Wharton Alumna Gail Gilbert Ball is the Founder and Managing Partner of Chestnut Street Ventures. Chestnut Street Ventures is a University of Pennsylvania private, for-profit alumni venture fund that invests in Penn alum-led companies. Gail will give an insider’s perspective of the alternative assets sector trends —angel, VC, and PE investing—and where her fund fits.

Additionally, she will also explain how she sources deals (including from 10 sister alumni funds), and what she sees ahead for her organization and the sector. Each sister fund represents a similar fund alignment with a different prestigious university. They are: Green D Ventures (Dartmouth), Yard Ventures (Harvard), Blue Ivy Ventures (Yale), Castor Ventures (MIT), Purple Arch Ventures (Northwestern), Bascom Ventures (U Wisconsin), Farm Ventures (Stanford), Strawberry Creek Ventures (Berkeley), and soon two more representing Columbia and Cornell.

Gail is a fintech executive who has had a long career leading tech teams at global financial services firms. Building and overseeing a broad swath of entrepreneurial groups, she has held decision-making posts at nearly every seat around the financial services table—banking executive, regulator, service provider, and board member—in both for-profit and social-impact markets. Among her many areas of expertise: financial services, portfolio development, financial analysis, and information tech.

Gail most recently served as a C-suite member of The Bancorp Bank, the innovative banking solution provider for the most recognizable names in digital banking. She also filled other executive roles at PNC Bank, Chase and Capital One, and NCO Financial Systems. In addition, Gail headed the Payments Studies Group at the Richmond Fed and served as Board Member and Risk Committee Chair at Kompanion, one of Central Asia’s largest microfinance institutions. She started out at Mellon Bank in corporate development, identifying and leading M&A transactions.

Gail has a BS Economics, Finance and Statistics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (‘79). She is a member of multiple entrepreneurial, venture, and financial interest groups, including Venture Capital Group, On Startups, Innovation in Payments, and Global Financial Markets.