Keynote Speakers
Speaker
Shelly Kapoor Collins
Partner, Sway Ventures
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Shelly is an Investment Partner at Sway Ventures where she leads early stage investing in Technology companies founded by women and diverse founders.
Previous to Sway, Shelly founded the Shatter Fund and established it as the premier brand investing in Technology companies led and started by female entrepreneurs. Shelly is investing at Sway Ventures with the same focus to drive an inclusive innovation economy. Prior to founding Shatter, Shelly was appointed to the National Women’s Business Council (NWBC) in the second Obama Administration and served as Vice Chair of the Women in Public Service Project started by Secretary Hillary Clinton while at the State Department. Shelly served on the Transition Team for then Attorney General Kamala D. Harris, and was a Founding Member of the NFC for the Presidential campaign for then Senator Harris. Shelly previously served as a National Co-Chair for Technology for Barack Obama’s 2012 Presidential Campaign.
Shelly holds an MS in Management Information Systems and a BS in Management Information Systems from the University of Maryland.
Speaker
Kelley Morrell
Senior Managing Director, Head of Asset Management - Private Equity, Blackstone
Kelley Morrell is Head of Asset Management within Blackstone’s Private Equity businesses. In this role, she oversees the U.S. team of asset managers for Blackstone Capital Partners and a global team for Blackstone Tactical Opportunities and Blackstone Growth. Since joining Blackstone in 2017, Ms. Morrell has been involved with several Blackstone investments across industries and business strategies. She is currently a director of Spanx and of Centric Brands, where she serves on the audit and compensation committees. She previously was a Director of Lombard International and of Bumble, where she served on the compensation committee and acted as Interim President.
Before joining Blackstone in 2017, Ms. Morrell served as Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at CIT Group and was a member of the Executive Management Committee. Prior to that, Ms. Morrell served in the Obama Administration, where she oversaw the taxpayers’ investments in Chrysler Financial and Chrysler Group. Ms. Morrell previously worked as an Associate at Hellman & Friedman where she was involved in the evaluation and execution of private equity transactions, and in investment banking at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in its Financial Institutions Group.
Ms. Morrell graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and received her MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.
Speaker
Katie Rae
CEO & Managing Partner, The Engine
Katie is the CEO & Managing Partner of The Engine. She serves as a Board Member for Boston Metal, Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Form Energy, Sublime Systems, Via Separations, and VEIR.
Previously, Katie was a founder and Managing Director at Project 11 Ventures and Managing Director of Techstars Boston. Katie spent her early career building significant Internet businesses as the Head of Product for Microsoft Startup Labs and SVP of Product at Eons. Katie has advised hundreds of founders and invested in over 100 companies. Key investments include Pillpack (acquired by Amazon for $1 billion), Bevi, GrabCad, Synack, Zagster, NBD Nano, Neurala and Amino.
She holds an MBA from Yale and BA in Biology from Oberlin College