PARTICIPANTS

Umber Ahmad

Umber Ahmad grew up traveling around the world, belonging simultaneously everywhere and nowhere. Her family is from Pakistan and she grew up in a town in northern Michigan filled with first-generation Finns and Swedes. Speaking multiple languages and playing the violin professionally, Umber came to appreciate the different ways she had to communicate. The most important of those ways was her ability to connect people through food. Umber went on to study at MIT (BS, Genetics), The University of Michigan (MPH, International Health Policy) and The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania (MBA, Finance and Healthcare Management). Umber has spent much of her career in finance, including tenures at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, where she focused on fund investing, capital raising and M&A. Most recently, she is a founding Managing Director of a boutique investment advisory firm and specializes in business development, geographic expansion and capital-raising throughout MENA, Europe and Asia. In this capacity, she works closely with sustainable food providers, emerging technologies, luxury brands and world-renowned chefs to expand their concepts globally.

Alongside her finance career, Umber is creating the next great food brand. In partnership with Tom Colicchio, she is launching a new bakery concept. The flagship to be based in New York City's West Village, mah-ze-dahr bakery will elevate the baked good to a piece of comforting decadence that can be experienced every day. Umber was the subject of "Risk|Reward", a critically-acclaimed 2002 TriBeCa Film Festival-premiered documentary about women on Wall Street. She was also approached and selected by Procter & Gamble to be the face of the national television campaign of their "Olay Pro X" product line. She sits on three non-profit boards, is a guest finance editor of a number of publications, is a national speaker on investing and women's issues, and is the recipient of the Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow Award. An avid pilot and passionate chef, Umber resides in New York City where she feeds her friends tons of cookies and ridiculous amounts of cheesecake.