Seenu Akunuri is a Principal in PwC’s Deals practice in Houston, Texas.  As the leader for PwC’s US Energy and Mining Valuation practice, Seenu has built a solid reputation as the “go-to person” that can solve complex valuation issues around mergers, acquisitions, global tax restructuring, re-domiciliation of assets, divestitures and other domestic, global and cross-border transactions. 

Seenu has advised clients on significant transactions in all sectors of the energy and mining industries including, upstream, midstream, downstream and oil field services. Seenu’s experience includes valuations of assets including, oil and gas reserves, mines, precious minerals, acreage,  storage and pipeline assets, downstream assets, drilling rigs, subsea ROVs, platforms, oilfield equipment and services companies.

As one of PwC’s valuation specialists, Seenu has presented and published  thought leadership topics impacting the energy and mining industries. Seenu is a contributing author to the valuation chapter of Professional Development Institute and PwC’s Petroleum Accounting textbook. He also co-authored thought leadership articles on various valuation topics, most recently on valuation issues in upstream E&P companies under the current commodity price environment.

Seenu and his team fully understand the requirements of the IRS, SEC and PCAOB and have successfully supported their valuation work when reviewed by these regulatory agencies. 

Seenu was a director in Standard & Poor’s Corporate Value Consulting (“CVC”) before rejoining PwC in October 2005. Seenu is an Accredited Senior Appraiser, Certified Business Appraiser and Certified Valuation Analyst. He is a member of the the American Society of Appraisers and the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts.  Seenu holds an MBA with a concentration in Finance and Accounting from Tulane University.

Chris is an Audit Partner in KPMG’s Houston office. Other than Houston, Chris had also served in KPMG’s Malaysia and Baton Rouge office. In total he has more than 16 years of experience assisting clients with financial statement audits, audit of internal controls, due diligence services, initial public offerings, and public and private debt offerings.

Kenny Dao is currently an Application Sales Manager at Oracle. He is a Texas native from the great city of Dallas, TX currently living in Austin, TX. Kenny attended Texas A&M University for his undergrad and is a diehard professional/college football fan. At Oracle, Kenny also serves as the Austin hub lead for the Asian-American ERG, Oracle Pan-Asian Leadership, as well as engages in a variety of mentorship opportunities in his organization. In his free time, he competitively powerlifts and does freelancing photography.

Gopalakrishnan “Anand” is a senior manager with 20 years of global leadership experience in Software Development, Cloud Computing & Digital Transformation.  In his most recent leadership role in the Cybersecurity space, he was pivotal in establishing security controls for in-vehicle electronic control units’ communication.

Prior to joining GM, Anand has worked for Chrysler where he held various leadership positions.  Anand earned his Electrical Engineering degree from India.  Also, he holds a Master's degree in Information Technology from University of Canberra, Australia and an MBA from Michigan State University.

Greg is a consultant with a passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work.

Outside of work hours, he loves to play sports and try new food places.

He is always happy to connect with new faces so feel free to add him on LinkedIn.

Steve is a Tax Partner in KPMG’s State and Local Tax Practice in Houston, Texas. Steve has more than fifteen years of experience advising clients on state and local tax issues with a primary focus in the areas of income/franchise and property tax. Steve serves as one of KPMG’s State Tax Resource for Texas franchise tax

Lisa Ong is an executive coach, speaker, and diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), and belonging consultant. Lisa specializes in DEI, leadership development, coaching, and facilitation.
 

Before founding Wishing Out Loud LLC, Lisa was a national diversity director in Diversity and Inclusion at PwC. She designed strategies to retain, develop and advance diverse talent. She focused on minority retention and advancement efforts as well as growing inclusive leaders at all levels.
 

A widely known “talent gardener” and “Inclusion connector,” Lisa helps individuals and organizations achieve goals, emphasizing inclusive leadership skills for meaningful relationships. She shares her coaching approach with her clients to discover their strengths, dream big and keep strategically “wishing out loud” to create opportunities to shine and be their best.
 

Lisa is a seasoned business executive with a background in audits and senior human capital roles. Lisa earned her Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Accounting from The University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Science in Management degree from The University of Texas at Dallas. She is a Texas Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Professional Certified Coach (PCC) by The International Coach Federation.
 

Lisa speaks on diversity, equity, inclusion topics, unconscious bias, bridging cultural differences, authentic leadership, building meaningful relationships, and communicating with impact through storytelling. Lisa is the 2020 Chair of the TXCPA Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She is an active Lifetime Member of Ascend and a national Executive Advisor. As one of the executive coaches for Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics (LEAP.org), she coaches rising Pan Asian leaders. She serves on the Programs Committee for the ICF North Texas Chapter. She volunteers with her church, the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, The University of Texas at Arlington’s Diversity, Race, Equity, Inclusion Council, and Just One Thing, a North Texas grassroots organization promoting racial equity. D CEO magazine named her to their 2020 and 2021 editions of The Dallas 500 Directory as “one of the most powerful business leaders in DFW.” Dallas Business Journal also recognized her with a 2017 Minority Business Leaders Award for her leadership. In 2020, UTD Jindal School of Business awarded her an OWLIE Award (Outstanding Worthy Leader, Involved Exceptionally) as an Outstanding Alum.

Manoj Prakasam is a passionate Agile leader, Enterprise Agile Coach, SAFe Program Consultant (SPC 4.6) with 10+ years’ experience in Agile / SAFe / Scrum /Kanban. He kick started the AgileDigital transformation in Mobile Appincluding setting up the Erica: AI-powered digital financial assistant chatbot scrum teams.

He has facilitated Program Increment  (PI) sessions with multiple Trains with 100+ participants. Coached 250+ associates on Lean Agile and SAFe Agilist. Focus on continuous improvement of teams and process to ensure smoother delivery for teams.

With an extensive experience  in Information Technology, Business and Management  across Telecom, Retail, Airline, Banking and other industries he has held various leadership roles in implementing large scale Agile transformations, Program Management and testing including activating the 1st  ever iPhone at Cingular Wireless (AT&T)

Manoj is a pillar leader for recruiting members for the Asian Leadership Network - North Texas chapter at Bank of America, which has over 1350 members. He is a passionate advocate and champion for diversity and inclusion, a keen volunteer of North Texas Food Bank, Susan G. Komen, Bank of America Innovation Days and multiple other events.

He holds a BS in Mechanical and Engineering & Masters in Management Engineering along with many other industry certifications like SAFe Program Consultant, Agile Certified Coach, Agile Facilitator. Manoj lives in Allen, TX with his wife & two kids.

Caroline Riskey is a managing director at Goldman Sachs in the Corporate Treasury division. She leads the global insurance and advisory group for the firm. Her experience spans multiple investing divisions in real estate, mortgages, and consumer loan business.

She is the co-sponsor of the Dallas Asian Network and has been with the firm for over 18 years. Caroline serves on the Board of Ascend North Texas chapter, and a member of the Texas Women's Foundation's Orchid Giving Circle.

Public Board Director, Dolby Laboratories, Xometry, McAfee and Science 37 |Retired Audit & Assurance Partner, Deloitte | Early-Stage to IPO in Software/ SaaS, Payments, Life Sciences & Others

Emily served in various positions at Deloitte & Touche LLP, including as an Audit and Assurance Partner until retiring in Fall 2020. At Deloitte, she served technology and life sciences companies and guided hundreds of clients through complex audit and reporting processes. Emily also led firm-wide initiatives to recruit, develop and retain women and diverse professionals as well as transform and modernize Deloitte's audit platform. Emily is a deeply trusted advisor to founders and executive teams, and is respected in the boardroom for her calm diplomacy and ability to keep her peers focused and engaged. She currently serves on the boards of directors of Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:DLB), Xometry, Inc. (Nasdaq: XMTR), McAfee (Nasdaq: MCFE), and Science 37 (Nasdaq: SNCE) as well as several non-profit entities, the Austin Healthcare Council, Great Austin Black Chamber of Commerce, and the Austin Chapter of Ascend. Emily has an extensive network and is a thoughtful, strategic connector.

Rahul Sahni is a senior software developer and scrum master providing technology services for treasey suites of application in Bank of America. He has successfully led his team in agile journey and adoption from crawl to leap with bank wide agile transformational projects. He specializes in moderatization of Mainframe applications and provides guidance and leadership for such projects. 

Rahul has extensive background in Mainframe technologies for both banks and airlines, has held project manager and technology lead roles in implementing transform projects, capacity planning for high volume transaction processing and agile transformation. 

Rahul is co-lead for recruitment pillar of Asian Leadership Network - North Texas chapter at Bank of America, which has over 1350 members. He has been instrumental in induction of new members to the network, mentoring them, providing guidance on various volunteering activities of the network. The recruitment pillar of ALN-NTX chapter also works with HR and other networks to help new joiners get familiar with the bank's culture, volunteerism, leadership programs and community outreach. 

He has a Bachelor of Engineering degree in electronics, certification in project management from business school in India. He is a certified scrum master and holds many other industry certifications. Rahul lives in Celina, TX with his wife and two daughters.

Lana is a Board Director for the Ascend North Texas chapter, the chapter's immediate past president, and a Lifetime Ascend member. Lana has over 20 years of professional and human capital consulting experience with leading management consultancies. She is currently one of the leaders for Baker McKenzie's global human capital transformation program.

There’s a saying that “there are no million-dollar ideas, only million-dollar executions.”  I sincerely believe that.  As a veteran Program Manager, I have led PMOs and Product Operations.  In these roles my work served one purpose - to deliver programs/products to generate more revenue.  I get excited for new initiatives, and even more so leading teams through the change curve, watching high performing, diverse teams come to life. 

I am current Director of Product Operations for Experian Partner Solutions business unit.  Before this role I served with Cox Automotive for over 12 years, transforming both PMOs and Product Orgs with scaled agile framework and commercialization.  Prior to that I held various program management and consulting roles for over 12 years.

I am certified in SVPG (Marty Cagan) Product Management, Pragmatic Product Launch and Marketing, 280Group Digital Product Management, PROSCI Change Management and Lencioni’s The Advantage.  I believe organizational health is the fast track to high performance.