27th Anniversary Inspiration Awards Gala

Gemma Chan

International film, television and theater actress

Gemma Chan has quickly established herself internationally as one of the industry’s leading actors.

After graduating with a law degree from Oxford University, Gemma was offered a job with a leading law firm but turned it down in order to train at the prestigious Drama Centre London. Since graduating from Drama Centre, she has demonstrated her versatility in a career spanning multiple countries, mediums and genres.  

Gemma has shown her range in television dramas such as Sherlock, playing alongside Benedict Cumberbatch, and in Humans, Channel 4’s (UK) most successful drama in 20 years in which she played Anita, an anthropomorphic robot.  An accomplished stage actress, she performed in the sell-out run of the critically acclaimed Yellow Face by Tony Award-winning and Pulitzer Prize finalist David Henry Hwang. In 2015, Gemma starred in the West End revival of Harold Pinter’s masterpiece The Homecoming at The Trafalgar Studios.

Gemma was most recently seen starring in the Warner Bros. film adaptation of Kevin Kwan’s best-selling novel, Crazy Rich Asians, which quickly became the most successful studio rom-com in nine years at the U.S. box office.  The film was nominated for a Golden Globe and recently won a Critics’ Choice Award for Best Comedy.

Gemma also starred in the short film Mr. Malcom’s List, which used a culturally diverse cast to reclaim historical narratives traditionally played by white actors.  This year will also see Gemma joining the cast of Captain Marvel, the first female-led superhero project by Disney.

Gemma is classically trained on the violin and piano and is a passionate supporter of human rights, working with charities including UNICEF.

Kenneth Lin

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Credit Karma

Kenneth “Ken” Lin is the founder and CEO of Credit Karma, a company he grew from a small team of three people to more than 1,000 employees on a mission to champion financial progress for all.

Ken started Credit Karma in 2007 to offer free credit scores and bring transparency and simplicity to the credit industry – an industry built around and prioritizing banks, not consumers. Today, Credit Karma serves more than 85 million people in the U.S. and Canada and is valued at $4B. It continues to use technology to bridge the gap between consumers and financial services by consistently rolling out free, consumer-first tools designed to help members manage their full financial lives — to provide certainty in a world of financial uncertainty.

Ken spent his early career working with mission-driven businesses like Upromise and Eloan. He was inspired to build Credit Karma with a unique business model that creates genuine, organic value by reducing marketing inefficiency for banks and empowering consumers with information.

He has won numerous awards including the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award and has been a featured speaker at prominent conferences like Money 20/20 2018 and RISE Hong Kong. Ken has a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics and economics from Boston University and was selected to join the Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellows in 2018.

Ken moved with his family from China to the U.S. when he was only four years old and, like many of Apex’s students, his parents worked long hours, sometimes six days a week.  He is the first in his family to complete college and is an inspiration to entrepreneurs and Asian Americans throughout the country.

For more information, please contact, PR@CreditKarma.com.