Speakers

Yekaterina Andryushina

Managing Director for International Cooperation & Sustainability, Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE)

Yekaterina Andryushina is Managing Director for International Cooperation and Sustainability at the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange, where she leads the exchange’s global engagement and ESG agenda, strengthening its integration into international capital markets. With over 20 years of experience across banking, regulation, and market infrastructure, she has held roles at the National Bank of Kazakhstan, a rating agency, and the Institute of Economic Research. At KASE, she has overseen the development of group strategies and advanced international partnerships and research initiatives. Yekaterina holds degrees in international economic relations and economic policy from the Kazakh State Academy of Management and the University of Strathclyde, and is a recognised contributor to financial market analysis and publications.

Ahmed Arharbi

Chief Executive Officer of CCP Morocco, Chief Operating Officer, Casablanca Stock Exchange

Ahmed Arharbi brings over twenty-five years of expertise in the field of organized financial market infrastructures. He began his career with Euronext group in Paris in 2000, at the time of the creation of the pan-European exchange, where he held several senior leadership positions. 

Since 2012, he has served as COO of the Casablanca Stock Exchange. In this capacity, he has led major strategic initiatives, including the modernization of the Exchange’s trading infrastructure and regulatory framework, the development of a listed derivatives market, and the establishment of a central counterparty, with the objective of strengthening the market’s resilience, depth, and competitiveness.

In addition to his role as COO at the Casablanca Stock Exchange, Ahmed was appointed as CEO of CCP Morocco in March 2026.

Rohit Barve

Deputy Manager, Research & Policy, NSE Clearing, National Stock Exchange of India

Rohit Barve is the Deputy Manager of the Research & Policy department at NSE Clearing. He is involved in research initiatives in risk management, capital markets, and policy analysis. His interests include intersection of capital markets and machine learning methods and development of AI-based tools for risk management and operational efficiency. He holds an MS in Data Science from Northeastern University and a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from University of Pune.

Roberto Bermejo Aparicio

Head of CCP Supervision & Post-Trading Division Deputy Director, Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV)

Roberto is Deputy Director in the Post-Trading area of the Secondary Markets Department at the Spanish Securities Market Supervisor (CNMV). Roberto is in charge of the supervision of post-trading infrastructures, namely CCPs and CSDs, as well as supervising data quality on derivative reports under EMIR and securities financing transactions under SFTR. He has participated in several EU-CCP Supervisory Colleges, and is also involved in the supervision of operational resilience of FMIs under DORA, as well as in the authorisation of infrastructures operating under the EU DLT Pilot Regime. Prior to his experience at the CNMV, he worked as a financial consultant at an international advisory firm in the Valuation and Deals department, and began his career as a derivatives trader at a broker-dealer firm.

Ethan Buchman

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Cycles Protocol SA

Ethan Buchman is CEO and Co-Founder of Cycles, an open clearing protocol designed to clear the most debt, for the most people, with the least money. His work spans from business development and product to protocol design and engineering.

Prior to founding Cycles, Ethan co-founded the Cosmos Network and was a pioneer in application-specific blockchains, consensus protocols, and interoperability. His company Informal Systems specialized in security, formal methods, and protocol design for blockchain systems, and last year sold their Malachite consensus product to Circle to serve as the foundation of their Arc blockchain. He has been building production blockchain systems for over a decade. Ethan holds a B.Sc. in Physical Science and an M.A.Sc. in Engineering Systems and Computing from the University of Guelph.

Bruce Butterill

Executive Director, Americas’ Central Securities Depository Association (ACSDA)

Bruce Butterill a Canadian citizen, based in Colombia and is the Executive Director of the Americas’ Central Securities Depository Association (ACSDA), a position he has held since 2007. He is also an independent Capital Market Infrastructure consultant, and has worked on engagements with Securities Depositories, Clearing Corporations and Stock Exchanges in 17 countries across the globe. Prior to becoming a consultant Bruce spent 19 years with CDS, the Canadian Depository for Securities, where at various times, as a member of the Executive Management Committee, he was the senior executive responsible for national operations, international relations and the product management/development functions.

Michael Carty

Chief Executive Officer, LME Clear, London Metal Exchange (LME)

Michael Carty joined LME Clear as CEO in October 2023.

Michael Carty became Chief Executive Officer of Euroclear UK & International in October 2020 is a member of the Euroclear’s Group Executive Committee. With 15 years’ experience at Euroclear, he was previously Chief Executive Officer of Euroclear Sweden, the group’s Swedish national CSD. During his five-year tenure as CEO in Sweden, he helped Euroclear Sweden to successfully achieve its CSDR licence while strengthening its client proposition in a number of key business lines, such as its issuer offering and funds. Additionally, he served on the Board of Directors of Euroclear Finland and Euroclear Sweden.

Since joining Euroclear in 2007, Michael’s responsibilities have included Chief Information Officer and Chief Operations Officer for Euroclear Sweden and Euroclear Finland and he defined the IT strategy leading to the replacement of the CSD platform in Finland. Previously for Euroclear Michael has run strategic programmes and defined the sourcing strategy for Euroclear Group IT.

Before joining Euroclear, Michael was a founding member and Chief Technology Officer of a Brussels-based start-up firm in the steel industry and prior to that he was based in France for a consulting firm.

Fernando Cerezetti

Researcher, King's College London, and Chief Risk Officer, ClearToken

Fernando Cerezetti is the Chief Risk Officer at ClearToken, a financial market infrastructure for digital assets. He is currently a member of the Consultative Working Group for the ESMA CCP Policy Committee. He holds a PhD in Statistics, with a focus on Bayesian Statistics, and is a PhD candidate in Financial Economics at King’s College London. Prior to joining ClearToken, he held various roles at ICE Clear Europe (part of Intercontinental Exchange), the Risk, Research and CCP Policy division of the Bank of England, and the European Association of CCP Clearing Houses (EACH). His research interests include risk management, financial market infrastructures, financial stability, and statistical hypothesis testing.

Tao Chen

Group Head of Quantitative Risk Management, Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing (HKEX)

Tao Chen is the Group Head of Quantitative Risk Management at Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Limited. He worked at the London Metals Exchange prior to his relocation to Hong Kong in 2020, where he established and headed the Quantitative Risk department. Prior to his role at the LME, he has worked extensively in the investment banking industry – primarily in London.

Arianne M. Collette

Managing Director, Head of US Equities, Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC)

Arianne M. Collette serves as Managing Director, Head of U.S. Equities at DTCC, based in Jersey City. Arianne is responsible for leading the strategic planning and execution of DTCC’s U.S. Equities business objectives, driving growth initiatives, revenue generation, process improvements, and market expansion. She partners across the organization to advance innovation, capital efficiency, and operational risk management within DTCC’s clearing and settlement infrastructure, ensuring alignment with regulatory requirements and industry priorities.

Arianne has more than 20 years of experience in securities finance, with a proven track record of delivering growth and enhancing competitive positioning in complex global environments. Her expertise spans strategic oversight, operational management, and managing significant volumes of equity and fixed income trading, clearing, and settlement activity.

Prior to joining DTCC, Arianne held senior leadership roles at Morgan Stanley, including Chief Operating Officer and Head of Strategy for Reinvestment within Corporate & Institutional Solutions, Global Head of Sales Strategy, and Americas Head of Resource Optimization. In these roles, she was responsible for margin, capital, and collateral optimization strategies for both centrally cleared and uncleared activity.

Arianne is also the co-founder and global chair of Women in Securities Finance, a global industry group of over 1,000 members dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion within the financial services industry.

Dr. Jorge Cruz Lopez

Managing Director, Head of Research, Global Risk Institute

Massimo Cutuli

Chief Financial Risk Officer, Options Clearing Corporation (OCC)

Massimo Cutuli is Chief Financial Risk Officer at OCC, the world’s largest equity derivatives clearing organization.

Mr. Cutuli has more than 25 years of experience in financial services and management consulting. As CFRO, he is responsible for OCC's market, credit and liquidity risk, default management, customer margin methodologies, and model development activities.

During his time at Optiver, a derivatives market-making firm, Mr. Cutuli was responsible for all risk oversight of the firm’s U.S. activities including market and operational risk, algorithmic trading controls, principal strategic investment risk due diligence and working with finance on capital optimization. Prior to Optiver, Mr. Cutuli was the Head of Risk for Citadel Securities where he was responsible for risk oversight in North America, EMEA and APAC. Before Citadel, Mr. Cutuli worked in banking at J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs, spent some time with PWC's Finance and Risk Advisory practice, and was a quantitative developer for Bloomberg LP.

Mr. Cutuli received a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering and a Master of Science in Space Science from the University of London, a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Cornell University, and a Master of Science in Operations Research from Columbia University. He has served as a member of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and London Clearing House (LCH) risk committees and currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.

Dr. Martin Diehl

Head of Financial Market Infrastructure Analysis, Deutsche Bundesbank

Martin Diehl is currently head of the team analysis of financial market infrastructures with the Deutsche Bundesbank. His analysis covers mainly financial market infrastructures, especially TARGET2. In addition, for a couple of years he has analysed developments in blockchain technology, DLT, related applications in the financial sector, and stable coins as well as digital money. He is particularly interested in efficiency and stability issues of financial transactions. 

He is a trained economist (Diplom-Volkswirt and M.A. econ.) and philosopher and got his PH.D. from University Gießen, Germany. He has joined Deutsche Bundesbank in 1998 starting as an economist. After five years as head of the speechwriter group for the president he was seconded to the embassy in Beijing serving as a representative of Deutsche Bundesbank to China. In 2008 he joined the department for payment and settlement systems in Deutsche Bundesbank.

Cristina Di Luigi

Deputy Head of Post Trading Division, Markets and Payment Systems Oversight Directorate, Banca d’Italia

Cristina is Deputy Head of the Post Trading Division of the Markets and Payment Systems Oversight Directorate at Banca d’Italia. Her primary focus is on central clearing, and she has participated in various international policy-making groups addressing central counterparties and, more generally, financial market infrastructures at both European and global level. She represents Banca d’Italia in the CPMI-IOSCO Policy Standing Group. Cristina holds a BSc in Economics and a MSc in International Relations, both from LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome. She is currently a DPhil candidate in Economic Geography at the University of Oxford.

John Fennell

Chief Risk Officer & Head of Clearing Operations, EDX Markets

John Fennell is the Chief Risk Officer/Head of Clearing Operations of EDX Markets, a U.S.-based digital asset exchange and clearinghouse designed for institutional investors backed by some of the largest global financial services company (Citadel, Virtu, Fidelity and Schwaab). EDX operates with a market structure modeled more closely on traditional equities and futures markets than on typical retail crypto exchanges. Prior to joining EDX, John served as the Chief Risk Officer for the Options Clearing Corporation where he lead industry changing initiatives delivering risk reducing and capital efficient solutions for the U.S. options markets and its Members for over 25 years.

Tomaž Fleischman

Principal Scientist and Co-Founder, Cycles Protocol SA

Tomaž Fleischman is a Principal Scientist and Co-Founder of Cycles, where he links trade credit, digital assets, and the real economy to reinvent clearing and settlement. His work focuses on creating robust, inclusive market processes and encompasses financial market infrastructure, applied research, and system design.

Prior to founding Cycles, Tomaž worked across research and technology roles related to market structure, risk, and settlement systems. He started out with IBM, served as CEO of a trading company, and held senior positions at telecom and internet provider Telemach. Later, he worked at Be Solutions, as a senior consultant, advising companies on sales transformation, strategic repositioning, and turnaround initiatives for financially or operationally distressed firms, before becoming product research lead at Informal Systems.

Salil Gadgil

Researcher, Office of Financial Research (OFR)

Joined the OFR in 2022. His primary areas of research are market microstructure and asset pricing. His work has largely centered on the credit default swap and corporate bond markets. He holds a doctorate in finance from the Anderson School of Management at University of California, Los Angeles and a bachelor’s degree in economics and mathematics from Swarthmore College.

Rod Garratt

Professor of Economics, University of California at Santa Barbara

Rodney Garratt is a professor of economics at UC Santa Barbara, a research associate with the CEPR Fintech and Digital Currencies network, and an adviser to Ubyx. He has served as Senior Adviser at the BIS, Vice President at the FRBNY and Research Adviser at the Bank of England. He has held visiting scholar positions at the Bank of Canada and IMF. During his time at the FRBNY he co-led the Virtual Currency Working Group for the Federal Reserve System. He was a member of the team that completed Project Jasper, the first proof of concept for a wholesale interbank payment system that uses distributed ledger technology. In 2018 he testified before the U.S. House of Representatives on the future of digital currency. Garratt earned his B.A. from the University of Waterloo and his Ph.D. from Cornell University. He is an Associate Editor of the European Economic Review and Digital Finance.

Dr. Pedro Gurrola Perez

Head of Research, World Federation of Exchanges (WFE)

Pedro joined the World Federation of Exchanges in October 2019 from the Bank of England, where he led the Financial Market Infrastructures Directorate’s Research Team. He had joined the Bank of England in 2013, after two years at the UK Financial Services Authority. Previously, Pedro spent more than 15 years lecturing and doing research at a range of well-regarded academic institutions, including the University of Barcelona and the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM). 

Pedro holds two PhDs: one from the University of Barcelona, Spain, and one from the University of Montpellier, France, and has published across key academic journals, including the Journal of Financial Market Infrastructures, the Journal of Risk, International Finance and the Journal of Futures Markets. His recent work includes research on the economics of distributed ledger technologies (DLT) for securities settlement, on the network structure of settlement fails and on market liquidity risk in CCPs. He has also published research on payment systems, back-testing methodologies and on the structure of interest rate futures markets. In 2007 he received the National Award on Derivatives Research, awarded by the Mexican Derivatives Exchange (MexDer).

Mike Hansen

Chief Clearing and Settlement Services Officer, Options Clearing Corporation (OCC)

Mike Hansen is Chief Clearing and Settlement Services Officer and Dallas Site Leader at OCC, the world’s largest equity derivatives clearing organization.

In this role, Mike is responsible for OCC’s day-to-day clearance and settlement functions and oversees the Collateral Services, Technical Certification and Documentation Services, Corporate Actions and Market Operations functions. As Dallas Site Leader, he manages approximately 250 colleagues in OCC’s Dallas office. Previously, he served as Managing Director, Clearing and Settlement Operations. Mr. Hansen has more than 20 years of options industry experience and has served in various roles throughout his tenure at OCC, including in back office processing, pricing and member services. Mr. Hansen first joined OCC in 2004 as an Investor Services representative.

Prior to joining OCC, Mr. Hansen worked on the Cboe trading floor; first with Timber Hill LLC and then Everest Trading LLC as a market-maker.

Mr. Hansen serves as a member director on the Dallas Regional Chamber and the Metrocrest Services boards of directors. He completed the Securities Industry Institute program at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Cindy Hull

Vice President and Head of Financial Markets Group, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

Cindy Hull is vice president and head of the Financial Markets Group at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. In this role, she leads a team of experienced professionals that are responsible for analyzing public policy issues in financial markets and communicating findings to policymakers, regulators, industry leaders and the public.

Hull has experience in trading, portfolio management, operational readiness planning, and policy analysis. Hull previously served as a Policy Advisor on the team and prior to that held various leadership roles in the Markets Group at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. This included leading trading operations for the Fed and U.S. Treasury holdings of foreign currency reserves. She also led operational readiness initiatives to improve the capacity for the Federal Reserve to implement a wide-ranging set of existing and potential policy directives for open market operations. Hull also played an instrumental leadership role in the Fed’s agency mortgage-backed securities purchase program during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hull is a native of Puerto Rico and received a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and a master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University.

Nathan Ice

Managing Director, Financial & Operational Risk Oversight, Options Clearing Corporation (OCC)

Nathan Ice is a senior executive at Options Clearing Corporation (OCC), where he is head of Financial and Operational Risk Oversight. With nearly two decades of experience in clearing and risk management, his expertise spans credit, market, liquidity, and operational risk, as well as stress testing, default management, and regulatory examinations.

Nathan is also the AMER vice-chair of the WFE's CCP Working Group, and has chaired OCC’s Credit and Liquidity Risk Working Group.

A Certified Financial Risk Manager (FRM) and Certified Regulatory and Compliance Professional (CRCP), Nathan is focused on strengthening data-driven risk cultures, enhancing governance frameworks, and ensuring the resilience and stability of central clearing and the markets it supports.

Stan Ivanov

President, ICE Clear Credit, Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (ICE)

Stan Ivanov is President of ICE Clear Credit, an Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE) clearing house. He previously served as Chief Risk Officer at ICE Clear Credit and ICE Trust US. He was responsible for the design, implementation and execution of all credit default swap (CDS) risk management efforts. Ivanov was instrumental to the launch of the CDS clearing services at ICE Trust US and ICE Clear Europe in 2009.

Prior to joining ICE, Ivanov held the position of Chief Risk Officer at LJM Partners where he was responsible for the development of new investment strategies and portfolio hedging trading. From April 2000 to April 2007 Ivanov managed and supervised the quantitative risk management modeling efforts at The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC). He was the architect of OCC’s risk management approach known as System for Theoretical Analysis and Numerical Simulations (STANS).

Ivanov received his PhD degree from Tulane University in the field of Quantum Mechanics. He also holds a Master of Science in Financial Mathematics from The University of Chicago, and Masters’ degrees in Chemical Physics and International Relations from The University of Sofia, Bulgaria.

Shahrzad Karimi

Director in Model Risk Management, Options Clearing Corporation (OCC)

Shahrzad Karimi is a Director in Model Risk Management at the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC), where she leads a model validation team focused on assessing the conceptual soundness, implementation, and performance of financial models across risk domains. She brings expertise in quantitative finance with a particular focus on derivatives, market risk and model governance framework.

She holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Prior to her current role, she worked quantitative risk management, focusing on model development and performance monitoring.

Dr. Efthimia Kefalea

Head of Derivatives Clearing Market Development, Eurex Clearing, Deutsche Börse Group

Efthimia Kefalea is a director at Eurex Clearing, responsible for Derivatives Clearing Market Development. She leads initiatives leveraging new technologies, including ECB's exploratory work on wholesale central bank money and BIS Project Agorá. An advocate for innovation, she collaborates with market players and tech providers to develop integrated clearing solutions. She has held various roles in new products and IT innovation at Deutsche Boerse Group. Efthimia holds a PhD in AI and robotics from the University of Bonn, Germany and a Master's in computer engineering from the University of Patras, Greece.

Barry King

Head of Post Trade Policy, Bank of England

Barry King has served as Head of the Division of Post Trade Policy at the Bank of England since December 2022, where his responsibilities include leading the post trade policy agenda both internationally and domestically, focusing on clearing and settlement, OTC derivatives, and regulation of overseas financial market infrastructures. Prior to this role, Barry held various positions including responsibility for financial and operational risk across clearing, settlement and payments, and acted as the Head of the FMI Regulation Division at the BoE. Earlier experience includes a Technical Specialist role at the Financial Conduct Authority and work as a Policy Advisor at the UK Ministry of Finance, HM Treasury. While Barry's academic background includes a degree in Economics from the University of Southampton. Additionally, Barry has contributed to CPMI-IOSCO international standards for FMIs for many years, including the development of the Principles for Financial Market Infrastructure following the Great Financial Crisis and more recently as co-chair of the CPMI-IOSCO Margin Implementation Group.

Laura Klimpel

Managing Director, Head of Fixed Income and Financing Solutions, Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC)

Laura Klimpel serves as Managing Director and Head of DTCC’s Fixed Income and Financing Solutions within the firm’s Clearing & Securities Services businesses. In her role, Laura oversees the firm’s Treasury, Mortgage-Backed Securities and Secured Funding products and services.

Prior to her current role, Laura has held various business and legal positions within the DTCC complex, including acting as General Counsel for New York Portfolio Clearing, LLC (NYPC). Before that, Laura spent three years at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, focusing primarily on US commodities and derivatives regulation.

Laura received her B.A. degree, summa cum laude, from Truman State University in 1999 and her J.D. degree, cum laude, from Cornell University in 2007. She is a member of the New York Bar. Laura is also a member of the Treasury Market Practices Group (TPMG).

Vikram Kothari

Managing Director & CEO, NSE Clearing, National Stock Exchange of India (NSE)

Mr. Vikram Kothari has worked in areas of product development, operations, risk management, sales in the stock exchange, custody, clearing and banking space for more than 20 years. Prior to his current role as Managing Director of NSE Clearing Limited (formerly known as National Securities Clearing Corporation Limited) in India, he worked with organizations like JP Morgan Chase, HSBC, and NSE in various capacities. He joined NSE Clearing Limited in November 2017. He is a graduate from Mumbai University and a Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Neeraj Kulshrestha

Managing Director and CEO, NSE International Clearing Corporation,, National Stock Exchange of India (NSE)

Neeraj Kulshrestha is Managing Director and CEO of NSE International Clearing Corporation (NSE ICC), based in GIFT City, India’s International Financial Services Centre. He brings more than three decades of experience across the financial services ecosystem, spanning insurance, exchange operations, clearing and settlement, institutional broking, and regulation.

Neeraj began his career at National Insurance Company Limited before joining National Stock Exchange of India, where he held a range of roles across trading, inspection, investigation, and clearing operations. He later served as Managing Director and CEO of India Index Services Ltd. and DotEx International, contributing to the development of market infrastructure and data services.

He spent a decade at Morgan Stanley as Executive Director, overseeing institutional broking operations and global equity trade support. He subsequently joined BSE Limited, where he held senior leadership roles including Chief Operations Officer, Chief Business Officer, and Chief Regulatory Officer.

Since 2023, Neeraj has led NSE ICC, playing a key role in advancing clearing infrastructure within GIFT City and supporting India’s ambition to establish itself as a global financial centre. Over the course of his career, he has witnessed and contributed to the transformation of India’s capital markets from physical to fully digital ecosystems.

Rama Kumanduri

Managing Director & Head of Model Risk Management, Options Clearing Corporation (OCC)

Rama Kumanduri is Managing Director and Head of Model Risk Management at the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC). He has extensive experience in model development in option pricing and risk management methodologies. His prior experience includes UBS, Credit Suisse and model development at the OCC.

Dauletbek Kussainov

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Kazakhstan to Canada, Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan

Education:Kokshetau State University named after Sh. Ualikhanov (1998), Eurasian National University named after  L. Gumilyov (2010), University of Stirling, UK (2016)

Foreign languages:    German, English 

Experience:

1998-1999: Lecturer at the Kokshetau State University named after Sh. Ualikhanov

1999-2000: Consultant at the National Environmental Center under 

the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment 

of the Republic of Kazakhstan

2000-2003: Attaché, Third Secretary of the Department of Multilateral Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 

of the Republic of Kazakhstan

2003-2004: Second secretary of the Department of International organizations and Security Issues of the Ministry 

of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan

2004-2008: Third Secretary of the Embassy of the Republic 

of Kazakhstan to the Kingdom of Belgium

2008-2009: Head of Division of the Department of Trade Negotiations of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Republic 

of Kazakhstan

2009-2014: Consultant, Head of Sector, Inspector, Deputy Chief 

of the Center for Foreign Policy of the Administration 

of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan

2014-2017: Minister-Counsellor of the Embassy of the Republic 

of Kazakhstan to the United Kingdom of Great Britain 

and Northern Ireland

2017-2019: Minister-Counsellor of the Embassy of the Republic 

of Kazakhstan to the United States of America

2019-2023:Chief of Foreign Policy and International Relations Department of the Presidential Administration of Kazakhstan

2023-present: Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Canada

Diplomatic rank: Second Class Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary 

Marital status: Married, with three children

Angelina Kwan

Chief Executive Officer, Stratford Finance

Benjamin Landis

Senior Associate Vice President, Deutsche Börse

Benjamin Landis is a Regulatory Affairs Specilalist at Deutsche Börse, based in Frankfurt, where he works across market infrastructure and clearing services. He brings experience at the intersection of clearing, capital markets, and financial market infrastructure, with a focus on regulatory developments in Europe and globally.

Benjamin has an academic background at the University of Oxford, complementing his practical expertise with strong analytical and policy-oriented foundations. At Deutsche Börse, he contributes to initiatives shaping the future of financial market infrastructure and clearing in particular, including developments in collateral management, market structure, supervision, and the broader transformation of financial market infrastructures.

Claudio Latorre Ibáñez

General Manager, Contraparte Central S.A (CCLV), nuam exchange

Olivier Léon

Vice-President & Chief Risk Officer, TMX Post-Trade Services, TMX Group

Olivier Léon is the Vice-President and Chief Risk Officer for TMX Post-Trade Services, which includes the Canadian Derivatives Clearing Corporation (CDCC) and the Canadian Depository for Securities (CDS). In this role since 2022, Mr. Léon is accountable for the oversight of the TMX Post-Trade Services’ identification, measurement, and management of its risks, such as it delivers on its strategic and operational objectives and within its risk appetite. Previously, Mr. Léon has held the TMX Post-Trade Services’ Enterprise Risk Management function. Prior to joining TMX in 2014, he served as a consultant for ten years, advising financial industry clients on operational risk, business continuity, and regulatory compliance. Mr. Léon holds an MBA from Laval University (Canada) and a Master in Management from Montpellier Business School (France).

Dr. Kaitao Lin

Senior Financial Economist, World Federation of Exchanges (WFE)

Kaitao joined the World Federation of Exchanges in May 2020 and currently holds the position of senior financial economist in the Research Team. Kaitao holds a Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Houston and is a Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) charterholder. His research focuses on market microstructure issues, such as trading rules, their effects on market participants, and market quality.  His current work includes ESG and crypto assets. Kaitao’s papers have been accepted for publication in well-regarded academic journals, such as the Quarterly Journal of Finance, and presented in various international conferences, including the U.S. SEC Ph.D. Symposium, the China International Conference in Finance, and the Financial Management Association Annual Meeting.

Craig Logan

Principal Economist, Financial Stability Department, Bank of Canada

Craig Logan is a Principal Economist in the Financial Stability Department at the Bank of Canada. Craig joined the Bank in 2016 and has worked in various departments focused on policy development related to risk and portfolio management, climate change, and financial market infrastructure resolution. He holds a Master of Financial Economics degree from Western University and the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Financial Risk Manager (FRM) designations.

John Lothian

Executive Chairman, John J. Lothian & Company, Inc.

John J. Lothian is an award-winning financial media executive, journalist, and electronic trading pioneer based in Chicago. A graduate of Purdue University with degrees in finance and mass communications, he began his career during the rise of global futures markets. Over the years, he has transitioned from a journalist to a futures broker, trader, Commodity Trading Advisor, and, in 2000, to a prominent publisher, founding the John Lothian Newsletterand pioneering industry blogging.

As the publisher of John Lothian News and co-founder of MarketsWiki, Lothian has consistently championed market transparency and innovation. His commitment to the next generation led to the creation of MarketsWiki Education, a platform designed to ignite interest in derivatives and capital markets among young professionals. He has further documented the industry's evolution through extensive historical video projects and the launch of specialized resources like MarketsReformWiki.

Beyond his professional achievements, Lothian is a dedicated volunteer and philanthropist. He is an award-winning volunteer in Scouting America and an advocate for the underprivileged, focusing his efforts on hunger relief and women's initiatives. He champions numerous charitable causes, notably driving fundraising efforts for the FIA’s Futures for Kids Kilt Challenge, the Greater Chicago Food Depository, and Scouting America.

In recognition of his lifelong contributions and leadership within the sector, Lothian was inducted into the FIA Futures Hall of Fame in 2024. This honor underscores his dual legacy as both a visionary in financial media and a compassionate leader committed to social responsibility and industry mentorship.

Francesco Mazzaferro

Head of Secretariat, European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB)

Francesco Mazzaferro has been the Head of the Secretariat of the European Systemic Risk Board (which is based at the European Central Bank) since its inception, in 2011. Previously, after a few years in the research department of one of Italy’s largest commercial banks (Intesa Sanpaolo) until 1993, he had been serving at the European Commission and the European Central Bank, where he contributed first to the establishment of the euro as the single currency of the European Union and later on to the setting up of international relations of the ECB with the central banks of neighbouring regions, including Mediterranean countries, Africa and the Arab Gulf. Francesco is also member of the Board of Supervisors of the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA). Among the areas where he has been active in the last years as Head of the ESRB Secretariat, it is worth recalling the macroprudential regulation of money market funds, central counterparts, insurance corporations, digital assets as well as the systemic amplification of risks due to cyber threats and operational continuity issues.

John McKenzie

Chief Executive Officer, TMX Group, Chair, The World Federation of Exchanges

John McKenzie is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of TMX Group.

Mr. McKenzie is a member of the TMX Group Board of Directors and also a member of the Board of Directors of several TMX Group subsidiaries.

Mr. McKenzie has worked for TMX for over 25 years. Prior to his appointment as CEO on August 17, 2020, he served as Chief Financial Officer and was responsible for corporate strategy, corporate development, investor relations and the financial management of the company as well as for the administrative oversight of TMX Group’s Capital Formation business. He has led various TMX acquisitions, including the Maple transaction, and the acquisitions of Montréal Exchange and Trayport.

From July 2015 to August 2016, Mr. McKenzie served as President of CDS, Canada’s equity and fixed income clearing house and a wholly-owned subsidiary of TMX Group. Prior to that he was the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and CFO of CDS.

Mr. McKenzie is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario (FCPA, FCMA) and has an MBA from Edinburgh Business School, HeriotWatt University and an Honours BA from Wilfrid Laurier University. He has served on a number of boards, and is currently the Chair of the World Federation of Exchanges, and a Board Member and Treasurer for the Hamilton Health Sciences Foundation.

John McPartland

Independent financial regulation and market infrastructure policy advisor

John McPartland spent the entirety of his professional career in the derivatives industry in the roles of commercial banker, broker, FCM executive, exchange member, CCP executive and until his recent retirement, Senior Policy Advisor in the Financial Markets Group of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. In that capacity, he participated in influencing public policy germane to high frequency trading, market structure, CCP default waterfall components, and market concentration issues. He is a graduate from the University of Minnesota and a US Air Force veteran.

Richard Metcalfe

Head of Regulatory Affairs, World Federation of Exchanges (WFE)

Richard Metcalfe is Head of Regulatory Affairs at the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE). Before taking up his WFE post in March 2018, he worked on MiFID implementation at the Markets Division of BNY Mellon in London. He also has extensive experience in wholesale financial services and policy issues, with particular emphasis on derivatives and central clearing; and on asset management. In addition to working at ISDA and the IA, he has worked for SWIFT. Earlier in his career, he wrote for and edited various financial publications. He lives in London and studied languages at university.

Dale Michaels

Head of Cboe Clear U.S., Cboe Global Markets

Mr. Michaels leads Cboe Clear U.S., a CFTC Designated Clearing Organization that clears innovative futures products and is expanding its overall services . Prior to joining Cboe, Mr. Michaels was the Chief Financial Risk Officer at the Options Clearing Corporation where he led the credit, market, stress testing, liquidity, default management and model development functions. He built a new OCC stress testing regime as they moved to a cover-2 methodology and made significant margin model enhancements on end of day options pricing and implied volatility assumptions to better capture forward-looking risks.

Prior to OCC, Mr. Michaels was Managing Director at CME Group, directing all risk management functions at the Clearing House. He led the risk management integration of the CBOT/CME and NYMEX/CME mergers resulting in billions of dollars in capital efficiencies. Mr. Michaels was instrumental in the CME Clearing House response to the MF Global default to ensure that there were no customer funds that were lost as a result of the clearing member issue. He also developed interest rate product cross-margining with an innovative solution between the FICC and CME to allow for clearing member portfolio margin savings.

Dr. Xuhui (Nick) Pan

Assistant Professor of Finance, University of Oklahoma

Xuhui (Nick) Pan is an Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Oklahoma. His main research interests are broadly in asset pricing, especially in the economic implications of financial derivatives, investment, and risk management. His research has been published in the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and the Journal of Banking & Finance, among others. His research work has won several awards, including the Best Paper Awards from Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) in 2014 and the Dong Energy Prize for Best Paper from the European Financial Association (EFA) in 2012. He has won Harold E. Hackler Outstanding MBA Professor Award at the University of Oklahoma in 2025 and Dean’s Excellence Teaching Awards at Tulane University in 2017. Nick also serves as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Commodity Markets.

Ashwini Panse

Chief Risk Officer, North American Clearing; Managing Director, ICE India, Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (ICE)

Ashwini Panse is the 2nd Line Chief Risk Officer for the North American clearing houses at ICE. Panse is also the Head of Risk Oversight for ICE Clear Netherlands and ICE Clear Singapore. Panse oversees the risk management framework at the clearing houses and provides expertise, support, and challenge to the management of all financial and non-financial risks. Panse joined ICE in 2010 and prior to becoming the 2nd Line Chief Risk Officer, Panse served in other leadership roles in Risk, Compliance, and Internal Audit across ICE’s global business units. 

Panse has served as the Chief Compliance Officer for ICE Trade Vault U.S. and in her Internal Audit role, Panse administered the Global Sarbanes Oxley 404 compliance and testing program and internal audits for ICE’s U.S. subsidiaries. She is a Board Member of the FIA Operations America Division, which promotes industry cooperation and exchange of ideas on all topics impacting the U.S. Marketplace. She is also a Board Member and Treasurer at McKenna Farms Therapy Services Inc., a non-profit organization that provides therapeutic programs and resources for children with special needs and their families. 

Panse began her career at Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLC, holds an MBA in Finance from Xavier University, Williams College of Business and is a Certified Public Accountant and a Chartered Accountant.

Dr. Radoslav Raykov

Principal Researcher, Financial Stability Department, Bank of Canada

Radoslav Raykov is a Principal Researcher at the Financial Stability Department at the Bank of Canada. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in Economics from Boston College. Prior to joining the Bank, he worked at the Boston Fed and taught at Harvard University.

His research interests focus broadly on financial stability, and in particular, on: systemic risk, banking regulation and reform, and derivatives markets.

Amandeep Rehlon

Head of FMI Portfolio, Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI), Bank for International Settlements (BIS)

Amandeep Rehlon is Head of FMI Portfolio at the secretariat of the BIS Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI), the international standard setter for the safety and efficiency of payment, clearing, settlement and related arrangements. In this role, he works with other financial sector standard setters (including IOSCO and the FSB) and financial authorities to establish and promote global standards and recommendations for the regulation of FMIs. He is based in Basel, Switzerland.

He previously worked at the Bank of England for over 20 years in a number of roles related to financial stability, resolution and FMIs, most recently as Head of Post Trade Policy. He was seconded to the Financial Stability Board in 2016-2019. He holds Masters degrees from the Universities of Oxford and Warwick and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Ante Romić

Managing Director, Market Infrastructure, Edaa (Qatar CSD)

With over 15 years of experience across capital markets, Ante Romic has led multiple post-trade transformation initiatives across Europe and the Middle East and currently oversees Qatar’s FMI transformation program.

Charlie Ryder

Senior Manager, Regulatory Affairs, World Federation of Exchanges (WFE)

Charlie Ryder is a Senior Manager in the Regulatory Affairs team at the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), where he leads policy work on post-trade and systemic risk. In this role, he coordinates the WFE’s CCP Working Group and oversees the organisation’s flagship clearing and derivatives conference, WFEClear.

Charlie works closely with global regulators, standard setters, and market infrastructures to shape policy on issues including clearing resilience, collateral and liquidity risk, and evolving market structure. His work spans a range of regulatory initiatives and industry responses, with a focus on maintaining robust, transparent, and efficient financial markets.

Prior to joining the WFE, Charlie worked in capital markets advisory at Ernst & Young, with experience across private equity, hedge funds, and investment management. He holds master’s degrees in Management and International Economic Policy, specialising in global risk and financial regulation. 

Prof. Paolo Saguato

Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University

Paolo Saguato is a Professor of Law at Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University, specializing in financial regulation. His research interests encompass the intersection of banking, securities and derivatives regulation and the international and comparative dynamics of financial markets. Professor Saguato serves as a member of the ESMA Consultative Working Group of the CCP Policy Committee. In addition, he is the co-editor of “Financial Markets Infrastructures: Law and Regulation,” recently published by Oxford University Press, and the author of multiple academic articles on clearinghouses and financial market infrastructures. 

Before joining Antonin Scalia Law School, Professor Saguato was a Research Fellow at the Georgetown Law Center, a Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Global Hauser Fellow at New York University School of Law. Professor Saguato earned a BA (Laurea in Scienze Giuridiche) and a JD (Laurea Magistrale in Giurisprudenza) summa cum laude at the University of Genoa (Italy) and a PhD in Private, Business, and International Law at the same university. In addition, he holds a LLM from Yale Law School, which he attended as a Fulbright Scholar, where he focused his studies on financial markets regulation and corporate law and was a senior editor of the Yale Journal on Regulation.

Dr. Julie Schoening

Global Chief Operating Officer, Graviton Research Capital

Dr. Julie Schoening is the current Global Chief Operating Officer at Graviton Research Capital, where she was previously Global Head of Risk and Compliance.

Priot to this, Julie was the Chief Risk Officer of FTX US Derivatives, also known as LedgerX, a CFTC regulated derivatives exchange and clearing house. She led the development of the Initial Margin model, risk management policy and procedures for the CFTC application using direct clearing and real time de-risking methodologies in 2022. 

Prior to joining FTX, Julie spent the past 15 years of her career at Alphadyne Asset Management, a global macro hedge fund based in NYC, the CFTC, and the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.

Christian Sjöberg

President, Nasdaq Clearing AB, Nasdaq, Inc

Christian Sjöberg brings over two decades of international experience in post-trade infrastructure, clearing, and financial market operations. He has held senior leadership roles across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, with a strong track record in building and transforming market infrastructure organizations. He joined Nasdaq in 2022 as Head of Business Development & Portfolio Strategy for Post Trade, where he has driven strategic initiatives supporting exchanges, CCPs, and CSDs globally. Prior to Nasdaq, Christian held senior roles at major market infrastructure organizations including HKEX, SIX x-clear, and Oslo Clearing, with a focus on clearing, risk management, and operational transformation.

Robert Steigerwald

Independent policy advisor

Robert S. Steigerwald is an independent financial regulation and market infrastructure policy advisor. Robert retired from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago in March 2025, after twenty-five years of service in the bank’s Financial Markets Group, where his work focused on financial regulation, post-trade clearing and settlement infrastructures, systemic risk, and financial technology.

Before joining the Chicago Fed, Robert was a trading associate on the precious metals and foreign currency desk of Shearson/American Express, Inc. and an associate attorney at Kirkland & Ellis, an international law firm based in Chicago, where he represented the Chicago Board of Trade, the Board of Trade Clearing Corporation, and National Futures Association, among other clients, in litigation, regulatory, and corporate matters.

He also served as US legal counsel and corporate secretary for Multinet International Bank, a clearinghouse for OTC foreign currency transactions that was formed in the 1990s by a group of North American banks and The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC). He later served as US legal counsel during the formation of the CLS Bank International, which succeeded to the operations of Multinet in 1997 and introduced a novel “payment vs. payment” model for the settlement of foreign currency transactions in 2000.

Robert has published many articles in the literature on financial markets and market infrastructures, including articles that have been referenced in two surveys of the economics literature on central clearing. From 2017 to 2022, he was a member of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Market Risk Advisory Committee and in 2005 was a visiting scholar at the Bank of Japan’s Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies (IMES).

Robert currently serves as an independent member of CME Group’s Clearing House Risk Committee and is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Financial Market Infrastructures.

He is a graduate of the University of San Francisco School of Law and Stony Brook University, State University of New York.

Nandini Sukumar

Chief Executive Officer, World Federation of Exchanges (WFE)

Nandini Sukumar is the Chief Executive Officer of the World Federation of Exchanges, the global association for exchanges and CCPs. The WFE represents more than 250 exchanges and clearing houses globally, educating stakeholders on the vital role played by market infrastructures in the real economy and as a standard setter, finding the consensus on issues among the global membership. Of our members, 37% are in Asia-Pacific, 43% in EMEA and 20% in the Americas. WFE’s 87 member CCPs and clearing services collectively ensure that risk takers post some $1.1 trillion (equivalent) of resources to back their positions, in the form of initial margin and default fund requirements. WFE exchanges, together with other exchanges feeding into our database, are home to over 49,054 listed companies, and the market capitalisation of these entities is $116.58 trillion; around $155 trillion (EOB) in trading annually passes through WFE members (at end 2024). Ms. Sukumar is Vice Chair of IOSCO’s Affiliate Members Consultative Committee and Chair of the AMCC’s Sustainability Taskforce.

Robert Tasca

Managing Director, Derivatives Products and Services, Montréal Exchange, TMX Group

Robert Tasca is Managing Director of Derivatives Products and Services at the Montréal Exchange, part of the TMX Group, where he oversees the development and performance of the Exchange's fixed-income and equity derivatives product portfolio.

Having been at the Exchange for nearly three decades, Robert is responsible for leading on the development of new derivatives products, the advancement of trading technology solutions, and the execution of strategic initiatives and partnerships to drive value for its clients. By keeping the needs of its participants at the forefront of his work, Robert has helped lead the Exchange through a period of immense technological, financial, and geopolitical change, as well as a period of rapid growth.

Robert began his career at the Montréal Exchange in 1998 as a Floor Official in the open-outcry pits, before progressing to Market Supervisor and several institutional relations roles. He then led product development and client solutions in interest-rate derivatives before taking on his current role as Managing Director. He has seen the Exchange from all angles: from its early embrace of electronification, to the heights in liquidity and volumes it sees today.

Robert studied at McGill University in Montréal, and you can follow updates from him on LinkedIn.

Jiyouji Ueda

Executive Director of CCPs, Securities and Derivatives, Grupo Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (Grupo BMV)

Jiyouji Ueda has over 25 years of experience in risk management, clearing, and settlement across derivatives, equities, and fixed-income markets. He is currently leading the implementation of the Debt CCP, integrating government repos and federal public debt instruments, as well as overseeing the transition of rates in the derivatives market. As Executive Director of CCPs, Securities and Derivatives at Grupo Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, he has driven the development of advanced margin and risk methodologies, T+1 settlement, and the introduction of new financial products such as futures, options, and swaps. His focus on operational resilience, ISO standards, and financial system stability has strengthened market infrastructure. Recognized with the Risk Award 2019, Ueda has actively contributed to the evolution of the CCP ecosystem.

Rana Usman

Chief Operating Officer, NSE Clearing, National Stock Exchange of India (NSE)

Rana Usman is the Chief Operations Officer of NSE Clearing Ltd, where she leads the end-to-end clearing and settlement operations across multiple market segments and products. She has been associated with the NSE Group for over 2 decades. She has assayed diverse roles in the operations, business development and regulatory areas and been closely associated with the various implementations and regulatory initiatives in the Clearing Corporation space.

She is a postgraduate in Business Management and holds a masters degree in Commerce.

Louise Waterhouse

Managing Director, Business Management & Strategic Initiatives, The Canadian Depository for Securities Limited (CDS), TMX Group

Louise Waterhouse is Managing Director, Business Management & Strategic Initiatives at The Canadian Depository for Securities Limited (CDS), part of TMX Group. In this role, she leads enterprise-wide business management, strategic planning, and transformation initiatives across Canada’s core clearing and settlement infrastructure. With extensive experience spanning risk management, strategy, and operations, Louise has held senior leadership roles across TMX Group, including serving as Interim Enterprise Chief Risk Officer. She has a strong track record of driving cross-functional collaboration across risk, legal, regulatory, technology, and business teams to deliver operational resilience and strategic growth. Louise’s expertise covers enterprise risk management, financial market infrastructure, and large-scale business transformation. She is particularly focused on strengthening governance frameworks, enhancing risk-informed decision-making, and advancing the evolution of clearing and post-trade services in increasingly complex and technology-driven markets.

Val Wotton

Managing Director and Global Head of Equities Solutions, Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC)

Valentino (Val) Wotton is Managing Director and Global Head of Equities Solutions at the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC). In this role, he is responsible for NSCC equity clearing of trades executed on major U.S. exchanges and other equity trading venues and DTC the central securities depository which completes the transfer between trading parties of securities and cash. He also leads the firm’s global middle-office trade processing solutions, including CTM, ALERT and TradeSuite ID. Working closely with his global team, clients, industry organizations and his peers, Val focuses on setting business strategy, growing and enhancing services, and delivering increased value to clients, enabling them to meet evolving operational, risk and regulatory compliance demands such as global accelerated settlement and extended trading hours (24x5) efforts. Additionally, Val leads enterprise-wide modernization efforts at DTCC and is the Regional Administrative Manager for DTCC EMEA, Chairman of the DTCC EMEA Operating Committee, and a voting member on the DTCC ITP LLC Board.

Prior to this role, Val was Managing Director of Product Development and Strategy, Repository and Derivatives Services, where he was responsible for overseeing the firm’s Global Trade Repository (GTR), Trade Information Warehouse (TIW) and Report Hub services.

Before DTCC, Val served as Managing Director Head of Global Markets Post-Trade Services, Network Management and EMEA Markets Operations at Barclays. There, he was responsible for the implementation of a strategic global operational model to provide improved post-trade service capabilities to clients and internal businesses as well as the design and delivery of strategic architecture to achieve automation, process improvement and risk management objectives. Previously, Val held several senior roles at Citigroup.

During his career, Val has served on several Boards and Committees, including SIFMA’s Operations and Technology Committee, DTCC’s Deriv/SERV Board, LCH OTC Deriv Net, and the International Swaps & Derivatives Organization’s (ISDA) Market Infrastructure & Technology Committee (MITOC).

Val holds a Bachelor of Law (with French) degree from Nottingham Trent University.

Huan Zhang

Chief Risk Officer, Nodal Clear

Mr. Zhang serves as the Chief Risk Officer for Nodal Clear, overseeing the Risk Team. Prior to this role, Mr. Zhang spent almost two years in China managing the clearing operations at the Dalian Commodity Exchange and leading the product and operations team at the newly-established Guangzhou Futures Exchange.  Mr. Zhang began his career at Dean & Company as a strategic consultant and then worked at Nodal Exchange in market administration and risk management roles for 10 years.  Mr. Zhang holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering and an MSCEP from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a M.Sc. and B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Tsinghua University. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).