Gráinne McNamara

Managing Director @ Accenture

Grainne has three decades of transformation experience in large corporates, alongside her leadership roles in philanthropy and post-graduate education. She is a ‘pragmatic’ business strategist, steeped in hands-on delivery experience. She has led international innovation programs and new product and platform builds at firms such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, as well as in multiparty systems. As an industry advisor, she solves complex issues related to velocity in product and innovation, growth mindset and culture, and modern engineering in regulated environments. She works daily with Fortune 500 firms, cloud providers and distribution platforms as well as the FinTech sector. Grainne is mother of three and an advocate for social justice. She is a board member of the New York Women’s Foundation, the largest public foundation in the US for women and girls. Grainne is an active advisor in multiple eco-systems for female entrepreneurs, dealing with purpose, investment, and growth, to building sustainable models that scale. Grainne speaks and writes on a variety of topics including purpose, authenticity and the intersection of technology and sustainable growth. She keynotes industry, academic and community-oriented events. She is a professor in the EMBA program at Fordham.

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Malia Estes

Head of Industry Engagement Strategy @ TikTok

Malia Estes is part of TikTok's global business marketing team, where she is constantly inspired by the creativity, collaboration, and joy of the platform (not to mention the fact that it was her BFF through the early days of the pandemic). Moving into 2023, she'll be responsible for making sure you see more of TikTok, and TikTok sees more of you, as she and her team take on more direct industry engagement.

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Dhani Abey

Director Enterprise Security @ Microsoft

Dhani Abey is a cybersecurity executive currently working at Microsoft, where she engages with customers to help solve strategic business challenges in a secure manner. With over 20 years of experience in cybersecurity, Dhani is a pioneering member of the Security Information and Event Management industry, who helped shape that solution space in its early days. Dhani has held individual contributor and leadership roles at startup and Multi-national organizations and is consistently recognized as a top performer, thought leader, problem solver, and has earned numerous accolades and recognition for the same. 

Dhani earned her BBA in Information Systems and Executive MBA from CUNY Baruch and is currently pursuing an Executive Master of Science in Technology Management at Columbia University.  In the fall, she also plans to teach cybersecurity courses at CUNY BMCC.  She presently mentors young professionals on career decisions, resume revisions, interview preparation, and salary negotiation strategies.  

When she's not working and studying, Dhani prioritizes her roles as a mother of two boys, a devoted wife of 15 years, a cherished daughter, and a loyal friend. She enjoys traveling with her family, spending time with her closest girlfriends, cooking, baking, reading and learning something new daily.  She is also an ordained minister and loves a good love story and officiating marriages.

Dhani is a firm believer in always doing the right thing, staying true to her word, and fully committing to every "yes" she gives. She gives back to her community by volunteering at a local soup kitchen and sending much-needed items to rural schools in Sri Lanka on a consistent basis.

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Wade Davis

VP, Inclusion Strategy | Product @ Netflix

Former NFL Player Wade Davis is an educator and advisor on gender, race, and orientation equality, and currently the VP of Inclusion for Product at Netflix. Wade was the NFL’s first LGBT inclusion consultant, where he worked at the intersection of sexism, racism, and homophobia to build inclusive leadership strategies and national engagement initiatives. Prior to joining Netflix, Wade consulted for organizations including Google, P&G, Viacom and Bacardi. Wade is a United Nations Women Global Impact Champion, and a board member of both the Ms. Foundation for Women and MeToo International. He’s a feminist, former NYU and Rutgers adjunct professor, and a 2012 President Obama surrogate.

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Rachel Hollis

Head of Executive Communications  @ NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory 

Rachel Hollis is a seasoned communications professional with experience leading high-growth teams and driving brand communications for top-tier organizations. Rachel is the Head of Executive Communications at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) where she is responsible for the integrated executive communications strategy for the Office of the Director.  

 

Prior to JPL, Rachel worked at Meta as a Senior Communications lead where she supported the climate and sustainability and crisis response product teams, driving excitement for the technologies and the value they deliver. Before Meta, Rachel served as the Director of Communications at GoFundMe where she scaled and led the team responsible for increasing brand awareness and driving the external narrative to help raise tens of millions of dollars for GoFundMe fundraisers. Rachel was also appointed the Crisis Communications lead at GoFundMe.

 

Rachel has provided communications services to a robust portfolio of companies in the tech, eCommerce, legal and nonprofit sectors. She is passionate about using storytelling for good to drive positive change, and helping build brands that are transforming industries and impacting lives. 

 

Musa Tariq

Chief Marketing Officer @ gofundme

Musa joined GoFundMe in January 2021 to further build the GoFundMe brand and drive the company's marketing and communications functions. Since joining the company, he has been recognized for his leadership in Forbes' Entrepreneurial CMOs List 2022 and Insider's Most Innovative CMOs 2022. Prior to GoFundMe, Musa was Global Head of Marketing at Airbnb Experiences where he drove brand awareness and adoption of that rapidly growing part of Airbnb's business. Before Airbnb, he was Chief Brand Officer of Ford Motor Company and named to Forbes 2017 World's Most Influential CMO list. Musa has also held marketing leadership roles at Apple, Nike and Burberry. He has a BSc in Geography and Economics. A distinguished counselor to iconic and emerging global  brands, Musa currently serves as an advisor to MasterClass, The British Fashion Council, Felix Capital and several other start-ups.

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Miri Rodriguez

Storyteller / Entrepreneur / Author @ Microsoft

Miri Rodriguez is a globally recognized Storyteller, bestselling author of Brand Storytelling and owner of Be Mindful Be Happy. Miri brings 15+ years of expertise, valuable industry and consulting insights matched with a lighthearted and authentic delivery approach. Miri has earned several awards in digital marketing and customer experience and is ranked as a top-in-demand speaker at leading industry conferences around the world. Her social advocacy and philanthropic work include volunteering to train social enterprise leaders in Africa, coaching students at Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship in the U.S. and mentoring men and women to build their personal brand with empathy, passion and purpose. She currently works at Microsoft as Senior Storyteller for State and Local Government.

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Hannah Lee

Program Director @ Office of the Mayor of Los Angeles / Angeleno Corps

Hannah Lee (she/her/ella) is passionate about educational equity and closing the opportunity gap for students of color and English language learners. She is the Program Director for Angeleno Corps, a service-learning program for young Angelenos impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, at the Office of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Hannah previously led the Best Start South El Monte/El Monte collaborative and has supported leadership development and strategic planning at several non-profit and for-profit organizations. She has a Master of Public Administration from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Science from New York University. 

 

 

Lawrence Fauntleroy

Director, Experiential Learning @ Blackstone LaunchPad Lehman College, School of Business

Lawrence Fauntleroy spent 26 years in Healthcare IT. He left healthcare as the IT Director of Enterprise Business Systems at Mount Sinai, and in 2018 he had an opportunity to return to Lehman College as the Director of the CUNY 2X Tech Talent Pipeline. His team connects graduating software engineers to the tech industry with a host of experiential learning services. As a result, over 200 students have landed jobs in tech companies with an average salary of $92K. An economic impact of over $17 million. 

 

Mr. Fauntleroy leads the Upskilling initiative, which uniquely puts the campus and community in the same classroom. Upskilling addresses the gap between the classroom and skill-based workforce demands in high-growth industries. Mr. Fauntleroy also leads the Blackstone LaunchPad, providing students with a vast entrepreneurial skills network. Through experiential
learning, students gain knowledge, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills to contribute to
an innovation economy.

Mr. Fauntleroy has a Bachelor's degree in Business and Psychology and a Master's degree in Organizational Leadership from Lehman College. He is currently the President of the Lehman College Alumni Association.

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Kamaj Bailey

Director of Learning & Development @ Generate Capital

Prior to Generate, Kamaj was a Senior Organizational Development Specialist at Con Edison where she created and managed development programs for over 14,000 employees including all mentorship, executive sponsorship, and leadership development programs. While at Con Edison, she also launched and co-led the women’s employee resource group and spear headed, Empower Balance, a corporate initiative to attract women into careers in the utilities industry. Before that, she spent over a decade as an accountant with a focus on audit and process optimization across a broad range of industries including Education, Financial Services, and Cosmetics. Kamaj holds an MBA in Human Capital Management from the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota and a BBA in Accounting from the City University of New York – Baruch College.

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Jereme Holiman

VP People @ Shardeum, Co-Founder @ UrbanStems + Clyde

Jereme Holiman is VP, People at Shardeum, a Layer 1 blockchain startup. Previously, he served for 4 years as Co-Founder & VP, People at Clyde Technologies, an insurtech company focused on enabling best-in-class product ownership experiences for brands. Before Clyde he Co-Founded and lead operations for UrbanStems, a DTC floral and gifting company. He lives in Southern California with his wife and 2 young sons.

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Dayanna Torres

Director @ Blackstone Charitable Foundation

Dayanna Torres joined the Blackstone Charitable Foundation as the Director of the Blackstone LaunchPad Network. She brings over thirteen years of experience in higher education, nonprofits, and the public sector. In her role at the Blackstone Charitable Foundation, she helps empower entrepreneurs and bring entrepreneurial skill-building to students who need it most through the Blackstone LaunchPad program. In 2020, the Blackstone Charitable Foundation announced a $40 million expansion of LaunchPad to exclusively support colleges and universities that have a majority diverse population or are serving under-resourced communities. 

 

In doing so, it will increase its program from 46 to 75 campuses over the next five years.

Prior to Blackstone, Dayanna held roles as a consultant and worked with communities to develop new partnerships and investment solutions that are responsive to the unique needs of underserved neighborhoods. Her experience includes forming part of the inaugural partnerships department at the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), leading projects aimed to spur inclusive economic development and talent pipeline solutions for the city’s high growth industry investments, city assets undergoing Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) and company expansions. Earlier in her career, she held roles in Higher Education as an advisor and in launching and managing student success programs. Dayanna is Dominican American from the Bronx, fluent in Spanish, and holds her bachelor’s and a Dual Master's degree from Syracuse University.

 

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