speakers

Sam Bamert is Founder and CEO of UK fintech Ask Inclusive Finance. AskIf is a platform business delivering loans to small, credit-worthy businesses unable to secure funding from mainstream lenders, financing the £2.2bn+ annual gap that exists for SMEs in the UK.She is passionate about helping small businesses to grow and knows how tough it can be for business owners to get the support and funding need. That’s why she founded AskIf.An expert the challenges facing SMEs, she gained first hand experience while working as an advisor to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Task Group for Responsible Credit and Savings.Prior to this she spent more than 20 years in financial services in leadership positions at Barclays Investment Bank and Barclays Wealth, across London and New York.She has an MA Hons in Mathematics from the University of Oxford.

Jillian Godsil is an award winning Web3 journalist, broadcaster and author. She has more than 30 years general Fintech experience and joined the Web3 world in 2017. She is a tireless advocate for Women in Blockchain, eradication of homelessness and income equality.

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She has received four Noonies nominations from Hackernoon, listed as one of the Top Women of the Future, is named in the top 35 women in crypto by Techround, and one of the hot crypto women to follow by Benzinga.

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In 2021, Jillian Godsil was a finalist in the prestigious CryptoAM UK awards, named as one of the UK’s Most Influential Women in Tech by Computer Weekly and nominated one of 100 global women in leadership awards in COVID.In 2020 she was awarded Blockchain Journalist of the year by Uptrennds (then largest blockchain social platform).

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In 2019 she was nominated for the national Irish IMRO radio awards, made the top 100 Global Blockchain Leaders list by Lattice80 and was named AI and Blockchain Journalist of the Year at the CC Forum in London.

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In 2018 she was awarded the Order of Merit by the President of Liberland. She also changed the law in Ireland in 2014 and is a former European Parliamentary candidate (as an independent).She is a co-founder and editor in chief of Blockleaders.io. She is the author of more than 18 books. She is a freelance journalist for many publications including CoinDesk, CityAM, CoinTelegraph, CryptoSlate News, Hackernoon, The Irish Times and ITN.

Valentina is the Corporate Affairs Director at OakNorth, where she has been since June 2015, working directly with its co-founders, Rishi Khosla and Joel Perlman.

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With oversight of external and internal communications, regulatory and government affairs, ESG/sustainability, and OakNorth’s UK CSR/corporate giving (what it calls its 1+1% Commitment), she helps set the strategic direction for stakeholder engagement globally and is an observer on the Bank’s Executive Committee.
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She is also a Founding Editorial Board member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations’ multi award-winning member magazine, INFLUENCE.

She serves as a Board Advisor to ETA Technologies – a startup that leverages psychometric assessments powered by AI to help investors identify the highest-potential founding teams to invest in, and in doing so, optimise the success of their portfolio.

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In addition she is an Adviser to The Entrepreneurs Network, a think tank for the ambitious owners of Britain's fastest growing businesses and aspirational entrepreneurs; and a volunteer at Bookmark, an entrepreneurial and tech-led charity that delivers essential reading support and resources to the children who need it most.

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She started her career at Lansons in the summer of 2011 and remained with the business until the summer of 2015, when she was awarded the Outstanding Young Communicator Award at the CIPR Excellence Awards. In 2018, she was named in the Standout 35 of Innovate Finance’s Women in Fintech Powerlist.

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Prasangi is head of implementation at Wise Platform. She has 15 years of experience in financial services across a range of roles. Prasangi has direct experience in project management and operations, in both issuing and acquiring businesses. She has also worked closely in the technical payments space. Prasangi has a notable energy and enthusiasm when speaking, and can make technical subjects interesting and accessible.

Nadia Costanzo is the Head of Banking for MEA & Latin America at Wise. A deeply informed payments expert, Nadia has extensive experience working on some of the most significant problems within international finance.

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She was previously a consultant with the World Bank, and is a passionate advocate for inclusion within fintech.

Roisin Levine is Head of UK and European Partnerships at Wise Platform, previously Head of Banks at Flux. She is a 3 x Women in Fintech Rising Star.As a fintech public speaker she has featured regularly as a panelist and interviewee for a range of events and podcasts.

Olivia Minnock is Senior Partnerships Manager at mmob, and formerly the Editor of FinTech Alliance, the Government-backed digital ecosystem bringing together UK fintech.

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She curated content to support and amplify a growing community of over 250 diverse companies, helping fintechs to access funding, build partnerships, grow their customer base, and tell their story.

Mary Agbesanwa is passionate about how technology is transforming financial services, and supporting millennials to achieve their full potential. She spent 5 years as a Management Consultant at PwC (working with banks and fintechs looking to scale).

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Outside of work, she blogs on her Medium blog 'A Millennial's Diary' about careers and personal development for millennials and runs a female millennial self-development and entrepreneurial community called the Now You’re Talking Network which has over 800 members.

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Recent accolades: shortlisted for Black Tech Achievement Awards 'Fintech Professional of the Year 2022, MCA Young Consultant of the Year Finalist 2021, Innovate Finance Women in Fintech Powerlist 2020.

Flora is an expert in customer experience, and the methods needed to get the best insights for building products.Having worked at major tech names like Bulb, and Robinhood, her work has helped design consumer facing apps with the customer at its core.

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She now leads UX research at investment at Lightyear, the investment startup seeking to revolutionise the way people invest their money.

Tessa Bryant is the Brand & Comms lead at Lightyear, the investment startup seeking to revolutionise the way people invest their money.Having held previous PR roles at Robinhood and Seedrs, Tessa has a close understanding of the world of investments.S

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he is Lightyear’s first marketing hire, and is responsible for building their reputation.

Ruby Hinchliffe is a Money Reporter at The Telegraph, following stints at FTAdviser and Fintech Futures. With a strong history in fintech journalism she’s a keen commentator on the industry and keeps a finger on the pulse of the wider landscape.

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She was also recently named both 'Protection Journalist of the Year', and 'Mortgage Journalist of the Year' at the Headline Money awards 2022.

Margot and Alexia founded Your Juno in 2020 with the goal to close the gender gap in financial literacy.

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They have developed a “Duolingo of Money” app, offering easy-to-digest courses on personal finance topics such as investing, salary negotiation or purchasing a home to help women and non-binary people gain financial confidence.

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After raising over £2 million to build the platform and accumulating 25,000 users in its first few months, the sister duo was named Forbes 30 under 30.

Nina is the founder and CEO of Bloom Money, a fintech company that empowers diaspora communities with tools to build generational wealth.A seasoned speaker, moderator, and panellist, she is passionate about delivering technology that can better customer’s financial lives.

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She is a recipient of the Tech Women 100 award and proudly sits on the Innovate Finance Women in FinTech Power List.

Gwera is a fintech and web3 expert with an interest in where both areas intersect and what kind of impact it allows.

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Gwera subscribes to the Crypto Mullet school of thought that sees fintech in the front facing user experience and crypto powering the back end. After spending time in the trenches with her own African cross-border payments venture, she joined UK neobank Monzo to scale their financial crime operations and internal product as the company grew from 100k to 4M customers, obtained a banking licence and expanded to the US.

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Gwera’s global expertise comes from her time at fintech consultancy 11:FS, where she worked with neobanks, advised fintechs, regulators and incumbents on building truly digital financial services.

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At 11:FS, she co-created the consultancy’s web3 advisory business that worked with leading crypto-native organizations, fintechs, regulators and global banks.Gwera founded Women Who Build Africa and also hosts crypto@scale, Africa’s first crypto podcast focused on the utility of crypto.

Madhvi has a decade of experience working in international news and financial technology, and manages content and the editorial team at the major fintech news platform Finextra. She is also a proud member of the Women in FinTech Powerlist 2020 Standout 35.

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A fintech journalist and commentator she's covered a variety of issues from fund-raising start-ups to crypto, to feminism and equality within finance.