Speakers

Robert J.Jackson
Commissioner
United States Securities and Exchange Commission
Robert J. Jackson Jr. was appointed by President Donald Trump to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and was sworn in on January 11, 2018.
Commissioner Jackson has extensive experience as a legal scholar, policy professional, and corporate lawyer. He comes to the SEC from NYU School of Law, where he is a Professor of Law. Previously, he was Professor of Law at Columbia Law School and Director of its Program on Corporate Law and Policy. Commissioner Jackson’s academic work has focused on corporate governance and the use of advanced data science techniques to improve transparency in securities markets. He was the founding director of Columbia Law School’s Data Lab, which used cutting-edge technology to study the reliability of corporate disclosures. Commissioner Jackson has written more than 20 articles in the nation’s most prestigious legal and economics journals. His published work includes a study shining light on trading activity before the announcement of major corporate events, the first study of the effect of mandatory disclosure required by the JOBS Act on trading by individual investors, and the first comprehensive study of CEO pay in firms owned by private equity. In 2012, Columbia Law School students honored Commissioner Jackson with the Willis L.M. Reese Prize for Excellence in Teaching. He has testified on his scholarship before the U.S. Senate, and his work was previously the subject of rulemaking commentary before federal agencies, including the Federal Reserve and the SEC.Before joining the Columbia Law School faculty in 2010, Commissioner Jackson served as a senior policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Treasury working with Kenneth Feinberg, the Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation. In this role, he oversaw the development of policies designed to give shareholders a say on pay, improve the disclosure of executive bonuses, and encourage TARP recipients to more closely tie pay to performance. Earlier in his career, Commissioner Jackson practiced law in the executive compensation department of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.Commissioner Jackson holds two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School of Business, a master’s degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and a law degree from Harvard Law School. He was born in the Bronx, New York, and is a lifelong Yankees fan.
HerveTourpe
Head of Digital Advisory Unit
International Monetary Fund
As Head of Digital Advisory, Mr. Tourpe helps the IMF understand transformative technologies relevant to IMF’s Member Countries, such as Fintech, AI, Blockchain, Big Data or cyber risks. A passionate “techno-realist”, he strives to provide expert advice on technology trends, opportunities and risks. Formerly Chief Enterprise Architect, Mr. Tourpe has a strong background in IT strategy and technology innovation, and in the domain of national digital strategies.
Fiona J. Deroo
Global Trade Structuring Sales Executive
Bank of America
Fiona J Deroo is Head of North America Trade Structuring Sales.
In this role, Fiona leads a team of product structuring specialists which helps client teams identify, structure and execute on complex global Supply Chain and Trade opportunities aimed at providing net interest margin and fee-related growth.Fiona brings a wealth of valuable experience with her to this important role. She has been with Bank of America for 20 years, all in treasury management-related roles. A native of Belgium, she joined the firm in Bromley, UK, in 1995 in International Cash Management operations. She moved to Chicago in 1999 and has served in a variety of sales leadership and international roles, plus a stint in Business Initiative Management. Most recently, Fiona has served as head of the North America Liquidity & Investments Sales focusing on balance sheet and liquidity solutions, ahead of that as Global Consumer & Retail Global Corporate Sales, where she was responsible for a team of treasury sales experts who develop tailored working capital management solutions specifically for multinational corporations in the Consumer, Retail, and Restaurant sector around the world. She has authored numerous publications in the international field and has been a regular speaker at national conferences on topical issues.An advocate of employee satisfaction and career versatility, Fiona chairs the Global Transaction Services Employee Engagement Committee 2016-2017 and 2017-2018. Her approach has demonstrated improved ratings globally.Prior to her banking career, Fiona held positions in Import/Export, Marketing, and Investment Management during which she resided in Germany, W-Africa, and United Kingdom.Fiona completed her studies in Business Administration from Marlborough College in Cambridge, England. She is a linguist with fluency in Flemish, French, German, Spanish, and English. Fiona currently resides in Chicago, USA and holds dual Belgian/American nationality.
Jim Northey
Co-Chair Global Technical Committee
FIX Trading Community
Jim Northey currently serves as a co-chair of the FIX Global Technical Committee and is the Chair of ISO TC68, the ISO Technical Committee for Financial Services, and is chair of the US TAG for ISO TC322 Sustainable Finance. Jim is a past member of the US Treasury OFR Financial Research Advisory Committee and the US CFTC Technology Advisory Committee Subcommittee on HFT. Jim previously served in the roles of FIX Americas Region Co-chair and the co-chair of the FIX Global Derivatives Committee. Jim was awarded the FIA Annual Achievement award in 2006 as part of the team that created FIXML for listed derivatives clearing standardization.
Jim was a Senior Vice President of Strategic Research focusing on Protocol Engineering and Standards at Itiviti Group AB, following acquisition of The LaSalle Technology Group, LLC in 2015, which he co-founded in 2006.Jim holds a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Indianapolis and an M.S. in Financial Markets and Trading from Illinois Institute of Technology.  Jim is an adjunct instructor of Finance at Michigan Technological University where he teaches courses on Derivatives and Financial Engineering and Financial Technology.  Jim serves on the board of the Keweenaw Financial Corporation in Michigan and is the US Director and CIO for V2G Limited based in Camelford, UK.
Thomas Jordan
President and CEO
Jordan & Jordan
Tom founded Jordan & Jordan in 1990 and co-founded the Financial Information Forum (FIF) in 1996. From 1985-1990, he was the Managing Director of Knight-Ridder Financial/Americas. Previously, Tom was the Chairman of Monchik-Weber, a Wall Street consulting and product development firm. He also held development and marketing positions at IBM. Prior to his business career, Tom served as an officer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the 1st Cavalry Division and the 1st Infantry Division.
Tom actively participates in many industry initiatives. He is the Advisory Chair of the Financial Information Forum and a member of the advisory committee of the Consolidated Tape Association (CTA) and the Unlisted Trading Privileges (UTP) plan. Tom is an Advisor to the Security Traders Association (STA) and a Consultant to STANY. He was inducted into the Incisive Media Market Data Hall of Fame and was recognized by FISD with a Lifetime Achievement award. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Knights of St. Patrick.Tom holds a BS degree in Mathematics from Saint Peter’s College and a MS in Industrial Administration from Union College in Schenectady, NY.
John A. Roberts
President and CEO
Loan Transactions & Technology
Mr. Roberts is a co-founder and managing member of Loan Transactions & Technology (LT&T) and has served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company since its inception. He has over 30 years of comprehensive global markets experience with banking and financial services organizations.  He has broad-based expertise focused on portfolio management, asset liability management, risk management, electronic trading, and sales and trading with extensive work in dealing with regulators, compliance, legal, risk officers, technology, and middle and back offices.
Prior to co-founding LT&T, Mr. Roberts was Managing Director with the US Institutional Sales team at Barclays Capital in New York, and Chairman of the Barclays North American Pension and Thrift Committee.  He joined Barclays Capital in 1996 and his role encompassed involvement in sales, trading, and risk management for Barclays Capital.  He served on the Board of Directors of The Bond Market Association and was Chairman of the Government and Federal Agency Securities Division of the BMA.  He served as the Barclays Representative to the Federal Reserve Bank and the US Treasury, and was appointed by the NY Federal Reserve Bank to serve as an inaugural member of the New York Fed’s Treasury Market Practices Committee.  He also served as a senior officer of SIFMA and on the board of directors of SIFMA.Mr. Roberts was previously Head of Trading in Fixed Income Emerging Markets at Lehman Brothers from 1993 to 1996.  Prior to that, he was Managing Director and Executive Vice President and Co-Head of Trading at the Discount Corporation of New York, where he was also a member of the Executive Committee.  From 1983 to 1991, John served in various positions at J.P. Morgan & Co., Inc., including Head of all Fixed Income Trading for J.P. Morgan Securities in Asia, and Managing Director and Head of all Fixed Income Trading and Co-Head of Research for J.P. Morgan Securities in London.Mr. Roberts earned both his MBA and his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Vanderbilt University.
DAI ZHAO
Co-founder
ZM Financial Systems
Dai Zhao is one of the co-founders of ZM Financial Systems, Inc. Dr. Dai Zhao is responsible for all the quantitative methods in risk methodologies and analytical models, the architecture and design of the software, and the technology of the system. Founded in 2003, ZM Financial Systems is a privately held corporation located in Cary, N.C. 16 years later more than 2,000 institutions depend on ZMFS products/analytics to identify, measure and monitor risk and value in their balance sheets.
Dai Zhao also founded Capital Data Group LLC in 2003. Capital Data Group collects, standardizes and publishes the most complete, up-to-date fixed income market data available on Wall Street. Many of the world’s best-known fixed income trading institutions subscribe to CDG’s services to enhance their trading, valuation, and research analysis activities.Before ZMFS, Dai Zhao founded Fintech Inc. in 2000 focusing on model validation for GSE-type banks. He also worked as Chief Financial Engineer for IPS Sendero company.
Bill Kroll
Managing Director
The Casey Group
In March of 2016 Bill retired as EVP from the American Bankers Association and has been consulting for various companies working with Banks and Credit Unions through The Casey Group LTD, as Managing Director, a Towson based Loan review consulting firm. In addition, he represents several companies helping Financial Institutions make money or save money. The areas of concentration are Asset generation, cyber security, identity theft, corporate credit cards and cash management, sale/lease bank and CECL.
In 2004, Bill Joined Americas Community Bankers as President of ACB Solutions. This was the for-profit subsidiary to America’s Community Bankers, a national trade association that specialized in Mortgage Lending, Commercial Lending, Card Operations and Capital Markets. In 2007, this group was merged into the American Bankers Association where Bill was President of ABA Business Solutions and was on the Executive staff of ABA and was a board member of ABA Card Solutions and the Community Bank Mortgage LLC.Previous to working in Washington DC, Bill worked for MBNA, Nations Bank and Maryland National Bank with combined experience of over 40 years.Bill received a B.S. in business and economics from the University of Maryland and is a graduate of the Maryland Banking School at the University of Maryland. He served 6 years on the Board of the National Kidney Foundation of Maryland and is co-chair of the MNC alumni association
Lisa Morales-Hellebo
Co-founder & GP
REFASHIOND Ventures
Lisa Morales-Hellebo is a VC, seasoned entrepreneur, product strategist, and creative director with a career spanning 25 years working with start-ups to F500s on strategy and execution across branding, products, and innovation.
She is currently a co-founder of The New York Supply Chain Meetup and The Worldwide Supply Chain Federation; and is co-founder and general partner of REFASHIOND Ventures — an NYC-based, early-stage supply chain technology venture fund that invests in startups refashioning global supply chains.In 2014, Lisa founded and launched the New York Fashion Tech Lab with Springboard Enterprises and the Partnership Fund for NYC while serving as Executive Director for the first year. Lisa’s previous fashion tech startup, Shopsy, raised capital and participated in TechStars in 2012 after she was selected as one of the Top 10 Women in DC Tech. She’s been featured in numerous publications and media outlets, and is profiled in the bestselling book; Disrupters: Success Strategies from Women Who Break the Mold.Lisa is active in the startup community, serves on the Advisory Board of Puerto Rican accelerator, Parallel18, the Advisory Board of luxury resale site, LePrix, the Board of Directors of The Center for Advancing Innovation, and advises companies around the globe.
Chris M. G. HA
Managing Partner, Venture Partner & Co-Founder
Glazier Group, Hydrasoft, Voulez, Republicist, LIXIN
Chris Ha is a Managing Partner at Glazier Group where she helps lead the firms’ practices in asset and investment management across securities lending, venture capital, and financial engineering for cross-border commodities-based financing events. She is also a Venture Partner at Hydrasoft, a co-venture development agency representing early stage venture-backed startups in NYC. Currently, Chris is the Co-Founder to three tech startups: Voulez (a creative marketplace and transaction platform), Republicist (a machine learning news media venture), and LIXIN (a wearable tech and SaaS platform for music entertainment). In all three startups, she leads Product-Engineering from architecture, product design, data science, algorithm design, to applications in artificial intelligence.Prior to this entrepreneurial journey in finance and technology, Chris was a multi-published Scientific Researcher in human/animal parasitic nematodes, infectious disease, and computational biology (neuroscience), as well as a Portfolio Manager focused on M&A and friendly biotech startup acquisitions from the University in California, San Diego where she studied Biology, Philosophy, and Political Science. She has worked with enterprise brands from Eli Lilly ($LLY), aTyr Pharma ($LIFE), Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ), as well as venture firms BitsCapital, D9 Ventures, Amsia Global, and PB Trade & Marketing.
Chris has a deep passion for sustainable development and has held multiple Leadership Positions in humanitarian development firms focused on capacity building in Ghana, Honduras, Panama, Haiti, Mexico, and other developing countries. She is currently leading Glazier Foundation’s investment in the rebuilding of the Reverend John Teye Memorial Institute in Accra, Ghana where she will be supporting their infrastructure, eLearning curriculum, and educational technology resources development.
Karla McKenna
Head of Standards
Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF)
Karla McKenna is an international standards specialist in the area of financial services.  Ms. McKenna is the Head of Standards at the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) and chaired the International Organization for Standardization Technical Committee 68 (ISO/TC 68), Financial services, from 2006 to 2018 during which ISO 17442, the ISO standard for the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI), was developed.
Ms. McKenna serves on the Board of XBRL International and is a member of the inaugural Board of the Eurofiling Foundation. Ms. McKenna is Immediate Past Chair of the Securities Market Practice Group (SMPG) and also has served on the Board of the International Securities Association for Institutional Trade Communication (ISITC).
Lee E. Saba
Head of Market Structure
Rialto Markets
Lee Saba brings more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry. Prior to joining Rialto as Head of Market Structure, Lee was Managing Director and Principal at Wellington Management where he was responsible for proprietary and third party multi-asset electronic trading and connectivity infrastructure. For over 17 years, Lee led and contributed to industry standards on a variety of concepts including FIX post-trade for equities, futures and FX, execution venue normalization, risk mitigation symbology and electronic trading risk controls. While at Wellington, Lee headed the inaugural IT FinTech Working Group and was a vocal advocate of the investor hub for blockchain and digital assets research. Lee currently serves as the co-chair for the FIX Trading Community (https://www.fixtrading.org) consisting of 290+ members worldwide and is also an active steering committee member for Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business FinTech Initiative.
Purva Khera
Economist
Monetary and Capital Markets at the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Purva Khera is an economist at the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Monetary and Capital Markets (MCM) Department. Her research focuses on building macroeconomic general equilibrium models for policy analysis. Purva has been actively engaged in assessing the role of financial technology and digitization in financial inclusion, and its macroeconomic implications. She holds a Ph.D. and MPhil in Economics from the University of Cambridge.
Rich Robinson
Head of Data Strategy and Standards
Open Symbology, Bloomberg LLP
Rich Robinson is a senior executive with over 25 years of experience in the financial industry, across operations and technology functions. He has worked throughout the front, mid and back offices at major global custodian banks, brokerages, and industry utilities, leading transformative projects in data, operations workflow, and messaging.For over 20 years, Rich has been heavily involved in the industry as an active participant of key working groups related to international data and messaging standards, including ISITC, FISD, EDM Council, ISO, ANSI/X9, ISDA, and SIFMA. He co-founded the first group on Unique Instrument Identification in 2000 and was a primary participant in the Best Practice work for ISO15022. He was Convenor for the ISO Study Group on CFI’s and UPI, and led the ISO Working Group on the Unique Transaction Identifier. Rich is on the Board of Directors of ISITC, and serves as 2nd Vice Chair.A regular speaker at conferences, he has been published in the Journal of Securities Operations and Custody, Waters, and Inside Reference Data, among other global financial services publications. His most recent paper, “A linguistics approach to solving financial services standardization,” introduces the innovative idea to use applied linguistics to guide standards development and regulatory decisions, and was published in the Journal of Financial Markets Infrastructure.Richard is currently head of Data Strategy and Standards for the Open Symbology group at Bloomberg LLP. He works globally with regulators, legislators, and industry leaders on addressing data and standards issues to create more efficient and transparent markets. He holds an MBA in Organizational Behavior and Information Technology from NYU’s Stern School and a B.S. in Industrial Management with a concentration in Management Information Systems from Carnegie Mellon University.
Xiaochen Zhang
President, FinTech4Good
Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Sustainable Business Network (ESBN)
He is a partner at Wemerge Capital, a Chairman of the DeFi Alliance, a member of the UN ESCAP Digital Economy Task Force and Green Business Task Force.  Listed as one of the Top 100 Blockchain Influencers by Lattice80, Xiaochen leads the design and implementation of FinTech4Goods’s strategy to introduce the most disruptive technological innovations in frontier markets. FinTech4Good was awarded the Best FinTech Impact Investing Network 2019 by Wealth & Finance International. In the past 18 years, Xiaochen has built strong collaborations with government agencies, multinational organizations, and financial institutions through work with the World Bank, United Nations, Inter-America Development Bank, Astana International Finance Center, Israeli Blockchain Association, Crowdfunding Professional Association, and many other international platforms.
Mathias J. Klenk
Co-Founder
Passbase
At Passbase, Mathias builds a digital identity system that puts an individual’s privacy and data security first. Previously he worked as a Software Engineer for the behavioral biometrics & implicit authentication company UnifyID in San Francisco. He has a Bachelor and Master degree from Technical University of Munich and spent time at Stanford University conducting research on Design Thinking and Machine Learning. He is passionate about privacy and data sovereignty and believes the future of identity needs to be decentralized.
Desmoine DeLancey West
Managing Partner
Phase One Capital
Mr. Desmoine West is the Managing Partner of Phase One Capital, a boutique merchant bank in New York.  On the investment banking side, he focuses on private placements and M&A advisory for lower middle market funds and companies, with a growing emphasis on the blockchain and technology space.  On the principal investment side, he sources, underwrites, structures and executes investments in various industries of interest and/or prior experience.  BlockSentry is the first investment in what will become a portfolio of early stage investments in technology and healthcare.  Prior to founding Phase One Capital in 2012, Mr. West worked in the private funds group of PineBridge Investments (formerly AIG Investments) in New York.  Prior to business school, he worked at IBM in his home state of Georgia.Mr. West has a BA from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, an MA from the State University of West Georgia and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.  He lives in Westchester County, NY with his wife, two kids and a new dog.
Jeff Cooperstein
Business Development
R3
Jeff Cooperstein is a Financial market Business Development and technology specialist focused on bridging the gap between business and technology. He has extensive experience across all facets of the industry as a client, vendor, and consultant. He has achieved a record of consistent contributions to revenue and creating competitive advantage by focusing first on a detailed assessment of business requirements. Jeff has been recognized for development of strong client relationships over a 30 year career.
 
Avery Starr
Managing Director
Seatig Inc.
Avery is an expert of Fintech and possesses 20 years of professional practice and leadership in the intersection of finance and technology. Since 2015, Avery led the development of Seatig’s signature Blockchain based products for Grant Tracking, Procurement and Contract Management, and Supply Chain Finance. Before that, she was the head of its software consulting and outsourcing division providing over 10 years of track record of software solutions for financial services and Fintech companies.Prior to Seatig, she worked a few years in Wall Street investment bank Bear Stearns and hedge fund Platinum Grove Asset Management on risk technology, analysis, and management. Before she worked on Wall Street, she had been a computer scientist in IBM’s worldwide research headquarter T. J. Watson Research Center on business process model transformation, analysis, and optimization.Avery has been actively serving Board Director of Asian Financial Society (AFS) since 2010 and she is currently the Committee Chair of AFS Annual Fintech Conference and alpha Award Competition. Avery was awarded “Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business” in 2012 by Asian American Business Development Center in New York. She holds a Ph.D. of Computer Science and has 28 publications in software engineering including a book titled “Software Reuse and Industrialization.”
Arnold Chu
Principal Examiner
FHFA
Mr. Chu has over 30 years of experience in the capital market financial world. Mr. Chu has provided leadership and visions within major financial firms: Bear Stearns, Schroders, and GMAC. At GMAC, he grew from his initial role as the business risk officer for GMAC RFC Securities to oversee the market/credit risk of the GMAC RFC Capital Market. In 2010, Mr. Chu broadened his experience in the governance and regulatory arena by joining the US Treasury Department – OTS. He supervised banks in the northeast region in the role of a capital market expert. In 2011, Mr. Chu moved to the Federal Housing Finance Agency where he supervises the housing GSEs: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks. He is dedicated to bringing the benefits of emerging technologies such as AI and Blockchain to the regulatory process.
Jie Chengying Xiu
Shareholder
Becker & Poliakoff LLP
Ms. Jie Chengying Xiu is a shareholder of Becker & Poliakoff LLP, a multi-practice commercial law firm with 16 offices in the United States. Her practice focuses on capital markets, mergers and acquisitions and a broad range of business and commercial matters. She represents complex, high-profile M&A and securities offering projects across the globe, including East and Southeast Asia, Europe and North America. Clients she has represented include multinational corporations and high-net-worth individuals in transactions ranging from billion-dollar M&A transactions to start-up financings. She also represents a large number of Chinese companies in their listings on NASDAQ, NYSE and OTC Markets through IPOs and reverse mergers, in their public and private offerings of debt and equity securities, M&A transactions and compliance with U.S. securities laws. Her client base encompasses various industries including  telecommunications, investment banking, financial services, broker-dealer, real estate and hospitality, consumer products, pharmaceutical and biotech, retail and fashion, education, advertising and maritime industry.Her awards and recognition include New York “Rising Star” from 2011 to 2016 in the Corporate and Business section by Super Lawyer Magazine, a Thomson Reuters Service; “Top Women Attorneys in the New York Metro Area” in the Merger and Acquisition section, New York Times Magazine 2011-2016 Special Supplement Issue; 2014 Awardee of the Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business Awards, a most prestigious forum to highlight the achievements of Asian Americans across the United States; Chairwoman of the Asian Financial Society (the “AFS”), and the recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to AFS Board Award in 2013.
Frank Mah
Managing Director
Transnational Capital Corp. (TCC)
Frank Mah is a Managing Director at Transnational Capital Corp. (TCC), a New York City-based investment bank focused on raising private equity and debt capitals, providing M & A advisories, for emerging growth companies in China, the Americas and Europe. Frank has extensive experience in both the equity and high yield fixed income markets. His professional experience in Asia included China, Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong and Macau. Prior to joining TCC, Frank held senior positions at global investment banks that included Lehman Brothers, Citibank, and Nomura Securities International. He started his career in Research at Donaldson Lufkin and Jenrette where he covered the Gaming, Lodging, and Food Retailing sectors. Frank was voted by investors into Institutional Investor Magazine’s All American Research Team in Gaming. He was born in Hong Kong and learned to speak Putonghua in New York City. Frank earned his MBA in Finance from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Jinfeng Tang
Chief Operating Officer
Loan Transactions & Technology(LT&T)
Jinfeng Tang is currently Chief Operating Officer at Loan Transactions & Technology(LT&T). LT&T is a whole loan trading network that provides loan analytics, counterparty matching, and electronic negotiation in a cloud-based application that efficiently connects banks, credit unions, and other approved counterparties in a secure environment.Before joining LT&T in 2018, Mr. Tang had about twenty years experience in managing bank balance sheet and advising institutional clients on hedging their financial risks at some of the most reputable firms. As Head of Asset Liability Management at Deutsche Bank, Mr. Tang led the Asset Liability Committee (ALCO) and was responsible for managing funding, liquidity and market risks for the bank. He designed and implemented strategies, involving the use of derivatives and securitization, to optimize bank’s risk and return profile and improve its capital efficiency. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank in 2007, Mr. Tang worked at BlackRock for three years, where he provided risk analytics and hedging advisory services to major financial institutions, including Citibank and HSBC, and pioneered BlackRock Solutions’ business development in Asia. From 2001 to 2004, Mr. Tang managed portfolio analytics and reporting at Chase Home Finance, the residential mortgage business of JP Morgan Chase.Mr. Tang received his MS in Financial Engineering from Columbia University in 2001 and MBA from the University of Georgia in 2000. He received his BS in Chemical Engineering and International Business and MS in Economics from East China University of Science & Technology.

Mr. Tang serves on the board of Judo bank, a challenger bank in Australia, and the investment committee of Fission Ventures, a venture capital fund for Columbia alumni. He is also a board director of Asian Financial Society, a prominent non-profit organization for Asian financial professionals on Wall Street. He is both a CFA charterholder and a certified FRM (Financial Risk Manager).
Ken Walker
MANAGING PARTNER
ECCM
Mr Walker is an experienced financial services risk professional who has worked with internal and external clients to help them develop and assure that their regulatory and risk reporting for FRTB, Volcker, DFAST, CCAR (PPNR), ALM, IRR, Resolution Plans, and ALLL can withstand the scrutiny of internal and external regulatory functions.Mr. Walker was responsible for planning, coordinating, and supervising professionals to perform credit and operational audits of capital markets, trading functions, including trading for securities, whole loans, and debt and derivatives; pricing and valuation; portfolio operations for trade allocation, settlement and confirmation; cash management; and liquidity management. Former general auditor of a publicly traded NYSE Holding Company and its affiliates, which were inclusive of an asset management company, a hedge fund, and bankruptcy remote credit derivatives product company whose aggregate portfolio of investment grade CDSs and CDS Tranches exceeded $24.0 billion.
Morgan A. Jones
Director
Community Engagement & Partnerships at Avenues
Morgan A. Jones is a Board Member at AFS leading the efforts of the Communications team for more than five years. Morgan’s career of more than 15 years has been focused on community engagement and partnerships with high-level leaders and organizations in government, non-profits, and education.Morgan is currently at Avenues: The World School as director of the school’s Community Engagement and Partnerships arm, helping create both local and global service-learning opportunities for nearly 2,000 students, faculty, and staff at their New York City campus. Morgan lived in China for six years and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese. He graduated with an MBA from Cornell University and a BA from Middlebury College.
Seamon Chan
Co-Founder and Managing Partner
Palm Drive Capital
Seamon Chan is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Palm Drive Capital, a global venture capital and growth equity firm invested in over 80 technology companies across five continents including WeLab, Jet.com, Clover Health, Rappi, Catalyte, and Boom Supersonic. He is a Co-Founder of Lair East and Lair East Labs, a cross-border innovation space and accelerator. Previously, he was at Insight Venture Partners, a $23 billion venture capital and private equity firm with investments in JD.com and Alibaba. Seamon brings entrepreneurship and operating experience through startup roles in the mobile, gaming, advertising, and social networking spaces in the US, China, and Europe. Earlier in his career, he gained corporate and research experience at Hitachi Data Systems, Citigroup, Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab, and Stanford Center for Integrated Systems.Seamon graduated from Stanford University and is completing the Owner/President Management program at Harvard Business School, as well as Tsinghua Wudaokou People’s Bank of China School of Finance Belt Road Initiative EMBA Program. He was on the founding teams of the Stanford Chinese Entrepreneurs Organization (Stanford CEO) and the New York City Chinese Entrepreneurs Organization (NYCCEO), both organizations with thousands of members and alumni in US and China. Seamon is a Committee of 100 Next Generation Leader and a member of the Milken Institute Young Leaders Circle and the Economic Club of New York.Seamon is also an advisory board member of the Mekong Future Initiative (MFI), a Singapore-based non-profit organization. It focuses on accelerating young entrepreneurs and develop evolving markets in the Mekong countries and beyond by promoting STEM and entrepreneurship education in the region. Through Palm Drive, Seamon also supports and pledged a seven-figure amount to The Billion Dollar Fund for Women (TBDF), a global consortium of venture funds committed to tackling the gender investment gap by increasing their investments in women-founded companies.
Shan Chen
Head of US operations
CubeTech Global Asset
Mr. Shan Chen is an entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in alternative investment industry. He is well versed in private funds risk, compliance, and operations. Currently Mr. Chen is the head of US operations for CubeTech Global Asset, a full service solutions provider for cross-border investments, headquartered in Beijing, China. He also serves as a board member to Asian Financial Society, a non-profit organization based in New York dedicated to career development for finance professionals and promotion of China-US relationships in financial industry. Prior to CubeTech, Mr. Chen was co-founder of the financial technology firm ConceptONE. He served as CTO and head of analytics at CocneptONE. Under his leadership, the company grew its offerings to a full range of managed services including risk, compliance, middle-back office, and advisory with over 100 clients around the world. ConceptONE was recently acquired by a leading FinTech firm Axioma. Earlier in his career, Mr. Chen has been providing technology innovation and solutions to many major financial firms such as Chase Manhattan Bank and Deutsche Bank. He and his group were always the earliest to embrace new technologies in many of his business engagements. Mr. Chen holds a Master’s degree in Engineering from Unversity of Toledo and a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Tongji University.
Syed Ahmed
Head of Finance & Accounting
Placid
Placid Syed has a Masters Degree in Accounting & Information system. With over 12 years experience in the financial sector and a strong background in finance and accounting, Syed leads Placid’s finance & accounting department. He was the catalyst in formulation of pricing and various logistics involved with the company’s recent cashless remittance product. An expert in regulations specific to the payments & MSB industry, he is well known among various regulators.
Wilfred Daye
CEO and Head of Financial Markets
OKCoin Securities and OKCoin USA
Wilfred Daye is Head of Financial Markets for OKCoin USA and CEO for OKCoin Securities LLC. He joined from Noble Capital International LLC (NCI), where he served as Senior Portfolio Manager, President and a member of ExCo. Before NCI, he led machine-learning research team as a Managing Director and a Member of ExCo at PeerIQ. Prior to the FinTech space, he was an Executive Director of Structured Finance at UBS, responsible for trading, portfolio construction and risk management of securitized products. Prior to UBS, he was a senior quantitative analyst for structured credit products at Deutsche Bank. He was a quant for credit trading at D.B. Zwirn and Barclays Capital. He began his career as a CMBS desk analyst at Lehman Brothers. He holds FINRA Series 7, 63, 79 and 24 licenses and a CAIA designation. He was a doctoral research scientist at USC Norris Cancer Center and has Master’s in Financial Engineering and Mathematics.