A highly sought-after philanthropy expert, board member and business leader, Julie Murray has led numerous successful public/private partnerships and social impact projects for corporate funders, family foundations and community leaders. Principal and CEO of the Moonridge Group, and President of the Moonridge Foundation, she is widely credited with transforming social impact in Nevada to be more strategic and collaborative.
While serving in 2019 and 2020 as the President and Board Chair for the NV International Women’s Forum, she formed a successful strategic alliance with the National Association of Corporate Directors and led the IWF team who won the bid to host the 2022 IWF World Leadership Conference in Las Vegas.
Murray has been honored for the strategic and collaborative nature of her work. She co-founded with business leader and philanthropist Eric Hilton the Three Square Food Bank in Las Vegas, a $55m annual operation that is sought after for its award-winning national-model best practices. She worked with philanthropist athlete Andre Agassi to launch the national model charter school, Agassi Prep, and is the co-founder of the “I Have a Dream” Foundation Nevada.
Murray serves on the Nevada Board for SilverSummit Healthcare and on the Community Advisory Council for Barrick/NV Gold Mine. She is the Board Chair for the Moonridge Foundation, a Donor Advisory Fund; and on the Board of Directors for Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada and Noah’s Animal House.
She is a frequent speaker about philanthropy and has served as an adjunct professor of philanthropy at the University of Nevada Las Vegas teaching graduate students about driving efficiencies into social impact.
Murray resides in Las Vegas and has three grown children and one new grandbaby.
As co-founder of Morton Group, Jenna Morton is a driving force behind the development and success of a prestigious array of restaurants, including La Cave Wine and Food Hideaway at Wynn Resort, CRUSH and Greek Sneek at MGM Grand Hotel & Casino, ONE Steakhouse at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, and most recently, Nudo Itailiano. Her role extends beyond business, reflecting her commitment to enriching communities and cultural heritage.
Jenna holds a degree in Political Science from Northwestern University, a foundation that underpins her strategic approach to both business and philanthropy. Her dedication to social causes is evident in her leadership roles: she served as the board chair of the Council for a Better Nevada and After School All Stars Las Vegas, and she remains a longtime board member for each. As a past president of the Las Vegas Springs Preserve Foundation, Jenna has been instrumental in preserving local heritage and sustainability. Her philanthropic spirit extends globally as she co-directs the Umm al-Jimal Archaeological Project in Jordan and has played a vital role as a board member of Community Cloud Forest Conservation in Guatemala.. She is also board member of the American Center of Research in Jordan, a member and supporter of the American Society of Overseas Research, and founded the PAX Peace by Peace Fund to support cultural heritage initiatives. She is currently completing a masters thesis at Harvard studying the role of local community engagement in cultural heritage preservation.
Executive VP and Chief HR Officer, Hertz Global Holdings Inc.
Jyoti Chopra is a visionary corporate executive and board director with extensive international experience leading business and digital transformation and change management at enterprise levels to increase shareholder value. She has human resources, regulatory, operations, environmental and sustainability experiences derived from preeminent corporations with a successful track record of delivering cultural impact through innovative people practices.
C-Suite Executive (Fortune 500 Company)
Public Company Board Director (NYSE: SNDR)
Past Advisory Board Member (Fortune Global 10 Company)
Strategic Transformation and Global Operations Leadership
Human Resources
Crisis Management
Jyoti Chopra is a visionary corporate executive and board director with extensive international experience leading business and digital transformation and change management at enterprise levels to increase shareholder value. She has human resources, regulatory, operations, environmental and sustainability experiences derived from preeminent corporations with a successful track record of delivering cultural impact through innovative people practices. Jyoti is accomplished at driving business transformation and supporting corporate turnarounds through crisis management, business restructuring, acquisitions and divestitures, notably within heavily regulated industries. She has exceptional communications skills and expertise in building high-performance teams, developing talent and future leadership. Jyoti is a human resources executive whose leadership is strategic and action oriented. Her career has spanned banking, financial services and investment management, professional services, education technology, and the gaming, entertainment and hospitality industries. She served as a Director on the North American Respect for People Advisory Board for Toyota for over a decade. She is currently a member of the Executive Council of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). She serves on the Board of Directors and Corporate Governance Committee for Schneider National (NYSE: SNDR), where she chairs the Compensation Committee.
Jyoti is currently Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer for Hertz Global Holdings Inc., based in Atlanta, Georgia. She leads Human Resources (HR) in support of a global workforce of over 26,000 employees across 11,000 locations worldwide. Her remit includes responsibilities for talent, total rewards, HR services, labor strategy, learning and development and business partnerships. She reports to the Chief Executive Officer, serves on the company’s Senior Leadership Team, and manages a team of over 250 HR professionals.
Jyoti previously served as Chief People Officer and head of Corporate Responsibility for MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM) and was a member of the Executive Committee, based in Las Vegas. In this role reporting to the CEO, she led all human resource functions including employee relations, executive compensation and total rewards, operations, learning and development, talent management and mobility. She led the company’s work on corporate culture, employee experience and well-being. Additionally, she held responsibilities for social impact, philanthropy and sustainability and served as liaison to the MGM Board of Directors’ Governance and Corporate Responsibility and Human Capital & Compensation Committees. She managed the MGM Resorts Foundation and community relations. Her role spanned a workforce of 62,000 employees in 29 locations and a team of approximately 300 professionals (as of January 2025). She oversaw an annual global philanthropy budget in excess of $20 million. Jyoti was instrumental in leading the company’s Human Resources technology transformation. Under her leadership, MGM embraced technology within HR, working alongside partners like Microsoft, IBM and Workday. She implemented AI-driven tools such as micro-courses and digital assistants to support career development and self-service within the organization. She led the creation of the company’s new people strategy and philanthropy frameworks and achieved marked improvement in external ratings through increased data reporting and disclosures in the public domain. Significantly, she was at the forefront of agile workforce planning during the pandemic and the return to work of over 20,000 employees within six weeks alongside newly instituted health and safety education and training.
Previously, Jyoti served as Senior Vice President and Global Leader for HR Strategy, Transformation and Operations at Pearson Plc. (NYSE: PSO), a FTSE100 enterprise and the world’s largest education and learning company. She led a team of over 250 professionals and a multi-million-dollar budget with responsibility for technology improvements, platform and systems implementation, payroll administration and operation, procurement and vendor management, data, analytics and reporting, and robotics and process automation spanning 70 countries. Her role interfaced with all lines of business and critical enterprise-wide functions including finance, technology and operations. She led the company’s relationships with Oracle and IBM and achieved successful consolidation and integration of shared services operations in Ireland, Poland and the Philippines, resulting in multimillion-dollar cost savings. Her work on inclusion centered on advancing a corporate culture to create pathways for the recruitment, development and advancement of a diverse workforce and women in leadership, including gender pay gap reporting.
Jyoti’s experience in leading cultural initiatives is substantial. As Managing Director for Global Citizenship and Sustainability at BNY Mellon (NYSE: BK) from 2012-2018, her work spanned over 50,000 employees across 36 countries and encompassed diversity and inclusion education, hiring, training, thought leadership and eminence building. She oversaw the company’s foundations and led global philanthropy ($100 million in funding) and corporate social responsibility. She supported the CSR and Human Resources and Compensation Committees of the Board of Directors. In partnership with McKinsey & Co., and the UN Foundation, she released a seminal publication called ‘Return on Equality’ at the 2017 World Economic Forum in Davos with a call to action on gender lens investing.
For 14 years, Jyoti held positions of increasing responsibility in corporate, regulatory and crisis communications and was appointed by Deloitte (Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited) as Global Leader for communications and public relations, where she supported Deloitte’s Global CEO and executive group through a team of 70 professionals, covering a workforce of over 200,000 people working in 150 countries. During her tenure at Deloitte from 2009 to 2012, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, she was extensively involved in crafting Deloitte’s strategy and response to US and European regulators on audit reforms, audit transformation and related policies and procedures. She was responsible for issuing Deloitte’s global earnings statements, annual reports and related financial disclosures.
Jyoti has wide-ranging managerial and operational experience derived through 10 years (1998-2009) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (NYSE: BAC). She was Managing Director of communications for global banking at Merrill Lynch and supported all bank businesses across the Americas. She was a member of the strategic acquisitions team and led the marketing and communications integration of First Republic Bank, which was acquired by Merrill Lynch in September 2007 ($1.8 billion acquisition with 2,000 employees). Jyoti was head of the Multicultural Group at Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management. This P&L role included strategic planning, marketing and client acquisition for the wealth management business targeting high net worth investors and business owners. Jyoti was responsible for new business origination, market growth, community leadership and relationship development for emerging market customer segments, which generated over $5 billion in client assets in under four years. From 1999 until 2002, Jyoti was director of client acquisition for Merrill Lynch’s first direct online trading platform and led new account generation, business development, portal alliances and marketing.
She began her career as a media consultant who covered human development and issues affecting women and children at the United Nations. Jyoti was born and raised in London, England. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Honors degree in Journalism from New York University. She completed the Securities Industry Institute at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. She holds an MBA with distinction from the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.
Jyoti served as Merrill Lynch’s representative to and Chaired the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) Diversity Committee from 2004-2009. She was the firm’s representative to the SIFMA Investor Education Committee from 1998-2000. Jyoti has served on the boards of the Princeton YWCA and the Princeton Healthcare System. She is a guest lecturer at The New York University School of Law and the School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) at Cornell University and speaker at Oxford University forums.
Jess Molasky is COO at Ovation Development, a company founded by his father, Alan, in 1984 and the region’s leading designer and developer of both market-rate and affordable multi-family housing projects in Southern Nevada.
The company has designed and built 33 multi-family communities throughout the Las Vegas metropolitan area valued in excess of $1 billion and encompassing 8,340 units. Today, Ovation is easily considered one of the state’s largest and leading developers of affordable housing with 13 projects totaling more than 1,900 units – with more under development.
After graduating from UCLA in 2016 where he studied geography, environmental science and urban planning, Jess worked for UCLA Capital Programs to build three new Leadership in Energy Environmental Design (LEED)-certified dorm facilities and two world-class LEED-certified athletic facilities to be used for upcoming Olympics in 2028. While working for the Capital Programs, Jess helped to roll out a pilot program which created transparency relative to power usage for students living in the dorms. By collecting sub-meter data and developing a dashboard, the energy consumption of each section and floor could be tracked.
In 2018, Jess returned to Las Vegas to join the family enterprise, focusing primarily on Ovation’s affordable senior product, which continues to set the bar high for the region’s standard in affordable housing with resident amenities and services that rival market-rate communities. Since joining Ovation, Jess has helped to develop three mid-rise apartment buildings, each Energy Star Certified and totaling almost 600 units.
Born and raised in Las Vegas, Jess’ grandfather, Irwin, and chairman of The Molasky Group of Companies, developed many of the city’s transformational projects, including Sunrise Hospital, Boulevard Mall, Paradise Palms – the city’s first master-planned community, and many other iconic buildings and properties. Like his father, Alan, Jess is making his individual mark on the family legacy via an enhanced commitment to sustainable development and a continued commitment to help meet Southern Nevada’s critical shortage of affordable housing.
Brian Gordon is a principal with Applied Analysis, a leading economic, fiscal and policy research firm based in Las Vegas, Nevada. As a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with 30 years of experience and holding the Accredited in Business Valuations (ABV) credential, Gordon is widely recognized for his …
His work spans Nevada’s key industries, including real estate, hospitality,
mining, banking and finance and manufacturing, as well as large-scale infrastructure
and community development projects. Gordon has conducted economic and fiscal
impact assessments of projects spanning statewide industries like tourism and real
estate to major venues such as Allegiant Stadium and T-Mobile Arena. His work has
also included evaluating high-profile events such as UFC’s International Fight Week,
WWE’s WrestleMania, NFL’s Super Bowl and Formula 1’s Las Vegas Grand Prix. While
sports and entertainment are prominent examples, these analyses demonstrate a
broader ability to evaluate complex projects that drive economic activity across diverse
sectors. Gordon has also led countless market studies and research projects, providing
actionable insights for developers, policymakers and business leaders.
He has also served as a subject matter expert witness in numerous litigation cases and as a court-appointed manager for various business enterprises. Appointed by the Governor to
Nevada’s Economic Forum, Gordon plays a critical role in forecasting General Fund
revenues. His contributions to the real estate sector involve more than a decade of
service to the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association, including positions as a
board member and Treasurer, reflecting his leadership and commitment to Nevada’s
economic development.
Currently, Punam operates her own business as a speaker, trainer and writer. For the last 13 years, she served as Executive Director of the Elaine P. Wynn & Family Foundation, a private foundation that existed to advance fundamental change, primarily related to public education and the arts.
From 2009-2012, she was an officer of NV Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NVE), a vertically-integrated statewide electric utility with 2,700 employees, serving as vice president of people resources and as vice president of employee and community engagement.
She joined NV Energy following 13 years in the gaming industry, most recently serving as an officer and senior vice president, corporate diversity and community affairs, for MGM MIRAGE, now MGM Resorts Int’l (NYSE: MGM).
During her tenure, MGM MIRAGE received numerous awards in her areas of responsibility, including being ranked among the “Top 50 Companies for Diversity” by DiversityInc magazine, one of the “Top Corporations in the U.S.” for multicultural businesses by DiversityBusiness.com and as one of the “Most Admired Companies in America” by Fortune magazine. Additionally, under her leadership the Company’s philanthropy program, including its centerpiece employee-directed foundation, set new standards for strategic philanthropy and employee engagement within the gaming industry.
Prior to joining the gaming industry in 1996, she had been with the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce for six years, holding a variety of management positions, the last of which was Senior Vice President of Government Affairs.
Education
Mathur attended the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, studying elementary and special education, from 1979-1983.
Community Involvement
Mathur has received appointments to statewide leadership positions by four of Nevada’s Governors:
→ Governor Brian Sandoval (R) appointed her to the Common Core Steering Committee in 2013 and to the Board of Jobs for America’s Graduates in 2014.
→ Governor Jim Gibbons (R) appointed her to the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Task Force on Education Reform in 2010.
→ Governor Kenny Guinn (R) appointed her to the Commission on Tourism in 2002.
→ Governor Bob Miller (D) appointed her to the Welfare Reform Task Force in 1994.
A champion and advocate for public education, she has a long history of involvement with the Clark County School District, the fifth largest district in the nation, having served on a lengthy list of committees and special task forces over the years, including the Superintendent’s Equity & Access Commission in 2019.
She also works closely with the NV Department on Education in a variety of roles to advance the ball on education reform in Nevada, including appointments by the Majority Leader of the Nevada State Senate in 2019 and 2023 to serve on the Commission on School Funding.
In 2020, in response to the pandemic, Mathur co-founded Delivering with Dignity, an innovative emergency management solution, in which delicious meals made by independently-owned restaurants were delivered by volunteer Food Heroes to the most vulnerable members of the community. Her introduction to food insecurity occurred 15 years earlier, as the founding board chair for Three Square, a non-profit organization dedicated to eradicating hunger in southern Nevada. She has served on the Board of the United Way of Southern Nevada for over two decades, is active with Communities In Schools, serving as Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors, and serves on the board of The Guinn Center for Policy Priorities. And, in 2023, she was a part of the Host Committee for Super Bowl LVIII.
She is also active in a number of organizations to improve the effectiveness of the child welfare and foster care systems.
Awards and Recognition
She has received numerous awards including the inaugural Assemblyman Tyrone Thompson Yours in Service Award (2020) and the inaugural Athena Award from the Nevada Women’s Chamber of Commerce (2004), induction into the Nevada Women’s Chamber of Commerce’s Women’s Hall of Fame (2005), “Humanitarian of the Year” by Junior League (2012), “Achievement Award” by Las Vegas India Chamber of Commerce (2013), as a Woman of Distinction by Nat’l Association of Women Business Owners (2006), a Platinum Achievement Award by the Cooperative Development Energy Program by Fort Valley State University (2011), A Lady of Distinction by Olive Crest, an organization advocating for needs of children in the foster care system (2009) and Woman of the Year by The Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada (2009).
She was named among “Top 100 Influential Women in Las Vegas” by MyVegas Magazine in 2014 and 2015 and, in 2024, she was named among Nevada’s “Most Respected Leaders” by Nevada Business Magazine.
Personal
Mathur resides in Las Vegas with her three amazing sons and one spectacular daughter, and is an exuberant grandmother.
That same year, she assumed the role of President & CEO of the Nevada Women’s Fund—an organization founded in 1982 and recognized as one of the first women’s funds in the nation. Ila also serves as a Commissioner for the Nevada Commission for Women and was named a 2025 Woman to Watch by Nevada Business Magazine.
Widely recognized as a passionate and visionary nonprofit leader, Ila is known for her ability to build meaningful relationships that engage and empower communities. An entrepreneur at heart, she thrives on finding innovative ways to grow operations, scale impact, and streamline strategies that strengthen fiscal health—all while leading with bold vision and enduring optimism.
Transforming Philanthropy Through Lasting Change
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For 15 years, the Moonridge Foundation Philanthropy Leaders Summit has brought together changemakers committed to doing more than just imagining a better world—they’ve built it. This year’s theme, From Intention to Impact, honors that legacy by challenging us to turn purpose into measurable progress and ideas into lasting change.
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