The Hot Mommas Team

The Project:

We are a nationally award-winning social venture in the ed tech space that pairs the world’s largest digital case study library of female role models with cutting-edge teaching tools.

The Cases: The Hot Mommas® Project is the world’s largest women’s digital case study library designed to serve as role models and mentors from the basement to the boardroom. The library is free, comprised of rich – often jaw-dropping – stories, by women of all backgrounds and cultures. The Hot Mommas Project was born to fill a gap in the educational system – Teachable, scalable, authentic role models providing a full picture of success.

The Classes and Coaching:  Research shows exposure to key networks of role models/mentors increases self-efficacy, a critical type of self confidence. Through our leadership academies and group coaching, developed and tested over the past two decades, increase confidence and key success factors up to 300 percent among women in Gen Z, Millenials, Gen X, and beyond. To date we’ve worked with women, and the men who support them, from 138 countries. Hot Mommas® Project started as the research of our founder who is a part time faculty member at the George Washington School of Business, Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence.

The Team:

Kathy Korman Frey

Founder & CEO

Kathy is the Hot Mommas Project Founder and “CHM” (ChiefHotMomma), a title developed for her by an intern on the way to Guy Kawasaki’s party in Silicon Valley. Frey previously served as Managing Director of Vision Forward, COO for the National Council on the Aging Development Corporation, as Vice President of Business Development for a healthcare tech venture start up, and in management and as an analyst in the merger and acquisition and competitive intelligence industries.

Frey is a former Alzheimers Association board member and currently serves on the advisory boards of United Women in Business, Mixology, and 30 Second Mom. She is the recipient of a Washington Business Journal Women Who Mean Business Award, the DC NAWBO Woman of Distinction Award, the Influential Woman of Virginia Award, and GW New Venture Competition Most Influential Faculty Award. Frey recently served as Special Advisor to the US Small Business Administration on a free women’s entrepreneurship education platform called Ascent.

Frey teaches Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership at the George Washington University School of Business; the course suite (including a start-up, post start-up, and Hot Mommas Project cases) is the winner of a National Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education Award. Frey earned her BA in English from The University of Virginia and her MBA from Harvard Business School. Click here for more.

Follow Kathy on: Twitter

Sameera Q. Bazaz

COO/CSO

Sameera Bazaz was the first adopter of the freelance consulting model at Vision Forward LLC and one of the earliest champions of the Hot Mommas Project vision – mentoring students in the Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership course at George Washington University’s School of Business and a judge for the Hot Mommas Project Case Study competition.

She began her career in Corporate Tax Advising and Litigation Support at Price Waterhouse in Sydney Australia, serving clients in the insurance, consumer products and manufacturing industries. After moving to the United States, Sameera was with McKinsey and Co. in Pittsburgh, PA and then FreeMarkets Inc, the first B2B online auction and strategic sourcing tool (later acquired by Ariba and then SAP) where she facilitated the adoption and implementation of FreeMarket’s online strategic vendor management and auction applications by some of the largest -and most resistant to change – defense and aerospace companies in the United States. She then went on to lead FreeMarket’s DirectSource^TM product and Customer Training teams.

Sameera has a B.Ec. (Economics and Accounting) and LLB (JD) from the University of Sydney, is a former CPA of the New South Wales Institute of Chartered Accountants and has an MBA from the Harvard Business School. She lives in Reston VA with her husband and three boys.

Follow Sameera on Twitter

Tinu Abayomi-Paul

Women’s Leadership Fellow

Tinu Abayomi-Paul is our founding Women’s Leadership Fellow, a tlong program designed to provide exponential benefit to the women’s community. Tinu brings to the Project her expertise in web site promotion, as an author, and content specialist as the principal of Leveraged Promotion, LLC.

Tinu has written over 30 ebooks and multimedia guides on using the web to increase business profits, as well as volumes of how-to guides. She is frequently quoted in books and articles, and has been part of a CNN’s Leading Women article and chat series.

Tinu was named one of the 2014’s top 50 Industry Influencers by AGBeat. She was on of TopRank’s 25 Women Who Rock Social Media. Other honors include “Digital Sister of the Year” and Liberated Muse’s Top 10 Women in Social Media.”

Previously, Tinu was the Editor of the award-winning blog: Women Grow Business founded by Network Solutions. She currently serves on the Social Media Advisory Board of Web.com.

Follow Tinu on Twitter

 

Student Teams

Director of Digital & More

We walk the talk at the Hot Mommas Project and work in educator-student teams. Our student teams manage social media, website, and assist with research and implementation of special projects. Are you a driven student in the DC area, or work well virtually from around the globe? contact us.

Country Managers

Thank you to our global leaders from around the world who are well-known in their industries and countries. Current and past country managers:

• Canada –  Senior Country Manager: Lydia Fernandes
• Middle East –  Senior Country Manager: Rim Siam
• India , South/Central America – Mercedes Cuellar Kommerstad
• Australia / New Zealand – Cheyanne Brae Ainsworth
• France – Marion Chapsal 
• Africa – Ify Ofulue

Judges

The entire team would like to give a special thanks to our esteemed judges, many of whom are advisors and mentors to the project.

• 2009 Judges
• 2010 Judges
• 2011 Judges
• 2012-2013 Judges

Men’s Aux

• Paul McConaughy