banking and alternative asset management. She is currently CEO of Spotii, the MENA regions leading Shop Now Pay Later platform. Prior to co-founding Spotii, Anuscha served as a Managing Director at The Abraaj Group where she oversaw the Investment Office function at the firm. Anuscha joined Abraaj in 2007 as a member of the investment team and was responsible for evaluating investment opportunities across the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia region covering a broad spectrum of industries. Prior to joining Abraaj, Anuscha worked with Dresdner Kleinwort in New York as an Analyst in the media group, working on mergers and acquisitions and film financing projects. Anuscha graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelors of Science in Economics from the Wharton School and a Bachelors of Arts in Biology from The College of Arts and Sciences in 2005.

CEO with over 25 years of experience in technology for the Fintech sector. He has a strong record of releasing business products for different financial sectors, including Investment Banking, Money Remittances, Crypto Exchange and trading platform for FX and CFD companies. Vladimir is the former VP of Engineering at Deutsche Bank and CTO of Exness. Under Vladimir's leadership, Armenotech became a technology lead for new fintech companies and has a portfolio of products to facilitate launch of new business in a short time for CFD/FX trading, Copy Trading, Payments Processing, Web3 tokenization for engagement.

Andrey is a serial entrepreneur and engineer focused on fintech, cybersecurity, and network development. He has led teams that have built payment services, corporate messengers, blockchain staking services, and crypto portfolio analytics tools. With his extensive background in the field of technology, he has been a part of many start-ups and helped them grow. Andrey is a co-founder of and CTO of Haqq association. Besides the technical part, Andrey is also focused on product strategy, development, and implementation

Zuhursho is the Co-Founder of Alif Bank (Tajikistan) and has 12 years of regional experience in banking, fintech, and entrepreneurship. Additionally, Zuhursho led the first international expansion of Alif Bank (aka Alif) into Uzbekistan from 2019 to 2022. Currently, he is tasked to oversee a launch of an innovative remittance product in UAE to digitize and boost remittance flows to top recipient countries. He is a certified Islamic finance professional and holds an MA in International Political Economy with merit from the University of Warwick, UK.

Alper Celen is the founder of ENHANCE VENTURES, a venture studio building ventures for the future of finance and commerce in the Middle East , North Africa, Pakistan, and Turkey. Enhance’s portfolio includes JOI GIFTS, CLEVR, BLUE TERRA, Bitbns.com among others. Previous to Enhance, Alper was the founder of FOODONCLICK.com in Saudi Arabia (acquired by DELIVERYHERO in 2015). Alper is an active high-tech startup investor and advisor. His portfolio includes MUBI, ZENSION, and TAGVANCE. Alper sits on the boards of GLOBAL STARTUP STUDIO NETWORK, ZAJIL EXPRESS, and on the advisory board of HASHED HEALTH. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Alper was a management consultant in his own boutique consultancy Commit and as part of McKinsey & Company's Scandinavian Office leadership team. Previously, Alper has had leadership roles at Nokia, Ansys, IBM, and NASA subcontractor Millitech. Two satellites he helped design are still in Earth orbit. Alper has an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management and BS and ME in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia. Alper is a Henry DuPont III Scholar and Siebel Scholar and is a recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan Achievement Award from MIT. He is an active volunteer for TechStars and MIT. Alper loves motorsports, long-distance running, and traveling to soon reach his goal of 100 countries. He lives in Dubai with his wife and two sons

Rus has been at the forefront of the development of UAE market, working in Landmark Properties in 2005 and Exclusive Links RE and having seen both cycles in 2008 and 2014, followed by a decade in Cavendish Maxwell. He has further worked on proptech systems and tools that enabled bringing transparency into the UAE real estate property market. Currently Co-founder at Hometree, a “growing idea” set to become a disruptor in proptech. RICS Valuer by profession and RERA registered valuer, understanding the importance of Risk Management for Banks and Private Clients. This led him to pursue a master’s degree in Global Risk from Johns Hopkins University. His track records is notable with valuation of entire Sharjah International Airport, being main signatory on over 5,000 reports, having in aggregate valued over 30,000 properties for 40 banks in UAE.

Thamim is a Digital Asset Researcher at the London School of Economics, with a focus on Innovation, Research and Development within Digital Payments and Currencies. Thamim has worked closely with several public and private financial intuitions in developing deep research programmes, coordinating knowledge transfer and building commercial roadmaps. Thamim’s current research interest stems around Web 3.0; looking closely at how blockchain and distributed ledger systems are disrupting core business processes and creating new governance structures. His research interests have been in Central Bank Digital Currencies, Digital Assets and Cryptocurrencies, Protocol Design and Privacy Protocols and Token Economics.

Gaurang Shah is the EEMEA lead for Product & Engineering for Mastercard and passionately showcases how Mastercard leverages technology to build solutions and achieve exponential innovation that transforms industries, benefits economies, and positively impacts communities.
In his current role, Gaurang oversees the design, development and deployment of consumer, merchant, sme and b2b solutions. Gaurang in addition leads development and execution of product go-to-market strategies that enables customers to benefit from an expanding digital economy amidst the accelerating growth of digital and electronic payments. Prior to his EVP role, Gaurang was Mastercard’s Digital Payments and Innovation head for MEA and before that MENA Division Lead for Global Processing, focused on national ecosystem development. He also successfully led the region’s Safety & Security agenda by conceptualizing and executing the fraud solutions strategy. He has implemented several key initiatives across the region since joining Mastercard in April 2013. Gaurang brings 20+ years of experience in digitization, technology, banking and payments, working with global companies such as Infosys (large software exporter), ICICI Bank (India’s largest private sector bank), Visa and now Mastercard. He graduated from the Indian School of Business (affiliated to Kellogg’s, Wharton and London Business School) with a master’s degree in Business Administration, which he pursued soon after graduating top of his class as a chemical engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).

Olivier Crespin is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Zand. Since taking on this role in 2018 he has focused on leveraging hybrid digital banking strategies to establish Zand as the first fully digital bank in the region to combine both retail and corporate banking. Crespin brings over 20 years of extensive expertise and leadership roles in digital banking and FinTech across Latin America, the USA and Asia. He recognises the need for a customer-centric approach to humanise the banking industry. Prior to Zand, Crespin has been an award-winning leader at CIMB Bank, DBS, and Citigroup. Across those roles he’s led flagship programs into new markets including India and Indonesia and spearheaded the implementation of innovative technologies.

Naveen Sharma is a Science graduate, Law (Cyber) graduate, Masters's in Technology, has a Doctorate on Cyber security & DDOS protection (award waiting). Experienced in developing business solutions for the majority of industries/verticals, he has strong problem-solving skills, analytical abilities to do industrial automation at high scales. He developed his first commercial software in 1996 for the stock market. Analysis software to predict/define the rise and fall of the market. In 1997, he designed, structured, and developed his first commercial website for a customer’s business in the IT industry. After a few years, he developed an enterprise Intranet for Red Hat, which is US’s leading enterprise to work in open-source technologies. A few years back, Naveen developed an AI/ML-based Automated Health Claim Settlement System for a leading Insurance industry firm in the USA. To support the growing needs of data in South Asia, he once again stepped out and developed the first privately owned Data Center in the state of Rajasthan, India. Also, to lead Indians in the challenging environment of Cloud Computing & technologies, Naveen Sharma developed India’s first - Local Language Cloud. Later he build software solution for north America's largest bitcoin mining datacenter, to manage mining devices, power and exchange. & Recently he designed and developed a Crypto ATM.

Co-founder & CEO of eQub. He is an entrepreneur with a background in Economics, who is also responsible for creating multiple successful Ethiopian startups in different sectors beyond technology. In 2020, he co-founded eQub, a disruptive African fintech startup working to provide access to credit through saving groups & lending circles. He has strong experience in research, business management, finance & marketing. He is also passionate about technology & innovative value-addition.

Simon is co-founder and CEO of findexable – the new digital platform for fintech insight and benchmarking, and home to the Global Fintech Index. As AI and analytics re-shape business, findexable’s mission is to make it easier to gather, interpret and benchmark fintech activity and enable unmoderated, real-time insight. Simon has two decades of experience producing financial intelligence content, research and events for global financial publishers including The Economist, Euromoney Institutional Investor and IFR (part of the Thomson Reuters Group), as well as boutique research publishers and media companies across Europe and the Middle East. He was previously a director of banking events and publishing house VRL (now Global Data) before setting up Eurasia Insights, a regional communications and content creation business focussed on emerging Europe, the Middle East and Turkey. In 2015 he joined MagnaCarta Communications to build the company’s research and analytics capabilities to help financial technology firms define their proposition and tell their story, before setting up Findexable in response to growing customer demand for an easier, more efficient means of gathering insight and analytics.