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After months of recruiting, vetting, interviewing, and going through the final selections, the AEA Board is happy to announce five new directors who share a commitment to workplace age equity across the age spectrum.
At the September meeting, the AEA Board elected the following:
Emnet Rios, AEA Director, Finance, Audit & Risk
Emnet Rios has over 20 years of experience leading the Finance and Operations functions for enterprise, early stage, and hyper-growth organizations. Her diverse background spans both the financial services and technology industries and her track record includes driving significant fundraising, M&A, restructuring, and change management initiatives for multinational institutions.
As the CFO and COO of Digital Asset and a member of the company’s Executive Committee, Ms. Rios has played a key role in scaling the company’s business operations through its Series D fundraising round, attracting over $300M in equity investments from high profile institutions including J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Accenture, Broadridge, IBM, VMware, Salesforce, and Samsung.
Ms. Rios is a champion of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the workplace and she is committed to bringing awareness to this important topic through education and action. Since joining the executive ranks at Digital Asset, she has spoken at numerous industry events and has authored several thought pieces about how diversity in the workforce results in greater profitability and value creation. As a continuation of these efforts, Ms. Rios is joining the Board of the Age Equity Alliance to help further the establishment of age equity as a core value in every organization.
Michael Kureth, AEA Director, Executive Committee
Michael Kureth is an award winning technology and entertainment industry professional with decades of experience in software engineering, film production, and executive management. He was a co-lead and founding member of The Walt Disney Company’s Diversity and Inclusion Los Angeles chapter for the company’s Disabilities and Accessibilities initiative. He also created and hosted a tech series, Whiteboard Challenge®, to advocate for diversity in tech and illustrate ways for hiring to be more inclusive for race, age, gender, and hidden disability (e.g., ADHD, PTSD, Autism, etc).
In the creation of the series and through personal experience, Mr. Kureth observed how employment discrimination on the basis of age and disability were a common and preventable cause to the homelessness crisis. This inspired him to become involved with Age Equity Alliance to take action in educating and protecting the rights of citizens. By joining the Board, Mr. Kureth hopes to work closely with others who can help in the advocacy of workplace age equity.
Megan Dean, AEA Director
Megan Dean is a dynamic and motivated Senior HR professional with more than 24 years of experience in HR, in a variety of settings including Higher Ed, Healthcare and Financial Services. Ms. Dean is focused on aligning business strategies with best in class human capital strategies, such as Employee Engagement, Employee Relations, Organization Development, Performance Management, Benefits/Compensation, and Leave of Absence Administration. She is a genuine influencer focused on building collaborative partnerships.
Ms. Dean joins the AEA Board because she believes that different experiences and backgrounds are what make each of us unique and special. She seeks to work with an organization that is proud to help others achieve their dreams and goals whatever course they choose. She joins the AEA Board because her experience has taught her the importance of critical conversations with leaders about why they are making the choices they are making–including decisions regarding an employee, or potential employee’s age, that may create inequities.
Mahir Nisar, AEA Director, Labor & Employment Law
Mahir Nisar is the Principal at the Nisar Law Group, P.C., a boutique employment litigation firm dedicated to representing employees who have experienced discrimination within the workplace. Mr. Nisar has developed a stellar reputation for effectively advocating for his clients through his many years of practice as a civil litigator. Mr. Nisar’s passion in helping people overcome adversity in life and in their livelihood led him to train himself as a life coach with the Institute of Life Coach Training (ILCT). He routinely provides life coaching and executive coaching services to his existing clients as they collectively navigate the challenges of the legal process.
Mr. Nisar’s vision is to cater to a socially just society in which people are judged by their character and skills rather than the color of their skin, religious beliefs, gender, sexual orientation, age, or disability. As such, Mr. Nisar is joining the AEA Board because he believes Age Equity Alliance’s mission seeks to ensure age diversity and inclusion within the workplace. As an Employment Discrimination attorney and Board Certified Coach, his legal and executive coaching skills can assist AEA to create awareness and education on how to address workplace inequities and inequality on the basis of age.
Marti Konstant, AEA Director, Marketing, Communications & PR
Marti Konstant is a workplace futurist and the best-selling author of Activate Your Agile Career. Ms. Konstant has an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and is a former Silicon Valley technology executive. She has been featured in media outlets such as NBC Chicago, Forbes, and The Muse, and has worked in companies like Samsung, Dow Jones, and Apple.
Ms. Konstant believes that diversity and inclusivity of thought across all generations is an essential component of innovation in the workplace. She joins the AEA Board because, as a workplace futurist, she can see the deficits that will expand without age diversity. And, as an agility researcher and prolific writer on workplace topics, Ms. Konstant can provide perspective that may be otherwise overlooked.
I am grateful to the founding board members for their steadfast commitment in our startup efforts. Together with our newest members, the AEA Board is prepared to propel the organization to the next level of impact.
I also want to take this time to acknowledge the contributions of AEA Director Robin Wilson-Tolbert whose HR expertise has been foundational in our work. Not only has she provided key HR insights for how best to position our services, most recently Ms. Wilson-Tolbert was instrumental in the recruitment of our newest board members.
On behalf of the newly expanded board, we look forward to taking AEA to the next level.
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