ACHiEVE

Amy Kopelan was born and raised in New York and developed an interest in the world of television production. She studied at Boston University and started working for ABC after graduating. Over her extensive career there she would become a Founding Producer of the Good Morning America show, eventually spending nine years with it. After a few other roles within ABC, she departed to start her own company. She now runs Bedlam Entertainment, a media training, presentation coaching and conference strategy company whose clients include CEOs and senior leaders. She is also co-author of the book "I Didn't See it Coming".

Elia Gourgouris was born in Athens, Greece. He was branded a happy baby since birth. An avid competitive swimmer, Elia migrated to Los Angeles to avail himself of the best training centers in the world at the age of 11. He attended UCLA for his undergrad and earned a doctorate in psychology there as well. He re-located to Boulder, CO and established a thriving therapy practice. When he faced a personal health crisis, he pivoted to touch more people’s lives. He has become an executive coach advising Fortune 100 companies, a worldwide speaker and published author.

Andy Riemer was born in Boulder, CO, but grew up mostly in the DC Metro area. He grew up home schooled until high school. An avid soccer player, he was drafted by the LA Galaxy and loaned to a professional soccer club in Germany. An injury kept him from pursuing a career in sports. Based on personal experience, Andy gravitated towards psychology. He earned his undergrad degree at Georgetown University. He spent some time working in education analytics, including as a Survey Analyst at magazine Education Week and at education company Classroom Champions, which pairs Olympians with underserved K-8 populations for mentoring. After earning a Master's in Education from Harvard, Andy has dabbled in entertainment, working for Netflix and CAA in analytics and social impact, respectively. He is Board Chair for Teenline, a nonprofit mental health hotline for youth.

Ricardo Mazal was born and raised in Mexico City, the descendant of Sephardic Jews of Greek and Turkish origin. Ricardo did not attend art school; rather, he studied industrial design and became one of its leading proponents with a practice in Mexico City. In the 80s after an economic downturn in Mexico, Ricardo migrated to Barcelona to explore the practice of art. Ricardo has developed a practice of starting with photography as the basis for his paintings. The significance of location and its intersection with spirituality are key cornerstones of his work. Ricardo draws a lot of inspiration from music in his painting technique, describing himself as a composer while he creates on a canvas. Migrating to New York in the early 90s, he now splits his time between the City and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Mary Humiston was born and raised in upstate New York. She developed an interest in psychology during her undergrad years and opted to do a Master’s in Business Psychology coupled with an MBA. She began working at General Electric and would spend seven years there. She ultimately landed in human resources. From GE she moved to retailer GAP and helped them establish systems. She then worked for a SoftBank-backed startup. After it was sold, she returned to an industrial giant and worked for Honeywell in Europe as well as Applied Materials, before becoming Chief Human Resources Officer at Rolls-Royce. In addition to now serving as a Senior Advisor for Accenture she has launched Modern Career, a purveyor of HR insights to executives.

Christos Vayenas was born and raised in Southern New Hampshire. He was drawn to music from young and felt a particular pull towards the piano, which he taught himself how to play. For undergrad he studied Psychology and Eastern Religions. Finding the alignment between music and meditation, Christos devoted himself to becoming a composer and improviser. He has combined his passion for music with an entrepreneurial spirit, launching several businesses in support of musicians, including The Autumn Salon and Groupmuse.

Rebecca Warfield was born and raised in Montana. She exhibited an entrepreneurial spirit since young, launching innovative businesses from her school days. She studied TV and Film in college. Having spent some time in CA, she returned and developed a career in live event production and artist management. During that time she worked with Dick Clark Productions and spent time on the Golden Globes, the American Music Awards and the Miss Universe Organization. On the talent management side, Rebecca launched her own platform called The Chicane Group. She has worked with Aerosmith and specifically, Steven Tyler, as well as Julian Lennon.

Kristofer O'Dowd was born and mostly raised in Arizona. Being a naturally large child with strong athletic ability, Kris was very active in sports. He played three sports throughout the year, but was really fond of basketball. After breaking his ankle in eighth grade, he re-evaluated his priorities and opted for football during high school. His success there got him a scholarship to play at the University of Southern California under Pete Carroll. He was the first Freshman to start at Center in the history of the team. He suffered some knee injuries, but powered through it. There was tremendous buzz during the NFL draft for him. He was in the top ten in each of his performance categories. Unfortunately, his knee injuries were stage three arthritic, precluding his ability to pass a medical, despite his attempts to try all available therapies. He has had to pivot his career and has since become a successful businessman, including spending a number of years in Dubai.

Taisha Teal was born and raised in Vancouver. She comes from an artistic family and pursued art as her passion. Stemming from a desire to address some adolescent trauma, Taisha relied on art therapy. She found it so meaningful to her that she has dedicated her life to the use of art therapy as a healing modality for others. She studied psychology at university and in lieu of focusing on talk therapy, she has been working in a clinical setting for a number of years leading art therapy sessions for teens. She also thrives in her own artistic practice. In addition, her family founded Art Vancouver, an art fair based in its namesake city. She is also involved in her family's art gallery.

Bradley Bruce was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta. He was brought up in a challenging environment, having to grapple with his father's alcoholism until the age of 10 or 12, when his father became sober. Unfortunately, this had a lasting effect on Brad as he fell victim to the cycle of substance abuse as a young adult. Thanks to a teacher who showed exceptional concern, Brad was paired with a mentor who had a highly successful career in finance. Brad was saved when he emulated his mentor's footsteps, went through recovery and launched a career in sales. He had a daughter after several years, but instability arrived once again when he lost his second daughter at childbirth. Brad migrated to Vancouver then, yet struggled, ultimately reaching the lowest point of his life. This woke him up to strive for a better path. Since then he has built a successful sales and capital raising business. This has led to additional entrepreneurial endeavors; he most recently launched Warrior Mind Capital, a real estate and technology private equity investment fund.