Fall MBA Women's Virtual Leadership Conference:
Featured Presenters
The MBA Women's Virtual Leadership Conference will take place on Oct. 4, 2024. Registration is open to students who are currently enrolled in an MBA Program.
Welcome Remarks
Meg Collins
Managing Vice President, Consulting at Gartner
Meg Collins, Managing Vice President and Consulting Industry Lead has been with Gartner for nearly 20 years. Holding an MBA from Babson Graduate School in Business Strategy and Marketing, and a BA in Political Science from Dickinson College, Meg has risen through leadership at Gartner, currently leading Consulting’s Public Sector sales and delivery teams in the East region. Her teams assist State and Local government clients to achieve their mission critical objectives through high impact delivery. Her responsibilities of developing complex solutions and service delivery through her team of 17+ direct reports, Meg has extensive experience in corporate America through the lens of a woman in business. Sharing her insights, career journey, and advice, Meg joins us for the Forte MBA Women’s Virtual Leadership Conference’s opening remarks this year.
Session 1: CEO 101 - Smart Risk Taking
Gabby Berger Sainati
Former Senior Manager at Amazon
Gabby Berger Sainati is an experienced retail, ecommerce and operations business manager. She started her career in PR & marketing for the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and global architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) before earning an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management with a focus on marketing and entrepreneurship. After Kellogg, she joined the Nordstrom corporate strategy team focusing on eCommerce, private label merchandising, and international expansion. In 2014, she moved to Amazon where she held multiple roles across the retail business, from launching and scaling premium beauty categories to managing home improvement categories that earned over $1Bn in annual revenue. In 2018, she joined a start-up team in Amazon Operations focused on monetizing Amazon's inhouse logistics capabilities. She spent several years building, launching and scaling Amazon Shipping, an external package shipping service, where she was responsible for multiple functions within the product lifecycle from sales to product management, owned a global P&L and defined the US launch and scale up strategy. Gabby is currently taking a sabbatical to spend more time with her family and her passions before diving into her next business venture. She lives in Chicago with her husband Nick, a fellow Kellogg alum, and their three daughters and serves on the Women’s Board of the Museum of Contemporary Art.
CEO Fireside Chat: When Risk Pays Off
Denise Woodard
Founder and CEO of Partake Foods
Denise Woodard is the Founder and CEO of Partake Foods, a certified B corporation that was inspired by her daughter’s experience with food allergies. Launched in 2017, Partake’s first product — delicious, better for you cookies — can now be found in more than 14,000 retailers including Target, Kroger, and Whole Foods Market. Denise is the first Black woman to raise more than $1 Million publicly for a CPG food startup. To date, the company has raised over $25M from investors including HER, Rihanna, and Marcy Venture Partners, co-founded by Jay-Z. Prior to launching Partake, Denise spent a decade in consumer packaged goods at various Fortune 100 companies. She is also the founder of 501c3, Black Futures Fellowship, an annual program that matches active HBCU students with paid internships in the CPG food & beverage industry. She has a BA from UNC Chapel Hill and MBA from Arizona State University.
Moderator: Nicaila Matthews Okome
Founder of Side Hustle Pro
Nicaila Matthews Okome is the Creator and Host of Side Hustle Pro podcast, the first and only podcast to spotlight bold, black women entrepreneurs who have scaled from side hustle to profitable business. Launched in 2016, the podcast has been named “the perfect entrepreneurship podcast” by Mashable and amassed over two million downloads and a loyal social media following of aspiring entrepreneurs. Nicaila is also the Founder of Podcast Moguls, a podcasting accelerator program that shines a light on untold narratives. Nicaila works intensively with emerging podcasters to create and launch their HIT podcasts, grow their influence through targeted social media marketing, and build a profitable business from podcasting. Nicaila holds a BA in Communications from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the University of Michigan, Stephen M. Ross School of Business.
Session 2: CEO 201 - Building Your Social Capital
Cecilia Thompson Madison
Executive Coach and Career Consultant at EY
Cecilia is an Executive Coach and Career Consultant for the EY Career Center. Her passion is to equip individuals and teams with cutting-edge resources and tools to maximize their full potential and thrive. Known as the “curator of resources”, she leads the cultivation of self-service resources for the EY Career Center to empower professionals at every level at EY and beyond to embrace a mindset of choice in their career. Her clients recognize her as an intuitive thought partner who leverages her deep expertise and genuine care to propel individuals towards their very best future.
Delaine Barr
Executive Coach and Career Consultant at EY
Delaine serves as an Executive Coach and Career Consultant within the EY Career Center. Throughout her career, she has had the honor of working with hundreds of executives helping them to harness their strengths, identify their key career objectives, envision their ideal future, and map out their professional and personal goals. Delaine is a certified corporate coach, having completed the Results Coaching program at the NeuroLeadership Institute, and she also possesses a Professional Coaching Credential (PCC) from the International Coach Federation (ICF). Her tenure at EY spans over 20 years, during which Delaine has been instrumental in the creation and enhancement of several coaching methodologies, including POWER Up, THRIVE, and You@choice.
Session 3: CEO 301 - You Be the Change
Moderator: Michelle Ormsby
Vice President, Strategy at Teach For America Detroit
Michelle Navarro Ormsby began her career as a high school teacher in Western International High School in Detroit Public Schools. Since then, she has taken on several strategic and operational roles in the education and the nonprofit sector and currently serves as Vice President, Strategy at Teach For America Detroit. At TFA, Michelle leads the statewide program and external affairs teams. Under Michelle’s leadership, TFA scaled the TeachMichigan program to 6 regions across Michigan, supporting over 700 educators. Michelle is a graduate of University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business where she completed her Executive MBA. Michelle lives in Detroit along with her husband Zach and their three kids.
Panelist: Narel Gimenes Ferreira
Sustainability & Energy Transition Associate at Ampersand Partners
Narel Gimenes Ferreira is a Chemical Engineer by background with 8 years of experience in the Energy industry, ranging from process engineering and project management at Shell in Brazil to strategy management consulting with BCG in Southeast Asia. She is currently at Ampersand Partners, a boutique strategy consulting firm focused on sustainability and net zero. Their mission is to help leaders understand and benefit from the market transformation required by the energy transition. In her personal life, Narel is passionate about traveling and getting to know different cultures. She has visited over 50 countries (and counting)! Narel enjoys yoga and has been practicing since 2014. She is also a certified yoga instructor by the International Yoga Alliance.
Panelist: Molly Johnson
General Manager at Republic Services
Molly Johnson is the General Manager of the South Bend – Elkhart business unit in north central Indiana at Republic Services. She oversees four divisions representing both the collection and post-collection side of the business. She came to Republic Services through the GMAP (General Manager Accelerated Program) after her summer MBA internship with the company. Prior to business school, Molly worked in financial operations for seven years in both Boston and Seattle. Molly received her BA in mathematics from Smith College and a dual MBA/MEM from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and Duke University
Panelist: Beth Connolly
Principal, Global Industry Strategy at Adobe
Beth Connolly is a Principal in Adobe's enterprise sales business, focused on improving global collaboration and knowledge sharing by building vibrant, inclusive communities. Her passion is improving experiences for customers and employees through creativity and innovation. Over her 5+ years at Adobe, Beth's work has spanned product marketing, product management, and growth strategy across Adobe's consumer and enterprise products. Beth also leads Adobe's MBA network, MBAs@Adobe, which operates 15 annual personal and professional development programs supporting hundreds of employees. Beth was a Forte Fellow at Columbia Business School and lives in Brooklyn, NY. Before business school, she worked in small business strategy, operations and marketing in New York City and Italy. Beth sits on the Alumni Leadership Council of the Forte Foundation. In her free time, she enjoys caring for her urban garden, doing yoga, learning French, and hiking the Adirondacks and United States National Parks.
Panelist: Aurora Kwek
Delegate at United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
Aurora Kwek is a delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women with UN Women UK, dedicated to advancing the achievement of gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls. Her role involves engaging with governments, civil society, and gender equality advocates to highlight and discuss ways to integrate gender perspectives into various social and economic frameworks. Her efforts are dedicated to amplifying the importance of institutional support and financial inclusion from a gender perspective. Aurora is a Forté Fellow and she holds an MBA from Cambridge Judge Business School, bringing a background in business leadership and strategic thinking to her advocacy work.
Panelist: Brittany Rhodes
Founder and General MATHager at Black Girl MATHgic
Brittany Rhodes is a math tutor, math enthusiast, Math Instructor, and Founder and General MATHager of Black Girl MATHgic (BGM). BGM is a movement dedicated to increasing math confidence, awareness, enthusiasm, identity, fluency, and persistence among children, with a focus on girls and black children. A cornerstone of BGM was the Black Girl MATHgic box, the first and only monthly subscription box designed to increase math confidence and decrease math anxiety in girls on a 3rd-8th grade math level. BGM has been featured on platforms such as Good Morning America, BEYONCÉ.com, Black Enterprise, and more. Building on this foundation, Brittany now offers professional development and math confidence kits to schools, districts, and youth-serving organizations through her "Math = Me" brand. Brittany received her Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Spelman College and her Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing, Communication, and Organizational Behavior from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. Brittany is a proud native of Detroit, where she lives with her husband and daughter.