A Sold-Out Women’s Emerging Leadership Forum focused on Women in Finance

As the women workforce in finance industry continues to grow, the decision-making roles need more inclusive voices.

This year, the flagship event of the Lam-Larsen Community Engagement (CE) Initiative — the Women's Emerging Leadership Forum (WELF) — centered around “Women in Finance” and brought together a distinguished line-up of speakers.

Gulnur Tumbat, Director of the Lam-Larsen Community Engagement Initiative and Professor of Marketing at San Francisco State University, expressed the team’s gratitude to all the speakers for their time and the personal insights they shared. She stated, "It was only through the commitment and generosity of all our guest speakers that WELF became a great forum over the years."  

Alesha Breite, COO of Digital Sales at Visa, had the audience captivated in the morning address by covering insights on decision making as a woman in the financial sector. Nicole Mossman (BS '94, MBA '97), former CMO at AssetMark and a proud SFSU alumna, discussed the increasing access women have to capital and how this change might shape the financial industry further on. Additionally, Nicole emphasized the importance of having a personal board of directors in both personal and professional journeys. 

The panel with Nitu Nanda, SVP, Consumer Lending Regional Executive at Bank of America; Melissa Palwick, SVP & Chief Lending Officer at San Francisco Federal Credit Union; and Erica Taylor, SVP, Community Impact and Public Relations Officer at Golden 1 Credit Union was moderated by Sybil Yang, Associate Professor and Faculty Director of Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative at Lam Family College of Business. With creative questions from Professor Yang, each of the distinguished panelists created an informative and engaging session around inclusivity, mentorship, authenticity, and the importance of having a strategy behind each decision. 

Kerry Deichen, Market Executive at Bank of America, took the audience through her leadership journey and emphasized the importance of mentorship at any stage in a career pathway. Amila Tiric (MBA ’07), another SFSU alumna and Senior Director, Co-brand Partnerships and Performance at Visa and Karly Ko, Director of Strategic Accounts at Visa were part of the afternoon session called VISAside Chat. They shared their career stories and engaged with the audience through interactive Q&A session. Professor Tumbat closed the event by thanking all the contributors, the audience, and the student volunteers. She added, “We are especially thankful for Visa for collaborating with us and also for all the employee volunteers who helped make this event such a successful and unforgettable experience for everyone. It was also amazing to see so many attendees stepping up to be mentors as part of our mentorship program.”  

The audience was highly engaged and inspired by all the speakers and facilitators. LFCoB MBA student Emily Zubritsky, second time attendee, said, “The event was filled with inspiring insights from incredible women in leadership across the finance industry plus some gorgeous views!”. One of our panelists, Nitu Nanda, said, “Thank you for making this connection happen and for championing the development of future women leaders!”. Hunsa Tiwana, LFCoB MBA student, and a first-time WELF attendee, said she is already looking forward to the next year’s WELF. 

Under the new vision and leadership of Professor Gulnur Tumbat, in the last four years WELF has aimed to step outside of the SFSU campus to connect with people from various communities. This has been partially realized by WELF’s collaborations with major corporations in the San Francisco Bay Area. In the first two years, the CE Initiative collaborated with KPMG, last year it partnered with LinkedIn, and this year with Visa. These corporate organizations have helped increase WELF’s visibility and participation from industry professionals. As a public higher education institution, such collaborations with the business world are very important for SFSU. 

Another part of WELF’s vision is accomplished by bringing together a diverse audience: employees from industry and non-profit organizations, along with SFSU alumni, students, faculty and staff. The forum assembled and hosted an audience and speakers that represented a wide range of organizations such as Visa itself, Bank of America, Golden 1 Credit Union, San Francisco Federal Credit Union, Kaiser, New York Life Insurance, Western Alliance Bank, Zeno Group, GRID Alternatives, DLP Capital and others. With lively interactions and productive discussions, WELF2025 had its biggest audience thus far.