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.

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.

Dr Miriam Dalli, MEP

Dr Miriam Dalli is the only MEP in the Politico 28 Class of 2019. She has been identified as a “doer” and an “eco-warrior” thanks to her work on the legislation setting new CO2 emission standards for cars and vans. She was identified as one of the most influential MEPs in the European Parliament for the mandate 2014-2019 by Politico and Votewatch. During this term, she served as Coordinator in the ENVI Committee for the Socialists and Democrats. Described as a “master for building progressive alliances” the Maltese MEP returned to Parliament with one of the highest votes ever registered in the Maltese Islands.

Tim Byun

With decades of experience in Risk and Compliance, Tim Byun presently serves as CEO of OKCoin, one of the world’s leading fiat-focused digital asset exchanges with service in 184 countries. Tim served as BitPay’s Chief Compliance Officer for two years and Visa’s AML Officer for five years. Tim started his career as a field bank examiner at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and then worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco for a total of 16 years. He holds an MBA from the University of California Los Angeles and a Bachelor’s from the University of Southern California.

Changpeng Zhao

Dr Abdalla Kablan

Daniel Grech

Daniel is a seasoned academic and professional specializing in Artificial Intelligence and Fintech. He holds a degree in Computer Science from the University of Malta and a Masters of Science in Statistics from the University of Sheffield.

He has been active in the startup scene both locally and internationally for over five years having held a number of different technical and non-technical roles across various sectors. He is very passionate about disruptive startups, all forms of automation and decentralized technologies and has been an active part of the discussion regarding the regulation of crypto-related projects in Malta.

Dr Ian Gauci

Dr Ian Gauci is the Managing Partner at GTG Advocates, Afilexion Alliance and Caledo Group. 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 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 was one of the strategic advisors appointed by Government on the National Blockchain Strategy Taskforce. Dr Gauci is an advisor to the Malta Digital Innovation Authority as well as the Malta Financial Services Authority. He has co-authored the Maltese Electronic Communications Framework and lectures Legal Futures and Technology at the University of Malta. He is also a co-founder and Secretary of the Malta Blockchain Association. 

Da Hongfei

As far as the blockchain technology industry in China is concerned, Da Hongfei is a noted luminary. He has been responsible for the first few blockchain companies based in China. Such is his pedigree in the Chinese blockchain and cryptocurrency space that government officials reportedly contacted him prior to issuing the September ICO and cryptocurrency exchange platform bans. He is a pioneer of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency applications in Asia.

Sosan Oh

Susan Oh is a civic technologist in AI and blockchain integration towards scalable solutions for social good. She is co-founder and CEO of Muckr.AI, which uses machine learning to measure the trustworthiness of content based on source behaviour. She is a governing member of Blockchain For Impact, a non-profit in partnership with the UN GA, and a member of the Global Sustainability Network, a Vatican and Church of England joint initiative to end human trafficking. She is the recipient of the Quantum Impact Award #DecadeOfWomen in partnership with the UN GA as one of Top Ten Frontier Women in Digital and speaks around the world on the role of AI and blockchain in serving the UN’s sustainable development goals.

Rick Tumlinson

Rick Tumlinson has been called one of the world’s top space “visionaries” and is credited with helping create the commercial space industry, often referred to as: NewSpace. He is a founding partner of SpaceFund, a new type of investment firm at the intersection of digital financial technologies and space development. A leading writer, speaker and Congressional witness, he led the commercial takeover of the Russian Mir space station, signed the first space tourist, co-founded the Space Frontier Foundation, and was a founding board member of the X-Prize. Rick also founded Deep Space Industries – an asteroid mining company. As a result of his world-changing work, in 2015 he won the World Technology Award. Currently, his non-profit organization, New Worlds Institute, is developing the people and technology to settle the frontier.

Kris Marszalek

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.

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.

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.

Dimitris Litsikakis

Dimitris Litsikakis holds a BSc in Information Technology from Piraeus University and a MSc in Project Management from Lancaster University. He worked at IBM UK as a Project Manager delivering large scale IT projects. He then joined Edenred Greece as Digital Transformation Manager where he led the entire digitalization of the company’s solution offering, issuing hundreds of thousands of prepaid cards to beneficiaries. In 2018 he was appointed Country Manager Greece, Cyprus & Malta for Revolut the fastest growing FinTech in Europe with a $1.7B valuation, delivering 400% client growth. He’s now spearheading the digital transformation of deVere Group, a financial consultancy with global presence, delivering cutting edge FinTech solutions. Since 2014, he also acts as Athens Chapter Director for Startup Grind, the largest independent startup community, actively educating, inspiring, and connecting entrepreneurs.

Melanie Mohr

Melanie Mohr is a Berlin-based entrepreneur with 20 years’ experience in media, marketing and mobile tech. In 2016 she founded YEAY – the leading community for Generation Z to share honest recommendation videos with one another about the lifestyle products they love. In 2018 she became the founder and CEO of the WOM Protocol, the blockchain project helping brands tap into peer-to-peer recommendations and digital publishers monetize their platforms in a user-friendly way through word-of-mouth content.

Kenneth Brincat

Kenneth Brincat is the Chief Operations Officer at the Malta Business Registry. In his role, Kenneth is responsible to oversee the Agency’s ongoing operations and procedures.
Kenneth maintains control of diverse business operations, so he delivers his functions as an experienced and efficient leader. Kenneth practices excellent people skills, business acumen and exemplary work ethics. As an HR specialist, he focuses on maintaining an employee-oriented, high-performance culture which emphasises quality, productivity, and goal attainment including the ongoing training and development of the Agency’s employees.
Kenneth Brincat holds a Master of Science Degree in Human Resources and Training from the University of Leicester.

Nikolay Shkilev

Nikolay Shkilev, PhD, Private Business Club, CEO & Founder, Rated Top 3 in People of Blockchain.

Serial entrepreneur. The businessperson with 20 years of experience of owning different types of businesses, ranging from FMCG, medicine and logistics to IT technologies. In parallel, he works as a mentor, advisor to help tens of projects worldwide.

Nikolay Shkilev, PhD has many awards and titles in the business:
– Self-Made Russia award
– Best advisor award
– Super TOP award
His Holding received “Enterprise of the Year” award in the Kremlin.

Private Business Club offers investment ideas beyond classic wealth management:
– Global networking (Russia, EU, Asia, Mena etc.)
– Best IT & Blockchain projects
– Advisory & Mentoring
– Investments with a faster exit strategy
– Projects with the highest ROI directly from owners.

Maegan Crawford

Meagan is a NewSpace industry pioneer with a focus on the business of space. A strong believer in the power of free enterprise as the driving force that will lift humanity permanently off-world, Meagan is dedicated to several projects focused on building a sustainable, profitable, successful space industry. She is managing partner of SpaceFund, a venture capital firm investing in space startups, a co-founder of Brand Delta-V, the NewSpace marketing company, and a co-founder of Eden Grow Systems, a farming 2.0 technology company.
In 2009, Meagan began running the NewSpace Business Plan Competition, a program focused on educating both entrepreneurs, investors and catalyzing deal flow. As a manager, coach, and judge for the last decade, she has read over 1,000 space business executive summaries, has coached hundreds of selected teams, and helped award cash prizes to dozens of NewSpace startups.
Meagan is also dedicated to several charity projects that are working to open the frontier. She is a co-founder of the non-profit Center for Space Commerce and Finance and is a member of the board of directors of the Space Frontier Foundation, the Earthlight Foundation, and Mars Initiative. She holds an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship from Rice University.

Irina Litchfield

Dr Laurent Dedenis

Dr Laurent Dedenis is the CEO and co-founder of Chainstack. He has more than 20 years of global experience managing teams and technology companies such as Microsoft Dynamics and Acumatica, both at start-up and growth stages in the Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific. He was until recently the Chief Growth Officer of Acronis, a large B2B data protection software company. Laurent has marketed blockchain based solutions since 2016. Engaging with dozens of pioneering enterprises exploring decentralized technologies has placed Laurent at a vantage point. He has an in-depth understanding of the technical and business challenges inherent in blockchain adoption and the significant business value it offers. Laurent believes that simplifying blockchain adoption is key to unlocking its true potential for enterprises. Laurent holds a PhD in International Business Administration from the International University of America in San Francisco and a Master’s Degree in Economics and Management from the University of Paris XI, France. He currently resides in Singapore, where Chainstack is based.

Nicholas Merten

Nicholas Merten is the founder of DataDash, the largest cryptocurrency YouTube channel with over 315,000 subscribers. Being an international speaker, thought-leader, and crypto analyst in the space, he’s utilized his over seven years of experience in traditional markets to understand the potential of cryptocurrencies. As a sceptic of modern finance, he’s not only built an impressive set of knowledge on global markets, but he’s also currently leading a self-funded effort, known as Project Genesis, which aims to fix many of the key issues of the financial world and bring cryptocurrencies into the mainstream.

Anamaria Magri Pantea

Anamaria has over 18 years of experience in innovation management, entrepreneurship and business development initiatives, projects structuring and funding sourcing, their management, monitoring or evaluation, in both private and public, as well as Public-Private-Partnerships contexts.

She also has extensive expertise in EU affairs, EU and public funding and financing. Anamaria has been working with the European Commission as staff member of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, as Malta National Contact Point and Management Committee representative for the EU’s Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme for SMEs (including the ICT Policy Support Programme), as well as an independent evaluator and reviewer on a number of EU and national funding programmes across Europe.

Anamaria also provides consultancy on RDI exploitation strategy, management and business development to various organisations and companies across Europe. She does this both on an independent basis and as a selected expert service provider in the framework of a number of EU initiatives for start-up and/or scale-up support.

In all these roles, she has been working extensively with/in the ICT sector.

By profession, Anamaria is an economist with specialisation in finance and an MBA alumni of the Edinburgh Business School.

Unenburen Ulziiburen

Unenburen is a young entrepreneur in the Blockchain Industry, travelling and meeting with international project leaders, to help them broaden their reach. He is the Chairman and founder of the Cryptocurrency exchange Bitmonex, an official partner exchange of Bittrex. He also serves as the CEO of three companies that operate in the fields of international trade, real estate and technology and working as global advisors for 2 South Korean projects. He was named by the Forbes Mongolia on their ’30 Under 30’ list of the most influential change-makers in the country.

His goal is to become the leading blockchain and cryptocurrency service provider.

Prof. Soulla Louca

Prof. Soulla Louca has been nominated by LATTICE80 in partnership with Miss Kaya as one of the top 100 women in Fintech for 2019. She is one of the first academics to get involved in blockchain technologies (2014) when she assumed the responsibility of the Blockchain Initiative at the University of Nicosia. The Blockchain Initiative (renamed later to Institute For the Future) has designed and developed the first MSc worldwide in Digital Currency and the technology for publishing academic certificates on the blockchain (http://block.co/). She has been active in organizing tech events including the Decentralized series (www.decentralized.com ) as well as research. For seven years, she headed the Domain Committee for ICT for the European program COST (www.cost.eu ) for the 36 Member States of COST. Main duties were the evaluation and monitoring of the ICT Actions, which bring together more than 3000 researchers in areas like e-Society, Information Security, Networks, Nanotechnologies, etc. Furthermore, she was responsible for identifying trends, boosting pioneering research activities and help define strategies in science and technology through the organization and participation of strategic initiatives for promoting the ICT policy in Europe and beyond for the betterment and new digital experiences of European citizens. Even though her research interests for many years focused on information society (socio-economic aspects of ICT, e-learning, social integration and digital divide), due to her COST activities she had the opportunity to disperse her knowledge and work over a wide range of subjects such as personalized medicine, women in ICT, and open access. Her mandate ended successfully in September 2014. She is a professor in the newly founded Department of Digital Innovation as well as a Director at the Institute for the Future at the University of Nicosia.

Dr Joshua Ellul

Dr Joshua Ellul was appointed as the first Chairman of the Malta Digital Innovation Authority. He is also the Director of the Centre for Distributed Ledger Technologies at the University of Malta, which has launched a unique multi-disciplinary taught Masters in Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies. His experience and roles with the Authority and University gives him a broad perspective of issues pertaining to the emerging technology landscape in Malta. Dr Ellul’s research interests include Blockchain, DLTs, Smart Contracts and Virtual Machines and their integration with the Internet of Things.

Tugce Ergul

Tugce Ergul is a co-founder at Angel Labs, the world’s first investor accelerator with a strong focus on diversity & inclusion. Before founding Angel Labs, she worked as a Managing Director at Startup Labs where she managed over 30 successful digital investments. AL operates in 45 countries and exists to supercharge investor communities and empower high-net-worth individuals, family offices & executives worldwide. Tugce started her career as an investment banker and was working at Young Turk Ventures, a leading Turkish VC fund, before joining Startup Labs. She received her undergraduate degree in Finance from Sorbonne University with honors and holds a master’s degree in International Management from Bocconi. Tugce is an active member of the European VC network and regularly speaks at events around the world regarding entrepreneurship, economic development and technology. She is fluent in English, French, Turkish, Azeri, Spanish, Italian and speaks some Portuguese. Tugce’s work has been featured in many publications such as USA Today, Forbes, and The Guardian.

Dr Céline Moille

Lawyer and partner at the international law firm Yellaw (www.yellaw.com), as well as PhD in private international law, Céline Moille is today at the head of her firm’s FinTech/Blockchain department and also at the head of the Legal Team of Bitlaw (www.bitlaw.io).
For many years, Céline has also been a lecturer at the University of Lyon.
Convinced that LegalTech is the best way to bring legal support to corporations, Céline was one of the founding members of DodoBank (www.dodobank.fr) in 2017.
Céline is well known for her knowledge of legal issues relating to blockchain.
She regularly participates in national and international conferences as a speaker, as well as contributing to the field of blockchain studies through publications and collaborations.

James McDowall

James is a pioneer in blockchain and works as a strategic advisor and consultant to several organisations in the industry. He is currently working on applying blockchain technology to several real-world industries including international commodity trade and trade finance (Comdex), cyber security (Sentinel) and blockchain for enterprise (Corpchain). James is currently focussed on the Cosmos / Tendermint ecosystem which offers profound interoperability and scalability solutions and will bring forth the next generation of blockchain technology

Angeliki Dedopoulou

Angeliki Dedopoulou is an expert for digital solutions in public administrations at everis, an NTT Data company. Her focus is to analyse the uptake of new solutions and techniques for the digital labour market. She is international speaker and adviser to the European Commission for Digital Labour Market initiatives.

Vincenzo Belpiede

Vincenzo Belpiede is an entrepreneur currently focusing on talents and blockchain. Vince has been matching talents worldwide to tech companies, mainly in Silicon Valley, with www.stellartalents.com. Vince has been involved from early stages with www.domitai.com, a crypto exchange in Mexico which is increasingly getting adopted by merchants. Vince is also advising various SaaS and blockchain startups with strong focus on companies that are already making revenue. Vince has worked 7 years at Nokia and Microsoft and has lived in 9 countries (Finland, Germany, China, Mexico, Serbia, Hungary, Switzerland) including 8 years in California, both San Diego and San Francisco.

James Song

In 2018, James joined FLETA as the Head of Marketing Strategy. Technical innovations and its vision are what brought him to FLETA. James has contributed in various ways to expand FLETA’s global business since then. James organized many conferences for FLETA such as Malta Summit 2018 and Beyond Blocks Bangkok and gave a speech at Start Hack 2019. James focuses on implementing the global marketing strategy and expanding FLETA’s ecosystem globally.

Shakil Muhammad, PhD

Mr. Shakil is a blockchain researcher and founder of RNS Solutions. He attended Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) for MS and PhD. He has over 12 years of experience in Software Security with prominent positions as Dy. Director (Cyber Incident Response Team). He is a software architect and developer of 40+ projects including public and private blockchains, exchanges, wallets, Dapps, and infrastructure, etc. He is IEEE auditor, published 04 research papers in Journals and conferences, and has 08 cybersecurity certifications and currently working on interoperable blockchain.

Dr. Justin D. Litchfield

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.

Daniel Lenikus

Daniel Lenikus is Co-Founder and CEO of BlockExpo GmbH.
He believes in the power and change that comes with emerging technologies. Understanding their impact is a fundamental necessity for humanity.
To support this process, he and his team organize large blockchain conferences and weekly tech meetups in Vienna, Austria.
He also has a background in finance and e-sports and is currently exploring the world of tokenization.

Dr. Christopher Agius

Dr. Chris Agius leads the Legal and Fintech Department at CSA Group. He is currently sitting on the Board of Directors of CS Fintech Services Limited, which is one of few entities registered with the local regulator to provide VFA Agent services. His main area of expertise includes general commercial and corporate law, financial services, as well as anti-money laundering and funding of terrorism legislation. Having always been a keen believer in what blockchain technology has to offer, Chris had been following this industry for quite some time before seizing the opportunity to specialise within this sector and deciding to start advising clients active within this sphere. Chris has been monitoring all of the regulatory developments affecting this sector locally from day one, making him familiar with all the legal challenges that clients face when seeking to establish a presence in Malta. This is not to say that Chris has also been keeping abreast of regulatory developments taking place in other countries, in order to ensure advising in the best interests of the client at all times.

Wayne Pisani

Wayne Pisani is the Grant Thornton partner responsible for the corporate and financial services team in Malta where he deals with a wide range of asset protection and cross-border regulatory and tax planning engagements for clients ranging from private clients, including family offices and high-net-worth individuals, to NASDAQ listed companies in various industry sectors. He conducts an active consulting practice on the legal and tax implications involved in the structuring of both local and international financial institutions, M&A and project finance transactions.

Wayne is the President of the Malta Institute of Financial Services Practitioners and a council member of the Malta Institute of Management. As part of his role, he was actively involved in the drafting stage of Malta’s regulatory framework for Distributed Ledger Technologies.

He is also a member of the International Fiscal Association, the International Bar Association and the Maltese Chamber of Advocates. He was admitted to the Bar in 2001 following a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Law and International Relations, and a Doctorate in legal studies from the University of Malta in 2001 after researching and submitting a thesis on “Merger control: a comparative study of regulatory systems for potential implementation into the Maltese legal system.” Wayne also read for a Masters in Financial Services at the University of Malta, graduating in 2003 after submission of a thesis entitled “The Impact of Information Technology on Financial Services”. He has also obtained his Advanced Diploma in Tax (ADIT) after the submission of a thesis entitled: “Tax arbitrage in ICOs: a European perspective”.

He is an active thought leader in the financial technology space, making regular contributions at fintech conferences, and has a passion for the security and technological aspects of distributed ledger technology. He is also a joint contributing author to “European Competition Laws: A Guide to the EC and its Member States, the leading legal compendium with respect to Competition law in Europe”, published by Lexis Nexis and revised annually.

Thierry Arys Ruiz

Thierry Arys Ruiz is the founder of AgAu.io : The Peer-to-Peer, Electronic Money System backed by Ag (Silver) and Au (Gold) in Switzerland.Thierry is an expert in commodity trading and risk management having worked for major trading houses and financial institutions such as Trafigura, LUKOIL, Scotia Capital, ICAP and Credit Suisse. Thierry is a Mensa member and a venture-philanthropist.

Reuben Buttigieg

Alexandre 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 digital currency for sports and entertainment platforms. The first platform that will use Chiliz Tokens is Socios.com, a turnkey solution for football and sports clubs looking to adopt blockchain technology to monetise their fan bases. To boost blockchain innovation in Malta, Dreyfus has also established the Chiliz Blockchain Campus –an accelerator and industry hub connecting some of the industry’s largest stakeholders across Asia and Europe, together with other emerging blockchain entrepreneurs. The Campus houses world-leading exchanges, crypto-friendly European banks and is a collaborative space for small to large blockchain companies.

Dr Johannes Schweifer

Dr. Johannes Schweifer holds a Master’s degree in Chemistry and a PhD in Distributed Computing and Quantum Chemistry from the University of Vienna. He is a passionate problem solver and a builder. Johannes is known as serial blockchain entrepreneur, having co-founded Bitcoin Suisse AG in 2013, BlockLogix GmbH in 2016 and CoreLedger AG in 2017. He is actively using blockchain technology to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges and showcasing the true value of blockchain with practical applications.

JD Salbego

J.D. Salbego is a recognized global advisor, blockchain & digital securities executive, influencer, international speaker, & published author with deep expertise in blockchain, STOs/ICOs, Asia & cross-border capital markets, global expansion, & digital asset funds. He is a frequent expert speaker at conferences worldwide like World Economic Forum, BlockShow, Delta Summit, etc., alongside industry leaders Tim Draper, Brock Pierce, Roger Ver, Don Tapscott Chang “CZ” Pengzhao, Miko Matsumura, Kristalina Georgieva (CEO of the World Bank), Charles Hoskinson, etc., and senior leadership/CEOs of digital securities leaders SharesPost, Securitize, Templum, TZero, etc.

He currently serves as CEO of the blockchain and STO advisory firm Legion Ventures, with previous positions as Head of US West Coast of Investment Bank & Asia STO market leader CoinStreet Partners, COO-US for Forbes #1 Japanese blockchain startup Patron, with their record-breaking $40M ICO, and advises many other companies including Google’s Startup Grind (3M entrepreneurs with operations in 400+ cities & 120+ countries), Solidum Capital, BitSong ($7M ICO), BoostChain, Rune Wallet, etc.

His work has been featured in Forbes, Business Insider, Yahoo Finance, Cointelegraph, etc., including being linked to boosting Japan’s economy with Blockchain. J.D. also appeared on the Acuvue “One Day” Celebrity Contest Campaign as an entertainment business mentor aired on National US TV to a 3M audience. In 2018 J.D. co-organized the largest Blockchain Conference in the world to date in Japan (JBC2018), in partnership with the government, nationally televised with 15,000 attendees across 2 days.

In addition to his experience, J.D. has studied digital business strategy & innovation under renowned Columbia Business School professor David Rogers.

Marjan Delatinne

Marjan is an entrepreneurial business developer who enjoys establishing effective strategies and directing major initiatives from conceptual to implementation. With more than two decades of experience in various commercial positions (mainly big, complex and new product commercialisation), Marjan has gained valuable insights into the financial industry and the market infrastructures globally. Since joining Ripple in 2017, she has been responsible for the definition and execution of the go to market strategy and sales of Ripple product and services. Previously, Marjan worked for SWIFT and was responsible for the commercialization of large scale projects both in securities and payments, namely Target 2 Securities & resiliency solutions for national central banks. She also led the EMEA customer engagement for the global payments innovation initiative (GPI). Marjan worked for Eurocelar, BNY Mellon and held various positions in sales & network management divisions. Marjan has a university degree in Business Administration and research master degree in Experimental & Clinical Psychology. In addition to English, she is fluent in French and Scandinavian languages.

David Carlisle

David Carlisle is the Head of Community at Elliptic, a provider of cryptocurrency forensics and compliance solutions, where he leads engagement with regulators and other external stakeholders. David has over a decade of experience in AML/CTF compliance and regulatory matters, and previously worked at the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. He is an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a UK think tank, where he has authored reports on terrorist and criminal use of cryptocurrencies, and appropriate policy responses.

Pauline Shangett

Having come from 7 years worth of experience in music-related marketing and promotion and a degree in experimental linguistics, Pauline joined the crypto space at the beginning of 2018. She is very excited about the blockchain industry and fintech and utilises her previous experience to make ChangeNOW the most successful crypto business on the block.

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 in 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.

Mark Hipperson

Mark has co-founded a UK retail bank and two financial technology businesses. He acts as an advisor to investment and private equity firms and is a regular Fintech commentator and speaker. Mark is the founder and CEO of Esqimo, building the world’s first, truly integrated ‘crypto bank’. Esqimo makes currency complexity a thing of the past and opens up the full world of digital/crypto/FX currencies. No more excessive and/or hidden fees. No more delays in transferring money. A total focus on security and regulation. The ability to instantly send, share, pay, buy, and sell. The cool home for your money. Previously, he co-founded Starling Bank where he was responsible for helping to secure the UK banking licence with regulators and obtaining the initial $70m funding the Bank achieved in December 2015. He was also responsible for the design, build, implementation and support of the Bank’s IT services platform, apps and infrastructure.

He started his career at Barclays where he was deputy CTO and Head of Technology for the Barclays Group

Matthew Zampa

Matthew is a certified public accountant specialised in indirect taxation. Before founding Zampa Debattista, Matthew worked with a medium sized firm for just over two years and with Deloitte for five and a half years.

He has been specializing in VAT since 2008 and has been involved in complex VAT assignments both within and outside of Malta.  Matthew, a member of the Malta Institute of Accountants, also contributed to the first local VAT text book, “Principles of Maltese VAT Law”. Matthew is also a part-time lecturer with the Malta Institute of Taxation.

Matthew Zampa is also the first Maltese to successfully complete the Expert in EU VAT degree. This coveted degree is administered and awarded by the VAT Forum, an international partnership of indirect tax specialists, founded in 1999.

Matthew forms part of Malta Institute of Accountants tax committee and is a member of the indirect taxation committee of the Malta Institute of Taxation.

Dr Jonathan Galea

Jonathan has been heavily involved in blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies since 2013, and his expertise consists of legal advice on regulatory matters related to blockchain technologies and cryptocurrencies in general as well as technical advice on blockchains and platforms built on top of them thanks to his certification in C programming. He is the author of one of the world’s first legal theses on the subject, titled “The Effect of Bitcoin in Money Laundering Law”, completed in May 2015. He has co-founded and is the President of the first and largest association in Malta dedicated to blockchain and DLT titled Bitmalta, and heads an advisory business with the name of Blockchain Advisory Ltd, offering consultation services in relation to blockchain technology, ICOs, cryptocurrencies, funds, and exchanges. Jonathan has participated as a keynote speaker in over twenty-five prominent blockchain conferences across Europe and the U.S., and is regarded as a thought-leader in the sector.

Pawel Sobkow

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.

Jason Lau

Jason is currently the Chief Information Security Officer at Crypto.com and a multiple award-winning cybersecurity professional, including “HK Cybersecurity Professional Award”, “Financial Technologist of the Year (Data Privacy)”, and a global Top 20 influencer in the cybersecurity and data privacy space. Jason was previously a regional Cybersecurity Advisor at Microsoft and has over 18 years in consulting experience for Fortune 500 companies. Jason has completed Executive Programs at both Stanford and Harvard and holds CISSP, CIPP/E, CIPM, CGEIT, CRISC, CISA, CISM, CEH, CDNA, ISO27001 LA, as well as being a Fellow of Information Privacy (FIP). Jason is also currently the Regional Leader and Co-Chairman of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), an Adjunct Professor (Cybersecurity and Data Privacy) at Hong Kong Baptist University, Honorary Speaker at the University of Malta, and sits on various industry and government Think Tanks.CH

Dr Veronique Dalli

Veronique Dalli is the founder and managing partner of Dalli Advocates a mid-sized multi-disciplinary law firm specialized in assisting companies and individuals in business-related matters with interdisciplinary services.

She was admitted to the Maltese bar in 2006, for the past 12 years she has defended her clients successfully both before the Constitutional Court and the Superior Courts in Malta as well as before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Together with her team of professionals she actively assists foreign investors on legal issues relating to the setting up of business operations in Malta. She is specialized on the new blockchain and cryptocurrency legislation in Malta and is the Legal Counsel to the some of the Malta Regulatory Authorities and to one of the main media houses in Malta.

Veronique was a speaker at a number of international conferences on issues relating to company law, blockchain, token classifications, as well as regulatory license regimes.

Veronique obtained her first degree from the University of Malta in 2002, furthered her studies to obtain a Diploma as Notary Public the following year and a Doctor of Laws in 2005. She serves as an examiner and tutor for masters and doctorate dissertations at the Faculty of Law, University of Malta.

Shaun Grech

With over 10 years of technical and entrepreneurial experience under his belt, Shaun Grech has been involved in a number of Startups specializing in pathfinding algorithms, professional match-making, sentiment analysis, and data mining. In 2011 he co-founded Incredible Web, a leading Maltese Web and Mobile consultancy agency who has been involved in shaping up the software design foundations of numerous companies in several industries across the globe.

Shaun’s passion revolves around software architectures, data mining and decentralized technologies. He has has been asked to consult on several projects and has held talks on various related subjects particularly in the field of secure, distributed, resilient architectures.

Erhan Korhaliller

EAK Digital is a leading tech PR agency that works with clients to help them achieve mass media coverage, brand recognition and visibility driven growth. Erhan was recently the main stage Host/MC at the Austria Blockchain Summit and is a regular Host/MC/Moderator at major blockchain conferences. Erhan is also the presenter of EAK TV, interviewing blockchain’s thought leaders, including exclusives with Changpeng Zhao of Binance, Charles Hoskinson of IOHK and Johnson Zhao of NEO.

Olga Finkel

Olga Finkel is the co-managing partner of WH Partners. She is widely regarded and respected for her knowledge of technology and gambling law.

Olga provides advice on strategic, commercial and regulatory matters to technology-rich industries. In addition to having a Doctor of Law degree, she also holds an MSc in Computer Science.

Her specialisation, backed by extensive experience and in-depth background in both law and computer science, includes gaming, data-driven and technology-driven businesses (AI-based, blockchain-based, FinTech, RegTech,), data privacy and data security. Olga is also an investor in early-stage tech companies.

Ulisse Dellorto

Ulisse Dell’Orto is Global Cryptocurrency Businesses Lead at Chainalysis. Chainalysis is the world’s leading compliance and investigation software solution for money-laundering prevention. Chainalysis’ goal is to create trust in the Blockchain. We mainly focus on three different types of customers: Law Enforcement and Regulators, Cryptocurrency Businesses and Financial Institutions. Ulisse leads Cryptocurrency businesses globally at Chainalysis and spends most of his time guiding Top Tier 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. Before that, he has worked with several Fintech startups in Berlin focusing on expanding their operations in different countries in Europe.

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. He also lectures Gaming Law at the University of Malta.

Joe is a Co-Founder and 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. Before joining WH Partners he occupied the post of Chief Regulatory Officer of the Lotteries and Gaming Authority – Malta.

Kumar Gaurav

Kumar is an Indian serial entrepreneur who was awarded an extraordinary status (O1) by the United States government for excelling his work on blockchain technology. With his vision, Auxesis Group and Cashaa, are both ranked amongst the top 100 most influential blockchain companies across the globe.
Kumar is a popular international speaker who has grown his own suffix of technology and was invited by IIT, IIM, ISB, YPO, TieCON, Money2020, TechCrunch, the European Parliament and many forums across the globe. He stood up against mega minds of so-called triggering currencies and stacking strategies and was nominated among the World’s Top 50 Innovators from the Industries of the future market and tech era in the UK.

Kevin Monserrat

Kevin Monserrat is the CEO/Founder of PK2M and co-founder of Consilience Ventures. Formerly Head of Investor and European Ecosystem development at Microsoft Scale Up, Kevin has worked closely with Business Angels, VCs, PEs, Fos and reviewed over 1000 companies from the world’s leading business/engineering schools, accelerator programmes and investment firms. He has created and maintained the Microsoft For Start-up and Ventures network since 2015 and
his network today invests more than £1bn per year globally. Other than all that, Kevin has the critical task of working with the VC community to identify the 20 b2b/b2b2c emerging tech companies that will form the first Consilience Ventures cohort.

Educated in France and Australia, Kevin holds a Master’s Degree in Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship from INSEEC. His passion for entrepreneurship has made him an Entrepreneurship Expert at the prestigious Saïd Business School, speak at conferences, appear as a judge at numerous global start-up competitions, and mentor new start-ups at LBS and LSE.

Maria Carola

Maria Carola is the Chief Marketing Officer of Guarda – the leader in providing custody-free, multifunctional crypto storage solutions for a wide range of coins and tokens.
Prior to her work in the blockchain industry, Maria was involved in a variety of projects as a journalist, writer and language interpreter. After joining Guarda as a full-time copywriter in mid-2018, she quickly found her passion for marketing and, of course, the crypto space. Currently, Maria is one of the youngest, most outspoken team members of Guarda Wallet.

Maria Marenco

Mrs Marenco is Blockchain Strategist, Healthcare Informatics expert, and Mental Health professional.

With her multidisciplinary and international background, Maria brings extensive experience and knowledge having worked with a global not-for-profit Health IT organization in the capacity of an in-house SME on Blockchain and AI technologies, and respective Public Affairs and Communications.

Mrs Marenco has spent most of her professional career in the broad overlapping fields of health and informatics. She is inspired by a holistic vision of human wellbeing, that encompasses physical and mental health. Guided by this vision, and after several years of accumulated and valuable experience also in the pharma industry (i.e. large corporations), Maria launched her own company – MentFort Ltd.

In addition to her entrepreneurial background, Maria is involved in The Swedish Blockchain Association, as a vertical lead for the eHealth/Health sector and the Sweden/NordicChapter Lead for the Government Blockchain Association.

Paolo Catafamo

Paolo Catalfamo is Founder and Chairman of the financial group Investar, based in Malta, Luxembourg, Switzerland and the US, and Adjunct Professor at the Villanova School of Business in Philadelphia.
He serves as Chairman of Global Capital plc, a financial conglomerate listed on the Malta Stock Exchange. He is also Chairman of Global Capital Life Insurance ltd, Chairman of Global Capital Health Insurance ltd and Chairman of Global Capital Financial Management ltd, all regulated by the Malta Financial Services Authority. He’s a Board Member of Centtrip Ltd, a London based fintech company regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority. He’s also the Founder and Chairman of Palladium plc, a blockchain financial services company.
He is a Board Member of the National Italian American Foundation in Washington D.C. (the association which represents the 26 million Italian-Americans) and Chairman of NIAF Italia.
He has been the Chairman of the Advisory Board of the American University of Rome, Board Member of the Advisory Board of the Villanova School of Business in Philadelphia and Board Member of the Advisory Board of Bocconi University in Milan
From 1991 to 2010 he has been teaching Economics of International Financial Intermediaries at Bocconi University, the University of Turin, the University of Miami and the Florida Atlantic University.

Dele Atanda

Dele Atanda is a serial entrepreneur and acclaimed digital visionary. He is CEO of metaMe, the world’s first Self-Sovereign AI and Universal Smart Data Marketplace, and founder of The Internet. Foundation, an NGO dedicated to advancing the ethical use of data in commerce while establishing digital rights as an extension of human rights. Atanda is a celebrated innovator having led digital innovations for FTSE10 and Fortune 100 companies that have become the gold standard for digital engagement within their sectors. Prior to metaMe, he led IBM’s Automotive, Aerospace and Defense sector as Chief Digital Innovation Officer.

Atanda has been a pioneering voice on the emergence of web 3.0 technologies, notably with his critically acclaimed book The Digitterian Tsunami: Web 3.0 and the Rise of the N.E.O Citizen published in 2013. He is an avid advocate of the potential of decentralized technologies to advance humanity while positively and dramatically transforming society.

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 channeled 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.

Mark Curmi

Mark is a Director in the firm responsible for the Banking, Financial Institutions and VFA 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 also 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, licencing of new Credit and Financial Institutions, ongoing regulatory advice and assistance, and, assignments related to the emerging fields of financial technology and Virtual Financial Assets

Matthew Scerri

Matthew joined KPMG in 2014 to develop bespoke software for KPMG in Malta having already successfully delivered a number of projects in both the local and international markets. He now forms part of the KPMG Software team where he leads a number of client-facing projects across the whole software development lifecycle, together with his team of software engineers. Throughout his career, he was involved in engagements across various industries including the Automotive, Fintech, Gaming, and Telco industries. Matthew is extremely passionate about the tech industry, particularly emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs), with a keen interest in seeing how they can be applied to solve existing problems and make established practices function more efficiently. He is involved in a number of communities within the tech space where he regularly contributes material, and is regarded as being the go-to person within KPMG when seeking advice around the technical aspects and implications of DLTs, AI and technology in general.

Petri Basson

Petri is an experienced professional with a background in finance and IT. After obtaining his Chartered accountant qualification he saw the destructive possibility of technology and obtained 6 certificates in IT as well as his Certified Information System Auditor qualification. He has a wide range of experience in financial as well as IT audit ranging from security to SOC type compliance audits. In the past 2 years, he has helped to develop the KPMG Cayman digital asset audit methodology as well as a number of tools to complete these audits. He also heads up the Blockchain Association of the Cayman Islands.

Andre Xuereb

André Xuereb is physicist from Malta. He read for an undergraduate degree in mathematics and physics at the University of Malta, a PhD in theoretical physics at the University of Southampton in the UK, and a master degree in entrepreneurship at the University of Malta. He is an associate professor of atomic and quantum physics at the University of Malta, is Science Policy Officer of the Malta Chamber of Scientists, represents Malta on several European research networks, and was recently elected as the first Maltese member of the Global Young Academy. André has an active career in science, having established and leading the quantum research group at the University of Malta, and co-owns an educational software startup.

Peter-Jan Grech

Peter-Jan Grech is the CEO and Founder of BRND WGN, a brand consultancy that supports business leaders drive change across organisations and markets. Peter believes that the key to unlocking business potential lies in blending creativity and strategic insight with client expertise. Peter is a challenge junkie at a corporate, charity and endurance sports level ideally merging the three in one, whenever possible.

Angelo Dalli

As Umnai’s Chief Executive Officer, Angelo is responsible for leading the company’s commercial, product, and technology strategy. Umnai was founded as an innovative AI-focused solutions provider that is creating new ground-breaking AI technology that can explain and optimize itself and its decisions while helping to assist people rather than replacing them, with an emphasis on achieving a positive social impact.

Angelo has published over 23 scientific publications in Europe and the US and has over twenty years of experience in various executive positions in technology, entertainment and fintech companies. 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.

As a serial entrepreneur, Angelo was involved in four IPOs and invested in more than 40 successful companies. This long track record was recognised in 2014, when he was awarded with Malta’s Top Entrepreneur of the Year award. Angelo’s profile is a realization of the mantra he works by ‘To create scalable, repeatable technology businesses that lead by innovation’.

Dave Pulis

Dave Pulis is the CEO of ZBX and hails from a traditional financial background with over 18 years’experience. He has acted as an execution trader for various prop funds and engineered multiple institutional brokerage setups including colocation infrastructures and trade latency reduction. He lectured creativity at the University of Malta with a focus on Economics and Public Policy. Dave’s first Crypto event was in May 2013 in San Jose, California promoting a Crypto fund for investors that achieved 10,000% return on investment.

Jean Michel Azzopardi

Jean-Michel has worked with IBM, SAP and Acunetix and has negotiated cyber security deals with companies and governments across Asia including Apple, Huawei and some of the largest fortune companies around the world. Having been involved in a number of startups, he prides himself in striking a balance between corporate standards and SME efficiency.

Juanita Brockdorff

With over 15 years of experience in providing international tax advice to multinationals, Juanita Brockdorff is the KPMG partner leading a cross-functional team of experts hailing from Advisory, Tax, Audit and KPMG Software, bringing their specialist knowledge to service in a seamless manner Emerging Technology clients. Juanita regularly provides feedback on proposed legislation, including on DLT, Blockchain and AI.

Nikhil Patil

Nikhil Patil, CEO of GO plc. is a professional with over 15 years of experience in strategy, operations and mergers and acquisitions across telecoms companies like GO, Cablenet, BMIT and Interoute. Nikhil previously served as non-executive director of GO, working closely with the Company’s senior management to define and implement its strategy. He spearheaded a number of strategic acquisitions, helping GO to diversify its business both in Malta and Cyprus. Mr. Patil was responsible for the creation of Malta Properties Company p.l.c., today one of the largest publicly listed real estate companies in Malta, where he served as CEO until 2018. Mr Patil has a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Mumbai, India, a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA from IMD, Switzerland. Mr Patil is a Charter Financial Analyst (CFA).

Konstantin Gladych

PhD in data science with 5 years of solid experience in blockchain and cryptocurrencies, 10 years in IT. Konstantin is well-known as the co-founder and CEO of Changelly.com, biggest cryptocurrency instant exchange with over 2 million active customers monthly and $0.5bln in monthly turnover. Konstantin’s interests are decentralization, custody-free solutions, p2p exchangers.

Carmel Cachia

Carm Cachia is an information technology professional with a pioneering career reflecting his systems and management qualifications coupled with sound and successful leadership in major projects of national interest. During the course of his career he has encompassed most of the areas in the digital sphere including software engineering, infrastructure, design, information security, project management and executive leadership. As a professional, he is in favour of a structured and formal approach while at the same time introducing modern methods and concepts. Leading a significant number of projects in the industry, including travel, banking, financial, manufacturing, telecoms, and government, he has also introduced major technology suppliers to Malta.
He consistently brings a balanced approach ensuring confidence and cooperation on both sides of the table. This is complemented by a good combination of technical skills and understanding, identifying business requirements and suggesting processes for an increase in efficiency.

Carm is a qualified chartered IT professional and a fellow member of the BCS. He has been instrumental in setting up local branches for various IT institutes and in introducing a good number of internationally recognised industry certifications to Malta including PRINCE2, BPM, AIIM, BCS, ISEB, BCI to mention just a few.
Currently heads the eSkills Malta Foundation and its board. He is a council member at the University of Malta and board member of various University Institutes, including the latest Centre for Distributed Ledger Technologies. He is Chairman of the BCS Malta Section.

Dr Kokila Alagh

Kokila is the founder of KARM Legal Consultants and has 15 years of experience as a Corporate/Commercial and technology lawyer in UAE. One of the very few ardent technology lawyers in the region to have an in-depth knowledge of the synergies of technology, law and policy- Kokila has worked with major corporations, government and semi-government bodies, high net worth individuals and start-ups over the years. In addition to this, Kokila’s Masters in Law, in Digital Economy from the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and the certification of Oxford Blockchain Strategy Programme from Oxford University and Fintech Programme from Harvard Business School has helped her develop an expertise in the area of newer technologies.

Velislava Hillman

Dr Velislava Hillman works at the intersection of youth, data-driven environments, and policy. Some of her work includes policy recommendations for transforming mainstream ICT curriculum and student-based approach to learning and interacting with digital technologies. Dr Hillman spent a year as a research fellow at Berkman Klein Centre in Harvard University where she examined how increasingly digitised school environments can lead to the creation of systems of control and pose risks to individual rights and freedoms of expression. This work led her to look into ways to enable student privacy, data literacy, and transparency with regards to how school data is used. In collaboration with Varunram Ganesh from the MIT Digital Currency Initiative Dr. Hillman is developing a prototype for a secure, authenticated and publicly verifiable platform for educational data using the blockchain.

Enzo Villani

Enzo is a serial entrepreneur that has lead organizations in his “buy and build” strategy which leverages acquisitions and game-changing growth strategies that deliver value differentiation. As Managing Director, Strategy for Nasdaq, Enzo co-founded Nasdaq Global Corporate Solutions Group. He has raised over $500 million in funding as a buy-side consolidator. He holds an MBA from Cornell University and is a recognized strategist for financial technology companies, blockchain firms, and the capital markets.

Dr Manfred Krischke

Dr. Manfred Krischke is Co-Founder and CEO of Cloudeo an innovative cloud based collaboration platform and marketplace for Geo-services. In 2011 he led the consortium to buy the assets of RapidEye (5 satellites constellation) out of the insolvency and was interim CEO for the restructured company. He originally founded RapidEye in 1998 and was its CEO until 2004. He was the Managing Director of Intermap GmbH and VP at Intermap Corp for six years. Manfred Krischke has been a Senior Advisor to Spacetec Capital Partners. Before that he consulted several companies and spent 8 month at Guildford consulting Surrey Satellite Technologies. He started his career at Kayser-Threde GmbH, Munich (today OHB), where he was Business Development Manager for Navigation, Communication, Small Satellites and Manned Space Transportation. He was awarded a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the Technical University of Munich. In 1991 he received the Wernher-von-Braun Award of the Deutsche Aerospace (today Airbus) for the best visionary diploma thesis in Germany, which he wrote during his studies at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge.

Kristina Lucrezia Corner

Kristina Lucrezia Cornèr is managing editor and head of features at Cointelegraph. M.A. in political science and classical philology she is a passionate communicator promoting innovations, translating them into simple languages and helping visionaries to be heard.

Nate Whitehill

Nate Whitehill is an experienced technology entrepreneur, programmer and marketer. He has nearly two decades of experience building web applications. In August of 2017, he built and launched CryptoSlate, now one of the top destinations for crypto news and data. Over the past 2 years, CryptoSlate has become the 6th crypto news site in the world by Alexa ranking, serving over 300,000 visitors per month.

Jacopo Visetti

Jacopo is a pioneer in energy efficiency markets. After years of experience as a quantitative analyst, he founded AitherCO2, a leading company in the energy efficiency market. He is a visiting professor in several universities worldwide, regularly participates as a speaker at energy-saving events and has consulted on environmental market mechanisms to Fortune 500 Companies and to the California State Senate. Jacopo graduated in Finance from the Cattolica University of Milan and in Macroeconomics from Harvard University.
He is Project Lead and Co-founder with Steve Wozniak of Efforce, the first blockchain-based energy-saving platform.

Vaibhav Kadikar

“Inventor of the multi-party settlement mechanism and author of the Knowledge value of Time algorithms, Vaibhav Kadikar has been in this space since 1999 when he launched his first digital (not crypto) currency. In 2007 he wrote the paper on Financial Decentralization that turned into an approved patent from the USPTO in 2011 for the multi-party settlement. In 2017 he founded CloseCross to disrupt the financial derivatives market with an aim to open up the $1200 trillion p.a. market to the masses. He has an MBA from INSEAD and has previously held positions leading Global functions in M&A, Corporate Finance, Digitization and Corporate Development”.

Christina Scicluna

Christina Scicluna is an Advocate within GANADO Advocates’ Corporate and Fintech teams. She advises a variety of multinational clients on international corporate structures, including the setting up of Maltese entities and redomiciliations of entities, M&A transactions and assisting clients on corporate governance matters. Christina has also been involved in the Fintech industry since 2017 and advises a number of clients on legal matters relating to blockchain, virtual financial assets and distributed ledger technology projects.

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.

Dr Ramona Azzopardi

Ramona Azzopardi heads the Tax and Private Client Department of WH Partners. She is recognised as one of the leading taxation lawyers in Malta. Ramona regularly advises corporate clients in the financial services & fintech digital services and gambling industries on their cross-border tax implications. She also assists HNWI families in estate and tax planning. Ramona holds a Doctor of Laws Degree and Masters in Financial Services from the University of Malta and is a regular speaker at tax conferences. She is also Council Member at the Malta Institute of Taxation.

Jackie Mallia

Jackie obtained a Doctor of Laws at the University of Malta and proceeded to obtain a master’s degree in technology law from Queen Mary, University of London. She specialises in the provision of legal support to clients within the fields of information technology and intellectual property. She has extensive experience in advising both the private and the public sector, having assisted private clients in numerous corporate matters, as well as various governments and authorities within and outside the European Union, to formulate and draft legislative frameworks in her fields of expertise. Her current focus is on artificial intelligence (‘AI’) and other disruptive technologies and she is one of the experts appointed to the Malta.AI Task Force, heading the Legal and Ethics Working Group. She has recently joined International Management Services Limited (IMS) to create IMS Innovate, which will provide legal and other support services to entities within the sectors of innovative technology (including AI and blockchain), eSports and film.

Geoffrey Farrugia

Geoffrey Farrugia, aged 36, is the founder and CEO of HandsOn Systems. He is an IT and Physics graduate with over 15 years of experience in IoT, with a special focus on vehicle telematics and RFID technology. Apart from years of experience in developing technological solutions, Geoffrey brings a lot of creative power and innovative ideas and skills to the company. His vision is to create advanced and sustainable telecommunication systems that offer true and immediate benefits to the end customer. HandsOn is today one of the leading global telematics solution provider offering its products and services to various countries around the world.

Dr Gege Gatt

Dr Gege Gatt is a digital entrepreneur, an IT-Law specialist and an experienced Director serving on a number of company boards. He’s passionate about digital transformation strategy. He is the co-founder and CEO of London-based company EBO.AI, an Artificial Intelligence platform which is disrupting the customer engagement industry through data. His work has been covered by Forbes, the Telegraph, the FT and others. He’s a Director at ICON: a software development company serving markets in central and northern Europe. He is the Vice President of the Malta IT Law Association which promotes awareness of IT law issues including privacy and cybersecurity. Gege is the Chairman of Beacon Media Group which is a multi-platform media service including online and offline channels. Gege is a lecturer and specialist examiner at the University of Malta. He is a regular contributor to IT publications and academic papers, and a frequent speaker at business and technology conferences. He has co-authored a book on Digital Psychology and 6 papers on digital marketing. Pro bono, Gege acts as a Board Member on the Vatican’s initiative on technology and well being: Humanity 2.0 for which he also mentored the first-ever Vatican Hackathon.

Dr Alexiei Dingli

Prof Alexiei Dingli is a Professor of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the Department of AI within the University of Malta. He has been conducting research and working in the field of AI for the past two decades. His work was rated World Class by international experts and won various prizes including; the Semantic Web Challenge, the first prize by the European Space Agency, the e-Excellence Gold Seal award, the First Prize in the Malta Innovation Awards, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) award for Creativity and the first prize of the Energy Globe award by the UN, amongst others. He has published several peer-reviewed papers and books in the field. He also formed part of the Malta.AI task-force aimed at making Malta one of the top-AI countries in the world where he chaired the working-group on AI in work & education. Prof Dingli also assists various local and international organizations during their transformation towards becoming AI companies.

Douglas Salt

Douglas Salt graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Malta . He has been working with the company for the past 29 years and is one of the top sales consultants. Douglas speaks English, Maltese and Italian. Apart from his role as director, he is also the branch manager for the St Julians and Spinola branches. Besides selling property, he also has vast organisational, managerial and motivational skills, and is involved in most aspects of the company. Douglas is the key person who liaises with developers giving advice on property developments and making sure that Frank salt Real Estate will be one of the first agents to know of any developments that come on the market.

Douglas Salt is also responsible for the development of the Chinese market. Douglas was the secretary of the former Association of Estate Agents and following it’s demise, in November 2005 successfully founded a Federation Of Estate Agents, and of which he was Founder President. He currently heads the real estate section in the Malta Developers Association. He is a committee member on the joint committee of the local Money Laundering Agency. He is spearheading legislation to govern estate agencies in Malta.

Dr Carl Brincat

Carl Brincat is the Chief Legal Counsel at the MGA. Carl has been part of the Malta Gaming Authority’s legal team for over five years after three years of training in the field of criminal law. He graduated as a lawyer from the University of Malta in 2014 and was admitted to the bar in 2015.

His main areas of work include providing advice on matters relating to gaming regulation, general legal and regulatory affairs, and dispute resolution. Carl is also heavily involved in the current impetus on innovative technology arrangements and DLT assets in the gaming industry and is one of the principal drafters of the new gaming regulatory framework in Malta.

Colin Doughan

Colin Doughan is the Founder and CEO of SpaceBridge Logistics, creating solutions at the intersection of aerospace and blockchain. SpaceBridge’s first product is a digital marketplace for rocket launch services – leveraging transparency and immutability to give satellite customers low-cost launch opportunities. SpaceBridge is utilizing blockchain to give global entrepreneurs access to the markets of the final frontier. Colin has spent his career developing sophisticated satellite programs and is now exploring how digital ledgers can make those aerospace products better and more accessible. Colin is based in Denver, Colorado, USA, with an MBA focused on economics and business 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. More recently, he has been involved in assisting a number of blockchain-based projects. James regularly contributes to international journals associated with investment funds and has addressed a number of local and international conferences focusing on this sector. James 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.

Svetlana Shubina

I am a blockchain evangelist and I help blockchain-based projects to realization through Security Audits by Kaspersky. We provide cyber-security solutions to crypto-exchanges, ICO, STO and enterprise organisations. Kaspersky is a global leading cyber-security company trusted by over 400 million users in over 200 locations with more than 4000 employees globally and 1/3 of the company are R&D and Security experts. Prior to Kaspersky, my working experience includes business development and marketing roles for one of Russia’s largest SaaS companies with nearly 2 million customers and over 7,500 staff. I grew the customer base from 420,000 to 1.2 million clients and increased online sales by 31%.

Dr Terrence Cassar

Dr Terence Cassar specialises on technology, media and telecommunications, intellectual property, gaming and betting, data protection, e-commerce, cybercrime, Blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

He graduated as Doctor of Laws (LL.D) in 2015 after reading law at the University of Malta, defending a thesis entitled “Patent Rights and the Infringement thereof under Maltese Law”. Dr Cassar is currently furthering his education by reading for an LL.M. in Internet Law & Policy at the University of Strathclyde.

Dr Cassar is a member of the Chamber of Advocates and a frequent speaker and publisher on technology laws.

Aoife

Aoife, head of BiboxEurope (Fiat to crypto) exchange, entered the blockchain industry in 2016 and has more than 10 years of experience leading marketing teams. She has served as head of operations and marketing in several network companies and assisted companies in investor relations and financing. She was involved in a large number of public welfare activities and cooperated with Coca-Cola, Ping An Bank, Starbucks, Master Kong, and Focus Media to provide integrated marketing services. She has rich promotion experiences and also led large events planning and execution.

Ben Jordan

Ben Jordan is a well-known expert in the iGaming industry. He brings extensive experience in numerous gaming verticals, financial services, and blockchain technology. Working in senior positions for companies such as American Express, Sportingbet, and PokerStars he has acquired extensive experience at a top-level. He holds a post-graduate in Financial crime prevention and consults for companies in many sectors as an expert in fraud prevention. As a frequent international public speaker and published author on technology and thought leadership, Ben has exceptional knowledge of risk management and compliance in this space. Drawing on over fifteen years’ global experience in the gaming sector, Ben has established himself as a leading executive and subject matter expert. He is a “Form A” approved Director by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) in the UK and is also a co-author of the Digital Economy Act working for Parliament in the UK. He has held positions at board level and been an MLRO for International companies.

Sheikh Bilal Khan

Sheikh Bilal Khan MBA is a British-born entrepreneur, business leader, lawyer and arbitrator/judge who is a third-generation British citizen after his grandfather served in the British navy and subsequently settled in the United Kingdom. He is Secretary-General of Malta Islamic Finance Association (MIFA), Chief Islamic Finance Officer at the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) and Partner & Global Head of Islamic Finance at the international law firm, McCarthy Denning, headquartered in the City of London. He also holds the positions of Panel Member of Arbitrators at the AIFC International Arbitration Centre, Member of AIFC Central Shari’ah Advisory Board, Member of AIFC Advisory Council on Islamic Finance and Co-Chairman of Dome Advisory.

Kunihiro Katsuragi

Katsuragi is a young Japanese Entrepreneur, challenger and pioneer. Having lived and worked across the world, from Spain to Peru, he gained an understanding of the needs of a global society. After coming back to Japan, he recognised the issues on modern Japanese society and its financial system, and embarked on a mission to create something new: a user-friendly service powered by technology as well as philosophy. As COO of IFA Inc., he is launching his own project, AIre.

Vita Martin

Vita Martin has a background in digital marketing for financial services companies with a focus of building bespoke Paid Search campaigns. Throughout her career she successfully created and managed several multi-million pound marketing campaigns. Her aim to is bridge the gap between search results, data and user journey using human and artificial intelligence. She was involved in a Digital Agency start up on the Isle of Man and is currently consulting on several large projects. Her main passion is creating seamless search experience whilst achieving high converting campaigns for her clients. Her projects were nominated as finalists for Data IQ and Best Paid Search Agency awards.

Gordon Einstein

Gordon Einstein is a hybrid Crypto-Attorney, Technologist, and Enterprise Strategist. Gordon received his undergraduate degree in Politics in 1991 from Brandeis University in Boston and then received his JD in 1995 from the USC Gould School of Law in Los Angeles. Gordon is also a proud Eagle Scout, having served in Boy Scout Troop 223.

Initially Gordon’s law practice centered on startup, venture capital, investment banking, regulatory compliance, intellectual property and general business law. In 2010 Gordon judged that the new field of cloud computing had potential. The group he formed brought to life his vision of the law firm technology platform of the future – AdaptiveSky. AdaptiveSky continues to operate successfully and is a nationally-recognized premier service provider, with its clients primarily located in New York and California. AdaptiveSky has also been awarded Worldox Systems Integrator status (the highest certification level available) by World Software.

As an avid computer and programming hobbyist, in 2012 Gordon was intrigued by Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, and the related technologies. By 2014, he was providing legal services to several individuals and companies operating in this space. And by 2016 the majority of Gordon’s law practice involved working with crypto, blockchain and FinTech startups and funds. This was formalized as CryptoLaw Partners in 2017. Gordon frequently speaks and educates both in the United States and abroad, quite often in Ukraine. Some common themes are issues and developments relating to cryptocurrency, the legal aspects of FinTech, structuring blockchain startups, and AML/KYC compliance.

Dr Josianne Cutajar

Dr Josianne Cutajar is the youngest Member to ever represent the Maltese Islands in the European Parliament.

In her time as lawyer in the Office of the Prime Minister, the Maltese Government initiated a process of digitalisation of services, allowing Malta to evolve into a centre for new and emerging technologies.

As an active member in the Committee for Industry, Research and Energy, as well as the Committee for Transport and Tourism, she strongly advocates for a European Union that aims to acquire technological autonomy through widespread digitalisation, as it continues to provide top quality infrastructure and services, whilst striving towards the achievement of ambitious sustainable development goals.

Shaun Sales

Shaun Sales is an expert in programing and a serial entrepreneur with more than 20 years experience. He co-founded MIX Space and Dehash blockchain ventures as well as founded CMUNE, creator of 30 million+ users games. His ventures have shipped multiple hit titles with 100 million+ downloads. He has also invested in many successful technology ventures including Atomico, Razar, ESL, Twitch and DCM. Previously, Shaun worked for General Electric and Computer Sciences Corp.

Ekapak Nirapathpongporn

Ekapak Nirapathpongporn, known as Eka, is an entrepreneur with an impressive track record in finance. He co-founded Fraction, along with his partner Shaun Sales, as the first real estate stock exchange to bring fractional ownership to all. Previously, Eka was Managing Director and Partner at Lazard, a leading global investment bank, cumulating 17 years experience in international financial markets. He is also owner & investor in multiple successful businesses – such as the RateIt App, Plan B Media, JAGGAD Life Athletics, Taki Mai and Antuit.

Dr Jean C. Farrugia

Jean is a qualified lawyer and has been a senior partner with DF Advocates since 2003. Having considerable experience acting as a transactional lawyer, he specialises in financial services and corporate law with a special focus on investment services, banking, fintech, regtech, securities law and capital markets, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions and general corporate advisory work. Jean has also considerable experience in public procurement and public concessions regulations and was also involved in an advisory role in the privatisation of major state owned entities.

Jean has advised and still acts on an ongoing basis for major local and international companies including banks, insurance companies, private equity firms, funds, investment advisors and fund/asset managers, in the setting up and licensing of their business as well as on their regulatory and compliance needs.

John deVadoss

John leads NEO Global Development in Seattle, WA, with a focus on the developer experience and tools. Previously he built and successfully exited two Machine Learning start-ups. Earlier in his career at Microsoft, John incubated and built Microsoft Digital from zero to $0.5B in revenue, and he led Architecture, Product, and Developer Engagement for the .NET platform v1. He has published a number of books on Software Architecture, and is currently working on a book on Decentralized Systems.

Ludovic Bodin

Ludovic Bodin is Managing Partner at Kalibrio Capital, overseeing the firm’s business operations. He is currently working on setting up a new European Applied AI Fund (US$1B; Series B onwards; Applications of AI in health, Mobility, Environment, etc), with fast track access to China.

Ludovic is Chair of the International Investment committee for France AI Hub, President of FrenchTech in Beijing and China ambassador, and co-founder of the European Applied Ai hub, regrouping 7 countries and 10 European AI leading research and industrial organization, from France, Germany and the Nordics, pushing to build the European Applied AI scene, benefiting from Europe #1 position worldwide in AI research.

Prof. Adrian Muscat

Adrian Muscat is associate professor at the Department of Communications and Computer Engineering, University of Malta. He received the Ph.D. in Electronics Engineering from Queen Mary University of London in 2002, the M.Sc. Degree in RF and Microwave Engineering from the University of Bradford in 1996, and the B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Malta, 1993. He has carried out research in the development or application of modelling, simulation, evolutionary search and machine learning techniques, in particular in the areas of microstrip antenna computer aided design, shape grammars for the control of pixel antennas, characterisation of RF devices, computational electromagnetics, radio propagation on board aircraft, automated assessment in electrical circuit analysis classes, cognitive radio and more lately in computer vision, in particular in image understanding, with special emphasis on detecting spatial relations in images and video, with potential applications in robotics, autonomous vehicles and assisted living.

Prof. Carl Debono

Employed as a Research Engineer with the Department of Microelectronics at the University of Malta in 1997. This research work included development of high frequency building blocks using CMOS technology.
Four months as a Research Associate at the Texas A&M University under Prof. Franco Maloberti in 2000.
Appointed Lecturer in Communications and Computer Engineering at the University of Malta in 2001, promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2006, and promoted to Associate Professor in 2011.
Served as Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Information and Communication Technology between November 2009 and September 2015.
Appointed Head of the Department of Communications and Computer Engineering in October 2015.
Elected Dean of the Faculty of Information and Communication Technology in March 2019.

Specialties: Research interests are in RF and Microwave System Development and Applications, Modelling of Communication Systems, Multi-view video coding, and Resilient Multimedia Transmission.

Roderick Psaila

Sheila Kavanagh

Gregory Klumov

Gregory Klumov is a specialist in alternative asset management. Starting in IT, he founded a high speed internet service provider called BNET at 15 before moving on to financial analyst and man-agement roles. Klumov became active in the Bitcoin and digital as-sets space during its emergence, eventually putting together a book on their regulation targeted at state level decision makers (“Digital Asset Regulation: A Cross-Country Analysis”). He worked a vital role as advisor to the Maltese government, forming the regulatory framework that facilitated blockchain companies like Binance and OKEx moving to the island. Having lectured at schools including the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, IMD in Lausanne, and the Finance University under the Government of the Russian Federation, he is proficient in simplifying complex topics related to technology and finance. Klumov’s current focus is on his company STASIS, a fiat-tokenization platform with its flagship product being a fully audited tokenized Euro, a first on both fronts.

Brad Kayton

I have served as CEO, CFO, and COO over the years. ZOME provides a wide-scale, device-independent, platform solution comprising cloud software, algorithms, and API’s enabling control, simulations, and analytics to implement or improve energy management programs. The platform is cloud-based, supports IoT devices (e.g., connected thermostats), and provides for advanced Distributed Energy Resource Optimization. www.zomepower.com

Dejan Roljic

Dejan started his entrepreneurial path as very young. In his twenties, he founded ABC Accelerator, connecting startups all over Europe and in Silicon Valley. ABC Accelerator has invested in more than 150 startups worldwide. Two years ago, Dejan founded Eligma, a company for smart commerce solutions. Eligma has created two very interesting products for merchants and consumers. The GoCrypto infrastructure enables merchants to accept crypto – currently in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Turkey. Eligma also built Elly (former Elipay); this multifunctional wallet allows users to buy, sell, transfer and spend crypto while getting a token-back for every purchase.
Eligma is becoming a global facilitator of seamless and secure crypto payments. It utilizes blockchain technology to establish communication standards for crypto payment networks and runs an infrastructure of more than 500 local stores and services accepting crypto. Eligma also aims to help high-inflation markets where the local currency is losing its value, providing consumers and merchants with alternative possibilities to save the value of their money by moving to crypto use. Its vision made Eligma one of the hottest high-tech firms right now. Among other investments, it recently received a 4-million euro influx by Bitcoin.com and Pangea Blockchain Fund.

Felix Herrmann

Felix is the youngest co-founder and Community Manager at Salamantex. He entered the realm of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies during the course of his economic studies and together with his co-founders started the project not long after realizing the potentially disruptive impacts on both the economy and society. Salamantex has therefore set itself the task of enabling the massadoption of cryptocurrencies by creating both required software and hardware infrastructure allowing business to accept cryptocurrencies as a means of payment without being exposed to the risks emerging from technological complexity and volatility.

Hartej Sawhney

Hartej is the Co-Founder and President for Hosho, the leading blockchain, and security company that conducts smart contract audits and penetration testing of exchanges and blockchain protocols. He is an advisor at crypto hedge fund Pink Sky Capital, Krypto.io, and BlitzPredict.io.

Ing. Efrem Borg

Efrem leads the Information Security and Governance Department within MITA, Malta’s central driver of Government’s ICT policy, programmes and initiatives with the ultimate objective of safeguarding Government’s digital assets.

He also stands on the Maltese National Cyber Security Strategy Committee responsible for the development of the National Cyber Security Strategy and the overseeing of its implementation, intended to enrich Malta’s cyber security posture.

Erick Zhang

Erick joined Binance in 2017 and oversees Binance Research, the data-driven research and analysis arm of global blockchain ecosystem Binance that provides institutional-grade reports and analysis aiming to increase transparency and improve the quality of information in the crypto space. Prior to Binance, Erick built his career with several years of experience in banking, investment and big data analytics. Erick received a Master degree from Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor degree from the University of Macau.

Emmanuel Darmanin

Dana Farrugia

Dana Farrugia is the CEO of Tech.mt, a foundation established in partnership between the Government of Malta and The Malta Chamber of Commerce to promote the National strategy for Technology & Innovation. She is engaged in ensuring sector growth for technology and innovation, primarily focusing on AI, blockchain, IOT, cloud services, data analytics, software development, robotics, cyber security and research on innovative solutions. Dana Farrugia has worked in the telecoms industry for fourteen years, mainly shaping the mobile, fixed, internet, tv, fiber and IP networks in Malta. She has also worked at the Ministry for the Economy, Investment and Small Businesses for six years where she has developed an in-depth understanding of the needs of different local industries and also gained a sound exposure on the potential of various international markets. Dana Farrugia is also a Director at Malta Enterprise and at the Malta Start-up Foundation.

Wayne Grixti

MALTA.AI Taskforce. Wayne was an Advisor on the Malta National Blockchain Taskforce and was instrumental in the articulation of the DLT regulatory framework and the supporting guidance notes. Wayne received a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Malta and has over 17 years of experience working with the Malta Information Technology Agency engineering solutions for the Government and leading various projects on identity and cloud computing. Wayne participated in several expert group meetings organised by the European Commission and is currently an active member of the European Blockchain Partnership.

Przemysław Borecki

A specialist with 12 years of professional experience in the finance, trading, IT projects and global HR processes. He gained practice working for global financial institutions in various countries.

Przemysław, among others, introduced and led successful developed of the TradingView platform in Poland. He cooperated with many financial institutions from around the world. As COO at BitBay, he is responsible for business solutions, corporate customers, OTC trading, listing, white-label and trading tools development.

John Pigott

Denise De Gaetano

Denise De Gaetano is an AI and Blockchain specialist with more than 12 years of experience working within various industries. Her skills and expertise have helped with the transformation of data investments into actionable business results through the visioning and implementation of Big Data, Web Presence, Content Publishing, and Enterprise Search solutions. She was also involved in business strategies providing a superior engagement experience through a combination of business acumen, intellectual curiosity, a collaborative work style, and strong partnerships with award-winning vendors.

Prof. Charles Sammut

Isabel Fereday

Dr. Dominic Cortis

Dr Dominic Cortis is a lecturer in Actuarial Science and Insurance Risk at the University of Malta, a Non-Executive Director of One Insurance Limited, and a consultant actuarial specialist for KPMG in Malta. He has published academic articles on the use of insurance technology, recently co-authoring a chapter on InsurTech in Disrupting Finance: FinTech and Strategy in the 21st Century.

Anatoliy Knyazev

Dr Conrad Attard

Before joining the University of Malta’s Dept. of Computer Information Systems at the Faculty of ICT, Dr Attard had a career as director of his own firm providing IT consultancy to various SMEs.

Dr Conrad Attard graduated with a PhD in Engineering, Computer Science Department from Sheffield University in 2016 and obtained his MSc and BSc from University of Malta. In 1999 he started working at Malta International Airport and gathered a lot of experience related to critical IT systems that are adopted by the airline industry.

Chris Kaye

Chris has spent most of his career advising insurers, most recently as a Partner and Managing Director for The Boston Consulting Group. As head of BCG’s Insurance Practice for Asia, he grew the business to $50 million in revenues, and supported the launch of numerous innovative digital insurance businesses. Chris became increasingly frustrated by his clients’ failure to move into the 21st century, and so decided to put his money where his mouth was and launch Sherpa – with the ambition to reinvent insurance from the ground up.

Jill Ni

Jill is leading the global partnership and fundraising activities at Binance Charity Foundation. BCF is a nonprofit organization dedicated to achieving global sustainable development by unlocking the power of blockchain. Supported by the largest crypto exchange Binance, BCF built the world’s 1st 100% transparent donation platform to track donations from donors down to each end beneficiaries, eliminating the middle man and any possible corruptions.

Prior to BCF, Jill had over five years of experience in retail banking and wealth management and managed the mortgage product at HSBC in China. She has also worked at prominent impact investing organizations in the US and China. Jill earned a BA degree from Fudan University and an MBA degree from Yale School of Management where she led the Responsible Investing Club and started Impact Investing Workshop. She is also a CFA charter holder and an active member of the CFA community in China.

Dennis Hui

Dennis Hui is the Business Development Director of BiKi.com Southeast Asia. BiKi.com is one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrency exchanges, ranked Top 20 on CoinMarketCap. Before joining BiKi, he was formerly GM at DigiFinex in Singapore, with responsibilities covering Business Development, Public Relations and Marketing. Prior to this, he was a futures trader at a hedge fund, Brahman Capital Management. Dennis graduated with a Bachelor of Accounting from Nanyang Technological University.

Sabine Roiss

In her role as Head of Events and CEO Assistant, she works closely with the Business Development Team, leading and coordinating the national and international event teams. With great organizational skills, her deep insight into company-internal procedures and her hands-on mentality, she supports the management and the whole team in their day-to-day business. Through strategic planning and organizational support, she ensures that the Salamantex team is always professionally represented at the latest and most important events.This also includes being present as a speaker on stage.

Dr. Christopher P. Buttigieg

Christos Efthymiopoulos

Christos Efthymiopoulos is a Senior Analyst within the MFSA’s FinTech & Innovation Function and is managing the team responsible for the authorisation and supervision of Virtual Financial Assets (‘VFA’) operators. From the outset of his appointment, Christos has been heavily involved with the drafting and development of the Virtual Financial Assets legislative and regulatory framework. Prior to joining the MFSA, Christos was working as legal advisor, Compliance Officer and MLRO Designated Employee for an established Maltese firm, focusing mainly on financial services, with particular attention to investment funds, FinTech, Regulatory Compliance and Anti-Money Laundering.

Ing. David Scerri