Mr. Mark Zawacki, Founder & CEO, 650 Labs

Mark has founded two successful strategy consulting firms: Milestone Group (2001) and 650 Labs (2012). He has advised more than 300 clients globally on a myriad of growth and revenue-related initiatives including business strategy, innovation, new product development, acquisition targeting, business and corporate development, alliances/partnering, go-to-market strategies and international expansion. His clients have included Tata, NTT, Microsoft, McDonalds, MasterCard, Cisco, JPMorgan Chase, Intel, SAP, British Home Stores, GSMA, SMART, Volvo, Novartis, AstraZeneca, SITA, Norsk Hydro, Occidental Petroleum, Union Bank of Switzerland, Swisscom, Rabobank, VeriSign and Symantec as well as a number of private equity and venture capital firms. Prior to 650 Labs and Milestone Group, Mark spent nearly a decade as a strategy consultant with the CSC Index, the strategic management consulting division of Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC).

Mr. Barry Katz, Consulting Professor, Stanford Design Program

Barry Katz is a professor of Humanities and Design at California College of the Arts, consulting professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford University, and fellow at IDEO, Silicon Valley’s leading design and innovation consultancy. A prolific author, books by Barry include Herbert Marcuse and the Art of Liberation (Verso), Foreign Intelligence: Research and Analysis in the Office of Strategic Services, 1942–1945 (Harvard), and Technology and Culture: A Historical Romance (Stanford).Katz has served as executive editor of the Design Book Review and contributing editor to I.D. and Metropolis magazines, and his writings on the history and philosophy of design have appeared in many academic, professional, and popular journals.

Mr. Robert Pearlstein, Vice President of Corporate Business and International Development

Robert Pearlstein is vice president of corporate business and international development at SRI International. In this role, he cultivates opportunities with international commercial and government clients. He works to expand SRI’s presence globally by qualifying and building strategic partnerships and alliances; also, works with SRI’s business units to promote and develop new offerings internationally. Pearlstein has more than 20 years of experience building and executing go-­to-­market strategies for start-­ups and emerging domestic and international technology companies. Prior to joining SRI, Pearlstein held senior management positions for a variety of venture companies in the Internet and communications domains, including Sylantro Systems Corporation, RingCentral, Inc., and MediaRing, Inc.

Mr. Ramneek Gupta, Managing Director, Co-head Global Ventures Investing, Citi Ventures

Ramneek co-leads the Global Venture Investing team at Citi Ventures. In this role, he manages the investing team, leads venture investments in companies strategic to Citi and drives commercialization efforts between these companies and Citi Businesses. His portfolio includes Square, Docusign, Jet, Jumio, Ayasdi, Datameer, Platfora, Chain, TradeIt, Pepperdata and DB Networks. Ramneek leads Citi’s Accelerator efforts with the goal of supporting earlier stage companies and entrepreneurs globally. Prior to Citi, he helped drive sales at Zappedy and was a Partner at Battery Ventures, where he helped build out the India investment effort as well as develop the local commerce and fin tech investment areas in the US.

Mr. Scott Robinson, Founder & VP, Plug and Play FinTech

Scott Robinson is the founder and VP of Plug and Play FinTech, the financial technology focused startup innovation platform in partnership with BNP Paribas, Santander, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, TD Bank, Sberbank, USAA, Mitsubishi, Capital One, Sumitomo, Intuit and many more global financial institutions. Scott has worked with Plug and Play, a global startup accelerator headquartered in Silicon Valley, for the past three years managing a number of FinTech, Blockchain, and Bitcoin-related initiatives. Additionally, Scott is the founder of Plug and Play Bitcoin, the co-organizer of the world's oldest Bitcoin Meetup and founder of the first nationally syndicated Bitcoin Job Fair.

Ms. Kathleen Breitman, Senior Strategy Associate, R3 CEV

Kathleen Breitman is a senior strategy associate for R3 CEV, a consortium of 42 banks that is developing blockchain applications within the financial system. Previously, Kathleen has worked for Accenture, De Dicto, and Bridgewater Associates. She was also a Robert L. Bartley Fellow for The Wall Street Journal and vice president for R&M Political.Kathleen has a strong analytical background and excels in entrepreneurial problem solving.

Mr. Gerald Brady, Managing Director, SVB Network, Silicon Valley Bank

Gerald Brady is the managing director of the SVB network, which is focused on building the bank's relationships with Fortune 500 CIOs, CTOs, CISOs, CMOs and other C-level executives. Prior to joining SVB, Brady served as the director of investor relations for Siemens AG, where he was responsible for all aspects of investor communications in North America. Before that, Brady was an acquisition director in the Strategic Planning Group at Siemens Corporation, and served as a managing director of Siemens Acceleration USA, which is the early stage venture capital arm of Siemens. Brady has also worked at 3i in London and Palo Alto, where he was a director, investing in a number of technology businesses, including ActiveCard (ACTI), Bitfone (acquired by HP), Raw Communications (acquired by Thomson Financial) and Winery Exchange.

Mr. Ammar Hanafi, Co-Founder and General Partner, Moment Ventures

Ammar Hanafi is Co-Founder and General Partner of Moment Ventures. Moment Ventures is a seed and early stage venture capital investing in the Infrastructure of Everything. He currently represents Alloy Ventures on the board of directors of Agari and Hightail. Ammar previously served as Vice President of New Business Ventures and Vice President of Corporate Business Development at Cisco Systems. During Ammar’s tenure in corporate development at Cisco, he led over 50 acquisitions and $750 million in venture capital investments.

Mr. Henry Wong, Managing Director, Garage Technology Ventures

Henry Wong has been a prolific and successful venture investor, serial entrepreneur, and Stanford University Mentor in Silicon Valley during the last 35 years. Henry applies his operational experience, investment talent, and China expertise to advise, invest in, and build high technology companies with a global vision. Henry founded, seed-funded, and exited five successful startups, including SS8 Networks, IP Communications (Nokia), XaQti Semiconductor (Vitesse), CNet Technology (IPO), and Combinet (Cisco Systems). Henry also founded Diamond TechVentures, a Trans Pacific Venture Investment firm. The Hong Kong government honored Henry as one of the “Game Changer” returnees with the Home Coming Tipping Point award. The IT Minister of the Korean government recognizes Henry’s continuous contribution to their Knowledge Innovation Center (KIC), and named him an advisor to South Korea.

Mr. Jim Smith, General Partner, Mohr Davidow Ventures

Jim Smith is a General Partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures. He has long had an interest in networking and infrastructure and the ways in which companies can make better use of the mountains of data collected and stored during the course of doing business. Jim has led investments in companies including Aryaka, GridIron, ParAccel, Mantara, Pluribus Networks and Xambala. He also holds a board seat with Medio. Jim received a doctorate in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in industrial management from Stanford University.

Mr. Neil Hiltz, Global Vertical Marketing - Financial Services, Facebook

As Head of Global Vertical Marketing for Financial Services for Facebook, Neil is responsible for developing strategies for improving the growth and profitability of financial service providers through the full consumer and small business lifecycle. Before joining Facebook, Neil has delivered profitable results for Financial Services companies over twelve years in leadership roles across digital and traditional marketing strategy, product management, and channel development at U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, HSBC, and Capital One. Neil also spent six years in global sales and automotive product management for Robert Bosch Corporation. Neil received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University, and his MBA from the University of Michigan.

Mr. Arman Zand, Director, Business Development, RocketSpace

Zand is the director for business development at RocketSpace. He previously worked as an expert in residence at Chinaccelerator, the first mentorship-driven seed funding program in China as well as head of technology, finance at SPD Silicon Valley Bank, where he helped co-found SVB's joint venture bank in China. Zand has 16 years’ experience working providing banking and financial service to early stage technology start-ups in India, China, US and Israel. He specialises in banking, venture capital, business development, corporate development, international finance and technology, tech finance, venture debt, financial services, and start-ups.

Mr. Jeff Cain, Incubator Director, Envestment | Yodlee

Jeff Cain is currently the incubator director at Yodlee, which helps developers innovators and entrepreneurs launch disruptive data-driven companies and accelerate their growth. He also has extensive technology and startup experience, having been a business development and M&A executive at companies such as Common Sense Media, Cadence Design Systems and Red Herring. He built an ecosystem of wireless startups for Rutberg & Company and ran a consultancy that provided M&A, partnership and business planning services to technology and media companies. Jeff also started two consumer products companies and even was an investment banker. Jeff holds a BA in economics from Stanford and an MA in theological studies from Harvard.

Mr. Mike Sigal, Head of Partnerships, 500 startups

Mike Sigal serves as FinTech EIR and Head of Partnerships for 500 Startups, where he’s responsible for accelerating 20-25 early-stage investments per year, and developing partnerships to help corporations and investors engage with 500 Startups’ early-stage portfolio, investment expertise and community. He also serves as Managing Director of Co-Creation Group, a boutique advisory firm that helps corporations design and implement innovation and investment strategies to accelerate their engagements with startups, product development and cultural transformation. As Founding Executive Producer of SWIFT’s Innotribe Startup Challenge and Industry Challenge programs, Mike built the world’s largest FinTech startup competition that has resulted in an estimated $400M in investments, acquisitions and partnerships between participating startups, SWIFT’s member institutions and FinTech investors globally.

Mr. Kenneth Ma, Store Manager, Nordstrom

Ma has been a store manager of Nordstrom since January 2008 and is currently the store manager at Nordstrom’s San Francisco Centre branch. He obtained his bachelor’s degree from Collins School of Hospitality Management, California State Polytechnic. Ma specialises in store management, visual merchandising, retail, retail sales, trend analysis, merchandise planning, loss prevention, and styling.

Ms. Mary Wong, Store Manager at the San Francisco flagship store

Mary Wong is vice president and store manager at Umpqua Bank. She previously worked as vice president and branch manager at Citi Bank from December 2001 to May 2013. Wong received her Bachelor of Science (BS), Finance from San Francisco University and her Master of Business Administration (MBA), Business Administration and Management from the University of Phoenix. Every business owner has a story, and Mary Wong loves hearing all of them. She enjoys sitting down with them to discuss their ambitions and learn about what drives and inspires them. Armed with that information, Mary then helps them achieve financial success.

Mr. Roy Glasberg, Global Lead Google Accelerator and Start-up Program

Founder, Global Manager of Google Global Accelerator and the Launchpad startup program (Bangalore, Sao Paulo, Jakarta, Mexico City). Head of Google Launchpad Space in San Francisco. Previously Head of Campus TLV, Developer Relations lead Israel and Europe at Google, Director business development at LivePerson, Head of Business Development and Business Solutions at Microsoft Israel, Senior consultant at Deloitte and at HayGroup.

Mr. Emmanuel Daniel, Chairman, The Asian Banker

Emmanuel Daniel is the founder and chairman of The Asian Banker, the foremost financial services industry intelligence provider in the world. He is also the founder of The Banking Conversation, an online repository of interviews with a wide range of global thought leaders and opinion shapers. Emmanuel has an established reputation for incisive commentary and analysis of critical issues affecting the industry and the business world in general. He is also sought after for a wide range of confidential boardroom sessions at leading institutions on developments in the industry; and has served in various government advisory committees on business leadership and the financial services industry. Emmanuel has led The Asian Banker to become the leading industry research, publication and consulting house, with a strong reputation worldwide.

Mr. Matt-Dooley, International Resource Director, Host of The Asian Banker Silicon Valley Innovation Tour

Matt Dooley, a well respected authority on banking innovation will be the chairman of this tour. He is the founder and director of Connected Thinking, providing digital strategy, marketing, and training to banks. Dooley 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. Dooley 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.