The Future of Money: Cryptocurrency and Digital Payments
Hear from our expert panel how Cryptocurrency and Digital Payments are impacting how we earn, spend, and invest money.
Our Panel of Experts in Cryptocurrency and Digital Payments:
James Beckwith, President/CEO Five Star Bank
With nearly 30 years of experience, James Beckwith serves as President and Chief Executive Officer and is a member of our board of directors. Mr. Beckwith joined Five Star Bank in 2003.
James is deeply connected to the Sacramento community and has chaired several community-based organizations to include the Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce, Valley Vision and KVIE (the local PBS affiliate). He is currently the Chair of the Western Bankers Association, a Private Sector Director with Greater Sacramento Economic Council, a board member of Crocker Art Museum and a member of the Sacramento State University College of Business Advisory Council.
James Beckwith previously served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer at National Bank of the Redwoods in Santa Rosa, California. He graduated from San Francisco State University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting. He is also a graduate of Pacific Coast Banking School at the University of Washington where he was class president.
Recently, James Beckwith was recognized by the Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce as the Businessman of the Year in 2020, and he was named among the Most Admired CEO’s of 2020 by the Sacramento Business Journal.
Joseph Ciccolo, CAMS, AMLCA is Founder & President of BitAML
Joe is the Founder President of BitAML, a compliance advisory firm exclusively serving the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency market. Founded in 2015, BitAML has served hundreds of innovative clients including bitcoin ATM operators, cryptocurrency exchanges, traders and trading platforms, cryptocurrency hedge funds and lenders.
Joe is a frequent guest speaker at both cryptocurrency and compliance industry events, and conducts formal training for bank executives, compliance officers, and members of law enforcement. He also advises a growing number of traditional institutions that offer banking services to cryptocurrency customers.
Prior to launching BitAML, Joe was a founding member and architect of the BSA/AML compliance program of a top 100 US-based online financial institution. He also served as a project manager for a top 20 global bank, where he led several regulatory and AML audit remediation projects. Before entering the field of AML, Joe held leadership positions within various risk management disciplines, including vendor due diligence, fraud prevention, and corporate investigations.
Marcos Fernandez: Managing Partner – Fiat Ventures
Marcos is the Managing Partner at Fiat Ventures and Partner at Fiat Growth where he spends his time investing and advising some of the Fintech spaces leading companies (Chime, Lemonade, Public, Lili, Redfin and more).
Prior to Fiat, he held several operating roles in the Fintech space including Head of Business Development at Ripple and leading Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy at SoFi. He holds an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin and studied Engineering Management with a focus on Chemical Engineering from the University of Arizona.
Jesse Garcia: Co-Founder & CEO | Zipi
Jesse is a driven entrepreneur with proven results in the real estate industry. In 2008, at the onset of a national housing and financial crisis, Jesse burned the boats and walked away from a secure, steady paycheck career. After working as a top producing Realtor, team owner and Keller Williams office leader, Jesse saw a need for a better back office system.
He quickly took action by co-founding Zipi in 2017, a start-up company that delivers a modern, cloud-based real estate operating system that increases production and profit for brokers and agents. His strength lies in his ability to believe in himself and helping others to do the same, something he puts into practice as he coaches and consults professionals of all levels.
He’s had the privilege of speaking at real estate offices, mortgage brokerages and title companies across the country including Inman Connect, one of the largest real estate conferences in the nation and various podcasts. Jesse is also proud to be a husband and father to two beautiful children.
Our Moderator:
Graham McBain, Technical Community Manager at Moov.io
Graham McBain is an entrepreneur and community builder. Over the last five years he has been involved in the cryptocurrency sector as a founder, engineer and conference organizer. Graham’s track record for being an early adopter of successful crypto platforms speaks to his ability to suss out signal from noise in this crowded space.
Grahams blockchain company LayerOne created two novel technologies, one was a smart contract which enabled the NFT minting and distribution of serialized NFT the other allowed for storing geospatial data onchain. This startup was acquired after having been bootstrapped with no outside investment.
Since that time Graham has consulted, hosted a conference and is now working at an open source banking infrastructure company Moov where they are bridging the gap between traditional payment rails and blockchain payment rails.