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Dominic Venturo, the Chief Innovation Officer at U.S. Bank, is one of those industry legends who floats under the radar somehow.  Those of us in the industry consider him to be one of the best in the business, someone who pretty quietly just gets things done. More importantly, somehow I missed in my research how talented his daughter Sophia Venturo is.  She just released her first EP - listen to the song "Denver" - the talent shines through.

I finally met someone who can explain "cognitive banking" to me!  Devika Thapar, IBM Watson's Chief of Staff for Financial Services, is one of those rare techies who can explain deep AI concepts in simple English, or Hindi for that matter.  We lift up the curtain a bit on Watson and where IBM is headed with their industry solution.

I immediately hit it off with Stephen.  We were introduced by Kim Hong from Trullio and we spent must of the interview cracking jokes and riffing off each other.  Therefore, for this write-up, I'm going to continue giving Stephen a hard time.  He is one of those younger, hip, good looking, in shape, well-dressed, successful founders you'd expect to find on the cover of a magazine.  Well done Stephen. And he's smart too.  Damn it Stephen.

Ohad Samet describes himself this way on this Twitter profile:  "One of the best Ohad Samets in the world." That one sentence pretty much sums up Ohad.  He is funny as hell, smart as hell, sharp witted as hell, and he is the founder of one hell of a product in TrueAccord.

Yes, Margaux Avedisian was profiled in the Wall Street Journal.  Yes, she is a bitcoin comic.  Yes, she is quite funny.  But Margaux is also one sharp entrepreneur when it comes to cryptocurrency and the future of money.   During the day she is the world's funniest EVP at Transform Group and can pretty much tell you anything you need to know about ICO's.  Just ask her.  

Richard leads a team of engineers and innovators looking at emerging technologies and their application across RBS. His current focus is on the application of distributed ledger technology including blockchain across RBS.  Or as Richard puts it, I've been focused on innovating banking ledgers way before this was cool. Yes, it's cool now.  Stop your sniggering.

Bianca has done more in her brief time on the tech scene than most people have accomplished in a 30 year career.  She's founded multiple companies stretching across multiple industries and has now fully grasped the impact biometrics can have on the question of digital identity.  Make sure you check out Bioconnect. Spend five minutes chatting with Bianca and you will feel ready to conquer any mountain.  Exactly what I'd look for in a great founder.

Chloé James is Group Media and PR Director and Editor of the Australian Retail Banker and Global Retail Banker for global business intelligence and digital media provider, RFi Group.    She is also a presenter on Sky News Australia.  What makes Chloé  stand out in my opinion is the authenticness of her love of tech and its potential impact on improving consumers' financial lives.

There are several reasons I'm friends with Dion.  1) He's smart as hell;  2) he heads up fintech for CapGemni so we basically have the same job; 3) he has less hair than I do; and 4) he is a huge Arsenal football fan.  What more could you ask for in a friend?

At this point Fidor Bank is a fintech dinosaur, which is actually a compliment.  Matthias Kröner, the CEO of Fidor, founded the bank in Germany back in 2009.  Many of the current concepts and themes of "Neo" and "Challenger" banks have their roots in the Fidor ethos.  Matthias has, and continues to be a true revolutionary when it comes to banking and fintech solutions.  I loved interviewing him.

This one is simple.  If you have any interest in marketing and/or insurance, then you should be following Danielle Guzman.  Danielle the global solutions marketing leader for Mercer.   She has over 20 years of experience as an insurance marketer and is quickly  becoming one of the top voices in the space. She was recently ranked #2 in the InsTech Power 100 leader board and #5 in the Women in Finance 100.

Jennifer Tescher is the founder, president and CEO of the Center for Financial Services Innovation.  That's CFSI.  Not CSFI as I, in my perpetual ADHD state, consistently call it.  Call it whatever you want, what really matters is the influence the organization and Jennifer has had over the past fifteen years or so.  There are few organizations and CEOs as dedicated to improving the financial health of consumers as Jennifer and CFSI.

"We were fintech before there was fintech!" I hear this claim all the time and it usually is BS.  Not so with Steve McLaughlin, the founder of FT Partners.  Steve left a successful career at Goldman Sachs, where he led what today would be called an internal fintech team, and started FT Partners back in 2002.  For the past decade and a half FT Partners, an investment banking firm focused exclusively on the financial technology sector, has been recognized as one of the top firms to partner with.  

I'm not sure what's left for Gemma to accomplish in her career.  She is a successful company founder (her company Moola just launched as we were doing the interview), has a new show on "Eat, Shop, Save" on ITV, has been an advisor to Arnold Schwarzenegger on The New Celebrity Apprentice, has a degree in quantum physics, and the list goes on and on. And she was a lot of fun to interview.  A true renaissance woman.

I first learned about Monese, the company founded by serial entrepreneur Norris Koppel in an article profiling the company and Norris in TechCrunch back in 2016.  I immediately reached out to Norris and invited him as a guest on the Breaking Banks podcast.  I love everything about the company, especially because I lived through the experience of attempting to setup my financial life when I was an expat in the UK back in 2006.  It ain't easy folks...

I love Dave. Seriously, I absolutely love this man.  Why, you may ask?  Because he is one of the funniest, brightest, sarcastic, dry-witted, and pleasant people I know.  Probably most important, Dave is able to hold my attention when he presents on topics as complicated as distributed ledgers by explaining the impact of sensors and distributed ledgers with respect to one's undergarments.  Seriously, he's done that. Oh yeah, Dave's also the Director of Innovation for Consultant Hyperion.

Conny's been involved in payments, insurance, and marketing for over 25 years.   She has run startups such as Clear2Pay, which ultimately was acquired by FIS where she is currently VP Global Payments Marketing.  Conny has also organized multiple conferences and is an outspoken supporter of women in technology.  

Bryan Claggett is the Chief Marketing Officer and the Chief Collaboration Officer (great title) at Geezeo, a successful U.S.  banking PFM solution company.  He is a highly respected SME when it comes to fintech and marketing/communication. But more importantly,  Bryan is the funniest man I know if fintech (sorry Ron Shevlin, you run a close second).  Bryan's posts across all social media channels continue to crack me up on a daily basis.  He is the master of the Instagram post and proves you don't need words to be funny.

I've been friends with Katryna "digitally" now for several years.  Few have her passion when it comes to an individual's digital identity and the challenges facing us in the digital age.  Katryna has focused this particular passion into Meeco, the company she founded in 2012. This isn't the first time I've interviewed Katryna either.  During our interview for the www.femtechleaders.com series she stood under an umbrella in the driving London rain and wind; and despite these conditions she spoke with me for almost thirty minutes.  Told you; her passion for digital identity shines through.

I'm a big fan of Azimo, the international remittance company founded by Michael.  I've been to their office in north London (in Islington, not from from my favorite football club in the world), have already interviewed his company partner Marta Krupinska for FinTech5, and they even partnered with Arsenal legend Kanu as a spokesman for their company.  What isn't there to love about Azimo? Michael & Marta with Arsenal Invincible legend Kanu.