Nicola Carter

Nicola is a Partner at Baringa Partners, a global management consultancy firm, specialising in helping organisations navigate complex change to digitise, improve performance and comply with regulations. Nicola has held several leadership positions within Baringa over 20 years with the firm. Within the Financial Services division, she has held positions as COO, People Partner and Clients and Marketing Partner, in addition to leading a large and growing banking client account team. Nicola holds qualifications in career coaching and as a senior leader has supported the development and progression of diverse talent into leadership positions both within Baringa and within her banking clients. Nicola is a strong advocate for Baringa’s female leadership development programme and is passionate about curating diverse teams where each individual member can play to their strengths.

Helen Cowan

Helen Cowan is the Founder and CEO of The Tall Wall, a global executive coaching and leadership development firm working with senior leaders across professional and financial services. Prior to coaching, Helen spent over fifteen years in financial services, advising private equity houses and global banks on complex M&A transactions and corporate strategy in the UK and internationally. Helen and her colleagues coach both executives and parents in high-pressure investment environments, supporting leaders to sustain performance, resilience and impact through key life and career transitions. Helen is the proud mum of two children.

Joanna Akers-Khan

Joanna Akers-Khan is a dynamic marketing leader with over a decade of experience in shaping and executing impactful strategies. With a proven track record in driving growth and enhancing brand visibility, particularly in the fast-evolving AI and fraud prevention sectors, she currently serves as the Global Head of Regional Marketing at Feedzai.

Daniel Lowther

Daniel has 20 years’ experience in B2B technology PR and heads up the Hoffman Agency's fintech division. He has worked with a range of fintech organisations ranging from nimble start-ups to major industry brands including ClearBank, NatWest, Mollie, Payhawk and Revolut. He is a Payments Power 50 influencer and has appeared on various media including Finextra, Fintech Insider Podcast and TechCrunch. He has an unhealthy obsession with the impact of tokenization on the future of financial services.

Laurel Wolfe

With significant international marketing experience in fintech, financial services and payments, Laurel currently leads corporate and central marketing for Worldpay, which was recently acquired by Global Payments. Prior to that, Laurel helped cloud banking platform and SaaS scale-up Mambu grow from fledgling unicorn to a multi-billion dollar valuation and $100M in ARR. Other professional experience includes marketing lead at Klarna for emerging and expansion markets such as UK, US, Spain, Italy, The Netherlands and Australia. Laurel also spent many years in marketing roles at payment terminal provider Verifone. She is a proud alumna of the University of Texas and their prestigious creative advertising programme.

Angela Casucci

Angela Casucci іs Head оf Marketing & PR at Clear Junction, leading brand messaging and visibility, integrated marketing campaigns for product launches and growth, executive profiling, and corporate reputation. She brings 20+ years’ experience across financial services, energy, and technology, with in-house roles at Axpo, Earthport (a Visa company), and IBM, as well as agency-side work supporting high-growth brands.

Khristina Quigley

Khristina Quigley is a hospitality technology and payments expert helping hotels unlock new revenue through digital commerce, guest experience and modern payment infrastructure. She currently serves as Head of Payments at Journey, where she partners with luxury hotels and hospitality groups to optimise the entire digital guest journey from discovery to post stay engagement. With more than a decade of experience across hotel operations, revenue management and global hospitality technology, Khristina brings a rare end to end perspective on the industry. Prior to Journey she held a global leadership role at Planet, working with hotel groups worldwide to implement integrated payment and commerce solutions. Khristina is widely recognised as a thought leader on the future of hospitality commerce, regularly speaking on topics including payments innovation, AI in hospitality, agentic commerce, the evolution of hotel distribution and strategies for hotels to compete with online travel agencies. Passionate about the future of the industry, she advocates for hotels to embrace technology, data and modern commerce tools to drive profitability while delivering exceptional guest experiences.

Julia Callejo

Julia Callejo is a Manager based in Edgar Dunn & Company’s Paris office with over 8 years of strategy consulting experience within payments and financial services in several European, North American, Latin American and Middle Eastern markets. She has developed valuable expertise by working with a wide variety of clients across the payments value chain (e.g. central banks, issuers, acquirers, payment networks, merchants and payment providers) with a larger focus on retail and travel verticals.

Rochelle Sharpe

Rochelle is a Senior Product Owner at Allica Bank, where she leads the core banking product features and liquidity solutions squads. With extensive experience across global payments markets spanning APAC and EMEA, she has successfully built products from the 0 to 1 across diverse banking segments including SME, private banking, and consumer markets. Her comprehensive background in fintech product development positions her uniquely to identify opportunities and drive rapid, impactful change in the evolving banking landscape.

Julia Streets

Julia Streets is a champion of fintech and entrepreneurship, innovation, diversity and inclusion.   In 2007, she founded Streets Consulting, the business development, marketing and communications consultancy. She and her team advise a wide range of international firms in the field of fintech, capital markets, investment management and payments innovation, as well as specialist offerings including NFTs, digital assets, tokenisation, blockchain, artificial intelligence and more.  Prior to becoming a founder & CEO, Julia was global head of communications at NYSE Technologies, serving on the Executive Committee and European head of marketing and sales development at Instinet Europe.  She was head of eCommerce for a City PR agency throughout the dotcom boom and over the past 30+ years she has advised hundreds of startups, scaleups and global banks and financial institutions.   A certified transformational leadership coach, she works with senior executives to help them build and lead high performing teams, develop proud and solid growth-minded cultures and outperform as enlightened leaders. Julia is the host of ‘DiverCity Podcast’ talking about diversity, equity and inclusion in financial services.  Now in its 15th series, DiverCity Podcast has listeners in >50 countries and is ranked one of the world’s top DE&I podcasts.  She is also the host of CityAM’s ESG show "Impact AM Live", Shell’s Energy Podcast and host of ‘Metaverse: What matters?”, recorded in the metaverse, available on You Tube to educate the world about the opportunities and risks as we navigate this multi-trillion dollar industry. She is an advisor, mentor and investor and is called upon to chair many of the world’s leading conferences drawing not only on her industry experience, but also on her skills as a speaker, host and sell-out stand up comedian. Julia had received many awards and accolades including being listed as one of Brummell Magazine’s 30 Women on Boards, 39 Female Entrepreneurs, and 30 Women of Influence.  She is one of the Global Diversity List’s 20 global champions and is regularly called out as a trailblazer and changemaker.  Julia is a founding member of the Power Women Network, a fellow of the British American Project and proud to serve as a board trustee of Street Child, a global education charity that believes that all children should be safe, in school and learning.

Kristy Duncan

Kristy Duncan is the founder and CEO of Women in Payments. This growing professional network unites women in payments from around the globe with a shared vision of gender parity. Women in Payments offers career development opportunities through conferences, recognition programs, leadership and mentorship programs, and by hosting a growing global online community.  Kristy is an avid supporter of her fellow female trailblazers, serving as an investor and advisor to a number of fintechs. As a respected leader in the field, she’s been invited to speak to audiences around the world, and act as a judge for accelerators, fintech contests, and awards programs.  Before founding Women in Payments, Kristy was a leading payments consultant to global financial institutions, payment networks, fintechs, and other industry leaders. Prior to that, she held leadership positions at a tier one Canadian bank. 

Jana Mackintosh

Jana is the Managing Director for Payments and Innovation at UK Finance where she leads discussions on the future of money, payments and digital agendas. Before joining UK Finance, she was head of the Worldpay (then FIS) Global Government Affairs team, shaped competition and regulatory policies at the Financial Conduct Authority and Payments Systems Regulator and prior to that supported companies across public and private sectors globally through her various roles. She has added commercial credentials delivering and implementing policies in practice, holds several board positions and works with a number of charities.

Rob Cameron

Rob Cameron is the Group Country Manager for Visa in the UK and Ireland, where he leads the strategy and business operations in both markets. His focus is on ensuring people and businesses have access to world-class payment experiences, delivered with the highest levels of resilience and reliability. Across the UK and Ireland, Visa leverages its global network, trust and scale to help its clients innovate, protect their customers and unlock new growth opportunities. With over 25 years’ experience, Rob has a strong track record of performance, leadership, and innovation within the payments industry. He is passionate about creating exceptional customer experiences and ensuring people are at the heart of everything he does. Rob previously served as Global Head of Visa Acceptance Solutions, a core part of Visa’s Value-Added Services portfolio, where he oversaw the growth of the company's payment acceptance platform. Prior to Visa, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Barclaycard Payments, and held executive positions in North America and Europe at Chase Merchant Services, Moneris Solutions, and ACI Worldwide. Rob is based in London where lives with his wife and three sons.

Asma Baurtally

Asma Baurtally is Chief of Staff in legal and Compliance at SWIFT, where she is also actively involved in the organisation’s governance transformation as it prepares to become regulated. With a background in financial services and compliance, she focuses on bridging business and regulatory requirements in a practical and structured way. Outside of work, she is a mother of two and passionate about navigating ambitious careers alongside family life.

Karen Connell

Karen Connell brings more than two decades of expertise in governance, risk, controls, and internal audit across major global financial institutions. She joined Paysafe in 2023 after serving as Chief Auditor for Prudential UK, where she steered the Internal Audit function through the company’s demerger from Prudential plc and later acted as Group Chief Auditor for M&G plc, overseeing the audit operations of a FTSE 100 firm. Prior to that, Karen spent 15 years at Barclays in senior audit and governance roles, including leading the Governance, Controls & Conduct team for the Wealth division and managing high‑profile regulatory and audit reviews in both the UK and U.S. markets. Known for her energetic and collaborative leadership style, Karen has a strong track record of building and transforming governance, risk, and control frameworks that elevate an organization’s culture and operational resilience. She is also a dedicated coach and mentor, actively championing the progression of women in financial services and advocating for environments that support and empower working women at all stages of their careers. As the global lead for Paysafe’s Families@Paysafe network, she supports working parents worldwide through family-related programming, events, and resources. A part of Paysafe’s CEO Council, Karen is committed to fostering workplaces where diverse voices are valued and where strong control disciplines align with strategic business ambitions.

Naa Wilson

Naa is an experienced payments leader in SubSaharan Africa. At J.P. Morgan, she leads Treasury Services in the region and is responsible for developing and executing the payments strategy. She has more than 21 years of experience in corporate banking, with deep expertise in transaction banking business development and execution, as well as payments product management. She holds a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. In her personal capacity, Naa is a daughter, sister, and wife, and the mother of two young boys. She enjoys music across genres and is passionate about technology innovation, reading, and history.

Tejal Kaur

Tejal is a subject matter expert for Fraud and Identity. She is committed to supporting banks worldwide to stay ahead of evolving fraud tactics using the end-to-end capabilities offered by Feedzai.  Before joining Feedzai, Tejal served as the Global Senior Manager for Fraud and Analytics Optimisation at HSBC. Prior to that, she was in various fraud analytics roles at Barclays. In these roles, Tejal was involved in huge fraud transformation work in addition to leading the day to day fraud capability on a global scale. She has years of experience identifying, investigating and mitigating fraud across multiple markets.

Nikkita Morjaria

Nikkita specialises in leading complex technology transformations within Banking and Capital Markets. She partners with senior clients on their transformation journeys, helping them navigate challenges, define strategic business outcomes, and leverage cutting-edge technology enablers to enhance customer satisfaction and optimise operational efficiency. Recently, Nikkita has focussed on delivering impactful technology initiatives within the realm of Economic Crime, with a particular emphasis on Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Know Your Customer (KYC), and Fraud prevention.

Sonia Vivace

Sonia Vivace is a Lead Data Scientist at Nexi, where she leads the Innovation and Financial Crime team, developing Machine Learning and Generative AI solutions for fraud prevention in digital payments and for the Operations team. With a background in applied mathematics and experience across consulting, travel tech, and online marketplaces, she specializes in building scalable, data-driven products and real-time predictive systems.

Kristy Duncan

Kristy Duncan is the founder and CEO of Women in Payments. This growing professional network unites women in payments from around the globe with a shared vision of gender parity. Women in Payments offers career development opportunities through conferences, recognition programs, leadership and mentorship programs, and by hosting a growing global online community.  Kristy is an avid supporter of her fellow female trailblazers, serving as an investor and advisor to a number of fintechs. As a respected leader in the field, she’s been invited to speak to audiences around the world, and act as a judge for accelerators, fintech contests, and awards programs.  Before founding Women in Payments, Kristy was a leading payments consultant to global financial institutions, payment networks, fintechs, and other industry leaders. Prior to that, she held leadership positions at a tier one Canadian bank. 

Anita Liu Harvey

Anita joined Spotify in 2019 and leads the team driving the company’s global commerce and payments strategy across 180+ countries, supporting consumers, creators, and advertisers. Previously, she held senior roles within Barclays’ Payments division, shaping its international e-commerce and omnichannel strategies, and leading its Small Business product organization. Earlier in her career, she was among PayPal’s first UK employees, helping launch its UK merchant services business.

Keira Lloyd

In her day job Keira leads Mastercard’s B2B Travel payments business in Europe, having previously held roles across product and in marketing. A former “returner”, she now co-chairs Mastercard UK’s Women’s Leadership Network, with a volunteer team of 30+ people and a growing community of over 800 members. In the mission to drive better workplace gender balance, she built a data-focused set of priorities for the group including a platform to offer opportunities to lead and creating visibility for female talent. 

Christina Wadlow

Christina Wadlow is a senior financial services leader with twentyfive years’ experience driving commercial growth, operational transformation, and organisational change. She has led sales and efficiency programmes across multiple institutions, ensuring growth and guiding firms through complex transitions, including private equity acquisition and postdeal transformation. Christina advises firms on how to use partnerships to grow and at Convera, she owns the global referral partnerships programme, ensuring the strategy, governance, and operating frameworks meet the needs of a modern, datadriven sales organisation. She is recognised for her collaborative and authentic leadership style, building strong crossfunctional relationships and enabling highperforming teams. A committed advocate for women in business, Christina mentors emerging leaders, champions policy improvements, and creates opportunities for connection across industries and career stages. Outside of work, she is a keen runner and beekeeper, and enjoys time with her family. Her moto is “have fun and be successful”

Moulika Atluri

Moulika is an Director at Citi, responsible for the Cross Border Payments Product Management team in Europe, Middle East and Africa. With around 15 years of experience in Financial Services, Moulika has diversified background in business, strategy, program execution and finance. She has proven experience in intraday liquidity management and cross border payments products supporting some the world’s largest multinational corporations across a variety of sectors. Qualified as a Chartered Accountant in India and completed her MBA from Cornell University, USA, Moulika enjoys a challenge. She has worked in India, USA and is currently based in London, UK. Amongst her peers, she is recognized as amicable but firm, leverages the infrastructure and expertise around her whilst contributing solely, is a quick learner, versatile and thrives in dynamic situations.ituations

Joanna Bonnett

She is currently Group Treasurer and Global Head of Insurance at Straumann AG, the world’s largest dental med-tech company. Prior to Straumann, she was Group Treasurer and Chief Sustainability Officer at PageGroup, the FTSE 250 global professional services firm. As CSO, she sat on the plc Sustainability Committee (2021–23), aligning sustainability strategy with long-term shareholder value. Alongside her executive career, Joanna is a Non-Executive Director of Financial Markets Standards Board Limited and on the Board of Riverside Housing sitting on its Treasury Committee. She previously served on the board of the Association of Corporate Treasurers (ACT) (2020–2025), including as Chair (President) in 2023-24 and Chair of the Audit, Remuneration and Appointments Committee (2024-25). A Chartered Accountant and Fellow of the ACT, her experience spans systems implementation, M&A, strategy, transformation and risk oversight. She has also contributed to several UK government and industry initiatives on financial regulation and transition finance, including TCFD, TPT and the Transition Finance Market Review. Please note that I do not need a pass for your conference, I will only be attending for the presentation and will then need to leave again. Please give my dinner place to someone else.

Lara King

Lara is an award-winning comedian and improviser who performs at prestigious venues and festivals across the UK and Europe. She has written and produced a number of successful full-length solo shows, with her latest one-woman show, Midlife At The Oasis, receiving four-star reviews and an award nomination at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She can be heard on countless campaigns and audio books as a voice-over artist and has just completed her first novel. Having studied the powerful effects of humour and laughter, Lara developed a programme in Humourology: training and mentoring adults and children to build confidence and self-esteem, improve personal impact, and develop leadership skills through comedy and improvisation. In addition to private workshops, Lara delivers courses to The Kings Fund, The Leadership Academy and The British Psychological Society. She is co-founder of LaughQuake - the global incentive to encourage the production of positive energy and well-being through laughter the world over. As a Senior Communications Coach, Lara explores Personal Impact, Presentation and Improvisation for global clients including Deloitte, Accenture, Visa, BMW, Allianz, Bryn Mawr, The NHS, Coca Cola and Nestle. She regularly leads training at London Business School, IMD and INSEAD and is, in particular, a torchbearer for powerful Women’s Leadership Work.

Kelly Hume

20 years’ experience in data-led transformation across highly regulated industries Prior to consulting, completed a PhD at Caltech in Machine Learning and began her career working on computational modelling at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She then transitioned into consultancy, driving data-driven transformation programmes and helping clients optimise operations, manage risk, and adopt new technologies. At Baringa, Kelly’s work focuses on integrating disparate data into scalable platforms, designing enterprise data strategies, and applying advanced analytics and AI to deliver tangible outcomes for clients. Emphasizing pragmatic, people-centered approaches and cross-functional collaboration to solve complex challenges and accelerate digital value creation.

Alex Olive

Alex joined the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) in June 2023 as General Counsel. The PSR is the UK’s economic regulator of payment systems and concurrent competition law authority. Alex joined the PSR from the Cabinet Office, where she led the Investment Screening Unit's work in relation to risk identification and enforcement in respect of the National Security and Investment Act 2021. Prior to this role, Alex was Legal Director at the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) – leading on all aspects of antitrust investigations and merger control. During her time at the CMA, Alex also served as Mergers Director and Head of Brexit strategy. Alex also worked in private practice for many years before joining the public sector.

Anisha Kaul

As EMEA Head of Banking within the Financial Services Industry Advisory team at Microsoft, Anisha collaborates with leading financial institutions to shape strategy, ignite innovation, and drive sustainable growth. With nearly two decades of experience in digital transformation and AI-led change, Anisha enables banks to reimagine customer experiences, unlock new business value, and navigate complex market dynamics with confidence.​ Her career spans retail, private, corporate banking, and capital markets, providing a comprehensive 360° perspective of the industry. She has partnered with C- suite executives to forge strategic alliances, deliver measurable outcomes, and future-proof business models. Prior to joining Microsoft, she held senior leadership roles at PwC, Lodestone Consulting, and Publicis Sapient, where she led high-impact programmes across global markets.​ A passionate advocate for equity and inclusion, Anisha is committed to empowering individuals—particularly women in financial services and working mothers. She champions cultures of innovation built on collaboration, continuous learning, and inclusive leadership.​ Whether driving digital reinvention, shaping industry thought leadership, or mentoring future leaders, her mission remains clear: to help the financial services sector build a future that is more innovative, resilient, and inclusive.​ Anisha is married and resides in the UK with her husband and two boys. She is an avid traveler, a fictional reader, and an amateur painting artist. Additionally, she is a passionate advocate for women, especially mothers, in the workplace, championing initiatives that support their professional growth and development.

Nadia Bull Bernikova

Prior to joining Silverflow, Nadia worked across multiple payments companies delivering solutions for merchants, gateways, acquirers, and other payments businesses. She entered the industry in 2008 and has experience spanning alternative payment methods, international acquiring, payments processing platforms, fraud prevention, and FX tools - with a strong focus on the UK and European markets and cross-border commerce. Nadia is part of Silverflow’s commercial team, where she leads relationships with new clients and supports the growth of Silverflow’s global customer base.

Shuba Chandran

Shubashini Chandran is a payments and regulatory strategy leader with over 9 years of experience delivering complex expansion programmes across EMEA and APAC. At Bolt, she leads cross-border payments and regulatory initiatives, driving market entry strategy and compliance execution across multiple jurisdictions. She has delivered 30+ expansion projects spanning 45+ countries, including leading national currency transitions and implementing localised collection and payout models in highly regulated markets. Prior to Bolt, Shubashini held roles at American Express, where she developed deep expertise in global payments infrastructure and financial services operations. She holds an MBA from IE Business School. A recognised voice in the payments ecosystem, she speaks regularly at industry forums including MoneyLIVE Europe and the Merchant Risk Council. She is passionate about advancing women's leadership in fintech. At the Women in Payments UK-EU 2026 Symposium, she will co-lead "Scaling Cross-Border Payments", exploring the strategic and regulatory realities of expanding payments globally.

Marta Gallego Mena

Marta Gallego Mena is a payments subject‑matter expert with an international career in global payments. Born in Spain and professionally developed in the UK, she has led multiple large‑scale payments initiatives across diverse organisations. Marta began her career at the London Stock Exchange Group before completing an MBA at the University of Oxford. She then moved into fintech, where she led Payments Product Operations at Tide—establishing its UK payments presence, launching operations in India, and defining the European rollout strategy. She is currently a Director at Visa, responsible for the Payments Network for cross‑border account‑to‑account (A2A) payments. Marta has been recognised as a Leader in Banking and Financial Services by Nova and as one of Santander’s Top 50 Global Leaders through the SW50 programme

Alexis Holland

A Senior Product Marketing Manager at GitLab, Alexis leverages her deep expertise in the financial services industry to empower banks and financial institutions to deliver secure software faster. With a strategic career spanning roles at OpenText, Fiserv, and InComm, she has partnered with leading financial institutions to drive adoption of innovative technologies while maintaining strict regulatory compliance. Named to the most recent Women in FinTech Powerlist, Alexis is passionate about demonstrating how highly regulated organizations can accelerate digital transformation without compromising security. Alexis holds an MBA from Auburn University and a BS in Marketing from Florida State University.

Clare Pearson

Clare is an accomplished payment professional with extensive experience in the Payments and Financial Services industry. Expertise encompasses product management experience for global payment services, trade finance, treasury, foreign exchange and cash management. Proven track record of delivering strategic and technical initiatives for global expansion programs, ecommerce, omni-channel solutions, Alternative Payment Methods (APM’s), and domestic and international schemes across various channels and gateways. With a focus on financial services and in particular payments, excels in developing and implementing road maps, setting priorities, and ensuring the successful delivery of innovative solutions. As a specialist in Open Banking, leverages expertise to drive user centric product development and enhance customer experience. Comprehensive operational management experience in credit risk, network settlements, reconciliations, payments, transaction monitoring, Know Your Customer (KYC/B) processes, fraud solutions, onboarding, and payment investigations. In January 2023, Clare was appointed as a panel advisor to the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR). The panel’s role is to contribute to the PSR’s strategy and policy and acts as a ‘critical friend’ by providing advice and early input on both strategic and technical levels.

Somya Patnaik

Somya is the Global Solutions Leader for Real‑Time Payments at ACI Worldwide, where she drives solution strategy and go‑to‑market execution for next‑generation real‑time payment initiatives worldwide. With over a decade of experience across the payments and fintech ecosystem, Somya is a recognized expert in account‑to‑account payments, with deep expertise in emerging payment rails such as real‑time payments. In her role, Somya focuses on translating innovation into real‑world impact - bringing secure, scalable, and modern payment capabilities into the hands of banks, fintechs, and payment service providers globally. Her work sits at the intersection of market strategy, technology, and customer value, helping organizations modernize payment infrastructures and meet the demands of an always‑on digital economy. Prior to ACI Worldwide, Somya held key roles across diverse financial institutions, including a national central payments infrastructure and a challenger bank, giving her a unique end‑to‑end perspective on payments. Passionate about shaping the future of payments, Somya is proud to be contributing to the evolution of mission‑critical payment systems at ACI Worldwide.

Rachael Erijo

Rachael Erijo is a Senior Vice President at Citibank, focused on cross-border payments commercialization and digital innovation. She works closely with global clients and internal stakeholders to navigate the evolving payments landscape, particularly as real-time infrastructure and blockchain technology reshape how money is moving across borders. She recently joined senior industry leaders in a discussion on digital assets and the future of international payments, contributing perspectives on how banks are thoughtfully adapting to emerging technologies. Rachael is committed to expanding opportunities for women in financial services and believes that innovation and inclusion must advance together. She actively mentors early-career professionals, builds strong professional networks, and contributes to conversations shaping the future of payments.

Esmiralda-Victoria Porath

Esmiralda has been working in banking since 2010 with global institutions including UBS and Deutsche Bank across Switzerland and the UK. She returned to Germany in 2021 and joined HSBC. At HSBC, she previously served as Wholesale Digital Lead, where she was responsible for the bank‘s suite of local and global digital channel capabilities in Germany. Since December, she has taken on the role of Head of Client Connectivity Germany, expanding her remit to include the leadership of a team of project managers delivering client change and connectivity initiatives.

Anna Orriss-Baxter

Anna is a leader in Baringa's Transaction Banking and Payments practice, working with global banks to execute complex, large-scale payments and cash management transformation programmes. Anna has a passion for marrying the latest technology innovations with dynamic organisational structures to meet the needs of the modern corporate client. She has played a key role in the delivery of industry-leading payments modernisation programmes.

Anne Cullen

Anne is the Vice President of Acquiring Solutions at Fiserv EMEA, a position she now holds since joining the company in 2002. Based in Dublin, she oversees a global acquiring platform and manages payment processing solutions for clients in multiple countries. With extensive experience in the payments industry, Anne operates at the intersection of technology and product management, serving client audiences of all sizes. She cares deeply about promoting Women in Technology, encouraging them to excel and flourish in traditionally male-dominated fields.

Riley Macdonald

Riley MacDonald is a Senior Director within Worldpay’s Enterprise Product team responsible for expanding and enhancing Worldpay’s domestic payment capabilities within Europe, the Middle East and Africa. She’s held multiple roles across Worldpay within marketing, public relations and go-to-market and brings a strong understanding of global payment landscape. In 2023, she completed a Global MBA from the University of Manchester and a Level 7 Senior Leader Master’s Degree from the Chartered Management Institute.

Katie Arkin

Katie Arkin is a customer transformation leader in financial services, with extensive experience delivering complex change across markets, functions and leadership teams. She specialises in bridging strategy, technology and operations to drive sustainable growth and customer impact. Having worked across diverse environments and international programmes, Katie brings a practical perspective on navigating career mobility, leading through change, and thriving across borders.

Abigail Slater

Abigail Slater is an experienced, people-first leader, responsible for driving Thunes’ growth and strategic expansion across Europe. With a global career spanning the US, India, SE Asia, and the UK leading teams of up to 600+, she specialises in building inclusive, high-performing cultures and navigating complex international markets. A seasoned executive, Abigail has extensive global payments and fintech experience. Prior to joining Thunes, she held senior leadership positions at American Express for more than 15 years, as well as leadership roles at Visa and Pleo. She excels at transforming business development, operations, and customer experience to unlock organisational potential. 

June Ahi

June came to Cashflows with extensive experience of leading and executing HR strategy and business transformation. Commercially focused and operating at senior level for many years, her last role the position of Head of People at rapid-growth global fintech company Bango, in mobile carrier billing. June has a strong generalist background, which has helped her in building a high-performance culture in scaling businesses delivered through a contemporary approach to HR; by ensuring there is a vibrant, innovative environment for talented individuals to thrive.

Britt Jensen

Britt Jensen has been with Citi for more than three years and has close to 30 years of experience within treasury. She has been working both in corporate treasury functions and within the financial sector giving her a full 360o profile when it comes to treasury best practices. Before joining Citi, Britt was Deputy Treasurer and Head of Treasury Operation & Systems for Tesco Plc. Prior to that role, she was heading up GSK’s Global Strategic Treasury Project team. Britt has also worked in various transactional banking roles covering both product development and solution sales in areas such as liquidity management, working capital advisory, and ERP/TMS integration. Britt is often seen speaking at various industry events and conferences across the region as well as author and contributor to articles and thought leadership papers. She holds a Masters Degree in Organization and Management from Copenhagen Business School.

Alina Semenenko

Alina Semenenko works in EMEA Business Development at WeFi Technology Group, a global working capital solutions provider. She works closely with the vendor–distributor–reseller ecosystem to enable smarter, technology-driven financing solutions. Prior to joining WeFi, Alina worked at Citibank, supporting multinational corporate clients across product and sales roles, gaining exposure to corporate banking, payments, and complex financial solutions. Alina holds a BSc in Business Management from King’s College London and is currently completing an Executive MBA at Cambridge Judge Business School. She is passionate about the intersection of finance, technology, and innovation, and enjoys exploring how emerging technologies can reshape global payments and financial infrastructure.

Shona Sabah

Shona Sabah is a senior strategic insights leader with over 14 years’ experience helping payments organisations across the globe use customer, market and competitor intelligence to make data-backed product, marketing and strategy decisions. She has led projects spanning consumer and commercial payments, supporting international brands to identify new opportunities, shape product strategies, and optimise marketing and sales performance to drive acquisition, retention, and long-term value. Beyond her client work, Shona is an active and recognised voice in the payments industry. She has spoken at major industry events such as MPE and Commercial Payments International (CPI) Summit, moderated webinars and fireside discussions with industry leaders, and authored her own articles and whitepapers - contributing to and shaping thought leadership across the sector.

Simone Satan

Simone is an experienced leader in the payments industry with over 25 years of expertise in transaction banking & cash management driving strategic business development. Simone is the Head of Client Solutions & Advisory of Global Payments & Trade based at BNY Frankfurt. Together with her global team she is focusing on delivering innovative tailored payment solutions to meet clients’ evolving needs. Previously, Simone led Treasury Services Relationship Management for Germany, Austria and Central Eastern Europe at BNY. Before she rejoined BNY in 2021, Simone spent six years at Visa in a senior strategic Relationship Management role, gaining deep insights into payment trends. Her background combines extensive knowledge of client business models, treasury services products, payment technology, and market dynamics. Simone holds an MBA in Banking from the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management. Simone is also actively engaged in advancing women in finance, serving on the BAFT WIP (Women in Transaction Banking) Council and contributing to the Women in Payments Initiative.

Kristy Duncan

Kristy Duncan is the founder and CEO of Women in Payments. This growing professional network unites women in payments from around the globe with a shared vision of gender parity. Women in Payments offers career development opportunities through conferences, recognition programs, leadership and mentorship programs, and by hosting a growing global online community.  Kristy is an avid supporter of her fellow female trailblazers, serving as an investor and advisor to a number of fintechs. As a respected leader in the field, she’s been invited to speak to audiences around the world, and act as a judge for accelerators, fintech contests, and awards programs.  Before founding Women in Payments, Kristy was a leading payments consultant to global financial institutions, payment networks, fintechs, and other industry leaders. Prior to that, she held leadership positions at a tier one Canadian bank. 

Alex Olive

Alex joined the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) in June 2023 as General Counsel. The PSR is the UK’s economic regulator of payment systems and concurrent competition law authority. Alex joined the PSR from the Cabinet Office, where she led the Investment Screening Unit's work in relation to risk identification and enforcement in respect of the National Security and Investment Act 2021. Prior to this role, Alex was Legal Director at the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) – leading on all aspects of antitrust investigations and merger control. During her time at the CMA, Alex also served as Mergers Director and Head of Brexit strategy. Alex also worked in private practice for many years before joining the public sector.

Nina Singh

Nina Singh is the Senior Regulatory Product Counsel at Adyen, specializing in financial regulatory compliance within the dynamic financial services sector. She is dedicated to driving proactive compliance initiatives and ensuring adherence to stringent regulatory frameworks. Nina’s expertise encompasses payments, consumer protection, and operational resilience. Her commitment to fostering a culture of compliance and ethical standards positions her as a trusted advisor in the evolving regulatory environment.

Hannah Kirwan

Hannah Kirwan is the Chief Risk Officer, for NatWest’s Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) business, NatWest Boxed & Mettle, a banking application for small businesses. Hannah brings a strategic approach to risk management, ensuring robust controls and governance frameworks across the organisation, driving an embedded risk management culture. As a risk and compliance leader, Hannah has spent more than 15 years working across the banking and payments sectors in both first and second line, with experience in international markets. Prior to joining NatWest Boxed, Hannah held leadership roles including SMF16 at Habito and Vocalink, a Mastercard company, creating value for consumers, clients, the business and regulators by building and delivering risk and control, and compliance frameworks that drive empowered and thoughtful risk decisions.

Stephanie O’Donoghue

Stephanie O’Donoghue, Head of Go-To-Market for UK and Ireland, brings over 15 years of experience in strategic leadership, commercial strategy, and marketing. She is a commercially focused leader known for turning strategic vision into tangible growth and market impact. For the past three years, Steph has been with Elavon, where she currently leads the Go-To-Market function across the UK and Ireland. She is responsible for shaping and executing integrated market strategies that accelerate growth, strengthen partner engagement, and ensure propositions resonate clearly with customers. Working cross-functionally, she aligns commercial ambition with operational delivery to drive measurable results. Alongside her commercial focus, Stephanie is deeply passionate about developing young talent and supporting early careers. She actively champions mentorship, progression pathways, and inclusive opportunities that enable emerging professionals to build confidence, capability, and long-term success.

Eva Katz

With six years dedicated to the intersection of Payments and established Technology, Eva brings a unique, holistic perspective to her role at Adyen. This background, coupled with a self-proclaimed "payments nerd" passion, fuels her creative problem-solving approach to highly complex challenges. Eva views relationships not just as contacts, but as central to driving strategic evolution within the ecosystem. She consistently injects passionate energy into discussions on how the industry should evolve in line with an ever-changing world. Her deep functional knowledge and enthusiasm are perfectly positioned to drive Adyen’s next wave of innovation and elevate the entire payments landscape.

Noa Segoly

Noa Segoly is a Treasury Sales Officer for Global Payments Solutions at Bank of America, based in Paris. She covers Large Corporate clients across the EMEA region and also supports the management and development of junior talent across Western Europe. Noa has been with Bank of America for nine years, where she has been based in both London and Paris, covering clients from various sectors. Prior to that, she spent nine years with another global financial institution, holding roles in Commercial Banking, Trade & Supply Chain Operations and Sales, as well as Corporate Banking. Having lived and worked in Asia, Australia, the UK and France, Noa brings a broad international perspective to her work. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Business and Accounting from the University of New South Wales, and an MBA from the Manchester Business School. Noa is also a mother of three: a six‑year‑old daughter and four‑year‑old twin girls.

Irene Skrynova

Irene Skrynova is a globally recognised senior executive with a proven track record in fintech and customer success. As Chief Customer Officer at Unlimit, an international fintech powerhouse, she helps businesses navigate the complexities of the payments landscape to achieve sustainable growth and a competitive edge. As an award-winning thought leader, Irene is recognised for her strategic vision and transformative leadership on an international scale. She has played a pivotal role in shaping global customer success strategies and business transformation. Beyond her executive role, Irene is deeply committed to fostering industry growth and inclusion. She actively mentors emerging talent, serves as a jury member and speaker at global events, and leads industry committees, helping to shape the next generation of leaders and drive meaningful change in the financial ecosystem.

Vanessa Onyemem

Vanessa Onyemem is the Chief Operating Officer at PayPal Europe, based in Luxembourg. In this role, she has responsibility for enabling delivery of core first line activities for the regulated entity across Europe. Previously, Vanessa was PayPal Europe's Chief Compliance Officer, overseeing key regulatory compliance matters in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Her previous experience includes serving as Compliance Director, UK and Europe at Worldpay, and Head of Compliance and Operational Risk at Alphabet (a BMW Group Company). Beyond her corporate duties, Vanessa has been a Board Trustee for the PayPal Giving Fund UK since September 2023, supporting charitable initiatives with strategic insights. In November 2025, she assumed the role of Chair of the Board, where she continues to provide strategic leadership and guidance to further enhance the impact of the Fund's initiatives.

Brooke DiNatale

Brooke is leading Vocalink’s Product and Customer Account Management (CAM) function and is responsible for driving value and managing risk and resilience for Vocalink's customers through each of our products and services. She has over 20 years of experience in retail payments. Brooke joined Vocalink from Mastercard’s Corporate Solutions team. Prior to Mastercard, she worked in global business development, transformation and loyalty solutions at American Express in New York and London.

Kristy Duncan

Kristy Duncan is the founder and CEO of Women in Payments. This growing professional network unites women in payments from around the globe with a shared vision of gender parity. Women in Payments offers career development opportunities through conferences, recognition programs, leadership and mentorship programs, and by hosting a growing global online community.  Kristy is an avid supporter of her fellow female trailblazers, serving as an investor and advisor to a number of fintechs. As a respected leader in the field, she’s been invited to speak to audiences around the world, and act as a judge for accelerators, fintech contests, and awards programs.  Before founding Women in Payments, Kristy was a leading payments consultant to global financial institutions, payment networks, fintechs, and other industry leaders. Prior to that, she held leadership positions at a tier one Canadian bank. 

Nadia Edwards-Dashti

Nadia is the Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer of Harrington Starr Group, a leading technology and sales recruitment firm in Financial Services and FinTech. She has been instrumental in helping businesses scale, professionals advance their careers, and promoting inclusion across the industry. Nadia hosts the FinTech’s DEI Discussions podcast, amplifying stories of equitable progress within the sector. She is the author of FinTech Women Walk the Talk, a book spotlighting insights from over 100 podcast interviewees. An Industrial Fellow at the University of East London: Centre of FinTech; a former contributor to Forbes.com; Judge for the Innovate Finance Women in Fintech Powerlist and on the Exec Board of the European Women’s Payment Network. Nadia was awarded an Honorary Degree from Anglia Ruskin University in 2025: Doctor of Business Administration Honoris Causa for her commitment to gender equality and inclusion in fintech and financial services.

Natalie Strutt

As the Director, Head of Talent Acquisition for EMEA , I am responsible for steering the talent strategy and growth throughout the region, leveraging the expertise of my high-performing team of recruiters and talent managers. With over 24 years of experience in recruitment, I have a proven track record of consistently delivering results and value to my clients and stakeholders. In 2025 I was recognised as the first global HR Champion at Fiserv, for leading a bold transformation of our hiring strategy, removing the old agency-heavy model and building a proactive, in-house talent machine. This effort resulted in stronger partnerships, smarter hiring, and $1.5M in annual savings for the EMEA region. Through data-driven strategy and inclusive collaboration, I have earned the trust of senior leadership and elevated the EMEA Talent Acquisition team to new heights. I don't just consider myself a recruiter – I am a culture builder, change driver, and brand booster. I lead a fantastic team of 8 Talent Acquisition Partners. This responsibility allows me to not only guide and support my team’s professional development but also to influence a broader network within the organisation, by partnering with our senior stakeholders, hiring managers and onboarding teams, to ensure the very best hiring experience for the business and for our talent, new and existing. The most rewarding aspect of my role as a leader is recognising potential in others that they may not see in themselves and providing them with the space to grow, develop, and gain confidence in their abilities. I firmly believe in the power of empowerment and fostering a culture that avoids assigning blame when mistakes occur. Instead, I focus on solutions and create opportunities for continuous learning throughout the process. We don’t take for granted the privileged position my team and I hold. We can open doors for people who may not always be given the chance to shine. We encourage hiring that looks beyond the CV, focuses on potential, and values the individual strengths each person can bring to Fiserv. We do this one conversation at a time—challenging bias when we see it and staying mindful of our own. My home life is wonderfully chaotic with three amazing sons who are the centre of my world. Everything I do is for them. We also have two energetic cockapoos and a tortoise that adds to the fun. My partner is my biggest supporter, and I couldn’t manage it all without him by my side.

Laura Trimble

Laura joined HSBC Ireland in May 2022 as CEO and Head of Banking, following a 20-year career with HSBC based in London. Laura is responsible for all of HSBC’s operations in Ireland, with coverage of corporates, regional treasury centres, local operations of global multinationals and NBFI / FIG clients, supported by transactional banking teams across GPS, GTRF and Markets. HSBC also has a large securities services business in Ireland supporting asset managers with fund administration, custody, and fiduciary services. Prior to joining HSBC Ireland, Laura worked for HSBC in various senior roles in the UK and Europe, most recently as European Head of HSBC’s Origination business. Since joining HSBC as a graduate in 2003, Laura has extensive investment banking and commercial banking experience with prior roles in leveraged finance, investment grade debt, convertible bonds, and equity capital markets. Laura has also led several initiatives to support a more inclusive environment for colleagues, for example, founding HSBC’s European Shadow Executive Committee in 2020, a development programme for colleagues to work with senior leaders on business challenges such as sustainability, the future of work, and international connectivity; and co-founding HSBC’s “Inclusive Europe” employee resource group in 2021.

Samantha Emery

Samantha is a senior financial services executive and NED with unique experience spanning tier-one banks, prominent fintechs and major regulators. Her most recent role at Lloyds Banking Group saw her leading the strategic direction on payments (strategy, partnerships, industry engagement) and overseeing critical enterprise service delivery including schemes, liquidity, settlement, design, and compliance. At the Financial Conduct Authority, she led across both payments supervision and Innovate. Prior to this, she held several senior positions at NatWest GTS driving digital innovation, strategy and change. Samantha served a term as Director of Swift SC, becoming its Deputy Chair, and is also experienced in fintech advisory. An active spokesperson on equity, diversity and inclusion, she keeps conversations live, relevant and action-oriented. A constructive and impactful voice in industry groups, Samantha is the WIBF UK Leadership Council member for AI, Tech, Digital and previously chaired the UK Finance National Payments Vision work stream.

Alison Wilkes

Ali joined Paysafe in August 2023 as our inaugural SVP, Customer Success with a focus on our client's experience from signature through to live and beyond, getting new customers and projects live as quickly as possible, removing any blockers and allowing our sales teams to continue to drive new business. Ali has spent over 25 years in the retail bank and payments industry most recently at FIS where she held various senior roles, including SVP, Global Head of Client Success, SVP, Head of Payments- Europe, Client Management Director, EMEA and Client Services Director.

Seema Khinda Johnson

Seema Khinda Johnson is Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Nuggets, the trust layer for production AI. Nuggets enables organisations to deploy AI agents with provable authority, accountability and privacy - binding identity and delegated rights directly to execution. Recognised by Gartner alongside Apple, Google and Microsoft for innovation in digital identity, Nuggets is redefining how trust operates across humans, organisations and AI systems. Seema has received multiple industry honours, including Deutsche Bank’s Female Fintech Award and recognition as one of PaymentsSource’s Most Influential Women in Payments. Prior to founding Nuggets, she spent over 20 years leading commercial strategy and go-to-market at Skype and Microsoft.

Nathalie Oestmann

Nathalie Oestmann is a tenured scale-up chief operations executive and LinkedIn Top Voice from 2023-2025. She focuses on Fintech, Payments and Web3 - convinced that the three will merge into one in the near future. Nathalie is an operator and investor. She has been COO at Outlier Ventures, a Web3 accelerator venture business and at Curve OS, a payment wallet Fintech. She was also GM of Samsung Pay Europe launching the mobile payments solution across Europe. Prior to moving into the Fintech world, Nathalie worked for 15 years at American Express in a variety of roles. As VP of Global Product Marketing, she was responsible for product development and marketing for 3rd party bank partners across 55 markets. Nathalie has extensive international experience and has received recognition across the Fintech industry, including the Fintech Powerlist over many years. Currently Nathalie is a Partner at Mangosteen Advisory, ttaking on projects at the leading edge of Fintech, digital payments, and Web3, particularly the revolutionary impact of Stablecoins.

Sarah Bennett

Sarah Bennett is Principal at BCG London. After joining BCG in 2019, Sarah has focused her time in payments and banking. Specifically in payments Sarah has supported a number of global banks, acquirers and other payments companies on a range of topics including growth strategies, post merger integrations, and regulatory topics. She has also contributed to developing BCG IP, most recently helping to co-author the acquiring chapter within the Global Payments Report. Prior to joining BCG, Sarah worked for Travelex for five years specialising in foreign exchange payments.

Nina Sametinger

With 15 years of extensive experience in payments and retail, Nina Sametinger brings a wealth of expertise in driving growth and innovation across global markets. Beginning her career in leading sales and business development roles at eBay, she successfully transitioned to PayPal, where she built and led the business development teams. There, she spearheaded large-scale deals in mobile payments and expanded access to new regions, demonstrating a strong ability to navigate complex, fast-evolving markets.

Tram Anh Nguyen

Tram Anh Nguyen is Co-Founder of CFTE and Chairwoman of Global Women in AI. An internationally recognised leader in AI, finance, and workforce transformation, she works with governments, regulators, financial institutions, and global organisations to shape AI readiness, future skills, and inclusive growth.Through CFTE, she has helped build one of the world’s leading education platforms in digital finance and AI, reaching more than 260,000 professionals across 130+ countries and collaborating with over 1,000 industry experts worldwide. She has advised and convened central banks, ministries, regulators, and industry leaders on capability building, talent strategy, and the future of financial services. She is also Founder of the Future Skills Forum, Entrepreneurship Expert at Oxford Saïd Business School, and co-author of The FinTech Job Report and The AI-fication of Talents. With an international career spanning capital markets, private banking, and innovation, Tram Anh is widely respected for bringing a human-centred, global perspective to the opportunities and challenges of the AI era.

Louise Hill

Louise Hill is Executive Chair and Founder of GoHenry - the money app helping kids learn to earn, save, spend and invest. Louise has built the business from the ground up, from launching GoHenry in the UK in 2012, expanding to the US in 2018, then acquiring French Fintech Pixpay in 2022, followed by the merger with US Fintech Acorns in 2023. Louise is a passionate advocate for financial education and campaigned tirelessly to make the subject compulsory in all schools from primary age, with success - financial education is now set to be introduced on primary school curriculums in England from September 2028. Her expertise in kids' banking was recognised when she appeared as an expert judge on The Apprentice (Series 19). Keen to nurture UK businesses, Louise works to support several UK-based start-ups and is part of Innovate Finance's Unicorn Council for UK FinTech (UCFT), driving growth in the UK FinTech sector, as well as a Board Advisor for The Payments Association. She is also a huge supporter of women in business, regularly mentoring female founders to drive cultural change around female leadership.

Julia Streets

Julia Streets is a champion of fintech and entrepreneurship, innovation, diversity and inclusion.   In 2007, she founded Streets Consulting, the business development, marketing and communications consultancy. She and her team advise a wide range of international firms in the field of fintech, capital markets, investment management and payments innovation, as well as specialist offerings including NFTs, digital assets, tokenisation, blockchain, artificial intelligence and more.  Prior to becoming a founder & CEO, Julia was global head of communications at NYSE Technologies, serving on the Executive Committee and European head of marketing and sales development at Instinet Europe.  She was head of eCommerce for a City PR agency throughout the dotcom boom and over the past 30+ years she has advised hundreds of startups, scaleups and global banks and financial institutions.   A certified transformational leadership coach, she works with senior executives to help them build and lead high performing teams, develop proud and solid growth-minded cultures and outperform as enlightened leaders. Julia is the host of ‘DiverCity Podcast’ talking about diversity, equity and inclusion in financial services.  Now in its 15th series, DiverCity Podcast has listeners in >50 countries and is ranked one of the world’s top DE&I podcasts.  She is also the host of CityAM’s ESG show "Impact AM Live", Shell’s Energy Podcast and host of ‘Metaverse: What matters?”, recorded in the metaverse, available on You Tube to educate the world about the opportunities and risks as we navigate this multi-trillion dollar industry. She is an advisor, mentor and investor and is called upon to chair many of the world’s leading conferences drawing not only on her industry experience, but also on her skills as a speaker, host and sell-out stand up comedian. Julia had received many awards and accolades including being listed as one of Brummell Magazine’s 30 Women on Boards, 39 Female Entrepreneurs, and 30 Women of Influence.  She is one of the Global Diversity List’s 20 global champions and is regularly called out as a trailblazer and changemaker.  Julia is a founding member of the Power Women Network, a fellow of the British American Project and proud to serve as a board trustee of Street Child, a global education charity that believes that all children should be safe, in school and learning.

Ene Anyogo

Ene Anyogo is a Product & Proposition Manager at Barclays Bank and Lecturer in AI Product Strategy at University of Gloucestershire. She has over a decade of experience deploying AI agents in banking, including leading AI conversational banking at Fidelity Bank and Access bank serving millions of customers and managing business banking propositions. She holds an MSc in Data Science. She writes about AI, Data and Payments technology at The Product of Agency.

Jan Otterbach

Jan Otterbach is Vice President and Head of Process Transformation at Elavon / U.S. Bank Europe. He delivers strategic change by mobilising cross‑functional teams, simplifying execution, and finding better ways to work at scale. GenAI is a powerful tool in approaching these types of challenges, from everyday Copilot workflows to U.S. Bank’s first Copilot Studio agent. His earlier risk/tech/compliance & consulting experience (including with KPMG) helps him translate between stakeholders and keep programmes moving.

Shivani Mccormack

Shivani is a treasury product specialist within the GPS business in EMEA, based in London. Shivani is responsible for complex cross-product client solutioning and market management for the suite of GPS payments and receipts products in the region. She previously held various roles within the business including liquidity management and cross-currency payments. She is also really passionate about supporting her colleagues professional and personal development and serves as Co-Chair for the London chapter of the employee network LEAD (Leadership, Education, Advocacy, Development). Shivani joined the bank in 2017 and prior to that spent 10 years at Citibank across their New York, Hong Kong and Dublin businesses supporting new product launch and international expansion. A Sri Lankan native, born and raised in Dubai, Shivani obtained a bachelors degree in the US from Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania. She is a keen baker and spends her free time with her husband, 2 kids and their 2 mainecoon cats.

Sarah Barslund Lauridsen

Sarah Lauridsen is CPO for Merchant Solutions at Nexi Group, the European PayTech. She has worked in product and technology for more than two decades, in roles spanning from hands-on coding, to leading large product and engineering teams through transformational change. Prior to Nexi, Sarah spent 3 years at payments infrastructure provider Banking Circle and 14 years at Nordea Markets, the largest capital markets player in the Nordics. Sarah started her career in London with Goldman Sachs, and holds a degree in mathematical statistics from the University of Copenhagen.

Roza Marina Mellou

Roza Mellou is Head of Mastercard Checkout Solutions and Agent Pay for Europe, leading the company’s vision to redefine the future of online payments. A passionate innovator, Roza is at the forefront of Mastercard’s mission to achieve 100% tokenization by 2030, scale Click to Pay as the new industry standard for seamless checkout and unlock the next era of eCommerce powered by Artificial Intelligence. With more than 13 years in Digital Payments, Roza’s journey began as a multi-award-winning fintech entrepreneur, driven by curiosity, courage, and a belief that technology can make commerce more inclusive and human. She holds a Strategy Degree from Harvard Business School, an MBA in Innovation, and a Bachelor’s in Economics & Finance. Today, she continues to champion innovation, and purpose-led leadership — empowering the next generation of women to build, lead, and transform the future of finance.

Alexandra Lugo

Alexandra is the Country Head of Payments for Spain as well as the Corporate Sales Head for Iberia. Prior this role, she led the Corporate Payments Sales Team in Mexico and managing her own portfolio. She joined J.P. Morgan in 2016. She made the Global Mobility from Mexico to Madrid since November 2023. She has over 20 years of experience in the banking industry in global banks, specialized in cash management services. Alexandra started her career at Citi in different positions managing relations with Corporate Clients; then for almost 2 years, she led the Cash Management Sales Team for Multinational clients in HSBC Mexico. Education: Economics – Anahuac University, Mexico City

Laura Franco Sarto

Laura Franco Sarto is the head of Corporate Sales for Continental Europe, Global Payments Solutions (GPS) at Bank of America. In this role, Laura manages the corporate sales team responsible for the bank’s European GPS clients. These include large corporates with global operations and other international clients with subsidiaries in the region. Laura has 20 years of experience in transaction banking and product sales, having joined Bank of America in 2018. Prior to joining the firm, Laura led the GPS Sales team at BBVA in delivering working capital, card and financing solutions to corporate clients worldwide. Laura holds a degree in Business & Administration from the University of Salamanca and a Master’s in Finance from the Instituto de Estudios Bursatiles. She also completed a leadership course with INSEAD and a management programme with IE Business School.

Jennifer Ward

Jennifer is an experienced managing consultant with 28 years of experience working in the financial services sector and 14 years’ working on change and transformation programmes in particular Payments, Core Banking and Data Migration. She has been working with CubeMatch for 4 years and is the Head of the Business Analysis practice for the group.

Caroline Birchinall

Caroline has over 25 years’ experience in the financial services industry, having held senior leadership roles globally in Risk, Product, Client Coverage and Operations at VISA and HSBC. She was also General Manager of several business lines, including the Visa Prepaid business and the Risk and Authentication business line. She joined J.P. Morgan Payments in June 2024 as a senior Product Leader within the EMEA Merchant Services business. An active contributor to industry dialogue, she has served as a panellist at events hosted by the Merchant Risk Council, VISA, and European banks, and has worked extensively with industry bodies including UK Finance, where she chaired the Regulatory Steering Group for PSD2. A passionate advocate for developing young talent, she is actively involved in J.P. Morgan’s Apprenticeship and Internship programmes and the Women on the Move business resource group. Caroline holds a BSc in Zoology from the University of Nottingham and is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (ACIB).

Em Stroud

Em Stroud is The Comic Coach — a speaker, MC, performer, and bestselling author who helps leaders and teams unlock creativity, resilience, and better performance through play. With over 20 years’ experience across impro, theatre, and leadership development, Em works globally with organisations to build cultures of trust and innovation and a more joyful work place. A two-time TEDx speaker (one as a banana), Em is currently on tour with her new one-woman show, The Em Show. Her podcast Clowning Around Again has just launched in April 2026.

Hemlata Narasimhan

Hemlata Narasimhan is President of Elavon, Europe, one of Europe’s largest payment processors and a wholly owned division of U.S. Bancorp, which is the fifth largest bank in the U.S. Hemlata also serves as a member of U.S. Bank’s Executive team in Europe and Elavon’s Global Management team. Hemlata joined the company in 2022 and is responsible for leading all aspects of Elavon’s payment business across Europe. Together with her 1000+ strong team, Hemlata is readying the business for the next wave of growth in e-commerce and embedded payments and has already established partnerships with Europe’s major ecommerce and ISV providers, while also continuing to grow Elavon’s position as a leading merchant partner to the airline, hospitality, retail, and emerging industries sectors across Europe. Hemlata has a wealth of experience working in payments across European and North American markets. Prior to joining Elavon, Hemlata led the merchant and acquiring business for Visa in Europe, where she oversaw substantial growth in both employee numbers and local presence across several European markets. She was also responsible for the growth in Europe of CyberSource – a payment platform acquired by Visa in 2010. She has spoken at various financial conferences and industry events including MPE, Berlin and Money 2020 Europe. Hemlata spent almost seven years at American Express in New York and London and had a successful career in management consulting prior to that with the Boston Consulting Group. She has substantial international experience and has lived and worked in Australia, across the US and Europe. She currently lives with her family in London. Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, U.S Bank Europe established its first European office in Ireland twenty-five years ago. Today, U.S. Bank Europe employs over 3,400 staff across nine European markets, serving businesses through its payment processing division and one of Europe’s largest merchant acquirers, Elavon, and serving institutional clients through its more recently established Investment Services arm which includes Corporate Trust, Fund administration, Depositary and Custody services.

Sara Savidge

Working with and for many of the world’s largest corporations, payment & Fintech organizations, Sara has been responsible for crafting, leading and accelerating multiple international growth and business transformation strategies across the globe. Prior to her move to Fexco, Sara held several senior leadership and executive positions with JP Morgan, Fiserv and other prominent financial institutions.

Maria Prados

Maria Prados is a global Fintech executive specialising in digital transformation and go-to-market strategy. As Executive Leader of GTM and Commercialization at Worldpay, she leads a global team fuelling sales with product, process and proof from Ideal Customer Profile to signed invoices. She co-chairs the EMEA Women’s Inclusion Network and leads ESG efforts. With prior ecommerce leadership at Currys and financial expertise at Deloitte, she holds an MBA from IESE and Columbia Business School.

Alexa Von Bismarck

Alexa von Bismarck is President of EMEA at Adyen, where she leads all commercial operations across the region. She joined the company in 2013 as the first employee in the Berlin office and helped build Adyen’s presence in Germany from the ground up. After serving as Country Manager for Germany, she stepped into her current regional leadership role in 2022. With more than a decade of experience in payments and finance, Alexa works closely with businesses to navigate the complexities of global commerce. She is passionate about helping customers scale sustainably and optimize their payment strategies for long-term growth.

Deborah Suttle

Deb leads a dynamic Pan European B2B sales unit with fast paced growth trajectory across 250+ customers in 25 markets, delivered through efficient and effective remote account development and management, focusing on medium/small, remote customers and prospects through to account managers and business developers. With her extensive tenure at Mastercard, Deb holds an understanding of all business areas, particularly in market expansion and product development and services across a diverse portfolio of customers ranging from multi-nationals, niche players, Tier 1 Issuers, Challenger Banks, and Fintech’s. Deb has been a Sales Leader for more than 15 years, driving account management principles, generating new business, and enhancing customer relationships. Prior to Mastercard, Deb served as Chief of Staff to Founder & CTO, RiverSoft. Deb is an Alumnus of Ashridge Business School, Co-Chair of MasterCard European Women’s Leadership Network UKI Chapter and European Lead for Financial Alliance for Women.

Fatma Tatli Muir Wood

Fatma Tatli Muir Wood is a Director in Treasury Product Sales at Bank of America, leading the UK and Middle East client portfolios with a focus on trade and working capital. With 13 years at the bank, she has built her career across both product management and sales, giving her a rounded understanding of how solutions are designed internally and what clients genuinely need from them. She has spent much of that time helping corporate treasurers and procurement teams get more out of their working capital, spanning supply chain finance, receivables, and payables. Fatma is enthusiastic about innovation in transaction banking, particularly where technology is reshaping how companies manage liquidity and trade. She is based in London.