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Mariette Wharton

Founder & CEO

An exited tech founder, angel investor in 100+ startups and a global speaker. She co-founded the first cloud video conferencing firm Vidtel in 2008 with an exit in 2013 to a Fortune 50 company. She was a tech executive for 15+ years at innovators before becoming an entrepreneur. Mariette holds an M.B.A. with honors from Columbia Business School, studied at the London School of Economics and holds a B.A. from Middlebury College.

Tarisai Garande

Board Member

Tarisai works on Apple Environmental Supply Chain Innovation. Previously a Director at ERM, she advised Fortune 500 companies on impactful sustainability initiatives to enhance business performance. A thought leader in building meaningful partnerships, Tarisai currently serves on boards of Silicon Valley nonprofits. She excels at shaping strategic vision and executing high-impact, enterprise-wide initiatives.

Annick Mohageg

Board Member

Annick is a Group Product Marketing Manager for Adobe Firefly, the new family of creative generative AI models coming to Adobe products. She was also a Product Marketing Consultant for various clients. She holds an M.B.A. from Virginia Tech and a Masters Degree from the Université De Sciences Economiques de Nice.

Laureen Hidalgo

Treasurer & Board Member

Laureen is currently a Senior Director for Salesforce, previously a Practice Director for Professional Services. She was also a Senior Manager for Deloitte and a Director for CA Technologies. She holds a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley and a Masters degree from San Jose State University.

Bethel Endawoke

Board Member

Bethel grew up in Ethiopia and attended the African Leadership Academy in South Africa. She studied entrepreneurial leadership and launched Fura Innovations to teach design thinking. She co-led NIMBLE Female Empowerment and Entrepreneurship workshops in Ethiopia and Morocco. She holds a B.A. from Middlebury College and is an M.S. candidate at Carnegie Mellon University.

Dane Wharton

Chief Technology Officer

Dane is the principal engineer building the NIMBLE AI-powered Startup Advisor on both the back and front end. Dane also manages the UI/UX and development team. Prior to his current role, he was a software engineer and product manager for the startup Brightband where he worked on AI projects. He previously worked for Evernote in software quality assurance.

Eileen Cheng

Media Advisor

Eileen Cheng is a Business Development Executive with nearly 15 years of experience working with firms including Cooley, Exponent, White & Case, and Fenwick & West. Eileen has served as a key advisor to partners, supported lateral partner recruiting, actively participated in the Women's Network, managed global business development for the Technology Transactions group, and mentored junior legal teams

Anna Walker

African Programs Advisor​

Anna is Principal University Recruiter at Uber, where she is committed to fostering inclusive and talented teams.  She holds a Master of Arts from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Arts from Kwame Nkrumah University in Kumasi.

Sage Loomis

Website Manager

Sage is a Chemical Engineering and Computer Science student at the University of Rochester. Their expertise in Wix Studio and capability in leadership has been an indispensible asset to our team since they joined us as an intern, and they have since been promoted to lead the Website Development Team.

Sarah Conway

Director of Media

Sara is an alumna of the NIMBLE Mindset entrepreneurship program in 2018 and then worked as an intern at NIMBLE Mindset from 2019-2020. She now oversees our media. Sara was chapter president of the Network of Enlightened Women (NeW) from 2022-2023. Previously she worked in event planning at Baby2Baby and is currently pursuing a degree in project management at CSU Chico.

Jason Goecke

AI Advisor

Jason has extensive experience as a startup founder and a Fortune 100 technology company senior executive. Previously, Jason worked as VP and General Manger of Commercial Client Software & Services at Intel and VP & General Manger of Collaboration at Cisco. He also serves as an international management consultant, board advisor, and guest speaker, sharing insights and expertise on SaaS, cloud native, communication solutions, and now AI/ML strategies.

Leilani Tian

Learning Platform Advisor

Leilani designs community-centered educational experiences and tools and has a background in product management, learning experience design and UX research with a focus on education and technology. She holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Industrial and Product Design from Stanford University and studied at Stanford’s d.school as well as the Learning Design technology master's program at Stanford's Graduate School of Education.

Robin Abrams

Robin Abrams

Prior CEO of Palm Computing and VeriFone with 30+ years of experience in high-tech, including as prior Managing Director Apple Asia.

Brent Ahrens

Brent Ahrens

General Partner at Canaan Partners, a venture capital firm, for the last 18 years. He holds an M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Dayton.

Michele Boal

Michele Boal

Michele is the Founder and CEO of Kadima, a company that empowers women to move forward with confidence and self-expression. She is also a Strategic Advisor for Change and was a Chief Philanthropy Officer and Co-founder for Quotient Technology Inc. She holds a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Shayna Modarresi

Shayna Modarresi

Shayna is a Senior Vice President for Bridge Bank, a Founder and General Partner for Lodestar Ventures, manages Deal Flow and Digital Disruption SiG for Band of Angels, and an Investment Advisory Member for Correlation Ventures. She holds a B.A. and a B.S. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Clarence Chui

Clarence Chui

Current CEO & Co-Founder of Pyxd, Inc. Former CEO & Co-Founder of Outward Inc., acquired in 2017 by Williams-Sonoma Inc. He was a Qualcomm SVP and is named on over 140 issued US utility patents. Clarence holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, and a M.S. and Ph.D. from MIT.

Joanna Strober

Joanna Strober

Founder and CEO of Midi Health, a venture-backed digital women's healthcare company. Previously, she founded early digital health pioneer Kurbo Health and has 2 decades of experience in direct private equity and venture capital investing. She holds a J.D. from UCLA and a B.A. from UPenn.

David Gilmour

David Gilmour

CTO of Allermi, former Managing Director of Blyth Capital Partners LLC, SVP at Oracle, numerous issued patents in machine learning, natural language processing, privacy and security. From Harvard, B.S. in Engineering and Applied Physics, a M.S. in Engineering and a M.B.A. with distinction.

Julie Arnheim

Julie Arnheim

Currently serving as the Director of Growth and Strategy for Pink Ribbon Good, Julie has significant expertise driving expansion for non-profits. She is also a Board Member for the JCC and holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.

David Hale

David Hale

Director at TechnoServe Labs and prior CEO at Gigwalk, Entrepreneur in Residence at Lightspeed Venture Partners, B.S. in Engineering, Stanford University, M.A. in Education Administration and Policy Analysis and M.B.A. from Stanford University.

Norman Happ

Norman Happ

CEO of aviation company Veryon, formerly CEO of EZ Texting, former SVP at Evernote, senior executive in Intuit’s Small Business Group, founder of two technology companies. He holds a B.S. from George Mason University.

Marika Holmgren

Marika Holmgren

Founder and prior CEO of Do Good Events, serving the Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood and the Goldman Environmental Prize. She served on the Board of ForestEthics for a decade. Marika now owns Home Town Mercantile in Half Moon Bay. She holds a B.A. from Middlebury College.

Piyush Mangalick

Piyush Mangalick

Piyush is a builder at Fidget Labs, reimagining solutions to everyday problems through an AI lens. Former VP, Partner Engineering at Facebook. Previously Director, Developer Platform & Partnerships at Instagram and Lead Sales Engineer and executive at Google. Co-founded multiple companies, B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Santa Clara University and M.B.A. from The Wharton School at UPenn.

Jen Paulson

Jen Paulson

Entrepreneurial thinker for decades (she created Fremont Hills Country Club summer camp as a teenager ran operations for 10 years), she was in project management at Komo Construction, and is currently in real estate at Christie's.

Evan Cranston

Evan Cranston

Evan has expertise in event planning, operations and over the last few years, helping clients make strategic real estate decisions. Her most recent role is VP at commercial real estate advisory firm JLL. She holds a B.A. from Brown University.

Iris Sagi

Iris Sagi

Iris is currently a Director of Philanthropy at FINCA International and a Chief Executive Officer at Truhoma. She has also held positions as Director for various nonprofit organizations such as There With Care of the Bay Area, Jewish National Fund, and Juma Ventures. She received her degree from Queens College.

Scott Wharton

Scott Wharton

Scott is CEO of Tandem PV. Prior to that role, he was GM/VP of B2B at Logitech. He has been a founder and executive at several other disruptive tech startups, pioneering VoIP and softswitch tech at VocalTec and BroadSoft and cloud video conferencing at Vidtel. He holds an M.B.A from Yale University.

Jody Shapiro

Jody Shapiro

Founder and former CEO of Productiv, Jody was previously the founder and CEO of GrowthDynamix and the Global Head of Google Analytics Premium. He holds an M.B.A. from Wharton and an M.S. in Computer Science from Cornell University.

Jonathan Norris

Jonathan Norris

Director at HSBC Innovation focused on tech healthcare. Managing Director of sales origination for SVB for 17 years in life science and healthcare venture capital firms. Jon holds a B.A. in business administration from the University of California, Riverside and a J.D. from Santa Clara University.

Sheira Ariel, Ph.D

Sheira Ariel, Ph.D

Sheira is current Director of Leadership Development at Marvell Technologies. She has held roles at Sun Microsystems and IBM and most recently, SVB. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, a M.A. in Business Research and a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from Stanford Business School.

Igor Pistelak

Igor Pistelak

COO and co-founder of Profit Circles, 12-year tenure at Cisco as Director of Worldwide Business Operations and Sales Operations in Europe and Emerging Markets, M.B.A. from Nottingham Trent University.

David Ratner

David Ratner

CEO of innovative cyber security firm HYAS. As CEO of Realm, he pivoted from open source to enterprise focus and sold to MongoDB. Prior CEO of Openwave Messaging, and COO of SEVEN, among other roles. He holds a B.A. in Math and Computer Science from Cornell University, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from UCLA.

Kristin Russel

Kristin Russel

CMO of healthcare company symplr, formerly SVP of Marketing for Carrot. She was VP of Marketing at Humana’s subsidiary, Transcend Insights and CEO & co-founder of Anachron, sold to ING Bank. She holds an M.A. in public administration from Carleton University in Canada and M.B.A. in international finance from École Supérieure de Commerce de Rennes, France.

Eran Sandhaus

Eran Sandhaus

Managing Partner and Co-Founder, J-Impact Fund. Former Managing Director, Copia Growth Partners. Senior executive for over 20+ years in Fortune 500 companies including Qualcomm and Marvell, leading global businesses, operations and M&A focused on server communications, storage, mobile handsets and Internet-of-Things (IoT).

James Schonzeit

James Schonzeit

Design and Research Manager for Square for Food and Beverage. Formerly Design Director at IDEO in San Francisco, previously Design Strategist at fuseproject and a Senior Design Researcher at IA Collaborative. James holds a B.A. in Economics, Film & Media Culture from Middlebury College.

Lauren Berman

Lauren Berman

Lauren is a former NIMBLE Board Member. She delivers improv and presentation training for NIMBLE. She co-founded the Hagigah Theatre Program, co-founded the Berman Skin Institute and is a Communication Coach for Kaiser Permanente. She served on the Board of TheatreWorks, and as preschool director of the Palo Alto JCC. She holds a degree in Theatre from Sacramento State University.

Laura Torres

Laura Torres

Laura is a former Board Member of NIMBLE. She has over 20 years of experience in product marketing, product management, strategy and communications in both B2B and B2C. Laura is a positioning consultant with Firebrick Consulting. Laura was VP and Director of Product Marketing for Eyefi, CMO Strategy Group and Peoplesoft and holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.

Jeff Russakow

Jeff Russakow

Board Member at Getaround, Jeff has held CEO positions at a Qualcomm spinout, a SaaS company and Boosted. He held senior executive roles at Yahoo!, Symantec, Adobe, SAP and McKinsey. Jeff holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.

Seymour Duncker

Seymour Duncker

Expert in AI, he is the co-founder and CEO of Mindscale Labs and a Fellow at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Policy for the World Project. He is a Machine Learning Advisor for Kinders and a Board Member at MVLA Foundation. He holds an M.B.A. from University of Passau and an undergrad degree from Technical University of Munich.

Danny Andreev

Danny Andreev

Danny is a founder and roboticist of Sunburn Schematics. Formerly production Engineering Manager at Verdant Robotics, former COO of General Symbol, Automation Engineer at Yubico, a founder and CTO for Microbiota Labs and Charged Inc., Hardware Engineer at Cisco and Kindred.ai. Studied at Washington University in St. Louis and Knox College.

Valerie Duncker​

Valerie Duncker​

Valerie is the Lead Executive Director at the Mountain View Education Foundation. She served as a Board Member for NIMBLE from 2019-2023. Previously, she has worked on cross-functional, global teams for a multi-billion dollar aerospace company, at a VC-backed technology startup and among other roles in management and engineering services companies. ​

Tami Rosen

Tami Rosen

Tami is a Chief People Officer and a board member for Pagaya. She was a Board Advisor for Beyond Barriers and held positions as Chief People Officer for various companies such as TBR Consulting, Atlassian, and Luminar Technologies. She holds a B.A. from Binghamton University.

Sameer Nadkarni

Sameer Nadkarni

Sameer is currently a Managing Director for Atlas Technology Group LLC. He was previously a Managing Director for Bindi Capital Group and WR Hambrecht + Co. He was also a Senior Analyst and Growth Equity Investor for Wexford Capital. He holds an M.B.A. from The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and a B.S. from the University of California, San Diego.

Andrew Devlin

Andrew Devlin

Andrew is President, Co-Founder and Board Member of PitchHub, as well as an Advisor at Boost Win Rate, both companies that leverage video to help businesses succeed. He has held major account management and sales roles at Polycom, Mitel, VeriSign, Kontiki and other technology firms. He studied at Castleknock College in Dublin, Ireland.

Mike Mohageg

Mike Mohageg

Mike is a VP of User Experience and Design for Globality, Inc., which leverages Generative AI to transform sourcing and procurement for business users. He was also a VP of User Experience and Design for both Medallia and Oracle. He holds a Ph.D. and M.S. from Virginia Tech and a B.A. from the California State University, Northridge.

Courtney Presto

Courtney Presto

Courtney is the founder and CEO of Presto, a social media platform that monetizes smaller and aspiring content creators, independent of their current following. She holds a B.S. in Computer Science and and B.F.A. in film from the University of Southern California.

Eulalia Moles, Ph.D

Eulalia Moles, Ph.D

Eulalia is involved in NIMBLE's Diversity & Inclusion efforts. Previously, she was an educator in Spanish at UCLA and in race and gender at the University of California, Berkeley. She earned a Ph.D in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley

Steven Nelemans

Steven Nelemans

Steven is the Founder and CEO of Luna, a company that uses AI technology to create personalized emails for their users. He is also a Venture Advisor for LUMO Labs and is the Founder of Amber and and tactic. He studied electrical engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology.

Tanny Ng

Tanny Ng

Tanny is a Senior Product Manager for WP Engine, a company that provides platforms to create websites. She was a Senior Product Manager as well as a Senior and Lead Financial Engineer for FactSet. She holds a M.O.S. and B.O.S. from the University of Michigan.

Yoeri Dassen

Yoeri Dassen

Yoeri is currently an Investor and Advisor for Fathom Radiant and AlphaSys Brain Technologies. He is also a Venture Partner for 7percent Ventures. He was the Head of Business Development and Advisor for Fathom Computing and the CEO/Co-Founder of Psylaris, a company that automates EMDR therapy using VR.

Kristin Link

Kristin Link

Kristin is the Founder and Public Speaking Coach for Link Coaching, services customized through medical medthodical assessment as she listens to the goals of clients. She is also a Speaker Coach for TEDxSonomaCounty and TEDxSaintFrancis. She holds a B.O.S. from Fitchburg State University.

Colin McGrath

Colin McGrath

With expertise in network, machine learning and blockchain technologies, Colin is founder of generative AI company Brightband and has been a senior software engineer at Netskope for several years. He has engineering experience at Ring, Nubeva, Lamden and Vidtel. He studied Computer Science at UC Irvine.

Carol Chen​

Carol Chen​

Carol Chen is a senior design leader dedicated to restoring planetary health through creative problem-solving. Carol's climate journey includes winning a USDA award for a farmer web app, advocating for sustainability at Stitch Fix to reduce waste, participating in local environmental initiatives, using electric transport, and highlighting plant-based businesses.

Diane Strachkowski​

Diane Strachkowski​

Diane Strachowski, Ed.D., is a clinician and researcher specializing in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for individuals and couples for 30 years. Diane has social media expertise as an Instagram influencer with over 50,000 followers.

Reddy Mallidi

Reddy Mallidi

Partner and COO at Seventrain Ventures, Reddy has been VP of Operations & Digital Transformation at Autodesk, COO for BU/VP, VP General Manager at ADP and has held executive roles at Intel. He has delivered over $235M in gains by automating processes for $35M+ annual savings, architecting 600+ AI use cases, and increasing customer retention/loyalty by 25% points generating $400M+ revenue. He is the author of AI Unleashed.

Meet Our Team

Panel Experts & Mentors

The 2024 Interns

Liya Abil

Social Media Intern

David Rocky Hidalgo

UX Design Specialist

Aidan Keenan

Software Engineering Intern

Milo Levin

Video Editing Intern

Sage Loomis

Web Development Intern

Eesha Muni

Software Engineering Intern

Colin Norstad

Software Engineering Intern

Tanay Raote

Project Management Intern

Yoni Rasovsky

Project Management Intern

Elinor Segev

Web Development Intern

Sam Stein

Lead Photographer + Project Management Intern

Leadership Team

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