SV-NED Speaks on the Future for Work and Investment
These are trying times indeed, thanks to a global pandemic and the economic crisis it has engendered. Life as we know it has been interrupted and businesses are having to deal with obstacles they never could have envisaged in this generation.
But it has also been an opportunity for us to find ingenuous ways to connect for business and other purposes. Not even the unrest among civilians, law makers and law enforcers have been able to tear us apart. Our incredible strength and unity has been brought to fore, helping us to break limits with our reach.
A lot of incredible stories have unfolded in this period, stories of conquest, of growth and of support in a time of trial. These are the kind of stories SV-NED, a leader in Silicon Valley, loves to amplify. They are testimonies of the viability of our mission, which is to build bridges of connections across the globe.
Therefore, we are delighted to lend our platform to some of the big players in the valley of dreams to share their incredible stories.
Arlan Hamilton, Keynote Speaker
In October 2018, Arlan became the first non-celebrity black woman to be featured on the cover of Fast Company magazine. That same year, she co-founded Backstage Studio which launched four accelerator programs for underestimated founders in Detroit, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and London.
Backstage Capital, a venture capital fund she built from scratch, is dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech through investment in high-potential founders who are people of colour, women, and/or LGBT. The company has now raised more than $30 million and invested in more than 130 start-up companies led by underestimated founders.
Arlan is also the author of “It’s About Damn Time”.
Meet Ruben Harris
Ruben graduated with the 2012 Y Combinator class. He Co-found Career Karma and raised $7 Million in the seed round. With a user-base of about 50,000 tech enthusiasts, the company continues to gain new grounds daily.
Ruben’s gofundme campaign, ‘Reskill America: The Great Rehiring Initiative’, is building a lot steam and creating waves in Silicon Valley. With that campaign, He is raising both funds and accepting repurposed electronic devices to retrain America and become instrumental in the redevelopment of the future of work.
Meet Alexandra Rossi
Alexandra, a member of Forbes Women Forum, is making waves in the tech scene! She is the Chief of Staff at Rasgo Intelligence, a stealth ML company that is reinventing the data prep process. She focuses on building collaborative, long-lasting relationships with the data science community, while developing the operational and cultural structure of the company to prepare for further growth and investments.
She strategically oversaw the development of innovative campaigns for brands such as PayPal, Airbnb, YouTube TV, Proximo Spirits, FAGE Greek Yogurt, and more, and helped the brands to solve problems and grow their businesses with her marketing strategies.
Meet Emmanuel Yao
An Associate Director of Production Services at Ubisoft Singapore, Emmanuel has over 20+ years of software development experience, including more than 15 years in video game development. He has been especially focused on studio leadership, global game development, operations, content creation, online services and development support roles.
Emmanuel’s journey in software development began at Alcatel Telecoms in Paris, France, from where he moved to Canada to join Ubisoft Montreal. He then transferred to Ubisoft Shanghai, China and later moved to Ubisoft Singapore, where he has been working more than 8 years.
He has since grown to become an international leader with a proven ability to coach, drive and guide cross-functional teams across different locations.
Meet DREMO
DREMO is a Musical Artist of Nigerian descent. He is currently signed to Davido Music World. He released his third album, Codename Vol. 2, in April 2020.
Meet Shantelle Williams-Valadié
Shantelle is a director at Coursera. She works to enable global access to quality online education at reasonable prices.
She specialises in identifying, negotiating and executing of new business opportunities.
She also has work experience, with PWC, in building financial models for clients with investments in renewable energy and other infrastructure in Europe and Africa.
Shantelle has an undergraduate degree from Stanford University and a Master’s degree from Sciences Po Paris. She is a Franco-American with roots in the Caribbean and Nigeria, and she also speaks fluent Spanish and conversational Italian. She loves writing and performing music in her spare time.
Meet Samuel Nwanze
Samuel oversees the administration and management of overall financial activities and investment programmes at Heirs Holdings. Before joining the company, He worked in various roles in the banking industry where he oversaw strategy, financial control, performance management, and treasury. He was instrumental in the STB-UBA merger.
Samuel holds a Master’s degree in Finance and Management from Cranfield School of Management in the United Kingdom.
