The Speakers

A Cambridge University PhD, Dr Dove became a bank analyst and Executive Director at UBS, where he advised bank management on strategy and equity issuance and senior fund managers on investment strategy. Dr Dove’s team was ranked best European all-sector research team by fund managers.Since leaving UBS Nick has advised governments, development agencies and financial institutions on banking, private sector development and the impact of regulation. He has written reports on sovereign wealth funds, infrastructure investment and de-risking.He runs executive training courses on management development with John Howell.Nick is also a director of a $3bn London-based hedge fund with a concentration of investments in financial institutions, international resource director at The Asian Banker, and a trustee of a charity focused on job creation in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Amol is responsible for wholesale payments, cash and liquidity management solutions at Commercial Bank of Dubai. Furthermore, he also heads E-commerce and physical acquiring business for GREs, corporates, commercial and financial institutions. Under his leadership, the bank has developed several capabilities to facilitate and optimize corporate and institutional clients’ treasury and payments. He has nearly 22 years of professional experience in managing relationship building functions, including over 14 years in delivering significant growth in payments, cash and liquidity management across diverse customer segments. Amol having held several positions across South Asia and the Middle East has been instrumental in the strategic development and growth of the bank’s cash management proposition. Under his leadership the bank has won several industry recognitions. He was the driving force behind publishing a Treasury and Cash Management Best Practice Handbook, first in the country.

Dušan Stojanović is the founder and director at True Global Ventures 3, an investment vehicle set up by serial entrepreneurs within B2B Fintech. Together with 80 founding and affiliate partners, he is building a decentralized fund investing in Distributed Ledger Technologies across 30 cities. He has worked for more than 20 years within Business Development, primarily within Fintech, including payments and media. Previously, he worked at GE Capital and Monabanq.com and he also has his own ventures and investments. He has a solid track record with 10 out of 19 investments fully or partly exited, all related to payments and Fintech. In 2013, Stojanović was awarded Business Angel of the Year in Europe by the European Business Angel Network (EBAN), after having three positive exits within a week. He was also announced as one of FINTECH ASIA 100 Leaders in Asian Fintech in 2016.

Arshad Khan has diverse expertise in the complete financial markets eco-system and the technology behind it. Being at the helm of several financial exchanges, from inception, he has detailed insight in setting-up and managing large financial exchanges. In 2008, Arshad established Bahrain Financial Exchange regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain. As a Board Member of the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange and its’ clearing corporation for 5 years, Arshad was part of the core team that established the exchange in a record time of 12 months from conceptualisation to its launch in 2005. Before that he played key role in the establishment of the Multi Commodity Exchange of India in 2003. MCX has become one of the largest commodities derivatives’ exchanges in the world. Currently, he is the Co-founder & CEO of Arabian Bourse which is a pioneering crypto asset exchange and custodian being established in the Abu Dhabi Global Market. Additionally, if that wasn't enough, Arshad has created 3 unicorns to date with his core team.

Edgar is a global AI, cybersecurity, and quantum computing expert. His authoritative insights on the role of modern technologies and finance in innovating and driving performance across organisations of all types. Edgar has been featured by all major business networks and has spoken at twenty of the world’s financial capitals; he has presented to the Council on Foreign Relations, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Institutional Investor, CFA Singapore, Hong Kong Securities Institute, CME Group, Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan School of Management, among many other global institutions. Previous roles included the vice president at Citibank, a senior consultant at IBM and a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Co.

Ms. Hala is an experienced and hands-on leader with more than 17 years’ of success in paving the compliance roadmaps for high-profile, global organizations. She is highly skilled in identifying compliance risks and developing and implementing solutions for success. She remains abreast of relevant laws and regulations and is a thought leader on the topic of Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC), Anti Money Laundering, Counter-Terrorist Financing, Anti Bribery and Corruption, Human trafficking, Slavery, Child Labor, Sanctions, Cyber Security, Corporate Social responsibility, Diversity and Inclusion. She was previously the Global Head of Risk Market Development at Thomson Reuters. She advised clients in Latin America, the Middle East, South Asia and China, Africa, and Russia on their Compliance management policies (in Compliance, Anti Bribery, and Corruption, Anti Money Laundering/Counter Terrorist Financing, Third Party Risk, Slavery, Human Trafficking, Child labor, Cyber Security, and Corporate Governance). She also created the Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) Advisory and Educational Consultancy practice for Thomson Reuters focused in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. Prior to Thomson Reuters, Hala was a Compliance Consultant and a Senior Manager, Compliance and Money Laundering/Counter Terrorist Financing Reporting Officer at TSME – Dubai International Financial center, and an Authorized individual – Compliance – at the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA). Previous to this, she was the Head of the Anti-Money Laundering/Compliance/Counter-Terrorist Financing Department at BLOM Bank France

Bio will be updated soon.

Bio will be updated soon.

Bio will be updated soon.

Mr. Ali has over 20 years of experience in corporate and transaction banking across Asia and the Middle East. He is currently heading the cash management business at Emirates NBD Group. Prior to this he was heading cash management at Standard Chartered in Asia and was based in Singapore. He has also covered the MENA region as a corporate coverage banker and later as the transaction banking sales head for global corporate clients for a number of years at Standard Chartered Bank.

Bio wiil be updated soon.

Nihal Abughattas is a Founding Board Member of the MENA Fintech Association; an inclusive, not-for-profit body that fosters an open, cross border dialogue for the region's Fintech community. For the last 6 years, Nihal assumed a number of roles during her tenor at Temenos; the leading banking technology vendor serving 41 out of the top 50 banks globally. She was the Regional Head of Marketing for Middle East and Africa, then moved on to becoming the Global Head of Campaigns where she managed the demand generation process for the company, raising millions of dollars’ worth of potential leads & opportunities in the banking software sector. She left Temenos as the Marketplace Community Director for the MEA and Asia Pacific. In this role, Nihal drove collaboration between Fintechs and financial institutions, as well as forged strategic partnerships that supported regional reglabs, accelerator programs and other key ecosystem players. With 16 years of experience in various leadership roles, including a startup growth experience as the Head of Marketing at Fawry [one of the highest valued regional fintech companies today], Nihal now advises a number of businesses in the fintech space, and devotes some of her time in mentoring early stage startups on their GTM strategy.

Bio wiil be updated soon.

Faisal heads a regional team covering over 25 countries offering clearing and trade finance solutions. He has also been closely involved in rolling out Standard Chartered’s Correspondent Banking Academy initiative in the region aimed at “de-risking through education”. Faisal has been involved in several thought leadership and product innovation initiatives with the dual objective of enhancing business collaboration for Standard Chartered with the region’s financial institutions as well as looking at avenues to manage risks inherent in the business. Faisal joined Standard Chartered in 2007 from Citibank.

Bio will be updated soon.

Bio will be updated soon.

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

Bio wil be updated soon.

Bio wil be updated soon.

Aditya is the CEO and co-founder of BankBuddy.ai He has worked in financial technology space for 20 years across core banking, Mobile and digital customer experience. With global experience working across 50 countries Aditya has scaled multiple startups like Kony, i-flex/Oracle, Ameyo etc. he has founded BankBuddy.ai, a Cognitive banking platform that combines bots, workflow automation, AI Recommendations, Machine vision and natural language processing to enable intelligent interactions to help banks and financial institutions with customer experience management, hyper-personalization & operations automation.

Kaiser Naseem is a global thought leader in international development finance, a disruptor and an innovator with an entrepreneurial flair. During his career spanning over 40 years he has conceptualized and developed new institutions and business models in challenging environments. He has worked in almost all aspects of development banking with several institutions, including the World Bank Group. His core competencies can best be described as: Corporate Governance, Strategy Formulation and Oversight, Digital Transformation, MSME Banking, and Aligning Business Goals with SDGs. Kaiser is a strategic thinker with strong ethical standards and focus on results. With exceptional business acumen and broad experience on a global stage he serves on the BODs of several international companies and financial institutions and provides strategic advice to senior management and business owners.

Kaiser works with several banks, financial institutions and FINTECHs, globally to assist them in strategizing their digital journey. He was designated as one of the top 50 fintech influencers in the Middle East in 2017 and top 100 Global Fintech influencers for SDGs in 2019. Kaiser currently serves as an Advisor to the MENA Fintech Association, is a member of the Arab Monetary Fund’s working group on FINTECHs in the Arab world and is the Senator for Canada representing the World Business Angels Forum (WBAF).

Gabriel Abed is the Founder of Bitt.com, a Fintech enterprise established to offers financial solutions to the world's unbanked communities, and the Founder of Digital Asset Fund (DAF), the first regulated digital asset mutual funds in the caribbean region. The Barbados-based entrepreneur is internationally-acknowledged as a pioneer in the digital currency evolution, having initiated the first global movement to encourage the use of Central Bank Digital currencies. The term “Central Bank Digital currencies” also known as “CBDC” was founded and coined by Gabriel Abed during the development of Bitt.com. In 2018, Mr. Abed was appointed as the Special Technology Advisor to the Honorable David Burt, Premier of Bermuda. Gabriel has more than a decade of experience in enterprise grade so ware solutions across a multitude of business models ranging from commercial grade cloud storage facilities to Central Banking issuance platforms designed specifically for digital dollars. Gabriel is a Blockchain evangelist & Bitcoin veteran with 15+ year in the technology industry and member of the Global Blockchain Business Council.

Mirhan Mandour is the founder and Managing Director of SalesARM – Digiteam; the award-winning sales digitization and gamification solution used by top tier financial institutions. She is a passionate entrepreneur and a seasoned professional in the banking field. Besides her experience at SocGen, Mirhan was a Senior Consultant for local and multinational banks in the Middle East, helping them improve their methodology in the areas of Wealth Management and Retail Banking sales. Through her current role in Digiteam, Mirhan continues to help organizations to grow their business, leveraging mobile technology to digitize sales and relationship management. She is also a founder member of the MENA FINTECH ASSOCIATION where she leads the Women In Fintech Committee: WINTech.

Shashank Narayanan is currently holding a position of Wealth Associate at Sarwa.co, the first hybrid automated investment platform in the region. Prior to joning Sarwa, Shashank worked across Corporate & Retail Banking at Union National Bank and Mashreq Bank respectively, Investment Research at Morningstar Inc. in London. Making the switch into startups, Shashank worked within Strategy & Operations in Technology startups within the EdTech, FinTech & TravelTech verticals.

Mark has.co-founded Sarwa, the first hybrid automated investment platform for young professionals in the Middle-East. Sarwa's platform makes investing easy and affordable, by combining proven investment strategies with technology that drives down costs. Build your wealth with a personalized, low-cost, diversified portfolio. after years of consulting for Canada’s largest financial institutions, as part of Accenture Strategy’s Financial Services practice. Prior to Accenture, Mark worked in asset management at Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (CDPQ), one of Canada’s largest pension funds with $270B+ in AUM, Mark earned his BComm. from McGill University where he studied finance and entrepreneurship.

Mohammad Shaheed is a Fintech enthusiast and advisor for several fintech and philanthropic institutions. His core areas of expertise are management advisory, structuring solutions, strategy formulation and execution, Tech solutions esp: blockchain and AI adoption, and digital transformation. He has over 18 years of a diverse track record of achievements in the Financial services industry. He has extensive experience in devising products and solutions within all banking verticals. Mohammad successfully launched and managed businesses in the UK, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, and Pakistan.

Gordian Gaeta has been a banking consultant for some 25 years. He has advised and served many of the leading financial services organisations across Asia and close to half of the top 100 banks worldwide. He specialises in developing and implementing analytical solutions for complex strategic issues in financial services-related industries undergoing significant change or being exposed to intricate risk issues.

Bio will be updated soon.

Experienced corporate lawyer with over 20 years’ experience in regulatory and compliance services spanning across the Caribbean, Cayman Islands and in the UAE as the former Head of Regulations and Operations for RAKICC (IBC Offshore & Free zone Registry) with a strong knowledge of international business companies’ regulatory frameworks, financial services and products (particularly funds) and specialized expertise as a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist and FATF trained Legal expert examiner for CFATF mutual evaluations of St.Lucia & BVI. She worked as Compliance advisor & Project Manager for several applications in Abu Dhabi Global Market, Operating Crypto Asset Businesses and Fintech companies established in UAE.

Samir leads Careem's regulatory and public policy function for the company's fintech business, Careem Pay. Careem Pay seeks to license and build electronic money and digital wallet businesses across Careem's 14 markets building on existing Careem infrastructure, a customer base of 33m, and a Captain base of 2m. Samir previously led Careem's work with governments and policy makers across the region to regulate Careem's core ride-ailing business. He is a lawyer by background and has extensive experience building regulatory frameworks in emerging markets across technology and platforms businesses, telecommunications and financial services