Melissa Blankeship, Head of Institutional Foreign Exchange and Commodities Sales, FXLM.COMM Americas, BNP Paribas

Melissa began her career in financial markets at the Royal Bank of Scotland on the US FI foreign exchange sales team. There she covered a diverse range of hedge fund accounts and worked as a conduit with the emerging market cross asset sales team.

Melissa joined BNP Paribas in 2016 as director on the US Real Money Sales desk. For the past four years Melissa has been focused on growing the US client franchise through prospecting increasing wallet share and uncovering new revenue streams with existing clients.

Melissa is passionate about financial literacy, working with High Water Women for the past 10 years to bring financial literacy education to underprivileged students in New York City. She also focused on promoting diversity and does so through her family's commitment to the Just Like You Films nonprofit. JLYF is a local Kansas City company whose mission is to raise a generation of children who "because of their knowledge and understanding are more empathetic and compassionate people."

Melissa graduated from the NYU Stern School of Business with a BS in Finance and International Business.

Ghada Jerfel, FX Algo Trader at BNP Paribas

Born in Tunisia, Ghada graduated from Barnard College in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in Math and Statistics. She held various student leadership positions including being president of the Columbia chapter of the Association for Women in Math (AWM) and running the "Arabic Circle" at the Middle East Institute. Ghada was also an avid member of the Columbia Arab Music Ensemble and of Columbia Women's Business Society.
Currently, Ghada is a foreign exchange algorithmic trader at BNP Paribas in NYC.

Besides community engagement with the civil society in Tunisia, Ghada is the treasurer of the Columbia Arab Alumni Association and a member of the Tunisian American Young Professional Organization.