Patrick L. Young, VALEREUM

Patrick L Young wrote the first bestselling fintech book “Capital Market Revolution!” (FT 1999). A former CEO of SIBEX (Sibiu, Romania), Patrick has been a director of multiple entities ranging from Liquidnet to SFOA, including chairmanship of the Blockchain Malta Association and the Global Financial Services Centres Conference. Patrick publishes the unique bourse business newsletter “Exchange Invest” read by the main players from the top of Young’s Pyramid down throughout the world. His most recent book “Victory or Death” examines digital thinking, the future of blockchain and cryptocurrency.
Patrick is Executive Director of Valereum who are acquiring the Gibraltar Stock Exchange and advisor to ArawakX (Bahamas) which he helped build in 2021. Patrick advises exchanges, market structures and regulators worldwide.
This is Patrick’s first AFM keynote speech since Istanbul 2008.

OLUWAFUNTO OLASEMO, AFEX

 Oluwafunto is a market development expert with over 9 years work experience in delivering financial service solutions to medium and large enterprises. Adept at identifying strategic measures to strengthen operational performance, Oluwafunto has a strong reputation of effectively managing multiple clients’ engagement through all phases of product development, research, strategic planning, campaign testing and post-go-live. Oluwafunto is the current Vice President, Financial Markets at AFEX, where she leads engagement with Capital Market Operators and Financial Institution to unlock funding for smallholder farmers and create portfolio products backed by commodities as alternative asset class for investors.  Recently, she was involved in raising over a billion naira in funds that will provide 25,000 smallholder farmers quality input for the 2020 planting season.

JOHN LOTHIAN

 John J. Lothian is Chicago-based financial media executive and entrepreneur. He is the founder and publisher of John Lothian News, MarketsWiki, CryptoMarketsWiki, MarketsWiki Education and MarketsReformWiki. He is also a Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) and industry consultant. Lothian is the Executive Chairman and CEO of John J. Lothian & Company, Inc.
He is a principal with John J. Lothian Managed Futures, LLC, a National Futures Association member Commodity Trading Advisor. Lothian is a member of the U.S. CFTC Technology Advisory Committee. He was named to the committee in June of 2012. He was a trustee of the Institute for Financial Markets, the Washington, DC based not-for-profit educational arm of the Futures Industry Association from March of 2013 to March of 2015.
He was a futures broker for many years, including with The Price Futures Group, Inc. from 1997 to 2012 as head of their electronic trading division. He is a 1983 graduate of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in General Management/Finance and a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications/Journalism.

Hirander Misra, GMEX GROUP

Hirander Misra, Chairman and CEO of GMEX Group.Hirander has extensive electronic trading and FinTech expertise spanning 25 years, with successful syndication to investors and substantial exits.
He is one of the Top 10 influential business leaders of blockchain technology in the All Party Parliamentary Group 2018 and 21 reports on the UK Blockchain industry. He is also In LATTICE80’s Top 100 influencer list for the UN Sustainable Developments Goal agenda for pioneering blockchain technology solutions. He is featured in the Financial Technologist 2019 list of the 50 most game changing founders of FinTech companies. Previously he was the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Chi-X Europe Limited, instrumental in taking the company from concept to successful launch.

PAUL CONSTANTINOU, AFM

Paul Constantinou has more than 35 years experience in the International Wholesale Energy and Financial Markets. Over the years Paul has been engaged as business consultant, technology supplier and market practitioner and continues to provide advisory services to a portfolio of industry clients.

CHRIS STURGESS, CONSULTANT

Chris Sturgess has 25 years’ experience in the commodities market. He started out with the South African Futures Exchange (SAFEX) where he was part of a small team that helped develop the commodity derivatives market.
With 20 years directly involved in the exchange business, this afforded Chris extensive practical experience in all spheres of the commodities business. The success of the market with providing South and Southern Africa with a liquid and efficient price discovery and price risk management platform has also exposed Chris to numerous international platforms where until early 2018 he was Chairman of the Association of Futures Market, a position he held for 5 years.
More recently he has concentrated on consulting services on the African continent, working with various stakeholders in Malawi, Zambia, Kenya, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo and Nigeria. He has also been engaged with the World Bank and their various carbon funds.
Chris is passionate about developing and adding value to markets. With his extensive practical experience and commitment to delivering real and practical solutions in the exchange environment, he remains approachable and ready to take on any challenge. 

PATRICK J. KENNY, CQG

Patrick J. Kenny is Senior Vice President of client relations for CQG. His responsibilities include business development and working with account management. He joined the firm in July 2010. Previously, Kenny had been with Patsystems, North America as an Officer and Managing Director for 10 years. He has worked in the financial trading sector for more than 40 years. Before joining Patsystems, he held senior positions in institutional sales with Prudential Securities and ABN AMRO. Kenny also worked in institutional sales at Geldermann and Harris Bank. He has been a member of the Chicago Board of Trade since 1983 and is currently a member of the CME Group. Kenny is also a Board member of the FIA Market Technology Division. He joined the board of Directors of the Small exchange in 2019.

WILL MITTING, ACUITI

Will founded Acuiti in February 2019. Building on 15 years’ experience
in B2B publishing, he launched Acuiti to bring greater transparency to operations across the global derivatives market. Will was previously Managing Director of FOW and Global Investor Group at Euromoney International Investor plc. He has previously worked at Haymarket Media Group and also worked in Malawi where he launched the first magazine publishing business in the Northern Region of the country.

ANDY JENNINGS, CQG

Andy Jennings is Managing Director of CQG UK Ltd. His responsibilities is EMEA business development, and account mgmt. for the region. He join in early 2018. Previously Andy was the Global head of DMA solutions at Macquarie bank (9 years)  where he over sore all exchange and ISV integration and client side support for bank and client business. Prior to Macquarie andy worked at GNI and Man Financial for 10 years.

PHILIP SIMONS, EUREX

Philip Simons has 30 years experience in the financial industry where he started life as a swaps trader before moving into the clearing world, initially heading up the clearing business at UBS followed by Cargill. Philip later moved into the custody and collateral management space at J.P.Morgan before joining Deutsche Börse Group.Philip initially joined as head of the Clearing Sales and Relationship Management Section and is now Global Head of Sales for Fixed Income & FX Derivatives plus Funding & Financing covering both the Trading & Clearing services. Philip is responsible for building strong relationships with clients, attracting new trading and clearing members as well as the development and promotion of new products and services to the buyside.

DENISE HUANG, TAIWAN FUTIRES EXCHANGE

Ms. Huang joined Taiwan Futures Exchange (TAIFEX) in 1997 when it debuted. She is now the head of the Business Development Department, responsible for product development, international affairs as well as legal counsel. With more than twenty years with the Exchange, Ms. Huang has been engaged extensively in product design, international cooperation and marketing as well as strategic alliances, legal opinions for regulations and contractual agreements. Prior to Taiwan Futures Exchange, Ms. Huang served in the Securities and Futures Bureau and was involved in the management and supervision of foreign investment, securities advisory enterprises and futures brokerage houses. Ms. Huang has Master Degree from University of South Carolina in the US. 

CHAKKAPHAN TIRASIRICHAI, THAILAND FUTURES EXCHANGE

In 2007, Chakkaphan Tirasirichai began his career in financial industry after finishing his doctoral degree in Engineering Management from University of Missouri – Rolla by joining the Government Pension Fund (GPF) of Thailand, in which he was responsible for asset allocation and later on managing the global equity portfolio (2007-2013). He left GPF in 2013 to join one of the largest telecommunication corporate in Thailand, True Corporation, as an assistant CFO before coming back into financial field again in 2014 as a part of Thailand Futures Exchange (TFEX). Since then, Chakkaphan has been working in the development of Thai derivatives market by introducing new products (equity and commodity based) to the investors, collaborating with regulator to design the supporting policy, and providing the healthy ecosystem for the growth of derivatives market. Currently, he is head of product development department of TFEX.

MARTYN BAIN, AVENIR TECHNOLOGY

Martyn has a background in markets and loves solving business problems with smart IT solutions.

He is a senior business and technology leader with substantial experience in strategic planning, IT architecture, relationship management, business case development, business and IT project management. He has held various positions including Head of IT, project manager and developer in the financial services industry.

BRIAN BROWNE, EURONEXT

Brian has been working for Euronext in their commodities franchise for the last four years, helping in the design and launch of new agricultural derivative contracts and also the transformation of the settlement and delivery processes. Work that will be evidenced as Euronext moves its Clearing from LCH SA to Euronext Clearing over the next few years. Before working for Euronext Brian has previously worked with most of the major European Exchanges and Clearing Houses in a career that has been focused on the international capital markets. He was the architect for a number of Exchange’s major physical delivery systems

DAVID KLOTZ, crypto.com Futures FCM

David Klotz is currently COO and Head of Sales for crypto.com's FCM initiative. David is a twenty-four year veteran of the exchange-traded derivatives industry, primarily in sales and e-trading, with previous experience at ABN AMRO, Mizuho Securities and most recently Phillip Capital.

MAGNUS ALMQVIST, EXBERRY

As Exberry’s Exchange Innovator I build and nourish contacts with exchange pioneers around the globe. With a background as Head of Sales, Aquis Exchange, Senior Business Development Manager at FIS (SunGard) and prior to that heading up Smarts Group’s (part of NASDAQ OMX) London office, and as the CTO of the London Stock Exchange Group Company EDX, I have a solid understanding of capital markets exchanges, their ecosystem and their evolving universe.
Swedish- born Magnus holds a masters’ degree in electrical engineering from Stockholm’s Royal Institute of Technology and has extensive knowledge and experience in both the market surveillance technology and matching engine space.

Kristian Möller, ACE

Kristian is the CEO of the Agricultural Commodity Exchange for Africa (ACE), based in Lilongwe Malawi. Kristian is from Denmark, but has lived in Malawi since 2005 and has been with ACE since the first trade operations started in 2006. Kristian has since been instrumental in setting up the ACE trading system, which includes the warehouse receipt system; structured finance; bid/offer trade platform; forward contract facility; and auction system now operating in Malawi.
Kristian has introduced innovative finance modalities to Malawi. In 2011 the haircut finance for warehouse receipt was launched and in 2014 this was further developed to the forward contract finance product, incl. repo deals and collateral commodity finance. In total, these modalities have successfully financed more than 400.000 MT of commodities. The latest development has been to introduce cost effective collateral management integrated with the warehouse receipt system.
Kristian is the Chairman of the Working Group for Commodity Exchanges under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism, where the Warehouse Receipt Act and the regulatory framework for commodity exchanges and warehouse receipts system was developed.
Kristian holds a Master of Law and a Master of International Business and is a certified Arbitrator.

MARK Reece, LSEG

Mark has been working with Exchanges and other market infrastructure companies for more than 25 years and is currently working at the London Stock Exchange Group as an architect with their equity markets with particular focus on Turquoise. Before re-joining LSEG, Mark was working with Extraordinary Re, a start-up aiming to make reinsurance contracts tradable, which included looking at distributed ledger technologies and AI. Prior to that, Mark also worked with a biometrics company and an early digital currency organisation, as well as exchanges including the London Metal Exchange, Nasdaq and the AMEX.

SEBATIAN GAWENDA, CRYPTO.COM

Sebastian is the VP of EMEA for the Exchange business at Crypto.com. Prior to Crypto.com, Sebastian spent 3.5 years at Kraken leading Institutional Relationships and Solutions for EMEA. Before pursuing crypto full-time, he spent a decade in the US with experience in private equity and high-frequency market making. This experience makes him passionate about helping firms transition into and scale with digital assets.

ANELISA MATUTU, JSE

Anelisa joined the JSE in 2008 in the commodity derivatives division under the flagship of the JSE Graduate program and now plays a leading role in running the commodity derivatives market. She holds an MBA from the Gordon Institute of Business Science. At the JSE, Anelisa is involved in the development of new products, technology delivery, market and client intelligence and operations in the Commodity derivatives Market. 

MICHAEL SMITH, EXACTPRO

With over 20 years’ experience in the financial marketplace, Michael has worked in investment banks, software providers and technology firms. After beginning his career as a macro-economic analyst, Michael moved into a sales role and has worked in that capacity ever since driving results for GL Trade, Renaissance Capital and now Exactpro.
Michael was at the forefront of promoting direct market access and prime trading solutions to clients looking to trade on Emerging markets. Following this, he invested privately, raised capital and advised several technology firms on sales and marketing. 
Since 2018, he leads a team of commercial professionals looking to drive growth and expansion of the firm across the globe. Exactpro's remit is to ensure that core FMI software works exactly as it should, but more recently Exactpro have also had engagements with new digital exchanges, hardware crypto providers and DLT solutions. Michael is prepared to do whatever it takes, in order to get the best results for his clients and his firm, and this typically involves global travel. 
In between working, helping develop three sons and writing a book, Michael's main achievement was to become a "professional" tennis player (winning $150 for second place at the FIA Boca Raton invitational doubles in 2022.)
Michael has always been competitive, and believes that the harder you work, the easier it gets.