We recently commemorated Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with a feature highlighting the Asian American and Pacific Islander fintech innovators that introduced their companies to our FinovateSpring 2026 audience.
Today, as part of our continued commemoration, we turn our attention—and our thanks—to the Asian American and Pacific Islander mainstage speakers and panelists who shared their insights and experiences with us at last week’s event in San Diego.
Theodora (Theo) Lau, Founder, Unconventional Ventures & Author
Theodora Lau is the founder of boutique consulting firm, Unconventional Ventures. She is a public speaker, an advisor, the author of Banking on (Artificial) Intelligence (2025), and co-author of The Metaverse Economy (2023) and Beyond Good (2021). Lau also hosts One Vision, a podcast on fintech and innovation.
At FinovateSpring this year, Lau participated in a number of executive briefings and power panels on AI in financial services.
Kristie Han, Principal, Canapi Ventures
Kristie Han is a Principal at Canapi Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in early to growth-stage software and fintech companies. Han brings a decade of experience investing in AI and software companies and leading Series B to pre-IPO opportunities across AI apps.
At FinovateSpring, Han participated in our power panel on the role of collaboration and co-creation in bank-fintech partnerships.
Kevin Lee, Chief Technology Officer & Key Pursuits Leader, NICE
Kevin Lee serves as Chief Technology Officer and Key Pursuits Leader at NICE, where he leads the company’s technology vision and its most strategic customer engagements by aligning platform capabilities, AI strategy, and architectural vision to deliver differentiated outcomes.
At FinovateSpring this year, he delivered a special address on AI agents in financial services.
Huyen Tran, VP of Innovations, U.S. Bank, and Founder, Elys Ventures
Huyen is a fintech product and strategy leader at U.S. Bank and founder of Elys Ventures, with two decades of experience building and scaling global digital platforms and financial services solutions. She is the founder of Elys Ventures, through which she invests in early-stage fintech and health tech companies with a product-driven investment approach.
This year at FinovateSpring, she participated in our Women in Fintech Briefing: How Can We All Make Sure We Are Moving the Needle?
Huong Tran, Founder and Managing Partner, 6igma Ventures
Huong Tran is the Founder & Managing Partner of 6igma Ventures, an early-stage venture fund focused on fintech infrastructure and applied AI platforms bridging Asia and the United States. She founded 6igma Ventures to connect high-growth Asian markets with the US technology ecosystem, investing in structural opportunities shaping the next generation of financial and technology infrastructure.
At FinovateSpring, Tran participated in our Impact+ Investor Power Panel for fintech startups.
Sherry Wu, Chief Technology Officer, University of Michigan Credit Union
Sherry Wu is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at the University of Michigan Credit Union (UMCU), where she aligns IT strategy with the credit union’s mission. With over 25 years of experience in IT leadership at IBM, Ford, and HPE, Wu also served on the board of People Driven CU and currently advises Algebrik AI and CU 2.0.
At FinovateSpring, she participated in our power panels on AI and how credit unions can thrive without big bank budgets.
Gary Fan, Chief Operating Officer, RBB
Gary Fan is the Chief Operating Officer of RBB, a publicly traded bank with over $4 billion in assets. As COO, Gary leads enterprise-wide growth initiatives, digital transformation, product and service innovation, and strategic M&A activity. He is also responsible for optimizing cross-functional operations and driving continuous business model evolution to stay ahead in a rapidly changing financial landscape.
This year at FinovateSpring, Fan participated in our panel discussion on the current challenges and opportunities facing community banks.
Photo by Ernests Vaga on Unsplash
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