Program Advisors and Influencers

Chris Larsen is Executive Chairman, co-founder, and former CEO of Ripple, an enterprise blockchain company with more than 450 employees based in San Francisco, with eight additional offices (New York, London, Mumbai, Singapore, Washington D.C., São Paulo, Reykjavík, and Dubai).

Ripple is building next-generation cross-border payment technology using blockchain and digital assets to provide instant, extremely low-cost, reliable cross-border payments.

Professor David Mills has a distinguished career in law and investments. He is a Professor of Practice of Law at Stanford Law School. He is the founder and the first Director of the Stanford Law School clinical program, which provides legal services to people who cannot afford traditional representation.

Professor Mills is also the co-chair of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, America's premiere legal organization fighting for racial justice. It is a leadership position he has held for more than 10 years. Professor Mills has had a lifelong dedication to social justice issues. Three years ago, he received the Thurgood Marshall Lifetime Achievement Award. Professor Mills has also had a lengthy legal career representing a range of well-known white-collar crime defendants as well as driving the strategy for a number of well-known investment firms in various civil and regulatory matters. In addition, he has had a successful career in the business and investment realm. He is currently a partner at Fortress Investment Group and advisor to its Chairman and a partner at Divco West (a real estate investment and development firm) and other high-profile investment-related organizations.

Professor Mills graduated Rutgers Law School in 1973 magna cum laude. Following law school, he joined the law firm of Lowenstein, Sandler, where he eventually became a senior tax partner. He was also Adjunct Professor of Law at Rutgers University, Chairman of the Partnership Tax Section of the American Bar Association, and Chairman of the Tax Section of the New Jersey Bar Association. In 1986, Professor Mills moved to Los Angeles to work at Cambrent Financial Group, in association with the firm of Victor, Sandler, and Cogut. In 1988, he founded Mills & Lynn Enterprises for the purpose of undertaking personal financial transactions. He still holds that position, but the name has changed to Mills Family Enterprises. In 1991, he became the Chief Executive and sole shareholder of Harbourton General Corporation, the general partner of Harbourton Holdings, LP. He resigned from Harbourton in 2016.

Prior to law school, Professor Mills went to Rutgers University, where he graduated in 1969. Following graduation from the university, Professor Mills undertook Rabbinical Studies, first at the Jewish Theological Seminary and then at the Reconstructionist Rabbical College in Jerusalem. He resides in the San Francisco Bay area.

Siavash Alamouti is the Executive Chairman of the Board at mimik. He was the EVP of R&D at Wells Fargo from March 2020 until December 2021. Prior to that, he was the President & CEO of mimik from January 2014 until January 2020. Prior to mimik he was the Group R&D Director for Vodafone in London, UK where he managed R&D, corporate venture and IPR for the entire group. Before Vodafone, he was an Intel Fellow and CTO of The Mobile Wireless Group in Santa Clara, California. Prior to Intel he was the CTO at the start-up company Vivato (the first smart antenna Wi-Fi company) and before Vivato, he worked in various capacities at Cadence Design Systems, AT&T Wireless, and MPR Teltech.

He has been awarded the prestigious 2022 Marconi Prize in recognition of his contribution to global wireless device accessibility. The outspoken innovator, who is most well known as the inventor of the Alamouti Code, adopted in almost all wireless standards globally and included in billions of wireless devices. He has dedicated his career to developing and promoting technologies that enhance people’s lives. He has received more than 20.000 citations for his scientific work and has received multiple industry awards. Siavash’s 1998 paper in IEEE JSAC Publication was selected by IEEE Communication Society for publication in, “The Best of the Best: Fifty Years of Communications and Networking Research.”

Siavash has been the leading champion for ground-breaking and highly impactful technologies such as Hybrid Edge Cloud, OFDM/MIMO, 4G, 5G cellular communications, WiFi and WiGig. He has contributed extensively to global telecommunication and internet standards, and has participated in lobbying for spectrum reform globally. Since 2014, he has been focused on edge cloud computing, cloud decentralisation and open internet. Siavash has a reputation for passionately pushing the industry to new limits of the technology for the benefit of mankind.

Siavash received B.A.Sc and the M.A.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, in 1989 and 1991, respectively.

Alison Davis is Chairman and Managing Partner of Blockchain Coinvestors, the leading blockchain venture fund of funds with investments in 400+ blockchain companies and projects and approximately 50% of all blockchain unicorns. She is an experienced corporate executive, public company board director, active investor in growth companies, and bestselling author on the topics of technology and innovation. She is currently serving as a Managing Partner of Blockchain Coinvestors Acquisition Corp. 1 (SPAC).

Alison is currently a non-executive director of Silicon Valley Bank, Fiserv, Janus Henderson Group, Collibra, and Pacaso. She is the chairman of the Advisory Board for Blockchain Capital and an advisor to Bitwise.

She is a former director of RBS, City National Bank, Diamond Foods, First Data Corporation, Ooma, Unisys, Xoom, and many private companies and was the Chairman of LECG until its sale in 2011. Alison is a frequent speaker on corporate governance.

Alison was previously the Managing Partner of Belvedere Capital, a regulated bank holding company and private equity firm focused on investing in U.S. banks and financial services firms, where she worked closely with the Federal Reserve, the OCC, the FDIC, and various state banking regulators. Prior to this, Alison was the Chief Financial Officer of Barclays Global Investors (now BlackRock), the world's largest institutional investment firm, with more than $1.5 trillion of assets under management. Earlier in her career, Alison spent 14 years as a strategy consultant and advisor to Fortune 500 CEOs, boards, and executive teams with McKinsey & Company, and as a practice leader with A.T. Kearney, where she built and led the global Financial Services Practice. She is a bestselling author (The Intelligent Investor: Silicon Valley, Blockchain Competitive Advantage, Corporate Innovation in the Fifth Era, and Build your Fortune in the Fifth Era).

Alison is active in the community, supporting nonprofits and social enterprises as a board director, fundraiser, and volunteer. She has been frequently named a "Most Influential Women in Business" by the San Francisco Business Times. She received a B.A. Honors and a master's degree in Economics from Cambridge University in England, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business after completing the first year at Harvard. She was born in Sheffield, England, is now a dual U.S./UK citizen, and has lived for the last 25 years in the San Francisco Bay area, where she raised her family with her husband, Matthew C. Le Merle.

Matthew Le Merle is co-founder and Managing Partner of Fifth Era and of Keiretsu Capital, the most active early-stage venture investors backing almost 200 companies a year. Matthew is a manager of Blockchain Coinvestors, the world's leading blockchain venture fund of funds. He is also Chairman of CAH and Securitize (Europe), Vice Chairman of sFOX, and an advisor at Warburg Pincus.

Blockchain Coinvestors has a strategy of being an investor in the leading blockchain venture firms including 1Confirmation, 1kx, Blockchain.com Ventures, Blockchain Capital, Castle Island, Digital Currency Group, Fabric, Future\Perfect, IDEO, and Pantera.

Matthew is an advisor and/or investor at a number of blockchain projects, including BitBull, Bitwise, Codex, Hadron, Liquineq, and Spark.

Matthew's career has spanned being a global strategy advisor, professional services firm leader, corporate operating executive, private equity and venture capital investor, and board director. He spent 21 years as a strategy, operations, and corporate finance advisor with McKinsey & Company, and as a practice leader with A.T. Kearney and Monitor Group, where he led both firms' West Coast practices, and at Booz & Company. He was also a corporate executive at Gap Inc., where he was SVP strategy and corporate development and SVP global marketing.

Matthew is an adjunct professor at Singularity University, bestselling author (Blockchain Competitive Advantage, Corporate Innovation in the Fifth Era, Build your Fortune in the Fifth Era, and Second Chance), and keynote speaker. He received a B.A. (Double First) and master's degree from Christ Church, Oxford, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He was born in London and is now a dual U.S./UK citizen and lives in San Francisco and London with his wife, Alison Davis. They have five adult children.

Stephen MacKenzie is Managing Director at Koch Disruptive Technologies and former chief counsel at Koch Companies Public Sector, both based in Wichita, Kansas. Koch Disruptive Technologies is Koch's early-stage investment group, where Steve leads the investment strategy in blockchain, crypto, and Web3 technologies. Prior to this new role, Steve served as Acting General Counsel for several of Koch's emerging businesses in the software, robotic actuation, and industrial analytics space.

In addition, Steve acted as IP M&A counsel for Koch Disruptive Technologies. Prior to his chief counsel role, he served in various capacities as intellectual property and litigation counsel for a number of Koch Industries' companies. Prior to joining Koch, Steve worked in private practice as a patent litigation attorney in Wilmington, Delaware. Before attending law school, Steve was an applications engineer at W. L. Gore & Associates in the Fuel Cell group. He received his J.D. from the University of New Hampshire School of Law in 2005 and his Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware in 1999.

Fay Arjomandi is the Founder, CEO and Board Member of the pioneering edge cloud company mimik. From 2016-2018, she was the executive chairman of H2 Wellness, a software company based in Los Angeles. Between Aug 2014 to Oct 2016, she was the CEO of digital health company NantMobile and led its Augmented reality platform (iD), several digital/genomics health initiatives, and WiGig fabless semiconductor company, Tensorcom. Prior to NantMobile, Fay was the CEO of Vodafone xone which was the innovation brand for Vodafone. She oversaw partnerships with startup companies to develop, test and prepare for commercial deployment in Vodafone’s global markets. Additionally, her role included managing Vodafone Ventures, board membership of Vodafone Americas Enterprise and President & Chair position at Vodafone Americas Foundation. Prior to Vodafone, Fay was the co-founder and CEO of three technology startups that built location-based services (L3 Technology), mobile quality of service improvement platform (Mobidia), and mimik.

As a pragmatic technology innovator, Fay has authored many patents in Telecommunications, Transport Layer Protocols, Mobile traffic management, QoS, and Edge Cloud Computing. Fay has a unique talent for spotting future trends and “connecting the dots.”

In 2022 she received the Canadian Top 20 Tech Titans Award and in 2020, she was named the Edge Woman of the year by the Linux Foundation. In 2018 she was the Alumni of the Year at Concordia University in Montreal where she received her bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. In 2014, she was named as one of the most influential woman business leaders in Silicon Valley by San Francisco Business Week, and in 2006, received the distinguished Business in Vancouver’s “Top 40 Under 40? award. She is a member of the Forbes Technology Council and advises many startup companies and is a Board Advisor to American Tower the global provider of wireless communications infrastructure.

Fay is passionate about digital inclusion and equity and has spent the last decade to create disruptive technology platforms and enablers for cloud decentralization to ensure a future sustainable internet. She has advised startup companies on how to build successful businesses, as well as corporations on digital transformation and innovation with impact. In addition to exceptional leadership and vision, Fay is a highly sought-after global speaker and industry thought leader given her specialization and years of experience in digital communications, software applications and edge cloud computing. Fay holds a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Concordia University. She has international experience and has lived and worked in many countries in North America, Europe, and the Middle East.

Lord (JD) Waverley is an independent member of the House of Lords, entering the United Kingdom Parliament in 1993. He contributes regularly to proceedings on international issues, addressing many challenging issues of the day.

He sits as vice chair to the Fintech & Blockchain All-Party Parliamentary Groups. Key activities undertaken at these groups range from improving financial inclusion to the potential applications of transformative technologies such as blockchain and enabling a sound regulatory framework to underpin the United Kingdom to become a world leader in fintech. Lord Waverley is also the founder of SUPPLYFINDER.COM, a platform that is focused on providing a trade ecosystem platform to all emerging markets, with a range of services in both the public and key private sector space.

Lord Waverley has received state decorations from Colombia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, been honoured with a Yoruba Chieftaincy in Nigeria, and is the recipient of the CEO Club BURJ award as Ambassador for British Business.

Rebecca Macieira-Kaufmann is a seasoned CEO with broad leadership experience in sales, marketing, risk management, operations, and international business. She draws on deep expertise in the Fortune 50 financial services industry and has a demonstrated track record of leading highly successful business turnarounds, scaling new businesses, and expanding operations globally. Rebecca spent more than 11 years at Citigroup serving in a range of CEO, President, and general manager roles. Before Citi, Rebecca spent 13 years at Wells Fargo as the Head of the Small Business Segment, Executive and Senior Vice President, and director roles. From operations to sales and marketing, Rebecca was able to transform these businesses—she simplified operations, digitized the customer experience, improved the financials, and grew them exponentially.

Rebecca founded RMK Group, LLC, in 2020 to advise startup businesses, CEOs, C-Suite members, and teams on how to exceed their potential and thrive, develop high-performing teams, and simultaneously deliver on growth and execution targets.

She also brings a strong background in governance through her corporate and nonprofit board experiences. Rebecca currently serves on corporate boards, including respectively as director of Blockchain Coinvestors Acquisition Corp I. and Flutterwave. She has more than 25 years of experience on nonprofit boards and currently serves on the board of governors of the San Francisco Symphony (audit and executive committees) and on the Senior Jewish Living Group Board.

Rebecca holds a BA in Semiotics from Brown University, an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and was a post-graduate Fulbright Scholar at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She is a frequently sought-after speaker on leadership and business transformation, life and work integration, and culture change. She has been recognized for her leadership and accomplishments, including being named an Influential Woman in the Bay Area Business by the San Francisco Business Times for 12 years and a Forever Influential Woman in 2014. She was named the 2010 Financial Woman of the Year by the Financial Women's Association of San Francisco, awarded with the 2007 Women Leading Change Award by the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, and honored with the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.

In 2021, Rebecca wrote FitCEO: Be The Leader of Your Life about achieving holistic health—at work, home, and play. With coauthor Lillian So, the book shares lessons learned over decades of leadership, fitness, transformation, and life to enable any reader ready for "immediate and imperfect action" to make small changes in habits that can manifest in lifelong change.

Kyle is Head of the EMEA Consumer and Digital Finance Legal Group. He is co-chair of the Structured Investment Products Committee, a member of the Deposit Pricing and Acquisition Subcommittee, and counsel to the Goldman Sachs International (GSI) Asset and Liability Committee and the GSI Bank Asset and Liability Committee. He is also co-chair of the Firmwide Black Network in Europe. Prior to moving to London, he worked in Treasury Legal in New York for four years. Kyle joined Goldman Sachs in 2006 as a Vice President and was named Managing Director in 2013.

Prior to joining the firm, Kyle worked in the capital markets and structured products practice groups of Davis, Polk & Wardwell, a law firm in New York City.

Kyle serves on the Board of Advisors for Washington University School of Law.

Kyle earned a BA in Finance from California State Polytechnic University Pomona in 1996 and a JD from Washington University Law School in 2001.

Jessi Brooks is the General Counsel at Ribbit Capital, a global investment firm focused on the intersection of financial services and technology.

Prior to joining Ribbit, Jessi was a national security prosecutor at the Department of Justice, focused on illicit use of cryptotate-actors. In this role, she helped develop early prosecution strategies for blockchain technology and advised other jurisdictions on how to pursue similar cases.

With this foundation, Jessi led the investigation into the dismantling of three terror finance cyber-enabled campaigns, including the disruption of the al-Qassam Brigades’ Bitcoin fundraising scheme, and al-Qaeda’s scheme to rely on Telegram and fake charities to launder cryptocurrency and raise illicit funds.

She also managed the start of the Bitfinex hack investigation as well as the DOJ's successful forfeiture of cryptocurrency from North Korean hackers and their Chinese co-conspirators. At the United States Attorney’s Office, Jessi spent a number of years prosecuting adult and child sexual abuse, homicide, and help develop the strategy for prosecuting “revenge porn” cases. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia and Stanford Law School.

Nick Hoffman is Chief Counsel – M&A and Venture Capital at Koch Industries. Nick serves as the primary legal counsel supporting Koch Disruptive Technologies, Koch’s early-stage venture and growth equity arm, along with the corporate venture groups of Koch’s operating companies. He also leads various mergers and acquisitions, investments, joint ventures and other transactions across the Koch companies and investment groups.

Prior to joining Koch, Nick was a partner in Stinson LLP’s Corporate Finance division, with practices focusing on M&A for public and private company clients, investments and public companies and securities. Before joining Stinson, he served in-house at Oracle Health (formerly Cerner), a global health technology company when it was a public company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange and clerked at the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District. He received his J.D. from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and his B.S. from Missouri State University.

Ben Bergsma is a Principal for Munich Re Ventures (MRV) where he focuses on Series Seed-B investments in the Insurtech and Healthtech verticals with check sizes ranging from $1M-$20M. He has led investments in Acko, At-Bay, Amplify Life, Stoik and others. Prior to MRV, Ben spent time as an investor at Samsung NEXT Ventures, Alpha Venture Partners, and as a founding member at JetBlue Ventures. Previously, he was the CEO & Founder of a mobile software startup focused on the travel sector. Ben holds degrees from Columbia Business School and Claremont McKenna College.

Hassan Parsa is a seasoned high-tech executive with a passion for technology innovation, strategy, and investment. Hassan has held leadership positions in Corporate Development, M&A and Venture Capital over the last 20 years at leading technology companies in Silicon Valley. He has created significant strategic value with more than 30 M&A transactions in excess of $5 billion in value and has deployed more than $500 million in strategic venture investments in mobility, cloud computing, security, and AI market segments. Hassan is currently a Limited Partner and Executive Advisor at Candou Ventures and Catapult Ventures.

Previously, Hassan was the global head of Corporate Development at Arm, the leading provider of AI and computing IP, and was responsible for fueling Arm’s strategic growth initiatives worldwide. He was the Chairman of Arm investment committee and held Board positions at Ambiq Micro (US), Arduino (Italy), Deeptech Labs (UK), Arm IoT fund (Taiwan) and Hopu Arm Innovation fund (China). Hassan has received an MBA degree with honors from Columbia University in New York City and has also earned a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Maryland.

Sanjay is Head of Americas and a member of the Group Executive Committee of Apex Group. Prior to joining Apex, Sanjay was President International and Head of Solution at Inveniam, a dominant player in the Digital Asset, providing the infrastructure for private assets and real-world assets.

Sanjay has more than 25 years of experience in senior “C’ level global leadership positions having served as Managing Director at Citi, BlackRock, State Street, Merrill Lynch, etc. He has been instrumental in the modernization of financial markets & transformation of various financial firms and has realized value of over ~$4bn to the bottom line.

Sanjay is a global expert and has executed innovative solutions in the areas of data and analytics, end to end investment trade life cycle, operational risk, business transformation and has managed and set up Shared Services globally. Sanjay has led transformation & disruption through innovation, leveraging leading edge solutions & technology that address business issues and in evolving / creating new business models & solutions. He has focused on the design and implementation of disruptive models and technologies to enhance organizational value.

Sanjay has been associated with developing the Capital Markets infrastructure in India for the last 25 years. In early 2009/ 2001 he worked closely with SEBI Chairman on developing the framework for RTGS and RTPS and the strategy to implement the dematerialization. Recently, he is working with a client who is in the Regulatory sandbox at GIFT city that is tokenizing the first Real Estate Asset that is being offered to the Non-Residents.

Sanjay has been a key player in transforming the industry in USA and has been Chairman of multiple industry committees, such as Bond Market Association, Asset Management Forum, Securities Industry Association, etc. transforming financial infrastructure and reducing risk on trade date. Sanjay, as Chairman of the Advisory Board, was instrumental in building OMGEO– a transformative financial industry utility. He has played an active and leadership role in shaping the Capital Markets infrastructure in India, USA, and Singapore.

Sanjay is an active angel investor / advisor to firms and late state startups where he provides innovative and disruptive solutions in health care, in fintech, cryptocurrency and blockchain. Sanjay is currently focused on creating an eco-system for startup and early-stage revenue companies, to realize their potential by appropriately positioning them in the Marketplace for growth at scale.

He is currently:

• Member of the Executive Committee and Head of Americas for Apex Global
• Chairman of New York Chapter of ICAI
• Director and Chairman of Audit Committee – Makara Strategic Acquisition Corp – USD 250MM Energy SPAC
• Director – DeFI Devs – a universal layer 2 Blockchain that facilitates interoperability across block chains and identity
• Ex Partner and Mentor at Princeton Growth Accelerator (PGA)

Mr. Walczak is a seasoned business development leader and entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience driving substantial revenue growth and creating innovative business strategies for top financial firms worldwide. Known for his visionary approach and ability to forge strategic partnerships, Mr. Walczak has consistently identified and captured long-term revenue-producing opportunities across diverse markets.

Throughout his career, Mr. Walczak has demonstrated a keen ability to build and scale successful teams, leveraging his expertise in sales, relationship management, and business strategy. His entrepreneurial spirit and leadership have enabled him to establish new lines of business, cultivate long-term alliances with key industry players, and develop first-rate, diversified teams that consistently exceed revenue objectives.

Mr. Walczak's career took off at Cantor Fitzgerald, where he was recruited from Tokyo Forex in Japan to spearhead the creation and management of a foreign exchange team in London. In this role, he managed all aspects of the start-up operation, including budget, staffing, technology coordination, telecommunications, and P&L management. His entrepreneurial drive led to the rapid establishment of a viable business, with more than 250 active accounts across Europe and Asia within five years.

After the 9/11 tragedy that profoundly impacted Cantor Fitzgerald, Mr. Walczak played a critical role in rebuilding the firm's equities team, helping restore it to a global powerhouse. Following his successful tenure at Cantor, he was introduced to tZERO, where he led business development efforts before embarking on his next venture in 2018 as Global Director of Business Development for Inveniam.

Mr. Walczak holds a BS/BA in Economics, History, and Speech Communication from the University of Denver. He is also an active advocate for environmental causes, serving as Treasurer for the Surfers Environmental Alliance.

Brandon Caruana is Tenet's Chief Executive Officer, responsible for leading the bank's strategic vision, fostering continuous innovation, and ensuring the bank's overall success. With a robust track record in the technology and financial sectors, Brandon has been pivotal in building Tenet into a product that clients love and trust.

He has designed, launched, and implemented numerous large-scale technology transformations for several financial services institutions, including major overhauls for legacy banking, insurance, brokerage, trust, and hedge fund businesses. Brandon is also a successful entrepreneur, having built and run multiple million-dollar organizations centered around helping clients leverage technology to better safeguard and deploy their financial capital.

Originally from Canada, Brandon is a long-time resident of the Cayman Islands, where government administrations and regulators have consistently sought his expertise for guidance on the ongoing evolution of the intersection of finance and technology.

Christopher Britton joined Lazard in 2019 and co-leads their North American Venture and Growth Banking business from Austin, Texas, advising tech-led fast-growing private companies on their capital raisings.

At Lazard, Christopher has advised on a wide range of transactions across sectors including Smart Pension (fintech), Tessian (cybersecurity), Congenica (health tech), Bulb Energy (consumer/energy), Zymergen (synthetic biology), LumiraDX (health tech), and SystemC (electronic health records) and has strong relationship with investors across the venture and growth asset class.

Prior to joining Lazard, Christopher was at Liberum Capital where he co-led the investment companies team and previously the health care team. He has experience advising on a range of corporate transactions including private fundraises, IPOs, and secondary transactions, including M&A on the Main Market and AIM and across several different sectors. Selected transactions include the IPOs of Glencore, Infinis, Merian Chrysalis, Game Digital, and Shield Therapeutics; secondary fundraises for Shaftesbury and Workspace; and block trades for Elliot Advisers and GI Partners.

Christopher graduated with a first from St John's College, Oxford, and is a qualified solicitor, having worked at global law firm Jones Day.

Nick Christian is the leader of Fintech and Specialty Finance nationally. He is responsible for helping SVB’s clients at various stages of their lifecycle. He works closely with CEOs, CFOs and venture capitalists to help facilitate the growth of the Fintech ecosystem by providing innovative financing solutions, banking solutions, industry insight and advice.

Nick started with SVB in 2008, and before working in his current role, he provided warehouse facilities to leading originators within Fintech. Nick was also previously responsible for SVB’s strategic capital group, which offered innovative financing solutions to high-growth technology companies.

Nick graduated with a Bachelor of Science in finance and management (with a minor in economics) from Northeastern University. Outside of work, Nick enjoys spending time with his wife, son and three dogs. Nick is an avid golfer and enjoys every opportunity to hit the golf course and play.

Kapil Chhibber is the Managing Director of Technology Partnership Development at Bank of America Corporation.

Prior to joining the bank, Kapil held roles in strategic planning and business development with Microsoft Corporation. During his tenure with Microsoft, he was a member of a team responsible for the long-term planning and strategic direction. In addition, he served as a founding member of Office Live, leading the development, planning and negotiation of partnerships across several online services.

He also held roles in venture capital / private equity with Portage Venture Partners and The Parthenon Group. He began his career as an investment banker.

Kapil was a recipient of the 40 Under 40 Award from the San Francisco Business Times in 2014. He currently serves as an executive committee member of the board of directors, and chair of the marketing committee for the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.

Kapil holds a Master of Business Administration degree in Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Finance and Marketing from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in Management Information Systems and Finance with Honors from the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona.

John Short serves as senior vice president, Technology Partnership Development (TPD) manager in Global Technology.

John focuses on Consumer, Small Business & Wealth Management technology, including digital identity, payments and digital client experience. As part of the TPD team, he is responsible for developing enterprisewide views of the bank’s strategic vendor and client relationships, and driving the firm’s technology and business strategy.

Since joining Bank of America in 2009, John has held multiple roles in GT&O as well as roles in Global Transaction Services, as a digital product manager, and in Small Business Deposits, as a product manager responsible for reporting and analytics.

He began his career at Verizon Communications as a business intelligence analyst for the FiOS fiber optic network project.

John received a Master of Business Administration degree from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing and commerce from the University of Virginia.

John lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Andrew Siegel is General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of Galaxy Digital, a digital asset and blockchain firm providing institutions, startups, and qualified individuals access to the crypto economy. Galaxy Digital's suite of financial services spans multiple synergistic business lines: trading, asset management, investment banking, mining, and ventures.

Andrew has more than 20 years of experience advising financial services firms on legal, regulatory, and compliance matters. Prior to Galaxy Digital, he served in a variety of legal and compliance roles at the global asset management and corporate advisory firm Perella Weinberg Partners, including as its General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, and Chief Regulatory Officer. Prior to joining Perella Weinberg, Andrew was General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of Stanfield Capital Partners LLC, an alternative asset manager based in New York. Prior to joining Stanfield, Andrew served in the law division of Morgan Stanley, initially advising its Investment Banking Department. Ultimately, he was the senior attorney responsible for advising Morgan Stanley Investment Management's alternative investment funds, including its private equity funds, venture capital funds, hedge funds, and fund of funds. Previously in his career, Andrew was a corporate attorney at Shearman & Sterling where he focused on public and private mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, and join ventures.

Andrew is admitted to the Bar of the State of New York and has been designated a Certified Regulatory and Compliance Professional by FINRA. He serves on the board of the Association for Digital Asset Markets. Andrew received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, magna cum laude, from Tufts University and a JD, summa cum laude, from Washington College of Law at American University, where he was an editor of The American University Law Review.

Sandip Wadje is Managing Director at BNP Paribas with focus on global oversight of Emerging Tech Risks topics covering cloud technology, artificial intelligence, digital assets and threat intelligence.

David is the Founding Partner of Lobby Capital. For more than 25 years, David has helped technology entrepreneurs build transformative businesses. Prior to founding Lobby Capital, he spent 20 years as a general partner at August Capital. David invests in a broad range of software companies, including enterprise application, infrastructure, and SaaS businesses (Splunk, Fastly, GitLab), financial technology companies (Bill.com, WePay, PayNearMe), and consumer services (Evite, Ebates, Popcorn).

David has spent the last two decades building technology communities – along with starting the first venture capital blog, VentureBlog, and the first venture capital podcast, VentureCast, David served as the Tech Curator for the TED Conference in Vancouver, co-created and hosted TEDxStanford, and founded and produces the Lobby Confrences. David received Deloitte’s Venture Capitalist of the Year award and has been honored by Forbes Magazine as a member of its Midas List of top Venture Capitalists.

David has an eclectic educational background. He received a BA from Stanford in Computer Music, a Masters of Philosophy in Criminology from Cambridge University, and a JD from Harvard Law School. He teaches courses in entrepreneurship and venture capital at Stanford Business School and Harvard Law School, and serves as a VC Partner at the Harvard Business School.

David lives in Palo Alto and Chelsea with his wife Pamela and their dog Teddy. He has four grown children. Along with serving on the board of GLAAD, a leading LGBTQ rights organization, David is a commissioner of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and is a member of the board of the Stanford Alumni Association.

Alka Gupta is a tech entrepreneur, venture investor, and former Fortune 500 exec with experience in digital transformation, fintech, identity, and marketplaces. She has been at the beginning of some of the most significant disruptions and platforms including blockchain, payments, ecommerce, mobile, and search at both early-stage and public companies. Alka has operated and built revenue in B2B and B2C market across more 10 countries in Asia, Europe, and Latin America, building an understanding of internationalization and localization success strategies and tactics.

She is a venture partner at Fin Capital, a $1.2 billion fintech B2B focused global fund. Previously, she was co-founder and President of GlobaliD, a venture-backed identity platform leveraging the blockchain. Prior, she was Head of Marketplaces strategy at eBay/PayPal (Nasdaq: EBAY) focused on new markets during a period of revenue growth from $9 billion to $16 billion. Earlier, Alka was at Norwest Ventures-funded Retrevo (Acq. BN), an ecommerce business focused on the consumer electronics buying experience, where she brought in first revenue and strategic partnerships as Head of Business Development. At Lycos (Nasdaq: LCOS; Acq.: TEF,) Alka led, as General Manager, a global suite of products during which time the company grew revenue from $50 million to $800 million over four years. Lycos was one of the first and fastest search engines to IPO. As VP of Corporate Development and Strategy, she led strategy, acquisitions, and eventually saw the company through the $12.5 billion acquisition by Telefonica.

Alka has a commitment to democratization of access and empowering populations via technology. She holds an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. (cum laude) from Case Western Reserve University. She is a board director at MoneyGram (Nasdaq: MGI, Compliance and Ethics Committee,) National Bank Holding Corporation (NYSE: NBHC, Audit and Risk Committee, Compensation Committee), Digital Frontiers (Vice Chair), and board advisor at Berkeley SkyDeck and Women in Identity. She is also a regular speaker on digital transformation, fintech, and blockchain. She also spends time as a mentor at Stanford's StartX and expert in residence at The Wharton School's Venture Lab.

Emmanuel is an accomplished investment professional with a wealth of experience in financial markets and blockchain technology.

Prior to joining Stake Capital, he led the fintech and blockchain VC practice in the US for early-stage investments at GSR Ventures.

Emmanuel's experience also extends to financial markets, where he previously co-led the systematic securitized team at Blackrock for over 5 years, a $2B-a-year gross revenue business covering passive and active mandates for retail and institutionals. He co-originated 2 IPOs in that space which have been foundational to fixed-income smart-beta investing. He subsequently founded and ran an enterprise fintech startup prior to joining the VC side of the ecosystem.

Emmanuel teaches Blockchain and Fintech at UC Berkeley and UC San Diego and is an advisor/mentor at UC Berkeley SkyDeck, a high-tech entrepreneurship startup accelerator and incubator program at UC Berkeley.

He holds two master degrees from Ecole Lyon in engineering, and from UC Berkeley in financial engineering.

Ken is a partner on the investment team at Electric Capital, focusing on Decentralized Finance, Crypto-enabled Games and Collectibles, and new classes of applications that uniquely leverage the properties of blockchain.

Ken is an experienced software engineer and product manager with a combined 15 years of experience leading teams and building products at VMware and Facebook.

Ken has a Masters in Computer Science from the University of British Columbia, and a Bachelors of Science and Engineering in Computer Science from Princeton University.

Nisa Amoils is Managing Partner at A100x Ventures where she, invests in early stage Blockchain/AI companies. She has been in VC for over 12 years and investing in AI/blockchain since 2016, with multiple unicorns and exits. She previously worked for Dragonfly Capital, Scout Ventures and used to practice securities and corporate law at Anderson Kill. She serves on Boards such as Wharton Entrepreneurship, Global Digital Assets and Crypto Association, GBBC, and public /private companies. She has been named top 50 women of web 3, Business Insider’s Women VC’s to watch, 2021 systematic leader in asset management, top 100 Women in Fintech, and top 50 global blockchain thinkers. She is an occasional host and commentator at Nasdaq and Forbes, She holds a business degree from the University of Michigan and a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Lex Sokolin is a builder and investor working on the next generation of socio-economics and financial services. He is the Managing Partner and co-Founder of Generative Ventures, an engaged venture capital fund investing in the Machine Economy powered by Fintech, accelerated by AI, and settled on Web3.

Previously, Lex held the roles of Chief Economist, Chief Marketing Officer, and Global Fintech Co-Head at Consensys, a leading Web3 blockchain software company, where he focused on protocol cryptoeconomics, digital assets, public and private blockchains, decentralized finance, and DAOs. Prior, he was the Global Director of Fintech Strategy at Autonomous Research, an equity research firm serving institutional investors, where he covered artificial intelligence, blockchain, neobanks, digital lenders, roboadvisors, payments, insurtech, and mixed reality. Before Autonomous, Lex was Chief Operating Officer at AdvisorEngine, a digital wealthtech platform, and CEO of NestEgg Wealth, a roboadvisor that partnered with financial advisors. Lex started his career in investment management and banking at Barclays, Lehman Brothers, and Deutsche Bank.

Lex has contributed thought leadership to the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Bloomberg, FT, Reuters, Coindesk, American Banker, ThinkAdvisor, Investment News, among others. His industry newsletter, the Fintech Blueprint, reaches over 180,000 subscribers. Lex earned a JD/MBA from Columbia University and a B.A. in Economics and Law from Amherst College.

Matt Huang is a venture partner at Draper Dragon. He also served as a general partner to Outliers Fund and Aranya Founders Fund, where he made investments in early-stage companies in Web3, SaaS, and mobile applications. Matt was also an entrepreneur in the cybersecurity space and was a co-founder and COO to Armorize Technologies (acquired by Proofpoint). He later served as a corporate executive at Proofpoint, where he led email security and mobile security lines of products.

George was previously a VP at Goldman Sachs operating in London and San Francisco. He is now CEO and Co-Founder of Testudo, a startup building new insurance markets for AI risks, enabling institutions to safely and responsibly adopt this technology.

Boris Revsin is Managing Partner at Tribe Capital, where he spearheads the firm's crypto investments, incubation, and infrastructure efforts, in addition to leading investments across primary and secondary equity opportunities. Prior to joining Tribe, Boris was the co-founder and Head of Republic Capital, a registered investment adviser with more than $900 million under management.

Republic Capital is part of the Republic.com group, an organization focused on leveraging web3 to democratize access to capital and investments. At Republic, he led all institutional investments and infrastructure as an Executive Vice President and Head of the Republic Capital team. Republic.com is backed by cryptocurrency giants Galaxy Digital and Binance and investment group Valor Equity Partners.

Boris joined Republic.com in December of 2018 to co-found the Republic Capital subsidiary. The founding team at Republic Capital focused on fintech infrastructure and cryptocurrency investments, making investments into cap-table provider Carta (alongside Tribe Capital), Robinhood's first growth stage rounds, and layer-1 cryptocurrency “Flow” by Dapper. Boris also led growth stage investments into Avalanche, Polygon, and Near Protocol. Boris helped recruit and design the operations and infrastructure team that would eventually support more than $900 million in assets under management by January 2022.

Prior to Republic Capital, Boris was the co-founder of Game Theory Group, a boutique research desk focusing on cryptocurrency infrastructure. From 2015 to 2017, Boris was the founding President of VentureApp, now known as HqO. From 2009 to 2015, Boris was the co-founder of Breaktime Media, a promotional media platform serving some of the biggest brands in the world, which was acquired in 2015 by advertising leader Connelly Partners. Boris studied computer science at University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Madeleine McCarthy is Head of Strategy and Business Development at Acorns. In her role, she is responsible for partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic finance initiatives. She spends most of her time talking to companies about potential acquisitions or partnerships to help Acorns achieve meaningful growth for an important mission of empowering all people to save and invest.

Madeleine spent a decade in investment banking, advising primarily technology companies on IPOs, M&A, and private placements. She started her career in investment banking at Morgan Stanley, focused on private equity and technology companies. She then helped to start a boutique investment bank, DBO Partners, led by former Morgan Stanley partners. Most recently, Madeleine was a Managing Director focused exclusively on advising technology companies, with a focus on enterprise software, although she worked on transactions across the technology sector and advised on more than $70 billion of transactions.

Madeleine graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Statistics and a minor in Industrial Engineering, and she was a member of the women's rowing team, which won the national championships. She has a passion for investing and enjoys advising and mentoring people on their company's strategic goals.

Olivier is the Head of Laser Digital Ventures and Board Member of Laser Digital Holdings, the crypto arm of Nomura, that is re-defining the frontier of digital finance. As Head of Laser Digital Ventures, Olivier is investing in early-stage transformative businesses in the Web 3 space.

Olivier has been at Nomura since 2010 and held various roles in Corporate Strategy and Business Management in Hong Kong and London. Prior to this, he was a Management Consultant at McKinsey in London and he started his career as an entrepreneur building a mobile internet company in France.

He holds a MSc in Telecommunications from Chalmers University of Technology, an engineering degree from the Institut Superieur d’Electronique de Paris and a M.B.A. from the London Business School. Olivier is based in Zurich.

Devon Kirk is Co-Head and Partner, Portage Capital Solutions at Portage and joined the firm in 2022. Devon is responsible for co-leading growth equity, structured equity and special situations investments in financial technology and financial services companies globally, as well as driving the fund’s overall strategy. She is based in Toronto, Canada.

Prior to Portage, Devon spent over ten years at CPP Investments, a C$539 billion fund as of March 31, 2022. She was most recently Managing Director & Head of Capital Solutions, overseeing financials, special situations and esoteric investments, and a member of the Global Leadership Team. Previously, Devon was a Managing Director in the Direct Private Equity team, where she focused on the financials and TMT sectors. While at CPP Investments, Devon was on the Board of Wilton Re, a Board Observer for Altice USA and served on various firm investment committees.

Prior to joining CPP Investments, Devon was in Corporate / M&A at Linklaters LLP, a London-based multinational law firm, and started her career in M&A at BMO Harris Nesbitt in Chicago.

Devon received a Bachelor of Commerce degree, with Great Distinction, from McGill University and a Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School. She is also a CFA Charterholder and Chair of the Bishop Strachan School.

Abigail is COO and partner at Sapphire, where she oversees all aspects of Sapphire's operations, including the organization's legal affairs, finance and reporting, corporate compliance, HR, administration, IT, and facilities. She is also passionate about ESG and corporate giving, and leads these firm initiatives. Previously, Abigail was General Counsel of Sapphire.

Prior to joining the firm in 2015, Abigail was an associate at Jones Day, where she practiced in the areas of venture capital, M&A, fund formation, and general corporate and securities matters. She also worked in-house at an early-stage fintech company in the Bay Area prior to joining Jones Day, and, before attending law school, she worked in management consulting at Charles River Associates. Abigail holds a JD from the University of Chicago Law School and a bachelor's degree from Rice University in Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Vic has been focused on designing and delivering fintech solutions in capital markets, notably with a successful exit from a B2B fintech providing primary capital markets SaaS platforms, and currently leading the digital arm of a traditional market infrastructure.

In addition, Vic participated in many leading accelerator and incubator programmes aimed at funding and scaling, including the Microsoft Accelerator, Accenture FinTech Innovation Lab and JP Morgan In-Residence. Vic developed experience in fundraising, technical sales, product strategy, and innovation marketing.

Prior to banking, Vic completed a PhD in Mathematics and represented the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA).

Justine is the Executive Director of the Crypto ISAC. She has served as CISO at Bloomberg, LP, where she founded the information security group, as CEO of offensive security company Immunity, Inc., and as CEO of medical security research firm MedSec, where her work led directly to FDA recalls of implantable medical devices. She has served for years as a member of the Blackhat Review Board and Blackhat’s CISO Summit Advisory Board, and as Head of Infrastructure and Information Security at Dow Jones, where Justine led cloud transformation and information security. She has advised several Fortune 50 companies and continues to serve on the Advisory Board of HP. Other companies Justine has advised include Redjack, Decentraweb, Emergent Security, and Drawbridge Networks. In her early career, Justine served as a security researcher at New Zealand's GCSB, trained by the NSA, and then joined the ISS X-Force as a security researcher.

Sekayi Mutambirwa is the co-founder and CSO of Blam Retail, a Silicon Valley based technology firm creating websites, delivery services for US convenience stores and online lottery. Also making the US lottery available for players outside the US.

She has been mentoring, angel investing and advising fintech and crypto start ups through accelerator programs since 2013, including Accenture Fintech Innovation Lab, Outlier Ventures and R3 Ventures. She is a Venture Partner with Republic who invest in crypto, gaming and real estate.

Sekayi is a board member for Enterprise and Innovation for a UK county and sits on a sub-committee that allocates funding to scale ups developing commerce and creating jobs. She is on the Advisory Board for the African Business Chamber and advises many technology and Web 3 start ups.

She started her career in IT management consulting where she spent a decade in digital banking transformation projects and working in banking innovation labs with fintech founders and FAANGs at Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays and HSBC. She left banking to join decentralized exchange, Energi as their Director of Partnerships and Investments.

Jennie Levin currently serves as Head of Regulatory and Compliance at Figment Inc., a protocol staking company. Prior to joining Figment, she worked at DraftKings, where she was responsible for navigating the complex legal and regulatory issues related to sports betting and web3.

From approximately 2010-2019, Jennie served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois, where she focused on financial crimes, and has been an adjunct professor in Trial Advocacy at Northwestern Law School for the last 11 years.

Jennie earned her B.A. in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her JD from Northwestern University School of Law.

Julian Roeoes joined Picus Americas as a partner in 2020 and manages the firm's Americas operations out of the Picus office in New York. Prior to joining Picus, he worked for Credit Suisse in the Investment Banking and Capital Markets division in New York and London.

At Credit Suisse, Julian advised financial services and fintech clients on M&A as well as private and public financing transactions. Prior to that, Julian gathered practical experience in private capital, investing, and consulting and obtained an IHK Bankkaufmann degree. Julian graduated from WHU–Otto Beisheim School of Management with a bachelor's degree in Finance and General Management.

Daniel Niklas joined Picus Americas as an investor in 2020 and covers the firm's crypto/web3 investments across the Americas. He has a passion for web3 infrastructure projects (e.g., security and trust, scalability, analytics) as well as for web3 adoption in the gaming space.

Prior to joining Picus, Daniel worked on the Investment Banking Team at Goldman Sachs in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Frankfurt, where he advised global enterprises and financial investors on strategic transactions in the technology, retail, automotive, renewable energy, chemicals/pharma, and engineering/construction industries. Daniel holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Mannheim in Germany.

Lawrence Wintermeyer is a globally recognized digital financial advocate and has more than 25 years' experience as an advisor, executive, and board member working with companies from startups to global brands in the financial services, TMT, and energy sectors. He is the former CEO of Innovate Finance, the UK fintech members association, and a co-founder of Global Digital Finance, a not-for-profit promoting fair and transparent markets for digital and crypto assets.

He is experienced in the alternative asset management sector, with a focus on systematic investment management strategies, big data analytics, machine learning, and distributed ledger technologies. Based in London, he is the principal of Elipses, a digital advisory and investment management firm, has an MBA, and sits on several commercial, not-for-profit, and charity boards. Lawrence promotes ethical and sustainable finance policies for a transparent, secure, and quality digital future for everyone, and is a regular Forbes contributor.

Best known as a leading commentator, connector, and influencer in the UK blockchain space, James Bowater founded Crypto AM in partnership with London's City AM newspaper, launching on June 18, 2018, as a double-page spread. City AM to date is the only mainstream publisher to have a dedicated regular section covering AI, blockchain, crypto, and DLT.

The COVID-19 crisis has meant that the newspaper is not being produced and as such, the focus is digital, and CryptoAM.io was launched on March 31, 2020.Crypto AM is supplemented by a number of very active WhatsApp groups, a Telegram group, and numerous networking events. James, in association with City AM, organized the inaugural Crypto AM Awards, which took place on March 11, 2022, in London's Canary Wharf. At the event, 12 awards were handed out in front of a packed audience including Alderman William Russell, the Rt Hon Lord Mayor of London.

James is also the founder of the London Blockchain Forum, the leading cross-community platform (Telegram and Meetup) for the UK AI, blockchain, crypto, and DLT industries.

James also serves as an advisor to a number of projects and is equally known for connecting people and companies.

Tarun Sharma has 16+ years of experience in technology with a focus on Web3 and CyberSecurity. He has a deep understanding of Decentralized Applications, Cloud Technology, Application Development, Cyber Security. Before joining Google, Tarun has worked with AWS and IBM in various capacities on their Web3 initiatives. He has also bootstrapped two successful startups in his career. Presently, Tarun is leading partner engineering efforts in Google Cloud focusing on growing CyberSecurity and Web3 eco-system for Google Cloud partners.

Joshua Riezman is Managing Director and Head of U.S. Legal and Compliance for GSR, a leading crypto market making and trading firm. Previously, Joshua was Assistant General Counsel for product and regulatory matters at Circle, a global financial technology firm that provides crypto-native payments and treasury infrastructure. In his prior traditional finance career, Joshua represented global financial institutions with respect to trading, clearing and custody in the securities, commodities and derivatives markets as in-house counsel and in private practice.

Joshua received his JD from the Fordham University School of Law and his BA in international affairs from the George Washington University.

Benoit Bosc is Global Head of Product at GSR, a leading crypto market maker, and trading firm founded in 2013. He started investing in crypto in 2017 and made the full-time switch in 2021, since then developing a passion for the digital asset class. Prior to joining GSR, Benoit was head of global crude derivatives trading at Goldman Sachs in New York after a 15-year international career in Sales and Trading.

Jason is based in San Francisco, CA and is a Managing Partner of Vectr Fintech. He has invested across A.I., blockchain, and fintech in the US, Asia and MENA regions. He co-authored the crowdfund-investing framework used in the JOBS Act to legalize securities-based crowdfunding in the US, by changing 80-year-old securities laws. He provided US Congressional testimonies, and attended the White House, Rose Garden ceremony for President Obama to sign The JOBS Act into law. Over 7,000 companies, across all 50 states, have raised over US$2B via this legislation.

Following the JOBS Act, he formed Crowdfund Capital Advisors (CCA) to advise governments, regulators, financial institutions, and entrepreneurs on fintech policy and regulation. CCA has worked in 45 countries in 7 years. Jason is an Entrepreneur in Residence at UC Berkeley’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology.

Prior to Jason’s fintech work he led strategy and growth at Kinnser Software, a 2-time Inc-500 company (one of the 500 fastest growing private companies in the US) which was acquired by Insight Partners.

Manoj Karnani leads Accenture's fintech portfolio and strategy in the West and has spent 20+ years working with financial services and rapid-growth tech and fintech companies. He is passionate about the fintech space and the opportunity to serve as an advisor to help drive growth and scale. View Manoj's LinkedIn here.

In his role as Managing Director, Ben Brown supports Accenture's work with next-gen financial technology platforms and hypergrowth financial services challengers in North America across all four services (strategy consulting, interactive, technology, and operations). Ben has experience working with large and small banks, technology companies, merchants, and private equity investors. He has also been an advisor to fintech accelerators like the CFSI's Financial Solutions Lab, SVB's Commerce.Innovated, and 500 Startups. View Ben's LinkedIn here.

Steve Payne is a co-founder of Architect Partners, a boutique fintech/digital assets M&A and strategic financing firm. Last year Architect advised on two of the top three crypto M&A transactions (FairX acquired by Coinbase | Diem acquired by Silvergate) and the top European crypto M&A transaction (Trustology acquired by Bitpanda). Prior to Architect, Steve has been a senior operating executive, a venture investor, and a tech dealmaker in Silicon Valley, most recently as Managing Partner of the Ignite Group, a trans-Pacific venture capital partnership with funds in Silicon Valley and Tokyo. Before that, he headed New Products at Sega and was EVP of Product Development and Marketing at SegaSoft.

Architect Partners connects young, fast-growing companies with world-class partners for business development, investment, or M&A. Steve has completed more than a hundred venture financings and acquisitions transactions.

In his spare time, Steve mentors startup CEOs and works with several accelerators to give back to tech and social innovators. He’s been a CEO mentor and/or business plan judge for the One Harvard New Venture Competition, the Startup World Cup, the Global Social Ventures Competition and others. Steve holds an engineering degree from Washington University in St. Louis and an MBA from Harvard. He has been a Director of two dozen private and non-profit boards.

Elliot Chun is a Partner at Architect Partners, a crypto-dedicated M&A and strategic financing advisory team. In 2022, Architect advised on two of the top three crypto M&A transactions (FairX acquired by Coinbase | Diem acquired by Silvergate) and the top European crypto M&A transaction (Trustology acquired by Bitpanda).

With 20+ years in Capital Markets and full-time in Crypto since early 2018, Elliot brings a wide range of experience across asset classes (Digital Asset Markets, Equities, FX, Real Estate), across functions (Investment Banking, Buy-Side, Consulting, Sell-Side), and across company sizes (Bank of America, Perella Weinberg Partners, Architect Partners).

Prior to Architect Partners, Elliot founded and collaborated on a few ventures in Blockchain and other emerging technologies, built an Alternative Asset Management Platform for a leading boutique investment bank, consulted on various initiatives for major investment banks, and started in Cash Equity Sales & Trading.

Anthony Woolley is an entrepreneurial banking and financial services technology executive with expertise in capital markets, investment banking, trade finance, and wealth management. He has a particular interest in fintech, digital securities, and the transformation of wholesale banking.

Having collaborated with a multitude of fintechs and high-growth companies in his capacity as a banking CIO, Anthony recently took the opportunity to work independently with a small number of high-potential companies that he really believes in. These business have some common characteristics: highly credible leadership teams, a strong vision, disruptive business models, and the ability to deliver.

Anthony joined Schroders Investment Bank in 1994, where he led their Corporate Finance Technology department. Subsequent mergers with Salomon Smith Barney and Citibank saw him progress in various front-office technology leadership roles. He managed the CitiFX ecommerce and pricing technology program in London during a period of dramatic transformation of the high-frequency trading and auto-hedging of foreign exchange products. He left Citi in 2009 to lead the FX etrading program at HSBC before joining Société Générale, where he headed the UK Fixed Income, Currencies, and Commodities Technology department. He was appointed the UK Chief Information Officer in 2013, and in 2017, he was given the opportunity to set up a new innovation function working at a group level.

Anthony is a regular presenter at industry conferences and has become a recognized thought leader on the application of blockchain technology to the regulated financial services industry.

Michael Barrell has founded several businesses all centered on enabling the growth of digital business, and invested and acted on advisory boards with particular focus on helping companies achieve international growth within the area of complex B2B and digital enablement.

Michael had his initial career at IBM, which culminated in growing and running a $200 million business until he focused on software solutions within the telecom sector. This experience formed the basis for the businesses in which he has subsequently been a founder.

Businesses where Michael has a significant investment and active role include Juliet Media, MBR Partners, WeCode, and Tokeny. Juliet Media is a full-service B2B marketing company and includes Juliet Summits, which runs events focused on the leading-edge areas of fintech and telecoms. MBR Partners is one of the best-known executive search names in telecom and complex B2B solutions. WeCode, working from a base in Poland, provides high-growth tech businesses with a way to rapidly extend their agile development teams. Tokeny is the leading fintech platform for digitization of securities and assets.

Although currently resident in London, Michael was born and educated in New Zealand, where he initially studied engineering and received a business and marketing degree at Victoria University.

Elliot Han is a Partner at PGP Capital Advisors, covering a variety of sectors with an emphasis on Digital Assets. He focuses on mergers & acquisitions, corporate finance advisory, and equity & debt capital raisings, both in the domestic and international arena. Elliot has more than 15 years of financial, legal, and start-up experience, where he has closed over 100 transactions with a total value over $120bn. He was previously a Managing Director, Head of FinTech / Blockchain, Crypto & Digital Assets Investment Banking and Head of Technology Equity Capital Markets at Cantor Fitzgerald.

Elliot was also the former Head of FinTech & Consumer Tech Capital Markets at the New York Stock Exchange. Before the NYSE, he was the Head of Banking and part of the management team at the Argon Group, a leading blockchain/crypto software technology & advisory start-up.

Prior to Argon, he led the West Coast technology equity capital markets team for Jefferies. Previously, Elliot was an Executive Director, Business Unit Manager and Operating Officer for the UK & Emerging Markets teams at Goldman Sachs, where he focused on the technology sector.

Earlier in his career, he was a corporate lawyer at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and began his investment banking career at Credit Suisse First Boston. Elliot graduated from Columbia University with a BA in Classics and Biology. He graduated from Oxford University with a Master’s degree in Classics and received his law & MA degrees from Cambridge University, where he was a Cambridge Overseas Trust Scholar. Elliot is a member of the Board of Trustees at Xavier High School, NYC. He is also a limited partner in blockchain/crypto investment funds and an angel/seed investor in the digital assets space.

Mark Edwards is co-founder of TNG Capital Partners based in New Jersey. In this role Mark partners with founders, CEOs and boards to help them scale their companies by leveraging the team’s significant experience in high growth businesses, product development, M&A, governance & fundraising. TNG Capital Partners is an active participant, often taking operational roles and equity positions.

Previously Mark was in the storage network sector: during his tenure as the number two executive at QLogic Corp, he helped to steer the company from a $50M to a $10B market cap along with a place on the NASDAQ-100. Following this, Mark ran a venture capital fund with exits in the US, Australia, NZ, UK and Israel and delivered a top-quartile return. Mark has driven more than $2B in equity transactions during his career. He has lived and worked in the US, Europe and APAC. He holds a B.Sc. (Hons.) Business Studies from the Bayes Business School at City, University of London.

Steve McNew provides strategic advice and expert services for companies in the blockchain and digital assets sector and corporations looking to innovate with these technologies. He has led more than 80 cryptocurrency investigations and has offered testimony as a digital assets expert 18 times in the United States and once in Australia.

Mr. McNew is the global lead of the Blockchain and Digital Assets practice leading engagements focused on crypto-native entities involved in bankruptcy, restructuring, M&A, due diligence, investigations, strategy and innovation. He has led large-scale blockchain technology implementation projects including smart contract development combined with AI and IoT devices and provided forensic investigations expertise into disputes involving various forms of cryptocurrencies.

In addition to Mr. McNew’s crypto assets and blockchain experience, he leads large-scale engagements for clients in data governance and data privacy, has authored an enterprise search patent application and has led a myriad of engagements related to emerging technologies and digital forensics for 32 years.

Vanessa Fernandes is responsible for the design and implementation of the token as a service and custody platform while directing Itaú's long-term vision to create a full-service digital assets capability for cryptocurrencies and tokenized assets.

As a former CTO at Itaú Unibanco, Vanessa developed international expertise in originating/launching and managing successful global business IT strategies. Her activities have included the launch of the emerging technologies practice; the research and development of distributed ledger (blockchain), quantum computing, and 5G technologies; and connecting big tech, fintech, and startup ecosystems in the United States with Itaú business and IT areas in Brazil.

Preston Fischer is a digital risk and innovation expert focusing on blockchain and digital assets. Mr. Fischer brings more than 20 years of experience in emerging technology, innovation and digital risk management across consultancies, technology organizations, and public affairs. His expertise helps clients address risk while driving advancement.

Mr. Fischer has extensive experience in architecting digital infrastructure, shaping go-to-market strategies, and launching solutions that transform business processes and mitigates digital risk. This includes blockchain-based solutions that improve supply chains, enable transparent information sharing and decentralized finance initiatives. He also applies his e-discovery, digital forensics, and cybersecurity background to support clients involved in cryptocurrency-related disputes and investigations.

Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Mr. Fischer was Vice President of Strategy and Finance at Connected DMV, where he supported regional cooperation to generate economic development and technology innovation. He has also held managing director and VP roles at Alnair Group, Aon, and Navigant, leading work across cybersecurity services, market strategy, risk mitigation, and data management. As a longstanding researcher in Austrian economics, banking systems, and digital currencies, Mr. Fischer’s depth of expertise provides clients with insight and strategic guidance while implementing emerging technologies.

Sam is Cofounder of Veil Capital, a deep fundamental, protocol lifecycle investment firm. He previously led firmwide trading and on-chain participation at Polychain Capital.

During his tenure, Sam was one of the most active on-chain participants in the industry, deploying and securing more than $3B in decentralized finance. Prior to Polychain, Sam worked for a quantitative spinout of Nuveen Asset Management. Sam began researching, and investing in, cryptoassets in 2013.

Nick Andrews's career has been in the financial services sector and has included being on the board of a large multidisciplined securities broker/dealer, Head of Credit at the UK banking subsidiary of a Japanese securities house, and many years in senior credit and compliance roles.

Nick is the founder and Managing Director of MPAC Limited, one of the preeminent compliance and regulatory companies in London; CEO of EddieUK Ltd., a digital investment bank; Director of Supermoney Ltd, a blockchain tech company; co-founder of a crypto trading entity; and an independent non-executive director, chair of the Audit Committee, and chair of the Nominations Committee at the UK subsidiary of one of the largest banks in America (Wells Fargo).

He speaks at various conferences and panels and is an occasional guest lecturer on topical financial sector issues at two universities. With a keen interest in history and the City of London, Nick was the Master of The Worshipful Company of Pattenmakers in the year 2015 to 2016.

Angelo Chan is an upcoming Partner with Stake Capital.

Angelo Chan first became involved in cryptocurrencies in 2015 as a Series C investor in Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN). He was formerly a managing director at BlockFi, a leading crypto asset lender with institutional backing from investors that include Valar Ventures, Galaxy Digital, Fidelity, SoFi and Coinbase Ventures. At BlockFi, Angelo was responsible for structuring bespoke financing transactions collateralized by cryptocurrency as well as cryptocurrency-based derivatives such as over-the-counter (OTC) swaps. He also launched new initiatives for crypto native products related to staking and decentralized finance (DeFi), led the transaction team for debt financings with traditional financial institutions, and helped formulate BlockFi’s business response to regulatory challenges.

Angelo’s work with cryptocurrencies builds on his background in traditional finance, in particular the structuring and execution of cross-border financing transactions with complex tax, accounting and regulatory considerations. Between 2004 and 2012, Angelo worked at Barclays Investment Bank in London and New York as a member of the Structured Capital Markets Group, and subsequently at C12 Capital, where he served as a director of the hedge fund manager spun off from Barclays in 2009. In these roles, he helped originate, structure and execute over USD 40bn of proprietary transactions with counterparties in Europe, US, Latin America and Asia over a diverse range of underlying assets such as listed equities, sovereign debt, corporate bonds and asset-backed securities.

Angelo was subsequently a director in the Structured Equity Finance Team at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which provided clients with leverage, stock lending, hedging and other related prime brokerage services. There, he had particular responsibility for covering financial institutions and multi-national corporations in Latin America, and was closely involved in the development of new financial products and transactions.

Mohamed Yousef is an accomplished legal professional with over 25 years experience covering technology, corporate and commercial as well as investment and finance related transactions across diverse geographic regions. Mohamed's private practice experience includes working with leading international law firms and senior in-house and General Counsel roles working with investment companies owned by GCC Sovereign Wealth Funds including a Qatar based venture capital and private equity investment company investing in emerging technologies around the globe and other sovereign companies investing in food security assets and technologies.

Santiago Velez is a practitioner in the digital asset and distributed ledger/blockchain space, co-founding and advising several companies.

Santiago is the co-founder and division lead of Research & Development at Block Digital Corporation, which focuses on deploying decentralized edge computing. He's also Vice President of R&D at Sindric Solutions, a web3 enterprise software development company that has built and advised on products for Fortune 50 companies like Nike, and organizations like the NCAA, using web2 cloud in conjunction with DLT technologies.

Santiago has a degree in Nuclear Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and more recently completed the UPenn Wharton School of Business's Economics of Blockchain and Digital Assets certification program. When not spending time with his three daughters, Santiago contributes to the Real Vision platform to perform deep-dive long-form interviews with up-and-coming leaders in the web3 space. Lastly, he's a vigorous Twitter poster on all things crypto and a mouthpiece for anyone with interesting ideas.

Geoff Clauss is Blockdaemon's Chief Revenue Officer and has 20+ years of fintech sales leadership experience. Geoff has an extensive background in trading networks, legacy financial infrastructure services, and managing successful teams. He is passionate about developing teams that rise to the top of a competitive marketplace and knows the importance of happy and successful customers. Geoff is keen to help even more institutions access and unlock quality blockchain data with Blockdaemon.

Rajeev Bamra is the head of DeFi & Digital Assets strategy and operations at Moody's, he leads a dedicated digital finance team equipped with extensive expertise in the dynamic digital ecosystem and a profound understanding of traditional finance infrastructure. His team’s primary focus lies in meticulously exploring the intersection of these two domains, specifically in identifying and analyzing emerging risks stemming from their integration. Through comprehensive research and evaluation, he aims to develop a resilient strategy that effectively addresses the distinctive challenges and opportunities arising from this convergence.

Adam Sand leads the legal team for Blockdaemon Inc., one of the leading blockchain infrastructure and staking technology providers. Previously, Adam served as General Counsel for Ciitizen Corporation, a startup providing health records technology for rare diseases that was sold to Invitae Corporation, and before that as General Counsel and VP of Business Development for Shopkick, which was sold to Retail Trax Inc. Prior to joining Shopkick, Adam was GC of SK Planet, Inc., the U.S. arm of one of South Korea's largest companies; was lead counsel for Ancestry, where he helped launch the AncestryDNA testing service worldwide; and worked for international law firms such as Pillsbury Winthrop and Jones Day, where he represented companies such as Apple, AT&T, and Chevron.

When he isn't facilitating deals for Blockdaemon, you will find Adam playing with his kids, teaching web3 legal issues to future lawyers, or learning to create Ethereum smart contracts.

Matt Enriquez currently serves as Senior Corporate Counsel at DraftKings, Inc., where he is responsible for legal and regulatory advice concerning the company's web3 ventures. He is interested in exploring the ways in which web3/crypto intersects with highly regulated spaces such as gambling/sports betting and banking.

Fred Dalibard is Global Head of Blockchain at Groupe BPCE. Since 2015, Fred has occupied several roles related to innovation, blockchain, and ebusiness within Natixis's Corporate & Investment Banking division, part of Groupe BPCE. Fred represents Groupe BPCE/Natixis on the board of directors of R3 (since 2017) and was the chairman of the board of R3 between 2018 and 2021.

Fred was also a board director of Komgo from its creation in 2018 until mid-2022. After one year at Dexia Credit Local, Fred joined Natixis in 2002. Fred then occupied several positions, mostly in front office and quantitative roles, dealing with structured credit assets and also financing assets. Fred began his career in 1998 as a consultant with Arthur Andersen Management in Paris.

Jamie Finn is the co-founder and President of Securitize, Inc., the leading platform for issuing digital securities. Jamie has a background as both an operating entrepreneur and corporate executive, with more than 20 years' experience. Prior to Securitize, Jamie worked at Telefonica, o2, Ericsson, and more recently AT&T in Big Data Product Innovation, as well as startups including Kontera, A.Ki, Thumbplay, Zingy, and others in a variety of senior roles. He has participated in more than $700 million worth of transactions on the buy and sell side in tech M&A over the course of his career. Jamie earned a bachelor's degree in Business Management from Babson College.

Anthony Bassili, CAIA, is Head of Asset Allocators for Coinbase Institutional Americas. In this role, he is responsible for advising North America's largest financial institutions on investment solutions related to digital assets, web3, and crypto strategies. His clients include government and corporate pension plans, consultants, multi-manager platforms, outsourced Chief Investment Officer platforms, foundation/endowments, and family offices.

Prior to joining Coinbase, Anthony served as Head of Pension for iShares. There he led BlackRock iShares' efforts in expanding the investor toolkit for allocators to include ETFs across public and private asset classes, including ESG and niche or thematic exposures. Prior to leading the iShares business, he spent more than a decade leading business development and investment strategy for the Global Trading and Transition Management platform at BlackRock.

From 2015 to 2020, Anthony also served as Chapter Head for the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst ("CAIA") San Francisco Bay Area chapter, leading more than 400 CAIA members in connecting and pursuing financial literacy across alternative investment strategies. Over this period, he served, on behalf of BlackRock, on the board of directors for the Bay Area Council and the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. He focused on local policy and tax issues across the State of California. He holds NASD series 3, series 7, series 63, and series 24 licenses.

Ehsan Haque currently acts as Head of UK Legal & Compliance and global Legal & Compliance lead for Trading at Laser Digital , a Nomura Group company. He has over twenty years experience working as in-house counsel for a variety of institutions including top-tier investment banks, broker-dealers, and fintech startups. He has spent the last 10 years in leadership and senior leadership roles. After a career in advertising, Ehsan trained at Slaughter and May in London before working as a global markets/equities sales and trading lawyer for Deutsche Bank, RBS Global Banking and Markets, and Nomura, where he was part of the senior management team of the EMEA legal department and led the Equities legal product coverage in EMEA supporting Nomura's equities sales and trading businesses. More recently, Ehsan was the first General Counsel at Lendingblock, an institutional cryptocurrency borrowing and lending platform and General Counsel at Alphaswap, an alpha capture and investment management platform. He is ex-Global General Counsel at Hamilton Capital Holding Limited and ex-EMEA General Counsel at Amber Group. Ehsan also acts as an advisor to various fintech companies and accelerator programs. He is also active in mentoring junior BAME professionals in the legal and finance sectors.

As head of BD, North America at Polygon Labs, Brian is responsible for onboarding IP holders, large enterprises, developers and brands into the Polygon blockchain's ecosystem. Having started his professional career as a financial regulatory attorney at Cadwalader, he pivoted, becoming a leading voice in men's fashion which resulted in two successful exits within the luxury space. Upon those exits, Brian went on to lead WGSN, the authority in trend forecasting, in growing their North American consulting business. In leading up to his tenure at Polygon Labs, Brian built a metaverse consultancy to advise legacy brands on how to leverage their IP in the metaverse while heading up America's largest men's fashion trade show at Informa Markets.

Based in Silicon Valley, Rory Clark is a Senior Vice President in Citi's Venture Banking group, which sits within Citi Commercial Bank. Between the United Kingdom and the United States, with roles spanning Corporate and Commercial Banking, Credit Risk, and Cash Management, Rory has been with Citi for more than 10 years.

As a Global Relationship Manager in the Venture Banking group, Rory is responsible for identifying, onboarding, managing, and enabling the growth of key tech disrupters, with a focus on fintech and SaaS. Rory identifies the current and future needs of his clients and works in tandem with product specialists from across the bank to design global solutions for his clients—spanning debt, FX, cash management, investment banking, capital markets, and wealth management.

In between his two stints with Citi, Rory also held a senior sales role at UK-based Ebury, a fast-growth fintech focused on cross-border payments and FX.

Chris Grieco is the General Counsel of Rain, a fintech startup dedicated to helping Web3 teams use their digital assets in the real world. Previously, Grieco served as General Counsel at Fei Labs, a decentralized stablecoin project.

Before his work in DeFi, Grieco held several high-level positions within the Federal Government. His most recent public service culminated with a senior position at the Department of Justice, where he served as Associate Deputy Attorney General, advising the Deputy Attorney General and the Department on various technological issues. His work at the Department included helping draft the 2020 Google Antitrust complaint and leading the Department's review of Section 230, among other tech issues. He also served as Associate White House Counsel in the White House Counsel's Office where he led the confirmation of multiple federal judges including Justice Neil Gorsuch, and as a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia. Prior to his time in the executive branch, he served on Capitol Hill where he led multiple high-profile investigations as Counsel for the Judiciary Committee. Grieco clerked for Judge Edith Clement on the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and graduated from Stanford Law School.

Maximillian Jungreis is the Head of Crypto and Digital Assets at Plug and Play Tech Center, the world's largest early-stage investor, accelerator, and corporate innovation platform. Maximillian works with more than 560 global corporate partners from financial services, brand and retail, and supply chain to accelerate their web3 adoption journeys by leveraging Plug and Play's innovation ecosystem of over 50,000 startups across 46 cities.

Maximillian Jungreis has more than seven years of experience in crypto as an operator, researcher, and investor. Prior to leading Plug and Play Crypto, Max spent two years at Stanford University as a founding member of the Future of Digital Currency Initiative, a multidisciplinary research effort focused on CBDCs (central bank digital currencies). Before that, he served as Head of Partnerships for Blockchain Labs (fka YosemiteX), one of Korea's largest blockchain companies, which today services more than 25 million users through their front-facing application, Coov.

Ben Hoxie serves as a venture analyst on the Vectr Fintech Partners team. As an analyst, Ben works on deal sourcing, investment due diligence, market research, and financial analysis. Prior to joining Vectr, Ben served as a product management intern at Fidelity Labs in Boston, where he worked on multiple startup teams to help them design and develop innovative fintech products. Ben graduated from Dartmouth College with a Master of Engineering Management and a Bachelor of Engineering. Ben also graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Physics and a minor in Economics from Bowdoin College.

Olaf Ammermann started his finance career at Goldman Sachs working in a variety of equity volatility trading and multi-asset structuring roles in London and Hong Kong. He then moved to Toronto where he implemented a trading risk framework at Bank of Montreal and later joined TD Bank as a senior structured products and equity volatility trader.

After 15 years working in traditional finance roles, Olaf transitioned to the digital asset space initially as a business analyst and quant trader at Nomisma where he designed and implemented crypto derivatives trading platforms. In parallel Olaf setup a Crypto option trading venture, running electronic market making strategies on centralised crypto derivatives platforms.

Nomisma became part of Amber Group in 2021 and Olaf took on the role of Managing Director for the UK & Europe. Olaf is now the Managing Director of Islington Consultants and helps and advises Start-Up and established companies in the FinTech, Capital Markets and Digit Asset space on strategy, developing new businesses and how to navigate the trading and regulatory world of Digital Assets.

Olaf has developed a deep knowledge of financial markets, derivatives trading, trading platforms & exchanges, business development and the associated regulation, risk and compliance aspects. He holds a Masters Degree from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Joint Program in Electrical Engineering & Business Administration.

Ali Rod advises web3/blockchain startups and funds on strategy, partnerships, fundraising, deal-sourcing, and legal/compliance. He works across sectors, including defi, gaming, municipal and industrial metaverse, and tokenization of real-world assets. Outside of his advisory roles, he is a professor and published author, and has 20+ years of experience as a lawyer and investment banker. He’s held senior roles at Macquarie Capital and Westport Innovations, and began his career at Idealab, DLA Piper, and Linklaters. He holds a PhD from Harvard University and a JD from UC Berkeley. He’s lived in 8 countries and 4 continents, and has working knowledge of Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, Farsi, and French. He’s been responsible for project portfolios in multiple sectors across North America, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Much of his experience has involved international strategy and contract negotiations, especially in scenarios involving cultural or political sensitivities.

Stephen Moskowitz is the Founder & CEO of Pyxis Search Partners, a domain specialist recruiting agency that focuses on both technical and non technical search for high growth emerging technology companies. Prior to founding Pyxis Search, Mr. Moskowitz was the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Pyxis Capital Management, a cryptoasset venture hybrid fund backed by prominent investors, including ParaFi Capital. Prior to co-founding Pyxis Capital, Mr. Moskowitz was a Managing Director at a $100 million AUM+ single family office that was an early investor in the crypto space. Mr. Moskowitz has also served as an Advisor for ParaFi Capital and is currently an Advisor to Blockchain Founders Fund. Mr. Moskowitz received a BA and JD from Emory University (Boisfeuillet Jones Scholar), and an MBA in finance from The New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business.