Samantha Barry
Samantha Barry is the editor-in-chief of Glamour U.S. and editorial director of Americas. She oversees content development, production and consumer experiences for Glamour's digital, social, video and print platforms.
She joins Glamour from CNN Worldwide, where she served as executive producer for social and emerging media. Under Barry’s leadership at CNN, the network became the most followed and fanned news organization in the world. She led her team and the organization at large with compelling work for social audiences on an array of platforms including Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, Line, Kik and other emerging media. While at CNN, Barry spearheaded CNN’s 2016 Election coverage across social platforms, which received the first ever Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in social media and a Webby Award recognizing the same 2016 campaign work.
Barry joined CNN from BBC World News in London, where she served as a social media producer and journalist, focusing on using social media as a tool for both news gathering and audience building. Previously, Barry worked as reporter and producer for RTE and Newstalk in Ireland. She spent time in Papua New Guinea with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and has worked as a social media and technology trainer for the U.S. State Department, the United States Institute of Peace and Internews.
Born in Ireland, Barry has worked in more than 25 countries, reporting and training other journalists in broadcasting, technology and social media. Barry graduated from Dublin City University with a Masters in Journalism. She is a 2016 fellow of Columbia University School’s Sulzberger executive program and is a guest lecturer at Yale.
Susan Breyer
Susan Z. Breyer is a Woodside, California painter of abstract and impressionist landscapes. In her work, she endeavors to reflect her reverence for the mystery, power and vulnerability of nature. Susan is a graduate of Stanford University and subsequently worked in strategy and marketing for the advertising agencies Benton & Bowles in New York, HBM/Creamer in Boston and Hal Riney in San Francisco. After graduating from Harvard Business School, Susan served as Director of Marketing for First Republic Bank. In moving from the corporate world to art, Susan studied for seven years with Bay Area master painter and former SF Academy of Art teacher, Ning Hou. Susan has worked to increase her community’s awareness of and investment in Room to Read since 2012. She currently serves on the Leadership Council of NARAL Pro-Choice America and in the Leadership Circle of WANDA (Women’s Advancement Network and Development Alliance) of Silicon Valley.
Mary Byron
Mary Byron is currently the owner of Cloud Nine Quilts based in Montana. Mary is retired from Goldman Sachs, most recently as the global head of corporate technology including Finance, Risk, Operations and Human Resources at Goldman Sachs. She served on the Technology Division Executive, Operating and Risk Committees. Prior to this role, Mary was based in Tokyo as CIO for Asia Pacific businesses and co-chair of the Asia Pacific Diversity Committee. She joined Goldman Sachs in 1989 and has held various roles within technology, including managing the firm’s global networks and computing infrastructure. Mary was named managing director in 1999 and partner in 2006. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation and the Auburn Theological Seminary. Mary earned her bachelor’s degree from Marquette University in 1986.
Richard and Sabine Chalmers
Richard is a citizen of the US and UK and Sabine is a citizen of the US with German and Indian origin. They have one daughter, Natasha. They have lived in London, Miami, Stamford, Brussels, and New York and believe strongly in the power of education to transform lives, which was their main inspiration for becoming friends of Room to Read.
Richard received a degree in Business Studies from the University of Edinburgh before training to become a lawyer with Berwin Leighton in London. He practiced family and litigation law in England, Florida and Connecticut before dedicating himself wholly to raising Natasha and volunteering for various causes. He has served on parents' associations at Natasha's schools in Brussels and New York, coached rugby at the International School of Brussels for three years, and served as President of the United Nations International School Athletics Association. Richard also chairs the board of the apartment building where the family lives in New York. On a personal level, he enjoys sports, travel and photography.
Sabine Chalmers is General Counsel of BT Group Plc, formerly known as British Telecom. Previously, she served as Chief Legal & Corporate Affairs Officer and Secretary to the Board of Directors at Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI). She is qualified as a solicitor in England and is a member of the New York State Bar. Sabine is a member of the Board of Directors of ABI and also serves on several professional councils and not-for-profit boards, including the Royal National Theatre and the International Baccalaureate. Sabine’s education reflects her global background. She spent her formative years as a student in the Philippines at the International School Manila, went on to graduate from London School of Economics, and received her Solicitors’ qualification at London’s College of Law.
Richard and Sabine are on the North America and UK Regional Development Boards.
Ernest Chow and Gwen Hinze
Ernest Chow is principal of Viridian Works LLC, which is focused on private impact investing. He was previously Founder and Partner at Sensato Investors, an institutional investment firm that managed Asia Pacific quantitative equity strategies. Prior to that he was Co-Head of Active Equities at Barclays Global Investors where he spent a decade in various roles leading research and portfolio management of scientific active strategies for Asia and other markets. He started his career in finance in the Investment Technology Group at County Investment Management, a division of the National Australia Bank. Before that, Ernie worked as a Research Assistant and as a Lecturer at Monash University. He was also a musician, and still loves to play. He is a Fellow of Monash University, from which he graduated with a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, LL.B. (Hons) and B.Sc.(Hons). He also holds an A.Mus.A. and is a CFA charterholder. He serves as a Trustee at the Bay School of San Francisco and has previously served as Board Chair and Trustee at the Chinese American International School and as a Trustee at the Bay Area Discovery Museum.
Gwen Hinze has worked at the intersection of law and policy for over 20 years in academia, the nonprofit sector, government and private legal practice. She has conducted research on how copyright law affects libraries as the International Copyright Fellow at the Berkeley Digital Libraries Copyright Project at U.C. Berkeley Law School and the role of copyright law in shaping online platforms and access to knowledge for her doctoral dissertation. She previously served as an attorney and subsequently the director of the international program at digital civil liberties nonprofit the Electronic Frontier Foundation from 2002-2012, where she engaged with policymakers at international and national forums in North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia. Prior to that, she worked for the Federal Court of Australia and the Australian government's National Native Title Tribunal and practiced at international law firm Arthur Robinson & Hedderwicks (now Allens). Gwen is a member of the State Bar of California and holds a J.S.D. (Doctorate in Law) and a LL.M. from U.C. Berkeley Law School and a LL.B (Hons) and B.A. (Hons) from Monash University.
Gwen and Ernie are passionate about the power of education to change the world and have been supporters of Room to Read's work since 2002.
Sara Eisen and Matthew Levine
Sara Eisen is co-anchor of CNBC’s “Closing Bell” (M-F, 3PM-5PM ET), broadcast from Post 9 at the New York Stock Exchange. She is known for her deep expertise in financial markets and the global economy as well as regular news making interviews with some of the most prominent names in the financial world. Eisen joined CNBC in December 2013 as a correspondent focusing on the global consumer. She previously co-anchored the 10AM ET hour of CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" (M-F, 9AM-11AM ET) and "Worldwide Exchange" (M-F, 5AM-6AM ET). Before joining CNBC, Eisen was co-anchor of "Bloomberg Surveillance" as well as a correspondent for Bloomberg Television, where she covered global macroeconomics, policy and business. During that time, she covered the European debt crisis, the tsunami aftermath and Fukushima nuclear crisis in Japan. Prior to Bloomberg Television, she hosted the Bloomberg Radio program, "On the Economy." She is the editor of "Currencies After the Crash: The Uncertain Future of the Global Paper-Based Currency System" published by McGraw-Hill in Jan. 2013. Eisen holds a master's degree in broadcast journalism with a concentration in business reporting from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
Matthew Levine is currently a Director, New York at the Brunswick Group. He was most recently at Bloomberg where he was the Head of U.S. Programming for Bloomberg Television. Matt had led numerous coverage initiatives, including Bloomberg's 2016 election night coverage, and acted as executive producer on a variety of special programs and documentaries. Previously, he served as Bloomberg Television's U.S.-based managing editor among other roles.
Before Bloomberg, Levine was senior editor at CNBC in Englewood Cliffs, NJ. During that time, he was nominated for a News & Documentary Emmy Award for producing "Investing in America," a town hall with President Barack Obama. He was also acknowledged with a Scripps Howard National Journalism Award for the network's coverage of General Motors' public stock offering.
Levine graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, where he majored in economics and political science. He holds a master's degree in international relations from the University of Sussex.
Rami and Manal Elghandour
Rami joined Arcellx in 2021 and serves as our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Most recently, Rami served as President and CEO of Nevro, beginning in 2012. Under his leadership, Nevro grew from a small private company to a public company approaching $400m in revenue and a leader in neuromodulation.
Prior to Nevro, Rami was an investor with Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC), where he led several investments including Nevro’s Series B Financing and served on the Board of Directors of several private companies including Nevro’s.
Prior to joining JJDC, Rami was a Design Engineer for Advanced Neuromodulation Systems, Inc. where he led firmware design and development on several implantable spinal cord stimulators.
Rami earned recognition as an EY Entrepreneur of the Year, as one of the top CEOs in the US and as one of the top CEOs for women and diversity. He is a recipient of the Bill Campbell award by Watermark for his influence, impact, and advocacy in promoting women and women’s issues. Rami received an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and holds a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Rutgers University School of Engineering.
Manal currently serves on the Belmont Redwood Shores Council Board and the Sandpiper school PTA Board. Most recently, she served as PTA President for Sandpiper School from 2020 to 2022. Manal started her career in commercial insurance as an underwriter. In addition to caring for their four children, Manal supports programs for autism and neurodiversity, mental health, and children’s organizations around the world.
Erin and Jitendra Ganju
Erin Ganju is currently the Managing Director of Echidna Giving, a private funder that will grant over $500 million over the next 40 years to advancing girls’ education in countries with limited resources. She is a Co-founder, former CEO, and former COO of Room to Read. From the early start-up days, Erin was instrumental in the design and implementation of the organization’s scalable, replicable model for improving the quality of education around the world. In 2009, Erin became Chief Executive Officer of Room to Read. As CEO, Erin oversaw Room to Read’s global operations across 15 countries; a technical assistance unit called Room to Read Accelerator; fundraising teams in North America, Europe, Australia and the Asia Pacific region; and a worldwide staff of more than 1,500 employees. Erin captured her experiences and insights as co-author of Scaling Global change: A Social Entrepreneur’s Guide to Surviving the Start-up Phase and Driving Impact. Erin has been selected as one of the World Economic Forum’s Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneurs for 2014 and in 2012 was one of Fast Company’s Extraordinary Women. Before founding Room to Read, Erin worked at Unilever, Goldman, Sachs & Co. and a couple of technology start-ups. She has spent extensive time working and living in Asia, where she saw firsthand the need to enhance developing countries’ educational systems. Erin holds a combined bachelor’s and master’s degree in international relations and economics from The Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C.
Jitendra (Jeetu) Ganju, Ph.D. is a clinical trials consultant trained in statistics with over 20 years’ experience in the pharmaceuticals and biotech industry. His prior employment includes tenures as the VP of Biometrics at Global Blood Therapeutics and Hyperion Therapeutics and Senior Director at Gilead Sciences. Therapeutic areas include hematology, diabetes, pulmonology, cardiovascular, inflammation, and vaccines. Areas of interest include speeding up Phase 1-3 development, acting as a statistics representative at FDA / EMA meetings, participating in collaborations on regulatory documents, producing clinical development plans with attention to mitigating risk, endpoint selection, and competitive analysis. Jeetu has been published in peer-reviewed journals on non-inferiority trials, improving operational efficiency, and methods to increase power.
Caryn Freiberger
Caryn Freiberger is Managing Director and North America Head of FX Real Money Sales. Caryn specializes in FX derivative solutions, developing relationships with the firm's largest institutional clients. In 2013, Caryn launched 'Citi’s e for education' a groundbreaking corporate social responsibility program linked to volumes executed on Citi's electronic trading platform. Since 2013, the initiative has raised over $47 million for global education non-profits. Outside of Room to Read, Caryn served on the NY Junior Board of EMpower. Caryn holds a BA in Economics from Brown University.
Peter T. Grauer
Peter T. Grauer is chairman of Bloomberg L.P., the global financial media company. He has been a member of the Bloomberg board since October 1996 and was named chairman of the board in March 2001, succeeding Michael R. Bloomberg. Peter joined Bloomberg full time in his executive capacities in March 2002. Prior to this, he was a managing director of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette from 1992 to 2000, when the company was acquired by Credit Suisse First Boston, and then managing director and senior partner of Credit Suisse First Boston Private Equity until March 2002. Peter serves as lead director of Davita, Inc., as well as on the boards of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Inner City Scholarship Fund in New York City, Rockefeller University and the Prostate Cancer Foundation. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina and the Harvard University Graduate School of Business.
Lydie Hudson
Lydie B. Hudson is Co-founder and President of Citation Capital. With a career spanning more than 20 years in financial services, Lydie previously served on the Executive Board at Credit Suisse. Lydie also founded the CS Women’s Financial Forum, a global convention of female experts across financial services. She was named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader in 2017 and an Aspen Finance Fellow and member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network in 2021. Lydie earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Politics and Economics from Middlebury College, and a Master of Business Administration degree from the Harvard Business School. A Midwest native, she resides in Greenwich, CT having recently moved back to the United States from Switzerland.
Tami Lippit and Carl Huttenlocher
Carl Huttenlocher is managing partner and chief investment officer for Myriad Asset Management. Prior to founding Myriad in 2011, Carl was managing director of Highbridge Capital Management, senior portfolio manager for the Highbridge Asia Opportunities Fund and a member of the Global Investment Committee for Highbridge Capital Corporation. Before joining Highbridge in 2002, Carl was the portfolio manager for Asian Convertibles and Equity Derivatives at Long Term Capital Management. Carl began his career at Citadel Investment Group where he traded European and Latin American Convertible Bonds. He also founded Intelligent Markets—a venture capital-backed financial software company—and served as chief executive officer from 1999 to 2001. Carl earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Tamiko M. Lippit received her bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, in history and literature from Harvard College and her J.D. from Columbia Law School. She has practiced law at Hughes, Hubbard & Reed, LLP in New York City and at Venture Law Group in Menlo Park, California, where she advised start-up companies on a broad array of legal issues. She currently lives in California with her family.
Sonny Kalsi (Chair)
Sonny Kalsi is the Co-CEO of BentallGreenOak (BGO) and is based in New York City. BGO is a global real estate investment and management platform with approximately $69 billion of assets under management. BGO has 24 offices worldwide (North America, Europe, and Asia) and over 1,300 employees. The firm manages investment strategies and properties in various asset and risk classes.
Sonny previously was a Founder of GreenOak Real Estate in 2010 and together with the team, built the business organically to $12 billion of assets under management in 10 countries with over 100 employees. Before GreenOak, Sonny was Global Co-Head of Morgan Stanley’s Real Estate Investing (MSREI) business and President of the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds until 2009. At its peak, the platform had approximately $100 billion of assets under management in 33 countries. During his 18-year career at Morgan Stanley, Sonny spent almost 10 years in Asia and has lived and worked in six different locations around the world.
Sonny is a graduate of Georgetown University and continues to be very involved with the school. He has been cited by Private Equity Real Estate magazine as one of the “30 Most Influential” people in private equity real estate globally. Sonny is on the board of several charitable organizations including Teaching Matters, SparkYouth NYC, Asia Society, and the Hirshhorn Museum. He is a Trustee of the Spence School, board member of Oberoi Realty, and Georgetown University. He is also Chair of the North America Regional Board at Room to Read and, until recently, Adjunct Professor at Columbia University in the Master of Real Estate Program.
Jaideep Khanna
Jaideep Khanna is the founder of Ananta Family Office managing investments across listed and private markets with a focus on technology, sustainability, and real estate. Prior to Ananta, Jaideep was a partner and co-founder of Artha Capital Management, an emerging market fund based in Connecticut. Jaideep co-founded the firm in May 2002 and served as president, portfolio manager, and director. Prior to Artha, Jaideep was an executive director and managed pools of funds at Morgan Stanley Asset Management in New York and London. Mr. Khanna generously funds and supports several philanthropic organizations around the world that are dedicated to educational initiatives, the environment, and socially responsible causes. He serves on the National Board of Directors for Pratham USA and on the North America Regional Board of Room to Read. He previously served on the International Advisory Board, Center for Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds an MBA from Duke University and received a degree in accounting and economics from Muskingum University.
Ryan Korinke and Kimberley Stafford
Ryan Korinke is a managing director and global head of sustainability at PIMCO, overseeing the business management of the firm's environmental, social, governance and sustainability efforts. He is a member of PIMCO’s executive office, contributing to firmwide strategic, financial and operational initiatives. Prior to this role, he was head of hedge fund and quantitative strategies, leading the growth and development of the firm’s discretionary and systematic absolute return strategies. He has also served as an account manager with institutional client servicing responsibility and as a product strategist for fixed income strategies. Prior to joining PIMCO in 2005, Mr. Korinke was with The Concord Group, a real estate investment advisory firm. He has 20 years of investment experience and holds an MBA from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. He received an undergraduate degree from Harvard University.
Kimberley Stafford is a managing director and global head of product strategy at PIMCO. She is responsible for overseeing traditional strategies and alternatives, which include PIMCO’s private strategies and hedge funds. Ms. Stafford is also a member of the firm's Executive Committee. She joined PIMCO in 2000 and has held several positions, including head of PIMCO Asia-Pacific, global head of consultant relations, head of U.S. institutional sales and alternatives marketing teams, and global head of human resources and talent management. Prior to these roles, Ms. Stafford was a member of PIMCO's executive office, contributing to firmwide strategic, financial and operational initiatives; head of global sustainability initiatives, overseeing the firm's environmental, social and governance efforts; an account manager in the consultant relations group; and an analyst in PIMCO's trade compliance group. She has 21 years of investment experience and holds an MBA from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Redlands.
Diksha and Divesh Makan
Diksha Makan leads Technology Engineering at ICONIQ Capital. With a mindful approach, Diksha focuses on systems architecture, strategically mapping business process to technical design and data construct. She believes process management, organizational skills and detailed project management are key drivers to success. Prior to ICONIQ, Diksha took a break to raise a family for 9 years and transitioned to reenter the workforce through a mother’s community program at Care.com. Diksha also spent 10 years before her break working on ERP systems implementations in the Retail, Manufacturing and Pharmaceutical spaces. She was responsible for project implementations on engagements for Accenture, Deloitte Consulting and Levi Strauss. Diksha holds a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. Diksha lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, with her husband Divesh, and 3 daughters. She is passionate about girls' education and empowerment, and enjoys free time with yoga and meditation.
Divesh Makan is a Founding Partner of ICONIQ Capital, a global multi-family office and Merchant Bank. Prior to ICONIQ, Divesh was at Morgan Stanley for four years, and at Goldman Sachs as a Vice President for eight years. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Divesh was a senior manager at Accenture in the Financial Services area, specializing in the private equity investments. Divesh serves on the Board of SFJAZZ and the Board of Overseers at UCSF. He received an M.B.A. from the Wharton School and his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Natal, South Africa. Divesh lives in San Francisco Bay Area, with his wife and three daughters.
Angel Mehta
Angel Mehta is an early-stage investor in technology companies with a particular interest in artificial intelligence, enterprise software, bio-hacking/longevity, and meat-alternative food companies. He also serves as an advisor to entrepreneurs, coaching them on human capital/recruitment, automation, and outsourcing.
Between 1998 and 2018, Angel served as Chief Executive Officer of Sterling-Hoffman Management Consultants, a global executive-search firm with over 300 employees worldwide and offices in 5 countries.
Angel is an active member of several CEO mastermind groups, including Young President’s Organization (YPO), and Tiger 21. His philanthropic interests are focused on girls' education, human trafficking, fact-based journalism, and animal rights. Mr. Mehta Holds a BA degree from York University in Toronto.
In his spare time, Angel enjoys weightlifting, ice hockey, and learning magic. He can be reached on Twitter: @angelmehta99
Kim Anstatt Morton
Kim Anstatt Morton worked almost a decade on Wall Street as an equity research analyst at UBS and Hambrecht and Quist in New York City. She later joined Montgomery Securities in San Francisco where she covered emerging growth and big cap biotech companies. Kim is passionate about literacy, education and the arts. She enthusiastically serves as Board Chair for Girl Rising, a global movement for girls' education through media, film and social action campaigns (and a partner of Room to Read). She is active with SFMOMA’s Director’s Circle Committee, Contemporaries Committee and Media Acquisitions. She is also an active Ambassador for For-Site. Kim has worked with the Department of Health and Human Services in San Francisco with abused and neglected children and has tutored a special literacy program for sixth through BA from Dartmouth College, and fine art graduate painting degree from the San Francisco Art Institute. Kim travels extensively in the developing world and lives in San Francisco and Vermont with her husband Ian and son Baker.
Stasia Obremskey
Stasia Obremskey is the Managing Director of RH Capital, an impact venture capital fund of Rhia Ventures, where she is responsible for investing in innovations in women’s reproductive health. She joined RH Capital at its founding in 2018 after more than twenty-five years of experience as an interim CFO for non-profit organizations and start-up companies and an impact investor and philanthropist in women’s reproductive health. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business. She has extensive experience as a member of several nonprofit boards where she has held a number of leadership positions. Stasia is a founding member of The Maverick Collective, an initiative of PSI. As the proud mother of three young adults, she is working with scientists and entrepreneurs to find the next generation of hormone-free contraceptives to meet their sexual health needs.
Dusty Philip
Dusty Philip is co-chairman of Global Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) at Goldman Sachs and he is a member of the Investment Banking Division Executive Committee. Prior to this role at Goldman, he was global co-head of the Industrials Group as well as the co-head of M&A in the Americas. He joined Goldman Sachs in M&A in 1991. Dusty was named managing director in 1999 and partner in 2000. Dusty serves on the Board of Trustees of the Brearley School and the Board of Trustees of the Young People's Chorus of New York City. Dusty earned a BA from Amherst College in 1986 and an MBA from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College in 1991.
Jesse Purewal
Jesse Purewal is a father, husband, son, and grandson to some of the most wonderful women and girls on the planet. At work, he is the SVP and GM of the Global High-Tech Sector at Qualtrics, an SAP company whose SaaS platform enables companies to deliver breakthrough employee and customer experiences. Prior to Qualtrics, Jesse was a Partner at Prophet, a brand and marketing strategy consultancy, where he worked with B2B and B2B2C tech clients to grow by developing and linking business strategy, product strategy, and marketing strategy. His professional expertise is in working with cross-functional teams in marketing, product management, engineering and sales to develop growth strategies that drive relevance, loyalty and market value.
Prior to joining Prophet, Jesse ran a business delivering college prep services to high school students and families which sold to Kaplan, Inc. He also worked in corporate strategy and marketing at Starbucks Coffee, where he helped create the company’s loyalty program and develop its whole bean coffee portfolio.
Jesse has an MBA from Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and a BS in Mathematics and Sociology from Northwestern University. He lives in San Francisco. (And, with respect to the father role above, he is the proud dad of two identical twin girls who are learning and loving to read.)
Mythili Sankaran and Shekar Ayyar
Mythili is the CEO & Co-founder of Neythri.org and the Founding Managing Partner of the Neythri Futures Fund.
Mythili’s 25+ years of experience spans R&D, product management and senior leadership roles driving growth, strategy and digital transformations for Fortune 500 companies, early-stage technology startups and nonprofits. Previously, Mythili led regional operations for the U.S. - India Business Council and the American India Foundation, where she built a strong reputation for scaling and growing the organizations’ brand, revenue, member base and operations. Mythili also served as CEO of Koollage, a web service company that allowed users to create, package, and share information on the internet, where she oversaw the growth strategy from prototype to the notable public launch at the 2008 DEMO conference. Earlier in her career, Mythili spent several years in research and product management at IBM Research Labs, AT&T Bell Labs, Lucent, eVoice and Palmsource. She is currently an active angel investor and a member of several women-led investor networks that invest in women entrepreneurs and an independent board advisor to early-stage startups.
Mythili serves on the Regional Board of Room to Read, is a mentor for the Duke Technology Scholars program, and a Global Advisor for How Women Lead. She has a MS degree in Physics from Texas Tech University, a M.Sc in Electronics from the University of Bombay and an Executive MBA jointly offered through the AT&T School of Business and the Wharton School. In her spare time, Mythili enjoys reading historical fiction, studying Indian antiques and watching cricket.
Shekar Ayyar is CEO and Chairman of Arrcus, a venture funded network infrastructure company that is transforming 5G and edge connectivity for service providers and enterprises. He is also a board member at Altair, a venture partner at NTTVC, and a partner at ADMY Technologies.
Shekar Ayyar is a seasoned technology executive and industry leader with over twenty-five years of experience spanning general management, research, strategy, mergers & acquisitions and business development. Before joining Arrcus, Shekar was Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Telco and Edge Cloud business at VMware. He incubated and grew this business to become one of the largest vertical opportunities for VMware in the context of 5G and Edge Computing.
Prior to his General manager role, Shekar was EVP of Strategy and Corporate Development, leading VMware’s M&A and strategic investments for several years. He oversaw over 60 acquisitions and investments across a wide range of target companies and transaction sizes including the acquisitions of Nicira, Airwatch, Velocloud, Heptio and Uhana.
Before VMware, Shekar held senior executive roles at BindView (acquired by Symantec) and Instantis (acquired by Oracle). In prior roles at other companies including Lucent and McKinsey, Shekar advised C-level executives on a wide range of strategic technology and business decisions.
Shekar has an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated as a Palmer Scholar. He also holds a Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, both in electrical engineering.
Vicky Tsai
Vicky Tsai is the Founder of Tatcha, the global luxury skincare brand founded in 2009. Every Tatcha purchase supports children's education through the brand's Beautiful Faces, Beautiful Futures Program, established in 2014 in partnership with Room to Read. To date, the program has funded over 8 million days of school for girls in Africa and Southeast Asia and funded Room to Read’s U.S. literary initiative to provide diverse books to underserved communities.
Tsai’s work at Tatcha has earned her recognition as a Marie Claire Changemaker (2022), Inc Magazine’s 100 Top Female Founders List (2021), the WWD Beauty Inc Founder’s Award (2019), InStyle Magazine’s “Badass 50 Women” List (2018), and the No.2 fastest-growing privately held company in America led by a woman on the Inc 5000 list (2015). She holds a BA in Economics from Wellesley College as well as an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Hilary Valentine
Hilary is a board member of the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health and a member of Part the Cloud, whose mission is to fund Alzheimer’s research with the highest probability of slowing, stopping or ultimately curing Alzheimer’s disease. Hilary serves on the Board of Directors of the Valentine Family Foundation and the Canary Foundation. She also serves on the Emeritus Board of Breast Cancer Connections. Her primary focus has been to evangelize the Room to Read mission in front of high net-worth donors in the technology world. The Valentine Family Foundation provided the initial multi-year seed funding for Room to Read's Girls' Education program. Hilary served on the Room to Read Board of Directors from 2003 to 2012, was Co-Chair of the Board of Directors from 2005 to 2008, and was Chair of the Board of Directors from 2008 to 2010. Hilary graduated with a BS in Psychology from St. Lawrence University.
Frank and Leslie van Veenendaal
Mr. Frank van Veenendaal retired from Salesforce in 2015 after almost 14 years with the company and was instrumental in growing Salesforce from $5M to $5B+. Mr. van Veenendaal served as President and Executive Vice Chairman for three years and held a number of senior executive positions with the company during his tenure. Mr. van Veenendaal has over 30 years of technology sales and executive management experience. Previously Mr. van Veenendaal held various sales and sales management positions for companies such as Actuate, Interleaf, Integrated Solutions, Pyramid, and Harris Corporation. Mr. van Veenendaal also serves on the board of directors of Coupa, Onfido and ServiceMax.
Priya Venkatesh
Priya Venkatesh, a highly experienced prestige beauty retail leader, serves as Sephora’s Senior Vice President of Merchandising for Skincare & Hair. In her 15-year tenure, Priya has focused on category vision and development, including building a robust brand portfolio of indie, emerging, clean and classic brands, as well as the first introduction of K-Beauty in prestige retail, while driving innovation in formulation offerings, product and services experiences at Sephora.
Under Priya’s leadership, Sephora’s Skin and Hair business has grown dramatically, ensuring these areas play an integral role in the retailer’s in-store and digital experience offerings for clients. She has developed and executed many successful initiatives, including the launch of “Clean at Sephora,” providing clients a clear point of view on the clean beauty category and Sephora’s offering across 50+ brands and 2,000 products; Skin IQ, an in store skincare solutions diagnostic tool; and introduced a range of high performing brands including Algenist, Bumble and bumble, Dr. Jart, Drunk Elephant, Dyson, Farmacy, Glam Glow, Living Proof, Olaplex, Summer Fridays, and TATCHA.
Prior to her current role at Sephora, Priya was a clinical skincare merchant and before joining Sephora, she was the Director of Makeup at The Body Shop. Priya earned a Masters in International Economics and Finance from Brandeis University and currently resides in the Bay Area with her family.
Susan Wojcicki and Dennis Troper
Susan Wojcicki is an advisor to Alphabet and the former CEO of YouTube, a position she held for 9 years as well as 25 years of operating leadership roles at Google. An early champion of online video who was instrumental in Google's 2006 acquisition of YouTube, Susan oversaw YouTube's content and business operations, engineering, and product development. Prior to joining YouTube in February 2014, Susan was Senior Vice President of Advertising & Commerce at Google, where she oversaw the design and engineering of AdWords, AdSense, DoubleClick, and Google Analytics. She joined Google in 1999 as the company's first marketing manager and led the initial development of several key consumer products including Google Images and Google Books. In 2002, Susan began working on Google’s advertising products and over the next 12 years she led teams that helped define the vision and direction of Google’s monetization platforms. Before joining Google, Susan worked at Intel, Bain & Company, and a number of start-ups. She graduated with honors from Harvard University, holds a master's in economics from UC Santa Cruz, and an MBA from UCLA.
Dennis Troper is the Product Director for Wear OS by Google. He joined Google in early 2003 and has worked on several product areas since then including AdWords, G Suite and Google Fiber. Prior to Google he held positions Oracle, Concur Technologies and Deloitte Consulting. Dennis holds a BA in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin and an MS in Applied Economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He lives in Los Altos, California with his wife and five children.
Amy Wong
Amy Wong retired from PDT Partners at the end of 2019, where she was a founding partner and Chief Operating Officer. She joined PDT (Process Driven Trading) as one of the first hires in 1994 when it was a newly formed proprietary trading group in Morgan Stanley. During her 25-year tenure at PDT, Amy helped build the business into a highly regarded quantitative investment firm, including spearheading the successful spinoff from Morgan Stanley in 2013.
She serves on the Exchange Board for the Members Exchange (MEMX). Amy holds BS and MS degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.