About Our Afternoon Seminar Speakers

For over 30 years, Karen Sands has mentored extraordinary change in women seeking to reinvent their lives and their world. She provides practical tools and expert guidance to those who want not only success but true fulfillment—professionals, small business owners, executives, career changers, parents-on-the-go, and individuals with vision.

Women turn to Karen to take their work and lives to the next level, going from good to great, but especially during times of transition—personal, professional, financial, global—to learn how to use change, even traumatic change, as a catalyst for transforming their lives so they can move fearlessly into the future they envision.

Karen is a Master Certified Coach, Professional Futurist, and Educator for people ready to rock their world. She is also the founder of FutureWorksInstitute.com, a virtual coaching and futuring resource and educational forum since 1988, and the upcoming www.AgingForTheFuture.com. Karen is the author of The New ’60s, Crossing the Canyon, Visionaries Have Wrinkles, Great Old Broads Speak Out and The Greatness Challenge (forthcoming), and the publisher of the Future Works® Gazette. Find out more about Karen and check out her blog at www.KarenSands.com.

Ivana M. Spacek is an Assistant Vice President and Wealth Management Advisor with Merrill Lynch in Hartford, CT.  She joined Merrill Lynch in 1996, earned her Certified Financial Planner® designation in 2003, and earned the prestigious Chartered Financial Analyst® designation in 2006. 

Ivana’s background is primarily in higher education, both teaching and administration.  She taught Russian and Czech language and literature at Yale University and Trinity College.  On the administrative side, she served as Director of Grants and Contracts at the University of Hartford.  Ivana has a B.A. degree in Russian Language and Literature from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. and M.Phil. in Slavic Languages and Literatures from Yale University, and an M.B.A. with a concentration in Finance from the University of Hartford.  

As a Financial Advisor, Ivana uses a planning based approach to help clients develop and implement comprehensive, coordinated strategies to address their financial needs.  Ivana has been recognized within Merrill Lynch for providing Platinum Service to her clients. 

Fran Pastore is the Founder, President & CEO of the Women’s Business Development Council (WBDC), and for more than 14 years the leader of entrepreneurial training for women in Connecticut. A devoted facilitator for women seeking economic self-reliance through small business ownership, personal financial education and professional development, she and the WBDC team have helped create thousands of jobs, thereby increasing the number of revenue-generating taxpayers in Connecticut.

Fran’s entire career has been dedicated to helping women achieve their dreams of economic empowerment for themselves and their families. Since 1999, she has served on the Economic Development Comm. in Stamford and in 2010, was appointed to the Governor’s Advisory Board for Small Business. In 2000, the U.S. Small Business Admin(SBA). honored her as the Women in Business Advocate of the Year. Recently, she received a congressional appointment to the National Women’s Business Council, a bi-partisan Federal organization created to serve as an independent source of advice and counsel to the President, Congress, and the SBA on economic issues of importance to women business owners.

In May 2010 when she visited Rwanda, her impact became global as she helped women genocide survivors launch and operate a micro business. The business, an ice cream shop, is profitable today, providing the women she trained with their first predictable source of income in their lives. She is a an appointed member of the Executive Council of The Business Council for Peace (BPeace), whose mission is to foster stability in formerly war-torn countries by creating jobs through business development. Fran is also a member of both the Connecticut and International Women Fourm’s.

Fran lives in Stamford with her husband and two daughters.

Susan M. Suhanovsky has worked for The Torrington Water Company for over twenty three years. In March 2008 she assumed the position of President of the Company and before that was Senior Vice President. Responsibilities include overall management, finance and administrative duties along with overseeing regulatory compliance for the Company. She holds a Bachelor Degree in International Business from Central Connecticut State University and an MBA in Finance from the University of Connecticut. She has been active on community and industry boards. She is Past President of the CT Water Works Association, a Director of the National Association of Water Companies, a Director of the Northwest United Way and served as a Director and Treasurer of the Girl Scout Council of NW CT, Inc.

Her interests include photography and travel to different parts of the world. Susan has four children and resides in northwest Connecticut.