STEM Academy of Innovation and Leadership 

​Program Director, Professor of Practice, Master of Engineering Management program (MEM) and Master of Project Management program (MPM) at Washington University in St. Louis

John has 30+ years of experience at The Boeing Company (recently retired). His last role at Boeing was the Vice President of Boeing Defense Saudi Arabia where he served on the Board of Directors for BITG, AAI and the SRSC. Previous to that, John held numerous executive positions where he was responsible for various aspects of Program Management, Business Development, Strategy, etc.

Since joining Boeing in 1988, Bade had worked in a wide variety of leadership positions with increasing responsibility in Engineering, Quality, Supplier Management, Product Support, Program Management and Business Development. Bade had held several international program management assignments working in Japan, Italy, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.  

John holds bachelors and Masters Degrees in Engineering Management from the Missouri University of Science and Technology. He continued his education at Saint Louis University obtaining his Master of Business Administration and completed his PhD. in Engineering Management at the Missouri University of Science and Technology.

John has been teaching evening graduate courses at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, and Washington University in Saint Louis in Strategic Management, Technology, Continuous Improvement, Six Sigma, Statistical Process Control, Taguchi, Project Management, Entrepreneurship, Emerging and Disruptive Technologies and Total Quality Management.  He has also taught at AL Faisal University in Riyadh Saudi Arabia. He has been teaching various courses for 25+ years.

 

Mr. Torio has multiple years of investment banking and private equity experience and has worked on a variety of transactions (M&A, ECM and DCM) for both domestic and international companies. He also has experience executing investments across the capital stack in companies within the Venture Capital and Lower Middle Market segments. He currently works at Province, a nationally recognized restructuring boutique that advises clients in complex cases (debtor and creditor advisory). Prior to Province, he worked at Drake Capital (single family office), where he managed the Direct Investments program and the fund of funds business (primary investments and co-investments). Before joining Drake Capital, he worked as an Investment Banking Analyst for Citibank in NYC and Arcano Partners in Madrid where he advised companies throughout LatAm and Spain.

Samantha Jones is currently a business consultant and professor experienced in management, leadership, and digital transformation. She is a published author writing Telework in Times of Crisis in response to the pandemic. Samantha has earned her Bachelor’s degree in Communications from Stockton University. She went on to obtain her Master’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Management from Centenary University. She has gained her Doctorate degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Leadership graduating cum laude. She is a member of the Delta Mu Delta Honors Society and the International Leadership Association.

Samantha has also been a civil servant since 2000. She has worked for Somerset County Administration, Somerset County Prosecutor's Office, and the Office of Attorney General in New Jersey. Community is her passion. Since having a love for the arts for many years, she began her own art business catering to local artists-AHRT Gallery and Shop. She gained first-hand experience in business that she was able to share while she tutored for the Princeton Review. She also designed and instructed a course on Women in Leadership at the Princeton Adult School. Her interest in education aligned with her organizational improvement expertise led her to establish the ideal educational experience-the STEM Academy of Innovation and Leadership. She has three beautiful children and an amazing husband. 

Tricia is a visionary C-suite executive renowned for driving innovation that fuels growth and consumer engagement across iconic and emerging brands. Her commitment to crafting distinctive and compelling consumer value propositions, along with fostering new avenues for revenue through decision science, is central to her approach. As a mentor and leader, she is dedicated to nurturing diverse, high-performing teams united by a shared vision. She has a passion for academia, stemming from her experience as an Adjunct Professor and her participation in Executive Education courses in AI and Business Leadership.  Recently,  she embraced authorship with a picture book promoting the science of happiness. 

With more than 20 years of operations and logistics experience, Josh has a track record of transforming complex challenges into streamlined, scalable solutions. Having led initiatives on global logistics optimization, ERP implementation, and compliance framework development at JMW Sales as the Director of Operations, all are aimed at aligning operations with strategic corporate goals. His style is a mixture of strategy and problem-solving skills: fact-based decisions that enable growth and efficiency. In his career, he has focused on collaborative, high-performing teams and system building that allow people to be at their best. He is known for leading with clarity and a commitment to continuous improvement and creating an environment where innovation and resilience are key values. Whether building a new department from scratch or refining existing systems, for him the goal is always to support success that is sustainable and meaningful in its impact.

Milind Kulkarni is Vice President and Head of InterDigital’s Wireless Labs, responsible for overseeing research and standardization. He is a visiting professor at University of Surrey, UK. He has more than 35 years of advanced technology product development experience and expertise in areas relevant to mobile networks, like radio access networks, cloud-native design, edge computing, and network management and service orchestration. 

Milind served as the Vice President of global R&D for CommScope within the Intelligent Cellular Networks business unit prior to joining CommScope. In this role he established CommScope’s 5G vision and strategy for Small Cells and led the global R&D team to develop and commercialize DAS and vRAN. 

Before CommScope, Milind held key leadership positions at Nokia and Motorola while playing a significant role in the development of XG-RAN products. In his early career, Milind also worked on NASA projects at McDonnel Douglas Space Systems as well as Department of Defense projects at Honeywell.

Rania Hoteit is a multi-award winning serial entrepreneur, impact leader, advisor, and international speaker with recognitions from The White House, United Nations, United Kingdom Houses of Parliament, The Global CEO Excellence Award, and other prestigious honors. Throughout her career, she managed multiple businesses from ideation, to market launch, to profitable monetization, and acquisition. With her outstanding expertise and exceptional success record, she is a sought-after leadership consultant, executive coach and boards' member who guides innovation transformation, human development and business growth for companies worldwide. As Founder and former CEO of ID4A Technologies, she built a global company whose cutting-edge innovations revolutionized manufacturing and created significant environmental, economic and social impact worldwide. Under her leadership, ID4A garnered recognitions from the White House Office of Science and Technology, Inc. 5000 List of “America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies, Real Leaders “100 Top Impact Companies” Award, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's 2021 Citizens Awards for "Best Economic Opportunity and Empowerment Program, and other awards. 

Over the last decade, Rania created successful initiatives tackling diversity, inclusion and equality gaps in leadership, technology and education. Through her commitments to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, over 2000 businesses adopted sustainable practices. Additionally, she contributed to reducing labor exploitation in global production pipelines by improving the skills and working conditions of over 2 million industrial workers. She is featured in notable publications including Forbes, Huffington Post, Inc, Le Commerce Du Levant, Thrive Global, and Disrupt Magazine where she is named with Oprah Winfrey among "7 Disruptive Women Paving The Way For Success in 2022". In 2024, Rania was inducted by Marquis Who's Who as "Honoree Listee" amongst highly accomplished leaders in America.

David Matara Angwenyi was born and raised in Nyanchonori Village, Kenya. In 1994, David emigrated to the United States, attended university and earned his bachelor’s degree in biology from Saint Peters. David went on to earn a master’s degree in science education from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and eventually his doctorate, Leadership in Education Administration from Capella University. In 2004, David began working as a teacher in Hopewell Valley School Regional School District in New Jersey as a Biology Teacher. Never forgetting his roots, David began building cross-cultural relationships between his school community here in the United States and his home community back in Kenya.

David's passion for connecting and inspiring others led him taking many student groups to Kenya, starting in 2007 and eventually creating the Hopewell-Keroka Alliance (HKA), a 501(c) 3, nonprofit organization that successfully fundraised and built infrastructure for the village including an access road, a high functioning well, electricity, and a health care center, to name a few. Global Connections Foundation, a nonprofit organization was then founded to encompass a larger community to fundraise and build the Global Connections Center with a focus on leadership innovation and technology.

As an accomplished global educator and leader, David has devoted his personal and professional career to finding ways to link communities and share innovative ideas to improve living conditions for all people. David has developed a flagship program called Kenya Cultural Diplomacy Initiative (KCDI) in collaboration with the University of Nairobi to link American children of Kenyan descent with their culture. David and his wife Judith are raising four amazing children with an emphasis on developing children who understand our role in a connected world. To learn more visit GCK Travel Website at www.gcktravel.com

Vijay Rajandram is a business minded strategist, with 25+ years of experience in driving agile transformative innovations. He has worked across a range of companies, from Fortune 500, start-up, and consultancy across product and business development to build data driven cultures. He builds human-centered artificial intelligence solutions with the right level of governance to achieve measurable global digital transformations and deliver a great experience. 

Vijay has held various Chief Data and Analytics roles over the last decade and is currently the Chief Data Officer at Northern Trust Asset Management. 

As a 1986 graduate in Biological Sciences from the University of Delaware, Ted brings over 30 years of life science industry experience across the U.S. and Europe. He has served as a Managing Director and board member for international businesses in the clinical laboratory industry including OYC Americas and OYC EU BV, where he led the Board of Directors as President for over 15 years. Currently Ted is the President of Audit MicroControls, Inc., and serves as a health & wellness advisory committee member at Reynolds Lake Oconee. He and his wife currently live on Lake Oconee in Eatonton, GA with their miniature schnauzer, Winston.  

Art Trevethan has led a distinguished career marked by significant achievements in technology commercialization, strategic growth, and innovation across diverse industries. As an influential figure within the Department of Defense, Art played a pivotal role at the Army Futures Command, where he directed cross-service collaborations and developed partnerships that facilitated the transition of private sector technologies to meet government needs. His leadership at Velocity Vue and other companies highlights his ability to bring groundbreaking products to market, such as compliance and safety solutions for construction and defense, delivering high-impact results and fostering partnerships that have directly benefited sectors from healthcare to military operations. Art’s expertise in navigating complex regulatory landscapes and building dedicated teams has consistently driven measurable growth and operational success. 

Art’s dedication to public service is evident through his extensive volunteer work and community involvement. From mentoring emerging tech innovators with NATO’s DIANA initiative to serving as a trusted advisor on Houston Christian University’s Strategic AI Program, he has invested his expertise in developing the next generation of problem solvers. Art’s commitment extends to grassroots efforts, including volunteer roles with the Boy Scouts of America, where he provided leadership and guidance to young scouts, and as a member of the Fatherhood Advisory Council in Hays County, Texas, helping strengthen community support systems. His contributions on government task forces in Ohio reflect a longstanding commitment to public service, demonstrating a drive to impact his community at both local and national levels.

Managing Director Global VP, Analytics and Data Prods 

Experian Software Solutions Group 

Pier Paolo Borgia is a senior leader leading the Collective IQ project and platform development and deployment across the different geographies. Managing the data mapping and harmonisation across geographies to ensure scalability of data analytics. Leading both the development and analytics teams to ensure platform development and adoption across regions. The objective of Collective IQ is standardising the meta-data assets for analytical development, ensuring access to Experian most successful data attributes and scores and creating the infrastructure to seamlessly deploy attributes in production   Prior to moving to the US to lead Collective IQ he was responsible for consumer services and innovation leading the Products and Propostions across the entire Experian Portfolio for the EMEA region.

Prior to that, Pier Paolo had several executive roles in different corporations, such as Crif, where he was Managing Director Global Credit Bureau, Bain Capital as M&A and Itegration advisor, and Experian Marketing Services as MD southern Europe.

He graduated from the University of Rome in Economics, with a post grad degree in Business Mngt and completed the Henley executive program. Through his career Pier Paolo has lived in several European countries as well as in California, two years in the Bay Area and now three years in SoCal and he speaks 3 languages fluently. 

Pier Paolo is married, with 3 kids and enjoys outdoor, traveling and reading. Used to be a windsurfing and skiing maniac but now is becoming a much more calm individual.