Speakers

Lance Blockley is Managing Director of The Initiatives Group, a consulting firm specialising in payments. He has advised issuers, acquirers, third-party processors, technology providers and payment associations in addressing many of the financial sector’s most significant issues. He has over 35 years’ experience in senior management and consulting in the UK, USA, Asia and Australia.

Lance has led the consulting team on a number of industry-wide assignments, including the successful removal of signature (PIN@POS) on card payments in Australia in August 2014, the culmination of two and a half years work across multiple stakeholder groups.

Prior to establishing the firm in 2013, Lance ran Edgar, Dunn & Company in Asia-Pacific for over 10 years, also acting for a term as global Managing Director.

Lance holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University, England and an M.B.A. from IMD, Switzerland. He is a Fellow of both the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the Chartered Management Institute (UK).

Mr Ellis Connolly is the Head of Payments Policy Department at the Reserve Bank of Australia. He is responsible for advising the Payments System Board on the safety, competitiveness and efficiency of the payments system. He is also responsible for the supervision of systemically important clearing and settlement facilities and payment systems operating in Australia.

At the Bank, Mr Connolly previously held the positions of Deputy Head of Payments Policy Department, Deputy Secretary, Deputy Head of Domestic Markets Department and Deputy Head of Economic Analysis Department, among others. Mr Connolly has a Bachelor of Economics (Hons) from the University of New South Wales, a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from the University of Technology, Sydney and a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Katrina is Managing Director, NPP Australia, the domestic real-time account to account payments infrastructure. NPP Australia recently merged  with BPAY Group and eftpos to become part of Australian Payments Plus, Australia’s new domestic payments organisation. Previously, Katrina was Head of Engagement where she was responsible for working with financial institutions, fintechs and other interested parties to grow volumes and services on the New Payments Platform and developing the platform’s capability roadmap.

Prior to joining NPP Australia, Katrina worked for American Express where she was responsible for growing third-party card issuing and acquiring volumes in multiple markets. Katrina also spent time working for NAB and as a management consultant with Booz Allen & Hamilton in their financial services division.

Steve Ledford works with payments leaders on strategic issues facing financial institutions and manages the RTP® network, The Clearing House immediate payment system. Prior to joining The Clearing House, Mr. Ledford was a partner with Novantas, a financial services consulting firm. Before that, he was a leader in McKinsey’s global payments practice and was President of Global Concepts, a consulting and research firm specializing in payments and cash management. Mr. Ledford is a graduate of Wofford College with a BA in Economics.

Bianca was appointed to the role of Chief Client Officer & Deputy CEO in December 2020. As well as leading Cuscal’s Product, Client Services and Operations teams, Bianca is Craig Kennedy’s delegate, and is involved in Cuscal’s engagement with industry bodies, regulators and shareholders.

Prior to this Bianca held the role of Chief Client Officer since April 2018. Since joining Cuscal in July 2014, Bianca has held a number of other senior roles including Acting General Manager, Product & Service, General Counsel & Company Secretary, Acting General Manager Shared Services and Head of Client Services.

Bianca has over 20 years’ experience in financial services with large and complex US and Australian companies, both public and private. Prior to Cuscal she worked in senior legal and compliance company secretariat roles with Genworth, GE Capital and DLA Phillips Fox.

Chris Jewell is relatively new to the world of Payments but not new to finance. He spent the better part of two decades working in investment banking and financial markets in London, Melbourne and Sydney for companies including Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Citi in key sales and leadership roles across Asia.

Chris joined Zepto as COO in 2020, and in 2021 was appointed CEO following the company’s rapid growth during this period. Leaning on his leadership skills at the enterprise level, Chris’ focus is on helping Zepto strike a balance between long-term vision and unlocking greater efficiency with its day-to-day velocity.

Christian is the Co-Founder and CEO of Monoova, a Sydney-based, B2B payments automation platform. Over the past five years, Christian has led the building of a company servicing domestic and international tech-first platforms such a TransferWise, Nium and a significant portion of the Australian digital-currency industry. To date, Monoova has process$45bn through its API-driven solution, more than half of which since the start of FY22. Christian has been a finalist for the ‘Outstanding Fintech Leader of the Year’ by Fintech Australia in both 2020 and 2021.

Christian was born in Sweden and obtained a Master’s Degree in Economics, and a PhD in International Relations from Oxford University in the UK. Following a position as speech writer and economic advisor in the House of Lords in London, Christian moved to Zimbabwe to work as Chief of Staff at a Harare-based agricultural group with operations across Southern and Eastern Africa. He arrived in Sydney in late 2016.

John was appointed CEO of Azupay, a payments fintech, providing a range of real-time payment solutions for businesses, government, and consumers in September 2020. Prior to this role, John was Deputy CEO and Chief Transformation Officer at Services Australia with the responsibility for leading the agency’s transformation agenda. John initially joined the government agency in 2016 as Deputy Secretary, Payments Reform, to lead the reform of the government’s welfare payments processes and technology that delivers welfare benefits to more than seven million Australians annually.

Before joining the Australian Government, John had an extensive career spanning more than 35 years in banking and finance, holding senior leadership roles with National Australia Bank, ANZ Banking Group, Westpac Banking Corporation, the Export Finance & Insurance Corporation and Standard Chartered Bank (based in Singapore). Many of these roles involved managing the bank’s payment products and services and other banking product portfolios including deposits and transaction services.

John is also a non-executive Director of Australian Payments Plus and a Special Adviser to the Benefits Delivery Modernization Programme, Employment and Social Development Canada, the Canadian Government department responsible for developing, managing and delivering social programs and services.

Lynn is the Chief Executive Officer of Australian Payments Plus. Prior to joining, she worked in professional services for over 25 years with a focus on the financial services industry. She served on the Executive Leadership Team of EY in various leadership positions including Managing Partner of the Consulting Division in Oceania, Managing Partner Markets, Managing Partner Talent and Managing Partner for the Sydney Office. Lynn is currently a member of Young President’s Organisation (YPO) and Chief Executive Women. She is a National Ambassador for Heads over Heels and has received awards for her work in Diversity including the NAB Mentor of the Year in Australia, AWEI’s Executive Sponsor of the Year for LGBTI Inclusion and the AFR’s 100 Women of Influence. 

Adrian commenced as the inaugural CEO of NPP Australia Limited in September 2016.

Launched to the Australian public in February 2018, the New Payments Platform provides Australian businesses and consumers with a fast, flexible, data-rich payments system for making their everyday payments, and provides a platform for future growth and innovation.

Prior to joining NPP Australia Ltd, Adrian was General Manager, Product & Service at Cuscal Ltd. Adrian was responsible for all product management and operational functions, marketing, sales, and client service.

Cuscal was a founding participant of the Real Time Payments Committee and Adrian was one of several senior staff deeply involved in the design, development and governance of Australia’s NPP.

Mark is leading the government’s eInvoicing initiative, resulting in several billion dollars of productivity benefits to the Australian economy. Mark collaborated with New Zealand in 2019 to form the Trans-Tasman eInvoicing initiative and adopt the international Peppol standard to support the initiative. He recently returned to this role after spending 12 managing the ATO relationship with Digital Service providers and leading ATO’s IT portfolio and governance operations. Mark was previously a program manager for the government’s SuperStream initiative, delivering significant benefits to Employers and Superannuation funds.

Richard Fleming is a Director based in Bain & Company’s Sydney’s office and is recognized as an expert in transformative change. He leads Bain’s Transformation and Results Acceleration Practice in Asia.

Richard has over 20 years of consulting experience across the globe. He joined Bain in 2001 in Sydney and has also lived in New York, London, and Tokyo. He has worked extensively with companies on multi-year transformative change, advising companies across sectors on all aspects of change delivery.

Prior to Bain, Richard worked with Accenture on technology projects in Asia and UK.

Treasury and Finance operations professional initially with Lloyds TSB before roles with interdealer broker BGC and commodities broker Marex Spectron. After moving from the UK to Australia in 2016, part of the initial Treasury team at Latitude Financial following the sale by GE. The last 4 years working for Humm-Group across Treasury and Finance operations roles, currently Head of Finance Operations focused on driving and implementing process improvements, locally and internationally.

Pulkit Trivedi is currently Director- Google pay India . He leads strategic partnerships and business development, working closely with the industry ecosystem in the payments space, including govt. entities, retail partners across online and offline segments and new age fintech players. Pulkit has 22 years of experience across tech companies- Google, Facebook, Intel, Microsoft- across product management, business strategy, partnerships and sales roles. Prior to joining Google, Pulkit led the Financial Services, ecommerce, retail, travel and emerging business sectors for Facebook India, and later for the South East Asia region based in Singapore. Pulkit was also featured in the list of ‘Top 40 under 40’ business leaders, a list published by Business Today India of 40 upcoming leaders in India.

Simone Joyce is the CEO of Paypa Plane, a payment technology company, she co-founded in September 2017. Paypa Plane is the bank-grade platform where traditional scheduled payments and PayTo meet – designed for banks and payment service providers looking to rapidly evolve their product offering without changing their core systems. Paypa Plane was founded to create a better scheduled payments (aka recurring or ongoing) ecosystem for banks, payment service providers, businesses and payers. Elected to the Fintech Australia Board of Directors 2019 and as Chair in 2020. Simone also leads the Payment Working Group for Fintech Australia, sits on the Eftpos Fintech Advisory Committee, the ASIC Digital Advisory Committee and the Emerging Payment Asia Regulatory Working Group. Simone has had many years of experience in payment and Fintech-focused companies and has been frequently recognised over the years for this work – most recently becoming a Finnies Awards finalist for Outstanding Fintech Leader of the Year and Female Fintech Leader of the Year (2021), winning the Paris Fintech Forum Fintech Award (2020) and the Brisbane Lord Mayor’s Global Entrepreneur Grant (2019).

Head of regulatory strategy for Open Finance, Instant Payments and CBDC for Itaú Unibanco, Board member of Open Finance Deliberative Council.

Accomplished strategy and business development executive with 18 years of track record creating and developing innovative solutions for the Brazilian’s most valued public bank – Itaú Unibanco.
Occupying the position of Head of regulatory strategy for Open Finance, Instant Payments and CBDC, Ivo is a highly experienced in Brazilian’s financial system, individual customers and middle market segmentation, product management & development, strategic planning and market relations, and is directly involved in Open Banking & Instant Payments’ implementation in Brazil, representing Banco Itaú and FEBRABAN (Brazilians’’ Banks Federation) in relations with Brazilian’s Central Bank and Open Finance’s implementation governance.

MYOB is a leading business platform with a core purpose of helping more businesses in Australia and New Zealand start, survive and succeed.  As Head of Go To Market, Financial Services, Steve is focussed on transforming MYOB from an accounting software provider into a business management platform that integrates financial services into key workflows.

Steve has over 20 years of international experience in financial services with a strong focus on customers’ experience of digital banking, payments innovation and the flow of money.  Prior to joining MYOB this year, Steve was Head of Payments at ME Bank and Head of Everyday Banking & Payments at ANZ Bank and has built and managed partnerships with a wide range of networks, payment service providers, fintechs and banks.

Wayne Baskin is the co-founder and CTO of the investment platform Superhero. With a background in eCommerce as the CTO and deputy CEO of Australia’s largest online bookstore Booktopia, Wayne is responsible for all things product and tech at Superhero in addition to the overall business strategy, vision, and customer experience.

With more than 40 years’ experience in banking and technology, Guy is a solution consultant in Enterprise Payments at FIS and is a founding contributor to the FIS “Flavors of Fast” report. Over the past 20 years, he has been helping clients in the APAC region define their approach to managing payment processing using FIS payment hubs. Guy has a unique, hands-on view of the opportunities and challenges of real-time payment functions in their various evolutions.

Peter is passionate about payments. Starting with a major assignment for high school economics on a cashless society, he has devoted his career to payment innovation.  These days, Peter is an experienced leader with a track record of more than 25 years in the international and Australian eCommerce and payments sector across roles covering Business Development, Relationship Management, Product Management and Marketing. Peter is Managing Director of PayPal Australia and in this role he’s responsible for all PayPal’s products, merchant engagement and go-to-market functions in the local market.

Carolyn is an experienced leader with more than 20 years in the technology sector, including extensive international experience across fintech, e-commerce, and telecommunications. Carolyn actively develops organisations to amplify their market presence, deliver transformational products, elevate customer experience, and form long-term partnerships. Carolyn’s work within Zepto, GoCardless, Braintree (PayPal), eBay, Vodafone, and Telstra has seen her sharpen her sales, marketing, and leadership expertise, as well as knowledge in conversion, payments, and digital transformation.

Carolyn is passionate about creating opportunities for businesses in the region, within areas such as the future of payments, automation, and digitalisation. Her purpose is to empower organisations to drive inclusion and equality through technology and accessibility. 

Carolyn has been awarded one of CEO Magazine’s IT and Telecommunications Executives of the Year in 2018, recognised as one of Business Insider’s top 21 Women in Fintech, and she has also received the prestigious ‘Advocate for Women’ award at the 2019 Woman in Payments Symposium.

Simon is GM Product – eInvoicing at Xero and brings more than 25 years’ software industry experience to the role. He leads the strategy and implementation of eInvoicing and Peppol globally and has held a number of industry association roles, including with OpenPeppol and the Pearcey Foundation, and is currently President of Digital Service Providers Australia & New Zealand (DSPANZ).

Dougie has over 35 years’ banking experience having started with Clydesdale Bank in 1985 and has enjoyed a varied career path encompassing branch banking, sales and service support, relationship management, programme management and payments.

As Head of Payments at Virgin Money, Dougie was responsible for all payments functions across the wider group, incorporating Clydesdale Bank, Yorkshire Bank and Virgin Money, and the strategic integration of the various teams and functions into a single business.

A Fellow of the Chartered Banker Institute and an Associate of the Chartered Management Institute, Dougie has also served as a Pension Scheme Trustee and a Trustee Director of the Bank Workers Charity.

As Chief Payments Officer at Pay.UK, Dougie will be responsible for ensuring that our payments processing and services remain robust and resilient, while driving his passion for people development to build and enhance the skills of his colleagues.

DJ has been the head of Sales & Operations, responsible for localising Global System Solutions products and services into the ANZ market. A member of the Panasonic  Senior Leadership Team with proficient General Management experience. DJ has over 22 years Global Corporate experience in blue chip companies such as Canon (twice), Fuji Xero and most recently Panasonic.  DJ lead projects across Oceania, including a 2 year B2B SAP ERP study, transforming Panasonic from manufacturing edge devices into annuities solutions such as “Visual Intelligence as a Service”, Analytics, IoT and the architect of a Cloud Annuities Platform, partnering with Monoova and PaycePaid using Real Time Payments as well as the President of a Non for Profit Association.

Paul Lahiff is a Director of AUB Holdings, Sezzle, and Harmoney and chairs the Boards of NESS Superannuation and 86400. He was previously the inaugural Chair of New Payments Platform Australia Limited and now chairs the ISO20022 Migration Steering Committee. He has previously on the Boards of Cuscal, Australian Retail Credit Association, Sunsuper, Cancer Council NSW, House With No Steps, and Thorn Group.

He has over forty years of experience in banking and finance having served as Managing Director of Mortgage Choice, Permanent Trustee, and Heritage Building Society, as well as in senior executive roles with Westpac in Sydney and London.

BCom (Hons), MBA (Dist), GAICD, SF Fin

Philip Chronican is Chair of National Australia Bank Limited (NAB) and has more than 38 years of experience in banking and finance in Australia and New Zealand. Mr Chronican is also Chair of the Westmead Institute for Medical Research and sits on the National Foundation for Australia‐China Relations Advisory Board.

Mr Chronican is passionate about better banking, leadership and ethics as well as supporting healthy communities through medical research. He served on both the Banking and Finance Oath and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation until December 2018.

In his previous executive career, Mr Chronican was responsible for the Retail and Commercial Business of the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) in Australia. Prior to joining ANZ, Mr Chronican had a long career at Westpac Banking Corporation, where he established his role in Australian banking as Group Executive Westpac Institutional Bank and Chief Financial Officer.