Friday Judges
Kelly Hoey is an early-stage investor (LP, Laconia Capital Group), an Inc.com columnist, contributor to MyTurnstone.com and appears regularly as an investor panelist on CNBC’s Power Pitch. She’s a networking expert and the author of the forthcoming book Build Your Dream Network to be released January 2017 by Tarcher Perigee.Kelly's motto is “invest in the change you want to see in the world.” She can frequently be found on Twitter @jkhoey. |
Seisei Tatebe-Goddu is the VP of Accounts at Ruckus Marketing and holds her BA and MA from McGill and Columbia Universities, respectively. Prior to joining Ruckus, she founded Tandem Consulting Group, delivering strategy and organizational development consulting, executive coaching, facilitation, and training to over 50 clients across 15 countries. She is also the co-creator of the card game doosh/off and the Director of Community for Covalent, an organization focused on increasing diversity in entrepreneurship. She is a StartingBloc Fellow, Environmental Leadership Program Senior Fellow, member of the Thousand Network, and sits on the planning committee for the Phillips Exeter Academy Alumni Association of Greater New York.
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Laura Espiru is an Executive Coach and HR Consultant for Women in Leadership. Laura has a BA in Psychology, a Masters in Human Resources and a Certification as an Executive Coach. She is an active member and volunteer of the International Coach Federation, Columbia Business School Alumni Club of New York and the Organizational Development Network in NY. Laura has recently been working on initiatives to empower Women and Leadership Development. As a woman, she truly believes that finding her own balance and raising her voice is essential to achieve success.
Her greatest achievement as an executive coach is to make people reach their full potential by inspiring them to discover their passion. She enjoys supporting organizations to identify talent and develop people’s skills that will contribute to the sustained growth of the company. Laura promotes growth with passion as the key for success. In her spare time, she enjoys practicing Yoga and wine tasting. Laura consults in English and Spanish. |
Nikki Schlecker graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2012 from the Annenberg School of Communications. After graduation, she worked in Culture Marketing at Red Bull, where she produced events and campaigns related to music, art, and dance. In the summer of 2014, she joined WayUp (then called Campus Job) as the first employee and founding team member. WayUp is the largest marketplace for students to find jobs + internships, and currently, Nikki leads the Student Marketing division there. She lives in NYC, loves theater, and has a passion for traveling and exploring.
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James Liao is currently an Investment Associate at 37 Angels, James is a strong believer in the accelerating growth of female entrepreneurs and investors. James grew up in the Bay Area and studied Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and worked at Intel as a Hardware Design Engineer. He has founded two startups, consulted for over 60 startups in the past several years, and worked as an Investment Banker in Technology, Media and Telecommunications. He also works at Bowery Capital, an early-stage B2B SaaS Venture Capital firm, and leads the Graduate Mentor Program at the Founder Institute in NYC. Furthermore, he is an advisor for Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, Techstars, and in Deal Operations at Exitround in San Francisco. He has done research in carbon nanotube transistors and printed batteries, and is interested in Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, Fintech, Marketplaces, and IoT. James has a B.S. from University of California Berkeley and is about to graduate from Columbia Business School.
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Saturday Judges
Lena Beck Roervig is the Founder & CEO of Beck Global Consulting and Bragging For Women and specializes in Leadership & Team Transformation including Executive Coaching. Lena Beck Roervig specializes in Executive Coaching and Leadership- and High Performance Board Consulting. She is the CEO & founder of Beck Global Consulting LLC and the founder of Bragging for Women. She is a great facilitator and moderator.
Lena has been characterized by others as an energizing and engaging consultant and business leader, equally successful in building collaborative partnerships with senior corporate executives, Boards of Directors, and investors as well as front-line operating teams worldwide. She is a unique combination of visionary, operating executive, turnaround specialist, strategist and company advocate. She understands how to make leaders and managers perform, get clarity and achieve outstanding results. Lena holds a Master of Science in Economics from Copenhagen Business School and has completed additional executive management education at INSEAD in France and Singapore, and Henley Business School in the UK. She has lived in Copenhagen, London, Cannes, and now runs her consulting business from New York City. She serves as an active member on several Boards, She is the Chairman of the Vibeke Roervig’s Ballet Foundation and the American Friends of the Danish National Gallery. She is co-chair of the Distinguished Leadership Committee at Columbia Business School Alumni Club New York. Further she is a member of the Global Advisory Network at the organization World Pulse |
Heather Zhuang is part of the Ventures at Two Sigma Investments team.
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Kira Fisher is an ex-Third Culture Kid, cat lover, and full-time snacker who now lives in New York City. By day, she works in digital advertising and is currently Twitter's Brand Content Editor for their newest ad product, Promoted Moments. Previously, she worked in brand strategy for Studio@Gawker, Gawker Media's in-house branded content studio, sales account management at Tumblr, and educational clip licensing at BBC Worldwide. She went to Vassar College for undergrad and majored in Political Science with a focus in Healthcare Policy and Urban Studies, both of which she fondly remembers as she ideates branded content proposals for National Dog Day.
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Cynthia Hellen is a globally recognized, Peruvian-American, entrepreneur, producer-director and technologist.
Hellen is the Founder and CEO of SMPLCT Lab, a global design firm that takes a human-centered, designed-based approach to help create sustainable products, services and experiences. She is a Technology Trainer at TechCamp Global, a program under the U.S. State Department’s Civil Society (CS) 2.0 initiative that connects civil society organizations (CSOs) across the globe with new and emerging technology resources to solve real world challenges and build digital capacity. Hellen serves as Chapter Leader of New York Women Social Entrepreneurs (NYWSE), a nonprofit promoting young women social entrepreneurs. |
Kathryn Peters is a co-founder of Democracy Works, an organization that brings the awesomeness of the Internet to the process of voting. Her belief in better democracy has taken her from campaign organizing in rural Missouri to a Master's in Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government to political rights monitoring with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. Kathryn’s previous experience in civic and government technology includes work for the United Nations Department of Safety and Security and the National Democratic Institute. She has been honored as one of Forbes magazine's "30 Under 30" in the field of law and policy, and as a “Champion of Democracy” by the National Priorities Project.
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