Svetla Marinova ’10

Member of Adelphi University’s 10 Under 10

Vice President of Innovation Management at APG Asset Management US

Svetla Marinova ’10 has been working in the fintech innovation space for the past seven years. “Fintech was an up-and-coming industry a decade ago and being involved in it then gave me the opportunity to really grow fast in my career,” she said.

Today, as vice president of Innovation Management at APG Asset Management US, Marinova is shaping the innovation program at APG Asset Management’s New York office. “We have multiple experiments in the fintech and investtech space that are running concurrently and challenging the status quo by utilizing technologies such as artificial intelligence,” she said.

Marinova also dedicates time to keeping in touch with the fintech startup community in order to stay on top of current trends and to surface new partnership opportunities. She also strives to help bring what she learns outside of APG back to her firm. “I organize knowledge trips and internal knowledge-sharing events with experts I meet along the way,” she explained.

Before joining APG’s team, she was a founding member of S&P’s Global Innovation Lab, and also worked on strategic data sourcing initiatives at Deutsche Bank. While at S&P Global, she created a summer internship competition for interns. “One of the things I’m most proud of is the ‘Mission Possible’ program I developed while I was at S&P. For four summers, I organized a two-month startup-style competition for more than 50 interns who would develop solutions to a common fintech challenge and then pitch against each other in front of our senior leaders,” she said. “I still keep in touch with many of my interns and enjoy celebrating their professional successes.”

Born and raised in Bulgaria, Marinova—who graduated from Adelphi’s Honors College in 2010 with majors in economics and international studies—said that what made Adelphi stand out to her from the rest of the schools to which she applied was the very personal attention she received.

“That personal attention I got during my interview continued after I traveled across the ocean and found myself on Adelphi’s campus,” said Marinova. “I had incredible professors who were not only top-notch academics but also really cared about their students.”

Of all her experiences at Adelphi, she said the Honors College program and its professors impacted her the most. “Adelphi’s vibrant Honors College program rivals the most exclusive schools in the country in its rigor, selectivity, and quality of education,” she said.

Through the years, Marinova has “never abandoned my love for learning.” She has also completed a master’s degree at Columbia University and holds an Executive MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

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