Clean Tech Women Innovation Fund is a grant from Clean Tech Women that funds women-led startups in the United States focused on clean technology and sustainability, providing equity-free capital to support growth and scale. The program targets overlooked founders working on impactful climate and clean tech ventures, connecting grantees with a network of leading venture capital investors. Grant awards range from $75,000 to $200,000.

Eligible applicants are women-led startups based in the U.S. focused on clean tech and sustainability, with applications reviewed by an investor jury.

Women Startup Challenge Tech Startup Grant | Women Who Tech McKeever “Mac” Conwell II Managing Director, RareBreed VC VP & Co-Director, EchoVC Partners Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Realist Ventures CEO, 5GCatalyst Technologies Managing Partner, pHpartners General Partner, Passbook Ventures Applications for Women Who Tech's Startup Grants Program were open to overlooked startups globally from November 28, 2022 - December 22, 2022.

We awarded $20K in equity free grants. This Grants Program shared startups with leading VCs from HearstLab, W Fund, RareBreed VC, Portfolia, Goodyear Ventures, and more. How it worked?

Eligible startups must have completed the Grants Application by December 22, 2022 at 11:59pm PDT. Our investor jury reviewed applications, and selected the top 5 startups to participate in our 6-week virtual program. We worked with each of the 5 finalists to hone their fundraising pitch, and we provide them with investor introductions.

At the conclusion of the program, the startups pitched to a panel of investors, and $20,000 in equity-free grants was awarded.

Women Startup Challenge FemTech + HealthTech Grant Women Startup Challenge Emerging Tech Grants Program Women Startup Challenge COVID-19 Tech Grant Women Startup Challenge 2020 Tech Grant Curio is a psychedelics care delivery infrastructure startup promoting evidence-based care with clinical and technology services.

Its co-founders are Dr. Hillary Lin (CEO, Stanford-trained MD), Felix Li (COO, health/insuretech operator), and Matteo Palvarini (CTO, former LinkedIn engineering, mindfulness leader). Finclude develops a unique pan-European credit scoring system that allows businesses to assess consumers in a universal way based on their transactional behavior, regardless if they have a credit history or not.

Future Acres builds advanced mobility solutions for farms, starting with Carry, an autonomous harvest companion that increases production efficiency by 30-40%, improves farm worker safety, provides real-time data & analytics, and reduces food loss. Muuse is a track & trace reuse platform that reduces single-use takeaway packaging waste.

We aim to be the leading, customer-facing and backend operational app supporting reusable packaging for manufacturers, retailers, corporations, and other reuse centered initiatives. SYRENNA collects, processes and visualizes data from our WaterDrones, providing underwater intelligence to the world. We open the ocean space to everyone, enabling real time science-based decisions.

McKeever “Mac” Conwell II Managing Director, RareBreed VC McKeever “Mac” Conwell II is a software engineer by trade and was a former DOD contractor with a top-secret clearance. He was a two-time founder with an exit and a failure. Next Mac moved on to the venture capital world via the Maryland Technology Development Corporation as part of their Seed Investment Team.

During his four years there, Mac amassed experience leading an initiative to create the Minority Business Pre-seed Fund , the first and only, at the time, state-backed pre-seed fund for women and minorities in the country. The program institutionalized the friends and family round for black-, women-, and minority-led startups and was subsequently funded long-term by the state of Maryland.

In September 2020, Mac founded RareBreed VC , a pre-seed fund that invests in exceptional founders outside of large tech ecosystems. For over 30 years, Robert Garber has invested in, advised and led early-stage healthcare and technology companies, co-managing three venture funds and holding leadership positions with three high-growth companies.

Robert is currently a Partner at 7Wire Ventures, a preeminent venture capital firm that invests in early-stage digital health companies supporting an “Informed Connected Health Consumer” - the epicenter of a consumer-first, tech-enabled convergence of the health and wellness markets.

Fund successes, such as Livongo Health, are due in large part to the team’s experience as both seasoned operators and investors with extensive industry experience. As highly selective investors, the firm works side-by-side with founders to build companies at scale that change the status quo and empower consumers to be better stewards of their health.

VP & Co-Director, EchoVC Partners Damilola Thompson is Vice President and Co-Director of EchoVC Partners and has over a decade of experience investing and supporting entrepreneurs improving quality of life and solving frictions in emerging markets. Dami has core competencies leading Venture Capital and Private Equity transactions and leads the corporate development arm at EchoVC as a director.

In her years of experience, she drove seed and early-stage financing transactions in startups across geographies and sectors – TMT sectors, Financial services sector, Healthcare sector, etc. Ms. Thompson is passionate about startups and venture financing and providing early-stage companies with much needed mentorship required for scaling.

She has graduate degrees from the University of Lagos, Nigeria and University of California, Berkeley. She has also completed various post-graduate courses including the Kauffman Fellows Academy course on Venture Capital.

She is a co-founder of Ventures Dialogue, a non-profit platform that connects entrepreneurs with investors alongside other resources to help them build sustainable businesses; the Sponsorship and Partnership Lead for Rising Tide Africa; and a part of the leadership team of the SingularityU Lagos Chapter. Kate Brodock is a Founding Partner of the W Fund and CEO of Women 2.

0, a global brand for gender equity and inclusion in the tech industry. Women 2. 0 has catalyzed over $91m in funding to women-led startups, provided programming for women at any stage in the industry, and engaged with numerous firms and companies to promote internal diversity and inclusion.

Kate is a regular speaker, appearing on stages at SXSW, 15 Seconds, Collision Conference, Fast Company's Innovation Uncensored, and Techstars. She has been featured in the Washington Post, TechCrunch, Al Jazeera, and MSNBC, and she's a contributor for Forbes. com.

Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Realist Ventures Marie Rocha has 20-plus years of experience in business and technology as a software engineer and serial entrepreneur. She is the founder of Realist Ventures, an ACT-based venture fund investing in early-stage SaaS, cloud, mobile and biotech startups with diverse teams solving scalable problems.

Before her foray into venture capitalism, she founded and managed IMAK Software, a startup building software and platforms for small businesses and nonprofits. Marie is a champion of women entrepreneurs and one of HAYVN Hatch/Launch’s founders, a quarterly women-centric incubator and pitch event to support women founders seeking funding, exposure, marketing and growth.

In 2020, she co-founded The 99 Problems Super PAC for GenZ and millennials’ civic engagement. She has served on several startups and nonprofit boards (Greenwich Academy, Shipsi, HAYVN, Vest, StamfordNext, James Vick Foundation, Rise2gether, Boys & Girls Club of Greenwich), supporting entrepreneurs and children.

CEO, 5GCatalyst Technologies Shannon , CEO at 5GCatalyst Technologies , and the IKIGAI Group, has made her mark in the tech world building businesses [ORAMI/ MOXY, Lazada, PPTVThailand] and driving the ecosystem through tech investments [Currently Advisor at Gobi Partners Venture Capital, Shark Tank Thailand , and SuperAngels network in Thailand] in Southeast Asia.

She is no stranger to the business world and global conferences, often seen at notable tech, impact & sustainability, government events and interviews across the world, such as the United Nations, Davos, Techcrunch, Slush, Fortune, and CNN. She was also named Winner in UN Women’s National WEPs Award in the Leadership as part of her work in advancing the economic empowerment as well as increase opportunities and mentorship for women.

From banker to tech entrepreneur, Lehman Brothers to her current role at 5GCT, she strives to drive impact through technology at a global scale, starting with Thailand. 5GCT’s mission is empowering stakeholders: citizens, businesses and governments, in communities through co-creation and engagement, via blockchain with the over-arching goal of furthering economic strength and sustainability.

5GCT was recently showcased in Davos 2022 at the 25 + 5 Cities Program with UNGSII and is an official partner of UN Habitat in UN SDG Goal #11, Sustainable Cities and Communities. Mother of twins, she is a mover and a shaker, deeply connected in sectors of Government, Technology, Business, Media, UN SDGs, and Social Development for Equality and Education in Southeast Asia.

Managing Partner, pHpartners Ben has over 20 years of experience advising companies in the Healthcare and Life Sciences sectors. He has worked with leading pharma, MedTech and diagnostic companies on equity and debt financings, merger, and acquisition transactions. In addition, Ben has advised dozens of smaller life science companies on partnership and licensing agreements with leading global companies.

Prior to pHpartners, Ben held leadership roles as a senior Life Science investment banker for Ernst & Young, BofA Merrill Lynch, and Pacific Growth Equities in San Francisco. General Partner, Passbook Ventures Chinedu Enekwe is the general partner at Passbook Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in US immigrants building tools for the future of commerce for the next generation of internet users.

Prior to Passbook, he was a principal at the top quartile pre-seed & seed fund, Exponential Creativity Ventures and managed AffinitiVC, an investment syndicate & consulting firm deploying over $15M since 2017.

He co-founded the first immigrant accelerator, tiphub, in US in 2014 and has invested in startups for 9 years with 5 exits invested in leading companies like Lyft, Koji and Emerge with follow-on and co-investors of Greylock Partners, Andreesen Horowitz, Techstars, Capital G and Vulcan partners.

He is also an executive producer of weekly show, Tea Time, on Black Enterprise the #1 Black media publication, co-producer of Africa’s largest tech conference, AfricaNXT/SMW Lagos. Additionally, he also co-produces the Venture The World podcast and the Future of Money conference.

He’s a Moonshot Fellow of the Kravis Lab for Social Impact, founding member of the Forbes Impact Community and serves on the advisory board of Impact Entrepreneur Magazine.

In Chinedu’s previous professional experience, he led emerging market investment manager, Xcellon Capital, serving as investment director, raising and managing $25 Million of assets from institutional and high net worth investors, after holding positions in infrastructure advisory at the World Bank and OPIC, investment banking at Merrill Lynch and fund formation and corporate securities law at Weil Gotshal and Manges.

Principal Partner, WV Ventures Danielle D'Agostaro is the Principal Partner at WV Ventures, a $100M VC joint venture between Advocate Aurora Health, Foxconn, Johnson Controls, and Northwestern Mutual. Danielle is an experienced operator with a demonstrated history in early stage startup investments.

Managing Director, Horizon Technology Finance Sara has over 15 years of investment and credit experience, including fifteen years providing growth capital to technology companies. She is currently responsible for Horizon Technology Finance’s business development efforts in the Southwest and Midwest technology markets.

Previously, Sara was with CIBC where she advised its leadership on growth strategies, established its Innovation Banking Platform in Austin, and sourced credit opportunities in the South. Prior to that, Sara served as a managing director with Wells Fargo Technology Finance, where she led a team that provided financing solutions to sponsor-backed middle-market software companies.

Over her combined career, Sara has supported the growth of hundreds of technology companies by providing tailored debt capital. Sara is an angel investor, mentor, and active member of the startup community. She enjoys hiking, boxing, and really misses traveling.

Co-Founder and Managing Partner, MAGNET Venture Capital Igor Nishimura’s Ikigai is to democratize access to learning, creation and self-expression through entrepreneurship, innovation and technology, helping people to understand how business, investment and culture/essence work, interconnect and impact our lives, so that everyone can make better decisions and accomplish their life objectives/purposes.

Igor holds a Bachelor’s degree from EAESP-FGV with major in Corporate Finance & International Management, a CEMS MSc in International Management @ ESADE Barcelona and @ HEC Paris, an Executive Education @ Harvard Business School with focus in Private Equity and Venture Capital and an Executive Education @ Singularity University.

Currently, Igor is the Co-Founder & Managing Partner @ MAGNET Venture Capital (Proprietary Impact Investment Structure), Co-Founder & Board Member @ Kodo Interactive & Groove. Tech (EdTech), Co-Founder & Board Member @ Academy FW|10 (Venture Builder), Shareholder @ AUDEN Educação (EdTech) and Investor & Board Member @ CBKK (Socio-environmental Impact Investment with initial focus in the Amazon Rainforest).

In terms of Philanthropy, Mr. Nishimura was a Latin America Philanthropy Circle Member @ SYNERGOS and a Founding Member @ NEB (Nikkey Empreendedores do Brasil). He is currently a Board Member @ INSTITUTO BKK.

Co-Founder, Venture for Africa Now Co-Founder of Venture for Africa, an immersion program and talent community designed to enable experienced local and global non-engineering talent to transition into the African startup ecosystem, Tobi Lafinhan began his career with a pivot from Civil Engineering. He joined a tech startup in Lagos focused on building and scaling community-driven recycling programs.

This led Lafinhan to a four-year stint at MEST Africa, an international non-profit that recruits, trains and invests in aspiring African software entrepreneurs. At MEST, Lafinhan was brought on as hire #2 to support the launch of a new incubator, then went on to run operations for the Nigeria office, and eventually spearheaded recruitment across the organisation.

Lafinhan led and managed recruitment processes and funnels in 5 key African markets, recruiting founders across 11 companies eventually backed by $1. 1M in seed funding.

Lafinhan's most recent leap has been to pursue his passion for finding and recruiting talent by co-founding a startup called Venture for Africa where they're bridging talent gaps for Africa's high-growth tech startups through a fellowship program designed to immerse top global talent in the African startup ecosystem. Co-Founder and General Partner, Mech Ventures Bruce Hamilton is the Co-founder / General Partner of Mech Ventures.

He is passionate about using his entrepreneur experience, aesthetics, marketing, and creative background to develop brands and help them scale. Bruce previously served as the CEO of Wing Zero Apps (formerly known as Doly) and Chief Marketing Officer at House of Glue, an art e-commerce brand, which was acquired in 2020.

Bruce and his work has been featured in publications such as Forbes, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Complex, Black Enterprise, Fader, Buzzfeed, Vibe Magazine, The Verge, AfroTech, The Independent, Rolling Out Magazine, and more. Advanced Innovation, Philips Healthcare Gaurav works with Advanced Innovation at Philips Healthcare. He is interested in building intelligent systems (Human+AI) in medicine and healthcare.

He works on solving problems and challenges during design and development of intelligent HealthTech for patients, provides, and payers. Gaurav has a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from University of Pittsburgh, where his dissertation was on designing interactive methods for Natural Language Processing on Clinical records. He has served a reviewer for several Biomedical Informatics conferences and journals.

He is also the founder of the meditation club at Pitt and continues to teach workshops for university students. Venture Partner, Peak State Ventures Sarah is a former education startup founder with 16+ years of experience scaling innovative education programs/schools, coaching founding teams of EdTech Startups globally, and investing in future-of-learning/future-of-work companies (seed-Series C).

Previously, Sarah was a member of the startup operations teams within organizations dedicated to educational equity such as The KIPP Foundation, GreatSchools. org, and The Fulbright Teaching Fellowship. In 2006, she founded an education company in Shanghai, China and grew that business over four years, eventually exiting.

She has since leveraged my experiences in US and East Asian education markets to launch international preK-12 programs, coached Stanford MBA students, and helped grow a network of Montessori schools around the world. Today, Sarah invests in education/edtech and future-of-work companies with Peak State Ventures and advises early stage startups with EdVentures International Group.

She completed her Bachelors of Economics at Mills College and her Masters of International Education Policy at Harvard University and currently resides in Oakland, CA.

General Partner, Rebel Seed Capital Uche Aniche is a tech and business innovation leader, an Angel Investor and an emerging Africa focused Fund Manager with over two decades experience in business communication, process design, Startup & Innovation management, Product development and Community Leadership.

He's arguably the foremost advocate for Startup/Entrepreneurship Ecosystem development in Nigeria with special focus on the South-South/South-East through #StartupSouth has helped founders raise $Millions across Nigeria.

He is the CEO of Havilah & Hills Innovative Systems Limited, Convener of #StartupSouth—a Startup & Innovation Community/Project inspiring the next generation of high scale founders in Nigeria’s South-South/South-East regions. He is also a Director at SSE Angel Network, Communications Director at Imo Economic Summit Group, and General Partner at Rebel Seed Capital.

Jane van Dis, MD, is an Ob Hospitalist for OB Hospitalist Group and is Assistant Professor at the U of Rochester. She is Co-Founder of Equity Quotient a consultancy for equity analytics in healthcare and beyond. She co-founded OB Best Practice in partnership with OBGProject an online eBook for ObGyn.

She is Co-Founder of TIME'S UP Healthcare ; she co-admins the non-profit OB Mom Group – a group of 5300+ women ObGyns. She advises multiple health care startups, a health tech incubator in London, and is a Lead for the FemTech Fund II at Portfolia. Dr. van Dis is a national expert and speaker on equity in healthcare and she is a single mom to twins Brooklyn and Miles.

Follow her on Twitter : @janevandis. Cofounder of The 97Fund, CEO of Ortus Africa Capital Kenneth is the CEO/CIO at Ortus Africa Capital where he provides leadership and strategic oversight to harness investment into and finding capital for entrepreneurs and businesses to drive Africa’s growth. Kenneth oversees The 97Fund a venture investment vehicle managed by Ortus Africa Capital.

Prior to founding Ortus Africa Capital, Kenneth was a financial advisor and management consultant at Deloitte, initially in the UK and then in East Africa, based in Uganda where he advised on a number of assignments including the formation and fundraising for an agribusiness private equity fund domiciled in Uganda which achieved a $20m close.

Kenneth has co-founded and invested in companies including ventures in fintech/e-commerce, research and data analytics, transport & logistics, energy & infrastructure. Kenneth likes working with and supporting entrepreneurs and businesses to grow. He is also the Co-Founder of the Kampala Angel Investment Network (KAIN), a platform that prepares and matches early stage entrepreneurs to angel investors locally and globally.

Adriana Tortajada Narváez CEO and Managing Partner, 1200 VC Pioneer in the design and launch of public and private programs promoting the entrepreneurial and venture capital ecosystem across Mexico, US, Latin America and Europe, with the purpose of triggering the cross-border opportunity. Recognized as a leading woman in alternative assets and high impact entrepreneurship in LATAM region.

Since January 2022, Adriana is the CEO and Managing Partner of the Twelve Hundred VC ("1200 VC") Fund, an early-stage investment platform that invests in fund managers and founders shaping the future of humanity. Its focus is on seeking transformative technologies and regional value creation, which will accelerate a positive impact on the planet and society.

Adriana is a member of Class 16 of the Kauffman VC Fund Managers Program (Kauffman Fellows Program). KFP's mission is to develop the world's next generation of Venture Capital leaders. She completed his Bachelor's Degree in Finance at the University of Guadalajara (1999), and his Master's Degree in Public Administration at the Ortega y Gasset University Institute in Madrid, Spain (2002).

In 2009, he completed the "Open Innovation and Corporate Entrepreneurship" program at the University of California, Berkeley Hass School of Business.

In 2006, she was recognized as one of the 30 professional promises in her 30 years in Mexico, a classification by the EXPANSIÓN business magazine ("30 promises in their 30s") and in 2017 she received the "Successful Trajectory Award" from the AMEXCAP (Mexican Private Equity Association) and was recognized as "The Scholar of the Year" of the MOB Scholarships, an association of recognized excellence that contributes to the development of Mexico through the support of postgraduate higher education and the promotion of its graduates.

She has been a mentor, speaker, panelist and jury member on entrepreneurship, innovation, impact and investment initiatives in America, Europe and Asia, for almost two decades. Macarena Liu has worked with entrepreneurs in roles as mentor, angel investor, and board member for ten years. She led ChileGlobal Ventures’ Accelerator (named top accelerator in Chile in 2020) for four years, in which she managed two seed funds ($2.

5M USD), supported more than 45 early stage startups, and 4 exits. Prior experience is in MELI’s fintech Mercado Pago. Currently, Macarena is Partner at Driven VC and actively fundraising for Driven I, a $20M USD fund with focus in LatAm.

Senior Associate, Flare Capital Partners Margaret Malone is a Senior Associate at Flare Capital Partners. In this role, she is responsible for sourcing new deals, performing diligence and executing on investments. She is active with the portfolio, providing strategic project support to companies including Cayaba Care, higi and Eden Health.

Prior to joining Flare Capital, Margaret partnered with investors and board leadership to build executive teams and create foundational human capital strategy for early stage healthcare technology and services companies. Margaret also brings experience in healthcare-focused venture capital through her prior roles at 7Wire Ventures and B Capital Group.

Margaret began her career as a clinical transformation consultant with Huron Consulting Group’s healthcare practice. While at Huron, she helped some of the nation’s leading academic medical centers adapt to changes in the industry through performance improvement initiatives resulting in greater interdisciplinary collaboration, higher quality of patient care, and improved reimbursement.

Margaret obtained her BA from Vanderbilt University with a major in Medicine, Health and Society. She earned her MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with concentrations in Finance, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management. At the University of Chicago, she received the Madelon L.

& Richard N. Rosett Merit Scholarship and the Hyde Park Angels Venture Capital Award. While completing her MBA, she was a Flare Capital Scholar.

Managing Partner, Octerra Capital Ashim Egunjobi is the Managing Partner at Octerra Capital, an early-stage sector agnostic VC fund investing in tech and tech enabled startups across Africa.

At Octerra Capital, she is responsible for driving the Fund’s ambitions, investments, and day-to-day operations and is especially inspired by audacious, bold, and most importantly impactful ideas that will drive Africa’s growth for a sustainable future.

Ashim has over 15 years of experience across banking, private equity and tech, having helped scale multinational companies in Africa, Germany, Middle East, and Asia, giving her a global perspective as well as local insight into the opportunities in today’s quickly changing and highly disruptive landscape.

She is also a strong advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion and has championed building a more diverse workforce at Tek Experts as well as Standard Chartered Bank, where she acted as Country Champion for the Diversity and Inclusion committee.

Ashim also led the launch and establishment of Tek Experts Women’s Network in Nigeria and partnered Microsoft to launch the LEAP Apprentice program, the first African all-women’s cohort of Software Engineers. As a member of Rising Tide Africa, an all-female Angel investment network, she leads the mentoring and investment readiness programmes for the Network.

Ashim is an entrepreneur at heart, being one of the founding members the award-winning brand, Always Me by Anne Li, a manufacturer of African inspired baby and children’s accessories and clothing, as well as co-founding the Bake for Change (BFC) Development Foundation, a non-governmental and not-for-profit organization that is dedicated to raising awareness about the plight of disadvantaged children and youths in Lagos, Nigeria.

Principal, Goodyear Ventures Based in Silicon Valley, Bin Zhou serves as a Principal with Goodyear Ventures, responsible for investments in autonomous driving, electric vehicles, connected vehicles and more. Before joining Goodyear, Bin served as an investment partner with TCL Ventures where he led the $100 mm fund for deep tech investments in the U.S. and Asia.

Bin has made 20+ deals, with notable exits including Innoviz (Nasdaq: INVZ) and Cambricon Technologies (SHA: 688256). Andreas is a Partner at Kompas VC, responsible for investments in eastern and southern Europe, as well as the German speaking region. Before joining Kompas VC, he was the Managing Director of an Energy- and Smart-City venture fund in Austria, and the Investment Director for Europe and Israel at the Volvo Cars Tech Fund.

Throughout his career, Andreas has shown his commitment to making the world a better place by supporting innovation that works to reduce the impact our modern lifestyle has on the environment. He is particularly interested in limiting the carbon impact of the built environment and helping people live longer, healthier, and happier lives in their homes.

Vice President, DRI Capital Rebecca is a Vice President at DRI Capital, a leading life sciences investment firm based in Toronto, where she focuses on sourcing and supporting investments in pharmaceutical royalties. Prior to DRI Capital, Rebecca worked for several biotechnology companies in business development roles and at BMO Capital Markets in biotechnology equity research. She graduated with a B.

Sc. in Pharmacology and Toxicology from Western University and an MBA from The Richard Ivey School of Business.

Managing Partner, WITAMAX Hiba has 7 years of experience, including two years in investment banking at Natixis ‘NYC Branch’ where she handles LBO transactions with American Private Equity funds; and 5 years in a strategy consulting firm; first in Paris with Cabinet Stanwell where she mainly contributes to transformation and innovation within CAC 40 companies; but also in Casablanca where she heads the Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital BU of the Southbridge firm.

Over the past three years, Hiba has been heavily involved in topics related to startup ecosystems with the public sector;and she also co-founded an investment companyto accelerate 7 supported and handpicked startups. Hiba graduated from HEC Paris class of 2015 and majored in Entrepreneurship in partnership with Telecom Paristech, Ecole 42 and Station F.

Founder and Managing General Partner, REFASHIOND Ventures Brian Aoaeh is a Founder and Managing General Partner of REFASHIOND Ventures , an emerging venture capital fund manager that invests in early-stage supply chain technology.

He is also a Founder of The Worldwide Supply Chain Federation and The New York Supply Chain Meetup, and is an Adjunct Professor of Supply Chain & Operations Management at the Tandon School of Engineering at New York University. He holds a BA in Mathematics and Physics from Connecticut College, an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University, and he is a charter holding member of CFA Institute.

Healthcare and Femtech Investor Vanessa Villaverde is an award-winning innovator, activist, mother, and strategic advisor for startup organizations. Known throughout healthcare policy circles, she leveraged her expertise outside of government to structure private public partnerships that created better access, more affordable, and more informed healthcare solutions for vulnerable populations.

She is now an angel investor and a Board Advisor to Georgetown University Graduate School of Nursing & Health Systems. As a first generation Mexican-American immigrant, raised in Dallas Texas, she set out to utilized every professional position across her career to both innovate through collaborations, and extend pathways for others.

In her current role as Head of Risk Transfer Strategy at Caresyntax, she was instrumental in building a women’s initiative to support female staff globally and offer curriculum aimed at continued mentorship, skill building, and personal support where needed as many juggled personal and professional responsibilities during school closures. Her personal work has always centered on mentorship of youth in communities of color.

As a federal employee she developed the CMS mentorship program for first generation college students in Dallas. She’s a Court Appointed Special Advocate for foster care youth and continues to visit Texas annually for career fairs to discuss broad healthcare careers available to low income youth, including informatics, life science product development and more.

Vanessa graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought from Amherst College. In addition, she earned Master’s Degrees from the University of Texas at Dallas and Georgetown University School of Nursing. She is a mother of three boys and stays active in their music and muay thai boxing activities in the New England area.

Partner, J. P. Morgan Technology Ventures Stephanie is a Partner at J.

P. Morgan Technology Ventures. Having started her career in Venture Capital in Israel in 2011 and relocating to the US in 2018, Stephanie has led venture teams for both strategic and institutional funds such as Porsche Ventures and NFX.

She joined the J. P. Morgan Technology Ventures team several months ago to round out the team on the West Coast.

Stephanie has her undergraduate degree in Counter-Terrorism and Security from Reichman University in Israel and a Master's from King’s College London in Terrorism, Security and Society.

Science Program Officer, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Jonah Cool is a cell biologist and geneticist by training, and is currently a Science Program Officer at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, where he leads the organization's efforts to support the international Human Cell Atlas consortium.

He was an American Heart Association fellow while completing his PhD at Duke Medical Center, with a focus on the role of vascularization during cell differentiation and organ morphogenesis, and was subsequently a Ruth Kirchstein Fellow at the Salk Institute studying nuclear organization during stem cell differentiation.

Dr. Cool previously worked in intellectual property litigation, as well as ran an industry research group working toward therapeutic application of 3D bioprinted human tissue. He has a deep love of cell biology and, in particular, the origins of cellular heterogeneity and how diverse cells assemble into complex tissues.

Founder of Fashion Launchpad, former CEO of Diane Von Furstenberg Sandra Campos is a CEO, entrepreneur, and operating partner within the retail and consumer products sector. She has been building consumer-led global fashion lifestyle brands for more than twenty years. She is the founder of Fashion Launchpad, the only digital masterclass edtech platform specifically for the fashion industry.

Sandra advises startup or small businesses specializing in tech, fashion/beauty, and consumer products such as Katie Kime-home and sleepwear brand, Bubble-clean beauty startup for GenZ, Saavitude-fashion tech startup helping brands through AI, Project Verte-digital platform for ecommerce, and Purple Dot-providing consumers with a smarter way to shop online. In addition, she’s an investor, mentor, and board member.

As the former CEO of Diane Von Furstenberg, Sandra is known as an innovator and evolved a traditional business into one focused on global digital acceleration and the implementation of Omni channel strategies to enhance the consumer experience. Under her leadership, the business turnaround was under way with profitable KPI improvements within each channel, created a