speakers

Akila is currently reporting on all things retail banking and fintech for The Financial Times, with a specific focus on the major challengers as well as neobanks in the sector.

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Akila started at the publication on the Paul McClean graduate scheme, covering a range of beats from asset management to property to breaking news. She also has direct experience working in operations for one of the UK’s most high profile neobanks.

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Akila has an MA in International Journalism from City University, as well as a keen passion for diversity, equity and inclusion in the industry. She is particularly interested in financial inclusion for underserved customers.

Alisha is a profit-driven strategist and has been a leader of high-performance organisations for over 20 years, working across eCommerce, healthcare, health-tech, insurance & fintech.

She has a leading track record driving over $100m in revenue growth from partnerships and reducing customer acquisition costs. She is a passionate builder of authentic winning cultures and customer-centric teams, with extensive experience providing operational, fiscal, and cross-functional management within complex partnerships.Alisha is an expert negotiator and builder of strategic alliances and customer relationships, with proven success leading high-performance teams and managing successful partnerships.

Samantha is a senior financial services executive and NED with unique experience spanning tier-one banks, prominent fintechs and major regulators.

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Her most recent role at Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) has seen her leading the strategic direction on payments, including driving payments strategy, fostering payments partnerships and managing the Group’s external relationships across the payments industry and regulators. Enterprise operational responsibilities covered key services including domestic and international payments settlement, liquidity and scheme management, payments design consultancy, and payments policy compliance.

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Previously, Samantha held roles at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), leading in both payments supervision and the regulator’s globally recognised innovation agenda.

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Prior to this, Samantha held several senior positions at NatWest/RBS in Global Transaction Services (GTS) leading on digital innovation, strategy design, transformation, and regulatory change.Samantha has served a term as a Director of Swift SC, also serving as the Board’s Deputy Chair. She has experience as a shareholder representative, board member and advisor to fintechs as well as acting as the payments representative on key industry groups.

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Samantha is an active spokesperson on inclusion, diversity and allyship, committed to keeping conversations live, relevant and action-oriented. A proponent of life-long learning, Samantha is also currently studying strategic business applications of AI at the University of Oxford.

As CEO, Iana Dimitrova sets the strategic direction and vision, and leads the executive team at OpenPayd.

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She has extensive experience in the fintech and payments industries and holds a master’s degree in European Economics law and ICT Law from the University of Strasbourg and an Executive MBA from the London Business School.I

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ana has been with OpenPayd for over six years and prior to her role, was Head of Legal Affairs, Digital Wallets & Managing Director at fintech Paysafe Bulgaria.

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Iana is a champion of thought leadership, speaking at various fintech events including Money 20/20, Web Summit and European Blockchain Convention.

Kristin has built several companies – with no MBA or tech background. When she launched, grew, and sold her first financial technology company– inspired by her personal experience with predatory loans, Kristin was the only woman in the room.

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Through mentorship and tenacity, she taught herself to step into the role of Chief Product Officer– and now teaches other women to do the same through her newest venture, Tech AF.

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Kristin raised $55m in funding before successfully exiting her fintech startup LoanHero, a consumer lending platform. Since then, she has helped hundreds of underestimated founders through her work within the Atlanta community and beyond. Kristin launched Tech AF to bring more diversity to tech, smash the glass ceiling, and re-define what it means to have success in the tech industry for founders and investors.

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Today she helps banks move beyond buzzwords and turn innovation into execution. By aligning innovation with real business outcomes, she support banks in transforming ideas into scalable, sustainable strategies that drive growth.

Aysun is Chief People Officer for OpenPayd. An experienced people and talent professional with particular interest in talent acquisition and development.

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Aysun has a strong proven track record in delivering a diverse range of human resources functions that support management and staff in achieving organisational goals. Aysun has been with OpenPayd for over six years and has been in her role as Chief People Officer for four years.

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Prior to her role at OpenPayd, she was head of HR at technology companies such as TechToPay and Smart Gaming Group.

Lucy has a decade of experience in storytelling, from working in London’s newsrooms to spearheading content campaigns to raise awareness about the merits of impact investing.

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She previously managed the content output for CIRCA5000, a sustainable investing platform that launched a suite of Article 9 ETFs on the London Stock Exchange in June 2023. Lucy is passionate about using content to create clarity about financial matters for consumers and retail investors.

Sarah Häger is the CCO at Enable Banking where she is evangelising Open Banking, Open Finance and Financial APIs to further accelerate innovation in the financial industry.

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She has previously worked at Nordea bank, across several countries (Europe-wide) with the main mission to provide value for corporate customers.

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She has spent the last 7 years taking the Open Banking vision from just a powerpoint to the multi- award winning solution of today.

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She is passionate about innovation, technology and to create commercial opportunities out of regulation.

Rita is a results oriented executive specialised in leveraging the latest technologies and solutions in FinTech and Web3 to transform Financial Services.

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Currently, Rita serves on the Advisory Board of the pioneering DeFi startup, KIMA, and provides advisory services to a diverse portfolio of Web3 startups (defi, blockchain, custody, crypto).

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Rita is the author of the Book Web3 in Financial Services, which will launch in Jun 2024.

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The book demystifies the opportunities and challenges in Web3 for Financial Services.In her previous role as the Global Head of FinTech Partnerships at HSBC, Rita played a pivotal role in the incubation and acceleration of numerous disruptive technologies, carving significantadvancements in the FinTech landscape.

Carol Hamilton is Chief Product Officer for Provenir, a global leader in AI-powered risk decisioning software.

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Carol is responsible for shaping the company’s global strategy, overseeing product direction and proposition development.

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She plays a pivotal role in identifying new growth opportunities and driving the success of Provenir’s products in the market to help lenders make smarter decisions across identity, fraud and credit.

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Since joining Provenir in 2021, Hamilton has served as Senior Vice President, Global Solutions and Chief Commercial Office of Provenir AI. Prior to joining, she held senior leadership roles at GBG, SAS and BAE Systems leading regional teams responsible for creating long-term strategy, driving growth, and seeking new areas for expansion.

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Carol earned a master’s degree in mathematics at the University of Bath and completed the Executive Leadership Program at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.

Perpetua Gitungo (Pesh) is the money laundering reporting officer (MLRO) and compliance director at Wise.

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Pesh joined Wise in 2017 and comes with a wealth of fincrime experience gained through the management of financial crime in both small and listed companies (payments, banking, CFD/FX and gambling industries).

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Pesh is a strong champion for diversity and inclusion in the fintech industry and is a mentor for the Girls Network and her local community.

Katja is the Fintech Manager at EY, focusing on startup and scaleup growth. She runs the EY FinTech growth programme, a 6-weeks dedicated course to provide FinTech startups with the right resources, tools and connections to scale and grow.

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Prior to EY, Katja ran the Tech Nation Fintech programme for three years where she also developed expertise in leading teams as a scrum master and product owner.

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Outside of her day job, Katja is also an advisor for early-stage fintech and a mentor at Level39 where she advises on strategy, market entry and growth.

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Katja has built her career around supporting early-stage companies, including with operational strategy, building successful teams, forming partnerships and fundraising.

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She is a passionate advocate for diversity in fintech and frequently participates in activities encouraging women and girls into tech.

Chantal has worked in fintech and tech PR for almost a decade. Her experience spans a wide range of clients from open banking businesses, BNPL providers, global money companies, credit cards and loans, and much more.She was most recently at Wise looking after UK PR both pre and post listing, before leading their corporate communications function.Chantal is passionate about diversity in the fintech industry, and the importance it has in creating better products and services for people.She launched The Heard (the very website you're on) in 2022, which subsequently won AltFi's "Diversity and Inclusion Champion of the Year" in 2023.

Aditi Subbarao is the Global Financial Services Lead at Instabase, an ex-banker turned fintech evangelist advising leading organisations on the adoption and applications of AI.

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With over 16 years of varied experience across Banking (Foreign Exchange, Derivatives, Payments, Transaction Banking) and Tech (Loan Origination, Intelligent Automation, Deep Learning, ML / AI, Generative AI) - Aditi leverages her experience and industry knowledge to bring insights and thought leadership to those on their transformation journeys - both professionally and personally.

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A charismatic and engaging public speaker, Aditi has presented across many stages and panels - bringing forth her passion for the vast opportunity for the world to benefit from the use of technology, and increasing the voice and presence of women and minorities in the fintech space.

Professor Karen Elliott is Chair of Practice in Finance and FinTech at Birmingham University Business School and Co-Director of the FinTech MSc.

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She has been named as ‘Standout #35 Women in FinTech Powerlist' in 2019, 2020 and 2021.Karen co-leads FinTrust, Agency, UKFin Network+, INFINITY, and Trustworthy AI projects (£12m EPSRC/UKRI/Research England), optimising trustworthy AI, ethical AI, and inclusion.

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An Advisory Board member to Incuto, We are Group and Saible, championing access to fair and affordable finance.Plus, the Prime Minister’s Champions Group for Dementia, CDR.net, IEEE Planet Positive and an Ambassador for the Digital Poverty Alliance. Karen creates a fusion between academic/practical ethical/governance considerations at the individual/societal level.

Nicole Casperson is a journalist, podcast host, and the founder of Fintech Is Femme, leading the charge to create an equitable and diverse industry. With over 60,000 industry professionals subscribing to her podcast and newsletter, Nicole is a trusted source of news, insights, and analysis.

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Before Fintech Is Femme, Nicole was a finance reporter, covering different B2B niches, from housing and mortgages to auto finance and financial advice. In 2022, Nicole was named a Top Inspiring Female in Fintech by the group NYC Fintech Women. She’s also a finalist for Fintech Nexus Industry Awards as a 2023 DEI Trailblazer.

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Nicole has been named a Top Influencer in Financial Twitter by ETFtrends.com and featured in the LA Times and Nasdaq Trade Talks. She often speaks at events including Money 20/20, Empire Startups, Fintech Nexus, Fintech Meet Up, and Future Proof Festival.

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Nicole is also a regular contributor to Forbes.com, writing about topics that intersect gender equity, finance, and technology.