Ascend Together: Celebrating AAPI Heritage & Professional Empowerment Mixer

Jen has over 20 years of experience in public accounting. She provides audit, assurance and business advisory services, working with the management teams throughout the engagement to ensure the timely delivery of professional services. Jen is the leader of Crowe’s national public employee retirement system practice and specializes in audits of public employee retirement systems, local education agencies, not-for-profit organizations and various employee benefit plans. In 2021, Jen Aras was promoted to partner in audit services at Crowe LLP. She is also the Office Managing Partner for the Sacramento office, responsible for providing an exceptional work experience for the over 100 personnel aligned to that office. Jen was a member of the Women Leading @ Crowe GROW leadership class, as well as PDO LEAD. Jen has also been a strong ally for Crowe’s Pan Asian Professionals BRG

Janette Cruz grew up in Milpitas, CA and set up roots in Sacramento after completing her B.S. in Community & Regional Development with UC Davis and MBA at their Graduate School of Management (GSM) focusing on Org Behavior, Analytics & Leadership. Janette received her Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion certification from Cornell University in 2023. Janette has been a Pizza Hut manager, Fashion Line Receptionist, attempted 3 years of a Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior major, failed Lab Tech, awarded CalPERS business analyst and manager. In her current role as Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s (SMUD) Sr. Enterprise Performance Planning Coordinator, she builds & fosters strong relationships to navigate political environment & historical context to enable open dialogue & effective collaboration across various staff & leadership levels. Janette stands for authenticity, humility, and self-actualization driving collaborative understanding, approaches, and solutions. She brings structure to chaos, enables candid environments, and can “Kevin Bacon” her way into the most random things!

Kats Furuyama is the Co-President of Ascend NorCal and has been a member for over eight years, first stepping into a leadership role in 2019 as N. California Co-Vice President of Student Affairs and, shortly after, Vice President of Membership. He is the HR Business Partner at Robert Half International, a global talent solutions firm and parent company of consulting firm Protiviti. He is passionate and dedicated to serving as a collective voice for Pan-Asian communities and giving back with various philanthropic efforts such as Ascend Cares: Feed Our Hospital and Feed Our Future. Outside of work, he enjoys running full marathons, cycling, and cooking.

Jennie Ly is an Innovation & Strategy Senior Manager and a certified public accountant at Moss Adams, LLP. Jennie pursued Accounting and Management Information Systems at University of the Pacific, and went straight into public accounting providing assurance services for the last 10+ years at Deloitte and Moss Adams. In 2020, Jennie transitioned into Innovation by leading innovation-related projects (data analytics, automation, machine learning) and business transformation initiatives, focusing on solutioning, implementing, and training new technology platforms and applications, and upskilling the workforce. Jennie is also the leader of Moss Adam’s Asian Business Resource Group and a big advocate for renewable skills (don’t leave the firm just yet (being replaceable), find your new passion first and transfer – renewing your skill sets) and work-life balance. Jennie married her high school sweetheart, has 2 children (4 if you count the fur-babies) and loves spending time with her family in Sacramento, CA. Jennie loves tapping into her creative side with arts & craft projects or playing video games with her family, seeing smiles from friends eating her delicious infamous cheesecake, and indulging in her desires for adventure.