Featured Speaker(s)

Moderator:
Simin Haik is a business professional with a background in management, technology and business development. She is currently a consultant at Promenade Software as well as a C-Suite Advisor for Astia Angels, where she offers creative solutions to technology and business problems for startups founded by women. Simin is an effective leader, creating profitable products in fast-paced and dynamic environments. She has directed the creation of the engineering and project management teams in various fields. She has extensive experience with embedded software, controlled environment and medical device software, SaaS, web based and mobile apps, and transitioning hosted systems to cloud based environment. Simin earned her B.SC. in Computer Science from the Technion Institute of Technology, and has since lead projects for companies such as Fox, Sony, as well as merger and acquisition of startups Curlin Medical and AMT. She enjoys mentoring women in the fields of science and technology.

Paulette Pantoja is an entertainment technology executive within the Home Entertainment (Digital, Film/TV, Media) industry. Currently, Paulette is the founder and CEO of BluFocus Inc., a quality assurance and certification facility for entertainment content, products, technologies and hardware/software; as well as Founder and President of BluEvo LLC., a digital media service and solution company which focuses on all facets of the digital supply chain including digital media services, content licensing and distribution and OTT platform development.

Over the years, Paulette has focused on delivering quality service and solutions through her proprietary workflows and patented applications. These cloud-based automated systems improve business operations by providing transparency, control, flexibility and greater efficiencies.

Paulette earned her Bachelor of Arts in Film and Television from UCLA, her MBA from Pepperdine University's President and Key Executive program, is a graduate of the Executive Program at UCLA Anderson School of Management and the Goldman Sachs 10ksb program.

Paulette is a mentor for the UCLA Mentorship Program, a Board Member of the Youth Mentoring Connection and a co-chair for Miles of Music 5k, an annual event that supports the non-profit organization YMC which provides mentoring and support to at-risk youth.

Devon Bleak is the Director of Cloud Engineering responsible for secure content delivery services for Film, TV, and Sports at 21st Century Fox. During his 12 year tenure at Fox, Devon has advised on technical architecture, privacy compliance, and security for Amazon Web Services. Devon holds certifications as an AWS Solutions Architect and AWS DevOps Engineer

Nader Salehi is a Technical Leader with 15+ years of experience in the fields of Distributed Systems, Big Data, Cloud Computing and Ad Technology. He is currently the co-founder and managing director of T&R Technology, LLC, a strategic technical consulting firm helping companies build scalable platforms to address their data processing needs. He has also held various leadership and technical positions at companies such as OpenMail, Rubicon Project, Yahoo and Cisco Systems.

Nader holds a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology and a Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Southern California.

Frances Cohen is President of Promenade Software, Inc.. located in Irvine, CA. Promenade Software provides custom software services for medical devices, including embedded, mobile, and cloud services. Frances worked with her engineering team to create Parlay.Cloud a ready-made, HIPAA compliant cloud service to be used for medical devices and their particular needs. She also oversees a variety of Promenade's cybersecurity services, including hosting medISAO, a cybersecurity information sharing organization for vulnerability tracking of medical devices.

Frances holds a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the Israel Institute of Technology, and a B.S. from UCLA in GeoPhysics.

Erin Relford is the IT Audit Manager for 21st Century Fox responsible for managing governance in the Fox Digital Ecosystem, including OTT platforms, cloud computing, big data, adtech, and VR. Prior to joining 21CF, Erin worked for The Walt Disney Company, Mattel Inc., and KPMG where she contributed IT compliance efforts on the Deepwater Horizon settlement. As part of her 13 years of experience in governance, risk, and compliance, Erin also managed A2LA accreditation (ISO 17025) and ISO 9001 compliance for top ranking engineering firm, Fugro NV. Erin holds a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems from the University of Houston and is a CISA. A strong supporter of engaging women in STEM initiatives, Erin has devoted her time to volunteering with Girls, Inc., Girl Scouts of America, Junior Achievement, and Startup Grind.