Episodes
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Coco Brown C92, is a CEO and board member, actively leading Silicon Valley based professional services and tech companies since 1997. From 2002 to 2012 Coco was President and COO of Taos, a Gartner top 20 global IT professional and managed services company servicing hundreds of F1000 and top tier private growth companies nationally. She was also on the board of Taos for 12 years, leading the company through massive economic cycles and business model evolution and growth. Coco led the company to $54m in revenue, and the company has subsequently been sold to IBM.
In 2016 Coco founded Athena Alliance, a digital platform for learning and agency for top business women striving for the c-suite and the boardroom. Athena has seen 2.8x growth in membership in the last 12 months since launching as a true subscription model and hosts over 1,000 women leaders today. Coco is a well-published expert and speaker on The Modern Boardroom. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. Coco serves on the commercial boards of Athena Alliance, Inc and Archerpoint (an ESOP), as well as the non-profit board of Athena Rising Foundation. -
Ali Kriegsman is the co-founder and COO of Bulletin, a B2B wholesale marketplace where retailers go to discover, shop, and support the best brands on the planet. A recipient of "Forbes 30 Under 30" and one of Fast Company’s "Most Creative People in Business," Ali has helped thousands of brands expand their distribution and sell in stores all around the country. She is a salesperson, self-taught publicist, marketer, and growth strategist and has experience scaling both bootstrapped and venture-backed businesses.
Ali's new book, "How to Build a Goddamn Empire: Advice on Creating Your Brand with High-Tech Smarts, Elbow Grease, Infinite Hustle, and a Whole Lotta Heart" is available in bookstores now!
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Tara Viswanathan W12, M.S. Stanford ’15, spent the last 15 years passionate about helping people make better health-related decisions. From working hands on with chronically ill patients to becoming a certified nutrition counselor to designing Stanford research experiments on the mind-body connection - she developed deep experience across the health space throughout her career. Previously, Tara worked at Parsley Health, Lululemon, and the Stanford d.School.
Now, Tara is founder & CEO of Rupa Health, an integrative health tech company that aims to make root cause medicine the standard of care. Their first product, Rupa Labs, is a lab ordering portal for telemedicine providers that turns 15 hours of weekly physician admin work into 15 mins. Rupa is HQ’d in San Francisco and backed by world class investors like First Round Capital, Floodgate Capital, Ron Conway / SV Angel, and more.
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Gillian is an entrepreneurial leader who ensures the successful integration of strategic plans, operational goals, and performance targets to drive growth. She applies her background in finance and operations to deliver profitable business outcomes across multiple industries, including asset management, wealth management, transportation, and consulting. She is adept at managing client relationships and forging partnerships with internal and external stakeholders.
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Sarah Ribner C11, is the Founder & CEO of PiperWai, the first all-natural, charcoal-based, nontoxic deodorant. Sarah began her journey with wellness almost a decade ago, however, until five years ago, an effective nontoxic, natural deodorant was the missing piece in her quest to lead a healthy, low waste lifestyle. Deodorant was becoming a controversial personal care product as active ingredients in deodorant and antiperspirant were linked to long term illnesses.
When her childhood friend asked her to try her DIY formula, Sarah saw an opportunity to fill a market need and to create a powerful brand to bring this formula to the masses. She holds an MBA from Columbia, a BA from Upenn, and an aromatherapist certification from the New York Institute of Aromatic Studies. Sarah is a proud member of the EY Winning Women Class of 2017, Forbes 30 Under 30 2018, and she has appeared on ABC, HSN, AOL Build, Fox and many other major media outlets.
#powerofpennwomen #momentum2020
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In founding Robyn, Allison Kaiser Eng09, set out on a mission to make sure no other aspiring, expecting or new parent ever felt as alone and confused as she once did on her journey to parenthood. Prior to launching Robyn, Allison was a Vice President at J.P. Morgan’s Corporate & Investment Bank. She holds a Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. She is a mom to three boys, Jacob, Freddy, and Billy (Penn Class of 2039 + 2041). Robyn is a digital platform for aspiring, expecting and new parents to find parental wellness providers, resources, and classes.
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Caroline Strzalka C00, WG05, is a serial entrepreneur and media executive. She is the CEO and Co-Founder of It's By U (itsbyu.com) which is a farm-direct subscription company disrupting the floral industry that she founded with her sister Christine. She is also currently acting as an Advisor to Overplay Games. Previously, Caroline held leadership roles at media companies, particularly in the children's and educational spaces. She was the EVP of Partnerships at Sandbox & Co, VP Digital Content & Global Development at Scholastic, and Director of Digital Media Business Development at Sesame Workshop. She has executed multi-million dollar partnership deals with some of the largest media companies in the world including Google, Netflix, Apple, and Microsoft, and led new media projects in audio, video, and interactive gaming. Prior to this, she was an investment banker in Equity Capital Markets at Salomon Smith Barkey, Citibank and took many companies public, including Kraft, Constellation Brands, GameStop, and Leapfrog. She is a Wharton MBA, Penn undergrad, Startup Leadership Program Fellow, and is on the Council on Foreign Relations. Caroline prides herself in recognizing and monetizing blue sky opportunities, and is particularly passionate about female founded startups and getting women's ideas funded.
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Lucy Xu W13, is Founder & CEO of The Port Global, a marketing and business consultancy supporting startups and growing businesses across Greece and the U.S. She holds a business degree from Wharton, is a TEDx speaker, and has a background in technology and marketing (formerly IBM, Curalate, and Startup Grind NYC). In 2017, Lucy moved from New York City to Athens to explore a unique thesis on the potential for innovation, cooperation, and expansion that exists between these markets.
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Dr. Manisha Juthani C94, an Infectious Diseases physician at Yale School of Medicine. She’s helped to lead Yale’s COVID preparedness and treatment of patients as well as runs the Infectious Diseases Fellowship program, which keeps her very busy!
She completed her undergraduate training @upenn, attended Cornell University Medical College, completed residency training at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Campus, and was a Chief Resident at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She arrived at Yale School of Medicine in 2002 for Infectious Diseases Fellowship Training and joined the full-time faculty in 2006. She assumed the role of Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program Director in 2012.
Her federally funded research has focused on infections in older adults, specifically urinary tract infections and pneumonia. Most notably, she was the Principal Investigator of an R01-funded research project that resulted in the 2016 JAMA publication entitled, “Effect of Cranberry Capsules on Bacteriuria Plus Pyuria Among Older Women in Nursing Homes: A Randomized Clinical Trial.” This publication received widespread attention in the lay press, including The New York Times and CNN to name a few, and achieved an Almetric Attention Score of 1564 that keeps on rising, placing it in the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric. In December 2016, The New Yorker identified this research as one of the most notable medical findings of 2016, and Dr. Juthani was interviewed and featured in the GeriPal and Gastropod podcasts. Additionally, in her parallel work with pneumonia prevention, she was the first author on the 2015 Clinical Infectious Diseases publication entitled, “A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial of a Multicomponent Intervention Protocol for Pneumonia Prevention Among Nursing Home Elders.” In addition to her academic responsibilities, Dr. Juthani enjoys writing about medical topics in the lay press.
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Carolyn Yachanin C13, is the Founder & CEO of Copina Co. - a company dedicated to redefining the beauty industry through positive messaging and game-changing plant-based vegan collagen blends. Copina Co.’s delicious edible beauty products help you feel amazing in your own skin and promote healthy hair, skin, and nails without the use of animal products. Copina Co. launched in February 2020 and has been featured in Well + Good, Refinery 29, Sporteluxe and more and can now be found in stores from coast-to-coast.
A native of California and current San Diego resident, Carolyn is passionate about holistic wellness and plant-based living solutions for all. She spends her free time mentoring young female entrepreneurs and enjoying the outdoors with her husband Alex. Carolyn was on the Penn Momentum 2020 planning committee and served as the Marketing Chair of Wharton Women during her time at Penn. She graduated cum laude with a B.A. in History.
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Soyoung Kang is the Chief Marketing Officer at eos Products, the iconic brand and lipcare trailblazer that has sold over half a billion lip balms worldwide. In her role, Soyoung is responsible for driving the overall brand strategy, planning, and operations for all global and regional marketing initiatives. Since joining eos as CMO, Soyoung has led a total brand reboot, from resetting creative and strategic vision, to redesigning and expanding the product portfolio, to launching the global “Make It Awesome” campaign. Prior to eos, Soyoung spent almost fifteen years at L Brands, most notably as SVP of brand development for Bath & Body Works’ beauty and fragrance business. She also spent a decade in strategy and consulting, working for The Boston Consulting Group and AT Kearney.
Soyoung holds a degree in architecture from MIT and an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School, and was a Fulbright research scholar.
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Sophie Beren (C’17, SPP’17), is an entrepreneur from Wichita, KS, who is on a mission to unify the world. Sophie was recently named "25 Under 25" by Social Entrepreneur's Magazine and has dedicated her professional career to empowering young people everywhere to have conversations that matter. Sophie founded her first venture, TableTalk, while at Penn, and has since launched The Conversationalist, the go-to destination to amplify Gen Z voices. Join the community today by texting “UNIFY” to +1 (877) 222 1119.
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Rooshy Roy WG19, is the Co-Founder & CEO of AAVRANI. As a first generation Indian-American, she would often make her own skincare with her mom, who showed Rooshy how to harness the power of raw ingredients—like turmeric and sweet almond oil—to maintain beautiful skin. As an adult searching for an easier way to access those Indian rituals, Rooshy was inspired to create her own brand. AAVRANI skincare unites India’s ancient, all-natural approach with clinically-proven, modern-day elegance. Prior to launching the company in 2018, she worked in Finance at Goldman Sachs and Warburg Pincus. Rooshy went to Indiana University and graduated with an MBA from Wharton in 2019. She is a 2020 Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree in the Retail & E-Commerce category.
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Caroline Waxler C93, programs summits and festivals for a variety of media companies and brands. She started her career as an investigative reporter at Forbes, where she covered hedge funds and Swiss billionaires. She went on to oversee teams and build content properties for Fortune, TheStreet.com, Business Insider, LearnVest, Advertising Age, and Condé Nast. Additionally, Waxler has also written extensively for a variety of television, print, and digital outlets, including: ABC, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Fortune. Barron’s and Amazon named her investing book a top business book of the year. She also hosted two seasons of the Writers Guild of America podcast “On Writing.” Most recently, Waxler wrote and produced the Disney+ show “The Big Fib.”
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Jennifer Simpson is the founding executive director of the Aspen Institute's Finance Leaders Fellowship focused on improving public trust in the global finance industry. An entrepreneurial leader, Jennifer has made private equity and debt investments in industrial companies throughThe Gladstone Companies, where she served on a number of industrial company boards; served as the first CEO for Gladstone Securities; worked in leveraged lending and was chief credit officer for National City Bank's $4.7 billion small business loan portfolio; invested with PE firm Morgenthaler Partners; and served as EVP of Finance and Operations at the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
Jennifer began her career as a Lieutenant and platoon leader in the U.S. Army’s Medical Service Corps after studying economics at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, financing it with a four-year Army ROTC scholarship. Her MBA is from Case Western Reserve University. Jennifer serves on the advisory board for Industrial Exchange, was on the executive board of a nonprofit supporting STEM education, and was co-Founder of the Washington, DC chapter of WAVE (Women in Venture Equity). She has also helped raise her 2 children, now out of the house and on a great path to being good citizens. -
Kerhyl Gantt WG19, is the Digital Brand Director for Jordan Brand at Nike, with 10+ years of extensive experience orchestrating integrated brand and omni-channel marketing campaigns across Global, North America and Territory regions. Notable highlights include leading North America digital for Nike's Top Selling Shoe in History, retail and digital marketing for major sport moments, launching the NFL x Nike partnership and building plans to sign Calvin Johnson, Alex Ovechkin and Rory Mcliroy to Nike.
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Tereza Nemessanyi is a global strategic alliance manager at Microsoft. A seasoned media and technology entrepreneur and executive, Tereza’s breadth and depth of experience spans high-growth startups and the world's largest enterprises. Companies she has worked with, at senior levels, include PWC, IBM, The Walt Disney Company, Unilever, Symphony IRI, Interpublic Group, and the InterAmerican Development Bank (IADB). She was a ground-floor member of a startup team which IPO’d (CETV). She’s been named a Forbes "Ten Female Entrepreneurs to Watch" (2011) and a “Top 40 over 40” (2015). Tereza is a sought-after speaker (TED, SXSW) and blogger (Reuters, Huffington Post). She holds an MBA from The Wharton School. She lives in New York with her husband and two daughters.
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On this week’s Momentum 2020 podcast, Erica Firpo speaks with Dr. Aly Cohen C95. Aly is a rheumatologist, integrative medicine, and environmental health specialist practicing in Princeton, NJ. Her medical practice, that she founded in 2011, Integrative Rheumatology Associates P.C., focuses on both traditional western medical management of rheumatologic and other ailments, as well as integrative options for total “wellness”, such as biofeedback, acupuncture, cognitive therapy, diet and exercise counseling, environmental toxin counseling, smoking cessation, stress management and sleep evaluations.
Dr. Cohen is active in educating the next generation, writing curriculum on environmental health topics to be made available by high schools nationally. Her recent text, "Integrative Environmental Medicine" was published through Oxford University Press, and her consumer book, "Non-Toxic: Guide to Living Healthy in a Chemical World", also published by Oxford University Press will be out in 2020. She will be presenting at TEDxCapeMay in October 2020 on "Reimagining High School Health & Science Education".
Dr. Cohen is a regular health contributor to print, radio, and news broadcasts, and lectures nationally on various health topics including integrative medicine, autoimmune disease/inflammation, health effects of everyday chemicals, and cell phone safety. She shares practical vetted health and prevention tips regularly on her award winning, educational platform, The SmartHuman.com and on her Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram feeds for The Smart Human!
#powerofpennwomen #momentum2020
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Christyl L. Murray is a Vice President with Firm-wide Talent Development at JPMorgan Chase & Co. She has expertise Leveraging “Human Capital” to facilitate change management and strategically improve business results, with distinguished accomplishments in diversity and inclusion, talent development, communication, coaching and management consulting. Christyl leads the Firmwide roll out of the VP Academy - a leadership development program for high performers. The VP Academy workflow is directly aligned with JPMorgan Chase & Co’s Human Capital objectives of Talent Development, Diversity and Inclusion.
Christyl is also an adjunct professor in Leadership and Human Capital Management at NYU. She holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of California Berkeley, and a combined M.A. in International Studies from the Lauder Institute and an M.B.A. from The Wharton Business School, both at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Kimberly Esterkin C06, is a Managing Director at ADDO Investor Relations, a strategic investor relations and financial communications firm in Los Angeles. Kimberly rejoined ADDO in 2019 having previously worked at the Company from 2011 to 2015. With over 14 years of experience in investor relations, finance and corporate communications, Kimberly has managed investor and public relations campaigns for pre- and post-IPO companies across the technology, financial services, internet, consumer, engineering & construction, energy and agriculture industries. Kimberly’s clients rely on her for quarterly earnings support, media training, proxy outreach, M&A support, buy-side and sell-side targeting, analyst days, and investor website design.
Before rejoining ADDO, Kimberly helped guide the rapid expansion of Tetra Tech, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTEK), a leading provider of consulting and engineering services in Pasadena, California, as its in-house Manager of Investor Relations during a period that saw the company triple its market capitalization. Before entering the field of investor relations, Kimberly conducted fixed income market research for a boutique financial consulting firm in New York and supported a private wealth investment team at Goldman Sachs’ Los Angeles office managing more than $9 billion in assets.
Kimberly graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 2006 and holds certificates in fixed income and accounting from New York University and the New York Institute of Finance. She has been an active volunteer for the University of Pennsylvania Alumni Secondary School Committee for the past 11 years. Kimberly is a member of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI), serves on the NIRI Los Angeles Board of Directors and the NIRI National Annual Conference Planning Committee. Most recently, she was recognized as part of the inaugural class of NIRI’s top “40 under 40” in investor relations in the country and was featured in the Nasdaq Series Intro to an IRO. You can learn more about Kimberly’s investor relations best practices here. Kimberly lives in Los Angeles with her husband Jeremy, her two sons Elias and Connor and her amazing golden retriever Daisy.
Here's Kimberly's thesis: https://repository.upenn.edu/curej/31/
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