Thierry Foucault

HEC Foundation Chairs Professor of Finance, HEC Paris

Thierry Foucault is HEC Foundation Chaired Professor of Finance at HEC, Paris and a research fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy (CEPR).

His research focuses on the liquidity of financial markets, their industrial organization, and their effect on the real economy. He has received, in 2021, an Advanced European Research Council (ERC) grant for conducting research on the effects of big data and artificial intelligence on financial markets.

His research is published in leading scholarly journals in financial economics, including the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, and the Review of Financial Studies. He is co-managing editor of the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis and an Associate editor of the Journal of Finance and the Journal of Economic Theory.

He is a former co-editor of the Review of Asset Pricing Studies and the Review of Finance. He also serves on the scientific committees of the French securities markets authority (AMF) and chairs the Norges Bank's Academic Program. He co-authored “Market Liquidity: Theory, Evidence, and Policy” published by Oxford University Press.

Thierry Foucault

Steffen Kern

Chief Economist and Head of Risk Analysis, ESMA

Steffen Kern is Chief Economist and Head of Risk Analysis at the EU’s financial market regulatory and supervisory authority, European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) in Paris, France.

Appointed in 2012, he leads ESMA’s analytical work on financial stability, market integrity, and investor protection in securities and derivatives markets, the institutional investor industry as well as the financial market infrastructure of the EU. Kern is a member of the advisory committees on financial market risks and vulnerabilities at the Financial Stability Board (FSB), the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), and to the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB). He co-chairs the FSB’s and the ESRB’s expert groups on non-bank financial intermediation, and the ESRB’s High-Level Group on Crypto Assets. He is a member of the Group of leading Chief Economists at the World Economic Forum (WEF), and has been appointed co-chair to the WEF’s Advisory Council on Global Financial and Monetary System Reform. At the European University Institute, he serves as a member of the Florence School of Banking and Finance Advisory Council.

Before joining the EU’s public service, he had worked for Deutsche Bank, including positions as Director for International Financial Market Policy, as Senior Economist at Deutsche Bank Research, and at the Group Board offices. Kern is a Professor at the Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE (Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany) teaching international financial market development, risk and regulation. He served as a Senior Fellow of the Transatlantic Academy in Washington (US), and was appointed the 2010 Helmut Schmidt Fellow of the ZEIT-Foundation and the German Marshall Fund. He holds academic degrees in economics, politics, and philosophy from the Universities of Oxford (Great Britain) and Leuven (Belgium) and a doctorate from Erasmus University Rotterdam (The Netherlands).

Thierry Foucault

Myles Stephenson

Founder & CEO, Modulr

Myles founded Modulr in 2016 which has grown to become a leading provider of embedded payments to digital businesses across the UK and Europe. Delivered using Modulr’s modern FinOps hub, Modulr enables 260+ clients to automate, control and embed payments and is now processing an annualised transaction value of more than £100bn.

Prior to founding Modulr, Myles was Managing Director, WEX Europe and Board Director for WEX Europe Services, WEX’s JV with Radius Payment Solutions. WEX Inc is a global provider of payment technology solutions in the fleet, corporate payment and healthcare markets.

Myles founded CorporatePay, a prepaid and virtual card platform, in 2008 with Blenheim Chalcot and led the business to a successful exit in 2012 to WEX Inc.

Myles spent seven years with Retail Decisions Plc including running the European business unit and subsequently as Strategic Development Director led ReD's investment in Mi-Pay and Digital Payments.

Myles started his career with Marks and Spencer Plc.

Myles earned his MA in Biochemistry at Christ Church, Oxford University including research at Padova University, Italy.

Myles Stephenson