Featured Speaker(s)

Moderator:
Valentina Quiroga Fonseca
is a scientist from Colombia, currently exploring opportunities to connect industry with academia and gender equality. Valentina became acquainted with WITI during her fellowship at Solarea Bio, a microbiome Boston-based biotech startup focused on metabolic diseases. Being constantly on the lookout for allies committed to supporting and empowering girls and women to reach their highest potential, and inspired by the stories and journeys of several female leaders in her orbit, she joined WITI and decided to launch the WITI Colombia Chapter. Valentina graduated with two bachelor’s degrees in Physics and Geosciences with a minor in German Language and Culture from Universidad de los Andes, Colombia. For years, Valentina’s leadership service has focused on empowerment of women in STEM.

Paru Ajjarapu is an accomplished IT leader with over 20 years of experience driving digital transformation to advance and enable organizations’ business strategy through technology. At Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), she is responsible for the user-centered vision and strategic direction for partner enablement digital capabilities. Paru holds the belief that diversity adds strength to the organization. She is a member of BMS IT D&I council and leads the BMS Chapter of WITI.

Juliana Soto-Giron is a Colombian scientist building a career in entrepreneurship, innovation, and healthcare. Currently, Juliana works at Solarea Bio, a biotech startup focused on developing microbiome-based solutions for chronic inflammatory conditions. At Solarea, she leads the Bioinformatics core and develops strategy projects related to microbiome therapeutics for biomarker discovery and genome mining. Juliana is committed to advocating and inspiring girls from underrepresented communities to reach their potential in the STEM fields.

Kedar Kyabarsi is Director of Engineering, Data Platforms at Roche, a global pioneer in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics focused on advancing science to improve people’s lives. Kedar is a technology leader with a vision and a passion for technology, with extensive experience in building and managing high potential teams delivering highly scalable applications. He has 20+ years of expertise in building Cloud SaaS Integrations, Application Integrations, and B2B Integrations. As well, Kedar is a seasoned leader in API development and Management, a thought leader in the Healthcare and Retail Industry domains, and experienced in leading multiple large-scale COTS implementations.
 
Ritu Shrivastav is Senior Director of Human Resources at Gilead Sciences, a biotechnology company that delivers life-saving therapies to patients in need. Ritu is a results-oriented, strategic, and innovative Global HR leader who drives business through collaborative leadership to shape high-performing organizations, and aligns HR initiatives to strategic business outcomes. She also wears the hat of being an ambassador of Inclusion. At Gilead Ritu leads a multi-national HR team with a strong focus on business results, by aligning talent and integrated thought leadership skills. She strongly believes that diversity drives inclusion and equity.