Open Banking Expo UK & Europe Speakers

Abbas Rana

Abbas Rana
Director, Head of Product Management, Group Liquidity and Cash Management HSBCAbbas Rana is Head of Product for Global Payments Solutions for HSBC UK, responsibility for developing and managing solutions across cards, payments, and current accounts. Abbas has been with HSBC for eight years where he has held several leadership roles in product, overseeing regulatory changes and product and pricing changes for UK business and corporate customers. Prior to HSBC, Abbas has worked in several banking and payments roles, specialising in proposition development and new product launches. Abbas has previously worked at Barclays, VocaLink and Payments.UK. Abbas also worked at Lloyds where he helped to set up their Islamic Banking proposition for personal customers.

Adam Preis

Adam Preis
Director Solution Marketing ForgerockAdam Preis is Director Solution Marketing at ForgeRock, and is responsible for industry marketing in the EMEA region. Over the past 10 years, Adam has taken a number of digital offerings to market, managed complex technology projects, and led customer and partner relationships across the private and public sectors.

Alexandra Bloomfield

Alexandra Bloomfield
Assistant Commercial Director HM Revenue & CustomsA South African in North Yorkshire! I’ve worked in various roles across Orange/EE/BT over the last 10 years, with my most recent appointment being the Payments Strategy Lead for the Group. As well as being the outward facing industry person, I’m also the business owner for our internal PSP, so a significant proportion of my role is to balance the needs of our customers against cost to serve, and ensure an exceptional digital experience whilst balancing the need for efficiency and compliance. I’m a passionate advocate for Open Banking, across all forms, and it’s my ambition to embed it in every part of our ecosystem across our brands.



Andrew Boyajian

Andrew Boyajian
Head of Variable Recurring Payments TinkAndrew is Head of Variable Recurring Payments (VRP) at Tink, the market leader in open banking. He joined in 2022 to turbocharge the next phase of sweeping and non-sweeping VRP developments in the UK and EU. Andrew is a member of the EPC’s Multi-Stakeholder Group for the SPAA scheme initiative. Previously, Andrew led product commercialisation of emerging payments and fintechs for Wholesale Payments at J.P. Morgan in the US. Andrew spent five years as Head of Banking, North America for Wise and also served as Director of International and Payments for Kickstarter.

Andrew Churchill

Andrew Churchill
Ambassador The Payments Association


Andrew Self

Andrew Self
Senior Manager, Policy Payment Systems RegulatorAndrew is a senior manager in the Payment Systems Regulator’s policy team. He is responsible for reforms to a range of key areas of payments policy, including Open Banking and digital payments.
Andrew has a deep background in regulatory policy, joining the PSR in 2021 from Ofgem, Great Britain’s energy regulator, where he most recently oversaw reforms to network charging arrangements.



Andrew Vorster
Andrew Vorster
Innovation Catalyst Andrew Vorster.comHaving built a solid reputation as a passionate technologist, innovator and disruptor during a decade spent at Visa Europe as Vice President of Technology Research & Development, Andrew has been a familiar face in Financial Services for nearly 20 years.
He recently co-founded Fintech Uncut (FU for short), which is possibly simultaneously the most irreverent, and the most insightful, candid commentary on the Financial Services news of the week that you can watch or listen to.
As an advisor, mentor and commentator on Banking, Financial Services & Fintech, he spends a large amount of his time Horizon Scanning for the “TIPS” (Technologies, Innovations, Patents and Start-ups) behind the trends that drive new business models and shape consumer behaviour in the future.
Passionate about driving change and transformation across multiple industries, Andrew works with both established organisations and start-ups across the world as an Innovation Catalyst, helping them to THINK and BE more innovative in everything they do, by leveraging the range of possible futures fuelled, accelerated and enabled by TIPS.

Angela Yore

Angela Yore
Managing Director & Co Founder SkyParlourFrom social inclusion activist to entrepreneur and NED, Angela is the co-creator of SkyParlour, an award-winning Fintech PR Consultancy. She has supported hundreds of Fintech’s to raise millions in funding by creating transformative stories with purpose. Prior to this, Angela was a marketing leader at ReD (now an ACI Company), Xerox and Canon.
Angela has faced difficulties in juggling a work life balance with family commitments, which was one of the reasons why she decided to take her career into her own hands. She has never looked back. In 2020 Angela and her business partner responded to the global pandemic by launching three new highly tailored business divisions of SkyParlour to help Fintech businesses better express their own purpose and lead through uncertain times. SkyParlour Started, Scale and Consult support the ever-evolving Fintech market at all stages of development, from start-ups, to scale-ups, and scale-outs. This approach has helped firms secure series A and above funding rounds, merge, be acquired, and float via IPO.
Angela is a regular advocate for diversity, inclusion and all things payments, having presented on these topics at Money20/20, Finovate, EWPN, Fintech Connect and Pay360, among other events. Angela has a Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and a BA in Business Studies and Marketing. She’s a governor of Wilmslow High School and the Chair of the Executive Committee of The Inclusion Foundation.

Anna Roughley

Anna Roughley
Head of Insight and Engagement Lending Standard BoardAnna leads the Insight, Communications and interim registration functions at the LSB. She is responsible for driving forward strategies which: reaffirm to registered firms the requirements of the LSB’s Standards and Codes through the provision of insight; raise awareness of the LSB and the importance of delivering good customer outcomes; and support applicant firms through the registration process.
Anna has extensive experience working in risk and compliance and is passionate about delivering customer centric solutions through the provision of best practice frameworks and strategies.

Arturo Gonzales Mac Dowell

Arturo Gonzales Mac Dowell
Chief Executive Officer Eurobits TechnologiesArturo is the CEO of Eurobits Technologies, a Tink company. His career has been marked by his role in the introduction of high-tech products and services to the financial sector. His pioneering work in financial technology has led to innovative services like electronic payments, mobile banking and electronic invoicing. Eurobits has been offering services now classified as Account Information Service in Europe since 2004 to some of the top Eurozone and LATAM top banks, making Eurobits the pioneer in this market. Arturo launched Eurobits, went through an MBO and ultimately sold the company to Tink during 2020. Eurobits is a signatory to the Future of European Fintech which has campaigned for fair access under PSD2. Arturo is the Vice-Chairman of the European Third Party Providers Association and represents the ETPPA at the ERPB and the EPC. He is also the vice-chair of the Spanish Fintech Association (AEFI).



Bevan Callaghan

Bevan Callaghan
Senior Product Manager Global Payments


Brook Lovatt

Brook Lovatt
Chief Executive Officer CloudentityBrook Lovatt is the CEO of Cloudentity – a leading-edge Consumer Identity and Access Management software provider offering compliance with open banking specifications and regulations worldwide. Brook has over 22 years of experience in Identity and Access Management software as a developer, architect, consultant, and executive at IBM and Oracle as well as several security-focused start-ups and boutique consulting firms.

Charles Damen

Charles Damen
Chief Product Officer TokenCharles Damen is Token’s Chief Product Officer. Prior to joining Token, Charles was the SVP Product Strategy at Worldpay, responsible for Real Time Payments and Open Banking. He brings more than 20 years of payments, mobile and internet experience to his role. Prior to Worldpay Charles founded and led the global cross border payments division at Thunes enabling real time payments to and from emerging markets. Before Thunes, Charles led the payments and fraud team at global ecommerce merchant Bumble and was a board member at the Merchant Risk Council. Prior to Badoo he was head of the Mobile Payments line of business at Syniverse and co-founded the mobile messaging business Mobile365 which was sold to SAP. Charles holds a dual Bachelor Degree in European Business from the International School of Economics Rotterdam (ISER) in the Netherlands and from Groupe Ecole Supérieure de Commerce (ESC) Bordeaux in France.

Charlotte Crosswell

Charlotte Crosswell
Chair CFIT (Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology)Charlotte has been involved in capital markets, fintech and technology throughout her career – as CEO, Chair, Board Advisor and Non-Executive Director. Prior to CFIT, Charlotte was Chair and Trustee of Open Banking and was also CEO of the fintech industry body, Innovate Finance. In this role, she supported the work of Sir Ron Kalifa in delivering the strategic fintech review (“The Kalifa Review”). She works closely with entrepreneurs, financial services firms, academia, government and regulators on fintech advocacy and strategy. Charlotte received an OBE for her contribution to financial services in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2021. She believes firmly in a diversity and innovation-first approach.

Charlotte Wise

Charlotte Wise
Director, International Open Banking Payments American ExpressCharlotte leads Business Development for American Express’ Open Banking payments business, Pay with Bank transfer. She is passionate about the potential of open banking and alongside leading the business development team, Charlotte works with the ecosystem to consult on the future of open banking, educate consumers and further drive adoption in the space.
Previously, she has spent 6 years in the payments industry with a cross-functional background across strategy & business planning, business development, marketing, data & insights.



Chris Curry

Chris Curry
Principal, Pensions Dashboard Programme Money & Pensions ServiceChris Curry was appointed as Principal of the Pensions Dashboards Programme at the Money and Pensions Service in 2019, on a part-time basis. Chris brings valuable expertise and insight gained in his other role as the Director of the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI), where he continues to work part-time. Chris has worked on important projects, such as the Department for Work and Pensions Auto-Enrolment Review Advisory Group in 2017, where he was co-chair and led on providing advice on the theme of Contributions.
At the PPI, Chris has authored and presented a number of research reports analysing pensions (including state, private and public sector pensions), pension reforms and other provision for retirement income.
Chris started his career as an Economic Adviser at the Department of Social Security (now the Department for Work and Pensions), before joining the Association of British Insurers as Senior Economist.
Chris has a BSc (Hons) in Economics from the University of Warwick, and an MSc in Economics from Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London.

Chris Higham

Chris Higham
Head of Payments & Cards Secure Trust BankChris heads up the Payments and Cards function at Secure Trust Bank, a specialist savings and lender serving the UK market. He was previously Head of Open Banking at Virgin Money and is focussed on how alternative ways to pay and use customer data can lead to better outcomes for customers, banks and society as a whole.

Clare Ambrosino

Clare Ambrosino
Senior Corporate Affairs Manager Open Banking Limited


Colm Lyon

Colm Lyon
CEO & Founder FireColm Lyon is CEO and founder of fire.com – a digital payments business. He is one of Europe’s leading payments and fintech entrepreneurs. With a career spanning more than 30 years, Colm has built payment businesses, led change across the industry and supported the wider business community.
Fire is a digital payment business. Regulated since 2010, Fire helps business get paid, pay out and go digital with their payment processes. The business is now processing billions in payments per annum for thousands of business clients, including some of world’s largest financial institutions. It supports numerous payment services including bank transfers (£/€), FX, open banking payments and debit card issuing – all built on its own inhouse platform.
Previously Colm was the founder and CEO of Realex Payments, one of Europe’s largest and most successful online payments businesses, which was acquired by Global Payments in March 2015. Colm is a member of the UK Finance Payments Products and Services Board, Chair of the Digital PSP Group, a member of the Strategic Participant Group for the New Payments Architecture and a member of the JROC Open Banking Future Entity Working Group in the UK. Via his family office, Colm has invested in numerous Irish and UK startups and venture funds. He has received many awards and held several industry leadership positions, including chairman of the Irish Internet Association, founder of Payments Ireland and co-founder & chairman of the Fintech and Payments Association of Ireland. Colm was an adjunct professor for University College Cork and remains a member of the International Advisory Board of the Innovation Academy in University College Dublin.

Conor D’Arcy

Conor D’Arcy
Interim Chief Executive Money and Mental HealthConor is the Interim Chief Executive of the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute. Before stepping up in May 2023, Conor was Head of Research and Policy, leading Money and Mental Health’s research and policy development. Prior to joining the team in 2020, Conor worked in the civil service but has spent most of his career in the third sector, with roles at the Resolution Foundation and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. From 2021-23, he was a trustee of the Lewisham Irish Community Centre.

Cormac Bane

Cormac Bane
Product Manager Global PaymentsProduct Manager at Global Payments focusing on bringing our Open Banking payment solution to market. Have been with Global Payments for just over a year, prior to joining Global Payments I spent 5 years with Zopa, a challenger bank based in London. With Zopa, I helped introduce an online only car finance product to the UK market.

Cristina Hlinschi

Cristina Hlinschi
Director Babel PRCristina has a breadth of experience with over two decades in B2B PR, communications and marketing in the UK and globally. As a director and the head of London-based Babel PR’s fintech portfolio, she lives and breathes B2B PR, fintech, enterprise tech and marcomms. A builder of bridges, partnerships, ideas and teams, she’s deeply passionate about fintech, open banking and open finance.

Daniel Jenkinson

Daniel Jenkinson
Open Banking Policy Manager Open Banking Limited


Daniel Szmukler

Daniel Szmukler
Director & Head of Innovation Euro Banking AssociationIn his current role, Daniel is in charge of business development, thought leadership, innovation, events and educational activities. He runs the association’s working groups, the EBAday conference and EBA’s professional training seminars and schools.
Daniel completed a first term of office as Head of Communications and Corporate Governance at EBA CLEARING from 2002 to 2012.
From 2001 to 2002, Daniel was a Payment Systems Advisor to the European Banking Federation (EBF) in Brussels.
He began his professional career in 1994 with SWIFT in Brussels. Daniel holds graduate degrees in business administration and management from Boston University, Mass. and from the University of Brussels.

Darren Morford

Darren Morford
Director & Co-Founder obconnectAs Director and Co-Founder of obconnect, Darran brings over 35 years of expertise in Financial Systems and Payment Processing. Darran’s experience includes leading large-scale implementations and delivering innovation to banks, issuers, acquirers, merchants, and processors around the world. Including 25 years within the card schemes implementing projects like global migration to Chip and PIN the late 90’s, early 2000’s for Visa and American Express
Darran is passionate about revolutionising the Open Banking and Open Data space, enabling Banks to provide Open Banking and Confirmation of Payee solutions that enable EcoSystem participants to harness data, and validate customers and payment processing capabilities through cutting-edge solutions. Having worked in Open Banking and Confirmation of Payee from the beginning Darran brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the table having driven solutions for Banks and Fintechs alike. Darran is one of the few people that have built Open Banking for Banks to comply and for TPPs to connect, consume data and execute Payments.



David Beardmore

David Beardmore
Ecosystems Development Director RaidiamDavid joined Raidiam, a company specialising in creating the world’s smartest data sharing ecosystems, in January 2023 as Ecosystems Development Director.
David has been a passionate advocate of Open Banking since 2016 when he spent four years as the Commercial Director at The Open Data Institute leading their work on Open Banking, helping governments and regulators in Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Canada.
Most recently he was at the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) where, as Ecosystem Development Director, he led the team charged with growing and developing the Open Banking ecosystem. His key objective was to facilitate and encourage end user adoption of products and services powered by Open Banking. This included on-boarding new participants into the Directory, developing effective propositions to increase the adoption of Open Banking in the UK, and all OBIE marketing and events. By the time David left the OBIE, there were 90 banks and 250 fintechs using open banking to regularly share data from 7 million consumers and small business.
His nearly 30 years in data-driven insight and marketing have seen him work with many leading brands in multiple sectors and countries. In addition to working for some of the largest players in the data world such as Experian and Telefonica, David also ran his own boutique data insight business, Thinkdata, for 5 years before it was acquired by Bertelsmann.
David regularly speaks on the benefits and use cases for Open Finance at conferences in the UK and internationally, has co-authored a number of reports on Open Banking, and was interviewed on BBC TV on the day it officially launched in the UK in January 2018. In addition to his role with Raidiam, David is also Strategic Advisor, Open Banking for EML Payments, an Australian payments organisation with businesses in the UK, Ireland and across Europe.
Originally a classically trained musician, David has a Master’s from Cambridge University and an MBA in Marketing.

David Head

David Head
Product Lead, Open Banking MastercardDavid joined Mastercard at the start of 2018 to develop and implement the strategy for Open Banking. This has primarily involved leading the product development and launch of Open Banking solutions in Europe. These solutions now power a number of the leading Open Banking Applications across Europe.
Prior to Mastercard, David spent over twenty years in financial services at NatWest and Lloyds Bank in a variety of digital and multi-channel leadership roles, with a common theme of bringing innovative ideas to life.
Having been deeply involved in the development of internet banking, eCommerce payments and mobile banking, David is excited to be contributing to Open Banking – the next major transformation of financial services.

David Parker

David Parker
Founder & Chief Executive Officer Polymath ConsultingFounder & Chief Executive Officer Polymath Consulting
I have an in depth knowledge of Payments and Cards. In particular the company and myself are very well known for our work in E-money/prepaid cards and emerging payments covering areas such as mobile money/mobile wallets and Mpos. I have also worked extensively supporting and advising SMEs having been involved in SME payments projects since the early 2000. I have been involved in co-founding two companies involved with open banking; KYP and Konsentus.
I am increasingly active in Fintech and am currently holding a range of positions including Board NED, Board Advisor, Advisory Board, Investor in companies including: Hands In, KYP, Konsentus, Itemize, Edfundo, Swiipr and Unizest.

David Shone

David Shone
Partner Slaughter & MayDavid is a partner at Slaughter & May. His practice incorporates transactional and advisory work for a broad range of established financial institutions, financial technology firms and challenger banks.
He has detailed practical experience of the prudential and conduct regimes that apply to UK financial institutions in all financial sectors, and of the UK recovery and resolution regime. He regularly advises financial institutions and investors on the structuring of capital instruments, with a particular focus on complex funding models, group structures and capital structuring in an M&A context.

Dennis Sanford-Casey

Dennis Sanford-Casey
Principal Consultant, Collections EquifaxDennis Sanford-Casey is an experienced Data & Analytics consultant with 22 years’ working in Credit Bureau solutions, 16 of those years have been focused on debt collection, tracing, engaging customers understanding financial difficulty and propensity to pay.
Dennis is a subject matter expert within Equifax focusing on collections and contact strategies, utility, telecoms & public sector consultancy support. As a Solution design consultant designing collections strategies based around data & analytics across multiple verticals he’s a specialist in the deployment of financial difficulty flags, trace, contact and propensity to pay products. Dennis has designed and deployed a litigation score working with a major UK Debt Purchase company, this score has now been deployed across multiple clients across various sectors and is actively used in the Utilities & Telcoms sector.



Donal McGuinness

Donal McGuinness
Chief Executive Officer PrommtSerial entrepreneur Donal McGuinness is CEO of Prommt. He studied Computer Science at DCU and Telecommunications Engineering at DIT and spent the early years of his career in the telecommunications industry. His experience in mobile payments dates to 1999 when he founded his first mobile payments company, ItsMobile.In 2016 Donal joined a silicon valley startup in the identity verification space called Danal inc, where he set up and grew the global business outside of the USA as General Manager of EMEA until 2019 when the business was acquired by Boku Inc for $112 million USD. Donal joined Prommt as CEO in 2019. Donal has a passion for payment innovation and believes the next 2-3 years will see a rapid acceleration of innovation in payments.

Dwaine Thomas

Dwaine Thomas
Deputy Chief Operating Officer PXP Financial


Ed Maslaveckas

Ed Maslaveckas
Chief Executive Officer BudAn economics graduate, Ed founded Bud alongside his school friend George Dunning in 2015. Under his leadership, Bud has grown to more than 80 people, securing more than $20m in investment from Banks like HSBC and Goldman Sachs. The company is now headquartered in Hackney and works with some of the largest banks in the world on realising the potential of intelligent financial data for their customers



Ellie Hewitt

Ellie Hewitt
Director, Payments Consulting KPMG


Emilian Siemsia

Emilian Siemsia
Chief Technology Officer & Founder PlankyEmilian is a tech enthusiast and entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in software engineering and data science. Holding a master’s degree in Automatics and Robotics from Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Emilian specializes in creating smart systems and understanding human behavior.
Currently serving as the CTO at Planky.com, a leading open banking account information and analytical platform, Emilian is a key player in driving technological advancements in the financial sector. Under Emilian’s leadership, Planky.com has become known for its innovative approach, combining traditional machine learning with advanced generative AI.
Emilian’s passion lies in developing open banking analytical AI platforms that break new ground. This passion has led to the creation of a platform that not only provides businesses with valuable insights but also explores the exciting potential of artificial intelligence in finance.
Beyond the professional realm, Emilian’s expertise shines as a thought leader and visionary. With a strong foundation in creating intelligent systems and a proven track record in entrepreneurship, Emilian continues to push the boundaries of technology, inspiring both peers and the next generation of tech enthusiasts.

Emma Steeley

Emma Steeley
Chief Executive Officer AroEmma Steeley was appointed CEO in July 2022 of Freedom Finance, a leading UK digital lending marketplace and embedded finance platform.
Freedom Finance partners with over 100 of the UK’s leading lenders and service providers to help customers access a range of consumer credit, mortgage and other financial products through its proprietary matching platform; its embedded finance marketplace is used by high-street brands such as Argos, Asda, The Co-Op Bank, RAC, Very Group and many more.
Emma will lead the next stage of the company’s exciting development and joins from Equifax, where she spent nearly four years as CEO of AccountScore. She has spent over 16 years working in senior roles in the consumer finance and fintech sector, consistently delivering product led growth and successful data driven business models.

Euan Ballantyne

Euan Ballantyne
Head of Product & Insight Pay.UKEuan has 22 years’ experience in leading product management and development teams in cards, payments and lending. Having originally moved into financial services with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney, further spells back in the UK with Visa, Tesco Bank and RBS/Natwest led him to join Pay.UK as Head of Product in 2022. Euan’s team works on developing and managing great customer and end user focused products and services that are provided by Pay.UK to the UK market. A keen outdoor enthusiast, Euan is always up for a mountain hike or an outing on skis, bikes, or boards.

Ezechi Britton

Ezechi Britton
Chief Executive Officer CFITA serial tech entrepreneur Ez’s journey has taken him from Software Developer to Co-Founder and CTO to Venture Capital. He now begins the next stage of his mission as CEO of CFIT the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology. An industry body backed by the UK Treasury and the City of London with a mission to unblock the barriers to growth for financial technology by bringing together the best minds from across the UK to drive better outcomes for consumers and SMEs.
Ez was previously Principal and CTO in Residence at Impact X Capital Partners LLP a venture fund focused on supporting underrepresented entrepreneurs.
He is the Co-Founder of Code Untapped, a digital skills accelerator that helps companies find innovative product solutions by giving them access to diverse and underrepresented technologists through their innovation labs events
He is a former Co-Founder & founding CTO of Neyber a multi-award-winning Fintech firm focused on financial well-being.
In 2023 Ez was appointed as Trustee to the board of Crisis, one of the UK’s leading homelessness Charities where he also supports as a strategic advisor to the Venture Studio from Crisis which invests in, supports and creates startups to end homelessness.
In January 2022 Ez was named on the New Year’s honours list for 2022 to receive an MBE for services to Diversity and to Young people.

Faith Reynolds
Faith Reynolds
Director Devon Fields ConsultingFaith is an independent consumer finance expert. She is a member of the Financial Conduct Authority’s Financial Services Consumer Panel where she chairs the EU Working Group and is the lead for technology and innovation. She acts as the Customer Representative on the Open Banking Implementation Entity Steering Group and authored the widely-read report, ‘Open Banking: A Consumer Perspective’. She recently joined the Current Account Switch Service as an independent non-executive director. Faith is also a member of the RegTech Council.
Previously, Faith was a member of the Payments Strategy Forum, ESMA’s Financial Innovation Standing Committee Consultative Working Group, as well as CILEX’s Strategic Risk Committee. Between 2010-2012 Faith pursued the Clore Social Leadership Programme, undertaking research into Big Society while based at the Institute for Government and more recently helped the Institute look at how it creates impact.

Fliss Berridge

Fliss Berridge
Director & Co-Founder OrdoFliss started out as a professional musician (trombone…the neighbours loved it!) and after several years of playing in orchestras she decided she wanted a job where she wouldn’t have to worry about money, so went to law school in the evenings and re-trained to become a lawyer.
Fliss worked for several years in private practice as a corporate and commercial lawyer with City firms, and moved in-house in 2013 to work across the payment systems in the UK. Fliss then became the Head of Legal, Regulatory and Corporate Governance for Faster Payments and Paym.
Following the consolidation of the UK payment systems into Pay.UK, Fliss co-founded a FinTech, Ordo, that makes getting paid easy. Ordo’s highly secure, cloud based, open banking enabled payments platform provides businesses large and small with low cost, secure and easy to use eCommerce, Point of Sale and invoice payments direct from their customer’s bank accounts into their own bank accounts. Businesses can access the Ordo platform though an Ordo Merchant Acquirer/PSP payments partner, via Ordo’s modern APIs, and for smaller businesses, through our integrations with QuickBooks, Sage, and Xero accounting software or directly via Ordo’s web/app interfaces.
Ordo puts people in control of their finances, with instant money transfer and real time notifications, it means everyone knows where they are with their money….which is exactly how it should be – and it needn’t be hard or expensive – so Ordo is easy for everyone and low cost. At Ordo, Fliss, as a founding shareholder and Executive Director, is responsible for Legal, Regulatory, Corporate Governance and Marketing.



Gabrielle Gleeson

Gabrielle Gleeson
Chief Commercial Officer TotallyMoneyGabrielle Gleeson is Chief Commercial Officer at TotallyMoney, the personal finance app for the UK’s 20 million overlooked and financially under-served adults. With more than five million customers, TotallyMoney puts people in control of their own data, so they can improve their finances and achieve their goals. In her role, Gabrielle is key to helping customers unlock their best offers, made possible through collaboration with traditional lenders, and with innovative lenders using open banking data in credit decisioning.

Gavin Starks

Gavin Starks
Founder Icebreaker OneGavin has created over a dozen companies, employing 100’s of people, and delivering $100M’s in measurable impact. He co-chaired the development of the Open Banking Standard, was founding CEO of the Open Data Institute, and has raised over $100M in venture and philanthropic funding. He has mentored, chaired, or been non-exec of over 30 organisations across sectors. Mostly recently Gavin, founded and now runs IcebreakerOne.org, making data work harder to deliver a Net Zero Future.

George Dunning

George Dunning
Co Founder & Chief Opperating Officer BudGeorge Dunning is COO and Co-founder of data intelligence fintech Bud Financial (Bud). George founded Bud alongside his school friend, Edward Maslaveckas, in 2015. Under his leadership, Bud has grown to some 120 people, and secured more than $100m in investment.
George comes from a software engineering background and, as the CTO of Bud at its inception, he helped build and deliver the first versions of the original Bud platform.
After four years of successfully building out the Product and Engineering departments for Bud, George moved into a COO position post-series A, in order to oversee the overall execution and delivery of the company across all verticals.
Since becoming COO, George has overseen all of Bud’s key product launches and client deliveries, culminating in landing investments from the likes of TDR and TransUnion.



Georgios Kolovos

Georgios Kolovos
Director, Payments & Artificial Intelligence ExploreAIA results-oriented business development executive with extensive experience building and strengthening businesses, building partnerships; improving customer experience, developing new online channels and entering new markets/segments. A leader with broad financial services and payments experience built while working in GE Capital and PayPal. Currently driving the expansion of the PayPal platform with new products and capabilities for both consumers and merchants incl. new Financial Service, Commers and Enablement propositions.



Gerald Chappell

Gerald Chappell
Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder Abound and RenderGerald Chappell co-founded Abound and Render to expand access to affordable credit.
Abound is a consumer lender that uses Open Banking to truly understand each applicant – what they earn, how they spend, and what’s left at the end – rather than relying on credit scores and statistical averages. This is made possible by their in-house credit decisioning platform Render. Thanks to Render, defaults on Abound’s loans are 70% lower than market expectations, and over 60% of Abound’s customers would not have been approved had they been assessed by traditional methods. Lenders across Europe are now able to use Render to incorporate Open Banking into their credit decisioning.
Prior to Abound and Render, Gerald was a Partner at McKinsey & Company where he was Global Head of Digital Lending, and Global Head of Credit Analytics.

Ghela Boskovich

Ghela Boskovich
Head of Europe Financial Data & Technology AssociationGhela Boskovich is the Head of Europe for the Financial Data and Technology Association; she is also a well-known advocate for improving inclusiveness and diversity in Financial Services.
Ghela’s past work was centered on fast-tracking internal innovation and the practical application and comercialisation of fintech/bank collaboration. Currently, she focuses on fostering an ethical data democracy, individual consumer empowerment over their data, data economy disruptive business models, and facilitating banks’ emerging technology consumption.
Ghela takes product, service, journey, and business model redesign from initial concept to go-to-market delivery. Her strong regulatory economic background lends an ability to navigate compliance mandates with a commercial angle, as well as identify new commercial opportunities in a rapidly deregulated landscape. She is an evangelist for Open Banking and Finance as a means to nurture Customer Lifetime Value, and transform Financial Services for the greater good.

Gijs Boudewijn

Gijs Boudewijn
General Manager Dutch Payments AssociationGijs Boudewijn (1958) is currently General Manager at the Dutch Payments Association (DPA). He has extensive experience in domestic as well as international payments related issues. He is Chair of the Legal Support Group of the European Payments Council (EPC) after serving several terms as Board member, and Vice-Chair of the Payment Systems Committee of the European Banking Federation (EBF, after having served 3 terms as Chair). Closely involved in PSD2 matters, open banking and the RTS of the EBA. He is member of the SPAA Multi Stakeholder Group of the EPC and Vice-Chair of the European Card Payments Association (ECPA). Last, he is a member of the Payment Systems Market Expert Group (PSMEG) of the European Commission. He is a regular speaker at national and international conferences on strategic and regulatory payments related issues, instant payments, new technologies and open banking.



Hannah Regan

Hannah Regan
Financial Policy Lead British Retail ConsortiumHannah leads on all areas of financial policy for the British Retail Consortium, representing retailer views primarily on payments issues and developments, working to drive forwards innovation in retail payments. She represents retailers on several working groups and committees including JROC’s Open Banking working groups, Pay.UK’s industry advisory council, and SCOR. In early 2023, Hannah hosted the retail industry’s first ever Open Banking event, bringing together retailers with regulators and industry to work through and voice any concerns. Prior to working at the BRC, Hannah worked in Policy at the FCA, consulting on and drafting new policies looking at section 75 and consumer protections as well as the FCA’s work on vulnerable consumers.

Harcus Copper

Harcus Copper
Head of Integration & Information Services BarclaysHarcus Copper is Head of Integration and Information Services globally, responsible for SWIFT and Host-to-Host connectivity propositions, APIs and Open Banking for corporate clients and Non-Bank Financial Institutions. Harcus has over 26 years’ experience in Cash Management developed over a number of roles covering multiple disciplines during his 31 years with Barclays.



Heather O’Gorman

Heather O’Gorman
Associate Director fscomSuccessfully led on a range of client projects, including Safeguarding auditing, risk assessment implementation, contesting FCA supervision action, supporting firm’s through regulatory enforcement action, applying for authorisation, etc.
Undertaking client work in the most complex of cases, providing advice and practical assistance to encourage clients to develop procedures in line with the regulator’s requirements. Being a subject matter expert in the UK Anti-Money Laundering regulations, Payment Services Regulations, Electronic Money regulations and Open Banking guidelines.
Previously worked in specialist compliance consultancies, focused in assisting firms with their FCA regulatory needs. Specialising in supporting firms that are regulated under the Payment Services and Electronic Mony Regulations in the UK with a specialist focus on Opening Banking regulatory requirements and guidance.
Assisting AISPs, PISPs, ASPSPs, and TSPs to adequately implement their compliance standards including understanding of Strong Customer Authentication, Explicit Consent, Customer Experience Guidelines, Confirmation of Payee, and VRP.

Heather Xiao

Heather Xiao
Product & Operations Director Open BankingHeather Xiao is an open banking, open data and API ecosystem product leader, with a background in creating digital and technology strategies, implementing enterprise architecture and leading digital platform innovation teams at blue chips organizations in the UK and Australia, across financial services, management consulting and aviation industries. Through these experiences, she has gained a rare wealth of leadership insights, business, Product and technology skills.

Hetal Popat

Hetal Popat
Director, Open Banking HSBCHetal is Director for Open Banking services provided globally across HSBC. He is accountable for delivering and operating the open banking solutions being required in markets across HSBC’s global footprint. He also closely supports the businesses as they seek to develop propositions that use open banking to benefit customers.
Prior to this role he led front office commercial/corporate banking teams at Barclays, as well as heading strategy functions at both Lloyds and Barclays. He is a keen adopter of new technologies and all things digital.

Hugh Coughlan

Hugh Coughlan
Chief Technology Officer - Data & Applied Intelligence Fujitsu


Huw Davies

Huw Davies
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer Ozone APIHuw brings over 25 years in banking, leading payments globally at HSBC and former Head of Digital Payments at MasterCard.
He led the growth of open banking in the UK as Ecosystem Development Director at OBIE. He has successfully built high growth businesses both within large corporates and as stand alone start ups.

Jack Wilson

Jack Wilson
Head of Public Policy TrueLayerAt TrueLayer Jack leads our engagement with UK and EU regulators and authorities, and sits on a number of committees as a fintech and regulatory expert.



Jana Reid

Jana Reid
Global Head of Commercial Bank API Partnerships TrueLayer


Jane Moore

Jane Moore
Head of Department Payments & Digital Assets Financial Conduct AuthorityJane is Head of Department in Payments & Digital Assets at the FCA, working on crypto and payments policy. Jane came to Payments & Digital Assets from Resolution, covering the insolvency of FCA regulated firms. Previously Jane concentred on Client Assets, and has a background as a corporate lawyer.

Janine Hirt

Janine Hirt
Chief Executive Officer Innovate FinanceJanine Hirt is the Chief Operating Officer and a Board Member at Innovate Finance (IF), the industry body for UK FinTech. Janine is responsible for monitoring key trends in FinTech and innovation to ensure Innovate Finance is continuously providing its membership community – from startups to multinational financial institutions – with the best support possible. Having joined the founding Innovate Finance leadership team in 2015 first as Head of Membership then Ecosystem Director, in her role as COO Janine continues to oversee IF’s broader member ecosystem and directly manages the relationship with its highest supporters. She currently runs the IF Institutional Forum and previously ran IF’s Artificial Intelligence Working Group, Financial Inclusion Working Group, RegTech Working Group, and Payments Working Group. Janine regularly speaks on various FinTech and innovation themes at conferences and events around the world.
Janine received her BA Magna Cum Laude from Boston College, JYA at Oxford University, and her MSc from the London School of Economics. Janine is an American, Swiss and German national who calls NYC and London home.

Jason O’Shaughnessy

Jason O’Shaughnessy
Vice President Sales & Partnerships CircitJason is a proven business leader with over 20 years’ experience in FinTech, with a specific focus on Open Banking and Open Finance. As an early pioneer in the field, Jason opened Envestnet Yodlee’s International offices in Europe, Africa, India and Australia, delivering account aggregation to the fintech community, helping to innovate services like credit decisioning, money management and accounting, to name a few. Account aggregation was a catalyst for Open Banking and enabled Jason to bring his experience to the roll-out of Open Banking in the UK, Europe, Australia, and India. Jason now manages new markets and partnerships at Circit, where Open Finance is one of the key components to delivering trusted data to auditors.

Jason Turner

Jason Turner
Director Barclays Partner FinanceJason is a Director within Barclays UK. Before leading the Open Banking and Digital teams he has built up multi-year experience across merchant facing and proposition development roles within consumer credit and embedded finance. Jason is now responsible for the day-to-day running of Barclays’ Open Banking platform alongside digital enhancements and strategic developments which focus on delivering measurable customer and commercial benefits.



Jehangir Byramji

Jehangir Byramji
Innovation Lead AI & Emerging Technology Lloyds Banking GroupJehangir leads a team with a remit to explore and experiment with emerging technologies that have the ability to drive business model innovation at Lloyds Banking Group. He previously developed LBG’s relationships with fintech accelerator programmes and early stage ventures.
Jehangir is a business builder with a background in strategy and innovation both in consultancy and in-house. Jehangir moved into corporate innovation, where he is a recognised thought leader who brings innovative solutions to life by applying strategic, evidence-based approaches to learn first-hand, reduce business risk and accelerate speed to market. Prior roles include Corporate Partner at StartupBootcamp and strategy consulting at Deloitte; he is also Vice chair of governors at Chestnut Grove Academy and a mentor to start-ups and social enterprises.



Jenna Franklin

Jenna Franklin
Partner, Data, Privacy, AI & Ethics Stephenson Harwood LLPJenna is a senior corporate, data protection and privacy specialist. With more than 15 years of experience across the UK, EMEA and APAC regions, Jenna’s wide-ranging expertise incorporates data privacy, commercial and technology related transactions including advising on AI, AI governance and DLT, digital assets, regulatory compliance, investment and retail banking, and investment management.
She co-chairs the Data Protection Finance Group, a UK network of more than 400 senior lawyers and privacy professionals working in finance across the UK. Jenna advises on all aspects of data protection and privacy with a specific focus on advising financial services clients. Her clients range from international banks to small asset managers, pension funds and fintechs.
As well as private practice experience, Jenna provides practical, pragmatic advice to her clients based on extensive in-house experience. Jenna has worked in-house for leading financial services organisations, including Santander where she established the bank’s data privacy legal function. Jenna has previously served as a DPO for a FinTech, Asto Digital Ltd., and Vice President and primary legal adviser for data privacy across at Columbia Threadneedle Investments in EMEA (part of Ameriprise Financial Inc.) where she was responsible for the implementation of their GDPR programme.
As well as the Co-Chair of the Data Protection Finance Group, DPFG, Jenna is a member of IRSG, SASIG, IAPP Women Leading Privacy and Women in Privacy and a speaker at international conferences, panel discussions and other events.

Jerry Lee

Jerry Lee
Head of Product (M&S connect) Marks and SpencerJerry is the Head of Product for M&S Connect. As part of Connect, he looks after digital product for loyalty (Sparks), banking, and customer account propositions.
Prior to joining M&S, he worked at Capco (a fintech consulting firm) where he played a part in product transformation, strategy, and delivery projects across various clients.

Jim Wadsworth

Jim Wadsworth
Executive Vice President Strategic Market Development KonsentusJim Wadsworth leads the expansion of Konsentus Group’s award-winning technology solutions into international markets. Konsentus is a leading open ecosystem regtech provider.
Jim has more than 20 years’ experience in the payments industry, and he has been at the forefront of the global Open Banking movement since 2018. He started Mastercard’s journey into Open Banking, including playing a major role in their acquisitions of Finicity in the US and Aiia in Europe. Prior to his Open Banking role at Mastercard, he led the Vocalink UK product team, as part of which he established the group which created some cutting-edge anti-financial crime solutions.
Earlier in his career Jim created, built and managed progressive and innovative payments products and services at major brands such as Vodafone, JP Morgan and Barclaycard.



Joe Roche

Joe Roche
Engagement Manager FinTech NorthJoe is a business development and marketing professional with experience in the professional services, legal services and FinTech sectors working across the North since 2016. Joe joined FinTech North as its first full-time employee in September 2019, having previously worked for the Institute of Directors and a global law firm. As Engagement Manager for FinTech North, Joemanages all event, marketing and commercial activity, and regularly supports Northern FinTech entrepreneurs and new market entrants.
FinTech North is the focal point for FinTech in the Northern Powerhouse. Since 2016 FinTech North has brought the northern FinTech community together via events, conferences, virtual seminars and trade missions. FinTech North’s objectives are to bring the community together, to develop the northern FinTech economy, align with development of the national FinTech sector and to promote the North of England as an international destination for FinTech.

John Coker

John Coker
Head of Product British Car AuctionsHead of Product – Finance, Payments & Retail
2 Years with Constellation Automotive Group
Previous experience – 2 years @ Deloitte as a Manager in their Strategy practice, 2 years at Volkswagen Financial Services as a Product Owner, c.6 years @ Leaseplan in various roles spanning from operations to strategy
Qualifications – MBA

John Penrose

John Penrose
MP for Weston-super-Mare UK ParliamentJohn Penrose has been the Conservative Member of Parliament for Weston-super-Mare since 2005. In Government, John has been Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury, Minister of State in the Northern Ireland Office, Constitution Minister in the Cabinet Office, and Tourism & Heritage Minister in the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport. More recently, John also served as the Prime Minister’s Anti-Corruption Champion from 2017-2022. Prior to entering politics, John had an extensive business career, which included roles at JP Morgan, McKinsey, Thompson and Pearson PLC. John also helped found Credit Market Analysis (publishing credit data for financial firms). John chairs the Conservative Policy Forum.



Jonas Brannvall

Jonas Brannvall
Head of Internation Business Growth BankIDJonas has over 20 years of experience in software, providing innovative solutions with high business value within Core Banking. Today, he is leading the strategic initiative to expand the BankID solution into new markets. BankID is the leading digital identity solution in Sweden with over 8 million users and over 6 billion transaction last year.

Joris Hensen

Joris Hensen
Founder and Co-Lead of Deutsche Bank API Program Deutsche BankJoris Hensen is responsible for the development of the Deutsche Bank API program, which he co- founded at the beginning of 2015. In his more than ten years at Deutsche Bank, he has worked in various international projects as a project and innovation manager.
Joris Hensen became enthusiastic about innovations and future trends at a very early stage and in 2012 he was given the opportunity to set up a corporate foresight program in which future scenarios and innovation strategies for Deutsche Bank were developed. From 2014 on, as part of this, he was also a guest lecturer at the Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen on the topics of foresight, innovation and design.
What once began as a foresight scenario was officially launched in November 2017 as a developer portal, which offers external partners the opportunity to connect personalized apps and services via the API of Deutsche Bank (dbAPI), thus opening up new areas of value creation for Deutsche Bank.
Joris Hensen understands himself as an intrapreneur and is dedicated about future trends and how they can change and improve people’s lives.

Joy Macknight

Joy Macknight
Editor The BankerJoy Macknight is editor at The Banker. She joined the publication in 2015 as transaction banking and technology editor. Previously, she was features editor at Profit & Loss, editorial director at Treasury Today and editor at gtnews. She also worked as staff writer on Banking Technology and IBM Computer Today, as well as a freelancer on Computer Weekly.

Julian Wells

Julian Wells
Director Whitecap ConsultingJulian is a strategy consultant with over 25 years experience in financial and professional services. Prior to joining Whitecap in 2012 he was marketing director at HML, the UK’s largest outsourced mortgage servicer (now part of Computershare), and his career has also included roles at Boston Consulting Group, Nationwide Building Society, Mortgages plc, and Merrill Lynch.
Whitecap Consulting is a strategy consultancy based in Leeds, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Bristol, Newcastle and Birmingham. It is particularly active in high growth sectors. Whitecap’s financial services clients have included banks, building societies, technology providers, FinTechs, retailers, universities, and various firms in the intermediary financial services market.
Whitecap is involved in multiple regional FinTech and LegalTech ecosystems. The firm is directly involved in FinTech North and FinTech West, both of which it helped create and now helps coordinate. Via these initiatives, Julian is also involved in the FinTech National Network which was created in 2019 to help link the national Fintech sector across the UK. Whitecap also leads the LegalTech in Leeds initiative, which is a regional LegalTech community in the Leeds City Region which is linked to various national initiatives.
Julian is currently studying for a DBA (Professional Doctorate), focusing on strategy and innovation in financial services. He also sits on a number of advisory boards and steering groups relating to FinTech, LegalTech and innovation.

Karan Johal

Karan Johal
Global Head of Sales ECOMMPAYKaran Johal’s distinguished career includes working with companies such as Feast HQ, Flubit and Checkout.com. At Checkout.com, he served as the VP of Business Development, overseeing the sales of international payment processing solutions and spearheading the company’s European sales initiatives.
Now, as the Global Head of Sales at Ecommpay, Karan directs a dynamic sales team focused on expansion and growth across markets.

Karen Wall

Karen Wall
Vice President, Payments Product Lead Open Banking & Value-Added Services for Europe, Middle East and Africa J.P. MorganKaren Wall is the J.P. Morgan EMEA Payments Product lead for Open Banking & Value-Added Services for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) within the Payments & Commerce business. The Payments & Commerce business at J.P. Morgan combines Global Payments and Merchant Acquiring to provide integrated solutions to clients around the globe.
Karen has over 10 years’ experience within the Payments business covering both compliance and product domains. Karen currently has responsibility for the end to end Product Management for the Open Banking & Value Added Services products offered in region, to ensure J.P. Morgan Payments achieves market leading and innovative capabilities.
Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, Karen began her career in Dublin, at Western Union and then relocated to London in 2016 with the firm before joining Revolut in 2018. Karen was part of the team that scaled its offering from a UK focused firm into a global brand.
Karen attended university at Trinity College Dublin and is passionate about enabling financial inclusion on a global scale via the use of technology.

Kate Fitzgerald

Kate Fitzgerald
Head of Policy Payment Systems RegulatorIn her career Kate Fitzgerald has led change and transformation in payments, banking, and operations. She specialises in leading large transformational programmes for end-to-end payments in financial services.
Most recently, Kate worked as a senior advisor on payment systems at the PSR. Previously she worked in a variety of roles at Lloyds and led payment integrations for the merger with Halifax Bank of Scotland, and the Verde Divestment, ultimately becoming TSB’s Payments Director. Kate has also served on the board of Payments UK.
Kate joined the PSR in June 2020.

Katrin Herrling

Katrin Herrling
Chief Executive Officer Funding XchangeKatrin co-founded FUNDING XCHANGE (FXE) setting out to use access to new live data sources and advanced analytics to disrupt the inefficient SME funding space by creating the first UK platform for businesses to easily access bank and non-bank funding solutions in one place. FXE launched in 2016, announced an exclusive partnership with MoneySuperMarket and was designated as an official finance referral platform by the British Government in November 2016.
Today, FXE is working with nine UK banks and 40+ lenders to help customers access SME funding solutions, delivering services to the UK’s largest price comparison websites and building marketplaces that are integrated into banks’ SME banking proposition.
FXE has pioneered the use of live, validated data sources to transform the underwriting of SME loans. By automating decisioning, FXE is reducing the costs for lenders by more than 70% and giving small businesses transparency of the options they are eligible for. With the advent of Open Banking in 2018, FXE is continuing to lead the integration of new data sources and making it possible for lenders to make instant lending decisions.
FXE is collaborating with Sage, Xero and Experian to demonstrate how access to transactional data is enabling the delivery of user-centric tools that enable small businesses to manage their cashflow more efficiently, build a stronger financial profile and avoid funding emergencies.
Before founding FXE, Katrin spent seven years at Bain & Company, working closely with banks and other financial services institutions across Europe. Prior to joining Bain, Katrin led American Express’ strategy and business development team in London.



Krista Novakova

Krista Novakova
Business Development Manager - Open Banking & InterConnect EquifaxKrista helps Equifax clients realise the value of using transaction data insights and helps them make better, more informed customer decisions using Open Banking.
Krista has played a leading role over the last 2 years helping Equifax significantly grow the volume of open banking API calls and the number of clients using open banking across a variety of industry sectors.
Joining Equifax in 2022, Krista has specialised in open banking over the past 3 years and has more than a decade of experience in senior sales and marketing roles, across different industries.

Laura McCracken

Laura McCracken
Advisory Board Member, Project Policy Mentor & Chair of Judges The Payments Association


Laura Mcskeane

Laura Mcskeane
Product Manager HSBC UKLaura is a Product Manager at HSBC UK, overseeing payment acceptance products for commercial banking. She is responsible for managing and developing a broad range of receivables propositions that leverage the latest developments in Open Banking, Treasury APIs and card payments. Laura has been with HSBC UK since 2018 and is a Chartered Associate of The London Foundation for Banking and Finance.

Lauren Jones

Lauren Jones
Director, Market Development Open Banking ExchangeLauren Jones has over a 13 years’ experience in banking and payments. As Director of Market Development at Open Banking Exchange, she supports central banks, regulators and market infrastructures in their delivery of open banking, including standards, governance and use case design. Formally, Head of Standards at Payments UK (now Pay.UK), she was responsible for the UK’s standards policy on behalf of banks, government, and the wider industry. She was also involved in the early-stage development of Open Banking data standards in the UK. She has represented the UK market at European Payments Council and various groups within the European Central Bank, Berlin Group and SWIFT and now chairs the ISO committee on ‘Security, Financial Services’. She has also spent time advising fintechs, market infrastructures and hardware manufacturers on their payment strategy and product development.

Lea Siering

Lea Siering
Managing Director TokenDr Lea Maria Siering is the Managing Director of Token GmbH – a payments specialist based in Berlin and London. Token is the leading open banking enabler for the payments industry and offers the best market coverage in Europe using its best in class A2A infrastructure that is powered by open banking and built for the payments industry.
Lea is also a supervisory board member, a member of the Digital Finance Forum at the German federal ministry of finance and the chairwoman on the Bitkom board for digital banking and fintech. Previously, she was CEO of the 2° Investing Initiative (2DII), Chief Risk Officer (CRO) at finleap connect GmbH, a payment service provider that is also licensed, partner at the international law firm Taylor Wessing in the area of Regulatory/Capital Markets and General Counsel at CrossLend GmbH. She is the author of numerous publications, in particular on regulatory topics as well as related to digitalisation, and co-edits the magazine “Recht Digital”, published by Beck Verlag, as well as editor of a commentary on the German Investment Act. With more than 15 years of experience in the financial sector, she is particularly committed to diverse corporate governance and sustainability. She is still admitted to the bar.

Lena Hackelöer

Lena Hackelöer
Founder & Chief Executive Officer Brite PaymentsLena Hackelöer is the founder and CEO of Brite Payments, a Stockholm-based fintech that utilises the open banking framework to offer instant payments and payouts across 24 markets in Europe. One of Sweden’s fastest-growing fintechs, Brite connects consumers and online merchants with fast, secure, and convenient account-to-account (A2A) payments.
A dual citizen of Sweden and Germany, Lena has more than a decade of experience in the European fintech sector, with a focus on payments and consumer credit. Lena spent more than seven years in leading positions at Klarna, where her roles included Director of Global Business Marketing and Director of Market Growth and Strategy. She also served as CEO of Qliro Financial Services (STO:QLIRO), a fintech offering payment solutions for e-commerce and consumer credit services, before founding Brite in 2019. Lena is passionate about building the next generation of instant bank payments with Brite.

Lord (Chris) Holmes of Richmond MBE

Lord (Chris) Holmes of Richmond MBE
Member UK House of LordsChris is a passionate advocate for the potential of technology and the benefits of diversity and inclusion. His core policy focus is on digital technology for the public good with a particular interest in technologies such as AI and blockchain and areas of application such as fintech and trade. He is a member of the influential House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology, sat on the Special Public Bill Committee for the Electronic Trade Documents Bill and has previously co-authored House of Lords Select Committee Reports on: Democracy and Digital Technologies [2020], Intergenerational Fairness [2019], Artificial Intelligence [2018], Financial Exclusion [2017], Social Mobility [2016] and Digital Skills [2015] An ex-Paralympic swimmer, Chris won nine gold, five silvers and one bronze medal across four Games, including a record haul of six golds at Barcelona 1992.

Lynda Strutton

Lynda Strutton
Chief Operating Officer Tribe PaymentsLynda joined Tribe Payments in 2022, bringing over a decade’s worth of experience in the payments sector across Europe and the Middle East, having previously held senior roles at Barclaycard, Elavon and Network International. She has a proven track record in product commercialisation and launched the first acquirer-owned Android based POS application across the MEA.
Having also built and led high-performing P&L owning teams, Lynda joined Tribe as VP of Customer Success before moving into her current COO role, in which she ensures that Tribe delivers a seamless experience to its customers. Lynda has also been named among the Top 25 Women Leaders in Financial Technology of Europe for 2023.

Marianne Streames

Marianne Streames
Senior Product Manager Aro


Marie Walker

Marie Walker
Open Futurist RaidiamMarie is Raidiam’s resident Open Futurist, using her exceptional insight to help countries and businesses create opportunities in the emerging data economy. Marie is interested in the possibilities that Open Data ecosystems like Open Finance can deliver – and how we can get there. Since 2016 she has been bringing together the best people and ideas in Open Banking, Open Finance and Open X: highlighting progress, analysing the impact of new possibilities, and helping people to have the necessary conversations.
Marie was previously the founder of market intelligence platform, Open Future World. Marie also runs open-conversations.org where she curates a daily list of the most interesting news headlines and insights. This is an independent and free source of discerning information on progress in Open Banking, Open Finance, and Open X.



Marion King

Marion King
Chair & Trustee OBIEMarion is a highly accomplished business leader with an exemplary track record of driving growth through innovation, change and superlative people leadership. Marion is Chair and Trustee of the Open Banking Implementation Entity, where her key priorities are maintaining the existing implementation of open banking, as well as working with the Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee (JROC) to decide the future direction of open banking in the UK.
Marion also fulfils a non-executive director portfolio, contributing to the growth and advancement of financial services companies.
Marion was Director of Payments, NatWest (2015-2022), responsible for setting the Payments strategy and prior to joining NatWest, she was President of MasterCard UK & Ireland developing a world beyond cash through an innovative approach to everyday Payments.
Before joining MasterCard, Marion was CEO of VocaLink, where during her tenure the Faster Payments Service was launched and Voca and Link were merged.
Marion has held international Managing Director roles at Reuters, in London and Hong Kong.
Marion was previously chair of the Advisory Board of the Payments Association (2021-2023).



Mark Shaw

Mark Shaw
Director, Global Payments Strategy SpotifyMark Shaw, is Director, Global Commerce & Payments Strategy at Spotify, the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service with 551m users, including 220m subscribers, across more than 180 markets. He is a recognised expert in payments, having spent 20 years working across the full breadth of the international payments ecosystem. He joined Spotify in 2019, having previously worked at Visa, Mastercard, Vocalink, Barclays, TSB and LEK Consulting, and holds a Masters of Engineering from the Universty of Bristol.



Mary Mileski

Mary Mileski
Head of Sales - Retail, Cards & Payments EquifaxMary has over 15 years experience in financial services, having worked with Equifax for 11 years, both in Australia and the UK.
Starting her career in Marketing and Product Management, Mary had a number of successful years in consumer finance, before moving to the world of credit reference agencies, where she kicked off her client engagement and sales career.
In Mary’s current role, she works strategically with some of the UK’s largest lenders to help them understand the value of various types of data in their business practices and has helped several of them to successfully implement Open Banking to support their affordability strategies.



Mat Megens

Mat Megens
Founder and Chief Consumer Architect HyperJarMat started his career as a hardware engineer in the telecoms industry before transitioning to finance with fixed income roles at Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley and then consulting for IFC/World Bank Group. His experience covers technology, capital markets, supply chain finance, investment banking, venture capital and private equity. He started HyperJar to give people a tool for easier and safer ways to spend their money well and avoid unnecessary debt, whilst also providing better data and finance solutions for retailers. Mat has an electrical engineering degree from the University of Waterloo in Canada as well as an MBA from NYU-Stern.

Matthew Hooper

Matthew Hooper
Head of Category - Revenue, Recoveries, Analytics & Data Crown Commercial ServiceMatthew Hooper is a Senior Commercial Lead within Crown Commercial Services where he has been working with public sector organisations to support their procurement requirements since 2020. As Head of the Revenue and Recoveries category Matthew has been championing Open Banking for a number of years and released one of the first Public sector frameworks to have a lot focused on Opening Banking Solutions. Prior to this Matthew fulfilled a number of roles across Financial Services institutions in Commercial Banking and Procurement and Supplier Management roles. He spends his spare time with his family in Leicestershire, supporting Leicester Tigers and coaching his daughter’s rugby team.

Matthew Tataryn

Matthew Tataryn
Director of Financial Crime Risk & DMLRO TideMatt is Director of Financial Crime Risk & Deputy Money Laundering Officer (DMLRO) at Tide – a platform which provides financial services for SMEs. Tide has 550,000 members in the UK, with 10% UK market share. Tide also launched in India in December 2022.
Prior to Tide, Matt managed Santander’s Financial Crime Apprenticeship programme, focusing on developing future leaders within the world of financial crime. Matt has also held roles at multiple other international organisations such as Barclays and Amazon.
Matt has a passion for building financial crime teams by training them in a way that allows them to engage both the technical and creative parts of their brains.



Mike Mann

Mike Mann
Finance Director Williams TradeFinance Director at Williams, the UK’s largest independent plumbers’ merchant, since April 2018. Mike is also a Non-Executive Director for NMBS. Has been an active supporter of Open Banking since 2020 and led the roll-out of the first omnichannel OB environment in 2021.

Mirna Sleiman

Mirna Sleiman
Founder & Chief Executive Officer Fintech GalaxyMirna Sleiman is the Founder and CEO of Fintech Galaxy, a Central Bank licensed Open Finance platform operating in the UAE, KSA, Egypt and other markets across the MENA region. Mirna set the company’s mission to revolutionize the financial services industry with an open API infrastructure that enhances financial inclusion. She drives collaboration within the ecosystem through embedded finance and the integration of financial services within other non-financial services, providing a seamless and intuitive experience for customers.
Before founding Fintech Galaxy, Mirna provided digital transformation advisory to financial institutions and government entities across MENA. She also spent a decade as a journalist with Reuters, Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal
Mirna has an EMBA from The City, University of London. She’s also certified in Fintech from MIT, Corporate Governance from The Wharton School and Digital Transformation from University of Cambridge.

Nadia Edwards-Dashti

Nadia Edwards-Dashti
Chief Customer Officer Harrington StarrNadia Co-Founded the Harrington Starr Group in 2010; a leading Financial Technology recruitment firm. Having recruited in the financial services technology sector for 18 years, Nadia has been responsible for helping over 2000 people find jobs. As Chief Customer Officer, she runs the Podcast Series, ‘The DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) Discussions’, to share the challenges and successes of those driving equitable change in the industry. Nadia has written a book: ‘FinTech Women Walk the Talk: Moving the needle for workplace gender equality in financial Services and beyond’- and within it quotes 100+ of her podcast interviewees. Her campaigns for gender equality include the award-winning “19% List” that gives companies continual visibility of female technologists looking for work.
Nadia is Winner of Investing in Talent 2019 Awards; Most Inspirational Recruitment Leader; Innovate Finance: Women in FinTech Powerlist Judge; FinTech Magazine Top 100 Women in FinTech 2022; The Recruiter Awards: Recruitment Agency Leader of the Year 2022; European Women’s Payment Network: ‘Positive Trouble Maker of the Year 2022’. Nadia is an Industrial Fellow at the University of East London: Centre of FinTech; and a regular contributor to Forbes.com.

Nicola Breyer

Nicola Breyer
Chief Executive Officer QwistNicola has been passionate about building and scaling businesses for over 25 years, from the early days of the consumer internet to today. Her career spans roles as Co-Founder, Managing Director, Investor, as well as Corporate Innovation & Transformation Specialist. Her industry focus includes FinTech, FMCG & Media. She lived and worked in the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, France and is now based in her hometown, Berlin.
She is currently CEO and Managing Director at Qwist the leading independent European Open Banking platform provider, with key markets in DACH, Spain and Portugal. Prior to this, she was Chief Growth Officer and Managing Director at OptioPay, an Open Banking Fin-/AdTech company, as well as in a leading growth and innovation role at PayPal in Europe. Nicola fundamentally believes that we need to use technology to democratise financial services. Open Data and data authorship, distributed data models and innovative embedded finance models are one way to move towards a more equitable future.
Nicola is passionate about creating positive impact in the world. She holds board positions in for-profit social impact businesses (Vested Ltd. among others), supporting female founders as well as solar energy company Wattz. She is also an advisor to impact accelerators and funds like Village Capital and Planet A Ventures.

Nicolo Mozzatto

Nicolo Mozzatto
Open Banking Senior Expert - Team Coordinator Intesa SanpaoloAs Open Banking Senior Expert and team coordinator, Nicolò is currently responsible for developing and positioning Open Banking strategies and solutions at Intesa Sanpaolo, the largest bank in Italy. This role exposes Nicolò to several challenges every day, dealing with a highly competitive market and negotiating with third-party players such as fintechs and non-financial service providers, in addition to fostering the digital culture within a territory-anchored giant. Moreover, in his tenure at Intesa Sanpaolo he has been working on the ideation, creation and launch of some of the most innovative digital products such as Parking (Parcheggi), enabling customers to pay for parking via Intesa Sanpaolo Mobile app, and the development of the first non-financial solution integrated into the Bank properties (Switcho) enabling customers to switch their utility bill in a 100% digital way. With an outstanding fifteen-years-long career path, Nicolò also owns relevant expertise in the Customer Experience vertical for Financial Services industry.



Nilixa Devlukia

Nilixa Devlukia
Chair Open Finance AssociationNilixa is the founder of Payments Solved a regulatory consultancy advising on the regulatory framework for crypto assets, CBDC, payment services and open banking both in the UK and globally. Nilixa is an experienced regulatory expert and lawyer with a Masters in European Competition Law and over 20 years of banking and payments experience gained from her time at Barclays, the FCA, the European Banking Authority and as Head of Regulatory at the Open Banking Implementation Entity. Nilixa has worked extensively with the European Commission, the European Central Bank, the World Bank and regulators across the globe. Nilixa has represented the UK and FCA on various EU and UK level committees including the ECB SecurePay Forum, the EU API Evaluation Group and the UK Payment Strategy Forum and lead on the publication of the FCA Approach Document on Payment Services and EBA Consultations. Nilixa is a well know public speaker and works with industry, regulators and legislators to drive changes in the banking and payments ecosystem for a payments and open banking landscape that is secure, transparent and inclusive.

Omer Laor

Omer Laor
Head of Consultancy NeudataOmer leads the Consulting arm at Neudata. In this role, he enables data-owning firms to enter the alternative-data market and gain competitive advantage.
Omer has many years of experience helping companies launch their data-products to a variety of buy-side institutions in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Prior to that, Omer assisted firms monetise their data assets and create new revenue streams at the largest provider of data-driven public market research.
Native Israeli, Omer is fluent in Hebrew, French and English. He holds a B.A in History and Political Science from Tel-Aviv University and SciencesPo Paris, and an M.A in Management from the London School of Economics.

Patrick Muir

Patrick Muir
Chief Marketing Officer TokenisePatrick has been an award winning fintech CMO, board director and Chairman at some of the UKs most innovative and fast growth businesses including the UK’s first digital bank, financial advisory firms, insurtech start up now growing on three continents and the UKs fastest growing financial service review platform. He developed new models for marketing and advertising to capture the potential of the internet using data and behavioural analysis. Previously voted by Marketing week as one of the most influential marketers in financial services.

Paul Rodgers

Paul Rodgers
Chairman VendorcomPaul is Chairman & Founder of merchant payments community, Vendorcom; Evangelist for the World Wide Web Consortium’s Payments Sector in Europe; Mentor at fintech Incubator Level39; former member of the UK Payment Systems Regulator Panel, the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s SCA Monitoring Forum, and the UK Finance SCA PMO Steering Group where he chaired the UK Merchant & Payment Gateway SCA Readiness & Engagement Task Force and currently sits on the Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee for Open Banking’s VRP Working Group, Business Panel and associated sub groups.
He is passionate about the merchant payments sector and the benefits to be gained by driving innovation through collaboration. His work with Vendorcom ensures that all stakeholders in the merchant payments are connected and have access to authoritative, independent information on strategic and innovative developments, standards, regulation, and market opportunities. Paul is recognised for his broad perspective on industry matters as well as his independence, authority, and pragmatism in dealing with the increasingly complex changes faced by both merchants and solutions suppliers.

Phillip Mind

Phillip Mind
Director, Digital Technology & Innovation UK FinancePhillip is currently employed as Principal Adviser to UK Finance, the trade body for the financial services industry, with a portfolio including payments policy and open banking.
Before that, Phillip worked at the Local Government Association leading on local government finance and public service reform. And at HM Treasury in a variety of policy roles, including leading policy reviews (the Independent Commission on Local Government Finance and Russell Commission on Youth Volunteering) and as the Budget Project Manager.
On secondment from the Treasury, he was CEO of the Giving Campaign, a national partnership between government and the voluntary sector to encourage charitable giving.
Phillip has a degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and a Master’s degree from Loughborough University.



Priyanka Singh

Priyanka Singh
Head of Product, Open Banking TransUnionPriyanka joined TransUnion in 2022 to develop the strategy and roadmap for Open Banking Solutions and Services. Following our investment in Bud Financial Limited earlier this year, she is shaping the execution of our joint value proposition to bring the next generation of credit, affordability, fraud and consumer products to market for the benefit of clients and consumers.
With fifteen years of experience within financial services, delivering across distribution, products, partnerships and risk at HSBC, helping organisations and individuals realise their purpose and aspirations, Priyanka is a passionate voice of the customer and a well-rounded and inclusive influencer.



Raffaele Brusco

Raffaele Brusco
Senior API Growth Manager NatWest GroupRaffaele is leading the commercialisation of Variable Recurring Payments (VRP) at NatWest Group.
A senior leader with over 10 years of international experience in the finance sector, Raffaele holds a Bachelor of Science in Accountancy, Law and Finance, as well as a Master of Science in Public Management, from Bocconi University in Milan, Italy.
Prior to NatWest Group, Raffaele spent four years at Simon-Kucher & Partners in Milan, defining pricing and commercialisation strategies for Italian retail and investment banks.



Raminta Bartkienė

Raminta Bartkienė
Project Manager Bank of Lithuania


Rema Rao

Rema Rao
Head of Payments Compliance & Strategic Financial Products APAC UberRema is an accomplished advisory board member, leader and public speaker with over 11 years of experience within the Payments, e-Commerce and Financial Services industries globally. She has been based in Malaysia, Singapore, Chile and now the Netherlands specialising in go to market and business strategy, electronic money institutions setup and operationalisation, financial crime advisory and intelligence, audits and due diligence investigations for large-scale organisations.
Rema currently leads compliance and oversees the strategic financial products of Uber’s Payments operations in APAC bringing in $3.4B Rev across 9 unique markets. Concurrently, she is the Global Board Member and Chair of Women at Uber EMEA, an Employee Resource Group within Uber to empower women with experiences that further their advancement and development into strong advocates and leaders. Additionally, Rema is an experienced public speaker on embedded finance, payments and women empowerment.

Richard Koch

Richard Koch
Senior Policy Lead Open Banking Limited


Richard Mould

Richard Mould
Senior Strategy & Policy Lead Open Banking Limited


Ritesh Jain

Ritesh Jain
Founder InfynitRitesh is an Entrepreneurial Technology Leader & Board Advisor with two decades of global experience in Digital Technology, Business Transformation, and Operations with fortune 500 companies like HSBC, VISA, Maersk to name a few. Recently he was building an enabling function to build the bank of the future at HSBC.
He is a visiting lecturer, regular speaker & author, Diversity & Inclusion advocate, A Member of G20 initiative for financial inclusion, mentor to the UK Parliament Digital Service & start-ups. Advisor to Harvard Business Review (HBR), Payment regulators and Government bodies for women empowerment, child rights protection and working on initiatives in Social & Financial inclusion along with Open Banking in EU & Africa.

Robert Levy

Robert Levy
Director – Point of Sale Lending Products, Open Banking & Digital Platforms BarclaysFollowing a career in e-commence & Retail, Rob Levy has built multiple payment products for some of the world’s best known brands. Now at Barclays, Rob leads Product for BPF, the bank’s Point-of-Sale lending division as well as Digital Platforms for the retail bank and the group’s Open Banking business.



Robert White

Robert White
Head of Payments SantanderRobert is the Head of Payment Services for Santander UK and is responsible for defining the strategy and future model of payments in the UK, as well as working with colleagues across Europe to support the Santander Group Payment plans. He is passionate about payments and innovation that can deliver excellent solutions to customers. His current role brings together the ecosystems of payments, cards and Open Banking, where he shapes discussions on businesses cases and investment strategies, governance and regulatory developments. He is a leading voice in the industry, bringing his knowledge and experience to bear through several industry and regulatory board seats.

Ruwani Hewa

Ruwani Hewa
Product & Propositions Director Nuapay


Samantha Emery

Samantha Emery
Director, Payments Industry & Development Lloyds Banking GroupSamantha joined Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) in 2021 and is responsible for leading the strategic direction on payments, including driving payments strategy, fostering payments partnerships and managing the Group’s external relationships across the payments industry and regulators. Samantha also delivers enterprise-wide services including; domestic and international payments settlement, liquidity and scheme management; payments design consultancy; and payments policy compliance.
Previously, Samantha held roles at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), leading both payments supervision and the regulator’s globally recognised fintech agenda. Prior to this, Samantha held several senior positions at NatWest/RBS in Global Transaction Services (GTS) leading on digital innovation, strategy design, transformation, and regulatory change.
A constant theme throughout her career has been driving progress on inclusion, diversity and allyship. Samantha was appointed as a Director of Swift in 2022 and Deputy Chair in 2023. She also sits on the LBG Fintech Investment Board, acts in a shareholder/advisory capacity to fintechs, and is the LBG payments representative on several prominent industry groups.



Sara Costantini

Sara Costantini
Managing Director CRIFSara Costantini, Managing Director of CRIF Decision Solutions Ltd.
Since graduating in Computer Science from “La Sapienza” University of Rome, Italy, and after initially working on IT projects as a programmer, Sara Costantini has gained extensive international experience in project and team management. She joined CRIF in 2000 and has been working in the financial industry for over 20 years. She was appointed Managing Director of CRIF Decision Solutions Ltd. in 2011 and Managing Director of CRIF Ireland Ltd. in 2015, with the aim of developing the CRIF brand in the UK and Ireland.

Sarah Francis

Sarah Francis
Senior Consultant Polymath ConsultingSarah has worked with companies providing payments services to business and consumers since 1997, within those 26 years this has encompassed Service/Product development, implementation and operation all with an underlying focus on consumer protection and compliance.
MLRO and compliance director experience for a number of companies including a Money App, Youth education programme with a debit card, a major alternatives acquirer and emoney issuer.
Sarahs’ focus is to assist banks, fintechs, and scheme members to have in place services and products which protect against fraud, money laundering and abuse of the financial system. Protecting consumers and business in a productive compliant environment.

Sho Sugihara

Sho Sugihara
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder Fuse by PaveSho Sugihara is the CEO and Co-Founder of Fuse by Pave. Highly experienced in finance and risk, Sho is passionate about solving systemic inefficiencies that drive exclusion. Having started his career working at NGOs, Sho studied at the University of Cambridge and worked at McKinsey & Company as a consultant for three years before co-founding Pave in 2017, and Fuse by Pave in 2022 to help drive financial inclusion.

Simon Inskip

Simon Inskip
Product Manager Lloyds BankSimon Inskip is currently leading the Embedded Payments product team for Business and Commercial Banking at Lloyds Bank. With extensive payments industry and product management experience he has led and delivered multiple payment product solutions aimed at start-ups, SMEs and large corporates. Since the launch of Open Banking, he has focused on how new technology can be leveraged by clients to build integrated, efficient and automated solutions. He believes we are in an exciting period of collaboration in the payments industry with clients, banks and fintech’s proactively engaging in innovation and development.
