Fireside Chat with Nima Ghamsari and Ulysses Smith

Nima Ghamsari is CEO and co-founder of Blend, a Silicon Valley technology company propelling consumer lending into the digital age. He leads the company’s corporate and product strategy toward the vision of a more frictionless, compliant, and accessible consumer finance ecosystem. Nima is currently focused on expanding the Blend platform both in breadth and depth, bringing a seamless process to more consumers across more of their financial lives. He is also spearheading a number of the company’s initiatives around emerging technologies and how to implement them. Prior to founding Blend, Nima was one of the first employees of the commercial group at Palantir Technologies. He is a graduate of Stanford University where he earned a B.S. in computer science.

Ulysses J. Smith is the Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging Leader at Blend, the digital mortgage technology provider, where he focuses on creating and implementing a global workforce DEI strategy for the high-growth organization. Much of his career centers on participatory governance structures and creating access to institutions and decision-making processes for underserved and underrepresented groups. Prior to Blend, he served as the Head of Inclusion, Diversity & Equity for Mixpanel, a San Francisco-based user analytics startup. Smith previously served in various leadership roles at Cornell University—including Lead Diversity & Inclusion Strategist and Director for Special Projects, Innovation & Strategic Engagement—overseeing the institution’s diversity strategy and focusing on innovative engagement of the changing workforce.