Divya Gugnani started her business career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and then moved on to private equity and venture capital at Investcorp International and FirstMark Capital. Currently she serves as the CEO of Send the Trend, which offers curated fashion accessories for women online. She also serves as CEO of Behind the Burner, a culinary media brand focused on tips, tricks and techniques for food, wine, mixology and nutrition. Gugnani currently advises several startups and established brands with board level roles. Most recently, she has co-founded Wander Beauty. She holds a B.S. from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School as well as a degree from the French Culinary Institute.
Jenn Vargas is Founder of Accompl.sh, a social application for achieving your goals. Vargas has been designing and developing websites since she was 14 years old and has worked as a Product Manager at Yahoo, Flickr, and Etsy. Jenn Vargas graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. in Information Science.
Sharon Dauk is a Managing Director of Dauk/Wagner Investments, LLC a private investment company she founded with her husband and partner in 1994. Dauk/Wagner Investments invests in and provides financial and strategic advice to early stage companies in a variety of industries. Of their portfolio companies, Sharon is on the Board of Dotmenu, Inc., holding company of Campusfood.com and Allmenus.com. Additionally, she works as an Executive Coach. Prior to forming Dauk/Wagner Investments, Sharon spent six years on Wall Street first at Smith Barney in their Mergers and Acquisition department and then at Morgan Stanley in their Corporate Finance Group with specific focus on large real estate transactions. Prior to that and after graduating from USC\'s Undergraduate Entrepreneurship program, Sharon started and managed a seminar workshop business in partnership with USC\'s business school. In 1987, Sharon became the first recipient of the Student Agencies Fellowship, which was jointly sponsored by the Johnson School and Student Agencies, a student-run organization whose mission is to provide real-world experience to Cornell students through starting and managing small businesses. During her Fellowship and while earning her MBA, Sharon founded and managed a small Venture Fund directed at student-run businesses; acted as \"Mentor in Chief\" to the student managers; and managed the re-development of 409 College Avenue, a mixed-use property owned by the organization. Sharon remains on the Board of Student Agencies and was Chair from 1995 through 2006. Sharon Dauk earned her undergraduate degree at University of Southern California and her MBA at Cornell University.
Lauren Kay is the founder of online dating company, Dating Ring. Lauren Kay is a graduate of Brown University.
Caroline Starner is Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Oakley, Inc., a $1.2 billion company with more than 5,000 employees worldwide. As a valued member of Oakley’s executive team, Caroline provides strategic HR leadership to attract, retain, and develop the best team of people on the planet for a company that has earned global renown. Oakley creates innovations that serve sport performance, active and lifestyle customers in more than 100 countries. Caroline joined the Oakley management team in 2009 to strengthen partnerships between the company’s global HR team and its business units, and maximize operational and organizational effectiveness. Her previous experience includes serving as Vice President of Human Resources for Pacific Sunwear of Ca. Inc., where she provided HR solutions for close to 19,000 employees. Her experience and expertise in process reengineering, strategic staffing and management transition goes back decades, including service as Vice President of Human Resources for a $4.5 billion division of Gap, Inc., an organization with more than 45,000 employees. Caroline has held senior human resources positions with global accountability within leading companies that include DuPont, Pepsi Co. and Johnson & Johnson, utilizing skills that range from team leadership to executive coaching and beyond. A native of New Jersey, Caroline has a Bachelor of Science in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University.
Ms. Matrice Ellis-Kirk has been Managing Director of RSR Partners since January 2014 and serves as its Head of Dallas Office. Matrice Ellis-Kirk earned her BA from University of Pennsylvania.
<p>Carol Rattray is Managing Director and Co- Founder of Zoomdojo.</p> <p>Since the mid 1990\'s, she has been investing, and advising primarily start-ups, in China and in the US, and was previously Vice President in the Capital Markets Group at Bankers Trust Company.</p> <p>n philanthropy, Carol is President and Co- Founder of the Rattray Kimura Foundation. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Bates College, The Asian Cultural Council, and the Re Foundation and a former member of the Board of The Nature Conservancy, New York State Chapter, The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and The Friends of the Museum of the Chinese University in Hong Kong. Carol is also co-chair of The Asia Foundation\'s Women\'s Empowerment Program\'s Lotus Circle Advisors and serves as a member of the Cornell University Council and The Arts and Sciences Advisory Council.</p> <p>Carol Rattray holds an MBA and MA in International Affairs from Columbia University and earned an undergraduate degree from Cornell University.</p>
Ritu Banga is a cofounder of Zoomdojo, a New York City–based college to career readiness startup. The company works with educational institutions, NGOs, and student organizations around the world. Banga is a trustee of the Marymount School of New York. She is a graduate of Delhi University and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
M. Christine DeVita is President of The Wallace Foundation, a private charitable foundation created by Lila and DeWitt Wallace, the founders of Reader's Digest, as a legacy of their own philanthropic lives.
DeVita joined the foundation in November 1987. Since then, she has led the foundation as it has shifted away from project-focused grantmaking and toward more integrated strategies that combine program, evaluation and communications expertise to deliver social benefits beyond the recipients of the foundation's direct grants.
DeVita earned her B.A. magna cum laude from Queens College of the City University of New York and her J.D. cum laude from Fordham University School of Law.