Young Americans staff members bring years of banking, financial, educational, fundraising and communications skills together as one team to further the mission of Young Americans.
Lang Sias, President and CEO
Lang joined Young Americans as President and CEO in January of 2025.
Gaddi Layden, SVP Strategy, Innovation, & Marketing
Gaddi A Layden, a seasoned professional with a proven track record, joined Young Americans Bank and Young Americans Center for Financial Education as the Senior Vice President of Strategy, Innovation, and Marketing in January 2024. Throughout her career, Gaddi has strived for excellence and remained dedicated to her professional journey. In the role of Grants Impact Manager at Daniels Fund, she fostered strategic partnerships with top-tier organizations like Goldman Sachs, Univision Communications, Cherry Creek North, Amazon, CrestRock Partners, United Airlines and Morgan Stanley, among others. Gaddi’s transformative leadership significantly impacted the Daniels Fund Rapid Response program, achieving unparalleled results within just one year. In addition, she became the official spokesperson in Spanish for the Daniels Fund. As the Principal and Co-Founder of ABOKI Capital, Gaddi showcased her entrepreneurial and leadership skills, by attracting major financial investors. Gaddi’s experience also includes a successful tenure at Morgan Stanley as an International Financial Advisor and Financial Planning Specialist, where partnerships with top-tier advisors resulted in substantial asset management growth. Prior roles at Univision Communications, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, MBIA Asset Management Group, and Citizens Financial Group have honed Gaddi’s skills in marketing, strategic partnerships, business development, client relationship management, investment analysis, and risk assessment.
Business fluent in Spanish and conversational in Italian, Gaddi’s diverse language skills align with a passion for world travel, cooking, and reading. This new chapter at Young Americans further solidifies Gaddi’s commitment to driving positive change in both corporate and community spheres through strategic thinking and innovative approaches.
Victoria Aragon, SVP, Young Americans Bank
Vicky started her career in bank management in 1999 and has managed several large banks before coming to Young Americans Bank in 2022. She has extensive experience in day-to-day operations, customer service, compliance, security, and employee relations in banking. She came to Young Americans because she is passionate about setting our youth up for financial success at a young age. Both of her adult children had the opportunity to experience Young AmeriTowne and International Towne when they were younger which left a long-lasting, positive impression.
Anna Leer, SVP, Programs
Anna joined YouthBiz in 2013 as an enthusiastic advocate of all students’ access to quality education. Since then, she has redesigned the curriculum with the goal of impacting more students through entrepreneurship education.
Prior to YouthBiz, Anna worked with Bridgepoint Education in postsecondary Student Relations, collecting and analyzing student data to increase student retention and graduation rates. Anna began her career as a Teach For America corps member in Miami-Dade, Florida, teaching third grade. During her experience, she accomplished significant achievement gains with her students, designed state level mathematics curriculum, and conducted several seminars around the state on upper elementary literacy education.
Amanda Krische, Vice President, Program Operations and Execution
Amanda joined Young Americans staff in 2008 working in International Towne and Young AmeriTowne as a Programs Assistant. After several years of working in and directing programs, summer camps and other outreach programs, Amanda is now Vice President/Programs.
Prior to working at Young Americans, Amanda attended the University of Colorado at Boulder with a BA in Communication. After graduating in 2005, Amanda worked for the YMCA of metro Denver running the 2nd largest summer camp in the city and largest before and after school program for the YMCA. Amanda is native to Colorado and has first-hand experience working in Young AmeriTowne as a 6th grader at Henry Middle School. She also has two young children that she hopes will be experts on financial literacy and finances some day.
