2021
Digital Securities & Tokenization Summit
About the Summit
The World Economic Forum predicts that 10% of the global GDP (approx. $7.8 trillion) will be stored on the blockchain in less than 10 years.
The summit is targeted towards bankers, lawyers, brokers, investment fund managers, asset managers, real estate developers, and other people from the financial industry. The purpose of the summit is to inform and inspire delegates about new opportunities with blockchain technology in the financial industry and in particular with tokenization of securities and assets.
The financial industry is transitioning over to a blockchain-based infrastructure where securities will be digitized and represented as tokens on the blockchain. This will result in a much more efficient, cost-effective, and error-resistant infrastructure, where processes related to issuance, trading, and settlement can be digitized and automated to a much larger degree. Due to the built-in consensus and trust in the blockchain, intermediaries that provide guarantees of ownership and value are no longer necessary to the same degree and will have to find new business models in order to survive.
The summit will be a mix of entertaining speakers informing both about actual current implementations and their value proposition, as well as future visions provided by industry experts that can help guide business strategy for years to come.
Make sure you are at the forefront of this financial revolution, join the Digital Securities and Tokenization Summit!
Facilitated networking and matchmaking
We facilitate networking using an app that speakers, attendees and sponsors/partners can join about 3 weeks before the event begins. This is your chance to build your network and find new business and investment opportunities. We will facilitate scheduled meetings and in-app chats.
Our app will be live for a full week after the conference as well.
Virtual Conference
Date May 19th. – 20th. 2021
Conference Program & Videos
Decentralized Finance
Day 1, May 19th 2021
Track 1: Tokenization Basics
Hosted by: Jenny Q. Ta
Founder & CEO at DigiShares.
Expert in blockchain business models.
Topic: Blockchain and Tokenization for Dummies with Practical Use Cases.
Claus Skaaning, CEO of DigiShares, will review current trends and learnings in the tokenization industry, with a particular focus on the value proposition for real estate and large physical assets.
Topic: Blockchain and Tokenization for Dummies with Practical Use Cases Claus Skaaning
About Claus
PhD in computer science. Has worked as a researcher and technical lead for Hewlett-Packard, before founding his first company, Dezide, a software company with focus on Artificial Intelligence for diagnostics and troubleshooting. After heading Dezide as CEO for 12 years, Claus left and started new companies, including Sales on Tap, a sales and exports consultancy company, while also taking part in many other ventures. Claus has extensive experience with developing and managing incubators, being employed in the Aalborg University Innovation incubator, an incubator that accepts and helps around 80-100 startup companies every year.
Founding Partner of Security Token Group, CEO at Security Token Market.
Topic: Tokenization Industry Trends and Forecast
About Kyle
Kyle is an entrepreneur, advisor, and investor. He has developed a unique perspective through working with digital securities since late 2017 and has spoken around the world as a thought-leader in the security token space since its inception.
Topic: Tokenization industry trends and forecast Kyle Sonlin
He co-founded Security Token Group as a result of working directly with issuers leveraging private securities exemptions, and currently leads the marketing and advertising platform, Security Token Market. As CEO of Security Token Market, he has built the largest ecosystem of security token offerings worldwide and developed a community of thousands of users who actively engage with the hundreds of offerings on the platform, participate in sourcing market data, and collaborate to improve the legitimacy of the industry as a whole. He is also a host of the Security Token Show, a weekly podcast breaking down the latest industry trends and market movers around the world to thousands of dedicated listeners, published each Tuesday on Youtube, Spotify, and Apple Podcast.
Faculty & Co-Founder Blockchain at UCLA
Topic: Tokenization Basics and Overview
About Alex:
Alex Nascimento, MA, MBA is a best-selling author and Blockchain faculty at UCLA where he lectures on Blockchain Business Applications and Security Tokens.
Topic: Tokenization basics and overview Alex Nascimento
In addition to his role of Managing Director of 7CC – Blockchain Investments, a company focused on supporting & fostering the Blockchain industry, Mr. Nascimento wrote the book; The STO FINANCIAL REVOLUTION uncovering regulated & compliant fundraising via Blockchain. Alex got his MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management and has developed training, marketing & blockchain strategies for companies in the United States, EU, Latin America, and Asia. Alex can be found lecturing at UCLA and speaking at main Global Blockchain conferences and Corporate events demystifying securities issuance, business applications and investments in blockchain for corporate leaders, students and entrepreneurs.
Chief Product Officer at Polymath
Keynote: Polymath Tokenization Perspective, Strategy and Visions for the Future
About Thomas:
Thomas leads the Product Strategy, Product Management and Product Marketing teams across Polymath’s product portfolio.
Keynote: Polymath tokenization perspective, strategy and visions for the future Thomas Borrel
Prior to joining Polymath, Thomas was Director of Product Management at Extreme Networks where he led Extreme’s Software and Cloud offerings. Prior to Extreme Networks, Thomas was VP, Business Development & Strategic Alliances at BlueCat Networks. Thomas holds a master’s degree from Toulouse University.
Managing Partner at Sustany Capital
Topic: The Tech Investor view on Tokenized Fungibles & Non-Fungibles
About Christian:
Christian Kameir is a managing partner at Sustany Capital, a thesis-driven venture capital firm investing in decentralized finance, money, and legal technologies.
Topic: The tech investor view on tokenized fungibles and non fungibles Christian Kameir
Chris has been a tech entrepreneur since the internet dial-up days and led the merger of two of the earliest internet service providers in Europe. In 2000 he moved to California to start a technology venture fund. Chris studied classical literature, is certified in neurolinguistic programming, and a graduate of Muenster’s School of Law. He is a board member at OpenTravel, and lectures at Harvard and The Frankfurt School of Finance and Management. Chris writes and speaks on topics ranging from high-tech investing to decentralized finance, identity and blockchain.
Panel 1: Tokenization Industry Present & Future
Panel participants: Thomas Borrel, Alex Nascimento, Kyle Sonlin, Christian Kameir
Moderator: Jenny Q. Ta
Head of Institutional Business, Aave
Topic: Real Estate Backed Tokens as Collateral
About Ajit:
Aave is the world’s leading DeFi liquidity protocol. Decentralised finance creates significant opportunities for financial institutions to enhance market transparency, market efficiency, financial inclusion and systemic risk reduction for consumers worldwide.
Topic: The tech investor view on tokenized fungibles and non fungibles Christian Kameir
Ajit leads institutional growth, strategy and partnerships for Aave to enable institutions to participate in decentralised finance. Prior to embarking on his crypto career, Ajit served in front, middle and back office roles at Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Credit Suisse and UBS.
FIBREE co-founder, board member and regional co-chair in the Netherlands.
Topic: FIBREE Market Overview
About Jo:
Jo Bronckers has a professional background in real estate. He worked for Dutch institutional real estate investors, asset managers and real estate banks before he decided to start his own consultancy company for business development at the intersection of real estate process optimizing and applying technology.
Topic: FIBREE Market Overview Jo Bronckers
Jo is co-founder in 2018 and at present vice-president of the executive board of the Foundation for International Blockchain and Real Estate Expertise (FIBREE, www.fibree.org). At FIBREE he is developing a Unique Object Identification (UOI)-concept for enhanced real estate data-exchange and aggregation. With FIBREE Jo is an active member in different working groups of INATBA. In 2020 Jo became member of the inaugural board of E-CREDA, the European Commercial Real Estate Data Alliance. Further he is advisor to several startups in the realm of blockchain and real estate.
Founder | CEO of RedSwan
Topic: RedSwan CRE Marketplace About Edward: Ed Nwokedi is a Capital Markets Executive with emphasis in sales and transaction negotiation/execution of premium commercial real estate investment assets for private equity and institutional clients.
Topic: RedSwan CRE Marketplace Edward Nwokedi
Todate Mr. Nwokedi has performed over $3 billion in transactions in his brokerage career earning top producer status with leading companies like Cushman and Wakefield and Colliers International. Nwokedi furthered his career into FinTech , founding RedSwan CRE and becoming the leading US marketplace of tokenized CRE products available to accredited investors. Specialties: negotiation expert in creating and executing new opportunities, contracts, debt structuring, asset valuations, urban development feasibility analysis,real estate portfolio consultation , asset liquidity resolution management, CRE Blockchain /Tokenization leader, innovator and industry catalyst. Primary mission is to create increased opportunity access, affordability and investment liquidity for everyone.
Chairman of The Board
Topic: Faer Isles Distillery – A Case Study
About Christian
Serial entrepreneur Christian Grahn, Founder and Chairman of the board at Faer Isles Distillery and CEO of Keel Solution.
Topic: Faer Isles Distillery – A Case Study Christian D Grahn
Claudiu Buda
Co-Founder at Genius Estates.
Topic: Genius Estates: The Future of Real Estate Tokenizatio
Topic: Faer Isles Distillery – A Case Study Christian D Grahn
Panel 2: Real Assets Tokenization
Panel Participants: Ajit Tripathi, Jo Bronckers, Edward Nwokedi, Christian D. Grahn, Claudiu Buda
Moderator: Kristian T. Sørensen
SIX Digital Exchange
Topic: The SIX Strategy for Bringing Liquidity to the Market
About Tim:
Tim Grant is the Head of Business of the SIX Digital Exchange (SDX) which is looking to become the world’s first fully regulated institutional digital asset exchange and CSD.
Topic: SIX Digital Exchange Tim Grant
SDX is partnering with large financial institutions around the world to bring next generation of equity, debt, derivative and fund based digital assets into the capital markets. Before taking up the role at SDX he was Founder and CEO of DrumG Technologies, a product company and builder/operator of distributed ledger/blockchain technology applications and networks for the global financial services industry.Prior to this Tim was CEO of the R3 Lab and Research Center which is focused on bringing global financial institutions, established and startup technology companies, regulators and central banks together in a unique virtual and physical environment where new distributed ledger technologies and methodologies could be researched, evaluated and accelerated towards production. As part of this mandate Tim was also responsible for sales, sales engineering/pre-sales, investor relations and client relationship management for all R3 products and services.Prior to joining R3 Tim was a Managing Director at UBS O’Connor, a $6.5bn multi-strategy hedge fund, where he was Head of Quantitative Research, Head of Technology and was involved in investing in financial technology. Before this Tim was a Managing Director at Benchmark Solutions, a Warburg Pincus backed fintech startup. Prior to that Tim was a Managing Director at UBS AG in various positions including reporting directly to the Group Executive Board during the global financial crisis as well as running the UBS Delta Americas portfolio solutions business within UBS Investment Bank.Tim has a MA in Materials Science and Metallurgy (First Class) from the Trinity Hall at the University of Cambridge and a MSc in Financial Engineering (Distinction) from the Birkbeck College at the University of London.
CMO Archax
Topic: Archax Perspective on Tokenization Industry Trends and Future Directions
About Simon:
Simon has over 30 years’ experience in global capital markets, having worked for trading technology and market data vendors in commercial and product-centric roles.
Topic: Archax perspective on tokenization industry trends and future directions Simon Barnby
Most recently, Simon has consulted with small and start-up companies in the FinTech space, in particular blockchain firms. Prior to this, he was Global Marketing Director at Fidessa Group for 14 years, where he was responsible for all positioning, branding, product and corporate marketing activities globally. Before this Simon also worked for Thomson Financial.
Simon has experience in both digital and traditional marketing, brand development, customer acquisition, go-to-market plans, strategy, entrepreneurship, business development, project management and international commerce. He has also been actively involved in the design, launch and support of trading systems across various asset classes.
Simon has a BSc (Hons) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Brunel University.
CEO of Blocktrade
Topic: Blocktrades Perspective on the Tokenization Market and why Regulation is not the Problem
About Bernhard:
Bernhard Blaha is the CEO of Blocktrade SA, a digital assets exchange based in Luxembourg that aims to be the go-to assets marketplace for everyone, striving to create wealth and joy for a global society.
Topic: Blocktrades Perspective on the Tokenization Market and why Regulation is not the Problem Bernhard
Prior to his position at Blocktrade, Bernhard Blaha worked in the blockchain industry for over 5 years, having been involved in the technology since its beginnings. As a board member of the Digital Asset Association Austria, he is always at the forefront of regulatory developments.
CEO of Blocktrade
Keynote: Enabling Private Markets Liquidity Through Digital Securities
About Solomon:
Solomon Tesfaye is the Vice President of Business Development and Capital Markets at tZERO where he spearheads tZERO’s effort to identify companies that are interested in raising new capital through security token offerings, tokenizing their existing cap tables to facilitate secondary liquidity and adopting tZERO’s technology in collaboration with tZERO’s regulated broker-dealer affiliates and partners.
Keynote: Enabling Private Markets Liquidity Through Digital Securities Solomon Tesfaye
Solomon brings more than a decade of combined experience in capital markets, technology and operations. Prior to tZERO, Solomon was an investment banker at Citi within the Industrial Coverage Group. He has worked as a seed-stage venture capital investor, held operations roles within the medical device setting and was co-founder of a web-based platform. Solomon received an M.B.A. from Cornell Business School and a B.S. from The University of California, Irvine.
Panel 3: Security Token Exchanges
Panel Participants: Bernhard Blaha, Solomon Tesfaye, Darius Liu, Simon Barnby
Moderator: Herwig Konings
Head of Institutional Sales, Trading, Custody, and Prime Services at Coinbase
Fireside Chat: Tokenization and a Digital Asset World
About Brett:
As an experienced business builder and innovator in Financial Services, Brett has accelerated revenue growth with institutional clients and mobilize FinTech companies.
Fireside with Coinbase Tokenization and a Digital Asset World
At Coinbase, Brett is making connections between finance 1.0 and the crypto economy. Coinbase is focused on the continued institutionalization of crypto. This includes continuing to expand the institutional client base, building out the coverage team, introducing new features and services that institutional investors expect, and continuing to educate the institutional community about crypto as an asset class and its role within a diversified portfolio.As the Global Head of Sales at Barclays, Brett hired and developed large teams while incubating and launching multiple lines of business. Brett pioneered the Digital role across sales & trading adopting new technologies and transforming existing platforms, including the creation of a digital bank prototype.Brett is currently on the Advisory Board of Eightfold.ai. helping them scale their AI based hiring and retention platform for Financial Services.In earlier experience, Brett held leadership roles in sales, trading, and structuring at JP Morgan, innovating credit derivatives and structuring platforms.
Co-Founder & Group CEO at Sygnum Bank
Topic: Reflection on Success Factors for Adoption of Bank-Grade Tokenization
About Mathias:
Prior to Sygnum Bank, Mathias was General Manager at RNT Associates, Mr. Ratan N. Tata’s personal investment platform, where he joined as first employee.
Topic: Reflection on Success Factors for Adoption of Bank Grade Tokenization Mathias Imbach
He led multiple venture capital and private equity investments and participated in Blockchain/ DLT related equity deals globally. Mathias started his career at Bain & Company where he led advisory projects for Private Equity Funds, Family Offices and Technology companies. He holds a PhD from the University of St. Gallen and a Master of Science from the London School of Economics (LSE).
Head Digital Corporate Finance & Asset Tokenization
Topic: SEBA Bank and our Vision of Tokenization, Liquidity and what the Future will Bring About Matthew:Matthew Alexander is an expert in capital markets, investment banking, corporate strategy and principal investing, with 22 years of experience in the U.S., Europe, Latin America and Asia.
Topic: SEBA Bank and our vision of tokenization, liquidity and what the future will bring Matthew Alexand
Matthew has held senior leadership positions in mergers & acquisitions and principal investment at several major global banks. Most recently Matthew has focused on shaping digital banking strategy and managing strategic digital banking investments for one of Switzerlandʼs largest private banks. He earned an honours degree in Finance & Law from Deakin University Melbourne.
For more information about SEBA Bank, please visit seba.swiss
Head of Securitisation, Bankhaus von der Heydt
Topic: Investments in Security-Tokens on an Institutional Investors’ Level, Regulatory Requirements and Similarities compared to other Structured Securities.
About Maximilian:
Maximilian Portenlänger is Head of Securitisation at von der Heydt Group and is Chair of the Securitisation Task Force at LuxCMA.
Topic: Investments in Security Tokens on an Institutional Investors Level Maximilian Portenlanger
He is committed to the application of disruptive technologies in the financial sector, focusing on blockchain technology and the tokenization of assets.
Maximilian Portenlänger holds a Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Management & Technology from the Technical University of Munich.
Panel 4: Institutional Adoption
Panel Participants: Brett Tejpaul, Matthew Alexander, Maximilian Portenlänger, Mathias Imbach
Moderated by: Prof. Dr. Philipp Sandner
