FDATA Global 2025 Open Finance Summit

Steve is the Executive Director of the Financial Data and Technology Association (FDATA) of North America, an organization dedicated to advancing open banking and open finance policies across the region. Under his leadership, FDATA North America advocates for consumer and small business financial data access, working with policymakers to shape a competitive and innovative financial services ecosystem.

A recognized expert at the intersection of financial technology and public policy, Steve has testified before the United States Senate, the Senate of Canada, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. He is a frequent conference panelist and a sought-after commentator on regulatory and financial services developments.

Ghela is the Head of Europe for the Financial Data and Technology Association; she is also a well-known advocate for improving inclusiveness and diversity in Financial Services.

Ghela’s past work was centered on fast-tracking internal innovation and the practical application and comercialisation of fintech/bank collaboration. Currently, she focuses on fostering an ethical data democracy, individual consumer empowerment over their data, data economy disruptive business models, and facilitating banks’ emerging technology consumption – all under the banner of Open Banking/Finance policy.

Ghela takes product, service, journey, and business model redesign from initial concept to go-to-market delivery. Her strong regulatory economic background lends an ability to navigate compliance mandates with a commercial angle, as well as identify new commercial opportunities in a rapidly deregulated landscape. She is an evangelist for Open Banking and Finance as a means to nurture Customer Lifetime Value, and transform Financial Services for the greater good.

Zoe is a Senior Fellow at the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF).  She leads its Open Banking Program, bringing together stakeholders across this complex financial landscape.  Over a 30-year career, Zoe served as head of global privacy and other roles for Fortune 20 entities, including in banking (JPMC), healthcare (UHG and Cigna), retail (WMT) and government (USPS).  

Zoe has served on the IAPP Board of Directors, and led the bank subgroup for the Business Roundtable regarding new privacy approaches.  Other memberships included: GS-1 privacy workgroup (co-chair); privacy/security subcommittee of the Council for Excellence in Government (co-chair); AHIP Privacy & Confidentiality Work Group; HLC Confidentiality Coalition; RIM Council; RILA privacy/security workgroup; and FPF Advisory Board.

Zoe is a frequent speaker at industry events, including keynotes at the 2022 FDX Global Summit, 2016 Executive Women’s Forum, and 2015 IAPP Asia-Pacific conference.  She’s been quoted in several media sources like the New York Times, USA today.com, the Economist, and National Public Radio, and has testified at subcommittees of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. 

FPF is a non-profit organization that serves as a catalyst for privacy leadership, advancing principled data practices in support of emerging technologies.  FPF brings together industry, academics, consumer advocates, and other thought leaders to explore the challenges posed by technological innovation and to develop privacy protections, ethical norms, and workable business practices.  Through research, publications, educational meetings, expert testimony, and other activities, FPF works with organizations and governments to shape best practices and policies in the United States and globally.

Bob is a Sr. Manager of Public Policy and Regulatory Affairs at Intuit. In his current role, he leads Intuit’s advocacy on open finance public policy and frequently speaks about how open finance can benefit consumers and small businesses. Bob has been with Intuit for 20 years and previously held leadership roles in cybersecurity, internal audit and IT risk management.

Matt is currently the Director of Regulatory and Public Affairs at Trustly, where he manages a variety of product legal and regulatory issues for the U.S., Canadian and other Non-EU markets. He’s spent the last ten years helping product teams bring innovative payment offerings to market at companies like Square, Stripe, Lithic and now Trustly. In a prior life, Matt worked at a large community bank with a hockey-loving CEO, headquartered in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia.

Phil has extensive work experience in the legal field. Phil currently holds the position of General Counsel at Method since April 2023. Prior to that, he worked as a Senior Lead Product Counsel at Chime from June 2022 to April 2023. From February 2020 to June 2022, he served as the Director and Assistant General Counsel at Capital One. Phil also has experience as a Shareholder at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC, where he litigated a complex trade secret case and represented a foreign corporation’s U.S. subsidiary in a cross-border investigation by South Korean securities regulators. Phil worked at McGuireWoods LLP as a Partner from March 2010 to May 2019. Previously, they were an Associate at Dunlap Bennett & Ludwig PLLC from October 2007 to March 2010. Phil also served as the Manager and Member of Reeltracks Music Publishing, LLC from February 2008 to January 2010. Prior to entering private practice, he worked as a SLI at the Department of Justice, Antitrust Division from May 2006 to July 2006.

Meredith is the General Counsel for Plaid. She leads the Legal, Risk, and Policy team in all efforts relating to Plaid. Prior to Plaid, Ms. Fuchs served as Senior Vice President, Chief Counsel, Regulatory Advisory at Capital One. In this capacity, Ms. Fuchs leads the company’s enterprise regulatory legal function that ensures all Capital One lines of business and staff functions know the law that applies to their activities.Ms. Fuchs is the Executive Champion for Diversity and Inclusion in the Office of the General Counsel. In 2017, she led Capital One’s efforts to respond and report to regulators in connection with the company’s assessment of sales practices risks. Ms. Fuchs joined Capital One from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), where she was General Counsel and Acting Deputy Director after serving as Chief of Staff to CFPB Director Richard Cordray.Prior to the CFPB, she held roles as Chief Investigative Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce, as Vice President and General Counsel at The National Security Archive at GWU, and as a partner at Wiley, Rein & Fielding. She has served as an officer on the D.C. Bar Board of Governors, and is the recipient of the American Library Association’s James Madison Award, and was named to the National Law Journal’s list of 75 Outstanding Women Lawyers. Ms. Fuchs served as a law clerk for Judge Patricia M. Wald on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and Judge Paul L. Friedman on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. She is a graduate of the New York University School of Law and the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Henk is an entrepreneurial business leader with expertise in building and managing profitable businesses, both Blue Chip and Start-Ups, particularly in (international) Financial Services, e- business and I.T. (digital services).
He set up Belgian’s first Internet Bank and worked in several retail financial services companies in different countries such as Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Germany and the UK.

In the UK he started to work at Egg PLC in 2001 where he ran five digital financial services businesses (Savings, Investments, Account Aggregation, Prudential Banking and Insurance). Henk left as Director Investments at Prudential UK (parent of Egg Ltd) in 2007 and set up his own business. He built a datacenter and sold the business successfully in 2012.
He re-entered retail financial services by joining Post Office Ltd as Director Post Office Money running Lending, Savings, Foreign Exchange, Insurance and International Payments.

Early 2017 he became Innovation director for the Post Office where he started to focus on digital transformation. In 2018 he was appointed Managing Director Group Digital and Innovation in Post Office Ltd , responsible for overall digital leadership, strategy development and digital service delivery across the group. As an enabler Digital and Innovation supports the full range of Mails, Financial Services & Insurance, Government, Telecoms and Identity Services across all branch and digital channels.

In November 2020 he took on the role of Customer Experience Director standing up six centres of excellence including marketing, digital operations and delivery, user experience design, customer facing contact centres and service delivery, data analytics and channel sales engagement. Henk’s incisive and inclusive leadership style inspires his people to deliver change and customer centric outcomes, whilst maintaining core values of transparency, trust, and professional integrity.

Henk has a university degree in applied economics and a Master of Science in marketing and lives with his partner Kate in London, UK.

Prior to joining Xero in 2021, Mike was the founding Senior Director of the Scale-Up Institute Toronto at the Toronto Region Board of Trade. He led the launch of the small business accelerator, and ran a number of high impact programs focused on small business growth and digitization. In his time leading the organization, the Scale-Up Institute Toronto supported over 2,000 small businesses across Ontario, securing significant private and public sector partnerships. His team won the 2020 Ontario Chamber of Commerce Chair’s Award for Innovative Programming as a critical part of COVID relief support for Ontarian businesses.

Mike also has over a decade of experience in both the federal and provincial governments, focusing on innovation and small business growth policy, foreign direct investment attraction, and trade agreement negotiation. He actively participates in the small business research community as well, acting as an expert advisor on a number of research councils. He currently sits as the Vice Chair and Treasurer of the Scugog Township Economic Development Advisory Committee.

Alan is Executive Director and President of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) in Washington, D.C. Mr. Butler joined EPIC in 2011 and served as Interim Executive Director during 2020. Prior to his appointment as Executive Director, Mr. Butler managed EPIC’s litigation, including the Amicus Program, and filed briefs in emerging privacy and civil liberties cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and other appellate courts. Mr. Butler has argued on behalf of EPIC in privacy and open government cases in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the Third Circuit, and the Supreme Courts of New Mexico and New Jersey. Mr. Butler has authored briefs on behalf of EPIC in significant privacy cases, including an amicus brief in Riley v. California that was cited in the Supreme Court’s unanimous opinion upholding Fourth Amendment protections for cell phones. He has also authored briefs on national security, open government, workplace privacy, and consumer privacy issues. Mr. Butler is also Chair of the Privacy and Information Protection Committee of the ABA Section on Civil Rights and Social Justice. He is co-author of the most recent edition of Communications Law and Policy: Cases and Materials and has also published several articles on emerging privacy issues, including: Products Liability and the Internet of (Insecure) Things: Should Manufacturers Be Liable for Damage Caused by Hacked Devices?, Get a Warrant: The Supreme Court’s New Course for Digital Privacy Rights after Riley v. California, Standing Up to Clapper: How to Increase Transparency and Oversight of FISA Surveillance, and When Cyberweapons End Up on Private Networks: Third Amendment Implications for Cybersecurity Policy. Mr. Butler is a graduate of UCLA School of Law and Washington University in St. Louis, where he earned a B.A. in Economics. He is a member of the DC Bar and the State Bar of California.

Eyal, also known as Mr. Open Banking, is one of the foremost global experts in the open banking space.

In his efforts to drive advancements in open banking worldwide, Eyal created the unique personal brand Mr. Open Banking. Under this persona, he hosts the only podcast dedicated to the open banking community, interviewing the key leaders, innovators and influencers who are driving the emergence of open banking around the globe. Since its launch in 2020, the podcast has grown to over 90 thousand listeners and won several awards, with Eyal being recently recognized by Open Future World as the number one Open Finance Influencer in the world.

Today, Eyal is the General Manager for North America at Ozone API, global pioneers of open banking who’s platform powers some of the largest and most advanced data sharing ecosystems on the planet. In his role, he is responsible for expanding the firm’s global position as a leading open banking solution provider to the United States, Canada and beyond.

Barbara is Senior Associate General Counsel at Intuit, where she leads privacy governance and sets the strategy for how personal data is used across products. She is also the fine-grained data access control and use lead, enabling Intuit to leverage AI responsibly and build customer trust. Previously, Barbara held privacy leadership roles at eBay, OneMarket (Westfield), and in consulting, building global privacy programs and partnering with policymakers on data legislation.

Tanya leads Government and Regulatory Affairs at Questrade Financial Group, a successful private Canadian company with $60 billion in AUA and a portfolio of leading companies offering innovative financial, home, lending, and insurance services online to help clients become much more financially successful and secure. She is a dynamic and specialized technology, regulatory, and trade lawyer, former trade negotiator, and technology policy expert who advises governments and companies on issues such as intellectual property, open finance, emerging technologies, and digital trade. She has served in advisory, board and C-suite legal and business roles for over 20 years, successfully advancing the commercial and regulatory agendas of technology companies, including Microsoft, Nintendo, Interac, and BCE Inc. Woods also launched and led Canada’s first blockchain and digital assets trade association, was part of the launch of Canada’s first digital asset miner on the NASDAQ, supported the development of the first global charity-led algorithmic (AI) literacy program, and sat on the Board of Canada’s first publicly traded 4D “metaverse” studio. Tanya’s leadership and contributions have been recognized by the Government of Canada, IT World, the Obama Foundation, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, amongst others.

Matheus acts as a senior advisor at the Financial System Regulation Department of Banco Central do Brasil. He has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Brasília and a master’s degree in economics from IDP. He also has vast experience in regulatory affairs (13 years working at the Financial System Regulation Department), has been part of the team that regulated credit fintechs and regulatory sandbox, and, currently, he works at the team responsible for coordinating the implementation of Open Finance in Brazil.

Oliver is the Smart Data Legislation Lead at the UK’s Department for Business and Trade, where he has been leading efforts to advance Smart Data since April 2022 through legislative and non-legislative means. In this role, Oliver focuses on developing and implementing a regulatory framework in the Data (Use and Access) Bill, that will empower UK businesses and consumers to harness the potential of increased data portability.

Adam has been at the forefront of Open Banking, Open Finance, and Smart Data since 2014, driving collaboration between financial institutions, fintechs, and regulators. Engaging with global policymakers, he advocates for mass adoption to help consumers and SMEs achieve financial empowerment. With a deep understanding of regulatory landscapes and industry dynamics, Adam continues to advocate for global data sharing economies in order to shape the future of financial services. Passionate about fostering partnerships, Adam is committed to ensuring Open Banking delivers real-world benefits.

Brian is the head of ByAllAccounts Data Aggregation Strategy, Morningstar Wealth. Brian leads ByAllAccounts open banking strategy and governance programs to continue delivering on the company’s mission of empowering investor success.

Brian is a highly experienced and credentialed global expert in data strategy, risk, and governance. He brings unique insights in the use of open data platforms to empower customer access, foster responsible use of data as well as provide customer and market protections. He is a strategist for complex solutions ranging from identity management, user experience, consent frameworks, ethical standards, and verifiable trust frameworks. Brian has been a trusted advisor and industry thought leader to U.S., U.K., and Australian regulators, policymakers, and standards organizations.

Prior to Morningstar, Brian oversaw regulatory compliance and standards adherence for a global provider of financial data aggregation and analytics where he successfully drove regulatory authorizations for open banking in the U.K., Europe and Australia. He led engagements with financial services industry partners (e.g., banks, brokerages, trade lobbies, standards organizations, fintechs) and regulators to develop and promote standards for identity, authentication, secure data exchange, consent, consumer protection, and privacy data handling.

Previously, Brian worked with a U.K. government and academic collaboration initiative engaged in fostering interoperability of Open Finance Technical Standards where he provided leadership to foster better standards for digitally-enabled financial services, including customer experiences, identity verification, security, consent frameworks, and performance management.

Brian holds a bachelor’s degree in computer systems engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst as well as numerous industry certifications for security, risk and privacy. Brian is a frequent speaker and author on topics related to data governance in financial services.

Julien was appointed to the position of Assistant Deputy Minister on April 14, 2025.

Prior to his appointment, Julien led some key initiatives at the Department of Finance including negotiating large COVID-related financing packages with Canada’s major airlines. As Director General, Financial Crimes and Security, Julien was been deeply involved in the economic measures taken under the Emergencies Act, led the Government’s work on the seizure and forfeiture of Russian assets in support of Ukraine, and was instrumental in advancing other key Government priorities such as Beneficial Ownership. Previously, he served as Director General, Strategic Projects, Economic Development and Corporate Finance.

Before joining Finance, Julien held a number of positions, including as Associate Deputy Commissioner of the Competition Bureau, roles as counsel and senior advisor at Global Affairs Canada, and in the private sector, as a lawyer at McMillan Binch Mendelsohn LLP in Toronto.

Julien holds a Bachelor of Business Administration, a Master of Business Administration, and an L.L.B. from the Faculty of Common Law from the University of Ottawa. He was called to the Law Society of Upper Canada in 2006.