We are pleased to welcome our class of 2024 new GSGNY Board Members: Grace-Ann Baker, Melissa Cebula, Debbie Gregory, Erica Lacerenza, and Preeti Priya.
Grace-Ann Baker
Grace-Ann Baker is a Managing Director and Head of Human Capital at 26North, where she is responsible for leading and executing the firm's human capital strategy. In her role, Grace leads initiatives to attract, develop, and retain top talent while also fostering a culture of inclusion, innovation, and collaboration. Prior to joining 26North, Grace held talent and HR roles at Blue Owl Capital, Annaly Capital Management, AllianceBernstein, and Morgan Stanley.
Grace serves as a mentor to students and early-career professionals of the National Association of Black Accountants (NABA) and has served as a volunteer teacher with Cents Ability, a non-profit focused on empowering underserved New York City high school students through access to financial literacy training. In addition, Grace was a 2021 Fellow of the Council of Urban Professionals, an organization whose mission is to inspire, elevate and empower the next generation of diverse business and civic leaders and women.
Grace holds a B.S. from Baruch College in Mathematics, Actuarial Science and an M.S. from New York University in Organizational Behavior, Change Management.
Melissa Cebula
Melissa is the Senior Vice President, Head of Talent Acquisition for Cerberus Capital Management. She joined Cerberus in 2019 and currently leads the firm's talent and recruitment endeavors. As a leader, Melissa champions a collaborative approach, fostering genuine partnerships with hiring managers at every level while embracing a "recruitment as a service" philosophy. In 2019, Melissa made a significant impact by spearheading the expansion of the firm's Technology platform, successfully hiring over 60 technology professionals. Throughout her tenure at Cerberus, she seamlessly transitioned into the role of a Human Resource Business Partner, where she skilfully navigated various facets including performance management, compensation, succession planning, talent management, onboarding, and offboarding. Prior to her tenure at Cerberus, Melissa demonstrated her prowess as a recruitment leader at First Derivatives, where she directed recruitment efforts for North America. Renowned for her strategic insight,
Melissa brings a keen focus on efficiency, HR analytics, and process optimization to her role as a strategic partner. Melissa's academic background includes a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Rider University, underscoring her holistic approach to talent management and organizational development.
Debbie Gregory
Debbie Gregory is a proud former Girl Scout. The Cookie Program was her first experience with sales, marketing, and distribution.
In 2014, she departed a twenty-year career in institutional investment management at Prudential to pursue an entrepreneurial idea. In 2015, Debbie launched a financial software company for the asset management industry.
A one-person, kitchen table start-up, the concept was very simple in its mission and design. She endeavored to bring clarity and qualitative, competitive intelligence to a $5 trillion investment market with very limited transparency.
The software venture was an immediate commercial success. One year after launch, Debbie's company was acquired by Nasdaq. Today, supported by a 50-person team within Nasdaq, the software platform is utilized by over 700 financial institutions globally. Debbie is responsible for leading the software product development for the asset manager segment of Nasdaq.
Debbie earned her MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and her undergraduate at Boston University, BS Business Administration and BA in East Asian Studies. Debbie is extremely active within the Wharton alumni network, particularly among the women, technology, and entrepreneurship cohorts.
Debbie is a mom to three teenagers. She is active in many educational initiatives for financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and technology.
Erica Lacerenza
Erica Lacerenza is a Managing Director in Deloitte’s New York financial services audit and assurance practice. She has over 15 years of experience and has served a number of Deloitte’s largest global financial services clients, including organizations in the banking and capital markets (BCM) and investment management (IM) sectors.
Erica has served a range of clearing and introducing Broker Dealers and has extensive experience leading the audit across all facets of regulation relevant to US clearing broker-dealers, including the internal controls over compliance. Erica leads meetings with the audit committee, board members, and senior executives for multiple clients.
Furthermore, Erica has significant experience relevant to SEC filings, internal controls, valuation of complex instruments, investment banking, institutional sales and trading, and Bank Holding Company regulation.
Erica also leads audit and advisory work for several Emerging Growth Clients, including Fintech companies. She is one Deloitte’s Tri-state Blockchain & Digital Asset leaders. In this capacity, Erica is leading cross functional teams in Audit, Tax, Advisory, and Consulting to design and implement tactical and strategic solutions clients within the broader Blockchain and Digital Assets ecosystem.
Erica leads Deloitte’s Greater Tri-state Women & Allies DEI team, which creates, develops, and leads internal and external programs and events throughout the year to promote inclusion, equity, retention, and community. Additionally, she is the National Blockchain & Digital Assets A&A DEI Leader, where she is currently developing the strategy and core principles of the DEI strategy to be rolled out nationally to the Practice.
She also serves on the advisory board of the non-profit, Girls with Impact.
Preeti Priya
Preeti Priya and her family believe in Girl Scouting and are proud supporters of the Girl Scouts of Greater New York organization. Preeti has been a Troop Leader in Lower Manhattan for over five years. Her daughter has received her Bronze and Silver Awards; she is currently pursuing her Gold Award. From cookie selling, to being the Manhattan Association Chair to primitive camping with outdoor rock climbing, Preeti is a Girl Scouts enthusiast.
She is proud of her troop, which established the Rosie the Riveter Memorial Garden at the National WWII monument site. They founded and hosted Canstructing; the event educated Girl Scouts and taught them how to make structures using food cans. The troop collected over 1,500 food cans and goods which were donated to a Manhattan food pantry. During Women's History Month in March, they organized their 3rd Annual Leading Women in Our Lives Seminar, showcasing women leaders with diverse stories.
Preeti currently serves as an Arbitrator on the American Arbitration Association’s New York No-Fault Insurance panel, serving at the discretion of the New York State Department of Financial Services. She has presided over 8,000 cases and has written over 5,000 decisions in the last 12 years. Preeti has had an illustrious legal career spanning over 24 years; she has been a litigator and trial attorney. She has also advised individuals to realize their dream of being an entrepreneur.
Preeti served on the Board of Directors for the Alumni Association of her Alma Mater, State University of New York at Stony Brook where she received a BA in Philosophy and Political Science, and minored in Socio-Legal Studies. She earned her Juris Doctorate from the Touro College, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center. She is a member of the New York State Bar.
