The Council

Ekaterina Anthony

Chairwoman

Crypto Valley Association, Switzerland

Ekaterina Anthony is a Senior Manager for Crypto & Blockchain Compliance at GWP. She is responsible for fintech companies’ compliance, client relations and business development within the fintech sector in Switzerland.

Ekaterina has served over 20 years in various roles within the exchange, fin-tech, commodities trading platforms and legal industries. Based out of London, she was Global Business Director of the Russian Stock Exchange (MOEX). Also served as representative for Eastern Europe for the commodity valuation firm S&P Global Platts. Most recent work focused on the development of regulatory and compliance frameworks that address blockchain & crypto asset management, crypto funds, crypto bank structuring.
Ekaterina has an MBA in finance from California State University and is a regular speaker and contributor for the Crypto Valley Association (CVA).

Ian Taylor

CryptoUK, United Kingdom

Co-Vice Chairman

He leverages experience within both the traditional finance and digital asset industries to bridge two ecosystems with shared commercial, regulatory and reputational challenges.
A highly experienced finance and FinTech professional with significant experience within financial markets and disruptive technologies. Previously, Ian had led teams in many investment banking divisions and industry specialisms ranging across Rates, FX and Fixed Income markets, global treasury management, funding, capital allocation and liquidity management.
Ian participates in many blockchain and crypto committees and partners with other industry bodies such as Blockchain for Europe, Global Digital Asset Current Association, Blockchain Association, Access, IDAXO, and AIMA.
He is a frequent editorial contributor and speaker at industry events.

James Jeon Jung-Hweon

Dr. James (Jung-Hweon) Jeon

Korea Blockchain Association, South Korea

Co-Vice Chairman

Dr. James leads Asia Emerging Technology business for Smart-city initiatives & Blockchain initiatives through digital transformation including IoT, AI, Big Data, Cloud, Blockchain, Mobility Business as the opinion leader in the industries, governments, communities with his 23 years global business leadership and acts as the bridge between tradition business & emerging business, traditional economy & digital economy, traditional assets & digital assets. He is the Chair of the Global cooperation Committee of Korea Blockchain Association. He served as the representative Director of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Services (DXC) Korea and Asia-Pacific Regional Leadership, one of the IT leading Fortune 500 company for 20 years. He has been providing his insight as the OECD BIAC Korea Representative in Digital Economy, Technology Innovation working group and deeply involving the digital strategy with government & big group companies how to adopt the technology into a real life & business.

Mel Songco

IDAXA Services Limited, Singapore

Secretary General

Mel Songco has held a variety of global and regional leadership positions for MNCs and startups within the Creative Industries and Technology sectors – advising governments, regulators, industry leaders and innovators on building and scaling business ecosystems as well as the platforms, applications and services to enable and support their respective strategies.

Mel is the Asia Pacific Head of Operations for Amber, a global game development agency led by industry veterans across all disciplines, platforms and genres, including blockchain and enterprise solutions. Most recently, he has been appointed as the General Manager for Amber’s expansion into the Philippines. He’s held similar roles with Electronic Arts (EA), Activision Blizzard, Vivendi Games and InMobi.

Concurrently, he holds board positions with International Digital Asset Exchange Association (IDAXA) as its Secretary General, Asia Blockchain and Crypto Association (ABACA) as its Executive Director and LAB.PH as its Vice-Chair. He is also an advisor for a tech fund, an impact fund and several of their investments.

Frederick Fung

Singapore Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Industry Association (ACCESS), Singapore

Council Member

Frederick is the Chairman of Association of Crypto Currency Enterprises and Starts-ups Singapore (ACCESS). He was part of the core team in the development of the Code of Practice facilitated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and developed in consultation with The Association of Banks in Singapore and conducted the Independent Assessment Report for Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) 3rd party solutions provider. As the Director of ACCESS NODE, he developed the first Diploma in Blockchain in Singapore with PSB Academy launching in Q2 2022.

Jason Hsu

Taiwan Fintech Association, Taiwan

Council Member

Jason Hsu currently is Senior Advisor at the Centre for Strategic Cyberspace + International Studies (CSCIS).From 2016 ~ 2020, Jason Hsu served as legislator at-large in Taiwan’s parliament overseeing technology developments, entrepreneurship and innovation. Among the crucial legislations he introduced and passed include FinTech Regulatory Sandbox Act, Self-driving Vehicle Act, Angel Investment Law, Cybersecurity Management Act and Virtual Currency Guidelines (Security Token Offerings) and Artificial Intelligence Principle Law. Jason is a proponent for cryptocurrency and blockchain. Known as Crypto Congressman, Jason is credited for setting up Asia Blockchain Alliance (ABA),Taiwan Parliamentary Coalition for Blockchain(TPCB) and Self-Regulatory Organization(SRO).

Harpeet Singh Maan

ACCESS Blockchain Malaysia, Malaysia

Council Member

Harpreet Singh Maan CEO and Co-founder of Blocklime, armed with his natural inquisitiveness, Harpreet gained diverse experience in software development, information technology, blockchain & distributed ledger technology (DLT) development. Harpreet started coding at the age of 14 & exploring Blockchain at the age of 19. Eventually, his curiosity and effort led him to become a Blockchain developer early in his career. Harpreet envisions a future where DLT is integrated into everyone's daily lives, and he firmly believes that DLT's applicability can be extended beyond financial and asset management. With this vision, he founded Blocklime, a Malaysian-based development & training company, specialising in Blockchain and DLTs. He is a thought leader focusing on solving problems with DLTs and exploring their potential applications in fintech, insurtech, and regtech. He believes that it is crucial to build talents and communities by conducting blockchain & DLT training. Thus, Blocklime academy was formed to assist talent development in this sector. Harpreet is a well-known speaker & trainer on DLT/Blockchain development himself.

Asih Karnengsih

Asosiasi Blockchain Indonesia, Indonesia

Council Member

Master in Management, she’s obsessed with staying organized and making everyone's life easier. Not much different in the Blockchain Industry, after years of experiences in the field as a Chairwoman of the Indonesian Blockchain Association, still a motivated individual who’s eager to see the future which is the potential of blockchain technology for the advancement of civilization.
She strongly believes that innovation does not start with technology, does not start with blockchain, but innovation must start with Empathy.

Bryan Ventura

BlockchainNZ, New Zealand

Council Member

Bryan Ventura is a New Zealand based senior lawyer specialising in FinTech, virtual assets, NFTs, DeFi and VASP regulation. His crypto & blockchain clients include a NZ Dollar stablecoin issuer, VASPs, token and NFT issuers, a metaverse operator, an online gaming platform, a carbon trading platform, a data monetization platform, a supply chain provenance consortium and DAOs.

Bryan’s ‘traditional’ practice area also covers capital markets, financial regulation, startups, investment funds, financial institutions, payments, commercial law and M&A.

Bryan is the Chair of BlockchainNZ (which is part of the New Zealand Tech Alliance). He has been an investor in the crypto ecosystem since 2016 and is a regular speaker on crypto and blockchain.

Bryan graduated with a Bachelor Commerce (finance) and a Bachelor of Laws (hons) from the University of Auckland.