ACHiEVE

Alex Alvarado was born and raised in Seattle, WA. He hails from a family of educators and is also the eldest of five children. He was home schooled growing up and moved to California to attend Stanford. Alex graduated in Economics and Public Policy. After dabbling in government, private equity and a startup, he opted to join Oliver Wyman, a management consulting firm. He focused on healthcare, including time with the Kaiser Family Foundation, Jiff and Castlight. It sparked his desire to address healthcare problems from the private sector which he coupled with a strong personal passion motivated by experiences in his life to found Daybreak Health. Daybreak is an online platform for teen mental health, including de-stigmatization via educational seminars for all constituents in the conversation - teens, parents and educators, with a core focus on offering counseling for teens with licensed therapists.

J. Galen Buckwalter was born and raised near Lancaster, Pennsylvania as a part of the Mennonite community known as Pennsylvania Dutch. Slightly before his 17th birthday, Galen met with an unfortunate diving accident that has required him to rely on a wheelchair for mobility ever since. As he describes it, "it enabled him to focus exclusively on the world of his mind". He completed an undergraduate degree near Erie, PA and then came to Los Angeles to complete a doctorate in psychology. After engaging in research with USC, Galen partnered with Neil Clark Warren to become the founding chief science officer of eHarmony. He was there for seven or eight years and ultimately left to head back to USC, joining their Institute for Creative Technologies. From there he became involved with a handful of startups. Most recently, in addition to a number of advising roles, he is the Co-Founder and CEO of psyML, a company focused on applying psychometric models to big data sets at scale.

Ravi Sharma was raised in Southern CA and became drawn towards entrepreneurship, opting to study it at USC. While there he attempted a few startups. He also showed interest in finance and ended up joining Bank of America on the trading floor working in mortgage-backed securities. He transitioned after the global financial crisis of 2008. Ravi has since started and exited three businesses, while dabbling in asset management. He was simultaneously juggling a family mental health crisis when his mom fell into a deep depression which was exacerbated when a close friend took his life. These fueled his desire to launch Ootify, a mental health platform geared towards college students with a focus on matching them with peer or therapist support.

Hala Taha was born and raised in New Jersey, showing a strong entrepreneurial spirit from young, standing out amongst her predominantly physician family. Continuously blazing her own path, she was one of the few women to attend the New Jersey Institute of Technology. She maintained her strong interest in entertainment and her passion for music by working as an unpaid intern at Hot 97 for about two years. After that she learned how to develop websites which led to her launching the Sorority of Hip-Hop where she would eventually manage 50 female bloggers. She has been involved with two pilots at MTV, including one show that was filmed extensively, but ultimately did not get picked up. She completed her MBA next while simultaneously working at Hewlett Packard, where she would stay for five years. From there, she left to work at Disney and to launch her podcast called Young & Profiting. She recently was on the cover of Podcast Magazine.

Sky Meltzer was born and mostly raised in San Diego, save a few years which formed his earliest memories spent in Colombia. He studied Economics at Stanford University and started his career in investment banking. He joined a startup after two years. Having grown up in a household that embraced yoga, Sky began the practice as a stress reduction technique. When his startup closed he took a yoga teacher training program at YogaWorks where he met his wife. He then took a position with MGM in its International DVD division. From there he took a position as VP of Marketing and Business Development at YogaWorks after it had been acquired by a private equity firm. After that experience, he became CEO of Manduka, participating in a buyout from the founder. During his 13 years there he increased the business multi-fold, going from five employees to 80. Most recently Sky launched WellSet, a centralized platform to find and book wellness practitioners.

Paul Orlando was born and raised in upstate NY, near Rochester. He attended Cornell University where he majored in History and studied Mandarin Chinese, leading to fluency after a study abroad program in China. He started a corporate career in telecommunications and then moved to consulting after getting his MBA at Columbia. He migrated to Hong Kong for a few years and ran a startup accelerator program there. He currently is a professor at USC and runs their Accelerator program. He has also been a published author with articles in The Wall Street Journal, The NY Times, Forbes and TechCrunch. He also hosts a blog entitled "Unintended Consequences".

Sharon Demattia was born and raised in Southern CA. A frequenter of the outdoors and avid participant in athletic activities during her youth, Sharon developed a passion for skiing. Upon finishing high school she moved to Mammoth for a decade to ski and teach children skiing. Sharon then earned bachelor's and master's degrees in the life sciences while conducting lab research and starting a family. She resided in Reno, NV and then made her way back to CA. In the process, she began engaging more and more in the artistic pursuits that have been her lifelong passion. She has done large scale sculptural installations at Burning Man and a global project aiding people in expressing their identity through art that has included over 6,000 participants called "Human Innerface".

Tom Kereszti was born in Hungary and migrated to the US when young, learning English for the first time late in elementary school. He studied engineering, following in his father’s footsteps, and joined consumer products juggernaut Colgate Palmolive. He earned an MBA while working. Once the Iron Curtain came down, Tom was selected to run the Company’s operations in Hungary. That led to other overseas assignments in Prague, Amsterdam and Mexico City. He recently published a book entitled “C-Suite and Beyond” that highlights his various experiences and shares his insight honed over years building and turning around businesses.

Marina Kolaric was born in present day Serbia, during a time when it was still Yugoslavia. She experienced the breakout of war in the early 1990s, impacting her time as an adolescent. She eventually studied psychology in Serbia and specialized in conflict resolution in war torn regions. She joined a non-governmental organization while studying. On a trip to Hawaii, she decided to study for her Master's in communication at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, focusing again on conflict resolution. After a short stint in DC, she settled in Southern CA and worked in both wellness and in brand management for leaders in the fitness and health space. She made a dramatic shift in her life focus, borne of personal experience, to become a counselor and mindfulness coach focusing on rehab. She has spent time in Thailand and has now settled in Bali.

Chris Jean was born and raised in Bethlehem, PA. He developed a fondness for literature, theater and the power of storytelling while young. He studied at Ithaca College, earning a dual degree in Cinema and Photography and English Literature. From there he moved to LA and began his career in production with a few different companies. He worked his way up the corporate ladder, benefitting from attrition. In once such case, he was able to helm the company he was working for, called Autonomy, and was able to rescue them from insolvency. He then worked at Fox for a few years, eventually following a number of producers who left for ITV. He was at ITV for six years where he Executive Produced, Directed and Wrote the Emmy-nominated show America Now. Roughly six years ago he launched his own production company called Bon Accord Picture Company.