Marco Dal Lago is an accomplished professional serving as Tether’s VP – Global Expansion & Strategic Partnerships. In this capacity, he collaborates with institutions and companies from the public and private sectors, spearheading various initiatives to drive blockchain adoption and foster economic growth. Marco is driven by his mission to empower individuals and companies with novel financial tools and to support unbanked populations in emerging markets who are often excluded from traditional financial systems.
Marco owns a BSc & MSc. in Management Engineering (Switzerland) and an MBA from IE Business School (Spain).

Robin Butler is a Partner at Sturgeon Capital, a London-headquartered investment firm focused on emerging markets. Robin leads Sturgeon’s ventures team, investing in rapidly digitalising nascent technology ecosystems across Central Asia, the Caucasus and South Asia (ex. India). Over the last 7 years, Robin has been part of the team to launch two venture funds and make 27 investments.

Dolly Ramaiya is the Founder of Truleum Studio, a venture builder, and the Founding Partner of Truleum Venture Partners, a fintech-focused early-stage venture capital firm, both based in Dubai, UAE.
With 17 years of experience in the GCC region primarily in fintech industry, Ms. Ramaiya has been instrumental in the growth of several key players. She was a founding team member of YAP, the first independent digital banking platform in the UAE, and played a crucial role in strategic partnerships, expansion and regulatory structuring. Additional she has worked on organizational restructuring and M&A projects in the region.
Ms. Ramaiya has witnessed the gradual technological innovations and progressions around traditional banking, cards and payment industry into what we call today the ‘Fintech Revolution’ at large.
Ms. Ramaiya’s focus is to develop and streamline the early-stage startup building and investment ecosystem in the region.

Mr. Yaseen Anwar’s international banking and regulatory experience spans 40 years and in 2014, he retired as the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (Central Bank) where he spent seven years. As Governor, he had oversight of over 40 banks, impacted Monetary Policy, and elevated the Branch-less Banking model/ strategy for Financial Inclusion, the success of which was recognized globally. From 2014 – 2020, he was Senior Advisor to the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China in Singapore and is currently the founding Chairman of management consultants, ‘Yaseen Anwar & Associates’. In December 2020, the World Bank/IFC also appointed him Senior Banking Policy Advisor for Pakistan Sustainable Banking. Prior to the Central Bank, he worked in New York, London, Paris, and Egypt with JPMorganChase, Bank of America, and Merrill Lynch in various senior capacities. He is a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Since 2021, he has been the Chairman of the Central Asian regional chapter of the Green Investment Principles under the Belt and Road Initiative.

Sergey joined KPMG in 2008 and has extensive experience in auditing and preparing financial reporting in accordance with IFRS and US GAAP. During his career he also worked for KPMG in the UK for several years and today introduces leading European practices and international experience at KPMG in Kazakhstan. ​
During his years at the company, Sergey has made a significant contribution to strengthening the leading position of the audit practice of KPMG in Kazakhstan and Central Asia and is a recognized expert in the audit of oil and gas, mining companies and telecoms. ​
Sergey is recognized as a thought leader and frequent speaker on AI’s impact on financial reporting and auditing, committed to advancing the profession through education and innovation.​

Juan Carlos Reyes is the president of the National Commission of Digital Assets of El Salvador, the government agency from which he implements his vision to achieve the highest global standard in regulation and supervision of the sector.
In less than a year, he and his team have achieved impressive results for the country: their digital assets ecosystem is growing rapidly, they have the best crypto regulations in the Americas, and only Switzerland surpasses them worldwide. The rest of the world is looking to emulate them. With his vision and drive, El Salvador will soon become the global leader in digital asset regulation and supervision

Akber has more than 25 years’ of experience in the investment industry and is Acting Chief Executive Officer of Al Rayan Investment (ARI). ARI is a leading firm in the Gulf for corporate financial advisory and asset management. Akber joined ARI in 2009, to set up and lead asset management, which included overall responsibility for managing GCC public equity and global sukuk portfolios of $1.5bn. ARI manages the award winning Al Rayan GCC Fund and Al Rayan Qatar ETF. Prior to ARI, Akber was a Director at Deutsche Bank in London, where he spent more than 11 years in European and emerging markets equities. Akber is a graduate of University College London. Akber has lived in Doha, Dubai, Frankfurt, Karachi and London.

In his role, Sanzhar is responsible for the development and growth of Mastercard business in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, for cooperation with partners, creation and banding of key digital products and solutions for payments, acquiring, cybersecurity and other fields, for banks and entire payment ecosystem. An important direction of his work is building relationships with Governments aiming the development of a cashless economy.
Sanzhar has joined Mastercard team in 2024. He has extensive experience in financial and TMT sectors, including Kazkommerz Secutrities JSC, Kazakhtelecom JSC, London office of ING Bank N.V. (UK), the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as the Representative Office of ING Bank N.V. in Kazakhstan, where he was promoted to the position of Head of the representative office.

Yerbolat Bedelkhan is a member of the music band ORDA and was the producer for Ninety One. Ninety One, which debuted in September 2015, was the first group to perform in the Q-pop music genre, a novel style in Kazakhstan. Their approach was modeled after the Korean creative business model.