Allyson Kapin, Women Who Tech and Rad Campaign, Founder
Allyson has been named one of the "Most Influential Women in Tech" by Fast Company, one of the top "Tech Titans" by the Washingtonian, and one of the "Top 30 Women Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter" by Forbes for her leadership role in technology and social media. She is also the co-founder of Rad Campaign, a web agency that works with nonprofits to fight the world's toughest problems, ranging from climate change to health care reform. In 2012, Allyson wrote the nonprofit best-selling book, Social Change Anytime Everywhere, with Amy Sample Ward.
In 2007, Allyson founded Women Who Tech: A Telesummit for Women in Technology, featuring Arianna Huffington of HuffingtonPost.com and Joan Blades of Moveon.org. Through Women Who Tech, she champions women who are inspiring change and transforming technology. She also serves as an expert for news reporters who are writing about women in technology. In 2015, as a part of Women Who Tech, Allyson launched the first-ever Women Startup Challenge to help showcase and fund women-led startups.
She sits on the Advisory Board of the Anita Borg Institute and the Planning Committee for NTEN's Nonprofit Technology Conference. Allyson blogged for Fast Company, focusing on trends in technology and Web 2.0, and served as the Blogger-In-Chief for Care2's nonprofit blog.
Craig Newmark, craigslist and craigconnects, Founder
Craig Newmark is the founder of craigslist, the web-based platform that has fundamentally changed classified advertising. Since its founding in 1995, craigslist has become one of the world's 10 most-visited English language web platforms. Today there are craigslist websites virtually everywhere and serving every continent on earth (except Antarctica). craigslist provides users with mostly free advertising opportunities, and is meant to allow people to help each other with basic needs like housing and jobs. It is based on a culture of trust, encouraging participants to play an active role in policing the information that is shared on the site.
In 1976, Craig began his business career with IBM, where he spent nearly 17 years. He subsequently worked in programming for Charles Schwab, Bank of America, and other firms.
In 1995, while working for Charles Schwab, Craig launched craigslist in his flat as a free way for people to share information about events in San Francisco.
In March 2011 Craig launched craigconnects, his initiative to link up everyone on the planet using social media to bear witness to good efforts and encourage the same behavior in others. craigconnects seeks to support technology and platforms that enhance connectivity, help more people and organizations do good in the world, and improve and ensure media integrity.
craigconnects evolved from Craig's many years of personal involvement with non-profit organizations and issues he considers to be vital. He currently serves on the board of directors of three non-profit organizations, on the advisory board of eleven others, and provides personal or financial support to dozens more. These organizations are involved in using the internet to help solve social issues, provide for America's returning veterans, drive funding for school projects directly to the classroom, or help government agencies and groups on their innovation initiatives.
Craig regularly communicates through Twitter (@craignewmark) and Facebook (facebook.com/craignewmark). He is also a contributor to the Huffington Post.
Lisa Stone, Ellevest, CMO, and Cofounder of BlogHer
Lisa Stone is an entrepreneur and digital media strategist with 18 years of experience developing scale consumer communities via storytelling, quality conversation and analytics. Most recently, Lisa was CEO and Co-founder of BlogHer Inc., where she grew an idea for a grassroots conference into a leading start-up reaching 100+ million women each month, $30 million in annual revenues and a proprietary technology platform for engaging social influencers. She also executive-produced BlogHer's conferences, the world's largest for women in social media (her past interviews include President Barack Obama, Sheryl Sandberg, Soledad O'Brien, and Melinda Gates). In 2014, Lisa led the sale of BlogHer to SheKnows Media, creating the #1 women's lifestyle digital media company. Previously, Lisa pioneered the first blog publishing network at Law.com, and was Vice President, Programming and Editor in Chief at Women.com Networks, where she led original programming and partnerships (Bloomberg, Gallup, E! Online, HBO's Sex and the City), and helped launch 11 Hearst and two Rodale magazine sites.
Sarah Kunst is a entrepreneur, investor, advisor and philanthropist. She is from rural Michigan and attended Michigan State University. She has worked at Apple, Red Bull, Chanel, Mohr Davidow Ventures and a number of media and consumer startups. She is currently a partner at Fortis. Her philanthropic interests include Help Us Adopt, Code2040, USA State Department's Tech Women program, Technovation Challenge and being on the boards of Venture for America and the New York City Department of Education Finance and Business Commission. She also mentors and advises racially, geographically and gender diverse startups through NewMe, Digital Undivided, Mergelane, The Startup Factory, Boost.vc and Techstar's Patriot Bootcamp. Kunst is on the 2015 Forbes Magazine 30 under 30 list and has been recognized for her work in Business Insider as a 30 under 30 and Top African-American in Tech and Marie Claire Magazine named her a Young Gun to watch. She also writes for The Daily Beast and Entrepreneur.com and speaks on venture funding and startups frequently, including at the Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Push Wall Street conference. Sarah is a passionate leader who is focused on global inclusiveness and helping traditionally underrepresented people find success.
Diane Tate, Mozilla, Program Manager
Diane ran and grew WebFWD, Mozilla's accelerator for open source startups. She currently works on internal communications; previously she was Program Manager for Mozilla's Developer Relations team. Pre-Mozilla she did communications, marketing, product management, and business development at various startups as well as at Charles Schwab. She got her MBA from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and her BA in History from Stanford.
Sibyl Edwards, DC Web Women, President, and Black Female Founders, CoFounder
Sibyl is also the President of DC Web Women (DCWW), one of the longest-running tech nonprofits for women in D.C, which supports and advocates for women and girls in technology by providing a community in which they can develop and promote their leadership, technical and professional skills.