[Industry Talk]
Abstract
The speaker will use his experiences to demonstrate a potential approach for initiating and executing a ‘New Business’ within a systemically important, large, and traditional bank using a bottom-up approach. In doing so, he is to foster an understanding of the associated challenges, stumbling blocks, and show-stoppers, while illustrating how we have dealt with these obstacles.
Speaker
Dr. Alexander Thoma
Alexander Thoma, with a profound interest in finance, holds a PhD (Dr. oec.) from the University of Zurich and is a Chartered Digital Assets Analyst (CDAA). He also earned a Master’s degree in Banking and Finance from the University of Zurich. Currently, Thoma works at PostFinance AG, the largest retail bank in Switzerland, as the Head of Digital Assets. In this role, he is responsible for managing all digital asset projects and represents PostFinance in this area both internally and externally.
Prior to this, Thoma co-founded and was the CFO of Equility AG (Alethena), a fintech startup in the blockchain space. He is also a member of the STO working group for the Swiss Blockchain Federation. Immediately after completing his education, he started his career at a macro hedge fund specializing in emerging and frontier market debt. Thoma has held positions in Audit at PwC and in Risk Management at Credit Suisse. Additionally, he served as an Assistant at the Department of Banking & Finance at the University of Zurich. His research areas include currencies (both fiat and crypto), portfolio management, and behavioural asset management.