Speaker profiles
Priti Ambani
Priti (@envirotarian) is co-founder at The Next Billion, an impact-driven enterprise founded on the belief that by gathering our collective resources to invest in women, we can positively impact/change the world for the better. The company is set to launch Globally Spotted - a discovery platform for smart and innovative women led business from the world over.
Priti is an engineer and began her career 11 years ago in environmental design. Over the last 6 years, Priti has sought out and landed opportunities on global teams, to grow early stage startups, for-profit and non-profit entities creating impact through digital collaboration and crowds. She is a zealot for the digital and crowd economy and for helping organisations that are keen to harness the productivity of the Internet to solve societal challenges. Most recently, Priti began working with the core team at Tech Futures Lab, helping Kiwis be better prepared for the exponential technologies and careers in the 21st century.
Priti was born and raised in Mumbai, India. She moved to Auckland with her husband and sons in 2015 after 13 years in the United States. Priti is a lover of the outdoors, traveling and from-scratch cooking!
Irene Direnko-Smith
Irene graduated with a degree in computer science but has spent the last 12 years doing technical sales and strategic consulting. Her diverse experience ranges from establishing and implementing sales strategy for software start-ups like Thematic through to enterprise solutions selling for large multinational technology companies. Irene has a very strong record of success and believes that greater gender diversity in ICT sales would lead to more profitable and sustainable industry.
Nicki Raistrick
Nicki (@nicki_raistrick) is a leader in Digital Innovation and transformation with nineteen years’ experience working with global organisations. Creating high performing teams with permission to think differently and a focus on value creation is a key strength. Recent achievements include establishing the Digital Innovation Lab for Fletcher Building, creating innovative & smart digital solutions for the construction industry; and for Spark Ventures, setting up the Delivery Teams and the Strategy and Planning function which was responsible for bringing five companies to market in under a year.
