About Us

As an investment banking professional with more than 20 years of experience in senior front-office and digital roles, most recently as Managing Director Corporate and Institutional Digital at HSBC, I understand what is needed to maximise efficiency. I am passionate about digitalisation in capital markets - delivering commercial, valued added solutions in a client-focussed manner. I understand deal execution processes and the challenges.

Finsmart is the brainchild of years of knowledge and innovative thinking - Finsmart is a collaborative business bringing the best possible digital solution for primary capital markets.

As an investment banking professional with over 17 years of experience in Primary Capital Markets, I understand the challenges of bond execution notably during live deal execution. Previously, as Head of Emerging Market Debt Capital Markets desk for Europe and Africa at HSBC, I led more than 200 deals globally from jumbo deals to private placements.

As a Debt Capital Markets specialist, I see first-hand how small changes in deal execution processes make an enormous difference in both efficiencies and returns. An easily adopted digital platform will enhance working practices in deal execution. My vision is that through Finsmart and DealPro we will deliver a unique, commercial application to optimise deal execution.

My focus as chief technology officer is to deliver innovative, secure, technology solutions in the finance sector, delivering enhanced working practices.

Having 25+ years of technology expertise in the finance sector, I have devised and implemented many secure, scalable, high performance multi-stream multi-platform systems that have also been rolled out for use across mobile platforms.

To create DealPro, I have translated the needs of all stakeholders in Debt Capital Markets onto one secure digital platform. The application will also be available across mobile platforms and will revolutionise deal execution processes creating significant efficiencies and optimising returns.

Elena brings 10+ years of combined professional, academic, lecturing and mentoring experience in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Science. With a strong academic background in Computer Science and programming, Elena holds a PhD in Machine Learning, and is passionate about developing innovative solutions through data-driven strategies across various business domains.

Elena is currently working as an Artificial Intelligence Postgraduate Lecturer and Researcher for the American College of Greece (ACG). Prior to joining ACG, she has been working as an Associate Director – Lead Data Scientist for the AI team at HSBC Global Markets, UK and Growth and Data Science Senior Officer, Innovation, at Alpha Bank, Greece. In the past, Elena also held several academic roles, conducting research for universities in Cambridge and London.

Her work and interests cover a broad range of AI applications with specialisation in Natural Language Processing (NLP), Recommender Systems (RecSys), time series forecasting, and responsible AI (XAI, FAT-ML, AI Ethics), among others. Over the past ten years she has been also actively involved in creating and delivering Data Science lectures to academic and business audiences, and has been a speaker at numerous Machine Learning conferences and events.

David spent 30 years as a partner at Clifford Chance, where he was first London Head and subsequently, Global Head of Capital Markets. David advised financial institutions, sovereign governments, major corporations, municipalities and supranationals. He has been involved in numerous debt issues and other high-profile transactions in both developed and emerging markets. He has significant experience in the Nordic, CEE/Baltics and Emerging Markets, as well as in the sovereign and public sector.

A respected authority, David is consistently recognised as a top practitioner in his field by all of the Legal Directories such as Chambers & Partners, and appears in the Legal-500 Hall of Fame.

Jean-Marc recently concluded his 26 year tenure at HSBC, where he was initially responsible for a number of European Syndicate roles before becoming Global Head of Syndicate and then Global Co-Head of Debt Capital Markets. Responsible for the firm’s global franchise, he was involved in numerous debt issuances and other high-profile transactions across the globe and across a variety of issuers and products. His most recent role was Vice Chairman, Capital Markets, where he focused on selected high value clients and geographies in addition to leading HSBC's Capital Markets Technology strategy globally.

Jean-Marc was a Board member at the International Capital Markets Association (ICMA) for 5 years, and its Deputy Chair from May 2018 to July 2022.

Etienne brings invaluable knowledge and expertise to Finsmart with his decades of experience across capital markets as an issuer, and having managed billions of deals of transactions.

Étienne has held several positions as Head of Funding and Treasury amongst which at Suez and previously, at Société du Grand Paris (SGP) where he established the financing team and implemented the first 100% Green EMTN Program. This enabled the financing of the Grand Paris Express, a critical infrastructure project to improve daily transportation in the Paris region.

Previously, Etienne spent 13 years successively at RFF then SNCF Réseau as funding Officer then Head of Treasury Operations. He is a member of the AFTE (Association Française des Trésoriers d’Entreprise) where he is an active participant in the Financing Committee as ESG referent.

Niklas has over 20 years in successfully leading international banking teams alongside significant experience from the start-up world.

After an early career at SEB and BNP Paribas, Niklas went on to lead a number of top ranking teams across Debt Capital Markets and Banking Coverage during his 14 year tenure at Barclays, being instrumental in building the bank’s Nordic and Dutch franchises in particular - with client coverage including blue chip corporates, financial institutions and public sector organisations - and also in successfully establishing the first Nordic office for Barclays in Stockholm.

More recently, Niklas acted as both strategic advisor and investor for various start-ups across regions and sectors, including financial / medical-tech, in addition to representing the Swedish based infrastructure firm JB Charge as co-founder and partner. Niklas has also held board positions in a family owned manufacturing company and the British Swedish Chambers of Commerce.

Daniel has recently concluded his 35 year tenure in IT, Derivatives and DCM, spending the last 20 years at HSBC and then Mizuho where he ran the European Financial DCM businesses. Daniel won many significant mandates across covered bonds, senior, subordinated debt and liability management, and was a highly respected and trusted advisor to his clients. Previously, Daniel was VP at Credit Suisse Financial Products advising corporate clients on derivatives risk and SEB successfully developing IT systems for treasury businesses.

Since then Daniel has taken on voluntary roles chairing a Bereavement Counselling Charity, advising a Mental Health Charity on Finance, mentoring young offenders and vice chair on the Governing Board at a local comprehensive School.