Economic Futurist
Andrew Busch is the former 1st Chief Market Intelligence Officer for the US government and economic futurist at AndrewBusch.com. For the CFTC, he was charged with improving and enhancing the government’s understanding of the markets and the economy. His job was to take all the news, information and data on the economy and markets; and filter it into condensed, easily understood research; then communicate it to the government and public.
Andy provided economic and market briefings to White House, US House, US Senate, the SEC, the Federal Reserve Board and the US Treasury staff on a wide range of issues including interest rates, China’s influence on trade, and the impact of technology on the economy.
Prior to joining the CFTC, Mr. Busch was CEO and founder of a boutique financial markets and policy research firm, Bering Productions, Inc (BPI). Before BPI, he was the Global Currency and Public Policy Strategist for Bank of Montreal (BMO) in Chicago. He is author of the book “World Event Trading” covering large crises like infectious disease outbreaks and their impact on the markets.
Today, he’s a consultant and keynote speaker with a wide range of clients including financial services, agriculture, energy, real estate, manufacturing and construction.
CTO
CU NextGen
Vinod is a Computer Engineer, and was part of the first wave of Indian IT Consultants that traveled the world on IT Implementation engagements in the 90’s, and he worked extensively across multiple industries on transformative IT projects in the US, Europe and the Far East, with most of them being in Banking and Financial Services.
He founded ClaySys Technologies in 2005, to fulfill an effort to support a greater level of abstraction and automation in delivering complex IT Solutions. Today ClaySys is a Technology Consulting firm with more than 230+ employees, that specializes in automation solutions through the ClaySys AppForms No-Code application builder platform, and RPA. Some of ClaySys’s Clients are WellsFargo, Deloitte, Bloomberg, JP Morgan Chase, First Financial, Nike, Exxon-Mobil, 3M and Facebook.
Vinod is also the Managing Director of the ClaySys Group of companies in India, that has interests in the Real Estate Industry, and Infrastructure services industries in India.
ModernFi
Paolo Bertolotti is the CEO and Co-Founder of ModernFi, a financial technology firm that helps credit unions and banks grow, retain, and manage their deposits and shares. Through ModernFi’s deposit network, financial institutions of all sizes can provide extended deposit insurance, manage balance sheet size, and source funding. Prior to ModernFi, he was a quantitative researcher at the asset management firm AQR Capital. Paolo holds a PhD in machine learning from MIT where he focused on deposit optimization and a BS in operations research from Columbia. He also serves as a Lecturer in Statistics at Columbia University.
Prizeout
David Metz is the Founder and CEO of Prizeout, a financial technology company that offers a rewards platform for credit unions which drives loyalty and digital engagement. Powered by a proprietary financial media network, Prizeout’s CashBack+ platform enables credit unions the ability to offer multiple ways for members to earn cashback via merchant funded-offers and through engagement with their credit union. Members can earn extra cash and access rewards previously inaccessible to debit card users and credit unions can offer a seamless experience that generates income, drives deposits, and keeps their accounts top of mind.
A career entrepreneur, David started his first company, Flugpo, in 2006 after a 10-year stint in financial services and equity trading. Before Prizeout, he was the CEO and co-founder of a mobile trivia app called FleetWit where users could take bets on their trivia skills. His broad leadership experience in finance, marketing, and tech across both large firms and startups put him at the ideal intersection to lead an industry disruptor like Prizeout. David attended Drexel University and lives in New York City with his wife and two kids.
StrategyCorps
Dave DeFazio is EVP of Strategy & Solutions at StrategyCorps. He’s armed with a passion for banking strategy, and always exploring the intersection of data, marketing, and technology. He downloads banking apps for fun.
Dave enjoys helping clients evolve their products for improved productivity, engagement, and growth. He graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a B.A. in Economics and Mathematics.
Cornerstone Advisors
Ron Shevlin has been a management consultant for more than 25 years, working with leading financial services, consumer products, retail and manufacturing firms all over the world. As chief research officer at Cornerstone Advisors, Ron calls on his analytical acumen to author a variety of corporate and commissioned research reports.
Considered one of the banking industry’s most notable experts, Ron’s opinions are regularly sought for inclusion in major banking publications. He writes weekly for Forbes and has published hundreds of articles for his Snarketing blog. A seasoned professional speaker, Ron’s insights and quirky sense of humor are in high demand for trade events and podcasts.
Prior to joining Cornerstone Advisors, Ron was a senior analyst at Aite Group, where he specialized in retail banking issues. Prior to Aite, he led Epsilon’s financial services consulting practice. Before Epsilon, he headed up Forrester’s research efforts on customer loyalty, profitability and consumer channel use in the financial services industry.
Ron is the author of Smarter Bank: Why Money Management is More Important than Money Movement. He was ranked #2 on Bank Innovation’s list of 30 Innovators to Watch. His Snarketing 2.0 blog was named to Radius’ 25 Best Marketing Blogs.
Ron received a master’s degree in finance and statistics from the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s degree in economics from SUNY Binghamton.
MDC
Alex joined MDC in the Strategic Execution Office in April 2023 and has a decade of experience in the financial services industry with a background in marketing, community relations, and member experience. She’s experienced in driving process improvements and managing a wide variety of projects that support overarching business objectives. Alex is a proud Boise State University graduate with a BBA in Marketing – Go Broncos!
IFTF
Jake is an experiential futurist, governance designer, and teacher. He directs the Governance Futures Lab at IFTF. His work has been centered on the concept of social invention and novel methods to help individuals, organizations, and governing institutions re-imagine and re-invent their futures. Recent research projects include the future of social entrepreneurship, applied embodied cognition, judicial foresight, kid’s technologies, intellectual property law, service innovation, and the future of work. He has helped create tools to increase citizen participation in political system design, and he also creates visual media, interactive experiences, and public engagement projects that inject alternative visions of the future into the present.
Jake holds a Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii, Manoa with a focus on neuropolitics, governance design, and communication of foresight. He has an MA from Temple University and a BA from Auburn University, both in Anthropology of Visual Communication. He is an adjunct professor in the Design Strategy MBA program at the California College of the Arts, where he teaches strategic foresight, tactical media, and social invention, and also International Mentor for the Diseño de Mañana program at CENTRO in Mexico City.
CEO
MDC
Jeff Kline has been the President/CEO of MDC since 2007 and has been in the credit union industry for more than 30 years.
Jeff started his career as a CPA at KPMG Peat Marwick and then went to work for a client, US Central Credit Union. He has worked at several other credit unions as an EVP of Finance and Technology, an EVP of Retail and Strategy, and as a CEO.