THE ACCELERATION PROJECT - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- DIRECTOR of SERVICE DELIVERY, COMMUNITY OUTREACH
Amber is currently serving as the Director of Operations for G2 FT, a small software company that provides tax software to hedge funds. Over the last decade with G2, she has worked in a variety of roles as the firm grew from a small startup to eventually selling their software to KPMG. She has helped G2 manage clients, overseen their social media marketing efforts, supervised billing and managed renewals, and led their HR operations. Prior to joining G2, Amber worked for a medium-sized software firm managing teams of software engineers, product managers and researchers as they developed risk management software for businesses. She also worked as a management consultant, where she developed critical thinking and problem solving expertise addressing an array of business issues encountered by clients.
In addition to her position at G2, Amber has held a variety of volunteer leadership positions. She has served as both the PTA President and as the President of the district-wide Parent Teacher Council, advising and representing all of the PTAs in her children's school district. She also served as the coordinator for after school clubs for her children's school, managing vendors and parents alike. Amber additionally has held roles managing her children's hockey teams and on communities in her local government.
Amber holds an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley, where she focused her studies on technology. She also holds a BS in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Economics from Washington University in St. Louis.
Job Titles:
- Partner at the Law Firm of Perkins Coie
Belinda Nixon is a partner at the law firm of Perkins Coie where she provides strategic legal counsel on complex transactional and regulatory issues for communications, media, and technology companies. Belinda also assists technology and telecommunications clients facing government agency regulatory scrutiny. Belinda is a former deputy division chief at the Federal Communications Commission where she developed and implemented competition and infrastructure policies to support the deployment of commercial wireless networks and services, including 5G and satellite. She also oversaw and worked on FCC reviews of media mergers and acquisitions, regulatory and enforcement proceedings, and infrastructure deployment policies with respect to environmental requirements. Prior to the FCC, Belinda was an attorney in the corporate transactions practice at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman.
Belinda has a BA in International Relations from Stanford University and a JD from Georgetown University Law Center, where she was a member of the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics. She is a member of the Maryland State Bar Association and the Federal Communications Bar Association.
Belinda and her husband, Gregory Nixon, live in Washington, DC, and have two sons Garrett and Jonathan.
Job Titles:
- DIRECTOR of SERVICE DELIVERY, CORPORATE PROGRAMMING
Job Titles:
- Community Leader
- DIRECTOR of CONSULTANT RETENTION
Dalya is an experienced community leader with excellent critical and creative thinking skills honed through her legal training. After graduating law school, Dalya practiced both complex commercial litigation and corporate law in large law firms, representing both institutional clients and smaller family-owned companies. In addition to her time in private practice, Dalya spent two years as counsel at a New York City commission dedicated to ridding various industries of organized crime.
More recently, Dalya has contributed her time, energy and talent to community organizations, while raising her three children. Mostrecently, she served as PTA President at Fox Meadow Elementary School in Scarsdale, in which capacity she helped to plan and execute numerous events, oversaw management of the PTA budget, and worked closely with administration, faculty, and parents to enhance all stakeholders' experience at the school.
Dalya received an AB from Harvard College and a JD from Columbia University School of Law.
Job Titles:
- DIRECTOR of SERVICE DELIVERY - WEST COAST, STAFFING, BUDGET
Job Titles:
- Managing Director and Senior Member of Turning Rock Partners
Erin Andrew serves as a Managing Director and senior member of Turning Rock Partners' investment team. At Turning Rock, Erin focuses on origination, underwriting and deal execution. Prior to joining the firm, Erin served for five years as Managing Director and Senior Vice President at Live Oak Bank where she launched its M&A advisory services division to provide growth support services for small businesses and served as one of the founding members of the Inclusive Small Business and Government Contracting teams. She joined the Bank with over 6 years of experience at the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). Most recently she was Associate Administrator for Capital Access, where she oversaw the Agency's lending efforts that included $100 billion of government loan programs for small businesses. She is also a Project Management Professional (PMP) and a Kauffman Fellow (Class 20).
Prior to her posting at SBA, Erin held a position as the Assistant Administrator for the SBA's Office of Women's Business Ownership where she oversaw the agency's efforts to promote the growth of women-owned businesses. She was also Director of the Innovation Clusters and Skills Initiatives in the SBA's office of Entrepreneurial Development where she worked to meet counseling and training needs of small businesses.
Prior to her work at the SBA, Erin was a senior policy analyst at the National Governors Association. She was also a senior consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, where she counseled federal agencies on organizational change strategies and enterprise architecture. She also started a small business with her brother on their family farm in Indiana.
Job Titles:
- Director of SERVICE DELIVERY, West Coast
Job Titles:
- Founder and CEO of Impact Consulting
Lucy Sorrentini is the Founder and CEO of Impact Consulting, LLC, a certified minority and woman-owned Management Consulting Firm with expertise in Talent and Organizational Development, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Consulting, Professional and Leadership Development Training, and Executive Coaching. Lucy is on the Board of Directors of Columbia Bank and Columbia Financial Inc. in New Jersey, and serves as an Advisory Board Member to Girls Inc. NYC.
Lucy has over 20 years of professional experience as a Strategy Consultant, Human Resources Leader, and Executive Coach at Fortune 1000 Companies, such as Merrill Lynch, McKinsey & Company, and Booz Allen Hamilton, where she served as the Chief Diversity Officer and a Member of the HR Executive Team. Lucy is a trusted advisor, thought leader and business partner to organizations who want to attract, develop, engage, reward, and retain a diverse workforce, and align business and talent strategies to increase inclusion and unlock innovation. She is highly regarded by her clients and best known for her strategic business acumen, subject-matter expertise, collaborative and authentic leadership style, and results-driven approach to accelerate positive, high energy, sustainable change.
Marcia Bateson has close to three decades of experience in strategic, leadership and managerial, roles for corporations and not-for profit organizations. Since 2002, Marcia has worked with top organizations, not-for-profits and Fortune 50 financial firms. She advises on strategy, organizational redesign, business, operational and financial solutions to major issues and guides toward risk-mitigated implementation.
Marina has more than 15 years of industry experience and is currently a Portfolio Manager and Strategy Lead, Head of Global Credit at Polar Asset Management Partners, the largest multi-strategy hedge fund in Canada. In her role, Marina is responsible for developing and managing Long/Short Credit and Capital Structure Arbitrage Strategies for Polar within the multi-strategy fund.
Prior to taking on her role at Polar Asset Management Partners, she worked at Citadel as a Portfolio Manager and Head of Fundamental Relative Value Credit, a bottoms-up fundamental credit strategy focusing on analyzing the enterprise value of a company and expressing a long or short credit view either via bonds, loans, cds or equities. Ms. Meyers spent most of her investment career as a Partner and Portfolio Manager at BlueMountain Capital Management, where she led performing credit globally, which included the firm's long/short credit portfolio in North America and Europe, as well as its relative value index and index arbitrage strategies. Ms. Meyers also oversaw global credit and equity trade execution while at BlueMountain, and sat on the Management and Investment Committees.
Prior to BlueMountain, Ms. Meyers held a number of roles at Bridgewater Associates, most recently serving as a Management Committee Advisor and Interim Co-Manager of the Information Technology Group, reporting directly to the CEO. She began her career serving as a Business Analyst at McKinsey and Company, where she focused on insurance and asset management.
Job Titles:
- Executive Assistant to Ceo
Job Titles:
- Principal Investor at Kleiner Perkins
Monica Desai Weiss is a Principal investor at Kleiner Perkins, an early stage venture firm that has backed the likes of Amazon, Google and Genentech. She actively invests in fintech, consumer and crypto startups. She sits on the boards of Settle, Propel and Nova Credit. She also works closely with the teams behind Audius, Feather, Loom and Pattern Brands.
Prior to Kleiner Perkins, Monica has spent the past decade leading Strategy & Operations at Blockchain and investing as a bond trader at J.P. Morgan. She received her MBA from Harvard Business School and BA in Math & Economics from Cornell University.
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer
- Member of the TAP
Nancy is a seasoned marketing professional and management consultant with 25+ years of experience working with Fortune 100 companies and small businesses across multiple industries in both the private and nonprofit sectors. She is consistently recognized for strong leadership, team-building, mentoring and analytical skills, and has extensive experience developing strategies and translating them into actionable, measurable initiatives that drive results and move organizations forward.
Nancy has been a member of the TAP organization since 2016. In addition to overseeing day-to-day operations, she is responsible for the development and implementation of TAP's marketing and technology strategies as well as the recruitment, training and retention of TAP team members.
Job Titles:
- DIRECTOR of SERVICE DELIVERY, Scalable PROGRAMMING
Job Titles:
- Director of Service Delivery
- DIRECTOR of SERVICE DELIVERY, COMMUNITY OUTREACH
Natalia's professional experience includes roles as a Financial Analyst at Panamco Indega, Coca-Cola's bottler in Colombia, a Crisis Management and Communications Advisor at Weber Shandwick, a CO-Director of the NY Chapter of Conexión Colombia and Public Relations Manager for Palmfund Management, a Private Equity Firm that mainly invests in Latin America. She was also a strategic consultant for Arthur D Little where she focused on advising clients in Media and Consumer Goods.
For the past 8 years, Natalia has been an entrepreneur, leading strategy, finance and customer relations at her own renovation and interior design business, which makes her well poised to understand the needs of small businesses.
Natalia has contributed to, and led, many community organizations. She has served as President of the Colegio Nueva Granada Parent's Council, where she provided support to the administration on issues related to school development and improvement. She also served as Director of the Tennis and Aquatic Sports committees of a Country Club in Colombia.
Natalia received her BA, Summa Cum Lauda, in Business Administration from Universidad de los Andes and a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University. She is perfectly fluent in English and French and a native Spanish Speaker.
Job Titles:
- Director of Service Delivery and Community Outreach
- DIRECTOR of SERVICE DELIVERY, COMMUNITY OUTREACH
Natalie has strong financial, analytical, and problem-solving skills that she developed over her career in banking and consulting. She began her career as a credit analyst evaluating the financial strength of middle market companies seeking funding. Natalie then transitioned into consulting with a focus on corporate finance. As a consultant, she provided strategic advice to clients in various industries to help improve operations, increase revenues, and identify new business opportunities. Natalie received her BS and MBA from Binghamton University.
Job Titles:
- Managing Partner of the New York Office of Latham & Watkins
Nicole Fanjul is the Co-Deputy Office Managing Partner of the New York office of Latham & Watkins, a global law firm. As a partner in Latham's Banking Practice, Nicole represents lenders and corporate borrowers in a variety of complex financings, with a particular focus on syndicated leveraged finance and direct lending transactions. She serves as a go-to advisor to a number of large, multinational investment banks and direct lenders, as well as corporate borrowers from across industries. Nicole is well-known in the industry for her comprehensive understanding of the debt financing market, and for developing creative solutions for clients using a range of loan products.
She previously served as Latham's Local Leader of the New York office's Black Lawyers Affinity Group and as a member of the firm's Women Enriching Business Committee, Associates Committee, and Training & Career Enhancement Committee. Nicole spearheaded Latham's ongoing Anti-Racism and Allyship Discussion Series for all lawyers and staff in the firm's New York office to help foster ongoing conversation and education around systemic racism and anti-Blackness. The series provides educational resources and organizes small group discussions to help advance racial justice and equality. Nicole is also a member of the Alumni Executive Board of Rye Country Day School.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Co - Head of the Investment Management
Peter Greene is co-head of the Investment Management Group at Schulte Roth & Zabel. He focuses his practice on all matters related to the formation and structuring of private funds and management companies, compliance and regulatory requirements, and public to private investment opportunities. He has particular experience in insider trading determinations, including the purchase, analysis and use of alternative data. His background as the General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer of a buy-side firm earlier in his career provided Peter with a unique understanding of his clients' goals.
Peter relates these values in his contributions to not-for-profit organizations within the community. He has been a regular participant for many years in the New York Young Jewish Professionals programs, mentoring and supporting junior industry professionals, and has been involved with TAP since its inception, providing pro bono legal services and serving as a member of the board. Peter served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Managed Funds Association (MFA), the leading trade association for the hedge fund and global alternative investment industry.
Job Titles:
- CHIEF GROWTH OFFICER
- Member of the TAP
Tracy, a longstanding member of the TAP team, has played a key role in TAP's growth trajectory from a small, local nonprofit to an organization with national impact. She is responsible for building relationships with mission-aligned partners, identifying client pipelines, overseeing the delivery of high-caliber services and developing solutions to meet client needs. Tracy's professional expertise has positioned her as a top notch marketing advisor and project management expert, with experience in marketing and strategy roles at American Express as well as small technology startups. An active volunteer who has held several leadership roles in the community, Tracy received an AB from Brown University and an MBA from Columbia.