Meet the speakers who shared their perspectives and insights.
Head Taskforce Sustainable Finance, Swiss Federal Department of Finance
Christoph Baumann is head of the taskforce sustainable finance at the State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF). In this role, he leads the Swiss government's sustainable finance activities, ranging from representations in international organisations to the management of domestic regulatory projects. Before joining SIF, he worked in executive positions at financial institutions and fintechs. He studied economics in Zurich, international law in London, and is both a CFA and FRM chartholder.
Vice-President of the European Parliament
Nicola Beer is the Vice-President and Member of the European Parliament. Furthermore, Ms Beer is deputy federal chairperson of the FDP Party. From 2017 - 2019 she was Member of the Deutsche Bundestag (German Parliament) and General Secretary of her party from 2013 to 2019.
Previously, Nicola Beer served as a member of the Hessian State Parliament (1999). From 2012 to 2014, Ms Beer was Hessian Minister for Education and Culture as well as State Secretary for European Affairs in the Hessian State Ministry of Justice (2009 and 2012). From 2003 to 2008 Ms Beer was parliamentary Director of the FDP Group and in from 2008 to 20019 Deputy Chair of the FDP Group. Prior to joining the state legislature, Beer was City Councilor (1997-1999) and Deputy City Council Chairwoman in Frankfurt am Main (1999). Nicola Beer joined the FDP Party in 1991; her Constituency is Frankfurt am Main.
Nicola Beer is an independent lawyer. After completing a bilingual German-French High School diploma, she studied law at the Goethe University Frankfurt and graduated as bank clerk
Partner, Global ESG Practice Lead, Capco
Dr. Olaf Clemens is a Partner within the Digital Financial Services competency at Capco's Frankfurt office and Global Lead for the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practice. Olaf is focused on supporting clients in driving transformation and business change in the banking and financial services industry. As Global ESG Lead, he has played a central role in shaping Capco’s ESG offering to advise and assist financial institutions and other organizations as they embrace sustainable finance and a net-zero future. With 17 years of experience in the banking and financial services sector, Olaf was formerly Chief of Staff to the CEO of Deutsche Bank. Originally trained as an auditor at a Big Four accounting firm, Olaf has extensive first-hand experience of corporate restructuring programs and has led complex projects and multi-national teams to successfully deliver sustainable solutions. His key competencies in the financial services span are in Finance & Accounting, Risk Management, Internal Control Systems, Corporate Governance and Regulatory Requirements, including ESG related rules and regulation. Olaf holds a doctorate in finance from Goethe University, Frankfurt.
President, Melanion Capital
Jad Comair is the President of Melanion Capital, a French asset manager he founded in 2012. Melanion Capital manages strategies with a strong quantitative and derivatives expertise. Initially specialized in Dividend Futures, MelCap rapidly developed into other derivative expertise like volatility trading, systematic trading or dispersion. In 2020, Melanion Capital expanded its activities into Digital Assets. Melanion is the issuer of the world's first Bitcoin thematic UCITS ETF and through its sister company, Melanion Digital, the first Bitcoin SPAC.the issuer of BTC FP, the 1st European Bitcoin thematic UCITS ETF. Prior to founding Melanion Capital, Jad Comair spent 10 years at Societe Generale as Managing Director in the Equity Derivatives department. Jad Comair is the founder of the Melanion Foundation, an NGO aiming to raise money for scholarships
Managing Director Financial Institutions Group, Goldman Sachs
Stephen is a managing director in the Financial Institutions Group within the Investment Banking Division. He focuses on banks, insurers, alternative asset managers and financial technology companies. Stephen joined Goldman Sachs in 2006 as an associate and was named managing director in 2013. Prior to joining the firm, Stephen qualified as a chartered accountant and also worked as an equity analyst covering the financial institutions sector. Stephen earned a BSc (Hons) in Physics from Durham University.
Chief Investment Officer, EFIC1 European FinTech IPO Company 1
26+ years professional experience in financial services and law. Currently Chief Investment Officer of EFIC1, one of the first European SPACs focused on European FinTechs, listed in Amsterdam, having raised ~€380m in March 2021. Former: Founder and CEO of Barclays Ventures; Group Head of Strategy at Barclays; Investment Banker; Chancery Barrister. Extensive experience as early and growth-stage mentor, adviser and investor. Track-record of identifying, incubating and scaling disruptive strategies and data/technology-led business models. Advisory board member to the Masters in Law & Finance Course at Oxford University and also provides support to Conception X, a venture builder programme helping create early stage deep-tech start-ups in leading universities.
Head of BaaS Partnerships, Starling Bank
Elaine Deehan is Country Manager of Ireland and Head of BaaS Partnerships for Starling International. After a career in traditional institutions including Citi and AIB, Elaine had the opportunity to dive into the startup and fintech world. In 2015, she joined CurrencyFair, the world’s first online peer to peer, foreign exchange provider, before founding pocketwire, a mobile youth account. In 2019, Elaine joined Starling to lead its entry to the Irish market offering its award-winning personal and current accounts to Irish consumers and small businesses. In 2020, Starling announced the launch of its Banking as a Service platform for Europe, which Elaine heads up. With Starling's API, any brand can create their own financial products with a simple integration.
Partner & Leader, PwC Legal Switzerland
Dr. Guenther Dobrauz-Saldapenna, MBA Lawyer, VC Investor, Circular Economy Believer, Disruption Disciple, Author and Exponential Technologies Enthusiast. A Partner at PwC Zurich and Leader of PwC Legal Switzerland he and his team are building the law firm of the future. Every day. He also is one of seven members of PwC’s Global Legal Leadership Team directing the firm’s 4000+ lawyers in 90+ countries. Prior to this he was a successful Venture Capitalist, served as in-house counsel at an international hedge fund and practised in court and with a leading business law firm. Guenther holds a PhD in law from Johannes Kepler University (Austria), an MBA from the University of Strathclyde (Scotland) and has completed Executive Education programs at Harvard Business School, Harvard Law School, Singularity University and IMD. He is the author of 10 books mostly on investment law and regulation but also of "Making Money out of Technology" (2003), "Uptake Revisited: How Innovative Products succeed in International Markets" (2007) and "New Suits. Appetite for Disruption in the Legal World" (2019). He has also published 100+ articles in expert magazines and been invited to speak at 200+ conferences all around the world. He strongly believes in circular economy and that exponential technologies will help our move towards decentralisation and is privately invested and actively involved in numerous ventures via exelixis capital and lectures at various universities.
CEO & Founder, Cashlink
Michael Duttlinger is co-founder and CEO of Cashlink, one of Europe's leading Tokenization-as-a-Service solutions. In his role as CEO, Duttlinger orchestrates the various divisions of the company and drives the vision of using tokenization to simplify access to capital and thus promote as many innovations as possible. As an experienced entrepreneur, Michael Duttlinger has previously built up a payment service for SMEs and has dealt intensively with regulatory requirements of the financial market. Duttlinger speaks as an expert on the use of distributed ledger technology in the financial sector and is in constant dialogue with government institutions on this topic.
Founding Partner, FDF Conferences
Corinna Egerer is a Founding Partner of FDF Conferences, the organiser of the Frankfurt Digital Finance conference. She has more than 15 years of experience in the targeted contentual development and design of business events as well as the presentation of events for various industries, mostly fintech and finance. After years of working in the area of communications and events for various international companies from finance and industry, she attends to a variety of businesses and institutions today. In addition, she is a member of the alumni board of the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.
Data Scientist, SVA System Vertrieb Alexander
Dr. Daniel Ehnes is an Economist and Data Scientist at SVA, one of Germany’s leading system integrators that focuses on providing modern, high-quality hard- and software solutions. Daniel is currently working on data-driven and scalable solutions for customers in finance and in the public sector. He is passionate about natural language processing (NLP) models and focuses in particular on providing solutions for German language problems and integrating NLP in finance contexts. Before joining SVA in August 2021, he worked as a research associate at the department of management and microeconomics at Goethe University, where he received his PhD in economics investigating topics at the intersection of innovation, human resource management, and finance.
CEO, Kontist
Benjamin Esser is Co-CEO at Kontist and former CEO and Founder of Urbanara, a leading DTC brand in the Home & Living space. Besides, he worked in executive positions at Fanatics, Myfab, CVA and Bain & Company. At Kontist, Benjamin works closely with Founder and Co-CEO Christopher Plantener and is responsible for strategy, marketing, finance, and business development.
Senior Partner, Leader Banking Practice in Germany and Austria, McKinsey & Company
Max is a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company where he leads the Banking practice in Germany/Austria and co-leads the European Fintech practice. Max serves clients on strategy, mergers & acquisitions, and business building. He has published extensively on banking, startups, and M&A. In a previous life, Max was an economist who earned his Ph.D. at Stanford University before returning to Europe in 2010.
CEO, Solarisbank AG
Dr. Roland Folz is Chief Executive Officer of Solarisbank AG (since February 2017). Roland has over 25 years of experience in the banking and financial services sector, with additional senior management expertise in the mobility and telecoms industries. He joined Solarisbank from Deutsche Bank, where he spent almost eight years in various regional and global CFO responsibilities. Prior to Deutsche Bank he held executive roles within the T-Com/T-Home division for Deutsche Telekom AG and was CEO of DaimlerChrysler Bank AG. As Co-CEO of Direkt Anlage Bank AG, Roland expanded Germanys first discount broker into 6 European countries, eventually taking the company public in 1999.
Global Head of Sales, RepRisk
Antonio joined RepRisk in 2020 as Head of Sales. He is responsible for the firm’s global strategic sales activities and leading a global Team of senior ESG advisors. Before joining RepRisk, Antonio worked with the two global Swiss banks, UBS and Credit Suisse, for more than 20 years. At UBS, he managed High Net Worth Individuals in the Latin American Market before taking over the responsibilities as Branch Manager of Pfaffikon SZ and Einsiedeln in the Wealth Management department. In 2010, Antonio joined Credit Suisse in the International External Asset Managers department, where he developed and set up Private Label Funds. He later became Market Head in the Swiss Wealth Management department, pioneering Social Responsible Investing by establishing the first Sustainability Desk for Wealth Management clients in Switzerland. Antonio holds a Federal Bank Clerk Diploma, a Federal Vocational Baccalaureate, and is a Certified Wealth Management Advisor CWMA. He is currently completing a degree in Sustainable Finance from the University of Zurich.
Professor of Finance, SAFE Leibniz Institute and CFS Goethe University
Prof. Dr. Andreas Hackethal is a Professor of Finance at Goethe University in Frankfurt and heads the Household Finance group at the Leibniz Institute for Financial Market Research. His empirical research is on individual investment behavior, the role of financial advice, investor protection and on digitalization in finance. He is a member of the advisory council to the German Financial Supervisory Authority BAFIN, of the Exchange Experts Commission (advising the German Federal Ministry of Finance), of the working group consulting ESMA’s Financial Innovation Standing Committee and of the supervisory board of Frankfurt’s Fintech center Techquartier.com. Andreas serves on the supervisory boards of two tech firms.
Founding Partner, M.D., Signature Ventures
Juliane Hahn is the Founding Partner of Signature Ventures, a blockchain-dedicated early stage Venture Capital fund. Together with her team she invests in solutions that build the backbone of the digital world of tomorrow: an open, secure and privacy-centered internet. Before founding Signature Ventures, Juliane has advised major companies in the Blockchain space and has built out and headed two venture capital branches of stock listed corporations. She had started her career as an attorney at an international transaction law firm, when she discovered her passion about shaping the future and investing in next generation tech companies. Besides being a partner at Signature Ventures, Juliane is an active business angel and holds advisory board positions in tech startups and BAND, the umbrella business angel network in Germany. She co-founded and supports projects that bring more diversity to the Venture Capital sector. Her focus there is on supporting and mentoring female founders and investors.
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.
Associate, CommerzVentures
Lorenz is Associate at CommerzVentures, an early stage venture capital fund. CommerzVentures focuses on fintech and invested early in companies like Marqeta, eToro, Mambu and Bought By Many. CommerzVentures mainly invests at Series A and Series B, across EU, US and Israel (and in Africa more recently). Prior to CommerzVentures, Lorenz worked in management consulting in the financial services vertical and co-founded an internet startup.
COO, CrossLend
Marco is CrossLend’s COO with a proven track record as a serial entrepreneur. With over 25 years of experience, Marco has overseen the foundation and sustainable development of several successful companies, among them IT service providers for data centre outsourcing, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) for Dax and TecDax companies, a pioneering credit card payment gateway and a global events registration, management and payment processing platform, employing custom, in-house developed software solutions.
General Partner, embedded capital
General Partner embedded/capital and Managing Director finleap; 20 years of experience in Venture Capital and M&A business; Board Director at Solarisbank, Penta, Elinvar, Pair Finance (selection); former MD at Holtzbrinck Digital and Digital Science; started @ Siemens: 6 years across Siemens Venture Capital, Siemens Mobile and Corporate Finance; TU Munich Executive MBA
Founding Partner, FDF Conferences
Max Hunzinger is a Founding Partner of FDF Conferences, the organiser of the Frankfurt Digital Finance conference. He specializes in developing and designing top-level event concepts. For 20 years, he has been the managing director of MIT Event- & Incentive-Management GmbH (Frankfurt/Main), working around the world for clients from finance and industry. In addition, he is involved in local politics and is serving as a Honorary Consul General and as coordinator of the Hessian Consular Corps.
Managing Director & Chief Financial Officer, N26
Jan Kemper joined N26 in 2021 as Chief Financial Officer. In his role, Jan oversees The Mobile Bank’s Finance, Tax and Accounting divisions, to accelerate the company’s journey towards profitable growth and capital market readiness with the aim of becoming the bank that 100 million people around the world love to use. Jan joins N26 from Berlin-based travel scale-up Omio Corp., where in his role as Managing Director, he built out the company’s governance model and its operational backbone, completed the acquisition of Rome2Rio, and organized a US$100M funding round in the midst of a global pandemic. Prior to that, Jan was Group CFO at German DAX 30-listed entertainment company ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE, where he oversaw a strict efficiency program, refinanced a €3bn credit facility and led the formation of the Unicorn NuCom Group through a series of M&A deals. Before that, Jan was CFO at Zalando SE, where he led the company’s successful €526m IPO in 2014. A veteran of Berlin’s vibrant tech ecosystem and a passionate start-up investor himself, Jan brings two decades of experience in dynamic, high-growth environments, as well as a solid background in complex capital market transactions such as M&A and IPOs. He holds a PhD in Business Administration and Economics from RWTH Aachen University, where he continues to teach as a lecturer and Assistant Professor for the institution’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group. He is an active triathlete and loves to play the piano (whenever time and family allows).
Co-Owner and Editor, Finanz-Szene
Since 2019: Co-Owner, Managing Director and Editor of Finanz-Szene.de - a German Daily Banking & Fintech Newsletter founded by Heinz-Roger Dohms in 2017 with 39.000 Subscribers. Before that: Various editorial and reporting positions at Handelsblatt Publishing Group (2002-2008), Financial Times Deutschland (2009-2012) and Capital Magazine (2014-2018) Christian has graduated with a masters degree from University Mannheim in Political Science and German in 2001.
CEO & Founder, DFV Deutsche Familienversicherung
Dr. iur. Stefan M. Knoll is an entrepreneur, officer in the German Armed Forces, publicist and artist with over thirty years of leadership experience. He is founder and CEO of the listed DFV Deutsche Familienversicherung AG, colonel of the Reserve and author of several books and professional articles.
Co-Founder and CEO, coindex GmbH
Co-Founder & CEO of coindex. Passionate about #investing, #finances, #defi, #bitcoin, #crypto, #fintech and #startups. I am an analytical-creative no-bullshit entrepreneur with an outgoing, open mindset and dedicated execution focus - currently building the first regulated German platform for passive savings in DeFi / crypto coindex. The vision of coindex is to make professional investment in bitcoin & co. available to everyone in the most simple, transparent and reliable way. coindex will become to DeFi what the MSCI World ETF was to traditional investment.
Partner, International Co-Lead Financial Services Regulatory, DLA Piper
Dennis Kunschke, International Co-Lead Financial Services Regulatory at DLA Piper, has vast experience in financial supervisory law. His particular focus is on banking supervisory and investment law/asset management as well as the FinTech / Crypto sector. In addition, he covers the Eurozone law of monetary policy and central banks as well as payment services law. Dennis Kunschke jointly leads the Fund and Market Regulation Committee of the German Alternative Investments Association (BAI). In addition, he is lecturer for the “Digital Legal Officer” course at the University of Liechtenstein and represents DLA Piper in the German asset management association Bundesverband Investment und Asset Management e.V. (BVI), in working groups of the digital industry body Global Digital Finance (GDF), as well as in the International Token Standardization Association (ITSA). He occasionally lectures at the George Washington University, regularly publishes on latest legal developments and is the Co-Managing Editor of the upcoming 2nd edition the German FinTech handbook: https://www.esv.info/978-3-503-20688-9.
CEO & Founder, Inyova Impact Investing
Before founding Inyova, Tillmann worked for more than 6 years at the strategy consultancy McKinsey & Company. In addition, Tillmann was CFO of Benefiit, a network of impact investors and is founding director of the Sustainability-in-Business-Lab of ETH Zurich. He holds a PhD from ETH Zürich and studied mathematics and computer science at the universities of Heidelberg and Santiago de Chile.
Oliver is a veteran in the banking and insurance industry. He started his career at McKinsey where he specialized in credit risk management and Solvency II economic capital calculation. In 2006/2007 he was part of the turnaround team at Converium reinsurance. He is co-founder of more than 10 fintech and insurtech startups. In the last 2 years Oliver has been working for wefox, first as CEO for ONE Insurance, wefox’s risk carrier. From June 2020 he was responsible for all wefox operations including the distribution and koble businesses. Oliver is very close to the European fintech and insurtech scene and supports many CEOs with their fundings and exits.
CEO, portagon
Johannes Laub is the founder of portagon, a software provider for digital financing. With a SaaS solution, portagon offers companies of all sizes access to capital: easily, quickly and legally secure. More than 280 customers have so far raised over EUR 220 million of capital using portagon's software. Among them are numerous customers in the field of sustainability, e.g. ecoligo, Africa GreenTec, frankly.green and enyway. “The shift to a more sustainable society and economy is leading to significant financing needs. For this, we need to tap the private capital market, to which portagon offers reliable access.” Johannes Laub started his career in 2006 at Dekabank. In 2011, he founded LeihDeinerStadtGeld.de, one of the first providers of crowdfinancing in the field of municipal finance, and in 2013, LeihDeinerUmweltGeld.de, the counterpart for sustainable financing. In 2015, he founded portagon (formerly CrowdDesk) with Jamal El Mallouki. At portagon, Johannes primarly covers all financing and sales-related matters.
Head of Strategy & Business Development, ING Deutschland
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 (Diplom-Kaufmann) from Mannheim University.
Chief Technology, Data and Innovation Officer, Member of the Management Board, Deutsche Bank
Bernd Leukert joined Deutsche Bank in September 2019 with responsibility for Technology, Data and Innovation, and became a member of the Deutsche Bank Management Board on January 1, 2020. Prior to joining the bank, Bernd worked at SAP, where he started in 1994 as a software developer. During his career, Bernd has held various management positions in application development and technology development. In 2014, he was named to SAP’s Executive Board, with development, delivery and business responsibility for the entire product portfolio. Bernd holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration with a Technical Background from the University of Karlsruhe. Outside of his role at Deutsche Bank, he is also a member of the Supervisory Board of DWS Group GmbH & Co. KGaA and Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA.
Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Enfuce
Monika Liikamaa is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Nordic payment service provider Enfuce. Monika’s visionary thinking and her over 20 years of experience in the fast-paced payment industry, has enabled Enfuce to integrate services for its customers in record time. Building sustainable solutions is a core value of the company and this is made possible thanks to Monika’s wide knowledge of the industry. Monika believes wholeheartedly that a business is nothing without a great team of people, and that’s why she has joined forces with industry experts as co-founders and employees.
Chairman, Business Angels FrankfurtRheinMain
Andreas Lukic is founder and managing director of ValueNet-Capital-Partners GmbH, Frankfurt/Munich, a family office investment and advisory firm. He was previously with Bain (London, Munich) in the Private Equity Group and started his career with Mitchell Madison Group (New York, Frankfurt) in investment advisory. He is member of several mid-cap supervisory and advisory boards and serving as Chairman of the Business Angels FrankfurtRheinMain e.V. and other startup/investor community building associations, like AIinFS e.V., as well as initiator of the German Fintech Award.
SC Ventures at Standard Chartered
Alex Manson heads SC Ventures at Standard Chartered, a business unit established in March 2018 to drive Innovation in banking, by investing in fintechs and building ventures that explore new business models, wholly or partially owned by the Group. Alex is a banking industry veteran, who was previously the Global Head of Transaction Banking for Standard Chartered, between 2014 and 2018. In this role, he transformed the business into a sustainable and growing franchise, drove innovation in the Bank’s core processes and its approach to clients, and spearheaded the “Banking the ecosystem” approach. Alex began his career with Standard Chartered in 2012 as Group Head, Wholesale Banking Geographies. Prior to Standard Chartered, Alex was at Deutsche Bank for 12 years, taking on roles such as Global Head of Lending and Corporate Banking Coverage, before which he was at Credit Suisse for 8 years. His career has spanned product and client coverage across fixed income origination & structuring, as well as investment banking advisory & capital raising. His career has spanned the globe and he has worked across New York, London, Frankfurt, Zurich, Hong-Kong and Singapore.
Director-General, Blockchain & Climate Institute (BCI)
The Blockchain & Climate Institut (BCI) is a think tank supporting governments in the deployment of blockchain and emerging digital technologies to achieve climate change policy goals. Alastair is listed as the world’s Top 50 “ESG ones to Watch” by the ESG Foundation in 2021. He is an expert member of the ISO 14097 climate-related disclosure standard for financial institutions working group and a UK representative on ISO 22739 blockchain and distributed ledger technologies standard (use case, smart contract and governance) working groups; and ISO/TC322(TAG1) Sustainable Finance standard advisory group. In the UK, Alastair serves as an ad hoc Expert Advisor to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Blockchain. Alastair is a seasoned climate change and innovation policy advisor in the field of international development. Seeing the dire need to accelerate global efforts to fill the current climate finance gap, Alastair co-founded the BCI composing over 80 experts from 30 countries. The group has produced the world's first book on blockchain and climate change issues - "Transforming Climate Finance & Green Investment with Blockchains" released in July 2018. Alastair is a recognised speaker and strategist of a series of innovation projects that apply blockchain to achieving SDGs, including renewable energy, green finance and disaster risk insurance, etc. His forthcoming law reference book is entitled, “Governing Carbon Markets with Distributed Ledger Technology”.
CEO, BlueOrchard
Philipp Mueller is Chief Executive Officer of BlueOrchard. As CEO, he leads the executive and extended management team and has executive oversight of the firm’s client and business areas, including strategy and resource management. Prior to that, Philipp held the position of Head Investment Solutions, heading the Global Investment Committee, and overseeing the portfolio management and asset allocation of all funds and mandates. Philipp joined BlueOrchard in 2018 from Partners Group, where he worked for ten years in Switzerland and the UK, most recently as Senior Vice President of Investment Solutions. Philipp holds an MBA from ETH Zurich and a Master’s degree in Law from the University of Zurich. About BlueOrchard: BlueOrchard was founded in 2001, by initiative of the UN, as the first commercial manager of microfinance debt investments worldwide. Since then, the company has evolved into a leading global impact investment manager, connecting millions of entrepreneurs in emerging and frontier markets with investors. As a professional investment manager and expert in innovative blended finance mandates, BlueOrchard is a trusted partner of leading global development finance institutions and is a member of the Schroders Group.
CEO and Founder, bunq
Ali Niknam (1981), born in Canada but from Iranian descent, set up his first company when he was just 16 years old. In his early twenties he founded TransIP, the biggest domain name and web hosting provider of the Netherlands. In 2012 he set out to change the banking industry radically and founded bunq.
Financial Services and Technology Developer Relationship Lead EMEA @NVIDIA and Gaia-x project FAIC Lead
Jochen has spent the last 15 years in various roles on the topic of AI in Financial Services, as a thought leader, implementer, researcher, and ecosystem shaper. He is a financial data scientist and received his degree and Ph.D. from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). As a consultant, entrepreneur, and researcher he worked with well-known asset managers, banks, insurance companies, and central banks.
He is a manager at NVIDIA and works with partners, communities, and developers in financial services in Europe and also in some global teams. Dr. Jochen Papenbrock is a board member of the EU Horizon 2020 project ‘FIN-TECH’, specialty chief co-editor (Co) at Frontiers ‘AI in Finance’, and project leader in GAIA-X.
He has published on AI and quantitative finance in Journal of Financial Data Science, Journal of Investment Strategies, Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Quantitative Finance, Applied Financial Economics, Frontiers Journal of AI in Finance, and Journal of Network Theory in Finance.
Managing Director, Opus 1a
Carola Theresia Paschola is an international General Manager with a passion for technologies. She worked in senior management positions for blue chip companies like American Express, Dell, Vivendi, The LEK Partnership and Domestic & General Insurance Plc. Her key competencies span general management, sales leadership and strategy in regulated industries. She currently runs her own consulting company, Opus1a, and sits on the boards of Melanion Digital, Coherence Digital, the Blockchain & Climate Institute and the Harvard Club Rhein Main. Carola is an alumna of the Harvard Business School, the Technical University Darmstadt and the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management.
CEO, Penta
Markus is Penta’s CEO and a proven expert in digital business models and platform economy. Markus has 20 years of experience in developing and implementing business and innovation strategies and has been responsible for a variety of product innovations in his career. Prior to joining Penta, Markus worked in various management positions for Deutsche Bank AG, most recently as a member of the Executive Board of DB Privat- und Firmenkundenbank and as Chief Digital Officer. He started his career at McKinsey Company.
Head of Banking & Partner Strategy and Execution, Traxpay
Kate is Passionate about transformation through digitalization and innovation. She started her banking career in NYC at Bank of New York, later moving to Germany as Senior Credit Officer and Geschäftsleiterin. Kate joined Chase Bank AG/JPMC to head Treasury Services Sales and later moved to ABN AMRO as Global Transactions Services Head for Germany. Four years later she moved to Amsterdam for ABN Amro to create and lead Global Implementation Management, later becoming Head of Global Compliance for GTS, IT, & Operations. In 2008 Kate returned to Frankfurt for Citigroup assuming the role of GTS Head for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. She joined ING Bank Germany 5+ years later to head Transaction Services and in 2016 became Head of Payments Innovation for Germany and Austria. In July 2018, Kate left the banking arena to work as a Freelance Consultant and Advisor to fintechs, banks, & corporations, supporting their quest to become more efficient and effective in financial services. In 2021, Kate joined the Frankfurt-based fintech, Traxpay, as Head of Banking & Partner Strategy and Execution. She also facilitates the Euro Banking Association’s Open Forum and works with The Core Leadership Institute, to help professionals find their leadership purpose. Kate loves to podcast, interviewing key players in the area of technology, together with Steven Batiste for Digital Dump.
Chief Executive Director of Asset-Management, BaFin
Dr Thorsten Pötzsch is a member of the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) Executive Board since 2018. At present, he is the Chief Exekutive Director of Securities Supervision. Dr Pötzsch is also member of the Board of Supervisors of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and member of the Board of International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO). Prior to his current position, Dr Pötzsch, who holds a doctorate degree in law, was Chief Executive Director of the Resolution Directorate at BaFin for 4 years. Prior to joining the Executive Board of BaFin, Dr Pötzsch held, beneath others, long-term executive-level positions at the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Federal Chancellery.
Partner, Ernst & Young
Dr. Jan Rosam is a Partner in the Technology Consulting Department at EY's EMEIA Financial Services Office and is leading the Banking & Capital Markets Team in Germany. Furthermore, he is the IBOR Transition & Brexit Leader for Consulting at EY Germany. Jan has more than 15 years of experience in the Consulting business with respect to Capital Markets, Treasury, Clearing and Custodians. Prior to joining EY in 2015, he has worked for LPA and CAPCO within several projects for a variety of financial institutions. Due to that, he acquired a profound expertise in, among others, clearing, collateral management, xVA, front / back office processes and risk management and is known as a Subject Matter Expert for those topics within EY. Furthermore he is a capital markets and treasury expert for derivatives, securities, FX, equity, repo / lending and distribution of these products as well as for regulatory requirements (especially MiFiD II, Basel III, EMIR & GL44 requirements). Jan frequently publishes articles and holds conference speeches on topics such as the IBOR Transition, Quantum Computing and Blockchain.
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.
Co-Founder, 360X
Young entrepreneur and co-founder of 360X. Former crypto product lead at Eurex with a special focus on crypto derivatives and institutional crypto custody. Professionally involved in crypto and blockchain since 2016, personally since 2013. Internationally exposed, previously based in Hong Kong, Singapore, London and Frankfurt. Studied mathematician. 360X: Co-founded 360X, funded and backed by Deutsche Börse and Commerzbank. Responsible for products and new verticals among many other topics as expected in an early-stage startup. Contributing with a combination of crypto and blockchain tech, emerging markets and financial market infrastructure know-how. Eurex / Deutsche Börse: Product-lead in Eurex cryptocurrency initiatives. Crypto derivatives, institutional crypto custody, product development, project management. Extended trading hours of Eurex derivatives from 14 to 21 hours into the APAC region. Based in: Hong Kong, Singapore and London. Other: Former market integrity working group member at GDF, speak 4 languages, code (Java, Python), startup mentor, gamer
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 and the EY EMEIA SaT Innovation Leader. 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.
Deputy Chairman & COO, ING Deutschland
Dr. Joachim von Schorlemer has been a member of ING Germany's Management Board since January 1, 2016. He was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Management Board on October 1, 2020. Until December 31, 2021, he was responsible for the Wholesale Banking in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. As of January 1, 2022, Joachim von Schorlemer assumed the role of Chief Operations Officer on an interim basis. With a doctorate in business administration, he started his career at J.P. Morgan and spent many years in leading positions at Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, BNP Paribas and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Senior Industry Executive, Microsoft
Oliver Schwarz is Senior Industry Executive for the German banking market at Microsoft. He is responsible for business development with a focus on digitalization and our customers' business agenda, leveraging the partner ecosystem. Previously, he led the banking business at Microsoft in Germany as Head of Sales for the Banking Unit. Prior to that, he worked at Hewlett Packard in a senior role for strategic banking customers. At Cap Gemini, he was a member of the Executive Board and Head of Business Development responsible for the outsourcing business in the Central and Eastern Europe region. Oliver holds a Master's degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Applied Sciences Giessen/Friedberg. He also holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from Gutenberg University in Mainz and a PhD in Management and Economics from the University of Economics in Bratislava.
CEO & Co-Founder, HAWK:AI
Tobias Schweiger is co-founder and CEO of Hawk AI. Prior to co-founding Hawk AI with Wolfgang Berner in 2018, he was Vice President Operations at ACI Worldwide's SaaS unit and before that CFO/COO at PAY.ON AG, which was sold to ACI for $200 million in 2015. Tobias' previous positions include Senior Vice President Finance Operations at ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE and Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. He started his career in product management and engineering at mobile operator Telefonica O2.
Managing Director and Co-Founder, TechQuartier
Dr. Sebastian Schäfer, Managing Director and Co-Founder of TechQuartier, is a behavioural economist and innovation enthusiast. He is also a pioneering entrepreneur, lecturer and speaks multiple languages fluently. Sebastian’s disruptive approach to business began when he was the head of Goethe University’s business incubator and research fellow at the management and microeconomics department. At present, he is developing new business models and building Europe’s new digital infrastructure. Sebastian is associated with the Centre for Leadership and Behaviour in Organizations and the Frankfurt Laboratory for Experimental Economics at Goethe University, is involved as a mentor and juror, and speaks on start-up event stages around the globe.
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 also the Co-Founder of the Blockchain Labs, which is focused on building an ecosystem for promoting blockchain technologies and education in this sector. 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.
Sales Director DACH, Mambu
Oliver has more than 20 years experience in the financial services industry and has held various senior roles across banking and software sales with major industry players in Frankfurt/M, London and Singapore. Since entering the fintech sector, he has developed a strong passion for delivering modern banking experiences. Currently, Oliver is responsible for the execution of Mambu’s commercial strategy in the DACH region.
Global Head Financial Services, Senior Partner, Roland Berger
Dr. Markus Strietzel has been working as a Partner in Roland Berger’s Financial Services practice since 2014. He initially joined the company in 1998, but left in 2009 to set up his own consulting firm, which he sold in 2012. He advises financial services clients with a focus on strategic realignment, new business models, organizational optimization, regulatory issues and transformation processes. Markus studied business economics at the University of Münster in Germany and holds a PhD from the European Business School in Oestrich-Winkel, Germany.
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.
Board Member, Caiz Holding AG
Michael Wild is Board Member of Caiz Holding AG where he advices the company on regulatory and compliance matters. In addition to that Michael acts as Senior Director Europe for one of the biggest crypto exchanges in the world, where he leads the D-A-CH business and regulatory engagement towards the domestic regulators. Before that time Michael did set up the German entity for an israeli unicorn in Frankfurt and also worked for KPMG where he was responsible for introducing new technologies to the German market and advised FinTechs on acquiring BaFin licenses. Michael is a strategist in Blockchain and digital odentity products and had been involved in multiple regulatory projects with different parties rolling out completely new products to the German market and driving the comms towards the regulators.
Founder and Co-CEO, Banxware
Miriam Wohlfarth is a serial fintech founder and founded one of the first fintechs in Germany with the payment service provider Ratepay. With her latest company Banxware, she revolutionizes the lending sector and enables platforms to offer banking products. As a passionate founder, Miriam is committed to the startup ecosystem, cooperation between business and politics, and digital education through various advisory boards and initiatives. Among others, she is chair of the BMWi's Young Digital Economic Advisory Board, a shareholder in Startup Teens, a columnist for Wirtschaftswoche, and a supervisory board member at Talentsconnect AG.
Member of the Executive Board, Deutsche Bundesbank
Prof. Dr. Joachim Wuermeling took office as a member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank on November 1, 2016. He is responsible for the Directorates General Banking and Financial Supervision, Information Technology and Risk Control. Prior to taking on his current position, Mr. Wuermeling, who has a PhD in Law, held a variety of executive-level posts in the financial and insurance industries as well as in politics. From 2011 until his departure for the Bundesbank, Mr. Wuermeling was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association of Sparda-Banken in Frankfurt am Main. Prior to that, he was a member of the Executive Board of the German Insurance Association for around three years. From 2005 to 2008, Mr. Wuermeling was State Secretary for European affairs at the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology, where he was also responsible for coordinating European policy matters. Prior to this, he was a member of the European Parliament (CSU) from 1999 to 2005.
Deputy Mayor
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.
Chief Product Officer, Raisin Bank
Dominik Zühlke is Chief Product Officer at Raisin Bank, Raisin DS's own service bank. In this position, he leads product and project management and builds the product, project and tech organisation of Raisin Bank. His goal is to enable his teams to sustainably deliver and maintain customer first products for start-ups and financial service providers by rigorously following a value driven approach.
Dominik has previously worked at Raisin DS for more than seven years as Product Manager. His last position at Raisin Gmbh was Director Product until 2019. He is an experienced Product- and Project Manager with a professional background in software engineering.
Connecting Europe’s Digital Finance Ecosystem.
