Events

Mr. Christopher D. Armstrong is executive vice president, Wholesale Product manager and head of the Financial Services Group at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He is also on the Bank’s Executive Committee. In his current role, Mr. Armstrong oversees the Wholesale Product Office, which is responsible for managing the Fedwire Funds, Fedwire Securities and the National Settlement Services on behalf of the Federal Reserve System and the Cash and Custody Function, which includes the Second District’s Cash Operations and Global Currency Services. Mr. Armstrong has held various management positions in the Financial Services Group since joining the Bank in 2009.

Combiz Richard Abdolrahimi is a Technology Executive with Deloitte Consulting & serves as the Government & Public Services Emerging Technology & Innovation Leader. As a national security lawyer & former regulator/policymaker who has worked at the U.S. Departments of State, Treasury, The White House & Senate, Mr. Abdolrahimi has 14 years of experience working with industry & government leaders on shaping the policy, legal, regulatory, & technology dimensions of AI & ML; blockchain & DLT; payments & financial services.

Len Adams is Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Adams Consulting Group/ACG Resources. He has a 45-year record of achievement in meeting the Talent Acquisition (Executive Search, Staffing and Consulting) needs of many prestigious corporations, software companies, banks, Insurance Brokers and carriers and financial services institutions – locally, nationally and internationally.

Mr. Biju Suresh Babu is Managing Director, Banking & Financial Services at Fiorano, a Silicon Valley headquartered global, mission critical technology infrastructure specialist. In his current role, London based Mr. Babu leads product strategy for Fiorano’s Banking practice, specializing in BaaS, Modular Banking, Open Banking & ISO 20022. Mr. Babu has broad commercial and operational experience across the UK, Europe, APAC and North America, and is part of taskforces working with banks and the industry to provide technology, standardization and advice on next generation banking & payments ecosystems.

Ms. Liz Brandt is co-founder and CEO of Ctrl-Shift and has been at the forefront of understanding, explaining and shaping the Personal Information Economy(PIE), it has pioneered Data Mobility and Personal Information Services (PIMS) and remains at the forefront of strategic business consulting to advise organizations on how to create sustainable market positions in the digital economy.

Tod Burwell is the President and Chief Executive Officer of BAFT. Prior to being promoted to CEO, he served as the Senior Vice President of Trade Products with oversight of all trade-related initiatives including the Global Trade Industry Council, Trade Committees, and other strategic initiatives of the organization. Mr. Burwell has over 25 years of trade, supply chain and cash management experience as a banking practitioner, as well as serving as a consultant to global corporations and suppliers of strategically integrated trade solutions. Prior to joining BAFT, Mr. Burwell was a Managing Director at JPMorgan Chase and held senior global management roles responsible for trade operations, launching the logistics business and managing global product sales for trade finance and logistics management.

Mr. Lanny Byers brings over 30 years of experience in the payments industry, and has become an international thought leader in digital payments and loyalty programs. He has made speaking appearances at leading conferences around the globe on the topics of payments, emerging technology and loyalty. He brings experience in FinTech and payments, from credit, debit, prepaid, stored value, and faster payment products. He was an early innovator in the prepaid card industry and has created and launched a number of startup businesses. He currently is Head of Emerging Payment Solutions at Fiserv with a focus on advisory, strategy and partnership activities to accelerate growth in electronic payments via new and disruptive products and market players.

Nell Campbell-Drake is a vice president in the Retail Payments Office (RPO) at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. She has responsibility for the RPO’s strategic business relations, both domestic and international, vendor relations, payments innovation, product marketing and external/customer communications. She serves as the RPO’s primary liaison for external business relations and outreach, working collaboratively with other Federal Reserve product offices and industry partners. She represents the RPO and Federal Reserve Banks on a number of payments industry groups. Nell is an avid bowler and does not like looking at rainbows in the sky!

Mr. Laurence Cooke is the founder and CEO of nanopay Corporation, a technology company that offers payment and liquidity management solutions to businesses and financial institutions. Active in the payments community, Mr. Cooke is Chairman of the Paytechs of Canada, a member of the Payments Canada Stakeholder Advisory Committee, FinPay and the US Federal Reserve Faster Payments Task Force. Prior to starting nanopay, Laurence worked with WIND Canada, was Vice President of Wireless at Shaw Communications Inc, and COO of Bell Mobility. Mr. Cooke was also a senior executive at Accenture in London. Mr. Cooke co-founded two wireless data businesses in Europe, Melodeo, Inc. and Xtempus.

Ms. Carolyn Criscitiello is the Head of Digital Payments for HSBC's Retail Banking and Wealth Management Group, a division of HSBC Bank USA, N.A., and a subsidiary of HSBC Holdings plc (NYSE: HSBC), one of the world's largest banking and financial services organizations. She is responsible for developing the digital payments strategy and implementation for domestic and international electronic payments. Prior to joining HSBC, she headed Innovation and Emerging Channels at M&T Bank. Ms. Criscitiello's other involvement includes being Vice Chair of the ABA Payment Systems and TCH RTP Committee. She also serves on the TCH Secure Token Board, Connected Banking Board and Zelle Advisory Committee.

Mr. Himamauli Das is FIN’s Chief Legal Officer & Senior Vice President, where he handles all legal matters, including coordinating and leading the development of strategic partnerships, joint ventures, and investments, and supports the development and work in the FinTech, CyberFin, and financial inclusion fields. In addition to these responsibilities, Mr. Das assists with and support all aspects of FIN’s work such as participation in risk assessments, training, and the design and development of client deliverables and the development and review of new services, products, platforms, and technologies.

Rajiv Desai is SVP at Pelican with primary focus on sales, support & account management. He has in-depth experience in several industries that he acquired over last 30 years. He has held several Sr. positions with increasing responsibilities and successful results with revenue increase, client satisfaction and on time and within budget deliveries. He has worked with several global corporations and banks in N. America, Europe, Latin America, Asia and Australia. He has broad experience in both Physical and Financial supply chain with primary focus in payments and compliance area. He is well versed in various payment messaging formats and technology. Additionally, He blends both technology and pragmatic business experience to address key areas of focus for banks and corporate.

Mr. Peter Davey leads product innovation at The Clearing House, a bank consortium of the top US financial institutions, where he is responsible for working with financial institutions and partners to foster new and innovative concepts that propel the payment and banking industry forward. He has a deep understanding of the payments and banking industry as well as new and emerging technologies at large. Previous to The Clearing House, Mr. Davey was the Head of Payment Strategy Innovation & Industry at Capital One Financial Corporation.

Mr. Peter Ekstrom is a life-long salesperson and serial entrepreneur with over 30 years experience vending technology solutions to the financial services industry. Peter is the creator of two business development platforms for direct sales; The Gold Call Script-Builder Kit and Profile-Visitor for LinkedIn. Mr. Ekstrom has worked extensively with notable companies like Oracle, AXA Financial, GoogleApps for Business, Sharp Electronics and many start-up tech companies from around the world. Mr. Ekstrom also teaches sales & marketing communications at Pace University’s Lubin School of Business, and takes pride in helping to develop the next generation of successful entrepreneurs.

Ms. Lisa Evans has been with Mastercard since 2017 and leads business development in North America for Vocalink Services Financial Crime Solutions. Vocalink Services leverages data driven analytics across Account-to-Account (ACH) and Real-Time Payments (RTP) environments to support financial institutions, payments systems operators and governments to identify and prevent payment fraud and money laundering. Ms. Evans has over 20 years of experience in the payments industry working for Softcard, Barclaycard US, Chase and American Express.

Mr. Jim Finnerty currently is the global leader of AML Compliance Risk Management for the Citi Commercial Banking and Citi Payment Intermediaries groups. Before joining Citi in February 2017, he was the Senior Vice President and Associate Deputy Global Anti-Money Laundering Officer for TD Bank, N.A. He joined TD in March 2011 as Group Manager of the Global Special Investigations Unit of the Global Financial Intelligence Unit and was promoted in August 2011 to lead TD’s 130-person Financial Intelligence Unit in the United States.

Ms. Chloe Ford joined INTL FCStone’s Compliance Department in 2016 and is now the Head of Compliance for the firm’s Global Payments Division. Ms. Ford is responsible for overseeing all aspects of global payments compliance across London, New York and Singapore, and is a keen advocate of the use of technology to combat the firm’s unique financial crime risks. Prior to this, Ms. Ford worked at an MSB, and also spent a year teaching business English in Latin America.

Ms. Kimberly (Kim) Ford is Executive Director of the U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC). Ms. Ford is the first to serve in this role, and she is responsible for managing the daily operations of the organization and working with the FPC board and membership to execute on the FPC’s strategic plan while ensuring inclusive and transparent dialogue with all FPC stakeholders. Prior to her Executive Director role, she was Senior Vice President and Global Head of Government Affairs for First Data, a Fortune 300 financial services company that provides payment technology and services to more than six million merchants and financial institutions around the world. She was responsible for development and implementation of the company’s policy strategy and political advocacy engagement across the globe and was First Data’s registered lobbyist in the United States and European Union.

Mark Garfield’s current role is Head of Global Financial Institutions at Zions Bancorporation responsible for foreign bank relationship development. He joined Zions Bancorporation in 2005. He has over 30 years of banking experience with 25 years in international banking management covering trade finance, trade services, foreign exchange, correspondent banking and product development. Throughout his career he has worked closely with corporate and commercial entities in the Midwest and Western U.S. providing banking support for cross-border trade. Mr. Garfield currently serves as a Director of BAFT and Chair of the Utah District Export Council. He served on the DEC National Advisory Board and Board of the World Trade Center, Utah.

Ms. Claire Greene is a payments risk expert in the Retail Payments Risk Forum at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. She works on the Survey and Diary of Consumer Payment Choice and the Federal Reserve Payments Study. She blogs regularly at takeonpayments.frbatlanta.org. Before joining the Atlanta in 2018, Ms. Greene focused on consumer payments research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. She previously worked as a banking journalist and in business-to-business marketing.

Mr. Edward Gross has 20 years of payments experience from every angle of the flow: from the large merchant/biller side to issuing and acquiring, including work in enterprise systems development, treasury management, compliance, and fraud prevention. Mr. Gross’ work at ABA is centered on helping community banks create a competitive advantage by finding the best third-party partners and solutions to build a robust payments and operations portfolio.

Mr. Dawid Janas, in his current role, is heading Citi’s USD Clearing and CLS Third Party Services businesses within Citi Payments & Receivables organization. Mr. Janas joined Citi as a Financial Management Associate (FMA) in 2007. In this role, he had an opportunity to rotate through a number of positions in Finance in New York and in London in such areas as Treasury, Risk, Consumer Strategy, and Corporate M&A. Upon completion of the FMA program he took a Product Manager role in FI Payments in 2009 and has subsequently contributed to a number of different parts of the business.

Ms. Kellie Johnson has a passion for payments and is currently Lead, Industry Relations with Payments Canada. She is responsible for direct engagement with industry participants to help shape the modernization of Canada’s core clearing and settlement infrastructure. Ms. Johnson has more than 20 years experience in payments and cash management at domestic, international banks and financial technology firms primarily focused on product management, strategy and business development.

Mr. Mark Johnson is co-founder and Senior Partner of Innosight, a growth strategy consulting company with offices in Massachusetts, Singapore and Switzerland, which he co-founded with Harvard Business School professor Clayton M. Christensen. He has been a strategic advisor to both Global 1000 and start-up companies in a wide range of industries. He is the coauthor of the forthcoming book Lead from the Future: How to Turn Visionary Thinking into Breakthrough Growth (April, 2020), a manifesto for “Future Back” thinking and a hands-on guide to long-term planning, strategy development, and execution within established organizations.

Steve Kenneally works in the Center for Payments & Cybersecurity at ABA on issues related to a range of payment systems including check, ACH, card, wires, as well as coins and paper money. He spends an increasing amount of time focused on emerging payment technologies such as mobile payments, virtual currencies, and P2P payments with an eye towards making them faster, safer and frictionless in the future. He is the staff liaison to two standing member committees focused on payments issues in addition to ABA’s Emerging Payments Advisory Group. He serves as Chair of the International Banking Federation Value Transfer Network Working Group. Prior to joining the ABA in 2005, he served at the United States Department of the Treasury where he managed the private network of banks collecting non-tax payments on behalf of the federal government and drafted regulations and guidance on cash management issues.

Alan Koenigsberg is global head of new payments flows for the Visa Business Solutions team. In this role, Alan is leading all aspects of commercialization of Visa B2B Connect, a unique multilateral cross-border B2B payments network, as well as opening up new payment opportunities within accounts receivable and payables space, as well as overall account-to-account B2B payments. Prior to this role, Alan was Chief Revenue Officer for Traxpay, a payments and supply chain Fintech based in Germany. During his tenure, he grew the startup to over 100 employees, playing a key role in platform development and initial go-to-market relationship building with financial institutions. Alan is an experienced payments and treasury professional who was previously Managing Director and Corporate Banking Group Executive at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML). In this role, Alan worked with global corporates to provide corporate lending and treasury management solutions to them around the world. Prior to BAML, Alan held Transaction Banking leadership roles, along with product management positions, at JPMorgan in New York and London. Prior to JPMorgan, Alan held Product Management and Operations roles at American Express.

Mr. Vivek Kohli currently is the Emerging Technology Head at BNY Mellon Treasury Services. He is responsible for exploration and potential implementation of new emerging technologies, understanding and translating marketplace changes and evolving customer needs into strategy and innovation with the ultimate objective of providing better and more efficient service to our clients. His key areas of focus are on Distributed Ledger Technology and the development of Utility Settlement Coin and Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning relating to sanction screening and compliance.

Ms. Jane Larimer, as the Nacha President and CEO, sets the vision and strategy for the organization to continually advance the ubiquitous ACH Network so that it remains one of the largest, safest and most reliable payment systems in the world. Ms. Larimer also works to advance Nacha’s role in creating and furthering broadly adopted payment and financial messaging rules and standards to enable interoperability and reduce friction for providers and users. Ms. Larimer brings three decades of experience in financial services and payments, with more than two decades of service in various roles at Nacha, including Chief Operating Officer, and Executive Vice President, ACH Network Administration and General Counsel. Prior to joining Nacha, Ms. Larimer practiced law with the Lending, Banking and Public Finance Group of Bryan Cave LLP, formerly Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy, and worked at NationsBank, now known as Bank of America.

Mr. Salvatore LaScala is a Managing Director and the Co-Head of Navigant’s Global Investigations and Compliance Practice in New York, NY. Possessing a broad range of subject matter knowledge and expertise, Mr. LaScala applies his 20+ years of hands-on experience to conduct investigations and compliance reviews on behalf of financial institution clients responding to regulatory or law enforcement matters concerning anti-money laundering, Bank Secrecy Act, USA PATRIOT Act and Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Mr. Doug Leighton, at Visa, leads a team of Account Executives and Managers responsible for sales and relationship activities for over 7,750 issuing clients in the U.S. In this role, he coordinates a variety of programmatic sales efforts designed to efficiently and secure revenue as well as actively engage in the sales and management process at clients of all types and sizes. Having been at Visa for 20+ years, Mr. Leighton has held positions in product management, and finance where he has worked on projects that enhance the reputation and efficiency of the Sales team. He has also worked in the Co-Branded Programs Sales group and has been a Subject Matter Expert and Sales liaison, specializing in Verified by Visa, Visa Extras, Visa’s e-commerce products (e-Visa) and EMV.

Mr. Jeremy Light specializes in payments and is responsible for strategic accounts in Europe for Ripple. Formerly Managing Director of Accenture's payment practice in Europe, Mr. Light is experienced in strategy, and in architecting and implementing change across payment domains, including international payments, cash management and trade. He has worked with global transactions banks, regional banks, local banks, payment processors, corporates and Fintechs. He is a thought leader and blogs regularly on payments, innovation and industry change.

Mr. Brad Lupton is a Senior Manager within Ernst & Young’s Financial Services group focused on the application of advanced analytics to identify and prevent financial crimes. He has over a decade and a half of experience driving technology programs and regulatory responses for industry-leading firms around the world. He is currently focused on building a first of its kind tool that will automate the end-to-end compliance reviews for the trade services business.

Ms. Ivy Luu is a Certified Treasury Professional and former VP in Treasury & Trade Solutions at Citi. Ms. Luu has accumulated nearly two decades of payment and treasury experience. She is now the Director, Liquidity Management Solutions at nanopay Corporation. Ms. Luu is currently leading the development of a real-time cash and liquidity management product for banks and their corporate clients, and is a leading expert in the areas of treasury products, cash management and real-time liquidity.

Ms. Janice Lysek is a Vice President at Deutsche Bank focusing on Market Management in the Americas for Financial Institutions. She focuses on keeping clients abreast with industry initiatives and the payments landscape. Previously, she worked in Deutsche Bank’s Private Wealth Management, Global Investment Solutions, COO Group. Ms. Lysek joined Deutsche Bank in 2010. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank, Janice held a role within Citi Family Office as a Registered Sales Associate at Citi Smith Barney.

Mr. Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli is a Deputy Division Chief in the Monetary and Capital Markets Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). His work focuses on digital currencies and fintech, monetary policy, foreign exchange interventions, modelling, and central banking operations and communication. He has advised country authorities and published widely on these topics. Prior to joining the IMF, Mr. Mancini-Griffoli was a senior economist in the Research and Monetary Policy Division of the Swiss National Bank, where he advised the Board on quarterly monetary policy decisions.

Throughout his career, Dr. Michael Maxwell has successfully led multiple global market initiatives across financial services, healthcare, supply chain, B2B communications and integration. Michael is part of HCL Financial Services and is focused on the emerging challenges in banking. Ongoing initiatives include the application of machine learning – artificial intelligence to payment processes, contextual banking opportunities with Fintechs and the incorporation of new technologies into financial institutions. Michael's primary research focus is in product development practices that counteract the effects of turbulent markets on product launches. He has multiple ongoing research projects both inside and outside of HCL. Previously, Michael spent almost two decades at IBM and, prior to IBM, was part of a number of Internet start-ups for supply chain, eCommerce and financial services. Michael began his career as a Certified Public Accountant working both in public practice and in industry.

Bel Martijena has always been passionate about building technology solutions with over 30 years of software development experience. His current focus is on artificial intelligent solutions. For the last 15 years he has held CEO/CIO level positions at successful software startups as well as technology director level roles at Citigroup and Bear Stearns.

Mr. Gene Neyer advises FIs, Fintechs and central infrastructures on various aspects of Payment Modernization. He is an Executive Advisor to Icon Solutions, board member of US Faster Payments Council and has recently completed engagements for Central Infrastructures in Africa and Asia. Previously, Mr. Neyer was a Head of Industry and Regulation for Finastra, and an SVP, Head of Product Management for D+H and Fundtech. Mr. Neyer has almost 30 years of experience in Product Management and IT Leadership at some of leading financial services vendor and banking organizations. He is a current & past representative to EBA, Fed, IPFA, TCH and other industry organizations. He has written and lectured on various aspects of global payments, real-time payments and blockchain and is a regular speaker and commentator at business seminars and conferences.

Ms. Fauzia Nyabiosi is the Global Cash Concentration Product Head on the Global Liquidity Management Services team within Citi’s Treasury and Trade Solutions business. In this role, Ms. Nyabiosi is responsible for the end-to-end product development and commercialization of Cash Concentration services including Virtual Accounts and Real Time Liquidity solutions. Ms. Nyabiosi has 20 years’ banking experience in a variety of roles across Product, Operations and Client Delivery.

Mr. Michael (Mike) Peckham is the ReInvent Grants Management Lead for the Department–wide ReImagine Health and Human Services (HHS) initiative and currently the acting CFO of HHS’s PSC. He brings over 30 years’ experience in federal accounting, program management, systems implementation, and grants management to lead HHS in meeting its ReImagine goals of modernizing HHS Grants Management. Mike recently led the HHS DATA Act Program Management Office in successfully meeting the implementation goals as well as leading the grants portion of the Section 5 Pilot under the statute.

Samantha Pelosi joined BAFT in 2016 as a Senior Vice President to define its payments and innovation strategies and increase its visibility in financial crime compliance. Samantha currently focuses on application of innovative technologies like blockchain in banking, faster payments systems, and reversing the worldwide decline in correspondent banking relationships. Samantha came to BAFT from the payments from the Federal Reserve Board. As a manager in the payments systems division, Pelosi formulated U.S. public policy and led all initiatives related to retail payments. In the consumer protection division, she wrote regulations implementing the Dodd-Frank Act at the height of the 2008-2009 financial crisis as a senior attorney. Before the Federal Reserve, Pelosi served as global head of regulatory compliance at Travelex Global Business Payments (now Western Union Business Solutions).

Mr. Ribbens is the Director of Payment Operations for First Citizens Bank in Raleigh, NC. In this role, Mr. Ribbens is responsible for the oversight and risk governance of the bank’s payment solutions teams supporting the execution of the company’s payment strategies. Prior to First Citizens, Mr. Ribbens led BB&T’s corporate venture capital team focused on fintech investments as Managing Director, BB&T Ventures. Over the course of his seven years at BB&T, he also served as head of enterprise digital and payment strategy along with championing innovation efforts as part of digital transformation.

Deborah Thoren-Peden focuses her Chambers-ranked corporate practice on banking, electronic commerce, privacy, anti-money laundering and Office of Foreign Assets Control regulations. Ms. Thoren-Peden co-leads Pillsbury's FinTech, Payments & Blockchain team, its Consumer & Retail industry team, its Cybersecurity, Data Protection & Privacy team, and its Unclaimed Property Team. She represents and advises bank and non-bank financial institutions (both domestic and international), money transmitters fintech, retailers, and a variety of other types of companies. Ms. Thoren-Peden is a recognized authority with respect to the Bank Secrecy Act and the Patriot Act.

Amy Sahm joined Fulton Financial’s International Group in 2002 following a long-term career in the Japanese banking and trade industry. She works as department manager, overseeing product development, operations, sales and risk management. The International Group at Fulton is responsible for foreign exchange risk management and all international transactional products and services including Trade Finance for Fulton’s customer base. The International Group primarily serves import / export SME clients within Fulton’s five state footprint. She serves as a Board Member and Treasurer of both the World Trade Center of Harrisburg and the Mid-Atlantic District Export Council supporting the US Commercial Service Export Assistance Center. Amy is a member of the International Business Advisory Board of Elizabethtown College where she mentors students and presents guest lectures on international finance. Amy also holds a Board seat at BAFT as well as a Co-Chair position on the North American Council. In addition to BAFT, Amy is active throughout the North American regional bank network in several international banking industry groups.

Mr. Amit Sharma is the founder of FinClusive, a hybrid financial technology / regulatory technology company that provides a low-cost, high compliance, fully integrated and blockchain architected, digital banking, routing and payments platform. We work to make it easy for customers and clients—in particular those financially excluded or underserved—to establish banking services digitally, with API-based engagement that provides secure payments and automated compliance in a single workflow. FinClusive’s goal is to drive financial inclusion, build economic resilience and protect financial system integrity.

Mr. Nathan Solmose is responsible for building a data-driven culture for the Liquidity Management Services business at Citi. His mandate is to identify the most critical business opportunities where advanced data science and machine learning can be applied to return tangible results. Mr. Solmose is also responsible for building a self-service platform of analytical tools that enable the product and sales organizations to provide Citi’s Clients with a best in class experience.

Christian Stolcke is a Capital Markets and Transaction Banking veteran who has spent his career growing financial service businesses and executing global, large scale performance improvement programs across Shared Services, Operations and Technology. At Bank of America, Christian is Managing Director and head of Global Financial Institutions, Non-Bank Financial Institutions and Governments within Global Payments Solutions (GPS). In this role, Christian leads a worldwide team of sales and product professionals responsible for maintaining and strengthening relationships with clients across several industries, including banks, governments, investment managers, securities firms, insurance, paytech, private capital and specialty finance firms. Products span global cash management, trade and supply chain finance, foreign exchange, commercial card, liquidity, and investment solutions.

Joanne Strobel is a managing director in Wells Fargo’s Global Payment Services (GPS) group, serving financial institutions in more than 35 countries around the world. She leads a team dedicated to technical solutions and the development of payments business strategy. Joanne also leads the network management team responsible for enterprise cash nostro accounts and aggregation strategies. Her team deploys global payments business strategies for USD, multicurrency, and treasury/FX payments, to grow the Global Payments franchise, and to broaden and deepen strategic relationships. Joanne’s team brings deep payment product expertise to global payment solutions working closely with the GPS client consultant, relationship management, and global product management teams to help identify and implement enhanced and new solutions.

Mr. Lit Hau Tan leads McKinsey’s Transaction Banking service line in the Americas, covering corporate strategy, product distribution and payments operations across cash management, FX and supply chain finance. He serves corporate and commercial banks, as well as Fortune 500 Corporate treasurers and software providers of treasury services, as part of McKinsey’s coverage of the broader transaction banking ecosystem.

Barry is the Principal at TransactionBanker.com, a payments consultancy, and is a recognized expert in wholesale banking and the payments industry. He has been involved in payment operations, systems transformations, and modernization related projects for global banks and hardware and software firms for decades. Barry has managed day to day operations, as well as planned, organized, directed, and managed, major banking initiatives for banks around the world. Barry is a current member of the Bankers Association for Finance and Trade (BAFT) Payments Committee and Co- Chairs their Payments Roadmap Workgroup. He is a past member of their Board of Directors. He was recognized in 2021 and 2022 as one of two BAFT Ambassadors of the Year. Barry is also a member of the US Faster Payments Council where he serves as the Chair of their Cross Border Payments Workgroup and as member of their Operational Considerations Workgroup.

Ms. Allison Vara Mitchell is a Senior Sales Associate with J.P. Morgan’s Corporate and Investment Bank’s Treasury Services business. Ms. Vara supports two Relationship Managers responsible for developing, servicing and growing J.P. Morgan’s Treasury portfolio for the North American financial institutions markets; which includes the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. Ms. Vara recently graduated from the BAFT Future Leader’s Program. Joining J.P. Morgan in 2006 Ms. Vara has held high impact managerial positions for the company’s retail business and has overseen teams of over 50 employees.

Mr. Raj Venkatraman is the Head of Payments Solutions at IBM, responsible for leading enterprise-wide engagements and providing solutions for customers globally. He brings 20+ years of experience in the banking and capital markets industries, starting from his time as an equities and derivatives trader for a broker dealer and then as a management consultant for banking clients globally. He leverages his subject matter expertise and strategic mindset to help clients align business and technology priorities to make the right investments for their business. Mr. Venkatraman was recently inducted into the IBM Industry Academy in 2018. He is based in NYC and enjoys playing competitive tennis and travel with his family.

Russ Waterhouse is Executive Vice President of Product Development and Strategy at The Clearing House. In this role, Mr. Waterhouse oversees the evolution of The Clearing House’s core payments products (CHIPS, ACH and check image exchange) and leads its innovation efforts to support the next generation of safe, reliable and efficient payment systems for banks and their customers. Current priorities include the development and implementation of tokenization in payments and a real-time retail payments system.

Mr. David Watson is the Head of North America, responsible for SWIFTs strategic direction and growth in the region. Mr. Watson joined in 2019 and is charged with strengthening the cooperative’s key client relationships and delivering commercial performance across its portfolio of products and services; including SWIFT’s global payments innovation service and its suite of financial crime compliance solutions. Prior to SWIFT, Mr. Watson was the Global Head of Digital Cash Management for Deutsche Bank’s Global Transaction Banking business, responsible for overseeing and driving the strategy and planning for digital business models and client connectivity products for Cash.

Mr. Jeff Yellin, prior to joining Barclays, was a VP of Investments at Motive Partners, a FinTech-focused private equity firm. Previously, he spent eight years working in operational positions at Financial Technology companies, including The Receivables Exchange (now LiquidX), SR Labs (now Vela) and Airex. At Airex, an investment research marketplace, Jeff served as the Vice President of Finance, helping the early-stage company plan and raise funds. At SR Labs, a trading and market data technology company, he served as the VP of Corporate Development, leading Financial Planning & Analysis efforts as the company evaluated acquisition opportunities and integrated its recent purchase of Wombat Technologies.