Hesham Zreik is a Forbes-ranked top angel investor, serial entrepreneur, technology leader, and former member of the Forbes Technology Council. Ranked #39 among Forbes' Top 50 Business Angels for his investment activity and successful exits, Hesham has made more than 400 personal startup investments, recorded more than 10 exits, and invested alongside FasterCapital across a portfolio spanning more than 1,600 companies worldwide.

As Founder and CEO of FasterCapital, Hesham has built one of the largest borderless startup-support ecosystems, leading investments of more than $1.25 billion across 1,637 companies and helping entrepreneurs raise more than $2.8 billion. He has also overseen the development of a global network comprising more than 1,000 representatives and regional partners, over 1,100 mentors, and an extensive network of investors and strategic partners.

Hesham combines the perspective of an investor, entrepreneur, and technologist. Over more than 25 years in business and more than three decades in software development, he has co-founded more than 100 ventures, advised and mentored numerous founders, and served on the boards of multiple companies. He founded ZGroup Mobile in 2002 with a budget of less than $20 per month and grew it to a multimillion-dollar valuation within three years.

Hesham Zreik is a Forbes-ranked top angel investor, serial entrepreneur, technology leader, and former member of the Forbes Technology Council. Ranked #39 among Forbes' Top 50 Business Angels for his investment activity and successful exits, Hesham h... Show more

Brad is an experienced speaker with a strong track record of presenting to regional and national audiences ranging from 25 to more than 250 attendees. His portfolio includes more than 20 professional presentations at leading industry events, including:

National conferences: Brad has delivered multiple sessions at Kscope, ODTUG’s annual national user conference, Oracle Collaborate, now Blueprint, and Oracle OpenWorld, now Oracle AI World.

User group advocacy: Brad has led dozens of sessions for regional user groups, focusing on technical implementation roadmaps and the evolution of financial systems.

Industry expertise: Brad brings extensive experience and delivers sessions with a professional, engaging, and highly technical perspective that resonates with Oracle NetSuite’s national audience.

Brad can be found on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradkwiatek/

Brad is an experienced speaker with a strong track record of presenting to regional and national audiences ranging from 25 to more than 250 attendees. His portfolio includes more than 20 professional presentations at leading industry events, includin... Show more

Maximillian Naza is an entrepreneur and technology executive who founded PasciVite and Hope Records, where he serves as CEO and CTO, respectively. He is also a General Partner at Bias Capital. With a background in computer science and software engineering, his work spans artificial intelligence, go-to-market strategy, media, and business development.

He mentors startups through Techstars, Alchemist Accelerator, and Plug and Play, with a particular focus on helping international companies enter and grow in the U.S. market. He has also delivered workshops for startup founder delegations from Italy, the Netherlands, and Kazakhstan, covering market research, go-to-market strategy, public relations, and enterprise sales.

As a speaker, Maximillian explores the decisions behind business growth, from how enterprises evaluate risk and unfamiliar vendors to how companies establish credibility, win customers, and expand into new markets. Drawing on his experience as a founder, operator, and investor, he examines how technology, marketing, and organizational reputation influence commercial outcomes, challenging conventional assumptions and sharing lessons grounded in practical experience.

Maximillian Naza is an entrepreneur and technology executive who founded PasciVite and Hope Records, where he serves as CEO and CTO, respectively. He is also a General Partner at Bias Capital. With a background in computer science and software engine... Show more

Ishween Kaur is a Senior Software Engineer in Crypto and AI at SoFi, where she works on bringing AI thinking into the crypto space and building AI-native experiences that make her Ops teams' work easier so they can better serve SoFi members.

She was previously a founding engineer on Salesforce's AgentForce, an agentic platform serving 6,000+ enterprise customers across 17+ languages, where she built the harness, memory, guardrails and evaluation that keep agents reliable under real load and debugged them when they failed in ways a prompt could not explain.

She is Communications Lead, Women in AI California and DEIB Lead for Society of Women Engineering, and served as an AI advisor with Cornell Tech's Break Through Tech program. She speaks and runs workshops regularly, and shows working demos rather than slides.

Ishween Kaur is a Senior Software Engineer in Crypto and AI at SoFi, where she works on bringing AI thinking into the crypto space and building AI-native experiences that make her Ops teams' work easier so they can better serve SoFi members. She ... Show more

I'm a Senior Product & Brand Designer with 7 years across fintech, B2B SaaS and health-tech; I design complex, high-stakes products end to end and then build many of them in code myself.

Most of my recent work lives at the intersection of design and AI-assisted development. I've been building and shipping live products with AI since mid-2025; and I've kept a steady cadence ever since, with new work going out most weeks. Full-stack apps with real users, dashboards, design systems and landing pages. That means what I hand over isn't a mockup waiting on a developer; it's often a finished, deployed product built with the same eye for craft I bring to every design decision.

My design foundation is deep. I've designed treasury and core banking systems for government and financial institutions, a compliance engine unifying multiple third-party APIs, clinical EMR dashboards validated with practising doctors, and a design system spanning an entire product suite. I care most about the hard, invisible parts; dense workflows, expert users, decisions where getting it wrong actually costs someone something.

I also lead design for FlutterBytes, recognised by Google as Africa's largest Flutter developer community; carrying brand, product and event design across every touchpoint.

Portfolio: design.headfavour.com

4 Products I've built with AI:
www.stampdx.com
www.wordmaths.com
www.moniematch.com
www.magznmaker.com

I'm a Senior Product & Brand Designer with 7 years across fintech, B2B SaaS and health-tech; I design complex, high-stakes products end to end and then build many of them in code myself. Most of my recent work lives at the intersection of design ... Show more

Lazetta Rainey Braxton, MBA, CFP® is a high-impact, solution-oriented founder with a proven track record of building successful entrepreneurial ventures, driving innovation, and navigating the complexity of cultural competency in the financial services industry.

As Founder and Principal of The Real Wealth Coterie, a financial planning and wealth management firm, and Lazetta & Associates, a speaking and business consulting firm, Lazetta equips individuals and leaders to align their finances with their vision and values and achieve sustainable wealth. She is passionate about amplifying culture, talent, life, and money, and extends her expertise through public speaking, writing, consulting, and coaching.

Lazetta was named one of Crain's New York Business Notable Black Leaders and Executives and one of the top 10 of Investopedia’s 100 Top Financial Advisors for three consecutive years. Lazetta's national media presence includes TV appearances on NBC, CNBC, and CheddarNews and mentions in the WSJ, NY Times, LA Times, and Black Enterprise.

Lazetta Rainey Braxton, MBA, CFP® is a high-impact, solution-oriented founder with a proven track record of building successful entrepreneurial ventures, driving innovation, and navigating the complexity of cultural competency in the financial servic... Show more

My background combines entrepreneurship, capital markets, research, and working with institutional GPs. In 2020, I founded a company focused on tokenized investment syndication. The experience eventually became a thesis: the development of private markets depends on the quality of the information, governance, and infrastructure supporting them.

I've authored multiple research publications, hold NGO Board positions, and advise companies developing digital infrastructure. In each, my interest is how PropTech, AI, Big Data or Tokenization can improve the management and allocation of capital.

As an international speaker and lecturer, I engage with industry leaders, investors, entrepreneurs, and policymakers on the evolution of real estate and private markets. I also host Code and Concrete, a podcast about real estate, technology, and other exciting innovations.

My background combines entrepreneurship, capital markets, research, and working with institutional GPs. In 2020, I founded a company focused on tokenized investment syndication. The experience eventually became a thesis: the development of private ma... Show more

I’m a Principal Software Engineer at Mastercard with 18 years of experience across software engineering, data analytics, distributed and large-scale systems. I’ve built and optimized software architectures globally in payments, banking, telecom and manufacturing, worked across multiple countries, and mentored engineers and organizations. I explore AI, Payments, HPC, and emerging technologies to create systems that are scalable, high-performance, efficient, reliable and importantly secure systems.

I’m a Principal Software Engineer at Mastercard with 18 years of experience across software engineering, data analytics, distributed and large-scale systems. I’ve built and optimized software architectures globally in payments, banking, telecom and m... Show more

Seasoned backend-focused full-stack developer with over 7 years of experience, specializing in Python and Django. Previously worked as a Senior Developer at Paysika, contributing to the development of financial systems, and currently serve as CTO at QuickerPay, where I lead the design and development of scalable technology solutions.

With a strong background in FinTech, I focus on building reliable, secure, and high-performance systems. I am also a former computer science educator, passionate about sharing knowledge and supporting developers' growth in the Python ecosystem.

Seasoned backend-focused full-stack developer with over 7 years of experience, specializing in Python and Django. Previously worked as a Senior Developer at Paysika, contributing to the development of financial systems, and currently serve as CTO at ... Show more

Sou um profissional com mais de 25 anos de carreira. Atualmente trabalho como Arquiteto de Soluções em Cloud. Tenho experiência em Arquitetura de Sistemas e Infraestrutura. Minha principal área de atuação é Infraestrutura de servidores e Computação na Nuvem. Grande parte da carreira atuando em empresas do setor financeiro. Nas horas livres gosto de desenvolver prótótipos com IoT, Robótica Educacional e Projetos Maker do tipo faça você mesmo.

Sou um profissional com mais de 25 anos de carreira. Atualmente trabalho como Arquiteto de Soluções em Cloud. Tenho experiência em Arquitetura de Sistemas e Infraestrutura. Minha principal área de atuação é Infraestrutura de servidores e Computação n... Show more

Saravanan is an Architect working at Rabobank, Netherlands and one of the leads of the Architecture, SAP and Sustainability communities.

He has more than 25 years of experience in diverse IT and business roles with different banks across the world.

His passion is in Architecture, ERP solutions and Sustainable IT.

Saravanan is an Architect working at Rabobank, Netherlands and one of the leads of the Architecture, SAP and Sustainability communities. He has more than 25 years of experience in diverse IT and business roles with different banks across the world... Show more

Ahmad Alsharif is a Cloud Architect and a Google Cloud Authorized Trainer. He specializes in Application modernization, Kubernetes, and enterprise AI, driving the design and implementation of cloud environments and AI products for complex highly-regulated financial workloads. He also leads the Google Developer Group Amman, actively advocating for Cloud-native technologies.

Ahmad Alsharif is a Cloud Architect and a Google Cloud Authorized Trainer. He specializes in Application modernization, Kubernetes, and enterprise AI, driving the design and implementation of cloud environments and AI products for complex highly-regu... Show more

Artur is the Data & AI Lead at Atlas, where he leads the development of AI-native systems for private markets. His work connects institutional data, financial expertise, persistent agent memory, and evaluation across credit analysis, structuring, investor matching, and monitoring.

His background at Atlas includes structuring credit operations: translating deal economics into financial models and contractual terms designed to hold up through execution and liquidation. Before joining Atlas, he spent ten years in equity research and portfolio management, including model-to-trade decision-making across Latin American equities, and subsequently trained AI models on financial analysis tasks.

He also undertook coursework in the master’s program in Computational Science and Engineering at TU Wien. Today, his focus is turning investment methods and institutional knowledge into scalable products and dependable AI colleagues—systems that retain context, carry work forward, and improve through evaluated feedback.

Artur is the Data & AI Lead at Atlas, where he leads the development of AI-native systems for private markets. His work connects institutional data, financial expertise, persistent agent memory, and evaluation across credit analysis, structuring, inv... Show more

I’m a technology leader passionate about building solutions that are not only scalable and efficient but also secure and aligned with business growth. Over the years, I’ve helped organizations transform complex requirements into future-ready systems that deliver measurable results.

Currently serving as CTO in fintech, I focus on shaping technology strategy, leading cross-functional teams, and ensuring that every solution we deliver is resilient, compliant, and aligned with business objectives. My work spans across solution architecture, governance, compliance, and security with a constant drive to balance innovation with stability.

Passionate about strategy, architecture, and security, I bring both a business mindset and a technical edge to every challenge.

I’m a technology leader passionate about building solutions that are not only scalable and efficient but also secure and aligned with business growth. Over the years, I’ve helped organizations transform complex requirements into future-ready systems ... Show more

Experienced MS Dynamics 365 Business Central Practice Lead with 15+ years of expertise in implementation, upgrades, integrations, and support development projects. Proven success across diverse domains, including Trading, NGOs, Manufacturing, IT, Financial Services, Banking, and Automobile industries. Adept at delivering solutions across multiple geographies, including Australia, the USA, GCC, the UK, and Europe.

Experienced MS Dynamics 365 Business Central Practice Lead with 15+ years of expertise in implementation, upgrades, integrations, and support development projects. Proven success across diverse domains, including Trading, NGOs, Manufacturing, IT, Fin... Show more

Joyjit Roy is a recognized leader in AI, Machine Learning, and Information Technology, with expertise in cloud-native platforms and large-scale digital systems. With over two decades of experience in the IT industry, he has led digital transformation initiatives across insurance, financial services, and global eCommerce sectors, including Fortune 500 companies.

His research interests focus on enterprise AI systems, Agentic AI architectures, intelligent automation, and distributed cloud platforms supporting production-scale digital ecosystems. Roy contributes to the community through research, peer review, mentorship, and technical leadership.

He frequently speaks at AI, distributed systems, and enterprise technology transformation conferences and summits.

Joyjit Roy is a recognized leader in AI, Machine Learning, and Information Technology, with expertise in cloud-native platforms and large-scale digital systems. With over two decades of experience in the IT industry, he has led digital transformation... Show more

Barry has spent over 25 years in the tech industry; from developer to solution architect, business transformation manager to IT Director, and CTO of a £100m FinTech company. In 2020 Barry's passion for data and analytics led him to gain an MSc in Artificial Intelligence and Applications.

He is happiest when he's at a whiteboard sketching out a process, architecture, roadmap or solving a problem. He's got a gift for taking complex ideas and presenting them in a way that technical and non-technical audiences can grok. He has a passion for simplifying the complex, and helping organisations use technology to transform and amplify their impact.

Barry has spent over 25 years in the tech industry; from developer to solution architect, business transformation manager to IT Director, and CTO of a £100m FinTech company. In 2020 Barry's passion for data and analytics led him to gain an MSc in Art... Show more

Wade is a CPA who brings 20 years of financial expertise and business management experience to U.S. Transactions Corp.
He was previously with Ernst & Young in San Francisco and later PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Stuttgart, Germany where he was senior engagement manger responsible for the assurance work for IBM, Sony, and several other multinational companies.
He also served as President/General Manager to three early-stage fast growth companies in the life sciences industry. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business with a B.S. in Economics.
U.S. Transactions Corp. was founded in 2009.
We focus on the Microsoft Dynamics space as the only integrated credit card processing solution with built-in connections to 120+ gateways and processors with access to every international currency. See USTPay on Appsource
www.ustranscorp.com/ustpay

Wade is a CPA who brings 20 years of financial expertise and business management experience to U.S. Transactions Corp. He was previously with Ernst & Young in San Francisco and later PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Stuttgart, Germany where he was senior ... Show more

Robert is a talented, energetic, and insightful product-focused speaker focused on helping teams and organizations build great products and align on their best ways of working to build trust and accountability. He has spent 15 years in the IT field with a primary focus on product development, agile framework, and software quality within both startups and enterprise organizations spanning diverse industries including Automotive, Insurance, Finance, Healthcare and the Department of Defense. He currently serves as a Sr Principal Product professional at Discover + Capital One helping build and evolve innovative products to ensure a brighter financial future for their customers. He is a relentlessly optimistic, culture-first leader who unlocks elite performance by developing people, fostering trust, and placing success over ego.

Robert is a talented, energetic, and insightful product-focused speaker focused on helping teams and organizations build great products and align on their best ways of working to build trust and accountability. He has spent 15 years in the IT field w... Show more

Sat Agrawal has an unvarnished commitment to delivering quality results. An avid learner, Sat holds a bachelor’s in computer science from Penn State and remains actively engaged in a wide range of learning resources. He is a Certified Chaos Engineering professional and practitioner, with additional certifications that include CKA, CKAD, and TOGAF. Sat's current focus in service mesh technologies exemplifies his commitment to stay at the forefront of cloud-native technologies.

At Discover Financial Services, Sat combines his diverse knowledge of concepts, practices, and processes with a strong advocacy for automation and efficiency. Tapping native strengths in analytical and communication skills, he enters mentoring and partnering relationships with business users, architects, and stakeholders across the enterprise to help product teams streamline their end-to-end product delivery cycles. A recognized top-level contributor himself, Sat influences engineers to embrace the agile practices that transform the way they work, leading ultimately to the delivery of dynamic, impactful solutions that align with organizational goals.

Sat personalizes his aptitude for leadership through his attendance and speaking at conferences and local meetups and by conducting hands-on proofs-of-concept. Participating in LinkedIn and other industry-leading blogs, he engages in a variety of topics that include DevOps, DevSecOps, and SREs.

Sat Agrawal has an unvarnished commitment to delivering quality results. An avid learner, Sat holds a bachelor’s in computer science from Penn State and remains actively engaged in a wide range of learning resources. He is a Certified Chaos Engineeri... Show more

Frédéric Valentin is a wealth-planning practitioner for UHNWI. A member of the Cercle des Fiscalistes, he chairs its AI committee and built the Neo4j knowledge graph and MCP server that let its members' assistants cite tax law instead of guessing it — nearly twenty jurisdictions, in production since July 2026. He teaches international tax law at HEC Paris and Sciences Po, and is a member of the IACF (Institut des Avocats Conseils Fiscaux) and of the Estate Planning Skill Group. Le Revenu named him one of France's 12 leading tax lawyers (Prix du Revenu 2026), and Neo4j a Featured Community Member in July 2026. He builds his own tools, in Python and Swift.

Frédéric Valentin is a wealth-planning practitioner for UHNWI. A member of the Cercle des Fiscalistes, he chairs its AI committee and built the Neo4j knowledge graph and MCP server that let its members' assistants cite tax law instead of guessing it ... Show more

I'm David, 29 years old, and I've been working for almost four years almost exclusively with the Microsoft Power Platform and now also with Copilot. During this time, I've had the chance to work on projects and AI transformations for a wide range of industries, from entertainment and energy to the public sector and banking. My focus is on implementing modern low-code solutions in companies in a secure, scalable, and practical way.

I'm David, 29 years old, and I've been working for almost four years almost exclusively with the Microsoft Power Platform and now also with Copilot. During this time, I've had the chance to work on projects and AI transformations for a wide range of ... Show more

Priya Namasivayam is a Staff Platform Engineer at EarnIn, where she builds and operates cloud-native platform infrastructure at scale. She specializes in Kubernetes, service meshes, and GitOps-driven delivery, and led EarnIn's migration from AWS App Mesh to Linkerd—improving security, reliability, and developer experience.

She focuses on treating platform infrastructure like application code: modeling infrastructure tests as Kubernetes resources and gating Flux-driven changes with in-cluster validation using Testkube. Priya is passionate about simplifying complex systems and sharing practical patterns teams can adopt in production.

Priya Namasivayam is a Staff Platform Engineer at EarnIn, where she builds and operates cloud-native platform infrastructure at scale. She specializes in Kubernetes, service meshes, and GitOps-driven delivery, and led EarnIn's migration from AWS App ... Show more

When you do things right, no one can be sure you did anything at all (Futurama Season 3)

I specialize in the software no one sees. The high performance, concurrent, real-time, high-reliability systems that enable our way of life. I love software, especially the kind no one notices.

My software fights fraud, and drives tractors. I've baked solar cells, made escalators more efficient, optimized fantasy sports and my software helps airplanes land safely.

I've improved data center efficiency, and implemented risk-management microservices for high-performance payment systems behind Zelle.

When you do things right, no one can be sure you did anything at all (Futurama Season 3) I specialize in the software no one sees. The high performance, concurrent, real-time, high-reliability systems that enable our way of life. I love software,... Show more

Tech Lead and Software Architect with over 18 years of experience in Java and distributed systems, mostly in fintech and payments. For the last 5 years I've worked on international teams, modernizing systems, leading and applying AI engineering. I speak about career, AI and software development at tech conferences and communities, and I write at blog.fhgomes.com.

Besides working on the front line, I help developers who are growing their careers turn technical skill into strategic influence. My mission is to develop leaders who stop being "firefighters" and become decision partners respected by leadership, earning global recognition and quality of life.

Outside of code, I'm a motorcyclist, world traveler and One Piece fan.

Tech Lead and Software Architect with over 18 years of experience in Java and distributed systems, mostly in fintech and payments. For the last 5 years I've worked on international teams, modernizing systems, leading and applying AI engineering. I sp... Show more

Head de Engenharia de Confiabilidade e Plataforma na Elo, uma das maiores bandeiras de pagamento do Brasil. Lidero a plataforma interna construída sobre o Backstage, unindo developer experience, confiabilidade e governança de engenharia e de IA em um ambiente financeiro regulado.

Head de Engenharia de Confiabilidade e Plataforma na Elo, uma das maiores bandeiras de pagamento do Brasil. Lidero a plataforma interna construída sobre o Backstage, unindo developer experience, confiabilidade e governança de engenharia e de IA em um... Show more

Karin drives the Observability strategy at SimCorp. She has a strong background in Software & Data Engineering, holding a BSc in Data Engineering & Statistics and an MSc in International Business Leadership & Management, plus years as an implementation consultant and as a Risk Analyst at a financial institution in Austria. This gives her a rare vantage point: connecting deep technical insight with business context to drive meaningful outcomes.

Karin drives the Observability strategy at SimCorp. She has a strong background in Software & Data Engineering, holding a BSc in Data Engineering & Statistics and an MSc in International Business Leadership & Management, plus years as an implementati... Show more

Jason Paolasini drives RBC’s hybrid cloud strategy, integrating on-prem and public cloud infrastructures using CNCF projects and Kubernetes. As a Kubernetes-first organization and CNCF Silver sponsor, RBC leverages open source frameworks to streamline security and operational efficiency. Jason fosters open source contributions while scaling multi-cluster environments to hundreds of thousands of cores, positioning RBC as a leader in financial cloud infrastructure.

Jason Paolasini drives RBC’s hybrid cloud strategy, integrating on-prem and public cloud infrastructures using CNCF projects and Kubernetes. As a Kubernetes-first organization and CNCF Silver sponsor, RBC leverages open source frameworks to streamlin... Show more

Jasper is a curious, creative and versatile data & visualization expert who loves to tackle data challenges.
He strongly believes in the power and the value of data and will only be satisfied when stories can be told based on the gained insights.
Initially started as a SAS developer but evolved to a seasoned all-round BI profile with proven experience (15y+) on different Business Intelligence platforms. He worked for various financial institutions in Belgium but loves exploring other sectors as well: telecom, public services, retail and healthcare...

Jasper is a curious, creative and versatile data & visualization expert who loves to tackle data challenges. He strongly believes in the power and the value of data and will only be satisfied when stories can be told based on the gained insights. ... Show more

Jitendra Rout is a Principal Enterprise AI Engineer, AI Researcher & Author, and IEEE Computer Society member with 18+ years of experience in AI, FinTech, and Application Security. He serves on the ACM SIGCSE TS 2027 SRC Program Committee and is a technical reviewer for ACM FAccT 2027, YLAI, BPB Publications, and Orange AVA. He is also a MobileWebAwards & DECA judge, Hack Red Conference 2026 speaker, and GEN member. His research and Trustworthy Enterprise AI newsletter focus on secure, reliable, and responsible AI.

Jitendra Rout is a Principal Enterprise AI Engineer, AI Researcher & Author, and IEEE Computer Society member with 18+ years of experience in AI, FinTech, and Application Security. He serves on the ACM SIGCSE TS 2027 SRC Program Committee and is a te... Show more