Marek Petruš is an external relations consultant with deep expertise in financial and economic policy communications. He has worked closely with top monetary policymakers as a strategic advisor to governors in the Czech Republic as well as more than a dozen low-to-middle income developing countries. He has been affiliated with the International Monetary Fund as a short-term expert for central bank communications, advising central banks across Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa to make their policies more transparent and on modernising their communications. His expertise and experience stems from an assignment as Director of Communications and later chancellor at the Czech National Bank (CNB), preceded by a career with the world’s leading news media companies, including Reuters and the Wall Street Journal. During his tenure, the Czech central bank upgraded its policy communications and brought its transparency and communication toolkit into line with global best practices. These advances helped solidify the CNB’s standing as one of the world's most transparent and best communicating central banks.

Swaha Pattanaik is Global Economics Editor at Reuters Breakingviews, based in London. Previously Reuters’ EMEA financial markets editor, she writes about global financial markets, macroeconomics, and policymaking. She was posted to Paris as Reuters’ senior economics correspondent and to Brussels as its European economic and monetary affairs correspondent. Before then she was the head of the Reuters FX reporting desk in London. Prior to joining Reuters, she worked for Bloomberg, Euromoney, and consulting firm IDEA. She has an MSc in Political Theory and Political Sociology from Birkbeck and a BSc (Econ) in Mathematical Economics and Econometrics from the London School of Economics.

Tamar Baiashvili has been working at the National Bank of Georgia for almost ten years. Her career progressed from a specialist in the Monetary Policy Division to the Deputy Head of Macroeconomics and Statistics Department, responsible for the Monetary Policy formulation. Tamar has been actively involved in the development of monetary policy communications, including the preparation of policy communication documents. She holds a MS degree in Applied Economics and has an academic experience consisting of university teaching as well as scientific publications.

Marianne Sterner has worked as plain language consultant at Sveriges Riksbank, the central bank of Sweden, for fourteen years. She is part of the strategy group within the Communications Division, which has the task of planning the Riksbank’s communication and adapting it to its various target groups. Marianne has a combined BA degree in Swedish and French and has 35 years of experience as a freelance plain language consultant, mainly in the public sector.

Mike Hannah has been a regular presenter and commentator in communications and governance for Central Banking. Formerly Head of Communications and Board Secretary at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, he provides consultancy, training and mentoring (including online delivery) in communications practice and management, stakeholder engagement, publications editing, and governance support.

Oda Faremo Lindholm is an economic historian and works as a senior advisor and community manager in Norges Banks department of communication and external relations. Prior to working in Norges Bank, she worked as a journalist in several different Norwegian newspapers, and as a researcher at Norway’s public broadcaster, NRK. At NRK she also worked extensively with content production to some of NRKs biggest social media profiles. She has also published a successful book (in Norwegian) about critical interaction with social media, called “Bullshitfilteret” (The bullshit filter) .

Mike Hannah has been a regular presenter and commentator in communications and governance for Central Banking. Formerly Head of Communications and Board Secretary at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, he provides consultancy, training and mentoring (including online delivery) in communications practice and management, stakeholder engagement, publications editing, and governance support.

Andreas Andersen is a special advisor at Norges Bank (Central bank of Norway). His experience include leading the public information campaign for Norges Bank’s recently introduced banknote series, the establishment of Norges Bank Education Centre and the establishment of Norges Bank Studios – a small internal visual communications team and facilities for photo, audio/video and graphic design services. He was previously Head of Communication for the central banking operations.

Christian Beslmeisl is the Deputy Head of Communications at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). His team is responsible for the BIS’s website, www.bis.org, its Social Media channels, intranet and for visual communications services. Christian joined the BIS as a Senior Business Analyst in 2002 and in this role was responsible for developing the BIS’s intranet. He has held increasingly responsible positions at the BIS, including Head of Publishing. Prior to joining the BIS, Christian worked for the Deutsche Bundesbank, with his last position being deputy team leader of the eCollaboration team. Christian holds a degree from the Deutsche Bundesbank University of Applied Sciences

Emma Murphy is a strategy, communications and leadership consultant that worked for the Bank of England for almost 20 years.  As part of her role there she developed and implemented the first strategic plans in the Bank of England’s 325-year history.  These focused on how best to manage deeply analytical talent while building a more diverse workforce, transforming rigid ways of working, and bringing internal and external communications into the 21st century.  Emma also led the division that introduced the Bank’s new approach to communications and has also played central roles in the integration of the Prudential Regulation Authority into the Bank and establishment of the Financial Policy Committee.  Emma has advised other central banks around the World, helping adapt lessons learned from the Bank of England’s experience into their differing contexts and has particular expertise in meshing cultural change with the people and communications challenges.

Sachin has over 16 years of international experience in consulting, project management and operations in making financial services accessible to the un/underbanked people in more than 18 different countries. He has hands-on experience in Digital Financial Services (DFS), Microfinance and Financial Inclusion. He has cross-regional work experience of Asia, Africa and Oceania. He has worked with some of the largest Banks, Mobile Network Operators, technology companies, Microfinance institutions and other stakeholders such as Donors, Central banks and other Government bodies. He has strong skills in developing business strategy/models, product development, human centred design, market research, agent network design and management, agency banking, process re-engineering, business transformation and financial awareness. 

He is a certified trainer and has conducted many large-scale research studies and has published several papers. He has led technical assistance projects for capacity building of financial institutions and helped them explore alternative delivery channels (e/m banking). The primary focus of his work has always been to design and develop sustainable, effective and innovative systems; products and channels to promote the delivery of a wide range of client-centric, sustainable and technology-enabled financial services.  He is an Agricultural Engineering graduate with a management degree.