Jamal Saleh joined the UAE Banks Federation in July 2018 and was appointed as its Director General on 1st January 2019.  Prior to joining UBF, his last role was Head of Credit & Risk and Acting Regional Chief Risk Officer.

Jamal spent 29 years in banking (Conventional and Islamic) and covered Credit and Enterprise Risk Management (Credit, Market, Operational, Liquidity, and IT Risks).  His first 10 years were in the USA in Private Banking and Credit, and the last 19 were in the UAE in Corporate Banking, Credit, and Risk Management with three leading UAE banks.

He served as PRMIA’s UAE Director General for 7 years and was concurrently member on British University’s Advisory Board.

Jamal graduated valedictorian with distinction from New Jersey, USA, in Finance and Banking.

Charanjeet is an anti-fraud professional with 24 years of experience in the financial services and baking sector. He has worked in India, Tanzania and is working in UAE since 2010.

Charanjeet holds CFE, CAMS and CISM certification from ACFE, ACAMS and ISACA respectively.

He works with First Abu Dhabi Bank as Head of Group Fraud Risk & Investigation division where he is responsible for fraud prevention & investigations for the FAB group in UAE and international offices.

Charanjeet is Chairperson of Fraud Prevention Committee of UAE Bank’s Federation (UBF), in this role Charanjeet works with UBF to implement anti-fraud framework in UAE banking sector. Charanjeet is also part of MENA Regional management committee of The Association of Corporate Investigators (ACI).

Nisreen Sabri is HSBC's Regional Head of EMEA Fraud Management. She has 20 years’ experience in the UAE Financial sector. Nisreen started her career in Distribution followed by stints in Digital and Product development. She joined HSBC 14 years ago as MENAT Fraud Prevention Manager and then had different roles within the Group's Fraud Risk domain as Risk Steward, Investigator, Project Manager and Control Owner. Early this year, her remit expanded to include European markets.

Mr Nandkumar Saravade is a senior advisor on governance, strategy, ethics and cyber security. Drawing from his impactful stints in government and private sector spanning 36+ years, with expertise across diverse domains of law enforcement, banking, cyber security and technology management, he considers himself a ‘knowledge-seeker with action-bias.’

Mr Saravade was the founding CEO of Reserve Bank Information Technology Pvt Ltd (ReBIT). ReBIT was set up in 2016 as a fully-owned subsidiary of RBI for technology management and cyber security for RBI’s systems and the Indian banking sector. He finished his five-year tenure as CEO, ReBIT in May 2021.

Earlier, he worked as CEO, Data Security Council of India (DSCI), a think-tank specializing in cyber security industry development, policy research and advocacy. During 2013-15, he advised EY and ICICI Bank on fraud risk management. Until September 2013, he worked as Director, Citibank India, heading Security, Investigation and Vigilance. During 2008-2011, he worked as General Manager, Financial Crime Prevention Group, ICICI Bank, where he looked after fraud risk assessment and controls reviews, application screening and vendor due diligence, transaction monitoring, investigations and regulatory reporting and compliance.

 He also served as Director, Cyber Security and Compliance, NASSCOM, which encompassed policy formulation, capacity building and mass awareness campaigns on cyber security. Prior to joining the private sector, Mr Saravade served in the 1987 batch of the Indian Police Service. He joined the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on deputation in 1996 and worked in Mumbai and Jaipur for seven years, looking after enforcement of the Prevention of Corruption Act, investigation of bank frauds and economic offences.

Mr. Saravade holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Government College of Engineering, Aurangabad as well as a Masters’ degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

Sheetal Bhardwaj is a seasoned Risk & Compliance professional with over 19 years of hands-on experience managing successful Compliance Programs in the MENAT region.

She is presently working with one of the largest banks in the New Zealand.

She was an approved Compliance Officer & MLRO by the Central Bank of the UAE and Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA). As a Subject-Matter Expert, she has served in leadership roles covering various aspects of Regulatory Compliance & Financial Crime Risk, including regulatory audits & thematic reviews.

She is an Executive Board Member and Communication Director of ACFCS (Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialists, US), MENA Chapter.

She is an MBA in Finance & a mathematical science graduate in statistics from the University of Delhi. She is a Certified Anti Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS), Certified Global Sanctions Specialist (CGSS), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), Certified Cryptocurrency Investigator (CCI), Certified Compliance Officer (CCO), along with certifications in Compliance & AML from CISI, UK & ICA Manchester Business School, Henley Business School.

Sheetal is a well-known speaker and has delivered several speaking & training assignments in various forums, including at the University of Bradford and the University of Dubai.

She has also volunteered in the Government of India initiative, “Mentor of Change,” to educate children in rural areas of India.

Vinay Sugunanandan is the Head of Fraud Risk Management at Commercial Bank of Dubai

where he is responsible for developing robust fraud prevention strategies to support the banks strategic growth initiatives. He is a proven leader in the fraud prevention space with expertise in digital channels, payments, cards, and application and transaction frauds. He brings over 18+ years of experience in the financial crime prevention space working for leading global banks and consulting firm across various markets in North America, Middle East, Asia, Africa and Russia.

Charanjeet is an anti-fraud professional with 24 years of experience in the financial services and baking sector. He has worked in India, Tanzania and is working in UAE since 2010.

Charanjeet holds CFE, CAMS and CISM certification from ACFE, ACAMS and ISACA respectively.

He works with First Abu Dhabi Bank as Head of Group Fraud Risk & Investigation division where he is responsible for fraud prevention & investigations for the FAB group in UAE and international offices.

Charanjeet is Chairperson of Fraud Prevention Committee of UAE Bank’s Federation (UBF), in this role Charanjeet works with UBF to implement anti-fraud framework in UAE banking sector. Charanjeet is also part of MENA Regional management committee of The Association of Corporate Investigators (ACI).

Sujata Dasgupta is a multiple international award winning industry leader, and Global Head (Financial Crimes Compliance Advisory) at Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., based in Stockholm, Sweden. She has over 20 years of experience, having worked extensively in the areas of KYC, Sanctions, AML and Fraud across banking operations, IT services and consulting. She has had a rich global exposure through her work with premier banks in several major financial hubs in 7 countries across US, UK, EU, and Asia. She is an accomplished thought leader, author, columnist, and speaker, and is regularly interviewed by reputed international journals for her analysis and opinions on contemporary topics in this area. She has been named ‘Risk Professional of the Year 2021’ by Waters Technology, winner of ‘Fraud Prevention Award 2021’ by Themis and featured among ‘The 10 Young & Inspiring Businesswomen to Watch in 2021’ by Tycoon Success Magazine.

 Ali is a bank business risk manager. He started his banking career in 2005 with Garanti Bank, Turkey, as business manager of internet and mobile banking. He was appointed as VP of Digital Banking of the same bank in charge of Risk management. He joined Standard Chartered Bank, Retail, as Global Head of Digital Risk and Controls in 2017. In 2019, he moved to Hong Kong to work for MoxBank, a fully digital new generation bank, where he continues as Head of Enterprise Risk Management. He also architected and managed large scale projects in various Banking domains.

Nick is Chief Identity Strategist at the Open Identity Exchange, a community for all those involved in the ID sector to connect and collaborate, developing the guidance needed for inter-operable, trusted identities. Through OIX’s definition of, and education on, Trust Frameworks we create the rules, tools and confidence to allow every individual a trusted, universally accepted, identity.

Nick has expert knowledge of Identity and Fraud solutions for a variety of different sectors using different verification techniques, spanning data validation to document selfie verification.

Nick was previously Director of ID and Fraud at Experian where he was responsible for the development of Experian’s fraud and identity solutions for both the public and private sectors. Nick led Experian’s development, launch and operation of a full “Identity as a Service solution” which was the first live example of a Digital ID that is seamlessly interoperable across public and private sector in the UK.

Geoffrey Wynne is head of Sullivan & Worcester’s London office and head of its award winning Trade & Export Finance Group.  Geoff is one of the leading trade finance lawyers.  He has extensive experience in many aspects of banking and finance, specifically trade and structured trade and commodity finance and related legal and compliance issues.  He has recently been involved in a number of initiatives for trade finance in the digital world including digital payment obligations including the use of LIBOR in the BAFT MPAs of which he was a key draftsman. 

Geoff sits on the editorial boards of a number of publications and is a regular contributor and speaker at conferences. Geoff is a member of ITFA’s Market Practices Committee (MPC) and has been assisting with a number of key legal issues relating to trade and export finance.   Geoff is currently Co-Chair of the ICC Committee writing the Uniform Rules for Digital Trade Transactions (URDTT). 

In Chambers and Partners Geoff is ranked a Tier 1 lawyer for Commodities: Trade Finance.  He holds a Fellowship award for trade finance from Trade and Forfaiting Review and is recognised in the UK Legal 500’s “Hall of Fame”.

Carl Wegner is the Chief Executive Officer of Contour, a network to lead a global adoption of blockchain-based trade solutions. 

Carl has over 30 years’ experience in Asia Cash Management, Institutional Banking, Financial Supply Chain and Distributed Ledger Technology. Carl served as R3 Managing Director for Asia, where he was instrumental in the business growth and market penetration of Corda solutions with Central Banks, Financial Institutions and Corporates. Carl’s prior experiences include Managing Director and Head of Global Transaction Banking, Greater China of Deutsche Bank, and Managing Director of Transaction Banking for Standard Chartered Bank in Taiwan. He was also Head of Asia for TradeCard (now GTNexus) building their network in 14 countries.

Carl was named as a Top 'FinTech Leader' at the Singapore FinTech Association (SFA) Awards 2020. He has also held the post of Treasurer at Taipei American Chamber of Commerce and is an Appointed Board Member of Taipei American School.  Fluent in Mandarin, he holds a B.S. in both Chinese Language and Chinese History from Georgetown University.

Dhiraj Kunwar joined RAKBANK in March 2016 and was appointed as Managing Director of Business Banking in January 2017. Dhiraj leads the Business Banking division’s commercial strategy, business development and tactical planning. Prior to joining the Bank, Dhiraj spent 5 years at ADCB where he was responsible for sales and coverage of SME business as senior vice president. Dhiraj has over 19 years of banking experience in a wide range of roles across India and the UAE with organizations like Mashreq, HSBC and ICICI Bank. Dhiraj has completed the EPGM from MIT Sloan School of management Boston USA. He is a certified associate from the Indian Institute of Banking & Finance and also holds a Master’s degree in Business from The Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India. Dhiraj currently chairs the UAE Banks federation’s SME Committee, which advises government entities and the Central Bank of the UAE on matters related to Banking.

Alex Gray, Head of Trade & Transaction Banking at The London Institute of Banking and Finance started his career at HSBC as an International Manager in 1989. He has held both Sales and Operations roles in Trade in Singapore, India, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Canada and the UK. His last role with HSBC was as Head of Trade Services for the UK’s Trade Operations where he was part of the team that developed the AML programme for Trade prior to the visit from the Department of Justice Monitor.

Alex also worked for Santander and subsequent to leaving he developed and delivered a Trade Based Financial Crime workshop programme to the entire UK Corporate Bank. In addition to his work for LIBF Alex has his own consultancy business, Gray Bay Consultants Ltd, which currently sees him focused on work for TradeSun, a fintech that specialises in document and compliance checking for trade documents.

Zul Javaid was appointed as CEO of UAE Trade Connect in the year 2020. He has been a part of Etisalat, the Middle East’s leading telco and digital group spanning over a decade in various senior leadership roles.

Prior to this, Zul has been CEO and CFO in various telecommunication and IT businesses and has lived in five countries. His wealth of experiences in Middle East, Africa and Asia have shaped his views on how digitization can enable economies to leapfrog over the normal evolutionary cycle. Thus bringing rapid benefits to actors throughout the valuation and in the population in general.