PNW MBA Conference

Beatris A. Mendez Gandica

Security Program Manager | Founder

Beatris Alejandra Mendez Gandica originates from San Cristobal, Venezuela. She is an engineer working as a Security Program Manager at Microsoft. In this role, she runs the daily operations of two services, one that is a fabric for hosting engineering bits and another that performs static analysis automation on source code for Azure, Bing, SQL and Microsoft Teams. Her work is essential to Microsoft as it yields the most secure services for their customers.

Beatris' enjoys giving back to the community. In 2018, she started a nonprofit organization, Nuevo Foundation, where she works to prepare underrepresented minorities to become tomorrow’s leaders. Nuevo Foundation’s mission is to inspire kids to be curious, confident and courageous by discovering the world of STEM. The nonprofit has taught more than 3,000 students about Computer Science and STEM education across eight countries and Puerto Rico.

In 2019, Beatris was awarded with the HACR Young Hispanic Corporate Achievers’ 40 under 40 award, the Outstanding Recent Alumni award from her alma matter in Wisconsin, and selected to be one of the 125 ambassadors for the American Association for the Advancement of Science IF/THEN to help shift the way our country—and the world—thinks about women in STEM. Lastly, she loves volunteering for youth causes such as TechnoloChicas and DigiGirlz.

Britt Provost

Executive Vice President, People and Culture

Britt Provost is the Executive Vice President of People and Culture at Accolade. She plays a key role in shaping the employee experience across Accolade to ensure they attract, develop, retain and engage their talent.

Britt has over 15 years of experience leading People teams in global and growth organizations. Prior to joining Accolade, Britt was Chief HR Officer at Promethean, a global educational technology company, serving millions of teachers and classrooms worldwide. Britt also lead the People function at Apptio through many transitions during her tenure (as a private VC-funded company, through their initial public offering, to a publicly traded company, and finally, through a private equity acquisition).

She has also held many senior People leadership roles at Avanade, an innovative leader in digital & cloud services and business solutions, as well as Real Networks and Microsoft.

Britt is also an accomplished speaker and facilitator on topics including: enabling and growing great people managers; building organizational culture; developing high performing and engaged teams; and career empowerment.

Britt has a bachelor’s degree in Art History from the University of Washington and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from University of Colorado.

Joseph Robinson

Senior Vice President, Health Systems Solutions

Joe is currently the Commercial Leader at Philips Healthcare. Joe also holds the position of Board Chairman for MITA (Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance) and was nominated in 2017 by Senator Elizabeth Dole to serve on the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans’ Family, Caregiver, and Survivor Advisory Committee.

Joe’s career has been focused in Medical Imaging, starting with a small business in the Mid-Atlantic region. Joe has managed sales, marketing and service organizations in North America for many years. He has spent 30 years in Medical Systems across multiple large healthcare companies. Joe’s other roles at Philips include Sr. Vice President of Commercial Sales USA, Government VA/DoD Sales & Military Contracts, Service Solutions, GPO and Government Affairs, Sr. Vice President of Imaging Systems Sales & Marketing, Sr. Vice President of Enterprise & Government Solutions, Vice President of MR Sales, Vice President of Imaging Systems Marketing, Vice President of Sales South Zone and Registered Radiologic Technologist.

Joe received his Bachelor of Science degree in Healthcare Administration from Columbia Union College. In 2008, he co-authored “Radiology Business Practice: How to Succeed”.

Katie Young

Vice President, Urban Market Operations

Katie Young is vice president of urban market operations at Starbucks. She joined Starbucks in 2012 as a director of Food Strategy. She ran the $2B+ food P&L for several years then launched the food innovation team. She currently leads the integrated operations and strategy for complex urban markets. She also currently sits on the boards of Global Washington and the NW chapter of Trust for Public Land.

Prior to Starbucks, Katie worked at McKinsey & Company, specializing in the social sector, CPG, and agribusiness. She was part of the team that developed the first-ever agriculture strategy for the Gates Foundation. Other strategy work included: food security for 16 countries and creating transformational frontline change for the Ethiopian Government’s 60,000 extension agents.

Katie holds a Masters in Public Policy (MPP, International Development) from the University of Chicago and a Bachelors in Spanish and Honors Political Science from Kenyon College.