Emily Campbell-Ratcliffe is Head of AI Assurance at the UK’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). Emily leads DSIT’s efforts to support the growth of an ethical, trustworthy, and effective AI assurance ecosystem in the UK, a key pillar of support for realising the UK’s AI governance framework. She represents the UK at the OECD’s Working Party on AI Governance, and is also part of the OECD.AI network of experts, contributing to their Expert Groups on AI Risk & Accountability and Compute & Climate. Emily has worked in AI policy for several years, and prior to joining government worked in the private sector on international AI governance policy. Outside of her roles she has published work on the responsible publication of AI research, and how to manage its risks.

Isabel Al-Dhahir is a Principal Analyst in GlobalData’s Thematic Intelligence team where she works with clients across numerous industries to understand the impact of emerging disruptive technologies such as AI, robotics, and quantum computing on their business. Isabel holds a Ph.D. from the University of Oxford in Materials Science.

Bernadette Wesdorp is a Partner in our Netherlands Leadership team and is the Responsible AI Netherlands Leader. She joined EY in November 2014 and, previously, was an IT consultant at a large telecommunications company.

Bernadette graduated from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam with a Master of Science in Consulting & Communication. She is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/e) from the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP).

Bernadette is passionate about creating multidisciplinary, diverse, and inclusive teams, and is known for connecting the right people to the right clients. Bernadette is always looking for ways to help clients achieve their goals.

Adrian Cox is a Managing Director and Thematic Strategist at Deutsche Bank Research, focusing on the implications of Artificial Intelligence for investors, enterprises and society. He joined Deutsche Bank in 2009 and held senior leadership roles in Communications in London and Sydney before joining Research. He previously spent a decade covering finance and economics as an award-winning journalist and editor at Bloomberg News and the Financial Times in London, Brussels and New York. He is a graduate of Cambridge University and has an MBA from City University in London.

Matthew has a PhD in Statistics and is an ex-lecturer in Computational Statistics at Cardiff University School of Mathematics.  He has 20 years’ of experience in financial services, his team build advanced analytical tools across Credit Risk, Economic Crime and Collections & Recoveries.

His team delivered the first Machine Learning Credit Scorecard for a major UK financial institution, and he currently sits on the Nationwide AI Council with a focus on the creation of controls for Generative AI models.

He has a passion for learning and development creating and chairing the Risk Academy and enterprise-wide Nationwide Analytical Community.

Dale has lead the Innovation & Insights team at NatWest Trustee & Depositary Services for the last 4 years and has 12 years of experience in the asset and wealth management industry. Prior to joining NatWest, Dale spent 8 years at PwC as a specialist in data analytics, technology and cloud transformation, working with multinational asset & wealth managers in consulting and audit practices.

Mari Parry is a Principal Engineer at BlackRock, focused on leveraging AI to support Portfolio Management workflows. She has 20+ years of experience delivering innovative solutions for the financial and media sectors in the UK and Germany.

Kelvin started his position as Customer Insights Manager at Lloyds Banking Group on January 29, 2023. His role focuses on understanding and improving customer experiences within the banking sector.

Howie Epstein
Director of Product Management | GM & Strategy Lead, Data, API & Services

Howie Epstein is Director of Product Management at LexisNexis, where he leads core product strategy and development for the Data, API, and Services segments. He also oversees go-to-market and commercial strategy across these segments, operating in a hybrid GM and product leadership capacity. His role spans end-to-end ownership—from vision and roadmap to market delivery and growth acceleration.

Before joining LexisNexis, Howie held senior product roles at Kroll, where he focused on innovation in the risk, compliance, and investigations space. There, he played a key role in modernizing digital offerings and scaling global product lines. His work bridged product, engineering, and client-facing teams to deliver high-value solutions tailored to enterprise needs.

With a background in technology, operations, and cross-functional leadership, Howie excels at aligning diverse teams, translating market insights into actionable strategy, and driving adoption through clear, differentiated positioning. He is known for his customer-first mindset, ability to simplify complexity, and consistent track record of delivering measurable business impact.

With two decades of on-the-ground experience across the Americas (including Brazil and Mexico) and China, Grace has worked at TS Lombard since 2007 and specializes in energy, political risk, infrastructure and industrial/tech policy, plus their intersection with emerging new technologies as key research themes. She previously led Latin America research at TS Lombard and has broad sector expertise in core areas spanning clean energy, oil & gas and agriculture alongside trade and tech issues. Prior to TS Lombard, she worked as an EM journalist with articles in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Asian Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and Dow Jones Newswires among other publications. She is a graduate of Harvard University and has an MBA from Brazil’s Getulio Vargas Foundation.

David Otudeko leads the regulation directorate which is collectively responsible for the ABI’s policy work on prudential regulation, conduct regulation, tax, financial and corporate reporting and environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters.

David joined the ABI in June 2021 as Head of Prudential Regulation from AmTrust International where he was part of the Risk Management function and was instrumental in establishing a Shared Services Risk Function at the Insurance Group. Prior to this, he had spells working in the Insurance Risk and Regulation Practice at PwC, the Prudential Regulation Authority’s Major Life Insurance Groups Supervision Department and in various roles at RBS over a 10-year period.

David's LinkedIn profile can be found here.

Yanna is a strategy and technology expert with extensive IT experience. Has successfully bridged the gap between business strategies and IT organisations. Has an established reputation in leading and delivering large-scale transformations. CIO (Head of IT) for Generali UK and for Generali Corporate and Commercial. Session Details: Welcoming digital change to the insurance business operating model and overcoming resistance to adapt

Alex is responsible for bank-wide data-led insights, executive risk reporting, risk assessments and MI strategy in NatWest Group Financial Crime Risk. Previously led the Group’s efforts to tackle tax evasion: responding to the Criminal Finances Act as well as wider tax transparency (FATCA, CRS) risk management.

Before this Alex was at Barclays, where he supported the front office and managed client and corporate tax risk, across Corporate Banking, Wealth Management, Investment Banking, and in-house mergers & acquisitions.

His Experience includes leading RBS’s response to the Criminal Finances Act 2017 (risk assessments, training, designing and implementing controls), M&A tax from conception to post-completion, including sale of Wealth Asia business and sale of UK trusts business, managing tax risks associated with a wide range of FS products and services including structured notes, prime brokerage, real estate financing, and secured funding (securitisations and covered bonds). He has significant experience working with Financial Crime on tax evasion risk and corporate tax compliance roles.

Mauricio Toro holds a PhD in Computer Science from Université de Bordeaux, France. As the principal data scientist at Cheddar,
best newcomer at the British Bank Awards 2024, he developed solutions to maximize user savings using AI and NLP.
Previously, as a technical leader at a large fintech company in latin america, he developed solutions for customer feedback
summarisation using AI and NLP.

Tom is responsible for Tungsten Automation’s global AI strategy, related product roadmap priorities and go-to-market value propositions, across Tungsten’s Intelligent Automation, Workflow, Intelligent Document Processing (IDP), Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and e-Invoicing platforms.

With more than 25 years in the software industry, Tom has hands-on experience with a wide range of integration, automation, cloud, data, and AI technologies, bringing a deep understanding of how different solution capabilities can complement each other to increase business value and accelerate innovation.

Zil is a Director at Celent, global research and advisory firm specialising in Financial Services. Zil leads the firm’s Retail Banking and Payments practice and is based in London. His research focuses on the impact of technology-driven change in banking, particularly on consumer payments, digital identity, and the open financial services ecosystem. Zil has a global perspective with an emphasis on market developments in Europe and North America.

Zil is a regular speaker, chairman, and panel moderator at the leading payments industry events, such as Finovate, Money 2020, FTT Embedded Finance and Super-Apps, and many others. He has also been widely quoted in the press, such as The Economist, The Financial Times, The Banker, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The New York Times, American Banker, PaymentSource, and other publications.

Prior to joining Celent, Zil was a management consultant, most recently at Oliver Wyman. He has over 25 years of advisory experience with a strong focus on cards and payments innovation and has worked with major financial institutions and technology players around the world on a range of strategic issues.

Zil has an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University and MSc in Applied Mathematics from Kaunas University of Technology. He is fluent in English, Russian, and Lithuanian.

Leanne is a Partner at KPMG in the UK, where she is the Head of AI, Advisory. With over 20 years of consulting experience, her proficiency encompasses a comprehensive range of data disciplines, including Data Architecture, Data Strategy, Data Management and Governance, as well as Advanced Analytics, AI and AI Ethics. Leanne excels in bridging the gap between business and IT stakeholders, ensuring seamless communication and understanding. Her adeptness in solving intricate technical challenges, coupled with her strategic foresight, has been instrumental in designing and leading the implementation of complex data-driven solutions. As the spearhead of Ethical AI initiatives at KPMG UK, Leanne is committed to fostering responsible AI practices that align with ethical standards and societal values.

Samed has been joint portfolio manager for ADAF since January 2022, a director of Altana UCITS Funds since 2017 and PM for the Global Billionaires Fund from 2020-23. Prior to joining Altana in 2014, Samed was a Derivatives Trading Analyst at SocGen, a Credit Quant Analyst at JP Morgan and an Associate Director at RBC Capital Markets where he covered senior quantitative and risk roles supporting derivatives trading. Samed is a CFA® charter holder and holds an MSc. in financial and mathematical engineering from Polytechnic Federal School of Lausanne, Switzerland. He also holds an Msc in computer science and applied mathematics from ENSIMAG (French engineering school ‘Grande Ecole’) in Grenoble.

Worked at Wall-Street investment banks: Deutsche Bank in New York and Wells Fargo in San Francisco.  And one of the biggest European investments company, Natixis. Subject expertise background in multi-asset derivatives and building out corporate large-scale institutional front-office trading platforms. 10+ years serving as a Senior Advisor in the Financial Services Industry, consulting on AI within: Security-Cyber, Data, Fraud-Identity, and Regulatory.  Bhavin has been recognised by media publications in New York and Washington DC.  

Dr. Scott Zoldi is chief analytics officer at FICO, responsible for artificial intelligence and analytic innovation across FICO's product and technology solutions. Dr. Zoldi is a named inventor on 140+ active patents and pending patent applications, with more than 100 granted. Scott is an industry leader in the responsible use of AI, Generative AI (GenAI), and Agentic AI, as well as an outspoken proponent of AI governance and regulation. His groundbreaking work in focused language models (FLMs) for GenAI and a patented use of blockchain technology for AI model development governance has helped propel Scott to AI visionary status. His recent awards include Constellation Research Award AI150, Tech Leadership Award from Banking Tech Awards, Tech Influencer Highly Commendable Award from DataIQ Data & AI Awards, San Diego Business Journal - Leaders of Influence in Technology (2025); Tech Leadership - Software & Services Provider from Fintech Futures, MachineCon AI100 Award, Innovator Award from American Banker (2024); Global Finance Innovator Award (FICO) (2023); and Corinium Future Thinking Award (2022). An enthusiastic member of the southern California tech community, Scott serves on the Boards of Directors of Software San Diego and the San Diego Cyber Center of Excellence. He received his Ph.D. degree in theoretical and computational physics from Duke University, and his work has been published in The Harvard Business Review and numerous scientific journals.

When not at his office or on a plane, Scott can often be found in his Ford Bronco, exploring the desert around San Diego with his family. To hear more of his views follow Scott on LinkedIn and BlueSky @ScottZoldi.

Dr Ryan Lemand is a seasoned finance professional with a diverse and extensive career as an Investment Manager and a Financial Regulator. He has deep experience in Fixed Income, Credit, Quantitative Asset Allocation and Risk Management, having managed significant portfolios of institutional assets in Paris, London and New York.

As a Senior Advisor to the UAE’s Federal Government, Dr Ryan worked principally on financial regulatory subjects where he both led and contributed to key initiatives that developed many of the core Financial Regulations in the UAE, including Regulations on Collective Investment Schemes, Financial Analysis and Consultancy Services, Market Making and others topics.

He was also principally responsible for leading the Funds and Investment Management team that handled the licensing and approvals for local and foreign mutual funds and investment managers. In addition, he advised on a variety of subjects relevant to the UAE’s macroeconomic policy.

Dr Ryan has a proven track record in green field projects and in growing and scaling companies, as demonstrated by his founding of the Wealth and Asset Management arm for the Abu Dhabi based ADSS Group, which grew to become one of the largest asset managers in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).

As a former Regulator, he is also well versed in advising on regulatory matters that range from obtaining financial services permissions to assisting in solving complex regulatory issues.

I focus on AI projects that enhance customer understanding and improve customer experience. I have worked on international projects, including 12 years at Intesa Sanpaolo’s International Bank Division, implementing and scaling machine learning across various banks and markets. I believe success comes from aligning AI initiatives with well-defined strategic objectives, a strong operating model and clearly measurable results. With a technical background, I understand both AI technology and its practical applications.

Alina is a seasoned expert in intelligent automation, with over a decade of experience at ABBYY, a global leader in Intelligent Document Processing. Responsible for identifying and implementing optimal solutions to address customer bottlenecks across Europe, Alina collaborates closely with clients and partners, to drive the adoption of AI technologies and accelerate process automation. Alina holds a Master’s degree in International Economics and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Data Science at University of London, with a focus on the trustworthiness of Generative AI.

Alexander Stumpfegger is Chief Sales Officer at CID, a digital solution and AI innovator. Over 20+ years at CID, Alexander has helped to develop technological solutions for web crawling, natural language processing, and semantic graphs to support information exploration to benefit clients in various industries. His background combines technological expertise with business-oriented approaches to AI and Big Data Analytics. Today, Alexander supports asset and wealth managers to leverage more actionable insights from quantitative, fundamental, and qualitative data sources to build better thematic investment products and to drive business development at wealth managers and private banks.

Based in the UK, Frank has been with CallMiner for 6 years, during which time we have seen significant business growth in the region. Frank holds a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) and a Higher National Diploma in Telecommunications engineering. He has worked in and around the contact centre and customer experience space for the last 25 years.