Elena Baca is the Global Chair of the Paul Hastings Employment Law Department and leads a diverse group of more than 80 lawyers in 10 offices around the world. Ms. Baca is recognized as a leading trial lawyer by many noted publications. She has been consistently ranked by Chambers USA and The Legal 500 as one of the top employment defense lawyers in California. Chambers USA has noted that her “litigation track record and outstanding trial victories stand out in the legal marketplace, due to both her sheer volume of wins and the ways in which these decisions are helping to shape future employment and labor law, particularly in California.” Clients have referred to her as “second to none.” Ms. Baca also has been selected continuously since 2006 as one of the Best Lawyers in America in employment law.

J. Jeffrey Assaf is a Senior Managing Director as well as the Chief Investment Officer and Investment Committee Chairman of ICG Advisors. In addition to setting the firm’s strategic direction and managing client relationships, Mr. Assaf supervises all portfolio construction and modeling. Prior to founding ICG in 2009, Mr. Assaf was a Senior Managing Director of Bear Stearns and Head of its Investment Consulting Group from 1996 to 2008. From 1988 to 1996, Mr. Assaf was a Senior Vice President at Oppenheimer & Co. where he founded the Oppenheimer Consulting Group. He is a graduate of The University of California, Irvine (B.A., Psychology) and The University of Southern California (M.B.A., Emphasis in Finance). Mr. Assaf serves on the Boards of Directors for several non-profit organizations.

As a former executive at Mattel, Joe Cristina’s professional life was dedicated to bringing fun and joy into the lives of children for more than three decades. In 1993, Joe was faced with a dilemma—his health had been deteriorating due to HIV, he had lost two life partners to AIDS along with many friends, and he was contemplating a quiet disability leave.

But his boss, Jill Barad (then President of Mattel), asked Joe instead to take some time off and think about what he wanted to do with the rest of his life, trusting that his friends and business colleagues would be there to support him. Joe decided to publicly disclose his HIV+ status and was overwhelmed by the enormous outpouring of support he received. The response from everyone was the same: “What can I do to help?” Joe realized that he was facing a once in a lifetime opportunity to help make a difference in the world. The encouragement and support he received from those at Mattel and throughout children’s industries inspired him. That inspiration, along with an improvement in his health due to the advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy, convinced him to stay at Mattel and find a way to mobilize this network of diverse resources to make a meaningful difference in the lives of children affected by HIV/AIDS. Knowing how difficult it was living with HIV as an adult, Joe couldn’t even imagine what it must be like for a child. As a result, he founded the Children Affected by AIDS Foundation (CAAF). Through Joe’s vision and leadership, CAAF raised more than $40 million from its inception through 2012 when it joined forces with Keep a Child Alive – a like mission organization helping children and families affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India. In 2007, Joe’s health again began to falter due to the long-term effects of HIV coupled with medication side effects, and it became necessary for him to take a medical leave from Mattel. Since then, Joe has focused all of his time and energy on taking care of his health and continuing to help children affected by HIV/AIDS through his volunteer work, as well as through the Joseph Cristina HIV/AIDS Children’s Fund exclusively endowed by the Mattel Children’s Foundation.

In recognition of his tremendous contributions to the fight against HIV/AIDS, Joe has received numerous awards, including the Keep a Child Alive Outstanding Humanitarian Honoree (2012), Parenting Magazine Parenting Leaders Award (2001), the Funder’s Concerned About AIDS Russ A. Radley Award (1999), The Pediatric Nursing Journal Humanitarian Award (1998), in addition to being named a ‘Daily Point of Light’ by the Points of Light Foundation (1998). Joe was also invited and served as a member of President Clinton’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS from 1999-2001. In 2005, Joe received Mattel’s Chairman’s Award, due not only to his outstanding work at Mattel, but also because of his tireless philanthropic work in helping children affected by HIV/AIDS.

Joe is a graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania and holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Southern California. He currently resides in Long Beach, California.

As Vice President of Corporate Responsibility at Gilead, Rashad Burgess leads philanthropic and community engagement efforts through corporate giving and the Gilead Foundation. He oversees a unified team that brings together Corporate Citizenship, ESG, key elements of U.S. Advocacy and Health Equity, and the FOCUS program creating a centralized approach to community partnerships and impact.

He has held several key leadership roles within Gilead, including Executive Director for HIV Community Operations at Gilead Sciences, leading the HIV Community Team and most recently served as Vice President, Advocacy & Health Equity. As a key member of Gilead’s leadership team, he contributes to overall strategy for the business unit and is a strategic and trusted partner in helping community and sales professionals, as well as those in the larger healthcare industry, make their vision a reality.

Mr. Burgess joined Gilead in 2013 as a Community Liaison and progressed to Regional Sales Director and, subsequently, Executive Sales Director. He is a three-time President’s Club winner, part of Gilead’s coveted Circle of Excellence. Most recently, he was selected into the inaugural cohort of Gilead’s Diverse Talent Acceleration Program, one of 13 African American leaders across the organization to participate in this development course.

Mr. Burgess is a graduate of the University of Chicago, where he received a BA in Public Policy and an MA in Social Sciences. Mr. Burgess has dedicated much of his life to the mission of preventing HIV, particularly among people of color, including gay men and other communities impacted by HIV.

Prior to joining Gilead Sciences, Mr. Burgess was Chief of the Capacity Building Branch for the Division of HIV and AIDS Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In this position, he was responsible for the oversight of nearly 50 programmatic and scientific staff providing capacity-building assistance to domestic health departments and community-based organizations. He also provided outstanding leadership in the improvement and implementation of the funding awards process for health departments and other organizations. Prior to this, he managed a team of project officers that provided oversight of HIV prevention programs in the West, including Guam, Hawaii and the West Coast. He has continued to maintain his track record of excellence at Gilead.

Rashad lives in Atlanta, GA, with his husband OC Allen. They have two children, Joshua (10) and Caylee (9). Rashad and his family enjoy traveling to the beach whenever possible, and he is an avid runner, having completed 4 marathons.

Susan Chokachi is the Founder and CEO of Chokachi Consulting. A creative business leader with over 30 years of experience in fashion and luxury, Ms. Chokachi previously held several executive roles at Gucci, where she worked for 25 years.

Most recently, Ms. Chokachi was EVP, Chief Brand & Client Officer, responsible for the brand’s global communication, marketing, and client strategy, after serving six years as President and CEO of the Americas. Prior to this, Ms. Chokachi was SVP, Marketing & Communications in the Americas, having risen through the organization.

Throughout her tenure at Gucci, Ms. Chokachi helped position the company as a pioneer in driving impact through global platforms like Gucci Changemakers, the company’s global gender equality campaign CHIME FOR CHANGE, and the Gucci Global Equity Board. For more than two decades Ms. Chokachi led the company’s global philanthropic partnerships including UNICEF, UN Women, The Film Foundation, Tribeca Film Institute, Beyoncé’s Beygood Foundation, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Ms. Chokachi started her career in PR and communications at Giorgio Armani in the US. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and lives in Los Angeles with her family.