This event featured discussions on a women's journey to the boardroom and how to navigate their own path. It was designed for women who are searving on a board or aspiring to join one.
Agenda & Speakers
8:00 a.m. - Registration/networking, & breakfast
8:30 a.m. - Welcoming Remarks
8:35 a.m. - Session 1: Women Board Members and their Journey to the Boardroom
Tanuja Dehne: Independent Board Director
Daria Torres: Managing Partner, Walls Torres Group; Independent Director, Columbia Bank New Jersey; Advisory Board Member, DigiStream Investigations
Michele Siekerka: President & CEO, New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA)
9:35 a.m. - Mini-Session: The Courage Gap
Dr. Margie Warrell: Leadership Advisor, Speaker, Author
9:50 a.m. - Session 2: The Resources To Help You Get There
Alice Brennan: Independent Board Director
Jeanmarie Dunn-Kane: Counsel, Riker Danzig LLP
Gloria Mirrione: Executive Director, Head of Financial Services, Americas, Acre
Scott Raymond: Corporate Issuer, Account Manager, Broadridge
10:35 a.m. - Networking break / Move to Concurrent Sessions
10:55 a.m. (concurrent sessions) -
Session 3A: Board Oversight of Fast Growing Private & PE backed Companies - Challenges and Opportunities
Isela Bahena: Managing Director, Private Equity Infrastructure, Nuveen
Mary Madeski: President and CFO, Board member, Tierpoint Data Centres, Member of the Board of Trustees, Cornell University
Sharon Manewitz: Co-Founder of Manewitz Weiker Associates LLC; Independent Board Director
Susan Gray: Independent Board Director; Director, NACD New Jersey Chapter
Session 3B: Not-for-Profit Session
Sara Pena: Director of External Affairs, PSEG
Sherise Ritter: Board Member & Former Chairman, RWJ University Hospital Foundation; Former Chair, MIDJersey Chamber of Commerce; Former President, YWCA of Trenton
Robin Doyle (Moderator): Independent Board Director
11:55 a.m. - Closing Remarks
Speakers
Isela Bahena brings over twenty-five years of investment and portfolio management experience across a variety of sectors and asset classes. She leads deal teams that originate, structure, and invest across the infrastructure spectrum including renewable, digital infrastructure, transportation and energy transition assets…
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Alice Brennan is a public and private company board director with more than 20 years of boardroom experience. She has deep knowledge of enterprise risk management, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance, as well as broad knowledge of the financial services sector…
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Tanuja Dehne is a public company director, the former President and CEO of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and a former C-level executive of NRG Energy, Inc., a Fortune 200 power company. Tanuja brings perspective and experience from her cross-discipline roles to the C-suite and board room…
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Robin Doyle’s career in global financial services spans over 30 years, including 28 years at J.P. Morgan (JPM). As a Managing Director in JPM's Office of Regulatory Affairs, she shaped global policy through regulatory advocacy…
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Jeanmarie has experience representing business entities in contractual and transactional matters across both existing and emerging industries. She has played a key role with mergers and acquisitions and advising on commercial contracts and agreements…
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Susan is an international business leader and investor with deep financial markets, infrastructure investment, energy transition and sustainability expertise. Susan honed her financial acumen, strategic approach and risk management experience over 30 years in senior investment banking, investment and global financial services roles at Macquarie and S&P Global...
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Sharon Manewitz is a founder of Manewitz Weiker Associates, LLC (MWA), a women-owned advisory firm established in 2008. MWA specializes in managing and resolving challenged investments, with a focus on Corporate Governance, Constituent Advocacy, and Risk Management…
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As TierPoint’s President and CFO, Mary Meduski has broad responsibility for the corporate development and strategy, financial operations, accounting, information technology, and human resource functions, and is a member of the company's Board of Directors. She also serves as President and Chief Financial Officer of Cequel III, TierPoint's management company…
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Gloria leads Acre’s Sustainable Finance & Impact Investing practice for the Americas. She brings more than 20 years of executive search experience, working on global assignments and building teams from the mid-to-senior level…
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Jason D. Navarino is a Partner in the Tax and Corporate Groups at Riker Danzig. He has considerable experience advising both large and small business clients with respect to structuring and documenting domestic and cross-border mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures in a tax-efficient and tax-compliant manner. ...
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Sara Peña has two decades of experience initiating and delivering sustained results across a wide range of industries including healthcare, private entities, and government. She currently serves as the Director of External Affairs at PSEG…
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Scott Raymond is a sales executive in the Corporate Issuer Group within Broadridge Financial Solutions. Since 2009, he has partnered with publicly traded companies to implement stated objectives pertaining to certain shareholder services and investor communications…
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A managing director of The Mercadien Group and principal of Mercadien, P.C., CPAs, Sherise Ritter is an integral member of the firm’s Outsourced CFO & Accounting Services Group. She works with private companies across various industries, nonprofits, healthcare organizations and professional service firms as a trusted advisor to help them with strategic planning, process efficiency and improvement studies, as well as mergers and acquisitions…
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Daria Torres is a tech-savvy, proven strategist with over 20 years of global, cross-sector executive experience. As founder and managing partner of Walls Torres Group, Daria has led her firm in serving an extensive portfolio of esteemed clients, including blue chip Fortune 500 businesses, pioneering technology companies, multi-national philanthropic organizations, and leading academic institutions…
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Michele N. Siekerka Esq., president and CEO of the New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA), leads the nation’s largest, most influential employers’ organization, advocating on behalf of New Jersey’s large and small businesses for policies that will make New Jersey more affordable and regionally competitive…
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Margie is globally recognized for coaching senior leaders through transformative growth agendas, transitions, and organizational change. She brings deep expertise in executive development, CEO succession, and high-performance leadership to help top leaders build resilient, high-impact organizations…
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Resources
Thank you to our chapter sponsors for providing the following thought leadership pieces:
Broadridge
EY
Grant Thornton
OnBoard
PwC
