Deola (Dee) Habeeb is a technology leader with over two decades of experience running multi million dollar business transformational programs for large enterprises. She currently serves as Head of Global Tech Operations for Vanguard in Europe.

Through her career, she has held various leadership positions in American companies including Verizon, Lumen and Sun Microsystems where she was responsible for the delivery and support of technology to financial services clients.

With a passion for empowering women in technology leadership roles, Dee actively advocates for gender diversity and inclusion in the financial services sector. Her commitment to fostering equitable opportunities extends to her role as a trusted advisor and mentor, where she provides invaluable guidance on navigating and excelling in career paths within the industry.

In addition to her corporate experience, Dee is deeply committed to supporting the growth of startups and emerging businesses. As a mentor and advisor, she provides guidance and mentorship to entrepreneurs, helping them navigate the challenges of scaling their ventures and achieving their full potential.

Multi-dimensional, highly dynamic Senior Executive, Board Director, and thought leader, with extensive experience managing diverse global teams and complex functions in large multi-national organisations. Experienced, dual-qualified corporate lawyer, with a deep passion for the African continent, having built a career working on the continent and advising many of the largest African organisations. Qualified GRC professional and a staunch advocate for strong corporate governance practices, and a champion of corporate cultures which promote strong governance with an emphasis on robust risk management and compliance.

Currently, the General Counsel & Head, GRC for MFS Africa – a large, innovative, pan-African fintech payments company – with responsibility for the Group’s legal and regulatory affairs function, its governance, risk and compliance functions, its data privacy & protection approach, and the Group’s engagement with all governmental and development organisations. In addition, serving as the Group Company Secretary and as a Board Director on a number of related entities. Prior positions include Head of Legal & Company Secretary for a UK-based Africa-focused bank, and several positions with different law firms focused on supporting organisations doing business across the African continent.

Passionate about the African continent; the role fintechs can play in advancing and shaping the African economies; and about supporting, mentoring, and guiding African women as they look to build careers in law, GRC, or financial services.

Nilixa Devlukia is an experienced policy maker and regulatory expert and founder and CEO of Payments Solved a consultancy advising on the regulatory frameworks for digital assets, payment services, and smart data both in the UK and globally. Nilixa is a qualified lawyer holding a Masters in European Competition Law and has extensive knowledge of banking, payments and payment systems gained from her time in industry and with the UK and EU regulators. Nilixa has worked extensively with UK Government, the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB), and EU regulators. Nilixa has been appointed to various strategic European level committees including the ECB SecurePay Forum, ECB Digital Euro Market Advisory Group, the EU API Evaluation Group, the UK Payment Strategy Forum, the EU Payments Systems Market Expert Group and the EU Data Expert Group. Nilixa started her financial services career as an in-house lawyer with Barclays before moving to lead payment policy at the Financial Conduct Authority. Nilixa has also held roles with the European Banking Authority, the Open Banking Implementation Entity and Mastercard.

Nilixa is a 2020 Rise Up alumni and Amplify mentor and a well well-known public speaker working with industry, regulators, and legislators to influence and drive changes in the digital assets, banking and payments ecosystem for a financial services landscape that is inclusive and transparent.

Kris Foster, co-founder of Openbook, amplifies voices of individuals with disabilities through impactful interviews, pioneering inclusivity in media. As the first person with Down syndrome in fintech, Kris breaks barriers and advocates for representation, speaking at prestigious events like Money 2020 and EWPN. Committed to diversity, Kris collaborates with brands like Footpatrol and Nike. With a mission for change, Kris embodies resilience and inclusion in his community.

Joanne has spent a decade at the coalface of the fintech revolution, leading the payments processor Global Processing Services as CEO to a $400m exit in early 2022.
Joanne now focuses on supporting and profiling other underrepresented fintech founders and CEOs as they navigate the high growth rollercoaster through a combination of NED, advisory, mentoring, speaking and judging. She enjoys helping leaders thrive with empathy.
Along the way, through her experience leaning in to special needs employment, Joanne has become a particularly strong advocate for improving disability inclusion across the industry, both as employees and customers.

Esther has over 20 years of experience in sales, consultancy and strategy execution. She lives in the Netherlands with her two sons and has an extensive background in strategy (execution), sales & business development, digital transformation and building high performing teams in the Banking and Fintech industry. She is also currently the Country Ambassador for EWPN in the Netherlands.

She currently advises the Board of Holland Fintech, the Dutch community for Digital Finance. She was a partner at Innopay – a Dutch strategy consultancy firm in digital transactions – where she led the Banking, Payments & Fintech practice for 4 years and represented the company on topics like payment innovation, open banking, digital identity and smart home commerce. Prior to joining Innopay, she worked for over 10 years in global transaction services at ABN Amro and the Royal Bank of Scotland in multiple management roles.

Esther is a strong advocate for a diverse and inclusive financial industry with inspiring male and female role models. She actively promotes the positive impact of diversity on the performance of businesses and wants to break down silos and take away bias to improve inclusive working environments. As such, she is proud to represent EWPN, first joining as the Country Ambassador in the Netherlands, and now as a member of the Executive Board.

Nadja is a payments lawyer with almost 10 years of in-house experience in the international Payments industry and a legal expert in rules and regulations involving Financial Services (such as PSD, AML and CDD),having acquired experience both as a Deputy General Counsel for a global Payment Service Provider and as a VP Legal & Regulatory for a European Acquirer. This has give her a broad perspective on all legal and business aspects of (Card and Alternative) Payment processing in the global e-Commerce industry.Nadja consults Merchant Acquirers, Payment Services Providers (PSPs/MSPs) and other FinTech companies in their start-up phases that want to expand their business internationally, while mitigating risk.

Her contribution to the industry and especially paving the way for fellow women within the industry, doesn’t go unnoticed.Her passion to share her expertise and knowledge is a quality that makes her stand out.

”During her professional career I came to acknowledge my position within the organization as a female professional after reading the book from Sandberg (Lean In). After that moment, I have carefully reviewed (and adapter) my own behaviours, have learned to recognize the contribution to my career by the behaviour of others within the organization, have received guidance and coaching from many different people and through training and embraced the advantages give to me as a woman, while utilizing these even more.I am a strong supporter of any women initiatives to offer support as I recognize that this is much needed and hope to provide other women in the industry the same opportunities as was given to me.” says Nadja.

Nadja is a highly recognised and well known expert within the Payments Industry. She is recognized for her professionalism, her quality of work and her attitude by many former colleagues and clients.In 2015, Nadja was the runner-up in the Legal Women Talent of the Year in 2015.

Stanley is an acknowledged leader in the global payments industry with over 25 years’ experience, and has held executive and board roles in several European and US financial services companies. Prior to establishing the Minerva Partnership Consultancy in the UK, a boutique service offering in payments; strategy and leadership development, Stanley held various leadership positions at Visa in different geographies, the last one serving as Visa Europe’s Senior Vice President of Payment System & Enterprise Risk. In this role Stanley oversaw Visa Europe’s overall risk and compliance strategy and policies in its markets and gained significant insight into the commercial; regulatory and technological dynamics that inform the payments and risk agendas in Europe and beyond.

Since leaving Visa in 2013, Stanley has worked as a consultant in payments; strategy and business development and organisational development. In 2015 Stanley co-founded the Minerva Partnership with Michael Burtscher. Minerva provides bespoke consultancy in payments; strategy development; business modelling; executive coaching; leadership development; organisational design and training. Minerva’s mission is to help companies design their strategies build capabilities that they need to succeed.

Stanley consults with start-ups and blue chip companies in Europe and the USA. Stanley’s work focuses on payments and corporate strategy, as well as organisational development; leadership capability building and executive coaching.

Stanley holds a post-graduate research degree in organisational sociology from the University of Oslo (UiO) and an MSc in Organisational Change & Consulting from Ashridge Executive Education Business School. Stanley’s undergraduate degree from UiO included gender studies in anthropology and the history of ideas. Stanley is also a qualified executive leadership coach from the University of West England (Bristol)