Taking Control of Your Finances and Your Future

Misyrlena (Misy) Egkolfopoulou

Personal Finance Reporter

Bloomberg

As a personal finance reporter, Misyrlena writes stories about the lifestyle and investing habits of the younger generation. Her stories attempt to document the financial decisions and struggles of new and aspiring investors. Before joining the wealth team, Misyrlena traveled around the U.S. to cover the 2020 election as a Campaign Reporter and later joined Bloomberg's White House team to cover the last 6 months of the Trump presidency. Misyrlena holds degrees in journalism from Syracuse University and the University of California, Berkeley and was born and raised in Athens, Greece.

Jamila Souffrant

Founder

Journey to Launch

Jamila Souffrant is a podcaster, writer, money coach and founder of JourneytoLaunch.com where she shares her journey to reach Financial Independence while helping others do the same.

Jamila is considered a go-to financial thought leader in the personal finance field and is the resident financial expert on a weekly segment on News12, the most watched local TV news-station in NYC and has been featured in other notable media outlets such as ESSENCE, Refinery 29, Money Magazine, CNBC, CBS, Business Insider and more. The Journey To Launch Podcast has over 2+ million total downloads, was named one of ''27 Podcasts You Need To Start Listening To'' by BuzzFeed'' & won Podcast of the Year at the 11th Annual Plutus Awards.

Jamila and her husband saved $169,000 in two years and are debt free besides their mortgage. She is also a mother of three young children and lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Karen Cahn

Founder & CEO

IFundWomen

Karen Cahn is the Founder & CEO of IFundWomen, the go-to funding marketplace for women-owned businesses and the people who want to support them with access to capital, coaching, and connections to launch and grow sustainable businesses. Named to Inc. Magazine’s Top 100 Female Founders of 2020, Karen is a pioneer in tech and media, as she was an early Google Intrapreneur where she spent 10 years leading various monetization teams in search, display, and video. Most notably, Karen started the Branded Entertainment business at YouTube, when, back in the olden times of YouTube 2006, she and a rogue group of sales and product managers, made the connection between big consumer brands and video creators, thus creating the first native video ad experiences monetized on YouTube. Karen then went on to spend three years creating and monetizing Aol’s growing suite of video content and nabbed Aol its first-ever Emmy nod. Karen holds a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, double majoring in African-American Studies and US History.

Alyssa Strasser

Vice President, Institutional Sales

State Street Global Advisors

Alyssa Strasser is a Vice President at State Street Global Advisors. Alyssa is responsible for driving and executing ETF sales with asset owners.

Previously, she was a Derivatives Trader at Vanguard, responsible for hedging Vanguard's fixed income funds whose AUM is $1.4 trillion dollars. The role entailed a portfolio management function in monitoring key rate durations and cash. Also researching macro-economic trends, generating and implementing alpha generating trades. She also spent two years on the ETF Capital Markets desk at Vanguard, working with market participants in ensuring tight spreads and ETF liquidity.

Alyssa holds a B.A. in International Affairs from West Chester University. Alyssa is a CFA Level III candidate, as well as a MBA candidate at Yale SOM.

Alyssa established the Women in ETF chapter in Philadelphia and is currently head of events of the New York chapter.

Paula Pant

Founder

Afford Anything

Paula Pant is a prominent leader of the Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) movement and an enthusiastic investor with a soft spot for spreadsheets.

As the Founder of Afford Anything, a personal finance and financial independence website with over 60,000 newsletter subscribers, and host of the award-winning Afford Anything podcast, Paula has led thousands of freedom-seekers to live life on their terms through her relatable wisdom and expertise.

The Afford Anything podcast has over 15 million downloads, listeners in over 150 countries, and accolades such as The New York Times naming it one of ''7 Podcasts Your Wallet Will Love''.

Paula’s core belief that ''you can afford anything, but not everything'' is the backbone of Afford Anything. Through expert interviews and bi-weekly ''Ask Paula'' episodes, listeners learn to think critically about how they spend limited resources like time, money, and energy. Afford Anything empowers readers and listeners to stop trading time for money through passive income and inspires them to create a life they love, free from society’s expectations.

Sherry Paul

Managing Director, Senior Portfolio Manager

Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management

Sherry Paul is a Managing Director, Senior Portfolio Manager, and Private Wealth Advisor at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management, where she leads an all-female team. Drawing on over two decades of financial industry experience, Sherry has built a strong reputation for delivering comprehensive wealth management to high net worth and ultra-high net worth clients. Her sincere approach to building long-term relationships and her genuine empathy has earned her clients’ confidence throughout all market conditions.

As the result of the trust her clients have placed in her, Sherry has been recognized by the national press as a leading wealth advisor. She has been named by Forbes as a Best-In-State Wealth Advisor (2018-21) and as a Forbes Top Woman Wealth Advisor (2017-20). Sherry has been a regular guest on Bloomberg TV, CNBC and Fox Business News and has authored several articles on the importance of having a money mission and money power for women in national publications like Robb Report, Muse, and Worth. Sherry is one of a select number of senior women in finance chosen by Bloomberg Media to join their New Voices program, a global initiative focused on diversifying news coverage in business and finance.

Prior to launching her career in wealth management more than two decades ago, Paul worked with several non-profit organizations, and today she incorporates that humanitarianism and activism into her work though her commitment to increasing financial literacy for girls and women. Sherry graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz, with a B.A. in philosophy and has continued her professional education since. She is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™(CFP®), and a Certified Investment Management Analyst® (CIMA®), a designation earned at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.