Team

Judith Iglehart, EdD

Prior to co-founding SAYJ Global Partners, Dr. Judith Iglehart was the President for International Chapter Development and Operations at the Keiretsu Forum, the global angel investing network based in San Francisco. An accredited business angel investor, she originated international business development and marketing activities for Keiretsu and both developed and provided oversight for nearly 30 chapters in Europe, the Mid-East, Asia, and North America.

Prior to her work at Keiretsu Forum she was the Chief Research Development Officer for the Discovery Grant program at the University of California, President and CEO of BARTA-Tech Ventures Network in Silicon Valley, and the Deputy Senior Vice President for Business and Finance at the University of California's Office of the President. Her previous positions include Chief of Staff to the California State Senate Majority Floor Leader, Director of State and Federal Relations and Special Assistant to the Chancellor, UC Berkeley, and Associate Director of the California Policy Seminar. She served for six years as a State Senate appointee on California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Small Business Advisory Board.

She has lectured in the US, the UK, the EU, and China about business angel investing and in Latin America on Sustainable Cities. She has served as a judge for the IBM Smart Camp (Madrid), at Barcelona Activa, at the Sonar D Conference (Barcelona), at Menorca Millennials, at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, at Microsoft, and at Keiretsu Forum events globally.

She holds a BA and an MJ from UC Berkeley, and an MA and EdD from Mills College. Her dissertation addressed technology transfer issues at UC between 1984-2000: Balancing the University of California’s academic mission with public and private research needs: technology transfer during The Peltason and Atkinson Presidencies.

Shelley Bays

Prior to co-founding SAYJ Global Partners, Shelley was an active and successful angel investor for over ten years. She has held senior management and executive positions across mutiple industries, including financial services, environmental engineering consulting, food and beverage, and paper manufacturing. Her primary focus has been on start-up and growing businesses, within the US and abroad.

Her financial services career began with VP positions in the retail divisions of Manufacturers Hanover Trust (now JP Morgan Chase) and Bank of America. Part of the team that spun off Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. from Bank of America, she served as SVP and Chief Administrative Officer for the Schwab Retail Division, leading the group during a time of rapid change that significantly expanded the size of the firm. She was responsible for branch and call center expansion, finance, technology and customer service quality, substantially improving functional operations that enabled Schwab's development into a major financial services force. As head of the Exchange Trading Division of Schwab Capital Markets, she was responsible for all listed equity and options trading in the US and led an organization of over 250 people. She moved to London as CEO of a joint venture between Schwab and TD Waterhouse (now TD Ameritrade) that created a successful British-based retail brokerage for the two companies.

Following the buyout of the joint venture by TD Waterhouse, she founded the Paris chapter of the global angel investing network Keiretsu Forum. She later expanded coverage to include the UK and Ireland, and until recently served as President of the group. Under her leadership, the organization has funded, advised and supported young companies from multiple countries within Europe. Following her tenure at Keiretsu Forum, she co-founded SAYJ Global Partners, building out the company and investor network to include clients and transactions internationally.

She has served on the Board of Directors for the Boston and Pacific Stock Exchanges (now part of NASDAQ and NYSE, respectively), and has acted in various advisory roles for pan-European financial services initiatives. She is a winner of the Women in Private Equity Award, in the category of CEO backed by private equity.

She attended Smith College, holds a BSc from Warwick University (UK), an MSc from University College London and an MBA from Fordham University in New York.