About
It was a record year for female founders in 2021: Women raised roughly $40 billion, nearly doubling a record set in 2019. Women-led companies outperformed the market and found quicker "exits." What will 2022 bring? Barron’s hosts a conversation with investors Deena Shakir, partner at Lux Capital and Stacie Olivares, a former member of the CalPERS board.

Presenters
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Carleton English
Reporter, Barron's
Carleton English is a reporter at Barron's covering financial markets and asset managers. She was previously the hedge fund reporter at the New York Post and covered energy and banks for TheStreet. Prior to moving to journalism, Carleton worked in wealth management.
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Stacie Olivares
Former Member, CalPERs Board
Across media platforms, Stacie Olivares simplifies the complex and cultivates collaboration to authentically engage audiences of all backgrounds on finance, technology, and policy.

She is a global investment leader and Chief Investment Officer who drives equitable and sustainable economic progress by guiding and leading early stage to institutional companies, organizations, and investments to scale, mitigate risk, outperform, and achieve sustainability.

President Biden nominated Olivares in August 2021 to the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board with $800 billion AUM and 6.4 million members. She was appointed in 2019 by California Governor Gavin Newsom to the board of CalPERS, the largest public pension in the United States with $500 billion AUM and 2 million members. If confirmed by the Senate, Olivares would have shared oversight of two of the largest public funds in the world.

She is the former Chief Investment Officer of Lendistry, a diverse-led fintech small business
lender and the former senior advisor on blockchain and ESG investment to the
world’s 4th largest insurance market. As the Chief Investment Officer of COIN, Olivares led the $10 trillion insurance industry’s ESG all stage investment fund, growing it from $6.5 billion to $29 billion from 2011 through 2018. Olivares entered capital markets after leading California’s economic advisory board during its record growth from 6th to 4th largest economy in the world.

Olivares is a board director of several companies and institutions: KBRA (4th largest rating agency), Mission Advancement Corp (social impact SPAC), Core Scientific (bitcoin miner), as well as the University of California at Berkeley, Hispanic Heritage Foundation, and Latino Community Foundation. She is an advisor to the California Emerging Technology Fund, SUMA Wealth, and many diverse founders and fund managers, from seed to VC stage.

She is a Finance Leaders Fellow of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, recipient of the the Public Policy and International Affairs program Changemakers award, TOIGO Groundbreakers award, and named a Global Hispanic Leader by the Government of Spain. Olivares holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Social Welfare from the University of California at Berkeley and a master’s degree in Business and Government from Harvard University.
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Deena Shakir
Partner, Lux Capital
Deena Shakir is a Partner at Lux Capital, where she invests in transformative technologies improving lives and livelihoods. She is particularly interested in intersectional and underdog entrepreneurs building breakthrough companies to accelerate advances and equity in human and population health.

Since joining Lux in late 2019, Deena has led a number of investments and currently sits on the boards of Maven Clinic, SteadyMD, Alife Health, H1, Adyn, AllStripes, and Shiru.

Prior to joining Lux, Deena was a Partner at GV (formerly Google Ventures), previously led product partnerships at Google for early stage products in healthcare, AI/ML and search at Google, and directed social impact investments at Google.org.

Before tech and venture, Deena had diverse partnership-centric experiences as an aspiring anthropologist, journalist, diplomat, aid worker and technologist. She was a Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Department of State under Secretary Clinton, where she helped launch President Obama’s first Global Entrepreneurship Summit in 2010. Her non-traditional path has cultivated Deena’s deep conviction in the potential of breakthrough ventures to positively transform the future and garnered her unparalleled network to help them achieve it.

A Forbes contributor, Deena is a frequent commentator and has been featured in a number of publications such as Fortune, Techcrunch, Marie Claire, Business Insider, where she was listed as "top 30 under 40 in healthcare," and The Wall Street Journal, where she was named one of the top 9 women to watch in venture capital in 2021. She has also appeared in broadcasts on CNBC, CBS, and Bloomberg. Deena also serves on the Boards of several non-profits including Tarjimly, TechWadi, and AMIDEAST. She is a member of Fortune's Most Powerful Women, Kauffman Fellows, Aspen Finance Fellows and the Aspen Global Leadership Network, the Council on Foreign Relations, All Raise, and the Valence Network for Black entrepreneurs.

Deena self-funded her education through a variety of merit scholarships and side hustles, including co-founding her first company while still in college. She earned a joint BA in Social Studies and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard (where she delivered the graduation address) and an MA from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service. She is also currently a Lecturer in the School of Engineering at the Stanford Design School.
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