Board of Directors

Lennox deFreitas

Software Delivery Manager
NCR

Board Chair

Lennox deFreitas is a result-driven IT leader with over 20 years of experience in various industries, including Telecommunications, Banking, and Cable. He currently serves as a Software Delivery Manager at NCR. His primary responsibly is to project plan, coordinate, and manage the software development process along with managing a team of Developers and QA Engineers. Before his time at NCR, Lennox served as a QA Enterprise Delivery Lead and as a Scrum Master for COX Communications for 10 years. He is a proud graduate of Alabama A&M University, where he served as Vice President of the Caribbean Students Association and is also a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.

Naima Judge

Managing Director and Market Investment Executive
Bank of America Private Bank

Internal Affairs Chair

Naima Judge is a Managing Director and Market Investment Executive with Bank of America’s Private Bank. In her role, she manages a team of professionals who work with high net worth individuals and families to create, grow and pass on their wealth. She has 20 years of experience in investment management. Naima has an undergraduate degree in International Business and Finance from Northeastern University and a Master’s Degree in Entrepreneurship and Corporate Accounting from the University of Rochester’s Simon School of business. Naima, in her capacity with The Bank of America Private Bank, has been a corporate partner with YearUp, a national not-for-profit organization focused on closing the opportunity divide for youth ages 18-24. Naima is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, and recently relocated to the Atlanta area with her husband and her two children.

Justin Ward

Head of Legal Services
The Coca-Cola Company

Justin Ward is Head of Legal Services for The Coca-Cola Company. Serving as second in command to the Chief Information Security Officer, Justin leads the company’s global information security services for the operating units, bottlers and subsidiary partners. Justin also manages the cyber component for the global insider risk program, the information security policy and standards, the vendor governance program and the Bridge innovation program.
Having served over 20 years in the IT/infosec industry, Justin joined The Coca-Cola Company in 2012 on the risk assessment team responsible for mitigating cyber risk for both internally-deployed and externally-hosted solutions. After serving as Manager for that team, his scope was expanded to Director to also lead the regional security managers responsible for delivering security services to global business units and bottlers.

In 2019, Justin served as the Executive Assistant/Chief of Staff to the SVP and Chief Information and Integrated Services Officer where he was responsible for facilitating the strategy and execution of IT services for the company’s functions and business units worldwide.
Before joining The Coca-Cola Company, Justin served in various technical and leadership roles at Microsoft, Avanade, KPMG, Florida Power & Light and United States Gypsum, based in Chicago, IL and Miami, FL from 2000-2012.
Justin holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Telecommunications Engineering Technology from Texas A&M University.

Heela Popal

Principal, State and Local Tax (Abandoned and Unclaimed Property)
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Heela has over 19 years of unclaimed property experience and holds a CFE designation. Heela is a Principal/ Partner with PwC and the East Region Leader of the Abandoned and Unclaimed Property ("AUP") practice based in Atlanta, GA. She specializes in unclaimed property project management, audit defense, high level risk assessments, state voluntary disclosure initiatives, and the quantification of unclaimed property liabilities. She also works with clients to implement policies and procedures related to unclaimed property compliance reporting and tracking. Heela’s industry specialties with unclaimed property issues are consumer business, automotive, manufacturing, life sciences & healthcare, retail, and telecommunications.

Heela has co-authored several articles on unclaimed property: “Uniform Law Commission finalizes revisions to the Uniform Unclaimed Property Act” PwC Tax Insights November 2016; “Tracking the myriad of changes in abandoned and unclaimed property, featuring Delaware legislative changes,” PwC AUP Briefing/ Issue 10/ October 2014; “Managing abandoned and unclaimed property in the retail Industry: Key gift card restructuring and transfer pricing considerations,” PwC AUP Briefing/ Issue 6/ May 2013, “What Organizations need to know about Unclaimed Property in the Life Sciences and Healthcare Industry,” @ Regulatory Health Sciences Newsletter, Summer 2007; “Florida Gift Card and Credit Memo Exemption: New Law Expands Florida’s List of Noteworthy Unclaimed Property Exemptions,” @ Regulatory Unclaimed Property Services Newsletter, October 2007; “The Florida Disposition of Unclaimed Property Act: Considerations for CPA’s”, Florida CPA Today, December 2009, and "Unclaimed Property in the Health Care Industry: Navigating Troubled Waters, Checkpoint May 2011. Heela currently serves as the President for the Unclaimed Property Professionals Organization (UPPO) for the 2016-2017 governance year and is a frequent speaker on unclaimed property issues with different trade associations.

Prior to joining PricewaterhouseCoopers, Heela served in a similar role as a Senior Manager in the Unclaimed Property Practice of Thomson Reuters and a Manager in the Unclaimed Property Practice of Deloitte & Touche LLP. Prior to specializing in Unclaimed Property, Heela worked in the Multi-State tax department of Deloitte Tax LLP where she specialized in working with the California Enterprise Zone tax credits, other tax credits and incentives, sales and use tax, and other multi-state tax issues.

Lyric McGhee

Salesforce Administrator
NCR Corporation

Lyric McGhee is a Salesforce Administrator at NCR Corporation. Lyric has been an Administrator at NCR since becoming Salesforce certified in 2018, gaining a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience with the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool. In addition to her IT experience, she obtained her Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Criminal Justice from Georgia State University in May 2020.

Lyric spent most of her teenage years and young adult life sleeping on couches and moving from home to home in search of stability while staying dedicated to her goals of being the first in her family to graduate from high school and college. While in college, Lyric started her working career at the age of 19 as a cashier at Walmart. She went on to offer her services in many other areas, such as interning at Atlanta City Council under Andre Dickens, interning at the Westside Future Fund, Graduate of Techbridge’s Technology Career Program and First cohort for Chick-Fil-A’s Servant Leadership program called “Fellows.”

Lyric prides herself on integrity, accountability and helping those in need. Her values were built when she joined Raising Expectations (RE) in 2007 at the age of 12. Raising Expectations is a nonprofit after school program dedicated to helping the children and families on the Westside of Atlanta. She gives much of her credit to the program, consisting of co-founders and mentors that helped her stay focused, gain opportunities and provide mental and physical support. She is a true believer that it takes a village to raise a child and that if we work together, we all can uplift the children of the future as RE had done for her. As a proud Graduate of Raising Expectations, Lyric was honored when nominated to be a Board Member. As a Board Member of Raising Expectations, she looks forward to providing her knowledge, expertise and dedication to helping the organization prosper. Currently, Lyric is planning to get her Advanced Certification in Salesforce, pursue her career as a Producer, and expand Raising Expectations.

Tammara L. Warren, MBA, PMP, RN

Chief Operating Officer
Leadership Atlanta

Tammara Warren is an accomplished healthcare executive with more than 20 years of experience as a strategist and accessible leader driving profitability and increasing market share with focus on people, processes and technology.

Tammara started her career as a Registered Nurse in women’s health at Grady Health System in Atlanta, GA prior to moving into management and attending business school. She is the immediate past Chief Operating Officer for Planned Parenthood of Michigan where she led 21 health centers throughout the state and forged partnerships to expand services in communities with high health disparities. Prior to her tenure there she was the Chief Administrative Officer for Morehouse School of Medicine at Grady Health Systems where she managed 11 specialities for Medicine for almost a decade. Following business school, Tammara was part of HCA’s COO Development Program. There she led service and operational lines at 2 hospitals in New Hampshire and the rural mountains of Virginia. She has also consulted and been an interim executive for the VA, large health systems, hospitals and physician practices where she is known as a change agent who delivers solutions. Tammara is currently the Regional Vice President of Georgia and Alabama for Oak Street Health where she continues to champion for bridging the gap of health disparities in adults on Medicare.

Among her many accomplishments, in 2018, Tammara was named as a “Notable Woman in Healthcare” by Crain’s Detroit Business. She is also a Howard University School of Business “Distinguished Alumni,” Visiting Speaker for University of Michigan’s Health Policy and Management Program and a Leadership Detroit Graduate- Class of 2019.

Tammara earned her MBA in Healthcare Strategy and Marketing from Howard University where she was a Trustee Scholar and President of the Graduate Business Student Association. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Nursing from the Medical College of Georgia.

Tammara keeps a pulse on the community and her industry with active participation as a member, board member and/or volunteer with various organizations to include The American College of Healthcare Executives, Howard University Alumni Association Atlanta Chapter, National Association of Health Service Executives, National Black MBA Association-Lifetime Member, Southfield Rotary Club-Founding Member, Raising Expectations and North Atlanta High School where she started their Basketball Dance Team. She is also a board advisor for two black women led start-ups and a mentor.

Malcolm Benson

Senior Cell Implementation Engineer
Verizon Wireless

Malcolm Benson has close to 30 years of experience in the field of telecommunications. He currently is a Senior Network Implementation Engineer at Verizon, responsible for the upgrade and maintenance of existing cell sites in the Georgia and Alabama submarkets. He manages several general contractors that specialize in power upgrades, inside the shelter preparations and tower construction. Malcolm has a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Hampton University and a Master’s in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated and in the 1995 class of National Football Foundation/College Football Hall of Fame Scholar Athletes.

Malcolm also co-owns an urban farming non-profit based in Southeast Atlanta called Grape Roots. Their mission is to provide education on growing fresh, organic produce, foster health and wellness by improving food security and create sustainability in urban communities through farming and agriculture.