Maya Ivanjesku holds master’s degree in chemistry from Polytechnic University, Brooklyn NY (NYU).
One of her passions is creating and developing skincare products. Inspired at the very young age, Maya learned early on that using natural remedies is most effective way to skin longevity.
Her formulation career started at the Estée Lauder companies where she was part of elite team of scientists developing products for Origins, Clinique, Estée Lauder, La Mer, MAC. Over the last 30 years, Maya became a creative visionary, developed formulations for many brands such as TooFaced, Benefit Cosmetics, Laura Mercier, Urban Decay, NARS and Sephora Cosmetics.
Most recently, Maya developed and created one of the first probiotic skincare brands where she was able to incorporate live and active probiotic cultures within the products without the need of refrigeration. Ivanjesku received a patent for this technology.
As a Chief Scientific Officer at M2B Pharma Maya and her team recently launched BLT Numbing cream - a prescription strength numbing cream available without prescription.
Maya is an entrepreneur, consultant and has been speaking at numerous conferences and educational speeches at the prestige spa and esthetician events.
Kareem Barghouti, CEO, earned a B.S. in Biological Sciences from UC Irvine and an MBA from Duke University, specializing in Healthcare Sector Management. With a background in Strategy & Operations and Sales & Marketing, he was an early employee at Wildfire Interactive, acquired by Google for $450M. During his 5 years at Google, he accelerated in leadership, overseeing data integrity for the advertising business, managing a global team of 200+ individuals, and contributing to the launch of an online education portal that has reached tens of millions of customers. Recognized globally for exceptional sales, he also played a key role in Google X's moonshot initiatives. Seeking cutting-edge developments in science and engineering innovation with the aim of facilitating the transformation of research into viable commercial opportunities. This journey led to his role as a BioDesign Fellow at the Texas Medical Center Innovation Institute in Houston, Texas, incubating Pragma Bio.
Yug Varma, PhD, is the cofounder and CEO of Phi Therapeutics, a venture-backed microbiome company focused on skin disorders based in San Francisco. He has an extensive background in bio-organic chemistry, microbiology, synthetic biology, and microbiome research. Yug received
his scientific training at several distinguished academic institutions, including Johns Hopkins University (PhD) and University of California, San Francisco
Momo Vuyisich is a co-founder and Chief Science Officer at Viome, a data-driven precision nutrition company. Momo provides scientific leadership at Viome and his vision is to revolutionize healthcare from "symptoms management" to a true preventative medicine. He leads product development, clinical test implementation, and comprehensive clinical research portfolio. Momo is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of New Mexico and New Mexico Tech. Before co-founding Viome in 2016, Momo spent 12 years at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he led the Applied Genomics team, which developed the core technology used by Viome today. Momo received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Utah, and BS in Microbiology from the University of Texas at El Paso.
