National Board Members

Steve Polgar

Executive director

The youngest recipient of the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award from Barack Obama for his work with charities.

Bachelor’s degree from Delaware Valley University in Business administration and Executive MBA from Quantic.

Dog behaviorist and trainer who has worked with hundreds of dogs. Enjoys creating gourmet meals.

Lives in Medford, NY with his Australian cattle dog Luna.

elizabeth Benegas

Director of Legal

General Counsel at Torii leading the legal, compliance, and privacy functions that support the company’s industry-defining automated SaaS management platform.

Doctor of Law degree from Penn State Dickinson Law. California, Delaware, and Utah bar licensed.

shreyas khandate

Board Member

General Counsel at Torii leading the legal, compliance, and privacy functions that support the company’s industry-defining automated SaaS management platform.

Doctor of Law degree from Penn State Dickinson Law. California, Delaware, and Utah bar licensed.

Martin Robatti

CHIEF HR OFFICER

Martin is a Senior Director of Human Resources at BNY Mellon, in this role he is responsible for driving the people’s agenda for several teams in the Engineering organization, including: Clearing, Markets, Issuer Services, Treasury, Asset Servicing and Engineering Risk by working closely with their leadership teams. Before this role and since he joined in 2018, Martin was the Director of HR for teams in Operations, Infrastructure and Office of the CIO.

Martin is originally from Peru; he is married with two children and two dogs, Dominic his black lab and Cherry his corgi. He lives in New York City, holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Universidad de Lima and an MBA at Universidad del Pacifico.

Melissa Santos

Chief Financial Officer

Melissa is a Portfolio Fund Valuations Analyst at Nomura Holdings, Japan’s biggest brokerage and investment bank.

Melissa has a Master’s Degree in Operations Research from Columbia University.

Chapter & Partner Presidents

Christina Low

ADS California

Owner and Principal Consultant of Multimedia Marketing Consulting. Founder of Pro Sports Assembly. Experienced therapy dog handler.

Multimedia Business Development Specialist and Consultant. Master’s in Sports Business Management from the University of San Francisco.

Ginnie Hebb

ADS Florida Georgia

Human Resources Executive/Change Agent who connects people and business for mutual benefit. Experience in Fortune 100/500 fast growth companies and start-ups across industry sectors. High energy, hands-on strategic team leader committed to diversity, equity & inclusion, people excellence, and quality to drive business performance.

Recipient of numerous awards for leadership, recruitment strategy, diversity outreach/inclusion , workforce/team development, community involvement, and excellence in business.