Women Shaping The World

Shelby Scarbrough is an entrepreneur, author, and speaker, who combines her background in public service and entrepreneurial upbringing to her career. She began her career as a political appointee in the Reagan and Bush Administrations, and had the privilege of working with some of the world’s most elite leaders and heads of state (Pope John Paul II, Presidents Reagan, Bush, Ford, Carter and Nixon, President Walesa of Poland, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and members of the Royal Family, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and Nelson Mandela). Entrepreneurship is in Scarbrough’s blood, as her parents were franchisees for Burger King, where she worked from 15 years of age. After her career in the government, Scarbrough started her own entrepreneurial journey and over the last 30 years, she founded Practical Protocol, an international special events management organization focused on high-profile clients, nCourage Entrepreneurs Angel Investment Group and the Global School of Entrepreneurship, an ecommerce site, and she even became a Burger King franchisee for almost 20 years, with 10 restaurants in Northern Virginia. Today, Shelby works to bring a bit more joy and civility back into the world. 

Hagar Hajjar Chemali is the host and creator of award-winning world news show Oh My World and writes and commentates on foreign policy and national security. She is also an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center. Chemali has held a number of senior public affairs and policy-making positions over the course of 12 years in the U.S. Government including Spokesperson and Director of Communications for the U.S. Mission to the UN and Spokesperson for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Chemali is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  

Zara Ingilizian is a global executive with expertise in general management, marketing, and socially responsible innovation. For over two decades, she successfully advanced the growth agenda of $2.5 billion-dollar portfolio of iconic brands at companies such as Kraft Foods and Diageo with full P&L responsibility. In 2014, Zara co-founded Digital Pomegranate, a tech startup in Armenia that develops business apps for global clients. In September 2015, she was appointed Head of Consumer Industries at the World Economic Forum where she is accelerating consumer industry transition towards responsible models of consumption in collaboration with leading CEOs, technology pioneers, academics, and civil society. Zara and her team are driving longterm positive impact across society and business by tackling global challenge areas such as health and well-being of citizens, elimination of plastic waste, and decarbonization of industry. Zara also serves on the board of directors of the following nonprofit organizations: Ascendus, Fund for Armenian Relief, and Armenian International Women’s Association.

Maral Kazanjian is the Chief People Officer of Moody's Corporation – she is also a member of the Executive Leadership Team. In this role, Moral is primarily responsible for setting and overseeing the execution of the Company's strategy to attract, grow, and retain extraordinary talent in service of our business. Maral previously served as Chief People Officer for WeWork, where she led the People team and oversaw talent-related strategies, operations and workforce planning for 4,000 employees, in over 30 countries globally. From 2019 to 2021, Maral held various people leadership roles at WeWork, leading into her role as Chief People Officer. Prior to that, Maral worked at Moody's for 11 years, in the Human Resources and Legal organizations, overseeing the Employment Law and Employee Relations teams.

Victoria Waterman has made a life-long career of advancing women and empowering girls. As the CEO of Girls Inc. of Worcester, she puts her inspiration into practice by preparing girls to successfully reach and climb the ladder of success with confidence. Her TED Talk Today's Girls are Tomorrow's Leaders and related news articles have been seen by thousands of viewers. Born in Rhode Island and growing up in an immigrant, bilingual, multi-generational home with survivors of the Armenian Genocide has shaped the storyteller she has become. Victoria's dream of writing a historic fiction novel about her family's survival of the Armenian Genocide and immigration to the United States became a goal when she found flowers at the gravesite of her aunt who passed away in 1963. Solving for this mystery has been an intensive research project and will be revealed in her debut novel that focuses on many untold stories of the female heroines of the Armenian genocide. 

Alexis Alexanian, an independent film and television producer is widely recognized for her role in establishing the groundbreaking digital production company InDigEnt and her work as President of the Board of New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT). Her producing credits include award winning festival favorites such as Pieces of April, Tadpole and Personal Velocity for which she won the John Cassavetes Independent Spirit Award. Most recently as VP of Business Development and Industry Relations at Entertainment Partners, Alexanian put her expertise to work providing state of the art digital solutions, film financing and tax incentive intel to producers and production companies around the world. Prior to this, Alexanian was President of Production for the indie startup Locomotive, and Co-Produced Maggie's Plan and Love Is Blind. Alexanian has consulted for various organizations including the Tribeca Film Institute and the UK Department of International Trade and has been called upon to serve on film juries, curate or moderate panels for professional industry organizations and film festivals around the world.