Signature Events

Sara Anissipour

Chief Revenue Officer, Welcome Homes

Sara is a distinguished revenue and executive business leader with 16+ years experience building, leading, and growing highly successful global revenue organizations. Her winning track record consists of developing high performance teams and leaders, incubating new products and programs, and creating strategies and operating models to break new ground and drive bottom line revenue.

As an influential leader motivated by impact, challenge, and growth with an unparalleled drive to succeed, Sara serves as a key speaker for women in leadership, technology, social impact, and personal development.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communications and Business from the University of Washington, completed her executive training at Wharton, is bi-lingual, and a former USA National Karate Team athlete.

Ashley Balla

Partner, Halogen Ventures

Ashley Balla is a Partner at Halogen Ventures. Halogen invests in early stage companies led by female founders. Among Halogen's 70 portfolio companies are Babylist, Teadrops, the Skimm, Live Tinted, Toucan, and The Flex Company to name a few.

She has been with Halogen from the start and partners with entrepreneurs to build great technology companies that improve the way we work, build, connect and communicate for the next generations. Balla works on both the investment side and operational side. She helps source and identify extraordinary teams with purpose, innovation and velocity, works hands-on with Halogen’s portfolio, manages relationships with Limited Partners, and leads the fund’s operations and platform.

Balla developed a passion for Venture Capital while working with Jesse Draper at the Valley Girl Show. Through this experience, she gained first-hand experience learning how entrepreneurs built their companies from the ground up. Her interest expanded to the consumer side which led her to venture capital. She joined Halogen in 2016 and was with the firm through its first fund and second fund and now third fund with over 70 female-founded consumer technology investments to date. She runs Halogen's SPVs, raising 7 for Halogen. Using her experience and knowledge from the media and entertainment industry, public relations and expertise in the digital media space, she helped start Halogen Pitch Days, heads the influencer initiative for Halogen, co runs the Halogen Ventures Fellowship and helps scale Halogen’s venture development.

She sits as a board member of Los Angeles based Teadrops and board observer of Kentucky based Inked Brands. Balla is on the steering committee of AllRaise LA, on the Board of Latinx VC, and part of the Multicultural Initiative by Goldhouse. She is dedicated to supporting and growing young entrepreneurs, women in finance and creating a more diverse pipeline of investors in venture capital. She is a graduate of UCLA.

Heather Beatty (B.S. ’03)

Founder and CEO, ScopeFour Capital

As the CEO and founder of ScopeFour Capital, Heather Beatty is a next generation thinker and leader in climate and impact investing. Over the last 15+ years, she has held top leadership positions including Head of Global Consultant Relations, at global financial institutions First Eagle Investments, Thornburg Investment Management and TCW. During that time, she built out and led teams responsible for distribution, marketing and product development. At First Eagle she also created and co-chaired the firm's first Climate Council – an entity engaged in establishing and guiding the direction for how the firm wanted to address climate change.

Heather’s climate-related philanthropy includes partnering with the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator where she developed and presents on ESG, impact and climate investing and works with each cohort to incorporate sustainability into their business model. She is also a board member of One Blue Ocean, a global social change non-profit, where she plays a role in setting the vision and executing key initiatives.

In addition to her climate related contributions, Heather co-founded Women in Institutional Investments Network (WIIIN), a Los Angeles-based 501c3 as part of her dedication to the advancement of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Priya Bery

Chief Revenue Officer, Welcome Homes

Priya Bery is senior vice president for partnerships at The Pew Charitable Trusts. Drawing on her 20+ years of experience in philanthropy and social entrepreneurship, she helps to develop large-scale collaborations with individuals and organizations and Pew that share the goal of making a positive difference for the public across a broad range of social, economic and environmental issues.

Previously, Bery was president and chief executive officer of the Tarsadia Foundation, a family foundation that invests globally in food and housing security, advancing mental health and well-being, and building inclusive economies for women and marginalized communities.

Prior to that, she was vice president for purpose and social entrepreneurship at TOMS, overseeing their social investment portfolio. Bery was also head of public affairs and partnerships at Virgin Unite, where she led the organization's advocacy strategy and helped incubate collaborative funding initiatives including The Elders, Carbon War Room and B-Team. In this role she worked with Richard Branson and three generations of the Branson family to advance their philanthropic goals. Early in her career, she spearheaded the business response to the global AIDS pandemic with then-U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Richard C. Holbrooke, and served as a legislative correspondent for former U.S. Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan).

Bery serves on Charlize Theron's Ubuntu council to uplift youth in southern Africa through the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project and she is an advisor to JUST Capital. Bery holds a bachelor’s degree in biopsychology and cognitive science from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree in policy and management from Harvard University’s School of Public Health.. 

Annette Blum

As a Co-Active Training Institute trained coach, Annette Blum Pearson brings her lived experiences, intuition, industry expertise and coaching tools to the work she does with individuals, teams, organizations, and communities.

Since graduating from UCLA Anderson, Annette has worked in product management, sales enablement, solution and brand marketing in both big tech and startups. She's driven large-scale marketing & community initiatives with creative passion and a growth mindset, allowing her to cultivate thriving teams and organizational success.

While employed in tech, her passion for community led her to also create Shalon, an organization built to drive vital, facilitated conversations that connect and educate participants. As part of her practice, she brings Shalon style conversations to her clients and partners with organizations to uplevel and inspire their gatherings.

Annette lives in San Francisco with her husband, son and dog - get in touch if you're in the area!

www.annetteblumpearson.com

www.calendly.com/annette-blum-pearson

Natasha Case (M.A. ’08)

Co-founder, Coolhaus Ice Cream

Natasha Case is the co-founder of Coolhaus Ice Cream. She created the company with Freya Estreller in 2009 because they did not feel represented by the ice cream brands on shelves and knew they could create higher quality and more unique ice cream with a more authentic story. They launched their ice cream sandwich company from a barely-drivable postal van at the Coachella Music Festival where the brand went viral. Since then, Coolhaus has scaled to a national fleet of trucks in LA and NYC, a flagship store and innovation center in Culver City, and a national grocery business of ice cream sammies, pints, cups, mini sammies, and cones in stores ranging from Whole Foods to Sprouts to Kroger. They launched a very successful dairy-free ice cream line (made from peas & brown rice!) in 2019. Natasha remained the CEO until Coolhaus was acquired by Perfect Day under their CPG umbrella company with a mission to make more sustainable products without compromise in December of 2021.

Natasha took on a founding CEO role with Lunch Bunch in August of 2022. By then as a mom of a two and five year old, she was driven by the idea of using creative eating experiences to inspire curiosity in even the pickiest of eaters... while also tackling a massive issue for parents around frustrations with packing lunch from a time, management, shopping, quality, cleaning and stress/guilt perspective. She plans to make Lunch Bunch not only a convenient meal delivery platform, but also a merchandise and content world to revolutionize our relationship to food and the way we eat.

Natasha is devoted to transformational positive change by creating mission-led businesses. At Coolhaus, she devoted her work to the next generation of women and LGBTQ founders, entrepreneurs, and creators of diverse backgrounds to feel empowered to turn their dreams into realities in an equitable environment. Natasha partnered with Black Girl Ventures to create ice cream to raise funds for entrepreneurial grants, the Okra Foundation for Pride to create a flavor called EnjoyMINT for All, celebrating our differences through a top 8 allergen-free ice cream, and she is committed to teaching courses and frequent public speaking engagements to push the envelope for the next generation. She looks forward to bringing this ethos into the Lunch Bunch business.

Natasha has been named a Forbes 30 under 30 Food & Beverage, Zagat 30 Under 30, LinkedIn 10 under 35 for Food & Leisure, 10 Most Successful Women in Business by Leaders Globe, and UCLA’s LGBTQ+ 2019 Alum of the Year. She is a published author of the Coolhaus Ice Cream Book which came out in 2014 and was featured on Good Morning America and named as one of Martha Stewart’s favorites. She has been featured in many national publications and media outlets like Entrepreneur, LA Times, and Bon Appetit, and has judged Food Network’s Chopped, King of Cones, and Top Chef Jr. She co-hosted her own podcast, ‘Start to Sale’ through Eater/Vox Media. In 2019, she joined YPO in the Beverly Hills chapter. Natasha is a board member of UCLA Arts Dept, Larchmont Charter School, Startup UCLA, Naturally LA and a member of the Lyft Council (Los Angeles). In 2022 she completed the Victory Institute training for LGBTQ+ leaders of tomorrow.

Jenna Cavelle

VP, Production and Ops, Disney

Jenna Cavelle is an award-winning entertainment executive with over two decades of experience overseeing the development, financing, production, and distribution of theatrical film, television, and digital assets. Working almost exclusively with queer, female, BIPOC, and new voices, Cavelle has managed over $30M of content in her various roles. Content developed and produced under her leadership has premiered at the industry’s top film festivals such as Sundance, Tribeca, and SXSW, is featured on premium platforms such as Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix, and has sold to Paramount, FX, and Warner Media.

Cavelle currently serves as the Vice President of Production & Operations at 20th Digital Studio for Walt Disney Television. At 20th she leads front-line talent negotiations and oversees strategic production operations for their Hulu Bite Size series, which serves as a short-to-feature incubator for new voices. Here, she oversees an active slate of nine feature films and over twenty short-form projects for Hulu featuring the industry’s top up-and-coming talent.

Cavelle previously served as the Head of Production at NBA All-Star Baron Davis’ No Label Productions and SLiC Studios, where she oversaw the development, production, and sale of podcasts, branded content, event activations, web series, television, and feature films. Here she spearheaded and managed key partnerships with MACRO, Warner Media, K-Swiss, iHeart Media, AT&T, and Fuse TV. Cavelle graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BS in Political Ecology from the University of California, Berkeley. She holds an MFA in Film & Television Production from USC's School of Cinematic Arts, where she also serves on the advisory board at USC's Media Institute for Social Change. She is currently an Executive MBA candidate at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management.

Samantha Edelstein (’24)

UCLA Anderson MBA Candidate, Business Affairs Administrator, Originals-Production, HBO

Samantha Edelstein manages multi-million dollar deals in HBO’s Originals Production Business Affairs division, working with some of the industry’s top executives and talent. She graduated with a BFA in Acting for Motion Pictures & Television from the Academy of Art University and spent several years as a Creative, producing and acting in award-winning films and television series, before pivoting into the business side of the industry. Prior to HBO, she worked for prestigious companies such as ICM Partners and Mammal Studios, specializing in Contract Administration and Client Accounting.

Samantha is currently a FEMBA candidate at UCLA Anderson, class of 2024, and sits on the Board of Directors of the Anderson Women’s Business Connection. 

Mitch Gilbert (’21)

CEO of OYA Apparel

Mitchella “Mitch” Gilbert is an inclusive product designer. She was a former elite athlete and Nike employee, so she is obsessed with women’s health and sportswear apparel. She attended the UCLA Anderson School of Management after earning a full scholarship to build her startup Oya Femtech Apparel. She is one of the first 200 black women to raise over $1M in venture capital and she graduated from the University of Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in Public Policy. Oya Femtech Apparel is her fourth company.

Her OB/GYN mentioned many other women who loved working had the same issues as Mitch. She believed her patients’ leggings were causing the issue by creating environments for pathogens to thrive. Mitch saw that no leggings company was addressing this issue and went to work on a new legging that had a breathable, replaceable pad and panels that promoted ventilation around the inner thigh. We are now getting ready to launch our second version along with new tops.

Before OYA, Mitch had co-founded a fashion business, so she was easily able to find a pattern maker and sewer to help her build an MVP. OYA’s launch on March 19th was a huge success. OYA earned a 12x return on our CAC and sold out within four weeks.

Liza Katsman (B.S. ’11, FEMBA ’20)

Liza Katsman is a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion consultant and educator, focused on helping leaders embed DEI-centered practices into their organizational culture and business operations. Her career moved from education, into business operations at Sony Pictures, and organizational change management consulting; this has given her a unique perspective from multiple institutional levels on the DEI landscape and implementation. She is a double-Bruin, and currently serves on the executive board of the Anderson Alumni Association, as co-lead of the Alumni identity groups committee.

Priscila Martinez

Founder and CEO, The Brand Agency

A Public Relations veteran who manages events, creative communications, and press relationships for celebrities and Fortune 500 companies, Priscila Martinez founded and helms award-winning firm The Brand Agency.

Named “Best in Business for Communications” by Inc. Magazine, her company specializes in navigating clients through the ever-changing media landscape. Globally, The Brand Agency is the only firm to service clients such as Amazon, Apple TV+, Hulu, and Netflix (to name a few) with a female-only team. Martinez is a trailblazer in her industry and has used her vast experience to conceptualize innovative digital and traditional media campaigns and creative strategies for corporate brands like Tiffany & Co., GUESS, Restoration Hardware, Nintendo, and InStyle.

As the CEO and founder of a full-service agency, Martinez also works for social change with several of her nonprofit clients including the California Fire Foundation, Time for Change Foundation, and Elizabeth Glaser’s Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Career accomplishments include spearheading communications for GUESS’s first-ever fashion week, working on Nintendo’s formal foray into celebrity outreach, and leading Public Relations for Apple TV + first activation at San Diego Comic Con. She also advised CoverGirl during their first West Coast event and orchestrated three New York Times bestseller campaigns. She has won her clients awards like Time Magazine’s Best Inventions and Fast Company’s Most Innovative Company. Her executive clients have benefited from landing spots in Forbes’ World's Most Influential CMO list.

Martinez is a bilingual, first-generation immigrant who moved to Los Angeles at eighteen years old. Her Mexican-American heritage ultimately led her to launch The Brand Agency’s sister firm, Vicaria, which services multicultural brands and personalities. Following its success, Martinez started 1795 Communications — the world’s first female-led cannabis PR firm. Her firms and campaigns have won prestigious awards including Inc. Best Workplaces, Best Branding and Communications Firm, CES Innovation Award, and Best PR Firm on the West Coast. Martinez has been a speaker and panelist for prestigious universities and organizations such as USC Marshall School of Business, Pepperdine University, Temple University, International Trade Council's "Think Global Conference," and PR Week's “Media Relations Conference.”

Martinez has taken her knowledge and parlayed it into a side editorial career by frequently contributing her renowned industry insight to publications like Entrepreneur, Forbes and AdWeek. She has also been featured in The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter, and Los Angeles Business Journal and was selected as an entertainment contributor and PR correspondent for NBC’s streaming platform Peacock. Career aside, Martinez is also a mentor through Big Brother Big Sister of L.A. and an advisor for Latinas in Tech. In addition, she volunteers with COVIA where she runs a program for immigrant, Spanish-speaking seniors and teaches them about wellness and technology.

Valerie Meraz (B.A. ’95)

VP, North American Creator Partnerships, Twitch

Valerie Meraz is the Vice President, North American Creator Partnerships at Twitch. She is an experienced senior-level executive with a demonstrated history of leading teams in social media and broadcast media industry for pay, basic cable and SVOD platforms. She is skilled in multi-platform content strategy, acquisitions, and negotiations for multiple genres of content. Strong business development perspective earned during an exciting career and attendance at Dartmouth's Tuck School of business.

Malia Probst

VC Founding Partner, ScoutHouse

Malia Probst is an investor and operator coming from a business and media background. An immersive technology industry expert, she’s a founding partner in a media company called VRScout and is a cofounder and LP in the WXR Venture Fund. From VRScout, Malia lead the spinout of creative and technical agency Scout House and currently leads a team focused on production, education, and metaverse strategy. She’s been named a VR/AR industry influencer, has been a featured speaker at events around the world, and works with companies like Google, Unity, YouTube, Meta, LG, Snap, and Verizon. Prior to technology she spent 15 years leading teams in luxury hospitality, most recently managing a $21M+ P&L and a team of 200+ at the exclusive international members’ club Soho House in Los
Angeles.

Susan “Susie” Sarich

Founder/CEO, SusieCakes

Famous for creating SusieCakes, one of California’s top destinations for satisfying the sweet tooth, Susan Sarich is a twenty-five-year veteran of the hospitality industry. Upon graduation from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration, she launched her hospitality career at Hyatt Hotels before being recruited to the famous House of Blues. She then lent her talents to a variety of renowned hospitality groups, including the Mobil 5-Star Everest restaurant and Ian Schrager’s Clift Hotel. Ready for an entrepreneurial challenge, Susan moved to Portland, OR where she co-founded Zinc Bistrot, honored as one of Zagat’s “America’s Top Restaurants”.
Susan continued to reminisce about her Midwest upbringing and memories of baking alongside her
grandmothers. She craved home-style, American treats made from scratch, with real ingredients. Combining
her business savvy expertise with the treasured 3”x 5” recipe cards passed down from her grandmothers,
Mildred and Madeline, she opened SusieCakes in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles in 2006. Serving up everything from classic layer cakes to decadent cupcakes, SusieCakes’ delicious desserts, superior service, and old-fashioned atmosphere quickly coined the bakery a neighborhood favorite along with a large celebrity following.

The Company has since steadily expanded throughout Southern California, with bakeries now in Los Angeles,
Ventura, Orange & San Diego Counties and throughout Northern California in the San Francisco Bay Area.
SusieCakes has branched out to Texas for a total of 26 locations with sights set on further national expansion. Most recently the Company launched nationwide shipping of their baked good to bring more cakes to more states!

Susan is a proud recipient of the Forbes 50 over 50 award as well as the EY Entrepreneur of the Year TM Award in Greater Los Angeles. Additionally, she’s received the Junior League of Los Angeles Community Achievement Award. She has been a Dean’s Distinguished Lecturer at Cornell University and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the California Restaurant Association. In her free time, she enjoys traveling in search of great baked goods and donating her efforts to supporting local animal and women’s causes.

Allison Stern Samek

Former CEO of Fred Segal

Allison Samek has over 20 years of retail management experience, focusing on strategy, merchandising and operations. She has worked at a variety of retailers from Fortune 100 companies to owner-owned apparel stores; each time focused on streamlining operations to increase profitability while maintaining the integrity of the brands.

Allie started her career in retail consulting at Deloitte focusing on strategy and sourcing. During the early 2000’s she was the Category/Brand Marketing Manager at eBay for Clothing, Shoes and Accessories where she was responsible for marketing these categories nation-wide. She also built eBay’s first handbag authentication process for the company. In 2005 she moved to Los Angeles to create and build an online presence for local retailer Ron Herman.

Over the course of the next 11 years, Allie worked with Ron Herman, the primary retailer at Fred Segal Melrose, comprising 80% of the revenue. Allie served as Managing Director of Operations-Buying, Marketing and Finance; eventually overseeing all operations of the company in 2013. She oversaw all Ron Herman locations and people, opened stores outside of the LA market, delivered record profits and helped to launch a $100M retail business in Japan.

In 2016, she transitioned into the role of CEO of Fred Segal. In this capacity she was responsible for growing the heritage brand both internationally and domestically and operating a new flagship location on Sunset Blvd in West Hollywood. In 2018, Fred Segal was named “Retailer of the Year” by the AAFA. Allie led a successful sale of the company for TPG Growth in 2019 and remained on as President from 2020 through 2022. She currently remains a board member of Fred Segal.

Allie has a BA in Economics, Magna Cum Laude from Washington University in St Louis and a MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She is married to fellow classmate Eric and has two sons Gabe and Isaac. In her free time, she likes to read, play Mah Jongg with friends, and of course, shop retail stores.

Talitha Watkins

President and Head, ColorCreative Management

Talitha Watkins is President and Head of ColorCreative Management – a management and production company. ColorCreative was founded by Issa Rae and Deniese Davis with the mission of delivering women and people-of-color creators best-in-class representation to build career-defining brands through ownership, commercial success, artistic fulfillment, and visibility amongst the multicultural community and industry at large.

Formerly a Motion Picture Agent and Cultural Executive at leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Watkins is based in Los Angeles and represents producers, writers, directors and actors. In addition, Watkins helps build out CAA’s multicultural business and capabilities including the multicultural leadership event CAAAmplify.

Previous to CAA, Watkins spent seven years as Vice President of Multicultural Marketing at Universal Pictures, where she worked across all marketing divisions, including publicity, media, digital, creative, research, and partnerships, to maximize the studio’s outreach efforts to African American audiences. While at Universal, she worked on numerous films, including the multicultural blockbusters FAST & FURIOUS 6, FURIOUS 7, and the record-breaking STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON. She was also instrumental in supporting the success of African American films, such as the box-office hits THE BEST MAN HOLIDAY and RIDE ALONG.

Prior to Universal Pictures, Watkins was an Assistant General Manager with Telepictures Productions, Inc. and oversaw operations, sales, and marketing for five female-focused digital properties in the Warner Bros. portfolio, including Ellentv.com, Extratv.com, and TyraShow.com, as well as worked in a development capacity for Essence.com. Watkins is a board member of the WIF, Saturday Morning, and Made in Her Image organizations.

Watkins received her B.B.A. in Marketing from the Fox School of Business at Temple University. She lives in Los Angeles with her daughter, Selah.

Abigail Weintraub

VP Brand & Engagement Strategy, LA28

Abigail is a leader in brand strategy and has served as steward for some of the world’s biggest sport, entertainment and consumer product brands. In her current role, she leads LA28’s foundational brand strategy and the application of that strategy across all fan engagement touchpoints. With her expertise in brand building, consumer behavior, and cultural drivers, she explores how to generate meaningful audience connections and increase brand awareness to amplify LA28’s mission, vision, and values. In addition to her cross-functional work with both LA28 and Team USA, she works closely with external partners to ensure creative and messaging consistency in how the LA28 Games are brought to life.

Bianca Rivera

Project and Client Manager, Converge

Bianca is a Learning and Development professional and project manager with a history of working in consumer goods and start ups. She is formerly a stage actress, translating her skills into authentically connecting with audiences and creating engaging content. She is also an LGBTQ+ event planner, passionate about creating safe spaces for the community.