Liz Hayden is Head of Product at Bonsai, where she translates strategic vision into execution — building the operating cadence, governance, and technology needed to better serve financial advisors. She leads cross-functional delivery of new services, products, and processes to drive growth while improving efficiency, scalability, and client outcomes.​

Liz began her career in the 1990s as personal computing and internet-based portfolio management tools reshaped wealth management and helped independent advisory firms scale. She entered the Registered Investment Advisor community at Trust Company of America, a technology-forward independent custodian purpose-built to support advisors. There, she was a key contributor to the success of the firm's model rebalancing and trading platform — partnering directly with advisors, translating needs into build-ready specifications, validating releases through rigorous testing, and enabling adoption through training and support. As Director of Product Management, Liz led a team focused on advisor solutions, introduced Agile development practices, owned the strategic roadmap, and expanded the organization's APIs and integrations.​

In parallel, Liz played an instrumental role in building the firm's proprietary custody platform, supporting critical operational functions including account opening, funding, ACAT processing, cash management, trade execution, and settlement. Following the company's acquisition by E*Trade, she leveraged her deep custody and product expertise to take on broader leadership, ultimately managing the full operations organization. In that role, she improved operational efficiency and guided the team through the transition to remote work during the pandemic.​

Liz continued as EVP of Operations through multiple enterprise transitions — including E*Trade's integration into Morgan Stanley and the subsequent move to Axos Financial — providing continuity, risk management, and execution discipline during change. With a renewed focus on innovation for advisors, she returned to product leadership full-time and partnered closely with teams at Axos Bank to deliver banking solutions tailored to advisory firms.​

After nearly three decades in the industry, Liz briefly stepped away before returning to pursue Bonsai's mission of bringing Asset and Liability Management (ALM) to advisors. She joined Bonsai in 2025 and is excited to help deliver an advisor workstation that applies ALM-based financial planning to holistically manage investor households — improving outcomes while proactively managing risk.​

Liz graduated Magna Cum Laude from Colgate University with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics, Minor in Philosophy. She maintains a FINRA Series 99 license and a Certified Product Management designation from the Pragmatic Institute. When not working, she enjoys time in her garden with her four cats.​