Meet the speakers who shared their perspectives and insights. The speakers for 2024 will be published gradually in due course.
Founder & CEO. Bitbond
Radoslav is the founder & CEO of Bitbond, the leading provider of tokenization technology. With its product Token Tool, Bitbond serves banks, corporations as well as SMEs who want to create and manage their own asset tokens and NFTs. Before founding Bitbond, Radoslav worked for strategy consulting firm Roland Berger and advised banks in Europe and Western Africa. Prior to that he was with Deutsche Bank London in sales & trading of structured products. Radoslav frequently speaks on blockchain, Web3 and capital markets related topics.
Global Lead Wealthtech and Banking Data Architecture, Bain & Company
Philipp Baecker specializes in digital Financial Services, Enterprise Technology, and Advanced Analytics. He serves as global topic lead for Bain‘s wealthtech and banking data architecture solutions. For more than a decade Philipp has been advising banks, insurers and financial investors on strategy development, reorganization, and the use of innovative technologies in performance improvement. More recently, his primary focus has been on supporting clients in their digital and agile transformation, as well as in data analytics. Before joining Bain, Philipp was a professor of corporate finance and risk management at EBS Business School in Wiesbaden. Moreover, he gained practical experience within the M&A and capital markets departments of a bulge bracket investment bank in London and Frankfurt. As a scholar and doctoral fellow of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation, he studied business administration, financial economics, and computer science at the EBS University of Business and Law and the University of Pennsylvania, among others.
CEO & Co-Founder, Elinvar
Chris Bartz is CEO & Co-Founder of Elinvar. Chris is responsible for the strategic development of Elinvar. He is driven by the goal to build sustainable partnerships with impact. Be it at Bitkom, Bankenverband or the Digital Finance Forum at the Federal Ministry of Finance, Chris advocates a strong ecosystem for fintech and digital banking as well as the benefits of digitalization.
Investment Manager, neosfer
Nicolai Bastian is investment professional with comprehensive experience in areas of venture and growth capital, particularly investing into disruptive business models from the areas of FinTech, B2B SaaS and D2C. Besides an investment track record from early stage investing into start-ups from the digital asset space, he also invested into growth capital cases like e.g. Enpal, Clark, Modifi, Razor Group and FINN.
Head of SME Banking, SAP Fioneer
Thomas is Head of SME Banking at SAP Fioneer. In this role he is responsible for SAP Fioneers SME Strategy. He drives the business development shaping the SME banking proposition closely working with clients. He has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry. He brings together a broad and deep understanding of banking with a strong entrepreneurial mindset. Prior to his role at SAP Fioneer, Thomas was member of the SME Banking leadership of ING Germany, responsible for strategy and execution as well as Managing Director of Lendico, a Berlin-based fintech acquired by ING. He was instrumental in driving and managing the build-up of the SME segment for ING in Germany from scratch. Besides establishing an appealing value proposition for SMEs, he intensively drove the question of beyond banking propositions for SMEs. As senior executive lead he was responsible for the Amazon partnership program (embedded lending solution for SME Sellers on amazon, the first of its kind in Europe). Beforehand, he was Co-founder of Fintura, a comparison portal for SME loans. He started his career at Deutsche Bank, with various (leadership-) roles in Retail, Business Banking, Corporate and Investment Banking.
Managing Director Financial Services, GFT Technologies
Partner, Redalpine
Sebastian is a partner at the early stage investor Redalpine, where he is in charge of the Berlin office. He began his investing career at Project A Ventures in Berlin, and previously worked at startup incubator Rocket Internet in global venture development. Sebastian has a background in business, having studied at both St. Gallen and Stanford University. He is passionate about technology and startups, and believes in their potential to solve some of the world's most pressing problems.
CBO, Raisin
Max is a European entrepreneur & investor. He is Chief Business Officer of Raisin, the trailblazing fintech pioneer for savings and investments. Max also helped build Deposit Solutions, the leading B2B deposits platform that merged with Raisin in 2021. Previously Mr. von Bismarck was Partner and the CEO Europe for SkyBridge Capital, the global alternative investment firm. From 2005 until 2011 he was Director and Head of Investors at the World Economic Forum in Geneva and New York. Prior to joining the World Economic Forum Max was involved in building two companies. He was a Co-Founder & Managing Director at Public One Strategy Consulting. Previously, he was part of the initial team of the technology company Mondus Limited that originated out of Oxford University. Max holds a German law degree and an Executive Masters in Global Leadership from the World Economic Forum (Program in collaboration with Wharton School of Business, Columbia University, INSEAD and London Business School). Max was named a German-American Young Leader of the Atlantik Brücke in 2004, a Global Leadership Fellow by the World Economic Forum in 2005, a 40 under 40 European Young Leader in 2013 and in 2014 was named a Member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO). He serves as a Senior Advisor Europe to the Berggruen Institute.
CEO & Founder, Crypto Finance AG
Jan Brzezek is CEO, founder of Crypto Finance AG and board member of Crypto Finance (Asset Management) AG. In 2017, Jan started his journey as a first-generation entrepreneur and founded Crypto Finance AG. Since then, he has steered the company on its way as a leading provider of products and services covering the entire digital asset value chain. Today Crypto Finance is a FINMA regulated financial institution and a member of Deutsche Börse Group, offering professional digital asset solutions in asset management, brokerage, custody, infrastructure, and tokenisation for financial institutions. An alumnus of Zurich University of Applied Sciences and UBS Asset Management, Wealth Management and Investment Bank, Jan has extensive experience of over 13 years in the sector. Jan is a visionary who wants to establish a neutral, transparent, and highly scalable digital asset ecosystem under European regulation with Crypto Finance. Under his leadership, the institution has already become a force to reckon with in the global crypto market and has won many awards, including a Crypto Valley Top 50 blockchain company, Top 100 Swiss Start-up, and 2019 Swiss FinTech Award winner.
Managing Director, Center for Financial Studies
CEO & Founder, Finnovating
Rodrigo Garcia de la Cruz promotes the FinTech sector as an entrepreneur, investor, influencer, and academic professional for over ten years. He was recognized as the 17th Top World Influencer in the 2019 FinTech Influencers Ranking published by Jay Palter Social Advisory. His experience and international network led him to connect all the FinTech, InsurTech, and PropTech globally with corporations and investors. He created the first FinTech "Matching as a Service" platform, Finnovating. Additionally, he worked to advance the FinTech ecosystem, bringing together more than 25 countries, co-founding the IberoAmerican FinTech Alliance, the European Digital Finance Association, and becoming the President of the Spanish FinTech and InsurTech Association. Rodrigo also founded Accurate Quant and invested in more than 15 start-ups as a founding partner of FinTech Ventures, a private investor club specialized in FinTech. Previously, he spent 20 years in large multinational companies such as Citibank (Investment Banking), Barclays (Corporate Banking), and Renault (Robot Programming). He is a Robotics Industrial Engineer, holds a BA in Business Administration, a Master in Management of Financial Institutions from the IEB, and earned an Excellence Program in International Financial Markets from the London School of Economics.
Senior Vice President Retail Banking, DKB
Sascha is SVP Retail Banking of Deutsche Kreditbank, DKB. Before his recent position, Sascha managed FinReach as CEO. Finreach is a Berlin-based Fintech company that develops digital solutions for financial services that unify industry knowledge with technical know-how and a product-centric thinking. Furthermore, Sascha co-founded Paylogic Germany in 2010 and sold it four years later. Paylogic is a ticketing company for music, culture and sports organiser with a very innovative and technology driven approach. Aside from his businesses, Sascha serves as a mentor, advisor, coach and Angel to upcoming digital entrepreneurs.
Chair, AEFI Asociación Española de Fintech e Insurtech
Arturo is the Chair of AEFI, the Spanish Fintech and Insurtech Association and co-Chair of the SPAA initiative. Before that, he was the CEO of Eurobits, the company that introduced Account Information Services in Europe in 2004. Arturo launched Eurobits, went through an MBO and ultimately sold the company to Tink, which is now a part of Visa. His career has been marked by his role in the introduction of high-tech products and services to the financial sector. Arturo is also the Vice-Chairman of the European Third-Party Providers Association (ETPPA) and represents the ETPPA at the ERPB and the EPC where he is a board member.
CEO & Co-Founder, Xilva AG
CEO & Co-Founder of Xilva - The Global Forest Marketplace, building the world market leader in early stage regenerative forest investments. Before that, early partner and executive in digital consultancy Namics AG - largest in Switzerland, Top 15 in Germany - grew the company from 7 to 550 employees, successfully exited to dentsu Inc. in 2018. Strong financial services and marketplace industry experience, expertise in creating digital customer experience and in agile methodologies. Angel investor in multiple B2B SaaS businesses. Founder and president of TEDxZurich. Masters and PhD in business/innovation management University of St. Gallen.
Founder, FDF Conferences GmbH
Corinna Egerer is co-founder of Frankfurt Digital Finance and has more than 15 years experience in the customer-oriented, strategic conceptual design and development of business-events. She is also an event presenter and host at a variety of industry conferences, especially in FinTech and the financial services Industry. Having worked for the communications and event departments of different multinational companies, today she advises a wide range of companies and institutions in that field. In addition, she volunteers as board member of HSG Alumni, the international Alumni Organization of the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Chief Sustainability Officer, Deutsche Bank
As Chief Sustainability Officer of Deutsche Bank, Jörg Eigendorf is responsible for Deutsche Bank's overall sustainability strategy and its implementation. As such he is the deputy head of the Group Sustainability Committee chaired by the CEO and Co-Chair of the Sustainability Council. He joined Deutsche Bank in 2016 as Global Head of Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility, which included responsibility for sustainability. Since then, he has been instrumental in shaping the bank's environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy. Before joining Deutsche Bank, he worked for more than two decades as a journalist in Moscow (Die Zeit), Frankfurt and Berlin (Welt). Jörg attended the Cologne School of Journalism and subsequently studied economics at the University of Cologne.
Deputy CEO, CPOO, bitpanda
Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad is Deputy CEO & CPOO at Bitpanda, a leading trade-everything investment platform based in Vienna, Austria. At Bitpanda, he oversees a large chunk of the company, from business operations, growth and product development to Bitpanda's White Label Solution and Custody platform. Holding an MSc in Banking & Finance, Lukas has a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry and has firsthand banking experience, in-depth knowledge of digital assets, and leading digital roadmaps and platform strategies from conception to launch across retail and corporate product offerings.
Senior Project Manager, Commerzbank AG
Christina is a senior project management for cyber risk & information security with Commerzbank AG and has previously worked in similar IT, IT security and project management roles in the UK and Germany. Her main focus is on assessing and improving cyber resilience e.g. via running threat-intelligence based red teaming exercises and quantifying cyber risk.
Co-Founder & CEO, Fourthline
Krik is the co-founder and CEO of Fourthline. Fourthline is a technology company that offers a range of compliance solutions for Europe and beyond, enabling Financial Service Providers and Companies to provide sleek experiences continuously, starting with KYC onboarding. After grammar school, Krik studied International Relations at the University of Groningen and after an internship at BCG he started his career at ABN-AMRO, where he worked for about six years, mainly in the M&A corner and eventually as a Vice-President of M&A advisory. After that he started his own Advisory boutique, IvyRoads, together with a co-founder, focusing partly on M&A and partly advising start ups, which he did for 7 years. In 2015, he joined fintech Safened. In 2017, he spearheaded Fourthline, a spin-off from Safened. Krik is 44 years old, is married, has 2 daughters and lives in Amsterdam.
Senior Managing Director, Accenture
Dr. Markus Hamprecht is Senior Managing Director at Accenture and heads Accenture’s Financial Services Business in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Russia. He oversees the business and strategy development of the overall project portfolio for Banking and Insurance Clients and holds responsibility for the operational delivery and management of large client projects. Markus has been working in consulting for over 20 years with deep experience in the areas of digitization, business transformation and innovation. His goal is to jointly with clients unlock potential in an industry which has been experiencing unprecedented market dynamics and changing customer behavior. Markus blogs regularly about industry trends and developments on LinkedIn and the Accenture Banken Blog.
Founder & CEO, 21 Finance
Max J. Heinzle holds an M.Sc. in Global Banking & Finance. He gained extensive capital market experience as an investment analyst at a leading VC firm and later as Head of Capital Markets of a CF firm. In 2015, he co-founded Mezzany (OneCrowd Securities GmbH), a pioneer in crowdinvesting in Germany with a transaction volume of more than EUR 100 million and over 90,000 registered users. In March 2017, he founded 21.finance AG.
Member of the Management Board, Head of Wholesale Banking, ING Germany
Eddy Henning joined ING Germany in August 2020 as Head of Wholesale Banking and has been a member of the Management Board since January 1, 2022. He is responsible for the bank's corporate banking business. Henning started his career at ING in Asia in 2018 and was responsible for corporate banking and structured finance business in the Asian region, among other things. Previously, he spent 28 years at Deutsche Bank AG, where he held various management positions in Germany and Asia. Eddy Henning studied at the Bankakademie, now the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. Before graduating with a degree in banking, he trained as a banker at Deutsche Bank AG
Senior Advisor, RolandBerger
Jörg Hessenmüller currently acts as Senior Advisor to the Strategy Consulting firm RolandBerger. Prior he served as Chief Operating Officer of Commerzbank where amongst other things he was responsible for Group Development & Strategy, Digital Transformation, and Information Technology. Prior to that, he was CFO and deputy CEO of Commerzbank subsidiary mBank in Poland. He began his career at Dresdner Bank in 1989 with a banking apprenticeship and worked in interest rate derivatives trading and treasury, before assuming management positions in the field of financial controlling. Jörg Hessenmüller is a graduate in business administration (FH) from the College of Banking in Frankfurt am Main with a focus on banking and finance.
CEO and Founder, Pile Capital
Jessica Holzbach is a serial fintech entrepreneur and CEO of Pile Capital, a Crypto-as-a-service company giving access to blockchain and Defi products for startups and neobanks, that raised 2.8m in a pre-seed venture capital round. Previously she co-founded Penta and served as its Chief Customer Officer on the Management Team for over 4.5 years since its inception to scale with over 30.000 customers, +150 employees, and more than a 70million in venture funding collected. Penta had one of the most successful German exits to its french competitor in 2021. She started her career by studying General Management before completing her Master in Finance. Jessica worked as a digital strategy consultant for banks and insurance companies. She founded her first company in 2016 and was honored by Forbes on the “30 under 30” list, Capital on “Top 40 under 40” and won the German Startup Award of 2021. Next to her company, she is advising fintechs, a seasoned speaker at startup and finance events, and Angel Investor in early-stage companies and funds.
Managing Director, Head of FIG DACH, Barclays
Sae-Won is a Managing Director at Barclays and heads the Financial Institutions Group (FIG) in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In her role at Barclays, Sae-Won is advising financial service institutions in the DACH region on M&A and capital markets transactions. Barclays has a longstanding tradition of supporting fintech companies globally to bring innovative solutions into the market. As the fintech sector expanded over the last years, Barclays has been increasingly helping fintech companies to achieve their growth ambitions. Sae-Won has been working in FIG Investment Banking for 18 years. Before joining Barclays in 2018, she worked at Citigroup and JPMorgan in Frankfurt and London. She holds a degree as Diplom-Ökonomin from the University of Witten/Herdecke.
Partner, McKinsey & Co
Reinhard Höll is a partner at McKinsey & Co, Germany. He focuses on financial services supporting payments specialists, fintechs, banks and private equity players across strategy, digital and organizational issues. He is a leader of McKinsey Payments & FinTech practice and has published across a number of banking and payment topics, incl. German banking, value creation in payments and PSD 2. Reinhard is a CFA Charterholder and worked previously at Commerzbank, Lehman Brothers and Standard Bank.
Global Head of ESG Solutions & Head of DACH, ESG Book
Matthias is acting as Global Head of ESG Solutions as well as Head of DACH region at ESG Book, a leading ESG data and technology firm based in Frankfurt. Previously, he was a Partner at Oliver Wyman in their financial services practice. His focus areas are sustainability and digital/SaaS business models
CEO & Co-founder, Silvr
Nima Karimi is an angel investor, serial entrepreneur, and tech mentor with 15 years of CTO and CEO experience. He founded and scaled 3 companies to date - the most recent one was Digital & You, a 150-strong software development agency sold in 2019. With his deep understanding of digital business fundamentals, Nima quickly saw the gaps in today's funding options for scaling e-commerce and SaaS businesses. In January 2020, he partnered with a three-time CTO Gregory Tappero to found Silvr, a neolending platform that provides equity-free and easy-to-access capital for digital businesses in Germany and France.
Senior Associate, Bird & Bird
Natallia Karniyevich is a senior associate in Bird & Bird’s Düsseldorf office specialising in IT security and data protection law. In the context of IT and cyber security, she particularly focuses on contractual issues and assists clients in understanding and implementing regulatory requirements. Natallia also advises German and international clients on IT projects and technology transactions, deals with issues in compliance as well as drafts and negotiates complex commercial contracts. Natallia’s clients are international IT and technology-driven companies, financial institutions, airlines and tech start-ups. She regularly publishes articles on current topics in the fields of cybersecurity and data protection.
Co-Founder & Managing Director, RIDE Capital
Product Manager Blockchain Solutions & Digital Currencies, Deutsche Bank
Manuel Klein is Product Manager for Blockchain Solutions and Digital Currencies at Deutsche Bank's corporate bank. He focusses on building products in payments and cash management for Deutsche Bank and its clients and is responsible for understanding developments of central bank digital currencies and the impact they have on the bank. Before joining Deutsche Bank, he was senior consultant in blockchain technology consulting for financial service providers at EY and asset management consultant at FactSet, a leading global financial data and analytics company. Manuel has been studying the future of money since 2015 with a focus on using blockchain technology in the traditional monetary system.
Co-Editor in Chief, Börsen-Zeitung
Lutz Knappmann, born 1977, is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Börsen-Zeitung in Frankfurt am Main since April 2021. Previously, he was Head of Digital and member of the editorial board of WirtschaftsWoche in Düsseldorf. From 2011 to the end of 2017, as Deputy Editor-in-Chief of SZ.de, he drove the digital transformation at Süddeutsche Zeitung in Munich, where as Head of Editorial Innovation he was responsible for building up new digital products. Lutz has grown up in Dortmund, studied journalism and trained at the German School of Journalism in Munich. He held positions at Abendzeitung and Börse Online in Munich, later as financial editor at manager-magazin.de in Hamburg, and as page-editor and media reporter at Financial Times Deutschland.
Member of European Parliament
Ondřej is a Czech Member of the European Parliament sitting in the Renew Europe Political Group. He is a member of the ECON Committee, and in that capacity is the Chairman of the Working Group for Access to Finance for SMEs. He also sits on two further committees - the TRAN committee and the LIBE committee. His portfolio extends from transport and tourism, to border management, research and the practical use of new technologies, for example those based on artificial intelligence, and broader access and use of digital finance for businesses and consumers. Ondřej is the Renew Europe spokesperson and the Group’s lead negotiator in the ECON Committee on the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation. He was also a Rapporteur on Digital Markets Act in the LIBE committee. In terms of legislation, his current principal area of focus is the digital world, particularly the increasing digitalisation of the economy, as it recovers from the Covid pandemic. In 2020 he was Rapporteur on the Parliament’s legislative initiative report giving Recommendations to the Commission on ‘Digital Finance: emerging risks in crypto-assets - regulatory and supervisory challenges in the area of financial services, institutions and markets’. He has also negotiated a number of pieces of legislation as part of building up Europe’s Capital Markets and moving towards a Capital Markets Union. Finally, he led the Parliament's work on a number of tax-related files, including elements of the new EU VAT regime, such as modernising e-Commerce rules that are part of a package of new VAT measures now coming into force across the EU.
Director, Cyber Incident Response Leader Germany, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Lorenz Kuhlee is a Director at PwC Deutschland GmbH in Frankfurt am Main and has more than 20 years of professional experience in the areas of Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR). He is responsible for all projects in this area as part of the Risk & Regulatory team. Regardless of the respective industry, Lorenz Kuhlee has advised both small and medium-sized companies as well as large corporations with regard to topics such as the defense against cyber attacks, IT forensic investigations as well as training courses on cyber security awareness.
Partner, Deloitte Digital
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.
Head Business Development, TOKENY
French citizen who has lived extensively abroad with 12 years of experience across innovative sectors.
Co-Founder & Managing Director, Sustaim
Peter Lange studied at WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management near Frankfurt in Germany. During his studies, he interned at Enpal GmbH, where he later worked as an External Associate for the marketing department. In his free time, he organised both virtual and physical blockchain related events for an alumni association he helped to set up. In February 2022, he co-founded Sustaim GmbH in order to help bring transparency to the quickly growing carbon credit market, raising the company's first funding round in the summer of 2022.
Head of Strategy & Sustainability, ING Germany
Jürgen von der Lehr is Head of Strategy and Business Development of ING. In this role he is responsible for ING’s strategy, M&A, innovation and sustainability activities. Jürgen has 20 years of experience in the Financial Services industry and has gained extensive digital skills as well as strategic and operational expertise in retail and corporate experience banking. Prior to his role at ING, Jürgen was Head of Digital Innovation and Head of Online Brokerage at Deutsche Bank and a Partner at Oliver Wyman. He has a degree in business administration from Mannheim University.
Senior Advisor, Accenture Metaverse Continuum Business Group
Dr. Ousmène Jacques Mandeng is a Senior Advisor and Lead of Economic and Financial Strategy to Accenture’s Metaverse Continuum Business Group. He co-leads Accenture’s campaign for the dissemination of central bank digital currencies and thought leadership on the wider implication of the digital transformation in payments and has had key roles in benchmark CBDC projects including Jura, E-Krona, Khokha 2,.mBridge. Previously, he worked more than 20 years holding senior positions in financial markets and at the International Monetary Fund. He has commented regularly on digital currencies and the international monetary system. He is a Visiting Fellow of the London School of Economics and Political Science, a Member of the Bretton Woods Committee and holds a PhD from the LSE.
Head of Division of Expertise on Documents and Identity Fraud, Police Nationale France
Didier is Master in Public Law, has a Bachelor in English, holds 35 years of police and diplomatic positions for France and EU. Chief Superintendant, Head of Division d'Expertise en Fraude Documentaire et à l'Identité (DEFDI) DCPAF, Coordinator of Horizontal Strategic Goal Document Fraud, EMPACT cycle 2022-2025, EUROPOL/FRONTEX/FRANCE. Coordinator of Document Fraud operational actions in the framework of EMPACT with EUROPOL and FONTEX, EU COM/FRANCE/CIVIPOL/UNIL LAUSANNE/MS/EUROPOL/FRONTEX Project coordinator PROFID, EU COM/FRANCE/CIVIPOL/UNIL LAUSANNE/MS/EUROPOL/FRONTEX/PARIS/BRUSELS/LOGNES/LAUSANNE Coordination of ISF Profid project. LEA restricted.
Chief Product Owner, Deedster
With a Master in Engineering Physics, Monika started her career as an actuarial analyst in P&C reinsurance. Then stepping into a financial IT as a consultant and business analyst for a few years before assuming management roles at a consulting firm and later with a product company, building and delivering financial trading solutions for the global capital markets. Monika was heading up the Professional Services for EMEA with 100 consultants in 7 locations in Europe with a turnover of around 24 MUSD
Chief Product Officer & Co-founder, iVE.ONE
Evgeny Matershev is a co-founder of iVE.ONE, a FinTech founded in Frankfurt in 2017 that specializes in the tokenization of compliant crypto assets and the provision of regulated blockchain infrastructure. He is also a co-author of the Book "Sustainable Finance". In his role as Chief Product Officer, he is responsible for the development of digital products in the area of digital assets and blockchain infrastructure solutions and is a key driver in the ESG assessment of blockchains and crypto assets. Previously, he worked in the financial industry for more than 10 years with a focus on securities, banking and payments.
Associate Director, DZ Bank
Michael is Associate Director in the Innovation and Digitalization department at DZ BANK. He is responsible for several innovation initiatives and is working on strategic projects across DZ BANK Group. He oversees the trend and technology scouting of the German cooperative financial network and is building up a cross company innovation team. At his previous role at TeamBank Michael managed several fintech collaborations and supported the startup-phase of different new business models. He spent several years in academia researching the innovation and financing environment for sustainable ventures.
Senior Cyber Security Engineer, Hacknowledge
Global Head, AML & Sanctions, ABN AMRO Bank
Jaap joined ABN AMRO Bank as their Global Head, AML & Sanctions in April 2021. Prior to that he was with Standard Chartered Bank for a over seven years where he worked in the Financial Crime Surveillance (screening & monitoring) unit based out of London, and prior to that as Head of Retail Financial Crime Compliance based in Singapore. Jaap is now heading the Compliance AML-Sanctions team that provides 2nd line oversight and advice to the first line. Prior to Standard Chartered, Jaap worked at ING Bank in various financial crime compliance capacities. All in all, Jaap has over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry, of which 15 years in the AML / CTF domain.
Board Member, Angel Investor
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.
CFO, RWE AG
After qualifying as Master in Mechanical Engineering at RWTH Aachen and Dartmouth College (USA), and Master in Business Administrations at RWTH Aachen, Michael Müller completed a PhD in Mechanical Engineering at RWTH Aachen. In 2000, he began his career, initially as a management consultant at McKinsey, and joined RWE five years later, in 2005. There he held positions at RWE Power and RWE Generation, where his responsibilities included power plant construction, procurement, asset management and delivery of a restructuring programme. In 2014, Müller took over as Head of Group Controlling at RWE. Two years later, he became Managing Director and CFO of the subsidiary RWE Supply & Trading. Since November 2020, Müller has been a member of the RWE Executive Board where, as CFO, he is responsible for Accounting, Finance & Credit Risk, Controlling & Risk Management, Investor Relations and Tax.
Founder and Managing Partner, embedded capital GmbH
Prior to founding embedded/capital Ramin founded finleap - the leading fintech ecosystem in Europe - in 2014 with the vision to reshape the future of financial services in Europe. finleap has built or invested in 15 ventures and developed more than 5 corporate JVs and service ventures that are now worth €3.0Bn+ Ramin was elected by Forbes Magazine among the Top 30 young shapers of finance in Europe (#30under30) and by Capital, Germany's leading business magazine, as “Junge Elite - top 40 unter 40” (“Young elite - Top 40 under 40”). Ramin shares his insight and know-how regularly as a speaker at top conferences in Europe.
Department Director, Strategy of Digital Currencies and Tokenized Assets, German Savings Banks Association
Meet Saul Nowotny, a finance and technology expert with over 8 years of experience in the industry. Saul has held various roles in his career including Investment Manager, Senior Manager, Vice President and most recently in the Strategy of Digital Currencies and Tokenized Assets at DSGV. He has extensive experience in startups, venture capital and distributed ledger technology. Saul has worked with reputable companies such as Deutsche Börse Group and PWC. Additionally, he is a seasoned entrepreneur, having founded and led his own companies. Saul holds a Master's degree in Finance from WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management. He is excited to share his knowledge and insights on the latest developments in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry at this conference.
Head of Product Asset Management, LPA
Proven expertise: - more than 25 years’ experience in financial industry - successful implementation of a growth strategy for Funds Administration in Germany - development of Funds Administration business and teams from 2 FTE to 60 FTE. Leading up to 160 FTE - Banking, Asset Management Companies (KVG), Funds Administration and client migrations - acting as manager in an international matrix organization - leading RfP team, client acquisition and retention - Listed Derivatives and Equity Trading Funds Administration Setup Funds Administration Services (Alternative Asset Funds/Securities Funds) in Germany. Led the setup of full Funds Administration service offer for Germany dedicated to Alternative Asset Funds and Securities Funds in Germany. Setup Funds Administration services with business processes for Funds Accounting, Accounts Payable and payment instructions, Investor and Regulatory Reporting, Tax and Investment Compliance. As Managing Director I led the strategic development of Funds Administration business in Germany. Implementation of efficiency measures like digitalization and automatization of processes for payment instructions and accounts payable. Product Development and additional experience In charge of setting up new services (e.g. Funds Administration) and further development of existing services. Main change drivers: Commercial requirements, regulatory framework and adaptations of existing services according to German market requirements. Deep expert knowledge in Banking, Asset Management Companies (KVG) and Asset Servicing with focus on Funds Administration, Custody, Settlement and Clearing services. Experience in leading Request for Proposal (RfP) team with strong commercial focus. Project experience (excerpt) - Implementation of AIFMD and KAGB with the setup of new asset classes (Closed Ended Funds) for Depositary Services (Project Lead) - Implementation of Listed Derivatives Clearing in Germany (Project Lead) - Implementation of German Investment Tax Act 2018 for Funds Administration in Germany and Luxembourg (Project Sponsor) - Setup all market connectivity’s for Clearing Services in Germany (Project Lead)
Head of Digitalisation & Innovation, LBBW
Stephan A. Paxmann is Head of Digitalisation & Innovation at LBBW in Stuttgart and responsible for the Innovation Lab and the bank's strategic digital initiatives. Paxmann, born in 1970, held senior positions at Deutsche Bank AG in Frankfurt am Main and New York as well as at IMG St. Gallen as Head of the German-speaking advisory business. From 2007 to 2010 he was Director International Banking at Allianz SE in Munich and Paris as well as in Group Strategy at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt. In 2010, he founded TME AG, a consulting boutique for the digital transformation of banks and insurance companies in Frankfurt, of which he was CEO until 2022. Since his start at Hewlett-Packard in 1997, he has focused in particular on the topics of digitalisation and financial services.
Head Channels & Innovation, Bank Julius Baer
“The Head in the Cloud and the Feet on the Ground” Matthias Plattner, Head Channels & Innovation at Bank Julius Baer is an experienced Manager with 20 years+ of experience in Transformation in the Banking Industry. He holds an Executive Master in Business Engineering (University of St. Gallen) and has worked several years in Frankfurt and Singapore. This profound background enables him to “connect the dots” and thrive in the Technology and Innovation part of the banking industry. Besides his duties for Bank Julius Baer, he is a frequent speaker at Universities of Applied Sciences about “applied AI”. His personal tag line is “the Head in the Cloud and the Feet on the Ground” allowing him to combine both, foresight thinking with a strong and successful skill to create value through implementation.
Director of Strategy and Growth, Enfuce
Venla Pouru is the Director of Strategy and Growth at Enfuce. She is driving the company’s global expansion through opening new geographical markets and industry segments. In parallel, she is building Enfuce's sustainability business through the carbon footprint calculation service, My Carbon Action. Prior to joining Enfuce, Venla has worked 10 years in new business building, digital product management and top management consulting.
Managing Director Helaba Digital, Helaba
Matthias is an experienced management professional with a track record in building successful products, developing high-performing teams, and designing organizational structures for scale. Having learned the ropes in marketing and operations functions at a Rocket Internet Company (Helpling), Matthias transitioned to Software as a Service and helped building out a suite of products for Veeva Systems in various product and operational leadership roles. Today, Matthias can be found on the financing side of things as the Managing Director of the corporate venture capital arm of the Helaba (Helaba Digital).
Product Owner Digital Assets Custody & Strategy, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale
Andreas Sack (*1983) has been with DekaBank, the asset manager of the german savings banks, since October 2010. Since 2020, he has been responsible for setting up the digital assets infrastructure at DekaBank, which includes the financial services of crypto custody, crypto securities registry and potential tokenized products that require a license. Prior to DekaBank, after graduating with a degree in industrial engineering, he worked as a consultant in a medium-sized management consultancy.
Head of Sustainable Investment Office, Metzler Asset Management
Daniel Sailer joined Metzler Asset Management in 2019 and is heading the Sustainable Investment Office. Mr. Sailer develops, coordinates and ensures the implementation and execution of Metzler Asset Management's holistic ESG strategy. One of his main responsibilities is providing advisory services to institutional investors by creating and implementing customized sustainability strategies. Prior to joining Metzler, he spent nine years at MSCI Inc. in Frankfurt/Main, Germany. From 2014 to 2019, he was responsible for expanding ESG research in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and CEE - most recently in a leadership position. Prior to that, Mr. Sailer was responsible for growing and further developing MSCI's client relationships in Germany, Austria and Scandinavia. From 2007 to 2010, Mr. Sailer worked as a sales manager in the Derivatives Sales & Marketing division at Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg in Stuttgart, Germany. From 2004 to 2007, he worked for Landesbank Baden-Württemberg while studying part-time at the State University Baden-Wuerttemberg Mosbach and the Open University of London. Mr. Sailer holds a master’s degree (German Diplom-Betriebswirt [BA]) and a Bachelor of Arts in business administration.
Head of Blockchain Center, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management
Prof. Dr. Philipp Sandner is head of the Blockchain Center at Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. He was ranked as a “Top 30” economist by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and belongs to the “Top 40 under 40”,a ranking by Capital (German business magazine). Philipp´s expertise includes blockchain and distributed ledger technology, crypto assets, Euro-on-Ledger, ICOs, security tokens, digital transformation and entrepreneurship. He is member of the Fintech Council (FinTechRat) of the Federal Ministry of Finance and also engaged in the EU Blockchain Observatory. He is founding member of the German Blockchain Association, the International Token Standardization Association and the Multichain Asset Managers Association.
Professor of Finance, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management
Zacharias is Professor of Finance at Frankfurt School of Finance & Management and works on sustainable finance, ESG, and climate finance. He is an Associate Editor at the Review of Financial Studies, and a Regular Research Visitor at the ECB. In February 2019, he was ranked #2 in Germany among professors in business administration (#1 in finance) based on his A+ publications (age of 40 or below) by Forschungsmonitoring.org. One of his articles was ranked among the top 3 most cited articles over last 5 years in the Journal of Finance (May 2021). His research has been cited more than 4000 times according to Google Scholar and was downloaded 60,000+ times on SSRN. His expertise is cited in newspapers such as Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times or Die Zeit, and his climate finance research by IMF, ECB, European Commission, or the ESRB. Zacharias has won various awards for his research, refereeing, and teaching.
Adviser, European Central Bank
Jürgen Schaaf has been Advisor to the Senior Management of Market Infrastructure and Payments at the European Central Bank since November 2019. He is currently focusing on central bank digital currencies and retail payments strategies. Before that, he was Counsellor to the Executive Board of the ECB (Dec 2012 - October 2019) and Secretary of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) Project Team Dec 2012 – Dec 2013). Before he joined the ECB, he was Personal Adviser to the Governor of Banque centrale du Luxembourg. In previous occupations he worked ECB watcher at Börsen-Zeitung, a German financial daily, and as Senior Economist at Deutsche Bank. He studied economics in Marburg and Canterbury/Kent (United Kingdom) and holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Phillips University Marburg.
Managing Director, 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).
Partner, EMEIA Financial Services, Ernst & Young
Christopher Schmitz is a Partner in EY EMEIA Financial Services, leading the Transaction, Strategy & Execution team in Germany. He is also the EY Fintech Lead Germany. He joined Ernst & Young in 2011 and is based in Frankfurt. Christopher Schmitz has more than 20 years of experience in strategy consulting and transaction advisory in Financial Services, including Booz & Company, Deutsche Bank and IBM. Christopher leads the EY German Fintech and Insurtech practice, working with start-ups, corporates and investors in digital platform and ecosystem building Christopher is the EY member in the Tech Quartier Steering Committee (Frankfurt based Fintech ecosystem), EY’s representative in the Cologne based Insurlab Insurtech ecosystem and leads the EY Startup Academy. He has deep expertise in strategy and organisation for service operations (payments, FX, securities processing, credit processing, cards issuing/acquiring/ POS network operations, PSPs) as well as in IT application development and IT operations, core banking and migrations. Christopher Schmitz frequently publishes and holds conference speeches on digital ecosystems in Financial Services.
Head of Digital Assets, Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe
Simon Seiter is heading the newly created Digital Assets division at Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe and responsible for the development of all digital asset initiatives and products including crypto ManCo Hauck Aufhäuser Innovative Capital and the crypto custodian Hauck Aufhäuser Digital Custody as daughter companies. Previously, he was in the same role as Head of Digital Assets at Deutsche Börse AG, where he was responsible for building infrastructure for digital assets based on blockchain technology, and before at Commerzbank, where he worked on blockchain projects with industrial and financial partners such as Siemens, BASF, Continental and KfW, including the issuance of the first blockchain-based security in Germany and the first digital euro of a commercial bank in Europe. For years, he has also been advising a number of international blockchain committees, including the World Economic Forum, the German Banking Association and Global Digital Finance.
Head of Operations Germany, Coinbase
Director of Entrepreneurship, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management and CEO Accelerator Frankfurt
Ram Shoham is to Fintechs what George Martin was to the Beatles. He connects growing companies with strategic partners. He is the Founder of Accelerator Frankfurt with over 20 years of international corporate experience in finance and general management before becoming an entrepreneur. Ram is currently the Director of Entrepreneurship at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management where he founded there the Entrepreneurship Centre for students and alumni. He learned from his pro-surfing career the importance of surrounding himself with passionate people and being in the right place at the right time. Ram has excellent network contacts in Tel Aviv, the actual tech community hotspot in Israel.
Partner, Financial Services Consulting, KPMG
Jens Siebert, is a Partner at KPMG and member of the Management Consulting Practice for the Financial Services Industry. He is an expert in the transformation of business and operating models of banks, asset managers and market infrastructure providers. He also leads the DLT practice in the banking division of KPMG Germany. Jens is a trusted partner of banks on strategic, operational and regulatory issues in corporate banking as well as securities and capital markets business. One of his consulting focuses is on building DLT-based business models (including DLT securities, custody, registry management) and their operational implementation. As an expert, he has accompanied major legislative processes for DLT-based financial services on a national and European level and contributed his experience as an expert in the Finance Committee of the German Bundestag and in dialogues with federal ministries and regulatory authorities. Before joining KPMG, Jens Siebert was responsible for the development of a pan-European financing platform for SMEs as Co-Founder and COO and built DLT-based business models together with banks and regulated market participants.
CEO, 2° Investing Initiative / Theia Finance Labs
Dr. Lea Maria Siering is the Executive Director of the 2° Investing Initiative (2DII) - an independent, non-profit think tank whose goal is to align financial markets and regulations with the goals of the Paris Agreement. 2DII coordinates some of the world's largest research projects on sustainable finance. She is also a supervisory board member, a member of the Digital Finance Forum (DFF) at the BMF and on the board of the European Fintech Association as well as Bitkom in the area of digital banking and fintech. Previously, she was CRO at finleap connect, a licensed payment service provider, where she was responsible for compliance, information security, legal, esp. supervisory law, data protection, money laundering and public affairs. With 15 years of experience in the financial sector, she also worked as a partner at the international law firm Taylor Wessing in the area of Regulatory/Capital Markets and as General Counsel at the Berlin based fintech CrossLend. She is the author of numerous publications, in particular on regulatory topics or related to digitalization, and co-edits the journal "Recht Digital", published by Beck Verlag. She is a particular advocate for diverse corporate governance and is committed to sustainability and a higher proportion of women in finance. She is still admitted to the bar as lawyer.
Head of TIBER Cyber Team, Deutsche Bundesbank
Miriam Sinn heads the German TIBER Cyber Team at the Deutsche Bundesbank. The TIBER Cyber Team is the German single point of contact for companies wishing to undertake a TIBER-DE exercise. TIBER-DE tests mimic the tactics, techniques and procedures of real-life attackers, based on bespoke threat intelligence. TIBER-DE tests are an innovative regulatory tool which brings regulotars and market participants together in an environment based on trust and cooperation. Its aim is to increase the cyber posture of key financial entities in Germany thereby strengthening financial stability of the system as a whole.
Founder & CEO, Sygno
Sjoerd Slot is the Founder and CEO of Sygno, provider of Automated model generation for Transaction Monitoring systems based on good behavior. Prior to starting Sygno Sjoerd spearheaded the Financial Crime Control teams of both Capgemini Consulting and later Capco, focusing on compliance (AML/CTF/WLF/KYC) and fraud management strategies within Financial Institutions.
Secretary General, European Digital Finance Association
Maria is the Secretary General of the Digital European Digital Finance Association, a trade association of the European national fintech associations, which she helped found in 2020. She is based in Brussels working towards the creation of a Pan-European digital finance ecosystem, collaborating for better financial services. Since 2010 Maria held several executive positions with focus on digital and public policies, including the work as Executive Director at the Czech Fintech Association and Deputy Executive Director at the Aspen Institute Central Europe. A graduate in political sciences and European studies in Polan and Germany, Maria previously also worked in Brussels for the Council of the EU and at the Association for International Affairs.
Head of Listing, Euronext Amsterdam
René joined Euronext Amsterdam in 2017 as Head of Business Development for Small & Mid-Caps, before being appointed Head of Listing early 2018. He is also board member of Euronext Amsterdam. His experience before joining Euronext spanned over more than two decades through different commercial roles at ABN AMRO and Rabobank, in Treasury & Risk Advisory, Cash Equities and Equity Capital Markets. As Rabobank’s Head of Syndicate he was responsible for the development of their corporate access services. Before joining Euronext in 2017 he was leading the marketing & communications team of Rabobank Wholesale and part of the management team for RI Communications. René attended the Hotel Management School in Maastricht and followed several business and management related business courses.
Former CEO & CPO of Nuri (ex Bitwala)
Kristina has over 13 years of digital experience and has been the CEO and CPO of Nuri, formerly called Bitwala. Before starting her roles at Nuri, she worked at German unicorns N26 and Zalando during their hyper-growth stages, where she led product teams for customer-facing mainstream products. Kristina has extensive career experience and knowledge in building up mobile strategies and creating innovative mobile solutions for major clients in the retail, television, NGO and automotive industries.
Deputy Mayor, City of Frankfurt
Stephanie Wüst, born 1989, studied Sociology and Political Sciences with focus on structures of power and governance at the Goethe University Frankfurt. She started her professional career as a policy advisor of a business association in Frankfurt. In 2019 she joined the Association of Hessen Entrepreneurs (VhU), acting as policy advisor for transportation and logistics. Her political career started in 2013 when joining the Frankfurt county chapter of the FDP (Liberal Democratic Party). From 2015 to 2017 she was Chairperson of Young Liberals of Frankfurt. In 2016 she was elected as Spokesperson for Economic and Women’s Affairs in the Frankfurt City Parliament. In September 2021 Stephanie Wüst was appointed Deputy Mayor, Head of the Department of Economy, Legal Affairs and Reform.
Connecting Europe’s Digital Finance Ecosystem.