Emmanuel "Manu" Smadja is an experienced management consultant turned FinTech entrepreneur. His decision to co-found MPOWER Financing in 2014 was inspired by his own financial struggles as an international student in the U.S. Now, his knowledge of global financial services enables high-promise international and DACA students to get an education at top universities in the U.S. and Canada. In 6 years, MPOWER has grown from a concept to a 50+ person company with international offices, over 350 university partners across the U.S. and Canada, $200M+ in loan capital, and several industry awards including American Banker's Top FinTech to work for. Prior to co-founding MPOWER Financing, Smadja spent nearly four years at McKinsey & Company as a consultant and subsequently an engagement manager serving financial services companies, development banks, and central banks across Europe, the U.S., and Africa. Previously, he served as senior analyst at VistaPrint in the firm's marketing analytics department; was a senior strategy analyst at Capital One Financial Corp; and a business analyst at Celanese. Smadja holds an M.B.A. from INSEAD and earned an M.S. in Systems and Information engineering as well as B.S. in Computer Science & Cognitive Sciences from the University of Virginia. He is a member of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity, Engineers without Borders, and StartingBloc. Smadja is the co-author of an article published in McKinsey Quarterly (February 2014) on "Sub-Saharan Africa: A major potential revenue opportunity for digital payments. Smadja lives in Washington, D.C. When not in the office he enjoys the outdoors, especially playing soccer and kayaking. After dark, look out for him dancing Bachata or Salsa.