Category Archives: Members of the Year

Amita Jacob is Senior GIS Analyst for the Alberta Municipal Affairs Assessment Services Branch. An IT and GIS Professional with over 15 years of experience, she has worked internationally in both the public and private sectors for countries around the world, including Canada, India and Bahrain. Passionate about her work, she has been able to leverage technology to improve public administration and infrastructure, and is known for her creative approach to problem solving.

After earning a master’s degree in Computer Applications from Nagpur University, Amita went on to complete a master’s degree in GIS Applications from Vancouver Island University, where she was consistently on the Dean’s honor list. She has been a recipient of the Bravo Award, Silver Award and E-gov Award, and was featured at the 2011 eWorld Forum for the Ministry of Social Development web GIS application. A skilled public speaker, she spoke at the ESRI User conference in Edmonton in 2019.

Amita is based in Edmonton, Alberta. She credits her success to focus, drive and perseverance.

Women’s Networking Association Member Amita Jacob, MGISA, SAS can be found on the Association Directory, where she is looking forward to networking with you.

As the CEO of USH Associates LLC, Rike (Ulrike) Harrison works with organizations to help them discover market opportunities and create relevant solutions that provide agility for sustainable, profitable growth. The firm’s strengths are in organizational development and change management.
Rike grew up in Germany and has an MS in Mathematics from the University of Cologne. She moved to the States and attended grad school in Georgia earning an MBA from Georgia Southern University. She currently works on her Doctorate in Saint Mary’s University’s EDD Program.
Rike started her career working in high tech, and subsequently managed the customer experience division of Pearson. She joined RSM in 2000 as National Sales Officer moved to Wipfli LLC as their Chief Growth Officer, and worked for Baker Tilly as their Chief Sales Officer before she became CEO of USH Associates. These assignments required significant knowledge in change management design and implementation as well as organization development.

Denise Limato is a highly analytical, decisive, and entrepreneurial senior executive with over 20 years of progressive leadership experience developing and implementing strategies, processes, and systems reducing costs and increasing operational effectiveness and productivity. As a creative and resourceful problem solver, she possesses an innate ability to build high performance geographically diverse teams that deliver on time and within budget. Denise also thrives as a collaborative, versatile, and solutions oriented leader with success translating difficult concepts to convey clear vision to diverse audiences utilizing practical perspective and prioritization/requirements identification expertise in fast-paced environments. Denise is currently the President of The Limato Group, LLC. She holds her Bachelor of Business Administration in HR and Industrial Relations from the University of Iowa and is a member of the Project Management Institute. Passionate about her work, Denise credits her success to dedication, drive and perseverance. She looks forward to connecting with likeminded professionals.

I started working at Antiktex, Ltd. in New York City, where I got to learn hands on with an amazing antique textile collector from Europe. A couple years later I worked with an incredible and talented menswear designer at Roytex, Inc. as assistant designer, for 7 years. In 2002 I returned to the world of vintage textiles, at Archive Collection, Inc. , where I became partner in 2011. I am passionate about creativity, textiles, and helping designers find outstanding and strong, unique designs for their collections and lines. Archive Collection, Inc. has been a women run and operated small business since 2011.

Renu Thakral is a Portfolio Manager for NBC Universal. She chose to work in this industry, to enjoy the fast pace and the cutting edge technology. She hopes to work in Public Sector in future, with an objective to serve the society. Her key to success is perseverance, hard work, and dedication. She takes pride in being part of Telecom and Media Industry for a strong and successful twenty plus years career path. She has an extensive management experience in Telecom Digital Media technology as well as TV & Entertainment Media global network procurement and operations. She is currently working for one of the largest media conglomerates (NBCUniversal) and strongly advocates for more women in technology.

She is an active member of the company’s widely driven program (Tech Women) and has been an integral member of the New York and New Jersey Chapters, for several years. She has mentored younger interns and recruits and continues to promote the essence of mentoring and nurturing the upcoming talent, in totality.