René J. Canezin is a Managing Partner and Founder of Evolution Credit Partners. He has 28 years of experience in building and managing investment businesses in multiple global locations across all asset classes and derivatives. His experience includes senior management responsibilities at Harvard Management Co, Barclays Bank, and Lehman Brothers.

Dr. Paul Biddinger is the Medical Director for Emergency Preparedness at Mass General Brigham.  He also holds the Ann L. Prestipino MPH Endowed Chair in Emergency Preparedness and is the Director of the Center for Disaster Medicine, and Vice Chairman for Emergency Preparedness in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston.  Dr. Biddinger additionally serves as the Director of the Emergency Preparedness Research, Evaluation and Practice (EPREP) Program at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and holds appointments at Harvard Medical School and at the Chan School.

Matt Freeman is a Managing Director at Bain Capital, one of the world’s leading private investment firms with over $105 billion under management. Matt leads growth for Bain Capital’s global private equity portfolio and works across industries including consumer, retail, technology, healthcare and financial services. Prior to Bain Capital, Matt was global Vice Chairman of McCann Erickson, CEO of IPG Mediabrands Ventures and the Founder & CEO of Omnicom Group’s Tribal DDB Worldwide. Matt is the Chairman of Advertising Week, has been inducted into the American Advertising Federation’s Hall of Achievement and has been named one of Fast Company’s most creative people in business.

Hosni is currently the Chief Administrative Officer for the Wealth Management and Investment Service division of U.S. Bank. In his current capacity, he oversees strategy design, capital planning and transformational initiatives for the business. Additionally, he drives the Continuous Improvement and digitization efforts in the bank. Prior to joining U.S. Bank, Hosni led product innovation at State Street and was a Principal at The Boston Consulting Group. He holds a Bachelors in Engineering from The University of Pittsburgh and MBA from Carnegie Mellon University. 

Paul Sullivan is Vice President of Verizon’s Northeast Wireline Operations, where he leads a team of about 5,400 employees serving the needs of wireline customers in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Mid-State & Upstate New York. Paul is responsible for the delivery of world-class customer service to more than 3 million consumer, small business, wholesale and enterprise customers served by 77 garage work centers, 725 Central Offices and 3 Video Hub Offices.

Paul served on the board of directors for the American Red Cross of Northern New Jersey and was previously the chairman. Paul holds a Bachelor of Science degree (with highest honors) in Engineering Technology and a master's degree in business administration from Northeastern University in Boston.

Since June 2017 Ed reports to the Board of Directors for the National Grid Foundation. serving as chief administrative officer, setting and managing annual gifting and operating budgets, developing and implementing grant making criteria, and creating brand strategies to align with the Foundation mission. He serves as lead contact to the Chairman of the Foundation Board and all Board committees; delivers all Board resolutions and assures successful review of quarterly grant presentations; overseeing the management of the Foundation’s nearly $40 million endowment to maximize and assure robust donations.

Prior to his appointment, Ed was Vice President, US Lead from May 2016 – May 2017, serving as US Lead for global strategic review across National Grid PLC Title Vice President, New Energy Solutions. From June 2015 – April 2016 he was in a New Executive Leadership role focused on next generation customer focused solutions and new business ventures. This high-performance team is charged with advancing the company's corporate strategy (known as Connect21) in the areas of energy efficiency, smart energy solutions/SmartGrid, distributed utility owned PV, EV's, battery storage and beyond.

Eileen Alexopoulos is the Chief of Staff for the Chief Operating Officer at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the largest private health plan in the state and one of the largest independent, not-for-profit Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in the country. Eileen works closely with the chief operating officer to advance the strategic direction and internal operations at Blue Cross. She creates cross-departmental relationships to enable organizational success; coordinates and manages essential activities of the COO organization, including board of directors’ materials, budget, strategic and business planning and executive meetings. She is also a member of the health equity council at Blue Cross. Eileen has more than 20 years of health plan experience in operations, medical management, and enterprise technology. At Blue Cross, she previously worked as senior director in the medical management area leading the project management, training, communications, and documentation teams. She previously served as principal for Collaborative Consulting LLC leading technology projects. Before that, she held various positions at Tufts Health Plan and at Triple-S, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Puerto Rico in project management and public relations. Eileen received her MBA from Bentley University and her Bachelor of Arts in communications from the University of Puerto Rico. She holds certifications in project management (PMP) and as health insurance executive (CHIE).

Susan Black is Managing Director at Boston Financial Management.  She has extensive experience in wealth management.  Susan holds undergraduate degrees from Wellesley College and Bar Ilan University, and she has a M.Ed. in Counseling and Education Management from Cambridge College.

Ms. Bolotin is Chief Financial Officer of Putnam Investments and Great-West Financial, reporting directly to Robert L. Reynolds, President and CEO of Putnam Investments and Great-West Financial. She is also a member of Putnam's Operating Committee. Ms. Bolotin was appointed Chief Financial Officer of Great-West Financial in 2015, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, of Great-West Lifeco U.S. in 2016, and Chief Financial Officer of Putnam Investments in 2017. In her role as Chief Financial Officer, she is responsible for the financial oversight, accounting, reporting, analysis, and planning across Putnam's lines of business and brands operating under Great-West Financial, including Empower Retirement. She joined Putnam in 2008 and has been in the investment industry since 2004.

Ms. Bolotin earned an M.B.A. and an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She is an active member of Boston City Year Women’s leadership group.

Steve has 34 years of experience in the financial services industry, primarily focused on private equity and venture capital investing, fund development and operational management, investment banking, and structured finance. Steve is President, Managing Member and Co-Head of Alternative Investments, and a member of the Management and Investment Committees at Shepherd Kaplan Krochuk, LLC. Recently Steve was the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Infusion Global Partners, a global alternative asset management firm.

Steve has extensive governance experience, having served on the boards of several corporate and non-profit organizations. Steve received his BA in Political Science from Bates College and received the college’s Outstanding Young Alumni Award. Steve also received the Boston Business Journal’s 40 under 40 Award, and the Ten Outstanding Young Leaders (TOYL) award from the Boston Chamber of Commerce.

Mary is a partner in EY’s Assurance practice in Boston, Massachusetts. She provides accounting and auditing services to public companies across the world. With more than 29 years of professional experience, she has acquired expertise working with numerous multinational corporations across multiple industries. Her experience includes a recently completed 3-year rotation in London as a partner within the EY Capital Markets group. Mary is an expert in matters relating to US GAAP accounting, SEC reporting, Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 reporting and has advised numerous clients on public equity and debt offerings as well as mergers and acquisitions. Mary was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Michael F. Price College of Business where she earned a BBA in Accounting. Additionally, she is a CPA licensed in Massachusetts and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants as well as The Boston Club. Mary lives in Wellesley with her husband Chris and her daughter Grace.

Marion Dorsch is the President and Chief Scientific Officer at Atavistik Bio, an innovative biotech company developing novel therapies for cancer and rare genetic diseases. She is an accomplished scientist and senior executive with a proven track record of discovering and advancing innovative therapies to patients. Before joining Atavistik Bio, Marion was the Chief Scientific Officer at Blueprint Medicines where she led the Discovery and Translational Medicine teams and oversaw the progression of a strong portfolio of precision medicines. Prior to Blueprint, Marion held roles of increasing responsibilities at Agios, Sanofi, Novartis and Millennium Pharmaceuticals. During her 25-year tenure in biotech and pharma, Marion has made major contributions to the discovery and development of six FDA-approved precision medicines. Marion received her Ph.D. in Biology from the Free University of Berlin, Germany and was a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University in New York.

Teena Kamal is the Chief Executive Officer of EduNova, where she works with top university faculty and business executives to produce resources that prepare students to lead and thrive in the global economy.   Her 30+ years of experience in the education and technology industries spans building successful products and organizations at Aegis Software Corp, EMC Corporation, and Fidelity Investments. Prior to joining EduNova, she led the development of major consumer advice, guidance, and education products for large financial firms. She also pioneered and launched a breakthrough customer service technology that is currently being used by thousands of customer service representatives in a state-of-the-art call center. Teena has founded several start-ups and currently serves as a Board advisor to Zendigo Group, Inc. She consults with several reputed education institutes including Harvard University. She has three US patents pending. She graduated magna cum laude from Delhi University, India. She is also an alumnus of Harvard University.

Juliette Kayyem is a world-renowned security and emergency preparedness expert in the public and private sectors. Presently, she serves as a regular on-air national security analyst on CNN; Professor at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government; and Co-Founder and CEO of Grip Mobility, a tech start-up focused on ridesharing vehicles. She served as President Obama's Assistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security. There she played a pivotal role in major operations including handling of the H1N1 pandemic and the BP Oil Spill response; she also organized major policy efforts in immigration reform and community resiliency. Before that, she served as Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s homeland security advisor.

Stephanie Kessler graduated The George Washington University, summa cum laude with a BBA in finance and information systems in 2002.  She worked in New York for Swiss Reinsurance in the finance department and private equity fund of funds group before heading to Boston College for her MBA. She received a MBA with a concentration in finance in 2007. From there she worked at the Analysis Group in Boston for a year before heading to Eastern Bank where she worked until 2015 as the Direct Marketing Manager. Stephanie has been a member of the Boston Children’s Hospital League since 2017, the Executive Board since 2019 and is currently the co-Vice President of fundraising.

Brenda Lyons is executive vice president and the executive business manager for Investment Services at State Street. In this capacity, Brenda is charged with executing against the strategic priorities of the Investment Services organization, acting as the central network for business management across the division globally and providing management support and engaging management functions to drive strategy execution. Previously, Brenda served as global head of Asset Servicing Product responsible for establishing product and commercialization strategies, product development and management of product solutions and advocacy for our products with clients and in industry forums.

Across her 35-year career, Brenda has demonstrated capability in driving and executing innovative and transformative change across global businesses, aligning businesses to achieve a common strategy and establishing industry differentiation for products and services. Prior to joining State Street, Brenda was a managing director with Deutsche Asset Management (and its legacy companies) where she served as president of the Scudder Mutual Funds, among other responsibilities. After leaving Deutsche Asset Management, Brenda started a consulting practice where she consulted to a board of trustees overseeing a large mutual funds complex. Brenda is experienced in board governance previously serving on boards of various nonprofits in Massachusetts.  Brenda received a Bachelor of Science in marketing from Bentley College.

Sofia Mistretta earned her Master of Business Administration from Pennsylvania State University and her bachelor of Science in Business Management from Babson College. She is currently the Senior Director, Inclusion, Diversity & Equity at Vertex Pharmaceuticals where she is developing and delivering best-in-class, game-changing programs and solutions that enable Vertex to recruit, engage, develop and retain diverse talent around the globe. In 2020, she was selected by the company’s CEO to represent the organization as a CEO Action for Racial Equity Fellow. Sofia spent nearly two years committed to the fellowship’s mission to identify, develop and promote scalable and sustainable public policies and corporate engagement strategies that will address systemic racism, social injustice and improve societal well-being. Prior to Vertex, she was named John Hancock’s first U.S. Head of Diversity & Inclusion in 2018.

Mai Lan Nguyen is the Senior Vice President of Human Resources for North America at Schneider Electric. In this role and together with a team of great HR professionals, she leads the successful execution of a people strategy focused on engaging others to perform at their best to drive business success and growth. To do so, the team works with passion on shaping the best employee experience through people policies and inclusive programs enabled by digital. She is a member of the North America Executive Leadership Team.

Mai Lan defines herself as a global nomad and has been with Schneider Electric for 17 years. Her dream was to build an international career and for that last 13 years, she has worked in France, China, Brazil, and the USA.

Mai Lan received the award of CHRO of the year from HRO Today in 2022. She completed the General Management Program (GMP30) at Harvard Business School in 2021. She holds a master’s degree in Business/Managerial Economics from Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Grenoble and a second master’s degree in Human Resources/Personnel Administration from Ciffop-Université Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas.

Dunkin’ Franchisee

Benny Omid was born in Iran and immigrated to Boston in 1988. When Benny lived in Iran, he was an emergency relief volunteer for the Red Crescent Society.  Benny began his career with Dunkin’ Donuts over 30 years ago on the ground floor cleaning stores. Through determination and hard work, in 1996, Benny became a Dunkin’ Donuts franchisee and now owns restaurants in Allston, MA. Benny was the Northeast Co-Chair and Treasurer of The Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins Community Foundation and a director at the American Red Cross Biomedical Services, where he had been an integral part of the “Dunkin’ Donors Make a Difference” campaign. He has served as a board member on the Foundation from 2009 through 2017. He is also a member of the Dunkin’ Donuts Advertising Committee for the Northeast Region and the Vice Chair of the Allston Board of Trade.  Benny lives in Belmont with his wife Margarite and his son Jacob.

Ms. Redfield, CIMA, is the Senior Vice President, Wealth Management, Wealth Advisor, Senior Investment Management Consultant, at Morgan Stanley. She is responsible for providing highly customized investment consulting, asset allocation and investment management services to individuals, endowments and nonprofit organizations.  Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in 1999, Robyn worked at Merrill Lynch as a financial advisor to individual investors, corporate executives and nonprofit organizations. She has also held management positions at Estee Lauder.

Robyn is active in her community serving on the boards of the American Red Cross as a director, The Forsyth Institute, the President’s Council of Cambridge College and founder of the Tiffany Circle of Women Leaders of the American Red Cross.  She holds a B.S. from the University of Bridgeport as well as a Certified Investment Management Analyst and CEC designation from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Kenneth Turner is President and CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC), an economic development and investment agency dedicated to supporting the growth and development of the life sciences in Massachusetts. He directs and oversees the center’s operations, investment strategy, programs, and partnerships. Prior to joining the MLSC, Mr. Turner served as Director of Diversity & Inclusion/Compliance with Massport. He oversaw and managed the Authority’s multiple diversity programs, including business and supplier diversity, workforce diversity, and airport concessions, as well as all compliance initiatives associated with Massport’s Disadvantaged/Minority/Women Business Enterprise programs. Previously, Mr. Turner served as Deputy Secretary for Administration & Finance for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Veterans’ Services. He has over 20-years of general management and executive experience in various Fortune 100 media and package goods companies including having served as Senior Vice President of Emerging Markets at AOL Time Warner as well as having held various marketing positions at Hallmark Cards and Hasbro Toys. A retired U.S. Navy Captain and submarine nuclear weapons system officer with 26-years of service, Mr. Turner holds a B.S. degree in Liberal Arts from Southern University and A&M College, Baton Rouge, LA.

Peter Caruso provides critical advice to individuals, families and businesses to help them achieve their short- and long-term financial goals. He works with clients to develop strategies designed to preserve and grow wealth. Peter is a CERTIFIEDFINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) professional.  Away from the office, Peter is a Nichols College Board of Advisors, a Member of the Worcester Economic Club, and a member of the Professional Advisor Network for the Greater Worcester Community Foundation. Peter enjoys exercising, golf, music, yoga, and travel, and has been a private wine maker for over 30 years. He lives with his wife Lilly and two children, Stephen, and Ava, in West Boylston, MA.

Geri Denterlein’s life work has been at the intersection of business, government and journalism and, as the CEO and founder of the strategic communications firm Denterlein, she is a trusted advisor to some of the region’s most respected brands, institutions, and leaders. She leverages her 30-year career in journalism and public affairs to help corporate and nonprofit organizations promote and protect their reputations.  In board rooms, the political arena and the local community, Geri is known as a champion for women, advocating for equality by helping many women find their voice, and communicate effectively for change. Geri recently received the Abigail Adams Award from the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus for her outstanding leadership in achieving parity for women. She was inducted into the Academy of Women Achievers by YW Boston and received the Hall of Fame Award from Boston Women's Business. Geri has also received the Pinnacle Award from the Boston Chamber of Commerce and a Workplace Innovations Award from Bentley University.  She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Cincinnati and a Master of Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She also holds a certificate in leadership from the Executive Education Program at the Harvard Kennedy School and is a faculty member of Harvard's Executive and Continuing Professional Education Program.

Kimberly Howes was elected to the Board of Directors in 2022 and serves on the Philanthropy Committee. Ms. Howes is an Assistant Vice President at Cape Cod 5, serving as a Banking Services Officer, overseeing the Banking Services Administration at the Bank, supporting 21 retail Banking Centers and 150 retail employees. She has been with the bank since 2016 and now oversees the Bank's chat channel and manages the Bank's float team. Kimberly holds a Bachelors’ degree in Marketing and New Media from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and is pursuing a Master’s in Business Administration from Fitchburg State University with a focus on human resources management. She previously served on the board of the Upper Cape Cod Business and Professional Women and was honored was their Woman of the Year in 2012. Additionally, she served five years on the board of the Cape & Islands United Way. Kimberly resides in Sandwich with her husband Barry, and together they have four children: Colin, Ryan, Morgan, and Madison.

Chris Olson is responsible for implementing programs designed to identify, evaluate, mitigate, and monitor operational risks at MassMutual. He has also held leadership roles in information technology, business resilience and information governance at MassMutual. Chris was elected to the Western MA Board of Directors in 2018, served as Chairman of the Board from 2020-2023, and became Chairman of the Central-Western MA Board in June 2023. He served as the Chairman of the Business Continuity Committee at LOMA, a featured presenter at numerous industry events and has been published in the Journal of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning and Corporate Security magazine.

Don Walker is a retired Senior Tax Manager and Vice-President of Global Taxation (1972 – 2018). He is the former President of the New England Chapter of the Tax Executives Institute. Don holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Bentley College and a Masters Degree in Taxation from Suffolk University.

Don started his illustrious Red Cross volunteer career in 1965 as a member of the disaster team. Since then, Don has served on many disaster operations and in a wide range of Red Cross positions. He was a Disaster Team Leader, the Disaster Chairman for the Milton and Greater Boston MA chapters, a board member for the American Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay, and as the Red Cross Government Liaison to FEMA Region I, and the list goes on. Don is the Past Master of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons at Saint Matthew’s Lodge.