In her role as the Chief HR Officer of the Gates Foundation, Sonia Vora is responsible for developing and delivering talent-focused solutions that support a high integrity culture and global impact.

Throughout her career, Sonia has played an instrumental role in building global functions and organizations to optimize for customer experience, employee engagement, and scalable growth. She developed her career in investment banking and strategy consulting, before joining Northern Trust in Human Resources. As the SVP, Global Talent Development, Sonia launched the global operations center in Bangalore along with associated programs like mentoring, onboarding, and functional training for 6,000 employees. As the head of Talent at Cetera Financial Group, Sonia built the end-to-end talent management department from the ground up before returning to the business as the head of Customer Experience for 15,000 financial advisors overseeing advisor training, business consulting, and change management. A highly collaborative partner, Sonia’s focus has been to support growth, transformation, and high integrity cultures that delivers on the expectations of its customers and responds nimbly to the needs of its workforce.

She graduated with honors with a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from Temple University, and an MBA with a concentration in International Business from Georgetown University and She also holds a B.A. degree with double major in English and Economics from Albion College.

Annie Sim is a seasoned traveler and leader with over 10 years of experience in guiding travelers on trips around the world. Recognized for her expertise, Annie has been featured in publications such as Travel & Leisure and the Washington Post. Annie's passion for travel and culinary exploration was ignited at the age of 13, and since then, she has dedicated her life to exploring diverse cultures and building meaningful connections with local friends worldwide. In 2015, she founded The Table Less Traveled, a boutique travel operator specializing in bespoke culinary experiences on small group trips.

Laura Choi is a Washington native and Northwestern University graduate who is currently employed by Salesforce as a customer success senior manager to ensure enterprise retail customers are happily humming on the core platform. While her career has largely been in technology and consulting, she did manage to survive a brief stint in corporate fashion after undergrad in Chicago, starting with internships in New York for Escada and Louis Vuitton (where she lived the glamorous life of Anne Hathaway in the Devil Wears Prada, minus the part where the protagonist gets a glamorous makeover) and eventually worked her way up through Nordstrom into the buying department for men's furnishings in Seattle. Her enthusiasm for fashion has also parlayed into a role managing client relations for Danielle Saudino Rare Gems & Bespoke Jewelry, where she specializes in rare fancy colored diamonds. Meanwhile, she continues to maintain her affinity for her Seattle roots - after playing piano and violin all her life (and briefly majoring in both violin and piano performance at university) she now channels her musicianship through private teaching for students ages 4-16, and by teaching orchestra for minority-focused, underfunded Seattle-area schools via the Michael J. Owens Music Foundation. Prior to COVID she was also CEO of Fashion for Conservation and a United Nations Ambassador, which took her to beloved fashion meccas around the world presenting sustainability-minded runway campaigns like elephant conservation on the global fashion stage, and amplifying the craftsmanship of Peruvian artists in the Yine tribe.

Lauren utilizes her creativity and out-of-the box problem-solving ability to help her clients create inclusive workplace cultures, manage the challenges and opportunities of a complex workforce, and avoid litigation risk. Employers look to Lauren for advice related to the full spectrum of diversity and inclusion matters and rely on her to perform investigations, cultural assessments and risk-reduction audits, and to assist with other crisis situations. Lauren regularly works with employers to navigate complex personnel issues and when necessary, defends her clients in litigation in matters related to discrimination and harassment. Additionally, Lauren is a proud member of The Rainier Club, where she helped establish the Club’s first ever Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee in 2020, and where she now serves as the Club’s first Black female President.

Monique Valenzuela is the Executive Director of Ventures. A public speaker and recognized community leader, she leads the organization through a combined lens of years of executive and non-profit leadership coupled with the lived experiences many of Ventures clients face. Her goal is to identify and overcome barriers that traditionally Ventures traditionally underserved clients face preventing them from upward mobility while sharing the success sequence that she used to take her from the basement to the board room.

Prior to her role at Ventures, Monique challenged the obstacles to being a female small business owner when she co-founded her award-winning Tacoma restaurant. A mother of six, Monique balanced career, family and community involvement. Rather than abandon the business in 2008, she made personal sacrifices to meet payroll for their 40 employees during the peak of the recession. She brings that perspective and understanding of obstacles Ventures clients face with the empathy many in her Latina community face.

Her approach to innovative operations, outstanding service to community, and collaborative mentorship resulted in her being recognized by U.S. Representative Derek Kilmer in the Congressional Record in 2013. She was the first and only Latina appointed to serve, representing low income ratepayers in setting policy.

As a co-founder of the Washington Tourism Alliance, she helped advocate for the organization in the State legislature resulting in the privately self-funded tourism model that now exists statewide.

She has won several awards including Class of 2010 40 Under 40 Business Persons in the South Sound community by the Business Examiner Publication. In 2013, Monique was awarded the Faces of Diversity: American Dream Award in Washington DC from the National Restaurant Association. She uses these awards to highlight her experiences from homelessness to a community icon and leader, advocating for pathways and opportunities needed in communities that don’t have the privileges of access to business coaching and capital readiness