BUNCHFUL AWARDS
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TIMELINE FOR THE BUNCHFUL AWARDS
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BUNCHFUL AWARDS
Jessica was one of the presenters at the 2022 Bunchful Future of Philanthropy Summit, a live event and introduction of the Bunchful Awards and will be recognized among her cohort at the 2023 Awards event. As a digital nomad, minority female founder and woman in tech, Jessica actively advocates for equality and women’s empowerment. She serves on the Marketing Committee for The Mayor’s Residence, New York City, Gracie Mansion Conservancy, and has previously served on planning committees for Forbes Council and the LLS Men of the Year Running Campaign. She uses her platform for positive change, combining her career in interior design and marketing consulting with her passion for environmental impact.
Jessica is the founder and CEO of Yorkseed, a global venture capital community for founders and investors. She also co-founded an Earth Day fundraiser campaign in New York City, hosts successful charity events, and has been recognized for her philanthropic efforts. She is an emerging leader and a fund raiser for the National Resources Defense Council and The Conservation Fund.
Jessica is also involved in startups and Web3, enjoys hosting events and solo traveling, and is currently working on projects related to mental health support and affordable housing in New York City. She is dedicated to making a positive impact on society and the world through her work in startups, marketing strategy, investor relations, entrepreneurship, event management, nonprofit partnerships, business development, relationship building, corporate branding, and strategic planning.
Bill Gerlach has worked in a variety of IT positions over 19 years and is highly skilled in HR systems (HRIS). Bill helps to enhance company productivity and help achieve better global decision making, while supporting employee engagement. His positions have taken him all over the world to collaborate with colleagues and lead projects, including destinations such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Australia and South Africa, as well as many countries in Europe. The international connections he has made in all these countries has been phenomenal, allowing him to see, first-hand, the situations of others and connect on a personal level.
Nermeen Negm is a senior business development, marketing, and communications professional with over 18 years of experience in the Middle East and North Africa. Having worked in sustainable developments, shopping malls and luxury fashion retail, advertising, and the telecommunication industries, she developed a passion for conceptualizing and executing events and marketing campaigns that build memorable brands.
Nermeen has extensive experience in organizing events for high-level government officials to enhance corporate positioning and media relationship management. This includes developing strategic initiatives, communications plans and story ideas, press and marketing materials, as well as meticulous project management for event execution.
Nermeen is passionate about supporting the realization of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals in every capacity. She is currently the Senior Business Development and Marketing Manager of Masdar City in the United Arab Emirates, one of the world’s most sustainable urban communities founded on the philosophy of urban development based on the three pillars of economic, social, and environmental sustainability.
She is passionate about inspiring and assisting individuals in realizing their dreams, helping them strategize, negotiate, and achieve their goals. With a natural ability to connect with others and advocate for their success, Cindi works closely with her clients and her team to provide exceptional service and professionalism.
Leemma Jackson-Volcy, originally from Brooklyn, New York, currently resides in Connecticut. Leemma holds a Master’s degree in Media Art, with a specialty in Public Relations, from Long Island University Brooklyn Campus. For over 20 years, she has been actively involved in the field of education, initially in administrative roles within higher education. However, for the past 14 years, Leemma has garnered recognition in the field of Special Education, working as an Instructional Aide and Educational Aide on a one-to-one basis with children with special needs. Leemma firmly believes that every child and individual have the right to an education.
Evelyn has served as a Teacher, Registered Nurse and Family Nurse Practitioner for over forty years. She recently retired from Montefiore Health Care System as a Patient Service Manager.
Her career started in Jamaica, W.I., as a teacher in elementary and high school, teaching English, History and Social Studies before migrating to the USA, and entering the medical profession, working as a Public Health Nurse in New York City’s Child Health Program and catering extensively to the underserved population.
Evelyn provided skilled nursing care and health maintenance and research coordination in other areas of the health system, such as Family Health Centers, Visiting Nurse Service, Nursing Homes, HIV pediatric research, Foster Care, etc. She pursued advanced nursing education as a Family Nurse Practitioner and continued her role as a primary care provider and health educator.
As a retired professional, Evelyn is looking forward to utilize her knowledge and experience to nurture and support nurses and other individuals to be change agents and beacons of hope for health and wellness promotion.
She is guided by this quote:
“To thine own self be true, and it follows as the night follows the day that thou cannot be false to any man.”
Bill is a non-profits professional that has a long history in building corporate partnerships at some of the top causes in the United States including The American Red Cross and Habitat for Humanity. He has taken his knowledge and applied in the tech space by launching a startup focused on matching gifts called Amply. He has recently joined the team at Fluxx Software to help nonprofits and foundations better measure their impact when investing in community programs through grantmaking. He lives in Atlanta with his wife and 3 children and is always on the hunt for a cup of coffee with good company.
Brooke is a serial networker with an innate sense of making strategically successful introductions, constantly striving to connect people, organizations, and ideas. Since founding Knektar LLC, it has become Brooke’s goal to create avenues for professionals to meet one another for mutually beneficial purposes. A true Curator of Opportunities, Brooke enjoys facilitating various connections–related to business development, strategic partnership or investment opportunity–for colleagues, clients, and friends.
Kelly Meerbott is a renowned successful leader, transformational business coach, leadership and team developer, speaker, and facilitator. She has been transforming America’s top CEOs’, personal and professional lives and hand-crafted profitable business strategies for thousands of corporations worldwide.
With her holistic approach and background in sales, marketing, and business-building insights, Kelly’s coaching and training sessions are the secret weapons to every seeker of fulfillment and success. Rather than simply looking at one aspect of you or your company, Kelly combines every facet of your life and business to create a wholly fulfilling experience for you.
David Valera’s dedication to international politics is demonstrated throughout his diverse background. Currently, he is the President and CEO of GCP, a global consulting firm, and 4KZ a management consulting firm, in which David represents various multibillion-dollar service sector firms as they develop key partnerships and joint ventures to expand their global business enterprise into new emerging world markets. David works closely with his clients to negotiate and cultivate multi-year service contracts and outsourcing opportunities.
One of the David’s goals is to educate the world about Kazakhstan. This has acquired him global recognition. He is a respected business advocate and strategic consultant within his peer group and has used his unique platform to collaborate with various leaders, fortune 500 CEOs and top lobbyists.
Taghrid is the Deputy Chief of Party of the American University in Cairo, and a certified life coach with over than 16 years of experience in project and operations management across a variety of industries in Egypt and the MENA region.
She started her career in the field of international relations by managing cooperation between Asian countries and Egypt on economic and social development projects. She excelled in coordinating multilateral relationships between international organizations and donors to facilitate grants and loans for Egypt, as well as exchanging expertise in technical fields. Her work experience also includes managing complex projects, customer experience, and operations, as she led the the customer care team in Majid Al Futtaim shopping malls in Egypt and Beirut with a total of 40 agents.
Her political and economic background enabled her to manage different CSR initiatives that had positive socioeconomic and environmental impact on each targeted community. She is an expert in coordinating protocols between
government entities, non-government and privates sector, as well as leading projects to support communities in different disciplines. Taghrid is currently managing the establishment of 10 sustainable university centers for career development within eight public universities in different Egyptian Governorates. She Initiates partnerships with the private sector, NGOs and other entities to establish strong sustainable relationships with Universities Career centers to provide internships, job opportunities, job shadowing for students and graduates, and minimize the gap between the graduates’ skills and the market needs.
Zeenat is an international strategy & campaigns expert, who has worked in a number of countries over the past two decades. Most recently, as Head of Communications at the British Embassy in Moscow, she led on developing people-to-people connections. She has previously served (as a diplomat) in Iraq, New York, India and Hong Kong. She has also been seconded as a communications advisor to the governments of Turkey and Kosovo. As a consultant, she has worked on EU and UNDP projects. She is currently London-based, working on human rights and diversity issues.
Joyce Mouawad is a Lebanese Marketing Admin at Bunchful, who currently resides in Beirut. She graduated from Notre Dame University with a degree in advertising and Marketing and is currently pursuing a Masters in that field. Joyce is also a painter, a craft she has been perfecting, since she was an adolescent.
With a demonstrated history of working in the information technology, consulting industry, and the non-profit sector, Claudia is a strong business development professional who is a highly empathetic, creative, innovative thinker living by the values of respect, inclusion, collaboration, authenticity, empowerment, self-awareness, democracy, and social justice. Before consulting, Claudia worked at a large social services agency where she served as a strategic advisor to the CEO—working closely with County government officials, non-profits, and community leaders to create partnerships that enhanced services for a community in dire need. She was honored to mentor teen mothers, support newly arrived immigrant families, and work on developing partnerships to solve some of the most pressing issues facing the Latino and immigrant communities.
Levar Jackson is a Brooklyn native and tenured hospitality industry expert with a specialty in sophisticated hotel brands, producing over 50 industry events over the years.
Jordan is a driven IT professional with over 11 years experience and knowledge of complex infrastructure and systems in high tech within different industries, such as Finance, Manufacturing Distribution, Legal and SaaS. Providing leadership for the continued development of innovative, robust, and secure information technology environment throughout the organization. Jordan delivers a robust IT infrastructure and security system adhering to compliance standards within North America and Europe.
The community rallied together to support Uncle Enjin, providing companionship and assistance throughout the day, so it was heartbreaking when we found him fallen between his bed and the floor, having passed away, and I truly grasped the power of service and the spirit of generosity that can unite a community. You see, I learned that my family was no relation to Uncle Enjin and that the dedication and care my grandmother showed him came from the truest source of generosity. Indeed, Uncle Enjin willed his house and land to my grandmother in recognition of all her years of service, but we already had a home and ample space to live, so my grandmother in turn gave away the house and land in its entirety to someone else in need in our community. That was my first big lesson in generosity and in creating community to support others.
I later went to live with my father in the city, and it was again the power of generosity that re-enlivened me from the very traumatic event of leaving my grandmother’s home in the countryside. My new home was large and filled with many comforts, but I missed my grandparents and at barely 10 years old, the leave-taking had caused me to experience extreme and dangerous weight loss, anxiety and depression, and after a year, I still was not engaging with my family at my new home. One day, my elder brother, Labaster, took my hand and dragged me to the store next door, where our father would regularly give $100 USD to the store owner and invite those in need to have a meal – the meal, a sandwich and a drink and a hundred US dollars went a long way in those years, those many Friday evenings ago, and nourished a seemingly unending line of hungry people. This was an arresting moment for me. It holds me, still.
Though I did not possess the vocabulary to articulate it at the time, these early experiences instilled in me a deep understanding that philanthropy encompasses far more than monetary contributions. It is about fostering collaboration, embracing innovation and developing sustainable solutions to drive positive change in our societies. It took many years, but with this realization firmly rooted, I have embarked on a journey that has led me to establish Bunchful Enterprises, an organization founded on the principles of generosity and dedicated to the spirit of giving. We believe that generosity should infuse every aspect of our work, and we have aligned our cause with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) to make a lasting impact on critical issues such as poverty, inequality, climate change, education, hunger, health, and much more.
We understand that true philanthropy extends beyond mere financial donations. It involves leveraging our collective talents, resources and personal gifts to build thriving communities and foster positive change, so we coined the term “bunchful” to mean to share our abundance with others. If you share our vision and would like to collaborate with us or contribute to our efforts, we would love to hear from you. Together, let us continue to embrace the transformative power of generosity and work towards a better future for all.
the World organization for the promotion of small businesses, Senator of the WBAF World Business Angels Forum, Dean of Al Khalifa International University, Member of the Executive Board of the Energy Africa Conference, and Chairman of OBA Open Business Africa and B.O.I., Bridge of Innovation.
Ambassador Keita is an active participant and contributing panelist in various international conferences on Africa and the ACP, representing esteemed organizations such as OECD, UNESCO, the French Ministry of Finance, the World Bank, and France, among others. He proudly serves as UNESCO’s ambassador for Guinea, the esteemed UNESCO event for the world’s book capital. Since 2017, Mr. Cheick Keita has held the prestigious position of IHRC (International Human Right Commission) Ambassador for the Africa zone. In this role, he oversees the institution’s new strategy, promoting good governance, conflict prevention and resolution, universal education, sustainable development, and the integration of innovative technologies in education.
As the visionary leader and founder of Bridge of Innovation, Ambassador Keita is dedicated to discovering pioneering startups in Africa and providing them with comprehensive support through a vast network of Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists. To date, B.O.I. has formed the HOPE FOR NEW AFRICA initiative and welcomed several remarkable African startups to its program, in partnership with international programs, serving as a hub for entrepreneurs, facilitating collaboration and fostering agreement between African countries and international stakeholders.
Recently, Mr. Keita launched Open Business Africa (OBA), with the aim of promoting partnerships and joint ventures between companies from the global South and North with its primary focus on establishing transformative local production structures, assembly factories, and essential equipment to drive critical sector development in Africa and Coalition for the Eradication of False Medicines in Africa (CEFMA).
Ambassador Keita advocates for the socioeconomic empowerment of women, striving for a better world. His linguistic proficiency includes English, Spanish, and French.
Raquel is a proud Caribbean-American, an experienced social connector, speaker, business strategist, and tireless champion for fellow entrepreneurs. She is the founder and visionary for BUNCHFUL and with over 18 years of personal business experience, in operations and sales, as well as entrepreneurial ventures, Raquel has a keen business savvy and a unique brand of organizational thinking that she brings to bear as she charts the path of success.
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Nominations open in August 2021
Dr Joseph E. Ikhalia is a Senior Cyber Security Engineer who has played a leading role in ISO 27001 accreditation. He previously worked as IT Security Manager of the world’s first fully licensed Blockchain lottery – Quanta. Helping them develop, implement and maintain a robust cybersecurity strategy from concept to live production.
An expert in designing, implementing, and improving cybersecurity architecture, Dr. Ikhalia is the mastermind of the world’s first social network security awareness application – social network criminal; he leads cyber threat management, threat intelligence, enterprise-class vulnerability assessments and penetration testing on a global scale.
Dr Ikhalia has worked with clients across several sectors worldwide and is known for pushing boundaries and pioneering new avenues within the growing field of cybersecurity. He is a recipient of the Dean’s Award for Innovation and Impact (Brunel University, Computer Science Department) for his ingenious innovation – www.socialnetworkcriminal.com.
Dr Ikhalia holds a first degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering, a Master’s degree in Information Technology, and a PhD in Information Systems and Computing. Dr Ikhalia’s award-winning research has been published in a variety of peer-reviewed journals and media outlets, including a spotlight as the Best Paper of the 15th International Conference on WWW/Internet in Mannheim, Germany.
Dr Ikhalia’s work has attracted the interest of the UK government. In 2018, he earned a spot at “HutZero” – a government-sponsored cybersecurity program for people with innovative cybersecurity ideas.
Lou Giordano has been in sales and sales management for more than 40 years. His expertise is managing sales and customer service teams to achieve high levels of growth and retention. Lou really enjoys helping others achieve their goals and his agile mind and vast experience make him a welcome part of the BUNCHFUL team.