AssetOps New York schedule

During this 5-minute networking session, the aim of the game is to go and meet two people you don't already know. 

Speaking from 2026's perspective, we will explore the maturation, preparation, and adoption of three decades of Ops Tech and Strategy - 2010s, 2020s, and 2030s. We will explore how prior strategies are meeting or failing expectations, how firms are executing against the plans of this decade, and where we are headed as an industry (and how to be prepared).

Topics will include the shift of outsourcing to nearshoring and insourcing, consolidation of public and private markets, AI integration, and the blockchain finance revolution.

Keynote Speaker:

Christian Pellegrino, Partner, Head of Digital Assets Practice, Alpha FMC

• Moving beyond pilots: building GenAI maturity across ops and data 

• Governance, control, and model transparency in regulated environments 

• Talent models and upskilling needed to support AI-led workflows 

• Case studies: where automation is driving measurable ROI 

Moderator: Bhavin Dave, Founder, Declarative Data Inc

Speakers: 

Alaka Mishal, Chief Technology Officer, Wealth & Investment Management, Northwestern Mutual 

Rashmin Dahake, Financial CTO, PGIM  

Jay Gattani, Senior Managing Director: Global Head of Tech - Products, Front Office Trading and Real Assets, Nuveen a TIAA company 

• Rethinking the ops-data-tech triangle to align with investor expectations, regulatory reporting demands, and digital-first strategy 

• Designing a modular operating model to balance innovation speed with long-term platform stability 

• Tackling system interoperability in U.S. firms with entrenched legacy infrastructure and vendor fragmentation 

• Embedding clear data ownership, stewardship, and usage rights across silos to reduce duplication and operational risk

Moderator: Rene Madden, CEO and Founder, Elevare Dynamics LLC  

Speakers: 

Michael Reger, Principal, Head of Fund Ecosystem Digital Product Management, Vanguard 

Jeff Hooks, SVP, Business Development, STP Investment Services

Mayank Gupta, Head of Operations Technology, Lazard Asset Management

• Breaking down legacy friction points across reconciliation, settlement, and reporting chains 
• Designing workflows that reduce break risk and eliminate manual touchpoints 

• Coordinating across global teams and vendors to deliver cross-market scalability 

• Success metrics: from exception rate reduction to improved audit trail transparency and cycle-time compression

Moderator:

Cynthia Meyn, Independent Consulting Chief Operating Officer

Speaker: 

Mark Persiani, Head of Global Investment Operations Services, BlackRock 

Asset managers rely on complex data flows where data issues often surface too late, driving reconciliation backlogs and operational risk. In this session, we’ll share how proactive, automated data quality provides the critical control layer for modern asset operations. Attendees will learn:  

• How leading asset managers detect data issues before they impact reconciliation, NAV, or reporting 

• Why manual rules and downstream checks don’t scale across complex data ecosystems 

• Practical lessons for making data quality a shared responsibility across ops, data, and investment teams

Speaker: 

Gorkem Sevinc, Co-Founder and CEO, Qualytics 

• What tokenization, secondaries, and co-investments mean for U.S. ops — and where the infrastructure gaps remain
• SEC scrutiny on valuation, liquidity, and transparency: how ops leaders are responding
• Supporting hybrid workflows for institutional and retail alternative products
• Managing compliance friction across global regulatory regimes

Moderator: David Teten, Partner, Orange Collective

Speakers:

Dylan Germishuys, Managing Director, Head of Alternatives Operations Asset Management, UBS Asset Management Americas

Yevgeny Gelfand, Partner, VP of Venture Portfolio, Alumni Ventures

• Why fragmented architecture is the enemy of efficiency—and what to do about it 
• Rationalizing tech vendors without losing functionality or innovation 

• Strategies for cross-functional data flow, system integration, and reporting harmonization 

• Making the case for investment in platform consolidation 

Moderator: Aaron Goldworm, Head of Asset Management & Insurance Sales (North America), FINBOURNE Technology

Speakers: 

Matt Leef, Global Head of Middle Office, T. Rowe Price

Eric Bolisay, Managing Director, Core Public Operations, Nuveen

James Stewart, Vice President-Strategic Execution Manager, AllianceBernstein  

This peer-led, informal discussion will cover:

• Private credit / private markets operations
• Real assets & alternatives
• Risk, valuation, and ongoing monitoring
• Turnarounds and stressed situations

Discussion Leader:

Bhavna Goyal, Senior Director, ORIX Corporation USA

• Preparing for the next evolution beyond T+1: clearing models, treasury clearing deadlines, and the path toward real-time settlement in global markets. 

• Building interoperability between buy-side platforms, custodians, brokers, and CCPs through real-time data, gold-copy standards, and neutral connectivity layers. 

• Exploring new settlement rails — tokenized cash and securities, stablecoin-enabled settlement, and digital-asset infrastructure — and what firms of all sizes must do to get ready. 
• Operational Reality Check: Managing exceptions, failures, and risk in a T+0 settlement environment

Moderator: Cynthia Meyn, Independent Consulting Chief Operating Officer

Speakers: 

Kaisha Schnoll, Vice President of Trade Settlements, STP Investment Services

Mark Spear, Co-Head of Derivatives Operations, BlackRock

• Why digital initiatives stall in large firms: Matrixed decision-making, risk aversion, and unclear ownership 
• Winning executive buy-in in firms where tech is seen as a cost center, not a strategic asset 

• Coaching managers to become change leaders — not blockers — and navigating distributed teams 

• Avoiding burnout and “initiative fatigue” with clear metrics, communication loops, and phased rollouts

Moderator: Rene Madden, CEO and Founder, Elevare Dynamics LLC 

Speakers: 

Andrew Cinquina, Head of Compliance Technology, Point72 

Jiten Parekh, Head of Investment Risk and Performance, American Family Insurance

Martin Breheny, Head of Audit, Guggenheim Investments

• Embedding digital-first operating models that enhance resilience, reduce operational drag, and support firm-wide scalability 

• Strengthening end-to-end process reliability through integrated data, workflow automation, and real-time exception management 

• Designing operating frameworks that balance innovation with control — enabling modernization while safeguarding mission-critical investment processes 

Moderator: Brian Gibson, President, Fhastr

Speaker:

Tina Wilkinson, Partner, Davies Group 

• Tackling regulatory fragmentation and data lineage demands
• Harmonizing ops and legal teams under pressure

Moderator: Jamie Friedland, Sustainability Analyst, BNP Paribas Asset Management

Speaker:

Rochelle Levy, Chief Compliance Officer, Bluespring Wealth Partners

• Unpacking the "Data Trinity": How data models, metadata, and ontologies collectively shape enterprise AI readiness 
• The metadata gap: Why incomplete or inconsistent metadata remains the single biggest blocker to scalable AI adoption 

• Building the AI-ready data foundation: Key principles for aligning business context, governance, and automation 

• From static systems to agentic enterprises: Enabling dynamic decision-making through intelligent data frameworks and metadata-aware architecture

Speaker: Raman Tallamraju, Senior Director, Head of Enterprise Data Architecture and Engineering, Vanguard 

A fast-paced, interactive Operator Lab where senior operations leaders examine how culture is intentionally designed — not declared. Grounded in the HBR case study “What Does Your Company Really Stand For?”, this session moves beyond abstract discussions of values to explore how alignment between strategy, people, and operating models shapes real behavior and performance.

Read the case study here before the session.

Participants will work through a practical culture case to explore:

• How to diagnose whether stated values truly align with strategy and employee behavior
• Why values often fail when they are communicated but not embedded
• How operations leaders translate culture into decision-making, incentives, governance, and day-to-day execution — particularly during periods of transformation, AI adoption, and hybrid work

What to expect: A facilitated case discussion, practical reflections from senior operators, and open dialogue under Chatham House Rule, designed to surface how Operations leaders are increasingly responsible for turning culture into a durable operating advantage.

Moderator:

Jarron Smith, Chief Operating Officer, Marshfield Associates

Speakers:

Maz Rohani, Head of Portfolio Management Services & IBOR Middle Office, Teacher Retirement System of Texas

Debon Lewis, Human Infrastructure Architect | Leadership Advisor,     Transformative Growth Partners