Judging Panel

Andrew joined Equitable Bank (TSX: EQB) as Chief Executive Officer in 2007. Andrew’s focus in recent years has been in positioning Equitable Bank as “Canada’s Challenger Bank”.  Andrew has been establishing EQ Bank as a leading digital banking player, with an easy to use mobile app that offers a unique combination of payments functionality and great savings rates.  Equitable Bank is Canada’s ninth largest schedule 1 bank with over $30 billion of assets under management. Equitable was a founding shareholder in Borrowell,  and participates in the Portage ecosystem through an investment in Portage Funds giving the Bank a view into the Canadian fintech ecosystem. 

Andrew is a keen observer of the challenger and neo bank community around the world.  He is interested in how banks can lever technology to improve the societies in which they operate.  He is a member of the Executive Council of the Canadian Bankers Association and Chairman of the Banks and Trust Companies Association.  Andrew is a Director of Sleep Country Canada Inc. (TSX:ZZZ) and a member of the Smith School of Business Advisory Board at Queen’s University.

David joined Raidiam, a company specialising in creating the world’s smartest data sharing ecosystems, in January 2023 as Ecosystems Development Director.

David has been a passionate advocate of Open Banking since 2016 when he spent four years as the Commercial Director at The Open Data Institute leading their work on Open Banking, helping governments and regulators in Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Canada.

Most recently he was at the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) where, as Ecosystem Development Director, he led the team charged with growing and developing the Open Banking ecosystem. His key objective was to facilitate and encourage end user adoption of products and services powered by Open Banking. This included on-boarding new participants into the Directory, developing effective propositions to increase the adoption of Open Banking in the UK, and all OBIE marketing and events. By the time David left the OBIE, there were 90 banks and 250 fintechs using open banking to regularly share data from 7 million consumers and small business.

His nearly 30 years in data-driven insight and marketing have seen him work with many leading brands in multiple sectors and countries. In addition to working for some of the largest players in the data world such as Experian and Telefonica, David also ran his own boutique data insight business, Thinkdata, for 5 years before it was acquired by Bertelsmann.

David regularly speaks on the benefits and use cases for Open Finance at conferences in the UK and internationally, has co-authored a number of reports on Open Banking, and was interviewed on BBC TV on the day it officially launched in the UK in January 2018. In addition to his role with Raidiam, David is also Strategic Advisor, Open Banking for EML Payments, an Australian payments organisation with businesses in the UK, Ireland and across Europe.

Originally a classically trained musician, David has a Master’s from Cambridge University and an MBA in Marketing.

Dr. Ruth Wandhöfer has been instrumental in shaping the future of finance during her impressive career over the last 19 years. She operates at the nexus of finance, technology and regulation and is passionate about creating the digital financial ecosystem of the future. She is a very influential female leader in the technology space, promoting the understanding, deployment and business models of our digital future across financial markets and processes.

With a diverse career across regulatory policy development, banking, Fintech/Regtech mentoring, investing and consulting she finds herself at the centre of the evolving digital ecosystem of players with the ability to advise, accelerate, promote and enable technology players to become an integral part of the new financial ecosystem.

Ruth began her career in banking. After a distinguished career of over a decade with Citi, Ruth is now an independent Non-Executive Director on the boards of Permanent TSB and Digital Identity Net as well as a Partner at Gauss Ventures – a VC firm focused on early stage FinTech investment.

She is also a Strategic Adviser of the European Third Party Provider Association (ETPPA) as well as Adviser of RTGS.global. Until recently she served as independent Non-Executive Director on the Boards of the London Stock Exchange Group and Pendo Systems Inc. and as senior adviser to KPMG.

Ruth was named as one of 2010s ‘Rising Stars’ by Financial News; named in Management Today’s 2011 ‘35 Women under 35’ list of women to watch and identified as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Finance 2012 by the Treasury Risk Magazine. She received the ‘Women in Banking and Finance Award for Achievement’ in 2015 and in 2016, 2017 and 2018 she was named on the global ‘Women in Fintech Powerlist’ of Innovate Finance. She is a 2018, 2019 and 2020 Top 10 Global Fintech Influencer (Fintech Power 50).

She speaks five languages, has completed studies in Financial Economics (MA, UK), International Politics (MA, FR) and an LLM in International Economic Law (UK). She was awarded a doctorate by CASS Business School, London and Tilburg University in 2019 for her PhD thesis in Finance on the topic of “Technology Innovation in Financial Markets”.

She published two books: “EU Payments Integration” (2010) and “Transaction Banking and the Impact of Regulatory Change” (2014), is a Fellow of CASS Business School City University London, a Visiting Professor at the London Institute of Banking and Finance and occasional lecturer at Queen Mary London School of Law.

Her views are widely sought after in the global press, and her opinions have recently been published in Sifted, FT and Forbes, to name just a few publications.

She balances this extraordinary career while raising her children and champions for a better work life balance for parents and more support for women entrepreneurs.

Gonzalo serves as the Director of Public Policy for Open Banking at BBVA since 2023. Prior to this, he held the position of Director of Public Policy for Latin America at Stripe until 2022.

With extensive experience in public affairs projects, public policy, and corporate relations, Gonzalo has been pivotal in shaping the public policy landscape for the European mobility company FreeNow (under the Beat brand), initially for Mexico and subsequently founding and leading the function and team across Latin America.

He has also been a consultant, the director of government relations practice, and the deputy country manager for the global consultancy firm Speyside Group, operating across Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. Additionally, Gonzalo was the Director of Domestic Political Relations at the British Embassy in Mexico.

An esteemed university professor and political commentator across various media outlets, Gonzalo holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the Universidad Iberoamericana (UIA) and has earned multiple advanced degrees: a Master’s in International Public Management from Sciences Po Paris, a Master’s in International Relations from the London School of Economics (LSE), and a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Bath.

Harcus Copper is Head of Integration and Information Services globally, responsible for SWIFT and Host-to-Host connectivity propositions, APIs and Open Banking for corporate clients and Non-Bank Financial Institutions. Harcus has over 26 years’ experience in Cash Management developed over a number of roles covering multiple disciplines during his 31 years with Barclays.

Holly is responsible for continuing to grow the UK business and creating the future vision and roadmap for Open Banking Payments globally. Holly is an accomplished, well-respected leader who is strategic and commercially focused in her approach. She has an entrepreneurial and partner centric outlook and is highly adept at working in the emerging fintech Open Banking space.

Three decades in Tech & Fin internationally, across developed and fast-growing economies, creating portfolios of digital ventures to deliver impact – launching, investing and growing successful businesses and well-recognised brands.

Scientist by education, strategist by experience and visionary by heart, she has been instrumental in working with the market leaders and economic regulators, driving transformational changes towards the digital economy globally.

A seasoned executive, NED, Investor and Advisor, Lana brings a strong vantage point on how businesses evolve in the digital age. She advocates reshaping economics and governance over the traditional models to drive growth.