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.
DR. PAUL J. BAILO
Board member
An executive with a Ph.D. and substantial experience overseeing the full range of digital strategies and driving change across diverse blue-chip firms including MasterCard, American Express, GE Money, Citibank, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
CEO of PIP Consulting Group which serves as a world leader in supplying high-quality protective gear and as an advisor on digital transformation to companies and country leaders.
Bailo teaches as Adjunct Executive Graduate Professor in Applied Analytics at Columbia University and Digital Marketing, Innovation and Data Analytics at New York University.
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.
Joiel Ray-Alexander
Board Member
An executive stalwart with over 30 years of experience in senior leadership roles focused on growth, marketing communications, strategic partnerships, and public relations across a variety of industries including healthcare and philanthropy. Joiel is an agile and inspirational powerhouse who brings people and teams together for the greater good.
She has also been a leader in higher education administration, developing a strategic communications plan that impacted more than 400,000 students at SUNY System Administration. As a Veritus Scholar, Joiel is committed to personal transformation and lifelong learning.
Logan Abner
Board Member
Experienced Founder & CEO of WeBrokr (WeBrokr.com), the leading Mergers & Acquisitions firm for digital publishing web properties and YouTube channels valued between USD $1m – $30m. Extensive experience within the Entertainment, Gaming & Technology digital publishing industries.
Lives in Cincinnati, OH and graidated from the University of Cincinnati.
Dirk Wood
Chairman of the Board
Possesses a twenty-year-plus track record of executive leadership in high-growth technology companies from start-ups to large corporations.
Dirk holds a Master of Science from the University of Denver, Executive Certification from Harvard University, and a Bachelor of Science from Northern Colorado.
Dirk has been married for over 25 years and also has a 5-year-old rescue Vizsla named Pedro.
Chloe Irons
Chief operations officer
Worked in financial services for over 15 years at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Scotiabank, and consulting, leading front office private side banking business controls.
A two-time Diversity & Inclusion award winner for exemplary leadership within diversity & inclusion initiatives and 2022 Best of the Best winner for amplifying the Bank’s purpose and strategy, fostering an inclusive and high performing culture.
Chloe has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Florida International University, Master of Management from University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign, Graduate Organizational Behavior Certificate from Harvard Extension School, Certified Coach, Registered Yoga Instructor, and is an Advisory Board Member for the Design Thinking program at University of South Florida.
Chloe has 2 pitty mixes, is based in Florida, and travels frequently to New York.
Shreyas Khandate
President
Shreyas is Operator and Entrepreneur in Residence in Tech Ventures at Exos. Also, a Venture Capalist at VU Venture Partners for multi-sector investments in pre-seed through series B rounds.
Shreyas has a Masters of Science from Columbia Engineering.
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.
Ethan Blank
Board member
Ethan is an attorney, General Counsel, and has led several organizations as an Outside Director. Ethan has a history of building enterprise value and accelerates revenue by identifying and solving challenges and efficiently allocating available resources.
Former VP and General of Republic Airways and currently is an Arbitrator for FINRA.
Martin Robatti
CHIEF HUMAN RESOURCES 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.
Steve Mills
Board Member
Steve has 20+ years of executive global leadership experience across technology and consumer product businesses. He possesses a unique mix of commercial and financial skills. Steve currently serves as the President of North America for the Schreder Group, a worldwide leader in commercial LED lighting solutions headquartered in Europe. He also serves on the board of EMX Industries, a sensor technology manufacturer based in Cleveland, OH.
Steve is originally from Pittsburgh, PA where he graduated from Robert Morris University. He is also a graduate of the Executive Management Program at Henley University in the UK. He is now based in Alpharetta, GA with his wife of 20+ years, two children and Golden Retriever (Sam).
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.
Laurence Bucher
ADS Florida Georgia
Global VP, insights executive, and business leader with over 2 decades of international leadership positions in Consumer-Packaged Goods across Europe and the US. Science and R&D background and expertise.
Former Vetiniartian in Berlin. Mars Accelerated Leadership Program mentor and active member of a Yale-Ipsos Think Tank.
Lives in Tampa, Florida.
To be determined
