Jennifer Byrne

CEO & Investor Quesnay Inc.

Jennifer is a globally-recognized Fortune 100 corporate executive-turned-entrepreneur, advisor and investor with over 25 years of experience advancing innovation within Fortune 100 companies and at startups- deploying new technology, entering new markets and serving unmet customer needs and segments while establishing operational excellence.

She is as a Limited Partner and Venture Partner in two venture funds: Grit Capital Partners and K2 Access Fund. Grit invests in early stage ecosystem platforms - 22 investments to date. K2 is focused on Series A and B enterprise SaaS, cloud, AI/ML companies. K2's first investment is valued at $1.6 billion.

In 2012, Jennifer co-founded Quesnay Inc. which is a strategy and innovation advisory firm for both startups and corporations focused on innovation. Quesnay also produces executive thought leadership events and sets up and runs startup accelerators. Startup advisory clients includes: Herflix, Philly Startup Leaders, Picticular, ProNavigator, and Wizest.

Quesnay's corporate clients include: Discover, Farmers Insurance, Frontier Communications, Hanover, Hearst, Liberty Mutual, Marsh & McLennan, Nationwide, Paramount/Viacom, Prudential, TD Bank, Thomson Reuters, Toyota, Valley Bank, & Verizon.

In 2017, Quesnay launched the world's first and largest Female Founders in FinTech & InsurTech accelerator (reaching 78 countries) to source and support women-led fintechs while facilitating mutually beneficial startup-corporate-investor relationships. In 2020, the program expanded into Mobility. Over 500 women-led startups have applied and been evaluated by 500+ industry leaders & investors, raising over $2B.

Prior to founding Quesnay, Jennifer served as VP, Business Development at American Express launching a digital payment service with global partners. At Verizon, Jennifer was Executive Director, Business Development & Partnerships where she was responsible for a billion-dollar mobile applications & services P&L. She spearheaded Verizon’s innovation division, led 4G services launch in 2010, identified investment opportunities such as Lookout, Siri, Twilio, and established key mobile partnerships with Amazon, Facebook, Google, & Twitter. Prior experience includes business development at CBS Television, and startups, Hands-On Mobile & Orbit Satellite TV Network.

Jennifer was named to the "Innovate Finance Powerlist" in 2020, 2019, & 2018, "NYC Inspiring FinTech Females", 2021, "Female Founders Alliance Champions" & has been featured on the cover of AMBest, and in Africa InsurTechRising, American Banker, FNOInsurTech Podcast (top 100), Nasdaq Tradetalks, Digital Insurance, InsuranceJournal.tv, InsureTechConnect, MeetingYou podcast , Nassau Financial Live.

Jennifer is a graduate of Duke University and speaks Spanish, Italian, and French.

All Sessions by Jennifer Byrne

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