Ezra leads GSR’s investment management arm in Asia. He has been investing in digital assets since 2017 and before joining GSR was in the traditional asset management industry for almost 10 years. Starting his career in BNP Paribas covering AXJ private banking and retail banking clients working on multi-assets and European equity solutions. He then moved to BlackRock to cover a full spectrum of clients and investment solutions in Hong Kong. From there he moved to Dimensional, working directly with Robert C. Merton (Nobel Laureate 1997’) to drive the Greater China business, focusing on systematic investment solutions for central banks, sovereign wealth funds and insurance companies.

Ezra earned his Actuarial Science degree from the University of Kent, with exemptions recognized by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, UK. He completed his executive education program in Artificial Intelligence from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He lived in Beijing (8 years), New York (2 years), Cambridge (8 years) and Hong Kong before moving to Singapore.

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Aaron Dauber is a Registered Foreign Lawyer and the Knowledge Lawyer for Baker McKenzie's non-contentious Financial Services Regulatory practice. He is responsible for monitoring and training on regulatory change, legal content projects and other knowledge initiatives to support the firm and our clients. Aaron's experience includes over 13 years' as an in-house counsel responsible for legal support to businesses across the Asia Pacific region including Japan and Australia with a global systemically important bank.

Aaron has experience in a wide range of financial services legal and regulatory issues, general corporate matters and litigation. His experience includes structuring cross-border operations, development of new products and services, establishment, structuring and operation of various financial services businesses (including securities lending, brokerage, establishment of collateral investment funds, electronic trading platforms and foreign exchange) and responding to licensing and regulatory inspections.

Mr Wong is currently the Deputy General Manager of Commercial Banking Department of Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited. Mr Wong has possessed more than 20 years of experience in the financial sector and has been appointed various management positions. Presently, he is responsible for commercial banking businesses with focus on SME segment, as well as Innovation and Technology industry and the Greater Bay Area.

Albert Lo is a Partner with Deloitte Asia Pacific specializing in AML, risk assessment and sanctions. He has broad professional experience in AML, national risk assessment and sanctions reviews for regulators, financial institutions, and other DNFBPs. Over the last 15 years, he has worked on various investigations and compliance reviews across various industries in various Asia-Pacific countries - in particular, AML compliance review, fraud investigation, procurement fraud investigation, fraud risk review, financial audit, SOX review, and corporate intelligence at a leading Big Four accountancy firm.

Aleck is the CFO of First Digital Trust. Apart from leading its finance team based in different jurisdictions to overview all of the Group's financial and accounting activities, Aleck is also involved in FDT’s fundraising and restructuring. Prior to joining FDT, Aleck was the Asia CFO of a Sweden-listed private equity group with dental prosthetics manufacturing arms in Mainland China and Southeast Asia. He gained unprecedented experience delivering crisis management solutions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aleck was a British Chevening Scholar and obtained his MSc in Economics and Strategy from Imperial College London. Upon his graduation, he worked in Big4 and accumulated experience in M&A, value creation and audit before working in-house since 2019. Aleck is a member of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants (HKICPA).

Alfian is a senior technology and operations professional with experience in implementing large group-wide programs and projects and for defining technology and operations road maps and strategies for financial organisations.

Experienced in building high performing teams of technologists and operations professionals who operate well in high pressure situations delivering the operational backbone of the bank.

Experienced in leading large operations and technology teams to deliver end to end, highly scalable technology and operations digital platforms in the area of financial services.

Alfian is also actively involved in charity activities and regularly participates in activities with charity organisations helping various initiatives around Asia.

Alfian is currently based in Hong Kong since 2019. Prior to Hong Kong, Alfian spent 3 years in Mumbai and 16 years in Singapore with DBS.

Alfred Cheung is currently working in BOC Group Life Assurance Company Limited (BOC Life) as Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Sales Officer, responsible for overall business development of the company. He is leading all distribution channels including bancassurance, tied agency, brokerage as well as business partnership. Prior to that, Alfred was the Appointed Actuary of BOC Life, responsible for product pricing and valuation, asset and liability management, and risk management related to actuarial and financials.

Alfred is serving the Life Insurance Council of the Hong Kong Federation of Insurers (HKFI) as Chairman of InsurTech Task force. He is appointed as a Mentor of Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks Corporation to provide professional advice and guidance. Alfred graduated from The University of Hong Kong in Actuarial Science and he received an EMBA degree from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

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Dr. Alfred Shang is the Founder and CEO of BitRock Capital, a venture capital firm that focuses on Fintech and digitalization investments in the Greater China and US. Before founding BitRock, Alfred was a partner of Bain & Company and Head of the firm’s Financial Services Practice in Greater China. He advised leading multinational and Chinese financial institutions and investment firms on a wide range of topics including asset and wealth management, strategy, digitalization, business model design, organization and operational improvement. At BitRock, Alfred led investments in several leading Fintech startups including Linklogis (9959.HK), OneDegree, Sygnum, Fen Bei Tong, and Lingxi Technologies, etc. Alfred received his Ph.D. degree in Economics with focus on Finance from Harvard University. His research focuses on the interaction between market inefficiency and corporate governance. He also obtained a joint B.A. / M.A. degree in Economics from the University of Chicago.

Allen is a Partner at Deloitte who leads the Deloitte Consulting and the Digital practice in Hong Kong and Southern China.  Allen also leads up the APAC Digital Customer Solution Practice at Deloitte. He has extensive knowledge and experience in working with executives in the formation of digital transformation with a human centric approach. His expertise includes digital strategy, operating model design, to large scale project implementation of CRM, digital marketing platforms, data solutions, service management and organization change management.

Alvin Kwock is the co-founder & CEO of OneDegree. OneDegree was established in 2016, with a mission to move insurance onto the next frontier in Web2 and Web3. Today, the OneDegree team operates in Hong Kong, Taipei, Shenzhen, Singapore, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and London, with around 200 employees. OneDegree is an InsurTech company, licensed by the Hong Kong Insurance Authority since 2020 and has grown quickly into the leading Hong Kong virtual insurer with most number of paid customers and offering multi-line digital insurance products, including pet, medical, fire and home insurance for individuals, and cyber security and digital assets insurance for enterprise businesses. OneDegree develops its own proprietary full-stack insurance technology, which is used by Cigna and other insurance companies globally. OneDegree is backed by renowned investors including Alibaba, BitRock Capital, Cathay Venture, Cyberport Macro Fund and Sun Hung Kai Strategic Capital.

Alvin is a member of United Nations ESCAP’s Banking and Finance Task Force, Hong Kong Insurance Authority’s Future Task Force, CUHK Business School’s Advisory Committee in the Department of Finance, and a founding member of Innovate for Future.

Alvin started his career in J.P. Morgan and spent 11 years there, prior to founding OneDegree. Alvin was JPM’s Asia-Pacific Head of Emerging Technology and Taiwan Head of Research. Under Alvin’s leadership, JPM’s Asia Tech Hardware team has been consistently rated in the Institutional Investors Poll, Financial Times/ Starmine and Asiamoney. He advised a number of global technology powerhouse and venture capitals and served as a guest lecturer at universities.

Amy Zhang is the VP of Sales, Asia at Fireblocks. Highly experienced in both traditional and crypto-focused financial institutions, Amy brings with her the skills and knowledge required for growing Fireblocks’ APAC presence. Servicing over 300 clients regionally, Amy establishes relationships with key partners within the blockchain industry while working closely with the Product team to deliver differentiated solutions to our customers and the industry at large. Prior to joining Fireblocks, Amy was Head of Sales at Diginex, a NASDAQ-listed digital assets financial services company. At Diginex, she oversaw the growth of their custody, trading, trading solutions, and exchange business verticals. Amy has also worked as a sales trader at Deutsche Bank where she provided execution services for institutional investors across cash equities, derivatives, and electronic training. Amy holds a Bachelor of Applied Science from University of Waterloo.

Andrew Chow is the Head of Advisory and Implementation Services of Kyndryl Hong Kong, leading the team that helps customers unlock maximum value across cloud, security, data, and beyond to accelerate digital transformation.

Prior to this role, Andrew has held key management positions in NTT / Dimension Data as Director of Technical and Support Services for four years where he led the team to deliver mission critical ICT infrastructure system for top tier clients; and at Cisco, he was the Head of Service Delivery for the Technology Consulting business and Program Manager of Cisco Services.

Andrew has brought over 30 years of experience in the technology sector, with extensive experience in cloud implementation, mission-critical infrastructure, banking system development, e-Commerce platform implementation, office automation infrastructure, enterprise & data centre network infrastructure, and converged infrastructure.

Angelina is passionate about Technology, Digital Assets and the Blockchain and loves advising start-ups. She is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Stratford Finance Limited, a consulting company focused on dealing with regulatory and operational issues in the financial services and digital assets space and advises brokerages, fund managers, and technology providers.

Most recently Angelina held Senior Advisor, Group Chief Operating Officer and Group Chief Risk Officer roles at the HashKey Group, a regulated digital assets company that recently received the second Approval in Principle from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission to operate a virtual asset trading platform. She has previously held Chief Operating Officer and Directorate positions with international digital asset exchanges, HKEX, Cantor Fitzgerald, the SFC, and other global financial services companies.

Angelina serves on a number of Hong Kong Government-appointed Boards, and charities including the New Business Committee of the Financial Services Development Council, Board of Trustees of the Lord Wilson Heritage Trust, she is the Vice Chair, Company Secretary of The Women’s Foundation, on the Board of the Ebenezer School for the Blind, and the Hong Kong Securities and Investment Institute. She is a Certified Public Accountant in the United States, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and a graduate of the University of Southern California in Finance and Accounting. Her MBA is from Pepperdine University, LLB from HKU/Manchester Metropolitan University, and LLM from Harvard Law School.

Anita is a seasoned executive nurturing start-up’s entrepreneurial journey at Cyberport, through strategic collaboration with enterprise, technology partners, professional service providers and investment network to cultivate and support start-up ecosystem for engagement across HK and oversea. Prior to joining Cyberport, Anita had over 25 years of sales management and business development experiences gained from large corporations including HKBN, Wharf T&T, HK Telecom and IBM focusing on global enterprise and carrier sectors. Anita has been active in public services, and she is a member of the Information and Communications Technology Industry Training Advisory Committee (ITAC) appointed by Education Bureau. Incubated through her study of “Business Information System” in the University of United Kingdom back in early stage, she has been fostered to be a pioneer in the technology industry.

Anna has more than 30 years of CEO experience in steering the strategic direction of the organisation, spearheading major strategic innovative initiatives that have revolutionized the way companies do business locally and globally, helping HK business community thrive.

She has led GS1 Hong Kong to establish platforms, ecosystems and programmes that have driven industry adoption of global supply chain standards, practices and technologies for enhanced business efficiency, digital commerce and IoT development across industries.

Ms Lin attains Chartered Fellow (FCILT), granted by The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in 2018, recognising her achievement and contribution to the industries in Hong Kong.

In fostering a collaborative ecosystem, Ms Lin holds a number of appointments in both government and local industry organizations as well as regional organisations, including:

Local:

·       Vice-chairman of Subcommittee on Infrastructure and Promotion, Hong Kong Logistics Development Council, HKSAR;

·       Chairman of Asian Institute of Supply Chains & Logistics Advisory Committee, The Chinese University of Hong Kong;

·       Member of HKTDC Logistics Services Advisory Committee;

·       Member of Hong Kong-Taiwan Business Cooperation Committee;

·       Chairman of Supply Chain Special Interest Group, Smart City Consortium, Hong Kong;

·       Advisor of Hong Kong-ASEAN Economic Cooperation Foundation;

·       Member of Management Advisory Board, OpenCertHub;

Global / Regional:

·       Member of the GS1 Global Management Board and CEO Advisory Council;

·       Director of Board of Pacific Basin Economic Council;

·       APEC Business Advisory Council Hong Kong representative for APEC Policy Partnership on Food Security;

·       Member of Advisory Board of School of Business, University of Birmingham;

·       Director of Board of Hong Kong Foundation, University of Birmingham.

Ms Lin is a native of Hong Kong. She holds an MBA in Strategic Management from the University of Birmingham United Kingdom.

Annabelle Huang is the Managing Partner at Amber Group. She previously served as the Asia lead at AirSwap, a decentralized trading platform that enables peer-to-peer trading on the Ethereum blockchain. Before transitioning into digital assets, she advised private equity funds, US corporates and hedge funds on structured solutions and risk management as an FX structurer at Deutsche Bank and Nomura in New York. Her deep understanding of traditional financial markets, combined with her expertise on how institutions and macro markets work, has played a key role in helping develop the product strategy and solutions delivered through Amber Group. Recently, Ms Huang has been appointed to lead GlobalX Center, a global expansion team to grow Amber's institutional and retail product offerings to more regions.

Ms. Annie Chen is the Chief Retail Banking Officer of China Construction Bank (Asia) since 3rd Jan 2022. Annie has over 25 years of solid and broad Retail Banking experience covering wealth management, digital banking, credit card products, customer segments strategies, proposition & portfolio management, risk management, process management & governance.

Annie has worked in Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong for 20 years before joining CCB (Asia). In Standard Chartered, she has held different senior positions including Managing Director & Head of Investment Products, Managing Director & Head of Digital Banking, with the mandate to grow the bank’s wealth management business and to lead the digital transformation of retail banking.

Annie is an advocate of Diversity & Inclusion, and had been the Co-Chair of the Women Internal Network in Standard Chartered HK for 4 years. Annie attained the Master of Science in Investment Management in The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology.

Professor Annie Koh is Professor Emeritus of Finance (Practice) at Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University (SMU). She is a renowned conference speaker, panel moderator and commentator. Professor Koh is appointed as Chairman of Prime US REIT. In addition, Professor Koh is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on New Agenda for Work, Wages and Job Creation. She also chairs the Asian Bond Fund 2 supervisory committee for the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and is a committee member of Singapore’s Customs Advisory Council and HR Transformation Advisory Panel. She is currently an independent director of AMTD IDEA Group, PBA Group, Prudential Assurance Company Singapore Pte Ltd and Yoma Strategic Holdings Ltd. She previously served on GovTech, Singapore’s CPF, HMI and K1 Ventures boards.

Professor Koh also advises privately owned enterprises such as Flexxon Pte Ltd. and TOP International, and startups such as Dedoco, Elevate Tech, Hyperscal Solutions Pte Ltd, Pyxis Maritime Pte Ltd, RABC Holdings Pte Ltd, StashAway, SWAT Mobility, and non-profits such as Cyber Youth Singapore and WWF Singapore. She has been an investment committee member of iGlobe Partners since July 2010, advisor to CUBE3 Ventures since October 2021, and Asia Food Sustainability Fund since February 2022. Previously held leadership positions at SMU include Vice President for Business Development; V3 Group Professor of Family Entrepreneurship; Academic Director of Business Families Institute and International Trading Institute; Associate Dean, Lee Kong Chian School of Business; and Dean, Office of Executive and Professional Education.

Professor Koh received her Ph.D. degree in International Finance as a Fulbright scholar from Stern School of Business, New York University in 1988. Her research interests are in Family Office and Family Business, Investor Behaviour, Alternative Investments and Enterprise Risk Management. She co-authored Financial Management: Theory and Practice, 2nd edition (2021), and Financing Internationalisation – Growth Strategies for Successful Companies (2004), co-editor of Asian Family Business: Succession, Governance and Innovation (2020), and author of a number of Asian family business cases and survey reports. In recognition of her contribution to education and the public sector, she was awarded the bronze and silver Singapore Public Administration medal in 2010 and 2016 respectively, and the Adult Education Prism Award in 2017.

Anson is the co-founder and CEO of FundPark and has scaled the company’s net revenue by more than 80X in the past 4 years.

Anson started his career in HSBC commercial banking as the management trainee. During the trainee program, Anson had experience working in the SME as well as the Global Trade and Receivable Finance department, and it was when he built up his interests and domain knowledge in trade finance industry.

Prior to founding FundPark, Anson worked in Commodities Trades department in HSBC Hong Kong. He focused on customizing trade finance solutions for commodities clients including reputable global players and PRC SOEs as well as small steel traders.

Anson holds a Bachelor degree in Quantitative Finance from the University of Hong Kong.

Anthony Sar founded FINNOVASIA in 2015 aiming to create an independent platform, which brings together the FinTech community in Asia and globally and organised over 80 Fintech activities across the regions. FINNOVASIA is the officially appointed organiser by InvestHK of the Hong Kong FinTech Week for the fifth year, the flagship industry event in Asia with over 40,000 attendees, over 1,000 world-class speakers from 130+ economies.

Anthony is also the Founder of FinTech Club, an exclusive community for senior executives in Hong Kong since 2018. He has hosted numerous Global CEOs talks with international banks, VCs and FinTech companies.

Anthony also founded the world’s first non-profit FinTech Basketball League in 2019 with more than 3 seasons with 100+ matches. over 40 teams have joined the programme.

Previously Anthony founded an executive education company Innovative Trips with headquarters in Hong Kong. Since 2010 his team has organised over 25 international
educational programs with more than 800 corporate executives participating in Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Japan and South Korea. Before he moved to Hong Kong, Anthony was responsible for public relations in the Moscow office of the Japan Tobacco International, the Fortune 500 company, and worked as Media & Investors Relations Manager in NYSE listed food producer Wimm-Bill-Dann. Prior to that Anthony worked for five years as a correspondent in a leading Russian business newspaper “Vedomosti”, issued by Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal. He also worked on a digitisation project at the Shanghai headquarters of Yicai / China Business Network, the leading financial publication in Mainland China.

Anthony obtained his MBA degree in Moscow School of Management Skolkovo, he also holds a Bachelor Degree in Journalism. Anthony also successfully finished the program for Innovations and Entrepreneurship in Massachusetts Technological Institute (MIT) in Boston. Anton fluently speaks English, Russian and studies Mandarin Chinese.

Archana Kotecha is a UK qualified barrister and London School of Economics graduate who started her career practicing corporate law. After 7 years as a corporate lawyer, Archana joined the UN Refugee Agency's Legal Protection Team in London and subsequently the Immigration Advisory Service and Stop Trafficking UK.  

Following a move to Hong Kong in 2013, Archana joined Liberty Shared as their Head of Legal and Asian Region Director.  In October 2020, she launched The Remedy Project with the aim to revolutionize how migrant workers access remedy within global supply chains.  Disrupting the activities of traffickers by improving modern slavery’s visibility within financial institutions, educating NGOs and lawyers on anti-trafficking legal frameworks and victim identification have been key aspects of Archana’s work. 

Archana’s expertise also extends to remediation mechanisms and is recognized as a regional subject matter expert on modern slavery across the Asia-Pacific region.  She is regularly named as an influential changemaker and was most recently named one of Asia’s most inspiring social entrepreneurs by APAC Entrepreneur.   Archana has also been recognized as one of the most influential ethnic minority women in Hong Kong in the 2021 Diversity List. 

Aric Fung is a core team member of Datax AI Solutions, Subanana, Morigin Network and Datax Staking. As the Account Director of Datax AI Solutions, he led the team to solve clients’ business needs by developing and implementing various AI solutions for commercial use, including OCR (Optical Character Recognition) document digitization solutions, NLP (Natural Language Processing) and CV (Computer Vision). Datax completed over 30 commercialized AI solutions for financial intuitions, listed corporates and government departments in the last 3 years.

As an enthusiast of web3, user data ownership & privacy, Aric started building Morigin Network, a web3 AI model incubator powered by federated learning and privacy-preserved user data on Oasis Protocol. The Datax team also operates Datax Staking, a PoS Validator of Desmos Network, Oasis Protocol and Likecoin.

Mr Arnold Chow is Deputy General Manager, Personal Digital Banking Product Department of Bank of China (Hong Kong) (“BOCHK”), overseeing its wealth management products as well as wealth specialists and advisory business in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. He is also a Director of BOCI Prudential Trustee Limited and a Director of Po Sang Securities Limited.

Prior to joining BOCHK, Arnold hold various senior executive positions in strategy planning, wealth products and distribution in Hong Kong and mainland China of HSBC Group. He then served as Senior Executive Vice President of Private Banking of Hang Seng Bank.

Arnold started his career in Morgan Stanley (Asia) with expertise in Hong Kong and mainland investment markets. He holds a Bachelor degree from the Faculty of Engineering, University of Hong Kong. He is also a Financial Education Committee member of Investor and Financial Education Council (under SFC).

Arnold Concepcion is the CEO ofGryfyn and the Co-Chief Operating Officer at Animoca Brands, where he hasserved since 2017. Arnold previously served in the legal department at The WaltDisney Company (Japan), and prior to that was in private practice at the lawfirm of Jones Day, focusing on M&A and corporate matters. He holds a JDfrom the University of Chicago, and a BA from the University of Houston.

Arthur has served as Futu’s Chief Financial Officer since September 2017. Prior to joining the Company, Arthur served as a director at Citigroup Global Markets Asia Limited from 2009 to 2016 in its equity business. He also served as a vice president at China International Capital Corporation from 2005 to 2009. Arthur received his bachelor’s degree in economics from Shanghai University of Finance & Economics in 1998 and his master’s degree in business administration from China Europe International Business School in 2005.

Mr. Xiaosong Zhu (Arthur) joined Lianlian Group since 2008 and he is the core member of the foundation team. Currently, he serves as the director of Lianlian DigiTech Co., Ltd and the Sole Director of Lianlian Hong Kong Company Limited. Besides, he is also the head of Lianlian’s corporate development division.

Mr. Zhu has in-depth understanding and over 20 years rich experience in mobile payment business development and business transformation. He leading the teams to obtain payment licenses globally over 10 countries and regions, and set up oversea teams with rich local resources and service capabilities.

Before joining Lianlian, Mr. Zhu spent 15 years on strategic consulting and private equity investment, worked for Bain & Co., Shell Royal Dutch, Create Capital, and was also a partner with well-known private investment funds specialized in technology and financial service sectors.

Mr. Zhu graduated from Tsinghua University with B.S. degree of Engineering, and completed UCLA MBA in the United States.

As CEO of Mox, Barbaros is driving to bring a brand new banking experience to Hong Kong. His extensive international banking experience guides the bank as it empowers Hong Kong people to grow and unlock possibilities through digital and personalised banking.

Barbaros is a proven leader with over 24 years of banking experience spanning business management and strategy, marketing, product development, and digital transformation. He joins Mox with a solid international track record in establishing digital banks and leading them to sustainable profitability.

Before joining Mox a year ago, Barbaros held senior leadership positions at ING Bank Austria, ING Bank Turkey, and Garanti Bank BBVA, where he led their respective digital initiatives. As the CEO of ING Bank Austria, he transformed the bank from one focused on savings into a full-service digital bank. At ING Bank Turkey, he transformed and digitalised the retail business for sustainable profitability and grew its profit base materially. He further established a full-service digital bank at Garanti Bank BBVA to expand its customer base exponentially.

Barbaros has a Certificate in Business Excellence (CIBE) from Columbia Business School and an MBA from Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey, and holds a Master’s of Science in Industrial Engineering from Marmara University. He is also a strong advocate of digital transformation in the retail and payments industries.

Barry O’Byrne was appointed Chief Executive of Global Commercial Banking in February 2020, having served in the role on an interim basis since August 2019.
He is responsible for a business serving about 1.4 million customers across 53 markets, ranging from small enterprises focused on their home markets through to corporates operating internationally.

Mr O’Byrne joined HSBC as Group General Manager and Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Global Commercial Banking in April 2017, responsible for strategic change initiatives, data and analytics, middle office and the leadership of regional COOs. He was appointed as a Group Managing Director in March 2020.

He joined HSBC from GE Capital, where he worked for 19 years across a number of senior leadership roles. At GE Capital his most recent appointment was CEO for GE Capital International. Previously he was COO for GE Capital International, with responsibility for the group’s operations, technology, strategic initiatives and simplification strategy across more than 20 markets.

Mr O’Byrne has also held CEO positions in Italy, France and the UK and has served on boards in the UK, Switzerland, Germany, Italy and Spain. He has a degree in Business Studies and French from the University of Limerick, and lives in Hong Kong with his wife and three daughters.

I am an Impact Venture Builder and the Founder of Anima Ventures, a female-focused Venture Builder based in Hong Kong, with a mission to actively co-create, support, and innovate with female startup founders. We come in at a very early stage to help Founders at the crucial prototype and go-to-market stage. We aim to not only bridge the funding gap for early-stage ideas in our ecosystem, but to also intensively support our Founders in strategy, operations, and business development.

I absolutely believe in building businesses with ‘purpose’ and with sustainable growth in mind, and advocate passionately for social innovation, youth empowerment, and diversity, including gender and cognitive diversity. I stand by the statement that tech, innovation, and business go hand-in-hand in creating shared values for our society.

As a multihatter, I often collaborate, curate, mentor, and co-host workshops, panels, and seminars in support of youth and women across tech, startups, and venture. These include speaking and moderating at JUMPSTARTER (Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund), Asia Financial Forum, AmCham Hong Kong, and Enactus Hong Kong. I am most excited about synthesising ideas and innovation across different verticals and in Web 3.0.

I started my career in Finance, trading FX and STIR at Credit Suisse in London and Zurich. I enjoy reading, philosophy (the archetypal ‘Armchair Philosopher’), horse-riding and speak six languages, including French, German, and Spanish.

Ben leads HashKey Group's token originations, strategic partnerships, and blockchain-based asset tokenisation projects. Ben was also an Advisor to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Bank for International Settlements' project on tokenised financial products. With over 13 years of experience in Silicon Valley, Mainland China and Hong Kong, he started his career as a derivatives trader, then as a China cross-borders corporate finance analyst, before moving into technology product management and business development, serving Big Tech clients like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.

Ben is a graduate of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he earned his Master's degree in Management and founded the university's largest working group on blockchain and Web3.

Founder, Ben McQuhae & Co (www.bmcquhae.com), a Hong Kong-based corporate and commercial law firm for sustainability and innovation that has been described as the only true ESG law firm on the planet and Winner of the INSEAD Business as a Force for Good Award 2021. The firm only accepts mandates that are aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Ben is an industry leading corporate and commercial lawyer, a recognized leader in sustainable finance and green fintech, and a pioneer in carbon markets and decarbonization. Qualified as a solicitor in England & Wales (1999) and Hong Kong (2003).

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Founder, Venturis (www.venturis.eco) an ESG strategy advisory firm. Ben McQuhae & Co and Venturis provide a unique offering that combines legal solutions and sustainability solutions to help drive global sustainability efforts.

Bénédicte is the Head of the BIS Innovation Hub, Hong Kong Centre. Prior to this appointment, she was a managing director at SC Ventures, the innovation arm of Standard Chartered Bank that leads a series of new ventures across digital banking, banking as a service, SME finance and blockchain. From 2018-2019, she was the Vice President of International Government Relations at Circle, involved in the evolution of blockchain and digital assets. From 2012-2018, she was the Head of Risk & Strategy of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), and in that capacity also acting as the Vice Chair of the Committee on Emerging Risks and the Fintech research lead for the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO). From 2007-2012, she was a managing director at Credit Suisse and before that from 1997-2007 she was an associate and executive director at Goldman Sachs. Originally from Belgium, she holds LL.M. and M.B.A. degrees from the University of Chicago and the University of Leuven. She is admitted to the New York Bar since 1999. In 2016, she was a recipient of the China Daily Asian Women Leadership Awards for her efforts related to entrepreneurship, innovation and charity. She remains closely engaged in these topics, most recently through her involvement in the Fintech Association of Hong Kong (FTAHK) and Women in Finance Asia (WiFA.)

Holding a Postgraduate Degree in Corporate Law from Paris II Assas University and LL.M in M&A from NYU Law School, Benjamin Eymère practiced M&A at the international law firm Paul Hastings before joining the centennial media brand L’Officiel in charge of international development.

In 2012 he co-founded the contemporary arts & culture publication L’Officiel Art before becoming the CEO of L’Officiel Inc in 2017. Under his leadership, the 100-year old legacy brand L’Officiel grew to become a powerful and close-knit global fashion media network present in 30 countries, reaching a community of 100 million fashion enthusiasts worldwide. His interest in Web 3 and impactful societal transformation is central to his vision as CEO of L’Officiel Inc.

Benjamin Quinlanis the CEO and Managing Partner of Quinlan & Associates. He is the former Chairman of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong (FTAHK), Chair of the Innovation & Technology Committee at the Australian Chamber of Commerce(AustCham), an Adjunct Professor at the AIT School of Management, a Conference Ambassador for the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB), sits on the Advisory Committee for Hong Kong Science and Technology Park’s (HKSTP) Technology Validation Initiative, is a member of the Asian Financial Forum Steering Committee for the Hong Kong Trade and Development Council (HKTDC), and sits on the Finance & Treasury Committee at the Hong Kong General Chamber ofCommerce (HKGCC). In addition, he is a Senior / Board Advisor for a number of leading startups, a Mentor for PingAn’s Cloud Accelerator, a Guest Contributor for eFinancialCareers and Regulation Asia, and is widely recognised as one Asia's leading FinTech influencers.

Benjamin has an extensive track record advising many of the world’s leading multinational companies, financial services organisations, SMEs and start-ups on a variety of high-profile strategic engagements. He is quoted extensively in the global financial press and is frequently interviewed by leading media outlets, including Bloomberg, CNBC, Reuters, and Channel New Asia. He is also a regular keynote speaker at leading financial services industry conferences across the world.

Prior to founding Quinlan & Associates, Benjamin was the Head of Strategy for Deutsche Bank’s Equities business in Asia Pacific and its Investment Bank in Greater China, and sat on a number of the bank’s global and regional executive committees.

Prior to Deutsche Bank, Benjamin worked as a Management Consultant at Oliver Wyman as part of the firm’s Corporate & Institutional Banking practice. Before joining Oliver Wyman, Benjamin worked at UBS in the bank’s Asia Pacific Client Coverage and Group Strategy departments. He began his career in M&A and Capital Markets Advisory at PwC in Sydney.

Benjamin holds a Bachelor of Commerce / Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and a First-Class Honours Degree in Economics (on scholarship) from Macquarie University, Sydney.

Biao Xue is currently the head of CICC Oversea IT team, including HK, US, UK, SG, JP and other oversea branches. He had over 35 years’ experience in the core technology field with focus on financial markets. He joined CICC in 2009 and prior to CICC, he worked for Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, UBS and Bell Laboratories. Mr. Xue is responsible for IT platforms for both Global Market and Retail business, including Agency trading and Prop trading across all asset types and markets, with strong strength on cross-border trading and Delta one business.

Founder, MaGeHold - Angel Investment Group (SG& HK)

Founder, MaGeESpire - Technology & Education & Advisory Group

Affiliate Founding Partner, True Global Ventures - Decentralized Blockchain VC Fund

Executive Committee Member & Co-Head of North Asia - Global Impact FinTech (GIFT) Forum

HK Chapter Head - Centre for Finance, Technology & Entrepreneurship

Brian Hui is Managing Director and Head of Customer Propositions and Marketing, Wealth and Personal Banking (WPB), The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited. In his current role, Brian manages the entire HSBC customer portfolio, international business, digital banking, customer experience and marketing to deliver the world class financial solutions and services to our customers. Brian has over 20 years of experience in users growth, marketing, digital strategy & transformation, customer experience and commercial roles across financial services, e-commerce and startups. Previously, Brian has held global management roles in Faraday Future, LeEco and Amazon based in the U.S. and Mainland China, where he took the helm of a wide range of functions including sales and marketing, customer growth, product development and customer experience. Earlier in his career, Brian worked for Citibank and Standard Chartered Bank across Hong Kong, China and the U.K. in the areas of e-business, sales and marketing and channel management.

Mr. Brian Li has over 12 years of experience in equity research and financial advisory. Now he leads equity research at AMTD Group, covering TMT, FinTech, and cryptocurrencies. Before that he worked with hedge fund, BofA Merrill Lynch and KPMG.

BRIAN W TANG is a board member and was founding co-chair of the Fintech Association of Hong Kong’s Regtech Committee, which has been recognized by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in its two-year roadmap to promote regtech adoption as playing a “key role in the [regtech] ecosystem”. Brian is managing director of ACMI and founding executive director of LITE Lab@HKU - an interdisciplinary and experiential programme that fosters law, innovation, technology and entrepreneurship (LITE) at University of Hong Kong's Faculty of Law. Brian co-founded APAC Regtech Network (which brings together the regtech committees of the fintech associations of Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Malaysia); World Regtech Summit (which featured more than 80 regtechs in conjunction with Hong Kong Fintech Week 2020) and organized Hong Kong’s first lawtech and regtech hackathons LegalRegtechHack (which included mentors from the Securities and Futures Commission). Brian has been invited to speak and consult with financial institutions, fintechs and regulators (including at the HKMA’s AML/CFT Regtech Forum) and is a principal instructor for the world’s largest fintech online course on edX with more than 100,000 learners worldwide. Brian is also a globally recognized co-author of Wiley’s The FinTech Book, The RegTech Book , The AI Book and The LegalTech Book. Brian was previously at global investment bank Credit Suisse in Hong Kong and Wall Street law firm Sullivan & Cromwell in New York and Silicon Valley. 

Brian Tsang is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Choco Up, Asia’s largest revenue-based financing and growth platforms that offers fast-track, data-driven financing solution to fast-growing companies. Brian leads the operations, partnerships, and special projects at Choco Up, aspiring to help a million asset-light businesses to grow 10x.

Trained as an engineer with strong interest in product and technology, Brian began his career in leveraged finance at Deutsche Bank NYC, executing over 26 billion of leveraged loan and high yield bond offerings. After that, he joined a global private equity firm, spearheading the investment and management of over 4 billion of US corporate and commercial real estate assets. Brian is also a crypto enthusiast who participated in Ethereum's early investment and community building. His experience spans across credit analysis, mergers & acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, portfolio management and capital markets. He is a CFA Charterholder and Certified FRM (Financial Risk Manager).

Brian is an alumnus of Georgia Institute of Technology where he studied Industrial and Systems Engineering. In 2018, Brian co-founded Choco Up with the company’s Chief Executive Officer Percy Hung. With data analytics and machine learning at its core, Choco Up employs vast integrations to automate fund deployment, providing fast-growing companies with zero-equity funding in a quick and seamless manner. Choco Up currently has offices in Singapore and Hong Kong and serve businesses worldwide, providing smart-growth analytics and global payment solutions to fuel their growth.

Brijesh focuses on Adams Street’s global venture capital fund investments and is responsible for building and maintaining relationships with key venture capital general partners around the world.

Prior to joining Adams Street, he spent 10 years at Commonfund Capital, most recently as the Managing Director and Co-Head of Global Venture Capital and Head of Emerging Markets. In this role, he led the fundraising, portfolio construction, and investment of global venture capital funds. He also played a key role in Commonfund’s strategy development regarding new products, markets, and client development.

Before Commonfund, Brijesh spent four years at McKinsey & Company, where he oversaw consultant teams performing due diligence, turnarounds of portfolio companies, and the development of investment and organizational strategy for private equity firms. He began his career as a member of GE Capital’s Mergers & Acquisitions team where he managed acquisition-related due diligence and deal structuring.

Brijesh is a member of Adams Street’s Primary Investment Committee.

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ACADEMIC

Harvard Business School, MBA

St. Lawrence University, BS, Summa cum laude

Brit Blakeney is Senior Vice President, Digital Advisory & Wealth Management group – Asia, for Franklin Templeton. Based in Hong Kong, Ms. Blakeney is focused on leading the transformation of Franklin Templeton’s business in the region to a digital first, client-centric model, working with internal and external partners to drive the digital business.

Prior to this role, Ms. Blakeney was Head of Innovation and Ecosystems for DBS Bank Hong Kong. She has also held senior positions at major data & analytics, media and internet companies, such as Dun & Bradstreet, AOL and Univision, and helped launch and run several successful internet and financial startups.

Ms. Blakeney holds a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) from Georgetown University and also studied at the Université Stendhal in Grenoble, France. She is on the WealthTech committee of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong, a member of Women in Tech Hong Kong, a founding Advisory Committee member of CEFAR (CUHK Engineering, Fintech and Applied Research Academy), Greater Bay Fintech Talent Initiative Advisor, and is a regular speaker at industry events across Asia.

Calvin is the founder and CEO of Wizpresso, a Hong Kong-based technology company specializing in capital markets SaaS. Wizpresso offers research, reporting, and due diligence solutions for capital markets underpinned by cutting-edge deep learning and NLP technologies. Wizpresso is the HKICT Grand FinTech Awards winner and has also won numerous accolades in recent years including the Champion of Maker in China 2022, EPIC 2021 – Fintech champion, IFTA’s Fintech Award 2021, and etnet’s Fintech Award 2020. Wizpresso is an alumnus of the Cyberport Incubation Programme, Hong Kong Science and Technology Park’s BSFI Accelerator Programme, and Hong Kong Trade and Development Council’s Startup Express.

Calvin has 8+ years of experience in business development, strategy, and product. He previously worked in Global Banking at HSBC, where he covered client strategy and business development for institutional clients across Asia-Pacific. Calvin is also a visiting Lecturer in Fintech at HKU Space and an MBA mentor at The University of Hong Kong. As a Hongkonger with strong Canadian ties, he has been awarded the Certificate of Achievement by the Consul General of Canada in Hong Kong and Macao in recognition of his achievements in Hong Kong. Calvin holds an Honors Business Administration (HBA) degree with distinction from Ivey Business School. Calvin is a CFA charter holder.

Calvin Hung joined BCG Digital Ventures in 2017 as a seasoned product expert from Silicon Valley. BCG Digital Ventures is part of the BCG X tech-build and design business unit at Boston Consulting Group. With more than ten years of experience leading multidisciplinary teams in tech companies in the US, Germany and China, Calvin has substantial expertise in building product-led organizations and digital products.

Over the years, Calvin has played a pivotal role in establishing numerous new ventures, leading teams to overcome industry challenges and realize blue-sky opportunities at the forefront of emerging technologies. Recognized as a thought leader in innovation, Calvin was a pioneer of many Web 2.0 applications and has now shifted his focus to a new wave of disruptions in Web 3.0.

Among Calvin’s notable achievements, he has incubated a global blockchain-enabled supply chain, a digital bank in UAE, an AR eyewear retail experience in China, and a voice-recognition AI platform in Germany.

Catherine is Head of VIP & Institutional at Binance, where she oversees global coverage of the exchange’s most sophisticated clients, ranging from individual traders and mid-sized proprietary teams to global financial institutions. Before joining Binance, she spent 15 years in investment banking with JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and others. gaining experience across multiple asset classes and a specialty in derivatives and structured solutions. At Binance, Catherine is leading the charge to accelerate institutional growth through the Binance Institutional platform and by building out an institutional-grade product stack. A pioneer by nature, she enjoys the challenge of bridging the worlds of traditional financial institutions and crypto, and has spearheaded many first-to-market products that aim to make Binance the trusted digital asset platform for institutions.

Cecilia Skingsley became Head of the BIS Innovation Hub in September 2022. She is a member of the BIS's Executive Committee. Previously, she held the position of First Deputy Governor of the Riksbank since November 2019.

Most recently she chaired the BIS's Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures Future of Payments Working Group, was the Governor of the Riksbank’s alternate on the General Council of the ECB and member of the Advisory Technical Committee (ATC) of the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB).

Prior to holding the position of Deputy Governor of the Riksbank from May 2013 to November 2019, Ms Skingsley held various roles including Head of FX and Fixed Income Research and Chief Economist at Swedbank (2007-2013); financial journalist and Head of Financial Market Section at Dagens Industri (2000-2007); Macro Analyst, ABN Amro Bank (1998-2000).

Ms Skingsley holds a degree in economics and political science from Stockholm University. She received a financial analyst degree from SSE Executive Education at Stockholm School of Economics (formerly IFL at Stockholm School of Economics) and studied journalism at Poppius School of Journalism in Stockholm.

Prior to joining the dYdX Foundation, Charles was Global Head of Business Development @ ConsenSys and served as Head of Fintech in the Hong Kong government (InvestHK).

He is the co-author of Block Kong, and polishes his next book on DAOs.

Charlotte Wong is a seasoned banking and technology professional with over 20 years of experience in Hong Kong and New York. Since joining HSBC in 2001, Charlotte has held several key leadership positions across technology teams globally and regionally, in the domains of Global Markets, Securities Services and Wholesale. She is recently appointed as the Chief Information Officer Hong Kong of HSBC, leading the technology and transformation agenda to deliver faster, easier and more secure digital banking.

Cheney Cheng is the Managing Partner of Altive, and co-founder of Apoidea, the ultimate holding company of Altive. Cheney is also a Venture Partner at Pacific Century Group.

With strong knowledge in technology including but not limited to A.I., Blockchain, and Software developments. Cheney is responsible for the technological empowerment of Altive's investment platform, while he also oversees the A.I. business of Apoidea.

Prior to his current role, Cheney focused on venture capital investment and M&A in the technology sector, with deal experiences in Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and United States. Cheney started his career at Goldman Sachs.

Cheney is passionate about education and children’s well-being. Cheney is an honorary advisor of D.H. Chen Foundation. Cheney is also a co-founder of Teach For Hong Kong, a tax-exempt charity that supplies diversified young talents to the education industry by offering fresh graduates with non-education degrees a one-year teaching leadership program at underprivileged schools.

Cheney obtained a BBA in Global Business and Economics from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, with a visiting study at Harvard University and Peking University.