Financial Women of San Francisco Board of Directors (501c6)
The Financial Women of San Francisco is governed by a Board of Directors that consists of the Executive Board along with Committee Chair Persons.
Please click on the board member's photo to read her biography.
Executive Board
Denise Rigli
President
Denise Rigli is director in the PwC risk assurance practice in San Francisco with over 18 years of experience. Within PwC's risk assurance practice she focuses on working with financial services, fintech and technology companies to enhance their governance, risk and compliance activities. Experience covers business transformation, IT, financial reporting and operational risks, with a unique view of how these areas intersect. She has focused on assisting clients examine new perspectives, focus on identifying the most critical risk, mitigation of risk through controls that are right for their organization and ensuring that identified weaknesses are remediated timely. She has leveraged her years in the external audit practice to bring a financial statement/financial reporting perspective to both the IT and the operational side of the business for a holistic approach to risk mitigation. She is effective at building and sustaining effective and trusted relationships with senior management and is seen as a trusted business advisor.
Susan English Mazzetti
Vice President/Corporate Sponsorship Co-Chair
As one of the co-founders of Quorum Private Wealth, Sue brings a decade of wealth management experience at Merrill Lynch and a decade of public accounting experience at Ernst & Young to her team and clients. Sue serves as a client relationship manager focused on developing financial strategies and advice for individuals, their families, and their businesses. She has a particular passion for working with women, to empower them with financial literacy. She works closely with her clients’ full team of advisors, including attorneys and accountants, to provide a coordinated approach to wealth management, including wealth transfer, tax minimization and estate planning.
She holds a BS in Accounting from Boston College and an MBA in Finance from Columbia University.
Kim Scala
Secretary
Kim Scala is an attorney with an MBA who represents privately held companies, individuals, and investors in real estate, financing, and business transactions. She serves as strategic general counsel to emerging growth and middle-market companies, as well as pro-bono counsel to Rockwood Leadership Institute. An entrepreneur with previous start-up experience, Kim left a large firm, where she was a partner, to start her own law firm, Scala Law, in 2014.
Kim was the Industry Impact Award Honorable Mention winner at the three-chapter Commercial Real Estate Women’s 2016 ELEVATE event. In 2014, she was honored as one of the “Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business” by the San Francisco Business Times and has been on the “Forever Influential Honor Roll” since 2015.
Kim has served on the FWSF board since 2015 and is currently president of the board of CREW East Bay since 2014. She is also on the Advisory Board of Alliance for Girls, which champions the leaders and voices that support young women and girls. Kim spearheaded the Archer Norris “Women in Business Roundtable” series, a moderated quarterly program featuring C-level business leaders.
Kim is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brown University. She received an MBA (Beta Gamma Sigma honors) from UCLA and a JD from UC Davis, where she received Order of the Coif, Law Review, and Phi Kappa Phi honors. Following law school, Kim clerked for the Honorable Justice Joseph R. Grodin of the California Supreme Court.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimscala
Ashley Crawford
Treasurer
Information about Ashley comming soon.
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Melissa Maquilan Radic
Immediate Past President
Melissa joined IMPACT Community Capital in 2020 and is responsible for relationship management and the delivery of investment solutions to IMPACT’s institutional clients. Prior to joining IMPACT, Melissa was the head of BlackRock’s insurance business for the West Coast, where she was responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with insurance and other taxable clients. Before that, Melissa was an institutional wholesaler for BlackRock’s Retirement Insurance Group, where she supported variable annuity wholesalers and financial professionals among BlackRock’s insurance clients.
Melissa received her undergraduate degree in Operations Research and Financial Engineering from Princeton University and an Executive MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Melissa has served on the Board of the Financial Women of San Francisco since 2016, and she currently lives in Berkeley, CA with her husband and two sons.
Olivia Barbee
VP Marketing Communications
Olivia Barbee is a native of Chicago and a graduate of Stanford University. She returned to the Bay Area in 2008 to work as a content marketer for Wells Fargo Bank. During her 13-year tenure with the bank, she worked with Wells Fargo Investment Institute, Wells Fargo Asset Management, and creative services to develop and coordinate editorial for thought leadership marketing content.
In her current role as VP of Marketing and Communications, Olivia is responsible for setting the social media strategy, tracking analytics, and leading the marketing and communications team. Her hobbies include reading, watching ballet, listening to podcasts, and cheering on the Golden State Warriors.
Denise Field
VP of Membership
Information about Denise Field coming soon.
Mimi Mengis
VP Programs
Mimi Mengis has over 30 years of experience in the financial industry and is a proven leader in challenging market and credit environments in achieving critical management/shareholder objectives and forging respectful relationships with external stakeholders. Most recently Mimi led transformation management, liquidity risk/debt capital markets and capital stress testing functions as Managing Director at Mitsubishi Financial Group Americas (MUFG Americas). Prior to MUFG Americas, Mimi provided Treasury consulting at Promontory Financial Group and held senior Treasury roles at Washington Mutual and Providian Financial (liquidity risk, securitization and debt capital markets/investor relations). Mimi began her career at Union Bank of Switzerland (formerly known as Swiss Bank Corporation) as a securitization banker serving clients in the U.S. and Europe.
Mimi earned her MBA in finance at Cornell University and her BA in Russian language and literature at Wellesley College.
Shay Phillips
VP of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (DEIB)
Shay Phillips, regulatory compliance consultant, and seasoned banking officer with over 20 years’ experience in financial services and business operations specializing in regulatory compliance of private equity firms and commercial real estate lending institutions. Experienced in BSA/AML operational risk and data management that includes performing periodic examination reviews of processes, monitoring and investigations of alerts generated through suspicious transactions and extensive due diligence management on medium and high-risk clients.
Prior to dedicating her experience in independent consulting, Shay served as a consultant with Wells Fargo, and served as an Assistant Vice President for MUFG Union Bank, N.A. In her roles with both Wells Fargo, N.A. and MUFG Union Bank, N.A., Shay was able to successfully blend the ability to interpret complex and ever-evolving global and division-wide policies and best practices and she continues to advance in the field of regulatory compliance through independent consulting and staying abreast on the latest regulatory and due diligence practices in banking products, services and acquisitions.
Shay holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Saint Mary’s College; as well as certifications in Project and Financial Management from Cornell University; and Risk Management from Stanford University. Currently serving on the Diversity & Inclusion Committee of Financial Women of San Francisco; member of the American Heart Association and previously held positions on the board of directors of the Girls Scout of the USA and liaison to Vison 20/20 of the city of Fairfield, CA.
Shay enjoys family-time, cooking, gardening, hiking, traveling; has an overwhelming enjoyment of all sports and will forever find admiration and love in performing arts and music.
Committee Chairs
Bronwyn Bailey
Membership Co-Chair
Bronwyn Bailey is Managing Director at First Republic Bank, where she works with private capital funds to assist clients on their financing needs.
Prior to joining First Republic Bank, Bronwyn led industry outreach at the American Investment Council (AIC), the US private equity trade association. She produced original analysis about pension fund returns, developed educational ESG Seminars, and spoke widely about industry best practices.
Bronwyn started in private capital at SVB Capital, the investment division of Silicon Valley Bank, where she monitored a $1B fund portfolio and led the growth strategy to double assets. She also led a team of quantitative analysts at BlackRock’s iShares to optimize marketing and sales of ETFs. Bronwyn began her career as a management consultant providing advice on strategy and complex business questions for global telecom, media, and technology clients at Gemini Consulting in London and InteCap and PwC in Los Angeles.
Bronwyn graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University and earned a doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a CAIA charter holder.
Anne Beninger
Marketing Communications Co-Chair
Anne is VP Digital Product Manager at US Bank where she leads digital strategies, experience and teams in the Credit Card group.
Prior to joining US Bank, Anne held a variety of leadership roles at Wells Fargo, Charles Schwab, Patelco and Golden 1 Credit Unions, Ogilvy & Mather and American Express, responsible for setting the vision, developing strategies and implementing programs across various products and audiences.
Anne lives in San Francisco and grew up in New York City where she began her career in advertising and marketing. She earned her undergraduate degrees from Rutgers University and La Sorbonne in Paris, and participated in the Wharton Business School Work Study Tour. She enjoys hiking, sports, family time and doing musical theater for charity.
Janeth Medina Larios
Diversity and Inclusivity Co-Chair
Janeth Medina is a Vice Present at Bank of the West, where she serves as the annual Community Ambassador within the Bank’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) group. In her current role, she has the unique opportunity to provide nonprofit consulting and critical organizational support to Earth Island Institute. Before entering the CSR space, Janeth spent most of her career developing strategic business cases for business lines to improve the growth and profitability of their businesses and also supported major bank-wide transformation initiatives.
Janeth joined the FWSF in 2013 after being awarded a Graduate scholarship. She served as a Mills College Team Lead for three years, Co-Chair and VP of the Scholarship Program thereafter, and is currently a board member and VP of Diversity & Inclusion.
She has an MBA and BA in Political, Legal and Economic Analysis from Mills College.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/janethmedina/
Kathleen Nielsen
Corporate Sponsorship Co-Chair
Kathleen Nielsen is the president of Equilibrium Services Group, Inc. She is a governance, compliance, risk, and HR professional with 20 years of experience working on corporate compliance matters with management and boards of national and international companies.
Kathleen works in all aspects of a company's life cycle — including start-up and formation, mergers and acquisitions, work outs, restructuring, IPO, securitization, and debt refinancing. She develops risk and corporate compliance policy for companies in a wide array of industries and works extensively with a client's shareholders, lenders, audit firms, legal counsel, and tax advisors to support the client's growth and success.
Kathleen is an experienced facilitator and trained mediator who is adept at working with teams of diverse individuals. She is also experienced in FCPA, OFAC, and ITAR compliance matters.
Kathleen has a BA, Pre-Law, from the University of California, Berkeley and an MPA from the University of San Francisco. She is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) and an SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP). Kathleen is also the board chair of a non-profit providing nutrition, educational support, and tuition to impoverished children around the world.
Kim Pugh
MarCom Communications Co-Chair/Membership Data Analytics
Kim Pugh is founder and principal of YurPath Solutions and has over 30 years’ experience in financial services and other industry groups. YurPath Solutions is a boutique consulting practice that guides clients in enhancing customer and employee experience, creating product solutions, improving processes, and developing post-merger strategies that mitigate customer impact and increase revenue.
Prior to launching YurPath Solutions, Kim held several positions at Wells Fargo Bank. As a senior vice president, Kim frequently built and managed groups from the ground up and delivered results in areas ranging from customer experience & research, business development, and corporate relationship management to digital channels, process re-engineering, and merger integration. While at Mellon Bank (BNY Mellon), she had roles in funds positioning and financial analysis, managed various Operations groups, and as a manager of product design, led cross-functional teams to develop new or improved products and systems.
Kim earned her MBA and her BA in Economics from the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, PA. In addition to serving on the board of Financial Women of San Francisco, Kim has had a number of other professional affiliations, including being a member of the Association for Corporate Growth, San Francisco (ACG SF) board of directors and serving as the 2018 President.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimpugh/
Minako Steel
Membership Co-Chair
Minako Steel is a senior tax manager at Moss Adams, LLP. She is a tax professional with over 15 years of public accounting experience and handles all tax services, including tax compliance and tax planning. She provides services in a multitude of industries such as life sciences, technology, manufacturing, and retail. She focuses on C-corporation issues and serves pre-IPO and public companies including privately held middle-market companies.
She likes teaching/coaching young professionals and playing tennis during weekends.
Sonja Velez
Diversity and Inclusion Co-Chair
Sonja Velez is CFO of The San Francisco Foundation, a community foundation working to ensure that everyone in the Bay Area can thrive. Sonja oversees the investment, planning and analysis, and accounting teams and chairs the 401(k) Committee. One of the most rewarding aspects of this role has been the opportunity to expand impact investing strategies in support of the foundations efforts to advance racial equity and economic inclusion.
Sonja previously worked in Myanmar and Thailand while serving as CFO of The Democratic Voice of Burma, a courageous independent media organization.
Prior to that, she held a variety of finance roles during her 13 year tenure at Charles Schwab, including VP of Treasury, VP of Individual Investor Finance, and VP of Corporate Planning and Analysis.
She holds an MBA from UC Berkeley, an MFA in Writing from the University of San Francisco, and a bachelor's degree in International Relations from UC Davis.
Sonja first joined FWSF in 2007 and rejoined upon her return from Asia, and has served on the Diversity and Inclusion Committee since 2017.