Aaron Slettehaugh

Senior Vice President Product Ripple

Aaron Slettehaugh is the SVP of Product at Ripple, overseeing the company’s enterprise product suite including payments, stablecoin and custody.

With 20 years of experience as a product leader, Aaron has built and scaled products across startups and industry leading technology companies. Before Ripple, Aaron was Head of Product for Square’s Payment Platform, where he led the team that scaled infrastructure to process $1 billion in daily volume and launched key products like Terminal API. Prior to that, he spent seven years at Salesforce, shaping the platform’s product strategy.

A trained engineer, Aaron is known for solving complex challenges—whether navigating product-market fit or untangling deep technical problems. Aaron holds an MBA from Stanford University, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota.

Alex Preece

Co-Founder & CEO TILLO

Alex Preece is the Co-Founder and CEO of Tillo, a global gift card network and API designed to simplify engagement and drive growth for brands and buyers. At the end of 2023, Alex relocated to Austin, Texas, to lead Tillo’s expansion in the U.S. market and strengthen the company’s global presence. Previously, Alex served in the British Army for six years, seeing active duty in both Bosnia and Iraq. He also founded the UK’s first daily deal business, which was later sold to Moneysupermarket.com, the world’s largest comparison website.

Having processed over $4.5 billion in gift cards to date, Tillo operates in 40 countries and across 25 currencies and is now a leading innovator in digital rewards and incentives globally.

Amanda Estiverne

Director, Head of Payments Practice Perficient

Amanda Estiverne-Colas is a passionate advocate for financial inclusion and fairness by design, dedicated to building a more equitable and consumer-centric financial ecosystem. With over 20 years of experience spanning banking, fintech, and technology, she works at the intersection of innovation and impact, helping organizations design payment solutions that expand access, strengthen trust, and promote economic mobility. Amanda serves on the Board of Directors for the National Alliance for Financial Literacy and Inclusion (NAFLI), advancing initiatives that bring financial education and inclusion to underserved communities. She also partners with Consumer Reports on the Fair Digital Finance Framework and Fairness by Design Playbook, collaborating with regulators, product leaders, and fintech founders to embed fairness, transparency, and consumer protection into product design from the ground up.

As Director and Head of Payments Practice at Perficient, Amanda leads strategy and innovation across the banking and fintech ecosystem, guiding clients through payment infrastructure modernization, digital transformation, and the development of inclusive financial solutions. She is also the Founder of AGE Advisors, a boutique advisory firm that helps startups and financial institutions unlock growth through purposeful innovation and strategic partnerships.A sought-after speaker and thought leader, Amanda shares her insights at premier industry events including Money20/20, Fintech South, Women in Payments, DC Fintech Week, and the Blockchain Braintrust Retreat.

Her conversations center on responsible innovation, inclusive design, and the evolving future of money. Amanda is also the creator of The Front Row, a storytelling series and Substack offering an insider's view into the fintech world. Chronicling the stories, lessons, and people shaping the future of finance from "the seat where innovation meets inclusion."

Andrew Lambert

Head of Product Cross River

Andrew Lambert is Head of Product at Cross River, overseeing Payments, Banking, Cards, and Lending. His expertise lies in product management, go to market, analytics, and scaling from 1 onward. Prior to his current role, Andrew was Senior Director of Card Issuing and BaaS at Cross River, where he led the Cards and BaaS Product teams. Andrew has over 20 years of experience in Cards, Financial Services, and Fintech. Prior to Cross River, he was the Global Head of Card Products as Railsr (formerly Railsbank) where he led the product team responsible for Cards and BIN sponsorship globally. He has previously spent time at Green Dot leading the BaaS Product team, and at Mastercard where he held several different Product, Account Management and Customer Implementation roles. Andrew helped launch Qantas card, the first embedded prepaid travel and airline loyalty proposition as well as the first health & wellness embedded credit card. When Andrew is not thinking about Cards and BaaS, he enjoys traveling with his family and cheering on his kids' sporting events.

Andrew Schmidt

Managing Director, FinTech Equity Research KeyBanc Capital Markets

Andrew Schmidt leads KeyBanc Capital Markets’ FinTech equity research franchise, analyzing the companies, platforms, and technologies shaping the future of global commerce and financial services. He joined KeyBanc in 2025 after more than a decade at Citi, where he covered FinTech, software, and payments across public and private markets.

Andrew began his career at the U.S. Department of Commerce as a software developer and later as an economist, before moving into finance as a retail equities analyst - giving him a unique perspective on the intersection of consumer behavior, technology, economics, and financial infrastructure.

He holds an M.A. in Economics from George Mason University and an MBA from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland.

Angela Strange

General Partner Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)

Angela Strange is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where she focuses on AI Applications and Fintech/Insurance. Today, Angela serves on the boards of Addi, Cygnvs, hyperexponential, Jeeves, Moov, Sardine, Valon, and Vesta and more.

Angela also coined the idea that “Every Company Will Be a Fintech Company” — the now widely cited observation that companies will increasingly derive a significant portion of their revenue from financial services driven by the influx of new, transformative financial infrastructure tools.

Prior to joining Andreessen Horowitz, Angela was a product manager at Google where she launched and grew Chrome for Android and Chrome for iOS into two of Google’s most successful mobile products. She has also served as director of product management and business development at Ruba.com (acquired by Google), a senior associate partner at Bay Partners focusing on the consumer internet sector, and a consultant at Mercer Management Consulting in Toronto.

Angela helped launch and was co-chair of C100, a non-profit that bridges Canadian entrepreneurs with Silicon Valley, and on the Canadian Finance Minister Morneau’s Economic Growth Council. She earned her Mechanical Engineering degree from Queen’s University in Canada and an MBA from Stanford. Angela is also a world-class athlete, having spent two years training professionally as a runner;she has won several marathons and achieved a seventh-place national ranking in Canada.

Anthony Raymundo

Partner & Office Managing Partner, Palo Alto Lowenstein Sandler

Anthony Raymundo is a venture lawyer who takes a collaborative approach with clients. A partner in Lowenstein Sandler's ECVC Group, he counsels startups, early-stage companies, growth companies, and venture funds on corporate transactions. Clients benefit from his experience working closely with a host of other startups across their life cycles, from creation to operational matters and through exit. Anthony also has negotiated numerous venture financings and is adept at navigating mergers and acquisitions.

Anthony is well-equipped to handle technical issues and complex challenges that arise in the course of deals. At the same time, he is mindful that his clients' goals often require crafting practical solutions that are efficient and fit within business needs.

Asya Bradley

Startup & VC Partners Lead Stripe

Currently, Startup & Venture Capital Lead at Stripe, Asya Bradley is a multi-exited Serial Founder, Super Angel Investor, LP, advisor and board director in tech startups and emerging fund managers.

With over 20 years of experience in tech (founding team @Synapse, founder @Kinly: Acquired by Killer Mike's Greenwood, Cisco alum) and a track record of supporting underestimated founders, Bradley is an experienced investor, operator, and fintech entrepreneur.

She is a world traveler, having lived and worked throughout Europe, the Middle East, Asia and now North America. Asya is also certified at the highest attainable level by the Yoga Alliance in Ashtanga Yoga and speaks multiple languages fluently including, amongst others, Dutch, Punjabi and Arabic.

Austin Carroll

CEO & Founder Warrant

Austin Carroll is the Founder and CEO of Warrant, a single source of truth for marketing materials and customer communications. Warrant lets marketing, compliance, and legal work from the same system, reviewing assets, enforcing policies with AI, and keeping records in one place. This replaces the scattered email threads, Teams messages, and shared drives that slow down every approval and make audits a nightmare.

The AI-native platform is trusted by major insurance carriers, credit unions, banks, and fintech teams to get more compliant content to market faster with an immutable audit trail behind every approval. Before founding Warrant, Austin spent 8+ years in financial product marketing at Capital One, Brex, and Mercury. She launched the Mercury IO card, navigated SVB's collapse, and built credit card experiences used by millions. She saw firsthand how fragmented compliance reviews kill momentum in financial services, and started Warrant to fix it.

Austin teaches AI Entrepreneurship at Duke and authored "The AI Native Marketer." She believes AI won't just speed up marketing in regulated industries... it will be a competitive advantage. Visit hellowarrant.com.

Benjamin Maxim

CTO MSU Federal Credit Union

Ben Maxim joined MSU Federal Credit Union in 2007 and currently serves in a dual role as Chief Technology Officer for MSUFCU and as Chief Operating Officer for MSUFCU’s wholly-owned CUSO Reseda Group. He is responsible for assessing emerging business trends and technologies, providing strategic direction for existing and future products, services, and technologies and facilitating innovation throughout the Credit Union including leading their innovation center The Lab at MSUFCU. He is also responsible for technology, product, growth and sales at Reseda Group.

Maxim began work initially as a Web Developer and in 2014, he became E- Commerce Manager before moving into roles including Assistant Vice President of Software Development and Chief Innovation Officer. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University and a professional certificate in Innovation & Entrepreneurship from Stanford University. Maxim was honored as Finopotamus’s 2022 Tekkie Awards Technologist of the Year, MCUL's 2024 Professional of the Year, CU Times’s 2024 Luminary Finalist - “Innovation in Tech – CTO/CIO of the Year”.

Maxim completed Filene Research Institute’s innovation leadership program, i3, in 2023. He also serves as an advisor and board member to multiple fintechs.

Billie Jo Parker

Chief Banking and Development Officer Insbank

Billie Jo Parker is Chief Banking and Development Officer at INSBANK, where she leads enterprise-wide growth and client experience strategy. With more than two decades in financial services, she has held leadership roles at Pinnacle Financial Partners, Renasant Bank, and Metropolitan Bank, where she was a founding member. She is known for building high-performing teams, expanding markets, and aligning culture with execution. Billie Jo holds an MBA and a graduate banking degree from the ABA Stonier Graduate School at the Wharton School. A past chair of the Tennessee Bankers Association’s Young Bankers Division and an inaugural recipient of the ABA Emerging Leaders Award, she is a frequent speaker on leadership, culture, and the future of client experience. Her approach emphasizes clarity, speed, and confidence—leveraging technology to streamline operations and elevate human connection in banking.

Brad Rosenfeld

Chief Marketing Office & Chief Strategy Officer Biz2Credit & Biz2X

Brad Rosenfeld is a seasoned marketing and growth executive with more than two decades of experience leading B2B SaaS and fintech organizations through rapid scale, global expansion, and IPO readiness. As Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Strategy Officer at Biz2Credit and Biz2X, Brad is driving the company’s next stage of growth, advancing its leadership in embedded finance, modern lending, and AI-powered financial technology.

He is responsible for shaping Biz2Credit’s brand and growth strategy, expanding enterprise adoption of the Biz2X AI platform, and positioning the organization for long-term value creation across both its SaaS and financial services businesses.

Renowned for transforming marketing into a strategic growth engine, Brad has built award-winning brands, scalable demand generation frameworks, and go-to-market systems that have propelled companies beyond $400M in revenue. His approach integrates data, creativity, and strategic alignment between marketing, product, and sales to accelerate measurable business impact.

A graduate of Columbia Business School, Brad continues to lecture there on strategic marketing and innovation. He is also a recognized thought leader in AI, embedded finance, and digital transformation, contributing regularly to Forbes, Fast Company, and Entrepreneur, and serving as a member of the Wall Street Journal CMO Council.

Brian Kaas

Senior Vice president of Corporate Development TruStage

Brian Kaas is senior vice president of corporate development at TruStage. He is responsible for sourcing, evaluating, and executing a broad range of strategic transactions for the organization. Additionally, Brian serves as the president and managing director of TruStage Ventures, LLC, and oversees all aspects of its venture capital program. Brian is a frequent speaker on fintech trends and routinely advises credit unions on best practices for leveraging partnerships with fintechs. He also serves as a board member for several banking technology, lending, and fintech companies.

Prior to joining the company in 2012, Kaas was a law partner at Foley & Lardner. He has a broad range of legal and corporate experience in complex commercial transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, reinsurance, and corporate restructurings. Brian graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School with a Juris Doctorate.

Can Arkali

Senior Director - Scores Analytics FICO

Can Arkali is a Senior Director in Scores Analytics, where he leads the research and development of alternative data and beyond-credit solutions, which include FICO® Score XD, UltraFICO® Score and FICO® Safe Driving Score. Prior to this, Can has performed the role of analytic reviewer on the development and deployment of several FICO® Scores in North America. Can’s recent accomplishments include playing an integral part in the research, design and development of UltraFICO® Score and the FICO® Score 10 Suite and leading analytic teams in the research, development and deployment of credit risk and non-credit risk models.
Can holds a B. S. in Systems and Information Engineering from the University of Virginia with a concentration in Computer and Information Systems.

Cara Oppenheimer

CEO & Co-Founder Goodbuy

Cara Oppenheimer is the CEO and co-founder of Goodbuy, a rapidly growing fintech transforming how financial institutions connect with small businesses. With a background in brand strategy and innovation, Cara brings a fresh, community-driven perspective to the future of banking.

Goodbuy’s platform powers white-labeled “Community Marketplaces” that link local businesses with a financial institution’s customers—both online and in person—creating new pathways for deposit growth, engagement, and non-interest income.

Under Cara’s leadership, Goodbuy has been recognized as a 3x winner of national fintech competitions in 2025 and continues to gain traction with leading credit unions across the country. Passionate about the intersection of community and commerce, Cara is reimagining how financial institutions drive loyalty and growth by supporting the small businesses that anchor their communities.

Carey Ransom

Managing Director BankTech Ventures

Carey Ransom is the Managing Director of BankTech Ventures, a strategic investment and market intelligence firm focused on transformative solutions to make banks better. He and his team currently work with over 120 banks and 25 companies aligned to the future of banking. He's a serial tech entrepreneur and investor who also founded Operate to invest in data-centric software companies. Prior roles include CPO at Experian, CEO of RealPractice, and CMO at Happy Money. His career also spans product, marketing, and business development leadership roles. Carey also hosts the Operate Podcast to highlight founders, funders and industry luminaries. His belief in purpose, culture, and teamwork stems from growing up in his family’s 100 year-old retail business.

Cassandra Sumner

Senior Director, Fraud Strategy Vonage

Cassandra Sumner is the Senior Director of Fraud Strategy at Vonage, where she leads the development and execution of fraud prevention and mitigation initiatives across the organization. With over 20 years of experience spanning fraud prevention, forensic accounting, and financial analysis, Cassandra brings expertise from both public and private sectors.

Prior to joining Vonage, Cassandra served at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, where as Chief, she led the national forensic accountant program and set strategic direction for the program’s investigative capabilities across multiple threat areas. Her career also includes public accounting and corporate roles in the private sector.

Cassandra holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Indiana University-Bloomington and a Master's in Accounting with a concentration in Forensic Accounting from Florida Atlantic University. She is a licensed CPA and Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE).

Chris Black

CEO Thread Bank

Chris serves as CEO, President and Director at Thread Bancorp, Inc. and Thread Bank. Previously, he was EVP/CFO of Franklin Financial Network and Franklin Synergy Bank, located in Franklin, TN. Before joining Franklin Financial Network and Franklin Synergy Bank, Chris served as SVP/CFO, Banking at FirstBank in Nashville, TN. Previously, he worked in the investment management and investment research industries, specializing in the banking sector while at Merrill Lynch & Co. and ISI Group, both based in New York City. Prior to working in the private sector, he served for over nine years as an Officer and pilot in the United States Air Force. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from Cornell University with a major in Engineering and his Master of Business Administration from Auburn University, with a concentration in Finance.

Chris Chazin

Managing Director, Head of Transaction Banking Product TD Securities

Chris is responsible for driving transaction banking product initiatives to deliver best-in-class capabilities for TD Bank Group’s (TDBG) corporate, commercial, and institutional clients across the Canadian Commercial Bank, U.S. Commercial Bank, and TD Securities.

Chris is accountable for product management, development and strategy, P&L management, and go-to-market efforts for all transaction banking products across TDBG, a remit that includes payments and receivables, deposits and liquidity, global trade finance, commercial card issuance, merchant services, data and analytics, and digital channels and client reporting. In this capacity, Chris collaborates closely with client-facing teams and partners across TDBG entities.

Previously, Chris served as Senior Vice President, Head of Treasury and Trade Products and Services, U.S. Commercial Banking, for TD Bank, Americas Most Convenient Bank. In that role, he led product management, technical sales, market management, and customer onboarding and servicing, for transaction banking offerings for TD’s U.S. Commercial bank small business, middle market, and large-enterprise customers.

Chris joined TD in January 2024 from Citi’s Services division (formerly Treasury and Trade Solutions), where he held multiple leaderships positions in product management and market management during a 13-year tenure. During his time at Citi, Chris launched and managed innovative solutions across payments and receivables, commercial credit cards and eCommerce merchant acquiring, and embedded finance to help clients digitize processes, increase efficiency, and improve working capital. Chris served as Citi’s representative on key industry bodies, including The Clearing House’s Real Time Payments Business Committee, Early Warning Systems advisory panels, and the U.S. Faster Payments Council. Prior to Citi, Chris spent five years at American Express in product management, marketing, and business management roles.

Chris holds a BA from Rutgers University and an MBA from Georgetown University. He resides in Brooklyn, NY with his wife and two daughters.

Chris Dorsey

Head of Partnerships for Emerging Payments and AirKey Capital One

Chris Dorsey is the Head of Partnerships for Emerging Payments and AirKey at Capital One. Chris has over 15 years of experience as a senior technology leader spanning startups, data-centric product development, business development, and strategy. He was most recently the Founder and CEO of Mymo, a financial services app that used AI and proprietary data to grant independent workers access to financial products and services. Before that, Chris was part of the founding team at OvationCXM, where he led sales, business development, and marketing. He also spent time at Palantir, helping the company enter new commercial markets, including insurance, payments, and drug discovery. In a previous life, Chris spent time in private equity with TPG and investment banking at J.P. Morgan. Chris is originally from Austin, TX and graduated from The University of Texas. He currently lives in the Bay Area with his wife and three young children who get very excited every time they see a Capital One commercial.

Chris Sibila

Chief Information Officer Financial Center First Credit Union

With over 30 years of distinguished experience in financial services, Chris Sibila brings deep expertise in digital transformation, product management, and strategic innovation. Currently leading the technology vision and payments strategy for Financial Center First Credit Union, a $950 million institution serving nearly 60,000 members across Indiana, Chris has been instrumental in advancing the credit union's digital-first banking strategy to deliver best-in-class member experiences.

His impressive career includes executive leadership roles at CNG Holdings, Harland Clarke (now Vericast), and Elements Financial Federal Credit Union. He's also held key positions at Citibank and spent 19 years with Fifth Third Bank, developing expertise across technology, payments, operations, acquisitions, and sales.
Chris is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati with a degree in Electrical Engineering and an MBA from Xavier University.

Christian Widhalm

CEO Bloom Credit

Christian is the CEO of Bloom Credit, a financial data infrastructure company. With his leadership, Bloom Credit provides financial institutions with strategic relationships and critical innovations such as award winning Bloom+ for consumer-permissioned data (CPD) to enable access to validated financial data and reporting in real-time.

He has spent over 15 years working within venture-backed fintech providing innovative solutions to consumers and businesses in highly regulated industries. Prior to Bloom Credit, he was most recently at LendKey Technologies, where he served as Chief Revenue Officer and was responsible for the company’s relationships with over 300 banks and credit unions.

During Christian’s time as CEO, Bloom Credit has been widely recognized for its accomplishments in transforming the credit data ecosystem by Finovate's Best of Show (2024), Tearsheet's Data Innovation Award (2024) and has been recognized by Money 2020 Banking Awards (2025), Finovate for Excellence in Financial Inclusion (2025) and the CU Times Luminaries Awards (2025).

Christina Miller

COO MANTL

Christina Miller is the Chief Operating Officer of MANTL, a B2B SaaS company that offers modern account opening solutions for banks and credit unions. Following MANTL’s acquisition by Alkami Technology, Inc. in 2025, Christina has also assumed the role of VP, Channel & Partner Growth at Alkami. Prior to joining MANTL, Christina served as General Counsel of a number fintech companies and SaaS platforms, including Caribou Financial, Inc. and Amperity, Inc. Christina has also worked as Associate General Counsel at Affirm, Inc. and Vice President & Corporate Counsel at Prudential Private Capital. Christina began her career in private practice as a corporate associate at the law firms of Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago and Allen & Overy in London. She received her law degree from Northwestern University and a Masters degree from the London School of Economics. In her free time, Christina enjoys hiking in the mountains near Seattle, seeking out the perfect cup of coffee, and trying to keep up with her two young children.

Clare Herceg

VP, Growth The Beans

Clare Herceg is an exited founder, operator, and cross-sector leader with 15+ years building and scaling products that improve people's wealth and health. She currently serves as VP of Growth at The Beans, a fintech building the Financial Operating System for the 40M teachers, healthcare, and public employees that comprise America’s Caring Class. Through its training, tools, and automations, The Beans offers an evidence-based solution to relieve employee financial stress and reduce turnover by 12%. In her role at The Beans Clare leads sales, strategic partnerships, and new market growth.

Prior to The Beans, Clare was the CEO and Founder of Let’s Get Set, a VC-backed mission-driven consumer fintech offering savings, lending, and tax solutions for low-wage parents. She also brings experience scaling and investing in economic empowerment solutions domestically and internationally. Clare has an M.B.A. from MIT focused on entrepreneurship and a B.A. from Princeton in Public Policy.

Colin Payne

Head of Innovation The Financial Conduct Authority

Colin Payne is a distinguished leader in financial innovation, currently serving as the Head of Innovation at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Chair of the Global Financial Innovation Network (GFIN) convening over 90 national regulators to build a powerful, collaborative network.

In these roles, he spearheads strategic initiatives to foster growth through responsible innovation, such as the newly launched AI Lab, Sandboxes and TechSprint Programme.

Before joining the FCA, Colin was the Senior Director at PwC, where he delivered programs across the GCC, including nat

He has ional payment strategies and digital asset initiatives with Central Banks in the region.
also held Partner and EVP positions at EY and Capgemini with an early tenure at Apple working with Steve Jobs.

With over 30 years at the forefront of technology and change, Colin has built an award-winning portfolio designing and deploying world-class innovation.
He has held honorary positions at Kings College and Middlesex University.

Colin Sahagun

Founder & CEO Stelrix

Colin Sahagun is the Founder and CEO of Stelrix, a fintech company building what aims to be the first investment backed credit card designed to let users spend against their brokerage portfolios without needing to sell their assets. Originally from California, Colin founded Stelrix after working at a private family office and later as a junior analyst at a brokerage firm in the San Diego area, where he saw firsthand how portfolio backed liquidity strategies were often kept complex and inaccessible despite their broader potential.

In less than 10 months, Stelrix has gone from concept into one of the fastest growing and developing seed stage fintech companies, with more than 20 tier one partners with 70+ people across them and access to over 1,500 financial institutions for the product. Alongside building the company, Colin is studying finance at Drexel University, where he's taking 20 credits per quarter and is graduating a year early. He has led Stelrix’s product vision, strategic partnerships, fundraising, and brand from the ground up, with a focus on reshaping how modern credit and capital access can work for a new generation in a 27 gram card experience.

Colton Pond

Chief Marketing Officer Socure

Colton Pond serves as Chief Marketing Officer at Socure, where he oversees the company’s global marketing strategy and execution to support continued hyper-growth, expand revenue generation, and deepen Socure’s position as the infrastructure for global identity and risk intelligence in the AI era.

Pond is a proven marketing executive with a track record for driving outsized growth at high-velocity companies. He most recently served as CMO at LoanPro, the market-leading API-first credit platform, where he positioned the company as a go-to core infrastructure for banks, credit unions, and fintechs. He established LoanPro’s first user conference, the Salt Flats Summit, an invite-only executive forum for 500 of the brightest minds in financial services on the Bonneville Salt Flats, which went viral as "Fintech Burning Man." During this time, Pond co-founded Fintech NerdCon establishing a one-of-a-kind community-driven event by and for fintech operators.

Prior to LoanPro, Pond was an executive at Truv, where he drove 300% revenue growth year-over-year. He has also held key marketing and sales roles at MX, Lucid, and HealthEquity. His deep knowledge of fintech and experience working within the complex and regulated ecosystems of financial services translates directly to Socure’s sophisticated identity, fraud, risk and compliance solutions.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from the University of Miami Herbert Business School, where he gained early experience in marketing research and consumer behavior.

At Socure, Pond’s leadership is central to advancing the company’s mission to redefine identity infrastructure for the digital economy, aligning marketing vision with product innovation and market expansion priorities.

Dave Birch

Principal 15Mb Ltd

David G. W. Birch is an author, advisor and commentator on digital financial services. He is an international keynote speaker and recognised thought leader whose books on digital identity and digital money have been widely praised.

David is Principal at his advisory practice 15Mb Ltd. and Global Ambassador for Consult Hyperion, the consulting arm of Fime. A Senior Research Fellow at King’s College Business School in London, he is Non-Executive Chairman of Digiseq Ltd and holds a number of other board-level advisory roles with companies in Europe and the USA including OneID, PaymentWorks, Au10tix and KYP – Know Your Partner. His most recent journal papers cover agentic finance, payment system resilience and non-human customers.

Dennis Weiss

CEO and Co-Founder IPQS

Dennis Weiss is the CEO and co-founder of IPQS. He is considered an expert in fraud prevention and digital risk management. Weiss founded IPQS after experiencing firsthand the challenges of battling fraud while operating a successful advertising company. During his tenure, IPQS has organically grown as a bootstrapped business into a globally leading fraud prevention company powered by sophisticated threat intelligence.

An entrepreneur at heart, Dennis also runs a distillery and a coffee roastery, giving him a unique perspective on securing businesses as both a provider and a merchant. At the helm of his career, guided by his mantra, "Don't read the book, write the book," he champions innovation, teamwork, and actionable strategies while balancing professional success with quality time with his family.

As an industry thought leader and frequent presenter, Dennis has spoken at conferences such as the Merchant Risk Council on emerging fraud trends, device fingerprinting, risk scoring, account takeover prevention, and building trust at scale. Dennis continues to regularly team up with respected fraud experts, such as Frank McKenna and Jordan Harris, to bring actionable advice to help audiences protect their businesses, drive efficiency in their risk management, and instill confidence in customers amidst rising digital complexity.

Elena Casal

Chief Client Officer The Clearing House

Elena Casal is the Chief Client Officer at The Clearing House, responsible for creating and managing the holistic experience for its customers and partners. The role is focused on promoting the company’s work to its diverse target segments, including growing the RTP® network across U.S. financial institutions, evolving the customer engagement model for all TCH payments networks, and overseeing business lines focused on payments education, compliance and advocacy.

Elena has deep experience with product and customers in the payments industry. Prior to joining The Clearing House, Elena held regional and global product management positions at FIS, Clear2Pay and Fiserv where she was focused on building products and services across the global enterprise payments landscape. She also worked at the Federal Reserve Bank within the Retail Product Office and Monetary Policy Divisions with a focus on cross-border activities and economic policy in Latin America.

Elena currently serves on the Women in Payments Advisory Board, the P20 Board as well as the Girls on the Run Board.

Elizabeth St-Onge

Managing Director, Head of Client Innovation & Advisory TD Securities

Elizabeth joined TD in November of 2023. She is currently the Head of Client Innovation & Advisory for the Transaction Banking business. This is a newly formed function with the goal of driving new product capabilities while addressing emerging client needs: connecting long-term trends with actionable insights and working with clients, partners and industry peers to build innovative solutions, with a particular focus on digital assets and AI. In this role, Elizabeth is also a key member of the firm's Digital Assets Strategy Team (DAST). Elizabeth first joined TD as the Head of Product Management for GTB where she drove and executed the strategy, roadmap, development and delivery of products and solutions for clients across all client segments, product types, and geographies. Elizabeth was a critical leader in the development and structuring of the Value Creation Plan (VCP) where she brought deep knowledge of client needs and industry best practices.

Elizabeth has over 20 years in the industry with leadership roles in corporate banking, transaction banking, and payments. She brings extensive industry expertise and experience working across the end-to-end business delivery lifecycle including: sales, product management, client service, operations, and technology. She has a 360-degree understanding of the transaction banking & payments industry having worked at a Fintech, served as a trusted advisor to Corporate Treasurers/CFOs, and led innovation and transformation at leading banks.

Prior to joining TD, Elizabeth was at Citibank where she was Managing Director and Chief Transformation, Innovation & Strategy Officer for the Treasury & Trade Solutions (TTS) Business. She worked across a 96-country footprint, across all client segments, and across all products (including payments, commercial card, liquidity, and trade finance) - leading a 60-person multi-disciplinary team working with Sales, Product Management, Technology, Operations, On-boarding, and Client Service to execute on a large-scale business transformation. In this role, she partnered with Product Management and Technology to design and deliver innovative and digital products, with a particular focus on emerging payments and digital commerce. She also ensured a highly performing business through numerous initiatives to drive speed of execution: including managing the Agile transformation team, setting up a Business Architecture function, and leading the Operational Excellence team (including a team of Lean Six-Sigma black belts).

Elizabeth also spent 10 years at Oliver Wyman where she advised senior executives focusing on treasury, capital markets, commodities, payments, financial supply chain and working capital management issues. She worked with leading institutions including Bank of America, PNC, Capital One, Wells Fargo, JPMC, Goldman Sachs, Fifth Third, HSBC, Mastercard, American Express, The World Bank, IFC, InterAmerican Development Bank. She has first-hand and intimate knowledge of banks’ payments and transaction banking products, capabilities and strategies. Prior to joining Oliver Wyman, Elizabeth spent time at Treasury Strategies where she led the Corporate Treasury Technology practice and assisted corporate CFOs andTreasurers in designing and implementing technology and banking solutions to meet key corporate objectives. She was also at the Fintech Selkirk Financial Technologies where she led product management and client delivery for payments, liquidity and working capital management software.

Elizabeth received the CertICM (Certified International Cash Management) Certification from the UK Association of Treasurers. She holds a joint honors degree in International Trade and Political Science from the University of Waterloo. Elizabeth is a frequent public speaker on wide range of topics related to innovation and best practices in Treasury Management and Wholesale Banking. She has also been published on topics related to culture & conduct as well as diversity & inclusion in the financial services industry: with appearances in the Financial Times Podcast, American Banker, Bloomberg Daybreak, Group of Thirty lead industry report, and the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Blue Ribbon Commission Report.

Elizabeth is an avid reader, world traveler (having traveled to over 60 countries), and skier. She is a dual US-Canada citizen, fluent in English and French, and currently living in Chicago. She is an AFS exchange program returnee having spent one year of high school in Japan.

Erik VanBramer

Senior Vice President of Customer Relations Federal Reserve

Erik Van Bramer is the Senior Vice President and Head of Customer & Industry Relations for the Federal Reserve Financial Services. In this role, Erik oversees and sets direction for the organization with responsibility for the relationships for all financial institutions utilizing Federal Reserve Financial Services. Erik has more than 25 years in the financial services industry and has worked with financial institutions of all sizes as they partner with the Federal Reserve Bank in navigating the payments landscape. In his current role, he serves on the Senior Business Leader committee and is an active participant in numerous Federal Reserve initiatives to foster and improve the safety, security, and efficiency of payments

Esteban Almeda

Founder & CEO 3 Degrees

Esteban is the Founder and CEO of 3 Degrees, a platform helping banks, credit unions, and fintechs compete in the rapidly evolving world of international payments.

3 Degrees enables financial institutions to offer modern cross-border payments through a single platform supporting any country, any currency (fiat or stablecoins), and any payment rail from SWIFT, real-time payments, global ACH, mobile money, or cash networks.

By simplifying the infrastructure behind global payments, 3 Degrees helps financial institutions expand capabilities, grow revenue and deposits, and deliver a modern experience to their customers and members.

Prior to founding 3 Degrees, Esteban was part of the Corporate Strategy teams at two of the world’s largest payments companies, FIS and Worldpay. This experience gave him deep insight into both the opportunities in cross-border payments and the operational realities financial institutions face.

Esteban began his career in banking at Citigroup and holds an MBA from the University of Cambridge.

Esty Scheiner

Co-founder & CEO Shiboleth AI

Esty Scheiner is the Co-Founder and CEO of Shiboleth, a regtech company helping banks and fintechs modernize compliance oversight through automation and AI. Shiboleth partners with regulated institutions to streamline complaint management, marketing review, merchant risk, and ongoing compliance testing—replacing manual, reactive processes with scalable, auditable systems.

Previously, Esty worked as a security engineer at a conversational intelligence company, focusing on data integrity, risk controls, and regulatory considerations across large-scale customer communications. She brings hands-on experience working with compliance, risk, and operations teams navigating BaaS, payments, and lending programs.

Esty works closely with bank leaders, fintech founders, and regulators on emerging risks at the intersection of AI, financial services, and consumer protection, and is known for translating regulatory complexity into practical, production-ready solutions.

Eyal Lifshitz

Founder & CEO Bluevine

Eyal Lifshitz is the Co-founder and CEO of Bluevine, the largest digital banking platform for small business in the U.S. Through a single account, companies can earn more, save more, borrow, and manage their money whenever and wherever they do business – without ever stepping into a branch. Accessible through one dashboard, its product suite integrates high-yield business checking, accounts payable, invoicing, debit and credit cards, loans, and lines of credit. Since 2013, Bluevine has served over 900,000 customers, delivered over $17 billion in loans, and is currently trusted with over $1.8 billion in managed customer deposits.

As a third-generation small-business entrepreneur, Eyal is passionate about helping small businesses grow and prosper. Before Bluevine, Eyal was a principal at Greylock IL, Greylock Partners’ dedicated fund for Israel and Europe. At Greylock, Eyal was involved in investing over $100 million in start-up companies.

Earlier in his career, he was a consultant at McKinsey & Company and an engineer at Texas Instruments. He holds an MBA with high honors from the University of Chicago, where he was a Carlton Fellow.

Gabriella Brignardello

Partner Fika Ventures

Gabriella Brignardello is a Partner at Fika Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on backing pre-Series A B2B software companies. She leads investments in fintech and vertical AI, working closely with portfolio companies including Payabli, Clerq, MaxHome, and Dispatch. Prior to Fika, Gabriella was an investor at WndrCo, a consumer tech multi-stage fund, and began her career as a consultant at Parthenon in the industrials private equity practice. Outside of Fika, Gabriella is actively involved in fundraising and operational initiatives for Mi Casa de Angeles, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit she founded in 2009 that is dedicated to improving the quality of education in underserved areas of Peru, her father’s home country. Gabriella holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Symbolic Systems with a focus on Human-Computer Interaction from Stanford University.

Gary Fan

COO Royal Business Bank

Gary Fan is an Executive Officer of RBB, a publicly traded bank with over $4 billion in assets. As COO, Gary leads enterprise-wide growth initiatives, digital transformation, product and service innovation, and strategic M&A activity. He is also responsible for optimizing cross-functional operations and driving continuous business model evolution to stay ahead in a rapidly changing financial landscape.

Previously, Gary served as President of Gateway Bank FSB in Oakland, CA, where he successfully led a full-scale turnaround, overseeing all retail and commercial banking units and restoring profitability. His leadership has consistently delivered measurable results across diverse financial institutions.

Gary’s career spans senior roles at global financial organizations, including CTBC Bank, where he served as Head of Strategy for North America and Head of Consumer Lending for its U.S. subsidiary. His expertise includes fintech integration, strategic partnerships, market expansion, long-range planning, and organizational restructuring.

With P&L responsibility over multi-billion-dollar lending portfolios, Gary has led high-performing teams across Sales, Marketing, Retail and Commercial Banking, Operations, Credit Administration, Finance, IT & Security, HR, Legal, PMO, and Real Estate. His cross-industry experience includes Banking, Fintech, E-Commerce, Manufacturing, and Supply Chain & Logistics.

Gary holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and is a graduate of the Stonier Graduate School of Banking at The Wharton School.

Genevieve Dozier

Vice President, Product & Marketing, Enterprise Payments Huntington National Bank

Genevieve Dozier has continued to excel and establish herself as a leader in various roles for over two decades in the payments industry. She is VP, Product, Enterprise Payments at Huntington Bank leading product strategy and content in the merchant services division responsible for growth, partnerships, thought leadership and commercialization. Previously she held leadership positions at Truist, Ingenico, CardConnect, Fiserv and was Chief Business Development Officer at a fintech startup. Genevieve was recently named in the top 100 most influential voices in fintech on linkedin in USA and is a multi-award winner including ETA Top Forty Under 40, Innovate Finance Women in Fintech Powerlist, NYC Fintech Women Inspiring Fintech Female, Money 20/20 Rise Up Program, PayTech Women Making Waves award and Game Changer award.

Genevieve is a frequent industry speaker and podcast guest. She is also a contributing writer to a Forbes article on How to Master Workplace Confidence in Three Steps, the book, Mega Deals that reveals strategies on B2B complex selling for $100M + deals and the ebook Inclusive Hiring: what it means and how to apply it within your organization. She also has held board of director and advisory board positions for an event organizer, a non-profit organization and a payments startup.

Georgina Merhom

CEO & Founder SOLO

Georgina is the founder of SOLO, the first collaborative data-sharing network enabling compliant customer data reuse and monetization across financial services, covering 100 million end-customer profiles within its first 100 days of launch. Georgina began her career at the G7 & G20 Information Centre, later training as a data scientist and investigative analyst in cybersecurity where she developed algorithms to detect illicit activity on the dark web, an experience that shaped her perspective on networked data integrity and transparency.

Before SOLO, she founded Zivmi, a cross-border payments and invoice-factoring platform for unbanked freelancers, later acquired by a bank. Through these experiences, Georgina recognized the structural inefficiencies in how customer data is collected, shared, and used throughout financial services. She founded SOLO to build the industry-governed architecture for customer-consented, auditable, and incentivized data exchange— a truly collaborative ecosystem where data consumers and providers can scale trust, reduce redundancy, and unlock new sources of value.

Ginger Siegel

Head of North America Small and Mid-Market Business Mastercard

Ginger Siegel is the North America Small and Medium Business Lead for Mastercard. She has built a needs-based, customer-centric strategy and drives solutions for partners to serve small businesses. Previously, Ginger was a leader in Deloitte’s Financial Services group and a member of its top-ranked Payments Practice, focusing on Small Business, Fintech, Bank Partnerships, and Commercial Banking.

With 30 years of leadership experience, Ginger has held executive roles at multinational and regional banks in Small Business, Business Banking, and Retail, emphasizing Strategy, Payments, Sales Enablement, Branch Optimization, and Revenue Growth. She served as National Business Banking Director at Citigroup, developed SunTrust’s Small Business branch strategy, and led Treasury Management for Business Banking at PNC.

A frequent speaker at national conferences, Ginger addresses small business, banking, and minority entrepreneurship. She has been featured by Forbes, US News, NY Times, and USA Today, and delivered podcasts and webinars for organizations like Create & Cultivate, The Latino Coalition, and PayPal. She has keynoted events for the American Banker Small Business Conference and US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and was nominated for the Women in Payments award. Her passion lies in helping clients grow revenue, acquirecustomers, and create strategies that enable execution.

Herman Man

Bluevine Chief Product Officer

Herman Man is the Chief Product Officer of Bluevine, the largest SMB banking platform in the US that serves as the financial operating system for startups and small businesses. Bluevine has served over 750,000 customers, delivered over $14 billion in loans, and is currently trusted with over $1.8 billion in managed customer deposits. He oversees product strategy and execution.

Before his tenure at Bluevine, Herman was VP of Product at Xero leading product strategy and business development for the Americas. In a global capacity at Xero, he led product and engineering teams for all of Xero’s payroll and expense management products. Prior to that, he spent a decade at Microsoft as a leader and engineer for Windows and Azure.

Outside of work, Herman is an angel investor and tech/gadget enthusiast. He likes to stay active with his wife, two sons, and cockapoo. When not running around, he can be seen hunkered down in a cafe or a couch with a good book.

Howie Xu

Chief AI and Innovation Officer Gen

Howie Xu leads AI & Innovation at Gen. In this role, Howie is responsible for creating new products and business for the Company’s long-term vision both in Cyber Safety and beyond.

Prior to joining Gen, Howie was the Senior Vice President of Engineering and AI/ML at Palo Alto Networks and the VP of AI/ML at Zscaler. He was the CEO and Co-founder of the AI security startup TrustPath before it was acquired by Zscaler. He was also an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Greylock Partners, head of R&D for Cisco’s Cloud Networking and Services Group, and the founding VP of Engineering at Big Switch Networks. During his decade-long tenure at VMware, Howie founded and led VMware’s networking team.

Currently, Howie is also the host of “Byte Into Future,” a guest lecturer at Stanford University, and an investor and board member/advisor for various AI companies. Howie is an alum of Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and a frequent speaker at technical and investment conferences worldwide.

J (Jason) Hester

EVP, Chief Digital Officer | Ai Executive Columbia Banking System

J (Jason) is a transformative leader and veteran of the banking industry, currently serving as Executive Vice President and Chief Digital Officer for Columbia Banking System, Inc. In this role, he spearheads the company’s technological evolution and leads the Center of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence, ensuring that AI initiatives drive measurable business value.

With a career beginning in the mid-90s at Washington Mutual, J (Jason) has navigated the industry’s most significant shifts. During a prolific 17-year tenure at AmericanWest Bank, he was instrumental in scaling the institution from $120 million to nearly $9 billion in assets. A veteran of 31 closed deals and over 145 due diligence journeys, he is an expert in M&A, system rationalization, and the 2008 recapitalization era.
J (Jason) is a "business-first" technologist who believes that complexity is the silent killer of growth. He has led massive transitions from Waterfall to Agile/Kanban and overseen diverse functions including Data Analytics, Digital Strategy, IT/IS, and Service Management. His philosophy is simple: reduce the number of systems to achieve excellence in those that remain. By focusing on automation across the front, middle, and back offices, he reduces friction, lowers expenses, and builds stronger vendor partnerships. He is dedicated to building the strategically important, tech-forward bank of the future.

James Barrese

Senior Vice President, Fintech Intuit

James Barrese joined Intuit as the Senior Vice President of Fintech in September 2023. He heads an organization comprised of product and development teams that aim to fuel prosperity globally for small businesses and the self-employed by leveraging the power of millions of customers for the prosperity of each individual.

With more than 30 years of technology experience that spans banking, commerce, payments, the military, academic world, business consulting, enterprise platforms and
infrastructure, James Barrese has broad experience in digital transformations, financial systems, high performance processing systems, security, infrastructure and developing innovative product solutions for consumers and businesses that are critical to his role.

Prior to joining Intuit, he served as the CTO for Chime, a Fintech company founded on the premise that basic banking services should be helpful, easy and free. James has also held significant leadership positions, including serving as PayPal's Global CTO and Senior Vice President of Payment Services Business, and as Vice President of Technology at eBay, where he led several strategic technology initiatives, including delivering open platforms, creating infrastructure services, systems software, 3rd party developer ecosystems, enterprise analytics, and overall site operations running the world’s largest marketplace at scale.

James earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Stanford University. He's based in
Silicon Valley. He also served in the U.S. Army and currently serves as an independent
director for Visteon, the leading automotive technology company delivering the next
generation of digital cockpits and electronic control systems for the world’s top
automobile manufacturers.

Jamie Twiss

CEO Carrington Labs

Jamie Twiss is an experienced banker and a data scientist who works at the intersection of data science, artificial intelligence, and consumer lending. He currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Carrington Labs, a leading provider of cash flow underwriting solutions and risk analytics tools to large and mid-sized banks and non-bank lenders across the US and Canada. Previously, he was the Chief Data Officer at a major Australian bank. Before that, he worked in a variety of roles across banking and financial services after beginning his career as a consultant with McKinsey & Company.

Jamie frequently speaks on topics including next-generation loan decisioning, implementing artificial intelligence in large organisations, data management and governance, and building a data and AI culture.

He holds an AB from Harvard University, an MBA from Stanford University, and a Master’s degree in data science from the University of New South Wales. He lives in Sydney, Australia.

Jason Rosen

CEO and Co-Founder Prism Data

Jason Rosen is Founder and CEO of Prism Data, the cash flow underwriting infrastructure and analytics platform powering the next generation of risk scoring. Prior to founding Prism, Jason was Co-Founder and CEO of Petal, the fintech credit card company that pioneered cash flow underwriting in order to expand access to financial opportunity. Jason served on the Consumer Advisory Board of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, sat on the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act panel for the 2024 Open Banking rulemaking, and is a member of the OCC’s Project REACh. Jason previously practiced law at Sullivan & Cromwell and Gunderson Dettmer, where he represented financial institutions, technology companies and venture capitalists. Jason holds a JD from Harvard Law School.

Jay Budzik

SVP, Director of AI/ML Model Development and Operations Fifth Third Bank

Jay Budzik is SVP, Director of AI/ML Model Development and Operations at Fifth Third Bank. Prior to Fifth Third, Jay was CTO at Zest AI, where he led the data science, engineering and product management teams that pioneered the use of AI in consumer loan underwriting, serving clients such as Freddie Mac, Citibank, Truist, Discover, and over 100 regional banks and credit unions. Jay led the development of the first AI de-biasing methods used in lending. These and other methods yield significant increases in equity for protected groups that have been needlessly held back by traditional credit scores. Prior to Zest AI, Jay founded several successful AI companies. Jay holds over 40 patents in applied AI, earned a Ph. D. in Computer Science from Northwestern University, and holds a B. S. in Computer Science with honors from The University of Chicago.

Jessica Schaefer

Founder and Managing Partner Capital V Strategies

Founder of Bevel (exited in 2023 for a combined valuation of $75M)
Founder of Lushi, Cap V
Ex Acorns, Moody’s, Point72
LinkedIn / Crunchbase

Jessica Schaefer is an American businesswoman and entrepreneur best known for founding Bevel, a communications firm dedicated to the technology and venture capital sectors. Under her leadership as Founder and CEO, Bevel emerged as a powerhouse and key partner to a wide range of companies, representing more than $500B in assets under management. The firm was best known for growing seed stage companies into multi-billion dollar brands with notable exits to Coinbase and Robinhood. Core areas of expertise were healthcare, fintech, consumer tech, venture capital and hedge funds with clients such as Acorns, Better.com,
BlockTower, Ro, Tia, Sollis Health, Greycroft, and Point72.

In 2023, Bevel was acquired by a strategic company. Prior to establishing Bevel, Jessica led communications for Steve Cohen’s Point72, a $30B hedge fund, and is responsible for his comeback story. She also led marketing for its venture capital division Point72 Ventures. During her noncompete period, Jessica raised millions of dollars to launch an AI fertility tech platform, Lushi, dedicated to giving women the choice to have both a fulfilling career and family at a timing that makes sense for them. The concierge platform offers a holistic approach to women's health with in-home fertility services, nutrition guidance, and support.

In September 2025, Jessica launched Cap V, a strategic advisory and communications firm that will acquire best-in-class creative boutique agencies: PR, social media, influencers, paid media and digital, powered by AI and run by specialists. Throughout her career Jessica had multiple sales and marketing roles at Moody's, including Head of Marketing Communications and Director of Global Sales, where she managed a portfolio worth $12.5 million. Jessica's professional journey began at a mid-sized PR agency in New York City during the 2008 financial crisis, where she orchestrated communications strategies for notable clients such as OppenheimerFunds, RBC, RBS, and Jefferies.

Jessica has been honored with numerous accolades, including Business Insider’s “Top Financial PR Experts,” Crain’s NY “Notable in Marketing & PR,” LA Times “Women to Watch,” PR News’ “Rising Stars 30 under 30,” and Moody’s “Rising Star Award.” Jessica was also celebrated on the Innovate Finance Women in FinTech Powerlist for 2023, underscoring her influence and leadership in the industry.

Jessica holds an MBA in Finance from the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College and earned her Bachelor's degree in Public Relations from Quinnipiac University, graduating summa cum laude. Beyond her professional achievements, Jessica serves on the Board for the Children’s Cancer Recovery Foundation and dedicates her expertise to public relations efforts for nonprofits focused on pediatric cancer.

Joe Breeden

CEO Deep Future Analytics LLC

Dr. Joseph L. Breeden,
CEO, Deep Future Analytics LLC (Deepfutureanalytics.com)
President, Model Risk Managers’ International Assocation (MRMIA.org)
Founder & Scientific Advisor, CALM XAI, LLC (calmx.ai)

Dr. Breeden has been designing and deploying risk management systems for loan portfolios since 1995. He founded Deep Future Analytics in 2011, which focuses on portfolio and loan-level forecasting solutions for pricing, account management, stress testing, and CECL;serving banks, credit unions, and finance companies. He is also the owner of auctionforecast.com, which predicts the values of fine wines using a proprietary database with over 4.5 million auction prices.

In 2026, Dr. Breeden founded CALM XAI, LLC to create explainable and governable language models for businesses leveraging the Concept-Aligned Language Model approach. CALM is the first LLM technology that is internally interpretable and governable during generation, surpassing the limits of prompt-engineering and guardrails, while largely eliminating jailbreaking attacks.

He is a member of the board of directors of Upgrade, a San Francisco-based FinTech;an Associate Editor for the Journal of Credit Risk, the Journal of Risk Model Validation, the Journal of Risk and Financial Management and the journal AI and Ethics;and President of the Model Risk Managers’ International Association (mrmia.org).

Dr. Breeden invented vintage analytics for lending in 1997 and created credit risk models through the 1995 Mexican Peso Crisis, the 1997 Asian Economic Crisis, the 2001 Global Recession, the 2003 Hong Kong SARS Recession, the 2007-2009 US Mortgage Crisis and Global Financial Crisis, and the COVID-19 Pandemic. These crises have provided Dr. Breeden with a rare perspective on crisis management and the analytics needs of executives for strategic decision-making. In 2018 Dr. Breeden invented Multihorizon Survival modeling, combining vintage analytics with behavior scoring using logistic regression or machine learning.

Dr. Breeden earned a Ph.D. in physics, and has published over 100 academic articles, 13 patents, and 7 books, including Redesigning Credit Risk Modeling to Achieve Profit and Volatility Targets published in 2024.

Joe Heck

US CEO Zip Co

Joseph Heck is the US CEO of Zip Co, a digital financial services company offering innovative and people-centered products. As an accomplished business leader with over 20 years of experience in consumer lending, Joe has a track record of driving innovation and transformation within the lending industry.

Prior to Zip, he was CEO of US fintech Happy Money and prior to this he served as Happy Money’s Chief Operating Officer, overseeing sales, risk, data science, operations, and customer experience.

Before joining Happy Money, Joe spent 15 years at TruStage (formerly CUNA Mutual Group) in various leadership roles spanning sales and product innovation to help financial institutions on their digital transformation journey.

John Imbriglia

CEO Crowd Street

John is the CEO of Crowd Street, a leading marketplace for private investments with over $4 billion of platform assets, where he oversees the company's overall strategic vision and growth. John has over twenty years of investing and operating experience at the intersection of financial technology, the private markets, and high net worth investors.

Prior to joining Crowd Street in 2024, John was a General Partner at Platform Capital Management, a venture capital firm, where he focused on financial technology investments.

Previously, John was a Managing Director and one of the first employees of iCapital, a global, market leading financial technology platform that simplifies access to alternative investments for high net worth, broker dealer and wealth platforms with approximately $200 billion of private equity, hedge fund and other alternative assets on its platform.

Earlier in his career, John worked in the investment management divisions of Barclays and BNY Mellon.

John holds an MBA from the University of Virginia and a BA, Cum Laude, in English Literature from Georgetown University.

John Lunn

CEO Gr4vy

John Lunn is the Founder and CEO of Gr4vy, the cloud-native payment orchestration platform built for modern enterprises. A seasoned technology and fintech entrepreneur, he brings over 25 years of experience across financial services, commerce enablement, payments, data, security, and infrastructure.
John spent six years as Director of Technology at CyberSource, the world’s first payment service provider, acquired by Visa for $2B in 2010. He later helped found Passmark Security, which was acquired by RSA Security in 2006.

In 2006, John joined PayPal as the fourth employee in the UK, where he built and led the company’s first Developer Relations organization. He was later closely involved in PayPal’s 2015 acquisition of Braintree and transitioned into the team after the deal. A year later, he helped establish PayPal Ventures, the company’s $350M venture fund, and served as a Board Observer for companies including Dosh, Arkose, Raise, Acorns, and Toss.

John Macilwaine

CEO Highnote

John MacIlwaine is the CEO and Co-Founder of Highnote, where he leads the company’s mission to power the future of embedded finance through a unified platform for card issuing, acquiring, and credit. With over two decades of leadership experience at global financial technology companies, John brings deep expertise in building and scaling innovative payments infrastructure.

Before founding Highnote, John served as General Manager of Braintree, a global payments platform powering some of the world’s most dynamic companies, including Uber, Airbnb, and Dropbox. Prior to that, he was Chief Technology Officer at LendingClub, where he helped establish the company’s technical foundation and drive product innovation during its early hypergrowth.

John is passionate about helping companies deliver differentiated, branded payment experiences that unlock new revenue, engagement, and growth.

John Pitts

Vice President for Public Policy, Public Affairs, and Social Impact Affirm

John Pitts is the Vice President of Government Relations, Public Affairs, and Social Impact at Affirm. John advocates for financial services based on consumer-first principles to deliver financial products that improve lives. He has consulted on financial services and consumer protection laws and regulations in the United States, Canada, the UK, the European Union, and Australia.

Before joining Affirm, John was Global Head of Policy at Plaid, a financial data company, where he was a leading expert on Open Banking. Prior to Plaid, John served as the Deputy Assistant Director for Intergovernmental Affairs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. John started his career as an attorney with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.

John Turney

Global Head of Product Management, Asset Servicing Northern Trust

John Turney is an Executive Vice President and Global Head of Product Management for Asset Servicing at Northern Trust. In this role, he leads a global team of product experts delivering custody administration, fiduciary, and data solutions for institutional clients worldwide. John is accountable for setting product strategy and overseeing development to ensure Northern Trust’s offerings deliver meaningful client value and align closely with the firm’s growth priorities.
Prior to his current role, John led Northern Trust’s Total Portfolio Solutions businesses, overseeing software and services supporting portfolio analytics and alternative investments. Operating across seventeen global locations, his team delivered alternative asset administration, comprehensive middle-office services, and advanced analytics across both public and private assets for asset managers and asset owners.

Earlier, John was responsible for the Alternative Asset Services (AAS) and Front Office Solutions (FOS) businesses, where he led global strategy and partnered closely with cross-functional teams to drive the expansion of FOS and the continued evolution of the AAS platform. In this capacity, he focused on enabling clients to gain deeper portfolio insights, mitigate operational risk, and enhance investment decision-making.

John has also held several leadership roles within Northern Trust’s Global Foreign Exchange (GFX) and Global Fund Services (GFS) businesses. Most recently, he served as Global Head of GFX, overseeing the development, delivery, and commercialization of FX services for institutional clients, as well as the management of related risk. Previously, he was Global Head of Outsourced FX, leading the CompleteFX and Passive Currency Overlay businesses, and played a key role in the development and launch of the CompleteFX platform. His earlier experience includes roles in GFX sales, business and product development, and institutional client relationship management.

Before joining Northern Trust, John was a Vice President at Luminous Capital, now a division of First Republic Investment Management, where he worked closely with a founding partner to manage a portion of the firm’s approximately $6 billion in assets across liquid and illiquid investment strategies.

John holds a Bachelor of Science in International Political Economy from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He serves on the Board of Directors of the British‑American Business Council (BABC) of Chicago and has previously served on the board of the Global Foreign Exchange Division (GFXD) of the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA). John formerly completed the NFA’s Swaps Proficiency Requirements and was registered as an Associated Person of Northern Trust’s Swap Dealer, as well as a Series 65 licensed professional.

Joseph Heck

CEO, U.S. Zip

Joseph Heck is the US CEO of Zip Co, a digital financial services company offering innovative and people-centered products. As an accomplished business leader with over 20 years of experience in consumer lending, Joe has a track record of driving innovation and transformation within the lending industry.

Prior to Zip, he was CEO of US fintech Happy Money and prior to this he served as Happy Money’s Chief Operating Officer, overseeing sales, risk, data science, operations, and customer experience.

Before joining Happy Money, Joe spent 15 years at TruStage (formerly CUNA Mutual Group) in various leadership roles spanning sales and product innovation to help financial institutions on their digital transformation journey.

Joshua Silver

Founder & CEO Rainforest

Joshua Silver is founder and CEO of Rainforest, a Payments-as-a-Service company that helps software platforms monetize payments and create robust financial experiences without onerous risk and compliance burdens.

Silver is a payments veteran and expert on credit card processing, ACH origination, remittance handling, alternative payments, payment facilitation, startup growth, and product development.

Prior, Silver founded LaunchPath Group, which advised software companies on payments strategies. Frustrated with the lack of providers that offered software platforms excellent service, reasonable pricing and fair contract terms, he launched Rainforest.

Earlier on, Silver co-founded VC-backed Patientco, which built a robust patient payments platform for health systems. It served 30 million+ patients and processed billions of dollars annually before a successful exit.

Silver is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology with a BS in Computer Science and lives in Atlanta.

Justin Keene

CEO & Founder Moveris

Justin Keene, Ph.D., is the Founder and CEO of Moveris, a psychophysiology-driven security company redefining how fintech platforms verify human presence. Moveris uses proprietary cognitive and emotional signal analysis to distinguish real users from AI-generated deepfakes—protecting onboarding, payments, and identity verification workflows without adding friction.

A former professor and researcher in media psychophysiology, Justin brings a scientific foundation to the challenge of digital trust. His work bridges human cognition, emotion, and machine learning to create authentication systems that measure what makes us human—signals that AI cannot convincingly fake.

Under his leadership, Moveris has become a trusted innovation partner for financial institutions, lenders, and KYC providers seeking secure and seamless user verification. The company is part of the LendAPI FinTech Marketplace and a graduate of Draper University’s Hero Program. Justin regularly speaks on human-AI interaction, fraud prevention, and the emerging trust layer of digital finance.

Kareem Saleh

Fairplay CEO and Co-Founder

Rob Seidman is a fintech leader with over two decades of experience driving innovation across embedded finance, digital lending, and consumer payments. As Senior Vice President and Head of Avvance, Rob lead the incubation, strategy and launch of Avvance, U.S. Bank’s embedded finance platform designed to make every purchase more affordable. His work bridges the gap between traditional banking and modern fintech, delivering seamless financing experiences at the point of sale.

Rob’s fintech journey began at Health Credit Services (HCS), a startup POS lender later acquired by Ally Financial. As the Chief Product and Experience Officer, he drove strategy and new segment business development landing marquee partnerships and acquisitions that significantly expanded the company’s footprint and originations.

Rob’s career spans both high-growth startups and major financial institutions. Prior to U.S. Bank, he held senior product, strategy and partnership roles at Sezzle and Ally Lending, where he led digital transformation initiatives across healthcare, home improvement, and retail verticals. He began his career in banking with roles at J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Lehman Brothers, building a strong foundation in capital markets and client strategy.
Rob holds an MPA from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a B.A. from the University of Maryland.

Rob is passionate about building financial products that are intuitive, inclusive, and impactful—and continues to shape the future of embedded finance through innovation and strategic leadership.

Katie Perry

CMO & Author of TICKER SHOCK (Wiley 2026) zerohash

Katie Perry is a marketer, business strategist, and advisor for tech startups, VCs, and professional services companies. She’s also a financial content creator, producing and hosting programs for platforms like Stocktwits, Morning Brew, and SoFi. Prior to starting her own marketing agency, Katie was the first head of marketing at Public.com, where she led brand and growth efforts as the platform scaled from 2019 to 2023, reaching more than 3 million members. She also served as Chief of Staff and VP of Corporate Strategy for a publicly traded digital measurement company. Her insights have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and Forbes, and she is a frequent speaker at industry and academic events. Katie is currently writing a book with Wiley, to be published in summer 2026, on how digital platforms have transformed retail investing and what it means for companies today.

Ken Kruszka

Managing Director Something FINteresting

Ken is a FinTech and Payments pioneer, who holds the distinction of being the first person to send $1 around the world by mobile transfer. In his career, Ken has launched: the first mobile remittances service in the US, the first global mobile bank account, the first neobank for immigrants in the US, and the first decoupled business payments smart switch.

Ken currently leads Something FINteresting, a consultancy supporting FinTech companies as an advisor, board member, or Fractional Chief Product/Operating Officer. Prior to this, Ken led product and strategy at leading brands including Trustly (Head of Merchant Product) and Amazon (Head of Product, AWS Payments). Earlier in his career, Ken co-founded and exited 3 fintech companies: SnapCheck, which revolutioned business-to-business payments by eliminating paper checks;Boom Financial, the first neobank for immigrants communities spanning US and LatAm;m-Via, an industry-recognized leader in mobile financial services and mobile remittances.

Ken is a Founding Member of the Faster Payments Council, as well as a member of the Federal Reserve’s Business Payments Coalition and the FedNow Community. Ken has been named a Top Innovator to Watch by Bank Innovation, a Top FinTech Innovator by Aspioneer, a Top 25 FinTech CEO by Technology Innovators, a Top CEO in Mobile Payments by Boardroom Media, and a Leading Corporate Digital Transformation Innovator by Databird.

Kevin Moss

President Kevin Moss Consulting LLC

Kevin Moss is an industry practitioner, board member and advisor in credit, fraud and banking. Kevin was SoFi's Chief Risk Officer and was previously Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer responsible for managing Credit, Compliance, and Operating Risk for the Wells Fargo Consumer Lending Group, before he retired in April 2015. Moss joined Wells Fargo in 1998 and brings over 40 years of banking and financial services experience to his current role as a Board member and Advisor in the Lending and Payments space. Prior to being appointed CRO, he was the business manager for the National Home Equity Group.  Kevin was also Chief Credit officer for the Home and Consumer Finance Group, in addition to leading the Consumer Risk Management team, helping Wells Fargo manage the credit and fraud risk in the organization’s Card Services and Deposit/Debit businesses. Kevin is currently an independent director for both public and private firms in the financial services and payments area.

A former college professor, Kevin also participates as an advisor for companies that provide risk management and lending/payment solutions in the financial services industry. He has a Bachelors Degree in Applied Statistics from George Washington University and a Masters of Science from NYU Graduate School of Business in Quantitaitve Analysis.

Kim Gerhardt

Owner and Principal Advisor The Fintech Interactive

Kim Gerhardt is the Founder of The FinTech Interactive, a growth advisory firm at the intersection of traditional banking, credit unions, and fintech. With 30 years of experience in consulting and financial services, she drives innovation that expands access to fair financial services for consumers and small businesses. Kim advises mission driven fintechs advancing risk innovation and financial inclusion, while guiding banks and credit unions in adopting emerging technology responsibly. A frequent conference panelist and moderator, she is committed to fostering dialogue, building partnerships, and accelerating responsible innovation across the financial services ecosystem.

Kirthiga Reddy

President Athena

Kirthiga Reddy is a renowned technology executive and growth-stage investor, currently serving as the President and Director of Athena. With a career spanning approximately three decades, Reddy has established herself as a formidable force in the tech industry. Her role at Athena highlights her commitment to innovative technology and strategic leadership.
Reddy's professional journey is marked by her tenure as Managing Director at Facebook India and South Asia, where she played a pivotal role in the company's expansion in emerging markets. She was Facebook's first employee in India, demonstrating her trailblazing spirit. Prior to Athena, she was SoftBank Investment Adviser’s first female Investment Partner, focusing on frontier, enterprise and health tech investments.

She serves on the Board of Trustees, Syracuse University, and served as Chair, Stanford Business School Management Board.

She has been named to ADWEEK’s AI Power 50, Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business, and Fortune India’s Most Powerful Women, among many other recognitions.
She holds an MBA from Stanford University, where she graduated with highest honors as an Arjay Miller Scholar. She also holds an M.S. in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University and a B.E. in Computer Science from Marathwada University, India.

Kyle Hauptman

NCUA Chairman

Kyle Hauptman has served as the Chairman of the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) since January 2025 after being designated by the President. Prior, Kyle served as the Vice Chairman of the NCUA since December 2020. Before joining the NCUA Board, Kyle served as Senator Tom Cotton’s advisor on economic policy, as well as Staff Director of the Senate Banking Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Policy. Kyle was Senior Vice President at Jefferies & Co and worked as a bond trader at Lehman Brothers in NYC, Tokyo, and Sydney. He also served as a member of the SEC’s Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies. Kyle served on President Trump’s transition team in 2016 and was Senator Mitt Romney’s policy advisor for financial services during the 2012 presidential campaign. Kyle holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a bachelor’s degree from UCLA.

Lauren Copland

Ecosystem Partnerships Lead Block

Lauren Copland leads Block Ecosystem Partnerships, where she drives partner-led product experiences across Square, Cash App, and Afterpay. Her work expands the reach and commercial impact of Block’s products by unlocking new distribution, capabilities, and value across the broader ecosystem.

Prior to Block, Lauren spent more than five years at Apple on the Wallet team, managing strategic relationships with leading acquirers, payment service providers, and issuers across the Americas in support of Apple Pay. Earlier in her career, she led business development at Green Dot, launching the company’s first disbursement program, and spent nearly a decade at Blackhawk Network overseeing a range of prepaid products.

A Bay Area native, Lauren now lives in Portland, Oregon, where she enjoys exploring the city’s renowned food scene while patiently awaiting her favorite season in the Pacific Northwest: summer.

Leah Price

Better Vice President, Tinman AI Platform

Leah Price is Vice President of the Tinman® AI Platform at Better.com, the leading AI-powered home finance company. Leah leads the commercialization of Tinman® to offer Better’s proprietary technology platform and software to lenders across the country. Tinman® is an AI-driven rules-based decision engine that enables lenders and brokers to automate underwriting decisions and cut cycle times by 75%, accelerate efficiency by reducing fulfillment costs up to 45%, and manage up to 10 times as much volume so they can serve their own customers better. Previously leading the Office of Fintech and the Office of the Chief AI Officer at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and serving in senior roles at Figure and Fannie Mae, Leah leverages a wealth of expertise across technology and regulation as the head of Tinman®.

Leighanne Costello

COO Hatch Bank

Leighanne Costello is Hatch Bank’s Chief Operating Officer, with more than two decades of financial services leadership experience guiding her approach to implementing digital strategies and streamlining banking infrastructure. Leighanne is a champion of innovation whose use of data, technology, and passion for modernizing financial services have helped establish Hatch as a leader at the forefront of banking as a service (BaaS).

While at Hatch, Leighanne has led the modernization of the bank’s core infrastructure and has integrated numerous fintech partners and other key third-party providers in order to help Hatch execute on its strategic vision as a purpose-built sponsor bank in the fintech ecosystem. Additionally, Leighanne works to ensure that business initiatives are aligned with compliance and regulatory standards and leads operational due diligence and integration for fintech partnerships.

Leighanne’s deep industry expertise is informed by her previous leadership roles. Before joining Hatch, she most recently served as Vice President of Customer Experience with Firstrust Bank and also held leadership positions with Cenlar FSB. In addition to numerous industry certifications, Leighanne holds an MBA from Villanova University, specializing in Systems Thinking.

Beyond her work at Hatch, Leighanne is a passionate community advocate and mentor for women in business. She served as a mentor and board member for POWER for over 7 years, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization developing women leaders through education, mentorship and purposeful connections, and currently volunteers at Habitat for Humanity and Dreams for Change in San Diego, CA.

Loren Andersen

Senior Director, Head of Customer Operations Avant, LLC

Head of Customer Operations with enterprise responsibility for global contact-center strategy, back-office servicing operations, and operational risk functions supporting consumer lending and payments products.

Leads multi-site onshore and offshore operations across voice, digital, and case-management channels, with accountability for service delivery, cost efficiency, compliance, and customer experience. Oversees critical functions including escalations and complaints management, credit reporting operations, treasury-adjacent servicing processes, and regulatory response workflows.

Driving the responsible adoption of AI and automation across the operating model, including conversational AI, virtual agents, and workforce intelligence, to improve containment, reduce handle time, enhance quality and consistency, and lower operating expense—while maintaining strict adherence to regulatory, data-privacy, and model-risk expectations.

Partner closely with Product, Engineering, Risk, Legal, Compliance, and Finance to modernize customer-facing and internal servicing capabilities, scale efficiently, and ensure operational readiness for growth, audits, and regulatory scrutiny.

Louise Beaumont

Head of Marketing & Communications Invela Inc

Dr Louise Beaumont is Head of Marketing & Communications at Invela, where she leads the market narrative on open finance risk management. A market development strategist with deep expertise across fintech, financial services, technology, and critical national infrastructure, she has held executive and non executive roles spanning global corporates, start ups, scale ups, industry bodies, and venture capital, working in over 30 countries.

Louise specialises in turning regulatory complexity into commercial opportunity. Her 15 plus years in open data began at the genesis of open banking and now extends across open finance and broader data sharing frameworks. Her experience ranges from fintech entrepreneurship to running VC fintech portfolios;from founding Mastercard’s Open+ programme to shaping Invela’s positioning at the forefront of risk, resilience, trust and confidence in open finance.

She has chaired open banking and open finance working groups at UK Finance and techUK, contributed to standards development with Open Banking Ltd and The Berlin Group, and engaged extensively with government departments and key regulators. Louise brings a global, commercially grounded perspective on how regulation, technology, and market design can unlock innovation and impact at scale.

Maik Taro Wehmeyer

Co-Founder & CEO Taktile

Prashant, CEO of Fundbox, is a seasoned product and technology executive with over two decades of leadership experience across high-growth startups and global technology giants.

As an early member of Google's product team, Prashant helped build Google AdWords, established Google’s first global payment network, and led all product initiatives across APAC. He then went on to become an early product leader at Facebook, where he spearheaded monetization products encompassing both advertising and commerce. Beyond Google and Facebook, Prashant led engineering and product at Flurry, the largest mobile analytics platform of its era, and held an SVP position overseeing the advertising and data group at Yahoo.

Prashant actively shares his expertise as an in-demand lecturer at the business schools at Stanford, UC Berkeley, Columbia, and Cornell. His academic background includes a PhD and MA in Business, a PhD Minor in Operations Research, and an MS in Statistics, all from Stanford University. He also holds a BTech from the Indian Institute of Technology (Delhi), where he was the President’s Gold Medalist.

Mary Wisniewski

Editor-at-large Cornerstone Advisors

Mary Wisniewski has covered fintech and digital banking for more than 12 years. Her bylines have appeared in GonzoBanker, American Banker, Bankrate, the Associated Press and more.

She is an editor-at-large at Cornerstone Advisors where she helps shape content strategy and hosts Money isn’t Everything, a podcast that explores early-stage fintech and banking ideas. She also writes a monthly editor’s note, Finteching with Mary, on LinkedIn.

Mary is a frequent speaker at a variety of leading digital banking events and guest on money-related podcasts, including: the Money Experience Summit, Finovate, Fintech Meetup, Breaking Banks, NPR’s The Indicator from Planet Money and more.

In addition to her banking reporting, she has served as a fashion editor for National Jeweler, where she reported on fashion shows and jewelry news. She has also penned personal essays for the L.A. Times.

Mary grew up in the Michigan suburbs and now lives in Los Angeles with a maltipoo, a record player and roller skates. Banking had her at “we’re in an existential crisis."

Matthew Goldman

Founder Totavi

Matthew is the founder of Totavi and a lifelong serial entrepreneur. He has started five businesses, raised more than $30MM in capital from leading investors, and served as a founder or executive in four exits totaling more than $1.6 billion.

Matthew is “OG when it comes to payments / embedded finance.” He started his payments journey in 2006 as a product manager at Green Dot, working with issuers such as Citibank, Synchrony, and Synovus and retailers like Walmart, Walgreens, and Kroger.

In 2012, Matthew founded Wallaby Financial, which developed an intelligent algorithm and apps for consumer card selection, routing, and recommendations, and was backed by FF Angel (Founders Fund) and Mucker Capital. Bankrate acquired Wallaby in 2014 and named Matthew as SVP and Chief Product Officer for its cards division. In 2019, Matthew founded Vertical Finance with return investor Mucker Capital. Apto Payments acquired Vertical Finance in 2021, ultimately naming Matthew President and Chief Product Officer. After leading a sale of Apto Payments to Qenta, he started Totavi in Spring 2023.

Matthew’s vast fintech experience comes from a strong technical background, bolstered by his formal education in economics. Matthew boasts an unparalleled network in fintech and helps his clients to accelerate their development and see around corners, saving time and money and increasing growth and speed.
Since 2020, Matthew has published CardsFTW, the definitive newsletter for cards. He is frequently quoted in major media such as The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, and NerdWallet. He is also known for his open-source credit card financial model.

Maya Mikhailov

CEO & Co-Founder Savvi AI

Maya Mikhailov is the CEO and cofounder of Savvi AI, a patented platform helping financial institutions deploy compliant, production-ready AI - without specialists or big-tech complexity. Her work focuses on closing the gap between AI ambition and real-world execution in regulated industries.

Previously, Maya co-founded GPShopper, a SaaS platform acquired by Synchrony (NYSE: SYF). She went on to serve as SVP and General Manager at Synchrony, where she built and led a new AI division inside a Fortune 500 financial institution, giving her rare, first-hand experience scaling AI from the inside.

Maya is a frequent speaker at global conferences, including CES, Money20/20, and Shop.org, and her insights on AI, fintech, and enterprise transformation have been featured in Bloomberg, The New York Times, Fortune, CNBC, and Business Insider. She also spent five years as an Adjunct Professor at NYU, teaching technology and applied innovation.

Melissa Pancoast

Founder & CEO The Beans

Melissa is the Founder and CEO of The Beans, the trusted Financial OS for Caring Professionals. By automating financial workflows and addressing the leading cause of employee stress - money - The Beans empowers organizations and their workforce. With a background as a VC in artificial intelligence, researcher at the University of Oxford, and former elementary math teacher Melissa brings a unique perspective to her role. She led the development of the Economic Strengthening Program which has been rolled out by the UN, WHO, and CDC to reduce the financial stress of 300 million people globally. She is also an angel investor and advisor, passionate about supporting diverse entrepreneurs. Melissa holds an MSc in Evidence-Based Social Intervention from the University of Oxford and a BS in Political Science from Stetson University. A former competitive rower and coach, she cherishes any opportunity to be in, on, or near the water.

Michelangelo Frigo

CEO Zyphe

Michelangelo Frigo is Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Zyphe, the privacy-first decentralized identity verification solution. He brings a strong background in fintech and operational excellence, with a proven track record of founding and scaling ventures across technology and consumer sectors.

Prior to Zyphe, Michelangelo was leading a privacy-first consumer-facing app with 1.5M users, where people were able to control their personal data.

Prior to Zyphe, Michelangelo built three startups, achieving two exits. As co-founder of a dropshipping venture, he was responsible for performance marketing, operations, and supply chain management, scaling the business from zero to €1.9M in sales within 12 months. He later launched a direct-to-consumer food-tech company, where he led product development, branding, and go-to-market execution, growing revenues to €180K per month in just 8 months before exiting.

Michelangelo began his career as a Product Manager at Luxottica, leading an innovation team tasked with piloting new digital initiatives and product strategies across global retail operations. He also served as a university lecturer in Rome, teaching courses on decentralized identity, NFTs, and blockchain systems.

Michelle Beyo

CEO Finavator

Michelle Beyo is the CEO and Founder of Finavator, an award-winning payments and future of finance consultancy. With 20+ years of expertise across payments, loyalty, telco, digital identity, and open data. She is a globally recognized thought leader who has spoken on stages worldwide including TEDx, Fintech Meet Up and Money20/20 as RiseUp Alumni & Mentor. Michelle serves as President and Board Member of Open Finance Network Canada (OFNC), and is an Executive Advisor to Wellesley Hills Financial LLC, a Boston investment bank. She is also the creator of podcast "Step into the Future of Finance" and instructor of Finavator's Future of Finance MasterClass (https://www.finavatorfuturefinancemasterclass.com/).

Her recent recognition includes Top 5 PowerList Open Banking Expo (2025), Top 50 Women Leaders of Toronto (2023), WXN CEDI Award Winner (2022) and Women in Fintech Global Power List (2021)

Mickey Konson

CEO Quantum Financial Technologies

Mickey Konson is CEO of Quantum Financial Technologies, an AI-powered lending platform helping banks, fintechs, and marketplaces deliver responsible credit to small businesses. With 25 years of experience spanning fintech startups and major regulated banks, he has worked across all major SMB lending, payments and banking products.

He previously co-founded StreetShares, a fintech that processed small business loans, LOCs and credit cards for 500 financial institutions and was acquired by MeridianLink (NYSE: MLNK) in 2022. Before that, he spent over a decade at Capital One, where he helped build out small business payments and lending business from the ground up. Mickey holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and was named an EY Entrepreneur of the Year in 2018.

Mike Butler

CEO / President Grasshopper Bank

Mike Butler is an innovative leader in the financial services industry with a unique perspective on delivering superior customer service, innovative products, and cutting-edge technology to clients. He joined Grasshopper as CEO in 2021 and has expanded the digital bank's vision of supporting the business and innovation economy. Prior to Grasshopper, Mike served as President and CEO of Radius Bank for over 13 years, turning a once-traditional bank into one of the most tech-forward banks in the country that was eventually acquired by LendingClub. Before Radius, Mike held various executive roles at KeyCorp. He is a graduate of Providence College and the ABA's Stonier Graduate School of Banking.

Missy Stewart

Vice President, Partnerships & Innovation TD Securities

Missy Stewart is Vice President of Partnerships & Innovation within Transaction Banking at TD Bank, where she leads strategic partnerships, pilots emerging technologies, and drives innovation initiatives that strengthen payments, cash management, and commercial client solutions. In this role, Missy focuses on identifying, evaluating, and scaling fintech and platform partnerships that enhance client experiences and support long-term growth across Transaction Banking.

An award-winning product and innovation leader, Missy brings over a decade of experience spanning fintech, commercial banking, and digital transformation. Prior to her current role, she led U.S. digital banking innovation efforts, launching AI-powered tools, piloting advanced analytics and automation capabilities, and delivering award-winning solutions for business clients. Earlier in her career, Missy held multiple leadership roles at Bank of America, where she drove large-scale digital transformation and cloud adoption initiatives in commercial lending.

Missy holds an MBA from Wake Forest University and a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Management from the University of South Florida. She is a TD CEO Leadership Award recipient, a Women in Payments USA Rising Star finalist, TD Invent Excellence Award winner, and holds a patent-pending AI solution focused on data-driven decisioning. She is based in Charlotte, NC.

Molly Poppie

Chief Product and Analytics Officer Experian

Molly Poppie is a distinguished analytics executive and innovator in financial services, media measurement, and consumer behavior research. She currently serves as the Chief Product and Analytics Officer for the North America Financial Services and Data division at Experian, where she leads the division’s product and analytics strategy.

Throughout her career, Molly has been a driving force in product innovation and data science, consistently transforming products and delivering measurable business results across financial services, media, and retail sectors. During her tenure at Nielsen, she became the most prolific woman inventor in the company’s history, holding 51 patents related to media measurement innovations, with many more pending. Her work has had a lasting impact on industry standards in audience measurement and advertising technology.

Beyond her technical accomplishments, Molly is a passionate advocate for women in leadership. She co-founded Chief, a network dedicated to empowering women executives, and has mentored women in media and data science for over a decade. She has also served as an executive sponsor for initiatives focused on community engagement and sustainability.

Nikki Cross

Head of Data Science Consulting Nova Credit

Nikki Cross is the Head of Data Science Consulting at Nova Credit, a leading credit infrastructure and analytics company specializing in cash flow underwriting. She empowers financial institutions to leverage consumer-permissioned data to expand credit access responsibly. With over 15 years of experience in financial services, Cross brings expertise from both lender and vendor perspectives. She is a recognized thought leader in cash flow underwriting, frequently speaking at industry conferences on alternative credit data and implementation best practices. Prior to Nova Credit, Cross held senior data science roles at Mission Lane, LendUp, and TransUnion, and spent nearly a decade at Capital One in analytical and consulting roles. She holds a Masters degree in Analytics and a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from Georgia Institute of Technology. Cross is passionate about using advanced analytics to create more inclusive financial systems and expand responsible credit access.

Pam Kaur

Head of Platform Alloy Labs

Pam brings over a decade of leadership experience in financial technology, venture operations, and bank innovation. She has advised CEOs, boards, and innovation teams on strategic partnerships, regulatory alignment, and operational transformation. A recognized voice in the fintech ecosystem, she regularly moderates panels, contributes to industry thought leadership, and serves as an advisor and mentor to emerging founders. She is currently the Head of Platform at Alloy Labs, where she leads the firm’s post-investment and ecosystem strategy—turning ideas into execution across the consortium’s network of member banks and fintech partners. She accelerates collaboration between portfolio companies and financial institutions, helping innovative concepts scale from pilot to production and driving adoption of new technologies across the Alloy Labs Alliance.

Phil Goldfeder

CEO American Fintech Council

With nearly two decades of experience at the intersection of the public and private sectors, Phil Goldfeder currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of the American Fintech Council (AFC), a leading industry association representing responsible financial technology (fintech) companies creating critical access to safe and affordable financial services. AFC, comprised of the nation’s largest fintech companies, fosters innovative, transparent, and responsible products that promote competition, consumer protection, and financial health, inclusion, and equity. AFC is committed to robust industry standards, with a focus on consumer protection and regulatory compliance, in addition to advocating for and embracing appropriate government regulation.
Before joining AFC, Goldfeder served as Senior Vice President of Global Public Affairs at Cross River, a financial institution and technology infrastructure provider that offers embedded financial solutions. In this role, Goldfeder founded the Online Lending Policy Institute (OLPI) and has been a leader in shaping the new financial services landscape since early 2015. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the passage of the CARES Act in March 2020, Goldfeder helped lead the Cross River team to mobilize internally and offer a streamlined and automated system to provide more than $12 billion in PPP funding to the most vulnerable small businesses in every state, as well as additional short-term relief efforts to communities in the company’s footprint and beyond.

He previously served as an elected member of the New York State Assembly representing diverse neighborhoods of Queens, N.Y. After most of his district was devastated during Superstorm Sandy, Goldfeder lead recovery efforts with a specific focus on partnering with the banking and insurance industry to help rebuild his community and reform outdated policies. He was the author of transformative banking and insurance modernization legislation and was also a key legislative leader on a diverse array of issues. Prior to his election, he served as a senior advisor to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Phil’s career in public service and expertise in leadership, crisis management, as well as his ability to enact positive change and develop deep relationships with diverse leaders on both the local and national levels, has put him at the forefront of innovation across banking and technology industries. He is an active industry leader as he engages policy makers and regulators, provides thought-leadership, and is frequently invited to speak on panels, roundtables, and conferences globally on banking, technology, financial literacy, and the new financial services landscape.

Prashant Fuloria

CEO Fundbox

Prashant Fuloria, CEO of Fundbox, has brought product and technology leadership to innovative teams and businesses for over 25 years. As an early member of Google's product management team, Prashant helped build Google AdWords, established the company’s first global payment network, and led all product initiatives across APAC. He then went on to become an early product leader at Facebook, where he spearheaded monetization initiatives across advertising and commerce. He later led the engineering and product teams at Flurry, the largest mobile analytics platform of its time, and also served as the SVP of Ads & Data at Yahoo.

Prashant holds a PhD and MA in Business, a PhD Minor in Operations Research, and an MS in Statistics, all from Stanford University. He earned a BTech from IIT Delhi, where he was awarded the President’s Gold Medalist.

Pratik Risbud

CEO and Co-Founder Kato

Pratik Risbud is the Co-Founder and CEO of Kato, building the future of automated loan servicing. Kato provides a compliance-first Voice AI agent that automates end-to-end servicing and collection calls for modern lenders, including Parafin, Bluevine and Obligo.

His career has been defined by a passion for solving complex problems in finance and credit - spanning the largest financial institutions to venture-scale startups. As an Investment Banker at Goldman Sachs, he advised the world’s leading technology and media companies on high-profile M&A transactions. Later, at fintech unicorn Brex, he developed credit strategy for products like Brex’s Mid-Market Card and partnered closely with the Servicing team, where he saw firsthand how manual and repetitive servicing remained.

Inspired by advances in generative AI and natural language processing, he founded Kato to help servicing teams scale efficiently and maximize recoveries without sacrificing compliance.

Rachel Castro

SVP, Business Banking Partnerships & Channel Growth U.S. Bank

Rachel Castro is currently SVP of Business Banking Partnerships & Channel Growth for U.S. Bank. She focuses on our banking, software, and payments growth levers to future proof the bank’s positioning in a changing landscape. Over the last 5 years her scope and charter have grown, starting with heading up strategy for one fintech acquisition and broadened to multiple acquisition integrations, business banking partnerships, channel revenue growth, digital acquisition, and strategy across business lines that serve small business needs.

Prior to this role, Rachel spent 6 years with The Boston Consulting Group’s corporate incubation arm leading teams to invent, launch, and scale new businesses that leverage corporate assets and capabilities.

Rachel graduated summa cum laude from UCLA with a degree in Chinese language and English literature. She resides with her family in Hermosa Beach, CA.

Rajeev Shrivastava

CEO TigerGraph

Rajeev as CEO of TigerGraph has extensive leadership experience from top technology companies. Previously, he drove significant growth and innovation at Google and NICE inContact, leading major strategic initiatives and successful mergers. His expertise in scaling businesses and fostering innovation is underpinned by an MBA from the Wharton School and a Bachelor’s degree from Delhi College of Engineering. Prior to joining TigerGraph, Rajeev was at Google, where he served as GM & Product Lead for an AI-first Customer Conversation Platform. In this role, he managed a significant P&L and led teams driving innovation and growth within Google’s expansive business landscape. Previously, Rajeev played a pivotal role in the growth of NICE inContact as their Chief Product & Strategy Officer. Prior to NICE inContact, Rajeev led go-to-market and marketplace initiatives at Rackspace.

Rajiv Yadlapalli

J.P. Morgan Head of Partnerships and Industry Solution Lead, Embedded Payments

Rajiv Yadlapalli is the Head of Partnerships and Industry Solutions Lead for J.P. Morgan Embedded Payments, where he drives business development opportunities for corporate clients and the software ecosystem that supports them. With over a decade of experience at J.P. Morgan, Rajiv has held diverse roles in strategy, product development, and structuring across custody, prime brokerage, derivatives clearing, corporate treasury, and cash management.

An engineer at heart, Rajiv applies advanced mathematics and operations research to financial innovation. He is a CFA Charterholder and holds a patent (#8738514) for his work in the field.

Outside of work, Rajiv balances the busy schedules of his three young daughters and enjoys hosting friends for low-and-slow BBQs and metal-inspired jam sessions.

Ran Grushkowsky

CEO and Co-Founder MassPay

Ran Grushkowsky is the Co-founder and CEO of MassPay, bringing more than two decades of fintech, engineering, and entrepreneurial leadership to the company's mission of delivering global, instant, compliant payouts at scale. A builder at heart, Ran specializes in transforming complex financial and regulatory systems into modern, intuitive user experiences.

Ran is a recognized industry leader with deep expertise in cross-border payments, regulatory compliance (AML/KYC), embedded finance, remittances, and fraud prevention. Prior to MassPay, he built several ventures from the ground up - including WireCash, ATMCash, and TrueMp3s - creating platforms that reached millions of users, negotiating enterprise partnerships, and leading M&A processes from both the product and deal table.
At MassPay, Ran guides the company's vision, culture, and global growth strategy, ensuring clients receive the fast, seamless, and secure payout experiences modern platforms demand.

Renaud Laplanche

Co-founder & CEO Upgrade

Renaud is the co-founder and CEO of Upgrade, Inc., A fintech company offering mobile banking and responsible credit to everyday consumers. Under his leadership, Upgrade has already delivered over $45B in affordable credit to 7.5 million consumers and became one of the most valuable private US fintech companies with a valuation of $7.3 billion.

Prior to Upgrade, Renaud founded and ran for 10 years Lending Club. At Lending Club, Renaud pioneered consumer fintech and grew the company to become the largest provider of personal loans in America.

Renaud was ranked among the world’s most influential leaders by Bloomberg Markets and recognized by the Clinton Global Initiative for expanding access to affordable and responsible credit. He holds the Newport-Bermuda sailing record with the only crossing ever achieved under 24 hours.

Rich Franks

President Grizzly Peak Strategy LLC

Rich is President of Grizzly Peak Strategy LLC, a fintech advisory consulting firm through which he leverages more than 21 years of experience in the industry to help fintechs and financial institutions build great products and maximize returns through excellence in credit, marketing, strategy, analytics, and product execution.

Prior to founding Grizzly Peak Strategy, Rich served as Head of Credit Strategy at PayPal, where he led credit card, business lending, and buy-now-pay-later strategy. Before that, he spent nearly five years at Credit Karma, where he built and scaled Lightbox, a first-of-its-kind consumer lending marketing platform connecting banks directly with Credit Karma’s member base.

Rich has also held C-level roles at fintech startups Amount and FS Card, and led credit cards risk at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. He started his career at Capital One, where he spent more than a decade in senior data science and credit leadership roles across cards, mortgages, home equity, and small business banking.

Rich holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Richa Awasthi

SVP, Digital & AI, Zelle Payments US Bank

Richa Awasthi is a seasoned business executive with more than two decades of leadership experience in banking, payments, and digital innovation. She currently serves as Senior Vice President at U.S. Bank, overseeing digital money movement through Zelle. Her career includes senior roles at Wells Fargo, Visa, and Charles Schwab, where she successfully launched and scaled innovative financial products that drove revenue growth while enhancing the customer experience.
In addition to her business career, Richa made history as the first female Indian American Mayor in San Mateo County, serving as both Mayor and Councilmember of Foster City, California. She continues her public service as a board member of HIP Housing, advancing solutions to the affordable housing crisis in San Mateo County.

Richa holds an MBA in Marketing and Finance, a Bachelor of Science, and executive education in high-impact leadership from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

Richard Wada

Chief Lending Officer Patelco

Richard Wada is the Chief Lending Officer at Patelco, the country’s 27th largest credit union with $9.7 billion in assets and over 500,000 members located in Northern California. In his role he is responsible for managing the growth of the consumer and commercial loan businesses. Prior to joining Patelco in 2018, he held executive roles within Citibank’s global and North American retail banking businesses including Global Head of Personal Lending and Head of U.S. Retail Consumer Lending. Previously he had various product management and marketing roles at American Express and the advertising agency, Saatchi & Saatchi.

Richard received his undergraduate degree from Williams College and his MBA from Columbia Business School.

Rob Seidman

Head of US Bank Avvance US Bank

Rob Seidman is a fintech leader with over two decades of experience driving innovation across embedded finance, digital lending, and consumer payments. As Senior Vice President and Head of Avvance, Rob lead the incubation, strategy and launch of Avvance, U.S. Bank’s embedded finance platform designed to make every purchase more affordable. His work bridges the gap between traditional banking and modern fintech, delivering seamless financing experiences at the point of sale.

Rob’s fintech journey began at Health Credit Services (HCS), a startup POS lender later acquired by Ally Financial. As the Chief Product and Experience Officer, he drove strategy and new segment business development landing marquee partnerships and acquisitions that significantly expanded the company’s footprint and originations.

Rob’s career spans both high-growth startups and major financial institutions. Prior to U.S. Bank, he held senior product, strategy and partnership roles at Sezzle and Ally Lending, where he led digital transformation initiatives across healthcare, home improvement, and retail verticals. He began his career in banking with roles at J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Lehman Brothers, building a strong foundation in capital markets and client strategy.
Rob holds an MPA from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a B.A. from the University of Maryland.

Rob is passionate about building financial products that are intuitive, inclusive, and impactful—and continues to shape the future of embedded finance through innovation and strategic leadership.

Rodney E. Hood

Former Acting Comptroller of the Currency U.S. Treasury

The Honorable Rodney E. Hood is a veteran financial services leader and former federal regulator who has helped shape the modern fintech landscape from both inside and outside government. He has served as Acting Comptroller of the Currency, a Board Member of the FDIC, and Chairman of the National Credit Union Administration—bringing a strong focus on innovation, financial access & inclusion, and safety to the nation’s financial system.

At the OCC, Mr. Hood reinstated the Office of Financial Technology and Innovation, approved a fintech bank charter to expand small business lending, and promoted forward-looking policies that enabled banks to custody digital assets and partner more effectively with fintechs. At the NCUA, he created the agency's Office of Financial Technology & Access. He has long advocated for building bridges between traditional finance and emerging technologies to better serve consumers.

In the private sector, he’s held leadership roles at JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America, and currently serves on the board of directors of Zest AI where he supports the responsible use of artificial intelligence to unlock credit access. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Northpointe Bank, Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) - US Futures.

A frequent speaker and respected voice on regulatory modernization, Mr. Hood brings a pragmatic, mission-driven approach to fintech policy and innovation.

Rom Mascetti

Principal Flagship Advisory Partners

Romano (Rom) Mascetti, Principal, has 12 years of experience in banking and financial services, including over 9 years in strategy consulting and M&A advisory. Rom has led or supported over 100 engagements across the payments and fintech ecosystem, advising payment service providers, SaaS platforms, financial institutions, enterprise merchants/corporates, and private equity firms across North America and Europe. His expertise spans growth strategy, product development, buy-side support, capital raising advisory, strategic partnership formation, performance benchmarking, and market research across C2B, B2B, and B2C money movement. Rom is a trusted advisor bringing deep subject matter expertise and actionable insights in merchant payment acceptance, software-embedded payments, corporate spending and B2B payments, and payments orchestration, among other domains.

Ryan Breslow

Founder and CEO Bolt

Ryan Breslow is a founder and operator focused on how people buy, pay, and work. He is the founder and CEO of Bolt, the commerce and financial technology company that simplifies online checkout and makes one-click purchasing accessible to merchants of all sizes.

At Bolt, Ryan led the company through rapid scale and expansion beyond checkout, including the launch of the Bolt SuperApp, which combines peer-to-peer payments, mobile banking, crypto trading, and other consumer financial tools in a single platform.

Ryan is also known for taking a systems-driven approach to workplace design. At Bolt, he ended unlimited PTO in favor of clearer time-off policies and replaced traditional HR with a People Operations model focused on accountability, performance, and employee support.

He is also the founder and CEO of Love.com, a commerce platform focused on reducing toxins and waste in consumer products while supporting independent brands. Ryan has additionally founded The Family Fund, The Movement, and Conscious Culture.

Ryan Christiansen

Executive Director – Fintech Center University of Utah

Ryan Christiansen is the Senior Director of the University of Utah Fintech Center, overseeing research labs, a venture fund, a startup incubator, and experiential student programs that accelerate fintech innovation and workforce development.
Before academia, Ryan served as Senior Vice President of Data Access Partnerships at Mastercard following the company’s $985 million acquisition of Finicity. As a member of Finicity’s senior leadership team, he helped transform the startup into a market leading data access platform and continued to guide global open banking strategy at Mastercard—negotiating landmark agreements with major financial institutions and advancing tokenized, consumer permissioned data exchange.
Ryan is a founding architect of the Financial Data Exchange (FDX), where he co chairs the Certification Working Group and helps define the international standards that underpin open banking services adopted by more than 100 million consumers. He also co chairs the Utah Governor’s Fintech Council, advising state leaders on policy that fosters responsible innovation.

Prior to joining Finicity, Ryan spent 20+ years as senior executive at national banks, giving him a unique perspective that bridges traditional finance, fintech disruption, and public policy.

Samant Nagpal

Gusto Head of Payments & Risk

Samant Nagpal is the Head of Payments and Risk at Gusto, leading teams that build payments solutions designed for the needs of small and mid-sized businesses. These solutions help SMBs run payroll faster, unlocking cash flow for their growth and survival, while providing peace of mind around compliance.

Prior to joining Gusto, Samant spent five years at Square as General Manager and Chief Risk Officer. He has also served in leadership positions at Amazon and America Express, leading teams for business payment products and risk management.

Samant is a customer-first leader who believes that risk, revenue and customer experience are a balancing act that when done successfully drives long term profitable growth.

Sarah Biller

Co-founder Fintech Sandbox

Sarah Biller is an Entrepreneur, Investor, and Educator in the FinTech sector. She is the co-founder of FinTech Sandbox, a Boston-based nonprofit that accelerates the product development cycle of FinTech start-ups globally by providing free access to high quality, diverse datasets, and on the founding team for the Mass Fintech Hub. She also sits on the Advisory Council for the $100 million grand challenge program funded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to make it a national leader in AI.

FinTech Sandbox provides early-stage startups with free access to critical data and resources, accelerating product development. Today, FinTech Sandbox works with Fintech Founders across 5 continents and 20 countries, partners with over 40 leading data providers, and boasts a strong roster of leading Financial Services firms as sponsors. To date, it has supported more than 370 startups worldwide who collectively have raised more than $2 billion.

She co-founded Capital Market Exchange (CMX), an early predictive analytics platform for bond investors, leveraging NLP, Bayesian techniques, and AI/ML to assess nonfinancial factors affecting credit spreads. Its AI-driven models are used by leading asset managers, investment banks, and hedge funds globally.

Sarah DiCara

Head of Audience GoBankingRates

Sarah DiCara is Head of Content Distribution for MoneyLion and GOBankingRates, where she oversees AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), Content Syndication Partnerships, and Earned Media. Previously Head of SEO at NerdWallet, Sarah blends technical expertise with editorial rigor to evolve beyond traditional search tactics that meet consumers where they actually are today and where they are shifting for the future. She brings a practitioner's perspective on moving beyond "AI for AI's sake," building high-velocity content systems and website structures that drive measurable outcomes—higher engagement, expanded distribution, and customer acquisition at scale—proving marketing's strategic value beyond vanity metrics.

Sean Scott

SVP, Alliances & Partner Capabilities U.S. Bank

Sean Scott is a digital banking executive focused on building revenue-generating platform capabilities inside regulated financial institutions. He currently leads work on subscription-based financial services designed to diversify revenue beyond traditional fee models, spanning consumer, small business, and credit card businesses.

Sean’s experience includes launching partner-led banking platforms, leading large-scale digital integrations, and shaping operating models that balance speed, trust, and regulatory rigor. His work sits at the intersection of embedded finance, digital commercialization, and trust—where banks must decide what to build, what to partner for, and how to scale sustainably.

At Fintech Meetup, Sean brings a pragmatic perspective on what it actually means for banks to “become platforms,” drawing on firsthand experience navigating distribution, governance, and execution in complex environments.

Shawn Budde

General Partner Ensemblex

I am the Co-founder and General Partner at Ensemblex. Ensemblex has grown to help lenders and fintechs across five continents start, scale, and adapt their businesses through expertise across the credit lifecycle. I bring four decades of lending experience across nearly every product and credit segment. At Capital One, I grew the Sub-Prime credit card business to $1B in after-tax profit, reduced cycle time for direct mail campaigns, and grew the recoveries business from breakeven to $35M profit. I later served as Capital One’s first Chief Customer Officer, where I increased net promoter scores by eight points in a single year. I co-founded Zest.AI, the first companies to apply AI underwriting to consumer finance, and served as CEO of 2Checkout, an international payments business. At Ensemblex, I co-founded two other fintechs - Coign and Gestalt. I have a BA from Columbia University and an MBA from The Wharton School.

Sheela Ursal

General Partner Fintech Next Fund

With 20+ years as an operator at global enterprises and startups — including Amazon, Western Union, and Netopia (acquired by Google) — she has launched and scaled products that have touched millions of customers worldwide. Today, she brings that same operator’s lens to investing, helping founders build Fintech businesses that are not only high-growth but also durable and impactful.

Over the past four years, she has partnered with fintech entrepreneurs across the globe as an investor, advisor, and ecosystem connector. Her focus is clear: back experienced founders with deep expertise who are building in massive markets like payments, financial services, and integrated finance — and help them scale faster with strategic guidance and global expansion insights.

Sibongile Ngako

Chief Compliance Officer Brex

Sibongile Ngako is a senior compliance and risk executive with more than 20 years of experience helping fintech and financial-services companies scale responsibly in highly regulated environments.

She currently serves as SVP & Chief Compliance Officer at Brex, where she leads global compliance strategy, financial-crimes programs, regulatory engagement, and governance across a complex, multi-bank ecosystem. Her work sits at the intersection of compliance, product, engineering, and AI—translating regulatory expectations into practical, business-enabling systems.

In addition to her executive role, Sibongile advises founders, executive teams, and boards on regulatory and bank-partner readiness, enterprise risk management, AI governance, and scaling compliance in high-growth environments. She is frequently called upon to support crisis response, remediation efforts, and regulator engagement.

Previously, she held senior leadership roles at Affirm and American Express and began her career in financial supervision and risk at the Federal Reserve and Fannie Mae.

Grounded in a pragmatic, systems-oriented approach, Sibongile is known for helping leadership teams navigate complex, high-stakes decisions with clarity, partnership, and trust. Outside of fintech, she is a classically trained soprano and arts advocate, bringing a culture- and stakeholder-centric lens to governance and risk leadership.

Somabha Banerjee

Senior Solutions Consultant Braze Inc

Senior Solutions Consultant at Braze with a background in technology strategy, business process development, and enterprise software integration. Partners with organizations across industries to design scalable customer engagement architectures that align marketing, product, and data teams around shared goals.

Experienced in translating complex technical requirements into clear, actionable solutions, with a focus on solution design, technical discovery, and end-to-end implementation strategy across data ingestion, personalization, and cross-channel orchestration. Passionate about bridging business strategy and technology, helping teams operationalize innovative engagement use cases while navigating complex technical environments.

Stephen Richardson

Chief Strategy Officer & Head of Banking Fireblocks

Stephen has multiple years of experience in both traditional and crypto-focused financial institutions. Stephen’s role at Fireblocks involves structuring, developing, and evaluating strategic opportunities with traditional financial services and native digital asset companies that align with the growth of the Fireblocks platform.

Prior to Fireblocks, he was Senior Manager in the Financial Services practice of Accenture Strategy, focused on transforming customer experience and digital enablement programs for leading Financial Services firms. Prior to Accenture, he was Head of Strategy and Head of Product (Business) for Noble Markets, where he evaluated and implemented key strategic objectives, including development of Noble’s banking and trade settlement products. He holds a B.A. from Cornell University and MBA from Washington University in St. Louis.

Steve Boms

Executive Director Financial Data and Technology Association – North America

Steve Boms, Executive Director of FDATA, has two decades of experience working inside government, public and private companies, trade organizations, and the technology industry. He assists organizations as they engage with policymakers in Washington, across the country, and around the world. Steve has spent his career focused on complex financial services public policy issues, having worked in the United States Congress on the committee with jurisdiction over banking. He has led global advocacy efforts and public policy teams for equity options exchanges, large U.S.-based financial institutions, and leading fintech firms. A recognized expert on the intersection of financial technology and public policy, Steve has testified before the United States Senate, the Senate of Canada, and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development on financial services and technology. He is also a frequent panelist and media commentator on technology, financial services, and regulatory issues.

Steve Carlson

President TrueML

Steve Carlson is the President of TrueML, an industry-leading fintech software company developing AI and data driven products that enable intelligent, digital communication and prioritize customer experience for consumers seeking financial health. He has experience as an entrepreneur and leader at VC- and PE-backed lenders and fintechs serving both consumers and businesses, as well as serving as a consultant and advisor to numerous PE/VC investment firms. Prior to TrueML, Steve served as CEO of ForwardLine Financial and was the co-founder of Ascend, where he led a team in defining the next generation of consumer lending through the use of behavioral economics and real-time, post-acquisition data.

The former head of marketing and business development at Intuit Financial Services (Mint.com and Quicken), Steve has also held senior executive roles at HSBC and Washington Mutual, and advised global financial services firms as co-founder of Sung Carlson Associates. He is actively involved on the regulatory front, including having served as an inaugural member of the CFPB’s Consumer Advisory Board, among other roles.

Sumeet Bhalla

SVP, Chief Lending Officer PenFed Credit Union

Digital banking executive responsible for managing Consumer Banking P&L, Product Growth & Strategy, Digital Banking, and Consumer Banking Operations.

- Responsible for growing Consumer Lending by more than 300% in less than 2-years
- Developed a team of data scientist from ground up responsible for developing advanced machine learning models used for credit underwriting, fraud management, and data driven marketing
- Responsible for digital transforming of the lending business increasing automation to 90%+ and credit decision to less than 45 seconds
- Manage all aspects of Consumer Banking operations including credit underwriting/processing/funding, and loan servicing
- Regularly invited to speak at conferences on Digital Banking, Consumer Lending, and Product Strategy

Theodora Lau

Founder and Book Author Unconventional Ventures

Theodora Lau is the founder of Unconventional Ventures, a public speaker, and an advisor. She is the author of Banking on (Artificial) Intelligence (2025), the co-author of The Metaverse Economy (2023) and Beyond Good (2021), and host of One Vision, a podcast on fintech and innovation. Her monthly column on FinTech Futures explores the intersection of financial services, tech, and humanity. She is named one of American Banker’s Most Influential Women in FinTech in 2023. She is a contributor and commentator for top industry events and publications, including Finovate, American Banker, BBC News, Fintech Times, and The Power 50. Her work has also been published by the Journal of Digital Banking, The Banker, Forbes Technology Councils, MIT Tech Review, and Harvard Business Review.

Tiffani Montez

Principal Analyst EMARKETER

Tiffani Montez leads the financial service practice at EMARKETER. She advises clients on emerging market trends, investment prioritization, and strategic development.

Previously, she was a Principal Analyst at Forrester Research and a Strategic Advisor at Aite-Novarica Group, and she has held executive-level roles at Wells Fargo and Terafina. Her unique blend of experience as a practitioner, analyst, and technology solution provider gives her a strong foundation to provide thought leadership to clients from all angles of the financial services ecosystem.

She is a frequent media contributor and speaker at banking events, including Money 20/20, Finovate, CES, and Mobile Payments Conference, among many others. Tiffani holds a graduate degree in management from the W.P. Carey School of Business Executive Program.

Tiffany Haynes

Founder Illumea Advisory

Tiffany Haynes is a fintech operator, investor, and board advisor recognized for leading organizations through complex transformation and disciplined growth. With more than two decades of experience across financial technology, operations, and human capital strategy, she brings a rare combination of operational rigor and people-centered leadership to every boardroom.

As Chief Operating Officer of Fingercheck, Tiffany helped scale the company from $10M to $24M ARR and led a $150M private equity exit. She built the systems, financial discipline, and go-to-market foundation that transformed a founder-led fintech into a high-performing, growth-ready enterprise. Before Fingercheck, Tiffany spent 20 years at Jack Henry (NASDAQ: JKHY), where she rose through multiple executive roles—including Chief People Officer and Vice President of Consumer-Facing Experiences. There, she oversaw P&L responsibility across 125+ financial brands representing $425B in assets and led large-scale initiatives in digital experience, culture transformation, and technology modernization.

Today, Tiffany serves on multiple boards and advisory councils across the fintech ecosystem, partnering with founders, investors, and growth-stage companies to strengthen governance and accelerate market expansion. Her current advisory portfolio includes Rippleshot (AI-driven fraud detection), Chisel (composable payments and banking infrastructure), Coinbax (institutional stablecoin payments), and Baleon Capital (fintech venture fund). She also co-founded Oakwood Academy, a K–12 private school integrating leadership, faith, and STEM learning.

A graduate of Missouri State University with an MBA and Leadership Certificate from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business, Tiffany is also PMP, Scrum Master, and SPHR certified. She is a Money20/20 RiseUp recipient and has been featured in The Financial Revolutionist for her thought leadership on bootstrapped fintech and disciplined growth.

Tiffany hosts Between Builds, a podcast and Substack exploring leadership, transformation, and the spaces between building what’s next. She brings to every board an operator’s mindset, a founder’s empathy, and a deep belief that sustainable success starts with clarity, integrity, and the courage to evolve.

Tom Simpson

Global Head of Currency Clearing & North America Regional Head of Cross Border Payments HSBC

Tom leads product strategy and execution globally for HSBC’s currency clearing products within Global Payments Solutions, as well as North America’s cross border payments proposition. He is based in New York.

Prior to joining HSBC, Tom led a firm-wide transformation initiative at Morgan Stanley and spent over 10 years at Citibank in a variety of product management and sales roles, covering domestic and cross border payments, transactional FX products, CLS settlement services and liquidity management.

He has over 15 years’ experience in providing tailored treasury solutions to corporate and institutional clients. He specializes in payments product management, product development and the client experience for financial institutions and large corporates. Tom advocates for clients and the institutions he has worked for at payments infrastructure risk and business committees, market practice groups, and industry forums.

Originally from Sydney, Australia, Tom lives in Manhattan with his husband Sam and their dog Margie.

Tomás Campos

CEO & Co-founder Spinwheel

Tomás Campos is the co-founder and CEO of Spinwheel, tSpinwheel, a real-time consumer credit data and payments agentic AI-powered company, is revolutionizing the consumer credit ecosystem. Spinwheel services more than 15 million users and 165 million accounts, facilitating $1.5 trillion in connected debt across its network. A three-time founder, Tomás is a noteworthy entrepreneur, executive, inventor, and operator across payments, data, retail, consumer, and Saas industries. Prior to Spinwheel, Tomás founded and sold his previous company to Westfield Inc. where he then served as the SVP of product. He also grew the digital payments division of Blackhawk Network Inc. to a $1.5 billion business and independent reporting segment as the global general manager.

Tony Hayes

Founder Banking & Payments Group

Tony Hayes is the Founding Partner of Banking & Payments Group. The firm provides best-in-class actionable advice to senior executives in the banking and payment industries, bringing unmatched expertise and dedication to its clients.

Before forming Banking & Payments Group in 2023, Tony was a Senior Partner and Global Lead for Payments at Oliver Wyman. Tony and the practice served a wide range of clients across the full payments ecosystem and in every major region. Additionally, he was the co-head of the Retail & Business Banking practice in the Americas. Prior to joining Oliver Wyman in 2007, Tony was a Managing Director with Dove Consulting where he led the firm’s Financial Services practice.

Tony is a recognized expert on consumer and small business payments. He has led in-depth work in every payment system, and with clients spanning issuers, ATM deployers, networks, merchant acquirers, mobile network operators, central banks and private equity investors.

Beyond his client work, Tony has led several industry studies, including an annual payment benchmarking study. Additionally, Tony has served as an expert witness in various high-stakes lawsuits.

Tony graduated with First Class Honors from Oxford University and was in the economics PhD program at Harvard University

Wendy Cai-Lee

Founder & CEO Piermont Bank

Wendy Cai-Lee is the Founder and CEO of Piermont Bank, a fully chartered digital commercial bank, and the first multi-racial MDI (Minority Depository Institution) in the United States. The bank is the engine behind many successful fintechs as well as entrepreneur-led businesses in many leading industry sectors. With 30 years of banking and investment experience managing and leading Fortune 500 companies and startups, Wendy is a subject matter expert in fintech, international finance and banking.

Under Wendy’s leadership, Piermont Bank was the first multiracial Minority Depository Institution (MDI) in the United States and the only one with a female CEO, female Board Chair, and 78 percent female Board of Directors. Today, Piermont Bank is one of only four multiracial MDIs in the U.S. Additionally, more than 50 percent of Piermont Bank's loans are extended to businesses located in low to mid-level-income communities and women and minority-owned businesses.

Prior to building Piermont Bank, she was an Executive Vice President at East West Bank, responsible for its Commercial and Consumer Businesses in the U.S. Prior to East West, Wendy was a Managing Director at Deloitte LLP, where she managed its U.S./China cross-border M&A business. She started her banking career with JP Morgan Chase and held various management positions at both Chase and Citi. Wendy is named to Inc.'s 2024 Female Founders 250 and was an honoree of The Most Powerful Women in Banking to Watch by American Banker in 2025, 2024 and 2023.

Speakers

2026 Speaker lineup

Agenda Name, Sessions

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