Podcast: Download
Clint Brewer / U.S. Commercial Service
U.S. Commercial Officer
Bettina Gardner / City Of Atlanta
Deputy Director Of International Affairs
A native of Stone Mountain, GA, Ms. Bettina Gardner is a proud alumna of Florida State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Multinational Business and Spanish. Shortly after undergrad, Ms. Gardner completed her MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Arizona.
Ms. Gardner has taught English abroad in both Spain and Chile, as well as worked at the US Embassy in Lisbon, Portugal. She spent 6 months in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil studying Portuguese as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar.
Ms. Gardner has worked at the Georgia Department of Agriculture in the International Trade office, managing inbound buyer delegations and planning trade missions for Georgia and southeastern agricultural companies. Her role included assisting Georgia food businesses in their exporting endeavors.
Prior to her current position, Ms. Gardner worked as a Global Business Meeting Consultant for the largest educational travel company in the US, WorldStrides Capstone. There she organized high level business meetings across the globe for top MBA programs and universities, serving as the liason to C-suite executives at companies such as Maersk, Coca-Cola, Port of Valparaiso, Gulfstream Aerospace, Bank of England, the London Stock Exchange, the Intercontinetal Exchange and many more.
As Deputy Director of International Affairs for Mayor Kasim Reed, Ms. Gardner organizes meetings with inbound/outbound delegations, coordinates overseas trips and interacts with the City of Atlanta’s global community, including the over 70 Consular offices located in the metro area. A few of the key programs she has organized include: the 2014 Inaugural Americas Competitiveness Exchange, Mayor Reed’s trade mission to Brazil, FinTech Trade Mission to London, Mayor Reed’s Mission to the Inauguration of President Varela of Panama, Young African Leaders Initiative in Atlanta, and the annual export seminar. Ms. Gardner holds an MS in International Affairs from Georgia Tech. She has over ten years of experience in government, educational and corporate foreign exchange programs, speaks Spanish and Portuguese and has lived in both Europe and Latin America. She currently serves as Interim Director of International Affairs.
Angelica Figueiredo White / ZIPPYAR LLC
Founder and CEO
“Angelica White is the founder and chief executive officer of ZIPPYAR, which enables products to directly stream unique video messages to consumers. We also allow consumers to respond in a crowdsourcing like platform using mobile devices. We believe customers are one of a kind and so is the message we empower brands to deliver. ZIPPYAR patent pending technology is at the intersection of Near Field Communication, QRCode, CLOUD, Augmented Reality (AR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) augmenting the relationship of brands and consumers.
Angelica likes to identify herself as an inventor, entrepreneur, business consultant and mother. She holds a bachelor of science in Computer Engineering, Computer Science and Executive MBA from Goizueta Business School. She is the 2010 class Entrepreneurship Award recipient and LaunchPad2X 2015 program graduate. Angelica has extensive experience delivering innovative solutions to companies such as Titleist, PepsiCo Brazil and Fidelity Investments. She is visionary, strategist, personable and determined. Angelica relocated from Brazil to the US to immerse herself in an English program with final objective of attaining an MBA to starting her own business. She was awarded her first patent acting as her own patent lawyer, and is passionate about delivering social good while developing profitable businesses.
In September of this year, ZIPPYAR was accepted into the Amazon AWS Activate Portfolio Program joining notable startups, including Airbnb, Lyft and Spotify, to name a few. Participation in this program will allow ZIPPYAR to accelerate its product development, and provide the infrastructure to quickly scale.”
