Citi is excited to announce the next Citi® FinTech Meetup, an opportunity for Miami’s thriving local developer ecosystem to come together and exchange ideas.
The Meetup will be held March 26th at Miami Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science where a panel of experts will discuss how financial technology can drive financial inclusion.
The event is open to the public but attendance is limited so please RSVP.
The inaugural Citi FinTech Meetup was held December 3, 2014, at The Lab Miami and focused on the city’s significance as a financial technology hub connecting the Americas. More than 100 local FinTech enthusiasts heard from speakers Chris Boos, CEO of Arago; Mike Butcher, Editor-at-Large of TechCrunch; Juan Calle, Founder and CEO of .co Internet; Daniel Pourbaba, Co-founder of Humin; and Mariano Amartino, CEO of Wayra Latam.
Solana Cozzo
Prepaid & Personal Payments Financial Inclusion Latin America and Caribbean MasterCard Worldwide
Solana is currently Head of MasterCard Prepaid and Personal Payments solutions in Latin America & Caribbean.
As part of this role, Sol is responsible for the expansion and success of Mastercard’s Prepaid, Mobile & Personal Payments businesses across the region, driving the adoption and growth of these products in each market.
In addition, Solana is responsible for driving the Financial Inclusion strategy and go to market plan for the region.
Etienne Gillard
Co-founder of Waleteros
he mobile check cashing solution for Unbanked and Underbanked US Hispanics. Multi-cultural senior executive with over 20 years of international experience in Strategy, Marketing and Operations, as an advisor, board member, consultant and C-level operating executive.
Gretchen Beesing
Chief Executive Officer of Catalyst Miami
CEO of Catalyst Miami since November 2013, Gretchen looks forward to building on the work of Catalyst’s founder, working toward a just Miami in which residents are both prosperous and meaningfully engaged. Gretchen began her Catalyst career in 2007 with the Parent Leadership Training Institute. Before stepping into the CEO role, she directed Catalyst Miami’s civic leadership and advocacy programs for over five years.
Gretchen’s areas of interest include storytelling for social change and the unique role of service providers in the fight for social justice. She has recently become a student of network theory and she is excited about Catalyst Miami’s work facilitating networks in South Florida. Gretchen serves on the Board of Directors for the South Florida Community Development Coalition and on the Beacon Council’s One Community One Goal Committee. She is an adjunct faculty member at Barry University’s School of Social Work, where she has taught community practice courses. Previously, Gretchen taught for Barry University’s ACE School and the Florida Center for the Literary Arts.
Gretchen is a licensed clinical social worker and has several years of experience as a psychotherapist. Gretchen has worked with youth and adults, specializing in trauma therapy. In Miami, Gretchen worked at Care Resource, providing counseling to people living with HIV and AIDS. She received her MSW from New York University. She is the proud, tired mother of a toddler.
Jorge Ruiz
Anabel Perez
CEO / Founder of NovoPayments
Anabel Pérez is CEO and Co-Founder of NovoPayment, one of Latin America’s leading fintech companies, interconnecting and providing value added services to financial institutions, payment networks, carriers, retailers, governments and companies with banked and unbanked individuals across the Americas. The company’s bank-grade offerings include Platform as a Service (PaaS), Program Management as a Service (PMaaS) and managed services.
Ms. Pérez has more than 25 years of experience in banking and payments including commercial and retail banking, product development and financial services, as well as in distribution and marketing for various Latin American markets. Prior to NovoPayment, she served as Senior Vice President of Venezolano de Crédito, a leading Venezuelan financial institution, where she held various leadership positions.
As the company’s top executive, Ms. Pérez oversees the processing of fast, secure and reliable electronic payments and related services for varied corporate cash management and consumer needs serving more than 1.5 million end users — Latin America’s largest portfolio of branded stored value accounts of any non-bank.
Under her leadership, NovoPayment has expanded its reach to five countries and today has more than 9,000 corporate clients across the region including several Fortune 1000 companies, multilatinas and SMBs.
In 2014, Ms. Pérez was honored as an Endeavor Entrepreneur and in 2011 she received the Paybefore Industry Achievement Award, the prepaid industry’s highest individual honor in recognition of her contributions to the space and to financial inclusion in Latin America. In addition, she was recognized as a Top 25 Businesswomen by Latin Business Chronicle (2010, 2014), and as one of Latin America’s Top 100 Businesswomen by Latinvex (2013).
Under her leadership, NovoPayment and its subsidiaries have garnered several important awards and recognitions including seven Paybefore Awards (2008-2013), being named to Latin Trade Magazine’s 10 Companies Under 10 Years (2010), and the International Business Leaders Award for Innovations & Innovative Business Practices from the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce (2008).
A frequent speaker and expert source for Latin America’s payments industry, Ms. Pérez has participated in several important industry forums, including FELABAN’s XIV-CLAB Congress (2014), the FIU Americas Venture Capital Conference (2011), Prepaid Expo (2009, 2011), the MasterCard Worldwide Forum on Prepaid Cards (in 2007, 2010 and 2013), Visa Regional Commercial Solutions Forum (2013), the Federal Reserve Bank of Venezuela’s Forum on Banking and Payments Systems (2007) and Harvard Business School’s Global Poverty Forum (2005).
Ms. Pérez holds a law degree from Venezuela’s Universidad Católica Andrés Bello and has received certifications from IESA (Venezuela’s leading business management school) in marketing and business, and from Bank of America’s executive management and retail banking programs.
Marshall Sitten
Vice President of Communications for Citi Inclusive Finance and Community Development
Inclusive Finance and Community Development lead Citi’s commitment to achieving financial inclusion and economic empowerment for unbanked, underserved and low- and moderate-income communities. He also teaches a graduate course on services innovation at the NYU Polytechnic Institute of Engineering, and is co-founder and head of the NYC Service Design community.