Youth in Finance

H.H. Sheikha Shamma bint Sultan bin Khalifa AI Nahyan Executive Director, UAE Independent Climate Change Accelerators

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.

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H.E. Mariam Bint Mohammed Saeed Hareb Almheiri Minister of Climate Change and Environment, Government of UAE

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.

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H.E. Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair Chairman, The UAE Banks Federation

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.

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Dinesh Khara Chairman, State Bank of India

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.

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Changpeng Zhao Founder & CEO, Binance

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.

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Todd Leland President, Goldman Sachs International

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.

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Dr. Samer Haj-Yehia Chairman, Bank Leumi

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.

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Mark Carney Co-Chair, Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero

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.

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Byju Raveendran Founder & CEO, BYJU'S

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).

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Ali Hussein CEO Eros Now and Advisor to Eros Investments

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.

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Nouriel Roubini Chief Economist, Atlas Capital

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).

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Shikhar Dhawan General Partner, Da One Global Ventures

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.

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Deepak Chopra MD, FACP, Founder, The Chopra Foundation

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”.

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Kevin O'Leary Chairman, O'Leary Ventures

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”.

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Richard Lacaille Executive Vice President & Global Head of ESG, State Street

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.

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Jean-Paul Villain Director, Strategy and Planning Department, ADIA

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).

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Kimberly Smith Chief Capital Formation Officer, Techstars

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.

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Hazem Ben-Gacem Co-CEO, Investcorp

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.

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Divya Gokulnath Co-founder, BYJU'S

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.

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AU YANG Chi Chun Evan Group President, Animoca Brands Ltd.

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.

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David Chaum Founder/CEO, xx network/Elixxir

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.

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Hadley Gamble Anchor, CNBC

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.

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Arjun Sethi Co-founder & CEO, Tribe Capital

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.

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Shmuel Chafets Founder & Executive Chairman, Target Global

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.

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Dr. Karim El Solh Co-founder & CEO, Gulf Capital

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.

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Alexander Lipton Global Head, Research and Development, Strategy and Planning Department, ADIA

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.

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Jon Medved Founder & CEO, OurCrowd

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.

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Henri Arslanian Co-founder and Managing Partner, Nine Blocks Capital Management

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.

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Chuka Umunna Head of ESG for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, J.P. Morgan

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.

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Keith Bloomfield CEO, Forbes Family Trust

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.

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Tan Bin Ru CEO - Southeast Asia, OneConnect Financial Technology

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.

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Daniel Chapman CEO/CIO & Founder, Argentem Creek Partners

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.

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Brett Tejpaul Head of Institutional, Coinbase

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.

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Esteban Buljevich Vice Chairman, Rothschild & Co

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.

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Jaime Leverton CEO, Hut 8

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.

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Nili Gilbert Vice Chairwoman, Carbon Direct | Chair, GFANZ Advisory Panel

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.

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Feroz Sanaulla Partner, Roland Berger

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.

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Kalin Metodiev CFA Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Nexo

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.

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Frances McLeod Founding Partner, Forensic Risk Alliance

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.

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Diego Lopez Managing Director, Global SWF

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.

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Karim Radwan CIO, Chimera Capital

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.

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Stephen Nolan Managing Director and Head of Secretariat, UNDP Sustainable Finance Hub

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.

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William Pazos Managing Director & Co-Founder, AirCarbon Exchange (ACX)

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.

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Hashim Kudsi Co-founder and Managing Partner, Liwa Capital Advisors

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.

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Danny Sebright President, U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council

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

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Vince Molinari Founder & CEO, FINTECH.TV

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.

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Rachel Pether TV host, Digital Asset Report

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.

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Herve Francois Partner – Private Equity, Blockchain and Digital Assets, Investcorp

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.

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Dilip Massand Esq CEO, Phoenix Advisors Ltd

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.

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Paul Homsy Middle East Senior Advisor, Forbes Family Trust

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”.

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Vishal Sacheendran Director, MENA, Binance

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.

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John Patton Portfolio Manager - EMEA & Asia, Argentem Creek Partners

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.

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Raheel Ahmed Chief Executive Officer, RAKBANK

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.

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Dan Murphy Correspondant, CNBC

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.

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Mehdi El Amine Fichtali Founder & CEO, FinaMaze

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.

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Simon Charlton Chief Restructuring Officer, Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi

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.

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Wai Lum Kwok Senior Executive Director, Authorisation & Fintech, FSRA, ADGM

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.

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Gabrielle Inzirillo Head of Ecosystem Development, FSRA, ADGM

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.

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Ben Worley Co-founder & CEO, Spiro Carbon

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.

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Dave Rouse CEO, CarbonClick

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.

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Adrian Rimmer Director, Sustainable Finance, LSEG

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.

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Arshad Khan CEO, Venomex Limited

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.

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Sarah Cocker EMCEE, Asset Abu Dhabi

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.

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William Nash Managing Partner, Abu Dhabi & Co-leader, Middle East Practice, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP

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.

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Giuseppe Siani Director General for Financial Supervision and Regulation, Bank of Italy

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.

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Eleanor Slinger Regional Director, Investment Monitor

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.

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Reza Bundy CEO, Atlas Capital

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.

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Haider Rafique Global Chief Marketing Officer, OKX

Haider Rafique is the Global Chief Marketing Officer at OKX, a US-licensed cryptocurrency platform serving 192 countries. Under his leadership, OKX’s user sign-ups have grown over 4000% YoY. Haider oversees all aspects of OKX’s marketing, user growth, and token partnerships to drive awareness and use of the platform’s cryptocurrency exchange, mobile app, and DeFi products. He was previously Head of Growth at Blockchain.com, where he launched the company’s cryptocurrency exchange and grew the user base by over 60% to 42 million wallets within 18 months. A Microsoft alum, Haider was the third Bing marketing employee and helped grow its monetization arm to a $3 billion dollar global business. Haider has led several consumer and SaaS tech brands through hypergrowth and is one of the few crypto marketers with a Madison Avenue background, having previously worked at BBDO, VMLY&R (formerly Young and Rubicam), and Wunderman Thompson (formerly J. Walter Thompson). Haider’s unique creative edge is evident in the commercial he pioneered starring the former Star Trek Captain humorously pointing to the folly of “trying to secure your financial future with plain ‘ol money.” He is a graduate of West Virginia University School of Journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @haidersf.