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Despina Papadopoulos - Director, Studio 5050
Papadopoulos is a design consultant for corporations, fashion designers, R&D labs and museums, and creator of the Moi.
She teaches such courses as "Personal Expression and Wearable Technologies" and "The Softness of Things" at NYU.
Her work has been shown in museums around the world and she recently spend a year in Kabul developing products with local artists and designers.
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Rachael Chong - Founder & CEO of Catchafire
"eHarmony for professionals and nonprofits" is what Chong calls her startup, a website that connects skilled professionals (marketing, design, finance) who want to volunteer with nonprofits that need them.
Chong started out as an investment banker, but she worked on the founding of BRAC USA, one of the largest nonprofit organizations in the world. She also writes for the Huffington Post.
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Maria Gotsch - CEO at the New York City Investment Fund
As President and CEO of the New York City Investment Fund, Gotsch spearheaded the creation of NYC Seed, the city fund for local tech entrepreneurs.
She is also on the advisory board of the NYC investigative journalism startup ProPublica.
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Joanne Wilson - Gotham Gal; investor and advisor
Wilson is on her 10th career after working at Macy's and a variety of startups and nonprofits.
She is known best for writing the blog Gotham Gal and being married to venture capitalist Fred Wilson.
She is currently advising or investing in Curbed (Eater/Racked), Food52, Red Stamp, Ricks Picks, Hot Bread Kitchen, Gotham Gym, The Moon Group and MOUSE, as well as a few restaurants.
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Britta Riley - Founder & CEO of Windowfarms
Riley is a designer who has co-founded five socially or environmentally-minded businesses in the last 10 years.
Windowfarms is an open hardware company that makes gardens from sustainable materials for food growing in urban windows. She and a friend raised $27,000 on Kickstarter to do it.
