Leadership

The people behind Ascend Ventures.

Ascend Ventures is led by experienced operators from the Ascend community. These are leaders who have built teams, backed founders, and invested in the next generation of API talent. Together they bring capital, mentorship, and the reach of Ascend's network to the entrepreneurs they support.

Who we are

Leadership team

Meet the people guiding Ascend Ventures.

Steven Pae

Executive Director, Ascend & Ascend Foundation

Executive in Residence, NYU | Angel Investor

Steven Pae is Executive Director of Ascend and the Ascend Foundation, the largest Pan-Asian professional organization in North America, where he leads the mission of building great Asian leaders in corporate America. He is a 30-year financial-technology executive who has held CIO and senior leadership roles at Prudential, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley. Today he is also an Executive in Residence and adjunct professor at NYU and an angel investor in underrepresented founders. He built Ascend's national Hackathon and Entrepreneurship programs.

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Yash Upadhyay

Co-Founder, Ascend Ventures

AI Transformation & Innovation Leader

Yash Upadhyay is an AI transformation and innovation leader who spent 15 years at Prudential building an internal-audit function into an innovation engine. He created Prudential Internal Audit's first Innovation Lab and a shared-service center applying AI and data science across Risk, Compliance, and Audit. He works at the intersection of emerging technology, business strategy, and creative problem solving, and has long been a leader in the Asian & Pacific Islander professional community.

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About Ascend

An initiative of the Ascend community.

Ascend is the largest Pan-Asian professional membership organization in North America. Ascend Ventures extends that mission to founders, backing API entrepreneurs with capital, mentorship, and access to Ascend's network.

API refers to the Asian & Pacific Islander community. Ascend is the largest Pan-Asian professional membership organization in North America.

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Support promising API entrepreneurs through referrals, mentoring, network introductions, and client access.

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