Sean has been the CEO of PayPal Europe since June 2020. Previously, Sean served as the Chief Operating Officer for PayPal Europe where he was responsible for the Credit business, Technology and Outsourcing Management. During his 22 years at PayPal, Sean has had various roles in the areas of Finance, Risk and Strategic Planning and has worked in Luxembourg, Dublin and Shanghai.

Prior to PayPal, Sean was Head of Operational Risk for Daiwa Securities, Finance & Risk Manager at NatWest Bank, and Auditor at PWC. Sean is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland, and a graduate of the University of Limerick and University College Dublin in Ireland.

Karen O’Sullivan is head of the Innovation, payments, market infrastructures and governance Department at the CSSF.
She coordinates the activities of this department which is responsible for financial innovation; both the application process and on-going prudential supervision of payment institutions and electronic money institutions, crypto-asset service providers and certain EMT/ART issuers; market infrastructures; and the oversight of remuneration and governance practices and policies implemented within financial institutions.

Furthermore, her team is responsible for coordinating the CSSF’s efforts with regards to MiCA Regulation. In this respect her team spearheads the CSSF’s internal MiCA taskforce.

Being the department in charge of financial innovation means that Karen and her team are the privileged contact and point of entry to the CSSF for the FinTech industry.

She represents the CSSF on an international level through participation in various working sub-groups and as speaker at several conferences, covering payment services, crypto asset service providers, innovation topics, and corporate governance matters at both national and international level.

Suzanne Weber is Deputy Head of Department Innovation, Payments, Market Infrastructures and Governance at CSSF.

She joined the CSSF 13 years ago and currently coordinates the activities of this department which is notably responsible for the prudential supervision of payment institutions, electronic money institutions, crypto-asset service providers and non-bank ART issuers.

Prior to joining the CSSF in 2012, Suzanne gained more than 14 years of experience in the Luxembourg financial sector including with responsibility within the internal control function of a significant credit institution in Luxembourg and as financial auditor in a big audit firm established in Luxembourg.

Nadine Holtzmer is an experienced legal and regulatory professional specialising in Anti-Money Laundering, Counter-Terrorist Financing, and Financial Sanctions (AML/CTF). With a career of over two decades at Luxembourg’s financial sector supervisory authority, CSSF, she currently leads the newly established Department Financial Crime Prevention, where she oversees strategic coordination, legal frameworks, and national and international cooperation in AML/CTF.

Nadine Holtzmer represents the CSSF in multiple international fora, including the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), and is alternate member for Luxembourg at the level of the General Board of the recently established European Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA).

She holds Legal degrees from the University of Bristol and the University of Strasbourg and followed various professional trainings in legal and management matters.

Within Luxembourg’s financial sector supervisory authority (CSSF) Vincent Renaud heads the ‘International Affairs and Coordination’ Division within the newly established Prevention of Financial Crime Department.

Vincent Renaud participates in the representation of the CSSF in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). He has been involved in several AMLA Working Groups and is now member of AMLA’s Internal Committee on Supervisory System and alternate member of AMLA’s Internal Committee on Private Sector Standards.

He is a graduate in Law from Sciences Po Paris and the University of Lorraine and was previously a lawyer (avocat) in Luxembourg.

Max Braun has been a member of the Luxembourg Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) since 2014 and has served as its Director since 2018. Before joining the FIU, Mr. Braun was a Prosecutor (premier substitut) at the Luxembourg Public Prosecutor’s Office, specializing in cybercrime.

He is actively engaged in international cooperation, serving as ESW Representative within the Egmont Group, as a member of the Luxembourg delegation to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), and as a former member of the EFIPPP Steering Committee

Thaer Sabri is founder and CEO of the Electronic Money Association, the European trade body for the e-money industry, and managing director of payments consultancy Flawless Money. He is also senior partner of the payments specialist law firm FM Legal.

He has more than 20 years’ experience in the electronic money and innovative payments industry. He is a qualified solicitor in England & Wales and is also an engineering graduate, and postgraduate. He has represented the e-money industry in the negotiation of PSD1, EMD2, PSD2, 3MLD, 4MLD and 5MLD.

Thaer is additionally a member of the Board of the European Payments Council (EPC), a member of the EBA Banking Stakeholder Group, a member of the European Commission Payment Services Market Experts Group, a member of the UK Payments Strategy Forum, of the UK Open Banking Steering Committee, and participates in working groups of the Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB).

Judith has over 20 years of experience in EU and national financial services regulation, and over 10 years dedicated to payments and e-money policy. As Director of Policy and Operations at the Electronic Money Association, Judith engages on a continuous basis with the EMA’s 100 or so members, building consensus amongst a diverse group of payment service providers to develop policy positions that will benefit the wider payments and e-money industry. The EMA’s members range from large e-commerce companies to the smallest start-ups, and are all all authorised e-money, payment or credit institutions established in the UK or EU. She participates in a number of industry and regulator-led EU and national working groups and steering groups focused on payments systems, fraud, payment scheme management, Payments strategy, transparency of payments, including the European Commission Payment Systems Market Expert Group, and the EPC SEPA Scheme Payment Management Board. Prior to her current role, she worked for6 years in the European Parliament on the ECON committeee, and then several years’ experience representing the insurance industry at UK and EU level.

Pia Sorvillo is the Lead Government Relations for the EU at the Electronic Money Association.

A qualified attorney, Pia spent several years in private practice prior to moving to in-house.

As public policy and government relations expert, Pia has shaped regulatory positioning and outreach strategy for prominent global providers of payment solutions, representing their interests with the EU institutions, central banks, industry bodies, national regulators and policy-makers.

Pia has worked extensively on the negotiation and adoption of major EU payments laws such as the Payment Services Directive (PSD) and its reviews, the e-money Directive, the Interchange Fees Regulation, etc.

An Italian by nationality, Pia lives in Brussels since 1996: she thrives in the multicultural environment of the capital of Europe and speaks 4 languages fluently.

Roe is a payments regulatory strategist admitted to practice law in several common law jurisdictions including California, New York and England and Wales. Roe advises payment service providers, e-money issuers and businesses on financial services regulation with a focus on payments and e-money regulation, digital operational resilience requirements and consumer protection. Prior to joining FM Legal, Roe worked as an in-house lawyer at one of the largest merchant acquirers in the US.