Fintech Lunch 2022

Erica is the author of best selling book Crypto Wars: Faked Deaths, Missing Billions and Industry Disruption, on the biggest hacks and scams in crypto. She is also founder of the Crypto Curry Club, the UK’s no. 1 rated crypto and fintech events and community, and Associate Guest Lecturer at Warwick Business School on use cases and applications of crypto and digital currency. Erica is also fintech specialist at CMS law firm.

An award-winning marketer and entrepreneur, with 15 years’ experience in the technology, retail, mobile and banking sectors. In 2009, Kimberley co-founded international communications agency SkyParlour. Ten years on, from its base in central Manchester, the business has amassed Fintech clients around the world from Palo Alto, to Munich, to Jakarta and back again to Cheadle.

Kimberley is co-chair of the pro manchester Fintech committee and industry advisor to the University of Salford Fintech MSc programme. She is also an active member of the Founders for Schools initiative and presents the Future of Banking podcast.

Mark Robinson is an Insurance Broker specialising in the Technology, Financial Risk and Online Gambling sectors. He works closely with companies to understand their risk profile and ensure exposure to loss is mitigated via a range of specialist insurance products.

Mark has worked with major Blue-Chip organisations across Europe to design and develop specialist insurance policies tailored to their individual needs. This has included Cyber/Data Insurance programs.

Nicola is a fintech expert with a career in lending and invoice finance, starting at GE Capital as a client and service lead. She moved into fintech start-ups, driven by a desire to work in solutions-led, agile environments where she could challenge briefs and ‘ask the questions that no one else would’.

Nicola felt passionately that the right digital product could completely revolutionise invoice finance for small businesses. This fueled her idea to build a best-in-class digital proposition with Co-founder, Hector Macandrew, designed to help small businesses grow and thrive on their own terms.

Nicola is a proud Mancunian and vocal about getting more women into technology as well as championing entrepreneurs and the growing technology scene in Greater Manchester.

Amar Kotak, is Head of Partnerships at Integrated Finance.  Amar’s role within Integrated Finance is connecting more BaaS Providers to the IF Platform and helping clients launch their Fintech product in 6 weeks or less. Previously, Amar has worked in the Banking and Capital Markets division at PwC and has experience of setting up his own companies including Hopt, a payment start-up that began during Covid-19.

Susan is a Partner in the Intellectual Property team specialising in Intellectual Property and Information and Communications Technology.

Susan’s expertise includes working with a wide range of clients ranging from Government Departments and universities to multi-nationals, owner-managed businesses and startups. Her work includes major IT outsourcing projects, Cloud computing agreements, work on data protection, IT security, freedom of information and the full range of intellectual property work, both on the non-contentious and contentious side, including patent licensing and disputes, breach of confidence, trade and service mark issues and designs. She is regularly asked to provide expert commentary by publications including the BBC website, Computer Weekly and national newspapers.

Susan’s fintech clients include businesses which provide rules-based expert systems, open API payment solutions, encryption services and regulatory and compliance services. Some of her most interesting matters have been at the intersection between data protection and open banking

Susan joined Clarke Willmott in 2013 after thirteen years as a partner at Cobbetts LLP/DWF LLP.  Susan is ranked as a Leading Individual in Legal 500 for Technology Media and Telecoms.  The Clarke Willmott North West team is ranked in Band 1 for IP and Band 2 for IT and Telecoms.  Susan is the firm’s Nominated Individual for the British Franchise Association (BFA).  Susan is a member of Licensing Executives Society and on the North-West Committee.

Julian is a strategy consultant with over 25 years experience in financial services. Prior to joining Whitecap in 2012 he was marketing director at HML (now part of Computershare), and his career has also included roles at Boston Consulting Group, Nationwide Building Society, Mortgages plc, and Merrill Lynch. Whitecap is involved in two regional FinTech ecosystems, FinTech North and FinTech West, both of which it helped create and now manages. Via these initiatives, Julian is also involved in the FinTech National Network which was created by Innovate Finance, FinTech Scotland and FinTech North in 2019 to help link the national Fintech sector across the UK.

Ruth Spratt is the UK Country Manager of Zip and is leading the launch of the global Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) company in the UK. She has a proven track record at Board and Director level across a range of industry sectors and is a people first leader, passionate about building diverse, high performing teams.

Zip, an Australian company, was founded in 2013 and has over 9.9 million customers across the globe. With a presence in fourteen markets,  Zip offers a fairer way to pay for customers and partners with merchants to help facilitate growth.

Ruth has over 25 years’ experience in senior leadership across media, travel, automotive and environmental services.  Prior to Zip, Ruth has held a number of Board-level and senior leadership positions including as a Managing Director within Guardian Media Group and European Commercial Director for EasyJet. She has also held a number of industry Board positions, including the Institute of Travel Management and Newspaper Society, firmly believing that industry collaboration always benefits the end customer.

Ruth has also led a number of diversity groups across her career, including Guardian Media Group Women in media, steering EasyJet’s Women’s Network and is the UK DEI Champion at Zip.  She is passionate about improving diversity in FinTech, challenging its conventional image and inspiring the next generation of talent.

Originally from Oldham and still based in her home town Ruth is proud of her working class roots she has an MBA from the University of Salford, and studied ‘Leading Organisational Change and Renewal’ in the Harvard Business School Executive Education Programme.

Ruth has been a School Governor for twelve years and believes that continuous improvement in the education system will keep the UK competitive globally.