Dr. Alessandro Curioni is an IBM Fellow and Vice President of Europe & Africa, IBM Research - he is based in Zurich, Switzerland. In addition he is also responsible for the global research strategies for Security and the Future of Computing.

Dr. Curioni is a world recognized leader in the area of high performance computing and computational science where his innovative thinking and seminal contributions have helped solve some of the most complex scientific and technological problems in healthcare, aerospace, consumer goods and electronics. He was a member of the winning team recognized with the prestigious Gordon Bell Prize in 2013 and 2015.

Dr. Curioni received his undergraduate degree in Theoretical Chemistry and his PhD from Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy. He started at IBM Research in Zurich as a PhD student in 1993 before officially joining as a research staff member in 1998.

Dr. Christoph F. Strnadl is CTO and a Secretary General of the Gaia-X European Association for Data and Cloud AISBL, an international Brussels-based organization defining and implementing standards to enable federated and trusted data and digital service ecosystems.

Educated as a research scientist in Theoretical Physics he has been working as strategy consultant and business manager at Atos for 10 years. He then joined Software AG in 2005 where he held various technical leadership positions in central and eastern Europe, and at the global level, finally as Deputy CTO, playing a key role in global technology strategy development, cross-product innovation, and thought leadership. There Christoph contributed to large-scale, high-impact initiatives, including Gaia-X, Mobility Data Space (MDS), and various IoT and data space projects. Before joining the Gaia-X AISBL in 2024, he led the efforts of the IOTA Foundation, a Berlin blockchain/DLT association, of defining and implementing a technology adoption department.

An Austrian citizen, Christoph holds a summa cum laude Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the Technical University of Vienna and a post-graduate certificate in management science from the University of Huddersfield, UK. He is a recognized public speaker with over 300 appearances and co-author of or contributor to several books on the cloud-to-edge (C2E) continuum and its monetarization, data and service platform concepts and implementations, business process management, and IT law.

Renjie Butalid is a senior technology and policy executive with deep expertise at the intersection of emerging technologies, financial innovation, and public interest.
He is the Co-Founder and Director of the Montreal AI Ethics Institute (MAIEI), a global non-profit advancing AI ethics literacy and civic competence. Under his leadership, MAIEI’s AI Ethics Brief newsletter has grown to over 15,000 subscribers, and the organization has joined leading initiatives including the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute Consortium (AISIC) at NIST, Partnership on AI, and the AI Alliance.
Renjie also serves as Vice President of Business Development at Metrika, the leading SaaS platform for real-time, dynamic risk management and compliance in digital assets and blockchain. Metrika transforms fragmented, manual risk processes into structured, automated frameworks and key risk indicators tailored for digital assets, stablecoins, and real-world assets (RWAs). He leads global business development and strategic partnerships, working closely with G-SIBs, asset issuers, asset managers, credit rating agencies, and regulatory bodies to strengthen risk management and compliance across digital asset markets.
Previously, Renjie led the expansion of McGill University’s Dobson Centre for Entrepreneurship, where he secured $8 million in funding and helped achieve a Top 10 global ranking in UBI Global’s Business Incubators and Accelerators.
Renjie has been named a Top 40 Under 40 by the Waterloo Region Record. He is a member of the Banff Forum in Canada and an alumni of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers.
Renjie holds a BA in Economics from the University of Waterloo and an MA in International Relations from Corvinus University of Budapest.

Having joined Julius Baer in 2004, Nic Dreckmann performed a number of senior positions before being appointed as Chief Operating Officer and a Member of the Executive Board in 2017. In addition to these responsibilities, he managed the global Intermediaries business from 2020 to 2024. In 2024, he assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer ad interim for the Julius Baer Group. Before joining Julius Baer, he worked as a management consultant for Accenture. Nic Dreckmann graduated with a Master's degree in Business Administration and Corporate Finance and he completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. He is a certified risk manager (FRM) and assumes various roles in financial services industry bodies.

Gregor Kaelin leads the Financial Services Enterprise sector at Google Cloud Switzerland, supporting the biggest banks and insurance companies in Switzerland with their digital transformation.
Before joining Google Cloud, Gregor worked at Salesforce in the Financial Services sector driving some of the most innovative transformation projects within the Swiss banking industry. He holds an Executive Masters degree from University of Zurich.

France’s Public Investment Bank was set up in 2013 to stimulate business growth. Known as Bpifrance, it merged three existing state agencies into a single entity composed of two main branches: Bpifrance Financement (previously, OSEO) and Bpifrance Investissement (regrouping CDC Entreprises, FSI and FSI Régions).

Arnaud Caudoux, who acted as OSEO’s Deputy CEO from 2008 to 2012, and as Bpifrance’s CFO from 2013 to 2015, has now been appointed Bpifrance’s Deputy CEO. As such, he is in charge of the Finance, Risk Management, IT and Guarantee business lines. From 2004 to 2008, he acted as Managing Director of Sofaris, a subsidiary owned by OSEO and other leading French private banks, which dealt with loan guarantee schemes for SMEs. He joined OSEO’s Guarantee line of business in 2003 as Chief Credit Risk and IT Officer.

He served as management consultant to Andersen Consulting and A.T. Kearney from 1997 to 2003. Prior to that, he was member of the project team that financed and designed the first toll highway in the Philippines.

Born in 1970, Arnaud Caudoux graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées.

Alan is the head of the Financial Infrastructure and Artificial Intelligence Office at the Monetary Authority of Singapore. He is responsible for developing Singapore’s digital financial infrastructure and strategies to foster responsive innovation in AI and digital asset. Prior to this, he held various leadership roles in the private sector including managing consulting and development teams across Asia Pacific. 

Maha is Centre Head, BIS Innovation Hub Singapore.

Having been newly appointed, most recently Maha was Head of Department for Early and High Growth Oversight leading the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) response to the Kalifa review of Fintech. A Senior Leadership Team member, she is setting up this new department from the ground up as part of the FCA’s strategy.

Prior to this, Maha served as Chief Payments Officer at Pay.UK on secondment from the FCA, responsible for running the payments operations of BACS, Faster Payments, Image Clearing Services and related managed services.

Maha joined the FCA in 2017 to set up the first Payments Department and was responsible for crafting and implementing the FCA supervisory strategy for the UK Payments Sector. This included leading the implementation of the Second Payments Services Directive (PSD2) and Open Banking.

Maha has a keen interest in observing and participating in the many exciting changes that are unfolding in the financial services, innovation and fintech environment. She recently sat on the SteerCo developing the strategy and blueprint for the UK’s newly created Centre for Finance Innovation and Technology.

She has a Degree in Commerce from Macquarie University and a Masters in Public Administration from the London School of Economics and Political Science.