2023 Speakers' & Moderators' Biographies - Fintech Conference 2nd Installment

Executive Chair and Co-Founder
Ripple

An alum of San Francisco State University, Chris Larsen is the executive chairman and former CEO of Ripple, a blockchain company he co-founded in 2012. Chris is a pioneer in blockchain and cryptocurrency technology, creating a global decentralized network called RippleNet that uses the digital asset XRP to facilitate payments across borders and financial networks. In 2019, San Francisco State received the largest digital donation ever to a U.S. university courtesy of Chris, his wife Lyna Lam, and Rippleworks, the nonprofit company he co-launched in 2015. The donation established the college as a hub for innovation and entrepreneurship. The business school was renamed the Lam Family College of Business after his wife's family, particularly his father-in-law, Quang Lam, who led his family in their escape from war and genocide in Cambodia. In 2006, Chris founded Prosper, the first peer-to-peer lending service. Prosper, which was valued at more than $1 billion, was inspired by hui, a traditional Vietnamese form of group lending. In 1997, Chris co-founded a successful online mortgage lender, e-Loan, which helped democratize lending and finance.

Partner
Point72 Ventures

Adam Carson is a Partner on the FinTech team at Point72 Ventures and leads the firm’s digital asset investing efforts, based out of San Francisco. Prior to joining Point72 Ventures, Adam worked at JPMorgan Chase as the Head of Digital / FinTech Strategy, Innovation and Partnerships with a focus on advising Chase's lines of business (Consumer Banking, Business Banking, Merchant Services, Card Services, Auto Lending and Home lending) and functions (Digital, Marketing, Operations, Risk and Technology) through their digital transformation. Earlier in his career, Adam worked at eBay, Bain & Company and Morgan Stanley. Born and raised outside of Philadelphia, Adam attended Duke University and Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. He worked in New York, London and Hong Kong before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2010.

Fintech Advisor
Chain Ventures

Sameer Govil is a senior executive with over 30 years of experience in retail banking, payments and emerging electronic commerce solutions. Most recently, he was senior vice president, global strategic initiatives, and advisor, global public policy, for Visa based in San Francisco. In these roles, he helped broaden Visa’s role in the payment ecology and establish a roadmap for integrated commerce, innovation and accelerating growth of electronic payments globally. His work in public policy strengthened Visa’s relationships with key regulators and government officials globally. He has also held a range of senior roles in international markets, notably heading the Middle East region and starting Visa’s India office in 1994, where he was instrumental in establishing Visa’s leadership in South Asia. Sameer has also worked at ANZ Bank, running the largest co-brand card in Australia while managing a period of major industry changes driven by regulatory action on interchange rates.

Sameer holds a B.S. in Computer Science and an MBA. Sameer served on the board of the Electronic Transaction Association, a governing body for US payment acquirers. Sameer is an investor and advisor to FinTech focused startups, venture capital and private equity firms in the SF Bay Area and New York.

Professor of Economics
University of California, Santa Cruz

Galina Hale (Borisova) is a Professor of Economics at UC Santa Cruz. Previously she served as a Research Advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and as an Assistant Professor of Economics at Yale University. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from UC Berkeley, under the supervision of Barry Eichengreen. Galina’s current research interests focus on attracting mainstream finance to climate solutions, the sustainability of the global food system, and international financial stability, especially with respect to climate risks. Galina previously worked extensively on international capital flows and financial stability. Galina has published over 30 articles in leading economics and finance peer-reviewed journals, including the Economic Journal, Journal of Econometrics, Journal of European Economic Association, Journal of International Economics, Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Banking and Finance, IMF Economic Review, Review of Financial Studies, among others.  She co-wrote with Cheryl Long a monograph, “Foreign Direct Investment in China: Winners and Losers.”  Galina regularly presents her work at scholarly and policy meetings worldwide.

Co-Founder
Nexus

Chen-Chen Huo is a co-founder at Nexus, a mission driven banking fintech that looks to make it delightfully easy for people to grow wealth and earn returns on 100% of their money. He is a San Francisco native, Cal grad, and started his career in tech consulting. He is a 2x Y Combinator founder and a proud owner of a SF cocktail bar on Polk St. He's a lifelong Boglehead and firmly believes in the wealth building power of diversified investing.

Associate Professor of Finance and Business Analytics
Santa Clara University

Seoyoung Kim is an Associate Professor of Finance and Business Analytics at Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business, where she teaches Financial Management, Financial Engineering, and FinTech. Professor Kim’s expertise lies in innovative financial instruments. She is an expert in structured financial instruments, fixed-income pricing, and the optimal restructuring of distressed debt, and she has provided consulting expertise and litigation support with regard to the structuring, management, and liquidation of various special purpose vehicles issuing collateralized debt obligations and asset backed securities. Her expertise extends to crypto-assets, NFTs, and other blockchain-based and blockchain-adjacent ventures – on which she has consulted and written extensively, including her most recent book, NFTs For Dummies, and another currently in progress. Prior to joining Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business, Professor Kim held a faculty appointment at Purdue University. She holds a B.A. in Mathematics from Rice University and Ph.D. in Finance from Emory University.

Digital Finance Expert
formerly World Economic Forum

Ashley Lannquist advises public authorities around the world on digital currency technology and policy, with a focus on central bank digital currency (CBDC). She is a global expert on the intersection of digital currency and financial inclusion. Ashley was previously a Project Lead for Blockchain and Digital Currency at the World Economic Forum, where she led its report studying stablecoins and financial inclusion. She also authored the Forum's 2020 “CBDC Policy-Maker Toolkit.” Ashley has an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley, where she started and led the FinTech Club and was part of Blockchain at Berkeley. She has a B.A. with honors in Economics and European Studies from Barnard College of Columbia University. Ashley is a member of the Bank of England’s CBDC Technology Forum, a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA), and a member of American Mensa.

Professor, Sylvan C. Coleman Chair in Finance and Accounting
University of California, Berkeley 

Christine A. Parlour is the Sylvan C. Coleman Chair of Finance and Accounting at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. Most of her work is in institutionally complex areas, such as market microstructure and banking. Her current work focuses on changes in the payments system and the effects on bank balance sheets. She has written for major finance and economics journals. She has been on the Nasdaq Economic Advisory Board and is currently on the steering committee for the New Special Study of Securities Markets.

Head of Strategy and Innovation
Celo Foundation

Nikhil Raghuveera is Head of Strategy & Innovation at the Celo Foundation, a nonprofit organization supporting the development of the Celo blockchain. Celo is a layer-1 protocol with a mobile-first architecture and ecosystem of global partners building Web3 applications in support of creating a more inclusive and regenerative global financial system. He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council's GeoEconomics Center, a leading think tank focused on global economic policy.

Prior to the Celo Foundation, Nikhil worked in management consulting, nonprofit management and economic consulting with organizations including the Boston Consulting Group, the Equal Justice Initiative, and Cornerstone Research. Nikhil graduated with an MBA from The Wharton School and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Co-Founder and CEO
Xillion 

Gagan Sandhu was a software engineering leader at the fintech giant Square. He had engineering leadership stints at Atlassian, Akamai and a few startups in the SF Bay Area. He has an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from Thapar University in Patiala, India, and an M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Arizona State University. Gagan got bored with a routine corporate job after 2-3 years, so he decided to pursue an MBA degree from The University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business from 2013 to 2015. Gagan used to fly from Boston to Chicago every other weekend for classes while raising a family and working full-time.

Dean
Lam Family College of Business, San Francisco State University

Eugene Sivadas is Dean of the Lam Family College of Business. He spent 15 years on the faculty of the Milgard School of Business at the University of Washington, Tacoma where he held appointments as Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs, Director of the MBA Program, Coordinator of the Masters’ Program in Cybersecurity & Leadership and Professor of Marketing. He also served on the University of Washington Faculty Senate, on the executive council of UW Tacoma’s Faculty Assembly, as Chair of Milgard School’s faculty council and as Chair of UW Tacoma’s Appointment, Promotions, and Tenure Committee. He holds a Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Cincinnati and has held faculty appointments at Rutgers Business School, the University of Cincinnati, and Emerson College. Professor Sivadas has published in leading marketing journals including the Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Marketing Letters, Journal of Business Research, Industrial Marketing Management etc. and has recently co-authored the 9th edition of the leading marketing channels textbook. His research has been cited more than 5,000 times.

Professor of Finance and Lam-Larsen Fintech Initiative Director
Lam Family College of Business, San Francisco State University

Todd Feldman is a Professor of Finance at San Francisco State University, where he directs the Lam-Larsen Fintech Initiative.  Todd teaches the Fintech Fellowship Program at SF State. He is also an advisor to the San Francisco Foundation Board. Todd’s research centers around behavioral finance, fintech, and agent-based modeling.

Analyst
BlackRock

Jairo Garcia graduated from San Francisco State University in 2021 with a double major in mathematics and economics and was a President's Leadership Fellow.   While a student, he began his quantitative career with a series of internships, including: UL Solutions, BDO, Dipsea Capital, and American Century Investments.  He segued the last internship into a full-time position as a Client Portfolio Management Analyst.  In August, Jairo joined BlackRock. He volunteers in the leadership program for Street Smarts, as he is passionate about helping others get decent jobs in finance.

Fintech Risk & Policy Advisor
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Julia Godinez covers bank/fintech partnerships and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) risk. Additionally, she is on a Federal Reserve System working group that identifies emerging fintech risk. Prior to joining the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Julia was a Large Institution Lead Examiner at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and she served in the Peace Corps in Guatemala. Julia holds an MPA in economic and financial policy from Cornell University and a bachelor’s degree in Economics and History from Mount Holyoke College, and speaks Spanish and Portuguese.

Professor of Economics
University of California, Santa Cruz

See Galina's biography under the Speakers section above.

Associate Professor of Finance and Business Analytics
Santa Clara University

Seoyoung Kim is an Associate Professor of Finance and Business Analytics at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business, where she teaches Financial Management, Financial Engineering, and FinTech. Professor Kim’s expertise lies in innovative financial instruments. She is an expert in structured financial instruments, fixed-income pricing, and the optimal restructuring of distressed debt, and she has provided consulting expertise and litigation support with regard to the structuring, management, and liquidation of various special purpose vehicles issuing collateralized debt obligations and asset backed securities. Her expertise extends to crypto-assets, NFTs, and other blockchain-based and blockchain-adjacent ventures – on which she has consulted and written extensively, including her most recent book, NFTs For Dummies, and another currently in progress. Prior to joining Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business, Professor Kim held a faculty appointment at Purdue University. She holds a B.A. in Mathematics from Rice University and Ph.D. in Finance from Emory University.

MBA Student
University of California, Berkeley

Jesus Torres is a SF Bay Area native with a passion for the intersection of business and society. After finishing his undergraduate studies in San Francisco (including a semester in Paris), he began his career with Fisher Investments’ research team. As a generalist, Jesus has led coverage and invested in global financials, real estate, health care, and consumer companies in both developed and developing markets. Jesus is a third-year Haas School of Business EWMBA student focused on becoming a better, more rounded investor. While at Haas, he completed an equity analyst internship with American Century Investment and is now applying an impact investing framework in public markets with BlackRock’s Global Impact Team. Jesus is also serving as a Venture Partner for the Haas Impact Fund, where he is actively searching for investment candidates within early-stage health/life sciences verticals. Outside of the office, Jesus enjoys mentoring and sharing hard-earned lessons with aspiring investors. 

M.S. in Quantitative Economics Student - Fintech Fellow
San Francisco State University

Jin Zhang will graduate in May 2023 with a Master of Science in Quantitative Economics degree from San Francisco State University. Jin is currently spending her last semester as a visiting student at UC Berkeley, taking classes in development economics, financial economics, and economic history.

Associate Professor of Information Systems
Lam Family College of Business, San Francisco State University

Nasser Shahrasbi is an Associate Professor of Information Systems (IS) in the Lam Family College of Business at San Francisco State University. He earned his Ph.D. in Business Administration from HEC Montreal in August 2016.

His research interests focus on the role of organizational readiness in organizational IT-based transformations and involve both qualitative and quantitative methods. His research has appeared in the proceedings of leading IS conferences including the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), the Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) and the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada Conference (ASAC).

Professor Shahrasbi is also a member of several professional and academic associations including the Association of Information Systems (AIS) and the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada (ASAC).