Athena Alliance has formed a Strategic Advisory Board to help guide its next phase of growth. Chaired by global AI strategy leader Malina Johnson, the board brings together leaders across AI, communications, governance, and enterprise strategy.
Athena Alliance, the premier leadership platform advancing women into positions of influence in the boardroom and C-suite, announced the formation of its Strategic Advisory Board. The board will be chaired by Malina Johnson and includes Neeha Curtis, Belen Gomez, and Lori Salow Marshall.
The Strategic Advisory Board will support Athena’s leadership team on long-term strategic initiatives, including responsible AI strategy, platform development, ecosystem expansion, communications strategy, and scaling Athena’s influence across global markets. The board will work in partnership with Troy Achong, member of Athena’s Board of Directors, to help guide Athena’s continued growth and institutional impact.
“As Athena continues to expand its platform and influence, the Strategic Advisory Board brings together leaders who understand how organizations scale, how markets evolve, and how to ensure leadership reflects the full diversity of talent and perspective shaping our future,” said Coco Brown. “I’m excited for their collective experience across technology, governance, media, and global enterprise to help accelerate Athena’s mission.”
AI Strategy Leader & Global Executive
Malina Johnson will serve as Chair of the Strategic Advisory Board, advising Athena on AI strategy, responsible technology development, business transformation, category creation, and scaling influence across diverse stakeholder audiences and global markets.
Johnson is a mission-driven AI leader and global executive who operates at the intersection of frontier technology, strategy, and culture. With more than 25 years blending the art and science of storytelling, she has spent her career shaping how transformative technologies are built, launched, and understood globally.
A key architect of Microsoft’s Copilot brand, Johnson pioneered AI brand strategy across the company’s portfolio, spearheading multiple 0→1 product launches and contributing to more than $21 billion in annual revenue through global brand transformation. Her work has helped define several milestone moments in the AI era, including the world’s first live large language model, the first AI mobile application, and a Super Bowl campaign that introduced AI to mainstream audiences worldwide.
“Athena is building something that genuinely matters — a platform that advances women’s voices in the rooms where decisions are made and capital flows,” Johnson said. “The most important challenge of our time isn’t just AI — it’s ensuring that the leaders navigating this era reflect the full range of human experience and perspective. That’s exactly what Athena is accelerating, and I’m honored to support that mission.”
Chief Corporate Affairs Executive
Neeha Curtis brings more than two decades of leadership at the intersection of media, technology, and corporate communications. She currently leads corporate affairs for healthcare technology company Lyric, where she serves on the executive leadership team overseeing corporate communications, brand strategy, marketing, and external relations across a global organization.
Curtis has extensive experience building communications and brand functions for private equity–backed technology companies operating in regulated industries. Her work spans AI communications policy, crisis prevention, and developing cross-functional systems that enable organizations to communicate complex technologies with clarity and credibility.
Prior to her corporate leadership roles, Curtis spent years as a broadcast journalist and newsroom leader at network, national, and local media outlets. Her commentary has been featured on The Daily Show, CNN, Fox News, and in Forbes. She is also an adjunct professor of Mass Communications at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, where she teaches courses on AI ethics, media economics, and data privacy.
Curtis said she joined the advisory board because Athena is “doing the real work of closing the gap between women’s economic power and their access to capital, board seats, and senior leadership roles.”
Corporate Governance and Partnership Leader
Belen Gomez brings two decades of combined corporate governance and marketing experience, along with a strong track record of building high-impact partnerships and elevating organizational visibility.
During more than a decade at Equilar, Gomez has cultivated relationships with leading institutions to expand market reach, strengthen brand positioning, and drive meaningful engagement across governance and leadership communities.
Gomez joined Athena’s Strategic Advisory Board to support Athena’s long-term vision of expanding and delivering career advancement programs at scale.
She believes deeply in Athena’s mission and is committed to supporting initiatives that empower women and allies to intentionally build, grow, and diversify their leadership paths.
Strategy, Operations and Ecosystem Executive
Lori Salow Marshall is a strategy, operations, and growth executive with expertise across corporate strategy, ecosystem monetization, early-stage product innovation, and revenue acceleration.
A former founder and senior enterprise executive, Marshall brings entrepreneurial agility combined with corporate discipline. She founded a mobile payments startup and led the company through funding, product launch, early revenue generation, and acquisition before becoming president of the acquiring entity. In that role, she led major milestones in technology development, revenue acceleration, and regulatory accreditation.
Across executive roles in both early-stage ventures and Fortune 500 organizations, Marshall has led direct revenue streams exceeding $550 million and driven ecosystem partnerships influencing more than $2 billion in annual revenue. Her work includes leading strategic AI partner programs and developing GenAI and AI agent services offerings alongside global organizations including Microsoft, AWS, Accenture, KPMG, and BCG.
Marshall joins the advisory board to advise Athena on strategic growth, platform development, ecosystem expansion, market messaging, and funding pathways.
“Athena is the most consequential platform advancing women into positions of economic influence,” Marshall said. “Boards reflecting a broader range of executive experience and perspectives are better equipped to navigate complexity and create long-term value. Supporting Athena in its strategic evolution and continued institutional impact is work that truly matters.”
Together, the Strategic Advisory Board reflects Athena’s commitment to bringing together leaders with deep operational experience across technology, governance, communications, and enterprise growth to support the organization’s next chapter of expansion and impact.
