Our Team
Troy Prince, CAIA
Founder & CEO
A Bronx native, graduate of the Bronx High School of Science and NYU Stern School of Business (BS '92). Troy is a 20 year+ wall street veteran with extensive buy & Sell side trading experience at premier US & International firms and near 5 years as an angel investor in Vietnam.
Noting the persistent lack of diversity in the front offices of wall street and the abundance of hungry and available diverse talent, he has had the idea for Wall Street Bound for over 15 years.
Troy has spent significant time abroad having lived and worked in 5 countries, speaks 4 languages and brings the full breadth of his experience home with him in his mission to connect typically overlooked diverse talent with the capital markets and investment opportunity.
Gigs Taylor-Stephenson
Chief Learning Officer
Gigs Taylor-Stephenson is the National Director of Academic Staff at Kaplan Professional. She manages over 100 instructors nationwide, who facilitate classroom instruction for the insurance continuing education, insurance licensing, and securities industry product lines. After nearly 16 years with Morgan Stanley Gigs left to pursue a career in financial services education and was hired as an instructor by Dearborn, now Kaplan.
In order to remain a practitioner in the financial services industry, Gigs assists a small boutique investment firm, RedTail Capital Markets, serving as its Chief Compliance officer. She is also an Adjunct Professor of Finance and holds a BA in Economics, an MBA in Finance, a Masters Certificate in Industrial / Organizational Psychology as well as the FINRA Securities Industry Essentials (SIE), Compliance Officer, Series 7, 24 and 63 registrations.
Afiya Kamau
Head of Operations
Born and raised in Brooklyn to parents of Caribbean descent, Afiya attended Poly Prep for high school and the University of Maryland - College Park for undergrad. Her career in the health and fitness education industry started over 20 years ago as a Personal Trainer and Massage Therapist and rose to Fitness and Operations management five years later.
Afiya has a lengthy background in commercial sports programming and operations management at large and high-profile brands such as Orangetheory Fitness and the massive Chelsea Piers Fitness in NYC. As a strong business-development professional, Afiya also engages with the community as a volunteer in her neighborhood merchants association, block association, and as a County Committee member.
Lauren Andrews
Chief Development & Partnership Officer
Lauren has more than 15 years of experience spearheading growth initiatives within the non-profit sector, with an emphasis on youth development, education and workforce. She has worked across all aspects of fundraising and external relations, as a frontline fundraiser, leader and coach.
She has held leadership positions at organizations working in the US and abroad, including Teach For America and Education Pioneers. She has a Bachelor’s degree from Binghamton University, and a Master’s in Public Policy and Management from the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University. A native New Yorker, she currently lives in the Bronx.
Kirsten Campbell
Marketing Coordinator
Kirsten has a passion for working on projects that matter. Her hunger for learning and background in digital marketing was exactly what we were looking for at Wall Street Bound to build community and further our vision and mission.
Kirsten has a Master’s degree from Western Governors University in Digital Marketing. She also worked for over 12 years in social media, SEO, email marketing & more. She cannot wait to learn more about finance and ending racial wealth inequality in the US.
Nena Ugwuomo
Program Director
Nena has worked at the intersection of technology, education, and finance for over a decade.
Her career began with internships at The United States Department of the Treasury and The United States Department of Commerce during the financial crisis in the early 2000’s. These opportunities, in addition to her merit based scholarship at Howard University exposed her to the importance of personal finance and entrepreneurship education – which she pursued through sales roles at high-growth technology companies, including General Assembly and Greenhouse Software.
In 2013 Nena leveraged her leadership and sales skills to found and lead Student Dream, a financial education nonprofit that trains black and brown youth to build wealth.
Alicia D. Polak
Program Manager
MBA/MPA, Fulbright Scholar Founder, KREATE Advisors & Social Entrepreneurship Educator
With a career spanning over two decades, Alicia D. Polak has been at the forefront of marrying business acumen with social impact. Her expertise in operations, organizational development, and project management has been pivotal in addressing societal challenges through sustainable development and employability initiatives. As a former Investment Banker at Merrill Lynch and BlackRock, Alicia’s financial insights have been instrumental in driving change and fostering growth within organizations.
Monica Ramos
Administrative Assistant
She’s a dynamic Virtual Assistant with a talent for tackling diverse challenges head-on. With years of experience in customer service, Email management, data analysis, and administrative support, she’s known for her adaptability, strong communication, and sharp attention to detail.
Skilled in making use of different tools and social media platforms, she’s the go-to for keeping tasks organized and clients satisfied. Monica brings top-notch professionalism and a drive to exceed expectations—making her a valuable asset to any team.
Wayne Wright
Chairman, Board of Directors
Wayne Wright is a Managing Director of the Technology Media and Telecom (TMT) team at Mizuho Securities USA, LLC, a major global financial institution with headquarters in Japan. Over the last 10 years, Wayne has spearheaded the bank’s buildout of its telco practice, building strategic partnerships with telcos in the US, Central and Latin America, and Europe.
Wayne helped cement Mizuho as one of the preeminent global financial partners in the telco space where Mizuho annually ranks in the top 5. A native of Jamaica, he was introduced to banking after winning a competitive internship at Salomon Brothers as a rising high school senior.
Ravi has the following industry licenses: Series 4, 7 & 24.
Howard Lindzon
Member, Board of Directors
Howard is the FOUNDER & MANAGING PARTNER at Social Leverage, an early stage seed investment fund that partners with promising technology companies (Robinhood to name one), bringing entrepreneurial expertise, relationships, and marketing experience to the fore.
Howard has more than 20 years experience in the financial community acting in both an entrepreneurial and investing capacity. He is the Co-Founder and Chairman of StockTwits, named “one of the top 10 most innovative companies in web” by Fast Company and one of the “50 best websites” by Time (where he invented the “cashtag”). He writes books, and his hobbies include golf and cycling. “I am an empty nester (I own and operate two millennials) and expect my amazing kids to boomerang home after college.”
Ravi Jain
Member, Board of Directors
Ravi Jain is the Chief Risk Officer at Velocity Clearing and has over 35 years of experience in options trading, risk management, and technology development. Early in his career he was global head of options trading at Republic National Bank and has been in risk management at HSBC and BNY Mellon.
He was a fintech entrepreneur having cofounded IVolatility.com and a trading/risk system company, founded an options market-making firm in India and helped run an FX HFT firm. More recently he was CRO of Lightspeed Financial and Chief Product Officer at Sterling Trading Tech where he architected the Sterling Risk system used by several clearing firms including Velocity. He has a B.Tech in EE from IIT, Delhi, a M.S. in OR from Baruch, and a graduate certificate in Philosophy from Harvard.
William (Bill) Capuzzi
Member, Board of Directors
Bill Capuzzi is the CEO of Apex Fintech Solutions, where he leads the company’s strategy and growth initiatives. He frequently speaks at key industry events like Future Proof and the Tiburon CEO Summit. Bill’s leadership has earned him numerous accolades, including EY Entrepreneur of the Year: Southwest in 2021 and Benzinga Global Fintech Award for Most Impactful Fintech Executive in 2022 and 2023.
Before his role at Apex, Bill held leadership positions at Convergex Group, where he was Chief of Staff and managed various business units, including options, prime services, and global clearing. He also served as Director at Pershing LLC, overseeing institutional products and global re-engineering efforts. Bill holds a Bachelor of Arts from Wesleyan University and an MBA in Strategic Management from Rutgers University, along with several industry certifications, including Series 3, 7, 24, and 63 registrations.
Jonathan Kellner
Member, Board of Directors
Jonathan Kellner is the CEO of MEMX, a technology driven exchange operator providing its members and the global investment community with a simpler, less costly, and more transparent way to access liquidity. The firm currently owns and operates two exchanges trading U.S. equities and U.S. options. MEMX also provides market technology solutions to a range of clients across the exchange and ATS trading landscape. Founded in 2019 by a diverse group of financial firms, MEMX’s mission is to create healthy competition and advocate for market structure reform that results in more efficient and sensible trading experiences for all investors.
Prior to accepting the role as MEMX CEO, Kellner spent 11 years at Instinet Incorporated — an institutional agency-only broker and independent equity trading arm of its parent company, Nomura Holdings, Inc. — having served as CEO. He began his career in the financial services industry working in a variety of technology and equity trading roles at global financial services firms, including Charles Schwab and Morgan Stanley. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan.
Alex Ehrlich
Member, Board of Directors
Alex is the CEO of Percapita Group, a national financial services company dedicated to equitably serving Americans of all income levels.
Prior to founding Percapita, Alex spent forty years on Wall Street, where he served as a Managing Director of Goldman Sachs, UBS, and Morgan Stanley. He led or co-headed numerous large and successful operating and financing businesses at those firms, and served on the Equities Operating Committee at both Morgan Stanley and UBS.
At Morgan Stanley, Alex chaired the Diversity Council for the Investment Bank, leading work identifying and addressing the root causes of equity and inclusion challenges.
Alex serves on the boards of iMentor, The University of Mount Saint Vincent, and Wall Street Bound, and is a Director of Sharegain LLC (UK).
Coming Soon!
Coming Soon!
Founder’s Circle
The Founder’s Circle is a small community of Wall Street Bound’s most distinguished supporters, who are committed to the idea and principle of providing pathways to the financial services industry for diverse and talented college and university students nationwide.
Leon Cooperman
Member, Wall Street Bound Founder’s Circle
At the end of 1991, Lee retired from his positions as a General Partner of Goldman Sachs & Co. and as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs Asset Management to organize and launch an investment-management business, Omega Advisors, Inc., which he ran for 27 years before converting it to a family office at the end of 2018. At its height, Omega Advisors managed more than $10 billion of client funds.A designated Chartered Financial Analyst, Lee is a senior member and past President of the New York Society of Security Analysts; Chairman Emeritus of the Saint Barnabas Development Foundation; a member of the Board of Overseers of the Columbia University Graduate School of Business; a member of the Board of Directors of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation; a member of the Investment Committee of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center; and Board Chairman of Green Spaces, a committee organized to rebuild 13 parks in Newark, NJ.
James P. O'Shaughnessy
Member, Wall Street Bound Founder’s Circle
James P. O'Shaughnessy (Jim) is the Founder and Chairman of O'Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC, a quantitative asset manager that is also the leading provider of Custom Indexing and portfolio creation through its Canvas platform. O'Shaughnessy holds several investment patents and is the author of several books on investing, most notably the New York Times and BusinessWeek business bestseller "What Works on Wall Street (4th Edition)"
O'Shaughnessy is also the host of "Infinite Loops," a podcast which recently celebrated one million downloads. He lives in Greenwich, CT with his wife and has three grown children, and three grandchildren.