About Us

Emmanuel (Manu) Smadja

CEO and Co-founder

Manu is a former Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company, where he focused on Global Financial Inclusion and U.S. mass-market banking. He has worked with top financial institutions in the U.S., Europe, and Africa. Prior to McKinsey he worked in marketing strategy and operations at Capital One and Vistaprint. Manu holds an M.B.A. from INSEAD, as well as an M.S. in Systems & Information Engineering and a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Virginia.

Fun fact: When he’s not working, Manu can be found on the soccer field, kayaking down a river, or on the dance floor.

Michael Davis

Chief Investment Officer & co-founder

Mike is a serial entrepreneur with 13 startups under his belt, most of which were in the financial services or e-commerce space. As MPOWER’s Chief Investment Officer and Co-founder, Mike uses his superpowers to architect the company’s equity and debt financing rounds. In the past, Mike has been Director of Web Innovation and Strategy for Avon and has worked for Sapient, a leading consulting firm. Mike holds an M.B.A. from INSEAD and a B.S. in Computer and Electrical Engineering from Purdue University.

Fun fact: Mike is addicted to grid-lined notebooks, Evernote, and productivity technology.

Bob Armour

VP of Operations

Bob started his career in consulting with McKinsey & Co. and Cambridge Technology Partners before moving into operations and IT leadership roles at Cognizant, PTC, and Capital One. While serving as COO/CIO of Capital One’s Healthcare Finance business, his team doubled loan volume to $1 billion in 2 years. Bob earned both an M.B.A. and a B.S. in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia. Always passionate about education, Bob recently served on his local school committee and as STEM Outreach Co-chair for Boston SIM.

Fun fact: Bob has moved 17 times within the United States and Europe, and loves to travel the world. His favorite place is the Amalfi Coast in Italy, where he embraces driving like a local.

Lutz Braum

VP of Marketing and Business Development

Lutz has more than 25 years of experience in marketing financial services, with deep expertise in digital marketing, consumer engagement, and product development. Before joining MPOWER, he was the CMO of Higher One, a FinTech company that was the country’s largest digital-only banking provider, with more than 2 million accounts. His previous roles include CMO at an e-retailer, Head of Consumer Marketing at PayPal, and various senior marketing roles at Wells Fargo Bank, Washington Mutual, and both domestically and internationally at Citibank. Lutz is fluent in German and French and holds a B.S. in Finance from Arizona State University and an M.B.A from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Fun fact: Lutz is an avid amateur photographer whose works have graced album covers, billboards, office buildings, and magazines. He loves tennis, photography, and his family (not necessarily in that order).

Kin Chung

VP of Credit Innovation

Kin has over 20 years experience in Financial Services. Prior to joining MPOWER, he was Chief Risk Officer at FS Card. Former roles include Chief Credit Officer at Ethos Lending (a start-up mortgage lender), as well as various senior positions at Fannie Mae, Capital One, and AIG. He has expertise in consumer credit, advanced analytics, and structured finance. Kin holds a PhD in Mathematics from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Western Australia.

Fun fact: Kin has a second degree black belt in Taekwondo and is an accomplished pianist. He lives in Northern Virginia with his family and four children.

Terence Chu

General Counsel & Acting Chief Compliance Officer

Terence has represented financial institutions for 30 years, both in private practice and in house. Terence has extensive legal and compliance experience in banking, regulatory, real estate, commercial, and consumer law. Past clients include HSBC (formerly Marine Midland Bank), JPMorganChase, Bank of America, and Capital One. Terence received his J.D. from the Temple University School of Law and his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania. As a former entrepreneur himself, Terence relishes the unique legal and business challenges associated with representing startup companies.

Fun fact: When he’s not working as a lawyer, Terence enjoys working with his hands, either in the garage or at the dojo.

Parimala Pakalapati

Director of Engineering

Prior to joining MPOWER Financing, Parimala served as a consultant for various early stage FinTech startups in New York, where she helped determine technology stacks and built and managed technology teams and operations. Earlier in her career, Parimala was a Systems Architect and Manager at Intercontinental Exchange Inc. and Creditex, where she worked on trading and clearing platforms. She holds an M.S. in Computer Science from Utah State University, and a B.S. in Computer Science & Engineering from JNTU Hyderabad.

Fun fact: Pari spends her free time hiking, scuba diving, and practicing or volunteering teaching yoga. She once went on a trip to 17 countries and did those activities in random order.

Rohan Tibrawalla

Country Director – India

Rohan leads and manages all India-related business and operations for MPOWER. Prior to joining MPOWER, Rohan was CFO at bhane., a fashion apparel brand, as well as a former Investment Banking Analyst at JPMorgan in New York. Rohan graduated with a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is passionate about both education and finance and is excited about cultivating new partnerships and student relationships throughout India for MPOWER.

Fun fact: Rohan enjoys playing ultimate frisbee, traveling to tiger reserves, and reading Calvin and Hobbes and The New York Times.

Ashish Agarwal

Manager – Analytics

Ashish has 7 years of experience working in analytics and strategy for startups in India. He specializes in business analytics with experience in data driven business strategy formulation. Ashish has earned the Project Management Professional and Six Sigma Green Belt credentials as well as both an M.B.A. and M.S. in Information Systems (dual degree) at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Fun fact: Ashish is an active practitioner of Vedic mathematics, an ancient Indian way of solving math problems.

Kristin Pugliese

Manager – Customer Success

Kristin has more than 10 years of experience in customer support organizations. She began her career in frontline support at Bank of America. Her passion for improving customer experience met her interest in innovation as she led the company’s first Video Teller teams. Kristin’s appetite for new technologies grew as she went on to help build support operations at Uber. She earned her B.A. in Psychology at Penn State University.

Fun fact: Kristin loves to draw and paint. Her favorite medium is acrylic paint.

Sasha Ramani

Manager – Corporate Strategy

Sasha is a CFA Charterholder and seasoned management consultant who recently completed his Masters degree in Public Policy (MPP) at the Harvard Kennedy School. Originally from Canada, Sasha honed his strategy and investment management skills in New York City with Deloitte Consulting and Mars and Co, where he advised investment firms on innovation, business growth strategy, and organizational design. At Harvard, Sasha’s interests included financial technology (FinTech) and the mobilization of financial capital for social impact. He also published a paper with Dr. Christopher Smart, a former Obama Administration senior policy maker, on how technology can help to mobilize capital in emerging markets. Sasha holds a BMath from the University of Waterloo and a BBA from Wilfrid Laurier University.

Fun fact: Outside of work and school, Sasha enjoys traveling, exploring, real estate investing, recreational computer programming, and listening to the Hamilton soundtrack.

Claire Almand

Associate Manager – Marketing

Claire joins MPOWER with 6 years of experience developing digital marketing content and strategies for small businesses, nonprofits, and startups. Her focuses include digital marketing, marketing technologies, design thinking, and business communications. Claire holds a B.A. in Psychology from Swarthmore College and an M.B.A. from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland.

Fun fact: When not working, Claire enjoys diving into psychology studies and fantasy novels in equal measure. She is also an avid trail runner and landscape photographer.

Aditya Suresh

Senior Customer Success Analyst

Aditya has more than 11 years of experience in Support & Operations Management for international organizations such as IBM, Dell, and Plivo. In previous positions, he was actively involved in the pilot and set up of the off-shore Product Support & Partner Operations teams and was also awarded for his leadership skills. He holds a B.E. in Computer Science and Engineering from Siddaganga Institute of Technology in Tumkur, India, and is also a Certified Scrum Master, PRINCE2 Practitioner, and Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. Aditya is fluent in four Indian languages.

Fun fact: Aditya loves his coffee, food, automobiles, and no-holds-barred laughter!

Ashley Fassell

Senior Marketing Analyst

Ashley joins the MPOWER team with experience in financial services and marketing. She began her career at Ernst & Young’s Structured Finance practice. In an effort to pursue a more creative path, Ashley later transitioned to event planning and started her own marketing consulting company. Most recently, she was a marketing manager for a D.C.-based boutique investment firm. Ashley holds a B.B.A. in Finance from James Madison University.

Fun fact: Two years before joining MPOWER, Ashley founded a college scholarship fund for her high school alma mater in Baltimore, Maryland. In the future, she’d like to form her own non-profit to support this cause.

Brittany Coppola

Customer Success Analyst

Brittany comes to MPOWER with experience in the education and international development sectors. Prior to joining MPOWER, she worked in both research and product support at the Education Advisory Board, a higher education consulting firm. Before coming to D.C., Brittany worked at a low-cost private school in India developing extra-curricular projects and curricula, and conducted research for the Indian School Finance Company. She also spent time in Buenos Aires as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, where she studied non-profit management and worked for the social enterprise incubator, NESsT. Brittany holds a B.A. in International Studies and Spanish from Centre College.

Fun fact: Brittany knows how to dance tango.

Ian Davis

Credit Risk Analyst

Ian has more than 4 years of combined experience in financial services and consulting. Prior to joining MPOWER, he worked at Northwestern Mutual, the World Bank Group, and, most recently, Fisher Investments. Ian graduated from American University with a B.S. in Business Administration specializing in Data Analysis and IT.

Fun fact: Ian has more than a decade of guitar-playing experience and spent his high school years in a heavy metal band.

Ifeanyi Omijeh

HR Generalist

Prior to MPOWER, Ifeanyi worked for a variety of domestic and international organizations analyzing and improving Human Resources departments. Ifeanyi holds a B.A in foreign languages and a Masters degree in Human Resources Management from the Keller Graduate School of Management in Long Beach, California.

Fun fact: Ifeanyi loves to visit new cities and countries, but unfortunately despises air travel.

Keegan Kelley

Operations Analyst

Keegan has a background in both financial services and international higher education. Prior to joining MPOWER, Keegan worked in the Portfolio Administration department at ProShares, located in Bethesda, Maryland. She graduated from the University of Missouri with a B.A. in International Studies, with minors in History and Anthropology. Throughout the entirety of her undergraduate career, she worked part time at the University of Missouri International Center assisting J-1, J-2, and H-1B students.

Fun fact: Keegan has graced the cover of a music album, “Guard Your Heart” by Mama’s Pride, a moderately-known southern rock band. In the photo, she is the person with hair; the bald one is her sister.

Mahendra Vitrianto

Associate Software Engineer

Mahendra has 3 years of combined experience working in financial services and consulting. He has previously worked at Citibank, Accenture, and most recently at R/GA New York as a consultant. Mahendra holds an M.S. in Management Science from Columbia University and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Bandung Institute of Technology.

Fun fact: Mahendra has a deep passion for music arrangement and orchestration. Check out his work on https://soundcloud.com/iantoo

Meet Semlani

Customer Success Analyst

Prior to Meet’s position at MPOWER, he was an analyst at JPMorgan in both New York and Mumbai. Meet graduated with an Bachelor’s in Commerce from University of Mumbai and Masters of Arts in Entrepreneurial Leadership from the University of Chester, England. He is passionate about both education and financial inclusion and is excited about helping students realize their dream of studying further without worrying about finances.

Fun fact: Meet enjoys watching Casey Neitstat vlogs and is always planning his next destination to travel.

Moiz Zhara

Underwriting – Customer Success Analyst

Moiz has more than 5 years of experience in financial services and is currently studying Information Systems at the City University of New York School of Professional Studies. He has personally experienced the stress of education financing and seeks to work towards simplifying the process by removing financial barriers to higher education. Moiz began his career in retail and community banking and has held roles in personal and business banking. Before joining MPOWER, Moiz worked as an underwriter for Wells Fargo Dealer Services and Atlantic Federal Credit Union.

Fun fact: Moiz enjoys riding motorcycles and hiking on trails in his free time.

Nicole Hall

Senior Customer Success Analyst

Nicole has more than a decade of loan operations and customer service experience. Prior to joining MPOWER, she worked in the Wealth Management division of SunTrust Bank. There, she partnered with credit analysts and coordinated the loan closing and documentation process for wealth, legal, and medical clients. Nicole graduated from Florida State University with a B.S. in Economics.

Fun fact: Nicole is a skee-ball champion. In 2011, she won the grand prize in a 64-person charity skee-ball tournament.

Olivia Thomas

Customer Success Analyst

Prior to joining MPOWER, Olivia worked in various customer service and administrative roles. Olivia graduated from Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas, with a B.A. in English and a minor in Sociology. Olivia recently graduated with a Master of Professional Studies in Public Relations & Corporate Communications from Georgetown University.

Fun fact: Olivia has lived in three countries and seven states.

Ronald Rego

Associate Credit Risk Analyst

Ron comes to MPOWER with experience in education, workflow management, and finance. Prior to joining MPOWER he worked at a low-cost private school in India as a consultant and at Amazon as a workflow analyst. He received his B.S. in Technology in Electrical Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in Hyderabad and received his M.S. in Finance from Rochester Institute of Technology.

Fun fact: Ron is currently learning how to pilot a plane.

Tania Salaza

Customer Success Analyst

Tania comes to MPOWER with more than 4 years of financial services experience, which includes time working as a Financial Advisor at Merrill Lynch. She received a B.A. in Political Science with minors in French and Economics from Temple University in Philadelphia. She also holds an M.B.A. in Insurance and Reinsurance from Escola Nacional de Seguros and has completed post-graduate coursework in Strategic Management at Mackenzie University, both in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Tania is a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute D.C. alumni chapter, a nonpartisan organization focused on providing leadership development programs and educational services to young Latino leaders.

Fun fact: Tania enjoys hikes and baking. Also, she’s named after a song by Colombian salsa singer Joe Arroyo.

Yasmin Lalani

Senior Marketing Analyst

Yasmin joins MPOWER with a passion for increasing access to high-quality education. She previously worked on the education portfolio of the Results for Development Institute (R4D), an international development non-profit, where she researched the efficacy of education financing and technology initiatives within various low- and middle-income countries. Prior to R4D, she worked at a low-cost private school in India on financial sustainability and quality improvement projects as part of a social entrepreneurship fellowship. Yasmin holds a B.A. in Economics and Geography from the George Washington University.

Fun fact: Like much of the MPOWER team, Yasmin loves to travel. She is also a cheesy joke connoisseur.

Charles Zheng

Corporate Strategy Intern

Charles is an incoming M.B.A. candidate at Columbia Business School, starting in August 2018. In his most recent professional role, Charles worked at Partners Group, a global asset manager, focused on private equity investing. Previously, he worked as an investment banking analyst in the Financial Services Group at Raymond James & Associates. Charles graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.S. in Business Administration and a B.A. in Economics.

Fun fact: Charles has traveled to over 20 countries and has lived in six states across the U.S., though still thinks no cuisine can beat some good old Chinese food.

Mandar Kashikar

Marketing Intern

Mandar joins MPOWER from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, where he is currently pursuing a dual Masters in Business Administration(MBA) and Marketing Analytics. He was recently awarded the Hisaoka Fellowship for his efforts pertaining to entrepreneurship within the school and outside. He currently leads the Marketing Club and is on the board of several other clubs including Entrepreneurship Club.

Before business school, Mandar received his Bachelors in Manufacturing from India and worked for several years as a Product Development Engineer. However, he always wanted to explore marketing and hence transitioned to marketing for a startup. He loved the energy at startups and has worked at 2 startups ever since.

Fun fact: Mandar can’t live without Indian food for more than a day.

Nishant Shetty

Corporate Strategy Intern

Nishant joins MPOWER as a Corporate Strategy Intern from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, where he is pursuing his M.B.A with a focus on Finance, Marketing, and Strategy. Prior to pursuing his M.B.A., Nishant consulted major financial institutions in India on aspects related to process improvement and compliance management. He also worked on the planning and execution of Marketing initiatives for Ernst & Young’s Americas Region.

Fun fact: In his free time, Nishant enjoys playing soccer, hiking, and listening to music.

Rakhi Dubey

Corporate Finance and Accounting Intern

Rakhi has been a public accountant in India and has worked as a Corporate-tax Consultant with PwC and KPMG in the past. She has also worked on the business expansion strategy with a professional services firm in India and a startup in Canada. Rakhi holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance and Accounting from Bangalore University in India and is currently pursuing her M.B.A at McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University.

Fun fact: In her spare time, you can find Rakhi scribbling poems and verses over a writing app and her public Instagram page. She also loves doing cross-cultural cooking, dancing, travelling and adventure sports.

Shrawan Saraogi

Capital Markets Intern

Shrawan is currently pursuing an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Prior to this, he was an investment banker for 7 years with DBS Bank in Singapore. As part of the bank’s leadership development program, Shrawan worked in a variety of teams including Capital Markets, Loan Syndications and TMT client coverage. His last role was as Vice President in the Debt Capital Markets team, helping clients across Asia issue Bonds to global debt investors. He has also completed all levels of the CFA Program and graduated from the Singapore Management University with a B.S. in Economics and Finance.

Fun fact: During his undergraduate years, Shrawan was a competitive debater, traveling the world to represent his university at prestigious competitions. After seeing success as a debater, he went on to judge competitions and was also the national championship winning coach for Singapore Polytechnic.

Zian Ke

Engineering Intern

Zian is currently an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan, majoring in Computer Science. Most recently, he worked for Huawei Technologies in Shanghai, China as a Full-Stack Engineer and led the development of an Online Appraisal System. Zian is also the Engineering Team Leader of the University of Michigan Chinese Students and Scholars Association, and is taking charge of the development and deployment of the Professor Evaluation System and Online Freshman Handbook.

Fun fact: During his weekends and holidays, Zian enjoys travelling around U.S. and Europe to visit museums and go to concerts.