Host: Selbi Allaberenova, Marketing Manager at GMAT Club

Lisa Rios serves as Assistant Dean for MBA Admissions at NYU Stern School of Business, leading a team of 20 professionals. In this capacity, she oversees the core admissions function for the School’s full-time MBA programs, as well as marketing and operations. Lisa joined Stern in 2008 and has evaluated nearly 50,000 full-time MBA applications and seen nearly 5,000 new full-time students start their MBA journeys during her nearly 14 years at the School.

The best part of her role is that it does not feel like a “job”; she loves what she does. The biggest reason for this is the “Sternies” with whom she works every day; the second is the fast pace at which Stern innovates and challenges its people (including the Admissions team) to ideate, to try new things, and to continue to learn. She also enjoys the travel that is part of her job and the chance to explore other cultures; Mumbai, London, Istanbul, Tokyo, Toronto, and Beijing are just a few of her recruiting stops. And, the places she does not get to visit in person, she experiences through applicants’ vivid images and descriptions in their “Pick Six” visual personal expressions admissions essays.

In addition to her role leading the MBA Admissions team, Lisa also serves as a program chair for a cohort of MBA students as part of the School’s Leadership Fellows Program. She also hosts one-on-one sessions with students to help them understand their individual Intercultural Development Inventory® (IDI®) results and development plan as part of Stern’s commitment to diversity, inclusion, belonging, and equity (IDBE).

Devna Shukla is an Emmy award-winning producer and currently a Senior Business Development Manager at Microsoft. Before Microsoft, Devna studied political science at UCLA and received an MBA from NYU Stern. After graduating from UCLA, Devna joined CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" and ultimately became an editorial producer for the program, covering historic moments including the Newtown shooting, the Ebola crisis, and the Boston Marathon bombing. While at NYU, Devna was co-president of the Stern Technology Association, Vice President of Allyship for the Hispanic and Black Student Association, and co-host of the student podcast, "Stern Chats." Devna was also awarded the Joseph H. Taggart award, Stern's highest honor for excellence in leadership, community service, and academics.  Now at Microsoft, Devna works on strategic content partnerships to engage over a billion users across Windows, Edge, MSN and Bing.

Drew Stern (He/Him) is an award-winning technology CEO and a proud LGBTQ+ leader with 3 high growth exits over the last 9 years. Throughout his career he's cultivated a portfolio of experience creating, growing and exiting successful SaaS start-ups, as well as leading Product, Marketing, Operations and Alliances for Fortune 100 companies.

Drew is currently the CEO and Founder of Stageyo- an early stage start-up and the world’s 1st digital marketplace specifically for stage performers to directly engage their supporters through unique content, experiences and patronage.  Previously, he was the CEO & Co-Founder of Esquify, a venture-backed, AI-driven tech company which was acquired by Xact Data Discovery (XDD) in Dec. 2018.

As a product innovator and accomplished technology executive, Drew has held leadership positions at Salesforce/Buddy Media, XDD/Consilio and American Express, has been recognized as ‘40 Under 40’ by M&A Advisor, winner of the "US LegalTech Venture Competition" and a ‘Notable LGBTQ Exec’ and a "Notable Entrepreneur" by Crain’s Business Chicago. He holds his MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business.