Tech4Eva Roadshow - The Connection to the USA

Elizabeth Gazda is the CEO of Embr Labs, a Boston-based wearables company that developed the Embr Wave – a wrist-worn, thermal therapeutic that improves sleep, relieves anxiety and helps with hot flashes.

Prior to Embr Labs, Liz was a member of several founding teams including Doni, a fintech company, and Noteflight, a music technology company and has also worked at a number of Boston’s fastest growing companies, including m-Qube (acq. Verisign) and unicorn Art Technology Group (acq. Oracle). Liz began her career with Philips Consumer Electronics in the Netherlands, where she was responsible for driving innovation in several business divisions across multiple countries.

Elizabeth received her undergraduate degree in Anthropology and International relations from UC Berkeley where she was also a member of the Women’s Varsity Soccer team. She also holds an International MBA from Nijenrode University in the Netherlands and an Executive Coaching degree from William James College. Elizabeth serves as a board member and advisor to several start-up companies.

‍

Sapna Rao is a purpose-driven strategy leader for consumer-centric health solutions at Philips. As strategy lead for a corporate venture, she is focused on identifying opportunities and defining solutions that empower consumers to improve their health at home. She is naturally curious and a problem solver, who believes in the power of bringing data, empathy for consumers, and creativity together to create impactful innovation. Working with a cross-functional team of product managers, researchers, and designers, she is unafraid to dive into the details yet keeps an eye on the bigger picture. With this perspective, she is an effective communicator and advisor to key decision makers in her organization.

Sapna enjoys connecting with, learning from, and sharing feedback with individuals in the digital health ecosystem through industry conferences and other forums. She looks forward to meaningful exchanges with the newest startup cohort.

Prior to Philips, she worked in strategic consulting at Accenture with a focus on digital health and consumer experiences in healthcare. Outside of work, she enjoys the great outdoors and creative pursuits like painting, music and cooking. She is based in the greater Boston area.

Josh Kraus is a senior manager in Accenture’s health strategy practice. He has over 10 years of experience driving growth and innovation for organizations across the healthcare industry.

He is recognized as a thought leader, helping organizations develop new human-centered growth strategies, build new products, and design experiences to earn trust and loyalty of consumers.

His experience spans a broad range of domains, including segment growth, M&A, digital strategy, and new models of delivering care. He is passionate about the digital health space and supports the Accenture Ventures digital health portfolio to help earlier stage companies achieve product-market fit and scale.

Josh holds a BA in Political Science and Government from Emory University and an MBA from the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business.

Dominnique Karetsos is CEO and Co-Founder of Healthy Pleasure Group and MINT Hub, the first and only global companies dedicated to the Sexual Health & Technology industry (SH&T) . She co-founded the Healthy Pleasure Group in 2019, the world’s first and only professional services company dedicated to supporting the launch and transformation of Sexual Health and Technology brands and businesses and in 2023, MINT Hub, an B2B innovation hub born out of the exponential success of the Healthy Pleasure Group and the only hub dedicated to delivering social change and honest innovation across the Intimate, Sexual Health and Well-being industry.

Dominnique leverages over 20 years’ experience spanning 40+ markets, leading and working for major brands (Intimina, L’Oréal Maybelline, MysteryVibe and O’Boticario) reshaping and reengineering brand strategy for profitability. Coupled with a career-long nurtured talent for pinpointing trends and predicting market change, she has become an established authority in the Sexual Health and Technology (SH&T) industry acting as an investor, advisor and global brand expert to guide start ups, market leaders and challenger brands in increasing market share, expanding commercial channels and maximising investment opportunities.  

Notably, Dominnique has a track record working with global brands and sexual health businesses to uncover their true sources of sustainable competitive advantage. A super power she attributes to both her diverse career and the disparate formal education where she gained degrees in International Marketing and Management, Advanced Supply Chain  Management and a Masters in Maritime and International trade.  

A visionary leader, she understood early on, the market forces of this rapidly expanding sector and pinpointed the need for investment as a key driver of business growth. This led her to co-establish the first, and to this day, the only investment fund dedicated to investing in Sexual Health and Women’s Health Technology businesses, Amboy Street Ventures, where she also holds a seat as General Partner and Investment Committee.

As a force for change, Dominnique is a seasoned speaker presenting on global stages, including panels at Management Today and Women Innovation Health Summits, key notes at Sigma Health Tech, Malta, sTARTUp Day, Estonia and thought leadership talks at Women in Tech Global Summit, Paris and more. Furthermore, for three years, Dominique has served as a UN Delegate for UN Women, commission of status for women and the Future of Innovation, a humbling experience understanding the fabric of our global pain points echoed in each country’s socio-political system.

Dominnique is committed to driving social permission and behavioural change across the Sexual Health and Technology industry - a name she coined for this now billion-dollar industry in its early undefined days.  Courageously, she is leading this high change sector, positioning human needs and honest innovation as the elixir for future-proofing sexual health and technology brands and making Healthy Pleasure a movement.

Stasia Obremskey is the Managing Director of RH Capital Funds an impact venture capital fund of Rhia Ventures where she is responsible for investing in innovations in women’s reproductive health.  She joined Rhia Ventures at its founding in 2018 after more than twenty-five years of experience as an interim CFO for non-profit organizations and start-up companies and an impact investor and philanthropist in women’s reproductive health.  

She holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business. She has extensive experience as a member of several nonprofit boards where she has held a number of leadership positions.  Stasia is a founding member of The Maverick Collective, an initiative of PSI.  As the proud mother of three young adults, she is working with scientists and entrepreneurs to find the next generation of hormone-free contraceptives to meet their sexual health needs.

‍

Siew-Veena is a half-Indian, half-Chinese, Swiss, Singaporean & British medical doctor, public health researcher & entrepreneur. Her mission is to re-write the norms for sexual health testing to make it easy & accessible for all - regardless of gender, geography or sexuality.

As CEO & founder of Testmate Health, she leads the development of low-cost, inclusive & accurate disposable tests to detect common STIs immediately from home.

Simone has 25+ years of event management, strategy, marketing, relationship building experience. She joined the EPFL Innovation Park team in 2020 and she currently manages the Tech4Eva accelerator operations and the Tech4Growth initiative.

For 16 years she built the brand/network of Tech Tour as their Managing Director leading the events team to implement 25+ tech events per year. She has a proven ability to set up well-oiled processes and leverage networks to open partnership opportunities to build a strong ecosystem by maximizing objectives and engaging all stakeholders (corporates, investors, academia, tech start-ups in all digital sectors).

Previously she worked for the University of NC in Chapel Hill, USA, implementing the new graduate student program. She also worked at SCIP as their global operations & marketing manager both in Alexandria, VA & in London, UK, where she opened and managed their branch office to establish their European presence, as well as overseeing all aspects of international conferences & tradeshows.

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA. She is fluent in English, French & German.