Parul has been working on digital micro-pension inclusion for the last 10 years. She specialises in the development and implementation of retirement literacy strategies and tools as well as digital outreach and distribution platforms for micro-pensions. She conceptualised and developed the "gift-a-pension" model – the first and only global P2P ePension platform for pension and insurance inclusion of home help (maids, drivers, guards, cooks) and blue-collar workers. She co-edited "Saving the Next Billion from Old Age Poverty: Global Lessons for Local Action" with William Price and Gautam Bhardwaj. Prior to setting up pinBox, Parul worked was a journalist at the BBC, CNBC and NDTV over a decade.

Gautam has over two decades of experience working extensively with governments, regulators, financial inclusion stakeholders and aid agencies in Africa and Asia on micro-pension policy formulation, digital systems and process design and implementation. Gautam pioneered the concept of “micro-pensions” in 2006. A unique social enterprise promoted by him assisted nearly 2.5 million financially excluded and unbanked Indians to save for their old age. He has led several World Bank, ADB, FSD and UN projects and studies on digital pension inclusion and voluntary coverage expansion. Gautam has also served on many governmental and regulatory committees on postal, pension, tax and financial sector reform.

Dr. Roy is Head of Global Macro-Policy Research and Senior Managing Director at State Street’s Asset Management Division SSGA. Prior to his current role, he was Global Chief Retirement Strategist and Senior MD since April 2017. He is an experienced client-facing Global Macro Researcher specialising in Macroeconomics, Portfolio Theory, Demographics & Retirement and Public Policy serving clients across 30+ countries. He is a Senior Research Associate at the London School of Economics and Guest Finance Professor at London Business School. Prior to joining SSGA, he was Head of Global Demographics and Pensions Research and Managing Director at Credit Suisse having joined there in 1998. He was UK ESRC Research Fellow, Ponders Fellow, a Boston University Doctoral Scholar and a Government of India National Scholar.

Shameran Abed is senior director of the BRAC microfinance and ultra-poor graduation programmes. BRAC’s microfinance programme serves more than 6.5 million clients in seven countries in Asia and Africa, and has total assets exceeding USD 2.5 billion. BRAC’s ground-breaking ultra-poor graduation programme has graduated more than 1.8 million households out of the direst forms of poverty and social deprivation and has inspired the global uptake of the ‘graduation approach’ to tackle extreme poverty.

Shameran also chairs the board of BRAC Bank’s mobile financial services subsidiary, bKash, and serves on the boards of the BRAC UK, IPDC Finance and the Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV). Additionally, he is the chairman of the Microfinance Network and is also a member of the Partnership for Responsible Financial Inclusion (PRFI) and the World Economic Forum Financial Inclusion Steering Committee.

Shameran is a lawyer by training, having been made a barrister by the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn in London, UK. He completed his undergraduate studies at Hamilton College in the United States, majoring in economics and minoring in political science.

Mary Ellen Iskenderian is President and CEO of Women’s World Banking, the global nonprofit devoted to giving more low-income women access to the financial tools and resources they require to achieve security and prosperity. Ms. Iskenderian joined Women’s World Banking in 2006 and leads the Women’s World Banking global team, based in New York and also serves as a member of the Investment Committee of its $50 million impact investment fund. Prior to Women’s World Banking, Ms. Iskenderian worked for 17 years at the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank. Before, she worked for the investment bank Lehman Brothers. Ms. Iskenderian is a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations, as well as a member of the Women’s Forum of New York and the Business and Sustainable Development Commission. Ms. Iskenderian holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a Bachelor of Science in International Economics from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

Carlos has 25 years of experience across the private and public sectors. From 2013 to 2018, he was Chairman of Mexico’s pension regulator (CONSAR) where he developed and implemented an innovative digitalization strategy to boost retirement savings that resulted in a fivefold increase in complementary savings by Mexicans. Other achievements include a new financial education strategy, the strengthening of corporate governance of Mexican pension funds, a new risk-based supervision strategy and the flexibilization of Mexico’s investment rules. During this period he held the presidency of the International Organisation of Pension Supervisors (IOPS) and of the International Association of Supervisory Bodies of Pension Funds in Latin America (AIOS).

Namrata is an accomplished senior leader, having run large teams in the financial services industry with extensive exposure across asset management, retail banking, trust banking and insurance, in the areas of digital engagement and marketing, digital customer experience, customer segmentation and customer journey mapping, operations and IT. Namrata has led cross-functional and cross-border country, regional and global teams, implementing strategic and transformational initiatives, delivering business impact. She was instrumental in implementing the first-ever collaboration program of Prudential globally, with the Fintech, Insuretech community - Prufintegrate. She was recognised as one of the top 20 women in the Fintech community in 2017 by the Singapore Fintech Association. She is a strong supporter of diversity and the co-founder of the Diversity initiative at Citigroup Japan. She is also a co-lead of the 'Women in Fintech' sub-committee of the Singapore Fintech Association.

David was the Chief Executive Officer of the Uganda Retirement Benefits Regulatory Authority (URBRA). He is a lawyer and a member of the Bar in Kenya. He holds a Masters degree in law from the University of Nairobi and is a certified public secretary in corporate governance. Prior to his 5-year stint as the pension regulator for Uganda, David was the Chief Legal Counsel, Corporation Secretary and Chief Manager for Supervision at the Kenya Retirement Benefits Authority. He was involved in drafting the retirement benefits regulations for Kenya. He has also worked with the IMF in providing technical assistance to Tanzania and Rwanda on pension sector regulation. In 2004 he worked with the World Bank team to advise on Uganda’s pension reform.

Kulin is a pensions actuary with over 20 years of experience in the global pension sector spanning Europe, North America, and Asia. Kulin has rich experience across actuarial, regulatory, administration, employee communications and trust consulting. Most recently, he spent 11 years at Willis Towers Watson in Asia where he advised corporates, governments and regulators in the largest emerging economies in the world on their retirement plans. He is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Pensions Fund Regulatory and Development Authority of India and is also Chairperson of the Advisory Group on Pensions, Employee Benefits and Social Security at the Institute of Actuaries of India. Kulin is a Fellow of the Faculty and Institute of Actuaries, U.K. and at the Institute of Actuaries, India.

Ayandev has over a decade of extensive experience in designing, building and deploying universal schemes for life, health and agriculture insurance across Africa and Asia. As a global micro-insurance expert, he has worked closely with governments, regulators, insurers, pension funds, and development institutions in India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Kenya, Namibia, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe on both insurance and pension inclusion for lower-income informal sector workers.

Ayandev has also led several World Bank, ADB, UKAID, IDAF and USAID funded projects and studies on pension, insurance and social security reforms, system design, regulations, product development, governance and implementation at scale. He is presently providing expert technical assistance to governments of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Namibia and Zambia on increasing access and uptake of agriculture finance, improving agricultural productivity, reducing vulnerability and enhancing social protection for rural workers.

Ayandev has also served as a key member of the pinBox expert advisory team that has assisted regulators and governments of India, Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda with designing a digital product and process architecture, and an implementation blueprint and roadmap for delivering an integrated micro-pension and insurance solution to self-employed citizens. Ayandev regularly conducts workshops for insurance and pension regulators across the Afro-Asian region and speaks at global conferences on strategies for micro (mass) insurance growth across emerging economies.