All Experts

<p data-block-key="n1dg2">Max Calcaterra is an accomplished and deeply passionate Amsterdam-based E-Commerce entrepreneur, international business consultant, and strategic partnership builder with over $3,000,000 in e-comm sales under his belt. He has always had an eye for helping people and for helping businesses through both professional and extracurriculars, where he has made most of his lifelong connections.</p><p data-block-key="aclbr">His fond love of the European way of life and their prioritization of relaxation led him to discovering his next big project- Nordic Ways. In Europe, saunas are used daily for recreational, medical, and spiritual purposes. However, in the U.S., 3 out of 4 people aren&#x27;t sweating enough, which aids to an already massive health crisis. Stress, anxiety, and burnout from COVID and work is at an all time high and so Max set out to find the perfect solution. Max&#x27;s mission is to make the full European spa experience, and the widely studied health benefits that come with it, available to all. Max firmly believes that the experience is the product, and he wants to make the best at-home spa experience possible.</p><p data-block-key="bn7i4">Max also runs his own international business consultancy firm in Amsterdam that helps enterprises of all sizes enter into new markets.</p><p data-block-key="dnn4g">Prior to Nordic Ways, he was former Head of Europe for one of NYC&#x27;s fastest growing fin-tech company, Prizeout, where he locked in partnerships with many of the world&#x27;s biggest brands such as Nike, Pizza Hut, ASOS, Adidas, Costa Coffee, Uber Eats, Hotels.com, Zalando, The Body Shop, TJX Group, Sainsburys, Arcadia Group, and more. He&#x27;s achieved a Master&#x27;s Degree in Entrepreneurship from the University of Amsterdam, where he currently lives, as well as a Bachelor&#x27;s Degree from San Diego State&#x27;s world-renowned International Business program (a top 10 worldwide IB program according to U.S. News &amp; World Report).</p><p data-block-key="eepa9">He also formerly spearheaded <a href="http://healthconfirm.com/">HealthConfirm.com</a> Biotech (formerly known as LiveWellTesting.com), an online health and wellness testing website that sells at-home hormone testing kits. Through strategic partnerships with top labs in the U.S., he led the private labeling of the U.S.&#x27;s top hormone tests and led nationwide marketing initiatives. Now, it is a top 3 selling hormone test in the U.S. and is Amazon&#x27;s choice for hormone tests.</p>

<ul><li data-block-key="ag15x">Sung is an entrepreneur, inventor/engineer, and former patent attorney with a rich background in diverse technologies including consumer electronics and medical devices.</li><li data-block-key="c6fdd"> Sung couples best practices from his extensive experience as an engineer and patent attorney to invent and engineer products that are more innovative and cheaper than what is currently offered, and then builds and develops an impenetrable IP portfolio that protects the core technologies of his inventions.</li><li data-block-key="6bmet"> Sung has co-founded several consumer tech startup companies, including but not limited to DivergentIP LLC d/b/a BruviTM and Touch Coffee LLC.</li><li data-block-key="53h5c"> Sung maintains a strong network of R&amp;D and engineering relationships in Asia to expeditiously and cost effectively develop a new product from concept to mass production launch.</li></ul>

<ul><li data-block-key="ag15x">Mel is a proven executive, investor and Board Member, as well as Advisor and M&amp;A consultant to US and global businesses, particularly coffee, retail and food &amp; beverage businesses, including DTC and Omni-channel brands.</li><li data-block-key="adef8"> Educated in Singapore and London and based in Los Angeles for over 20 years, he balances the clear thinking and analytic skillset of a lawyer, with an entrepreneurial and growth minded approach to business.</li><li data-block-key="7ch7b"> Mel has created significant shareholder value by supplementing his extensive network, experience and cultural savvy with his operating and corporate governance protocols expertise.</li><li data-block-key="43ag6"> Mel is the former CEO and Board member of The Coffee Bean &amp; Tea Leaf and was intimately involved in the sale of the business to Jollibee Brands in 2019 for $350M.</li></ul>

<p>Michelle Songy is an experienced public and media relations executive, entrepreneur and change-maker. After relocating to London for a position with Coca-Cola, Michelle founded her first company, Cake Technologies. It became the United Kingdom’s largest mobile payment platform for restaurants and was sold to American Express in 2017. </p><p></p><p>Michelle has a 10+ years experience developing, managing and marketing businesses from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies including American Express and Coca-Cola. Prior to that, Michelle graduated from the University of Georgia, in the Terry School of Business with a degree in Management Information Systems. </p><p></p><p>In 2020, Michelle got to work on her new passion project: a tech-enabled earned media platform specializing in promoting brands, especially small businesses. By the summer of 2020, she ran a beta program and helped more than 50 businesses scraping by on a tight budget throughout COVID. Since then, Press Hook has helped hundreds of brands get featured in thousands of articles through their network of top media outlets with a combined reach of over 1 billion unique monthly viewers. </p>

<p data-block-key="1kine">Matt Hassett has been an entrepreneur since birth, starting with the creation of a school-led newspaper in childhood. After graduating from Brown University and Harvard Kennedy School, Matt worked in communications, policy, and program design at the Center for NYC Neighborhoods, Morgan Stanley’s Global Sustainable Finance group, and the City of New York.</p><p data-block-key="ubkgr">He began working on the project that eventually became Loftie at the design firm IDEO where he was an Entrepreneur in Residence. In 2020, Loftie was officially launched.</p><p data-block-key="l4zgg"></p>

<p>Lauren Smith is the VP of Marketing at Chekmate Inc. She specializes in bringing brands to life and connecting them to their audience. Her expertise and passion is in lead and demand gen campaigns for software solutions. Lauren got her start at Carahsoft Technology Corp. after graduating from George Mason University. She has planned and executed events across the United States and managed marketing activities to support Google Cloud for Government and other SaaS solutions including Smartsheet and AODocs. Most recently she joined the team at Medallia as a Marketing Manager. In her personal time Lauren enjoys the art and culture of the Washington D.C. area, traveling, and fitness.</p>

<p>Chelsie joined Wesper as founding member, contributing to the development of the brand as a Sleep Specialist. She holds her PhD in Neuroscience with a speciality in sleep and mental health. She has 9 years under her belt as a researcher in clinical sleep medicine and sleep science. Previously Chelsie worked as a sleep specialist consultant to reduce fatigue-related accidents in the workplace.</p>

<p>Prior to founding Wesper, Amir was a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell Tech University where he investigated commercial applications for flexible electronics. Amir received his PhD in Electrical Engineering and Information Systems from the University of Tokyo and holds a double major degree with honors from Technion, Israel. When he&#x27;s not researching sleep habits, you can find him traveling, cooking, relaxing on the beach, and spending time with his family.</p><p></p><p>In 2017, Amir Reuveny witnessed the effects of poor sleep in his father. His father was often tired, even during the normal hours of the day. Well, he was working (and still is!) in a very demanding physical job, but it didn’t feel right; the snoring, unusual naps, and the ongoing fatigue indicated something else. Like 30 million other Americans, and one billion people globally, Amir&#x27;s father had undiagnosed sleep apnea. His father struggled with his sleep for more than 20 years. </p><p></p><p>Following his PhD graduation, Amir began to work towards his very own startup, Wesper. He wanted to make a difference in healthcare and create a way for people to understand and treat their health condition better. Fast forward to 2021, Wesper has now raised over $5.6 million in funding with the mission to make sleep-health easy and accessible for all.</p><p></p><p>Amir&#x27;s family values are embedded in every grain of Wesper. We invented the term ‘Wesper’ to reflect the moment parents quietly singing to their child near their bed, hoping for a peaceful night and bright morning to follow. This reminds him of home, and brings him to his life today, raising his own child and wespering for him at night.</p><p></p><p>His dream was to bring quality healthcare into peoples&#x27; homes. Wesper is highly committed to: comfort, easiness, actionable insights, science and accessibility. Our mission is to enable the world to sleep better.</p>

<p data-block-key="s3zoz">Dr. Sarah de la Torre is a board certified Ob-Gyn and women’s wellness expert who has been in conventional Ob-Gyn for 20 years and has additional specialized accreditation in Functional Medicine. She was a partner in a private group practice for over 15 years where she excelled at caring for women of all ages. She has delivered over 3,000 babies and has helped countless women have successful pregnancies and improved their gynecologic health. Dr. de la Torre is on the Clinical Teaching Faculty at the University of Washington School of Medicine, has spoken internationally and is a published author of clinical and research articles in women’s health. She is a certified NAMS provider and a Fellow of ACOG.</p><p data-block-key="li69c"><br/><br/></p>

<p data-block-key="9cf4e">Colette Courtion has spent more than 12 years working in beauty and with medical aesthetic technologies. However, it was her personal experience of becoming a mother that led her to start Joylux, a menopausal health platform that provides home-use solutions for women. She was recently named by Inc Magazine to their prestigious Top 100 Female Founders list. Prior to founding Joylux, Colette was CEO of JeNu, the first home-use anti-aging device using ultrasound technology. Prior to JeNu, Colette launched Calidora Skin Clinics, a leading anti-aging chain of skin clinics in the NW. Colette began her career in finance at PepsiCo and Maveron (a Seattle venture capital firm) before heading to Starbucks. As a marketing executive for Starbucks, she was responsible for creating and patenting the Duetto Card, named by Business Week as 2003’s Best Product of the Year, while running the largest and most successful retail store value card and loyalty program in the world, the Starbucks Card. She earned a BA in economics from the University of Washington and an MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University.</p>

<p>Charlotte Dales (She/Hers) is the Co-Founder and CEO of Inclusively, the workforce inclusion platform empowering employers with accommodation insights, access, training and the support they need to attract and retain previously hidden talent. Charlotte’s cousin Cameron became the first licensed aesthetician in the state of Florida with Down syndrome and after witnessing Cameron’s career fulfillment, she became passionate about replicating her employment success story for disabled talent and started Inclusively. </p><p>Before launching Inclusively, Charlotte started her career in finance with Deutsche Bank in London working with trading desks around the world. After five years, she left her bank job and co-founded her first company, CAKE Technologies, a mobile payment and reservation application for restaurants and bars which scaled to over 200 restaurants in London and was acquired by American Express. Charlotte’s experience in technology and startups has allowed Inclusively to provide a new technology solution to drive authentic diversity and inclusion in the workplace–helping employers acquire and retain top talent based on job seekers&#x27; needed accommodations to build sustainable livelihoods and careers. Under Charlotte’s leadership, Inclusively is proud to be modernizing recruitment by creating structure and transparency around accommodations, benefitting all job seekers. Charlotte graduated from University of Colorado, Boulder and lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband, daughter, and son.</p>

<p data-block-key="5xhy7">Dr. Merenda is a featured grief counselor at Guardian Lane. Dr. Merenda has more than 15 years of experience in early learning and therapeutic settings. Her background is in early childhood education, with a specific expertise in therapeutic play and supporting families with children who have special needs. Dr. Merenda holds a Masters of Art in Early Childhood Studies from Ryerson University and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Western University. In addition to her experience at the University of Guelph-Humber, Dr. Merenda has taught academic courses at Humber College ITAL, she was the Program Advisor for a continuing education stream of the Early Childhood Education program at Humber College ITAL. Dr. Merenda is perfect for grief related questions.<br/></p>

<p>Kristina Jones is an award winning advertising art director turned tech entrepreneur. When Kristina Jones was looking for the next tech company to build after scaling courtbuddy.com (now Lawchamps) nationwide, raising $7.5 Million in funding, and becoming the 14th African American woman to ever raise more than $1 Million from VCs for a tech startup, she started with a personal story. When Kristina was seven, her father died from cancer and she knew one day she wanted to share her story on how she kept the connection to her dad alive. Throughout the process of writing and editing, &quot;My Forever Guardian&quot;, she noticed the immense lack of online support for the millions of grieving children here in the US. After connecting with the nation&#x27;s best grief counselors and getting feedback from over 500 grieving parents, she quickly got to work building Guardian Lane, a children&#x27;s mental health platform that is innovating how children access grief counseling. With the use of video sharing technology, community, tele-counseling and a whole lot of creativity, the children have begun to build their own social healing network. Guardian Lane has partnered with over 1,000 schools since it&#x27;s beta launch in late January and is growing into new districts daily! Kristina&#x27;s work has been featured in Vanity Fair, Forbes, CNN Business, Inc., Entrepreneur, Essence, Black Enterprise and more. <br/></p>

<p>Jada Shapiro is a maternal health expert and the founder of boober, where expectant parents and new families find classes and on-demand expert care providers, pregnancy to postpartum. She founded boober to empower parents to positively transform their pregnancy, birth, and postpartum experiences and outcomes through expert education and easy access to qualified maternal healthcare providers. She also founded Birth Day Presence, NYC’s most trusted source for birth worker trainings and expectant parent education, which has supported over 20k parents since 2002. She is a birth and postpartum doula, childbirth educator, lactation counselor, birth photographer, mother, and step-mother. Jada has helped thousands of families prepare for birth, has assisted hundreds of births, cared for first-time parents, A-list celebrities, and everyone in between. She advises leading actors about childbirth and breastfeeding for major films and is a sought-out media expert on pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, lactation, and newborn parenting. Jada graduated from Wesleyan University with a double major in American Studies and Dance and focused her senior thesis on the medicalization of childbirth in America, after discovering a fascinating book about childbirth in the library. Jada witnessed her first birth a few years later when her dear friend invited her (and 19 other people!) to photograph her birth at a freestanding birth center. Jada is a mother and stepmother to 4 girls aged 11-15.</p>