Building Connections: Impact Award, Breakfast & Panel Discussion

Panel Discussion #1: Celebrating Money Talk Milestones

Stacy Francis, Founder Savvy Ladies

Stacy is a nationally recognized financial expert with over 20 years of experience in the financial industry. She is one of twenty of the nation’s leading wealth managers on CNBC’s Digital Financial Advisor Council , and frequently appears in media outlets such as Forbes, Kiplinger, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Stacy is dedicated to furthering the financial planning profession, and is the Director of the Association of Divorce Financial Planners’ (ADFP) Greater New York Metro Chapter, the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) and the Financial Planning Association (FPA). Stacy is committed to ongoing professional education, has attended the New York University Center for Finance, Law and Taxation, where she completed the Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®) designation. Stacy is a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst® (CDFA®), a Divorce Financial Strategist™ as well as a Certified Estate and Trust Specialist (CES™). As much as 10% of all Francis Financial proceeds are donated to charities, including Savvy Ladies™, a nonprofit organization founded by Stacy to educate and empower women to take control of their finances. 

Leah Jones, CFA, CFP®, CDFA®, AEP®

Leah Jones, Director of Financial Planning at Hightower Bethesda, and a Savvy Ladies Helpline Volunteer. Leah is also the host of two podcasts: The Everything Money podcast provides timely and topical financial information with the goal of helping listeners to make smart financial decisions, and Her Divorce Source with the goal of providing practical guidance to women before, during, and after a divorce.

Leah specializes in developing and implementing complex financial planning strategies and managing investments for her clients. Her knowledge and guidance to clients on investments extend to alternative investments, including hedge funds, private equity, and private real estate, investment options often underutilized by private clients. She also works advising women and couples through the financial complexities of divorce. Leah was named as Forbes Best-In-State Women Wealth Manager in 2022 and 2023. She was also named a Women to Watch in 2022 by InvestmentNews. Leah was recognized as a Top 40 Under 40 Financial Professional by InvestmentNews in 2021. Leah majored in Finance and graduated from the Smith School of Business, University of Maryland College Park. She holds citations in CIVICUS and Hinman CEO programs. Leah is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Certified Financial Planner (CFP®), Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA®), and Accredited Estate Planner (AEP®). In addition, she has her Series 7, 65, and 63.

Jennifer C. Williams

Jennifer Williams is a Regional Director at J.P. Morgan Wealth Management, where she oversees a team of Market Directors and Private Client Advisors across nine markets in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Jennifer joined J.P. Morgan in 2020 and has over 20 years of experience in leadership roles across Wealth Management and Consumer Banking.

She is a graduate of University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where she received an MBA in analytic finance, and Stanford University, where she received a bachelor’s degree in biology. She holds Series 7, 9, 10 and 63 licenses and also has her CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and CIMA® certifications.

Community involvement is one of Jennifer’s core values. She currently serves on the board of the Northwest Area Foundation and is active in the Stanford Alumni Association.

Panel Discussion #2: How Innovation & Technology Can Play a Role in Financial Literacy

Jailan Griffiths

Jailan Griffiths is Nasdaq’s Global Head of Purpose and President of the Nasdaq Foundation. Jailan is responsible for the company’s philanthropic, community outreach, corporate sustainability and employee volunteerism programs. Jailan also serves as President of the Nasdaq Foundation and leads its mission to reimagine investor engagement to equip economically disadvantaged communities with financial knowledge and to increase capital markets participation for minority and female entrepreneurs. She is also a member of the board of the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center in San Francisco.

Prior to joining Nasdaq in 2016, Jailan worked at Dow Jones, serving as head of marketing for The Wall Street Journal, and head of marketing for Dow Jones Enterprise products including Factiva, Newswires, VentureSource, and Risk and Compliance. She previously worked at Thomson Financial. Jailan holds a Master of Arts (Hons) in History from The University of Edinburgh.

Cheryl Nash

Cheryl Nash Chief Executive Officer, Financial Supermarket, InvestCloud

Cheryl Nash is the Chief Executive Officer of InvestCloud’s Financial Supermarket division and drives the strategic vision for scalable, mission-critical industry-leading technology solutions in wealth management. With 30+ years of experience, Cheryl holds deep industry knowledge, maintains enduring client partnerships, and is a highly sought-after subject matter expert and speaker.

The recipient of numerous recognitions and awards, Cheryl is active on Money Management Institute’s board of governors, chairs the Diversity and Inclusion Committee for Tiburon Advisors and is a passionate advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion.  Cheryl is an industry fintech leader and past Savvy Ladies ChangeMaker Honoree.

Bobbi Jo Allan

Bobbi Jo Allan leads the Nationwide Financial (NF) Innovation team within the Enterprise Innovation & Digital Office (EIDO). She serves on the EIDO leadership team, as well as the Strategic Customer Solutions and Nationwide Retirement Institute leadership teams. In this role, she provides strategic direction for core innovation to all NF lines of business and leads development of adjacent innovation opportunities. She partners closely with the property & casualty and enterprise teams to drive innovation best practices throughout the company.

Prior to leading NF Innovation, Bobbi Jo spent four years in the Nationwide Office of Corporate Strategy (OCS), most recently leading Enterprise Strategic Planning and, immediately prior, providing strategic planning and development support to Nationwide Financial. Elsewhere at Nationwide, she has led partner engagement initiatives in Retirement Plans, served as a long-term planning champion for Life and Annuities, and provided market research support – with an emphasis on product development and customer engagement – for the Life, Annuity, Bank and Nationwide Financial Network (NFN) business segments.

Sunsy Hong

Sunsy Hong, General Manager, Head of Digital Planning Platform & Experience for J.P. Morgan Wealth Management at JPMorgan Chase & Co. She is responsible for delivering quality client and advisor solutions for financial planning and financial wellness, and building intuitive, connected experience across platforms. She is the Product Owner for Wealth Plan and also leads the digital retirement and education experiences. She partners with Design, Technology, Data and other partners in driving firm strategies from idea to market.
Sunsy has 18 years of experience in financial services and strategy. Before joining J.P. Morgan Wealth Management, Sunsy had a tenured career at Bank of America Merrill Lynch Wealth Management where she was most recently the Head of Strategic Programs. She led large scale, high impact strategic initiatives including Goals-based Wealth Management and Client Experience Standards. Prior to joining Merrill, she also worked at the Strategy team at UBS Wealth Management and as a Senior Associate at McKinsey & Co.
Sunsy grew up in Hangzhou, China, and received her bachelor’s degree from Shanghai International Studies University. After spending years as a marketing executive in the consumer packaged goods industry, she moved to the United States and earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School. She lives in Manhattan with her husband, daughter and son.

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