Archives: Speakers

Alessandro is the Head of Strategy, InvestCloud Europe and Asia, focusing on building and maintaining long-term relationships with major clients. He is passionate about developing client offerings that improve sales, advice and client relations via digital technology and artificial intelligence. He has a keen interest in sustainability and the impact financial institutions can have in this area. Alessandro has been instrumental in the development of InvestCloud’s ESG offering.

Alessandro is co-founder of Finantix, a firm that InvestCloud acquired earlier in 2021 as part of a merger to create the next-generation SaaS wealth solutions platform. Prior to establishing Finantix, he was a consultant specialising in the areas of process management, collaboration and CRM.

Alessandro holds a degree in Physics from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich. In addition, he also studied Philosophy and Linguistics at the University of California in Los Angeles.

Exemplifying high standards of work ethic and a deep understanding of firm initiatives, Marlies leads Joanknecht’s ‘Strategy & Support’ team, one of four pillars in the Dutch firm. This department manages matters in the fields of Marketing & Communication, Hospitality, Finance & Control, IT, Innovation, Strategy & Business Development, Compliance and Legal.  This extensive responsibility affords Marlies the opportunity to interact with the entire firm and presents a comprehensive view into the client and employee satisfaction and firm culture. Marlies trademark ‘can-do’ attitude is also recognized and appreciated by PrimeGlobal members. Marlies graduated from Maastricht University in 2013 achieving a master’s degree in international business, with a focus on accountancy. Marlies tenure with Joanknecht, in Eindhoven, Netherlands, dates to 2013, starting in the audit department, and quickly rising firm from assistant to senior associate. Marlies’ role developed over the last 5 years to marketing manager and now, since May 2022, is head of the firm’s Strategy  & Support department which is one of the four departments in which the firm is internally organized.  Marlies is closely involved in PrimeGlobal’s DEI, Women’s Leadership and Marketing Practice Communities.

I am an experienced senior executive and strategy consultant, with deep experience of how sustainability catalyzes systems change. I have a wide variety of leadership, relationship development, business development, commercial management, team building and project management skills. I have successfully led and delivered projects in complex multi-stakeholder environments. I have been project director of numerous C-suite projects in which I have supported clients and stakeholders across a range of industries with connecting their sustainability strategies with their core business objectives, and then measuring, valuing and communicating the value which this creates.

I am the Global Head of Sustainability with AICPA-CIMA, having previously served as a senior leader with the Value Reporting Foundation which consolidated into the IFRS Foundation on 1 August 2022 to support the work of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). I was honoured to be named by Accounting Today as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting in November 2022.

Dr. Swarz co-founded and is CEO of the Israeli biotech firm ATED Therapeutics. He is also a Partner and Managing Director at M.M. Dillon & Company. Dr. Swarz had served as a Senior Managing Director at Caris & Company. Dr. Swarz brings 35 years of experience in product development and marketing, equity analysis, capital raising, and investment analysis for companies in various segments of the healthcare industry. Prior to joining Caris, Dr. Swarz was a Managing Director at FBR and Life Sciences Group where he was responsible for corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions and private financing. Before that, he was a partner at EGS Healthcare Capital Partners, a healthcare private equity fund investing in biotechnology, specialty pharmaceuticals, and medical device companies. As an equity analyst in biotechnology research at Credit Suisse First Boston and Goldman Sachs, Dr. Swarz was rated among Wall Street’s top ten analysts in biotechnology by Institutional Investor Magazine for ten years. Dr. Swarz was a National Institutes of Health Research Fellow in Neurovirology, completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship (Neurovirology) at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine’s Department of Neurology and earned a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Rochester, and a B.Sc. degree in Biological Sciences (with honors) from the University of California at Irvine.