Meet your faculty

Faculty for your success

Regulation of Digital Finance has several dimensions. Our EDFP training courses are therefore delivered by teams of two or three instructors with different backgrounds.

Contribution from experts with different backgrounds will open entirely new perspectives to our course participants. Each course is designed and coordinated by the relevant lead instructors and the Director of the EDFP, Dr Philipp Paech. Hence, courses benefit from a diverse range of perspective while at the same time each element of the course design is fully integrated with the remainder. EDFP training courses therefore benefit from 100% consistency.

Your instructors

Philipp Paech is the founder of navigatingfintech.com and a passionate educator, consultant and policy-maker specialising in regulation of financial services for more than 20 years. He is the main author of the 30 Recommendations on Innovation, Regulation and Finance instituted by the EU Commission in 2018, which became one of the base documents of the EU’s current Digital Finance Strategy. He is a leading member of the Unidroit global digital asset expert group. Philipp researches and teaches at London School of Economics and the European University Institute in Florence.
Philipp is the Director of the European Digital Finance Programme and lead instructor for our courses on ‘Mastering MiCA and the crypto market’, ‘The law and regulation of DeFi’, ‘AI in financial services: navigating supervisory expectations’ and ‘Digital Finance – understanding the structural dimension & regulatory regime’.

Filippo Annunziata is an Associate Professor of Financial Markets and Banking Legislation at Bocconi University, since 2007, previously at University of Bologna (since 1998). He holds his teaching courses in English and in Italian, and, since 2007, he teaches at Bocconi University in the top-ranked international course of the University (Finance). At University of Bologna (1998-2007) he also taught Competition Law, and Banking Law. He holds a PhD in Commercial Law and was a tenured researcher of Commercial Law at Bocconi University in the period 1994-1998. He is co-director of the RULES Unit, Baffi-Carefin Centre, Bocconi University, Academic Board Member – European Banking Institute. Academic Member and Fellow – Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence EUSFIL – European Union Sustainable Finance and Law. 
Filippo is an expert contributor for our course ‘Mastering MiCa and the crypto-market’.

Christopher Buttigieg is the Chief Officer Supervision of the Malta Financial Services Authority. In his role as Chief Officer Supervision, he is responsible for the coordination and implementation of the supervisory and regulatory strategy across all the sectors under the MFSA’s remit.

Prior to his appointment as Chief Officer Supervision, he held the position of Chief Officer Strategy, Policy and Innovation, and prior to that he was the Head of the Securities and Markets Supervision function. Dr Buttigieg joined the Authority in 2000 and has gained professional experience in different areas of financial regulation, supervision, and enforcement of market malpractice. He was also responsible for implementing various pieces of EU legislation and has led various regulatory and supervisory teams within the Authority.

Christopher is a senior lecturer in the Banking and Finance Department of the University of Malta and has published various articles in international law journals.
Christopher is an expert contributor for our course ‘Mastering MiCa and the crypto-market’.

Anne Choné is Senior Risk Analysis Officer at ESMA, where she monitors financial innovation and financial activities across the EU. Among the topics that she has recently addressed are Crowdfunding, FinTech and Regulatory Sandboxes. She has led ESMA’s work on Distributed Ledger Technologies and crypto-assets and authored various publications from the authority on the topic, including the ESMA Advice on Initial Coin Offerings and Crypto-Assets to the EU Institutions that was published in January 2019. Before joining ESMA in 2013, Anne was Principal at Mercer Investments, where she advised institutional clients on the design and implementation of their investment strategies. Prior to that, she worked as a Director in charge of financial institutions and then banks at FitchRatings. Anne holds of master’s degree in Finance from NEOMA Business school and has earned the CFA certification.
Anne is an expert contributor for our course ‘Mastering MiCa and the crypto-market’.

Peter Kerstens advises on Technological Innovation, Digital Transformation and Cybersecurity at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union. He has led work on the European Commission’s Fintech Action Plan and Co-chairs the European Commission’s Fintech Taskforce. He has extensive experience and expertise in EU policy and regulation covering financial services, digitalisation, security and consumer protection. Earlier in his career, Peter was Finance Counsellor at the EU Embassy in Washington DC. He has also been a member of the private offices of the commissioner for the internal market and services and the commissioner for health and consumer protection. Before joining the European Commission, Peter advised major financial services companies on EU regulatory affairs. He is a Dutch national and holds master degrees in European affairs and political science from the College of Europe in Bruges and the University of Leuven, Belgium.
Peter is an expert contributor for our course ‘Mastering MiCa and the crypto-market’.

Hans Kuhn is a practising attorney in Zurich, Switzerland specializing in banking and financial market law with a focus on banking and fintech regulation. He advises several blockchain-based digital asset projects.

Hans works on blockchain legislation with governments in both Switzerland and Liechtenstein and is a co-founder of Yapeal, a Swiss neo bank project, where he is chairman of the Board. He additionally sits as a member of the Board at Crowdlitoken, a DLT-based company which allows for direct and indirect investments in real estate.

Prior joining a private practice in 2014, Hans served as chief legal counsel for the Swiss National Bank (the central bank of Switzerland) for more than 13 years. He has extensive experience as a member of national and international expert groups on matters such as securities law and regulation, bank resolution, derivatives and netting legislation.
Hans is an expert contributor for our course ‘Mastering MiCa and the crypto-market’.

Klaus Löber is the first Chair of the ESMA CCP Supervisory Committee (CCP SC) and Director for Central Counterparties (CCPs) at the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA). He took up office on 1 December 2020 and is serving a five year term. His areas of responsibility encompass the tasks attributed by EMIR to the CCP SC, in particular the enhancement of supervisory convergence and ensuring a resilient CCP landscape in the EU as well the monitoring and management of the risk that CCPs established in third countries may pose to the EU. He is also chairing the ESMA CCP Policy Committee contributing to the EU Single Rule Book in the area of CCPs.

Prior to this role, Klaus was Head of Oversight of the European Central Bank in charge of the oversight of financial market infrastructures, payments instruments and schemes.

Klaus is a lead instructor in our course ‘Understanding CBDC and the implications for the future of Finance’.

Clara Martins Pereira is Lecturer in Financial Law Education at The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London. She is also Stipendiary Lecturer in Tort Law at the University of Oxford (St. Catherine’s College) and Invited Professor at Católica School of Law.
Clara holds a DPhil, an MPhil and a Magister Juris from the University of Oxford, as well as an Msc in Law and Business and an LLB in Law from Católica School of Law.
Before joining King’s, Clara was a lecturer and tutor in Company Law and a tutor in Tort Law and Contract Law at the Univeristy of Oxford, as well as a graduate teaching assistant in International Financial Law and Law of Business Associations at the London School of Economics.
Clara is a lead instructor for our course ‘AI in Financial Services: navigating supervisory expectations’.

Maria Lillà Montagnani is Associate Professor of Commercial law at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy, and Director of the Bocconi LL.M. Program in European and Social Law. In the recent years, she has been a NYU Global Research Fellow at NYU Law school, visiting professor at Haifa University, Israel, and a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center of Harvard University. She was a member of the expert group on new digital technologies appointed by the European Commission in 2018, and has been a fellow at the Transatlantic Technology Law Forum since 2020. 
Maria Lillà is a lead instructor for our course ‘Operating within PSD2, open finance and open data’.

Julien Nivot is the Head of Regulatory Affairs of Ledger, a company specialised in security solutions and infrastructure for crypto-assets and blockchain applications. He began his career at the French Financial Authority (Autorité des marchés financiers – AMF) as a Policy Officer in charge of financial innovation topics. As part of his job, Julien participated in the development of the French legal framework for crypto-assets (Blockchain Order & Decree, PACTE law) and was responsible for the development of the AMF’s positions on the European Commission’s Digital Finance Package (MiCAR, PRR). Julien is also a PhD Student at the Paris-Assas University with a research project focusing on the impact of crypto-asset on the traditional financial infrastructures. 
Julien is an expert contributor for our course ‘Mastering MiCa and the crypto-market’.

Elisabeth Noble is a Senior Policy Advisor and Team Leader at the European Banking Authority. She leads the EBA’s work on crypto-assets, DLT, and the platformisation of financial services and is the EBA coordinator for the European Forum for Innovation Facilitators. She represents the EBA in EU and international standard-setter policy work streams relating to FinTech, market-based finance, financial system interconnectedness, market access and the regulatory perimeter. She is contributing to the delivery of the EU Digital Finance Strategy and was a member of the European Commission’s Expert Group on Regulatory Obstacles to Financial Innovation (now disbanded). Prior to joining the EBA, Elisabeth was at the UK’s finance ministry (2008-14) advising primarily on the response to the financial crisis and the post-crisis domestic and EU regulatory reforms, including the reforms to the regulatory architecture in the EU (Banking Union). Elisabeth has also spent some time in the private sector. Her current research interests relate to data access and competition metrics, platformisation and financial sector interconnectedness, and what she describes as ‘the next generation of financial conglomerates’ (new mixed activity groups, including BigTechs).
Elisabeth is lead instructor for our courses ‘Mastering MiCa and the crypto-market’ and ‘The law and regulation of DeFi’.