Spiros Margaris, Founder, Margaris Ventures,FinTech, Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Blockchain influencer

Spiros Margaris, a venture capitalist and senior advisor, is the founder of Margaris Ventures, and is the first international influencer to achieve “The Triple Crown” of influencer rankings. He is ranked the global No. 1 Fintech, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain influencer by Onalytica. He was also globally ranked the No. 1 insurtech influencer by InsurTechnews (07/2018) and the No. 1 AI influencer by Verdict UK (12/2018). He is a world renowned speaker and he publishes articles on his innovation proposals and thought leadership. He recently published a white paper on AI titled: “Machine learning in financial services: Changing the rules of the game”. He has worked as an advisor and board member of several fintech and insurtech companies as well as venture capital funds across Europe.

John Holder, Chief Technologist, Realities Centre London

John Holder has over 20 years’ experience in VR and Immersive technology. In 2016 he was invited to exhibit Immersive Content at Cannes Film Festival, Artrooms London, Berlinale, Sundance, Paris VR Festival, Venice Film Festival, The BFi and UKVR fest. He has specialised in MR, VR, 4k live-stream & recorded 360 video, photogrammetry and AR production. He is creator of virtual and mixed reality experiences for HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Microsoft Hololens, Samsung GearVR, Google Daydream and Cardboard utilising games engines, WebGL and 360° video. He has a focus on futurology and humanitarian issues, and real-world uses of immersive communication technologies. He holds a PhD in Digital Arts, M.Sc. in Virtual Reality and believer of immersion, interaction and innovation.

Steve Monaghan, Chairman and CEO, GenLife

Steve Monaghan is Chairman and CEO of GenLife, a Silicon Valley based start-up in which AIA became the lead investor, to create an R&D capability for insurers around the world in Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain. Originally a commercial pilot, Steve has held senior corporate and banking roles in product, marketing, operations, innovation and general management. He has worked for leading corporations and financial institutions including Dell, Compaq, Citigroup, OCBC, Shinsei, DBS Bank and AIA. Throughout his career, he has specialized in introducing new business models, businesses and products in all major markets in Asia and has filed 6 patents in FinTech. Beside GenLife Steve hold board level positions in True Global Ventures, Borderless Healthcare Mobile China, HK Israel Trade Association, Pulse Global and a private investor in Artificial Intelligence, Life Sciences, Healthtech, Fintech and ICO's.

Ayden Férdeline, Tech Policy Fellow, Mozilla

At Mozilla, Ayden Férdeline researches the ongoing development and harmonization of global privacy standards. He is working to develop an ambitious new toolkit for effectively operationalizing privacy protections online, identifying appropriate regulatory interventions that could incentivize data controllers to adopt higher privacy protections. He is currently a Councilor on the Council of the Generic Names Supporting Organization, the body which sets policy for generic top-level domain names like .com, where he represents the interests of non-commercial users and uses of the Domain Name System. Before joining Mozilla, Ayden Férdeline supported the Internet Society’s global public policy team and was a researcher for the data and analytics group YouGov. He has previously facilitated workshops at the United Nations Internet Governance Forum, United Nations World Summit on the Information Society, and the European Dialogue on Internet Governance, among others.

Yannis Karagiannidis, Head of Growth, Monese

Yannis Karagiannidis is a fintech professional and currently working as head of growth at Monese, a banking service that is inclusive, instant and on-demand. His professional profile prior-Monese consists of working at some key positions in highly successful tech companies such as HomeAway (travel), TransferGo (global remittances), Workshare. His key expertise revolve around key areas including customer engagement and experience, data & analytics, growth hacking, consumer insights and product development.

Elissar Toufaily,Associate Professor of Marketing, American University, Dubai

Elissar Toufaily is an associate professor of marketing at American University, Dubai and is a visiting professor at the graduate school of Université Laval in Quebec- Canada. With a PhD in Marketing she has a background in relationship marketing, digital marketing and applied statistics. She has worked on a number of managerial marketing projects in partnership with researchers from France, Canada, United States and recently from the GCC region. Her recent professional and research projects are related to the adoption of blockchain and fintech, their implications and challenges; trust toward cryptocurrencies, and the influence of culture on the evaluation of online service quality in the industry. Her research projects have significant implications on practice and public policy on how digitisation affects industries, firms and consumers: for example, the paper on blockchain spells out what private and public institutions in the MENA region need in order to face the challenges of the adoption of blockchain and accelerate the pace of its implementation. She has published dozens of scientific articles in highly ranked peer-reviewed journals, conference proceedings and research papers. Currently, she is supervising a doctoral dissertation on integrated service quality in the omnichannel retail context.

Meng Chan Shu, Co-founder & CEO, Connect Blockchain DMCC

Meng Chan Shu, has more than 20 years of experience in the financial and commodities markets with expertise in working in exchanges, blockchain technology, clearing and settlement, proprietary trading, asset management, investment banking and custody services. He is the CEO of CBX which is a digital asset trading platform dedicated to providing users with safe and professional digital currency trading services. As the co-founder and CEO of Connect Blockchain DMCC, he has setup the crypto asset trading business and trading desk where he manages liquidity provision for the parent company InBlockchain Inc. Previously he worked at different key positions in Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX), Dubai Commodities Clearing Corporation (DCCC) and Bursa Malaysia.

Michiel Ykema, Independent Organizational Change and Development Advisor, Partner @ Limpid & Co.

Michiel Ykema has 20 years of experience in designing and implementing organizational change. He has lead change programmes on topics such as corporate innovation, leadership, collaboration and organizational culture.Starting work from a background in Industrial Management, his work gradually focused more on the touching points of business and technology on the one hand and leadership, organizational culture and employee engagement on the other. Right now, he is partner @ Limpid & Co, an international transformational agency.

Hassan Nasser, RegTech, Compliance & Risk Management Expert

Hassan Nasser holds over 30 years of senior management experience in RegTech, compliance, risk management, fraud prevention, and banking operations. He is a member of several UAE government committees and has been instrumental in migrating compliance and risk management into smart approach using RegTech such as AI/ML and blockchain technology. Hassan has played key roles in establishing and implementing frameworks including enterprise-wide risk with special emphasis on credit risk, IFRS 9, Basel III, ISO 31000, ISO 19600 and COSO frameworks.

Ketan Samani, COO, The Family Office, Bahrain Former MD, Chief Digital Officer, UBS Wealth Management APAC

Ketan Samani is COO at The Family Office, Bahrain. The Family office is a boutique Asset Manager for multi-family offices. In his current role, he is responsible for digital Transformation of The Family Office business model, in addition to his COO responsibilities. Ketan led and delivered award winning digital transformation at UBS Wealth Management. There were five key initiatives under his mandate including a drive for a superior experience; to increase usage and cross-sell; to create sustenance and a value exchange and to bring about impactful innovation to UBS. Prior to joining UBS in March 2015, Ketan was regional e-Business head at DBS Bank, Southeast Asia’s largest financial institution. He is widely credited with turning DBS into a digital banking leader.

Philipp Kristian Diekhöner, Author, The Trust Economy

Philipp Kristian Diekhöner believes trust drives our digital economy. He loves to turn deep human insights into simple and beautiful ideas that create the future. Philipp is a global keynote speaker and author on innovation, digital transformation and The Trust Economy. He shaped the Asian innovation activities of several Fortune 500s and helped some of the most successful Singapore start-ups transform their industries. For instance he named, branded and strategically positioned Circles.Life. Philipp now helps leading organisations embrace The Trust Economy and realise greater value. He was selected to be a WEF Global Shaper, Kairos Fellow and St. Gallen Symposium Leader of Tomorrow. Philipp has contributed to Forbes, Esquire, Economist Intelligence Unit and several notable industry publications.

Souffiane Houtir, Founder & COO, Viafone

Souffiane launched VIAFONE Technologies in 2009 with its HQ in Dubai and offices in Italy. VIAFONE specializes in elevating customer experience by building new models that are data-driven, contextual and personalized via interactive and engaging AI based Chatbot. They offer an enterprise grade multi-lingual AI Chatbot builder platform called Chat2AI that runs on 12 social media messaging platforms among which WhatsApp via Nexmo messaging API. VIAFONE delivered AI Chatbots to several Dubai and federal government, Banks, Dubai based Real Estate and property management, Telco, Exhibition center and retailers.

Mr David Gyori, CEO, Banking Reports

David Gyori is a globally renowned FinTech consultant, trainer, author and keynote speaker. He is CEO of Banking Reports Ltd London, providing top quality ‘FinTech Training for Bankers’ all over the world. In addition, Gyori holds a number of key international positions: He is founding member of the World FinTech Association as well as member of the panel of judges of the European FinTech Awards. He is co-author of ‘The FINTECH Book’, published by Wiley and Sons in 2016, quickly becoming a global category best-seller. Gyori is faculty member of the Retail Banking Academy (London), one of the most prestigious banker-training facilities globally. He serves on the advisory board of multiple FinTech companies in the United Kingdom.

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 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 Wilson Chia, Regional Head of Consumer Banking ,South East Asia, Standard Chartered Bank

Wilson Chia is a highly seasoned banker with over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry. Most recently, he was the Regional Head of Consumer Banking for South East Asia with Standard Chartered Bank. Wilson joined Standard Chartered in a number of senior positions in Cards, Marketing & Sales, Distribution, Product Management, SME and Premier Banking.

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.