Speakers

Jorge Alegría held various positions of high responsibility in the financial markets sector, including Senior Director of CME Group (Chicago Mercantile Exchange), representative in Mexico andin charge of the development of markets, clients and derivative products for Latin America.

Previously he served as CEO of MexDer (Mexican Derivatives Market) and as -Sr. Managing Director of the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV Group), in charge of Market Operations and Data Services of the BMV Group. Prior to that, he was CEO of ABN AMRO Securities (Mexico) and - Managing Director of Scotiabank Inverlat México. 

He chaired the International Options Markets Association (IOMA), the Derivatives arm of the World federation of Exchanges (WFE) for three years. Mr. Alegría graduated in Finance from ITAM (Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México), where he has also been a part-time professor teaching the topic of Derivatives Markets in Mexico. He has taken and taught various advanced courses and seminars in Mexico and abroad, specialized in capital markets, FinTech and financial derivatives.

Nikou Asgari is the FT's digital markets correspondent, covering trading, market structure and traditional and crypto exchanges from London. She previously worked in New York and has also covered European markets and corporate finance from London.  

Ioana Boier is the Global Head of Capital Markets Strategy at NVIDIA, where she defines and leads the strategy to support institutional trading firms and ecosystem partners in building AI factories for scalable alpha generation. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from Purdue University and has deep experience spanning quantitative research and AI systems, with senior roles at Alphadyne Asset Management, Citadel LLC, BNP Paribas, and IBM T.J. Watson Research. 

Tal Cohen is President of Nasdaq, leading Nasdaq's Market Services and Financial Technology divisions. In this capacity, he is responsible for Nasdaq’s North American and European Markets as well as the company’s portfolio of marketplace technology, surveillance, risk management and regulatory reporting solutions.

 Prior to joining Nasdaq in April 2016 as the Senior Vice President of North American Equities, Tal was the Chief Executive Officer of Chi‐X Global Holdings, LLC from 2010 to 2016. From 2008 to 2010, he served as CEO of Chi‐X Americas.

 Before joining Chi-X, Tal held several senior leadership roles at INSTINET, including Senior Vice President of Business Development and Product Strategy and Co‐head of electronic trading for North America, from 1999-2008. Before joining Instinet, he served as M&A Manager at American Express, building out its strategic investment portfolio. Tal started his career at Arthur Andersen as an Auditor and Senior Business Advisor focused on the Financial Services and Telecom industries.

 From 2009-2016, Tal served as a Director on the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) Board. He additionally served as a Director on the Canadian Depository for Securities (CDS) Board from 2013-2016.

 Tal holds a B.A. from SUNY Albany, an M.B.A. from New York University’s Stern School of Business, and is a Certified Public Accountant. He also holds FINRA Series 24, 7 and 63 licenses, the CSI Partners, Directors, and Senior Officers Designation (PDO). 

Simon Dove joined ABN AMRO Clearing Bank in September 2026 as Global Head of Business Development and Execution in a newly created role, supporting the firm's growth and profile ambitions.

Simon plays a key role in advancing ABN AMRO Clearing Bank's growth ambitions, strengthening client partnerships and driving innovation, and further expanding the firm's presence across global markets.

A highly respected figure in the global trading industry, he brings more than two decades’ experience across financial markets.  

Most recently, Simon spent more than five years at Instinet, where he helped drive growth, innovation, and revenue growth across the business. Prior to that, he held a range of senior leadership roles across the Proprietary Trading, Market Making, and Exchange sectors.

Simon has successfully worked with institutional trading participants across a range of asset classes and venue types. Prior to joining Instinet, Simon spent five years with the electronic liquidity provider (ELP) Tower Research Capital. Earlier in his career, he served for six years with Sun Trading and ten years at the London Stock Exchange.

Throughout his career, he has been recognized as a leading voice on trading, liquidity, market structure, technology, regulation and innovation, and is a sought-after speaker at major industry conferences and events worldwide. 

Stéphane Ducable is Vice President of Amazon Web Services for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). He leads a team focused on increasing awareness and 
adoption of cloud computing by engaging with government elites around the 
EMEA region who are reinventing their public policies on IT.

Before joining Amazon in 2014, he held a number of management positions in government relations and regulatory affairs within Microsoft: in Brussels as head 
of external affairs, in Singapore as regional corporate affairs director, and in Japan as assistant general counsel and director of corporate affairs. Stéphane started his career in the technology industry in France at Alcatel, where his last position was 
Deputy Vice President, Public Affairs. He started his professional career at the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, ETSI, as the first in-house legal counsel, after having been a trainee at the European Commission, in the IT and telecommunications policy field. A lawyer by training, Ducable studied law in France, Sweden and Japan. 

John Fischer is Head of Market Structure and Business Development at Citadel Securities. In this role, he leads the firm’s exchange partnerships and market structure strategy across the Americas and EMEA.

Prior to joining Citadel Securities, John spent nearly a decade at the New York Stock Exchange in senior roles spanning Strategy, Business Development, and Research. Most recently, he served as Director of Strategy and Business Development, where he was responsible for U.S. Options commercial policy and strategic growth initiatives for the exchange.

John has served on a number of industry and board positions, including the MEMX Holdings Board, the MIAX SRO Board, the STA Listed Options Committee, and the Listed Options Market Structure Working Group, among other industry committees. 

Adena Friedman has been the Chief Executive Officer of Nasdaq since January 1, 2017 and was appointed Chair of the Board of Directors on January 1, 2023. She brings more than 20 years of industry leadership and expertise, and is credited with significantly shaping Nasdaq’s transformation into a leading global exchange and technology company serving the financial industry.

Prior to her current role as Chair and CEO, Adena held several senior leadership roles at Nasdaq including President and COO where she was responsible for the operations of the company’s business segments with a focus on driving efficiency, product development, growth and expansion.

She rejoined Nasdaq in 2014, after serving as Chief Financial Officer and Managing Director of The Carlyle Group from March 2011 to June 2014 and playing a critical role in taking the company public in May 2012.

Before Carlyle, Adena was a key member of Nasdaq's management team for over a decade, serving in a variety of roles, including head of the company's data products business, head of corporate strategy and Chief Financial Officer. She played an instrumental role in Nasdaq’s acquisition strategy, overseeing the acquisitions of INET, OMX, and the Philadelphia and Boston Exchanges. She originally joined Nasdaq in 1993 as an intern.

In January 2024, Adena was elected to the Business Roundtable (BRT) Board of Directors and currently serves as the Chair of the BRT's Technology Committee. In July 2020, Adena began her term as a member of the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Williams College in Massachusetts and a Master of Business Administration from Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management. 

Magnus Haglind is Senior Vice President and Head of Capital Markets Technology at Nasdaq. He is responsible for roadmap and product portfolio management of a broad suite of mission critical market infrastructure solutions provided to capital markets. Magnus has held various roles in the exchange industry in the confluence of business management, technology, and operations, and he has extensive experience derived from many markets and regulatory regimes around the world.

Before joining Marketplace Technology, he worked in the Global Transaction and Market Services division of Nasdaq where he, among other roles, served as Head of Global Commodities, and CEO of Nasdaq Futures.

He holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Information Systems, and a M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. 

Edward Knight manages global government relations and serves as a senior advisor on public policy and litigation.

During his tenure as Nasdaq’s General Counsel from 2001 to 2019, Knight championed many causes for investors and public companies: proxy reform; corporate governance modernization, including the JOBS ACT passage in 2012; regulatory reform; immigration reform; and enhancing the self-regulatory organization model. He has worked tirelessly to ensure Nasdaq’s U.S. equity market maintains its position as the premier global marketplace for capital formation.

Knight currently serves as a member of the Advisory Board of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and is a member of the District of Columbia, Texas and Supreme Court Bars. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and sits on its Committee on Corporate Affairs. Knight is Vice Chairman of the Board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Chair of the U.S.-India Business Council. He is also chair of TechNet's Executive Council. He is a member of the Nasdaq Dubai Board and the Board of the World Federation of Exchanges. He is based in Nasdaq’s Washington, D.C., office.

Before serving as FINRA’s General Counsel from 1999-2001 and then NASDAQ’s General Counsel, Knight served as General Counsel of the U.S. Department of the Treasury from September 1994 to June 1999 — the longest tenure since the position was created in 1934. Upon his departure, he received the Alexander Hamilton Award, the Department's highest honor. He also received the Honor Award from the Secret Service. Before being named Treasury General Counsel, Knight served as Executive Secretary and Senior Advisor to Secretary of the Treasury Lloyd Bentsen. He also served as a member of the Obama Transition Team at the U.S. Treasury Department in 2008-2009.

Prior, he was a partner with the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld in Washington, D.C. A Texas native, Knight received his Bachelor of Arts, with honors, in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and his Juris Doctorate from the University of Texas School of Law.

Nikolaj Kosakewitsch leads Nasdaq's European Markets business and works closely with market participants, regulators, policymakers, and industry stakeholders to support competitive, resilient, and innovative capital markets across Europe. Prior to joining Nasdaq, he held various leadership positions in Securities trading for Nordic buy- and sell side firms.

Since joining Nasdaq in 2017 as President of the Nasdaq Copenhagen Exchange, Nikolaj has held a number of senior leadership roles with increasing responsibility across the European business. He is recognized for his deep market expertise, strong client relationships, and active engagement on issues shaping the future competitiveness of European capital markets. He holds a Global Executive MBA from INSEAD.

Dr. Lidia Kurt is the CEO of Seturion and CEO of its subsidiary BX Digital, where she has played a key role in developing a digital market infrastructure for tokenized securities in recent years.

Previously, she was co-founder of vision&, where she successfully supported numerous digital asset and DLT projects for leading financial institutions. Her professional career also took her to J.P. Morgan and Swiss Re, with positions in Zurich, London, and Hong Kong.

Dr. Lidia Kurt holds a doctorate in finance from the University of St. Gallen and is the author of the book Digitale Assets und Tokenisierung (Digital Assets and Tokenization).

Phil Mackintosh is the Chief Economist and a Senior Vice President at Nasdaq. He manages Nasdaq’s microeconomic research to encourage capital formation and increase investor returns through better market structure. His weekly newsletter, Market Makers, is read by more than 66,000 subscribers and covers topics ranging from IPO markets, ETF trading, retail investor activity, why Nasdaq has the best markets, and more. 

Phil’s ability to simplify the complicated and explain what the economic data really means is highly regarded. He is frequently a featured speaker at conferences and often speaks with the media on macroeconomic themes and outlooks.

Phil joined Nasdaq in 2018, bringing over 30 years of financial, operational and trading experience. He has held senior trading and research roles at KCG/Virtu Financial, Credit Suisse and County Investment Management. He started his career at KPMG and is also a Chartered Accountant. 

Katie McDermott joined the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in 2014, with initial responsibility for leading Clearing & Settlement and issuer Services Operations and then moving to business development for Equity Post Trade Services.  In March 2024 Katie transitioned to lead the Derivates Clearing Services business. Katie has over 25 years of experience in financial markets and began her career with the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) in roles in New York and London. Prior to joining ASX in 2014, Katie held various roles at Barclays in New York over a 10-year career including in business analysis, project management, and as the global Chief Operating Officer (COO) responsible for emerging markets, rates, securitised products technology and was the Americas FICC technology COO.  

Katie balances her executive leadership with being a parent of three, bringing both strategic insight and grounded perspective to her work.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD). 

Marc Murphy is a Senior Vice President, Nasdaq Financial Technology.  In his role, Marc is responsible for collaborating across Nasdaq to set strategic product direction related to Software Solutions and Technology Infrastructure, including the migration of Nasdaq’s Markets to the cloud and the application of additional emerging technologies.

Marc joined Nasdaq in 2010, before joining Nasdaq, Marc spent more than a decade in London and Australia at various investment banks, including Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, and Citibank. Marc holds a Bachelor of International Business from La Trobe University, Australia and an advanced certification in Applied Finance from Kaplan Business School, Australia. 

Barnaby Nelson has been is CEO and founder of the ValueExchange since 2018 – a global market research house that specialises in helping to make the case for meaningful transformation in the world’s capital markets.

Working with an international team of experts, Barney’s attention is focused on delivering actionable, statistical insights on key market dynamics in post-trade processing. With an emphasis on digitisation, clearing, settlements and asset servicing innovation, the ValueExchange aims to empower changemakers and to help them make the case for their own transformation.

Prior to the ValueExchange, Barney worked for over 20 years in the post-trade capital markets space. Until 2018, he led Standard Chartered Bank’s custody business in Asia and prior to that he launched BNP Paribas’ custody business in Asia. 

Rahul Pathak is Vice President Data and AI GTM at AWS, where he leads the global go-to-market and specialist teams who are helping customers create differentiated value with AWS’s AI and capabilities such as Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Quick, Amazon AgentCore, Amazon SageMaker, and Amazon EC2 and Data Services such as Amazon S3, AWS Glue and Amazon Redshift. Rahul believes that generative AI will transform virtually every single customer experience and that data is a key differentiator for customers as they build AI applications.

Prior to his current role, he was Vice President, Relational Database Engines where he led Amazon Aurora, Redshift, and DSQL. During his 13+ years at AWS, Rahul has been focused on launching, building, and growing managed database and analytics services, all aimed at making it easy for customers to get value from their data. Rahul has over twenty years of experience in technology and has co-founded two companies, one focused on analytics and the other on IP-geolocation. He holds a degree in Computer Science from MIT and an Executive MBA from the University of Washington.

Brad Peterson is a technology executive with extensive leadership experience in the financial services, e-commerce, and communications industries. 

He joined Nasdaq in 2013, and he currently serves as the Executive Vice President and Chief Technology and Chief Information Officer (CTO / CIO) at Nasdaq, Inc., where he oversees the company's global technology engineering, operations, and innovation efforts. 

Before joining Nasdaq in 2013, Brad was the CTO / CIO and Executive Vice President at Charles Schwab Corporation, leading the firm's technology strategy, engineering, and infrastructure. With a career spanning several high-profile roles, Brad has held senior executive positions at companies including eBay / PayPal, Goldman Sachs, Epoch Partners, Pacific Bell Wireless and Pacific Telesis (now part of AT&T). 

His deep expertise in technology strategy, operations and cybersecurity has earned him recognition as one of Institutional Investor’s top 10 trading technology executives and as an inductee into the CIO Hall of Fame. 

Brad holds a Bachelor of Science from UCLA and a Master of Science from MIT.  

Benjamin Santos-Stephens is an Executive Director on the Board and CEO. He is an entrepreneur and finance executive who previously served as a Non-Executive Director at Digital Asset Fintech Globacap and as a Managing Director at Laser Digital, Nomura’s Digital Asset trading business. He was also formerly the Global Head of Product Management at Instinet, where he was responsible for strategy and business development across digital assets, trading, post-trade, clearing, and analytics. 

Eric Saraniecki is co-founder and head of network strategy at Digital Asset, the organization supporting the Canton Network, focusing on strategic direction and helping build the network’s technological foundation and relationships with large institutions.

Previously, he worked at DRW Trading Group as a trader, where he built and managed a trading desk focused on low-liquid commodities—a market that demands sharp analysis, strict risk management and a smart strategy. From there, he co-founded Cumberland Mining, which grew to become one of the largest liquidity providers in the crypto market. His systemic thinking, shaped by years of dealing with illiquid assets, led him to view Bitcoin as an asset with speculative opportunities and a driver of a powerful new market that required more structure and liquidity.

In his current role, he gives particular focus to ensuring interoperability between applications, maintaining data privacy at the institutional level and building a network architecture that can be used by banks, clearing houses and asset managers.

Erin Sheehan is the Associate Vice President and Head of Transformation for North American Markets at Nasdaq, bringing more than 20 years of experience across financial markets, product management, and electronic trading. In this role, she leads strategic transformation initiatives, including extending Nasdaq’s market hours and advancing AI-driven innovation across both business and product functions. She is responsible for the long-term vision and roadmap to modernize how stakeholders work, leveraging cutting-edge technology and automation to drive efficiency and growth.

Prior to her current role, Erin served as AVP of Product Management for U.S. Equities at Nasdaq, where she led product strategy for Nasdaq’s three U.S. equities exchanges and TRF. She spearheaded several transformative initiatives, including Nasdaq’s first AI-powered order type, Dynamic M-ELO, the creation of Nasdaq’s cloud-based Digital Twin testing environment, and the development of the firm’s market risk platform. Earlier in her career, she held leadership positions at BlackRock, Instinet, Goldman Sachs, and Bear Stearns, building deep expertise in trading technology, market structure, client strategy, and operational transformation.

Erin holds a B.S. in Economics from Wake Forest University, where she was a member of the varsity cross-country and track teams. Outside of work, she enjoys running, hiking, wake-surfing, traveling, and spending time with her family.

Carl Slesser serves as Head of Trading Technology within Nasdaq's Marketplace Technology business. Carl and his team are responsible for managing the trading product portfolio across the commercial technology business, spanning financial exchanges, banks, brokers, cryptocurrency and digital assets, as well as new market entrants.

Prior to joining Nasdaq, Carl worked within the NYSE Group leading the software engineering function responsible for delivering products and services to exchanges, clearinghouse operators and the sell-side community globally. 

In 2012, Carl joined Nasdaq as the CTO/COO for the NLX Market, which was Nasdaq's entry into the European interest rate future and options market. In 2017, Carl joined Marketplace Technology to serve as Head of Execution and Risk Solutions targeting the sell side community. He moved to his current position in 2021. Carl is currently based in London, United Kingdom.

Gerard Smith is Vice President, Head of Post Trade Product Strategy for Nasdaq’s Financial Technology business, where he leads the strategy for clearing, CSD, digital asset and carbon market solutions. 

Before joining Nasdaq, Gerard was Managing Director, Head of Post Trade Product Development at Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing. In this role, Gerard led a team of Product and Network Managers in all aspects of the exchange's Post Trade business. Prior to this, he served as Product Director in Collateral and Liquidity Management at LCH Ltd. He also held positions with Euroclear and the Bank of England.

For over 15 years, Gerard has led change, gaining extensive experience in trading, clearing, settlement, payments and collateral management.

Gerard has a master's degree in European Politics and a bachelor’s degree in politics. 

Nandini Sukumar is the Chief Executive Officer of the World Federation of Exchanges, the global industry group for exchanges and CCPs.

The WFE represents more than 250 exchanges and clearing houses globally, educating stakeholders on the vital role played by market infrastructures in the real economy and as a standard setter, finding the consensus on issues among the global membership. Of its members, 39% are in Asia Pacific, 41% in EMEA and 19% in the Americas region.

WFE exchanges are home to over 41,000 listed companies, and the market capitalization of these entities is over $137 trillion; around $198.5 trillion in trading annually passes through WFE members (at end-2025). The WFE’s 74 member CCPs and clearing services collectively ensure that risk takers post some USD 1.4 trillion (equivalent) of resources to back their positions, in the form of initial margin and default fund requirements.

Ms. Sukumar is Chair of IOSCO’s Affiliate Members Consultative Committee Sustainability Taskforce and serves on the joint IAASB IESBA User Advisory Group. 

Jason Wallach, Chief Executive Officer of Bruce Markets LLC, leads the company’s strategic direction and day-to-day operations, driving the growth of its innovative overnight trading alternative trading system (ATS) for U.S. equities. Under his guidance, Bruce Markets continues to advance trading efficiency and market access, helping to transform how financial institutions engage with overnight equity markets.

Jason is recognized for his deep expertise in market structure and trading technology. His insights on financial markets and trading innovation have positioned him as a thought leader in the evolution of electronic trading systems and market microstructure.

Prior to his role as CEO of Bruce Markets, Jason served as Head of Capital Markets at Apex Clearing Corporation (subsidiary of Apex Fintech Solutions) from May 2021 to February 2025, where he directed capital markets strategy for one of the industry's leading clearing and custody platforms. Before joining Apex, Jason spent nearly 18 years at PDQ Enterprises, LLC and CODA Markets, Inc., serving as Chief Operating Officer for both organizations. During this time, he pioneered new trading methodologies and oversaw the development of innovative auction-based trading venues.

Jason earned a Bachelor's degree from Connecticut College. He holds several industry registrations, including Series 7, 57, 63, 99 and 24.