A panel of Silicon Valley superstars, impact investors, and national advisors on socially equitable entrepreneurship join forces to discuss investing in, educating, and empowering the next generation of changemaking business leaders.
Thursday, April 11, 8:00pm | The Jefferson Theater
FREE to Attend
SPEAKERS
Jill Royster, Strategic Advisor and Investor
Jill is a partner at 2nd Wind Ventures, a firm that advises and invests in early stage businesses. With a portfolio of 20+ companies, 2nd Wind builds strategic relationships with its Founders, striking a balance between high growth and sustainable progress. Jill specifically supports women in the health/wellness/lifestyle space via direct investment or as an Advisor. A recent transplant from NYC to LA, Jill is also developing a network of female Funders on both coasts to help women secure more access to capital. Jill is a marketer by training and has led initiatives for some of the world’s biggest brands including Sports Illustrated, Apple, The North Face, AB In Bev, Citi Bank and NBCUniversal. She has worked in client, media and agency roles, giving her unique perspective on how to execute campaigns that deliver meaningful results. A lecturer on Marketing & Social Good, Jill believes that to stand up, one must first be willing to stand apart. She serves on the Board for SE@UVA as well as No Barriers, a non-profit that provides transformative experiences to underserved populations.
Cheis Garrus, Managing Director, Catalyst Real Estate Advisors
For more than 20 years Mr. Garrus has provided advice and analysis for investments, mergers and acquisitions, corporate strategy, business development and management. He currently advises developers and institutional investors in emerging markets. In his career, Mr. Garrus served as Director, International Housing Solutions and Equities Analyst, Strategic African Securities (Ghana), and held positions in private equity and business development. Mr. Garrus received his MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania in 1997 and a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences from the University of Virginia in 1990.
Meredith T. Shields, Managing Director, Sorenson Impact Foundation
Meredith is the Managing Director for the Sorenson Impact Foundation (SIF), which invests in innovative companies that are creating and scaling ideas to enhance social good around the world. Meredith manages the foundation’s impact investing portfolios and field building initiatives. She engages with social entrepreneurs and fund managers around the world who are working across the agriculture, technology, education, healthcare and retail sectors to develop solutions to the world’s most pressing social issues in a sustainable way. Prior to joining the Sorenson Impact Foundation, the majority of Meredith’s career was in investment banking and strategy consulting. She has also previously consulted to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation in both Rwanda and the U.S. as well as the Beyond Capital Fund, an early-stage impact investment fund, in Zurich, Switzerland. Meredith holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a B.S. in Commerce from the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce.
Monica Logothetis, Cofounder, DreamWakers
Monica serves as the Co-Founder and Chair of DreamWakers, a national education technology nonprofit that virtually connects under-resourced classrooms to exceptional career professionals. Under her leadership, DreamWakers has expanded to 40 states in four years, harnessing the power of video chats to provide unique career exploration opportunities to over 12,000 students. Monica has been named a Toyota ‘Mother of Invention’ and a L’Oréal Paris ‘Woman of Worth,’ and her work has been recognized in The New York Times, Bloomberg, and Forbes. She holds a Master of Public Policy and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia.
Christine Mahoney, Director of Social Entrepreneurship, University of Virginia
Christine Mahoney is a Professor of Public Policy and Politics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and Director of Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Virginia. She studies social justice advocacy, activism and direct action through social entrepreneurship. To help foster innovative solutions to social problems she launched and leads Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Virginia. Over the past six years SE@UVA has introduced new courses on social entrepreneurship, a minor, a concept competition, scholarships to work with social enterprises and a range of student activities providing hands-on experience in social innovation.
EMCEE
Navin Thukkaram, Lead Investor / Board Member, Skykick, Celebrity Judge, American Evolution Innovators Cup
Navin Thukkaram is a technology investor and entrepreneur who has generated over $3 billion in exits. Navin is lead investor and board member of SkyKick, a cloud software company with 20,000+ businesses in 100+ countries. He has served on several boards for companies ranging from $50 million to $2 billion+ in value.Navin was previously COO, board member, and seed round investor of Qwiki, a New York-based mobile startup acquired by Yahoo! for $50 million. Prior, Navin was a partner of Vulcan Capital Private Equity, the investment firm of Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen. Navin is a graduate of Princeton, BSE, and Harvard, MBA. Navin has been featured on CNBC, Fox News, Fortune and other major media outlets globally. He serves as an adviser to CSIS, the #1 U.S. defense think tank, and previously served as a Trustee of Hampden-Sydney College and as an adviser to the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations.