The Race for CBDC Adoption

Adelou Fadele serves as an Assistant Director at the Central Bank of Nigeria. His team is responsible for the development and implementation of the eNaira. Mr. Fadele is the founder of the Cryptography Development Initiative in Nigeria and the chairman of the Blockchain Industry Coordinating Team Committee at the Central Bank. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications from Ahmadu Bello University.

Gabriel Söderberg is a financial sector expert in the Monetary and Capital Markets Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), focused on the development and possible future use cases of central bank digital currency (CBDC). With a background at the Sveriges Riksbank, Sweden’s central bank, Professor Söderberg has researched and published extensively on the Swedish CBDC project, the e-krona, fintech, crypto assets, and broader issues within the payments sector, banking regulation, and financial stability. He also is an Associate Professor of Economic History at his alma mater, Uppsala University, Sweden.

Lourdes Casanova is the Gail and Roberto Cañizares Director of the Cañizares Center for Emerging Markets and a Senior Lecturer at Cornell University’s Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management. Formerly of the strategy department at INSEAD, Dr. Casanova specializes in international business with a focus on Latin America and multinationals from emerging markets.

In 2014 and 2015, Dr. Casanova was named one of the 50 most influential Iberoamerican intellectuals by Esglobal. She is a member of the board of directors of Boyce Thompson Institute.

Dr. Casanova is a Fulbright Scholar who holds a Ph.D. from Universidad de Barcelona and an M.A. from the University of Southern California.

Dr. Mark Mobius is synonymous with emerging and frontier markets, investing with a reputation as one of the most successful and influential money managers over the past 30 years. He is Chairman of Mobius Emerging Opportunities Fund.

Dr. Mobius is widely known as a pioneer in emerging market investing. In 1987, he was appointed by Sir John Templeton to run one of the world’s first emerging market funds. Dr. Mobius went on to spend more than three decades at Franklin Templeton Investments, most recently as Executive Chairman of the Templeton Emerging Markets Group. Under his leadership, the group’s assets under management grew from US$100 million to a whopping US$50 billion with the successful launches of numerous investment funds focused on Asia, Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe.

Dr. Mobius has also contributed to developing international policies for emerging markets. He served on the World Bank’s Global Corporate Governance Forum as a member of the Private Sector Advisory Group and as co-chairman of its Investor Responsibility Task Force in 1999.

Dr. Mobius has won numerous industry awards and has authored 13 books, including “The Inflation Myth” and “The Wonderful World of Deflation,” which has gained international acclaim. In October 2022, World Economic Forum selected the book as one of the five must-read books on inflation. Dr. Mobius earned his Ph.D in Economics and Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1964. He has also studied at Boston University, University of Wisconsin, Syracuse University, Kyoto University, and the University of New Mexico.

Ravin Nanda is a senior studying Economics in the College of Arts & Sciences. Mr. Nanda is interested in pursuing a career in financial services and will be joining Lazard’s TMT group as an analyst following graduation. At Cornell, he is involved in Cornell’s Investment Banking Club, the Johnson Museum Club, and the Emerging Markets Society. Mr. Nanda is originally from the greater Boston area and enjoys learning about art, playing golf and squash, and cooking.