Rachel Payne has launched and sold tech companies, run for a congressional seat, managed foundations, and built global strategies for an impressive list of companies. On Oct. 22, Payne will share her experiences and insights with women working in tech and entertainment at the annual Women in Technology Luncheon, presented by HPA Women in Post and SMPTE. The popular gathering takes place during the SMPTE 2018 Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition at its new location at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

Payne is CEO of FEM Inc., a holding company founded by women whose mission is to serve and empower diverse audiences. In 2015, FEM Inc. launched Prizma, an AI platform for media, entertainment and telecom companies. Prizma was acquired by Nielsen Gracenote in May 2018.

Payne co-founded FEM Inc. after a long and successful run as an executive at Google. Hired onto the founding team of Google.org as a Senior Program Officer and spearheading their early strategy and charitable operations, Payne later joined Google’s international business operations team and led projects in emerging markets focused on building technology infrastructure and business ecosystems as a Country Manager and on the regional Africa leadership team. She led cross-platform media sales teams as Head of Industry for Technology for Southern California. In Payne’s Global Strategic Alliances role, she worked with top executives across the company to develop comprehensive strategies for their largest global partners, including Sony, Disney, NewsCorp and Samsung. She served externally as the global point of contact for some of the company’s most important relationships.

Payne has been on the founding or early teams of several successful ventures in Silicon Valley including Hotwire (acquired by IAC) and Billpoint (acquired by eBay). In 2005, she co-founded inDplay (acquired by Discovery Media Group) – a cloud-based rights management company that provides cross-platform distribution for premium content – and served on the Board of Directors until 2007; angel investors included Eric Schmidt, William Randolph Hearst III, Rob de Santis and Shai Agassi.

Payne has served on the Board of Directors for multiple NGO and social purpose organizations, including BRAC USA, KCET/LinkTV public media company and CREDO Mobile (Working Assets). She earned an MBA in Global Management and Public Management from Stanford University and a B.A. with distinction from Smith College. She resides in California.