Tamanna Gulati
Laura I. Gomez is the CEO and Founder of Atipica, a venture-backed startup streamlining the job recruiting process through data driven platforms that promote diversity in hiring while connecting companies with top talent. Being among the meager 3% of Hispanic workers in the tech field, the social impact of her work is a chief motivator for her, as is providing a business intelligence tool that helps companies adapt to a rapidly evolving workforce. Laura’s career in tech began at seventeen with an internship at Hewlett-Packard; she has since worked at Google, YouTube, Jawbone, and led the expansion of Twitter en español. As a founding member of their International team, she headed the localization of Twitter into 50 languages and dozens of countries.
Gomez has observed the lack of diversity in tech firsthand throughout her career, and as a woman of color, faced discrimination and sexual harassment. Though she was no stranger to adversity, having immigrated to the United States in a harrowing journey when she was just nine years old and living as an undocumented immigrant until college. A staunch believer in public education, Gomez opted to attend University of California, Berkeley over Stanford and Harvard. Despite isolating early experiences as a woman and minority studying computer science, she has grown to become a prominent tech influencer. “I’m an entrepreneur — first and foremost…and I think that’s so important that people see a different face of undocumented America, when they see me.” In the current political climate, Gomez remains steadfast in her mission to encourage diversity through her involvement with non-profit organizations and as a founding member of Project Include. “Everything that the current administration thinks that doesn’t work… I am a product of it. I am a product of immigration and public education and successful.”
Expanding Your Horizons Chicago 