FDF: Columbia
Business School

Rohit Arora is the CEO and co-founder of Biz2Credit and is responsible for driving Biz2Credit to its leadership position. Rohit is often quoted on small business lending by major news media, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Entrepreneurs, American Banker, CNNMoney, MSNBC, Inc., and the Washington Post.

Rohit was named Crain's NY Business "Entrepreneur of the Year 2011". He holds a Masters in International Business from Columbia University and an Engineering degree from India.

Christopher Austin is global head of Orrick’s Capital Markets practice and co-lead of Orrick’s global Fintech team, helping many industry participants navigate this complex and evolving sector. He focuses on capital markets and corporate law, with extensive experience in public offerings, public company representations and securities law compliance.

Chris counsels technology companies of all sizes and stages of development, including advising on formation, venture financings, mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, corporate governance, and intellectual property issues. He is a recognized leader in capital markets work for investment banks, including BAML, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley, in connection with initial public offerings and follow-on offerings of technology and life sciences companies.

,  His recent transactions include the initial public offerings of Arcadia BioScience, Benefitfocus, Eloqua, On Deck, Ooma, Paylocity and Rapid7, multiple public offerings of Intercept Pharmaceuticals stock, and venture capital financings and secondary stock transactions for Betterment and SoFi.

Patrick Barnert, CEO and member of the Board of Directors of Qumram, is a visionary business leader and global entrepreneur. He has held a variety of senior-level corporate leadership positions, most recently Senior Vice President at OpenText, where he was responsible for $800m global revenues and built the most strategic OpenText alliance in Enterprise Software with SAP. As co-founder and CEO of Unic, Barnert built the business from 2 to 120 employees generating $40m in revenues today. Barnert is also a business angel for technology businesses in the USA and Canada. Contact Patrick on email, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Cathy is a partner in the Hanover, Maryland office. She assists national and state banks, investment banks, consumer and commercial finance companies, mortgage bankers, installment lenders and other licensed lenders in the development and maintenance of nationwide consumer and commercial lending programs. Cathy engages in credit due diligence on behalf of investors in Fintech firms, bank partnership platforms, small business lenders, merchant cash advance companies, consumer finance companies, title loan companies and payday lenders.

Cathy was the Assistant City Solicitor/Assistant State's Attorney for the Department of Housing and Community Development, Code Enforcement Legal Section from April 2001 to January 2004.

Cathy also represented the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore City in the civil prosecution and the State of Maryland in the criminal prosecution of owners of properties in violation of the Baltimore City Building, Housing and Zoning Codes, obtained search warrants to investigate possible violations of municipal law, provided technical assistance with press and public relations to the Director of the Code Enforcement Legal Section, and worked with communities and lenders on foreclosed properties to address complaints.

She was the Education Director, Advocates for Children and Youth from November 1999 - April 2001. Cathy was Staff Director for The New Maryland Education Coalition from November 1999 - April 2001. She was the Staff Attorney for The Women's Law Center of Maryland, Inc. from January 1999 - November 1999 and was the Pro Bono Project Coordinator for the Bar Association of Baltimore City from August 1997 - January 1999. Cathy was also a Legal Writer for The (Baltimore) Daily Record from October 1995 - August 1997.

Cathy received her law degree in 1995 from the State University of New York at Buffalo and received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Psychology from Fordham University in 1992.

Jesse is a technology entrepreneur and investor with a host of start-ups and exits under his belt. He's been focused on blockchain technology solutions for real-world problems for the last few years. In his role as CEO and chief spokesman for MonetaGo, Jesse has spoken with and played a key part in the education of bankers and central bankers on blockchain around the world at roundtables, symposia, and conferences, including at SIBOS, the Paris Fintech Forum, Money 20/20, Decoding Digital India, and Consensus. With multiple successful exits including Tremor Video (NYSE: TRMR) and Image Space Media, Jesse is the definition of an unstoppable serial entrepreneur.

Penny Crosman is Editor at Large at American Banker. Prior to taking on this role, she was Editor in Chief of Bank Technology News and Technology Editor of American Banker. She has held senior editorial roles at Bank Systems & Technology, Wall Street & Technology, Intelligent Enterprise and Network Magazine, among other titles.

Aniko DeLaney is the Global Head of Corporate Marketing for BNY Mellon, which had $29.9 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration, and $1.65 trillion in assets under management as of December 31, 2016, the company. Aniko is responsible for BNY Mellon’s global corporate brand strategy, digital marketing and market research. She is the member of BNY Mellon’s Senior Leadership Team.

Previously, Aniko was the Global Marketing Director for BNY Mellon’s Markets, Asset Servicing, Global Collateral Services, Treasury Services, Corporate Trust, Alternative Investment and Broker-Dealer Services businesses. She held various marketing roles for The Bank of New York’s retail bank.

Aniko is Vice Chair and Board Member of the Borough of Manhattan Community College Foundation. She is a member of the Association of National Advertisers and Corporate Financial Group (CFG) and the Alumni Committee at Middlebury College. She is a member of BNY Mellon’s Diversity and Inclusion Executive Committee.

Aniko received her B.A. in French literature from Middlebury College and her MBA in finance and marketing from the Stern School of Business at New York University.

Veetika is a TAS (Tata Administrative Services) Officer and has been with the Tata Group for over 15 years. She has worked in multiple Tata companies such as - Titan Industries Limited and Tata Teleservices Limited, and worked on focused short duration projects across Human Resources in Group HR, Tata Sons; Operations at Tata Chemicals Limited; New Product Introduction at Tata Tea Limited (now Tata Global Beverages) and Corporate Social Responsibility at Tata Chemicals Limited.

Currently Veetika is the Chief Operating Officer – Digital Business at Tata Capital, and also the Head – Brand Marketing & Corporate Communication. Tata Capita, a subsidiary of Tata Sons, is the financial services arm of the Tata Group.

As the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for the Digital business vertical, she is entrusted with the challenging role of adopting digital across multiple functions and products and services of Tata Capital and craft and execute a strong and successful digital strategy for Tata Capital; embracing next gen technology and practices that will help transform Tata Capital as the industry and customers become increasingly digital. As the lead for Brand, her role includes strategic brand development, brand communication and brand-building. Additionally, she also oversees Internal Communication and drives the Public & Media relations strategy and function. Her role in Tata Capital also includes being part of the Operations Committee and the Gender Diversity Committee.

Veetika is also a part of the ‘Digital Sub-Group’ operating at a consolidated Tata level that helps promote digital as a strategic intervention.

Veetika has done her schooling from Delhi Public School, Delhi, and is an Economics graduate from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University and a MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi.

She is a Fulbright Fellowship Programme scholar, and has attended executive programmes at the Carnegie Mellon University, and under the aegis of the University of Michigan, NYU Stern School of Business and the University of Cambridge.

Her interests include – sports, travelling and reading.

Anjali Dewan, vice president, Global Credit Risk & Information Management, manages new accounts modeling for all American Express proprietary products globally helping bring new, valuable Card Members into the network. Anjali is a seasoned leader with 13 years’ experience producing industry-leading customer acquisition and credit risk models.

In her current role, Anjali is responsible for underwriting decision science across consumer and commercial portfolios for American Express globally. Anjali leads a team of 40 data scientists across New York, Phoenix and Gurgaon to drive cutting-edge underwriting solutions.

Anjali has driven multiple strategic initiatives which have driven profile growth with best-in-class loss rates. Her many contributions include driving global transformation of underwriting models to machine learning and strengthening data science capabilities for card portfolios across the globe.

During her 13 years at American Express in the United States and India, Anjali has held multiple positions with increasing responsibility across risk management including targeting, credit risk modeling and line assignment. She also holds 7 patents in credit risk modeling.

Prior to joining American Express, she was an economist for a private equity fund. Anjali is originally from India and holds a Master’s degree in Economics from Delhi School of Economics.

Morgan Downey is the CEO of Money.Net. Prior to staring Money.Net in 2014, Morgan was Global Head of commodities at Bloomberg, LP. Morgan managed development of the Bloomberg Professional terminal. At Bloomberg, Morgan used his market experience to build a suite of revolutionary, unique, and innovative products. Before Bloomberg, Morgan spent 15 years running trading desks, as manager and head trader, for banks including Citibank, Bank of America and Standard Chartered, in the US, UK, Australia, and Singapore. Morgan is also the author of the book 'Oil 101', a best-seller explaining the oil industry.

At Money.Net Morgan and his downtown Manhattan-based development team are building out a new financial information delivery system, of which news and text information are major components.

Radhika Duggal is a marketing leader with extensive experience in highly regulated industries like healthcare and financial services. Throughout her career, she has led the design and execution of innovative brand strategies to drive awareness and consideration through multi-channel marketing efforts as both a management consultant and in-house marketing executive. Radhika’s core competencies include:

• Multi-disciplinary marketing team leadership including brand managers, agency professionals and in-house PR, content and analytics professionals across Fortune 100 companies and startups

• Brand identity development including customer market research, brand positioning development, value proposition creation, and verbal and visual identity design

• Digital transformation including digital marketing strategy, execution, operating model development and capability building

• P&L ownership focused on cost effectively developing and executing strategic and tactical marketing plans Radhika earned an M.B.A. in marketing from Columbia Business School and a B.A. in marketing and international business from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University. She is also an adjunct professor at the NYU Stern School of Business, Yeshiva University and Baruch College.

Peter Early is the General Manager of Asset Management at SoFi, bringing more than 25 years experience in financial markets and risk to the role. Peter was most recently the President and CRO of Trend Capital Management, overseeing all noninvestment aspects of the business. He has also held senior roles at Galle Global Macro, where he was President, and Wynn Las Vegas. In addition, Peter founded global macro hedge fund Big Sky Capital, and has worked for financial firms including Tiger Management and Bankers Trust Company.

Peter earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Electrical Engineering and Economics from Yale University.

Daniel Egan is the Vice President of Behavioral Finance and Investing at Betterment. He is responsible for maximizing Betterment’s customers’ returns, in terms of both investment optimization and behaviorally informed design. He oversees a team of quantitative investment experts and behavioral finance experts. Dan holds a B.A. with Distinction in Economics from Boston University and an M.Sc. in Decision Science from the London School of Economics. Dan’s career includes health economics research at the University of Pennsylvania and a stint at corporate finance advisory firm Chiliogon in the UK (FSA authorised). Previous to Betterment, he helped establish the quantitative behavioral finance team at Barclays Wealth in 2007, working in both Europe and the U.S.

Professor R.A. Farrokhnia is an award-winning Columbia University faculty member, with teaching appointments at both Schools of Business and Engineering; he is also a lecturer and Board Member of the Knight-Bagehot Program at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. His academic endeavors center on innovation in financial services as well as the integration of industrial, operational and business analyses with practical development and deployment of agile, inventive and design-centric technical solutions.

Prof. Farrokhnia is currently the Founder and Executive Director of a multi-disciplinary program on Advanced Projects and Applied Research in Fintech. He is also the founder of an Applied Solutions, Data Analytics, and Design DevLab as well as a new ventures launch platform in New York, with a focus on fintech, data and enterprise software.

He earned both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Columbia University. He has extensive global professional experience, including long-term residency abroad and fluency in several languages, and has collaborated in a variety of capacities with some of the most innovative and successful domestic and international companies.

Gregory J. Fleming is a leading authority in the global financial services industry. He is the former President of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management and Morgan Stanley Investment Management. He joined Morgan Stanley in February 2010 and left in early 2016. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Mr. Fleming served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Merrill Lynch from June of 2007 to early 2009. Previously Mr. Fleming ran Merrill Lynch's Global Investment Banking business and joined Merrill Lynch as an investment banker in 1992. He also had been a principal at Booz Allen Hamilton.

Mr. Fleming is a director of Colgate University, a member of the Board of Advisors for the Yale Law School Center for the Study of Corporate Law, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Economic Club of New York, a Director on Turn2 Foundation Board, a Trustee at Deerfield Academy and a member of the Ronald McDonald House Board of Directors. He is a Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude graduate in economics from Colgate University and received his J.D. from Yale Law School.

Jason Green, the CEO of The Cambridge Group, focuses on developing customer-driven strategies, new product development, positioning, and consumer segmentation for consumer goods, retail, financial services and other service industries. In addition to working with clients, Jason also leads Nielsen’s global Growth and Demand Strategy practice. He has been published in the Harvard Business Review, among other publications, and has contributed significantly to two books.

Prior to joining The Cambridge Group, Jason was a Senior Engagement Manager within the Consumer Goods, Operations, and Organizational Performance Practices at McKinsey & Company. While at McKinsey he focused on strategic, operational, and organizational issues for consumer goods and industrial clients.

Prior to McKinsey, Jason was an Assistant Account Executive at NW Ayer where he developed advertising, positioning, and new product concepts for three Procter & Gamble food and beverage brands. Previous to NW Ayer, he was a sales/promotion representative for Procter & Gamble.

Jason holds a Masters of Management with concentrations in marketing, strategy, and finance from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. He received his undergraduate degree, cum laude with distinction in psychology, from Yale University.

Tanmoy has been with Deloitte for over 7 years and has held multiple roles in the firm including Strategy & Operations consulting, Finance Transformation, and Digital Transformation and Innovation. In his current Role, Tanmoy:

Leads project teams in Innovation centered around catalyzing Digital transformation, and acilitating high growth strategic alliances and investments within the innovation ecosystem.

He Co-Leads the US Blockchain Lab, across activities including the design and facilitation of Labs to take clients through the innovation life cycle from education, strategy, use case development to prototyping and implementation.

He has contributed to multiple Blockchain related thought leadership pieces as a subject matter expert and is a frequent speaker at external forums. Prior to Deloitte, Tanmoy has held roles in Corporate Development, FP&A, Asset Management and Management Consulting

Eric Johnson is a faculty member at the Columbia Business School at Columbia University where he is the inaugural holder of the Norman Eig Chair of Business, and Director of the Center for Decision Sciences. His research examines the interface between Behavioral Decision Research, Economics and the decisions made by consumers, managers, and their implications for public policy, markets and marketing. Among other topics, Johnson has explored how the way options are presented to decision-makers affect their choices in areas such as organ donation, the choice of environmentally friendly products, and investments. Prof. Johnson’s research and comments have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Money, Discover, Business Week and The Financial Times, and on The CBS Evening News and National Public Radio. His research has been published in the Science, Psychological Review, Psychological Science, Nature Neuroscience, Harvard Business Review, the Journal of Economic Theory, and many other consumer, economic, marketing and psychology journals. He has co-authored two books: Decision Research: A Field Guide, published by Sage Publications and The Adaptive Decision-Maker published by Cambridge University Press, and is currently working on a book on choice architecture. After graduation from Rutgers University, he received his M.S. and PhD. in Psychology from Carnegie-Mellon University, and was a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at Stanford.

He previously has taught at Carnegie Mellon, was a visiting professor at the Sloan School at MIT, was the inaugural holder of the David W. Hauck Chair in Marketing, and a Professor of Operations and Information Management and Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. The National Science Foundation, The National Institutes of Health, The Alfred P. Sloan and Russell Sage Foundations, and the Office of Naval Research have supported his research. He was awarded the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the Society for Consumer Psychology, and named a Fellow by the Association for Consumer Research, was awarded an honorary doctorate in Economics from the University of St. Gallen, and is a Fellow of the TIAA-CREF Institute Fellow and the Association for Psychological Science. According to the Institute for Scientific Information, he is one of the most highly cited scholars in Business and Economics. He has been an Associate Editor of the Journal of Consumer Psychology, and is a member of several editorial boards as well as the Senior Editor for Decision Sciences at Behavioral Science and Policy and an Editor at Frontiers in Decision Neuroscience.

Charles M. Jones is the Robert W. Lear Professor of Finance and Economics and the Senior Vice Dean at Columbia Business School, where he has been on the faculty since 1997. Professor Jones studies the structure of securities markets, liquidity, and trading costs, and he is particularly noted for his research on short sales, algorithmic and high-frequency trading, and the variation in liquidity over time. His published articles have won a number of best paper awards and appear in outlets ranging from the Journal of Finance to Barron’s.

Professor Jones has served as co-editor of the Journal of Financial Markets. He is currently a member of the economic advisory committee of FINRA and has headed the economic advisory board at Nasdaq. Jones has also been a visiting economist at the New York Fed and the New York Stock Exchange, and he has advised the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice on matters related to financial markets. Before joining Columbia, Jones was a faculty member at Princeton University, and prior to doing graduate work at the University of Michigan, where he received his Ph.D. in finance in 1994, he was an investment banking analyst at Merrill Lynch.

At Columbia, Professor Jones regularly teaches the core Corporate Finance course to MBA students, and he has received the Dean’s Award for core teaching as well as the Singhvi Prize for scholarship in the classroom.

Jason Jones is an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of the LendIt Conference, which is one of the largest fintech conferences in the world with annual events in the US, China, and Europe. In addition, he is the Co-Founder and CEO of the Cardinal Rose Group, a fintech venture capital firm, which owns LendIt as well as a financial media business named Lend Academy Media, and a digital wealth management company named NSR Invest / Lending Robot.

Prior to CRG, Jason founded HighStep Capital, a data driven investment firm focused on earlystage Internet companies, where he invested in over 200 Internet-related companies from around the world. Earlier in his career, Jason worked as an analyst at J. Goldman & Co., Goldman Sachs, Cambridge Associates, and Fidelity Investments. Jason holds an MBA from the Johnson School at Cornell University where he was a Park Leadership Fellow and a BS from Babson College.

Ramit Arora is the President and co-founder of Biz2Credit and heads the company's credit and sales operations. He has 10+ years of experience in financial services with Citibank and Xerox, and has a considerable experience in risk management.

He holds a bachelor's degree in business management and master's in accounting.

Atul Kamra is Managing Partner of SixThirty, a global FinTech seed fund, and co-founding General Partner of SixThirty CYBER. The SixThirty group of companies attract the most innovative FinTech and Cyber Security start-ups from across the globe, and work with like-minded corporate partners and mentors to accelerate their growth. He serves on the boards of directors of Enterprise Bank & Trust and Bond I.T., a leading Israeli FinTech start-up.

Prior to his role at SixThirty, Atul served as Senior Managing Director and head of Advice for Wells Fargo Advisors, overseeing investment research, strategy, portfolio management and advice quality, serving 15,000 financial advisors, 3.3 million client households and $1.3Tn in client assets. In previous roles, Atul was President of First Clearing, Wells Fargo’s clearing business. He joined Wells Fargo from Booz & Co, where he was a Partner and Practice Leader of Booz’s Capital Markets & Wholesale Banking business. In earlier roles with American Express Bank in India, he was a relationship manager with the Corporate Banking Group and managed the western region’s Capital Markets Group.

Active in civic and community affairs, Atul’s passion is around education and entrepreneurship. He was the architect and executive leader of Wells Fargo’s partnership with the St. Louis Public Schools, the firm’s signature community effort. He serves on the boards of Webster University, the St. Louis Public Schools Foundation, St. Louis Fashion Fund & Incubator, and Prosper Institute, a non-profit organization focused on training and mentoring growth-seeking women entrepreneurs. He is a member of the Greater St. Louis Financial Forum, a CEO-led industry round table, serves on the BioSTL Coalition, and is on the Board of Advisors of Olin School of Business’ CFAR at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Atul and his wife, Anjali, live in St. Louis, with their two children, Armaan and Veda. Atul grew up in Mumbai, India. He has a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Bombay University, where he was awarded a National Merit Scholarship and has a license to practice as a Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. He attended Duke University in Durham, NC, where he earned his MBA degree on a Rotary International scholarship.

Val Katayev is the Managing Partner of Prime Meridian Capital Management assisting with strategy, product development, platform selection and investor services. Mr. Katayev is a four-time tech entrepreneur who generated over $100 Mil in profits and exits before ever raising capital from outside investors. He is also one of the most experienced P2P/Marketplace Lending investors in the United States, and was one of the very first lenders at Prosper in early 2006 over 11 years ago. After seeing positive returns after the “Great Recession”, he has since invested substantially into the space, and is the largest individual investor in the Prime Meridian funds.

Guillermo energizes financial services teams at Microsoft to increase customer impact, business value, and innovation. Guillermo’s career spans over 30 years advising C-suite executives and driving digital transformation at top-tier firms in the U.S. and international locations. He has extensive expertise in the financial services industry and partner ecosystem, to include bank cards, credit, risk management, regulatory compliance and technology innovation.

Before joining Microsoft in 2012, Guillermo worked as the Executive Director of the advisory research and consulting firm CEB TowerGroup (now Gartner). Sought for his depth of knowledge and strategic vision, he delivered keynote presentations frequently at industry events, was featured in broadcast media (e.g., Bloomberg, CNBC, Fox Business News, Reuters), and authored many influential reports. Prior to CEB TowerGroup, Guillermo had served as international staff at Citigroup for 16 years globally leading corporate business improvement initiatives and banking technology services across consumer, corporate, and private banking lines of business, and also at Boards of subsidiaries. Earlier in his career, Guillermo had served as the corporate CIO of Aerolineas Argentinas, and also in the International Air Transport Association in Switzerland.

Guillermo earned a Master’s of Science in project management from the George Washington University and a computer science degree from the University of Buenos Aires. Guillermo and his wife Gabriela have raised 4 children and live in Darien, Connecticut, where he also enjoys kayaking.

As the Global Payments and Foreign Exchange Product Executive for J.P. Morgan’s Treasury Services business, Emma manages the strategy, development and positioning of these product capabilities. She is spearheading several transformational projects that will further differentiate J.P. Morgan’s services and maintain the firm’s leadership position in the payments industry. Specifically, Emma is exploring and implementing new technology in payments solutions that deliver increased connectivity, visibility, speed and insight to clients.

Emma is a recognized payments expert with more than 25 years of cash management experience. Across her career, she has held senior product management and operations management positions at J.P. Morgan, Citibank, and Deutsche Bank in the payables, receivables and foreign exchange businesses. Emma is also an active industry participant, currently representing J.P. Morgan on the Federal Reserve Payments Risk Committee and the Payco Board of The Clearing House. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of SWIFT.

Emma holds a BA degree from Duke University and an MBA degree from the Stern School of Business at New York University.

Matt Marelius helps IBM and its clients reform their businesses and create new products using new technologies. As a longtime blockchain evangelist he joined IBM Global Business Services' Blockchain practice upon its founding 18 months ago. Matt was the chaincode analyst and eventually led IBM's venture supporting Northern Trust to build a blockchain for Private Equity administration.

He is currently leading initiatives finding new blockchain-enabled business opportunities in insurance and consumer-packaged goods. Prior to his focus on blockchain Matt worked in data and analytics in many areas of legal and financial services. He is a graduate of NYU Stern and UCLA.

Tommy Marshall is the Fintech Lead for North America. Tommy Marshall has spent his 20+ year management consulting career focused on digital financial services and fintech. His role at Accenture is to bring Accenture’s depth in payments, banking, capital markets, insurance, finance & regulation together with Accenture’s fintech accelerators, Liquid Studios, and Innovation Labs to craft meaningful capabilities for financial services institutions. Tommy is a graduate of Davidson College and holds an MBA from Vanderbilt University. He has called Atlanta home for the past eight years.

Rita McGrath is a globally recognized thought leader with a focus on developing innovation and growth strategies during times of uncertainty. She works with Boards, CEOs and senior executives to think strategically, which is critical in today’s rapidly changing and volatile environments. McGrath received the #1 achievement award in strategy from the prestigious management rankings group Thinkers50. Her latest book was the best-selling The End of Competitive Advantage. McGrath has written three other books, including Discovery Driven Growth, cited by Clayton Christensen as one of the most important management ideas ever developed. She is a regular speaker at events such as the Global Drucker Forum and various CEO Summits. Currently, she is working on a new book about strategic inflection points.

McGrath founded a new company, Valize, LLC. By embedding an Innovation Operating System across client activities, Valize is focused on taking a structured and pragmatic approach to innovation and growth strategies.

McGrath is often cited in the press, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, and NPR’s Marketplace. She maintains an active social media presence, and has been rated one of the 25 smartest women to follow on Twitter by Fast Company Magazine. She consistently appears in rankings of the top business school professors to follow on Twitter. McGrath was voted HR Magazine’s Most Influential International Thinker, writes regularly for Fortune magazine’s online edition, is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal’s The Experts column and blogs regularly at HBR.org.

McGrath is one of the most widely published authors in the Harvard Business Review, including the best-selling “Discovery Driven Planning” (1995), (along with Ian MacMillan) which was recognized as an early articulation of today’s “lean” startup philosophy. Her related book, Discovery Driven Growth: A Breakthrough Process to Reduce Risk and Seize Opportunity (2009 – also with MacMillan) is a deep dive into how to put the technique to work.

The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast as Your Business, was recognized by Strategy+Business as the #1 business book of the year. She has co-authored two more books with Ian MacMillan: MarketBusters: 40 Strategic Moves that Drive Exceptional Business Growth (2005); and The Entrepreneurial Mindset (2000), all published by Harvard Business Review Press. MarketBusters has been translated into ten languages and was named one of the best business books of 2005 by Strategy+Business.

Rita joined the faculty of Columbia Business School in 1993. Prior to life in academia, she was an IT director, worked in the political arena, and founded two startups. She received her Ph.D. from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and has degrees with honors from Barnard College and the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs. She is married and is proud to be the mother of two delightful grownups.

Robert McKenna, a partner in Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe's Seattle and Washington, D.C., offices, is co-head of the firm's Public Policy Group and co-founder of the Cyber Security & Data Privacy Group. A former Washington State Attorney General and President of the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG), Rob represents a wide range of technology and other companies in matters involving litigation, appellate litigation, regulatory proceedings, state attorney general investigations, and legislative issues.

Rob served two terms as Attorney General of Washington, from 2005 to 2013. He successfully argued three cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and negotiated three of the largest consumer protection settlements in national history, all involving mortgage lending and servicing. Rob was the first state AG to build a computer forensics lab to collect evidence of Internet fraud, and passed one of the nation's first anti-spyware laws.

As AG, Rob directed more than 500 attorneys and more than 600 professional staff. He passed 45 bills in the Washington State legislature – more than any Washington Attorney General in recent history – on policy issues such as data security, human trafficking, domestic violence, prescription drug abuse and government accountability. In 2011, his fellow attorneys general honored him with the NAAG Kelley-Wyman Award for "Outstanding Attorney General" in America.

Jeff McMillan is Managing Director, Chief Analytics & Data Officer for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, where he is responsible for all aspects of Wealth Management’s strategy to leverage analytics, data and artificial intelligence to drive growth and efficiencies across the firm. Jeff’s is a leader in Wealth Managements efforts to transform its operating model to deliver even higher quality advice and scalable solutions, leveraging the most advanced analytical and artificially intelligent capabilities available.

JJeff is a member of the Wealth Management Operating and Risk Committees as well as the firm’s Securities Operating Committee. He is also Co-chair of Morgan Stanley’s Veterans Employee Network.

Prior to his current responsibilities, Jeff has held a variety of leadership roles at Morgan Stanley, including leading the integration of the firm’s advisor and client platforms as part of the Morgan Stanley Smith Barney merger, overseeing the firms digital strategy and development of all product and advisory platforms, as well as owning the build out of Wealth Managements Research capabilities.

Before joining Morgan Stanley, Jeff had a variety of roles within financials services, with a deep focus on business transformation, digital enablement and analytics.

Jeff is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point where he received a BS in economics. Upon graduation, he served on active duty as an armor officer and scout platoon stationed in South Korea and Fort Knox, KY.

Morgan Stanley Veterans Employee Network
Jeff McMillan (Co-Chair)

The MS Veterans Employee Network is responsible for providing support to its veteran employees as well as taking an active role on the issues that affect veterans across the United States. Specifically the Network is charged with:

· Supporting the transition of our new veteran employees to the civilian sector by providing every veteran employee who wants one, a senior level mentor.

· Actively leading our efforts in the recruiting of veterans across all areas the firm and providing firm leadership training and support in understanding the value that veterans can bring to our organization and the unique challenges they face

· Providing ongoing educational opportunities for our veteran employees to be exposed to internal and external leaders in the veterans space

· Engaging with the different branches of the Department of Defense through the hosting of different armed forces educational programs, war colleges and fellowships

· Providing external support and funding to outside organizations that are providing high quality support and services to the broader veterans population

Rishi Nangalia is a Managing Director and the Global Head of ETI Trading at Thomson Reuters, developing and managing the firms buy-side execution strategy, including the REDI and Autex .

Rishi joined Thomson Reuters when the firm acquired REDI, an award-winning broker-neutral execution management system, in January 2017. He served as the CEO of REDI, the financial technology consortium that he conceived and spun out from Goldman Sachs in 2013 and which was owned by six industry institutions. Under Rishi’s leadership, the firm achieved its strategic objective in making REDI an integral part of capital markets. His team at REDI built a company that bridged the expertise of Wall Street with the innovation of a start-up, providing superior trading technology to institutional traders. REDI then acquired InstaQuote, a peer firm owned by Bank of America, and consolidated competitor Knight Direct in its three-and-a-half-year journey as an independent company.

In addition to his full-time job, Rishi is very active in the start-up community, investing, advising and (at times) incubating new concepts. Like many angel investors, he started by investing in people who were committed to changing the world, participating vicariously. Starting with a friend’s spa venture in 2006, Rishi’s portfolio has expanded over the past few years to include indie movie projects, innovative consumer finance, a farm-to-table restaurant chain, consumer electronics recycling, an RIA management platform, a fantasy sports trading platform, a custom clothing manufacturer, a parent social sharing platform, a parents-coaches matching marketplace, real estate ventures and more. He is currently incubating a real-time employee performance review system which is now in beta.

Prior to REDI, Rishi managed business development and strategic investments for electronic trading at Goldman Sachs. In his 13 years with the firm, he built an electronic trading business that grew from $150mm in 2001 to a nearly a billion-dollar global business spanning across equities and derivatives. Additionally, he built trading platforms, algorithms, smart order routers and the industry leading dark-pool, SIGMA X. Rishi also managed investments in many strategic companies and served as a board member on successful investments such as DirectEdge Exchange, Pico Quant Trading, BIDS ATS and FTEN Technologies. He was promoted to Vice President in 2004 and Managing Director in 2007.

Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Rishi co-founded an e-trading startup in Asia modeled after E*TRADE in the US. He began his career in real estate, first as a project manager at a development company and later as a research associate covering REITs at CIBC World Markets.

Rishi earned an M.B.A in Finance & Entrepreneurship from Columbia Business School, an M.S. in Real Estate Development from Columbia University and a B.B.A. from St. Xavier’s College in India.

As president and CEO of Umpqua Holdings Corporation, Cort O’Haver brings more than 30 years of expertise in banking and finance, and a track record of building high performance, growth-focused teams and organizations.

O’Haver joined Umpqua in 2010 as executive vice president of commercial banking. In that role, he put in place a variety of initiatives to diversify Umpqua’s commercial banking business, adding international banking, equipment leasing and debt capital markets capabilities, among others. In addition, he oversaw a significant geographic expansion into new markets, and Umpqua now has a strong commercial presence across the West Coast’s fastest growing markets.

In 2014, O’Haver was named president of commercial banking and played a pivotal role in the integration of the company’s largest acquisition to date, which saw Umpqua grow to $25 billion in assets.

Before joining Umpqua, O’Haver served as executive vice president and director of corporate banking for Mechanics Bank in Richmond, Calif. Previously, he served at U.S. Bancorp as senior vice president Northwest and Northern California regional manager, real estate banking.

Today, in addition to his position as Umpqua’s president and CEO, O’Haver serves as chair of the Umpqua Bank Charitable Foundation. The foundation works to strengthen the communities Umpqua Bank serves by investing in organizations and initiatives that expand access to education and create economic opportunity for children and families. O’Haver previously served in various philanthropic roles throughout his career including The Bay Area Crisis Nursery and the Portland State University Foundation.

Matthew Quint is the Director of Columbia Business School's Center on Global Brand Leadership, which creates, gathers, and shares insights and tools that inspire strategic thinking and decision-making. In this role, Matthew researches, writes, and presents on a wide range of issues critical to building a strong brand. He has particular expertise in marketing ROI, strategies for marketing in the digital age, and the development of creative and effective brand communications.

Matthew is the co-producer of the Center's acclaimed BRITE Conference series which brings together over 500 big thinkers in industry and academia to discuss how innovation and technology help build strong brands. He has worked with senior executives from various leading companies -- including Aimia, Coach, Deloitte, Edelman, and SAP -- to conduct research, produce events, and promote knowledge sharing among branding and marketing professionals.

Previously, Matthew held positions at Columbia University in which he developed the Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment, and managed print and digital communications materials for Columbia Law School. Prior to moving to New York City, Matthew was the Assistant Counsellor (Nuclear Science & Technology) at the Embassy of Australia in Washington, DC, where he was instrumental in the negotiation effort that extended the Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel program, a highly regarded non-proliferation initiative involving more than 40 countries.

Matthew has been interviewed and cited in dozens of media outlets including NPR’s Marketplace, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, LA Times, USA Today, and Forbes. Matthew has a M.S. in strategic communications from Columbia University and a B.A. in political science and history from Cornell University. He is a board member of the American Marketing Association New York and New York City Children’s Theater, and an advisory member of The Shuffle Concert.

Mr. Gagan Rai is the Managing Director and CEO of NSDL e-Governance (NSDL e-Gov) wherein he is responsible for strategic planning as also for driving the growth and expansion of NSDL e-Gov. He plays a crucial role in the development and execution of the company’s strategic plans.

Mr. Rai has been a part of NSDL e-Gov since its inception in 1996. Under Mr. Rai’s leadership, the company has spawned several successful offerings in the Capital Market and e-governance space. Several Government Departments, Ministries and State Governments in the country have joined hands with NSDL e-Gov. Having more than 42 years of experience, Mr. Rai is a charismatic leader and brings extensive industry expertise to the table. He understands the importance of a customer centric business and works with his team to put forward the best strategy that will be suitable to fulfil needs of the customers.

Prior to working with NSDL, Mr. Rai worked with Credit Analysis and Research Limited as an Executive Director. Previously, he was also associated with Industrial Development Bank of India as its General Manager.

Mr. Rai has the unique distinction of starting and establishing three important institutions in the Country viz., Credit Analysis and Research Limited; National Securities Depository Limited; and NSDL e-Governance Infrastructure Limited.

He is an Associate in Development Bank Management of Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (ADFIAP), Manila. He is also a Cost Accountant, post graduate in economics and Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers. He was presented with the Distinguished Alumni Award by Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) in 2008.

John Rolander’s 30-year management consulting career has spanned three continents and dozens of countries. He has served many of the world’s leading global financial institutions. John specializes in assisting financial institutions to define competitive strategies, improve financial performance and build the organizational capabilities required to achieve competitive advantage.

Prior to joining Marakon, John was a partner in the financial services practice at Booz & Company. He joined Booz in 2009 through the acquisition of Katzenbach Partners, where he was also a Partner. Prior to Katzenbach, John was a Senior Advisor at The Boston Consulting Group. He also worked for several years as an independent advisor to the chairman of Merrill Lynch International, and led the financial services business for Gemini Consulting in the late 1990’s

David Siegel is a digital media executive with over 18 years of experience leading organizations through innovative product development, rapid revenue growth and traffic acceleration. He is currently the CEO of Investopedia, the largest finance and investing education site, which currently reaches over 27 Million monthly unique visitors. He most recently served as President, Seeking Alpha, a crowdsourced investment research business with over 4 Million registered users. There, he oversaw all U.S.-based functions - sales, marketing, product and business development. Under his leadership, digital media sales grew by 30% and subscription sales by over 300%.

Prior to Seeking Alpha, he served as the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Everyday Health’s Local Division, which connects consumers to health care professionals. Leading a large team, for the fastest growing division of the company, he built out specialty content sites, directories and marketing services for physicians, payers and hospitals.

David was previously the Senior Vice President, Strategy & Corporate Development for 1-800-Flowers.com, overseeing strategic planning, business and corporate development, marketing strategy, partnerships and analytics. Prior to that role, he served as GM, New Businesses at Duane Reade. David has worked as a strategy consultant for Deloitte Consulting and William M. Mercer and as the Director, Organizational Development for DoubleClick.

David holds a BA in Philosophy, Politics & Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. David is also an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University and Pace University where he teaches courses in Strategic Planning & Entrepreneurship.

Val is the Head of Banking & Securities Research at the Deloitte Center for Financial Services. Val has more than 15 years of experience in research and marketing strategy in the credit markets, asset management, and financial information. Prior to Deloitte, Val was the head of marketing strategy in the institutional advisory group at Morgan Stanley. He also spent more than nine years leading the global market research function at Standard & Poor’s. Val has a Ph.D. in Marketing from Rutgers Business School, where he has taught a variety of courses at the MBA and undergraduate levels.

Joshua L. Steiner is the Head of Bloomberg L.P.’s Industry Verticals Group which includes, Bloomberg Government (BGOV) and Bloomberg BNA (BBNA). He also oversees Bloomberg Beta, the company’s venture capital fund, and the company’s Corporate Development and Strategy team. Mr. Steiner joined the company in January 2013 and is responsible for the strategy and operations of these subscription web-based services that provide legal, tax and government information to corporations, governments and NGOs around the world. He has led company-wide initiatives in areas such as data privacy, acquisitions and market liberalization.

Before joining Bloomberg, Mr. Steiner most recently served as a Senior Advisor to NBCUniversal based in Mumbai, India, where he also taught in a low income school. Prior to this role, he was co-founder, Co-President and a Managing Principal at the private equity and asset management firm, Quadrangle Group LLC, where he focused on the firm’s media and communications private equity business. He shared oversight of Quadrangle’s public equity, distressed debt and asset management businesses. Before co-founding Quadrangle in March 2000, Mr. Steiner was a Managing Director at Lazard Frères & Co. LLC.

From 1993-1995, Mr. Steiner was the Chief of Staff for the United States Department of the Treasury. In this position, he managed the Secretary of Treasury’s staff and served as his adviser on domestic and international policy, communications and operations.

Mr. Steiner is on the Yale University Council and the Yale Development Board, and serves as a Trustee of Phillips Academy (Andover). He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He received a M.St. in Modern History from Oxford University and a B.A. in History from Yale University.

Stephen Stout is a Managing Director and senior banker in the New York office of FT Partners. He is responsible for leading the firm’s Payments industry advisory practice and managing key strategic relationships around the world. He has over 19 years of experience researching, advising and working in the Financial Technology industry as an economist, equity research analyst, investment banker and senior corporate executive – during which he has led some of the most important deals in the industry.

Prior to FT Partners, Stephen was Senior Vice President and the Global Head of Strategy for First Data (NYSE: FDC) where he helped lead the Company’s IPO (the largest U.S. public offering in 2015) and was responsible for developing First Data's strategic agenda, driving corporate and business unit strategic plans, building key strategic relationships, and managing corporate and business development projects globally.

Prior to First Data, Stephen was an investment banker for eight years at J.P. Morgan where he helped build the top Payments industry investment banking franchise on Wall Street. Stephen was a lead advisor in multiple, landmark Payments IPOs, including Visa Inc. (the largest IPO in U.S. history in 2008), Vantiv, Cielo, Green Dot, FleetCor, Qiwi and Evertec, as well as numerous Merger & Acquisition deals, such as Visa’s acquisitions of Cybersource, Vantiv’s acquisition of Litle & Co, Synovus’ spin-off of TSYS, and the sales of Mercury Payments, Merchant e-Solutions, Comdata, Moneygram, Travelex, NETS, Obopay and Point International.

Prior to his investment banking career, Stephen covered the Payments industry as an equity research analyst for eight years at J.P. Morgan and UBS, where he helped build the #1-ranked research team in the Institutional Investor and Greenwich Polls. Prior to that, Stephen was an economic analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, where he spent two years studying the electronic payments system in the U.S. and alternative payment technologies.

Stephen is based in New York City and has served as a member of the Board of Directors of LAByrinth Theater, Lobo Theater and America SCORES New York. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from The University of Texas at Austin.

Harit Talwar is Head of Digital Finance with oversight for the Marcus by Goldman Sachs online lending and deposit businesses. He joined Goldman Sachs in 2015 as a partner.

Prior to joining the firm, Harit was president of US Cards for Discover Financial Services, as well as chief marketing officer and a member of Discover's Executive Committee, where he played a key role in driving overall strategy. Before that, he was managing director of Morgan Stanley's Consumer Banking Group International. He also spent 15 years at Citigroup, working in India, the Middle East, the US and Europe. During this time, Harit held a number of senior roles including general management and country management positions in cards, loans and retail banking.

Harit is a board member and trustee of the American India Foundation and serves on the Marketing Advisory Board of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. He earned a BA (Hons) in Economics from Delhi University in India and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Todd Taylor is a partner with Heidrick & Struggles in the firm's Financial Services Practice. He is responsible for leading the firm’s Americas Fintech Segment and Wealth Management sector.

His direct client work spans wealth management, asset management and private banking businesses, with additional expertise in digital and SaaS platforms, with a focus on Board, CEO and other C-Level and senior roles. Clients include Blucora, Charles Schwab, Fidelity, First Republic Bank, E-Trade, Bank of New York, AQR, Bank of America, U.S. Trust, Northern Trust, Bank of the West, Citizens Bank, TD Ameritrade, TD Bank, UBS, LPL, Cetera, Brown Brothers Harriman, eMoney and Morgan Stanley.

Prior to joining Heidrick in 2011, Todd spent 22 years with Morgan Stanley in roles of increasing responsibility including leading the firm’s High Net Worth segment, as well as overseeing the market talent functions within the firm’s Global Wealth Management business.

Todd has also recruited portfolio company executives for private equity and venture capital firms such Genstar, KKR, TPC, Colony Capital, General Atlantic and Lee Equity.

Todd lives in New York City and has three children. He is an active director and volunteer for New York’s Back on My Feet non-profit organization.

Srini Venkateswaran is a Director at Marakon. He specializes in advising investment management and consumer finance firms on strategy, operations, M&A, and organizational effectiveness. He has focused on fintech and digital applications for most of his career.

Representative consulting engagements include developing a money center bank’s digital strategy, designing the end-to-end transformation of a wealth manager using new technologies, benchmarking the customer experience of a discount brokerage firm, developing the business plan for an online securities lending exchange, and due diligence for M&A opportunities in credit cards and merchant acquiring. Srini has also authored white papers on digital financial services, asset and wealth management, and has been quoted in trade publications, including the Financial Times and American Banker.

Prior to joining Marakon, Srini was a Partner and global leader of the digital financial services practice at Booz & Company. He also founded the social network startover.com, before it quietly ceased operations during the 2008 crisis. Srini was also a Director of Corporate Strategy at Citi Cards in New York, and served Citibank in various locations in Europe and Asia.

Srini holds an MBA in Finance & Strategy from Columbia Business School. He resides in New York City.

Frank T. Young is the Senior Vice President of Global Product and Innovation for Global Payments, a leading worldwide provider of payment technology services. In this role, he is responsible for driving product strategy, planning and implementation of the next generation of customer centric payments and digital commerce solutions on a global basis. He leads the company’s efforts in identifying and executing innovation opportunities in over 29 markets around the world while delivering long term revenue growth in a rapidly evolving payments marketplace.

Prior to joining Global Payments, Frank served as the Global Lead of Payments Partnerships at Google, managing a team of professionals developing and delivering innovations to support Google’s in-store and online commerce goals. From 2008 to 2011, Mr. Young served as Senior Director of Business Development for Qualcomm, a worldwide leader in telecommunications products and services, where his responsibilities were to manage the development of mobile payments and commerce initiatives.

His career has evolved with expanding roles and executive responsibilities at Accenture and MasterCard, where he consulted with retailers and banks on how data-driven payment solutions deliver top and bottom results. Mr. Young started his career at Chase Manhattan Bank.

Frank obtained a Masters of Business Administration degree from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania where he was honored with the Dean’s Award for Excellence. He graduated from Rutgers College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics.

Sahar Zaheer is the Head of Small Business Product Fintech at TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank. She is focused on creating a legendary Customer experience from application to closing with TD Bank's Small Business lending solutions. She has 10+ years of experience in providing everyday banking solutions for Consumers, Small Businesses and Commercial entities. Sahar has previously held various roles in Strategy, Product Management & Marketing at major US financial institutions such as TD Bank, Santander and JP Morgan Chase. She is a graduate from the University of Cincinnati with a MA in Labor Employment Relations and a BBA in Management Information Systems.

Stephen P. Zeldes is the Benjamin M. Rosen Professor of Economics and Finance at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. He served as chair of the school’s Finance and Economics division from 2014-17.

In his research, Professor Zeldes has examined a wide range of applied issues in both macroeconomics and household finance, including saving behavior, social security reform, pension policy, retirement account portfolio choices, and annuitization and retirement security. His research has been published in the leading academic journals. Professor Zeldes’ teaching includes courses in macroeconomics, an interdisciplinary course titled “The Psychology and Economics of Consumer Finance,” and a class titled “FinTech: Consumer Financial Services.” In 2012, he was a recipient of the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence in a Core Course, and in 2013 he received the Dean’s Award for Innovation in the Curriculum.

Professor Zeldes is a Research Associate and co-director of the Working Group on Household Finance at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Pension Research Council, a fellow at the TIAA-CREF Institute, and was a member of the New York City Retirement Security Study Group (formed by the Comptroller in 2015). Prior to joining the Columbia faculty in 1996, Zeldes was a Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He received his PhD in economics from MIT in 1984 and his bachelor’s degree in economics and applied mathematics from Brown University in 1978.