Illana Raia

Recently named one the first 250 entrepreneurs on the Forbes Next 1000 List, Illana Raia is the founder and CEO of Être - a mentorship platform for girls. Believing that mentors matter early, Illana brings girls directly into companies they choose (Spotify, Google, YouTube, NYSE…) to meet female leaders face to face.

Illana is a member of the International Space Station National Lab Education Subcommittee, serves on the National Girls’ Collaborative Champions Board, and has authored 60+ articles for HuffPost, Ms. Magazine and Thrive Global. Her award-winning book Être: Girls, Who Do You Want To Be? was released on Day of the Girl 2019, featuring wisdom from 40 luminary women like Arianna Huffington, Debra Messing and Reshma Saujani alongside quotes from 50 girls.

Prior to launching Être in 2016, Illana was a corporate attorney at Skadden Arps in NYC and a guest lecturer at Columbia University. She graduated from Smith College and the University of Chicago Law School, and remains unapologetically nerdy.