Astia - Astia Team

It's an honor and a privilege to serve Astia and to further contribute to the organization's success and growth.

- Brooke Shields, The Communications Group

Astia Team

The Astia staff is dedicated to nothing less than the complete success of our companies.

Astia Team

Sharon Vosmek, CEO

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“Research proves that if women were able to fully participate in high growth entrepreneurship, we would see a significant and measurable benefit to the economy, innovation and society. Astia’s mission is to create an inclusive community that provides the precise support women entrepreneurs need to thrive in their enterprises and ultimately impact today’s global economy.”

As CEO of Astia, Sharon Vosmek has an unwavering passion and uniquely well-suited background to drive forward the company’s mission of propelling women-owned, high growth, entrepreneurial businesses to success. Sharon draws from her expertise in public policy, economic gender analysis, management consulting and entrepreneurship to build Astia’s powerful network of diverse resources that serve to mobilize and help promising, women-led businesses thrive.

In the role of CEO, Sharon has led the effort to double Astia’s resources, which include the mentors, coaches, sponsors, investors, thought-leaders and serial entrepreneurs that provide Astia member companies with counsel, coaching, guidance and advancement opportunities.

She has also expanded Astia’s Entrepreneur Program, which holds the potential to transform high growth startups into market leaders by giving them unprecedented access to Astia’s global network of Angels, VCs, corporations and entrepreneurs, as well as expert personal coaching. The program is now held in Silicon Valley, New York, London and India.

Sharon also founded the Technology Planning Committee that created Astia’s Entrepreneur Program. This program has resulted in, on average, 60 percent of the participating companies securing funding or achieving a successful exit within one year of presenting, totaling more than $1 billion dollars raised, and 21 exits, including two IPOs.

Sharon has served as CEO of Astia since 2007, previously joining the company as COO in 2004.

In everything she does for Astia and throughout her career, Sharon seeks to create outstanding organizations that inspire individuals, foster creativity, and promote personal and professional growth. For the past two decades, she has worked with both for-profit and non-profit organizations to build more humane organizations that produce exceptional results.

Prior to joining Astia, Sharon founded SJ Vosmek & Associates, a management firm that included clients such as PG&E, PacBell (now AT&T) and the University of Wisconsin Madison. She held management positions at American Express and in the office of United States Senator, Dennis DeConcini. She currently serves on the Steering Committee for the Cherie Blair Foundation, the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst Experts Advisor Group, and the City of San Francisco Mayor’s Commission on Biotech (MayBAC).

A sought-after speaker, Sharon was invited to participate in The White House Women’s Entrepreneurship Conference and The Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In January 2011, Astia was chosen to join the White House’s StartUP America initiative, developed to celebrate, inspire, and accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the nation. Astia is the only organization included that focuses on women-led start ups.

Sharon has a master’s degree in public policy and administration from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Arizona State University.

Evie Mulberry, Development Director

In her current role Evie dedicates her time to ensure that Astia Europe continues to build on its stable financial foundation, driving its development needs. She is based in the UK working closely with her European colleagues and the Astia team in the US. Evie started volunteering with Astia in 2008 and went on to hold the role VP Europe from April 2008 until March 2010. During such time she established, implemented and managed the Astia Europe community and entrepreneur programme from the San Francisco office.

With a background in finance and corporate law, Evie has advised companies at all stages of growth in relation to their financing needs, from start-up corporate loans to syndicated multi-bank loans. In addition to 5 years with Osborne Clarke, Evie also spent a secondment at a leading UK investment bank gaining valuable insight into corporate risk profiles. At Astia, Evie is now serving entrepreneurs at a much earlier stage in their growth cycle.

Brian Evje, Executive in Residence (Executive Leadership Development)

Brian Evje helps people and organizations manage change and growth. This involves a process consultation approach to change management (organization and culture), leadership development (coaching and performance improvement), and organizational health (strategy, design, effectiveness, and fitness.) Brian is a Management Consultant in the Organization Effectiveness practice of Slalom Consulting , a national professional services firm and an Astia Advisory Board Member. He is a graduate of Santa Clara University, and the Master’s program Consulting and Coaching for Change at HEC School of Management, Paris/Saїd Business School, University of Oxford. For Inc.com, Brian writes the column Leadership Uncut .

Catherine Berman, Sr. Vice President, Entrepreneur Programs

As an experienced entrepreneur, Catherine has launched and co-launched a number of successful social ventures including Global Brigades, Deloitte Center for Leadership & Community, ITC, and Oxford Women in Business Network.

Prior to joining Astia, Catherine maintained a host of management positions, including Chief Executive Officer, Global Brigades Panama, Strategy and Operations Manager at Deloitte Consulting, LLP, Director of Marketing at Redefining Progress and Vice President of Evins Communications, LLC. Her international work experience spans from India to Israel with extensive work in Central and South America.

Areas of expertise include strategy, international expansion, and management of both financial and social returns. Catherine graduated magna cum laude from Boston University and received her MBA from Oxford University, England. She is passionate about the intersection of money and meaning and serves as a mentor for Hub Ventures Impact Fund.

Amy Gips, Founding Managing Partner, Astia Angel & Director of Investments, Astia

Amy Gips is the founder of Astia Angel and is responsible for all activities related to the angel investor network and angel training program. In addition, Amy aids in the investment activity of all Astia companies, including deal flow management, due diligence and investor relations.

As an experienced investor, Amy has invested in debt and equity in companies at various stages across multiple industries. She has spent most of her career working at credit and private equity funds. Amy previously worked at PennantPark Investment Advisers and DLJ Investment Partners (Credit Suisse) focusing on providing debt and equity financing to middle market companies. In addition, Amy worked in investment banking at Jefferies.

Amy has focused on investing in women-led ventures as an angel investor with Investors’ Circle and a Fellow with Criterion Ventures.

Jorge Calderon, Entrepreneur in Residence

Jorge is an entrepreneur, management consultant, and investment professional. Mr. Calderon founded and manages three separate brands; Springworks, Impact Strategy Advisors and Promise Capital. Springworks designs and initiates mission driven programs that advance innovation in the United States. Currently, Springworks focuses on improving diversity in entrepreneurship and venture capital through the Scholars, WE Generation and Carver Society programs. Recently renamed, Impact Strategy Advisors is a consultancy practice that supports impact investors, foundations and social enterprises. Previous clients include New Island Capital, Toniic Impact Investing Angel Network, Ronnie Lott’s All Stars Helping Kids, Winning Play$, Imprint Capital and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Jorge’s latest brand, Promise Capital, is piloting a new venture investment model coined the “Sidecar Option Model”. Previously, Mr. Calderon was the founding Director for the West Coast office of a small seed stage venture capital firm and has had roles in top tier management consulting, banking and technology companies. Jorge lives in San Francisco and is deeply engaged in a variety of civic and social organizations that champion youth development, education and entrepreneurship. Mr. Calderon is a University of Michigan graduate and received his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.

Jane Finette, Entrepreneur in Residence

Jane most recently served as Director of Worldwide User Engagement for Mozilla Firefox where she worked with her team and the wider community driving engagement, loyalty and retention. She loves people and believes success happens when we create lasting relationships with our customers and allow them to be part of our brand, and our culture. Building deep rooted connections is her passion.

Prior to Mozilla, she led several eBay business units, launched a consulting practice to help entrepreneurs with their strategy & operations, brought US based two software companies to Europe, and owned her own art gallery. Follow her on twitter at @janefinette

Marie Trexler, Director, Entrepreneur Services

Marie Trexler started up and led investments for Good Capital’s Social Enterprise Expansion Fund, a double bottom line venture fund, where she remains on the Board of Advisors. Her current activities include consulting with startups and serving on non-profit boards including StartOut (advances entrepreneurship within the LGBT community) and Emerge CA (recruits and trains Democratic women to run for office). Previously, Marie headed business development for Intel Corp’s largest business unit, the Digital Enterprise Group. The core of Marie’s venture investment experience comes from seven years at Intel Capital, Intel’s multi-billion dollar strategic investment arm, where she ran investment teams in both the US and Europe focused on making venture capital investments in high tech startups. With more than 60 venture investments under her belt, Marie was also responsible for starting up Intel Capital’s investment program in Eastern Europe where she identified and consummated Intel’s first equity investment, as well as first acquisition, in Russia. Prior to Intel, Marie built her emerging markets private equity and banking experience at the International Finance Corporation (World Bank), Slovak American Enterprise Fund, ING Barings and EurAmerica Capital. She graduated from Dartmouth College and earned an MBA from the University of Virginia.