Santa Clara University

Leadership Bios

Linda Alepin, Founding Director of the Global Women’s Leadership Network (GWLN), is a sought after speaker on leadership. She has appeared at INC. Magazine’s Small Business Conferences, Forbes CIO conferences, and on the PBS, Nightly Business Report. She is interviewed in Maslow on Management, 1998. Her treatise “Rethinking Our Thinking” was published in Leading Organizational Learning, a compendium of new thought by authors such as Meg Wheatley, Jon Katzenbach, and David Ulrich. Linda was Founder, President, and CEO of Pebblesoft Learning, Inc., and spent eighteen years at Amdahl Corporation, as Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Officer, as well as at IBM Corporation where she held various managerial and individual contributor positions in IBM. Linda is an honorary initiate to the MBA honor society, Beta Gamma Sigma. Linda is a graduate of Stanford University.

Bonita Banducci, President of Banducci Consulting, studied "What is the Contribution Women have to Make that Could be the Strategic Advantage in the Global Marketplace." for a Fortune 500 technology company. Her findings launched innovative work she calls Unmasking the Gender Effect. Ms. Banducci teaches Unmasking the Gender Effect in the Engineering Workplace in the Graduate Program of Santa Clara University’s School of Engineering. She is a founding faculty of the Leavey School of Busniness and SCU School of Engineering's Global Women's Leadership Network and Women Leaders for the World Program. Her training work in gender language, perception and paradigms has been designed into corporate diversity programs and mentoring programs, university organizational development interventions, and total quality management projects in public agencies. Banducci wrote a unique "ten point plan" booklet, Making the Differences Work: Closing the Gender Gap–What we can do for the management, employees, vendors, and customers of the Royal Bank of Canada. Ms. Banducci earned her BA degree as a member of the pioneer class of University of California, Santa Cruz. She studied and worked with Dr. Fernando Flores.She is a graduate of the Fetzer Institute’s Healing the Heart of Diversity Facilitation Leadership Program

Sema Basol is a global marketing and public relations executive with over 25 years of experience both in the U.S. and Turkey. She has worked with multi-billion dollar corporations, small businesses, start-up ventures, non-profits such as educational and cultural institutions as well as business executives, government representatives and public figures in both countries. Sema worked close to 19 years at Mattel Inc. where, as Director of Consumer Products, she built Mattel brands into new businesses that generated annual sales of close to $1billion globally. Transitioning to the non-profit sector, she set up and directed California based Global Friendship Through Space Education as well as provided marketing and public relations support for their Turkey based sister organization Space Camp Turkey. Over the years, Sema has taken an active role in Turkish-American affairs, community organizations and served on the boards of several organizations.

Tanya Bunger is COO of lex.end. Ms. Bunger has 20 years of experience working in finance and corporate management. Prior to assuming the position of COO, Ms. Bunger served as Executive Director of Finance for Maxim Integrated Products, an analog semiconductor company. Ms. Bunger was hired by lex.end to assist in running the operations of the company. Ms. Bunger is also an active community volunteer serving as school board president for a local school, working with the YWCA on the Tribute to Women Awards, and serving as a leader for Global Women’s Leadership Network. Ms. Bunger holds a B.S. degree from Santa Clara University.

Julia Dederer began working as a personal consultant in a newly formed organization that provided seminars and courses designed to deliver breakthrough thinking. As one of the founding staff members, in her 28 years of employment there, she helped bring this educational corporation into being an internationally known organization with centers throughout the world. As well as working with the staff in their development on a one-to-one basis, Julia was responsible for leading their group programs and for the training and ongoing development of other leaders. She was, also, responsible for the ongoing training and management of a nationwide network of over 400 volunteers. She has worked extensively in small group settings with leaders from diverse arenas to generate for them breakthroughs in their productivity. Julia is known for being highly skilled in her ability to listen in such a way that the people she works with see new avenues and pathways for committed action. She now resides in Campbell, California and has her own coaching business.

Heidi Eisips has over 20 years of experience launching and managing entrepreneurial ventures in both the private and not-for-profit sectors. Before launching her current venture, Korala Consulting, Heidi spent 15 years in marketing and strategy at both large and small high tech companies, including Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems. Heidi holds an MBA from Yale University and a BA in English from UC Berkeley.

Susan Geear is a consultant, coach and social justice advocate, committed to partnering with women in leadership to support wide-ranging initiatives for personal, social, and organizational change. She previously served as Co-Director of GWLN and now serves as faculty and coach working with women around the globe to foster commitment to global citizenship, social consciousness, and personal responsibility. Her background includes over twenty years in business and technology and ranges from independent ventures as an entrepreneur and consultant, to organizational work with the California Teacher’s Association as a Technical Services manager and president of the California Associate Staff union. Susan is a Certified Hudson Institute Coach, a Certified Somatic Coach and Associate through the Strozzi Institute and holds a BS in Business Management.

Gordana Mrkailo is a dynamic international professional with extensive technology experience. She started her teaching career at the University of Civil Engineering , Nis , Serbia . After moving to Toronto , Canada and later to Cupertino, CA she worked with companies such as ReadMeNews, Apple, CPAS Systems Inc, Fazcom Training and few others. She is accomplished at project management (PMP and CSM certified), software design, database management, development and deployment.

Pamela Morgan has previously worked in academia and the nonprofit world, and currently is Vice President, Framing and Cognitive Analysis, at the for-profit firm American Environics in Oakland, California. She was the first director of the Strategic Framing project at the nonprofit Rockridge Institute in Berkeley, California, during its start-up phase. She was involved in organizational planning, governance discussions, and funding activities as well as project management and research direction of staff and interns. She has previously done consulting work for a number of nonprofit and government organizations, such as the Aspen Institute and the Indian Health Service, both independently and in collaboration with other consultants and organizations such as the FrameWorks Institute (Washington, D.C.)

Almaz Negash, over the last twelve years, has helped build and foster vital strategic relationships between a diverse set of individuals and organizations around the world. While at the Silicon Valley Center for International Trade Development, Almaz helped originate marketing, distribution, export strategies, and commercial partnerships. Serving at the Santa Clara Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Almaz had the opportunity to further her expertise in connecting former heads of states, business and community leaders, individuals, and organizations from varied backgrounds to critical global challenges. Almaz was born in Eretria.

Conchita Franco Serri

Abha Singhvi runs a private practice as a Life and Organizational coach and a business consultant. Previously, as co-founder and VP of Finance and Administration at Paperfly she was managing the HR, Finance, Legal, Operations and Administration. Prior to that, as founder and CEO of Stratascape, she was responsible for all aspects of the business and eventually sold the company to TMP Worldwide (now Monster.com). Her other experiences have included consulting, training, sales, recruiting and management. She has been involved with a few non-profit organizations and is currently very active with GWLN (Global Women Leadership Network) and Maitri, an organization that supports South Asian women facing Domestic Violence issues. She completed her MBA in 1990 from Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT and her certifications in Life and Organizational coaching in 2004 from JFK University, Pleasant Hill, CA.

Camille Smith, president of Work In Progress Coaching, teaches leaders and teams to build the organizational capacity required to succeed in today’s global and rapidly changing world. Her experience includes more than twenty years in the field of training and development, facilitating F50 international cultural change programs and hands-on management experience in operations, finance and with her managerial to her clients which range from non-profits to F50 organizations, from individuals to teams. As a certified PNA Decision-Ready™ Solutions provider, Camille specializes in values-based leadership and Rolescript™, a leading-edge talent management approach. She is also an adjunct professor in the School of Business, Santa Clara University and serves as a founder of the Global Women's Leadership Network. Camille lives with her family in Aptos, California.

Marian Stetson-Rodriguez, M.S. Organization Development., is President of Charis Intercultural Training Corporation, a global leadership development and intercultural communication consulting firm serving high tech clients for over 20 years. Marian has consulted to companies with international acquisitions and international start-ups, growing and downsizing international operations, managing a culturally-diverse workforce, building sales and managing distribution to customers overseas, and managing global teams in over 20 countries. Charis staff of 25 consultants in 11 countries delivers cross-cultural training for expatriates and employees with global projects. She is fluent in Spanish and English, and conversant in French and Italian; with her Venezuelan husband she is raising three bilingual children.

Sarah Thomas

Judy Wessler brings a wealth of administrative expertise and volunteer experience. She has worked in a wide variety of venues from wilderness camps and wagon trains to Silicon Valley start-ups. Judy’s experience both as a professional and as a volunteer, includes HR, finance, event production, program management and training. She is skilled in bridging social, cultural, age, and gender differences inspiring people to work in partnership toward a common vision.