International Women’s Day, Women Executives Leading the Charge in Their Industries

About Becky Cannon, President of Green Sprouts

Becky Cannon, mother of two daughters, is the founder and president of the family-owned and -operated companies, Green Sprouts, Inc and Genki Press, and the author of the book Grow Healthy. Grow Happy. The Whole Baby Guide. Green Sprouts sells natural products to retailers throughout the United States and to over 25 countries.  

Becky holds Bachelor of Science degrees in both Child Development and Education. She also has a Master of Science in Organizational Development. While living in Japan for three years, Becky taught at Muso Yochien (Dream Window Kindergarten), a Japanese school based on Waldorf education that provides whole foods to its students. Becky and her former husband, Naoki Kubota, co-founded the East West Center in Asheville, NC. The center provided classes in East Asian medicine and natural foods cooking, as well as housed an acupuncture practice. In addition to managing Green Sprouts, she has been studying and teaching personal and professional development for the past 40 years. 

About Chriselle Lim and Joan Nguyen, Co-Founders of Bümo

Chriselle and Joan are serial entrepreneurs, each with a distinct background that has fostered the accelerated success of Bümo and BümoBrain. BümoBrain’s online program developed amidst the COVID-19 pandemic to offer a solution for parents homeschooling while social distancing – boasting a waitlist of over 2000+ families from more than 50 countries at its launch. Today, BümoBrain is widely accessible to families all across the globe.

In addition to co-founding Bümo, Chriselle is a renowned digital influencer with over 3 Million followers across her various channels and a co-founder of CINC. Studios, a creative studio that specializes in the visual, digital and social communication for beauty, fashion and lifestyle brands. Chriselle has become a world-wide inspiration and voice of empowerment to women everywhere with Mattel even creating a Barbie after Chriselle that sold out in the first 3 hours of launch.

As Bümo’s co-founder and CEO,  Joan brings to the table her extensive experience in education as the founder and CEO of MeriEducation, a company she started at 20-years-old with only $3,000 in savings, giving educational services ranging from test preparation to academic tutoring. Now, MeriEducation, an INC5000 company, serves tens of thousands of students everywhere from Santiago, Chile to Tokyo, Japan.

Ellese Symons, VP of Marketing for Balanced Health Botanicals (BHB):

Ellese McKenney is the Vice President of Marketing at Balanced Health Botanicals and CBDistillery in Denver, CO. As VP of Marketing and one of the first five employees, Ellese has contributed to a team that has demonstrated 763% YoY growth in 2018, with reported e-commerce revenue of $19.6 million. Prior to joining the BHB team, Ellese had a five-year career focused in commercial and residential real estate. As a business owner and licensed broker, Ellese’s career consisted of repositioning residential distressed properties, brokering $19 million in real estate transactions and providing tenant representation for leading corporations and local Denver businesses.

Maggie McGuire, CEO of Pinna

Maggie McGuire is CEO of Pinna, an audio-first children’s media company offering the first and only ad-free, audio on-demand streaming service for kids. Pinna delivers breakthrough, original audio programming curated and created for kids that includes podcasts, audio shows, music and audiobooks. A seasoned media executive with deep experience in cross platform brand strategy, product & content development and innovation experience, McGuire most recently was vice president of eScholastic, the digital division of Scholastic. Prior to her 15-year tenure with Scholastic, McGuire’s experience in children’s media included positions with Viacom, Cablevision and JP Kids.  She began her career as a teacher recruiter for Teach for America and led the team that launched the International Baccalaureate’s Middle Years Programme in North America, an international curriculum designed for students aged 11 to 16, offered in schools worldwide. She holds an MA in Educational Theater from New York University and a BA in English Literature and Philosophy from Boston College.