Tosh Ernest is head of SVB’s Catalyst 2045 program, a platform through which the company delivers products, tools, advice and resources to Emerging Segments groups in the innovation economy with a focus on serving Women, Black and Latinx individuals. By leveraging powerful connections among founders, funders and talent, SVB is unlocking greater access to capital, professional relationships and career opportunities. In her role, Tosh is helping expand the program and increase opportunities across SVB’s core businesses. She joined SVB in 2022.

Tosh leads SVB’s efforts to extend its commitment to Women, Black and Latinx client, beyond its walls as it seeks to help transform the innovation economy. The innovation economy ecosystem offers stimulating careers and wealth generation opportunities, but due to systemic and historical barriers, there are too few women, Black and Latinx individuals who get to take part. As a company that has been at the center of innovation for 40 years, SVB is in a unique position to make its Catalyst 2045 mission a reality.

Before joining SVB, Tosh spent more than a decade at JPMorgan Chase & Co., where she founded the wealth division of the Advancing Black Pathways initiative, which focused on bridging the racial wealth gap. Tosh and her team steered the firm’s multimillion-dollar commitment to racial equity by developing strategies for the economic inclusivity of Emerging Segments groups. Additionally, she served as a strategic advisor to senior management and community leaders on economic opportunities for underserved communities. During her time with the organization, Tosh led large-scale change management and transformation initiatives through her work with various multinational teams to plan and deliver mission-critical new business products, including launching a mutual fund company that scaled to $40 billion in assets under management, a driving strategy for emerging managers, venture capital and private equity funds. Earlier in her career, she held roles at consulting firms Navigant, Capco and Accenture, specializing in post-merger and acquisition systems integrations.

Tosh earned her bachelor’s degree in accounting and management from the University of Reading in England. She was recognized as one of the 25 Influential Black Women in Business by The Network Journal in 2021.

Outside of the office, Tosh loves to volunteer for her church, travel to far-flung locations, run, bike and read.

Sharon Marichalar leads the Program Management Office for Catalyst 2045, SVB’s company-wide effort to increase the representation of Women, Black, and Latinx founders and investors in innovation.

Sharon’s journey with SVB began in 2018 when she joined as a corporate intern through the Year Up workforce development program. Since then, Sharon’s role has continued to expand, encompassing event management, talent development, program operations, and building partnerships with Latinx-serving organizations.

Currently, Sharon supports Catalyst 2045’s emerging segment strategies, with a focus on facilitating connections for early-stage founders to networks, information, and resources designed to increase their probability of success.

Sharon is a proud 2nd generation Mexican American with indigenous roots tracing back to the Mescalero Apache tribe of New Mexico, where her grandfather was born. In her free time, Sharon enjoys writing poetry and spending time with her family—especially her 90-year-old grandfather, who is her best friend.

A Bay Area native, Sharon now calls San Diego, CA home.

Bismarck Lepe, Founder and Executive Chairman at Wizeline, is a seasoned Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor. He founded Wizeline in 2014 with the mission to help companies build better products faster by making innovation accessible to all organizations.

Bismarck is Mexican American and the son of two immigrants from a small town in Jalisco, Mexico. He left a successful career path as an early employee at Google to start his own online video platform company, Ooyala, which sold for $400M to Telstra in 2014. For more than a decade, Bismarck has pioneered Mexico-Silicon Valley cross-border collaboration with Ooyala and now at Wizeline. Bismarck is passionate about driving economic growth in the global communities where Wizeline operates. In 2015, he founded Startup GDL, a non-profit organization committed to making Guadalajara a leader in innovation.

In his free time, Bismarck enjoys spending time with his family and is an avid runner. Bismarck graduated from Stanford with a BA in Economics.

Loni Olazaba is a Bay Area native born in Palo Alto, CA and raised in Sunnyvale, CA.

As a Talent Acquisition professional, she has recruited technology talent and led recruiting teams in the valley for 20+ years, working for established organizations such as Google, PayPal, TiVo, LinkedIn (where she was for months shy of a decade), and Robinhood.

She is currently Head of Talent Acquisition at Ceribell, the developer of the first AI-powered point-of-care EEG diagnostic system, that is revolutionizing seizure management in acute care. In 2020, after becoming Co-Chair of LinkedIn’s Employee Resource group HOLA, she made the decision to also dedicate her career to Inclusion, Equity and Belonging in the workplace. As an active Ambassador, she focuses on advocacy and leading/supporting inclusive hiring efforts.

Loni has a sincere passion for matching talent with opportunity and helping fellow professionals flourish in their career! Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her husband and four children, listening to music, dancing, meditating, and being in nature!

Laura is a Latina founder, operator and investor. She is the founder of Ascendo, a venture capital firm unlocking trillions of dollars of untapped opportunities through inclusive investing in underserved markets, including the Latin, Black and female economies.  Ascendo leverages diversity as a strategic advantage in the pursuit of alpha. Ascendo invests in groundbreaking founders building disruptive technologies that address the needs of growing demographic segments and that empower women as catalysts of economic growth, across Fintech, Edtech, Future of Work, Health-tech and Enterprise Software.

Prior to Ascendo, Laura co-founded Endeavor Miami in 2013, the first US affiliate of the global entrepreneurial organization, pioneering Miami’s entrepreneurial hub. During the time she led the organization, Laura built a portfolio of more than 20 companies which generated over $250 million in revenues, several with substantial exits. Prior to Endeavor, she held several leadership positions at Visa and Panamco (NYSE - Coca-Cola bottler). Laura has strong Fintech, M&A and private equity backgrounds.

Laura serves on the Board of International Money Express (NASDAQ: IMXI) and as a Member of the Investment Committee of Salkantay Ventures. Laura volunteers as Steering Committee Member of All Raise Miami Chapter, as Member of NWS Digital Committee and as Vice-Chair of the HBS Women’s Alumnae Board. Laura has an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B. S. in Economics (Summa Cum Laude) from I.T.A.M. in Mexico City.

Hector Ramos is the Director of Investment at ICA Fund, a nonprofit VC firm focused on backing Main Street, CPG, and technology companies led by diverse and mission-aligned entrepreneurs.

Hector leads the sourcing and investment process for the Growth Fund and is responsible for portfolio and co-investor management. He works cross-functionally to support entrepreneurs with growth strategies, capital raising, and revenue-generating opportunities.

He’s also an Angel investor and runs a small syndicate.

Kerstin Dittmar is the Founder and Managing Partner of L2 Point Management, a woman-owned and led manager with over $500 million in AUM. L2 Point is focused on structured equity solutions for late-stage growth companies, targeting investments intended to provide “growth-equity-like” returns at a portfolio level, with significantly lower volatility of outcomes, while addressing a risk reward gap left in between credit and equity funds.

Ms. Dittmar was previously an early team member at Sixth Street, a $70+ billion AUM special situations platform. Prior to Sixth Street, Ms. Dittmar worked in the Americas Special Situations Group at Goldman Sachs. Ms. Dittmar serves on the Board of Directors of Wasabi Technologies, Fabletics, SimSpace and Revolution Foods.

Ms. Dittmar received a B.A. in Economics from Duke University.

Jolynn Vallejo is the Chief of Staff at Kapor Capital. She supports the General Partners and manages investor relations, operations, and fund reporting. Jolynn oversees a portfolio of over 138 active companies and authors the firm's annual impact reports. She is actively engaged in the LatinX venture and founder community and is Kapor’s source lead for LatinX founded companies.

Prior to Kapor, she was the Director of LatinSF, the economic development arm of the city of San Francisco focused on investment between the Latin American region and the city. Under her tenure, she secured $25.5 Million in investment, generated 350+ jobs and advised over 100 LatinX/Latin American startup founders.

She is also a former founder of a record label with a catalog of 27 Latin American artists.

Jolynn is a proud San Francisco native of Ecuadorian heritage.

Eugenio is a Partner at Plug and Play Ventures, where he leads investments in startups raising early-stage funding in InsurTech, FinTech, AI, Cybersecurity, and enterprise software. Eugenio spearheads Plug and Play's Financial Services Fund.

Eugenio joined Plug and Play from Carey, the largest law firm in Chile, where he led investments and M&A transactions across banks and financial institutions. At Carey, Eugenio was centrally involved in the acquisition of City National Bank of Florida and established major technology and strategic partnership relationships.

Eugenio has an MBA from MIT Sloan and a JD from Universidad de Chile.