- Opening Ceremony
- Asset Abu Dhabi
- Fintech Abu Dhabi
- R.A.C.E
- Capital Square
An accomplished business leader, philanthropist and published author, Sheikha Shamma bint Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan stands at the helm of multiple organisations that are accelerating the sustainability agenda in the Middle East. Driven by her ambition to create a better world for future generations, Sheikha Shamma’s foresight and strategic thinking has established her as a pioneer in developing national climate action strategies, building a circular economy, and forging pathways to gender balanced boards. Sheikha Shamma is the Executive Director of the recently established UAE Independent Climate Change Accelerators (UICCA), a non-partisan and collaborative entity that brings together the public and private sector, including academic institutions and non-governmental organisations to drive the nation’s commitment towards net zero by 2050. In tandem, she chairs the Board of Directors at Alliances for Global Sustainability, a for-profit organisation focused on connecting stakeholders to build innovative business models that ensure sustainability and circularity in all forms. Furthermore, Sheikha Shamma is Co-Founder of Aurora50, Founder of RESET MENA, and the Founder of the Sheikha Shamma bint Sultan Sustainability Initiatives.
Her Excellency Mariam bint Mohammed Saeed Hareb Almheiri is appointed as the Minister of Climate Change and Environment of the UAE. In this capacity, she leads the Ministry’s mission of spearheading the UAE’s drive to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change, protect the country’s ecosystems, and enhance its food and water security through developing and implementing effective measures, policies, and initiatives. Prior to her current role, Her Excellency Mariam Almheiri was appointed as Minister of State for Food and Water Security. Her responsibilities included monitoring national food stocks and water supply, channeling investments in food and water technology innovation, and building international partnerships in this area. Previously, Her Excellency Mariam Almheiri held the post of Minister of State for Food Security, where she oversaw the development of the necessary infrastructure to achieve the country’s food security objectives in line with the UAE Centennial 2071.
His Excellency, Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mashreq Bank. He was the CEO of Mashreq for nearly 30 years and under his leadership, Mashreq grew from a small local bank, to a leading customer centric financial institution in the region known for its innovative products and services. Furthermore, His Excellency is a member of the Board of Directors of Abdullah Al Ghurair Group of Companies, one of the biggest and most successful business groups in the United Arab Emirates and the Middle East, with operations spanning more than 20 countries and business roots stretching back half a century. His Excellency was elected as a speaker on the United Arab Emirates Federal National Council (UAE Parliament), from 2007 until 2011. Previously, he sat on the Board of Directors of major companies such as Emaar, Dubai Investments, Visa International, MasterCard, Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Co-Chairman of the Arab Business Council – World Economic Forum (WEF). He was also a member of the Consultative GCC Council for the GCC Leaders and President of The Knowledge Fund, and a member of the Board of Trustees of New York University, USA. His Excellency holds an Honours’ Degree from the California Polytechnic State University in Industrial Engineering.
Mr. Dinesh Khara is Chairman of the country’s largest Bank - State Bank of India. Having joined the bank as a Probationary Officer in 1984, he has rich experience in all facets of Banking. Before assuming office as Chairman, Mr. Khara has held several key positions in SBI such as MD (Global Banking & Subsidiaries), MD (Associates & Subsidiaries), MD & CEO (SBI Mutual Funds) and Chief General Manager - Bhopal Circle. He was also posted at Chicago for an overseas assignment. As Managing Director, he led the International Banking Group, Large Corporate and Treasury operations in addition to the non-banking subsidiaries of the Bank viz., SBI Cards, SBIMF, SBI Life, SBI General etc. He also seamlessly executed the merger of five erstwhile Associate Banks and Bhartiya Mahila Bank, with SBI. Additionally, he also headed the Risk, IT and Compliance functions of the bank at various points. Mr. Khara is a postgraduate in commerce from Delhi School of Economics and an MBA from FMS, New Delhi. He is also a Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers (CAIIB). Mr. Khara is passionate about reading and very keenly interested in using Analytics and Technology to make banking simpler and bank finance easily accessible.
Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ, is the CEO and Founder of Binance, the leading blockchain ecosystem behind the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Raised and educated in Canada, CZ started his career at Bloomberg Tradebook where he developed futures trading software for Wall Street. He then founded Fusion Systems which built high-frequency systems for brokers. Before launching Binance in July 2017, he was involved in various cryptocurrency companies, including serving as Head of Technology for Blockchain.info (now known as Blockchain.com), the first bitcoin blockchain explorer. As an engineer who developed trading software for traditional financial platforms and the son of a professor who was exiled from China, CZ is passionate about the transparency and efficiency of crypto. In 2020, CZ was recognized in Bloomberg 50 as one of the most influential people of the year who has changed the global business landscape. CZ studied computer science at Montreal’s McGill University.
Todd is president of Goldman Sachs International. He is a member of the Firmwide Management Committee, European Management Committee, Firmwide Conduct Committee, Firmwide Reputational Risk Committee and Global Inclusion and Diversity Committee. Todd joined Goldman Sachs in New York in 1992 in IBD's Financial Institutions Group (FIG). He relocated to Chicago in 1996 and became co-head of FIG Americas Banks and Specialty Finance from 2005 to 2007 and co-head of IBD's Midwest Region from 2006 to 2007. Todd relocated to London in 2007, where he served as co-head of FIG EMEA from 2007 to 2012 and global co-head of FIG from 2012 to 2017, and as a member of the IBD Executive and Operating committees. Todd relocated to Hong Kong in 2017 upon being named co-president of APEJ, and was subsequently named head of IBD APEJ later that year, roles he held until 2022. He also served as co-chair of the Asia Pacific Management Committee, Asia Pacific inclusion and Diversity Committee, Asia Pacific Sustainability Committee and as a member of the IBD Executive Committee. Todd was named managing director in 2000 and partner in 2006. Todd earned an MM from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a BBA from Iowa State University.
Dr. Samer Haj-Yehia is the Chairman of Bank Leumi (the oldest and largest bank in Israel), a member of the WEF’s Community of Chairpersons, and an adjunct professor in Finance and Economics at Reichman University. He has extensive management experience and is a leading subject-matter expert in global Fintech, Banking, Investment Management and Capital Markets, covering multi-asset classes from multidisciplinary perspectives— Management, Legal, Accounting, Finance and Economics. Dr. Haj-Yehia has Board and Chairperson experience in various industries, including at Strauss Group, BIG Shopping Centers Group, Hadassah Medical Center, and the Council for Higher Education. He has also served as a member of public and governmental committees, as well as a social volunteer. He practiced Investment Management and Trading at Fidelity and GMO, Economic and Strategic Consultancy at Analysis Group and Deloitte, and interned in law at Herzog law firm. He won numerous prestigious awards in Research and Teaching, including from Harvard, MIT, IDC, the Hebrew University, Fulbright and the Bank of Israel. Samer holds a PhD in Economics from MIT, MBA in Banking and Finance (summa cum laude, class rank: first), LLB in Law, MA in Economics (magna cum laude), BA in Accounting and Economics (magna cum laude), and a Postgraduate Diploma in Auditing and Accounting. Dr. Haj-Yehia was admitted to the Israel Bar in 1999 and is a CFA charterholder.
Mark Carney is currently the UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance and Co-Chair for the Glasgow Finance Alliance for Net Zero, a practitioner-led coalition working to increase the financial sector’s ambition on climate change and accelerate the transition to a net-zero economy. Mark is a member of the Arnhold Distinguished Fellowship Program Board within Conservation International. Mark was previously Governor of the Bank of England (from 2013 to 2020), and Governor of the Bank of Canada (from 2008 to 2013). Internationally, Mark was Chair of the Financial Stability Board (from 2011 to 2018), He chaired the Global Economy Meeting and Economic Consultative Committee of the Bank for International Settlements (from 2018-2020) and was First Vice-Chair of the European Systemic Risk Board (from 2013-2020). Mark is also an external member of Stripe’s Board, a global technology company building economic infrastructure for the internet. He is Vice Chair of Brookfield Asset Management and Chair of the Chatham House Panel of Senior Advisers. Mark is a member of the Global Advisory Board of PIMCO, the Group of Thirty, the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum, as well as the boards of Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Peterson Institute for International Economics, The Hoffman Institute for Global Business and Society at INSEAD and Senior Counselor to Macro Advisory Partners Mark was born in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, Canada in 1965. After growing up in Edmonton, Alberta, he obtained a bachelor degree in Economics from Harvard and a masters and doctorate Degrees in Economics from Oxford. After a thirteen-year career with Goldman Sachs, Mark was appointed Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada in 2003. In 2004, he became Senior Associate Deputy Minister of Finance. He held this position until his appointment as Governor of the Bank of Canada in February 2008.
Arnaud Leclercq consolidates 25 years of growing business experience within emerging markets where he lived and still often travels to. Prior to Lombard Odier, he was a Managing Director of Credit Suisse in Zurich. Arnaud Leclercq is Partner of Lombard Odier Group and Group Managing Director. Responsible since 2006 of the New Markets, he is also supervising the UK Private Clients business. He completed law studies, holds an MBA from HEC Paris and is a graduate of Harvard Business School. PhD summa cum laude from Sorbonne in geopolitics.
Byju Raveendran is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of BYJU’S, the world's largest edtech company. Born in a small village in Kerala, Byju’s passion for teaching intersected with a real need in society for personalised, accessible, and engaging education. Since 2008, Byju’s unique brand of teaching has transformed his passion into a global edtech company with 150+ million learners on the app and products in 120 countries. Over the years, Byju has built a powerful and talented team of visionary founders and entrepreneurs to further the company’s mission to create lifelong learners through tech-driven education. Based in Bangalore with his family, Byju is an avid teacher, traveller, and FC Barcelona fan. Byju is part of the Bloomberg 50 2020 list and the recipient of the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the year award-Startup (2018, 2020), Manorama Newsmaker of the Year Award (2019), Fortune 40 under 40 Award (2018), CNBC Young Turk of the Year (2017) and Express IT Newsmaker of the Year (2017).
Ali Hussein is the Chief Executive Officer at Eros Now, South Asia’s premier OTT platform. He is also a part of Eros Group’s leadership team and an advisor to Eros Investments , a venture with assets in media, sports, blockchain, digital commerce and gaming. Eros Investments’ portfolio companies include Eros Media World, Eros Now, Xfinite and IMMERSO. As an advisor, Ali has played a pivotal role in venture’s expansion into the Web 3.0 space, including the recent launch of IMMERSO, a global metaverse project. Ali joined Eros Now in 2018 to lead the brand's vision of becoming consumers' first choice for digital entertainment. The surge in paid subscribers, technology innovations, and global distribution is a testament to what the team has achieved in the last few years. Ali has been a senior executive in the media, entertainment and technology businesses for over two decades. He has been Board Advisor to Discovery Networks and various other start-ups. He has also worked with Google/YouTube, where he ran the charter for content and product partnerships in South Asia, a joint venture between Network 18 and Viacom (Viacom 18), where he led the digital media business across all consumer media brands, and with Hungama where he managed the portfolio of distribution and content acquisition globally. Ali's expertise lies in leveraging his deep understanding of the customer to build scaled enterprises.
Caroline D. Pham was sworn in as a Commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on April 14, 2022. She is a recognized leader in financial services compliance and regulatory strategy and policy. Prior to her appointment, Pham was a managing director at a large global bank and held various senior roles where she advised boards of directors, executive and senior management, policymakers, and regulators. She is a graduate of UCLA and the George Washington University Law School.
Nouriel Roubini is CEO of Roubini Macro Associates LLC, a global macroeconomic consultancy firm in New York. He is also Chief Economist for Atlas Capital Team LP and Co-Founder of Rosa & Roubini Associates. He served as a professor of economics at NYU’s Stern School of Business from 1995 to 2021, and prior to this served on the faculty of Yale University’s economics department. He Co-Founded Roubini Global Economics from 2005 to 2016 – a firm whose website was named one of the best economics web resources by Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, and the Economist. From 1998 to 2000, he served as the White House's senior economist for international affairs at the Council of Economic Advisors and later as senior advisor to the U.S. Treasury Department's undersecretary for international affairs. Dr. Roubini received an undergraduate degree at Bocconi University in Milan, and a doctorate in economics at Harvard University. Co-Author of “Crisis Economics: A Crash Course in the Future of Finance” (Penguin Press, 2010), he has recently released "MegaThreats: Ten Dangerous Trends That Imperil Our Future and How to Survive Them" (Little Brown, October 2022).
Shikhar Dhawan is a Record-breaking Cricketer (conferred by the prestigious Arjuna Award, India), Entrepreneur, Investor & Philanthropist. He is raising the bar through conscious efforts addressing a spectrum of global business, technology and sports initiatives through his umbrella group, Da-One. He is now expanding the horizons of his Business Group Da-One by actively foraying into the World of Venture Capital. Whilst he continues to deliver incredible success in International Cricket & Indian Premier League where he is the incoming Punjab Kings captain for the IPL franchise (2023), Dhawan is running successful and impactful organisations across the globe – from hospitality to entertainment to global venture capital & innovation. Simultaneously, he is the preferred icon for brand endorsements; especially technology enabled start-ups redefining value chains in their respective industries – and has committed to equity allocation in emerging propositions such as Upstox, Stance Beam & Sarva etc. In addition, he remains actively committed to social welfare programmes, inspiring the next generation of social change through leading by example. Shikhar’s philanthropic efforts will be appreciated by way of felicitation of an award at the House of Lords (UK) in early 2023.
Deepak Chopra, founder of The Chopra Foundation, a non-profit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a modern-day health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. Chopra is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He is the author of over 90 books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. For the last thirty years, Chopra has been at the forefront of the meditation revolution and his 92nd book, Abundance (Harmony Books) provides an enlightening guide to success, fulfillment, wholeness, and plenty, offering practical advice on how to cultivate a sense of abundance in times of fear and insecurity. TIME magazine has described Dr. Chopra as “one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century”.
Courtney Powell runs operations at venture capital firm 500 Global, where she focuses on scaling the firm across new and existing markets globally. Her ties to 500 Global go back to 2012, when she founded PublikDemand, a graduate of 500’s Global Accelerator Program. She went on to become CEO of Agent Pronto, one of the largest real estate agent referral services in North America, which was acquired by Fidelity National Title Group. Courtney was also the Head of Corporate Development at Keller Williams, the largest real estate franchise in the world. She established the company’s first corporate innovation program, and worked with Keller Capital to invest and acquire tech companies in the real estate space. Courtney was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2012, received the Twilio Doer Award in 2013, and became a Google Business Leader in 2015. She attended the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied French and Corporate Communication.
Kevin O’Leary is the Chairman of O’Leary Funds the Manager of the publically traded family of O’Leary Global Equity and Income Funds. He also serves on the board of The Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. He is a member of Boston’s 107 year old Hamilton Trust. Kevin O’Leary is a contributing columnist to CTV, BNN and the Bell Media Radio Network. He is a contributor to CNBC, ABC News and Good Morning America and an entrepreneur/investor co-host for the Discovery Channels Project Earth series that explores innovative ways man could reverse global warming implementing large scale geo-engineering infrastructure projects. He is also an investor/host of ABC Television’s Emmy Award winning venture capital reality program “Shark Tank” produced my Mark Burnet/Sony/ABC. Kevin has been the brand Ambassador of Maven Global Access in Abu Dhabi since 2021, a program powered by the Abu Dhabi Investment office, supporting women and minority businesses in their global expansion to Abu Dhabi. Kevin O’Leary is an active photographer, guitarist and author of three number #1 best selling books “Cold Hard Truth”, “Men, Women and Money” and “Family Kids and Money”.
Rick Lacaille is executive vice president and senior investment advisor. He also leads and coordinates the environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives at State Street. In his current role, he provides enterprise leadership for our ESG program to ensure a well coordinated and optimized approach to our ESG policies, products, initiatives and thought leadership. Prior to his current role, Rick was the global chief investment officer (CIO) at State Street Global Advisors from 2008 to April, 2021. He was also the global head of Quantitative Active Equities and European CIO. Before joining State Street Global Advisors in 2000, he held various roles in Quantitative Fund Management and Research at Gartmore Investment Management, including the head of Quantitative Research and Structured Equities. Rick has a Bachelor of Science (Honors) degree in operational research from Lancaster University and Master of Science degree in econometrics from London Guildhall University. Rick is a member of the MSCI Advisory Council and Chair of the Investment Leaders Group of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership. He is a writer and broadcaster on investment issues and speaks frequently at industry conferences.
As a law graduate of ICADE, Cristina started her professional career in La Caixa as a Financial Broker. After completing an MBA in UC Berkeley, she decided to specialize in technology and joined salesforce.com, developing the Spanish market first and then leading a pan-European team. She joined Informatica leading the finance and telecommunications sector for the Iberian market. In 2012, Cristina started in the European Headquarters of Google, leading different support and sales areas related to the development of Google Cloud in EMEA. During 2019, Cristina was named European General Manager for Chronicle, leading the security offering in Google Cloud for the European market. She is a proud mother of three and a big football fan!
Mr. Jean-Paul Villain is a Director in the Strategy and Planning Department and a permanent invitee to ADIA’s Investment Committee. Mr. Villain began his career as an Assistant Professor of Finance at Paris University, before joining Banque Paribas in 1971 as a Portfolio Manager and later Head of Investments in the Asset Management Department. He joined ADIA in 1982, as Regional Manager for Europe before being appointed as a Senior Fund Manager for all financial assets. He returned to Paribas in 1987 to become the first Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of the newly created Paribas Asset Management Company. In September 1992, he re-joined ADIA as Regional Manager for European Assets before being promoted in 1995 to the position of Advisor and then Senior Advisor for Investment Strategy. He then became Head of the Tactical Asset Allocation Unit and later Head of the Strategy Unit. Mr. Villain is a member of the Investment Committee of the Abu Dhabi Retirement and Benefits Fund, the pension fund of the citizens of Abu Dhabi. From 2004 to 2013 he was a Director of the Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) and a Governor of the British Community School in Abu Dhabi (BSAK). In December 2014 he was made Officer of the British Empire by Her Majesty the Queen of England. In December 2020 the President of the French Republic promoted him to “ Officier de la Legion d’Honneur” He was educated in Paris in Politics, Economics and Sciences (Applied Mathematics).
Diana Amoa is the CIO of Long Biased Strategies at Kirkoswald, based in New York. Prior to this role, Diana was a managing director and senior portfolio manager at JPMorgan Asset Management co managing in excess of USD 10 bn in global fixed income and currency strategies Diana has also previously held EM fixed income and FX trading roles at UBS, Société Générale and Standard Chartered Bank. Diana holds an MSc and MBA from the University of Oxford, where she attended as a Rhodes Scholar She also holds a BSc in finance and banking from the University of Reading and is a CFA charter holder.
Kimberly Smith is Chief Capital Formation Officer at Techstars, she is responsible for the firm's fundraising and investor relations activities as well as new business development. Previously, Kimberly was a Partner/Director of Marketing and Investor Relations at Owl Creek Asset Management. Where she was responsible for managing relationships with Owl Creek’s investors as well as forging new relationships with prospective investors. Prior to joining Owl Creek, she was in Client Service at Davidson Kempner Capital Management. Additionally, Kimberly was an Assistant Vice President at ABNAMRO,where she worked on the global futures marketing effort in addition to trading energy, coffee, sugar and cocoa. She began her career at Ziff Brothers Investments. Kimberly received her M.B.A. from Fordham University and her B.A. from Middlebury College. Kimberly is the Chair of the Board of Trustee and Chair of the Investment Committee at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School.
Hazem Ben-Gacem is Investcorp’s Co-Chief Executive Officer with a near 30 years of experience in successfully leading private equity investments across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Today, he chairs the investment committees of the firm’s Private Equity activities in Europe, Middle East and Asia, as well as chairing the investment committee of the Asia Food Brands Fund. In addition, he oversees the firm’s client and investor relationships globally, its infrastructure investment business and its GCC Private Wealth platform. Amongst others, Hazem sits on the Investcorp Group’s Executive, Operating and Risk Management Committees. Prior to his co-CEO appointment, Hazem led Investcorp’s European private equity and Technology private equity teams, based out of London. During that period, Hazem was directly involved in over 35 of Investcorp’s private equity investments in Europe and North America. Prior to joining Investcorp in 1994, Hazem was a member of Credit Suisse First Boston’s mergers and acquisitions team in New York. In addition to his position with Investcorp, Hazem is currently the chairman of the board of the Italian men’s luxury apparel company Corneliani and the Hong Kong based premium food retailer City Super Supermarkets. Hazem holds a bachelor’s degree with honours from Harvard University. He is also the founder of the Harvard Office in Tunisia, the first formal presence for Harvard University in the Arab world and currently serves on the Advisory Board of the University of Oxford’s Middle East Centre.
Divya Gokulnath is the co-founder of BYJU’S – the world’s leading edtech company. As a teacher and member of the board, she is a firm believer in curiosity-led learning and putting students in the driver’s seat. After playing a key role in setting up and expanding brand BYJU’S in the Indian market, Divya is now actively building and scaling BYJU’S international business across multiple countries. A strong supporter of women at work, and mother to two young children, Divya strikes the delicate balance between work and life perfectly. Featured on Fortune 40 under 40 entrepreneur 2022 list, ranked No 2 in the Worlds’ most powerful women in starts up 2022 by Fortune Global, winner of Fortune Most Powerful Women (2022, 2021, 2020), Express AWE Awards - Woman Entrepreneur of the Year, Education (2022), MAKERS Women Entrepreneur of the Year (2021), ASU GSV Power of Women (2021) award, Business Today's Most Powerful Women (2019, 2020, 2021) award, LinkedIn Top Voices in Education (2019,2020) (India and Global) and Forbes Asia’s 25 Most Powerful Women (2020), Divya is a strong advocate of cherishing childlike curiosity.
Basketball champion and NBA All-Star turned tech executive, Metta’s app XvsX is transforming how the sports world operates. He was an integral part of several NBA franchises, including the Los Angeles Lakers where he won a memorable championship. In addition to his successful app, he has leveraged a strong network in the sports sphere to make sound investments in startups and other innovative entities. Metta recently appeared in a hit Netflix documentary “Malice in the Palace,” and has been an outspoken advocate of mental health.
Gautam Sharma is Co-CEO at BH Digital, having previously led the principal investments team at Brevan Howard and worked with Alan Howard to oversee Alan Howard family office’s investments and strategic businesses in crypto, Web 3.0 and digital assets. He has been instrumental in structuring and supporting Alan’s digital assets efforts across asset management, tech infrastructure opportunities and his family office investments. Prior to joining Brevan Howard in January 2021, Gautam worked as an operating partner for 5 years at Steadview Capital. Gautam also has 6 years of strategy consulting experience from his time as a Junior Partner at McKinsey & Co.’s London office.
As well as co-founding Creator Ventures, Caspar Lee co-founded Influencer.com (one of Europe’s largest influencer marketing companies) and Margravine (a talent management joint venture with WME). Caspar is an early YouTube Creator with an audience of >15 million across channels, including around 7 million subscribers on his main YouTube channel.
Evan Auyang is the Group President of Animoca Brands, a Hong Kong-based multinational blockchain technology and investment company focused on developing the digital property rights ecosystem, including play-to-earn games, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), decentralized finance (DeFi), blockchain marketplaces, infrastructure and more. Auyang is also the Chairman of the Board of Civic Exchange, a non-partisan public policy think tank. He serves as an Independent Non-Executive Director on three boards: the Urban Renewal Authority, Sun Hung Kai & Co. Ltd., and Asia Financial Holdings Limited. He is an Advisor for Our Hong Kong Foundation, and serves on the Innovation and Technology Advisory Committee of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, the Transport Policy Committee of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, the Development Fund Committee of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, the Advisory Council for Institute at Brown for Environment and Society for Brown University, as well as the Board of Advisors of Hong Kong 2050 is Now. In addition, Mr. Auyang is a lecturer at the Hong Kong Academy of Politics and Public Policy.
David Chaum is the original Founder of the decentralized xx network and CEO of Elixxir.io. Elixxir is the developer of Speakeasy, the world’s first truly anonymous decentralized social media platform. David is widely recognized as the creator of digital cash. His invention of blind digital signatures revolutionized security and privacy protection in information-sharing, voting and in the world of crypto currencies, including Bitcoin. His mix network designs led to the implementation of onion routing-based platforms like Tor and in the field of distributed computing, he published the first formally described blockchain and coined the term “multi-party computing” or “MPC.” MainNet launch for the xx network, the first quantum resistant global, high performance blockchain, was in November 2021. The network's next generation mix network technology. cMix, gives Speakeasy its best-in-class privacy. Chaum earned a PhD in Computer Science from UC Berkeley and taught at NYU Graduate School of Business and the University of California; he also founded the International Association for Cryptologic Research and the cryptography group at the Center for Mathematics and Computer Science in Amsterdam.
Hadley Gamble is a CNBC Anchor and Senior International Correspondent covering energy, geopolitics, and financial markets. Hadley anchors ‘Capital Connection’ from CNBC’s Middle East headquarters based within Abu Dhabi Global Markets. The show, broadcast daily, gives you a reading on Asia’s markets mid-day and sets you up for the Middle East and European trading day. Hadley presents CNBC’s popular documentary franchise ‘Access: Middle East’, where she speaks to world leaders, international CEOs and philanthropists. Past guests have included Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, His Majesty King Abdullah of Jordan, former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Hadley is a key host of many international panels, she was the last Western journalist to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin in October 2021 before the war in Ukraine. She has continued to cover the Russia-Ukraine conflict speaking to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, EC President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson live on CNBC. Hadley is a passionate advocate for women in the workplace and their advancement around the world. She moderated the first ever women’s business forum in Saudi Arabia and provided exclusive content to CNBC as the Kingdom lifted its decades-old driving ban. Hadley has worked for ABC News and Fox News in Washington, D.C. producing news programmes and covering national and international political events, including the 2008 presidential debates, election night 2008 and the inauguration of US President Barack Obama.
Michael Novogratz is the Founder and CEO of Galaxy Digital. He was formerly a Partner and President of Fortress Investment Group LLC. Prior to Fortress, Mr. Novogratz spent 11 years at Goldman Sachs, where he was elected Partner in 1998. Mr. Novogratz served on the New York Federal Reserve’s Investment Advisory Committee on Financial Markets from 2012 – 2015. Mr. Novogratz serves as the Chairman of The Bail Project and has made criminal justice reform a focus of his family’s foundation. He also sits on the Board of Overseers at NYU Langone Medical Center and is a board member of Princeton Varsity Club and Jazz Foundation of America. Mr. Novogratz received an AB in Economics from Princeton University and served as a helicopter pilot in the US Army.
Arjun Sethi is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and executive who cofounded Tribe Capital, a $1.5B venture capital firm focused on capturing a perpetual edge in venture and crypto using data science. Notable investments include Apollo.io, Bolt, Carta, Digital Currency Group, FTX, Kraken, Instabase, Relativity Space, and Shiprocket. Arjun was previously a Partner at Social Capital where he led the Venture Team consisting of six full time GPs with a broad focus on early stage investing in the consumer and enterprise sector. Arjun has a long history of sourcing, winning and leading early stage deals. Arjun’s investments at Social Capital include notable companies such as Front, Carta, Cloud Kitchens and Relativity Space. Arjun was also on the team that helped lead the Social Capital Hedosophia IPO, a SPAC that merged with Virgin Galactic. Arjun is considered one of the top 100 angels in the valley with advisory, direct, and secondary investments across stages including Snapchat, Lyft, OpenDoor, Gusto, Truecaller, and Rubrik. After his second company MessageMe was subsequently acquired by Yahoo, he joined the executive team at Yahoo leading mobile and emerging products where he drove mobile product usage from 100M to 1B monthly active uniques. Before MessageMe, Arjun was a Founder and CEO of mobile gaming company LOLapps which he grew to 100M monthly users and for $240M.
Shmuel Chafets is founder and Chairman of Target Global where he oversees the early stage practice, co-founding projects and strategic development of the firm. He is also the CEO of Target Global Acquisition Corp I, a NASDAQ listed SPAC. Throughout his 15 year career as an investor, Shmuel has invested in over 50 companies across SaaS, B2C and Fintech. His investments at Target Global Include Auto1 (AG1), McMakeler, TravelPerk, Patiant21, Fresha, MAYD, Voyantis, Cybellum (Sold to LG), Zooz (Sold to PayU) and others. He is also Chairman of The Vets, a home veterinary care business that he co-founded with Target Global. Prior to Target, Shmuel was a Partner at Berlin-based Hasso Plattner Ventures where he led the firm’s investments in iZettle (sold to PayPal) and Hansoft (sold to Perforce). He began his career in venture as a Partner at Giza Venture capital and as Co-founder of GPV, a pioneer investor in the CEE region. Shmuel has also co-founded a company in the gaming sector (LocaLoco, sold to Say Media Group) and a cybersecurity venture called Securing SAM. Shmuel began his professional career as a strategic and media consultant working in the Israeli parliament and government.
As a much revered and loved captain of Manchester United and the French National team, Patrice Evra is the consummate modern sportsman. He is a successful entrepreneur with his ‘I Love The Game’ brand, a glowing example of health and fitness, a motivational speaker and a massively influential social media personality. Nowadays, among a myriad of endeavours, he aims to help mentor and inspire people around the world to maximise their potential. In the latest chapter of his life, Evra’s main focus is to give back to others: whether it be joining the fight to end violence against children or promoting gender equality through charitable affiliations, spreading positivity with his I Love This Game movement, learning meditation techniques with Wim Hof, or shining a light on racism and mental health issues in football – Evra is a force of nature and his story is only just beginning.
Sandeep Bakshi is the head of European Investments for Prosus Ventures where he is responsible for sourcing and executing transactions and building out the Prosus Ventures portfolio in the region. Prior to his current role, he was a director in the Prosus and Naspers group M&A team responsible for large M&A and growth equity transactions across the group. He started his career at Citigroup in New York and relocated to London in 2012.
Kurtas is the founder & CIO of Vibrant Capital Partners. Kurtas has been a pioneer investor in the CLO market for over two decades, having played a foundational role in the market’s development across the U.S. and Europe. Prior to founding Vibrant, he launched the New York-based structured credit portfolio management effort for the Active Credit Portfolio Management Group of HypoVereinsbank (HVB). Prior to HVB, Kurtas was the Head of the Risk and Analytics Team at UNIQA Alternative Investments GmbH (UAI), a structured credit asset management firm based in Vienna. He was a member of the team that managed over $1bn CLO assets predominantly focused on Junior and Mezzanine CLO tranches and a sizeable portfolio of European assets. Kurtas has attended graduate studies in finance at Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna, Austria, and holds a B.S. in physics from Bilkent University, Turkey.
Dr. Karim El Solh is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Gulf Capital, a leading thematic Private Equity growth and buyout firm operating across the Middle East, North Africa, GCC and Southeast Asia, investing across several asset classes including Private Equity, Growth Capital and Real Estate. Under his leadership, Gulf Capital has been associated with some of the region’s most prominent private equity and mezzanine transactions and has won numerous awards including Best Private Equity Firm and Best Private Debt Firm in the Middle East. The Firm currently manages over $ 2.5 billion of assets across 7 funds and investment vehicles. Dr. El Solh is also the co-Managing Partner of Gulf Related, a leading real estate development company launched in partnership with the Related Companies. Dr. El Solh is a board member of the Global Private Capital Association (formerly EMPEA) and the Chairman of the GPCA Middle East Council. Dr Karim El Solh recently joined some of the world’s leading CEOs in supporting HRH The Prince of Wales’ Terra Carta, which provides a roadmap for businesses to move towards a sustainable future by 2030. The charter’s vision to help build an inspiring, inclusive, equitable, prosperous, and sustainable future. He is also a member of the Sustainable Markets Initiative and the Private Equity Taskforce on Sustainability. He is on the Board of Advisors of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, a Board member of Georgetown’s Center for Financial Markets and Policy, a member of the Future of Work Initiative Advisory Group and on the Board of Trustees of the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation (ADMAF). Dr. El Solh has been named as one of the Top 100 CEOs in the Gulf by CEO Magazine, one of the 500 Most Influential Arabs by Arabian Business Magazine and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
Stuart Sopp is the CEO and Founder of Current, a leading U.S. financial technology platform, serving Americans working to create a better future for themselves. From 1999 - 2014 he spent his career developing and trading financial systems at Morgan Stanley, Citi and Deutsche Bank. He started Current after recognizing that the growing inequality gap could be addressed through innovation in technology to improve financial outcomes for everyone.
Ittai Ben-Zeev was born in 1975. He is the TASE CEO since January 2017. Prior to joining TASE, Ben-Zeev served as Executive Vice President, Head of Capital Markets Division, Bank Leumi and was also a member of the Bank's Management (2013 - 2016). Between the years 2010 - 2013 he was the Deputy Head of Capital Markets Division in Bank Leumi and during 2007 - 2010. Ben-Zeev managed the Forex and Derivatives Dealing Room of the Bank. Previously, he served as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch Israel, as well as Merrill Lynch Technology Group in London.
Alexander Lipton is Global Head, Research & Development at Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Professor of Practice at Khalifa University, Visiting Professor and Dean’s Fellow at the Jerusalem Business School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Connection Science Fellow at MIT. Alex is a Co-Founder of Sila – a company providing banking, digital wallet & ACH payments API for software teams, and an advisory board member at several fintech companies worldwide. In 2006–2016, Alex was Co-Head of the Global Quantitative Group and Quantitative Solutions Executive at Bank of America. Earlier, he was a senior manager at Citadel, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, and Bankers Trust. At the same time, Alex held visiting professorships at EPFL, NYU, Oxford University, Imperial College, and the University of Illinois. Prior to becoming a quant, Alex was a Full Professor of Mathematics at the University of Illinois, and a Consultant at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Robert Mitchnick serves as the Head of Digital Assets for BlackRock. He is a member of the Corp Exec-COO Executive team. Rob is responsible for driving BlackRock's digital assets strategy, including working with internal business units to develop and execute on strategic initiatives involving distributed ledger technology ("DLT") and digital assets. Prior to joining BlackRock, Robbie spent time at CPP Investment Board in Public Markets and Private Investments, and at Ripple. During his time at Ripple, Robbie co-authored 'A Fundamental Valuation Framework for Cryptoassets' along with John Bates Clark medal winner Susan Athey. Robbie has BA & BCOM degrees from Queen's University and an MBA from Stanford, where he graduated as an Arjay Miller Scholar and the Robichek Award winner in Finance. He holds a Blockchain Technologies Certification from MIT Sloan, and is a CFA Charterholder.
Jonathan Medved is the Founder and CEO of OurCrowd, the leading online global venture investment platform. Named by the New York Times among the “top 10 most influential Americans who have impacted Israel,” Medved is a serial entrepreneur and investor, and one of the pioneers of Israel’s venture capital industry. A California native, Medved moved to Israel in his 20s, and successfully built and exited several startups. These include MERET Optical Communications sold to Amoco; multilingual leader Accent Software (Nasdaq: ACNTF); and mobile video platform Vringo (NYSE:VRNG). In 1994, Medved was a co-founder of Israel Seed Partners, one of Israel’s first venture capital funds, which invested $260M in over 60 companies including Shopping.com (sold to EBay) , BusinessLayers (sold to Netegrity/CA) , Cyota (sold to RSA), and Compugen (Nasdaq:CGEN). Founded in 2013, OurCrowd is the leading online global venture investment platform with over 215,000 accredited members, $1.9 billion in funding commitments, 340+ portfolio companies, 39 venture funds, 59 exits, and five incubators. PitchBook has rated OurCrowd as “Israel’s most active venture investor” every year since 2013.
Mr. Sinha served as the Chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for a period over six years between 2011 and 2017. During his stewardship SEBI is credited with having brought in significant regulatory amendments in areas such as Takeover Code, Foreign Portfolio Investors, Alternate Investment Funds, REITIs, InVITs., Corporate Governance etc. Prior to this; Mr. Sinha was the Chairman and Managing Director at UTI Asset Management Company Pvt Ltd from 2005 until February 2011. Preceding this, he was the Joint Secretary in Department of Economic Affairs at Ministry of Finance and looked after Banking Division and Capital Markets Division – including external commercial borrowings, pension reforms and foreign exchange management functions.
Henri Arslanian is the co-founder and managing partner of Nine Blocks Capital Management, an institutional-grade hedge fund focused exclusively on digital assets, with a market-neutral crypto fund focused on generating alpha from inefficiencies in crypto markets using relative value, arbitrage, and quantitative strategies. Henri was previously a partner and global crypto leader at PwC. In that role, he advised many of the world’s leading crypto exchanges, investors, financial institutions, and tech firms on their crypto initiatives, as well as numerous governments, regulators, and central banks on crypto regulatory and policy matters. With over 500,000 LinkedIn followers, Henri is a TEDx and global keynote speaker, a best-selling published author, and is regularly featured in global media, including Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN, BBC, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and the Financial Times. Henri was named by LinkedIn as one of the 2022 global Top Voices in Finance and is the host of the CryptoCapsules™ social media video series as well as The Future of Money podcast and newsletter. Henri was named by Onalytica as the #1 most influential individual on Finance globally on LinkedIn out of 50k+ individuals working at the top professional services and management consulting firms in the world.
Chuka Umunna is an investment banker who has spent two decades in law, public policy, and finance. He is a Managing Director and Head of EMEA ESG for J.P. Morgan. In this role, he co-leads the firm's global ESG investment banking team, which advises corporate clients across all major industry verticals on how to improve their sustainability credentials, optimize value and mitigate risk through effective ESG integration, and on how to access ESG-focused capital. In Europe, the Middle East and Africa he co-ordinates J.P. Morgan’s investment banking coverage of clients in emerging green sectors, and he also oversees the franchise’s own efforts to integrate ESG into its operations and business activities in the region. Before joining JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s Corporate & Investment Bank in April 2021, he was Global Co-Head of ESG at Edelman, the world’s biggest strategy and communications advisory firm. In addition, from 2020 until 2021 he served as a non-executive director for leading private equity firms BC Partners and Vista Equity Partners on the board of their portfolio company, Advanced, the UK’s third largest software company. He was a Member of the UK Parliament from 2010 to 2019, during which time he served in a number of senior roles in the UK parliament including as the UK's Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. Originally a lawyer by profession, prior to his election to the UK Parliament he worked as a corporate employment law solicitor for international law firm Herbert Smith Freehills LLP for several years.
Kinga Bosse is the Chief Financial Officer of Lukka, the leading provider of middle and back office enterprise data & software solutions for the crypto asset industry. Before joining Lukka, Kinga was the Global Head of Strategic Investments and Partnerships at State Street. With more than 15 years of experience in financial services, including enterprise transformation, change management, M&A, divestiture, and strategy, she is an asset to the company during a period of exponential growth. Prior to State Street, Kinga worked on teams at AIG, Houlihan Lockey, and PWC and the International Monetary Fund. Dr. Bosse earned her Ph.D. from the University of Melbourne, and holds a Masters of Economics from Central European University and an Ms.C. in Finance from Corvinus University. She served as a visiting scholar at Princeton University to work on operations research in stochastic finance for the Financial Engineering Department.
Xian leads the design and implementation of the digital asset strategy across HSBC’s private banking and retail wealth customer base. Together with a committed team, he’s helping to drive HSBC’s consumer division into the future of Web 3.0. Previously, Xian was Chief Investment Officer of HSBC’s retail wealth business and Global Head of Research and Insights of the combined private banking and wealth segments. During his time at HSBC, he launched various investment and digital initiatives around investment content and product. Xian joined in 2012 as Senior Fund Manager in HSBC’s Asset Management Division, managing $7bn of multi-asset class investments for high-net worth clients. Prior to HSBC, Xian worked as Portfolio Manager at EFG International and Barclays, where he managed multi-asset portfolios for High-Net Worth and Ultra-High Net Worth clients. He is a non-executive board member at the University of Kent.
Mike Belshe is the driving force behind BitGo’s product and business strategy for delivering security, compliance, and custodial solutions for blockchain-based currencies. Prior to BitGo, Mike was one of the first engineers dedicated to building Chrome at Google. He is creator of the SPDY protocol and lead author of HTTP/2.0—the internet protocol responsible for loading web pages today. In 2003, Mike co-founded Lookout Software—an email search company acquired by Microsoft—and has held management positions at several startups, including Netscape, Good Technology, and Critical Path. Mike holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo. He is also an inventor with over 10 technology patents.
Dan Co-Founded Securrency in 2015 and serves as Chief Executive Officer and Lead Architect of Securrency's comprehensive, cutting-edge technology. Dan is a recognized expert in software development, artificial intelligence, process automation, cybersecurity, dynamic asset pricing, and enterprise architecture. Dan served as the Chief Innovation Officer of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency and is the recipient of the 2014 Fierce 15 award as a top government change agent. Dan holds degrees from the U.S. Naval Academy and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Keith is Chief Executive Officer and a founding partner of Forbes Family Trust (FFT), a leading multi- family office providing a deep breadth of consultative investment management and family office services designed to preserve and grow family wealth. FFT is part of the Stanhope Capital Group with combined assets of about $30 billion (as of 12/31/21). In addition to integrating investments, planning and lifestyle considerations, FFT also provides advice on wealthy family priorities, including estate and tax planning, mortgage and insurance, and philanthropic giving. Prior to founding FFT, Keith worked as Senior Managing Director and Corporate Counsel for Third Avenue Management LLC; previous to that he was a Senior Associate at Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett LLP, where his work encompassed domestic and international mergers and acquisitions, private equity investment, and corporate governance. Earlier in his career, Keith and his co‐authors published a book “The Family Office, Advising the Financial Elite.” Keith received an LL.M. in Taxation from NYU School of Law in 1997 and a J.D. from Hofstra University School of Law in 1996. He graduated cum laude with a B.A. from Tulane University in 1993.
Tan Bin Ru is the CEO (Southeast Asia) of OneConnect Financial Technology Co. Ltd., a leading technology-as-a-service platform for financial institutions. OneConnect is an associate company of Ping An Group and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2019 (NYSE: Opening CeremonyFT) and achieved dual primary listing in Hong Kong in 2022 (HKEX: 6638). Bin Ru is responsible for expanding the geographic reach of OneConnect’s fintech solutions outside of China. She is also the Co-Chairwoman of Blockchain Association Singapore. Bin Ru has over 20 years of experience in driving successful sales strategies and operational improvements at MNCs and startups. At Microsoft, she was the Regional Sales Director for One Commercial Partner and Small, Mid-market Corporate Customers for Southeast Asia. She also worked at Hewlett Packard for 10 years where she held various roles in Singapore and Houston in the areas of Sales Strategy, Alliance Management, Business Planning, Worldwide Operations, and Strategic Management. Bin Ru has been recognised by Singapore Fintech Association as one of the “Top 65 Women in Fintech” in 2022 for her exceptional contributions to the Singapore Fintech industry. She is also named an exemplary female role model in the tech sector at the inaugural Singapore 100 Women in Tech List, 2020.
Vinoda Basnayake is President of the MENA headquarters and Senior Advisor on Global Partnerships of Aspiration, a multi-billion dollar leading financial and sustainability services Public Benefit Corporation, which enables individuals, corporations, and governments around the world to reduce their carbon footprints through its global reforestation program and portfolio of high-quality, nature based carbon credits. Aspiration has been named one of the “World’s 50 Most innovative Companies” and “100 Most Brilliant Companies.” Prior to joining Aspiration, Basnayake was a partner at the international law firm Nelson Mullins LLP where he was the Chairman of the Sovereign Practice and the DC Government Relations Practice. Basnayake advised foreign governments on U.S. policy and on how best to enhance their relationships with the U.S. government and advocate their policy objectives.
Dmitry Tokarev started his career as a Quant, having graduated from Imperial College, London, with a Distinction in Risk Management and Financial Engineering. He later helped to build an asset management firm as its CTO and as a Partner. It was there he observed a gap in the market for Copper.co, as he found there were no feasible options available to institutional investors that provided the necessary security, control and speed for storing and trading digital assets. The firm has since grown to service more than 500 clients, across 4 offices and 350 staff.
Simone guides and operationalizes Elliptic’s vision to enable customers to effectively manage cryptoasset risk, grow their businesses and meet their regulatory obligations. She is a leading voice on financial crime prevention, compliance and regulation in the cryptoasset community. Simone has held senior roles in investment banking, financial crime and risk management at Kroll and Deutsche Bank and has a degree from the University of Cambridge.
Daniel is responsible for leading the firm and management of the funds. He has more than 30 years of experience successfully negotiating and navigating businesses through major financial crises over decades of market volatility with a track record of outperforming major benchmarks. Prior to founding Argentem Creek in 2015, Daniel was responsible for all emerging markets risk-taking activity within high-yield, structured, and distressed corporate credit at Cargill, Inc subsidiary, Black River Asset Management. Daniel was recruited by Cargill to help establish the business in 2004, building a successful and highly regarded global team, contributing to growing the firm to a peak of over $12 billion. Prior to joining Black River, Daniel was with JP Morgan New York for fifteen years, most recently as a Managing Director responsible for the distressed debt trading business. As the company underwent a series of mergers to become JP Morgan, Daniel managed various parts of the corporate credit business in emerging markets, most recently in the area of distressed corporate debt. He managed both proprietary risk as well as a client flow book. He was also responsible for managing sourcing efforts, directing credit analysts in the development of analytics, and working with legal counsel to develop strategies and manage legal issues related to workouts. While at JP Morgan, Daniel also established a private sector EM money markets business, reaching peak issuance volume of US$10 billion per year and developed the business into a leading EM corporate credit trading platform.
As an experienced business builder and innovator in Financial Services, Brett has accelerated revenue growth with institutional clients and mobilize FinTech companies. At Coinbase, Brett is making connections between finance 1.0 and the crypto economy. Coinbase is focused on the continued institutionalization of crypto. This includes continuing to expand the institutional client base, building out the coverage team, introducing new features and services that institutional investors expect, and continuing to educate the institutional community about crypto as an asset class and its role within a diversified portfolio. As the Global Head of Sales at Barclays, Brett hired and developed large teams while incubating and launching multiple lines of business. Brett pioneered the Digital role across sales & trading adopting new technologies and transforming existing platforms, including the creation of a digital bank prototype. Brett is currently on the Advisory Board of Eightfold.ai. helping them scale their AI based hiring and retention platform for Financial Services. In earlier experience, Brett held leadership roles in sales, trading, and structuring at JP Morgan, innovating credit derivatives and structuring platforms.
Esteban Buljevich is the Vice Chairman of Rothschild & Co for the MENA region. He specialises in global debt restructuring, cross-border bankruptcy, business reorganisations and turnarounds, distressed assets and special opportunities, and corporate and project finance. Before joining Rothschild & Co., he worked at ADCB and held many leadership positions at IFC/World Bank and practised banking law at Skadden, Arps. Buljevich is a seasoned investment banker with a dual financial and legal background and has more than 30 years of experience. Throughout his extensive career, he has been involved in complicated, cross-border restructuring deals in Latin America, MENA, Eastern Europe, and Asia. He was at the centre of the Asian, Russian, and Argentine financial crises of the late 1990s and early 2000s. He is the author of two best-selling publications- "Cross-border Debt Restructurings" by Euromoney Books and "Project Financing and the International Financial Markets" by Kluwer Academics. He is the MENA area anchor representative of the INSOL International Financiers' Group. Buljevich has graduate and post-graduate degrees in law from the University of Buenos Aires and Georgetown University and business administration and finance from L'École des Ponts et Chaussees and NYU. He was admitted to the New York and US Supreme Court bars.
As CEO of Hut 8, Jaime sets the strategic direction for the company that is defining the digital asset revolution. Since joining the organization, she has transformed Hut 8 into a high-performance operation: in addition to bringing a third mine online in North Bay, Ontario, she has pursued a uniquely diversified strategy and acquired five high performance computing data centres that will provide the innovative infrastructure to support companies in the nascent Blockchain and Web 3.0 industries. Jaime is passionate about advancing high-growth and future-forward technology companies, most recently serving as the Chief Commercial Officer at eStruxture Data Centers. Her 20-plus years of leadership experience also includes driving revenue programs as General Manager of Canada and APAC, with data center and cloud provider Cogeco Peer 1 (now Aptum). Previously, she held leadership roles with National Bank, BlackBerry, Bell Canada, and IBM Canada. Jaime sits on the boards of the Stratford Festival and Technation.
Oi-Yee is CEO of ADDX, Asia’s largest private market exchange. She has 20 years of capital raising and M&A advisory experience. Before joining ADDX in January 2020, Oi-Yee was with UBS for 6 years, where she was Head of Investment Banking for UBS Singapore. She joined UBS from Morgan Stanley, where she was Head of Singapore Investment Banking. Prior to Morgan Stanley, she ran the Southeast Asia real estate investment banking franchise for Nomura Singapore. She started her investment banking career with Citigroup, covering Singapore corporate and real estate clients. Between 2006 and 2008, Oi-Yee was Senior Vice President, Strategy and Business Development, for Parkway Holdings, the largest healthcare company in Asia, and helped create the Parkway Life REIT. Oi-Yee graduated from Nanyang Technological University with a Bachelor of Accountancy. She also has a Master of Business Administration from Manchester Business School.
Nili Gilbert, CFA, CAIA, is Vice-Chairwoman of Carbon Direct and Chair of the US$130+ Trillion Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero’s Advisory Panel of technical experts. Nili sits as the Chair of US Policy for the UN-Convened Asset Owner Alliance. She also serves as Chairwoman of the Investment Committees of the David Rockefeller Fund and the Synergos Institute, and is a Senior Advisor at the Boston Consulting Group. She previously co-founded Matarin Capital, one of the larger women-owned US asset managers. Nili is a recurring contributor on CNBC, Bloomberg, and recently delivered a climate-finance TED Talk nearing 2 million views. She has been honored as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Economic Club of New York. Nili received her BA, magna cum laude, from Harvard, her MBA from Columbia, and has completed programs in leadership and sustainability at Oxford and Stanford.
Feroz is a Partner at Roland Berger and focuses on Financial Services and Consumer and retail sectors. He is also the co-head of the Global Crypto Economy practice within Roland Berger. Feroz has advised some of the largest companies in the region as a leadership sounding board for CEOs. Among other projects he has been involved with building strategies for the world's largest bitcoin mining facility, developed clusters for regulated financial markets and worked with large sovereign funds and corporates on future proofing their strategies. Previously, Feroz was the founder of the Middle East, Turkey and Africa office of Intel Capital, a venture capital and private equity arm of Intel Corporation. Feroz holds an electrical engineering degree from The University of Maryland (honors) and an MBA from the Ross School of Business at The University of Michigan. He was a member of the Abu Dhabi Chapter of YPO (Young Presidents Organization, www.ypo.org), Is a charter member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs, www.tie.org), and currently belongs to numerous technical and leadership honor societies.
With over 20 years of professional experience in investment banking, corporate finance, securities issuance, M&A, private equity and executive management for multinational financial institutions, Kalin Metodiev, CFA, is a wealth of knowledge in investor wealth management and company growth, specifically in the digital assets space. As Co-founder and Managing Partner at Nexo, Metodiev heads the Sales, Trading and Corporate Finance departments at the company, which is one of the leading regulated digital assets institutions. Metodiev has substantial expertise in institutional offerings, following a tenure at Prudential Securities, Allianz and Metlife, among others. His academic background includes an MBA degree. For the past few months, Metodiev has been the driving force behind Nexo Prime, the institutional brokerage branch within the company. As Nexo Prime’s executive, Metodiev navigates the company’s endeavors to offer a complete set of tools and infrastructure for exchanges, brokerages, trading desks, payment providers, and high net-worth individuals to advance in the digital assets-based economies.
Sonia Weymuller is a Founding Partner of VentureSouq (VSQ), a MENA-based Venture Capital firm, and Partner Lead for the VSQ Conscious Collective, its global impact-focused investment and educational platform. Previously, she worked in Commercial Development at Turner Broadcasting in Dubai, with Viacom’s Emerging Markets Strategy Group and Microsoft’s Strategy and M&A team in London. Sonia is an Advisor to Village Capital’s Sustainability MENA Program and Jury member for the Cartier Women’s Initiative. She is also a Board Member for the Middle East Venture Capital Association, an Expert for wildlife conservation-focused tech platform The Ark and serves as the UAE Director for the Yale Alumni Schools Committee. Sonia holds a B.A. from Yale University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and is a Kauffman Fellow.
Frances McLeod is a co-founder and US head of Forensic Risk Alliance (FRA). A former investment banker with nearly 30 years of experience, Frances advises clients on sanctions, anti-corruption, fraud, internal controls, asset tracing, money laundering, and data governance issues. Frances has been deeply involved in FRA’s compliance monitorship work, including having recently completed her mandate as the compliance monitor for IAV GMBH, a European engineering company, pursuant to a DOJ settlement in connection with a “Dieselgate” related matter. In the long run, this highly complex and technical monitorship will be instrumental in establishing higher standards for environmental and corporate compliance in the automobile sector. Frances has also extensively supported numerous US DOJ and SEC FCPA and fraud-related monitorships, currently serving as the compliance monitor for two US corporates. She is ranked among the top 100 FCPA Practitioners by Global Investigations Review, and recognized by Who’s Who Legal as an industry leader. Frances speaks English, German, French and Mandarin, and holds an MA from Oxford University.
Dr. Nasser Saidi is President of Nasser Saidi & Associates, a niche consultant and advisor to governments, central banks, regulators, the banking & financial sector, multi-national and regional companies. He serves on the board of several prominent GCC companies. He is the former Chief Economist and Strategist of the Dubai International Financial Centre. Dr. Saidi served as Minister of Economy and Trade and Minister of Industry of Lebanon and First Vice-Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon for two mandates. He Chairs the MENA Clean Energy Business Council (an NGO), is a member of the IMF’s Regional Advisory Group for MENA and a member of the Advisory Board of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF). He is the founder & former CEO of the Hawkamah Institute for Corporate Governance & the Mudara Institute of Directors. He is active in macroeconomics, Fintech, crowdfunding, clean energy, and corporate governance.
Diego López is the Founder and Managing Director of Global SWF, a consultancy and data specialist focused on Sovereign Wealth Funds and Public Pension Funds. Since its establishment in 2018, Global SWF has rapidly become the provider of reference when it comes to SWF-related research and services. The firm focuses on three lines of business: consulting services; data and research, with an online platform that is trusted by some of the world’s largest SWFs, asset managers and professional services firms; and the SWF Academy, an executive education program co-hosted with London Business School (LBS). Prior to founding Global SWF, Diego spent five years building up PwC’s footprint in the SWF industry as Director and COO of the global practice, based in Abu Dhabi and New York, and he has also worked for KPMG and Santander. He has lived and worked in Europe, the Middle East, China, Brazil, and the USA. Diego earned his Master’s in Finance from the London School of Economics (LSE) after graduating in the Universities of Madrid and Milan. He is based in New York and is a FINRA-registered rep with Series 62, 63 and 79. He is a prolific open water and ice swimmer, acting as an ambassador for the Ocean’s recovery.
Basil Al Askari is the Cofounder and CEO of MidChains a regulated virtual asset exchange and custodian based in ADGM focused on both the retail and institutional markets. MidChains was founded after his tenures on Mubadala Capital’s Private Equity investments team and various commercial finance roles in GE Capital based in the UAE, US, and UK.
Shargiil Bashir is the Chief Sustainability Officer and Executive Vice President at First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB). In this role, Shargiil is responsible for developing, leading, and implementing the bank’s ESG strategy and initiatives. He was among the main drivers behind FAB joining the UN convened Net-Zero Banking Alliance as the first bank in the UAE and GCC to make a net zero commitment by 2050. He is a seasoned banker and experienced leader with over 20 years of experience. He has led various aspects of Corporate Governance, Strategy, Risk Management, Risk Assurance, and Sustainability throughout multiple countries. Before joining FAB in November 2020, Shargiil held various senior leadership positions at Danske Bank, based in Denmark. Shargiil holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and an Executive MBA from the Copenhagen Business School in Denmark – and has completed Executive Education at INSEAD in France.
Karim Radwan is the Chief Investment Officer of Chimera Capital Limited. His mandate includes heading Venture Capital investments with over USD 10 billion in assets under management, with a global coverage. Prior to joining Chimera, Karim was the Executive Director of RIMCO Investments, the investment arm of Rashed Al-Rashed Group – KSA, heading the MENA region. At RIMCO, Karim oversaw investments across various asset classes, including listed equities, investment funds and direct investments. Karim played an instrumental role in the evolution of RIMCO to becoming one of the largest institutional investors in MENA Venture Capital. Formerly, Karim was an Investment Banking Director with Beltone Financial, where he was actively involved in M&A and Capital market transactions across various sectors in the region. Prior to Beltone, Karim was Vice President at CI Capital Investment Banking in Egypt with a primary focus on oil & gas, petrochemicals and fertilizers sectors. Before his career in investment banking, Karim was in corporate banking for 5 years with the Commercial International Bank “CIB” and HSBC. Karim holds an MBA with distinction from London Business School and a BA with honors in Economics from the American University in Cairo.
Stephen is Managing Director and Head of Secretariat for three networks. These include the Financial Centres for Sustainability (FC4S) Network, a collective of 39 international financial centres working together to achieve the objectives set by the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement. The FC4S network represents 80% of the global equity market and US$76.4 trillion equity market capitalization. FC4S also serves as the secretariat to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation’s (APEC) Sustainable Finance Development Network (SFDN), which works to support the development of sustainable finance in the 21 APEC economies. Stephen also oversees the Sustainable Insurance Forum (SIF), which is a global network of 37 insurance supervisors and regulators working together to strengthen responses to sustainability and climate change challenges facing the insurance sector. SIF members regulate 92% of the global insurance market or US$5 trillion of gross insurance premiums. Noting a degree of overlap, FC4S, SFDN and SIF operate in over 60+ countries. Stephen is a member of several international sustainable finance Committees, including the Climate Bonds Initiative International Advisory Group; the Indian IFSC Authority Committee on Sustainable Finance; and Chair's the annual Climate Finance Week Ireland series. Stephen is a former Chair of the Children's Cancer Fund Ireland, and a former board member of the Irish Chamber Orchestra and Haven.
Hakan is the Global Open Banking & Open Data Lead for Data & Services at Mastercard. He is an expert for API-driven ecosystems, Open Banking/Finance regulation, API standardization, instant and frictionless payments. Hakan is a recognized thought leader in his area of expertise. He joins Mastercard from Accenture and is a board member of the MENA Fintech Association (MFTA), member of the Regional Arab Fintech Working Group, Berlin Group openFinance Advisory Board, the Open Banking Working Group of the Euro Banking Association (EBA) and author of articles and consultations on Open API and Fintechs at Forbes and other media.
Nameer Khan is a leading fintech leader in the MENA region. He was awarded as MENA's Future Fintech Leader by Central Bank of UAE & Abu Dhabi Global Market. Nameer is a serial fintech founder & investor and serves as an executive advisor to leading fintechs, financial institutions and regulatory authorities in the MENA region. As the founding member and chairman of the MENA Fintech Association (MFTA), he has today created pivotal body comprising of leading Fintech stakeholders from across the region and together partnered with the regional regulators and central banks to establish a robust fintech framework. With his focus on sustainability for 2022 onwards. Nameer is a part of exciting fintech ventures focused on enabling sustainable impact, and through MFTA he’s also helping fintechs adopt sustainable practices, with the ambition of making MENA a leading sustainable fintech region.
William Pazos is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of AirCarbon Exchange (ACX), a frictionless carbon exchange offering the lowest fees in the industry, and an architecture which will allow the carbon market to expand efficiently and fulfill its true potential in helping the world meet Net Zero. Bill is a Senior Climate Finance and Renewable Energy Expert with a proven track record developing, financing, and managing projects in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Previously he was a Managing Director at Standard Bank. In this capacity he was the Global Head of Carbon origination and Finance, as well as a member of the board of Standard Merchant Bank Singapore. As the CEO and founding partner of Ecoinvest Carbon S.A., a joint venture company with Bunge S.A., he built what became one of the world’s largest aggregators of carbon credits. In his early career he was a bond trader at JP Morgan Chase (MHTCo.) in New York as well as a partner at Dartley, a large Emerging Markets Fixed Income Fund.
Hashim Kudsi is the Managing Partner of Liwa Capital Advisors, which he co-founded in 2017 with Khalifa Al Kindi. Previously, Mr. Kudsi worked with Mr. Al Kindi in establishing the Abu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC) in 2007, where he served as an Executive Director responsible for Active Investment Strategies and as a member of the ADIC Investment Committee. He began his professional career at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) in 1989. Mr. Kudsi has an extensive background in the asset management industry. In a career managing portfolios and evaluating asset managers for both ADIA and ADIC, he has identified many best in-class asset management firms and has worked with each one directly over the years. His understanding of global financial markets, asset classes and economic cycles has given him the expertise to identify an allocation framework that has preserved and grown wealth over decades. Mr. Kudsi has experience in the banking sector through his involvement as a Non-Executive Director at the National Bank of Abu Dhabi and his time serving as a member of its Risk Management Committee. Mr. Kudsi holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration from American University in Washington DC and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Danny E. Sebright was appointed in June 2008 as President of the U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council, the key organization building commercial ties and growing business opportunities between the two countries. Previously, Sebright worked at the geo-strategic advisory firm The Cohen Group from 2002-2016. Prior to this, he served as the Defense Department’s Director of the Policy Executive Secretariat for the global war on terrorism from 2001-2002 during Operation ENDURING FREEDOM in Afghanistan and Operation NOBLE EAGLE. He was awarded the Department of Defense Exceptional Civilian Service Award for his service to his country. Sebright also served in the Office of the Under Secretary for Policy at the Department of Defense from 1995-2001, advising the Defense Department on the Middle East Peace Process, regional arms sales, and counter-proliferation initiatives. Sebright coordinated and implemented U.S. foreign military sales to Israel and many other countries in the Middle East. He received the Paul H. Nitze Award for Excellence in International Security Policy for his work on the Middle East Peace Process. Prior to this, Sebright served with the Defense Intelligence Agency from 1984 to 1995 as a career intelligence officer, earning numerous Intelligence Community awards for his service. Sebright earned a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 2001. He earned his BA in International Affairs from the George Washington University in 1984
Vince Molinari is the Founder and CEO of FINTECH.TV, PBC , a global media company focused on fintech, blockchain, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing. He was previously the CEO of Templum Markets, (FINRA Registered Broker Dealer and ATS) and Co-Founder of its parent company, Templum, Inc. Where he led the regulatory advocacy that resulted in pioneering and securing the first broker dealer and ATS approvals for digital securities in the United States. Vince also established an early innovative Transfer Agent for digital assets, Templum TA Services, LLC. He is a Digital Assets Board Member for the Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness at U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He is also Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the Blockchain Commission for Sustainable Development and is a Co-Founder and Co-Chair of Blockchain for Impact which he co -founded at the United Nations General Assembly in 2017. Mr. Molinari has over 3 decades of experience as a licensed person in the securities industry where he began his career at Lehman Brothers and later at Janney Montgomery Scott. He is a globally recognized thought leader on the modernization of securities law and the intersection of breakthrough innovation and technology solutions. He is an active Global Speaker on Market Infrastructure, Capital Formation, Blockchain, Digital Assets, Impact Investing, and The JOBS Act. He is the host of the Digital Asset Report and TheIMPACT shows filmed at the NYSE, NASDAQ and LSEG Studios.
Rachel is a television news anchor and sits on the board of various digital asset companies, including MidChains, Islamic Coin, and ChainXGame. Based in the Middle East since 2008, Rachel spent almost a decade at Mubadala in their Capital Markets & Treasury team. A CFA Charterholder and chartered treasurer, in 2014 the Association of Corporate Treasurers named Rachel “The One to Watch”. Rachel began her career as a journalist and spent 5 years with the BBC. She is the television host of Digital Asset Report and also acts as MC for numerous international high-profile events. Passionate about helping others become more confident public speakers, Rachel co-founded “The Speakeasy Club”, an online training platform for Public Speaking that empowers individuals to hone leadership-level speaking skills and build confidence. In 2009, Rachel published her first book and established a charity called Espoir so that proceeds could go towards supporting youth entrepreneurship in NZ. She is also a member of Mensa.
Abdul is a Board Member and CFO of GBBC Digital Finance, a not-for-profit membership association that promotes fair and transparent markets for crypto and digital assets. He is also a Co-Founder and Principal of Elipses, an advisory and investment firm focused on digital disruption in the finance sector. He is the former CFO of Innovate Finance, a not-for-profit FinTech members association that played a key role in establishing the UK as the premier FinTech Hub globally. He also previously served as Chair of Yielders, an Islamic FinTech marketplace for alternative asset classes. Prior to this, Abdul spent a decade working for tier 1 banks, including Credit Suisse and BNY Mellon. He is a qualified management accountant and holds an MBA (with distinction) from Imperial College Business School. Abdul was selected as a top 100 BAME leader in UK Tech 2018.
Jehanzeb is the Founder and CEO of J. Awan & Partners, an international Governance, Risk & Compliance consulting firm and of azakaw, a global RegTech company headquartered in the UAE. He is also the Chairman of the Middle East, Africa and Asia Crypto and Blockchain Association. Jehanzeb is an industry veteran with a 23-year career that has been built on assisting financial services firms manage their regulatory landscape. He has advised some of the largest global financial institutions and fintech firms on regulatory strategy and has longstanding relationships with key regulators in the MENA region. Jehanzeb graduated with a BSC and received a Magna Cum Laude from the University of Arizona. He is a member of the International Compliance Association and the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists.
Sonia is a Founding Partner of VentureSouq. Previously, Sonia was an investment professional in the Global Special Situations Group of Abu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC), a large sovereign wealth fund based in the UAE, focusing on venture capital and tech deals. Prior to this role, Sonia was an Actuarial Consultant at Mercer Human Resource Consulting in its Dubai and Toronto offices. Sonal is a qualified Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and the Society of Actuaries (USA). Sonia obtained a BSc from the University of Toronto (with distinction) and majored in Actuarial Science and Statistics.
Hervé Francois (1978, French nationality) is a financial veteran with over twenty years of experience in the Investment Banking / Private Equity industry (as Quant, Trader, Digital Assets Lead and Partner) working for Investcorp, ING Bank, Natixis and Société Générale across the UAE, USA, Japan, Hong-Kong, the Netherlands, and France. Entrepreneur-minded and business-oriented, Hervé successfully launched different blockchain / digital assets initiatives from proof of concept into production, capitalizing on blockchain technology potential in order to unlock mass-scale value. Some examples of multi-million solutions include HQLAx and Pyctor, a digital assets post-trade market infrastructure, where he was CEO before a successful exit in 2022. He is currently Partner at Investcorp, a leading provider and manager of alternative investment products, where he is in charge of the Blockchain / Digital Assets fund out of the Abu Dhabi office. In parallel, Herve is an active leader in global consortia and regulatory working groups, envisioning the market impact of blockchain/DLT. He is also a lecturer at French university/business school, a mentor, and a regular speaker at diverse Blockchain Conferences. Hervé has a full-fledged education consisting of a Master’s Degree (Computer Science), a MSc (Finance) and an Executive MBA (Innovation and entrepreneurship) at HEC Paris.
Mr. Massand is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Phoenix Advisors, Ltd., an Abu Dhabi based firm focused on Legal Finance, Knowledge Transfer, and Innovation in the Legal Industry across the globe. Phoenix also offers litigation management, dispute resolution, and advisory services to clients seeking to navigate multijurisdictional issues and invest in regional distressed credit opportunities. Mr. Massand has over 20 years of international experience working with Institutional Investors, Multinational Corporations, Banks, and Family Offices in the United States, the Middle East, and India. He holds a Juris Doctor in Comparative Constitutional Law from New York Law School and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Boston University. He is a member of the International and New York State Bar Associations, ABANA (formerly the Arab Bankers Association of North America), a Charter Member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Dubai Chapter, and serves on New York Law School’s ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) Skills Advisory Committee as well as the Global Advisory Committee of EFE (Education for Employment) – a non-profit organization that has created over 160,000 jobs for Arab youth over the past 10 years. He lives between Dubai and New York.
Paul Homsy is Middle East Senior Advisor for Forbes Family Trust, a leading multifamily wealth advisor and a member Stanhope Capital Group with approximately $30 billion under advisement. He was previously the CEO of a private equity joint venture fund with Lehman Brothers. Mr. Homsy has decades of experience in the Middle East and was managing partner of Sidley & Austin’s former Riyadh office and is Affiliated Counsel at Offit Kurman. Mr. Homsy has a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from Penn State’s Dickinson School of Law. He is an Emeritus Board member of Harvard University’s Middle East Institute for Social and Economic Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, and also of the Board of the Arab Bankers Association of North America. Mr. Homsy has appeared frequently as a Middle East commentator on CNBC Television, Reuters News Service, National Public Radio, and Bloomberg Television and has been quoted in such leading publications as “Economist”, “The Financial Times”, and “The Banker”.
Vishal Sacheendran joined Binance as Director, MENA in February 2022 where he oversees Government Relations, Regulatory Licensing and Regional Expansion Operations. Prior to this, Vishal spent nearly 7 years as the Capital Markets Authorisation Senior Manager at the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM). He was responsible for the authorisation of intermediaries such as fund managers, asset managers, crypto asset brokers and custodians into ADGM. He also served as the Head of ADGM’s Regulatory Laboratory (RegLab). The RegLab is a tailored regulatory regime for FinTech participants designed to foster innovation within the UAE financial services market. Prior to ADGM, Vishal spent 6 years with Bank of New York Mellon as part of the Global Client Management team. He was the regional compliance lead for the bank’s clients in the MEA region. Vishal graduated from the University of Houston, Clear-Lake with a BSC in Finance.
John serves as a Portfolio Manager responsible for the ACP London presence and is focused on special situations, distressed and high yield debt, and structured credit in Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. He has over 27 years of experience investing in illiquid credit and special situations primarily in Russia, Ukraine, and other former Soviet states. He is fluent in Russian and has lived in the CIS periodically since 1990. Originally from Boston, he has been based in London since 1997. Prior to joining Argentem Creek at its inception, John was a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at Black River Asset Management focused on emerging markets credit. From 2013 through early 2015, he was a founding partner at Connect Capital Partners, a London-based emerging markets and technology corporate finance advisory firm. From 1997 and through 2012, he held senior roles at Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch, and Deutsche Bank, specializing in proprietary trading, restructuring, origination, and structuring. John began his career as a credit analyst in the early 1990s at Credit Suisse First Boston in New York and London. From 1992 to 1993, he was a Thomas J. Watson Fellow and traveled across Russia/CIS studying the Orthodox Church and its relationship with politics following the fall of the Soviet Union.
Sasha Kaletsky co-founded Creator Ventures after working in private equity at Bridgepoint, launch and expansion at Uber and consulting at Boston Consulting Group. He holds a First Class degree in Human Sciences at Oxford University and an MBA at Harvard Business School, where he graduated as a Baker Scholar.
Raheel Ahmed was appointed as RAKBANK’s CEO in January, 2022 to develop and execute the Bank’s strategy for the next phase of its growth and increase profitability while achieving excellence in customer engagement by leveraging data and technology. Raheel is a seasoned banker and transformational leader with over 30 years of banking experience across Asia, Middle East, Africa, and Europe. He thrives on developing transformational strategies with a focus on building a high performance and customer-centric culture. Raheel joined RAKBANK from Barclays UK where he was member of the Executive Committee and the Chief Product & Analytics Officer, responsible for the strategy and commercial performance of the personal banking products. During his time at Barclays, Raheel spearheaded the Digital & Analytics transformation to create personalized and frictionless products and services for over 20M customers. He built and led on strategic partnerships with Big Tech and Fin Tech firms, and contributed significantly to the automation and digitalization of Barclays UK. Raheel was also the Executive Sponsor of Diversity & Inclusion at Barclays UK, a topic that he is very passionate about. Prior to Barclays, Raheel held Senior Executive positions at Standard Chartered and Citigroup.
David Rothon is the CEO of AD Global Investors with responsibility for managing the firm and leading the marketing & client service activities. David was previously the Head of the Asset Management of First Abu Dhabi Bank. David has over 23 years’ experience in asset management gained at a number of leading firms including Barclays Global Investors (Blackrock), PIMCO, Northern Trust Asset Management and Colchester Global Investors. David is the Chairman of the Middle East Investment Management Association.
Dan Murphy is CNBC’s Anchor and Correspondent based in the United Arab Emirates, reporting on business, markets, economics and geopolitics from across the Middle East region. Dan’s extensive coverage of the oil and the energy transition has seen him interview senior energy Ministers and OPEC+ officials from OPEC HQ in Vienna, and major energy events in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, Egypt and Azerbaijan. His reporting has given him access to top U.S officials, as well as Prime Ministers, Finance Ministers, Central Bank chiefs, government leaders and executives from across Asia, Europe and beyond. As the host of CNBC’s ‘Capital Connection’ – Dan has anchored breaking news coverage of major events, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the fall of Kabul and America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. His daily program follows global news and asset markets to bridge the Asian and European trading days. Dan was the first journalist globally to interview the UAE Minister of State after the historic signing of the Abraham Accords, ending a three decade stalemate for Arab-Israeli ties. Dan also hosts industry panels on a range of topics, including the pandemic crisis and recovery, banking and finance, the energy markets, diversity, equity and inclusion, and women in leadership in the Arab world. He also regularly writes for CNBC.com.
Simone started his career as a banker at JPMorgan London and since 2006 acted as Managing Director at Goldman Sachs International London. He co-founded Amagis Capital Group at the end of 2013, where he is currently acting as group CEO. Amagis is a group of companies which includes Amagis Tech LTD, a company active as Google Partner in cybersecurity and cloud services, and Amagis Capital Management LTD, a company active in asset management and financial advisory. In 2021 Simone co-founded the WHTEXCH Group, a new fintech initiative focused on DLT technology via patented solutions. Simone is currently acting as group CEO of the WHTEXCH Group. Simone in his career had also been acting as chairman of the Board of Directors and/or as independent director of several companies.
Mehdi El Amine Fichtali is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of FinaMaze, the region’s AI-powered robo asset manager operating out of Abu Dhabi Global Market. With an impressive career of almost 20 years in the financial sector, Mehdi’s expertise roots back in the trading floors of London, Paris and Dubai, working with global powerhouses such as Morgan Stanley, Barclays Capital, and Credit Agricole Calyon (today’s CACIB). Combining practical executive experience with strong academic credentials, Mehdi has a Grande Ecole Master’s degree in Finance from HEC Paris and in International Relations from Sciences Po IEP Paris, solidified with an Executive Leadership Program at California’s Berkeley University. Mehdi was also a Visiting Scholar at Washington D.C.& Georgetown University where he taught about ‘The Private Sector in the Arab World’. Just prior to founding FinaMaze, Mehdi spent scholarly time in the academic circles in California and DC and worked in different key positions such as Risk Management and Private Placement Director within the Dubai-based boutique investment bank deNovo, along with Morgan Stanley-alumni directors and CEO. Mehdi’s expertise is backed by combining the applied financial experience with academic research that led to founding FinaMaze in 2018 during his participation in Dubai’s 1776 incubator program. Joined by a stellar team of over ten Data Scientists, Quantitative Finance, Software and Design Engineers, Mehdi created a powerful AI servicing FinaMaze’s investors.
Simon Goodman serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Peregrine Limited and is the co-founder of PSG Capital LLC, an institutional investment firm based in New York and London. Simon has vast experience in managing the operations and technology functions of several multi-billion-dollar hedge funds. Throughout his career, Simon has been at the forefront of building customized investment platforms, as well as digital asset management platforms.
Issam Abousleiman is the World Bank Regional Director for the Gulf Cooperation Council countries based in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, since August 1st, 2018. Mr. Abousleiman was previously the World Bank Country Manager for Colombia based in Bogota from 2013-2018. Mr. Abousleiman has more than 25 years of experience in corporate finance and international capital markets at the World Bank. His experience also includes financial management, private sector development, business process reengineering, and system development. His regional experience covers Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. Mr. Abousleiman is a graduate of the Harvard University Executive Management program and holds an MBA in finance and investment from George Washington University in Washington, DC, as well as an MBA in management from the American University of Beirut. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
Matthew Wilde is a Senior Managing Director in Teneo’s Financial Advisory practice in Dubai having joined Teneo in March 2022 from AlixPartners where he was Middle East regional head of Turnaround & Restructuring Services. Prior to joining AlixPartners, Matthew led PwC’s Corporate Finance & Restructuring practice in the Middle East region (since 2013) and earlier led PwC’s Business Restructuring Services teams in the Netherlands, Belgium and Australia. Matthew also worked for many years in PwC’s practice in the UK, in Leeds, Manchester and London. He is a graduate of the London School of Economics, a chartered accountant (ICAEW) and a qualified insolvency practitioner (JIEB).
Arvind Ramamurthy is the Chief of Markets at ADGM responsible to drive Growth and Business at one of the regions leading International Financial Centers. His role encompasses driving cluster development for the platform and also leading customer relationship management, Sovereign /Strategic relationship and Sustainable Finance. He has over 17 years of strategic corporate finance experience across emerging markets in executing complex transformations, restructuring, M&A and principal investments. Some of the cos where he worked previously includes ADNOC, Abu Dhabi Department of Finance, Abu Dhabi General Secretariat of the Executive Council and Deloitte.
Simon serves as the debtor appointed Chief Restructuring Officer of Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi company in Saudi Arabia (“AHAB”). AHAB was one of the first large scale corporate restructurings under the relatively new bankruptcy law in Saudi Arabia. In September 2021 creditors (SAR27.5 billion – US$7.3 billion) voted overwhelmingly in favour of a financial restructuring plan presented by the company under the supervision of a court appointed trustee. The plan was subsequently ratified by the court and in the year since then AHAB has returned more than US$1.25 billion to creditors and is in the process of finalizing the implementation of the plan with the creation of a regulated real estate fund comprising additional settlement assets (US$650 million) and restructuring its operations and businesses. This process is the culmination of more than 12 years of litigation around the world and has seen the enactment of new laws in Saudi Arabia including the Enforcement Law, Arbitration Law and Bankruptcy Law which together with the active participation of a growing secondary market and a debtor led process has led to a resolution of one of the largest defaults and fraud claims globally. Previously Simon spent 25 years with Deloitte in various jurisdictions working on large scale insolvencies, restructurings and asset recovery and fraud and corruption investigations.
Vikas Papriwal leads the Corporate Finance and Restructuring practice in the Middle East and has more than 30 years of experience as a restructuring and transactions consultant. Vikas has advised a number of large lenders and corporates on complex restructurings involving multi-billion dollar debt. He is currently advising a complex onshore winddown involving multiple stakeholders across various jurisdiction. Vikas served on the Board of Dubai World as a Lenders’ Representative and assisted Lenders in significantly increasing their recovery on this USD$25 billion debt restructuring. Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Vikas spent 17 years with KPMG both in London and in the UAE as the Head of Transactions and Restructuring and then as the Head of Advisory.
Naveen is the Head of Rothschild & Co’s Debt Advisory and Restructuring practice in the Middle East. Naveen advises corporates, private equity, SWFs and GREs on their capital structure and rating, on raising new financing and on restructurings. Naveen’s practice, based out of Dubai, is focused on domestic (GCC) and cross border transactions, across both emerging and developed markets and is currently active on some of the most complex finance raises (healthy debt and special situations) and restructurings (debtor and creditor side) in the region. Prior to joining Rothschild & Co, Naveen was a Director in the debt advisory and restructuring team at DC Advisory, based in London, with a focus on leveraged finance, special situations and restructuring across Western Europe. Naveen graduated from the London School of Economics and is a qualified Chartered Accountant.
As the Head of Authorisation function within the Financial Services Regulatory Authority, Wai Lum oversees the licensing of financial services firms and products in the banking, insurance, payments and capital markets sector. With digital transformation at the forefront of global regulators’ agenda, Wai Lum spearheads ADGM’s regulatory strategy in financial technology and innovation. The Regulatory Sandbox programme, and subsequent digitalization of the platform, won ADGM accolade as the most innovative and progressive regulator in the Middle East. Wai Lum also formulated the first bespoke Venture Capital Framework for investment managers in the UAE, and the Private Financing Framework to improve access to alternative financing for startups and SMEs in the private markets. Being the architect and planner of Fintech Abu Dhabi Festival in the MENA region over consecutive years, and having worked closely in collaboration with industry stakeholders, Wai Lum has been instrumental in shaping the fintech landscape within the UAE. Prior to joining ADGM, Wai Lum was the Director of Capital Markets Intermediaries at the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Gabrielle joined the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) in February 2021. As Head of Ecosystem Development in the Financial Technology department, she drives the relationship between financial institutions, venture capital firms and fintech startups, along with contributing to the FSRA’s fintech strategy. Her expertise includes the implementation of new technologies and business models within financial institutions. Prior to ADGM, Gabrielle oversaw venture capital firm, Plug And Play’s fintech activities in EMEA, driving seed stage investments in European and MENA based startups, executed on the open innovation process at Citi, and built financial models at Bloomberg. Gabrielle is a frequent speaker at leading conferences (e.g. Financial Times Live, Money2020, Finovate), has authored a number of whitepapers, articles and research papers on innovation in the financial industry (e.g. Forbes ME) and was featured in Innovate Finance's Women In Fintech Powerlist in 2017, 2018, 2019 and Lattice's 100 Women in Fintech in 2018 & 2019. Gabrielle is an economist by training and holds an MPhil in Technology Policy from the University of Cambridge.
Zille Rehman is an accomplished industry professional within the financial intelligence industry. He has worked closely with financial authorities and ministries including the Central Bank of Bahrain, Singapore Exchange, Labuan International Financial Centre, to bring their strategic objectives to the fore. Currently he is working with ADGM on their historic Abu Dhabi Finance Week and leading the T.R.I. Summit.
Salim A. Essaid is Al-Monitor’s business correspondent based in Dubai. He reports and moderates events about AI, fintech, sustainability, market trends, technology and innovation. He previously worked as a broadcast journalist for TIME, CNN, NHK World, AFP and AP in the United States and Jordan, and as an on-air reporter for Euronews in the UAE. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Arabic and Japanese from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and a Master’s degree in broadcasting from the Columbia School of Journalism in New York.
Dr. Bhaskar Dasgupta is a Senior Board Member & Business Executive with proven regulatory engagement, strategic business development, business transformation experience deploying advanced analytical and pragmatic delivery skills in various regulated and unregulated sectors - banking, markets, crypto, asset management, technology. He is currently serving on the board of several financially regulated firms in UAE, UK and Europe as a non-executive director (Apex Group, Peregrine, AusGulf, Aarna Capital, Elysium Ventures, Masary Capital). He is also on the advisory boards of UAE based families/Family Office Advisory firms (DR Partners) and several HealthTech/Biotech, EdTech, AgTech and FinTech startups. He is a visiting faculty at the Hawkamah Corporate Governance Institute, UAE and Professor of Practice at Woxsen University, India besides being on advisory boards of other universities in UK, UAE and India.
Anthony has over fifteen years' experience within the institutional real estate market. As Senior Executive Officer at Masdar Green REIT, he has overseen its growth since incorporation to a AED 2 billion (USD 545 million) portfolio of sustainable real estate asset located within Masdar City in Abu Dhabi. As Head of Real Estate at Emirates NBD Asset Management, Anthony has also played a key part in building ENBD REIT's institutional portfolio of Dubai based assets valued at AED 1.3 billion (USD 357 million) and its subsequent listing on the Nasdaq Dubai in March 2017. Prior to moving to the UAE in 2012, he was an Asset Manager at Public Investment Corporation (South Africa), and a Professional Valuer at Old Mutual Properties (South Africa). He is a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS), a registered valuer and holds Bachelor of Science Honours in Property Studies from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Ben Worley is the co-founder and CEO of Spiro Carbon, a US-based startup focused on democratizing the benefits of the carbon market for all stakeholders. The company utilizes advanced data collection, artificial intelligence and blockchain technology to reduce the barriers to participation in carbon offset creation by smallholder farmers across Southeast Asia, India and Africa. Ben began his career in the US defense sector becoming one of the nation’s foremost experts in the deployment of tactical unmanned aircraft for data collection. After years spent managing the operations of various unmanned systems programs for both public & private ventures, Ben co-founded Agrisource Data to better serve the needs of the agriculture market by leveraging multisource data to provide hyperlocal insights into food supply chains. After growing the company to operations in 12 countries across more than 1 million hectares, in 2022 Ben exited and launched Spiro Carbon to help drive positive climate action through sustainable agriculture.
Kiwi born entrepreneur, angel investor, and CEO of CarbonClick, I have owned over a dozen businesses, most of which were passion projects that grew quickly to a profitable exit opportunity. I co-founded the charity “SeaCleaners” which has removed over 200 shipping containers worth of plastics from our oceans. Philanthropic focus saw my attention moving to investment efforts supporting charity and startups, particularly those that improved environmental outcomes, which is where my current journey with the other co-founders of CarbonClick began. After seeing the struggles people have when they aren’t connected to the environment and people around them, my concern is that the disconnect is becoming stronger as our natural environment is slowly destroyed. The very environment that supports every one of us. CarbonClick is on a mission to restore these opportunities, through supporting offsetting projects that have strong biodiversity and social outcomes, and sharing these stories with individuals, encouraging them to reconnect. This is why I’m so passionate about CarbonClick’s potential in this world.
Adrian has been at the forefront of sustainable finance for the last 16 years. As Director, Sustainable Finance at LSEG he works with the Group’s Capital Markets and Post Trade businesses to define and implement their sustainable finance strategy as part of LSEG’s support for the global transition to a sustainable, low carbon economy. Adrian established ABN AMRO’s Environmental Markets business in 2006, creating one of the first integrated sustainable finance offerings in the investment banking sector and later supported renewable energy and cleantech clients as a Director in RBS’ corporate finance team. As CEO of international certification body Gold Standard, Adrian led the development of carbon markets and impact finance models for deploying clean technologies, sustainable land-use, water access and the delivery of Sustainable Development Goals. Adrian’s work with LSEG ranges from education on best practice in ESG and climate disclosure, to financing the transition and scaling Green Economy companies and funds.
Laura Gardner Cuesta is Associate Editor at Debtwire CEEMEA and an emerging markets specialist. She reports on distressed debt and debt restructuring situations across the sovereign and corporate space in Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Her coverage also includes primary debt markets, in particular bonds and loans in the region. She is based primarily out of London but has also been seconded to South Africa to delve into some of the country’s most financially distressed state-owned enterprises and larger corporate debt restructurings. Before joining Debtwire's editorial team, she interned as a credit analyst for Debtwire Analytics in London, covering European issuers. Laura holds a BA in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from the University of Exeter, and an MSc in Conflict Studies from the London School of Economics.
Dan is Senior Editor at ImpactAlpha with a focus on smaller emerging markets, the impact of new technologies such as cryptocurrencies, government or multilateral support for impact investing and advances in impact measurement. Prior to joining ImpactAlpha Dan was an editor at the Wall Street Journal where he created and managed frontier- and small-emerging-markets coverage, as well as a number of successful events and editorial partnerships. Dan has a deep interest in the power of digital money to transform the global economy and served as editor-in-chief at Blockworks, an institutional-investor-focused news resource on blockchain and cryptocurrencies. He also teaches a class on Frontier and Growth Markets to MBA candidates at Kellogg School of Management.
Currently CEO of Venomex Limited which is Virtual Assets MTF and Custodian based in ADGM, Abu Dhabi. Previously, Arshad has established 3 large regulated derivatives exchanges and achieved successful billion dollar plus exits. Arshad has diverse expertise in the complete financial markets eco-system and the technology behind it. Being at the helm of several financial exchanges, from inception, provided me detailed insight in areas of technology, operations, products, regulations, strategy, finance and marketing. With my 17 years of experience in Gulf Countries I established strong business relations with regional financial institutions and regulatory authorities. Arshad successfully established Bahrain Financial Exchange. As Board Member of the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) and its’ clearing corporation for 5 years, I was part of the core team to establish the exchange in a record time of 12 months from conceptualization to its launch. Played key role in the establishment of MCX India which is now one of the top commodities derivatives exchanges in the world. Developed the Institutional Sales division of the Financial Technologies Group, becoming the Group Director and Head of Institutional Sales and Corporate Communications till 2005. As a Managing Director of the Financial Technologies Middle East, Dubai, Arshad successfully introduced online trading, risk management and back office software of the FT Group to the brokers in the GCC.
Sarah is a dynamic communicator with over 25 years’ experience in finance, media, corporate communications and academia. Her international experience sees her working globally as a consultant and coach for cabinet ministers, CEOs, Chairpersons and senior VPs, to define and achieve their strategic communication objectives. Sarah regularly hosts in-person and virtual events and moderates at international conferences on diverse topics from smart data to sustainability. Sarah graduated from CASS business school, UCL with a BSc Hons in Economics. She started her career as an equity analyst at BNP Paribas, then led the London Latin American equity sales desk, placing high profile IPOs to European funds. This led her to financial journalism, where she globally anchored the CNBC breakfast show Squawk Box for many years and worked for CBC and BSKYB. Before moving to Dubai over twelve years ago, she worked at IMD business school in Switzerland, coaching and developing communication workshops for the Masters programme. Since living in Dubai, she co-hosted the Business Breakfast show on Dubai Eye Radio.
Bill Nash represents investment managers with formation, regulatory and operational matters as well as to structure and launch global private investment funds with a current particular focus on the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM). Bill also advises institutional investors, including sovereign wealth funds, corporate groups and family offices, on corporate and business law matters, focusing on investments in private investment funds and other investment activities including establishing and maintaining customized investment platforms. Bill has been resident in Abu Dhabi since 2008 and has represented entities owned by the Government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi for more than 20 years. A regular speaker on investing in the Middle East and in the United States, Bill formerly taught international investment law at the Paris-Sorbonne University in Abu Dhabi and was a founding member of UNHCR’s Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Sustainability Board.
Jon Whiteaker is a senior editor at Investment Monitor focusing on FDI in the energy sector and investment trends across the Middle East and Africa editor. He has been a business and finance journalist for more than a decade, covering project financing, energy and infrastructure projects, and the drivers of cross-border investment across all sectors and geographies.
Giuseppe Siani has been Head of the Directorate General for Financial Supervision and Regulation since June 2021. The Directorate is responsible for ensuring the sound and prudent management of banks and financial intermediaries. It also serves as designated National Competent Authority (NCA) to the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM). Following the establishment of the SSM in 2014, he joined the European Central Bank (ECB) as Deputy Director General of Microprudential Supervision IV. His portfolio of responsibilities covered a wide range of projects including, but not limited to, crisis management arrangements, supervisory policies and methodologies, risk assessment and strategic planning, on-site inspections, stress testing and AML-related prudential tasks. He also worked in the Directorate-General for Internal Market (DG Markt) at the European Commission from 2005 to 2009, contributing to the development of the EU banking policy and the international financial reform in the aftermath of the Great Financial Crisis. He has served, in different capacities, on several FSB, BCBS and EU project teams committees and chaired BCBS working groups on Basel III post-crisis regulatory reforms.
Lecturer in Business Law (Professore Straordinario di Diritto Commerciale), Faculty of Law, LUM Giuseppe DegennaroUniversity and Lawyer qualified to represent clients before the Supreme Court. His areas of specialization: corporate governance, corporate law, arbitration, international tax planning. Legal and tax advisor in the restructuring of multinational and Italian banking and industrial groups. He is chairman of the board of statutory auditors of the following companies: Gruppo Alitalia (Air One, Compagnia Aerea Italiana, Alitalia Loyalty) and Intermarine SPA. He is a member of the board of statutory auditors of Immsi S.p.A., Piaggio & C. S.p.A., Sogefi S.p.A.
As Chief Platform Officer, Adrian works closely with G42 clients to fully realize the benefits of G42 Cloud’s technology, especially when it comes to enhancing their growth and efficiency, while meeting regulatory compliance requirements. Adrian brings over 20 years of cross-industry experience and leadership in digital transformation, information technology, consulting, cloud native development, and engineering. Adrian previously led multiple large-scale digital, cloud and technology transformations across Australia and UAE. He is passionate about driving change in the digital age, enabling business growth through customer centric and innovative solutions. He previously worked in Emirates NBD as SVP of Technology and Operations where he was part of the major banking group’s IT leadership team and helped pioneer an AED 1 billion digital transformation.
Eleanor is the regional director for FDI publication Investment Monitor as well as New Statesman Media Group which is based in ADGM. As a senior media executive she has over 12 years of management, marketing and business development experience. Eleanor consults government and large private sector clients on building successful integrated global campaigns to drive inward investment and B2B engagement using innovative digital solutions. Prior to this, Eleanor was the head of content at Edelman Middle East, the world’s largest PR agency, where she led a team to support the launch of Hub71 which has attracted 100+ international startups. She is the co-founder of the Tech UAE Advocates, which is part of Global Tech Advocates (GTA), committed to enhancing the rapid growth of technology innovation and investment in the UAE and UK. As a former International Correspondent at the South China Morning Post, Eleanor has lived in seven countries and works with governments across EMEA and Africa to drive foreign direct investment. Eleanor Slinger has a degree with honours in pharmacy from Monash University, Melbourne Australia.
Bundy conceived Atlas as a public policy initiative in 2016. He currently serves as Atlas Capital Team L.P.’s Chief Executive Officer and Chair of N.O.A. LLC., Atlas Capital Team UK Ltd, and Atlas Charitable Endeavors. Prior to Atlas, Bundy was the founder and CEO of IronPlanet, the leading online inspection-based marketplace focused on the used capital goods market, which was sold to Ritchie Bros for $758 million in 2016. Bundy has also Co-founded and served as the Managing Director of Provence Capital, a private development venture capital group which leveraged capital, proven technology, and a global network of relationships to support local business and infrastructure in emerging markets. During his career, Bundy was the lead research analyst for Bain Willard Companies (founded by Bill Bain of Bain & Co.), Entrepreneur in-Residence for Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Accel Partners, and worked for the Economist Intelligence Unit, the International Herald Tribune, and ABC News in the Middle East. Bundy has previously been on the board of directors of the Atlantic Council and the board of Rand Corporation’s African First Ladies Initiative.
Pierre is a Partner with the international strategy consulting firm Roland Berger. He is the global co-head of the firm's Crypto Economy team and a recognized thought leader in the blockchain space. Pierre is advising clients on developing their specific crypto economy strategies and implementation of use cases, focusing on digital assets, web3, metaverse, tokenization and crypto mining. Before joining Roland Berger he held several executive positions, among them being the Managing Partner & CEO of RWE's and innogy's Consulting and Venture Investment business in the Middle East, as well as several board positions in AI and crypto startups in the UK. Pierre holds a Master of Business Administration in General Management, a Bachelor degree in Information Technology, as well as several executive certificates from top global business schools like MIT Sloan, Wharton, LBS and INSEAD.
Diako is a Director in HSBC’s ESG Solutions Group, a cross capital market advisory team to support clients on ESG strategy, ratings, disclosure practices and issuance. Prior to joining the ESG Solutions Group, Diako was the Sustainable Finance Lead for the Bank in the MENAT region. Diako also spent a decade as a sustainability consultant with both PwC and EY before joining HSBC, in both Australia and the Middle East. Diako holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws from the University of Melbourne, and a Masters in Corporate Sustainability and Environmental Management from Monash University.
