Lauren Kay is the founder of online dating company, Dating Ring. Lauren Kay is a graduate of Brown University.
Caroline Starner is Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Oakley, Inc., a $1.2 billion company with more than 5,000 employees worldwide. As a valued member of Oakley’s executive team, Caroline provides strategic HR leadership to attract, retain, and develop the best team of people on the planet for a company that has earned global renown. Oakley creates innovations that serve sport performance, active and lifestyle customers in more than 100 countries. Caroline joined the Oakley management team in 2009 to strengthen partnerships between the company’s global HR team and its business units, and maximize operational and organizational effectiveness. Her previous experience includes serving as Vice President of Human Resources for Pacific Sunwear of Ca. Inc., where she provided HR solutions for close to 19,000 employees. Her experience and expertise in process reengineering, strategic staffing and management transition goes back decades, including service as Vice President of Human Resources for a $4.5 billion division of Gap, Inc., an organization with more than 45,000 employees. Caroline has held senior human resources positions with global accountability within leading companies that include DuPont, Pepsi Co. and Johnson & Johnson, utilizing skills that range from team leadership to executive coaching and beyond. A native of New Jersey, Caroline has a Bachelor of Science in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University.
M. Christine DeVita is President of The Wallace Foundation, a private charitable foundation created by Lila and DeWitt Wallace, the founders of Reader's Digest, as a legacy of their own philanthropic lives.
DeVita joined the foundation in November 1987. Since then, she has led the foundation as it has shifted away from project-focused grantmaking and toward more integrated strategies that combine program, evaluation and communications expertise to deliver social benefits beyond the recipients of the foundation's direct grants.
DeVita earned her B.A. magna cum laude from Queens College of the City University of New York and her J.D. cum laude from Fordham University School of Law.
Debra Goldfarb is Vice President of STG MI and Strategy Systems and Technology Group at IBM Corporation. Debra joined IBM in 2003 as the VP of Strategy and Products for the Deep Computing Division, after spending nearly 16 years with IDC as Group Vice President for Systems, Workstations and High-Performance Systems, Channels, and Life Sciences.
In September 2004, Debra was named Vice President of STG MI and Strategy where she is responsible for driving the STG strategic agenda as well as aligning MI functions with core strategic priorities.
Janice Bourque is Senior Vice President and Group Head-Life Sciences for Comerica Bank. Formerly, Ms. Bourque was President/CEO of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MBC) where she led the organization for 12 years. Under her leadership, the MBC membership grew from 80 to over 400 organizations with revenue increasing from $500,000 to over $4.1 million. Ms. Bourque created multiple services, policy initiatives and the Education Foundation (MassBioEd) that focused on science education, workforce training and public awareness. Under Ms. Bourque's tenure, the MassBiotech 2010 was released which provided a blueprint for Massachusetts to remain at the forefront of the biotechnology revolution.
Ms. Bourque has held several previous senior managerial positions, including CFO of Cambridge Medical Technology Corporation, senior public accountant for Coopers & Lybrand Emerging and Middle Market Group, and as a NASA Space Science grant project manager for the first satellite payloads to be repaired by the space shuttle missions.
Ms. Bourque was a member of Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's Transition Team. She is currently a Board of Director of the Boston History Collaborative and Chair of the Board of the Women Entrepreneurs in Science & Technology (WEST). In 2004, she was awarded the Woman of Valor Award by the American Diabetes Association and the 2004 Distinguished Leadership Award by the Huntington Disease Society for her work in public policy and public health. In 2003, Boston Magazine named her one of Boston's 100 most influential women and the Cambridge Chamber Commerce awarded her Business Person of the Year. Ms. Bourque received her MBA degree in finance and accounting and her BS degree in veterinary science from the University of New Hampshire.
Pat Granahan joined the Fish & Neave IP Group of Ropes & Gray as a partner in 2001. Pat's practice includes patent application drafting and prosecution, technology licensing, and providing patentability, patent validity and non-infringement assessments in a wide variety of scientific disciplines, and especially biotechnology and chemistry. Pat has been in practice since 1983 and during that time, has worked with many non-profit academic and research institutes, as well as companies ranging in size from small startups to large multinational businesses, particularly in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. Pat is Patent Counsel at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and will continue in this role. Prior to joining the Firm, she was a partner of Hamilton, Brook, Smith, and Reynolds.
Vivian Schiller is the former president and CEO of National Public Radio, and former head of news and journalism partnerships at Twitter. She is also the former senior vice president and chief digital officer for NBC News, including oversight of NBCNews.com. Vivian Schiller graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor's degree in Russian studies and Soviet studies, and a has Master's degree in Russian from Middlebury College.
Natalie Grillon is the Co-founder and COO at JUST. JUST promotes transparency in fashion supply chains by connecting designers and consumers to ethical suppliers. Natalie has worked with the Peace Corps in Northern Mali as a Natural Resource Management Specialist. She also worked in environmental and sustainability planning for a Massachusetts town government and in sustainability strategy and marketing at SC Johnson. Natalie Grillon holds a B.S. in International Politics from Georgetown University, and an M.B.A. from Cornell University.
Erin O'Connor is a Partner with Cammack Health (formerly Cammack LaRhette). Erin has helped evolve the company's hospital centric services to expand beyond traditional employee benefits by developing strategic partnerships with clients who are migrating to population health management. She works with industry leaders, clients and partners to develop best practices for accountable care.
Erin has 25 years of experience in human resources and health care operations. Prior to joining Cammack Health, she was the chief HR executive at two large healthcare organizations for over seven years, one of which operated several health plans.
Erin O'Connor is a graduate of Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations and Fordham University School of Law.