Women in Global Leadership PHX 2022

We held the 6th Annual Women in Global Leadership PHX event at Global Chamber® Phoenix with 6 extraordinary leaders - 5 women, one man. The event was in-person at Global Chamber® in Thunderbird and available via zoom.

There was a short tour of the Thunderbird building after the event, led by Katie Altersitz of Thunderbird.

Watch the event here.

Many take-aways! Each of the women shared personal and important ideas to inspire faster change. Thank you all! Tony Banegas as the man this time was equally amazing, and the story of how he left work for 3 weeks to be with the Central American children coming across the border and staying in a vegetable warehouse in Nogales, Arizona is not to be missed. That's leadership.

Our "Women in Global Leadership" event began 6 years ago in the early days of Global Chamber®, and we continue to tradition, always with an engaging, interesting and group of global leaders. The purpose of this annual signature event is to cover challenges and opportunities for organizations to add more value with gender balance in leadership including board leadership. We include one man on the panel to increase leadership engagement.

We hold this event in metro regions around the world, and the last one for Phoenix featured Mayor Kate Gallego, and that last event was captured on our youtube channel here. Special thanks to our sponsors including Squire Patton Boggs, who is a founding member and sponsor, and was instrumental in helping us establish this as a signature event.

Agenda

• Dr. Velma Trayham - CEO at Thinkzilla Consulting Group
• Christine MacKay - Community and Economic Development Director at City of Phoenix
• Evelyn Shahla - VP, Relationship Manager (Commercial Banking) at PNC Bank
• Diana White - Executive Director at NACET Campus (Moonshot at NACET)
• The Honorable Tony Banegas - CEO at Rebuilding Together (Valley of the Sun), Director at Diplomatic Corps of Arizona and Consul Emeritus of Honduras (U.S. State Department)

Moderators:

• Karen Bottesch - Senior Vice President, Sr. Relationship Manager of Business Banking at Bank of America

• Doug Bruhnke - Global Chamber®

00:30 – Q&A Session

01:15 - End

Speaker Bios

Dr. Velma Trayham - CEO, ThinkZILLA Consulting Group & Founder, Millionaire Mastermind Academy. Dr. Trayham is an award-winning Entrepreneur, sought-after speaker and economic empowerment specialist who believes that inclusive, equitable businesses and communities are what create opportunity and drive prosperity. Through ThinkZILLA Consulting Group Dr. Trayham builds, manages, and helps bring greater awareness to programs and initiatives that are vital to supporting underserved and underrepresented communities around the U.S.

Dr. Trayham is a recipient of the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Awards given by President Biden.

Having been born into poverty, Dr. Trayham understands the realities associated with growing up poor. That’s why she has devoted her life to helping other women achieve success. Her best-selling book titled When God Says Go represents her philosophy on life and her commitment to being of service to others.

To date, Dr. Trayham has mentored more than 5,000 minority women business owners in the past three years. She has also developed programs for notable fortune 500 organizations and enterprises such as University of Phoenix, T.D. Jakes Enterprises, Fiji Water, Country Financial, Atlanta Airlines Terminal Company, Blaylock Van, LLC amongst others and was recently featured in Forbes November 2020 issue as a top business consultant.

Christine MacKay - Community and Economic Development Director at City of Phoenix. “Every day I have the priviledge of helping to build our city of the future for businesses and residents.” Phoenix Community and Economic Development director, Christine Mackay, has served the people of Phoenix since August 2014. She is responsible for leading and fostering an environment where businesses can create and retain jobs, make capital investment and reinvestment in the community, and connect our workforce to employers and training opportunities. During Mackay’s tenure with the City of Phoenix, the department has facilitated the creation of over 75,000 high-value jobs, seen the average wage of those jobs increase from over $30,000 in 2014 to more than $70,000 in 2019, and closed deals with more than $20 billion in capital investment.

Christine leads a department of over 55 full time staff that encompasses the full spectrum of economic development areas including: business attraction, business retention and expansion, community development, international relations, Sister Cities, the Phoenix Business and Workforce Development Board, administration, research, marketing, the City-owned Footprint Center and the Phoenix Biomedical Campus.

In 2021, Christine was named as one of the Top 50 Economic Developers in the Country by Consultant Connect. She is a three-time honoree as "Economic Developer of the Year, Large Community" by the Arizona Association for Economic Development. Mackay was recognized as "Leader of the Year in Economic Development–Public Policy" by the Arizona Capitol Times, and "Industry Leader of the Year – Economic Development" by Arizona Commercial Real Estate Magazine. She has also been on the list of the Arizona Business magazine’s "50 Most Influential Women in Arizona."

She is a member of the Economic Development Director's Team for Greater Phoenix, Maricopa Association of Government's Building a Quality Regional Community committee, Flinn Foundation Biosciences Roadmap committee, the International Economic Development Council (IEDC), Commercial Office Real Estate Executives (CoreNet), the Arizona Association for Economic Development (AAED), and the Arizona Business Incubator Association. Christine has nearly 25 years’ experience in economic development overlapping 30 years of commercial real estate experience. Mackay has spent both her personal and professional life here in the Valley.

Evelyn Shahla - VP, Relationship Manager (Commercial Banking) at PNC Bank. Evelyn joined BBVA... now PNC... in Feb of 2020 and has 14 years of banking experience primarily working with business owners and commercial banking clients.

As VP, Relationship Manager, she works on the Emerging Companies Commercial Banking Team, responsible for expanding commercial banking practice across Arizona, with a primary focus of working with companies between $10 and $50 million in annual revenues.

Evelyn moved to Arizona in 2005 from Michigan and resides with her husband and three daughters. Education: University of Michigan-Flint.

Diana White - Executive Director at NACET Campus (Moonshot at NACET). Diana White has over 30 years in sales, retail, consumer psychology, and marketing experience as just a few of her skillsets. She established D.E.W. Business Solutions, LLC in 2014 to provide business consulting for small businesses. ​ Diana then took on the role of Director for the Coconino County Small Business Development Center and is proud to deliver instruction to entrepreneurs and small business owners through her work with Moonshot at NACET. Diana brings that same passion for helping businesses to her role as CEO of the Chandler Innovations Incubator. She provides the leadership and forward thinking that is required to take your business to the next level.

The Honorable Tony Banegas - CEO at Rebuilding Together (Valley of the Sun), Director at Diplomatic Corps of Arizona and Consul Emeritus of Honduras (U.S. State Department). Consul Banegas serves as member of the Executive Board of the Diplomatic Corps of Arizona. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Rebuilding Together whose mission is to Repair homes, Revitalize communities and to Rebuild lives. Prior to this role, he was the Executive Director of the Colibrí Center for Human Rights based in Tucson. Their Mission is to promote healing and change by working with families of disappeared migrants to identify and honor those who have died on the US-Mexico border.

Prior to this position he was a Philanthropic Advisor at the Arizona Community Foundation for almost 9 years. In this role, he was the Relationship Manager to 90 funds including Donor Advised funds, Family Foundations and nonprofit endowments; he also provided leadership on select special initiatives of the Foundation, including: The Funder’s Collaborative with Hispanic in Philanthropy, Latinos Unidos, The Latina Giving Circle, The Black Philanthropy Initiative, The African American Giving Circle, African American Male Giving Circle, the Arizona Asian Pacific Giving Circle, The Arizona Family Economic Success Initiative (AZFES) and Project SAM (Shared Asset Measurement), a Collective Impact initiative.

Before he joined the Arizona Community Foundation he spent 13 years as an Executive with two large nonprofits providing oversight of numerous child-welfare programs dealing with behavioral health, health, early childhood, prevention, etc. in Central and West Phoenix. He has supported numerous projects in Honduras, including housing, water, medicine and medical equipment, garbage trucks, etc. He has served on numerous Boards Including Hogar Materno (Honduras), Avondale Neighborhood Housing Services, Arizona Forward, US-Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership, Maricopa County Integrated Health Systems, Board of Trustees, Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Phoenix, etc.

Consul Banega was awarded the Paul Harris Fellow in 2000 by Rotary International and was inducted into the Phoenix College Hall of Fame in 2001. He was awarded the Raul Yzaguirre Community Leadership Award by Valle del Sol in 2014. He is a graduate of Valley Leadership Class XXI. He is a student and devotee of Servant Leadership as defined by Robert Greenleaf. He earned a Master in Public Administration and a Bachelors in Business Administration, both from Arizona State University. He is a proud Papi of Sara and Sabrina, a School Psychologist and a Registered Nurse, respectively. Tony is an avid soccer player.

Moderators

Karen Bottesch - Senior Vice President, Sr. Relationship Manager of Business Banking at Bank of America. Karen is a Senior Vice President and Commercial Banker in the Arizona market at Bank of America. In this capacity, her responsibilities include leading a team of specialists focused on understanding each client’s unique needs to deliver strategic financial guidance and solutions. Karen’s mission is to help local companies thrive by achieving their business goals no matter how simple or how complex. Bringing over 30 years of experience beginning with The Arizona Bank, then Security Pacific Bank, then Bank of America, Karen joined the Bank of America team in Phoenix in 2008. She has also previously held roles in Treasury Cash Management, Merchant Services, Foreign Exchange, and with an ATM & Card Network the bank operated. Throughout her banking career, Karen has served mid-sized companies in Phoenix, New York, Charlotte, and Nashville areas to support their commercial banking needs.

To help create a more sustainable future for the companies and communities she serves, Karen serves as Ambassador and International Leadership Council (ILC) member with the Greater Phoenix Economic Council (GPEC), represents the bank at the Phoenix Committee for Foreign Relations (PCFR), hosts for the bank’s Women’s Council, served on the banks Foundation Committee, and was President of the Fireside Community Triplex in Desert Ridge for several years. Karen graduated with a degree in Finance from Arizona State University (ASU), holds a MBA from the University of Phoenix (Nashville – on ground program), and holds a Certified Treasury Professional (CTP) designation from the Association of Financial Professionals. Karen resides in Phoenix, Arizona.

Doug Bruhnke - Founder/CEO of Global Chamber®. Doug is a global entrepreneur dedicated to helping members of Global Chamber® successfully reach new markets across 525 metros - everywhere! He is a two-time expat with Dupont in Tokyo and Singapore with over 30 years of global business experience in nearly all countries and segments. Doug is also regional advisor for U.S. Global Leadership Coalition and a member of Arizona District Export Council, British American Business Council of Northern California and more. He has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of Utah and an EMBA from Michigan State University, and is co-inventor on 5 patents. Doug was born in Mount Kisco, New York and now is based in Scottsdale, Arizona and Palo Alto, California. Hear the Global Chamber® story here

Global Chamber® is a growing and collaborating community of CEOs, executives and leaders in 525 metro regions around the world... connecting member businesses to new opportunities and advancing growth and success. It's the only chamber of commerce in the world operating in hundreds of locations that helps exporting, importing and investing members to connect through warm introductions to clients, partners, projects and resources. Global Chamber® is a registered trademark of Global Chamber, LLC since 2014.