Marouane El Abassi is a PhD in Economics from the University of Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne. A Senior Economist with the World Bank as from January 2008, he coordinated the Country Programme for Libya.

In 2012, he was appointed Office Manager of the World Bank in Libya. He was also Senior Adviser at the Arab Institute of Business Managers (IACE), Expert for the Tunisian Institute of Strategic Studies (ITES) and Economic Adviser at the Ministry of Commerce, Tourism and handicrafts charged with conducting the export development project financed by the World Bank.

Being an Associate Professor of Economics, he was appointed as full professor at the University of Carthage in 2007. Marouane El Abassi who has, several times, received an honorary mention for excellence in teaching and research, has published many of his articles in renowned economic magazines and participated in publication of several works ; when teaching several MBA programmes, he was a guest lecturer at ICHEC Brussels, at Tsukuba University and at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of New York.

Dr. Al Hamidy currently serves as Director General Chairman of the Board in the Arab Monetary Fund. Dr. Al Hamidy held several positions: Vice Governor of Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency for the period 2009-2013, Deputy Governor for Technical Affairs, Director General of the Economic Research and Statistics, Director of Training and Research Center and Information at Banking Institute. He was an Assistant Professor in the Economics Department at King Saud University.

With his appointment as Chairman of the Arab Monetary Fund, Dr. Al Hamidy is also the Chief Executive Chairman of Arab Trade Financing Program by virtue of office.

Dr. Al Hamidy holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Oregon in the United States in 1991.

Alain PITHON is General Secretary of Paris EUROPLACE (the organization in charge of the promotion and the lobbying for the French financial marketplace).From 2006 to 2012, he was Deputy Chief Executive of Association Française de la Gestion financière (the French asset management association).

He started his career at the Treasury (Ministry of Finance). He was Deputy financial counsellor for Competition and State Aids at the French Permanent Representation to the European Union in Brussels (2002-2004). From 2004 to 2006, he was head of unit "France Télécom/La Poste/Financial public sector defeasance", at The French Government Shareholding Agency.He is a graduate of Institut d'Etudes Politiques d'Aix-en-Provence (1985) and Ecole Nationale d'Administration (1998). He was born in Toulon in 1965.

Telecom Paris engineer , Mehdi Houas began his career in 1983 at Alcatel where he will take charge for 3 years R & D activities in the field of digital broadband transmission.
In 1986, he joined joined the Department of Telecommunications and New Technologies @IBM to take charge, for 2 years, of the marketing and commercial development of new network and telecom products IBM.
In 1989, he created his first company, Telease Consultants, a consulting company and services in networks and telecoms
In 1993, he merged Telease's network and telecom service activities with those of engineering Valoris (SSII of 100 consultants) to give birth to the Valoris Group, which will be from 1994 and 2001, from 150 to 1,200 consultants and will become leader of the consulting and services in CRM & BI in Europe, before being sold in 2003 to the SOPRA Group (13,000 consultants worldwide).
In 2000 he created Chrysalead, an investment fund specializing in the incubation of Internet start-ups by raising 60M € from Danone, CVC Partners and GIMV, which he will chair until its closing in 2007.
In 2002, he created and managed the Talan Group, specialized in the redesign of business processes and the integration of new technologies and which today counts more than 1500 consultants distributed in the offices of Paris, Lyon, Geneva, London, Luxembourg, New York, Montreal, Hong Kong and Tunis.
He joined in 2009 the High Level Committee for Science and Technology, chaired by Si Mohamed Ennabli, whose mission is to project Tunisia into the digital economy and by the same to allow mass creation in services for young graduates.
Member since 2005 of the Club of the XXIst century of which he is the general secretary for 8 years, Mehdi Houas is a citizen engaged for the fight he has chosen: the fight against discrimination, against youth unemployment, for the development of less favored areas and for a balanced relationship between North and South.
In the aftermath of the jasmine revolution, he is appointed January 27, 2011 Minister of Commerce and Tourism in the Tunisian transitional government, a position he will occupy until 27 December 2011 and the holding of the first free and democratic elections in Tunisia.
He has been a member since June 2015 of the Strategic Council "Digital Tunisia 2020", chaired by Si Habib Essid, Prime Minister of Tunisia and whose mission is to take all strategic decisions to project Tunisia in the digital economy and make it a reference country in the world by 2020.
Mehdi Houas was born in Marseille on November 9, 1959, married with two children

Karim ZINE-EDDINE is Director of Research of Paris EUROPLACE, the professional body which supports and promotes the France based financial services industry. Karim has been involved in the development of the Paris financial center since 1998 and then, has participated in the launch of the EUROPLACE Institute of Finance (EIF) and Finance Innovation cluster. He contributed to the achievements of economic and financial works, reports and working papers on the competitiveness of the Paris financial center as well as the developments of the financial services to support the financing of the real economy and businesses.

Since 2013, he has been particularly proactive in building relationships with African key financial institutions. He chairs the AfricaFrance financial services cluster and recently, launched the AfricaFinLab which objective is to conduct projects through three action fields: Financing / Innovating / Training. He is graduated from the Paris Institut d'Etudes Politiques and the University of Orleans (majoring Economy and Finance)

Ahmad FARAGALLAH has above nineteen years of experience in Payment Systems (PS) and Information Technology (IT) captured through his work in Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) and IBM Global business services (IBM), and having diversified experience in areas, like financial services, project management, and strategic planning.

Heading the Payment Systems Department (PSD) in CBE for the last nine year, then he worked for IBM for above six years, acting as a project manager for a number of large projects. Post graduated with MBA degree from an accredited American university.

• Chief Executive Officer of BRVM and DC / BR
• President of AfricaFinlab(African Finance Laboratory)
• Chairman of the WAEMU Committeeof Africa Club of AFIC (French Association of Investors for Growth)
• President of WACMIC (West African Capital Markets Integration Council) from March 2015 to April 2018
• Member of the Advisory Committee for Africa of the Faculty of Sciences of Administration (FSA) of Laval University (Canada)
• Member of the Panafrican Institute of Economic and Financial Governance (IPAGEF) based in Canada
• Member of the Executive Committee of ASEA (Association des Bourses Africaines)

Dr. Edoh Kossi AMENOUNVE holds a Ph.D. in Administration and Finance from Laval University in Canada (1995) after an MBA (1992).

He currently holds the position of Chief Executive Officer of the Bourse Régionale des ValeursMobilières (BRVM) and the Central Depository / Settlement Bank (DC / BR) since 1 October 2012.He previously held several positions in the financial system of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) including those of Secretary General of the Regional Council for Savings and Financial Markets (CREPMF), the financial market regulation authority of WAEMU, from 2003 to 2012, CEO of SGI-TOGO, a Brokerage Company based in Togo, from 1997 to 2003, Chairman of the Board of Directors of OPTI Asset Management from 2001 to 2002 and Assistant to the Chairman of the Board of Directors of BRVM and DC / BR from 1997 to 2000.

He led major reforms of the WAEMU financial market, namely the reform of guarantees and the introduction of the rating, the establishment of the mortgage market and securitization, the harmonization of the taxation of securities within WAEMU etc. Since 2012, he is the architect of the renewal of the common stock exchangeof Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.

He has published scientific articles in the international journal "Applied Financial Economics" and he speaks at several conferences on economic and financial issues.

Dr. Edoh Kossi AMENOUNVE, has received several awards and is considered one of the most influential finance specialists in Africa.

Thierry Bedoin is the Chief Digital Officer of Banque de France since 2016, in charge of leading the central bank's Digital Transformation.

He supervizes the digitalization of business processes, data management and the development of new digital usages and a digital culture at Banque de France. He also manages the development of an Innovation Center for digital experimentation known as "Le LAB" Banque de France. Prior to this, Thierry was the Head of Information System Transformation Directorate (Banque de France 2012-2016).

He is also the former French representative at the Eurosystem IT Committee and chairman of the Eurosystem Architecture Task-Force.

Mr. Abderrahim Bouazza joined Bank Al-Maghrib in 1980 at the Banking Supervision Department and became its Director from 2001 to 2013.

In 2014, he served as a Special Advisor to the Governor of Bank Al-Maghrib in charge of the Casablanca Finance City (CFC) project.

In 2015, he assumed the function of Director General of "Moroccan Firm for Managing the Banking Deposits Guarantees Fund" before being appointed in July of the same year as the Director General of the Central Bank.

Mr. Abderrahim Bouazza was born in 1955. He is a father of three children.

As an Innovation Catalyst, Kamran advises various governments on the needed transition from fossil based economies to sustainable innovation economies. In the past, as a global high-tech entrepreneur, he cofounded ten companies, produced 6 exits, 3 of them Unicorn IPOs with a total market cap of over $8B. For 15 yrs., he was Chairman of Global Catalyst Partners, a global VC firm ($350M under management) with investments in the U.S., Japan, China, India, Israel and Singapore. Underlying his vision for global philanthropy is the conviction that modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can be instrumental in dissolving barriers between nations and bridging the social and political differences among people. This vision was reflected in Schools-Online, a nonprofit he co-founded in 1996 to connect the world, one school at a time (6400 schools in 36 countries were provided with computers and access to the Internet) and merged with Relief International in 2003; Global Catalyst Foundation, co-founded in 2000 to improve lives through effective education and empowerment of the youth (with special emphasis on young women) using the leverage of ICT, and UN-GAID, a United Nations global forum that promotes ICT in developing countries where he served as Co-Chairman (2009-2011).

Mr. Antoine Hobeiche is the Special Advisor of the Union of Arab Banks. He is also the Managing Partner of React-Adapt-Lead Consulting, a Canadian-MENA consulting firm that has proven expertise in enhancing some of the biggest private &public sector organizations. He has more than 20 years' experience in advising government agencies, central banks, banks and other non-financial service providers. Antoine won in 2007 the World Quality Award in Paris- France, in 2008, the Global Crown Award in London- United Kingdom and in 2011, was nominated for the Diamond Award New York-USA. He holds a dual degree in business administration and human resources from Molson Business School, Canada and his specialization is in strategy from Harvard Business School, USA. Antoine is very active in the international community being a prominent speaker for many organizations such as the United Nations and the OECD. Antoine also serves as the advisor of The MEAN Financial Crime Compliance Group and the World Union of Arab Bankers.

Jérôme Bernard has nearly 20 years working in IT in various industries, initially as a technical architect. He has been working more recently on intrapreneurial projects, like TalanCoin (a blockchain token for HR and Reputation) and leading blockchain & DLT solutions at TalanLabs.

He is also a speaker in many blockchain conferences and meetups and is currently involved in Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking in Paris on multiple blockchain projects.

Takeshi has been Deputy Head of the Secretariat since June 2016. Before joining the BIS, he served as chief representative in Frankfurt of the Bank of Japan (BOJ) from 2014 until 2016.

He joined the BOJ in 1993. At the BOJ he spent many years with FMI policy and oversight of domestic and international FMIs and represented the BOJ at international committees, working groups and cross-border oversight arrangements. He also led a supervisory team for Japanese major banks and broker dealers and represented the BOJ at colleges/CMGs and FSB working groups.

Earlier in his career he was a junior representative at the BOJ Frankfurt office (2000-2003) as well as a member of the CPSS Secretariat at the BIS (2008-2010). He studied law at Kyoto University and economics at the University of Göttingen.

Jesmond Gatt joined the Central Bank of Malta in 1984, graduating in Mathematics and Computing at the University of Malta in 1995. During a 35 year career at the Bank he has worked on all major IT projects, and is today Chief Officer responsible for retail banking services, management of currency and the regulation of payment systems and infrastructures. Formed part of core financial sector team which oversaw the changeover to the Euro in Malta in 2008. Since Malta became part of the European Union he has been a member of a number of Eurosystem committees working on payments systems and the management of euro notes and coins. He has also participated in a number of European Commission initiatives drawing up payment systems regulations. For the last two years been sitting on the Board of the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit in Malta.

Mohamed Horani is Founder, Chairman and CEO of HPS (Hightech Payment Systems). He is the architect of PowerCARD, a multi-channel payment software developed by HPS, and a pioneer in the global payment industry, leading HPS to become one of the top payment solution vendors within ten years of its inception in 1995. He holds a degree in engineeringfrom the National Institute of Statistics and Applied Economy, Rabat -Morocco (1974).

HPS is a leading payment software company providing electronic payment solutions for financial institutions, processors and national switches all around the world. Through its all-in-one platform used by more than 350 issuers, acquirers and national switches, HPS solutions process any card type (credit, debit, prepaid, loyalty, corporate and fuel) via any channel (ATM, POS, internet and mobile) for any kind of merchant. HPS operates in over 85 countries in the 5 continents and counts among its clients several top 100 financial institutions worldwide.

Mr HORO holds a Computer Science and Software Engineering degree from "Ecole Polytechnique of Yamoussokro" (Ivory Coast), a Masters degree in Finance from "Ecole superieure de Commerce of Dakar" (Senegal) and a Masters degree in Development Economics from "Université Grenoble-Alpes (France)".

He joined the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) in 1993 and serves as Advisor to the General Director of Organisation and Information Systems since 2015.

The General Directorate of Organisation and Information Systems is responsible for overseeing the following Departments : Accounting, Management Control, Organisation and Methods and Information Systems.

Before accessing to this function, Mr HORO has served successively, in the same institution, as Senior Executive (1993-1997), Head of IT Development Service, Deputy Director of IT Department (2007-2008), Director of Information System Department (2009-2010), Head of Inspection Mission at the Inspection and Audits Department (2011-2015).

Francisco Rivadeneyra is a Research Advisor in the Funds Management and Banking Department at the Bank of Canada.

His recent academic research focuses on the implications of technological innovations, for example electronic money and distributed ledger technologies, for the mandates of central banks.

His recent policy work has been to develop computational tools to measure the risk and efficiency of payments systems. Earlier work focused on the management of domestic debt and foreign reserves portfolios.

Mr. Rivadeneyra holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago.

Hubert is in charge of Alternative Finance team at Kramer Levin Paris. He has a long experience as a banker to various international banks such as BNP Paribas, Oddo & Cie or Credit Agricole where he headed different activities, from fixed income Derivatives to General Counsel.

He used to be an expert at the French Financial Market Supervisory Authority (AMF), as well as European Commission and European Central Bank. He is also a member of various market place organizations, including the Financial Market Law Committee, Paris Europlace, P.R.I.M.E. (Panel of Recognized International Market Experts in Finance) and the French High Legal Committee for the Paris Finance Marketplace (Haut Comité Juridique de la Place Financière de Paris).

He is a professor of international banking and financial law at the Paris Institute for Political Sciences (Sciences Po - IEP Paris).

Phillipe Lerique, graduated with an MBA from the Haute Ecole de Commerce (HEC), spending a year at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) where he specialized in Intelligent & Expert Systems. Philippe has worked across the globe in Europe, Asia and the United States.

He acquired excellent consulting expertise when working with Gemini Consulting and Oliver Wyman. For the past few years, Philippe has been focused on AI Strategy and associated technologies (IOT, Blockchain, Data Science & Machine Learning)

He has recently joined the Talan group as partner in the fast-growing consultancy division.

Over the years, Talan's teams have developed a first-class knowledge of Expert Systems Engineering and, more recently, in Artificial Intelligence and blockchain. As such, Talan intervenes across a broad range of sectors, including Banking & Insurance, Transport & Logistics, Telecoms & Media, Industry, Supply Chain & Retail.

Imen Ayari, mechanichal engineer, Executive MBA graduate from Mediterranean School of Business with more than 17 years working in Finance and techchnology for multinational firms such as Ubitrade, Gltrade, Fis and Sunagrd where she founded Sungard Byrsa Lab.

She is Chief Blockchain officer and head of innovation factory @ Talan since 2 years.

The main mission of the innovation factory is to walk the walk of disruptive technologies to build strong capabilites for more reliable minds and hands to think, learn, implement and test, with a guarantee of quality.

As a strong believer in the synergy and the open collaboration between professionals, academicians and students, she's active in challenging frontiers inside the local and global blockchain community by catalysing knowledge sharing and mentoring, and by identifying and evaluating business opportunities.

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Upon graduating from Babson College with a B.Sc., Bashar has focused his early career in structuring energy projects across the Middle East and North Africa combining knowledge in finance and renewable energies to deliver financial engineering for utility scale PV & Wind power plant development in the MENA region.

While employed at SunEdison, Bashar took a keen interest in Ethereum Blockchain's potential implementation within the energy sector, and made a shift to ConsenSys, where he contributed to launching its MENA operation and establishing the Dubai office. As part of his day to day responsibilities, Bashar has been actively overseeing ConsenSys' strategic advisory role for the City of Dubai. Bashar currently serves as Director of Operations for the MENA region.

Thierry ROEHM is Head of Trade Services within Societe Generale's Global Transaction Banking division. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Global Transaction & Payment Services.

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Hichem BEN FADHL est Expert en FinTech, il est actuellement Président de Ajyal Capital, Gestionnaire de fonds spécialisé dans les technologies Distributed Ledgers (Blockchain) et Enseignant en économie des Réseaux à l'Ecole Polytechnique de Tunisie.

Précédemment, il a occupé plusieurs fonctions : Conseiller du Ministre du Développement, de l'Investissement et de la Coopération Internationale, Membre du Conseil d'Administration de la Banque Nationale Agricole, Directeur Général, International Maghreb Merchant Bank, Co-fondateur et Directeur Général de CDC Gestion, Directeur Général de Tunisia Information TechnologyFund, Co-fondateur et Secrétaire Général de Banque Zitouna, Directeur au sein du département Services Financiers chez Bain &Company, Directeur au sein du département Marchés de Capitaux chez Accenture.

Hichem est par ailleurs actif au sein de la société civile, membre des conseils d'administration de la Chambre Tuniso-Française de Commerce et d'Industrie, de l'Association Tunisienne des Investisseurs en Capital, de l'Association des Tunisiens des Grandes écoles et de Carthage Business Angels et également Membre de la Commission de Réflexion sur les Cryptocurrency à la Banque Centrale de Tunisie.

Christophe Bisière is a Professor of Finance at Toulouse Capitole University, and researcher at Toulouse School of Economics (TSE). He received his doctorate in Economics from Aix-Marseille University in 1994. He spent a year as Economic Fellow at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in Washington D.C., working on U.S. financial markets regulation issues.

His work focuses on fragmentation and imperfect competition in financial markets, preopening mechanisms, the information content of trades, and cryptocurrencies. In a recent paper entitled 'The Blockchain Folk Theorem', he and his coauthors model the proof-of-work blockchain protocol as a coordination game between miners, and show that forks, temporary or persistent, can occur in equilibrium.

Nathalie de Gaulle began her career at Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking in London, working on the trading floor. In 2009, she joined ENGIE group as part of its high-potential young executive program, working for the group's finance direction in Paris, and in Dubai. In 2012, she co- founded and was appointed CEO of Baynuna Economic Consulting, an economic & strategic intelligence firm in the UAE in joint venture with UAE's BAYNUNA Group, a technology and defense group. In this capacity, she was a speaker at various international conferences (Arabian Business Women Forum, Doha Forum). In addition to her professional life, Nathalie de Gaulle has been elected in 2014 as representative of French citizens living abroad, in charge of the UAE and the Sultanate of Oman, and Vice-President of the Consular Council of Abu Dhabi and of Muscat. Nathalie de Gaulle is a member of various foundation and association's boards of directors and serves in the French Army Staff Operational Reserve. In March 2018, she joined the IT Security Group LEDGER as Head of Government Affairs & Central Banks.

• 2006 : Msc from Sciences-Po Paris - Macroeconomics & International Affairs
• 2008 : Msc from HEC Paris - Finance & International Risks Management
• 2008-2009 : Department Debt Capital Market - Société Générale CIB
• 2009-2012 : Department Mergers & Acquisitions - ENGIE
• 2012 : Cofounder & CEO - Baynuna Economic Consulting - Business & Strategic Intelligence
• 2018 : Head of Government Affairs & Central Banks - LEDGER

Gilles managed for 7 years the mobile team HPS and created with it half a dozen of innovative projects in the mobile service, meeting the needs of financial solutions, such as mobile banking, mobile payment, money transfer and mobile POS. Particularly interested in issues of user experience and innovation, henceforth he is a senior consultant in research and development. Before joining HPS in 2009, Gilles has co-invented & developed barcode identification solution. He holds an engineering degree from Polytechnic School.

Charles Azanlekor is a Blockchain Expert, he holds a degree in Telecom engineering, which he obtained from a French Engineering School.

He emerged into the Blockchain industry in 2013. Prior to fully indulging in Blockchain technology, he worked in France as a software engineer with Atos Origin and subsequently as an IT Architect for companies like Renault, Carrefour, and French National Railway (SNCF) amongst others.

He relocated to Switzerland as a IT Technical Lead for the State of Geneva and IT Software Manager for Register of Commerce and the Justice Department of the State of Vaud.

He is currently Technical Advisor for HBNB and also involved in some Blockchain projects for Swiss companies as Head of Technology and Blockchain Technical Advisor.

Charles firmly believes that Blockchain technology like mobile and internet can leapfrog some stages of Africa development.

Invested for more than 30 years in the Management of companies and multidisciplinary Business Units (Electronics, IT, SW Development, Security Printing), Coach of Managers in multicultural environments (Europe and MEA) in B2B, Habib BOUCHRARA is the founder of HBNB Services.

After 10 years developing and selling document security solutions to African States, he launched the HBNB Blockchain Solution factory for the development and the deployment of Blockchain technology basedsolutions in order to boost economical exchanges and secure and trace all sort of critical transactions in Africa.Mr Bouchrara is born in 1957 in Tunis and has 3 children.

Gonzague Grandval, professionnel des transactions électronique et entrepreneur, a participé à l'éclosion de l'écosystème Bitcoin depuis 2011 en France, et intervient dans de nombreuses initiatives Blockchain en Europe. Il est associé chez Pikcio AG, solution Blockchain de gestion des données personnelles, et co-fondateur de Woorton et de Paymium.

Vincent Pignon is a doctor in finance.

He is founder and CEO of WeCan.Fund, President of the Swiss Crowdfunding Association and a digital advisor and more specifically Blockchain for the State of Geneva.

Marloes Pomp is the Initiator and Program Officer for the blockchain projects within the Dutch Government and she is responsible for the international strategy of the Dutch Blockchain Coalition.

In order to establish the exact opportunities and threats of blockchain technology, Marloes started 35 pilot projects within the Dutch Government. Some of them are in the prototype phase, others are implemented. She has also build an international network with Governments working together on several topics, sharing prototypes and knowledge. In 2017 Marloes was the Mission leader of the first official blockchain trade mission to Singapore. Now she is working on a three-year collaboration between Singapore and the Netherlands on blockchain projects and research.

Marloes her professional interests focus on tech-innovation within the government. Prior to the blockchain projects, Marloes Pomp worked in several roles like projectleader and researcher at governmental organizations, including Ministry of Internal Affairs, City of Amsterdam, the Dutch Court and the Ministry of Foreign affairs.

In addition, she serves as an advisory member for the SIDN Fund, the Dutch Court and several ICO's.

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