Illini Union 103
Zoom LinkKevin immigrated to the U.S. from the Philippines at 7 years old and grew up in the Northern Virginia area. He graduated from The Ohio State University where he specialized in Accounting and Entrepreneurship. Kevin spent his first 6 years as a consultant for EY and Spaulding Ridge where he obtained his CPA license and worked on a broad range of engagements related to risk management and implementation of cloud-based software at more than 20 different companies. Kevin currently works at a tech startup where he is part of the Strategic Finance team. Outside of his career, Kevin serves as the Chief Financial Officer for the PUSO Foundation and enjoys traveling, watching Lakers basketball/Ohio State football, and attending live concerts/music festivals.
Matthew Gabriel Cruz Veland Financial Planner, First Financial Group Treasurer and Director of Finance, FilExcellence Matt Veland (@mgveland) is a father, business owner, and advocate for the Filipino American community based in the Washington, D.C., area. As a financial planner, he's passionate about educating and serving AANHPI business owners, healthcare workers, and young professionals. Matt also serves as the Executive Vice President of the Philippine American Chamber of Commerce of Metro DC, whose mission is to positively impact Filipino American entrepreneurship and business development and foster the growth of beneficial community outreach. For Matt, these foci coalesce around his work at FilExcellence, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization focused on catalyzing Filipino advancement, where he oversees fundraising, grant writing, compliance, and financial operations. FilExcellence's current main project is the launch of its second Filipino Global Mentorship Program (FGMP) cohort, with over 100 participants from across the world. Past FilExcellence projects include participating in fundraising campaigns for the victims of AAPI hate crimes during the pandemic (helping to raise in excess of $75,000) and its digital #FilipiNOW campaign, which garnered over 24 million impressions and centered around the importance of Filipino representation. When not at networking events or board meetings, Matt can be found at home with his wife, dog, and one-year-old son baking bread or salsa dancing.
I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a BS in Civil Engineering, and then went to work as an engineer at Nicor, a natural gas utility company. After working as an engineer for a few years, I decided to get my MBA full time, and went to the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and majored in Finance. After business school, I went into sales and trading, then corporate finance at Bank of America and then JPMorgan Chase. After I got married and started having children, I did a career pivot and went from corporate finance to project management. I then decided to take a career break to raise my family. I returned to the workforce and worked at PwC doing data analysis and visualization. I currently work at BP America in Chicago. I work on the trading floor on the Finance team. I am the Director of Communications and Culture for the Trading & Shipping Global Credit. I'm married to my husband of 21 years, Ron and mother to Michael, who is a junior at UIUC and Athena, who is a junior at Whitney Young Magnet High School. In my spare time, I love to cook, try new restaurants, and travel.