Two years ago, Gretchen Howard joined Robinhood Markets, the stock-trading start up whose lofty goal was to “democratize finance,” as its vice president of operations. Howard, whose past work experience included roles at Fidelity and as a venture capitalist at Google, embraced her new role with gusto. Always one to roll up her sleeves and get into the trenches, Howard saw the opportunity to build the next great company alongside Robinhood’s founders Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt.
Since becoming the company’s COO, she has set aggressive goals for herself and for the company, including recruiting the company’s first Chief Product Officer, growing the company’s Customer Experience division and attracting more women to the platform.
Robinhood Markets has been in the headlines this year for many reasons including for completing a successful IPO, valuing the company at around $30 billion
“It’s those moments that really challenge you — if you can get through them, learn from them, and keep going, they’re also probably the most meaningful of being a leader in business. And, hopefully, there will be better outcomes for the customers going forward,” she said in a podcast earlier this year.
Gretchen Howard will join the Harvard Business School Club of NY to give an overview of Robinhood, her role as COO, and the challenges & opportunities that await Robinhood. Join us for this sure-to-be insightful conversation from one of the most distinguished leaders in fintech today.
Participants must register by NOON on November 7th to receive details on joining the discussion. The Zoom link will be sent out 24 hours before the event.
Please note that no refunds will be issued.
Speaker
COO at Robinhood
Gretchen Howard is the Chief Operating Officer of Robinhood, a fast-growing brokerage giving millions of people access to our financial system. Before joining Robinhood, Gretchen was a partner with CapitalG, Alphabet’s Growth Equity fund. While at Google, Gretchen was the co-site lead of the Google San Francisco office and a Managing Director in Sales & Business Operations, where she helped incubate, launch and scale Google’s advertising offerings for SMB and large advertisers. Prior to joining Google in 2006, Gretchen was VP of Market Development and Field Sales for Fidelity Investments. Gretchen holds a B.A. from Williams College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. She is a Trustee of Williams College and serves on the board of the YMCA of Northern California.
Moderator
Partner, Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips
Joanna Stone Herman is a Partner at Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips and serves as the TMT Industry Group Co-Head for Oaklins International, our global investment bank with offices in 60 cities across 40 countries. Prior to joining Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips in 2011, Joanna worked in several senior executive roles including as SVP Global Strategy for LexisNexis, EVP of Corporate Development for Thomson Financial Corporate Group, VP of Strategy for Thomson Learning and Director of Strategy for Dow Jones. Joanna also served as CEO and co-Founder of Librify, a technology start-up that was the exclusive e-book platform for Target, sold to Scribd in 2015. Joanna has a B.S. and Masters degrees from MIT and an MBA from HBS.
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