Ascend Inspiring Across Generations (IAG)
Speaker Bios:
Romin Bahk
Founder & Talent Manager
Romin Bahk Management
Romin loves to coach and connect others to solve problems. He has extensive experience as an executive, leader, and speaker in various sectors, including: education, consulting, entertainment, and non-profit. Romin currently sits on the Bay Area Asian & Allies Community Team at Deloitte to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion for AAPI professionals. He also runs his own talent management business for high-profile clients.
Roberta Chew
Director, Project Management, HR Enablement
Roberta leads a team of project managers within the Global Talent Organization (HR) team who are focused on LinkedIn’s most critical strategic priorities with the ultimate goal of empowering employees to do
the best work of their careers. Prior to LinkedIn, Roberta spent 17 years at Deloitte, most recently leading the Colleagues for Life Center of Excellence for the Risk & Financial Advisory business. The mission of the COE is to elevate the employee experience through career development programs that invest in our employees’ success throughout the employee lifecycle. Earlier in her career, Roberta served as Executive Director of AAMA, a non pro organization dedicated to the AAPI technology business network.
Bernard C. Coleman III
Chief Diversity and Engagement Officer
Gusto
Bernard is the Chief Diversity and Engagement Officer at Gusto where he leads the Employee Engagement team which encompasses our diversity, equity and inclusion, employee relations and people integrity/governance/compliance functions. Prior to Gusto, Bernard led diversity efforts at Uber and before that, directed Hillary for America’s HR and D&I efforts, and was the first ever Chief Diversity and HR Officer in U.S. history for any presidential campaign. His insights have appeared in Inc, Forbes, The New York Times, TIME, TechCrunch and USA Today. Bernard holds an M.B.A. from Trinity University, a B.A. in psychology from Hampton University, a Strategic Diversity & Inclusion Management certification from Georgetown University and is a graduate of the University of Virginia's Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership.
Kats Furuyama
Co-President, Ascend NorCal
HR Business Partner, Robert Half
Kats Furuyama is the Co-President of Ascend NorCal and has been a member for over eight years, first stepping into a leadership role in 2019 as N. California Co-Vice President of Student Affairs and, shortly after, Vice President of Membership. He is the HR Business Partner at Robert Half International, a global talent solutions firm and parent company of consulting firm Protiviti. He is passionate and dedicated to serving as a collective voice for Pan-Asian communities and giving back with various philanthropic efforts such as Ascend Cares: Feed Our Hospital and Feed Our Future. Outside of work, he enjoys running full marathons, cycling, and cooking.
Andrea Hoban
Co-founder & Head of Learning
Oji Life Lab
Andrea Hoban is the co-founder and head of learning at Oji Life Lab. Before Oji Life Lab, she parlayed her career as a top sales executive at Robert Half into a leadership role in their learning organization, where she
was global head of skills training. As a certified coach, speaker, and experiential learning designer, she has helped tens of thousands of professionals make leaps forward in their professional and personal lives.
At Oji, she reimagines the way we learn skills, translating world-class research into programs that fuse self-paced mobile learning and live, coach-led experiences. She speaks regularly at in-person and virtual
conferences on topics related to emotional intelligence, leadership and decision-making.
LaSandra Hunt
Vice President, Emerging Middle Market
J.P. Morgan
LaSandra Hunt is a Vice President and Commercial Banker based in San Francisco, CA, serving privately held companies’ headquartered in Northern California with annual revenues $20Million +. As a 15-year veteran with the firm LaSandra unites the most relevant experts in the firm together to help her clients realize their goals.
LaSandra’s drive to deeply understand her clients key priorities and initiatives enables her to provide high-value market & industry intel, connections and resources to the customers she serves. Through her expertise, events and vast network, LaSandra aims to be the most valuable financial resource to the companies she serves.
LaSandra is an advocate for fraud prevention. She leverages the firm's annual $11B investment in technology to help companies improve their workflow processes and system integration in order to drive operational efficiency.
She works closely with our credit and financing teams, including Asset Based Lending, to deliver the best solutions to help our clients’ growth. A proven expert in leveraging expertise from across the firm, LaSandra delivers the full power of the bank socializing brands and facilitating introductions with the firm’s Investment Bank, Venture Group, Financial Sponsors, and industry experts.
LaSandra has a passion for companies with environmental, social and governance processes and decision-making. She serves as JPMorgan Chase North California Global Supplier Diversity Ambassador and JPMorgan Chase Business Resource Group Site-Lead for Women on the Move (BRG).
Previously, she was Communication Chair for Black Organizational Leadership Development, and past co-Chair for our Volunteer Leadership Group, driving volunteerism in the communities where she lives and works.
Today, LaSandra sits on the board of Main Street Launch a Bay Area CDFI working to create economic opportunities by empowering entrepreneurs and WBEC-Pacific a Women Business Enterprise Council supporting women business owners with in-depth expertise guiding finances. LaSandra is Nor Cal lead for our Women, Minority, Veteran Owned Business effort championing our firms impact and commitment.
A native of the San Francisco-Bay Area, LaSandra earned her Bachelors degree from Golden Gate University. She lives in Oakland with her partner Chef Josip and Frenchie Avalanche. She has a Sophomore at UNLV studying business. She enjoys traveling, learning new languages, and conversational in Tagalog and Hervatki (Croatian).
Jordan Kang
Strategic Project Manager
The Clorox Company
Jordan Kang is a Sr. Strategic Project Manager with the Clorox Company. He has spent the previous 20+ years in the Consumer Foods and Biotech Industries in various Operational Management and Process Excellence management roles. He is also a Board member for Ascend and is involved in various non-profits that provide services to the Korean American and adoptee communities. He attended Emory University for undergrad and the University of South Florida for grad school. He resides in San Francisco with his wife and four children.
Edward Lee
Chief Communications Officer
SPUR
Edward is the Chief Communications Officer at SPUR, a Bay Area public policy group. He leads the development and execution of SPUR's communications and engagement strategy, advancing our vision of
implementing policy change in the Bay Area. He harnesses the power of storytelling, programming, media engagement and digital campaigns to create connections and promote the adoption of SPUR's policy change
agenda. Prior to SPUR, Edward has held versatile leadership roles at Bread for the World, United Nations Foundation, White House Office of Public Engagement and the U.S. Department of Education. In his spare time, Edward makes faith-inspired films with his wife, Jan. Currently, they live in South San Francisco with their two young children. He received his Bachelor’s degree in government at Harvard University and his Master’s
degree in global leadership at Fuller Theological Seminary.
Faye Sahai
Co-President, Ascend NorCal
Partner at Telosity by Vinaj Ventures
Faye Sahai is currently Partner at Telosity by Vinaj Ventures, investing in digital wellness and behavioral health startups with the www.Telosity.co touching the lives of millions. Prior, she has 25+ year experience in healthcare, financial institutions, and insurance innovation and investment executive at Kaiser Permanente, Schwab, AIG, Blue Shield and Deloitte Consulting and founded 3 of her own startups.
She has served an Advisor and Board member to over a dozen companies including Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, UCSF Catalyst, ANA Innovation Advisory, Samsung Emerging Technology Advisory, Innovation Executive Forum, Summer Search, Autonomous ID, &Ascend Leadership NorCal Chair.
Faye has been recognized by Insurance Business Hot 100 and Elite Women in Insurance Business America, Tech for Good Women in Tech, Ascend Leadership Award, Computer World’s Top Premier IT Leaders, Stevie Awards Women helping Women, Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Kaiser Permanente Asian Community and Innovation Enterprise Best Ideation Award.