Board of Directors
Rachel Payne
Rachel Payne is a technology executive, entrepreneur, investor, inventor and philanthropist. Rachel is Managing Director, Head of Innovation and Technology at FullCycle, a private equity fund that invests in climate solutions. Rachel served as a Board Director for BRAC USA (ranked #1 NGO), CREDO Mobile, KCET and dashboard.earth. Rachel also teaches at U.C. Berkeley and mentors as an alum with Techstars. After earning her Stanford MBA, Rachel joined the founding team of Google.org. As the philanthropic arm of Google, Google.org created the blueprint for a hybrid corporate philanthropy and investment fund, Rachel was Senior Program Officer, focused on Poverty Alleviation and Climate Change. While at Google, Rachel led International Business Operations in Emerging Markets, living and working in sub-Saharan Africa as Country Manager on the Africa Regional Leadership Team. She accepted Google's first award at Mobile World Congress for “Best Mobile Apps for Economic and Social Development” in 2010 in partnership with Grameen TC and MTN Uganda for their work on mobile innovation in Africa. She later became Principal, Global Strategic Alliances, managing Google’s important strategic partnerships in Media & Entertainment. In 2012, Rachel left Google to start FEM, a mission-driven IP holding company backed by Javelin Venture Partners and Stanford StartX. In 2015 at the Disney Accelerator, the FEM Inc. team launched Prizma, an AI Platform for Enterprise Customers in Media, Entertainment, Telecom and Technology. Prizma was acquired by Nielsen / Gracenote in 2018. Rachel ran for U.S. Congress in California's 48th Congressional District in the 2018 Midterm Elections. While she did not win the primary, the seat was in a famously conservative district but was part of the "blue wave" in California that helped democrats "flip" control of the U.S. House of Representatives.To connect with Rachel on LinkedIn, click here.
Erika Brechtel
Erika Brechtel is an LA-based brand strategist, designer, speaker, and mentor supporting women leaders and female founders for over 18 years. Featured in SELF magazine and on Vogue, HuffPost, PopSugar, HGTV.com, Today.com, and Refinery29, Erika has helped over 400 brands in the lifestyle, food and wine, beauty, wellness, kids and baby, fashion, and home decor industries. Erika also leads strategy sessions and speaks at events for organizations such as Women Founders Network, UCLA Anderson School of Management, Fabletics, and Bumble Bizz, and serves as a volunteer for multiple nonprofits that support women’s and girls' rights and education locally and globally. To connect with Erika on LinkedIn, click here.
Anu Bhardwaj
Founder Anu Bhardwaj is a serial social entrepreneur and philanthropist, listed on the 2020 Inc. Magazine Global Top 100 Female Founders and one of seven female award recipients of the 2020 Transform Fund from the Islamic Development Bank (from a pool of 5,000 applicants worldwide). Anu also co-chaired the second annual Blockchain for Impact Summit at the United Nations in 2019, and is the founder of Women Investing in Women Digital with nearly 1 million followers and The State of Women Institute. To connect with Anu on LinkedIn, click here.
Advisory council
Amy Millman
A passionate advocate for women entrepreneurs transforming industries.
Springboard’s mission is to accelerate the growth of entrepreneurial companies led by women through access to essential resources and a global community of experts. It is the leading network of influencers investors and innovators dedicated to building high-growth companies led by women who are transforming industries in technology and life science.
The measure of our success is in the results. Since 2000, over 750 Springboard portfolio companies seeking investment of financial and human capital for product development and expansion have raised $9.5 Billion, created tens of thousands new jobs and generated billions in annual revenues. With 190 exits to strategic acquirers and 19 IPOs, Springboard entrepreneurs are transforming Industries.
During my career in Washington, DC, I served as a representative for corporate and industry groups and was appointed as Executive Director of the National Women’s Business Council during the Clinton Administration. I served on the boards of many organizations including JumpStart Inc., DellEIR and Enterprising Women Magazine. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and a Masters in Public Administration from The George Washington University.
Dr Anino Emuwa
Dr Anino Emuwa is the Founder and Managing Director of Avandis Consulting, a strategy and financial advisory firm. A former corporate banker with Citibank, she sits on the board of several organisations including Nottingham Trent University, U.K.
Anino is an advocate for gender diversity in leadership and is a member of the Institute of Directors’ Expert Advisory Group on Diversity and Inclusion. She convenes global and regional communities for women in leadership including 100 Women@Davos.
An award-winning international speaker on D&I, entrepreneurship, and emerging technologies, her articles have been published in international publications including Forbes, Entrepreneur and Global Banking and Finance Review. Anino has mentored for Cartier Women’s Initiative, Cambridge Judge Business School’s EnterpriseWomen and the Women’s Development Programme at the Nottingham Trent University.
She received her Doctorate in Business Administration from Nottingham Business School, holds an MBA from Cranfield School of Management and a BSc Economics from the London School of Economics.
Betty LaMarr
Betty LaMarr, Author/ Founder of EMPOWHER INSTITUTE, is a passionate servant leader committed to being a spark to ignite transformation in girls' and women's lives. After a successful corporate career, while living in South Africa, Betty saw girls and women who lived with dignity in poverty through their entrepreneurial spirit. She also saw what happens when women gain access to even modest opportunities for empowerment. Empowered women discover independence; girls seek education, life changes for entire families.
Inspired by her South Africa experience, Betty returned to the United States. She founded EmpowHer Institute in 2003 with a small group of committed friends, focused on improving the lives of women and girls. They saw the epidemic of 5 out of 10 minority teens dropping out of high school. That was the start of EmpowHer Girls Academy. Betty passed on the legacy of EmpowHer Institute in January 2021. The organization continues to focus on gender equity, social and economic justice.
Betty earned a BA in Business Administration from California State University at Los Angeles and an MBA from Pepperdine University. Today, Betty is redesigning her 'next chapter'. She is serving on non-profit boards and blogging to encourage women to travel to improve self-care and self-love.
CHristina Korp
Christina Korp is an astronaut manager, space advisor and the president of Purpose Entertainment. For ten years she managed Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin and launched his education foundations – ShareSpace and the Aldrin Family Foundation. She produced the last five galas at Kennedy Space Center celebrating Apollo 11 and the Webby winning and Emmy nominated, “Cycling Pathways to Mars” VR experience. She is passionate about promoting ways space benefits the planet and people every day and promoting women’s issues. She spearheaded projects in 2020 to celebrate the Women’s Vote Centennial in the USA. She leads SPACE For a Better World producing events and experiences that raise money for partner charities. She currently works with Apollo 16 moon walker Charlie Duke and NASA astronaut and aquanaut Nicole Stott.
She has traveled the world as a singer, producer, tour manager and as an Astronaut Wrangler. She produced ground breaking, mass participation experiential artworks and event that focus on inspiring people and giving back to the planet.
Darya Allen-Attar
Darya is passionate about the advancement of women. In 2013, she recruited several colleagues to form Women Founders Network (WFN). Subsequently, Darya founded the nonprofit Women Founders Foundation (WFF) in 2017, with a mission of educating women and girls about entrepreneurship. In 2008, Darya founded Broads Circle, an executive level women's networking group with a focus on money and power for women.
Darya has been recognized for her community work and the advancement of women by the LABJ and California Women Lead. She currently serves on the Boards of the Los Angeles Westside YMCA and the Los Angeles Chapter of Advisors in Philanthropy (LA-AiP). Darya earned her BA from Kalamazoo College, Certificate in Accounting from Northwestern University, and her MBA in Finance from Fordham University.
Kate Byrne
Kate Byrne is CEO of Katapult X, a global community of investors, technologists and founders driving positive change. Previously she was President of SOCAP Global, the purpose-driven platform whose brands SOCAP, Total Impact, SPECTRUM, World Changing Women, and Conscious Company Media unlock capital to move markets. A leader in digital media and social impact for over 25 years, Kate has married her interest in technology and its ability to advance social good and has been recognized as one of the 40 Most Influential People in Media.
She has held executive positions at Fast Company, BusinessWeek, INC., The Tides Foundation, The George Lucas Education Foundation, and Watermark. Kate is a contributor for Authority Magazine, MarketWatch, Conscious Company Magazine, and frequent speaker (Rotary Club, Watermark Innovation, Leadership Summit, and the Shift Summit). Areas of expertise include Social Impact, Women and Power, Stakeholder Capitalism, Leadership Development. She is the Co-Founder of the Economy Next Stewardship Circle; serves as President of the Board for the UN Women USA SF Chapter; and Board member of CORO of Northern California. Kate is a Coro Women’ Leadership Cohort alum, a member of the International Women’s Forum, and Commissioner on the Marin Commission for Women and Girls. She graduated from Stanford with a B.A. in Psychology. Kate lives on the West Coast with her wonderful husband and is the proud mom of two amazing young women.
Riane Eisler
Riane Eisler (www.rianeeisler.com) is a cultural historian, systems scientist, internationally renowned keynote speaker, and president of the Center for Partnership Studies (www.centerforpartnership.org).
Eisler's 2019 book published by Oxford University Press, Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Shape Our Brains, Lives, and Future (co-author, Douglas Fry), shows how we can lay foundations for a more just, caring, and sustainable future. The Chalice and The Blade: Our History, Our Future, now in 26 foreign editions and 57th US printing, shows that the status of women is key to whether a culture is democratic or authoritarian, warlike or peaceful, generally equitable or inequitable.. Her The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics – hailed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as “a template for the better world we have been so urgently seeking” and former President of Iceland Vigdis Finnbogadóttir as “an essential tool for government leaders, politicians, and economists” – introduces a new economics that gives visibility and value to the most essential human work: the work of caring for people and for our natural environment.
Eisler pioneered inclusion of women and children in human rights theory and action and is Editor in Chief of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies, an online peer-reviewed journal housed at the University of Minnesota inspired by Eisler’s work. Dr. Eisler keynotes national and international conferences and lectures at universities, corporations, religious institutions, and governmental and nongovernmental agencies such as the U.S. Department of State, Congressional briefings, the United Nations General Assembly.
Shelli Brunswick
Shelli Brunswick, COO of Space Foundation, brings a broad perspective and deep vision of the global space ecosystem — from a distinguished career as a space acquisition and program management leader and congressional liaison for the U.S. Air Force to her current role, including overseeing Center for Innovation and Education, Symposium 365, and Global Alliance.
Advocating for space technology innovation, entrepreneurship, diversity and inclusion, Shelli collaborates with organizations around the world to connect commercial, government and educational sectors. Shelli actively participates with Women in Aerospace Foundation, Women’s Global Gathering, United Nations Space4Women, WomenTech Network, World Business Angels Investment Forum, New York University, Tod'Aérs, Manufacturer’s Edge, and Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC.