Digital Money: Expectations, Realities, Prospects

Carlos Alvarez Pereira is the vice president of the Club of Rome. He is an Aerospace Engineer and former systems dynamics lecturer at Polytechnic University of Madrid who later entered the digital sector across Spain, Switzerland, France, and Germany. He chaired the Innaxis Foundation, focusing on complex systems and responsible innovation. Dedicated to fostering a civilisational shift towards equitable wellbeing and sustainable biosphere, he advises the UNESCO Chair of Global Understanding for Sustainability (University of Jena), the International Bateson Institute, and Switzerland's SWEET EDGE project. Mr. Alvarez Pereira also serves on the Scientific Council of Montpellier Advanced Knowledge Institute on Transitions (MAK'IT) and is a fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS).

Sabrina Boudefar is a crypto-native and web3 strategist passionate about entrepreneurship and economic freedom. Through NOMA Tokenomics, she has advised hundreds of successful entrepreneurs. She is also a guest lecturer and speaker at HEC Lausanne, HEG Geneva, Ecole 42 and numerous blockchain events. With an MBA from IMD and a background in finance and economics, Ms. Boudefar sits on multiple boards and has worked on blue-chip companies before becoming an entrepreneur.

Nathan Sussman joined the Geneva Graduate Institute as a Full Professor of International Economics and Director of the Institute's Centre for Finance and Development. He was an Associate Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics and in the integrated Philosophy, Economics, and Political Science Programme (PEP) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Dr. Sussman was the Director of the Research Department at the Bank of Israel and a voting member of the Monetary Policy Committee. His fields of expertise are monetary and financial economic history. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley. He was a Full Professor and Economics Department Chair at the University of Western Ontario in Canada and served as Chairman of the Economics Department, Director of the Maurice Falk Institute for Economic Research, and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Hebrew University.

Anna-Riikka Kauppinen, an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Pictet Chair in Finance and Development at Geneva Graduate Institute, explores the web of social relations, expertise, and capital movements crucial to private sector development in West Africa. Her research, rooted in extensive fieldwork within Ghanaian enterprises and major corporations, sheds light on how Africa's middle classes leverage social and religious networks for enterprise financing and building new economic institutions.

Nadja Skaljic is board member at the Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Trust, and advisor to The Club of Rome. She has 15+ years of experience as a legal executive, also on tech, green energy and foundation boards in Europe and the U.S. Previously, Ms. Skaljic served as Senior policy advisor in the U.K. delegation to the European Union, where she shaped the EU's green and digital policies. She was also a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Council. Ms. Skaljic holds a law degree from the University of Oxford and master’s degrees from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and Harvard University.

Arkan Akin is a digital assets specialist at Gyra Asset Management in Geneva, Switzerland. He is one of the co-founders of Toronet, Africa's only native blockchain infrastructure designed to power tokenized and sustainable stakeholder economies. Toronet's vision is for a world of access where finance and technology serve the people and communities can fulfill their aspirations. To this end, it has developed a decentralized infrastructure for seamlessly embedding financial services in communities. It currently provides infrastructure for projects across various sectors: agro-financing, plastics recycling, access to healthcare, community finance, payroll, and more.