Digital Identity: Unlocking Growth and Innovation

I am a financial services executive with extensive consulting and operational experience in digital consumer authentication, payments fraud and blockchain. I have held key leadership roles in start-ups and fortune 500 companies, hold a patent in ecommerce fraud prevention and have published articles on fraud mitigation.

I have led advisory services globally in digital consumer authentication strategies and fraud prevention; advised banks and non-banks on cyber threats and account takeover scenarios; implemented a framework for password less authentication, and helped deliver enterprise fraud solutions, including organizational design, process improvements, fraud infrastructure, analytics & controls, and implemented vendor solutions.

Danny has worked in the data & technology industry since 2015, having spent the majority of that time working for Experian and TransUnion. Danny has been responsible for managing and growing relationships with major Financial Services, Retail, and Gaming companies, helping clients optimize their customer acquisition and management processes through the use of better data-led decisioning - and has helped shaped product strategies through innovative analytical approaches.

Steve Elliot, Managing Director of LexisNexis Risk Solutions UK & Ireland, is a specialist in financial crime compliance, with a wealth of relevant experience, having had responsibility for Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Financial Crime, Security, Investigations / Litigation, Payments and Controls (1^st line) across a range of roles in consulting, as a practitioner and within international law enforcement.

Steve has considerable experience of operating across a number of different industry sectors, including a strong focus around Financial Services, both in his former role with consultancy firm, Huntswood, and in previous roles with Old Mutual Wealth and Zurich Financial Services.

Steve is passionate about the role of technology and innovation in supporting effective risk management and compliance, and has advised many organisations on the transformation to digital KYC to create a safer customer on-boarding process.

Sam is a Sales Engineer at Telesign, covering EMEA and UK markets. With 20 years in Telecommunications and over 12 years specialising in digital identity, Sam has assisted numerous companies in addressing diverse fraud challenges. His experience spans working with successful businesses both in the UK and globally, helping them protect their customers in an increasingly complex digital landscape. Sam focuses on delivering practical, effective solutions that enable businesses to enhance their security measures while maintaining a smooth customer experience. His insights at this conference will explore current trends and innovations in digital identity verification.

Surash leads the EMEA region for Telesign, helping brands manage their digital identity and global communications needs. 

Previously he managed the RealNetworks  (RNWK -NASDAQ) Messaging business globally. Prior to RealNetworks, Surash  co-founded mGage (now part of Kaleyra  KLR -NYSE), holding roles of Chief Strategy Officer & COO for Europe. Surash is also Chair of the charity; Binti International, which promotes Menstrual Dignity for Women worldwide and has an MBA from London Business School.

Michael Busk-Jepsen is the Digitalization Director at Finance Danmark, a position he has held since 2013. He has an academical background in Philosophy and Biology, and at an earlier stage in his career has held a key role at the Danish Agency for Digitisation building national digital infrastructure. Today, his main area of responsibility lies within payments, digital identities, financial infrastructure, and combating digital fraud. 

Phillip is Director for Digital Technology and Innovation at UK Finance.  

He has a particular focus on how legislative and regulatory policy impacts digital transformation in finance and banking. He works across the digital transformation landscape on digital identity, AI, new digital money, tokenisation, open banking and data protection.  

His previous role focussed on influencing payments strategy and regulation in the UK. Phillip has a public policy background with previous roles at HM Treasury and in local government.

He currently sits on the FCA Innovation Advisory Group and Smart Data Council.

As Head of Identity Strategy for the UK&I, I am focused on driving the business strategy for identity verification and authentication, as part of our aim to make it easier for society to interact safely, inclusively and transparently.

As part of the Market Planning Team, I am responsible for gathering insights, setting market priorities, and forming deliverable market plans to enable commercial success.

I am a market strategy expert holding experience across industries, including fintech, travel and consumer engagement solutions for financial services, telcos and insurers. In previous roles, I have gained experience across a variety of go-to-market disciplines including proposition development, product management, product marketing, sales and distribution. I have also studied with the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

In my own time I love to play tennis and am an avid reader of both fiction and non-fiction. I live in the south with my family along with too many cars, motorbikes, scooters and bicycles.

John-Michael is a seasoned sales professional with over a decade of experience driving growth in diverse industries. Currently focused on OneID, John-Michael has a proven track record of successfully engaging with SMEs to promote innovative solutions, such as reusable bank-based digital IDs. With a deep understanding of customer needs and a passion for delivering value. 

Adrian has a background in banking (LBG) and payments (Visa), and leads OneID’s market development to scale the UK’s bank-based ID scheme. He works as an advisor with customers, banks, industry groups, government and regulators to enable the UK market for ID services to scale and deliver positive outcomes.

He has worked on developing global open standards for identity, and global projects to connect identity schemes internationally.

Hannah works in the Digital Strategy and Innovation Team at Lloyds Banking Group. Hannah has dedicated the last 3 years of her career to understanding the UK digital identity market and launching LBG’s first digital identity proposition, Lloyds Bank Smart ID.  

Alla is a Partner and UK Payments Consulting Leader at Ernst & Young LLP based in London. With over 25 years of payments and advisory experience across financial services, Alla helps EY clients to navigate the changing payments landscape, protect, grow and modernise their business. Alla advises clients on strategic matters related to payments transformation, tech and ops modernisation, innovation, regulation and risk and compliance. 

She is passionate about driving innovation that makes payments seamless, secure, and accessible for everyone and exploring new possibilities to deliver the next generation of payment experiences. Her advisory work cuts across a broad range of payment flows including real-time payments, cross-border, account to account, cards, digital wallets, embedded payments and digital currencies. 

She was instrumental in supporting RLN, the Future of Payments review in the UK. 

A serial tech entrepreneur Ez’s journey has taken him from Software Developer to Co-Founder and CTO to Venture Capital. He now begins the next stage of his mission as CEO of CFIT the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology. An industry body backed by the UK Treasury and the City of London with a mission to unblock the barriers to growth for financial technology by bringing together the best minds from across the UK to drive better outcomes for consumers and SMEs.

Ez was previously Principal and CTO in Residence at Impact X Capital Partners LLP a venture fund focused on supporting underrepresented entrepreneurs.

He is the Co-Founder of Code Untapped, a digital skills accelerator that helps companies find innovative product solutions by giving them access to diverse and underrepresented technologists through their innovation labs events.

Ez is also a former Co-Founder  & founding CTO of Neyber a multi-award-winning Fintech firm focused on financial well-being.

Madeleine Boys is the Director of Programmes and Innovation at Global Digital Finance. In her role, she leads initiatives to support GDF membership and actively engages the broader community to drive the implementation of strategies and innovative programmes aligned with GDF’s mission of thought leadership and best practices, as well as the priorities of its members. Madeleine oversees and curates the programme of GDF working groups, playing a pivotal role in the development and delivery of their reports and standard-setting pieces.

Her primary areas of focus include the institutional adoption of digital assets, digital asset custody, and the growth of digital financial market infrastructure. In this capacity, Madeleine is instrumental in shaping GDF’s vision for the future, driving innovation, and ensuring the organization remains at the forefront of industry advancements. 

Alison McDowell is a Co-Founder and Director at Beruku Advisory, providing end-to-end strategic advice on digital trust, identity and personal data. She focuses on financial services, including money laundering regulations and CBDC, as well as employment. Most recently, Alison has been advising the U.K. government on the development of a digital identity ecosystem, including market development, regulation, policy and attribute sharing. She also works with investors and commercial providers, helping them to understand the legal, regulatory and commercial landscape for identity solutions in the UK and internationally. 

Before working with Beruku, Alison spent over 20 years in financial services, as a management consultant and in senior commercial leadership roles in both banking and insurance. She has worked with firms around the globe, from impact investors and FinTechs in Southeast Asia and Africa to some of the largest global banks and pharmaceuticals in the US and Europe. 

Global Head of Access Management for Barclays leading Digital Identity and the Access Management function for the group for both customer and colleague-based solutions. As the Digital ID lead, this builds on the foundations created after being a founder member of Open Banking UK Specifications working closely with the OBL and a member of the Open Banking Technical Design Authority over the past 8 years.

Hannah is an experienced civil servant with a track-record of using innovative approaches and new technology to improve public services. Her time in the Cabinet Office’s Government Innovation Group saw her driving new policy-making tools across Whitehall and establishing the world-leading UK Policy Lab. In DSIT she has led on various digital and data projects, bringing together citizen, economic and government needs. Since joining the Digital Identity Team in 2019, Hannah has become obsessed with the possibilities for digital identity for the whole UK economy and is excited to be part of driving it forward. 

Nick is Chief Executive Officer of Select ID, a new inclusive Reusable ID acceptance network. Select ID allows consumers to choose their preferred Reusable ID provider while making it easy for companies to benefit from digital identity services that meet relevant regulatory requirements such as KYC and AML.

Nick has expert knowledge of Identity and Fraud techniques, solutions, and standards across a wide variety of sectors and jurisdictions. Previously, Nick was Chief Identity Strategist at the Open Identity Exchange, providing thought leadership, guides, presentations and stakeholder influencing to drive forward the definition and adoption of Digital ID and Digital Wallets around the globe. Prior to that, Nick was Director of ID and Fraud at Experian, where led Experian’s development, launch and operation of a full “Identity as a Service” solution which was the first live example of a Digital ID being seamlessly interoperable across public and private sector. 

Jana is the Managing Director for Payments, Innovation and Resilience at UK Finance where she leads discussions on payments, fintech and digital agendas.

Before joining UK Finance, she was head of the Worldpay (then FIS) Global Government Affairs team, shaped competition and regulatory policies at the Financial Conduct Authority and Payments Systems Regulator and prior to that supported companies across public and private sectors globally through her various roles.

She has added commercial credentials delivering and implementing policies in practice, holds several board positions and works with a number of charities.

Steve, the Managing Director at Consult Hyperion, is a digital identity and information security expert. He has led Consult Hyperion teams delivering projects in these areas for both banks, telcos and payment schemes. 

Steve has a detailed understanding of the global digital identity market, the operational and information security aspects of digital identity, in the context of government and financial services. He has advised clients in Australia, Europe, North America and the UK, successfully transferring the learnings and best practice from one market to another.

Steve has established and built up Consult Hyperion’s information security and penetration testing capabilities. Building upon Consult Hyperion’s proven Security Risk Analysis methodology, Steve’s team now includes individuals with experience in mobile penetration testing, secure code reviews and the technology available in a mobile device to secure personal and financial information. The aim is always to understand the business impact of security issues and to be able to present those in business terms in order that resources can be targeted where they are most needed.

Prior to joining Consult Hyperion, Steve gained 7 years IT experience at Logica, in the areas of IT security, systems integration and database design.

Matt is a Senior Vice President within the Fund Services Product Management group at Northern Trust. Matt specialises in digital initiatives within the financial services world. I have worked on a series of digitisation and STP programs that deliver benefits for our asset management clients, their investors and internal stakeholders. Northern Trust Fund Services blend innovative technology, deep expertise and personalised service to help their clients keep pace with a complex and shifting market landscape.

Marius Bischoff is a Manager in the Payments and Innovation team at UK Finance, covering digital identity, supporting the UK Finance Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) working group, the Regulated Liabilities Network (RLN) project, and UK Finance’s work on industry standards. His role involves close collaboration with senior stakeholders across the banking sector to enhance customer outcomes.

With a background in stakeholder engagement, policy formulation, and external relations, Marius has previously worked in consulting, where he advised on strategic engagements and business transformation within the financial and public sectors. He also has significant experience working for NGOs in both Brussels and London, helping to shape regulatory strategies and stakeholder engagement efforts.

Marion was appointed Chair and Trustee of OBL in February 2023. Her priorities are to maintain and protect the CMA Order, and work with key stakeholders and the JROC, to promote the adoption and growth of open banking.

She will oversee the transition to a Future Entity that will be at the heart of the transformation to an economically sustainable and scalable open banking ecosystem.

She has a portfolio of non-executive positions including Non-Executive Director at Bibby Financial Services and Chair of the Payments Association Advisory Board. She is also a member of Pennies Payments Advisory Board  and a trustee of the MS Society.

Marion was previously Director of Payments at NatWest Group and President of MasterCard UK & Ireland. Prior to that she was the Chief Executive Officer of Vocalink – a specialist payments partner to banks, corporate partners and government departments

Sarah Munro is a product leader who has worked some of the UK’s leading brands including Barclays, Mastercard and Royal Mail and most recently the tech scale-up Onfido. In her time in those organisations she has delivered transformational strategies, building product to enter new markets or re-position portfolios to better meet customer needs. For the last 10 years, Sarah has been involved in digital identity, both on the business and supplier side

Susannah is a Legal and Policy Officer at Big Brother Watch, specialising in data protection, equality, and privacy in data, tech and AI-related policies. Her work focuses on defending and extending existing standards in these areas, with particular attention to digital identity and the protection of non-digital alternatives amidst the evolving landscape of digital finance and ID systems

Glyn leads the central Engagement and Partnerships team at NatWest, helping different business areas to identify and act on innovation opportunities for growth and impactful change.

Glyn has over 30 years' experience of business and venture development working for blue chip companies including Visa, T-Mobile AOL and IBM.   He has both led strategic venture investment and setup impactful Joint Ventures in multiple markets and industries.