Decentralized finance is proving to be popular and potentially impactful for everyone. The idea of bringing assets into a digital form with trusted embedded governance can help people in more innovative ways to bypass the lack of physical infrastructure. Carmelle Cadet, Founder and CEO, is leading a technology firm that develops new digital platforms for countries' central banks to modernize their sovereign currencies and their approach to regulation and innovation by leveraging the potential of fintech, blockchain, AI, and open banking architecture. Fintech is evolving fast and EMTECH is breaking new ground by working with its clients to safely deploy software services in order to mitigate risk, drive financial inclusion, and offer faster regulatory innovation through robust ecosystem integration.
Full name: Carmelle Cadet
Current job title: Founder & CEO
Current company: EMTECH
Current location: New York City
"The idea of bringing assets into a digital form with trusted embedded governance means you can help people in more innovative ways."
Officially starting her first job as a telemarketer for a magazine, Carmelle learned how to sell early and she eventually transitioned into becoming a problem-solver. She joined IBM after college as a Financial Analyst and spent 10 years working in Finance, Software and SaaS Pricing, Corporate Treasury/Reporting, Global Capital Structure, and Business of Enterprise IT. In her last three years at IBM, Carmelle was part of the team that launched the IBM Blockchain Division and worked on digital currency projects. After IBM, Carmelle leveraged her knowledge and global experiences to launch EMTECH in international markets by default.
EMTECH is a company that is modernizing central banks with blockchain, digital currency, data analytics, and artificial intelligence. As the Founder & CEO, Carmelle is positively impacting the FinTech industry as she diligently works with central banks in underbanked, developing, and emerging markets to address financial inclusion and resilience in financial market infrastructures. “One of the big opportunities we stumbled upon was the friction between regulators and financial service providers, mainly fintechs. The landscape of money is changing, so are the rules and the regulations that impact fintechs in the space. We modernize central banks and regulators to foster new models of engagement that create value and reduce this friction between those stakeholders.” Currently, Carmelle is working on Regulatory Sandbox for emerging techs or service providers at EMTECH.
Various trends, products, services, and sectors in FinTech interest Carmelle and she is eager to see these trends develop into effective real-life solutions. “I’m excited about what’s to come in the fintech space. The space has changed so much for all of us already, when you think about Paypal, Stripe, or Venmo, those products simplified our lives. I believe it’s just the beginning with the coming of AI and Programmable Money schemes. Decentralized finance is quickly being adopted via various channels. There is so much more that money will do in a digital or tokenized economy and fintechs are going to be able to cater to niche needs and bring value to more people. I’m passionate about inclusion, and although we build software for central banks, we think central banks connecting directly with fintechs can be very powerful in ensuring digital and financial inclusion, can reduce settlement risk, and be cost-effective.”
Coming from a very humble background in Haiti, which currently is in political crisis after the murder of its President, Carmelle and her mom left Haiti and moved to the US back in 2000 to make a better life for themselves. “In the U.S. I was at first an average, unfocused student. I listened to my family and went to college and got a job to help with bills. Eventually, a good friend gifted me a book called ‘The Principles and Power of Vision’ and it essentially helped me find my passion and helped me believe that I could do it. Since then, I’ve been preparing for opportunities to live it, and I think I’m living it now.”
More on Carmelle
Currently live: NYC
Family at home: At home with husband Jay and son Eli (4.5 years old).
Favorite hobby: Nap at the beach.
Daily Diary
A typical Friday
6:30 am: I wake up, pray, then I catch up with news, emails, slacks, and texts for anything urgent.
7:00 am: I’m racing my son to the bathroom (I win sometimes); we brush our teeth together every morning (except for when I have events or traveling) and we get ready to head out to school. I enjoy those moments because I get to hear him tell me whatever he’s thinking. He’s funny and sharp. It’s a 20 mins walk, and today, a beautiful summer day in Harlem, it was full of spiderman, and sonic the hedgehog stories!
8:00 am: I drop him off at school, where he catches the school staff in spider web, and walk to my office while listening to the Platform Revolution by Geoffrey Parker.
8:30 am – 9:30 am: I take calls that are urgent and work on my to-do list: Congressional Response, Legal sign-off on collaboration agreement.
9:30 am: My first meeting is a Weekly Product Demo call where I can see the team is working on meeting tight deadlines but also identified gaps that they need to fix urgently.
10:30 am: We have an update on client implementation from the team, and I send emails to the client for follow-up.
1:00 pm - 3:00 pm: I do lunch while answering emails and texts (or finish due deliverables like this one).
1:00 pm - 5:00 pm: I focus on important open items: Interviews, Investor Meetings, Advisor Calls, Work through critical problems with the teams, help remove obstacles to meet deadlines.
5:00 pm - 8:00 pm: I do more calls with early opportunities or deep dives on priorities with the team as needed. Nita (Head of Product), our Business Analyst Solomon who’s in Ghana, and I spend a lot of time thinking about market dynamics, product design, and management as we are night owls.
8:00 pm - 10:00 pm: I hang out with my son before he goes to bed (It’s Friday!) and get dinner, start doing grocery lists and menus for the weekend.
10:00 pm - 12:30 pm: I draft emails responses to send in the morning (when I do send them I’ll hear “do you sleep?”). :)
Reach out to Carmelle on LinkedIn
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