Team

Bobbie Carlton is the founder of Carlton PR & Marketing, Innovation Nights and Innovation Women, or, as she calls them, the day job, the night job and the dream job. Carlton is an entertaining, tell-it-like-it-is speaker who speaks extensively (and passionately) about public speaking and how it can be the driving force behind career growth and business success. She’s a TEDx speaker; an entertaining startup event host; she’s spoken at the United Nations; she’s shared the stage with storytelling legend (and NPR’s Snap Judgment host) Glynn Washington; and she’s been on the main stage for some of the world’s best-known conferences for technical and professional women. Carlton has been featured on CBS News, in the Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, USA Today and other major media. Through Innovation Nights, Carlton has helped to launch more than 1500 new products for startups who raised more than $4B in funding. She was previously the head of global PR at two different enterprise software companies and the head of marketing for a brand devoted to providing positive role models for preteen girls. She’s inspired thousands of technical, entrepreneurial and professional women to take control of their own speaking careers and has worked with event managers around the world to deliver diverse and inclusive events.

Follow Bobbie on LinkedIn, or on X as @BobbieC @MassInno @WomenInno or @CarltonPRM.

Interviews and articles with Bobbie Carlton

Women’s History Month: Women Leaders On The Power Of Sharing Your Story – Forbes

How getting social can build your business – CBS News

See more media coverage of Bobbie and Innovation Women on the News page.

Lisa Saurs – Lisa would say her support of women started with Girl Scouts. Following her desire to build communities that empower, she went on to major in Women’s Studies at UCSB for her BA, before landing in the marketing field. Since 2015, she has planned and organized hundreds of events around career development, job skills, professional development, and community building via her role as a Core Organizer with Day of Shecurity for 5 years, her role with Secure Diversity for 7 years, her volunteer roles with WiCyS, and Raíces Cyber Org, and her advocacy for inclusion. In her downtime, Lisa enjoys gardening, attending live music shows, and reading romantasy books. She lives in Illinois with her husband and their four cats Tangerine, Is Potato, Ashryver, and Hank McCoy “Beast”.

Emily Bradley, Customer Success Associate, is responsible for customer success at Innovation Women, whether it is helping event managers find the perfect speaker, or helping speakers find the perfect speaking opportunities to showcase their talents and expertise. Before joining Innovation Women, Emily worked as a literary publicist, a background that makes her particularly popular with Innovation Women’s author/speakers. Emily graduated from Auburn University with a Bachelor’s degree in public relations.

Phoebe Sahlas, Account Coordinator –

Phoebe is an Account Coordinator at Carlton PR & Marketing, where she thrives on bringing brands to life through strategic media outreach, branding, and digital marketing. Using her deep skills in social media marketing, email marketing, graphic design, and public relations, she helps clients build visibility and engagement.

Passionate about the beauty industry and the ever-evolving world of social media, Phoebe stays ahead of trends to craft compelling content and campaigns. She holds Bachelor’s degrees in Public Relations and Communications from the University of Rhode Island.

Nat Hefferman – Social Media and Newsletters. A former financial services professional, Nat began working in social media as a website monitor for a COPPA-compliant children’s website (yes, the Beacon Street Girls) while home raising his two kids. The job soon evolved into the role of head monitor, managing the schedules and team of monitors. In his spare time, he plays saxophone, bassoon and sarrusophone (look it up) with several local orchestras and bands, most notably the Extraordinary Rendition Band of Providence, RI. Follow Nat on Twitter as @Dublreed

Kumari Swamy – Operations. Kumari Swamy directs operations for Innovation Women. She plans, monitors and executes revenue mechanisms towards building scale. As necessary she works with sales, marketing, production and technologists to achieve growth goals. Previously, she worked for The Marg Foundation, publisher of books and magazines in Indian and related art and culture as Manager – Data Processing. She managed authors, compiled material (text and images) from authors/contributors to meet publication timelines of their quarterly books and magazines. She also set up and managed the technology for recording accounting transactions at The Marg. She holds an MBA from ICFAI, Hyderabad and Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Mumbai University.

Pradeep Aradhya brings a unique perspective on building businesses. With the strategic approach of building a “minimum viable business” he guides Novus Laurus as well as mentors and invests in other businesses.

Pradeep takes his experience in organic and inorganic growth strategies along with product and operational know how in multiple spaces and combines it with 12 years in digital marketing and the use of cutting edge technologies to drive businesses to “new successes”. Previously, as a senior executive he successfully led acquisitions in the mobile space where his role was to identify strategic growth areas,  inorganic growth potential, candidate product companies and negotiate acquisitions. He has also led multi million dollar initiatives at Fortune 500 companies to create technology platforms for marketing. He identified and advocated the best and newest developments in various technology areas that gave brands competitive advantages in establishing lasting relationships with customers.

At Novus Laurus he builds empowered and engaged teams both internally and within client businesses. Pradeep holds a Ph.D. in Structural Dynamics from NC State University and a M.Sc in Aerospace Engg. from the Indian Institute of Science.