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Panelist Biography

Guest Speaker Biography - Jennifer Tescher

Last Updated: May 5, 2011

Jennifer Tescher is the President and CEO for the Center for Financial Services Innovation, which aims to transform the financial services experience in America in order to better serve underbanked consumers and help them achieve prosperity. Towards that goal, CFSI develops and distributes real-world tested research and strategy, provides funding to promising companies, and facilitates cross-sector business collaboration.

Ms. Tescher founded CFSI in 2004 and has since achieved notable success in raising the profile of underbanked access and asset-building as an objective for the industry. She has become a nationally known expert on this topic, with a monthly column in American Banker, frequent interviews and articles in the financial press, and major speaking engagements at a broad spectrum of industry events, including: Best Practices in Retail Financial Services; ATM, Debit and Prepaid Forum; BAI’s Retail Delivery; AARP’s Diversity and Aging Crisis; Commission on the Future of Economic Development’s (CFED’s) Asset Learning Conference; Financial Service Centers of America’s (FiSCA’s) Annual Conference; and CFSI’s own Underbanked Financial Services Forum, which she chairs as co-producer. Additionally, Ms. Tescher previously served on the Federal Reserve Board's Consumer Advisory Council.

Ms. Tescher serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Project Match and the Credit Builders Alliance and is a member of Bank of America's National Community Advisory Council.  A recipient of the Crain's Chicago Business "40 Under 40" Award for 2006, Ms. Tescher received undergraduate and graduate degrees in journalism from Northwestern University and a public policy degree from the University of Chicago.