Efi Pylarinou

Efi Pylarinou is an independent Fintech & Blockchain advisor. She holds a Ph.D. in Finance and is a seasoned Wall Street professional who has grown into a global Fintech influencer.

Efi Pylarinou was born and grew up in Greece and studied study mathematics there. In 1987, right after the economic crash, she switched to Finance and wrote her Ph.D. thesis in 1992 about Stock market returns and Chaos theory. Efi’s Wall Street career started at Salomon Brothers as a research and structuring person on the fixed-income derivatives desk with Myron Scholes.

From there, Efi got involved in Emerging markets. She always had an instinct for growth areas and in retrospect and usually moved in at the bottoms and rode the upside when most were walking away. She trained in Emerging market crises and in Wall Street corporate culture; the one that Michael Lewis describes in Liar`s Poker. Efi left Manhattan and Wall Street right around the turn of the century when she married a diplomat and had a family.

Mrs Pylarinou then worked with a California-based hedge fund that was taking advantage of the Asia crisis with distressed debt and equity funds while in Europe (Dalton Investments). She taught part-time at McGill, Real estate finance, right as the subprime crisis of 2008 exploded. It was in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis that she changed and decided to become a self-taught Fintecher while living in Switzerland. Learning by doing.

Now she works as an independent trusted Fintech and Blockchain advisor and oversees the media site Daily Fintech.

As an experienced financial professional, Efi has embraced innovation and has become a Fintech thought leader and influencer. Her vision of Finance comes from her heart & brain that combines her love and experience for the financial industry with her decision to embrace innovation. She wears her Wall Street hat and works tirelessly at the beat of her Fintech heart.

She set up a new vision for Finance, using Fintech tools and pursuing Sustainable transformation & Capitalism with a Purpose. “Shaping vision which combines heart & brain to reshape finance with technology. Technology is impacting society and the way the agents and participants in the economy interact. By being part of this. I see myself as one (of several) activists in this transformation. As a strategic advisor and thought leader, I have the influence and the responsibility to move people and businesses in the direction of a vision that combines heart & brain.” – this is the way Efi describes her vision.