Damilola Thompson is a co-lead for the SoGal Nigerian Chapter and is the Senior Counsel, Legal, Compliance and Corporate Development of EchoVC Partners, and has over 10 years of legal experience. Prior to this, she worked for a top-tier law firm in Lagos, Nigeria for 4 years, with core competencies in Corporate, Venture Capital and Private Equity transactions. During this period, she drove seed/early-stage financing transactions for startups, and represented African and international investors. In her years of legal practice, she has gained experience and acted as a legal adviser to a number of companies involved in Microfinance, Oil and Gas, Telecommunications, Mobile money sectors. Ms. Thompson is passionate about startups and venture financing, and providing early-stage companies with much needed mentorship required for scaling. She has a graduate degree from the University of Lagos, Nigeria and is on track to obtaining an LL.M in Business Law from the University of California, Berkeley. She has also completed various post-graduate courses including the Kauffman Fellows Academy’s course on Venture Capital. She is a member of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, United Kingdom (CIArb UK), a member of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN) and a part of the leadership team of the SingularityU Lagos Chapter. She provides mentorship to a number of startups and is a mentor with the Unreasonable Institute, Nigeria.
April has rural roots but a big city heart. After finishing her degree she spent four years working in operations management at McMaster-Carr in Los Angeles. She traded that big city for a smaller one to pursue operations management for a solar startup in Utah. Throughout her career she’s found ways to motivate other women and people of color to realize their potential and her involvement with SoGal is emerging as her newest way to do that.
Stella trained as a Radiographer in Sydney before deciding to quit and buying a one way ticket to Thailand. With some soul searching she started a factory manufacturing natural skin care and herbal supplements growing the business and eventually selling it for a 7 figure sum.
She became the Brand Ambassador for Lorna Jane, hosted TV shows for Tencent (largest tech company in Asia and owner of WeChat), founded the Thailand Farmers Market, worked with Celebrity Chef Mathew Kenny consulting Thailand Resorts.
Her marketing initiatives have had news video coverage from CNN and BBC resulting in millions of views.
She is now Managing Partner of Altru Group managing the day-to-day operations. While she is not working, she is in nature trekking the mountains, kayaking the oceans, getting stretchy on a yoga mat or cooking in the kitchen.
Wei Chen is the content marker at ZILLA, a crypto startup. Previously, she was in charge of stage program at Slush Tokyo, the biggest and the most diverse startup and technology conference in Japan. Wei graduated from the University of Cambridge with the Master of Philosophy degree.
Operating in marketing, business development, recruiting and partnership roles at three Silicon Valley startups has given Lauren the full lifecycle entrepreneurial experience— from early “stealth” stage through strategic acquisition, to a hyper growth Series A-D, to a full wind down. Lauren is a start up operator, holistic health and wellness coach and outdoor adventure seeker recently transplanted from 7 years in San Francisco to sunny Los Angeles, CA.
Born in Asia and educated in America and Europe, Kelly is an entrepreneur with global vision. Currently Kelly lead the PayPal Singapore Innovation Lab’s ecosystem partnership.
Kelly is a vocal advocate for gender diversity in tech. Her educational background in computer science and psychology in Atlanta, inspired her to set up a foundation for women’s college students, bridging liberal arts education with the tech industry. Kelly is also a key force in creating a life-size billboard for the
Carrie “Lulu” Shuler is a collegiate tennis player turned tech lover. She is currently the Co-Founder & CMO at Stark Mobility Inc, a Techstars company currently based in Berlin, Germany. Shuler has worked for multiple media networks including CBS Corporation and NMG Network (nmgnetwork.com). After getting her Masters Degree in 2016 she started her first business at the age of 24 (fairystring.com). Since the middle of 2017 she has been part of an amazing vision at Stark Mobility Inc (http://starkmobility.com) where she is doing what she loves most: founding a sustainable and profitable company.
By day, Chelsea is an experienced strategy and management consultant. Her passion is supporting entrepreneurs and as a lead of the DC SoGal chapter, fostering the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the DMV area. Chelsea loves to travel and spent the last year meeting with entrepreneurs and accelerators in Chile, China, India, and Germany to learn about what makes entrepreneurship thrive in those countries.
Shan is a wife, mom to 3 kids and a businesswoman who works from home and gets very little sleep at night. Her days are filled with dirty diapers and toddler tantrums, but she wouldn’t trade it for anything else. She is the Co-Founder and CEO of the award-winning blog – You, Baby and I and just recently launched her start up – Momsays.
Trisha Prabhu is an 18-year-old innovator and Founder & CEO of ReThink, a social enterprise that’s working to end online hate and make the Internet a safer place. Spurred to action by the cyberbullying-related suicide of a 12-year-old girl, Trisha invented a proactive solution, ReThink: an award-winning, patented technology solution that detects and stops online hate before it occurs. Trisha’s work has been recognized by The White House, Google, MIT, and WebMD, and featured on ABC’s Shark Tank, and TED/TEDx stages. At President Obama’s invitation, Trisha was selected as one of few entrepreneurs in the world to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit at Stanford University. ReThink works closely with the U.S. State Department’s ShareAmerica program, and as a result, ReThink is now available in 3 languages and has reached over 5.5 million students and 1400 schools. In 2017, Trisha was elected the first female Youth Governor of Illinois in 28 years. She is pursuing an undergraduate degree at Harvard University and continuing her passion for innovation at the intersection of technology and society to make the world a better place.