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About this event
Athena Alliance is hosting our inaugural Athena Summit on December 10th at the Autodesk Gallery in San Francisco, in partnership with Autodesk! This exclusive event is designed to inspire women leaders in innovation across industries. The gallery, known for its stunning exhibits of design and engineering marvels, provides a dynamic, visually captivating backdrop that blends creativity with technology. The space is chosen deliberately, reflecting the intersection of innovation, leadership, and the limitless potential of future-forward thinking.
Opening Experience: Upon arrival, attendees are greeted with immersive displays showcasing groundbreaking innovations—from architectural models to sustainable design concepts. As guests walk through, they encounter stories of female pioneers in various fields, spotlighted alongside the Autodesk exhibits to symbolize the event’s broader theme of cross-industry collaboration.
Keynote Address: The event opens with a keynote speech by renowned female leaders who have championed innovation not only within their organizations, but also in global conversations about leadership and the future of work. This talk sets the tone for a forward-thinking discussion about the role of women in driving innovation at scale.
Panel Discussion: Next, a panel of female innovators and executives from diverse industries such as tech, healthcare, finance, and manufacturing share insights on how they are redefining leadership in their organizations. The conversation covers not only how they’ve fostered innovation but also the obstacles they’ve overcome, with a strong focus on actionable strategies for scaling ideas.
Networking Reception: The event closes with a networking reception that takes place within the gallery, surrounded by Autodesk’s awe-inspiring displays. This reception is designed to connect women leaders with each other in an inspiring and collaborative environment, with a focus on building long-lasting connections and future partnerships. Refreshments will be provided during this time.
Throughout the evening, the Autodesk Gallery itself serves as a source of inspiration, symbolizing the future of what’s possible when innovation meets leadership. With its exhibits serving as conversation starters, the gallery creates a sense of excitement, reinforcing Athena's core message: women are not just participating in innovation—they are leading it.
Timing:
-5:00pm: Guests arrive and are free to walk the gallery (come early as it will take time to park, and enter the building)
-5:30pm: Welcoming Keynote
-6:00pm: Panel discussion
-7:00pm Networking Receptions
-8:00pm Close
Limited to 200 attendees. Please RSVP with commitment so as not to take a spot from someone else.
Want to bring a friend? This event is open to both Athena members and Athena-curious women. To bring a guest, please email [email protected] to get an invite link and code.
Experts
Coco Brown CEO
Coco Brown is the Founder and CEO of Athena Alliance. Athena has helped thousands of leaders build their Portfolio of Impact and grow and advance in their executive careers. The company has also brought almost 500 women to corporate boards from growth stage private companies to name brand public companies. Coco has personally worked with hundreds of top leaders, CEOs and boards to evolve modern leadership. She’s served on ten commercial and non-profit boards and advisory boards, and has led two notable companies (Taos, acquired by IBM, and now Athena). She is part of Nasdaq's Governance Insights Council, and is often called on to share guidance to the evolving focus and breadth of responsibility within the Modern Boardroom. Coco was recently named one of the 100 Most Powerful People of Silicon Valley.
Zenia Tata CEO
Zenia Tata is an innovation strategist, a trained futurist, and a humanitarian who is passionate about tapping the vastness of human potential to tackle the planet's most vexing problems. Zenia spent 10 years at XPRIZE as the Chief Impact Officer hired by Founder/CEO Peter Diamandis. When she started at XPRIZE in 2013, the focus was big tech challenges in space and mobility. Zenia was brought on to expand the model to serve the other 7 billion people on our planet, based on her work in the field, across Asia and Africa, on large-scale planetary issues like access to water, food, energy, healthcare and education. She' trained in the best of the best methodologies to design moonshots from courses from MIT and Oxford, to deep examination of Astro Teller of Google X's moonshot thinking principles, to studying science fiction prototyping, bio mimetic design, Da Vinci’s design principles, and Kriya Yoga principles for living in harmony with body, mind and spirit. Zenia has designed 25 moonshot prizes in every sector. And she is currently involved on two start-up teams: InLife, a highly empathetic AI life coach, and Entrokey, where the focus is creating post-quantum keys with high entropy, based on cosmic radiation. She is also advising two VCs, Kitty Hawk Ventures and MAKR VC (launching later this year).
Ali Kole Independent Board Director & Advisor
Ali Kole is a global board member and CEO with 30 years of experience leading consumer businesses from founder-led startups to $5B, through disruptive innovation, brand building and digital excellence. She understands how to attract and serve the aspirational luxury consumer across all lifestyle categories, as a senior executive spanning Microsoft, LVMH, Sephora, and Amazon and now as an independent board director and consultant. Most recently Ali led Amazon’s multi billion dollar Premium Beauty business, where she secured and launched the world's leading beauty brands, deployed an elevated digital shopping experience, and led Amazon to a top three US premium beauty destination. She was initially recruited to Amazon to advise Retail and CPG enterprises on digital transformation, data strategy, and retail media networks. Her prior experience includes 8 years at LVMH as SVP of Strategy & Business Development at Sephora, co-founding beauty brand incubator Kendo, and serving as CEO and board member of the Ole Henriksen skincare brand which she acquired for LVMH. She also created and led her own beauty consultancy, advising beauty and retail investors and brands on acquisitions, due diligence, and global expansion, including supporting a $15 Billion IPO. Before pivoting into beauty, Ali spent 9 years at Microsoft in digital media and ecommerce, created and served on the board of two digital media JVs, and was a consultant with McKinsey and with Bain. She holds an MBA with honors from Harvard Business School and a BA with honors from Brown University.
Asmau Ahmed Product and AI Leader
Asmau Ahmed is a transformative product and AI leader who consistently delivers breakthrough commercial growth through cutting-edge research and responsible innovation across enterprise and consumer markets and the financial services industry. At Google, Asmau drove product innovation across AI/ML and Personalization for Ads, Search, Gemini, Maps, Shopping, and Commerce, building experiences that billions trust daily. Her foundation in AI began as an engineer and CEO, when she built one of the first venture-backed ML and computer vision companies to reach global scale.
At GoogleX (Alphabet's moonshot factory), Asmau served on the leadership team, reported to the CEO and co-led 600 pioneers building breakthrough technology-businesses. Her work scaled innovations to market, including the landmark partnership between Wing (Alphabet's drone delivery) and Walmart. Her background - from chemical manufacturing to software/ML/AI - uniquely positioned her to guide ventures bridging physical sciences and hardware with AI innovation (in material sciences, clean energy, biotech, climate tech and more). Earlier, Asmau worked with CEOs and CTOs of eight global banks, driving innovation in payments, data security, cloud, and fraud prevention. This work balanced technology development and strategic M&A, while navigating complex regulatory requirements. Asmau served two terms on Walmart's advisory board for its Opportunity Leadership Council.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ She also served as an independent board director of Creative Artists Agency (CAA, acquired by Artemis) and currently serves on QuinStreet's board (NASDAQ, audit committee). She advises Women Who Invest and Black ComputeHer.
Hosts
Amy Bunszel Executive Vice President, Architecture, Technology/Engineering and Construction Design
Amy is an executive vice president at Autodesk, leading Autodesk’s architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) solutions portfolio. She leads a global team in developing and delivering AI powered desktop, web, and mobile apps that have been adopted by millions of design, engineering and construction professionals worldwide. Amy is responsible for product and industry strategy, as well as software development for Autodesk’s AEC design and make solutions including the Autodesk AEC Collection, Autodesk Forma, AutoCAD family, Autodesk Revit, Autodesk Civil 3D, Autodesk Construction Cloud, and more. Before this role, she also led the manufacturing design and media and entertainment solutions teams. Prior to that, she transformed Autodesk’s best-selling AutoCAD product line into a modern multi-platform offering that serves as the backbone of the company’s subscription business. Amy is passionate about helping customers achieve better outcomes— be they cost, schedule, carbon, occupant experience, and more. She enjoys connecting the dots between strategy and large-scale product execution, as well as building high-performing teams to deliver value to customers. With over 30 years’ experience, she has worked in technology as an entrepreneur, innovator, and software company founder. Amy holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She serves on the board of directors of Pixelworks (PXLW) and is a member of the President’s Council for Cornell Women, the Entrepreneurship Program at Cornell, and The Athena Alliance. 
Tue, Dec 10 @ 5:00pm PT (3 hrs)
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A Look Inside Athena
A Look Inside Athena is held monthly for prospect members to come and understand how Athena works. They will learn more about the backstory of Athena, see a tour of our platform, and have the opportunity to discuss more of what they are interested in and ask questions about joining our community.
Salons
Learn about the most pressing topics facing executives today in an intimate, yet casual, virtual setting. Hosted by board directors and leaders from the world's top brands.
Meetups
Gather with Athena members in your area for a casual, in-person Meetup. These are planned by request and hosted by Athena members in various cities. If you're interested in hosting and/or joining a meetup in the future, reach out to the Member Success Team and let them know.
Peer Groups
We have an incredible community of female leaders at Athena and we want to bring you closer together! Join a Peer Group and build a network of peers you can engage with for guidance, lessons learned and insights around a shared interest. Choose a topic that most interests you or drop in and out of multiple peer groups as it suits you best. You’ll find at least one peer group available to join every week. Each live session goes for one hour, no preparation is needed, just show up as you are. We look forward to seeing you there!
Learning Circles
A Learning Circle is an opportunity to connect with a small group of other Athena members in a focused yet casual setting, creating accountability around targeted learning to assist you in achieving your goals. Over the course of 6 sessions, club members will meet every 2 weeks to participate in an organic, peer-led discussion of the session's "chapters" consisting of 1-2 Athena salons which are to be reviewed on your own prior to the group session. When joining, members are committing to completing all 6 sessions.
Guided Networking
Typically led by one of Athena's coaches, networking events provide members an opportunity to meet one another in a smaller intimate and virtual setting.
Partner Events
These are typically in-person events led by Coco and our partnering companies on topics that are relevant to the industry and audience of our business partners.
Workshops
A workshop is an interactive session for members to actively practice something, such as their pitch. These sessions typically involve breakout rooms, member to member feedback and are not recorded.
Orientations
For members new to Athena looking for ways to engage, these bi-weekly orientations led by an Athena Member Success Manager, provide a live tour of Athena, member success insights, and a chance to get questions answered.
Enterprise Events
Athena customizes virtual learning events with expert business leaders tailored to a unique company’s needs. These events cultivate cross-functional community, development, and learning across the partner organization.
Other
Athena listens and we're always adding new event types and opportunities for members to engage. See what new events we are currently offering members.
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