Atalanta Diaries Breakthrough Women in Conversation with Enma Popli

Vennesa Van Ameyde serves as the Chief Operating Officer of Kasasa, an award-winning fintech and marketing services company that provides reward checking accounts people love, the first-ever loan with Take-Backs™, and ongoing expert consulting services to more than 600 community financial institutions nationwide.

As COO, Vennesa manages the day-to-day operations, marketing, creative services, client implementation & support services, internal application infrastructure, operating standards, people programs, and culture at Kasasa.

Vennesa is a senior operating executive with demonstrated talent for transforming and scaling organizations by developing the operational infrastructure, systems, processes, reporting, and organizational strategies to foster rapid growth. She is a people's champion, passionate about creating a best-place-to-work culture via the development of innovative programs that focus on talent attraction, development, leadership training, engagement, reward and recognition, community outreach, and DE&I.

Vennesa holds an MA in Diplomacy from Norwich University and a BS in Political Science and Anthropology from Vanderbilt University. She received Lean Six Sigma training from the University of Michigan College of Engineering and studied Theory of Constraints for Operations at The Goldratt Institute. She has been honored to receive recognition by the Austin Business Journal as a “Profiles In Power & Woman Of Influence” Finalist in 2015.

Key themes emerging out of our conversation:

Connect with Enma Popli on Linkedin: 

>> https://www.linkedin.com/in/enmapopli/

Visit Enma Popli’s website
>> http://www.enmapopli.com/

Judge Manpreet “Monica” Singh was born, raised, and educated in Houston, and earned her bachelor's degree from University of Texas at Austin and her Juris Doctor (JD) from South Texas College of Law. 

Before her election to Harris County Civil Court at Law #4 in 2022  where she made history as Texas’ first Sikh Judge, Monica was a practicing attorney for 21 years. In 2010 she was runner-up for the Houston Young Lawyers Association Most Outstanding Attorney and the South Asian Bar Association honored her with the Distinguished Member Award in 2017. 

Monica has served on the Board of Directors of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the Texas Lyceum, and the Sikh Coalition. She is a Chapter Representative for the exclusive American Board of Trial Advocates and has taught numerous Continuing legal Education topics for University of Texas and the State Bar of Texas, an organization that also awarded her the Texas Diversity Champion Award in 2018. 

Judge Singh is also a recipient of the national Passion of Excellence Award and a graduate of the Harvard Leadership Program, the FBI Citizens Academy and Leadership Houston. 

Key themes emerging out of our conversation:

Connect with Enma Popli on Linkedin: 

>> https://www.linkedin.com/in/enmapopli/

Visit Enma Popli’s website:
>> http://www.enmapopli.com/

Jaya is a veteran journalist, essayist, and fiction writer. 

An undergrad in Psychology and a software engineer Jaya made a foray in the world of writing much later, yet in her twenty years in the journalism field as an editor, columnist and reporter she has received 30 awards, most notably from the San Francisco Press Club and Writers Digest.  Jaya has also garnered 8 fiction awards including the Lorian Hemingway Award for short fiction. 

Her columns and articles can be found in India Currents, PBS Next Avenue, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Standard, Forbes, The Bold Italic, and Elemental. 

Jaya is the author of "Transactions of Belonging," a collection of short stories published in 2014.

Jaya serves as editor emeritus, contributing writer and board member of India Currents and She is a contributing editor at Ethnic Media Services, working with journalists on critical issues that affect communities of color. 

Key themes emerging out of our conversation:

Connect with Enma Popli on Linkedin: 

>> https://www.linkedin.com/in/enmapopli/

Visit Enma Popli’s website
>> http://www.enmapopli.com/

Radha Kessar is a mathematician  and educator  working in the  representation theory of finite groups,  a branch of abstract algebra. 

She is a professor in pure mathematics  at  the University of Manchester, having previously  been a professor at City, University of London and the University of Aberdeen. She is the only woman to have been a professor of  mathematics at the University of Aberdeen.    

Earlier in her career,  Radha held a Weir  Junior  Research Fellowship at University College, Oxford.  Her career has spanned  both sides of the  Atlantic,  and she has  held positions at The Ohio State University, The University of Minnesota  and Yale University.    Besides research and teaching, Radha serves on the board of several  prestigious  international  mathematics journals and has co authored the book “Fusion Systems in Algebra and Topology”. 

Radha has won the  Berwick prize of  the London Mathematical Society, the first woman recipient  since the prize's inception  in 1946. Other honors include a Simon's Visiting Professorship at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in  Berkeley, and an invited lecture at the European Congress of Mathematicians.

Key themes emerging out of our conversation:

Connect with Enma Popli on Linkedin: 

>> https://www.linkedin.com/in/enmapopli/

Visit Enma Popli’s website
>> http://www.enmapopli.com/

Dr. Meeran Chadha Borwankar is a retired IPS officer who served in the state of Maharashtra, India, from 1981 to 2017 and retired as the Director General of the Bureau of Police Research and Development. 

Among many prestigious positions, Dr. Borwankar was the first woman Police Commissioner in Pune City, the first woman Chief of the Mumbai Crime Branch, and the Chief of the Maharashtra Prison Department.

In recognition of her illustrious police career, Dr. Borwankar was awarded the President of India Police Medal for Distinguished Service in 2006 and the Police Medal for Meritorious Services in 1997. She was also awarded the Distinguished Leadership Award 2008 from the University of Minnesota. 

Dr. Borwankar received her Doctorate in 'Organizational Management' from Pune University and is a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow from the University of Minnesota USA. A Law graduate, she was an Independent External Monitor (IEM) for Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, Gas Authority of India, and Air India and is on boards of different academic institutes.

She is the author of the best-seller "Leaves of Life," an autobiographical book of short stories and life lessons directed at the younger generations - especially women and girls and 'Inspector Chougule' which deals with real police stories. Her third book, Madam Commissioner, is launching soon. 

Key themes emerging out of our conversation:

Connect with Enma Popli on Linkedin: 

>> https://www.linkedin.com/in/enmapopli/

Visit Enma Popli’s website
>> http://www.enmapopli.com/

Shaheen was born in Mumbai, grew up in five countries around the world and at the age of eighteen, returned to Mumbai to do something about the unequal opportunities that children have in India. Shaheen founded the first Akanksha (“aspiration” in Sanskrit) centre in 1989 with 15 children. The Akanksha Foundation today runs 26 Akanksha Schools across Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur impacting over 14,000 students and 4,000 student alumni.

In 2008, searching for a way to impact more children and inspired by the Teach For America model, Shaheen founded Teach For India with the audacious vision of providing an excellent education to all children across India by building a movement of leaders. Today, Teach For India impacts 34,000 children through the direct work of over 1000 Fellows. Additionally, the Teach For India Alumni community is 4200+ members strong, impacting 1 million children directly and reaching 50 million children indirectly.

Shaheen is an advocate for student voice and partnership, and has created high-impact initiatives like the Maya Musical, the Kids Education Revolution, and The Greatest Show on Earth which explore student leadership. 

Driven by the need to reach the last child in India, Shaheen started TFIx, which is an incubator for passionate education entrepreneurs who are willing to adapt Teach For India’s model to their context and region in rural areas.

She is the author of the book, Redrawing India and the Miss Muglee children’s books. 

Shaheen serves on the boards of The Akanksha Foundation and the Advisory Board of Museum of Solutions. She has been an Ashoka Fellow, a Global Leader for Tomorrow at the World Economic Forum, and an Asia Society 21 Leader. Among many accolades, she has been a recipient of the Jamnalal Bajaj Award for Development and Welfare of Women and Children in 2019 and the Beyond Business - ET Prime Women Leadership Award for 2020, Niti Aayaog’s Women Transforming India Award. 

Key themes emerging  out of our conversation:

Connect with Enma Popli on Linkedin: 

>> https://www.linkedin.com/in/enmapopli/

Visit Enma Popli’s website
>> http://www.enmapopli.com/

Nichol Ng is CEO and Managing Director of X-Inc Pte Ltd, the parent of a group of companies that has been in the food business since the 1930s. She oversees about 200 employees, more than 5,000 products, over 4,500 customers, and an annual turnover exceeding S$65 million. Together, the companies bring to life dreams in the food ecosystem – from foodservice and retail to logistics and property.

It was her passion for food as well as a desire to deliver service with a heart that drove Nichol to take over the family business and she rebranded the company in May 2007.

Prior to this, Nichol was a Marketing Executive in  MediaCorp Radio Pte Ltd where she was part of the team that was in charge of rebranding all the MediaCorp radio stations, including Class 95, Y.E.S 933 and Gold 90.

In 2012, Nichol co-founded The Food Bank Singapore, a charity which re-distributes excess foods to more than 370 non-profit organizations that reach out to more than 300,000 underprivileged.

For her effort in feeding the needy, Nichol was named as one of the 10 honourees in The Peak magazine’s The Peak Power List 2016, and listed in Forbes Asia’s 2017 Heroes of Philanthropy and Harper’s Bazaar’s The Power List 2018. In 2021, she was the Southeast Asia honouree of the YPO Global Impact Award Regional, which recognises young CEOs for their impact outside of YPO, celebrating CEO impact that is both sustainable and scalable.

Nichol has leadership roles in various local and global organizations, including President of ONE (Singapore), Executive Committee Member of Young Presidents Organisation – Singapore Chapter and she is a Board Member of Global Compact Network Singapore.

Nichol is happily married to her partner of 26 years and believes that the best legacy to leave her four children (ages 3-10)  is not money but her values.

Key themes emerging out of our conversation:

Connect with Enma Popli on Linkedin:

>> https://www.linkedin.com/in/enmapopli/

Visit Enma Popli’s website

>> http://www.enmapopli.com/

Sandhya is a staff attorney in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division. She conducts legal research on constitutional issues and drafts judicial memoranda.

When Sandhya was two months old, she was diagnosed with a rare brittle bone disease called osteopetrosis, which caused her blindness.  Sandhya attended Rice University where she graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Behavioral Science. In June 1994, she received her Doctor of Jurisprudence from the Stanford University Law School. She was admitted to the State Bar of Texas in November 1994 and started working as a law clerk of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Galveston Division.

Sandhya Rao, is the vice president of the i Blind Users Group or iBUG Today and their mission is to promote the individual independence, social integration, and educational development of the blind through accessible technology training.

Sandhya has been honoured with the Garland Walker Inn of Court Professionalism award and the Recognition Award for twenty years of Distinguished Federal Judiciary Service.

Key themes emerging out of our conversation:

Connect with Enma Popli on Linkedin:

>> https://www.linkedin.com/in/enmapopli/

Visit Enma Popli’s website

>> http://www.enmapopli.com/

Recognized as one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Tech for five consecutive years, Jenny is a thought leader in HR, Human Capital Management, the Future of Work, and data analytics. She is the Founder of Actionable Analytics Group, an advisory firm that supports Human Capital Management and Education Tech startups from Seed to IPO.

Her first book, Data Driven, was selected as one of the top 10 for “What Corporate America is Reading” out of 11,000 business books published that year. Her next book, The Data Driven Leader, was published in November 2017. She is a regular contributor to USA Today, Forbes, Huffington Post and Fast Company.

In her earlier role she was the Chief People Officer at Klaviyo and before that the Chief Talent Officer at SAP and a C-level executive at SuccessFactors, Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard leading award-winning teams that drove measurable business impact.

A champion of equality, diversity, and community involvement, Jenny has been recognized with honors including the Stevie Award for Female Business Executive of the Year, Athena Leadership Award, and Financial Times Top 20 Global Executive LGBT Allies. She co-founded the Silicon Valley Apprenticeship Consortium and is a former board member of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and Association for Talent Development, the leading organization for talent professionals globally. She currently serves as an Independent Director on the board of several companies, and is a member of the Forbes San Francisco Business Council.

Jenny is a painter, glass blower, hot metal sculptor (aka welder), award winning film producer, bee keeper, runner and proudly neurodiverse.

Key themes emerging out of our conversation:

Connect with Enma Popli on Linkedin:

>> https://www.linkedin.com/in/enmapopli/

Visit Enma Popli’s website

>> http://www.enmapopli.com/

Meenakshi Wadhwa is a planetary scientist and educator who studies the formation and evolution of the Solar System through analysis of planetary materials including Meteorites, Moon rocks and other Extraterrestrial Samples returned by Spacecraft Missions.

Meenakshi  is currently director and Foundation Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University and is additionally appointed as a Distinguished Visiting Scientist and Mars Sample Return Principal Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

She was previously director of the Center for Meteorite Studies at Arizona State University (2006-2019), where she oversaw the curation of one of the largest university-based meteorite collections. She has also searched for meteorites in Antarctica with the Antarctic Search for Meteorites Program.

Among many laurels, Asteroid 8356 has been named 8356 Wadhwa in recognition of Meenakshi's contributions to meteoritics and planetary science and she is a recipient of the J. Lawrence Smith medal of the National Academy of Sciences, the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Award and  the Guggenheim Fellowship.

Key themes emerging out of our conversation:

Connect with Enma Popli on Linkedin:

>> https://www.linkedin.com/in/enmapopli/

Visit Enma Popli’s website

>> http://www.enmapopli.com/