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After graduating from Oxford University, Bim Afolami started his business career in the City advising some of the biggest companies in the world, first as a corporate lawyer at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Simpson Thacher and Bartlett, then as a Senior Executive at HSBC. Bim was a primary school governor for several years and has always supported charities that focus on helping people return to work. His experiences have sparked his passion for the need to ensure that everyone has access to a fantastic education and greater opportunities. As a child of Commonwealth immigrants, Bim got into politics to give back to his country and make a positive difference to people as their Member of Parliament. He is passionate about getting the big decisions right for the next generation; helping businesses thrive, protecting our green belt, and caring for the vulnerable.
Financial Inclusion, how to unlock digital finance for all Tuesday @ 4:20 PM
Mark and Deafax conceptualised and launched Signly.
Powered by Microsoft Azure, Signly delivers synchronous, in-vision, sign language translations on any webpage for any Deaf sign language user with next to no coding on the part of the site owner.
Content is captured in record time in the home studios of highly qualified Deaf sign language translators. Signly then checks daily for site updates and new content is recorded. If a signed version of a page is not already available, Deaf users can select ‘Request Signed Content’.
As early adopters, Lloyds Bank have gone beyond compliance, allowing users to view sign language translations of any of their webpages.
Increasing accessibility of financial services Tuesday @ 3:05 PM
Alessandra is techUK’s Policy Manager for Data. She leads techUK’s working groups on Data Protection and Open Data and supports members on key issues such as the UK’s National Data Strategy.
Prior to working for techUK, Alessandra was a Consultant for a Public Policy firm based in London where she helped international technology companies navigate the risks and opportunities of digital policy. Alessandra has experience working for the European Asylum Support Office, the Malta High Commission in London during Malta’s first rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, and the European Parliament Information Office in Valletta. She holds an MSc in Public Policy and a B.A in European Studies.
Looking ahead: Open Finance in an Open Data ecosystem Tuesday @ 3:05 PM
David’s role at the OBIE is to lead the growth and development of the open banking ecosystem. His key objective is to facilitate and encourage end user adoption of products and services powered by open banking. This includes all marketing and events, bringing new participants into the directory, and developing effective propositions which allow consumers and businesses to derive maximum benefit from sharing their transactional data.
His 25 years in data-driven insight and marketing have seen him work with many leading brands in multiple sectors and countries. In addition to working for some of the largest players in the data world such as Experian, Callcredit and Telefonica, David also ran his own boutique data insight business, Thinkdata, for 5 years before its acquisition by Bertelsmann. Prior to joining OBIE, David spent 3½ years as the Commercial Director at The Open Data Institute where he also led their work on open banking, helping governments and regulators in Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Canada. David regularly speaks on open banking at conferences in the UK and internationally, has co-authored a number of reports on Open Banking, and was interviewed on BBC TV on the day it officially launched in the UK.
Originally a classically trained musician, David has a Master’s from Cambridge University and an MBA in Marketing. He sits on the board of Open Data Australia, and also as a non-executive director for Boundless, a theatre company for young people. Ever the optimist, he continues to hold a season ticket at Nottingham Forest Football Club.
Keynote Address Tuesday @ 3:55 PM
Dr Louise Beaumont works with legislators and regulators to create disruption, with corporates to cope with disruption, and with start-ups to exploit disruption – with open and accessible data as the guiding principle. She is expert in innovations in Open Banking, Open Finance, Open Data, with a focus on Lending and Payments.
She works with legislators and regulators in her role chairing techUK’s Open Finance & Payments working group, focusing on the full gamut from Open Banking to Open Data. She works with corporates to cope with disruption both in her advisory roles with Pay.UK and Bottomline and as a public speaker and commentator. She has invested in and holds board and advisory roles with start-ups in various sectors including, in the FinTech segment, Funding Options.
Panel session: Open Finance, the next step for the industry Tuesday @ 1:45 PM
Ghela is Head of Europe for the Financial Data and Technology Association, as well as founder of FemTechGlobal™, a network dedicated to challenging the status quo, and improving the inclusiveness and diversity in Financial Services.
Ghela’s past work was centered on fast-tracking internal innovation and the practical application and comercialisation of fintech/bank collaboration. Currently, she focuses on fostering an ethical data democracy, individual consumer empowerment over their data, data economy disruptive business models, and facilitating banks’ emerging technology consumption.
Ghela takes product, service, journey, and business model redesign from initial concept to go-to-market delivery. Her strong regulatory economic background lends an ability to navigate compliance mandates with a commercial angle, as well as identify new commercial opportunities in a rapidly deregulated landscape. She is an evangelist for Open Banking and Finance as a means to nurture Customer Lifetime Value, and transform Financial Services for the greater good.
Panel session: Open Finance, the next step for the industry Tuesday @ 1:45 PM
Siobhan is General Counsel at Fidel, a home grown, global fintech connecting innovators to global payments and real time transaction data. Siobhan's focus is at the intersection of technology, innovation and financial services. She was previously Head of Regulatory Law at Visa, and before that was part of the foundation team at the Financial Conduct Authority charged with improving competition in financial services. Siobhan has advised numerous clients across multiple regulated sectors in international law firms Baker & McKenzie and CMS and has been closely involved in the international development of the open data ecosystem.
Keynote Address Tuesday @ 4:05 PM
Julian David is the CEO of techUK, the Digital Technology Trade Association.
Julian leads techUK's 60 strong team in representing over 800 member companies, comprising global and national champions and more than 500 SMEs. He is a member of the UK Government and Industry Cyber Growth Partnership, the Digital Economy Council and the Department of International Trade’s Strategic Trade Advisory Group. He is also the Vice President for National Trade Associations, on the Executive Board of DIGITALEUROPE, Vice President representing Europe on the board of WITSA the Worldwide IT Association, and a member of the board of the Health innovation Network, the South London Academic Health Science Network.
techUK Welcome Tuesday @ 1:00 PM
Orsola joined the ODI in 2015 and is part of the Senior Leadership Team.
As Head of Innovation, she works with public and private sector businesses and organisations to help them gain value through data using different innovation methods and approaches.
Orsola and her team add in-depth expertise to the ODI’s activities on topics including sector-wide digital transformations, innovation challenges, open innovation programmes, training for early-stage startups and innovating with data.
Having gained extensive experience working with startups, Orsola also advises and mentors early stage businesses on their value proposition, product development and business models.
Orsola is a regular speaker at external events about innovation, digital transformation, business design, data-driven business models, growing women’s leadership in tech and beyond, as well as being part of judging panels for startup competitions and awards.
Prior to her role at the Open Data Institute, she spent a number of years in the private sector, working with companies in retail and built environment, won a social enterprise award from UnLtd and co-founded a platform that promotes civic engagement and collaborative urbanism.
A passionate problem-solver, Orsola believes in using data and technologies to drive innovation and build great products that help solve real challenges.
She holds a BS in Economics and Management and an MA in Design Studies from Central Saint Martins – University of the Arts London.
Looking ahead: Open Finance in an Open Data ecosystem Tuesday @ 3:05 PM
Financial Inclusion, how to unlock digital finance for all Tuesday @ 4:20 PM
Harriet Egdell-Page leads work on Smart Data in BEIS. Smart Data aims to make it easier for customers to access and use data held about them by data holders, such as communications providers. It involves the secure and consented sharing of data with third parties, who then offer innovative services to the customer, such as better account management and switching services. Harriet has previously worked at the National Infrastructure Commission and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Looking ahead: Open Finance in an Open Data ecosystem Tuesday @ 3:05 PM
Lucy Eyre has worked as a competition and regulatory economist for many years, both at Ofcom and in the private sector. She has worked on a range of projects, such as the spectrum review, regulation of the BBC and consumer engagement issues. She is currently leading the economic input into Ofcom’s work on Open Communications.
Looking ahead: Open Finance in an Open Data ecosystem Tuesday @ 3:05 PM
Panel session: Open Finance, the next step for the industry Tuesday @ 1:45 PM
Dr Phil Gosset is currently Head of Innovation at Nationwide Building Society, and has spent the last 25 years working in grounded and socio-technical innovation in the fields of finance, telecoms and computing with companies like Microsoft Research and Vodafone.
He is currently leading the Nationwide Incubator focussed on helping solve the challenges faced by people living in financial difficulty, and which is built upon the same grounded innovation approach as the previous Open Bank for Good programme.
Increasing accessibility of financial services Tuesday @ 3:05 PM
Ron Kalifa is Chairman of Network International; a FTSE company and Chairman of FutureLearn.
He is a Non-Executive Director of the Court of Directors to the Bank of England and is a member of the Council of Imperial College, London.
Ron was appointed to the Board of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) as an Independent Non-Executive Director in November 2020 and also sits on The Hundred Board.
Ron was invited to lead an independent Fintech Strategic Review for the UK at the request of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Report was published on 26 February 2021.
Additionally, Ron is a member of the Build Back Better Business Council which is cochaired by the Prime Minister and the Chancellor. Oliver Dowden, Secretary of State for DCMS, has also invited Ron to join the Government’s Digital Economy Council.
Ron is a Non-Executive Director for Transport for London (until May 2020) and is an Operating Partner for Advent International. He led Worldpay for over 10 years as CEO including its divestment into private equity ownership in 2010. He served as Vice Chairman thereafter, remaining as an Executive director until February 2020.
Ron was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s New Year 2018 Honours List for services to financial services and technology.
Keynote Address Tuesday @ 1:30 PM
Eddie is a very experienced Financial Services professional with over 30 years of experience in the IT industry. He has worked in many sectors, primarily payments, but also including retail & SME banking, life assurance, corporate and investment banking, post-trade securities services, and credit reference. He has a keen interest in the roots of financial services in the UK, and their relationship with the social history of the country. His experience with IBM has taken him around the world with significant amounts of time spent in South Africa, Central and Eastern Europe and the major European economies. He has a strong network of contacts, not least with the challenger banks and post-PSD2 service providers. Eddie has served on Pay.UK’s Participant Advisory Council since July 2018. He is also a member of the Financial Services Council at techUK.
Away from the office, Eddie is Chair of Middlesex County RFU Ltd.
Financial Inclusion, how to unlock digital finance for all Tuesday @ 4:20 PM
Nina Kerkez is a part of the Consulting team with LexisNexis Risk Solutions. From her base in London, Nina leads FCC consulting group for our UK and Ireland business.
Nina has started her career in business-to-business marketing, eventually transitioning her talents to technology product development. She specializes in go-to-market strategies and new product development for the risk and compliance sector with attention toward know your customer (KYC) efforts, for the last eight years.
Nina takes a customer-centric approach to strategy and product development, believing that a company’s customers is at the forefront of any business. She is adept at working for and advising complex global organizations on risk and compliance issues to deliver true business benefits.
Nina has just completed Executive MBA at Cass Business School, and already holds Bachelor of Arts in Business and Master of Arts degrees in International Business. She is a Serbian native, and speaks fluent Spanish, colloquial French and has a basic knowledge of Russian and Italian, in addition to her native Serbian language.
Financial Inclusion, how to unlock digital finance for all Tuesday @ 4:20 PM
Rick is the Founder & Managing Director of Customer Touch Point, a business that specialises in long-term and instant impact customer experience solutions for organisations worldwide.
Over the past 15+ years Rick has developed a unique customer experience methodology, that is designed to help brands reach and engage customers effectively and effortlessly. But crucially, also ensure that these customer experiences and key points of contact are accessible to all.
Today, many customer contact points still create barriers for those with accessibility needs. Rick will discuss how, with the right technology and approach, these barriers can be removed and share a number of strategies and practical steps that businesses can take to make sure all of their customer contact channels are as accessible as possible.
Increasing accessibility of financial services Tuesday @ 3:05 PM
Vikas (Vik) Krishan is a Managing Director with responsibility for Growth and Clients. He also serves as head of Financial Services for Globant.
Vik is a senior executive with over 20 years of global experience in Financial Services, Management Consulting, Pre- and Post-deal services and large/ strategic deals. He has significant cross industry knowledge and also worked within a wide variety of verticals.
He has extensive experience working with Financial Institutions on strategy and growth, operational excellence, performance improvement/ large scale cost optimisation and digital transformation. He has served as the engagement lead on multiple global transactions to enable the orchestration of business, technology and operational change to drive growth and client retention.
Panel session: Open Finance, the next step for the industry Tuesday @ 1:45 PM
Dr Liz McFall is Director of Data Civics and Chancellor’s Fellow based in the Edinburgh Futures Institute and Sociology at the University of Edinburgh. Her current research focuses on the impact of data-driven innovations in insurance, personal finance and civic regeneration. Her work has explored how markets for difficult financial products succeed (and how they fail). Her books include Markets and the Arts of Attachment (Routledge 2017), Devising Consumption: cultural economies of insurance, credit and spending (Routledge 2014) and Advertising: a cultural economy (Sage 2004). She has worked with insurance, insurtech, market researchers and regulatory authorities including EIOPA and the FCA on data ethics, wearables and digital innovation. She is joint Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cultural Economy.
Increasing accessibility of financial services Tuesday @ 3:05 PM
Jason O’Shaughnessy is the Head of International for Envestnet | Yodlee. He is responsible for all new business, strategic partnerships, account management, and customer success for our entire international business. Having previously worked at Envestnet | Yodlee for 15 years, Jason originally started up the International business, he was not only responsible for Envestnet | Yodlee’s growth Internationally but also critical to the growth of FinTech and driving innovation from Financial Institutions across multiple countries during this tenure. Outside his day job, he also advises multiple startups and businesses in a non-executive director capacity and has unique experience in the startup ecosystem too. Jason has extensive experience in Open Banking/ Open Finance, business development, directorship, and assisting with fundraising to mention just a few of his skills.
Panel session: Open Finance, the next step for the industry Tuesday @ 1:45 PM
Chris is Britain’s most successful Paralympic swimmer winning a total of 9 golds, 5 silvers and 1 bronze. He was also Director of Paralympic Integration, responsible for the organisation of the 2012 Paralympic Games in London.
Chris is a passionate advocate for the potential of technology and the benefits of diversity and inclusion. He campaigns for more accessible environments for disabled people and has conducted an independent review for the Government that made recommendations on opening up public appointments to disabled people.
In Parliament Chris sits on the influential Science and Technology Select Committee
Keynote Address Tuesday @ 1:15 PM
Financial Inclusion, how to unlock digital finance for all Tuesday @ 4:20 PM
Bill is Head of Open Banking at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and is currently leading the consultation on arrangements for the future oversight of the ecosystem. He is also a member of the FCA’s open finance advisory group and on the steering group of the BEIS Smart Data review.
Prior to entering the world of regulation he was with what is now Thomson Reuters and before that he was the Deputy Director/COO of Which?
Keynote Address Tuesday @ 2:35 PM
Ian Searle is the manager of the Open Finance project at the FCA. He has previously managed the Payments and Mortgages teams, as well as leading the FCA’s work to support borrowers affected by the pandemic. Before joining the FCA he worked at HM Treasury and the Bank of England.
Panel session: Open Finance, the next step for the industry Tuesday @ 1:45 PM
