Trailblazing Leadership: Insights from Los Angeles' Leading Women CEOs

About the Hosts:

• CFA Society Los Angeles Women's Advisory Council: Dedicated to empowering female-identifying investment professionals, CFALA provides high-caliber programming, fosters professional development, and creates dynamic networking opportunities to build a thriving community.
• Women in ETFs: Bringing together individuals in the ETF ecosystem globally, Women in ETFs champions equality, diversity, and inclusion, while developing and sponsoring talent, recognizing industry achievements, and investing in the ETF ecosystem

SPEAKERS

 Jeri Harman  | Ms. Harman is Founder & Chairman of Avante Capital Partners. With over $900mm in capital under management across three funds, Avante makes debt and equity investments to finance buyouts, minority recaps, acquisitions and growth. In a report published in 2024, Pitchbook ranked Avante #3 in overall performance amongst over 250 private credit family of funds globally. Bloomberg named Avante one of the top 10 private credit funds for vintage years 2015-2020 under $500mm AUM. In 2018, Avante was named Women-Owned Firm of the Year by Private Equity Women Investor Network (PEWIN). Ms. Harman has over 40 years of financing and M&A experience, involving well over $2 billion in aggregate investments. Prior to founding Avante in 2009, Ms. Harman started-up and led the Los Angeles offices for two multi-billion dollar publicly traded private equity and mezzanine investment funds - American Capital and more recently Allied Capital, where she was also a member of Allied’s Investment Committee. Earlier career highlights include various senior level positions with Prudential Capital. Ms. Harman has been on numerous boards and currently serves as Chairman of NN, Inc. (Nasdaq NNBR), a director of Engineered Performance Technologies, and a board member of PEWIN. She is a founding member of Extraordinary Women on Boards, and in March 2022, she was inducted as a member of Exceptional Women Alliance. She has received numerous recognitions over the years including being named to the Los Angeles Business Journal’s LA 500 Most Influential People in Los Angeles in 2018 - 2024. In 2021 and 2022, the LA Times named her a Banking and Finance Visionary. In January 2016, Ms. Harman was on the cover of Mergers & Acquisitions magazine and named one of the Most Influential Women in Mid-Market M&A, a recognition she again received in 2017 through 2022. In March 2017, she was recognized as one of 15 Trailblazers by Buyouts Magazine. Back To Top ^^

 Nanxi Liu  | Nanxi Liu is the Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Blaze.tech, a software platform that enables organizations to build web apps and tools 10x faster. Blaze is used by Fortune 500s and startups to improve their operations and productivity. Nanxi was named Forbes 30 Under 30 and Fortune’s Most Promising Women Entrepreneurs. Nanxi was appointed by the Los Angeles Mayor as a Commissioner for the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension Fund, which has $34 billion AUM. She serves on the Board of Directors of CarParts.com (NASDAQ: PRTS), a leading ecommerce auto aftermarket parts company, where she is Chair of the Nominating and Governance Committee. She serves on the Board of Directors of Grupo Proeza, a conglomerate in Mexico. Nanxi is the founder and former CEO of Enplug, a leading global digital signage software, which was acquired by Spectrio in 2021. She also previously served as a Board Member of the California DMV’s New Motor Vehicle Board and a Board Member of Kindred Biosciences (NASDAQ: KIN), which was acquired by Elanco (NYSE: ELAN). Outside of work, Nanxi won an Emmy as producer of the Amazon television show, The Bay. Passionate about giving back to the community, Nanxi serves on the Board of Directors for the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation, National Foster Youth Institute, and the Los Angeles Police Foundation. Nanxi enjoys supporting female founders and is a Partner at XFactor Ventures, which has invested in 100+ female-founded startups. Nanxi graduated with a BS and BA from UC Berkeley, where she was elected Executive Vice President of the student body and recipient of the University’s Undergraduate Leadership Award. She enjoys playing tennis, basketball, running, and racing cars. Back To Top ^^

 Shivani Siroya | Shivani Siroya is the founder and CEO of Tala, the first financial platform for the Global Majority. Over 10 million people across East Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America have used Tala products to start and expand small businesses, manage day-to-day needs, and pursue their financial goals with confidence. Tala has raised nearly half a billion dollars and has been named to CNBC’s Disruptor 50 five years in a row and Forbes’ Fintech 50 list for eight years running. Shivani is an Aspen Institute Finance Leader Fellow, a WEF Young Global Leader, Senior TED Fellow, and an Ashoka Fellow. For Wired’s 25th-anniversary issue, Melinda Gates nominated her as one of the 25 icons shaping the future Back To Top ^^