Robin Wolaner (born 1954) is an entrepreneur and business author. In February 2015 she became COO of We Care Solar, a nonprofit that provides its Solar Suitcase to power last-mile health clinics in the developing world. In September 2015 the United Nations' Department of Economic and Social Affairs awarded We Care Solar the inaugural "Powering the Future We Want" award for innovations in sustainable development.
Currently a director of Credo mobile, she is the founder of TeeBeeDee, an online network for baby boomers that launched in 2007 and folded in 2009. She was an executive at CNET from 1997 to 2002; after leaving CNET, she wrote a book of business advice for women and became an advisor to tech startups. In 1985, she founded Parenting magazine, later sold to Time Inc. Her founding of Parenting is documented in one of the most popular [1] case studies by Harvard Business School, taught to all first-year students of the school. She graduated from Cornell University in 1975 with a bachelor of science in industrial and labor relations.
MIT Technology Review is a bimonthly magazine wholly owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and editorially independent of the university. It was founded in 1899 as The Technology Review, and was re-launched without "The" in its name on April 23, 1998, under then publisher R. Bruce Journey. In September 2005, it was changed, under its then editor-in-chief and publisher, Jason Pontin, to a form resembling the historical magazine.
Matthew Charles Mullenweg is an American entrepreneur and web developer living in Houston. He is known for developing and founding the free and open-source web software WordPress, and its parent company Automattic.
Sheryl Kara Sandberg is an American technology executive, philanthropist, and writer. Sandberg served as chief operating officer (COO) of Meta Platforms, a position from which she stepped down in August 2022. She is also the founder of LeanIn.Org. In 2008, she was made COO at Facebook, becoming the company's second-highest ranking official. In June 2012, she was elected to Facebook's board of directors, becoming the first woman to serve on its board. As head of the company's advertising business, Sandberg was credited for making the company profitable. Prior to joining Facebook as its COO, Sandberg was vice president of global online sales and operations at Google and was involved in its philanthropic arm Google.org. Before that, Sandberg served as research assistant to Lawrence Summers at the World Bank, and subsequently as his chief of staff when he was Bill Clinton's United States Secretary of the Treasury.
Kathy Giusti is a business leader and a healthcare disrupter. She is a two-time cancer survivor having been diagnosed with multiple myeloma and breast cancer. Kathy Co-Founded the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation where she served as CEO and president for nearly two decades. She also co-chaired the Harvard Business School (HBS) Kraft Precision Medicine Accelerator, which she helped found, as a Senior Fellow at Harvard Business School.
Ralph de la Vega is the former Vice Chairman of AT&T Inc. and CEO of AT&T Business Solutions and AT&T International. He has previously served as President & CEO of AT&T Mobile & Business Solutions; President and CEO of AT&T Mobility; COO of Cingular Wireless; President of BellSouth Latin America Operations; and the President of Broadband and Internet Services for BellSouth. He is also the author of the 2009 book Obstacles Welcome: How to Turn Adversity to Advantage in Business and Life. Ralph de la Vega retired December 31, 2016, after a 42-year career with AT&T.
Julie L. Wainwright is an e-commerce entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of The RealReal, an online marketplace for authenticated luxury consignment.
Leila Janah was an American businesswoman. She was the founder and CEO of Sama and LXMI. Sama's 11,000 employees have worked under contracts with companies including Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Walmart, Getty Images, Glassdoor and Vulcan Capital.
Megan J. Smith is an American engineer and technologist. She was the third Chief Technology Officer of the United States and Assistant to the President, serving under President Barack Obama. She was previously a vice president at Google, leading new business development and early-stage partnerships across Google's global engineering and product teams at Google for nine years, was general manager of Google.org, a vice president briefly at Google[x] where she co-created WomenTechmakers, is the former CEO of Planet Out and worked as an engineer on early smartphones at General Magic. She serves on the boards of MIT and Vital Voices, was a member of the USAID Advisory Committee on Voluntary Aid and co-founded the Malala Fund. Today Smith is the CEO and Founder of shift7. On September 4, 2014, she was named as the third U.S. CTO, succeeding Todd Park, and serving until January, 2017.
Sheila Lirio Marcelo is a Filipino-American entrepreneur. She is the co-founder and CEO of Proof of Learn, an education platform. Prior to Proof of Learn, she founded Care.com, an online marketplace for childcare, senior care, special needs care, tutoring, pet care, and housekeeping, where she served as CEO and chairwoman.
Rebecca Enonchong is a Cameroonian technology entrepreneur and also the founder and CEO of AppsTech. She is best known for her work promoting technology in Africa.
Jaime "Jim" Ayala is a social entrepreneur based in Manila, Philippines. He founded the Hybrid Network, a cluster of social businesses that pioneered the "hybrid value chain" concept. Before he became a social entrepreneur, he had a long career in business, as a consultant for McKinsey & Company and CEO of Ayala Land, a publicly listed company. Ayala was recognized by Ernst & Young as the 2012 Entrepreneur of the Year and the 2012 Social Entrepreneur of the Year for the Philippines. In 2013, he was named as one of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship's 24 World Social Entrepreneurs of the Year.
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy is a technology executive and entrepreneur. Formerly the president of StubHub, she has worked at various tech and media companies including Google, Amazon and News Corp, Yodlee (YODL), and Polyvore. In 2011, she founded JOYUS, the video shopping platform for women, and served as CEO then Chairman until 2017. Singh Cassidy is also Founder of theBoardlist.
Aileen Lee is a U.S. venture capital angel investor and co-founder of Cowboy Ventures.
Rebeca Minguela is a Spanish entrepreneur and startup advisor. She was the founder and CEO of Blink Booking, now Blink by Groupon, an award-winning mobile app to book hotels last minute in Europe. When Blink was acquired by Groupon in September 2013, she joined Groupon.
James Park is a South Korean-American technology entrepreneur. He co-founded Fitbit and has been its CEO and president since September 2007. He was named in 2015 among Fortune magazine's 40 Under 40, an annual ranking of the most influential young people in business. With a net worth of $660 million estimated by Forbes, he was ranked #29 in the magazine's America's Richest Entrepreneurs Under 40 in 2015. James Park announced that Fitbit became part of Google on January 14, 2021.
Hayley Barna is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist who co-founded Birchbox in 2009, while at Harvard Business School. In 2015, Barna "stepped away from her day-to-day role" at Birchbox, remaining a board member. In 2016, she became a partner of First Round Capital.
Sylvia Acevedo is an American engineer and businesswoman. She was the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Girl Scouts of the USA from 2016 to 2020. A systems engineer by education, she began her career at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she was on the Voyager 2 team. She has held executive roles at Apple, Dell, and Autodesk. In 2018, Acevedo was included in a Forbes list of "America's Top 50 Women In Tech". She was a founder, with 3 others of REBA Technology, an infiniband company that was sold and also the Founder and CEO of CommuniCard. As CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA, Acevedo led the organization's largest release of badges, over 100 badges in STEM and Outdoors over three years.
Laura Stachel is a former medical doctor who founded and leads We Care Solar, a nonprofit that manufactures and deploys solar electric systems the size of a suitcase for use in medical clinics in the developing world. She is also the mother of actor and singer Ari'el Stachel.
Lisa Dyson is an American scientist, physicist, and entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of Kiverdi, a biotechnology company that uses carbon transformation technologies to develop sustainable products for commercial applications, including agriculture, plastics, and biodegradable materials. She is also the founder and CEO of Air Protein, a spin-off company from Kiverdi, which seeks to produce sustainable meat alternatives from elements found in air.
Sadaffe Abid is a social entrepreneur from Karachi, Pakistan and the former COO and CEO of Kashf Foundation. She is the founder of tech-organization CIRCLE, and its current CEO. She is also a Vice Chairperson of Pakistan Microfinance Network.