On June 20th, 2018, the Berkeley Haas EWMBA Associations' Alumni Relations hosted their first event of their Student/Alumni "Summer Series", with some amazing Haas alumni providing insight on the future of financial services.
FinTech was the event topic, with an alumni panel featuring individuals that work in the hedge fund, asset management, banking, payments and analytics space for companies like SoFi, Visa, BlackRock, Plaid, Wells Fargo, Charles Schwab, and SumUp Analytics. In addition to the fantastic topic, alumni reconnected with their Haas colleagues and current students networked with successful alums.
The panel discussion drove a thoughtful conversation on questions like:
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Do traditional banks and financial firms want technology, or do they fear it will make their business models obsolete?
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What challenges do consumer-focused firms face, and are the same challenges prevalent for institutional firms?
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“Big data” can be advantageous, but hard to decipher. Do firms still want to collect as much data as possible, and where does entrepreneurial vision fit into the equation?
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Are the classic bank branches and ATM machines a “dead zone”, becoming obsolete in the near-future?
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Blockchain and cryptocurrency has been the hottest topic in value / payments / finance over the last year. How will these technologies shape commerce in emerging economies like India and China?
The EWMBA wishes a special thanks to our alumni panelists. Thank you for your fantastic insight!
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Sabina Yoon - MBA '99 - Wells Fargo, Senior Vice President of Digital Sales and Service Product Management
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Rubail Birwadker - MBA '14 - Visa, Head of Strategic Partnerships, North America
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Helen Min - MBA '14 - Plaid, Head of Marketing
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Jason Van Thiel - MBA '17 - Charles Schwab, Senior Manager, Business Strategy
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Emmanuel Vallod - MFE '11 - SumUp Analytics, CEO
Finally, a big thank you for the EWMBA Association's VP of Alumni Relations, Suzanne Currie, Michael Wong and Corey Cunningham for organizing the event.