演讲师

Gintarė Skaiste is currently the Minister of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania. She is an economist with a PhD in Social Science.

The Magazine The Banker, a member of the Financial Times publication group, announced G. Skaistė to be the winner of the Finance Minister of the Year (2022) in global and European context. This honourable position is held by Mrs Skaiste together with other prominent senior politicians — Minister of Economy and Finance of France Bruno Le Maire, President of the Eurogroup and Minister of Finance of Ireland Paschal Donohoe or Portuguese Minister of Finance Mario Centeno. Mrs Skaiste’s first months in the position of the Minister of Finance were called by the Magazine as a baptism of fire.

The Minister of Finance also pays great attention to the further development of the Fintech sector in Lithuania. The Fintech sector can be considered Lithuania's “business card”, as the concerted efforts of several successive Governments in this area have created an extremely dynamic Fintech ecosystem. Today's priority is the development and maturity of the sector.

The Ministry of Finance, together with representatives of the market and the public sector, prepared the ambitious Lithuanian Fintech Sector Development Guidelines for the next five years. “We want to be one step ahead of the rest in regulation,” says Mrs Skaiste.

Having started with great energy, Mrs Skaiste has not slowed down the pace during the two years of her term. The most significant initiatives launched include the ambition for Lithuania to become the AMLA competence centre in Europe; the Baltic Capital Markets Development Acceleration Fund – creating a more visible to foreign investors pan-Baltic capital market and increasing the opportunities for SME’s.

The major achievement of Mrs Skaiste – EUR 2 billion plan “New Generation Lithuania” prepared in record time, called by President of the European Commission U. Von der Leyen as excellent, which will play a crucial role in Lithuania’s rise with a stronger economy, accelerating the digital and green transformation. The energy crisis caused by geopolitical challenges has shown that Europe is still significantly dependent on fossil fuels; therefore, strengthening Lithuania's energy independence through investments in renewable energy is one of the features of the plan "New Generation Lithuania". Moreover, the plan for EU Funds’ Investments of almost EUR 8 billion was approved.

Furthermore, even 7 budgets were approved to help people and businesses absorb the shock of inflation and rising energy prices, introducing a wide range of measures worth more than EUR 3.7 billion.

Moreover, Lithuania worked successfully to provide various aid measures to Ukraine for over EUR 900 million or 1.3% of GDP. Finally, in response to geopolitical challenges, funding for national security was increased by 73%, and border control was strengthened with probably the most modern railway X-ray system in the EU.

Mrs Skaiste is also a member of the Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union, an honorary member of the Lithuanian Community of the Atlantic Treaty. In 2016, she was elected a member of the Seimas (Parliament) of the Republic of Lithuania and re-elected in 2020, defeating the then-incumbent representative of the leading party in the county.  

Gintarė Skaiste is currently the Minister of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania. She is an economist with a PhD in Social Science.

The Magazine The Banker, a member of the Financial Times publication group, announced G. Skaistė to be the winner of the Finance Minister of the Year (2022) in global and European context. This honourable position is held by Mrs Skaiste together with other prominent senior politicians — Minister of Economy and Finance of France Bruno Le Maire, President of the Eurogroup and Minister of Finance of Ireland Paschal Donohoe or Portuguese Minister of Finance Mario Centeno. Mrs Skaiste’s first months in the position of the Minister of Finance were called by the Magazine as a baptism of fire.

The Minister of Finance also pays great attention to the further development of the Fintech sector in Lithuania. The Fintech sector can be considered Lithuania's “business card”, as the concerted efforts of several successive Governments in this area have created an extremely dynamic Fintech ecosystem. Today's priority is the development and maturity of the sector.

The Ministry of Finance, together with representatives of the market and the public sector, prepared the ambitious Lithuanian Fintech Sector Development Guidelines for the next five years. “We want to be one step ahead of the rest in regulation,” says Mrs Skaiste.

Having started with great energy, Mrs Skaiste has not slowed down the pace during the two years of her term. The most significant initiatives launched include the ambition for Lithuania to become the AMLA competence centre in Europe; the Baltic Capital Markets Development Acceleration Fund – creating a more visible to foreign investors pan-Baltic capital market and increasing the opportunities for SME’s.

The major achievement of Mrs Skaiste – EUR 2 billion plan “New Generation Lithuania” prepared in record time, called by President of the European Commission U. Von der Leyen as excellent, which will play a crucial role in Lithuania’s rise with a stronger economy, accelerating the digital and green transformation. The energy crisis caused by geopolitical challenges has shown that Europe is still significantly dependent on fossil fuels; therefore, strengthening Lithuania's energy independence through investments in renewable energy is one of the features of the plan "New Generation Lithuania". Moreover, the plan for EU Funds’ Investments of almost EUR 8 billion was approved.

Furthermore, even 7 budgets were approved to help people and businesses absorb the shock of inflation and rising energy prices, introducing a wide range of measures worth more than EUR 3.7 billion.

Moreover, Lithuania worked successfully to provide various aid measures to Ukraine for over EUR 900 million or 1.3% of GDP. Finally, in response to geopolitical challenges, funding for national security was increased by 73%, and border control was strengthened with probably the most modern railway X-ray system in the EU.

Mrs Skaiste is also a member of the Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union, an honorary member of the Lithuanian Community of the Atlantic Treaty. In 2016, she was elected a member of the Seimas (Parliament) of the Republic of Lithuania and re-elected in 2020, defeating the then-incumbent representative of the leading party in the county.  

Jonathan Larsen is now Chief Innovation Officer of Ping An Group and Chairman and CEO of the Ping An Global Voyager Fund.

Jonathan spent 18 years at Citigroup where he was most recently Global Head of the firm’s Retail Banking and Mortgage businesses, generating ~$12Bn in Revenues and spanning 19 countries. He has been at the leading edge of the financial services industry for the last 31 years across the Asia Pacific region and globally. He brings a unique blend of strategic vision, operational depth, and understanding of the new technology landscape. He has led multiple large-scale, successful businesses across a wide range of markets and has extensive experience in negotiating and managing partnerships and M&A transactions.

Prior to Citi, Jonathan was a Principal in the Financial Services Practice of global management consulting firm, Booz Allen & Hamilton where he spent eight years advising large banks and other financial institutions across Asia, Australia and New Zealand and in the United States and Europe.

Jonathan is a Distinguished Fellow of the Institute of Banking and Finance, Singapore and was named Retail Banker of the Year in 2011 by Asian Banker magazine. He has been widely quoted in major business publications including the Financial Times, Bloomberg, Reuters, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Economist as well as local media throughout Asia Pacific. Jonathan holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from the University of Melbourne.

Julian Teicke is the CEO and founder of wefox, which is a full-stack digital insurance company that is making insurance 10x better.

wefox has raised more than US$1 billion in funding since it was founded in 2015.

Julian graduated with a BA in Business Administration in St. Gallen.

I'm a technologist, and my interests lie at the intersection of technology, payments, and innovation.

I'm deputy director, Financial Services for the Poor, at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, leading the Level One Project initiative to foster deployment of digital payment and identity platforms to serve the poor (http://leveloneproject.org).

I'm Chair of the Board of the Mojaloop Foundation (http://mojaloop.io), which hosts the Mojaloop open-source software making it easy and free to interconnect payment systems. I serve on the board of the InterLedger Foundation (http://interledger.org), the home of the open protocol for sending payments across the internet.

Previously, I was the co-founder and leader of Innotribe, the SWIFT initiative to enable collaborative innovation in the financial industry. At SWIFT, I was also the chief architect of SWIFTNet, the backbone worldwide secure network currently connecting 8,000 banks and 1,000 corporations, and servicing daily the world economy.

I'm the author of "The Castle And The Sandbox", a book explaining how to foster innovation in established systems and companies.

Mairead McGuinness is the European Commissioner for financial services, financial stability and Capital Markets Union.

The Commissioner’s vision for the portfolio is focused on ensuring the financial sector’s strength and stability, so that it can deliver for people, society and the environment.

Before joining the Commission in October 2020, Ms McGuinness was First Vice-President of the European Parliament from 2017. She served as an MEP from Ireland for 16 years, and was a Vice-President of the Parliament since 2014.

As Vice-President, she oversaw relations with national Parliaments, led the Parliament’s dialogue with religious and philosophical organisations, and had responsibility for the Parliament’s communication policy.

During her time in the Parliament, Ms McGuinness sat on a range of committees, covering agriculture, environment, public health, budgets, petitions and constitutional affairs. Her legislative work included leading for the EPP Group on the European Climate Law, the revision of medical devices legislation, and CAP reform post-2013. As an Irish MEP representing the border region, she was outspoken on Brexit and the consequences for the EU and Ireland.

In 2006-2007, Ms McGuinness chaired the Parliament’s investigation into the collapse of the Equitable Life assurance company which identified issues around weak financial regulation.

Prior to becoming an MEP, she was an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and commentator.

Namatame joined Tokio Marine Holdings in 2018 and assumed Managing Executive Officer and Group Chief Digital Officer from 2021. Prior to Tokio Marine, he was Managing Director, and the member of the board at BlackRock Japan. Before that he had a number of senior executive positions at Visa Worldwide Japan, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank. He started his career at Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan. In addition to his career positions, he assumed the non-executive director at Mercari, Inc. and an advisor to Japan&#39s Financial Services Agency. He graduated from University of Tokyo and earned MBA from Harvard Business School. 

Oliver Bussmann is a globally recognized technology thought leader and driver of large-scale transformation at multi-national organizations and portfolio companies of private equity firms. The Founder and CEO of Bussmann Advisory AG, he advises enterprises and private equity companies looking to stay ahead of the digital disruption curve in the financial services and high-tech industry.

He is a Non-Executive Board Director at Bank of America Europe, Abu Dhabi Ports Group, BSI Software (Capvis portfolio company), Board Chairman at xSuite Group (3i Group portfolio company) and Advisory Board member of the largest European Asset Manager Amundi, Royal London and Actico (Bregal portfolio company).

In addition, he also holds important mandates in industry associations, including Board Member at Elevandi as part of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Oliver was Co- founder and former President of the Swiss Crypto Valley Association which is the largest blockchain ecosystem with over 1’500 startups in Switzerland.

From 2013 to 2016 Bussmann was Group Chief Information Officer of UBS, where he successfully led a major Business and IT transformation effort, instituted a new group-wide innovation framework and established UBS as a pioneer in the development of blockchain for use in financial services. Prior to joining UBS Bussmann was Global Chief Information Officer at SAP, where he also spearheaded significant technology transformation and integration of company acquisitions, and before that CIO for North America & Mexico at Allianz. Previous roles have included executive positions at Deutsche Bank and IBM.

Bussmann's achievements and thought leadership have been widely recognized. He was named COO/CTO of the year by Financial News/The Wall Street Journal, European CIO of the Year by INSEAD/CIONET, Top FinTech Influencer to follow by Onalytica, Swiss FinTech Award, received the Elite 8 Award, which is given to the most innovative leaders in technology working in capital markets by Wall Street & Technology Magazine, and has twice been included on the Financial News "FinTech 40" list of innovators shaping the future of finance. 

Melissa C. Guzy is the Founder and Managing Partner of Arbor Ventures. Before founding of Arbor Ventures, Melissa was a Managing Partner and a member of the Investment Committee at VantagePoint Capital Partners, where she invested in early stage technology companies in Asia, Europe and Silicon Valley. Her current board positions include EverCompliant, Fundbox, InCountry, Tabby, Planck Re and TrueAccord. Melissa was the investor board member of Paidy which was acquired by Paypal for $2.88 billion.

Melissa attended Wellesley College and earned a master’s degree in Finance from the University of Florida. She is the author of the paper “Venture Capital Returns and Public Market Performance.” Melissa is the Co-Chair of the Hong Kong Venture Capital Association (“HKVCA”) Venture Committee, a member of the Board of Directors of the HKVCA and the SVCA and a former member to the Hong Kong SFC on Innovation. Melissa has been recognized as a Top 100 Influencer in Fintech (NxtBnk), AlwaysOn Fintech Power Player, as well as one of the Top 13 Women in Asia of Tech Influencers.

Paula Bellizia has more than 29 years of executive experience leading multinational technology companies in Brazil and Latin America. She is currently partner and the President of Global Payments at EBANX, global payments fintech. Most recently, she served as Google's VP of Marketing for Latin America, Microsoft's COO for Latin America, President of Microsoft Brazil, and Apple's Country Manager in Brazil. Bellizia has also worked at Facebook, Telefonica and Whirlpool. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Technology, a postgraduate degree in Marketing, and an MBA from FIA-USP. Bellizia has chosen the topic of diversity and inclusion as a priority on her agenda. In 2019, she moved with her family to the United States, and during the pandemic, she returned to Brazil.

Paula Hunter is the Executive Director of the Mojaloop Foundation – a charitable nonprofit organization focused on extending the financial inclusion efforts of the Mojaloop open source software project. She leads the organization’s strategic planning and direction; grant, membership and strategic partnership development; and evangelism for the organization and its mission. Ms. Hunter is an open source and technology leader with nearly two decades of executive director-level experience managing industry advocacy groups, open source organizations, and standards associations. She was tapped by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop the plan and structure of the open source-based Mojaloop Foundation, which successfully launched in 2020. In addition, she has extensive open source experience.

Mr Ravi Menon was appointed Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in 2011. He was previously Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Trade & Industry and Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Finance.

Mr Menon began his career at MAS in 1987. During his 16 years in MAS, he was involved in monetary policy; econometric forecasting; organisational development; banking regulation and liberalisation; and integrated supervision of complex financial institutions. Mr Menon spent a year at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, as a member of the secretariat to the Financial Stability Forum. A recipient of the Singapore Government's Meritorious Service Medal and Public Administration (Gold) Medal, Mr Menon has served on a variety of boards in the public, private, and people sectors in Singapore. On the international front, Mr Menon chairs the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System as well as Chair of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero APAC Network Advisory Board. He is also a member of the Financial Stability Board (FSB) Steering Committee. Mr Menon holds a Master's in Public Administration from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Social Science (Honours) in Economics from the National University of Singapore.

René Michau is Global Head of Digital Assets and is responsible for coordinating the strategic approach across Standard Chartered and SC Ventures, aligning innovation and capability delivery to provide clients with safe access to digital asset solutions. René led the establishment of the Fintech Banking business at SC and has worked across Financial Markets, Transaction Banking, Risk and Technology for several banks including HSBC, ANZ and NAB. His early career was spent as an Officer in the Australian Defence Force. 

René also leads the development of crypto trading, and custody products for Standard Chartered and co-chairs the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC) Digital Finance Institutional Crypto Working Group and the Institute of International Finance (IIF) Digital Assets Forum. René is also a member of the Digital Asset Markets sub-committee of the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)’s Global Markets Advisory Committee (GMAC) 

René is a strong advocate for innovation and contributes his time collaborating to community building, podcasts, academic research and speaking engagements. René is passionate about the empowerment of the amazing women in crypto and fintech and advocates for the power of diversity.

Rob Schimek is the Group Chief Executive Officer of bolttech. He leads the bolttech team across our operations globally, overseeing our growth and partnership opportunities.

With more than 30 years’ experience in the financial services industry, Rob has previously held senior leadership roles in insurance, including Managing Director & Group Chief Operating Officer for FWD Group, President and CEO of AIG’s commercial insurance businesses worldwide and Chief Executive Officer of the Americas for AIG. Prior to that, Rob served as President and Chief Executive Officer of EMEA for AIG and was the Chief Financial Officer of AIG’s global property and casualty insurance business.

Before joining AIG, Rob was a partner at Deloitte & Touche L.L.P. where, for 18 years, he used his public accounting experience to serve global financial institution clients, including MetLife, The Prudential Insurance Company of America, and Merrill Lynch.

Rob is a C.P.A. He earned his M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of Rider University in New Jersey.

Outside of work, Rob can be found in the gym or competing in some of the world’s toughest endurance competitions such as the FWD 78° North Marathon, one of the most northern marathons in the world, and the Ironman World Championships.

Salim Dhanani is CEO & Co-Founder of Pave Bank, a digital bank built for a new financial world with programmable money and regulated digital assets. Prior to Pave Bank, Salim co-founded and was the CEO of BigPay, one of the largest Southeast Asian neobanks raising over US$165m in capital and with 1.3m users, was responsible for the EMEA division of Carta Worldwide, a digital payments platform, and worked for the World Bank Group in South America. Salim has built his career in financial services, focusing on banking and payment technology for a diverse range of companies – including established banking players and fintech unicorns. Salim is an active angel investor in the fintech and Web3 space through Thurloe Partners.

Sandra Ro serves as CEO of the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC), the world’s largest industry association for the blockchain and digital assets community. As a proponent of ‘human-centric tech,’ Sandra advances responsible innovation and inclusion as an angel investor, board director, advisor, guest lecturer, media commentator and cofounder of social impact and tech start-ups. From investment banking and currency markets to blockchain technology, Sandra has spent her career advocating using digital tools to solve big problems. She holds an M.B.A. from London Business School, studied Computer Science at Columbia University, and earned a double B.A. degree from Yale University. 

Saurav currently serves as the CEO & MD of Proxtera Private Limited, a company born out of Business sans Borders (BSB) initiative.

BSB, is a global initiative, by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to create an open connector of business platforms, trade associations, government bodies, financial services and other services providers. Proxtera reason for existence is to help MSME’s in growing global cross-border trade.

Saurav was the Founder CEO of Quantum Inventions (QI), a company focused in Mobility Intelligence for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) which was wholly acquired in 2017 by Continental Corporation. 

Saurav is the immediate past President of Intelligent Transport Society of Singapore (ITSS), and now serves it as an Advisor. Amongst other appointments, he serves as the Board Member & Invest Panel of SEEDS Capital, and as the Deputy Chair of Action Community for Entrepreneurship.

Sheel Mohnot is Co-Founder and GP of Better Tomorrow Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital fund investing in fintech companies globally. His own startup experience includes 2 successful fintech exits — a payments company and a high-stakes auction company — and he’s GP of the 500 Fintech fund. He formerly worked as a financial services consultant at BCG and started his fintech career at the non-profit p2p lender, Kiva.

Shweta Rajpal Kohli

Chief Public Policy Officer, Peak XV Partners

As the Head of Public Policy, Shweta works with government stakeholders to craft policies that help accelerate the growth momentum of the startup ecosystem in India & Southeast Asia. She advises portfolio companies on managing regulatory risks and unlocking new levers of growth, and helps create public policy partnerships that align the vision of startup founders and governments.

Before joining Peak XV, Shweta led the public policy function for Salesforce and Uber across South Asia, with a key focus on tech policy, including data privacy, cloud computing regulations, digital payments, and ridesharing regulations.

Shweta is a Board Member of WE-Hub, an accelerator for women entrepreneurs set up by the Telangana Government. She is also the Co-Chair of the Ed-Tech Taskforce set up by industry body FICCI.

Shweta was ranked among IMPACT Magazine’s 50 Most Influential Women in 2018. She received the FICCI FLO Women in Leadership Award in 2020, Women in Excellence Award by the Women Economic Forum in 2019, and the Communicator of the Year by Association of Business Communicators of India (ABCI) in 2011.

Shweta has completed mid-career programs from Wharton Business School, INSEAD Business School, and the University of Westminster. She completed her Bachelors in Journalism from Lady Shri Ram College, holds a Masters in Political Science from Delhi University and a distance learning MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur.

She was awarded the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) Fellowship, the US Department of State’s professional program for global leaders. A British Chevening Scholar, she was also chosen among 45 global leaders for the Asian Forum on Global Governance (AFGG) Fellowship.

Before joining the policy world, Shweta spent two decades as a business journalist and TV news anchor. During her journalism career, she received several honours, including the Ramnath Goenka Journalism Award for Broadcast Journalism by President of India Pratibha Patil and Business Standard-Seema Nazareth Award for Young Print Journalists by President of India KR Narayanan.

Shweta is a regular speaker at leading conferences, including World Economic Forum India Summit, MindMine Summit, CyFy India, and the UN Gender Equality Summit.

She lives in New Delhi with her husband and two children.

(e): shweta@peakxv.com (T): @ShwetaRKohli (m): +91-9899888667

Sigal Mandelker joined Ribbit Capital in April 2020. Ribbit is an investment firm focused on financial services and technology. Prior to Ribbit, she served as Under Secretary of Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence and as Acting Deputy Secretary.  As Under Secretary, Sigal supervised four main components of Treasury (OFAC, FinCEN, the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, and the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes).  Before serving at Treasury, Sigal was a partner at Proskauer in New York.  Sigal also previously served in a number of senior positions in the U.S. government, including as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Division of the Justice Department, an AUSA in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, Counselor to Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, and Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General. Sigal is also an Advisor to Chainalysis, is on the Boards of the Crypto Council for Innovation and the Financial Technology Association, is Co-Chair of the Center for a New American Security’s (CNAS) task force on FinTech, Crypto, and National Security, is a Member of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum Council, and Chair of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's Collections & Acquisitions Committee. 

Stefan Flueckiger is a former Swiss senior diplomat with special expertise in international finance, sustainable finance and green fintech. He advises on various start-ups and is the Honorary President of the Swiss Green Fintech Network. He entered the Swiss diplomatic service in 1989 and served at the Swiss Embassy in Harare, worked as World Bank Staff in Washington and Haiti, headed the Economic and Finance Team at the Swiss Embassy in Berlin, and was the Swiss Ambassador to the OECD in Paris. Stefan Flückiger served as member of the board of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), and headed the Special Foreign Economic Services, directing negotiation teams for bilateral and multilateral trade and investment agreements. From 2020-2023 he was the Deputy State Secretary for International Finance (SIF) and acted as Switzerland’s G20 Finance Deputy, leading bilateral financial dialogues with China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Russia and the UK. During his time at SIF he oversaw the government’s strategy on financial markets, with a focus on digital finance and sustainable finance. Stefan Flueckiger holds degrees from Zurich University and Yale University.

Fascinated by software development since his childhood in Germany, Thomas Dohmke has built a career building tools developers love and accelerating innovations that are changing software development. Currently, Thomas is Chief Executive Officer of GitHub, where he has overseen the launch of the world's first at-scale AI developer tool, GitHub Copilot -- and now, GitHub Copilot X. Before his time at GitHub, Thomas previously co-founded HockeyApp and led the company as CEO through its acquisition by Microsoft in 2014, and holds a PhD in mechanical engineering from University of Glasgow, UK.

Todd Schweitzer is co-founder and CEO at Brankas, a leading global open finance technology provider. Brankas partners with financial institutions to launch and monetize API products for real-time payments, identity verification, new account opening, remittances, and more. With Brankas, online businesses, fintech companies, and digital banks can use Brankas APIs to create new digital experiences for their users.

Todd has held senior roles in private equity and management consulting, spanning technology, the public sector, and financial services. He is also the founding Director of Open Banking Exchange Asia, convening policymakers and industry leaders across the region to develop common standards and best practices.

Todd holds dual Bachelor's degrees with honors in Economics and International Studies from the University of California, Irvine, and a Master in Public Policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government with a focus on economic development policy. He lives in Manila, Philippines.

Varun leads Innovation and Ecosystem at homegrown financial services company, Singlife. He collaborates closely with both internal and external stakeholders to adopt transformative ideas as well as develop partnerships with key industry players.

Prior to joining Singlife, Varun was responsible for FinTech business development in 130 emerging markets across the globe. He has been involved in various technology companies throughout his career and he is co-founder of the Singapore FinTech Association and ASEAN FinTech Network.

Varun is the founder of "The Fintech Nation" project comprising book, podcast and investment fund to support fintech ecosystem in Singapore. He is also actively involved in other investment vehicles and funds, focused on early and growth stage investments in emerging markets.

He holds a Master of Business Administration in Strategy and Organisation from National University of Singapore and a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science Engineering from India. 

Vinod Nair is the founder and CEO of MoneySmart Group. Passionate about entrepreneurship and the Internet, he established MoneySmart.sg in 2009, today a leading online personal finance platform offering a range of financial products and services to help individuals make informed decisions about their money. Under Vinod’s dynamic leadership, the MoneySmart online marketplace and content platform has achieved strong growth in the past decade with presence in both Singapore and Hong Kong. MoneySmart Group has since expanded its ecosystem with the founding of Bubblegum in 2022, an insurance brand that aims to revolutionise the insurance landscape by bringing consumers the best value insurance products and seamless end-to-end digital experience. Vinod continues to play an instrumental role in guiding the business to the forefront of the sector.

Vinod is passionate about people, culture and innovation. He’s an avid reader and learner and brings the best of what he’s learned to inspire people, develop a strong company culture and push the boundaries of innovation. 

Vinod holds a Bachelor’s Degree majoring in Computing, with a Minor in Technopreneurship from the National University of Singapore. He was also a part of NUS Overseas Colleges Programme where he gained entrepreneurial experience at Silicon Valley between 2005-2006, supporting his journey in starting up in very own businesses.

Yee Lee was the first team member to join Terraformation and currently serves as VP Growth & Capital Markets. Yee has an extensive track record as a serial entrepreneur with involvement in many of the most impactful companies in the tech industry.

Yee began his career in Silicon Valley as an early team member at PayPal and, over the course of 25 years, has served in engineering and product management roles at companies like eBay, Google, Skype, TaskRabbit, and Facebook.  Yee founded four startup companies in the social network, ecommerce and fintech sectors. These roles have allowed Yee to leverage his extensive understanding of engineering, design, social, and fintech to scale transformative products.

At Terraformation, Yee leads the Growth team, focused on finding ways to help foresters be more successful and to start more new forestry projects in order to accelerate the growth of the global regenerative forest restoration industry.

Yee holds degrees in engineering from UC Berkeley and Stanford.

Dr Yuhui Yao, PhD in Artificial Intelligence (AI), is the Group Chief Data Officer at FWD. Based in Singapore, he is currently leading FWD’s Big Data, AI and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). With over 20 years of Big Data Management and Analytics experience, Dr Yao has served in multinational companies including PingAn, UOB, IBM and Cisco to drive data-driven decision. In addition, he has published more than 15 research papers on the topic. The excellent work has earned him accolades and industry-wide recognition, and he has participated as a speaker in many conferences such as The Economist, FST Media’s Future of Financial Services, ASEAN and Insurance Analytics & AI Innovation Asia Pacific, to name a few.