We not too long ago commemorated Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with a function highlighting the Asian American and Pacific Islander fintech innovators that launched their firms to our FinovateSpring 2026 viewers.
In the present day, as a part of our continued commemoration, we flip our consideration—and our thanks—to the Asian American and Pacific Islander mainstage audio system and panelists who shared their insights and experiences with us finally week’s occasion in San Diego.
Theodora (Theo) Lau, Founder, Unconventional Ventures & Creator
Theodora Lau is the founding father of boutique consulting agency, Unconventional Ventures. She is a public speaker, an advisor, the creator of Banking on (Synthetic) Intelligence (2025), and co-author of The Metaverse Economic system (2023) and Past Good (2021). Lau additionally hosts One Imaginative and prescient, a podcast on fintech and innovation.Â
At FinovateSpring this yr, Lau participated in quite a few govt briefings and energy panels on AI in monetary providers.
Kristie Han, Principal, Canapi Ventures
Kristie Han is a Principal at Canapi Ventures, a enterprise capital agency investing in early to growth-stage software program and fintech firms. Han brings a decade of expertise investing in AI and software program firms and main Sequence B to pre-IPO alternatives throughout AI apps.
At FinovateSpring, Han participated in our energy panel on the position of collaboration and co-creation in bank-fintech partnerships.
Kevin Lee, Chief Expertise Officer & Key Pursuits Chief, NICE
Kevin Lee serves as Chief Expertise Officer and Key Pursuits Chief at NICE, the place he leads the corporate’s expertise imaginative and prescient and its most strategic buyer engagements by aligning platform capabilities, AI technique, and architectural imaginative and prescient to ship differentiated outcomes.
At FinovateSpring this yr, he delivered a particular deal with on AI brokers in monetary providers.
Huyen Tran, VP of Improvements, U.S. Financial institution, and Founder, Elys Ventures
Huyen is a fintech product and technique chief at U.S. Financial institution and founding father of Elys Ventures, with 20 years of expertise constructing and scaling international digital platforms and monetary providers options. She is the founding father of Elys Ventures, via which she invests in early-stage fintech and well being tech firms with a product-driven funding method.
This yr at FinovateSpring, she participated in our Ladies in Fintech Briefing: How Can We All Make Positive We Are Transferring the Needle?
Huong Tran, Founder and Managing Accomplice, 6igma Ventures
Huong Tran is the Founder & Managing Accomplice of 6igma Ventures, an early-stage enterprise fund targeted on fintech infrastructure and utilized AI platforms bridging Asia and america. She based 6igma Ventures to attach high-growth Asian markets with the US expertise ecosystem, investing in structural alternatives shaping the following technology of economic and expertise infrastructure.
At FinovateSpring, Tran participated in our Affect+ Investor Energy Panel for fintech startups.
Sherry Wu, Chief Expertise Officer, College of Michigan Credit score Union
Sherry Wu is the Chief Expertise Officer (CTO) on the College of Michigan Credit score Union (UMCU), the place she aligns IT technique with the credit score union’s mission. With over 25 years of expertise in IT management at IBM, Ford, and HPE, Wu additionally served on the board of Folks Pushed CU and at the moment advises Algebrik AI and CU 2.0.Â
At FinovateSpring, she participated in our energy panels on AI and the way credit score unions can thrive with out massive financial institution budgets.
Gary Fan, Chief Working Officer, RBB
Gary Fan is the Chief Working Officer of RBB, a publicly traded financial institution with over $4 billion in property. As COO, Gary leads enterprise-wide progress initiatives, digital transformation, product and repair innovation, and strategic M&A exercise. He’s additionally answerable for optimizing cross-functional operations and driving steady enterprise mannequin evolution to remain forward in a quickly altering monetary panorama.
This yr at FinovateSpring, Fan participated in our panel dialogue on the present challenges and alternatives going through neighborhood banks.
Photograph by Ernests Vaga on Unsplash
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