Global Steering Committee

As Senior Assistant Governor for Financial Markets, Dr. Villa oversees and provides strategic direction on the central bank’s open market operations, foreign exchange policy implementation, management of the country’s international reserves, and management of risks related to these operations consistent with the BSP’s primary mandates of price stability and financial stability. In her current role, she has been tasked to lead the BSP’s new strategic objective of capital market development, a goal being explicitly pursued by current BSP Governor Eli M. Remolona, Jr., who foresees the greater market liquidity and depth in the domestic capital market as building blocks to further improving the transmission of BSP’s monetary policy and essential for ensuring financial stability. Dr. Villa, who has over 40 years of central banking experience, started her central bank career in financial markets as a portfolio manager of fixed income securities and moved through the various trading and reserve management desks of the BSP before being named Chief Dealer in 2004. In 2005, she was named Chief of Staff to then-BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. until 2017, a position she re-assumed for then-BSP Governor Felipe M. Medalla from 2022 to 2023. Before being named to her current position, Dr. Villa lent her leadership experience to other departments within the central bank, namely as head of the Payments and Currency Development Sub-Sector and the International Monetary Affairs and Surveillance Sub-Sector. In 2017, she was seconded to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Board as Alternate Executive Director representing the South East Asia Voting Group. She holds a PhD in Economics from The George Washington University in Washington DC. She earned her MBA (with distinction) and a BS Statistics degree (cum laude) from the University of the Philippines.

WORKING EXPERIENCE

▪ Executive Director, Reserve Management Department, Bank Indonesia,

▪ Chief Representative of Bank Indonesia in New York, USA. ▪ Director, Group Head of Macroprudential Research and Regulation, Bank Indonesia.

▪ Senior Economist, Asian Development Bank Institute, Tokyo, Japan 2004.

▪ Senior Economist, Financial Stability Division, Bank of England, London, UK 2003

EDUCATION

Ph.D., Banking & Finance, Cass Business School, University of London, London, UK MIA., International Banking and Finance, Columbia University, New York, USA

OTHER EXPERIENCE/TRAININGS

Digital Transformation – Driving Digital Strategy, Harvard Business School, Executive Education, USA, 2021. Guest Lecturer, Systemic Risk Programs, School of Management, Yale University, USA, 2019. Oxford Strategic Leadership Programme, Said Business School, University of Oxford, 2016.

Mr. Buckle is a member of the Bank of Jamaica’s Senior Management Team, with responsibility for the investment management of the Foreign Currency Reserves of Jamaica reporting to the Bank’s Board, Management Committee and Investment Committee.

He also has responsibility for the investment management of the Central Bank’s Pension Fund optimized with an elongated investment horizon.

Previously, he was the Director of Bank of Jamaica’s Information Communication and Technology team, with specific responsibility for the alignment of the IT Governance, Business Intelligence, Web Presence and Electronic Connectivity with the regulated entities in the financial sector.

Having started his career as an IT professional at CitiBank Jamaica, he also holds a BSc. degree in Information Technology from the University of the West Indies, Jamaica and an MBA with a double major in Finance and Technology from the University of Miami.

I am the Head of Reserves and Investment Management Operations at the Central Bank of Uganda since February 2022, prior to that I held several roles all revolving around the reserves management process.

My current role involves providing leadership to the portfolio management team, the global markets research as well as the external fund managers and liaison of the reserves management capacity building programs in the Bank.  The role also involves giving advice to senior management and development of reserves management proposals and frameworks including; the Investment Policy and the Strategic Asset Allocation.

Prior to this role, I was a portfolio manager responsible for the BOU’s money markets portfolio, in the foreign exchange reserves for 7 years. This  required  management and monitoring of daily fx liquidity needs for BOU & government payments, as well as investments in the money markets instruments, proposal and implementation of Strategic Asset Allocation and Investment Policy.

In addition to portfolio management, I’m passionate about efficiency in reserves management operations. In that line, I have taken a lead role in implementing two of the BOU’s reserves management systems which involved automation of the reserves management processes for improved efficiency.

I am also involved in BOU’s sustainability efforts which embody the Bank’s ESG initiatives. I am a member of the taskforce that studied and saw through to approval the Central Bank led model of Sustainability, which is currently being implemented in the BOU.

I possess a Bachelor’s degree in International Business from Makerere University Business School, a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the East and Southern African Management Institute. I am a certified Prince 2 Project Management Practitioner and an ACI Financial Markets Association certified portfolio trader.

Tal heads the Markets Division in the Markets Department at the Bank of Israel. 

In this capacity, he is in charge of the front office operations of the FX Reserves Management and Domestic Market Operations at the Bank of Israel. He has been at the Bank of Israel in various positions since 1993. 

The Markets Division analyses domestic and international economic and market developments for the Monetary Policy Committee. In the Covid-19 crisis, the Monetary Policy Committee established several programs in order to assist financial markets in Israel. The Markets Division transacts these programs. 

In the last decade, FX Reserves Management at the Bank of Israel diversified to include equities and corporate bonds in addition to traditional government bond investments.  

Tal has a MSc. in Management specializing in Finance from Imperial College, University of London and graduated from University College, University of London with a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Economics. Before joining the Bank of Israel, he worked in liability management in the private sector in the United Kingdom.

Aleksi Grym is Head of the Fintech division at the Bank of Finland. His team is responsible for policy work, analysis and projects covering financial technology, new payment systems and digital currencies. He is a member of the ECB's digital euro project steering group.

Andrea is the founder director of the financial innovation hub within the financial regulation and supervision entities in Costa Rica. She has more than twelve years of experience at the Central Bank of Costa Rica, focused on issues of technological innovation, the operation of national and international financial markets and payments infrastructures, and leading projects and teams related to data & analytics. Additionally, she is a professor at the National Distance Education University, designing a pioneering course on FinTech and Digital Banking in the country.

Economist, graduated at Corvinus University, Budapest. Joined the central bank in 2001. She is responsible for promoting the safe spreading of Fintech innovation, and the digital transformation in the financial sector, as well as within the central bank. With building in-house capacities where finance and technology meet, her key role in the central bank is to facilitate the implementation of cutting-edge technologies like blockchain and AI for the bank, and research and pilot on CBDC. She is member of the Financial Stability Council.

Bachelor of Science in Computing and Master of Business Administration, Mr. Cavalcante works at Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) for 25 years. He is Deputy Head of the IT department and Chief of Cybersecurity and Technological Innovation Office. He is in charge of fostering and collaborating in initiatives related to cybersecurity and technological innovation in the Brazilian financial system.  In Central Bank of Brazil, he conducted the research about Blockchain technology, quantum computing  and served as chair of the studying group about CBDC and Cyber Resilience. Nowadays, he coordinates the Technological and Financial Innovation Lab (LIFT), an open accelerator to fintech, and the internal accelerator to explore AI and Machine Learning to BCB processes. He also leads the IT team on the Brazilian CBDC initiative,  serves as chair of the Open Finance working group in the BIS Innovation Network, he’s in charge of the IT coordination on the Open Finance in Brazil. He also works with the supervision area to improve the cyber resilience in Brazilian financial system.

Jim Cunha was an Executive Vice President and former interim COO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.  His entire career has focused on the interrelationship of payments, security, technology and innovation.

In addition to Cunha’s interim CAO role, for 2022 he was responsible for financial management activities across all Federal Reserve Banks.    

Most recently, Cunha spearheaded the Boston Fed’s efforts to study distributed ledger technology, or blockchain, to determine potential benefits and risks in financial services for internal and external uses. He was also responsible for the Bank’s technology research related to central bank digital currencies (CBDC), including a joint research effort with MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative called “Project Hamilton”. 

Over the last couple of decades be built and ran a number of payment related systems for the U.S. Treasury, was responsible for ACH, Check and Cash operations and run the technology and computer operations groups.   

Cunha has worked at the Boston Fed since 1984. Prior to that, he worked at Fleet National Bank. He holds a bachelor’s in accounting and philosophy from Northeastern University and a bachelor’s in computer science from Rhode Island College.

Jorge Ponce is the Head of the Economic Research Department at Banco Central del Uruguay and coordinator of the Bank’s Innovation Observatory. Jorge is also Professor of Economics and Finance at Universidad de la República in Uruguay. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Toulouse School of Economics. His academic production has been published in the Journal of Financial Intermediation, the Journal of Financial Stability, and the Journal of Banking and Finance, the Latin American Journal of Central Banking, among others.

José Manuel Marqués is Head the Financial Innovation and Market Infrastructures Department Bank of Spain (Banco de España). In this position, he coordinates the contribution from Bank of Spain to Infrastructures related with the TARGET Services (Target 2 Securities and Eurosystem Collateral Management System) and Market Activities Processing System. He also coordinates the analysis of the main trends transforming the financial system: Big tech and Fintech, Cryptocurrencies, CBDC, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Blockchain and DLT. Marqués has joined Bank of Spain in 1996 and has written a number of articles on financial markets and is chair of the Working Group of Green Finance in the BIS Innovation Network and represent Bank of Spain on the High Level Taskforce on the digital euro, the CEMLA Foro Fintech. He has a BA in Economics and Business from University of Zaragoza, and an MSc from University Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona.

With over a decade of experience in technology risk supervision, Ms. Jovelyn M. Hao (Jovie) brings in key insights and valuable inputs as she leads the Fintech Innovation and Policy Research Group (FIPRG) under the Technology Risk and Innovation Supervision Department (TRISD). FIPRG serves as the primary contact for fintech players in the Philippines, particularly those with underlying BSP-regulated activities. Ms. Hao is likewise heavily involved in various policy initiatives of the BSP such as the Amendments to the Regulations on Outsourcing, as well as ongoing initiatives on Open Finance, Regulatory Sandbox, and AI Governance. Prior to her current role, she was also a pioneer member of the Cybersecurity Supervision and Oversight Group (CSOG).

Kwame Oppong is the Head of Fintech and Innovation at Bank of Ghana.
His background spans Technology, Digital Financial Services (DFS) operations, policy development, and regulation. He has consulted for several governments, public sector institutions, international development organizations and private corporations globally.
Prior to joining the Bank, Kwame worked with CGAP (World Bank Group), Millicom, Hewlett Packard (now HP EB) and other organizations in the banking, housing finance and health insurance industries.
He is a passionate advocate for financial inclusion, innovation, and the development of digital economies.

Clair Mills is the Director of Strategic Change and Operations for the Markets, Banking and Payments Deputy Governorship, at the Bank of England, and is responsible for middle and back office operations, which includes delivery of the Markets, Banking and Payments Operations and Data Strategy, Budget, Operational Resilience and Risk and the Investment and Change Portfolio. Clair has over 20 years’ extensive financial services experience operating at board level and leading successful strategic and transformational change in a number of complex organisations, having started her career in the Building Society and Retail Banking sector, before moving into Operational and Technological Change Management and Consultancy. Clair joined the Financial Services Authority in 2011 to lead the Internal Twin Peaks programme transition to the PRA and FCA regulatory model, moving across to the Bank of England with the PRA becoming the Chief Operating Officer in the PRA in 2018. In her current role, as well as providing the leadership, management and vision necessary to support the business and to ensure that the proper operational controls, administrative and reporting procedures, and people systems are in place, Clair is also responsible for leading the area’s extensive project portfolio, helping translate business and policy vision into deliverable change programmes, this includes giving key note speeches both in the UK and internationally on topics such as Financial and Regulatory Technology (FinTech/RegTech) and how Central Banks and regulators can take advantage of the advances in technology in the work we do.

Tomas is currently the team leader of the Financial Innovation Team at the Czech National Bank. The team is in charge of the digital finance agenda including crypto-assets and DLT, digital operational resilience, machine learning, open finance, financial innovation facilitation, SupTech, digital identity, or any other exciting technology that might have an impact on financial markets. He is a trained lawyer who has been in his programming journey into Python, JavaScript and C for a quite some time.