Mr. Genki Oka, Head of Japan, Ant Financial Services Group

Oka is the head of Japan of the Ant Financial Service Group. Prior to joining Ant Financial, he was chief global strategist for Softbank Group International in Silicon Valley. He also served as a partner at McKinsey & Company, leading the mergers and acquisition(M&A_ group in Japan. Oka has a broad experience in internet, healthcare, financial institution, and private equity on topics ranging from globalisation, cross-border M&A, organisation to growth strategy.

Mr Philippe Paillart, Former Vice Chairman, CEO of DBS

Philippe Paillart was formerly vice chairman and CEO of DBS Bank and a pioneer in the retail banking industry in the Asia Pacific region, having served at senior management levels at Standard Chartered Bank and Citibank. Prior to his appointment with DBS, Paillart was Chairman, President and CEO of Ford Motor Credit Company, and President of Ford Financial Services Group.

Mr Varun Sabhlok, Chief Investment Officer Safeguard Real Estate Management

Sabhlok is an expert in relationship management, financial management, and risk management in financial services industries. Mr. Sabhlok's experience has been honed over 11 years as South Asia regional audit director with Citibank in its global consumer banking division in Asia, country credit director in Thailand, and as CFO of the Singapore business.

Mr Richard Hartung, Managing Director & CEO Transcarta Pte. Ltd

Mr. Richard Hartung has over 20 years of experience in the payments & consumer financial services industry. He has held senior roles for financial institutions including Citibank, Mastercard International, and OCBC Cards. Mr Hartung holds position as consultant in the areas of retail banking, cards and payment products to financial institutions, service providers, and software companies throughout the Asia Pacific region.

Mr. Matt Dooley, Managing Director, Connected Thinking

Mr. Matt Dooley is founder and director of Connected Thinking, providing digital strategy, marketing, and training to banks. He is a member of the Next Bank team with over 20 years international experience driving change at two of the world’s leading banks, across three continents. He was global head of Internet strategy and head of digital experience for the global commercial banking division in HSBC. He pioneered HSBC’s global Internet design standards as a result of establishing the first Internet banking platform back in 2000. He stays abreast of the latest trends in mobile and virtual technology as well as social media and is instrumental in helping participants develop their own personal disciplines in handling these areas.

Mr. Ikuma Ueno, Digital Strategist, Mizuho Financial Group

Mr. Nao Kitazawa, Chief Operating Officer, Money Design Co., Ltd

Kitazawa is currently the chief operating officer (COO) of Money Design. He was previously an investment banker at Morgan Stanley, contributing to the growth of the bank’s real estate sector by engaging in remarkable M&A deals and composition of funds. Before joining Morgan Stanley , he was part on international law firm, working on finance and real estate-related legal worksin Japan and New York.

Mr. Gavin Raftery, Partner, Baker & Mckenzie

Raftery is one of the leaders of Baker McKenzie’s global fintech practice and is chair of the Tokyo office’s fintech working group. He regularly advises financial institutions, tech companies, funds, and start-ups on transactions and financial services regulatory issues relating to innovative services and products in the financial industry. Raftery has extensive experience practicing finance law in Australia, the UK and Japan. He is also listed as a leading lawyer for banking and finance in Japan by the Chambers, Legal500, and IFLR .

Mr. Tatsuya Shirakawa, Senior Digital Strategist, Incubation Project Team, Mizuho Financial Group

Tatsuya is senior digital strategist at Mizuho Financial Group, primarily responsible for the planning and development of AI and big data-related fintech services.

Mr. Pieter Franken, Executive Director, Monex Group, ITAP Member, Monetary Authority of Singapore

Franken is currently the executive director at the Monex group. He has over 25 years of experience in financial Services, specialising infintech, innovation, lean start-up, and large-scale transformations. Prior to this, he held executive positions in Citi group, Shinsei Bank, and Aplus. Franken also co-founded Safecast.org in the after math of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster to measure radiation levels. In addition, he is a current member of Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) - International Technology Advisory Panel (ITAP).

Mr. Toshio Taki, Co-founder, Money Forward

Taki is the co-founder of Money Forward, a leading fintech venture with over 3.5 million users in Japan. He currently serves as a member of the company’s board of directors as well as head of fintech institute. He is also member of the panel of experts on fintech start-ups at the Japan Financial Services Agency. Before joining Money Forward , he worked as a Senior Associate of Nomura Holdings and as a researcher at the Nomura Institute of Capital Markets Research.

Mr. Cedric Roll, Chief Technology Officer, 8 Securities

Cedric Roll is currently CTO at 8 securities. In 8 securities Cedric is driven by a mission to build technology that makes finance simple and accessible to everyone. Always pushing the limits of technology, 8 has been a pioneer in Asia.Prior to 8, Cedric held leadership roles at E*TRADE, City Index, Zebank and Cargill.

Mrs. Natalie Fleming, Director, Regulatory & Banking Relations - Asia Pacific, Payoneer, Board member, Fintech Association of Japan

Fleming is currently the director for regulatory and banking relations in Asia Pacific at Payoneer. She manages the regulatory and banking infrastructure in the Asia Pacific region, including Japan. Payoneer empowers global commerce by connecting businesses, professionals, countries, and currencies with its innovative cross-border payments platform. She also worked in well renowned companies such as Rakuten Bank, Citibank, Societe Generale, Locondo, and Finovation KK. Fleming also founded the Fintech Association of Japan with Hiroki Kudo and the support of her fellow board members.

Mr. John Gu, Managing Director, APAC, frame.ai

Gu is co-founder of frame.ai, an AI technology company that allows businesses to have super-powered conversations with their customers through mobile messaging.He also serves as the company’s managing director for APAC. Prior to this, he worked in quantitative finance, using statistical machine learning techniques to develop automated trading strategies to manage hundreds of millions of dollars over multiple time horizons at various firms, including AlphaSimplex Group, Citadel Investment Group, and Tower Research Capital.

Mr. Mark Donohue, Chief Operations Officer, iSky Research

Mr. Makoto Shibata, Principal Analyst and Head of Global Innovation Team, Digital Innovation Division, MUFG

Shibata currently leads the research and development initiatives in emerging technology of Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ as well as the planning and implementation of its online and mobile financial services. With over 18 years of digital banking and e-business experience, he has been involved in a wide range of developmental projects on new channels for retail and corporate customers. He has also helped the bank push into financial technology through its digital innovation division. Shibata is also a founding member of Finovators, a pro-bono organisation that mentors fintech start-ups in Japan

Ms. Ayako Miyaguchi, Managing Director Japan, Kraken

Ayako Miyaguchi joined cryptocurrency sector in early 2013 in San Francisco and has educated regulators and elected officials, especially after MtGox collapsed. She secured the agreement between the MtGox bankruptcy trustee and Kraken, leading the projects for the investigation and other proceedings. She is a founding member of the self-regulatory body, Japan Blockchain Association (JBA, formerly known as JADA) and spearheads JBA’s foreign relations. With the current growth in the FinTech sector in Japan, she is discussing potential cryptocurrency/blockchain projects with Japanese financial institutions. Kraken offers a global leading exchange platform of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum.

Mr. Alson Ong, Vice President, Solutions, Asia Pacific and Japan, Kofax

Ong leads the pre-sales team for Kofax and is responsible for technical-facing functions across the region. His responsibilities include providing strategic engagement models and solution insights to his team in addressing customers’ key business initiatives. With his intimate knowledge of the financial sector, Ong has developed solution architecture for mortgages and payment for clients.

Mr. Foo Boon Ping, Managing Editor, The Asian Banker

Boon Ping manages The Asian Banker publication business and engages practitioners, customers, partners and the media on critical issues that impact the industry. He has more than 19 years of experience in the banking and financial services industry, specializing in strategic branding, marketing communications and consumer insight. Prior to The Asian Banker, he was at United Overseas Bank (UOB), covering Singapore and key markets in the region, such as China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.