FinTech Week 2025

Aly Madhavji

Aly Madhavji is the Managing Partner at Blockchain Founders Fund which invests in and venture builds top-tier startups. He is a Limited Partner at Loyal VC and Draper Goren Holm. Aly consults organizations on emerging technologies such as INSEAD and the UN on solutions to help alleviate poverty. He served as Senior Blockchain Fellow at INSEAD and was recognized as a “Blockchain 100” Global Leader.

He is an internationally acclaimed author, publishing three books, and a columnist for leading Web3 publications. Aly served as a board member of Soluna Holdings (NASDAQ: SLNH) and on various advisory boards including the University of Toronto’s Governing Council, which manages a $2.5B budget. He is a mentor with Orbit Startups, an elite accelerator program operated by the venture fund SOSV with $1.5B+ AUM and the Mobile Only Accelerator (MOX).

Aly holds a Master of Global Affairs as a Schwarzman Scholar from Tsinghua University (清华大学), a Master of Business Administration from INSEAD (Singapore and France), and a Bachelor of Commerce with Distinction from the University of Toronto.

Oonagh van den Berg

Oonagh van den Berg is an award winning Compliance Officer and recognised as one of the leading voices and trainers globally in compliance risk management, with over 20+ years’ experience. She has built and led various compliance risk framework developments and teams across the industry for a diverse range of financial entities, including traditional banks, Fintech, and Crypto firms, and is known for her proven expertise in management of complex compliance remediation challenges. She is an advocate for ethical compliance leadership and framework development, with increased automation, including AI and Machine Learning integration.

Guy Sheppard

As Aboitiz Data Innovation (ADI)’s Chief Commercial Officer, Guy Sheppard plays a key role in continuing the advancement of ADI’s mission to drive the adoption of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence tools and solutions that can help reduce operational cost, drive effectiveness within financial crime processes, collections, alternate lending, data sharing processes, and ultimately accelerate more inclusive financing.Guy has over 16 years of experience in Financial Crime, Cyber and Fraud having led Financial Crime commercial and markets teams for SWIFT in the Americas, UK and the Asia Pacific. In his career, he has worked for Bankers Almanac (now Accuity), Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, LexisNexis and with the Metropolitan Police Terrorist Finance Investigations Unit on a Joint Venture. As a recognized domain expert and speaker in Due Diligence, Fraud, Cyber and Sanctions technology assurance, he is also an active individual in the community, having held various positions such as being a former member of the Singapore FinTech Association’s RegTech sub-committee and Course Director for the Wealth Management Institute’s InfoSec Central Bank training programme. Guy graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Medieval Literature from the University of Exeter and holds a Master of Arts in Marketing from Kingston University.

Ali Safri

Ali Safri serves as the Chief Technology Officer at Avanza Innovations, where he stands as a pioneer, architect, and visionary in the realm of cutting-edge technologies such as Blockchain, Web3, Artificial Intelligence, and the Metaverse.

Throughout his career, Ali has conceptualized and brought to life numerous innovative products, demonstrating real-world applications of emerging technologies like Web3 across diverse sectors. His portfolio includes achievements such as pioneering Real World Asset Tokenization with Fragments, establishing NFT Marketplaces, Developing the Blockchain Orchestration Engine (CIPHER), Enterprise Metaverse Product (ORION), and AI-driven Enterprise Oracles (Impulse). Notably, Ali has led national infrastructure initiatives such as Haifen, a groundbreaking system leveraging Blockchain and AI to combat invoice duplicate finance fraud, adopted by 16+ financial institutions in the UAE. Along with it Ali architected and delivered the Invoice Verification eco-system for ARAMCO and its partners over blockchain, Lost Passport use case over blockchain for UAE, e-KYC Eco-system over blockchain deployed within Bahrain and Pakistan, Shipping Nomination over blockchain use case for K-Companies of Kuwait, E-Commerce eco-system over blockchain for Dubai Customs along with 20+ partners and Tokenization of loyalty points using blockchain.
Beyond his role at Avanza Innovations, Ali also serves as the CTO at ourPol, a platform specializing in real estate tokenization, where he is one of the co-founders.

Drawing from his extensive experience in delivering blockchain-based solutions, Ali is a sought-after speaker at various conferences, where he shares insights on the practical implementation of emerging technologies. Along with Technology, he addresses topics ranging from the risks and compliance considerations to the legal aspects of Crypto and Web3, enriching the discourse on the transformative potential of these technologies.