Meet The Team

Founder & CEO

Jason Henrichs

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, 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 a host of Breaking Banks, the number #1 global fintech radio show and podcast, as well as his own podcast, Fintech5, 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.

Cofounder & Managing Director

JP Nicols

JP spends most of his time working directly with bank leadership teams and boards to help them build and leverage their internal innovation capacity to "unbreak the bank", unleash growth potential, and quickly forge ideas into results through our FinTech Forge programs.

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 at leading graduate schools of banking. ​He is also a host of Breaking Banks, the number #1 global fintech radio show and 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.

SVP of Product

Samer Saab

Samer 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 of the Alloy Labs Alliance.

He facilitates peer member discussions and hands-on Workgroups from the discovery and problem definition phase through solution selection and implementing and commercializing the results into viable and scalable solutions.

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.

Director of Insights

Amber Buker

Amber loves translating complex subject matter into actionable insights. She believes deeply in the power of listening, and finds joy in asking questions that help others reframe their thinking.

Amber has expertise in creating and managing programs. Prior to joining Alloy Labs, she developed the FinXTech Connect platform and awards program for Bank Director. There, she interviewed banks and technology companies to write in-depth editorial profiles on over 300 fintechs, a series of articles on Innovative Banks, feature stories for Bank Director magazine and research reports. She also facilitated peer exchanges for bank leaders and moderated panels at the company’s conferences.
 

Previously, Amber served as the program director for the Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville. There, she managed all aspects of the nonprofit’s operation including grant writing, accounting, event planning and social media. She worked closely with the board of directors, and supervised law students providing legal services to low-income artists.  Amber most enjoyed helping creatives develop their business models through Periscope, the organization’s artist entrepreneur training program.

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Amber graduated with honors and a certificate in intellectual property from Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon, and was admitted to the Tennessee State Bar in 2015. She attended the evening program at Lewis & Clark, and worked her way through school as a full time legal assistant for a boutique elder law firm. She has co-founded two 501(c)(3) organizations — the Oregon Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts and Distraction Theatre Company.

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Senior Associate

Kelsey Laundau

Kelsey tracks and monitors relevant fintech companies for potential partnership and investment opportunities for Alloy Labs members. She conducts due diligence and market and financial analysis.

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

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VP Market Development

Emmett Shipman

Emmett 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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Member Success Coordinator

Amber Frye

Amber establishes and maintains relationships by coordinating activities and engagement opportunities for Alloy Labs members. She is the voice of the member in strategy & planning conversations within the company.

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.

Fintech Associate

Lauren Howell

Lauren is excited about the revolution happening in financial services, specifically the importance of partnerships between banks, fintechs and venture capital. She works closely with our Director of Insights, and our Concept Lab and Venture teams to enable member engagement to drive strategic initiatives towards tangible results.

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She also coordinates activities and outputs for Alloy Labs workgroups and centers of excellence around such member-driven topics as Banking as a Service, Cybersecurity, Innovation Culture, Marketing, Strategy and Business Models, Data & Analytics, Automation & AI, Blockchain & Crypto, and Third Party Diligence.

Previously, Lauren worked at Nymbus, where she translated data and analytics to assess the niche, financial needs for customers, creating value propositions to drive strategy, action and innovation for banks, credit unions and fintechs. Prior to that, Lauren worked for both AARP and a personal injury firm founded in Fort Collins, CO.

Graduating from Colorado State University, Lauren holds her degree in sociology with minors in business and real estate. Here, she found her passion for people, consumers and technology. Now residing in Denver, Lauren enjoys skiing and hiking in her free time.

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