SPEAKERS

Anthony Scaramucci is the Founder and Co-Managing Partner of SkyBridge Capital. He is the author of four books: The Little Book of Hedge Funds, Goodbye Gordon Gekko, Hopping Over the Rabbit Hole (a 2016 Wall Street Journal best seller), and Trump: The Blue-Collar President. Prior to founding SkyBridge in 2005, Scaramucci co-founded investment partnership Oscar Capital Management, which was sold to Neuberger Berman, LLC in 2001. Earlier, he was a vice president in Private Wealth Management at Goldman Sachs & Co. In 2016, Scaramucci was ranked #85 in Worth Magazine’s Power 100: The 100 Most Powerful People in Global Finance. In 2011, he received Ernst & Young’s “Entrepreneur of the Year – New York” Award in the Financial Services category. Anthony is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), vice chair of the Kennedy Center Corporate Fund Board, a board member of both The Brain Tumor Foundation and Business Executives for National Security (BENS), and a Trustee of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Foundation. He was a member of the New York City Financial Services Advisory Committee from 2007 to 2012. In November 2016, he was named to President-Elect Trump’s 16-person Presidential Transition Team Executive Committee. In June 2017, he was named the Chief Strategy Officer of the EXIM Bank. He served as the White House Communications Director for a period in July 2017. Scaramucci, a native of Long Island, New York, holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Tufts University and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.

Brett S. Messing is a Partner and the President and Chief Operating Officer of SkyBridge. He began his career at Goldman Sachs where he held various positions including Vice President and Co-Head of the Restricted Stock Group. Thereafter, he was a partner at Oscar Capital Management, which was acquired by Neuberger Berman, LLC. Following the successful integration of the business, Mr. Messing founded GPS Partners, a $2.5 billion hedge fund at its peak, which focused primarily in the energy infrastructure sector. Mr. Messing was the firm’s Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer. Thereafter, Mr. Messing worked for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villariagosa as Co-Chief Operating Officer responsible for economic and business policy. Mr. Messing served as a Senior Advisor to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg at C40 Cities, a joint venture with the Clinton Climate Initiative. Mr. Messing is the Terence M. Considine Visiting Senior Research Fellow in Law, Economics, and Business at Harvard Law School. He is the co-author of The Forewarned Investor and contributed to Learning from the Global Financial Crisis - Creatively, Reliably and Sustainably, a compendium published by Stanford Business School. Mr. Messing received his A.B. from Brown University, magna cum laude, and his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.

For 25 years Michael has invested directly at the security level and indirectly as an asset allocator in traditional and alternative asset classes. He is a Managing Director, Head of Hedge Funds and Alternative Alpha, at APG. Previously he was the Chief Investment Officer at MOV37 and Protege Partners. Michael is also an Adjunct Professor of Economics and Finance at Columbia Business School, where he teaches Institutional Investing, an advanced MBA course that he created. He is the Co-Founder of the Artificial Intelligence Finance Institute - AIFI. Michael also testifies as an expert witness in financial and technology litigation. He was a portfolio manager and global head of equities at FRM, a multi-strategy investment solutions provider. Prior to that, Michael was a portfolio manager at Soros, the macro fund and family office, and at Credit Suisse. Before that he was a Real Estate analyst at Dean Witter. Michael is a board member of AIMA and on its Research Committee. He is on the management advisory council for the Michael Price Student Investment Fund and a Special Advisor to The Tokyo University of Science’s Endowment. Michael is a founder and board member of Project Punch Card, a not-for-profit organization. He is a member of The Economic Club of New York. Michael is a former Chair at CFANY, where he has received multiple awards, including Volunteer of the Year. He is a research contributor to The World Economic Forum on the impact of AI on Finance. Michael is a published author, having written for The New York Times, Institutional Investor and investment books. He has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, CNBC, Bloomberg and Reuters. Michael is a frequent panelist, moderator and lecturer for investment banks, institutional and family office organizations and business schools, including SALT and Harvard. Michael has a BS from New York University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Ms. Ives is responsible for external manager selection and due diligence for Chilton clients and is also a member of the Executive and Investment Committees at Chilton Trust. Prior to joining Chilton, Ms. Ives was a Managing Director at Chilton Investment Company, where she was a research analyst covering the financial services sector. She also served on the company’s Board of Directors. Prior to joining Chilton, she worked at Coopers & Lybrand Consulting Group, reporting directly to the CEO, and began her career at Chemical Bank in their Middle Market Lending Group. Ms. Ives graduated cum laude from St. Lawrence University with a B.A. in English Literature and earned an M.B.A from Harvard Business School. Ms. Ives serves on the boards of The First National Bank of Long Island, the North Haven, ME Casino (Yacht Club), The Project Y Theatre Company, and on the Investment Committee of Vinalhaven, ME Land Trust.

Jackie Rosner, is a Managing Director, joined the firm in 2013 and is a member of the Portfolio Management team, with a specific focus on global macro, relative value, managed futures, and quantitative strategies. Prior to joining, Jackie was a Managing Director, head of global macro and systematic trading strategies, and a member of the executive committee at Union Bancaire Privee Asset Management in New York. Prior to UBP, he was a proprietary trader at BNP Paribas in New York. Jackie has also been a portfolio manager at both Archeus Capital Management and Millennium Partners, and was a founding member of a proprietary trading desk in the fixed income department of Chase Manhattan Bank/J.P. Morgan. Jackie began his career at Salomon Brothers (Citibank) where he held various positions of increasing responsibility primarily focused on quant, trading, and fixed income strategies. He is on the advisory board for the MIT Sloan Department of Finance, volunteers as a master’s thesis supervisor at the Department of Mathematics at NYU Courant, and guest lectures at Columbia University’s Department of Financial Engineering. Jackie holds a BS in Economics, a BS in Management Science, and an MSc in Management from the Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also holds an MSc in Mathematical Finance from New York University and has earned the following designations: CFA, CAIA, CMT and FRM.

Frank Nielsen, CFA Frank Nielsen is managing director of quantitative research for Strategic Advisers, Inc. (SAI), a registered investment adviser and a Fidelity Investments company. Fidelity Investments is a leading provider of investment management, retirement planning, portfolio guidance, brokerage, benefits outsourcing and other financial products and services to more than 20 million individuals, institutions and financial intermediaries. In this role, Mr. Nielsen oversees the Quantitative Research team and its partnership with SAI Portfolio Management to advance asset allocation solutions for both retail and institutional clients. His team also contributes to thought leadership and research innovation initiatives. Prior to joining Fidelity in his current role in 2012, Mr. Nielsen was an executive director and co-head of applied research at MSCI Barra from 2004 to 2012. Previously, he was vice president, head of risk management solutions at Barra from 1993 to 2003. He has been in the investments industry since 1993. Mr. Nielsen earned his Diplom Kaufmann degree (equivalent to an MBA) from Hamburg University in Hamburg, Germany. He is also a CFA® charterholder.

Heath Windcliff, Managing Director, is the head of the Quantitative Research team at MS which is responsible for equity algorithmic trading research and development. He actively works on the design of the optimization tools, price forecasting processes, market impact models, limit order worker and venue selection models used in our products. He is also responsible for the PostTrade analytics framework that MS uses to design and tune the algorithmic offering for the use cases and needs of users and clients. Heath has a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo in 2003 following a Masters and Bachelors in Applied Mathematics where he studied numerical optimization and control theory.

Peng Cheng leads the Big Data and AI Strategies research effort in New York, and is responsible for developing cross asset investment strategies leveraging alternative data and advanced statistical techniques. Previously, he covered Equity Derivatives Strategies in London. Prior to joining the bank in 2010, he was a Convertible and Volatility strategist at Lehman Brothers/Barclays in New York. He holds a Master's degree from the University of California, Berkeley and is a CFA charterholder.

Peter Cecchinin is Cantor's Global Chief Market Strategist as well as Head of Cross Asset Strategy. He currently co-chairs Cantor’s internal markets committee consisting of the firm’s business heads. Previously, he served as Cantor's interim Co-Head of Equities. Formerly, he was Chief Strategist and Head of Special Situations at BGC Partners, a Cantor affiliate. Prior to joining BGC and for over three years, Peter was a Partner and Portfolio Manager at Seven Bridges Management, LP. Seven Bridges was an event-driven, special situations hedge fund seeded by Ulysses Management (the successor to Odyssey partners). The fund took long and short positions throughout companies’ capital structures and invested selectively based on a macro-thematic approach. Prior to Seven Bridges, Peter spent four years at BNY Mellon's predecessor, Mellon Financial Corporation (within its Mellon HBV Alternative Strategies, LLC subsidiary and most recently as a Managing Director and group head of distressed investing). There, he directed securities selection, portfolio construction and portfolio hedging. Until its acquisition by Mellon Financial, he spent three years as an analyst and senior analyst at HBV Capital Management. From 2005 through 2007 and upon its emergence from bankruptcy, he sat on the Board of Directors of a North American integrated aluminum producer. Peter has served on numerous equity, unsecured, secured and bank steering committees. Of note, he chaired the equity committee of Impath Corporation, and he helped engineer the sale of the company to Genzyme. Before joining HBV, he spent several years as a consultant at a firm he co-owned. Peter speaks routinely at conferences and appears regularly on various media outlets. He is also a regular contributor to Ben Hunt's Epsilon Theory.Peter holds an MBA from Columbia University (Dean's List), a JD from Boston University School of Law (American Jurisprudence Scholar) and a BA from Haverford College (in Economics). He is an inactive Member of the NY State Bar. His teams work on strategy and quantitative analysis has received All-American Institutional Investor votes in each year since 2012.

Harvey J. Stein is Head of the Quantitative Risk Analytics Group at Bloomberg, responsible for all quantitative aspects of Bloomberg's risk analysis products. Dr. Stein is well known in the industry, having published and lectured on mortgage backed security valuation, CVA calculations, interest rate and FX modeling, credit exposure calculations, financial regulation, and other subjects. Dr. Stein is also a member of the board of directors of the IAQF, an adjunct professor at Columbia University, a board member of the Rutgers University Mathematical Finance program and of the NYU Enterprise Learning program, and organizer of the IAQF/Thalesians financial seminar series. He received his BA in mathematics from WPI in 1982 and his PhD in mathematics from UC Berkeley in 1991.

Jessica Stauth PhD Managing Director, Fidelity Labs. Jessica Stauth is a Managing Director in Fidelity Labs, an internal startup incubator with a mission to create new fintech businesses that drive growth for the firm. Dr. Stauth previously held roles as Managing Director of Portfolio Management, Research, and Trading at Quantopian, a crowd-sourced systematic hedge fund based in Boston, Director of Quant Product Strategy for Thomson Reuters (now Refinitiv), and as a Senior Quant Researcher at the StarMine Corporation, where she built global stock selection models including the design and implementation of the StarMine Short Interest model. Dr. Stauth holds a PhD in Biophysics from UC Berkeley, where her research focused on computational neuroscience.

Mr. Sangha is the Global Head of Risk and Market Intelligence for State Street Verus and leads a risk and investment strategy team for an artificial intelligence platform that integrates machine learning, natural language processing, portfolio and risk management, and human experiences to explore connections and extract relevant insights between market-moving events and multi-asset class portfolios. Mr. Sangha is an accomplished global macro portfolio manager, strategist, and risk manager, with over 20 years’ experience. He has advised firms on developing quantamental approaches to trading --- strategies at the intersection of structural, statistical, and fundamental trading, utilizing data science, machine learning on both structured and unstructured data, and behavioral analytics. Further, he has led several investment strategy and risk management teams and held a number of senior positions, including Chief Investment Strategist at a $6 billion global macro volatility hedge fund, and Senior Global Macro Trader at a $400 million hedge fund. Mr. Sangha began his career at Goldman, Sachs & Co.,in the Global Investment Research Division. He received honors at the International Mathematics Olympiad, served on the Canadian Mathematics Olympic Team, and is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Brown University.

Akiko Fujita is an Anchor and Reporter with Yahoo Finance. An Emmy-nominated journalist with more than a decade of experience, Akiko has covered some of the biggest stories across the globe. Prior to joining Yahoo Finance, Akiko was an anchor at CNBC International, where she hosted “Squawk Box Asia” out of Hong Kong. In that role, she interviewed some of the top newsmakers in business and politics, including Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Prior to her time at CNBC, Akiko was a Correspondent at ABC News, where she covered news across the Asia Pacific region, including tensions on the Korean Peninsula, and the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster. She is a native of Los Angeles, and speaks fluent Japanese.

Chris is a Managing Director at Cliffwater LLC covering global macro and relative value strategies on the hedge fund research team. Prior to joining Cliffwater in 2011, Chris was a Senior Analyst at SAIL Advisors, where he focused on manager selection and due diligence as Head of Research for tactical trading and relative value strategies. Previous experience includes working for ING Investment Management, Antarctica Asset Management, Societe Generale Barr Devlin, and CIBC World Markets. He earned a BA in Economics and Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania and a MComm in Finance from the University of New South Wales, where he was a Federation Scholar. Chris is a Certified Public Accountant, holds the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst® designation, the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation, and is a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts. Chris has broken 9 Guinness World Records, and has run marathons on all 7 continents and in all 50 US states.

Jeremy Wee joined Man Numeric in 2014. He is a member of the portfolio management team focusing on US and Global strategies. Before that, he was a portfolio manager at Batterymarch Financial Management for the Emerging Markets and Global Managed Volatility strategies. Prior to that, Jeremy held portfolio management and quantitative research roles at Blackstone and Citigroup Asset Management. He received a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management. Jeremy is a CFA Charterholder.

John joined Man Numeric as a Client Portfolio Manager in 2017, representing Numeric’s entire lineup of strategies to clients and prospects. In September 2019, John was named Co-Portfolio Manager of Numeric’s Liquid Private Equity Alternative strategy. Prior to Numeric, John ran a technology company and was previously responsible for launching Infogroup’s expansion into providing alternative data products to the investment management industry. John began, and spent the majority of his career at Russell Investments, where he was a senior researcher responsible for conducting due diligence on both quantitative and discretionary equity managers and previously worked on the portfolio management team. John graduated from Harvard University and is a CFA Charterholder.

Sameer is Head of Data for the Internal Alpha Capture business at Point72 Asset Management. His group is responsible for identification, acquisition, onboarding and governance of data for use in investment process. Previously, he managed the Data Sourcing team for Proprietary Research business at Point72. Prior to Point72, Sameer was the COO at iSentium, an Artificial Intelligence startup involved in sentiment extraction from unstructured social media data for predictive analytics. In this role, he led key business functions including Sales, Business Development, Fundraising, Engineering and Operations. Before iSentium, Sameer was the COO for Global Electronic Trading and Americas Cash Equities business at JPMorgan. He also served in Business Development and Product Management roles at NYSE Technologies, and Software Development and Technology Strategy positions at Goldman Sachs. Sameer received his MBA from Harvard Business School, MS in Information Systems Management from Carnegie Mellon, and BS in Computer Science from National Institute of Technology in India. Sameer is passionate about the role of education in democratization of opportunity. He has been spearheading development of a job training initiative for students selected from 24 colleges in the CUNY system. Program brings together investment, data science and technology professionals from Point72, Google and other corporate partners including startups to introduce students to skills required for jobs in Data and Analytics. He is also actively involved in the NYC start up community through TechStars, and Endless Frontier Labs at New York University.

Elisa Mailman, Co-Founder and CIO E Street Management LLC | The E Street Fund is a long/short equity oriented fund of funds launched in February 2017. From 2010 to 2016, Elisa was the Director of Research at New Legacy Group, LLC where she was responsible for sourcing, due diligence and monitoring of investments in all asset classes. She sourced all the managers for New Legacy's Emerging Manager Fund. Prior to joining New Legacy, Elisa spent seven years as a Senior Analyst/Portfolio Manager at Tremont Capital Management, a large fund of funds, covering the global long/short equity universe. At Tremont, she was responsible for manager sourcing, analysis and due diligence and also managed their long/short fund of funds. Before Tremont, she was the Vice President of Investor Relations at Launch Media, an internet music site, and a generalist Equity Analyst/ Junior Portfolio Manager at Glickenhaus & Co. She began her career at Kidder, Peabody & Co., in retail sales. Elisa earned a BA in Speech Communications and a Minor in Business from the University of Maryland. She serves on the investment committee for Teachers College of Columbia University’s endowment.

Karl Paulson Egbert advises asset managers and their funds on regulatory, corporate and business matters. Karl has practiced in New York, London, Hong Kong and Washington, D.C., working on fund formation, listed funds, private equity and capital markets transactions. Karl has spoken at various industry seminars on a wide range of topics including access to Chinese securities markets (Stock Connect, QFII, RQFII, CIBM), and other regulatory issues for investment managers. He is regularly quoted in publications including the Financial Times, the South China Morning Post, Ignites Asia, Asian Venture Capital Journal and Reuters. He is an adjunct professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center. Practice Focus Karl has significant experience in advising global hedge fund managers with respect to fund formation and negotiation with strategic investors. He also assists international financial institutions and fund managers on a wide variety of regulatory issues, including SEC adviser registration and exemptions, expansion into China and strategic advice in anticipation of regulatory initiatives, such as Stock Connect and OTC derivatives reforms. Karl has been recognized as a leading investment funds lawyer by Chambers Global, which stated that “sources value him as a one-stop shop for assistance or direction and further praise his willingness to think outside conventional parameters.” He is also listed in Chambers Asia, where clients noted that “there are few funds lawyers with his level and depth of knowledge – he has the advice on the tip of his tongue.” He has been recognized by The Legal 500 (US) in the area of alternative/hedge funds and by The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2016 for his regulatory work.

Evan Reich is Head of Data Strategy and Sourcing. He was formerly Global Head of Data Strategy and Sourcing at BlueMountain Capital. Evan has over a decade of experience within the industry and a deep domain knowledge of alternative data. Previously, at BlueMountain Capital, a $18 billion multi-strategy hedge fund, Reich sourced and managed the firm’s alternative data and market and reference data, serving both quant and fundamental groups across all asset classes globally. Reich was also responsible for managing all data vendor relationships and overseeing data engineering. Prior to BlueMountain Capital, Reich was one of the first data engineering hires at Millennium Management. Reich has worked broadly across the capital markets ecosystem—including in private equity, investment banking research and expert networks—and was a contributor to the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), which is used to view gravity waves.

Ms. Elizbeth Hilpman joined Barlow Partners in 2001 as a Partner and Chief Investment officer. During her career, Ms. Hilpman has been at the forefront of investing in alternative investment strategies. For nine years, Ms. Hilpman was at Commonfund serving in the final years as Vice President, Investments with co-responsibility for hedge fund investments. In 1994, Ms. Hilpman joined Dubin and Swieca as Director of Alternative Manager Research. Subsequently, she returned to the endowment community as an Investment Officer at Dartmouth College. Following Dartmouth, Ms. Hilpman joined Global Asset Management in 1998 as a portfolio manager with responsibility for the U.S. component of GAM Diversity, a $1.1 Billion fund-of-funds. Ms. Hilpman graduated with a B.A. from the University of New Hampshire.

Michael V. Marrale is an American finance and technology executive who currently serves as CEO of M Science, the pioneer in alternative data-driven research. An early adopter of alternative data in the investment process, he has led one of the largest data-driven research organizations globally, combining the best of data science and analysis to uncover valuable insights for corporations and financial institutions. Founded as Majestic Research in 2002, Michael joined M Science’s predecessor in 2012 as Head of Research, Sales & Trading. During this time, he played a major role in the 2015 sale of the group’s energy research business, Ross Smith Energy, to Warburg Pincus for over $120 million. In 2016, he led the sale of Majestic Research to Leucadia Investments, a division of Jefferies Financial Group. Under Michael’s leadership, M Science has emerged as the preeminent global leader in data-driven research and analytics, and has expanded its sector coverage and data solutions across the U.S., China, and Europe. A frequent panelist and keynote speaker at industry conferences, Michael plays an active role evangelizing the use of alternative data in the institutional investment and corporate business communities. He is featured in multiple major publications including The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Forbes, Reuters, and Institutional Investor. Earlier in his career, Michael held senior roles RBC Capital Markets and Lehman Brothers. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in accounting from Binghamton University School of Management and is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO).

Clark Cheng, CFA, FRM, is the Chief Investment Officer of Merrimac. Merrimac is a large single family office with investments in hedge funds, private equity, real estate and mutual funds. Prior to Merrimac, he was responsible for managing the hedge fund due diligence process in the Americas for HSBC’s Alternative Investment Group which had $39B in hedge fund investments across both discretionary and advisory mandates. Before joining HSBC, Clark performed hedge fund research at Guggenheim Partners and Morgan Stanley. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, he worked at Credit Suisse First Boston’s equity research department. Prior to that, he spent six years building and establishing West Coast Economics. Clark holds the Chartered Financial Analyst, Financial Risk Manager and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designations. He holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Duke University and a Bachelors of Arts Degree in Business/Economics and Psychology from UCLA. He has also completed his coursework towards his Masters Degree in Psychology from California State University, Los Angeles.

Mark Raskopf joined Russell Investments in 2011 to help in building out the custom hedge fund solutions business. He has 20 years of experience in hedge fund manager research and portfolio management across the spectrum of strategies and styles. Mark joined Russell from Ermitage Americas, Inc. where he was a managing director responsible for leading the NY hedge fund team in providing manager research and portfolio management. Prior to Ermitage, Mark held similar positions at M. Safra & Co., Bank of America, Deutsche Asset Management and The Kenmar Group. As Head of Tactical Trading Strategies, Mark conducts research and due diligence on hedge fund managers in the tactical trading sector, including global macro, managed futures, commodities and currency, and he acts as portfolio manager for a number of client accounts. Mark also leads the research effort for long-only commodity managers in support of Russell’s commodity funds.

Mark H Leeds is a Tax Transactions & Consulting partner in Mayer Brown's New York office. His practice is focused on the tax consequences of a variety of capital markets products and strategies, including over-the-counter derivative transactions, swaps, tax-exempt derivatives and strategies for efficient utilization of tax attributes—such as net operating losses. Mark advises on the tax aspects of capital markets, structured finance, derivatives, financial products and insurance transactions and has extensive experience working with both buyers and sellers to develop and structure complex derivatives. A significant portion of his work involves the taxation of financial products and trading strategies engaged in by banks and other financial market participants. He also advises on hedge fund and other investment vehicle formation matters. Mark is a former managing director and senior tax counselor with Deutsche Bank in New York. He also served as the general counsel of a credit derivative company and was a partner at Deloitte & Touche, where he led the capital markets tax practice. A frequent writer and speaker on tax topics affecting the capital markets, Mark is also the editor-in-chief of the monthly publication

Hema Parmar is an investing reporter with Bloomberg News, where she focuses on hedge funds. Her stories can be found on the Bloomberg Terminal and Bloomberg.com. Hema also appears on Bloomberg TV, radio and on the Bloomberg Finance podcast. She previously covered hedge funds, bankruptcies and emerging markets for the Bloomberg Brief newsletter. Prior to this, she produced Bloomberg TV’s European markets show ‘The Pulse’ which airs across Europe, Asia and the U.S.. Before joining Bloomberg, she spent more than two years covering the energy sector in Alberta, Canada and energy legislation in Washington, DC. Hema has a Master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Jonathan Berkow is the Alternative Data Lead in the equities division at AllianceBernstein.  He leads the research and adoption of alternative data in equity research and systematic strategies.  Prior to joining AB in 2018, he was a systematic portfolio manager and researcher at the hedge funds Element Capital and Kepos Capital.  He started his career at Goldman Sachs Asset Management where he managed quantitative research and was a portfolio manager for global equity portfolios.  His research has spanned both equities and macro asset classes.  He graduated from MIT with a degree in economics.  

Lawrence Delevingne is a New York-based journalist for Reuters, where he has written financial-themed enterprise stories since 2015. He previously wrote about alternative investments for CNBC and Absolute Return. Delevingne won a SABEW Best in Business award in 2014 for a profile of Africa investor Bruce Wrobel and was a finalist for a Loeb Award and the Reuters Journalists of the Year honors in 2016 for work on Platinum Partners. He holds a Master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and a Bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

Sihan Shu is the founder and Managing Partner of Strobus Capital LLC, an opportunistic discretionary global macro investment advisor founded in 2016, and has over 15 years of experience analyzing, trading and investing in global macro and structured investment products. Prior to founding Strobus, Sihan was a Partner and Managing Director at Paulson & Co. for over ten years where he structured some of the firm’s most successful and complex trades, including the short subprime mortgage trade in 2006 – 2008 which has been referred to as one of the most profitable trades in financial history. Sihan joined Paulson as an Associate in 2006 and throughout his 10 years at the firm he held a series of significant investment roles, serving as lead partner responsible for research, analysis, idea generation, trade structuring and risk monitoring of all the firm’s macro and structured product investments. Previously, Sihan was a fixed income research analyst with Lehman Brothers, from 2004 – 2006. Among his accomplishments was the publication of a research paper in August 2005 that identified significant risks in subprime mortgage-backed securities. A 2004 graduate of Dartmouth College, Sihan earned a B.A. magna cum laude in Economics and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Arthur M. Berd is the Founder and CEO of General Quantitative LLC, an investment management firm that focuses on systematic risk-driven strategies, including next generation asset allocation, security selection and tactical trading. Earlier, Arthur was the Head of Macro Volatility Strategies at Capital Fund Management, and held senior strategy and research positions at BlueMountain Capital Management, Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Dr. Berd is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Investment Strategies, and is also the co-founder and coordinator of the quantitative finance section of http://arxiv.org, a global electronic research repository covering topics from portfolio and risk management, to trading and market microstructure, to securities pricing and mathematical and statistical finance methods. An author of more than 30 publications and a frequently invited speaker at major industry conferences, Dr. Berd edited the book “Lessons from the Financial Crisis” (RiskBooks, 2010, 2013). He holds a Ph.D. in Physics from Stanford University.

William Bell is currently the head of corporate development for Nuveen Asset Management. In this capacity, he is responsible for leading all inorganic strategy development and execution ranging from partnerships to M&A. Previously, William led the launch of Nuveen’s 14th affiliate, Nuveen Quantitative Strategies. Prior to joining Nuveen, William led fintech strategy and development out of the corporate strategy and development team at TIAA. In this effort, William managed the firm’s strategic relationships with venture capital firms and serves as the point person to introduce new, innovative ideas and companies across TIAA and Nuveen. In addition, William works with TIAA’s Executive Committee on the firm’s strategy and priorities as business models evolve in the financial services industry. Before launching the fintech effort, he focused on mergers & acquisitions where he executed more than $10B in M&A deals, including Nuveen, Envisage & MyVest as well as more than $6B in strategic financing transactions. Prior to TIAA, he was with the Financial Institutions Group in Citi Investment Banking advising institutional clients on mergers and acquisitions as well as capital markets transactions, and at at American Capital, a publicly traded diversified alternative asset manager. William began his career at IBM Business Consulting Services where he built statistical and machine learning models for the Federal Government. William has a BS in Electrical Engineering and a BA in Economics from Duke University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is also a CFA charter holder

Olga Kane is Managing Director at Synthesis. Previosly she was Director of Business Development at Quantstellation, a proprietary quantitative investment group that combines scientific methods and financial expertise to exploit market inefficiencies across asset classes in global markets. In her role Olga oversees data origination strategy. That includes proactive sourcing of traditional and alternative data sets, building strategic data partnerships and managing full cycle of data acquisition. Prior Quantstellation, Olga worked at ITI Group where she was head of a multi-manager hedge fund platform focusing on quantitative investment strategies. Before that she held a variety of senior roles in the alternative investments industry including Head of Operations and Investor Relations at Da Vinci Capital. She started her career as a client relations manager at Renaissance Capital. Olga holds master’s degree in finance from International University of Business and New Technology and MBA degree from Baruch College Zicklin School of Business. She is also a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA).

is a senior managing director and Head of Investment Research at K2 Advisors, a division of Franklin Templeton. He joined K2 Advisors in May 2010. From 1990 to 1995 Mr. Christian worked as a global strategist and proprietary trader at Chase Manhattan Futures Corporation. In 1995, he founded Modoc Capital focusing on short-term futures trading. In 1997 Modoc entered into a joint venture with Stonebrook Capital Management LLC as a portfolio manager and researcher. From 1998 to 2003 Mr. Christian worked at Graham Capital Management LP as a portfolio manager and researcher of quantitative based trading strategies. From 2003 to 2005 he was the Head of Macro Strategies at Julius Baer Investment Management . From September 2005 to March 2010 he worked at FRM Americas LLC where he was the Global Head of Directional Trading Strategies and portfolio advisor to numerous funds, including the award winning FRM Sigma. Mr. Christian holds a B.A.S. in biology and economics from Stanford University (1985) and an M.B.A. in finance from Leonard N. Stern School of Business - New York University (1990).

Jennifer Keeney is the Director of Operational Due Diligence at BNY Mellon Wealth Management’s Investors Solutions Group. She joined BNY in September 2019 and her responsibilities include implementing and leading a risk-based operational due diligence program across alternative investment and traditional managers. Prior to BNY, she was a Senior Risk Officer for alternative investments at Russell Investments and led the team on reviews of hedge fund, private equity and private real estate managers. She has over twenty years of experience in alternative investment operational due diligence, hedge fund manager research and equity research. Prior to Russell, Ms. Keeney served as the Head of Operational Due Diligence at a socially responsible hedge fund of funds. She was a Senior Consultant with the Enterprise Risk Management team at General Motors Asset Management, and previously, a Managing Director at Fairfield Greenwich Group, where she evaluated hedge fund managers for an Asian joint venture. Ms. Keeney served as the Head of Due Diligence for a hedge fund-of-funds, and earlier, held equity research analyst positions at Bear, Stearns and Standard Chartered Securities. Ms. Keeney serves on the Board of Directors of the Hedge Fund Association, is a member of AIMA’s Operational Risk Sound Practices working group, the CFA Society and 100 Women in Finance. She was a contributing writer to the Greenwich Roundtable’s white paper, Best Practices in Due Diligence: Alternative Investments.

Arnaub Chatterjee is Senior Vice President of Product and Ecosystem at Acorn AI, a Medidata Solutions company. Medidata is a global provider of cloud-based and analytic solutions in life sciences and in his role, he is driving efforts around the development, go-to-market, and delivery of capabilities that help life science clients accelerate their innovation. In addition to his role at Medidata, he also serves as Teaching Associate in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School and Lecturer in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University. Prior to Medidata, Arnaub was Senior Expert/Associate Partner in the Pharmaceutical and Medical Products group at McKinsey & Company, where he advised pharmaceutical and technology companies on a range of topics, including entering new markets, utilizing novel data and analytics and digital transformation. Before his time at McKinsey, he served as Director of Merck's Data Science and Insights group where he led ventures and partnerships for Merck’s outcomes research group to power R&D and commercial activities. He previously served in the Obama Administration as an advisor to former Chief Technology Officers Todd Park and Bryan Sivak at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). He also worked in the Office of the Secretary at HHS as a lead policy analyst on healthcare fraud and abuse initiatives around the Affordable Care Act. Prior to government service, he spent a number of years as a strategy consultant at Deloitte Consulting, supporting pharmaceutical companies on health technology strategy. His work has been published in journals such as the Harvard Business Review and Nature and he has presented at conferences ranging from South by Southwest to the American College of Cardiology. He sits on the board of the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University. He holds graduate degrees in health administration (MHA) and public administration (MPA) from Cornell University and received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan

Sourav is Data Scientist Thought Leader at IBM Analytics working in the area of Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and Big Data for last 10 years with over 22 years of total IT experience. Sourav has consistently driven business innovation and values through Methodologies and Technologies related to Artificial Intelligence and Data Science transpired through his knowledge, insights, experience and influencing skills across multiple industries including Manufacturing, Insurance, Telecom, Banking, Media, Health Care and Retail industries in USA, Europe, Australia, Japan and India. In last 10 years he has influenced key decision makers in about 7 different fortune 500 companies to adopt Data Science, Artificial Intelligence and Big Data related technologies to address complex business needs through use of large volume of Data. Sourav has also consistently provided directions to and successfully led numerous challenging Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and Big Data oriented projects in last 10 years applying various related methodologies ranging from Descriptive statistics, Probabilistic Modeling, Algorithmic Modeling, Natural Language Processing, etc., to solve critical business problems using large volume of data. Sourav has also successfully partnered with academia within North America, India, South Africa to mentor the students and enabling them in this area. Sourav is a seasoned professional experienced in working both as an individual contributor and team player thriving in a dynamic and ambiguous environment. Sourav has experience and exposure in working in variety of Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and Big Data related technologies like Watson APIs, Watson Studio, Watson Explorer, SPSS, Spark, Hadoop, BigSQL, HBase, MongoDb, Solr, System ML, Brunel, Cognos, R, Python, Scala/Java, etc., using them in projects involving phases from creation of Minimum Viable Product to Productionization. Sourav consistently publishes papers/blogs/articles in various industry forums. He also speaks in various Industry conferences on Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and Big Data.

With over 20 years of experience, Donna Parisi Global Head of Financial Services and FinTech at Shearman & Sterling has built a reputation for delivering innovative ideas and solutions to financial institutions, FinTechs and other market participants. Donna has broad and deep knowledge of financial institutions, evolving regulatory requirements and the business opportunities and challenges of her clients. As the financial services sector faces disruption by both new non-financial institution players and emerging technology, she has remained at the forefront of industry developments by supporting both the burgeoning FinTech community and her financial services clients. Donna is the driving force spearheading the firm’s FinTech Foundry program, which supports the FinTech-related activities of the firm’s clients and the wider global FinTech ecosystem including financial institutions, FinTech start-ups, accelerators and incubators, venture capital and private equity investors, and policymakers. This program provides opportunities to connect, share insights and provide legal advice to the innovators shaping the future of financial services. On a day to day basis, Donna advises clients on the full range of derivatives, structured products, securitization, capital markets and commodities matters. In particular, she helps clients develop and structure new financial products and has extensive experience in the negotiation and documentation of OTC derivative transactions across all asset classes. In addition to FinTech and Financial Services, Donna also leads Shearman Women, the firm’s women’s initiative. Donna has long had a genuine passion for advancing career opportunities for women and received the “Inspiring Role Model in Promoting Gender Diversity and Inclusion in the Legal Profession” award at the Chambers Women in Law Awards in June 2018. She is a prominent thought leader and frequently recognized as a leader in her field by industry commentators and the press. Most recently, she was included in Innovate Finance’s Women in FinTech Powerlist 2018 in the "Professional and Financial Services" category. !

Poul is an Economist and Portfolio Manager with New York Life Investment Management’s (NYLIM) Strategic Asset Allocation and Solutions (SAS) Group, which has $10 billion in assets under management. He joined NYLIM in 2011 to focus on global macroeconomic trends and investment strategy and has 19 years of experience in the industry, specializing in quantitative investment strategy, machine learning and asset allocation. Prior to joining NYLIM, he worked at Danske Bank Markets, where he specialized in tactical asset allocation and international macro and interest rate strategy. Before that, he was a senior strategist where he headed and coordinated tactical and strategic asset management. Poul holds a Master’s degree in economics from Aarhus University (in Denmark), and he received his Certificate in Quantitative Finance (CQF) in 2011. He is also a CFA Charter holder since 2004.

Amit Soni is a Director and Portfolio Manager in the Multi Asset Solutions (MAS) team at New York Life Investment Management. He focuses on quantitative macro-economic and systematic strategies research and portfolio management for the multi-asset funds managed by the team. Prior to joining New York Life Investments, he worked in the Global Asset Allocation group at Putnam Investments, where he was part of the portfolio management team managing the Asset Allocation and the Absolute Return funds. He holds a Master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelors degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (India). He holds the CFA® designation and has been in the investment industry since 2008.

Michael Korby is the Head of Market Data at Balyasny Asset Management in New York, joining the firm in 2017. As Head of Market Data, Michael is responsible for managing the data provision lifecycle for a globally accessible data infrastructure. He directs the development of a robust process for monitoring data resources and ensuring investment professionals receive integral information. Prior to BAM, Michael was the Head of Application Development and a Senior Vice President at Highbridge Capital Management, joining the firm as a Senior Software Developer in 2005. Prior to Highbridge, Michael spent 8 years as a software developer at technology start-ups in Silicon Valley, starting his career at Netscape Communications in 1997. Michael has 22 years of experience in technology and software development. He earned both his Master of Engineering and Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Cornell University.

Ritesh is a senior data scientist at Goldman Sachs, where he manages a team of software developers and quantitative analysts to detect market anomalies and disruptive events across asset classes. He has extensive experience in financial markets, market microstructure and working with big (petabytes of) data. He holds a Masters of Operations Research from Columbia University and is a certified Financial Risk Manager (GARP) and his previous experience includes equity research, derivative valuation and data consulting.

Konstantin Gaber, Director, is the head of the Quantitative Execution Services & Analytics at WorldQuant, has primary responsibility for optimizing electronic trading efforts across the firm, finding new sources of liquidity, staying on top of market microstructure, etc. He manages both internal and external providers of trading algorithms in order to improve slippage to relevant benchmarks, minimize market impact and improve overall trading efficiency. Previously, Konstantin was managing the development of ultra-low latency trading and real-time risk management solutions at Deutsche Bank’s Equity Trading desk. Prior to that, he was working at Quantitative Prime Services team at both Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital, managing all the aspects of in-house trading platform, including all the surrounding prime brokerage aspects of the business. Konstantin holds MS degree in Operations Research from Columbia University.

Prior to founding Seven Eight, Adrian spent over five years at IVC Americas where he co-managed the Statistical Arbitrage Group. Adrian also worked at Data Mining Systems (DMS), where he implemented a successful HFT strategy and built a new capital allocation system among systematic futures strategies. His career in finance began at Lehman Brothers, where he managed the real-time risk and PNL systems for equities trading and worked on a Proprietary Trading desk researching quantitative trading systems. Before moving to New York, Adrian spent time in Austin, Texas and co-founded a web startup which was quickly acquired by New York-based Bolt Media. Adrian holds a BA in Computer Science and Chemistry from Duke University and an MS in Computational Finance from Carnegie Mellon University.

Michelle Makori is an internationally acclaimed television journalist, news anchor, reporter and producer. Currently she is a leading anchor and Editor-in-Chief at i24News. Makori has worked as an anchor and reporter for Bloomberg, CNN Money, CGTN and SABC. As an anchor and reporter, Makori has covered and analyzed the biggest global economic, financial and geopolitical events of the past decade. Makori joined i24 NEWS from CGTN (China Global Television Network) where she was the New York-based anchor and producer of “Global Business America”, CGTN’s flagship global economic and business news show. Makori was a key member of the team that launched CGTN’s U.S. based global English Channel in 2011. Prior to joining CGTN, Makori was a reporter with CNN Money and an anchor and reporter for Bloomberg TV. Makori has interviewed heads of state, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and other leaders in politics, business and entertainment. Born in Israel, raised in South Africa and now an American citizen, Makori speaks five languages and brings a truly global perspective. Makori also brings Wall Street experience to her financial news coverage, having received her FINRA financial adviser license (Series 7) and having worked with The Beryl Consulting Group and GFI. Makori holds a Post Graduate Honors Degree in Media Studies and Journalism (with distinction), and a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in Law and Psychology from Witwatersrand and her Masters degree from Damelin Business School, in South Africa.

Arik Ben Dor is a Managing Director and Head of Quantitative Equity Research at Barclays. Over the past 15 years, Dr. Ben Dor oversaw large scale research projects in rates, credit, equities, and hedge funds used by the largest institutional investors globally, including central banks, Sovereign wealth funds, asset managers, insurance companies, pensions and hedge funds. His research focused on asset allocation, smart beta, alpha generation, portfolio optimization, risk management, and hedging. He published two books on quantitative investing in credit securities and over a dozen articles in leading industry journals such as the Journal of Portfolio Management, Journal of Fixed Income, Journal of Investment Management, and Journal of Alternative Investments. In 2018, he was ranked 1st in II All-America Fixed Income Research Survey in the Quantitative Analysis Category. He co-authored the influential articles on ‘DTS (Duration Times Spread)’, a new approach to measuring the spread risk of corporate bonds and credit default swaps. It changed industry practices and was widely adopted by credit investors globally. One of his articles received the Martello award for the 2007 best practitioner paper, and his research on ‘cloning’ hedge funds was the basis for several products and was awarded a U.S. patent. His recent work on exploring the cross-asset relation between stocks and bonds was the basis for constructing systematic equity strategies such as momentum and ‘value’ based on credit signals, and the usage of equity derivatives for hedging high-yield bonds. His systematic strategies were adopted by some of the largest global asset managers and were presented in leading industry conferences. Prior to his current role, Dr. Ben Dor worked at Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley. He holds a PhD in Finance from the Kellogg Business School at Northwestern University, and completed his B.A. and M.A. in Economics from Tel Aviv University, Cum Laude

Ksenia Sussman is a legal counsel and compliance leader with over 12 years of experience. In her current role, she serves as the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of BitOoda Holdings, LLC, and its regulated subsidiaries. Ksenia oversees all legal and compliance matters of the business across all entities falling within the jurisdictions of the SEC, the CFTC, and the NY DFS. Ksenia worked on the first Bitcoin derivative transaction that was reported by BitOoda on the Intercontinental Exchange’s (ICE) Trade Vault. She spearheaded discussions and helped with the legal documentation in setting up industry groups, including the Association of Digital Asset Markets (ADAM). Prior to BitOoda, Ksenia was a Vice President at Barclays PLC, where she advised on a broad spectrum of transactional and regulatory matters of the investment banking business. During her tenure at Barclays, she structured, negotiated, and documented complex derivatives and structured transactions, was primarily responsible for the legal coverage of the structured commodities index trading business, and helped in set up the Barclays Rise Accelerator program. She worked on structuring of bespoke strategic investment deals in FinTech companies, focusing specifically on payment processing and blockchain technologies. Ksenia is an avid philanthropist and dedicates a lot of time to pro bono. She is currently on Associate Board of Immigration Equality.

Olamide "Lami" Ajibesin CPA is Managing Director of Anchin's Transaction Advisory Services Practice. She has a passion for deals and has spent the last 15 years mastering various aspects of the deal continuum, including buy/sell-side mergers and acquisitions, infrastructure finance and private equity transactions. Ms. Ajibesin transaction size experience ranges from small transactions to those exceeding $1B. In the course of her career, she has executed more than 150 deals for private equity and strategic acquirers in a variety of industries including consumer products, energy (E&P/Oil and Gas, Power), industrials, financial services, and technology. She has advised on over $10B worth of private equity, strategic investments and secondary transactions including both LP-focused and GP-led mandates. Prior to joining Anchin, Ms. Ajibesin was a Director in the M&A - Transaction Advisory practice of Duff & Phelps, LLC and was in the deal advisory practice of KPMG LLP. Ms. Ajibesin is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, a board member of Equity Alliance, and a member of the Association for Corporate Growth and Commercial Finance Association. She received her MBA in finance from the University of Texas at Austin's McCombs School of Business and her B.S. in accounting from the University of Lagos, Nigeria.

Joseph Simonian is senior investment strategist at Acadian Asset Management LLC. Before joining Acadian, Joseph was the director of Quantitative Research for the Portfolio Research and Consulting Group at Natixis Investment Managers. Prior to that, he was a principal research analyst in the Global Institutional Solutions Group at Fidelity Investments. He was also previously a vice president at JPMorgan Asset Management and PIMCO. Joseph holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara; an M.A. from Columbia University; as well as a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles. Joseph is a noted contributor to leading finance journals and is also a prominent speaker at investment events worldwide. He is currently the co-editor of the Journal of Financial Data Science and Advisory Board member for the Financial Data Professional Institute.

Daniel Barile, CFA is a Partner, Portfolio Manager and Senior Investment Analyst at SkyBridge Capital. As a Portfolio Manager, Mr. Barile is responsible for oversight of the SkyBridge Opportunity Zone REIT. As a Senior Investment Analyst, Mr. Barile is responsible for manager sourcing, research and due diligence across a wide variety of alternative investment strategies. He is also a member of the Real Estate Investment committee. Prior to joining SkyBridge in June 2010, Mr. Barile was responsible for manager due diligence in the Hedge Fund Management Group at Citigroup Alternative Investments (CAI). Prior to joining CAI, Mr. Barile covered traditional and alternative asset managers from a variety of perspectives at Fitch Ratings and Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (now BlackRock). Mr. Barile received a B.S. in Management with a concentration in Finance from Binghamton University and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designations.

Jan Rogers Kniffen is a retail expert and CNBC contributor, with decades of real world experience and knowledge that connects the dots between the past and future to help retailer Boards of Directors build the future with sound financial assumptions and executable operational structure. Jan consults with investors in retail companies and is a regular CNBC contributor. Jan is self-described as the "country's leading expert on retailing." As a former retail finance and operations executive, Jan now provides his deep knowledge, experience and innovative thinking with the ever expanding retail eco-system. Jan’s deep knowledge and direct experience comes from twenty years as a senior executive at The May Department Stores. A company that operated Lord & Taylor, Filene’s, Fox, Hecht’s, May-Cohen’s, Robinson’s of Florida, Sibley’s, Horne’s, Kaufman’s, Foley’s, Marshall Field’s, Famous Barr, ZCMI, Goldwater’s, May D&F, The Denver, Meier and Frank, Robinson’s, Strawbridge’s, Thalhimer’s, May Company Cleveland, May Company California, May Company Akron, Strauss, Venture, Caldor, Sycamore, Loehmann’s, Payless ShoeSource, as well as developing, owning and operating 26 super regional shopping malls. Kniffen majored in English at the University of Illinois, received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Southern Illinois University, an M.B.A. in finance from Lindenwood University, and did doctoral work in finance at St. Louis University.

Katina Stefanova is the CEO and CIO of Marto Capital, a global absolute return strategy that trades in many diversified markets including FX, rates, equities and commodities. Katina frequently speaks at many conferences and events across the globe on topics including investing, technology, and entrepreneurship and is a thought leader on disruption in the asset management industry. Katina’s articles have been published by Institutional Investor, Forbes, the European Hedge Fund Journal and others. Prior to founding Marto Capital, Katina spent over 9 years at Bridgewater Associates as a Senior Executive. She began her career there as a Senior Investment Associate. Katina then became a Management Committee Advisor, where she held leadership roles overseeing various areas of the firm. Prior to Bridgewater, Katina was a senior leader in the financial services and technology space, including serving as a Director of Business Strategy at IBM. She is also the co-founder of AcordIQ, which delivers state of the art portfolio intelligence and governance solutions with expert consulting services to asset managers and institutional investors. Katina holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in International Relations from Brigham Young University.

Ben Gardier is VP of Finance and Head of Acquisitions and Capital Markets at PEM Real Estate Group since 2013. PEM was founded in 1993, it is a full service Arizona based real estate firm focusing on multifamily investments, third party fee management, and consulting. PEM adjusts its investment strategy based on the economic cycle, which has allowed PEM to generate positive and market-beating returns for investors through all economic conditions since inception. Prior to working at PEM, Ben was the CFO of National Laser Institute (NLI), and Partner at a boutique M&A advisory and management consulting firm, Bond & Greenleaf, where he advised on more than $1 billion of M&A opportunities primarily in the oil and gas, chemicals, textiles, and forestry industries. At Bond & Greenleaf, Ben provided management consulting in the areas of working capital optimization, process improvement, and planning the launch and execution of new product and service strategies. Ben holds a Master’s of Taxation from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, with distinction, a Bachelor’s of Science in Accountancy from the University of Phoenix, and Lean Green Belt and Six Sigma Green Belt Certifications from the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering at Arizona State University.

David Itzkovits is the CEO of Sanlam Global Investment Solutions, a division of Sanlam, a 100 year old financial institution with global reach. David has 20 years experience in the Financial Services industry and has worked in various positions with top international companies including at an entrepreneurial startup which was acquired by a $100 Billion global investment firm. Prior to this, David worked for the offshore arm of Old Mutual as Regional Director, Europe and Canada where he was responsible for all business development. Before that, he was Vice President, HSBC Private Bank in New York where he co-managed a $635 million portfolio of investment, credit and insurance for high net worth clients. David is an acknowledged thought-leader in the use of Artificial Intelligence in the investments industry and is an international key-note speaker on the subject. He has been instrumental in driving the use AI in investment management, especially within the Sanlam Group, which also offers a UCITS fund utilizing AI in the decision making process. David is a CFA Charterholder, has a Bachelor of Science from McGill University and has an MBA from Ivey Business School at Western University.

Cian Desmond is an AVP with Wilshire Associates and a member of Wilshire Manager Research Group. Mr. Desmond works in Wilshire’s Santa Monica office and is responsible for investment research across multiple types of alternative investments, including hedge funds, private real assets and private credit. Mr. Desmond joined Wilshire in 2018 and brings over 9 years of investment experience related to alternative investment research, selection, and portfolio construction. Before joining Wilshire, Mr. Desmond worked as Director of Alternative Investment Research at Shepherd Kaplan Krochuk LLC in Boston with primary responsibility for developing investment strategy, alternative investment research, and manager selection for institutional, endowment & foundation, and high-net-worth clients. Mr. Desmond’s responsibilities included hedge funds, private markets, and co-investments across all asset classes. Prior to joining SKK, Cian worked in the Investment Research group at Canterbury Consulting where he was responsible for sourcing, due diligence and monitoring of fundamental hedge fund and private equity strategies. Mr. Desmond is a CFA Level III candidate and received a BS in Finance from Wake Forest University.

Patricia Kroondijk is a Fintech Strategist at Hitachi’s Financial Innovation Lab in Silicon Valley. She is responsible for the evaluation of start-ups that drive the Hitachi’s Financial Technology road maps both from and R&D as well as commercialization perspective. She also works on the business model design and strategy of newly created opportunities and is also responsible for building Hitachi’s partnership strategy to build out the company’s Fintech ecosystem with high-growth Silicon Valley companies. She is often applies Design Thinking methods in her strategy work for both clients as well as Hitachi. Prior to Hitachi she worked as a strategy consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers for 10 years for large financial services companies such as ING and Old Mutual. She also worked for various startups as well as a large insurance company and has 18+ years of strategy and consulting experience. Throughout her career she has worked in 5 different countries and she speaks 5 languages fluently. She has earned a Bachelor of Commerce in Entrepreneurial Management from Royal Roads University in Canada, as well as a Masters of Science in Financial Management from TIAS, a leading European Business School.

Frank Sansone is Treasurer and SVP of China Construction Bank NY branch. Frank joined CCBNY in 2014; and manages all branch treasury activities including BSM, interest rate, funding, liquidity and forex risk. Prior to CCB Frank was Treasurer for Dexia US operations; responsible for global USD liquidity & interest rate risk; and before that Treasurer of National Bank of Kuwait US operations. Visionary problem solver & diplomatic change agent, Frank led CCB’s effort as co-chair on US RMB Working Group successfully securing the regulatory approvals for the launch of a US RMB clearing hub. Frank is a management leader having chaired the US Liquidity Contingency Committees overseeing Dexia’s global USD liquidity management efforts during the crisis of 2008, 10 & 11 and NBK USD operations during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Frank is a regular industry speaker as a subject matter expert on China macroeconomics and trading; and on Treasury management, including liquidity, IRR and BSM. Frank has spoken at the 2017 & 2018 AFP & is scheduled for the 2019 AFP on the benefits of the Internationalization of the RMB in trading and corporate risk management. Author of CCBNY China Update, distribution 350 +, the mission is to facilitate better communication and understanding of China’s evolving economic and regulatory framework for U.S. corporate and financial clients.

Andrew Lazarus, Managing Director, heads The Beryl Consulting Group’s Real Estate practice. As part of the New York real estate community, he brings a proven track record of over 25 years in commercial real estate. Mr. Lazarus was an owner’s representative for VMS Realty Partners, responsible for the leasing and asset management of over 2.5 million square feet of property in New York. Prior to Beryl, he was a Managing Director at Grubb & Ellis. Since 2013, as a partner of Almatt llc he has been involved in development, financing, and the acquisition of both commercial properties and over 500 multi-family apartment units. On a combined basis, Mr. Lazarus has leased, acquired, and asset managed real estate properties, in excess of five million square feet. The mission of Beryl’s Real Estate practice is to maximize long term capital appreciation through the acquisition and development of real estate assets, both in the United States and abroad. Beryl’s approach monetizes asset values for privately-owned entities and family offices with projects ranging from $20M - $500M.

Jeff Schmidt is a two-decade veteran entrepreneur, IT security leader, and Internet infrastructure expert. Prior to starting DataPulse in 2015, Jeff founded JAS Global Advisors LLC in 2003 – an IT security consultancy which architects and delivers security and risk management solutions for a full range of government and private sector clients. In addition, Jeff founded Authis, a provider of innovative risk-managed identity services for the financial vertical, was the Vice President of Product Management for ENDFORCE (acquired by Sophos), and was the CIO of The Ohio State University’s second largest business unit. He also spent time at The Microsoft Corporation where he spearheaded Microsoft’s first internal malicious testing of Windows 2000. Complementing his business roles, Jeff is the founder and elected Director of the InfraGard National Members Alliance, the private sector component of the FBI’s InfraGard Program. Jeff helped the FBI create the InfraGard Program in 1998 and has received commendations from the Attorney General, the Director of the FBI, and the National Infrastructure Protection Center. Jeff’s publication activity includes The Microsoft Windows 2000 Security Handbook, published by Que in four languages, and contribution to Using Windows NT 4.0, Teach Yourself Linux in 10 Minutes, and the Cyber Security Policy Guidebook. He received a BS CIS from The Ohio State University and an MBA Magna Cum Laude from the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University. Jeff is an adjunct professor of Systems Security Engineering at the Stevens Institute of Technology and a Zurich Cyber Risk Fellow, Cyber Statecraft Initiative, at The Atlantic Council.

Michael’s career features key initiative leadership in multiple industries and roles including marketing, business development, new product introductions and business starts. His career began with Wendy’s where he served for ten years in numerous capacities throughout the domestic marketing department and the international division - the last of which was Vice President of New Products and Marketing Analysis. In 1988, Michael joined electronic payment pioneer, CheckFree Corporation (now owned by Fiserv). As CheckFree’s first Vice President of Marketing, he was largely responsible for the business development and national introduction of the CheckFree Electronic Payment Service. This business scaled successfully and led to an IPO. Since leaving CheckFree in 2003, Michael’s focus has been in helping early stage companies scale and larger enterprises upgrade branding and technology solutions. Most recently these include WorthPoint (online resource for collectors), Assurex Global (world’s largest group of independent commercial insurance brokers) and DataPulse. Michael is a graduate of Northwestern University and its Kellogg School of Management. He is also a member of Ohio Tech Angels (Central Ohio angel investment fund), The School Choice Ohio Board (immediate past chair); and The Northwestern University Alumni Admissions Council.

Dr. Hugo Bowne-Anderson is a data scientist and educator at DataCamp and host of the podcast DataFramed. He has worked in applied math research in cell biology at Yale University and the Max Planck Institute for Cell Biology and Genetics, after receiving his PhD in Pure Mathematics at the University of New South Wales. He joined DataCamp four years ago to build out their foundational data science curriculum in Python and his main interests now are promoting data and AI literacy, helping to spread data skills through organizations.

Rachael Levy is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal in New York. She holds a master's degree from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.

Armando Gonzalez is President & CEO of RavenPack, the leading provider of big data analytics for financial institutions. Armando is an expert in applied big data and artificial intelligence technologies. He has designed systems that turn unstructured content into structured data, primarily for financial trading applications. Armando is widely regarded as one of the most knowledgeable authorities on automated text and sentiment analysis. His commentary and research has appeared in leading business publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, among many others. Armando holds degrees in Economics and International Business Administration from the American University in Paris and is a recognized speaker at academic and business conferences across the globe.

Robert Ciemniak is the Founder-CEO of Real Estate Foresight (2012) - an independent research boutique specializing in China housing markets, as well as Robotic Online Intelligence (2017), a Fintech / Proptech / AI venture in analytics and research automation. Between 1998 and 2011, Robert's 13-year corporate career with Thomson Reuters included two major roles as Global Head of Real Estate Markets (London/Hong Kong) and earlier as Head of Corporate Foresight in Group Strategy in London. Real Estate Foresight (REF) provides investors, fund managers, developers, and lenders interested in China with the most granular, data-driven research on China housing markets, powered by the in-house technology, the content from data partners and the alternative data collected from public sources. Robotic Online Intelligence (ROI) helps clients dramatically increase analyst productivity in market research and data collection through SaaS-based automation, custom search tools, and AI-powered text analytics. Over the past 7 years, Robert has been a regular conference speaker and moderator at the real estate industry events in China, Hong Kong and Singapore, and a contributor to specialist industry publications and media. REF research is distributed directly to clients and is also present on Bloomberg {REFC }, ThomsonReuters, and Smartkarma. Robert holds a dual MBA degree from London Business School and Columbia Business School in New York, and MSc from Warsaw School of Economics. He is also an international master in chess and the author of a book about the Internet and competitive strategy (1999).

Katerina Lipatova is a director of product management for Research Signals, which provides quantitative factors, models and solutions to IHS Markit's institutional customers worldwide. Ms. Lipatova is a quantitative product specialist who joined IHS Markit in August 2016. Previously, she held a variety of roles in risk management and quantitative investing at Morgan Stanley, Serengeti Asset Management, S&P Capital IQ, Misys. While at S&P Capital IQ-NY, Sydney, Tokyo, London, she had global responsibilities. Ms. Lipatova holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics-operations research and mathematics from Columbia University, United States.

Adil Abdulali is President and Chief Science Officer of MOV37 and Protégé Partners. Adil has 27 years of experience in the financial markets. For the past 15 years Adil has been sourcing, investing and managing alternative investments in emerging managers. He is developing new metrics and visualization tools to evaluate Autonomous Learning Investment Strategies that bring together data, data science, machine learning, blockchain with cheap available computing power. He joined Protégé in 2003 shortly after its inception as head of risk and developed the systems and analytics to manage early stage investing risks. Adil used geometry to invent the Bias Ratio, a metric that detects return smoothing by active managers. Prior to joining Protégé and MOV37, Adil spent the first half of his career trading fixed income derivatives at JP Morgan, Nikko, Nomura, and Barclays. At Nomura and Barclays, he ran the systems and analytics groups for these products. He was a Senior Advisor at Capital Market Risk Advisors specializing in structured products and hedge fund valuation. Adil Abdulali has an M.A. in pure mathematics from MIT and B.A. in mathematics from University of Pennsylvania.

Adam Bochenek is the Chief Operating Officer at Marto Capital where he oversees systematic strategies, quantitative team, technology and middle and back office. Prior to joining Marto, he has worked at Bridgewater Associates and led its build-out of portfolio risk budgeting platform and analytics infrastructure used for portfolio construction and risk management. In addition, Mr. Bochenek brings a strong management and technology background. Mr. Bochenek led Ernst & Young's Capital Markets Technology Strategy group in New York. He also spent over 10 years in other management consulting roles at PwC and IBM Business Consulting Services. Mr. Bochenek holds a Masters degree from Wroclaw Institute of Technology (Poland), from which he graduated Magna Cum Laude, and has performed research at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark).

Sean W. Anderson is an Associate in the New York office of Shearman & Sterling, where he advises sell-side, buy-side, and exchange clients on the full range of derivatives, securitization, capital markets and commodities matters. In particular, he helps his clients structure and negotiate financial product documentation, as well as develop policies and procedures with respect to implementation of post-GFC regulatory reforms. Sean is also active in Shearman & Sterling’s FinTech Foundry program, which supports the FinTech-related activities of its clients and the wider global FinTech ecosystem including financial institutions, FinTech start-ups, accelerators and incubators, venture capital and private equity investors, and policymakers. In addition, he has contributed to the firm’s thought leadership across various aspects of digital asset, blockchain, and big data developments, and he has also coordinated industry discussion on and development of derivatives trading and custody documentation in respect of digital assets. Sean is a graduate of Duke University School of Law.

Pavle Sabic is a thought leader and a growth expert, working with individuals and corporations to build cohesion across their organizations for the sole purpose of growth. Formerly a business head at S&P Global based in New York, he is an expert in delivering strategic expansion objectives for Fortune 500 companies. He has lived and worked in UK, Europe, Africa and Asia, helping to grow businesses in developed and emerging markets. Previously, Pavle was a consultant in the risk management division of State Street working with Sovereign Wealth Funds and an analyst at AEGON Asset Management. Pavle is regularly published in the media (WSJ, Forbes, FT etc.), and is a broadcast contributor to CNBC and NYSE. He is also an official Associate Partner of University of Edinburgh Business School conducting joint research and business development efforts. Mr. Sabic graduated ‘summa cum laude’ BSc in Mathematics and Economics and holds an MSc in Finance and Investment from the University of Edinburgh. He studied Entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School, holds the Financial Risk Manager designation by GARP, and a recipient of the ‘40 Under 40 Award’ for Research from The M&A Advisor Association based in New York.

Chris Aronson, Chief Commercial Officer, CompStak Chris is Chief Commercial Officer of CompStak — a company known for delivering transparency in commercial real estate by gathering information that is hard to find, difficult to compile, or otherwise unavailable. The world’s largest brokerage firms, preeminent real estate investors, and lenders use CompStak’s commercial real estate data to compare properties and make investment decisions. Chris oversees the CompStak Enterprise platform and is focused upon accelerating growth and widening the reach of Compstak; while maintaining the company’s superior client performance. As a member of the senior leadership team, Chris is helping to design and shape CompStak’s strategy. Across multiple verticals from Legal to Banking to Real Estate; technology-driven transformation has been a core theme of Chris’s career. He has built and run several data/technology and service business, advised clients, directed investments, and led the implementation of path-breaking platforms. He is a regular guest and speaker and author of thought-leadership articles for such organizations as the Forbes Real Estate Council.  Before joining CompStak, Chris was a CEO of EDR, a prominent data and technology company serving the commercial real estate ecosystem. He was also a co-founder and president of DTI Knowledge Solutions, a technology, data, and services company serving the legal market.  

Matthew Wilkens is Senior Managing Director and Head of Capital Markets for Kallas Asset Management; the investment arm of Kallas SA; a Brazilian real estate conglomerate with over $1.6B in AUM. He also oversees direct investments and deal sourcing for the Kallas Family Office. Prior to Kallas, he was a market maker in short term interest rates for Goldman Sachs and co-founded Blue Ivy Ventures; an alumni venture capital firm derived from Alumni Ventures Group that supports Yale University's entrepreneurial community. Mr. Wilkens also works closely with entrepreneurs, portfolio managers, and family offices across the Americas and MENA regions as a capital markets advisor. He has successfully managed balance sheets in excess of $1B and has advised on capital raises and allocations in excess of $500mm. He has been awarded for his leadership in finance and sits on the advisory boards of numerous startups. He has a B.A in Political Science from the University of Arizona and an M.B.A from Yale University.

Eric Munson co-founded ADIT Ventures in 2014 at the request of family offices seeking to obtain shares in late-stage, venture-backed growth companies. His family office owns equity in over 20 privately held companies. His 35 years of experience include work in alternative asset management, corporate finance, mutual funds, private equity, venture capital and growth equity. He has created, developed and managed over 20 funds while raising assets in excess of $20B. Eric served on the executive, investment, and/or management committees at such reputable firms as Hambrecht & Quist, Morgan Stanley, Franklin/Templeton, Seneca, Wentworth Hauser & Violich, & Acorn Partners. He has invested as a principal in over 40+ privately held companies, working on 250 IPO’s & hundreds of other deals.

Daniel Baruch is the Director of Global Energy Markets & Business Development at Ursa. At Ursa, he focuses on driving thought-leadership in leveraging new satellite radar-based alternative data to deliver transparency to opaque markets and to provide a competitive advantage for the commodity trading, hedge fund, alternative investment, banking, and research communities, as well as expanding into new strategic markets. His background is across energy commodity markets with experience in crude oil & NGLs at Glencore, natural gas & power at Morgan Stanley, and multi-asset alternative investment portfolio management at AllianceBernstein. Daniel also serves on the Advisory Council of the JPMorgan Center for Commodities' Global Energy Management Program, and he has helped shape GARP's Energy Risk Professional (ERP) certification for professionals across the physical and financial energy sector.

Joe Luik is currently a partner of Cypress Capital Group, a multi-generational, investment and advisory company focused on real estate in the Silicon Valley, New York City and Hong Kong. He is also the Co-Managing Partner and Chairman of the Investment Committee of Mountain Path Capital, a vertically integrated real estate investment manager that acquires dislocated under-valued assets and generates meaningful lasting value through institutional rigor and entrepreneurial drive. Joe is an expert in all aspects of the real estate business and development process including strategic market planning, competitive analysis, brand positioning, joint venture negotiations and building executive relationship with global and Wall Street entities. For the majority of his career, Joe was engaged in real estate in the corporate sector with TIAA-CREF. He has served as the CEO of TIAA Realty, a $5 billion private REIT, and CEO of Mall Of America Associates. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors/Treasurer of the Community Mediation Services, Jamaica, NY. Joe is a former Director of the Real Estate Round Table and of the NYU Real Estate Advisory Council and a member of The ULI. He holds a B.S. Degree in Business and Economics and an M.B.A Degree in Finance from Hofstra University.