Signature Events

Aviva Altmann

Principal, The Bridgespan Group

Aviva Altmann is a Principal in Bridgespan’s Climate Area of Expertise. Aviva co-leads Bridgespan’s relationship with NRDC; she advises the organization on its strategy, as well as on how to re-align its organization in support of its strategy. Aviva comes into the work with a personal passion for climate justice, and draws from experience in field-building, advocacy, and driving policy change with a goal to strengthen power of communities to uplift their voices and solutions to address climate change.

Aviva has worked with Bridgespan since 2014, advising both philanthropies and nonprofit organizations on their strategies and organizational design. She is based in Bridgespan’s San Francisco office.

Prior to her time at Bridgespan, Aviva worked as a fellow and portfolio advisor in Johnson & Johnson’s Corporate Philanthropy Team, as well as the founding Director of After School Programs for Green Dot Public Schools. She has an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, where she was selected as a John Wooden Fellow.  She also has a BA from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in Political Science and Global Studies.

Jennifer Li Shen

Co-founder & Senior Partner, Blue Garnet

Jennifer cares most about making strategy real in the pursuit of lasting social change.  With over 25 years of management consulting experience, she brings a unique combination of expertise in business strategy and organizational change with experience across sectors.  Jennifer focuses on building partnerships with clients as a trusted advisor, and has recently worked with leading nonprofit and philanthropy clients in arts, education, and health and human services.  

She enjoys serving as a catalyst to create clarity on answering the “So What” question – which means defining tangible impact, the  “secret sauce” of each client, and the core economics behind the work of social change.  She has a passion for social entrepreneurship and innovation. Previously, Jennifer served Fortune 500 clients as a management consultant at Boston Consulting Group, where she developed and implemented business and market strategies, as well as organizational change.

Jennifer serves as a board member of ExED and is a Founding Partner and former board director of Social Venture Partners Los Angeles (now Social Justice Partners LA). 

She served on the Social Impact Exchange Contributions Review Team and the Terry McAdams Book Award Committee. As adjunct faculty, she co-taught “Impact Thinking, Measurement and Evaluation” at Pepperdine University’s Masters program in Social Entrepreneurship and Change. Jennifer holds an MBA from Yale University and a BA in Political Science with concentration in Public Policy from Swarthmore College.  As a wife and mother of four, she lives life to the fullest, seeking to catalyze social change to create impact. 

Laurel Mintz

Founder & General Partner, Fabric VC

With a J.D/M.B.A from Rutgers University and over 13 years running an award-winning marketing agency, Laurel Mintz is uniquely positioned to lead a fund like Fabric. Laurel has worked with more than 200 companies in the CPG and technology spaces, from startups to blue-chip global brands like Facebook, Verizon Digital Media, Geico, PAW Patrol and Zendesk. Her Board of Directors work and extraordinarily networked presence with organizations like Women Founder’s Network, Los Angeles Venture Association, Reuters and Women Business Enterprise National Council provides no shortage of relevant deal flow.

Alicia Hanf

Founder & Managing Partner, Dear Mama Ventures

Alicia is the CEO & Managing Partner at Dear Mama Ventures and oversees the fund’s global activities, and ecosystem development. Alicia has over 10 Years of combined experience in Startups, Sales (SAAS), Marketing, Business Development, VC operations, and fundraising, but most importantly she has the gift of connection, and the passion for building strong ecosystems.

Alicia is fortunate enough to have worked with both startup, private and public companies such as Walt Disney, the Department of Defense, the NFL, and most proudly the US Army. Alicia returned to civilian life to lead the way for veterans to become startup founders, launching the LA chapter of Bunker Labs,  helping scale the organization from 10-35 locations in 15 months. Alicia has designed curriculum for use at Saudi Aramco’s Wa’ed Accelerator, worked with various family offices, and VC firms, and helped hundreds of startup founders develop and launch new businesses. Her perseverance through her military training, as well as overcoming a major loss in her life has helped her to be a successful adviser today for fast-paced startups & international celebrities such as NBA Allstar and angel Investor Baron Davis, where she directed fund management, and investments.

Alicia believes that it is possible to change the world a little, to a lot each day. She demonstrates this through her commitment to supporting minority entrepreneurs in realizing their dreams, motivating others to champion growth, inspiring people to be their best, and generating extraordinary results for the communities she serves. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her two daughters, but is a global citizen at heart.

Kaitlin Mogentale

Founder & CEO, Pulp Pantry

Kaitlin Mogentale is a self-proclaimed food waste warrior and the founder of Pulp Pantry. Pulp Pantry transforms upcycled ingredients — the overlooked, nutritional byproducts of fruit and vegetable processing — into wholesome, better for people and better for the planet, snack staples. Her forward-thinking, upcycled products are currently sold in Whole Foods, Sprouts Farmers Market, Thrive Market, and top natural retailers across the country. Kaitlin holds a degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Southern California.

Natalie Byrne

Founder, blank space

Natalie Byrne is on a mission to inspire audiences to find their purpose and use it to build a better world. As founder of ‘blank space’, an impact and communications firm, she works with mission-driven brands, top CEO’s, celebrities, and philanthropists to activate their platforms, scale their impact, and create a meaningful legacy.

Positioned at the intersection of impact, business and culture, her unique perspective creates the space for conversation that challenges the status quo and moves us toward future-forward solutions. Byrne’s original voice and bold take on our collective roles in society will help lead us from where we are to where we want to be.

From keynotes and workshops that give you the tools to build a legacy of impact, to facilitating roundtables and moderating plenary panels; Natalie goes beyond checking a box to present thought-provoking content that calls audiences to action. A passionate speaker who is not afraid to tackle the tough issues, Natalie’s insights have been featured at SXSW, United Nations, Cannes, Sundance, Vox, the White House, the Guardian, New York Times and many other outlets.

Timothy O'Connor

Specialist Leader, ESG Strategy and Transformation, Deloitte Consulting LLC

Tim O’Connor is a Specialist Leader in Deloitte’s ESG Strategy and Transformation practice, focusing on energy transition and air pollution reductions in the Transport, Energy, and Industrial sectors.  At Deloitte, Tim helps navigate private and government sector companies through the range of choices available to optimize their transition to cleaner options on the path to Net-Zero. He brings over 2 decades of experience working in technical, policy and regulatory venues to help clients position and invest in a changing landscape – no matter where they are on their transition journey.  

Prior to his experience at Deloitte, Tim worked as a law and policy expert for over 20 years in various roles across the government, non-profit, academic, and private sectors, with 15 years at the Environmental Defense Fund and 5 years at the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. His industry areas of focus include transportation fuels and vehicles, natural gas and electric systems, heavy industrial operations, and oil and gas operations- and the regulatory and incentive structures applicable to each. Over his career, Tim has worked extensively to develop, implement and defend policies such as the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard, state and regional cap-and-trade regulations, indirect source rules, advanced clean fuels and vehicle regulations, and numerous clean fuels and energy incentives programs.  In this work, he has led direct engagements in dozens of formal proceedings in energy, environmental and judicial venues; led multiple regulatory enforcement and audit efforts; managed numerous technical analyses; and developed stakeholder initiatives designed to foster inclusive and equitable engagement.

Tim is registered to practice Law in California and Washington D.C. and before various federal courts.  He holds a master’s degree from Duke University and a Law Degree from Golden Gate University with specializations in Environmental and Public Interest Law.  He further holds certifications green building design and operation, and frameworks related to ESG reporting, strategy, and practice.

Sunny Sohrabian

Director of Sustainability, LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games

Sunny brings over 10 years of corporate environmental sustainability experience to the LA28 Games, having held management positions in a range of industries looking to become more environmentally sustainable. She now leads the development of initiatives and programs that support LA28's commitment to drastically reduce the environmental impact seen in previous Games. Sunny works closely with stakeholders to help drive meaningful environmental strategies for delivery and commercial partners while also fostering relationships with key community-based environmental groups.

Magali Delmas

Professor of Management, UCLA Anderson School of Management

Magali Delmas is a professor of management at the UCLA Anderson School of Management and the UCLA Institute of the Environment & Sustainability. In 2020, she was appointed faculty director of Impact@Anderson. Her research interests lie primarily in the areas of business strategy, corporate sustainability and socially responsible investing. "Standing at the crossroads of policy, economics and management," she says, "I seek to understand the effectiveness of information strategies to promote conservation behavior."

In her award winning book The Green Bundle: Pairing the Market with the Planet, she argues that successful information strategies require a holistic approach that accounts for both the altruistic and egoistic motivations of consumers. With insight from sustainable business and from behavioral economics, she describes the elements of effective information strategies that will help managers guide consumers along the difficult path from knowledge to consumption. With what she calls the "green bundle" — natural or implicit co-benefits of environmental goods and services — companies can strategically appeal to both the altruistic and egoistic values of consumers. Broadly, green bundle co-benefits include the following: quality, status, health, money, and emotion. Products that pair sustainability with these private benefits create a win-win for consumers.

Delmas is the director of the UCLA Center for Corporate Environmental Performance. From 2014 to 2017, she was the president of the  Alliance for Research in Corporate Sustainability (ARCS), an international organization that serves as a vehicle for advancing rigorous academic research on corporate sustainability concerns. She received the Academy of Management/ Organization and the Natural Environment Distinguished Scholar Award.