Speakers

Burak Akan

CCP Director, Takasbank, Borsa Istanbul

Burak Akan joined Takasbank in 2013 as CCP Director. As such, he is responsible for the design and execution of risk, collateral and default management processes for the CCP. 

Prior to joining Takasbank, Burak served in banking sector who is responsible from various risk management roles including market risk, liquidity risk, interest rate risk and model risk management. 

Before risk management, Akan also worked as Treasurer and Dealer in Turkish and Russian banks. 

He holds a bachelor's degree in engineering and a master's degree in economics.

Meshal Al-Homaid

Chief of Risk Management, Muqassa, Saudi Tadawul Group

Meshal is currently the Chief of Risk Management at Muqassa, the Securities Clearing Center Company. Meshal brings with him around 17 years of experience in Risk Management in the financial sector where he held a number of positions across leading banks in Saudi Arabia. 

Prior to becoming Chief of Risk, Meshal was Head Risk Modelling and Methodology at Muqassa where he was responsible for model development, calibration, monitoring and documentation. 

Meshal holds a BSc in Information Systems from King Saud University and a Master’s Degree in Information Systems Management from The University of Sheffield.

Aniket Bhanu

Vice President, NSE Clearing, National Stock Exchange of India

Mr. Aniket Bhanu has been associated in various capacities with the National Stock Exchange of India group since 2009. His areas of expertise are risk management, derivatives, regulation and policy and has been instrumental in implementation of several market reforms in the CCP space in India. He holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode.

Dr. Jie Cao

Professor, School of Accounting and Finance, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Professor Jie (Jay) Cao is currently a full professor of finance at the School of Accounting and Finance, Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). He also serves as an Advisory Council member for Monetary Research at the Hong Kong Institute for Monetary and Financial Research (HKIMR), an Academic and Accreditation Advisory Committee member for The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong, an Academic Working Group member for the United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) Initiative, and a member of the Board of Directors for Chicago Quantitative Alliance Asia (CQAsia). He is an Associate Editor of Financial Management, an Editorial Board Member of Financial Analysts Journal, a Co-Editor of The International Review of Finance, and an Editor of China Accounting and Finance Review. Before joining PolyU, he served as a tenured associate professor of finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School and worked there for 13 years.

Prof. Cao received his Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Texas at Austin in 2009 and BA in Economics from Peking University in 2002. His research interests center on empirical asset pricing, derivatives, and sustainable finance. His papers are published or forthcoming in top finance and management journals such as Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and Management Science. He is the Principal Investigator of several Hong Kong competitive RGC grants and many other research grants from both academic and industry sponsors such as The Canadian Derivatives Institute (CDI) and Geneva Institute for Wealth Management. He has received various research awards such as AAM–CAMRI Prize in Asset Management by Asia Asset Management and NUS, the ETF Research Academy Award by the Paris–Dauphine House of Finance and Lyxor Asset Management, Chicago Quantitative Alliance (CQA) Academic Competition Award, and the best paper awards at several academic conferences such as the 28th Australian Finance & Banking Conference, 2020 FMA Consortium on Asset Management, 2020 Northern Finance Association Annual Conference, etc.

Prof. Cao has taught undergraduate Investments, MSc Fixed Income, finance MBA Quantitative Investing, and Ph.D. Empirical Asset Pricing during the past years. He received the Outstanding Teaching Award of CUHK Business School. He has also provided consulting services for several fintech start-ups and hedge funds.

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.

Cristina Di Luigi

Senior Expert, Post Trading Division, Markets and Payment Systems Oversight Directorate, Banca d’Italia

Cristina Di Luigi is a Senior Expert in the Post Trading Division of the Markets and Payment Systems Oversight Directorate at the Bank of Italy. Her primary focus is on central clearing, and she participates in various international policy-making groups that address central counterparties and, more generally, financial market infrastructures. Cristina holds a BSc in Economics and an MSc in International Relations, both from LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome. She is also a DPhil candidate in Economic Geography at the University of Oxford.

Serhan Gokturk

Chairman, Abu Dhabi Clear, and Chief Risk Officer, Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX)

Dr. Pedro Gurrola Perez

Head of Research, The World Federation of Exchanges

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).

Selina Han

Economist, Cboe Global Markets

Selina Han is an Economist in the Public Policy department at Cboe Global Markets, where she applies her strong quantitative research and data science background to analyze U.S. market structure, focusing on options and equities. Her work includes assessing market dynamics, evaluating regulatory proposals, and conducting economic analysis to support the firm’s policy initiatives and senior leadership.

At Cboe, Selina contributes to critical research topics such as order competition, tick size adjustments, and access fee changes. She leverages advanced data analysis techniques to provide evidence-based insights that help the organization navigate evolving regulatory landscapes and better understand market efficiency and liquidity.

With a foundation in quantitative research and experience as a data scientist, Selina combines analytical rigor with practical solutions. She has worked on developing automated trading prototypes, optimizing trading algorithms, and enhancing data products to support decision-making and improve operational efficiency.

Selina brings over 15 years of experience spanning academia and the financial industry. Her curiosity and collaborative approach drive her work, as she aims to translate complex data into actionable insights that benefit both market participants and policymakers.

Stéphane Janin

Head of Global Regulatory Developments and Public Affairs, AXA Investment Managers

Stéphane heads up AXA IM’s Global Regulatory Developments and Public Affairs directorate at the worldwide level. Before joining AXA IM in 2015, Stéphane was Head of the International Affairs Division at the French Asset Management Association (AFG), responsible for international regulatory strategy and promotion. He was previously Head of Market Surveillance and Responsible for Strategy and Risks at the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF). Since 2020, Stéphane has been a member of AMF’s External Advisory Committee as well as a member of AFG’s Non-Executive Strategic Committee. 

Stéphane has been Co-Chairman of the Asset Management and Investors Council, International Capital Markets Association (ICMA) since 2021. From 2018 to 2021, he was a member of the Board of Directors at the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA). Within the European Commission, he was a Seconded National Expert from 2000 to 2004, in charge of UCITS, Hedge Funds, Credit Rating Agencies and Market Abuse. 

Stéphane is a member of the Stakeholders’ Panel of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO). He is also a member of the World Economic Forum (Davos Forum)’s working group on the Future of Capital Markets. 

Stéphane started his carrier at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in Washington D.C.. He graduated from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques (IEP) – “Sciences Po”, in Paris.

Eun-Bo Jeong

Chairman & CEO, Korea Exchange (KRX)

Udesh Jha

Managing Director, Head of Post-Trade Services, CME Group

Udesh Jha is a Managing Director within the Clearing and Post-Trade division at CME Group. He heads the Post-Trade Services team, handling Quantitative Risk Management & Solutions, Credit Risk, Collateral Risk, and Liquidity Risk Management for the clearing house. 

Udesh has worked at CME since 2010. Prior to this joining CME Group, he worked at Capital One, Banc of America Securities, and QRM in different risk management roles ranging from ALM, Funds Transfer Pricing and CDO Structuring. Prior to that, Udesh was a Senior Management Consultant with IBM assisting clients with Supply Chain Management solutions across different industrial sectors.

Udesh holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, a Masters in Science in Civil Engineering from University of Connecticut, and an MBA degree from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Christopher Jones

Chief Operating Officer, LME Clear

Chris is Chief Operating Officer at LME Clear, following his tenure as Chief Risk Officer of LME Group in 2017. He was previously a managing director and chief risk officer at LCH.Clearnet Group Ltd, where he was at the forefront of developments in the risk and clearing space, including regulatory change, the launch of several clearing services in new markets, and the active management of major defaults such as Lehman Brothers and MF Global.

Vikram Kothari

Managing Director, NSE Clearing, National Stock Exchange of India

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.

Dr. Kaitao Lin

Senior Financial Economist, The World Federation of Exchanges

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.

Summer Mersinger

Commissioner, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)

Summer K. Mersinger was nominated by President Biden to serve as a Commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and was unanimously confirmed by the Senate. She was sworn into office on March 30, 2022. 

Prior to her appointment, Ms. Mersinger served as the Chief of Staff to CFTC Commissioner Dawn D. Stump.  She also served as the Director of the Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission under former Chairman Heath Tarbert. 

Ms. Mersinger has 20 years of Capitol Hill and government relations experience. Prior to joining the CFTC, she was Senior Vice President at Smith-Free Group, a leading government affairs practice, where she worked on financial services issues including advocating for large fintech organizations. 

From 2004 to 2016, Ms. Mersinger was a top aide to current Senate Minority Whip John Thune, who represents her home state of South Dakota. Most recently she served as his DC Chief of Staff, coordinating legislative activities for Sen. Thune’s team and working regularly with Senate leadership and senior staff on both sides of the aisle. Ms. Mersinger was instrumental during policy debates involving banking, finance, telecommunications, surface transportation, agriculture, and trade issues. Ms. Mersinger was also directly involved in the communications efforts spearheaded by Sen. Thune through his leadership post on the Senate Republican Conference. 

Prior to joining Sen. Thune’s staff, Ms. Mersinger was a director of government relations at Arent Fox, and she also worked in Sen. Thune’s office while he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1999 to 2002. Summer completed her undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota and her law degree from the Catholic University’s Columbus School of law. She is a proud mother of four children, two daughters and two sons, and resides in Northern Virginia with her husband.

Richard Metcalfe

Head of Regulatory Affairs, The World Federation of Exchanges

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.

Dr. David Murphy

Visiting Professor, Department of Law, London School of Economics (LSE)

David Murphy is a visiting professor in practice in the Law School at the London School of Economic and Political Science.  He is a leading expert on derivatives regulation, central clearing, and prudential policy, having published extensively in these areas, and worked in both bank and central counterparty policy at national and international levels.

Jose Manuel Ortíz-Repiso

Head of Clearing & Repo Operations, SIX

José Manuel Ortiz-Repiso is the Head of Clearing & Repo Operations at SIX. José Manuel is in charge of the management and the strategy of two highly diversified CCPs and the Repo and Collateral Management services. In this role, he leads the Clearing and Repo operations teams, while managing these businesses and liaising with clients, regulators and other key stakeholders. 

He has been with BME since 2000. More than 20 years of experience in the entire financial industry value chain, from trading to post-trading, holding different roles in multiple areas, acquiring in-depth knowledge about infrastructures management, participating in their growth, in their adaptations to different regulatory and technical changes, and involved in coordinating the most important projects of the company. 

Jose Manuel holds an Executive MBA from IE Business School and an economics and business degree from Alcala de Henares University.

Chan-soo Park

President, Clearing Division, Korea Exchange (KRX)

Randy Priem

Markets & Post-Trading Unit Coordinator, Belgian Financial Services & Markets Authority (FSMA)

Randy Priem is the coordinator of the markets and post-trading unit at the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) where he supervises - and coordinates a team supervising - the Belgian trading venues, multilateral trading facilities, and central securities depositories. 

He is a member of various ESMA standing committees and working groups, such as the markets standing committee, the data standing committee, the European supervisory policy committee, the post-trading working group, the CCP policy committee, and the DLT working group. He further represents the FSMA at the CPMI-IOSCO Steering Group. He is a member of six EMIR colleges of central counterparties, four CCP resolution colleges, and also represents the FSMA at the T2S cooperative oversight college. He often represents Belgium as a national expert at the European Council when new legislation (EMIR, BMR, CSDR, etc.) is drafted and was a member of the Belgian presidency when EMIR 3.0 was drafted. 

In addition, he is a finance professor at UBI Business School and Antwerp Management School where he teaches financial and FinTech courses and published in various international academic journals. He holds a PhD from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

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.

Julie Schoening

Global Head of Risk and Compliance, Graviton Capital Research

Dr. Julie Schoening is the current Global Head of Risk and Compliance at Graviton Capital Research.

Previously, 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.

Nandini Sukumar

Chief Executive Officer, The World Federation of Exchanges

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 its members, 35% are in Asia-Pacific, 45% in EMEA and 20% in the Americas. WFE exchanges are home to 47,919 listed companies, and the market capitalisation of these entities is over $109 trillion; around $137 trillion (EOB) in trading annually passes through WFE members (at end 2020). WFE’s 57 member CCPs collectively ensure that risk takers post some $800bn (equivalent) of resources to back their positions, in the form of initial margin and default fund requirements. Ms. Sukumar is Vice Chair of IOSCO’s Affiliate Members Consultative Committee and Chair of the AMCC’s Sustainability Taskforce.

Pataravasee Suvarnsorn

Senior Executive Vice President, Head of Operation Management Division, and Managing Director, Thailand Clearing House, The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET)

Ms. Pataravasee Suvarnsorn has 34 years of experience and expertise in Thai Capital Market.

Ms. Suvarnsorn joined the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) in 1991 as a Senior Officer of Strategic Planning Department, she then worked as the Deputy Vice President of Trading Operation Department in 1998 – 2005, as Head of Clearing Department in 2005 – 2013. In 2018, she served as Senior Executive Vice President – Head of Operations Management Division. She is responsible for both core exchange functions which are trading, clearing and settlement, central depository and registrar services and for SET group’s capital market support functions such as platform for end-to-end mutual fund investment (FundConnext), e-Services including e-Meeting & e-Voting (e-Meeting platform) and also payment infrastructure for capital market (FinNet). In addition, she has also been appointed as the Managing Director of Thailand Clearing House, a subsidiary company of SET.

She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from Chulalongkorn University and Master’s Degree in Business Administration, Finance from California State University, USA.

Richard Wise

Group Chief Risk Officer, Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing (HKEX)

Richard Wise is the Group Chief Risk Officer of Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Limited. Prior to this role, he has worked within risk management in the investment banking industry since 1993, and of note, at JP Morgan for twenty one years where he headed the Global Market Risk Management function.

Nicola Zaugg

Senior Researcher & Quant Engineer, swissQuant

Nicola Zaugg is a senior researcher and quant engineer at swissQuant, a Swiss software company and leading global provider of counterparty clearing software solutions. As a quant in the capital markets team, he drives the design and development of the clearing methodology for swissQuant's CleaRisQ—an award-winning, data-driven clearing software that calculates real-time margin requirements for clearing members. Alongside his work at swissQuant, Nicola is pursuing a PhD in Mathematics at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, where he conducts research in financial mathematics and contributes to innovative academic advancements in the field. Prior to joining swissQuant, he worked as a quant for the Dutch investment bank Rabobank.

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).