Speakers
William Lovell, Head of Future Technology at the Bank of England
William is the Head of Future Technology and focuses on looking at how the next generation of technology, and the generation after that will change financial services. He spends much of his time working on payment systems and have strong interests in blockchain, digital currency and machine learning. His background is in engineering and application development, so likes to keep a practical focus but also working with those developing policies. William is particularly interested in where policy and practice intersect and the opportunities that it creates.
Conrad Ford, Chief Product Officer at Allica Bank
Conrad is the Chief Product Officer at Allica Bank, which is building a new relationship bank for SMEs with the latest technology. Allica Bank was recently named by The Times newspaper as one of the UK’s Top 20 fintechs. Previously Conrad founded leading fintech Funding Options, named in the 2021 Financial Times FT1000 list of Europe’s fastest-growing firms, before stepping down as CEO in 2019. More recently, Conrad has advised a number of the UK’s flagship fintechs, including Starling Bank, IWOCA, Coconut and Trade Ledger.
Jack Bidgood, CEO of Thirdfort
Co-Founder and MD of Thirdfort, Jack has a long standing track record in investment banking. He was inspired to start Thirdfort when one of his friends lost his money in a property transaction. Thirdfortis an FCA regulated firm for property professionals offering data driven tools to verify clients’ identity, validate the source of funds and facilitate movement of money. Clients of lawyers using Thirdfort will receive a more digital transaction experience with a streamlined onboard, added security and transparency during property exchange.
Kirsty Rutter, Fintech Investment Director at Lloyds Banking Group
Kirsty has spent 25 years in financial services in roles spanning finance, strategy, risk, data, technology, innovation and strategic investment at six different Top Tier financial institutions. Trained in finance, she rapidly moved on to develop business growth strategies as a leader in corporate and investment banking. Kirsty joined Lloyds Bank in 2019, where she designed and built the data architecture that underpins embedded controls in cloud native software. Today, as the Group Fintech Investment Director, Kirsty uses her diverse experience to support business growth objectives and delivery through strategic fintech investment; focused on creating value by actively managing the portfolio across all businesses.
Julia Demidova, CBDC Enterprise Strategist at FIS
Julia is focusing on CBDC strategy and how CBDCs could uplift the nations, whether through financial inclusion, financial deepening and digitization. Julia is also responsible for developing, maintaining, and strengthening of relationship with central banks, regulators, and policy makers and private sector institutions on the topic of CBDC and supporting full payments value chain, including central infrastructure and applications. In 2018, Julia joined OMFIF a central bank think-tank based in London as a Director of Fintech & Private Markets. In 2020 Julia launched OMFIF’s Digital Monetary Institute (DMI) an independent platform for convening central banks on CBDCs, digital payments, the DLT and blockchain.
Rana Ghosh-Roy, Director in Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies at Deloitte
Rana is an experienced Director in Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies team at Deloitte, with a PhD in Information Management. He has extensive experience working with tech architecture, big data, analytics and cognitive processes. Rana led the delivery of a large data services platform for one of the largest UK Government Department ,whilst ensuring full GDPR compliance. He is particularly proud of a Third Party Risk Management application design and delivery using IBM’s Watson product. Rana is well known in his industry for his co-authorship of BS 10008:2014 Evidential weight and legal admissibility of electronic information. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur India.
Ansgar Koene, Global AI Ethics and Regulatory Leader at EY (Ernst & Young)
Ansgar leads the AI related public policy team and contributes to the work on AI governance and EY’s Trusted AI framework. As part of this work, he represents EY on the OECD Network for Experts on AI (ONE.AI) and the Business at OECD Committee on Digital Economic Policy (BIAC CDEP).He is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Horizon Digital Economy Research institute (University of Nottingham) where he contributes to the policy impact and public engagement activities of the institute and advises on projects related to Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI).
Ben Azvine, Global Head of Security Research and Innovation at BT
Ben leads the global cyber security research programme in BT. He is responsible for setting direction and strategy for Security research, identifying innovation opportunities and leading a strong international team of researcher to develop new capabilities in collaboration with industrial and academic partners. Ben has 30 years’ experience in both academia and industry. His previous roles included leading the IT research centre and head of business intelligence & customer analytics research at BT Group Chief Technology Office. He holds a BSc in Mechanical Engineering, an MSc in Control Engineering, a PhD in Intelligent Control Systems from Manchester University and an MBA from Imperial College, London.
David Head, Vice President Open Banking Europe at Mastercard
David joined Mastercard at the start of 2018 to develop and implement the strategy for Open Banking. This has primarily involved leading the product development and launch of Open Banking solutions in Europe. Prior to Mastercard, David spent over twenty years in financial services at RBS and Lloyds Bank in a variety of digital and multi-channel leadership roles, with a common theme of bringing innovative ideas to life. Having been deeply involved in the development of internet banking, eCommerce payments and mobile banking, David is excited to be contributing to Open Banking - the next major transformation of financial services.
Paul Maskall, Fraud and Cybercrime Prevention Manager at UK Finance
Paul believes that technology isn’t necessarily the enemy, but it is our relationship with it that needs some work. With a background in law enforcement, intelligence, counter terrorism and later finding a passion in cybercrime and fraud, he now works as the Fraud and Cybercrime Prevention Manager for UK Finance and works within the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU). Recently appearing on BBC Crimewatch Live, Rip off Britain and BBC Radio 1xtra, Paul applies behavioural and psychological principles to the core of his work in order to maximise impact to prevent fraud and cybercrime across strategy, innovation and education.
Jitender Arora, Partner and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Deloitte
Jitender is the Partner and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for Deloitte North and South Europe (NSE). In his role, he is responsible for establishing and maintaining the security vision, strategy, and program to ensure business and clients are protected against ever growing threats. Recently, Jitender was recognised as #1 CISO at the CSO30 2021, awards that recognise security executives who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and business value.
Jitender has worked in the technology and security industry for over 20 years. He has held a wide range of senior leadership roles in financial services, professional services and technology organisations. He has strong experience in cybersecurity, cyber resilience, technology risk, operational resilience and operational risk domains. Jitender is an expert with a proven track record of success in strategy definition and execution, leading business transformation initiatives, managing efficient operations, building and managing CxO and board level relationships.
He is very passionate about diversity and inclusion. He is a member of the diversity and inclusion steering committee and executive sponsor of the diversity & inclusion initiatives to support the ambition of making our society and workplace more inclusive.
Adrian Asher, CISO and Cloud Architect at Checkout.com
Adrian is passionate about cloud native patterns and ways in which security can enable the business he has worked across a range of industries in everything from startups to large financial institutions. His patents range from cloud identity, securing dev-ops practices to credential handling and vulnerability detection.
Alistair Sneddon, Head of Product at Invest, CMC Markets
With nine years of experience in retail stockbroking and wealth management, Alistair focuses on customer outcomes and finding new ways to innovate in FinTech.
Arun Chaubey, Global BTS Insurance Program Manager at AXIS
Arun has been leading the digital transformation programs for the insurance companies in UK and EU. He’s a proponent of common sense and promotes diversity & inclusion at work. Arun strongly believes that to remain meaningful with the purpose of our lives, we need to contribute towards building a better society and to achieve this, Arun regularly interacts with students and professionals working in the tech sector from all over the world.
Christopher Rudden, Investment Consultant at Moneyfarm
Christopher joined Moneyfarm 6 years ago as an investment consultant, just before the launch of the UK business. He has had the joy of seeing the business grow from nothing in the UK to what it is now. Joining early on allowed him to grow through the ranks and he now heads up the investment consultant team. During his time he also sat the CFA exams and is now a charterholder. This helps in helping clients with their portfolios but is also helpful as for the investment committee as well.
Devie Mohan, Founder and CEO of Burnmark
Devie is an influential writer, speaker and commentator on fintech, and is the co-founder and CEO of Burnmark, a fintech research company, that supplies research and data to all players of the fintech ecosystem. She has helped several banks, fintech startups, innovation groups and investors understand the trends in the fintech industry, helping them set their corporate, marketing and investment strategies. Devie is also a proponent of a fintech ecosystem where banks and startups collaborate to drive innovation. She is a panel member on the ING Group Think Forward initiative on better financial decision making. She is the author of “The Financial Services Guide to Fintech” and a columnist with several publications. She is actively involved in the fintech community and has been listed in the top 10 of several global fintech influencer lists.
Edgar Whitley, Associate Professor (Reader) at LSE
Edgar has a BSc (Econ) and PhD in Information Systems, both from LSE. He is the co-editor of Information Technology and People, Senior Editor for the Journal of Information Technology and the AIS Transactions of Replication Research. He has served as research co-chair for the European Conference on Information Systems in 1993, 2009 and 2021, track co-chair for the International Conference on Information Systems in 2003 and 2011. At LSE Edgar has been Deputy Head of Department for Teaching and Learning, acting chair of the LSE Research Ethics Committee, Deputy Chair for the Classification Scheme Review Group that successfully introduced resits to LSE and a member of the LSE Impact Case Studies Review Panel.
Indranil Nath, Non-Executive Director and Vice President, Trustee Board at BCS
Indranil has over 30 years of experience in the Insurance and technology services industry. He has held senior-level positions managing property & casualty insurance business operations and technology services across Build, Sell and Delivery organisations globally. As Global Vice President and General Manager at DXC, he has led customer-facing engagements focusing on digital insurance and building technology operational resilience. He is a member of the Responsible AI Certification Workgroup led by the Responsible AI Institute (RAI) in partnership with the World Economic Forum’s Global AI Action Alliance and the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society at the University of Toronto. Indranil holds an MBA in Management and Information Systems and PhD in Software Engineering Management.
James Varga, Founder of DirectID (formerly The ID Co.)
James founded DirectID (formerly The ID Co.) in 2011 with a mission to leverage the identity and data users have with their bank accounts, giving them access to products and services conveniently - to let them prove their identity, financial health and credit risk in seconds. Today, DirectID’s platform, data, and unique insight engines offer decision makers a more comprehensive view of applicants and customers across the credit lifecycle. This enables more informed and appropriate decisions. Based in the UK, DirectID’s reach is global and rapidly growing, with over 13,000+ bank connections giving them access to 1.5bn users in over 45 countries. The fintech operates across banking, consumer and SME lending, utilities, gambling and gaming, the gig economy, and many more sectors.
Lisa Townsend, Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey
Lisa is the Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey and has responsibility for holding Surrey Police Force to account, the Force’s budget and all police estate in the county. Prior to being elected in May 2021 Lisa held a number of policy and communications roles, including working in the House of Commons; as a director of a communications business; and as head of media and communications for the Institute of Directors. Lisa works closely with teams across Surrey Police, including the economic and cyber crime units, who are keen to promote prevention of the type of attacks we know are increasingly common.
Charis Savvides, Partner at Stelios Americanos & Co LLC and Lecturer at the University of Nicosia
Dr Charis Savvides is practising lawyer and partner in one of the largest law firms in Cyprus. He is also lecturer at the University of Nicosia, where he has been a faculty member of the Law School for a number of years and of the Department of Digital Innovation of the Business School since 2020. He is member of the Institute For the Future and leading instructor of all regulatory courses in the Master’s programme of the University in Blockchain and Digital Currency, which is the world’s first Master’s degree in Blockchain and one of the top academic programs in the field.
Marco Jean Aboav, CEO of Etna Research
Marco is an entrepreneur, data scientist, tech consultant, and associate professor of Financial Technology and angel investor in tech and fintech startups. He is also CEO of Etna Research, a software-as-a-service forecasting technology company that serves hedge funds, family offices and financial institutions. Dr. Aboav provides consultancy services for tech startups mainly in Europe.
Mark Hipperson, Founder and CEO of Ziglu
Mark has co-founded a UK retail bank and two financial technology businesses. He acts as an advisor to investment and private equity firms and is a regular Fintech commentator and speaker. Mark is the founder and CEO of Ziglu, who have launched the world’s first, truly integrated ‘crypto challenger’. Previously, he co-founded Starling Bank where he was responsible for helping to secure the UK banking licence with regulators and obtaining the initial $70m funding the Bank achieved in December 2015. He was also responsible for the design, build, implementation and support of the Bank's IT services platform, apps and infrastructure.
Mattia Mrvosevic, Partner of Eterna Capital
Mattia is a Partner at Eterna Capital, a London based blockchain focussed investment firm. Prior to Eterna Capital, Mattia was a member of BlackRock's Institutional Client Business, supporting the development, management and execution of their business strategy by analysing market trends and drawing insights from data and decision-making frameworks. Prior to joining BlackRock, Mattia worked in strategy consulting for Capgemini Consulting UK and Ernst & Young. Mattia holds a MSc in Management Engineering with specialisation in Financial Engineering from Politecnico di Milano.
Nigel Cannings, CEO of Intelligent Voice
Nigel has over 25 years’ experience in both Law and Technology, is the co-founder of Intelligent Voice and a pioneer in all things voice and NLP, being the first person to commercially GPU-accelerate speech recognition in 2014. He has patents in speech processing, NLP and cryptographic processing of data. Nigel is also a regular speaker at industry events, including 8 appearances at NVIDIA’s annual GTC.
Peter Tillotson, Director of Acumed Consulting Ltd
Peter has been interested in data and how to use it since he was a boy. Having earned a PhD in Artificial Intelligence (specialising in Machine Learning for internet traffic routing), Peter spent over 20 years working for large consultancy firms, delivering technical solutions to banking, social media, e-sports and gaming industries. His claim to fame is his analytics work on one of the biggest large-scale distributed computer games in the world. Peter is also a world class specialist in creating algorithms that work fast on large data sets, and helping businesses use that data to make better decisions.
Sam De Silva, Partner at CMS UK
Sam is a solicitor and Partner in the Technology and Outsourcing practice at the Top 10 global law firm, CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP. He specialises in complex and strategic technology projects and has specialist experience in FinTech acting both for customers and suppliers. At an international level Sam is the former UK representative on the EU Commission’s Expert Group on Cloud Computing Contracts and the current UK representative on the IT Law Committee of the Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) Sam is a former Global Board of Trustee for the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) and is the immediate past Chair of the Tech & Sourcing Committee of iTech Law.
Shiv Agrawal, CEO of EarthID
Shiv is a technology entrepreneur with a focus on improving human lives through the power of technology. He is currently leading Myearth.Id towards building a decentralised identity management platform, with a vision of providing a Universal Id to all Human Beings. Shiv is also volunteering as the European Lead and London President for “Government Blockchain Association”, a global non-profit organisation with over 100 chapters across the world, helping governments understand and adopt blockchain technology.
Steve Jackson, Head of Financial Crime at Covéa Insurance
Following more than 22 years of service as a police officer, Steve has spent a further 22 years working in counter-fraud. As Head of Financial Crime for Covéa Insurance, Steve leads the development of Covéa Insurance’s internal and external counter-fraud strategy, which encompasses all aspects of financial crime. Steve was appointed as Chair of the Insurance Fraud Investigators Group in December 2016, which has the overall objective of encouraging collaboration throughout the fraud investigation community by providing a platform to share knowledge, expertise, intelligence and training.
Tony Allen, CEO of Age Check Certification Services
Tony is a Chartered Trading Standards Practitioner with over 25 years of experience in age restricted sales, law and practice. He is Chair of the UK Government’s Expert Panel on Age Restrictions and Vice-Chair of Digital Policy Alliance Internet Safety and Policy Group. Tony is also author of the Law of Age Restricted Sales in England and Wales, now in its 2nd Edition, and an approved trainer for Highfield Qualifications.
Tony Fish, Maverick, Pioneer and Adventurer
30 years of being an outsider, usually 6 sigmas from the norm, looking for trends that are just beyond any strategic plan. Very focussed on problems of governance and oversight in a digital world and how identity might help solve an error-correction problem. Definitely provocative and overly optimistic at the most inappropriate times. Neurodiverse with a passion for risk.