Co-founder and CEO, NinjaHoldings

Mark Friedgan is the co-founder and CEO of NinjaHoldings. Headquartered in Chicago, NinjaHoldings was founded in 2017 and seeks to revolutionize the way everyday Americans interact with financial services. Through its CreditNinja® and NinjaCard™ brands, the company offers a full suite of digital banking and lending products for the everyday American. Through its NinjaEdge™ business line, the company offers a package of bespoke underwriting, fraud detection, and analytics software services that helps companies better understand their customers. Mark has 20+ years of experience working in startups, including Enova International (NYSE:ENVA), where he worked as Chief Information Officer between 2005 and 2011. Mark is also the co-founder, executive director, and former President of Eligo Energy, LLC, a leading retail electricity supplier based in Chicago. In addition to his own entrepreneurial pursuits, Mark is a serial investor and advisor to startups in the credit and energy industries. Mark has an MS in Computer Engineering and a BS in Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

Everett K. Sands

Everett K. Sands leverages his 20+ years of experience in banking to change the game for underserved small business owners who need access to responsible capital to reach the next level. Mr. Sands has shared his recommendations before Congressional committees and at conferences hosted by FORTUNE, the National Urban League and several industry-related events. He has appeared as a subject matter expert on national business media, including CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg. When Mr. Sands saw the accelerating trend of capital becoming less accessible and more expensive for small businesses owned by minorities, women, veterans and rural-dwellers, he recruited an experienced team of fellow banking professionals and founded Lendistry. Since then, Lendistry has deployed more than $8 billion in small business loans and grants to more than 550,000 underserved small businesses, employing more than 2,000,000 people across the United States. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Sands is an Advisory Board member of The Penn Institute for Urban Research (Penn IUR), and a Board member of The Center by Lendistry. 

President, U.S. Markets and Consumer Interactive, TransUnion

Steven M. Chaouki is President, U.S. Markets & Consumer Interactive, overseeing two TransUnion business lines. U.S. Markets provides information and insights to business customers across financial services, insurance, public sector, media and diversified markets. Consumer Interactive provides credit, financial and identity protection services to consumers.

He previously held the role of Executive Vice President, Financial Services from 2013 until May 2019, responsible for the company’s financial services business, which provides solutions to banks, credit unions, capital markets, financial services resellers, auto lenders and other customers. Before joining TransUnion, Mr. Chaouki held roles at HSBC in card/retail services and auto finance. Mr. Chaouki serves on the boards of MAIA Biotechnology, Inc. and Spring Labs.

Mr. Chaouki earned his MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business and his bachelor’s degree from Boston University.

Kevin Yuann is Chief Business Officer of NerdWallet (Nasdaq: NRDS), focused on driving growth in NerdWallet’s businesses. As a personal finance website and app, NerdWallet provides financial guidance to consumers and small- and mid-sized businesses. Kevin leads all teams responsible for overall revenue results and growth including General Managers, Business Development, BizOps, and Corporate Development teams. Previous roles at NerdWallet include managing our Credit & Wealth Product team and General Manager of our Credit Cards & Banking verticals. Prior to joining NerdWallet, Kevin managed strategy and operations teams at Visa and Deloitte Consulting. He has an M.B.A. from UCLA and a B.A. from Brown University.

Executive Vice President of Partnerships, GDS Link, LLC

With over 40 years of experience in the credit and collections industry, Mr. Alterman serves as the EVP of Partnerships with GDS Link, a credit risk management solutions and analytics company. Prior to oversight of partnerships, Mr. Alterman was the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for GDS. Mr. Alterman also provides industry insights and support as one of the subject matter experts on the industries served by GDS. From 2002 to 2008 Mr. Alterman served as Senior Vice President of Product Management and Business Development for Teletrack, the first credit reporting agency focused on the short-term lending industry, which is now part of Equifax. Earlier in his career Mr. Alterman worked at Computer Sciences Corp., American Express Centurion Bank, First National Bank of Boston, and Citicorp Retail Services

David Baxter

DAVID BAXTER is a visionary and collaborative leader that engages others to accelerate the growth potential of an organization in complex and evolving environments. He thrives on achieving results, developing relationships, building winning teams, and driving creativity in solutions. Dave is known for crafting the playbook, working with partners and networks on mutual successes, and ultimately influencing the marketplace. With passion and authenticity, Dave wins the hearts and minds of individuals and convinces people and organizations to make change, now.

Currently, Dave is the CEO of Solution by Text, the only compliance-first provider of enterprise texting solutions in the market. More than 1400 consumer finance organizations, including leading auto finance, banking and lending brands, trust Solutions by Text (SBT) to power compliant texting programs in support of their originations, servicing and collections initiatives. The company’s platform uniquely enables controls and management over regulatory and carrier communication policies.

Prior to SBT, Dave was the SVP of Business Development at ACI Worldwide ($1.5b), a company operating at the intersection of eCommerce and FinTech. He led the largest SaaS sales team at ACI Worldwide providing a platform for customers of large merchants, financial institutions, and other billers to make payments electronically – “any payment, anywhere”. He joined ACI during its acquisition of Online Resources and grew and scaled the original $20 million business to over $600 million, taking the ACI’s biller segment ranking from #12 to #1.

Previously, Dave rose through sales to Director of International at Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) where he was instrumental in building a book of business that was ultimately profitably sold to First Data. In these roles, he focused on new customer acquisition, renewals, cross-selling, and customer success. Dave not only exceeded sales targets on a year-over-year basis but was also the driving force behind the expansion of the business in South America, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Earlier, he held sales and account management positions with America Online (AOL) and Monster Worldwide.

Dave received a BA from Manhattan College. While at Manhattan, Dave captained the Men’s Division I Golf Team.

CEO, PerformLine, Inc.

Alex Baydin is the founder and CEO of PerformLine, a SaaS company delivering an omni-channel compliance platform for enterprises to mitigate regulatory risk and ensure brand safety. PerformLine provides end-to-end sales and marketing compliance, from pre-production document review to monitoring across consumer-facing channels like the web and social media. With the launch of PerformLine and the acquisition of email compliance provider LashBack in 2022, Alex and his team continue to pioneer a new industry around marketing compliance to help financial institutions and those in any regulated industry meet their consumer protection obligations. Alex founded the COMPLY conference and is a frequent speaker and guest columnist on the topics of regulatory compliance, brand safety, consumer protection, regulatory technologies and risk management.

In his role as Senior Vice President of Marketing at NeuroID, Don works with analysts, partners, and enterprise customers to help bring the message of behavior analytics as a powerful fraud detection technology to the market. Don was key in creating both the Fraud360 and Chargeback University seminar series that have been conducted around the world. Bringing more than a decade of experience in the fraud mitigation space, Don is a sought-out speaker for industry events and has been published in several business and industry publications including Forbes, PYMNTS.com, WSJ, and The Paypers.

Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder, Swoop

Ciaran is the technology and operations force behind Swoop. He began his career at KPMG and went on to start the professional creative network Hiive, now home to over 150,000 members and 4,000 businesses. In 2018, following many months of planning, securing funding, and platform development he co-founded Swoop with Andrea Reynolds. Swoop is a platform which helps businesses secure finance across debt, equity, and grants, and helps them make savings on everyday business costs. Swoop has helped over 85,000 SMBs secure over $600m in financing across its businesses in the UK, Ireland, Canada, US and Australia. Swoop also powers up accountants and brokers with its technology to help service their customers with funding needs. Ciarán is hugely excited about the opportunities the team is creating for small businesses owners around the world and believes there is great potential to do more.

Senior Vice President of Marketing, Neuro-ID

In his role as Senior Vice President of Marketing at NeuroID, Don works with analysts, partners, and enterprise customers to help bring the message of behavior analytics as a powerful fraud detection technology to the market. Don was key in creating both the Fraud360 and Chargeback University seminar series that have been conducted around the world. Bringing more than a decade of experience in the fraud mitigation space, Don is a sought-out speaker for industry events and has been published in several business and industry publications including Forbes, PYMNTS.com, WSJ, and The Paypers.

Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig, LLP

Tim Butler helps companies thrive by developing tailored strategies to address their regulatory compliance challenges and vigorously defending them in government enforcement actions and bet-the-company lawsuits. A former prosecuting attorney for the FTC and former senior official in the Georgia Attorney General’s Office, Tim has led the defense of dozens of government investigations and enforcement actions brought by the FTC, the CFPB, and the various state attorneys general. Tim also regularly defends clients in bet-the-company lawsuits, including complex business disputes and consumer class actions alleging privacy, false advertising, and unfair or deceptive business practice claims. Tim is an experienced guide for companies struggling with regulatory complexity. He offers clear advice that helps his clients meet the demands of the ever-growing set of laws and regulations governing data privacy and cybersecurity, advertising and marketing practices, and consumer financial products and services. Clients rely on Tim’s business-minded and practical strategies to address their most difficult regulatory compliance challenges.

President, FinMain, Inc.

Will is the President of FinMain, a digital infrastructure platform for US financial institutions, and an Advisory Board Member of the Mid-Size Bank Coalition of America (MBCA). Previously, he spent 25 years as an adviser to executive management teams and boards of banks, payment companies, specialty finance and fintechs, most recently as Partner and Head of the Americas Financial Services practice for a global management consulting firm. His experience covers strategy, product innovation, risk management and governance.

EVP of Direct Mail Solutions, Tri-Win Direct

Andy Chagan serves as Executive Vice President of Direct Mail Solutions for Tri-Win Direct, based in Dallas, TX. He and his team at Tri-Win represent the very best in offering customer acquisition services through Direct Mail. For many years, Andy’s focus has been on helping lenders acquire and retain customers across the credit spectrum. Mailing over 600MM pieces per year, his team has been behind numerous successful direct mail campaigns that have scaled to millions of dollars in funded loans each month. Using state-of-the-art design systems, digital printing, matching algorithms, and tracking technology, Tri-Win has become one of the Nation’s leading providers of high-volume, personalized direct mail.

CEO and Co-Founder, ForwardAI

Nick Chandi is the CEO and co-founder of ForwardAI, and a serial entrepreneur. Before co-founding ForwardAI, Nick co-founded SlickPie, which provided online accounting software for over 40,000 small businesses worldwide. In 2019, Nick had a successful exit from co-founded firm Welcome Networks, which provides IT solutions for accounting firms across North America. Nick has a Master of Business Administration degree and a Bachelor in Engineering. He has spent over two decades working in the accounting tech industry and touches on this experience at fintech and CPA events, speaking about technology, small business, and cybersecurity practices. Nick is a BC Tech C-Council Member and regularly contributes to the Forbes Finance Council.

President and CEO, Cypress Media,

President Cypress Marketing Corp, Servicer for Freedom Cash Lenders.

Founder and CEO, Cybrid

Avinash is the founder and CEO of Cybrid. Blockchain based solutions are rewiring financial services from payments to lending and the Cybrid platform makes it possible for fintechs and banks to launch crypto and defi based financial products to their customers with security and compliance built in. Avinash has over 25 years of experience building and launching fintech products used by hundreds of millions of users globally. Prior to Cybrid, Avinash founded Ario, an embedded SMB lending platform that developed novel AI based underwriting solutions to quickly offer loans and extend hundreds of millions of dollars of credit to SMB customers. Avinash was a senior leader at Interac where he built the Interac Token Platform and launched Apple Pay into the Canadian market and managed the growth of Etransfer a P2P payments service to over 100B in payment volume. Avinash also lead the identity and payments service globally at Blackberry, used by over 130M users.

Head of Products and Analytics, Clarity Services, LLC., a part of Experian

George Coutros is Head of Product & Analytics at Clarity Services, a part of Experian. He has more than thirty years of experience in consumer lending, risk management and analytics. George has served as an executive on both the lender and vendor sides of the business and brings a unique perspective from his experience working for a diverse set of companies including national and specialty credit reporting agencies, prepaid processing company, traditional bank, internet bank and specialty lender. For the past seventeen years, he has been focused specifically on the unbanked, underbanked, and subprime consumer segments. Coutros earned a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematical Sciences from Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Science in Statistics from North Carolina State University.

Partner, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP

Allen Denson is a partner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP in the Washington, D.C. office. General Counsels, Owners and Chief Executives for financial services providers such as lenders, sales finance and leasing companies, fintechs, banks, debt collectors, lead generators, and auto dealers turn to Allen when they must defend themselves against government overreach. Allen is a frequent advocate before federal and state government regulatory bodies that include the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Federal Trade Commission (FTC) federal banking regulators (OCC, FDIC, and the Federal Reserve Board), state attorneys general and various state banking departments. Allen speaks on industry issues across the nation and is a frequent source for media outlets like American Banker, Reuters and Law360.

VP of Business Development, Crown Asset Management

Mr. Deter is Director of Business Development and joined Crown Asset Management in May 2018, bringing 34 years of Accounts Receivable Management experience. He has served in several key senior management roles including 17 years with Discover Card where he managed Discover’s former debt sales program. He has also served as EVP of Acquisitions and Business Development in the debt purchasing sector and as VP of Compliance with a third-party collection agency. Mr. Deter’s experience in the issuer and purchaser positions, combined with his experience surrounding compliance, provides unique knowledge and understanding of debt sale transactions and relationships. He attended Franklin University and is a regular attendee and speaker at industry conferences.

 

Executive Director, Online Lenders Alliance

Andrew Duke serves as Executive Director of the Online Lenders Alliance (OLA) – the first and largest trade association representing the growing industry of fintech companies that harness technology to deliver safe, convenient, private, and reliable credit options for consumers. With 27 years in public policy, Andrew Duke brings a wealth of experience to OLA.  Andrew served two decades on Capitol Hill, where he served as Chief of Staff to three members of Congress, including House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling. He also led the Consumer Education and External Affairs Division for two years at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. As OLA’s leader, Andrew oversees a membership comprised of job creators, entrepreneurs, publicly traded companies, fraud prevention experts, privacy protectors, lenders, alternative credit bureaus, and software developers. He is also responsible for educating the public, media, and policymakers about the benefits of access to regulated, safe, and fair credit to consumers and businesses through the innovations of online lending.

CEO, Creative Solutions International

Kevin B. Foley is CEO of Creative Solutions International, a worldwide leader in providing direct response marketing solutions for financial services companies for over 25 years. Services include new account acquisition, activation, growth/retention and collections marketing services for an array of financial services clients. Kevin has over 35+ years of financial services marketing and collections experience.

Head of Light Box, Credit Karma  

Rich Franks is the Head of Lightbox at Credit Karma. In his role, Rich is responsible for scaling Credit Karma’s industry-first platform, which helps members shop with confidence for financial products that they have a high likelihood of being approved for. On the flip side, Lightbox enables partners to better tailor their offers in near real-time and identify their ideal customers. This helps streamline underwriting. Rich also helped pioneer Karma Guarantee, a program that puts our Lightbox technology to the test by giving members greater certainty for the financial products for which they will be approved. If for any reason a member is not approved, they’ll receive cash back from Credit Karma. Prior to joining Credit Karma, Rich was the chief credit officer at two fintech startups, FS Card, Inc. and Amount, and served as the head of credit card risk & unsecured underwriting at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Rich began his career at Capital One where he spent over a decade in data science and risk analytics. Rich has a BS in Engineering from Georgia Tech and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Partner, PeakSpan Capital

Jack is a partner at PeakSpan Capital and has worked with growth-stage technology businesses his whole career. He has been a partner to nearly twenty portfolio companies at PeakSpan and currently leads Payments investing. Prior to joining PeakSpan, Jack worked for Macquarie Capital where he spent three years executing software M&A and capital markets transactions. Jack holds a B.A. in Economics from Middlebury College; and prior to Middlebury, he played division I soccer for Seton Hall University. Jack lives in Brooklyn Heights with his wife and recently rescued puppy, Willow – the sweetest Great Pyrenees you’ll ever meet. Since retiring from collegiate soccer, Jack has become an avid distance runner and is more than halfway to completing the “big six” world marathon majors.

Attorney, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

hris Friedman is a regulatory compliance attorney who represents lenders, banks, fintech companies and other participants in the financial services sector. The co-chair of Bradley’s commercial lending sub-practice team, Chris focuses on helping business-purpose lenders and alternative business finance companies address newly increasing regulatory and compliance burdens brought by federal and state regulators. In particular, he has represented merchant cash advance companies, factors, non-bank small business lenders, banks that make small business loans, commercial credit counselors, lead generators, and others in the industry. He helps clients launch new products, conduct due diligence, engage in compliance reviews, evaluate litigation risk, and solve some of the unique legal problems faced by companies that work with small businesses.

Chris also helps banks, non-bank lenders, fintech companies, and other industry members address issues related to consumer loan origination, including mortgages, unsecured personal loans, and small dollar products. In particular, Chris has helped clients in matters related to Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) reporting, the Truth-in-Lending Act (TILA), the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure Rule (TRID), the Mortgage Acts and Practices Advertising Rule (MAP), and the Electronic Funds Transfer Act (EFTA), among other federal and state laws and regulations. Additionally, he has helped financial services companies and housing providers address issues related to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA).

Chris is a thought leader in the financial services space, and is a frequent speaker and author on issues related to consumer credit transactions. He is also the co-author of the “Settlement” chapter of the American Bar Association’s Class Action Strategy and Practice Guide.

CEO, Leap Theory

Morgan Gethers is a founding partner and Chief Executive Officer of Leap Theory, LLC, and has been in the FinTech space for over 10 years. He has also worked extensively in the consulting space, supporting initiatives that have expanded research and development for various industries including biotechnology, finance, and business management. Morgan coordinates all daily operations and oversees all strategic development initiatives, placing the highest emphasis on high-touch customer support and managing business operations with a focus on compliance. In his spare time, Morgan enjoys participating in philanthropic activities and supporting community development through the NOP he co-founded, Pillars to Prosperity.

Director of Strategy, Argyle

Matthew Gomes is the Director of Personal Lending and Banking Solutions at Argyle, a real-time income data platform that lets consumers securely connect their employment records to companies’ apps and websites. In just a few clicks, Argyle opens up a suite of solutions that maximize efficiencies, lower costs, and reduce risk across the customer journey, including automated income and employment verification, direct deposit switching, earned wage access, seamless onboarding, KYC, and more. Prior to joining Argyle, Matt spent five years at OppFi, scaling and leading a number of teams across marketing, analytics and strategy, before serving as GM for OppFi’s payroll-linked personal loan product. He’s also held a number of corporate finance, marketing and analytics roles at Avant and Care.com, after receiving a B.A. in Business Administration and History from Brandeis University.

Chief Revenue Officer, WebBank

As CRO @ WebBank, Seth supports WebBank’s national issuance of consumer and small business credit products. Our clients include fintech (financial technology) companies, retailers, manufacturers and finance companies. WebBank is a leading player in the digital lending space working with partners that range from VC backed startups to Fortune 500 companies. WebBank engages in a full range of banking activities including consumer and commercial loans, revolving lines of credit, credit cards, private-label cards, auto-refinancing, debit / deposits and more.

Partner, Ballard Spahr LLP

Michael Gordon, is a senior former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) official with two decades of experience in consumer financial services law. Over his career, he has served in private practice, as a senior federal regulator, and as Fintech general counsel. He is a pragmatic, business-focused lawyer with an established reputation for helping companies anticipate and respond to an ever-evolving regulatory environment. His practice includes enforcement defense, banking and bank partnerships, blockchain and digital assets, consumer finance and Fintech, consumer and commercial credit, corporate governance, payments, regulatory strategy, and risk management for a range of clients.

President, EverChain LLC

Daniel Green is the President of EverChain North America. He is responsible for operations, sales, development, and revenue management for the fast-growing fintech. Dan spent the past two decades leading sales and marketing for travel and technology companies throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and the US. Dan came to the US in 2005 and was the co-founder of one of the first big data companies to bring propensity and profitability scoring to multiple industries. He has also held sales, marketing and developmental leadership positions in the telecommunications and debt sales industries.

Partner, Hudson Cook, LLP

Justin is a partner and chair of the firm’s Small Dollar and Alternative Financial Services Practice Group. He focuses his practice on regulatory compliance for alternative financial service providers including fintech providers, consumer lenders, buy-now-pay-later providers, wage advance providers, and virtual rent-to-own providers. Justin provides guidance on new product development, compliance management systems, and consumer disclosures. He provides third-party compliance opinions and day-to-day compliance advice. Justin counsels clients on compliance with state and federal consumer protection laws, including the Electronic Funds Transfer Act, Fair Credit Reporting Act, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, Truth-in-Lending Act, Restore Online Shoppers Confidence Act (ROSCA), the E-SIGN Act, CAN-SPAM Act, Military Lending Act, and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, among others. Before joining Hudson Cook, Justin was a shareholder at Chambliss, Bahner, and Stophel, where he started as an associate in 2003. Justin is a frequent presenter to various industry groups on consumer financial regulations, the CFPB, innovation, and ethics. He also co-presents Hudson Cook’s monthly CFPB Bites webinar series with partner Eric Johnson. Justin is AV rated by Martindale Hubbell and is recognized in The Best Lawyers in America©2022 for Financial Services Regulation Law. Justin is a former Co-Chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Business Law – Consumer Finance Committee, Task Force on Small Dollar Lending/Prepaid Cards. He is also a former Vice Chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Business Law – Consumer Finance Committee, Pro Bono Subcommittee. He is a member of the Florida Bar and the Tennessee, Chattanooga and Federal Bar Associations. Justin received his law degree from Stetson University College of Law. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Kentucky.

CEO, The Lead Group

Steve is the CEO of The Lead Group, a leading performance-based online marketing and consumer acquisition firm focused on the financial services market. Prior to The Lead Group, Steve oversaw the Full Service Lead Program practice at MediaWhiz Holdings. He previously served as VP, Marketing at CompuCredit Corporation, now Atlanticus Holdings, a market leader of financial based products dedicated to the underserved market within the US & UK and at TRADEX Technologies assisting in the acquisition of the company to Ariba, now SAP, in 2000 for $5.6B. Steve has an MBA from Kennesaw State University and BBA in Marketing from University of Georgia.

CEO, GoDay/FlexMoney

Co-Host, Cents Chat

Jason Kafer is a renowned technology professional who is recognized as a leader in the payments industry. His impressive career expands upon a wide range of topics, including payments and security, FinTech, risk management, and emerging and alternative cashless platforms.

Growing up in a small town in upstate New York, Jason always had a passion for technology. He began his career at a local electronics store where he fell in love with fixing computers.

Kafer leveraged his knowledge of the industry to build a training prototype used by tens of thousands of business professionals. He later sold the prototype for $600K, and began to see technology as a way to connect the dots and solve the puzzles that people don’t normally see. After discovering a lucrative solution to many B2B shortcomings, Jason made it his mission to design custom POS software for those who needed it. From self-serve yogurt to yoga studios, Jason used his instincts and experience to help solve the ever-winding payments technology puzzle.

One of Kafer’s biggest breakthroughs came when he realized the power of becoming an entrepreneur. His work in the computer industry catapulted his understanding of the technology world and inspired the creation of Kafer, Inc. in 2003.

Following the creation of Kafer Inc. Jason became the Chief Technology Officer and helped found a payment processing company. During this time, Kafer successfully turned his ideas into solutions. The company would grow from $500 million in credit card processing in 2013, to $25 billion in credit card processing in 2018.

Jason was awarded the Accredited Payments Risk Professional (APRP) Certificate by Nacha in 2019, an accomplishment awarded to only a select number of industry professionals.

Kafer later went on to turn passion into payment, and founded Deepstack as a way to simplify cashless payments.

Jason’s knowledge, instincts, and ability to problem solve for banks and businesses has earned him the title of Industry Titan. His impressive accomplishments date back to his early life, and continue to this day.

Vice President of Client Relations, LeadsMarket.com LLC

With a background in corporate sales, customer success and leadership, her career expands over several industries including fintech, digital media, and advertising where she worked with top world brands such as Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, BMW, and many others. Lena has experience scaling start-ups to large multi-national corporations and has been part of several successful exits via lucrative mergers and acquisitions. Experienced at building and leading high-performing teams in fast-paced environments with a proven track record of developing and driving successful go-to-market strategies for SaaS, marketing and technology products. She is passionate about people, customers and making their businesses successful. She loves helping clients maximize the ROI from their marketing campaigns. Originally from Ukraine, Lena loves California and, when not working, can be found at the beach surfing or in the mountains snowboarding.

Co-Founder, Giggle Finance

Jared Kogan is a founder of Giggle Finance, a specialty FinTech lender providing instant access to capital to the Gig Economy, Independent Contractors, and Micro Businesses across the country. Giggles provides automated funding in just a few minutes. Jared has a lifelong history in lending and spent the last 15 years in technology-enabled lending.

Co-Founder and COO, Flinks

Frederick Lavoie is the co-founder and COO of Flinks. He has global responsibility for making things happen. He oversees the implementation of Flinks’ business plan, equips teams with the resources they need, and scales culture as the company grows in size and across geographies.

CEO, Identomat, Inc.

David Lomiashvili, PhD is the CEO & Co-founder of Idenomat, AI-powered end-to-end identity verification and KYC compliance solution helping organizations in financial and other regulated industries enable seamless remote customer onboarding, biometric authentication, age verification, and fraud prevention at the fraction of the costs. Throughout his career, David has founded 3 technology startups and advised several more. He has a PhD in Theoretical Astrophysics from Purdue University. Before Identomat, David was a founder and CEO of an on-demand mobility startup and a strategic manager at Wolfram Research Inc. working in multiple emerging fields, including blockchain, data science, and AI.

CEO, GBG Americas (Acuant + IDology)

Christina Luttrell is the Chief Executive Officer for GBG Americas (Acuant and IDology), the premier identity verification, regulatory compliance and fraud prevention provider and partner of choice for establishing digital identity trust worldwide.

In over a decade of fighting fraudsters and helping businesses to verify identities, Christina has catapulted the industry forward by advancing technology and forging relationships with global enterprises across industries, from banking to healthcare, fintech, insurance, ecommerce and more.

Christina’s team-first approach prioritizes an inclusive work culture, retaining the top experts in the field to help organizations stay ahead of constantly shifting fraud tactics without negatively impacting the customer experience.

Christina has been recognized many times for her contributions, including by Liminal, which named her a Top 100 influencer in identity verification and Security Magazine, which honored her as a leading woman in security. She was also recognized as one of the Women Who Mean Business by the Atlanta Business Chronicle and a Top Woman in Cybersecurity by Global InfoSec Awards.

Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Centrex

Trey Markel is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Centrex, a software platform that has built a four pillar fintech ecosystem for finance companies and their customers to live in.  In 2006 Trey was awarded the first ever government contract by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to build finance technology that would connect independent owner operators and fleet owners with finance companies for the purchase of fuel saving technologies.  In 2010 Trey went on to build the most all inclusive financial life management platform called iBank that brought together friends and family for a socialized banking experience.  Trey has centered his consulting around producing an experience for consumers and business all under one roof.  Trey has a bachelor of science degree in business marketing from University of the Pacific.

Senior Director, Best Egg

Doug Mihalow oversees fraud and verification risk strategy development as a Senior Director for Best Egg. In addition, he represents Best Egg’s risk management compliance related interests. Doug began at Best Egg in August 2014 as employee number 18, doing everything risk management related from policy management, documentation, specifications to testing. Prior to joining Best Egg, he spent 6 years at Barclaycard US managing acquisition and portfolio risk for Business Card, US Airways, the NFL, and assorted travel and entertainment partnerships. Doug was instrumental in establishing subprime partnership underwriting at Barclaycard US with its Low and Grow program, managing acquisition compliance risk, as well as controlling risk in the Business Card portfolio during 2008’s recession. Previous policy, system, and operational roles at Chase Card Services enabled Doug to manage judgmental lending and Business Card risk, participate in installing TSYS, and streamline credit acquisition processes for policy execution.

Senior Director of Bill Pay Product Management, Visa

Sean joined TransUnion as Vice President of Global Credit Risk Solutions in 2019 responsible for enabling technologies including decision management and analytic platforms. Prior to working at TransUnion, Sean served as GM and Head of Analytics Services for Enova Decisions, a machine learning and decision automation division of global fintech Enova International. Before Enova, Sean served as Senior Director of Business Analytics for Leapfrog Online, Director of Strategic Intelligence for TrendPointers, and Associate Portfolio Manager at Sarasota Capital Strategies. Sean is a CFP® certificant and holds the CMT designation. He received his B.S. in finance from the University of Illinois at Chicago and Financial Planning Certificate from Northwestern University.

CEO, Huckleberry

Partner, Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP

Kim is a partner in Troutman Pepper’s Privacy + Cyber Practice and Consumer Financial Services Groups, where she counsels companies on compliance with federal and state privacy and data security statutes and regulations. Her work encompasses strategic planning and guidance for companies to incorporate privacy and data security considerations throughout product development, marketing, and implementation. She also assists companies with data breach prevention and response. Kim also provides extensive e-commerce and mobile counseling, including mobile app development, conducting online behavioral advertising assessments, enhancing website privacy policies, and advising on social media interactions with consumers. Kim also provides guidance to clients on regulatory compliance matters, including supervisory and enforcement interactions with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), other federal regulatory agencies, and state attorneys general.

Senior Vice President and General Manager, Equifax Commercial

Bill Phelan co-founded PayNet in 2000 with the belief that when commercial lenders are assured of risks, they’re more likely to make credit available, unlocking opportunities for small businesses. PayNet merged with Equifax in April 2019, a move that created the premier set of data on the private credit market in the U.S. and Canada. As SVP and General Manager, Bill oversees the Commercial Services business. He has served on several boards, including ELFA, Canadian Finance and Lease Association, Innovative Lenders Platform Association and the Federal Reserve Bank’s Advisory Council on Agriculture, Small Business, and Labor. He is a member of the Small Business Council at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

CEO, Virinchi/QFund

Satyajeet is CEO at Virinchi which owns QFund loan management system. QFund has been serving the alternate finance industry for close to 2 decades now. Satyajeet has been with technology industry for more than 2 decades working across the globe. Before Virinchi, Satyajeet have had couple of stints. One with GE and another one in a startup where he was a founder and made a successful exit. Satyajeet has been with Virinchi or QFund since 2013.

Vice President of Client Relations, Lead Economy

Sarah Reardon has 12 years of experience in the personal loan industry, including customer acquisition and retention, loan servicing in tribal, state-licensed, and sponsor bank/state-export models, call center management, collections, regulatory compliance, data security, campaign optimization, and lead generation. She was mentored by some of the top leaders in the industry, helping to develop the insight she now deploys to make data-driven recommendations, and has the heart to build true and lasting partnerships with Lead Economy’s clients. A true “data nerd,” she loves digging into performance feedback to identify trends, optimize campaign performance, and meet her lender’s KPIs and volume requirements. Connect with Sarah and her team to grow and build your portfolios like never before.

SVP of Business Development, LeadsMarket.com LLC

Phil has worked as a marketing and sales professional in the US and UK for many years. In the UK, he worked as Marketing Manager for one of the fastest growing UK companies, Systems Union, whose European accounting software product ‘Sun Systems’ achieved market dominance in just 4 years. He also worked in sales for ADT, Marriott and many others. With 6 years at LeadsMarket.com, as UK Product Owner, US Client Relations Manger, VP and SVP of Client Relations, he leads the Online and Storefront sides of the business.

CEO, Bredin

Stu Richards is CEO of Bredin, a B2B marketing consultancy that helps marketers develop profitable, long-term relationships with small and medium businesses (SMBs). He is responsible for setting organization strategy, business development, client engagement supervision, and partnership and alliance development. A 20-year veteran of SMB marketing, Stu joined Bredin in 1997 as vice president of marketing. He was named president in 1999 and CEO in 2001. Prior to joining Bredin, Stu served as director of marketing at DeLorme Mapping, product manager at Nabisco Brands, and marketing representative at IBM. Stu holds an MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth College and a BA from Middlebury College.

Product Director, Payliance

James Robinson has over a decade of payments industry experience and currently serves as Product Director at Payliance. Prior to his current role, James held various positions in the financial technology space at Fiserv, Citigroup and Sungard (now a part of FIS). He is proud to have played a part in helping customers support emerging payment solutions to advance benefits to both businesses and consumers. James holds an MBA from DePaul University and undergraduate from Miami University.

Partner, Blank Rome LLP

Scott Samlin focuses his practice on representing financial institutions, corporations, and other entities in mortgage banking and consumer financial services issues. Scott regularly counsels clients on compliance with state and federal laws affecting mortgage lending and servicing activities, including the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, Truth in Lending Act, Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. He is experienced in myriad consumer lending, servicing, and mortgage compliance challenges. Prior to joining Blank Rome, served as a former executive director and compliance counsel for the residential mortgage and lending businesses at an American multinational investment bank and financial services company where he helped oversee the operations of its whole loan trading desk and affiliated mortgage loan servicer. Before this, he was the executive vice president, general counsel, and chief compliance officer for a mortgage banking company and held several senior in-house positions at large corporations.

Head of Engineering for Open Finance, Plaid

Cofounder & CEO, Truework

Ryan is the co-founder & CEO at Truework, a Sequoia-backed fintech that provides an API-enabled platform for employment and income verification that is more efficient, accurate and secure. Prior to starting at Truework, Ryan worked on LinkedIn’s product team where he led the development and launch of the LinkedIn Salary product, a competitor to Glassdoor. He studied computer science at Harvard and continues to support the founder community through advising and investing.

General Counsel, NinjaHoldings, LLC

Stephen Schaller is General Counsel of NinjaHoldings, LLC, a fintech lending platform based in Chicago and founded by veteran serial entrepreneurs who were part of the core team behind Enova (NYSE: ENVA). Before joining NinjaHoldings in 2018, Stephen served for 20+ years as Deputy General Counsel of OneMain Financial (NYSE: OMF) in Baltimore and as General Counsel of CNG Financial in Cincinnati. He has extensive experience in online and storefront-based consumer lending operations, including subject matter expertise in bank-agent loan programs, regulatory compliance, electronic payments, and government relations. Stephen graduated from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1992 and from Illinois College (Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude) in 1989. He holds law licenses in Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana and is certified by the ABA’s Institute of Certified Bankers as a Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager (CRCM®).

CEO and Founder, Tillful

Ken is the Founder & CEO of Tillful, an SF-based fintech startup that is modernizing SMB credit using AI and alternative data. Prior to founding Tillful, Ken has over 10 years of experience in business development and M&A as a corporate development executive at companies including Qualcomm, Ericsson, and Citi. He started his career as an engineer and became one of the inventors of the world’s first 3D non-volatile memory chip. Ken holds over 13 patents. He received his MBA from UC Berkeley, Masters in Electrical Engineering from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo.

CEO, Central Payments

Trent Sorbe is the President and Founder of Central Payments. He was an architect of Central Payments’ Open*CP Fintech API MarketplaceSM, one of the only true banking-as-a-service payment platforms and the technology responsible for Central Payments’ rise to the fastest growing prepaid card issuer since 2015.* With more than 29 years of debit, credit, and prepaid payments experience, Trent is responsible for products garnering nine Paybefore Awards, three of which garnered Best in Class or Category. He is also the inventor on 14 patents related to consumer financial services. Trent previously held senior positions at three nationwide payment card issuers and the FDIC. In 2016, Trent was named to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Community Bank Advisory Council and chaired the agency’s Cards, Payments, and Deposit Markets Committee. He is a co-founder of Falls Fintech, a startup accelerator program committed to bridging the bank-fintech partnership gap and is a host of the Fintech Brews & News podcast. He also sits on the Board of Directors for the Central Bank of Kansas City. LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tsorbe * Source: The Nilson Report, 2015 to present.

Co-Founder, @Joist, Angel Investor

CEO and Co-Founder , Walnut Insurance

Founded RedFlagDeals and exited to publicly traded media company. Spent 3 years at RBC working on subscription tracking, launched BNPL with Xbox All-Access, and joined the innovation board at RBC Insurance. Co-founded Walnut Insurance as embedded insurance infrastructure in 2020.

Head of Strategic Partnerships, Biz2Credit

Michael Tryon is the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Biz2Credit. At Biz2Credit, Michael is responsible for bringing Biz2Credit funding options to more business owners through collaboration with Biz2Credit’s partner companies. Michael is a thought leader in the industry, leveraging Fortune 500 and start-up experience to improve revenue, increase acquisitions, and deliver best-in-class customer experience. Prior to joining Biz2Credit, Michael was VP of Payment Solutions at Bank of The West and has also built and led partnerships and co-marketing programs for Citibank and TD Bank focusing on lending and credit card programs.

Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives, Equifax Workforce Solutions

Daniel Vennemann possesses over 12 years of fintech, strategic planning, and program management experience. As the Sr. Director of Strategic Initiatives for Equifax he is responsible for the business strategies and market insights that enable Verification Services growth. His expertise in strategic planning & execution has contributed to Equifax continuously meeting annual financial revenue targets and growth drivers across all industry verticals. Prior joining Equifax, Daniel worked in healthcare, pharmaceutical, and technology industries. He received his MBA from The University of Texas at Arlington, college of business and his bachelors from the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he majored in Journalism. Ingrained in Equifax’s culture is a laser-focus on data security and consumer privacy.

Vice President of Product and Risk, CCI Financial, Inc.

Cort Walker has 20 years of experience in the consumer finance industry, having been involved in strategic product development and implementation, underwriting, automated decisioning, operations management, state and federal AML/BSA/CFPB compliance, state-level financial regulatory issues, business, and system development, product research, and development. Over the past decade, Cort has expanded his expertise to include internet finance operations and eCommerce management. He has recently provided internet marketing solutions for small to mid-sized businesses and focused on virtual Lease-to-Own solutions, consumer finance product development, and point-of-sale financial solutions.

Partner, The Wheelhouse Group, LLC

Jeff White is a Partner at The Wheelhouse Group, one of the most well-known digital marketing firms focused in the FinTech industry. Jeff has spent his entire career in marketing and has worked with hundreds of national brands, developing comprehensive marketing strategies that cross the divide between online and offline marketing channels. The Wheelhouse Group is a marketing technology company known for strategic 1-to-1 direct marketing through digital channels.

Senior Vice President of Sales, Accelitas

An unapologetic payments geek, Jimmy has spent the last 20+ years helping to shape the payment acceptance landscape. His experience is highlighted by 18 years working at First Data (now Fiserv) on check, ACH, prepaid, and merchant products, and more recently on the Emerging Payments and Strategy Team at Bank of America working to drive payments innovation within the consumer side of the bank. Today Jimmy leads the sales organization for Accelitas, which provides lead screening, bank account validation, and scoring solutions incorporating unique alternative data.

Partner, Blank Rome LLP

The primary concentration of my practice is providing legal advice and regulatory advocacy in matters involving consumer financial protection statutes and regulations, with a particular emphasis on banking and emerging technologies. In this regard, I have substantial experience assisting clients with complex issues spanning multiple fora, including representing clients in connection with class action litigation, government enforcement and administrative action. Likewise, I regularly provide compliance advice related to privacy and data security laws and assist with due diligence for financial services transactions. Over time, I’ve developed strong and lasting relationships with clients by understanding their business objectives, helping them to recognize opportunities, while creating advantageous compliance solutions involving intricate regulatory frameworks.

CEO and Co-Founder, Railz.ai