"What's Your Pitch?": Innovations Competition: Southeast Regional Preliminary

Aly Merritt is currently the Managing Director of Atlanta Tech Village, and formerly the Head of Community at SalesLoft, where she did everything from mopping floors to meeting investors. In past Lofter lives, she’s been Chief of Staff and on the teams for customer experience, support and product management.

She has spent the last decade of her career working with the Atlanta startup community to advance both local startups and Atlanta itself on the national stage, with a special focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. She previously organized and emceed the ATL Startup Village, a monthly meetup to generate publicity, visibility and potential investment for startups in Atlanta, hosted at Atlanta Tech Village. She sporadically spends time writing about tech and the startup community on her blog, AlyintheATL.com.

Swathy Ramaswamy is a Product Stewardship Leader at Trane Technologies. I her role, she focuses on Sustainability and Circularity of our products and services. She leads the Circularity Council and works with Engineering, Product Management, Supply Chain and other functions to design and develop sustainable products and services that are better for the environment while enabling the Circular Economy.

She previously held roles at AT&T and The Home Depot focused on product and supply chain sustainability as well as logistics and operations working with both customers and suppliers.

She holder Masters degrees in Industrial and Chemical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Akron, respectively and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Anna University in India. She is a Six Sigma Black Blet and is also Lean certified.

Lianne Wang is a Business Banking Leader for Truist Financial Corporation. She oversees the Business Banking Team in the Greater Washington Region. In this capacity, Ms. Wang is responsible for leading the Business Bankers to retain and grow long-term profitable business banking relationships for companies with $2MM to $5MM in annual sales. Greater Washington has one of the most robust business portfolios in the Commercial Community Bank.

Since being named to this position in January 2021, Ms. Wang has led the bank in Treasury revenue. In her previous role as a Business Banker, she exceeded her annual goals by over 200%, the second highest in the region. With more than 24 years of banking experience, she previously served as a Sales & Service Leader and Branch Leader with heritage BB&T from 2003 to 2016. Ms. Wang was a founding member of the Greater Washington API (now ACT) Business Resource Group and is a current regional co-chair.

Passionate about giving back to the local community and helping those in need, Ms. Wang serves as a Director on the Board of New Hope Housing. She currently serves on the New Hope Housing Development Committee, engaging the community and organizing fundraising events.

Ms. Wang earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia. When she isn't working, Ms. Wang enjoys reading and spending time with her young kids, Grace 6, and Grayson 4. They can be seen boating on the Potomac River on most weekends during the summer.

Truist Financial Corporation is a purpose-driven financial services company committed to inspire and build better lives and communities. With 275 years of combined BB&T and SunTrust history, Truist serves approximately 12 million households with leading market share in many high-growth markets in the country. The company offers a wide range of services including retail, small business and commercial banking; asset management; capital markets; commercial real estate; corporate and institutional banking; insurance; mortgage; payments; specialized lending and wealth management. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Truist is the sixth-largest commercial bank in the U.S. Truist Bank, Member FDIC. Learn more at Truist.com