Virginia Heyburn is director of research, insights and advocacy at Engage fi. Ms. Heyburn is a well-known and trusted industry expert in the field of banking and payments. Over a 25-year career, Ms. Heyburn has been at the forefront of advising technology companies on innovation opportunities to solve complex banking problems and to improve the customer experience. She has served as a strategic advisor to financial institutions, helping them create essential distinctions through rapid adaptation to industry and consumer trends, business drivers and technology change. Ms. Heyburn is a highly sought-after speaker at financial industry conferences where she inspires her audience into thinking about new innovative ways to attract and delight a new generation of customers. She has been quoted by top-tier media and industry publications, including Fortune, Forbes, and American Banker.

Brandon Oliver is a principal with BankTech Ventures, LP leading the fund’s investments and sourcing efforts.

Prior to joining BankTech, Mr. Oliver ran the DCU FinTech Innovation Center, a pre-seed fintech accelerator working with emerging tech founders bridging the gap between status quo and next-generation financial services. A serial entrepreneur at heart, Mr. Oliver is still an advisor with a number of startups in the fintech, healthtech and proptech spaces specializing in operations, strategy and growth.

Riaz Syed is the founder and CEO at Infinant. He is an expert technologist and fintech entrepreneur with over 30 years in the delivery of technology platforms that drive customer engagement with core business value.

Prior to Infinant, Mr. Syed was the CEO and founder of Zenmonics, a top-100 fintech, acquired by FIS, that provided a core-agnostic platform to allow banks to run their self-service and assisted channels from a single platform. His prior technology leadership roles include Broadway & Seymour, SAIC, WebTone and FIS.

Kiah Lau Haslett is the Banking & Fintech Editor for Bank Director. Kiah is responsible for editing web content and works with other members of the editorial team to produce articles featured online and published in the magazine. Her areas of focus include bank accounting policy, operations, strategy, and trends in mergers and acquisitions.