Greg Palmer has more than a decade of fintech experience working for Finovate, a fast-paced, demo-first showcase of the latest innovations and ideas in financial and banking technology. Greg is Finovate’s resident MC, hosting Finovate’s live events, podcast, and video pieces. He’s also an accomplished public speaking and demo coach.

These experiences have given Greg a unique bird’s-eye-view of the fintech industry as it has come to prominence. He’s seen thousands of demos and interviewed countless industry experts, watching not only individual innovations as they gain traction, but also the high-level trends that have shaped the industry. While he sometimes serves as a “fintech translator,” taking ideas and language from inside fintech and making it accessible to those “outside the bubble,” Greg’s true passion lies in pushing financial service providers to do more for the people all over the world who need new technologies to create a brighter financial future for themselves. A more diverse, inclusive, resilient financial ecosystem benefits everyone, and there’s nothing Greg likes more than providing a platform and a spotlight for fintech’s innovators and dreamers.

Before working in banking, Robin was a teacher in an inner-city school (a career he will return to later in life) but swapped managing the behaviour of children in the classroom to managing the behaviour of adults in a boardroom.

Robin spent his early career in working in Commercial Banking, first in frontline relationship and leadership roles and, latterly, defining strategy. He moved on to manage Lloyds Banking Group’s annual £3bn+ internal Change budget, leading on the prioritisation process for this investment spend. Most recently, Robin has helped set up an equity investment arm of Lloyds, focussed on taking minority stakes in early stage Fintechs, where he manages origination and transactions.

Robin lives in North London with his wife and two young daughters, which means he now knows the lyrics to almost every Disney song ever written.

Sophie is an Operating Partner at the newly formed Foxe Capital, alongside Ruth Foxe Blader. Her role is to discover, evaluate and execute early stage FinTech and InsurTech investments as well as supporting current portfolio companies. Sophie has been recognised on the Innovate Finance Women in FinTech Powerlist in 2020 & 2021, as one of the 34 rising stars in Venture capital in 2023 by Business Insider and is a regular guest on the 11:FS's FinTech and InsurTech Insider podcast. She was previously spent 5 years at Anthemis, the FinTech focussed fund, for 5 years, leading and supporting investments including Ember, Opply, Twice, Kaiko and Ergo.

Sophie is also the CEO & co-founder of WVC:E. Since the founding of the company in April 2022, WVC:E has become a global community promoting inclusion, empowerment and integration of venture capital. Culminating in a 350+ person annual summit (the most recent of which was held in October 2023), WVC seeks to develop highly productive networks to increase the success of diverse investors and founders, partly through frequent local and virtual events, supported by a continuous stream of content and resources. The 750+ member WVC:E community includes GPs, LPs, investors, founders, and women working in tech.

Chantal is Founder of The Heard, the women in fintech spokesperson index. Following almost a decade in PR, she has covered press and campaigns for a variety of fintech startups and established companies alike; covering topics ranging from Open Banking to BNPL. Her work at The Heard focuses on profiling and showcasing women and non-binary talent in the fintech industry.