Lauren Maillian

Lauren Maillian is a change agent committed to innovation, diversity, equity, and inclusion. She’s an award-winning marketer, prolific investor, advisor, entrepreneur, and board member with a multi-hyphenate career spanning over 15 years. Lauren was the CEO of digitalundivided, the leading nonprofit leveraging data, programs, and advocacy to catalyze economic growth for Black and Latinx women entrepreneurs and innovators. The mission is to create a greater world in which all women of color own their work and worth. The former Board Chair of digitalundivided, Lauren took the helm to evolve and grow the organization to further support women of color entrepreneurs, especially in the wake of the racial reckoning amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Bilingual in Spanish, Lauren continues to expand the reach of the organization’s mission and programs across the United States and its territories.

She is continuing the legacy of the groundbreaking ProjectDiane research that has generated billions of media impressions globally for being the first-ever data report on the state of Black and Latinx women entrepreneurs in the United States. Lauren’s new partnership strategy secured support from over 20 brand partners including JPMorgan Chase’s Advancing Black Pathways, LinkedIn, American Express, Nasdaq, Amazon Web Services, Shopify, Gusto, Pine-Sol, Silicon Valley Bank, EY, and others.

Lauren advised and invested in over 40 startups and her portfolio represents over $5 billion in market capitalization. She is a Senior Advisor for Pipeline Angels and an Investor and Advisor for Athena Consumer Acquisition Corp, the second all-women Athena SPAC, trading on the NYSE. Her board advisory also includes The Folklore (a luxury fashion company), Kroma Wellness (the innovative superfoods brand), Ephemeral Tattoo (the made to fade self-expression lifestyle brand), and Diem (a new social community focused on inclusive content and conversation for women). Lauren served on Walmart’s Board of Disruptors and Innovation Council and on the Board of Directors for technology company CoSign and the spirits brand, LIQS (which was acquired by E. & J. Gallo).

With a deep understanding of consumer brands and culture, she is a serial entrepreneur of a number of ventures committed to brand building and investment. Lauren is also the Founder and CEO of LMB Group, a strategic marketing and advisory company partnering with brands like Cover Girl. She also started Straight Up and Successful, a women-focused community and professional development platform. A pioneer in the tech and funding space, Lauren was the first Black woman to start an early-stage venture capital fund, as a founding partner and managing director at Gen Y Capital Partners. At 19, Lauren became the youngest winery owner in the country, co-founding the internationally recognized Sugarleaf Vineyards.

Lauren is on the Board of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Advisory Committee on Cultural Engagement. She created The Collab art series, which uplifts the work of artists of color. She was also the Vice Chair of The Apollo Theater Foundation’s Young Patrons Steering Committee, and a founding member of the Young Entrepreneur Council. Lauren holds a Bachelor of Science from the Fashion Institute of Technology.