Vijay, R
Vijay Ratthinam is the CEO of the Project Management Institute (PMI), San Francisco Bay Area Chapter since Nov 2018, and serving as a volunteer leader in various roles since 2014. As a CEO, he has built a highly engaging and diverse volunteer team that is delivering more than 100 events per year. He is one of the key leaders behind the success of the chapter Mentoring program which helped more than 200 members in the last 2 years. Vijay is also the Co-founder and CEO of BigFish Social, a non-profit mentoring platform specializing in mentoring students and young professionals. He has held various high tech project and program managerial positions with Fortune 500 companies like Target, StateFarm, Williams-Sonoma, Infosys, and is currently working as a Program Manager at Salesforce. He is an author and public speaker who enjoys speaking regularly at toastmaster meetings, public and non-profit discussion forums, and university student forums like UC Berkeley, Golden Gate University, and HULT Business School. Vijay holds SAPM from Stanford University, MBA from the ICFAI University, Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from Bharathiar University. He serves on his daughter’s School Board and also enjoys volunteering at various mentoring organizations including Technovation, Genesys Works, HackBright Academy, dev/mission, and SNHU. He is PMP and CSM certified.
Monica Smiley
Monica is the editor and publisher of Enterprising Women, a national and now global magazine she and her team launched in May 2000 to provide a strong voice for women entrepreneurs. The magazine will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2020 and is available in print and digital editions, supplemented by The Connector, a blog through the publication’s website at www.enterprisingwomen.com. Smiley also serves as president of the Enterprising Women Foundation, a nonprofit she founded in 2010 to encourage philanthropy among women entrepreneurs and support initiatives to strengthen women’s entrepreneurship in the U.S. and globally. The annual Enterprising Women of the Year Awards, now in its 18th year, honors the top 100 women entrepreneurs from around the globe at a two-day event held each spring. Monica serves on the Board of Directors for the Institute for Economic Empowerment of Women (IEEW) and has been a mentor in the Peace Through Business program working with Rwandan and Afghan women entrepreneurs for the past ten years. An award-winning journalist, Smiley has more than 40 years of magazine publishing experience and has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2017 National NAWBO Gillian Rudd Business Leadership Award, the first Adrienne Hall Award presented by the Women Presidents’ Organization in recognition of her work to build bridges and alliances within the women’s business community, and the President’s Award from Women Impacting Public Policy. She received the 2013 Gold Stevie Award for “Women Helping Women” and The International Alliance for Women’s “World of Difference 100 Award.” Folio magazine named Monica to its 2015 list of “Top Women in Media and the “FOLIO 100: Top Leaders in Magazine Media” for 2018.” In 2015, she was recognized by STEMConnector and the Million Women Mentors Program for her work with the Enterprising Women Foundation’s National Mentorship Initiative to inspire the next generation of Young Enterprising Women. STEMConnector/Million Women Mentors also named her its 2019 Entrepreneur of the Year. She received the 2016 ATHENA National Leadership Award. Monica serves on the National Association of Women Business Owners National Advisory Council and is Board Chair for the Raleigh, North Carolina-based Institute of Consumer Money Management which invests in research on financial literacy. She has been a speaker and a delegate at the Global Summit of Women in Morocco, Germany, China, Chile, Turkey, Greece, France, and Switzerland.
Sandra Baer
Ms. Baer is a champion of creative collaboration between the public and private sectors. Currently Ms. Baer serves as President of Personal Cities, a smart city company focused on city branding and identity, social inclusion and equity, and the acceleration of digital technology investments. She has advised a number of cities in the US and Europe and has consulted a CitiZenith, UrbanLeap, Citibeats, and Aalto Consultores. She is a Global Ambassador for the Edison Electric Institute and a member of Denton’s Smart Cities & Communities Think Tank. She serves on the board of multiple professional and civic organizations. She has held marketing leadership roles with ATT, Discovery Chanel, Nextel/Sprint, Ridge Global, Smart Cities Council, CIVIQ Smartscapes, and Bloomberg Government. Miss Baer is a respected speaker and moderator, and has spoken at the smart city, energy, infrastructure, sustainability and digital signage conferences in the US, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Sandra holds BA, MBA degrees, and a global advanced management certification from Georgetown University. She has lived and worked across Europe and currently resides in Washington DC.
Nancy Garcia
Nancy A. Garcia is an entrepreneur with significant expertise in management, business development, and business administration. Ms. Garcia has served as the CEO and Co-Founder of Noble Machine, LLC for nearly two decades. Noble Machine provides manufacturing services in the machining field for the fast-paced and highly demanding oil, petroleum, electrical, mining, and electronics industries. In 2010, Ms. Garcia founded Dynasty Management, Inc. which manages her real estate investment portfolio. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Ms. Garcia started her career in the property management industry in 1995 and served as an Assistant Property Manager for high-rise Class A office buildings consisting of over 500,000 square feet with Tishman Speyer Properties and Crescent Real Estate Equities from January 2001 to June 2004. Ms. Garcia is a relationship-driven and proven Latina entrepreneur, who believes in developing and growing businesses with strong relationships, customers, and earning loyalty from her employees. In conjunction, she is committed to continuous personal and professional growth, as demonstrated by her recent completion of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program. Ms. Garcia prides herself in leading by example, holding herself and her team members to the highest level of ethics and determination. Her company’s proven success & revenue growth outpaces the national average over & over. The legacy she is creating is for her family, her team & anybody she can impact. Ms. Garcia holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Management; and currently pursuing a Certificate of Accountancy from the University of Houston. Nancy is passionate about making philanthropic Commitment a critical component of her life. In real-life she contributes to inner-city at-risk youth, empowering them with mentorship & success stories that help them have the tools for a better life. Growing up in environments that were challenging can have a lifelong effect on anyone. As someone who has overcome the challenges of her own life, nothing brings her more joy than helping others transcend past hardships to achieve their dreams. By speaking their language & being a support system that understands from experience the challenges & perseverance one needs to overcome peer pressures. Ms. Garcia volunteers as a youth coach with the Anthony Robbins Foundation for the Global Youth Leadership Summit program. She is committed to making a difference & creating the solutions that diminish challenges by creating accessible resources for a fulfilling life & prosperity.
Sharon Reynolds
DevMar Products, named after Sharon’s two sons, Devin and DeMarco II was featured as one of nine most innovative companies in Essence Magazine July/August 2019. The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) selected Sharon as the 2019 WBE Star. She recently received the 100 Black Men/Women President’s Organization Women of Color Achievement. Sharon was selected as a WBENC scholarship recipient and attended the Tuck Business School WBENC Executive program at IBM in Palisades, New York. Sharon launched DevMar Manufacturing, LLC to partner with larger manufacturers to formulate sustainable cleaning and sanitizing solutions to meet the sustainable goals of Fortune 100 and 500 companies. In 2016, DevMar Global HealthcareSolutions, LLC was formed and guided by Sharon’s ability to partner with Ni-Q, LLC to launch a commercially- sterile human donor milk for micro-preemie and premature infants in the NICU. Sharon was selected to serve on the Enterprising Women magazine’s Advisory Council in 2018. She proudly serves on numerous boards such as the Second Harvest Food Bank in Nashville, Ni-Q, LLC, Portland, Oregon, and the Women’s Business Enterprise Council South in New Orleans, a Regional Partner of WBENC. DevMar Products has been featured in numerous media outlets including WE South, WE USA, Diversity Professional, CleanLink, Beyond Exclamation, Enterprising Women, Her Story of a Success podcast, MBE Magazine, Tennessee Tribune, Black EOE Journal, Nashville Post, and Business Williamson. Sharon earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management with a focus on Green & Sustainable Enterprise Management from the University of Phoenix, graduating with honors. She also earned her Executive MBA from Tennessee State University, graduating with distinction and induction into the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society in 2018. She and her husband DeMarco are proud parents of two adult sons, a granddaughter, and reside in Brentwood, Tennessee.
