Mark Gem has been with Clearstream for over 20 years and a board member since 2007, focusing on network management, primary markets activity and compliance. He was responsible for Clearstream’s T2S strategy. He currently chairs Clearstream’s Risk Committee, amongst many other things oversaw the post-Brexit organisation of Clearstream’s UK business and Clearstream’s overall response to the COVID-19 crisis and to the war in Ukraine. He represents Luxembourg on the board of SWIFT. He has been on the board of ECSDA since 2002 and served as Vice-Chairman under Joël Mérère until 2013. In May 2024, Mark was re-elected ECSDA Chair.

Mark has a first class degree from Oxford University in Modern History.

Anna is Secretary General of the European Central Securities Depositories Association (ECSDA).

She is a lawyer by background and holds a Master in European law and a multidisciplinary Master in Law and Economics and is also trained in managing strategic projects by the University of Oxford Saïd Business School.

Anna combines an extensive post-trade knowledge with the policy-making experience. She started her career at the general secretariat of one of the political parties at the European Parliament. Then having worked in the Business Transformation and Service Excellence department of an ICSD as well as for their group in Strategy and Government Relations. She is leading the European CSD industry association since 2017.

Christian Sjoberg is President of Nasdaq Clearing and leads the European Markets Post Trade Strategy. He brings extensive experience from senior roles across the post trade industry, including serving as Head of Business Development – Post Trade at Nasdaq, Managing Director for the HKEX Next Generation Post Trade program, CEO of SIX x-clear, CEO of Oslo Clearing, and advisor to the Saudi and Qatar Stock Exchanges on post trade initiatives. Christian has overseen major post trade transformation projects in Europe, focusing on competitive clearing, interoperability, and technology upgrades. He holds a degree in Business Administration from Linneus University.

Bernard Frenay is the CEO of European Markets at Euroclear, where he leads initiatives to integrate financial markets and infrastructures across Europe.

His mission is to modernise and enhance client offerings within Euroclear’s Central Securities Depositories, supporting Europe’s position as a global financial powerhouse and advancing its ambition for a Savings and Investment Union.

Before taking on his current role in 2024, Bernard served as Chief Financial Officer from 2015 and was previously the Managing Director and Head of Finance for the Euroclear Group.

He joined Euroclear in 2009 after serving as Deputy Chief Financial Officer at BNP Paribas Fortis

Samuel Riley is a member of the Executive Board and CEO of Clearstream Holding AG, Clearstream Securities Services. Sam joined Clearstream in 2019 and became Head of Investor Services & Financing in 2020. Previously, he had a long-standing career at Citigroup, where he most recently served as Global Head of Custody Operations. His earlier responsibilities there included leading the EMEA Service Centres & Shared Services organisation and being an Executive Board Member of Citigroup Global Markets Deutschland AG. Samuel Riley holds a degree in Business Management from Wolverhampton University.

Dr. Jakub Michalik joined Euronext in June 2025 as Chief Policy Officer and Member of the Executive Committee.
Mr. Michalik leads group’s public policy strategy and engagement with policymakers and regulators across financial markets, energy and technology sectors.
Prior to joining Euronext Mr. Michalik served for 11 years at the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), most recently as Head of International, Institutional Affairs and Communications, leading ESMA’s policy and stakeholder engagement on European and global levels. From 2011 to 2014, Mr. Michalik served as a Parliamentary Adviser to MEP Wolf Klinz on the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) of the European Parliament.

Earlier in his career, Mr Michalik worked on financial regulatory matters for international banking and asset management institutions. Mr. Michalik earned his PhD in Law from University of Vienna and his Magister in Law from University of Graz, and holds the professional qualification as a solicitor. He is a frequent conference speaker, regular university lecturer, and active researcher in the area of banking and capital markets regulation.

Maria Kartcheva is the Head of Asset Liability Management and Financial Structuring at the ESM since March 2023. Her team is responsible for managing the structural balance sheet risks of ESM and EFSF, resulting from funding, lending and investment operations. Before taking on this position, she was the Deputy Head of the Investment and Treasury division. Prior to joining the ESM in 2014, Maria Kartcheva worked as a portfolio manager at the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the Bulgarian Central Bank. She holds a master’s degree in economics from Sofia University St Kliment Ohridski. She is also a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) Charterholder.

Mark Gem has been with Clearstream for over 20 years and a board member since 2007, focusing on network management, primary markets activity and compliance. He was responsible for Clearstream’s T2S strategy. He currently chairs Clearstream’s Risk Committee, amongst many other things oversaw the post-Brexit organisation of Clearstream’s UK business and Clearstream’s overall response to the COVID-19 crisis and to the war in Ukraine. He represents Luxembourg on the board of SWIFT. He has been on the board of ECSDA since 2002 and served as Vice-Chairman under Joël Mérère until 2013. In May 2024, Mark was re-elected ECSDA Chair.

Mark has a first class degree from Oxford University in Modern History.

Philip Brown is CEO of Clearstream Banking S.A., a member of the Executive Board of Clearstream Holding AG, and Head of Global RM, Sales & Client Services at Clearstream. Prior to this he has occupied roles as CEO of Clearstream Holding AG and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Clearstream Banking S.A. He moved to his position as Co-CEO from the London office in 2008, where he was General Manager and headed Client Relations for the United Kingdom, Ireland, Nordics, and the Americas. He joined the company in July 2005 after twelve years in the custody and clearing business, in a variety of front office sales and relationship management positions. Prior to joining Clearstream, he spent 7 years at The Bank of New York, latterly as Managing Director and Head of European Sales, 2 years at Morgan Stanley International and 7 years at Barclays PLC. He holds a degree in Banking, Insurance and Finance from University College North Wales, Bangor.

Rafael Moral Santiago has been Head Securities Services and a member of the Executive Board of SIX since June 2025. Before joining SIX, he held different leadership positions at HSBC in Hong Kong and London from 2015 until 2024. In his most recent role, he served as Global Head of Country Management Securities Services for HSBC, leading the regional strategy and coordination of the bank’s securities services business across more than thirty markets.

Prior positions included Head of Securities Services for Europe, as well as for Asia Pacific & MENA. From 2002 until 2015 Rafael Moral Santiago worked at Deutsche Bank in various management roles in Germany, the USA and Singapore, most recently as Global Head of Investor Services responsible for Custody, Clearing, Fund Services, and Securities Lending.

Before joining Deutsche Bank, he gained business leadership experience as the CFO and executive board member at 100world (now Senacor Technologies), following a position as strategy consultant at McKinsey & Co. A Spanish citizen, Rafael Moral Santiago graduated from the HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management and attended INSEAD’s MBA and International Executive Programmes. He is also ISSA Board Member.

Edwin De Pauw is Managing Director and Group Head of Compliance and Public Affairs at Euroclear. Edwin’s teams work to ensure Euroclear is viewed as a reliable financial market infrastructure by developing sustainable relationships with regulators and enabling the company to meet its compliance requirements.

As Head of Public Affairs, Edwin engages with national and European policymakers and industry bodies regarding regulatory evolutions, business topics, and geopolitical events that affect Euroclear, its clients, people, and the broader capital markets.

As Head of Compliance, Edwin oversees the management of Compliance and Ethics across the Euroclear Group entities. He fosters a culture of compliance and ethics and has developed a robust compliance framework, ensuring Euroclear conducts business ethically, in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, and Euroclear’s rules and values.

Edwin previously led the Data Services and Innovation division, where he spearheaded initiatives to leverage emerging technologies and data to enhance market efficiency, transparency, and liquidity.

Edwin joined Euroclear in 1995, and held senior positions within Euroclear’s Product Management Core Custody and Settlement team, Euroclear Bank’s Fixed Income Product Management and New Issues department and Euroclear group’s audit department.

Dr David Murphy specialises in financial regulation, OTC derivatives, and financial market infrastructure.  His most recent book, Derivatives Regulation: Rules and Reasoning from Lehman to Covid, appeared from Oxford University Press in 2022, and he has published extensively on central counterparties, systemic risk, and financial market benchmarks, among other issues.  He co-organises the LSE Law Financial Market Infrastructure Research Seminar Series with Professor Jo Braithwaite, and regularly presents in the School.

Anna is Secretary General of the European Central Securities Depositories Association (ECSDA).

She is a lawyer by background and holds a Master in European law and a multidisciplinary Master in Law and Economics and is also trained in managing strategic projects by the University of Oxford Saïd Business School.

Anna combines an extensive post-trade knowledge with the policy-making experience. She started her career at the general secretariat of one of the political parties at the European Parliament. Then having worked in the Business Transformation and Service Excellence department of an ICSD as well as for their group in Strategy and Government Relations. She is leading the European CSD industry association since 2017.

Indars Ascuks is the CEO of Nasdaq CSD and Board member of ECSDA. Indars has over 20 years’ experience working for Financial Market Infrastructures and has been responsible for implementing Nasdaq’s strategic initiatives in the Baltics and Nordic countries.

Indars has been leading the merger of the Baltic and Iceland’s CSDs into a single Nasdaq CSD and has led the integration process of market operators in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania into the international groups of exchanges, including OMX and Nasdaq.

Indars has actively worked in NGOs, such as AmCham Latvia, Baltic Institute of Corporate Governance, as well as was chairing Latvian Securities Market Association. He has been chairing multiple Boards.

Since 2018, Vojtěch Belling has been Executive Director of the Financial Regulation and International Cooperation Department at the Czech National Bank, the integrated authority for financial market supervision in the Czech Republic. Prior to that, he was Director of the EU and International Organisations Division at the Czech National Bank (2014-2018), served as State Secretary for EU Affairs (2011-2014), and held various positions in the Czech civil service starting in 2002.

Mr Belling is a member of the ESMA Board of Supervisors and an alternate member of the Economic and Financial Committee of the EU Council. He was a member of the ESMA Management Board from December 2020 until September 2022. He was elected Vice Chair of ESMA in September 2022 and reappointed in May 2024.

Mr Belling is active in academia, serving as Assistant Professor at Charles University in Prague and Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí and Labem, where he lectures in law and political science. In the past, he was also a lecturer at the University of Heidelberg. He studied law, political science, and history at Charles University in Prague. He has published several academic books and papers in the fields of law and political science.

Attila Toth is working for EBRD as Principal in the Capital & Financial Market Development Team since 2018. He is specialized in equity capital market and capital market infrastructure development where he built up a 20-year experience. He started his career at the Hungarian Debt Management Agency in 1997 and joined the Budapest Stock Exchange in late 1999. During his 16-year career at the BSE he was responsible for business and product development, trading and post-trading. Between 2008 and 2016 he was the Deputy CEO of the stock exchange responsible for issuer and trading member relations, product development, trading and business strategy. He was chairman of the Supervisory Board and also the member of the Board of Directors of the Central Depository and Clearing House of Hungary. He took part in international capital market development projects and spent years in the corporate finance and private equity industry specialised for SMEs before joining the EBRD.

Attila is highly devoted to the improvement of financial literacy. He was the Chief Secretary of the Foundation for Financial Self-Awareness, an institution founded by the Budapest Stock Exchange and later the member of the Board of the Money Compass Foundation of the National Bank of Hungary. Attila Toth has a Master Degree in Finance from the Budapest Corvinus University and has a EFFAS/ACIIA International Programme of Investment Analysis Diploma.

Mr. Ante Žigman, PhD, has served as President of the Board of the Croatian Financial Services Supervisory Agency (Hanfa) since 2018. Hanfa oversees the entire non-banking financial sector in Croatia, including the regulation and supervision of capital markets, insurance, investment and pension funds, and virtual asset service providers.

At the European level, he is a member of the Board of Supervisors, the Management Board, and the Quality Control Committee of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), where he also chairs the Risks and Financial Stability Steering Committee. He is also a long-standing member of the Board of Supervisors of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and, as of July 2025, a member of its Management Board.

Before joining Hanfa, Dr. Žigman held several high-ranking positions in public administration, including Assistant Minister of Finance for Macroeconomic Analysis and Planning and later State Secretary at the Ministry of Finance. He also served as Vice President of the Croatian Parliament’s Fiscal Policy Committee (Fiscal Watchdog) and was a member of the EU Economic and Financial Committee’s Sub-Committee on EU Sovereign Debt Markets (ESDM). A significant part of his professional career was spent at the Croatian National Bank, where he worked in the Governor’s Office before assuming his current role.

In February 2024, he was reappointed for a second six-year term as President of Hanfa’s Board. Dr. Žigman is the author of numerous academic and professional papers in the fields of fiscal policy and finance and is actively engaged in teaching economics and finance.

Verena Ross is the Chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). She took up the role on 1 November 2021 and is responsible for representing the Authority as well as preparing the work of and chairing its Board of Supervisors and Management Board.
Between 2011 and 2021 Verena Ross served as ESMA’s first Executive Director, when she was responsible for building up the organisation and overseeing its day to day running.
Prior to this, Verena held a number of senior posts in the UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) and was a member of the FSA’s Executive Committee. Verena joined the FSA in 1998 to run the Executive Chairman’s office during the regulator’s start-up phase and was briefly a seconded advisor to the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission in 2000. She held various positions in the FSA’s Markets Division and was Director of Strategy & Risk Division before becoming Director of the International Division.
Verena is a German national. Following studies in Sinology and Economics in Hamburg, Taipei and London (SOAS) she began her career at the Bank of England in 1994, where she worked as an economist and banking supervisor.

Mr. Sabatini currently serves as Independent Chair of the EU T+1 Industry Committee, after serving as General Manager of the Italian Banking Association for 15 years. He is member of the IFRS Board of Trustees and independent director of several Italian companies. He has more than 40 years’ experience in international finance, including both public and private sector appointments. He previously served at Consob, the public authority responsible for regulating the Italian financial markets, and as Director General of the banking and financial system at the Italian Ministry of Finance. He was also CEO of the Italian CSD Montetitoli.

His extensive experience leading international organisations includes chairing the Executive Committee of the EBF- European Banking Federation (2016 -2020) and the EBF Steering Committee Financing Sustainable Growth (2020 – 2024), the International Organization of Securities Commissions’ (IOSCO) working group on secondary markets regulation and the European Association of Central Securities Depositories. Mr Sabatini has also co-chaired a joint working group by IOSCO and the Bank for International Settlements. Mr. Sabatini was member of the European Economic and Social Committee – CESE (2019 – 2024)

Mr. Sabatini is adjunct professor at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Milano where he teaches “principles of banking”.

Mr. Sabatini is chartered accountant and graduated magna cum laude at LUISS University in Rome and has been awarded the title of Grande Ufficiale dell’Ordine a merito della Repubblica Italiana.

Juliette Kennel joined Swift in 2004 and is currently Global Head of Industry Engagement for Securities and Standards, based at Swift’s headquarters in Brussels.

She represents Swift on several key industry bodies, including as a Board Member of the International Securities Services Association (ISSA), a member of the ECSDA Council and as a participant of the AMI-SeCo ISO 20022 Task Force.

Over her tenure at Swift, Juliette has held a range of senior leadership roles, including Global Head of Standards, where she oversaw standards development across international payments, asset servicing, securities settlement, treasury and trade finance.

She has also served as Head of Capital Markets and FX and Head of Market Infrastructures.

Before joining Swift, Juliette built her expertise in financial markets through roles at Morgan Stanley in London, Société Générale in Paris, and Clearstream in Luxembourg.

Juliette holds both French and British nationality.

Gareth is a Director at Euroclear in the Group Strategy, Product and Market Expansion Division. He has over 25 years’ experience in post-trade financial market infrastructure and has worked in a number of business and technology roles at Euroclear. Currently he heads up Product Management for Settlement and Cash at and is responsible for T+1 at the Euroclear group.

Thomas Metier is a French executive with over 20 years of international experience in market infrastructure and investment banking.

Currently Programme Director of the T+1 Programme at Euronext, he also manages the Operations of the Euronext Securities Oslo and Copenhagen and is the Chairman of the Corporate Events Working Group (CEWG) at ECSDA. He is also active in the T+1 Industry Committee as Co-Chair of the Settlement Efficiency Working Stream.

Thomas holds degrees from MIT Sloan, ESSEC and leading engineering schools.

Mireille has over 25 years’ experience in the financial services industry covering the entire value chain from asset management to post-trade. She began her career at ING in Brussels, before expanding her international perspective with Brown Brothers Harriman in the United States. Since 2007, she has held pivotal roles at Euroclear, most notably leading the Asset Servicing Product Team, where she drove innovation and operational excellence. In 2023, Mireille transitioned to Euroclear’s Public Affairs team, leveraging her deep business acumen to bridge the gap between industry operations and regulatory developments. Beyond her professional achievements, Mireille is a dedicated advocate for inclusion and diversity.

Mireille holds a degree in Business Administration from Louvain-La-Neuve and completed advanced studies in Intercultural Management at ICHEC, Brussels.

Augustin Gridel is an associate professor of private law at the Faculty of Law of Nancy (Université de Lorraine, France). He specialises in private international, corporate&insolvency law, and banking&financial law. He is the author of Financial Markets and Instruments in Private International Law (Intersentia, 2025) as well as numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals. He holds a PhD from Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas and a Master in Management (Grande Ecole) from Essec Business School. 

Dimitri Pattyn is Deputy Director General of Market Infrastructure and Payments at the European Central Bank. Prior to that, he was Head of the Market Infrastructure Development Division in the same directorate, where he was responsible for developing new and maintaining the existing Eurosystem services in the area of market infrastructures. Formerly, Dimitri worked for Euroclear, where he was acting as programme manager responsible for the internal and market readiness of the three ESES CSDs for the migration to Target2-Securities.

Isabelle Delorme is Managing Director, Global Head of Capital Markets and Issuer Access services.

She joined Euroclear in April 2019, as Chief Business Officer of ESES and sponsor of the Strategy, Product development, Innovation and

Isabelle Delorme is Managing Director, Head of Product Strategy and Innovation.

She joined Euroclear in April 2019, as Chief Business Officer of ESES and sponsor of the Strategy, Product development, Innovation and Commercial dimensions. Among other projects, she took responsibility of the new shareholder identification product launch, the digital transformation of ESES communication tools and the ‘Central Bank Digital Currency’ experimentation.

Engineer by background, Isabelle, started her career in 1996 at Bouygues Telecom where she held the roles of Project and Marketing Manager, working on network rollout, product development in the B2B markets and finally managing the technical and operational integration of a newly acquired company, Club Internet.

As of 2008, she joined Allianz Trade where, after 3 years, she moved from Head of Marketing in France to Group Marketing & Product Management Director across 40 countries. Going through the global financial crisis, she took actions entailing the retention of clients while reducing risk-exposure as well as the acceleration of product innovation. As of 2015, Isabelle moved to Allianz Partners and took charge of the Group Marketing & Products leadership before becoming Sales Director France & Southern Europe in 2016.

Francisco Bejar Nuñez currently serves as Co-Head of Custody Operations, overseeing the operational activities of both the Swiss CSD and ICSD, as well as the Spanish CSD.

At the same time, he holds the position of Managing Director and Board Member at Iberclear BME, and has been a Board Member of the European Central Securities Depository Association (ECSDA) since 2018. As of 2025, he also chairs the Spanish T+1 Working Group.

Prior to his role at Iberclear BME, Francisco was Head of Clearing, Custody, Settlement, and Corporate Trust Services at BNP Paribas Securities Services Spain, where he led core product offerings, operational management, business development, and product strategy. With over 30 years of experience in the financial industry, beginning his career at J.P. Morgan, he is a recognized leader in the securities post-trade space. Francisco is a frequent speaker at industry events and actively contributes to several national and international market committees, including those of the CNMV, the Bank of Spain, the ECB’s AMI-SeCo Securities Group (SEG), and the consultative Working Group of ESMA’s Post-Trading Standing Committee. Since 2025, he has also been a member of the EU T+1 Industry Committee.

Olga Jordão is the CEO of Euronext Securities Porto and the Head of Client Service of Euronext Securities, the unified network of Euronext CSDs.

While ensuring a continued strong presence of the Central Securities Depository in Portugal, Olga also oversees the pan-European client service teams to deliver service excellence to local and international clients.

Olga joined Euronext at a pivotal moment in 2021, when the group that operates the third largest CSD network in Europe combined its four CSDs into a new umbrella brand and launched its “Growth for Impact 2024” strategy. She has close to 30 years of professional experience in the post-trade sector and has held multiple roles in Luxembourg and in France heading up middle and back-office operations at a major global custodian, serving sophisticated global asset managers and leading strategic transformation projects. Olga is the former branch manager of State Street Bank International, Paris and also has vast experience in key account management, leading global teams and driving cross-functional initiatives.

Olga is a keen supporter of diversity, inclusion and sustainability initiatives. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Foreign Languages (English & German) from the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne and an Executive Masters of Business Administration from TRIUM (HEC, NYU, LSE).

Dr David Murphy specialises in financial regulation, OTC derivatives, and financial market infrastructure.  His most recent book, Derivatives Regulation: Rules and Reasoning from Lehman to Covid, appeared from Oxford University Press in 2022, and he has published extensively on central counterparties, systemic risk, and financial market benchmarks, among other issues.  He co-organises the LSE Law Financial Market Infrastructure Research Seminar Series with Professor Jo Braithwaite, and regularly presents in the School.

Anne-Pascale Malréchauffé serves as Managing Director at Clearstream, where she leads Regulatory

Implementation & Compliance. Based in Luxembourg, Anne-Pascale sits on the executive boards of both

Clearstream Banking S.A., Luxembourg, and Clearstream Holding AG in Germany. She oversees

Clearstream Securities Services’ regulatory positioning and manages relationships with supervisory

authorities.

In addition to her responsibilities at Clearstream, Anne-Pascale is a board member at the Luxembourg

House of Financial Technology (LHoFT) foundation and the European Central Securities Depository

Association (ECSDA). She also contributes to the Consultative Working Group of the European Securities

and Markets Authority (ESMA) Post Trading Standing Committee.

Previously, Anne-Pascale was based in Frankfurt, where she held the role of Chief Internal Auditor at

Deutsche Börse Group. She also co-managed Clearstream Singapore Branch for several years,

broadening her international expertise.

With 25 years of experience in the post-trade industry, Anne-Pascale has held various management

roles spanning Project Management, Operations, and Network Management, as well as senior positions

in control functions and internal audit, covering both the second and third lines of defence.

Mr. Sampson is President of CDS. Kevin has over 20 years of capital markets experience managing high-performing teams across multiple functions and business areas, including sales and business development, operations, customer support and product development. His collaborative, client-centric approach has enabled Kevin to achieve positive business results while building long-term, trusted relationships with peers and stakeholders across the industry. Most recently, Kevin was President, Equity Trading for TMX Group Inc. where he managed the trading businesses of Canada’s premier equity exchanges (Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange and TSX Alpha Exchange).

Matthieu de Heering is Montran’s Global Head of Business Development, Capital Markets, since 2024. In this role, Matthieu leads Montran’s business expansion across capital markets – into new products, technologies, geographies, segments, and industry initiatives.    

Prior to this, Matthieu was a member of Swift’s EMEA leadership team, responsible for Central & Eastern Europe, CIS, and Data & Analytics. He previously served as a Director of Capital Markets Strategy, focusing on digital assets;  and as Target2-Securities programme manager.
Before SWIFT, Matthieu headed up the management information & statistics team for Bank of New York Global Custody.

Matthieu is married, and a father of two.

Guntram Wolff is Professor of Economics at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) where he holds the Euroclear chair in sustainable finance and a senior fellow at Bruegel, whose director he was from 2013-22. From 2022-2024, he was the Director and CEO of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). Over his career, he has contributed to research on European governance, geo- and defence economics, macroeconomics and climate policy. His work was published in academic journals such as Nature, Science, Research Policy, Energy Policy, Climate Policy, Journal of European Public Policy, Journal of Banking and Finance. His coauthored book “The macroeconomics of decarbonization” is published in Cambridge University Press. An experienced public adviser, he has been testifying twice a year since 2013 to the informal European finance ministers’ and central bank governors’ ECOFIN Council meeting on a large variety of topics.