In April we interviewed the chair and two members of the Global 100WFinTech Committee, who shared their stories about why they are engaged in this FinTech visibility initiative. Today, we feature three additional committee members based in North America. They describe why they have joined the Global Committee and how they have built a FinTech network, promoted the work of female FinTech leaders, and inspired the next generation of talent. We are united in our mission to raise awareness of talented women’s work at all stages of their careers and to empower young women to pursue careers in finance and work for FinTech.
In this issue we will present our upcoming events where we actively recommend speakers from our FinTech Directory and collaborate with FinTech partners from developed to frontier markets. Our wide-ranging topics include FinTech female leaders in Lagos, Nigeria; the importance of diversity in start-up founding; fundraising and business development; innovations driving enterprise productivity in finance; the digital assets roundtable; and emerging technologies in wealth management.
Please visit our events page and join 100 Women in Finance to attend our events and connect with like-minded professionals globally. We look forward to meeting you!
Sanem Alkan (San Francisco Bay Area, United States)
Sanem has been a member of 100 Women in Finance since its launch in the 2000s. She is passionate about raising awareness for the valuable work women in the finance sector do as investors, operators, and customers. Throughout her career, Sanem has held numerous roles at innovative investment firms she launched in partnership with mostly male investors. Sanem said, “it is vital that we create a deep bench of mentors for those of us looking to build new initiatives and advance our careers in finance.”
As Sanem was looking to transition out of her 100WF Northern California location co-lead role in late 2021, she learned about the new FinTech initiative at 100WF and joined this Global Committee, which she found to be a great group to collaborate with. In addition to developing FinTech connections and events in the Bay Area, Sanem serves as the liaison between various 100WF stakeholders and this Global Committee and works to move select projects forward faster.
Some of Sanem’s most important projects are revamping the way we showcase senior FinTech women on the new FinTech Directory and revitalizing the 100 Women in FinTech website. She has also enjoyed working on local event design and execution. 100WFinTech’s first event in the San Francisco Bay Area was an educational webinar on June 15, 2022, featuring two seasoned FinTech panelists: Edith Yeung (general partner of Race Capital) and Monette Stephens (managing director of SF Growth Labs). They spoke about their career paths from technology to investments to FinTech and shared insights into a range of topics from DeFi to venture investing. The next function was a networking event that introduced our 100 Women in FinTech initiative on September 29, 2022, at Makena Capital’s office in Menlo Park. We co-hosted this event with 100WF’s Northern California chapter.
Chloe Wong (New York, United States)
Chloe became interested in 100 Women in Finance because of the international footprint and scale of the organization as well as the caliber of its members and speakers.
Chloe had experience investing and partnering with FinTech in her day job, and she is passionate about supporting women’s involvement and visibility in the fintech industry, which is a very male-dominated field. The 100 Women in FinTech committee was at an early and exciting stage, with a clear mandate and a potentially impactful global reach.
During her time on the committee, Chloe spearheaded a webinar in September 2022 that 100 Women in FinTech co-hosted with FT Partners titled Demystifying Fundraising for Women in FinTech, which was well attended and received (100WF members can access the recording in the archive here). Two female founders shared their fundraising experiences while three leading female venture capitalists shared their criteria for investment and gave advice for female founders. Chloe is proud that the event is topical and addresses a key challenge that a lot of female founders have faced, and she hopes the event was helpful and provided actionable advice to the community.
Marija Flynn (New York, United States)
Marija joined 100 Women in Finance in 2021 because of its mission to celebrate and empower women in an industry traditionally dominated by men. While she was studying for her master of science in finance at Georgetown University McDonough School of Business—where women comprised around 10% of her cohort—she realized how important it was to connect and unite women interested in finance.
Marija was a founding member of MSF Women’s Network and became one of the MSF admission ambassadors, hoping to attract more female students to consider a career in finance. She now works in private equity with a focus on the FinTech industry, where she collaborates with many inspirational female leaders.
Being a part of the 100WFinTech Committee allows her to continue working on raising the visibility of these accomplished women as well as on the Next Generation initiatives. It is crucial to continue to attract new young members and mentor them as they advance in their careers. The FinTech Visibility Committee, under the guidance of global chair Kenzy Goodwin, has had significant accomplishments in the past couple of years. 100WFinTech is continually expanding our global directory of senior leaders through organizing and participating in various conferences and events. We are currently working as partners with numerous FinTech organizations on a few upcoming FinTech events in New York City, recruiting speakers from our FinTech Directory, and continuing to raise the visibility of 100WFinTech and its powerful mission.
In particular, 100WFinTech is putting together a panel for the Women of FinJS Networking Hour at the FinJS conference in New York on May 9th. The panel is focused on women in FinTech who are making a difference in their organizations while influencing and innovating the industry. We are also going to be working with the Digital Evolution Institute on its event in the fall, covering topics such as global family office and private equity technology and featuring some global female tech founders.
Recent and upcoming events organized/co-hosted by 100WFinTech:
- April 28, 2023, Lagos, Nigeria – 100WFinTech Breakfast with Amanda Pullinger and various Nigerian female FinTech leaders (simultaneous online session); sponsored by First Bank of Nigeria. This is the first 100 Women in FinTech event in Africa. See this 100WF post to learn more
- May 8, 2023, Munich, Germany – Plug & Play Found Her—The Present is Diverse: Female Entrepreneurship. Panel speakers include Rukayyat Kolawole, PaceUP Invest; Wendy Wong, Allianz Global Investors; and Shivani Aggarwal, Scalable Capital. Plug & Play, and 100WFinTech are co-hosts.
- May 9, 2023, New York, United States – FinJS | New York – Women of FinJS – New York Edition focuses on women in tech, women in finance, and DE&I initiatives; powered by OpenFin.
- May 25, 2023, London, UK – DigiAssets Roundtable Lunch at The Institutional Digital Assets Conference co-hosted by Lisa Scott-Smith, Millennium Global Investments, and Kenzy Goodwin, Finceler8; a TradeTech event.
- June 15, 2023, Los Angeles, United States – Digital Evolution Institute Conference; sponsored by Alphamille, 100WF, 100WFinTech, and others.
- June 20, 2023, London, UK – How to Keep Digital Assets in Safe Custody Post FTX.
- June 21, 2023, Webinar – How Adoption of Emerging Technology can Transform Your Business and Career. Panel speakers include Sue English Mazzetti, Quorum; Esi Minta-Jacobs, AssetMark; Marianne O, Lumen Global Investments; Serena Perin Vinton, Franklin Templeton; Ramya Durga Krishnaganth, Uvid Consulting (moderator). Jointly produced by 100WF, 100WFinTech, and Financial Women of San Francisco.
- June 21, 2023, London, UK – Market Innovator (MI3) Academic Conference hosted by Plato Partnership, with leading academics and practitioners discussing the most pertinent topics in capital markets.
- June 27, 2023, New York, United States – FinTech Connect North America; speakers include Nisa Amoils from a100x Ventures, Lydia Ofori from Hunters Lab Technologies (panel moderator), and Elisabeth Wadsworth (panel moderator).
This is part of our committee profile: We are a global committee with members in the United States, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa. To learn more, please check out our series over the next three months in the News section of 100WFinTech page on the website.
If you are interested in partnering with us at 100 Women in FinTech, please visit our website and contact us here. We are excited to have you join our upcoming events and we welcome you to become our member to attend all 100WF events.