Alyssa Banko – Bio
Co-Founder of MommyWarriors.com
Born and raised in Northwest New Jersey, Alyssa acquired almost all of her executive experience at one company. Right out of college, she began what would be a fifteen year career at M&M/MARS, a division of Mars, Incorporated, an $18 billion privately held business manufacturing and selling globally recognized Snack, Pet Care and Food consumer products in 65 countries. (www.Mars.com). There she held various different buying positions in the services area including graphics, licensing, public relations, market research and one of her favorite areas, sponsorships. She negotiated, contracted and committed millions of dollars on behalf of the different business divisions. Her involvement in the company’s Nascar program not only kept her on her toes in order to maintain trademark protection, but introduced her to drivers such as Elliot Sadler, Ken Schrader and Ernie Irvan, and also turned her family into serious Nascar fanatics at the time.
It was also at M&M/MARS that Alyssa met her husband Jeff in 1992. It all began on the volleyball court when two die-hard competitors from opposing sides ended up falling for each other. They married on December 4, 1994.
In early 2004, Alyssa’s husband was transferred to LA. Alyssa saw it as a blessing. She could finally stay home with their kids, two sets of twins. However, it wasn’t long after the move that she realized how much she missed the executive world. That was when her friend and neighbor, Nicole Perry, called and told her about the website she was launching, Mommy Warriors, and asked Alyssa if should be interested in working together. Alyssa sparked to the idea right away. Like Nicole, she had been frustrated by the lack of engaging content on the web for moms.
Now Alyssa finds her self juggling time between trips to the orthodontist, helping out in her kids’ classrooms and running to board meetings. Oh, and in between that add practices and games for baseball, football, soccer, volleyball, rugby, lacrosse, basketball, among others!