FDF Conferences
Frankfurt Digital Finance 2026
11 February 2026
9.30
WELCOME
Corinna Egerer
Founder & Managing Partner
FDF Conferences
FDF Conferences
9.45
Opening Keynote: TRANSFORMATION in the Digital Age
10.05
Strategic Transformation: AI REVOLUTION and the Future of Banks
Power Speeches
Jürgen Lademann
Partner, Deloitte
Executive Advisor with 25 years of management consulting background. Jürgen implements digital transformation strategies with a focus on getting stuff done, specifically for bank and insurance companies with ambitious visions for where they want to be.
Jürgen helps clients rewire the 'Digital DNA' of their organizations from front to back. Additionally he has been the driving force behind major transformations that have delivered cost reductions, agility, efficiency gains and competitive advantage to leading global corporations.
Prof. Dr. Fritzi Köhler-Geib
Member of the Executive Board
Deutsche Bundesbank
Deutsche Bundesbank
Fritzi Köhler-Geib is a Member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank and is responsible for IT, Data and Statistics, Risk Control and the Research Centre. Before this, she was the Chief Economist and First Vice President of KfW Group. Previously she worked for over twenty years at the IMF and the World Bank in various positions and re-gions as well as at private sector financial institutions, last as the World Banks Lead Econ-omist and Programme Leader for Central America. She received her PhD in Economics from Ludwig Maximilian University Munich and Pompeu Fabra University, Spain. She holds two master degrees in economics and in international management from the Uni-versity of St. Gallen, HEC Paris and the University of Michigan. Her research interests focus on financial crises, their stabilization and growth-enhancing reforms. In addition, she teaches a master’s level course on economic transformation processes at Goethe University Frankfurt.
Stephan Paxmann
Chief Innovation Officer
LBBW
LBBW
Stephan A. Paxmann is Head of Digitalisation and Innovation at Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW). He has been responsible for the bank's strategic digitalisation and innovation activities and projects since 2022. Together with his team, he steers innovation and trend management, analyses and tests new business ideas with digital solutions using the LBBW incubator, develops the digital roadmap for the relevant digitalisation initiatives and supports the banking group in the transfer of new innovative business models with digital solutions into everyday corporate life.
Before joining LBBW, he held management positions at Deutsche Bank AG in Frankfurt am Main and New York and at IMG in St. Gallen as head of the German-speaking consulting business. From 2007 to 2010, he was Director International Banking at Allianz SE in Munich and Paris and Group Strategist at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt am Main. In 2010, he founded TME AG, a consulting boutique for the digital transformation of banks and insurance companies in Frankfurt am Main, where he was CEO until 2022.
Moritz Wälder
Senior Manager Capital Markets
GFT Technologies
GFT Technologies
I am a Senior Manager with a combined background in banking and consulting and extensive experience in Capital Markets. I bring deep domain knowledge together with strong leadership in complex, regulated environments, leading multidisciplinary teams across business and technology. I engage with emerging topics such as AI in Capital Markets from a leadership and operating model perspective, focusing on the implications for trading, research and market risk.
Marco Li Mandri
Head of Advanced Analytics Strategy
ING
ING
Marco Li Mandri is the head of ING Analytics Office since October 2023. From this role he is driving the Analytics vision by focusing on the delivery of impactful solutions, the development of the analytical foundation, and the empowerment of talent. Marco has extensive experience in leveraging data and analytics to empower operational efficiency and product delivery. He has worked as product area lead for Data, Analytics and Management Information at ING KYC tribe DB NL, as well as product manager with focus on AI Strategy at ING Customer Dialogue team, and Vodafone.
10.55 - 11.20
Coffee Break
11.20
The Future of the EUROPEAN PAYMENT LANDSCAPE
Keynote-Fireside
Piero Cipollone
Member of the Executive Board
European Central Bank
European Central Bank
Piero Cipollone has been a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank since 1 November 2023. He is responsible for the Directorate Banknotes, the Directorate General International and European Relations and the Directorate General Market Infrastructure and Payments.
Before joining the ECB, Mr Cipollone was Deputy Governor of the Banca d’Italia and a member of the Board of the Italian Institute for the Supervision of Insurance. He also served as a member of the Coordination Group for the Cross-border payments programme at the Bank for International Settlements. He previously served as an Executive Director on the Board of the World Bank Group.
Mr Cipollone graduated with honours in economics from the Sapienza University of Rome. He holds a Master of Arts in economics from Stanford University and was a visiting scholar at the economics department of the University of California, Berkeley.
11.40
Digital Retail PAYMENT: How much EUROPEAN SOVEREIGNTY can we reach?
Power Talk
Dr. Markus Ampenberger
Managing Director and Partner
BCG Boston Consulting Group
BCG Boston Consulting Group
Dr. Markus Ampenberger is a Managing Director and Partner at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in Munich. With 15 years of experience in consulting, he leads BCG’s Payments & FinTech team in the DACH-region. Markus advises banks, payment providers and FinTechs across Europe. Focus of his project work is on strategy, (digital) transformation, and M&A-related topics. Markus is frequently engaged as an expert, author and speaker on innovative topics in the payments industry. Before joining BCG, Markus gained practical experience in banking and academia. He holds a degree in Business Administration from LMU Munich, an MBA from Colorado State University, and a doctorate in economics from TU Munich. In addition, he has been a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University.
Martina Weimert
CEO
EPI European Payments Initiative
EPI European Payments Initiative
Martina Weimert is the CEO of EPI Company, since the early days of the initiative established in December 2020. Martina has been supporting and guiding European banks and acquirers to build the foundation of the EPI Company, aiming to build an independent European solution and connecting Europe’s payment industry.
With 20 years of experience in international consulting, she has in-depth experience in payments and payment solution set-up, fintech, blockchain and retail banking in Europe, the Americas and the Middle East. Prior to joining EPI, she was a partner in the Financial Services Practice of the consultancy Oliver Wyman in Paris, leading the European payments practice, previously holding the positions of Senior VP at Capgemini Consulting, and Marketing & Sales Director for Deutsche Bank in France.
Martina graduated from the Institute of Political Science Paris in European business development and holds a Master degree in International Administration (DESS) from Sorbonne University, and studied before Political Science at the University of Bonn.
Marcus W. Mosen
Co-CEO N26
Marcus is a seasoned senior executive, advisor, non-executive director, and investor. In the last 20+ years he held various top-management positions with market leading companies in the digital payments and fintech industry and has been involved in shaping the German and European payments landscape.
Today, Marcus is an active board member in fintech companies (e.g. N26, AlphaQ VC, Geidea) and is engaged as senior advisor with companies in the financial services, tech, and data space. Beside this, he is active as speaker, author and publisher of specialist articles and books.
12.15
The Global Shift: Winning the Race for the Future of TOKENIZED MONEY: Stablecoins, Digital Euro/CBDCs and Cryptocurrencies
Power Speeches and Panel
Prof. Dr. Joachim Wuermeling
Professor, ESMT Berlin; Attorney, A&O Shearman Frankfurt
Dr. Joachim Wuermeling is a Professor at the ESMT in Berlin and an attorney at A&O Shearman in Frankfurt. Until recently he used to be a member of the Deutsche Bundesbank’s Executive Board (2016 – 2023). His responsibilities covered banking supervision, controlling, accounting and organisation, information technology, data and statistics as well as risk control. He sat on the Supervisory Board of the Single Supervisory Mechanism at the ECB , the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and of the German Financial Stability Committee (AFS). His previous positions include serving as Member of the European Parliament, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Technology, member of the Executive Board of the German Insurance Association, and Chairman of the Association of Sparda-Banken. Dr Wuermeling is a lawyer by education, holds degrees of the University of Bayreuth and the Eu-ropean University Institute in Florence and was a lecturer at the Universities of Bayreuth and Potsdam.
Simon Seiter
CFO
AllUnity
AllUnity
Simon Seiter is the Chief Financial & Product Officer and Managing Director of AllUnity. He is responsible for closely aligning the financial strategy with product innovation. Before joining AllUnity Simon was both Head of Digital Asset at Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe and before at Deutsche Börse Group. In this role he oversaw the acquisition of the second licensed crypto custodian in Germany, the built out of the first management company allowed to issue crypto funds in Germany and Luxemburg and one of the first crypto register licenses. Besides, Simon has served multiple times as supervisory board chairman and member and advised international associations and policy makers.
Dr. Martin Hess
Chief Economist
Swiss Bankers Association
Swiss Bankers Association
Dr. Martin Hess is Chief Economist and a Member of the Management Board of the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA). He has been heading the Economic Policy unit at the umbrella organization since 2010. In this capacity, he also serves as the overall project lead for “Digital Currencies”. Martin Hess is also a member of the Chief Economist Group of the European Banking Federation (EBF). Before joining the SBA, Martin Hess held various positions at the Swiss Federal Department of Finance (FDF), most recently as Head Interna-tional Finance and Finance Stability at the State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF). From 2001 to 2004, he was an Associate Professor at the Business School of the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) in Mexico City.
13:00
Pitches for Parallel Sessions
13.15 - 14.00
Lunch Break
14.00
Parallel Session A1
OPEN FINANCE – EU Regulation 2.0
Dr. Verena Ritter-Döring
Partner
Taylor Wessing
Taylor Wessing
Verena has significant experience across the full spectrum of German and Europe financial regulation. In addition to German and internationally active banks and financial services companies, she also advises payment and e-money institutions as well as companies and IT service providers seeking to gain a foothold in the regulated financial market. She also has experience in advising capital management companies and foreign fund managers. VC companies that want to invest in regulated financial entities in Germany and Europe also seek advice from Verena.
She is specialised in licensing requirements, organizational requirements and compliance, implementing new regulation (such as DORA, ESG, FIDA, MiCAR, PSR/PSD3), dealing with BaFin, and structuring business models of FinTechs.
Alice Guedel
Member of Cabinet
European Commission
European Commission
Alice Guedel is a member of the Cabinet of EU Commissioner for Financial Services, Maria Luís Albuquerque, focusing on digital finance. Since joining in December 2024, she has provided strategic guidance on policy decisions and coordinated with EU institutions and national governments. Previously at the European Commission, she led the Digital Finance Platform project, facilitating data sharing between central banks and fintechs. Before joining the European Commission, she was working in venture capital funds such as Partech, Alven and Omnes Capital, investing in the fintech sector.
14.55
Parallel Session A2
Europe’s AML SHAKE-UP: Are we ready for what’s ahead?
Dr. Camillo Werdich
Founder & CEO
Sinpex
Sinpex
With a background in mechanical engineering and a Ph.D. in business administration from the University of St. Gallen, Dr. Camillo Werdich brings deep technical and strategic expertise. Before founding Sinpex, he worked as a KYC and compliance manager at Deloitte, where he saw firsthand the inefficiencies in regulatory processes – driving him to build a smarter, automated solution.
Niko Ihle
Director FSI - Financial Crime
Deloitte
Deloitte
Niko Ihle joined Deloitte in 2012 and is a Director for Deloitte in the Strategy, Risk and Transformation, FSI Financial Crime practicein Frankfurt. Before fighting financial crime, he worked for six years for Deloitte Consulting in the department of Financial Services Solutions (FSS). During his studies he also worked for another Big4 company. During his long career at Deloitte Niko has gained a deep understanding of financial institutes’ systems, processes and compliance functions.
Florian Pawlizki
Head of Anti-Financial Crime
IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG
IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG
Florian Pawlizki, LL.M. works in financial services with a focus on Anti-Financial Crime, AML/CFT, and sanctions compliance. He has a strong background in corporate and retail banking, as well as experience at a Big Four auditing firm.
As Head of Anti-Financial Crime at IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG, he is responsible for the bank-wide AML/CTF, anti-bribery, and sanctions compliance framework. A key focus of his role is anticipating regulatory change and translating it into actionable frameworks, most recently in the context of the EU AML Regulation.
Florian steers cross-functional projects at the intersection of regulation, operations, and digitalization. He contributes to industry discussions through banking association working groups and speaks regularly on pragmatic approaches to integrating compliance requirements into banking processes.
14.00
Parallel Session B1
Next Gen SME-BANKING
Tuomas Toivonen
Co-Founder & CEO
Holvi
Holvi
Tuomas Toivonen, Co-founder and CEO at Holvi, has over 15 years of experience advising governments and global mobile operators on payment systems. Tuomas saw the need for a better banking solution for small businesses in Europe. This drove him to create Holvi – a banking-service designed to meet the unique needs of SMEs.
Amadeus von Kummer
Managing Director, Teylor Technologies & Member Executive Management
Teylor
Teylor
Amadeus von Kummer is a fintech expert with a strong focus on scaling businesses and driving digital innovation. As Member Executive Management at Teylor AG, the leading European SME lending player and Managing Director at Teylor Technologies he drives the growth of the company's SaaS division that provides innovative lending infrastructure to banks and financial institutions.
Prior to joining Teylor, Amadeus held leadership roles at prominent financial technology firms and was deeply involved in supporting and contributing to two successful exits. At Tink, a leading open-banking provider, he managed banking operations in the DACH region following Tink's acquisition of FinTecSystems, where he served as Vice President of Banking & Finance. In these roles, he was instrumental in integrating open-banking solutions into financial institutions, modernizing traditional banking processes.
Amadeus is passionate about leveraging technology to reshape financial services, focusing on smarter, faster, and more inclusive credit solutions for SMEs and financial institutions.
Miriam Wohlfarth
Founder & Co-CEO
Banxware
Banxware
As Managing Director and founder of Ratepay and Banxware, Miriam Wohlfarth is one of the first female Fintech founders in Germany, with over 24 years of experience in the digital economy. In 2009, she founded the payment service provider Ratepay, which today employs over 300 people. With Ratepay, she actively shaped the developments in the payment industry.
With her second company, Banxware, she has been revolutionizing the lending sector since 2020, enabling platforms to offer embedded Finance products. In Germany, she is doing pioneering work in the financial sector. As Co-Founder and Co-CEO, she is responsible for sales and marketing at Banxware.
Miriam is a member of the Digital Finance Forum of the Federal Ministry of Finance, a shareholder at Startup Teens, a supervisory board member at Talentsconnect AG, Mercedes-Benz Mobility AG, and Freenet AG, and also a partner and co-shareholder of Payment & Banking, a leading Fintech blog in Germany.
14.55
Parallel Session B2
GLOBAL BENCHMARKS
14.00
Parallel Session C1
AI BUSINESS CASES: The Role of Speed and Efficiency
Dr. Sina Wulfmeyer
Chief Data Officer
Unique
Unique
Sina Wulfmeyer is a leading voice in AI and data transformation across Europe. As Chief Data Officer at Unique AI—a fast-growing GenAI scale-up serving the financial sector—she helped raise Series A, scale the team to 100+, and shape a responsible approach to GenAI. Her credo: Technology should enhance human potential, not replace it.
With over 20 years of experience in financial data strategy, including leadership roles at Credit Suisse and Accenture, Sina bridges deep technical expertise with strategic vision. She lectures on GenAI, AI Governance, and Cybersecurity at ETH Zurich, HSG St. Gallen, and HEC Paris, inspiring future leaders to use AI ethically and effectively.
Recognized as one of ETH Zurich’s “Top 100 Women in Data & AI” and a “Visionary Catalyst” by GenAI Zurich, Sina speaks passionately about the GenAI revolution in the financial sector, how to implement responsible innovation and how to prepare the next generation for the AI era.
Mark Rydquist
Managing Director EMEA Financial Services
Google
With over 25 years experience in the Technology industry, Mark is a Managing Director at
Google who has established his brand as a business transformation luminary. Mark leads the
Financial Services team and is performing a key role defining the growth strategy across the
Financial Services customer base across EMEA. With a rich background of experience with
leading technology brands, Mark has been instrumental in helping business to integrate leading
edge solutions to drive business performance. Mark has held global leadership roles at Cisco
supporting strategic Financial Services customers and he was General Manager at Microsoft
responsible for foundational partnership achievements.
Mark is based in London and holds a BA in Business & Management from Leeds
University.
14.55
Parallel Session C2
AGENTIC AI: The next Super-App?
Prof. Dr. Gregory Wheeler
Professor
Frankfurt School of Finance & Management
Frankfurt School of Finance & Management
Gregory Wheeler is Professor of Philosophy & Computer Science and Department Head at Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, where he directs the Master of AI & Data Science program. His research spans imprecise probability theory and machine learning. He is also CTO and Co-Founder of Exaloan AG, a fintech company operating a digital lending marketplace connecting institutional investors with loan originators worldwide, where he built the ML credit scoring systems. Wheeler holds a joint Ph.D. in Philosophy and Computer Science from the University of Rochester.
14.00
Parallel Session D1
TOKENIZED FINANCE: Leveraging the Crypto and Digital Assets Business Case
Prof. Co-Pierre Georg
Director, Frankfurt School Blockchain Center
Frankfurt School of Finance & Management
Frankfurt School of Finance & Management
Co-Pierre Georg is a Professor of Practice in Digital Finance and Technology at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management and the Director of the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center. His research focuses on financial technology. His work has been published in leading international journals such as the Journal of Economic Theory, Research Policy, Operations Research, and Nature Physics. He earned his PhD in Economics from the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and completed his Master's degree at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Previously, Co-Pierre Georg was a professor at the University of Cape Town, where he held the NRF/DSI Dual Research Chair in Blockchain Technology. He has also served as an economist at the Research Centre of the Deutsche Bundesbank and is a Research Associate at the Center for Global Legal Transformation at Columbia University and the Oxford Martin School for the 21st Century.
Michael Duttlinger
CEO & Co-Founder
Cashlink Technologies
Cashlink Technologies
Michael Duttlinger is CEO and Co-Founder of Cashlink, Europe’s leading token-based capital market infrastructure.
After studying at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and in the USA, the experienced entrepreneur first built a successful payment service for SMEs before focusing on the digitization of capital market processes using distributed ledger technology.
Duttlinger is recognized as an expert in tokenbased securities and the future of the capital market. He regularly engages in dialogue with German and European institutions, contributing his expertise to the development of regulated, digital financial solutions.
As a multiple recipient of the FinTech Germany Award, he is committed to strengthening Germany and Europe as leading hubs for innovative financial technologies and actively bridging the gap between regulators and fintechs.
Mykolas Majauskas
Senior Director of Policy
Bybit
Bybit
Mykolas Majauskas - Senior Director of Policy, Bybit
Brings over two decades of experience across public policy, financial regulation, banking and fintech. His career covers the full spectrum of financial services - from public finance management and capital markets to securitisation and digital finance - with a strong focus on the fast evolving crypto and blockchain sector.
As Senior Director of Policy at Bybit, he leads efforts to advance a compliant and trusted digital asset ecosystem across Europe and emerging markets. His experience spans board roles at regulated asset management companies and crypto asset service providers, as well as public service as Chair of the Parliamentary Budget and Finance Committee and Chief Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister of Lithuania.
LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/mykolas-majauskas
Joaquín Sastre Ibáñez
Chief Revenue Officer & Head of Institutional Business Managing Director | Boerse Stuttgart Digital Spain
Boerse Stuttgart Digital Holding
Boerse Stuttgart Digital Holding
Joaquín Sastre Ibáñez joined the management team of Boerse Stuttgart Digital as Chief Revenue Officer on January 1st, 2024. Previously, he was Managing Director at BitGo, a global digital asset service provider, where he was responsible for building, operating and expanding the business across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. Joaquín Sastre Ibáñez assisted large European and international institutions and governments in their digital assets journey, and his contributions were key in several of BitGo's funding milestones. Prior to this, he started his career in the digital asset space in 2017 at Xapo Bank, establishing one of the first regulated institutional crypto custodians and the leading OTC trading provider of the time.
14.55
Parallel Session D2
After and beyond MiCAR: US GENIUS ACT and the Global Perspective on Stablecoins
Prof. Filippo Annunziata
Full Professor
Bocconi University Milan
Bocconi University Milan
Full Professor of Financial Markets and Banking Law at Bocconi University. Visiting professor at Ca’ Foscari University, Venice.
Co-Director of the RULES Unit, Baffi-Carefin Centre, Bocconi University. Academic Board Member – European Banking Institute. Academic Member and Fellow - Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence EUSFIL - European Union Sustainable Finance and Law. Visiting professors at several EU Universities, including Antwerp, Leuven, Toulouse, London (Queen Mary), Warwick.
Member of the Faculty, PhD in Legal Studies, Bocconi University.
Member of the Conseil d’Orientation, Droit & Croissance, Paris.
Editorial Board - Rivista delle Società; Referee and ad-hoc reviewer for European Company and Financial Law, Rivista delle Società, Rivista del Diritto commerciale, Banca Borsa e Titoli di Credito, Giurisprudenza Commerciale, Rivista Orizzonti del Diritto Commerciale, Banca Impresa e Società.
Member of the Scientific Committee – Annual conference 2021 of the Comissão do Mercado de Valores Mobiliários (Portugal); Member of the Italian Associazione Orizzonti del Diritto commerciale; Member of the Italian Association of Comparative Law; Member of Association Européenne de Droit Bancaire et Financier - Italian section; Member of Associazione Disiano Preite per lo Studio del Diritto d’impresa; Member of the Scientific Committee - Interdepartmental Research Centre on European Banking and Finance Law - Roma Tre University; Association of Professors of Economic Law (ADDE).
Since 2013, he has been a professor of Musicology at the University of Milan.
He has extensive scientific production and publications in the field of corporate law, capital markets law, EU banking law, and in the field of Law and Humanities studies.
Nico Di Gabriele
Supervisory Policy
European Central Bank
European Central Bank
Nico Di Gabriele is a Senior Team Lead within the Supervisory Policy Division of the European Central Bank (ECB). He is responsible for digital finance policy development within Banking Supervision and participate to policy activities at European Union and international level in the area of crypto-assets. He is the ECB Banking Supervision member to the Crypto-asset task force of the European Systemic Risk Board. He joined the ECB in 2015 and prior to that he had been serving at the Italian central bank and in commercial banks for 17 years.
He is a certified crypto-asset anti-financial crime expert.
Dr. Joachim Schwerin
Principal Economist
European Commission
European Commission
Dr. Joachim Schwerin is PhD economist, blockchain expert and privacy activist. He is Principal Economist in the Responsible Business Conduct unit within the Directorate-General Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) of the European Commission, where he is responsible for developing policies in support of the Token Economy and Distributed-Ledger Technologies as well as their applications for industry and SMEs. His current focus lies on shaping positive framework conditions for DAOs, Web3 and privacy-enhancing technologies. In the financial domain, he contributed e.g. to the MiCA Regulation, the DLT Pilot Regime and the Digital Euro. Previously, he coordinated the European Commission's industrial and competition policies and worked on SME access to finance. Joachim holds a PhD from Dresden University of Technology and was Post-Doc Research Fellow at the London School of Economics' Economic History Department before he joined the European Commission in 2001.
Thibault Pele
Global Head of Digital Currency
Worldline
Worldline
Thibault Pelé is t he Global Head of Digital Currencies at Worldline, leading strategic initiatives across stablecoins and central bank digital currencies. He contributed to notorious projects and working group with banks, regulators, and fintechs on emerging payment rails. Thibault combines deep technical knowledge with strong product and business expertise, and also lectures at a prominent French school on the future of payments.
15.45 – 16.15
Coffee Break
16.15
The IPO Momentum
Keynote-Fireside
Stéphane Boujnah
CEO & Chairman of the Managing Board
Euronext
Euronext
Stéphane Boujnah is CEO and Chairman of the Managing Board of Euronext, leading European capital market infrastructure, covering the entire capital markets value chain, from listing, trading, clearing, settlement and custody to solutions for issuers and investors. Euronext operates regulated markets in Athens, Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon, Milan, Oslo and Paris.. In September 2025, Euronext became a CAC 40 company with a market capitalization of approximatively €14 bn.
Before joining Euronext, Stéphane Boujnah was Head of Santander Global Banking and Markets for Continental Europe. From 2005 to 2010, he was Managing Director at Deutsche Bank responsible for the development of the investment banking operations in France. Previously he founded KM5 Capital, an advisory company specialsied in equity raising and M&A advice for venture capital funds and innovative technology companies. From 2000 to 2002, he was Director of the European M&A team of Credit Suisse First Boston Technology Group in Palo Alto (California) and London. From 1997 to 1999, Stéphane Boujnah was adviser to the French Minister for Economy, Finance and Industry, Dominique Strauss-Kahn. He was responsible for innovation policies, privatisations in the technology sector, international investments projects in France and the development of the New Economy. He started his career in 1991 as a business lawyer at Freshfields, focusing on M&A, privatisations and international investments in Eastern Europe. He graduated from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris.
He holds a Master degree and a DEA in Law from La Sorbonne Paris, a LLM in Law from the University of Kent in Canterbury and a MBA from Insead. Stéphane Boujnah was a member of the Commission pour la Libération de la Croissance Française established by President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007.
He is founder and Vice-President of the French think tank En Temps Réel, where he published “L’inoxydable modèle suédois” in 2003, a book on the Swedish government and economic model. He is Vice-President of the Board of directors of Accentus and Insula Orchestra. He is Vice-President of the Board of Prométhée Education, a non-profit organization focusing on the support to underprivileged teenagers to boost ambition, access to higher education and preparation to life changing job opportunities.
16.55
TRANSFORMATION- AND VENTURE-CAPITAL: The Role of Public and Private Players for Accelerating Digital Growth
Panel
Nicola Beer
Vice-President
European Investment Bank
European Investment Bank
Nicola Beer
Vice-President European Investment Bank
Nicola Beer is Vice President of the European Investment Bank (EIB) in Luxembourg.
From 2019 to 2023 she was Vice President and Member of the European Parliament with a focus on the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, the Industry and Research Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee. She was Member of the German Federal Parliament, Bundestag from 2017 to 2019. Previously, Mrs. Beer was 1999 to 2009 and 2014 to 2017 Member of the Hessian state parliament, serving 2012 to 2014 as Hessian Minister for Education and 2009 to 2012 Hessian State Secretary for European Affairs. Her political career started as city councilor in her hometown Frankfurt am Main, where she also worked as a self-employed lawyer, except during the time as a member of the Hessian state government. Before studying law at the University of Frankfurt, she completed training as a bank clerk after graduating from high school with a bilingual German-French diploma.
Mrs. Beer was Secretary General of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) from 2013 to 2019, and was deputy federal chairwoman 2019 to 2023.
Dr. Tamaz Georgadze
CEO
Raisin
Raisin
Dr. Tamaz Georgadze is CEO and co-founder of Raisin. He has led the start-up since its foundation and is therefore largely responsible for its success. Today, Raisin operates its platform in the EU, the UK and the US. As a marketplace, the Berlin-based company connects banks with savers and has become one of the most relevant European fintechs in just a few years. At the beginning of 2024, the fintech also announced an important milestone with its profitability.
Georgadze previously worked at McKinsey & Company for almost 10 years - most recently as a Partner. There he advised leading banks and was responsible for the areas of deposit and investment products in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Tamaz Georgadze holds a doctorate in economics. He studied economics and law at the Universities of Tbilisi (Georgia) and Giessen (Germany). He advises the German Federal Ministry of Finance in the Digital Finance Forum (DFF) and is involved in the fintech and start-up scene, particularly in the areas of open banking, digitalization and regulation.
17.30
Creating the EUROPEAN MOMENTUM: The Future of Finance
Power Talks
Sarah Schmidtke
Managing Director
Bankenverband Mitte
Bankenverband Mitte
Sarah Schmidtke is the managing director at Bankenverband Mitte. It represents the interests of more than 100 private banks in Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, which employ around 40,000 employees. Prior to this, Sarah was responsible for managing the Frankfurt office of the European Banking Federation (EBF), focussing on banking regulation & supervision. Before, she worked as Financial Attaché at the British Embassy in Berlin. Prior to joining the diplomatic service, Sarah spent 13 years working for capital markets departments of Commerzbank and Natixis in Frankfurt, London and Paris. Sarah studied at the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University. She chairs the advisory board of the European Banking Institute (EBI) and is an advisory board member at the Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
Luigi Marciano
Founder & CEO Group
Objectway
Objectway
Luigi is Objectway’s founder and CEO group. As visionary entrepreneur, he has dedicated his career to power the investment service business by technology innovation. He has successfully consolidated Objectway’s leadership in the wealth and asset management industry internationally, creating a technology platform, which enables customers to digitally evolve their business and deliver higher performances. His goal today is to create and implement disruptive ways to reduce the complexity and timing of digital transformation. Luigi holds a master’s degree in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Pisa.
Markus Fehn
Head of Strategy & Innovation
Chartered Investment
Chartered Investment
Markus Fehn is Head of Strategy & Innovation at Chartered Investment, a FinTech that supports financial institutions, asset managers, and family offices in creating, managing and distributing regulated investment products. Founded in 2013 the firm has arranged more than 2,500 products with an issued volume of 15 bn EUR +.
Markus has more than 15 years of experience in management consulting, banking, and digital finance, with a focus on capital‑markets innovation. In 2018, he contributed to the development and launch of the first structured investment product issued on a public blockchain. He later oversaw initiatives leading to Germany’s first tokenised security issued under the eWpG framework.
At Chartered Investment, Markus leads the firm’s work on Digital Assets and AI, shaping its long‑term strategy and advancing the integration of emerging technologies into regulated capital‑markets infrastructure.
He serves on the board of the Federal Association for Electronic Securities and holds an MBA from WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management.
18.10
Closing KEYNOTE
18.25
Wrap-Up
Uli Fricke
Chairwoman
Board of Digital Invest Germany
Board of Digital Invest Germany
Uli is one of the founders and CEO of Triangle Venture Capital Group, one of Europe’s leading investors in hightech start-up companies. She is also the CEO of FunderNation, Germany’s only digital investing platform that is run by a team of investment professionals.
Uli is Chairwoman of the Board of Digital Invest Germany, Bundesverband Crowdfunding e.v. and served as Chairwoman of Invest Europe (formerly the European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association - EVCA) in 2010-2011. She was also named the most powerful person in private equity for 2010 by REAL DEALS and has been recognised by Dow Jones as one of the 100 most influential women in Europe’s finance industry.
Throughout her career, Uli served on numerous boards of companies and has been a longstanding board member of the Invest Europe. She currently serves on the board of semafora and SemEO. Uli is member of the Space-Tech Advisory Council, the aws Seed Financing Board in Vienna and the EBAN Space Executive Committee among others.
Uli is an unflinching optimist and an entrepreneur to the core – so it’s best not tell her something “does not work”.
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