Leif Abraham is co-founder and co-CEO at Public.com, the investing platform that allows everyone to invest in stocks, ETFs, treasuries, crypto, and alternative assets-all in one place.
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Prior to Public.com, he was co-founder and CEO of AND CO, a provider of software for freelancers. AND CO was acquired by Fiverr (NYSE: FVRR) in 2018. He also co-founded Pay with a Tweet, a first of its kind social payment system that was acquired by Hanse Ventures in 2012.
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Previously, Leif was a partner at the venture studio Prehype and has held senior roles in product strategy at R/GA and West, where he worked on product experience for companies like Rdio, Google, and Venmo. From that time, Leif is a double Cannes Lions Grand Prix winner, and even holds an MTV OMusic Award.
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In 2019, he co-founded Public, which has gone on to raise over $300 million from investors such as Accel, Lakestar, Tiger Global, Will Smith (Dreamers VC), and other prolific investors such as Maria Sharapova, Tony Hawk, and NFL stars J.J. Watt and Bobby Wagner, and more.
","speakerRoute":"Leif-Abraham"},{"speakerName":"Leila Aghabarari","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Leila%20Aghabarari%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Financial Sector Specialist","speakerCompany":"The World Bank","displayOrder":"2","speakerDescription":"
Dr. Leila Aghabarari is an accomplished economist with over eight years of experience at the World Bank and prior roles at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). She specializes in financial inclusion, development finance, and impact evaluation. Currently, she also serves as the Strategic Advisor for Financial Inclusion & Impact at Fontalk, where she leverages her expertise to shape community partnership strategies and develop impact measurement frameworks that empower immigrant communities through accessible financial services.
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As a development economist, Leila has spearheaded high-impact financial sector initiatives at the World Bank, with a strong focus on designing and evaluating intervention impacts. Her groundbreaking research on topics such as monetary policy transmission in emerging markets, credit unions during the global financial crisis, and credit cycles in developing economies has informed policymakers and provided actionable insights for addressing systemic challenges in emerging markets. Her contributions to financial inclusion for refugees and conflict-zone economics have further driven sustainable solutions for vulnerable populations and underserved communities.\nLeila's entrepreneurial journey began during her college years as a tech startup founder, equipping her with a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities within the entrepreneurial ecosystem. This hands-on experience complements her extensive work in advising fintech innovations and supporting SME growth globally. A passionate advocate for technology and fintech, she brings a forward-thinking approach to leveraging technology as a transformative tool for sustainable development and economic empowerment in underserved markets.
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Leila has lived and studied in several countries including obtaining her PhD in Economics from the University of Milan, with advanced studies at the University of Tilburg and the Barcelona School of Economics, university of Zurich and la sorbonne. Her work has been featured in leading journals, including Economic Inquiry and Oxford Economic Papers. Known for her strategic vision, analytical acumen, and collaborative spirit, she delivers data-driven insights and actionable recommendations, making her a sought-after voice in fintech, development finance, and economic policy.
","speakerRoute":"Leila-Aghabarari"},{"speakerName":"Ximena Aleman","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Ximena%20Aleman%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Co-Founder & Co-CEO","speakerCompany":"Prometeo","displayOrder":"3","speakerDescription":"Bio to come soon.","speakerRoute":"Ximena-Aleman"},{"speakerName":"Dan Allred","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Dan%20Allred%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"MD, Fintech","speakerCompany":"HSBC","displayOrder":"4","speakerDescription":"
Dan Allred is Fintech leader and Managing Director for Fintech Banking within the Innovation Banking group at HSBC, a $3 trillion asset bank purpose built for cross-border commerce. He is also a Board Member for FS Vector, a PE-backed company that partners with Fintech companies and Financial Services firms to navigate challenging regulatory and compliance matters. He has also served as an Advisor for Fintech companies like Modern Treasury, a VC-backed programmatic money movement platform for tech companies and partner banks. Previously, he was CEO of the North American business for Liquidity Group, a VC-backed global Fintech company whose machine learning software platform provides algorithmic underwriting and portfolio management solutions for asset managers and lenders. Prior to these roles, he spent 20+ years with Silicon Valley Bank as a group manager leading from the front by directly engaging the most influential clients, prospects, and investors in the market. He held several leadership positions at SVB, including Sr. Market Manager and Head of the US Fintech team where his team banked 72% of the Forbes Fintech 50.
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Dan is passionate about community and previously served on the Board of the SVB Foundation and the Executive Committee for Best Buddies International's fundraising events, including leading the fundraising efforts as Executive Chair for the Best Buddies Hyannisport Challenge charity cycling event in 2018 and 2019, which is the organization's largest fundraising event.
","speakerRoute":"Dan-Allred"},{"speakerName":"Jennifer Arnold","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Jennifer%20Arnold%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"CEO","speakerCompany":"Minerva","displayOrder":"5","speakerDescription":"
Jennifer Arnold is the CEO & Cofounder for Minerva (gominerva.com), an award-winning, AI-driven anti-money laundering (AML) compliance platform. She has made it her mission to demystify AML compliance and client risk assessment.
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In her leadership roles at Wells Fargo, CIBC, and BMO, Jennifer became all too familiar with the challenges of designing and implementing AML programs without introducing unnecessary complexity or cost. Now, she's building efficient, effective solutions that scale for financial crime fighters everywhere
","speakerRoute":"Jennifer-Arnold"},{"speakerName":"Will Artingstall","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/William%20Artingstall%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"MD, Global Head eCommerce Solutions","speakerCompany":"Citi","displayOrder":"6","speakerDescription":"Bio to come soon.","speakerRoute":"Will-Artingstall"},{"speakerName":"Avin Arumugam","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Avin%20Arumugam%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Operating Partner","speakerCompany":"Searchlight Capital","displayOrder":"7","speakerDescription":"
Avin Arumugam is a seasoned payments and fintech executive with over 20 years of experience across the entire payments value chain, having worked with issuers, acquirers, networks, gateways, ISOs/PayFacs, and merchants. A founding team member of PayPal Merchant Services and PayPal Mobile, he later joined JPMorgan Chase, where he contributed to groundbreaking initiatives like ChaseNet and led Apple Pay, Chase Pay, and Samsung Pay implementations.
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Avin's leadership has spanned both Product and Go-to-Market functions, with full P&L ownership and a track record of exits, including his role on the executive team at One Inc., successfully sold to private equity, and on the team during the Postmates? acquisition by Uber. After the Postmates deal, Avin began investing his own capital as a Fractional Chief Payments Officer, helping portfolio companies develop and execute their payments strategies.
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Currently, he's an Operating Partner at Searchlight Capital, where he sources deals, conducts due diligence, and collaborates with private equity partners on fintech and SaaS acquisitions aligned with his investment thesis. An investor and founding member of Fintech Meetup, Avin's fintech expertise resonates industry-wide. Outside work, he?s a dedicated basketball player, humorously acknowledging that recovery takes longer than it?s worth.
","speakerRoute":"Avin-Arumugam"},{"speakerName":"Ronen Assia","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Ronen%20Assia%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Managing Partner","speakerCompany":"Team8","displayOrder":"8","speakerDescription":"Ronen Assia is Managing Partner of Team8 Fintech. For over twenty years, Ronen Assia has been successfully merging technology and design together into useful and accessible products, and defining user experience across various devices and platforms. Most recently Ronen served as eToro's Chief Product Officer, managing product and engineering, and has helped grow the company into a Fintech unicorn serving 31M users in more than 100 countries. eToro pioneered Social Investing, enabling every investor to see, follow and automatically copy the portfolios of other investors in the network. As of January 2020, Ronen serves as board member and non-executive director at eToro. Prior to co-founding eToro in 2007, Ronen designed products ranging from medical devices and household appliances to numerous desktop and web applications. Ronen holds a BA in Industrial Design from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem and an MA in Product Design from the Royal College of Art, London.","speakerRoute":"Ronen-Assia"},{"speakerName":"Marc Baghadjian","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Marc%20Baghadjian%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Co-Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"Hypercard","displayOrder":"9","speakerDescription":"An immigrant founder who patented and sold his first hardware business at 17. Launched a second company at 19, a social consumer app, Lolly. Marc raised $2.5m and built consumer products, driving hundreds of thousands of downloads, secured celebrity partnerships, with millions of videos watched every week, and more. Today, Marc has launched a new fintech venture with American Express raising over $15m from notable individuals like Sam Altman from OpenAI to pioneer a new type of credit card. Marc holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Babson College.","speakerRoute":"Marc-Baghadjian"},{"speakerName":"Brian Barnes","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Brian%20Barnes%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"M1","displayOrder":"10","speakerDescription":"
Brian is the founder and CEO of M1, a consumer wealth management platform. M1 offers a comprehensive suite of personal finance products, including investment portfolio management, high yield on deposits, a lucrative cash back credit card, and innovative ways to borrow money. The company manages more than $10B on behalf of its clients and has raised over $300M.
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Brian is also the owner of B2 Bank, a nationally chartered bank providing banking-as-a-service capabilities.
","speakerRoute":"Brian-Barnes"},{"speakerName":"Kelly Beatty","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Kelly%20Beatty%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Chief Performance Officer & Head of Global Solutions","speakerCompany":"FIS Global","displayOrder":"11","speakerDescription":"
Kelly Beatty serves as Chief Performance Officer and Head of Global Solutions at FIS, where she leads the implementation of the company's strategy, driving accountability for growth, cost and operational efficiencies to achieve enterprise performance success.
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Earlier this year, Kelly celebrated her 20-year tenure milestone at FIS. Throughout this time, she has held roles in many areas across the company, including as head of FIS' Payment Solutions business, overseeing the company's strategy for credit, debit, prepaid, business-to-business (B2B) and cross-border payments. Kelly also served as chief transformation officer and was responsible for building out new transformational capabilities for the company, including leading the efforts to integrate FIS'2019 acquisition of Worldpay, the largest fintech transaction in history (valued at $43 billion).
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Prior to FIS, she served as senior vice president and general manager of merchant solutions for financial institutions at Worldpay, where she had direct responsibility for sales, business development, channel management and relationship management for banks offering merchant services through Worldpay and its predecessor, Vantiv (previously Fifth Third Processing Solutions). Kelly has also led large-scale conversions, merger/acquisition integrations, and strategic program and product implementations.
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Beyond her career, Kelly is passionate about driving positive change in the broader financial services sector. She served as the 2023 PayTech Women Board President, an organization dedicated to celebrating women in the payments and fintech industries.Kelly is a founding member of the Women to Self-Sufficiency initiative of the Women's Fund of The Greater Cincinnati Foundation and established Cincinnati's first \"Blessings in a Backpack\" program, which provides food to underprivileged children.
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In recognition of her achievements in the financial services industry and for her contributions in the community, Kelly was named to the 2021 PaymentsSource Most Influential Women in Payments list and was honored with an Excellence in Fintech Award at the 2019 Markets Media Choice Women in Finance Awards. Most recently, Kelly was named a 2023 YWCA Greater Cincinnati Career Women of Achievement.
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Kelly earned a bachelor's degree in business administration and management, with a concentration in finance, from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Kelly currently resides in Cincinnati, Ohio. Outside of work, Kelly enjoys traveling, working out, and spending time with her husband, two kids, and friends. She considers herself to be an adventurous person and even has her scuba diving license!
","speakerRoute":"Kelly-Beatty"},{"speakerName":"Alex Bentley","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/speaker-logos-2024/silhouette%20man.png","speakerTitle":"Partner","speakerCompany":"Khosla Ventures","displayOrder":"12","speakerDescription":"Bio to come soon.","speakerRoute":"Alex-Bentley"},{"speakerName":"Michelle Beyo","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Michelle%20Beyo%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"CEO","speakerCompany":"Finavator","displayOrder":"13","speakerDescription":"
Michelle Beyo is the CEO and Founder of Finavator an award winning payments and future of finance consultancy. Michelle brings 20+ years of expertise from across multiple industries including Payments, Loyalty, Telco, Digital Identity and Open Data. Her leadership has help drive innovation in both retail and payments sectors, fostering strategic growth for numerous North American companies.
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She is recognized as a global thought leader as was as TedX speaker and has spoken on stages worldwide, including Money20/20, Fintech Meet Up and Open Banking Expo with a passion to igniting discussions on the future of finance. She is a Money20/20 RiseUp alumni and mentor as well as serves as an Advisory Board Member to Tillo Rewards as well as VoPay. She is a Board Member and the President at Open Banking Network Canada OFNC, championing for data rights, transparency, and security in the financial landscape.
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Michelle has been recognized for many awards including \"Fintech Female Entrepreneur 2024-North America\" as well as \"Top 50 Women Leaders of Toronto 2023\" and WXN CEDI 2023 Board Award for Canadian Equity, and Diversity. Michelle has also received a spot on the \"Women in Fintech Global Power List\" in 2021. Michelle is also a contributing author to the USA best seller \"Habits of Success\" by Leaders Press.
","speakerRoute":"Michelle-Beyo"},{"speakerName":"Jody Bhagat","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Jody%20Bhagat%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"President of Americas","speakerCompany":"Personetics","displayOrder":"14","speakerDescription":"Jody brings deep operating experience in financial services - leading digital businesses, managing direct channels, and leading digital transformation programs. As President of Americas at Personetics, he is responsible for creating market leadership and driving customer impact. He was previously a Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he helped financial institutions define and execute digital transformation programs to drive customer growth and operating efficiency. Jody also served in senior digital operating roles at U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, and Providian. In these positions, he led digital sales and service functions and direct to consumer businesses to deliver organic growth and enhanced customer experience. Jody has an MBA from Northwestern University and a BS in Computer Engineering from The University of Michigan. ","speakerRoute":"Jody-Bhagat"},{"speakerName":"Charles Birnbaum","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Charles%20Birnbaum%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Partner","speakerCompany":"Bessemer Venture Partners","displayOrder":"15","speakerDescription":"
Charles Birnbaum is a partner in Bessemer's New York office, where he invests in early stage and promising financial services, consumer, and education companies in the U.S. and Europe. He has a strong interest in fintech infrastructure, embedded financial services, and the entrepreneurs that are solving the hardest problems facing both consumers and businesses in our current financial system.
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Before joining Bessemer in 2013, Charles was one of the earliest team members at Foursquare, the location-based mobile application and social network, where he helped to bring forth the company's first merchant-facing tools. During the company's growth phase, Charles became the director of mobile and international business development and built strategic partnerships with media companies, carriers, and OEMs in key growth markets.
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Prior to Foursquare, Charles spent six years in investment banking and equity capital markets focusing on the technology, media, and telecom sectors.
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He earned his MBA from the Wharton School, Master of Arts in international studies from the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, and a Bachelor of Arts in history from Northwestern University.
","speakerRoute":"Charles-Birnbaum"},{"speakerName":"Kunal Bist","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Kunal%20Bist%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Global Head - Strategic Partnerships, TTS","speakerCompany":"Citi","displayOrder":"16","speakerDescription":"
Kunal runs Strategic Partnerships globally across Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) at Citi. He joined Citi, India in 2001 and has worked across multiple areas of TTS in his over 2-decade career in Transaction Banking across geographies including Middle East, India and most recently North America. Most recently, he was the Global Head of Cross Border Receivables, Ewallets Product management and Payments Partnerships as part of the Payments global leadership team at Citi. Having managed various Products, Operations, Sales and sizeable internal partnerships, Kunal moved into his new role managing Strategic partnerships globally across the entire TTS business for Citi.
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Kunal currently lives in New York City with his wife and 2 daughters.
","speakerRoute":"Kunal-Bist"},{"speakerName":"Ruth Foxe Blader","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Ruth%20Foxe%20Blader%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Founder & Managing Partner","speakerCompany":"Foxe Capital","displayOrder":"17","speakerDescription":"Ruth Foxe Blader is Founder and Managing Partner of Foxe Capital, an early stage venture capital fund. Ruth (ex-Anthemis, AllianzX, PepsiCo) has been backing startups for the past decade. With notable exits like Lemonade, Ruth is recognized as an expert and thought leader in financial technology, sitting on a dozen boards of fintech companies globally. Ruth is also Co-Founder and Chair of Unlock VC, the most active global organization for women in venture capital. ","speakerRoute":"Ruth-Foxe Blader"},{"speakerName":"Patrick Boyaggi","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Patrick%20Boyaggi%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Co-Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"Own Up","displayOrder":"18","speakerDescription":"
Patrick Boyaggi is the co-founder and CEO of Own Up, a technology company powering the mortgage industry's only concierge marketplace. Own Up offers consumers a dynamic shopping experience and lenders the industry's highest converting leads through its proprietary AI-powered routing and pricing platform. Own Up serves mortgage shoppers directly at ownup.com and through channel partners that leverage its Mortgage Marketplace as a Service (MMaaS).
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Prior to co-founding Own Up, Patrick served as Senior Vice President at Leader Bank where he led the Residential Lending Division. Under Patrick's leadership, Leader Bank closed more than $11B in mortgages and grew to a top 40 residential lender in the US. Before joining Leader, Patrick was a Management Consultant at Accenture in their FinancialServices Practice.
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Patrick holds a BA from Bates College and an MBA from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management.
","speakerRoute":"Patrick-Boyaggi"},{"speakerName":"Mary Ellen Brown","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/speaker-logos-2024/silhouette%20woman.png","speakerTitle":"MD & Head of GTB Business Transformation","speakerCompany":"TD Securities","displayOrder":"19","speakerDescription":"
Mary Ellen joined TD Securities in January 2024 and is responsible for the Global Transaction Banking Transformation in TD Securities. She is leading the modernization of GTB's next-generation product platform that will enable expansion into the U.S. as well as strengthen and enhance the existing Canadian businesses.
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Mary Ellen has a wealth of experience in financial services gained over her 25 year career at RBC where she held senior executive roles and ran two of the bank's largest businesses - Real Estate Secured Lending and Transactional Banking for Business. Mary Ellen has implemented large programs, driven digital transformation, and delivered significant results in terms of revenue and market share gains. She has demonstrated her adaptability, transferability of skills and leadership by moving across Finance, Retail Banking, Business Banking and Capital Markets (U.S.). Mary Ellen is a passionate team builder, has led large teams and built new teams from scratch.
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Some of her notable accomplishments include, leading the development and launch of key payment capabilities, driving the simplification of the Mortgage business while delivering tools to enable advisors and delight clients. She has a proven track record of providing strategic thought leadership and driving successful initiatives.
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Mary Ellen played a pivotal role in RBC's strategic evaluation and subsequent buildout of their US Cash Management platform (RBC Clear). In that role, she built a team from zero to 100+ people across Canada and the U.S., spearheaded the evaluation of the strategic rationale to enter the U.S. Cash Management market, pressure tested the initial product offering with clients, developed the product roadmap, and established the leadership team and organizational structure to enable the rapid build out and deployment of the new treasury platform.
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Mary Ellen holds an MBA from York University and Bachelor of Math, Actuarial Science from the University of Waterloo and CFA designation.
","speakerRoute":"Mary Ellen-Brown"},{"speakerName":"Ciaran Byrne","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/speaker-logos-2024/silhouette%20man.png","speakerTitle":"Head of Global Clearing Product, Transformation, & Industry","speakerCompany":"J.P. Morgan","displayOrder":"20","speakerDescription":"
Ciarán Byrne is the Head of Global Clearing Product, Transformation, and Industry within J.P. Morgan Payments. In this role Ciarán is responsible for the Banks USD, EUR, GBP, CLS, and CHSS business lines, as well as the execution of key strategic initiatives that evolve the Global Clearing product offering, future proof the business, and lay the foundation for long-term growth. Ciarán holds overall responsibility for the Global Implementation of ISO 20022, and the company?s engagement with key Industry Groups. Through these programs he manages a large group of global stakeholders across all areas of the Bank to drive towards this goal.
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Ciarán has over 17 years of experience in the industry, managing complex products and programs across multiple regions and functions ? having previously led Product, Sales, Strategy, Market Management, and Operations teams within the broader Payments industry.
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Ciarán was previously a board member of the National College of Ireland and currently represents JP Morgan on the SWIFT Core Payments Working Group. In his Industry role ? Ciarán directly manages a team which includes the Chair/Convenor of the RMG, co-chair of PMPG, Chair of the SWIFT USNG, Vice-Chair of SWIFT UK BPC, Bank of England Strategic Advisory Forum, Board member of EBA Clearing, and members of PRC, WPAG and CHIPS Business Committee.
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Ciarán has an Executive MBA from the Dublin Institute of Technology, a BA in Finance & Accounting from the National College of Ireland, and currently resides in New Jersey.
","speakerRoute":"Ciaran-Byrne"},{"speakerName":"Renata Caine","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Renata%20Caine%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"GM, Banking as Service","speakerCompany":"Green Dot","displayOrder":"21","speakerDescription":"
As general manager of banking as a service (BaaS), Renata leads the team responsible for delivering embedded finance solutions for the company's growing list of strategic partners that includes many of the world's largest, most trusted brands.
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Renata has more than 17 years of experience in the payments industry, most recently serving as Chief Commercial Officer atJustt, where she led all global commercial aspects of theTel Aviv-based chargebacks startup. She has also held leadership roles at Marqeta, managing the company's rapidly scaling business operations and guiding its transformation into a global enterprise, including the company's 2021 IPO;and WEX,where she focused on their corporate payments division leading go-to-market efforts. She has also served many portfolio companies of Point72 Ventures as a consulting advisor, supporting specific investment activities through diligence, value creation and go-to-market planning.
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Renata holds a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Minnesota. She is an avid fan of all Wisconsin professional sports, resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, and loves to spend time traveling with her husband and two kids exploring new places.
","speakerRoute":"Renata-Caine"},{"speakerName":"Chris Caruana","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Chris%20Caruana%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"C6 Intelligence","displayOrder":"22","speakerDescription":"
Chris founded C6 Intelligence in 2024 after two decades as a compliance officer, SaaS executive, and regulator. He is a trusted partner and strategic advisor globally to investors, founders, executives, and operators seeking valuable influence and impact in the anti-financial crime ecosystem.
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Chris' career reflects a blend of technical expertise and a deep understanding of regulatory environments, emerging fraud patterns, and anti-money laundering typologies. He is passionate about making a positive impact with his partners through technology and strategic leadership. Together they navigate complex challenges to achieve their growth objectives, making him a key figure in the anti-financial crime fight.
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The native New Yorker currently resides in North Carolina, holds an MBA from St. John's University, and is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist by ACAMS. When he's not with his family or at church, Chris enjoys non-fiction reads, business podcasts, sports, and travel (mostly to Italy).
","speakerRoute":"Chris-Caruana"},{"speakerName":"Nicole Casperson","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Nicole%20Casperson%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"Fintech Is Femme","displayOrder":"23","speakerDescription":"Nicole Casperson is an award-winning journalist, author, content director, professor, and leading voice in fintech. As the Founder & CEO of Fintech Is Femme, she leads a thriving media platform and community of over 50,000 fintech leaders dedicated to shaping a more inclusive financial landscape. Leveraging her extensive background as a former finance reporter and editor specializing in B2B sectors, Nicole provides trusted insights and analysis through her industry-leading newsletter, podcast, and event series. She has been honored as a Top Inspiring Female in Fintech and recognized as a pioneering force in DEI initiatives. Nicole's impactful contributions span prestigious speaking engagements, regular features in Forbes, and the release of her debut book, Fintech Feminists: Increasing Inclusion, Redefining Innovation, and Changing the Future for Women Around the World, published under Wiley.","speakerRoute":"Nicole-Casperson"},{"speakerName":"Ben Colman","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Ben%20Colman%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Co-Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"Reality Defender","displayOrder":"24","speakerDescription":"Ben Colman is CEO and Co-Founder of Reality Defender, an award-winning deepfake detection platform helping enterprises flag fraudulent users and content. Over the past 15 years, Ben has scaled multiple companies at the intersection of cybersecurity and data science. Prior to this, Ben led cybersecurity commercialization at Goldman Sachs, and worked at Google. He holds an MBA from NYU Stern and a bachelor's degree from Claremont McKenna College.","speakerRoute":"Ben-Colman"},{"speakerName":"Trish Costello","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Trish%20Costello%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"CEO","speakerCompany":"Portfolia","displayOrder":"25","speakerDescription":"
Trish Costello is CEO and Founder of Portfolia. Portfolia activates the wealth of women, with nearly 2,000 women limited partners in its venture capital funds. Portfolia's 14 VC funds focus on industries that over-index for women, including active aging and longevity, women's health, sustainability, and Rising America (diversity). Portfolia is the most active investor in women's health in the US. Portfolia's 153 investments include unicorns Everly Health, GrubMarket, and Maven Clinic;and noted consumer products companies Madison Reed, Canela Media, and Apollo Neuro.
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Trish is internationally recognized for her pioneering work in preparing venture capital investment partners through the prestigious Kauffman Fellows Program, which she created and spun out from the Kauffman Foundation and continues as CEO Emeritus. Trish was Founding President of CVE Capital Corp, the holding company of a $1.7 billion venture capital Fund of Funds.
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Trish's numerous accolades include INSIDER's Seed 30: The Best Women Early-Stage Investors of, Sprin 2023, Springboard Enterprises and the New York Stock Exchange's inaugural Investor of the Year in 2022, Entrepreneur Magazine inaugural 100 Most Innovative Women Entrepreneurs in the World in 2020. Portfolia was recognized with a Golden Stevie Award for Most Innovative Company Run by Women as well, and Fast Company's Top Ten Most Innovative Finance Companies in the World.
","speakerRoute":"Trish-Costello"},{"speakerName":"Kathleen Craig","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Kathleen%20Craig%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"Plinqit","displayOrder":"26","speakerDescription":"
Kathleen Craig is the founder and CEO of Plinqit, which offers two ways to help banks and credit unions attract deposits. Plinqit, our namesake product, helps grow low-cost, sticky deposits through financial wellness. High Yield Savings by Plinqit (HYS) is a fully white-label way for financial institutions to spin up a digital brand or an affinity brand offering an attractive interest rate to drive new, high-growth deposits. Prior to launching Plinqit, Craig served as vice president for digital banking at a well-regarded community financial institution.
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Craig leverages her shared industry experience as both banker and fintech leader as an advisor to several fintech start-ups and serving on the boards of A2EF and the Association for Financial Technology. Craig also regularly contributes articles to publications, such as Forbes, ABA Marketing Magazine, Bank Director, and The Financial Brand. She earned her Bachelor of Business Administration from Eastern Michigan University.
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Craig's experience in banking and technology and her passion for financial wellness education led her to the development of Plinqit. She has successfully raised over $10 million in venture funding for Plinqit and has partnered with several of the largest financial technology companies in the world. Plinqit now serves more than 50 clients across the U.S., including banks in the top 10 by asset size.
","speakerRoute":"Kathleen-Craig"},{"speakerName":"Andrew Czupek","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Andrew%20Czupek%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Head of North America, Digital Assets & Financial Markets","speakerCompany":"Northern Trust","displayOrder":"27","speakerDescription":"
As Head of North America, Digital Assets & Financial Markets (DAFM) at Northern Trust, Andrew leads the innovation and advocacy effort in the region. DAFM explores innovation and emerging technologies with a focus on education, commercialization and experimentation.
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Andrew is responsible for supporting business unit strategy development in relation to market and technology innovation to drive profitable growth while also coordinating key industry associations and regulatory engagements aligned to the bank?s strategic innovation initiatives.
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Andrew has over 30 years of financial industry experience, including senior roles at financial services institutions, major derivatives exchanges, clearinghouses and trading firms. He has been responsible for directing research on industry trends, functional design, testing and implementation support of industry-leading technology and the digital transformation and globalization of traditional and digital infrastructure and client activities.
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Most recently, Andrew was a key player in the launch of the Northern Trust Carbon Ecosystem, a digital platform for institutions to connect with project developers to transact and retire voluntary carbon credits. The ecosystem is powered by Northern Trust Matrix Zenith, a digital assets platform integrated with Northern Trust's core traditional asset servicing infrastructure to support digital and traditional assets side-by-side and deliver integrated reporting.
","speakerRoute":"Andrew-Czupek"},{"speakerName":"Itai Damti","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Itai%20Damti%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"CEO","speakerCompany":"Unit","displayOrder":"28","speakerDescription":"Bio to come soon.","speakerRoute":"Itai-Damti"},{"speakerName":"Denise D'Angelo","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Denise%20D%20Angelo%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Chief Growth Officer & Head of Transformation Programs","speakerCompany":"Blankfactor","displayOrder":"29","speakerDescription":"
Denise D'Angelo is a transformation-driven C-Level executive with more than 20 years of experience leading teams through complex change. Currently Denise is Chief Growth Officer and head of Transformation Programs at Blankfactor, a U.S.-headquartered product engineering firm specialized in Payments, Capital Markets, Wealth and Retirement, and Fintech in North America and the UK.
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With a career that traverses healthcare, payments, banking, wealth & retirement and even a tour through the US Department of Defense, Denise brings a rich tapestry of insights into the intersection of people, technology, and industry. Her experience spans software development, large-scale technical program leadership, global HR management and data-centric initiatives orchestration, emphasizing change adoption, evolution and leadership.
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Having spearheaded data & analytics teams, machine learning initiatives, and with the rapid expansion of data strategy popularity, Denise has been at the forefront of leveraging data-driven approaches to tackle complex challenges. Her leadership in implementing AI and data science programs has optimized processes & driven innovation, ultimately leading to tangible improvements in patient care and operational efficiencies across teams and companies.
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As a trailblazer in people leadership, mentorship, motivation and growth, Denise consistently champions diversity and inclusion, particularly focusing on the role of women in technology. Her journey serves as an inspiration for aspiring technologists, showcasing how dedication, expertise, and a commitment to pushing boundaries can break down barriers and pave the way for others. Denise offers valuable perspectives on how women can thrive and lead in the ever-evolving landscape of technology and how innovative thinking plays a crucial part in inspiring others to their greatest potential. With an engaging & interactive, fun and memorable presentation style, Denise consistently achieves the highest audience ratings for her talks, classes and coaching sessions by incorporating storytelling, comedy, moments of introspection and interactivity.
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Prior to Blankfactor, Denise was Vice President at T. Rowe Price Group serving as Head of Data Strategy for Global Distribution & Retirement Plan Services. In these roles, Denise succeeded in leveraging modern approaches to bring cross-discipline, cross-functional and global teams together to holistically solve data complexities, prepare data for insights, establish global data governance & data literacy initiatives for leaders and executives.
","speakerRoute":"Denise-D'Angelo"},{"speakerName":"Ravi de Silva","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Ravi%20de%20Silva%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Managing Partner","speakerCompany":"de Risk Partners LLC","displayOrder":"30","speakerDescription":"
With decades of unwavering commitment to excellence in Compliance, Risk Management, and Audit, Ravi de Silva stands as a distinguished leader in the global financial crimes landscape. Prior to launching ?de Risk Partners LLC' a premier boutique global compliance consulting firm, he served as the Global Head of Compliance Testing for AML, Sanctions, and Anti-Bribery Corruption at Citigroup. Ravi brings a wealth of experience, strategic vision, and a proven record of navigating complex regulatory frameworks.
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Regulatory Compliance Leadership: Ravi's illustrious career spans across various continents, where he has successfully led and managed regulatory compliance teams. His understanding of the US and the international regulatory landscapes working with regulators such as the Office of the Currency Comptroller (OCC), Federal Reserve Bank (FRB), European Central Bank (ECB), German BaFIN, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) coupled with a keen eye for emerging trends including technology supporting compliance, has helped him successfully lead regulatory exams, remediations and responses for the largest banks in the world.\nRisk Management Mastery: Recognized for his adept risk management strategies, Ravi has consistently demonstrated the foresight to identify and mitigate potential risks proactively. His methodologies go beyond compliance checkboxes, emphasizing a holistic approach coupled with technology that safeguards organizations against evolving threats.\nIndustry Recognition: His insights have been sought after at international conferences such as the ACAMS 'The Assembly,' where he has been invited to share his expertise on topics ranging from AML, Sanctions best practices to global compliance team leadership strategies.
","speakerRoute":"Ravi-de Silva"},{"speakerName":"Alice Deng","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Alice%20Deng%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Co-Founder & CPO","speakerCompany":"Slope","displayOrder":"31","speakerDescription":"Alice Deng is the co-founder and CPO of Slope, a B2B payments platform with embedded financing solutions. Founded in 2021, Slope has raised more than $252 million in equity and debt to date, backed by top investors like Sam Altman, J.P. Morgan, Y Combinator, Union Square Ventures, Tiger Global Management, and the founders of Dropbox, Doordash, and Plaid. Previously, Alice co-founded Glisten AI (YC W20), providing e-commerce product categorization using Computer Vision and NLP. Prior to Glisten, shewas a Product Manager at Dropbox. Alice is a proud UC Berkeley grad.","speakerRoute":"Alice-Deng"},{"speakerName":"Genevieve Dozier","speakerImage":"","speakerTitle":"Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"Warpaint Consulting","displayOrder":"32"},{"speakerName":"Alexander Du","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Alexander%20Du%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"COO","speakerCompany":"Column","displayOrder":"33","speakerDescription":"Alex is the Chief Operating Officer and part of the founding team at Column, a nationally chartered developer-first bank. Prior to Column, he invested in financial services and technology at Warburg Pincus, including a secondment as the Chief of Staff at fintech portfolio company Mosaic. Alex has a Bachelor's in Economics from Yale University and attended Stanford Graduate School of Business before dropping out to launch Column.","speakerRoute":"Alexander-Du"},{"speakerName":"Misha Esipov","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Misha%20Esipov%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Co-Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"Nova Credit","displayOrder":"34","speakerDescription":"
Misha Esipov is the co-founder and CEO of Nova Credit, a leading credit infrastructure and analytics company helping lending institutions to grow responsibly by streamlining onboarding, verification, and underwriting processes of credit data. The company's differentiated data sources and proprietary analytics are used by leading organizations like American Express, Verizon, HSBC, SoFi, and Yardi. Nova Credit is backed by investors including Kleiner Perkins, General Catalyst, Index Ventures, and Canapi as well as executives from Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Citi.
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Before founding Nova Credit, Misha was a private equity investor at Apollo Global Management, a $232 billion global alternative asset manager. Misha started his career at Goldman Sachs, where he helped execute more than $10 billion in corporate financing, mergers, and acquisitions. Misha holds a B.S. in Mathematics and Finance from New York University and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
","speakerRoute":"Misha-Esipov"},{"speakerName":"Gabriela Estrada","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Gabriela%20Estrada%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Co-Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"Vexi","displayOrder":"35","speakerDescription":"
Gabriela Estrada is the co-founder and CEO of Vexi, the Mexican neobank that has revolutionized access to credit for young people and underserved populations, with over one million credit cards approved. Her successful 15-year career in leading financial institutions such as Citi and American Express, across various areas like Risk, Treasury, Investment Banking, and Cash Management, combined with her passion for financial inclusion, drove her to create Vexi.
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Recognized as a prominent figure in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, Gabriela has received several accolades, including IBD WeXchange 2024 winner, EY Mexico's Entrepreneur of the Year 2023 in the Acceleration category, Mujer Pro by ProNetwork (2021, 2024), and Latam Disruptor by Iupana (2020).
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Gabriela holds a Bachelor's degree in Financial Administration from ITESM and a Master's degree in Economics from the Complutense University of Madrid.
","speakerRoute":"Gabriela-Estrada"},{"speakerName":"Kevin Feltes","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Kevin%20Feltes%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"CEO","speakerCompany":"Financial Data Exchange","displayOrder":"36","speakerDescription":"
Kevin Feltes is the CEO of the Financial Data Exchange. FDX is a non-profit company dedicated to helping businesses build safer methods for enabling customers to safely share their financial data. FDX does this by bringing together diverse stakeholders to define common technical standards that make permissioned data sharing work better at scale across the industry.
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Prior to joining FDX, Feltes served in a number of roles at JPMorganChase, including as the Head of Partnerships and Strategy for the Connected Banking group. He has extensive experience in Open Finance working closely with data aggregators, fintechs, banks, regulators, and consumer groups to promote safer consumer data sharing.
","speakerRoute":"Kevin-Feltes"},{"speakerName":"Miguel Fernandez","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Miguel%20Fernandez%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"CEO","speakerCompany":"Capchase","displayOrder":"37","speakerDescription":"Miguel Fernandez is co-founder and CEO of Capchase, the leading BNPL platform for software businesses (over $1.5bn in transaction volume for software businesses). Miguel lives and breathes SaaS and is constantly thinking about how to solve founders' needs around cash and revenue management. Miguel suffered most of the pains that Capchase is trying to solve while scaling sales, customer success and international at Geoblink, before pursuing an MBA at Harvard Business School. When not at work, Miguel loves helping founders that are just starting out to help them achieve PMF as fast as possible.","speakerRoute":"Miguel-Fernandez"},{"speakerName":"Lindsay Fitzgerald","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Lindsay%20Fitzgerald%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"General Partner","speakerCompany":"Vesey Ventures","displayOrder":"38","speakerDescription":"Lindsay is a General Partner and Co-Founder of Vesey Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm backing the companies that will transform financial services. Lindsay spent the decade preceding Vesey Ventures at American Express, where she invested in and built partnerships with dozens of fintechs. Lindsay loves to partner with founders and financial services industry executives on product roadmap, innovation initiatives, and commercialization strategy.","speakerRoute":"Lindsay-Fitzgerald"},{"speakerName":"Chris Fritz","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/speaker-logos-2024/Chris%20Fritz%20Caricature%20.jpg","speakerTitle":"Director Markets & Lending Digital","speakerCompany":"Wells Fargo","displayOrder":"39","speakerDescription":"
Chris is the Director of the Lending and Investment Banking (Capital Markets) Digital Journeys. In this role, he and his team are transforming the wholesale digital journey from a traditional task-based experience into a data-driven, decision-making platform that facilitates simple execution.
The team is employing market and proprietary data with digital design and AI driven workflows to make each user's experience bespoke. Their work is done in partnership with CB and CIB teams as well as with the Treasury, Onboarding, and Self-Service Digital Product Teams. Chris is also a new host of Wells Fargo's Treasury Takeaways podcast with two episodes dropping in Q1.
Chris came to Wells Fargo in 2022 from Charles Schwab where he was the Managing Director of the Digital Trading Experiences. In this role Chris and team defined and delivered a comprehensive and improved digital trading strategy which included the award-winning Schwab Stick Slices and the Digital Trading Redesign.
\nChris formerly held senior positions with SunTrust and JP Morgan serving as SVP and Head of Digital Solutions at SunTrust and Executive Director and Head of Online Payments, Integrated File Management, and Mobile for JP Morgan ACCESS. During his time managing these products they won multiple Greenwich Associates awards for being best in class.
\nEarlier in his career, Chris also held position as a commercial lender managing a portfolio of middle market clients and an underwriter for large corporate finance and leasing clients. Prior, Chris was a founding partner of Fenster auf G.m.b.H. an economic development firm serving Easter Europe from Vienna. In this role Chris was allowed to operate way over his skis providing equity, financing along with consulting services (primarily financial, operational and strategic).
\nChris holds an MBA from Kellogg and a BA in Business and Economics from Wheaton College where he played basketball and football while also studying Theology and Art.
\nChris and his family live outside of Chicago where he spends his time trying not to feel uneducated while his wife Aimee attends Seminary, twins Caleb and Zoe attend college and his youngest, Greta attends high school.
","speakerRoute":"Chris-Fritz"},{"speakerName":"Prashant Fuloria","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Prashant%20Fuloria%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"CEO","speakerCompany":"Fundbox","displayOrder":"40","speakerDescription":"Prashant Fuloria is the Chief Executive Officer at Fundbox and formerly served as the Chief Operations Officer and Chief Product Officer of the company. Prashant brings over two decades of experience in the technology and product management industry. Prior to joining Fundbox, he was the Chief Product Officer at F lurry, Inc. Over his career, Prashant has held roles in product management, advertising, and monetization, including managing Google's products for the Asia-Pacific region, building monetization products for Google AdWords, and leading the product team for Facebook Ads. He is also a Lecturer in Operations, Information, and Technology at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Prashant holds a PhD and MA in Business, a PhD Minor in Operations Research, and an MS in Statistics, all from Stanford University.","speakerRoute":"Prashant-Fuloria"},{"speakerName":"Amit Garg","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Amit%20Garg%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Senior Partner & Co-Head Global Retail Banking Practice","speakerCompany":"McKinsey & Company","displayOrder":"41","speakerDescription":"
Amit is a Senior Partner in the New York office of McKinsey & Company and is the Global Co-leader of McKinsey's Retail Banking Practice. Before this, he led McKinsey's Consumer Finance Practice for past 4 years and prior to that built McKinsey's Banking AI Practice (\"FinLab\").
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He serves clients across a range of financial services (including retail banking, wealth management, consumer f\\inance, and Private Equity).
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Amit holds a Bachelor's degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, a Masters in Electrical Engineering from UCLA and MBA from Chicago Booth School, with major in economics and finance.
","speakerRoute":"Amit-Garg"},{"speakerName":"Vishal Garg","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Vishal%20Garg%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"CEO","speakerCompany":"Better.com","displayOrder":"42","speakerDescription":"Vishal Garg is the Founder and CEO of Better.com, America's leading digital mortgage lender. Dedicated to making homeownership faster, more affordable, and accessible for all, Better.com leverages technology and automation to streamline the home-buying process and eliminate bias. Since its founding in 2015, the company has facilitated over $100 billion in home loans, $39 billion in insurance, and $4 billion in real estate transactions-all completed online and commission-free. In January 2023, Better.com introduced the groundbreaking One Day Mortgage, enabling customers to receive pre-approval, lock-in rates, and obtain a mortgage commitment letter within 24 hours. The company went public via SPAC in August 2023 and, in 2024, launched Betsy, an AI-powered tool that uses large language models (LLMs) to enhance customer interactions and automate key processes, supporting Better.com's seamless digital mortgage experience. Vishal has received numerous awards, including E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year, Housing Wire?s Most Influential Mortgage Executive, and the Golden Pegleg Award for Outstanding Alumni from Stuyvesant High School. Originally from India, Vishal is a lifelong New Yorker. He grew up in Queens, NY, and graduated from Stuyvesant High School and NYU. Vishal now lives in downtown Manhattan with his loving wife and three kids.","speakerRoute":"Vishal-Garg"},{"speakerName":"Kim Gerhardt","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Kim%20Gerhardt%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Owner & Principal Advisor","speakerCompany":"The FinTech Interactive","displayOrder":"43","speakerDescription":"
I am a management consultant and advisor to clients in digital financial services, with expertise in growth strategies, operational excellence, and the underserved. I am passionate about how using technology and data enables access to credit, supports risk management, and empowers FIs to grow and manage their business.
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I advise Series A Fintechs that have built products and solutions within risk management and RegTech, focused on solving issues related to underserved consumers and small businesses. I also work with more established payment and lending companies to isolate industry trends, including Fintech opportunities. I am currently working with clients on fairness in financial services, the use of cash flow analytics in risk management, first-party credit abuse, sponsor bank and fintech partnerships, embedded lending to SMBs, fraud and risk decision engines, small business verification, and trends in lending and payments.
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Leveraging years of experience building and running industry consortiums, I help lending and payments companies strengthen their B2B customer relationships through carefully curated roundtable events and programs.
","speakerRoute":"Kim-Gerhardt"},{"speakerName":"Ryan Gilbert","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Ryan%20Gilbert%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Founder","speakerCompany":"Launchpad Capital","displayOrder":"44","speakerDescription":"
Ryan is a founder and investor with over 25 years of global financial services and technology expertise. He is founder of Launchpad Capital based in Oakland, CA, and General partner of the firm's Fintech-focused venture funds.
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He is a director of River City Bank in Sacramento, CA and an advisor to Castle Creek Capital. Ryan is a former General Partner of Propel Venture Partners Fund 1 and currently serves on the board of Guideline.
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His prior roles include Board member at bKash, Bangladesh's largest remittance platform;CEO/Executive Chairman of Billfloat, the operator of small business lending marketplace SmartBiz Loans, that he founded while an entrepreneur-in-residence at Venrock;co-founder/CEO of real estate payments company PropertyBridge (acquired by MoneyGram International);an early investor in Eventbrite, and a founding advisor to Square.
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Ryan's active investment portfolio includes minority holdings in the Oakland Roots Sports Club, a USL soccer team in Oakland, CA and the Crawley Town Football Club, a League One soccer team in Crawley, West Sussex, England.
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Ryan graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is member of the State Bar of California. He is a member of YPO.
","speakerRoute":"Ryan-Gilbert"},{"speakerName":"Dave Glaser","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Dave%20Glaser%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"CEO","speakerCompany":"Dwolla","displayOrder":"45","speakerDescription":"Dave Glaser, Dwolla's CEO, has over 20 years of expertise in the payments industry. His background includes global leadership roles at Mastercard, Worldpay, CyberSource, and Visa, and he has played key roles in driving industry innovations and successful business payment operations strategies.","speakerRoute":"Dave-Glaser"},{"speakerName":"Dr. Leda Glyptis","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Leda%20Glyptis%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Advisor, FinScan","speakerCompany":"Lag20 Consulting Ltd","displayOrder":"46","speakerDescription":"
Leda is a visiting professor of practice at Loughborough University, London and the author of best-selling books 'Bankers Like Us: Dispatches from an Industry in Transition and 'Beyond Resilience: Patterns of Success in Fintech and Digital Transformation'. \nShe a frequent keynote speaker at flagship industry events globally and she is the author of the highly acclaimed #LedaWrites column on Fintech Futures.
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She works as an advisor to boards and executive teams for banks, financial institutions and technology companies globally, supporting leadership teams in transition: be it a process of transforming themselves, their business or their software infrastructure.
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Additionally, Leda works with established technology and younger fintech companies as a board director and advisor, currently serving as a special advisor for the European market for FinScan.
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Leda has served as a Non Executive Director for three companies that had very successful exits and also served as the Chief Client Officer of 10x Banking and the founding CEO of 11:FS Foundry (both in the cloud-native core banking space);she was the Chief Innovation Officer of Qatar National Bank and held a variety of innovation and transformation roles at BNY Mellon.
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Leda completed her undergraduate studies at King?s College Cambridge and holds an MSc and PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
","speakerRoute":"Dr. Leda-Glyptis"},{"speakerName":"Drew Glover","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Drew%20Glover%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Co-Founder","speakerCompany":"Fiat Growth","displayOrder":"47","speakerDescription":"Drew Glover is the Founding Partner of Fiat Growth and General Partner at Fiat Ventures. With an unconventional entry into the VC world, Drew has built a deep expertise in growth, technology, and marketing. His career spans roles at Steady, where he led marketplace development, as well as Namely and Accenture, where he mastered Go-to-Market strategies and user acquisition. Today, Drew collaborates with leading companies like Chime, Bestow Life Insurance, Copper Bank, Lemonade, and Mastercard to create award-winning products, services, and acquisition strategies.","speakerRoute":"Drew-Glover"},{"speakerName":"Sophia Goldberg","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/speaker-logos-2024/silhouette%20woman.png","speakerTitle":"Co-Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"Ansa","displayOrder":"48","speakerDescription":"
Sophia Goldberg is the co-founder and CEO of Ansa, the leading digital infrastructure platform for embedded customer balances. Named one of The Information's 50 Most Promising Startups 2023, Ansa?s stored value wallet solution helps increase customer retention and drive new revenue opportunities for merchants. A self-proclaimed 'payments nerd', Sophia is the author of the best-selling The Field Guide to Global Payments, a comprehensive guide exploring the intricate ways money moves around the world. She has been named as one of American Banker's \"Innovators of the Year 2024\" in digital banking and one of NYC Fintech Women's Inspiring Fintech Females of 2023. Prior to Ansa, Sophia spent many years at Adyen, where she managed key global accounts, and worked across commercial and product roles in addition to serving on the board of PaymentEd. Earlier in Sophia's career, she developed her political acumen during her tenure on Secretary Hillary Clinton's finance team during the 2016 presidential campaign.
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Fascinated by the physical mechanisms of the global economy, Sophia earned her Bachelor of Arts from Tufts University and her Master's Degree in International Political Economy from The London School of Economics and Political Science. Currently, Sophia resides in San Francisco, California with her French bulldog, Earl.
","speakerRoute":"Sophia-Goldberg"},{"speakerName":"Phil Goldfeder","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Phil%20Goldfeder%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"CEO","speakerCompany":"American Fintech Council","displayOrder":"49","speakerDescription":"
With nearly two decades of experience at the intersection of the public and private sectors, Phil Goldfeder currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of the American Fintech Council (AFC), a leading industry association representing responsible financial technology (fintech) companies creating critical access to safe and affordable financial services. AFC, comprised of the nation?s largest fintech companies, fosters innovative, transparent, and responsible products that promote competition, consumer protection, and financial health, inclusion, and equity. AFC is committed to robust industry standards, with a focus on consumer protection and regulatory compliance, in addition to advocating for and embracing appropriate government regulation.
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Before joining AFC, Goldfeder served as Senior Vice President of Global Public Affairs at Cross River, a financial institution and technology infrastructure provider that offers embedded financial solutions. In this role, Goldfeder founded the Online Lending Policy Institute (OLPI) and has been a leader in shaping the new financial services landscape since early 2015. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the passage of the CARES Act in March 2020, Goldfeder helped lead the Cross River team to mobilize internally and offer a streamlined and automated system to provide more than $12 billion in PPP funding to the most vulnerable small businesses in every state, as well as additional short-term relief efforts to communities in the company?s footprint and beyond.
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He previously served as an elected member of the New York State Assembly representing diverse neighborhoods of Queens, N.Y. After most of his district was devastated during Superstorm Sandy, Goldfeder lead recovery efforts with a specific focus on partnering with the banking and insurance industry to help rebuild his community and reform outdated policies. He was the author of transformative banking and insurance modernization legislation and was also a key legislative leader on a diverse array of issues. Prior to his election, he served as a senior advisor to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
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Phil?s career in public service and expertise in leadership, crisis management, as well as his ability to enact positive change and develop deep relationships with diverse leaders on both the local and national levels, has put him at the forefront of innovation across banking and technology industries. He is an active industry leader as he engages policy makers and regulators, provides thought-leadership, and is frequently invited to speak on panels, roundtables, and conferences globally on banking, technology, financial literacy, and the new financial services landscape.
","speakerRoute":"Phil-Goldfeder"},{"speakerName":"Adam Goller","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Adam%20Goller%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"EVP, Head of FinTech Banking","speakerCompany":"Cross River","displayOrder":"50","speakerDescription":"Adam is EVP, Head of Fintech Banking at Cross River, where he is responsible for the company's Fintech Banking products, partnerships and activities. Adam joined Cross River at its inception in 2008 and held the role of Chief Credit Officer at the bank for its first 12 years where he was responsible for the launch and expansion of Cross River's successful Marketplace Lending program. He previously held positions at Fitch Ratings as an Associate Director, and as Director of Underwriting at First Meridian Mortgage. Adam holds an MBA from Touro College, and a Bachelor of Science from Yeshiva University, both in New York City.","speakerRoute":"Adam-Goller"},{"speakerName":"Alexandre Gonthier","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Alexandre%20Gonthier%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"Trustly","displayOrder":"51","speakerDescription":"Alex is the Founder & CEO of Trustly, Inc., the successor to PayWithMyBank, Inc., which he started incubating in 2011 in New York, founded in 2012 in Silicon Valley, and merged with European-based Trustly AB in 2019. Alex is from Switzerland, so it's no surprise he's a money expert. Since 1997, he has been a founder and entrepreneur, building several successful payments companies. Prior to PayWithMyBank/Trustly, Alex was CEO and co-founder of iPIN (acquired by Aepona and, subsequently, by Intel Corp.), a leading digital payments platform for Visa, Wells Fargo, HSBC, AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone, Orange, BT, and GM. Alex was also the CTO of mobile payments company Paymo, which merged with Boku (LON: BOKU), the global leader in carrier billing-based mobile payments fueling customers like Amazon, Apple, EA, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix, Sky, Spotify, Tencent, and Sony. As CEO and Director of digital ticketing platforms Trinity Mobile and Ticketscript (now part of Eventbrite, NYSE: EB), he learned firsthand about payments from the merchant acceptance perspective. Alex was previously an Advisor to private equity firm 3i (LON: III) and a Venture Partner at venture capital firm Wellington Partners in London, with investments including BuyVIP, acquired by Amazon, and Ruckus Wireless, which went public on Nasdaq and is now part of ARRIS (NASDAQ: ARRS).","speakerRoute":"Alexandre-Gonthier"},{"speakerName":"Fernando Gonzalez Paulin","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Fernando%20Paulin%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"CEO","speakerCompany":"Unico","displayOrder":"52","speakerDescription":"
With over a decade of experience in artificial intelligence, Fernando Paulin is passionate about leveraging data to detect fraud. As the CEO of Unico Mexico, he leads a revolution in fraud prevention through the use of collective intelligence. His visionary approach anticipates emerging threats, utilizing shared knowledge to stay ahead.
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Fernando has a strong track record in critical areas such as KYC (Know Your Customer), client onboarding, and identity theft detection, positioning himself as a leader in these fields. As the former Chief Data & Analytics Officer at Rappi, he played a pivotal role in developing the Rappicard and driving fintech innovation.
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Deeply rooted in the banking and fintech sectors, Fernando combines technical expertise with a user-centric approach, ensuring that technology serves people. He is passionate about innovation and enjoys collaborating on new projects and exploring the latest tech trends.
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Under his leadership, Unico Mexico is transforming fraud detection, using AI to create solutions that not only identify threats but proactively protect businesses and users. His dedication to innovation and his ability to blend technology with practical solutions have made him a prominent voice in the industry.
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Fernando Paulin is always open to connecting with fellow tech enthusiasts, sharing his passion for innovation and solving complex problems through AI.
","speakerRoute":"Fernando-Gonzalez Paulin"},{"speakerName":"Ulrike Guigui","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Ulrike%20Guigui%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"MD","speakerCompany":"Deloitte Consulting","displayOrder":"53","speakerDescription":"
Ulrike Guigui is a Managing Director in Deloitte Consulting where she leads engagements focused on helping the top US banks and payment companies address their pressing challenges in the areas of growth, operating model design and payment transformation. She is the leader of Deloitte's Open Banking practice in the US. Ulrike has 25+ years of experience in leading transformative change across financial services organizations. She recently re-joined Deloitte after serving as the Head of Enterprise Payment Strategy at Wells Fargo. There she led a team focused on leveraging the assets and leadership position of Wells Fargo to create platforms, partnerships, and strategies to shape the future of payments. Additionally, she represented the bank on key payment topics across industry bodies, including the Payco board of The Clearing House and the board of Akoya, the bank owned open banking facilitator.
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Prior to joining Deloitte, Ulrike held leadership positions at Consumer Finance, Card and Payments companies in E urope and in the US. She holds an MBA in Finance (Fulbright Scholar) as well as dual undergraduate degrees in Business Administration (BA (HONS) and Diplom Betriebswirtin.
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Ulrike frequently publishes on payments topics and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, most recently at MoneyFest, Money 2020, Card Forum, Women in Payments.
","speakerRoute":"Ulrike-Guigui"},{"speakerName":"Tony Hayes","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Tony%20Hayes%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Managing Partner","speakerCompany":"Banking & Payments Group","displayOrder":"54","speakerDescription":"
Tony Hayes is the Founding Partner of Banking & Payments Group, a management consulting firm dedicated to serving the banking and payments industry. The firm provides best-in-class actionable advice to senior executives, bringing unmatched expertise and dedication to its clients. Before forming Banking & Payments Group, Tony was a Senior Partner and Global Lead for Payments at Oliver Wyman. Tony and the practice served a wide range of clients across the full payments ecosystem and in every major region. Additionally, he was the co-head of the Retail & Business Banking practice in the Americas. Prior to joining Oliver Wyman in 2007, Tony was a Managing Director with Dove Consulting where he led the firm's Financial Services practice. Tony is a recognized expert on consumer and small business payments, with work in credit, debit and prepaid cards mobile wallets, faster payments and cash, and with clients spanning issuers, ATM deployers, networks, merchant acquirers, mobile network operators, central banks and private equity investors.
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Beyond his client work, Tony has led several industry studies, including an annual payment benchmarking study. Tony graduated with First Class Honors from Oxford University.
","speakerRoute":"Tony-Hayes"},{"speakerName":"Peter Hazlehurst","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Peter%20Hazlehurst%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"CEO","speakerCompany":"Synctera","displayOrder":"55","speakerDescription":"Peter Hazlehurst, CEO and co-founder of Synctera, is a global FinTech entrepreneur and philanthropist with nearly 30 years of experience creating financial products for banks, FinTechs, and large tech companies. Launched in 2020, Synctera is an end-to-end platform with guided, personalized experiences that help FinTech builders create world-class products with embedded banking and card issuance. Peter moved from Australia to the US for his first startup in 1993, building a core banking system called Phoenix, that still powers many community banks today. Since then, Peter has served as Head of Uber Money, Chief Operating Officer at Postmates, Senior Director of Product Management at Google, CEO and Board Member of Google Payments Corporation, and Chief Product Officer at Yodlee. Peter also led Product at Nokia for Enterprise Mobility and Mobile email and has served as a CTO and consultant at several startups.","speakerRoute":"Peter-Hazlehurst"},{"speakerName":"Sarah Hinkfuss","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Sarah%20Hinkfuss%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Partner","speakerCompany":"Bain Capital Ventures","displayOrder":"56","speakerDescription":"
Sarah Hinkfuss is a Partner at Bain Capital Ventures where she works with growth-stage founders in application software and fintech. She is particularly interested in backing founders who have personal experience in the market they are creating.
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Prior to joining BCV, Sarah was a Vice President on the Tech Opportunities team at Bain Capital, and worked as an Associate in KKR's Growth Equity group in San Francisco. Prior to that she was a Senior Vice President at Applied Predictive Technologies, an enterprise SaaS company acquired by Mastercard in 2015.
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Sarah received an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she was an Arjay Miller Scholar and Siebel Scholar. She graduated cum laude with a BA in Economics and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, where she was a Hoopes Prize recipient and Weatherhead Research Fellow.
","speakerRoute":"Sarah-Hinkfuss"},{"speakerName":"Tim Hong","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/speaker-logos-2024/silhouette%20man.png","speakerTitle":"CPO","speakerCompany":"MoneyLion","displayOrder":"57","speakerDescription":"Bio to come soon.","speakerRoute":"Tim-Hong"},{"speakerName":"Jack Ingram","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Jack%20Ingram%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"CIO","speakerCompany":"WECU","displayOrder":"58","speakerDescription":"
Jack Ingram is the Chief Information Officer for WECU, a credit union based in Washington State, recently named the Best Credit Union in Washington State by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
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Jack has over 20 years of experience within the financial services sector; serving in technology leadership roles, at both credit unions and community banks. He is passionate about financial services and the intersection of technology, operations, and security and how the smart interplay of technology can remove friction for members, while simultaneously improving efficiency within the credit union. He was recognized as one of American Banker's Innovators of the Year in 2023.
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In his role at WECU, Jack is responsible for the overall digital and technology strategies within the credit union, which includes delivery and support for all retail banking, business banking, direct and indirect lending, risk management, and digital platforms. He remains focused on developing and implementing a digital-first technology strategy aligned with the organizations mission, vision, and values. This has led to extensive partnerships with multiple Fintechs and dramatically shifted the credit union's ability to offer relevant and meaningful products and services to its membership.
","speakerRoute":"Jack-Ingram"},{"speakerName":"Vik Iyer","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Vik%20Iyer%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Partner","speakerCompany":"McKinsey & Company","displayOrder":"59","speakerDescription":"
Vik is a Partner in McKinsey's San Francisco Office. Vik is a leader in McKinsey's work in FinTech, serving incumbents, disruptors, and investors across B2C and B2B domains. Vik is also a leader in McKinsey's Financial Services practice, specializing in building new businesses. He has served clients globally across the financial services value chain including but not limited to issuers, merchant acquirers, processors, and ISVs. Relevant experience includes:
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\n
- Built a new $1B+ business for a leading Payments player, including product proposition, sales, marketing, partnerships, and other key accelerants
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- Led effort with a global Financial Institution to create a new FinTech business unit including ringfencing existing assets, defining the growth strategy, and articulating the investor story
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- Developed the M&A strategy for a leading Global FinTech decacorn, driving platform expansion and creating $10B+ in enterprise value
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- Defined FinTech investment strategy for leading global Growth Equity firm
\n
- Advised leading global software provider on their FinTech entry strategy
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- Led 30+ due diligences across the FinTech landscape (market perspectives, key buying factors, risks & mitigating factors, etc.) 50+ due diligences across the banking and payments landscape
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- Prior to joining McKinsey in 2013, Vik spent four years working in biotech as a biomedical engineer focused on cancer therapeutics
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- Vik holds a B.S. in Economics, summa cum laude from The Wharton School and a B.S. in Engineering, summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
","speakerRoute":"Vik-Iyer"},{"speakerName":"Piyanka Jain","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Piyanka%20Jain%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"CEO","speakerCompany":"Aryng","displayOrder":"60","speakerDescription":"Piyanka Jain, CEO of Aryng, is a renowned thought leader in data, analytics, and AI. With over 20 years of experience, she holds two master's degrees in applied statistics and mathematics, with her early work focusing on AI. Her last corporate role was as the Head of Business Analytics for PayPal North America. \r\n \r\nPiyanka is the creator of the BADIR? analytics framework, which combines data science with real business impact. Widely used by Fortune 500 companies, BADIR has driven millions of dollars in results through data. As a #1 Amazon best-selling author of Behind Every Good Decision, Piyanka excels at guiding businesses toward data-driven success, leading Aryng's SWAT Data Science team in solving complex business challenges and delivering rapid ROI, especially for growth-stage startups. \r\n \r\nBeyond her leadership at Aryng, Piyanka is a recognized voice in the industry. She contributes to leading publications such as TechCrunch, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and MIT, and has been a keynote speaker at major global conferences. Her work is increasingly adopted by top organizations, including Google, Comcast, and Regeneron ","speakerRoute":"Piyanka-Jain"},{"speakerName":"Andrew Jamison","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/speaker-logos-2024/silhouette%20man.png","speakerTitle":"CEO & Co-Founder","speakerCompany":"Extend","displayOrder":"61","speakerDescription":"Andrew Jamison is the CEO and Co-Founder of Extend. Prior to Extend, Andrew was the head of B2B Corporate Payments Products at American Express with a mandate to drive digital payment innovation and adoption. Over the course of six years, he doubled B2B payment volumes by launching and scaling new capabilities and platforms. Prior to American Express, Andrew spent eight years managing global SAP deployments for large multinational corporations. He earned an MBA from INSEAD.","speakerRoute":"Andrew-Jamison"},{"speakerName":"Alex Johnson","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Alex%20Johnson%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Founder","speakerCompany":"Fintech Takes","displayOrder":"62","speakerDescription":"Alex Johnson is the founder of Fintech Takes, a media brand focused on the intersection of banking, technology, and public policy.","speakerRoute":"Alex-Johnson"},{"speakerName":"Sanjib Kalita","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Sanjib%20Kalita%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Chairman","speakerCompany":"Fintech Meetup","displayOrder":"63","speakerDescription":"
Sanjib is Chairman of Fintech Meetup, the conference with the most meetings and greatest ROI in the industry. Sanjib is also Founder & CEO of Guppy, a fintech startup focused on self-sovereign credit data.
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Sanjib has built and launched over 20 products and businesses including being a founding engineer on Intel's graphics chip business, the first Chief Marketing Officer of Money20/20, and a member of or advisor to over 10 startups resulting in investments or exits totalling over $2 billion. A former Googler, he worked on Google Wallet to bring new capabilities for live commerce and e-commerce. He was also a Senior Vice President in Citi's consumer business where he managed and turned around a $30 billion credit card business.
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Sanjib has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and BS and M.Eng. from Cornell University, where he built lasers, electric cars, hi-fi audio systems, and AI systems for electrocardiogram classification.
","speakerRoute":"Sanjib-Kalita"},{"speakerName":"Glendy Kam","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Glendy%20Kam%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"CPO","speakerCompany":"Tassat Group","displayOrder":"64","speakerDescription":"
Glendy Kam is the Chief Product Officer at Tassat Group, a technology infrastructure provider that equips its clients and partners with private blockchain technology powering real-time transaction, settlement, and data reconciliation solutions.
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Glendy began her career as a solution architect for global financial services institutions, then joined J.P. Morgan, where she pioneered the Application Programming Interface (API) pilot program, which became a cornerstone for the Open Banking initiative, and launched the first Real-Time Payment (RTP) API for B2B and B2C customers in the United States, a system that is now integrated with five international faster payment rails. Glendy's innovative approach was fundamental to the J.P. Morgan blockchain initiative, Onyx. As Product Manager for J.P. Morgan Access Mobile, Glendy oversaw the authentication and authorization of products across all digital channels for J.P. Morgan Treasury Services.
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Glendy's ambition and curiosity then led her to join Tassat Group in 2021, where, in less than five months, she was promoted to Chief Product Officer. Glendy's appointment catalyzed a period of rapid growth for Tassat: under her leadership, the scope and influence of TassatPay, the company's flagship product, expanded. TassatPay scaled to execute more than $2 trillion in real-time, instantaneous transactions via its private blockchain, which operates within the U.S. banking regulatory perimeter.
","speakerRoute":"Glendy-Kam"},{"speakerName":"Shamir Karkal","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Shamir%20Karkal%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Co-Founder","speakerCompany":"Sila","displayOrder":"65","speakerDescription":"Bio to come soon.","speakerRoute":"Shamir-Karkal"},{"speakerName":"Dan Kimerling","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Dan%20Kimerling%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Managing Partner","speakerCompany":"Deciens Capital","displayOrder":"66","speakerDescription":"
Dan Kimerling is the founder and managing partner of Deciens Capital, where he leads investments in transformative companies at their earliest stages. He sits on the boards of several Deciens portfolio companies, including Chipper Cash, GlacierGrid, and Treasury Prime.
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Before founding Deciens, Dan co-founded Standard Treasury, a banking API service provider, and served as its CEO until the company was acquired by Silicon Valley Bank in 2015. Standard Treasury built leading API solutions for the global financial services community and was backed by YCombinator, Andreessen Horowitz, and Index Ventures. After its acquisition, Dan took on roles overseeing API banking, open platform, and global research at SVB. Earlier in his career, he worked as an analyst at TechCrunch and helped launch their conference business.
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\n
Dan graduated from the University of Chicago with an A.B. and A.M. (both with honors) and studied mathematical (analytic) finance at the Booth School of Business for a year as a Booth Scholar. While at the University of Chicago, he won numerous awards, including the Howell Murray Alumni Association Award and Margaret C. Annan Undergraduate Award in Writing.
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\n
Dan was named to Forbes' \"30 under 30,\" is a Kauffman Fellow, was recently named to the Milken Institute's Young Leader Circle, is a member of the University of Chicago's Polsky Council, and is active in the Young Presidents' Organization.
","speakerRoute":"Dan-Kimerling"},{"speakerName":"Sarah Kirshbaum Levy","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/speaker-logos-2024/silhouette%20woman.png","speakerTitle":"CEO","speakerCompany":"Betterment","displayOrder":"67","speakerDescription":"Bio to come soon.","speakerRoute":"Sarah-Kirshbaum Levy"},{"speakerName":"Marcia Klingensmith","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Marcia%20Klimernsmith%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"CEO","speakerCompany":"FinTech Consulting, LLC","displayOrder":"68","speakerDescription":"Bio to come soon.","speakerRoute":"Marcia-Klingensmith"},{"speakerName":"Ken Kruszka","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Ken%20Kruszka%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Managing Director","speakerCompany":"Something FINteresting","displayOrder":"69","speakerDescription":"
Ken is a FinTech and Payments pioneer, who holds the distinction of being the first person to send $1 around the world by mobile transfer. In his career, Ken has launched: the first mobile remittances service in the US, the first global mobile bank account, the first neobank for immigrants in the US, and the first decoupled business payments smart switch.
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Ken is the Managing Director of Something FINteresting, a FinTech and Payments advisory. After 17 years as an entrepreneur, Ken most recently was the Head ofMerchant Product & Network for Trustly, leading open banking account-to-account payments. Before that, Ken was the Head of Product for AWS Payments where he drove the global roadmap for the expansion of payment functionality for all AWS customers worldwide. Previously, Ken led SnapCheck in revolutionizing business-to-business payments: eliminating $50 Billion in costs, removing $20 Billion in fraud. Priorto SnapCheck, as co-founder and CEO of m-Via, Ken grew the company into an industry-recognized leader in mobile financial services for the underserved. Ken is a Founding Member of the Faster Payments Council, as well as a member of the Federal Reserve's Business Payments Coalition and the FedNow Community. Ken has been named a Top Innovator to Watch by Bank Innovation, a Top FinTech Innovator by Aspioneer, a Top 25 FinTech CEO by Technology Innovators, a Top CEO in Mobile Payments by Boardroom Media, and a Leading Corporate Digital Transformation Innovator by Databird.
","speakerRoute":"Ken-Kruszka"},{"speakerName":"Magnus Larsson","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Magnus%20Larsson%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Co-Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"MAJORITY","displayOrder":"70","speakerDescription":"
A global entrepreneur, Magnus Larsson has led various ventures focused on creating innovative tech solutions to connect people around the world. His most recent venture, MAJORITY, is an all-in-one mobile banking app and community membership for internationals living in the US. Founded in 2019, MAJORITY raised its first venture capital funding in June of 2021 and has raised over $90M in equity funding to date. Registration is open to anyone from another country now living in America, with or without a Social Security number, allowing many to have access to banking and financial services for the first time in their lives. MAJORITY is the leader in mobile banking for migrants in America, revolutionizing the traditional banking industry and paving the way for financial inclusivity.
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An immigrant himself, Magnus launched MAJORITY to ease the financial burden and barriers created by moving to a country that he experienced first-hand. As someone who has faced the documentation hurdles for a non-US citizen, including not even being allowed to lease a car because he didn't have an established financial record in the States, he strives for other migrants to have more seamless and positive experiences as they establish themselves financially in America.
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Magnus believes in the critical importance of financial inclusion and how fintech is uniquely positioned to power it. He sees the future of fintech in building deeper partnerships with traditional bank partners, both in the US and globally, so companies with innovative technology can expand access to financial services for underserved communities. MAJORITY is leading the way, combining banking services with community-focused solutions, and driving the future of a more inclusive financial ecosystem for all.
","speakerRoute":"Magnus-Larsson"},{"speakerName":"Evan Leaphart","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Evan%20Leaphart%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"Kredit Academy","displayOrder":"71","speakerDescription":"
Evan Leaphart is a passionate serial entrepreneur and financial literacy advocate, dedicated to making financial education accessible and engaging. Drawing from his personal experiences with credit challenges, Evan founded Kredit Academy, a financial wellness company revolutionizing how financial institutions engage with their members through interactive education and real-world credit-building tools. The company recently one the world's largest startup competition, 43North, taking home a $1M investment and the audience choice award.
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Evan's commitment to fostering financial inclusion goes beyond his work at Kredit Academy. He co-founded the Black Men Talk Tech conference, a platform focused on promoting diversity and success in the tech ecosystem. His efforts in building community and promoting financial literacy earned him the Key to the City of Miami in 2019 where he has lived for over 20 years. With deep expertise in fintech, financial education, and community development, Evan is on a mission to close the wealth gap by equipping individuals and financial institutions with the tools needed to achieve long-term financial success.
","speakerRoute":"Evan-Leaphart"},{"speakerName":"Arad Levertov","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Arad%20Levertov%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"CEO","speakerCompany":"Sunbit","displayOrder":"73","speakerDescription":"
Arad Levertov is CEO and co-founder of Sunbit, a high-growth, late-stage financial technology company. Previously, he was the COO for Enova.
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Arad and his co-founders launched Sunbit to challenge the status quo, offering better consumer experiences. In a market where transactional thinking, heavy fee structures, exclusionary policies and products are standard, Sunbit stands apart, having served millions of customers with fast, transparent and fair terms and products, without charging fees of any kind.
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In addition to his former role as COO of fintech Enova, Arad has held operational leadership positions at Intel, and in military special forces. He received an MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and a BSC in Industrial Engineering and Management from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
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Arad resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Dana, and their four children. He loves to run and swim in his free time and has completed ten marathons. Arad volunteers with teenagers and is also in an organization that supports Navy Seals veterans.
","speakerRoute":"Arad-Levertov"},{"speakerName":"Kurt Lin","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Kurt%20Lin%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Co-Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"Pinwheel","displayOrder":"74","speakerDescription":"
Kurtis Lin is the Co-Founder and CEO of Pinwheel, a $500M Series B fintech startup on a mission to help banks win primacy with its next-gen payroll data network. Pinwheel helps banks and fintechs establish and grow customer relationships through its suite of innovative tools including: direct deposit switching, income verification, direct-to-consume earned wage access, and paying for bills with a paycheck.
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Kurt has spent his whole career in startups. Before Pinwheel, he ran business development for Luxe, a startup focused on solving the pain of parking. After it?s acquisition by Volvo, he helped drive the development of Volvo's digital and mobility products. Prior to that, he was on the growth team at Idean, a design startup that was eventually acquired by Capgemini.
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\n
Kurt attended University of California, Los Angeles and his insights on scaling companies to $1B and beyond have made him a recognized thought leader in the fintech space
","speakerRoute":"Kurt-Lin"},{"speakerName":"Tomer London","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Tomer%20London%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Co-Founder & CPO","speakerCompany":"Gusto","displayOrder":"75","speakerDescription":"
Tomer is the co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Gusto, where he co-leads the design, development and execution of the product vision - reimagining how modern payroll, benefits, and compliance operate. That includes incubating new programs and initiatives, as well as scaling Gusto Embedded Products.
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Tomer grew up in Haifa, Israel, where his family ran a small business. Prior to Gusto, he was the CEO and co-founder of Vizmo, a customer support startup, and served as a Computer Architecture researcher at Intel Research. Tomer holds a master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University and a bachelor?s degree in computer engineering from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology.
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\n
Beyond Gusto, he loves spending time with his three kids, Shira, Coby and Lavie, and his wife, Sara, and can often be found with a good book or a guitar in his hands.
","speakerRoute":"Tomer-London"},{"speakerName":"Adam Lowe","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Adam%20Lowe%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Chief Product & Innovation Officer","speakerCompany":"CompoSecure","displayOrder":"76","speakerDescription":"
Adam Lowe is the Chief Product & Innovation Officer at CompoSecure. From the government labs in the defense department to the burgeoning blockchain technology market, Dr. Lowe is on the cutting edge of innovation. Lowe created Arculus, a custom digital security solution to secure customers' payments, authentication, cold storage and digital asset storage to protect against the rapid growth in fraud and theft. Lowe is sending ripples through the industry with the Arculus Secure Authentication solution that gives customers a safe and easy-to-use digital asset ecosystem. He leads a team of engineers and technicians responsible for product development, process innovation and prototype design. Adam also serves as the technical lead, curating and expanding CompoSecure's patent portfolio. Adam joined CompoSecure as a Principal Research Engineer and has held several positions of progressive responsibility. Prior to CompoSecure, Adam held a research development role at SRC Inc., a not-for-profit R&D company supporting the US defense and intelligence communities. There, Adam led the company's Biotechnology Advanced Technology Initiative, guiding a team developing classified technology.
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\n
Adam holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University where he researched bio-nanotechnology and a BS in Microbiology from Salisbury University. He's published in a variety of peer-reviewed journals, authored technical book chapters and is listed as an inventor of over 400 patents and patents pending.
","speakerRoute":"Adam-Lowe"},{"speakerName":"Kyle Mack","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Kyle%20Mack%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"CEO","speakerCompany":"Middesk","displayOrder":"77","speakerDescription":"
Kyle Mack is the Co-Founder and CEO of Middesk, a company focused on improving the verification processes that financial institutions, lenders, and other businesses use to establish trust in their business relationships. Kyle, alongside his team, is dedicated to scaling trust across businesses, aiming to make B2B interactions as seamless and secure as possible. He has been instrumental in guiding Middesk's strategic direction and product development, particularly in the areas of business identity verification and risk assessment tools.
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\n
Before founding Middesk, Kyle gained substantial experience at Checkr, where he observed firsthand the challenges businesses faced in verifying and maintaining trust. This experience was pivotal in shaping his approach to Middesk, emphasizing the importance of building robust and efficient infrastructures for business verification.
","speakerRoute":"Kyle-Mack"},{"speakerName":"Brooke Major-Reid","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Brooke%20Major-Reid%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Chief Capital Officer","speakerCompany":"Affirm","displayOrder":"78","speakerDescription":"
Brooke Major-Reid serves as the Chief Capital Officer at Affirm, where she is responsible for the Company's Capital Markets, Treasury, Bank Partnerships, and Quantitative Markets teams. Prior to joining Affirm, Brooke was the Corporate Treasurer of Macy's,Inc., the omnichannel retailer. She is a seasoned finance and strategy professional who also successfully led short-term credit products businesses, among other senior roles, at Morgan Stanley where she worked for over 15 years. Before joining Macy's in 2019, Brooke was SVP, Head of Strategy at Cross River. She founded BEAMR Group Inc. in 2015, providing strategic and financial advice to startups, with a focus on women and minority-founded enterprises. She currently serves as a board member for Uncommon Schools, a nonprofit charter school management organization, and previously served as a corporate board member for Anaplan, Inc., which was acquired by Thoma Bravo in 2022.
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\n
She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BBA in International Business with a concentration in Finance from Howard University
","speakerRoute":"Brooke-Major-Reid"},{"speakerName":"Peggy Mangot","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Peggy%20Mangot%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Head of Fintech Partnerships, Global Banking","speakerCompany":"JPMorgan Chase & Co.","displayOrder":"79","speakerDescription":"Peggy Mangot is Head of Fintech Partnerships, Global Banking at JPMorgan Chase. Peggy brings a unique perspective with broad experience across traditional financial institutions, the Fintech startup ecosystem & large technology companies. Previously, Peggy was the Operating Partner for PayPal Ventures, a global strategic VC investing in fintech, commerce and infrastructure. Prior to PayPal Ventures, Peggy was GM/SVP, Innovation at Wells Fargo where she led the development and launch of the bank's challenger bank and its enterprise identity management platform (KYC/KYB and fraud at account open). Formerly, Peggy was founder & CEO of SparkGift, a Y Combinator backed micro-investing platform. Peggy also led a partnerships team for Google, focused on launching new mobile payment & commerce products. During her career, Peggy also held senior roles at Visa, Allianz, Accenture, PwC and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Peggy earned her B.S. in Finance from Indiana University and her J.D. from the Loyola University Chicago School of Law","speakerRoute":"Peggy-Mangot"},{"speakerName":"Carolyn Manis Sorensen","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Carolyn%20Manis%20Sorensen%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Advisor","speakerCompany":"Skavi Dev / Secure Technology Alliance","displayOrder":"80","speakerDescription":"Carolyn is an independent consultant in the Digital Identity and Identity & Access Management industry. Her background in Customer Protection has focused on promoting better technology solutions for protecting customers and service providers in digital channels. At an industry level, she has participated in FIDO Alliance, eFraud Global Forum, and currently leads the Secure Technology Alliance IAF Working Group for adoption of mDL in Banking & Financial Services","speakerRoute":"Carolyn-Manis Sorensen"},{"speakerName":"Rom Mascetti","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Rom%20Mascetti%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Principal","speakerCompany":"Flagship Advisory Partners","displayOrder":"81","speakerDescription":"Romano (Rom) Mascetti has over 9 years of experience as an advisor and practitioner in payments, fintech, and banking. Rom specializes in C2B and B2B payment acceptance, SaaS-embedded fintech, M&A advisory, and market analysis. He advises payments/fintech providers, SaaS platforms, banks, and private equity on growth and GTM strategy, operating model design, partnership formation, and product roadmapping across North America and Europe.","speakerRoute":"Rom-Mascetti"},{"speakerName":"Camilla Matias","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/speaker-logos-2024/silhouette%20woman.png","speakerTitle":"COO","speakerCompany":"Brex","displayOrder":"82","speakerDescription":"
Margaret joined Zions Bancorporation in October, 2023 as the Chief Technology Officer where she is responsible for all information technology functions for the Technology Organization, including application engineering, technology operations, technology strategy, data engineering, and technology infrastructure. \nMargaret has spent over 25 years in the financial industry at Capital One and more recently at Discover Financial Services where she served as Vice President and CTO for the Consumer Banking Technology teams.
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An advocate for technology education, Margaret served as an advisory board member of the computer science department at Virginia Commonwealth University and is the past board chair and current board member of CodeVA, a non-profit that partners with schools, parents, and communities to bring equitable computer science education to students across Virginia. \nMargaret holds a bachelor's degree in engineering from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in industrial engineering from Lehigh University.
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In her downtime, Margaret delights in trying new recipes, enjoying the outdoors, and traveling. In fact, she went to Australia and New Zealand for the 2023 Women?s World Cup Finals!
","speakerRoute":"Camilla-Matias"},{"speakerName":"Joseph Mayans","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Joseph%20Mayans%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Chief Economist, North America","speakerCompany":"Experian","displayOrder":"83","speakerDescription":"Bio to come soon.","speakerRoute":"Joseph-Mayans"},{"speakerName":"Margaret Mayer","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Margaret%20Mayer%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"CTO","speakerCompany":"Zions Bancorporation","displayOrder":"84","speakerDescription":"Bio to come soon.","speakerRoute":"Margaret-Mayer"},{"speakerName":"Cleve Mesidor","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/speaker-logos-2024/silhouette%20woman.png","speakerTitle":"Executive Director","speakerCompany":"Blockchain Foundation","displayOrder":"85","speakerDescription":"
Cleve Mesidor is Executive Director of Blockchain Foundation and founder of butterscotch Media. Cleve is also a Forbes Contributor and a Mayoral appointee to the DC Innovation and Technology Inclusion Council. Previously, she was a Public Policy Advisor to Blockchain Association.
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A web3 expert working in crypto for more than six year, she has been profiled on CNBC, ABC, NPR, PBS, NY Times, Washington Post, Politico, TIME. She was featured in the PBS Documentary, \"CRYPTO DECODED\", as well as, the Coinbase documentary, ?COIN: A Founder's Story.? Cleve is a respected industry leader and regularly headlines national tech conferences, including Money20/20, SXSW, CES, and others. On the global stage, she has spoken at Web3 and DeFi forums in Abu Dhabi, Toronto, Amsterdam, Bahamas, Barbados.
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A Washington insider, she served in the Obama Administration and as a senior staffer in Congress. Cleve is author of \"THE CLEVOLUTION: My Quest for Justice in Politics & Crypto.\" She earned a Master of Arts degree from Howard University and started her career in broadcasting at CNN's Washington Bureau.
","speakerRoute":"Cleve-Mesidor"},{"speakerName":"Eric McCabe","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Eric%20McCabe%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Head of Embedded Finance","speakerCompany":"Citizens","displayOrder":"86","speakerDescription":"Eric McCabe serves as Head of Embedded Finance at Citizens. In this capacity he guides the bank's effort to embed Citizens financial products in third-party platforms used by Citizens customers, and enables platforms, brands, and fintechs to provide financial services to their customers, backed by Citizens. Prior to joining Citizens, Eric held roles in Embedded Payments, Fintech Strategy, Product and Operations at SVB and Citi. Originally from Michigan, Eric spent 15 years in DC / NYC and now lives in Pittsburgh.","speakerRoute":"Eric-McCabe"},{"speakerName":"Jordan McKee","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Jordan%20McKee%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Research Director","speakerCompany":"451 Research, part of S&P Global","displayOrder":"87","speakerDescription":"Jordan has been an industry analyst for more than a decade, having launched the payments coverage at 451 Research in 2013. Jordan is listed on the Electronic Transactions Association's Forty Under 40 list and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes, TIME, Businessweek and The Financial Times. He has also appeared on radio and television interviews with the Associated Press, NPR and CBS.","speakerRoute":"Jordan-McKee"},{"speakerName":"Jeremy McLaughlin","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Jeremy%20McLaughlin%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Partner","speakerCompany":"K&L Gates","displayOrder":"88","speakerDescription":"
Jeremy McLaughlin leads K&L Gates's Payments, Bank Regulatory, and Consumer Financial Services practice group, and co-chairs both the Fintech industry group and the Digital Asset industry group. His practice focuses on regulatory compliance and enforcement for fintechs, digital asset companies, and other consumer financial products and services, including emerging payment and prepaid products. Jeremy is a regular speaker at fintech and cryptocurrency events both in the United States and abroad.
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Jeremy represents a broad range of clients across the financial services, fintech, and digital assets industries, from startups to some of the world's largest financial institutions. They include money services businesses, digital assets exchanges, token issuers (including NFTs), digital wallet providers, DeFi platforms, banks, retailers, credit and prepaid card companies, and lenders. He counsels clients on compliance with a wide range of laws, including state and federal consumer protection laws, money transmitter laws, international remittances, anti-money laundering laws, abandoned property laws, gift card rules, sweepstakes laws, and payment network rules. He helps clients negotiate and draft agreements involving payment technologies and licensing issues, custodial arrangements, and draft terms and conditions and disclosures for new products. He also serves as regulatory counsel in connection with investments, including conducting due diligences of payment companies and digital asset and cryptocurrency platforms.
","speakerRoute":"Jeremy-McLaughlin"},{"speakerName":"Joyce Mehlman","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/speaker-logos-2024/silhouette%20woman.png","speakerTitle":"Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"iLEX Consulting Group","displayOrder":"89","speakerDescription":"
Joyce is a banking professional with over 42 years of experience concentrated in Compliance, Operations, Vendor Management and Project Management. She has worked for banks of all sizes, both domestic and international, and across all areas and products including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, US Bank, BNPParibas and Ally Bank. Joyce has been working with Fintechs since joining The Bancorp Bank in 2005 as their COO where her team supported Fintech implementations & oversight including Debit & Prepaid Card Operations, Compliance, Customer Service, New Account Opening, HSA Operations, Wire & ACH processing.
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After leaving Bancorp Bank in 2011 Joyce formed her own consulting company, iLEX Consulting Group, and to date iLEX has supported the launch of over 50 programs in addition to assisting more than 13 banks build out the oversight needed to support these programs. Her team specializes in supporting all things Compliance, Risk & Fraud and Third-party Oversight, Back Office Operations, Dispute Management and Customer Service functions for the Fintechs they partner with including the development of all required policies, procedures, CS related macros and FAQs and Dispute communications.
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Recently, Joyce has co-founded Spidr, Inc with Ramy Serageldin. Spidr, a unified API tech stack solution, was built out of a need she saw for Fintechs who needed a partnership with industry known payment processors who they may not otherwise have access to due to funding or maturity of their program.
","speakerRoute":"Joyce-Mehlman"},{"speakerName":"Michelle Meyer","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Michelle%20Meyer%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Chief Economist, Head of the Mastercard Economics Institute","speakerCompany":"Mastercard","displayOrder":"90","speakerDescription":"
Leading the Mastercard Economics Institute as chief economist, Michelle's responsibilities include development and delivery of differentiated economic, financial policy and market thought leadership for customers, Mastercard and public policy. As part of one of the world's largest and most dynamic technology companies in the payments space, sitting at the center of commerce for more than 50 years, the Mastercard Economics Institute helps businesses make sense of the macroeconomic climate and extract relevant information to address their needs. Michelle oversees a growing team of economists, data scientists, visual artists, and story tellers to develop public and proprietary economic reporting derived from Mastercard's global network and proven external dat a sources.
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Prior to joining Mastercard, Michelle was the Head of U.S. Economics at Bank of America (BofA) Global Research. At BofA, she was responsible for providing the firm's U.S. economic forecasts, including the outlook for GDP, inflation, and Federal Reserve policy. Michelle's research is focused on the health of the consumer, relying on a variety of high frequency data sources. Previously, she was senior U.S. economist at Barclays Capital and started her career on the U.S. economics team at Lehman Brothers.
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Michelle earned a bachelor's degree (magna cum laude) and a master's degree, both in economics, at Boston University. In 2023, Michelle received a Visionary Award by the Council for Economic Education in 2023. Michelle was also named a Rising Star by the Women's Forum for Economy and Society in 2012 and recognized by Forbes Magazine as one of 30 under 30 in finance in 2011.
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Michelle is a member of the Council of Geoeconomic Advisors at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS). She is also part of the Economics Club of New York and a frequent commentator on news media outlets, including CNBC and Bloomberg TV, and is often cited in print and online media.
","speakerRoute":"Michelle-Meyer"},{"speakerName":"Jason Mikula","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Jason%20Mikula%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Head of Industry Strategy, Banking/Fintech","speakerCompany":"Taktile","displayOrder":"91","speakerDescription":"Jason Mikula is the Head of Industry Strategy, Banking & Fintech, at next-gen decision platform Taktile and the publisher of Fintech Business Weekly, a newsletter going beyond the headlines to analyze the technology, regulatory, and business model trends driving the rapidly evolving financial services ecosystem. He also advises and consults for and invests in early stage startups. Previously, he spent over a decade building and scaling consumer finance businesses, including at Enova, LendUp, and Goldman Sachs.","speakerRoute":"Jason-Mikula"},{"speakerName":"Nigel Morris","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Nigel%20Morris%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Co-Founder & Managing Partner","speakerCompany":"QED","displayOrder":"92","speakerDescription":"Bio to come soon.","speakerRoute":"Nigel-Morris"},{"speakerName":"Rocky Motwani","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Rocky%20Motwani%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"CEO","speakerCompany":"Cyphlens","displayOrder":"93","speakerDescription":"
Rocky Motwani is the Founder and CEO of Cyphlens, a cutting-edge cybersecurity startup revolutionizing digital security with its innovative \"embedded MFA\" technology. Cyphlens goes beyond traditional Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) by embedding the MFA step directly into content, ensuring continuous and invisible security for both sides of digital transactions. This breakthrough serves a wide range of industries, from financial services to national defense, positioning Cyphlens as a solution trusted by both Wall Street and special forces.
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Rocky's passion for cybersecurity was born from personal experience-he was the target of a sophisticated cyberattack, an event that inspired him to reimagine how security could be integrated into everyday technology. As a thought leader in cybersecurity, Rocky has driven Cyphlens to become AI-resistant and hacker-resistant, ensuring organizations are protected in an evolving digital landscape.
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He is currently on the Board of Minerals Technologies (NYSE: MTX) and is a former Managing Director at JPMorgan, where he led several payments businesses. Rocky is also the co-founder of Jiko Bank, which delivers spendable Treasuries. In addition to his professional achievements, Rocky is a father to three toddlers.
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With his unique perspective that bridges cybersecurity, financial services, and national defense, Rocky is eager to share his insights on the future of secure digital environments at the intersection of innovation and risk management.
","speakerRoute":"Rocky-Motwani"},{"speakerName":"Don Muir","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Don%20Muir%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Co-Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"Arc Technologies","displayOrder":"94","speakerDescription":"
Don's passion for finance and technology has been evident throughout his career. At Cornell, he studied Finance, was the Merrill Presidential Scholar (top 1% of his class), and served as Senior Class President. At Stanford's Graduate School of Business, he earned the Alexander A. Robichek Student Achievement Award in Finance and graduated as an Arjay Miller Scholar.
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Before founding Arc, Don worked in traditional financial services, where he saw inefficiencies in capital raising and commercial banking, particularly for CFOs and startups. He realized that large banks were transactional and slow, leaving high-growth tech companies underserved. At Arc, Don set out to solve this by combining banking and capital solutions in a frictionless software platform. Arc partners with leading financial institutions to deliver fee-free banking, $6M FDIC & SIPC insurance, 5.5% APY treasury management, and venture debt solutions.
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Despite strong competition and macroeconomic volatility, Don has scaled Arc, securing over $180M in capital and thousands of customers. During the 2023 tech banking crisis, he led Arc to rapid growth, introducing features like 20x FDIC insurance, resulting in 4k+ new users and 12x deposit growth.
","speakerRoute":"Don-Muir"},{"speakerName":"David Ness","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/David%20Ness%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"SVP Innovation, Fintech Partnerships & Investments","speakerCompany":"U.S. Bank","displayOrder":"95","speakerDescription":"
David C. Ness stands at the forefront of financial innovation as the leader of U.S. Bank's Fintech Acceleration practice. With a keen eye for transformative solutions, he orchestrates the collaboration between the bank and thousands of Financial Technology companies, fueling progress and pioneering change. His approach to research and development extends beyond conventional boundaries, tapping into the vast fintech ecosystem to unlock billions in potential.
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A seasoned professional with over 20 years of experience, David's expertise spans continents and sectors, from the bustling startup scene in the EU to the corporate giants of the US. His unique blend of banking acumen and entrepreneurial spirit enables him to demystify fintech complexities and unlock real value.
","speakerRoute":"David-Ness"},{"speakerName":"Carlos Netto","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Carlos%20Netto%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Co-Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"Matera","displayOrder":"96","speakerDescription":"Carlos Netto is the Co-founder and CEO of Matera, a software company he founded over 30 years ago in Brazil. Matera provides instant payments, QR code payments, and core banking technology to financial institutions. Carlos is a specialist in digital payments and open banking and was even awarded a U.S. patent for offline QR code payments. Currently, he is leading Matera's global expansion to the U.S.","speakerRoute":"Carlos-Netto"},{"speakerName":"Roy Ng","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Roy%20Ng%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"EVP, Chief Business Officer - Platform & Enterprise","speakerCompany":"FIS","displayOrder":"97","speakerDescription":"
Roy Ng is the Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer of FIS Platform and Enterprise Solutions. Roy joined FIS via the company's acquisition of his company Bond in 2023, where he was co-founder & CEO. Bond is a leading embedded finance platform focused on credit solutions, and its mission is to accelerate the pace of financial innovation and inclusion. Roy has over 20 years of experience in leading, scaling, and transforming technology companies across various sectors and markets. He is passionate about leveraging fintech to create personalized and compliant banking products that enhance customer engagement and loyalty.
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Roy has a proven track record of delivering growth and value for his teams, customers, and partners. He was previously the COO of Twilio, where he played a key role in transitioning the private startup to a global, publicly-listed company. He also held senior executive positions at SAP and SuccessFactors, where he drove the cloud strategy and business operations. Prior to his operating roles, Roy was a software investment banker at Goldman Sachs, where he advised on over $23 billion of M&A and financing transactions. Roy holds dual degrees from U.C. Berkeley and is an active investor and advisor to technology companies.
","speakerRoute":"Roy-Ng"},{"speakerName":"Terry O'Neil","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Terry%20Oneil%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Head of Connected Commerce","speakerCompany":"Citi Retail Services","displayOrder":"98","speakerDescription":"
Terry O'Neil is the Head of Connected Commerce for Citi Retail Services. In this role, Terry expands and redefines Citi's suite of point-of-sale financing capabilities to drive growth for Citi and its partners. This includes the expansion of Retail Services' embedded payment capabilities with the launch of the Citi Pay family of products, to boost loyalty and engagement with merchant partners' customers. He also leads the Strategic Fintech Partnerships team for U.S. Personal Banking, operating across Citi to identify, design, and onboard relationships with leading Fintech partners creating innovation and transformational solutions across payments, lending, and digital banking.
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Prior to his current role, Terry was the Chief Marketing Officer for Retail Services, and he led Co-Brand Products, Strategic Marketing, and Analytics for the division. Terry's previous roles also include Head of Proprietary Products for U.S. Branded Cards at Citi.
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Before joining Citi, Terry held senior marketing, product, and business development roles at Visa, PNC Bank, Household Credit Services, and JPMorgan Chase.
","speakerRoute":"Terry-O'Neil"},{"speakerName":"Cara Oppenheimer","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Cara%20Oppenheimer%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Co-Founder","speakerCompany":"goodbuy","displayOrder":"99","speakerDescription":"Cara is the Co-Founder of goodbuy, a consumer technology company building network effects for Credit Unions, through Enhanced Small Business Accounts. Cara is a creative powerhouse, and innovative marketer. As a Creative Director, for 18 years she led experiences and launched products for Fortune 100 brands. She is originally from Canada where her parents owned various small, independent businesses. This part of her story became the core driver for goodbuy, where she's focused on making shopping from small, independent and local brands easier.","speakerRoute":"Cara-Oppenheimer"},{"speakerName":"Rory O'Reilly","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Rory%20O%20Reilly%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Co-Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"Knot","displayOrder":"100","speakerDescription":"
Rory O'Reilly is a serial entrepreneur and the CEO and Co-Founder of Knot, a fintech company revolutionizing merchant connectivity. He co-founded Knot with his brother, Kieran O'Reilly, in 2020 after launching a card program and recognizing how difficult it was for users to update their cards on file - a notoriously painful process. Knot's core product, CardSwitcher, solves this by enabling users to seamlessly update their cards across top merchants, driving revenue and retention for card issuers. Building on this foundation, Knot is expanding into a full merchant connectivity platform, developing a suite of products that enhance how financial institutions and merchants interact.
","speakerRoute":"Rory-O'Reilly"},{"speakerName":"Elizabeth Osborne","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Elizabeth%20Osborne%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"COO","speakerCompany":"Great Lakes Credit Union","displayOrder":"101","speakerDescription":"
Elizabeth Osborne is an experienced operations and information technology leader based in the greater Chicago area, with a solid background in the Credit Union and banking industries. With a track record of success, she has held prominent roles such as Chief Information Officer (CIO) in Community Banking and Business Integration for Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) for a regional bank. She was recently recognized by American Banker as one of the \"Most Powerful Women in Credit Unions\"(10th) 2023.
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Currently serving as the Chief Operations Officer at Great Lakes Credit Union (GLCU), Elizabeth holds oversight over critical areas including Technology, Digital, Deposit Operations, Product Management, and the Project Management Office (PMO). Her strategic insights, data-driven decision-making, and expertise in process improvement play a pivotal role in executing GLCU's strategy and enhancing operational efficiency.
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Elizabeth's proficiency spans across various domains including Management, Project Management, Risk Management, Data Analysis, Strategic Planning, Budgeting, and Business Process Improvement. She has been instrumental in driving operational excellence and fostering technological innovation through strategic partnerships with FinTechs and other key collaborators. With her comprehensive skill set and dedication to excellence, Elizabeth continues to drive forward progress and success in the financial sector.
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Elizabeth has an MBA in Finance from Endicott College in Beverly, MA, a BS in Leadership from Northeastern University in Boston, MA, and a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Certificate from Cornell University.
","speakerRoute":"Elizabeth-Osborne"},{"speakerName":"Shruti Patel","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/speaker-logos-2024/silhouette%20woman.png","speakerTitle":"EVP & CPO, Business Banking","speakerCompany":"U.S. Bank","displayOrder":"102","speakerDescription":"Bio to come soon.","speakerRoute":"Shruti-Patel"},{"speakerName":"Julien Phipps","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Julien%20Phipps%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Co-Founder, Partner","speakerCompany":"Tropoly","displayOrder":"103","speakerDescription":"Julien is an innovative executive with over 20 years of leadership experience in growth marketing, sales partnerships, and strategic planning across the technology, finance, and sustainability sectors. With a proven track record of driving transformative solutions and implementing effective revenue scaling plans, Julien excels in leading diverse teams and navigating complex industries. He holds an LLM from the University of Toronto, BCom from Royal Roads University amongst other lifelong learning from various institutions. As Founder of Tropoly Inc. and Accellerra Ventures Inc. and in key roles at Nav Technologies, Flowcast, Emailage, Alt 5 Sigma, all of which have achieved significant milestones. His community impact includes revitalizing the Vancouver Chamber of Commerce and leaving a community legacy impact via the Canada One Foundation and KitsFest at Vancouver's beautiful Kitsilano Beach. Julien is a strategic sales and rev ops leader with a strong commitment and passion for innovation, excellence, and organizational success.","speakerRoute":"Julien-Phipps"},{"speakerName":"Catherine Porter","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Catherine%20Porter%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Chief Business Officer","speakerCompany":"Prove","displayOrder":"104","speakerDescription":"Catherine Porter is the Chief Business Officer at Prove, the world's most accurate identity verification and authentication platform used by both tech and traditional finance leaders, from Plaid and Binance to Bank of America and Citi. Catherine has over two decades of experience leading strategy, sales and marketing for consumer and enterprise technology companies, including VP of global partnerships and fintech innovation at Meta, CBO at all-in-one-payment platform Tilia, and various roles at category-leading companies including OpenTable, LinkedIn, Google and Oracle. Catherine is an expert in security and optimization solutions for digital payments and e-commerce;she has considerable international growth experience, with a concentration in Japan's internet and mobile ecosystem.","speakerRoute":"Catherine-Porter"},{"speakerName":"Michelle Prohaska","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Michelle%20Prohaska%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Chief Risk & Compliance Officer","speakerCompany":"Nymbus","displayOrder":"105","speakerDescription":"Michael is the Co-Founder & CEO of Novo, a B2B neobank offering banking, credit, and software solutions so that small business owners focus on doing more of what they love. Novo has raised $173M in equity capital from Valar Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Stripes, GGV Capital, among others.","speakerRoute":"Michelle-Prohaska"},{"speakerName":"Michael Rangel","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Michael%20Rangel%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Co-Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"Novo","displayOrder":"106","speakerDescription":"In her role as Chief Risk & Compliance Officer at Nymbus, Michelle leads the teams administering the Risk, Compliance, Fraud, Vendor Risk, and Information Security functions for the company. She's passionate about partnering with banks and credit unions to bring innovative and compliant solutions to market, but also changing the narrative of these traditional oversight functions across fintech and the broader financial services industry from cost centers to strategic differentiators. Prior to joining Nymbus, Michelle was the Vice President of Compliance and later Vice President of Risk Management at a $1B credit union in the Midwest. She also worked as a senior regulatory compliance consultant for RSM US LLLP. Michelle began her career in banking while in pursuit of her undergraduate degree in Accounting. She holds a JD from the University of Iowa College of Law and is licensed to practice in the state of Iowa. Michelle has been with Nymbus since 2020 and maintains active NCCO, NCRM, and CRCM compliance certifications.","speakerRoute":"Michael-Rangel"},{"speakerName":"Kirthiga Reddy","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Kirthiga%20Reddy%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"President","speakerCompany":"Athena Capital","displayOrder":"107","speakerDescription":"
Kirthiga Reddy is a renowned technology executive and growth-stage investor, currently serving as the President and Director of Athena. With a career spanning approximately three decades, Reddy has established herself as a formidable force in the tech industry. Her role at Athena highlights her commitment to innovative technology and strategic leadership.
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Reddy's professional journey is marked by her tenure as Managing Director at Facebook India and South Asia, where she played a pivotal role in the company's expansion in emerging markets. She was Facebook's first employee in India, demonstrating her trailblazing spirit. Prior to Athena, she was SoftBank Investment Adviser?s first female Investment Partner, focusing on frontier, enterprise and health tech investments.
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Additionally, she has served as Chair of the Stanford Business School Management Board, contributing her expertise to the academic field.
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She has been recognized as Fortune India?s ?Most Powerful Woman? and as Fast Company?s ?Most Creative People in Business? among other recognitions.
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Kirthiga Reddy holds a Bachelor's in Computer Science and Engineering from MGM's College of Engineering. Following this, Reddy moved to the United States, where she completed her Master's in Business Administration from Stanford University, graduating with highest honors as an Arjay Miller Scholar and an M.S. in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University.
","speakerRoute":"Kirthiga-Reddy"},{"speakerName":"Peter Renton","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Peter%20Renton%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"Renton & Co","displayOrder":"108","speakerDescription":"
Peter Renton is the CEO of Renton & Co, a consulting firm specializing in fintech media, events and thought leadership. He was formerly the co-founder and chairman of Fintech Nexus, a fintech media and events company that produced 31 large-scale events worldwide. The events business was sold to Fintech Meetup in 2023 and the media business was shut down in June 2024.
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Peter has been writing about fintech since 2010, with over 2,500 articles published. He is the author and creator of the Fintech One-on-One Podcast, the first and longest-running fintech interview series, recently crossing 500 episodes. Over the last decade, Peter has conducted over 750 interviews and panel discussions and produced over 1,800 fintech newsletters.
","speakerRoute":"Peter-Renton"},{"speakerName":"Michael Rhodes","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Michael%20Rhodes%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"CEO","speakerCompany":"Ally Financial","displayOrder":"109","speakerDescription":"
Michael Rhodes is the chief executive officer of Ally Financial Inc., responsible for driving Ally's evolution as a full-service financial services company with the nation's largest all-digital bank and an industry-leading auto financing business. He also serves on the company's board of directors.
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Rhodes has more than 25 years of experience across retail and consumer banking and has a track record of delivering transformative digital, data, and technology strategies.
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Prior to joining Ally in April 2024, Rhodes served as the CEO and president of Discover Financial Services and president of Discover Bank, as well as a member of the board of directors of Discover Financial Services and Discover Bank.
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Before Discover, Rhodes spent over 12 years at TD Bank Group, serving as group head, Canadian Personal Banking, overseeing the division dedicated to retail products and serving customers through mobile, online, telephone, and a network of more than 1,000 branches. During his tenure at TD Bank, Rhodes also led North American Credit Card and Merchant Services and served as head of Innovation, Technology, and Shared Services. In this role, he strengthened operational resilience, security, and efficiency while improving the bank's capability to support emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and cloud migration.
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Earlier in his career, he held senior leadership positions at Bank of America and MBNA America Bank. He managed businesses in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain and Ireland in a variety of roles within payments and banking. He began his career as an engineer working for a leading engineering and scientific consulting firm.
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Rhodes is active in supporting several important social causes and currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Duke University, where he also is the chair of the Governance Committee. Prior community boards include the United Way of Delaware, the Boys and Girls Club of Delaware, the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund, Christiana Care Health Systems, the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, and Winterthur Garden Museum and Library.
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Rhodes earned his Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and holds a Bachelor of Science in engineering from Duke University.
","speakerRoute":"Michael-Rhodes"},{"speakerName":"Anita Roberts","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/speaker-logos-2024/silhouette%20woman.png","speakerTitle":"MD","speakerCompany":"Silicon Hills Capital","displayOrder":"110","speakerDescription":"Bio to come soon.","speakerRoute":"Anita-Roberts"},{"speakerName":"Carolyn Rodz","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Carolyn%20Rodz%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Co-Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"Hello Alice","displayOrder":"111","speakerDescription":"
Carolyn Rodz, a three-time award-winning entrepreneur from Bolivia, is the co-founder and CEO of Hello Alice, a free platform that provides business owners with access to funding, networks, and services through data-driven technology. Hello Alice supports over a million companies globally, building one of the largest entrepreneurial communities in the U.S. Carolyn has been recognized as one of Inc. Magazine's \"17 Women to Watch,\" named Hispanic CEO of the Year by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and testified before the U.S. Congressional House Small Business Committee. She has also co-chaired Houston's Women and Minority Small Business Task Force and been featured in major outlets like Inc., Forbes, and Fortune.
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Prior to Hello Alice, Carolyn launched the world's first completely virtual accelerator, helping 300+ women entrepreneurs raise $76 million. She also scaled and sold the marketing firm Cake, a data-driven marketing analytics company, and founded Signatures, a luxury retail line sold globally. Carolyn is a member of the Dell Women's Entrepreneur Network, a United Nations Global Accelerator delegate, and a TEDx Austin keynote speaker. She resides in Houston with her husband and two sons.
","speakerRoute":"Carolyn-Rodz"},{"speakerName":"Dan Rosen","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/speaker-logos-2024/silhouette%20man.png","speakerTitle":"Partner","speakerCompany":"Commerce Ventures","displayOrder":"112","speakerDescription":"
Dan is the Founding Partner of Commerce Ventures, a venture firm focused on digital innovations in the FinTech and Commerce eco-systems. Commerce Ventures manages more than $500 million of capital, highly strategic individuals and enterprises, including nearly 20 Fortune 500 companies. Thus far, the firm has invested in over 100 portfolio companies since its launch, and Dan has overseen CV?s early investments category leaders, such as Bill.com (IPO), BillGO, Bloom Credit, ClickSwitch (Acq'd by Q2), Forter, InAuth (Acq'd by Amex), Inbox Health, Kin, Marqeta (IPO), Moov, MX, SessionM (Acq'd by Mastercard), Socure and VestWell.
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Prior to creating Commerce Ventures, Dan was a Principal at Highland Capital Partners where he invested in mobile and FinTech companies, such as PerkStreet, Quattro Wireless (acquired by Apple), Triad and WePay (acquired by JPMC). He has also worked at HarbourVest Partners, where he invested in growth-stage technology and communications businesses;in Corporate Strategy at RSA Security;and was implementing lending systems as a consultant at American Management Systems before the term 'FinTech' existed.
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Dan studied Finance and Information Systems at the University of Pennsylvania and earned an MBA with Distinction from Harvard.
","speakerRoute":"Dan-Rosen"},{"speakerName":"Seth Rosenberg","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Seth%20Rosenberg%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"General Partner","speakerCompany":"Greylock","displayOrder":"113","speakerDescription":"As a general partner at Greylock, Seth partners with promising early-stage founders who are dedicated to making bold moves in fintech and artificial intelligence. Investments include companies like Ramp, Greenlite (LLM-powered coworkers to bank/fintech compliance teams) Wisetack (buy now-pay later for in person services), Pine (Canadian home financing), and Espresso Systems.","speakerRoute":"Seth-Rosenberg"},{"speakerName":"Ema Rouf","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Ema%20Rouf%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Co-Founder & President","speakerCompany":"Pave.dev","displayOrder":"114","speakerDescription":"
Ema Rouf is the CEO and Co-founder of Pave.dev, a company that provides cashflow driven credit scores for emerging credit products, empowering risk teams to originate more loans.
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Pave.dev's scores establish a shared standard between non-bank lenders and their capital providers, enabling monitoring, securitization, and portfolio growth.
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Raymond leads Pave.dev with a mission to create a future where equitable credit solutions are within reach for every individual and business.
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As a 3x founder with over 15 years of experience in building enterprise analytics products, Ema is at the forefront of innovation in the financial industry.
","speakerRoute":"Ema-Rouf"},{"speakerName":"Todd Rovak","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/speaker-logos-2024/silhouette%20man.png","speakerTitle":"Co-Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"Carefull","displayOrder":"115","speakerDescription":"Todd Rovak is the Co-Founder and CEO of Carefull, the first AI-enabled digital platform designed to protect older adults from fraud, scams, and money mistakes while supporting next-generation financial caregivers. Through partnerships with financial institutions, Carefull brings new simplicity, intelligence, and tools to this underserved financial lifestage. Previously, Todd was the CEO at Fahrenheit 212, a product innovation firm where he led the creation of new products for Fortune 500 companies, focusing on financial services. After Fahrenheit 212 was acquired by Capgemini in 2016, Todd was asked to lead Capgemini?s North American business. His experience in financial services revealed the lack of technology supporting older adults and their financial caregivers. Recognized for his entrepreneurial drive and customer-centric approach, Todd has become a leader in the AgeTech and elder fraud space, with appearances in The New York Times and CNBC. ","speakerRoute":"Todd-Rovak"},{"speakerName":"Emanuela Saccarola","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Emanuela%20Saccarola%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Managing Director, Head of Cross Border Payments","speakerCompany":"Citi","displayOrder":"116","speakerDescription":"
Emanuela is the Global Head of Cross Border Payments at Citi, she is responsible for Citi's cross border payments solutions, accountable for the business strategy and its execution, P&L, product development and partnership with Markets. Recent innovation includes real time payments into bank accounts and into Alternative Payment Methods across borders and currencies and Global Beneficiary Services which allow clients' payees to digitally track incoming payments.
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She has been with Citi for a number of years and held various roles within product management in payments as well as a role in Strategy and Financial Planning & Analysis in New York. Before joining Citi in 2003, Emanuela worked for five years at Goldman Sachs in New York in both M&A and Equity Research.
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Emanuela holds a Master's degree in Economics from New York University (USA) and a degree magna cum laude in Economics and Commerce from Ca' Foscari University of Venice (Italy).
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She served as a Non-Executive Director of HealthBeacon plc prior to the company's IPO, she sits on the EMEA Advisory Board of Women in Payments. In her personal life she is very enthusiastic about sport and a passionate skier and Yoga practitioner. Emanuela is originally from Venice, Italy and currently lives in Dublin, Ireland with her husband Jim, a Boston native, they have two sons age 22 and 17.
","speakerRoute":"Emanuela-Saccarola"},{"speakerName":"Jahanvi Sardana","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Jahanvi%20Sardana%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Partner","speakerCompany":"Index Ventures","displayOrder":"117","speakerDescription":"
Jahanvi is a B2B investor focusing on cybersecurity, enterprise software, and fintech, from seed to pre-IPO stages. She is particularly excited to work with founders that display an immense amount of grit. Grit is the differentiating factor, that intangible essence, that sets high achievers apart; it's the blend of passion, perseverance, and stamina to turn dreams into reality.
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Prior to Index, Jahanvi worked at Stripes, a growth equity firm in New York where she invested in cybersecurity, fintech, and application SaaS companies. Before that, she began her career in private equity at Aquiline Capital Partners.
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She holds a B.S. in Finance and Business Analytics from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She is originally from India and enjoys fitness boxing, yoga, and eating Thai food.
","speakerRoute":"Jahanvi-Sardana"},{"speakerName":"Cosimo Schiavone","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/speaker-logos-2024/Cosimo%20Schiavone%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Partner","speakerCompany":"Oliver Wyman","displayOrder":"118","speakerDescription":"Cosimo is a Partner in Oliver Wyman's Financial Services practice, based in the New York office. With more than 15 years of management consulting experience across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, he works at the intersection of banking and financial technology, helping clients navigate and accelerate growth in the evolving financial services ecosystem. His clients include traditional and digital banks, fintech and infrastructure providers, data and analytics companies, and financial sponsors. He specializes in growth strategy, new business and product launch, innovation, value creation, M&A, and operating model design.","speakerRoute":"Cosimo-Schiavone"},{"speakerName":"Ham Serunjogi","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Ham%20Serunjogi%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Co-Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"Chipper Cash","displayOrder":"119","speakerDescription":"
Ham is the Co-Founder & CEO of Chipper Cash. As CEO, Ham heads the Executive Leadership Team and is responsible for leading the company's overall direction and strategy.
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After graduating from Grinnell College in 2016 with a bachelor's degree in Economics, Ham began his career at Meta where he worked in their Dublin, Ireland, office and was responsible for building partner relationships with some of the company's biggest UK advertisers.
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Ham serves on the Board of Trustees of his alma mater Grinne ll College, where he is one of four Trustees that sit on the Investment Committee which is charged with overseeing and allocating the College's approximately $3.5B endowment.
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In September 2023, President Biden appointed Ham as one of the inaugural 12 members of the President's Advisory Council on African Diaspora Engagement in the United States, which aims to enhance dialogue between U.S. officials and the African diaspora. Ham will serve for the 2023-2025 term.
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On a personal level, Ham swam competitively for many years and competed in the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore, representing Uganda. Prior to attaining his degree, Ham attended the Aga Khan Academy in Mombasa where he was elected President of its Students' Council.
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Ham is based out of Chipper's global headquarters in San Francisco, California.
","speakerRoute":"Ham-Serunjogi"},{"speakerName":"Ron Shevlin","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Ron%20Shevlin%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Chief Research Officer","speakerCompany":"Cornerstone Advisors","displayOrder":"120","speakerDescription":"Bio to come soon.","speakerRoute":"Ron-Shevlin"},{"speakerName":"Shivani Siroya","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Shivani%20Siroya%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"CEO & Founder","speakerCompany":"Tala","displayOrder":"121","speakerDescription":"
Shivani Siroya is the founder and CEO of Tala, the first financial platform for the Global Majority. Through Tala, customers across the globe can instantly access credit, deposit and payment services. Over 10 million customers across Kenya, the Philippines, Mexico, and India have used Tala products to start and expand small businesses, manage day-to-day needs, and pursue their financial goals with confidence. Tala has raised nearly half a billion dollars in investments and debt, backed by visionary investors including IVP, Revolution Growth, Lowercase Capital, and PayPal Ventures. The company has been named to the Fortune Impact 20 list, CNBC's Disruptor 50 five years in a row, and Forbes' Fintech 50 list for eight years running.
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Prior to founding Tala, Shivani worked as an analyst with UNFPA, holding thousands of interviews to understand the financial capacity of microcredit users in South Asia and Sub Saharan Africa. She has also held a variety of positions in global health and investment banking, including with Health Net, Citigroup, and UBS. Shivani is an Aspen Institute Finance Leader Fellow, a WEF Young Global Leader, Senior TED Fellow and Ashoka Fellow. She holds a M.P.H from Columbia University and a B.A. from Wesleyan University.
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Shivani grew up in New York and spent much of her childhood with family in Udaipur, Rajasthan. She currently resides in Los Angeles.
","speakerRoute":"Shivani-Siroya"},{"speakerName":"Carl Slabicki","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Carl%20Slabicki%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Executive Platform Owner, Treasury Services","speakerCompany":"BNY","displayOrder":"122","speakerDescription":"
Carl Slabicki is the Executive Platform Owner for Treasury Services. In his current role, Carl is responsible for our Treasury Services Client platform, representing our commercial business which delivers Payments, Trade & Cash Management solutions to our clients globally.
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Mr. Slabicki serves on the Board of Directors for Nacha, the Managing Board for The Clearing House Payments Company, is the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the U.S. Faster Payments Council and serves on the Board of Directors for MoCaFi.
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Prior to joining BNY Mellon in 2014, Mr. Slabicki was the Treasurer for the Wurth Group of North America Inc. which is the regional in-house bank, holding company and shared service center for the Wurth Group.
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Mr. Slabicki graduated from Muhlenberg College with bachelor's degrees in Economics and Business Administration and is a graduate of SIFMA's Securities Industry Institute Executive Education Program at Wharton. He is a Certified Treasury Professional (CTP) and an Accredited ACH Professional (AAP).
","speakerRoute":"Carl-Slabicki"},{"speakerName":"Brandt Smallwood","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Brandt%20Smallwood%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Chief Strategy Officer","speakerCompany":"Bilt Rewards","displayOrder":"123","speakerDescription":"
Brandt Smallwood, Chief Strategy Officer, Bilt Rewards
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Brandt is Chief Strategy Officer, with responsibility for Bilt's loyalty program and partnerships as well as its consumer finance offerings, including the award winning, Wells Fargo issued, Bilt Mastercard. Prior to joining Bilt, Brandt spent close to a decade in financial services in a variety of roles. First, as an investment banker in the Financial Institutions Group at Goldman Sachs, then as a founding team member and Chief of Staff to the CEO and COO of Marcus: By Goldman Sachs and most recently as a founding team member and investment banker of the Financial Services Group at Centerview Partners, where he was a Principal. Brandt holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Columbia University.
","speakerRoute":"Brandt-Smallwood"},{"speakerName":"Trent Sorbe","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Trent%20Sorbe%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"CPO","speakerCompany":"First International Bank & Trust/Kotapay","displayOrder":"124","speakerDescription":"Trent Sorbe joined First International Bank & Trust in 2023 as the institution's first Executive Vice President/Chief Payments Officer. Sorbe leads the 114-year-old organization?s payments initiatives, including its Kotapay division, a top-40 ACH originator in 2023 that is on pace to settle over $100 billion in ACH originations in 2024.\nTrent previously served as Founder and CEO of Central Payments, a payments and technology service provider based in Sioux Falls, SD. There, Sorbe architected the company?s Open*CP Fintech API Marketplace, a cloud-based bank-as-a-service payments platforms and the technology responsible for Central Payments' rise to the fastest growing prepaid card issuer since 2015.\nSorbe also co-founded Falls Fintech in 2018, a startup accelerator program committed to bridging the bank-fintech partnership gap and Fintech Brews, a popular bank/fintech podcast. In 2016, Trent was named to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau?s Community Bank Advisory Council and chaired the agency's Cards, Payments, and Deposit Markets Committee.\nWith more than 30 years of debit, credit, and prepaid cards and payments experience, Trent was named 2023's Maher Award recipient by the Innovative Payments Association. The award is given annually to one payments leader who embodies the industry thought-leadership qualities of its namesake, the late Terrance P. Maher. Trent is also responsible for products garnering nine Paybefore Awards, three of which garnered Best in Class or Category. He is also the inventor on 14 patents related to consumer financial services. Trent previously held senior positions at four nationwide payment card issuers and the FDIC."},{"speakerName":"Mitchell Spector","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Mitchell%20Spector%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Partner & Head of FinTech","speakerCompany":"Berkshire Global Advisors","displayOrder":"125","speakerDescription":"
Mr. Spector joined Berkshire as a Partner in 2004. Mitch Spector has 36 years of industry experience and leads the firm's financial technology and traditional investment management advisory practice. His expertise in transactions involves banks, thrifts, asset managers, broker dealers and financial technology companies. Mitch is active in the firm's transaction execution and business development.
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Prior to Berkshire, Mr. Spector was responsible for leading various groups at firms such as FTN Financial Securities, CIBC World Markets, Prudential Securities and Bear, Stearns & Co. He also held roles at First Fidelity Bancorporation, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch.
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Mr. Spector graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. in Economics, earned his MBA from University of Pennsylvania-Wharton and is a Member of the Investment Committee of the Phi Beta Kappa Foundation.
","speakerRoute":"Mitchell-Spector"},{"speakerName":"Michael Tannenbaum","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Michael%20Tannenbaum%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"CEO","speakerCompany":"Figure","displayOrder":"126","speakerDescription":"
Michael Tannenbaum joined Figure Technology Solutions as CEO in April, 2024. Previously, he worked at payments company Brex for more than six years, where he served in various leadership roles including Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer. Tannenbaum joined Brex as the first employee from fintech SoFi. During his time at SoFi, Tannenbaum was Chief Revenue Officer;prior, he was VP of Finance and also launched and ran SoFi's mortgage business.
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Tannenbaum is currently on the boards of Brex and Cherry, a fintech company in the healthcare payments space.
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Tannenbaum began his career in the investment banking division of J.P. Morgan, at private equity firm Hellman & Friedman and graduated summa cum laude from Columbia University.
","speakerRoute":"Michael-Tannenbaum"},{"speakerName":"Simon Taylor","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Simon%20Taylor%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Head of Content","speakerCompany":"Sardine","displayOrder":"127","speakerDescription":"
Simon is one of fintech's most respected voices, providing unparalleled insights from over 20 years driving innovation. His popular Fintech Brainfood blog boasts 40k+ subscribers including top CEOs and VCs.
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As a sought-after keynote speaker and advisor, Simon leverages his experience pioneering mobile banking apps and leading digital transformation for global banks.Simon is a a regular industry commentator for media like BBC, CNBC and the financial times.
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Trusted by the industry's biggest names, he provides guidance to regulators, financial institutions, and tech companies on strategically capitalizing on emerging trends in fintech, open finance, and AI.
","speakerRoute":"Simon-Taylor"},{"speakerName":"Christina Tetreault","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Christina%20Tetreault%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Deputy Commissioner, California DFPI Office of Financial Technology Innovation (OFTI)","speakerCompany":"California Department of Financial Protection & Innovation (DFPI)","displayOrder":"128","speakerDescription":"Christina Tetreault is the Deputy Commissioner for the Office of Financial Technology Innovation within the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. In her role, she oversees engagement with key stakeholders, educates department staff on emerging innovations within the financial industry, and coordinates policy approaches to emerging products and services across the department. Previously, Christina managed the financial policy team for Consumer Reports, which connected her with entrepreneurs, lawmakers, innovation offices, advocates and stakeholders. This role and legal background allowed Christina to act as a spokesperson and liaison with major industry players and shape DFPI's work with emerging issues within the financial services ecosystem. In working with these key stakeholders, Christina has been instrumental in providing education and a platform for innovators to connect with the US?s fifth largest economy and their decision-makers.","speakerRoute":"Christina-Tetreault"},{"speakerName":"Jeff Tijssen","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/speaker-logos-2024/silhouette%20man.png","speakerTitle":"Expert Partner, Global Head of FinTech","speakerCompany":"Bain & Company","displayOrder":"129","speakerDescription":"
Jeff Tijssen is an Expert Partner and the Global Head of FinTech at Bain & Company, and is based in their London office.
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Jeff has worked with many of the world's leading financial institutions to lead large-scale transformation efforts and design, build and launch new digital ventures. He was on the founding team of several digital banks and has successfully built several new businesses.
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Jeff has spent over 20 years advising clients how to transform their organisation and develop new innovative business models and capabilities, and works extensively with leading FinTech players and neobanks around the world as they explore new avenues for growth. He also advises many of the world's largest private equity investors.
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Prior to joining Bain, Jeff built and led the global consulting business at 11:FS, a FinTech consultancy, and worked for two other leading global consulting firms. He has held executive roles in the digital and innovation space at various Tier 1 banks around the world, and has experience working in Europe, North America, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.
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He is a Board advisor, a speaker at international industry events, and has been published in renowned media outlets such as Bloomberg, Financial Times, Harvard Business Review and The Economist. He also sits on the Board of Trustees at the Shakespeare Schools Foundation and the Dutch Centre.
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Jeff holds a MSc in Economics and Business from the Erasmus University in The Netherlands. He lives in London with his wife Katya and his daughter Ariana.
","speakerRoute":"Jeff-Tijssen"},{"speakerName":"Uri Tintore","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Uri%20Tintore%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Co-CEO","speakerCompany":"Belvo","displayOrder":"130","speakerDescription":"Bio to come soon.","speakerRoute":"Uri-Tintore"},{"speakerName":"Sheela Ursal","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Sheela%20Ursal%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"General Partner Fintech Next Fund","speakerCompany":"Fintech Next","displayOrder":"131","speakerDescription":"
Sheela Ursal is the founder and CEO of Fintech Next, a fund dedicated to empowering startups in digital payments and fintech. With over 20 years of experience in product management and marketing, she has successfully launched payment products for global enterprises and emerging startups, including Amazon and Western Union.
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As an emerging general partner, Sheela is a sought-after advisor and investor, specializing in fintech innovation and supporting entrepreneurs. She shares her insights through a popular LinkedIn newsletter and hosts networking events in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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At the Fintech Meetup, Sheela will discuss the future of fintech and the crucial role of innovation in shaping the industry, drawing from her extensive experience and passion for helping startups thrive.
","speakerRoute":"Sheela-Ursal"},{"speakerName":"Dominic Venturo","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/speaker-logos-2024/silhouette%20man.png","speakerTitle":"SEVP, Chief Digital Officer","speakerCompany":"U.S. Bank","displayOrder":"132","speakerDescription":"Bio to come soon.","speakerRoute":"Dominic-Venturo"},{"speakerName":"Natasha Vernier","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Natasha%20Vernier%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Co-Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"Cable","displayOrder":"133","speakerDescription":"
Natasha Vernier established and led the financial crime team at Monzo, one of the first UK fintechs to become FCA-authorized and regulated, from inception through its hyper-growth period.
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Natasha's experiences give her unique insight into using technology to solve challenges in the financial crime space, the huge gap in effectiveness testing technology solutions, and the need for a company like Cable.
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Natasha is deeply passionate about fighting financial crime globally and tackling the immense negative social impacts associated with illicit financial flows. She believes that by automating the effectiveness testing of controls, financial institutions can become significantly more effective at reducing financial crime.
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As one of two female co-founders and a gay CEO of a company that has raised more than $16M, Natasha's experiences have inspired her dynamic leadership framework and informed key principles of Cable's unique Operating System.
","speakerRoute":"Natasha-Vernier"},{"speakerName":"Luke Voiles","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Luke%20Voiles%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"CEO","speakerCompany":"Pipe","displayOrder":"134","speakerDescription":"Luke Voiles is a passionate fintech leader and business builder, who brings over two decades of experience with innovative industry leadership into his role as Pipe's CEO. Before joining Pipe, he was the GM of Square Banking at Block where he led the global team responsible for managing, launching, and scaling small business banking and lending products. Previously, he led the team building out Intuit's small business lending unit, QuickBooks Capital, from scratch, scaling it to $2 billion in loans originated. Luke made the switch from private equity to fintech after more than a decade as a distressed asset and credit special situations investor at top-tier funds, including TPG Capital and Lone Star Funds. He has a JD and an MBA from SMU and a BA in Computer Science and Economics from Austin College.","speakerRoute":"Luke-Voiles"},{"speakerName":"Colin Walsh","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Colin%20Walsh%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"Varo Bank","displayOrder":"135","speakerDescription":"Colin Walsh is the founder and CEO of Varo Bank, the first all-digital, nationally-chartered U.S. consumer techbank built from the ground up to advance the cause of financial inclusion and opportunity for all. Colin is uniquely positioned to lead the digital bank revolution building on his years of experience in consumer banking at large global financial institutions. He led Europe's largest credit and charge card business as an Executive Vice President at American Express. Colin also led the UK's largest mortgage and savings businesses at Lloyds Banking Group, and served as Managing Director for the firm's retail bancassurance, credit, debit and merchant acquiring businesses.","speakerRoute":"Colin-Walsh"},{"speakerName":"Kate Walton","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/speaker-logos-2024/silhouette%20woman.png","speakerTitle":"MD & CCO, Merchant Payments","speakerCompany":"JPMorgan Chase & Co.","displayOrder":"136","speakerDescription":"Bio to come soon.","speakerRoute":"Kate-Walton"},{"speakerName":"Dana Warren","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Dana%20Warren%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Venture Partner","speakerCompany":"Canaan Partners","displayOrder":"137","speakerDescription":"
Dana Warren is currently a venture partner at Canaan Partners, an early stage venture firm that invests in visionaries with transformative ideas. Dana brings 15 years of experience building and running revenue, marketing, and strategy teams at American Express, PayPal, and Stripe. Most recently, at Stripe, Dana helped build and grow global strategic partnerships with leading SaaS & B2B platforms including Shopify, Salesforce, Mindbody, Squarespace, and XERO.
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Dana is also a board member and advises early-stage tech CEOs and founders on operations and growth. Dana has advised diverse early ventures including Yeeld, Cove, Sendoso, and Anthropic, an artificial intelligence safety and research leader, on how to scale early successes. Dana currently sits on the Board of PeerForward where she Chairs the Development Committee & site on the Executive Committee. PeerForward is an education nonprofit focused on post-secondary planning and college access, and she previously held nonprofit board seats at Princeton AlumniCorps and the Brooklyn Latin School.
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Dana holds a BA from Princeton University and an MBA from Columbia Business School where she graduated with honors. She lives in Westchester, New York with her husband and their three children.
","speakerRoute":"Dana-Warren"},{"speakerName":"Tom Warsop","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Tom%20Warsop%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"CEO","speakerCompany":"ACI Worldwide","displayOrder":"138","speakerDescription":"Warsop joined the ACI Board of Directors in June 2015 and became non-executive Chairman in June 2022. He has led various portfolio companies for several leading private equity firms since 2012, including One Call Care Management, York Risk Services Group, and The Warranty Group. He served as Group President at Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV), a provider of technology solutions to the financial industry, from 2007 to 2012. He served in various capacities at Electronic Data Systems for 17 years, including President of its Business Process Outsourcing unit in Asia Pacific, Vice President in the United Kingdom, and Vice President of Global Financial Services. He currently serves on the Board of One Call Care Management.","speakerRoute":"Tom-Warsop"},{"speakerName":"David Watson","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/David%20Watson%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"President & CEO","speakerCompany":"The Clearing House","displayOrder":"139","speakerDescription":"
David Watson is the President and CEO of The Clearing House. Mr. Watson brings extensive experience to the role, with an international career spanning more than 20 years in the financial services industry. Prior to joining TCH, he was with Swift, the global financial messaging provider, where he most recently served as Chief Product Officer, responsible for the company's product engineering, development, and innovation. Previously, Mr. Watson was Chief Strategy Officer, where he had responsibility for market and competitive intelligence, strategic planning, thought leadership, and execution of key strategic initiatives for the company.
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Prior to Swift, Mr. Watson spent nearly 17 years with Deutsche Bank, where he served in commercial, product, and leadership roles, including as Head of Cash Management Americas and as Global Head of Product Development, Global Transaction Banking. While at Deutsche Bank, he served as a director on TCH's Payments Company Board for several years and was on the board of Deutsche Bank Trust Company Delaware.
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Mr. Watson holds a degree in Business from Edinburgh University in his native Scotland and has lived in Germany, the UK, and the U.S.
","speakerRoute":"David-Watson"},{"speakerName":"Daniel Webber","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Daniel%20Webber%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"FXC Intelligence","displayOrder":"140","speakerDescription":"
Daniel Webber is Founder and CEO of FXC Intelligence, the leading provider of cross-border payments data and intelligence. As the pre-eminent thought leader and leading influencer in global payments, he is frequently invited to provide insights on the sector, and speak at industry conferences such as Sibos, Money20/20 to Citi's Fintech Symposium.
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Daniel is widely quoted in the media, including in The Economist, Wall Street Journal, and Reuters. He is also a regular fintech contributor for Forbes.com, reporting on the changing landscape of payments, with exclusive interviews with the industry's leading and up-and-coming CEOs.
","speakerRoute":"Daniel-Webber"},{"speakerName":"Mary Wisniewski","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Mary%20Wisniewski%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Editor-at-large","speakerCompany":"Cornerstone Advisors","displayOrder":"141","speakerDescription":"
Mary Wisniewski has covered fintech and digital banking for more than 12 years. Her bylines have appeared in Gonzobanker, American Banker, Bankrate, the Associated Press and more.
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She is an editor-at-large at Cornerstone Advisors where she helps shape content strategy and hosts Money isn't Everything, a biweekly podcast that explores early-stage fintech ideas. She also writes a monthly editor's note, Finteching with Mary, on LinkedIn.
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Mary is a frequent speaker at a variety of leading digital banking events and guest on money-related podcasts, including: the Money Experience Summit, Finovate, Fintech Meetup, Breaking Banks, NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money and more.
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Mary grew up in the Michigan suburbs and now lives in Los Angeles with a maltipoo, a record player and roller skates. Banking had her at we're in an existential crisis.
","speakerRoute":"Mary-Wisniewski"},{"speakerName":"Kenneth Wong","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/speaker-logos-2024/silhouette%20man.png","speakerTitle":"Director","speakerCompany":"TD Securities","displayOrder":"142","speakerDescription":"
Ken Wong is Head of Product Strategy and Innovation for the Global Transaction Bank at TD Bank. Ken has been in the financial Industry for over 34 years in different business divisions from Consumer Banking to Wholesale Banking with roles from Front Office and Relationship Management to Back Office Operations and Technology. He is a seasoned Treasury, Cash Management, Payments practitioner as well as an innovator with Patents accredited to him. He has extensive international exposure having lived and worked in Asia, Europe, Middle East and North America.
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Prior to re-joining TD Securities, Ken was Global Head of Payments and Clearing for Standard Chartered Bank;and prior to that he worked for Citibank in the eBusiness group. In 1999, Ken was a pioneer in a payments infrastructure start-up, in partnership with VISA International and Allianz Group, where he designed and built an alternate cross-border / cross-currency clearing system that guaranteed delivery to which he is accredited as inventor in two patents.
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Ken holds a B.Sc. in Microbiology from the University of British Columbia and ICM designation from the Association of Corporate Treasurers.
","speakerRoute":"Kenneth-Wong"},{"speakerName":"Patricia Yun","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Patricia%20Yun%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Head, Digital Commerce","speakerCompany":"TD Bank","displayOrder":"143","speakerDescription":"Patricia Yun is Head, Digital Commerce at TD Bank where she leads product management and commercialization of leading e-commerce and digital payment solutions to small businesses, commercial and corporate clients. Over her 15 year career in financial services, she has held leadership roles in both the issuing and acquiring and value add products including loyalty and rewards. Patricia has driven significant bank, technology and merchant partnerships including launch of Costco credit cards and driven loyalty partnerships across different verticals including airline, gas and auto. She serves on the Women in Payments Global Community Council and is passionate about diversity and inclusion in the tech and payments industry. She has also been featured as Women in Tech in wifihifi and NYC Fintech Women.","speakerRoute":"Patricia-Yun"},{"speakerName":"Jessica Zhang","speakerImage":"https://a.fintechmeetup.com/assets/Speaker%20Caricatures/Jessica%20Zhang%20Caricature.png","speakerTitle":"Co-Founder & CEO","speakerCompany":"Pier","displayOrder":"144","speakerDescription":"Jessica Zhang is the CEO and Co-Founder of Pier, a solution known as \"Stripe for Credit\" that automates the end-to-end credit lifecycle. Businesses trusts Pier's API-driven solutions to launch scalable, compliant credit products by simplifyingorigination, underwriting, servicing and regulatory reporting. Pier is backed by investors including Y Combinator, Liquid 2 Ventures, ACME and Horizon Ventures. Prior to Pier, Jessica was Chief of Staff at Stilt where she helped launch Onbo, a B2B credit API product, contributing to its over $375 million raise in equity and debt. Jessica has over $7 billion in transaction experience from her work at JPMorgan and is a two-time founder (Oppti, Forbes 30U30). A frequent speaker at fintech conferences and guest lecturer at Cornell University, Jessica is passionate about democratizing access to credit and revolutionizing how businesses approach credit infrastructure. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration.","speakerRoute":"Jessica-Zhang"},{"speakerName":"","speakerImage":"","speakerTitle":"","speakerCompany":"","displayOrder":"145"},{"speakerName":"","speakerImage":"","speakerTitle":"","speakerCompany":"","displayOrder":"146"},{"speakerName":"","speakerImage":"","speakerTitle":"","speakerCompany":"","displayOrder":"147"},{"speakerName":"","speakerImage":"","speakerTitle":"","speakerCompany":"","displayOrder":"148"},{"speakerName":"","speakerImage":"","speakerTitle":"","speakerCompany":"","displayOrder":"149"},{"speakerName":"","speakerImage":"","speakerTitle":"","speakerCompany":"","displayOrder":"150"},{"speakerName":"","speakerImage":"","speakerTitle":"","speakerCompany":"","displayOrder":"151"},{"speakerName":"","speakerImage":"","speakerTitle":"","speakerCompany":"","displayOrder":"152"},{"speakerName":"","speakerImage":"","speakerTitle":"","speakerCompany":"","displayOrder":"153"},{"speakerName":"","speakerImage":"","speakerTitle":"","speakerCompany":"","displayOrder":"154"},{"speakerName":"","speakerImage":"","speakerTitle":"","speakerCompany":"","displayOrder":"155"},{"speakerName":"","speakerImage":"","speakerTitle":"","speakerCompany":"","displayOrder":"156"},{"speakerName":"","speakerImage":"","speakerTitle":"","speakerCompany":"","displayOrder":"157"}]