Jahan Zahid
I am an entrepreneur with over 10 years experience in unlocking the potential of technology to solve business problems. I have always been interested in activities that can be transformed by the use of technology on large datasets. Examples of this include digital marketing and algorithmic trading.
Professionally I have spent several years in Investment Banking as a Quant Analyst and FCA approved FX Trader. In this team we traded over $40 billion per day
Prior to this I completed undergraduate and PhD degrees in Number Theory at Oxford University and worked as a Lecturer in Mathematics.
I solved an open problem in Number Theory on the local solubility of a cubic and quadratic form
I have written articles for AccountingWeb on the subject of technology, and have appeared in The Telegraph, BBC and Huffington Post. I have also been a guest lecturer on the Coventry University Global Leaders Programme.
Richard Hickling
I've seen pretty much everything in front-office fintech over the last 20 years. It's been a ride - through 9/11, the global financial crisis and the great rise of China.
Investment banking in Asia, Europe and America; global stock exchanges; data providers - my teams have propelled the financial world forward.
With the rise of the blockchain, there's no question: crypto trading technology is where I can make greatest impact.
Crypto is just a few years old so it lacks the infrastructure that other asset classes have amassed over the decades (and centuries!). The opportunity is to learn and push forward in this innovative space as it expresses its efficiencies across the global economy.
Trading is an activity natural to humans but one that requires a peculiar set of skills - unchanged by crypto! My role is to enable traders to play to their strengths and not be side-tracked by the technology.