Our Speakers 2024

Renate Strazdina has more than 25 years of experience in IT industry and management consulting. At the moment serving as National Technology Officer at Microsoft covering more than 20 countries in Central Europe and Central Asia regions. Before joining Microsoft in 2016 Renate was in EY Executive Director at Management Advisory Department while serving as the Head of the Public Sector in Latvia and the role of Head of the Education Sector in South-Eastern Europe. Since 2021 she is serving as an independent supervisory board member of Swedbank Latvia.

Renate holds a Doctorate in Engineering from the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology at the Riga Technical University and a master’s degree in management from the University of Latvia. Renate used to be a leading researcher at the Riga Technical University Faculty of Computerscience and Information Technology. For many years she was serving as a board member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Latvia and the Latvian Information and Communications Technology Association.

Sven is a tech enthusiast who loves connecting things and people. As a Tech Strategist at SAP Customer Experience in Munich, Germany, he's always experimenting with new technologies and encouraging the use of SAP's products. Sven enjoys a fun, hands-on approach to researching and is passionate about sharing his insights. Currently, he's intrigued by the possibilities of Web3 for customer engagement and is actively dropping a lot of NFTs with potential customers. 

Outside of work, Sven founded Munich Tech Sauna (techsauna.dev) and spends his free time cycling, running, and exploring saunas in Munich. You can reach him best on Mastodon via @hansamann@mastodon.social or on Farcaster @hansamann.eth.

Mikhail Shcheglov is a product leader with over 10 years of experience at companies like Bolt, OLX, Yandex, and various startups. Leveraging his PhD and extensive industry knowledge, he currently works at Bolt as a Group Product Manager. 

Peter joined Mastercard 25 years ago, and has until today held various positions within Finance, Account Management and Business Development. Today, he is heading up Retail & Commerce for Northern Europe. This includes Mastercard's relations to Acquirers and PSP as well as retailers across the divison.

Konstantins Margolis is the Co-Founder of LIBERNETIX, a financial technology company. With a wealth of experience in founding and leading multiple ventures across the tech and digital sectors, Konstantins brings a unique blend of strategic insight and innovative leadership to the fintech space.

Lewis Horder is the Director of Fintech Sales at Paysafe, bringing over 15 years of experience in the payments industry. As a recognized expert, he possesses deep knowledge of the payment ecosystem and fintech landscape, helping businesses navigate and thrive in this rapidly evolving sector. His extensive expertise makes him a sought-after speaker on the future of fintech and digital payments.

Leading and managing customer relationships with Merchants from various industries.

8 years of comprehensive experience from payments industry working with Banks, Merchants and Fintechs round ACH and Open Banking.

In my current role I’m paving the way for tokenized online payments, sharing thought leadership of changing market trends and consumer behaviour, and helping customers to accept trending payment methods such as APMs, C2P and Open Banking.

Tapio Vailahti is a seasoned expert in secure payments, with a focus on card payments, authentication, and identification. He has held leadership roles at prominent companies like Gemalto, Valimo Wireless, and Giesecke & Devrient, driving the development and implementation of innovative solutions in these areas. Tapio currently heads up innovation & development for Card Personalization at Tietoevry Banking.

Founder of organic skincare brand and producer MADARA Cosmetics, co-founder of pension fund Vairo.Lv, co-owner Selfnamed.com, investor

 Kelly is a qualified Lawyer, He has graduated with a Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Malta. He is a member of the Malta Chamber of Advocates and was admitted to the Bar in Malta in 2011. In addition to his legal education, Kelly holds a Masters in the Science of Finance (CFA Programme Partner) from Trinity College, University of Dublin. He is ranked in the Chambers and Partners Malta Fintech Legal Guide for 2024. Kelly specializes in distributed ledger technology, financial services, fintech and capital markets with a special focus on investment, VFA and payment services, anti-money laundering and securities. He has assisted clients apply for financial/VFA services licences and advising multiple companies on various regulatory matters to ensure they remain compliant with EU legislation and MFSA and FIAU requirements.

Eugeni is deeply passionate about leveraging data to optimize personalized communication with customers. With a strong background in consulting and technology companies to enhance their digital business strategies, he has spent the past years demonstrating the transformative potential of SAP in delivering superior customer experiences. His innovative approaches have consistently exceeded expectations, leaving clients amazed at the results.

Johanna holds an MSc in civil engineering and has a diverse background in management consulting and the financial industry. With over eight years of experience in the Nordic payments sector, she has contributed to Mastercard’s growth in Northern Europe since joining the company in 2017. In her roles, Johanna has been leading Mastercard's divisional strategy development, business analysis, and partnerships for strategic growth, while supporting Mastercard’s ESG efforts in the region. Johanna and her team are dedicated to fostering innovative partnerships with the public sector and governments across Northern Europe, aiming to advance digitization, resilience, and innovation in the market.

Niks Evalds joined Printful in 2017 as one of company’s first IT Project Managers. Since then, his role has expanded from managing development projects hands-on to now leading a team of 50 IT professionals. Printful’s Product teams are focused on customer-facing, growth-oriented software initiatives, ranging from ecommerce platform integrations to mobile apps. As part of the Printful leadership team, Niks is responsible for defining and executing a software product strategy that drives growth across all customer segments.

Una has over 20 years of relevant experience as a professional lawyer. In the recent years Una's focus area is wide spectre of Compliance topics and overall managing of KPMG Law Firm in Latvia. In her professional career path she gained solid expertise in M&A field, restructurings and liquidations of credit institutions.

With over 20 years of experience in Fortune 500 companies such as American Express & Mastercard, Tanja Wesén is a highly accomplished professional in the card payments industry. Her expertise lies in product and business development, with a specific focus on security solutions and the application of AI. Tanja has also been instrumental in working with European law and payments regulation, driving new industry standards. As a trusted authority in the field, Tanja is dedicated to securing networks and combating digital fraud, cyber -& financial crime within the card payments industry using cutting-edge AI technologies. Her extensive knowledge and experience have made a significant impact in safeguarding businesses and consumers alike.

Today, Tanja Wesén is VP Security Solutions at Mastercard for North Europe

Martins Benkitis is a seasoned professional with a rich background in international business administration and information management. As the Co-Founder and CEO of Gravity Team since 2017, he has led the company to become one of the foremost crypto market makers and liquidity providers, handling over $300 billion in trading volumes. Under his leadership, Gravity Team operates across 30+ international exchanges and provides liquidity to an extensive range of over 1,400 crypto-asset pairs. The firm stands out for its impressive reach, contributing to approximately 1% of the global spot trading volume in the crypto sphere.

Pavels has over 12 years of experience in digital commerce and CX, working across diverse industries such as Retail, Wholesale, Pharma, and Telco. He has been taking various roles, including advisory and architecture for large companies in Baltics and Nordics.

Based at Helsinki, Finland Tuomas has 10+ years of experience from different roles in payments within acquiring, payment service provider, issuing and schemes. Prior to joining Mastercard, Tuomas spent 7 years at Nordea in a variety of Nordic leadership roles. He has extensive experience from new scheme development in each Nordic market.

Mustafa is a seasoned expert in financial services particularly through fintech, capital markets, digital finance, and web2/3 programs. 

He is a Co-Founder of PrimeX (Latvia co), a digital asset SaaS provider for financial services companies; Co-Founder of  KOOP Ventures (Turkish co), a community enabler and startup accelerator of financial innovation and technology programs in Turkey and around. He is also the Chairman of FintechPark (Estonian co), an advisory boutique for financial innovation and M&A services in EMEA. He is one of the two founders of Istanbul Fintech Week, a global gathering of technology, innovation, and startup practitioners in banking, payments, insurance, and capital markets. He is currently a board member to Embafinans Credit Union and Cuzdan QSC Payment Company (Azerbaijan). He has spoken at a large number of events and conferences around the world on startups, fintech and innovation. The most recent ones are Latvia Fintech Forum and Baku Fintech Forum. He is an ambassador to Global Blockchain Business Council (NYC). 

Lauris is firm believer in blockchain technology, and employs blockchain applications to shape the future of token economy. Lauris is CEO & co-founder of Upwood.io a real world forest tokenization platform and is actively engaged in creating security token offering projects. He believes that in the future humanity will prioritize sustainable capital growth and the time to act is now!

 Agneta is a Senior Associate with Sorainen Finance & Insurance practice group in Latvia. Agneta’s primary areas of expertise and interest are fintech and crypto, as well as finance disputes. Agneta also leads the Startups Sector Group for Sorainen Latvia.

Agneta combines transactional work with participation in dispute resolution. This covers a wide spectrum of legal matters including:

• regulatory issues (fintech and other financial institution licensing and assistance in the relationship with the regulator);
• finance transactions (credit and security agreements);
• legislative initiatives & cooperation within the ecosystem such as Fintech Latvia Association and Latvian Blockchain Association;
• dispute resolution cases involving finance and insurance-related issues;
• ESG and sustainable finance.

Justus Klüver-Schlotfeldt began his career training in sales at Karstadt Warenhaus AG and worked in various roles in Scandinavia and customs before moving into international logistics with Charles Kendall Group in 2012. He later joined CGATE Group in international business development and network management. In 2019, he co-founded the FBA platform ship2prime. By 2021, he was at DIVIS focusing on international growth and leading a European sales team. Recently, Justus was recruited as CEO of NeX Limited to launch the Nex Network, a strategic partnership of logistics providers aimed at enhancing omni-channel fulfilment and supply chain management.

Based at Stockholm, Sweden Amartya brings over 15 years of experience in the financial services industry, specializing in Cross Border Payments and Business Banking. Before joining Mastercard, he played a pivotal role at IDFC FIRST Bank in India, where he spearheaded the development of the bank's Cross Border Payment Business from the ground up within the Retail Banking Division.

Wealth of management experience, having worked at well-known companies such as Amazon and Caterpillar. In 2017, he joined the blockchain industry and has since focused on product development, strategy, and implementation. Recognized as one of the leading thought leaders in Latvia, raising awareness about blockchain technology and its potential through webinars and other educational events. 

Currently, working as the Web3 Project Lead at airBaltic, where he is implementing new blockchain solutions as for example Planies NFT for the aviation industry to enhance the customer experience.

Supported Fortune 500 Global with data consulting, development, and training. Led multi-million-euro projects. Ex-Accenture data and analytics manager, and innovation lead.

Eriks Petersons is the CEO of LIBERNETIX, a financial technology company. With a background in digital transformation and operational leadership, Eriks has led organizations through major technological shifts. His experience managing large teams and multi-million euro projects helps him guide LIBERNETIX in delivering innovative fintech solutions while shaping the company’s long-term strategy.

With over 3 years of experience in Marketing, Sales, and Service, working with Salesforce and SAP solutions like Emarsys, Jekaterina has been instrumental in developing innovative solutions that align with business goals. As a consultant, she helps clients maximize the potential of SAP Emarsys, ensuring both efficiency and full system utilization. Jekaterina is passionate about driving impactful customer experiences through technology—just as she enjoys driving sports cars.

Piotr is New Markets Lead at the European Payment Initiative (EPI), following developments in potential new markets, as well as establishing and maintaining relations with key players at both the European and local level. He also leads regular updates of EPI’s Market Expansion Strategy. 

In managing key expansion projects and coordinating proposals for new markets to join EPI, he conducts bilateral meetings with banks, acquirers, banking associations, and central banks, while supporting the negotiation and validation of new market onboarding plans. 

Before joining EPI, Piotr worked across the financial sector in insurance (Achmea), banking (ING), software development (Opera), and payments (BLIK). He was involved in the development and launch of web and app-based products around the world, from London to Manila. 

Piotr completed the executive program at Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2022, holds a postgraduate degree from University of Tartu (MA 2012) and undergraduate degree from Warsaw University of Technology (BA 2010).

He is actively involved in mentoring young professionals as EPI works to help build the first truly pan-European payment scheme. 

Kristaps, co-founder of Ervy, is passionate about the transformative power of Generative AI. He is dedicated to exploring how AI can redefine corporate learning and enhance workplace efficiency, applying this vision at Ervy to improve how organizations learn and retrieve information.

Jānis, a CEO at NESS and a seasoned speaker with over 12 years of experience in digital communication, is passionate about discovering new solutions. Jānis and his team at NESS are known for setting future standards. His forward-thinking approach brings knowledge and practical insights to enhance business communication and drive success in today's competitive landscape.

Banking professional with 30+ years of experience. Formerly Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Agricole and Raiffeisen International. AI enthusiast and Digital Transformation expert.

Martins is a seasoned entrepreneur and product leader in the software technology space. Over the past decade, he has been leading the product team at Sonarworks, developing industry-leading software solutions for both music creators and listeners. Sonarworks’ creator products are now used in over 200,000 studios worldwide and have earned multiple tech awards for their innovation. Additionally, its consumer-facing technology has been integrated with leading consumer audio products, further expanding the company’s global reach. With the rise of AI, Sonarworks is excited to explore possibilities that unlock new potentials for music creators, positioning the company at the forefront of music tech innovation.

A seasoned marketing strategist with 7+ years of experience in project management and customer-centric roles. Meta Marketing Developer Certified, Martins is exceling in driving brand growth through innovative digital strategies and a strong focus on delivering results.

Chris Scheuermann leads the relationship management with the German member banks and supports them to on their way to launch wero.

With over 20 years of experience in the payment and banking industry, Chris Scheuermann is supporting the German banks and their acquirerers with the successful launch of the new European digital wallet solution wero. Prior to joining EPI, he lead the DACH and Dutch markets for the british open banking provider Yapily. Before that, he was heading the sales and account management teams on a pan-european level at figo and finleap connect (today Qwist). His time at PayPal provided him experience in Payments and eCommerce. The beginning of his carrer in the banking and payment industry was with Star Finanz, a software provider for online banking solutions that is part of the German savings banks organisarion.

Jason Li is the Global Head of Sales & Business at NeX Network, with over a decade of experience in e-commerce gateway logistics solutions. At CCL, he managed multimillion-pound contracts and developed a strong reputation for exceeding client expectations. Jason is known for his customer-centric approach and effective communication, particularly in cross-cultural settings, which has expanded the company's global reach. He holds an MBA from Loughborough University and is passionate about fitness and wellbeing. As a leader at NeX, he is committed to driving innovation and fostering strategic partnerships.

Gabriel combines deep listening with a mission to bring value to the Fintech sector. With a solid background in economics from the University of Economy in Bratislava and specialized studies in Corporate Finance and Business in Riga, he brings a wealth of knowledge to his role. Over the last nine years based in the Baltics, Gabriel has been instrumental in guiding fintech companies through innovation, leveraging the latest technological standards. His partnership with DECTA underscores a shared commitment to advancing the fintech industry according to the latest technological standards.
 

I’ve been in PPC for over a decade, with a mixed focus on both lead generation and ecommerce. I currently run 94n Digital, a core team of 23+ talented individuals and we specialise in paid marketing, conversion tracking and data analysis.

We work primarily with ecommerce stores and financial institutions across the US, EU and UK and manage over $8m+ in ad spend annually across these markets.
 

I live in Riga and spend time doing adrenaline fueled activities in my spare time!

The Latvian Blockchain Association is setup to facilitate collaboration between all market participants and stakeholders in the Blockchain ecosystem.

It is designed to be an effective platform for members to engage with multiple stakeholders to find solutions to issues and to promote best practices in a collaborative, open, and transparent manner. It will represent the blockchain industry, uphold the integrity of its members, and support the building of relationships within the blockchain community, and collaborate with regional and as well as international blockchain organizations. 

During 7+ years in the payments industry, he has learned a lot about clients desires fulfilling roles in support, compliance, business analysis and now product ownership.  
Norberts spends his life delivering modern payment solutions to everyone starting from small e-commerce merchants to large financial institutions.

Marine Krasovska is banking and fintech professional with wide experience in financial sector working on leading positions in top Baltic banks: SEB, DNB, Luminor, related to lending and product and business strategy development. Ex-cofounder of Fintech startup. From 2020, Marine Krasovska worked as director of “Financial innovation department“ in Financial and Capital Market Commission and following the integration from 1 January 2023, she became head of “FinTech supervision department” in the Bank of Latvia with focus on: PI/EMI, crowdfunding and other FinTech companies’ supervision; development of Fintech environment; ICT risks’ supervision among financial sector, and implementation of SupTech and RegTech solutions, to make supervision process more modern and digital. Marine Krasovska holds a Master’s Degree in Finance from the University of Latvia, professional diploma in management from the Open University Business School (UK).

Expert in Real-World Asset tokenization, with experience in tokenizing the first real estate project in Scandinavia. Deep knowledge of tokenized financial instruments and regulations around tokenized securities. Skilled in assessing the pros and cons of different blockchains for tokenized securities. Leading expert on tokenized assets in the Nordics. Passionate about investing in real estate and digital assets.

Fintech professional and startup founder. Formerly CEO of UK fintech.  20 years of experience with Citi and Raiffeisen International.

Normunds is an accomplished sales and marketing professional with extensive experience in digital marketing and client management. His diverse background also includes editorial work, media production, and copywriting, highlighting his adaptability and passion for driving innovation across industries.

PPC is everything I do 24/7. Google, Meta and Amazon Ads are my chosen channels. 
My career in PPC spans over a decade; I started working in PPC in 2013. Although I am Italian, I started my career in the UK, where I moved straight after my university studies, then moved to Spain where I started working remotely with 94N.

A skilled client relationship manager with expertise in CRM, digital campaign optimization, and onboarding strategic business clients across multiple platforms. Strong in public relations, social media content creation, and marketing strategies, with a focus on scalable account management and proactive client communication.

Julia Riml’s heart beats for digital marketing & AI. With a decade of experience in paid media, she has worked at top agencies in Germany and the UK, leading projects for major clients across e-commerce, fintech, and other industries, in multiple languages.

In her current role as Director of New Business at Peak Ace, she drives the development of innovative go-to-market strategies for new products and services. Julia focuses on building and nurturing strategic partnerships to expand the agency's service offerings and foster long-term growth. By anticipating market trends and implementing cutting-edge solutions, she aims to accelerate the agency’s success and deliver impactful results for clients worldwide. Julia's efforts contributed to making Peak Ace the highest-awarded agency in Europe. She also regularly represents Peak Ace at international conferences, contributing to the agency’s global reputation.