DISCUSSION: Michael Gardner, Managing Director/Head of Center BNY Mellon Innovation Center, Silicon Valley; Steve Kirsch CEO Token; Sam Ostler, Venture Analyst Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator; CS Lai, HSBC; John Stewart, Global Head Scouting & Research Royal Bank of Scotland; Brian Hamilton EIR BBVA Digital Ventures/CEO Azlo; Jessica Chen Riolfi, Head Asia TransferWise; MODERATOR: Pierre-R. Wolff Managing Director ExecConnect
Blog
Brian Ley, CEO/Founder Alpharank #fintechbanking
Brian Ley CEO/Founder Alpharank. Alpharank helps banks and credit unions monetize their data by turning transaction data into social influence data. He has always been fascinated with how viruses, behavior, trends, and emotions travel through human networks. Alpharank publicly launched in April 2017 at Finovate where it was voted best new technology by over 1000 bankers. Brian was then listed in June as one of the top innovators in banking to watch alongside the CEO of Plaid and CTO of Ripple. The seemingly fast rise to success is actually a 6-year story of persistence in the face of countless signs to quit.
Joe Guzel, Crosslink Capital #insurtech
Joe Guzel, Senior Associate Crosslink Capital. Joe joined Crosslink in 2016 and is focused on investments in financial technology, digital media, e-commerce, and consumer technology. Prior to joining Crosslink, Joe was an investor with CrossCut Ventures, an LA-based Seed firm, where he focused on investments across consumer tech, gaming, ecommerce and digital media. Prior to his career in venture, Joe was with Intuit where he held a variety of operating roles; most notably with the Corporate Strategy and Development team where he focused on global expansion initiatives and participated in over $2B worth of M&A transactions.
Ken Elefant, Sorenson Capital Partners #insurtech
Ken Elefant Sorenson Capital Partners since 2017 and leads the firm’s early-stage technology practice. enjoys working closely with entrepreneurs to help them attack new market opportunities and gain access to key initial customers and partners. His efforts have led to recognition as one of the most connected names in tech. Before joining Sorenson, Ken was Managing Director at Intel Capital and VP at Intel Corporation. Leading the software and security groups at Intel Capital, Ken invested in several market-leading companies including AtHoc (Blackberry), Prolexic (Akamai), Carbon Black, DocuSign, Forescout, AlienVault, Venafi, Vectra Networks, Gigya, BrightEdge, among many others. Prior to Intel Capital, Ken was a founding general partner at Opus Capital. While at Opus, he served on the boards of Spock Networks (Intelius), Transpond (Webtrends), Supersecret (Knowledge Adventure), Alert Enterprise, Jivox, and TrustedID (Equifax). Previously, Ken was a Senior Associate at both Lightspeed Venture Partners and Battery Ventures. Before business school, Ken worked at Radius, Claris Corporation (the software subsidiary of Apple), and RealNetworks. Ken received an MBA from Harvard Business School and holds a Bachelor of Science in economics from the Wharton School of Business. He is a Kauffman Fellow.