Kelly Lannan is a Vice-President, young investors — for Personal Investing (PI), a unit of Fidelity Investments. Fidelity Investments is a leading provider of investment management, retirement planning, portfolio guidance, brokerage, benefits outsourcing, and other financial products and services to more than 20 million individuals, institutions, and financial intermediaries. In this role, Ms. Lannan is responsible for educating and inspiring young adults to get more engaged with their finances. She has experience developing digital games and tools, visiting college campuses to educate students, and leading teams through the creation of engaging financial resources.
Prior to her current position, Ms. Lannan was a part of Fidelity’s General Management Apprentice (GMA) Program — a corporate-wide, two-year rotational program designed to develop high-potential talent by providing the leadership training and business challenges that can propel apprentices into leadership roles within the company. While in the GMA Program, she worked across multiple business units, including Personal and Workplace Investing, Fidelity Institutional and Enterprise Services. 
Prior to joining Fidelity, Ms. Lannan was in the hospitality industry, serving as general manager at one of Boston’s top dining establishments. Ms. Lannan received a bachelor of arts degree in history and political science from Union College and a master of business administration degree from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College.

Get to know Kelly!

What do you enjoy about the work you are doing in finance?
 
In my role, I focus on educating (and hopefully inspiriting!) young adults to engage more with their finances – something I definitely did not do growing up. I made a lot of money mistakes, and if I can get even just one person to not repeat the ones I made, means a lot. Working in finance is one of the few industries where you can actually see the impact of your work on others – watching our customers move into their new home or send their kids to college – which is a big reason why I love working in this field.
 
What gets you most fired up in terms of a technology, tool, trend, or advancement?
 
What gets me excited is that the rise of FinTech has taken a hold of and embraced the mobile realm. Traditional financial institutions have often found themselves lagging behind in the mobile space, and the rise of easy to use, customer centric, mobile applications have certainly pushed us to think differently. If you asked a group of people whether they would rather loose their wallet or their phone, the majority would probably tell you that it would be their phone! Finance fusing with mobile platforms is not anything new, but I believe there is even more to come.
 
What do you think the future of financial experience will hold?
 
My hope for the future is that there will be more of a seamless omnichannel experience, balancing both human and machine (or digital) led interactions. While many prefer a primary digital experience with the companies they work with (both financial services and others), the human connection still remains, especially when it comes to ones money. If we can continue to bring together human and digital so that there isn’t as much of a separation between the two, we will provide a better experience for our customers.
 
What is the biggest obstacle you face in building a culture of design and innovation or putting a focus on wellbeing? How might the industry solve it?
 
As an industry, we sometimes get in our own way. We need to consistently bring in new and young talent, but to many, financial services is seen as an industry that is not for them – whether they see it as intimidating, something for their parents, or not an innovative and exciting place to work. We need to continually work on changing that perception.
 
What would you tell your younger self?
 
Opt-in to that 401(k)! Graduating in the midst of the recession, I said no to the employer sponsored r