René Kim, senior vice president of product delivery at DriveWealth, joined the financial technology platform last year.  The business provides brokerage-as-a-service, enabling the investing and trading experiences for digital wallets, broker-dealers, asset managers, and consumer brands. Kim discusses financial services industry’s rapid transformation, the role of technology in democratizing finance, the introduction of digital assets and prediction markets in investor portfolios and her own career. 

What made you want to move from UBS to DriveWealth ?

Throughout my career, I’ve maintained a focus on product development across a variety of roles in financial services. When considering my next move after my time at UBS and a long tenure at Charles Schwab, I focused on the work I enjoy most and where I could maximize my impact.  And, after relocating to New York from the Bay Area to join UBS, I wanted my next role to be in NYC. 

My goal was to remain deeply involved in product while securing a role with a broad purview across the entire business and product lifecycle. I sought a role at a fintech and smaller financial services organizations to observe and influence the business holistically.

Meeting the DriveWealth team and getting an understanding of their operations made it clear that they met all the criteria for my next endeavor. My current role at DriveWealth offers a wide scope where the product is intrinsically linked to strategy and execution, moving beyond just a delivery function. This combination made the decision to join DriveWealth an easy one.

What does your current role as senior vice president of product delivery involve?

I oversee product development, collaborating closely with our engineers and cross-functional teams to ensure consistent, efficient delivery of our product to our clients and their end customers. My responsibilities span the entire product lifecycle, with a keen focus on keeping client needs at the center of our decision making. 

A critical component of my role involves integrating the governance and risk management principles I honed at larger institutions into DriveWealth’s high-growth fintech and financial services environment. For instance, at Schwab, I served on and chaired various cross-functional committees that governed risk, product strategy, pricing and broader business decisions. I now apply that experience at DriveWealth to support our continued maturation as a company, particularly in areas like risk management, cross-functional decision-making, and responsible scaling.

A newer dimension of my role is my involvement in charting the future direction for DriveWealth, specifically supporting the development of our APIs and defining the next evolution of our products for both our clients and their customers. As a B2B2C leader in fintech and financial services, it is paramount that our platform remains modern infrastructure-driven, adapting continuously with leading technology and innovation. While the core principles of product development remain constant, the speed at which it is executed has accelerated significantly, a dynamic I find incredibly inspiring at DriveWealth.

What has been most useful from your experience at UBS and Charles Schwab?

I’ve been working in product development and management for the majority of my career. I draw on lessons learned from each stage of that journey, from my first role in financial services all the way through to my most recent ones at UBS and Charles Schwab.

One of the most valuable assets I leverage from my time at larger institutions is a deep grounding in the core disciplines of product management. This fundamental focus remains on understanding the customer need and building to address that need, aligning key stakeholders around a shared vision, and executing consistently to strengthen trust and accountability. What has profoundly changed is the speed at which we can now operate.

As we continue to innovate at DriveWealth by integrating AI and establishing new processes for embedding this technology into the software development lifecycle, I frequently revisit those core disciplines. The product side of the organization must maintain extreme clarity on the desired outcome and behavior. 

In some ways, this echoes the Joint Application Design (JAD) sessions I conducted earlier in my career: we would bring everyone together to align on the build, and then the engineering team would proceed to code. The significant difference is that what once took months can now be accomplished in days, thanks to AI and modern tooling. However, the underlying discipline—clearly articulating what you are striving to build for your clients—remains constant.

What are the biggest trends in your business?

The financial services industry is undergoing rapid transformation. At my previous firms, my focus was on the retail investor and helping clients across the wealth spectrum with their banking, financial planning, retirement and portfolio construction needs.  

At DriveWealth, I am following key market trends in order to focus on a different end-user. I’ve seen the powerful impact of technology in democratizing finance globally and reducing barriers to entry. Our clients are simplifying investing to reach new audiences. Through our platform, we offer innovative tools like fractionalization, round-up investing, and notional trading, providing a new approach for these users.

As we serve a global client base and provide access to millions of investors, DriveWealth is focused on the future of investing, including the role of digital assets and prediction markets in investor portfolios. We prioritize balancing traditional assets (ETFs, stocks, mutual funds, and bonds) with digital assets and emerging products to align with where the industry is headed.

How are you helping clients navigate digital assets and tokenization?

There is a tremendous amount of buzz and curiosity around digital assets, crypto, and tokenization, and we see that reflected in our conversations with clients every day.

Some of our clients approach us with a very clear roadmap, knowing precisely what they want to launch and when. Others are at a different stage: they constantly hear about digital assets, recognize the need to remain relevant and competitive, but are still determining the right offering for their clients.

At DriveWealth, our role is to be flexible in supporting these various starting points and educational in framing the opportunities and constraints. We help our clients and their end users understand how these products work in practice, the types of jurisdictional and regulatory considerations they may encounter, and the technical and operational realities of bringing digital assets, tokenization, or prediction markets to markets.

What advice would you give to women who want to work in finance?

I’ve spent my entire career in financial services. I started as a teller at a bank while I was in college and grad school, moved into data and analytics, transitioned into product and platform development across banking and brokerage, and wealth management. Along the way, also had the opportunity to lead the Global Data Office at Schwab.

For women building a career in financial services, especially in banking and wealth management, you have chosen an excellent path.

First, focus on the clear sense of purpose your work provides. You are in a position to genuinely help people achieve their financial goals, whether it’s making it through the week, saving for a child’s education, buying a home, or planning for long-term retirement security. Wake up every day knowing that your work has a real, tangible impact on people’s lives. This purpose is a powerful motivator.

Second, take advantage of the breadth of opportunities the industry offers. Don’t limit yourself. Financial services has an incredibly wide range of roles and career paths. Whether your strength lies in client-facing roles, management roles, product engineering, finance or marketing roles, there is a place for your unique skills. Be open to exploring different paths and don’t be afraid to transition, as I did from data and analytics into product development. The opportunity to build things and collaborate across an organization is incredibly rewarding.

How do you relax outside work?

As a longtime Californian now living in New York, I maintain a bi-coastal lifestyle to remain connected with family and friends on the West Coast. Moving to New York was an exhilarating new chapter that I embraced wholeheartedly. I have a deep appreciation for all genres of music, particularly Jazz, which is so readily available here in the city. I spend my evenings and weekends exploring new Jazz venues with friends, attending the theater, and finding the best long running routes in Manhattan.