Utah's Hidden Fintech Powerhouse: Ryan Christiansen on Building Bridges Between Academia and Industry

Ryan Christiansen has had one of the more unusual career trajectories in fintech, from managing credit portfolios during the 2008 financial crisis to leading bank integrations at Finicity during the early days of open banking, helping launch the Financial Data Exchange, and then making an unexpected leap into academia as Executive Director of the Fintech Center at the University of Utah.

In this conversation, Ryan explains why the Center takes a unique multidisciplinary approach spanning business, engineering, and law schools, and shares details about their new master's degree program launching this fall. We also dig into why Utah has quietly become one of the country's most important fintech hubs, with over $1 billion in fintech wages and $7 billion in economic impact. We also discuss the upcoming Fintech Xchange conference on February 4-6 in Salt Lake City, which has become a must-attend gathering for fintech and banking executives looking for substantive content and genuine networking opportunities.

In this podcast you will learn:

• Ryan’s background building Finicity’s open banking platform.
• How and why he went from the corporate world to academia.
• The mission of the Fintech Center at the University of Utah.
• The programs the university offers in fintech for its students.
• Details of their Masters in Financial Technology program launching in the fall.
• Why the fintech scene in Utah is so robust.
• Why they decided to create their own event called Fintech Xchange.
• What makes Fintech Xchange different.
• What attendees can expect at Fintech Xchange this year.
• What is most exciting about the work he is doing at the Fintech Center.

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