90
6,800
15
250
Island Finance Forum 2022
About The Track
An increasing number of island governments believe that cryptocurrencies will help their economies to grow, and make it either for citizens to send and receive money from abroad.
While much larger countries are hesitant to take this step, certain island nations have already established or are preparing to build a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency exchanges. This regulation will most likely increase the sector’s confidence and reputation, making their countries more appealing to crypto entrepreneurs and investors.
Blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies can provide secure transactions, reduce compliance costs, and speed up data transfer processing. These ever-evolving sectors are a crucial opportunity for islands and remote territories.
Island Finance Forum 2022
Track Session Recordings
Island Finance Forum 2022
Meet the Experts
We are continually adding more speakers and sessions. If you would like to nominate a speaker click here.
Entrepreneur, Management Consultant, Private Banker, International Speaker & Mentor with over 20yrs of Experience as a Digital Economist, Global Strategy, Strategic Planning, Management & Development Consulting, and Financial Planning with a passion for Private Sector Development specifically industry and enterprise transformation and Access to Finance.
Lucia Gallardo is a Honduran serial entrepreneur and Founder & CEO of Emerge. Emerge is an end-to-end solutions development lab working at the intersection of sustainable development, distributed technologies with new or re-imagined financial instruments, the re-alignment of economic and social incentives, and business strategy. Our work has consistently merged public and private sectors in projects related to digital identification for displaced persons, food traceability, financial inclusion for inconsistent income earners, rainforest protection, loyalty rewards programs, and more. For our work, Emerge has been nominated for the 2018 Global SDG Awards and Newsweek’s 2019 Blockchain Impact Awards. In 2020, Lucia was named one of MIT Technology Review’s Innovators under 35.
In her spare time, Lucía sits on the Boards of: Penta Network, a company building foundational blockchain infrastructure; Crypto Kids Camp, a non-profit organisation that connects kids from lower income households to emerging technologies; Rainforest Partnership, a non-profit organisation promoting the protection of the world’s tropical rainforests; the Caribbean Blockchain Alliance, a regional organisation promoting the adoption of decentralised technologies across the region; and, WE Global Studio, an innovation studio supporting the world’s female entrepreneurs. Lucía is an Advisor to Metis, a Layer 2 solution focused on the decentralised future of work.
Prior to starting Emerge, Lucia co-founded Dona un Libro, Cambia una Mente, a Honduran education focused non-profit and 2016 recipient of President Obama’s Young Leaders of the Americas Fellowship. Lucia has past experience in both the public and private sectors, ranging from immigration and trade relations on diplomatic missions to AI-enabled mobile tech and early-stage investments.
Darren Wolfberg is a seasoned technology and finance professional having managed multiple institutional business lines a large multinational banks. In this capacity, Darren has been featured on Bloomberg, CNBC and Fox news, and internationally through various news venues in Canada, Australia and Japan. Darren combines this finance experience with a product development and corporate venture capital background at Sony. Darren has a BFA from the University of Michigan, an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and is also known for innovative form of art seen on BubbleArt.
Christopher has nearly 30 years’ experience in the financial services industry, predominantly in the funds sector.
Christopher began his career with a short stint at the Bank of Bermuda prior to moving to Guinness Flight (later Investec Asset Management, now Ninety One) in 1994. Christopher held roles as Legal & Technical Manager, Projects Manager, Operations Manager and Technical Director. He was a Director of Investec funds and other structures and was a Member of the Management Committee and General Representative of Investec’s offshore life branch.
In 2016 Christopher founded Midshore Consulting, which has operations in both Guernsey and Florida and clients spanning three continents. Midshore’s specialities include international regulation, fund structuring and digital assets. In 2021, Christopher led the team at Midshore in getting the first crypto fund authorised in Guernsey.
Christopher joined the Board of Guernsey Finance in January 2021. He is also a Non-Executive Director of various firms and funds.
Christopher is a regular contributor to committees and working groups in Guernsey, including the Guernsey Investment & Funds Association (GIFA, including as Chair, Vice Chair and Chair of the Technical Sub-Committee), the Guernsey International Insurance Association (GIIA) and the Guernsey International Business Association (GIBA). Christopher is President of the Guernsey Branch of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (CISI). He was also Founding Chairman and later Treasurer of the Bailiwick of Guernsey Data Protection Association (BGDPA).
Christopher is a Chartered Fellow of the CISI, a Member of the Institute of Directors and an IMC Member of the CFA Society of the UK.
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Island Finance Forum 2022
Sponsors & Partners
SPONSORS
Our central objective is to help transform the region’s economy by fast-tracking sound public and private investment opportunities that support climate action and economic growth through sustainable development.
Drawing on the deep experience of our nations and institutions, a group of twenty-seven visionary Caribbean Governments, alongside some of the largest global companies, financial institutions, and foundations have joined The Accelerator to make the Caribbean a beacon of climate-smart development.
Our mission is to promote Puerto Rico as a competitive investment jurisdiction to attract new business and capital investment to the island. Our vision is to be a transformational and results-oriented accelerator of economic development in Puerto Rico.
InvestPR works with diverse stakeholders to position Puerto Rico as a destination for investment. To this effect, we collaborate with Puerto Rico’s Department of Economic Development and Commerce, government agencies, trade organizations, industry partners, and academia, among others. We help companies get established on the island by assisting them to navigate incentives, connecting them to resources for real estate selection and access to talent, and providing introductions to key stakeholders like sector experts and industry associations.
We have deep experience providing government relations, public affairs, public relations, communications and advertising campaigns in dozens of small island developing states. In total, we've worked in 16 islands in the Atlantic and Caribbean and, beyond our island work, we've worked on every continent in the world. If you're looking to advocate for a policy change, advance an issue position, understand and engage with government and civil society stakeholders or win an election, we'd love to help.
STRATEGIC AND MEDIA PARTNERS
Supplementing our hard copy publications is ifcreview.com, which houses the monthly IFC Review E-Journal and the IFC Review digital library and archive. Created as an online resource for wealth management professionals, ifcreview.com combines reference materials with highly technical articles and thought-provoking commentary from industry leading contributors. With continually updated coverage from over 30 international finance centres and daily news bulletins, ifcreview.com is a one-stop-shop for wealth management professionals right across the globe.
IFC Media delivers an integrated knowledge base for the world’s leading IFCs and their wealth management professionals.
@SriEvent specializes in creating, searching and aggregating, valorizing and promoting Twitter-based contents for events on sustainable finance. #SriAgenda, #Livetweeting, #TwitterChat, #TwitterInterview are the main services provided by @SriEvent in the framework of a modular and customizable offer.
In May 2019 @SriEvent launched its first local chapter @SriEvent_It focused on the Italian landscape. @SriEvent is also present on Linkedin (since 2020) and Instagram (since 2021).
@SriEvent is part of a network of Twitter handles launched by @andytuit, a story-tweeter, blogger, journalist, writer, adjunct professor on sustainable finance, member of Managers For Future Pioneer Team, with 20+ years of experience in the field.
…basically, we travel around the world, chat to the best and brightest people in Fintech while making the most entertaining, exciting and insightful content in the industry!
The Royal Gazette also produces Navigate Bermuda, an e-newsletter which tells stories from across the broad tapestry of the island’s rich and varied business landscape, through relevant content that shows how the contrasts in markets are the islands strengths. Navigate Bermuda is a multiplatform commercial content engine across web, social, print and event marketing.
The agency conducts marketing, communications and business development on behalf of its members from Guernsey and overseas, with representatives also employed in our key markets globally.
Guernsey is strongly committed to the sustainable finance agenda as both a member of United Nation’s Finance Centres for Sustainability Global Network, the Network for Greening the Financial System and the UN’s Sustainable Insurance Forum. Guernsey Green Finance, established in 2018, is Guernsey’s sustainable finance initiative. Guernsey Green Finance’s objective is to leverage Guernsey’s expertise to help lead in routing capital to climate finance. Our approach has been to develop knowledge, services, tools and products to connect finance professionals to the climate change agenda.
Fintech as a definition started trending in recent years as the future of financial services, and of money itself. For those already in the know, this is not news.
Fintech isn’t a business sector; it’s dozens of sectors. Everything from high street banks, investment companies, money transfer, FX, fintech is re-engineering these sectors into their next generation.
And there are new kinds of businesses emerging: crowdfunding, peer2peer platforms, crypto currencies, AI and robo-advice... sectors that are digitally native, they didn’t exist before the internet.
Fintech is about new companies, and new technologies for old companies. It’s about inventors and visionaries, and everyday people creating something new. It’s about your bank, your phone, and your job. And it’s about the future.
Future, before it happens.
For the latest complimentary digital issue of The Fintech Times, please go to: https://thefintechtimes.com/publication
With our dedicated team of journalists working locally in each market, we strive to bring all the breaking and most up-to-date coverage from a team you can trust.
Loop News launched in April 2014 and quickly grew to have teams in six markets across the Caribbean: Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Haiti, Cayman and St Lucia. And in 2020 we launched the newest website in the Loop family – Loop Caribbean!
We became the Caribbean’s number one news app in the Google Play store and Apple App store within two months of launch, and with more than 1 million downloads, Loop News is still the number 1 today!
Island Finance Forum 2022
Frequently Asked Questions
Who should attend the Island Finance Forum?
The forum is the first of its kind, and totally free! You can learn from world-leading experts from diverse backgrounds about the latest projects being deployed in island communities, with applications far beyond. Each session will be interactive with opportunities to ask questions and make connections. This year we are expanding to have even more features!
How do I participate?
All are welcome to participate in the forum – feel free to invite friends and colleagues. Participants can take part in every session, or simply choose the sessions most relevant to them and are all encouraged to join the social media conversation.
Will the forum be recorded?
The forum will be broadcast LIVE, taking place over multiple days in various timezones. Ideally, we want guests to join live as there will be opportunities to ask questions and interact with fellow attendees. However, all sessions will be recorded and made available online a few weeks after the forum.
Can I speak or recommend a topic?
We are continually adding more speakers and sessions! If you would like to nominate a speaker click here.
Can I sponsor the event?
We have limited opportunities for sponsors of specific sessions or the event as a whole. If you are interested in sponsoring the event please .
Can we organize a local streaming?
We are exploring opportunities to screen parts of the summits on islands around the world to ensure local communities can take part. If you would like to organize a screening on your island please get in touch.
Can I give feedback or make a suggestion?
We always welcome ideas! Please get in touch.
Join the conversation:
#IFF2022