Below you can find the list of confirmed speakers for the ECSDA Post-Trade Conference 2025.
Please check back regularly for updates.
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.
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.
He is President of the Management Board of Krajowy Depozyt Papierów Wartościowych since 2018 and
President of the Management Board of the clearing house KDPW_CCP since 2019.
He started his professional career in 1989 at the Chair of Organisation Theory, Department of Management, University of Warsaw, where he remained affiliated until 1996.
1989 – 1990, Counsel with the Office of the Government Plenipotentiary for Ownership Transition at the Ministry of Finance.
1995 – 2002, Director of the Origination and Underwriting Department and later Managing Director of Centralny Dom Maklerski Pekao S.A. In 2003 – 2012, Director of Biuro Maklerskie Banku BGŻ.
2013 – 2014, Director and later Vice-President of IDM. In 2015 – 2017, CEO of Dom Maklerski Banku BPS.
2017 – 2018, CEO of PGE Dom Maklerski.
He has co-authored the textbook Zarządzanie – teoria i praktyka [Management in Theory and Practice] edited by Professor A.K. Koźminski. Lecturer in courses for candidates for members of Supervisory Boards of State-owned companies. Since 2004 with the Chamber of Brokerage Houses.
He holds a degree from the Department of Management, University of Warsaw. Former fellow of the Copenhagen Business School International Marketing & Management programme and many international educational programmes.
Mark Gem has been with Clearstream for over 20 years and a board member since 2007, leading the network management, primary markets and compliance areas. He was responsible for Clearstream’s T2S strategy.
He currently chairs Clearstream’s Risk Committee, amongst many other things he 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 is a member of the Swift board. He has chaired ECSDA, the European CSD Association, since 2021.
Jennifer Robertson joined the European Commission in 2004 and has worked in DG Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union since 2005. She is currently a Head of Unit in the unit responsible for financial markets infrastructure. Previously she worked on retail financial services issues and SME finance in various departments of the European Commission.
Before working at the Commission, she worked as a senior economist for 5 years at the European Savings Banks Group on issues ranging from the introduction of the euro to the integration of European financial services markets. Her professional experience also includes working as an economic researcher for a financial communications consultancy in Washington DC, USA.
She is a graduate of the University of Glasgow (UK) and received a Master degree in International Economics and European Studies at the School for Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University (Italy and USA).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
Since 2017 Arminta serves as a Vice President of European Markets at Nasdaq, responsible for the Post Trade business unit, which provides stock exchange, central securities depository (CSD) and post trade services in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Iceland, and Sweden. She chairs the Supervisory Boards of the regulated entities, including Nasdaq CSD SE, Nasdaq Vilnius AB, Nasdaq Tallinn AS, Nasdaq Riga AS, as well as the BMR Oversight Committee under Nasdaq Copenhagen. In addition, Arminta is the CEO of Nasdaq’s Global Technology and Business Services center in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Arminta has a 25 years’ professional track record in the capital markets. During 2007-2017, she acted as President of the Vilnius Stock Exchange and in 2012-2017 as VP, Head of Nasdaq Baltic Markets, leading the development and integration of the markets in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania into a harmonized, well regulated and technologically advanced regional market.
Arminta is committed to advancing sound corporate government, financial literacy and women empowerment. As a co-founder of the Baltic Institute of Corporate Governance and association “Lydere”, a board member of Invest Lithuania, she has been actively engaged in the NGO work with the aim of advancing the economic and societal development in Lithuania and the rest of the Baltic region, recognized with international and national awards for this work.
Dr. Arıkan earned his bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering at Boğaziçi University and his MBA at Yeditepe University. He received his PhD degree from Istanbul Ticaret University in Business Administration. He speaks advance level English and German, also beginner-level Arabic.
He began his career as a computer engineer at Microsoft as an International Program Manager, focusing on Windows operating system development for Turkish markets.
Dr. Arıkan held various managerial positions at Ziraat Teknoloji A.Ş. and Ziraat Insurance Company, providing IT services for Ziraat Finance Group, the largest governmental bank of Türkiye. His career path includes pivotal roles at the EPİAŞ (Energy Exchange – Enerji Piyasaları İşletme A.Ş.) , which was founded in year 2015 as the energy exchange company of Türkiye, where he contributed to the establishment of the Transparency Platform, strategic planning, and international collaborations.
In 2016, he joined Borsa Istanbul Group at Takasbank A.Ş. as the Executive Vice President for Information Technology.
Since April 2019, he has been working as General Manager and Board Member at MKK which is Central Securities Depository and Trade Repository of Türkiye. Here, he has been instrumental in launching numerous products and services, enhancing the organization’s capabilities and range of services.
Dr. ARIKAN, has assumed the Chairmanship of the Association of Eurasian Central Securities Depositories (AECSD) starting from September 2023. By virtue of this duty, he has become a Board Member of the World Forum of CSDs (WFC).
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.
If you are interested in discussing the programme or in finding out more about the sponsorship opportunities available, please contact Irina Bussoli at ECSDA at ecsdaconference@ecsda.eu
For more information on event logistics for The ECSDA Conference, please contact us using the details below.