Dr. Joseph Muscat

Dr Joseph Muscat took office as Prime Minister of Malta on 11 March 2013. He was born in Pietà on 22 January 1974. He received his formal education at the Government Primary School in St. Paul’s Bay, Stella Maris and St. Aloysius’ College. He graduated with Honours from the University of Malta in Public Policy and later as Master of European Studies. In 2007 he attained a Doctorate of Philosophy in Management Research from the University of Bristol (UK). From 1992-1997 he was a journalist and eventually Assistant Head of news with a national private radio station.

He was elected member to the National Executive of the Partit Laburista at the age of 21 and later nominated as Education Secretary of the Party. From 1997 to 1998 he was a member of the National Commission for Fiscal Morality. Dr. Muscat was also a market intelligence manager and investment adviser. He successfully contested the first European Parliamentary elections in Malta in 2004. In 2006 he was the recipient of the Outstanding Young Person of the Year. In 2008 he was elected as the Leader of the Partit Laburista. Dr Muscat is married to Michelle, née Tanti, and they have twin daughters, Etoile Ella and Soleil Sophie.

Tim Draper

Silvio Schembri is an elected Maltese politician and academic currently serving as a Junior Minister for Financial Services, Digital Economy & Innovation within the Maltese Government. Hon Mr. Schembri was born in Luqa, the second child among four siblings. His father John Schembri has occupied the office of Mayor of Luqa since 2001.

Silvio is an experienced lecturer in Economics with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry. He is skilled in political communications, negotiations, sustainable development, political science, and analytical skills. He has a Master of Arts and a Bachelors Degree of Honours focused in Economics from the University of Malta.

Dr. Larry Sanger

Dr. Larry Sanger is one of the co-founders of the world renowned online encyclopaedia Wikipedia and is one of the most forward looking Internet Project Developers of the decade. Nowadays, Dr. Sanger is the CIO of venture backed start up Everipedia attempting to disrupt the market of online encyclopaedias through Blockchain including the company he had originally founded.

Everipedia is the next generation encyclopaedia rebuilt for the modern age. With over 6 million articles and counting, it’s already the world’s largest English encyclopaedia by content. Everipedia is free from ads and free to use for everyone under creative commons.

Roger Ver

Hon. Christopher Fearne

Hon. Christopher Fearne was born in Attard, Malta on 12 March 1963. In April 2016 he was appointed Minister for Health after holding the position of Parliamentary Secretary for Health since April 2014. In June 2017 he was re-appointed Minister for Health following the general elections and in July 2017 he was elected Deputy Prime Minister following the Malta Labour Party’s extraordinary general council. Prior to this, Hon. Fearne worked as a Consultant Paediatric Surgeon and Clinical Chairman at Mater Dei Hospital. He is a Member of Parliament for the ruling Labour Party and was the Chairman of the Foreign and European Affairs Committee at the Maltese House of Representatives.

Hon. Fearne has worked as a doctor and surgeon for over 30 years. He received his formal education at St. Aloysius College and at the University of Malta graduating in Medicine and Surgery in 1987, becoming a Fellow of The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He worked and studied in a number of children’s hospitals in England, including the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. He also lectures students of medicine at the University of Malta.

Tim Byun

Tim Byun serves as the Chief Risk Officer & Head of Government Relations of OKEx. Tim started his career as a bank regulator bank regulator in the US for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Federal Reserve Bank for sixteen years, following by five years as Visa Inc.’s AML Officer & Head of Credit Settlement Risk. He then served as BitPay’s Chief Compliance Officer for two years since then joining OKEx in August 2016. Tim obtained an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management and Bachelor’s of Science degree from University of Southern California.

Changpeng Zhao

Miko Matsumura

Miko Matsumura founded crypto exchange Evercoin, and is a Venture Partner with BitBull Capital. He is also an investor in the Pantera Capital ICO Fund (a $100M ICO-only fund). He is personally invested in FileCoin, Brave, CIVIC, Propy and Lyft. As chief Evangelist for the Java Language and Platform he participated in the first wave of the Internet, and is now fully engaged in the crypto-fueled Internet of value.

As a 25 year operating exec in Silicon Valley, he has raised over $50 million in capital for Open Source startups. He was an advisor to AI startup Sentient during their 100M series C and currently advises cryptocurrency startups like Guardian Circle (Decentralized Global 911 Emergency Services) and Hub (Decentralizing Professional Social Networking). He is also an LP with Focus Ventures, a firm with over $800M under management, 9 IPOs and 44 exits. He holds an Master’s degree in Neuroscience from Yale University where he worked on abstract computational neural networks.

He’s leads the Crypto Underground meetup in San Francisco and is a speaker at the upcoming Token Fest, Keynoting at ICOnference NYC, Block Con, Global Blockchain Summit, The Future of Money Summit and a thought leader at AFP the largest organization of Financial Professionals in the US.

Stephen Meade

Imogen Heap

London based recording artist Imogen Heap blurs the boundaries between pure art form and creative entrepreneurship. Writing and producing 4 solo albums, one as Frou Frou (with Guy Sigsworth), and collaborating with Jeff Beck, Mika and Josh Groban amongst others, Heap has penned tracks for movies, TV shows and produced the score for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, winning the ‘Outstanding Music in a Play’ Drama Desk Award.

Counting 5 Grammy nominations, winning one for engineering and another for her contribution to Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’, Heap also received an Ivor Novello Award, The Artist and Manager Pioneer award, the MPG Inspiration Award and an honorary Doctorate of Technology for her MI.MU gloves work: a ground-breaking gestural music making system.

In 2014 she envisioned a flourishing music industry ecosystem through Mycelia and released ‘Tiny Human’, the first song to use smart contracts on a blockchain.

Creating an artist-led, fair and sustainable decentralized ecosystem, Mycelia’s ‘The Creative Passport’ provides an ID for music makers to connect digitally with the music industry.With three world tours, sold out Royal Albert Hall and Greek Theatre shows and thousands of 5* reviews, this September Heap will embark on a year-long music and technology world tour.

Max Krupyshev

Tim Zagar

Zoe Adamovicz

Zoe Adamovicz is the CEO and co-founder at Neufund. A serial founder and investor. Co-founder and CEO at Xyologic Mobile Analysis GmbH (exited to Nasdaq-listed venture Digital Turbine Inc.), Head of EMEA and Executive VP of Group Technology Development at Digital Turbine. Strong background in electronics and informatics and 20 years experience as a founder. Mentor at the Gaza Sky Geeks, supporting technology entrepreneurship in the challenging area of the Gaza Strip and helps introducing Blockchain. Zoe is also involved in a number of ecosystem building projects, such as our advisory to Maltese and German governments on creating DLT framework. Just recently she has joined the Innovation Board advising to Minister of Digitalization in Germany.

Dr Abdalla Kablan

Dimitris Litsikakis

In 2018 he was appointed Country Manager Greece for ​Revolut​ the fastest growing FinTech based in London. Having secured $336M in funding, Revolut has an impressive $1,7B valuation. With 2.5 million users across Europe, Revolut provides the fastest, safest and easiest way to get innovative banking services with a mobile-first approach. Since 2014, he also acts as Athens Chapter Director for Startup Grind, the largest entrepreneurship community in the world.

Rachel Wolfson

Kris Marszalek

Daniel Grech

Marco Streng

Being a young prodigy in mathematics, Marco Streng discovered Bitcoin while studying emerging and self-organising networks in 2011. He became involved in the Blockchain and cryptocurrency community during its earliest days. He is the CEO and Co-Founder of Genesis Mining. Genesis Mining is the world’s largest multicurrency mining and Blockchain infrastructure company and acts as a key driver and advocate for the whole ecosystem.

Dr. Angelo Dalli

Angelo Dalli is a serial entrepreneur with involvement in a number of companies in the Technology, Entertainment and Gaming industries. Since the late nineties he has distinguished himself for his ability to combine deep technical ability (he holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science) with commercial acumen. Through his innovative disposition, ability to build and lead teams, he has secured over 21 investments into his ideas from EU funds, Private Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists, propelling his companies into the international domain. Angelo is a fully accredited member of EBAN, the European Business Angel Network. Angelo is also invested in the London based Seedrs, the leading European crowdfunding site with over 280 investments, and is regulated by the UK FCA.

Angelo has been involved in four IPOs, one on NASDAQ in the US, two on NASDAQ OMX in Sweden, and the Oslo Borse with a total market capitalization totaling over €500 Million. In his role in Research & Development, he has authored over 23 conference papers in Europe and the US focusing on the application of AI, Natural Language Processing and Search Engine technology to a number of industry verticals and domains. Angelo has also represented Malta in various international events and one of his first international achievements was to win a bronze medal at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) in 1995.

Angelo’s profile is a realization of the mantra he works by ‘To create scaleable, repeatable technology businesses that lead by innovation’.

Rahul Sood

Kiran Raj

Jani Valjavec

Dr. Hermann Hauser

Oleg Seydak

Hon. Silvio Schembri

Silvio Schembri is an elected Maltese politician and academic currently serving as a Junior Minister for Financial Services, Digital Economy & Innovation within the Maltese Government. Hon Mr. Schembri was born in Luqa, the second child among four siblings. His father John Schembri has occupied the office of Mayor of Luqa since 2001.

Silvio is an experienced lecturer in Economics with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry. He is skilled in political communications, negotiations, sustainable development, political science, and analytical skills. He has a Master of Arts and a Bachelors Degree of Honours focused in Economics from the University of Malta.

Prof Paolo Catalfamo

Tugce Ergul

Stephen McCarthy

Stephen McCarthy graduated with a B.A. Honours in Accountancy from the University of Malta in 1986, and went on to obtain a warrant as a Certified Public Accountant. Following to this, Mr. McCarthy worked in the financial field as Financial Controller and Financial Consultant with various companies. In 1989 he joined a team of professionals from various management fields who jointly set up The Management Advisory Group. The Group covered most areas of management, including Financial Management, and specialises in helping local and foreign businesses to restructure and to meet new market challenges.

One of the group’s major assignments was the transition of the Water Works Department (Malta) to the Water Services Corporation between 1989 and 1992, in which Mr. McCarthy played a key role in the restructuring of the organisation and the commercialisation of its accounting system. Mr. McCarthy was appointed Finance Director of Greenpeace Mediterranean for five consecutive years, during which period he also formed part of the Greenpeace International Standardisation Board.

During his working experience, Mr. McCarthy has been working with different local companies in various sectors such as the service, property development and gaming industries. He also held the position of Financial Controller of Bigpoint International Services Limited for four years. Furthermore, Mr. McCarthy served for five years as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Union Print Company Limited and two years as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Untours Insurance Agency Ltd. Recently, Mr. McCarthy was involved in the social area, where for five years he served as CEO of the Malta Housing Authority. All the noteworthy assignments for which Mr. McCarthy has been responsible during the past years have earned him considerable experience and credibility in the field of business development and management.

Prof. Edward Scicluna

Prof. Edward Scicluna is the Minister for Finance in the Labour Government of Joseph Muscat and a Member of the Maltese House of Representatives, having been elected from the 5th and 8th Districts in March of 2013. Prof. Scicluna served as Chairman of The Board of Governors at European Investment Bank until April 20, 2015 and has been its Member of Board of Governors since March 13, 2013. Prof. Scicluna was also elected in 2009 to the European Parliament where he served for four years as Vice-Chairman of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee and as the European Parliament’s representative on the European Statistical Advisory Board (ESAC). He serves as Governor of The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He has been a Governor at European Stability Mechanism since March 13, 2013.

His previous appointments included that of Professor and Head of the Department of Economics at the University of Malta; Chairman of the Malta Council of Economic and Social Development (MCESD), Chairman of the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA), Electoral Commissioner, Central Bank Director, Mediterranean Insurance Brokers Ltd. director, Chairman in charge of political discussion programmes organised by the Malta Broadcasting Authority (MBA), Chairman of the HSBC’s Malta Funds Sicav plc and Structured Funds Sicav plc, Chairman of CWG plc, director at San Antonio Hotel and Spa and board member of the National Euro Change-over Committee (NECC).

Internationally he carried out consultancy work for the EU Commission, UNESCO, the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), the governments of Albania, Croatia, Libya and Turkey; and served on the Council of Europe Development Bank Auditing Committee. He was frequently sought for economic advice by the IMF annual delegation to Malta and Rating Agencies FitchIbca, Standard&Poor’s and Moody’s. Prior to Malta’s entry into the Eurozone he was appointed as a Euro expert by the EU Commission. He graduated from the University of Oxford with a Diploma with distinction in politics and economics; from the University of Malta with a First Class Honours BA degree in Economics and the University of Toronto with a Masters and Doctorate in Economics.

Antoni Trenchev

Antoni is co-founder and managing partner at Nexo, the world’s leading instant crypto-backed loans provider. Prior to catching the blockchain bug in early 2013, Antoni studied English, German and Finance Law at King’s College London and Humboldt University, Berlin. Out of college he was involved in the development of proprietary trading models in the hedge fund industry, and then turned his attention to fintech, becoming the Chief Innovations Officer at Credissimo, the leading European fintech group specializing in online consumer lending that has been an early backer of the Nexo enterprise.

As a member of parliament, Antoni advocated for progressive legislation to enable blockchain solutions for a variety of e-government services, most notably e-voting and storage of databases in a distributed ledger. More recently, he was a member of the leadership team that launched the Nexo platform in April 2018, just two months after raising $52.5 million during a private token sale. Since then Nexo has serviced hundreds of clients and has delivered millions of dollars in crypto-backed loans to the blockchain community.

Calvin Cheng

Calvin Cheng, Co-founder and CEO of ABCC is a media and technology entrepreneur. He has founded and sold several media and technology companies in South East Asia, and is currently chairman of China-based and ASX-listed Retech Technology, which he led to IPO. He is also General Partner of a film fund with China’s Bona Film Group and Hollywood’s Creative Artiste Agency. He was an appointed member of Singapore’s Parliament and is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.

ABCC was founded by a group of industry veterans with a broad range of experience and track record at some of the most successful internet, financial services and management consulting firms. The technology team members had been core members at some of the world’s most successful technology and financial services companies. The platform (www.abcc.com) went live in April 2018, issued ABCC Token (AT) on July 9 and launched its Trade-to-Mine mechanism. As a key component of its digital asset ecosystem, AT plays a critical role in building consensus and creating and sharing value in the community. With the help of AT, ABCC will integrate different stakeholders into one tightly integrated community. Within just ten weeks of operation, it had ranked the 8th largest exchange by overall volume in the world, and 1st in ether trades.

Dr. Kristian Haehndel

Dr. Kristian Haehndel is an early bitcoin enthusiast. His expertise spans a range of sectors, from mechanical engineering to altcoin and bitcoin mining and trading. He founded DQR, a blockchain services group of companies, with an aim to incorporate revolutionary technology and a means of building a more inclusive economy into blockchain. He is an honours graduate of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Mechanical Engineering.

Dr. Miriam Dalli

Patryk Kadlec

Chief of Business Development, a specialist in acquiring investors and strategic partners, negotiator. VP at BitBay. Focused on finding innovative business solutions and an introduction of a platform for new markets. During his 20-year career, he took up managerial positions and sat on the boards of G2A.COM, Paymento SA, 3DGence, Dotpay, and Playlink SA. He was responsible for creating and implementing strategies as well as coordinating sales and marketing projects.

Derik Kim

Dae Jin (Derik) Kim is the founder and president of Global Entrepreneurs Foundation (“GEF”) and also a co-founder and partner of HSR ANGEL LLC (“HSR”) located in Korea, which has done angel investment and company build-up.

GEF is the firstly registered non-profit accelerator in Korea as well as an officially-approved foundation by Korean government. It runs an accelerator named HSR EPICENTER I, II & III since 2016, June.

Before GEF, Mr. Kim was serial entrepreneur to found five start-ups, three of which were established in Korea, and two in the USA. Also he has served as CEO and Executive officer of several companies in Korea and USA, including EVP of Talon-International, Inc. During his career, he has worked as International sales man and global marketing specialist for 14 years, besides his entrepreneurship experience.

Nowadays he concentrates on making GEF the Gateway between Korea, Asia and Global start-ups ecosystem and working a partner of Entrepreneurs Without Borders based in Sweden and Faster Capital in UAE. He is also speaker, mentor and juror at international conferences including Startup Ole in Spain, Startupbootcamp Energy in Australia, India-Korea Business Summit and China-Korea Investment Forum, Asian Leadership Conference etc.

Paul Pavli

Within Blackmoon Paul is responsible for communication with larger counterparties, representation of the company in front of the public, building relationships with fund managers, service providers and other high-level tasks.

Paul worked for over 10 years as the Operations Director of the oldest and largest alternative investment fund management company in Cyprus. As a Director of the AIFM, he was responsible for business development and growing the AUM of a Luxembourg AIF to some €500m which included the onboarding and management of twenty sub funds, relationships with clients, service providers and regulators. Also as part of his duties, he was responsible for the management of the operational team of the various group companies including Alternative Investment Fund Manager & UCITS ManCo, Luxembourg AIF, Cayman Island Fund and structured products.

Before that Paul was employed in management and business development positions in the banking sector, both in Cyprus and in Australia. This included Card Services, Development Finance, Commercial Finance and Mortgage Lending. He started his career with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in 1988 and emigrated to Cyprus in 2001.

Daria Arefieva

A top crypto influencer and thought leader, Daria Arefieva for years has been a professional networker and community builder surrounding the fields of financial services and blockchain technology. She is the co-founder of ICOBench and the Founder/CEO of CryptoFriends, an exclusive company holding events throughout Russia, Europe, Asia and the Americas.

She is the mastermind behind some of today’s most unique event concepts including the blockchain Hypethon, Crypto iGatherings and ICO pitching all under the distinctive CryptoFriends brand. Her status in blockchain and other communities speaks for itself as she has gained a reputation for being a prominent vlogger, ICO advisor and is known for being the safest gateway to the Russian crypto market.

Joseph Cuschieri

Joseph Cuschieri, is the CEO of the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA). He is a Certified Public Accountant by profession, and holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Henley Management College, UK. He was previously the Chairman & CEO of the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA). At the helm of the MGA, Joseph focused primarily on reforming the governance of the gaming sector, restructuring the MGA, and strengthening its public outreach.

Prior to joining the MGA, Joseph was Chief Commercial Officer at Vodafone, and a senior consultant with Ernst & Young. He spent eighteen months enrolled on the Vodafone Group’s global leadership development programme. He also spent five years as Chief Operating Officer at the Malta Communications Authority.

David Darmanin

David is the CEO and founder of Hotjar. Before founding Hotjar he spent a decade generating hundreds of millions of dollars in growth consulting fast growing startups and fortune 500 firms.

He has built multiple teams, developed brands and run hundreds of tests for his clients – spanning across 19 languages, 12 currencies and 13 industries. Hotjar is run 100% remotely by 67 team members across 17 countries and is used on over 300,000 sites, 20,000 customers.

Heathcliff Farrugia

Heathcliff Farrugia is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA). He is specialised in business management, operational efficiencies, strategic planning, and regulation; and holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Leicester, UK. Throughout his professional career, he held various senior executive positions both within the private and the public sector. In 2014, Heathcliff joined the Gaming Authority in the role of Chief Operations Officer (COO), and was pivotal in the transformation process which the Authority underwent. He held this position for two years, up until he moved to the Regulatory department to hold the role of Chief Regulatory Officer (CRO) in 2016. In this role he was responsible for all Regulatory aspects of the Authority, with four teams focusing on Regulatory Supervision, Authorisations, Compliance and Player Support respectively.

At the same time, he was also a member of the Supervisory Council, and co-chaired the Fit & Proper Committee, entrusted with the assessment of the fit and properness of the individuals and companies applying for a MGA licence. Heathcliff was a board member on the Gaming Regulators European Forum (GREF), where he is now a member, and is also a member of the International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR) and the International Association of Gaming Advisors (IAGA).

Prior to joining the MGA, Heathcliff spent the largest part of his career in the telecoms industry, specifically with Vodafone Malta, where he occupied various managerial positions. In 2013, Heathcliff was also appointed Customer Value Management (CVM) Manager for Vodafone Italy in Milan where he was responsible for the overall planning and strategy within the Consumer Department.

Brian Fabian Crain

Sam Chadwick

Sam Chadwick is responsible for several FinTech innovation initiatives within the Financial & Risk business of Thomson Reuters. He has worked for the company in buy-side strategy and product development roles for 12 years in both New York and Hong Kong. Chadwick has a Masters in Financial Strategy from the University of Oxford and currently lives in Zug, Switzerland, where he is focused on cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology and identity management.

Paweł Sobków

Paweł Sobków is a strategist and financial director, who for 20 years has been associated with the capital market. CEO of Pinewood Holdings, BitBay operator. He sat in the authorities of Ruch SA, Bakalland SA, ZM Henryk Kania, Hawe SA, Inovo Venture Fund. He created strategies for building the value of enterprises, he was responsible for acquisitions, investments and controlling. He is a doctor of economic sciences at SGH, he completed MBA studies at the Maastricht School of Management.

Nicholas Merten

Rob Paone

Rob Paone, a.k.a. “Crypto Bobby”, runs a popular YouTube/podcast covering the cryptoasset space, as well as leading partnership efforts at AirSwap. Rob has extensive background in enterprise software, having worked at companies such as Oracle and LinkedIn and holds a Master’s degree in Information Systems from Northwestern University.

Anamaria Magri Pantea

Nour Al Ali

Domitille Dessertine

Member of the Regulatory Policy and International Affairs Directorate (DRAI) for the past five years, Domitille Dessertine participated in the creation of the Fintech, Innovation and Competitiveness (FIC) division in May 2016. She has been appointed head of the division, succeeding Franck Guiader, who left the AMF after seven years dedicated to financial regulation, innovation and competitiveness.

Domitille Dessertine joined the Autorité des Marchés Financiers in July 2013 as a policy officer at the DRAI in the Asset Management Division. She participated in European and international negotiations on subjects relating to asset management. In this capacity, she was particularly involved in the European money market fund reform project, which will enter into force on 21 July 2018. She was also a member of the working group initiated by the Financial Stability Board on shadow banking.

From spring 2016, she contributed to the creation of the French Fintech, Innovation and Competitiveness team, in charge of supporting innovative companies and reflecting on potential changes to the regulatory framework to adapt to the increasing digitalisation of financial services. Domitille thus took part in the launch of the AMF’s consultation on the framework for Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) and in the analysis of the responses received, as well as the rollout of the Unicorn programme, which resulted in some 50 meetings with ICO project holders. She also contributed to the AMF’s response to the European Commission’s public consultation on Fintechs.

Domitille holds a degree from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and is finishing a PhD in finance from the Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. She started her career in July 2011 at the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) where she was involved in several post-crisis financial regulation initiatives, including the work carried out on the identification of systemic entities and on the regulation of over-the-counter traded derivatives.

Eddie van der Walt

Eddie van der Walt is financial journalist based in London, with a background in covering commodity markets, an awareness of currencies and expertise in precious metals trading.

His interest in blockchain technologies was sparked when bitcoin’s price first failed to overtake that of gold in 2013, and then succeeded last year. He is part of Bloomberg’s cryptocurrrencies coverage team, but retains a healthy dose of scepticism.

Theo Priestley

Theo Priestley is widely profiled as a technology innovator, futurist and industry spokesperson. Tracked as a Top 100 industry thought leader in Internet of Things, Virtual and Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Fintech and future trends. Recognised by the World Future Society as a Visionary Futurist, Theo gives keynotes around the World helping audiences understand rapidly evolving and emerging technology trends with a view to predicting and informing product innovation, go-to-market strategies and wider socio-economic and enterprise impacts.

He has mentored early stage startups within accelerators such as HTC ViveX and Alchemist, one of the Top 5 in Silicon Valley. Theo has written technology articles and provided commentary for online publications such as WIRED, Forbes, HuffPost, Venturebeat, the BBC and European Magazine.

Dr. Adrian Attard Trevisan

Dr. Justin Litchfield

Vladimir Kurochkin

Vladimir has 12+ years of extensive experience in the game industry, with significant expertise in project management and development. In 2008 he joined Destiny.Games, one of Russia’s leading video game developer and publisher, and worked his way up from a project manager to president. Since 2017, Vladimir also holds a position of president at The Abyss digital distribution game platform.

Vladimir is in charge of The Abyss finance, business intelligence and development teams. He oversees the project’s financial planning, as well as investment and market analysis strategies. He also focuses on developing and executing strategies in games business and searches out new opportunities for bringing games (including MMOs, crypto games and AAA-titles) to The Abyss platform.

Vladimir is a graduate of The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), and has a degree in public administration and civil service.

Alex Dreyfus

Alex is a serial web entrepreneur with more than 22 years of experience in the digital space, building and developing tech businesses. In the late 1990s, he pioneered Webcity, the web-based interactive tourism guide, before completing a buyout with retail giant Carrefour, and later merging with a competitor service and selling to Yelp. After co-founding Winamax (the largest French online poker room) and Chilipoker in 2006, the underpinning technology platform was sold to Bally Technologies (now Scientific Games).

In 2013, he acquired the Global Poker Index (live Poker’s leading ranking authority) as well as The Hendon Mob (the largest live poker database in the world). Dreyfus recently raised $66 million through a private token sale for chiliZ – a democratic team management platform that aims to revolutionise the worlds of sports and esports, through blockchain technology and smart contracts. The first white label application of the chiliZ platform is Socios.com, which offers a turnkey solution for football clubs looking to adopt blockchain technology to monetise their fan bases through ICOs.

To boost blockchain innovation in Malta, Dreyfus has also established the chiliZ Blockchain Campus – a new fintech epicenter that will house world-leading exchanges, crypto-friendly European banks, and leading blockchain media groups.

Mikko Puhakka

Fiorentina D’Amore

Alexandr Chevtaev

Irina Litchfield

David Schranz’s

David Schranz’s track record as a leading entrepreneur, innovator, software designer and game changer, within the IT sector is second to none. Aside from his involvement with Ledger Projects he is the founder and CEO of Dakar Software Systems. In Malta, Dakar’s name is synonymous with People Management Software. David has over 35 years experience in this field, his love affair with IT started in his early teens, just when this modern technology was fast evolving. David earned his M.Sc in IT from the University of Liverpool.

Natalya Menshikova

Natalya is an internationally experienced director of Digital Media and Marketing with a proven record in the broadcast media industry.

For the last 9 years, Natalya has been in charge of all content and media of the global FTV network, including 13 TV channels, millions of subscribers on social media, OTT, paid TV, generating sales of over 100M$.

Natalya is a strong marketing professional with an MBA focused in Marketing Management General from Lauder Business School. Skilled in Investor Relations, Advertising, Communication, Mobile Applications, and Media Relations.

Natalya is the CMO for the new FTV Coin Deluxe, FashionTV’s upcoming ICO, dubbed the biggest branded ICO.

Throughout the last year, Natalya has been traveling frequently, as she’s in high demand as a speaker in conferences dealing with fintech, blockchain, branding and media marketing.

Juanita Brockdorff

Since joining KPMG in 2002, Juanita has given advice to multinationals on both international and domestic corporate tax issues, covering direct and indirect taxation. She specialises in regulated business, assisting clients with effective global tax solutions, including mergers and acquisitions, and advising on access to tax treaties, foreign tax credits, financing and efficient repatriation. She also leads the automatic exchange of information service line.

Juanita heads the Tax Committee at the Institute of Financial Services Practitioners, providing feedback on proposed legislation, including DLT assets, to Government authorities, acted as advisor to the Government on various tax-related EU law issues, regularly delivers presentations at local and international fora and has published articles in various international tax journals and reviews. Juanita is a highly-respected specialist in her field, is a member of the International Fiscal Association, is recognised by Expert Guides and is ranked as a Band 1 practitioner of note by Chambers and Partners, where she is highly rated for her “expertise and drive”.

David Galea

David Galea is an Innovative Digital Transformation Advisor with over twenty years of international advisory experience with one of the Big Four Firms, a number of Govt organisations, the Secretariat of the President of Abu Dhabi, as well as various organisations in the United Kingdom. David has led a number of high profile projects, including the roll out of 4G with one of the major telecom players in the UK, together with various digitalisation strategy and implementation programmes in the financial services, energy and manufacturing sectors.

David is the founder of BEAT Limited, a niche advisory and corporate services group specialising in the fintech, gaming, entertainment, communications, media and technology industries. Over the past two years, he has been particularly active in assisting innovative technology start-ups in developing new business models and monetisation strategies, using Blockchain as an underlying technology to disrupt existing industries. David is also assisting several of these start-up companies through the process of issuing ICOs as well as accessing adequate sourcing of finance through Angel Financing, Venture Capital Financing and EU funding through Horizon 2020. Moreover, he is supporting a number of established players in developing an appropriate technology roadmap with a view to leverage and exploit the benefits of Blockchain, IoT and AI within their own business model.

As regards David’s academic background, he is a Certified Public Accountant, and has read for a Bachelor’s Degree (with Honours) in Business Management at the University of Malta. He also possesses a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the University of Warwick, where he graduated with distinction. More recently, he successfully completed the Blockchain Strategy Programme run by Oxford University.

Patrick K. Armstrong

Antonio Giannino

Nikolay Shkilev

Sanja Kon

Sanja is a senior digital executive with more than 10 years’ experience in developing and executing global digital strategy, delivering sustainable revenue growth in multinationals within the E-Commerce, Fintech and Telecommunication industries.

As the VP of Global Partnerships UTRUST, Sanja’s main focus is to partner with key international players to improve the accessibility of digital assets and increase cryptocurrency merchant adoption.

As a creative strategist, always focused on innovation, Sanja has guided cross- functional teams to develop and execute the Marketplaces proposition at PayPal, with the aim of providing the best in class online payment experience to e-commerce platforms.

Sanja headed the European Partnerships strategy at eBay, forming key global relationships to enhance the selling experience for eBay professional merchants.

As Head of the Italian Consumer Strategy team at eBay, Sanja redesigned the omni-channel customer experience for eBay’s core vertical experiences, including the re-launch of the Fashion buying and selling hubs.

A multi lingual communicator, fluent in English, Italian, Croatian, Serbian and Slovene, Sanja is an excellent influencer with a proven track of building and leading international teams in challenging commercial environments.

Fascinated by how technological innovation impacts on our life, constantly investigating new start-ups that will shape our future.

Sanja is a speaker at international conferences, sharing her vision and knowledge on how the digital landscape impacts consumer’s behaviours.

Dr. Céline Moille

Dr. John Pigott

Dr. John Pigott is the Co-Founder and CEO of ABE, a global and regulated token exchange. He also has years of experience as an advisor to exchanges and crowdfunding platforms on strategy, market structure, and technology.

Joseph Portelli

Joseph Portelli has over 33 years’ experience employed in various capacities within the financial industry in the U.S and in Malta. He has vast experience as a portfolio manager, currency and commodity trader and has been employed with Bank of America, Nomura Securities, Goldman Sachs, Millburn Ridgefield, Global Capital, and Liongate Capital Management. He was also chief investment officer and managing director of FMG Funds, an emerging markets specialist. He is currently Chairman of the Malta Stock Exchange and Malta Stock Exchange Institute. Joseph founded the Institute of Investment Analysis and was a visiting lecturer at the University of Malta.

Nigel Green

Establishing the firm in 2002, Nigel Green is the founder and the driver of deVere. Mr Green’s insightful perception of the contemporary world was the key element that led him to create a niche for people who lived an international lifestyle, by creating a firm with a worldwide approach to conducting business.
With over 50 offices around the world, the deVere Group has a substantial global presence to be accessible to its international clientele. Despite the grandeur of the firm, the deVere operates on one cohesive note, as Nigel Green is very much active in every aspect of the business, instilling his vision onto employees.

Dr. Ian Gauci

Dr. Ian Gauci is a partner at GTG Advocates and Afilexion Alliance. He is engaged primarily in technology law, fintech, regtech, electronic communications, information society, data protection and gaming/gambling, while also focusing on consumer law, competition law, broadcasting law, cyber law, e-commerce, m-commerce, e-health, e-payment, information technology, unfair commercial practices and misleading advertising.

Dr. Gauci also provides consultancy on legal matters related to blockchain technology, smart contracts, crypto-currencies and ICO/ITO. He is frequently invited to participate and speak in local and international conferences, seminars and events touching on these areas as well as Electronic Communications, Data Protection and Technology Law. He has assisted the Maltese Government amongst others on issues dealing with E-Trust certification, the Malta Communications Authority (MCA) on its E-commerce strategy as well as the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA). He is also currently one of the strategic advisors appointed by Government on the National Blockchain Strategy Taskforce. Dr Gauci has co-authored the Maltese Electronic Communications Framework and lectures Legal Futures and Technology at the University of Malta.

Matthew Camilleri

Matthew is a Chartered Accountant by profession having qualified with PwC London in their Banking and Capital markets division, eventually moving to Corporate Finance advisory.

Matthew founded Castille in 2006 as a specialist recruitment brand and has been developing the business ever since.

Castille is the leading brand in Tech and Finance offering specialist recruitment, scalable staffing solutions, technical training and Digital employer branding.

Dr. Leonard Bonello

Leonard Bonello is a Partner within GANADO Advocates’ Banking and Finance team, assisting credit institutions, electronic money institutions and payment institutions in regulatory and other matters including ongoing capital markets issues. Leonard also heads the Fintech group at GANADO Advocates and is involved in assisting a number of blockchain-based projects. He assists financial institutions extensively in financing transactions and other banking operations with a particular focus on derivative contracts. Leonard is also a visiting lecturer and examiner at the University of Malta.

Sarah Austin

Sarah Austin started covering digital issues for Forbes’ San Francisco office in 2009. Her column originally appeared on the front page of Forbes.com. Today she writes frequent articles for Entrepreneur Magazine where her #1 article has 1,000,000 reads about Blockchain Technology and Crypto. Previously, Ms. Austin covered breaking news about the Web’s major players and Internet policy issues and also wrote feature articles on technology for Forbes. She has also hosted online video for the Forbes Video Network that originally appeared on the front page of Forbes.com.

Currently she is co-founder and CMO of SONchain, the predominant blockchain technology in the Middle East and Northern Africa.

Achievements: She launched her philanthropic scholarship program, CodingFTW, with the aim to get more teen girls involved with STEM and career development curriculum designed for inner city youth. She is on the board of the YMCA. She is a graduate of Dominican University with a degree in Business Strategy, a certified Data Scientist from John Hopkins University school of Arts and Sciences, and was one of the first to complete Stanford’s New Media Program.

Awards: She won SAP Hacker of the Year, 2013. Winner TechCrunch Disrupt, 2011; placed runner up in 2013. Winner, Sundance Film Festival Global Impact Award and Grand Prize Winner of Hackdance, Sundance Hackathon, 2014. Received the President of the United States White House Award for Outstanding Community Service, 2003, for her work bridging borders between Mexico and the US as an ambassador of goodwill.

Wesley Ellul

Wesley brings a wealth of digital experience to the table. He has overseen the development and creation of a huge number of websites including the original Findit plus portals for Gozo Channel, Malta Football Association, UEFA, Farsons, Malta International Airport and Avis. He is also one of the founders of Ticketline.com.mt, Malta’s leading ticketing services provider and Big Ticket Events, one of Malta’s top large scale events organisers and promoters. Wesley will be focusaing his attention on community building and management.

James Farrugia

James Farrugia is the Partner spearheading GANADO Advocates’ Investment Services and Funds licensing and regulatory consultancy activities. Leveraging his extensive experience working with the local competent authority, James is able to offer clients regulatory sound insight and practical solutions throughout the licensing application process on an ongoing basis.

James regularly contributes to international journals associated with investment funds and has addressed a number of local and international conferences focusing on this sector. He also regularly lectures on investment services and investment funds at training programs organised by the Institute of Legal Studies, the Institute of Financial Services, the Malta International Training Centre and the Malta Financial Services Authority.

Dr. Priscilla Mifsud Parker

Dr. Priscilla Mifsud Parker is the Senior Partner in charge of the Trust & Corporate Services department at Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates and a core leader of our FinTech Practice. Her specialisation in providing counsel to international clients on cross-border structuring and on various license processes provided a natural foundation for her to advise on virtual currencies and blockchain services including smart contracts, ICOs & Crypto Exchanges. Priscilla was a key member of the Chetcuti Cauchi consultation team that actively participated in the discussion fora that led to the development of the ground-breaking regulatory framework for digital innovation and virtual financial assets.

Priscilla also advises clients on investment services licensing, in banking and capital markets as well as initial and ongoing structuring of investment funds, such as real estate funds, alternative asset funds and more recently crypto funds. Her practice also consists of assisting HNWI clients with personal wealth structuring, and corporate clients in business start-up stage or with acquisitions, corporate restructurings, shareholder matters and providing day-to-day company law and tax advice to companies.

Neil Patel

An experienced technology entrepreneur with a background in real estate, Neil has founded a number of businesses in Canada and overseas. Neil has been a founding CEO for over 20 years and board member of various public and private companies in the UK, Canada and Australia. Neil successfully completed a two public listings on the TSX and ASX. Currently Kabuni Ventures is a privately held company shaping the future by positively impacting one billion people by unlocking and accelerating value through blockchain technology.

Robert Courtneidge

Nicholas Warren

Nicholas Warren joined CSB group in August 2018 bringing on board over 16 years of consultancy experience to international clients on the various possibilities presented by Malta as a Financial Services Centre.

Before joining CSB Nicholas held roles with big 4 Audit firms, mainly in the funds and banking audit departments. His passion for financial services started in his role as manager with the Malta Financial Services Authority, focusing on Professional Investor Funds, UCITS Schemes and Investment Services Licence Holders (MiFID) followed by management positions at two large fund management companies. Nicholas continued to expand his horizons when he joined local leading local law firms whereby he specialised in the fields of banking, payment services and financial institutions, capital markets as well as blockchain.

In the field of blockchain he provides clients with guidance on Malta’s legislative frameworks in the field of Initial Coin Offerings, Crypto Exchanges as well as to those companies who wish to establish a presence and provide technology related services to such entities. Nicholas enjoys working in close collaboration with the authorities, regulators and fellow colleagues and collaborators in order to give clients the solution which they need.

Nicholas has read for a Masters in Strategic Planning following a Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.) Honours focused in Banking & Finance from the University of Malta. He is ACCA qualified and holds a Certificate in Islamic Finance.

George Zarya

George Zarya is the CEO of BeQuant, a leading cryptocurrency exchange based in London and Malta. He has extensive experience in the investment and cryptocurrency sector, pioneering electronic trading technology in emerging markets, notably Russian, India and China.

Over the years George Zarya has led several successful large investment banking teams as well as running his own business and has spent his entire career in disruptive technology and finance.

Erik Wilgenhof Plante

Antoine Ferrat

Antoine Ferrat joined Erremme Business Advisors after successfully having graduated in a Masters’ Degree in Corporate Finance and Accounting in Kraków, Poland. His dissertation addressed the current challenges of “Tax evasion in Europe”.

Antoine has delved into the Block-chain technology and has been a speaker on various occasions particularly in relation to Crypto-currency. He has been thoroughly studying the subject and is a key person in the Block-chain team at Erremme Business Advisors.

Together with this team, Antoine is providing for various solutions to businesses interested in Block-chain and has been advising alternative Fin-tech organizations on Block-chain and alternative Finance, as well as VFA licensing and ICO’s. His studies in tax evasion have assisted him in identifying risks associated with Block-chain and Crypto-currencies. Consequently, it has become part of Antoine’s nature to advise clients on tax-related matters, anti-money laundering and terrorism- financing in the Crypto-currency world.

Eric Benz

Helen Hai

Dr. Veronique Dalli

Grahame Salt

Ilya Bere

Ilya Bere is the CEO at Changelly, an instant exchange platform that allows to swap over 100 cryptocurrencies and purchase them with a bank card. Ilya’s leadership skills and proper vision allowed to build the powerful and friendly team that made Changelly one of the most prominent exchange services in the crypto industry.

Ilya has graduated in Computer Science. Before going crypto, he worked for 10 years in Business Development and Delivery Management in ICT sphere. His strong Product Owner and Project Management skills were useful in many companies working with Mobile and Contactless Technologies, Payment and Loyalty Systems, Consumer Devices, Automotive, Education and Social Development.

Nowadays, Ilya’s profound knowledge in the IT sphere helps Changelly effectively deal with the growth issues and daily challenges. He controls the service quality for customers and a range of partners, contributes to the marketing strategy, and sets the right direction for the company as a whole.

Andrew Cachia

Andrew is a talented software developer specialising in building and designing Fintech systems. Having gained experience working in various sectors both locally and internationally, whilst leading development on a number of different systems, Andrew is always at the forefront of the latest cutting edge technologies.

Having worked on production level applications using Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Technology, Andrew has now begun focusing on delving into and designing systems using the latest Blockchain and Cryptocurrency technologies.

Dr. Joseph F. Borg

Dr. Joseph F. Borg is an Advocate and Partner at WH Partners, heading the Blockchain Advisory and the Gaming and Gambling Advisory sections of the firm. He also practices in the areas of Esports, Corporate, IT, Telecoms and Intellectual Property Law. Joe lectures Gaming Law at the University of Malta. He co-founded and is currently the Vice-President of Bitmalta, which is a non-profit organisation with a mission to promoting and stimulating discussion about blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies in Malta.

Nikhil Patil

Peter Grech

Michael Mathias

Dr. Christopher P. Buttigieg

Kenneth Farrugia

Ing. Efrem Borg

Ryan Goodman

Ryan is a Startup Programme Manager at the Open Data Institute. He manages and co-lead’s the Data Pitch accelerator on behalf of the programme, helping startups, SMEs and Corporates to engage with the programme to help foster open innovation opportunities through the use of data. Ryan’s experience is focused within Project and Programme management, and he has managed a number of European Funded H2020 programmes, which included managing the delivery of ODINE (an EU remote accelerator) and the European Data Science Academy (EDSA).

Gregory Klumov

Gregory Klumov ​is a CEO of STASIS​, the first tokenization platform with compliant institutional-grade infrastructure, three-stream verification process and a wide network of licensed service partners. Gregory started his career at the age of 15 as an entrepreneur when he founded a high-speed Internet Service Provider,
subsequently moving from IT into finance.

He’s got more than 15 years of experience in alternatives investment management as analyst and later portfolio manager, that helped him to recognize investment potential of digital assets in the early stages of Blockchain revolution. At a mid-stage of his career he managed complicated alternative investment strategies and derivatives focused UCITS fund which is the most regulated collective investment scheme on the market.

Greg has been an advisor to Maltese and Kazakh government task forces and his expertise was vital to the successful implementation of their recent blockchain-friendly legislative initiatives. He is a devoted and enthusiastic speaker, always aiming for simplicity and relevance: be it a large scale conference or a small intimate meetup. Gregory talked at World Economic Forum, Money2020 Singapore, Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference in Riga, Malta and Moscow.

He also gave lectures at a number of universities such as IMD in Lausanne, Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, Moscow School of Management Skolkovo and Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation. His comments and interviews appear on Forbes, Bloomberg, Bitcoin magazine and many others media outlets on a regular basis.

Sohail Zubairi

Sohail Zubairi currently serves as the Projects Advisor with Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre (DIEDC) which was established in December 2013 under the supervision of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Executive Council, to transform Dubai into the capital of Islamic economy (www.iedcdubai.ae).

He is the former Founding CEO of the international award winning ‘Dar Al Sharia Islamic Finance Consultancy’, established by him in 2007 in Dubai as the subsidiary of Dubai Islamic Bank which he headed before joining DIEDC.

Zubairi holds 4 decades of rare combined conventional and Islamic banking experience at senior executive and CEO positions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He holds professional educational background in both financial systems i.e. conventional and Islamic.

He has strong command over all facets of Islamic banking, Islamic capital market and asset management. In his illustrious career, Zubairi also effectively headed the risk management functions in reputable conventional and Islamic banks. He has transformational and result-oriented leadership style. He has held successful track record in engineering and fruitful implementation of business plans, including his brainchild concept of starting and running Dar Al Sharia highly successfully for a decade.

Under Zubairi’s leadership, Dar Al Sharia won over 2 dozen international awards for being the best Islamic finance consultancy and advisory firm – notably the most coveted Dubai Global Islamic Economy Summit Award and Dubai Chamber’s 1st Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Award besides twin IFN Malaysia Awards for the best consultancy and advisory firm for 8 years in a row.

Roberto Viola

Roberto Viola is Director General of DG CONNECT (Directorate General of Communication, Networks, Content and Technology) at the European Commission.

He was the Deputy Director-General of DG CONNECT, European Commission from 2012 to 2015.
Roberto Viola served as Chairman of the European Radio Spectrum Policy group (RSPG) from 2012 to 2013, as Deputy Chairman in 2011 and Chairman in 2010. He was a member of the BEREC Board (Body of European Telecom Regulators), and Chairman of the European Regulatory Group (ERG) in 2007.
He held the position of Secretary General in charge of managing AGCOM, from 2005 to 2012. Prior to this, he served as Director of Regulation Department and Technical Director in AGCOM from 1999 to 2004.

From 1985-1999 he served in various positions including as Head of Telecommunication and Broadcasting Satellite Services at the European Space Agency (ESA).

Roberto Viola holds a Doctorate in Electronic Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA).

Daniel Skowronski

Dr. Alexander Pfeiffer

Dr. Alexander Pfeiffer is Head of the Centre for Applied Game Studies at Donau Universität Krems (Austria), partner at Picapipe GmbH (Austria) and B & P Ltd. (Malta). He has a broad and deep understanding in the fields of media and game studies, marketing & HR, emerging (VR/AR) and blockchain technologies.

Prof. Tanya Sammut-Bonnici

Professor Tanya Sammut-Bonnici is the Joint Editor of the Wiley Encyclopedia of Strategic Management and Pro-Rector Strategic Planning and Enterprise at the University of Malta. She held the Chair of the Academy for Disciplined Forces in Malta and has served as senior management in the telecommunication, microelectronics and banking industry.

Her research is published in the International Journal of Management Reviews, European Business Journal, Encyclopedia of International Management, Encyclopedia of Marketing Management, as well as leading textbooks including Strategy Analysis and Practice, and Dynamics of International Strategy.

Ivan Filletti

Alberto G. Brugnoni

Alberto G. Brugnoni, a former director with Merrill Lynch Bank, is an independent consultant on Islamic finance and the Founding and Managing Partner of ASSAIF, the oldest Islamic finance consultancy in Europe. Over the years, ASSAIF has been instrumental in bringing Islamic finance to new markets and extending its range of activities to new areas.

• 2013 : The implementation of a multi-year and nationwide developmental strategy for the Afghan government.
• 2012 : The development of home ownership financing for Palestinians living in the West Bank.
• 2012 : The launching of Takaful in Afghanistan.
• 2011 : The maiden Islamic finance capital market transaction in Russia.
• 2009 : The membership of the advisory committee to the UK Conservative Party on the issuance of a debut sovereign Sukuk.
• 2006 : The financing of electricity generation from methane gas in four Syrian landfills.
• 2006 : The maiden Islamic finance transaction in Italy.
• 2004-2007 : The European-wide ‘New Life Style’ project on solidarity economy.
• 1997: The “Pilot Project Jannat al-Ard” for the inclusion of Muslim migrants in Sicily.

Alberto is furthermore a consultant to the World Bank for micro-takaful, was the 2012 chair of the Advisory Council of the World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists, the chair of the London International Takaful Summit (2007-2018), as well as the co-promoter and chair of the ‘Turin Islamic Economic Forum’.

Louis Giordimaina

An experienced aviation executive with over 40 years’ experience in airline executive management, operations, aircraft manufacturers, Maintenance and Repair Organisations (MRO), aircraft purchasing, sales and aircraft leasing.

Louis Giordimaina is currently the Chief Operating Officer of Aircom Pacific Inc., a company providing In-Flight Entertainment and Connectivity solutions to the airline industry. He recently served as Air Malta’s CEO, the national airline of Malta, as well as CEO of Lufthansa Technik Malta for a number of years.

He has been General Manager, Accountable Manager and Director of Hyperion Aviation and Eurojet, managing over 18 private business jets and Airbus A319aircraft. He is also currently a director of an MRO company as well as having served for a number of years as a director of Tailwind Leasing Company and Peregrine Aviation Leasing Company based in Shannon, Ireland.

He joined Air Malta’s engineering department in 1975 as an aircraft engineer. He occupied various positions in the engineering department with additional active roles in the airline strategic planning, aircraft purchasing and aircraft deliveries from Airbus Industrie, Boeing and British Aerospace, aircraft leasing and sales from and to various international Aircraft Lessors as well as aircraft contract negotiations. In 1994, he was appointed as the first Maltese Chief Engineer of the national airline.

Louis has been instrumental in setting up Lufthansa Technik Malta, a Joint Venture between Lufthansa Technik and Air Malta, of which he was appointed Chief Executive Officer and Director in 2002. He occupied this role until September 2011 after which he was retained as Director of the Board of the Company until September 2013

In 2006, he spearheaded Lufthansa Technik Malta’s expansion, which saw the construction of new hangars and facilities, a project worth over €70 million and completed in 18 months. Following this major expansion, together with an increased local workforce from 140 to 600, the company started carrying out base maintenance on both Lufthansa’s Airbus fleet of A330/340 wide body aircraft as well as major international airlines to become one of the major worldwide Maintenance and Repair Organisation (MRO) players, based in the centre of the Mediterranean.

An aircraft engineer by profession, Mr Giordimaina also read Business Management at Warwick University, UK. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

Paula Pandolfino

Paula Pandolfino is a serial entrepreneur and investor with extensive experience in alternative direct investments and private equity with a strong focus in the banking and insurance sectors. Paula is one of the co-founders behind the Founders Bank Project and an active investor in innovation particularly the DLT space . Before setting up her own private investment office she held a number of high level roles in blue-chip investment banks in London. Paula holds various board positions including, Executive Director of Bianchi Holdings Ltd, non-Executive Director of W1 Capital Management and advisory board of Stasis.

Alex Borg

Josh O’Cock

Josh has worked in social media and digital marketing since its inception and has developed an inspiring approach to digital marketing through consulting, managing and executing these digital strategies with a wide and truly international range of clients.

His passion for marketing and his long standing experience in the field inspired him to open Growth Gurus, an award-winning digital marketing agency based in Malta. In just 3 years, Josh has spearheaded the agency to national acclaim, picking up numerous awards in recognition of the exceptional work him and his team have done for their impressive list of clients.

Josh has channelled his energy into the new and emerging blockchain markets, focusing on delivering marketing solutions to the Blockchain and Corporate Services industries in the “Blockchain Island” of Malta. Josh has founded the international Blockchain and ICO news portal Blockchart.io with the aim of connecting new and emerging blockchain companies with their intended target audiences.

Ing. Ronald Attard Pullicino

Ronald administers a number of land transport sectors within Transport Malta, which he joined in 2010 after carrying different managerial roles with the local manufacturing industry. He is responsible for the development and implementation of new regulations for the local transport sector and actively participating in the development of the respective legal frameworks both with the EU, the UNECE and the International Transport Forum (ITF) at the OECD.

Christian Peregin

Christian Peregin is the CEO and founder of Lovin Malta (www.lovinmalta.com), an award-winning platform that has become the inside track to everything Maltese. The website was launched in 2016 and has trended into a household name thanks to its particular brand of daily news, humour and insider tips about the hottest events and food outlets on the island. Lovin Malta forms part of the media franchise Lovin Group, which is also represented in Dublin, Manchester, Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Turks & Caicos. Christian Peregin is an award–winning journalist and former PR consultant.

Reuben Buttigieg

Jean Farrugia

Jean is a qualified lawyer and partner with DF Advocates. Having considerable experience acting as a transactional lawyer, he specialises in financial services and corporate law with a special focus on funds and investment services (both from a regulatory and transactional perspective) corporate restructurings (including cross-border restructurings), joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions and equity issues, IPOs and general corporate advisory work. Jean has also particular expertise in privatisations of state owned entities and similar domestic and international tender and licensing processes.

Jean has advised major local and international companies such as banks, insurance companies, private equity firms, funds and investment advisors/asset management companies in the setting up and licensing and/or listing process, ongoing compliance work as well in transactional and operational related issues. He also occupies a number of posts as director on the boards of a number of financial institutions where he also acts as compliance and/or money laundering reporting officer thereby acting as liaison between such licensed entities and the regulator (the Malta Financial Services Authority).

Jean has also formed part of the legal team drafting of laws and regulations relating to gaming legislation and insurance directives. He has also co-authored reports intended for the EU Commission relating to the implementation of EU Directives into Maltese Law including Public Procurement Legislation in Malta.

David Vella

As a co-founder and CEO, David has led Altaro Software since the company was founded in 2009. Before that, David spent 11 years at GFI Software, his last role being Director of Product Management with responsibility for product strategy, OEM relationships and M&A technical due diligence.

David possesses an entrepreneurial mindset with a strong ‘getting things done’ attitude. Although lacking in formal academic education, due to a ‘hacker-style’ mindset he is self-taught on various disciplines including software development, sales, marketing and business in general. Through the years, he had the good fortune of working with and for great individuals who helped him get to where he is today. David sometimes serves as a mentor to entrepreneurs as he enjoys sharing knowledge and learning new things along the way.

Being to the point, truthfulness and avoiding B.S. helps David in the quest to be a good leader.

Sonia Hernandez

Sonia Hernandez joined Vodafone in 2012 as the head of supply chain radio access at the Vodafone Procurement Company (VPC) in Luxembourg. In 2015 she was promoted to Group supply chain commercial and services director and was responsible for expenditure across all operating companies, in the areas of Marketing, Customer Care, Human Resources, Business Services and Real Estate. She also was a member of the Board of Directors of the VPC.

Currently she is a member of the Board of Directors of Vodafone Germany and Kabel Deutschland. Throughout her career, Ms Hernandez has occupied key roles is sales, human resources and supply chain management. Prior to joining Vodafone, she worked for Siemens Mobile Communications and was in charge of global sales account management for international accounts such as Telefonica and Telecom Italia.

She was a key contributor to the growth of the Siemens mobile and Nokia Siemens Networks business in Latin America. She then made a career change to human resources management, and served as Head of HR for Nokia Siemens Networks.

In June 2018, Ms Hernandez joined Vodafone Malta as Chief Executive Officer. She speaks five languages fluently and studied Electrical Engineering at the Technical University of Madrid.

Jan Sammut

Jan Sammut is the founder and CEO of RefToken, the world’s first decentralised affiliate platform, as well as ICOMalta.com, a full stack ICO platform. A marketer by profession, he has previously held executive positions at industry heavyweights such as IGT plc, Stars Group and Highlight Media Group. Jan is a fixture on the European blockchain conference tour and has advised ICOs with market caps exceeding $1B.

Joshua Greenwald

For over a decade Josh has been head of desk and/or a major participant in algo-trading businesses. He led an equities group at DRW before running research for Asia and heading up KOSPI trading. Josh founded Greenlight Trading and later ran high frequency for Laurion Capital Shanghai before working on automation and propulsion at SpaceX.

Anthony David Gatt

Anthony David Gatt is a Manager at the Investment Promotion Department within Malta Enterprise, Malta’s economic development corporation.

Anthony holds a Bachelors Degree in Communications and European Studies from the University of Malta, a Masters Degree in Journalism and Media from the University of Swansea, Wales and a Masters Degree in Globalization Theory from the University of Aarhus, Denmark.

His career has included journalistic positions with Maltese private media companies. Anthony has also served as Policy Advisor to Maltese MEP Dr. Miriam Dalli and as Head of Communications to former Maltese Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Louis Grech. He later joined international economic intelligence company, Country Profiler Limited, where he served as Deputy Editor before joining MaltaEnterprise.

At MaltaEnterprise, Anthony has been tasked with attracting and supporting incoming FDI and start-ups in the Aviation and Digital Economy sectors including the Digital games and DLT streams.

Zhao Chen

Zhao Chen has over 15 years of rich cross-discipline experiences in banking and the international financial service industry.

He became fascinated by blockchain technology since 2015 and soon later found a path into this new area.

He is dedicated to inter-industry communication, building the NEO developer community, refining business models, and integrating blockchain use cases with technical expertise and understanding.

Edward De Bono

‘If you never change your mind, why have one?’ said the father of lateral thinking; Edward de Bono. He is presently the world’s foremost expert on conceptual thinking as the backbone behind structural innovation, tactical leadership, creativity and problem solving. His limited tools and methods have brought bewildering outcomes to firms all over the world and to people from a wide range of mixed cultures, didactic backgrounds, professions and other miscellaneous groups. Dr. de Bono conveys the progressive training keys that are absolutely vital for success in the challenging times of the modern world. He has been accredited with coming up with techniques of thinking that are unpretentious, concrete and powerful. His ideas are now being employed across a numerous institutions and organizations around the world.

The uncomplicatedness of his ideas has helped change the comportment, enhanced productivity and bring about profitable innovations in multi-million dollar companies and even start-ups. In his long and successful career, he has written over 75 interesting books, which have been translated to nearly 38 languages. Apart from writing, he is also a consultant and inventor and has held many offices and appointments at universities like Oxford and Cambridge. He also made two television series: ‘De Bono’s Thinking Course’ and ‘The Greatest Thinkers’.

Roderick Psaila

Roderick Psaila is a qualified banker, having graduated as an Associate of the UK Chartered Institute of Bankers (ACIB) and subsequently read a Masters in Economics at the University of Malta. He joined the Central Bank of Malta back in 1990 and had an 18-year career at this highest financial body in Malta, where he held various positions related to Banking, Monetary Policy Statistics and Financial Stability. In 2004, Roderick was engaged by the European Central Bank in Frankfurt to work as an expert on a specific assignment. In his last three years at the Central Bank, Roderick managed the Financial Stability Office.

In 2008, Roderick joined Nemea Bank and as Chief Operating Officer, he led the management team and was responsible for the setting up of the Bank. In 2010, Mr Psaila was engaged as General Manager by a prospective bank to obtain the banking license and develop the bank from scratch, before he moved on to set up his own consultancy firm – PsailaGrechCONSULT – specialised in the licensing and setting up of banks and financial institutions. Via PsailaGrechCONSULT, Roderick started working on the AgriBank project in 2011, when the firm was engaged to obtain the bank license and set it up. The license was granted in October 2012, at which time Roderick was appointed CEO of the Bank, a position he held for 6 years, until September 2018.

Mr Psaila sits on the Board of ABE Global LLC – a prospective Regulated Market Exchange closing in on a license in Malta, and on other boards. He is also consulting a number of companies on regulatory, financial and banking matters.

Julian Azzopardi

Julian Azzopardi is CEO of Junior Achievement Young Enterprise Malta Foundation (JAYE Malta), a Non-Governmental Organisation specialised in providing opportunities for youth in entrepreneurship. Founded 30 years ago, formerly known as Young Enterprise, today JAYE Malta provides non-formal education programmes and activities that help stimulate youth creativity and innovation at all levels of education.

Julian is a graduate in International Relations and holds a Masters in Socio-Economic Development, is a former European Commission and UNODC functionnaire and his Dissertation on the educational benefits of football programmes in underprivileged communities in South Africa was a perfect combination of his passion for the sport, travel and youth development. Julian is also a 2009 JCI Top Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World Awardee for humanitarian and voluntary leadership.

Luke Todd

Luke has a very strong background working for some of the world’s largest companies such as eBay and Aviva Insurance. His primary focus has been on Customer Services and being responsible for contact centres with up to 1000 people and has a remarkable track record for low staff attrition and developing a powerful employee branding culture to attract new talent.

Now,Luke focuses on strategic development for a variety of clients whether it’s in talent development, customer experience and C-Level coaching. Luke has an approach to developing talent that engages on a different level that brings about significant behavioural change to drive careers and business potential.

Tom Trowbridge

Mr. Trowbridge has been advising and investing in technology companies since 1996, starting his career as an investment banker in the telecom group of Bear, Stearns & Co. He began investing in early stage companies in 1998, when he joined the private equity firm Alta Communications. Over three and a half years he executed ten deals in technology, telecom, and media and served on two boards. After Alta he spent almost four years at Goldman Sachs before holding various positions at Lombard Odier and Atticus Capital. Prior to joining Hedera as President, Mr. Trowbridge started and ran the New York office for UK-based Odey Asset Management.

Dr. Bernard Agius

Dr. Bernard Agius is particularly passionate about anything tech and disruptive. He leads the Malta Communications Authority’s business innovation arm and is responsible for the development and implementation of initiatives aimed at growing digital business activity in Malta. Before joining the MCA Bernard headed the Maltese information society programme coordinating initiatives addressing ICT take-up, digital inclusion and digital competence.

Rafael Pascual-Leone

Rafael Pascual-Leone is Communities & Projects Officer of the Valletta Design Cluster, a community space for cultural and creative practice now under construction in Valletta.

The VDC will include a co-working space, prototyping lab, and venture incubator. Originally from Toronto, Rafael is interested in human-centred design, project incubation, and the design of creative hubs. He earned a Masters in Architecture from the University of Toronto and a B.Sc. in Computer Science from McGill University.

Alistair Farrugia

Alistair is an Innovation Analyst within the Malta Communications Authority’s Business Innovation function, tasked with undertaking activity that improve Malta’s attractiveness to, and readiness to host, digital business activity. Since joining the Authority in 2015, Alistair led the development of the Authority’s expertise across several facets touching digital business activity, including on startup ecosystems, fiscal and financial startup support measures, as well as phenomena surrounding both early- and later-stage investment. Alistair is also actively involved in the organisation of the annual ZEST and Budding Rockstars conferences organised by the Authority.

Andrew Zammit

Dr. Alex Grech

Dr. Alex Grech is a strategist, change consultant and academic, the founding Director of the Commonwealth Centre for Connected Learning and the Managing Partner of StrategyWorks. He has advised multinationals, governments, NGOs and startups in sectors ranging from ICT and neurosciences to culture and education. In the past decade, Alex has specialised in EdTech and disruptive technologies, advising Government on digital education, 21st century skills agendas and lifelong learning. He is the co-writer of a recent study on the Blockchain in Education, in collaboration with the European Commission. In 2018, Alex was appointed a member of the Use Cases and Transition Scenarios Working Group of the EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum. He is currently coordinating a nation-state blockchain credentials pilot in Malta.

Alex teaches new media literacy at the University of Malta within the Faculty of Media & Knowledge Sciences, and is an expert on two ET2020 working groups at the European Commission. He holds a PhD in Internet Computing from the University of Hull and is an FCCA by profession. Alex’s research interests are in digital citizenship, blockchain & identity, social media and power.

Steve Agius

Steve Agius works as a Chief of Information and Development with the Malta Communications Authority. Apart from his role in Strategic Information Management, he is currently coordinating a number of national initiatives aimed at supporting E-inclusion and digital participation. He has also participated in the crafting of the national digital strategy, Digital Malta. Steve is also a Visiting Senior Lecturer at University of Malta where he lectures Big Data Analytics and Digital Marketing.

Steve is the co-founder of the Malta Internet Governance Forum and Malta Cloud Forum and forms part of an international panel of jury experts of the World Summit Awards. In his role as Project Manager, he was responsible for the management of large scale projects both locally and abroad especially in relation to Enterprise Resource Planning, Billing, Order to Cash, Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing and process modelling. Steve has two honours degrees in computer science and information systems and an MBA in e- Business. He is currently researching big data, social media analytics, sentiment analysis and business intelligence.

Toni Lane

Toni Lane is an artrepreneur in the Digital Currency and Blockchain Industry. She has been a core founder at several impactful ventures, including CoinTelegraph. Miss Lane is currently creating CULTU.RE, a company founded to create global citizenship through cooperation, and evolve the future of government into communities beyond borders. She is an empath, investor, artist, advisory board member, transformational evangelist and founder who has been affectionately entitled “The Joan of Arc of Blockchain” by her peers and various publications.

Miss Lane ​serves, or has served as an advisor to several notable companies, funds and family offices, including, but not limited to: SingularityU, Polymath Network, Factom, The United Nations, Propy, HSBC, Cicso, the government of Saint Lucia, P&G, Institute for the Future and St. Gallen Symposium. She has been a figurehead for the use of technology to enable peaceful evolution into new forms of societal structures. Her speaking has been featured by BigThink, TEDx, Katapult, Polycon, Innovate your State, DraperU, NEXUSearth, Exponential Finance, World Crypto Economic Forum, Blockchain Economic Forum and many others. Miss Lane is grateful to have been given the opportunity to be of service toward these accomplishments, and retains the perspective that every idea of who a person “is” appears irrelevant in the face of time. True unconditional love and friendship; what matters.

In other worlds, Toni Lane is a recording artist and the founder of the “immateralism” (post art) movement where she uses consciousness as a medium.

Steve Cassar

Erik Mendelson

Erik is currently the CEO of RecordGram, the most recent winner of the TechCrunch Disrupt Cup and featured company on Apple Music’s original series “Planet of the Apps.”

He is also the current CEO and Co-Founder of TuneToken. TuneToken aims to incentivise all the stakeholders in the creation, discovery and distribution process of music while ensuring that a global songwriter database is created so they’re compensated transparently through the blockchain.

Additionally, he’s a tenured Executive Music Producer and artist manager whose artist clients have generated over $20 million in revenue. Furthermore, Erik has successfully implemented strategic and progressive marketing initiatives over his career and is a proven leader in developing new revenue streams for ongoing businesses in the entertainment industry.

Chidi Akutu

Chidi has a wealth of managerial experience with nearly two decades of B2B and team-building success in financial services. Before coming onboard, Chidi served for twelve years as Accenture’s UK Trading Platforms Business Lead. He capped this tenure by securing over $100,000,000 in partnerships over his last four years.

Chidi has also built and managed global teams of 100+ individuals on several occasions, and is an expert in implementing end-to-end large-scale business process and management programs. His most recent experiences, including those at Poseidon, focus on helping organizations deal with technological change. His ability to comprehend, communicate, and optimize complex financial transactions is second to none.

Kostantinos Pantos

Since 2001, when he started his professional career, he was given the opportunity to work with some of the largest Greek Software development Companies and worked with cutting edge Microsoft technologies.

One of his greatest interests is helping out in the IT community, to that end he participates in various events, give speeches, maintain a technical blog at http://blog.pantos.name, where he blogs about his IT experiences, has started www.azureheads.gr a community dedicated on Cloud Computing running monthly meetups and managed to hold the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for 8 years.

Nowadays he works as a Solutions Architect for Microsoft covering Greece, Cyprus and Malta, where he focuses in providing innovative cloud solutions and empowering every company to achieve more.

Agnieszka Sarnecka

Agnieszka Sarnecka, VP Ventures at Neufund, has been part of the team since the very beginning. She is responsible for building and managing the Security Token Offering flow, and maintaining relationships with key partners and investors. Prior to that, she has been working for 5 years for tech startups in the fields of Project, Product, and Operations Management in Zencap Deutschland, CHILICON IT, and Home24. Agnieszka studied Economics and Business at the Humboldt University of Berlin.

Dr. Christian Ellul

Victoria Saucier

Victoria Saucier is the Managing Partner at Ignite 500, an investments group with a diversified portfolio of technology, media and healthcare companies I CEO of Gainfy, AI and blockchain healthcare company I Executive producer of SharkChain TV, pitching competition show for emerging tech companies I Mentor and advisor to companies developing blockchain and AI applications to solve inefficiencies in varies industries.

Ms. Saucier has over 20 years of experience in business development and capital investments and have lead several companies through various stages of growth, from inception to a successful exit.

She is an advocate of impact investing and empowering entrepreneurs with groundbreaking technologies to drive innovation, create impactful social change and foster global economic growth. Because of her leading work in this space, she represented the US Delegation at the Global Entrepreneur Summit in India and Women’s Economic Empowerment Global Summit in UAE in 2017.

Ms. Saucier is a public speaker and serves on numerous advisory boards. She is fluent in four languages with earned degrees in linguistics, clinical medicine, business and economics.

Clinton Senkow

Clinton is the Co-founder & COO of Influencive which is an online media platform that teaches and inspires millions of people around the world about entrepreneurship, success, and blockchain. He’s also the VP of Partnerships at ShipChain which is a company disrupting the freight & logistics industry by utilising blockchain technology by building a track and trace open ecosystem along the supply chain. He’s a writer, Forbes featured speaker and advisor to other entrepreneurs and blockchain organisations while being a former recipient of the G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance representing Canada.

Naima Zakaria

Naima Zakaria is the Author and founder of Blockchain for Good : the book and the network , a strategy and marketing agency specializing in designing programs that focuses on ‘values’ design in behaviors, meta ideas , services and products. To help you get people engaged and deliver change ValuesExplorer toolset for the Meta models of GoodBlockchainTM leverages meta concepts and social networking technology. Its about values conversation around our collective stake in the Blockchain community: where should our collective intelligence ,responsibility and innovation lie? Naima is passionate about helping people change the world for better and is head fast moving forward on finding ways to spread and scale good things faster. With Blockchain for Good she has worked on projects as diverse as artificial intelligence , streaming distribution tokenization models, and next generation computing marketing.

Liz Hagelthorn

Liz Hagelthorn is the Director of Partner Marketing at Muzik, a hardware & software (“Smartware”) platform that is powering a new generation of connected, intelligent, wearable ambient technology. Liz leads strategy for Muzik’s celebrity investors and ambassadors and is the mastermind of the company’s community engagement strategy.

Her creativity is backed with a diverse background in social media, technology, and entertainment. As an expert on subculture, future trends, youth and global influence, Liz has a proven track record of successfully engaging audiences of all types to create impactful moments.

Prior to Muzik, Liz spent four years at Twitter, where she created and managed executive and client relations for Twitter’s most valued partners across the Media & Entertainment, Technology and Automotive sectors. In addition, she led initiatives and special projects for the content partnerships and global revenue teams.

Liz has also held positions at Google, where she gained a broad knowledge base about the power of engagement. There, she conceived and created 40+ complex events, initiated and managed key social media accounts. During her time at Nielsen Merksamer, she handled campaign finance and political lobby activity for clients in highly regulated industries including tech, energy and the pharmaceutical sector. Liz graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley.

Anthony Camilleri

Anthony F. Camilleri is a senior partner at the Knowledge Innovation Centre, where he specialises on Innovation Processes and Quality Assurance in Education. He also serves as secretary to ISO PC288/WG1 which developed ISO 21001 – Managements Systems for Educational organizations. Mr. Camilleri is currently focused on the modernisation of systems for credentials, which work has led him to focus on technologies, quality assurance and standards for credentials. With respect to technologies he has specialised on blockchain and its applications for education, authoring a report on the topic in collaboration with the JRC. On quality assurance, he acts as scientific coordinator to the OEPASS project, which is developing a quality assurance methodology for credentials, while on standards he acts as scientific coordinator of the MicroHE project which is developing metadata standards for credentials. He is also consulting the European Commission on Action 3 of the Digital Education Action Plan – Digitally Signed Qualifications.

Anthony is a consumate coffee-addict, sci-fi buff and believer in the power of education to realise human potential.

Harald Rösch

Harald Rösch is Chief Executive Officer of Melita (Malta) joining in April 2016. He was previously CEO of blizoo (Bulgaria, 2014-15), Kabel Baden-Württemberg (Germany, 2009-2012) and HanseNet (Germany, 2003-2008).

Prior to this he held management positions in Telecom Italia and Infostrada and worked with McKinsey&Co for 6 years.

His experience in non-executive Board positions include Sky Germany, Internetstores, United Digital Group and SEAT Pagine Gialle. Mr. Rösch has degrees in Business Administration from ESB Reutlingen and ESC Reims and holds an MBA from INSEAD.

Damian Mifsud

Damian has over 15 years of experience in KYC and general compliance for regulated financial businesses. Damian began his career in payments and worked with some major financial institutions such as Barclays Merchant Services, Omnipay, and MasterCard. Damian is a risk management specialist and the founder of QGen, a global innovative KYC and KYB solution provider for banks, e-wallets, prepaid card issuers, and payday day loan providers. More recently, Damian co-founded KnowMeNow, a cutting edge blockchain enabled KYC Solution, where he also holds the role of CEO.

Damian holds a B.Sc. in Business from Buckingham University.

Dr. Joshua Ellul

Dr. Joshua Ellul, director of the Centre for Distributed Ledger Technologies, joined the Department of Computer Science at the University of Malta as a lecturer after having worked on R&D projects at IBM Research Zurich and Imperial College London. His main areas of research focus on Blockchain and IoT integration and virtual machines in aim of enabling a ‘Blockchain of Things’ reality. Dr. Ellul was instrumental in setting up the multi-disciplinary Blockchain Research Group at the University of Malta and the Centre for Distributed Ledger Technologies, and is actively working on curriculum development for Blockchain and DLT related subjects.

Laszlo Giricz

Enzo Villani

Enzo is Managing Partner of Transform Group, where he leads corporate development for the combined group including business development, M&A, strategy, and sales. Enzo also leads Transform Strategies, focused on business development, corporate strategy, stakeholder communications and after-market support. Enzo is active in building the security token infrastructure through his investments and advisory that include: Velocity Ledger, Delaware Board of Trade, Aurora IDEX and Alt5Sigma. Enzo is an entrepreneur and active investor in blockchain companies and projects, ICOs, and Security Token Offerings. He is an advisor to over 20 ICOs in 2018 including Monarch Blockchain, CG Blockchain, Kind Heaven, Big Data Block, Swarm Fund, Fluid.Capital, Vaultbank, and ZED Network.

Enzo has over 25 years of high-impact strategy, brand, financial communications and merger and acquisition experience. He has raised over $500 million to develop and build strategic companies that are innovative and sector-leading.

Enzo was Managing Director, Strategy for the NASDAQ, where he co-founded NASDAQ Global Corporate Solutions Group. After spending six years at NASDAQ, he co-founded and became Chief Strategy Officer for the corporate communications investment fund SAGE Holdings, where he completed a $200 million strategic M&A roll-up of five Tier-1 communications firms, including DF King & Co. Enzo was the CSO, Board Member and President of North America for MZ Group, which completed a roll-up across Asia, Brazil, and the US. Enzo was CEO of Equities.com, the world’s largest middle-market, and emerging growth company content publisher, growing the business 300% over three years. Enzo has spoken on financial communications, marketing and the capital markets. He has lectured at Clarkson University and the State University of New York on Entrepreneurship, Finance, and Marketing. He holds an MBA from Cornell University.

Joshua Broggi

Dr. Joshua Broggi is an academic and the founder of Woolf, which is building the first blockchain-powered university. At the University of Oxford, Joshua has been a member of the Faculty of Philosophy, a member of Wolfson College, and a member of the governing congregation of the University. He holds an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship from the German government, and in that capacity he is a guest of the Institut für Philosophie at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Natalie Smolenski

Natalie Smolenski is an anthropologist who leads business development for Learning Machine, a blockchain technology firm. As an author and public speaker, she focuses on the intersections of identity, technology, and government. By bringing a scientific perspective to distributed digital technologies and social transformation, she helps audiences from all backgrounds understand how individuals connect to form communities and build the infrastructures of the future.

Dane Stangler

Dane Stangler is Chief Policy Officer at Startup Genome, focusing on data assessment and policy analysis for entrepreneurial ecosystems around the world. He has also served as the Visiting Vorzimer Professor of Entrepreneurship at LIU Post. Formerly Vice President for Research and Policy at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, he has written for the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Forbes.com, Washington Monthly, testified in the US Senate, and is frequently quoted by national broadcast and print outlets. As a frequent public speaker, he has addressed local, national, and international groups and conferences on topics of economic growth and entrepreneurship development. You can find him on Twitter, @danestangler, and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dane-stangler/.

Stefan Briffa

Stefan has been involved in the telecommunications business for 22 years. He handles regulatory, competition and policy and public affairs activities for GO, Malta’s foremost and longest established telecoms company. His academic background is in business studies and EU public policy. For many years he was a visiting lecturer at the University of Malta, where he delivered post-graduate and undergraduate courses on business policies and practices in the EU.

This year he has been tasked with exploring opportunities for GO to invest in the tech start-up environment and he is keen to hear from techies seeking capital investment, telecom services support and mentoring.

Mark Curmi

Mark is an Associate Director in KPMG Malta, leading the Banking, Financial Institutions and DLT advisory services arm of the Malta practice. He holds a Bachelors’ degree in Banking, with Honours in Management from the University of Malta, and has in excess of twelve years of local and international banking experience. Mark joined KPMG in 2014, to drive the Banking Service offering across Audit, Tax and Advisory within the firm.

His role within the firm is one of an industry specialist, which has seen him at the forefront of some major engagements, including advice with disposals and acquisitions of Banks and Financial Institutions, licensing of new Credit and Financial Institutions, ongoing regulatory advice and assistance, and, more recently assignments related to the emerging fields of financial technology, Coin Offerings and Virtual Currencies.

Mark represents the local practice at KPMG’s ECB Office in Frankfurt and forms part of KPMG’s Global DLT Working group.

Dave Jevans

Ulisse Dell’Orto

Ulisse Dell’Orto is Head of Business Development Europe and Global Cryptocurrency Businesses Lead at Chainalysis.

Chainalysis is the world’s leading AML software for tracing virtual currencies (notably Bitcoin). Chainalysis collaborates with different partners: Law Enforcement, Governments, Financial Services, Banks and Bitcoin Businesses.It was the official investigative tool used in the Mt Gox take down (biggest exchange in the world) by the Japanese authorities.

Ulisse leads Cryptocurrency businesses globally at Chainalysis and spends most of his time guiding exchanges through AML compliance. He is constantly meeting with regulators all over the world to raise awareness about the AML solutions available to the different stakeholders in the industry.

Ulisse previously founded a community named “The Blockchain Bible” aimed at creating a community of Blockchain enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, mentors and investors based in Berlin. The Blockchain Bible organises 2 monthly events, one dealing with the applications of the Blockchain technology, the other one to educate people who want to start investing in cryptocurrencies.

He is currently partnering up with ESCP Europe Business School to launch a Blockchain Summer School in Berlin.

Vincenzo Belpiede

Vincenzo Belpiede is an Italian-American entrepreneur focused on blockchain and talents. Vince has been matching talent worldwide and tech companies mainly in Silicon Valley and San Francisco with www.stellartalents.com and has been developing a related blockchain payment and savings protocol called www.bitdiem.com. Given his growing expertise with blockchain Vince has been invited to join www.prysmgroup.io, a worldwide group of token economics and governance experts that aims to take blockchain companies mainstream.

Melanie Mohr

Melanie Mohr is a Berlin-based entrepreneur with 20 years’ experience producing videos. In 2016 she founded YEAY – the leading video m-commerce platform providing GenZ with a space to share and shop. In 2018 she became the founder and CEO of WOM Token Ltd., the blockchain company helping brands tap into peer-2-peer recommendations.

Lord Marland

Lord Marland is Chairman of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council and Enterprise and Investment Company Ltd. In December 2015, he was awarded the Order of Merit of Malta. He retired as the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy and Chairman of the Business Ambassador Network at 1 January 2014.

He was Minister for the Department of Energy and Climate Change from 2010 – 2012 and subsequently for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Lord Marland was one of the founding directors of Jardine Lloyd Thompson plc, a multinational insurance business.

He has founded or led the acquisitions of several companies including: Janspeed Ltd, Hunter Boot Ltd, Insurance Capital Partners, Jubilee Insurance Ltd, Wisden Cricketer Ltd, Tricouni Brand Ltd, Ecoworld Management and Advisory Services (UK) Ltd and Digital Shopping Channel Ltd.

He is Chairman of Tickets for Troops and the Churchill International Society, President of The Commonwealth Youth Orchestra and Choir, Trustee of Peggy Guggenheim (UK) and The Atlantic Partnership and Patron of Salisbury and South Wiltshire Cricket.

Vladimir Nikitin

Vladimir Nikitin is a world-class professional and legal consultant with over ten years’ experience in the legal, finance, retail, and IT industries.

He is a renowned cryptocurrency expert and ICO advisor (Top-5 worldwide ICObench People of blockchain). As an active supporter and advocate of blockchain technology, Vladimir provides consultancy and advice to selected ICOs. His network in the crypto community counts over 31 500 members.

Simon Azzopardi

Simon is the Chief Product Officer at Sherpa, an insurance company focused on the self employed having raised £3M in seed and is looking to make getting and keeping the right insurance simpler.

With over 10 years experience working with startups across various industries, having organised and mentored at over 100 events, sits on various boards across Europe (startups/tech-focused associations/DTL) and has a strong soft spot for social impact businesses.

Simon is also the President of Silicon Valletta, on the board for Malta IT Law Assocation, and on the Advisory board for SXSW.

Dr. Jonathan Galea

Jonathan Galea is a graduated lawyer warranted for legal practice in Malta, with a niche interest in the blockchain technology, Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, as well as a general interest in Anti-Money Laundering Law and Gaming Law. He is currently serving as a legal and technical advisor to blockchain projects and ICOs such as Suncontract and Chimaera.

Over four years of experience in the blockchain industry and a completed course in C Programming has led to an accurate fundamental insight in area-related projects. Jonathan has also completed one of the world’s first fully-fledged legal theses on the subject back in 2015, titled “The effect of Bitcoin on money laundering law”.

Jonathan regularly participates as a keynote speaker in various international blockchain conferences, and is an active thought leader in the same sector in Malta, heading various initiatives and events.

Jarek Bialek

Since 2004 I work within a fintech industry and have been dealing with several B2B products – also as a founder – taking responsibility for the areas of product management, team building, sales and automated support.

I’m also actively involved in the global startup ecosystem: as a mentor, coach, educator and as an entrepreneur. I’ve been present on four continents, working with budding entrepreneurs and startups. I’ve been also working with local and national government entities, introducing entrepreneurship programs, and running events and lectures focused on the lean startup and design thinking methodologies.

My recent experience is to serve as a Programme Manager and Entrepreneur in Residence for MITA Innovation HUB, running its YouStartIT acceleration programme.

Daniele Mantovani

More than 29-year experience in the ICT & Networking for Enterprise and TLC market.

In Huawei since 2011 with current role of CTO in the Enterprise BG in Italy and Malta leading the enabler for Italy’s Digital transformation.

Prior to this he worked in Telecom Italia, Cisco, Alcatel, Allied Telesyn, Italtel in Italy and AFC in California, covering different roles Business Developer, Market Manager, Product Marketing following domestic and international markets for EMEA and APAC.

Karl Herrera

Daniel Goebel

Daniel is the founder of CoCoHub – The first Co-living & Co-working Castle right here in Malta, Birgu. He deeply cares about the future of his work, as well as the future of living. He started with the goal to put Malta on the map as the Mediterranean haven for all remote workers. After hosting more then 150 location independent IT professionals in his 400 year old co-living house for companies like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Dropbox, Coindesk, Intel and Automattic; he has gained first hand insights into how Malta is perceived within the international startup world.

His lifetime goal is to start up blockchain housing. For this he is now focusing on opening further co-living houses all around the world. Next stop; India.

Megan Frydel

Megan is a Project manager at ANCHOVY. – an international hybrid between digital consulting and marketing agency that helps you achieve business goals. For over a year, Megan has been managing one of the first native products of ANCHOVY. – www. BiteMyCoin.com – an online hub dedicated to educating the public on cryptocurrency, DLTs. In the world of FinTech, Megan’s primary objective is to build a bridge between a complicated world of technology and its everyday users.

Eman Pulis

Eman Pulis is founder and CEO of the leading iGaming showcase in Malta – SiGMA, and Malta Blockchain Summit. He is also co-founder of SMSwarriors. In addition to a wealth of experience in event management, Eman Pulis holds a degree in Education with first-class honours. He also holds a master’s degree in both diplomacy and creativity & innovation. Mr Pulis was recently appointed Senior Advisor at GanaEight Coin.

James Catania

James Catania is the CEO of Intelliblock ltd in Malta, one of Europe’s leading blockchain solutions companies with partnerships across the globe. James is considered one of the leading blockchain experts in the world. He has held lead advisory roles for several successful ICOs and blockchain projects. James has been in the IT industry for over 20 years and has worked with multiple fortune 100 companies such as a consultant with Walmart, Philip Morris, Siemens AG, HP Systems, Rolex, Patek Philippe and IBM as well as global entities such as the Commonwealth and the United Nations to name a few. James holds two masters degrees one in Management of Information Systems and one in Computer Science.

Dave Pulis

Dave Pulis is the co-founder and CEO of ZBX, the European operations of ZB.COM, a top 5 Crypto exchange. Dave is also the co-founder of EuroMed Capital, consulting clients in in a number of sectors including Finance, Medical Cannabis, Waste Management and DLTs. He started trading high net worth accounts whilst studying Commerce at the University of Malta and later worked at a brokerage firm where he was introduced to the world of Cryptocurrencies.

Dave’s goal is to position Malta as a true centre of excellence in DLTs.

Hirander Misra

Hirander Misra is Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of GMEX Group, which is a set of companies that offer sustainable and innovative solutions for the new era of global financial markets through an aligned partnership driven approach. This involves the creation and operation of electronic exchanges and post trade infrastructure in equities, debt, FX, derivatives and commodities in both developing and developed markets through the establishment of a cohesive business and technology ecosystem. This includes the GMEX Market Advancement Programme (MAP), which is all about partnerships and creating an ecosystem with exchanges and post trade market infrastructure operators to deliver centralised, decentralised Blockchain Distributed Ledger technology & hybrid solutions in a collaborative fashion including the enablement of cryptocurrency and digital asset exchanges.

He is also Founder & Co-Chairman of FinComEco, a fully integrated Financial & Commodities Ecosystem providing services, financing, capacity building and enablement solutions to help improve the livelihoods of Sub Saharan African smallholder farmers leveraging blockchain technology.

Formerly, he was the COO and Co-Founder of Chi-X Europe Limited. Hirander was instrumental in taking the company from concept in November 2005 to reality resulting in a successful launch and ongoing development.

J.D. Salbego

J.D. Salbego is a recognized strategic digital & growth senior executive, startup advisor, and international speaker spearheading projects for some of the biggest global brands, spanning across America, Europe, and Asia. He is COO of U.S. for Patron-Forbes #1 Blockchain Startup 2018, a Japanese Blockchain startup who had the largest ICO in Japan at $40M. As an entrepreneur himself, J.D. is Founder/CEO of Legion Ventures, a global consultancy helping companies with digital transformation, growth strategy and global expansion. He advises a number of companies including Google’s Startup Grind, organizing Tech and Blockchain Conferences globally (co-organized the largest Blockchain Conference in Japan’s History – nationally televised with 15,000 attendees), and advising the US & APAC Startup Grind Directors on growth strategy. As a highly effective executive with multidisciplinary expertise, throughout his career he has focused on digital innovation, growth strategy, branded activation, and A-List celebrity content.

He has developed and negotiating National and international strategic partnerships with Multi-Billion Dollar Fortune 100 & 500 Companies like NBC, YouTube, WMG, FOX, UMG, Disney, Shazam, Sony, etc. His specialties include growth strategy + analysis, sales + acquisition, leveraging digital innovation and technology to increase revenue and market adaptability, content packaging + monetization, capital financing, and all facets of marketing with 11+ years’ experience across B2C + B2B tech. 17 years’ total in the entertainment business.

Ken Berger

Ken is a venture consultant and crypto currency pundit, assisting major VC firms in deal sourcing and mentoring/investing in tech startups worldwide. He is co-founder of Crypto Explorers, organising deep-thinker tours of Switzerland’s “Crypto Valley” and globally. Ken also has long and varied career experience in software engineering and building high frequency trading systems, clients including Island ECN/Datek which disrupted NASDAQ and eventually got adopted by it. Ken was formerly on the executive team of MIT/Stanford Venture Lab and was once a touring bassist in a Los Angeles rock band. Ken studied Engineering and Physics and holds an MBA.