Saya Iwasaki

Saya Iwasaki is an accomplished professional with a passion for building operations at scale to maximize the power and impact of people equitably. With a focus on enabling ambitious teams to work fast, lean, and thoughtfully, she has a proven track record of launching international markets, supporting M&As, building robust employee lifecycle programs, and driving People Strategy & Planning. She has worked with Fortune 100s and large organizations like CISCO, CJUSD, and Nasdaq, facilitating strategic alignment within large cross-functional groups. Her career started in international school management, and since then, she has expanded her interests to SaaS, Crypto + Web3, FinTech, Creative Economies, and Education Innovation. Saya holds an MA in Education, Learning, Design, and Technology from Stanford University, along with an Innovation Program from The University of Tokyo and a BA in Political Science from Bard College. She is the Head of People Ops & Experience at OpenSea and has held positions in Global Enablement & M&A (People) at DoorDash, Developer Relations at Bitski, Teaching Team at IDEO U, Founder/Strategist at Aril Studios, Associate Director at The Khayay School, and World Voice Festival Intern at PEN American Center.