Wednesday, October 22nd

3:50 PM - 5:00 PM

Track IV: The Ballroom Terrace - Live Webcast from this Room

The Women Entrepreneur: The Person, The Opportunity and The Challenge

Marlene Sharp, Director of Development, RGH Entertainment

Phoenix Gonzalez, Co-Founder & COO/Head of Business Development, Dotstudioz

Jayna Cooke, CEO, EVENTup

Valerie Alexander, author, How Women Can Succeed in the Workplace (Despite Having "Female Brains")

Elsa Ramo, Attorney/Founder, Ramo Law PC

Jameela Jackson, founder, The Velvet Rope Agency

Mariana Danilovic, Managing Director, Hollywood Portfolio, Moderator

for Good Deeds. Previously, she was an Event Coordinator for a PR team and worked with clients such as Bare Escentuals, Wen, Victoria’s Secret and Chloe.  Known as ‘The Bull Dog’ due to her persistent, passionate character, her prowess includes building best-in-class teams, and managing social media and  tech platforms. Gonzalez gets to the YES. She is purposeful about running ‘AMP Experience’, her LA-based women’s organization, and believes “we are here to pay it forward in this life and the only way I’m interested in doing this is through love and empowerment.” Gonzalez is a successful actress who has acted in films with Jackie Chan & Forest Whitaker (see her IMDB), and was Miss Teen Toronto and 1st Runner Up in Miss Cities of America. She studied Electrical Engineering at Devry University.

Marlene Sharp is the Director of Development at RGH Entertainment, a global multi-media company that specializes in animation. She began her work with RGH in early 2010. During her time there, she has contributed to Postman Pat: the Movie (DreamWorks Classics/Lionsgate), High in the Clouds (Unique Features/Paul McCartney), A Very Pink Christmas (MGM), the Sesame Street Road Safari PSA campaign, B-Rock (All Def Digital), and more.  Prior to RGH, Marlene was the 'berry' in Two Twigs and a Berry Productions, LLC, at which she collaborated with domestic and overseas media clients, such as Gartner, Korean government trade ministries KOCCA and KOTRA, Entertainment Asia Network, Better Communications, CISTech, and MJ Productions. In the kids and family entertainment business, she has varied experience in both animated and live action properties, such as Power Rangers (Nickelodeon), Heavy Gear, Digimon (Fox Kids), Bubble Guppies (Nickelodeon), Higglytown Heroes (Disney), Z-Squad (SyFy Kids), Da Jammies, and her own original web series Priscilla.  In her spare time, Marlene often exercises her journalism muscle as a print and video contributor for Examiner.com, The New Orleans Advocate, and The Baton Rouge Advocate.  Marlene has a Master of Fine Arts degree in Musical Theatre from San Diego State University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Drama/Communications from Loyola University of New Orleans.

Jayna Cooke, CEO and Partner at EVENTup, is distinguished as being one of the most successful sales and business development professionals in technology startups over the past decade. Growth hacking and “just getting it done” are her specialties.  As the Vice President of Business Development at Groupon, Jayna was integral in executing the company’s early sales and partnership strategies.  She helped launch various national and local sales strategies and successfully closed the two largest deals to date with national retailers Gap and Nordstrom. She was responsible for creating 25% of entire company revenue in 2009, and 10% of Gross Revenue for 2010.  Prior to that, Jayna, started her career in sales at Echo Global Logistics (ECHS), where she held numerous roles including being the top sales executive such as Sales Trainer and Regional Manager.  Jayna has also started her own foundation, “Closet Angels”, has invested in several successful Chicago startups including Bucketfeet and Protein Bar, and sits on the board of several others.

Valerie Alexander, author, How Women Can Succeed in the Workplace (Despite Having "Female Brains"):  Valerie Alexander is the author of "Happiness as a Second Language: A Guidebook to Achieving Lasting, Permanent Happiness," and the forthcoming book, "Success as a Second Language: A Guidebook for Defining and Achieving Personal Success." She writes for a number of media outlets, including Jezebel and WomenNetwork.com, and her articles on The Huffington Post have been viewed more than 3 million times.  As a screenwriter, Valerie has worked with Joel Schumacher, Catherine Zeta Jones, Barry Sonnenfeld, Ice Cube and others. She co-wrote, produced and directed the award-winning short film, "Making the Cut," produced and directed the compelling PSA campaigns, "The Wedding Matters," "Life Support," and "Say I Do" to advocate for marriage equality, and will soon be directing the faith-based feature film, "Rounding Third," starring Kevin Sorbo.  As a professional speaker, Valerie travels the country with her entertaining and informative talks, "How Women Can Succeed in the Workplace (Despite Having Female Brains)" and her inspirational "Speak Happiness!" series of workshops and keynotes, helping companies, employees, entrepreneurs, artists and others stay positive, move forward, increase productivity and maximize profits by making happiness a priority.   Valerie spent her pre-Hollywood career in the Silicon Valley where she worked on some of the most important transactions of the Internet era as a securities lawyer, an investment banker and V.P. of Business Development at two new media start-ups.  Valerie received her B.A. from Trinity University and her J.D. and M.S. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. In the spring of 2010, she was invited back to Berkeley Law to teach the legal ethics seminar, "Representation of Law in Film."  She currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband, writer-producer Rick Alexander, and their ill-mannered German Shepherd, Pepper.

Elsa Ramo, Attorney/Founder, Ramo Law PC: Mrs. Ramo is an entertainment attorney, representing many corporate clients as well as individual writers, directors, and producers in the entertainment industry. Elsa graduated from University of San Diego School of Law, and began her career at Davis Dixon Kirby LLP as an associate establishing their Los Angeles Office. She founded her own firm in 2005 on the Universal Studios backlot when approached by several clients who wished for her to handle their independent productions. Since then, her practice has successfully grown and is currently located in Beverly Hills. Her specialties span the spectrum of entertainment legal needs: Corporate/Entity Representation, Contract Negotiation, Review and Drafting, Producer/Writer Representative Services, Trademark and Copyright filing and litigation, and Corporate Formations, Acquisition, and Mergers. The focus of her practice is to be a legal resource to film financiers, producers and other creative individuals in the film, music and television industries.

Jameela Jackson is the founder of boutique Public Relations consultancy, The Velvet Rope Agency. While working at PR agencies and in-house at a corporation, she developed and executed high-profile campaigns and events for Walt Disney Studios, Fox, Toyota, W Hotel, and Disney Consumer Products, as well as private events for celebrities including Robin Thicke, Kim Kardashian and Russell Simmons, to name a few.  After undergoing a lay-off and facing a tough economy in 2008, Jameela branched out to start The Velvet Rope Agency, where she leads the PR & Marketing strategy for clients in the consumer, entertainment, technology, and lifestyle arenas. With over 10 years of experience, Jameela has a proven track record of achieving results for clients. Ms. Jackson creates attention-grabbing event concepts and secures valuable media coverage in top-tier outlets such as Today, CNN, Access Hollywood, Hollywood Reporter, Wall Street Journal, Black Enterprise and more. She was also featured on TV One Network’s “LisaRaye: The Real McCoy” as a PR consultant and event planner for the show’s celebrity benefit to raise money for a cast member with cancer.  An entrepreneur and fashionista at heart, Jameela recently ventured into the fashion industry and is soon to launch Royal Bleux, a new ecommerce retail site geared towards women in their thirties who desire a new age-appropriate look. Additionally, Royal Bleux will offer membership perks, as well as fashion and beauty tips from celebrity make-up artists and fashion stylists.

Mariana Danilovic, CEO, hollywood portfolio:  Ms. Danilovic is the Founder and CEO of hollywood portfolio, an incubator and accelerator that develops and operates entertainment, digital media, and technology companies. Through hollywood portfolio, Ms. Danilovic launched and helped develop several digital media companies, and served as the President, CEO and Director of ultralivetv, serves on the Board of Directors of reframeit (observer), and the Board of Directors of Emerge Digital.   Ms. Danilovic was the EVP Business Development for NTN Buzztime, Inc. (AMEX:NTN) and Head of Business Development, Content Aggregation and Programming for MediaZone, broadband video company owned by NASPERS/MIH media conglomerate. She also founded and directed the Digital Media Incubator at KPMG LLP, which developed about two-dozen digital media companies. The companies Ms. Danilovic helped develop received institutional funding from KPCB, Sequoia Capital, Hummer-Winblad, Constellation Partners, Softbank, North Star Ventures, HP, and Intel.   Ms. Danilovic headed business development for Peter Guber’s Mandalay Entertainment and was on the management team of the venture fund at Sony Pictures Entertainment, investing in media companies worldwide. Ms. Danilovic also worked for Michael Milken’s Knowledge Exchange and at the Twentieth Century Fox International Television Group. She serves on the Board of Directors of C3, the Arts and Media Node of the Millennium Project, served on the Board of Directors of the Producers’ Guild of America, and is a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.   She previously served on the Board of Directors of Tim Draper’s Zone Club and was a member of former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan's Digital Coast Roundtable. Mariana earned a Masters in Business Administration from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA, and a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics, with a Minor in Biomedical Engineering from University of California, San Diego.

Internet Summit - Branding Day