Women date up finanially5/16/2023 She secured $1.1 million in pre-seed funding from a bevy of investors (including Arlan Hamilton’s Backstage Capital), and is engaging with her community effectively enough that Suma’s cost of customer acquisition is, Acevedo says, a fraction of what the established banks and fintechs are paying to reach Gen-Z and Millennial Latinas and Latinos. To her eye, it looked like no one was helping the economic hardship part of the equation, and so she founded Suma Wealth, a financial literacy platform specifically for the Latinx community. But then, the coronavirus pandemic took hold of the country, and Acevedo watched as members of the Latinx community suffered from disproportionate rates of sickness, death and economic hardship. I’m gonna be home and be one of those Santa Monica women doing yoga at noon,’” Acevedo recalls. “I didn't think I had another startup in me in my 50s. and found a media and communications company, which she left the week before she turned 50. Beatriz Acevedo, 53, began her career in Mexican television when she was 16 and had garnered several local television awards (including three Emmys) by her early 20s. “I don’t say this to criticize regulators-I’m a former bank regulator, myself-but our regulatory system is not built to deal with change that is this fast and this profound,” she says.Īnd of course, other members of the 50 Over 50: Investment list never dreamed they’d end up working in finance. Part of her work involves creating educational materials for regulators AIR also puts on mini-hackathons to create some real-time problem-solving and networking among entrepreneurs and regulators. A former Deputy Comptroller of the Currency (which is part of the Treasury Department), Barefoot launched the Alliance for Innovative Regulation (AIR) in 2019 to bring together fintech leaders, financial institutions and regulatory agencies to find ways to modernize the financial regulatory system. “Technology is bringing us to a crossroads where we can either have the best financial system we’ve ever been able to have-better, cheaper, faster for everyone-or potentially make things worse in terms of privacy and data security and even bias in the system,” says 71-year-old Jo Ann Barefoot. Some members of the 50 Over 50: Investment list are working to ensure that these and other changes to the financial system-particularly changes rooted in breakthrough technologies and digital assets in the cryptocurrency space-are met with appropriate rules and regulations that don’t hamper ongoing growth. And so I think more women are playing the game in the SPAC world now, and so we’re excited to coach, advise and mentor other women to ensure that the industry does change.” “Once you become a student of the game, you cannot be denied the opportunity to play. And I often get asked a question: ‘How did you get involved with it?’” Newhouse says. “I can't tell you how many phone calls I got from women who had been on Wall Street for 30 years, 20 years, saying they were so excited to see this. Newhouse and Freidheim had looked at the SPAC boom and seen very few faces that looked like theirs at the center of the action, so they took matters into their own hands. In March, the 22-year military veteran and cybersecurity entrepreneur joined forces with investor and fintech entrepreneur Isabelle Freidheim to launch Athena, a SPAC with an entirely female management team, board of directors and independent advisors. For 59-year-old Phyllis Newhouse, this mission has resulted in the creation of the first-ever all-female SPAC (special purpose acquisition corporation, otherwise known as a blank-check company). Many of the women on the list share Shahnaz’s goal of fostering a more inclusive financial future and increasing women’s economic participation. Forbes editors helped refine the list, weighing a multiplicity of factors, from the scope and scale of a nominee’s work to her impact on the world at large. To establish the final list of 50 financial rainmakers, we were guided by the scores and insight provided to us from our three judges: Grameen CEO Andrea Jung fashion icon Diane von Furstenberg and Janice Bryant Howroyd, founder of Act One and one of America’s richest self-made women. Last month, we launched the 50 Over 50: Vision to showcase scientific and artistic visionaries shaping the future of robotics, healthcare, music and culture in July, the 50 Over 50: Impact spotlit women over 50 who are changing their communities through social entrepreneurship, advocacy, and education. It’s the third of three subject-focused lists that expand on our inaugural 50 Over 50 list launched in June, a project meant to draw attention to women achieving their greatest accomplishments at ages when some parts of society are all too quick to overlook.
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