Connecting technology, business, and policy to build, inspire, and enable society-focused technology at scale

Mariana Cunha e Melo

Mariana Cunha e Melo is a NYU-educated lawyer with almost 15 years of experience in strategic litigation, public policy, legal research, and regulated markets. In her early career as a lawyer in Brazil, Mariana worked with Supreme Court justices, participated as a guest researcher in the Supreme Court public hearing about the right to be forgotten, and built the internet law team at a top law firm, representing Google on high courts and strategic litigation cases.

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Mariana joined Nubank in 2018, where she helped structure the Public Policy team and developed the company's regulatory positioning and key advocacy thesis. She then transitioned to business and product strategy, leading Nubank in its efforts to work with the Brazilian Central Bank on designing its Real-Time Payments rail. She has since worked in early-stage startups as a strategic projects owner and director of regulation and strategy.

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She is also a writer, having published books and articles on privacy, free speech online, and regulation of fintech companies. As a speaker, she has numerous international events.

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Jonas de Abreu Castro

Jonas de Abreu is a seasoned security engineer with deep experience in software engineering and security engineering. In his early career, he worked on several projects as an external consultant and was an instructor in various training programs.

Jonas dedicated almost a decade to helping build and scale Nubank, LATAM's leading financial technology company. He joined Nubank in early 2015 as one of the first engineers onboard. He served as the company's Chief Information Security Officer for several years. In late 2019, he switched to a Principal Engineer position, where he continued to make significant contributions to the company's security strategy.

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Besides his role in shaping Nubank's infosec team and strategy, one of Jonas's most notable achievements at Nubank was his instrumental impact on the Brazilian Central Bank's decisions regarding the technology adopted in the Pix rail. He was the engineer responsible for Nubank's technical proposals during the Pix Forum. His contributions were highly valued by the industry experts and played a pivotal role in shaping the future of payment systems in Brazil.

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