Christoph Puhr

Benjamin Douglas is Digital Assets Product Lead at UBS, based in London, a role he has held since October 2023. He holds the title of Executive Director in Digital Assets at the firm.

Prior to UBS, Douglas spent approximately 17 years at Credit Suisse in London across a series of trading roles. He joined Credit Suisse in November 2003 as a Structured Credit Product Controller, moved into a Structured Credit Trader role in March 2006, and subsequently held positions as Credit Solutions Trader, Emerging Markets Trader, and Global Trading Solutions Trader, the last of which he held from May 2016 until the conclusion of his tenure in October 2023. His Credit Suisse career was structured within the Strategic Transactions remit across its later phases. He holds an Undergraduate Masters Degree in Physics (2:1) from the University of Bath, where he studied from 1999 to 2003 and completed an industrial placement at Renishaw PLC in the Optical Encoders Division. He has also completed certified coursework in digital assets, holding credentials in NFTs and the Metaverse from the University of Nicosia.

Dr. Diana-Cezara Toader is Head of Digital Assets and Director of Alternatives Product Structuring at UBS Asset Management, based in Zurich. Her role spans digital assets and alternatives product structuring within the asset management division.

In June 2026, she is scheduled to participate in the Asset Manager Leadership Panel at DigiAssets Connect in Zurich, where the discussion will focus on the progression of asset tokenisation from pilot projects toward broader market adoption, covering tokenised fund structures, scalable infrastructure, regulatory alignment, and distribution models across public and private markets. She holds a doctorate, having studied at the Technical University of Cluj Napoca.

Hyder Jaffrey is Head of Strategic Investment and Fintech Innovation at UBS Investment Bank, a role he has held since October 2015. In this capacity he is responsible for Strategic Investments and Fintech Innovation at UBS Investment Bank. He has focused on distributed ledger technologies and their potential applications within financial services. Prior to this mandate, he held a role at UBS focused on the 'Go-2-Market' strategy for UBS Neo, the investment banking e-commerce platform, from October 2010 to October 2015. He is also the founder of NuAera, a position he has held since 2009.

Before joining UBS, Jaffrey served as Global Head of Fixed Income at Ipreo from 2007 to 2009. Prior to that, he was CEO of Marketpipe Ltd from 2002 to December 2006, where he took the company through a trade sale and post-acquisition integration. Earlier roles include Divisional Director at Morse from 1996 to 2002, Consultancy Business Manager at Business Systems Group from 1992 to 1996, and Senior Account Manager at SQL Systems from 1988 to 1991. His activity on LinkedIn reflects an interest in stablecoin developments, tokenisation of financial assets, and crypto capital regulation, including Basel Committee proposals and SEC no-action letters relating to tokenisation services. Jaffrey studied at Loughborough University between 1985 and 1988. He is based in London, United Kingdom, and lists English as his native language.

Jason Willi is Initiative Lead – Digital Assets & Money at UBS, a role he has held since September 2025, based in Zurich, Switzerland. In this position he sits within the Project Management department at head level. His career at UBS spans six years across a sequence of progressively senior roles: he began as Project Officer in GWM Robotics Process Automation (September 2019–September 2020), then served as Scrum Master and subsequently Scrum Lead on GWM Process Optimization Automation (September 2020–June 2023), followed by a year as Tech Business Analyst on the Global Messaging Tracking Stream (January 2023–January 2024), and then Product Manager for Compliance Risk Screening (January 2024–September 2025).

Prior to UBS, Willi worked as a Business Development Representative at Acredius, a Swiss lending marketplace, from January to September 2019, and before that as a Business Analyst at the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland from April 2017 to April 2018. His total professional experience spans approximately eight years.

Digital Asset Tech Strategy Lead at MembersCap, specializing in driving technology strategies within the digital asset and finance sectors.

Josh Hershman serves in the Americas Regional President's Office — Office of the COO at UBS, a position he assumed in March 2025. He holds the title of Managing Director at UBS, a designation he has carried since March 2020. Prior to his current role, he served as Chief Operating Officer of UBS Investment Bank (Americas) and UBS Securities LLC from December 2020 to February 2025, and concurrently as Chief Operating Officer of Global Markets, Americas from October 2022 to February 2024. He also held the role of Chief Operating Officer of Global Credit at UBS from March 2020 to June 2022.

Beyond UBS, Hershman has maintained a consistent presence in regulatory and digital asset contexts. He has been a member of FINRA's FinTech Industry Committee since September 2017, a role he held through June 2025, and joined FINRA's Crypto Working Group in September 2025. From January 2018 to February 2020, he served as a Senior Advisor at Zero Hash, which focuses on blockchain and digital asset solutions. Earlier, he was a Founding Partner and Chief Operating Officer at Trumid Financial LLC, an electronic trading platform, from October 2014 to February 2020. Before that, he held credit trading roles at Barclays from August 2011 to October 2014, at Goldman Sachs from February 2004 to August 2011, and at Merrill Lynch from June 1999 to February 2004. He holds a degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Nikos Kassapakis is Digital Assets Co-Lead, Investment Bank at UBS, based in London, a position he has held since February 2021. In this role, he leads all digital asset initiatives across the UBS Investment Bank. Alongside this, he serves as Global Head of CCP Risk and Financial Resources Management, a role he has held since January 2019.

His professional background spans trading, equities, risk management, and financial resources management, with skills listed across global equities, investment management, and EMEA markets.

Peter Suarez Ferrara is a Director, Technology Investment Banking at UBS Investment Bank, based in New York. In this role, he originates, structures, and executes M&A, debt, and equity transactions for companies operating at the intersection of technology and finance, with a particular focus on businesses within the digital asset space.

Prior to UBS, Suarez Ferrara worked at J.P. Morgan across two groups: the Financial Technology group and the Leveraged Finance group. Before that, he was at Credit Suisse's Financial Sponsors Group, where he covered private equity clients. Earlier in his career, prior to graduate school, he worked for the Council of Economic Advisers in Washington D.C., providing economic analyses to the Executive Office of the President. Suarez Ferrara holds a Master of Finance from the University of Cambridge, an MBA from Cornell University, and a Bachelor's degree in Economics, magna cum laude, from Lafayette College.

Sarah Curran is Executive Director – Head Emerging Technology Legal EMEA at UBS, a position she has held since March 2026. Prior to this, she served as Director – Head Emerging Technology Legal EMEA from September 2025, and before that as Director – Head Digital Assets Legal EMEA from October 2023, a role she held for approximately two years. Both positions sit within UBS's Legal department. Her work on digital assets and emerging technology at UBS represents her most recent area of focus within the firm's legal function.

Curran joined UBS in October 2014 as Associate Director in the Lending, High Yield and Restructuring Global Banking Legal team, advancing to Director in that practice in March 2017, a position she held until moving to the digital assets mandate in October 2023. Before joining UBS, she completed a five-month secondment as a Treasury Legal specialist at Santander UK. Prior to that, she was an Associate at Slaughter and May from September 2011 to October 2014, where she worked across general banking, acquisition finance, debt capital markets, derivatives and ISDA documentation, project finance, and energy. She trained at Slaughter and May from September 2009 to September 2011, completing seats in financing, corporate, tax, dispute resolution, and real estate. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Jurisprudence, First Class, from the University of Oxford, and completed the Legal Practice Course with Distinction at BPP Law School in 2009.

Sebastian Herkelrath is a Digital Assets Product Manager at UBS, based in Zurich, Switzerland, a position he has held since June 2024. His stated focus is on DLT payments and digital currency transformation, situated within the Product function at manager level.

Herkelrath holds a Certified Crypto Finance Expert (CCFE) credential, issued in March 2023, and a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute, issued in June 2011. His listed skills include payments, digital assets, wealth management, and product management. He follows developments in the regulated stablecoin space, including the emergence of federally chartered digital asset infrastructure in the United States. He is proficient in German and English, with working knowledge of French and elementary proficiency in Chinese.

Shreyosee Dutta Roy is Director, Digital Money & Tokenization Products at UBS, based in London. She is responsible for defining and driving product strategy for Group Treasury digital asset products across repo, securities lending, secondary trading and debt issuance. Her remit also encompasses Digital Cash and CBDC topics as part of UBS's Digital Assets Centre of Expertise, where she leads cross-functional digital asset programmes and engages with financial market infrastructure participants on industry initiatives. She represents UBS at industry roundtables on distributed ledger technology.

Dutta Roy has over 11 years of experience in digital innovation and transformation across investment banking, wealth management and group treasury, with a focus on capital markets, brokerage, clearing and settlements. Earlier in her career she held roles in New York before moving to lead a team within UBS's Digital Practice in London. Her technical background spans distributed ledger technology, predictive analytics and intelligent process automation. She holds a Master of Science in Management of Information Systems and Digital Innovation, awarded with Distinction, from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where her coursework included fintech, blockchain and AI, and her dissertation examined robotic process automation. She also holds a postgraduate diploma in IT Management from Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning in Pune.

Simon K. Basler is Digital Assets – Lead Initiative Development at UBS, a position he has held since January 2023. In this role, he leads group-wide initiative management and development for Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), blockchain, and digital assets, with responsibilities spanning strategic initiatives, governance, reporting, and education.

Prior to his current position, Basler served as Executive Director for Digital Assets – Global Business Development at UBS from October 2021 to December 2022, where he led group-wide strategy, development, research, and senior education covering tokenized assets, crypto assets, stablecoins, and NFTs. Before moving into digital assets, he held the role of Global Head of GWM Operations Service Management at UBS from May 2018 to October 2021, with services in scope including securities, digital assets, custody, reporting and analytics, tax, client life cycling, client servicing, and connectivity. Earlier UBS roles included Global Service Owner for Client Reporting and Global Service Owner for Client Tax. Before joining UBS, Basler spent over a decade at Credit Suisse, holding positions including Head of Tax Products Solutions, Head of Client Profitability Management, and Head of Strategic Offering Management in Business Development. Earlier in his career, he led the set-up and operation of the International Private Banking & Wealth Management Retreat at the Swiss Banking School. He holds education from Universität Basel, where he studied wealth planning for entrepreneurs between 1999 and 2002.

Head of Funding Management with expertise in overseeing financial resources, optimizing funding strategies, and ensuring efficient capital allocation to support organizational growth and stability.

Xiaonan Zou is Head of Innovation and Digital Assets at UBS, based in London, where she has held the role since December 2019. She is responsible for establishing and executing the digital assets and blockchain strategy for Group Treasury globally. Her mandate covers ideation, prototyping, and implementation of blockchain products and solutions across digital assets, payments, and central bank digital currency (CBDC). She built the Digital Assets team from the ground up and drives collaboration with central banks, FinTech companies, peer banks, custodians, and exchanges for joint research and pilots. She represents UBS in digital assets and fintech topics with industry associations including ICMA, GFMA, and UK Finance, and sits on the board of the Corda Blockchain Network foundation.

Specific initiatives under her remit include CBDC, digital issuance, digital payment, and digital securities financing. She was involved in the UBS Digital Cash pilot, a blockchain-based multicurrency payment solution tested with multinational clients and banking institutions in 2024, covering domestic Swiss transactions and cross-border payments in USD, CHF, EUR, and CNY. Prior to her current role, Zou held several positions at UBS including Repo Product Manager from 2014 to 2019, Business Manager Repo Trading from 2013 to 2014, Counterparty Risk Change Analyst from 2012 to 2013, and OTC Equity Derivative Trade Risk Control Analyst from 2010 to 2011. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Germanic Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics from Shandong University and a Master of Science in Management from Imperial College Business School.