Tereza Nemessanyi is Co-Founder and CEO of Honestly Now, where your friends and smart strangers give you advice on all your burning questions. A seasoned media and tech entrepreneur, she was the first employee of CETV, which IPO’d in 1995. Tereza has worked at senior levels with dozens of companies including PwC, The Walt Disney Company, Unilever and Interpublic. She was named one of Forbes’ “Top Ten Female Entrepreneurs to Watch” (2011), and gained wide acclaim with her Reuters OpEd proposing an “XX Combinator” to overcome the barriers which keep women out of venture-grade tech entrepreneurship. She has an MBA from The Wharton School and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania; however, her deepest inspiration comes from her mother, an immigrant from Czechoslovakia who restarted her own career at age 40. She lives in New York with her husband and two young daughters. You can find Tereza on her blog & HonestlyNow blog & on Twitter @TerezaN & @HonestlyNowInc
Astia
Sharon Vosmek, Astia: European Entrepreneurs Not Interested in Playing Small!
Sharon Vosmek has been CEO of Astia since 2007, previously joining as COO in 2004. As CEO of Astia, Sharon has an unwavering passion and a uniquely well-suited background to drive forward the organization’s mission of propelling women’s full participation as entrepreneurs and leaders in high-growth businesses, fueling innovation and driving economic. Under her guidance, the Astia community of investors, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders has grown ten-fold and now spans North America, Europe and India. You can find Sharon @ Astia’s blog & on Twitter @Vosmek
Rachel Sheinbein, CMEA: Women’s Collaborative Style can Succeed in Venture Capital
Rachel Sheinbein Principal Energy and Materials team CMEA Capital. She is a board member for Solaria, Danotek Motion, and Arcadia Biosciences and an observer for Reel Solar and Contour Energy. Before CMEA, Rachel was a consultant for start-ups in the areas of bio-plastics, solar and water. For 9 years prior, Rachel worked at Intel, in wastewater systems, Environmental Health & Safety, and Supply Chain Strategy. Rachel is the President of the board of Expanding Your Horizons Network, a non-profit that encourages girls in math, science, engineering and technology. In addition, Rachel volunteers in various roles for Astia, the California Clean Tech Open and ImagineH2O. Rachel holds a Chemical Engineering degree with a concentration in Environmental Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. Rachel was also a sponsored fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where she received an MBA and a Masters in Civil and Environmental Engineering, with a focus on operations and supply chain. You can find Rachel @ CMEA blog & on Twitter: @RachelSheinbein