Holly Sraeel

Leading strategy and content development and execution for events, conferences and new in-person and virtual live media platforms, formats and communities that drive critical conversations and action around corporate strategy, business innovation, financial performance and regulation for C-level and executive/senior management leaders in banking and financial services, mortgage, wealth management, accounting, insurance, municipal finance and employee benefits. Arizent's brands include American Banker, The Bond Buyer, Accouting Today, Financial Planning, Employee Benefit News (EBN), National Mortgage News and Digital Insurance.

Leading the expansion of FIN: The Fast Forward on Fintech, a top 50 technology newsletter on Substack, into a paid, cross-platform community for and about the fintech leaders and venture capitalists behind the innovations greatly impacting business, money, culture and society. Originally launched as James Ledbetter's FIN, the newsletter brings readers the smartest, most comprehensive take on the rapidly evolving world of fintech—artificial intelligence and machine learning, crypto and blockchain, payments and lending, insurtech and wealthtech—providing news analysis and insight, in-depth features, columns, research, opinion and podcasts. FIN is hitting the fast-forward as it becomes a cross-platform content community with the newsletter, a new podcast, and other special content coming soon. Report, write and edit weekly in-depth features and columns, as well as host the “Fast Forward” podcast.

Respected business journalist, editorial director, media executive and community builder leading media consultancy New York Ventures. Recruited and retained by CEOs to develop content, business, brand and media communications strategy, with an emphasis on cross-platform content creation (digital, print, newsletters, video, podcasts), research and thought leadership, live event programming​ f​or C-level communities, ​and new product/business development​. ​Develop editorial​/content strategy, execution and operational phasing ​and related financials for business media startups, professional communities and B2B startups targeting C-level executives ​of Fortune Global 500/Fortune 500/1,000, large privately held companies, and early-, mid-, and late-stage startups. Industry expertise includes: global banking, capital markets and financial services; asset management; alternative investments; insurance; technology; venture capital and private equity; professional services and commercial real estate. Subject-matter expertise includes: consumer, small business, and corporate and institutional banking; fintech; sustainable business, finance and investment; investment banking; equities and FICC trading; hedge funds and alternative assets; artificial intelligence; cryptocurrencies, digital assets and blockchain; payments and lending; insurtech; wealthtech; financial wellness; regulation; monetary policy; cybersecurity; climate change; poverty and SDG1; women, diversity, equity, and inclusion and its impact on the global economy.

Founder of The Most Powerful Women in Banking™—SourceMedia/Arizent’s first-ever, community-based media platform—and served as its President and Editorial Director. Now part of American Banker, the community is dedicated to ranking / profiling the top female leaders in banking and financial services and accelerating the professional development, advancement and leadership recognition of women in the industry through award-winning editorial and world-class live media. I now lead The MPWIB editorial rankings—Banking, Finance, Women to Watch, Top Teams and NEXT—and all related events, including The Most Powerful Women in Banking Conference, The Honoree Roundtable (closed-door executive summit), The Most Powerful Women in Banking Gala and other events tied to the community.

Recruited by the CEO to develop, write, edit and produce cross-platform content and communications to introduce Oxford University-spinout company Wise Responder and its mission, detail its product innovation and increase target audience engagement with its multidimensional poverty index (MPI) metrics so that companies, financial institutions and governments can reduce poverty while working in parallel to achieve climate change and sustainability goals for a just climate transition. Wise Responder’s science-based, quantifiable MPI metrics enable financial institutions, corporations, institutional investors, governments and multilateral development banks in developed and emerging markets to align, target and measure their business, operational and investment strategies to SDG 1 (No Poverty) and to create programs and broaden access to sustainability-linked financing and investment.

Recruited by the CEO. EqualFuture is a B2B financial wellness platform that gives companies and partners a simplified, integrated way to empower employees and customers to plan, simulate and make smarter financial decisions throughout their lives. The enterprise platform and super app’s intuitive and interactive tools help users determine and align their financial goals for any scenario or life event at every life stage. EqualFuture helps individuals achieve better financial futures—one decision at a time—and live more satisfying, richer lives along the way.

Report and write feature-length stories on a range of fintech areas—cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence, payments, insurtech, wealthtech, etc.—for the top 50 technology newsletter on Substack, originally launched as James Ledbetter's FIN.

Recruited by the CEO to lead content, communications, media, and brand strategy for the capital markets management consultancy, with a focus on producing and positioning the firm's research, thought leadership and data as foremost in capital markets intelligence. Chief editor of research reports, as well as special content project lead responsible for developing, writing and editing short and longer format pieces that target critical, controversial and emerging subjects of importance to global financial firms and FinTech players active in the capital markets. Markets served include equities and fixed-income, currencies and commodities trading, asset management, market structure, securities processing, alternative data, sustainable finance/ESG data and investing, fintech, (cryptocurrencies, blockchain, artificial intelligence, RegTech), and regulation/compliance.

Recruited to co-found and lead content strategy, execution and operation, audience development, event programming, sales and marketing, and P&L management for Agility First!, a new media startup launched by Genesys Partners to give founders and C-level executives of high-profile, fast-growing early-stage startups and venture capitalists a peer-driven platform to share scalable execution strategies in management, engineering, product innovation, sales and marketing, and customer acquisition/retention to help founders turn their rapidly accelerating companies into global powerhouses. Developed programming, recruited speakers and hosted Agility First!'s exclusive, invitation-only events. Created, edited and produced digital, newsletter and video content featuring Agility First! programming, major trends confronting the startup industry, and data-informed and peer insight pieces. Hired and managed editorial, sales, and event management team members. Participants included Jet.com’s Marc Lore, Foursquare's Jeff Glueck, Sidewalk Lab's Dan Doctoroff, FirstMark Capital's Matt Turck, SeatGeek's Russell D'Souza, Sketchfab's Alban Denoyel, Casper's Phillip Krim, Conductor's Seth Besmertnik, Greycroft's Alan Patricof, Blippar's Ariff Quli, Symphony's David Gurle, Union Square Ventures' Nick Grossman, First Round's Howard Morgan, Vida Health's Stephanie Tilenius, IDG Ventures' Pat Kenealy, CollegeHumor's Ricky Van Veen, Bessemer Venture Partners' Alex Ferrara, Venrock's David Pakman, EDVenture Holdings' Esther Dyson, The New Yorker's Ken Auletta, Lyft's Annabel Chang, Keep's MaryAnn Bekkedahl, Crownetic's Luan Cox and many others.

Promoted to lead newly created enterprise division focused on the development of cross-platform communities, brand extensions and new products for the banking, capital markets, investment management and technology market groups across the $300 million B2B media and information services company (now Arizent). Developed business plans and three-year P&Ls, collaborating with editorial and sales teams to drive the fast-track development, launch and operation of new products, deepen audience engagement and increase financial performance.

Founded and led the rapid expansion of The Most Powerful Women in Banking and Finance community, SourceMedia's highest-profile, fastest-growing and most commercially successful new media brand and professional development community. Maintained P&L responsibility, leading strategic planning, financial forecasting and budget management. Led editorial strategy, execution, and operation (digital, print, newsletter, video, etc.), live event development, programming, and hosting, and branding, marketing and sales. Achieved significant year-over-year revenue and profit growth. The award-winning community-based platform drives greater equity and influence for women through the following: • Rigorous annual quantitative- and qualitative-based rankings including The Most Powerful Women in Banking, Most Powerful Women in Finance, Women to Watch and Top Banking Teams. • Portfolio of annual live events to advance the profile of senior women and the potential of younger women coming up the ranks with programming focused on peer networking, executive leadership conferences, mentoring/coaching programs and awards gala. Hosted annual events include The Most Powerful Women in Banking + Finance black tie gala, the honoree wine tasting, executive women's conference and steering committee, and professional development conferences and programming for younger women. • Publishing gender, diversity, equity and inclusion-related content, research and data to close the industry’s gender, race, pay and opportunity gaps. The MPWIB community received widespread global, national, regional and local media coverage, including by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg and CNBC, and many other outlets.

Recruited by the president and CEO to launch, build, acquire, reposition and lead magazines and newsletters for C-level financial services and fintech executives, becoming the company’s gold standard for editorial excellence with U.S. Banker (now American Banker), Bank Technology News, Bank Investment Marketing (now Bank Investment Consultant), FutureBanker, Financial Services Marketing, and Financial IT Security, among others. Led award-winning content strategy and operations across digital, print, newsletter, videos and podcasts for multiple brands concurrently, producing hundreds of stories monthly, including in-depth features, news analysis and insight, regularly featured columns and commentary, research and data-driven special sections, and iconic rankings (The Innovators, The Best Banks to Work For, Top 50 Bank Sales Reps, The FSM 25, Most Influential People in Financial Services, among others). Developed, programmed and hosted C-suite live events (conferences, summits, roundtables and galas). Passionate player-coach with fast-paced, innovation-oriented newsroom management of top-performing teams of journalists, editors, data analysts, designers, photographers, marketers. Established workflow best practices to evolve operations and optimize efficiency and productivity; SEO analytics inform content decisions to increase traffic/user engagement.

Recruited to transform and lead award-winning content strategy, execution and operations across print and conference platforms for Bank Systems+Technology magazine, breaking news and providing in-depth features, analysis and commentary on the intersection of the business of banking and technology.