Eight students from the Bowdoin College Finance Society met some big hitters from the technology and investment world over spring break at MIT’s 2018 FinTech Conference. “I believe this is the club’s very first time attending the conference,” said the Society’s president Ellen Pham ’18, “and the students really enjoyed it.” 

Pham said the event “brought together ‘fintech’ startups, established financial service and technology firms, venture capitalists, investors, and regulators, to share ideas about recent innovations, including blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and financial inclusion in emerging markets.”

The keynote speakers were Kevin O’Leary, co-host of ABC television’s Shark Tank, Gary Gensler, former chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Ashley Johnson, the Chief Operating Officer and CFO of investment services firms Wealthfront. Pham said seven of the eight students visiting the conference received funding from Bowdoin College’s Student Activities Funding Committee.