Rooh Savar
Welcome Account
Cofounder & CEO
Rooh Savar is the co-founder and CEO of Welcome Account, Gen-AI powered neobank providing simple and inclusive financial solutions for newcomers in Europe.
He is also the President of SINGA, a global movement dedicated to creating open societies where everyone, regardless of their background, can realize their full potential.
He is originally from Iran, where he was politically active and a member of the "Iranian Students Parliament" and the "National Campaign of The Iranian Students Parliament". With a background in journalism and public communication, Rooh has been actively involved in social and political movements supporting democracy in Iran before moving to Paris as a political refugee in 2009.
Barbara Scola
Mercy Corps
Senior Strategic Partnerships Officer
Barbara Scola is a Senior Strategic Partnerships Officer at Mercy Corps, where she manages relationships with French institutional donors and explores new partnership opportunities. Before joining Mercy Corps, Barbara worked as a financial inclusion expert for CGAP, GIZ and other development organizations. Her focus areas include financial inclusion funding trends, market systems development, financial regulation, gender equality and aid effectiveness. Barbara is based near Paris and is fluent in German, English and French, with working knowledge of Spanish.
Tamsin Scurfield
Opportunity International
Gender and Inclusion Consultant
Tamsin Scurfield has been living and working in Sub Saharan Africa since 2006. First with a grassroots community development organization, then in the humanitarian sector during the Horn of Africa Famine Response in 2011, supporting the relief efforts of Somali refugees in Northern Kenya.
Since 2015 she has worked for Opportunity International as both an in-country and regional resource, based out of Uganda. Her role has shifted from business development to a more client-centric one to drive inclusive finance as a means for achieving social and business outcomes for marginalized groups. In this role she provides strategic advise and operational support for women, youth, people living with disability and the refugee segment. She is also leading on AgFinance’s gender strategy to ensure a gender lens is incorporated across Opportunities’ programs.
Tamsin has led on Opportunities refugee work since a visit to Kiryandongo settlement in Western Uganda in early 2018 where the potential for refugee financial inclusion and self reliance became evident. In this role she leads on strategic support, partnership management and integrating learnings into programming.
Nicola Sharp-Jeffs
Personal
Economic Abuse Specialist
Dr Nicola Sharp-Jeffs OBE is a global expert on economic abuse. In 2008, she undertook the first piece of research on economic abuse in the UK. Since then, she has undertaken further research alone and with other academics. In addition to producing reports and publishing in national and international journals, Nicola has written the book ‘Understanding and Responding to Economic Abuse’. She is an Emeritus Research Fellow at the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit at London Metropolitan University.
In 2017 Nicola founded the UK charity Surviving Economic Abuse which she led as CEO until May 2024. During this time, she pioneered practice, policy and legislative responses to economic abuse in the violence against women and girls’ sector and with the financial services industry, working closely with the Westminster Government. She continues to work with SEA as the charity’s founder, coordinates the International Coalition Against Economic Abuse, is an Expert Advisor to the Empower Finance Alliance led by the International Finance Corporation and is working with FinEquity (housed at the World Bank) to advance women’s financial inclusion through defining a learning agenda on financial abuse.
Barri Shorey
Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
Refugee and Disaster Initiative Lead
Barri Shorey oversees the Refugees Initiative and Disaster Relief and Recovery program at the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, working with partners around the world to ensure forcibly displaced populations are able to access educational and economic opportunities, recover from shocks and integrate into the new communities in which they find themselves. Prior to joining the Foundation, Barri spent 16 years at the International Rescue Committee (IRC) overseeing and implementing programs supporting refugees and displaced populations through the arc of a crisis – providing cash assistance for basic needs during and emergency and improving access to employment, entrepreneurship and financial services in more stable contexts. During her time at IRC, Barri lived and worked all over Sub Saharan Africa and the Middle East with a specific focus on curriculum development and private sector partnerships. She received a master’s degree in international education from the George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and religion from Colgate University.
Lucia Spaggiari
MFR
Innovation Director
Lucia is Innovation Director at the rating agency MFR, part of the Management Team and in charge of developing innovative ways to increase transparency in Financial Inclusion, PAYGo Off-Grid Solar and other impact investing areas.
She is responsible for the ATLAS data unit, and involved in a number of industry initiatives: SPTF/CERISE, GOGLA, chairwoman of the BoD of the European Microfinance Platform since 2023.
Lucia joined MFR in 2005, was based in Italy, Ecuador, Thailand and Cameroon before moving to Paris, and acquired extensive field experience with 90+ field assignments in 44 countries conducted to date.
Lucia holds an MSc in Economics and Management of Public Administration and International Organizations from Bocconi University (Italy). She is Italian and fluent in English, French and Spanish.
Pranav Sridhar
60 Decibels
Client Success Lead
Pranav leads Client Success at 60 Decibels, a tech-enabled impact measurement company that enables impact investors and social enterprises to better understand and manage their social impact performance. He focuses on understanding the evolving impact measurement needs of clients and identifying opportunities for improved measurement globally in the financial inclusion & agriculture sectors and in the Asia-region across sectors. Pranav is also the co-founder of a UN recognized social enterprise OneDay Health, a network of clinics that offer affordable, primary care in Uganda’s low-income communities. Prior to this, Pranav has supported the launch of social businesses in the areas of sanitation and renewable energy at Institute for Transformative Technologies. Pranav holds a master’s in management studies from Duke University and a bachelor’s in engineering from Shiv Nadar University.
Noah Ssempijja
Opportunity International
Country Lead, Refugee Financial Inclusion Programme
Noah Opportunity International’s Country Lead for the Refugee Financial Inclusion Programme in Uganda. He is responsible for the management of the Refugee programme, working closely with the UK team he provides strategic & practical oversight for implementation on-the-ground. Noah is passionate about improving livelihoods for the grassroots and excluded communities. He brings a breadth of experience to the role including his Masters in Refugee Protection and Forced Migration Studies, and experience leading numerous innovative and impactful programmes to support financial inclusion and livelihoods for refugees. Alongside his role, Noah is a Founding Director for a non-profit he founded in 2014 called YICE Uganda, which provides regenerative farming support to smallholder farmers. The organization has won multiple awards since its inception including; SEED Africa Entrepreneurs Award, East African Agribusiness Award, Tony Elumelu Fellowship Award and Ashden Award.
Thouraya Triki
EIB
Director, International Partnership department
Thouraya Triki is the Director of the International Partners department at EIB Global Directorate. Under this role, she oversees EIB public sector operations in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin American and Caribbean as well as private sector financial inclusion investments. Prior to joining EIB, Thouraya was director of the Sustainable Production, Markets and Institutions Division (PMI), at the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD). In this role she was in charge of technical support to IFAD’s global sovereign Investment projects focusing on rural poverty reduction, food security and climate adaptation. She was also responsible for IFAD's private sector operations.
Before joining IFAD, Thouraya worked at the African Development Bank (AfDB) as Manager in the Microeconomics, Institutions and Development Impact Division, at its headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Between 2008 and 2017, she held various roles at AfDB, both in regional offices and Headquarters.
Before joining the AfDB, Thouraya spent about 10 years in various positions in academia – teaching finance in Canada, France and Tunisia, and managing and consulting with private sector businesses.
Triki holds a PhD in finance (risk management) from HEC Montréal.
Hanadi Tutunji
Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation
TA and partnerships manager
Hanadi Tutunji is a global financial inclusion expert currently holding the position of Technical Assistance and Partnerships Manager the Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation (GCAF). Hanadi was the Financial Inclusion Officer at the UNHCR Regional Bureau for East and Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes in Nairobi. She worked with the IFC as Transformation and Crisis Manager based in Beirut, Lebanon. Hanadi has more than 20 years’ experience in financial inclusion. She was the investment and innovation Specialist with UNCDF in New York focusing on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Her work also included supporting global advocacy initiatives, such as setting up the office of Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands- the UN Secretary General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA). Hanadi worked with Microfinance Institutions in multiple senior management roles especially in displacement and conflict settings. She also worked with international NGOs on market research, training, and staff development, as well as evaluation and rating of MFIs. Hanadi holds an MBA from the University of Paris IX, Dauphine and has worked in MENA, Asia and Africa.
Suzanne van Ballekom
United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)
Deputy Global Team Lead- Digital Financial Inclusion and Women's Economic Empowerment
Suzanne brings extensive experience in designing and implementing humanitarian and development programs across both the public and private sectors, particularly in fragile and conflict-affected settings. She specialises in financially inclusive humanitarian payments (cash transfers), Government-to-person payments, digital financial inclusion, women's economic empowerment, and livelihoods programming. Currently, Suzanne serves as the Deputy Global Team Lead for Digital Financial Inclusion and Women's Economic Empowerment at the UN World Food Programme (WFP). In this role, she has defined WFP’s value proposition for financially inclusive payments to women, integrating it into the core of WFP’s strategic vision. Her operational expertise spans across countries such as Somalia, Haiti, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, and the Caribbean.
Sander van der Heyden
Musoni System
CEO and Founder
Sander is the CEO and co-founder of Musoni, a cloud-based core banking provider serving financial institutions worldwide. Having worked in the financial industry since the start of his career, first in technical architecture roles in commercial banking before focusing on microfinance technology for the past 15 years.
Sander co-founded Musoni in 2013 as CTO, he architected the core banking platform and built the technical teams that have established Musoni as a global player in the sector. Now as CEO, he combines his technical expertise and business experience to drive Musoni's mission of making digital banking technology accessible to financial institutions across emerging markets.
Anne Marie van Swinderen
L-IFT
Managing Director
Anne Marie van Swinderen is the founder and Managing Director of L-IFT BV, a company dedicated to bringing data empowerment to low-income people, primarily through its technology FINBIT. L-IFT incorporated in 2015 and started as a research company specialized in financial diaries studies. Anne Marie has worked on a number of digital solutions for addressing the financial challenges of different disadvantaged groups.
Anne Marie has been active in financial inclusion for over three decades working and living in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Initially she worked on the supply side of microfinance, for instance as a Staff Economist at BRAC and supporting Vietnam’s Women’s Union setting up a microfinance institution. Since reading Portfolios of the Poor she decided to dedicate her work to the understanding of disadvantaged, underserved groups and promoting wide-spread use of the financial diaries approach. She has conducted diaries studies in 20 countries across three continents, demonstrating that things are seldom as you thought they were. L-IFT and Anne Marie’s motto is “Listening to the unheard”.
Benedikt Wahler
ConsumerCentriX
Partner at ConsumerCentriX - Expert on Inclusive & Digital Finance
Benedikt Wahler is Partner for Inclusive and Digital Finance at ConsumerCentriX, where he has built up the financial services practice since 2014. He has delivered more than 50 strategy consulting projects covering some 40 emerging markets serving leading banks, insurers, fintechs and microfinance institutions. The solutions he has helped pioneer for un- and underserved segments have reached more than 8 million retail clients and hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs and small businesses. In the past 15 years, he has also advised central banks and other policy makers on creating an enabling environment for inclusive finance, and authored global best practice reports and prepared toolkits on policy, digital finance, savings, non-financial services and serving women SMEs. Together with the rest of the ConsumerCentriX team, Benedikt has since 2022 pioneered market research, strategy and solution design focused on young entrepreneurs on behalf of EBRD covering 17 markets and advising 8 financial institutions. Benedikt is a chartered banker and former investment professional active in financial services since 1998, and holds degrees from Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and Johns Hopkins SAIS.
Kaspar Wansleben
Investing for Development SICAV
Director
Kaspar Wansleben is the Director Asset Servicing at IforD. Before joining the Fund, Kaspar has been involved in microfinance since 2006 as a member of the credit committee of the finance program of MFIs: LUXMINT. He also worked at the International Labour Organisation (2002) and at PlanetRating (2004). Kaspar is a visiting lecturer at the University of Luxembourg on social entrepreneurship and was a board member of MFX Solutions Inc, the provider of currency risk solutions to the microfinance sector for 5 years.
Kaspar Wansleben is chartered accountant of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales and joined KPMG in 2005 where he was specialised during 6 years in the industrial and financial sectors as advisor in finance and auditor. He is a visiting lecturer at the Luxembourg University on social entrepreneurship. In 2022, Kaspar was nominated as a member of the Luxembourg High Council for Sustainable Development. He graduated in Business and Finance from the Euromed in Marseille and the University of Bremen.
Lisa Willems
Alpha Mundi
Founder, Board President
Lisa Willems is the Founder and President of AlphaMundi Foundation, a 501c3 that provides catalytic capital to SMEs with a focus on gender and climate. Lisa also worked as Managing Director with AlphaMundi Group, a Swiss-based impact investment advisor, and managed the group's impact-debt fund that invested with a gender lens in social enterprises in Latin America and Africa. Beyond her Board role with AlphaMundi, Lisa founded Catalytic Capital Consulting, an LLC that provides strategic management and advisory services to investors, NGOs, and companies with a social mission. Prior to AlphaMundi Lisa served as Director of Investments at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation where she was a member of a three-person team responsible for overseeing all aspects of management of the USD 600 million endowment and played an integral role in building a new investment process. Lisa also spent four years working as a management consultant in New York predominantly at Oliver Wyman. She teaches impact investing at as an adjunct professor at American University in Washington, DC and she holds BAs in Economics and Public Policy from Duke University and an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.
Barnaby Willitts-King
GSMA Mobile for Humanitarian
Research and Policy Director
Barnaby joined the GSMA in November 2021 and is now Research and Policy Director of the Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation team. In this role he manages the team developing thought leadership on the role of digital technology in humanitarian crises, research and guidance on mobile technology, and overseeing monitoring, evaluation and learning activities for the M4H portfolio. He also manages M4H’s policy, regulatory and advocacy work to support governments, international organisations and operators in creating an enabling digital environment and overcoming policy barriers to digital and financial inclusion.
He previously worked as a Senior Research Fellow in ODI’s Humanitarian Policy Group, leading research and policy engagement on digital technology and inclusion, reform of the humanitarian system and new business models including public-private partnerships. He started his career with Save the Children and then the UK’s Department for International Development in Pakistan/Afghanistan before working across Asia, Africa and the Middle East for a range of donors, UN agencies, the Red Cross/Crescent movement and NGOs.
Yossef Zahar
PANDAN
Yossef is the founder and CEO of PandanGreen, which is dedicated for the facilitation and provision of climate finance for Asia Pacific's vulnerable communities and especially women, transitioning to resilient low carbon growth outcomes. Following a career internationally at financial institutions, in recent years, Yossef has led climate finance work in Asia Pacific, serving as an advisor for UN Climate, governments and development organisation. Ensuring that vulnerable communities have access to much-needed climate finance, and embedding gender and social equity are key drivers for Yossef’s work.
Mariam Jemila Zahari
AFI
Policy Specialist
Mariam Jemila Zahari is a Policy Specialist at the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), a network of more than 80 central banks and ministries of finance, and other financial regulatory institutions from low- and middle-income countries who are advancing financial inclusion within their jurisdictions.
She is in charge of AFI’s workstream on the financial inclusion of forcibly displaced persons (FDPs), where she works with central banks and ministries of finance on their policies and strategies to financially include stateless persons, refugees, returnees, internally displaced persons and other FDPs. She also oversees AFI’s engagement with the global Standard Setting Bodies (SSBs), and AFI’s workstream on Inclusive Financial Integrity which is concerned with the proportionate application of global AML/CFT/CPF standards to advance financial inclusion.
Before joining AFI, Mariam worked in the humanitarian sector, managing disaster response and risk reduction country projects in Myanmar, Nepal, and the Philippines and driving global advocacy efforts on disaster risk reduction for the Asia-Pacific region. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Politics/International Studies and French from the University of Melbourne.
Katarina Zdraljevic
ProCredit Holding
Head of Group Sustainability
Katarina has worked in development finance for the ProCredit Group for the past 13 years, contributing to decarbonisation, sustainable agriculture and green finance for SMEs in Latin America and Eastern Europe. Currently, Katarina is Head of Group Sustainability at ProCredit Holding in Frankfurt. In this role, she oversees the Group's environmental management, the implementation of the net-zero strategy, the climate action and transition plan, advocates for inclusive finance and gender equality, while also contributing as a board member of ProCredit Bank Ecuador. Katarina holds a degree in Agribusiness from the University of Belgrade and her academic journey has taken her to the Frankfurt School of Finance, INCAE and the Massachusetts Institute for Technology for further professional development.
Manar Zeinaldin
Physiotherapy Student
Speaker
Since her arrival to Luxembourg in 2021 in her early 20s, Manar’s most pressing question was: “how can I continue my studies here?”
As for many, war wasn’t a choice for her and now Luxembourg presented itself as a second chance, with doors opened to endless possibilities.
Manar’s journey may give hope to some while serving as an eye-opener to others.
Nasir Zubairi
The LHoFT Foundation
CEO
With 27 years of experience in financial services, Nasir Zubairi is a seasoned Fintech leader who established and leads The Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (LHoFT) Foundation. This not-for-profit organization serves as Luxembourg's national platform for financial services digitalisation.
Nasir's career began in the front offices of major financial institutions such as ICAP, HSBC, and EBS, culminating in his role as Director of High Frequency Trading (HFT) at RBS London. In 2011, Nasir made a strategic shift to Fintech, where he has been spearheading the creation and expansion of ventures in banking, lending, and payments.
Having worked across eight countries in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, Nasir brings a broad international perspective. Since moving to Luxembourg in 2016, he has taken on council roles at the British Chamber of Commerce and the British-Luxembourg Society, and has served as a Non-Executive Board Director at SEB S.A, the Scandinavian bank, and at the International School of Luxembourg (ISL). In 2022, Nasir was honoured with the "Officier de l'Ordre Mérite du Grand Duché de Luxembourg" for his economic contributions to the Grand Duchy.
Nasir, an alumnus of the London School of Economics and a Sloan Fellow from the London Business School, is dedicated to fostering global financial growth and innovation. His insights have been highly valued as part of Christine Lagarde’s advisory council for finance and technology at the IMF, and on the Blockchain expert policy advisory board at the OECD.