Past Speakers

Dr Michael Auer

Dr. Michael Auer is a statistician and psychologist. He studied in Vienna, Austria and made his PhD with Prof. Mark Griffiths at Nottingham Trent University. Dr. Michael Auer published more than forty peer-reviewed articles in the area of online gambling about subjects like limit setting, personalized feedback, self-exclusion and pop-up messages.

This academic background and his commercial experience of more than fifteen years in the gambling industry lead to the development of a player tracking tool called “mentor” which is currently used by thirty different online gambling sits across the world. He is also a regular speaker at conferences and consults operators, regulators and policy makers around the world.

Martin Lykca

Martin Lycka is SVP for American Regulatory Affairs and Responsible Gambling at Entain, overseeing growth of the business across both new U.S. states and into other parts of the Americas, notably LATAM and Canada. He joined the business in April 2018, as Director of Regulatory Affairs.

Martin also serves on the boards of the Entain Foundation, the Entain Foundation US, the German Online Casino Association and the Advisory Boards to the National Council on Problem Gambling as well as RG247, a responsible gaming training provider.

Tania Rahmany

Tania joined Hassans in 2015 and has rapidly garnered much respect for her corporate and commercial advisory and transactional work, advising multinational corporate groups and high net worth individuals alike.

Last year Tania was accepted as part of the Futures Forward Academy which is closely aligned to the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The participants each identified a tangible change they felt they could make and received leadership, training, mentoring, and support to work towards these goals. Tania is also passionate about eradicating gender bias, and feels strongly about encouraging all women, and men, to challenge inequality, call out bias, question stereotypes, and help forge an inclusive world.

Professor Daniella Tilbury

Prof Daniella Tilbury is a changemaker, policy expert and academic leader in sustainable development. She has advised national agencies in Europe, Latin America and Oceania as well as travelled extensively in Africa and Asia to evaluate the investment and impact of sustainability policies and programs.

Before becoming Gibraltar’s first Commissioner for Sustainable Development and Future Generations in 2018, she was the inaugural Vice-Chancellor and CEO of the University of Gibraltar. Previously, she was the UK’s first University Dean of Sustainability and led the Australian national research institute into sustainability in business funded by government.

Andrew Montegriffo

Andrew is a Partner in the Corporate & Commercial team at Hassans specialising primarily in gaming, fintech and digital technologies. After graduating from the University of Nottingham with an LLB (Hons) degree, he went on to obtain an LLM in Commercial Law before undertaking the Bar Professional Training Course.

Andrew Lyman

Andrew Lyman is currently the Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner and the Executive Director of the Gambling Division. Andrew is a qualified UK lawyer (Professional Certificate of Competence in Gibraltar Law) and is a risk and compliance professional.

Paul Foster

Paul is the CEO of Crucial Compliance and the CEO of the Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association. Previous to Crucial Compliance he held Senior Roles at GVC, Ladbrokes Coral, bwin.party and Partygaming.

Past Panelists

Rob Mitchell

Rob Mitchell is the Senior Vice President of Business Development, based in RiskScreen’s London office.
With vast experience in the governance, risk and compliance market, Rob is responsible for growing the firm’s corporate client base in Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

Tom Gribbin

Tom Gribbin is the CEO and co-founder of Planet Super League. Tom has twenty years experience in sustainability, new ventures, marketing and innovation.
His work focuses on behaviour change and facilitating action.
Tom has an MBA from the University of Cambridge and has taught Entrepreneurship in the School of Management at UCL.

Sophie Wood

Sophie joined Lottoland in 2021 as Learning & Development Partner, working with Christina Giuffre to lead Lottoland's DEI Strategy.
Sophie's inclusion work began after coming out as trans in 2011 whilst working for the UK Police Service as an Information, Intelligence & Investigation Trainer. Sophie has worked in the online Entertainment / Gaming Industry since 2015.

Maris Catania

Maris Catania currently occupies the role of Head of Responsible Gaming and Research at Kindred. She started as a Risk and Fraud Analyst with Kindred and after receiving her Psychology MSc from the University of Leicester, took on the role of Responsible Gaming Manager.

Nick Hill

Nick Hill is a seasoned iGaming professional with over 20 years of experience, including as Chief Operating Officer at gaming operator and platform provider EveryMatrix.
Nick has singular insight into the needs of the gaming industry and an ability to anticipate emerging trends.

Christina Giuffre

With over 15 years of experience in business leadership, digital strategy, marketing and product; Christina has collaborated with start-ups to large corporates, driving sustainable growth with the customer at heart.
In the last 5 years Christina has worked in gaming across lotteries, online slots, bingo and poker, and is currently the Head of Product and Co-lead of Diversity & Inclusion for Lottoland in Gibraltar.

Markus Neubauer

Markus Neubauer is Regulatory Compliance Manager & Safer Gambling Ambassador at Lottoland.
In this role he is supporting the business in developing the Safer Gambling Strategy with the long-term goal to make the industry sustainable and fair for all.

Nifa Sellors

Nifa Sellors is a Wellbeing Coach, Mental Health First Aid Instructor and Psychologist. She achieved her Masters in Applied Clinical Psychology at the University of Bath with a particular research focus on early childhood adversity and it’s impacts across the lifespan. Over the last 5 years, Nifa has worked in a variety of mental health services across the UK, Indonesia and Gibraltar and is currently on route to qualifying as a Doctor in Clinical Psychology.

Pedro Romero

Pedro is a seasoned Safer Gambling Consultant and Therapist. He has worked in senior roles at leading iGaming companies. Aside from his industry roles, he has been the Head of Gambling Therapy, a charity which provides online support for problem gamblers worldwide. He enjoys charitable roles and currently, he is part of Betblocker charity which provides free blocking software for people affected by gambling related harm.

Neil Tyson

Neil is an accredited counter fraud specialist and member of the Institute of Strategic Risk Management with over 20 years’ experience in helping senior managers take an ethical and proactive risk-based approach to managing their organisation’s legal and regulatory compliance.
A trusted expert in his field Neil is an international keynote speaker, panelist and moderator.

Adrian Sladdin

Adrian is one of the founding partners at Seventh Wave Corporate Training, writing and delivering innovative corporate training as well delivering on large-scale international consultancy work for the financial and gambling sectors. His corporate clients include Ladbrokes Coral, Lottoland, BetVictor, Playtech Deutsche Bank, J P Morgan and Santander.

Jo Abergel

Jo was National Director of a leading National Voluntary Youth Organisation in the UK before she moved to Gibraltar in 2001. With corporate HR experience in two private banks (Lloyds TSB and Credit Suisse), an accountancy firm and within the online gaming sector, Jo has managed to combine her leadership knowledge and business expertise to develop training courses for many companies.

Simon Vincze

Simon leads the sustainable and safer gambling activities of Casino Guru. He also manages Casino Guru’s long-term projects related predominantly to social responsibility, with the goal of making the entire online gambling industry safer for everyone. Simon’s efforts lie with working on two significant projects: the Casino Guru Academy, which focuses on improving industry standards in customer support, and the Global Self-Exclusion Initiative.

Eran Shay

Eran has been advising Blockchain and crypto related businesses since 2017, assisting and
accompanying them in getting DLT licenses and VASP registrations from the Gibraltar
Financial Services Commission. In his role as professional advisor and trusted project
manager for the launch of NFTs and for obtaining a DLT Licence.
Eran advises a wide range of innovative companies including NFTs, DAOs, DeFi, OTC traders,
Exchanges, and other Fintech companies.

Rachel Decelis

Rachel is a chemist and chartered environmentalist, having worked in the sustainability sphere for 17 years. She is KPMG in Malta’s Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) lead, having joined KPMG after working in both the environmental consultancy and regulatory sectors.

At KPMG, Rachel leads ESG projects and supports various teams in developing and delivering ESG services to clients.

Professor Adam Boddison

Adam joined APM as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in September 2021. He has a non- executive director portfolio that includes being Chair of the Corporation at Coventry College and Trustee for a multi-academy trust providing education for 32,000 pupils across 58 primary, secondary and specialist settings. Adam is also a Visiting Professor at Stranmillis University College and the University of Leicester (School of Business).

Ian Semel

Ian has been involved in gambling for over 40 years.
He spent 20 years as a pathological gambler and the last 20 years as a treatment provider for anybody affected by problematic gambling with Breakeven , a charity he started in 2001.

Breakeven is a partner of Gamcare the UK National Centre for problem gambling and has been for over 15 years.

Zsolt Demetrovics

Zsolt Demetrovics is a professor of psychology and chair of the Centre of Excellence in Responsible Gaming at the University of Gibraltar. He obtained his MA degrees in psychology and cultural anthropology, and he received his PhD in clinical and health psychology. Formerly, he served as dean of the Faculty of Education and Psychology at the ELTE. He has published over 400 papers.

Tracey Carpenter

Tracey is the Insider Threat Manager at Cifas and is passionate about helping organisations to combat the insider threat, whether that is at pre-employment screening stage or existing employees. Tracey has a background in detecting and investigating internal fraud as well as looking at internal fraud from a strategical perspective. She also has experience in online banking and cheque fraud, but internal fraud where her passion lies.

Christina Thakor Rankin

Christina Thakor-Rankin is a renowned expert and thought leader in the gambling and iGaming industry. She has over 25 years of experience in the sector, having worked in a variety of roles including operations, marketing, and product development.
Thakor-Rankin is also an advocate for responsible gambling and works to promote ethical practices within the industry. She has spoken and written extensively on topics such as problem gambling, gambling addiction, and social responsibility.

Aaron Fenton

Aaron has been in the blockchain space for over 4 years and has onboarded hundreds of people into the space by creating and delivering cryptocurrency awareness initiatives in and around the UK. He is passionate about bringing Web 3.0 to the forefront of everyday life and uses his knowledge of cryptocurrency and philosophy to assist in the growth of young projects.

Joel O’Loughlin

Joel is a diversity and ethical business specialist with a successful track record in strategic and operational leadership. He has delivered innovative programmes for a wide variety of high-profile clients in the private, public and NGO sectors spanning 30 years. Joel is a seasoned leaders who has been influential in a number of prominent national agencies and is considered a quality leader and project manager.

Daisy White

Daisy is the Business Development Manager for Rdentify, an AI system that identifies signs of customer vulnerability in real time during customer conversations. Daisy has been involved in the gambling industry for many years where she has evolved her knowledge and passion for ESG and safer gambling. Daisy's mission is to continue working closely with operators to assist them to better protect their business and customers.

Dan Spencer

As Director of Safer Gambling, Dan Spencer heads up EPIC Risk Management’s professional services offering to the gambling industry. Providing consultation and training to the world’s most successful and progressive operators, regulators and suppliers, Dan brings his own lived experience of gambling related harm as well as an extensive career in developmental training and compliance. This year, Dan and his team were recognised for their work in Safer Gambling winning multiple awards for services to Player Protection

Frank McCready

Frank McCready is Senior Safer Gambling Standards Manager at GamCare, joining in January 2022. Frank is passionate about raising standards and improving safer gambling.

Frank leads GamCare’s Safer Gambling Standard and is building relationships across the gambling sector, supporting operators who are continually looking to improve their safer gambling culture and practices.

Marcus Pathan

Marcus Pathan is Senior International Development Manager at Association for Project Management (APM). With over 10 years of experience in business growth and partnership development, Marcus is a highly accomplished professional with a strong track record of success in his field. During his career, Marcus has worked with a wide range of clients across various sectors, including high-profile organizations and international clients.

Richie Paxton

Richie left school to pursue his dream as a professional footballer, but injury and trauma led to an 18-year secret battle with gambling and substance addictions, whilst he was working in the health and fitness industry. Richie is now over 4 years abstinent, having rooted his recovery in personal-development, and in 2021 he was awarded a Counselling Degree. Richie uses his lived experience and passion to support others through his role as Head of Programmes at the EPIC Restart Foundation, a pioneering UK charity which is empowering people to rebuild positive lives after gambling harm.

Sonia Wasowska

A regulatory and operations compliance professional, with over 15 years of experience, working across the gambling industry in a variety of senior compliance operator roles, including Head of Regulatory Innovation Projects with the GB Gambling Commission, leading cross-regulator and industry collaboration. Expert in player protection, regulatory compliance programs, evaluation, and risk mitigation. Driving consumer-focused, practicable compliance ops programs focusing on research and data-driven solutions.

Charles Cohen

Charles has been a technology entrepreneur and executive starting with beenz.com, the web's currency, in 1998-2001, then Probability plc, a pioneer in mobile gambling, which was sold to GTECH/IGT in 2014.

In 2021 he founded the award-winning Safer Gambling platform, Department of Trust, of which he
is CEO. He is also a non-executive director of Games Global, one of the world’s largest gaming
content developers, and chairs its ESG committee.

Kim Alcantara

Kim joined BetVictor in April 2020 as Director of Legal. Her team is responsible for all group legal and company secretarial matters. Since the start of 2021, she has also been chairing BetVictor’s ESG Committee and leading the company through its first carbon footprint audit. She is passionate about sustainability and believes that there is a critical role for all lawyers, and particularly in-house lawyers, to help company boards deliver on net zero targets and advise on wider sustainability and ESG matters.

DCI Thomas Tunbridge

Thomas Tunbridge joined the Royal Gibraltar Police in 1998. Having conducted his initial uniformed duties he became a detective within the CID in 2001. He moved into the then named Fraud Squad in 2003, when he was seconded to a large scale fraud investigation. Since then he has been part of the Economic Crime Unit under its different names for 17 years at all ranks from Constable to Chief Inspector. DCI Tunbridge has led various large scale fraud and money laundering investigations including Gibraltar’s largest fraud case and longest trial, and the Targeted Financial Sanctions investigation into the cargo vessel the Grace I.

Paul Findlay MBE

As Director of Social Impact at EPIC Risk Management, Paul Findlay MBE spearheads the organisation's efforts to mitigate gambling-related harm across high-risk sectors such as education, construction, corporates and the military. Drawing from his military experience and background in banking, sports, and the charitable sector, Paul ensures that a comprehensive and empathetic approach is taken in addressing gambling-related issues. He is dedicated to highlighting the risks of gambling harm, demonstrating his unwavering commitment to fostering robust awareness initiatives across various industries.

Leah Carnegie

With extensive experience spanning across the retail, banking, and gaming industries, as the Chief People Officer at Lottoland, Leah brings a versatile perspective to driving organisational success. Leveraging her background in these diverse sectors, Leah is adept at developing people strategies that cater to the unique needs of each industry. With a strong focus on talent development and employee well-being, she aims to cultivate a culture of continuous learning and growth. By aligning her people strategies with ESG goals, Leah is committed to driving sustainable business success while prioritizing the well-being of employees and the broader community.

Arianne Costa

Arianne is the regulatory assurance lead at Deloitte in Gibraltar. With a wealth of experience in navigating regulatory landscapes, she specializes in guiding financial services and gaming businesses through regulatory change and risk management. She focuses on helping businesses to navigate Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance, implementation of best practice control frameworks, conduct risk issues, and the impact of regulation on future business sustainability.
A passionate advocate for governance and environmental and social responsibility, Arianne firmly believes in their intrinsic connection.

Ruth Dancer

Ruth Dancer is the leading equine environmental sustainability consultant and has authored three reports for the British Horse Racing Authority, Horse Sport Ireland and British Equestrian Federation, to understand the risks, challenges and opportunities of environmental sustainability on horse racing and horse sports. She has co-written and delivers the first course dedicated to environmental sustainability in horse racing.

Paula Murphy

KnowNow founder and former MD Paula Murphy now represents Mindway AI on the UK market, helping operators meet the new British legislative requirements. Paula has a vast industry network in the UK and a deep understanding of the challenges operators face. She is passionate about helping operators boost player protection through early detection and intervention.

Andrea Lazenby

With over 30 years of commercial experience Andrea is a Compliance Consultant with Betsmart Consulting, a compliance consultancy business which provides bespoke support solutions to the whole range of gambling businesses; from tier one companies right the way through to start-ups; covering remote and land-based B2C operators, as well as B2B and RegTech providers, across multiple jurisdictions. Andrea’s key skills are ensuring appropriate governance oversight at board level, establishing streamlined, operational compliance frameworks, driving a compliance first mentality by embedding processes with inclusion and transparency at their heart, and ensuring continuous improvement programmes keep pace with ever-changing regulatory landscapes.

Matt Curtis

Matthew has been in the industry for over 7 years and has worked with various operators during that time. He found his calling within L&L Europe’s Responsible Gaming Department in 2017.
Now, as the Head of Responsible Gaming for L&L Europe, he manages strategies and represents the company during compliance assessments in the UK. Impressively, the company has avoided financial penalties for non-compliance which is a rarity in today’s stringent regulatory landscape.

Claudia Martans

Claudia boasts over twenty years of experience advising and participating in projects for private clients, public institutions, and international organizations such as the United Nations, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the European Union, IUCN, USAID, TNC, Nestle, Coca Cola, GDF Suez, AES, and Bavaria Group, focusing on legal and environmental compliance. Her academic background is rich, including a degree from the University of Antonio Machado (Spain), studies in law and political science at Santa Maria La Antigua University in Panama, an LLM in Environmental Law from the University of Nottingham, and a Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) from BPP University Law School.

Victoria Reed

Victoria is a recent alumna of Harvard Business School, and the Founder of player protection consultancy Better Change. Focusing on Positive Play, Better Change is about supporting the majority of players who gamble safely rather than focusing on restrictive measures aimed at those already harmed. She has global experience from the UK, USA, Australia, Malta, Brazil and Argentina. Innovation, differentiation and futureproofing are always at heart of her work and after more than a decade in the industry, Victoria’s passion surrounds safeguarding players while respecting the Operator’s need to remain commercially viable.

Marian Mihail

With a dynamic career spanning over two decades in the gambling industry, Marian Mihaila stands out as a seasoned professional dedicated to enhancing safer gambling practices. As the Safer Gambling Project Manager at Superbet, Marian leads critical initiatives that aim to promote responsible gambling and implement innovative safety measures. His extensive experience in casino operations and team leadership has equipped him with a unique perspective on the intersection of customer satisfaction and regulatory compliance.

Valli Fragoso

With over 20 years of experience in the gambling and casinos industry, Valli is a seasoned iGaming professional and a passionate entrepreneur. She has successfully led and managed operations, projects, products, and software development teams across multiple markets and platforms.
As the CEO and Founder of Boldplay, Valli aims to create innovative and bespoke software solutions for clients in various industries, leveraging her expertise in custom software development, platform integration, and content delivery.

Daniel Brookes

Daniel Brookes is a compliance specialist with a proven track record in senior roles. As the CEO and founder of Rdentify, an NLP firm, he harnesses the power of natural language processing to uncover and prevent risks in communication and quality assurance. Daniel's strategic vision extends to his role as the director of BetComply, a consultancy that helps businesses obtain licenses, create policies, and implement processes for AML, safer gambling, and ISO standards.

Danielle is on a mission to transform workplaces into thriving, inclusive cultures where everyone feels a sense of belonging. With over 20 years in human resources, she is Co-Founder of Belonging Base.

Alex Azzopardi

Alex is a KPMG engagement leader for the provision of services in enterprise risk, corporate governance, regulatory compliance (including licensing), AML/CFT and internal audit services across the regulated financial services sectors and other non-regulated businesses. Chairman of the Malta Forum for Internal Auditors, Fellow of the MIA and a member of ISACA.

Duncan Garvie

Duncan is founder of BetBlocker, a charity organisation that provides free blocking software to those in need of support to restrict themselves from accessing gambling. BetBlocker is the strongest blocking software on the market and Duncan continues to serve as one of the Trustees for BetBlocker and manage its day-to-day operations.

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