speakers
Our speakers bring expertise, insight, and bold perspectives to the stage, shaping the industry’s most important conversations.

Founder of Perpus
Jeya is the founder of Perpus, a sales consultancy for purpose-driven tech companies. Following an extensive career in sales, she has evolved her role into being an entrepreneur having launched two different businesses in the UK and Canada.
On a personal level, Jeya has lived in three countries and loves everything about different cultures. She is a huge champion of the value of human connections.
- Tech sales
- SaaS and revenue
- The journey of an entrepreneur
- How to start selling your MVP
- How to overcome the scale-up plateau of your tech business
- Launching your unicorn - from ideation to execution
- Human connections
- Jeya is based in the UK and is open to in-person and virtual events, ideally with a minimum of 24 hours notice.
- She can best be contacted on jeya@jeyasivans.com, as well as via our contact form.

Chief Product Officer of Engine, Starling Bank
Victoria Newton is Chief Product Officer of Engine, Starling Bank's Software-as-a-Service arm. Engine delivers Starling's market leading cloud native banking platform to financial institutions around the world. She leads on the development of the Engine proposition, understanding the needs of new clients and how the platform can best work for them.
Before working on Engine, Victoria was Head of Starling’s Marketplace, where she helped build on the selection of third-party financial services available for customers to connect to in-app.
Prior to this, she was Head of Propositions and Commercial Strategy for the business banking division, where she designed and delivered new products and services to improve Starling’s SME accounts.She started working with Starling in 2018 as a consultant with PwC, and was part of the team that was instrumental in the bank being awarded £100m from the Capability and Innovation Fund (CIF).
- Saas
- Cloud technology
- Commercial Strategy
- Business banking
- Incumbent / fintech partnerships
- Open Banking
- Fintech (news and trends)
- Victoria is based in London, and she can be relatively flexible for the right opportunity
- Available for both in person and remote events, she is best contacted via the contact form

VC Investor at Eight Roads
Virginia is a VC investor at Eight Roads, a global venture capital firm with offices in London, US, and Asia, and $11bn in AUM, focusing on venture and growth equity investments of ~$10-30m. In her role, Virginia mainly covers Fintech and B2B SaaS opportunities, as well as companies in the Southern European space and in the UK.Prior to her experience at Eight Roads, Virginia worked for 3 years at Citigroup in the Investment Banking team covering the Fintech sector.In 2018 she co-founded Dailyinternship, an HR-tech startup that developed a matching algorithm to combine the preference of the students with the requirements of companies for internship/entry level positions, reaching over 100,000 registered students and 300 clients.
- Start-up fundraising
- Different types of investors (strategic; private equity; growth; venture; debt)
- What investors are looking for
- Fintech news and trends
- Fintech M&A
- B2B Fintech
- BNPL
- Virginia is based in London, and she can be relatively flexible with her schedule.
- Available for both in person and remote events, Virgina is best contacted via the contact form.

Chief Client Officer of Engine, Starling Bank
Mariam Ogunbambi is Chief Client Officer of Engine, Starling Bank's Software-as-a-Service arm. Engine provides financial institutions around the world with access to Starling's market leading cloud native banking platform. She leads the management of Engine’s existing clients; responsible for onboarding, implementation through to relationship and success management.
Her aim is to proactively work in partnership with clients by anticipating their challenges and providing solutions that enable them to succeed and grow using the Engine platform. Drawing on her consultancy background in Financial Services and experience in programme management and operations at Starling Bank, she seeks to work collaboratively with clients and help them reach and exceed their desired outcomes.
Before working on Engine, Mariam was Head of Card Payments at Starling. Prior to this, she joined in 2016 and delivered integrations between Starling’s own systems and the wider banking, payments and finance landscape. She is the winner of two FinTech Awards; TechWomen50 and Future Stars of Tech - Fintech Category.
- Saas
- Cloud technology
- Incumbent / fintech partnerships
- Card payments, and payment systems
- Open banking
- Fintech (news and trends)
- Mariam is based in London, and she can be relatively flexible for the right opportunity.
- Available for both in person and remote events, she is best contacted via the contact form.

CEO and Co-founder of unlock VC (previously WVC:E)
Sophie is the co-founder of unlock VC (formerly WVC:E), the award-winning global platform and community for women in Venture Capital. In 2022, unlock VC launched its inaugural one-day Women in Venture Capital Europe Summit at Station F in Paris, bringing together 350+ attendee's and 55+ speakers from across Europe.
Prior to this, Sophie was aPrincipal at Anthemis' investment team, where she helped discover, evaluate and execute early stage FinTech and InsurTech investments as well as supporting current portfolio companies.
Sophie has been recognised on the Innovate Finance Women in FinTech Powerlist in 2020 & 2021 and is a regular on the 11:FS's FinTech and InsurTech Insider podcast.
- Fintech news and current affairs
- Insuretech news and current affairs
- VC investment
- Sophie's office is based in London, and she can be relatively flexible with her schedule
- Available for both in person and remote events, Sophie is best contacted via the contact form

Group Head of Corporate Communications at Brooks Macdonald
Claire has worked in the City for over 30 years in senior roles across a broad range of sectors, including a brief stint on Fleet Street. As Group Head of Communications for wealth manager Brooks Macdonald, she leads a team responsible for developing communication strategies that advance the Group’s purpose of realising ambitions and securing futures through the sharing of effective ideas and practices.
Claire is also co-founder of Female Folio – an award-winning initiative to encourage women to own their own investment story.
Female Folio focuses on delivering innovative and actionable education to spotlight women’s voices both in investing and in the financial services sector. Claire’s commitment to gender equality includes a focus on raising awareness of the gaps – gender, investing, pay, pensions, mortgage and so many more that women will exclusively face.
- Pensions
- Female finance
- Women in finance
- Women in investing
- Equality in finance
- Claire works in London from Tuesday - Thursday most weeks. She is fairly flexible on days and happy to travel. She is also happy to to attend in person or remotely.
- She can be contacted via our contact form.

CMO at PPRO
With extensive experience across the full marketing mix, Mariette has worked in B2B as well as B2C roles at a startup incubator, education, and manufacturing before moving into fintech.
Mariette specialises in brand positioning, product launches and lifecycle management, online marketing, direct marketing, content marketing, public relations, integrated cross-platform campaigns, project management, website development, managing budgets, and event management.
- Purpose-driven branding
- Brand strategy / rebranding
- Marketing's role in building fintech products
- Mariette is often in London and is open to both virtual and in person speaking opportunities. More notice is helpful, but she can make short notice engagements work if relevant and necessary
- She is best contacted on mariette.ferreira@ppro.com
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Director of Media and Marketing at 11:FS
Laura is an experienced content creator specialising in the financial space. She has built the 11:FS media brand from the humble early beginnings of the Fintech Insider podcast to a global media brand and audience across podcasts, videos, live events, social media and more.
Her particular focus is making financial services accessible to all, breaking down taboos and barriers on the subject matter and giving coverage to diverse voices and geographies across the entire ecosystem to educate and inspire at all levels.
- Open banking
- Equality in finance
- Product design
- Content creation
- B2B content and marketing particularly in FS
- Brand building and tone of voice
- Financial education and making financial services accessible
- Laura is based in London and can be flexible for the right opportunity
- She can be contacted either directly via LinkedIn or on laura@11fs.com

Global Strategy Director at 11:FS
Kate is a highly experienced mixed methodology researcher and Jobs To Be Done expert, applying qualitative and quantitative techniques to identify underserved customer needs that inform new propositions and services. Prior to 11:FS, she worked with clients across multiple sectors, including insurance, telecoms, health and fitness and the gig economy.
Kate has worked globally across markets including the UK, the US, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Collaborating with some of the best designers, product managers and technologists out there to help get customers the products and services they need and deserve, faster.
- Customer experiences
- JTBD
- Insurance
- Kate is often in London and is open to both virtual and in person speaking opportunities. More notice is helpful, but she can make short notice engagements work if relevant and necessary
- She is best contacted on kate@11fs.com

Founder of Fintech Fiends
Selma is the Founder of financial communications consultancy FinTech Fiends. Previously at financial services firms such as Schroders and Societe Generale, she has also managed public relations and marketing across Asia Pacific for global news service Reuters.
Her experience includes moderating Mandarin-English press conferences while working at an investor relations firm.Since returning to the UK, Selma has completed a software engineering bootcamp to learn about the “tech” in “fintech”, and volunteered at a non-profit coding school.
- Content creation
- Changing career
- Personal branding
- Crisis communications
- Operating in Asia Pacific
- Selma is best placed for London and virtual opportunities, but is flexible as to location
- She is open to both speaking and moderating, and can be contacted directly via LinkedIn or the FinTech Fiends contact page

Freelance writer for fintech and sustainable investments
Hannah spent 6 years in banking whilst studying two Master's Degrees before setting up her own business as a freelance writer.Today, she writes for 70+ fintechs, banks, investment houses and magazines.
Since working for herself, she's become an FT writer and multi-award-winning financial journalist. It's her life's mission to expose greenwashing, empower investors and shine a light on the best people in our industry.
- Sustainable investing
- Calling out greenwashing
- Regtech
- Fintech
- Embedded finance
- Niche assets
- Hannah is based in London and can be flexible for the right opportunity
- Hannah can be contacted either directly via LinkedIn or on our contact form

Managing Director, Consumer Interactive at TransUnion UK
Kelli is currently the managing director of consumer interactive at TransUnion in the UK. She also serves on the board for Monevo and was the Commercial Director at Callcredit Consumer & Noddle, as well as a role as Account Director at EuroDirect before joining TransUnion in 2018.
Her role is to help consumers protect and improve their credit score, while educating them on threats such as data breaches and cyber-attacks.
She also provides expertise on lending, market trends and fraud prevention to ensure consumers are receiving up-to-date and trustworthy advice. Kelli spearheaded the consumer empowerment campaign launched in 2020, raising awareness of the importance of credit scores.
- Credit education
- Consumer finance
- Fraud prevention
- Lending
- Data breaches
- Market trends
- B2B2C
- Kelli is based in Leeds and can be flexible for the right opportunity
- Kelli can be contacted via email at transunion@thirdcity.co.uk.

Head of Product at Monument
With a decade of experience in financial services, Nicole is a Product and Strategy leader creating products that truly get to the heart of peoples’ Jobs to Be Done. Whether that’s unpicking the conversations that happen about money at the dinner table, or getting to the heart of the racing thoughts that keep people up at night, she evangelises true customer understanding to develop market leading products that create positive change in peoples’ lives.Nicole is currently Head of Product at Monument, where she leads a passionate team to design products and services for one of the most underserved segments of the market; the mass-affluent.Nicole is passionate about product thinking, equity and inclusion and creating positive working environments for brains to thrive. Nicole takes inspiration for leadership from her experience with endurance sports, with two of her proudest personal achievements being cycling all 21 Stages of the Tour de France in 2022, and running the London Marathon, raising over £40,000 for charity. A proud Glaswegian, she loves to talk and hopes to inspire others in pushing the boundaries of what we think is possible.
- Strategy formulation
- Growth strategy
- New market entry/international expansion
- Digital transformation
- Unsecured lending
- Customer experience
- Open Banking
- Gen Z/Millenial consumer segments
- Nicole is based in London and is flexible regarding travel for speaking opportunities.
- Nicole can be contacted directly on LinkedIn, or via our contact form.

Director of Digital Investing at Coutts
Sahra is currently a director of digital investing at private bank Coutts.
Previously she was in the product development & innovation team at NatWest.
Sahra focuses on delivering the strategic roadmap for digital investing products, creating experiences that delight customers and help them make informed decisions in their financial growth.
- Open banking
- Payments innovation
- Embedded finance
- Financial inclusion
- Future of work
- Diversity, equity and inclusion
- Sahra is best contacted via our contact form

Managing Principal, Bip UK (formerly Chaucer Group)
Hayley has spent her career working across organisations on end-to-end large scale digital transformation, working primarily within digital banking and insurance. She has supported clients with taking a more customer centric approach to the development and launch of technology products, including spending time working in continuous improvement and process re-engineering, project and programme management and scrum master/product management.
She is currently Strategy and Operations manager for Tokio Marine HCC, a leading specialty insurance group conducting business in approximately 180 countries and underwriting more than 100 classes of specialty insurance. H
Most recently, around having her 2 daughters, she has spent 3 years working at the centre of the London market, leading projects developing and deploying new products and technologies across the marketplace.
- Digital transformation
- Agile ways of working
- Product design and development
- Personal & career development
- London insurance market
- Hayley can be flexible for the right opportunity. She is based in Essex and is happy to speak at in-person or virtual events
- Hayley is best contacted via her LinkedIn

Director, Open Banking at American Express
Charlotte leads Business Development for American Express’ Open Banking payments business, Pay with Bank transfer. She is passionate about the potential of open banking and alongside leading the business development team, Charlotte works with the ecosystem to consult on the future of open banking, educate consumers and further drive adoption in the space.
Previously, she has spent 6 years in the payments industry with a cross-functional background across strategy & business planning, business development, marketing, data & insights.Charlotte regularly speaks on panels, moderates events and recently has lead a series of Women in Open Banking, Sales and Payments sessions across different forums.
- Open banking
- Payments
- Sales/Business development
- Personal & career development
- Wellbeing
- Charlotte can be flexible for the right opportunity. She is based in London and her preference is towards in-person events
- Charlotte is best contacted via our contact form.

and PR Consultant

at Stripe

Belgium

at Lightyear




Crypto at Onafriq

and PR Consultant

at Stripe

Belgium

at Lightyear




Before The Heard, I never saw myself as a speaker—I thought public speaking was for ‘other people.’ The training gave me the confidence to own my expertise, and now I’ve spoken on fintech panels alongside industry leaders. The Heard didn’t just amplify my voice; it changed my career.
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As a media booker, working with Chantal is an absolute delight! She is super responsive and always willing to help; she also knows her client base inside out so can always suggest fantastic speakers for the topics who are all excellent subject matter experts, which enriches our content, and helps us to showcase brilliant ladies we may not have otherwise found. I can’t recommend The Heard enough.
