M&A transactions can appear dauting, involving complex technical and high stakes elements. But at its core, M&A really focuses on leveraging the human relationships and processes of two combined businesses. As a community centric and naturally social person, Gabrielle DiBernadri, an Associate at Ropes & Gray, has found a unique way to share her gifts when advising her private equity clients. We’ll sit down with Gabrielle as she shares her secrets of bringing authenticity and fun into dealmaking and fostering business relationships.

“I’m going to do what I love until I don’t love it anymore.” That’s the mantra that has guided Devika Kornbacher on her path from ministry to engineering to law and technology. Combining her engineering mind and a knack for issue spotting problem solving, Devika has found a career she loves as a Partner in technology transactions and intellectual property at Vinson & Elkins. In this episode, we’ll learn about her journey, obstacles she’s overcome and the mindset that drives her forward today.

Unlike stereotypes of lawyers from bygone days, today’s up-and-coming corporate attorneys are refreshingly entrepreneurial, energized and purpose-driven. Tammy Davies exemplifies this new archetype.  In her role as an Associate in the Alternative Lender and Private Credit practice at Paul Hastings, she spends her days helping alternative lenders and investors in complex credit arrangements. This episode explores Tammy’s journey into law, obstacles she has overcome and what keeps her energized.

Karen Neuman, Partner at the law firm, Dechert and co-chair of the firm’s global privacy & cybersecurity practice and Leah Perry, Chief Privacy Officer & Global Head of Public Policy at Box, a publicly traded Cloud Content Management company join us as two of the top minds in data privacy and law. We’ll hear about what keeps them up at night, the biggest privacy legal trends in 2021 and tips for how companies can scale whilst adhering to the nuanced privacy laws across different jurisdictions. 

In our final episode of our 3-part series on affordable and essential housing, we speak with architect Nancy Bastian who specializes in affordable housing projects in Philadelphia.  Whether she is working on senior housing or buildings for families, her goal is to make “people feel like a million bucks” when they reside in a unit she has designed.  “Constraints are awesome”, according to Nancy; low budget, complex approval processes and special needs of tenants require creativity and beauty which makes this work especially fun and rewarding.  

In our next episode of our 3-part series on affordable and essential housing, let’s talk about solving the Essential Housing shortage. Julie Kittler is a real estate investor and asset manager specializing in the multifamily sector. Nicknamed “The Secret Weapon”, Julie oversees the performance of 28,000 rental units in her team’s portfolio. With this vantage point, Julie sees opportunities across the real estate spectrum from Class A to Essential Housing, and helps us understand why institutional investors might find essential housing a natural fit in their core portfolios.

In the first of our 3-part series on affordable housing, we’ll try to understand the problem.  There is a shortage of housing today in the segment of the United States housing market which services low and moderate income workers – called Essential Housing or sometimes Affordable Housing. Essential Housing renters have few housing choices that they can afford in locations where they would like to live. What’s driving this supply and demand imbalance? What makes something unaffordable? How can institutional capital help? 

In this episode, we’ll meet one Kayo alumni and community member Kyle Kosmider who happens to be a male.  Managing Partner at Urban Opportunities in Nashville, Kyle has attended Kayo events summits across multiple industries and cities, and been a stalwart supporter of our activities and of the women in our network. We’ll explore Kyle’s personal and career journey, and what it feels like to be the only man in the room.

In Part 3 of our Cybersecurity Series, you’ll learn how to reduce the risk of a ransomware incident at your firm (hint: MFA!) and how to learn from the mistakes of others. Our guest hosts, Brenda Sharton, Partner at international leading law firm Dechert and John Ansbach from Stroz Friedberg, a division of Aon have dedicated their careers to helping their clients navigate cyber risk management and incident response.

In Part 2 of our Cybersecurity Series, we’ll tackle the most burning questions businesses face during a ransomware incident: Should we pay? Is anyone else paying? Is it legal to pay? If we pay, will they honor it? What if paying a ransom violates our company culture and principles? Our guest hosts, Brenda Sharton, Partner at international leading law firm Dechert and John Ansbach from Stroz Friedberg, a division of Aon have dedicated their careers to helping their clients navigate cyber risk management and incident response.