Agnes Szogi brings almost two decades of experience in digital banking, adept in agile transformation and building agile-driven operation models. With a proven track record in both managerial and expert roles, she has spent over a decade designing critical banking customer journeys and customer-facing applications.
Having worked extensively on both the vendor and banking sides, Agnes has cultivated a nuanced understanding of the industry landscape. She was leading the digital department at two major Hungarian retail banks, covering the entire retail digital landscape from payments solutions to digital sales processes.
Currently serving as a Managing Partner at Intuitech, Agnes plays a pivotal role in driving innovation and growth for banks across the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region.
Recognizing the importance of diversity and women’s leadership in the sector, Agnes has actively supported initiatives aimed at fostering inclusivity and empowering underrepresented groups. She firmly believes that diverse perspectives enhance decision-making processes and contribute to the overall success of organizations within the industry.

Barbara Sessa is the Senior Vice President – Head of Consumer Products Europe at Mastercard.
With extensive international experience in business development and ecosystem transformation within the payments sector, she currently oversees the development of innovative products that cater to the evolving consumer payment landscape in Europe.
She manages a team of product managers at the regional level and is responsible for the strategy and go to market of several products such as Debit/Credit, Digital First, Wallet and Wearables.
In her current role a key focus of Barbara’s work is to promote the digitization of the payment experience, collaborating with her teams to develop secure, convenient, and digitally adapted payment methods for consumers. She ensures that these solutions incorporate cutting-edge technologies to deliver optimal user experiences.
Barbara is also in charge of the ESG Products strategy and go to market for Europe.
Beyond her professional responsibilities, Barbara is deeply committed to advocating for gender equality. She leads the Women Leadership Network at Mastercard France and collaborates closely with several organizations to promote female representation in the tech sector and female entrepreneurship. Recently, Barbara was honored with the European Women Payments – Positive Troublemaker Award at the annual EWPN conference for her pioneering efforts in promoting diversity and inclusion within the payments industry, especially where women and minority groups have been underrepresented.
Additionally, Barbara serves as a mentor to several female employees in France and Italy, as well as female entrepreneurs, providing guidance in areas such as digital business transformation and marketing innovation.
Through these efforts, she aims to foster an inclusive environment where women can thrive professionally and contribute to the success of the ecosystem.

Susan is a Director at EY in Milan, Italy and a strategic leader with a deep understanding of the Italian financial services market. With over 15 years of experience, she works with financial services clients to keep them on the forefront of what is happening in the market.

Susan is passionate about payments and works with banks and payments companies in Italy and across Europe. Susan has worked in a South African instant payment Fintech in 2016. Susan regularly speaks about payments at events and contributes to payments publications. Susan is a mentor and sponsor of RiseUp at Money2020 enhancing leadership skills for women in the industry.

Susan was born in the United States and has lived in Italy since 2003. She holds a Bachelor of Arts as well as a Juris Doctor – and is a licensed American attorney.

Tea earned her Master in Law degree in 2013 and delved into the world of legal practice, specializing in international commercial and finance matters. After honing her skills for several years, she made a pivotal career move in 2021 by joining Aircash, an EU EMI (Electronic Money Institution) operating across all EU Member States, Switzerland, and the UK, with plans to expand further into the Southeast European region.
Taking on the role of Compliance Director, Tea is responsible for overseeing the compliance and legal department. Her duties encompass managing regulatory affairs, anti-money laundering (AML) protocols, and legal matters within the organization.

Iulia Unzicker is a Product Manager at Deutsche Bank, based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Iulia has worked as a Scrum Master, Business Analyst and Initiative lead in the Corporate Bank – Payment Technology Domain where she gained significant knowledge and expertise related to SEPA and instant payments as well as large migration projects. Seeking new challenges, Iulia is today a results-oriented product manager with a passion for digital transformation and client experience driving innovation and client-centric digital service solutions. Her beyond payments expertise lies in leading agile teams, redefining user experiences and successfully rolling out products to large global client bases.

Ceren is a seasoned professional with a strong academic background and extensive experience in the fields of finance and entrepreneurship. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Economics with a minor in Law from Utrecht University, followed by a Master’s degree in Finance and Investments from the prestigious Rotterdam School of Management.

Her journey in the financial sector began with a role as a Capital Markets Associate at ABN AMRO, where she honed her skills and expertise in investment banking. Driven by a passion for innovation and a desire to create meaningful impact, she embarked on an entrepreneurial journey, founding her first venture. This experience not only expanded her horizons but also provided her with a unique perspective on the intersection of finance and entrepreneurship.

With over 8 years of dedicated experience in finance & strategy and venture building, she currently serves as the Co-Founder of Unique Payments, a cutting-edge B2B Payments company. In her role as the Chief Product Officer, she spearheads product development and oversees all finance-related activities.

Svenia is an experienced and enthusiastic manager of merchant projects in the payment world. In recent years, she has developed her broad expertise from the point-of-sale payment business into the e-commerce and cloud-based till system sector. Always with the goal of supporting retailers in Germany and Europe, growing together with them and making the best possible use of the opportunities offered by digitalization.

After initial professional experience in global sales and project management, Svenia began her career in the payment world in 2017. She focused three years on the dynamic environment of point-of-sale payment while working at a big fintech company. Afterwards, she joined Unzer, a German payment service provider, as Senior Technical Key Account Manager in 2020. Arising from various individual companies, mergers and acquisitions have shaped Unzer into a German payment service provider, that can offer all payment services from a single source: from PSP, Acquiring and BuyNow-PayLater services in E-Commerce, over cashless payment and cloud-based till systems at the Point-of-Sale up to debt collection management. This allows Svenia to provide comprehensive advice and support to merchants across all channels and facilitate payments.

Despite a fulfilling full-time job, Svenia is quickly inspired by new challenges. She recently completed her part-time Master’s degree in Business Consulting & Digital Management, which she had started during pandemic times. She completed this with intensive research for her master’s thesis in the field of conversational commerce and payment. Whether professionally in customer projects or in her personal life, Svenia’s mission is to connect people to grow, learn, and achieve visions together.

Laura is a finance and payments industry professional/ powerhouse, with
over 14 years of experience spanning the Australian, European, and UK
markets. Her career has had a strong focus on partnerships and account
management, where she has played a pivotal role in driving multiple
strategic growth initiatives. Today, as a Director of Partner Management
at Thunes, her expertise is instrumental in propelling global growth for
payment companies.

Alongside her professional journey, Laura is deeply passionate about
advocating for diversity and inclusion while championing change across
the industry. She invests her time and energy into educating,
celebrating the wins, and embodying the principles of gender equality.
She actively supports various initiatives, both personally and
professionally, to advance these causes, underscoring her commitment to
creating a more equitable world.

On a personal note, Laura embraces an active lifestyle, from marathons
to cycling events, and is also well known for her enthusiastic and
positive zest for life.

Asta comes from a recognized European Fintech hub with more than a decade of experience in the finance industry. She has been working with the payments infrastructure at the Central Bank of Lithuania where her focus was on Fintech and development of SEPA retail payments system CENTROlink. Apart from the institutional experience, she has also seen the market from commercial bank, global information technology infrastructure company as well as a few payment service providers by consulting and assisting them with licensing and business management issues. Hence, her miscellaneous experience in the financial sector working for different sides -Regulator and Fintech – allows her to see the full picture of the European fintech market.

Asta currently is a Chairwoman of the Board at Fintech Hub LT association uniting around 90 FinTech industry participants in Lithuania and helping to create favorable conditions for their activities. The biggest priority of the association is to implement a self-regulation framework and promote the best industry standards among the members. In addition, association represents industry’s interests by participating in regulatory and governmental initiatives of changing regulatory requirements in order to achieve an effective prudential regulation and supervision maintaining healthy and strong financial sector.

By active participation in different groups, networks, and organizations Asta recognizes the importance of creating a platform that would give not only equal and accessible but also continuous opportunities to reach results deleting any predetermined limits or attitude.