the Program Booklet - IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology ...

Panel Speakers:
Erna Grasz, Asante Africa Foundation
Erna Grasz has led organizations, teams and individuals to
success in fast paced, high stress, and results orientated
environments for over 25 years. She has an established
reputation as a strategic leader with demonstrated success in
diverse industries, including Medical Device, Defense
Research, and Semiconductor Capital Equipment. She has
exercised her skills in full management for business
functions including: general management; research and
product development; business development; operations; sales; and marketing.
She has led teams as large as 400 people and as small as 3 people. Most
recently, she has transitioned her leadership skills from being a Chief
Technology Officer in the Medical Device Market to the Non- Profit world as
the CEO of Asante Africa Foundation. She is known as an organizer of chaos
and a “turn-around” leader. Other Formal Leadership Roles include: General
Manager at Philips Healthcare, San Jose Campus / Vice President of R&D for
Tyco Healthcare, Nellcor, Mallinckrodt Division / General Manager, KLA-
Tencor / Program Manager, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Erna is an award-winning speaker with Toastmasters International. She has
published numerous articles on leadership, communication skills and project
management. She is a certified leadership trainer and career coach with a
specific focus on youth, and early and mid- career professions. Her advanced
degrees are in Electrical Engineering and Engineering Management from Texas
Tech University and Santa Clara University. She also has several executive
Leadership and Management Training certificates from Stanford, MIT Sloan,
UCLA.
Outside of running the Asante Africa Foundation, she is a fitness professional, a
semi professional photographer, and an avid traveler.
Joel Meyers, Fuse IQ
Currently partner and co-founder of Fuse IQ, a web design
and development studio, Joel has focused on creating
Internet based solutions for nonprofits and educational
institutions for the past 11 years. He acts as senior advisor
on the many solutions Fuse IQ creates helping clients
leverage technology and best practices on the Web. Many of
the solutions include community building, member
management, libraries and portals, GIS data mapping,
learning management systems and more.
In the past 5 years Joel has been extending his interests more towards
organizations with global reach. With this drive he was co-founder of Basa
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