Philly Tech Week 2018

Christina Lopes is a co-founder of The One Health Company. Previously, Christina was a Managing Director of Cerberus Capital Management and since Cerberus, Christina has been working on deals in the innovation space including Biotech for AIMCO. Christina has served on the Board of International Planned Parenthood for the Western Hemisphere, participated in The United Nations Commission for the Status of Women, and lectured at Columbia University. She was selected by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in March 2010. This honor is bestowed each year to recognize the most distinguished young leaders nominated below the age of 40 from around the world. Christina was also honored a Rising Talent by the Women’s Forum in 2014. She holds a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts, a Masters in International and Political Affairs from Columbia University, and Doctoral Coursework in Ethics at Princeton University.

Tiffany Polk is an Executive Director within the GTI Integrated Compute Services (ICS) Organization. Her current role is Head of the Storage Service. She is accountable for the strategic direction, fiscal policy and operational soundness for the $470M Storage portfolio across File, Block and Object.

Prior to joining JP Morgan, she was Director of Client Management at EMC where she focused on Technology Services client delivery, solutions and portfolio.

Prior to EMC, Ms. Polk was a Senior Manager and Global Head of Services Portfolio, Operations and Communications at Hewlett-Packard. Ms. Polk has more than 20 years of Technology experience including Delivery, Program Management, Solution, Design, Sales and Services.

Ms. Polk is a member of GTI’s Diversity committee. She is also a member of WITI (Women in Technology International), PMI (Project Management Institute) and Delta Sigma Theta, a public service sorority.

Ms. Polk holds BA from Dartmouth College and a MS in Technology Management from the University of Maryland. She is married with two children and enjoys reading, travel and gardening.

Kevin Hanley has spent the majority of his career leading multi-channel digital marketing strategies for brands and institutions, stressing the importance of the convergence between marketing and technology to create memorable customer experiences.

Since 2015, Kevin has been an integral part of managing the digital marketing strategy for Hero Digital's clients, ensuring effective execution and accurate analysis of marketing campaigns, which allows clients to iterate, and improve. His keen intuition allows the agency to offer digital marketing services that support and enhance the total customer experience. Kevin has written articles and guest posted on multiple marketing technology blogs including ChiefMartec.com and has spoken at digital industry events dating back to 2004.

Brett Topche is the co-founder and Managing Director of Red & Blue Ventures, where he makes seed and early stage investments in technology companies from the University of Pennsylvania ecosystem. He has spent much of his career primarily focusing on investments in ecommerce, digital media, mobile applications, marketing technologies and B2B software. Prior to co-founding Red & Blue, he spent more than nine years at MentorTech Ventures, which had a similar focus. He represents Red & Blue on the Board of AptDeco and as an observer at Burrow. He has also served or observed on a number of other startup Boards, including Wanderfly (acquired by TripAdvisor), Cloudmine, PayPerks, goTenna, Curalate, Quad Learning, SeniorHomes.com (acquired by Bankrate) and TicketLeap (acquired by Patron Technology).

Prior to joining MentorTech, Brett was a member of the Fund Investments Team at Hamilton Lane Advisors, a fund-of-funds manager and private equity investment consultant. In this capacity, he evaluated private equity funds across a broad spectrum of stages and strategies on behalf of both discretionary and non-discretionary clients. During his time at Hamilton Lane, Brett reviewed more than 100 funds, including venture capital, mezzanine, buyout and real estate funds. Based in part on reports he drafted, more than $1 billion was invested into these funds.

Prior to working for Hamilton Lane, Brett spent more than four years as an Associate with NJTC Venture Fund, where he focused on investments in early-stage companies in the software, Internet and communications sectors. His responsibilities included deal flow generation, initial company reviews, performing due diligence on potential investments, participating in deal structuring, reviewing legal documentation and working with companies post-investment, occasionally as an Observer on Boards of Directors.

Brett is a magna cum laude graduate of the Wharton School, with a B.S. in Economics, with concentrations in Finance and Legal Studies and a Political Science minor from the College and Arts and Sciences.

Carvin Garland Haggins is a Grammy Award Winning and Multi-Platinum Selling Song Writer, Producer, Engineer, Co-Founder of Karma Productions, Co-Creator of Forever Music Inc. and the creator of Ethical Music Entertainment. The Philadelphia native has written hit songs for Mary J. Blige, Jill Scott, Miguel, Faith Evans, Justin Timberlake, Raheem DeVaughn, and Musiq SoulChild. Carvin has always believed that the best songs come from real life experiences, and has earned a reputation for writing songs that “mean something.” Carvin has been making music since he was 11, and has developed a unique style. In the 1990’s Carvin began working as a producer at “A Touch of Jazz” (ATOJ) for DJ Jazzy Jeff. It was there, that Carvin started getting a lot of recognition for his work. It wasn’t long before his songs started making an impact in the music industry. Carvin’s early work was featured on “The Nutty Professor II,” “Love Jones,” and the “Rush Hour 2” movie soundtracks. He also collaborated on Will Smith’s soundtrack for the movie “Wild Wild West.” At ATOJ Carvin met and began working with Ivan Barias. In 2001, Carvin and Ivan started Karma Productions and have since become one of the most sought after producing duos in the country. The pair, who are now known world-wide, have had several songs at the top of the Billboard Charts including: “Love” (Musiq), “Customer” (Raheem DeVaughn), “If You Leave” (Mary J. Blige and Musiq), and “Gotta Find My Way Back” (Jaheem) Introducing Stokley (Stokley) to name a few. During his career, Carvin has been tapped to create music for television as well. Haggins is the “Music Supervisor” for the annual Christmas television special, “Holiday Love” created by, and starring actress Kim Fields. Since the show began, Carvin has not only overseen the music that goes into the special, he’s also written several original songs for the show too; including music for artists Marvin Sapp, Brian Wilson, Wes Morgan, Karen Clark-Sheard, Tamela Mann and Shirley Caesar.

After recently celebrating 10 years of having Top 10 Billboard Charting records, Carvin and Ivan followed that up with 5 Grammy nominations in 2011. They were nominated for Jaheem’s hit song “Finding My Way Back.” They were also nominated in the R&B Song of the Year category for “Gone Already” by Faith Evans. Most recently, Carvin worked on projects for Ledisi, Raheem DeVaughn, Estelle and 2014 Grammy nominated albums for Chrisette Michele and TGT. The creator of the Ethical Music Entertainment label, Haggins is behind a movement to bring respect back to radio. His artist Montina who is one of the Momma’s who sings background for Beyonce, Mz Lynx who was on MTV, Lex Dime who has a movement called Lost Girls and BriaMarie, whose singles “IDK” and“Celebrate” was featured on VH1’s Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta. Haggins’ mission is to make music that is positive, has clean and clever lyrics, and will keep you moving. To Haggins, not only making music, but raising up another generation of musicians, writers and producers that create “real” music is as important. In an effort to give young people the opportunity to explore their artistic potential, Carvin is one of the founders of the Creative Minds Performing Arts School. The school will house “Karma Junior Productions,” and is projected to open in 2020. Haggins also gives back in other ways. He was a teacher at Chester Community Charter School and on the board of directors for the Recording Academy- Philadelphia chapter. He has received numerous honors for his work and service, including being named a Creative Ambassador for Philadelphia, receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence and Innovation for BMM 2012, and was recognized for his accomplishments and community service, at the 16th Annual Artist Ball in Philadelphia. He’s currently a member of the Philadelphia Task Force. A organization created by the city to help the creative arts. When he’s not in the studio, or working on music curriculum for his school, Carvin is in fellowship with his family and friends at Southern Baptist Church in Philadelphia. At SBC, Carvin is a Reverend and Sunday School teacher.

Matt Zelesko is SVP, Entertainment Products and Chief Software Officer. Matt leads the teams that define and deliver Comcast’s video and entertainment products, including the award winning X1 platform, Xfinity Stream applications for third party devices, and strategic partner integrations onto the X1 platform. He also leads several cross-company initiatives for Comcast, including user experience and design, product accessibility for all customers, and the strategy to elevate and engage internal and external software communities. Prior to joining Comcast, Matt held corporate and technology leadership positions at both early- stage and established media companies, including Time Warner Cable and Joost. As Senior Vice President, Converged Technology Group, for Time Warner Cable, Matt drove technology strategy and product development across all video products, web properties, and converged services that enable the video and web experiences. At Joost, Matt served the company’s global technology organization as Senior Vice President of Engineering before stepping in as CEO to lead the company through a restructuring and successful acquisition. Prior to Joost, Matt was a founding member and Vice President of Engineering for Comcast’s Interactive Media (CIM) division that focused on delivering digital video over IP as well as a founding member and director for the Reference Design Kit (RDK) Management Entity chartered to drive and support adoption of RDK across the operator ecosystem. Matt was recognized as Technology Executive of the Year in 2013 by Multichannel News for his leadership at Time Warner Cable. He graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science from Cornell University and holds a M.S. degree from Stanford University.

Brenna is the Senior Vice President of Solution Lifecycle Management at Cerner Corporation. Brenna is a HIT professional with more than 25 years of experience in working and leading HIT organizations (SMS, Siemens, Cerner) in a variety of executive leadership roles including professional services, marketing and solution development. Brenna’s current span includes global leadership for strategy, intellectual property and solution coordination teams. Throughout Brenna’s career she has worked across a spectrum of business functions, excelling at taking on new teams and organizational responsibilities. Brenna excels at leading teams through times of change, successfully navigating shifting organizations, cultures and priorities. She is a graduate of Villanova University with a Bachelor of Arts. She has attended numerous executive management courses including European School of Management and Technology. Brenna is a member of Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS), American Congress of Health Care Executives (ACHE) and Health Financial Management Association (HFMA). She is also a member of the board of directors for the Chester County Economic Development Council.

As Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Strategic Partnerships at Peirce College, a higher education institution that has been educating working adults for over 150 years, Uva Coles is leading the way for strengthening and diversifying Philadelphia's workforce. Throughout her career Coles has focused on creating inclusive and equitable workforce collaborations that align education, skills, and purpose. Coles has played a key role in the workforce steering committee, which designed the city’s new workforce initiative, “Fueling Philadelphia’s Talent Engine,” officially launched in February. As an Afro-Latina immigrant, Coles also focuses on and speaks to immigrant and Afro-Latinx issues and the intersectionality of gender and race.