Sarah Kauss
Sarah Kauss is the Founder of S’well. She is a consumer products leader with a track record in launching companies, building multi-million dollar successful brands, and assembling high-performance senior leadership teams. She is a successful global entrepreneur, product design expert and has deep experience in partnering with multinational corporations to become more sustainable and meet environmental goals.
Sarah held the position of CEO of S’well for ten years: bootstrapping with $30,000 of her savings to reach over $100 million in revenue. During this time, Sarah created a new category and well-loved brand, helping to make sustainability more mainstream. An early advocate of the importance of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) in business, Sarah integrated values and impact within S’well from the start. Today, S’well is a Certified B Corp with a wide range of products that has helped displace more than 4 billion single-use plastic bottles.
Prior to S’well, Sarah was an international real estate developer with a publicly-traded real estate equity investment trust where she spent six years with increasing responsibility leading large international collaborations and partnerships. Sarah started her career in public accounting with EY (formerly Ernst & Young), as a Certified Public Accountant, working in both tax consulting and the auditing function. She provided professional services to public and privately held companies in the technology, consumer products and media sectors.
Sarah regularly shares her lessons learned and most important entrepreneurial moments with the press, including Inc., Fortune, Forbes, Bloomberg, NPR and more. She has been recognized as a Fortune’s “40 Under 40” honoree, EY Entrepreneurial Winning Woman and awarded the Harvard Business School Club of New York's Entrepreneurship Award. Under Sarah’s leadership, S’well was named #1 Fastest-Growing, women-led company by the Women Presidents’ Organization, was honored with the Brand Design award by Inc. magazine and placement on the Inc. 500 List (top 100) of fastest-growing, privately-held companies.
Sarah sits on the UNICEF USA New York Regional Board, is an Entrepreneur in Residence at Harvard Business School and a mentor in the Fortune-State Department Global Mentoring Program. Sarah is a member of the 2018 Class of Henry Crown Fellows and a member of the 2020 Class of Braddock Scholars within the Aspen Global leadership Network at the Aspen Institute. She earned a BS in accounting from the University of Colorado, Boulder and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Jaclynn (Jax) Brennan
Jaclynn (Jax) Brennan is a Creative Executive and expert on the connection between business and branding. With over 12 years of experience as a Creative Director for a variety of luxury fashion brands, and having helped lead over 22 major corporations in executing branding strategies, she is an authority on taking brands, organizations, and entrepreneurs to the next level of success.
Jax is also the CEO of Fyli, a female mastermind membership community focused on educational masterclasses, accountability, peer-to-peer mentorship, leadership advancement and funding opportunities for early stage female founders. At Fyli, she oversees all corporate partnerships, including Soho House and Bumble, investor relations, curriculum structure, and team culture.
Having coined the term “creative duality”, which explores the strategies and new frontiers of branding using conceptual thinking for multiple categories in the fashion, photography, sports, art, medical, real estate, and consumer goods industries. Jax has used this method to design Serena William’s first jewelry collection, launch multiple ready-to-wear collaborations with Lord & Taylor and Bloomingdales, and executive produce the documentary series, “Connecting Thread” for Refinery29.
Jax’s initiatives are authentic, approachable, and meant for everyone - women; men who are supportive of women; female entrepreneurs; women who are starting their career; new mothers who may feel left out in their careers; women who are interested in fashion, lifestyle, beauty, travel, health and wellness; anyone who needs hope, inspiration, support.
Learn more at https://jaclynnbrennan.com/ and https://fylitribe.com/
Whitney Meyer
Whitney Meyer is the Senior Vice President and Chief Community Impact Officer for the Jacksonville Jaguars. She is responsible for the development and implementation of the Jaguars community impact initiatives, including operations of the Jaguars Foundation, Inspire Change and Social Justice Initiatives, and community activities in connection with local development projects.
She previously worked as the inaugural Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer at the University of North Florida. In that role she advised University leadership on diversity, inclusion and racial equity pertaining to strategies and policies, learning and research, community relations and the recruitment, retention and admission of faculty, staff and students of color.
Currently, Whitney serves on the PS27 Foundation Board, JAX Chamber Hightower Fellowship Board, and the Generation USA Board. She also is a frequent volunteer for the Friends of Boone Park South.
Kawanza Humphrey
Juliet is a creative leader with experience designing and managing strategic plans, budgets and business operations. Julie founded OnPay Solutions, a SaaS accounts payable automation company, in 2009 and served as the company’s COO until March of 2022 when the company was acquired by Stockholm, Sweden-based Medius, a leading provider of AP Automation and wider spend management solutions. When asked, she is most proud of the nearly 100% client satisfaction rating maintained during the years at OnPay Solutions.
In addition, with more than 25 years of business leadership experience, she was the Jacksonville Chamber’s Professional Businesswoman of the Year in 2018, and named a 2019 TECH Leader in the community by the Jacksonville Business Journal. Also, Julie and OnPay Solutions were twice listed on the Gator 100 – the list of the fastest growing companies lead by University of Florida Alumnae. In addition, OnPay Solutions was listed as a GrowFL 2019 Company to Watch by GrowFL.
Now retired, when she is not spending time with her family, Julie serves on the Dean’s Leadership Council for the University of Florida CLAS and is deeply involved in the UF Beyond 120 program and serves on the BILT Advisory Committee at Florida State College at Jacksonville and recently joined the Board of GrowFL.
Juliet Negrete-Anderson
Juliet is a creative leader with experience designing and managing strategic plans, budgets and business operations. Julie founded OnPay Solutions, a SaaS accounts payable automation company, in 2009 and served as the company’s COO until March of 2022 when the company was acquired by Stockholm, Sweden-based Medius, a leading provider of AP Automation and wider spend management solutions. When asked, she is most proud of the nearly 100% client satisfaction rating maintained during the years at OnPay Solutions.
In addition, with more than 25 years of business leadership experience, she was the Jacksonville Chamber’s Professional Businesswoman of the Year in 2018, and named a 2019 TECH Leader in the community by the Jacksonville Business Journal. Also, Julie and OnPay Solutions were twice listed on the Gator 100 – the list of the fastest growing companies lead by University of Florida Alumnae. In addition, OnPay Solutions was listed as a GrowFL 2019 Company to Watch by GrowFL.
Now retired, when she is not spending time with her family, Julie serves on the Dean’s Leadership Council for the University of Florida CLAS and is deeply involved in the UF Beyond 120 program and serves on the BILT Advisory Committee at Florida State College at Jacksonville and recently joined the Board of GrowFL.
Asia (Aceyaa) Mohamed
Asia (Aceyaa) Mohamed is the founder of Premier Starter and Managing Partner at Noma Capital. Ms. Mohamed dedicates her time to educating, empowering, and supporting the minority community nationwide. It is her goal and passion to close the racial equity gap and the financial literacy gap in America. In support of that goal, she founded Premier Starter, which helps improve financial literacy among immigrants and underrepresented individuals, fosters an entrepreneurial mindset, and works directly with entrepreneurs to help them obtain funding.
In addition, she launched the venture capital firm Noma Capital to invest in Africans & African diaspora founders with her team. Furthermore, based on Noma Capital’s need assessment, Ms. Mohamed created & launched Noma Tech Incubator Program to help the founders get investment ready, without taking any equity or charging any fees, tailored to the specific experiences and struggles that early-stage Africans & African diaspora founders face when building their startups.
Ms. Mohamed has an incredible network spanning the African diaspora across the United States and has a significant track record of supporting that network to both start and accelerate their journey from ideation to company growth. Aceyaa is also a steering committee board member for the CONNECTNetwork with the Mayo Clinic Office of Entrepreneurship and St.Cathrine University.
Kerri Stewart
As Chief Strategy Officer at Miller Electric, Kerri Stewart works collaboratively across the entire business to leverage data and analytics to drive improvement to business and customer outcomes. Kerri participates in the development of business strategy and establishes/manages plans to achieve corporate business objectives. She also provides support for initiative owners and strategic committees to ensure alignment across the company. And to that end, she works with internal and external resources to foster government and industry relations in support of Miller's strategic initiatives and business growth.
Prior to joining Miller, Kerri was the Chief Customer Officer for JEA. Kerri lead the team responsible for the entire relationship with the customer for one of the largest municipally-owned electric, water and wastewater utilities in the country, including business development, customer experience, communications, field and meter solutions, utility and customer analytics, billing and payment, call center operations and community engagement.
Prior to joining JEA, Kerri served as Chief of Staff for current Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, providing policy and public affairs guidance. From 2011 – 2015, Stewart was a Senior Vice President at Infinity Global Solutions, focusing on the areas of government privatization, public infrastructure development, general management consulting and government relations. Through her consulting practice, Kerri served as interim-President of Visit Jacksonville, the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville and LISC.
A deeply committed, experienced public servant and inspirational change-leader, Stewart also served as Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Jacksonville under Mayors John Peyton and Alvin Brown where she oversaw day-to-day government operations for the city, including directing and managing a nearly 5,000-member workforce, $1 billion municipal budget and $164 million annual capital improvement plan.
Before her jump to the public sector, Kerri worked for Alltel Information Services (now Black Knight Financial Services). Kerri served as a program manager for a mortgage banking software/solution joint venture with a bank in Leeds, U.K.
Kerri graduated with a B.B.A. from the University of North Florida and holds a certificate in Business Analytics from Harvard University