Percapita

Alex Ehrlich

Alex was raised in Long Beach NY by loving parents and the world’s best big sister. Uninspired by academics, but motivated by arts, causes and the need to pay bills, Alex worked part-time at Goldman Sachs before dropping out of college to spend the next 40 years having fun and making friends on Wall Street.

Alex built and led prime brokerage businesses throughout his career. He co-founded Goldman Sachs’ Prime Brokerage business in the early 1990s, and headed or co-headed that business in Europe and Asia, until he departed from that firm after 24 years. He went on to lead Prime Brokerage at UBS in London and New York for six years, after which he co-headed Prime Brokerage for a decade at Morgan Stanley, where he also oversaw the Listed Derivatives and Fund Administration businesses, served on the Equities and Securities Operating Committees, and chaired the Diversity Council of the Investment Bank. He left Wall Street with gratitude for his many mentors and friends, and recognition of how privileged he was to have had such opportunities.

During his years in London, Alex met the woman of his dreams on a blind date and pursued her to Paris three days later. They’ve been married 30+ years, and have raised three sweet young men, all of whom are making the world a better place. They really want grandchildren.

Talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not. I founded Percapita with the aim of creating an equitable financial services firm that can play a role in addressing America’s unsustainable income inequality. Percapita is the product of lessons learned in banks, restaurant kitchens, basketball courts, shelters, and every place where people work to build better lives for their families.

Aliah Greene

As a child, whenever told she had three wishes, Aliah's third wish was always for three more wishes. It was a way to continuously expand the realm of the possible in a framework designed to limit. Through a 20+ year career in finance, Aliah has been guided by three rules to do the same in her work. The first: Questions carry more power than answers. The second, which she learned from her son: Practice makes progress. The third is from the great Arthur Ashe: “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”

As Percapita’s Chief Operating Officer, Aliah brings her experience working across risk management, treasury, and financial control at Morgan Stanley, most recently as a Managing Director and Head of Enterprise Risk and Analytics for the Wealth Management division and the Private Bank. More than that, Aliah brings the insights and passion gained from living the problem at the heart of Percapita’s work—and a commitment to all the communities still grappling with its challenges.

Despite the substantial challenges my family has faced, I’ve been fortunate enough to be given access, opportunities, and systems of support that allowed years of hard work to eventually lead to financial health for us. Being part of Percapita gives me a chance, first, to help others now trying to overcome those same challenges and, hopefully, eventually, to help remove them entirely.

Keith Mestrich

Keith has dedicated his career to working with low-wage workers in their pursuit for social justice. He is passionate about mission-oriented finance as well as cooking and his beloved NY Yankees.

Keith comes to Percapita after a decade at Amalgamated Bank, where he was CEO. Prior to being a banker, Keith spent over 20 years working for the labor movement. Keith’s book, Organized Money, is a clarion call for financiers who want to make a difference – exactly what he hopes Percapita will manifest.

When people lack access to financial services that so many of us take for granted, they lose a part of their dignity. At Percapita, we want to change that in a big way, and for a whole lot of people.

Naa Yirenkyi

Naa Yirenkyi is co-founder of 45 Lemons and partners with Percapita to deliver strategic and equity-based solutions to the People and Culture function of Percapita. Naa works with organizations to best identify and specifically utilize their peoples’ strengths and gifts to further individual growth and development and create a successful organizational culture. At her core she strives to help individuals and organizations identify what deeply motivates them and how to use those motivators and gifts to be the best versions of themselves. Naa has worked at Quest Diagnostics, GlaxoSmithKline, and with various organizations for over 30 years building human capital functions, coaching Senior leaders, and working with management and their teams to provide innovative, insightful leadership towards building a foundation for a prosperous culture. Naa worked as an HR Director with Child and Family Focus and YoungLive/Younglives as the Area Director in other prior roles.

Equity starts with you as an individual. Know your story, know your strength and lean in to both so that you can gracefully accept yourself and therefore gracefully accept all in this world.

Tony Pizi

A passionate builder, tinkerer, mentor, and leader. Tony has blazed a multi-decade career developing transformative tech systems in financial services and building innovative companies from scratch.

He has developed industry-defining technology, including foundational patents for seamless app interfaces and adaptive cloud computing. Tony and his teams have won numerous awards, including the Windows World Open twice.

Tony’s accomplishments reflect his deep curiosity, relentless drive, and commitment to expanding access to once-exclusive technology by making it available to a broader audience of everyday people, where it can have the most significant societal impact. As Percapita’s Chief Technology Officer, he hopes to harness the power of the industry’s cutting-edge technology to benefit our clients and their communities.

My career has been defined by pushing the envelope trying to make technology work for human beings. Our work at Percapita will empower working people and redefine what financial wellness looks and feels like.