Aoife Brennan
President and Chief Executive Officer, Synlogic

Dr. Aoife Brennan is an experienced physician, scientist and drug developer responsible for the successful clinical development and registration of multiple transformative medicines. She has served as Synlogic’s president and chief executive officer since May 2018. She joined Synlogic in September 2016 as chief medical officer. Prior to Synlogic, Aoife spent six years at Biogen, most recently as vice president and head of the Rare Disease Innovation Unit, developing programs from pre-clinical to commercial.

A first-generation college graduate, Aoife was born in Kilkenny in the southeast of Ireland, and moved to Boston “for one year only” 16 years ago.

Sandhya S. Douglas
Senior Managing Director, Partner, and Chief Operating Officer, Investments, Wellington Management

Sandhya S. Douglas leads a global team at Wellington Management which operates at the intersection of all the investment functions and acts as a strategic engine powering a strong, dynamic, and global investment platform. Before joining Wellington Management in 2006, she was a senior vice president at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.

Sandhya was born in Chennai, India, lived there until she was ten years old, and then lived in Singapore until age 18, before coming to college in the U.S. in 1989.

Julisa Salas
Chief of Staff, Toast

Julisa Salas, as Chief of Staff, is responsible for driving Toast’s operating system and working alongside the executive team to manage strategic initiatives. Prior to her role as Chief of Staff, Julisa established and led the Go-To-Market Strategy and Operations department at Toast. Julisa was an early employee at Toast, joining in 2016 and serving as Chief of Staff when the company went public in 2021. Before joining Toast, she worked at J.P. Morgan, where she provided financial advice to ultra-high-net-worth individuals. Julisa was recognized by El Mundo’s “Latino 30 under 30” in 2016 and was awarded the Toast Founder’s Award in 2019.

A Dominican-American, Julisa was born and raised in Washington Heights, New York. Her parents emigrated from the Dominican Republic 34 years ago in search of the American dream.

Tiziana Dearing is the host of Radio Boston on WBUR. She’s been a commentator and contributor to WBUR for more than a decade, and has contributed to a number of other regional and national news outlets.

Prior to joining the Radio Boston team, Tiziana was a professor at Boston College in the School of Social Work, where she taught social innovation and leadership. A longtime anti-poverty advocate, Tiziana also ran Boston Rising, a startup antipoverty fund to end generational poverty in Boston, and was the first woman president of Catholic charities for the Archdiocese of Boston.

Mayor Wu is the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, and is the first woman, the first person of color, and the first Asian American to serve as mayor of Boston. She is known for using her platform as a local politician to fight for gender and racial equity.