Irfan Ahmad, Vice President, APAC Lead for Digital Product Development and Innovation, State Street (SGP)

Irfan Ahmad is a vice president and the APAC lead for the Digital Product Development and Innovation (DPDI) team at State Street.

Irfan joined State Street Global Markets, EMEA in December 2014, where he worked in the company’s EMEA Business Architecture function. Since then, he has worked in strategy, regulatory product development and sales in London and Hong Kong. He is now based in Singapore and leads the DPDI team’s efforts in the region.

Prior to joining State Street, he worked across Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities (FICC) technology at Barclays Investment Bank, where he was responsible for their Run the Bank (RTB) project portfolio, service management and business continuity management in EMEA. He later joined the Algorithmic Electronic Trading Technology (AETT) and Trade Processing Engine (TPE) team, where he oversaw the risk and control practices within EMEA.

Irfan holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in economics and economic history from the University of Manchester.

Jonathan Hatch, Senior Adviser and Lawyer, ASIC Innovation Hub

Jonathan is a financial services and technology lawyer with experience in compliance and regulatory roles with a focus on technology. He is experienced in applying existing or reformed laws to new regimes and bridging the gap between technology and the laws and regulations that exist. Jonathan has advised on a wide range of financial services and related areas in the application to a diverse range of new technologies such as DeFi, Crypto assets, DLT or AI, ML, analytics and automation. He is also experienced in adapting regulatory regimes through tools such as sandboxes and Innovation Support Functions.

Jonathan also teaches at multiple universities, including The University of Sydney, RMIT and London School of Economics. His teaching covers data, new technologies and regulatory regimes all in business environments, across a range of areas such as automation, business information systems, privacy and law.
 

Distinguished Professor Jason Potts, Director, Blockchain Innovation Hub, RMIT University

Jason Potts is Distinguished Professor of Economics at RMIT University, and Co-Director of the Blockchain Innovation Hub, the world's first social science research centre on blockchain. He is also Chief Investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Automated Decision Making and Society, an artificial intelligence research centre. Professor Potts specialises in the economics of innovation and has published over 100 peer reviewed research articles and 8 books. He is a Member of the Academy of Social Sciences Australia, and editor of the Journal of Institutional Economics.  

Chloe White, Managing Director, Genesis Block

Chloe White is a leading digital assets policy expert, and the Founder and Managing Director of Genesis Block, a cryptocurrency regulation advisory firm. Prior to launching Genesis Block, Chloe was the Australian Government's inaugural National Blockchain Roadmap Lead, and the lead cryptocurrency analyst at the federal Treasury. Chloe is the Strategic Policy Advisor to Blockchain Australia. She is currently based in Melbourne.

Elysse Morgan, ABC's The Business

Elysse Morgan is a respected business journalist with more than a decade covering and commentating on business, economics and finance in Australia. Elysse is host of The Business, Australia's leading business news television programme broadcast on ABC and ABC News and she co-hosts 7pm Finance on ABC News. Elysse serves on the board of Media Super and donates her time as a director of the Hornsby Kuringgai Women’s Shelter.