Speakers

Partner since 1999 in the International Financial Institutions and Markets Group in Clifford Chance’s finance practice in London, Dermot specialises in financial markets infrastructure and financial regulation, including: payments, clearing and settlement, operational risk, control and compliance and licensing, passporting, MiFID, the Payment Services Directive and other EU developments.

Recent experience includes advising the European Payments Council in relation to the establishment of pan-European payment schemes for the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) and a number of banks on a wide variety of payments issues

Dermot is the author of Risk Management Handbook and various other book chapters.

Christophe Uzureau is an analyst in Gartner Banking Industry Advisory Services, where he advises heads of business units, strategists, business development and IT managers inside banks and payment services providers on how technology represents an opportunity to generate competitive advantage by shaping traditional payment processes.

He is responsible for covering payment system trends and innovations, the dematerialization of consumer payments worldwide and the consolidation of processes in banks' payment operations. He also covers the opportunities for non-Chinese banks looking to benefit from the growth of the Chinese retail banking market.

He is working with banking clients to rethink how they approach payment services, and how their payment architecture must evolve to respond to shifting market requirements due to new competitive threats, emerging payment instruments and regional initiatives such as the creation of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). He also provides recommendations to card processors to establish what new services they should introduce to their client base to remain competitive.

Examples of research publications include:

• “Banks' Retail Payment Operations at a Tipping Point” on why a fundamental shift in banks' retail payment operations is necessary to accommodate new competitive trends and customer requirements.
• “Payment Hubs Are the First Step in the Evolution of the Banking Payment Business” on how can Payment hubs offer banks an opportunity to better use payment information to respond to client discontent and grow payment revenue
• “Foreign Card Issuers in China: Learn the Rules Before Showing Off Your cards” on how should foreign banks prepare their card operations to enter the Chinese card market.

Renzo Vanetti is Chief Executive Officer of SIA-SSB and chairman of RA Computer.
He has been CEO of SIA, Società Interbancaria per l’Automazione, since June 1998.
He began his career at IBM in 1968, where he held various managerial positions for fifteen years. He first joined SIA in 1984, when he was assigned to the leadership of the project to create a national inter-bank network. He was later appointed Director of the Technical Area, Director of Strategic Planning and Chief of Development for Financial Markets, until 1991 when he was appointed Chief of the Inter-bank Applications Services Division and, following a spin-off, that division became SSB (Società per i Servizi Bancari), directed by Vanetti until 1998.
Other current offices:

• member of the Scheme Management Committee of the European Payments Council (EPC)
• member of the Management Council of the “Forum for Information Technology”;
• consultant to the European Union for CESR (Committee of European Securities Regulators), which defines the regulations and operational procedures of the securities markets;
• chairman of the IBM South Europe Guide, the association of companies in southern Europe which use IBM technologies;
• member of the Management Committee of CIPA, set up by the Bank of Italy to promote inter-bank activities in Italy.

Ron van Wezel (1961) has more than 20 years experience in the payments & cards industry. He joined ABN AMRO Bank in 1997.

As a Senior Vice President in the Market Infrastructures department he is currently responsible for the group’s involvement in financial industry developments for Payments&Cards. In this role he is representing the bank in international schemes, market infrastructures and financial industry bodies (like EPC, EBA, SWIFT, MasterCard/Visa). Key focus area is the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) and its impact on the bank’s payment franchise.

In 2007 Ron was appointed chairman of Mobey Forum, the leading cross-industry group for the development of mobile financial services (www.mobeyforum.org).

Ron is a regular speaker at conferences and he is the co-author of publications like the World Payments Report (free copy downloadable from: www.transactionbanking.abnamro.com) and the EBA report Banks Preparing for SEPA (for EBA members only: copy downloadable from www.ebaportal.eu).

Former assignments within ABN AMRO included
- global coordination of payments&cards initiatives to realise operational synergies across the ABN AMRO group;
- global product management of client delivery channels, wholesale bank.

Before joining ABN AMRO, Ron held several management positions in Dutch payment processor and clearing house Interpay (now Equens). He managed large and innovative projects for electronic banking, POS and ATM switching networks, and document image processing.

Ron graduated in 1986 in Chemistry and Physics at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. He received his MBA in International Business in 1997 from European University, The Hague.

Within France Telecom - Orange since 2005, MK Woo is charge of developing mobile payment and mobile contactless services to be deployed throughout the countries where the Group operates.
He is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications. He started his career in the UK working on very large defence communication projects. He then joined a consultancy as a practice director. His last position was director at a French interbank organisation specialised in new electronic payment systems.

Harry started his career as a Management Trainee with Banque Paribas. Next, Harry became manager of the Commercial Development Department of ABN AMRO Bank's International Operations Group. After ABN AMRO he joined Leyer & Weerstra, as a Senior Management Consultant, before starting his own firm.
Harry is specialized in the corporate (B2B) and retail business areas. He has been leading in the development of, amongst others, (corporate) electronic banking, web- and mobile banking, new payment development, financial planning and employee & employer benefits services. He is a catalyst in helping financial institutions to develop strategies, the appropriate solutions and a successful (commercial) implementation.
Harry, as expert, has published many articles and specialized studies in leading European Journals and other publications. Harry is a well known speaker on strategies and developments in the financial services industry.

Douwe Lycklama à Nijeholt (1965) is director and co-founder of Innopay, an independent consultancy firm specialised in payments and related financial services. Innopay typically works for commercial business management, responsible for innovation and business development. Douwe Lycklama has been in Payments innovation business since 1999, after an international career with Philips Electronics for PC multimedia products and strategy consulting with Adstrat. He holds a masters degree Electrical Engineering with Delft Technical University.