Women We Admire is pleased to announce The Rising Star Women of Finance for 2024. The women leaders of finance hold a variety of positions across industries. Many honorees work within the financial services sector, including banking, investing, real estate, and insurance. Others lead the financial strategies for top companies in a variety of industries, like technology, renewable energy, and manufacturing.
While research shows that nearly 50% of roles in the finance sector are occupied by women, a mere 15% of those roles are at the executive level. This makes it all the more important to celebrate the women who rise to the top of their field as financial leaders.
We acknowledge the accomplished career of Myriam Nassif, the Senior Director of Financial Analysis at DIRECTV, where she oversees $20 billion in payments annually while leading a team of exceptional finance professionals.
Another recipient, Crystal Acosta, is a finance leader for an equally well-known company – Capital One. As the Senior Director of Fraud Intelligence for one of the largest issuers of Visa and Mastercard credit cards in the US, Acosta pulls from her previous experience as a research physician for the Naval Research Laboratory to defend customers against fraud across customer management stages.
Honoree Cameron Frantz works at the intersection of technology and finance as the Director of Finance at Microsoft. Cameron leads the team responsible for data center and network infrastructure and maximizes the efficiency of data center capacity.
Please join us in celebrating the accomplishments of The Rising Star Women of Finance for 2024.
Geneviève Piché
Head of Sustainable Finance & Advisory, Managing Director, Wells Fargo
Geneviève Piché is the Head of Sustainable Finance and Advisory and a Managing Director in Wells Fargo’s Corporate & Investment Bank (CIB). Wells Fargo is a leading financial services company that has approximately $1.9 trillion in assets. They provide a diversified set of banking, investment, and mortgage products and services, as well as consumer and commercial finance.
Piché’s team is responsible for delivering thought leadership and a full suite of products aimed at helping clients achieve their sustainability objectives. She also leads the operationalization and execution of Wells Fargo’s net zero, sustainable finance, and climate risk integration on goals. Her group collaborates with teams across Wells Fargo to drive strategy and further demonstrate the company’s commitment to advancing sustainability and positive social impact.
Previously, Piché was head of asset management for corporate and investment banking, where she led a team responsible for building and managing relationships with asset management clients across traditional managers, private equity/credit, hedge funds, and pensions and provided segment expertise, global growth strategies, and segment-appropriate product solutions. She has a range of corporate and investment banking experience supporting a range of industry segments, as well as leading credit origination efforts in Eastern Europe, Africa, India, and the Middle East for financial institution clients. Piche graduated from Macalester College with an undergraduate degree in economics and international studies.
Christine Brundage
US Head of Fraud Management - Wealth & Personal Banking, HSBC
Christine Brundage is the US Head of Fraud Management for Wealth and Personal Banking at HSBC, serving customers worldwide from offices in 63 countries and territories in its geographical regions – Europe, Asia, North America, Latin America, and Middle East and North Africa.
Brundage is an accomplished professional with extensive fraud, authorizations, and risk management experience spanning more than 30 years in the financial services and retail industries. Brundage is an innovative thinker and strategic problem solver with a proven ability to build strong relationships and interact successfully at all levels within an organization. She is widely recognized as a fraud and authorization management subject matter expert and specializes in all phases of these disciplines, including fraud policy and strategy, authorization policy and strategy, fraud prevention and detection defenses, fraud operations, MIS, fraud organizational structure, technology optimization, and training. Brundage also is experienced in collections, bankruptcy fraud, and bust-out prevention and detection. Her focus is on the fraud and authorization economic value chain and the larger impact that fraud management and authorization optimization have on overall portfolio profitability and customer satisfaction. Brundage has worked extensively with both US domestic and international organizations on improving fraud strategy, fraud operations, and authorization performance outcomes.
Before joining HSBC, Brundage was a principal global safety and security knowledge center lead at MasterCard. Before that, she was a vice president of fraud and corporate loss prevention at The Home Depot. Earlier in her career, she worked with AT&T Universal Card Services as a fraud management and collections. Brundage graduated from the University of North Florida with an undergraduate degree in mass communication.
Diana Lie
Managing Director - Financial Services Risk (West Region), EY
Diana Lie is a Managing Director in the Financial Services Risk (West Region) practice of Ernst & Young (EY). EY exists to build a better working world, helping to create long-term value for clients, people, and society and build trust in the capital markets.
Lie has over 20 years of experience with risk and control engagements with a variety of financial services, technology, fintech, and retail clients. She is a client-centric and technical advisor to C-level executives and boards, focusing on internal audit, control transformations, risk management, and Sarbanes-Oxley 404. She is passionate about building and developing teams and leads the West’s Consulting Development Program counseling family, her practice’s learning and development program. She is experienced in recruiting and is the FSO West executive alumni sponsor.
Lie is also active with the women, leading multiple events with their Professional Women’s Network around mentoring and sponsorship. She also served as President of the San Francisco chapter of the Institute of Internal Auditors in 2019 and served on the Board of Governors for eight years. Lie graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with an undergraduate degree in business administration.
Amelie Dubois
Head of In-Business Risk & Controls, Citi
Amelie Dubois is a financial services professional with over a decade of experience in business transformation and controls. She currently leads the North America In-Business Risk & Controls team for Citi Commercial Bank, which provides global banking solutions to mid-sized companies that are looking to grow rapidly and expand internationally. Citi is a preeminent banking partner for institutions with cross-border needs, a global leader in wealth management, and a valued personal bank in its home market of the United States.
Dubois previously managed projects and remediation efforts within the Chief Administrative Officer team of Spread Products, a global business offering a wide range of products and solutions to institutional clients, and led the Swap Dealer Oversight team for Citi Markets, Securities, and Services. She started her career as a strategy and management consultant at Capgemini Consulting before joining Citi's Internal Audit department. Dubois holds a master’s degree in finance and Strategy from a top French business school, Sciences Po Paris, and is a US citizen.
Beth Bailey
Senior Director Finance, The Coca-Cola Company
Beth Bailey brings over 15 years of experience in financial planning and analysis, financial system implementations, and finance transformation. Bailey is most recently acting as a Senior Director owning the FP&A process for Coca-Cola North America. The Coca-Cola Company is a total beverage company with products sold in more than 200 countries and territories. Their company’s purpose is to refresh the world and make a difference. They sell multiple billion-dollar brands across several beverage categories worldwide.
Bailey combines financial expertise with her strong technical strength and has proven this in successful financial optimization projects. She has had the opportunity to influence and interact with executives and project stakeholders cross-functionally and has demonstrated success through on-time delivery and client satisfaction. In this capacity, she performs monthly close and forecasting processes, associated analysis, and annual planning for a business that generates over $15 billion in revenue annually.
Bailey first got her start in 2004 as a manager at Capgemini. From there, she eventually rose to consultant at TNT Technologies, her most recent position before joining The Coca-Cola Company. Bailey graduated from Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College with an MBA in finance and from Lehigh University with an undergraduate degree in civil engineering.
Niri Gowd
Head of Global Market Readiness, Lucid Financial Services, Lucid Motors
Niri Gowd is the Head of Global Market Readiness for Lucid Financial Services of Lucid Motors. Lucid’s mission is to inspire the adoption of sustainable energy by creating advanced technologies and the most captivating luxury electric vehicles centered around the human experience.
Gowd specializes in operational transformation, customer success, continuous process improvement, Lean Six Sigma, and project management. She has over 18 years of professional experience leading large, complex service organizations, process excellence transformational teams, and PMOs across financial services. She has significant experience leveraging analytics, coupled with Lean Six Sigma and project management, to identify, design, and execute operational transformations to drive cost savings and revenue growth and improve operational efficiencies across all business functions. Gowd has worked with several leading banks to develop, improve, and implement process excellence capabilities.
Gowd first got her start in 2006 as a senior process engineer at Motorola Mobility (a Lenovo Company). From there, she went on to First American Corporation, before eventually rising to executive director and head of service for corporate client banking at JPMorgan Chase & Co., her most recent position before joining Lucid Financial Services. Gowd graduated from Ohio State University with an MS in industrial engineering and from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University with an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering.
Anna Peterson
Managing Director, Financial Crimes Assurance, JPMorgan Chase
Anna Peterson is the Managing Director of Financial Crimes Assurance for JPMorgan Chase, a leading financial services firm, with $3.9 trillion in assets and $317 billion in stockholders’ equity. In this role, Peterson provides global testing coverage across all lines of business and global jurisdictions.
Peterson is an executive leader in financial services, inspiring and leading teams and programs in business operations, compliance, and internal audit. She has a proven ability to develop highly effective teams, build risk management functions, design and execute complex business strategies, lead change, improve business processes and control environment, manage critical regulatory priorities, and build long-term relationships with senior leaders, business partners, team members, and regulators.
Peterson first got her start in 2002 as a project manager, where she assisted with financial analysis during acquisitions. She landed her first director role several years later at U.S. Bank. From there, she had several leadership roles at Wells Fargo, starting as a VP in 2012 and ending her tenure there as an executive VP in 2021. Peterson graduated from the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business with an MBA in finance and from the University of Colorado Denver with an undergraduate degree in business and information systems.
Kerry White
Managing Director, Citi Investment Management, Citi
Kerry White currently holds a leadership role at Citi, a preeminent banking partner for institutions with cross-border needs, a global leader in wealth management, and a valued personal bank in its home market of the United States. She’s the Managing Director of Citi Investment Management.
Before her current role, White was the head of Citi’s investment management division for North America with $50 billion of assets under management. She provided direct oversight of the region's custom portfolio solutions, wholesale and portfolio specialists, and client portfolio managers and provided services to family offices, ultra-high net worth individuals, and retail clients. She was also a voting member of Citi’s Global Investment Committee, which sets tactical asset allocation for Citi Global Wealth.
White also served Citi as the chief of staff to the Officer of the President and CEO of Global Consumer Banking. White graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and graduated cum laude.
Jessica Fye
Managing Director, Equity Research Analyst - Biotechnology, J.P. Morgan
Jessica Fye is the Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst for Biotechnology at J.P. Morgan. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is a leading financial services firm based in the United States, with operations worldwide. As a senior equity research analyst, Fye covers SMID-cap biotechnology stocks.
She first joined J.P. Morgan in 2008 as vice president of equity research and pharmaceuticals. The equity research covered the major and specialty pharmaceutical sectors. After nearly seven years in this role, she was promoted to senior analyst. Previously, she was a financial analyst of equity research at Bank of America Securities, where she covered the pharmaceuticals sector, including both the US and European major pharma companies.
Fye earned an undergraduate degree in business economics from Brown University. While in school, she was the Co-President of InvesTogether/Brown Investment Group.
Cameron Frantz
Director of Finance, Microsoft
Cameron Frantz is a Finance Director at Microsoft, leading the team responsible for data center and network infrastructure. Microsoft enables digital transformation in the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Frantz’s current days are filled with capital funding decisions, strategizing on how to maximize the efficiency of the data center capacity, streamlining supply chains, and delivery of capacity to meet customer demand.
Previously, she held several roles supporting the commercial sales organization. While working in public accounting, she led many individuals on teams for large companies through multi-billion dollar debt offerings, quarterly and year-end filings, mergers, acquisitions, and Sarbanes-Oxley 404 testing. Her experience crosses borders, extending to Chile, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Previously, Frantz was a senior of global IFRS and offerings services at Deloitte.
Frantz earned an MBA in strategy from London Business School, an undergraduate degree in business administration from USC Marshall School of Business, and an undergraduate degree in accounting from the University of Southern California.
Anna Clarke
Head of Trust Risk Program Management, Trust & Safety, Google
Anna Clarke is the Head of Trust Risk Program Management for Trust & Safety at Google, where she leads a team of senior program managers responsible for the smooth creation, launch, and implementation of high-profile trust risk policy, enforcement, and reporting across Google products.
Clarke is an expert at finding order in chaos, building from 0 to 1, connecting and motivating highly cross-functional teams, and making things happen. For almost 20 years, she's been designing and executing new, highly effective, data- and tech-driven business strategies and solutions within highly ambiguous emerging tech and regulatory landscapes. She effortlessly bridges the gap between technical, business, industry, and policy/legal functions to design and execute the right data-driven solution for both the end user and the end business.
Before her data and StratOps work at Google, Clarke spent 10 years in the global Ad Agency business. She built out analytics-focused client service teams from scratch and designed an agency-wide data technology and platforms practice for Publicis, launched Omnicom's first global data management platform, and has developed countless enterprise data and analytics strategies, including developing custom optimization metrics for businesses. Clarke's client roster has ranged from the Fortune 100s to local Brooklyn yoga studios. Clarke graduated from George Washington University with an undergraduate degree in communication, fine arts, and art history.
Joann Taylor
Senior Director Finance & Accounting, Comcast
Joann Taylor is the Senior Director of Finance and Accounting for Comcast, serving the DC, MD, and Virginia areas. She serves as a collaborative, influential, and motivational leader with a deep understanding of employee and customer relationships.
Taylor has spent most of her career at Comcast, a global media and technology company. She started as a customer retention supervisor and team lead. She was promoted to customer care manager in 2014, where she established and oversaw performance targets for 100 call center associates. By late 2017, she was promoted again to senior finance manager and was responsible for budgets of over $400 million, forecasts, accruals, data and analytics, and executive leadership partnerships. In 2021, she moved to director of operations and then to senior director of HR in 2022. She was appointed to her current role in September 2023.
Taylor earned an MBA from The University of Arizona Global Campus and an undergraduate degree in accounting from DeVry University.
Yang Liu
Senior Director, Technology Strategy & Governance, Fluence
Yang Liu is the Senior Director of Technology Strategy and Governance at Fluence, a global market leader in energy storage products and services and optimization software for renewables and storage.
In her previous role, Liu was the VP of business applications at Coupa Software, a Nasdaq-listed B2B software company that connects customers with eight million global suppliers and provides visibility to $4 trillion business spend. There, she was responsible for enterprise applications, identity and access management, and IT compliance. Before Coupa, she served in multiple leadership roles at the global consulting firm PwC. She started at PwC as an IT auditor at the associate level and soon moved up to senior associate. She ended her time there as a technology assurance Oracle manager for the London mid-tier market.
Liu earned an undergraduate degree in information technology and finance from San Jose State University.
Lori Reeder
Head of Financial Planning & Analysis & Deputy CFO, Atos
Lori Reeder is the Head of Financial Planning and Analysis, as well as the Deputy Chief Financial Officer, for Atos, a global leader in digital transformation with 105,000 employees and annual revenue of c. € 11 billion.
Reeder has a long history in communications, spending much of her career focused on services operations before moving into sales operations in March of 2017. Always a champion of customer satisfaction, she has extensive experience in developing programs that tie into continuous improvement. Before joining Unify/Atos, she spent 13 years working in the partner arena, giving her considerable knowledge of the channel business.
Before joining Atos, Reeder was a sales operating officer at Unify. Earlier in her career, she worked with XETA, now a part of Windstream as a customer experience manager. Reeder has a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Oklahoma State University and a Master’s degree in Human Relations with an emphasis in organizational development from the University of Oklahoma. She also holds two ITIL certifications: Foundation & Continuous Service Improvement.
Erin Haglund
Managing Director, Financial Services, JLL
Erin Haglund is the Managing Director of Financial Services of JLL, a leading global commercial real estate and investment management company. In this role, Haglund leads the design and implementation of dynamic real estate portfolio strategies for top-tier banking clients in JLL’s largest industry sector.
Haglund is a corporate real estate and design professional who is passionate about helping her clients achieve their ambitions. Her expertise is in building and empowering high-performing teams to deliver innovative thought leadership, exceptional operational performance, and trusted partnerships to clients in support of their built environment strategies.
Before joining JLL, Haglund was a senior consultant at HOK. Before that, she was a designer at Moseley Architects. Earlier in her career, she worked with the International Justice Mission as a constituent relations. Haglund graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with an MArch in architecture and an undergraduate degree in art history and architectural history from the University of Virginia.
Jennifer Reyes
Principal l Director, Risk & Loss Advisors, Marsh McLennan
Jennifer Reyes is the Principal and Director of Risk and Loss Advisors of Marsh McLennan, the world’s leading professional services firm in the areas of risk, strategy, and people. She was promoted in early 2019 from the director of risk and loss advisors, where she led a team of highly skilled consultants, specialists, and analysts. She started at the company in 2009 as a risk consultant.
Reyes is a highly effective thought leader and risk management professional responsible for leading the coordination, direction, and implementation of risk and loss services for clients. She leads with a unique set of soft skills. Championing culture, Reyes engages her team, collaborates with partners to develop strategic initiatives, and creatively deploys effective loss control, safety management, and claims advocacy services to client partners.
Before joining Marsh McLennan, Reyese was a loss prevention consultant at Liberty Mutual Insurance. Reyes graduated from the University of California, Riverside with an undergraduate degree.
Anne Simpson
Global Head of Sustainability, Franklin Resources Inc. also known as Franklin Templeton
Anne Simpson is the Global Head of Sustainability at Franklin Templeton. With over 30 years of experience across investment, policy, regulation, and academia, she is also a visiting fellow at Oxford University and a lecturer in sustainable finance at the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Management. Her most recent book is The Financial Ecosystem: The Role of Finance in Achieving Sustainability (Palgrave Studies in Impact Finance), co-written with Satyajit Bose and Dong Guo and published by Palgrave MacMillan.
Simpson is a co-founder and inaugural chair of Climate Action 100+, which has signatories responsible for $68 trillion. She is also a co-founder of the Human Capital Management Coalition and 3D, the Diverse Director Datasource. She sits on the board of Ceres and the Advisory Council to the Official Monetary Financial Institutions Forum. Before this, she served as managing investment director for board governance and sustainability at CalPERS. In prior roles, Simpson led the World Bank's Global Corporate Governance Forum, and she served as the first executive director of the International Corporate Governance Network. She taught as a lecturer and senior faculty fellow at the Yale School of Management. She was joint managing director at Pensions & Investment Research Consultants Ltd (PIRC) for over a decade.
Her awards include being nominated by Time Magazine as one of the 15 Women leading the global fight against climate change, by Barron's as one of the top 100 Women in US Finance, and as one of the top 100 most influential people in the boardroom by the National Association of Corporate Directors for each year since 2012.
Leslie Lauer
Managing Director - Private Wealth Advisor, RBC Wealth Management
Leslie Lauer is the Managing Director and Private Wealth Advisor for RBC Wealth Management. With more than 35 years of experience, she and her team are well qualified to assist clients on the various aspects of estate and retirement planning, asset allocation, insurance solutions, lending, and strategic philanthropy. She also advises corporate client relationships and family offices, providing them with cash management, executive compensation, and captive insurance company asset management.
Lauer is a leader in the wealth management industry for business owners and exceptional families. She has dedicated her career to advising owners on their succession options, including employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs). Today, as a multi-credentialed member of The ESOP Group with a diverse professional career in the ESOP industry, Lauer is well qualified to assist owners with the nuances, benefits, and challenges of selling their business to their employees.
Lauere first got her start in 1986 as a bond trustee at National City Bank. From there, she went on to Crowe Horwath LLP, before eventually rising to managing director of wealth management at UBS, her most recent position before joining RBC Wealth Management. Lauer graduated from Western Michigan University - Haworth College of Business with an undergraduate degree in business.
Kelly Kavanagh
Head of Fidelity Academy, Fidelity Investments
Kelly Kavanagh is the Head of Fidelity Academy of Fidelity Investments. She first joined the company in 2018 as head of investor center operations. Fidelity’s mission is to strengthen the financial well-being of their customers and deliver better outcomes for the clients and businesses they serve.
Previously, Kavanagh was the head of learning and development at TD. She also had a few leadership roles at Citi, including head of marketing and client segment leader for high-net-work individuals. Earlier in her career, she was part of the retirement income solutions strategy team for Sun Life. She was a marketing product manager and a personal investment segment leader for high-net-work individuals at Fidelity Investments. Her first prominent role in financial services was as a branch managing director for Allmerica Financial Corporation.
Kavanagh has a Bachelor of Arts from the College of the Holy Cross. She also has multiple professional certifications, including a Chartered Financial Consultant and Chartered Life Underwriter.
Hiba Yazbeck
Head of Finance & Accounting, North America, MAHLE
Hiba Yazbeck is the Head of Finance and Accounting in North America at MAHLE, a leading international development partner and supplier to the automotive industry with customers in both passenger car and commercial vehicle sectors. Yazbeck developed a high-performance finance team of 90 employees to drive disciplined growth, strengthen controls, scale infrastructure for growth, and build a shared service center. She reduced its costs by over $5 million annually and headed growth with four acquisitions for $2 billion by performing due diligence, strategic fit valuation, and synergy identification.
Yazbeck, a Certified Public Accountant, is an accomplished executive leader, an international C-suite strategist in M&A, and a corporate restructuring expert. She has over 25 years of progressive experience in finance, operations management, and change management within multi-billion dollar global automotive manufacturing organizations in the US and Germany.
Previously, Yazbeck was a senior manager of financial reporting and consolidations at ZF Group. Before that, she was a senior financial analyst at Hayes Lemmerz International, Inc. Earlier in her career, she worked with Sunrise Wholesale as an account manager. Yazbeck earned an MBA from the University of Warwick’s Warwick Business School and an undergraduate degree in business accounting from Lebanese American University.
Crystal Acosta
Senior Director - Fraud Intelligence, Capital One
Crystal Acosta is the Senior Director of Fraud Intelligence of Capital One, a financial services company and one of the largest issuers of Visa and Mastercard credit cards in the US. Acosta is the head of US card fraud modeling, including over 20 internal models aimed at defending customers against fraud across customer management stages.
Acosta is an experienced innovator, tech developer, and people leader in data science and machine learning with over 13 years of experience in a variety of industries, including defense and finance. Previously, Acosta was a research physicist at the Naval Research Laboratory. Earlier in her career, she worked with the College of William and Mary as a teaching assistant.
Acosta earned a PhD and MSc in Physics from William & Mary and an undergraduate degree in physics and mathematics from Vassar College.
Kim Waltner
Senior Director, Asset Management, Sutter Health
Kim Waltner is the Senior Director of Asset Management of Sutter Health, one of the nation's leading not-for-profit healthcare networks, which includes award-winning physician organizations, acute care hospitals, surgery centers, medical research facilities, and specialty services.
She previously served Sutter Health as the asset management director before being promoted in November 2023. In this role, she planned, organized, and managed various assignments related to the stabilization and value enhancement of Sutter Health real estate, including financial pro forma analysis and pre-sale value enhancement. She was the lead strategist for the management, development, and monetization of non-core building and land assets and managed system-wide real estate information management and reporting, database records management, property performance financial reporting, and metrics comparisons/evaluations. She also supervised the real estate financial reporting staff.
Before joining Sutter Health, Waltner was a managing director of asset services at CBRE, Inc. Before that, she was a president and COO at Realty Capital Partners, LLC. Earlier in her career, she worked with McLaren Environmental Engineering, Inc. as a vice president, CFO, and controller. Waltner graduated from California State University, Chico with an undergraduate degree in finance.
Cheryl Dietrich
Senior Director, Finance - Nuclear Division, NextEra Energy
Cheryl Dietrich joined NextEra Energy, Inc. in 2000. In her current role as Senior Director of Finance in the Nuclear Division, Dietrich manages the financial operations for seven commercial nuclear power units in Florida, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin. NextEra Energy, Inc. is a leading clean energy company headquartered in Juno Beach, Florida.
In her previous role with the company, Dietrich represented the company before state regulatory commissions and legislative bodies throughout North America, providing strategic advice and analysis on regulatory and policy matters to achieve corporate development goals. She was a critical contributor to the development of the start-up company, NextEra Energy Transmission, LLC, which is a new branch of the regulated transmission business with subsidiaries located in multiple states, including Lone Star Transmission, a regulated electric utility in Texas, and New Hampshire Transmission, a regulated transmission operator that operates a substation at the Seabrook, New Hampshire, nuclear-generating station.
Dietrich has served within the NextEra Energy family of companies in many diverse capacities. Her roles included project controller and senior project accountant, mergers and acquisitions, at NextEra Energy Resources; principal financial analyst for engineering, construction, and corporate services; senior power generation division business services leader; accounting supervisor for energy and fuels marketing and trading; and accounting and regulatory manager in the nuclear division at Florida Power and Light. Dietrich graduated summa cum laude from Florida Atlantic University with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, majoring in accounting. She is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in the states of Maryland and Florida.
Nimisha Srivastava
Head of Investments, North America, WTW
As the Head of Investments for North America at WTW, Nimisha Srivastava leads a team of over 200 colleagues who provide investment advice and discretionary management to asset owners across the US and Canada. At WTW, they provide data-driven, insight-led solutions in the areas of people, risk, and capital. Leveraging the global view and local expertise of their colleagues serving 140 countries and markets, they help organizations sharpen their strategy, enhance organizational resilience, motivate their workforce, and maximize performance.
Srivastava is a member of the global leadership team within investments, which oversees more than $4 trillion in AUA and more than $180 billion in delegated and outsourced CIO solutions worldwide. With a background in global markets, portfolio management, and institutional investing, Srivastava is passionate about driving innovation and excellence, while fostering a culture of diversity and inclusion. She has been recognized as a Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Leader by the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association in 2022 and received the Institutional Investor's Influential Women in Investing award in 2023. She has authored numerous publications, serves on several industry bodies, and is a frequent speaker on institutional investing, fixed income, culture, and diversity.
Previously, Srivastava was a credit and public market at the Universities Superannuation Scheme. Before that, she was an associate director at Segal Rogerscasey. Earlier in her career, she worked with KAUST Investment Management Company and Deutsche Bank. Srivastava graduated with honors from Carnegie Mellon University with a BS in mathematical sciences and holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Sarah Downey
Managing Director, US Financial Services Head of Operations & Blockchain Advisory Leader, Lockton
Sarah Downey is the Managing Director and US Financial Services Head of Operations and Blockchain Advisory Leader at Lockton, the world's largest independent insurance brokerage. In this role, Downey is focused on positioning Lockton as a trusted advisor, thought leader, and solution developer for ensuring blockchain and digital asset companies and the risks they face.
She previously served Lockton as a managing director leading LFS claims. In this role, she was responsible for developing and implementing Lockton’s national strategy concerning complex claims overall and the interaction with colleagues, clients, and prospects. Before joining Lockton, Downey was a managing director at Marsh USA. Before that, she was an attorney at White and Williams LLP. Earlier in her career, she worked with McKinsey & Company as an international recruiting administrator.
Downey graduated from Fordham University School of Law with a JD and from Washington University in St. Louis with an undergraduate degree in psychology, French, and business.
Katie Hughes
Global Account Director, Financial Services, Adobe
Katie Hughes is the Global Account Director for Financial Services at Adobe, the global leader in digital media and digital marketing solutions. Their creative, marketing, and document solutions empower everyone – from emerging artists to global brands – to bring digital creations to life and deliver immersive, compelling experiences to the right person at the right moment for the best results.
Hughes is an experienced sales leader and professional who focuses on helping companies employ technology to overcome their business challenges and achieve their objectives. She has developed a level of credibility with IT professionals and business executives that has enabled her to successfully partner with hundreds of customers of all sizes and across all industries.
Hughes first got her start in 2015 as a sales development at Innotas. From there, she went on to Scout RFP, before eventually rising to enterprise account executive of the high-tech vertical at Salesforce, her most recent position before joining Adobe. Hughes graduated from William & Mary with an undergraduate degree in kinesiology and exercise science.
Myriam Nassif
Senior Director, Financial Analysis, DIRECTV
Myriam Nassif is the Senior Director of Financial Analysis at DIRECTV, leading the content programming payments team responsible for managing external programmer reporting and analysis, overseeing $20 billion in payments annually. She leads a team of 18 finance professionals, playing a pivotal role in audit support, contract review, system implementations, and other crucial ad hoc projects.
Previously, Nassif served as director of financial analysis at AT&T, where she was responsible for external programmer reporting and analysis related to $20 billion in payments annually and led a team of 18 within the finance organization. Before starting at AT&T, she was an accounting supervisor with DIRECTV and returned to the company in 2021 as the director of financial analysis. The senior director role was added to her responsibilities in early 2022.
Nassif holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Economics from UCLA, with a minor in accounting.
Diana Keele
Director of Cyber, Risk & Third Party Security, KPMG US
Diana Keele is a Director in KPMG’s Cyber Security Services practice responsible for overseeing advisory engagements at large Fortune 500 clients. KPMG is one of the world’s leading professional services firms and the fastest-growing Big Four accounting firm in the United States.
Keele’s expertise is in intelligent automation solutions and technology enablement with data-driven design. She specializes in a variety of functional areas, including third-party risk and security management, enterprise/operational risk management, compliance, information security, and regulatory change management. Before joining KPMG, Keele was a practitioner at a large financial services company responsible for implementing governance, risk, and compliance programs enabled via technology solutions.
Keele is a frequent speaker at TPRM and GRC technology events and has co-authored various thought leadership pieces showcasing the value of AI and technology enablement in risk management areas. Previously, she was a project lead at Assurant. Keele earned an undergraduate degree in computer and information technology administration and management and logistics, materials, and supply chain management from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Ronya Corey
Wealth Management Advisor, Managing Director, Merrill Lynch
Ronya Corey is the Wealth Management Advisor and Managing Director of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management. Founded in 1914, Merrill is one of the largest wealth management businesses in the world.
Corey has been with Merrill since 1993 and is the founding partner of The Corey Group in Washington DC. The Corey Group works with families, businesses, executives, and nonprofits by developing wealth management and investment planning strategies to help them meet their long-term objectives. She holds the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) certification, awarded by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc.. She’s also a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and Chartered Financial Consultant and holds FINRA Series 7 and Series 66 registrations.
She has been named to Forbes "Best-in-State Wealth Advisors" list, "Top Women Wealth Advisors" list, and "Top Women Wealth Advisors Best-in-State" list. She has been ranked as the number 1 Female Wealth Advisor in DC since 2019 and has been named to Working Mother/Shook Research's "Top Wealth Advisor Moms,” among other accolades. Corey graduated from the University of Kentucky with an undergraduate degree.
Brandi Hydleburg
Field Director, Northwestern Mutual
Brandi Hydleburg is a Field Director for Northwestern Mutual. She’s a financial advisor on a mission to empower phenomenal women. With the licenses she holds and a decade of experience in the financial industry, Hydleburg has built an advisory practice that specializes in preparation. By making goal-setting the priority, Hydleburg can create a safe, comfortable space, where collaborative efforts are made to build a solid financial plan with her client.
Currently affiliated with Northwestern Mutual, Hydleburg has been recognized as the first Black woman in the history of her firm to ever achieve its Pacesetter First 40 honor, having broken the firm’s record in her first six months of affiliation. While she takes pride in her accolades, her ultimate focus is overcoming the social stigma of financial conversations being taboo in Black and Brown communities, while promoting generational knowledge and wealth.
Brandi is a first-generation Trinidadian American, born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She’s a graduate of Delaware State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and concentrations in Music (Operatic Vocal Performance) and Women’s Gender Studies. She’s a proud member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Incorporated, and a full-time mom.
Gina Adams
Head of Equity Strategy & Fund Research, Bloomberg LP
Gina Adams is the Head of Equity Strategy and Fund Research for Bloomberg Intelligence, a division of Bloomberg LP, a global leader in business and financial information, delivering trusted data, news, and insights that bring transparency, efficiency, and fairness to markets.
Adams provides a top-down perspective on the equity market and sectors and frequently presents her views at industry conferences, professional associations, and investment organizations. She’s been recognized for portfolio strategy, technical strategy, and economics in the Institutional Investors’ All-America Research survey. Before joining Bloomberg LP, Adams was a managing director and equity strategist at Wells Fargo Securities, LLC. Before that, she was a financial economist at Wachovia. Earlier in her career, she worked with Evergreen Investments as an investment strategy analyst.
She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst and Chartered Market Technician designation and a BS in business administration with concentrations in finance and marketing from the University of Florida. Adama is a member of the CFA Institute, the New York Society of Securities Analysts, the Market Technicians Association, the American Association of Professional Technical Analysts, and the Financial Women’s Association.
Danielle Sweeney
Senior Relationship Manager, BlackRock
Danielle Sweeney is the Head of Enterprise RIA Experience at BlackRock, a global asset manager and technology provider. She is responsible for developing a new business model that offers exclusive leadership events for the largest and fastest-growing RIA businesses. Sweeney is a smart, versatile executive with over 20 years of scaling, transforming, and leading businesses and human resources. She is adept at learning new industries, building trusted relationships, creating strategies, leading people, and crafting organizational designs to execute those strategies.
She first joined BlackRock in 2012 as human resources director in Americas and US wealth advisory. From there, she moved to a senior relationship manager role and then to head of the BlackRock US wealth advisory college savings business, where she was responsible for leading strategy, investments, relationship management, marketing, and distribution across BlackRock/iShares branded college savings plans, including innovative offerings to attract underserved communities.
Previously, Sweeney was a global HR director at Credit Suisse. Before that, she was a director of human resources and organizational development at A&E Television Networks. Earlier in her career, she worked with Hewitt Associates as a business analyst and project manager. Sweeney earned an undergraduate degree in business management from Rutgers University.
Talibah Lynch
Head of Executive Compensation, The Hartford
Talibah Lynch is the Head of Executive Compensation of The Hartford. She first joined the company in 2004 as a contractor. The Hartford is a leader in property and casualty insurance, group benefits, and mutual funds. With more than 200 years of expertise, The Hartford is widely recognized for its service excellence, sustainability practices, trust, and integrity.
Lynch is a seasoned finance leader with over 15 years of experience in the financial services industry. She is a trusted thought partner whose experience in finance has allowed her to collaborate with business leaders to enable positive business outcomes by understanding business goals and strategic drivers enabling business growth. She is a highly engaged business partner and accountable motivator of self and teams who use information and analytics to equip leaders to positively impact business results.
Previously, Lynch was a rebate operations manager and supervisor of accounting at Micro Warehouse. Lynch earned an MBA in accounting and an undergraduate degree in business administration and management from Albertus Magnus College.
Heather Richardson
Executive Director, Treasury & Strategic Investments, UnityPoint Health
Heather Richardson is the Executive Director of Treasury and Strategic Investments for UnityPoint Health, an integrated healthcare system with approximately $4.6 billion in revenues that provides high-quality, low-cost healthcare services.
Richardson is responsible for ensuring adequate capital and liquidity for the organization, including oversight of the investment portfolio, capital market activities, and cash management. Her responsibilities also include management of the insurance program, which transfers risk exposure from the organization to various third-party commercial insurers, along with streamlining various real estate functions. She fosters relationships with banking partners, investors, rating agencies, brokers, and a variety of key stakeholders to influence and execute the organization’s strategy and financial objectives. She also serves as Chair of the Retirement Plans Investment Committee.
Richardson is an experienced director of treasury with a demonstrated history of leadership in the hospital and healthcare industry for over 15 years. She is a strong finance professional, skilled in treasury management, debt financing, capital planning, asset management, insurance and risk management, and financial planning. Richardson earned a BBA degree in Finance from the University of Iowa and a master’s degree with a concentration in Finance from her alma mater.
Sarah Toney
Senior Director Finance, Publicis Sapient
Sarah Toney is the Senior Director of Finance of Publicis Sapient, a digital business transformation company. They partner with global organizations to help them create and sustain competitive advantage in an increasingly digital world.
Toney has held multiple positions with Publicis Sapient since she started there in 2015 as a revenue manager. She was soon promoted to the North American lead of global revenue operations. She was appointed to her first director role in 2018 as the director of controllership and contracts to cash.
Toney was a member of the board of directors for 2020 Vision Quest, as well as the volunteer social media coordinator. Before joining Publicis Sapient, Toney was a senior financial analyst at RSA, The Security Division of EMC. Before that, she was an accounting manager at Aspen Technology. Earlier in her career, she worked with RentGrow, Inc. as a manager of processing services. Toney graduated from American Military University with an undergraduate degree in business administration and international business management.
Maryanne Starosa
Director, Finance Technology Programs, Healthfirst
Maryanne Starosa is the Director of Finance Technology Programs for Healthfirst. She has over 20 years of extensive experience with accounting rules, audit and compliance, financial reporting, analytics, and procedures, including the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Starosa cultivates an environment of empowerment, accountability, innovation, inclusion, and diversity within her team through her servant leadership style.
Starosa is an enterprise thinker who leverages her experience and expertise to improve existing business processes within finance and related departments. Partnering with Healthfirst's Corporate Business IT Program, she drives technological innovation, building solutions to solve critical and business challenges, simplification, standardizing processes, and modernization with a holistic and strategic approach. She champions agile methodologies, including the use of appropriate technologies and leading behavior change by example to create empowered, client-centered teams, and solutions. Driving value-based delivery, she translates business strategies and needs into delivered solutions.
She served as Healthfirst’s President Advisory Council Assistant Chairman and Chairman from 2004-2006. She was also commissioned to co-chair the Women In Search for Excellence (WISE) Employee Resource Group (ERG) in 2023, where she grew membership by 263%. Starosa is also Co-chair for the Metro New York Regional User Group for Workday. Workday provides unified finance, human resources, and student/faculty lifecycle management cloud applications designed for the way people work in today’s organizations. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting.
Barbara Germaine Whitehorn-Elser
Director of Finance & Management Services, City of San Bernardino
Barbara Germaine Whitehorn-Elser is the Director of Finance and Management Services for the City of San Bernardino. She has a passion for public service that drives her to seek what others may perceive as problematic or uncertain opportunities, positions with high turnover, and challenging communities. Communities that have been underserved or have faced significant challenges in the past and need the most help. She believes that the role of a public servant is to provide the community they serve with the best service, to be a steward of assets, and to provide the highest level of transparency possible.
Whitehorn-Elser holds an MBA with concentrations in Finance, Accounting, and Operations Research from the University of Texas at Dallas and a BA in the history of art from Bryn Mawr College. Whitehorn-Elser has worked in tax, healthcare financial management, and the not-for-profit sector. She gained governmental experience serving as accounting manager and controller for the cities of Corinth and Arlington, Texas, before moving to Asheville, North Carolina, where she served as finance director and chief financial officer for seven years. In February 2021, she accepted her current role with the City of San Bernardino.
Whitehorn-Elser was born in Washington DC and grew up in beautiful Colorado Springs, Colorado, with a view of the Rockies and majestic Pikes Peak from her backyard. Never a fan of downhill skiing, she enjoyed the leisurely pace of cross-country skiing with her dad, a retired Air Force pilot and English professor at the Air Force Academy, who inspired her love of nature and continues to inspire her with his poetry and passion for life.
Michelle Zhang
Investment Director, Crewcial Partners
Michelle Zhang is the Investment Director for Crewcial Partners. Born and raised in China, Zhang has always been deeply fascinated by the diverse cultures and histories of the world. This passion for global perspectives fueled her extensive reading and travel habits, eventually leading her to pursue higher education in the United States. Zhang graduated from Columbia University (specializing in International Economics and Politics) in 2013, when her career in Finance began.
Zhang’s journey led her to Crewcial Partners in late 2015, a New York-based investment consulting firm that offers OCIO (Outsourced Chief Investment Officer) and advisory services to endowments and foundations. Here, Zhang’s work aligns with her mission-driven ethos, particularly when it produces tangible benefits for society's most vulnerable. At Crewcial, Zhang’s role involves enhancing asset growth for endowments and foundations through her comprehensive expertise in fund manager selection and evaluation, utilizing her extensive network to identify new asset management talents, and applying a profound understanding of manager selection principles and practices. Zhang has also championed investment in previously overlooked areas by conducting thematic research, thereby enriching the investment portfolios with new countries, sectors, and asset classes. Zhang’s duties extend to managing the firm’s manager pipeline and roster, which entails sustaining relationships through regular communication, conducting onsite visits worldwide, and monitoring activities via formal quarterly reviews.
Living in the vibrant heart of midtown Manhattan with her husband and two daughters, Zhang’s passion for exploration continues to thrive, adding depth and richness to both her career and personal experiences. In her moments of leisure, Zhang and her husband cherish quality time with their young daughters, guiding them through a diverse array of activities that the city offers. Additionally, Zhang indulges in her love for opera, proud to be a long-standing member and patron of The Metropolitan Opera, where she immerse herself in the transcendent world of music and performance.
Veronica Reed
Director of Retirement Plans, DJM Financial
As Director of Retirement Plans for DJM Financial, Veronica Reed oversees the operations of qualified retirement planning for business owners and individual clients at DJM Financial, a top-rated financial service firm that focuses on retirement planning, insurance and investment strategies, estate planning, and executive/employee benefits.
With more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, Reed brings extensive knowledge and a unique skill set that enhances her ability to create holistic planning solutions, solve challenges, and provide guidance along the way. Proactive and dependable, Reed enjoys building long-lasting relationships with the firm’s clients and serving as a resource on retirement planning best practices.
Reed holds the California Life and Health Insurance license, Long-Term Care Insurance license, Series 6, 7, 63 securities licenses, and Retirement Income Certified Professional Designation. She studied business administration and marketing at California State University, Long Beach.
Christina Tran
Director of Finance and Project Management, Contender Development, Inc.
Christina Tran is the Director of Finance and Project Management for Contender Development, Inc., one of the Southeast's foremost development companies founded and headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina. Contender is a full-service land and community development company serving South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
Before joining Contender, Tran spent seven years in wealth management and finance, where she provided holistic relationship management using portfolio analysis, financial forecasting, and a goals-based approach to ensure clients’ financial success. She started her career as a teller for Wells Fargo, and within a year, she was promoted to lead teller. Less than a year later, she was promoted again to personal banker. She ended her tenure there as a senior branch premier banker.
Tran attended Arizona State University, where she earned her undergraduate degree in international business and finance. Outside of the office, you can catch her hiking with her dog, reading a good history book, or at a cycle class.
Adriana Scherzinger
Head of Alternative Risk Solutions, Zurich North America
Adriana Scherzinger is the US National Accounts Head of Alternative Risk Solutions at Zurich North America, one of the largest providers of insurance solutions and services to businesses and individuals.
Scherzinger is a seasoned (re)insurance and risk management professional with nearly 17 years of insurance industry experience, working in various regions around the world, from global to local levels, predominantly handling international corporate business. She has held a variety of key roles, including responsibility for the service and management of complex international insurance programs for multinational clients. Previously, Scherzinger worked with Zurich Latin America as regional head of international program business and commercial insurance and as a senior captive fronting manager in Switzerland, Spain, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific.
Based in Chicago, Scherzinger has progressively ranked on the Captive Review Power 50 and is an advisory board member on numerous Captives industry councils. Scherzinger holds an Executive MBA from Fundação Getulio Vargas and the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy.
Diane Henry
Head of Impact Investment Funds, MassMutual
Diane Henry began her professional career 15 years ago. Today, she is the Head of Impact Investment Funds of MassMutual, a leading mutual life insurance company that is run for the benefit of its members and participating policy owners. She was promoted in 2022 from a senior venture capital investor and impact strategist role, where she played a key role in developing the fund from the ground up and transforming it into a scalable and streamlined operation.
Henry is an accomplished institutional investor, executive strategist, and a passionate catalyst for seed-stage founders and fund managers of all backgrounds who bring scalable, tech-enabled ideas to the table. One of her core strengths is uncovering pre-market opportunities that yield fast and significant returns. Her most recent success driving executive strategy for a 9-figure impact fund speaks to her unique mix of business acumen, expertise in capital deployment, high-stakes investment decision-making, deal structuring, and negotiation.
Henry first got her start in 2009 as an owner at Red Real Estate, a commercial real estate firm. From there, she went on to Pluribus Project, before eventually rising to TED resident at TED Conferences, her most recent position before joining MassMutual. Henry graduated from New York University with an undergraduate degree.
Sandy Fleischman
Managing Director, US Prime Brokerage Origination Sales, Barclays Capital
Sandy Fleischman is a Managing Director at Barclays Capital, a British universal bank, offering a full spectrum of strategic advisory, financing, and risk management solutions to drive innovation and growth. As a senior member of the US Prime Brokerage Origination sales team, Fleischman focuses on complex multi-strategy hedge funds across financing needs. She is also actively involved with diversity, philanthropic, and recruiting activities and is a frequent participant in WIN (Women’s Initiatives Network) and diversity events.
Before starting at Barclays Capital, Fleischman was a managing director for Lehman Brothers. While there, she was a member of the Lehman Brothers Fixed Income Operating Committee and the Capital Markets Prime Services Operating Committee. She also served as a member of the board of directors for the Futures Industry Association and was a member of the New York Board of Trade and Mercantile Exchange.
Fleischman attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on a full tennis scholarship, playing number one singles and doubles as a freshman, and graduated with honors. She was also a nationally ranked tennis player.
Nancy Martin
Managing Director, Greater Indiana Gateway Region, Fifth Third Private Bank
Nancy Martin is the Managing Director for the Greater Indiana Gateway Region of Fifth Third Private Bank. Fifth Third is a bank that’s as long on innovation as it is on history. Since 1858, they’ve been helping individuals, families, businesses, and communities grow through smart financial services that improve lives.
Martin’s community engagement and advisory board participation speak to her deep care and concern for the health and well-being of her community. Earlier in her career, Martin spent nearly 13 years at Fifth Third Bank, starting as a VP and team leader and moving up the ranks to a senior VP and sales manager. Before her first role at Fifth Third Private Bank as director of private banking, she briefly served as director and senior vice president of commercial banking at BMO Harris Bank.
Among her many volunteer roles, Martin is currently on the Adult Academic Health Center Philanthropy Council for the IU Health Foundation. Recently, she was the Treasurer and an advisory board member for the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and an advisory board member for The Women's Fund of Central Indiana Community Foundation. Martin graduated from the University of Richmond with an undergraduate degree in finance.
Jenny Marshall
Senior Managing Director, Investment Legal & Compliance, Greystar
Jenny Marshall is a Senior Managing Director for Greystar's Investment Management business, responsible for the legal and compliance aspects of Greystar’s global funds, ventures, and other investment activities. Greystar is a leading, fully integrated global real estate company offering expertise in property management, investment management, development, and construction services in institutional-quality rental housing, logistics, and life sciences sectors.
Marshall’s responsibilities include vehicle structuring, investor negotiations, investments, dispositions, financings, regulatory compliance, and governance. She also serves as chief compliance officer for Greystar’s Investment Management business. Before joining Greystar in 2017, Marshall was associate general counsel at GreenOak, where she worked extensively on the firm’s global product offerings. Previously, she was a counsel in the Capital Transactions & Real Estate Group of King & Spalding LLP, where she represented a broad range of real estate private equity clients for fund formation and offerings, separate accounts, strategic transactions, and regulatory matters.
She is a member of the New York State Bar and the State Bar of Georgia. Marshall has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Virginia and a law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Kelly Norman
Senior Client Director, Financial Services, Red Hat
Kelly Norman is the Senior Client Director of Financial Services of Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of enterprise open-source solutions, including Linux, cloud, container, and Kubernetes. They deliver hardened solutions that make it easier for enterprises to work across platforms and environments, from the core data center to the network edge.
At Red Hat, Norman and her team connect an innovative community of customers, partners, and contributors to deliver an open source stack of trusted, high-performing technologies that solve business problems. Serving the top accounts for Red Hat and using field experience to consult technology leaders, Norman provides new ways to run IT environments more efficiently. With a team of support, she designs and executes container environments in an average of 12 weeks.
Previously, Norman was an account executive at Outreach.io. Before that, she was an enterprise account executive at LogMeIn and an account executive at Citrix. Earlier in her career, she worked with Best Buy as a strategic account manager.
Kristin Pollak
Senior Director, Financial Planning & Analysis, Hubbell
Kristin Pollak is the Senior Director of Financial Planning and Analysis at Hubbell, a leading manufacturer of utility and electrical solutions enabling customers to operate critical infrastructure safely, reliably, and efficiently. Pollak is a CPA with extensive experience including Big 4 Public Accounting and private industry accounting in a manufacturing setting. She has strengths in SEC reporting, XBRL, financial analysis, technical research, application of accounting pronouncements, and internal audit.
Pollak first got her start in 2004 as a senior associate, audit at KPMG LLP. From there, she went on to Saint Louis University and then Washington University in St. Louis. In 2012, she started her first role at Monsanto Company as a management reporting and analysis lead. She was promoted to chemistry technology finance lead and then to senior financial analyst in 2018. From there, she spent just over two years at Bayer Crop Science as the North American commercial operations finance business partner in herbicides, where she managed the budget for the herbicide portfolio ($2.5 billion gross revenue), including the development of an annual budget and a three-year plan.
Pollak has an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis with a concentration in finance. She is particularly interested in corporate finance, budgeting, forecasting, and financial analysis.
Angela Lestrade
Senior Director, Corporate Retirement Solutions & Business Development, TIAA
Angela Lestrade is a Senior Director on the Corporate Retirement Solutions and Business Development team at TIAA, a leading provider of secure retirement and outcome-focused investment solutions to millions of people and thousands of institutions. It is the number one not-for-profit retirement market provider.
Before TIAA, Lestrade spent a decade at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. There, she served as a complex business development manager, responsible for revenue growth, executing national and regional initiatives, and tactical product campaigns. She also held roles in Morgan Stanley's private bank and investment product & services, where she managed third-party asset manager partnerships, identified new product opportunities, and co-managed a partner sales and training program.
Lestrade graduated from Fordham Gabelli School of Business with an MBA in global business management and from Baruch College with an undergraduate degree in business management.
Jacqueline Howard
Senior Director of Financial Health & Wellness, Ally
Jacqueline Howard is the Senior Director of Financial Health and Wellness at Ally. Ally Financial Inc. is a financial services company with the nation’s largest all-digital bank and an industry-leading auto financing business. Previously, Howard served as the senior director of Wealth Advisors Operations for Ally Invest, where she managed advisor training and oversaw the creation and implementation of the Ally Wealth Management Operations Manual and compliance routines. She was also responsible for the Ally Invest Inclusive Wealth strategy that is part of Ally’s enterprise financial social inclusion efforts.
Before joining Ally Invest, Howard was the senior director of Ally Corporate Citizenship. She was responsible for the creation and execution of strategic programs for the organization’s financial literacy program, corporate giving initiatives, and employee giving/volunteerism programs. In 2018, Howard was recognized as a Leading the Way recipient at Ally. She also received the Woman of Excellence Award from the Michigan Chronicle in 2019 and earned a spot as one of 15 women on the Next list, an extension of the American Banker Most Powerful Women in Banking program. Most recently, Howard was recognized as a 2022 Outstanding Alumni by the Communications Arts and Sciences College of her undergraduate alma mater, Michigan State University.
Howard is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Howard and Jill of America, Inc., and the Links Inc. She serves on the national board of directors for the American Bankers Association Foundation, and the Society for Financial Education and Professional Development, and the Boys and Girls Club of SE Michigan. Howard earned an undergraduate degree in communications management and public relations from Syracuse University.
Danielle Ferry
Managing Director - Head of Product Strategy (KYC), Moody's Analytics
Danielle Ferry is the Managing Director and Head of Product Strategy (KYC) for Moody's Analytics. Moody’s Analytics provides financial intelligence and analytical tools to help business leaders make better, faster decisions.
Ferry leads a diverse and inclusive team with a culture of openness, authenticity, and experimentation. She’s passionate about using data and technology to prevent criminal infiltration of the world’s financial system and to bring transparency to global supply chains by detecting fraud, terrorism, human trafficking, and other criminal threats. She and her team practice design thinking, continuous customer discovery, and iterative learning cycles to build next-gen products.
Ferry first got her start in 2005 as an economist at Bear Stearns Asset Management. From there, she went on to Morgan Stanley, before eventually rising to head economist at C12 Capital Management, her most recent position before joining Moody's Analytics. Ferry graduated from The Graduate Center, City University of New York with a PhD in Economics and from Boston University with an undergraduate degree in economics and political science.