Archives: Speakers

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.

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.  

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.