kHyal is an award-winning creative director, marketing executive, digital strategist and writer with extensive experience working with international brands, corporations, and agencies. Her work focuses on B2B and consumer technology, cybersecurity, healthcare and wellness, FinTech, arts and culture, sustainable fashion and manufacturing, education, and non-profit verticals.
In recent years, kHyal was Digital Content Strategist and Senior Writer on the Palo Alto Networks cloud security team, Director of Content and Copy at network performance and cybersecurity leader Akamai Technologies, Chief Marketing Officer for the LATAM SaaS FinTech firm Impesa, Cofounder and Principal at Microtech International, and Director of Corporate Communications and SaaS Strategy at Triad Capital. During her career, she has also held the positions of Chief Creative Officer at Metropolitan interactive, Creative Director at Havas Worldwide and NetKey, Co-founder and VP of Marketing and Public Relations at blowtorch studios and SunStar interactive, and Director of Marketing and Public Relations at Stamford Health. Her expertise expands into educational publishing, where she led technology workflow implementations for Harcourt and McGraw-Hill Education between the US and India.
kHyal majored in Mass Communications at Emerson College. She served on the Marketing Committee for MIT Enterprise Forum of New York City, Inc. and co-chaired the Fundraising Committee at Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, Los Angeles. As a tech founder, she was an active member of the Connecticut Technology Council’s Vice President of Marketing Forum; and a presenting member of FleetBoston Financial Women Entrepreneurs’ Connection. kHyal has been a juror for the London International Advertising Awards, a judge for Hasbro’s Project Upcycle Design Awards, served as Communications Chair for the AIGA Brand Central Chapter and was on the advisory board of GraphicDesign.com London and Pace University’s Lubin School of Business Transformative Leadership Program. She is currently on the advisory board of Bitdefender.
In 2022, kHyal was invited by Seth Godin to help amplify The Carbon Almanac, which was awarded “Most Insightful Data Book” by Data Literacy. She spearheaded the online sustainable fashion resource guide, contributed to the LinkedIn Learning course and produced a standalone event for the global book signing. She continues to work on outreach to leaders in the sustainability and climate action space, writing promotional content and tying the project into her own creative work.
A Director and Consultant in employee staffing, kHyal has spearheaded talent evaluation and acquisition initiatives at career development and recruitment events at Carnegie Mellon University, Rhode Island School of Design, Pratt Institute, The New School, Parsons, Fashion Institute of Technology, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Temple University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Syracuse University, Miami Ad School and the University of Hartford. She has been an invited participant in hiring programs at NYU Wasserman Center for Career Development. kHyal served on the Advertising Women of New York (AWNY) Annual Career Conference Committee and Resume and Portfolio Review Clinic Subcommittee. She has written workplace and culture policies and extensive content for hospitals and healthcare organization employee publications and was hired by the tech unicorn company Datto to rewrite human resource policies in a more consumable format for their fast-moving, digitally-minded workforce.
kHyal’s fine art and design have been exhibited in the American Visionary Art Museum, Pictoplasma–Berlin, New Britain Museum of American Art, la Gaîté Lyrique–Paris, Outsider Art Fair–New York, Housatonic Art Museum, City Museum—Washington, D.C., Intuit–Chicago, EGGO Arte—Buenos Aires, Cooper Union—New York, during Art Basel—Switzerland and Miami Arts Week.
Since 2007, kHyal founded Section Magazine and cofounded SoNo Spaces, PUSH Workshops, PUSH Design Camp, and LOOK in the Windows. In 2010, she created the brand MegaGlam® — producing apparel and design products showcased in stores and galleries worldwide. Her work has received media attention from T — The New York Times Style Magazine, Nylon, Time Out New York CBS Sunday Morning, NBC News, Fox News, HBO, and Vice News.
A passionate educator, kHyal has been an Adjunct Instructor at M.AD School of Ideas in New York where she taught Product Creation and Innovation; Adjunct Professor at Anhui Polytechnic University in southern China via Shintaro Akatsu School of Design at the University of Bridgeport; and Designer in Residence at the USC Roski School of Art and Design MFA Forum. She has been an invited mentor, speaker, panelist, judge, juror, and influencer on art, design, marketing, technology, and innovation at conferences, special events, universities, and colleges in the USA, Europe, and Latin America, and Asia. She is a journalist who has written extensively about technology, art, and culture — whose work has appeared in numerous publications, including HuffPost, Time Out, and Communication Arts.
kHyal is a founding member of the Women’s Internet History Project and a member of Women in Cybersecurity. She began her tech career working with industry pioneer Mark Levinson, who coined the term “high-end audio.” During this period, she consecutively created interactive artworks and installations, pioneering digital media with a convergence of sound, light, animation, and video projection. Before her first Mac, kHyal used an Amiga computer to create live MIDI music performances and video animation. She was a member of the Amiga Users Group at Yale University, featured in Rhizome (now part of the New Museum), and active in Silicon Alley in the 90s. Her first blog on kHyal.com featured the emerging technology scene in New York City in 1996. She launched her own livestreaming show out of the American Film Academy in New York in 1997. Her current interests include climate action, plastic pollution reduction, nature conservation, AI for good, sustainable design and materials, health and wellness — and pushing the boundaries of creativity.
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