Past Speakers

Agustín Carstens served as General Manager of the BIS from 1 December 2017 to 30 June 2025. Under his tenure, the BIS Innovation Hub was created.

Mr Carstens was Governor of the Bank of Mexico from 2010 to 2017. A member of the BIS Board from 2011 to 2017, he was chair of the Global Economy Meeting and the Economic Consultative Council from 2013 until 2017. He also chaired the International Monetary and Financial Committee, the IMF's policy advisory committee from 2015 to 2017.

Mr Carstens began his career in 1980 at the Bank of Mexico. From 1999 to 2000, he was Executive Director at the IMF. He later served as Mexico’s deputy finance minister (2000–03) and as Deputy Managing Director at the IMF (2003–06). He was Mexico's finance minister from 2006 to 2009.Mr Carstens was member of the Financial Stability Board from 2010 to 2025 .

Mr Carstens is a member of the Group of Thirty and recently joined the GFTN International Advisory Board.

Mr Carstens holds an MA and a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago.

Deputy Governor of the Bank of Italy and Member of the Supervisory Board of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) of the European Central Bank.
Since 2021: Member of the Board of Directors of the Bambino Gesù children’s hospital in Rome;
Visiting Professor at the Polytechnic University of Milan.
Previously: Italy Country Manager for Barclays Bank and on the Boards of Directors of Monte Titoli SpA, A2A and ATM (Azienda Trasporti Milanese); Head of International Regulatory & Antitrust Affairs in Intesa Sanpaolo and CEO of Intesa Sanpaolo Eurodesk.
Earlier career as a lawyer at leading law firms in New York and Brussels, specializing in the fields of banking law, financial services and public utilities.
Member of the New York State Bar.
Founder of Valore D, an association that aims to help propel talented women to corporate management roles.

Widespread recognition and awards for her work on diversity and inclusion, and for the promotion of technological innovation in the financial industry.
Honours law degree from the University of Genoa and Master of Laws from the New York University School of Law. Alumna of the University of Stanford Business School since 2018. Knight in the Order of the Merit of the Italian Republic.

Dr. Alessandro Curioni is an IBM Fellow and Vice President of Europe & Africa, IBM Research - he is based in Zurich, Switzerland. In addition he is also responsible for the global research strategies for Security and the Future of Computing.

Dr. Curioni is a world recognized leader in the area of high performance computing and computational science where his innovative thinking and seminal contributions have helped solve some of the most complex scientific and technological problems in healthcare, aerospace, consumer goods and electronics. He was a member of the winning team recognized with the prestigious Gordon Bell Prize in 2013 and 2015.

Dr. Curioni received his undergraduate degree in Theoretical Chemistry and his PhD from Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy. He started at IBM Research in Zurich as a PhD student in 1993 before officially joining as a research staff member in 1998.

Alexander C. Karp is co-founder and chief executive officer of Palantir Technologies Inc. He received his Ph.D. from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, and enjoys cross-country skiing and Chen-style tai chi.

Axel Voss (CDU) - born in 1963 - studied law at the Universities of Trier, Freiburg and Munich. Since 1994, he is working as a lawyer. From 1994 to 2000, he was a civil advisor at the EU Commission's representation in Germany. Afterwards, he worked for nine years as lecturer for European Affairs at the RheinAhrCampus of the College of Koblenz.

He became a Member of the European Parliament in 2009, where he represents the Mittelrhein area, which includes the cities of Cologne, Bonn and Leverkusen and the districts Rhein-Sieg and Rhein-Erft. Axel Voss is EPP-coordinator for the Committee on Legal Affairs as well as deputy member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and from 2020 to 2022 member and rapporteur in the special Committee on Artificial Intelligence. Besides questions of European Law, his main area of expertise is the digitization of our daily life. For the European People’s Party group, he was among others (shadow-)rapporteur for the new Copyright Directive, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Passenger Name Record Directive (PNR) as well as for the updated Eurojust Regulation. At the moment, he is (shadow-)rapporteur for the AI Act and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.

Axel Voss is also CDU chair of the regional section Mittelrhein, regional chair of the Europe Union Bonn/Rhein-Sieg and Vice President of the Mérite Européen Friendship and Assistance Association, Germany.

Ashley Alder became Chair of the FCA Board in February 2023.

Ashley was previously the Chief Executive Officer of the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) in Hong Kong, a role he has held since 2011.

He also chaired the Board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).

Ashley began his career as a lawyer in London in 1984 and practised in Hong Kong for more than 20 years. He was Executive Director of the SFC's Corporate Finance Division from 2001 to 2004, before returning to private practice at Herbert Smith LLP, a law firm, as Head of Asia.

Ben Zhou is the Co-founder and CEO of Bybit, the world’s second largest crypto exchange by trading volume with 60+ million users that has grown significantly since its founding in 2018. With a background in traditional financial markets, Zhou's expertise in navigating the global crypto landscape sets him apart as a leader in the exponential crypto space. 

He successfully built Bybit through proactive engagement with regulators and a commitment to compliance, transparency, and customer protection, leading to licenses in multiple countries. Zhou offers valuable insights into the challenges of building a crypto exchange and has a deep knowledge of the global crypto context, as well as key market drivers from liquidity, institutional capital, and trends like Web3 gaming.

Bill Winters is the Group Chief Executive of Standard Chartered PLC since Jun 2015. Standard Chartered is a UK headquartered, emerging markets focussed bank, with a presence in 59 markets across Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Prior to joining Standard Chartered, Bill spent 26 years with JP Morgan in diverse leadership roles and was Co-CEO of the Investment Bank from 2004-2009. He has served as a committee member of the Independent Commission on Banking, established by the UK government in 2010 and as an advisor to the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards. Bill also founded a private credit fund, Renshaw Bay, in 2011 where he was Chairman and CEO until he stepped down on appointment to the Standard Chartered PLC Board. 

Bill is deeply engaged in driving the climate finance agenda. Under his leadership, Standard Chartered chairs the Net Zero Banking Alliance. Bill chaired the Taskforce for Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets, a global private-sector initiative that developed a roadmap to scale high-integrity carbon markets. Bill currently co-chairs the B20 India Taskforce on Financing for Global Economic Recovery and is UK Chair of the India-UK Financial Partnership.  

Bill is a Non-Executive Director of Novartis International AG. He was awarded a CBE in 2013 and holds an MBA from Wharton.

Brad is the CEO of Ripple and a member of the Board of Directors. Prior to Ripple, Brad served as the CEO of file collaboration service Hightail. From 2009 to 2012 he was President of Consumer Applications at AOL and prior to that he held various executive positions at Yahoo! from 2003 to 2008, including Senior Vice President. Earlier in his career, Brad helped to pioneer the VoIP industry as CEO of Dialpad Communications. He has previously held several board positions at companies including Ancestry.com and Tonic Health (acquired by R1 RCM).

Arta is an AI-driven wealth and financial technology company headquartered in the United States and Singapore. The company is redefining how institutions deliver wealth management by providing AI driven agents and user interfaces that modernise investing experiences and deepen client relationships.
Through its regulated Arta Wealth business and enterprise SaaS platform, Arta AI, the company combines advanced artificial intelligence with human financial expertise and world-class experience design to enable smarter investment decisions, scalable personalisation, and measurable business outcomes.

Arta’s enterprise wealth infrastructure allows banks, private banks, and financial institutions to launch modern investing platforms in a matter of months. Its Wealth-as-a-Service platform, built on a multi-custodian architecture, offers seamless API and white-label integration options. Designed with explainability, security, and compliance at its core, Arta’s AI infrastructure enhances advisor insights, product expertise, and relationship management — bringing the service quality of private banking to digital scale.

The company is backed by leading global investors, including Peak XV, Ribbit Capital, Coatue, and EDBI, as well as more than 140 prominent leaders in technology and finance such as Ralph Hamers (former CEO of UBS & ING), Piyush Gupta (former CEO of DBS), Eric Schmidt (former CEO of Google), Michael Miebach (CEO of Mastercard), and Lip Bu Tan (CEO of Intel).

Carmen Hett is UNHCR’s Corporate Treasurer and a seasoned corporate finance professional with over 25 years of experience across blue-chip companies and public sector organizations. She leads global financial delivery of aid, advancing direct access to financial ecosystems for recipients. A champion of financial transformation technologies, she drives scalable digital payments to enhance emergency preparedness and promote economic and financial inclusion for all.

The Honorable Caroline D. Pham was sworn in as a CFTC Commissioner on April 14, 2022. Commissioner Pham is a recognized leader in financial services compliance and regulatory strategy and policy. Her substantial experience spans key international issues such as prudential regulation and systemic risk, financial markets, fintech and digital assets, ESG, implementation of global regulatory reforms, and addressing the impact of major disruptions like the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Commissioner Pham is the sponsor of the CFTC’s Global Markets Advisory Committee.

Previously, Commissioner Pham was a Managing Director at Citigroup where she held various senior roles, including Head of Market Structure for Strategic Initiatives on the Institutional Clients Group Business Development team; Head of Capital Markets Regulatory Strategy and Engagement; Deputy Head of Global Regulatory Affairs; and Global Head of Swap Dealer and Volcker Compliance. She was a member of firmwide governance forums and has held leadership roles in many industry organizations.

Commissioner Pham is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and has received various professional awards. She has a B.A. from UCLA and a J.D. from the George Washington University Law School, where she has served on the Dean’s Advisory Council for Business and Finance Law and was a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Law, Economics and Finance.

Charles Cascarilla is the CEO and co-founder of Paxos, a regulated blockchain infrastructure platform that enables the movement of all assets in a trustworthy way. With more than 20 years of experience in financial services, Charles has a unique perspective on integrating blockchain technology with traditional systems. He co-founded institutional asset management complex Cedar Hill Capital Partners in 2005 and its venture capital subsidiary, Liberty City Ventures, in 2012.
 
Charles has been a leader in introducing regulatory frameworks to the blockchain industry by securing the first Trust charter for digital assets and by testifying to the US Senate and House of Representatives on the merits of this technology for the global economy. He was also a founding member of CoinCenter and the Association for Digital Asset Markets. Earlier in his career, Charles was a portfolio manager at Claiborne Capital and an analyst at both Bank of America Securities and Goldman Sachs. He serves on the board of several charities and private companies including Project ALS and The Centurion Foundation.  

Charles holds a B.B.A. in Finance from the University of Notre Dame and is a CFA charterholder.

Christian Kettel Thomsen took office as Governor by Royal Appointment and Chairman of Board of Governors of Danmarks Nationalbank as of 1 February 2023.  

Christian Kettel Thomsen has an MSc in Economics from Copenhagen University. He has amongst others served as Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Finance (2005-2010) at the Prime Minister’s Office, and Council of State Secretary (2010-2020), and most recently as Vice-President at the European Investment Bank (2020-2023).  

Christian has extensive experience within economics and in his capacity of Governor of Danmarks Nationalbank and Chairman of the Systemic Risk Council he monitors that Danmarks Nationalbank meets its three main objectives: Stable prices, safe payments and a stable financial system.  

Christian Mumenthaler started his career in 1997 as an associate at Boston Consulting Group. He joined Swiss Re in 1999 and was responsible for key company projects. In 2002, he established and headed the Group Retro and Syndication unit. Christian Mumenthaler served as Group Chief Risk Officer between 2005 and 2007 and was Head of Life & Health between 2007 and 2010. In January 2011, he was appointed Chief Marketing Officer Reinsurance and a member of the Group Executive Committee and became Chief Executive Officer Reinsurance that October. In July 2016, Christian Mumenthaler was appointed Group Chief Executive Officer.

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. The DG acts as gatekeeper for new players entering the market (banks, shareholders, board members), withdraws banking licenses and investigates alleged breaches of prudential regulations. The DG leads innovation, integration, simplification 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. 

David Craig is the co-chair of the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and member of the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) launched by His Majesty King Charles III. He is a member of the IAPB (International Advisory Panel for Biodiversity Credits) leading the work on bio-diversity measurement and verification. David is a Trustee at the Natural History Museum supporting Innovation and Data and a director of the Green Finance Institute PMO.

David has 30 years leadership experience in financial markets data, analytics and technology and is seen as a leading expert in the data and market infrastructure required to drive sustainable markets. He was the founder and CEO of Refinitiv, one of the largest data and technology platform providers to financial markets operating in over 160 countries. Following the acquisition of Refinitiv by London Stock Exchange Group for $27B in 2021, he become head of LSEG’s Data and Analytics Division.

He was previously founder and CEO of the Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) business and Chief Strategy Officer at Thomson Reuters, and Reuters plc. Prior to these roles he spent 8 years as a partner at McKinsey focusing on technology and financial services clients, and was a software developer for American Management Systems.

David is a private investor in natural capital technology firms. He is a Board Advisor and chairs Triple Private Equity Investment Committee, is a member of the International Technology Advisory Panel for MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore) and has recently advised the Bank of England on data strategy.

Mr. Douglas Feagin serves as President of Ant International and Corporate Senior Vice President of Ant Group.

He joined Ant Group in June 2016 to spearhead the company's globalisation strategy, Alipay's global business development, operations and marketing activities. Prior to joining Ant Group, Mr. Feagin worked at Goldman Sachs from August 1994 to May 2016 and served as a Managing Director from 2004 through 2016.

At Goldman Sachs he maintained a broad set of client relationships across sectors including banks, specialty finance, FinTech and insurance in the U.S., Latin America and Asia.

He graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor's Degree in Economics in June 1988, and he received an MBA from Harvard Business School in June 1994.

Faryar Shirzad is Chief Policy Officer at Coinbase, where he leads the company’s engagement with policymakers around the world and has become a trusted source for thought leadership in the global crypto policy space. Under Shirzad’s leadership, Coinbase has become a driver of crypto-regulation discourse in the U.S. He oversaw the creation of Coinbase’s Digital Asset Policy Proposal (or dApp), which laid out a fit-for-purpose regulatory framework for the rapidly-emerging industry and was recognized as “a dramatic shift from current policy in the United States”, sparking an ongoing conversation on how crypto should be regulated while safeguarding American innovation. Before joining Coinbase, Shirzad was Global Co-Head of Government Affairs at Goldman Sachs.
 
Shirzad has served as counsel to the highest levels of the U.S. government, including as deputy national security advisor for international economic affairs for President George W. Bush. In that role, he served as The President’s personal representative to the G-8 (the “G-8 Sherpa”). Prior to his time in the White House, Shirzad was assistant secretary for import administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce and international trade counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance. Earlier in his career, he practiced law in Washington, DC. Faryar earned a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law, a MPP from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a BS from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Mr Heng Swee Keat is Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies. 
 
Mr Heng chairs the tripartite Future Economy Council which oversees the on-going restructuring of Singapore’s economy, through upgrading the skills of workers and transformation of industry, to create better career prospects for Singaporeans. He leads a team to oversee the design and implementation of national strategies in areas such as skills and capabilities development, innovation and productivity as well as the internationalisation of companies. 
 
He is also the Chairman of the National Research Foundation, which sets the direction for Singapore's research, innovation and enterprise (RIE) strategies. Mr Heng is overseeing the closer integration of Singapore’s RIE and industry transformation efforts. 
 
Mr Heng served as Minister for Education from 2011 to 2015. He also led the year-long Our Singapore Conversation from 2012 that helped to engage more than 47,000 Singaporeans from all walks of life through dialogues. 
 
He also served as Minister for Finance from 2015 to 2021, overseeing ten national Budgets including an unprecedented five Budgets to support Singaporeans and businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. 
 
Mr Heng has an MA in Economics from Cambridge University. He also holds a Master in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Hong is the President of OKX, a leading Web3 technology company and the world's second largest crypto exchange by trading volume. 

Prior to joining the Web3 industry in 2019, Hong worked at Goldman Sachs in US for eight years and later participated in growth equity investments. She had her first exposure to Bitcoin in 2016 and has since become a strong advocate of Bitcoin. She has been serving as Okcoin CEO since 2020 before taking on President role for OKX.

Jeremy is responsible for strategy, vision and operating execution at Circle. He brings more than two decades of experience building and leading global internet software platforms, including founder and CEO of Brightcove, technologist and entrepreneur in residence at General Catalyst, CTO of Macromedia, and co-founder and CTO of Allaire Corporation. Jeremy has provided expert testimony on digital assets and monetary policy before the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Government Affairs, US Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee. He has also been named to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) High-Level Advisory Group on FinTech.

Johan Torgeby is since 2017 the President and Group Chief Executive Officer of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB). Mr. Torgeby has 25 years of banking and financial services experience and holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Lund University, Sweden.
 
Prior to his appointment to his present position, Mr. Torgeby has held numerous positions within SEB’s Large Corporates & Financial Institutions division, and in 2014 he was named Co-Head of the division and member of SEB’s Group Executive Committee. Prior to joining SEB in 2009, Mr. Torgeby worked nine years at Morgan Stanley & Co Investment Banking in London and three years at Robur Asset Management in Stockholm.  

Mr. Torgeby also serves as member of the boards of Nasdaq Inc., the Institute of International Finance, the Swedish Bankers’ Association and Mentor Sweden.

Kris Marszalek is CEO of Crypto.com, the world’s leading cryptocurrency platform with more than 80 million customers worldwide. 

Founded in 2016, Crypto.com is the industry leader in regulatory compliance and security certifications. Kris is committed to responsible innovation and driving the global adoption of cryptocurrency, with an ultimate vision of cryptocurrency in every wallet. 

Kris is a seasoned entrepreneur and digital commerce pioneer, having grown multiple companies from the ground up to exceed nine figure revenue.

As co-founder of Banking Circle SA, and with almost two decades experience in the banking and financial services markets, Laust Bertelsen has an innate understanding of the challenges that have existed in the cross-border payments space. Utilising his experience in the application of technological innovation, combined with his knowledge of the FX and currency markets, he has driven the development of Banking Circle’s propositions to ensure payments are more accessible, faster and more secure regardless of geography or currency.

Marlene Amstad serves as Chair of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) and as a board member of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO). She brings over 30 years of experience in central banking and financial supervision and has specialised in international financial markets and financial technology. Her previous roles include positions at the Swiss National Bank, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

She spent nearly a decade in Asia, where she coordinated the Asian Bond Fund (ABF) initiative at the BIS in Hong Kong and served as advisor to more than ten Asian central banks. As Co-Director of the FinTech Center at the Shenzhen Finance Institute (SFI), she focused on the intersection of finance and emerging technologies. She is co-editor and co-author of the book CBDC and FinTech in Asia.
Marlene Amstad is an Honorary Professor at the University of Bern and a Senior Fellow at Harvard University.

Mathias is a Co-Founder and Group CEO of Sygnum. Prior to Sygnum, he was General Manager at RNT Associates, Mr. Ratan N. Tata’s personal investment platform, which he joined as the first team member. He led multiple venture capital and private equity investments and participated in blockchain and DLT-related equity deals globally.

Mathias started his career at Bain & Company where he led advisory projects for private equity funds, family offices and technology companies.

He holds a PhD from the University of St. Gallen and a Master of Science from the London School of Economics (LSE).

Michael Gronager is Co-founder and CEO of Chainalysis, the blockchain analysis company. As CEO, Michael is responsible for running all facets of the business in order to provide leading anti-money laundering and investigative services for government agencies, cryptocurrency businesses, and financial institutions.

Prior to founding Chainalysis, Michael was the Co-founder and COO of Kraken, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges. Michael also holds a PhD in Quantum Mechanics from the Technical University of Denmark.

Michael serves on the Board of a Top500 Supercomputer Center and is a founding member of the Working Group for the 5th European AML Directive (5MLD).

Michael Shaulov is the CEO and co-founder of Fireblocks, a secure digital asset infrastructure company. Prior to Fireblocks, he co-founded Lacoon Mobile Security, which was acquired by Check Point, and was then appointed the Head of Products, Mobile and Cloud Security for Check Point. Michael is a serial cybersecurity entrepreneur and investor. He is also a recognised industry speaker, delivering talks at RSA Conference, BlackHat and Infosec. Before his commercial endeavors, Michael pioneered the mobile security field in an elite military technological unit (8200), where he received the Israeli Presidential Excellency Honor for his contributions. He holds a BSc in Computer Sciences and Physics from Ben-Gurion University, Israel.

Olga Zoutendijk is a global banker, having held senior executive roles in wholesale, investment and retail banking in Asia, Australia, Europe and the United States for over 25 years. She is Chairwoman of Fnality International, which is building an on-chain, regulator approved payment and settlement system to support the growing industry adoption of tokenised assets and marketplaces. Olga is a member of the Board of Directors of Julius Baer Group, the Swiss-based international wealth management group, and a member of the Board of Governors of Leiden University, one of the leading international research universities in Europe. 

Patrick Odier is Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Lombard Odier Group since January 1st 2023 . He has been Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bank Lombard Odier & Co Ltd. since January 1st, 2014 until April 1st 2023. He was also Senior Managing Partner of the Lombard Odier Group from 2008 until 2022.

Patrick Odier joined the Lombard Odier Group in 1982 and completed his training in Zurich, New York, and Montreal, before becoming a Managing Partner in 1986. He holds an economics degree from the University of Geneva and an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago.

Patrick Odier is President of Swiss Sustainable Finance (SSF). He is also Chairman of Building Bridges. He is member of the Board of economiesuisse (Swiss Business Federation). He was Chairman of the Swiss Bankers Association from 2009 to 2016. He is also a board member of several Swiss and international academic institutions and philanthropic organisations.

Pradyumna Agrawal (Prady) is a Managing Director at Temasek and a member of Temasek’s management committees. Prady is responsible for Temasek’s blockchain investments and broader venture building efforts. Prady has additional responsibilities in the financial services sector with a focus on asset management (Seviora Group), non-banking financial services (Fullerton Financial Holdings) and insurance. 

Prady represents Temasek on the Boards of LemmaTree, Affinidi, Trustana, Marketnode, Partior, Fnality, Liminal (fka Menyala), Seviora (observer) and Fullerton Financial Holdings (observer). He is also a Committee Member of the Digital Trust Centre (Trust Tech Steering Committee), a national centre supported by NTU, IMDA and NRF and leading Singapore’s research and development efforts in trust technologies. He was previously on the Boards of C2FO, GoodWorker, GoJek, Pine Labs and Superscrypt, and Council Member of Diem. 
Prady joined Temasek in 2013 and before his current role, he was involved in global financial services investing at Temasek, including the Americas, Southeast Asia, India, Middle East and Africa. 

Prior to joining Temasek, Prady was with Morgan Stanley as Vice President, Investment Banking. He started his career as an Analyst with Sharad Dalal & Co and has worked at Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young.
Prady graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce from University of Mumbai, is a qualified Chartered Accountant from India and holds a Master of Business Administration from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. 

Prajit Nanu is CEO and Founder at Nium, the global leader in real-time payments. Nium provides payments and card issuance services that redefine how businesses around the world pay and get paid.  As CEO, he leads the company’s corporate and product strategy as Nium moves toward a vision of frictionless global commerce. 

Based in the company’s co-headquarters in San Francisco, Prajit is currently focused on expanding the breadth, depth, speed, and reach of the Nium platform. Today, Nium’s payout network supports 100 currencies and spans 190+ countries, 100 of which are in real-time. Funds can be disbursed to accounts, wallets, and cards and collected locally in 40 markets. Nium's growing card issuance business is already available in 34 countries. Nium holds regulatory licenses and authorizations in more than 40 countries, enabling seamless onboarding, rapid integration, and compliance – independent of geography. Prajit was responsible for setting up Nium operations in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. 

Prior to co-founding Nium, Prajit held leadership positions in various global organizations. He was the Global Sales Director at TMF Group, a multinational professional services firm headquartered in Amsterdam, and was the Vice President of Sales and Account Management at WNS Global Services, a business process management company. Prajit holds a Bachelor’s in Commerce & Economics from the University of Mumbai. 

Ralph Hamers has been Group CEO of UBS Group AG and President of the Executive Board of UBS AG since November 2020. Before joining UBS, he served as CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board ING Group. During his time as CEO of ING, he steered the bank to profitability after the financial crisis and supported the firm’s digital transformation. He also played a leading role in driving sustainability efforts in the financial industry, and firmly continues to do so.

Professional experience

2020 – date        Group CEO of UBS Group AG and President of the Executive Board of UBS AG

2013 – 2020       CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board, ING Supervisory Board member of NN Group (2014 – 2015); Management Board Banking and Management Board NN Group (2013 – 2014)

2011 – 2013       CEO of ING Belgium and Luxembourg, ING

2010 – 2011       Head of Network Management for Retail Banking Direct & International, ING

2007 – 2010       Global Head of the Commercial Banking network, ING

2005 – 2007       CEO of ING Bank Netherlands, ING

2002 – 2005       General Manager of the ING Bank branch network, ING

1999 – 2002       General Manager of ING Romania, ING

Richard Teng is an experienced executive with over three decades of financial services and regulatory experience. As the Co-CEO of Binance, he works closely with various stakeholders including regulators, policymakers, industry players and users to further the growth of Binance in a compliant and sustainable manner. Prior to this role, Richard held various senior leadership positions within the company since joining in August 2021.

Before joining Binance, Richard was CEO of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority at Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), where he showcased his capabilities as one of the world’s foremost innovative regulators. Richard’s vast experience also includes being the Chief Regulatory Officer of the Singapore Exchange (SGX) and the Director of Corporate Finance in the Monetary Authority of Singapore. 

Richard received his Masters in Applied Finance from the University of Western Australia.

Sergey Nazarov is the co-founder of Chainlink, the universal platform bringing the future of global markets onchain. Chainlink has enabled over $14 trillion in transaction value by providing financial institutions, startups, and developers worldwide with secure access to real-world data, offchain computation, and cross-chain interoperability across any blockchain. Chainlink powers onchain finance applications and high-integrity markets for banking, tokenization, DeFi, global trade, and other major sectors. Nazarov has worked with major market infrastructure providers and institutional banks such as Swift, DTCC, Sygnum and Fidelity International, ANZ, and many others, giving him a unique perspective on what is required to accelerate the adoption of blockchain technology and tokenization and build a global unified Internet of Contracts.

Sergio P. Ermotti has been Group CEO of UBS Group AG and President of the Executive Board of UBS AG since April 2023. He was already the Group CEO of the firm from 2011 to 2020. He re-joined UBS from Swiss Re, where he was Chairman of the Board of Directors until April 2023. Prior to joining UBS in 2011, he was at UniCredit Group where from 2007 to 2010 he served as Group Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Head of Corporate & Investment Banking and Private Banking, prior to that he served as Head of the Markets & Investment Banking Division. Between 1987 and 2004, he held various positions at Merrill Lynch & Co. in the areas of equity derivatives and capital markets. He became Co-Head of Global Equity Markets and a member of the Executive Management Committee for Global Markets & Investment Banking in 2001.

Umar Farooq is the Co-Head of Global Payments. JP Morgan’s Global Payments business combines treasury services, trade & working capital, commercial cards and merchant services to help clients operate across 150+ countries. The business is the largest processor of UDS payments across the world with daily transaction volume of around $10 trillion. Prior to this Umar was the Global Head of Financial Institution Payments and CEO of Onyx by JP Morgan.  Onyx is a J.P. Morgan business unit that leverages cutting-edge technologies like Blockchain to develop innovative products, platforms and marketplaces.  Previously he was the Global Head of Digital Wholesale Payments and Head of Blockchain for the Corporate and Investment Bank. Umar has also held leadership positions in Chase Bank in the past including Head of Small Business Segment and National Sales Manager for Chase Business Banking.  Umar holds a B.S. in Computer Science, B.S. in Economics and M.Engg. in Computer Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Umar received his JD from Yale Law School

Yuval is a visionary leader at the intersection of finance and technology. Yuval co-founded Digital Asset in 2014 to fill a gap in the blockchain space, ultimately taking the technology beyond cryptocurrencies and using it to bring greater efficiency to financial services.

Under his leadership, Digital Asset has grown from a fledgling start up to a leading enterprise blockchain company whose technology is used by top institutions and market infrastructures around the globe. With a vision for a world where businesses seamlessly connect regardless of the underlying technology, he is taking Digital Asset to the next level by creating new networks of value that will fundamentally change the future of business and how companies interact.

During his tenure, Yuval hired the majority of the company’s executive leadership, established its presence in six countries, and facilitated the acquisition of four tech startups in two years. He has secured more than $300 Million in financing for the company from a range of strategic investors, including leading financial and technology companies Citi, Goldman Sachs, IBM, J.P. Morgan, and Samsung, among others, and more recently, private equity firms 7RIDGE and Eldridge. Yuval has built trusted relationships with Digital Asset’s clients and partners, growing its customer base threefold. Digital Asset’s customer base includes organizations across financial services, healthcare and insurance, such as BNP Paribas, Broadridge, Cboe, Deutsche Börse, Goldman Sachs, HKEX, HSBC, and Nasdaq, among others.

Previously, Yuval managed an algorithmic trading desk at DRW Trading and he launched DRW Venture Capital as a member of the firm’s investment team. He also worked as a developer at Citadel. Yuval is a member of the Digital Asset Markets subcommittee of the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Global Market Advisory Committee. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Global Blockchain Business Council, a leading global industry association for the blockchain technology ecosystem. He is also a frequent speaker at industry events and is often quoted in well-respected media outlets such as Bloomberg, Financial Times, and the Wall Street Journal, among others, talking about enterprise blockchain in the context of digital assets, market infrastructure, privacy, digital currencies, clearing and settlement challenges, and sustainable finance.

Yuval holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is based at the company’s headquarters in New York City.