UNcommon Talent

Jason is Chief Executive Officer of Alloy Labs, where he places a particular focus on leveraging his success in venture capital and startups to develop exponential growth opportunities for our members, especially through our Concept Lab and Alloy Alchemist Fund.

 

He has a long history as an innovator in financial services, creating new business models, and using technology to drive change.​ He has experience as a founder, venture capitalist, enterprise executive, board member, trusted advisor, engineer, community builder, and startup mentor.

 

Jason is a frequent speaker on the intersection of regulation and innovation; leadership in times of change; and the future of fintech.

 

​​He is also cohost of Breaking Banks, the number #1 global fintech podcast on Provoke.fm.

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​He co-founded one of the world’s first neo-banks (PerkStreet Financial), paving the way for a new breed of digital-only banks and partnerships between incumbent financial institutions and startups. Jason was previously the head of innovation for First Marblehead where he spearheaded the move beyond lending, launched new products and integrated innovative technologies including the first moves into social media.

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​Jason is also the creator of FinTEx.org, a not-for-profit expanding the Midwestern fintech cluster, and a global investor & advisor in fintech. He began his Engineering studies at the United States Military Academy at West Point and graduated with an A.B. in Engineering & Material Sciences from Harvard.

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JP is Managing Director of the Alloy Labs Institute, which develops and shares industry-leading best practices, tools, and frameworks to help financial institutions create a competitive advantage to de-risk the future and drive new growth.  

 

He been internationally recognized as a leading voice for innovation, strategy and leadership, and his work has been featured in some of the industry’s top publications and conferences across the country and around the world.

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​JP is a trusted advisor to boards and leadership teams, a popular writer and speaker, and is often quoted in the media. He is the creator and a top-rated instructor for a groundbreaking program on fintech and innovation taught at leading graduate schools of banking. ​

He is also cohost of Breaking Banks, the number #1 global fintech podcast on Provoke.fm. 

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He held a number of leadership roles at U.S. Bank during a 20 year period of dramatic growth from $0.75B to $60B in market capitalization, most recently serving as Chief Private Banking Officer. He held management roles at Key Bank and PNC prior to that.

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​JP holds a B.A. from the University of Akron, and an M.B.A. from Cleveland State University, where he conducted his research project at Buckinghamshire College in England. He completed the Leadership Excellence bank executive program at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Business, and is also a graduate of the Cannon Financial Institute and the College for Financial Planning.

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Peter is a Venture Partner at Alloy Labs focused on building out platforms that help community banks and credit unions succeed in payments.  

 

Previous to Alloy Labs, Peter was Head of Product Innovation at Labs at The Clearing House. He is credited as one of the original architects involved in designing and launching RTP® from The Clearing House, the first real-time payment system in the US.

 

Prior to that, he spent ten years as Head of Payment Strategy, Innovation & Industry at Capital One, where he developed and implemented a federated payments governance model for the company, and established the Enterprise Payments Advisory Council, a senior executive council to facilitate cross-functional governance across business lines.

There he also formed the Enterprise Payments Team, a corporate top of the house team of 22 people responsible for the day-to-day management of the governance function and developing payment strategies for the company.

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Peter has a wide breadth of experience in the banking and payments industry across all payment types, services and networks. He has a proven track record of building teams & organizations, establishing payments governance, building consensus around payment strategies and providing subject matter expertise and thought leadership in many industry forums.

 

He is a tireless advocate for the advancement of community banks and credit unions leveraging new technologies to propel banking and payment services forward.

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Samer leads our Concept Lab from discovery and problem definition, through solution selection and partner due diligence, to implementing and commercializing the results into viable and scalable solutions. He leads hands-on workgroups, member-driven centers of excellence, and peer discussions to rapidly test and implement relevant solutions

 

He is a problem-solver attracted to the toughest challenges. He has spent his career solving clients' and consumers' problems with operational and digital solutions. Today he spends every day driving value for our member banks, partners, and co-investors.

Samer previously he spend five years financially engaging the world's unbanked as cofounder and Chief Operations Officer at Wala, where his team addressed issues that prevent the world's underserved from accessing basic financial services, utilizing the most innovative tools available in the market, including Dala, a blockchain-based cryptocurrency designed and launched by the Wala team.

Prior to that, he co-founded Unbranded Designs, a crowd-sourced furniture design company and built the world's first online furniture design community and, with that community, brought an innovative design approach to some of the world's most prestigious organizations.

 

He began his career at ZS Associates as a business operations consultant, working in a number of data-heavy roles and cofounding the process improvement practice.

Samer holds master's and bachelor's degrees in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan and is a Tauber Institute for Global Operations Fellow. He is also a Six Sigma Green Belt.

Madeline is VP of Partnership Strategy at Alloy Labs, where she leverages her deep expertise in business modeling to facilitate strategic partnerships 
within the membership. She is passionate about the potential for value creation in the banking industry when financial institutions pursue differentiating competitive advantage.

 

To that end, she works alongside Alloy
Lab’s members to contextualize insights emerging from the alliance activities and curate partnership opportunities.
 

Prior to joining Alloy Labs Madeline led strategy for Crowe LLP’s financial services consulting practice. She facilitated strategic planning for bank clients, leaning on her deep expertise in design thinking. Madeline also applied these frameworks in her consulting to Crowe’s partners, advising on practice strategy.
 

Prior to that, Madeline led new product development for Crowe’s credit solutions consulting practice. She has first-hand experience translating market insights into product vision, developing product prototypes, testing those prototypes, and iterating to find product market fit.
 

Madeline began her career designing software used by floorplan lenders throughout North America. This season put her shoulder to shoulder with credit analysts, underwriters, and commercial lenders to solve their most challenging operational problems.
 

Madeline holds a B.A. in Business / Economics from Wheaton College. She currently resides in Minneapolis where she is an avid gardener.

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Kelsey manages our active portfolio of investments in fintech and related companies for the Alloy Alchemist Fund. She also tracks and monitors relevant fintech companies for potential investment and partnership opportunities for Alloy Labs members in our Concept Lab.

 

She conducts due diligence and market and financial analysis on behalf of the firm, our portfolio companies, and our co-investors. She matches a keen eye for detail and rigorous analysis with a unique ability to identify and clearly  communicate salient points to generate immediate impact for all parties.

 

Before joining Alloy Labs she was an Investment Banking Associate at Citigroup Global Markets, where she led day-to-day transaction coverage, including ratings analytics, investor outreach, relationship management, and syndicate coordination.

 

Kelsey graduated cum laude with a BS in business administration from the University of Florida's Warrington College of Business, and she holds an MBA from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business.

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Emmett grows our ecosystem by curating fearless leaders as members and partners who are active collaborators committed to our mission. He is a non-linear thinker who thrives in unstructured environments. A contrarian at heart, he continually pushes outward on the status quo and embraces new methodologies to attack old problems.
 
Prior to joining Alloy Labs, Emmett was on the founding team at MassChallenge FinTech, a Boston-based corporate innovation accelerator focused on creating and supporting meaningful corporate/fintech collaborations. He was responsible for growth and was the Head of Partnerships, working with and advising executives from Fortune 500 banks, insurers, and asset managers. He also helped to lead their Community Bank track, which gave smaller institutions access to their proven innovation framework.
 
Emmett has also worked at a leading custody bank supporting their innovation efforts and was an early employee at a startup in San Francisco, where he first realized his passion and excitement for innovation.
 
Emmett got his MBA from Boston College, with a concentration on Corporate Finance and Entrepreneurial Management. He holds a BA in English from Fairfield University. 

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Amber is focused on ensuring member success by connecting their strategic priorities with peer members and Alloy Labs work streams. She is the voice of the members in strategy and planning within the company. She also leads Ladies of the Lab, which shares the successes of women leaders and creates career path opportunities for the next generation.

Before joining Alloy Labs, Amber was the Chief Operating Officer for a $700 million community bank in Kentucky where she honed her banking career for ten years. As COO she oversaw the customer service, marketing, branch and deposit operations teams. Amber has participated in industry and community events as a community banking expert.

Amber currently serves as the board chair for Junior Achievement of South-Central Kentucky, a non-profit whose mission is to prepare young people to succeed in a global economy by teaching financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and career readiness skills. She has been a volunteer for Junior Achievement for the last ten years and a board member for six. Amber has a passion for teaching the next generation to be successful.

Amber was awarded the ATHENA Young Professional Leadership Award® from the Bowling Green Kentucky Chamber of Commerce in 2020. This award honors an emerging leader who demonstrates excellence, creativity, and initiative in their business or profession, and serves as a role model for young women personally and professionally. Amber was also the 2017 Hagerman Award recipient, the top honor for a graduating member of Leadership Bowling Green.
Amber holds both a BA and an MBA from Western Kentucky University.

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