Featured Speakers
(in speech order)
Topic: FinTech: When Human Brains Meet Machines
Prof. CHEN Nan, Associate Professor, Programme Director of Bachelor of Engineering in Financial Technology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Nan Chen is an associate professor in the Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interests are quantitative methods in finance and risk management, Monte Carlo simulation, and applied probability Prof. Chen received his Ph.D. in operations research from Columbia University in 2006, and M.S. and B.S. in probability and statistics from Peking University, Beijing, China in 2001 and 1998, respectively. He served as associate editor for Operations Research Letters from 2007-2008. He is now associate editor of Journal of International Review of Finance and Journal of Digital Finance. He works as director of the Bachelor of Engineering Program in Financial Technology at CUHK. The program is the first of its kind in Hong Kong to offer comprehensive undergraduate education in FinTech. He is also director of Master of Science Program in Financial Engineering at CUHK Shenzhen.
Topic: Innovating in Finance 
Mr. Andrew FREYRE-SANDERS, Managing Director - Trading, Haitong International Securities Group Limited
Andrew has a BSc from Imperial College London (Chemistry) and has over 20 years’ experience in financial markets, the most recent 10 years of which have been spent in Asia. With a background in Quant research at JPMorgan, Andrew moved into electronic trading, first at JPMorgan and then at RBS, followed by CIMB. Whilst at CIMB, Andrew Freyre-Sanders ran the whole execution platform which ranked #1 in Asia for Algorithmic Trading (cost and client customisation). His experience on launching and further developing trading algorithms extends both to futures and equities, across 30+ exchanges, including most Asian markets plus Europe and the US.
Topic: Artificial Intelligence and Analytics in Financial Markets
Mr. Adam WIELOWIEYSKI, Senior Platform Strategist, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited
Adam Wielowieyski is the Senior Platform Strategist in the Group Strategy division at the Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Company Limited. Group Strategy supports the Chief Executive in formulating and executing key strategic plans for the group, and oversees execution of major projects and business initiatives.
Prior to joining HKEX in 2016, Mr Wielowieyski was an Executive Director in the Securities Division at Goldman Sachs, responsible for quantitative strategy for Credit Derivatives in London and Asia. He was subsequently appointed by JP Morgan to advise on the construction and direction of pricing systems for the interest rates desks. He operated a real estate syndicate fund, investing into assets in Portugal and was co-founder and Managing Partner of add+ International, a firm using the blockchain to simplify and modernise fund administration.
Mr Wielowieyski holds a degree in Computer Science from Imperial College in London and an MBA from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He lives in Hong Kong with his wife and two daughters.
Topic: FinTech and its Applications in Banking Service 
Prof. CHAN Chun Kwong, Professor of Practice in Financial Technology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong / ex-Chief Information Officer, Retail Banking & Wealth Management, Asia Pacific, HSBC
Prior to joining CUHK as Professor of Practice in FinTech starting September 2018, Prof. Chun Kwong CHAN has been the Chief Information Officer, Retail Banking & Wealth Management, Asia Pacific at HSBC since 2015. From 2012-2015, Professor Chan was the Global Head of Digital Mobile & Channels Engineering at HSBC, having led the direction and engineering of banking applications in implementing the Digital Strategy for HSBC globally. He joined HSBC in Vancouver, Canada in 1990 to help start up the Group Development Centre for HSBC, and moved back to Hong Kong in 2007 to take up key IT management positions at HSBC Asia Pacific.
Professor Chan has won numerous innovation awards by IDC, Asian Bankers, etc. and currently serves on the Innovation and Technology Fund Research Projects Assessment Panel, Hong Kong SAR Government.
Professor Chan obtained his Bachelor of Science Engineering degree from University of Hong Kong (1975), Master of Business Administration from Chinese University of Hong Kong (1983), and Doctor of Business Administration from City University of Hong Kong.
Topic: Latest Global Crypto Developments: ICOs, Crypto Funds and Crypto Exchanges
Mr. Henri ARSLANIAN, FinTech & RegTech Lead, PwC
Henri Arslanian is the PwC FinTech & Crypto Leader for Asia, the Chairman of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Hong Kong where he teaches the first FinTech university course in Asia.
Henri leads PwC’s crypto efforts in Asia and advises numerous crypto exchanges, crypto funds, ICOs as well as traditional financial institutions and regulators in relations to their crypto initiatives.
With over 400,000 LinkedIn followers, Henri has been awarded many industry and academic awards over the years from being regularly named one of the Most Influential Individuals in FinTech in Asia to being awarded the Governor General of Canada Gold Medal for Academic Excellence.
Henri was also recognized as one of the Global 2017 LinkedIn Top Voices in Economy & Finance and is regularly featured in global media including Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN, The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.
Before joining PwC, Henri was with a FinTech start-up and previously spent many years with UBS Investment Bank in Hong Kong. Henri started his career as a financial markets and funds lawyer in Canada and Hong Kong.
Henri is also a TEDx speaker, a published author, and currently sits on several finance, academic, government, civil society, and FinTech related boards and advisory boards globally.
Henri speaks five languages including English, French, Armenian, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese.
He holds a Masters in Chinese Law from Tsinghua University; a joint Global Executive MBA from Columbia Business School, London Business School, and Hong Kong University; a Masters in Transnational Law from the University of Sherbrooke; and a Bachelor of Law from the University of Montreal (Dean’s List of Excellence).
Topic: What the Future of Robo Advice will Look Like
Mr. Mikaal ABDULLA, CEO & Co-Founder, 8 Securities
A member of Asia Fintech 100, Mikaal is the co founder and CEO of 8 Securities, a mobile first investing service for Millennials. His journey has taken him through Silicon Valley, New York, London, Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Prior to starting 8 Securities, Mikaal was a Senior Vice President and the Head of Asia at E*TRADE. Mikaal began his career as a Senior Consultant at Deloitte in the United States. Mikaal has extensive international experience having launched and managed businesses and online consumer products across Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, India and the North America. Mikaal holds a MBA from both Columbia University and the London Business School. Mikaal is currently a mentor at Chinaccelerator and a guest writer for Tech in Asia.
Topic: A Picasso for Everyone: How Tokenisation is Adding a New Chapter to Capital Markets 
Dr. Florian M. SPIEGL, Co-Founder & COO, FinFabrik
Florian is a broadly experienced entrepreneur and FinTech practitioner. He is a co-founder of FinFabrik, a Hong Kong-based FinTech company that develops capital markets software platforms. FinFabrik solutions power businesses in retail trading, algorithmic trading and wealth management, including digital assets such as crypto currencies and crypto securities.
Florian’s area of expertise also covers Artificial Intelligence in Wealth Management, particularly applying Deep Learning across the Investment Management services stack. His passion is to enable financial inclusion by leveraging technology.
With his first company started as a student, he has seen both failure and success as a founder across different industries. In his corporate career, he worked in Digital Banking at Credit Suisse and as a management consultant for The Boston Consulting Group. Florian holds a PhD in Political Economics and is a founding member and co-chair of the AI Committee of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong.
Topic: FinTech - Blockchain & Swarm Intelligence
Dr. James LEI, Acting Director, Intelligent Software and Systems, Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute
Dr James Lei is the Acting Director of Intelligent Software and Systems of ASTRI. He worked at Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies, Panasonic Research, and The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He was the President of New Jersey Chinese Computer Professionals Society, the Director of Chinese Association of Science and Technology, and Beijing Overseas Scientific Advisory Board. He was the Co-founder of Guangzhou International High-Tech Incubation Centre. Dr Lei has more than 100 publications in journals, conferences, and patent applications. His research has led to several technology startups. His research has won several international recognition, such as the 2011 CES Innovations Award, 2008 Taiwan Excellence Award, and 2007 IBM/Microsoft Consensus Award. His team has won the runner up finalist award at 2012 Grand Challenge Competition at the ACM International Conference on Distributed Event-Based Systems, and entered top 5% rank at the 2013 KDD Cup data mining competition. He received a Meritorious Award for International Mathematical Contest in Modeling by SIAM in 1989. He obtained Bachelor’s degree from Beijing University, and PhD degree from Brown University.
Topic: Using AI in Algo Trading
Dr. Alfred MA, Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer, CASH Algo Finance Group Limited
Dr. Alfred Ma received his BSc and MPhil degree in Mathematics from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and his PhD in Operations Research from Columbia University. He is a CFA charterholder, a Professional Risk Manager, and an Associate of the Society of Actuaries. His research has appeared in practitioner’s journals such as the Journal of Asset Management, Journal of Computational Finance, and the Journal of Trading.
Topic: FinTech Development in Banking - Challenges & Opportunities by Selected Examples 
Mr. Michael LEUNG, China CITIC Bank International
Michael Leung was appointed Chief Information & Operations Officer of China CITIC Bank International in December 2013. In this capacity, he manages the Bank’s information technology and banking operations, and at the same time serves as a key member of the Bank's management team.
Prior to his current position, Mr Leung had worked for over 30 years in leading international vendors, consulting firms and banks.
Apart from his prior involvements in HK Computer Society, Michael is also a Fellow of the HK Institute of Directors, an Exco Member of the HK Institute of Bankers, Chair of the IS Departmental Advisory Committee and an Adjunct Professor of City University, Chairman of the HK Down Syndrome Association, amongst others.
