Sarah Ribner C11 - CEO & Founder PiperWai

Coco Brown C92, is a CEO and board member, actively leading Silicon Valley based professional services and tech companies since 1997. From 2002 to 2012 Coco was President and COO of Taos, a Gartner top 20 global IT professional and managed services company servicing hundreds of F1000 and top tier private growth companies nationally. She was also on the board of Taos for 12 years, leading the company through massive economic cycles and business model evolution and growth. Coco led the company to $54m in revenue, and the company has subsequently been sold to IBM.

In 2016 Coco founded Athena Alliance, a digital platform for learning and agency for top business women striving for the c-suite and the boardroom. Athena has seen 2.8x growth in membership in the last 12 months since launching as a true subscription model and hosts over 1,000 women leaders today. Coco is a well-published expert and speaker on The Modern Boardroom. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. Coco serves on the commercial boards of Athena Alliance, Inc and Archerpoint (an ESOP), as well as the non-profit board of Athena Rising Foundation.

Ali Kriegsman is the co-founder and COO of Bulletin, a B2B wholesale marketplace where retailers go to discover, shop, and support the best brands on the planet. A recipient of "Forbes 30 Under 30" and one of Fast Company’s "Most Creative People in Business," Ali has helped thousands of brands expand their distribution and sell in stores all around the country. She is a salesperson, self-taught publicist, marketer, and growth strategist and has experience scaling both bootstrapped and venture-backed businesses.

Ali's new book, "How to Build a Goddamn Empire: Advice on Creating Your Brand with High-Tech Smarts, Elbow Grease, Infinite Hustle, and a Whole Lotta Heart" is available in bookstores now!

Tara Viswanathan W12, M.S. Stanford ’15, spent the last 15 years passionate about helping people make better health-related decisions. From working hands on with chronically ill patients to becoming a certified nutrition counselor to designing Stanford research experiments on the mind-body connection - she developed deep experience across the health space throughout her career. Previously, Tara worked at Parsley Health, Lululemon, and the Stanford d.School.

Now, Tara is founder & CEO of Rupa Health, an integrative health tech company that aims to make root cause medicine the standard of care. Their first product, Rupa Labs, is a lab ordering portal for telemedicine providers that turns 15 hours of weekly physician admin work into 15 mins. Rupa is HQ’d in San Francisco and backed by world class investors like First Round Capital, Floodgate Capital, Ron Conway / SV Angel, and more.

Gillian is an entrepreneurial leader who ensures the successful integration of strategic plans, operational goals, and performance targets to drive growth. She applies her background in finance and operations to deliver profitable business outcomes across multiple industries, including asset management, wealth management, transportation, and consulting.  She is adept at managing client relationships and forging partnerships with internal and external stakeholders.

Sarah Ribner C11, is the Founder & CEO of PiperWai, the first all-natural, charcoal-based, nontoxic deodorant. Sarah began her journey with wellness almost a decade ago, however, until five years ago, an effective nontoxic, natural deodorant was the missing piece in her quest to lead a healthy, low waste lifestyle. Deodorant was becoming a controversial personal care product as active ingredients in deodorant and antiperspirant were linked to long term illnesses.

When her childhood friend asked her to try her DIY formula, Sarah saw an opportunity to fill a market need and to create a powerful brand to bring this formula to the masses. She holds an MBA from Columbia, a BA from Upenn, and an aromatherapist certification from the New York Institute of Aromatic Studies. Sarah is a proud member of the EY Winning Women Class of 2017, Forbes 30 Under 30 2018, and she has appeared on ABC, HSN, AOL Build, Fox and many other major media outlets.

#powerofpennwomen #momentum2020

In founding Robyn, Allison Kaiser Eng09, set out on a mission to make sure no other aspiring, expecting or new parent ever felt as alone and confused as she once did on her journey to parenthood. Prior to launching Robyn, Allison was a Vice President at J.P. Morgan’s Corporate & Investment Bank. She holds a Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. She is a mom to three boys, Jacob, Freddy, and Billy (Penn Class of 2039 + 2041). Robyn is a digital platform for aspiring, expecting and new parents to find parental wellness providers, resources, and classes.  

Caroline Strzalka C00, WG05, is a serial entrepreneur and media executive. She is the CEO and Co-Founder of It's By U (itsbyu.com) which is a farm-direct subscription company disrupting the floral industry that she founded with her sister Christine. She is also currently acting as an Advisor to Overplay Games. Previously, Caroline held leadership roles at media companies, particularly in the children's and educational spaces.  She was the EVP of Partnerships at Sandbox & Co, VP Digital Content & Global Development at Scholastic, and Director of Digital Media Business Development at Sesame Workshop. She has executed multi-million dollar partnership deals with some of the largest media companies in the world including Google, Netflix, Apple, and Microsoft, and led new media projects in audio, video, and interactive gaming. Prior to this, she was an investment banker in Equity Capital Markets at Salomon Smith Barkey, Citibank and took many companies public, including Kraft, Constellation Brands, GameStop, and Leapfrog. She is a Wharton MBA, Penn undergrad, Startup Leadership Program Fellow, and is on the Council on Foreign Relations. Caroline prides herself in recognizing and monetizing blue sky opportunities, and is particularly passionate about female founded startups and getting women's ideas funded.

Lucy Xu W13, is Founder & CEO of The Port Global, a marketing and business consultancy supporting startups and growing businesses across Greece and the U.S. She holds a business degree from Wharton, is a TEDx speaker, and has a background in technology and marketing (formerly IBM, Curalate, and Startup Grind NYC). In 2017, Lucy moved from New York City to Athens to explore a unique thesis on the potential for innovation, cooperation, and expansion that exists between these markets. 

Dr. Manisha Juthani C94, an Infectious Diseases physician at Yale School of Medicine. She’s helped to lead Yale’s COVID preparedness and treatment of patients as well as runs the Infectious Diseases Fellowship program, which keeps her very busy!

She completed her undergraduate training @upenn, attended Cornell University Medical College, completed residency training at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Campus, and was a Chief Resident at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She arrived at Yale School of Medicine in 2002 for Infectious Diseases Fellowship Training and joined the full-time faculty in 2006. She assumed the role of Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program Director in 2012.

Her federally funded research has focused on infections in older adults, specifically urinary tract infections and pneumonia. Most notably, she was the Principal Investigator of an R01-funded research project that resulted in the 2016 JAMA publication entitled, “Effect of Cranberry Capsules on Bacteriuria Plus Pyuria Among Older Women in Nursing Homes: A Randomized Clinical Trial.” This publication received widespread attention in the lay press, including The New York Times and CNN to name a few, and achieved an Almetric Attention Score of 1564 that keeps on rising, placing it in the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric. In December 2016, The New Yorker identified this research as one of the most notable medical findings of 2016, and Dr. Juthani was interviewed and featured in the GeriPal and Gastropod podcasts. Additionally, in her parallel work with pneumonia prevention, she was the first author on the 2015 Clinical Infectious Diseases publication entitled, “A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial of a Multicomponent Intervention Protocol for Pneumonia Prevention Among Nursing Home Elders.” In addition to her academic responsibilities, Dr. Juthani enjoys writing about medical topics in the lay press.

Carolyn Yachanin C13, is the Founder & CEO of Copina Co. - a company dedicated to redefining the beauty industry through positive messaging and game-changing plant-based vegan collagen blends. Copina Co.’s delicious edible beauty products help you feel amazing in your own skin and promote healthy hair, skin, and nails without the use of animal products. Copina Co. launched in February 2020 and has been featured in Well + Good, Refinery 29, Sporteluxe and more and can now be found in stores from coast-to-coast.

A native of California and current San Diego resident, Carolyn is passionate about holistic wellness and plant-based living solutions for all. She spends her free time mentoring young female entrepreneurs and enjoying the outdoors with her husband Alex. Carolyn was on the Penn Momentum 2020 planning committee and served as the Marketing Chair of Wharton Women during her time at Penn. She graduated cum laude with a B.A. in History.