Ron Suber President Prosper Marketplace, is responsible for developing and executing the business development strategy to attract borrowers to the site, as well as ensure a balance between institutional and retail investors on the Prosper platform. He brings more than 20 years experience in sales, marketing and business development across the hedge fund, broker dealer and registered investment advisor industries. Before Prosper, Ron was Managing Director at Wells Fargo Securities. Prior to Wells Fargo, Ron served as the Head of Global Sales and Marketing and Senior Partner for Merlin Securities. Ron also served as President of Spectrum Global Fund Administration, and spent 14 years at Bear Stearns where he served as Senior Managing Director and Manager of Global Clearing Sales.
Don Butler, Managing Director Thomvest. Don works with entrepreneurs in the financial technology, advertising technology, and enterprise software-as-a-service markets. Don currently serves on the Board of Directors for companies in each of these focus areas including Apsalar, DataXu, and Vungle (in the adtech space), Kabbage (in the fintech space), and Axcient and NetBase (in the enterprise SaaS space). Together with the team at Thomvest, prior investments include Lending Club (NYSE: LC), FlashSoft (acquired by SanDisk), GuardianEdge (acquired by Symantec), and Okena (acquired by Cisco). Prior to Thomvest, Don led the Asian business development efforts for several startup companies in the multidimensional data analysis and networking industries as part of his work with Asia Pacific Ventures. He also spent three years as an Analyst with Lehman Brothers, where he worked with clients in the software and semiconductor industries. Don received a B.A. in Chinese from UCLA and M.A.s in both East Asian Studies and Political Science from Stanford University.
Karthik Sethuraman CoFounder/CEO SimplyCredit and is focused on radically simplifying everyday consumer finance products. Prior to founding SimplyCredit, Karthik was the Head of Analytic Solutions at Kaggle, where he brought cutting-edge machine-learning and data science solutions to Fortune 500 & Global 500 companies and outperformed industry standards by over 40%-300%. Previously, he was a Senior Director at FICO, where he developed underwriting and pricing algorithms for major banks and credit card issuers worldwide, generating over $200MM in additional profit and a billion dollars in revenue. He has Masters in Operations Research from UC Berkeley.
Alex Lazarow Principal Omidyar Network, where he sources, executes, and manages for-profit investments and non-profit grants globally on behalf of the firm’s Financial Inclusion initiative. Prior to joining Omidyar Network, Alex was a management consultant with McKinsey & Co.’s Brussels and Washington D.C. offices, focusing on the intersection of finance, economic development, and strategy. He is a Kauffman Fellow, earned an MBA from Harvard Business School, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder. Alex has a bachelor of commerce in international business and finance from the University of Manitoba.
Ipsheeta Furtado CEO/CoFounder Fluid Financial, a financial platform enabling sustainable financing options for small businesses. Prior, she founded a software consultancy and began her career in broker-dealer financial operations. Ipsheeta holds a B.S. in Engineering Physics from UC Berkeley.
MODERATOR: John Rampton founder online invoicing company Due He is an entrepreneur, investor, online marketing guru and startup enthusiast. John is best known as an entrepreneur and connector. He was recently named #2 Online Influencers in the World by Entrepreneur Magazine and Blogging Expert by Time.
