Marissa Pick '07 is the global director of b2b social media at the CFA Institute where she oversees efforts to develop digital strategies aimed at reaching journalists, legislators, policymakers and investment professionals who play essential roles in shaping the direction of the financial services industry. Prior to joining the CFA Institute, Marissa was the global social media director at Euromoney Institutional Investor. Marissa holds a master of public administration from Fairleigh Dickinson University, where she graduated Pi Alpha Alpha. She received her B.A. in American studies from Brandeis University where she was a starter on the Brandeis softball team. Marissa lives in New Jersey with her husband and two sons. Visit Marissa's blog at marissapick.com.
Patrick McCarthy is the Global Head of Marketing for Citi FinTech and is responsible for setting the strategy and managing the product marketing roadmap across Citi FinTech’s consumer product offering. In addition, Patrick is responsible for the marketing test and learn agenda through the Marketing Lab as well as positioning Citi future forward compatible by leveraging the FinTech brand at events around the globe. Previously, Patrick was a founding member of Citi FinTech and led the vision for how Citi FinTech would work and operate differently with respect to employee engagement, internal communications and culture. When not thinking about delighting customers with great products, Patrick enjoys spending time with family and friends and taking part in New York’s latest workout craze.
Mrs. Jenet Ferris is a communications professional with over 15 years of developed skills in the areas of marketing, community outreach, branding and public relations. She possesses a range of experience in the agency, corporate and non-profit worlds and has extensive knowledge of various industries including health care, financial services, luxury hospitality and travel/economic development.
She attended the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University and pursued a career in communications and marketing. Since July 2011 she’s helped Greater Hudson Bank generate revenue as their Director of Marketing, Assistant Vice President. Her role includes leading and nurturing her team in the areas of marketing, communications, advertising and special events. As of 2012 she has served on the board of directors of the H.O.P.E. for Youth Foundation to help raise money and provide scholarships for worthy students.
During her career, Mrs. Ferris has been fortunate to receive acknowledgements for her work ethic such as recognition from 914INC., a business lifestyle magazine that awarded her the 30 under 30 wunderkind award. She also received from the Rockland Economic Development Corporation the 40 under 40 award, was a recipient of the inaugural Peekskill Middle School and LEAP “Living Legacy Award”, in 2016 she received the “Milli” (Millennial) award from the Westchester County Business Journal and most recently presented with the “Making the Difference Award” from the City of Peekskill Youth Bureau. However, of all her awards received, her best gifts calls her “Mommy.” Nicholas Jr. was born October 2014 and Noah, December 2017.
A seasoned creative lead with a proven success record in driving innovation within large corporations, Evan Gerber is currently VP of digital strategy for Fidelity Investments. In this role, Evan is leading the research, design, and creative development of multiple products focused on emerging technologies and new audiences for Fidelity, including speech based interfaces and ML driven individualization across mobile, web, voice, and call center platforms.
Prior to this role, Evan headed up a UX team for a leading agency in San Francisco, ensuring that a broad array of clients, from leading millennial brands to established financial players, were creating and executing on award winning mobile and web projects, as well as tech heavy and cross channel efforts.
Evan is a well known writer and speaker, including such high profile venues as Forbes Magazine, the Mobile World Congress, and Ad:Tech. When Evan isn’t at work, or obsessively reading about all of the amazing things going on in tech, he is probably out climbing mountains, riding his bike, or messing around in the kitchen.
Grayson Hofferber is the President and Founder of Millennial Wealth Management, LLC.
As of 2018, Grayson has been in the financial services industry for 8 years, holding roles as a broker with a major retail brokerage firm, pension and retirement plan consultant, a private client banker working with households of $5 - 15M, and a financial planner before founding MWM. The varying roles and knowledge gained in the industry have prepared him for the unique needs of serving clients’ total financial planning picture.
Grayson has been featured in industry publications such as FA Magazine, Advisor News, and Investopedia as well as local publications of the Broomfield Enterprise and the Boulder Daily Camera.
Duncan Davidson - Co-Founder/Managing Partner, Bullpen Capital, the pioneer of Post Seed investing. Post-Seed is an early A round setting up a super-sized round. Previously he was at VantagePoint Venture Partners, a mega-fund and one of the leaders in CleanTech, investing in Tesla as well as MySpace and Widevine.
Prior to joining the dark side, he started or was involved with four startups: Covad and InterTrust, both multi-billion dollar IPOs in the ‘90s; SkyPilot, an outdoor WiFi mesh, and Xumii, one of the first mobile cloud apps.
At Bullpen he is focusing on future technologies like Blockchain. He is on the board of Illumeo, Verbling, Filament, The Apparel Network, and Drive Motors, and an active advisor to Hologram. SpaceIQ, Ranker, Twenty20 and Wag Labs.
Danielle joined Fifth Third Bank in 2009 in the Operations Leadership Program. During her time in the program, she rotated through the following areas: Check Services managing an offshore team, Consumer Contact Center rolling out their customer experience survey, Default Servicing managing a team of foreclosure and bankruptcy referral agents, Brokerage Operations managing the Life Insurance & Annuities teams, and in Business Process Outsourcing helping managing process transitions to Fifth Third’s offshore partner. After graduating from the Operations Leadership Program, Danielle joined the Strategic Optimization Group within Central Operations, where she received her Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. In 2014 she transitioned to become a Business Analyst within Information Technology, and from there moved to Payments within the Strategy & Innovation Team as a Business Analyst Manager. Danielle joined the Corporate Strategy team as a Senior Business Analyst in 2016. Most recently Danielle transitioned to Operations Strategic Services focusing on the creation and execution of the Central Operations Strategy.
Deepanjan is the Head of Industry for the Financial Services practice at Facebook. He’s spent 5 years at Facebook focused on building marketing solutions for various brands across banking, payments, and insurance. In addition, Deepanjan has helped develop and test Facebook’s targeting and measurement capabilities with our largest Financial Service brands.
Rob Russini serves as Senior Director of Marketing for Hudson Heritage Federal Credit Union. Rob oversees marketing and communications for the credit union since January 2018 and additionally, helps spearhead special projects around innovation, collaboration, customer experience, and strategic planning.
Prior to joining Hudson Heritage Federal Credit Union, Rob held management roles in both the energy and financial sectors, including within retail banking for several financial institutions. Rob has also held several advisory board positions in the educational and non-profit sectors throughout the tri-state area. Rob holds an MBA in Marketing from Babson College and is finishing a second Master Degree in Integrated Marketing Communications through Northwestern University.
Rob’s research and interests lie in marketing strategy consisting of integrated marketing and branding through innovation and personalization. Rob has spoken on topics consisting of branding, digital marketing, customer experience, segmentation, marketing analytics, and strategic marketing.
Sophia Bera, CFP® is not your father’s financial planner. Her accolades include the “Top 40 Under 40” by Investment News and “10 of the Best Personal Finance Experts on Twitter.” She’s been quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, Business Insider, CNBC, Huffington Post, LifeHacker, and more. When she’s not working from a coffee shop, you can find her eating a breakfast taco in Austin, TX.
Tim Attia, co-founder, and CEO of Slice Labs, a technology startup providing on-demand insurance for the on-demand economy. Tim is excited to use his background in insurance and financial technology to apply intelligent design, data, and technology to solve the gaps and risks facing the growing on-demand workforce. Tim holds an Electrical Engineering degree from McGill University.
Aron Szapiro is director of policy research for Morningstar. Szapiro is responsible for developing research reports on policy matters, coordinating official responses to regulatory proposals, and providing investor-focused comments on policy issues to clients and the press. He also chairs Morningstar’s Public Policy Council. His research has been covered in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Journal of Retirement, and on National Public Radio.
Before assuming his current role in July 2016, he served as Morningstar’s associate director of policy research and as policy and finance expert at HelloWallet, a former subsidiary of Morningstar. Previously, he was a senior analyst at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), specializing in retirement security issues and pension plan policy. He also worked at the New Jersey General Assembly Majority Office.
Szapiro holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Grinnell College and a master’s in public policy from Johns Hopkins University.
Melissa is lead Content Strategist at Popular Bank, where she manages the development and execution of content for all marketing channels. In this role, Melissa is obsessed with creating clear, consistent and on-brand messaging that breaks through advertising noise and creates consumer connection. As a millennial who markets to many audiences, millennials included, Melissa understands each consumer segment is unique in how they view and engage with brands. She uses these targeted segments to craft compelling communications and help achieve business goals.
Prior to joining Popular, Melissa was the first U.S. marketing hire for Karhoo, a ride comparison app that was acquired by Renault. Melissa started her career at Ogilvy & Mather, where she worked with established brands like Hellmann’s, DuPont, IBM and American Express.
Kate Hao is the Founder and CEO of Happy Mango. She founded Happy Mango to bring greater transparency to credit reporting. With better information, Kate believes that credit markets can be made to work better for both borrowers and lenders.
Kate was previously the Treasurer of the broker-dealer subsidiary of Morgan Stanley, where she worked for over 12 years across various functions. While working as a bond trader during the 2008 crisis, she recognized the limitations of existing consumer credit reporting systems, which provided information about a problem only after the problem has occurred. Her training in fundamental financial analysis enabled her to develop a forward-looking consumer credit assessment algorithm that lay the foundation of the Happy Mango credit analytics. Her executive experience in managing large teams and complex projects ultimately led to her decision to bring her idea forward and form Happy Mango.
She earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Accounting from Albion College. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Certified Public Accountant (CPA), and Financial Risk Manager (FRM).
Bill Walker is Unison’s Chief Revenue Officer. Walker is responsible for cultivating and developing existing direct response channels, sales operations, and business development in addition to developing new growth marketing channels. Walker comes to Unison with over 20 years of marketing and operations experience in the financial services sector. Walker has held executive level positions at Barclaycard, MBNA (acquired by Bank of America) and most recently was the vice president of Customer Experience at Prosper Marketplace.
Juliana Gomez is the Director in Univision’s Strategy & Insights team, focusing on the Financial Services, Technology, and Telecom categories. Juliana works with clients providing research, market and consumer insights and creating marketing solutions to drive sales. She is a Hispanic go-to-market strategist who works as a consulting partner with advertisers in business case assessment, Hispanic insights, advertising strategy, campaign measurement and ROI.
Prior to joining Univision, Juliana worked as industry analyst forecasting revenue and advising clients in the Technology and Telcom industries in the U.S. and across countries in Latin America at the Yankee Group and Pyramid Research. She then was a senior consultant at Ernst and Young identifying additional revenue opportunities for Technology and Telcom clients.
She holds an MBA in Marketing from Baruch College in New York and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia.
Juliana and her husband have lived in Upper East Side of Manhattan since moving from Colombia in 2007. In addition to being fully bilingual in Spanish and English, Juliana is also fluent in French and Portuguese.
Rebellion Research's CEO Alexander Fleiss has spoken about Artificial Intelligence investing at conferences, colleges and in the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, Business Week, Bloomberg News, MIT Technology Review, Wired, Geo Magazine, Institutional Investor and the Wall Street Journal Reporter Scott Patterson's book Dark Pools. Prior to co-founding RebellionResearch.com in 2007, Mr. Fleiss served as a Principle at KMF Partners LP, a long-short US equity fund. Mr. Fleiss began his investment career as analyst for Sloate, Wiseman, Murray & Co which was acquired by Neuberger Berman. Mr. Fleiss developed investment algorithms with the firm's CFEO, Laura Sloate who is now a partner at Neuberger Berman and one of the investors featured in Peter Tanous' book Investing Gurus. Mr. Fleiss received a BA Degree from Amherst College.
Catherine is the CEO of Pefin and leads business and growth strategy for the organization. Before Pefin, she had a distinguished, multi-decade career on Wall Street, as the Managing Director and Head of Commodity Derivatives, Americas at BNP Paribas and as Chief Marketing Officer of J.P. Morgan.
Catherine has been a leader in the FinTech space, serving on the boards of many organizations, including Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), and Digital Asset Holdings, a market leading blockchain company. She also advised Pefin for two years in matters of Marketing, Regulation, Business Development and International Growth.
Catherine has won numerous accolades, including ‘Most Influential Woman in European Investment Banking’ in 2012 and being one of the ‘100 Most Influential Women in European Financial Markets in 2010 and 2011. A long-time champion of diversity, she has also served on the J.P. Morgan Investment Banking Inclusive Leadership Council as well as on the J.P. Morgan Chase Diversity Council. Service to the community has always been a priority for Catherine, and she has worked with a number of significant non-profit organizations, such as being on the board of Part of the Solution (POTS) in the Bronx, New York, and being on the Wall Street Advisory council for the Texas A&M business school. Her contributions led her to being inducted into the Academy of Women Leaders by the YWCA.
Catherine has bachelor’s degree in Economics and Finance from Texas A&M University, and a master’s degree in Economics from Brown University.
Bill is an innovative marketing executive with extensive experience in the financial services industry. His background in both digital and offline media has afforded him the tools to effectively position or reposition Brands in the insurance sector in particular. MetLife, Liberty Mutual, Sun Life and AXA all reflect his mark. As a marketer driven by and intimately familiar with brand metrics and customer insights, Bill’s success has been recognized via a Corporate Insights Monitor Award, which recognizes the offline and online customerexperience, Interbrand’s Best Global Brands award and #1 insurance company Brand designation, FCS(Financial Communications Society) awards for best multimedia campaign, Effie awards for advertising effectiveness, and a Clear Mark Award for the use of plain language in financial services marketing materials, to name a few. Bill has built financial services market share within some of the most competitive target segments as well as relatively untapped segments within the increasingly sought after millennial consumer market. A graduate of Williams College, Bill has served as Chairman of the Board of the AXA Foundation and currently serves on the Board of Visitors for Fenway Health.
A passionate financial literacy advocate, Xiomara Lorenzo combines her background in data analytics, financial services, and consumer insights to lead the Society of Grownups team. Prior to Society of Grownups, Lorenzo worked with Fortune 500 companies, including Morgan Stanley, to help these organizations make data-driven decisions to better serve customers. As Director of Society of Grownups, she leverages this intrapreneurial background to support the development of engaging digital media experiences that promote financial literacy in service of taking action towards one’s goals. She received her MBA from NYU Stern School of Business. Additionally, she is the founder of Xiomara Lorenzo Designs, a boutique studio specializing in handcrafted 3D-printed jewelry. She resides with her wife in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.
Paul is VP of Enterprise and SMB Marketing at Shutterstock where he runs global demand generation and customer marketing activities, helping brands scale their custom content creation efforts. Over his 15 years in marketing, he's spent time in large matrix organizations and small start-ups. He co-founded Toronto based on-demand food company Feast and helped launch several b2b SaaS companies like Syncapse and Dive Networks. On the corporate side, Paul's focus has been on integrated marketing activities having run marketing-communications at Rogers Wireless and Spin Master Toys. He’s won some awards that sit on a shelf somewhere and he has written things for various publications that his mother is extremely proud of.
Chip House is currently COO & Co-founder of Structural, a platform for people data and insight, based in Minneapolis, MN. Structural simplifies access to people data, helping companies identify and activate highly-skilled talent across diverse teams in their organizations, resulting in stronger teams, more effective communication, and higher growth. Previously I was CMO of Four51 OrderCloud, a leading B2B eCommerce platform. Prior to that, I was one of the first executives at ExactTarget, which we grew to be one of the largest cloud IPOs on the NYSE in 2012, and was followed by Salesforce’s $2.7 billion acquisition in 2013. At ExactTarget, now the Salesforce Marketing Cloud, I built multiple teams and formerly lead business efforts in customer and relationship marketing. While at Salesforce, I formed and scaled many teams in marketing, customer experience, strategic services, email deliverability, industry/ISP relations, and privacy to support thousands of customers globally.
Alana is a business development and marketing executive with experience across multiple niche verticals and 50+ markets worldwide. Her expertise lies in the growth of B2B technology companies, having held active roles as General Manager of an affiliate marketing company and as an investor in the British Columbia technology market. Her previous role was most recently at Income Access, Paysafe, where she ran the corporate marketing and digital agency arm of the business.