Amber Winthers is an enterprise GRC and security leader with more than 11 years of experience building audit-ready organizations across federal, SaaS, healthcare, and critical infrastructure environments. She is known for translating regulatory rigor into business advantage by accelerating revenue, reducing enterprise risk, and modernizing compliance operations. Amber is a trusted partner to executive leadership, boards, regulators, and 3PAOs.

Ashwanth Samuel is a second-year MBA student at Harvard Business School and a stablecoin researcher at the MIT Digital Currency Initiative. His work explores how traditional banks are adapting to an on-chain financial system powered by stablecoins, focusing on the intersection of financial stability, technology design, and regulation. Before graduate school, he worked at Bain & Company and Protocol Labs, a leading Web3 research and innovation lab.

Caitlin Long is Founder and CEO of Custodia Bank. She became involved with Bitcoin in 2012 while a managing director at Morgan Stanley, following earlier roles at Credit Suisse and Salomon Brothers. As chairman and president of Symbiont, she co-led a blockchain project delivering market index data to Vanguard. Since 2017, she has helped spearhead a multi-year initiative to make Wyoming, her native state, a hub for blockchain companies. She holds degrees from Harvard Law School, the Kennedy School, and the University of Wyoming.

Dale Matthew is Managing Director of Pinnacle Wealth Group LLC, helping business owners, executives, and professionals make financial decisions that drive long-term growth and wealth creation. His expertise spans retirement planning, risk management, employee benefits, executive compensation, and business succession planning. He has specialized experience advising cannabis businesses on the challenges of operating in a highly regulated environment. A speaker and financial educator, Dale turns complex financial concepts into practical strategies for businesses and their employees.

David Ritter is CEO of Privacy Lock, with more than 10 years of project management experience in private equity and emerging technologies and six years in blockchain. He previously served as Project Director of Donghu Group Investments, managing projects with a $1 billion portfolio value. He has spoken at MIT's Global Startup Workshop and the 73rd U.N. General Assembly, and in 2022 was named Chair of the Colorado Privacy Policy Commission, working with the Colorado AG's office on the state's landmark privacy law.

Deborah Wall has worked in banking and financial services since 1998, including more than a decade in industry roles and time in internal audit consulting. During six years at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, she rose to the Officer Corps, overseeing compliance at more than 150 institutions and leading a staff of over 20 examiners. In 2016, she founded ARMOR Advisory Services, helping banks and credit unions rebuild BSA/AML and fraud programs. She holds a JD and has been CAMS certified since 2007.

Dr. Santarvis Brown is an educator, leadership scholar, author, and strategist who serves as Professor of Management and Leadership at Excelsior University, where he previously chaired the Graduate Business Department. He has taught at institutions including Cornell, Purdue, and the University of Virginia. He founded The Equity and Elevation Collective™, owns The Banned Book Shop, and wrote books including Leading While Limping. He also hosts The Leadership Doctor SB on YouTube and pastors Greater Mt. Pleasant AME Church in Hollywood, Florida.

Eric Choi is Chairman and COO of Satschel, Inc., where he leads development of platforms combining blockchain, biometrics, and AI to reduce fraud and friction in financial services. Satschel's platforms include Simplici, a biometric identity verification and fraud-mitigation system, and Liquidity, an SEC-regulated blockchain ATS enabling issuance and secondary trading of traditionally illiquid assets. He is also Principal at Liquidity.io, advising institutions on deploying compliant, production-grade digital asset infrastructure.

Hailey Windham is a nationally recognized fraud fighter and community builder at the intersection of banking, technology, and financial crime prevention. A Certified Financial Crimes Specialist (CFCS), she is Community Lead for Banking at Sardine, bringing together financial institutions, fintechs, and industry leaders around fraud. She hosts the Fraud Forward podcast and previously led fraud strategy and detection initiatives for institutions nationwide. She is passionate about building fraud-savvy cultures and partnerships that better protect customers and communities.

Jeff Spann is an expert in information security program development and management, with more than 30 years of experience in IT services, management, and cybersecurity governance across banking and IT leadership. He helps financial institutions design and maintain risk-based information security programs aligned with regulatory and business objectives. A recognized thought leader, Spann has authored numerous articles on cybersecurity and delivers awareness training nationwide, helping organizations strengthen their security posture and mitigate evolving threats.

Jim McConnell has more than 30 years of corporate security experience across multiple critical infrastructure industries. He is Information Security Officer at Texas-based Ciera Bank and previously served as a Fellow at Verizon and principal owner of a converged security consulting and training firm. Involved in formal government-industry information sharing for over 20 years, Jim holds 15 U.S. patents and has written books on converged security and safety metrics. He is also a volunteer first responder and adjunct at Texas A&M-TEEX.

Joshua Hofer is a banking technology and risk executive with more than two decades of experience in financial services, information security, and fintech. As Vice President of Fintech at First Federal Bank of Kansas City, he leads fintech strategy and chairs the bank's Fintech Committee. He previously served as Chief Risk Officer and CISO at Stearns Bank and held CIO roles at Primebank and First American Bank. Josh holds MS and BS degrees from Dakota State University and speaks on Banking-as-a-Service and fintech partnerships.

Kim Chatani is an Independent Board Director and Audit & Risk Committee Chair with deep expertise in U.S. banking regulation, enterprise risk management, and financial governance. They have a proven track record resolving OCC enforcement actions, strengthening BSA/AML compliance, and enhancing board-level risk oversight. Their expertise spans bank board governance, CECL, cybersecurity and IT risk, internal audit and controls, and regulatory remediation, making them a trusted advisor to boards navigating regulatory scrutiny and financial transformation.

Linda Powell has more than 30 years of experience in finance, spanning commercial banking, banking supervision, and economic research, much of it with the Federal Reserve System. She served as Chief Data Officer at the Treasury's Office of Financial Research and the CFPB, Global Head of Data Governance at Citibank, and Deputy Chief Data Officer at BNY. Her data initiatives were instrumental during the 2008 financial crisis, and she led the interagency Legal Entity Identifier initiative. She holds degrees from Rutgers and George Washington University.

Matthew Bowen is a financial technology strategist and faculty member at the Bankers Institute, specializing in stablecoins, digital assets, fintech, and regulatory frameworks. With 13 years of experience spanning law, banking, and software development, he advises financial institutions on integrating emerging technologies while maintaining regulatory compliance and operational excellence. He helps banks navigate where traditional operations meet digital asset innovation and is passionate about stablecoin strategies as programmable money, tokenized assets, and automated compliance reshape banking.

Neepa Patel is the Founder and CEO of Themis, a next-generation governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) platform. She brings more than 20 years of regulatory and compliance experience across the public and private sectors. Before founding Themis, she was Head of Compliance at R3, an enterprise blockchain company with a consortium of more than 40 global banks, and held risk and compliance roles at Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley. She began her career as a Bank Examiner at the OCC.

Phil Wofford is a fractional COO/CFO and executive coach who helps founders and business owners scale, professionalize operations, and prepare their companies for sale. With deep experience in operations, finance, IT, and manufacturing, he has launched and exited multiple healthcare startups, turned around international manufacturing plants, and served in the C-suite of an Inc. 5000 company during rapid growth. He now helps high-growth and mid-market firms clean up their financials, implement AI-enabled systems and KPIs, and build leadership for sustainable, profitable growth.

Rohit Rana is a financial services executive with more than 20 years of leadership across banks, fintechs, and financial institutions, building consumer and SMB lending portfolios from concept to multi-billion-dollar production. His expertise spans direct lending, product design, underwriting, portfolio management, and collections, using data, analytics, and machine learning to drive profitable, responsible growth. He is recognized for launching inclusive credit programs that expand access and improve risk-adjusted returns, and he teaches and researches the responsible use of ML and AI in financial services.

Scott Grow is a banking compliance professional with extensive experience overseeing regulatory compliance, BSA/AML programs, and consumer-protection frameworks for fintech-bank partnerships. A Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager (CRCM), he holds a Master of Science in Jurisprudence in financial services compliance. His expertise includes compliance management systems, fintech sponsorship and third-party lending, and regulatory exam management. Scott is also a recognized speaker on payment stablecoins, blockchain, and digital assets, helping banks navigate the intersection of compliance, innovation, and technology.

Shelli K. Trung is an Executive Advisor to global family offices, private equity firms, venture funds, institutional investors, and investment banks across the U.S., Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East. Her investor network facilitates access to more than $10B in annual capital deployment, and she advises on growth financing, liquidity structures, and large-scale cross-border projects. She previously led more than 50 early-stage technology investments that generated eight exits and has served on over 10 boards. She speaks widely on global capital flows and alternative finance.

Vaibhav Sharma brings 30 years of experience in banking, financial services, and technology, helping institutions across capital markets, wealth management, retail and commercial banking, credit risk, and payments navigate digital transformation. His advisory practice focuses on AI strategy, risk, and governance: designing AI risk frameworks for the post-MRM supervisory environment, translating supervisory expectations into deployment roadmaps, and supporting agentic and generative AI adoption in regulated environments. He has served financial institutions across the U.S., Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.