Samantha Barry
Samantha 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 Samantha’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, Samantha 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.
Samantha 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, Samantha worked as a 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, Samantha 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 master's degree 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 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. She 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 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. Before 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 United States and the UK and Sabine is a citizen of the United States 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 is general counsel of BT Group Plc, formerly known as British Telecom. Previously, she served as chief legal and 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 Association. Sabine is a member of the board of directors of ABI, a member of the supervisory board of Ardian, a board member of Continental Grain Company, and 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 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. Before 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. with honors and a bachelor of science with honors. 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 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 to 2012, where she engaged with policymakers at international and national forums in North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia. Before that, she worked for the Federal Court of Australia and the Australian government's National Native Title Tribunal and practiced at the international law firm Arthur Robinson & Hedderwicks (now Allens). Gwen is a member of the State Bar of California and holds a doctorate in law and a LL.M. from the University of California Law School and a LL.B with honors and bachelor of arts with honors 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.
Shaziya and Vikas Keswani
Shaziya Keswani is an Occupational Therapist based in New York and specializes in breast cancer and lymphedema rehabilitation. She is passionate about enhancing patient outcomes and is a published author on the advantages of using occupational therapy in breast cancer treatment. Shaziya is also Co-Chair of the Horace Mann School Lower Division Parent Association. She holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Columbia University, where she also currently serves as Vice Chair of the Alumni Legacy Circle, a leadership giving society that brings together Columbia College Women to strengthen the mission of the College.
Vikas Keswani is a Managing Director at HPS Investment Partners and Head of North American Specialty Lending. Prior to joining HPS in 2010, Vikas spent most of his career at BlackRock, where he was a part of the initial team that established, structured and capitalized BlackRock Capital Investment Corporation (NASDAQ: BKCC), a publicly traded private investment vehicle. Vikas is a CFA charterholder and holds a BSE from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania where he graduated Magna Cum Laude. Vikas also serves on the board of directors of Teach for India U.S.
Shaziya grew up in Mumbai, India and Vikas in Kobe, Japan. Together, they are dedicated to fostering educational equality and the opportunity set for those less fortunate. Shaziya and Vikas live in New York with their two daughters Siana and Riya.
Sara Eisen and Matthew Levine
Sara is co-anchor of the 10 a.m. hour of CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" (M–F, 9–11 a.m. ET) and "Money Movers" (M–F, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. ET). She is known for her deep expertise in financial markets and the global economy and 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 CNBC's "Worldwide Exchange."
Before joining CNBC, Eisen was co-anchor of "Bloomberg Surveillance" and was 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 the Fukushima nuclear crisis in Japan. Before 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 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 is partner 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, Matthew was a senior editor at CNBC. 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 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. Before 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 United States, 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 a master of business administration from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and holds a bachelor of science in electrical and computer engineering from Rutgers University School of Engineering.
Manal 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 is a former managing director of Echidna Giving, a private funder that will grant over $500 million over the next 40 years to advance girls’ education in countries with limited resources. She is also 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." She 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. She currently serves as a board member to the Luminos Fund and The Bay School of San Francisco.
Jitendra is a clinical trials consultant trained in statistics with over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. 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 is co-head of Global Institutional FX sales at Deutsche Bank, where she is responsible for driving the global sales strategy, providing solutions for clients across complex and vanilla products in the currency and metals markets. As part of her management responsibilities, Caryn is a member of the institutional client group executive committee. Before this role, Caryn was the North America head of the FX real money sales team at Citi. While at Citi, Caryn served as the founding co-head of Citi’s North America markets and security services women’s network. In 2013, Caryn conceived and launched 'Citi’s e for education' a corporate social responsibility program where Citi donates money to non-profit organizations generated from client-initiated electronic trading volumes. Since its inception, the initiative has donated over $73 million, earning the program recognition as Citi’s CEO-sponsored 2018 Progress Award winner.
Outside of Room to Read, Caryn is an advocate for pediatric cancer research contributing to the funding of several scientific studies at Memorial Sloan Kettering Kids Hospital by hosting handstand walkathons, empowering gymnasts to raise money for the cause. Caryn holds a bachelor of arts in economics from Brown University.
Peter T. Grauer
Peter 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. Before this, he was a managing director of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette from 1992 to 2000 when the company was acquired by Credit Suisse First Boston, 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 is the 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 in international politics and economics from Middlebury College and a master of business administration from 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 is managing partner and chief investment officer for Myriad Asset Management. Before 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 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Tamiko received her bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, in history and literature from Harvard College and her juris doctorate 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 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 the 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.
Ryan Korinke and Kimberley Stafford
Ryan Korinke retired from PIMCO in 2023 where he was a managing director and global head of sustainability, overseeing the business management of the firm's environmental, social, governance and sustainability efforts. He was a member of PIMCO’s executive office, contributing to firmwide strategic, financial and operational initiatives. Prior to that 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 holds an MBA from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. He received an undergraduate degree from Harvard University. Currently he is the Treasurer for the San Juan Capistrano Performing Arts Center, and a Trustee at St Margaret’s Episcopal School.
Kimberley Stafford is a managing director, global head of product strategy, and Executive Committee member responsible for oversight of sustainability. As global head of product strategy, she oversees traditional strategies and alternatives, including private strategies and hedge funds. She also oversees ESG and sustainability initiatives, providing strategic direction and firmwide coordination around sustainability efforts. She joined the firm 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; an account manager in the consultant relations group; and an analyst in PIMCO's trade compliance group. She has 24 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, where she currently serves as a Trustee.
Angel Mehta
Angel 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. Angel holds a bachelor of arts from York University in Toronto.
In his spare time, Angel enjoys weightlifting, ice hockey, and learning magic.
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 children enrolled in a special literacy program through Dartmouth College. She holds a fine art graduate painting degree from the San Francisco Art Institute. Kim travels extensively and lives in San Francisco and Vermont with her husband, Ian, and son, Baker.
Stasia Obremskey
Stasia 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 25 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 a master of business administration from the Harvard Graduate School of Business. She has extensive experience as a member of several nonprofit boards where she has held several 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 is co-chairman of global mergers and acquisitions (M&A) at Goldman Sachs and a member of the investment banking division executive committee. Before this role at Goldman, he was global co-head of the industrials group and 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 bachelor of art from Amherst College in 1986 and an master of business administration from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College in 1991.
Jesse Purewal
Jesse is a father, husband, son and grandson to some of the most wonderful women and girls on the planet. At work, Jesse is the VP and brand and marketing at PagerDuty. At PagerDuty, Jesse leads and serves the teams that pull the PagerDuty business and brand forward through corporate events, executive experiences/EBCs, brand strategy, content and creative.
Before PagerDuty, Jesse was 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. And, he was previously a partner at Prophet, a brand and marketing 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.
Before 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 a master of business administration from Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and a bachelor's degree 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 and 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 an active angel investor and member of several women-led investor networks that invest in women entrepreneurs and an independent board advisor to early-stage startups.
Mythili is a mentor for the Duke Technology Scholars program and is a global advisor for How Women Lead. She has a master of science degree in physics from Texas Tech University, a master of science in electronics from the University of Bombay and an executive master of business administration 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 is CEO and chairman of Arrcus, a venture-funded network infrastructure company, which 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 is a seasoned technology executive and industry leader with over 25 years of experience spanning general management, research, strategy, mergers and 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 a master of business administration from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated as a Palmer Scholar. He also holds a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, both in electrical engineering.
Vicky Tsai
Vicky is the Founder of Tatcha, a 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.
Vicky'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 bachelor of arts in economics from Wellesley College and a master of business administration 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 bachelor of science in psychology from St. Lawrence University.
Frank and Leslie van Veenendaal
Frank retired from Salesforce in 2015 after almost 14 years with the company and was instrumental in growing Salesforce from $5M to $5B+. He served as president and executive vice chairman for three years and held a number of senior executive positions with the company during his tenure. He has over 30 years of technology sales and executive management experience and previously held various sales and sales management positions for companies such as Actuate, Interleaf, Integrated Solutions, Pyramid and Harris Corporation. He also serves on the board of directors of Coupa, Onfido and ServiceMax.
Priya Venkatesh
Priya, a highly experienced prestige beauty retail leader, is Sephora’s global chief merchandising officer. 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.
Before 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 master's degree in international economics and finance from Brandeis University. She currently resides in the Bay Area with her family.
Susan Wojcicki and Dennis Troper
Susan is a tech executive with over 30 years of experience in the industry. As the former CEO of YouTube, she oversaw YouTube's content and business operations, engineering and product development. Before joining YouTube in February 2014, Susan was senior vice president of advertising and 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. Susan graduated with honors from Harvard University, holds a master's degree in economics from UC Santa Cruz and an MBA from UCLA. In 2015, Susan was named to Time’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. She currently serves on the board of directors for Salesforce and Waymo and as an advisor at Youtube and Google. Susan now serves in an advisory role to Google and Google-parent Alphabet.
Dennis 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. Before Google he held positions Oracle, Concur Technologies and Deloitte Consulting. Dennis holds a bachelor of arts in economics from the University of Texas at Austin and a master of science 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 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), is a board member at the GO Project NYC and a member of the board of trustees at Hackley School in New York. Amy holds a bachelor of science degree and a master of science degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in electrical engineering and computer science.