Speakers

Alice Chen is the co-founder and general counsel of InvestaX and IX Swap. InvestaX is the leading tokenization SaaS platform in Asia licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, offering a one-stop shop for the issuance and trading of real world assets and security tokens. IX Swap is a Decentralized Exchange (DEX) and a DeFi liquidity pool solution for tokenized real world assets.

Alice spent over a decade in private practice with firms such as Skadden Arps and DLA Piper prior to her entrepreneurial journey in 2015. Alice is actively engaged in the startup communities in Singapore and beyond, regularly speaking, presenting and mentoring in the areas of fintech, blockchain and entrepreneurship. Alice sits on the Singapore Fintech Association’s Capital Markets Services Subcommittee and was awarded Top 10 Fintech Leader at the 2022 Singapore Fintech Festival. She is a regular guest lecturer for Singapore Management University’s graduate course in digital assets and blockchain, and plays her part in empowering women through her involvement with 100 Women in Finance, and as an advisor and mentor for the next-gen of web3 founders.

Alvin Lim is an experienced Open Banking consultant with extensive experience in the financial sector. He has held prominent roles at HSBC, including Group Head of Open Banking and Head of Digital, during his decade-long tenure in Singapore and Hong Kong. Alvin earned his MBA in e-Business and is actively involved in leadership and mentorship programs, guiding the next generation of professionals. Alvin is also actively exploring the digital assets and tokenisation as an important adjacent technology to Open Banking. His expertise is instrumental in driving the evolution of open banking practices.

Arun Kini is the APAC managing director of Finastra’s payments business, where he leads the development and execution of the firm’s broad suite of integrated payment solutions to help banks modernise and future-proof their payments infrastructure.

Arun brings with him over 25 years of experience in the financial services and software industry, with strong domain expertise in transaction banking, payments and revenue management. With a strong track record across various roles in product, pre-sales and sales across the Asia Pacific region, Arun has played pivotal roles in the uptake of payment and cash management products by global brands and clients. Before returning to Finastra in 2022 as regional sales director, payments, APAC, Arun was with SunTec Business Solutions leading the client facing group for Asia Pacific.

As a lawyer turned entrepreneur, Bell runs BuzzAR, a Singapore-based Travel Tech company with fintech. Bell graduated with a Master’s degree from UC Berkeley; majoring in law and technology. 

BuzzAR runs a User Engagement Platform, BAE (Buzz AI Experience), with the world’s first AI Travel Buddy, BAE to assist the APAC region and the MENA region tourist flow, building an end-to-end AI powered tourist engagement experience at scale. BuzzAR incorporated a Travel Payment arm to BAE, to serve more travelers seamlessly.

Bell studied the intersection of Blockchain, artificial intelligence, digital humans, AR/VR, amongst etc., where she received a direct scholarship as the UC Berkeley APAC scholar.

Fun facts about Bell:

• She started her VR journey (aka the metaverse today) back in 2015, as a VR model. She is the co-creator & featured in The Cooking Game VR as a Cooking model, the game, later on, emerged as the Oculus’s The Spot Light Game. 
• Her team launched Bae this year and won both the SLA One Map GPT and Stellar Lifestyle, part of Smrt innovative initiatives on leveraging AI to transform venues. 

Roles and Responsibilities:

• Current Singapore- Zhejiang Economic and Trade Council (SZETC) Council Member, appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Singapore.
• Current Global Innovation Alliance (GIA) Council Member, selected by Enterprise Singapore, as the top 5 most successful companies chosen amongst over 7,000 companies in Singapore.
• Virtual Reality Augmented Reality Association (VRARA) – as Vice President, the Singapore chapter.
• INTERPOL: Bell serves as the INTERPOL Metaverse Group Expert to co-create a Secure-By-Design metaverse for all. 

Selected list of awards:

• 2023 Singapore Top 100 Women in Tech – Bell emerged as the Singapore Top 100 Women In Tech, selected by Singapore Computer Society (SCS) a very prestigious award awarded to women with significant technology contributions.
• 2022 APAC top 100 company, 2022 APAC Entrepreneur of the Year by APAC Entrepreneur
• 2021 Founder Startup of the Year 2021, she was also chosen as Founders’ Choice founder (an award selected by selected founders based in Silicon Valley).

Since 2005, Chetan has been servicing large national and multinational clients in the areas of assurance, Indian GAAP, US GAAP and IFRS technical accounting advisory, specifically in the areas of financial instruments, crypto (and digital assets), leases, consolidation, revenue recognition and business combinations. ​

Chetan also has extensive experience of working with private equity companies and their investees to advise them on technical accounting matters, consolidation and accounting support. ​

Chetan is also leading the ESG & sustainability advisory services in Grant Thornton Singapore and has served marquee clients in Singapore.​

Chetan has extensive international experience on advising clients in Singapore, United States, United Kingdom, UAE, and India.​

David Fergusson is the chief executive officer and co-founder of Hugosave, Singapore’s first Wealthcare app and all-in-one personal finance platform. A serial entrepreneur and seasoned executive with an illustrious background in investment banking, he established an institutional securities business in Indonesia and oversaw investment banking across various sectors.

David holds an MA from the University of Edinburgh and an MBA from the London Business School. Born and raised in Singapore, David is passionate about democratising finance and helping Singapore achieve Wealthcare.

Debarshi is a director with KPMG in Singapore, whose key area of focus is on Blockchain/DLT and fintech innovation. He is highly experienced in digital transformation, fintech partnership, design thinking and product management. He has over 18 years of experience working in multiple Tier-1 global banks and technology companies.

Debarshi has experience working on multiple corporate and commercial digital banking initiatives to enable business growth and accelerate mass adoption of digital products. He is the former head of client innovation and DLT products in Standard Chartered bank and has established himself in the industry in implementing various banking solutions on digital assets in payments, trade financing, and central bank related initiatives.

Debarun Roy Choudhury (Roy) is head of commercial and money movement solutions, Regional South East Asia (SEA), at Visa.

In this role, Roy is responsible for leading the business unit that works on expanding Visa’s network beyond consumer-to-merchant payments. This includes business-to-business (B2B), peer-to-peer (P2P), Government Solutions and Cross Border Solutions, including the near real-time P2P network Visa Direct, and the cross-border corporate payment network B2B Connect. Roy’s team is focused on driving new business opportunities and enabling new ways to move money for clients and partners across key markets in SEA

Roy is a financial services professional with over 17 years of experience in Singapore and SEA across Transaction Banking, Digital & FINTECH, Payments, Marketing & Analytics, Product, Sales, and Channel Management with a strong track record in (i) business management (ii) SME and Corporate Segments, (iii) government relations and (iv) profitable innovation. Prior to Visa he has worked with banks and fintechs such as Standard Chartered, United Overseas Bank and ByteDance

Roy has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management with a double major in Marketing and Psychology from Singapore Management University. In his spare time, Roy is a musician focused on the genres of classic rock and rock’n’roll, mentors and engages fintechs and SMEs and spends quality time with his young family. He is also passionate about cricket and tennis.

Dr. Rex Yeap is a Partner at Invention Capital, where he directs efforts towards the creation and commercialisation of novel inventions, investing in, and mentoring early-stage companies. Additionally, he serves as a Director of the Business Angel Network (BANSEA) and is the co-founder of an angel investment fund, BANSEA Fund One, where he also served as Chair of the Investment Committee Board. Dr. Yeap was an investor-mentor in SiTF for its iJAM and ACE Grant programs. He is also an Advisor to Morpheus Lab, a generative AI blockchain platform business.

Over the past decades, his angel investment portfolio has predominantly included early-stage technology companies with an increasing focus on the Fintech space. Dr. Yeap holds a Master of Science with Distinction from the University of Leeds, and his doctoral research involved the invention of several patented hedge fund systems.

Dr. Yeap possesses three decades of experience across the Information Technology value chain, spanning industry, government, and academia. He is the co-inventor of the patented IP Blockchain system and holds several dozen technology-related patents, along with thousands of inventions.

Elodie Trichet is currently an advisor at Triple-A, a digital currency payment institution that enables businesses to pay and get paid in both traditional and digital currencies, volatility-free. Triple-A is licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the ACPR and registered as a Digital Asset Service Provider by the AMF under the aegis of Banque de France. Their United States branch, Triple A Technologies Inc., is registered with the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) as a Money Service Business (MSB).

With an impressive track record in the payments industry, Elodie brings over 18 years of rich experience in cross-border online payments, with a deep focus on e-commerce, omnichannel strategies, and innovative payment solutions.

Elodie has held notable positions in leading companies within the field. She was a founding employee and head of partnerships at Adyen, as well as the head of product strategy enterprises and financial partnerships at Airwallex.

Geoff brings over a decade of expertise in wealth management, corporate and investment banking, risk management and fintech development. As the former chief risk officer and co-founder and chief executive officer of TradeTogether, a Web3 fund management and technology company, Geoff has been at the forefront of fintech innovation since 2020. His journey with digital assets began in 2013 with his first interaction with bitcoin.

Throughout his career, Geoff has represented European brokers in France at BNP Paribas and Calyon, and has held several key positions at Standard Chartered Bank and Standard Chartered Ventures. His extensive experience in these roles has honed his strategic and leadership skills, making him a valuable asset in the financial industry.

Geoff holds two Master’s degrees: one in Banking and Insurance Management, and another in Political Science, both from Montpellier University.

Hema Chettiar is the chief compliance officer and MLRO of Zodia Custody Singapore, a compliance, finance and risk professional with over two decades of experience in the financial services and digital asset space. Prior to Zodia Custody, she headed the compliance and risk management function at Crypto.com.

Hema started her career as an external financial auditor with KPMG and moved to internal audit, risk and compliance positions in institutions such as DBS, RBS, Zurich International Life, Standard Life and Standard Chartered Bank. Hema specializes in the Financial Crime Compliance and Conduct of Business domains.

Hema’s interest in the digital asset space was prompted by her curiosity to use blockchain as a means to give back to society. One area she is currently exploring, is ways to deploy blockchain and digital asset for brining education to women in developing countries seamlessly.

Hema also enjoys doing yoga, meditation and loves being in nature.

Julia Chin, aka Compliance Blackbelt, is a financial industry professional with over 25 years of working experience. She is a subject matter expert on correspondent banking, securities services and most recently fintech in the areas of financial crime, regulatory compliance and fraud management.

She is a member of the APAC Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime (“GCFFC”) Secretariat.

Having worked in consultancy, global banks and self regulated entities, Julia has considerable experience on client lifecycle management, and design and implementation of control frameworks in Asia and Middle East.

She is passionate about the culture of compliance, fintech and financial inclusion.

Kimberly currently manages the Sanctions Investigations team at DBS and is responsible for sanctions risk management and advisory across certain business lines. Kimberly has over 13 years of experience within the AML/CFT and sanctions space, in a number of global, regional and local roles across financial institutions and lines of business. In her respective roles, Kimberly has been actively involved in the effective implementation of AML/Sanctions regulatory programmes and risk assessment frameworks.

Kimberly has a Bachelor of Arts (BA Hons), an ICA Diploma in AML (FICS Specialist) and is a Certified Global Sanctions Specialist (ACAMS).

Laurence Liew is the driving force behind AI Singapore’s impactful initiatives aimed at propelling AI adoption across industries and democratizing AI knowledge for everyone.

As director of AI Innovation, he leads the 100 Experiments (100E) programme, fostering collaboration between AI researchers and industry partners to develop and deploy real-world AI solutions. He is also the architect of the acclaimed AI Apprenticeship Programme (AIAP), a unique talent development initiative equipping aspiring AI engineers with practical skills and industry experience.

Laurence’s passion for making AI accessible to all is evident in his leadership of the LearnAI initiative. Through programmes like AI for Everyone (AI4E) and AI for Industry (AI4I), he has empowered countless individuals with foundational AI knowledge, demystifying the technology and fostering a more inclusive AI ecosystem.

His commitment to democratizing AI extends beyond Singapore’s borders, as he co-chairs the Global Partnership on AI’s (GPAI) project on Broad Adoption of AI by SMEs, leading international efforts to empower businesses of all sizes with the transformative power of AI.

Mark S. Gorriceta is board trustee, corporate secretary and chief legal officer of Fintech Philippines Association. He is a trustee and founding member of the Blockchain Council of the Philippines. And also the chairman of the ICT Committee of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines and a member of the Fintech Alliance.

Mark is the managing partner and head of the corporate, banking and finance, and technology media and telecommunications groups of Gorriceta Africa Cauton & Saavedra – a multi-awarded and fast-rising full-service Philippine law firm established in 2015.

Mark is the Philippines’ top lawyer in the tech/fintech sector with his pioneering legal expertise on fintech, blockchain, digital assets, web3 technology, e-commerce, data privacy, and artificial intelligence. He represents domestic conglomerates in their digitisation efforts as well as the Philippines’ top technology companies – both local and global entities.

He is currently a faculty member of the Ateneo de Manila University’s Graduate School and teaches Mergers & Acquisitions for the Advanced Module Diploma Course in Corporate Finance.

Ned Phillips was the founder and chief executive officer of Bambu, a global digital wealth technology provider that he launched in 2016. With over 25 years of experience in fintech and investment banking, he is a visionary leader and an expert in robo-advisory solutions. His mission is to make saving and investing simple and intelligent for everyone, by enabling businesses of every size and industry to offer digital wealth services to their clients.

Under his leadership, Bambu has grown rapidly and expanded across Asia, Europe, and North America, working with 18 global clients in the banking and financial sectors. Bambu has also won multiple awards and recognition for its innovation and excellence, such as “Best of Show” by Finovate, “Best Early Stage Startup” by Fintech Finals, and “Fintech Employee of the Year” by Singapore Fintech Association. Ned is also an active advisor and mentor in the fintech ecosystem, having worked with 8 Securities, The Singapore Fintech Consortium, and other startups and initiatives.

Pramodh Rai is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Cyber Sierra, a cybersecurity company based in Singapore. Over the past decade, Pramodh has built technology and teams across high growth businesses in Asia Pacific. Pramodh is also an active advisor and angel investor in startups globally. He began his career in technology at Barclays Investment Bank after graduating from Nanyang Technological University with degrees in Computer Science and Business.

Radek is the chief executive officer of Kilde, a platform that connects family offices, funds, and accredited investors to investment-ready private credit deals in developed and emerging markets.

Radek is a seasoned financial industry practitioner with over 20 years of experience in payments, credit risk, and consumer lending. Formerly a consulting director at PwC and later a partner in a boutique credit risk consultancy, he has played pivotal roles in driving strategic initiatives for banks, NBFIs, and payment networks. Nowadays, Radek focuses on providing access to asset-backed private credit to the broader pool of investors.  

Rony is a startup co-founder with 19 years of global markets, program management, consulting and technology innovation experience.

He’s currently chief executive officer of GreenArc, an ESG and Impact fintech backed by Franklin Templeton with offices in Singapore, US and India.

Before that he spent close to a decade and half in banking where he was the former AI and analytics head for Credit Suisse APAC Innovation and Ventures Group and has led multiple large projects including APAC Legal Entity programme client migration – the largest program undertaken by Credit Suisse, resulting in $2bn capital saves.

He was founding member of the Singapore Fintech Association’s Green & Sustainability Committee as well as co-chair of Credit Suisse Singapore Sustainability Committee and led deal flow management for Sustainable Finance Collective APAC – an industry consortium for Impact Investment projects.

Rony has a bachelor of engineering degree from Nanyang Technological University and certification in finance from Harvard Business School and is a co-inventor of 2 AI analytics patents.

Ryan Chen is head of research and innovation at DigiFT. Ryan is a web3 tech enthusiast since 2017, experienced in DeFi, NFT and web3 infrastructures. He has previously served as head of China in Avalanche/Ava Labs, DeFi researcher in iZUMi Labs, and community manager in Nervos.

Shadab is the president of the Singapore FinTech Association (SFA), the national industry association and a cross-industry initiative designed to facilitate collaboration between all market participants and stakeholders in the FinTech ecosystem. SFA brings together a strong community to foster collaboration, innovation and partnerships among members and the industry at-large, with the goal of strengthening Singapore’s position as a global fintech hub. As the elected president since 2021, Shadab leads the SFA Executive Committee, which sets the strategic direction for its activities related to representation and advocacy, fostering business growth, facilitating access to capital and opportunities as well as growing the fintech talent pool.

Shadab has more than 18 years of experience working in the financial services industry with over 14 years at fintech companies. He has a strong track record of growing businesses in the fintech space and is a thought-leader across multiple diverse fintech segments such as wealthtech, insurtech, payments, digital financing as well as web3.0 applications in financial services.

Shadab also sits on the MAS Payments Council as an observer. The Payments Council convenes key providers and users of e-payments in Singapore, to collaborate on strategies to drive the adoption of e-payments, promote interoperability among e-payments solutions, and advise MAS on payments-related policies. He is also a member of the Advisory Board for the Point Carbon Zero Programme which is launched by Google and MAS to drive the innovation, incubation and scaling of climate FinTech solutions in the region.

Shi Mei Chin is the chief financial officer of Spark Systems, a Series C fintech eFX trading platform backed by industry giants such as Citi, HSBC, and leading venture capital firms.

Shi Mei spearheads the finance function and has played a crucial role in Spark Systems’ journey from Series A to Series C, significantly contributing to the company’s growth and success.

Currently, she is actively involved in fundraising, SPAC and M&A negotiations, and IPO readiness, shaping the company’s future trajectory.

With seven years of experience in Audit and Assurance for Banking and Capital Markets with Big Four firms globally, where she also helped pioneer the FinTech team within PwC.

Additionally, Shi Mei serves as an advisor to xcube, a next-generation corporate venture studio that builds curated ecosystems for startups, corporates, and investors, where she provides strategic guidance in finance and capital fundraising.

As an active participant in the fintech ecosystem, Shi Mei has served as the Treasurer and Executive Committee member of the Singapore FinTech Association since 2021.

She was a Sub-Committee member of Women in FinTech from 2019 to 2020, an initiative aimed at profiling and recognizing women leaders in the industry. Additionally, she mentors with Tenity, an accelerator incubator global innovation ecosystem with hubs across Europe and Asia.

In 2019, Shi Mei was honoured with the Top 50 FinTech Leaders Asia Award.

Shi Mei is a Chartered Accountant (CA) with Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and has completed her Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) qualification.

Tasneen currently leads the APAC team at Riskified with responsibility for topline growth and managing the regional P&L. Riskified’s machine learning based SaaS Platform enables online businesses to prevent fraud pro-actively while minimizing false customer declines caused by traditional rules-based fraud systems.

Prior to this Tasneen was the managing director, S.E. Asia at Zip Co, a leading global Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) company and lead GTM expansion for Zip into Asia. Tasneen was head of APAC digital partnerships and fintech at Visa previously, which included oversight of Visa’s Fintech Fast-track program.

Tasneen has also served as managing director for CEB (a Gartner company) in South East Asia and head of the CEB Singapore office. She was responsible for the business performance of the CEB Leadership Councils and SHL Talent Measurement business in the region and also led sales operations across Asia.

In 2023, Tasneen was selected as one of the top Fintech Leaders in Singapore as part of the Fintech65 list sponsored by the Singapore Fintech Association. In 2019, Tasneen was selected as a Rise Up ‘Power Player’ honouring the Top 30 Women in Payments in APAC. She is also regularly invited to present at forums like the Singapore Fintech Festival, Women in Payments, Interserkt Australia, Fintech New Zealand and Money 2020. She serves as an advisor to several fintechs and is an active angel investor via the female-founder focused Epic Angels Network.

Tasneen holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmadabad, India and Bachelors in Technology from the National
Institute of Technology, Calicut, India.

Kuan Siong has over 15 years’ experience that spans across various positions in 1^st and 2^nd lines of defence with different banks on financial crimes compliance.

He is currently the chief compliance officer of Mega International Commercial Bank Co Ltd, Singapore Branch since August 2021.

The Noe serves as the sole female founder and chief executive officer of MO, a fintech company dedicated to dismantling financial barriers for unbanked businesses in Southeast Asia. The Noe founded MO during the pandemic and launched amidst the tumult of a coup d’etat in Myanmar. With resilience and unwavering commitment, The Noe accomplished over 500,000 transactions totalling $30m USD and established more than 10,000 accounts within one year of launch.

At Capital 49, a $200m early-stage venture fund led by Airwallex founders, Yasmin is at the forefront of supporting and backing visionary founders in fintech and enterprise software. Yasmin is fascinated by how our world works, cautiously optimistic about the power of technology, and striving to enable the digital economy to operate across borders.

A graduate from Columbia University, Yasmin began her career in Tech Investment Banking at Deutsche Bank. She was named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list.

Zong is an investment director at Cocoon Capital focusing on pre-Seed and Seed stage investments across Southeast Asia. Zong leverages his prior entrepreneurship experience to support the portfolio in areas covering fundraising, go-to-market and legals and compliance. As Cocoon’s first employee, Zong is also well-versed in fund structuring and administration matters.