2026 NYWIFT Fiscal Sponsorship Brunch Meeting in Partnership with Flagstar Bank

NYWIFT is hosting another Fiscal Sponsorship Brunch Meeting in partnership with Flagstar Bank!

Connect with fellow filmmakers in the NYWIFT Fiscal Sponsorship Program, build community, and hear from Flagstar Bank representatives about their current initiatives and resources for filmmakers.

Speakers include:

• Peter Marra (Senior Vice President and Group Director, Flagstar Bank)
• Irene Bowers (EVP, Head of Insurance, Flagstar Bank)
• Carly Doshi (EVP, Head of Flagstar Family Advisory and Trust)
• Cynthia Lopez (NYWIFT CEO)
• Melissa Silverstein (Women and Hollywood)
• Easmanie Michel (NYWIFT Director of Artists’ Programs and Finance).

This event is open to all NYWIFT Fiscal Sponsorship filmmakers. All NYWIFT members who are interested in learning more about the Fiscal Sponsorship Program are invited to attend, connect with fellow creators, and learn more about the opportunities available through the program.

Date: Monday, July 27, 2026
Time: 11:00am – 1:00pm ET
Location: Flagstar Bank (1400 Broadway, 27th floor, NY 10018)

RSVP is needed to attend. There is limited seating.

Open exclusively to NYWIFT Members.

Free networking lunch included!

Register

 

Welcome Remarks:

Peter Marra started his banking career at Republic National Bank in 1987. Throughout his career, Peter has worked extensively with middle market commercial clients, high net worth individuals and their advisors. Peter’s clients have operated in a wide variety of industries including entertainment, temporary staffing, manufacturing, importing and real estate. He possesses extensive experience with personal and professional services firms such as business management firms, law firms and accounting practices. Peter provides his clients with multitude of financial services to assist them in meeting their diverse banking and credit needs. Credit solutions have included working capital lines of credit, term loans and extensions of credit to intellectual property owners collateralized by IP assets such as music copyrights. Peter and his Flagstar Private Client Group are always available to meet with prospective new clients to discuss how their team can assist with fulfilling deposit, cash management and credit needs.

 

Cynthia López is the Chief Executive Officer of New York Women in Film & Television, an award-winning media strategist, and former Commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment where she implemented strategies to support film and TV production throughout the five boroughs.

Cynthia is the recipient of many coveted industry awards including: 11 News and Documentary Emmy Awards, the American Documentary: Special Emmy Award for Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking, three Peabody Awards, and two duPont-Columbia Awards. Prior to working as Commissioner, Cynthia was Executive Vice President and co-Executive Producer of the award-winning PBS documentary series American Documentary | POV, and was involved in the organization’s strategic growth and creative development for 14 years. Her ability to forge strategic partnerships among corporate and public interest media has been a signature of her work. Notable partnerships include: New York Times, Reuters, Al-Jazeera Network, Discovery Communications, The Moth, Story Corps, Harpo Studios and ABC News, NIGHTLINE with Ted Koppel. Lopez is proud to have spent her career collaborating with independent filmmakers across all sectors of the film and television industry. She was honored along with Martin Scorsese and Michael Apted, the Leading Light Award from DOC NYC’s Visionaries Tribute.

She currently serves on several national boards, and is on the distinguished   Peabody Awards Board of Jurors.

 

Speakers:

Irene Bowers leads Flagstar’s insurance business, bringing over three decades of experience building client-focused insurance practices within global financial institutions. With prior leadership roles at prestigious institutions such as HSBC and JPMorgan Chase, she has successfully developed distributions strategies, aligned product offerings to meet specific client needs, and managed client relationships across channels ranging from commercial banking to private wealth.

Her deep expertise and proven leadership provides a strong foundation for driving Flagstar’s insurance growth, emphasizing the Bank’s commitment to a client-centric approach and tailored solutions. At Flagstar, Irene is building out a comprehensive insurance platform that spans Life, Property & Casualty (personal and commercial) as well as specialty insurance such as Cyber, Trade Credit and Kidnap, designed to address the sophisticated and evolving needs of clients.

Most recently, Irene served as Head of Insurance for Wealth & Personal Banking, Private Banking, and Commercial Banking at HSBC and President of HSBC Insurance Agency, Inc., where she led strategy, distribution, and product alignment across key client channels during a tenure of over 19 years. Before her time at HSBC, she held senior leadership roles at JPMorgan Chase, including President of JPMC Insurance Agency, where she oversaw the Private Client Insurance Group for nearly 15 years.

Irene has been recognized through numerous industry and organizational awards, including Elite Women in Insurance, Americas Inclusive Leader Award, Culture Hero, and Delaware Women’s Leadership Award.  She sits on the Board of the FIIC and is involved in several charities. She is a graduate of Immaculata University and completed her executive education at Wharton.

 

As Head of Family Advisory and Trusts, Carly Doshi leads a team of subject matter experts who provide advice on a wide array of planning topics, including multi-generation wealth transfer, business succession, philanthropy, family office structuring, and family governance strategies. Carly’s team works directly with the firm’s most sophisticated clients and their legal and tax professionals and prides herself on a client-led approach to planning advice delivery.

Carly has 20 years of experience working directly with families on the complexities of managing significant wealth, and is frequently called upon to speak and publish on family wealth topics. She has been quoted in the Financial Times, Bloomberg, Barron’s, Euromoney, the South China Morning Post, Business Insider, and other financial news publications, and has spoken at numerous national and international conferences on managing the complexities of family wealth. Carly is also quoted in The Family Office Handbook (Wiley, 2nd Edition).

Previously, Carly managed national teams of wealth planning professionals for two of the largest financial institutions globally, built a Philanthropy & Family Governance practice, and led growth for a new Delaware trust company for a Registered Investment Advisor.

Carly is a Fellow of the American College of Trusts & Estates Counsel (ACTEC), a member of the Purposeful Planning Institute, and a former Fellow of the American Bar Association, Real Property Trusts & Estates Section. She sits on the Executive Board of the Society for Trusts & Estates Practitioners (STEP), New York chapter and serves on the National Board of Directors of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Carly earned a J.D. from Pepperdine University School of Law, wherein she concentrated on trusts and estates and family mediation and obtained certification from the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution. She obtained a B.A. from UC Santa Barbara.

 

Melissa Silverstein is the creative force behind Women and Hollywood, an initiative focused on educating, advocating and agitating for gender equality and inclusion in Hollywood and the global film industry. She founded and published the seminal site Women and Hollywood from 2007-2023 and continues to publish a weekly newsletter highlighting content by and about women that is opening/streaming.

She is the Co-Founder and former Artistic Director of the Athena Film Festival at Barnard College. The festival, which champions diverse, nuanced, and complex stories of women leaders, celebrated its 16th anniversary in 2026. She spearheaded the Athena Creative Development Program which supports filmmakers working on women-centric projects with funding, skill-building opportunities, and a strong, supportive network.

Her company, Women and Hollywood Productions is developing a slate of provocative projects that showcase stories of women’s struggles and triumphs in the face of systemic challenges. The first project is AWE, which tells the story of the first all female expedition across Antarctica in 1992.

 

Easmanie Michel manages NYWIFT’s fiscal sponsorship program; works closely with NYWIFT’s CEO and treasurer on the monthly profit and loss statement and annual budget; handles the day-to-day tasks of recording financial transactions; works with the Finance Controller on reconciliations and the yearly audit; co-produces the Muse Awards and Designing Women; coordinates the Animation Series; and curates the Immigrant Screening Series. Easmanie has worked continuously in the film and television industry since 2004. She worked in the production office for the feature films Transporter and Miami Vice. She worked as the location assistant on the film Hoot. She worked as the assistant production coordinator on TV Series Miami Ink. She also worked on TV show Burn Notice and CSI: Miami. Easmanie is currently producing the feature Caroline’s Wedding, which she co-wrote. The script was a finalist for the New York University Fusion Film Festival and it was also one of the scripts selected to participate in the Women at Sundance Financing and Strategy Intensive in 2016. In February of 2018 the script was the Grand Prize Winner of the American Zoetrope Screenplay Contest. The script was also a finalist for the New Renaissance London Film Festival in 2021. Easmanie also received the New York Council on the Arts Individual Artist grant for Caroline’s Wedding. She has an MA in Cinema Studies from New York University, and she is currently completing a Certificate in Financial Accounting at NYU. A list of Easmanie’s production credits can be found at https://pro.imdb.com/name/nm1890668

 

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