Community Investment Leader · Speaker · Founder

Yehwroe Martyn

/ˈyeɪ-roʊ/ — "listen to your heart"

"Yehwroe" isn't just my name. It's my leadership mantra — and the lens I bring to every room I'm in.

Data-driven strategy rooted in human impact. I build the capital strategies, investment vehicles, and financial infrastructure that get flexible capital to underserved entrepreneurs, lenders, and communities — 15+ years across impact investing, CDFI/community finance, and economic justice.

Book Yehwroe to speak Read her story

Yehwroe Martyn speaking at a podium with a microphone

$18M+

Portfolio under full decision authority — CDFIs, micro-lenders & social enterprises

$9.5M+

Institutional capital mobilized from major financial institutions

15+ yrs

Building capital strategy & financial infrastructure for underserved communities

140+ hrs

Spent yearly advising CEOs & boards on governance and scale-readiness

About Yehwroe

Deciding who gets access, who gets trusted, and who gets a seat at the table.

I'm a community investment and economic development leader with 15+ years of experience building the capital strategies and financial infrastructure that get flexible capital to underserved entrepreneurs and communities.

I currently lead capital and portfolio strategy at an organization working to directly challenge systemic and structural racism within the U.S. financial system — building the power of frontline communities to hold financial institutions accountable for deploying capital into community and economic development, and building those communities' capacity to access and deploy that capital themselves.

In that role, I hold full decision authority over an $18 million-plus portfolio spanning CDFIs, micro-lenders, and social enterprises. I've built catalytic capital vehicles from the ground up, mobilized over $9.5 million in institutional capital from major financial institutions, and spent 140+ hours a year advising CEOs and boards on governance and scale-readiness.

"I've spent my career deciding who gets access, who gets trusted, and who gets a seat at the table — that's exactly the lens I bring to every conversation on relationship curation, capital, and leadership."

Beyond the boardroom, I'm a tech founder — Co-Founder of Drive Sunny, a software marketplace modernizing driver education — and a wife and mother of two. Every stage I stand on carries the same throughline: capital, trust, and access, and who gets to hold them.

Capital Access CDFI Strategy Governance & Scale-Readiness Relationship Curation Women in Leadership Fintech & AI

In Her Own Words

What she believes

“

Life meets you at the level of audacity.

“

Sometimes your job is to show possibility.

“

The kind of investor I aspire to be is a translator and trusted partner. I want to understand communities deeply enough to accurately represent their needs to investors, and understand investors well enough to design capital that truly serves those communities.

Too often those two worlds speak different languages. Communities talk about lived experience, barriers, and opportunity. Investors talk about risk, structure, and portfolio management. I want to bridge that gap.

I believe some of the best investment decisions happen when someone can build trust on both sides and translate community insight into sound investment strategy.

— Yehwroe Martyn

Keynote & Panel Themes

What Yehwroe speaks on

01 — Capital

Capital Access & Catalytic Finance

How flexible, catalytic capital reaches underserved entrepreneurs — and what it takes to build the financial infrastructure that gets it there.

02 — Governance

Governance & Scale-Readiness

Advising CEOs and boards on the discipline, trust, and structure it takes to grow from promising to investable.

03 — Networking

From Networking to Relationship Curation

Moving from transactional networking to intentional relationship curation — overcoming the fear of reciprocation and ghosting to build networks that actually sustain you.

04 — Leadership