Stephanie is a curious mind, and loves understanding how the world works.
After her master of science from Paris-Centrale she became a system modelling engineer in the aeronautics industry and started to build deep expertise in data & algorithmic
Her interests then shifted to understanding human behaviour. From then, she has led various data, analytics and insights teams in the consumer packaged goods industry, building and transforming teams, and developing customer centric rategies and growth models.

Discovery of the science around bias resonates with Stephanie’s own life experience as a daughter, sister, mother and passionate manager & mentor of women in the workplace. This instilled her passion to use data and AI to accelerate reaching gender parity and co-found the ellpha project.

Dr. Caitlin E McDonald’s award-winning research has contributed to the field of gender and performance studies with a special focus on how communities of practice are developing globalised cultures in digital and virtual spaces.  She follows in the footsteps of scholars like Judith Butler and Sherry Turkle in examining the tools (real, rhetorical, and virtual) that people use to construct and perform identities across the many different contexts in which individuals are situated.

Caitlin’s work in these areas has led to her conviction that when we see bias emerging in the tools that we use and build, what we are really seeing is bias in ourselves.  For this reason, Caitlin has been a long-time advocate of greater equality for underrepresented groups in technology, contributing articles to publications like Little Miss Geek and STEMGirl.

Caitlin holds a PhD in Arab and Islamic Studies and a Masters (with Distinction) in Gender and Identity in the Middle East from the University of Exeter.

Yassine El Ouarzazi grew up in Morocco and studied engineering in France where he graduated from Les Mines de Paris school. He is part of the Mars internal Think Tank (Catalyst). Yassine  leads a global multi-disciplinary research program with applications in Sales, Marketing and Business Model Innovation and coordinates internal and external academic networks covering data science, applied mathematics, economics, business, anthropology and  psychology. Yassine has worked as a volunteer in the French translation of the The Khan Academy (https://www.khanacademy.org) education site. Yassine has always been committed to advancing gender parity and equality in education and in the workplace. At Mars, he conducted innovative research to identify bias in the recruitment process. Yassine’s experience and academic network will help accelerate Ellpha Citizen’s impact.

Brigitte Ricou-Bellan is a storyteller, entrepreneur and people connector who wants to change the world. Brigitte has a masters in Business Management from ESCP-EAP and an advanced diploma in Litterature & Cinema from the University Paris Sorbonne. She has a proven track record of launching, transforming and scaling digital businesses and marketplaces and building global teams and has led fast moving organisations in digital media, internet and mobile in the USA, UK and Europe. She is passionate about diversity and getting more women in leadership.

She is one of founders of the ellpha project.