Takatoshi Ito, Professor, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, has taught extensively both in the United States and Japan since finishing his Ph.D. in economics at Harvard University in 1979. He taught at the University of Minnesota (1979-1988), Hitotsubashi University (1988-2002), and the University of Tokyo (2004-2014) before assuming his current position in 2015. He held visiting professor positions at Harvard University, Stanford University, and Columbia Business School, and University of Malaya. He has distinguished academic and research appointments such as President of the Japanese Economic Association in 2004; Fellow of the Econometric Society, since 1992; Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research since 1985. Ito served as Senior Advisor in the Research Department at the International Monetary Fund and as Deputy Vice Minister for International Affairs at the Ministry of Finance of Japan, and a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy. He is an author of many books including The Japanese Economy; and more than 60 refereed journal papers. He frequently contributes op-ed columns to the Financial Times. He was awarded by the Government of Japan the National Medal with Purple Ribbon in June 2011 for his excellent academic achievement.

Eli Broverman is Co-Founder and President of Betterment. Eli co-founded Betterment with a vision that smarter technology will help people better plan for their financial needs and reach their goals. Through his work at Betterment, Eli aims to make personal finance one of the first fields to reach the age of automation. Eli oversees the company’s business operations, strategic initiatives, and legal matters. Eli is a frequent guest on CNBC, FOX, and Bloomberg TV, and regular speaker at leading industry events.

Prior to forming Betterment, Eli practiced law at the international law firm Proskauer Rose LLP, where he advised Fortune 500 companies and their senior management on securities, tax, and compensation matters. Mr. Broverman is a graduate of Brown University and New York University School of Law.

Nicolas Cary is a serial entrepreneur and lifelong technologist. He attributes much of his insight to his personal journeys around the world. He holds degrees in Business with an emphasis in Leadership Studies and International Political Economy. He has taught English and conducted poverty reduction assessments in rural India prior to spending the past decade growing start-ups. He is trilingual, and has a deep passion for positive digital disruption. He was a founding Partner at PipelineDeals where he focused on product development and management. In 2013 he Co-Founded Blockchain. More recently he Co-Founded YBUSA.org, the leading youth business accelerator.

Winner of the 2015 European Digital Leader award for his inspiring and innovative contribution to initiate progress in the digital world, Mr. Cary accumulated over 300K miles last year doing FinTech advocacy, keynoting conferences, and attending grass roots meet ups across the Europe and around the world. His media appearances include the NYT, NPR, WSJ, Financial Times, Wired, Forbes, Entrepreneur, CNN, CNBC, TechCrunch, CNET, World Economic Forum, Marketwatch and many more.

His company Blockchain is the world's leading Bitcoin software company. Blockchain has over 7.25 million users, they run the most widely trusted block explorer, and manage the most widely used developer platform in the Bitcoin eco-system. In 2014, Blockchain raised the largest first outside capital round in industry history announcing over $30.5 million closed from leading venture capital firms.

Walter Cruttenden is a financial markets innovator. He founded and served as CEO of Cruttenden Roth, now Roth Capital Partners. Walter also founded and served as CEO of E*Offering, the investment banking arm of E*TRADE. E*Offering became the number one provider of online IPO’s before its sale to Wit Capital and ultimately to Schwab. Walter co-founded Acorns and serves as its Executive Chairman.

Freddy is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of ComparaGuru.com, the leading financial price comparison platform in Mexico.
Before joining, ComparaGuru.com, Freddy served as a consultant at Booz & Company where he delivered projects in over 10 countries specializing in Go-To-Market, Cost Reduction and Growth Strategies.
Freddy holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico.

Benjamin Duranske is co-founder and CEO of CCOBOX, Inc. a silicon valley startup software company creating advanced anti-money laundering tools for fintech firms, banks, and other payment providers.

From 2010-2015, Ben served as Chief Compliance Officer of Facebook's financial services subsidiary responsible for payments in games on Facebook, peer-to-peer payments in Facebook Messenger, and other social-media payments applications. Prior to that, Mr. Duranske served as legal counsel at PayPal and in private practice. He received his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2003.

Ben also founded and serves as Principal Consultant at PayCom Consulting, LLC, where he helps innovative companies navigate payments regulatory issues while building great products.

Ben lives in Menlo Park, California with his wife and two daughters where, during down time, he enjoys hiking, writing fiction, and obsessively playing video games.

Alain is the co-founder & CEO of Yoyo Wallet, the mobile payment and loyalty app that helps retailers and brands better engage consumers, sell more and future proof their business in a mobile-first world. Yoyo Wallet has offices in London, New-York and Singapore and is the fastest growing mobile wallet in Europe.

Previously, he co-founded OB10, the global e-invoicing network which floated in London in 2013. He is a Partner at Firestartr, the technology investment platform that helps post incubator startups cross the chasm to series A and beyond. Alain was Senior Vice President at Visa International from 1996 to 2000, in charge of the Commercial Card division for Europe.

Alain is a Venture Partner at Imperial Innovations Plc and a Director at ACE Software and OneLinq. He lives in London with his family, where he also enjoys cycling, boxing and the art scene.

Scott Galit is the CEO and a Director of Payoneer Inc. As Global Head of Prepaid for MasterCard, Scott developed MasterCard's global prepaid strategy and oversaw its global prepaid business. Scott was the founder and CEO of Solspark; SVP/General Manager of First Data Prepaid and EVP at Meta Payment Systems. Earlier in his career he was an investment banker at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. Scott was also a founding board member of the NBPCA.

Alexander Graubner-Müller believes in algorithms and statistical data as the blocks for the next Industrial Revolution. Having led the techside of Kreditech as CTO for three years, he took over the CEO responsibilities in November 2015. Prior to Kreditech’s founding, Alexander cofounded and sold the predictionmarket engine PredictX. Before he managed engineering and product development at Rocket Internet. Prior to that he worked as a financial engineer together with the research team at LGT Capital Management where he developed quantitative portfolio allocation strategies. He holds a dual degree in business and econometrics from the University of St. Gallen and the Swiss Institute of Technology.

Paul is co-founder and head of product at Upstart. Paul pioneered Upstart's statistical models to predict income and employment, and now oversees the team's product and data science efforts. Paul's background is in quantitative finance - he began to profitably trade at the age of 20, and previously worked in risk analysis at the D.E. Shaw Group. He has been recognized as one of Peter Thiel's 20 under 20 Fellows and Silicon Valley Business Journal's 40 under 40. Paul studied economics and computer science at Yale University.

James is a leading social entrepreneur and innovator in financial technology.

In 2005, James founded Oportun (formerly Progreso Financiero), the leading provider of micro-loans to US Hispanics that recently surpassed $1.5 billion in loans and over 500,000 borrowers. As CEO from 2005-2012, James led Oportun from its development as a nascent start-up to a market leader and raised over $250 million of debt and equity. Under James’ leadership, the company scaled annual loan originations to over 200,000 with revenues of $65 million, 85 stores in California and Texas, and 600 employees.

James served on the Fed’s Consumer Advisory Council and Centennial Advisory Committee, and also architected three federal and state laws to increase the availability of affordable small dollar loans. James was also an early investor in Trulia, StubHub, OnDeck Capital, and Icon Aircraft.

James graduated with a BA in Economics from Yale and MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

Inspired to create an investment platform to help demystify finance for investors and enable institutions to better engage and retain clients, Margaret founded Marstone, a digital wealth platform available for white-label to existing financial institutions. For retail investors, the Marstone platform puts users at ease with their financial lives by offering holistic account analysis, personalized portfolio creation, and unparalleled user experience. For institutions, the Marstone platform augments client acquisition, enhances asset retention and improves operational productivity while avoiding disintermediating the advisor or institution from the client relationship.

Prior to starting Marstone, Margaret was a top quintile financial advisor for ten years in the Global Wealth Management Group at Merrill Lynch, split between New York and San Francisco. Margaret, along with the Marstone ensemble of designers, technologists and wealth management professionals, has developed a new breed of financial tools and investment solutions that are intuitive, useful and broadly relevant. Marstone is fully integrated with Pershing, a BNY Mellon company, and is a proud IBM Business Partner.

Margaret is a graduate of Brown University, a former trustee of Sonoma Academy in Santa Rosa, California, and an active leader in the alumni and major development efforts at Brown University and Phillips Exeter Academy.

CEO / Co-Founder of Finatext and Nowcast, fintech startups originated from the University of Tokyo. Ryota started his career in Global Market Division at Deutsche Bank London, leading institutional sales in London and whole continental Europe. Later he joined GCI, a Singapore/Tokyo/London based hedge fund, leading Asian / Europe institutional client coverage. Ryota founded mobile financial solution startup, Finatext 2014 establishing biggest retail investment community in Japan less than 2 years, aiming to expand global market. Finatext is the first Japanese startup ever selected BBVA top 20 fintech startups. Ryota has B.S. in Economics at the University of Tokyo.

Joichi "Joi" Ito has been recognized for his work as an activist, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and advocate of emergent democracy, privacy, and Internet freedom. As Director of the MIT Media Lab, he is currently exploring how radical new approaches to science and technology can transform society in substantial and positive ways. Soon after coming to MIT, Ito introduced mindfulness meditation training to the Media Lab.
Ito has served as both board chair and CEO of Creative Commons, and sits on the boards of Sony Corporation, Knight Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and The New York Times Company. In Japan, he is executive researcher of KEIO SFC, and he was a founder of Digital Garage, and helped establish and later became CEO of the country’s first commercial Internet service provider. He was an early investor in numerous companies, including Flickr, Six Apart, Last.fm, littleBits, Formlabs, Kickstarter, and Twitter.
Ito’s honors include TIME magazine’s "Cyber-Elite” listing in 1997 (at age 31) and selection as one of the "Global Leaders for Tomorrow" by the World Economic Forum (2001). In 2008, BusinessWeek named him one of the "25 Most Influential People on the Web." In 2011, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oxford Internet Institute. In 2013, he received an honorary D.Litt from The New School in New York City, and in 2015 an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Tufts University. In 2014, he was inducted into the SXSW Interactive Hall of Fame; also in 2014, he was one of the recipients of the Golden Plate Award from the Academy of Achievement.

Yuzo Kano co-founded bitFlyer in January 2014. bitFlyer provides various service of Bitcoin and has high level technology of Blockchain. Yuzo serves as the head of Japan Blockchain Association (JBA), and is committed to popularizing the Bitcoin and the Blockchain in Japan, Asia, and around the world.
Yuzo graduated from The University of Tokyo in 2001 with a Master of Engineering. Prior to bitFlyer, Yuzo worked as an Equities Derivatives and Convertible Bonds Trader at Goldman Sachs, focusing on market making for institutional investors as well as principal trading.

Mike brings extensive experience in Investment, Business, Management, IT and Venture Capital for over 20 years in Japan, the United States and Asia.

Inspired by the innovative and disruptive blockchain technology and virtual currency, Mike co-founded Quoine with Mario Gomez Lozada in 2014.

Prior to Quoine, Mike was a Senior Vice President at SoftBank Group, managing its Asia / India operations, investments, and joint ventures with SingTel and Bharti Group as well as the Chief Investment Officer of Gungho Asia, the creator of Puzzle and Dragons.
Before joining SoftBank, Mike was a Senior Director at Globespan Capital Partners, an independent Venture Capital with over USD1.2B under management, with responsibilities in Japan Investment as well as Asia business development.
Prior to Globespan, Mike worked at Mitsubishi Corporation’s New Business Initiative Group and established Natural Lawson as well as the joint venture with Boots to create Boots MC.
Mike graduated from The University of Tokyo and Harvard Business School.

Leanne Kemp is the founder & CEO of Everledger - a digital, global ledger that tracks and protects items of value.

With a wealth of successful startup companies under her belt, Leanne is pushing boundaries in protecting the global market of diamonds and luxury goods.

Using her extensive background in emerging technologies, business, jewellery and insurance - Leanne and Everledger are working towards ensuring global transparency by constructing a digitally encrypted certification system that assists in the reduction of fraud, black markets and trafficking.

Everledger is leading the market in real world application of blockchain boasting an impressive set of industry awards including the Meffy Award 2015 for Innovation in FinTech, BBVA Open Talent 2015, FinTech Finals 2016 for Best in Show and European Financial Tech Awards 2016 for Best Blockchain Company.

Michael Kent is a serial entrepreneur, who has spent the last decade building businesses in consumer financial services.

He founded Small World Financial Services Group in2004, growing the multi billion-dollar company to become Europe’s largest offline money transfer provider and a top ten player globally.

Recognising the impact mobile and social technology could have on the international money transfer market, Michael started Azimo to challenge high-transfer costs and drastically speed-up the way consumers send money abroad. Backed by over $30m in funding, the platform now enables anyone to send cash, bank transfers and mobile money to over 190 countries, in 70+ different currencies and over social media platforms such as Facebook.

Alongside Azimo, Michael founds and invests in consumer-focused banks and financial services businesses (e.g. CorporatePay, Curve, YoYo Wallet, ClarityFX) and advises institutional investors and blue-chip corporates on cross-border payments. He previously held senior M&A positions at WPP and News Corp.

Michael holds a MA from Cambridge University and a MBA from INSEAD.

Satyen is the founder of Cube, an award winning mobile banking service for the Indian millennial.

His prior experiences include founding Citrus Payments, where he led overall strategy, product, user experience, marketing, and strategic alliances to drive the company to a $100 million plus organization in 4 years. He has spent 15 years in the Silicon Valley establishing companies in the areas of marketing automation, social e-commerce, and strategy/design consulting. He loves questioning the status quo, and to push the boundaries of accepted thinking, whether it comes to solutions, business, design and social practices.

His career has included stints with both start-ups and large companies such as Intuit, First Data, Cisco, AOL, Yahoo, frog Design & Apple. This has involved being an entrepreneur, a consultant, and an educator in start-ups, Fortune 500 companies, incubators, and educational institutes in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

He is also an angel investor in India and has invested in 6 companies in the spaces of marketplaces, payments, solar, and education. He is an active member of the Stanford Alumni Association of India and Stanford Angels. He also serves on advisory boards of 2 incubators – Zone Startups (a Bombay Stock Exchange and Ryerson collaboration) and Venture Studio (a Stanford University and Amdavad University collaboration).

He finished a Masters from Stanford University in tech entrepreneurship/HCI/Computer Science in 1996, and a BE in Computer Science/Engineering from Bombay University in 1995. He is an aspiring kite-surfer, alternative travel fan, and a roving philosopher in his spare time.

Jorn Lambert is Executive Vice‐President, Channels and Regions in Digital Payments & Labs. In this role, he is responsible for the relationships with Digital Participants (MasterCard partners in the digital space, including Operating Systems, device manufacturers, telcos, merchant enablers, wallet operators and social networks) as well as the regional teams who deploy MasterCard’s Emerging Payment products across the world. Previously, he was responsible for the management and development of Emerging Payment Products for European markets, including e‐commerce, mobile commerce, person‐to‐person payments, contactless payments and inControl.
Mr. Lambert joined MasterCard in September of 2002, managing Core Products for MasterCard Europe, including consumer credit, commercial cards, debit and prepaid.
Prior to joining MasterCard, Mr. Lambert spent many years in the capital markets where he occupied various management positions in the areas of product development, product management and corporate strategy.
Mr. Lambert has a degree in Roman Philology at the University of Ghent and La Sapienza in Rome, Italy, and a post‐graduate degree in business economics from the University of Leuven in Leuven, Belgium.

Michael Laven is the CEO of Currencycloud, a rapidly-growing FinTech company that is transforming how businesses move money around the world. Currencycloud is well positioned to bring long-awaited change to the international payments landscape, by exchanging and transferring money as a cloud-based service. Joining in 2012, Mike is the driving force behind the firm, growing it to $10bn in international payments.
An accomplished entrepreneur, Mike is highly skilled at building and leading venture-backed FinTech companies towards profitable growth. Over the past two decades, he has held leadership roles with a number of FinTech firms in London and Silicon Valley, including Infinity Financial Technology, Cohera and Coronet, FRS Global and Traiana.
Behind Mike’s easy-going personality lies one of the sharpest minds in the financial technology industry. Mike has a BA from Wesleyan University and advanced degrees from Harvard and the School for International Training.

John is CEO of Uphold Merchant Services (UMS), a global payment services provider that utilizes Uphold’s cloud-based financial technology platform as its foundation. John joined UMS through Uphold's acquisition of Bitnet Technologies, a payment processing platform for digital currencies which John co-founded and led as CEO. Prior to Bitnet, John held executive roles at Visa, CyberSource (Nasdaq:CYBS, acquired by Visa), Paymo (now BOKU), PaylinX (acquired by CyberSource), and Transaction Network Services (NYSE:TNS). John is also an active private investor with extensive board experience and practiced securities law earlier in his career. John earned his B.A. degree with honors from Stanford University and his J.D. from UCLA law school.

Jose Garcia Moreno-Torres, CDO at Kreditech holds a PhD in Artificial Intelligence and has been an invaluable member of the Kreditech team since April 2013. He is responsible for the Data Science department focusing on credit scoring and customer lifetime value optimization and yield management. Jose oversees all data-driven modelling and automated decision making. When given enough data, he can see into the future!

Yukio Noguchi is an expert in Finance Theory and Japanese Economic Theory. He graduated from The University of Tokyo, Faculty of Engineering, and joined the Ministry of Finance in 1964. In 1972, he received his Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University. He served as a Professor at Hitotsubashi University, Director of the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology at The University of Tokyo, Visiting Associate Professor of Stanford University, as well as Professor of the Graduate School of Finance, Accounting and Law at Waseda University. He has a deep interest in BitCoin and published “Innovation of Virtual Currency” Diamond, Inc. (2014).
His major publications in Japanese include “Japanese Economy collapsed by Monetary Easing Policy” DIAMOND, Inc. (2013), “Fictional Abenomics” DIAMOND, Inc. (2013) and others.

Sato is the Founder and CEO of Metaps, which he started in 2007 while still enrolled at Waseda University. In 2011, he launched the data-driven app monetization platform “Metaps” and lead the expansion of Metaps to 8 locations worldwide. In 2013, Sato launched the online payment platform “SPIKE”. He was awarded “THE START-UP OF THE YEAR 2015” by Forbes, and selected as one of the “Top 100 Global Players in Japan” by AERA, also in 2015. Sato is the author of “How to predict the Future”and “The Three Things You Want to Know to Be Successful in the Global Smartphone Market”.

After graduating from the University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Law in 1989, Sato joined the ex-Ministry of Finance and was appointed to departments related to financial investment, budgets, securities and banking. He was the First Secretary of the Japanese delegation to the OECD (in charge of finance and corporate governance) between 2001 and 2004. From 2005 he joined the Cabinet Legislation Bureau for a period of 5 years, during which time he was in charge of reviewing Public Finance and Finance Law. In 2011 he was appointed Director of the Research Office, Director for Credit System, and Director of the Planning Division. He was recently in charge of framing the Amendments to the Banking Act of Japan, approved by the National Diet this year.

Shaun has over 25 years’ experience developing and implementing multi-asset investment strategies for clients ranging from central banks to pension schemes to charities and high-net worth private individuals. He joined Nutmeg in September 2012 and is responsible for all aspects of the investment proposition.
He was previously at BDO Investment Management, where he was Chief Investment Officer for six years, in charge of the investment proposition for high-net worth and ultra-high net worth clients. While at BDO, he designed and managed a range of award-winning funds across multi-asset portfolios, commodities and fixed income. Prior to BDO, he was Senior Economist and Head of Research for Crown Agents Investment Management, part of the team managing global bond and equity portfolios for central banks, sovereign wealth funds and public sector pension schemes. Shaun holds a degree in Mathematical Economics from the University of Birmingham, is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst and an accomplished communicator, including regular appearances on BBC television and radio, Sky News, Bloomberg and CNBC.

Ling Tang joined Tencent’s Strategy Development Department since 2014 and take a lead at Tencent’s Internet Finance business and initiatives. Before joining Tencent, Ling was a financial analyst in BNP Paribas’ Equity Research department, covering China and Taiwan insurers and banks. Before that, Ling spent 3 years at McKinsey, helping financial institutions develop business strategies, improve operational efficiency, and establish sales force management mechanisms.

Tom Theobald is the Deputy CEO of Luxembourg for Finance (LFF), a public-private partnership between the government and the financial services industry in Luxembourg. In his role as Deputy CEO, Tom assists the agency in its strategic mission to develop the Luxembourg financial centre and promote its expertise and diversity abroad. Tom Theobald previously worked as Adviser at the Luxembourg Bankers’ Association (ABBL), where he was in charge of Communication and Press relations. He also held the position of Secretary of the ABBL Board of Directors. Prior to joining the ABBL in 2008, he served as an attaché to the Permanent Mission of Luxembourg to the United Nations in New York. Tom holds a PhD in English Literature from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Daniel joined Ping An Group in April, 2013. Ping An is an integrated financial services group in China with core business in insurance, banking, and investments. Ping An is also China’s largest non-SOE. As Group Chief Innovation Officer, Daniel is responsible for initiating and creating internal innovation projects with its 27 subsidiary companies and collaborates closely with Ping An Technology. He and his team are also responsible for forging strategic partnerships and identifying new business opportunities for PA companies including the newly-created online business entities. Daniel also oversees Ping An Ventures for both domestic and overseas investments.

Daniel has nearly 30 years of experience including sales and marketing, PR, media, business development, and related executive leadership positions mostly in Asia and specifically, in the Greater China market. His focus in the last 10 years has been investing in technology and innovation areas. He previously served on the Board of Taiwan National Lottery, and Advisory Boards of Visa Products Group, Asia, and Sina.com. He currently serves on the Advisory Committee of Microsoft’s Innovation Outreach Program (IOP).

Vladyslav is the co-founder & CTO of Revolut, an award winning and one of the fastest growing fintech businesses in Europe that has acquired over 300k users since launch in July 2015. Before Revolut Vladyslav built trade processing and risk management software for Tier 1 investment banks, inter alia, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and UBS. He also has experience in bespoke and out-of-the-box airline booking systems and telecom BSS systems.
Vladyslav holds a Masters degree in Computer Science. He is an entrepreneurial technologist with a particular interest in exponential technology and distributed systems.

Born in 1990. Admitted to the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2009, and won the Cookpad Hackathon as a third year student. During this time, he also developed the Android job search app “SPI Training”, which achieved 100,000 downloads. In 2014 Wada was appointed CEO of ResuPress Inc, which established both STORYS.JP which gave birth to the movie “Flying Colors” that generated 20 billion yen in box office revenue, and the entire Coincheck system. In 2016 Wada was selected as one of Japan’s top 50 innovators. He is also a supervisor/ an auditor of the Japan Blockchain Association (JBA).

Hiroshi Mikitani is Chairman and CEO of Rakuten, Inc., one of the world's leading e-commerce companies. He has been referred to as a maverick in his approach and is widely seen as the leader of an emerging, 'New Japan', one which increasingly turns away from traditional modes of doing business.
Born in Kobe, Japan, he graduated from Hitotsubashi University in 1988, and earned his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1993. Personal tragedy in the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake inspired him to leave a promising career in investment banking to create something that he thought would be more meaningful to society. Starting out with just a handful of team members, he launched the "Rakuten Ichiba" marketplace in May 1997. Today, Rakuten is the world’s third largest e-commerce company by revenue and is listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Joined Rakuten Card in 2015. Making the most of his extensive experience in product development and credit administration in corporate finance, Isami developed, in October 2015, Rakuten Super Business Loan Express, a new SME finance product that utilizes big data owned by Rakuten Ichiba and targeted at stores doing business through Rakuten Ichiba. Isami is currently Rakuten’s Business Loans Promotion Management Manager.

Nobuhiko “Nobu” Masaki joined Rakuten Securities, Inc. in 2015 as Department Manager of Investment Management Business Unit. With his leadership, Rakuten has　successfully launched its first FinTech service “Raku-wrap” in July 2016.
Nobu has an extensive career in financial field especially in sales and planning and development of financial products for both retail and institutional customers. Before assuming his current position in 2015, he had worked for several asset management companies and securities companies including Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co., Ltd., Blackrock Japan Co., Ltd., Mizuho Securities Co., Ltd., T&D Asset Management Co., Ltd., and Invesco Asset Management (Japan) Limited.
Nobu also founded IFIS Co., Ltd in 1996 which provides　an investment trust performance analysis tool. The company was sold to S&P Global Ratings in 1999. Nobu graduated from Sophia University in 1989.

Joined Rakuten Inc in 2006 after working at Accenture. In his current positions of Rakuten Executive Director and Global Head of Rakuten Institute of Technology, Mori is in charge of five institutes around the world, integrating research and development. Advisory board member of the Information Processing Society of Japan, Director of the Database Society of Japan, Executive Member of Nikkei IT Innovators, and Executive Member of the Japan Institute of Information Technology. In 2013 Mori was selected as one of “40 Prodigies” by the Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun newspaper. He has authored books including Kuraudo Daizen [The Complete Cloud Computing] (co-authored, Nikkei BP) and Webu daihenka, pawaa shifuto no hajimari [massive change in the web – the start of a power shift] (Kindai-Sales Co).

Stephen McNamara is a highly experienced CTO and entrepreneur with over 25 years in the design, implementation, and deployment of scalable software systems; primarily in FinTech and distributed systems. He has worked on many complex products covering medical informatics, middleware and messaging protocols, very large test automation (think millions of tests) and payments (3 times).

Most recently as CTO & co-founder of Bitnet, McNamara led the product and technology teams in building the worlds' best in class digital currency processing platform. He was heavily involved in all aspects of the business; from corporate formation and team development, to product delivery, strategy, fund raising, IR and customer growth. Now as CTO of the newly created Rakuten Blockchain lab, McNamara sees the potential that the blockchain has for a profound positive impact on Rakuten’s many businesses.

Previously as CTO for Visa/CyberSource, he was responsible for all aspects of technology vision, strategy and architecture.