Global Speakers

Topic: A CTO Guide: How CTOs Can Enter The Digital Transformation Race In Financial Services

Mike has over twenty-five years of senior management experience in Australia. He presently works as an Executive Director for Client Engagement Group of the Australian Taxation Office.

Mike is an accomplished leader in organisational transformation through development and implementation of innovative client service, organisational development, business transformation, capability development, knowledge development, change management, compliance management, revenue performance and risk management strategies. He is a Bachelor of Economics graduate from USYD, postgraduate from UNSW in Master of Statistics (foundation of ML and AI) and postgraduate from UCAN in finance and accounting. He is also Certified Practicing Accountant.

Mike has a global network and prolific writer on LinkedIn and tech publications on digital transformation. He is a sought after conference chair and speaker because of his ability to bring unique perspectives from his extensive finance and accounting career, intelligent automation expertise, new economics of digital, organisation developments issues, how to maximize the opportunities from these technologies, and his ability to assist and guide CEOs, CDOs and CFOs in their digital transformation journey.

Topic: The Arab Region CBDC Launchpad, The Socio-economic Motivations for Accelerated Pan-Arab Adoption

Suleiman Barada is an Independent Technology Business Strategist. A Sr. Advisor at the Union of Arab Banks, and Head of UABdigital where he spearheads the ecosystem digital transformation arm of the Union, with an ecosystem-wide vision and mission, and a mandate to leaving no financial institution behind in the Digital Economy within the Arab countries. Suleiman is also Chair of the Advisory Board at the Arab Banks Innovation Council (ABIC). In that capacity, and reporting into the Secretary General of the Union, Suleiman is leading a Pan-Arab digital banking agenda on FinTech Collaborations, Open Banking, CBDC, and other transformative initiatives affecting the Arab banking sector as a whole.

Suleiman is an Ecosystem Architect with focus on value creation and practices a purpose-driven approach to developing and executing Digital Business Transformation roadmaps while being entirely focused on Benefits Realization and the way they can be measured, attained, and sustained. Suleiman has worked with a wide variety of international technology vendors and possesses a thorough understanding of the global tech ecosystem and their characteristics.

Founder of S2E MEA, an affiliate of S2E Transformation Inc., a Strategy Execution consulting firm based out of New York, USA. Suleiman has acted in various capacities and has led and scaled several businesses in the region with a solid track record in significantly growing companies right from inception with evident turnaround capabilities. Suleiman is regarded as a trusted advisor to clients, partners, and peers and is adept at extending the most relevant advisory, independent of situation or industry.

Certified Digital Transformation Advisor, Six Sigma Yellow Belt, and a Project Management Professional (PMP) since 2005 — collective credentials indicative of his commitment to leveraging best practices and applying standards to his advisory engagements.

Suleiman’s cross-industry experience includes Defense, Government, Financial Services, Healthcare, Higher Education, Construction, Facilities Management, Telco, Utilities, and Retail sectors.

Topic: The Rise Of / Outlook For Digital Securities

Benjamin Quinlan is the CEO and Managing Partner of Quinlan & Associates. He is also the Chairman of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong, an Adjunct Professor at the AIT School of Management, a Conference Ambassador for the Hong Kong Tourism Board, and sits on various committees for Hong Kong Trade & Development Council, Hong Kong Science & Technology Park, Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, and AustCham. He has worked at Deutsche Bank, UBS, Oliver Wyman, and PwC.

Post-Forum Workshop A: Future Of Digital Currency With Blockchain Technology

Jamie Solomon is an experienced innovator with Accenture and has over 40 years of experience in implementing the “art of the possible” to deliver business value. He has consistently leveraged cutting edge technology to drive transformation both within individual companies and at an industry level. He is responsible for Blockchain and Multi-Party Systems for APAC and has led programs in the blockchain space for 6 years. Jamie led the creation of several financial services consortia (EquiLend, Clarient, RiskStream Collaborative) that fundamentally changed the way the industry works.

Topic: CBDC Pilot Tests In Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, UAE And Europe

Oriol works as a Management Consultant at AirHelp, Strategic Advisor at a Hong Kong-based WealthTech company, ETFCool, Strategic Advisor at Alpha Bright Asset Management (Hong Kong), Co-Leader of the Financial Inclusion and CBDCs Working Groups at the Global Impact FinTech (GIFT) Forum, Scientific Advisor at the Israeli Blockchain Association, Mentor at R3 (Singapore), Mentor at Cyberport (Hong Kong), FinTech Mentor at F10 Incubator & Accelerator (Singapore), Blockchain Mentor at Tribe (Singapore) and also FinTech Mentor at Rise by Barclays (London and Mumbai).

Oriol is Fellow at the Digital Euro Association (D€A) and at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), as well as Honorary Fellow at the Asian Institute of International Financial Law -AIIFL- at the University of Hong Kong (HKU).

Panel Discussion: The Future Of CBDCs, The Impact Of CBDCs On Cross Border Payments And The Importance Of Interoperability

Indra Suppiah leads Government Relations for APAC at R3, engaging regulators on policies related to blockchain technology implementation. She is also responsible for exploring collaboration opportunities with government entities on blockchain adoption. Prior to R3, Indra worked with a Singapore Government Linked Company in a government relations role. She also has extensive experience working with the Trade Department in the Government of Singapore, promoting bilateral trade and investment between Singapore and South Asia – specifically in the areas of logistics, manufacturing and real estate. Indra completed her Bachelor of Science degree from the National University of Singapore.

Topic: Building The Right Ecosystem For CBDC Development

Post-Forum Workshop A: Future Of Digital Currency With Blockchain Technology

Willy Lim is a business/IT payments and capital markets subject matter expert from R3.  Willy has been involved with several large scale initiatives on the areas of strategy, design and implementation over the past 20+ years.  This initiatives are for financial market infrastructure, capital markets, funds/wealth management, Islamic Finance, Digital Asset and Central Bank Digital Currency.

Currently, Willy is working on various strategic initatives such as the R3 CBDC working group which will assess, analyse, review the relevant policies, impact to the ecosystem and establish the reference business/technical architecture.

His experience spans various technology solutions focusing on future proofing the business strategy and value creation through digital transformation and the introduction of emerging technologies for the financial market infrastructure and services industry.

Panel Discussion: The Future Of CBDCs, The Impact Of CBDCs On Cross Border Payments And The Importance Of Interoperability

Topic: The Future Of Digital Currency: Digital Financial Services And Financial Inclusion

Ratna Sahay is Deputy Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department (MCM) at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). She leads key policy papers and projects in the areas of monetary policy, exchange rate policy, capital account, financial development, financial inclusion, and gender and finance. She is also responsible for bilateral surveillance support to area departments. Her recent projects include analytical work on unconventional monetary policy and global spillovers, capital flows, financial deepening, financial inclusion, and gender and finance. She has served as Advisor to Stanley Fischer (First Deputy Managing Director) and Advisor to Michael Mussa and Kenneth Rogoff (both Economic Counselors of the IMF). She has published widely in leading journals on monetary policy and financial sector, including financial market spillovers and financial crises, inflation, economic growth, fiscal policy and debt sustainability, and transition economies. She has taught at Delhi University, Columbia University, and New York University and holds a Ph.D. in Economics from New York University, New York.

Topic: The Bank Of England’s Exploration Of CBDC

Shiv is a Senior Manager at the Bank of England with responsibility for its exploration of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). He was previously Private Secretary (Chief of Staff) to the Bank’s Chief Economist, delivering research on a wide variety of economic topics and acting as a monetary policy advisor. Shiv also has extensive experience in macroeconomic forecasting and scenario design from prior roles. Shiv studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at the University of Oxford before completing a Masters in Economics at the London School of Economics.

Panel Discussion: The Future Of CBDCs, The Impact Of CBDCs On Cross Border Payments And The Importance Of Interoperability

Matthew is a Director in Deloitte’s Financial Services Tax practice and an Executive Committee (Exco) member of the Singapore FinTech Association (SFA). He is Deloitte Singapore’s subject matter expert with respect to the taxation of digital currencies and tokenisation. As a newly-elected member of the SFA’s Exco, Matthew aspires to ensure that the SFA is the Voice of Singapore Fintech, and to help improve legal and regulatory approaches to new technologies and related business models. Matthew’s client base includes central banks, large financial institutions, asset managers and fintechs. One of his specialisms concerns providing advice to digital currency and tokenisation stakeholders.

Panel Discussion: The Future Of CBDCs, The Impact Of CBDCs On Cross Border Payments And The Importance Of Interoperability

Musheer is the Founder & Managing Director of FinStep Asia, which is building Asia’s next generation of Businesses. FinStep Asia enables Corporates and Scaleups in their innovation journey through Corporate innovation, venture building, growth advisory, bespoke research and accelerator programs.  Musheer is one of the main contributors in building the Fintech ecosystem in Hong Kong as the cofounder and board member of Fintech Association of Hong Kong.

He is on several advisory boards and a mentor/advisor to several startups, while a regular guest lecturer at many universities in Hong Kong and Singapore. He is cofounder of IndiaTech HK, a platform bridging Indian & Chinese tech ecosystem via Hong Kong. He is also the Global Ambassador for Tokyo Metropolitan Government.  He is a regular contributor and author of articles on Fintech, Digital Banking and Investment Banking and been quoted in various media channels, including on CNBC, Bloomberg, SCMP, Financial Times, Asian Investor, Economic Times, etc.

Topic: Blockchain Powered Digital Currencies: How Digital Currency Will Disrupt The Market And Provide A Road Map For Money Revolution

Dr.Albert Amanollahnejad has been an auditing, financial technology management services consultant at Aeen Behravesh Audit Firm since 2018. He is a member of national Technology Management Association and Institute of Certified Accountants. He joined the Faculty of Management & Accountancy at Azad University in September 2016 as an assistant professor in the Department of Management & Accountancy. He has had a wide range of teaching experience at undergraduate, Master and PhD levels.  He received his PhD in December 2015 and Certificate of Research Excellence for his PhD project. He has written more than 20 books in the field of Accounting, Finance and information system. His research interests are in Fintech, Blockchain Technology, Open Innovation, Sustainability, Investment Analysis, Risk Management and Management Accounting.

Topic: The Role Of The Public Sector And Public-private Cooperation In Digital Currency Growth

Following a decade in the United Kingdom and two years in Hong Kong, Tamara returned to Singapore in 2012. A multi-disciplinary Business Manager, her experience spans energy, financial services and fund management, covering trading floors in London, New York, and Asia. Tamara departed GIC Pte Ltd, Singapore’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, to embark on a portfolio career as the Head of Asia Pacific for the Official Monetary & Financial Institutions Forum, whilst also fulfilling demanding commitments as a dedicated mother, Coach and Consultant.

Tamara is a member of the UNDP’s Private Sector Advisory Group and UNESCAP’s Infrastructure Financing and Public-Private Partnership Network of Asia and the Pacific.  She works with industry groups to drive adoption of solutions to reduce common challenges within the finance ecosystem and is currently experimenting with the roll-out of a purpose-led virtual community for those interested in gender inclusion.

Topic: The Future Of Payments With CBDC: The Challenges Arising From The Digitalization Of Payments And Currency

Topic: Regulating Central Bank Digital Currencies: Towards A Conceptual Framework

Simon Hess is research associate and PhD candidate at the University of Salzburg. In his PhD thesis he investigates legal and economic aspects of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). He holds a master’s degree in Business Information Systems from the University of Göttingen. His master’s thesis dealt with stable coins and their potential application in machine to machine (M2M) payments. Apart from this, he is the vice chairman of the German NGO Monetative, which is concerned with research and education on the current and alternative monetary systems.

Topic: Revolutionizing Remittances: How Digital Currency Could Build A More Sustainable Global Economy

Tanvi Ratna is an advisor with premium, global and interdisciplinary experience in blockchain and policymaking. She has first-hand expertise in the blockchain regulatory environments of the world’s leading blockchain hubs. Previously, she was Blockchain lead at EY where she has handled government and enterprise projects, and for her work in blockchain policy was awarded a prestigious fellowship at the New America Foundation, Washington D.C. She has had a long career of policy work for leading global decision-makers, the US Foreign Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill, and several ministries and state governments, handling policy design, execution and liaison in live complex policy environments.

Her analyses have been featured in leading media houses such as Al Jazeera, The Diplomat, CoinTelegraph, Economic Times, Mint and others. She holds a Bachelors in engineering from Georgia Tech and a Masters in Public Policy from Georgetown University and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

Topic: Implementing A Retail CBDC: Lessons Learned And Key Insights

Raul Morales Resendiz is Division Manager of Financial Markets and Infrastructures at CEMLA, the Latin American and Caribbean central banking association, based in Mexico City.

Mr. Morales coordinates a team in charge of policy analysis, technical assistance and capacity building activities on payments, fintech, cybersecurity and market infrastructure issues. He ensures that the vehicles set for an effective regional cooperation on these subjects bring value to CEMLA’s Membership. He is responsible of the international coordination with the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI), the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other multilateral organizations in the relevant subjects under his portfolio. His research has focused on payments oversight, financial inclusion, cross-border payments, and more recently in new technologies, including distributed ledger technologies, Central Bank Digital Currencies and Machine Learning applied to the functioning and monitoring of payments and market infrastructures.

He launched the Fintech Forum in 2018, an initiative of central banks to better understand and respond to new technologies in the financial system. Within this, he successfully led a coalition of central banks experts aimed at evaluating design and implementation aspects of retail CBDC pilots. He is also a co-organizer of the Innovation Hub at CEMLA, a vehicle to support central banks to approach new technologies for regulatory and operational issues that are relevant for central banking tasks.

Mr. Morales was ad-hoc adviser to the Director General of CEMLA between 2013 and 2017.

He holds a master degree in Economics and Public Policy the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores Monterrey (ITESM), and a bachelor degree in Economics from the National University of Mexico (UNAM).

Topic: Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) As A Tool For E-money Interoperability

Post-Forum Workshop B: Dispelling CBDC Myths: Exploring Better Technological Approaches To CBDC

Thomas Kudrycki is one of the founding members of eCurrency and has been the company’s Chief Technology Officer from its inception. In this capacity he manages the development of all eCurrency technology and products and works with eCurrency customers, including the Central Banks, to architect and deploy specific eCurrency implementations.

Prior to eCurrency he has had an extensive career as a technology and product development leader in diverse US corporate environments from AT&T Bell Labs to various Silicon Valley startups. He has over 20 years of experience in large-scale technology development and management and holds a BS in Physics and Applied Mathematics, BS in Computer Science, MSEE in Computer Engineering and a certificate in Business Administration.

Panel Discussion: The Future Of CBDCs, The Impact Of CBDCs On Cross Border Payments And The Importance Of Interoperability

Zennon is the Founder and Director of Kapronasia, one of Asia’s leading providers of consulting services focusing on the fintech industry. Zennon has been involved in financial technology for over 20 years and covers all topics fintech and blockchain. Before Kapronasia, Zennon was the Global Banking Industry Manager for Intel based out of Shanghai, China and, prior to Intel, was the CIO for Citigroup Portugal. Zennon has testified in front of the U.S. Congress on issues of China fintech and is the author of ‘Chomping at the Bitcoin: The History and Future of Bitcoin in China’ published by Penguin. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Syracuse University and an MBA from INSEAD.

Topic: Creating A Trusted Global Digital Currency: The Spectrum Of Privacy And Confidentiality

Starting Robotic Process Automation journey since 2017, Eric has delivered values to Business Operations through his duties as Business Lead and Developer across various scales (Enterprise, Program of Works to Business Development) in Telecom Customer Services, Project Management, and IT Consulting, Managed and Professional Services.

With Internal and Business partners, he solves business problems via Automation, Data Insights and Agile ways of work.

Over his 15 years in the Managed Customer Services space, serving customers from enterprises, government agencies and SMEs, Eric knows what drives: Customer Time Reduction, Consistent Customer Advocacy, and Practical Cost Saving.

Eric holds a Master of Business Information Systems from Australia National University.

Topic: China’s Central Bank Digital Currency: Development Status And Potential Impacts?

Dr. Jiang is a Hauser Global Fellow affiliated with the Information Law Institute at New York University School of Law.  She is also the co-leader of the Central Bank Digital Currency project, cooperating with the China Center at Yale Law School, and a contributor of the RegTrax Initiative at the CodeX Center for Legal Informatics, Stanford Law School. She is admitted to the bars in China and the State of New York. Her research focuses on the interaction between law and technology, especially policies and regulations on emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, smart contracts, digital currencies, FinTech, and LegalTech. Her research interests also include computational law, comparative law, data rights, platform competition, and privacy issues.