Gerisha is a Product Operations industry expert who heads up the function at UK payments scale-up, Dojo. She previously did the same at Open Banking unicorn, TrueLayer.
In addition, she also launched the Product Ops Podcast (POP) last year to amplify the voices of diverse individuals working in the industry, as well as to share learnings on a developing business area, and build a sense of community.
She is an experienced speaker, moderator, panellist and podcaster who was recognised as a rising star on the Innovate Finance Women in FinTech Power List.
Key topics:
Availability:
Prasangi is head of implementation at Wise Platform. She has 15 years of experience in financial services across a range of roles. Prasangi has direct experience in project management and operations, in both issuing and acquiring businesses. She has also worked closely in the technical payments space.
Prasangi has a notable energy and enthusiasm when speaking, and can make technical subjects interesting and accessible.
Key topics:
Availability:
Valentina is the Director of Growth & Communications at OakNorth, helping to build the brand and community since she began working with its founders, Rishi Khosla and Joel Perlman, in 2015. Joining the business full-time a year later, she was the first communications and growth hire, one of its earliest team members, and she sits on its Executive Committee (ExCo).
She is a member of the leadership team of Tech London Advocates’ Fintech Working Group which aims to work with other organisations to strengthen the UK’s fintech ecosystem, and is a founding editorial board member of Influence, the Chartered Institute of Public Relations’ multi award-winning quarterly member publication.
In 2018, she was named on Innovate Finance’s Women in FinTech Powerlist being selected for the ‘Stand Out 35’ distinction.
Key topics:
Availability:
Sam Bamert is Founder and CEO of UK fintech Ask Inclusive Finance. AskIf is a platform business delivering loans to small, credit-worthy businesses unable to secure funding from mainstream lenders, financing the £2.2bn+ annual gap that exists for SMEs in the UK.
She is passionate about helping small businesses to grow and knows how tough it can be for business owners to get the support and funding need. That’s why she founded AskIf.
An expert the challenges facing SMEs, she gained first hand experience while working as an advisor to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Task Group for Responsible Credit and Savings.
Prior to this she spent more than 20 years in financial services in leadership positions at Barclays Investment Bank and Barclays Wealth, across London and New York.
She has an MA Hons in Mathematics from the University of Oxford.
Key topics:
Availability:
Romi Savova founded PensionBee in 2014 to simplify pension savings in the UK, following a difficult pension transfer experience of her own. As the Chief Executive Officer, she has played a pivotal role in advancing consumer standards in the pensions industry, from reducing transfer times to campaigning for the full abolition of exit fees.
Romi is also a member of the government’s Pensions Dashboards Programme Steering Group, which was set up to advise on the delivery of pensions dashboards.
Prior to founding PensionBee, Romi worked at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Credit Benchmark, holding varied roles in risk management, investment banking and financial technology. Romi received an MBA from Harvard Business School as a George F. Baker scholar and graduated summa cum laude from Emory University.
Key topics:
Availability:
Jillian Godsil is an award winning Web3 journalist, broadcaster and author. She has more than 30 years general Fintech experience and joined the Web3 world in 2017. She is a tireless advocate for Women in Blockchain, eradication of homelessness and income equality.
This year she received four Noonies nominations from Hackernoon, listed as one of the Top Women of the Future, is named in the top 35 women in crypto by Techround, and one of the hot crypto women to follow by Benzinga.
In 2021, Jillian Godsil was a finalist in the prestigious CryptoAM UK awards, named as one of the UK’s Most Influential Women in Tech by Computer Weekly and nominated one of 100 global women in leadership awards in COVID.
In 2020 she was awarded Blockchain Journalist of the year by Uptrennds (then largest blockchain social platform). In 2019 she was nominated for the national Irish IMRO radio awards, made the top 100 Global Blockchain Leaders list by Lattice80 and was named AI and Blockchain Journalist of the Year at the CC Forum in London.
In 2018 she was awarded the Order of Merit by the President of Liberland. She also changed the law in Ireland in 2014 and is a former European Parliamentary candidate (as an independent).
She is a co-founder and editor in chief of Blockleaders.io. She is the author of more than 18 books. She is a freelance journalist for many publications including CoinDesk, CityAM, CoinTelegraph, CryptoSlate News, Hackernoon, The Irish Times and ITN.
Key topics:
Availability:
Banking transformation veteran and economist Sofie Blakstad built multiple core banking and payments systems for 8 international banks in 60 countries, and led whole business transformations, before founding hiveonline, the first DeFi for African smallholder farmers.
She holds an MSc in informatics, chairs the Edinburgh Futures Institute’s FI and Fintech Industry Advisory Board, is author of Fintech Revolution: Universal Inclusion in the New Financial Ecosystem and advises the UN, Central Banks, NGOS and others on blockchain for impact and sustainability, DLT policy and economic impacts of emerging technology.
Sofie has been included in the Innovate Finance’s Women in Fintech Powerlist three years running and named one of the top 10 Women in Crypto.
Key topics:
Availability
Nadia Edwards-Dashti co-founded the Harrington Starr Group in 2010, a leading Financial Technology recruitment business with offices in London, New York and Belfast.
With 18 years in the financial services technology sector, she has been responsible for helping over 2000 people find jobs and has grown from a trainee to a Chief Customer Officer. She runs the Podcast Series ‘FinTech with Nadia: The DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) Discussions’ to discuss the challenges and successes of this industry.
Nadia has also written a book through Palgrave Macmillan, ‘Fintech Women Walk the Talk: Moving the needle for workplace gender equality in financial Services and beyond’ and within it quotes 100+ of her podcast interviewees.
Her accolades include: Winner of Investing in Talent 2019 Awards – Most Inspirational Recruitment Leader, Innovate Finance: Women in FinTech Powerlist, FinTech Magazine Top 100 Women in FinTech 2022, Industrial Fellow at the University of East London: Centre of FinTech.
Key topics:
Availability:
Chanelle Pattinson is leading a new generation of ambitious and future-focused financial planners wanting to help millennials and Gen Z manage their money. She is the creator of the Her Future Bright podcast , a platform she launched to encourage more women into the finance profession.
As well as hosting the podcast, Chanelle is a Chartered Financial Planner and co-founder of Money Means, a financial planning subscription service and platform. She has a deep desire to help people understand money and how to use it to unlock the life they want.
Key topics:
Availability:
Laura has extensive experience in fintech having supported businesses on a number of products in areas such as pension investments, mortality, insurance, trading and financial standards. Earlier in her career, Laura managed the legal support for business acquisitions involving property.
Laura has a rich tapestry of experience that enables her to help develop and support business arrangements for new products, commercial and regulatory considerations involving fintech. Laura also provides training and discussion forums for teams to develop or hone their negotiation skills.
Laura was recently at Open Banking Limited where she supported the Board in developing and completing (with the CMA and the CMA9) revised governance arrangements for the organisation that underpins access to account data to enable innovation and competition to thrive.
Laura is currently an Axiom lawyer working at American Express in data protection and privacy.
Key topics:
Availability:
After 27-years working within the credit management industry, with 15 of those years spent successfully running one of the UK’s leading commercial debt recovery companies, Darcey Quigley & Co; Lynne has gained a wealth of knowledge on the implications late payments and increased debtor days have on businesses of all sizes and industries.
After founding Darcey Quigley & Co in 2007, Lynne decided to enter the world of fintech in 2019 and created the Know-it platform, an all-in-one solution for businesses to take control of their credit management.
Lynne is a serial entrepreneur and was recently featured as one of Insider’s top 20 women to watch.
Key topics:
Availability:
Laura Rofe, a powerhouse in finance and payments with over 14 years of international experience spanning the Australian, EU, and UK markets. Her career has been marked by a strong focus on partnerships and account management, driving strategic growth initiatives.
Currently, as the Director of Partner Management at Thunes, Laura’s expertise plays a pivotal role in propelling global growth for payment companies.
Beyond her professional journey, Laura is a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion in the industry. She actively supports initiatives to advance these causes, embodying her commitment to a more equitable world. On a personal level, Laura embraces an active lifestyle, from marathons to cycling events.
Key topics:
Availability