Ashley Olafsen

Co-Founder MOVE, LLC

Ashley Olafson is a 2 time author, TEDx speaker, and social entrepreneur who is passionate about issues that affect teenagers. As the co-founder of MOVE, LLC, she works with young women on topics like body image, self-esteem, mental health and relationship abuse. Through MOVE, Ashley has directed over 70 workshops and five week-long summer programs. Most recently, Ashley has launched an online video series, focusing on the same topics, for middle and high school aged students. ‘Let’s Talk About It: a workshop series’ is extremely accessible, and is being implemented in wellness and guidance curriculum all over the United States.

Joining Ashley on the 1st session business panel is Tom Leary, a partner in an X company. Tom is a 2015 HHS grad and though he is graduating from UMAss in Landscape design, he has developed expertise in film and entrepreneurship.

Tom Leary

Creative Director, Image Consultant, Co-Founder at A+ Visuals

Tom Leary is an entrepreneur in the film, music video and marketing industries. He is in his last year of a 5 year Bachelor of Arts Program in the Landscape Architecture Program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. While he has excelled in his college major, Tom is going to continue on the wave he is riding as a Creative Director, Image Consultant and Entrepreneur.

He is the co-founder of both A+ Visuals and Let's Talk About It, The workshop Series for Students. Tom has held positions as the Head of Marketing and Creative Development at DetraPel, was a Co-Founder/CCO at Brodly Inc., and his work has been featured on Sports Illustrated, Shark Tank, Newsweek, XXL, and The Fader.

Tom is a 2014 Holliston High School graduate and truly embraces what we want for our graduates: to follow your passions, think outside of the box, innovate, design, create, accomplish and love what you do!

Kelly Moloney

Senior Account Executive, MASTERPIECE on PBS

Kelly Moloney is a Senior Account Executive on MASTERPIECE’s National Marketing team based at WGBH, PBS’ local Boston station. She focuses on creating buzz and excitement for their British television dramas through social media and publicity. This includes developing social media strategy and content, assisting with media relations and outreach and working closely with talent to promote their shows. In her four years with MASTERPIECE she’s worked on several of the series’ award-winning programs, including Downton Abbey and Sherlock.

Prior to this Kelly was an Event and Publicity Manager at Simon-Kucher & Partners, a marketing consulting firm based in Cambridge, where she worked for six years. In this role she managed the company’s public relations and marketing efforts in the U.S. with a focus on securing coverage for the firm in industry publications as well as generating prospective client leads through events.

Originally from Upstate New York, Kelly is a 2008 graduate of Marist College where she majored in business with an emphasis in marketing.

Dave Ross

Director of Finance, WB Games

Dave Ross is the Director of Finance for WB Games supporting the Boston, New York and San Diego Studios. In this role, Mr. Ross has full responsibility for all aspects of Budgeting, Forecasting and Reporting of the teams and projects run out of these locations. Currently the teams operate the mobile hit Game of Thrones: Conquest, have other titles in development and provide back support and customer facing support to the entire WB Games portfolio.

Experience

During Mr. Ross’s time at WB he has supported the development and launch of numerous PC and Mobile titles, the divestiture of the legacy PC MMO business, the acquisitions of a central tech team and a local mobile game developer. The Boston team has shifted over the last five years from being one of the largest PC game developers on the East Coast to now one of the most successful mobile game developers. Currently Mr. Ross is partnering with the General Manager to open a new game studio in San Diego.

Mr. Ross’s career also includes positions at Rand Worldwide, Monster.com and Saint-Gobain Abrasives. Throughout his 15+ career Mr. Ross has been focused on building finance and accounting teams that provide value add analysis and recommendations to help steer the strategic and operational vision of the company, focusing on the needs of his team’s customers versus those of the finance function.

Education

Mr. Ross earned his bachelor’s degree in Corporate Finance from Babson College.

Lauren Soriano

Director of Public Relations, Fairmont Copley Plaza

Lauren Soriano is Director of Public Relations at the iconic Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood. In this role, Lauren builds good relations with the public by securing publicity presenting a positive image of the hotel and its activities. Responsibilities include media outreach, event promotion, social strategy, trend monitoring, history preservation, crisis management and internal communication.

Prior to her role at the hotel, Lauren worked on the agency side at several public relations firms in both Boston and New York City. In Boston, she held an Account Supervisor position at Cone Communications where she represented clients in the food and beverage industry, including brands like Keurig and Lindt Chocolate. Before moving to Boston, Lauren had six years of public relations experience at New York City agencies working with some of the world’s largest personal care companies: Unilever and Procter & Gamble. At Edelman, Lauren was part of the Dove beauty business, playing a key role in media strategy development to support brand campaigns across the Hair and Body categories. Her first job out of college was at DeVries, joining the agency as an Account Coordinator on the Pantene Pro-V account.

Lauren is a graduate of Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Summa Cum Laude honors.