WoW Conference - The Future of Money

Future of Money

What is the purpose of money and its role in society?

How is it changing with innovations such as digital payments and cryptocurrency?

Dan Kiernan, Careers Consultant will be running a session with our academics, including Dr Andrew Urquhart who will be talking about Libra and Facebook's move into cryptocurrency. We’ve also got Professor Adrian Bell and Dr Tony Moore, who study the history of finance to run a short experiential learning session to help delegates really understand what money is for and how it works.

As these changes are taking place around the globe, we’ve also got students from different parts of the world to talk about changes they have experienced in their home countries.

Eziz Jumayev: Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency

Eziz is an undergraduate student at ICMA Centre, Henley Business School. He developed interest in the crypto industry in Autumn 2017 when he was trying to understand all the implications of this technology and trading crypto assets. He spent summer 2018 working in consultancy start-up where he was consulting companies on launching ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings), listing on exchanges and creating investment prospectus. Later on, he co-founded the Crypto and Blockchain Society with other ambitious students, where he is now a Treasurer.

Additionally, Eziz is a President of the Investment Society and Investment Intern at Harpsden Wealth Management.

Huan (Christy) He: WeChat Pay and it's development in China

Huan is an entrepreneur-minded person who takes initiatives and keen to get things done. She is a master’s student at the ICMA Centre and the Finance Officer at a payments fintech start-up in London. There her responsibilities include payment settlements, product pricing, risk management, accounting and making sure the chief executive is aware of the financial status of the company. Previously she was a course representative and calling campaign ambassador at Henley Business School.  

Prior to coming to UK, she spent one-year teaching English to Chinese teenagers. Before that she completed undergraduate study of International Business in China, during which time she developed a track record in entrepreneurial practices and business challenges.

Akshat Vyas: Demonetisation in India

Akshat is a postgraduate student at ICMA Centre pursuing MSc Financial Risk Management. He also  holds an  MBA degree  from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Mumbai, India  and a  B.E. degree from the University of Rajasthan, India.

Prior to pursuing the MSc, he was working in credit risk department at HDFC Bank. His previous work experience includes working with JSW Steel Limited, Deutsche  Bank Operations International and Infosys Limited. He is a certified  FRM and was recently awarded with the CISI Educational Trust Award 2019.

Ronald Wekesa Wafula: M-PESA, Mobile Payments and Financial Inclusion in Kenya

Ronald graduated from Henley Business School, ICMA Centre with an MSc in Investment Management in 2018. He won the Prestigious Chevening Scholarships funded by UK FCO in 2017 and was the PG School Rep for the Henley Business School. Before then he founded a Start-up ‘BrandMe’ that impacted on 3000 University graduates in Kenya in the areas of Entrepreneurship, Soft skills and Personal branding.

He also volunteered at the Kenyan Coast under the Kenya National Leadership Program, steered by the Presidency, where he helped establish female led social enterprises that improved literacy by 15% in that year. He also worked at ACCA as a student advisor for the Accounting Professionals. He is currently running a start-up “Fanikisha Farm Limited” that innovatively finances local farmers in Western Kenya through three key interventions : Agricultural Value Chain Training, Asset Based farmer Finance and Industrial intermediation. He seeks to finance 100 farmers in 2019 and 5000 farmers in the next 5 years.