Amy’s multifaceted career has ranged from founding and operating companies, to investing in startups, to volunteer nonprofit leadership. Currently, Amy is Founder and CEO of Madison Reed, an omnichannel beauty brand that is challenging industry titans in the hair color space. She is also a Partner at True Ventures, focusing on investments in consumer and ecommerce startups.

The Springboard portfolio numbers over 800 companies securing investment of financial and human capital for product development and expansion, having created over $27 Billion in value, created tens of thousands of new jobs, and generated billions in annual revenues.

Dr. Perry has been named as the American Marketing Association (AMA) Foundation’s 2020 Williams-Qualls-Spratlen (WQS) Multicultural Mentoring Award of Excellence recipient. The AMA annually presents this award to a marketing professor who makes significant contributions as a mentor to students and professionals of color in the marketing field.

Dr. Liesl Riddle is the associate dean of graduate programs and an associate professor of international business and international affairs at the George Washington University School of Business.

Graciela Coy is Director at Ak’ Tenamit, a social enterprise located in eastern Guatemala in the heart of the Q’eqchi Maya communities it serves. Ak’ Tenamit’s provides vocational training in tourism to Indigenous youth from throughout the country. Students can pursue degrees in rural community
development or sustainable tourism that are fully funded by the social enterprise. Students’ have internships in the four restaurants, three fair-trade handicraft shops and inn that Ak’ Tenamit owns. The revenue generated from the shops and tourism activities are reinvested to provide free education to Indigenous youth. Ak’ Tenamit’s Board of Directors is 100 percent Indigenous and includes representatives from the communities that it serves. Graciela also serves as President of the Sustainable Tourism Network of the Maya Caribbean with its headquarters in Izabal, Guatemala.

Jill was formerly at NYU’s Stern School of Business as Director of Social Entrepreneurship and the Chair for the 30-course MBA specialization in social Innovation and Impact. She is the Founding Director of the Annual Conference on Social Entrepreneurship, the largest academic conference in the field. She has published more than 100 articles in leading entrepreneurship and management journals and her bestselling book, Understanding Social Entrepreneurship has been adopted in over 80 universities. Jill is the Editor of the Social Entrepreneurship Journal and her work on entrepreneurship education has been nationally recognized by Fortune as a Top 10 Innovative Program.

Julienne (Julie) Shields is the President and CEO of the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) and started in that role in March of 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic.  Since that time, she facilitated the transition of the board from an operating board to a governing board, shepherded the organization from its traditional in-person conference to its first virtual conference, and invested in digital and virtual competencies and platforms to prepare for future emergent virtual and hybrid events. 

Leo X. (Lex) McCusker, PhD, is the Director of the Student Entrepreneurship Programs at George Washington University, which include the GW New Venture Competition.   He is also the Principal Investigator (PI) for the NSF I-Corps Site Program at GW, InnovateGW.

Dr. Mary Kilfoil Executive Director of the Canadian Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (CCSBE); Assistant Professor, Dalhousie University, President of Innovate Atlantic Inc.  Mary led the team that brought the Lean Startup and Design Thinking entrepreneurship teaching methodologies to Dalhousie University. In 2014 Mary received the national Entrepreneurship Educator Award from Startup Canada. Dr. Kilfoil has more than 20 years’ experience in the private sector and held the position of Senior Economist at Gardner Pinfold Consultants.

Olivia Rose is a member of the Crow Nation in southeast Montana. She founded Indian Battle Tours after working as a tour guide through the Crow Tribe’s Apsaalooke Tours.

Rose takes visitors through the stories of culture clash on two reservations, the Crow and thebordering Northern Cheyenne in southeastern Montana. Providing the alternative facts to the
glory and glamour of the Indian Wars portrayed by Hollywood, her field tours include the Little Big Horn, Fetterman and Rosebud battle sites. She is passionate about sharing the stories and details that are often ignored and erased in history and does just that in her tours of the many battle field sites in Southeastern Montana. Her commitment and dedication to seeing her dream through is inspiring. In many Native cultures, most especially Plains Tribes, our storytellers are held in high respect. They are responsible for the passing down of knowledge so that we do not lose our Ways of life, traditions, stories and languages. Olivia is a storyteller. The smallest of details do not elude her and she draws People in with her ability to share these stories and genuine love for history. Rose has been able to generate tourism for Montana, operate a growing business and stay true to her cultural storytelling roots.

 Seleni Matus is Executive Director of the International Institute of Tourism Studies at the George Washington University. She is a founder of the Indigenous Tourism Collaborative of the Americas and works with Indigenous communities throughout the Americas to develop and manage sustainable tourism.

Stephanie is the Director of Research Partnerships at Ryerson
University where she focuses on women’s entrepreneurship and
diversity and inclusion in corporate Canada. Previously, she worked
with UN Women as the National Coordinator in Canada for the WE
EMPOWER G7 programme encouraging deeper action in the private and public sector to advance women’s economic empowerment in
Canada and throughout the G7.

She is a Virtual and In-Person Event Manager. Along with planning, organizing and executing in person events, she also help flip events and conferences that would need to shut down in this season and bring it to the virtual space. This could be, but not limited to, developing, organizing and managing online event, working with setting up the chosen online platform, and speaker preparation.

Dr. Tania Saba is the founder and holder of the BMO Chair in Diversity and Governance at the University of Montreal. She is a full professor at the School of Industrial Relations at the University of Montreal. She is also in charge of the Knowledge Portal development project for women in entrepreneurship, for Quebec and French-speaking communities in Canada.

Uwahnie Melanie Martinez was born in Southern Belize in the Garifuna Town of Punta Gorda. Her name “Uwahnie” meaning “Soul” inspired her from a young age to work on answering the call from her ancestors to help preserve Garifuna Culture through progressive action.

She’s a eco-cultural entrepreneur, owner/manager of Palmento Grove Eco-Cultural & Fishing Institute and offers Belize Cultural Adventure Travel Services focused on sharing the beauty of the country through the lens of the natives in the most empowering ways. Operating out of the coastal Garifuna Village of Hopkins, where she is supported by her dad and two children, they place family pride in being a 100% indigenous-owned tourism business in Belize utilizing modern technology and marketing platforms to expose their cultural products to the world.

Virginia Rose-Losada is the Global Coordinator and lead officer for the ILO’s Women’s Entrepreneurship Development Programme. Since joining the ILO in 2009, Virginia has held various positions of growing responsibility in supporting entrepreneurship and SME initiatives, programmes and policies targeting women and youth in over 15 countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Between 2018 and 2020, she worked for the ILO Office for the Caribbean as Enterprises Specialist where she focused on issues such as resilience and productivity in small island contexts.