Spotlight on: Artificial Intelligence

Christian is the Head of AI & Data Transformation at Zurich. He is a technology enthusiast who has worked on ESA and NASA space missions in the 90ies. In the early 2000s he started his career in consulting, where he spent 17 years, supporting many large companies on their technology journey towards data and AI-driven innovation, in financial services, healthcare, pharma and industrial manufacturing. His mission at Zurich is to drive the AI transformation in the most significant business areas of the company.

Clara Durodié is a leading technology strategist specialising in the governance and business application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the financial services industry.

Clara advises boards, regulators and governments on best practices in the adoption, selection, and implementation of AI systems. She also mentors fintechs on product development and works with data scientists to design human-centric AI.

A former asset management professional, Clara authored “Decoding AI in Financial Services” the first book on the business and governance of AI , writes a popular weekly DecodingAI® Board Briefing, hosts a biweekly podcast DecodingAI®, and founded Cognitive Finance Institute® – the pre-eminent AI learning platform for financial services professionals. 

Daniela Schackis is Deputy Director General in Banking Supervision at the European Central Bank. The Directorate General SSM Governance & Operations (DG-SGO) ensures the efficient decision-making process of the Supervisory Board and its structures. DG-SGO acts as gatekeeper for new players entering the market (banks, shareholders, board members), withdraws banking licenses and investigates alleged breaches of prudential regulations. DG-SGO leads the digitalisation, integration, training, and knowledge management in Banking Supervision. Daniela joined the ECB in July 1998. She held various positions in Human Resources, Risk Management and Statistics and has always been a promoter of innovative and data-driven ways of working. Prior to the ECB, she worked at Eurostat. Daniela holds a master’s degree in economics from the University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany.

Dea is Managing Director and Digital Assets practice lead for Forefront Advisers, a boutique Brussels and London-based political intelligence and risk firm. Her team forecasts and scrutinises the critical emergent political and regulatory risks affecting digital assets, digital payments, and artificial intelligence in the EU and UK.

Dea moved into this role, having led private sector EU advocacy campaigns in digital finance, crypto-assets regulation and AML, as Europe drafted its seminal regulatory framework in these areas.

Prior, Dea was part of the FinTech and Innovation Group of the MAS, responsible for market differentiating infrastructure for innovation initiatives. Dea spent 10 years in London, as an adviser on financial regulation in the 2008 re-regulation period as well as Head of Programmes for Innovate Finance, the UK FinTech trade association.

Dea is an affiliate with the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance and Evaluation Committee Member for IFSCA, Gujarat, India. She holds MSc in Financial Regulation from the LSE, and speaks Spanish, Russian, Bulgarian and Portuguese

Nicolas Brügger is Deputy Head of Capital Markets & Infrastructure at the State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF). He leads the Swiss government’s work on several topics in the area of digital finance such as AI, Open Finance, stablecoins and other Fintech matters. He also represents Switzerland's interest in multilateral bodies.

Pier Luigi Culazzo is the Group Chief Data Officer at Standard Chartered Bank and a member of the bank’s Group Operations Management Team.

Pier is responsible for developing, coordinating and implementing the Group Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) strategies supporting the business innovation plans and to capture new opportunities, especially related to the bank sustainability agenda in helping consumer and partners to reduce their C02 emissions.

In terms of governance, he is responsible to make sure the bank organise, use and treat its data correctly and in adherence with the current regulations, facilitating a consistent adoption and implementation of standards and policies and constantly working to improve the overall Data Quality across the organization.

Prior to joining Standard Chartered Bank, Pier was at Visa where he was the Head of Digital Identity, Data Products and Data Science and the Executive Sponsor for the company’s Diversity & Inclusion employee group. Prior to Visa, he held several leadership roles in Operations and Finance for General Electric in different countries around the world.

Appointed to the role in February 2021. Prag leads Citi’s Global Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence (“AI CoE”). The AI CoE enables Citi to use Artificial Intelligence in a way that supports Citi to innovate responsibly by ensuring appropriate levels of governance and risk management across the entire organization. The purpose of the AI CoE is to set standards and policies for AI and develop best practices, support infrastructure and tooling and enable state-of-the-art AI design, development and use at Citi across all its businesses.

Prior to this role, Prag led Citi’s Innovation Lab's Emerging Technologies Group. The focus of the group was on developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain-related thought-leadership and strategy, internal and client-facing partnerships, business development & lead-generation, information dissemination, R&D and engineering activities.

Prag has enjoyed a 15-year career which includes hands-on management experience in R&D and experimental design & development with emerging technologies in both business and academic environments with start-ups and multinationals.

NetGuardians CSO & Co-Founder, Raffael Maio is primarily responsible for securement of financing as well as business development in Asia. In 2020, he played a key role in securing CHF 17 million in the company’s third round of financing. He is a keen entrepreneur who, along with Joël Winteregg, is the co-founder of NetGuardians. On the technology side, Raffael brings several years’ experience in security software engineering, in environments ranging from a Silicon Valley start-up to a multinational product security company. In terms of business development, he is adept at both innovative and traditional models. He has a degree in Software Engineering as well as an EMBA.

Sopnendu Mohanty, currently the Chief Fintech Officer at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, is responsible for creating development strategies, public infrastructure, and policies around technology-driven innovation. Mohanty has over two decades of public and private sector experience in technology, operations, digital Finance, and investment strategies.

Mohanty extensively engages with global technology and financial services ecosystems and has championed notable collaborative public goods like API Exchange (APIX), Singapore Fintech Festival, Payment Rails, Data exchange platforms, and experimental programs like UBIN. In addition, Mohanty advises many international global advisory bodies on Fintech, Innovation and Inclusion. Within five years of his leadership, Singapore has become a leading global Fintech hub producing unicorns and home to many vibrant fintech companies.

He has co-authored several patented works in the application of digital technology in Finance and won many industry recognitions.

Ecosystem Believer | Partnership Enabler | Thought Leader | People Connector

Yannic has a PhD in Machine Learning from ETH Zurich. In his free time, he runs the world's largest YouTube channel on the topic of AI research.