We are now officially only one month away from The Future of FinTech 2024, FStech’s leading conference bringing business leaders from across the sector together to discuss the latest disruptions and technology developments in the financial sector.

With the conference taking place at the London Hilton Tower Bridge on 13 June 2024, FStech can reveal the first wave of speakers who will be appearing at this must-attend event.

Keynote speaker

Saira Khan, Head of Innovation and Partnerships, First Direct Bank

Saira Khan is the Head of Innovation and Partnerships for First Direct Bank (HSBC), was recognised in Innovate Finance ‘Women in FinTech Powerlist 2022’. Having led the creation of innovation teams and centres in the United Kingdom, Asia, and the United States, while building and testing data management and open banking through global hackathons, she has developed a unique vision and reputation for being a catalyst for transformation around the world on leading deliveries with commercial impact. She is known as a key connector and championing moves towards a digital-first culture, enabling greater collaboration and connectivity between startups and corporations with proven results. While her passion and advocacy for change sets her apart from her peers in the finance sector, it is her work mentoring and supporting global talent in Africa, Asia, and the United States that drives Saira as she focuses and champions efforts around diversity, inclusion, education, and sustainability.

Speakers

Thea Loch, Head of Group Optimisation, Lloyds Banking Group

Thea is focussed on defining what the bank of the future means for the Group through optimising its portfolio of change; working to improve enterprise-level agility and flow across all of its technology and change platforms. Thea is passionate about the future of work - redesigning organisations so they bring out the best humanity and technology, fixing the problems that hold us back collectively. Prior to Lloyds, Thea worked at IBM for over a decade across a diverse portfolio of financial services projects in digital, payments, product launch, operating models and M&A. There she was also involved in emerging technology and FinTech strategy and brought that innovative mind-set with her alongside a passion and impatience to get to the best possible future.

Nikhil Asthana, Head of Data, Regulatory Change, RegTech and Digital Advisory Practice, Grant Thornton UK

Nikhil leads Grant Thornton UK’s Data, RegTech and Digital practice with over 20 years of experience focused on data, regulation, transformation, automation and innovation. His career includes senior roles at Barclays and Deutsche Bank in COO and CDO offices. Nikhil’s varied experience includes setting up Data Management, Regulatory assurance and Innovation hub functions as well as delivering complex data, regulatory and change agendas, including critical data programmes, data governance frameworks, data lineage, regulatory change, KYC and remediation programmes. Prior to joining Grant Thornton, Nikhil led Data Management and RegTech at a major bank responsible for establishing and leading their Chief Data Office Data Governance, Data Management and Lineage function across retail, business banking, cards, and wealth businesses. He also held additional responsibilities for large change programmes including Bank of England Data Collection, Data Issues Transformation, FCA Digital Regulatory Reporting, and KYC refresh.

Peter Donlon, Chief Technology Officer, Zopa Bank

Peter oversees Zopa’s 250 strong technology team, expanding its best-in-class products and technology infrastructure while ensuring its platform retains an unrivalled leadership position in the use of AI and machine learning. Along with Engineering and Data, Peter also leads the IT, InfoSec and Programme Management functions. Prior to Zopa, Peter scaled Moonpig PLC’s product, technology, and data functions to 300 and was key to its £1.2bn London Stock Exchange listing. Previously, he led Sainsbury’s 500-person engineering team delivering customer and back-office solutions for Sainsbury’s 25 million weekly customers.

Zowie Lees-Howell, VP of Enterprise Sales, SmartSearch

Zowie joined SmartSearch in 2022 and is a well-respected name within regtech, fintech and financial services, with more than 25 years of experience with global, publicly trading date and analytics firms. In her role, Zowie uses her insight and diverse experience to head up SmartSearch’s enterprise sales team and is responsible for the firm’s continued expansions into markets such as banking, financial services, crypto, utilities and telco. Zowie is key in working with the SmartSearch team to further penetrate these emerging markets by providing highly valuable services to companies who may not have had access to them before, presenting a valuable proposition to businesses to help keep them both safe and compliant.

Irene Galperin, Senior Advisor for Financial Services, InterSystems

Irene Galperin is a Senior Advisor for Financial Services at InterSystems, responsible for expanding the firm’s global reach in the financial services industry. Irene has decades of experience working with leading financial data, analytics, and technology solution providers that deliver mission-critical data to support investment decisions, and technology to modernise the industry’s tech infrastructure. These include Bloomberg, MSCI, and Euromoney Institutional Investor, as well as emerging SaaS providers specialising in data automation and artificial intelligence.

Johnnie Ball, Chief Data Officer, OakNorth

Johnnie is the Chief Data Officer at OakNorth where he leads the strategy and execution of data, analytics, and artificial intelligence initiatives. His career began as an interest rates trader at Barclays before he co-founded the fintech, Fluidly, which was backed by leading venture capitalists and widely recognised for its artificial intelligence innovation in supporting UK small businesses. Fluidly served over 80,000 businesses before being acquired by OakNorth. Johnnie holds an MSc in Computational Statistics and Machine Learning from University College London. In 2022, Johnnie led a record-breaking transatlantic rowing expedition from Portugal to South America, raising over £50,000 for Dementia UK and clinching a Guinness World Record.

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The Future of FinTech conference will take place at the London Hilton Tower Bridge on 13 June 2024. This event is open to professionals in IT, technology, security, compliance, digital transformation, innovation, risk and other technology and business functions across the financial services industry. Places are free for those in the financial sector and insurance.

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