Lauren West is a Bay Area native currently living in her favorite city — San Francisco. From a young age she has been intrigued with finance and economics. She pursued her degree in business administration and finance at Cal Poly. Over the lasts six years, Lauren has perfected her banking expertise and is currently a private client banker for Chase Bank.
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Alexandra (Lexi) was born in Michigan, but has lived in California since 1994. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she graduated magna cum laude with a degree in business economics. Lexi, a financial planning specialist who holds the Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy® (CAP®) designation, has been working with Morgan Stanley Wealth Management since 2009. In 2013 and 2014, she was named to the firm’s Pacesetter’s Club.
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Ashley (Shuyler) Carter Ashley (Shuyler) Carter is a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group in San Francisco, as well as the founder and former executive director of AfricAid. Since returning from a photographic safari to Tanzania in 1996, Ashley has dedicated her life to supporting girls’ education across Africa. In 2001, at the age of 16, she formed AfricAid with the mission of supporting girls' education in East Africa. Since that time, she has helped to lead AfricAid’s programmatic strategy and fundraising efforts as AfricAid's former executive director and currently as a member of the board of directors.
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KPMG commissioned a study on women and leadership with the objective of identifying the steps needed to move more women into leadership positions. The study was conducted by Ipsos and included a 20 minute online survey of 3,014 women in the U.S. ages 18 to 64 (604 college level and 2410 working women). There is strong indication that the elements that affect a woman’s ability to lead are confidence and connections. Though women want to lead, they are often held back by a lack of confidence. For example, only 49% of respondents personally identify with being confident today.
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John Crane Films has been a long-time sponsor and supporter of FWSF and is responsible for the outstanding videos we produce each year featuring the scholarship recipients and Financial Woman of the Year. We're thrilled to learn that the documentary 'Batkid Begins' that John is Executive Producer for has achieved widespread critical acclaim and distribution via Warner Brothers - including a Hollywood Premiere, with red carpet and all! The film captures a heart-warming, only in San Francisco story - it opened in theaters June 26, check it out!
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What does it take to be a woman entrepreneur? The FWSF East Bay provided an interesting, fun, and thought-provoking panel to answer just that question. Moderated by our own Kim Scala, three successful women entrepreneurs — Cynthia Parker (Econoday), Kathleen Nielsen (Equilibrium Services Group), and Ramona Alves (engineering and technology visionary) — shared their learnings, experiences, goals, and passions that support their success.
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On April 22, 2015 a panel of experts, moderated by FWSF member Erin McCune, discussed the nuts and bolts and pros and cons of this payment-system revolution. We learned: who is leading the digital currency revolution; what its capabilities are; when it should be used; where we can learn more; and how digital currency will impact our careers and the future of money and global finance. Also, resources to learn more about digital currencies.
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On 27 March 2015, Tanya Gupta, one of the FWSF 2014 Scholarship recipients received an award from the organization Global Women Power at their International Women’s Day Celebrations. Various women who have been successful in various fields including Business, Law, Medicine and Politics were also recognized.
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On Thursday March 19, marketing maven Donna Bedford spoke to a group of 25 members and guests in the Walnut Creek offices of Burr Pilger Mayer. Members enjoyed networking and libations before Donna began her talk entitled “Brand Yourself! How to Differentiate Yourself and Stand Out in a Crowd.”
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Kim, a recent FWSF board member (Alliance Committee Chair), has been a member of FWSF since 2009. Her company, YurPath Solutions, helps B2B companies unearth customer and employee insights and develop the essential processes that lead to an improved customer experience and, ultimately, to increased revenue.
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Mickele, a new FWSF member and busy CPA, has a varied background in hands-on general accounting, audit, and an emphasis in tax preparation. A graduate of UC Santa Barbara, Mickele has worked at Bregante & Company LLC in San Francisco since July 2014, and prior to that, at L H Harris CPAs and Scott W. Smith CPAs.
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SEC Commissioner Kara Stein spent an evening with an intimate group for a candid roundtable discussion on the issues facing the securities and financial services industries. Commissioner Stein expressed her desire to meet with women’s groups in the cities that she is traveling to — not just in the US, but globally — and stated that women often have a different view of the issues and regulations facing the industry and are under-represented in the discussion.
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About 200 members and guests of FWSF, the Financial Planning Association, Society of California CPAs, the Association of Corporate Growth, and Schwab enjoyed a spirited discussion with Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz moderated by former FWSF President and financial planner extraordinaire Michelle Alberda.
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Sarah Friar, the 2014 Financial Woman of the Year, mentors Kaitlyn Busler, a 2014 FWSF Scholarship Recipient over coffee on the Stanford campus. Read how each recount their meeting.
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FWSF members and their guests enjoyed a private tour of many of the Art Deco jewels in the Financial District. Led by a docent from the Art Deco Society of California, the tour included the 450 Sutter Medical Building, notable for the Mayan-inspired decoration in the dramatic lobby, the newly renovated Pacific Telephone and Telegraph building at 140 Montgomery, the tallest high-rise when built in 1924, the Shell Building featuring Egyptian motifs (King Tuts mob was discovered in 1923), and the San Francisco Stock Exchange with it's sculptures by Ralph Stockpole and two-story mural by Diego Rivera.
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