Fostering Inclusive & Effective Financial Services in the Digital Era : Bridging the Gap with Technology and People-Centric Leadership

Sudha Kargi works for Zions Bancorporation in the Enterprise Risk Management Division. She brings a diversified and globally informed perspective through her broad experience in industries like Aerospace, Information Technology, and Banking. In her last 15 years in banking, Sudha has worked in various divisions including Project Management in developing large-scale projects across the globe, Fraud Prevention, Strategic Partners Relationship Management, and Procurement Operations, and is currently working in Enterprise Risk Management.

She's a proven leader who successfully translates strategy into execution, continuously drives efficiencies, and builds long-lasting relationships. Sudha is an energetic leader with a passion for people development, a track record of recruiting, and mentoring, and the ability to effectively lead and work in a high-matrix global environment.

Sudha has bachelor’s degrees in Business and Accounting. In 2014, she graduated with honors with a Master’s in Accounting from Westminster College, Utah. In 2018 she graduated from the Pacific Coast Banking School at the University of Washington with a Master’s in Banking. She holds PMP, Agile, and Scrum certifications from the Project Management Institute. She is a black belt holder in Lean and Six Sigma Tools and Methodology.

In addition to her work and professional development, Sudha is highly involved in the Indian community. She is the Director of Kargi Kala Kendra, a Bharatanatyam dance school in Salt Lake City. She also serves as a Board member for Beehive Science and Technology Charter School Board and Utah State Arts.

Allison Sagraves is a recognized authority on data and analytics strategy and advises start-ups, companies, and leaders on data monetization and strategy. As an early enterprise chief data officer in the industry, Allison helped define the role and has achieved international recognition, named to the 2022 Top 100 Global Data and Analytics Innovators, 2022 Top 50 Data and Analytics Leaders, and three-time Global Data Power Women. Allison is a founding faculty member of the Carnegie Mellon University Chief Data and Analytics Officer Program, where she is now both a faculty member and advisor.

After serving as the founding Chief Data Officer of M&T Bank, a Top 20 U.S. Bank, Allison formed her own consulting firm and serves a growing portfolio of global clients. Allison is a popular speaker at top conferences, most recently at CES 2023, where she spoke on Banking in the Age of AI. Allison also consults and delivers content and training on data management concepts for organizations such as the American Bankers Association and Datacamp.

Allison is an advisor to DataOps.live, a Snowflake partner whose platform accelerates enterprise adoption and value realization from the Snowflake Data Cloud. She is an advisor to Uplinq Financial Technologies, a purpose-driven company promoting financial inclusion through an innovative data-driven credit assessment platform. In addition, Allison is an advisor to Ultranauts, a data engineering company that uses the Universal Workplace model to embrace diversity and serve as a replicable blueprint for other employers.

Allison graduated from Harvard Business School, for whom she serves on the Board of the Western New York Harvard Business School Club and teaches in the Management Development Program for Rising Leaders.

Allison serves as Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee for the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens, and has served on numerous non-profit boards in arts and education. Allison is an honors graduate of Smith College, where she majored in Economics and Government. Prior to attending Harvard Business School, Allison served on the White House Staff and worked for The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, International Paper, Barclays Bank, and Deloitte. Allison lives in Western New York with her husband, D. Gregory Connors, a former member of The Buffalo News Editorial Board. They have three grown children. Allison is a beekeeper and steward of a forest, and has launched her life and business philosophy under her brand Applied Serendipity℠ and Allison Sagraves, LLC.

Recognition

• 2022 Top 100 Global Data and Analytics Innovators
• 2022, 2021, 2020 Global Data Power Women, CDO Magazine
• 2022 Top 50 Data and Analytics Professionals
• 2021 and 2022 Business Transformation 150 (BT150) Constellation G
• 2020 Top 100 Global Data and Analytics Innovators
• 2018 Top 50 Data and Analytics Professionals in US/Canada
• 2017 Marquis Who’s Who Lifetime Achievement

Jagriti Kumar is the Chief Financial Officer at NLB Services. She plays a pivotal role in the strategic growth of the organization, which includes managing M&A pursuits, crafting win-win organic and inorganic growth deals, ensuring compliance across continents – North America, Asia Pacific, and Europe, managing strategic expansion into new lines of business and developing robust internal policies and governance systems.

Jagriti was the winner of Gold Globee® in the “Executive Hero of the Year” category and won Silver Globee® in the “Outstanding Female Professional of the Year – Accounting & Finance” category, in the 14th Annual 2021 Women World Awards®.

She was also the winner of the Women Trailblazer award in Finance for the year 2021 conferred by BRICS Chamber of Commerce and Industry, .

Veronica is a seasoned compliance professional with 25 years of experience with mid-size financial institutions, ranging from financial operations and client onboarding to remediation efforts. She is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) and a Certified Global Sanctions Specialist (CGSS).

She brings vast experience in BSA/AML and Sanctions risk management, including Suspicious Activity Monitoring, High-Risk Customer Management, Screening, KYC, Fraud, and Regulatory Enforcement Actions. Additionally, her experience includes the implementation of RPA, ML, and AI solutions.

For the past 8 years, Veronica has been leading the development and implementation of effective and efficient BSA/AML/OFAC/FIU units with a focus on monitoring, investigating, and identifying potentially suspicious transactions and reporting to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).