Black Management Association The Paul Merage School of Business
1st Annual BMA Conference
Empowered to Lead, Equipped to Succeed May 1, 2021 | 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Agenda 9:00 a.m.
A Seat at the Table: How to Maximize an MBA for Career Success Be in the room where it happens! This panel will provide a bird’s eye view into one career trajectory along with guidance on how to extract value from the MBA and use the degree to map a successful career.
10:00 a.m.
From Warehouse to Doorstep, From Lab to Shot: Challenge Meets Opportunity in Supply Chain Management Retailers, Healthcare Providers, Food Brands, and other industries rely on innovative leaders to manage distribution, logistics, sourcing and more to meet the high demand and high expectations of their consumers. This high impact discussion will cover the impact and value of supply chain to business professionals, as well as highlight career options within this dynamic field.
11:00 a.m.
Finding Your Lane: Roadmaps to Silicon Beach or Silicon Valley Business professionals in the tech industry shed light on their career paths and provide insights that will help you understand business roles in the tech industry. Gain tangible and actionable insights that can help you excel in your career take a courageous leap forward in pursuing a career in tech.
12:00 p.m.
Making Connections & Creating New Paths Participate in a networking experience to meet fellow participants, be introduced to different career paths, and create new opportunities.
1:00 p.m.
The Founder’s Playbook: Behind the Scenes of Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital From initial idea conception, to creative strategies in raising capital, to building/ fundraising challenges, and everything in between, starting your own business is more than it appears on social media. Learn from professionals as they share the struggles and guidance on overcoming them to attain success from seed stage, to launch, growth, and leadership of new ventures.
2:00 p.m.
Keynote Address: So You Want to Join A Corporate Board? Corporate Boards provide a unique oversight role to company management. Join this session to learn what it takes to position yourself for success when seeking a Board seat, and contributing once in it!
Floor Map Floor 1
Merage School Specialty Masters Programs PIMCO Help desk table
Floor 2
Johnson & Johnson E&J Gallo Winery
Floor 3
PwC MicroVention UCI Beall Applied Innovation/ANTrepreneur Center Liberty Mutual Comerica Jam City
Floor 4
Ingram Micro Grant Thornton Taco Bell Yusen Terminals Southern California Edison U.S. Department of Energy Mercer Advisors
Floors 5-7
Topic based (2 tables per topic) • Corporate Boards
• Merage Alums
• Supply Chain
• Black Alumni Chapter
• Tech Coast
• Marketing
• Innovation
• Accounting
• Entrepreneurship
• Finance
• Venture Capital
• Information Systems
• Consulting
• Management
• BMA Alums
• Real Estate
• Latinx Alums
• Healthcare
Speakers Felicia Alexander Director of Logistics, Northrop Grumman Felicia C. Alexander is an innovative, strategic and resourceful leader in logistics and supply chain management with a proven track record of success delivering results for world class global organizations. As Sector Director for Global Supply Chain and Logistics at Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems, she oversees the Transportation, Packaging Engineering, International and Domestic Operations. In the community, she is as a Commissioner for the County of San Bernardino EEO Commission, member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Design Thinking Advisory Council for UC Riverside, Regional Volunteer for American Logistics Aide Network (ALAN) and Past Western Regional Advisor for Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP).
Kevin Austin VP Supply Chain, Toyota Kevin Austin is the Vice President of Supply Chain at Toyota. An engineer by training, he began his career with Toyota upon graduating college in 1999. He’s worked in Engineering/ Manufacturing, Sales and Marketing and Supply Chain Management both in NA and internationally (Japan). In his current role he is responsible for aligning demand across all NA and Export markets with supply from our NA facilities / supply base.
Jameela Bahar Platform and Community Associate, HBCUvc Jameela Bahar is a Platform & Community Associate at HBCUvc, who is driven to diversify the startup and venture capital ecosystem. She has an extensive background in entrepreneurship and STEM education. Her primary focus is to assist early stage startups in the creation of unique solutions to address their challenges. She also develops program offerings that support leadership development for entrepreneurs and their organizations.
Josanta Gray Emegano Founder, Grayscaled Media Josanta Gray Emegano is the Founder of Grayscaled Media, a boutique firm that helps indie brands navigate the gray areas of retail distribution and brand partnerships. The company was created with the intention of helping indie brands avoid costly mistakes when growing their businesses. She is also the creator of From Gray to Green, material designed to help provide clarity on a variety of subjects for budding entrepreneurs.
Terry Esper, PhD Associate Professor of Logistics, The Ohio State University Dr. Terry L. Esper, Associate Professor of Logistics, Fisher College of Business of The Ohio State University is engaged in a variety of global efforts across Italy, France, and Panama. His work focuses on combining Logistics and Marketing concepts to investigate how firms can leverage supply chain and logistics operations to differentiate themselves in their competitive marketplaces.
Amy Hampton Founder and CEO, Sociologie Wine Amy Hampton is the Founder and CEO of Sociologie Wine. After consecutive years of building strong relationships and developing effective sales systems, Sociologie Wines is poised for national brand expansion to better meet the passions of our core and new consumers through e-commerce and wine membership club in Summer 2021. Also, she is the designer and executive creative director of the Amy Holly which is a beautiful collection of caftans and resort wear.
Jaime Lane Compliance Operations Manager, Chime Jaime Lane leads a small but mighty compliance team at Chime, focused on creating stable and scalable processes for the Compliance Operations organization. Her group is responsible for ensuring operational readiness to support new product and feature launches. Her career trajectory includes roles at Citibank, First Republic, and Facebook.
Jennifer Pierre, PhD User Experience Researcher, Google Jennifer Pierre is an information scientist and human-computer interaction researcher, specializing in research on social and interactive media, youth and community technology use, and embedding inclusion in technology design. She developed her skills while earning a doctorate and MLIS from UCLA, and a B.S. from Cornell University. She is currently a User Experience Researcher at Google, working on the YouTube team.
Sandra Rosenfeld Senior Product Marketing Manager, ActiveCampaign Sandra Rosenfeld is a marketing professional currently working as Senior Product Marketing Manager at ActiveCampaign with experience in managing campaigns and promotions for major consumer and technology brands. She currently leads global marketing strategies to influence small-to-midsize companies in high-growth industries to grow their businesses with the cloud software platform from ActiveCampaign.
Michelle Smith-Ballard Vice President of Community and Citizenship, Turner Construction Company Michelle Smith-Ballard, Vice President of Community and Citizenship at Turner Construction Company, supports diversity and small, minority, woman owned and disadvantaged business programs. She is responsible for administering Turner’s aggressive program which includes labor compliance, outreach, and MBE/WBE/DBE spend monitoring to ensure Turner’s 20% corporate goal is met. Michelle has 35 years of experience in construction and seeks to prepare individuals for success in construction, including middle and high school through various youth programs.
Peter Swaniker Founder and CEO, MonitorQA Peter Swaniker, a technology entrepreneur, is the Founder and CEO of MonitorQA. He has founded multiple software companies, has a proven track record of building highperforming teams, and enhancing operational efficiency with efficient use of capital. He also writes frequently about entrepreneurship, workforce trends, and AI.
Ella Turenne UCI Beall Applied Innovation Center, PhD Candidate, Visual Studies Ella Turenne is an artist, entrepreneur, and a student in the PhD Program in Visual Studies at UC Irvine. Her research focuses on black feminist theory and media culture. She was a Humanities Out There Intern with the UCI Beall Center for Applied Innovation where she supported entrepreneurs by hosting a virtual speaker series and podcast series in collaboration with the Mastering Entrepreneurship Podcast. She was a fellow in Leadership L.A. and Arts for LA ACTIVATE and has worked extensively on issues of mass incarceration. Ella is Director of Training and Development for Inspire Justice.
Barry Lawson Williams, JD / MBA Barry Lawson Williams, JD / MBA and member of the California Bar, is the retired Managing General Partner of the investment and consulting company that he founded, Williams Pacific Ventures, which focuses on startups, acquisitions and real estate.
Vanessa Williams Product Marketing Manager, Square Vanessa spent years at Google starting in account management and transitioning to product marketing on teams including YouTube and Google’s internal idea incubator. Vanessa is now a product marketing manager at Square. In addition, Vanessa is an entrepreneur developing a career development entity that focuses on those from underrepresented communities.
Ian Williamson, PhD Dean, The Paul Merage School of Business Ian O. Williamson is dean of The UCI Paul Merage School of Business. During his 20year career, Williamson has served on several academic committees and on the boards of directors for a variety of nonprofit organizations. In addition, he has provided expert insights in the areas of organizational innovation and employee recruitment and retention to executives in more than 20 countries across six continents for companies such as CBRE, PwC, Lockheed Martin, Nestle and Accenture.
Jason Wright President, Washington Football Team Jason Wright, former Arizona Cardinals running back and partner at McKinsey & Company, is the youngest and first Black President of an NFL team. He co-founded the Black Economic Institute, a research entity that analyzes the racial wealth gap, and is on the Board of Trustees at Union Theological Seminary where he helps the institution equip students for social entrepreneurship.
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