Dessa Bokides is an ACE LLC Certified Board Candidate who is a global leader with over 30 years of experience in finance, banking, education, retail, real estate, and project management. Her extensive experience includes involvement with nine organizations where she developed and led profound change in revenue, management, and strategic planning. She has also held roles in being a Chair of a start up, non-profit board and has presented material and information for board operations.

Dessa approached the ACE Board Certification Training for Women to really climb into new perspectives in board work. She remembers, "I have had a lot of former experience with boards, so I wanted to gain perspective and be thoughtful about what boards are doing and the intensity it takes to operate."

Some things Dessa likes to do in her spare time are outdoor activities, hiking in the mountains, cooking, and biking.

Dessa is an Independent Director and Global Executive with an extensive background in Global Fortune 500 companies, private-equity backed turnarounds and start-ups with an emphasis on financial systems and strategies as well as emerging financial technology.  Her experience spans a decade on wall street at Goldman Sachs to CFO at publicly-traded Prologis and Global Treasurer for GMAC during the 2008 financial crisis. With a background in both finance and anthropology, she is adept at recognizing financial issues and technology trends and moving the organization to respond. Her emphasis on financial technology has resulted in being on the forefront of industry changes. 

Financial highlights include:

• COO/CFO of Neom Tech & Digital, a giga-city development located in Saudi Arabia, that is creating the first sustainable, cognitive city in 10,600 square miles of NW Saudi Arabia. Responsible for designing & building the hard and soft technology infrastructure for the city.

• Global Treasurer for GMAC during the financial crisis of 2008. Responsible for coordinating the response to 100 banks with over $100b in lines outstanding and restructuring the capital structure to avoid a melt-down. Restructured GMAC into a Bank and received approval and funding. 

• Instituted the first electronic firm wide risk management system at Goldman Sachs and sat on the Firm-wide Risk Steering Committee. 

Dessa has a BA in Anthropology from the Colorado College and an MBA from Columbia Business School with an emphasis on Finance and Real Estate.

"I used my ACE Board Certification Training to think about what boards I would be good for... Being on a board takes more time and energy than I realized before participating in the training and I wanted to gain more perspective on board work.”

-Dessa Bokides