Experts

In 2011 she founded NewME (acquired), the first accelerator globally for minorities. Through her leadership NewME has accelerated hundreds of entrepreneurs helping the nascent companies to raise over $47 million in venture capital funding and served as a breeding ground for some of today’s top venture capital investors at firms like Andressen Horowitz, Kapor Capital, and others.

To date, Ms. Benton has received numerous accolades, some of which include Goldman Sachs’ 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs, Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business and their Most Influential Women In Technology, Business Insiders’ 25 Most Influential African-Americans in Technology, ADWEEK’s 2020 Women Trailblazers, and many more. In addition, Ms. Benton has been featured in numerous national and international media outlets including CNN’s award winning documentary series Black in America: The New Promised Land: Silicon Valley, MSNBC, Bloomberg, Inc, Forbes, Good Morning America, and the Wall Street Journal where she was a featured essayist for the paper’s 125th Anniversary edition on The Future of Entrepreneurship.

At the helm of Streamlytics, Angela continues to uncover untapped spaces in technology and innovation.

In March 2019 Wyclef released Wyclef Goes Back to School, a collaboration with students he met while touring the United States and visiting colleges across the country. In December 2019, Wyclef announced the launch of his music publishing and distribution company Carnival World Music Group, with the support of entertainment industry finance firm Sound Royalties. Last year Netflix announced the production of an untitled animated project based on the real-life story of Wyclef’s childhood in Haiti, which will be co-produced by Greg Silverman’s company Stampede and have Jean as the film’s composer. 2020 also found Wyclef venturing into the podcast industry as the host of RunThatBack, a one of a kind weekly show for music lovers of any type, where Wyclef interviews heavy hitters from all walks of life, from music, to sports, politics, and beyond. He also teamed up with Google in the fall of 2020 to create a jingle for their #BlackOwnedFriday campaign to promote and support shopping black-owned businesses for Black Friday during the holiday season. This campaign has won a Webby Award, and has been nominated for a Clio Award, among others. In his most recent project, Wyclef has stepped in as composer for season four of Showtime’s The Chi, a show created by screenwriter and actress Lena Waithe.

As Principal of MT Global Strategies, Mori serves as a cross-sector consultant for a diverse client base that includes Fortune 100 companies, foundations, major sports leagues, professional associations, and universities. Current and past clients include: Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), Goldman Sachs Foundation, Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), National Football League (NFL), NFL Players Association, The Timberland Company, United Parcel Service (UPS), USA Track and Field (USATF), Wasserman, Wells Fargo and the White House Fellows Program.

With extensive experience leading initiatives at the intersection of sport and social change in both the public and private sectors, Mori was appointed the first-ever Senior Advisor for Sport for Development at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2010. She served for four years as the senior U.S. Government Representative tasked with promoting sport as a unique and powerful tool in the advancement of United States international development goals.

Mori serves on the Board of Trustees of the Women’s Sports Foundation and is a founding Advisory Board Member of the Sports Leadership & Administration Undergraduate Degree Program at UMass, Boston. She is a regular contributor to sports discussions on Wharton Business Daily on SiriusXM and was featured in ESPN’s “30 for 30” documentary, Broke.

Mori earned her MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Barnard College of Columbia University. Her first book, Bring Yourself: How to Harness the Power of Connection to Negotiate Fearlessly was published in March 2020.

For over fourteen years, Monique served as the CEO of Mosley Brands and Mosley Music Group, home to a multi-platinum roster of artists. In 2017, Monique founded Reign Venture Capital, an early stage investment firm that focuses on women and minority-led start-ups. Then, in 2018 she founded The Art of Collaboration to change the narrative of business. In addition to her entrepreneurial pursuits, Monique is well regarded for her philanthropic work. As the Founder and Executive Director of Always Believing Foundation, Monique finds innovative and empowering solutions to promote self confidence in young girls. She also sits on the boards of several nonprofits and as 2014, Monique has served as a National Trustee for The Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

While at Uber, Emil struck partnerships with some of the world’s largest companies including American Express, AT&T, Daimler, Softbank, Tata Motors and Toyota. Emil led the acquisition for Uber that became the core of its Advanced Technology Group which is developing autonomous vehicles. Emil started his career at Goldman Sachs where he was an investment banker for a short period before heading to Silicon Valley and becoming part of the founding team of Tellme Networks. Tellme was a pioneer in speech recognition technology and systems and is highly regarded for weathering the technology bust of 2000 and building a sustainable and profitable business.

In 2009 Emil was selected as a White House Fellow working for the Secretary of Defense as a Special Assistant. During his tenure at the Pentagon, Emil ran projects in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan as well as a department wide budget cutting effort aimed at reducing overhead and bureaucracy. The Secretary of Defense asked Emil to stay on beyond his term which he did through January 2011. Connecting the dots between his government service and work in Silicon Valley, Emil created UberMilitary, a program at Uber for military veterans and their families. Currently, the program has over 100,000 participants who have earned over $340 million.

Emil has been a leadership coach and mentor to dozens of young CEO’s over the years. Emil serves as an advisor or investor in over 20 start-ups around the world furthering his commitment to helping the next generation of entrepreneurs build and scale.

Emil understands technology at both a product and engineering level giving him the ability to partner with technical leaders and divisions to ensure synchronicity with a company’s business goals. Emil has a particular passion for artificial intelligence, big data, computer vision and robotics. He is considered to be one of the most successful Egyptian-American business people in the world.

Erica has been an active venture investor and advisor to early-stage companies for over 15 years and was previously an investment banker. Before launching Reign and 1000 Angels, Erica was a Managing Director at DreamIt Ventures in NYC. She also served as a founding Executive Director at both STAR Angel Network and Golden Seeds. Prior to beginning a career in venture, she practiced Investment Banking at Citigroup, Credit Suisse and Cantor Fitzgerald.

Erica earned her BA in Business Economics from UCLA and an MBA in Finance with honors from Columbia Business School. She has also made regular appearances on network television for MSNBC and CNBC on “App Wars”, “ Your Business” and “Crowd Rules” as a startup business expert.

Greg has over 25 years of leadership experience in the public and private sectors and led Nexercise/Sworkit from concept to a market leader. His company was identified as one of, “2017’s 10 Most Innovative Fitness Companies” by Fast Company and has been featured in ABC’s Shark Tank, CNN, Bloomberg, and over a hundred other publications and channels. Greg is also a Senior Advisor in the Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit where he advises the development of strategies to identify the technology needs of the Department of the Defense that can be met through commercially available technology.

Previously, Greg worked with the National Security Innovation Network where he created the portfolio that brings startups, venture capital, and the defense industry together to solve some of the most pressing strategic problems in DoD. He spearheaded Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) contracting efforts, pitch events, and DoD partnerships with TechStars and Mass Challenge.

Greg is a retired Air Force Colonel and Command Pilot with over 3,500 flight hours and 60+ combat and combat support missions. Greg was a Squadron Commander and commanded one of the first missions in support of the 2005 national response to Hurricane Katrina. He also serves on several boards, including the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce, The Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart, and Leadership Montgomery. Greg holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Gina Ford was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and has also resided in California with deep knowledge and connections she has developed not only in the entertainment industry and athletes in California, Miami, but also worldwide.

For over twenty years, Gina has led marketing and sponsorship negotiations for several of the top elite athletes, entertainers and CEO’s in the world.
Her deep knowledge, experience, as well as her outstanding alliances with the top corporations and her celebrity clients, has given her great success in the marketing and branding world. Focused on results, Gina has built strong relationships with top Fortune 500 Companies like Jordan, Puma, Nike, Under Armor, PepsiCo, Gatorade, Nissan, just to name a few, with whom she has successfully negotiated and closed some of the biggest endorsement deals for her clients.

Forbes recently ranked Shervin #93 on 2017’s The Midas List for the top 100 VC list in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.  Shervin is one of the top ranked venture capital investors, averaging over 73x on his investments. Forbes recently ranked Shervin #93 on 2017’s The Midas List for the top 100 VC list in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.

Shervin previously served as a member of the Board of Directors of Uber and Board Observer from 2011-2015 and Strategic Advisor, Wag, Machine Zone, Cue Health, Munchery, Pillpack Board Observer and others. He has supported many charities and served on the non-profit boards of Build.org (along with Jack Dorsey) and as advisor to the Malala Fund. Shervin is co-founder of Sofreh Capital and Pishevar Haynes Foundation.

In 2011, he joined as Managing Director at Menlo Ventures, a VC firm with over $4 billion under management and led key early investments such as Uber (Series B), Machine Zone (Series B), Warby Parker (Series A), Tumblr, and Getaround and others. He initiated the Menlo Talent Fund and helped close over 35 seed investments including Parse (sold to Facebook) and Scan (sold to Snap). As an angel investor, he made over 100 seed and angel investments in Dollar Shave Club (sold Unilever for a $1 billion), Postmates, Cherry (acquired by Lyft), TaskRabbit, Parse, Qwiki, Gowalla, Milk, Socialcam, and Klout.

An accomplished entrepreneur, Shervin founded and operated companies Virgin Hyperloop One, Webs.com (acquired by VistaPrint), SGN (now JamCity, a leading mobile game developer), WebOS and HyperOffice. Companies he founded have reached an aggregate of over 100 million users.

Shervin was selected as an Ellis Island Medal of Honor award winner and was appointed by the President Barack H. Obama to serve on the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board in 2015. He was also chosen by the U.S. Government as an Outstanding American by Choice, one of the only 100 naturalized Americans to be chosen. He served on the advisory board of Comscore, and was 1 of the 10 members of the UN Foundation’s Global Entrepreneurs Council, served as an entrepreneurial ambassador in several State Department delegations and was a keynote speaker at President Obama’s Summit on entrepreneurship.

Currently serving as the official DJ of Carnival Cruise Lines, Irie’s partnerships range among several “Who’s Who” of blue-chip companies and brands, including the 3-time NBA World Champion Miami HEAT and superstar Jamie Foxx. The St. Croix native is also the man behind Irie Music, Corp., coowner of Loose Anchor Clothing Co., Pucci’s Pizza and Venture Projects, LLC venture capital. He’s the #1 choice for countless celebrities and high-profile events everywhere from South Beach to Singapore, and has performed on some of the world’s biggest stages, including the American Music Awards, MTV VMA’s, FIFA World Cup, International Premier Tennis League, Daytona 500, Super Bowl, and NBA All-Star, and at corporate events for Louis Vuitton, Google, Red Bull, Hublot, and General Motors, just to name a few.

Recognized worldwide for his tremendous talent and sharp business acumen, he has picked up numerous accolades, including the Global Spin Awards’ National Club DJ of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year awards, Charles E. Perry Young Alumni Visionary Award, Grey Goose’s Rising Icon Award and the Southern Entertainment Awards’ Nightclub DJ of the Year. He is a mainstay on “Good Morning America,” and has been featured on “Conan,” “The Early Show,” MTV, and E! Entertainment Television, as well as in Fortune Magazine, Forbes, USA Today, Us Weekly, ESPN The Magazine, and countless others.

Prior to IfOnly, Julie worked for a media start-up (acquired) and ran marketing on the West Coast for Benjamin Moore Paints. Throughout her career she has run events for internal and external audiences ranging in size from 5 – 15,000 attendees.
Julie Michael lives in Miami Beach with her husband, daughter and the multitudes of iguanas that occupy her backyard. She makes a point to put her daughter to bed each night as it reminds her of what is truly important.  

A passionate community organizer, Bita volunteers her time and expertise in support of numerous causes and is a popular speaker at various conferences on the topics of technology, philanthropy, art, culture, social justice and gender equality.
She was recognized by Conscious Company Media as one of the top 35 World-Changing Women and by Capacity Media as an Agent of Change during their Women in Tech 2019 Awards, Bita was also recognized recently as part of the 10 Most Successful Businesswomen to Watch in 2020 by CIOLOOK MAGAZINE.

Bita is a Forbes contributor and member of Forbes Communications Council. Although an Angeleno for over 30 years, Bita considers herself a global citizen. She is fluent in Persian and German, and proficient in conversational Spanish, French and Azeri.

As a seasoned traveler, she has had the pleasure of experiencing cuisines from various corners of the world. She is passionate about creating and sharing healthy dishes at BitaKitchen.com. “Food connects us,” Bita writes, “and when we are connected, we have the power to bring cultures together for positive change.” Bita Also hosts and produces the monthly radio show “B the Change” airing on KIRN670AM.

On a personal wellness note, she is an avid ballroom/salsa dancer and receives great joy from being married for over 20 years and spending time with her friends, family, and beautiful grandchildren.

Dr. Dara is committed to helping you gain clarity, find peace and awaken your power to get you unstuck with quick and effective shifts that tap into your inner champion to win the game of life. Dr. Dara lives in Asheville, North Carolina with her husband, two young children, two Italian Greyhounds and one gentle-giant Greyhound. Dr. Dara continues to be a competitive athlete at heart and lives an energetic, zestful lifestyle.

Dr. Jacquie’s mantra derives from the idea that the foundation of any society starts in the individual homes of people. Dr. Del Rosario also founded ReCapturing the Vision (RTV), a globally recognized nonprofit dedicated to helping the youth and their families overcome negative trends that lead to generational cycles of failure and dependency. ReCapturing the Vision’s programs have received over $20 million in federal, state and local funding.

As a marriage coach and certified state-approved premarital course provider, Dr. Del Rosario has developed proven tools to help break generational cycles of hardship that have crippled so many families. As a recognized public speaker Dr. Del Rosario has dynamic topics for singles, married couples, professional associations, universities, and churches. As an educator, author, advocate, counselor and visionary, Dr. Jacquie holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, a Master’s in Education, and a Doctorate of Education in Organizational Leadership. She resides in Miami, FL with her husband of over 20 years and two sons.

MilkNKisses focuses on supporting breastfeeding families through expert consultation and education. We’re here to support families through shallow latches, sore nipples, low milk supplies, or any other challenge that might arise. We work hard to lead our patients through a successful breastfeeding journey however difficult that journey may be.

In a previous life, Alicia worked at Cedar Sinai Medical Center, and now enjoys being a wife and mother of 3 (1 adopted, 2 biological, all breastfed) and learning to play the violin in her spare time.

Kirk is highly valued for his full-scope leadership of commercial and legal matters. With extensive M&A experience, he has negotiated and closed large global deals and transactions, including acquisitions, company sales and mergers, divestments, and Chapter 11 reorganization. He also offers a strong record of finance and investor relations, including successfully raising capital, establishing and revising corporate governance, and driving stockholder engagement and approval. As a Compliance Officer, Kirks cultivates a culture of compliance through policy development, training, and awareness-building across global operations.

His added expertise spans Global Strategy, Intellectual Property, Risk Management, HumanResource/Employment Law, and Litigation across multiple tech-sector industries.

As an international speaker and thought leader, she has been interviewed on CNBC, CNN, Ethisphere, HR Magazine, Compliance Week, The FCPA Report, Entrepreneur.com, Chief Learning Officer, ATD, Corporate Counsel, the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics. She hosted the “PRINCIPLED” Podcast, profiling the stories of some of the top transformational leaders in corporate governance. She is an expert fellow on USC’s Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision Making, on the Advisory Board of USC’s Dornsife, LMH Strategies, Inc. an integrative supply chain advisory firm and Compliance.ai, a regulatory change management firm. Marsha holds an EdD and MA from Pepperdine University. Her BA is from the University of Southern California. She is a certified compliance and ethics professional.

Marsha’s greatest lessons of leadership have emerged through the gift of motherhood. Her personal evolution rose through balancing a career, pursuing her penultimate degree, and raising two young adults to be grounded in their bi-cultural identity. None of her growth would have been possible without the supportive confidence of her greatest champion and accountability partner, Lamont Hames. Her husband’s primary objective every day is to make her smile. Striving for wellness and mental balance is a dynamic part of her continuous learning. Exercise and playing the piano are her balance beams.

Prior to her current endeavors, she led her technology firm, Paragon Technology Group, which she co-founded. Under Gazelle’s leadership, Paragon grew organically from a revenue base of $1M in 2003 to over $41M in 2011 serving the public and private sectors’ management consulting and technology services needs. Paragon was selected to the Inc. Magazine 5000 list in 2010 and 2011 and recognized as a high performing government contractor.

Formerly, Gazelle was the Director of IT at Broadband Office, CIO of Picus, Director of IT at Teligent, and held other management and engineering positions at MCI metro and Hughes Network Systems. Gazelle earned a Masters in Telecommunications from the George Washington University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from George Mason University. Gazelle lives in Washington DC and Miami.

In addition to Paragon’s awards, she has received the SmartCEO Brava Award and SmartCEO 100, inducted to the George Washington’s school of engineering hall of fame, among many others. Gazelle is passionate about helping families in need around the world and advancing females in the workforce.

Gazelle is a believer in nurturing multiple aspects of one’s wellness in order to gain clarity and stay grounded. Her life has revolved around family, career, philanthropy, community, and personal health. She enjoys sharing her experience in her endeavor to manage it all with her network of peers and mentees.

In her free time, Morgan enjoys mentoring BIPOC and female founders, skydiving, traveling, and meditating. She lives in Los Angeles where she oversees her company, Vantage Point, and is working on her first book.

She completed her RYT 500 hour advanced Yoga teacher training geared to bring the more therapeutic benefits of yoga to specialized populations, from Niroga Yoga. The focus of this year-long training included bringing yoga to athletes, yoga for stress management, for the aging population, and cancer patients who wanted to regain strength after invasive therapies.
Sheetal assisted in bringing yoga to San Francisco’s football team the 49’ers. She was instrumental in reshaping their fitness and wellness protocols by providing Yoga to the 49’ers teams. The focus shifted to build more flexibility and mindfulness to the athletes to help prevent game related injuries, overall wellness and mental fitness.
Currently, she teaches vinyasa flow with aspects of functional movement in a mixed class online. She also teaches chair yoga to seniors. She believes yoga and functional movement helps us stay healthy, strong and eventually age with grace and dignity.
Her goal this year is to make yoga accessible on-line to all athletes, youth and underserved populations.
Sheetal encourages all her students to find their personal Yoga and to use the asana practice as a tool to expand their consciousness and to bring more awareness to their mind, body and spirit. She aims to guide each student into that place of peace and calm by linking breath and movement.
When she is not teaching, Sheetal loves spending time with her family and their newly adopted Goldendoodle puppy in Austin, Texas. Loki!

With over two decades of corporate, consulting, coaching and – let’s be honest real life experience, Parissa’s key strategic difference is Empathy. Empathy in business is more than being nice to one another, it’s a strategic imperative. It means that leaders create context and understanding so that they do a better job of serving their customers AND engaging their teams. She’s so passionate about the application of empathy in business that she’s developed the Sixense Empathy Model for her clients to employ. And, she wants all of us to put empathy at the forefront of how we engage with everybody.

One of Parissa’s favorite things to do is to stand in front of a whiteboard – real or pretend – to help clients imagine what the world could look like and then propels them as they navigate to that vision of success. This work enables clients to put together pieces of the puzzle to create the “A-Ha!” or “Eureka!” moment that ignites action. She leans into the discomfort of the unknown and invites her clients to embrace all of their talents (even ones they don’t recognize or value fully) to create their own paths out of the unknown.

Bella has participated in Virgin Unite Leadership Gatherings and is a member of Virgin Unite and the Disruptors Group. Bella has sat on numerous prestigious non profit boards. Currently, Bella is on the Board of Directors for Commercial Spaceflight Federation, Advisory Board for Space For Humanity, Space Ambassador for NSS, and has been asked to be part of the Brookings Institute, UNICEF, XPRIZE Vision Circle and many more. Bella is certified and/or trained in Micro Expression, Strategic Leadership, Body Language Surveillance and Emotional Intelligence

Becoming a Robbins-Madanes certified life coach was her next step in self discovery and another experience to tap into in order to have access to every available tool from the best leaders and teachers around. She has chosen a more specific path of counseling and has opted to work with a select number of world leaders, executives, entrepreneurs, celebrities and public figures on a one on one basis versus offering group guidance.

Bella is Passionate about the Private Space Sector, Climate Change, Advising and Creating Innovative Thinking in Individuals and Companies. Bella is a captivating public speaker and author of 2 upcoming books based on her training philosophies and success. Whatever time is left in her busy life is devoted to philanthropic causes, primarily those focusing on helping children, saving the planet and positive change on Earth.