Athena offers live and on-demand learning, coaching, networking, and access to career opportunities for the world’s top women leaders. Have a specific goal such as a board seat, promotion, or career transition? Accelerators provide targeted, one-on-one support to help you get there.
Businesses of all sizes turn to Athena for support in developing their executives, diversifying their leadership, and transforming their board into a competitive advantage.
Athena activates the connections, knowledge, and opportunities executive leaders need to break through the barriers that line the “last mile” of their career – to the C-suite, boardroom, or the world of entrepreneurship and investing.
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Myrna has over 28 years of Information Technology/CyberSecurity experience. Myrna is the Founder and CEO of Apogee Executive Advisors, an advisory firm specializing in CyberSecurity, Technology Risk, Board Service and Governance.
Myrna serves on several publicly traded company boards including CMS Energy, Spirit Airlines, TriNet and Popular Inc. She is recognized as a Governance and Board Leadership Fellow by NACD. She also serves on two private company boards HeadSpace Health and Delinea (a cybersecurity technology provider).
She most recently served as the Chief Strategy and Trust Officer for Forcepoint. She also served as COO of a managed security service provider (MSSP) as well an Investment Partner at ForgePoint Capital. Her previous
roles include serving as Corporate SVP & Global CISO for Comcast Corp, CISO MGM Resorts and other senior leadership positions with American Express, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, Norwegian Cruise Lines and
Kemper Insurance.
She is a highly decorated executive with a long list of recognitions including, being recognized as NACD Directorship 100™ Honoree 2022. She was previously named to Directors & Boards Magazine as a Director to Watch. She also was recognized by boardiQ as a Hall of Fame LatinX | Hispanic Top 100 Honoree. Latino Leaders magazine recognized her in 2021 as one of the Top 100 most influential Latinas in business (for several years now in a row) and a Hall of Fame Honoree in 2022.
Cigdem Gencer is a financial services and data/analytics executive. She has twice been a Chief Financial Officer at Fortune 100 public and mid-size private companies, driving 2-3x level improvements to achieve sustainable scaling and growth. Cigdem has specific expertise in foreseeing challenges associated with rapid scaling, and creating strategies for anticipating and managing potential risk
with the right combination of people, process, and infrastructure.
Cigdem held progressive roles at Wells Fargo over 17 years of leadership across a wide array of businesses and functions, including CFO and COO of Wealth Management, EVP/Head of International HR, EVP/Head of Customer Remediation. Prior to that, she was the CFO at Intrax Cultural Exchange, an international, cultural, and educational exchange company. Her early career includes executive roles at a B2B startup (ADPM) and a decade of Financial Services-vertical consulting with First Manhattan Consulting Group and Mitchell Madison Group, where she helped establish the Madrid, Spain office.
In 2020, Cigdem founded Fazilet Consulting, focused on coaching and guiding leaders, teams, and organizations in achieving sustained high-performance. She has coached professionals and teams in all growth stages and has personally built high-performing international teams that have answered the call on every level – strategically, financially, and competitively.
Cigdem’s acute business acumen, emotional intelligence, communication, and analytical skills have contributed to her success. She holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Harvard University, and a patent in analytic methodologies. In addition, she currently serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors of the SF-Marin Food Bank.
Terry Schwakopf joined Deloitte in September, 2007 as Senior Advisor in the Governance, Regulatory and Risk Strategies Practice and in that capacity serves as an advisor in a range of areas, with a particular focus in regulatory and risk management for banking organizations. Prior to joining Deloitte, Ms. Schwakopf was Executive Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco with overall responsibility for banking supervision. As head of banking supervision she had oversight of all bank holding companies, state member banks and foreign banking operations located in the nine states that comprise the San Francisco District. In this capacity she traveled extensively, both domestically and internationally, and worked with foreign banking supervisors and other U.S. banking regulatory agencies.
During her 23 year career with the Federal Reserve, Ms. Schwakopf had very broad responsibilities, and in addition to banking supervision, she oversaw community affairs, public information, the corporate secretary’s function and communicating arts, with responsibility for approximately 300 in total staff. She was a member of the Executive Committee and the Strategic Planning Committee and chaired the Risk Management Committee. She was also actively involved in Board of Directors and Advisory Council recruitment.
Ms. Schwakopf is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University (BA) and California State University (MBA). She is on the board of directors of Rabobank, NA, Bridge Bank and Bridge Capital Holdings and she previously served on the board of Nara Bank and Nara Bancorp. She is also a member of the board of directors and the executive committee of United Way of the Bay Area, the Executive Committee for Go Red for Women of the American Heart Association, the Development Committee for the Bay Area Red Cross and the Library Foundation of Tiburon.
Erin Essenmacher has 25 years of experience in media, education strategy and corporate governance. She has written, directed, and produced films for PBS, the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, the History Channel, and CNN, and worked with brands like Sony, Apple, Acura, and The Gap.
Over the last decade Erin served on the executive leadership team National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) where she was responsible for the design and delivery of board member training, new product development, organizational strategy and thought leadership innovation. In her role, Erin focused on helping directors make sense of the changing role of the board and how it impacts their mandate, including a deeper understanding of ESG, cyber security, regulatory risk, geopolitical disruption, diversity, culture and digital transformation. During her tenure, Erin helped double NACD membership and drove a 400% growth in education revenue.
Her new venture, The Brigh Group helps organizations develop or reimagine content strategy, growth through partnership and better corporate governance. She is also the founder of Feisty Aphrodite, which focuses on original content creation and advising organizations and other makers on media and content strategy.
Erin has been a frequent speaker on corporate governance, strategy and risk oversight, presenting at industry meetings and conferences and as a regular contributor to Directors and Boards magazine. She has served on boards across sectors including as director for the iconic clothing retailer EILEEN FISHER where she chaired the People and Culture committee and helped lead design of the CEO succession plan. She currently sits on the board of Docs in Progress and the Advisory Board for the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University
Community banks and mid-size banks continue to feel vulnerable with deposit run-offs and precarious recapitalizations. Large banks are suddenly back as a preferred choice.
Is there a structural problem in banking? What are the new risks at play that bank executives and their boards are having to consider? Do situations like these merit additional regulation, oversight, and disclosures? And, what is the role of executives and boards in risk, audit, and controls to prevent these situations?
Join Erin Essenmacher, Chief Experience and Strategy Officer at Athena Alliance as she hosts a panel with Cigdem Gencer, Myrna Soto, and Terry Schwakopf that will explore what conversations are or should be taking place in the boardroom as the situation continues to play out, focusing on the big takeaways for board members.
Join us for a Salon or Meetup to get a peek inside our community! Peer Groups are exclusively for members - log in here
A Look Inside Athena is held monthly for prospect members to come and understand how Athena works. They will learn more about the backstory of Athena, see a tour of our platform, and have the opportunity to discuss more of what they are interested in and ask questions about joining our community.
Learn about the most pressing topics facing executives today in an intimate, yet casual, virtual setting. Hosted by board directors and leaders from the world's top brands.
Gather with Athena members in your area for a casual, in-person Meetup. These are planned by request and hosted by Athena members in various cities. If you're interested in hosting and/or joining a meetup in the future, reach out to the Member Success Team and let them know.
We have an incredible community of female leaders at Athena and we want to bring you closer together! Join a Peer Group and build a network of peers you can engage with for guidance, lessons learned and insights around a shared interest. Choose a topic that most interests you or drop in and out of multiple peer groups as it suits you best. You’ll find at least one peer group available to join every week. Each live session goes for one hour, no preparation is needed, just show up as you are. We look forward to seeing you there!
A Learning Circle is an opportunity to connect with a small group of other Athena members in a focused yet casual setting, creating accountability around targeted learning to assist you in achieving your goals. Over the course of 6 sessions, club members will meet every 2 weeks to participate in an organic, peer-led discussion of the session's "chapters" consisting of 1-2 Athena salons which are to be reviewed on your own prior to the group session. When joining, members are committing to completing all 6 sessions.
Typically led by one of Athena's coaches, networking events provide members an opportunity to meet one another in a smaller intimate and virtual setting.
These are typically in-person events led by Coco and our partnering companies on topics that are relevant to the industry and audience of our business partners.
A workshop is an interactive session for members to actively practice something, such as their pitch. These sessions typically involve breakout rooms, member to member feedback and are not recorded.
For members new to Athena looking for ways to engage, these bi-weekly orientations led by an Athena Member Success Manager, provide a live tour of Athena, member success insights, and a chance to get questions answered.
Athena customizes virtual learning events with expert business leaders tailored to a unique company’s needs. These events cultivate cross-functional community, development, and learning across the partner organization.
Athena listens and we're always adding new event types and opportunities for members to engage. See what new events we are currently offering members.
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Athena Alliance is the premier executive development platform for senior-level women, offering a powerful networking community, resources, executive education, and coaching to help women advance and excel in their careers.
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