Formerly Zya’s President and Chief Operating Officer, Bo Bazylevsky co-founded the company with CEO Matt Serletic while still on Wall Street. The two started the endeavor given their shared passion for music, and a belief that every consumer should be able to express themselves musically. With a well-honed ability to map risk, Bazylevsky was a creative partner as well as the financial strategist behind the Calabasas, Calif.-based, venture-backed start-up, which he originally seeded with Serletic. Bo was instrumental in securing several rounds of angel and VC investments for the company, most notably from VCs Intel Capital, Liberty Global, and Shea Ventures. With a 20-year track record in trading and investing, Bazylevsky has successfully managed several multi-billion dollar portfolios throughout the most volatile periods in emerging markets history for Credit Suisse-First Boston, Bear Stearns, and JPMorgan. He served as Global Head of Emerging Markets Corporate Trading at JP Morgan, and then joined hedge fund Moore Capital/James Caird Asset Management as partner and Senior Portfolio Manager until joining Zya full time in 2010. Bazylevsky has been recognized by The Wall Street Journal and Asset Magazine as one of the Emerging Markets’ most influential traders and portfolio managers, and served as Co- Chair of The Emerging Markets Traders Association (EMTA). Bazylevsky returned to Wall Street in September 2014, as a Managing Director in Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Emerging Markets bond trading division. He now serves as Zya’s Lead Board Director and resides in NYC with his wife and two daughters. Bo Bazylevsky received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University.
Joanne McKinney is Chief Strategy Officer for the Burns Group, an independent Branding and Advertising Agency based in NYC. She has worked in innovation, advertising and marketing on diverse and global brands both in the U.S. and abroad. Joanne started her career at Grey Advertising, and joined the Burns Group following her role as Interim Director of Integrated Marketing for Kraft Europe. Joanne McKinney received her undergraduate degree from Cornell University.
Dr. Emmanuel Dumont is a principal investigator at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute in New York City. His research focuses on wearable technologies for chronic disease management. Dr. Dumont is also the founder and CEO of SHADE, a medical-grade ultraviolet sensor with real-time feedback on smartphone for lupus management. SHADE has been backed by the Jacobs Institute, Weill-Cornell Medical College, PCH, and SilverTech Ventures. Dr. Dumont holds a MS in Mathematics and Physics from Mines de Paris (France) and a PhD in biomedical engineering from Columbia University.
Meghan Cross is a Managing Director at Red Bear Angels. She has nearly a decade of operating experience launching and growing media & software companies in New York and Silicon Valley. As an early Director at StyleCaster Inc., Meghan led the digital media conglomerate’s marketing team through the business’ exit to She Knows Media. Prior, Meghan was in Public Relations, helping to build such brands as Skype and Foursquare into household names. She draws venture experience from working with Bowery Capital, Foundation Capital, Metamorphic Ventures, and StarVest Partners, where she analyzed potential investments and provided portfolio value-add. She is the founder of Cross Venture Services LLC, a launch advisor to such commerce platforms as Sailo (TechStars ’15), Shareswell, and Thursday Boot Co. Meghan Cross received her B.S. in Fiber & Textile Science from Cornell University and M.B.A. from Columbia Business School, where she co-led of the school’s entrepreneurship program and was Steve Blank’s teaching assistant for The Lean Launchpad.
Marc Prud\'hommeaux is the Founder and Principal Developer at Glimpse I/O. Marc has been developing for Cocoa in Objective-C since 2006, and he was the author of the first e-book reader in the Apple App Store: Stanza. Before that, he was an enterprise Java developer and one of the original authors of Apache OpenJPA. Marc Prud\'hommeaux graduated from Cornell University.
Nora Poggi is the Director and Producer of \"She Started It\". She is a French journalist with a background in film production who has been interviewing key players in Silicon Valley for the past four years. After graduating from French top schools Sciences Po Paris and La Sorbonne, she moved to San Francisco to work for French social network Viadeo.com. She then went back to her first love, films, with the production company Lucky Dragon Productions, where she trained in all areas of film production and promotion. At the same time, she started freelance reporting for Examiner.com on major Silicon Valley events, producing video interviews with tech industry players. She now also writes about entrepreneurship & tech for French newspaper Usine Nouvelle.
Mike Thompson served as an Executive Vice President and General Manager of Mobile & Consumer Division at Nuance Communications, Inc. until February 2016 Mike Thompson holds a Professional Engineer\'s license in mechanical engineering and earned an M.B.A. at Cornell University after completing his undergraduate engineering studies at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
Steve Shapiro is the CEO of Academic Merit. Prior to this role, Steve had launched four different successful start-ups, ranging from K-12 intervention in urban school districts, tutoring and test prep, adult workforce development and international student exchange. In addition to his numerous entrepreneurial ventures, Steve is an adviser and angel investor for a number of other EdTech start-ups. Steve guides Academic Merit’s strategy and business development so that more K-12 districts can reap the benefits of our virtuous cycle of tools. Steve Shapiro has both a BS and MBA from Cornell University.
Oliver Bajracharya is a Partner at the Intellectual Property Law Firm of CPH (Christie, Parker, Hale LLP). He has worked extensively with domestic and international companies specializing in various areas of technology, including medical devices, consumer electronics, sporting equipment, and apparel. Oliver Bajracharya received his undergraduate degree in engineering from Cornell University and his law degree from Tulane Law School.