speakers

After 27-years working within the credit management industry, with 15 of those years spent successfully running one of the UK's leading commercial debt recovery companies, Darcey Quigley & Co; Lynne has gained a wealth of knowledge on the implications late payments and increased debtor days have on businesses of all sizes and industries.

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After founding Darcey Quigley & Co in 2007, Lynne decided to enter the world of fintech in 2019 and created the Know-it platform, an all-in-one solution for businesses to take control of their credit management.

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Lynne is a serial entrepreneur and was recently featured as one of Insider's top 20 women to watch.

Chanelle Pattinson is leading a new generation of ambitious and future-focused financial planners wanting to help millennials and Gen Z manage their money.

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She is the creator of the Her Future Bright podcast , a platform she launched to encourage more women into the finance profession.As well as hosting the podcast, Chanelle is a Chartered Financial Planner and co-founder of Money Means, a financial planning subscription service and platform.

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She has a deep desire to help people understand money and how to use it to unlock the life they want.

Laura has extensive experience in fintech having supported businesses on a number of products in areas such as pension investments, mortality, insurance, trading and financial standards. Earlier in her career, Laura managed the legal support for business acquisitions involving property.

Laura has a rich tapestry of experience that enables her to help develop and support business arrangements for new products, commercial and regulatory considerations involving fintech. Laura also provides training and discussion forums for teams to develop or hone their negotiation skills.

Laura was recently at Open Banking Limited where she supported the Board in developing and completing (with the CMA and the CMA9) revised governance arrangements for the organisation that underpins access to account data to enable innovation and competition to thrive.

Laura is currently an Axiom lawyer working at American Express in data protection and privacy.

Nadia Edwards-Dashti co-founded the Harrington Starr Group in 2010, a leading Financial Technology recruitment business with offices in London, New York and Belfast.

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With 18 years in the financial services technology sector, she has been responsible for helping over 2000 people find jobs and has grown from a trainee to a Chief Customer Officer. She runs the Podcast Series ‘FinTech with Nadia: The DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) Discussions’ to discuss the challenges and successes of this industry.

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Nadia has also written a book through Palgrave Macmillan, ‘Fintech Women Walk the Talk: Moving the needle for workplace gender equality in financial Services and beyond’ and within it quotes 100+ of her podcast interviewees.

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Her accolades include: Winner of Investing in Talent 2019 Awards - Most Inspirational Recruitment Leader, Innovate Finance: Women in FinTech Powerlist, FinTech Magazine Top 100 Women in FinTech 2022, Industrial Fellow at the University of East London: Centre of FinTech.

Banking transformation veteran and economist Sofie Blakstad built multiple core banking and payments systems for 8 international banks in 60 countries, and led whole business transformations, before founding hiveonline, the first DeFi for African smallholder farmers.She holds an MSc in informatics, chairs the Edinburgh Futures Institute's FI and Fintech Industry Advisory Board, is author of Fintech Revolution: Universal Inclusion in the New Financial Ecosystem and advises the UN, Central Banks, NGOS and others on blockchain for impact and sustainability, DLT policy and economic impacts of emerging technology.Sofie has been included in the Innovate Finance’s Women in Fintech Powerlist three years running and named one of the top 10 Women in Crypto.

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.