ARAB PAYMENT WEEK 2024

A seasoned payments innovator with 17+ years of driving success in the Saudi banking sector, Ahmed Al-Ben Saleh brings a wealth of experience and leadership to the table.

Ahmed's journey began in 2007, where he honed his expertise in Cash Management for corporates across various Saudi banks, including Saudi National Bank and Arab National Bank. This solid foundation prepared him for his impactful roles at:

• Saudi Awwal Bank (2011-2024): As Head of Products Management and Fintech, Ahmed spearheaded the development of multiple Islamic financial instruments, demonstrably improving the bank's cash management services for corporate customers. He also played a pivotal role in leading the cash management products integration during the historic SABB-Alawwal Bank merger, a first in Saudi banking history.
• Banque Saudi Fransi (2024-present): Currently, Ahmed serves as Head of Liquidity and Cash Management Solutions, leveraging his deep understanding of the payments landscape to craft innovative solutions

Ahmed's passion for payments extends beyond his professional endeavors. He is recognized as a pioneer in the Saudi market, actively shaping the future of the industry.

• Ahmed Faragallah is a Senior Financial Sector Specialist at the World Bank, working for the Payment Systems Development Group (PSDG).
• He holds a Certificate in Fintech from Harvard University.
• He has an MBA from Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA.
• He graduated from the faculty of Engineering, ASU, Egypt.  
• Before joining the WB, Ahmed managed the Payment Systems Department in the Central Bank of Egypt for twelve years and worked for IBM for seven years.
• Ahmed co-authored or participated in a number of CBDC reports including the WB “CBDC, A Payments Aspect”, the WB/BIS report “CBDC and financial inclusion”, the G7 “Public Policy Principles for CBDC”, and the G20 reports on “Cross-border CBDC”.   
• Ahmed leads several WB projects in Sudan, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Kyrgyz Republic, Egypt, Yemen, Morocco, and Tajikistan; and co-chairs the electronic payment acceptance global initiative.  
• He worked with market Infrastructure projects, such as RTGS, CSD, cards switch, fast payment system, and ACH; fintech initiatives such as CBDC, and digital assets and stablecoins regulations; financial inclusion, including regulations of mobile wallets and interoperability.  

Ajmal Ahmady is a global leader whose career spans senior policy roles, asset management, economic development, fintech, and academia. He is now a Senior Fellow at Harvard, where he is conducting research related to central banking in emerging and frontier markets. 

He previously served as the Governor of the Central Bank of Afghanistan, Minister of Industry and Commerce, & Senior Economic Advisor to the President of Afghanistan.

As Afghanistan’s central bank governor, he was responsible for the formulation and implementation of monetary policy, financial sector supervision, financial intelligence, and payment systems development. Under challenging circumstances, he kept inflation at only 2% and implemented RTGS and mobile payment systems.

His previous career was in asset management, where he worked for the largest asset managers in the world as an economist and portfolio manager. He received a MBA and MPA/ID from Harvard, and his Bachelor degree from the University of California at Los Angeles in Mathematics/Economics with Minors in Computer Science and Philosophy.

Alain Raes is an experienced C-Suite Executive and global strategist acknowledged for leadership, business acumen, and operational transformation in the financial technology sector. As the Chief Commercial Officer of iPiD, Alain spearheads the company’s commercial endeavors, employing his strategic vision to identify and capitalize on emerging opportunities, forge key partnerships, and drive revenue growth.

Formerly as the Chief Business Development Officer and member of the Group Executive Committee of SWIFT, with a tenure of 15 years, he helped to frame and deliver the company’s vision. Alain was accountable for the definition and execution of the global SWIFT business development strategy, a P&L of ~1 Billion € annual revenue, and 650 staff located in 27 countries worldwide. He is recognized for capitalizing on the intersection of market intelligence, business trends, and economic cycles to deliver profitable growth.  

During his career, Alain managed business units globally, prioritizing a culture of sales enablement while directing multi-disciplinary teams in the execution of commercial strategy. His diplomatic approach leverages relationships with internal/external stakeholders and the Board to move projects forward and deliver measurable results. Alain is respected for leading with authenticity, simplicity and purpose embracing the “together we can” attitude.

Alain earned an Engineering Degree in Business Management from University of Louvain and received a Bachelor in Economics from University Saint Louis both in Belgium. His native language is French and he is fluent in English.

Anand Sampath has more than 29 years of experience in a combination of leading National and Multi National Banks, handling multiple roles with Global Cash Management and Payments domain. As part of First Abu Dhabi Bank’s  Global Cash Product Management within GTB, Anand is MD & Head of Global Payments & Collections

He has been involved in various Payments/Innovations/Industry shaping initiatives, Regional Cross Border payments roll outs with Multi Lateral agencies and involved with Central Banks on CBDCs.

Bernard joined Euroclear in 2001. He is in charge of the overall Business Development, commercial support as well as Marketing. His remit includes servicing US$ 40 trillion of assets under custody across 2,000 clients located in more than 120 countries. He supervises a large commercial team of 400 people spread across 11 Euroclear offices located in Europe, Middle East, Asia and the Americas.

Before being appointed as Chief Commercial Officer, Bernard held several senior and regional positions such as managing clients across the Americas, as well as Europe and the CIS. He also acted for more than 10 years as Chief Representative Officer in Dubai to further promote the footprint of Euroclear across the Middle East & Africa.

Mr. William (Bill) Coen is an independent member of Buna’s Board of Directors and chairs its Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee. Bill served as Secretary General of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision from 2014 to 2019 where he had overall responsibility for the work of the BCBS including its Basel III post-crisis reforms. He joined the BCBS’s Secretariat in 1999 from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Prior to that, Bill was a bank examiner for the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and he began his career as a credit officer of a New York City-based bank. He currently serves on various boards of directors and advisory boards, providing advice and recommendations on regulatory and supervisory matters; payments and settlements; risk and risk management; business strategy; and group-wide management and governance.

Bryan Stirewalt the EY MENA Financial Services Regulatory Leader. Bryan has more than 35 years of experience in financial services across the public and private sectors—including 25 years of international experience in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Bryan has a strong track record of collaborating with market participants around the globe to develop supervisory models and regulatory solutions to match international standards and global best practices. Bryan has not only assisted many jurisdictions with regulatory developments, but he has also had a seat at the table in standard setting with nearly 10 years’ experience at the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.

Prior joining EY, Bryan was a Senior Managing Director at K2 Integrity, one of the world’s leading financial crime compliance and risk management consultancies. Prior to joining K2 Integrity, Bryan spent more than 14 years at the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), most recently as its Chief Executive. As Chief Executive, he was responsible for the regulation and supervision of more than 500 authorized firms, including banks, insurers, asset managers and exchanges. He ensured the DFSA implemented leading international standards and met expectations for global best practices in regulatory services. Bryan led the DFSA as the organization developed its approach to new and innovative financial sector entrants and new financial products such as digital assets, including cryptocurrencies. Bryan directed the DFSA’s efforts in combating money laundering and terrorist finance. He also launched the agency’s cyber threat intelligence platform, one of the world’s first such public private partnerships for cyber incidents.

During his time at the DFSA, Bryan also served as the co-chair of the Basel Consultative Group for nearly 10 years, representing non-member countries at the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. The Basel Consultative Group provides a forum for deepening the Basel Committee’s engagement with non-member global supervisors on banking supervisory issues. As a result of this position, Bryan had the honor of serving on the Basel Committee.

Before joining the DFSA, Bryan worked for an international consulting and advisory firm focused on emerging market development programs in Poland, Ukraine, Cyprus, and Kazakhstan. Prior to that, he worked for the U.S. Treasury's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as a national bank examiner specializing in policy development and implementation, problem bank rehabilitation, and banking fraud initiatives.

Bryan is a member of the Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime, currently serving in its Regulation and Supervision subgroup. He is also a member of the board of the SSM Good Samaritan Health Foundation.

Bryan has a B.A. from Southern Illinois University. He also graduated from a bespoke Executive Leadership Program at the Yale School of Management and has certificates from Yale School of Management in Healthcare Management and from Harvard University in Fintech Innovation. A native English speaker, he is conversant in Russian and Polish.

Damien is a seasoned payment expert, having spent over 16 years in the domain working as a consultant and product manager in several international banks and SWIFT.

Damien is now working as a  Head of Payments Industry Engagement, representing BNP PARIBAS in different working groups (local and international) and working on behalf of BNP Paribas group to design and shape the future of payments in order to reach the instant and frictionless experience. 

Damien holds an MSc in Economics and is a regular speaker at corporate and industrial conferences.

Dr. Maher Hasan is the Counsellor and Chief Economist of the Arab Monetary Fund. Before that, he served for two terms (2012-2022) as a Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors and Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Jordan. Dr. Hasan worked for the IMF (2005-2012) in different departments, and his last position was deputy division chief in the Monetary and Capital Markets Department. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics and an M.S. in Statistics from Washington State University.

Emran Islam is a Senior Financial Sector Expert in the Financial Regulation and Supervision Division. He is part of the team that delivers technical assistance to Fund members, conducts surveillance activities through FSAPs (specifically Norway, Mexico and Japan) and liaises with standard setting bodies on cyber policy issues. In his previous role, Emran was a Senior Oversight Expert at the European Central Bank (ECB) and the lead for developing and operationalising the cyber resilience strategy for the European Union. He was a part of the team that developed TIBER-EU, the Cyber Resilience Oversight Expectations, established the Euro Cyber Resilience Board, developed and operationalized the market-wide cyber exercise (UNITAS) and developed the Cyber Incident and Information Sharing Initiative (CIISI-EU). Emran has been and is currently involved in various international cyber groups, including the FSB Cyber Incident Reporting Working Group, the G7 Cyber Expert Group, the CPMI Task Force for endpoint security, the FSB Cyber Lexicon Working Group, the CPMI-IOSCO Cyber Working Group, the ESRB Systemic Cyber Working Group and the World Bank FIGI. As part of this international work, Emran has been involved in drafting the CPMI-IOSCO Cyber Guidance, the different G7 Fundamental Elements, the CPMI strategy for endpoint security and the FSB Cyber Lexicon. He was involved in the G10 Oversight of SWIFT and was the overseer of STEP2-T and EURO1. He is also the Course Director of the cyber course at the European University Institute. Prior to joining the ECB in 2015, Emran worked at the Bank of England for 5 years, where he was an FMI supervisor, as well as leading the cyber work for UK FMIs (inlcuding the development of CBEST). Emran is a Chartered Accountant, and has previously worked at Goldman Sachs, PwC, IBM and the central government. Emran has a BA and MPhil from the University of Oxford.

Mr. Faisal Alhijawi is the Chief of Strategy and Development Officer of Buna since October 2020. His responsibilities at Buna include leading the strategy & planning, business and products development, communications and marketing.

Prior to joining Buna, Mr. Alhijawi held several roles at Western Union Financial Services in Dubai, UAE, including the Director of Account Payout Network, and earlier to that he was the Director of Global Payments.

During his 8 years tenure at Western Union, Mr. Alhijawi has led several initiatives to build end-to-end cross-border payment services by creating strategic partnerships with diverse classes of organizations including banking, fintech, and government institutions.

Prior to that, Mr. Alhijawi held various techno-business positions for 12 years in the private sector focusing on online and mobile payment solutions.

Godfrey helps to drive Visa’s growth objectives by implementing a multi-year plan across CEMEA’s dynamic and diverse markets.

A 15-year veteran of the region’s banking and payments sector, he has been instrumental in rolling out a range of transformational strategies that have defined the achievements of traditional and non-traditional financial institutions. Godfrey played a key part in establishing the foundations for successful national payment and banking platforms in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Ethiopia.

He previously worked at Booz Allen Hamilton in Dubai, and Accenture Scient and Datamonitor in London, and most recently the Boston Consulting Group, where he led banking, payments and FinTech businesses across the Middle East.

Godfrey holds an MSc from the University of London in International Business, and tutors at the INSEAD Business School MBA program.

Gunsel runs Citi’s Custody business across Middle East and Africa markets, covering 13 countries, serving major global banks, international brokers, institutional investors of the world. He is based in Dubai.

He works closely with local stock exchanges, central counterparties, clearing houses, central securities depositories, and regulatory institutions and support regional capital market development and implementation of best practices.

Gunsel currently represents Citi at AMEDA (Association of Middle East and Africa CSDs) and at the Digital Assets Working Group of MENA Fintech Association.

Gunsel takes a special interest in leadership development. He runs a self-developed workshop named ‘Best of You’ internally at Citi, as well as externally. He is also a Toastmasters certified public speaker. 

Gunsel holds a BSc. degree in computer engineering, MSc. degrees in international finance and banking, and a PhD. degree in corporate finance.

He is a currently attending a program ‘ Fintech: Innovation and Trasformation In Financial Services’ by The National University of Singapore.

H.E. Fahad M. Alturki, Ph.D. joined on 27 of November 2023 the Arab Monetary Fund “AMF” as Director General Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors. In this capacity, he serves also as the Chief Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Arab Trade Financing Program “ATFP” and Chairman of the Board of the Arab Regional Payments Clearing and Settlement Organization “BUNA”.

Dr. Alturki has previously held several leadership positions, including Vice-President of the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC), where he oversaw KAPSARC’s research programs strategically focused on impacts within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, both regionally and globally. 

Dr. Alturki also serves as an independent board member of the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD). He also serves as a member of board of trustees of Riyadh Economic Forum and a member of several associations concerned in Economics, Finance, and Energy. He frequently presents papers at several high profile local, regional, and international conferences, participates in roundtable discussions and is a well-known economic figure in Saudi Arabia and overseas.

Dr. Alturki also held a position of the chief economist and head of research at Jadwa Investment Company in Riyadh, where he managed the economic research department and published regular reports on issues related to the Saudi and global economies and the world oil market. He was also the chairperson of the Public Funds Board, a board member of the Jadwa REIT Al Haramain Fund and Jadwa REIT Saudi Fund, and a member of Jadwa’s executive management committee.

Dr. Alturki has a proven track record in economics, with more than 20 years of experience in the field. Before joining Jadwa, Dr. Alturki was the chief economist at Barclays, Saudi Arabia. Prior to that, Dr. Fahad was an economic specialist at the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority, where he worked for 11 years in the Economic Research and Statistics Department. Dr. Alturki has also worked as an economist at the Middle East and Central Asia Department of the International Monetary Fund.

Dr. Alturki is a Saudi National, holds a B.A. in Business Administration from King Saud University in Saudi Arabia and Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in economics from the University of Oregon (Eugene, United States). 

Habib Attia is a Senior development professional with over 23 years of experience in financial sector development from donors and DFIs, regulators, and private sector perspectives, across Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the MENA region.

He is currently working with the Arab Monetary Fund as a Senior Financial Sector Specialist, leading Financial Inclusion and Payment Systems streams. In this capacity, he has been managing major programs that include, among others, the design and launch of the Financial Inclusion for the Arab Region Initiative (FIARI), managing the design process of Buna payment platform, previously known as Arab Regional Payment System (ARPS), as well as the whole implementation program and currently acting as a member of its steering committee. In addition, Habib has also co-authored numerous publications on financial system development trends including Financial Inclusion in Technology led globalization age, De-risking implications on Financial Inclusion, Correspondent Banking Relationships (CBRs) challenges, Payment Aspect for Financial Inclusion in the Arab region, among others.

Prior to joining the AMF, Habib spent almost six years at the African Development Bank as a Financial Sector Advisor, laying the foundation and the development of the Making Finance Work for Africa Initiative, among others. Further, Habib spent four years at Baobab Holding, a French Investment Company focused on Microfinance and SME development. As Baobab Development Manager, he supported the expansion of Baobab network across Africa. Before this position, Habib worked with CGAP for three years as a Policy Advisory Consultant; and held from 2000 to 2004 the position of Research Officer at the Algerian Banking Commission (Central Bank), dealing with macro-prudential supervision of Banks and Non-Banking Financial Institutions.

Habib, PhD candidate, holds a master’s degree in Economic Policy Management from CERDI, University of Auvergne, France and graduated in advanced Finance and Banking. In addition, he has attended several Executive Education Programs, including at Harvard University (Harvard Kennedy School), University of Pennsylvania (The Wharton School) in the United States, University of Cape Town (Graduate School of Business) in South Africa, and Boulder Microfinance Institute in Italy, among others. He is Fluent in French, Arabic and English.

Hafid Oubrik is the Director of Financial Market Infrastructure at the Central Bank of the UAE, in charge of managing the payment systems operations and development of the financial market infrastructure. His mission consists of managing the department and ensuring the smooth functioning of the payment systems operated by the Central Bank, while taking initiatives towards improving the payment landscape in the UAE.  

Prior to joining the Central Bank of the UAE, Mr. Oubrik was a Financial Sector Specialist at the Arab Monetary Fund, in charge of various financial sector initiatives in the MENA region, and formerly, he led the payment systems Department and the Credit Registry Department at the Central Bank of Morocco.

Ms. Hakima EL ALAMI has been with bank Al-Maghrib since 1997. She is the current Director of Payment Systems and Instruments Oversight and Financial Inclusion Department responsible for conducting national strategies related to payment systems and financial inclusion. The Department is also in charge of implementing of regulation and oversight framework of FMIs and means of payment.     

She joined Bank Al-Maghrib as an executive in charge of financial analyses and corporates ratings, and also assessment of the quality of the private debt instruments within the context of central bank advances. Since 2003, she was appointed as a Manager in the Monetary and Exchange Operations Department where she spent 13 years in charge of cashless means of payment and payment systems oversight.

Hakima EL ALAMI holds a higher studies diploma (DES) from Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, and a Diploma of Advanced Studies –DEA- in economic organizations engineering, Complex systems modeling, from the University of AIX-Marseille III.

She is also Alumni of Fletcher School Leadership Program for Financial Inclusion (FLPFI). TUFTS University. Boston.

Mrs. Hesa Abdulla Al Sada is the Executive Director of Banking Operations at the Central Bank of Bahrain, she joined in 2007 and has held several positions in the services and banking operations sector at the Central Bank.

In addition to her current position as an Executive Director at the Central Bank of Bahrain, she is currently the Chairman of the Deposit Protection and Unrestricted Investment Accounts Board. She also represents the Central Bank of Bahrain in the Payment Systems Technical Committee of the General Secretariat of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf and the Arab Committee for Payment and Settlement Systems at the Arab Monetary Fund.

Mrs. Hesa holds a bachelor’s degree in Management from Bentley University and has been a Certified as a Financial Analyst (CFA) since 2012.

Ian Hooper leads the Payments consulting line of business for PwC in the Middle East, which combines strategy, operations, digital & technology, M&A, and risk and regulation practices.  Ian is a Senior Partner in PwC Saudi Arabia, based in Riyadh, since 2021.

Clients in the Middle East include central banks and ministries, national and regional operators, processors and networks, as well as commercial banks, fintechs and retailers. His portfolio includes national strategy, business strategy, licensing and compliance, traditional and digital product launch, market entry, and post-merger integration, as well as virtual assets and CBDC.

Across his 25 year career Ian has also been a Partner with three leading global consultancies, in the UK and ASEAN, Australia, Hong Kong and the United States. His career started at HSBC as digital technology revolutionized Banking.

Jan has over 15 years of experience in the payments industry, with a consistent record of delivering impactful national initiatives and transformations. Currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer of Al Etihad Payments, he leads the team transforming and modernizing the payments ecosystem in the UAE, including the recent launch of a new instant payments platform called Aani.

Before his role at Al Etihad Payments, Jan was the Chief Executive Officer at BankservAfrica, Africa’s largest clearing house, where he successfully implemented a number of transformative initiatives, including PayShap, a cloud-based domestic instant payments scheme in South Africa. Jan was also at the genesis of Canada’s payments modernization journey, having worked at Payments Canada as the Executive Director & Chief Information Office.

Before joining the world of digital payments, Jan held executive positions at various central banks, including Bank of Canada, Bank for International Settlement and the Czech National Bank, leading mission critical initiatives in the areas of Currency and Information Technology.

With this track record, Jan continues to make significant contributions to the global payments industry, leveraging his deep understanding of technology and driving cross-sector collaboration, innovationand broad-scale transformation. He is passionate about financial technology and financial inclusion.

Jawad is a Senior Partner and has been with the  McKinsey & Company since 2007. His expertise focus on productivity  focused transformation that includes cost  optimization both external vendor spend,  organization re-structuring and frontline  transformation.

Jawad’s work experience includes:

Led end to end cost optimization program in the 3rd largest bank in KSA

• Drove opportunity assessment across USD 300m of non personnel cost spend across categories  ranging from Rent, Card processing, ATM, Cash optimization, Facilities management to other  procurement items resulting in 10% reduction in existing cost
• Benchmarked the full organization to assess productivity to identify right sizing opportunity, through  people capacity adjustment and spans and layers reduction

Led a three way integration of banks in UAE with a focus on driving cost synergies

• Developed an integrated organization structure and people capacity based on zero based design
• Led the optimization across cost line items given new, larger volumes, which included, rent  renegotiations, real estate consolidation, ATM optimization, Card contract renegotiation, Card  partners renegotiation

Leading organization re-design and FTE right sizing of one of top 5 banks in Pakistan

• Conducted a rapid diagnostic and assessment of FTE productivity and spans and layers to identify  15% reduction in costs, based on zero based design
• Developed and leads an Advanced Analytics based platform to drive cash and CIT cost  optimization, allowing banks to centrally manage those costs

Education and prior McKinsey experience

• Prior to joining McKinsey, Jawad has worked at several venture capital and tech firms, such as  Innovation Works and Acumen Fund conducting due-diligences and concept tests
• Jawad received an Masters in Economics and Policy from Carnegie Mellon University in the U.S.  and a B.Sc. in Computer Sciences from Lahore University of Management Sciences

Since 2015, Mr. Jean-Michel Godeffroy has been a senior international consultant based in Paris. His field of competence is payments and market infrastructure from a central bank perspective. From 1988 until 2014, he was Director General at the European Central Bank where he played a key role in the preparation and the operation of TARGET2, the RTGS system of the euro area, of T2S, the securities settlement system for 20 European countries, and of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).
Jean-Michel was also the chairman of several Eurosystem Committees and a member of the Committee on Payments and Settlement Systems (CPSS) of the G10 (now the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructure in the G20 context).

Jean-Michel Godeffroy graduated from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) and from the Pantheon-Sorbonne University.

Jessica Renier is Managing Director of Digital Finance at the Institute of International Finance. She leads the Institute's work on payments, digital assets and central bank digital currency, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and all financial technologies, working in close collaboration with global standard setters and policymakers. She previously served as Program Associate Director at the Office of Management and Budget in the Executive Office of the President. In this role, she oversaw a range of Federal Government agencies, including the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Treasury, Commerce, and the Small Business Administration. She also previously served as Senior Counselor for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, as well as Senior Advisor in the office of the Under Secretary for Domestic Finance where she led the Department’s financial technology and innovation policy, with subject matter expertise in digital assets, smart contracts, and artificial intelligence. Prior to joining Treasury, she was a manager in Deloitte Consulting’s Strategy & Operations practice for the banking and securities industry, specializing in blockchain technology and digital identity. Renier previously worked at the Federal Reserve Banks of New York and Dallas, J.P. Morgan Securities, and the Hoover Institution. She holds an M.B.A. from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, an M.A. in Defense and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College, and a B.A. in Economics, Communication, and Spanish from Trinity University. She is an advisory board member of the Digital Dollar Project, Dubai International Financial Centre’s (DIFC) Innovation Panel, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Market Risk Advisory Committee. Jessica sits on the CPMI's payment interoperability and extension (PIE) taskforce and the FSB's legal, regulatory and supervisory (LRS) taskforce, and is a member of the Bretton Woods Committee and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Mr. Jie Chen, General Manager of Bank of China Abu Dhabi Branch. In 1999, Mr. Chen joined Bank of China after graduated from University of International Business & Economics with master degree of management. He has worked in BOC Head office, BOC Beijing Branch, BOC (Canada) and BOCHK Jakarta Branch. Since 2021, he acted as General Manager of Bank of China Abu Dhabi Branch.

Joyce Lau is Middle East & Africa Expansion Lead at Wise. Wise is a global technology company, building the best way to move and manage the world’s money. With 10 million active customers, Wise processed in fiscal year 2023 approximately £105 billion in cross-border transactions, saving customers around £1.6 billion. She joined Wise in 2021 to drive expansion in the APAC region. Prior to Wise, Joyce held various positions at Bank Negara Malaysia, where she specialized in policies for financial sector development with a focus in fintech and payments.

Kah Kit is an Adviser at the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub (BISIH) in Singapore. He leads policy and governance work in next-generation financial market infrastructure projects such as Project Nexus which aims to interlink fast payment systems to enable instant cross-border payments. He also provides policy support for Project Mandala which seeks to develop compliance-by-design architecture to enhance cross-border payments.

Kah Kit is a secondee from the Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) with over 17 years’ experience ranging from legal services to policy development in the areas of payments, fintech, CBDC and digital assets. At BNM, he was instrumental in spearheading Malaysia’s migration to digital payments and foster the development of interoperable real-time payments. He holds a Bachelor of Laws Degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and has been admitted as a Barrister-at-law by the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, United Kingdom.

Katie-Ann Wilson is Managing Director, Digital Monetary Institute at OMFIF. The institute covers OMFIF’s coverage of central bank digital currencies, payments innovation and digital finance. She is responsible for leading and managing the team to deliver the overall business objectives through a pipeline of publications and events. Katie-Ann develops the editorial scope across these projects and supports senior engagement with central banks, regulators, financial services, and technology providers. She also contributes to the corporate leadership of the entire business. Prior to joining OMFIF, she worked as an editor for online publications covering political economy issues and has experience working in the third sector.

Kosta Peric oversees the foundation’s efforts to support governments, central banks, and private-sector stakeholders in developing and deploying inclusive digital payment and identity platforms.

Before joining the foundation in 2013, Kosta was the chief architect of SWIFTNet, the global secure network for the SWIFT system that connects 10,000 financial institutions and corporations worldwide, and co-founder of Innotribe, SWIFT’s initiative to enable collaborative innovation in financial services.

Kosta has a master’s degree in computer science from Free University of Brussels, Belgium.

He is the author of The Castle and the Sandbox, a book on how to innovate in conservative companies using open innovation.

Ms. Maha serves as CEO of JoPACC since June 2018. The Company is mandated with enhancing and promoting digital payments in Jordan and is the operator of several payment systems in the country. Before JoPACC, Ms. Maha worked at the Central Bank of Jordan for 30 years, where she was most recently the Executive Manager of the Payment Systems, Domestic Banking Operations and Financial Inclusion Department for 7 years. She has done consulting work in Libya and has experience as a lecturer at the University of Jordan and as a trainer in cooperation with Philadelphia Consulting, the Institute of Banking Studies, the Central Bank of Jordan, and different NGOs.

Ms. Maha holds a master’s degree in Banking and Finance, a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Business Administration, in addition to a Leadership and Strategic Management certificate from The Royal Military Academy of Sandhurst. She has been honored by King Abdullah II with the Distinguished Government Leader Award for the year 2016.

Ms. Maha has been appointed a member of Jordanian Senate in 2022. She currently sits on several local and international boards, including Innovative Start-ups and SMEs Fund (ISSF), Interledger Foundation in Luxemburg, and the Global Action Network on Forced Displacement. She has served on the board of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) of the World Bank from 2017 to 2022.

• Executive Director and Head of Payment Systems Department at the Central Bank of Lebanon
• Part-Time Professor in Economics at American University of Beirut (AUB) and Lebanese American University (LAU)
• Participated as a speaker in several local and international conferences organized by the Lebanese Ministry of Economy,  IMF, World Bank, and Arab Monetary Fund
• Published several papers and articles related to Financial Economics and Banking Policies.
• Board Member at MIDCLEAR (Custodian and Clearing Center of Financial Instruments for Lebanon and the Middle East)

• Education:

• Ph.D in Economics from University of Birmingham , United Kingdom
• MSc. International Money and Banking from University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
• B.A Economics – American University of Beirut
• B.A  Law (License en Droit) – Lebanese University

In March 2020, Mr. Manuel Iglesias was appointed as the Chief Risk & Compliance Officer of Buna. Mr. Iglesias has over 20 years of experience in the financial sector, with an extensive background covering corporate governance, regulatory, prudential, and financial crime compliance. 

Prior to joining Buna, Mr. Iglesias held several senior compliance positions with Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan in Spain and acted as Compliance Director/MLRO with ADS Securities/ADS Investment Solutions in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Mr. Iglesias holds a bachelor’s degree in law from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) and is a Certified Compliance Professional.
 

Marianne Demarchi has more than 25 years’ experience in financial and banking services across fintechs and major international corporations. She has had increasing responsibilities in business development, digital transformation, and company management. In 2022, she joined Swift as Head of European Strategic Accounts, and was subsequently appointed Chief Executive Europe in December 2022, covering Business Development across the region. In January 2024, she expanded her role to cover the Middle East and Africa. From 2017 to 2021, Marianne was COO and member of the Board of Monext, a payments fintech and subsidiary of Credit Mutuel Arkea Bank. She previously worked at BNP Paribas Asset Management as Global Head of Sales and Strategic Partnerships, having also worked as Deputy Head of Marketing. From 2008 to 2021 she served on the Distribution Executive Committee. Prior to this she spent 15 years at Euronext in various roles, supporting the transformation of the Paris stock exchange into a pan-European stock exchange. Marianne Demarchi holds a PhD in Finance, a business master's degree from HEC Business School, and a Harvard certificate in Fintech. She is a certified independent Board member.

In January 2020, Mr. Mehdi Manaa was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of Buna. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Manaa served as the Deputy Director-General of the Market Infrastructure and Payments Directorate General at the European Central Bank (ECB). 

During his 12-year tenure at the ECB, Mr. Manaa held several other roles, including heading the Market Infrastructure Development Division as well as the T2S Programme, a program in which he was involved since its inception.

Prior to his career at the ECB, Mr. Manaa held various managerial and advisory positions in the private sector focusing on payment solutions and financial market infrastructures.

Nick Stanescu is an executive vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and the chief executive of the FedNowSM Service. He leads the FedNow group that has responsibility for the Federal Reserve System’s round-the-clock real-time payment and settlement service that supports instant payments in the United States. In this role, he has responsibility for FedNow Core delivery functions that include technology, product, and program management. Most recently, Nick served as FedNow business executive since program inception in August 2019. Before joining the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Nick held several executive and senior level roles within the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, including as the Head of Payments Product Management where he had business responsibility for Fedwire Funds and National Settlement Services on behalf of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks. Collectively, these services clear and settle financial transactions exceeding $4 trillion per day and are a foundational underpinning of the United States financial system. Nick received a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University and an MBA from New York University, Stern School of Business.

Project leader of CBT's Innovation LAB and co-founder of the Regulatory Sandbox.

Member of BUNA Advisory Group and Regional payment and financial innovation Committees.

Comprehensive expertise in the implementation of key national projects related to the development of the payment regulatory framework and financial market infrastructure, including cross-border payments, instant payments, G2P & P2G, national switches, ACH, RTGS and PFMI-compliant payment oversight policies.

    Onur holds a B.Sc. degree in Industrial engineering from the Bosphorus University of Turkey as well as a joint M.Sc. degree      in Finance & Economics from London School of Economics and Political Sciences. 

Phillip Straley is the President of FNA and leads client-facing activities globally. For more than 25 years, Phillip has been an advisor to many of the leading central banks, supervisors and supranational bodies in finance, and a consultant to commercial and investment banks on regulatory response and risk management. Areas of particular focus have been bank capital and liquidity management, risk appetite, and credit risk. He has also worked hands on with both banks and supervisors on multiple national-level financial sector restructurings through both the 1997-98 Asia crisis and the 2007-8 global financial crisis. At FNA, Phillip leads the company’s commercial focus and strategy around liquidity optimization, payments anomaly detection and payments analytics. He brings to FNA deep experience in formulation and implementation of prudential banking regulation, and in Asia Pacific markets, having been based in Asia for more than 20 years. Prior to FNA, Phillip led risk, regulatory and analytics practices of several prominent professional services firms, most recently as the Managing Partner for the Risk & Regulatory practice of PwC in Asia Pacific.

Rami El Dokany has more than nineteen years of professional experience in the field of capital markets private equity, investments, corporate finance, strategic planning, and business development, accompanied by a strong educational background, from prominent local and international institutions. El Dokany was appointed as the Executive Chairman of The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) on the 25th of August 2022 for a 1 year term. Prior to this, in 2019, Rami was appointed as Secretary General of the Arab Federation of Capital Markets, to formulate a common vision for the Arab Capital markets. Arab Federation of Capital Markets is the home for more than 24 Arab exchanges and clearing houses, as well as many prominent brokerage firms throughout the Arab World. During his post as the Secretary General of the AFCM, he managed, to tailor a strategic restructuring program of the federation, allowing more inclusion among its members, abiding to governance practices, and providing a sustainable path for the federation, taking its revenues from US$ 177k in 2019 to over US$ 660k by the end of 2022.

Mr. Ritesh Shukla is Chief Executive Officer of NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) & is responsible for formulating business strategies and leading business development by deploying NPCI's technology and solutions in International Markets. His responsibilities include engaging and collaborating with traditional as well non-traditional players in payment eco-system to drive business strategy and achieve growth. Mr. Shukla holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration with specialization in International Business. He has over 20 years of work experience with expertise in areas of managing country business, leading business development and relationship management. Prior to joining NPCI, he was part of MasterCard’s business in Middle East and North Africa. During his 6 years with MasterCard, he has performed a wide array of roles in country management, business development functions, P/L functions to drive profitability and market share, a role in which he provided best-in-class financial services to top-tier multi-national corporations and financial institutions. His previous stints include working with Visa Inc. and leading financial institutions such as Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and SBI Cards in payments business.

Sabine Mensah has over 25 years of leadership experience in financial inclusion, digital payment systems and mobile money across multilaterals and the private sector in Africa, US, and Canada. Since July 2021, as the Deputy CEO, Sabine oversees AfricaNenda’s policy, advocacy, and capacity development efforts through strategic partnerships, convenings and thought leaderships. Prior to AfricaNenda, Sabine served 6 years as Regional Digital Hub Manager for the United Nations Capital Development Fund UNCDF in West and Central Africa, working on financial inclusive and digital economy. She successfully drove UNCDF’s global digital infrastructure workstream during her tenure. Sabine also consulted for the mobile money industry in Africa working with telco groups such as Millicom and consulting firms such as MicroSave Kenya and Anthemis UK. She built 15 years expertise in the remittance industry in Africa, US, and Canada. As the Regional Director responsible for domestic and international remittances at Western Union Canada, she specialised in agent network management and remittance product design. Sabine is a Certified Digital Finance Practitioner by DFI, and an alumna of the Institut Franco-Américain de Management in France and Central Michigan University in the US. She is bilingual English-French

Ms. Samya Abou Sharif is the Director of Anti Money laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing Unit (Jordan FIU) and the Head of the Technical Committee responsible for the implementation of targeted financial sanctions in Jordan. Before that, she was a member of the legal department of the Central Bank of Jordan (2004-2020). Also she had the opportunity to work with many private law firms in Jordan. She was the coordinator lead of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF (action plan implementation in Jordan, leading efforts and representing the kingdom toward removal from the FATF grey list in October 2023 and EU list in Feb 2024.

During her work at the Central bank of Jordan, she worked as member of multiple teams and committees including establishing Jordan FIU and AML/CFT  regime, payment systems retail and wholesale development and digital transformation in Jordan, credit bureau and microfinance regulatory and legal infrastructure.  

Samya is a legal practitioner with a background in international banking regulation and compliance. She has been licensed to practice law in Jordan since 2001. A holder of an M.A. in Law from the University of Jordan and completed her LL.M. in American Law at Wake Forest School of Law- USA 2016.  

Shafaq AlKooheji is currently heading the Payment Services Department at the Benefit Company which is the national payment network of Bahrain providing infrastructural payment services. Under her role Mrs. AlKooheji managed the Bahrain cheque truncation system, instant payment system, automated clearing house, electronic bill payment and presentment system, wages protection system, electronic cheque, and trust services for digital signatures.

Since joining the BENEFIT company , Shafaq has successfully managed and worked on the design and implementation of the national payment infrastructure and projects. Her contribution along with her teammates in BENEFIT and Central Bank of Bahrain played a major role in the transformation of Bahrain payment industry from a heavy cash based market to an advanced digital market.

Shane Riedel is the founder of Elucidate, the financial crime risk ratings and analytics company using data and AI to standardise the financial crime risk market. Prior to Elucidate, he held senior roles at several financial institutions, including Standard Chartered, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. Before his career in finance, Shane was a diplomat with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Stephan Wolf is the CEO of the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF). In 2023, he was elected as a member of the Board of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Germany. In 2021, he was appointed to an all-new Industry Advisory Board (IAB) as part of the global ICC Digital Standards Initiative (DSI). In that capacity, he serves as co-chair of the workstream on ‚Trusted Technology Environment‘. Between January 2017 and June 2020, Mr. Wolf was Co-convener of the International Organization for Standardization Technical Committee 68 FinTech Technical Advisory Group (ISO TC 68 FinTech TAG). In January 2017, Mr. Wolf was named one of the Top 100 Leaders in Identity by One World Identity. He has extensive experience in establishing data operations and global implementation strategy. He has led the advancement of key business and product development strategies throughout his career. Mr. Wolf co-founded IS Innovative Software GmbH in 1989 and served first as its managing director. He was later named spokesman of the executive board of its successor, IS.Teledata AG. This company ultimately became part of Interactive Data Corporation, where Mr. Wolf held the role of CTO. Mr. Wolf holds a university degree in business administration from J. W. Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main.

Stephen Wojciechowicz is a Senior Principal in Product Management for BNY Mellon, leading one of the teams developing and delivering Direct Clearing services. He sits on the CHIPS Business Committee and Payments Risk Committee as part of the Wholesale Advisory Group of the US Federal Reserve Bank. He joined BNY Mellon in 2019 after holding leadership positions in risk and product management at Deutsche Bank and HSBC. He has held a variety of roles at SWIFT, including sales and market development of file transfer and FX trade matching services in North America.

He received his B.A. in Economics from Rutgers University and his M.B.A from Wake Forest University.

Suliman Aljabrin is a financial regulator with over 15 years of experience in financial supervision and regulation. He is currently the Executive Secretary of Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF) leading the Secretariat in supporting its member states to adopt, implement and raise compliance of FATF Standards and UN treaties and resolutions, and identify issues of regional nature related to money laundering and terrorist financing.

Prior to joining MENAFATF, Mr. Aljabrin was the Director of Banking Policy Department at the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA), responsible for formulating and implementing effective prudential, conduct, and AML/CFT rules and regulations. Mr. Aljabrin has extensive international experience, previously working at the International Monetary Fund, providing policy analysis and technical advice to national regulatory and supervisory agencies. He also was a member of various high-level groups in different standard setting bodies such as the Financial Stability Board, and Basel Committee for Banking Supervision.

As the Executive Director of Digital Financial Services Group of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP, the Central Bank), Syed Sohail Javaad is responsible for creating development strategies and regulatory policies around technology innovation in digital financial services to better manage risks, enhance efficiencies and strengthen competitiveness in the financial and payment services sector.

During his more than 20 years at SBP, Mr. Javaad has held various roles in technology and automation, policy/regulations and supervision, treasury and market development.

He is a passionate advocate for using the potential of technology-based solutions to bring digital transformation and increase financial inclusion, reduce inequalities and empower communities. He has led the development of new regulatory regimes for non-bank market participants through Regulations for Electronic Money Institutions. He is also leading the work on innovation in digital financial services and fintech facilitation at SBP.

During his time in State Bank, Mr. Javaad has led key national payments and digital infrastructure projects including:

• Implementation of Pakistan’s instant payment system – RAAST
• Implementation of Roshan Digital Account Scheme (RDA) for remote account opening of non-resident Pakistanis (NRPs)
• implementation of core banking system (T24) in State Bank of Pakistan
• implementation of Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS) called PRISM
• development and operationalization of Pakistan’s first National Payment Systems Strategy (NPSS) in collaboration with World Bank

Mr. Javaad holds a Masters in Applied Sciences (MASC) degree from University of Waterloo, Canada, a Masters of Science (MSc.) degree in Statistics from University of Karachi, and an MBA from Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi.

Thomas Lammer is Deputy Head of Secretariat of the Bank for International Settlements’ Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI). Before joining the CPMI Secretariat in 2019, he worked for more than eight years at the European Central Bank, most recently as Principal Market Infrastructure Expert/Team Lead. For three years he was a Senior Financial Sector Specialist at the World Bank. He started his career at Austria’s central bank in 2001, where he managed payment infrastructure implementation projects.

Ulrich Bindseil is Director General Market Infrastructure and Payments at the European Central Bank (ECB), a post he has held since November 2019. Previously, he was Director General Market Operations (from May 2012 to October 2019) and head of the Risk Management Division (between 2005 and 2008). He first entered central banking in 1994, when he joined the Economics Department of the Deutsche Bundesbank, having studied economics. His publications include, among others, Monetary Policy Operations and the Financial System, OUP, 2014; Central Banking before 1800 – A Rehabilitation, OUP, 2019; Introduction to Central Banking (with A. Fotia, Springer, 2021).

Shri Vivek Deep is an Executive Director of the Reserve Bank of India, looking after Department of Payment and Settlement System (DPSS) and the Department of Information & Technology. These departments manage and operate critical payment & settlement systems and allied applications. He is Co-Chair of the Financial Stability Board’s (FSB) new Cross-border Payments Targets Data Group (CPC-TDG). He is member of Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI). Along with this, he is Chairman of Indian Financial Technology & Allied Services (IFTAS) as well as Director on the Board of Reserve Bank Information Technology Limited (ReBIT). He is also a Member of Governing Council of the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) and a Member of the SAARC Payments Council. He has rich experience in areas dealing with Payment and Settlement Systems, Human Resources Management and Development, Banking Regulation, and Financial Inclusion & Development, among others. He also has experience of working in different organizations including the Reserve Bank of Australia on deputation. Shri Vivek Deep holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics with Honours, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Financial Management.