Led by experience.
Rooted in understanding.

Heather Fernstrom is a versatile, performance-driven entrepreneur, philanthropist, co-founder and speaker leading the way in the real asset private equity space through her deep limited partner and consultant networks. Her diverse experience helps create new investment products, best-in-class marketing materials and elevated corporate governance, along with defining capital formation goals and objectives for investment managers looking to differentiate themselves amongst their peers.  

As Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Alliance Global Advisors, Heather launched a firm that has been recognized as one of the fastest-growing strategic advisory platforms in the real estate industry. Alliance has been named to the Inc. 5000 list of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies for numerous years and has received multiple Stevie® Awards, including Fastest-Growing Company, Employer of the Year in Real Estate and Achievement in Thought Leadership.

Heather speaks on various industry panels. She is an Advisory Board member of Outsourced Research & Capital and serves on PREA’s Governance Committee, the PREA Foundation Community Grants Program Committee and Elion Partners’ Independent Advisory Board. In 2022, Heather received the GlobeSt. Women of Influence Award and the GlobeSt. Real Estate Forum’s 50 Under 40 Award. In 2024, Heather received the Connect CRE Women in Real Estate Award and Inc. Magazine named her one of the most empowering women in business. In 2026, Heather was also named to Inc.’s Female Founders 500 list, recognizing women entrepreneurs whose leadership and innovation are shaping the future of their industries.

As a current Board Member of Wellfit Girls, Heather is passionate about mentoring the next generation of female leaders.  She is also active on several committees within the American Heart Association, to which she has dedicated hundreds of volunteering hours in tribute to her late brother, Kyle Fernstrom.

Heather earned two Master of Science degrees, one in Finance and the other in Real Estate and Construction Management, graduating Magna Cum Laude from the University of Denver. She earned a dual Bachelor of Science degree from Western State College in Accounting and Business Administration while playing collegiate volleyball.

Heather lives in her hometown, Naples, FL, with her three children, Jackson, Harrison and Madelyn. Heather enjoys all outdoor activities in her “free” time, including kiteboarding, diving and hiking.

Sue Malone, founder, and CEO of Strategies for Small Business, where the focus is on starting and expanding businesses. Over the course of nineteen years Sue has been responsible for funding over 30,000 businesses, with an emphasis on, minority, veteran and women owned businesses.

Sue sits on several national boards focused on entrepreneurship and inclusion.Sue is the President and CEO of the on-line company National Lien Law, which helps contractors across the nation with easy and cost-efficient lien forms. She helped author several new loan programs and equity programs for small businesses. In addition, she makes sure small businesses voices are not forgotten in Washington DC.

Sue is a serial entrepreneur with starting seven plus businesses. She holds an MBA from St. Mary’s College.

Shauna Sprague is based in Nashville, TN and currently serves as IT Program Manager, Intelligent Automation and Analytics at Amazon.

With over 20 years of experience leading technology innovation across Fortune 500 companies, she is a TEDx Speaker, AI Strategist, and Board Member who helps business leaders move from AI curiosity to confident adoption — bridging the gap between potential and practical execution. Her technical fluency spans Power BI, Zapier, Make, AWS, and Power Automate, with a focus on designing intelligent workflows and data-driven decision systems.

She is also a passionate advocate for women in technology and inclusive innovation, championing mentorship and lifelong STEM education, and believes the future of AI should be both human-centered and accessible. She delivered a TEDx talk at TEDxNashville in February 2025 titled "What I Learned From Automating Everything."

She also has deep Nashville tech community roots — she is a graduate of the Nashville Technology Council's ELITE emerging leaders program LinkedIn and has prior experience at Dollar General before joining Amazon.