Ioana Surpateanu is Chief Strategy Officer at DIA Association and Principal for DIALabs, a vehicle designed to support the DeFi ecosystem development, empower women in emerging tech and enable partnerships with entities on the traditional side of the spectrum as well as regulators and policymakers.

She is also an Executive Board member of the Multichain Asset Managers Association ( MAMA), a global community of organizations working to transform asset management through blockchain technology.

Prior to joining DIA, Ioana was Co-Head of European Gov’t Affairs and Innovation Strategy lead for Citi, where she
coordinated the policymaker interaction on emerging tech and crypto. In addition, she seconded into Citi’s markets
infrastructure investments team to work on FinTech investments.

In parallel, she was Vice-chair of the European Parliament Outreach Task Force in AmCham EU. In that capacity, she led the EU Institutions outreach strategy with focus on high-profile political leaders throughout Europe.

She joined Citi from the European Parliament where she was Head of Cabinet for the VP of the European People’s Party (EPP) Group and senior adviser on issues related to the digital single market (DSM), EU budget and the inception of the European fund for strategic investments (EFSI).

Ioana holds two master’s degrees on politics, economics and international relations from the University of Tel Aviv and University of Bucharest . She appears on Innovate Finance’s WIF Powerlist and was shortlisted for the WIBF Tech Star Award. She is a competitive skier, occasional Kart racer and Formula One aficionado