Dr. Chitra Dorai is a globally renowned AI Scientist and the Founder & CEO of Amicus Brain Innovations focused on bringing the power of AI to tackle some of the important societal problems in healthcare and financial services. She is known as a “Force for Good” and coined the term “ARTful AI”, to advance artificial intelligence (AI) research and practice with Accountability, Responsibility and Transparency for the benefit of humanity.

Dr. Dorai was an IBM Fellow (first woman of Indian origin to receive this recognition in the globe). She received IBM’s highest honor – the Gerstner Award for Client Excellence; was recognized as an IBM Distinguished Engineer and was appointed by the IBM CEO as an IBM Fellow. Her ground-breaking work on customer focused analytics and AI solutions in mortgage servicing saved thousands of struggling homeowners. She was profiled as a “Societal Innovator” in the IBM HQ and she received “The Visionary” award from the National Association of Women in Real Estate Business.

She is the co-inventor of 48 patents and has been recognized as a Master Inventor thrice at IBM. She has presented keynote addresses and technical talks at academic research conferences, industry symposia and panels. She is frequently interviewed or cited in press, news and blogs, and YouTube video on a wide variety of topics from AI, Machine Learning, Blockchain, Big Data and Analytics to human technology balance.

Following a highly decorated career at IBM, Dr. Dorai is currently focused on her entrepreneurial ventures and her continued passion to make AI accessible to everyone.

Dr. Usha Jagannathan is a seasoned technologist and an AI innovation leader with 20+ years of experience driving digital transformation and building customer-centric products. She excels in leading enterprise AI applications, implementing AI ethics frameworks, and driving data strategy aligned with business objectives. Usha’s thought leadership is evident through technical talks and published articles on AI ethics, sustainability, and climate change. Recognized for her subject matter expertise, she received the AI Ethics SME recognition from McKinsey Partners, WomenTech’s Global AI Inclusion award and was named among the top 100 women in AI to watch by Re-work.

Pamela has been in the technology industry for several decades, and currently leads a team of professionals focused on enabling partners to represent and drive profitability for their business with Cisco. This entails an understanding of the business of partners, consultants and other OEM’s to help navigate a path to profitability for the partner with Cisco at the lead.

Prior to this role, Pamela was a Client Executive at Cisco for 12 years supporting a Fortune 50 Insurance firm globally. Pamela grew the business relevance for Cisco and expanded the portfolio presence of solutions to solve business issues for the Insurer, making the case to displace incumbents and expand the Cisco footprint.

Prior to Cisco Pamela successfully led Sales and Marketing teams for Avaya, Lucent Technologies and AT&T.

Pamela graduated from Pace University with a Marketing degree, and has since augmented her education with certificates from Warton School of Business, NYU and the School of Practical Philosophy. Pamela lives in Larchmont NY with her husband Tom, 2 daughters Sophia and Grace and Vito, a Golden Retrievers.

Maria Coler is the founder of HCI, a 100% women-owned environmental consulting firm specializing in the remediation of brownfield sites.

Ms. Coler is a Licensed Site Remediation Professional (LSRP) with the State of New Jersey and an alumna of the Goldman Sachs 10K Small Businesses program and the NYC Economic Development Corporation’s Offshore Wind Pathways Program. As chair of the Brownfield Coalition of the Northeast Scholarship Committee, she founded the Brownfields, Books, and Brew club, dedicated to exploring the lessons of the iconic environment sagas. As technical advisor to the Waterfront Alliance, she advocates for the elevation of brownfields in the Waterfront Edge Design Guidelines. She is currently designing a Brownfields Certificate Program with the New Jersey Institute of Technology and will teach a course on brownfields there in Spring 2024.

Ms. Coler has overseen the remediation of hundreds of sites, including work on the largest redevelopment in U.S. history–Hudson Yards in Manhattan.

Ms. Coler seeks to nudge the industry into the 21st century. She has developed a comprehensive suite of proprietary software to manage her firm’s operations and data, retain institutional knowledge, and generate cost-risk models. Her blue-sky goal is to facilitate the crowdsourcing of the remediation of the planet by harnessing the power of big data, streamlining work-flow processes, and designing standardized methodologies. Ms. Coler unveiled her proprietary tools Brownfields 2019, the the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfields Training Conference in 2019 and 2023.

Finally, Ms. Coler enjoys paying it forward by routinely hosting science and engineering student interns with the aim of advancing women in STEM

Dr. Amit Elazari is a Cybersecurity and Technology Policy and Regulation Expert, Author, and Keynote Speaker. She is the Co-Founder and CEO of OpenPolicy, the world’s first tech-enabled policy and advocacy company, aiming to democratize access to future policy, regulations, advocacy and lobbying to entities of all sizes by leveraging scale and technology. Prior to OpenPolicy, Dr. Elazari served as the Head of Cybersecurity Policy for Intel Corporation. Elazari keynoted, moderated panels and spoke at leading venues such as RSAC, Black Hat, DEFCON, CES, SXSW, Cyberweek Tel-Aviv and more. She holds a Doctoral Degree in the Law (J.S.D) from Berkeley Law, the world’s leading technology law institution, and she teaches at the University of California, Berkeley and Reichman University. Her research appeared in leading academic journals and popular press (including Vice, the Wall Street Journal and New-York Times) and was awarded and cited by policymakers, globally. She co-founded Disclose.io, a non-profit that fosters adoptions of legal protections for good-faith security research and is considered a leading expert on anti-hacking laws and security research policy issues.

Kye Mitchell is a COO, Advisor, and Board Member with deep expertise in technology, professional services, and human capital solutions. Over the past 30 years, she has worked with mature organizations and startups and developed a reputation for driving consistent revenue growth. She does this through scaling businesses, leading turnarounds and transformations, architecting strategies to capitalize on digital disruption, and successfully integrating acquisitions.

Kye is a highly sought-after Consultant and Advisor, providing guidance to startups, established companies, and federal governments, utilizing her experience across:
• Revenue Growth
• Digital Transformation
• Big Data and AI Solutions
• Talent Management
• M&A and Integrations

Kye co-founded and launched VistaRMS, a private IT consulting firm, where she rapidly grew the business to 700+ employees and was identified by Inc Magazine as the #2 Fastest Growing Private Firm. In 2004, Kye played a leading role in the strategic acquisition by Kforce, including leading the company valuation and negotiations, before transitioning to Kforce as VP and working into the Chief Operations Officer role of $1.6B organization.

Nicole Calandra brings nearly a decade of experience in the global human capital sector. She’s currently an investor at Lumos Capital Growth, a growth-stage investment firm focused on tech-enabled education & human capital development. Prior to Lumos, Nicole was a Strategic Financial Senior Analyst at LinkedIn, where she drove performance management and long-term planning for LinkedIn’s Marketing Solutions business.

Nicole was a Strategy & Operations Business Analyst at Deloitte Consulting and Finance Teacher at iXperience, an experiential education startup based in Cape Town, South Africa.

For the past two years, Nicole served as a volunteer Executive Director of Brighter Children, a global venture philanthropy that raised over $1 million to fund the education of over 2,500 children across three continents. She remains actively involved with Brighter Children through her role on the Board Nominations Committee. Nicole also recently joined How Women Invests’ Disruption Committee to focus on making venture investing and funding more accessible to women.

Nicole holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Virginia McIntire School of Commerce, where she graduated with distinction.

Marina Piller has over two decades of experience in AI, ML, focusing on the intersection of technology and entrepreneurship. She’s currently involved in projects at Meta’s Reality Labs, working on the integration of Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing, and more recently Generative AI to influence consumer experiences in the Metaverse. Marina started out as a Software Engineer with a ML/NLP focus, then Senior Software Engineer, Tech Lead and later moved toward Technical Leadership roles across application development as well as the consulting side. She was an early employee and helped grow several startups including BuzzMetrics, iPhrase, eMeta. Marina co-founded Culturetown.

Mahima Kakani is an Equity Research Analyst at J.P. Morgan covering public equities in the Clean Tech and Metals & Mining sectors. Mahima graduated from New York University with degrees in Finance and Sustainable Business in 2021 and is a United Nations Millennium Fellow. In her free time, Mahima enjoys singing, reading, cooking, and spending time with friends and family.

Ram Nagappan is the Chief Information Officer for BNYMellon Pershing. With more than 30 years ofinformation technology experience, Ram oversees the firm’s technology and engineering of digital,experience-centric wealth management solutions.

Ram is a distinguished technologist as well as an accomplished innovator instrumental in buildingindustry-first solutions. He developed the first-ever market-making system outside of an exchangefloor for the US capital market system. Expert in building trading systems and ticker plants that aredesigned to handle massive market data streams, and electronic stock exchange systems (NY,Boston, Philadelphia) in the US. He is also part of the team that built the first online trading platform(PC Financial Network) – a significant market disruptor. Under Ram’s leadership, Pershing launchedaward-winning, open architecture-based wealth management products (NetX360®, NetXInvestor®and NetXServices) in the US.

Prior to assuming his current role, Ram served as managing director and chief technology officer atDLJdirect and CSFB direct, pioneers in online internet brokerage. During the late 90’s to 2000, he led the efforts to establish BNY Mellon India Technology (iNautix). Prior to that worked as a consultantfor IBM in building their OS/360, CICS, and MQ.

As a spokesperson on technology trends and issues, Ram has been featured in a number oftechnology and financial publications including InvestmentNews, ThinkAdvisor, and BloombergRadio. He is a regular keynote speaker and panelist at industry events and conferences. Additionally,Ram was recognized by ComputerWorld as a Premier 100 IT Leader and by the New JerseyTechnology Council as “CIO of the Year.” Most recently, Ram was the first technology leader toreceive the Bank Insurance & Securities Association’s (BISA) Circle of Excellence Award, their mostprestigious recognition.

TR Kannan heads Procurement Strategy and Operations at Chemours – a company driven to create a better world through the power of chemistry.

In his role, Kannan leads efforts to transform the Procurement organization and the enterprise Source-to-Pay process.

He and his team provide change management, knowledge management, people development, risk management, sustainability and lead implementation of digital and analytics solutions.

Kannan also in actively engagement in the community. He serves as the President of the local school board and coaches’ soccer.

Alexandra C. Scheibe is head of the Firm’s FinTech and Blockchain Practice. Alexandra is widely recognized in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry. Alexandra focuses her practice on representing cryptocurrency and blockchain companies, as well as financial institutions and fintech companies in all aspects of regulatory and transaction matters in the fintech, blockchain and derivatives and structured finance markets. Alexandra is a recognized leader in the field of blockchain and cryptocurrency and focuses on first-of-their-kind structures and products and has a team that works with her on all crypto and regulatory issues. Alexandra is recognized by Chambers for her innovative work in Fintech and leads the firm’s Women in Fintech initiative.

Alexandra regularly advises cryptocurrency and blockchain companies on emerging federal and state regulatory issues. Alexandra also advises companies in the emerging field of AI and its applications in Fintech. Alexandra’s practice also involves regulatory strategy and structuring and negotiating transactions involving blockchain and cryptocurrency companies and has focused on the use and implementation of blockchain technology in platforms for derivatives, structured finance and securitization. Alexandra advises a wide range of market participants across multiple industries, including early-stage and established companies developing blockchain solutions, investors, foundations, exchanges, broker-dealers, private equity firms, family offices, mining companies consulting firms, on securities laws, commodities laws, state and federal money transmitter licensing and registration, payments, custody, SEC and CFTC regulatory inquiries, as well as on state and international regulation.

Sally is a well-respected energy industry and workforce development professional within the state of NJ with a broad range of both Corporate and Higher Education Talent Management and Workforce Development experience. She is a recognized leader and passionate advocate for gender equity and women in STEM.

From 2017-2019, Sally led the nationally recognized Douglass Project for Women in STEM, now known as Douglass WISE, as they implemented and expanded multiple gender equity initiatives at the undergraduate level in the Engineering, Computer Science and Technology, Public Health, Pre-Med, and Scientific Research areas.

Prior to her retirement from PSEG in 2016, she had over 35 years’ experience in a diverse range of operational, technical, and managerial positions for the company. As the Manager of Workforce Development, Sally was responsible for overseeing a cross section of talent acquisition pipeline initiatives for PSEG including the college relations and diversity outreach functions, which included the company’s recruitment initiatives for women, people of color, veterans and individuals with disabilities. During her tenure, she led the design and implementation of many award winning, best practice and industry recognized outreach and recruiting programs, as well as multiple internal Diversity, Equity and Inclusion trainings and initiatives.

In 2013, Sally was appointed by the governor to serve on the NJ State Employment and Training Commission (SETC), on which she still serves today, and was named the chair of the NJ State Energy Sector Partnership Council, SESP, where she oversaw the allocation of grant funding for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Training Programs. Sally was also appointed to serve on the NJ Council on Gender Parity in Labor and Education, of which she served as chair through 2019.

Patrice Tanaka is a best-selling author, public speaker on business and life purpose, serial entrepreneur, and co-founder of three award-winning, PR & Marketing agencies and the consultancy, Joyful Planet, focused on building “purpose-driven” individuals and organizations. Life and organizational purpose are the subjects of Patrice’s best-selling books, Beat the Curve and Performance360.

She has been honored by PRWeek (Hall of Fame), PRSA Foundation (Paladin Award), PRSA (Paul M. Lund Award for Public Service), New York Women in Communications (Matrix Award), Girl Scouts of Greater New York (“GOLD Achievement” and “Women of Distinction” Awards), Asian Women in Business (Entrepreneurial Leadership Award), University of Hawaii (“Distinguished Alumni Award), among others.

Patrice has served as a trustee and volunteer for many organizations committed to youth development, girl- and women’s leadership development, economic empowerment, and gender equity. She is also a vocal advocate for the Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) community and for diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.

She has lived in New York City for most of her adult life but calls Hawaii “home” and is committed to living her life with the “Aloha Spirit.”

Nexaida Soto is an IT Helpdesk Manager at Metropolitan Commercial Bank where she oversees the Helpdesk Operations, serves as an escalation point for major technical issues and handles the ticketing system ensuring all request are fulfill in a timely manner, among many other tasks and responsibilities.

Nexaida holds a B.A. from Regina Apostolurum Institute (Madrid, Spain) and a M.A. from Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ. She holds additional IT certifications in Computer repair, Website design, CompTIA A+, iTil v4, among others.

Nexaida is a technically minded professional with a passion for helping others with their technical needs. Coming for an educational background, she fully transitioned to the IT field in 2014 where she escalated to a management position in a short period of time. The motto she lives by is “Always try the best you can to help others with a sense of urgency and keep smiling no matter what!”.

Hyea Won Lee is Digital Development Specialist at the World Bank where she is engaging in various operations and analytical work in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and the West Bank and Gaza (WB&G). She is co-leading the implementation of the Sierra Leone Digital Transformation Project, which aims at expanding access to digital infrastructure, enhancing digital skills, and improving the government capacity to deliver services digitally in Sierra Leone. Hyea Won recently led the Data Governance Assessment in the WB&G, one of the first country-level deep-dive on data governance based on the World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives.

Prior to joining the World Bank, Hyea Won was working at Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) where she participated in the global Internet governance and cybersecurity policy dialogues in multilateral organizations. While at KISA, she was seconded to Ministry of Science and ICT to support Korea’s engagement in Internet governance discussion.

Hyea Won holds Master’s in International Economics and Bachelor’s in Economics and International Affairs. She is a photography enthusiast.

Dixiana M. Berrios is an Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Metropolitan Commercial Bank where she oversees various operational, support and risk departments including Information Technology. Before joining the Company, Dixiana served as Executive Vice President and Director of Bank Operations at Amalgamated Bank, as well as Senior Vice President, Director of Bank Operations at Sterling National Bank.

Dixiana holds a B.A. from The University of Alabama and an M.A. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She holds additional executive certifications in Banking, Finance, Project Management and Payments. In her roles,

Dixiana has a proven track record of implementing new technology solutions that drive operational efficiency, reduce risk and support growth. She is currently in the midst of a major digital transformation project. When not driving change, Dixi as she is better known, is the proud mother of two very opinionated teenagers, enjoys reading science fiction with leading heroines, and travel with her family.

Julie Tracy is a Manager, Cybersecurity Advisory at Withum, where she is an active member of the Firm’s Multiemployer / Labor, Financial Services, and Technology teams. She brings 25 years of experience in cyber security and IT operations management, network administration and IT service delivery. Julie has a proven track record of protecting systems by defining access privileges, controlling structures and resources, upgrading systems and security controls, and developing and executing remediation plans to mitigate security risks. She is experienced with risk assessment, security frameworks, vulnerability management, security assessments, vendor management, patch management, security awareness training, and cyber threat intelligence.

Julie also has experience providing cyber advisory services including cybersecurity assessments, risk mitigation strategies, breach response, and threat actor reports. Previously, Julie was a Chief Information Security Officer for a $640M community bank, developing a strong information security program working within the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) framework. Her most notable success is in directing operations of safeguarding information system assets by identifying and solving both potential and actual security problems.

She is certified in Cybersecurity (CC), is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), a Certified Ethical Hacker and Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator v8.

Julie volunteers with Habitat for Humanity (currently in two locations) and Family Service Association as a board member. She is also a member of the advisory board of the Center for Cyber Defense Education at the University of North Carolina Wilmington where she also serves as a student mentor in cybersecurity courses.

Cortney Wall is one of the few female sports artists in the country. Her work has been commissioned by some of the top athletes and organizations in the sports world, including the New York Yankees, The Baltimore Orioles, the USTA Foundation, The Negro League Baseball Museum, The Players Alliance and many others.

​You’ll find her paintings in the collections of museums, corporations, executives,professional athletes and philanthropists. Her artwork has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for charities across the country.

​Cortney has appeared on numerous TV and radio programs. ​She is most proud of her partnership with Fanatics and a proud philanthropic partner with the Women’s Sports Museum of which she is also on the Board of Directors. Her work has helped raise money for The Joe Namath Charitable Foundation, The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, The Players Alliance, The Baltimore Orioles Foundation, Building Homes for Heroes, Bernie Williams and the All Star Band raising awareness for IPF, The Perfect 33 Foundation, The David Cone Foundation, The Git-R-Done Foundation, The Ferguson Jenkins Foundation, The Chris Canty Foundation, Morristown Memorial Hospital, and Hackensack University Medical Center where five of her murals are hanging to uplift the patients and all who pass through the halls.

Sameer Somal is the CEO of Blue Ocean Global Technology and co-founder of Girl Power Talk. He is a frequent speaker at conferences on digital transformation, online reputation management, diversity & inclusion, relationship capital and ethics. Fundamental to his work at Blue Ocean Global Technology, Sameer leads collaboration with an exclusive group of PR, Law and Management Consulting agency partners. He helps clients build and transform their digital presence. Sameer is a published writer and an Intellectual Property, Trademark, and Internet Defamation subject matter expert witness. In collaboration with the Philadelphia Bar Foundation, he authors continuing legal education (CLE) programs and is a member of the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) Education Advisory Council. Sameer serves on the national board of Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA). He is an active member of the Society of International Business Fellows (SIBF) and a CFA Institute 2022 Inspirational Leader Award recipient.

Solutions Vice President responsible for driving solution delivery, risk management, product development, engagement management, business development. Extensive experience in successfully leveraging system development lifecycle principles, application lifecycle management tools and methods, as well as an awareness of emerging technology trends to deliver global solutions that solved a broad range of business needs. 20 years of experience delivering professional services to clients in Life Sciences, Telecommunications and Financial Services. Specialties include Information Assurance, Risk Management, Enterprise Content Management and Systems Integration.

John is Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC), Certified Data Privacy Practitioner (CDPP), and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). He is an active member of various professional groups including: Project Management Institute (PMI) and ISACA.

Sejal is a powerhouse when it comes to architecting success. She joined her husband’s managed IT company, TechWerxe, in 2012 and within two years grew it into one of the most respected IT companies for small-midsize businesses (SMBs) in the tri-state area. Now under Sejal’s sole leadership, TechWerxe, specializes in helping company leaders protect their organization’s data and comply with mandated regulations. TechWerxe was recognized in the NJBIZ Reader Rankings as the #1 Cybersecurity Company in New Jersey for its flexible and customizable approach to cybersecurity.

In 2021, her entrepreneurial spirit motivated Sejal to launch a second company called CloudWerxe designed to offer small to mid-sized MSPs a top-of-the-line, secure cloud environment. Sejal’s innovation earned her a Gold Stevie Award, 2023 NJBIZ Leaders in Digital Technology award, and recognition as an ROI Power List Influencer and NJBIZ Best 50 Women in Business.

Prior to her entrepreneurial career, Sejal spent 12 years traveling the country working for leading financial firms and is currently on the Board of Entrepreneurs’ Organization and Connect 4 Business Exchange. Sejal is also part of several Mastermind groups, is an avid supporter of St. Jude’s and works with organizations that support victims of Human Trafficking.

Today, Sejal finds her calling on the stage helping organizations cost-effectively improve their security.