Marissa McNeelands is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Toast, a women’s collective championing gender equity in tech. 

Holding a Master’s of Management in Artificial Intelligence, Marissa’s AI expertise is deeply entrenched in using Natural Language Processing to help organizations reach their goals while keeping ethics and equity in mind. Leading Conversational AI Products at Scotiabank she drove innovation, leading to the development of the award-winning Conversational AI Chatbot. 

Most recently, she has been using her AI knowledge to help get more women into tech by implementing feminist data practices at Toast to rectify hiring biases in applicant tracking systems. She recently was a finalist for the Women in AI Awards, DEI Leader of the Year.