Elise Soucie Watts

Powerlist Category: Policy Makers & Regulatory Experts

"As executive director of GDF I run our policy and regulatory programme and focus on strengthening the digital finance ecosystem via community partnerships and cooperative efforts around policy and regulatory topics.
This work occurs around the globe including consultation responses, industry working groups and outreach programmes with policymakers, central bankers, and government departments. Since I joined GDF, we now have active policy working groups covering EU, UK, APAC and MENA regions. I ran strategic policy programmes globally from Washington DC, evidence sessions in Westminster via our Digital Finance APPG, Staking Sessions to brief EU and UK authorities, and similar initiatives Dubai, Abu Dhabi & Singapore.

Direct impacts include the Smart Contract Primer which I coauthored being used by MAS’ Project Guardian, core recommendations from the Digital Finance APPG report which I led on being used by the UK government on Gilts, & staking being clarified as not a CIS under UK FSMA." "I contributed to D&I via two key groups in the past year – the Association for Women in Crypto (AWIC) and the Women’s World Banking TechEquity Program.

At AWIC I was a UK regional ambassador where I spoke on panels, organised events and meetups for the London community, and worked with fellow regional ambassadors to build the UK community. We created a space where women could both learn about crypto and digital assets – as well as the ways that they could further build and develop their careers. We helped facilitate speaking opportunities as well as educational initiatives for the cohort.

The TechEquity programme equips the next generation of women policymakers, regulators, and supervisors with the knowledge, skills, and network to be at the cutting edge of technology and accelerate efforts to close the gender gap in financial inclusion. I gave an educational lecture on Central Bank Digital Currencies and currently mentor one of the regulators from the programme."