Alechia Reese is equal parts warm tea and Hennessy. The chief brand strategist of 360 Gateway Brands and strategic marketing director of Daya by Zendaya, she specializes in the development of brand identity & strategy. A media personality, certified professional speaker and ScrumMaster her 1st love is the stage. Her skilled & energetic speaking style has afforded her the opportunity to partner with and speak for a myriad of corporations & organizations from the entertainment stage to the corporate boardroom including Progressive, UPS, BET, Grey Goose, Vogue Italia, Verizon and more. Alechia co-founded The STEAM Up Initiative to cultivate the STEM learning experience for marginalized, inner-city youth and believes beyond empowerment it is necessary to properly equip all people to succeed.

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Alexandria Carroll is the founder and CEO of License to Drift, an early stage travel startup that matches consumers with vacation experiences aligned with their interests. Alex identified an opportunity in the travel sector while working as a Director of Planning in the fashion industry. In that role, she noticed trends in discretionary spending, including a growing consumer appetite for experiences over physical goods. That insight informed the development of License to Drift. Alex’s career spans tech, retail and finance, and she honed her business acumen at leading multinational companies such as Global Brands Group/Li & Fung, Perry Ellis International, and Goldman Sachs. Alex holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Stanford University and an MBA with Honors from Wharton. Ask Alex about her 7th grade homestay in Australia, which fostered her love of travel and her hate of Vegemite.

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Alisia Granville is a nurse leader with 15+ years of experience in healthcare. Alisia has a great deal of knowledge in the temporary staffing space and has worked in various large institutions across the nation.Alisia enjoys sharing her expertise in numerous sectors of the healthcare industry and is a member of multiple nursing/healthcare organizations. Alisia is a graduate of The University of Alabama, Capstone College of Nursing and Loyola University New Orleans, Masters of Science in Nursing Leadership. Alisia has two handsome sons and a loving husband.

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Amal Afroz Alam received a Bachelor in Engineering at the City College of New York, and then went to Johns Hopkins University to study bioengineering innovation and design. He worked at several startups in undergrad, and co-founded a tech non-profit in graduate school. His skills are primarily technical, while grad school taught him business development and management skills.

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Andrea is a former Wall Street broker, PR maven and CEO/CoFounder of Lab141. As a successful professional, Andrea was angered by her life-long inability to buy luxury clothes to fit her perfect imperfections, and fuels her passion to solve the problem from a systemic level. As co-inventor with multiple patents pending for Lab141's advanced manufacturing process, her drive to change the way clothes are made has wide ranging impact for the fashion industry. She was born in Guyana, South America, raised in Toronto, Canada and is a Park Slope Brooklynite for over 20 years. Andrea epitomizes Lab141's mantra, #WearConfidence Follow her around the web #LifeLessonFromAFemaleCEO

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Originally from France, Aram Hekinian arrived in the USA in the mid nineties with an education in Physics Engineering. Over the next decade, Aram worked in Fashion, Internet, Finance, and Film and Television. In 2006, he co-founded Autonomous Astronauts Creative Corporation, a multi-media award winning production company helping clients like Elton John, Jun Group, and The Ministry of Education Guyana. Today, through the creation of audio/video content for an online educational, promotional, and connective platform, Aram sets off to build a bridge between western medicine and integrated medicine.

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Armando Somoza is a transmedia artist, technologist, social entrepreneur, and educator. He is committed to the creative application of immersive learning experiences, cultural entrepreneurship, and digital technologies as an agent of provocation and change. He holds an MFA in Emergent Digital Practice and a BA in Ethnic Studies. He is a career educator, artist, and technologist currently serving as a graduate level Adjunct Professor at NYU Steinhardt and CEO & Co-Founder of Rapport Studios, a creative education agency that builds interactive learning experiences out of any content. Rapport Studios specializes in leveraging emerging technologies, original media & art, and critical pedagogy to scale empathy and inspire.

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Ashley Rust is a Sales, Marketing, Personal branding, & Online Reputation Management Consultant for individuals, startups, and small businesses. She is also the Board Chair, Marketing & Events at Ellevate Network. She has previously worked at Influence & Co., where she was Director, Sales and Marketing. She has also worked as Account Executive, Private Capital Markets at Axial. She is an expert in sales and marketing. She holds a Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Agricultural Economics degree from University of Missouri-Columbia. She is 2015 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in the New York Chapter.

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Caroline Strzalka is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at It's By U, the do-it-yourself (DIY) flower kit company. Caroline is a media executive, having build the digital businesses for companies like Sesame Street and Scholastic Media. She has extensive experience with video, audio and interactive content, having executed deals with the likes of Netflix, Hulu, Google, Microsoft, Leapfrog and others. She was instrumental in bringing Sesame Street's XBOX Kinect 360 to life, working with IDEO to create Sesame's very first apps, working with Qualcomm to create AR experiences for kids, and also bringing "The Magic School Bus Rides Again" original series to Netflix. Caroline is a former investment banker and a member of The Council on Foreign Relations. She has her MBA in Marketing and Entrepreneurial Management from Wharton and her BA in Economics and International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania. .

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Cheo believes ideas can change the world. When he grew up, he wanted to be an entrepreneur/writer whose work involves collaborating with an AI-based robot artist.

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Chris Wu is the technical co-founder and COO of LoanStreet Inc. He has been an engineer building medical and pharmaceutical software as well as an EdTech startup teacher preparing students for the GMAT. Chris enjoys BJJ, Bronze age history, and rum. He received a BSE in Computer Science at Princeton University and a Business Certificate from Columbia University. He is married with a 2 year old son.

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Claire Burke is the Co-Founder of GOBY, an electric toothbrush company that is seeking to make oral care an enjoyable part of a healthier lifestyle. Claire has also worked as Editorial Director at the Female Founders Fund, theSkimm, Hearst and Lincoln International. She is an expert in Business Development,Marketing Strategy, and Accounting. She holds an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School. She is 2015 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in DC Chapter.

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Deepthi Welaratna is the founder & CEO of Thicket, a quiz-based learning and discovery platform. For 15 years she's helped build and launch products, movements, and ventures at the intersection of media, community, and technology. She built her entrepreneurial muscle working at startups backed by Google Ventures and acquired by WPP, helping one startup become the market leader in their space and leading another through a full pivot in business model. Deepthi has consulted for global brands and organizations including Google, Godiva, and the Rockefeller Foundation. Her award-winning health and education campaigns have engaged communities to reshape public policies around the world. Deepthi began her career in broadcast journalism at KQED public media in the SF Bay Area where she worked in public radio and online news.

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Elina is the founder of Garni, a modern and accessible hosiery brand delivering simply quality tights at an affordable price point. Prior to Garni, she spent almost a decade working in the financial industry working across Treasury, Finance, Capital Markets and Operations. She spearheaded a number of initiatives among those a big data overhaul, information systems transition and development. She has now combined her love of retail and technology into building and growing Garni. Elina earned her MBA from Columbia Business School in May 2017.

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