This event took place February 3. 2022
“Less than 1% of women make up senior executive roles in the technology industry and I want to change the face of that industry.”
– Melissa Medina, President, eMerge Americas
Despite women making up over 51% of our population, we continue to be largely underrepresented in the Tech industry’s booming economy. Miami is quickly emerging as the next major Tech hub, so how can we make it better? What do we need to know and what can we do?
Join your Women’s Fund in a powerful, actionable conversation on how we can lift women’s economic mobility while fomenting overall innovation by having a diverse and inclusive workforce; a representative ecosystem where creativity can flourish.
Keynote Speaker
Arathi Ramappa is a certified executive and spiritual coach, Forbes Coaches Council member, speaker, and management consultant who helps individuals thrive in life and business. Using the concepts of emotional intelligence, self-compassion, and conflict management, Arathi has helped clients reduce stress, increase productivity, execute business strategy, develop leadership skills, diminish conflict in relationships, implement positive behaviors, and increase confidence. She created the EASE Experience™ methodology to help others Explore, Analyze, Strengthen, and Empower their thinking to identify and conquer obstacles to success and change their lives and businesses.
In her current coaching business, she offers one-on-one coaching to executives, c-suite, entrepreneurs, and independent professionals. In addition, she works with organizations to help their leaders and teams enhance their emotional intelligence and become better problem-solvers. As a result, organizations can develop their company culture and increase collaboration, productivity, performance, leadership skills, and learn conflict management.
Arathi’s career started in technology as a certified Microsoft developer. She quickly went into operations management and oversaw the development of large scale financial applications. With this knowledge, she ventured out as an entrepreneur and started a technology and business consulting firm that she had for ten years. One of the highlights of this business was when she consulted on the acquisition of a $4 Billion commercial asset management portfolio and became the Director of Risk and Control for the portfolio. During this time, she also owned a healthcare diagnostic imaging facility that she eventually sold to an HCA hospital.
With twenty years of experience in technology and business management coupled with certifications in coaching and emotional intelligence, Arathi’s background as a serial entrepreneur and a veteran in the start-up space has provided her with extensive cross-functional knowledge that she can apply to any situation or client. She has managed teams globally in places such as India, Japan, China, Germany, Canada, Taiwan, Eastern Europe, as well as the U.S., and has worked with a wide range of clients from the financial, technology, healthcare, cybersecurity, and fashion industries, among others.
She is currently the Vice-Chair of The Women’s Fund Board, a member of the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce Pillar Board and their co-chair for the Women’s Business Council Advocacy Committee and Technology Council. She has a B.A. in International Studies and lives in Miami Beach.
Panelists
A native to Miami, FL, Melissa Medina Jiménez is part of the Founding Executive team and President of eMerge Americas, a venture-backed platform focused on transforming Miami into the tech hub of the Americas. The eMerge signature event, launched in 2014, is a global tech conference held annually at the Miami Beach Convention Center. With Melissa’s leadership, the eMerge Americas conference now attracts more than 16,000+ attendees from over 40 countries. eMerge gathers the brightest minds and convenes investors, entrepreneurs, innovators, business executives, government leaders, academia and renowned subject matter experts from across the globe to discuss technologies transforming our lives. In addition to the annual conference, eMerge organizes and hosts year-round executive summits, innovation challenges, startup pitch competitions, masterclasses, webinars, as well as publishes venture activity and investment insights reports and publications. Melissa has been at the forefront of helping to foster a thriving entrepreneurial and tech ecosystem in South Florida. Melissa is also the President of the Medina Family Foundation, which has a mission to fund local initiatives that focus on mentoring children and empowering families by enhancing education and quality of life. Melissa was named by the South Florida Business Journal as one of the “2019 Power Leaders in Technology.” Melissa also sits on the Board of The Miami Foundation, Roots of Hope and is part of the World Business Angel Investment Forum (WBAF) Miami Advisory Board. Melissa is passionate about transforming Miami into a technology hub for the Americas and supporting Miami-based non-profits who seek to empower tomorrow’s leaders. Most importantly, Melissa is a mother and most passionate about her 5 children – Sebastian (14), Eva (12), Ellie (12), Nicolas (11), and Inés (5).
Kenasha Paul is the Founder and CEO of the Black Professionals Network (BPN), the fastest growing degree-to-industry professional pathway organization with the mission to advance careers, power up businesses, and build up social capital for black professionals. Her work is centered on connecting like-minded black professionals together and sourcing career opportunities from public and private companies with a passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion.
As of December 2021, she was named by Mayor Francis Suarez as Director of the Venture Miami Opportunity Program, housed at FIU’s Office of Engagement as part of the novel partnership between City of Miami and Florida International University. She serves as a critical connector, alongside the Venture Miami team, by connecting women entrepreneurs of color with investors, venture capitalists, and resources in #MiamiTech.
Michelle is a catalytic leader who collaborates with key partners to dream up bold visions and make them a reality. She founded Web3 Equity and Women and Web3 Miami to ensure gender equity and inclusivity in web3. Launched Mana Tech brand for Miami real estate mogul and solidified our organization’s role at the forefront of the Miami Tech community through partnerships with the most respected tech leaders. Envisioned, organized and executed NFT BZL, the premier NFT conference held during Miami Art Week attracting over 4,000 attendees. Ran an accelerator program for female founders with the #1 school in Entrepreneurial Education.
Featured in Forbes as top Woman in NFT and named one of Top 16 Most Influential Women in NFTs.
Stephanie Sylvestre excites people to bring their ‘A’ game. Her signature leadership style builds high performance teams that deliver impactful results. Whether she is working in the private sector or the public sector, Stephanie is a powerhouse transformational leader who leverages technology to achieve results.
Stephanie is currently a fellow at Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI) where she is leveraging her talents to do social good. Her focus as a fellow is an asset-based approach to Black wealth creation in Miami-Dade County. She plans on helping people turn their assets into wealth by using a social emotional wellness approach; that is, asking touch questions that encourages people to be introspective on what stories they are telling themselves that unintentionally lead to self-marginalization.
She is the co-founder of Avatar Buddy, LLC, an artificial intelligence company that created a digital mentor to help teens improve their self-love and self-worth. Additionally, the digital mentor serves as a personal coach for employees to help with their on-boarding and retention.
Previously, she used her skills to repair the relationship between funded agencies and The Trust and launch 4 initiatives including REDI/SEW (Racial Equity Diversity and Inclusion/Social Emotional Wellness). She led the effort to increase the membership of The Children’s Trust Book Club 10-folds over a 15 month period.
She partnered with over 40 community organizations and funders to co-launch Vote The Future, a non-partisan youth led effort encouraging voter registration and early voting in Miami-Dade. Vote The Future effort was responsible for approximately 4,200 voters voting in the 2020 general election. She is a member of International Women’s Forum’s Florida chapter. An appointee to Southern U.S. Diplomatic Corps, she served for 9 years as Honorary Consul of Belize for Southern U.S.
Stephanie graduated from the University of Southern California with a B.A. in International Relations, and the University of Miami with a M.A. in International Studies & International Economics.
