Speakers

A journalist, writer, editor, and producer, Josh Tyrangiel is Executive VP of Content at Vice Media, and the current head of Vice’s news division. Over a decades long career, he’s served as the Chief Content Officer at Bloomberg and Editor In Chief at Bloomberg Businesseek, leading the team that won a national magazine award; and held various positions up to Deputy Managing Editor during his ten years at TIME.

Penda Aiken is the president of Penda Aiken Incorporated or “PAI”, founded in 1990, a leading staffing agency, helping both job seekers and employers in more than a dozen industries. The company’s goal is to “recruit the best talent from diverse ethnicities and skillsets and place them at premier companies that value their workforce.” The company hosts platforms with access to job boards and user-friendly apps. Aiken has successfully led the forward-thinking team through decades of rapid industry and workforce change, and grown the company’s annual sales to $15 million. She has a MFA from Columbia University, and is proudly based here in Brooklyn.

Jennifer Abbondanza serves as Vice President of Corporate Initiatives for NBCUniversal’s Office of Diversity & Inclusion where she works with executives across the company to advance diversity efforts. She leads a team that handles compliance matters and monitors the diversity of NBCUniversal’s workforce, content and philanthropy.

Previously, Jennifer was a Vice President in the Corporate Strategy & Development group where she focused on acquisitions, divestitures and strategic partnerships. Prior to NBCUniversal, she worked at Intel Corp, Deutsche Bank, and Brera Capital Partners. Jennifer graduated from Princeton University with a degree in economics and holds a Master of Business Administration from the UCLA Anderson School of Business. She currently resides in New York City with her wife and two children.

Khalil Smith is the Practice Lead of Diversity and Inclusion at The Neuroleadership Institute, where he is responsible for the strategy and market presence of the practice. Before joining NLI, Khalil opened and ran his own consultancy, Smith + Grey LLC, a boutique consulting firm that worked with medium-sized businesses on transforming organizational cultures and demystifying group dynamics.

Prior to that, Khalil spent over 14 years in senior leadership roles with Apple Inc. During the final half of his time with Apple, he led various teams on the Retailing Training team, including global teams of over 40 learning professionals focused on expanding and strengthening the Apple culture across hundreds of retail stores in dozens of countries and languages. Khalil and his team were responsible for such critical training elements as employee onboarding, technical skills, and product launches.

Khalil holds an M.B.A with dual concentrations in Leadership and Strategy from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Khalil also holds an SHRM-SCP certification, a testament to his continued leadership and influence aligning HR strategies to organizational goals. Khalil resides in Raleigh, North Carolina with his amazing wife and high school sweetheart, Sandra, and two incredible sons, and two incredible sons, Kevyn, who is currently attending Duke University, and Connor, who is currently attending first grade.

Gabriel Snyder is a media leader who has helped legacy publications transition into new media and built digital publications from the ground up. He has held leadership positions at The New Republic, The Atlantic, Newsweek Digital, and Gawker Media. In his journalism career, he has covered media, politics, entertainment and technology for Wired, The New York Times Magazine, Slate, Esquire, The New York Observer, Variety, and W Magazine. Snyder grew up in Nashville, studied American History at Yale, and currently lives with his family in Brooklyn.

Rob Solano is the executive director and co-founder of Churches United for Fair Housing. Founded in 2009, CUFFH is a grassroots organization working to preserve and create vibrant communities that are truly affordable for working families in New York City through community organizing, youth engagement, and social services. Solano has served on Brooklyn Community Board 1 since 2013. He is a Harry S. Truman Masonic Lodge Master Mason and served as a lecturer at Cornell University from 2011-2016. Solano was also on the board of directors for the Grand Street Boys, Bk from 1999-2017.

Kristen Bellstrom is deputy digital editor at Fortune, where she oversees The Broadsheet newsletter and edits Fortune.com’s women and business coverage. Kristen also serves as co-chair of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Next Gen Summit. She was previously a senior editor at Money, where she ran the publication’s real estate and travel coverage. She began her journalism career at SmartMoney, where she was a writer and editor covering the travel industry, luxury, and consumer products. Kristen is a graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and Duke University.

Rachel Ernst is the Director of Employee Success at Reflektive, both overseeing the HR function, as well as building knowledge for Reflektive’s customers on change management, goal management, check-ins, real-time feedback and employee engagement polling.

Her experience with and passion for leadership stems from her experience starting and participating on a Board of Directors for a women’s college organization.  Her work there inspired her interest in a career that entails regular coaching, listening to and facilitating action on employee feedback and working to build effective and cohesive leadership teams.  Her career in HR spans compensation, learning and development, leadership coaching, people analytics and organizational design. She is passionate about evolving the performance management ecosystem to fulfill its ultimate goal of inspiring high performance through ongoing, real-time feedback.

Before joining Reflektive, Ernst spent 3+ years at Quantcast, leading its learning and development team and people, partnerships and operations with a focus on coaching, individual growth and leadership development. Prior to that, she spent 4 years as Director of HR at Fidelity Investments, leading the company’s employee development, change management, talent and team development. Ernst earned a BA in International Relations and German at University of California, Davis, and an MBA in International Business at the Brandeis International Business School.

Shaun Hoyte has 10+ years of experience in the power and utilities industry. In his current role, Shaun is the program manager for the Commercial Direct Install (CDI) program at Con Edison. His work with small business customers involves designing and implementing incentive programs that advance the adoption of Distributed Energy Resources (DER), improve efficiency, and defer the need for traditional capital infrastructure investment.

In his career at Con Edison, Shaun has gained significant hands-on experience building and upgrading substations and power generating plants that drive New York City’s complex electric, gas and steam distribution systems. He also collaborated with emergency personnel in restoration efforts due to storms such as Hurricane Sandy. Shaun holds a B.S. in Organizational Management, cum laude, from Manhattan College and an M.S. in Sustainability Management from Columbia University in the City of New York.

David Raper is IBM’s Director, Corporate Citizenship Global Markets.  In this role, David leads his team to maximize the social and business impact of Corporate Citizenship across Asia, Europe & Middle East & Africa.  IBM’s Citizenship applies the firm’s talent and technology to help communities thrive in the era of AI in the areas of education, health and resilient communities

Prior to joining IBM, David’s career focused on government reform and not-for-profit performance.  David has been the Director, Strategy and Project Delivery for the Department of Premier & Cabinet in New South Wales, Australia working with government agencies to drive performance improvements in urban transport, education, social services, crime prevention and healthcare. From 2011-2016, David was the Senior Vice President for Social Enterprises & Human Resources at Housing Works, a leading healthcare and social justice not for profit based in New York City.

David has a Bachelor of Arts and of Laws from the University of New South Wales, and a Master of Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Katherine Ryder is the founder and CEO of Maven, the digital clinic empowering women with expert, convenient, and compassionate healthcare.

Maven offers on-demand video appointments, texts, and instant access to prescriptions to any woman, anywhere via its best-in-class women’s and family health practitioner network. Maven Maternity is the leading maternity benefits program, helping expectant parents navigate fertility to the so-called “fourth trimester,” the challenging transition back to work, and all points in between. Maven helps corporate America both save on maternity-related costs and retain female talent.

Previously, Katherine worked as an early stage investor at Index Ventures, where she focused on investments in digital health and education. Prior to that, she was a journalist, writing for The Economist from Southeast Asia, New York, and London. In 2009, she worked with former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, helping him write his memoirs about the U.S. financial crisis.

Katherine received her B.A. from the Honors College at the University of Michigan and her MSc from the London School of Economics. She currently lives in New York City with her husband and son.

Kathleen Davis is the Deputy Editor of FastCompany.com, she also manages the leadership and work-life section where she leads  a team covering all aspects of work-life, including the changing landscape of leadership, personal career growth, the future or work, productivity, and gender, inequality and diversity in the workplace. She is also the host of Fast Company’s Secrets of the Most Productive People podcast.

Norm Laviolette is the co-founder and CEO of Improv Asylum, IA innovation and A.G.E.. With IA innovation, the Improv Asylum team combines their interactive delivery of communication skill training and insight with a special focus on Diversity and Inclusion Awareness to help companies create a stronger workplace culture. Building on principles of improvisation, the program encourages participants to make new connections and bring awareness and appreciation for each other’s unique strengths.

James Hendon is the Director of the NYU Veterans Future Lab, a small business incubator for practicing and aspiring entrepreneurs who are US Military Veterans or Veterans’ Spouses.  A Veteran entrepreneur himself, James is also the CEO of the Energy Economic Development Corporation, an organization that helps communities and small businesses take advantage of energy-related advancements.  Prior to that, James served as the COO for BlocPower, a Department of Energy-sponsored company that helps nonprofits, small businesses, and faith centers perform energy efficiency retrofits.  He previously worked as an Associate in the Real Estate Investment Banking Group at Deutsche Bank.

Before entering the civilian workforce, James spent seven years in the US Army as an Active Duty Infantry Officer where he deployed as a Mortar Platoon Leader and Battalion Public Affairs Officer to Iraq (2005), worked as an Admissions Officer for West Point (2006-2007), and served as the Senior Advisor to the Afghan Border Police in Afghanistan (2007-2009).

James is a 2002 graduate of West Point, a 2012 graduate of Harvard Kennedy School and Columbia Business School, and a 2015 graduate of the Earth Institute’s Program in Conservation and Environmental Sustainability.  As a drilling US Army Reservist, James serves as the New York City Lead for the 75^th Innovation Command.

James and his wife Christine have two young children—Grace and David.

Myriam has been with American Express for the past four years where she is responsible for developing sustainability strategies and programs, reporting Environmental Social Governance performance, overseeing American Express’ employee engagement programs (Serve2Gether, Green2Gether, and Give2Geher) and advancing the company’s vision, leadership and know-how in the field. Prior to her current position, Myriam worked at L’Oréal USA where she managed stakeholder engagement, sustainability reporting and communications. Myriam also led employee engagement and sustainability events for an eco-design company in Shanghai specializing in LEED consulting, and was a member of the sustainability strategy team at Havas Media in Paris that led corporate sustainability initiatives and advised clients such as EDF, Dannon, and PSA- Peugeot Citroen on socially-responsible, consumer-facing marketing campaigns. Ms. Coneim earned her B.A. in Political Science and International Relations from Science Po in Toulouse, France and a Master’s degree in Sustainable Development and Environmental Management from Paris-Dauphine University in association with UNEP-Tongji Institute for Environment and Sustainable Development.

Clare Newman serves as Chief of Staff and EVP of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation (BNYDC). As Chief of Staff, Clare oversees Planning, Development, External Affairs, Transportation and Design & Construction. Clare focuses on implementing a suite of projects that, together, will bring 10,000 jobs to the Yard by 2020, and on planning for future development. Clare comes to BNYDC from Bloomberg Philanthropies where she was a senior leader on the Government Innovation team. In that role she led the Mayors Challenge, an international competition to inspire and incentivize cities to generate innovative ideas to solve major urban challenges. Prior to joining Bloomberg Philanthropies, Clare was a Vice President at NYCEDC. There she worked within PPPs to lead development projects and other City initiatives. In her over five years at NYCEDC, Clare executed projects throughout the five boroughs, including the restoration of the Loews Kings Theatre in Flatbush, Brooklyn, the City’s bike share program, and the Applied Sciences tech-campus initiative.

Clare received a Master of Urban Planning from GSAPP at Columbia University and a B.A. with honors in Political Economy from Williams College. She is a member of the boards of Transit Center and Women in Housing and Finance.

Peter Sax is the founder and owner of Chemistry Creative, a creative, technical, and experiential production company based in Brooklyn, NY. As a creative producer and technical director, he has worked with people and brands such as Alexander Wang, Kanye West, Sony Music, L’Oreal, and Coca-Cola to bring their ideas out into the world.

In the ten years prior to founding Chemistry Creative in 2012, Pete worked as a freelance producer and the in-house technical director at The Altman Building, where he gained the confidence and expertise to start his own company. One of his goals in founding Chemistry was to create an environment where people can enjoy their work while benefiting from the time, space, and resources to pursue their own creative projects. Above all, Pete values wisdom, compassion, and mindfulness. He has taken care to ensure these values are embodied in Chemistry Creative’s culture and work product.

Pete is an avid practitioner of buddhist meditation, and a seeker in the world. He’s also a musician and songwriter, and is currently working on building a meditation retreat center in the woods of Connecticut, where he now lives with his wife and three children.

Slattery recently joined Fast Company, the dynamic business media brand renowned for covering business as a source for good.  Previously, he spent years leading marketing teams for iconic brands like TIME, Sports Illustrated, Fortune and Money before taking a leadership role in Time Inc.’s ad sales vertical structure as part of the company’s go-to-market strategy.  As CMO of the SI Group, he led marketing for the SI and GOLF portfolios, including SI Kids, FanSided, 120 Sports and SI Films.  At SI, he spearheaded the successful re-launch of the Sports Illustrated Podcast Network, and he launched the Sports Illustrated Overtime content studio to build industry-leading native and branded content solutions for top marketers.  Earlier he spent many years on the editorial team of SI as a reporter while also writing feature films and documentaries.  In the 2000s, with TIME marketing, Slattery shepherded the annual TIME 100 franchise and led marketing for TIME.com.  He moved to FORTUNE as VP Marketing in 2012, added responsibility for MONEY in 2013 – and steered marketing for the launch of both brands’ all-new websites.

Alison Novak, Principal, joined Hudson in 2006, where she oversees mixed-income and market-rate developments as well as Hudson’s middle-income equity fund. Under her leadership, Hudson launched its commitment to green building. Alison has overseen the acquisition, design, financing, construction, and completion of a wide range of housing developments ranging from affordable to high-end, home ownership to rental, single-family to high rise. Prior to joining Hudson, Alison was with the San Jose Redevelopment Agency where she focused on supporting small businesses, public space programming and increasing the production of housing. Alison sits on the board of the Osborne Association and is former board chair of Recycle-A-Bicycle and Women in Housing and Finance, all New York City-based non-profits. Alison was named one of the “Top 15 Women in Real Estate” in 2015. She is a member of the 21st cohort of Coro Leadership New York. Alison received a Bachelor of Arts in Community Development from Grinnell College, and a Master of City Planning and Master of Science in Real Estate Development from MIT.

Susan is SVP, Zillow Group New York & General Manager, StreetEasy, overseeing all strategy, marketing, sales and customer divisions of Zillow Group’s New York operations, including StreetEasy, Naked Apartments and Out East. Susan joined Zillow in October 2012 after the company’s acquisition of Buyfolio, a co-shopping platform for real estate agents and their homebuyers, which she co-founded in 2009. Prior to Buyfolio, Susan co-founded the award winning travel website SeatGuru, which was sold to Expedia in 2007. She has a bachelor’s in English from Johns Hopkins University and currently sits on their Board of Trustees.

Tucker Reed is Co-Founder and Principal of Totem. From 2012 to 2016, he was President of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, a not-for-profit local development corporation that serves as the primary champion for Downtown Brooklyn as a world-class business, cultural, educational, residential, and retail destination. Under Tucker’s leadership Downtown Brooklyn achieved historically low commercial office vacancy rates and attracted nearly $7 billion dollars in investment that resulted in thousands of new housing units and jobs. DBP became the driving force behind the emergence of the Brooklyn Tech Triangle as a key contributor to the growth of the innovation economy in New York City and major infrastructure improvements like the Brooklyn Queens Connector.

He previously was the Director of Special Projects for Two Trees Management Company, a real estate development firm based in DUMBO, Brooklyn, where he assisted in the execution of development projects with an aggregate budget of nearly $200 million, while directing communications and community development efforts for the firm.

From 2008 – 2009 Tucker worked for the State Department in Baghdad, Iraq on the rebuilding of the City and serving as Chief of Staff of the Baghdad Provincial Reconstruction Team. Prior to joining the State Department, Tucker was the founding Executive Director of the DUMBO Improvement District, responsible for launching the organization in 2006 that has overseen the flourishing development of that waterfront office and residential district. Previous to his DUMBO position, Tucker was a Senior Policy Advisor for the Department of Small Business Services in the Bloomberg Administration.

Tucker holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University and an M.S. in Real Estate Development from New York University. He has received numerous awards and recognition including Commercial Observer’s 100 Most Powerful People in New York Real Estate and City and State’s 40 Under 40. He was a Co-Founder of the Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector and currently serves on the board of Brooklyn Bridge Park and the Coro New York Leadership Center and as an adjunct professor at New York University.

Steven Kuyan is managing director of the NYU Tandon Future Labs – a network of business incubators and accelerators that support early stage ventures in New York City. The Future Labs support entrepreneurs in technology-specific fields, such as: artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented/virtual reality, video and virtual machines, among others. To date, the unique process has graduated 95 companies – 16 as acquisitions totaling more than $500
million – for a combined valuation of graduates exceeding $1 billion. Furthermore, the companies graduating from the Future Labs have helped contribute to a $4 billion impact for NYC. Steven co-founded the Future Labs while serving as an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at NYU – his alma matter and the institution where he continues to teach.

Prior to launching the Future Labs, Steven founded and co-founded three ventures in mobile,B2B logistics, and retail. He currently oversees management of the Data Future Lab, Digital
Future Lab, Veterans Future Lab and the AI NexusLab – the first program in the U.S. designed specifically for early stage artificial intelligence startups. Steven also founded and is the editor for NYCai, an organization that works to bring together members of the artificial intelligence community – including researchers and practitioners – for
programming, research support, training, and more, all to help prepare NYC for an AI future. Additionally, Steven serves on the board of directors for the Business Incubator Association of New York State, Inc., and has spoken worldwide on entrepreneurship, incubation, ecosystem development, and artificial intelligence .

Marissa Shorenstein currently serves as Regional President – North East Region for AT&T where she oversees the company’s external affairs for all states from Maine to Virginia, including Washington, DC. She previously served as AT&T’s New York State president. Prior to joining AT&T, Marissa ran Marissa Shorenstein LLC, where she offered strategic communications consulting services to a wide range of clients including private sector institutions facing PR crises, tech start-
ups looking for guidance on product launches, hedge funds and private equity firms requiring investor relations and sales and marketing assistance and non-profit organizations desiring speechwriting and story placement expertise.

Marissa was Director of Communications for Andrew Cuomo’s successful 2010 campaign for Governor of New York State. Before joining the Cuomo campaign, she was Press Secretary and Deputy Director of Communications for Governor David A. Paterson where she also oversaw communications for the dozens of states agencies across the state. From 2004 – 2007 Marissa served as Senior Manager for Strategic Planning and Corporate Communications for the New York Jets while earning her JD from Fordham Law School’s Evening Division. In her capacity at the Jets, she was the spokesperson for the controversial stadium development project on Manhattan’s West
Side. Prior to joining the Jets, Marissa was a Senior Associate at SSK, a national strategic communications firm based in New York. Marissa joined SS+K after serving as Press Secretary to Carl McCall’s campaign for Governor of New York.

While an undergraduate student at Harvard University, from which she graduated with honors in three years,
Marissa traveled as one of five members of the National Press Advance staff for the Gore Presidential campaign where she planned press events and coordinated logistics for the traveling press corps. She has
also worked in the New York City Mayor’s Office, on the 1992 and 1996 Clinton campaigns and on the 2004 Wesley Clark campaign. Marissa was also New York Director of Communications for Cover the Uninsured Week, a public awareness campaign funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and co-sponsored by dozens of non-profit, labor and business organizations around the country to highlight and create awareness about the tens of millions of Americans without health insurance.

Shorenstein serves on the Executive Committees of the New York State Business Council, the Citizens Budget Commission, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York (JCRC-NY) and the Women’s Forum of New York. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Girls Who Code, the Women’s Leadership Council of the Lincoln Center Corporate Fund, The Battery Conservancy and the YMCA of New York City’s Development Committee) in addition to representing AT&T at the Partnership for New York City.

Jeremiah is Senior Advisor of Brooklyn for Rubenstein Partners, fund manager for a series of private equity funds focused on office investments throughout the United States. At Rubenstein Jeremiah is responsible for spearheading the firm’s investment and asset management activities in the borough. Prior to joining Rubenstein Partners, Jeremiah worked as strategic advisor to various real estate development companies and served as Director of Acquisitions at the Paramount Group. He graduated from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and received his MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Victor is SVP, Social Media at Big Spaceship. In his nine years at Big Spaceship, Victor brought Skittles to social media, grew YouTube as a brand and cultural force over the past six years, and helped revolutionize the way products are created and marketed at Hasbro. He also partnered with JetBlue, Google Maps, Google Play, Starbucks, Samsung Mobile, Purina and Sonos to launch or evolve their social media strategy, content and campaigns. He’s listed in Business Insider’s 30 Most Creative People In Social Media, PRWeek’s Digital 50 and writes regularly for Ad Age, Mashable, Fast Company, Digiday and Vice.

Victor came to digital through his work in documentaries. He wrote, produced and marketed the award-winning film Second Skin – opening night movie of SXSW ’08, distributed internationally in ’09. He followed it up with the documentary that launched Motherboard, Vice’s tech channel.