Speakers

• Jackie Cureton
  

  Jackie Cureton

  Jackie Cureton is co-founder and Principal Consultant at Bright Insights Global (B.I.G), a boutique
  women-owned consultancy formed out of a passion to partner with purpose driven organizations to
  optimize business performance through the prism of inclusion, innovation and impact. B.I.G services
  include, talent and inclusion strategies, innovation initiatives, organizational effectiveness and
  business leadership and executive training and coaching as well as special projects. She has a
  background in Human Capital Management, Organizational Effectiveness and Business Operations. 

  Prior to Bright Insights Global she worked at Thomson Reuters, for 20+ years where she enjoyed an
  extensive corporate career and held leadership roles in Human resources as well as Business
  Operations. Before leaving she was the Global Heard of HR, Go to Market Transformation for the
  Global Growth Organization where she focused on Sales Effectiveness and Enablement for the
  emerging markets and prior to that she was the Directory of People Strategy and Planning reporting
  to the Chief People Officer where she worked closely with the People Leadership team and members
  of the Executive Committee to ensure the talent strategy and annual goals were aligned with overall
  company strategy. She has deep expertise in talent and inclusion Strategy, organizational
  effectiveness, business strategy as well as program and project management. She is passionate
  about Diversity Equity and Inclusion and served as Global Co-Chair for the company’s Black
  Employee Network. 

  Ms. Cureton was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya and started her working career at Barclays Bank
  of Kenya before migrating to the US in the mid 90’s and speaks fluent Swahili. She is passionate
  about Africa and maintains a strong network and connection to the continent. She believes that
  Africa’s time is now and is passionate about being an enabler, partnering with forward thinking
  progressive organizations in doing better business in Africa. She believes that culture, equity and
  business are levers for profit and progress in business and in society. 

  Jackie is a board member of the Valhalla United Methodist Church serving on the Staff Parish
  Committee. She also served on the national board of Generation Citizen an organization that works
  to ensure that every student in the United States receives an effective action civics education, and
  Twana Twitu a non-profit whose mission is to provide support and empowerment to Orphaned and
  Vulnerable children in rural Kenya. 

  She lives in Westchester County, NY with her daughter, Tyra and holds an Executive MBA from
  Cornell University.

• Saidah Nash Carter
  

  Saidah Nash Carter

  Saidah Nash Carter is a digital business native with a passion for value creation and the use of
  technology to create new opportunity for business and for humanity. She began her career with
  Reuters NewMedia during a period of profound digital transformation and went on to build and
  launch some of the first online news services for early internet sensations like Yahoo! and AOL.
  She thrives pushing the boundaries of corporate thinking and business development through
  emerging technology, co-creation, and a focus on sustainability. She has an eye for identifying
  opportunities to stretch businesses to new frontiers while remaining connected the company’s core
  DNA and value proposition. This strength led her to design one of the first customer co-creation
  programs in Thomson Reuters resulting in a new way of approaching partnership and IP ownership
  and creating a pathway for richer collaboration with both customer and partner ecosystems.
  As SVP- Africa Innovation, she launched Thomson Reuters data science and innovation lab in Cape
  Town, one of seven innovation Labs globally and the only one in an emerging market. She is
  particularly proud of her team’s work delivering Thomson Reuters successful Africa Startup
  Challenge, Africa's first Intrapreneurship Conference, and her flagship initiative to bring financial
  inclusion to Africa’s small scale farmers – Bankable Farmer.
  Today she leads Bright Insights Global (BIG), a boutique consultancy and expert network committed
  to helping companies do better business in Africa. BIG’s network expertise spans financial services,
  media, private equity, law, talent management, digital product and business development. BIG was
  formed out of a desire to design and accelerate forward thinking, purpose driven, globally
  competitive organizations that will drive sustainable economic development across Africa.
  She is also passionate about Africa’s Intrapraneur ecosystem and works to identify, connect and
  empower these thought leaders inside large corporations who are working to leverage innovation,
  inclusion and impact to make their companies more sustainable. She works in partnership with the
  global League of Intrapreneurs (https://www.leagueofintrapreneurs.com/), as League Catalyst for
  South Africa.
  Most Recent Awards & Recognition: 2017 Inspiring 50 Women in Tech, United Nations 2018 Voices
  of African Mothers Innovation Award, League of Intrapreneurs Global Fellow – 2019

• Stephanie Schmidt
  

  Stephanie Schmidt