Previous speakers

Previous speakers

Marisa Kurk

Global head of foreign exchange

Northern Trust Corporation

Marc Chandler

Chief market strategist

Bannockburn Global Forex

One of the most widely respected and quoted currency experts, Marc Chandler has been covering the global capital markets for more than 30 years. As a keen observer of the interconnection of international politics and economics, Marc appears daily in the financial press - CNBC, CNBC Asia FOX Business, Bloomberg TV and Radio, Barron’s, The Financial Times, The Washington Post, and more – where he provides his colorful take on the day’s global financial and economic news.

Throughout his career on Wall Street, Chandler has advised private businesses, hedge funds and asset managers on navigating the foreign exchange market, and most recently joined Bannockburn Global Forex as Managing Director and Chief Market Strategist in their New York City office.

Keep up with Marc Chandler's ongoing analysis on his blog, www.marctomarket.com, or follow him on Twitter, @marcmakingsense.

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John Velis

FX and macro strategist, Americas

BNY Mellon

John Velis is a member of BNY Mellon Markets' global strategy team and serves as FX and Macro Strategist for the Americas. He leads BNY Mellon's continued investment into North American commentary.

He joined BNY Mellon from State Street in Boston, where he was instrumental in running a Macro Research function that applied proprietary data on investor behaviour, market-risk modelling and real-time inflation analysis to the firm’s client base. Prior to his role as a senior multi-asset strategist at State Street Global Markets, John was based in London and worked at Vanguard Asset Management, Russell Investments and ABN Amro.

He holds a PhD in Applied Economics from Indiana University and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. He was also a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

Don Cummings

Managing director, head of linear FX trading

Mizuho

Peter Vassallo

Portfolio manager, FX

BNP Paribas

 

Peter is a senior portfolio manager in the Currency Management team. His role is to generate alpha using currency forwards and options in overlay strategies, active hedging strategies, and pure currency alpha strategies. He is experienced in the development, evaluation and analysis of quantitative trading strategies as well as discretionary currency investing. Peter has over 10 years of investment experience and has specialised in currencies throughout his career. Prior to joining BNPP AM, via its predecessor firm FFTW in 2013, he was a currency options trader at J.P. Morgan. Peter holds a BSc in Mathematics & Economics from the University of Nottingham and a Master of Finance from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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Duncan Wood

Global editorial director

Risk.net

Duncan Wood is the London-based editor-in-chief of Risk.net. He was promoted to the role at the start of 2015, to lead the editorial reorganisation of the website and its print titles. Wood had been editor of Risk magazine since July 2011. He rejoined Risk as European editor in October 2009, having originally worked for Risk and Asia Risk in London and Hong Kong as a writer and researcher between 1998 and 2000.

In the intervening years, Wood was news editor for the Oliver Wyman-founded online start-up ERisk.com. He also worked freelance for six years while living in Germany, with his work featuring in Euromoney, Financial News, IFR, and The Wall Street Journal, as well as Risk magazine and its sister titles. Wood has written about derivatives and risk throughout his 17-year career in journalism. He is a Neal Awards finalist, and has won Incisive Media's journalist and editor of the year awards.

Neil Stogdill

Senior vice president foreign exchange

Zions Bank

Neil has been in the foreign exchange market for 38 years. He started his career with Texas Commerce Bank (now JP Morgan) in 1985 as Chief Dealer, specializing in trading USD/MXN. He then joined Zions Bancorp in 2014 and turned his focus to FX sales. He spent his career in FX in the great state of Texas. Neil is also second generation FX, as his father was in the market for over 40 years.

Robert Savage

Head of markets strategy and insights

BNY Mellon

Bob Savage is head of markets strategy and insights for BNY Mellon.  He joined the firm in April 2019 adding to his 30+ years of experience in the industry. He is an foreign exchange thought leader writing about markets daily throughout his career and actively speaking at conferences and events. Bob has a broad set of experience from the variety of roles he’s held across in the industry, from the hedge fund space (FX Concepts and IKOS), to the sell-side (with more than 20 years at Goldman Sachs both as a FX trader and as an MD running institutional FX sales), as a consultant (McKinsey) and most recently at a quant-based FX advisory (CC Track Solutions). 

Mazen Issa

Senior FX strategist

TD Securities

Mazen is a Senior FX Strategist for the Global Strategy team. Based in New York, Mazen provides strategic macro perspectives and tactical trading recommendations in G10FX for a wide range of institutional and corporate clients, as well as TD's trading desk. Mazen ranked Top 10 in FX Strategy in the 2022 Institutional Investor Survey (USA) and 1st in Canada in 2021. Mazen was previously a Senior Macro Strategist based in Toronto, focused on North American markets, where he was a top-ranked macro forecaster of Canada by Bloomberg News in 2012 and 2013. Prior to joining TD Securities, Mazen spent a number of years at BCA Research as the lead analyst for Global Fixed Income Strategy. In that role he was responsible for providing macro analysis and investment recommendations for the developed markets. Mazen holds a Masters of Finance degree and a B.Com in Finance with a major in Economics from the University of Toronto.

Steve Fenty

Managing Director, Head of Currency Management

State Street Global Markets

Steve Fenty is Global Head of Currency Management at State Street Global Markets. State Street’s Currency Management business delivers agency execution and foreign exchange hedging programs to institutional investors and today is a leading provider of outsourced FX solutions globally. Prior to his current role, Steve established and led State Street Global Markets’ Portfolio Solutions Strategy Team, responsible for client trade-strategy consulting and product development across State Street’s multi-asset agency trading businesses. Steve has a Bachelor of Science degree in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University. He is a CFA charterholder and holds FINRA Series 7 and 63 licenses.

Garth Appelt

Managing director, head of foreign exchange

Mizuho Americas

Garth Appelt is a Managing Director, Head of Foreign Exchange at Mizuho Americas. Prior to Mizuho, Garth was a Senior Managing Director at UBS where he was the Global Head of Emerging Markets, Global Head of G10 Foreign Exchange Spot FX, and Global Head of Precious Metals Trading. At UBS, Garth was a member of the FRC Americas Executive Committee and FRC Global Management Committee. Garth also served as a board member for the Emerging Markets Traders Association (EMTA). Prior to joining UBS, Appelt was a Portfolio Manager at Moore Capital Management specializing in G10 and Emerging Market directional and relative value strategies in foreign exchange, interest rates, credit and equities. Over a 25-year career, Appelt has also held positions at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JP Morgan in New York, Paris and London.

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Ulf J. Lindahl

Chief executive officer

Currency Research Associates LLC

Ulf J. Lindahl, Chief Executive Officer, has 40 years of experience in currency research and in managing currency overlay and currency alpha portfolios for pension funds and family offices now applied at Currency Research Associates. The experience was gained at A.G. Bisset, which he co-founded in 1981. Ulf has published the Review of Emerging Trends since 1984 providing subscribers with advice they can trust on currencies, interest rates, equity markets and commodities. The Review of Emerging Trends is now published by Currency Research Associates.

 

Win Thin

Global head of emerging markets strategy

Brown Brothers Harriman

Win Thin is the Global Head of Emerging Markets Strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH). He has a broad international background with a special interest in developing markets.  Prior to joining BBH in June 2007, he founded Mandalay Advisors, an independent research firm providing sovereign emerging market analysis to institutional investors.  Previously, Dr. Thin was a vice president and international economist covering major emerging markets in Asia and Latin America for Alliance Capital Management and HSBC. Earlier in his career, he worked at the U.S. Treasury and Columbia University.

Dr. Thin received a PhD in economics from Columbia University in 1995, specializing in International and Development Economics.  He received an MA from Georgetown University in 1985 and a BA from Brandeis University in 1983. His current research projects focus on developing and refining portfolio allocation tools for institutional investors.

Vineel Gujjar
Vineel Gujjar

VP, AI center of excellence for asset management

Fidelity Investments

Vineel Gujjar, is a VP at AI Center of Excellence for Asset Management at Fidelity Investments, where he oversees the development of AI technologies for portfolio management and predictive modeling. His areas of expertise also include Natural Language Processing and Deep Learning. 

Prior to his role at Fidelity, Vineel was a research scientist at GE Research, where he made significant contributions to the development of NLP models for GE businesses. Vineel has a master’s degree in computer science from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, and has four patents and several publications to his name. 

 

Divay Malhotra

Director, FICC e-trading and market structure

Bank of America

Andriy Bukatar

Head of algorithmic trading development - Equities and FX

Cantor Fitzgerald

Andriy is a Head of Algo Development for Equities and FX at Precision Algos, Cantor Fitzgerald where he primarily focuses on the software development effort for the Equities and FX products. He also contributes extensively to Precision’s cross-assets algorithmic offering.

Andriy joined the Precision team from FXall/Thomson Reuters where he ran the FX SOR and algorithmic trading engine development. Prior to FxAll/Thomson Reuters, Andriy held a position of VP, Equities/Derivatives DMA & Quantitative Technologies at Jefferies. He has extensive experience in building algorithmic systems for trading Equities and FX.

Andriy graduated with a B.S. in Physics from the State University of Ukraine, Chernivtsi in 1996.

Mike Harris

Managing director, global head of cross asset eSales

RBC Capital Markets

 

Mike Harris is the Global Head of Cross Asset Electronic Distribution covering FX, Rates, Futures and Equities.  His primary responsibilities including building RBC’s electronic Principal market making distribution to institutional, corporate and commercial clients, establishing and structuring engagement standards, outlining and performing optimization standards, expanding RBC’s riskless Principal suite of algo and developing industry leading cross asset analytic tools.

Simona Mocuta

Chief economist, managing director

State Street Global Advisors

Simona Mocuta is the Chief Economist of State Street Global Advisors. In this role, she helps shape the team's views on key global economic developments and trends, produces forecasts and analysis for the G7 economies and key emerging markets, and presents these views to internal investment teams, clients, and the media. She is the lead author of the Weekly Economic Perspectives, produces thought leadership articles on a wide range of macroeconomic topics, and is a regular speaker at financial industry events. Simona is the current chair of the Economic Advisory Committee of the American Bankers Association.

Prior to joining State Street, Simona led the Asia macroeconomic practice at IHS Global Insight, where she oversaw the team's long-term economic forecasts and risk assessments for Asian countries and led the enhancement of the China Regional Economic Service.

Simona holds a Master's degree in International Economics from Suffolk University in Boston, MA, and an undergraduate degree in International Economic Relations from West University of Timisoara, Romania.

Samantha LaDuc

Founder

LaDucTrading

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Guy Debelle

Deputy Governor

Reserve Bank of Australia

Dr Guy Debelle commenced as Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia on 18 September 2016. He is Deputy Chair of the Reserve Bank Board and Chair of the Reserve Bank's Risk Management Committee. Prior to his current role, Dr Debelle was the Assistant Governor (Financial Markets).

In May 2019, Dr Debelle was appointed Chair of the Global Foreign Exchange Committee (GFXC). Prior to this, he was Chair of the BIS Foreign Exchange Working Group responsible for the development of the Global Code of Conduct for the Foreign Exchange Market as well as Chair of the Australian Foreign Exchange Committee.

Dr Debelle worked at the International Monetary Fund, Bank for International Settlements, Australian Treasury and as a visiting professor in economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He graduated from the University of Adelaide with an honours degree in economics and gained his PhD in economics at MIT under Stanley Fischer and Rudi Dornbusch.

Dr Debelle is a signatory to The Banking and Finance Oath.

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Ralf Donner

Head of FICC execution strategies

Goldman Sachs

Ralf Donner is Head of FICC Execution Strategies at Goldman Sachs. He is responsible for the firm’s client FICC algorithmic execution offering, pre- and intra-trade liquidity and transaction cost analytics, and post-trade reporting.

Ralf started his professional career at ABN Amro in 2006 as an FX options quant, followed by 8 years with Morgan Stanley in London and New York, first in model validation of options pricing models and then in quant sales, focusing on systematic FX trading strategies and FX market microstructure. From 2014-2016 he ran Morgan Stanley’s QSI team in New York.

Ralf holds a Masters in Physics and a Doctorate in Theoretical Physics from Oxford University.

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Asif Razaq

Global head of FX algo execution

BNP Paribas

Asif Razaq is an experienced foreign exchange algo trader with over 15 years of experience developing electronic trading platforms. He has a masters of science degree in artificial intelligence (AI) and joined BNP Paribas from Citi, where he worked on various initiatives including e-FX pricing engines and algorithmic trading. Utilising his experience in AI, Razaq developed and launched Cortex iX, a cutting-edge FX algorithmic execution platform that has been highly acclaimed by clients and industry experts globally.

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Victoria Cumings

Managing Director, Americas, FX Division

Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA)

Victoria Cumings is the Americas representative of the Global Foreign Exchange Division (GFXD) of the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA). Since its establishment, the GFXD has grown to 24 members, between them accounting for over 90% of the global FX market, and is represented in Europe, North America and Asia. The GFXD works with key regulators, Central Banks and other interested parties to monitor policy and regulatory developments that could affect the FX markets and seeks to ensure the establishment of harmonised regimes and infrastructure to enable an effective market for all participants.

Victoria is responsible for regulatory issues in the Americas and for a number of global GFXD topics, in areas including capital, margin and clearing. Victoria is also a former attorney and has previously held positions at CLS Bank, HSBC, Davis Polk, and McCullough Robertson.

 

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Michael O'Brien

Managing director and head of global EMD trading

Artisan Partners

Michael O'Brien is Managing Director, Head of Global EMD Trading at Artisan Partners and former Vice President and Director of Global Trading of Eaton Vance Management , overseeing a team responsible for best execution of all trades for the Global Fixed Income department as well as other foreign exchange spot and hedging trades for other Eaton Vance investment teams.

In addition, he is responsible for trading-related research and broker-dealer relationships for the Global Fixed Income department.

Prior to joining Eaton Vance in 2005, Michael was affiliated with Wellington Management Company for two years and spent three years at Brown Brothers Harriman.


Michael earned a B.A. in economics and Spanish from the Colby College and an M.S. in finance from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. He is a CFA charter holder and a member of the Boston Security Analysts Society.

 

Lauren Ewald

Senior Manager, Sales and Relationship Management

LCH

Lauren Ewald is Senior Manager, Sales and Relationship Management at LCH, responsible for driving buy-side sales and relationship management in North and South America, across all LCH products. Lauren’s experience in financial markets includes over six years in fixed income operations at Goldman Sachs, where she supported a range of services, including post-trade, before joining LCH in 2012. Lauren holds a BA in Economics from Bucknell University.

Phil Weisberg

EVP, strategic planning and partnerships

oneZero

Phil is on the executive team, responsible for oneZero’s institutional business expansion. Before joining oneZero, he served as CEO of FXall, lead the FX Rates and Credit business for Thomson Reuters, and was Managing Director of Global FX Derivatives Trading at JP Morgan. He has expertise in start-up ideation, attracting strategic investors, capital raising from the private equity community, acquisitions, public offering, company sale, merger integration, and turnaround. 

Jeff Wertheimer

Global head of eFX sales

HSBC

Jeff Wertheimer has 20 years of electronic FX experience and currently serves as Global Head of eFX Sales and Americas Head of Electronic Execution Sales at HSBC. Prior to HSBC, he helped launch FXall, a leading multibank FX trading platform, then joined Morgan Stanley as Head of FX eSales for the Americas. Jeff holds a BA from Colgate University and an MBA from Columbia University. 

Morgan Beeson

Director, Aladdin Product Management

BlackRock

Morgan Beeson is a Product Manager for Aladdin’s multi-asset trading platform, responsible for its equity, FX and automation strategies. Morgan has 9 years of experience in various trading technology roles, having begun his career at BlackRock in 2012. Morgan holds an Interdisciplinary B.A. in Mathematics and Economics from Bucknell University.

Ketan B. Patel

Policy Advisor and Head of Financial Markets Risk Analysis

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

Ketan B. Patel is a policy advisor and head of financial markets risk analysis in the financial markets group. He is responsible for analyzing the public policy implications of risks in financial markets and financial market infrastructures.

Patel has over 19 years of risk management, research and trading experience to this position. Most recently, he was chief risk officer of OTC Clearing and deputy group risk officer of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited “HKEX.” He led a division of over 50 risk management professionals across China, Hong Kong, Singapore and the U.K. Prior to HKEX, Patel worked at CME Group. Additionally, he served as Vice-Chair of CCP12 and co-Chair of the CCP12 Risk Working Group.

During his career, he has managed risk through several stressed market events including COVID-19 and the 2015 Chinese Stock Market Collapse, the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, the Global Financial Crisis of 2008/2009, Refco bankruptcy and Sentinel Investments collapse. He has also led several post-trade initiatives including HKEX’s Next Gen Risk Models of VaR and Stress Testing, Stock & Bond Connect, established new central counter parties of OTC Clear HK Ltd and LME Clear and developed the quantitative modeling and risk policy teams in the risk research department at CME.

Keith Tippell

Global head of product

CLS

Keith joined CLS in 2020 and is Global Head of Product, with responsibility for new product development and overseeing our existing product portfolio across Settlement, Processing and Data service lines.

Keith has over 20 years of experience in the financial technology sector, much of which has focused on FX and OTC derivatives trade processing and G20 regulatory change. He joined CLS from Droit Financial Technologies, where he worked as Head of Business Development for Europe and Asia Pacific. Previously, Keith held numerous product strategy and management, and business development roles, including with SWIFT and Markit. At Markit, he was a Managing Director within its trade processing division and was responsible for establishing MarkitSERV FX.

Rohan Churm

Head of foreign exchange division

Bank of England

Rohan Churm is the Head of Foreign Exchange Division at the Bank of England.  The division is responsible for leading the Bank’s foreign currency operations, and using its presence, expertise and influence in financial markets to inform and shape the Bank’s policy decisions and priorities.  Those foreign currency operations include managing the UK’s official foreign currency reserves on behalf of the UK Government, managing the Bank of England’s smaller pool of foreign currency reserves, and carrying out foreign currency transactions for customers including government departments.  

Rohan was heavily involved in the 3-year review of the FX Global Code, including Chairing the GFXC Disclosures Working Group.   Rohan is a member of the Foreign Exchange Joint Standing Committee (FXJSC).

Rohan has been in role since 2017, having joined the Bank of England in 2001.  He was previously head of Stress Testing Strategy Division from 2014-17 and was responsible for the delivery of stress tests and development of the stress testing framework.  He has written various articles on policy and financial market issues, including Stress Testing and the impact of Unconventional Monetary Policy.  He obtained a BA in Economics from Cambridge University and an MSc in Economics and Finance from Warwick Business School.  His outside interests include Chess, Cricket, and Football.

David Kelly

Managing Director and Chief Global Strategist

J.P. Morgan Asset Management

Dr. David Kelly is the Chief Global Strategist and Head of the Global Market Insights Strategy Team for J.P. Morgan Asset Management. With over 20 years of experience, David provides valuable insight and perspective on the economy and markets to the institutional investor and financial advisor global communities.

David’s research focuses on investment implications of an evolving economic environment.  He has written extensively on all aspects of the U.S. economy and his proprietary U.S. economic forecasting model helps shape his views on both the economic landscape and prospective asset class returns.  He currently sits on JP Morgan Fund’s operating committee.

Throughout his career, David has developed a unique ability to explain complex economic and market issues in a language that financial professionals can use to communicate to their clients. He is a keynote speaker at many national investment conferences and a frequent guest on CNBC, Bloomberg, and other financial media outlets.

Prior to joining J.P. Morgan Asset Management, David served as Economic Advisor to Putnam Investments. He has also served as a senior strategist/economist at SPP Investment Management, Primark Decision Economics, Lehman Brothers and DRI/McGraw-Hill.

David is a CFA® charterholder. He also has a Ph.D and M.A. in Economics from Michigan State University and a B.A. in Economics from University College Dublin in the Republic of Ireland.

Ajay Rajadhyaksha

Managing Director and Head of Macro Research

Barclays

Ajay Rajadhyaksha is a Managing Director and Head of Macro Research at Barclays, based in New

York. He assumed his current role in July 2015 and now oversees the global research and strategy

efforts of the asset allocation, economics, rates, FX, commodities, emerging markets, and

securitized teams. Previously, he was Co-Head of FICC Research and before that, Head of US Fixed

Income Research and US and European Securitized Research. Mr. Rajadhyaksha joined Barclays in

2005 as a Senior Mortgage Strategist. Previously, he worked at Bear Stearns from 2001-2005,

where he worked in Portfolio Strategy and then led the Interest Rate Derivatives Strategy team.

Mr. Rajadhyaksha typically faces off against global CIOs and senior PMs at investment firms, and

is a frequent presenter at both Barclays-sponsored and industry conferences. Since august 2014,

he has been a member of the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee, and meets several times a

year with the Chairperson of the Federal Reserve as well as the US Treasury Secretary as a formal

adviser on macroeconomic and market issues. Mr. Rajadhyaksha received a bachelor’s degree in

Electronics Engineering from the University of Mumbai in 1997, an MBA from the Indian Institute

of Management Calcutta in 1999 and a master’s degree in International Management from

Thunderbird, the American Graduate School of International Management in Arizona in 2001.

Laura Matthews

Senior reporter

FX Markets

Laura Matthews is a New York-based reporter for FX Markets.

She previously worked for Euromoney Institutional Investor, the International Business TimesGannett’s Pacific Daily News, and other publications in Jamaica and The Bahamas.

Laura has a MS from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, and a BA in media and communication from the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication at the University of the West Indies, Mona.

Contact Laura at: +1 646 490 3977 or laura.matthews@infopro-digital.com

Vittorio Nuti

Global Head FX Algos

Deutsche Bank

Vittorio is the head of the Segregated Algo execution at DB's FX and LD divisions (Foreign Exchange & Listed Derivatives). The Segregated Execution team is focused on building systems for high-quality execution on behalf of DB's clients and traders with particular attention to liquidity sources and the micro structure of the underlying markets. The team attempts to explore and display novel uses of trading data, such as DB’s Market Indicators to display to users a more quantitative view of the market. Prior to this role, Vittorio was a principal market maker at DB London eFX team. He has worked as a trader for over seventeen years, spanning both the voice and e FX option and spot market. 

Christopher Perkins

Global Co-Head of Futures, Clearing and Foreign Exchange Prime Brokerage

Citi

Christopher R. Perkins, Managing Director, is the Global Co-Head of Futures, OTC Clearing and
Foreign Exchange Prime Brokerage (FCX) at Citi. In this capacity, he delivers leading listed
derivative electronic and voice execution and comprehensive central clearing capabilities to
institutional clients across the world. He also leads Citi’s globally acclaimed, #1 ranked OTC
clearing and Foreign Exchange Prime Brokerage (FXPB) businesses.
In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, Mr. Perkins founded Citi’s OTC clearing business and
is a recognized, international authority and published “thought leader” on central clearing. He
oversees a clearing business that has successfully cleared hundreds of trillions of dollars notional in
client Interest Rates Swaps, Credit Default Swaps and Foreign Exchange Swaps and safeguards
approximately $40 billion in client assets.
Appointed as the Global Head of FXPB in 2018, he architected and executed a comprehensive
restructuring and integration plan across multiple geographies. These efforts improved profitability
and risk management while driving an industry-leading market share.
Prior to joining Citi in 2008, Mr. Perkins served as the U.S. Head of Derivatives Intermediation at
Lehman Brothers managing a portfolio of over $100 billion in notional across credit and interest
rate derivatives.
An Iraq war veteran, Mr. Perkins served in the U.S. Marine Corps for nine years achieving the rank
of Captain. Highlights of his military career include leading the reconstruction, civil affairs, logistics,
public affairs and fire support coordination effort in Ar Ramadi, capital of the Al Anbar Province
and commanding Battery F, 2nd Battalion, 11th Marines. He is the founder of the Citi Military
Veteran’s Networks, which include approximately 3,000 employees across 16 locations in the U.S.
and United Kingdom. Mr. Perkins was instrumental in the formation of Citi Salutes
(www.citisalutes.com) and served as co-founder of Veterans on Wall Street
(www.veteransonwallstreet.com) a national initiative focused on veterans employment and
empowerment. He was named “Employee of the Month—35 People Worthy of Emulation”
(Esquire, Fall 2012) and recipient of Columbia University’s “Peter J. Awn Community Service
Award” in 2018.
Mr. Perkins serves on the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of FIA, Inc. He also serves as
Vice Chairman on the Board of Directors of Team Rubicon, an organization of approximately
150,000 volunteers that unites the skills and experiences of military veterans to rapidly deploy
emergency response teams during natural disasters. Additionally, he serves on the Leadership
Council of the Bob Woodruff Foundation, and is a member of the Economic Club of New York, the
Nationswell Council, and Business Executives for National Security (BENS). Previously, he served on
the Board of Directors of Traiana, Inc.
Mr. Perkins has a Bachelor of Science Degree from the U.S. Naval Academy, with distinction, and
a Master of Arts Degree from Georgetown University.

Maryanne Morrow

CEO & Founder

9th Gear

Maryanne brings more than 25 years as a corporate veteran in the financial, marketing and advertising industries to her role as founder and CEO of 9th Gear Technologies where she is responsible for leading corporate strategy, scaling the company and investor relations. She is a mutual funds specialist, launching a family of funds and architecting fee-based asset management platforms for banks, broker dealers and insurance firms. Maryanne previously served as CEO of SurgeXLR, a boutique accelerator she founded that focused on a faster path to monetization. She was involved in two successful exits (to Standard & Poor’s and BNP Paribas), and also consulted on the custom content and advertising efforts of many financial firms while working at The Wall Street Journal. 

Maryanne is a sought-after speaker both within the US and internationally. As a leader in the FinTech space, Maryanne focuses on modernization and innovation in capital markets. She shares insights on the impact of blockchain on financial services and shows how settlement risk can be eliminated. Maryanne is a frequent speaker at trade groups and associations and engages with a world-wide audience at global industry conferences (Horasis Global Meeting, TradeTech FX, Global Blockchain Conference, Money 20/20, MWC Barcelona).

Maryanne was featured in the Silicon Valley Business Journal’s Women of Influence 2019 and received a Stevie Award for the Most Innovative Woman of the Year in 2018. She has received accolades for numerous speaking engagements. She scored Top Innovator Award for Best Presenter for her pitch at the youngStartUps Venture Competition in Boston in 2018 and earned  the 2019 Innovation Showcase Best in Show Award at the Barlow Research Innovation Conference. Barlow gave 9th Gear its top honors, the Monarch Award, for Overall Most Innovative at the same conference.

Maryanne was educated at Cornell University in Material Science Engineering and Whittier Law School with continuous learning at Stanford University (Scaling Blockchain, Valuation Modeling, Angel Investing and part of the Blockchain Club); she holds a BS in Finance.

Alessandro Aimone

Editor

Risk Quantum

Alessandro Aimone is the editor of Risk Quantum.

He previously worked as the deputy editor for Risk.net's Markets desk. 

Prior to joining Risk, he worked as a staff writer for FX Markets (formerly FX Week). 

Contact: alessandro.aimone@risk.net 

Jerome Kemp

President

Baton Systems

Jerome Kemp is president of Baton Systems. Prior to his current tenure, Jerome was an independent consultant and senior advisor to the company. Kemp has over 35 years’ experience in capital markets and has previously held the position of global head of futures, clearing and collateral at Citi, with his responsibilities expanding in 2018 to cover the bank’s foreign exchange prime brokerage business. During this time, he built the cleared derivatives business to a position of global leadership. Kemp also spent 18 years at JP Morgan, where he rose to global co-head of the futures and options and over-the-counter clearing business. He was chair of the Futures Industry Association Board from 2018 to 2020. Kemp holds a bachelor's degree from Brandeis University and a master's degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Elga Bartsch

Managing Director, Head of Macro Research

BlackRock Investment Institute

Elga heads up economic and markets research of the Blackrock Investment Institute (BII). BII provides connectivity between BlackRock’s portfolio managers, originates economic and market research and publishes insights. Prior to joining BlackRock, Dr Bartsch was Global Co-Head of Economics and Chief European Economist at Morgan Stanley in London. She started her career as a research associate at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a large German economic think-tank where she worked at the President’s office and managed the Advanced Studies in International Economic Policy Research, a post-graduate program in international macroeconomics. Dr Bartsch has more than 20 years of macro research experience and is a member of the ECB Shadow Council and a trustee of the IFO Institute for economic research. She also served on and chaired the Economic and Monetary Policy Committee of the German Banking Association. Having studied at the University of Hannover and the London School of Economics, Elga graduated with a Master’s degree from Kiel University where she subsequently also completed a PhD.

Hampton Finer

Vice President

Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Since 2017, Hampton Finer has led the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Payments and Market Infrastructure Policy team. Hampton is the Chair of the CLS Cooperative Oversight Committee, serves on the Committee for Payments and Market Infrastructure (CPMI) of the BIS, the Fed’s Financial Market Utilities Supervision Committee and FRBNY’s Payments and Market Infrastructure Council. Prior his current role, he led the development of FRBNY and global insurance supervision and standards in various roles. Hampton joined the FRBNY in 2009 to help manage and close the FRBNY’s AIG credit facility and was subsequently seconded to the United States Treasury TARP program to help the government successfully and profitably dispose of its AIG-related investments. During the prior three years, Hampton was a Deputy Superintendent at the New York State Insurance Department where he led several efforts in response to the Global Financial Crisis. From 2001 to 2006, Hampton led economic research and analysis work at the New York State Office of the Attorney General. Between 1998 and 2001, Hampton was a staff economist in the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Economics. Hampton received a Ph.D. in economics from Cornell University in 1998, and a BS in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1992. A native New Yorker and graduate of Stuyvesant High School, Hampton lives with his wife, Yvonne and his sons, Dashiell and Maxwell, in Brooklyn, NY.