Stephen is an influential advocate of making the financial world more open, creative and inclusive through innovative digital and data initiatives, encouraging progressive ways of working and collaboration across diverse organisations. 

His career over four decades has earned a track record and reputation for leading customer focused, technology enabled initiatives and he is passionate about the role of financial innovation shaping the future economy and breaking down barriers and division across the UK, especially with new initiatives such as cluster development and innovation accelerators. 

Today, Stephen is Chairman of FinTech Scotland and a Non-Executive of the Centre for Finance Innovation and Technology (CFIT), the leadership bodies focused on financial innovation. 

He led the formation and growth of FinTech Scotland since 2018, initially as Chief Executive, to be recognised as a leading fintech cluster management organisations in the UK and Europe. 

In addition, Stephen sits on the UK Government’s Business Innovation Board, is a Deputy Convenor, (Enterprise & Investment) on the University of Strathclyde Court and is a non-executive director of Smart Data Foundry. 

 He was awarded an OBE in the 2023 New Year Honours List for services to UK financial technology (fintech) innovation.  

David is Director of Innovation and Partnerships at NatWest, leading a team focused on driving purpose-led solutions, products and experiences through partnerships and co-development with entrepreneurs and innovators. He joined the bank in late 2022 from a boutique VC investing across Israel, the UK and East Asia, and was previously Vice President of Innovation at the retail platform Farfetch – where he focused on startup investments and acceleration, platform strategy and strategic projects including Farfetch’s founding membership of Meta’s Libra / Diem stablecoin project. Earlier, David was Global Head of Partnerships at Google for Startups. He has founded three technology businesses and spent seven years as a management consultant advising on digital strategy. He is a school governor and experienced NED, and lives in London with his wife and three children. 

A serial tech entrepreneur Ez’s journey has taken him from Software Developer to Co-Founder and CTO to Venture Capital. He now begins the next stage of his mission as CEO of CFIT, the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology. An industry body backed by the UK Treasury and the City of London with a mission to unblock the barriers to growth for financial technology by bringing together the best minds from across the UK to drive better outcomes for consumers and SMEs. 

Ez was previously Principal and CTO in Residence at Impact X Capital Partners LLP a venture fund focused on supporting underrepresented entrepreneurs.  

He is the Co-Founder of Code Untapped, a digital skills accelerator that helps companies find innovative product solutions by giving them access to diverse and underrepresented technologists through their innovation labs events 

He is a former Co-Founder  & founding CTO of Neyber, a multi-award-winning Fintech firm focused on financial well-being. 

In 2023 Ez was appointed as Trustee to the board of Crisis, one of the UK’s leading homelessness charities where he also supports as a strategic advisor to the Venture Studio from Crisis which invests in, supports and creates startups to end homelessness. 

In January 2022 Ez was named on the New Year’s honours list for 2022 to receive an MBE for services to Diversity and to Young people. 

Professor Karen Elliott is Chair (Full Professor) of Practice in Finance and FinTech at Birmingham University Business School and Co-Director of the FinTech MSc Degree Programme. She has been named as ‘Standout #35 Women in FinTech Powerlist by Innovate Finance’ for Policy and Governance 2019, 2020 and listed for the new Hubs (governance) category in 2021. In addition, is an Advisory Board member to Incuto and We are Digital, championing access to fair and affordable finance. Karen co-leads FinTrust, Agency, and the UKFin Network+ projects (£1.2m/£3.5m/£2.5m EPSRC/UKRI) with Prof van Moorsel to optimise trustworthy and ethical AI, engineered to deliver citizen transparency, fairness, and inclusion. Likewise, co-led Finclusion (Gates Foundation/Turing Institute £100k), which explored verifiable credentials for vulnerable groups, focusing on dementia in the digital economy following her mother’s diagnosis. A member of the Prime Minister’s Champions Group for Dementia, Corporate Digital Responsibility, ForHumanity, Radix, the IEEE Global Initiative Planet Positive and an Ambassador for the Digital Poverty Alliance, Karen creates a fusion of academic and practical ethical considerations at the individual and societal level, seeking to find balance for an equitable digital society while protecting and sustaining the planet. 

Emma has more than 18 years’ experience in Technology and Leadership roles, primarily in Financial Services and RegTech.

Prior to joining FinTrU, Emma was Global Head of Communications Surveillance R&D at Citi delivering a successful replacement of rules-based Communication Surveillance with an in-house Behavioural Analytics Platform which improved regulatory coverage, increased detection rates, reduced alert volume, handling time and analyst effort.

She has also previously held roles in BT Ireland managing ordering, fulfilment & billing systems; NYSE Euronext delivering Global Market Data & Market access solutions to Tier 1 Financial Institutions & Hedge Funds; and start-ups in cloud storage and video streaming.

At FinTrU, Emma is a member of the Executive Leadership team with responsibility for leading Technology & Product strategy across the company.

Emma has an MEng Electrical and Electronic Engineering Degree awarded by Queen’s University Belfast.

Christopher Jessup is Chairperson of FinTech NI, a not-for-profit industry association representing the workforce of over 7,000 individuals and 75 fintech companies in Northern Ireland.   As Chair, he is leading the Association in the implementation of its three-year Northern Ireland FinTech strategy and roadmap – aimed at the creation of 25 new fintech companies, the attraction of £25 million in additional Foreign Direct Investment and generation of thousands of new jobs in NI in the next three years. 

A Partner in leading corporate law firm A&L Goodbody (ALG),  Christopher specialises in Financial Services Regulatory matters and innovation in the sector. He advises a wide range of clients including banks, payment service providers, payment systems, investment firms, fund managers, and other financial institutions and fintech firms on UK and EU financial services regulation. 

Stephen leads Innovate UK’s programme in Professional and Financial Services having previously delivered the successful Next Generation Services programme as part of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund. He is supporting the transformation of our Accountancy, Insurance, Legal and Financial Services sectors by the responsible use of AI and data.  He previously led the AI and Data Economy Directorate at Innovate UK ad interim, headed the organisation’s Enabling – Digital team and the SBRI programme.

Stephen has a background in the semiconductor industry, having spent nearly 20 years working for Philips Semiconductors and NXP where he held various software engineering, project management and business management roles

Stephen holds an MBA (distinction) from Imperial College and a BSc in Electronic Engineering

Jonathan Beaverstock is Professor of International Management and an Economic and Social Research Council Knowledge Exchange Fellow (to FinTech West), based at the University of Bristol Business School, Bristol University, UK.

Professor Beaverstock’s research focuses on financial services and FinTech clustering, and the competitiveness of the City of London and UK regional financial centres.  He is a member of the Advisory Board of FinTech West providing thought leadership to the rapidly establishing Bristol and Bath FinTech cluster.

Professor Beaverstock is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts and Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

James is a pioneer of Open Banking in the UK and is actively involved in the industry as an advisor, founding member and board member of various groups, organisations and government bodies. Over the past 15 years, James has passionately pursued the opportunity to leverage financial services as a global trust network to help address global issues such as Identity, Credit & Risk and Financial Inclusion. 

James first started talking about leveraging the identity and data consumers have with their bank accounts to prove they are who they say they are and create convenience in financial services where there hasn’t been, 11 years ago.

Helene is an innovation, retail banking and payment specialist. She has extensive regulatory experience in the UK and internationally and is passionate in supporting beneficial innovative ideas and business models.  

She joined the FCA in June 2019 and works in Innovation, leading the Regulatory Sandbox and Innovation Pathways team supporting competition and innovation as a regulator. She has led policy work on payments at the FCA, including open banking and crypto.  

Before joining the FCA, she worked at the European Banking Authority, where she led policy and supervision in payments. Prior to that, she worked at the FSA/FCA in a range of roles ranging from supervision to competition and in the industry in compliance roles. 

She holds a PhD in law. 

Dr Christopher Sier was Fintech Envoy for the UK HM Treasury for 6 years and is Chairman of Fintech North, the innovation community for the North of England. He also Chaired the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s panel investigating costs, fees and transparency in institutional investment, wrote the LGPS cost transparency standard and has worked with the World Bank, EIOPA, the Committee on Workers Capital and institutional investors around the world on the same subject. Combining these two worlds he is CEO and Co-Founder of ClearGlass, a technology platform that sits between asset managers and pension funds and collects and analyses asset management pricing and performance data. ClearGlass is based in London and serves markets in the UK, Europe, South Africa and Australia. In addition, Chris is Visiting Professor of Financial Technology at the University of Leeds, Professor of Practice and Newcastle University, Honorary Professor at Durham University and in the distant past he was a police officer in Edinburgh. 

Elaine heads up our Core Capabilities Innovation Cluster team within Innovation & Partnerships. Elaine and her team work with the businesses to understand their challenges and identify new, innovative and disruptive technology, companies and partnerships that will improve the way NatWest Group serves its customers.  

In previous NatWest Group roles, Elaine has headed up our Israel and Asia Pacific Scouting team, was a Senior Researcher working on disruptive trends and their impact on Financial Services, she also helped form our Partner Innovation team. Prior to that Elaine was responsible for leading several teams and categories within our Supply Chain. In addition to her current role, Elaine has a passion for levelling up across the gender network and has been a lead coach within the NatWest Gender network. 

Hilary is the Executive Lead for the UK’s only professional services tech supercluster. A former chartered surveyor and qualified tax technician, Hilary has a wide-ranging career spanning professional and financial services sector including 10 years un practice as a national director in Fortune 500 company AECOM. Since her time in practice, Hilary worked as Executive Director for regional membership body for professional services for 5 years  and established herself as a key influencer in BPFS policy in the West Midlands working for Greater Birmingham & Solihull LEP. She also leads industry engagement on behalf of a range of organisations including nationally funded research projects with University of Sheffield Management School, Oxford Brookes University, City-REDI at University of Birmingham, Dept of BEIS and Innovate UK. Innovation and disruptive technology is a core strand to the policy areas Hilary engages in and SuperTech combines these interests with passion for championing Birmingham and wider West Midlands.

Julian is a Director of Whitecap Consulting, a regional strategy consultancy headquartered in Leeds with offices throughout the UK. Whitecap work with executives, boards and investors of predominantly mid-sized organisations, typically with a turnover of c£10m-£300m, helping them analyse, develop and implement growth strategies. 

Julian has been a Director of Fintech North since April 2016 which is collaboration between Whitecap Consulting and a FinTech firm, White Label Crowdfunding, and is a predominantly event-based FinTech entity within the Northern Powerhouse. FinTech North hosts conferences across the Northern Powerhouse and run regular seminars and conferences. 

Phil is a Co-founder and Managing Partner of FinTech Growth Fund, a growth-stage fintech focused venture capital fund launched in August 2023. Phil is also the CEO of FinTech Alliance, a non-profit digital platform launched in partnership with the UK Government, tasked with supporting the growth of the UK’s fintech ecosystem by generating access to market, capital, and talent. Previously, Phil spent over four years as Group Strategy Director at Pollinate, a growth stage fintech focused on reinventing merchant acquiring for banks around the world.  Prior to this, he spent five years at the UK Treasury, most recently as Head of Global Markets where he was responsible for all financial services activity across Asia Pacific and fintech. 

Joe is a business development and marketing professional with experience in the professional services, legal services and FinTech sectors working across the North since 2016. Joe joined FinTech North as its first full-time employee in September 2019, having previously worked for the Institute of Directors and a global law firm. As Engagement Manager for FinTech North, Joe manages all event, marketing and commercial activity, and regularly supports Northern FinTech entrepreneurs and new market entrants.

FinTech North is the focal point for FinTech in the Northern Powerhouse. Since 2016 FinTech North has brought the northern FinTech community together via events, conferences, virtual seminars and trade missions. FinTech North’s objectives are to bring the community together, to develop the northern FinTech economy, align with development of the national FinTech sector and to promote the North of England as an international destination for FinTech.

Hugh de Lusignan has had 35 years’ experience in financial services (equity capital markets and fund
management) including senior investment banking management roles at NatWest Markets and
SocGen. He joined DIT three years ago working with APAC based SWFs, pension and insurance
companies and corporates to deliver significant capital investment into the UK particularly into
infrastructure, clean energy transition (including smart cities) and house building acceleration. Hugh
joined the FPS directorate as Head of Financial Services in January 2021.

Sian Evans is Senior Sector Support Officer at the Department for Business and Trade. Sian works in the DBT Wales team helping businesses and organisations across Wales access the wealth of export support provided by the Department for Business and Trade. In her role, Sian leads on engagement with the Financial, Professional, Business Services sector in Wales. She works closely with Fintech Wales and Cardiff and Vale College who have partnered to deliver bootcamp style academies to address the skills gap in Wales. 

Peter is the Director of International & National Initiatives at Innovate Finance, the industry body representing the UK FinTech sector. Peter leads on developing Innovate Finance’s international and national initiatives, to support and promote UK FinTech, and the opportunities for our members to grow, by developing relationships with likeminded hubs across the UK and around the world. Peter also works alongside our Head of Government Affairs and Policy to ensure our international and national work reflects current political, public policy and regulatory priorities for the sector.

Kerstin Mathias is Policy and Innovation Director at the City of London Corporation where she leads the City’s global financial services policy work. This includes UK and EU policy, global trade, technology and innovation, skills policy, and sustainable finance. Previously she was Head of Policy at TheCityUK and held roles at Germany’s Permanent Representation to the EU and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Prague. Kerstin holds degrees in Public Policy and European Politics from the London School of Economics and the University of Passau. 

As the Managing Director for the UK Financial Services Market, Maurice leads a team of talented consultants, engineers, and designers who deliver customer-centric digital products for ambitious clients in the financial sector. Maurice has over 20 years of experience across the entire range of the digital delivery domain, from design and development, server builds and cloud engineering, UX, team leadership, and programme delivery. 

Maurice is dedicated to helping financial service providers transform and grow by leveraging data, technology, and design thinking. He is passionate about creating innovative, customer-centric digital solutions, solving real problems for real users. 

Yvonne is a Partner and leads our financial services technology practice. She specialises in advising on outsourcing, systems development and integration and IT procurement. Yvonne also leads our FinTech practice and advises on complex projects which combine technology and the regulatory environment in which financial services clients operate. Yvonne leads several of our TMT and outsourcing relationships with major banking and insurance clients and regularly speaks and writes on TMT and outsourcing issues specific to the financial services sector. She is the firm’s board representative on Fintech Scotland. 

Luke is the Head of Fintech Propositions and a Legal Director for Pinsent Masons. He advises large banks, cloud service providers and various types of fintech and payments businesses on a range of legal and regulatory issues that impact on their approach to innovation and technology. Recognised by Legal 500, he regularly speaks at conferences on the impact of regulation on the use of technology in financial services and the evolution of fintech.

After more than 35 years in C Suite roles within the Financial Services sector, specialising in the Investment Management sector both in the UK and Internationally Stephen returned home to the North East to apply his skills, experience and network to the benefit of the region. 

This experience gained in FTSE100 Companies such as Barclays, Quilters, and St. James’s Place, as well as specialist organisations such as Lloyds of London led naturally to him becoming involved in the Fintech sector in the North East. Stephen is CEO and co-founder of FinPact a Community Interest Company mandated as the Industry led cluster management company and strategy delivery vehicle for the Northeast Fintech Cluster.  

Bryn is the current Chief Product and Technology Officer at Smart Data Foundry. He has been with the company since 2022 and has over 20 years of experience leading technology and product teams in the financial services industry. Bryn’s background is in banking technology and products. He most recently worked at NCR, leading their Fintech team responsible for partnerships and acquisitions for the US Digital Banking business. Prior to that, he was in charge of the International Digital Banking and Open Banking product strategy at NCR. Before joining NCR, Bryn spent more than a decade at Clydesdale Bank/National Australia Bank (now Virgin Bank) in various leadership roles in technology, such as change, development and architecture. He has a wealth of experience in driving business, product and IT strategy from identification of needs to execution, with a strong commercial focus.