Monica Baumann

Partner
SCALI RASMUSSEN

As a member of Scali Rasmussen’s Data Protection, Privacy, and Cybersecurity team, Monica Baumann received certification through the International Association of Privacy Professionals, the world’s preeminent organization for credentialing privacy professionals. The certification demonstrates one’s understanding of the laws, regulations, and standards of privacy and data security in a given discipline.
As a litigator and adviser with extensive experience in the automotive industry and consumer environmental litigation, she also advises dealer clients and litigates all aspects of dealership legal and regulatory compliance.

Perica Bell

Managing Director/Head of Originations, Community Development Finance
UNION BANK

Perica Bell’s career has focused on financing and building successful real estate projects, providing value to external shareholders and creating attainable, affordable housing for low/moderate income residents. Today, within the Real Estate Industries Group at Union Bank, she leads the administration of Community Development Finance’s (CDF) originations activities throughout the bank’s footprint. Bell was promoted to this role earlier in 2021, a reflection of her being an instrumental leader and contributor to the success of the CDF team within Union Bank over the past 11 years.

Kari Cafouros

Strategic Marketing Manager & Market Research Manager
UCLA

After graduating from Miami University in Ohio, Kari Cafouros began her career in market research consultancy, providing custom research solutions and extensive guidance on customer satisfaction surveys. During her time at Interpret LLC, she provided quality assurance and research support for clients in the mobile, technology, gaming, theatrical, and home entertainment industries. She currently works for UCLA Extension’s Engineering and Digital Tech programs, providing all digital and traditional marketing and also serves as the interim market research manager.

Simone Collins

Corporate M&A Partner
SKLAR KIRSH LLP

Simone Collins is a partner of Sklar Kirsh LLP in the Corporate department. Her practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and other complex investment and strategic business transactions. She has extensive experience advising private companies, private equity firms and their portfolio companies, business owners and investors with the structuring and negotiation of domestic and cross-border transactions, including stock and asset acquisitions and dispositions, leveraged buyouts, strategic add-ons, debt and equity financings, and other general corporate and business matters.

Sarah Johnston

Partner
BARNES & THORNBURG LLP

Sarah Johnston isa partner in the Los Angeles office of Barnes & Thornburg, where she is the co-chair of the drug and medical device practice within the firm’s product liability and mass tort practice group. She focuses her work in the defense of manufacturers and supply chain entities in complex product liability matters, with an emphasis on pharmaceutical, medical device, and consumer product litigations. A skilled advocate and creative problem-solver, Johnston works enthusiastically to understand and master the products she is entrusted to defend.

Nilofar Karbassi

Attorney
LATHROP GPM

Nilofar Karbassi is an associate with a wide range of experience in complex product liability and toxic tort litigation, in relation to catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases. She has a history of representing clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses and individuals in complex litigation. Karbassi has represented companies involved in the manufacturing, sale, and distribution of various products, including personal care and cosmetics, pharmaceutical products, automotive parts, surgical hardware, adhesives, building and construction materials, and raw materials.

Marie Montmarquet

Co-Founder
MD NUMBERS INC.

Marie Montmarquet is an activist, advocate, and business owner in the legal cannabis market. She has a social justice forward mindset that helps shape her advocacy work. Montmarquet started her first business venture with her brother Allen Hackett. Since then they have built a vertically integrated cannabis company, including acres of cultivation, processing, nursery, distribution, and delivery. Since 2018, Montmarquet has also become a pro-bono advisor to the equity community in San Francisco.

Jessica Nam

VP & Executive Producer, League of Legends
RIOT GAMES

Jessica Nam is the leader behind the most-played PC video game in the world, League of Legends. As the vice president and executive producer at Riot Games, she is responsible for the product strategy and game development of League, which has over 115 million monthly players. With almost a decade of working on the title, Nam has led Riot Games into the future of gaming through first-of-its-kind in-game collaborations and the continual evolution of League of Legends’ vision and strategy.

Eliza Langdon Oliver

Associate Attorney
HUDOCK EMPLOYMENT LAW GROUP

Associate Eliza Langdon Oliver is a litigator with more than 10 years of experience, much of it focused on employment law. She joined the firm full-time in 2018 and has become an integral part of the client service litigation team. She handles motions, including arguing motions for summary judgment; pleadings and discovery; and some depositions. Langdon Oliver also handles mediations for clients, attends case conferences, and makes other court appearances. Her experience includes wage and hour cases; FEHA discrimination, harassment and retaliation cases; and class actions.

Angela Ponce de Leon

Founder/President
APEX HOME HEALTH & HOSPICE

Angela Ponce de Leon is the CEO and founder of Apex Home Health & Hospice Care, one of the leading home health agencies in California. Ponce de Leon started her business at age 23, fascinated by the concept of community-based health care. The company was founded to support our most vulnerable seniors and provide jobs to Filipino-immigrant women and nurses. Seventeen years later, Apex Home Health & Hospice Care takes pride in having a 97 percent woman workforce.

Brittney Tierce

VP of Operations
XIL HEALTH

In 2018, Brittney Tierce joined XIL Health as Vice President of Operations, moving into the pharmacy technology field. She supported the design and building process of a new pharmacy platform under the XIL Health umbrella, XIL Impact. This is a pioneering cloud-based SaaS complex analytics platform that provides critical data that helps healthcare companies navigate the complexities of today’s uncertain pharmaceutical market. Tierce led the development team through the expansion of this tool, while also adding two new verticals that addressed client requests and needs.

Dr. Shanetta Weatherspoon

Executive Director
PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY

Dr. Shanetta Weatherspoon is a results-oriented, performance-driven professional with over 14 years of non-profit management experience. Her entrepreneurial spirit draws her to opportunities that empower people. As executive director of the Pepperdine Graduate School of Education & Psychology Foster Grandparent Program, she has expanded the program exponentially due to her leadership, vision, and passion. Despitea worldwide pandemic, she grew the number of AmeriCorps Seniors (community volunteers over the age of 55) from 84 to 168 members.

Eva Yazhari

Founder/CEO, Beyond Capital & General Partner, Beyond Capital Ventures
BEYOND CAPITAL GROUP

Eva Yazhari, general partner of Beyond Capital Ventures, isa visionary investor, author, and entrepreneur who leads with meaning, purpose, and consciousness in each of her endeavors. Her background in venture capital and asset management includes working on a founding team that raised and invested more than $5 billion into Wall Street’s top hedge funds. Yazhari combined this financial acumen with her passion for contributing beyond herself to launch Beyond Capital. Led by conscious leaders, the company offers a diversified portfolio of Seed & SeriesA companies in “need-to-have” sectors.