Ella is a Vice President within Global Gateway, SVB’s international market expansion team, focuses on strategic international innovation and extends SVB’s network and services to entrepreneurs and investors in Emerging Markets as they scale to global markets.

Previously, Ella was part of the Global Fund Banking team at SVB, providing banking and lending services to venture capital and private equity firms in New York. Before joining SVB, Ella worked at Morgan Stanley as a Fixed Income Securities Advisor to institutional investors including pension funds, foundations, endowments, and government entities globally.

Prior to entering the private sector, Ella worked as an Advisor to the Head of Political Affairs at the Embassy of Israel in Washington D.C, working closely with U.S. government officials and foreign Embassies to enhance the strategic relations with Israel. Previously, she served as a Foreign Relations Liaison in the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel.

 Andy has provided tax solutions to start-ups and other technology companies in Silicon Valley since 1985. His specialties include corporate, partnership, and individual tax

and compensation planning; stock option taxation and planning; and international taxation.  

Andy has been nationally recognized for his involvement with and contributions to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants

to help shape tax policy and rules. Andy also heads the Brazil Desk for Moss Adams and is the winner of the Moss Adams 2014 Technical Excellence Award in the Partners Category. 

Sheetal has practiced public accounting since 1996. She is part of the venture and private equity fund tax practice of the Silicon Valley office and has extensive experience with partnership tax issues. 

Sheetal has experience working with private equity fund partners and principals providing tax planning services and has a unique set of tax consulting skills in serving the funds, its investors, and

the general partners. In addition, she works with start-up and emerging growth companies in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, income taxes, and multi-state and international tax planning.

Sheetal also provides tax planning and compliance services to individuals and their families and the entities they own.

Priya is the Managing Director at Silicon Valley Bank. As the Market Lead for India and MENA , she provides international market entry advice and introductions with a focus on technology and innovation cross-border companies, entrepreneurs and venture capital funds in emerging markets. Prior to this role she was Director of Early Stage practice. Priya calls on her experience, expertise and connections to champion a more inclusive innovation economy. She works closely with community and diversity ecosystem partners, including Change Catalyst, Kapor Capital, Big Brothers Big Sisters Organization, Women Who Code, and more. Other university partners Priya has partnered with include Dorm Room Fund, The House Fund, Stanford Venture Studio and Rough Draft Ventures.

Sara Rona is a director of Startup Banking for Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and is the market lead for Australia & New Zealand, where she manages SVB’s portfolio of technology startups and venture capital funds based in the region. She is also leading global channel partnerships in Latin America, India, Australia and New Zealand, and Middle East North Africa (MENA) countries.

 
Sara joined SVB in 2018 as a director of business planning, covering Technology and Healthcare banking. There, she helped drive go to market strategy, objectives and key results for the commercial bank. She partnered closely with the leadership team to execute and operationalize communication strategy, roadmaps and division-wide initiatives. Earlier in her career, she held various roles in corporate strategy, product management and business development at various organizations like HSBC, IFC-World Bank and Deutsche Bank.

Andy Tsao is a Managing Director and leads SVB’s Global Gateway, which assists innovation companies in the emerging markets with their US and international market expansion. He brings more than 20 years of experience banking dynamic companies in technology industries worldwide.

In his roles, Tsao manages SVB’s relationships with venture capital and private equity firms outside the U.S., and also helps emerging market companies as they seek U.S. market entry and U.S. companies as they seek to expand abroad. In both capacities, Tsao provides these firms with strategic advice and banking services, including debt financing, based on a deep understanding of their needs.