Jeff Sinnott serves as President and Chief Executive Officer and is a member of the Board of Directors of Vantage Bank. 

Sinnott joined Vantage Bank in 2018 as Chief Operations, Technology and ERM Officer where he led a complete overhaul of the bank’s operations, risk and technology divisions, emphasizing an enhanced, omni-channel customer experience. 

Sinnott has been in the commercial banking and technology fields for the past 28 years, focusing on innovation and transformation. He began his career in Charlotte, NC as a software engineer working on the Model Banking Program at Bank of America. He has since overseen largescale technology and operations initiatives at numerous banks and spent a portion of his career leading global software initiatives in the consumer goods industry, focusing on product design, development and deployment. Some of the major firms where Sinnott led these initiatives include 

PepsiCo, Heinz, Walmart, and Danone. Sinnott returned to banking in 2003 when he joined Summit Bank as their Chief Information Officer. 

In 2007, Sinnott joined Southwest Bank in Fort Worth as Chief Operations Officer where, along with the Operations and Technology divisions, he led Retail, Compliance, Risk and the Treasury Management sales team. Jeff brought his expertise to Vantage Bank Texas in the fall of 2018 and, in a short period of time, has made an extraordinary impact on the way the bank delivers products and services to our customers. 

Sinnott is active in the banking community and has served on the Digital Banking Product Advisory Board at Digital Insight and Intuit. Jeff recently completed a term on the Texas Bankers Association Board of Directors and is currently active on the True Digital Board, Texas Biomedical Board of Trustees, TCU Fintech Council and Texas State University McCoy College Center for Banking and Financial Services Advisory Council. Sinnott graduated from Texas A&M University in 1994, earning a bachelor’s degree in Business Analysis/Management Information Systems. He also graduated with honors from the Graduate School of Banking in Colorado in 2006. 

Kristin Milchanowski is the Chief Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Quantum Officer for BMO Financial Group and also serves as the Founding Director of the BMO Institute for Applied AI & Quantum. She is a member of BMO’s Technology and Operations (T&O) Executive Committee. Kristin is responsible for driving BMO’s AI & quantum strategies, keeping BMO on the leading edge of these technologies, while also deploying them safely and securely. 

Kristin is the author of Return on Intelligence: A Strategic Enterprise Playbook for Scalable AI Agents, a book which redefines what transformation means in the age of AI and, through 43 governing principles, demonstrates how AI agents can reshape decisions, orchestrate resources, and embed permanence into complex enterprises.

A global AI executive, Kristin has 25 years of experience, across financial and manufacturing sectors, who has transformed businesses by leveraging the full potential of their data and technology. Prior to BMO, she was a Global Innovation Partner / Principal at EY, leading their Global Lab focused on AI, High Process Computing and Quantum technologies. Before consulting, Kristin was a Chief Data Scientist at Morgan Stanley, as well as former head of Global Financial Crimes Compliance Technology and Model Management at JP Morgan. 

Kristin is an AI Associate Fellow of the University of Oxford, where she completed post-doctoral studies in AI and holds a PhD in Decision Sciences. She also holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Colorado and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Texas A&M University. Her current research is at the intersection of AI and Quantum, pioneering research in Quantum Game Theory. Formerly a foundation board member of Children’s National Hospital in Washington D.C and of Automobili Lamborghini in Bologna, Italy. She also wrote and illustrated a children’s book, Tell Me Henry, to advocate for more diversity in children’s literature. 

Umar Farooq is the Co-Head of Global Payments at J.P. Morgan. A part of the Commercial & Investment Bank, J.P. Morgan Payments enables organizations of all sizes to execute transactions efficiently and securely, transforming the movement of information, money, and assets. The team of experts tackles complex challenges at every stage of the payment lifecycle. And their industry-leading solutions facilitate seamless transactions across borders, industries, and platforms.

Operating in over 160 countries and handling more than 120 currencies, J.P. Morgan Payments division is the largest processor of USD payments, with a daily transaction volume of $10 trillion. 

Before stepping into his current role, Umar was the Global Head of Financial Institution Payments and CEO of Kinexys by J.P. Morgan, where he leveraged cutting-edge technologies like blockchain to create innovative products, platforms, and marketplaces. His previous roles include Global Head of Digital Wholesale Payments and Head of FinTech for the Corporate and Investment Bank, along with leadership positions in Chase Business Banking. 

Umar’s academic background includes a B.S. in Computer Science, a B.S. in Economics, and an M.Eng. in Computer Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as a J.D. from Yale Law School.

Aleda DeMaria is a seasoned banking executive with a proven track record of leading high performing teams, driving growth and delivering results. As the Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer of PeoplesBank, she leads the Bank’s strategic initiative in the arenas of digital growth and fintech sponsorships, technology and business solutions, and operations. She is one of the creators of the Bank’s digital-only brand, ZYNLO Bank. Founded in 2020, ZYNLO Bank is a multi-award-winning digital brand featured by Forbes, Fortune, and MarketWatch among others. In 2025, Aleda’s digital team launched PeoplesBank’s second digital-only brand, Union Workers Financial Services. With additional partnerships to launch this year, PeoplesBank is positioned to be a breakout organization in the fields of digital growth and partnerships. Aleda is on the advisory board for Mendon Venture Partners and has been featured in several industry articles, conferences and podcasts and is known for being a strategic thinker and leader.

Aleda is a certified Six Sigma Green Belt and was named to the Business West’s 40 Under Forty class of 2019. She resides in Massachusetts with her daughter, Kyla.

Ruchira is Head of Customer Authentication (CIAM) at TD Bank U.S., leading enterprise strategy and delivery for customer authentication and identity proofing across commercial and consumer products. With 23+ years in financial services across payments, capital markets, treasury, fraud, and cybersecurity, she brings practical perspective at the intersection of digital identity, authentication modernization, fraud prevention, and customer experience—translating complex security and compliance requirements into scalable, customer-friendly solutions. She focuses on strengthening customer trust and enabling secure digital transformation by balancing robust security with seamless experiences across web, mobile, branch/store, and contact center journeys. Her teams deliver CIAM capabilities including MFA, risk-based and continuous authentication, step-up verification, adaptive verification signals, authorization/SSO patterns, and activity logging—embedding modern controls into onboarding and end-to-end customer journeys to help reduce fraud while minimizing customer friction. Ruchira partners closely with Fraud, KYC, and Cybersecurity leaders to align identity strategy with regulatory expectations, operational risk management, and customer experience priorities.

Tom Halpin is North America Head of Global Payments Solutions. Tom is based in New York. With more than 18 years at HSBC and over three decades in the financial services industry, Tom leads the strategy, execution, and client delivery for HSBC’s Global Payments Solutions business across the region. He is responsible for driving innovation in cash management, liquidity, and payments, helping multinational clients navigate complex markets and capture new opportunities.

Prior to joining HSBC, Tom held senior leadership roles at JPMorgan Chase. He holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BS in Finance from Fordham University.

Under his leadership, HSBC has been recognized as: 

Chris Ward is the Head of Enterprise Payments for Truist Financial Corporation. A highly regarded leader with decades of proven success, Chris joined the company in August 2022 and now oversees the Treasury, Liquidity, Merchant, Commercial Card and Consumer Payments businesses. Ward is also a member of the Truist Financial Corporation Operating Council.

Ward’s extensive background in managing wholesale payments businesses combined with his focus on growth and the client experience has made him a trusted voice within the industry. Prior to Truist, he was with PNC, where he most recently served as head of data, digital and innovation for Treasury Management (TM). In this role, he was responsible for the innovation of PNC’s TM solutions, including digital channels across the wholesale banking business. Previously, he managed product and operations for TM and was influential in driving PNC’s product strategy and investments.

Prior to joining PNC, Ward held leadership positions at Capital One, including head of product management innovation and integration for the treasury management business. He led strategy, product development and commercialization initiatives to drive revenue growth, ensure customer retention and enhance customer satisfaction. He also spent 11 years at Wells Fargo in various roles where he directed international strategy, payables and receivables, product design and delivery, and technology strategy.

Ward currently serves on the TCH PayCo Board of Directors and Executive Committee, the EWS Management Committee, the boards of Early Warning and The Clearing House, and the Truist Foundation.

Ward earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting and computer information systems from Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, PA.

Paul Margarites is the Head of Digital Channels at TD Securities, where he drives the digital transformation strategy that defines how commercial, corporate, and institutional clients interact with the bank across web and mobile portals, APIs, and embedded banking platforms.

With over 12 years of experience across global investment banks and consulting firms, Paul specializes in developing and scaling digital products through rapid prototyping and FinTech partnerships. He is recognized as a thought leader and strategic thinker, frequently presenting and publishing on innovation in financial services.

Prior to joining TD in August 2021, Paul served as Executive Director at JPMorgan Chase & Co., where he founded and led the Treasury Ignition program – integrating cloud-based ERP systems with J.P. Morgan’s treasury services. He also held leadership roles at PwC, including Head of U.S. RegTech Partnerships and Manager, where he advised top financial institutions on risk, capital strategy, and regulatory transformation.

Nathan is the CEO and Co-Founder of Anchorage Digital, a global crypto platform founded in 2017 and purpose-built for institutions. As the first and only federally regulated crypto bank in the United States, Anchorage Digital Bank also offers its institutional clients regulated on-chain services including staking, settlement, and governance under its OCC charter. Nathan has testified before the U.S. Congress, worked closely with policymakers around the globe to bring crypto into the regulatory perimeter, and is a writer on institutional crypto adoption, decentralized finance, crypto market structure, cyber security, and financial innovation. Before founding Anchorage Digital, Nathan built and led the security team at Docker and was an early employee at Square (Block), where he led the team that built the infrastructure security platform that is today used to process over $228 billion in payments annually.

As the Group CEO of Starling Bank, Raman Bhatia leads a digital bank serving UK retail and small business customers, a UK specialist mortgage business, and a global banking Software as a Service (SaaS) export enterprise, Engine by Starling.

Before joining Starling in summer 2024, Raman was the CEO of OVO, one of the UK’s largest energy suppliers. He led OVO’s acceleration into green and sustainable technology and successfully campaigned for government support for customers during the energy and cost of living crisis.

Prior to OVO, Raman was the Head of Digital Bank for HSBC Retail Banking and Wealth Management in the UK and Europe. As a member of the Executive Committee, he led innovation, new digital ways of working, risk management and the design, development, deployment and commercialisation of digital platforms, products and channels within the UK and Europe.

Before HSBC, Raman worked in consumer tech as VP at HouseTrip and Director of Strategy at Expedia for EMEA. Earlier in his career Raman worked as a management consultant at Bain as well as an advisor to governments and international development agencies on urban governance and planning.

Raman holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and is also a Trustee at Business in the Community, where he chairs a cross-sector Cost of Living Taskforce.