Ugo Bechis, e-payment & SEPA Advisor, UB Adv

Ugo is also a visiting Lecturer at the Financial University under the Russian Federation Government and is a Community Member of the European Electronic Cybercrime Task Force. He held management, strategy and organisational duties with international and Italian banks in Multichannel Distribution, Securities Transactions, Home Banking, Trading On-line, Corporate and Retail Payments, Cards, Consumer Credit and Bancassurance in Corporate and Trade Finance, Audit and Acquisitions assessment. He was Chairman of the European Alliance of Payment Schemes (EAPS) Board and of the ABI Clearing & Settlement Committee; and Board Member of IWBank S.p.a., SIA S.p.A., KCCS S.p.A, Cartasi S.p.A, Consorzio Bancomat. He has addressed EU payment and banking policy, regulatory and antitrust matters, with the European Commission, the European Central Bank and other Regulatory Institutions. Ugo holds a Doctorate in Economics, Monetary Policy, European Union Affairs from Turin University, MBA Finance and Organisation from UCLA Graduate School of Management and is Cavaliere (Knight) al Merito of the Italian Republic.


Douglas Blakey, Group Editor, Consumer Finance, Timetric

Douglas Blakey is Group Editor, Consumer Finance at Timetric, chief of judges for the annual Retail Banker International Awards and lead market advisor for Timetric’s retail banking research division. This produces and maintains more than 50 market leading research reports and has undertaken bespoke consultancy projects for banks, vendors and their advisors. Douglas practiced as a solicitor in Scotland before moving into business information and analysis. He maintains an editorial advisory board of leading bank executives and is a regular guest banking analyst with BBC, NBC, New Statesman and other leading media.

Neil Bowen, VP Product, Digital Consumer Payments Barclaycard

After graduating in Engineering, Economics and Management from the University of Oxford, Neil moved into a career in Product and Proposition roles in global consumer technology companies. At Sony Electronics he set up several online services from photography storage/printing, to integrating e Readers with UK library databases, all aimed at adding value to the core product range. After later managing the UK Sony Tablet business and the implementation of Sony’s music and video on demand services, he moved into his current role with Barclaycard. He is now applying his understanding of the consumer technology market to the development of the bPay wearable contactless range and developing product partnerships to bring compelling propositions to life for consumers.


Monica Carlesso, VP eCommerce Digital Consumer Payments, Barclaycard

Monica graduated in Marketing and Communication from Milan University and has been working as Product Marketing manager for over 14 years in several industries and markets. She joined PayPal in 2007 as Marketing Manager where she led the development of its checkout share on eBay and among merchants. In 2011 she moved to Poste Mobile (the MVNO of Poste Italiane) to develop new solutions and strategies for the mobile offer in the Financial Services (both B2C and B2B2C) focusing on integrating Poste Italiane and BancoPosta mobile services and products. In 2014 she launched the first NFC commercial wallet in the Italian market and contributed to define the guidelines for SIM-based NFC model and user experience between MNOs and Issuer banks in Italy. She is currently Senior Digital Product Manager of the Digital Consumer Payments team at Barclaycard, driving and delivering new innovative propositions including wearable payments and bPay.

Tony Chang, Vice President, Head of U.S. Prepaid Product, Visa

Tony Chang leads U.S. Prepaid Product Management for Visa, Inc. He is responsible for Visa’s consumer, commercial and government prepaid product strategy, innovation and development. Prior to his current position, Tony led U.S. Product & Client Marketing for Visa. Tony has over 20 years of experience in marketing, strategy, product/general management at global Fortune 500 companies and start-ups such as the Colgate-Palmolive Company, POM Wonderful and Whirlpool Corporation. Additionally, as a consultant at Bain & Company, Tony has developed and advised on successful business strategies for companies across multiple industries. Tony is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley where he received a Bachelor of Science in Business. He also holds an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Business at Northwestern University.

Peter Cox, Executive Chairman & Founder, Contis Group

For the past 30 years, Peter has been pioneering innovative solutions, which have transformed the face of the card and retail sectors through advanced technology, to change financial services throughout the UK and Europe to benefit consumers. Peter played a pivotal role in launching the UK’s major card loyalty programmes, creating leading industry publications and redefining the UK’s prepaid/debit card market. Today he is recognised throughout the industry as an inspirational leader who delivers ground-breaking product development, and creates new rich forms of customer insight to maximise performance and customer service for world class brands.

Scott Frisby, Manager First Annapolis

Scott works for leading payments consultancy First Annapolis in the Issuing and Retailer practice areas, where he has most recently led client engagements on digital wallet development for UK banks and digital credit propositions for Spanish retailers. A 15-year veteran of the payments industry, Scott spent 13 years at Visa Europe, based in Paris, London and Warsaw. Scott has experience leading engagements with several of Europe’s largest banks in areas including product development, marketing strategy, partnerships, new channels, and technology. An Italian speaker, Scott holds an MBA (distinction) from Oxford.

Gaetano Giannetto, CEO, Epipoli

Gaetano Giannetto is the founder and president of Epipoli, one of the leading European relationship marketing companies focusing on customer value management, retail management and gift cards. In 1988 he founded the European offices and launched the operations for Logistics Data Systems, a company specialised in merchandising, marketing and category management solutions for retailers and manufacturers, which was sold in 1991 to ACNielsen. In this new role, Giannetto served as European director at Logistics Data systems and in 1994 he was appointed managing partner at ACNielsen International, in charge of the retailing industry. In 1996 he accepted the position of executive director at ACNielsen Italy and Vice President Industry Food & Retailing EMEA – Europe, Middle East and Africa. From 1998 to 2000 he was the vice president at NCR Corporation. In 2000 he founded Epipoli.

Peter Møller Jensen, Director, EU and Government Relations/Regulatory Affairs, Visa Europe

Peter Møller Jensen is Director, EU and Government Relations/Regulatory Affairs at the Legal/Regulatory Affairs Department of Visa Europe. Peter is responsible for government relations and regulatory affairs across Europe as well as Visa Europe’s relations with EU institutions including the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European Central Bank and national regulators. Peter focuses on payment systems, banking, e-commerce, competition, technology, data protection, consumer protection, IPR, money laundering, tax and trade issues. Before joining Visa Europe he was Vice President, Legal Department and Executive Board Secretariat at Danske Bank, dealing with EU legal matters. He was also Head of Section, Danish Ministry of Health co-ordinating Danish efforts in EU foodstuffs regulation. Peter is a member of the Danish Bar Association and has worked in private practice for three years. Peter holds a law degree from the University of Århus, Denmark.

Philippe Le Pape, VP Presales and Partnerships, Safran Identity & Security

Philippe Le Pape is VP Presales and Partnerships at Safran Identity & Security, in charge of supporting the Sales force and partners to develop the activities of the Digital Security & Authentication Division (DSA). DSA offers Safran’s solutions for identity management and trusted services, such as enrollment, Know Your Customer (KYC), strong authentication, digital signature, payment and proof management. Trained by IBM at the beginning of his career in the selling of corporate management IT systems, Philippe Le Pape has 15 years of specialized experience in security solutions and identity management and authentication. His background includes cryptography and biometrics.


Anna Milne, Editor, Electronic Payments International

Anna is deputy editor of Retail Banker International, Cards International and editor of Electronic Payments International. She has a strong interest in fintech and consumer finance. She joined Timetric in the summer of 2014, having completed stints as a freelance reporter for City AM and Hackney Citizen newspapers and Food and Travel magazine. Early on in her career she toiled away at the Co-operative Bank and Experian, then worked as a freelance copy editor, print designer and e-commerce manager before completing a Post-grad diploma in Journalism, achieving the industry gold standard. She has since had to invent a new form of shorthand to include a litany of financial jargon and acronyms.

Bernardo Nicoletti, Director, Continental Europe and Middle East, Transigma Partners

Bernardo is a lecturer at the Università di TorVergata, Rome, Italy. He serves as a Director in Transigma Emea, a strategy consultancy company specialized in process improvements and digitization in financial services with global assignments. Bernardo has been active in the payment industry where he applies an innovative approach of Lean and Digitize in his consultancy, a methodology he has described in one of his books on Mobile Banking, published by Palgrave-MacMilland. Bernardo worked with GE Capital as Program Manager of a Global Payment System, as GTO of GE Capital, and with AIG as CIO Latin America.

Nicolò Romani, Head of Innovation Lab SIA

Romani began his career at NTT Data in 1992, becoming Head of the Banking Business Unit in 1998. From 2000-2001, he worked at GFT, developing the startup in Italy and coordinating important B2B and B2C initiatives in the energy and industrial sectors. Romani then joined HP as Client Principal for Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit bank projects, and worked on analytical CRM and security. In 2003, he moved to Between, creating the “Innovative Payments” and “Security” units and coordinating the subsidiary Brazilian startup. In Innovative Payments, Romani was in charge of e-money and mobile payments projects, while in Security, he worked on a system of controls and on the strategic positioning of the services portfolio. He was later made Associate Partner, responsible for innovation activities in the bank sector. In 2015 Romani joined SIA as Head of the Innovation Lab, to develop new service lines in digital and contactless payments and value added services, within the Financial Institutions, Corporate and Public Sector Divisions.

Bertrand Sava, Regional Managing Director, Southern Europe Visa

Bertrand Sava has been Regional Managing Director for Southern Europe at Visa since July 1st, 2014. He is responsible for strengthening Visa’s regional operations in Europe and maintaining business growth in Spain, Italy and Portugal. Bertrand Sava joins Visa from GE Capital International. He has extensive experience in sales, business development, P&L and joint ventures in the financial sector where he has previously occupied different executive positions at both GE and BNP. Born in France, he has an Engineering degree from the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines in Nancy and a Master degree in Finance from HEC (“École des Hautes Études Commerciales”). He has worked extensively within Spain, Italy and Portugal and is fluent in four languages including French, English, Spanish and Italian.

John Sharman, Chief Executive Officer, Tuxedo Money

Responsible for the day-to-day running of the business, John joined Tuxedo from Alliance and Leicester where he was Commercial Director of its prepaid cards business. John previously spent five years at MBNA/Bank of America holding a number of senior positions in the credit card and consumer finance businesses, including 18 months managing Virgin Money’s credit card and loan programmes. John’s background is in retail, having performed a number of management roles in direct marketing and business development for companies including DSG.

Greg Sheppard, Head of Prepaid, Visa Europe

Greg Sheppard is Head of Prepaid at Visa Europe, leading the prepaid team and responsible for defining and executing the prepaid strategy and product development across Europe. Greg and team work closely with the local markets of Visa Europe, together developing and growing the prepaid business and driving the growth of prepaid across product sectors and jurisdictions. He has 20 years of experience in the payments industry. Prior to joining Visa Europe, he was responsible for prepaid for a leading global processor and earlier worked across the debit & credit industries with a UK bank.

Andrea Verri, Founder & CEO, AMILON

47 years old, Andrea Verri is the Co-Founder and CEO of ECRM Group, a corporate holding that owns AMILON and ECRM ITALIA. Verri started his business experience working in the marketing and sales department of big multinational companies like BDF Beiersdorf, Heineken and Perfetti Van Melle. In 2000, he co-founded ECRM Italia, one of the very first Italian consulting companies specialised in loyalty and CRM. ECRM has a unique positioning: a blend of strategic consulting, IT system integration and digital development. In 2005 ECRM became a Group of companies founding ECRM Europe, an IT production unit based in Bucharest, Romania. In 2007 the ECRM Group entered the prepaid market founding Amilon, a leading company in Europe for digital rewards and gifting.

Johan Vaatstra, CEO, Smart Concepts

Johan has over 25 years of experience in the Payment arena. Before his involvement in the Payment industry he worked as a financial specialist for a large multinational. His knowledge ranges from the full range of acquiring methods (payment terminals), to that of issuing processes (BIN sponsoring, programme management and issuing processing).

Walter Pinci, Head of Payment Services – BancoPosta, Poste Italiane

Mr. Pinci is leading the payment division of BancoPosta since May 2011. He is also Board Director of Visa Italia and Chairman of EuroGiro A/S. In December 2005 he became GM of BNL Positivity, JV between BNL (BNP Paribas) and First Data International, dedicated to managing POS payment transactions. From 1985 to 2005 he played several roles at American Express with growing responsibility and left the company as VP Head of Partnerships. Walter began his career with FAO, the UN agency.

Andrea Zamboni, Senior Marketing Manager, Product & Market Development, Southern Europe, Visa

Andrea Zamboni is Senior Marketing Manager in Visa’s Southern Europe Marketing team. He is responsible for the market development of Visa Debit, Credit and Prepaid products in Italy, Spain and Portugal. His role includes tailoring Visa product solutions and ensuring a successful commercial deployment working in collaboration with Visa’s clients and partners. At Visa, Andrea has also worked in Prepaid Product Development and in Mobile, Contactless and Innovation Strategy. Prior to joining Visa, Andrea held R&D and Business Development positions in global hi-tech companies. Andrea holds a degree in Physics and an Executive MBA from Politecnico di Milano.