About Allie

A 2x exited founder, Allie has dedicated her career to upskilling, empowering, and mentoring early career professionals and students. To help close the skills gap from higher education to employment, Allie created Ampersand, a web-based professional development and training platform, which was acquired by Ascent Funding in 2023. The platform was relaunched as AscentUP, and now serves thousands of learners, corporations, nonprofits, and schools to help the next generation of the workforce build the skills and confidence to thrive.

Allie’s passion for improving accessibility to internships, career skills and mentorship, and increasing the pipeline of talented, diverse candidates in corporations through expanded access to education are the driving forces behind AscentUP. She and her Ascent colleagues share a mission of increasing income for students by $10 billion in five years.

Sobre Karen

Karen Plotkin is a 25-year veteran of Dell who is currently responsible for Client Solutions Strategy. She joined the strategy team after leading the Americas CSG Sales team for five years. Over the course of her career, Karen has also held multiple roles in sales and marketing including COC leadership, Small Business Sales, Consumer Merchandising and Small Business Marketing.

Karen is happiest at work when she is building winning teams and solving tough problems. She is also passionate about children and giving back to the community. Karen is on the board of Thinkery in Austin and an Executive Sponsor for the Make-a-Wish Foundation of Central and South Texas.

Karen has an MBA from McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin and a BA in Economics from Washington & Lee University.

Sobre Janine

Janine Wegner é líder de marketing internacional responsável pela estratégia global de liderança inovadora da Dell Technologies para posicionar a empresa como visionária e inovadora em tecnologia. Ao longo da última década, ela definiu a visão, a estratégia e a direção operacional para muitos programas de marketing impactantes em equipes locais, regionais e globais. Sua experiência abrange marketing e comunicações digitais, sociais, de marca e liderança inovadora. Ela também liderou a estratégia dos programas de empreendedorismo da Dell e atuou como Chefe de Gabinete do Escritório de Empreendedores Residentes. Antes da Dell, ela trabalhou em cargos de marketing no eBay, Philips International e start-ups.

Janine é palestrante do setor e palestrante convidada sobre tópicos como mídia social, relações com influenciadores, marketing multicanal e liderança inovadora. Em 2020 e 2023, o TopRank Marketing a nomeou uma das 20 maiores especialistas em marketing influenciador a seguir. Janine possui dois bacharelado e três mestrados em universidades de 4 países. Ela é originária da Alemanha e atualmente reside em Austin, Texas, EUA.