Speaker Profiles
Adriana Rojas
SAS Global Academic Program Manager
Adriana Rojas leads the SAS Academic Program for Iberia, supporting universities in integrating analytics and AI into their curricula. With a background in Business Administration and professional experience at IBM, Lenovo, Symantec, and SAS, she is passionate about preparing students for data-driven careers. Adriana works to bridge the gap between academia and industry through certification, hands-on learning, and strategic collaboration.
Glyn Townsend
Sr. Director, Education & Academic Services, SAS EMEA
Glyn Townsend is the Senior Director of Education and Academic Services at SAS, where he leads the company’s training and academic initiatives across the EMEA region. Glyn collaborates with customers, governments, and universities to deliver impactful, large-scale skills programmes in AI and data science. His work is helping to redefine how economies prepare for the demands of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, driving digital transformation, promoting ethical AI, and expanding inclusive access to future-critical careers.
Paul Ridge
Director – Global Financial Services Solutions, SAS
With more than 20 years’ experience helping retail financial services and insurance customers exploit the value of data and AI across marketing, fraud prevention, risk management and other domains.
As a member of the global financial services leadership team, Paul, and the solutions specialists he leads, align our solutions strategy to ensure SAS’ banking and insurance customers manage risk and deliver outstanding customer experience.
Hervé Phaure
Partner, Risk & Regulatory Advisory, Deloitte
Hervé is Partner in Deloitte France, Risk Advisory, in charge of Credit Risk Advisory services and coordinates the EMEA Credit Risk Community in Deloitte. Hervé has been involved in risk management areas since more than 25 years and serves a variety of French and multi-national financial institutions in their projects in relation with credit risk models and credit management, operational risks, ESG and geopolitical risks. He’s been particularly involved in IFRS 9, as part of the Implementation Transition Group set up by the IASB.
Gaëtan Blécon
Credit Risk Consultant, Deloitte
Gaëtan is a junior credit risk consultant at Deloitte France, where he brings his expertise to credit institutions on both regulatory and statistical modelling matters. His work focuses on developing and validating statistical models in line with the Basel III and IFRS 9 frameworks, in close collaboration with audit teams. He holds a master's degree in Econometrics and Applied Statistics from the University of Orléans, a program with a strong reputation in the banking and quantitative finance sector. He completed his academic journey with an internship in an R&D team specialising in climate risk stress testing.
Belén Rodríguez Llorente
Business Risk Audit Analyst, Santander
Belén is a mathematician turned Data Scientist, originally from Seville. Her academic journey, which included enriching exchange years in Salamanca and Cluj Napoca, led her to Madrid, where she completed a Master’s in Data Science at UCM and UPM. Her professional career began with a fantastic five month internship at SAS, giving her invaluable industry experience. Building on that strong foundation, she started a new chapter last September at Santander, where she now works in the Internal Audit department, specializing in the complex landscape of non financial risks. She is excited to return to SAS for the Finance School as part of the Young Talent Panel.
Daniel Čulák
Data Analyst in the Credit Risk Department, COFIDIS
Daniel is a graduate of the Data Science in Economics program at the Department of Statistics, Faculty of Economic Informatics at the University of Economics in Bratislava. While he was a Master student, he won with the team The Curiosity Cup competition - a category Data Analysis. He works as a Data Analyst in the Credit Risk Department at COFIDIS SA, a branch of a foreign bank. His responsibilities primarily include performing statistical analyses, development of reports based on specific requirements, and data preparation for analytical purposes. He also prepares and interprets portfolio risk indicators and report them to the company’s management.
Cristian Luca Mirea
CVM Data Analyst, UniCredit Bank Romania
Cristian Luca is a junior data analyst with a background in mathematics, computer science, and applied analytics. He graduated from the University of Bucharest, where he studied Mathematics and Computer Science, developing a strong foundation in programming, statistical modeling, and data-driven problem solving. He began his career at SAS, where he worked for six months as a Technical Consultant Intern, programming in SAS and contributing to two consulting projects focused on analytical solutions and data processing. For the past year and a half, Cristian Luca has been part of UniCredit Bank Romania, working in the Customer Value Management department as a Junior Data Analyst. His work spans CRM, customer research, and campaign analytics, using SAS programs to generate insights that support strategic decision-making and customer engagement initiatives.
Carmen Elena Banescu
Senior Data Scientist, UnicCredit Bank Romania
Carmen-Elena Banescu - Senior Data Scientist with 8 years of experience in advanced analytics and a PhD in Cybernetics and Economic Statistics. Her work focuses on statistical modeling, machine learning, and leveraging data to support strategic decision-making.
Ignacio Bocos García
Head of Data & Analytics, CaixaBank
Ignacio Bocos García is Director of Model Risk Management and Internal Validation at CaixaBank. With a background in Computer Engineering and advanced studies in economics, executive management, and Solvency II, Ignacio brings a strong combination of technical and strategic expertise. With extensive experience across banking and insurance, and certifications such as FRM, RAI, and SCR, he offers a comprehensive perspective on financial risk, from model development to validation, and its role in strengthening decision-making and regulatory compliance.
Florentin Codin
Head of Risk Modelling Division, Nexent Bank N.V. Amsterdam Sucursala Bucuresti
Florentin is passionate about Machine Learning and Data Science, their evolution over time and the way of using them in current activities. He has more than 20 years of experience in the finance - banking industry in different domains like underwriting, collection, risk, including more than 10 years in modelling. He is currently Head of Risk Modelling being responsible for credit scoring application models, behavioral models, and for designing automate flows, lending rules and credit risk decisions. He supervises the validation and development of IFRS 9 PD, LGD, and EAD/CCF models, as well as other models within the bank. He is responsible not only for creating various models and decisioning frameworks, but also for implementing them in the bank’s systems.
Fabian Serrato
Chief Risk Officer Retail & SMB, Banamex
Fabián Serrato is a recognized leader in risk management and AI-driven financial strategy, with international experience across Latin America and Canada. Named one of the most influential AI leaders in 2024, he brings deep expertise in credit risk, portfolio analytics, and the adoption of AI in banking. He currently leads AI initiatives in risk management, helping organizations drive better decisions and innovation.
Mark Thundercliffe
Senior Global Executive Advisor for Financial Services at SAS
Mark Thundercliffe is a globally recognised banking executive with nearly 40 years of experience leading risk, credit and transformation across developed and emerging markets. He has held senior roles including Group Chief Risk Officer at Virgin Money, CRO at Citi, and CRO for HSBC in EMEA, with expertise spanning retail, commercial and corporate banking, capital management, financial crime and large scale transformation. As Senior Global Executive Advisor for Financial Services at SAS, Mark supports institutions worldwide on banking strategy, risk modernisation, AI enabled decisioning, lending transformation and governance. He is known for translating complex regulatory and strategic challenges into practical actions that improve performance and customer outcomes.
Edouard Ruffier D'Epenoux
Visa
Edouard has spent his career chasing payments around the world. French by birth, he studied engineering in Paris and Atlanta before an MBA at UC Berkeley, and has since built and run products across the US, the Netherlands and Sweden, with the UK up next. Most of that journey has been in payments. At Adyen he helped build the card issuing business from scratch to scale, later broadened his scope to all financial services, and went on to run the treasury department, where billions are processed every day. Now at Visa, he leads one-time open banking payments in Europe while building a new account-to-account payment method for the Brazilian market, innovation and product being where he’s happiest.
Anselmo Marmonti
Vice President - Risk, Fraud & Compliance Solutions at SAS
Anselmo Marmonti leads the Global Risk and Finance Advisory practice within SAS’ Risk Research and Quantitative Solutions division, shaping the vision and strategy for integrated risk solutions across banking and insurance. With deep expertise in risk and finance management, compliance, and governance, he is a recognized industry voice who supports institutions worldwide on their risk transformation journeys. Since joining SAS in 2001, Anselmo has held roles spanning consulting, business development, and regional leadership, contributing to major regulatory and transformation programs including Basel II/III, Solvency II, BCBS 239, IFRS 9, IFRS 17, and enterprise stress testing. He holds a degree in Financial Markets and Institutions Economics from Bocconi University and is certified in financial risk management by GARP.
Sandra Sorza Hernandez
Global Risk Consultant at SAS
Sandra Sonza Hernandez is a Global Risk Consultant at SAS with more than 13 years of experience in the financial sector. She specializes in the credit lifecycle, risk models, and decisioning, working with banks, fintechs, and telcos across multiple countries. Passionate about data and technology, she focuses on building innovative, analytics driven solutions that strengthen risk infrastructure and deliver measurable business impact.
Martim Rocha
Risk & Finance Management Expert, SAS
Martim Rocha brings more than 25 years of experience in Risk and Finance Management, Business Analytics, and Business Intelligence across the financial services industry, as well as telecom, public sector, and services. He has led major initiatives in risk management, performance management, financial management, forecasting analytics, and data mining. His expertise spans risk management, forecasting, data mining, financial intelligence, data warehousing, business intelligence, and Balanced Scorecard methodologies.
Diego Senso
Risk Management Specialist at SAS
Diego Senso works at the intersection of AI, Risk Management, and global regulation, driving the adoption of Responsible AI. He helps organizations build transparent and trustworthy decisioning systems aligned with frameworks such as the EU AI Act. Since joining SAS in 2021, he has advanced into a key role supporting France, Benelux, and Iberia, advising on AI Governance, Risk Modeling, and regulatory compliance. With a background in Data Science for Finance and a double degree in Law and Business Administration, he bridges technical insight and commercial strategy to support international stakeholders in scaling ethical, resilient AI.
Grégoire de Lassence
Data Scientist, Big Data Analyst at SAS, Associate Professor
Grégoire de Lassence has extensive experience teaching SAS, analytics, and data science at leading universities and business schools in France and internationally, delivering more than 100 teaching days per year, primarily at Master’s level. His expertise includes business analytics, decision support systems, marketing analytics, AI, and operational use of SAS technologies. Passionate about education and innovation, he is recognized for helping bridge the gap between academic research and practical business applications.
Jos van der Velden
Global Academic Program Manager, Data Scientist at SAS
Jos focuses on strengthening collaboration between SAS and the academic community. Originally trained in horticulture before transitioning into IT, he has been with SAS since 1996, working first in the Netherlands and later in Portugal. Jos also teaches at several universities in Spain and Portugal, where he supports the development of future talents. His work centers on building academic partnerships, expanding learning and research opportunities, and promoting ethical approaches to AI and digital transformation. He is a strong advocate for curiosity, lifelong learning, and closing the global data science skills gap.
Alina Luchian
Education and Academic Territory Leader for Southeast Europe, SAS
Alina Luchian is an expert in consulting, education services, sales and marketing, in the IT field, with over 21 years of experience in the industry. She is a graduate of the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies and holds an INSEAD Master in 2008 in the field of Business Administration. She graduated from IBM Global Business School in 2005, and IBM Top Gun in 2006. She is also a Professional Coach with a degree from Barret Values in 2018.
Currently she occupies the position of Academic and Education Territory Lead Southeast Europe at SAS, covering over 14 countries. Since 2024, Alina has been also a Ph.D. student, having AI as a research thesis and she is a lecturer at Bucharest University of Economic Studies, too.