Robert Christen is President and founding member of the Boulder Institute of Microfinance. Mr. Christen has held several positions including Deputy Director General at Banco Compartamos in Mexico, Professor of Practice in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, Director of Financial Services for the Poor at The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Senior Advisor for CGAP at the World Bank, and Director of Technical Assistance at ACCION International. He has had a prolific career advancing financial inclusion in more than 50 countries.

Mark Flaming helps companies define strategies, create customer-centered product design capacity, build business intelligence and data management capability, construct IT stacks with micro-service rich middleware, develop an agile software development practice, and take products to market. At this point in my career,  He has accumulated experience in a wide range of roles: work as an individual technical contributor across a range of domains, at C level, as a board member representing fintech investors, and as an advisor to policy makers and regulators. He has had a long career building and scaling mass market financial services in emerging markets and specializes in building digital financial service platforms and taking them to market.

Odelia Torteman is a Global FinTech & Digital Transformation Specialist at IFC– a member of the World Bank Group and the largest global development institution focusing on investments in the private sector in emerging markets. Prior joining IFC, Odelia led Deloitte’s FinTech & Blockchain practice for 5 years, where she worked closely with divers global FIs and enterprises, FinTechs, technology companies and VCs.  Before joining Deloitte, Odelia worked at the Office of the Chief Scientist under the Ministry of Economy (currently Israel Innovation Authority) at ISERD. In 2018 Odelia was selected by TheMarker Business Magazine as one of 40 Under 40 Promising Young Practitioners.

Omoneka Musa currently manages Digital Financial Services advisory projects in Sub-Saharan Africa as part of the International Finance Corporation’s Financial Institutions Group. She has a background in strategy consulting and project management and am also a ProSci Certified Change Management Professional. Over 10 years’ experience advising financial institutions and policy makers in banking strategy, microfinance and digital finance. She is passionate about creating efficient organizations that deliver tangible results for their clients and communities.

Dean Caire, Credit Scoring Specialist, IFC, and others. Dean has worked for the past 20 years primarily as a credit scoring consultant, 12 with the company DAI Europe and thereafter as an independent consultant. Over this time, he has helped clients in more than 50 countries develop hundreds of custom credit scoring models. Speaking and writing in plain language, he advocates clarity and simplicity in data analytics, the use of machine learning to support and inform expert analysis, and an unwavering focus on the business use-case.

Anup Singh leads MSC’s regional office in Anglophone Africa and heads the Helix Institute of Digital Finance based in Nairobi, Kenya. He is a customer – centricity and user-centered design evangelist. He contributed significantly to the development of the Market Insights for Innovation and Design (MI4ID) approach for MSC (MicroSave Consulting). MI4ID approach marries the traditional approaches of qualitative market research with design thinking, behavioral analysis, and innovations.

Innocent Ephraim is a Founding partner of Id8 space, independent consultant, financial inclusion and Digital Financial services. The reputed Digital Finance expert has more than 12 years total experience of telecommunication specifically in Mobile Money, in emerging markets and outstanding expertise in product development and brand management. He played an instrumental role in the Launch of m-pesa in Tanzania, positioning Vodafone as a leader in Mobile Financial services.  Before Finding Id8 Space, Innocent Served both in Tanzania and South Africa, 3 years in South Africa as a Product lead, 4 years as a Board member and the University Computing Center and 4 years in financial inclusion.

Paul Makin has been continuously engaged in projects related to digital financial services since 1994. He has been particularly focused on the mobile channel since 2004, when he was a primary player in the development of the M-PESA mobile money service. Paul’s varied work in financial inclusion includes work in Nigeria, India, Somalia, South Africa and with CGAP, World Bank, WFP, and other international organizations.  Paul has also consulted with large, established financial service and payments providers, such as HSBC, Lloyds Bank Group, Visa & MasterCard in the areas of DFS strategy and security.

Lesley-Ann Vaughan has been working as emerging markets digital financial services since 2005; She is one of the creators of the M-PESA for Vodafone, from concept to launched service, her name is on the patent. Following M-PESA, Lesley-Ann was Head of Product at a Fintech start-up venture focused on emerging markets digital MFI solutions. In the last 5 years, she’s been working as an independent consultant focusing on Africa, Myanmar, and Indonesia, working with CGAP, & Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, IFC, Telcos, Banks, MFBs & Fintechs including M-KOPA Solar. Recently she has been working with Microsoft’s emerging markets team.

Lucy Lawrence is an investor and entrepreneur who has led more than a dozen digital transformations for major retailers and will draw upon more than 30 years of experience in retail and commerce as a champion of digital evolutions.  Among many other responsibilities, Lucy led the Thought Leadership and Innovation for eBay Inc and chaired the Executive Advisory Board with global retailers including Ralph Lauren, Toys R Us, Palacio de Hierro, and sports leagues NFL, NBA, among others.  Currently Lucy invests in several start-ups in the tech field.

Fernando Trueba is the CEO and Founder of True Growth Company, a consulting company focused on supporting startups to implement growth cultures and accelerated growth strategies. Fernando is an expert in growth marketing and product development. Through his collaboration with Fortune 500 companies and his involvement in technology startups, he has cultivated more than 18 years of experience in the United States and Mexico. He is an advisor to numerous technologies, e-commerce, consumer products and Fintech companies, developing growth strategy, business model, product experience and market test (“product-market-fit”).

Momina Aijazuddin is IFC’s Global Head of Microfinance and works also as Principal Investment Officer in IFC’s Financial Institution Group (FIG). She covers IFC’s microfinance investment and advisory activities globally, which exceeds cumulative investments of US6 billion worldwide with over 300 MFIs, in addition to advisory services worth $63.7 million in 68 projects across 30 countries.  This includes oversight of the work in Responsible finance, Microfinance risk management and product development – to better enable MFIs and Banks to provide diverse and reliable products and services to suit their clients’ needs.