Meet the Voices of Motion

Hendrik Bourgeois leads Government Affairs at Mastercard in Europe. With more than two decades of experience at the intersection of business, law and policy, Hendrik represents Mastercard with European governments, EU institutions, and public stakeholders on a wide variety of issues, promoting Mastercard´s growth and investment strategy in Europe. He is the former President of the American Chamber of Commerce to the EU, and he has a long career in the private sector, including at Intel, Apple, and Cargill. Before that, Hendrik served for almost two decades in several senior executive positions at General Electric (GE).

Hendrik worked as an attorney in private practice in Washington DC and Brussels, obtained his law degree at the Rijksuniversiteit Gent, Belgium, and has an LL.M. degree from Harvard Law School.

Seasoned business leader with a product management background co-founded and leading a tiny, efficient, and very experienced team of Velebit AI since 2019 that implements B2B solutions and delivers AI services across various industries. Serial entrepreneur starting in the early internet days but also spent five years in academia and 15 years in the corporate environment in various roles across industries like telecommunications, online publishing, and technology transfer. Driven to understand how AI will interact with humans and change our livelihoods in the years to come.

Marta Testagrossa is Head of Payments Policy at Payments Europe, the association representing card-based payment solution providers across Europe. Trained in competition law, she has been active in the payments sector since 2019. In her role, she leads the association’s work on fostering constructive dialogue between policymakers and industry and on ensuring that regulation supports both innovation and the integrity of the European payments market.

Kristian Kamber is the former CEO and Co-Founder of SPLX, a pioneer in the AI Security space and leading AI Red Teaming Platform which was acquired by Zscaler.

As a Business Executive and Leader with 10+ years of experience in ICT and IT Solution GTM space, Kristian has worked and led teams previously at the likes of Vodafone, Gartner, Cisco and Zscaler. He is a top achiever with a strong track record, a dedicated professional and Team Leader who has been serving and scaling in global markets from EMEA, US and APAC successfully.

Entrepreneur – Building AI agent applications at Finmetrika d.o.o.
Currently helping enterprise customers build and launch in production AI agent applications. Focusing on improving customer experience during the sales process and also providing agentic customer support.

In the past led the team that developed and implemented the mobile application Keks Pay. The first app on the market developed by one bank but can be used by anybody. All the details can be found on www.kekspay.hr

Worked in Erste Bank Croatia for 20 years, most of the time in the area of Risk management. Started as a model developer building credit scoring ML models, later as Head of the Risk management division responsible for loan underwriting, portfolio management, model development, etc. Later moved to the area of digital banking and was leading the teams that were working on all customer-facing applications: Keks Pay, George, mBanking/Netbanking for Corporate, etc.

Reinhard Holl is a senior executive in financial services and transformation, with extensive international experience spanning banking, finance, and management consulting. Since June 2025, he has served as Chief Transformation Officer (CTO) at NLB d.d., and since October 2025, he has also been responsible for IT, leading large-scale transformation, digitalisation, and efficiency initiatives.

Before joining NLB, Reinhard spent 13 years at McKinsey & Company (2012–2025), becoming a Partner in 2020. He led over 150 engagements across Europe, advising banks, fintechs, payments companies, private equity funds, and technology companies. His work focused on corporate and digital strategy, IPO readiness, cost optimisation, go-to-market strategy, and M&A support.

Earlier in his career, he worked at Standard Bank PLC (2008–2011) as Manager, Treasury & Capital Management, following his role at Lehman Brothers as an Analyst / Summer Analyst in Structured Finance and European Convertibles.

He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and is a Chartered MCSI and Chartered Wealth Manager.

Antonio Argir is a senior banking executive and member of the Management Board of NLB d.d., where he is responsible for Group governance, payments, and innovation. He joined the NLB Group Management Board in 2022, following his role as Executive Assistant to the Management Board for Group Steering.

From 2016 to 2021, he served as President of the Management Board and CEO/CMO of NLB Banka Skopje, where the bank achieved exceptional growth across all business segments, became widely recognised as the most innovative bank on the market, and significantly increased profitability, with the share price rising fivefold during his tenure. Earlier, he held several senior roles within NLB Tutunska Banka, including Management Board Member (CMO/COO), Division Manager of the Retail Banking Branch Network, and Branch Manager of the Skopje Center branch.

In addition to his executive roles, he has held numerous supervisory and governance positions within the NLB Group, including President and Member of Supervisory Boards in Prishtina and Podgorica, and Member of the Supervisory Board of NLB Lease&Go in Ljubljana. He also served as Vice President of the Economic Chamber of North Macedonia and as a member of the Assembly of the Macedonian Banking Association.

He holds an MBA from IEDC Bled School of Management and a degree in Economics from the University “Cyril and Methodius” in Skopje.

Mirela Ciobanu is Lead Editor at The Paypers, where she has worked for nearly a decade, starting in mobile payments and gradually expanding her expertise to compliance, crypto, blockchain, and the Web 3 ecosystem. 

She now aims to bridge the knowledge gap between TradFi and DeFi. Besides DeFi, she is also passionate about digital identity solutions, data privacy, and balancing security with great user experience, delivering accurate, educational insights through interviews, webinars, reports, and articles. 

Her work has allowed her to meet leading personalities such as Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Bernstein, the Obermeyer brothers – the investigative journalists behind the Panama Papers – and, in crypto, top voices like Raj Dhamodharan, Executive Vice President of Blockchain & Digital Assets at Mastercard. At the core, Mirela helps collaborators make their voices heard and craft compelling campaigns that inspire the fintech community. When not working, she runs long distances – completing a 105 km run in 15 hours – and is driven by the pursuit of the most compelling version of the truth.

For over 20 years, Darko has advised clients and delivered IT solutions across a wide range of industries. He is the CEO and co-founder of Robotiq.ai, a Croatia-based product company focused on building a cutting-edge automation platform.

Throughout his career, Darko has held diverse roles spanning software development, sales, and consulting. He was a partner at InfoCumulus, where he led the Microsoft Dynamics CRM practice. Prior to that, he worked at Microsoft in several positions, ranging from developer evangelism to enterprise pre-sales.

Maryna Peikova is a Wartime CEO, President of the Global Council for Business Resilience, and board advisor to companies in the retail, production, and restaurant industries.
She led Ukraine’s largest convenience chain through the war and brings deep expertise in retail operations, financial management, and crisis leadership. Maryna Peikova is a Wartime CEO, Business Resilience expert, and President of the Global Council for Business Resilience (France).
She led Ukraine’s #1 convenience retail chain through the full-scale invasion and now serves as an advisor and board member for several companies across retail, production, and restaurant sectors.
Maryna brings 20+ years of expertise in retail strategy, financial management, and crisis operations—helping organizations build resilience, restore performance under pressure, and lead confidently in uncertain times.

Nilixa is an experienced policymaker and regulatory strategist shaping the future of digital money, payments innovation, and financial market infrastructure. She is the Founder and CEO of Payments Solved, a regulatory consultancy advising regulators, banks, and fintechs on digital-asset frameworks, including stablecoins, tokenisation, CBDCs, and the intersection with payments and open finance in the UK and globally.

A qualified lawyer with a Master’s in European Competition Law, Nilixa brings deep regulatory and market insight shaped by senior roles across industry and public authorities. She has worked extensively with the European Commission, European Central Bank, UK Government and national regulators on the evolution of payments, digital money, and data-driven finance.

Nilixa has been appointed to multiple strategic European advisory bodies, including the ECB Digital Euro Market Advisory Group and several EU payments and data expert forums. Her career spans senior roles at the FCA, EBA, Open Banking Implementation Entity, Mastercard, and Barclays, positioning her at the intersection of innovation, regulation, and global financial transformation.

Dean Krstevski is the Chief Operating Officer of DANA Indonesia, the country’s leading digital payments and financial services platform. DANA is dedicated to advancing financial inclusion and digital literacy, supporting Indonesia’s transformation toward a cashless, digitally empowered economy. Since launching its mobile app in 2018, DANA has grown into the most used financial services app in Southeast Asia.

Dean moved to Southeast Asia in 2012 as part of the founding team of Lazada Thailand, where he helped build the company’s operations from the ground up. Prior to joining DANA, Dean spent six years in senior leadership roles across Lazada Group and TrueMoney throughout Southeast Asia.

Faustine Fleuret is the Head of Public Affairs at Morpho, the second biggest DeFi lending protocol in the world.

Before joining Morpho, she was the co-founder and CEO of Europe’s largest industry association (Adan) for 5 years: she represented and defended Web3 professionals mainly by educating and negotiating with policy-makers and non-native Web3 companies, as well as participating in building all major French and European regulations (including MiCA).

Before Adan, she worked for the French financial regulator (AMF), the French financial markets professional body (AMAFI) and ConsenSys. She is the co-author of two books on the European MiFID 2 regulation, followed by two on the regulation of crypto-asset markets, the latest of which was published in October 2024.

Panagiotis has spent his career in the borderline between business and technology with a leadership background at an international level. 
Panagiotis brings senior expertise across Financial Services, Banking, Payments, FinTech, Retail and E-Commerce. 
Innovation, strategy, business development, strategic partnerships and building businesses and products from scratch have been at the center of his work and attention throughout his career.
Being a recognized voice in the financial services industry, Panagiotis has contributed to various publications and podcasts and is often invited as a public speaker at events around the globe.

David is Principal at advisory practice 15Mb Ltd. and Global Ambassador for Consult Hyperion, the consulting arm of Fime. He is Non-Executive Chairman of Digiseq Ltd and holds several board-level advisory roles with leading organisations in Europe and the US, including OneID, PaymentWorks, Au10tix and the HMRC Payments Advisory Board.

He is Honorary President of EEMA (European e-ID Association), Senior Research Fellow at King’s Business School in London, Digital Fellow at the University of Exeter Business School’s DIGIT Lab, and Senior Research Fellow at the Qatar Centre for Digital Finance.

Recognised globally as one of the most influential voices in banking, fintech and payments, he has been named among the top fintech influencers worldwide and Europe’s leading commentator on emerging payments. A Forbes contributor and columnist for Financial World, he has written for The Financial Times, The Guardian and numerous industry publications, and is a frequent media commentator on BBC, Sky and international channels.

His latest book, Money in the Metaverse (2024), explores the intersection of virtual worlds, digital assets and financial services.

Frank Schwab is a professional board member, strategic advisor, and co-founder of FinTech Forum Frankfurt. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Gulf International Bank (Bahrain) and on the Supervisory Boards of Addiko Bank (Vienna) and Hauck & Aufhäuser Innovative Capital (Frankfurt).

His expertise spans megatrends and innovation in technology, banking transformation, FinTech, and cryptocurrencies. Over the past decade, he has spoken to global audiences more than 200 times. Frank is the author of three books: 42 Megatrends Shaping the Future of Banking, Tomorrow’s Money, and The Ideabook.

With Fidor, he won Celent’s Model Bank of the Year award in 2015 and was named one of Germany’s Top Minds in Digital Finance in 2020. As Chairman of the Innovation Committee at Gulf International Bank, he led initiatives that won more than ten digital banking innovation awards in 2023 and 2024.

Previously, he held senior roles at McKinsey, Deutsche Bank, PayU, and multiple FinTech ventures. He lectures in innovation, creativity, and banking technology at leading business schools.

Sabrina leads Mastercard’s Start Path, an award-winning program supporting over 500 startups across 60+ countries in areas like payments, AI, financial inclusion, and open finance. Previously, she was a product manager in Mastercard’s core payments team, contributing to innovations like Apple Pay and Mastercard Move.

She serves on the Leadership Committee of The Resolution Project and the Board of Directors of the FinSec Innovation Lab, supporting student-led ventures and early-stage cybersecurity startups. Sabrina has been recognized by American Banker, Venture Capital Journal, and Fintech Magazine for her leadership in fintech.

She holds a B.A. in Economics and Sociology from the University of Michigan and an M.B.A. from Cornell University.