Priya Rajan, Director of Early Stage Practice at Silicon Valley Bank

Priya's Bio:

Priya Rajan is currently the Director of Early Stage Practice at Silicon Valley Bank, exclusively focused on the innovation sector, and engages with founders as they start their journey to build a company. Silicon Valley Bank works with more than 50 percent of the venture capital-backed companies in the US and increasingly has a global focus (with offices in the UK, China, Israel, and Ireland; as well as partnerships in Australia, Turkey, Latin America and Western Europe).

As a part of Early Stage team, Priya leads community engagement initiatives including D&I entrepreneurship groups and Universities across the globe and mentors entrepreneurs as they dream, build, and inspire to disrupt the status quo. Prior to this, she also played lead operational roles for 8+ years in establishing a global footprint for SVB (China, Israel, India, UK, Hong Kong, etc.). Prior to joining SVB, she held financial management roles for 10+ years at various institutions including Charles Schwab.

She is also a Venture Partner at XFund, an early-stage venture capital firm built to back entrepreneurs who think laterally and experiment across disciplines. She has an MBA from Cornell University and a California CPA. She also serves on the boards of Big Brothers Big Sisters and Women Who Code.

 

Adam Ludwin – Co-Founder & CEO, Chain

Adam's Bio:

Adam Ludwin is the Co-founder and CEO of Chain, a leading technology company that partners with financial firms to build blockchain networks. Prior to Chain, Adam was an investor at RRE Ventures in New York. He began his career as a consultant with The Boston Consulting Group and IDEO. Adam holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.S. from UC Berkeley.

 

Kevin Plumberg - Managing Editor & Global Head of Tech, The Economist Intelligence

Kevin's Bio:

Kevin is a member of The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Thought Leadership team in North America and is based in San Francisco. From 2014-2017, he was based in The Economist’s Singapore office and led multi-year integrated content programmes such as Growth Crossings, a series about the new rules of global trade, and the Producers of Tomorrow, an initiative about the future of manufacturing.

Prior to joining the EIU, he spent two years as Vice President, Institutional Marketing at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management company. In that role, he produced and edited white papers, website articles and newsletters aimed at some of Asia’s biggest institutional investors.

Kevin also spent 10 years as a journalist covering financial markets, economics and policy for Reuters in Singapore, Hong Kong and New York. As a correspondent and editor, he covered the global financial crisis from Wall Street and its aftermath in Asia, where he led market-moving coverage of the region’s economic policymakers.

 

 

 

 

Ken Rees – CEO, Elevate

Ken's Bio:

A fin-tech industry veteran, Ken Rees is passionate about serving the underserved. Prior to Elevate, Ken was the founder and CEO of CashWorks, a financial technology company acquired by GE. Earlier in his career, he ran CSC Index’s West Coast financial services consulting practice.

Ken graduated from Reed College with a degree in Mathematics and earned his MBA in Finance and Statistics from the University of Chicago. In 2012, Ken was selected by Ernst & Young as an Entrepreneur of the Year and was named a 2017 Innovator to Watch by Bank Innovation. A committed cyclist (and member of the company’s cycling team), his hobbies also include voracious reading and listening to obscure music.

Andrew B. Morris – Chief Content Officer, Money20/20 USA

Andrew's Bio:

Andrew leads content development, including speaker selection/recruitment and all agenda planning, for Money20/20 USA, the leading global event covering innovation in payments, commerce and financial technology. Andrew is also a member of the FinTech Steering Committee for the Technology Association of Georgia and is Content Chair for the inaugural TAG FinTech South conference, scheduled for May 7- 8, 2018 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Although not currently practicing, Andrew is also CEO & Founder of Morris Advisors Inc., an independent consultancy that advises retailers and other industry stakeholders on payments and commerce strategy. He was formerly head of the mobile commerce consulting practice at inCode, a division of Ericsson Inc. Prior to his consulting career, as VP of Internet Program Development for Prudential Bank and Trust, Andrew spearheaded the development of Prudential Financial’s first online banking platform and led several strategic initiatives to open new channels for the bank’s products. Andrew holds a Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, from Transylvania University and a Master of Business Administration, cum laude, from the University of Kentucky. He is currently based in Johns Creek, Georgia.