2023 SPEAKERS
Henry is a seasoned Telco and IT leader, who came up with new digital architecture that now crucially guides the bank’s digital transformation in its current form.
Galia helps to build innovative fintech start-ups, working closely with founders supporting them with the ideation, building and scaling of their businesses.
Prior to Team8, Galia spent 6 years at PayPal where she held multiple business development and sales leadership roles across sub-Saharan Africa, Israel and Eastern Europe. In addition to deep fintech and eCommerce expertise, Galia has vast experience with B2B sales methodologies and intrapreneurship. During her time at PayPal, she led product innovation, business development activities, strategic partnerships and enterprise sales, as well as geo-expansion efforts. With a passion for innovation and emerging markets, Galia introduced and led product driven partnerships with banks, alternative payment methods and credit card providers that delivered true impact in the daily lives of consumers and businesses. Most notably, Galia was the driving force behind PayPal’s strategic partnership with M-PESA, one of the world’s first and leading mobile wallets to democratize access to financial services and global eCommerce for Kenyan businesses and consumers.
Nicole focuses on the impact of Fintech and Regtech related regulation and initiatives including AI and DLT use cases (such as digital assets and CBDCs) and also focuses on data policy matters. She regularly engages with policymakers globally.
Further, she represents Barclays in various regulatory and policy forums and industry groups. For example, Nicole is on the European Commission’s Expert Group on Regulatory Obstacles to Financial Innovation, GFMA’s CBDC Taskforce and chairs the UK Finance New Forms of Digital Money SteerCo. In addition, she represented Barclays at both the Crypto-asset and Blockchain roundtable and Digital Identity roundtable at the European Parliament.
Nicole regularly speaks on panels, presents at conferences and universities and has articles published. She was named in the Fintech Magazine ‘Top 100 Women in FinTech 2022’, the City AM Crypto AM ‘Industry Personality of the Year 2022’, Re.Work ‘Top 30 Women in Fintech’ 2021, the ‘Influencer of the Year’ at the NY Finovate Awards 2019, the ‘Most Influential Women in FinTech Regulation – UK’ at the Wealth and Finance Awards 2019 and is on the Innovate Finance Powerlist.
Sidney is the CEO of the FinSec Innovation Lab, which provides incubation/innovation lab services to early-stage start-ups in cyber and fintech and operates under a license from the Israel Innovation Authority, National Cyber Directorate and Ministry of Defense.
At Mastercard, Sidney has held several roles, he was Senior VP Corporate Security and the program owner for employee identity and access management. Previously, he was CTO for Quality Assurance, responsible for functions that support the technology delivery of Mastercard’s products and services. This included Development Services, Testing Services, Service Level Agreement (SLA) Management and Customer Implementation Services (CIS). Prior to this, Sidney served as the Business Information Officer for Emerging Payments.
Prior to joining Mastercard, Sidney was chief operating officer at Bank Leumi USA, with responsibility for operations and technology support for the private, commercial and branch banking divisions. Before this Sidney has worked for Citigroup and IBM.
Sidney holds a juris doctorate from Brooklyn Law School in New York, MA in Computer Science and BA in Math and Computer Science from City University of New York.
40Seas is a new fintech platform that digitizes and simplifies cross-border trade financing for SMEs around the globe. With a rich background in online advertising and an entrepreneurial spirit, Eyal has been building and managing fintech and eCommerce products for more than fifteen years. Most recently, Eyal served as General Manager of Payoneer's SMB unit, a unit he grew to 300 employees servicing over 5m small businesses worldwide and an annual payment volume of over $25bn. Prior to Payoneer, Eyal was Director of Search at Ybrant Digital where he established the Ybrant Pay-Per-Click product and oversaw its international growth across 3 continents. Eyal holds a BSc (Hons) in Industrial Engineering from Tel Aviv University and an MBA from IDC Herzliya.
EBRD
Nataliya is a Sustainable Finance & Investment Specialist at London Stock Exchange Group. She leads ESG data and analytics solutions across Northern Europe, Middle East and Africa. Nataliya joined LSEG from the Sustainable Capital Markets Team of Santander Investment Bank, where she supported clients in structuring green and sustainability-linked capital. Prior to Santander, Nataliya worked at S&P Global advising global financial institutions on how to best integrate and leverage ESG analytics. Nataliya has a keen interest in environmental and social issues, having previously worked on the evolution of shared parental leave policies and is currently studying for the CFA ESG qualification.
Mor is a fintech expert with over 10 years of experience in payments innovation and open banking. Mor led the Israeli presence of Mastercard Advisors where she consulted with leading European banks and financial institutions on payments and fintech innovation. At Karma she's responsible for building and growing the payments department, to make advanced and intuitive payment solutions accessible to users, enhancing the way people shop online.
Emma is a serial technology and social entrepreneur, holding positions across the ecosystem, as a start-up Co-founder, Corporate BizDev and Investor. She founded her first start-up aged 27 and led it to over $1m in sales globally. She later joined HFN, Israel's largest law firm, establishing and managing the HiTech division before moving to the investments world with Amiti VC, where she invested in early-stage start-ups.
A joint venture of Mastercard and Enel X, and operating under a government franchise of the Israel Innovation Authority, Ministry of Finance and Israel National Cyber Directorate, the FinSec Innovation Lab assists fintech and cybersecurity start-ups to conduct technological and business POCs and become successful companies. Annie joined the Lab after 11 years with Deloitte, where she led the Israeli R&D and Innovation Incentives practice. From innovative early to late-stage start-ups and fortune 500 companies, over the years she supported entrepreneurs with their strategic product design and roadmap development that led to successful product launches, scaling reach and enhancing growth in international markets.
Remagine is an early-stage venture capital fund focused on interactive entertainment, metaverse and web3 investments in Israel. Previously Kevin led ProSiebenSat.1 Media’s investment office in Israel, investing in companies like Dynamic Yield, Minute Media, Magisto and others. Before that Kevin was a founding member of a news media start-up based in New York. Over a decade ago, Kevin started his career on Wall Street working for Gerson Lehrman Group and Credit Suisse as an investment banker. He received his MBA from NYU Stern School of Business and BA from IDC Herzliya, Israel.
Prior to joining Bank Hapoalim, Onti was the Fintech Sector Manager at the UK Israel Tech Hub at the British Embassy in Israel where he managed both the fintech and cyber sectors working closely with start-ups. Before joining the Hub, he was the Fintech Sector Manager at the Israel Export Institute. Otni has an MBA in Finance and Accounting from Tel Aviv University and a BMus in Music Theory and Composition from the Jerusalem Academy of Music & Dance.
May has many years of experience working with both traditional and crypto-focused financial institutions. Her role at GK8 involves structuring and developing strategic opportunities with traditional financial institutions to support the growth of the GK8 platform. Prior to GK8, May was a Director of Sales at PayKey, where she focused on helping financial institutions to speed their digital transformation, and improve the bank’s engagement with its customers. Prior to that she was a software engineer at Intel. May is the Co-Founder of Fintech Ladies IL Community - a community of executive women in fintech with the aim of professional empowerment. May holds a dual degree in Computer Science and Business from Tel Aviv University.
Before setting up ESGgo, a B2B enterprise software start-up that monitors, collects, analyzes and optimizes ESG, Orly was a Partner at Vintage Investment Partners, where she invested in VC funds and start-ups while building and leading the value-added services practice, bringing start-up innovation to solve corporate challenges. Orly was the go-to person for hundreds of corporate executives seeking solutions to pain-points.
Prior to Vintage, Orly lived for 20 years in the US and Europe. She worked for HP in The Netherlands, McKinsey in Belgium, France and Israel, in the Fast Growth Tech division. She lived in California where she worked for Merrill Lynch in asset management and private banking. Orly studied at Maastricht University where she completed her Master’s degree and MBA in International Business and Finance.
Inbal is the Director of the Investment Department at the Israel Securities Authority since June 2021.
She began her professional career in capital markets as a relationship manager at Psagot Mutual Fund Management. She then established and headed the fund assets rating unit (mutual funds and provident funds) at S&P Maalot. She also served as a fund analyst and portfolio manager at UBS Bank (UBS Wealth Management Israel).
Between 2017-2018, together with the investment house of Altshuler Shaham, Inbal established and served as CEO of Altshuler Shaham Alternative, which focused on alternative investments in and outside Israel. She also co-founded NEOME, a women angel club investing in early stage start-ups, where she served as partner and chief investment officer.
More recently, Inbal served as an advisor to YRD Capital, a fund of hedge funds focusing on digital assets. In this position she led the due diligence process and monitoring the funds' risk. She also served as a member on the advisory committee of the Dock Innovation Hub, a maritime venture capital firm.
Inbal assisted, as community service, the Wonder Jewel venture, which develops smart jewelry and accessories that identify and communicate stress to save lives while alerting an on-going attack. She was also active in Ze-Ze, a social venture to motivate young people to engage in volunteering.
Inbal earned a BA degree in business administration and sociology (magna cum laude) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and an MBA specializing in finance, accounting, strategy, and entrepreneurship from Tel Aviv University.
Orly joined TASE in 2010 as Chief Risk Officer and established the Risk Management entity. Previously she has worked at the Bank of Israel's Bank Supervision Department as an auditor in the risk management team, Head of the Risk Management Department at EY and Chief Risk Officer at Israel Railways.
Keren is a seasoned and well-rounded expert in payments, financial services and eCommerce. She's held a series of executive positions with acquirers, eCommerce merchants and service providers. At PaymentsOP, Keren manages projects building risk and payments infrastructure for banks, payment gateways, internet merchants and start-ups.
Keren was Head of ePayments at one of the world’s largest online gaming companies, 888 Gaming Group, and at one of Israel’s largest acquirers, Cal, she served as Director of Risk Management for International eCommerce. Keren plays a key role also as a fintech advisor, working with strategic clients to identify Israeli fintechs for technology partnerships worldwide. She is also one of the founders of Fintech Ladies IL community.
Yoav is advisor to the Deputy Governor of the Bank of Israel, Andrew Abir, and Head of the Digital Shekel Project.
Omry’s areas of investment at Viola Ventures include fintech, enterprise/SMB software and vertical AI. Before Viola, he was a Senior VP and East Coast Software Sector Captain at Goldman Sachs in the tech, media and telecom investment banking group. During his tenure Omry sourced, led and executed 30+ transactions totalling $120bn+ across M&A, equity, debt and institutional technology investments.
Cecile is the Head of Impact & Sustainability at Pitango Venture Capital, Israel’s largest VC, where she is responsible for adapting the worlds of ESG and the SDGs to the framework of mainstream venture capital. Cecile has extensive experience in the combination between the impact and technology worlds for almost 20 years. Previously, Cecile was the Founder and Managing Partner of Impact First Investments, Israel's first impact-tech investing company.
Before that, Cecile managed the Noaber Foundation's Israeli investments and held executive positions as a founder, CEO and board member is several start-ups. She was one of the initiators of the Al-Bawader private equity fund, the first investor in Arab-founded start-ups. Cecile founded the mentorship program at the 'Keren Shemesh' Foundation for the Encouragement of Young Entrepreneurs as her community volunteering work.
Cecile recently founded and is the chairperson of GITA - the Global Impact Tech Alliance – a global non-profit organization aiming to serve the impact-tech community worldwide and help it scale through community activities, data aggregation, training and consulting.
She is an alumnus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is an avid practitioner of Tai-Chi martial art.
Moran has led investments in enterprise software (Cyber, Data, Analytics, Quantum) as well as broader fintech (Digital Assets, BaaS). Notable investments include Crowdstrike (IPO), Kenna Security (acquired by Cisco), Solidatus, Privitar, Menlo Security, Biocatch, Classiq, Cloudbees and Monese. Previously he was an investment banker for a decade advising clients on M&A, equity and debt transactions across multiple geographies and sectors. He is a former Captain in the military having served in field and intelligence roles and holds a Business Administration degree from IDC Israel.
Daniel oversees product strategy and execution across PayU's growing global footprint and vertical expansion. Prior to PayU, he spent a decade at RSA Security where he was CPO for the Anti-fraud division operating in the online banking and payments space. Daniel brings significant experience working with merchants and financial institutions to successfully deliver solutions that make online payment experiences easy and intuitive, and loves geeking out on what the future may bring to the fintech space.
Hadar joined Team8 from Mastercard Worldwide, where she held a variety of investment, product, and account management roles across the US and Europe. She has developed deep expertise across key fintech verticals, including payments, cyber and data, eCommerce, digital wallets, crypto.
Hadar led Mastercard’s European equity investments into leading fintech companies and during her tenure, Mastercard evaluated 100s of companies and completed more than 10 equity investments, totalling over $50m. She lived in NY for 6 years where she held a variety of roles with Mastercard including product management, business development and operations. Hadar has an MBA from Columbia Business School and BA in Economics & Philosophy from Ben Gurion University.
Adi has been involved in global high-tech ecosystems for over a decade, with a myriad of experience as an early stage investor and operator at global enterprises. She has experience investing in US and Israeli venture funds - Fintech Collective, Symmetrical Ventures and Rhodium, focusing on fintech, D2C and SaaS start-ups in general. Adi has also worked for two $bn enterprises - Conduit and Payoneer, where she held positions of legal counsel, head of the compliance team and product manager. Her fintech portfolio includes successful $bn companies like Alloy and Moneylion, along with thriving fintech startups like Unit, Justt and more.
Adi is currently Principal at Flint Capital, a global early stage VC fund with a footprint in Silicon Valley, Boston, Israel and Europe. She is also a graduate of Kellogg's international EMBA program and a graduate from Reichman University, with a LLB in Law and BA in Business Administration, majoring in Finance. Adi lives in Tel Aviv with her husband Ariel and is mother to 2-year-old Noya.
Businesses need a framework to navigate this market, and it shouldn't be hard. In fact, crypto should be as easy as fiat. At Nilos, we remove the complexity of crypto for businesses, so they can onboard and benefit from web3, instantly. We're building the first platform that acts as a one stop shop for all crypto/fiat financial operations.
Ariel is highly-regarded for his prominent global practice and experience in advising on privacy and data protection, cybersecurity, AI law, online gambling and gaming, digital finance regulations, content and advertising regulations, digital transformation, computer and software protection, mobile and other app marketplaces compliance. He has deep knowledge and experience with the increasing volume of regulations, enforcement actions and legislative trends in many jurisdictions; with heavily 'regulated' platforms such as mobile app marketplaces and social networks; as well as with the respective industries’ best practices and leading self-regulatory guidelines.
Ariel’s clients vary between different industries and sectors including: eCommerce; adtech, e-marketing, and media; online gambling and gaming; fintech, digital payment solutions and crypto; cybersecurity and privacy compliance; content platforms and social networks; data enrichment and authentication tools; digital health and lifestyle technologies.
Rahav established and manages the Financial-Cyber Innovation and International Engagements unit at the Israeli Ministry of Finance. She is the founder of the Fintech-Cyber Innovation lab program for the Ministry of Finance, the first initiative in the world that leverages governmental assets and data in order to promote Fintech and Cyber startups in an open innovation platform.
Rahav leads the Financial-Cyber International Relationship activities - with foreign governments, regulators and financial institutions. As such she developed and lead Collective Strength, the international financial-cyber simulation that was held in 2021, in which foreign Finance Ministries to discuss the financial impact resulted from a dramatic cyber-attack on the international financial eco-system.
Rahav established and is leading the Fintech Ladies IL community, she is also a member of the national committee to promote women in the science and tech industries.
Andrew is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Zeepay. He is an expert on Banking and Mobile Payments with over 15 years of experience in banking and business development. Andrew’s experience spans the world of marketing and banking as he has held various positions from being a brand manager for Nescafe to holding roles such as Head of Retail, Head Corporate – Manufacturing Business, Head Transaction Banking, General Manager Strategy, General Manager Business Performance all in banking and a Business Development Head and Lead Strategy Consultant for big-4 Consulting. Andrew has had the opportunity to work with institutions such as Commonwealth Secretariat, Nestle, Barclays UK, GT Bank, Ecobank, UT Bank and PwC.
Igal is Head of INX Ventures at INX. He grew in the public sector, serving as Chief of Staff to Member of Knesset (Israeli Parliament) and manager of the Israeli hi-tech caucus.
As CEO of the Israeli Blockchain Forum, Igal led discussions between lawmakers and the blockchain industry, recomending regulatory models to help create a new and adjusted regulatory framework.
Igal is a member of the OECD's Blockchain Expert Policy Advisory Board, helping to identify the benefits and risks of blockchains for economies and societies, and examining how blockchain can help specific policy areas. In addition, Igal is a member of several ISO (International Organization for Standardization) blockchain committees.
Roy is an Account Manager at Refinitiv, a London Stock Exchange Group business, covering the Israeli market since 2018. Previously, Roy worked as a solutions project manager for Intercontinental Exchange.
Roy's field of expertise includes: Financial Information, Trading, FX, Wealth Management, Investment and Advisory, Risk and Compliance, Financial Crime (including terror financing, bribery and corruption), AML and KYX policies.
He graduated with honors from Reichman University (IDC) with a BA in Economics, Roy also holds a Black Belt in Judo.