Success is never simple; it requires a lot of effort, passion, and willpower to achieve. Tram Anh Nguyen, Co-Founder of CFTE, is an effervescent fintech whiz who embodies all of these traits. Nguyen stands out from the throng thanks to her easy-going nature and selfless vision for millions of people.
“I am a ‘disruptor’– my goal is to accelerate change towards diversity and inclusion in the financial industry through educating and opening doors for people from all walks of life,” says Tram Anh.
What it takes to become a social entrepreneur
Before setting up CFTE, Tram Anh spent 16 years working in traditional finance where she started out on the trading floor of Standard Chartered Bank in New York, joined Dresdner Kleinwort Benson in London, and finally, UBS Wealth Management, where she was in charge of investments for clients in Asia and then advising family offices.
When she left the industry in 2014, Tram Anh realized it was unprepared for tomorrow’s world. Technology is creating a new environment which enables the industry to change the world in more ways than ever, but very few people are aware of it. The business idea came about when Tram Anh witnessed how technology rapidly eats finance while she was still in her banking role.
The pivotal moment happened in November 2016 at the Singapore Fintech Festival. A keynote given by Sopnendu Mohanty from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) made Tram Anh realize that technology will transform finance and affect society, triggering her to build this platform for Fintech education.
And for Tram Anh, what matters is not only technology, but also people. What matters to her is ensuring that people have the tools to learn.
Tram Anh believes that education and training is essential in helping individuals understand Fintech and be part of this fast-changing ecosystem. Tram Anh and Huy Nguyen Trieu created CFTE with a mission of educating millions at-scale around the world to adapt and accomplish their own breakthroughs in this new world of technology-driven finance. CFTE was built as a new type of university which uses online learning to teach professionals about technology in finance and Fintech. Today, there are over 300+ industry experts leading at CFTE.
“I wanted to become a social entrepreneur who could change the face of finance and make the industry more inclusive. I co-founded CFTE with Huy Nguyen Trieu to help individuals across the globe easily acquire skills in digital finance and discover their full potential to disrupt the Future of Finance and Fintech,” says Tram Anh.
Learn about everything in Fintech at CFTE
CFTE’s primary offering is its certified career-building specialization to help people and organizations upskill and make their next move. They also have a life-learning platform, THINK, which could be considered the ‘Netflix of Fintech’, allowing everyone to stay ahead of the events occurring in the industry.
“We also produce cutting-edge research that has never been done before, such as our job reports in Fintech and Blockchain, which analysis the future jobs. We are continuously developing new innovative courses to launch soon, and our Megabrain site is a uniquely curated source of information for all news and outstanding research reports on Fintech topics,” assures Tram Anh. “I want CFTE to be the place everyone goes to for Fintech learning and discussions,” she adds.
Promoting Diversity and Empowering Women in Fintech Revolution
Tram Anh’s core value is diversity, and she makes it her responsibility to bring that into the financial industry. When setting up CFTE, she knew that her goal was to ensure women were at the head of decision-making.
A central focus of what Tram Anh does is elevate a higher number of women to higher positions in finance by providing them with the proper training, the global network, and the perfect platform to raise their voices and make an impact.
“I’ll keep pushing and bringing more programs at-scale to governments to reach women all around the world and empower them to participate in the Fintech revolution,” declares Tram Anh. “For instance, we’ve recently worked with the ADGMA, the academy of Abu Dhabi’s international financial centre, to provide scholarships to women and people coming from diverse backgrounds to accelerate their interests and growth in the fintech sector,” she adds.
CFTE is disrupting the way they teach by acquiring land in the Sandbox and inviting many alumni to learn in the Metaverse, where they set up a special museum.
In honour of International Women’s Day this year, the CFTE museum was opened enabling women discover the new world of the Metaverse.
For CFTE, being vocal about what the industry has to offer to women is essential. Tram Anh wants to show other women that anything is possible through education and that they should not be afraid to grasp opportunities that could transform them into leaders of the new era of finance, she invites successful women fintech entrepreneur like Anne Boden, CEO at Starling Bank to share her expertise on the CFTE online learning platform.
How Tram Anh Reaches Her Work-Life Balance
“This is a message I always convey to young students and my 3 daughters and I would also offer this to other young people and girls. See the world as bright and full of opportunities. Anything is possible if you have the right mindset and attitude”
Tram Anh: Describing Future Roadmap
I would love to see more and more people getting into the Fintech industry.
Our mission is to educate at-scale. We want to provide Fintech education to millions of people at the same time in an efficient manner so that people not only learn but also get constant updates about the industry and find career opportunities through our global network of over 100 thousand alumni, out of which 48% are women.
Our long-term vision is to become what I like to call the next “MIT of finance” which will foster a highly innovative and aspiring Fintech community. We like to share the knowledge of a lot of industry experts. Our courses are taught by the industry for the industry.
In this proactive environment, learners are encouraged to develop and lead their next digital innovation project or even drive disruption in finance by building their own venture.
We are working to create a platform of lifelong learning because we do believe “learn to learn” is the true skill of the XXIth century.
Naturally we apply this paradigm to ourselves.
On my side, I will aim to lead further education programmes to support countries worldwide, provide access to Fintech education with the industry on Innovation and Technology, on ESG, Digital Assets and Entrepreneurship.
I am convinced the Fintech industry will continue to grow for a very long time, and I want to be a significant actor who will make the future of fintech more inclusive for more people.
This means continuously working with governments, CEOs and industry experts, and academia. Hopefully, we’ll be happy to witness much more transformation of people getting into the Fintech industry. Please happy for anyone to reach out to me if you’d like to discuss it.”
Tram Anh Nguyen, Co-founder CFTE, Co-author of the Fintech Job Report, Advisor, NED, Board Member, Ambassador, Keynote Speaker, Women Leader in Fintech
https://courses.cfte.education/
