Speakers

Manu Smadja is the CEO and Co-founder of MPOWER Financing. Manu’s first-hand experience of financial challenges as an international student in the U.S. inspired him to build MPOWER Financing. Manu’s core belief is that money should not stand in the way of a bright mind getting access to a top education. A decade ago, Manu started MPOWER with “a big idea, a lot of hope, and some really ugly PowerPoint slides,” and has built it into a 2500-person company, working with 500+ universities across the U.S. and Canada, and eMPOWERing 20,000 new students this year.

Prior to MPOWER, Manu worked four years at McKinsey & Company where he served financial services companies, development banks, and central banks across Europe, the U.S., and Africa. Prior to that, he worked in marketing strategy and operations at Capital One and Vistaprint. 

Manu holds an MBA from INSEAD, as well as a Master’s degree in Systems & Information Engineering and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Virginia.