Matthew Watts is the Chief Executive of Matrexia, a decision intelligence company helping banks recover false negatives in small business lending and convert missed decisions into measurable revenue. He leads a multidisciplinary organisation that turns deep learning, geometry, topology, and temporal analysis into explainable outputs that risk, credit, and compliance teams can act on. Previously, he co-founded Lendflow as CTO, partnering with more than seventyfive lenders and enabling over 1.5 billion dollars in annual offers to U.S. small businesses. Originally from the UK, Matthew sets strategy, product direction, and commercial discipline at Matrexia with a first-principles focus on auditability and customer trust. He speaks on where models censor credit, how to quantify recoverable margin, and how decision infrastructure expands margin inside the existing credit box.

Saujin Yi is the Founder and CEO of LiquidTrust, a fintech building safer global payment solutions for small and medium-sized businesses. A former investment banker and tech executive, she brings over 20 years of experience in finance, strategy, and product innovation. At LiquidTrust, she launched Protected Pay, a modern micro-escrow solution that helps banks and marketplaces safeguard high-risk B2B and cross-border payments. Saujin also co-founded FlexTeam, serves as a Venture Partner at Resolute Ventures, and lectures on entrepreneurship at UCLA Anderson. She is a trusted voice on embedded payments and a champion for scalable infrastructure that empowers SMBs in global commerce.

Faheem Savja is the founder of Savja Advisory, a boutique consulting firm that supports financial institutions and fintechs with strategic growth, product development, and modernization efforts focused on the small and mid-sized business market. He brings over a decade of experience in commercial banking, structured credit, and fintech product leadership, including time at TD Bank and Sunstone Credit. Through Savja Advisory, Faheem has led initiatives such as underwriting automation for SMB lenders, modernization strategies for credit unions, and exit planning for small businesses under $1M in revenue. He also advises fintechs on go-to-market and partnership strategy. Faheem is the creator and host of Behind the Business, a podcast spotlighting the stories of small business owners across North America. Based in Austin, he actively collaborates with founders, operators, and financial institutions working to close the gap between access and impact in small business finance.

Stu Richards is Chief Executive of Bredin, a B2B marketing consultancy that helps marketers develop profitable, long-term relationships with small and medium businesses (SMBs) through: – Original market research to provide insight into SMB needs, attitudes and preferences – Outreach programs including integrated lead generation, content marketing and sales support programs Stu is primarily responsible for the acquisition and satisfactory execution of strategic and communications programs for clients such as 8×8, ADP, Allstate, American Express, Angie’s List, AT&T, AWS, Bank of America, BBVA Compass Bank, BOK Financial, Brightflow.ai, Cablevision, Capital One, CenturyLink, Charter / Spectrum Business, Chase, Cisco, Citizens Bank, City National Bank, Comcast, Commerce Bank, Dell, Deluxe, DocuSign, eBay, Enova, Fidelity Investments, Fifth Third Bank, First Citizens Bank, FIS Global, FPL, Fundbox, Funding Circle, Gannett, GateHouse Media, GoDaddy, Google, Gusto, Hiscox, HP, HPE Aruba, HSBC, Huntington Bank, IBM, Indeed, Intel, Iron Mountain, Kabbage, Kronos, Lending Club, Lexmark, LinkedIn, M&I Bank, M&T Bank, MailChimp, Mastercard, Meridian Credit Union, Microsoft, Monster, OnDeck, Paychex, PayPal, PeoplesBank, PG&E, Popular Community Bank, Regions Bank, RingCentral, SaaS Labs, Salesforce, SAP, SAP Concur, ScaleFactor, Silicon Valley Bank, Sony, Sprint, Staples, SunTrust Bank, Swift Capital, Symantec, TD Bank, TriNet, Twitter, U.S. Bank, Union Bank, Upwork, Verizon Wireless, Vertical Response, VMware, Webroot, Weebly, Wells Fargo, Worldpay, and Zomentum. A 20+ year veteran of SMB marketing, Stu joined Bredin in 1997 as vice president of marketing. He was named president in 1999 and CEO in 2001. Prior to joining Bredin, Stu served as director of marketing at DeLorme Mapping, product manager at Nabisco Brands, and marketing representative at IBM Corporation. Stu holds an MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth College and a BA from Middlebury College.

Paul Pavlou is the Dean of the University of Miami Patti and Allan Herbert Business School. He is also the Leonard M. Miller University Chair Professor. Paul’s research has been cited more than 90,000 times by Google Scholar, and Thomson Reuters recognized him among the ‘World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds’ based on an analysis of Highly Cited Researchers. Paul was ranked No. 1 globally in publications in top Information Systems journals from 2010 to 2016. He earned a Ph.D. in Information Systems and a master’s in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California. Paul is a Distinguished Fellow of the INFORMS Information Systems Society. He won several Best Paper Awards for his research, including the Sheth Foundation Award for ‘Long-Term Contributions to Marketing’ published in the Journal of Marketing (2019), and the Maynard Award for the ‘Most Significant Contribution to Marketing’ in the Journal of Marketing (2015), to name a few. Paul received $3,500,000 in grants from funding agencies, such as the National Science Foundation (NSF). His research appeared In top journals and his research spans several disciplines (information systems, data science, marketing, operations management, and management sciences) with emphasis on artificial intelligence, business analytics, and digital strategy.

Nick Miller assists commercial and small business banking sales teams to generate more profitable relationships, faster, by closing the gap between when clients hope for or expect from their bankers and what bankers deliver – value beyond the product. He has consulted with community, regional, and money center banks and credit unions in the US, Canada, and Mexico on sales strategy, implementation of new sales initiatives, staff skills development and training. business partner alignment, value propositions, sales process, customer experience, sales support and enablement, and community networks development. He has written extensively on marketing and selling to small business clients and prospects, developing trusted advisor relationships, and value-based conversations. His “Weekly Sales Thought” column circulates globally and his articles have been published or quoted in journals including ababankmarketing.com, BAI Banking Strategies, Sales & Marketing Management, Commercial Lending Review, The RMA Journal, and American Banker. Nick is a co-founder of the leading industry intelligence platform, Vertical IQ; the American partner for small business content strategy provider The Small Business Company; a director on the board of the Irish software company, Econiq; and President of the Board of Community Boating, Inc. in Boston – sailing on the Charles River. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his spouse, six guitars, a baritone horn, dozens of books on small boat sailing, and a treasury of bright bow ties.

Abbas Merchant is the Founder & CEO of i2a Advisors and Senior Executive Advisor at Prowess Consulting, Data and AI, where he advises clients on growth, brand, data, and AI strategy. A former EVP and CMO at Regions Bank and served in senior leadership roles at M&T Bank, U.S. Bank, and Scotts Miracle-Gro. Abbas brings deep expertise in transforming marketing into a strategic growth engine and building resilient, reputation-forward brands in regulated industries.