The Portugal-US Chamber of Commerce is honored to invite you to a Zoom conversation, “Successful Portuguese Businesswomen in the US”, on Wednesday, November 18th, 2020 at 10AM ET. 

Speaker Profiles:

Donzelina Barroso, Director, Global Philanthropy, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors

In 2017, Donzie, who had headed several programs at RPA, was asked to launch RPA’s London office. She currently leads RPA’s European advisory and thought leadership work. She has over fifteen years of experience in international grantmaking and project management at RPA, including work in education, the arts, health & human services, community development and environmental issues. She is a frequent speaker at philanthropic conferences and events. Donzie has worked with RPA’s major individual, private, family, corporate and institutional donors in a variety of capacities and has also participated in RPA’s Scaling Solutions, SDG Philanthropy Platform, and Theory of the Foundation thought leadership initiatives, helping to lead workshops in Brazil, Colombia, and Italy. Donzie currently leads a collaborative client engagement aimed at enhancing the use of venture philanthropy concepts among funders in Brazil. She is also leading an effort to develop a methodology to assess the contribution toward the SDGs of a major European foundation. Donzie has led a donor initiative to improve social services for children in Portugal, has designed, and implemented educational funding for disadvantaged communities, helped develop an arts center in the U.S., and developed policies, programs, and governance procedures for new foundations in Europe and the U.S.

Donzie serves on the STEP UK Philanthropy Programme Programming Committee. She also serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board at NOVA School of Business and Economics, Lisbon, and the board of the Portugal-US Chamber of Commerce, New York. Previously, Donzie served on the inaugural Steering Committee for International Grantmaking at Philanthropy New York. Donzie holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from Columbia University, a Master’s in Public Administration from the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University, and a B.A. from Barnard College at Columbia University. She is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Portugal.

Daniela Braga, PhD – Founder and CEO of DefinedCrowd

Dr. Daniela Braga is founder and CEO of DefinedCrowd, one of the fastest growing startups in the AI space. With two decades of experience across research, industry and entrepreneurship, and a hybrid background that spans from linguistics to engineering to AI, Dr. Braga is a citizen of the world and one the world leaders of Crowdsourcing adoption in large enterprises.

Previously at Microsoft, De. Braga worked across all stacks of Speech Technology and shipped 26 languages for Exchange 14, 10 TTS voices in Windows 8 and was involved in Cortana. At Voicebox Technologies, created the Data Science team and shipped voice enabled products for clients like Samsung and Toyota, introduced Crowdsourcing for big data solutions and re-structured the Engineering infrastructure around data collection, processing, ingestion, instrumentation and discoverability. Dr. Braga is oftentimes guest lecturer in the University of Washington, USA, is the author of more than 90 scientific papers and several patents.
At DefinedCrowd, Dr. Braga has raised more than $63 million USD, and is the woman founder who raised the largest Series B in the US. Always looking for the next challenge and to get out of her comfort zone, Dr. Braga has led her company to outstanding achievements in just five years.

Dr. Braga has been recognized as the Entrepreneur of the Year 2019 by the João Vasconcelos Award, and is an Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2020 Pacific Northwest finalist. Under her leadership, DefinedCrowd ranked #27 in the Inc 5000 list with an 8550% revenue growth (2016-2019), won the VentureBeat AI Innovation Award (2019); and was featured on the following rankings: Forbes’ America’s Best Startup Employers, Forbes’ America’s Top 50 Most Promising AI Companies (2019); Hottest Start-ups in Lisbon by Wired (2018, 2019); AI 100: The Artificial Intelligence Startups Redefining Industries (2019).

Ana Tavares – VP, Finance & Accounting, Canon U.S.A., Inc.

Ana C. Tavares is vice president of Finance & Accounting. In this role, she oversees the accounting policies and practices, financial reporting, internal controls, management reporting and analysis for all Canon Americas companies. Ms. Tavares also manages the coordination of external and internal audits, M&A activities, investor relations, and maintenance of financial systems. In addition, she is responsible for the tax and treasury functions of Canon U.S.A.

Prior to Canon, Ms. Tavares began her career in Public Accounting with Pannell Kerr Forster and BDO Seidman in Portugal, and then held several management positions at Pall Corporation and Bristol Myers Squibb. She joined Canon in 2013 in her current position as vice president.
Ms. Tavares received both undergraduate and graduate degrees in Accountancy and Administration from Lisbon Higher Institute of Accounting Administration, ISCAL, as well as a post-graduate degree in International Commerce from Universidade Lusiada de Lisboa, and a Business Law Certificate from Cornell University.

Fernando Forman – Managing Partner at Citisuites International Realty

Fernanda began her career working for JW Marriott Corporation as an assistant at the fabled Essex House hotel on Central Park South in New York City. When the 800+ room hotel was converted into the first condominium hotel in the US, Fernanda, who by then had received several promotions, became the Executive Vice President of real estate.

Twenty years later Fernanda’s successfully negotiated an exit strategy with Marriott which resulted in the development of her own real estate firm, CitiSuites International Realty, based in New York City. Today, she oversees her own company and continues to be the on-site real estate management arm for the JW Marriott’s hotel flag at the hotel where she has spent nearly 45 years. In her position, Fernanda interacts daily with world leaders, captains of industry, Hollywood celebrities and world acclaimed musical talent.
Born in a small town in Algarve, Portugal, Fernanda lived in Paris, France, from the ages of six to 15. She then immigrated to the United States with her parents.

Fernanda’s Portuguese ancestry and immigrant upbringing have shaped her in many ways including the ability to adapt and connect with people traveling from various nations and of different backgrounds and are the source of much pride.