Caroline Bowler

As the CEO of BTC Markets, Caroline Bowler is a seasoned professional in the financial services industry with over 20 years of experience. With a focus on strategic direction and growth, she works closely with government regulators and industry stakeholders on responsible legislation to ensure Australia is positioned as a technology hub for crypto and blockchain innovation.

Caroline has a diverse professional background, having worked with a variety of institutions including investment banks, hedge funds, financial technology companies, and financial advisors. Her expertise in the blockchain and digital asset sector began in 2015.

In addition to her role at BTC Markets, Caroline served as a board member of Blockchain Australia and was honoured with the Female Fintech Leader of the Year at the Fintech Australia Awards and Blockchain Leader of the Year at the Blockchain Australia Awards in 2022.

She is a frequent media commentator on cryptocurrencies and regulatory frameworks, having been featured in outlets such as Bloomberg, CNBC, ABC, 7News, 9News, Sky News Australia, the AFR, SMH, The Age, The Australian, and news.com.au. With her extensive experience and knowledge, Caroline is regarded as one of Australia's foremost experts in the field.

Eugene Budovsky

Eugene Budovsky is an electronic equity execution specialist with expertise in sales, trading, connectivity, regulatory compliance, and product development. Eugene's past roles include Head of Equity Execution Platforms at Barrenjoey, and Co-head of Credit Suisse’s AES electronic execution business for APAC.

Eugene has over 18 years of front office experience in Asian equities with roles covering electronic execution, portfolio trading, facilitation, D1 sales and ETF market making.

Mark Collett

Mark Collett is a member of the APAC ETF Capital Markets team at BlackRock, within the Global Markets & Index Investments (BGM) group. He plays a key role in protecting and growing ETF trading by enhancing the ETF ecosystem, managing relationships with market makers and exchanges, and collaborating with industry partners. His team oversees daily primary market activity and secondary market quality for all APAC-domiciled listed ETFs, while also delivering market insights, engaging clients on ETF trading and implementation, and scaling education across the ecosystem.

Prior to joining BlackRock, Mark was a Product Manager at Global X ETFs, focusing on the development and maintenance of the firm’s product suite. He also held roles at the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) as an Investment Product Specialist and Senior Trading Operations Officer.

Mark holds a Bachelor of Economics from Macquarie University in Sydney.

Carole Comerton-Forde

Carole has been researching the global exchange industry for over 20 years. Her research in market structure examines how the mechanics of the market, such as regulation and technology, impact prices, liquidity and trader behaviour. Her research covers equities, corporate bonds and Exchange Traded Funds. Current research interests include dark pools, fragmentation, the connection between the cost of raising capital and secondary market liquidity and the evolution of public and private markets. Carole’s research has been published in the leading finance journals including the Journal of Finance and the Journal of Financial Economics.

Carole previously held academic positions at UNSW Business School, Australian National University and University of Sydney, and visiting positions at New York University and the London School of Economics and Political Science. She was also Visiting Economist at the New York Stock Exchange. In addition to her academic role, she has been an economic consultant for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and is an Academic Advisor to the Plato Partnership in Europe. She also consults with market participants, stock exchanges, market regulators around the world.

Kate Cooper

Kate is a transformational leader with over 20 years of global experience at the intersection of technology, strategy, and leadership. She has a proven track record of helping organizations navigate paradigm shifts—first with the rise of Web 2.0, where she played a pivotal role in digital transformation for major global brands and governments, and now with the proliferation of Web3, where she is shaping the future of financial services.

Kate’s career has spanned executive roles in both traditional finance and digital assets. Most recently, she led APAC operations at Zodia Custody, a bank-backed institutional digital asset custodian, where she drove growth, regulatory alignment, and industry collaboration across five markets. Before that, she held senior positions at National Australia Bank, where she was instrumental in the bank’s digital asset strategy.

Her expertise in regulatory strategy and digital transformation is well recognised - she was previously the UK government’s first-ever Head of Social Media, played a key role in Lego’s turnaround by harnessing online communities, and helped Toyota recover from a global recall crisis through large-scale digital engagement across 32 countries.

Kate is also a board member of the Digital Economy Council of Australia (DECA), actively shaping the country’s digital asset policy landscape.

Rory Cunningham

Rory Cunningham is a Senior Manager, Investment Products at ASX, working within the Listings and Markets group. He leads business initiatives to expand the range and adoption of investment products listed on ASX, including Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), Listed Investment Companies and Trusts (LICs/LITs), Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), Warrants, and Retail Debt Securities.

With over 15 years of experience in Australia’s investment and financial markets, Rory brings deep expertise across the funds management ecosystem. His previous roles at Fidelity Investments and Perpetual Investments have equipped him with a strong foundation in asset management and investor engagement.

Rory holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting and Finance) and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Sydney.

Oran D’Arcy

Oran D’Arcy is Head of Listings, APAC at Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe). He is responsible for the strategic development of Cboe’s Listing business in the region, which includes Exchange Traded Products, Warrants and Corporate Listings.

Oran is an established leader with extensive experience in product development and distribution, funds management and securities lending in Australia and across Europe. He joined Cboe Australia in 2021 having previously held roles at ASX, Macquarie, Citigroup & Merrill Lynch.

Oran holds Master of Business Administration from Central Queensland University.

Sagar Desai

Sagar Desai is focused on building Coinbase’s institutional client solutions and leading strategic relationships across Asia, Australia, and the UAE. In this role, Sagar is also the head of APAC for Coinbase's wholesale client business, which includes banks, asset managers, introducing brokers, exchanges, financial technology firms, and other institutional market participants.

Prior to joining Coinbase three years ago, Sagar was the head of Investment Solutions for InvestaX, a Singapore-licensed platform for securities token offerings, where he led a Monetary Authority of Singapore-awarded Proof-of-Concept product to tokenize private markets investment fund structures like Singapore's Variable Capital Company.

Sagar started his career in institutional asset management at Goldman Sachs, where he was responsible for new business development and revenue generation efforts from sovereign wealth funds, pensions, and endowments in Singapore, Brunei, South Asia, Vietnam, and Timor-Leste. He was also one of the 10 global members nominated to the Junior Advisory Board for Goldman Sachs' Investment Management Division.

Sagar earned an BBM in Finance from Singapore Management University in 2013 and the UniFi by CAIA™ Digital Assets Microcredential in 2023, in addition to completing the Wharton Executive Education course on Economics of Blockchain and Digital Assets in 2022.

Dylan Kluth

Dylan is the Head of Trading for Macquarie Asset Management (MAM) in the Asia-Pacific region, based in the Sydney office. In this role, he is responsible for the operation and risk of the trading desk, executing trades in the APAC region on behalf of all equity investment teams and managing a team of high-touch and systematic traders. He also manages the Sydney based Portfolio Services Group team, which focusses on portfolio implementation for equities teams in AsiaPac.

Prior to his current role, he was a Portfolio Manager/Analyst on the Global Listed Real Estate team.

Before joining the firm, Dylan was the Global Head of Multi-Asset Trading for AMP Capital based in London.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in economics from Texas A&M University.

Edward Mangles

Edward Mangles has helped support The FIX Trading Community’s Asia Pacific committee for over 20 years, playing a key role in promoting institutional trading standards and FIX adoption across the region, and facilitating cross-industry collaboration. In March 2009, Edward was appointed Asia Pacific Regional Director for the FIX Trading Community, and works closely with the buyside, sellside, regulator, exchange and technology provider members of the institutional trading community to support efficient trading.

Yemi Oluwi

Yemi has over 25 year’s experience in financial markets technology, specialising in electronic trading. Currently a Principal Business Analyst at Nasdaq working on matching engine solutions. Previous roles at exchange operators include responsibility for the operation and technology strategy of the NSX, and solution analysis and FIX expertise at several projects within ASX. With experience on electronic trading solutions at brokers such as Deutsche Bank and UBS, and other participants within the market, Yemi has a wide range of experience to draw on.

Emma Quinn

Emma Quinn is President, Cboe Australia at Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe). A proven leader with significant experience in global capital markets, she is responsible for defining and executing the company’s strategy and increasing adoption of its products and services. Quinn also serves as Cboe’s regional lead for APAC, fostering a unified culture and driving coordination across the region.

In 2023, Quinn joined Cboe from AllianceBernstein, where she was Global Co-Head of Equity Trading. Previously, she served as head of Asia-Pacific Trading, head of Asia-Pacific Fixed Income and Australia Equities Trading, and head of Trading for Australia and New Zealand for the firm. Prior to joining AllianceBernstein in 2001, she worked as an equity trader at AMP Henderson Global Investors.

Quinn also provides strategic leadership and participation on a number of boards and committees to help drive innovation and influence industry development. She is currently a Director and Chairperson of FIX Protocol Limited and FIX Protocol Trading Limited boards, as well as a member of Chief Executive Women in Australia. She was previously an advisory board member of Quorum 15; a member of the Markets Advisory Panel for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission; a member of Asia Trader Forum; and a member of various Asia Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association committees.

Quinn holds a Bachelor of Business in finance and business law from the University of Technology, Sydney.

Ben Russell

David Rabinowitz

David Rabinowitz is Head of Global Index Analytics and Asia Pacific Market Structure.

David started his career at SBC Warburg in 1997, where he assisted in designing and implementing Warburg's European Equity Research database. After a brief stint at Paribas, he moved to Hong Kong to rejoin UBS Warburg Dillon Read in 2000, as a member of the award-winning Asian Quantitative Analysis team. David then moved on to the Asian Portfolio Trading team between 2004 and 2008 before leading the Asian electronic trading desk over the past decade, managing the rollout and expansion of UBS' DMA and Algorithmic strategy platform throughout Asia. David relocated in 2018 to Sydney where he continues to oversee regional market structure and emerging market access, driving exchange and regulatory trading initiatives whilst concentrating on building benchmark and bespoke beta solutions for global clients.

Sam Shteingart

Sam Shteingart is a product manager at Bloomberg, where he leads the development of Rule Builder (RBLD), Bloomberg's multi-asset automated trading solution. With a strong background in automation, transaction cost analysis, and trading algorithms, Sam has a proven track record of driving innovation in the financial technology space. Prior to Bloomberg, he worked at Flextrade, ITG, Solomon Brothers and Goldman Sachs. A graduate of Binghamton University's Computer Science program, Sam is also a prolific inventor with multiple patents in trading technology.

Clare Witts

Clare Witts Head of APAC Market Structure at J.P. Morgan, working with clients and across the bank’s equity trading desks. Her role includes assessing the impact of regulatory and policy trends and analysing how that affects the microstructure of the equity markets and improving trading outcomes. Clare has worked in Asia for over 15 years in a variety of roles that help combine big picture trends with actionable trading insights. As well as over 10 years working in electronic trading at investment banks and agency brokers, she has worked in cross-industry functions including as Chair of the FIX Trading Community, as the Asia Chair for Quorum 15, the think tank for buy and sellside heads of trading; and as Director of Government and Regulator Relations at CFA Institute representing key topics for the investment management industry to regional policymakers.

Amanda Zeller

Amanda leads the Market Integrity team, which is responsible for the regulation and supervision of corporate finance transactions and markets surveillance. This includes overseeing listed companies’ conduct and disclosure in public capital raisings, and mergers and acquisitions, as well as leading ASIC’s work in derivatives and equities surveillance.

Amanda has held other senior roles at ASIC including leading the Supervisory Cyber Resilience Program for ASIC regulated entities. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce and is a member of CPA Australia.