speakers

Molly was part of a founding team of a hospitality tech start up where she trained in hardcore door to door sales.

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This start up was acquired by fintech giant, Dojo for £20m and her role expanded to heading up Dojo's entire commercial strategy for their new consumer product.

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After 4.5 years with Dojo she joined the global tech company, Lightspeed as Director of Business Transformation which she then left to set up her own business specialising in supporting women in tech develop their personal and professional skills.

She is now on a mission to build the Sofar sounds of personal development.

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Tasha is the Founder of Lexo, a financial education and fundraising platform built for female founders.

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As a qualified UK/US tax advisor who spent over a decade working at EY, ASOS, and Cerberus, Tasha brings rare institutional depth to the gender funding gap, an issue she knows both professionally and personally.

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Her transition from advisor to founder gives her a distinctive dual perspective: she understands the financial and legal complexities facing early-stage founders, and has navigated the fundraising landscape from the inside out.

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Since founding Lexo, she has secured a strategic partnership with Tide and is keen to engage with more partners.

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Splendid Uchechukwu is a strategic growth marketing leader currently at GoCardless, where she specializes in data-driven experimentation to drive global revenue growth and LTV.

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With a track record of delivering measurable impact, including initiatives generating up to 210% ROI. She excels at bridging the gap between complex fintech products and consumer activation and retention.

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Beyond her corporate role, Splendid is the founder of GrowthXsplendid, a women-led community that has mentored aspiring marketers entering the tech sector.

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A passionate advocate for skills-based education, she also serves as a mentor at Birmingham City University, dedicated to building a more inclusive and data-literate future for growth marketing.

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Bri is a US-based financial wellness expert and socioeconomic justice crusader redefining wealth building for the next generation.

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The founder of UnDEBTfeated, she is proudly leading the charge for collective liberation by helping communities avoid and recover from the impacts of predatory lending.

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Her work has been spotlighted in 25+ outlets including Forbes, BuzzFeed, Katie Couric Media and NPR, and honored with top-tier recognition such as the 2023 SXSW Innovation Award for Social Impact, the Visionary Women Foundation’s Rising Visionary Award, and Goldman Sachs’ One Million Black Women Initiative.

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Ruta Kairyte is a fintech commercial leader and payments insider with 15+ years of hands-on experience building and scaling payment infrastructure across Europe.

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As Commercial Director for Northern Europe at Tribe Payments, she works directly with fintechs, banks and crypto platforms navigating issuing, acquiring and the realities behind card scheme strategy.

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Having started in product delivery, Ruta brings an execution-first voice to an industry often dominated by buzzwords.

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She is also the Lithuania Country Ambassador for EWPN (European Women Payments Network), advocating for more honest leadership conversations and stronger representation in fintech.

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Known for her direct and pragmatic perspective, Ruta challenges industry narratives and focuses on what truly drives growth in modern payments.

Natalya Thakur is the Founder and CEO of Knova, B2B infrastructure that unifies traditional and tokenized assets into a single operating layer. She has held roles across leading financial and technology organizations, including BlackRock, GoogleX, Celo, IDEO CoLab, Morgan Stanley, and the Hoover Institution under Dr. Condoleezza Rice.

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She also co-founded Stanford’s Future of Digital Currency Initiative, a partnership with the United Nations, and serves in leadership at the Bretton Woods Committee, helping advance its digital asset and future-of-finance agenda.

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A frequent public speaker and active angel investor/LP, her work has been featured in Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, American Banker, NYSE Floor Talk, and CoinDesk.

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She was recently named a finalist for the 2025 UBS Female Founders Award, and was featured in the 2024 Women in Fintech Powerlist, Standout 45 for Senior Leaders.

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Thakur holds a BA (Honors) in International Relations from Stanford University, an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School, and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Angi Milano is a fintech GTM strategist and the Founder of Maven Advisory, with deep experience helping fintech teams scale and navigate growth.

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She has worked across multiple high growth companies and has been directly involved in six successful acquisitions, giving her a grounded perspective on how positioning, timing, and execution drive outcomes.

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Angi also brings experience from major financial institutions, including HSBC, Capital One, Citigroup, BCU, and Alliant, which informs her practical approach to message market fit and sales strategy.

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She is the co-founder of The GTM Loop & Midwest Fintech and advises founders through RevTech Labs and 1871.

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Clarinda is a financial crime compliance consultant with 12+ years' experience in her field.

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She brings deep expertise in the payments/emoney sector, having advised clients such as American Express, Paysafe and BVNK. She specialises in supporting firms to build out structured and sustainable financial crime frameworks as we as helping firms navigate regulatory-driven challenges (such as FCA-imposed restrictions or mandatory compliance reviews).

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She also brings wider experience of supporting clients with regulatory challenges in the retail banking sector, building societies, betting and gaming, legal and professional services, crypto, the art market and real estate sectors.

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Clarinda is an advocate for both women in financial crime and women in the payments/fintech space. Outside of her formal role at BeyondFS, Clarinda volunteers a Mentor for 'Women 4 Women' and was selected to be a participant in the Global Gaming Women 'Lean In Circles' initiative in 2025

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Nicole is an SVP of Product at a leading UK FinTech, where she leads product strategy across a digital wealth management app.

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She specialises in building and scaling B2C products in high growth start-ups and scale-ups, with a focus on operational excellence, working in a regulated sector and driving customer centric innovation. Passionate about developing high-performing teams and Nicole is known for combining clear strategy with strong execution.

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She cares deeply about mentorship and growing brilliant product leaders who have a strong impact. Before moving into FinTech, she also built and scaled products in the travel industry, where she learned how to deliver seamless consumer experiences while balancing commercial performance and operational complexity.

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A soon to be first-time mum, she brings empathy, resilience, and perspective to both leadership and product management, and believes the best products are built by teams that feel trusted, challenged, and supported.

Kristina is Growth Director at Seccl, where she leads strategic partnerships and revenue growth across the UK wealth and fintech landscape.

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She works with neobanks, consumer fintechs, and digital platforms to bring investing products to market. Previously, Kristina held senior commercial and strategy roles across fintech and cybersecurity, including GoCardless and Darktrace.

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She managed enterprise relationships in complex stakeholder environments and delivered growth across large portfolios and strategic initiatives.

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Sonia Rach is Deputy News Editor at FTAdviser and is currently sitting exams towards the CII’s Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning. Since joining the world of financial journalism in 2017, Sonia has worked at trade press titles Portfolio Adviser and Money Marketing.

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Prior to this, she spent three years in HR journalism where her interest in finance first sparked after she began writing about pensions and auto-enrolment.

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Sonia’s career in journalism commenced after she completed an undergraduate degree in English Literature with Journalism from the University of Hertfordshire and an exchange programme at Stony Brook University in Long Island, New York.

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In October 2023, she also published a children's book called Loose Change: Tina Learns to Save. Written for 6- to 11-year-olds, it aims to introduce the concept of saving and earning interest at an early age.

Elisheva Marcus is a long-time supporter of startup storytelling and an advocate for communications professionals.

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She joined European VC Earlybird in 2020 and serves as VP Communications, where she spars with portfolio companies and partners with investors on best practices for funding announcements, communications strategy, and media engagement.

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With an MSc in Biomedical Communication from the University of Toronto, Elisheva brings experience from the San Jose Mercury News, Pearson Education, Ada Health, and Bayer to support venture communication.

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She is an active member of the European tech ecosystem, a podcast enthusiast, and a fan of journalists, dedicated to bridging the gap between founders, investors, and storytellers.

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Sophie Wadsworth is a Vice President in the Business Strategy team at BNY Treasury Services, where she helps shape the growth agenda in an evolving payments landscape.

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She brings broad expertise in fintech strategy, innovation, and leadership, built through roles in traditional finance (J.P. Morgan), fintech (start-up ALT21), and the British Army, where she served as an Officer in the Royal Engineers.

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A committed advocate for diversity, Sophie champions women’s representation in fintech and works to make financial services more inclusive for veterans.

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Anna spearheads global growth initiatives, overseeing sales, marketing, partnerships, and client success. With nearly two decades of experience in the finance industry, Anna brings deep expertise in card payments, honed through key roles at leading organisations such as Soldo, Marqeta, and Barclaycard.

Anna's extensive background covers all aspects of card programme management, including work across banking, issuer processing, and fintech sectors, which uniquely positions her to drive revenue growth and operational efficiency at Paymentology.

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Merusha leads Paymentology’s global relationships with key payment networks including Mastercard, Visa, and UnionPay, alongside other strategic partners. She manages incentive agreements and plays a pivotal role in aligning our Regional Growth, Programme Management, and Client Service teams with the Schemes to foster stronger collaboration. She also serves as host of Paymentology’s podcast, The Issuer Academy.

Previously, as Regional Sales Director for Asia, Merusha was instrumental in expanding Paymentology’s footprint across 10 Asia-Pacific countries, spearheading major projects that drove the company’s growth in the region.

Shakeela Williamson is an award-winning marketing leader and Interim / Fractional CMO with 25 years’ experience across fintech, wealth management, payments, banking and insurance.

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She is recognised for transforming marketing functions into high-performing growth engines, strengthening brand strategy, leading digital transformation and building teams that deliver measurable business impact. Her leadership spans both global enterprises and PE-backed scale-ups, with senior roles at Citi, Moneycorp and Domestic & General.

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A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Shakeela combines strategic vision with hands-on delivery. She specialises in customer-focused B2C/D2C growth, while also bringing B2B and B2B2C expertise. Alongside her executive roles, she advises founders and scale-ups on brand and growth strategy, mentors emerging leaders, speaks on marketing effectiveness and leadership and serves as a judge for leading industry marketing awards.