Event Speakers

Hester M. Peirce was appointed by President Donald J. Trump to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and was sworn in on 11 January, 2018.

Prior to joining the SEC, Commissioner Peirce conducted research on the regulation of financial markets at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. She was a senior counsel on the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, where she advised Ranking Member Richard Shelby and other members of the Committee on securities issues.

Commissioner Peirce served as counsel to SEC Commissioner Paul S. Atkins. She also worked as a staff attorney in the SEC’s Division of Investment Management. Commissioner Peirce was an associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale) and clerked for Judge Roger Andewelt on the Court of Federal Claims.

Commissioner Peirce earned her bachelor’s degree in economics from Case Western Reserve University and her JD from Yale Law School.

Jeffrey R. Gerlach is Vice President in the Supervision, Regulation, and Credit (SRC) Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and leads SRC’s Quantitative Supervision & Research (QSR) unit. Prior to joining the Richmond Fed as a Senior Financial Economist in 2011, Jeff was a professor at the SKK Graduate School of Business in Seoul, South Korea, the College of William & Mary, and an International Faculty Fellow at MIT. He worked as a Foreign Service Officer for the U.S. Department of State before earning a Ph.D. at Indiana University in 2001

John Schiavetta is a Senior Vice President and Chief Risk Officer for AB, overseeing aspects of risk management to ensure that risks being taken are well understood and appropriately managed. He joined AB in 2008 as director of risk management, with responsibilities for fixed-income risk, liquidity risk, counterparty risk and valuation. Previously, Schiavetta was at Fitch Ratings for 15 years, most recently as group managing director, responsible for managing the agency’s global structured credit ratings group. Prior to that, he was product manager at pension-consulting firm CDA Investment Technologies. Schiavetta began his career at the Dreyfus Corporation. He holds a BA in economics from Bates College and is a CFA charterholder.

Emily Nachlas is the Chief Risk Officer of Western Alliance Bancorporation.

In this role, Ms. Nachlas brings nearly 25 years of experience in financial services risk management to oversee Western Alliance Bancorporation’s second line of defense risk management teams and processes. Since joining the bank in 2019, she has evolved the organization’s risk management strategy, organizational risk framework, and infrastructure commensurate with its size and complexity as it crossed the regulatory threshold beyond $50 billion in assets. She provides overall leadership, vision, and direction for enterprise risk, credit risk, financial risk, strategic risk, compliance, BSA/AML, operational risk, credit review, and model risk management.

Before joining Western Alliance Bank, Ms. Nachlas specialized in developing risk management programs as Executive Vice President and Director of Enterprise Risk Management at IBERIABANK in New Orleans and previous risk management positions at HSBC, Amegy Bank and Hibernia National Bank. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Management from the A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of New Orleans.

Within the banking industry’s risk management discipline, Ms. Nachlas serves on several boards and councils, including the National Mid-Tier CRO Council of the Risk Management Association, as well as the local Phoenix RMA chapter. She is a frequent speaker and presenter at industry conferences. In 2022, she was named among Arizona’s Most Influential Women in Business. As a committed ally, she is the Executive Sponsor of PRIDE@Work, the BRG for Western Alliance Bank’s LGBTQIA people and allies.

Ms. Nachlas lives in Phoenix with her husband and two children. As a volunteer with Arizona Small Dog Rescue, she has fostered more than 50 small dogs since 2016, ensuring they have safe forever homes.

Matthew F. Ferraro serves as the senior counselor for cybersecurity and emerging technology to the Secretary of Homeland Security and the executive director of the artificial intelligence safety and security board.  n this role, Mr. Ferraro advises the Secretary on the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) and other advanced technologies to fulfill the Department’s mission and on AI policymaking across the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and throughout the US government. Prior to his service at DHS, Mr. Ferraro practiced law at the intersection of national security, cybersecurity, technology, and crisis management at the international law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP.  While there, he was a principal architect of the firm’s AI practice. Before entering the legal profession, Mr. Ferraro served as a US intelligence officer, holding a variety of staff, policy, and operational positions with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency. An adjunct professor of law and senior fellow at the National Security Institute at George Mason University, he has written widely on issues related to national security, technology, and law. Educated at Yale, Cambridge, and Stanford, Mr. Ferraro lives and works in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Moenickheim has more than 20 years of experience assessing and managing risk for the banking, consumer finance, and payments industries. Prior to joining Evolve, Mr. Moenickheim served as CRO for Gateway First Bank. He has held similar positions with Ocwen Financial, Santander Consumer, and JPMorgan Chase. Mr. Moenickheim received a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Princeton University. He’s also an ABA Certified Enterprise Risk Professional (CERP) and a graduate of the ABA Compliance School.

Jeffrey joined Antara Capital in October 2022 and serves as Chief Risk Officer (CRO).  Prior to Antara, Jeffrey spent 4 years as Chief Risk Officer of TPRV Capital, a multi-asset class relative value strategy, where he oversaw all aspects of risk management.  Prior TPRV, Jeffrey spent 10 years at Fortress Investment Group, finishing as the Director of Risk.  At Fortress, Jeffrey was responsible for market risk management of all liquid markets hedge fund strategies.

Max is responsible for defining the next generation of multi-asset investment processes for Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions. Previously, he was president and chief investment officer of the start-up asset manager AlphaTrAI, where he harnessed artificial intelligence to build alternative strategies for traditional and digital assets. Before that, he was head of asset allocation at the asset management arm of Pacific Life Insurance for seven years. Prior to Pacific Life, Max was a portfolio manager with Mellon Capital’s multi-asset group and a founding member of Coefficient Global, a quantitative macro hedge fund. Outside of work he’s an amateur racecar driver.

Filippo is a financial economist in the Quantitative Supervision and Research (QSR) unit of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. Filippo joined the Richmond Fed in 2014 after earning his doctorate in Finance at the University of Arizona. Prior to moving to the US, Filippo worked one year for Toro Assicurazioni S.p.a. (now Assicurazioni Generali S.p.a.) and obtained his master degree in Actuarial and Statistical Science from the University of Turin. Since he started working for the Richmond Fed he has been heavily involved in Operational Risk as both modeler and examiner.

Bryan Smith currently serves as FINRA’s senior vice president for complex investigations and intelligence (CII) as part of the National Cause and Financial Crimes Detection (NCFC) programme.  In this role, he oversees the cyber and analytics group which houses FINRA’s cyber-enabled fraud, cyber security group, and the crypto asset investigation teams as well as the illicit finance & fraud group composed of the anti-money laundering teams (AML), the anti-fraud investigative team (AFI); the high risk representative group (HRR); the vulnerable adults and seniors investigation team (VAST) as well as being responsible for US law enforcement engagement.

Prior to joining FINRA, Bryan spent more than 21 years with the FBI as a special agent and most recently was the section chief for the FBI’s cyber criminal operations, responsible for all of the FBI’s investigations and operations against cyber criminal actors and threats. Previous FBI leadership assignments included leading the cyber/white collar branch of the Cleveland office, the FBI’s national money laundering/bank fraud programme, and serving as the FBI detailee to the US Securities and Exchange Commission where he assisted both agencies in insider trading, market manipulation, and investment fraud matters. His experience crosses over financial crimes, cyber, and virtual currency and in 2013 he initiated the FBI's first unit focused on cryptocurrency. A proponent of public private partnerships he initiated several private sector outreach efforts to better leverage the complementary knowledge of both. Prior to the FBI, he was a consultant for Accenture and Deloitte and graduated from Bradley University with a degree in Accounting.

Nick Silitch was recently senior vice president, chief risk officer of Prudential Financial, Inc. In this role, Silitch oversaw Prudential’s risk management infrastructure and risk profile across all business lines and risk types. Under his direction, his team developed models, metrics, frameworks and governance to manage risk, and works with internal corporate partners and business groups to identify, assess and prioritize risk across the company. He was chairman of the organization’s Enterprise Risk Committee that evaluates current and emerging risks relevant to the company, and is a member of Prudential’s Senior Management Council.

Silitch also worked with external stakeholder groups to forward industry interests. He was head of the International Affairs Committee for the North American Chief Risk Officers’ Council, and a member of the Advisory Council for the International Association of Credit Portfolio Managers.

Silitch joined Prudential in 2010 as chief credit officer and head of investment risk management, overseeing Prudential’s general account and other proprietary investment risks globally, as well as maintaining and approving Delegations of Authority and Investment Policy Statements.

Prior to joining Prudential, Silitch held the position of chief risk officer of the Alternative Investment Services, Broker Dealer Services and Pershing businesses within Bank of New York Mellon. He also served on the Pershing Executive Committee.

Silitch joined Bank of New York Mellon in 1983 as a credit trainee. Throughout his career at the bank, he held senior positions in client management, investor relations, risk management, loan restructuring, credit portfolio management and Basel compliance.

He received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Colby College.

Ronald Ratcliffe, PhD, is a Managing Director in BlackRock’s Applied Portfolio Analysis practice area within the Analytics & Quantitative Solutions (AQS) group. He focuses on multi-asset portfolio risk, scenario analysis, and portfolio construction.

Dr. Ratcliffe's service with BlackRock dates back to 2004, including his years with Barclays Global Investors (BGI), which merged with BlackRock in 2009. Prior to joining AQS, he led the Market-Driven Scenarios (MDS) initiative as Head of Cross-Platform Scenario Analysis in the Risk & Quantitative Analysis (RQA) group. Previously in RQA, he was Head of Multi-Asset Investment Risk for the Americas West region. In the Portfolio Management Group (PMG), he was a portfolio manager and developed systematic macro trading strategies. Prior to joining BGI, Dr. Ratcliffe was a senior manager at KPMG in corporate valuation and international transfer pricing. Previously, he was the chief economist for Latin America at SG Cowen Securities, a subsidiary of Societe Generale. Before that he was with Bankers Trust Company (now part of Deutsche Bank) where he carried out country risk analysis.

Dr. Ratcliffe earned BA degrees in economics and in political science, with distinction and with departmental honors in economics, from Stanford University. He received a PhD in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Arthur is senior fellow and advisory board member for AI 2030. He is the former Head of Markets Regulatory and Front Office Risk Technology, BNY Mellon.

Arthur was leading globally the Front Office Counterparty and Funding Risk Technology group at Deutsche Bank AG. His responsibility covers CVA/FVA calculation, real-time risk monitoring and OTC margining technology. Throughout his career, Arthur specialised in designing technology solutions for Front Office and Regulatory risk management, in Financial and Commodity trading. 
Prior to Deutsche Bank he held technology leadership roles at Barclays Capital, EdF Trading and worked as an independent risk and treasury technology consultant.

George Soulellis currently serves as Enterprise Model Risk Officer for Freddie Mac with overall responsibility for model risk management in the firm. Previously, he served as Managing Director, Risk Analytics for Barclays Bank in the UK, overseeing risk model development and analytics. He has also held leadership positions in the risk management/modelling/analytics space at Citigroup, General Electric and JP Morgan Chase. His interests primarily lie in model uncertainty measurement, model risk under conditions of extrapolation, machine learning methods and modelling for capital requirements.

Steve Boras is the Head of Model Risk Management & Validation at Citizens Bank in Boston, focused on managing the model risk of the bank via validation of models, performance management and monitoring of outcomes, and serving as a sounding board for new and emerging modeling techniques and their respective appropriateness. Since joining Citizens in 2015, Steve has led several risk analytics functions, most recently heading the Risk Architecture Center of Excellence (covering loss forecasting model development for CCAR/DFAST and CECL, and PD, LGD, and EAD modeling for wholesale), as well as anti-money laundering modeling, macroeconomic scenario generation, and Data Science.  Steve also holds leadership roles in enterprise risk, ESG and Inflation/Stagflation scenario analysis, and artificial intelligence and machine learning governance.

Hamid serves as Vice President of Risk Analytics, Risk Management at OMERS. He has over 13 years of experience in the Pension Industry with a primary focus on Risk Management. He's earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University of Toronto.

Adam Ennamli is the current chief risk officer at General Bank of Canada, overseeing the evolution and management of all enterprise-wide risks. He leverages over 15 years of risk management, compliance and operations leadership experience at major financial and technology institutions globally, including Thomson Reuters, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Morgan Stanley and National Bank of Canada.

In his prior roles, Adam spearheaded the development of risk management, governance and compliance programmes driving strategic decision-making and prudent growth. He holds an MBA from HEC Montreal as well as multiple ESG certifications, complementing his expertise across ERM, cyber security, operational resilience and technology. Adam is recognised for enabling companies to build durable competitive advantages through world-class capabilities.

Sarah Beth Felix has over 20 years of experience in anti-financial crimes with operational, audit and consulting roles, working with banks, payment firms, and global fintechs. Operationalising AML/sanctions threats is one of her most well-known attributes, providing actionable solutions for clients. Beyond traditional banking, she has specialised years of work in fintechs, lendtechs, cannabis banking, crypto, correspondent banking, and trade finance.

Sarah Beth has a master’s in forensic studies and has been CAMS certified for almost 20 years and has served as a Certification Task Force Member for the CAMS-CGSS, CAMS-RM, CAMS-CKYC designations. She has global speaking engagements, focusing on operational takeaways that move the audience to ‘take action’ in improving their AML/sanctions programs. She is also a guest lecturer at the National War College in Washington, D.C. and is frequently asked to train various US federal law enforcement agencies on private sector data availability that impacts subpoenas and unregulated payment ecosystems.

She is founder & CEO of Palmera Consulting, advising global firms since 2011. She is also co-founder and chief AML officer for a new digital correspondent bank – Acceleron Bank, in formation – based in Vermont, USA. 

Madiha Fatima is an executive director - operational and outsourcing risk management at JP Morgan, where she leads the second line of defence function for operational and outsourcing risk overseeing third-party risk management, sourcing, procurement and inter-affiliate management. Previously, Madiha was the head of the third-party risk management department at Angelo Gordon, where she was responsible for developing a third-party risk management framework while enabling businesses to achieve their strategic objectives by utilising vendors. Before joining Angelo Gordon, Madiha Fatima was the head of third-party risk governance & oversight at DTCC. Madiha is a certified third-party risk professional (CTPRP). Madiha earned a Bachelor of Science in financial and capital markets from Rutgers Business School.

Mr. Shafi is a seasoned risk executive working in financial service industry with primary focus in counterparty credit risk, trading & market risk, enterprise risk and asset liability management (ALM). Currently serving as Head Counterparty risk management at US Bank – 5^th largest commercial bank in the united states. Notable assignment was helping and providing leadership to the broader team in making significant improvement in risk management and governance/policy framework at Citi’s global credit markets trading business during and post financial crisis. Improvement entailed enhancing risk management and control / compliance framework, strengthening risk infrastructure/risk policies, developing risk appetite based dynamic risk and stress limit structure, establishing various performance and management indicators. Other accomplishments were building various stylized and historic stress test scenarios using low to high probability risk-off events that resulted in risk mitigation, hedging, risk/return and capital optimization.

Mr Shafi holds bachelor degree in economics and mathematics from University of Oklahoma/C Oklahoma and MBA in finance from Carnegie Mellon University.

Jean Carlos is an accomplished economist and seasoned banker with over 20 years of global investment banking experience. Currently serving as the Executive Director and US Head of Risk Appetite & Limits and Valuation at Santander Corporate Investment Banking, He leads a team responsible for governance, admission, and risk control of capital markets activity in the US.

Jean Carlos possesses a wealth of expertise in technical, fundamental, markets, and risk knowledge, including ESG and impact investment approaches. Throughout his career, Jean Carlos has been instrumental in constructing robust capabilities and risk frameworks, geared towards facilitating multi-assets class activities within capital markets, with a focus on Latin America and the US. 

Jean Carlos earned a Master in Business Administration from MIT, with Business Analytics and Sustainability certifications. He also holds a Bachelor in Economics and a Master in Banking and Financial Markets. Beyond finance, he has contributed to sustainability projects with positive social, environmental, and financial impact.

Dr. Beju Rao, PhD, is a distinguished figure in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). As the Founder, President, and CEO of Amruta Inc, he has been instrumental in designing and implementing Explainable AI (XAI) software and services. These solutions have been pivotal in enhancing revenue, profitability, safety, compliance, and reputation across various corporations, agencies, and organizations worldwide. Dr. Rao’s XAI-based solutions address the opacity and complexity of AI, yielding a remarkable 25-fold return on investment. His career, spanning over 36 years, is marked by a consultative approach that involves situation assessment, precise needs identification, organizational readiness preparation, and information-based strategies. This approach has empowered numerous enterprises to reap innovative and significant business benefits.

Before establishing Amruta Inc in June 2014, Dr. Rao held the position of Founding-Principal and Chief Scientist at Axtria, Inc. He also served in various risk management roles at Capital One, including as the Omnibus Model Risk Officer during the Great Recession. In addition to his corporate achievements, Dr. Rao has made significant contributions to academia as an Adjunct Professor at several universities. His research and innovation have been recognized with three patents and over 100 external and internal publications. Dr. Rao is a sought-after speaker and producer on topics such as innovating with AI without its risks, outsmarting AI, AI guardrails, and AI-based economic and digital transformations. He also serves on the advisory board of FinRegLab, among other community and volunteer activities. Dr. Rao holds a PhD in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from Texas A&M University. His work continues to influence the field of AI, shaping its future while mitigating its risk.

Luke Armstrong is the Head of Buy Side Risk at S&P Global Market Intelligence. He has a decade of experience in buy side risk management working at CQS and Bluebay Asset Management. As Head of Buy Side Risk, he is responsible for the design and build of S&P Global Market Intelligence's next generation buy side risk management platform. Luke holds a BEng in Aerospace Engineering with first class honours from the University of Southampton.

Peter Pernebo is the Global Head of Supplier Risk Solutions, S&P Global Market Intelligence, where he is leading the commercial, strategy and client delivery of supplier due diligence solutions. Our solutions are developed in close cooperation with large industry leading organizations to provide efficiencies and standardization to the supplier due diligence process.

At S&P Global, Peter most recently was the Global lead of KY3P (Know Your Third Party) solutions with responsibilities of developing, implement and deliver advanced third-party risk management solutions for leading client organizations.  Peter is also a frequent speaker and panelist on various conferences and seminars.

Before joining IHS Markit, he spent eight years leading various engagements within Goldman Sachs third party risk management office, establishing vendor management policies, procedures and infrastructure to support the firm’s program.

Prior, he was recruited to lead the northeast region for Totality, a silicon valley technology upstart providing operational support for major ecommerce clients. His responsibilities included sales, client service delivery and consulting. As part of the executive leadership team, Peter was responsible for product and growth strategies. Totality was acquired by Verizon Business where he led the integration of Totality services.

Before joining Totality, he was a Senior Director at Accenture, leading global supply chain projects for clients in the US, Canada, Japan, UK, Sweden and many other locations.

He holds a BSc in Business Strategy from Lund University as well as minors in History and Sociology.  Mr. Pernebo is ITIL certified.

Chris is a member of Milliman’s Cyber Risk Solutions (CRS) practice group.  The practice delivers a portfolio of risk consulting services, such as enterprise risk design, cyber risk assessment and quantification, test and build projects, operational risk assessments, enterprise risk management (ERM) education and training, and ERM technology evaluation. The CRS practice uses diagnostic consulting strategies to understand an organization’s enterprise risk goals and challenges and then customize solutions to deliver required business results. 

EXPERIENCE

Chris has 15 years of professional experience.  His experience includes work in the banking, insurance, capital markets and card sectors helping clients assess and mitigate risk. 

Prior to joining Milliman, Chris was a Senior Manager in Accenture’s Finance and Risk Management Consulting practice, delivering work for global financial service clients.   Additionally, Chris served as an active duty Naval Officer and has multiple overseas deployments. 

Professional experience and subject matter advisory includes: 

• Cyber Security metrics and governance
• Financial Service Regulatory and Compliance initiatives
• Risk Management 
• Corporate and Risk Governance
• Surveillance 
• Financial Services operating model and cost reduction
• Regulatory remediation and responses
• Legal department risk and optimization
• Leading large cross functional projects and teams

EDUCATION

• BS Political Science, University of Wisconsin–Madison
• MBA, University of Chicago – Booth School of Business

Mark Hofberg is an accomplished risk management leader with over 20 years of industry experience.  He previously served as a leader in a variety of audit, risk and compliance management functions within retail, wealth, and investment banking at Bank of America.  Mark currently serves customers as Risk Solutions Executive within ServiceNow’s financial services division.  Prior to joining ServiceNow, Mark served as RSA Archer’s field risk officer for US and Canada.

Mark has held various senior leadership roles at Accenture, Bank of America, RSA and now guides customers on their integrated risk transformation journeys with ServiceNow.  He is passionate about the evolution of risk management, emerging risks, and the utilization of technology to optimize business outcomes.  Mark has co-authored white papers on impacts of technical debt, digital risk, and has a patent on optimization of technology decisions (US 8,321,363 · Issued Nov 27, 2012) along with a patent pending process risk prioritization model.  Mark holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from North Carolina State University.

As Vice President of Operational Risk, Michael leads the first line of defense risk management for financial crimes, privacy and information security, business resiliency, vendor management and compliance with regulatory requirements. Mike and his team establishes the risk direction by aligning the Multifamily Governance Framework with the business operating model. He continually improves governance by understanding the multifaceted drivers that effect risk environment.

Kris Devasabai is the New York-based editor-in-chief of Risk.net. Previously, he was bureau chief and US editor of Risk magazine. He manages the editorial team. Prior to joining Risk, Kris covered hedge funds, asset management, cross-border investing and law for several publications.

Kris holds a bachelor’s degree in law and government from the University of Manchester, and he completed his legal training at the Inns of Court School of Law in London. He was called to the bar of England and Wales in 2003.

Mitchell Button is a senior vice president and head of financial model validation for US Bank.  Mitchell’s team is responsible for managing model risk for the bank’s market risk, counterparty credit risk, interest rate risk and valuation models.  Prior to his current role, Mitchell has more than a decade of experience building and validating high risk models, including leading teams in areas focused on capital markets and asset liability management.   He has a master’s in economics and finance from University of North Carolina – Charlotte and a certified FRM with GARP.

Arsa heads up the Retail Credit Risk Capital Model Validation group at U.S. Bank. His team covers CECL and CCAR / DFAST stress testing models for all Retail products including mortgage & HELOC, personal loans, credit card, and auto loans & leases. Prior to joining U.S. Bank, Arsa was Head of Model Risk Management at MUFG Union Bank. He has over 18 years of experience in the financial industry in various credit risk modeling and analytics roles across Wholesale and Retail lending portfolio; previously he was in Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and Goldman Sachs. Arsa holds a BS in Computer Science and MS in Computational Finance from Carnegie Mellon University and has passed CFA Level III.

Yakov Shenkman, CFA, FRM, CAIA, Director, is the head of the Risk & Quantitative Analysis (RQA) team for Fundamental Equity, Americas.  The RQA team provides independent risk oversight on behalf of BlackRock and its clients, as well as partners with portfolio managers in their portfolio construction process to ensure the risks managed by BlackRock are appropriately deliberate, diversified and scaled.   Prior to joining BlackRock in 2013, Yakov was a senior risk manager in Global Portfolio Strategies (GPS) team at Bank of America where he was responsible for constructing, optimizing and hedging bank’s commercial credit loan portfolio.  Yakov started his career in 2006 at Morgan Stanley where he was an equity risk manager at Morgan Stanley Investment Management transitioning later on to a sell-side risk manager role covering Structured Credit Products trading desk. Yakov holds a Masters degree in Operations Research-Financial Engineering from Columbia University and an undergraduate degree in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Yakov is a CFA, FRM and CAIA charters holder and is a member of CFA Institute and Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP).

Alla Gil is co-founder and CEO of Straterix, which provides unique scenario tools for strategic planning and risk management. Prior to forming Straterix, Gil was the global head of Strategic Advisory at Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Nomura, where she advised financial institutions and corporations on stress testing, economic capital, ALM, long-term integrated risk projections and optimal capital allocation.

Stuart Neilson is a data scientist with 20 years of experience, and expertise on a wide variety of predictive modeling techniques and data management processes, with a particular focus on credit risk.

Kirat Singh has had a long career as one of Wall Street’s premier technologists. Prior to co-founding Beacon, Kirat spent four years launching and delivering the Quartz project at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which is now used by more than 5,000 developers across the bank. Before that, he launched and delivered the Athena project at JPMorgan with Beacon co-founder Dr. Mark Higgins, and spent eight years at Goldman Sachs building the SecDB platform used across the firm.

Badri is a forward-thinking operational risk executive with over 15 years of experience in the financial services industry. As a senior vice president, operational risk executive, Badri is accountable for the effective execution of the bank’s operational risk programme for the global technology organisation. As part of this role, he and his team provide oversight of key operational risks including data risk, cybersecurity, resiliency, technical change across global technology CIO organisations. Badri has a proven track record of developing and implementing comprehensive risk management strategies that safeguard organisational assets, enhance regulatory compliance, and optimise operational efficiency. Prior to this role, Badri served as the operational risk lead for the consumer and small business organisation with a focus on implementing the operational risk programme and strategies across consumer products and services, including but not limited to, credit card, ATM/online banking, first mortgage and home equity. Badri joined Bank of America in 2010 in the global risk management organisation and has since then served on multiple credit and operational risk roles. He received his B.S. degree in electrical engineering from VIT University, India and earned his Master’s degree in mathematical finance from University of North Carolina, Charlotte.

With 14 years of Financial Services industry experience, Rob currently leads the Internal and External Loss Data team within Operational Risk Management at PNC. Rob has developed new risk frameworks and identifies and provides risk management and control solutions to address high profile and complex problems. Rob has overseen acquisition duties including integration of enterprise-wide risk data. Prior to joining PNC, Rob spent 7 years at BNY Mellon with positions in Asset Servicing and Global Markets. Rob has a keen eye for process improvements and automation using technology in the risk management and data analysis space.

Rob has held leadership roles at both PNC and BNY Mellon and holds a BSBA with a concentration in Economics from Robert Morris University and an MBA with a concentration in Management Information Systems from Point Park University.

Scott is Co-Head of Quantitative Services at Acadia where he manages complex projects and teams within quantitative finance. Scott is a risk and finance professional specializing in capital planning, stress testing, derivatives pricing, and model development at large US banks. He advises financial institutions on risk management and regulatory compliance matters, helping clients accelerate development timelines and achieve high-value institutional objectives. Scott has extensive experience meeting Dodd Frank deliverables, Uncleared Margin Rules and managing regulatory relationships with the Federal Reserve, OCC, FDIC, and others through prior roles at Citigroup and Santander US. He holds a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics with Honors from Williams College, as well as active Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Certificate in Quantitative Finance (CQF) qualifications.

Noel Dixon is a Senior Macro Strategist for the Multi-Asset Research team at State Street Global Markets. He is responsible for researching G10 FX, commodity currencies, and geopolitics. Prior to this role Noel worked for Fidelity Investments for over 10 years with experience in Wealth Advisory, Equity Trading, and Data Analytics. Noel holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance from Boston College and is a CFA Charterholder.

• Evan G. Sekeris is chief model risk officer with Capital One, based in Washington, D.C. His areas of focus are stress testing, operational risk, and cyber risk. Evan’s background is in the measurement and quantification of credit risk and operational risk.  His primary focus is currently on supporting institutions in building stress testing frameworks, developing their risk identification process and developing their model risk management frameworks.
• His projects  include:
  • Supporting a wide range of large global and regional banks with their CCAR frameworks, with a particular emphasis on their non financial risks.
  • Developed a cyber risk quantification framework for a number of clients including a global financial institution and a fortune 250 industrial.
  • Assessment and redevelopment of risk operating models and of 3LoD frameworks for various large global and regional banks.
  • For a large internationally active US bank: supported major change of course in CCAR operational risk stress estimates a few months prior to submission in reaction to regulatory guidance.
  • Supported the development of operational risk models for capital and stress testing purposes at more than 20 institutions worldwide.
• Previously, Evan was with MUFG, Oliver Wyman, and Aon in Columbia, Maryland, and assistant vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, where he created the center of excellence for operational risk which served the system needs for operational risk related matters. The team was in charge of the supervision of all AMA and CCAR banks in the US and developed the Fed’s CCAR model for operational risk.
• Evan earned a B.A. and M.A. in Economics from the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at Los Angeles.
  • He has numerous publications in both academic and practitioner journals
  • Evan is an editor of the Journal of Operational Risk

Jeevan Perera is currently the risk manager for the Orion space vehicle. The Orion is NASA's new spacecraft which will replace the Space Shuttle, service the International Space Station, and then return astronauts to the moon and eventually mount expeditions to Mars.  Perera has been with NASA for 20 years. In his current capacity, he is responsible for risk management policies, processes and analytical tools that ensure the successful deployment and operations of this new spacecraft. Perera oversees both quantitative and qualitative risk analysis processes and provides technical direction to a team of risk analysts. Formerly as the International Space Station risk manager, he designed, developed, implemented and improved the program's risk management processes through a phased, systematic approach setting the standard for NASA’s risk practice. Prior to his work in risk management, Perera has worked in different technical fields in support of many NASA programs and projects. These duties have included management responsibility for versions of the primary and back-up flight software for the Space Shuttle and development responsibility for other software used aboard Space Shuttle and International Space Station missions. 

Perera has been a member of the board of trustees for a local homeowners association, has provided legal advice to the United Space School, a foundation for international space education that brings student from around the world for focused classes on space related disciplines. He often presents on space topics at schools, universities, public events and international conferences. Perera has both a Jurisprudence Doctorate (law) and a PhD in Industrial Engineering.

Mr. David Lin is the Founder and CEO of Linvest21.AI, a FinTech firm specialized in autonomous Investment Platform – AlphaCopilotTM, based of Vertical AI.
Prior to founding Linvest21, Mr. Lin was a Managing Director of JPMorgan Asset Management (AM) since 2001, and the Chief Technology Officer of its global Investment Platform. In addition to his AM-wide responsibilities, David was the head of Technology for Global Equities, Multi-Asset Solutions and Global Beta. Before that, Mr. Lin served as the Chief Technology Officer for Global Quantitative Research and Global Research Technology for Asset and Wealth Management. Prior to joining JPMorgan, David was the head of Software Development at CNBC.com.
Over the years, Mr. Lin led the teams won a significant number (24) of Industry Awards and Recognitions in the field of Financial Technology. He is also the author of 3 provisional patents in the field of Applied AI.
Mr. Lin holds a Bachelor degree in Computer Science from University of Toronto, and a MBA from Columbia University.

Scott is currently a professional pilot and President of the Blue Angel Foundation. He is an instructor and evaluator for United Airlines in Denver, Colorado, the number 5 pilot for the Patriot Jet Team, the only civilian jet demonstration team in North America, and was a stunt pilot in TOPGUN Maverick and was the aviation safety supervisor in Mission Impossible 8.

He lives in Colorado with his wife of 32 years, and his two sons are both naval aviators, following in their father’s footsteps.

Ash Majid is Managing Director and Chief Risk Officer for SMBC Capital Markets, Inc. & SMBC Nikko Securities America, Inc. wholly owned subsidiaries of SMBC Americas Holdings, Inc. In his current role he oversees teams responsible for managing the risk from the two subsidiaries within the broader America’s Division risk management team. Prior to joining SMBC Capital Markets, Ash worked at Ernst and Young, LLP within their Quantitative Advisory Services and SunTrust Banks, Inc. with oversight of their derivatives trading desks' market risk. Ash holds a Doctorate degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering and a Master's degree in Quantitative and Computational Finance from Georgia Institute of Technology. Additionally, Ash holds FINRA Series 7 & 24 licenses.

Jeffrey joined Antara Capital in October 2022 and serves as Chief Risk Officer (CRO).  Prior to Antara, Jeffrey spent 4 years as Chief Risk Officer of TPRV Capital, a multi-asset class relative value strategy, where he oversaw all aspects of risk management.  Prior TPRV, Jeffrey spent 10 years at Fortress Investment Group, finishing as the Director of Risk.  At Fortress, Jeffrey was responsible for market risk management of all liquid markets hedge fund strategies.

Sven Sandow is the Global Head of Credit and Operational Risk Analytics at Morgan Stanley. During his 20-year career in the financial industry, Sven has worked in various quantitative modeling, risk management, and capital management capacities. Prior to Morgan Stanley, he worked at Merrill Lynch and Standard & Poor’s. Before he joined the financial industry, Sven worked as a physicist at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and the Weizmann Institute of Science. He has been an active researcher in physics, finance, and machine learning. His research has been published in academic journals, and he coauthored a book on learning from data. Sven holds a Ph.D. in physics from the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany.

Max is responsible for defining the next generation of multi-asset investment processes for Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions. Previously, he was president and chief investment officer of the start-up asset manager AlphaTrAI, where he harnessed artificial intelligence to build alternative strategies for traditional and digital assets. Before that, he was head of asset allocation at the asset management arm of Pacific Life Insurance for seven years. Prior to Pacific Life, Max was a portfolio manager with Mellon Capital’s multi-asset group and a founding member of Coefficient Global, a quantitative macro hedge fund. Outside of work he’s an amateur racecar driver.

Ronald Ratcliffe, PhD, is a Managing Director in BlackRock’s Applied Portfolio Analysis practice area within the Analytics & Quantitative Solutions (AQS) group. He focuses on multi-asset portfolio risk, scenario analysis, and portfolio construction.

Dr. Ratcliffe's service with BlackRock dates back to 2004, including his years with Barclays Global Investors (BGI), which merged with BlackRock in 2009. Prior to joining AQS, he led the Market-Driven Scenarios (MDS) initiative as Head of Cross-Platform Scenario Analysis in the Risk & Quantitative Analysis (RQA) group. Previously in RQA, he was Head of Multi-Asset Investment Risk for the Americas West region. In the Portfolio Management Group (PMG), he was a portfolio manager and developed systematic macro trading strategies. Prior to joining BGI, Dr. Ratcliffe was a senior manager at KPMG in corporate valuation and international transfer pricing. Previously, he was the chief economist for Latin America at SG Cowen Securities, a subsidiary of Societe Generale. Before that he was with Bankers Trust Company (now part of Deutsche Bank) where he carried out country risk analysis.

Dr. Ratcliffe earned BA degrees in economics and in political science, with distinction and with departmental honors in economics, from Stanford University. He received a PhD in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Ji Qin, CFA, is the head of market risk for HSBC bank USA. She is responsible for identification, assessment, measurement, management, monitoring and reporting of the market risks from the trading businesses. Prior to this role, she was head of market risk for MUFG Securities America. Her experiences also include fixed income trading and structured investment management for Commerzbank NY branch. She has a master of Computer Science degree from University of Cincinnati and a bachelor of computer science degree from Beijing Polytechnic University.

For 25 years Tat has been contributing in Treasury and Capital Markets quant and mathematical finance space. He is currently the Global Head of Risk Model Methodology at Jefferies, and was a senior principal and senior manager for  many years in the financial technology space.Tat holds a Ph.D from Columbia mathematics department and currently an adjunct professor at Columbia University, inspiring the next generation since 2006.

Hamid serves as Vice President of Risk Analytics, Risk Management at OMERS. He has over 13 years of experience in the Pension Industry with a primary focus on Risk Management. He's earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University of Toronto.

Adrian Cox is a strategist on Deutsche Bank’s Thematic Research team, focused on the implications of Artificial Intelligence for investors, enterprises and society. He joined Deutsche Bank in 2009 and held senior leadership roles in Communications in London and Sydney before joining DB Research. He previously spent a decade covering finance and economics as an award-winning journalist and editor at Bloomberg News and the Financial Times in London, Brussels and New York. He is a graduate of Cambridge University and has an MBA from City University in London.

Agus Sudjianto was an executive vice president and head of Corporate Model Risk for Wells Fargo, where he led a highly technical team to manage model risk across the enterprise. Before this position, Agus was the modeling and analytics director and chief model risk officer at Lloyds Banking Group in the United Kingdom, where he was responsible for the enterprise development and oversight of all risk management models (retail and wholesale credits, market, regulatory capital, stress testing, asset liability management, and insurance).

Arthur is senior fellow and advisory board member for AI 2030. He is the former Head of Markets Regulatory and Front Office Risk Technology, BNY Mellon.

Arthur was leading globally the Front Office Counterparty and Funding Risk Technology group at Deutsche Bank AG. His responsibility covers CVA/FVA calculation, real-time risk monitoring and OTC margining technology. Throughout his career, Arthur specialised in designing technology solutions for Front Office and Regulatory risk management, in Financial and Commodity trading. 
Prior to Deutsche Bank he held technology leadership roles at Barclays Capital, EdF Trading and worked as an independent risk and treasury technology consultant.

Chris is a member of Milliman’s Cyber Risk Solutions (CRS) practice group.  The practice delivers a portfolio of risk consulting services, such as enterprise risk design, cyber risk assessment and quantification, test and build projects, operational risk assessments, enterprise risk management (ERM) education and training, and ERM technology evaluation. The CRS practice uses diagnostic consulting strategies to understand an organization’s enterprise risk goals and challenges and then customize solutions to deliver required business results. 

EXPERIENCE

Chris has 15 years of professional experience.  His experience includes work in the banking, insurance, capital markets and card sectors helping clients assess and mitigate risk. 

Prior to joining Milliman, Chris was a Senior Manager in Accenture’s Finance and Risk Management Consulting practice, delivering work for global financial service clients.   Additionally, Chris served as an active duty Naval Officer and has multiple overseas deployments. 

Professional experience and subject matter advisory includes: 

• Cyber Security metrics and governance
• Financial Service Regulatory and Compliance initiatives
• Risk Management 
• Corporate and Risk Governance
• Surveillance 
• Financial Services operating model and cost reduction
• Regulatory remediation and responses
• Legal department risk and optimization
• Leading large cross functional projects and teams

EDUCATION

• BS Political Science, University of Wisconsin–Madison
• MBA, University of Chicago – Booth School of Business

Mark Hofberg is an accomplished risk management leader with over 20 years of industry experience.  He previously served as a leader in a variety of audit, risk and compliance management functions within retail, wealth, and investment banking at Bank of America.  Mark currently serves customers as Risk Solutions Executive within ServiceNow’s financial services division.  Prior to joining ServiceNow, Mark served as RSA Archer’s field risk officer for US and Canada.

Mark has held various senior leadership roles at Accenture, Bank of America, RSA and now guides customers on their integrated risk transformation journeys with ServiceNow.  He is passionate about the evolution of risk management, emerging risks, and the utilization of technology to optimize business outcomes.  Mark has co-authored white papers on impacts of technical debt, digital risk, and has a patent on optimization of technology decisions (US 8,321,363 · Issued Nov 27, 2012) along with a patent pending process risk prioritization model.  Mark holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from North Carolina State University.