Kate Mitchell

An alumna of Santa Catalina School, Kate Dentoni Mitchell ’76 is a cofounder and partner of Scale Venture Partners, a venture capital fund that invests in early-in-revenue technology companies, and current board member of Silicon Valley Bancshares. She is a former chairman of the National Venture Capital Association and remains active in policy matters that impact entrepreneurship, start-ups, and innovation. She chaired the IPO Task Force, whose recommendations to reform the IPO market were included in the recently enacted JOBS Act. Mitchell writes a regular blog for the Wall Street Journal’s Accelerator’s forum on topics that impact entrepreneurs and start-ups. In a talk titled “Life Lessons From Entrepreneurs,” she will share her observations about how entrepreneurs approach obstacles and how those lessons about the need for constant reinvention can be applied to our lives.

Karen Draper

Ms. Draper is a Principal and the CFO of Gensler, a global architecture, design, planning, and consulting firm with more than 3,900 employees in 44 locations. Every year, the firm has about 7,000 projects, which can be as small as a wine label or as large as a new urban district. Gensler partners with its clients as trusted advisors, combining localized expertise with a global perspective wherever new opportunities arise. Recent projects include Terminal 2 at SFO airport and the Shanghai Tower in China, which when construction is completed in 2014, will be the world’s second-tallest building. Ms. Draper has more than 18 years of experience in the field of finance and accounting.  In a talk titled “Navigating the Course,” she will share her observations of business obstacles and solutions and what they have in common.

Martha Muña

Ms. Muña is the former director of Kaeme, a nonprofit that serves abandoned and orphaned children in Ghana. In June 2013, she graduated with a B.A. in human biology from Stanford University. She is currently applying to medical schools and teaching MCAT classes. In a talk titled “Thoughtful Giving,” she will speak about philanthropic and emotional obstacles, the stark disconnect between donations and tangible results, and innovations that enable charitable organizations to surmount inefficiencies.