2017 Speakers

2017 Speakers

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Scott Blandford

Chief Digital Officer

TIAA

Scott Blandford has an extensive track record of successful large program delivery, user experience design, product launches and transformation efforts. He joined TIAA in 2010, bringing nearly 25 years of experience in innovative technology systems, financial services and executive leadership.

As Chief Digital Officer for TIAA, Mr. Blandford leads the firm's online, mobile and eBusiness automation program. In this position he is charged with taking the firm's self-service and automation capabilities to the next level-leading TIAA to a digital future where technology fully realizes the customer-focused mission of the company.

In his first four years with the firm, Mr. Blandford served as Chief Information Officer for the Retirement and Individual Services business, where he was responsible for all tiers of the retirement, insurance, education savings, brokerage, banking and wealth management platforms. In this function he led the strategy, design, delivery and ongoing operations for TIAA's client systems utilizing innovative, patent-pending technologies.

He also successfully launched new secure participant and plan sponsor websites-providing users with simple, modern and intuitive online experiences and a full 360-degree view of their financial lives. DALBAR, an industry group that rates web properties for financial services firms awarded this work with accolades: TIAA is DALBAR's #1 rated site for life insurance & annuities, #1 rated for plan sponsor retirement, #2 rated for mutual funds and #1 rated for participant retirement (as of 4Q15).
In addition, Mr. Blandford was responsible for a multi-year, ground-breaking re-imagining of the sales and service desktop experience, yielding substantially improved productivity and customer service in year one. TIAA is now delivering more, better capabilities to clients faster than ever before. For this work he was recognized as one of Wall Street & Technology's "Elite 8."

Prior to joining TIAA, Mr. Blandford served as Managing Director, Head of Online and Retirement Technology, at Bank of America Merrill Lynch for four years. During his tenure, he delivered the $150M rebuild of Merrill Lynch Online and served as a key thought leader in envisioning and delivering Merrill's next-generation integrated banking/brokerage web and mobile capabilities, Merrill Edge. Mr. Blandford was also the CTO for Merrill's Institutional Retirement business, running the technology that supports the retirement plans of some of the country's largest employers.

Before his time at Merrill Lynch, Mr. Blandford spent 11 years at Fidelity Investments, where he served as Senior Vice President for Fidelity eBusiness and was responsible for all of Fidelity's Total Retirement and Benefits Outsourcing web and mobile applications.

Mr. Blandford holds B.E.E. and M.S.E.E. degrees from the University of Dayton.

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Ellen Gentile

Director, enterprise data quality

Edward Jones

Ellen Gentile has over 20 years of experience in the financial services sector and has worked in various capacities for companies such as Cowan & Company, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Banc of America Securities and Pershing, LLC. 

Prior to managing SMBC's data quality, Ellen championed the use of qualified data as a core enterprise resource supporting decision makers. To best deliver and monitor quality of service and information, Ellen established and set enterprise standards through operational quality scorecard products at Pershing, LLC. The quality based products she managed provided the much needed insight and transparency clients require to manage and grow their businesses.

 

 

Rick Aiere

Consultant for chief data architect, enterprise data management

NYU

Rick Aiere is a strategic solutions-focused executive and trusted C-level advisor, with over 25 years of experience in data management and data strategy. He is currently engaged in an initiative as a consultant advising on MDM and Data Governance for the Chief Data Officer at NYU where he is helping with implementation of authoritative data sourcing methodology. In addition, Rick provides data management advisory services to financial institutions with a focus on reference data management, AML and CCAR.  Prior to his current engagement, Rick has produced results for high-growth Fortune 500 companies such as AIG, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs.

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Alex Fuss, MBA, PMP

Director, Enterprise Architecture, Office of the CTO

AXA FINANCIAL US

A Booz & Co. corporate strategist, CSC award-winning technologist, and certified program manager, who has helped many Fortune 500 companies and start-ups develop strategic plans and implement roadmaps to enhance capabilities, processes, products, and services, as well as to transform businesses to address opportunities and challenges.

A published author and speaker on Technology Innovations Powering 21st Century Business, and other CIO topics, featured in the Financial Times.

At Reuters/Instinet, Alex and his team designed and implemented the first automated trading system for corporate bonds; at Deutche Bank, he developed the first collateral management system for derivatives, and co-led a team that development GlobeSet, a patented way of using a mutual fund to settle futures and option instantaneously with finality.

As Director, Enterprise Architecture, Office of the CTO, Alex led AXA U.S.’s Cloud Computing strategy initiative, in partnership with parent AXA Group, France, and AXA’s worldwide infrastructure implementation partner AXA Tech.

Alex drafted AXA US’ Cloud Computing position paper and CTO guidelines; updated CTO architecture governance principles, standards, and processes to reflect the leveraging of hybrid, multi-cloud technologies and agile methodologies; and contributed to multiple cloud implementations, migration assessments, and DevOps initiatives.

Alex is currently researching how to leverage Blockchain to streamline the financial settlement process.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexsfuss

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Joan Dal Bianco

SVP, Head U.S. Office of the Chief Data Officer (OCDO)

TD BANK

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Maryse Gordon

Business development manager, analytics

London Stock Exchange Group

Maryse has worked with financial software for over 10 years and gained a wealth of knowledge and experience ranging from product development and support, to product management and Pre Sales. Staring her career at Hewlett Packard and progressing onto Logica, Maryse now represents London Stock Exchange Group, Data and Analytics as a Business Development Manager for The Yield Book. With 8 years at LSEG covering Regulatory Compliance, Risk and Controls, and Data Solution offerings within UnaVista, having been responsible for driving revenues across the US, leading market, industry and product research around regulatory compliance, Maryse actively contributes to the growth of the LSEG business, providing thought leadership and ensuring solutions are inline with industry appetite.

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Rodion Pryazhentsev

Global Head of Business Management

JP MORGAN CORPORATE BANK

Rodion Pryazhentsev, Strategy Executive, J.P. Morgan Chase

Rodion Pryazhentsev is currently based in New York Headquarters and leads tech related efforts associated with Department of Labor Fiduciary Rule Changes and its impacts on the Consumer Bank Wealth Management business. Prior to his current role in the Consumer Bank, he was a Chief of Staff in the Asset Pricing & Reference Data Operations of J.P. Morgan Corporate & Investment Bank responsible for multi year strategic initiatives and people agenda. He has over 17 years of global experience and has held senior positions in Operations, Client Service, Business and Program Management.
Originally from Russia and having worked in several locations, Rodion is a speaker of five foreign languages. He and his son reside in New York City.

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Sanjeev Khati

Head of Business Development-Banking & Financial Services USA

TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES

Sanjeev Khati
Head of Business Development-Banking & Financial Services USA
Tata Consultancy Services Limited

@sanjeevkhati
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanjeevkhati

As the Head of Business Development for Banking and Financial Services USA, Sanjeev is responsible for driving the unit's business development vision, strategy and targets, leading the sales force to structure and shape deals that deliver value and sustainable outcomes for clients.

Sanjeev also heads the Capital Markets Unit for TCS USA, responsible for guiding the development of client relationships, driving overall unit strategy, customer centric offering development and fostering industry partnerships.

Sanjeev specializes in envisioning and delivering large scale Technology and Business change programs for clients in the Financial Services Industry. With more than 19 years of experience and a proven track record, he has overseen many large transformation programs encompassing Application and bespoke Software development, Package Implementations & Reengineering, Systems Integrations, Operations & Infrastructure Outsourcing and Consulting engagements for his clients. His work experience has spanned across clients from various industry sub segments viz. Payments, Core Banking, Wealth and Asset Management, Capital markets and Market Infrastructure firms.

In his previous roles as Senior Client Partner, Sanjeev has led TCS's relationship with some of the world's largest investment banks, asset managers, hedge funds, clearing houses and exchanges to deliver results in the areas of business planning and process optimization, business and IT architecture, application management, IT and Infrastructure outsourcing and business process outsourcing.

Sanjeev is an avid business reader and golfer. He has a passion for sustainability and supports multiple non-profit organizations. He has completed an Executive Leadership Program from Ross School of Business, University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering, and he is based in New Jersey.

 

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Steve Goldstein

Head of Product Management, Enterprise Content & Delivery

THOMSON REUTERS

Steve Goldstein recently joined Thomson Reuters as Head of Product Management, Enterprise Content & Delivery, based in New York City. Previously Steve was co-founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Alacra, a company started in 1996 to sell and re-distribute licensed business information over the internet. Once established, Alacra expanded by building reference data and regulatory compliance workflow solutions for financial institutions and professional services firms. Alacra was acquired by Opus, a PE-backed compliance technology platform, in 2015. Steve was Vice Chairman of Opus until early 2017.

 

 

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Peter Memon

Head of Emerging Technology

Synechron

Peter Memon, Head of Emerging Technology at Synechron, has over 25 years of experience in financial services, investment banking, capital markets and emerging technology. Throughout his career, Peter has made a name for himself by working with the most advanced new technologies to solve tomorrow's problems today. He has hands-on experience building front-office trading systems from his time at HSBC, was in charge of architectural development at Lehman Brothers, managed risk/trade/analytics data at Barclays, and most recently has been designing next generation technologies leading an elite R&D team at JP Morgan.

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Igor Telyatnikov

President & Chief Operating Officer

ALPHAPOINT

Igor Telyatnikov

President & Chief Operating Officer

Igor has over 15 years of experience in building, operating, and investing in financial services, security, and media technology firms. Prior to AlphaPoint, Igor served as Managing Director of Cvetlo, an early stage venture firm making investments in fintech, adtech, and online media. Prior to Cvetlo, Igor led West Coast Business Development for LiftDNA, a digital ad exchange platform focused on managing online publisher ad revenue by making real-time pricing predictions for over 10 billion Ads Per Month. LiftDNA was acquired by OpenX, a global leader in digital and mobile advertising, in 2012. Previously, he held multiple roles over 5 years in the Security Technologies and Systems Integration divisions of Ingersoll Rand (TICKER: IR) / Allegion (TICKER: ALLE), where he drove adoption of new security technologies.

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Craig Peretz

Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer

SIERRA GLOBAL MANAGEMENT

Craig J. Peretz has been the Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Compliance Officer as well as a Consultant to Sierra Global Management, LLC since 1998. Mr. Peretz is responsible for the non-portfolio management side of the business at Sierra, including operations, compliance, investor relations and risk monitoring. Mr. Peretz joined Sierra in 1998 from International Fund Administration (1995-1998), where he was in charge of client administrative operations, financial review/preparation, fund set-up and investor/manager relations. Prior to that, Mr. Peretz worked in the private equity, corporate finance and investment recovery divisions of Equitable and Alliance Capital Management for seven years (1988-1995), also serving as a member of Equitable's demutualization team. Mr. Peretz completed his undergraduate studies at Alfred University in 1988 and received his MBA from The Stern School of Business at New York University in 1993. Mr. Peretz also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of Alfred University as well as a Director of the Sierra Funds.

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Dr Ginny. A. Baro

CEO and Founder

FEARLESS WOMEN @WORK

Dr. Ginny A. Baro is a Fortune 100 certified executive coach, speaker, #1 bestselling author of Fearless Women at Work, and leadership expert. She is the CEO and founder of Fearless Women @WorkTM, an executive coaching and career strategy company that offers proven techniques and tactics to help organizations and support talented professionals to develop as leaders in business and in life.
Armed with more than 26 years of experience working in competitive corporate environments in financial services and technology in the New York City area, she is a sought-after speaker, trainer and facilitator for teams and leaders at all levels of management.
Prior to starting her own business, Ginny held various Director level roles at Lord, Abbett & Co., LLC, where she worked for more than 16 years. Before joining Lord Abbett, she was a Senior Software Engineer at Alliance Bernstein, and a Systems Manager at Prudential.
Ginny's academic degrees include a PhD in information Systems, an MS in Computer Science, an MBA in Management, and BA in Computer Science and Economics.

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Raymond Hanson

Managing Director, Global Technology Lead for the Financial Regulation (FinReg) Program

CREDIT SUISSE

Raymond Hanson is a Managing Director of Credit Suisse in the Global Markets division, based in New York. He is the global technology lead for the Financial Regulation (FinReg) Program, responsible for the technology delivery of regulatory driven change across multiple regions, jurisdictions, and asset classes. Ray is also a member of the DTCC DerivServ Technology Advisory Council.

Prior to this role, Raymond held a variety of front office technology roles at Credit Suisse in both New York and Tokyo, primarily focused on Fixed Income Trading across cash and derivatives markets. In addition, he has served in a number of regional IT management roles, including Head of Tokyo IT. Raymond received a bachelor's degree magna cum laude from the University of Rochester.

 

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Michael Dobrovolsky, Ph.D.

Executive Director, Machine Learning, AI & Decision Science

MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL WEALTH MANAGEMENT

Executive with over 25 years of experience in Advanced Analytics space, Business and Technology strategy
Designed and Delivered ML and AI, Knowledge Management, HPCC Advanced Analytics and Technology Solutions for Fortune 500 companies and leading Technology labs

Dessa Glasser

Principal/Independent board member

FRG, Oppenheimer Holdings Inc, GLEIF

Dessa advises clients in the areas of data, analytics and risk. She has a 25-year proven track record successfully designing and executing global innovative solutions, often influencing a Board or Operating Committee. She built the Chief Data Office for JPMorgan Chase Asset Management, serving as the first CDO, and initiated the Capital Stress Testing Analytics team for JPMorgan Chase. She was Deputy Director of the Office of Financial Research (US Treasury), responsible for data, international standards (including the Legal Entity Identifier, LEI), analytics and technology and building the Office. As the first CRO, she launched the Chief Risk Office for Bunge. Dessa has held senior positions at Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch, IBM and KPMG. She began her career teaching finance at Rutgers University. Dessa has a Ph. D. and MA in Economics from Fordham University and serves on the advisory Board of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. She has a BS in Business from Fairleigh Dickinson University and was co-president of the Women's Bond Club of NY.

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Dr Miquel Noguer i Alonso

Co-founder

Artificial Intelligence Finance Institute

Miquel is a co-founder at Artificial Intelligence Finance Institute. He is a financial markets practitioner with more than 20 years of experience in asset management. Additionally to his role at AIFI, he is currently Head of Development at Global AI (Big Data Artificial Intelligence in Finance company) and Head on Innovation and Technology at IEF.

He worked for UBS AG (Switzerland) as Executive Director for the last 10 years and previously worked as a Chief Investment Officer and CIO for Andbank from 2000 to 2006.

He is a professor of Big Data in Finance at ESADE and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University teaching Asset Allocation, Big Data in Finance and Fintech. He received an MBA and a Degree in business administration and economics in ESADE (1993).

In 2010 he earned a PhD in quantitative finance with a Summa Cum Laude distinction (UNED – Madrid Spain).

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Abel Picardi

Managing director and chief compliance officer

Bank of China

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Robin A. Doyle

Managing Director, Office of Regulatory Affairs

JP MORGAN

ROBIN DOYLE has worked at J.P. Morgan Chase for 24 years and is currently a Managing Director, Office of Regulatory Affairs, where she is responsible for developing strategic responses to a broad array of regulatory initiatives, analyzing the impact of regulatory proposals, developing the firm's positions and preparing for the implementation of final rules, specializing in data topics. She is also a leader in recent global efforts to standardize reference data. Ms. Doyle also spent over seven years as the Chief Financial Officer for Corporate Risk reporting to the firm's Chief Risk Officer and has worked in JPMC's Chase Home Finance business unit and managed the Firm's Accounting Policies Group. Prior to joining J.P. Morgan Chase, Robin worked for Midlantic National Bank, KPMG Peat Marwick, and Prudential Insurance Company.

Ms. Doyle is on the Board of Directors of the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation. She is a member of multiple ISO Committees, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, the New York Clearing House, and the Risk Management Association.

Ms. Doyle has an MBA in Finance from The Graduate School of Management, Rutgers University; a BS in Accounting from Rutgers, The State University; and is certified as a CPA in the State of NJ.

 

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John Polis

Chief Operating & Technology Officer

STAR MOUNTAIN CAPITAL

John W. Polis is an entrepreneurial information management and business operations leader with a 20+ year track record of creating and enhancing technology enabled businesses and building platforms that allow for significant scale.
Prior to joining Star Mountain Mr. Polis was a Founding Member, COO and CTO for Visionary Access, Inc., an Investor and Business Development platform, where he oversaw sales and integrated marketing, finance and accounting, client servicing, human resources, and information technology platform development.
Prior to joining Visionary, Mr. Polis was COO and CTO for Guidepoint Global, a primary research firm and expert network serving the world's leading Institutional Investors, Private Equity Firms, Consulting Organizations, and Corporations. Brought on in 2011 with a direct turnaround mandate, Mr. Polis changed the operating culture leading positive change in process and people management along with directing significant improvements to their information technology platform guiding the company back to profitability and significant double digit growth.
Before Guidepoint, Mr. Polis served as COO and CTO for Coleman Research Group (CRG), also a primary research firm and expert network where he was recruited immediately after company secured financing. Without delay Mr. Polis led the product management and development effort on their custom built, Web based CRM, Recruiting, and Payment Processing platform - Knowledge BrokerTM - while also being responsible for overseeing all operational areas of the company including research, relationship management, compliance, human resources, and data management. CRG also had a broker dealer arm, Coleman Brokerage Group, for which Mr. Polis served as compliance officer for. During his tenure Coleman Research scaled from 5 to 140 employees worldwide and in 2009 was voted one of Crain's New York "Best Places to Work in New York City".
Earlier in Mr. Polis' career he served as a Co-founder and Executive Vice President Operations and CTO for Dotcom Distribution and Chief Information Officer for the GT Media family of companies.
Mr. Polis holds a BA in Economics from New York University, an MBA in Management from Wagner College and is FINRA Series 63, 7 and 24 licensed. He is also an adjunct at NYU where he teaches graduate level courses in Integrated Marketing Database Modeling and Management. Prior to NYU Mr. Polis was an adjunct at Touro College Graduate School of Technology where taught courses in Database Design and Modeling for Business.

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Nitin Gupta

Global Head of Financial Services Solutions and Partners

AMAZON WEB SERVICES

Nitin Gupta is the Global Head of Financial Services Solutions and Partners at AWS. In this role, he is responsible for strategy, solution development, go to market, and sales with financial services technology and consulting companies worldwide.
Nitin Gupta is a seasoned executive with over 15 years of product strategy, business development, and technology innovation experience involving fintech and financial services consulting firms. Over the course of his career, Nitin has worked with firms like Envestnet Yodlee, Capgemini Financial Services, and Headstrong Genpact. At Envestnet Yodlee, Nitin led the wealth management, credit analytics, and business banking practices.

Nitin holds an MBA from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta and undergraduate degree in Economics from Delhi University, India.

 

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Hans Robert

CTO for Client Strategy & Transformation at Digitate

TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LIMITED

Hans is the CTO for Client Strategy & Transformation at Digitate, a TCS Venture. He engages with CxO as a thought leader, defines transformation roadmap using ignioTM, the cognitive automation solution that enables smarter and faster decision making, allowing enterprises to predict problems.

Prior to Digitate, Hans was at Morgan Stanley for 17 years, most recently as the head of the Enterprise Systems Management, overseeing solutions such as CMDB, Enterprise Monitoring, Analytics, Logging as a Service, IT Service Management, Runbook Automation.

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Gayle Sheppard

VP

INTEL CORPORATION

Gayle leads Intel's overall market vision,strategy and fundamental direction for knowledge representation and reasoning systems inside Intel's AI platform.

Formerly Chairman and CEO of Saffron Technology, Inc., acquired by Intel in 2015, Gayle's career has focused on bringing operational and decision sciences software solutions to the Global 1000. In her current role she continues to work closely with leading global companies across financial services, manufacturing, government, energy, health care and life sciences.

Prior to Saffron, Gayle held roles as Vice President and Managing Director at Peoplesoft, CEO and President of MarketMile, LLC (now part of Rearden Commerce) where she led the development and launch of a new Software as a Service e-procurement business for American Express.

She has also held positions as Vice President, Worldwide Sales, J.D. Edwards & Company, President and General Manager of J.D. Edwards Japan, K.K., and Vice President of J.D. Edwards Asia Pacific Ltd, Hong Kong. Her Asia Pacific and Japan mission was focused on accelerating J.D. Edwards growth in international markets prior to its IPO while working with leading European and American manufacturing companies to automate their supply chains.

She is a graduate of the University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, where she received a B.S., Business Administration with focus in operations research and management science.

 

Headshot: Julia Bardmesser
Julia Bardmesser

Chair of Technology Advisory Council

Women Leaders In Data & AI (WLDA)

Julia is CEO of Data4Real, LLC, a Board Advisor to several startups and Chair of Technology Advisory Council of Women Leaders in Data and AI (WLDA). 

She is a recognized thought leader in data driven digital transformation with over 25 years of experience in building technology and business capabilities that enable business growth, innovation, and agility. Julia has led transformational initiatives in many financial services companies such as Voya Financial, Deutsche Bank Citi, FINRA, Freddie Mac, and others. 

Julia is a much sought-after speaker and mentor in the industry, and she has received recognition across the industry for her significant contributions. She has been named to engatica 2023 list of World’s Top 200 Business and Technology Innovators; received 2022 WLDA Changemaker in AI award; has been named to CDO Magazine’s List of Global Data Power Women three years in the row; named Top 150 Business Transformation Leader by Constellation Research in 2019; and recognized as the Best Data Management Practitioner by A-Team Data Management Insight in 2017.

She holds a Master of Arts in Economics from New York University.   

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Frank Zhao

Director, Quantitative Research

S&P GLOBAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE

Frank is a Director and a key member of S&P Global Market Intelligence's Quantamental Research group. His primary focus is to conduct systematic alpha research on global equities with publications on natural language processing, newly discovered stock selection anomalies, event-driven strategies and industry-specific signals. Frank has a master's degrees in Financial Engineering from UCLA Anderson and in Finance from Boston College Carroll, and has undergraduate degrees in Computer Science and Economics from University of California, Davis.

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Sudhir Kaloth

Director - IT MIS/Regulatory and Compliance

OPPENHEIMER

Sudhir kaloth has 20 years of IT experience across the industry in different role with concentration in financial industry for the past 10 years, He Has a Masters Degree in Computer from BITS, Pilani, Inida. Presently working at Oppenheimer as a Director, Information Technology (MIS/Regulatory & Compliance). He worked on designing Business Intelligence products using Artificial Intelligence technique for data-mining and prediction related to financial and healthcare data. Managed e-commerce,e-publishing,e-procurment technology for retail industry.
He worked as Sr. Scientific officer at Department of information technology, Government of India and interconnected research institute accross the subcontinent during 1995. Published research paper In Neural Networks. His field of interest are Machine learning & Neural networks and its application in Risk, Surveillance, Financial Crime and intelligence.

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Mostafa Raddaoui

VP, Capital Market Systems and Market Data Services IT

BANK OF TOKYO MITSUBISHI UFJ

With more than twenty years of significant experience culminating in Application Development, Systems Management for advanced technology solutions including background in Market Data Service, Market & Banking Systems (Across all Asset Classes), Systems Integration, Records Information Management , Electronic Content Management. Planning, developing and implementing strategic directions associated with technology infrastructures, development required to support business and corporate objectives for the dynamic, highly demanding financial services industry.

Charismatic, Motivated and Possess strong analytical, interpersonal and communication skills.

Mostafa Raddaoui began his career as a developer then transitioned to software engineering, system engineering as well as an Architecture, well versed in technology especially the financial services.

Holds and M.S. Degree from Computer Science at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

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Cathy Bessant

Chief Operations and Technology Officer

Bank of America

Catherine P. Bessant is chief operations and technology officer at Bank of America, and is a member of the company’s executive management team. Since 2010, Bessant has led Global Technology and Operations (GT&O), delivering end-to-end technology and operating services across the company through nearly 95,000 employees and contractors in more than 35 countries.

Bessant has held a number of senior leadership roles for the company. She was president, Global Corporate Banking; president, Global Product Solutions and Global Treasury Services; chief marketing officer; president, Consumer Real Estate and Community Development Banking; national Small Business Segment executive; and president of the Florida market. She joined the bank as a corporate banker in 1982.

Bessant represents our employees on a number of important topics serving as executive sponsor for the company’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride executive board, the LGBT Ally program, and the Disability Advisory Council. She is one of OUTstanding’s top 10 Leading LGBT+ & Ally Executives.

Active in the community and region, Bessant received the 2018 Distinguished Service Award from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. In addition, she was awarded the North Carolina Order of the Long Leaf Pine and was recognized by the Charlotte Business Journal with the Women in Business Lifetime Achievement Award. She chairs the North Tryon Vision Plan Advisory Committee.

Bessant recently led the formation of The Council on the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Managed by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the council will convene the brightest minds from tech, business, academia and government.

Bessant serves on the board of directors of Zurich Insurance Group and the advisory board for the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. She is ranked No. 1 among the “25 Most Powerful Women in Banking” by American Banker. She also appears on Working Mother magazine’s “50 Most Powerful Working Moms” list of 2018.

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Koley Corte

Global Head of Business Transformation

ALLIANCE BERNSTEIN

A senior executive focused on leveraging data and digital to drive strategic change, Koley Corte is currently Senior Vice President and Global Head of Business Transformation at AllianceBernstein focused on developing transformative growth strategies for next generation institutional and retail distribution.  Koley’s areas of current focus include sales enablement, demand generation, robotics and automation, predictive analytics and new channel development. 

Prior to joining AB, Koley was at Reed Elsevier (RELX) where she served as Senior Vice President and Head of Digital, Innovation and Customer Acquisition Strategies, Americas Region for Reed Exhibitions (RX).  Other leadership roles Koley has held include Vice President, Head of Market & Competitive Strategy and Integrated Campaign Management at TIAA, where she led teams responsible for developing the environmental backdrop with insights and implications for revenue growth and diversification strategies, the rebrand and large-scale external communication initiatives, including complex product redesigns.  Previously, Koley held progressive leadership roles at American International Group (AIG).  

Koley received her MBA with distinction from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University, with a concentration in Finance, Management, and International Business, and her B.A. cum laude in Economics and Psychology from Brandeis.

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David Rukshin

Chief Technology Officer

WORLDQUANT

Mr. Rukshin is the Chief Technology Officer. Mr. Rukshin is responsible for the Firm's technology infrastructure, and for the operations function. From 1998-2014, Mr. Rukshin worked at D. E. Shaw group, a global investment and technology development firm with more than 1,000 employees. Most recently, Mr. Rukshin led a global team responsible for building a global technology infrastructure platform for quantitative trading businesses. From 2007 until 2011, Mr. Rukshin was global head of D. E. Shaw group's IT infrastructure engineering and operations. He held a variety of management and technical roles with D. E. Shaw group's IT organization from 1998-2007. Before coming to D. E. Shaw group, Mr. Rukshin worked at Chase Manhattan Bank supporting Equities, FX, and Fixed Income trading desks. Mr. Rukshin started his career in 1996 as a systems programmer at AT&T Labs Research. Mr. Rukshin holds M.S. in Technology Management from Columbia University, and B.S. in Management Science and Information Systems from Rutgers University.

Kim Jaffee-Prado

CIO US Capital Markets & Head of Investment & Corporate Banking & Office of the COO Technology

BMO Capital Markets

Kim joined BMO in August 2021 from RBC where she was the Global Head of the Client, Banking & Digital Channels Technology group across Capital Markets.  Kim developed and implemented a comprehensive client data strategy adopted by Capital Markets, sunset legacy applications and united the global salesforce under a single CRM instance.  Collecting and connecting client touchpoints with external data sets allowed her team to proactively source opportunities and recommendations using advanced AI and machine learning to deepen client relationships and increase wallet share.  Kim held multiple roles at RBC over 15 years supporting the business in various capacities from running Global Fixed Income Production Services to Head of Fixed Income Sales and Credit Trading technology.

Prior to joining RBC, Kim ran Front Office technology at Mizuho as well as the API Connectivity Development team at ICAP and was part of the initial launch of BrokerTec. She has also held multiple positions across the street with Kidder Peabody, Deutsche Bank and Chase Securities. Kim received a BA from Stockton University in accounting.

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Don Callahan

Head of Operations & Technology

Citi

"Don Callahan is the Head of Operations & Technology for Citi. Mr. Callahan's responsibilities include management of global Operations & Technology, as well as Chair of the Chief Infrastructure Office, which sets global standards for all technology throughout Citi. He also leads Citi's Data Management program, which enables the aggregation, storage and utilization of Citi's data to drive revenue growth, manage businesses and enhance the client experience.

Mr. Callahan is chair of the Digital Governance Office, which drives Citi's digital strategic initiatives. He is also responsible for General Business Services, which includes driving increased productivity by consolidating common functions in to Citi Shared Services. General Business Services also includes managing Citi's real estate globally. Mr. Callahan joined Citi in October 2007 and is a member of Citi's Operating Committee.

Mr. Callahan began his career at International Business Machines where he held a series of positions in technology development and strategic planning, including the Director of Strategy for IBM Japan.

In 1993, Mr. Callahan joined Morgan Stanley in the equity division focused on client technology before becoming Head of Business Management. In 2006, he joined the senior management team at Credit Suisse working in New York and Zurich with responsibility for driving client level profitability.

He serves on the boards of the American Red Cross of Greater New York and Manhattanville College. Mr. Callahan is also a member of the Business Committee of Metropolitan Museum of Art and is a Fellow at the Foreign Policy Association"

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Martin Caupin

Head of Analytics Lab, CIB Americas - Innovation

BNP PARIBAS

Martin Caupin joined BNP Paribas 8 years ago; he now leads the Analytics Lab within CIB Americas Innovation. Within his role, he wishes to provide insights from the data and enhance business processes. His team leverages on a data science expertise for discovery and strong IT skills to facilitate delivery. Previously, as a Portfolio Manager in CIB Americas, New-York, Martin worked on several projects including synthetic loans securitization.

He worked as a credit Quant, in Brussels and Paris, providing the data and analysis to facilitate decisions on BNP Portfolios. Martin holds a MSc in aerospace engineering with a major in financial engineering from ISAE – SUPAERO (Toulouse, France).

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Paras Parekh

Head of Global Markets Predictive Analytics

CREDIT SUISSE

Mike Chen, PhD

Head of Alternative Alpha Research

Robeco

Dr. Chen is the Head of Alternative Alpha Research at Robeco. In this role, he is responsible for leading the research and development of innovative alpha insights and solutions for use across Robeco. He started in this role in March 2022. Dr. Chen’s current research interests are in the areas of quant sustainability, machine learning/NLP, and alternative data, and has published a number of journal articles on these topics.

Previously, Dr. Chen was the Head of Sustainable Investments at PanAgora. In that role, he led the research and development of sustainable investment solutions across PanAgora, and the commercialization of PanAgora’s ESG offerings. In addition, he is responsible for model research and development in the Equity Division while participating in the daily management of the firm’s portfolios. While at PanAgora, Dr. Chen developed and applied for a patent for a framework to construct sustainable portfolios based on dual objectives of alpha and sustainability outperformance.

Prior to joining PanAgora, Dr. Chen was a Portfolio Manager at BlackRock’s Scientific Active Equity (SAE) team, where his responsibilities include portfolio management and research into alpha insights for use across the entire SAE platform. While at SAE, Dr. Chen won the “Signal of the Year” award for a signal he researched and developed.

Dr. Chen started his career at Morgan Stanley in New York where he traded and managed a portfolio of exotic US rates derivatives. While at Morgan Stanley, Dr. Chen researched, developed, and patented a framework that allowed for the pricing of derivatives based on two rate curves with dynamic multiplicative spread, one of the first such models on the street. 

Dr. Chen graduated from the University of Illinois in 2005 with a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering. During graduate school, he published in leading academic engineering and applied mathematics journals and had been invited to talk at numerous academic and industry conferences.

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Jonathan Carroll

Chief information officer

BMO FINANCIAL GROUP

Jonathan Carroll is the Managing Director, CM Trading Products Technology and Operations at BMO. In this capacity, he is responsible for leading all aspects of the planning, development, and implementation of risk infrastructure to ensure that the risk data and systems infrastructure in place for Enterprise Risk & Portfolio Management (ERPM) are consistent with best practices. He has recently moved to T&O from his previous role of Managing Director, Infrastructure, Market Risk and Risk Capital/Stress Testing within ERPM. Jonathan has worked in Risk Management since 2002 and has established and led the implementation of processes, systems and infrastructure to support Market, Credit and Liquidity Risk Management globally. His work in Risk Management has supported the entire spectrum of the analytical lifecycle from inception to model development, vetting, implementation and on-going performance monitoring and management. Prior to working in Risk Management within Financial Services, his previous jobs include various positions in creating data-driven/knowledge based solutions for Intel and Hatch Associates, a global engineering firm. Jonathan holds a BSc in Mechanical Engineering.

 

 

Dessa Glasser

Principal/Independent board member

FRG, Oppenheimer Holdings Inc, GLEIF

Dessa advises clients in the areas of data, analytics and risk. She has a 25-year proven track record successfully designing and executing global innovative solutions, often influencing a Board or Operating Committee. She built the Chief Data Office for JPMorgan Chase Asset Management, serving as the first CDO, and initiated the Capital Stress Testing Analytics team for JPMorgan Chase. She was Deputy Director of the Office of Financial Research (US Treasury), responsible for data, international standards (including the Legal Entity Identifier, LEI), analytics and technology and building the Office. As the first CRO, she launched the Chief Risk Office for Bunge. Dessa has held senior positions at Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch, IBM and KPMG. She began her career teaching finance at Rutgers University. Dessa has a Ph. D. and MA in Economics from Fordham University and serves on the advisory Board of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. She has a BS in Business from Fairleigh Dickinson University and was co-president of the Women's Bond Club of NY.

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Ellen Gentile

Director, enterprise data quality

Edward Jones

Ellen Gentile has over 20 years of experience in the financial services sector and has worked in various capacities for companies such as Cowan & Company, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Banc of America Securities and Pershing, LLC. 

Prior to managing SMBC's data quality, Ellen championed the use of qualified data as a core enterprise resource supporting decision makers. To best deliver and monitor quality of service and information, Ellen established and set enterprise standards through operational quality scorecard products at Pershing, LLC. The quality based products she managed provided the much needed insight and transparency clients require to manage and grow their businesses.

 

 

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Raymond Hanson

Managing Director, Global Technology Lead for the Financial Regulation (FinReg) Program

CREDIT SUISSE

Raymond Hanson is a Managing Director of Credit Suisse in the Global Markets division, based in New York. He is the global technology lead for the Financial Regulation (FinReg) Program, responsible for the technology delivery of regulatory driven change across multiple regions, jurisdictions, and asset classes. Ray is also a member of the DTCC DerivServ Technology Advisory Council.

Prior to this role, Raymond held a variety of front office technology roles at Credit Suisse in both New York and Tokyo, primarily focused on Fixed Income Trading across cash and derivatives markets. In addition, he has served in a number of regional IT management roles, including Head of Tokyo IT. Raymond received a bachelor's degree magna cum laude from the University of Rochester.

 

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Sudhir Kaloth

Director - IT MIS/Regulatory and Compliance

OPPENHEIMER

Sudhir kaloth has 20 years of IT experience across the industry in different role with concentration in financial industry for the past 10 years, He Has a Masters Degree in Computer from BITS, Pilani, Inida. Presently working at Oppenheimer as a Director, Information Technology (MIS/Regulatory & Compliance). He worked on designing Business Intelligence products using Artificial Intelligence technique for data-mining and prediction related to financial and healthcare data. Managed e-commerce,e-publishing,e-procurment technology for retail industry.
He worked as Sr. Scientific officer at Department of information technology, Government of India and interconnected research institute accross the subcontinent during 1995. Published research paper In Neural Networks. His field of interest are Machine learning & Neural networks and its application in Risk, Surveillance, Financial Crime and intelligence.

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Howard Bush

Principal, Banking & Capital Markets Lead

MICROSOFT

Howard Bush is a Principal, Banking & Capital Markets Lead on the Azure Cloud + AI Industry Experiences team at Microsoft.  Howard is a 25+ year banker, wrapped in IT clothing, building bridges to cloud adoption. As a practitioner of the "Art of the Possible" at Microsoft, he has established a successful career by being curious and wanting to transform an entire industry at the speed innovation. Howard has demonstrated his leadership prowess within the four walls of companies like Bank of America, National City Bank, First Union National Bank, KeyBank, Edward Jones Investments, and Bankers Trust.  He has extensive banking experience focused on Operations, Sales, Commercial Lending, Human Resources and Technology - implementing very large, complex banking systems across Branch and ATM networks, Call Centers, and Data Operations. His last 7 years at Microsoft have been spent as a Managing Architect of Enterprise Strategy, Southeast District Consulting Services Manager, and Global Business Program Manager on the Worldwide Industry Solutions team building digital solutions and offerings for banking, capital markets and insurance. Want to connect with Howard and learn more? Follow him on Twitter and Linkedin.

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Sandip Sahota

Managing Director, Head of Enterprise Data Services

CPP INVESTMENT BOARD

Sandip leads the Enterprise Data Services group at CPP Investment Board. Working closely with data consumers across CPPIB, his teams are responsible for developing the data strategy and managing the operations for market, reference and internal investment data.

Sandip brings over 18 years of financial-industry experience. He joined CPPIB in January, 2015 after a 15-year tenure at Morgan Stanley in increasingly senior roles within the Enterprise Data Services division leading cross-functional teams across the data and technology domains. Within his responsibilities, he provided coverage across Investment Groups, Operations, Legal and Compliance and Finance.

Sandip earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Information Systems and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Tampa.

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Edmund Flynn

Former Head of market data strategy

TD Ameritrade

Prior to TD Ameritrade Ed was a Vice President at Morgan Stanley and was responsible for managing global exchange relationships and sourcing for exchange data use across the Morgan Stanley enterprise.

Ed founded The Flynndex Company in 2011 to provide market data training and consulting services. Ed developed training classes to support the FISD Financial Information Associate Professional Certification program

and collaborated with the eLearning firm "Finance Modules" to produce online market data training for the FISD FIA Certification.

Ed began his career with Interactive Data and Moody's Investors Service, then joined Fidelity Investments managing market data and investment research for the Fidelity Funds and the Fidelity enterprise.

Ed has an MBA from Babson College, a BS from the University of Vermont, is a member of the CTA Advisory Committee, the SIFMA Market Data Subcommittee and the FISD Executive Committee.

 

 

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Elliott Noma

Founder, GARRETT ASSET MANAGEMENT and Lecturer

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

Dr. Noma teaches machine learning at Columbia University and quantitative risk management in the Masters in Mathematical Finance program at Rutgers University. Earlier in his career, Dr. Noma was a professor in the Psychology Department of Rutgers University, publishing in the areas of statistics, psychometrics, applied decision making and group dynamics.

Dr. Noma is also the founder of Garrett Asset Management, an investment firm that uses behavior models to trade in futures, ETFs, and currencies. Prior to founding Garrett Asset Management, Dr. Noma was a portfolio manager running a fund of hedge funds and was the Chief Risk Officer at Asset Alliance, a seeder of hedge funds.
Dr. Noma currently advises fintech companies in the application of machine learning, natural language processing and blockchain technologies.
Dr. Noma graduated from Dartmouth College with a B.A. in Mathematics. He received an M.A. in Mathematics and a Ph.D. in Mathematical Psychology from The University of Michigan.

 

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Manan Rawal

Head of Americas model risk management

MUFG

Manan N. Rawal, EVP and Head of Model Risk Management of HNAH since September 2017.  He joined HSBC in 2008 and has held positions in client risk management, market risk, and stress testing.  Prior to joining HSBC in 2008, Mr. Rawal has held trading and asset management roles at DKR Capital, Advent Capital, Swiss Re and Deutsche Bank spanning a period from 1994 – 2007.

He has an international executive MBA (Trium – HEC Paris, NYU, and the London School of Economics), M.Sc. in Economics (London School of Economics) and a B.S. in Finance from the Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania). He is also an adjunct faculty member of the New York Institute of Finance (https://www.nyif.com/).

His interests include thinking about the impact of technology / data / analytics on society, wine, traveling, and focusing on the positive.

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Chris Kovel

Managing Director, Head of Analytics & Data Technology

Morgan Stanley

In August of 2016, Chris Kovel joined Wealth Management Technology in the role of Head of Technology for Analytics & Data working to partner with our Business and drive forward the next generation of Wealth Management analytics, focused on deepening our data and analytics ecosystem.

Prior to working in Wealth Management, Chris led the Client Intelligence, CRM and Modelling teams on the Morgan Stanley institutional side. This provided him with horizontal views across many businesses and vertical views of some Sales, Trading and Research.

In Chris' role leading the Client Intelligence department, he developed technology to use insights gathered from transactional systems (such as CRM) and turn them into client action plansthrough predictive analytics, alerts and data analysis. Chris deployed a system known as GPS which leveraged the CRM and Predictive Analytic framework. Some key divisional  areas he supported included: Investment Banking, Capital Markets, Research, Sales and Trading, Human Resources, Corporate Services, and Reengineering &Expense Management.

Some key vendors Chris works with include: SalesForce, Adobe: Campaign & Adobe Analytics,IBM ODM Insights Server, Qlikview, Tableau and Spotfire.
Chris has held positions which include developer, business analyst, product manager, QA manager, UX  manager, and practice area head. Chris joined Morgan Stanley in 1994 as a consultant. He transitioned to a permanent position in 1999. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Chrisworked at Lotus Development Corporation.

Chris Kovel has worked in the technology side of financial services for over 20 years. Chris holds two patents for :

"Transaction system for employee stock options and other comp ensation programs" a system for selling employee issued internal options with time value.

"Company and contact information system and method" a system for delivering company related information through signals such as color.

 

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Travis Skelly

Senior Vice President, Venture Investing

CITI VENTURES

Travis Skelly joined the Citi Ventures New York office in 2016. Travis embraces Citi Ventures’ “best of both worlds” corporate venture model of combining value-added strategic investing with venture capital best practices by investing in high potential startups and driving engagement with Citi executives and clients. Travis invests across Citi Ventures’ five focus areas, which include Fintech, Data Analytics and Machine Learning, eCommerce, Enterprise IT, and Customer Experience and Marketing. Travis’ portfolio includes Clarity Money (acquired by Goldman), HighRadius, PPRO, ScaleFactor, Contguard, SmartAsset, and two others not yet announced.

Travis started his career as a Financial Services consultant at Accenture, before moving to a strategy role at HSBC. During graduate school he cofounded Embarkly (a marketplace for pet owners). After his MBA, he joined Nomura’s Leverage Finance Group where he executed debt transactions for financial sponsors and corporate clients. Most recently, Travis was an investor at FinTech Collective, a fintech-focused venture fund where he made over 20 early stage investments.

Travis received his MBA from the University of Texas and his BS in Finance and International Business from Georgetown University. In his spare time, Travis is a tortured golfer, nascent world traveler, and occasional triathlete.

William Murphy

Cresting Wave

Managing Partner, Cresting Wave (former CTO, Blackstone)

Bill Murphy is a Managing Partner at Cresting Wave, a technology advisory firm bringing innovative technologies to the enterprise technology community.   Bill is also a board member at Accurics and investor/advisor to a broad portfolio of early-stage companies.

Bill was a Senior Managing Director and the Chief Technology Officer at Blackstone, leading the Blackstone Innovations team from 2011-2020, responsible for the firm's use of technology along with a strategic technology investment portfolio. Mr. Murphy also served on many boards of directors of our investments along with the board of the Blackstone Charitable foundation.

From 1999 - 2011, Bill was founding Chief Technology Officer for Capital IQ where he was responsible for overseeing all product design, development, infrastructure, and technology support and was involved with all operations of the business. Before Capital IQ, Mr. Murphy led teams at Sapient, delivering solutions for large clients primarily in financial services. Mr. Murphy received a BSE in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania, Class of ‘96.