Selim YAZICI, Ph.D.Dr. Yazıcı is a Professor of Management and Strategy at the Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Political Sciences, Istanbul University, and the Co-Founder of FinTech Istanbul. Over the course of his academic career, he taught courses on Entrepreneurship, Financial Technologies, Digital Insurance, Project Management, Business Continuity Management, and more at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Dr. Yazıcı &s research interests encompass digital transformation, disruptive technologies, entrepreneurship, financial technologies (FinTech), insurance technologies (InsurTech), project management, and business continuity. He has authored many scientific articles, and co-authored, and edited multiple books in Turkish, including Electronic Insurance(2002) andThe Transformation of Finance with FinTech and InsurTech(2021).
As the Co-Founder of FinTech Istanbul, he has played a key role in building a robust FinTech ecosystem in Turkey. Beyond academia, he has served as a mentor in incubation and acceleration programs and previously sat on the boards of Ä°ÅY Private Equity and Ä°ÅY Leasing. Dr. Yazıcı now brings his expertise and industry insight to his role as Editor ofTokenization of Money: From Fiat to Stablecoins. C. CoÅYkun Küçüközmen, Ph.D.Dr.
C. CoÅYkun Küçüközmen is a distinguished professor, economist, and thought leader with extensive expertise in finance, monetary policy, risk management, and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). Since 2010, he has been a full-time professor of trade and finance at Izmir University of Economics, where he continues to shape the next generation of financial professionals through rigorous academic training, mentorship, and thought leadership. Dr. Küçüközmen''s multifaceted career spans academia, policymaking, and public engagement. He held significant bureaucratic roles at the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey and the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA), Turkey, where he played a pivotal role in formulating and implementing policies that strengthened Turkey&s financial stability and regulatory frameworks. His contributions to monetary stability, risk governance, and financial supervision earned him widespread recognition among policymakers and industry leaders. Beyond academia and policymaking, Dr.
Küçüközmen is a co-founder of the Aegean Finance Association (Ege Finans DerneÄYi), a leading regional finance organization in Turkey. The association brings together finance professionals, academics, and business leaders to advance financial literacy, economic awareness, and sustainable finance practices. Through this initiative, he has actively contributed to bridging the gap between academic research, industry needs, and public policy. Michael SALMONY, Ph.D.Dr Michael Salmony is an internationally recognised leader on strategy of business innovations in digital and financial services with a particular focus on Payments, Open Finance, FinTech, Digital Identity, e-Invoicing/SCF, Fraud/Cybercrime, AI for Financial Services and Electronic Money/CBDC. He is board-level advisor to major international banks, industry associations, regulators and finance bodies across the world and regularly helps shape future directions in all key decision making bodies (e.g.
European Commission/ European Parliament/ECB/CEPS Think-Tank in Europe, and central banks from Japan to Uruguay and Kazakhstan). For 10 years he served as Executive Adviser to the Board of Worldline Financial Services, helping to bring them from a local player to become the world&s 4th largest financial processor of transactional services, which handles over 17 trillion Euro per year. He also works with multiple regions where financial innovations are currently emerging - for example with the World Bank in Central Asia, as Board Member of Fintech Africa, as Advisory Board Member to Mastercard in Latin America, as strategic partner to FinTech Istanbul.