The driving force behind RISE
DEIDRE CRISTAL LEE KIN (THE FOUNDER)
Deidre is an Entrepreneur by heart with over 14 years of experience in Tech Start-ups across sectors such as Fashion, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. She is Co-founder of Dingole LTD, a Caribbean based digital agency that specializes in user experience research, human centered design and computer vision.
She is currently the implementer of the Academy for Women’s Entrepreneurship in Trinidad and Tobago in partnership with the Us Embassy. Deidre has hosted several bootcamps over the past few years such as AppStart which focused on providing mobile tech skills for entrepreneurship to disenfranchised youth. One of her favourite workshops is STEAM Start - Science, Technology, Entrepreneurship, Art and Math to kids under 13 years of age.
She has represented at the Meridian Global Leadership Summit panel "Digitalization of the Global Economy", together with Ghargee Ghosh of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Deidre is passionate about Start-up Culture, Entrepreneurship and the advancement of opportunities for youth and women. She aspires to be a "Champion of Change" and is proud to be a Young Leaders of the Americas Alumni Fellow as well as an Alumni of Start Up Chile.
She has been recognized for her contribution to technology through the Phenomenal Women of T&T award, and she is also a Caribbean Innovation Pitch Winner and has been featured several times in local publications, as well as the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Newsletter.
In her spare time she likes to chat with clients in her Spa and Salon business.
THE PASSIONATE ONE
Kristle Gangadeen is a communications professional with more than 10 years experience in developing messages that influence and resonate with and audiences using various media. Her career spans the private and public sectors and she currently serves as the Manager, Marketing and Corporate Communications at the National Energy Skills Center, a non-profit, tertiary-level technical institute.
A passionate educator and learner, Kristle has served as Group Facilitator at the University of the West Indies for a Master’s level course in Marketing Management and as a tutor in Microentrepreneurship at YTEPP - a youth training programme.
In 2017, Kristle had the honor of presenting at the closing conference of the Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI) 2017, where she presented on Digital Content Marketing.
She also regularly develops and workshops in digital marketing at the community level. In 2018, Kristle received a grant from the US Department of State to conduct workshops with teenagers in Trinidad and Tobago. Over 300 high school students were exposed to entrepreneurship as a career while also developing their critical thinking and problem solving skills. In 2020, she was awarded another grant by the US Department of State to conduct training for young entrepreneurs in digital marketing.
Kristle is a Government of Trinidad and Tobago National Scholar (2006) and a US Department of State YLAI Professional Fellow Alum (2017). She holds a Master’s degree in Marketing, a Postgraduate Diploma in Instructional Design and a Bachelor’s degree in Management.
THE LOGICAL ONE
KRISTLE GANGADEEN
LEAH WHITE
Leah White is an aspiring entrepreneur who views business as a solution to societal issues and intends to work towards advancing entrepreneurship in Trinidad & Tobago.
Being an Alumni and past mentor of the Atlantic LNG's Point Fortin Finest Programme (PFF), she has taken the programme's values to heart as she is an advocate for community building.
Her experience working with women on the AWE Program has awakened her passion for women empowerment and inspired her budding business idea to assist under-resourced women in rural communities.
Her idea of a fulfilling life is living with integrity and compassion. She sticks by her personal mantra as said by Mahatma Gandhi "You can't fight ignorance, but you can switch on the light."