Mr. Arslan Chikhaoui
Born in Algeria in 1962, he is graduated in International Relations, Economics (Independent Study, Berkeley University), and Biology. He then further specialized in Strategy, and Public Affairs (FSI). Since 1994 up today; he is Chairman and CEO of the consultancy centre “Nord-Sud Ventures”, specialised in business intelligence, strategy, lobbying, and public affairs. From 1991 to 1994; he is Senior Advisor-Analyst to the Algerian Institute for Global Strategy Studies, Department of International Relation Affairs and Defense and Security Policy. From 1982 to 1990; he is Senior Administrator and Coordinator of the Development Aid and Cooperation Programs for Algeria, founded individually or jointly by the World Bank, USAID, the John’s Hopkins University and the United Nations, aiming to promote social housing, agricultural and rural development, family planning, and the assessment of educational institutions. On a national scale; he contributed to the report “Algérie, Perspective 2005” (Algeria: Forecast 2005) carried out in 1991/92, as well as to the restructuring and privatisation policies of Algerian companies, and the Algerian non-hydrocarbons export policy. On an international scale; he has been involved in the work of the Euro Mediterranean Conference, the Euromed Civil Forum, the Ecomed initiative, the Middle East and North Africa Economic Summit, the “Europe, Middle East and North Africa: Dialogue and Cooperation” project, Davos Meetings, the NEPAD Initiative Meetings, the Tokyo Conference on Investment to Africa, Good Governance for Development in the Arab Countries Initiative, Security in the Mediterranean Region. He is visiting lecturer and expert to the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI), the Centre for European Integration Studies, the Lebanese Centre for Policy Studies, the Japanese Institute for Middle East Studies, Myeongji University of Seoul, the Uzbek Institute for Middle East Studies, the UCLA International Institute, to the Algerian Army Forces High Command, and to the Algerian Military Academy. At the 1999 Davos Summit, he was nominated amongst the one hundred Global Leaders for Tomorrow joining World Economic Forum. He is also member of Defense and Security Forum. He is involved in training high-ranking Algerian Army Officers in Public Affairs, and Consultant to the Algerian Government. He is as well analyst in international affairs for national and international media.
His essays include:
• Political and economic transformation in Algeria
• Security and Stability in the Mediterranean Sea
• The impact of the Western Sahara conflict on the relationships between North African States
• Algerian foreign policy during the crisis period
• Algeria in a Shadow of Global Recession
• Euro-Mediterranean cooperation
• The impact of external financial resources on Algerian development
• Algeria Investment Promotion Strategy
• The twelve criteria of foreign direct investment
• The doctrine of low intensity conflicts
• The doctrine of lobbying
• The new war-logic
• Mediterranean enlargement of the European Union: New challenge for Germany
• Integration Challenges facing the North Africa Region
• Islamism: Between Violence and Democracy
• The challenge of ELINT in the global world
Mohit Davar has been working in the money transfer industry for over 13 years. He has been involved in two start-ups in this industry, firstly in 1997 he helped form the Joint Venture between MoneyGram and Thomas Cook and took the position of CFO and then went on to become the CEO until 2003, when this was sold back to MoneyGram. He then set up Travelex Money Transfer, which was acquired by Coinstar in May 2006. Mohit is currently the CEO of Coinstar Money Transfer. Prior to MoneyGram he worked at Thomas Cook M&A and Sedgwick, the insurance brokers. Mohit is also the Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the IAMTN. He is also a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales.
Norman Frankel is a world authority in mobile payments and e-Commerce with over 12 years industry experience in banking, mobile payments, consultancy, systems integration and payment operations. He has provided advice to companies across Europe, Asia, Far East and Australasia. His team have written the m-Payment strategies for Telefonica International, MasterCard International, Orange Group, KPN and T-Mobile International and deployed working payment solutions for Vodafone and other operators. He is founder and Chief Executive of Mi-Pay Ltd, a company specialising in adding value to mobile initiated payment transactions, particularly in the area of pre-paid top-up and remittances. Mi-Pay works with mobile operators, money transfer businesses and banks to reduce pre-pay top-up costs, provide improved customer experiences and innovative mobile payment programmes such as remittances. Customers include in Europe, Operators in the Vodafone Group; KPN Telfort, Tesco Mobile, Carphone Warehouse and in the Middle East, Du, Saraf Mobile and Zain and customers in Africa. Mi-Pay is judged both by client numbers and volume & value of top-up transactions processed the largest independent direct channel top-up service provider in Europe. The company is involved in many exciting mobile initiated payment innovations, including being a lead vendor and advisor to the GSMA Mobile Money Vendors Association for Remittance and Micro-Finance mobile payments, advisor to Clarions Mobile Money Transfer events and recently advisor to IAMTN’s remittance education programme. Prior to this Norman spent 5 years as Group Mobile and e-Commerce Director for Logica Plc, the company that provided the software powering over 70% of the worlds SMS text messages. His role at Logica encompassed Wireless Internet and Payment Solutions and his team provided advice to banks and mobile operators from Japan through to Europe, which included helping to establish SimPay, which was intended to be a global payment scheme for mobile operators. Prior to Logica, Norman was Head of New Media Banking at NatWest, now Royal Bank of Scotland and one of the worlds’ largest banks, particularly in the area of electronic payments. At NatWest, Norman developed and implemented the banks strategy for point of sale and ATM pre-paid top-up and delivery of financial services via new media and mobile devices. Norman spent over 10 years in Card Services delivering technology led innovations in the Customer Relationship Management, E-commerce and M-Commerce area. Norman has a postgraduate qualification in International Marketing, International Finance and Strategic Management and holds the Chartered Institute of Marketing diploma.
Johanna Masket has extensive experience on the retail side of the business since 1998. She spent the last 5 years working with Wal-Mart International and the last 3 in the Financial Services area. She has worked in both “big box” and specialty retail for Wal-Mart and Blockbuster, respectively. She spent 5 years living in Asia working in both the retail and distribution businesses. Currently, she is the Sr. Director Financial Services with Wal-Mart International with a key focus on growing the credit, money services and extended warranty businesses in 15 markets around the world. Prior to joining Financial Services, she worked in Strategy for SAM’S CLUB International, as the Chief Merchant for Asia and Commercial Director International Franchising for Blockbuster as well as various international business development and finance roles for 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and the Walt Disney Company. She has an MBA in International Business from UCLA Anderson School of Management and BA in International Management from Claremont McKenna College.
Michael Madden
A successful entrepreneur with a passion for emerging economies, he has been involved in the Cards and Retail Banking business in Emerging markets for over 15 years. He has lived and worked in Russia for over eight years on two different occasions, managed businesses in Central & Eastern Europe, Southern Europe and Africa.
Before Ronoc, Michael was the founding CEO of Renaissance Credit, where in 2003 he established the third largest Consumer Finance bank in Russia from scratch. He successfully set up the Renaissance Credit business in Russia and Ukraine and replaced GE as the partner of choice with IKEA. He established lending operations for Sales Finance, Auto Lending, Personal Loans and Credit Cards in over 60 regions across Russia.
Prior to building Renaissance Credit, Michael had an extensive and successful career with American Express, characterised by innovation into new markets. He joined the company in Ireland in 1988 and worked in their Card and Travel businesses before moving to Russia in 1993. Having spent four years in Russia establishing the AMEX Card business across the former Soviet Union, he moved to the UK in 1996, first as Director for a portfolio of Franchise Markets and then as Vice President for the AMEX Franchise business in EMEA, as well as having responsibility for the International Dollar Card business in Europe.
Michael’s success has been built on inventive business intelligence, understanding of emerging market economies and most importantly the ability to engage with international partners, cross cultural teams and his extensive international network of contacts.
Chidi Okpala holds a BSc in Finance and an MBA from the University of Nigeria. He was recently awarded the Sloan Fellowship Msc in Strategy and Leadership by the London Business School, one of Europe’s elite business schools. He has enjoyed a distinguished career of over 15years; he first joined the UBA Group in 1997 in its Corporate and Commercial Banking Division. Chidi thereafter worked for Accenture between 1999 and 2001 as a Senior Strategy Consultant in its Financial Services Group, where he worked for some of leading financial services institutions in Africa. While in Accenture, he also participated in projects that shaped Nigeria’s Payments Industry including the repositioning of ValuCard and the business set-up of InterSwitch, ATMC and E-Tranzact. He re-joined UBA in 2002 as Chief Strategist and thereafter managed the Product Division where amongst other businesses; he managed remittance partnerships with Western Union, MoneyGram, PayQuik and Travelex. He introduced the first local money transfer service in Nigeria – CASHFAST, the first account to account remittance service in Nigeria and pioneered Non Resident Nigerian Banking Service. He has represented UBA in national and industry committees like the Presidential Committee on Consumer Finance and the Bankers Committee’s Task Force on the reform of the Nigerian Payments System. Chidi, who is married with children, is a Chevening Scholar, winner of the Allan & Nesta Ferguson Trust’s award for Emerging African Leaders and a Fellow of the Nigerian Leadership Initiative.
Marcus Treacher is head of electronic banking and e-commerce for HSBC's Global Transaction Banking business. Marcus has worked in the corporate banking and IT industries for over 22 years, in a wide range of roles spanning strategic planning, product management, divisional management and large-scale IT transformation programmes. Marcus is currently Chairman, SWIFT UK.
Ken Howes is a Director of EDC and has overall responsibility for the London office. Before joining the firm in 1996 Ken spent 26 years with Midland/HSBC Bank where he held a range of executive management positions including Head of Group Cards, Electronic Banking Director and Head of Payments Strategy and Emerging Markets. Ken, who has had broad experience in retail banking, payments and electronic commerce, played a major part in the formation and development of the Switch Debit Card scheme and has been closely involved in other major developments in the global cards business. As a consultant, Ken has led high profile and leading edge assignments for blue chip organizations in many countries. These include product, competitive, and market entry strategies and due diligence projects in payments, financial services and related sectors. Ken is a graduate of Durham University in England, a Sloan Fellow of the London Business School and a member of the UK Institute of Financial Services. He has spoken widely on cards, payments and customer profitability issues internationally and has written numerous articles. Ken is also co-founder of the Prepaid International Forum, a not-for-profit trade association established to represent all parties participating on a commercial basis in the prepaid economy.
Sébastien Duquet, is an expert in accounting methodologies and audit of emerging market banking institutions.
After being Middle East Development Director, Executive Director at PlaNet Finance Morocco and Deputy Managing Director in charge of Development, he is, since November 2005, Managing Director of PlaNet Finance
He was successively consultant at the Banking Department of Andersen, Finance Department Manager at HSBC / French Commercial Credit, Manager at Ernst & Young network. He has conducted over the last 10 years many assignments in Emerging Markets countries especially in the banking sector and the funding of SMEs.
Sébastien Duquet has an International Finance Diploma from the EDHEC Business School and a Chartered Accountant Diploma from the French Ministry of Education.
Gerver Torres is an economist, currently working for The Gallup Organization, developing a new product, The World Poll, which surveys global citizens about well-being, war and peace, law and order, hopes and dreams, healthcare, suffering and striving, personal economics, poverty, and many other economic and social issues.
He has been a Consultant with the World Bank, the Inter American Development Bank and the United Nations, on different economic and social issues. He served as Director of the International Monetary Fund.
He has served as Minister of the Venezuelan Investment Fund.
He has published several books and many different articles on economic and social topics.
Martin Koderisch is Strategic Alliances Director at Luup - a global provider of mobile payment services. With 10 year experience working in cards, payments and telecoms for major organizations including Citi, Amex and C&W, as well as a spell in consulting, he was instinctively drawn into the rapidly emerging world of mobile remittance and payments in 2008. He has been instrumental in developing and implementing Luup’s strategic vision and forging vital partnerships with stakeholder across the expanding mobile payments ecosystem. He holds an MBA from Cass Business School in London and a BSc in Psychology from Manchester University and recently co-published the book “price management for financial services”.
Aletha Ling - Head of Business Development and Executive Director Aletha is a veteran of the computer industry. After heading up IBM South Africa's Software Business she left in 1993 to start the very successful technology company Software Futures, growing it to a 600 person software and services business which she subsequently sold to the JSE listed company, Computer Configurations Holdings (CCH), she stayed on as a board director and was appointed as CEO of CCH a year later. She was the 1999 S.A. Computer Society IT Personality of the year and has served as non-executive on a number of boards including that of a financial services company. She has served as futurist and CEO of Futureworld and continues as an associate of that organization and member of the World Futures Society.
Aletha took a sabbatical during 2004, sailing her yacht from Cape Town to the Caribbean.
She joined Fundamo during early 2006 with a mandate to drive the company's global expansion program.
Udayan Goyal is the Founder and Managing Director of Financial Technology Advisors (FT Advisors) based in London. He was formerly a Managing Director and Global Head of Financial Technology Advisory at Deutsche Bank AG based in London. During his career he has held various senior positions at Credit Suisse, ABN AMRO and BZW (Barclays Capital) where he has worked with clients such as Mastercard, First Data, Global Payments, TSYS, Western Union, Travelex, Euronet and others. Udayan has advised on the vast majority of European Financial Technology transactions over the last 10 year as well as global ones such as leading the $29bn acquisition of First Data by KKR. Udayan is well known in the industry and was featured as an invited speaker at Cards and Payments Europe 2006 held in Milan where he delivered a speech on consolidation within the European payments space. In 2007, he was a guest speaker at the Fourth International Capital Markets Conference in Thessaloniki, Greece, and he has been invited to be a regular guest lecturer for the course "Modern Financial Products" at Polytechnic University, New York. In early 2008, he delivered a keynote speech on stock exchange consolidation at Finexpo 2008 - City Technology Strategies, a keynote speech at the Financial News Technology for the Buy-Side conference held in March 2008 and a keynote speech at FEA 2008 Automation & Innovation in The City held in November 2008. He has also contributed a chapter in the recently published book “Handbook of Electronic Trading” edited by Joe Rosen and has published articles in other trade publications such as the European Card Review (“M&A and the Changing Face of Europe’s Processors” in the March/ April 2004 edition). He has been interviewed by various publications such as the Financial Times, Financial News, Credit magazine and Buy Side Technology and is a regularly quoted in the press around his areas of expertise.
 Darren Sugden - Chief Commercial Officer Darren is responsible for the development of Monitise's business, working closely with banks and operators to deliver Monitise ecosystems in new territories across the globe. Before joining Monitise in early 2007, Darren worked for HSBC Group, one of the world's largest financial services providers, for over 20 years. During this time he gained experience in both retail and corporate banking, as well as undertaking various central strategic and planning roles. Darren spent a large part of his career working around the world, including time developing offshore banking in Jersey and building the Bank's eCommerce business in Hong Kong and across Asia Pacific. Most recently he spent three years as eCommerce Director at first direct, a recognised leader in direct banking, where he was responsible for the bank's development of its mobile banking services.
 Jack Jared, Managing Director, Bank Services Group Head, Europe, Middle East & Africa
Global Transaction Services - Citi
Jack is responsible for all Trade and Treasury Services activities with Banks in EMEA. Citi provides corresponding banking services to more than 2,000 institutions in 120 countries across the region.
Jack has, during his 26 years with the firm, worked in Relationship Management acting as Senior Banker and Senior Credit Officer within the Financial Institutions group; Technology where he implemented a global risk management system; Product Management where he had responsibility for a number of global payment products and cash management Sales.
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