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When Lawrence Phillips set out to create Green Book Global, he wanted a platform that would increase confidence and reduce anxiety for Black travelers. After working with Accenture for eight years, Phillips shared how he felt burned out and needed a mental health break filled with traveling. During the 2023 AFROTECH™ Conference, the founder and CEO recalled his experience of traveling to over 30 countries across all seven continents, sparking his drive to create his travel review site. Haven’t gotten your ticket for AFROTECH™ Conference 2024 in Houston, TX? Click here. “It was really that in-depth travel experience as a Black traveler,” Phillips said during a panel titled “ Black and Well-Traveled: Centering Black Travelers Through Technology, Presented By Expedia Group.” “ I was going to certain places like, ‘Oh shoot, should I go here? I don’t really know.’ You ask that question, ‘Is it good for us ?’ I would go to blog here or there, and you might have one person say [something],...
Bias is often at the root of protracted issues in society. The insurance industry, for example, isn’t exempt from prejudicial attitudes. Salene Hitchcock-Gear, president of Prudential Individual Life Insurance at Prudential Financial, spoke on the history of exclusion in the 1940s and 1950s during the 2023 AFROTECH™ Conference. “Way back when things were first getting started, there were a lot of exclusions on who could be covered for insurance — Black Americans were part of that exclusion,” Hitchcock-Gear said on the Learning Lab stage. “There was a lot of bias around the kind of data that we actually have to use to underwrite, i ncluding race and health. There was a lot of presumption about lifestyle. A lot of things that just did not really lend itself to treating people fairly.” Because insurance products can be critical for financial stability and creating wealth, she shared that Prudential Financial continues to try to modernize and use digital tools to increase access to...
In 2022, only an estimated 11.9% of Fortune 500 board seats were filled by Black board members, per Missing Pieces Report. The alarming statistic is part of why executives like Samuel Bright, vice president and general manager of Google Play plus the developer ecosystem at Google, actively push to advocate for diverse voices to be heard in the boardroom. During the fireside chat “ The Kaleidoscope Effect: Redefining Boardrooms” at the 2023 AFROTECH™ Conference, Bright detailed his board service journey including joining TIAA’s board. As previously reported by AFROTECH™, the financial retirement services company is helmed by Thasunda Brown Duckett, who is one of two Black women CEOs to lead a Fortune 500 company. “I’m very fortunate that TIAA has had DEI ingrained in its DNA,” Bright told Kelly Buchanan Spillers, chief marketing officer of Infor at the time, during the fireside chat. “It is when I was joining the board I was joining a diverse board. Also, there’s a very diverse...
Many of the top successful founders all share something in common: sacrifice. Whether it’s sacrificing time, energy, or something else. For Calendly Founder and CEO Tope Awotona, he put his earnings on the line. As previously shared by AFROTECH ™, Awotona drained his bank account and 401(k) to build his scheduling company from the ground up. What’s more, he faced countless rejections along the way when seeking venture capital but kept pushing ahead. “Being a foreigner really helped,” the Lagos, Nigeria, native said, according to Inc . “I grew up in a country where 99 percent of the people looked like me, so race wasn’t something I consciously thought about. It’s good to have that mentality. You can dwell on all the reasons you shouldn’t do something or why it’s harder for you. Or you can just go out and do it.” The hustle and grind led to multi-million-dollar investments, which transformed Calendly into a billion-dollar company. For founders seeking to reach success like Awotona’s...
The journey of building a carbon negative future is going to require all hands on deck. Lisa Dyson, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Air Protein, fully joined in on the mission before she founded her startup. The idea was initially sparked when the scientist visited New Orleans, LA, after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. “As a scientist, I was thinking about climate science and how climate scientists have been telling us that we’re going to have these weather events that are going to be more intense and more frequent,” Dr. Dyson recalled at the 2023 AFROTECH™ Conference in conversation with James White, executive chair of Air Protein and former CEO of Jamba Juice. “And just seeing how that impacted people’s lives, it caused me to want to see how I could be a part of creating a different future, a different reality, and join the many people that are out there, and started working on climate solutions.” Purchase your ticket to AFROTECH™ Conference now! During the fireside chat, Dyson shared how...
You work hard for your money, so how you spend, invest, or save it is your business — and it’s critically important for managing your life. Since money plays a vital role in almost everything we do, budgeting and money management tools are essential for long-term sustainability. One of the nation’s leading experts on this topic is The Budgetnista, Tiffany Aliche. Aliche’s path to becoming “The Budgetnista” started with her passion for teaching. After 10 years as a schoolteacher, she transitioned into personal finance — a topic she was familiar with, having grown up as the daughter of a CFO father. Raised in a Nigerian household, financial literacy and negotiation were ingrained early on, with her mother being a master negotiator. This blend of professional teaching, family financial wisdom, and cultural influence laid the groundwork for Aliche’s successful personal finance brand. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tiffany Aliche (@thebudgetnista) The former preschool...
For nearly 30 years, Robert F. Smith’s Vista Equity Partners has invested in enterprise software companies. As AFROTECH™ previously reported , in August 2023, Smith announced that the global investment firm had reached over $100 billion in assets under management. “Since Vista was founded over two decades ago, we’ve expanded to 650+ team members operating around the world, built a comprehensive library of enterprise software best practices and much more,” Smith shared in a LinkedIn post at the time. “We’ve also been committed to supporting the communities in which we live and work, creating opportunities for individuals who have traditionally been underrepresented.” As a leader championing underrepresented technologists and tech entrepreneurs, Smith was among the speakers at AFROTECH ™ Conference 2023. Joined by Base10 Partners Co-Founder and Managing Partner Adeyemi Ajao, the two founders led the panel titled “ Powering Forward: Creating A Shared Digital Future.” During the...
With less than 30 days to go, AFROTECH™ Conference 2024 is fast approaching, and attendees need to prepare now to make the most of this transformative experience. Scheduled for Nov. 13-16 in Houston, TX, this year’s event promises a powerful lineup of speakers, sessions, and networking opportunities designed to help professionals thrive in tech and business. 2024’s conference is next level, featuring industry heavyweights like Google’s Matthew Robinson, who’s bringing the heat with his session, “Creative Summit: Diverse Design: User-Centric Innovation,” and Charlotte Burrows, Chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, dropping knowledge in “AI: The New Civil Rights Frontier.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by AFROTECH™ Conference (@afrotech.conference) But that’s just the beginning. You don’t want to miss game-changing sessions like “The Future of FinTech: Revolutionizing Financial Inclusion,” “The Power of Data: How Analytics Is Transforming...
Private equity law expert Joe Tillman has a passion for creating opportunities for others. It is what has carried the California native’s career more than a decade and even led to him walking away from a stable career as a lawyer. Tillman’s initial exposure into law was not engraved in his upbringing. He admits to growing up in humble beginnings in Perris, CA, and not having access to people who worked in law or other professional spaces. It was not until his final year at California State University San Bernardino, where he would obtain a bachelor’s degree in finance, that his professor introduced to him the idea of pursuing law. “At this time, I did not have the $1,500 that it took to take an LSAT prep course. And he basically got the College of Finance to write me an impromptu scholarship so they could pay to get my LSAT prep course paid for,” Tillman told AFROTECH™ in an interview. “So, he was one of the few people that was willing to put his money where his mouth is. I took the...
Will.i.am sees great value in the upcoming AFROTECH™ Conference. The breeding ground for tech professionals who are looking to learn and be submerged in a collaborative atmosphere is making its way to Houston, TX, for the first time, and it will be held Nov. 13-16 at the George R. Brown Convention Center. View this post on Instagram A post shared by AFROTECH™ Conference (@afrotech.conference) Among the panels announced, so far, is the Women’s Summit Stage, which will uplift women in their professional journeys. For the first time, the conference will also host the Health & Environmental Equity Summit in addition to the AI Stage. It is the activations being held this year that have the interest of will.i.am as he sees various changemakers across the industry coming to the conference. Haven’t purchased your ticket yet? Click here now. “Getting things off the ground and bringing people together, inspiring people to come, travel, and be a part of something and belong to something,...
The AFROTECH ™ community continues to push the mission and discussion of inclusivity in the tech space. As we gear up for AFROTECH™ Conference 2024, let’s dive into a session of the past. View this post on Instagram A post shared by AFROTECH™ Conference (@afrotech.conference) On the Executive Stage at the 2023 AFROTECH ™ Conference, Kapor Capital’s founding partners Freada Kapor Klein and Mitch Kapor were part of the panel “Closing The Equity Gap: C reating Wealth and Fostering Justice in Startup Investing” — titled after their book, released in March 2023. Alphonzo Terrell, co-founder and CEO of social media platform Spill, moderated the panel, addressing equity gaps in the startup landscape and how to build a more inclusive future. Klein and Kapor shared that the company has invested more than $106 million into over 170 companies, 62% of which are women-led or underrepresented founders , according to their website . In addition, Kapor Capital has achieved an internal rate of...
As technology continues to evolve, it creates new avenues for industries to grow along with it. While controversy surrounds tech being used in music, such as AI-generated songs, it also creates a positive impact for musicians. Among the panels at the 2023 AFROTECH ™ Conference was “From Beats to Bytes: The Convergence of Music and Tech,” moderated by Marc Byers, the former general manager of Motown Records and founder of Protect The Culture. During the panel discussion, Nigerian producer and singer Pheelz and Ghanaian-born songwriter and artist Lord Afrixana discussed the pros and cons of merging technology and music. Pheelz expressed how tech has made the world “small” but also put artists on a “global stage.” For him, this exposure allowed him to watch his hit record “Finesse” blow up in real time via the power of tech and social media , specifically. “I was just at home in a place called Gbagada in Lagos making the song in my room, and I just posted a video with my friend, and...
Conference season is upon us, and AFROTECH™ is gearing up for an unforgettable experience, offering intentional opportunities to learn, grow, and develop. Billed as “The Global Gathering for Innovators and Inclusive Tech Companies,” the 2024 AFROTECH™ Conference will take place in Houston, TX, from Nov. 13-16, and this year is expected to be bigger and better. View this post on Instagram A post shared by AFROTECH™ Conference (@afrotech.conference) The main stage will be the epicenter of this year’s gathering, with heavy-hitting speakers and discussions designed to ensure ticket holders have a top tier experience. In addition to the coveted main stage, the AFROTECH™ Conference has added a few new options in the Cybersecurity, AI, and Data and Engineering stages. The Women’s Summit will also be returning with some new additions in the Founder’s Summit, Health & Environmental Equity Summit, and Creative & Design Summit. This year’s speaker lineup is truly exceptional, featuring top...
Storytelling uses a plethora of mediums, and animation is one of them. During the 2023 AFROTECH ™ Conference, director and animator Chaz Bottoms and singer Dawn Richard led a session called “World Builders: The New Storytelling Frontier” to discuss how the technologies within the animation industry are creating revolutionary ways for people to tell stories. In their respective career journeys, Bottoms founded CBA Studios — one of the few Black-founded animation studios globally — and has worked with companies such as Disney, Hulu, and Adult Swim, per Forbes. Aside from Richard’s music career, she has a passion for animation. She created a comic book series called “Danity Kane” and works with Adult Swim as a creative consultant, as AFROTECH ™ previously reported, to amplify and create opportunities for Black animators in the space. “We are a beautiful people to draw, but we are a difficult people to draw in the sense that for people who aren’t us, they don’t know what they’re doing,”...
The 2024 AFROTECH™ Conference is just months away, and the countdown has begun with even bigger and better ways to empower the community. As one of the largest cultural events dedicated to individuals evolving the tech space, AFROTECH™ offers something for everyone — whether you’re an industry enthusiast, hold a C-Suite position, or are the CEO of your own company. The conference’s latest initiative is designed specifically for founders. Since its inception in 2016, AFROTECH™ has been committed to empowering the community. The new AFROTECH™ Founder Circle intends to continue this mission by focusing on reducing attendance costs, enhancing skill sets, and expanding access for founders within the community. The all-new program will operate under a three-pronged strategy: enhancing executive presence and leadership, broadening access to venture capital networks, and fostering peer-to-peer learning and support. In collaboration with Blavity.org, AFROTECH™ will sponsor 200 tickets for...