Ron Shigeta, Ph.D. is a serial Biotech entrepreneur at iAccelerate.tech, a virtual advisory accelerator he is also a co-founder and former Science Officer of the leading biotech accelerator, IndieBio. As an investor and advisor I’ve helped to fund over 120 startups that have redefined the role of biotech startups, especially food and consumer products. He now does biotech product development and marketing and advising for multiple VC funds and startups. Rontrainied at Stanford, Harvard Medical School and Princeton University in protein structure and biophysics.

Amirh is a co-founders of Pillar Cowork and Childcare in Lafayette. She runs the coworking space and Pillar’s preschool program with the support of an experienced teaching staff and group of advisors. Amirh is the mother of three young children and remains passionate about working with children in her personal and professional life. This has been demonstrated by her work at Pillar, and her volunteer work as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for children in Contra Costa County.

Amirh has a B.S. in Management Science from UC San Diego and has been a student of Diablo Valley College’s Early Childhood Education (ECE) program for the past several years, where she studies philosophies and best practices related to early childhood development for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.

Loren Taylor is a third-generation son of Oakland, a husband, a father, an engineer, a business consultant, and a former Oakland City Councilmember, and a co-founder of Zaru Systems, a social impact startup that is bridging America’s racial wealth gap by helping disadvantaged entrepreneurs own and operate high growth, high margin businesses. Loren comes from a family of entrepreneurs with a history of public and community service and has worked for years to alleviate poverty and expand opportunity in Oakland and across the globe.

Elected as the District 6 Councilmember in 2018, Loren has been a leader in addressing Oakland’s most difficult challenges, from homelessness to public safety to economic inequality, drawing on his background as an engineer to find new solutions to old problems. To make sure that as many people as possible benefit from the lessons he learned as a political candidate and elected official, Loren founded Empower Oakland which is l dedicated to engaging, educating, and activating a Oaklanders to better influence the direction of their city.

Rohit Gupta is the Managing Director of Future Communities Capital (FCC). Rohit has led investments into Coupang, Counsyl, Biomeme, SpaceX, Akido, Lyft, Roofr, and more.

FCC looks for technology entrepreneurs focused on disrupting legacy industries such as government, healthcare, finance, and real estate. Portfolio companies are tackling problems ranging from smart city infrastructure to disease outbreak management.

Rohit holds an MS in Environmental Engineering from Cornell University. He completed his BS at the University of Southern California.

Isis Dillard serves as the Business Development Manager at ICA and is responsible for spearheading various initiatives to expand ICA's reach and impact across the Bay Area region. She collaborates closely with both direct services and investment teams to accelerate the growth of local businesses while strategically deploying investment funds.

Paul Kallmes has a deep base of experience in helping entrepreneurs and new businesses get launched. With a focus on providing useful offerings to the market and a realistic approach to each new venture, he has helped people and companies get started in businesses around the world. Focusing on the foundations of what makes a successful business, he is able to help people develop their ideas from the earliest phase and to learn continuously about the proper steps to build their own businesses.

Dr. Franklin is an esteemed leader in community engagement and impact, regularly consulting and conducting training sessions on organization development, with a special focus on nurturing the health of non-profit organizations. Dr. Franklin's wealth of experience, coupled with his inspirational leadership style, has been instrumental in establishing initiatives that empower communities and secure funds to enhance programmatic impact for those in need of support. His steadfast dedication to transformation has not only positively impacted lives worldwide but also successfully raised millions of dollars for grassroots safety-net organizations.

Deputy Mayor, Oakland CA

Samantha works as an Executive Assistant for a local utility company. In 2004, she co-founded C.E.O. (Community Enrichment Organization) a 501c3 where she is the Executive Director whose mission is to “Improve the lives of children and families by providing family support, mentorship and a safe inviting environment in which the family structure is reinforced”. Samantha decided to give back to her community because she feels it’s her job to provide support to youth and the elderly. Being raised modestly by both her parents and grandparents who spent their whole lives giving back, a spirit of service came to Samantha naturally. Having faced challenges of her own growing up Samantha has a vested interest in being a servant in her community. Samantha uses her resources and alliances to engage local corporations to do more in the community. Through her organizational efforts Samantha coordinates a cheer mentoring program of 50 girls, produces a Valentine event with the elderly, host an Easter egg hunt for over 3000 participants, hosts three Community Feeds yearly, collects and distributes hygiene kits to the homeless, adopts 15 families for Thanksgiving and Christmas and matches young boys to adult male mentors. Her warm embrace of her neighbors has earned her the name of "Auntie Sam" in the community.

In 2012 Samantha was a National Jefferson Award winner for her commitment to community service. Samantha born and raised in Oakland is also an alum of the City of Oakland Leadership program, is a current member of the Arroyo Park Advisory Council and the Black Employee’s Association at PG&E. Samantha, the owner of Tip Top Shape LLC (Bootcamp), now encourages women to live a healthier lifestyle spiritually and physically by providing spiritual and physical coaching by using the bible and teaching boot camp 5 days week to bay area women. In 2021 during the pandemic Samantha started a podcast titled “Samantha Wise Words” which is currently promoted on YouTube and Facebook (Samantha Wise) addressing local issues and seeks to empower the community by raising issues and bringing answers back to the masses. Her most recent endeavor includes being a board member of AASEG (African American Sports Entertainment Group) whose mission is to revitalize the Oakland Coliseum and to create Economic Equity through Sports/Entertainment and Community Development. In March 2022 Samantha was awarded the Powerful Women of the Bay “Dr. C Diane Howell entrepreneur Award”. Samantha enjoys being a wife, mother of three children and a Yaya to her grandchildren Elaya and Ace.