 Ezekiel ‘Niyi Ajao
Executive Director, Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS),
'Niyi Ajao is the Executive Director (Business Development) at the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS), after serving as Executive Director (Technology & Operations) for 4 years in same company. He joined NIBSS as Deputy General Manager (Operations) in 2001 following 10 years in IT roles in commercial banking in Nigeria.
At NIBSS, he has played leading roles in the development and subsequent operations of the Nigeria Automated Clearing System, Nigeria Central Switch, NIBSS Instant Payments and similar shared-service initiatives of the financial services industry. He actively participates in, and speaks at, local and international industry fora on payments system practices and policies, and payments innovation.
He holds the B.Sc.(Computer Science & Economics, combined honours) degree and MBA of University of Ife, Nigeria (now Obafemi Awolowo University), and M.Sc.(Computer Sciences) degree of the University of Lagos. Also, he has attended strategy and leadership development executive trainings at the Lagos Business School, Wharton Business School, and Harvard Business School.
He is a member of the Nigeria Computer Society and an Honourable Seniour Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN).
‘Niyi is married with children. He has interests in digital finance and loves reading and gadgets. |
 Dilip Asbe
COO and interim Managing Director & CEO of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)
Mr. Dilip Asbe is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and interim Managing Director & CEO of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). Prior to this he was the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the organisation. He has played a pivotal role in designing, building, operationalisation and management of large scale innovative payments processing platforms like Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM), Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) and India’s home grown card network RuPay. Mr. Asbe’s achievements in NPCI include building high capacity platforms which are helping the nation to transform into less-cash. He is a strong leader who has ensured the delivery of processing over 1 billion transactions a month with good mentoring of teams. He has maintained strong networks in Financial Services / Payment Eco-System in the Asia Pacific region since the last 20 years. To his credit there are major achievements like setting up of the infrastructure for Euronet worldwide for Asia Pacific region and for Prizm Payments Services in India. He holds a Master of Science (MSc) Degree in Global Management (Executive Programme) from London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) with Merit at London, United Kingdom. |
 Nilimesh Baruah
Principal Commissioner of Income Tax
Mr. Nilimesh Baruah is Principal Commissioner of Income Tax, Delhi, a member of the Indian Revenue Service of 1985 batch. Prior to the current assignment, he was the Director of Serious Fraud Investigation Office, New Delhi. As head of the corporate fraud investigation arm of the Government of India, he supervised investigation conducted by a team of 130 investigators into the affairs of 342 companies during his 63 month tenure. During the assignment, prepared a blue print for inter-agency coordination as member of a Task Force on Shell Companies and created a comprehensive database of shell companies developed an analytical framework for detection of corporate fraud. Earlier, as head of the Directorate of Organizational and Management Systems, under the Central Board of Direct Taxes, he initiated a few major projects for making tax administration more effective in India including drafting of Vision 2020 document & a Citizen Charter for delivering time-bound services to the taxpayers in India. Also conceptualized and initiated setting up of standardized taxpayer service centers called Aayakar Sewa Kendra ('ASK") across the country. He holds an MBA (Finance) degree from City University of New York. Also holds Masters Degree in Economics from Delhi School of Economics and Law degree from Punjab University, Chandigarh. |
Khaled Bassiouny
General Manager, Financial Inclusion Department, the Central Bank of Egypt
Mr. Khaled Bassiouny, General Manager, Financial Inclusion Department, the Central Bank of Egypt. Mr. Bassiouny possesses over twenty seven years of experience in marketing, sales, and management, eighteen of them in the field of training and education. That included marketing researches, strategic planning, setting communication strategies and sales, developing, launching, and managing new products/services. Mr. Bassiouny is also an expert in Financial Inclusion and Financial Literacy, having more than 5 years of experience in this field. In his capacity in the CBE, Mr. Bassiouny is managing all activities related to setting the regulations and policies of financial inclusion within the banking sector, and liaison with the financial sector and government in setting the foundation for financial inclusion strategies. Promoting for the implementation of national projects with the involvement of all related stakeholders, and handling all external stakeholders relations and affiliations in the field of financial inclusion. Mr. Bassiouny's previous experiences included being the Business Development Director of renowned Training institutions, including the Egyptian Banking Institute and the Arab Academy for Banking and Financial Sciences. Mr. Bassiouny also managed The Egyptian Banking Institute's Financial Literacy Initiative "Shaping the Future". In this capacity, Mr. Bassiouny was fully responsible for setting the strategy, planning and implementation of the initiative activities. "Shaping the Future" is now a national initiative including all influential stakeholders, and has lead Egypt to win Child & Youth Finance International (CYFI) awards for 4 consecutive years, winning 5 awards. The awards are, Global Money Week 2014, MENA Region Country Award 2015, MENA Region Country Award 2016, Global Money Week Special Recognition Award 2016, and MENA Region Country Award 2017. Mr. Bassiouny is a certified DDI (BIL) Instructor, and a certified Financial Literacy Instructor by SANABEL Microfinance Network. He also trained and taught Marketing and Sales courses with the New York Institute of Technology, the Arab Academy for Banking & Financial Sciences, and Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI). Moreover, a consultant for various reputable organizations such as the American University of Cairo. Mr. Bassiouny is a graduate of the American University in Cairo (AUC) Business Administration in 1991, and continued his professional career development by obtaining his MBA from the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport in 1999. |
 Krishnan Dharmarajan
Executive Director, Centre for Digital Financial Inclusion, India
Krishnan heads the Centre for Digital Financial Inclusion (CDFI), Institute for Financial Management and Research,as its Executive Director. The Centre uses technology to support country’s flagship benefit transfer programs and open doors for the poor to the financial mainstream. Over the past three years, Krishnan has built CDFI from scratch to an organization that now drives multiple impactful innovations, partnering and supporting various organizations, including Government agencies. These projects employ technology to improve design, drive faster rollout and effectively track large benefit programs. He has driven mobile-based initiatives that include integrated cashless platform for farming community, tools for financial literacy, tracking delivery of nutrition to women and children and management of rural transformation projects as also a digital platform for a nation-wide welfare scheme for pregnant and lactating mothers. Pre-CDFI, Krishnan was Commissioner (Systems), CBEC, Government of India where he worked on conceptualization and establishment of the Goods and Services Tax Network. Krishnan also worked for five years at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology as Principal Consultant and Advisor for India’s National e-Governance Plan. He was variously responsible for Program Monitoring, Strategic Planning, Capacity Building, Institutional Restructuring and Multilateral Funding for large e-governance programs. This was preceded by 18 years of work spanning establishment of nation-wide indirect tax systems, telecom regulation, public administration and systems engineering. He received Government’s commendation for development of a mobile banking framework for the unbanked in the year 2010. He is recipient of the President of India’s award for distinguished service in the year 2006.
Krishnan took early retirement from civil service in 2014. He is a Computer engineer and a post graduate in management. |
 Narendra Nath Gangavarapu
Deputy Director General, Department of Telecommunications, Government of India
Narendra Nath Gangavarapu, is working as Deputy Director General, Department of Telecommunications, Government of India with overall responsibilities for policy formulation and implementation and matters pertaining to Security of Telecom networks and telecom related issues of national security. He was instrumental in initiating security audits in Telecom networks and is currently involved in the establishment of security testing and certification centre and CERT-Telecom He has over 30 years of telecom including 20 years of senior management experience in the areas of Telecom network planning, installation, operation and maintenance, service provisioning, Marketing & Business Development and Training. He holds a Masters in Technology from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi with specialization in VLSI design. He is trained as a Lead Auditor for ISO 9001:2008. He is a member of the National Working Group for ITU-T SG-17 on Security. He is on the Governing council of the Telecommunication Standards Development Society of India the Indian Standards Development Organisation and on the Board of Tata Communications Limited. He chairs the National technical subcommittee for security of digital payment systems. |
 Navin Gupta
Ripple
Navin Gupta joined Ripple earlier this summer to lead the company's operations in India. This follows two years as Co-Founder and CEO of on-demand commercial transportation service, Autoload India. Navin has extensive experience in global transaction banking, payments and cash management, and strategy planning following nearly two decades working for HSBC and Citigroup across the U.S., Hong Kong, Japan and India. During his tenure as Head of Payments and Cash Management for HSBC Japan, the business was transformed and voted the #1 Cash Management Bank in Japan by Euromoney. He was also a chief architect of HSBC’s global initiative on Working Capital and Liquidity Management and in 2008 was recognized as one of "The 50 Most Promising Young Leaders" in Asia-Pac by The Asian Banker. Navin currently lives in Mumbai with his wife and two children, is an Art of Living teacher and volunteers at a slum school in Dharavi, India. He enjoys meditation and traveling around the world. |
 S Ganeshkumar
Executive Director in the Reserve Bank of India
He is the Executive Director in the Reserve Bank of India. His current responsibilities include the entire gamut of Payment and Settlement Systems, Information Technology and external investments and foreign exchange reserves management. He is a post graduate in Management having experience in varied fields such as marketing, market research, banking, finance, and Information Technology. He has been with the Reserve Bank of India for more than two decades. With the advent of technology in banking, he has been focussing on computerised operations of the various functions of the Central Bank. Shri Ganesh Kumar was associated with the introduction of technology in the Banking sector as well as the introduction of new digital based payment and settlement systems for the benefit of the customer at large. The areas include the introduction of computerised and network based banking functions, pioneering work in the introduction of electronic movement of funds and the introduction of Real Time Gross Settlement in India, introduction of cheque truncation and other electronic data interchange initiatives for the Banking sector. He has played a key role in framing the policy for IT implementation in the Reserve Bank and the Banking sector, apart from providing policy perspectives relating to IS Security, Audit and compliance. He has also been associated with the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology - the IT institute for the Banking sector, facilitating in training and new service offerings stemming out of Research activities of the Institute. He is the RBI nominee on the Committee for Payment and Settlement Systems in Bank for International Settlements, Basel. |
 P K
Gupta
Managing Director, State Bank of India
Mr. P. K. Gupta is Managing Director of the Bank since 2nd November, 2015. Currently, he looks after Retail Banking and latest initiatives in Payments & Digital Banking. Prior to this, Mr. Gupta was the Managing Director looking after Compliance & Risk in the Bank. Mr. Gupta joined State Bank of India in the year 1982. He has held a number of very important assignments in the bank in India and abroad, some of which are as under:
- Managing Director & CEO, SBI Capital Markets Ltd., the merchant banking subsidiary of SBI.
- Deputy Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer of the Bank.
- Chief General Manager (Global Markets) responsible for the entire treasury functions of the Bank. Mr. Gupta has extensively handled treasury operations in the Bank, both in India and abroad.
- Chief General Manager, Bhubaneswar circle looking after the Bank’s business in the state of Odisha.
- General Manager, Network 1, Guwahati responsible for the Banks business in the states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
- Dy. Chief Executive Officer of the SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Fund, which is a private equity fund promoted by State Bank of India along with Macquarie Bank of Australia and IFC, Washington with a corpus of US Dollar 1.2 billion.
- Chief Executive Officer of the Bahrain Offshore Banking Unit and the Regional head for the Middle East and North Africa regions. Mr. Gupta was earlier posted at Bank’s London office also.
Mr. Gupta is a past Chairman of Forex Exchange Dealers Association of India (FEDAI). He is also a member of Technical Advisory Committee of RBI on Financial Markets. |
 Sanjay Jain
Chief Innovation Officer at CIIE
Sanjay is the Chief Innovation Officer at CIIE, where he leads efforts to help create, promote, and encourage entrepreneurship in areas around digital technology. Sanjay Jain is also a volunteer with iSPIRT, the software product industry think tank. He has been an active member of the India Stack, Open API, and Cashless teams. He has been working with the NPCI to define the next generation payment systems (the Unified Payment Interface), as well as with regulators and other bodies to help entire processes go paperless. He has been one of the key contributors to help create, and evangelize various government open APIs, which are collectively referred to as the India Stack. During his career, Sanjay has been responsible for the development of many large scale, high impact systems. He was the Chief Product Manager at the UIDAI, where he led the product development efforts from its early days till well after the launch. The UIDAI has issued over a billion numbers to Indian residents. He was also responsible for the creation and launch of Google Map Maker - a crowd-sourced mapping product that is responsible for Google Maps data for 170+ countries (including India). Sanjay holds an M.S. in Computer Science, from the University of California, Los Angeles and a B.Tech in Computer Science & Engineering, from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. |
 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. |
 Hongwei Luo
Standardization Director, ANT Financial Services Group
Hongwei Luo, the standardization director in Ant Financial Services Group, is responsible for the international and national standardization of information technologies, especially Internet finance. He received his B.Sc. and M.A.Sc degrees from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), China, in 1998 and 2003, respectively. He has been a visiting scholar in University of Waterloo from 2011 to 2012. He served in China Telecom from 1998 to 2003 and China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) from 2003 to 2015, and has been working in Ant Financial Services Group (Alipay) from 2015 till now. He has been acting as the rapporteur of ITU-T Q.5/17 from 2009 to 2015 and the chairman of Terminal Workgroup (WG3) of China Communications Standards Association (CCSA). Now, he works as the chairman of Mobile Device Biometric Workgroup of National Information Technology Standardization Commission (SAC/TC28), and also the expert to ISO TC68 and ISO/IEC JTC1 SC27 & SC37. |
 Gueorgui Nikolov Popov Karadjov
CEO and General Manager, FIMPE, Mexico
Gueorgui Nikolov Popov Karadjov is CEO and General Manager of the FIMPE in Mexico, participated in the development and implementation of the change of technology from magnetic stripe to chip and mobile communications of all the point of sale terminals in the country, likewise he was in charge of the development and implementation of the concept "Boletazo" a finantial inclusion initiative whose objective was encourage the use of electronic payment means in various sectors of the Mexican economy through raffles, advertising campaigns, contest programs, among others. Currently promotes and leads Biosmart, the comprehensive Digital ID solution to combat identity theft and avoid money laundering primary in the financial sector among others; the homologation solution, compensation and continuous audit in collection systems for mass public transport and the platform of payment for social benefits support with biometrics for the biggest program in the country "Prospera" since 2009. He has a degree in Computer Systems and Computer Science from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico. |
 Assaf Klinger
R&D lead, Vaulto
Assaf Klinger is an accomplished cyber security entrepreneur, in the last 3 years, Assaf is Vaulto’s R&D lead. A native of Israel, he over has 20 years' experience as a full stack developer and researcher with specialty in cyber-telcom vulnerability research. Assaf is an ISNU veteran of 13 years (Maj.) and has led the development of many
complex systems, for this Assaf was decorated at 2011 with the Israel Defense award, the highest award a non-combatant in Israel, given for exceptional technological achievements and major contribution to the security if Israel. Assaf has a BSc. in electrical engineering from Tel-Aviv university and an MBA from the
Technion, in the past 3 years Assaf and his team at Vaulto created the first cyber-telecom security startup Aiming to protect the end-users from attacks while providing a seamless solution that doesn’t disrupt the user experience. Assaf is a family man, married with twins, in his spare time he enjoys tinkering with electronics and music. |
 Vijay Mauree
Programme Coordinator, Standardization Bureau, ITU
Vijay Mauree joined the ITU headquarters in Geneva, in 2010. He is currently the main focal point for Digital Financial Services at the ITU. He has coordinated the work of the ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services, which completed in December 2016 and published 28 reports and some 84 policy recommendations. He is currently coordinating the work of the ITU-T Focus Group on Digital Currency including Digital Fiat Currency and the Financial Inclusion Global Initiative (FIGI) which is a joint programme of the ITU, World Bank, Bank for International Settlements and the Gates Foundation. He was previously responsible for the implementation of projects under Bridging the Standardization Gap programme and undertaking research for production of Technology Watch reports. He published four Technology Watch reports on Optical networks, Smart Water Management, Privacy in the Cloud and Mobile Money. Vijay received his first degree in Computer Science with Electronic Engineering from University College London, UK and obtained his Masters degree in Information Technology from Imperial College, Science and Technology, UK. He also holds an MBA from Cranfield School of Management in UK. |
Anuradha Mitra
Member (Finance),
Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications, India
She presently holds the post of Member Finance, Telecom Commission, and ex officio Secretary to Government of India, the Telecom Commission being the chief policy making body in the telecom sector in India. Her earlier work experience has been in the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) dealing with tariff and economic regulation, costing and accounting separation, and assessment of financial and economic impact of regulatory decisions; in the Ministry of Defence, as Joint Secretary & Additional Secretary to Government of India dealing with armaments acquisitions and production; and in the Department of Telecommunications, Government of India in its operational wings. She has also worked as consultant in Financial Analysis in a World Bank Project for setting up a telecoms regulatory authority in Bangladesh. She holds a Masters Degree in Public Admn. from the JFK School of Government, Harvard University, USA and a Masters Degree in Economics from Bangalore University, India. She is also a qualified Cost Accountant and a Member of the Institute of Cost Accountants of India. She lives in New Delhi, India. |
 Nathan Naidoo
Acting Head of Mobile Money, GSMA
Nathan Naidoo is the Acting Head of Mobile Money at the GSMA, where he oversees a wide range of advocacy, technology, and research initiatives related to mobile financial services. Prior to this, Nathan oversaw engagement with policymakers and regulators around the world in support of Vodafone Group's successful mobile money service, M-Pesa. Both at Vodafone and the GSMA, Nathan has played a leading role in advancing industry best practice, through the development of the Code of Conduct for Mobile Money Providers. Before entering the private sector, Nathan spent 8 years as a Canadian diplomat, with postings in Afghanistan and in Israel. He holds an MBA from the London Business School and an MA in Political Science from McGill University in Montreal. |
 Harish Natarajan
World Bank
Harish is a Lead Financial Sector Specialist with the Finance and Markets Global Practice, at the World Bank (April 2009 to present). His responsibilities include assisting countries in implementation of financial sector reforms with a focus on financial infrastructures. He is a core member of the cross-sectoral teams in the World Bank working on Universal Financial Access 2020, ID for Development, Government payments, Digital Economy and FinTech. Harish represents the World Bank in the retail payments working groups of the Committee on Payment Market Infrastructures (CPMI) at the Bank for International Settlements, FinTech related activities with the CPMI, Financial Stability Board (FSB) and other standard setting bodies. Prior to joining the World Bank, Harish worked with VISA Inc, in the South Asia region in various senior level positions in business development, operations and risk management. Prior to VISA, Harish worked in in Citigroup, Infosys and other technology companies, primarily in the areas of payment systems and retail banking. Harish holds an under-graduate degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from IIT-Madras and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management, from IIM-Calcutta, specializing in IT systems and Finance. |
 Stephen Mwaura Nduati
FSD Kenya
Stephen Mwaura Nduati has a Masters of Business Administration (MBA), Masters of Laws (LLM), Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and BSC Mechanical Engineering degrees. He is an international consultant and former head of payment, clearing and settlement systems at Central Bank of Kenya, where he also occupied strategic policy making roles in development of digital financial services and financial inclusion. At the International level and based on Kenya’s standing with respect to mobile Financial Services and financial Inclusion, he is a policy champion for the global Association of Financial Inclusion (AFI) where he promotes local, regional and global policies on the innovative services. He has facilitated knowledge exchange programs for visiting delegations to the country from all over the world. His expertise in this field has been utilized to facilitate promotion and adoption of these innovative services. He was a member of the International Organization on Standards Organization (ISO) Technical Working Committee on Mobile Payments. |
 G. Padmanabhan
Non-executive Chairman, Bank of India
G. Padmanabhan, a post graduate in Economics and a Masters in Business Administration from the Birmingham Business School holds extensive experience and expertise in bank regulation and supervision of foreign exchange/securities markets in India, information technology and payment systems, with more than 35 years of experience with the Central Bank in various capacities i.e. recommending and implementing policies, systems, guidelines and regulations relating to the banking, financial services and securities sector of the country. Padmanabhan was the Chairman of the Committee to implement GIRO in the country and has been involved in the implementation of new e-Treasury system in the Reserve Bank. He was also involved in the operationalisation of the first of its kind ISO 20022 standards based RTGS System and the digitisation of payment transactions. Padmanabhan was also the Chairman of the Technical Committee on Services/Facilities for Exporters and a part of the think tank to manage market volatility, as well as a member of the Governing Council of the Institute for Development & Research in Banking Technology, a banking research institute established by RBI. He represented RBI in the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems, Basel and was also inducted into the Steering Group of the CPSS-IOSCO for Review of Standards. As a member of the Working Group of the CPSS, Padmanabhan worked on the report on Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures and also chaired the International Working Group set up by CPSS on Non-banks. He was one of the persons responsible for drafting the Sodhani Committee’s report in 1995 on the foreign exchange market and measures for widening and deepening the market, and has supervised the revision of the Internal Control Guidelines for Foreign Exchange Business in 1996. Padmanabhan was also a member of the internal group that prepared and submitted a Technical Paper on Asset -Liability Management for Indian banks which was accepted by the Bank and formed the basis for Reserve Bank of India's initiative. On superannuating while holding position of Executive Director from the RBI, Padmanabhan was appointed as Non-Executive Chairman of Bank of India for a period of three years, the post that he presently holds. |
 Md. Rashed
Joint Director, Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU)
Mr. Md. Rashed serves as the Joint Director for Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU). He is responsible for AML/CFT related supervision of Money Remittance Services and Digital Financial Services. He was the Member Secretary/Coordinator of the two Focus Groups which developed “Guidelines on Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing for NGO/NPO Sector” (2013); Study Paper, “AML/CFT Regulation for Mobile Money: Global Standards, Practices and Recommendations for Bangladesh” (2017) and Research Coordinator of “NGO/NPO Sector Assessment of Bangladesh” (2015).
He joined Bangladesh Bank as Assistant Director in 2006. Previously, he worked in Banking Inspection Department. Mr. Rashed obtained his Bachelor and Masters Degrees from the University of Dhaka and his major was Sociology. He had completed Professional Masters in Banking & Finance from Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok. He also obtained ‘Certificate in Digital Money’ from Tufts University, USA. He was also a member of Focus Group on Digital Financial Services of International Telecommunication Union, Switzerland. He had conducted many inspection, training, workshops on AML/CFT issues for financial institutions. |
 Daniel Gersten Reiss
Acting Head, Banking Operations and Payment System Research Division, Central Bank of Brazil
Daniel Gersten Reiss is dedicated at the Central Bank of Brazil to the research on the usage of payment instruments and innovations in this area. He has worked with payment systems for almost a decade, having managed the implementation of the Brazil-Argentina payment system in local currencies project (SML) in 2008. He has a doctorate in economics, a master's degree in public sector economics, a PG diploma in international relations and a certificate in accounting. He has graduated the Brazilian Naval Academy with a major in management. Recently, Dr. Reiss has acted as vice-chairman to the ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services. He is currently a member of the BIS CPMI Working Group on Digital Innovations. |
 Ashraf Sabry
Chief Executive Officer, Fawry, Egypt
Ashraf Sabry is a technology business expert and the founder and CEO of Fawry, currently Egypt's largest Electronic Payment Network. With 20 years of experience in finance and IT, and a vision to enable nationwide electronic financial services, Sabry managed to establish Fawry as one of the fastest growing ventures in the Middle East. Prior to creating Fawry, Sabry spent 10 years leading sales at IBM Egypt and later was key to the success of Raya Holding, Egypt's leading ICT company where he directed the operations, finance, and business development for years before he eventually led the whole IT line of business for the group. Sabry holds an MBA from Leeds University in the United Kingdom. |
 Bella Santos
Director of the Payments and Settlements Office (PSO), Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
Ms. Bella S. Santos is the Director of the Payments and Settlements Office (PSO) of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). She manages the operation of the Philippine Payments and Settlements System (PhilPaSS), the real-time gross settlement system owned and operated by the BSP. PhilPaSS is a large value payment system that provides payments and settlements services to the banks for all their interbank electronic fund transfers. She is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and started her career in BSP as Head of the Information Systems Audit at the BSP's Internal Audit Office. She has been the Director of PSO for more that 10 years and has been involved in various committees to work on financial inclusion, retail payment systems, data management, financial stability, digital payments transformation, and various IT projects. She is an active member of the ASEAN Working Committee on Payments and Settlements where she serves as Chair of the Task Force on Payment Systems Interoperability and Interlinkages. She is also currently the Chair of the Cross-border Settlement Infrastructure Forum under the ASEAN+3 Bond Market Initiatives (ABMI). |
 RS Sharma
Chairman, TRAI
Mr. R. S. Sharma joined as Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on 10th of August, 2015. Prior to joining TRAI Mr. R. S. Sharma was working as Secretary to Government of India in the Department of Electronics and Information Technology. He has also worked as Chief Secretary to the State Government of Jharkhand (India). His other assignments include Director General & Mission Director of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) where he was responsible for over-all implementation of this ambitious and challenging project undertaken by the Government of India for providing Unique Identification (christened as “Aadhaar”) to all its Residents. Before his posting at UIDAI, Mr. Sharma worked with the Government of Jharkhand as Principal Secretary of the Departments of Science and Technology, Drinking Water & Sanitation, Information Technology (IT), Rural Development and Human Resources Development. As Principal Secretary of the IT Department, Mr. Sharma was responsible for formulation of State policies in the IT and e-Governance areas. He also over-saw the implementation of various e-Governance Projects in all the Departments of the State Government. Mr. Sharma has held important positions both in the Government of India and State Governments in the past and has been deeply involved in the administrative reforms and leveraging IT to simplify the administrative processes. During his posting in Government of India, he has worked in the Department of Economic Affairs and has dealt with bilateral and multilateral development agencies like World Bank, ADB, MIGA and GEF. He was also in-charge of Financing of Infrastructure projects in the Highways, Ports, Airports and Telecom sectors. Mr. Sharma's contributions to the IT and e-Governance have been widely recognized both within India and outside. He has been responsible for implementing a number of Projects relating to ICT Infrastructure, Process Re-engineering and Service Delivery in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. Mr. Sharma holds a Masters Degree in Mathematics from IIT, Kanpur (India) and another Masters in Computer Science from the University of California (USA). |
 Jami Hubbard Solli
Global Alliance for Legal Aid
Jami Hubbard Solli began her career as a commercial lawyer in New York and also worked for an Italian law firm. In 2005, she left private practice to work for the International Development Law Organization in Rome on financial sector regulation and financial consumer protection in developing countries. She has a particular interest in preventing financial frauds on the poor and assisting consumers to have access to justice. She is also a founding member of the
Global Alliance for Legal Aid (GALA), a non profit that works to improve access to justice through public interest advocacy and providing legal aid to the poor. |
 Camilo Tellez
Head of Research and Innovation, Better Than Cash Alliance
Camilo leads the research and innovation work at the Better Than Cash Alliance, a UN-based partnership of over 60 governments, companies and international organizations that accelerates the global transition from cash to digital payments in order to drive inclusive growth and reduce poverty. Prior to joining the Alliance, Camilo has held positions in the area of digital financial services and financial sector development for over a decade, including at the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) and the World Bank in Washington D.C, GSMA in London, the UN Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, and Microsoft Labs in Bangalore. Camilo holds graduate degrees from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), The London School of Economics and Political Science and Harvard University. |
 Amina Tirana
Senior Director, Government & Partnerships, Global Financial Inclusion, Visa Inc.
Amina leads Visa’s partnerships and strategic engagements with governments and global organizations to advance financial inclusion. She leads Visa’s China financial inclusion program and financial inclusion public policy initiatives, and represents the company in a variety of fora. Amina has worked extensively with governments, international organizations and companies to identify, advocate for and implement policies and program solutions for inclusive economic development and crisis response. Previously, she established and directed the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA), working closely with and advising the Special Advocate, H.M. Queen Máxima of the Netherlands. She led policy and advocacy at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to advance the foundation’s then-new Financial Services for the Poor program. Amina has also worked for the UN, Harvard Institute for International Development, the International Rescue Committee, and other organizations in Asia, Africa, the Americas and the Balkans. She earned a Bachelor of Arts at Princeton University and Master’s of Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and on the Board of Directors of FilmAid International. |
 Saurabh Tiwari
DDG, Ministry of Communications
Mr Saurabh K Tiwari, born in 1967, holds a Master’s degree in Political Science with a Certificate of Merit and MBA with specialisation in Finance.He has a LLB degree also. Besides being a Fellow of the University Grants Commission, he has taught Political Philosophy at the the University of Allahabad. He has wide ranging work experience in the Government of India and PSUs. He was the Deputy General Manager (Finance) of Central Area of MTNL, Delhi. He has also served as the Financial Advisor to the Central Air Command, . Indian Air Force.He was instrumental in designing and implementing the software for the revision of pension of more than two million Defence Pensioners. His assignment as Deputy Director General (Licensing Finance)in Govt. of India involved assessment of Telecom revenue – one of the largest contributors to the non-tax revenue in India. Mr Tiwari’s current assignment is as Deputy Director General (E and F) wherein he is responsible for Human Resource Management and Financial Management in the Department of Telecom including the Digital India Program . Besides, he is also the CMD of M/s Hemisphere Properties India Limited, a PSU and on the Board of Tata Communications Ltd. He has attended various trainings and seminars in India and abroad. Besides, he has been a regular faculty in various Training Institutes. Mr. Tiwari has exemplary leadership qualities. He was the General Secretary of the Indian P&T Accounts and Finance Service Officers’ Association for almost a decade. An avid sportsperson, he has won various awards in games like Athletics, Volleyball, Football, Badminton, Cricket and Tennis.He also writes poetry and a dozen of them have been published. |
 YoungJiang
Corporate Vice President, Tencent
YoungJiang，corporate vice president of Tencent who is in charge of the overall management and plan of government affairs in the company. Before join Tencent company Ms.Jaing had ever been worked at Softeware Center of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, Asiainfo, Siemens and Nokia Siemens Networks with over 30 years working experience in Telecom Industry. Ms.Jiang was graduated from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications in 1986 with Bachelor degree in telecommunications engineering and got the master degree in operational telecommunications in UK in 1999. She also got the master degree in Finance EMBA in Qinghua University in 2016. |
