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Biographies

Shiva Bissessar CEO, Caribbean Blockchain Association Mr. Bissessar is a consultant based in Trinidad and Tobago whose work with digital currency began with an M.Sc. Information Security thesis examining Bitcoin at the University College London in 2013. He later conducted socio-economic research into the advent of digital currency in the Caribbean, as published by the United Nations in 2016. In 2016 and 2017 he worked with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to develop capacity building workshops for Caribbean policy makers on Digital Financial Services. He is the CEO and Co-founder of the Caribbean Blockachain Association, an advocacy group promoting responsible adoption of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies while bridging the gap between policy makers and market entrants.
Fangfang Dai Network security researcher, Department of Network Security, China Academy of Information and Communication Technology Dai Fangfang was born in Southern China, she carried out her undergraduate studies at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, and received her B.E. (2010) and PhD (2015) there. She is now working as a network security researcher in the Department of Network Security at China Academy of Information and Communication Technology. Her major job is to develop technical standards, management regulations, to research on network security industry and technology. She has participated in the publication of the Network Security Industry White Paper 2015 and 2017. Her research interests mainly include network attack and defense, virtualization security, blockchain security and big data security.
Jonathan Dharmapalan Founder, eCurrency Jonathan Dharmapalan is the founder of eCurrency™ where he invented and pioneered the digital fiat currency method to create central bank issued digital currency. He is the recognized expert in this space, with expansive knowledge of central bank requirements for a digital fiat currency issuance and distribution. Jonathan has engaged in several speaking opportunities on the topic especially in central bank forums. Jonathan’s vision to empower central banks in the digital economy has been fulfilled by eCurrency. Prior to establishing eCurrency, Jonathan was the head of Ernst & Young’s Global Telecommunications Practice and Chair of its Mobile Money Office. Before joining EY he was a Partner at Deloitte where he led the Global Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) Consulting Practice and held several other leadership roles including heading up their Silicon Valley Technology office. Jonathan has over 30 years of related technology and business experience. Jonathan began his career developing advanced technology solutions at AT&T Bell Laboratories. He holds a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University and a MS in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
Yury Grin Deputy Director General of Intervale Group Currently Dr. Grin is Deputy Director General of Intervale Group of companies, working in this capacity last 4.5 years. Intervale is leading Russian Group of companies with vast experience in the field of e-commerce and mobile payments gained during last 18 years. Dr. Grin as representative of Intervale served as Vice-Chairman of ITU-T Focus Group on Digital Financial Services during years 2014-2017. Before Intervale he worked during 7 years at International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Grin joined ITU in the year 2006 like a Chief of Conference and Publication Department. From year 2007 till year 2013 he was Deputy to the Director and Chief of Administration and Operations Coordination Department of the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) of ITU. In this capacity he was heavily involved into assistance to developing countries in all fields of modern ICT/Telecommunications, including migration from analog to digital broadcasting, frequency management, cybersecurity, deployment of NGNs, mobile and e-applications like e-health, m-payments etc. Prior to joining ITU, from 1994 to 2006, he worked in the International Cooperation Department of the Ministry for Information Technologies and Communications of the Russian Federation. He worked first as Deputy Director General and as from 2000 as Director General, when his was responsible for all relationships of the Ministry with Telecom and ICT Ministries of different countries, with ITU, UPU and other International Organizations like Intelsat, EUTELSAT, INTERSPUTNIK and others, foreign companies - both operators and manufacturers, as well as Intergovernmental Commissions/Committees, chaired by his Minister. At that period he was also Vice-Chairman of ITU Council in year 2000 and Chairman of the ITU Council in year 2001. From 2001 till 2006 his was Chairman of ITU Council Working Group on preparation to the World Summit on Information Society. From year 2002 till year 2005 his was also Member of UN ICT Task Force, representing Russia in this body. From 1990 to 1994, Dr. Grin was Deputy Director General of the R&D Institute of Economics and Composite Problems of Communications with responsibility for a broad range of analytical studies on the trends in modern telecommunications and related areas. From 1991 until 1998 he was also a Member of ITU Telecom Board. From 1977 to 1990, he worked at the Moscow Radiocommunication R&D Institute, first as Leading Engineer, then as Senior Scientist and Chief of Department, leading research and development of new Satellite Communications Systems. This work involved the creation of the mathematical models, physical prototypes and full scale samples of most advanced Satellite Communications Equipment in the world at that time. In 1978, Dr. Grin obtained his PhD in physics and mathematics at Lomonosov Moscow State University, from which he had graduated in 1974 with specialization in Radio Physics. Dr. Grin is the author of more than 80 scientific and technical publications and holds more than 20 copyrights on inventions in the field of communications and information technologies. He has been awarded several high distinctions, such as: Medal of the Soviet Peace Fund in 1977, Prize of the Council of Ministers of the USSR in the field of Science and Technologies in 1990 , Master of Communications in 2001, Silver medal from the International Telecommunication Union in 2001. He is a member of the International Academy of Communications and a member of the Moscow Scientific Society. Dr. Grin is married and has four children. His interests include classical music and art. He speaks Russian, Ukrainian, English, and some French and Spanish.
Bilel Jamoussi Chief of the Study Groups Department, Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, ITU Tunisian born, Dr. Bilel Jamoussi is Chief of the Study Groups Department of ITU Standardization Bureau in Geneva Switzerland. Since 2010, he has been leading the bureau’s standards making activities into a new era characterized by rapid convergence and the need for increased collaboration with vertical sectors and partnership between developed and developing countries. Prior to 2010, Jamoussi worked for a Telecommunication equipment and solutions provider for 15 years in Canada and then in the United States where he held several leadership positions and was granted 22 US patents in diverse areas including packet, optical, wireless, and quality of service. He holds a BSc, MSc and PhD degrees in Computer Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University, USA. He is fluent in Arabic, French, and English and speaks some Spanish and German.
Mariana Magaldi de Sousa Professor, Center for Research and Teaching in Economics Mariana Magaldi de Sousa is a professor at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) in Mexico City. She has worked as a consultant to the Inter-American Development Bank, Oxfam International, the Ministry of Social Development in Mexico, and Verisk Maplecroft. Her work has been published in academic journals such as the Journal of Banking Regulation and other volumes edited by various university presses. She received a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Notre Dame and specializes in financial regulation and sustainable development.
James Masoy Manager of Oversight and Policy Department, Directorate of National Payment Systems, Bank of Tanzania James Masoy is the Manager of Oversight and Policy Department, Directorate of National Payment Systems of Bank of Tanzania. As a head of department, he is currently involved in day to day oversight and policy issues of the national payments systems, mainly through monitoring, assessing compliance and inducing changes to implementation of large and retail payment payments systems/schemes. Most of the key interests and achievements of the directorate during recent years have been focused on the successful promotion of mobile financial services, agent-banking developments, cross border mobile payments and interoperability, through effective policies that geared to promote financial inclusion targets. His recent involvements were the development and operationalization of new NPS regulatory framework, fully involved in process of enactment of the NPS Act 2015 and other regulations under it, drafting of NPS Vision 2016 and Oversight Policy Framework documents. Mr Masoy prior to joining the directorate of NPS in 2011, spent his 20 years in MIS directorate at the Central Bank mainly dealing with computer systems development and administration, network administration and configuration, web based applications developments, projects management , business process management and reengineering. In between, Mr. Masoy was seconded to save at Commonwealth Secretariat, London UK, as consultant with expert team in developing oracle based application for Debt Recording and Management Systems namely (CS-DRMS) for two years. He undertook various professional certifications such as Oracle development, Database designs and administration, Cisco Networking, Web applications development, Project management, and Business Process management to mention the few. Mr. Masoy is part of “Fletcher School Leadership Program in Financial Inclusion - Alumni 2016” fellowship program from Tufty University, Massachusetts, USA, under Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation initiatives. He joined ITU DFS Focus Group Ecosystem since April 2016 and became ITU FG DFC in April 2017. Mr. Masoy holds an MSc Computer Science from University of City, London – UK.
Njuguna S. Ndung’u University of Nairobi (Former Governor, Central Bank of Kenya) Professor Njuguna S. Ndung'u is the former Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, a position he occupied for two consecutive four-year terms, from March 2007 until March 2015. He is an economist, a university professor and a researcher. Prior to his appointment as Governor, he was the Director of Training at the African Economic Research Consortium, (AERC), a Pan African premier capacity building network. He also worked as a regional programme specialist for the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office, Nairobi, of the International Development Research Centre, Canada and at the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis as a principal analyst/researcher and head of the Macroeconomic and Economic Modelling Division. He led a team to develop the Kenyan micromodel that has been in use for forecasting growth and fiscal stance since 2001. As Governor, he worked with various global networks, he was the chair of Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) now based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in the first four formative years between 2009 and 2012. It is a network that develops and encourages its members to adopt financial inclusion policies that work. AFI has coordinated financial inclusion solutions in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It has been described as a ‘clearing house’ for policy solutions that have worked and can be replicated with ease in other countries for financial inclusion He also chaired of the African Mobile Phone Financial Services Policy Initiative (AMPI), a sub-network of AFI that promotes financial inclusion in Africa via the mobile phone financial services. He has lectured in advanced economic theory and econometrics at the University of Nairobi. In addition, he has published widely in international journals as well as chapters in various books on economic policy issues. Currently he is a Member of the Brookings Africa Growth Initiative (AGI) Distinguished Advisory Group, and a Member of the Advisory Committee of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion.
Prosper Ngendanganya Director of Supervision, Financial Stability and Financial Inclusion, Banque de la République du Burundi Holding a master degree in Finance, Mr. Prosper NGENGANDANYA has been appointed as Director of Supervision, financial stability and financial Inclusion of the “Banque de la République du Burundi” (BRB) since April 2016. According to duties entrusted to him, he is responsible of the oversight of the institutions under the control of the Central bank, namely the banks and the financial institutions, the microfinance institutions, the payment institutions, the Capital market and forex bureaus. He continuously working actively for the modernization of the above-mentioned sectors, including the implementation of regulatory frameworks by taking into account actual best practices in force and adequate institutional frameworks. As a newly output, the BRB has recently issued the new regulations on payment services and the activities of payment institutions, as well as that related to payment services agents. Before joining the Central bank in 2013, Mr. Prosper NGENDANGANYA began his professional career in 2011, in a leading commercial bank in Burundi, where he has been appointed as an accountant, management controller, Credit portfolio manager, successively. As a Central bank executive, he has also held several positions. He began as a financial analyst in charge of the implementation of macroprudential supervision, a supervisory framework put at the forefront in Central banks with the 2008 financial crisis, before being appointed as the head of the department in charge of banking Supervision and financial stability. As an expert of the banking sector, he is a lecture on behalf of the Central bank in both universities and the specialized associations.
Ahmed Said Head of Economic Affairs, National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA) Ahmed Said is the Head of Economic Affairs at the National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA) of Egypt. At present, he is carrying out all the economic related issues in the telecom sector and monitoring the performance of the telecom market and the progress in implementing the cost modeling process and the financial related issues. Mr. Said received his Master of Science in Business Information Technology from University of Middlesex in London, in the year 2001 and he obtained his Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting, from Cairo University in the year 1999. Mr. Said started his career in Mobinil (First mobile network operator in Egypt), followed by TheWayOut (Regional ISP head quartered in Egypt) whereby he reached the position of the business development manager. In 2002 Mr. Said moved to General Dynamics (U.S. based Corporation) as eGovernment and eBusiness Consultant. During this post Mr. Said has managed successfully to manage several telecom and IT projects with the ministry of communication and information technology. In 2004 Mr. Said moved back to TheWayOut as the Head of WayOut Wireless (A Subsidy of TheWayOut Group) whereby he has managed to expand the business of the company in the Middle East region opening 5 new offices in Dubai, Bahrain, Jordan, Oman and Yemen. In 2007 Mr. Said joined the National telecom regulatory authority as the economic affairs director. Throughout his career at NTRA he gained extensive experience in the field of telecommunications regulations, cost modeling, regulatory economics and Market analysis. Mr. Said was also a member of the implementation team responsible for the development of major regulatory frameworks in the Egyptian telecom market including Access Framework, International Gateway Frameworks and Egypt's national broadband plan and recently the 4G license framework. Mr. Said has represented the Egyptian administration in several conferences & venues including the WTO, GSR, ITU Telecom indicators, WTSA12, WTSA16 and Arab Tariff Group (Arab League)..etc. Mr. Said is currently the Vice Chairman of ITU-T SG3 where he is leading the work on many topics like OTT, Mobile Financial services and Alternative calling procedures this is beside his active role in leading the restructuring process of ITU-T SG3 whereby he succeeded in adding more questions and expanding the area of study in the SG3. Also Mr. Said was appointed as the Chariman of ITU-T SG3 RG ARB where he lead the Arab member states in starting this regional group and expanded the activities to study a lot of topic that interests the Arab region and positioned the group as an active regional group within SG3.
Muhammad Arif Sargana Director (Economic Affairs), Pakistan Telecommunications Authority Mr Sargana has more than 23 years extensive and demonstrated professional experience both with public and private sectors/International donors/INGOs as an economist. He is working as Director (Economic Affairs) with Pakistan telecom regulator since 2003. He has worked extensively on the development of facilitative regulatory environment for the mobile banking industry in Pakistan. He is the lead member of PTA’s mobile banking committee that has developed the interoperability Regulations in collaboration with State Bank of Pakistan after detailed industry coordination and analysis of various mobile banking models. He is a central part to develop the third Party Service Provider licensing framework in Pakistan aimed to introduce interoperability in Pakistan and growth of the Digital Financial Services in Pakistan. He is also Member of Technical committee of National Financial Inclusion Strategy designed by the Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan for provision of banking services across Pakistan to huge unbaked population. He is also focal person for ITU to provide all kind of ICT/Telecom statistics. As Director (Economic Affairs) he is also responsible at the regulator for ICT & SDGs monitoring and focal point for ITU to provide all kind of economic and ICT/Telecom statistics. He also published PTA annual reports which provide developments in Pakistan ICT and Telecom sector and also contributes a chapter in Pakistan Economic Survey annually published by the Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan. He also contributes for determination of Sign fact Market Power player, tariff regulations and competition issues in Pakistan Telecom sector. Previously, he also worked as Deputy Director at the National Tariff Commission where he contributed to the Trade Remedy Laws in Pakistan in accordance with WTO Agreements. He also worked for Competition Commission of Pakistan, World Bank Pakistan Resident Mission, United Nations and other development institutions for various assignments. He also remained a research Fellow at University of Bradford, UK where he produced paper on “Regularity Reforms in Pakistan Telecom Sector and its impact on Pakistan economy”.
Edward M. Scheidt Convenor of ISO TC68 SC2 WG13 Ad Hoc Group 4, Security of International Digital Currencies, Vice chair, ANSI x9 US Financial Standards, Global Security Standards, Chief, scientist, Tecsec Mr Scheidt is currently the Convenor, convenor of ISO TC68 SC2 WG13 Ad Hoc Group 4, Security of International Digital Currencies, Vice chair, ANSI x9 US Financial Standards, Global Security Standards, Chief, scientist, Tecsec. He is the former leader of the US ANSI x9 Accredited Standards x9f data and information security committee. He actively participates in specific x9 and ISO standards, including new directions to advance forms of security across the financial sector domains. He is the head of the US delegation to ISO TC68 SC2 Financial Services, Security and member of the Federal Reserve Security Task Force with adjunct membership in subcommittees of Standards, Identity Management, and Data Protection. He is employed with Tecsec, a security research and solution company providing support to the financial sector and has authored various papers regarding security, including examples such as "The World of Objects: Physical and Virtual" and "Blockchain Permission Model". He has a Master of Science from George Washington University.
Shuang Song Research fellow, Department of International Finance at IWEP Ms Song is a research fellow in the Department of International Finance at IWEP. Her research covers China’s overseas investment, renminbi internationalization, multinational development banks and digital fiat currency. She was a research assistant on industrial economics in the Development Research Center of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, and has consulted on regional integration for the East and North-East Asia Office of UNESCAP. She has also served as a visiting scholar in the Department of International Business and Strategy at the University of Reading in the UK. She has published a number of articles in peer-reviewed journals, including the Chinese Journal of European Studies, Journal of Financial Research (Chinese), International Economic Cooperation (Chinese), China State Finance, The Chinese Banker and others. She holds a doctorate from Tsinghua University.
Lilin Sun CEO, Juzix Mr. Lilin Sun worked as the Head of Strategy, Business Development and innovation in UnionPay for more than 10 years, where he was in charge of planning and promoting innovation strategies in the payment services. At the same time, he was managing third party payment agencies for UnionPay, and cooperating with various telecom operators to develop mobile payment standards. He was actively involved in the establishments of UnionPay subsidiaries, such as Zhong Yin Tong and China TV Pay. Prior to UnionPay, he worked as an Internet Research Director in the consulting firm, Analysis International. He earned a master degree in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing from Wuhan University, and a bachelor degree from Beihang University.
Anne Shere Wallwork Senior Counselor for Strategic Policy, Treasury’s Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes (TFFC) Anne Shere Wallwork is Senior Counselor for Strategic Policy in Treasury’s Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes (TFFC), where she is charged with identifying and developing strategies to address emerging and persistent money laundering and terrorist financing threats involving new payments mechanisms, including mobile payments, prepaid access products, Internet payment systems, and virtual currency, while also facilitating financial inclusion and innovation. She also helps lead the Department’s work on FinTech and RegTech. Ms. Wallwork has been the U.S. Government’s lead in working with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to address money laundering and terrorist financing threats associated with virtual currency, and was primary drafter on the FATF’s June 2014 Virtual Currency Key Terms and AML/CFT Risks and June 2015 Guidance for a Risk-based Approach to Virtual Currencies: Convertible Currency Exchangers. From October 2007 to March 2012, Ms. Wallwork served as TFFC’s Senior Counselor for Asia and had primary responsibility for AML/CFT policy issues involving that region. Ms. Wallwork served as the Treasury Department’s Senior Representative to National Counter-Terrorism Center (NCTC) from July, 2006 to November 2007 and was Deputy Director of Strategic Policy for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes from April 2004 to July 2006. She helped lead the U.S. Government’s efforts to develop a comprehensive strategic approach to combating kleptocracy; helped drive the U.S. Government’s international efforts to trace and repatriate Iraqi assets worldwide; and chaired several interagency working groups that sought to recover the proceeds of foreign official corruption, including Liberian and Haitian assets. A graduate of Yale Law School (Editor, Yale Law Journal) and Wellesley College (Phi Beta Kappa, Wellesley College Scholar), before coming to Treasury, Ms. Wallwork practiced law at Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin in Washington, DC and was a consultant for the World Bank.
David Wen Chairman, ITU-T Focus Group on Digital Currency including Digital Fiat Currency Dr David Wen is the Chairman of ITU-T Focus Group on Digital Currency including Digital Fiat Currency. He is also the co-founder and Chief Scientist of eCurrency. After obtaining his Ph.D from Oxford University, he has worked at NTT Communication Science Laboratory in Japan, before appointed the youngest Associate Professor in Tokyo Science University. When visiting Stanford University as a visiting professor, he decided to apply his research to build solution for challenging and impactful ventures in the real world. He started as a security architect at ActivCard (now HID Global) and was responsible for the design of the Identity Management Solution for the Department of Defense’s Common Access Card (CAC) program. He went on to become the product manager, program manager and Chief Scientist at Fortune 500 companies such as Dell and SAIC, managing the deployment of US Federal Government’s Personal Identification and Verification (PIV) program at NASA, DHS, FDA. He is one of the main contributors who enabled the most advanced Digital Identity Management solution for the entire US government by the 2008 deadline set by President George Bush in HSPD-12. In September 2011, he co-founded eCurrency Mint Ltd, applying his extensive experience building nation wide security program to the solution of a Central Bank Issued Digital Currency. He helped coin the term Digital Fiat Currency working as the US expert to ISO Technical Committee 68 (SC 2) for digital currency security, and led the establishment of the ITU-T Focus Group on Digital Fiat Currency, working with central banks and telecom regulators from the over 27 developing countries. He is also the founder of Digital Fiat Currency Institute, and one of China’s “Thousand Talent” award winner.
Heung Youl Youm, PhD Chairman, ITU-T SG17 and Professor, Soonchunhyang Univ., Korea Dr. Heung Youl Youm is a Chairman of ITU-T Study Group 17, Security. He has worked as a professor for the Soonchunhyang University, Korea since 1990. He began participating in ITU-T SG 17 in 2003 and has actively contributed to the work of SG17 as a core member of security experts for more than 13 years. He was an associate Rapporteur of SG 17 Question 10/17 from 2003 to 2004. For the Study Period (2005 – 2008), he served as a Rapporteur of Question 9/17. He was a Vice Chairman of ITU-T Study Group 17 from 2009 to 2016. He was Chairman of Working Party 2 (Application Security) of SG17 for the Study Period (2009–2012) and was Chairman of Working Party 3 (Identity management and cloud computing security) of SG17 for the Study Period (2013–2016). He has been a Project Editor or Co-editor for 21 approved ITU-T Recommendations or agreed Supplements in the area of IPTV security, home network security, authentication protocol, USN security, mobile security, and cybersecurity. He is currently the Director of SCH cybersecurity research centre in Soonchunhyang University. He was a president of KIISC (Korea Institute on information security and cryptology) in 2011 and is an emeritus president of KIISC. He had worked for ETRI as a senior research engineer from 1982 to 1990. He had been active in many (advisory or self-performance evaluation) committees in the area of Information Security and privacy for the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) from 2008 to 2016, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) from 2013 to 2017, and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MoTIE) from 2015 to 2017. He has been active in government performance evaluation committee for Ministry of Science and ICT since 2017 and a group for the Korea Personal Information Protection Committee since 2017, and has served as a Chairman for the ISMS/PIMS certification committee in Korea since 2007 and a Chairman for the information security group for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic & Paralympic Organizing Committee. He received a Bachelor degree in 1981, a Master degree in 1983, and a Ph.D. degree in 1990, all in Electronics Engineering from Hanyang University, Korea.
Ziheng Zhou Associate Professor, Institute of Finance and Banking, Beijing, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Chairman, Zhejiang Academy of Modern Digital Fin-tech Dr Ziheng Zhou, is the Chairman of the Zhejiang Academy of Modern Digital Fin-tech as well as Associate Professor at the Institute of Finance and Banking, Beijing, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Previously he has worked as adviser and member of the Academic Committee for Alibaba Research Institute. Dr Zhou holds a PhD in Economics, research areas including monetary history, financial regulation and financial stability. He has published many academic writings and research on topics related to digital financial services.