Betsy Z. Cohen

Chairman, FinTech Masala

Betsy Z. Cohen is Chairman of FinTech Masala, a sponsor of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) focused on fintech innovation, that has raised $3 billion in nine SPACs and announced six mergers. Cohen is recognized as a business visionary in law, banking, and real estate. Before age 30 she had founded a shipping business in Hong Kong, a leasing company in Brazil, and a joint venture with a bank in Spain, and co-founded a Philadelphia law firm that specialized in representing financial institutions and industry clients in complex real estate and financial matters. She was also the second female law professor on the East Coast, teaching banking and antitrust law at Rutgers University Law School.

Betsy founded Jefferson Bank in 1974 and at age 32 became the first female bank CEO in Pennsylvania, growing the bank to become a public company and the Philadelphia region’s largest local financial institution until its sale in 1999. She then founded and as CEO led The Bancorp, a revolutionary, commercial internet bank that provides financial services to non-bank fintech companies. In December 2014 she retired—for eight days—before launching her first SPAC in January 2015.