United States

JC is a 6-year Navy veteran, where he served as a flight deck tech. After a 20-year career as a programmer across the US, England, France, and Sweden, he joined Microsoft where he spent 16 years on identity management, database compliance, application integration and online digital privacy. Upon leaving Microsoft he served in Congress as staffer. He has written two IT-related privacy books and 6 science fiction novels.

UAE & Turkey

Görkem has 20+ years of holistic banking experience in the UAE, Turkey, Germany, and Italy, with a focus on digital banking, innovation and corporate banking. He was formerly Senior Digital Product Owner for CBD Mobile and VP for Fintech Engagement and Digital Partnerships at Emirates NBD. He has also been a consultant for payment license application for UAECB and international business growth for Ksher. Görkem managed value added services and customer support for E20, the “first digital business bank in the UAE”. He has six years of experience as an Innovation Manager in the Yapi Kredi/Unicredit and participated in Unicedit’s group-wide project on employee idea generation systems to PSD2. He is leading the digital natives initiative in Oracle Cloud SMB organization.

India

Smita co-leads OpenNyAI (‘Open AI for Justice’), an initiative focused on leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance access to justice in India, which is anchored by the justice innovation field catalyst not-for-profit Agami. She is a lawyer and legal technologist who has been working at the intersection of AI, justice and law for the last three years and has been leading the building of AI Digital Public Goods like Natural Language Processing models and generative AI stacks along with a robust community of Justice AI innovators and entrepreneurs. She is part of the Digital Futures Lab Responsible AI Fellowship Lab and has authored several thought pieces at the intersection of law, justice and technology.

United Kingdom

Mostafa‘s experience as a certified social entrepreneur and school governor has honed his leadership, governance and communication skills. He’s the founder of Muslim Marriage Services, the world’s only certified social enterprise Muslim matrimonial brand focused on digital security and social impact. Featured in a Yoti case study, Mostafa is dedicated to advocating for inclusive ID verification that respects all communities – a commitment that closely aligns to GAN’s values around fostering trust, transparency, and responsible technology use in digital identities. He studied pharmacology at the University of Liverpool and later pursued Executive Education in Islamic Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. Mostafa is a Foundation Chartered Manager (fCMgr). He’s currently pursuing a Professional Certificate in Strategic Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Italy

Viky is an international expert in electronic signatures, digital identity, and digital transformation processes, and has successfully promoted the use of electronic signatures in Europe and the United States. She was a technical expert for the European Commission during the institution of Regulation 910/2014 (eIDAS) on electronic identity assurance, and for the design and roll-out of European, cross-nation e-procurement platforms and operations. Viky was one of the experts assessing the impact of revision of eIDAS, leading to the new European Digital Identity Framework and EUDI Wallet. She is a member of several high level European Commission and ETSI working groups that align policy and operations around trust identity, trust services, digital signatures, and cross-recognition.

Greece

Ioanna is an expert in citizenship education and digital governance and was one of the founders of the Internet Commission, which conducted the first independent trust and safety audits for online platforms including the BBC, Sony PlayStation, Tinder, Meetic, and Twitch.  Her current focus is the Children’s Online Redress (COR) Sandbox, which will work with children, platforms, and regulators to develop processes and tools for children’s online redress.  The COR Alliance includes The Smile of the Child (Greece) and Webwise (Ireland). Both emphasise co-creation and participatory design with youth. Ioanna is also a Visiting Fellow at University College Dublin’s Centre for Digital Policy.

United Kingdom

A Product Manager with expertise in business transformation and decentralized identity, Saarah is passionate about driving the future of digital trust from a non-commercial lens. She is the lead product manager of a greenfield SSI traveler ecosystem, designing a hyper-personalized and seamless visitor experience. She’s focused on reinventing a human-centric identity ecosystem that empowers everyday individuals, particularly those of marginalized communities. She strives to ensure the voice of intersectional communities are represented strongly on the global stage. Saarah is a founder of DIDigest, where she articulates the product potential of SSI and participates in DIF. She currently works with travel and hospitality clients in the MENA region and co-chairs an internal working group to advance digital identity.

South Africa

Anushka has been shifting the dial on blockchain-based digital identity since 2018 and believes that this technology will enable a better tomorrow for all of us. She is currently the Product Manager for the Atala Prism Ecosystem at IOHK, Co-Chair of the South African Financial Blockchain Consortium Identity Working Group, guest lecturer for blockchain at the University of Cape Town Fintech Program, keynote speaker and member of the South African National Blockchain Alliance as well as Trust over IP Foundation. Anushka’s core purpose is fairness and equality.  With her experience in IT and Lean combined with her MBA qualification, Anushka  understands that blockchain and self sovereign identity are revolutionary technologies that will bring about positive changes that benefit customers and societies.

Australia

Jacques consults for the Royal Government of Bhutan’s (RGoB) as a member of the Government Technology Commission. Jacques comes with over 35 years of IT experience and has focused on business transformation through innovation since completing his MBA in 2008. Jacques has experience working for large global tech giants like Amazon Web Services (AWS), British Telecoms, BHP Billiton, and Woodside Energy alongside working in education for Murdoch University and health as the Chief Architect for the Spine Program for the National Health Service in the UK. Jacques is also a member of the Open Wallet Foundation’s Government Advisory Committee as the official representative of RGoB and is the technical lead the Bhutan Decentralized National Digital Identity program.

Ethiopia

Yodahe Zemichael is the Executive Director of Ethiopia’s National ID Program, driving the country’s digital transformation by aiming to register 90 million residents. He also serves as Deputy Director General at INSA (Information Network Security Administration). With over 15 years of experience as a technology advisor, automation engineer, and consultant, he has worked in both public and private sectors. Previously, he advised the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Science and Technology, and GIZ. Yodahe holds a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from Hawassa University and a double Master’s in Mechatronics and Microfabrication from a university in France.