Yvette S. Butler is the President of SVB Private Banking & Wealth Management and brings more than 30 years of experience working with the tech industry’s top innovators and investors seeking to build wealth through alternative and concentrated personal investments.

Before joining SVB, Yvette launched a media fintech startup called Impart Media and continues to serve as a strategic advisor. Yvette was also President of Capital One Investing, the first large bank to build its own robo-advisor digital platform. Prior roles include Managing Director for Wells Fargo Advisors, Head of Investor Marketing for E*TRADE, and various positions at Merrill Lynch, McKinsey & Company and Charles Schwab.

Yvette is board member of Voya Financial and the Treasurer for the Washington Area Women’s Foundation. She is a member of the Executive Leadership Council, which advances the role and contributions of current and next-generation black corporate leaders, philanthropists, and has served on the University of Virginia Ridley Scholarship board.

In addition to her passion for banking, she is a champion for women and leadership development. In 2017, Yvette was named to The Washingtonian’s prestigious list of the Most Powerful Women in Washington and Savoy’s 100 Most Influential Black Executives in 2020.

Yvette holds an MBA from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Science degree in finance and management information systems from the University of Virginia.

Claude Grunitzky is CEO and Managing Partner at the Equity Alliance, a New York-based fund of funds that invests in venture capital firms and early-stage ventures run by women and people of color. Born in Togo, Claude is also the founder of two media companies, TRACE and TRUE Africa. Over the past two decades, TRACE, which was funded by Goldman Sachs and successfully sold to European investors in 2010, has become one of the most popular youth culture media brands focused on Black culture. TRUE Africa is a Google-funded media tech platform championing young African voices and innovators all over the world. Claude also launched TRUE Africa University as a remote learning platform, which is currently incubated at MIT’s J-WEL (Jameel-World Education Lab), because he wants to help nurture Africa’s talent, those young people who will accelerate the continent’s sustainable development.

Growing up, Claude, who speaks six languages and carries three passports, was exposed to many different cultures. These foreign interactions shaped his transcultural philosophy and informed the creative energy of his ventures. Claude is a graduate of London University and MIT, where he obtained an MBA as a Sloan Fellow. He is also a visiting social innovator at Harvard Kennedy School’s Social Innovation + Change Initiative, where he lectures, leads workshops and helps graduate students develop business ideas for social enterprises. Claude is also an angel investor who has helped many young entrepreneurs launch their startups over the past decade. Claude sits on the board of Humanity in Action, a foundation that works internationally to build global leadership, defend democracy, protect minorities and improve human rights.

Hamet Watt is an entrepreneur and investor immersed at the intersection of innovation, neuroscience,
wellness and design. He has co-founded three venture-backed companies, each with an
accompanying exit. Re-imagination has been a common theme across all of his ventures, whether
reimagining advertising with NextMedium, wellness with bLife, or reimagining the movie going
experience with MoviePass.

As the CEO and Founder of Share Ventures, Hamet is currently re-imagining the venture capital and
startup model. Bringing together teams of world-class entrepreneurs alongside experienced operators
within the venture studio, Hamet aims to create and fund multiple venture scale companies each year
innovating around the theme of human performance. In creating this new asset class, Hamet’s mission
is to have meaningful impact on the human experience while achieving exceptional returns. Share is
backed by leading venture capital firms, founders, and family offices.

Hamet began his investing career as Partner at the New Africa Opportunity Fund, the first US-backed
venture fund in post-apartheid South Africa. He continued on to become an Entrepreneur in Residence
at True Ventures, and for the past six years has served as a Board Partner at Upfront Ventures, which
has grown to become the largest VC fund in Southern California. In his commitment to innovation,
Hamet also serves as a Senior Advisor at the Boston Consulting Group, working with CEOs of large
corporations to innovate and build new entrepreneurial companies from within their corporate walls.

Marlene Orozco is the Lead Research Analyst at the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative at Stanford Graduate School of Business and CEO of Stratified Insights, a research consulting firm. She holds a PhD in Sociology from Stanford, a Master’s in Education Policy and Management from Harvard, and a BA from Stanford. As a mixed methods researcher by training, Marlene has over 250 hours of in-depth interview experience and quantitative expertise in big data. 

Through her public scholarship, Marlene’s research has been featured in over 100s of media outlets including Bloomberg, MarketWatch, Forbes, NBC News, CNN en Español, and Univision, among others. Marlene is the lead editor and co-author of an academic volume, Advancing U.S. Latino Entrepreneurship, has written academic publications in peer-reviewed journals like Small Business Economics, Social Science Quarterly and Qualitative Sociology, and authored several industry reports and research briefs. She has been previously named 40 Under 40, Top Young Professionals by Silicon Valley Business Journal and presented the Stanford Community Impact Award by the Stanford Alumni Association. 

Marlene’s work is guided by her passion for education and economic equity and exploring pathways of mobility for immigrants, women, and entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds. As a founding board member of CRESER Capital Fund and an Illumen Capital Ambassador, she regularly coaches and provides expertise to reduce systems-level bias facing women and people of color who are entrepreneurs, fund managers, or in the finance industry.

Miriam Rivera is CEO, co-founder and managing Director of Ulu Ventures, a top seed stage venture fund in Silicon Valley focused on IT startups. Previously, Miriam was vice-president/general counsel at Google, joining as the second attorney. Her work to simplify contracts helped Google scale from $85m to $10b in 5 years.

Miriam earned AB, AM and JD/MBA degrees from Stanford; was a trustee at the university and has been honored with the Stanford Medal, awarded to fewer than 1 percent of alumni. Miriam is on the investment committee of Acumen Fund America, is a Kauffman Foundation Board member and an advisor to the Launch with GS Advisory Council, a Goldman Sachs initiative to reduce the investing gap for Black and LatinX founders.

Richie Serna is the CEO and co-founder of Finix. Finix is a payments infrastructure provider for software companies that want to transform their business model by embedding payments into their product to create a better user experience for customers while adding an entirely new revenue stream.

Kofi is the VP of Strategy and Business Development at Elroy Air, an aerospace startup building an autonomous vertical take-off and landing system that can deliver 300 lbs of cargo over a 300-mile range. While at Elroy Air, Kofi has helped develop strategic partnerships with NASA, Lockheed Martin, World Economic Forum, Air Force, Embraer, and many Fortune 500 corporations. Elroy Air's mission is to improve the quality of life around the world by expanding the reach of express logistics. Elroy Air Video.

Prior to Elroy Air, Kofi was a part of Uber's Advanced technology strategy group team which launched Uber freight.  During his time at Uber freight, Kofi built an Uber entity he named "Powerloop" which decreases wait time for drivers and enables high utilization for autonomous trucks. The division is now expanding nationwide enabling drivers to seamlessly "loop" to their next load utilizing their "power" unit. The program has helped thousands of drivers maximize their workday and come home early to their families all at the same time. Powerloop Video.

Kofi currently serves as a venture partner at Rackhouse Ventures. Kofi also serves as an Advisor to the FVLCRUM Private Equity Fund and a board member at the Tufts Entrepreneurship Center. His ventures both at Uber and Elroy Air have been featured in the Wallstreet Journal, PBS, Techcrunch, Forbes, and Business Insider.

Daryn is a passionate advocate of social and economic justice, especially for disadvantaged and marginalized groups. His work with impact investors, private equity funds, Fortune 100 companies, universities and foundations has been viewed through the lens of addressing the world’s most pressing social and environmental problems.

Daryn previously led the Special Equities Program as a consultant to the Board of the Calvert Funds, a $12 billion pioneer of the impact investing field. Through this vehicle, Calvert maintains a portfolio of more than 40 funds on five continents, representing over 350 underlying portfolio companies.  Prior to serving as a consultant to Calvert, Daryn served as Director of University and Corporate Partnership for The Idea Village, where he created a platform engaging leading private equity firms, business schools, and Fortune 500 companies to invest over 100,000 hours and $2 million into more than 1,000 New Orleans entrepreneurs post-Hurricane Katrina.

Mr. Dodson currently serves on the Board of Directors for Ben and Jerry’s.  He earned his M.B.A. from Stanford, where he serves on the Dean’s Management Board, and his A.B. from Duke University.

Board director and investment executive, Paula Pretlow, built her career helping company leaders maximize shareholder and stakeholder value—personally delivering half-a-billion dollars in revenue and building relationships with many of the world’s largest institutional investors.

Today, Paula serves as Independent Trustee and Audit Committee Chair for Cion Ares Diversified Credit Fund and Independent Director for Ares Dynamic Credit Allocation Fund (NYSE: ARDC); Independent Board Director for Bitwise Industries: and Independent Board Director for Vroom (NASDAQ: VRM). Paula’s board service has also included The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Northwestern University, and The Kresge Foundation, as well as the San Francisco Symphony and Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco. Collectively, her board experience spans executive, nominating and governance, investment, finance, and audit committees, with matters including executive performance, compensation and succession planning; board candidate vetting and selection; conflict resolution; annual/strategic planning; policy and procedure development; diversity recruitment; and compliance and reporting.

Paula began her finance and business development career at Wells Fargo Bank, before moving to GATX Capital, where she played a pioneering role in the creation of a secondary market in capital equipment leases and portfolios. She then transitioned to Wall Street, working on the bond desk at Credit Suisse and later moving into investment management with AXA Rosenberg, and subsequently, BlackRock. Prior to retiring from the investment field, Paula spent twelve years at the $2.1T privately held investment firm, The Capital Group, where she led the public fund team and managed her own client base representing $700B+ in combined assets.

A long-time resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, Paula's passion for developing new generations of leaders translates beyond the board room, with her work in higher education and philanthropy, centering on inclusive environments. Paula is a supporter of live theater and music, and an avid traveler with interests in emerging countries and off-the-beaten-path adventures. As a speaker, Paula frequently presents on Leadership, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, and has been privileged to share the program with women including Julie Lythcott-Haims, Ali Wentworth, and Gloria Steinem. Paula is currently writing stories about her life and has discovered a hidden talent: improv!

With over 25 years of experience in the investment management and investment consulting industry, I have an extensive breadth of experience in all aspects of the institutional investment management industry. I have designed, managed, consulted and implemented scores of investment policies, programs and strategies. I have also managed and founded many different investment management platforms.

In my roles of CEO, CIO, portfolio manager, fund manager, principal consultant and advisor, I have individually or in concert with colleagues: raised over $4 billion from institutional investors for traditional and alternative investment management strategies; Invested more than $50 billion in aggregate transactions both private and public in debt, equity and alternative investment securities; co-managed the continuing asset allocation structure and strategic plan for a large foundation; authored research papers on the role of private equity funds for institutional investors; established and revised investment policy for several large public and private agencies; and I have provided consulting advice and coaching to many business owners and c-suite level executives.

Michael Lints has over 20 years of experience helping innovative businesses obtain the resources, insights, and expertise they need in order to be successful. Michael has been a startup operator, investor, and mentor, and is currently a Partner at the Singapore-based venture capital firm Golden Gate Ventures. He joined the firm in 2013 and is currently leading growth venture efforts, which include LP fundraising and portfolio management for Golden Gate Venture's investments at Series B and beyond.

Michael’s entrepreneurial journey began in 2000 when he co-founded an IT managed services startup in Europe that was acquired by a large data and telecom company six years later. In 2007, Michael founded a venture fund focused on Dutch small- and medium-sized enterprises to help them with capital financing, business development, and strategy. During the same period, he was invited to join the Economic Development Board Rotterdam as Vice Chairman. In that role, he launched the Young Economic Development Board where he brought together a highly influential Dutch network to develop a sustainable framework for public-private relationships that increased local business investment while leveraging the public infrastructure.

Michael has helped support firm and portfolio-level priorities that have spanned fundraising, capital allocation, and corporate development. He has helped to raise over USD $60M for Golden Gate Ventures and its portfolio companies, including helping to raise later stage rounds from external investors as well as leading two early strategic acquisitions.

Outside of work, sport is an essential part of Michael’s life. He is a former member of the Dutch karate team and the former ambassador for Treknology (Trek bikes distributor in Singapore). Michael actively participates in Ironman 70.3 races and marathons. He is also passionate about social justice and uses sport as a vehicle to raise awareness for important issues such as civil rights, economic opportunity, and education. Besides sport, Michael is an active writer and writes articles regarding life, balance, and venture capital on michaellints.com.

Described by TechCrunch and Forbes Magazine as "Silicon Valley's Oliva Pope", Eaddy brings more than 18 years of experience as an organizer, strategist and changemaker.

Jotaka is the founder and CEO of Full Circle Strategies, a social impact and political consulting firm. Eaddy previously served as the VP of Policy and Strategic Engagement for LendUp where Eaddy's team is also responsible for measuring how LendUp's products benefit consumers, such as saving customers more than $244 million in fees and interest to-date, and creating a series of financial education courses that have been viewed more than 2.1 million times. Additionally, Eaddy’s portfolio includes strategic partnerships with elected officials, consumer advocates, and other key stakeholders.

Eaddy has led major initiatives aimed at bridging the gap between Washington DC and Silicon Valley, including fostering major partnerships between Silicon Valley based companies and the government/ non profit sector at the federal, state, and local level resulting in education and social impact initiatives that have reached more than 2 million consumers served by the tech industry.  Committed to social impact and social justice; Jotaka serves as a board advisor to several tech start-ups including Maker’s Row, Inc.; Gauge, Inc., and Hustle, Inc.

From 2009-2014, Eaddy served as Senior Advisor to the President & CEO of the NAACP. Within that capacity she directed external affairs and strategic initiatives on behalf of the Office of the President and CEO and led the NAACP’s strategy to defend and expand access voting rights.

In 2004 she directed the national and international advocacy campaign against the juvenile death penalty in the United States. Those efforts contributed to the 2005 landmark US Supreme Court decision Roper v. Simmons which abolished the juvenile death penalty in the United States.

Nick Caldwell is VP of Engineering at Twitter, overseeing a 700 person team responsible for consumer experiences. He also recently joined HubSpot, a publicly traded company specializing in CRM, as a member of the corporate board.  Previously he was Chief Product and Engineering Officer at Looker (acquired by Google) and VP of Engineering at Reddit. He also spent 13 years at Microsoft, culminating in a role as General Manager of the Power BI product family where he rapidly transformed the company's business intelligence suite. 

Nick holds a degree in computer science and electrical engineering from MIT, an MBA from U.C. Berkeley Haas, and holds 10 patents related to natural language processing. Nick’s charitable work includes board membership for /dev/color: a non-profit whose mission is to maximize the impact of Black software engineers, and founding Color Code: a scholarship fund dedicated to future leaders of color in technology fields.

Nick is a native of P.G. County Maryland, but is happy to call San Francisco home.

With over 17 years of experience building strategies to engage multiple stakeholders in addressing some of the most pressing societal issues, Courtney joined SVB in 2017 to establish and expand SVB’s signature program, Access to Innovation. The mission of Access to Innovation is to build a more diverse, equitable, and accessible innovation economy for all.  Her work at SVB stretches across the breadth of innovation; partnering with founders, investors, rising and thriving professionals, as well as corporations to address and tackle opportunities to fuel diversity and drastically increase representation.

Courtney has a long-standing passion for building partnerships that address big problems. Prior to joining SVB, she spent her career working in the nonprofit sector raising funds to support advancements in cancer treatments. Serving as an executive at the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, she devoted her talents to major gifts fundraising, business development, and culture transformation. During this time, she regularly inspired by diagnostic and therapeutic advancements; in her current role, she finds it gratifying to focus her work on increasing equity and access. 

Outside of work, Courtney enjoys anything involving fresh air and exercise. The pandemic inspired her to tackle her lifelong goal of learning to surf and inspired her to join the Board of City Surf Project, an organization that provides equitable access to the ocean. Writing, hiking, reading, and adventuring with her three daughters fill spare moments, but is said to always make time for great conversation… and fun. 

Since starting their wine business in 2005, Robin and her Sister Andréa have grown McBride Sisters Collection Wines to become the largest Black-owned wine company. The vision of becoming the leaders of food and wine culture for the women of today has fueled the success of the company’s three core brands: McBride Sisters Black Girl Magic, SHE CAN Wines and McBride Sisters Collections. Robin’s mission is to transform the industry, lead by example and cultivate community, one delicious glass of wine at a time. A native Californian, born in LA and raised in the Central Coast’s abundant agriculture region of Monterey, Robin currently resides in the Bay Area with her twin sixteen-year-old sons, Angelo and Domenic. Her daughter Daneia has joined the company bringing her expertise in digital marketing to supercharge the family business. Robin’s personal passion is the McBride Sisters SHE CAN Fund, which is dedicated to the professional development of women in wine & spirits and other male-dominated fields.

Angela Morris Lovelace is the Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Officer for Silicon Valley Bank. In this role, she serves as the chief strategist for DEI initiatives globally, focused on fostering an environment that offers equitable and fair growth opportunities for more than 4,000 employees, while also sharing diverse perspectives and expertise with SVB’s clients.

Angela joined SVB in 2020 after spending 16 years at Bank of America where she served in various leadership roles in Human Resources, DEI and Information Security.

Angela graduated from Tuskegee University with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and completed the ASCENT Executive Leadership Program at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Angela lives in Charlotte, NC with her husband and two sons.