Andrew Steel

Global Head of Sustainable Finance, Fitch Ratings

Andrew is responsible for developing and implementing Fitch's sustainable finance strategy, across ratings and the broader Fitch group. His group is based in London, New York, and Hong Kong. In 2019 Fitch Ratings rolled out an integrated cross-asset scoring system for credit ratings to display how environmental, social and governance factors impact individual credit rating decisions. Prior to his current role Andrew held several senior management positions for Fitch in EMEA and Asia. Andrew joined Fitch 17 years ago with a background in project finance, private equity, LBO’s and M&A from investment banking and equity investments. Andrew is currently an advisory committee member of the UN PRI credit ratings initiative, and during the early 2000’s was an independent expert for the UN ECE advising on risk issues and sustainable energy development.

Andrew graduated from Bristol University with a degree in Psychology, and has a postgraduate diploma from INSEAD in global management.

David Mercer

Chief Executive Officer, LMAX Group

David Mercer is the Chief Executive Officer of LMAX Group, a global financial technology company headquartered in the UK, and the leading independent operator of institutional execution venues for FX and crypto currency trading. Following a successful management buyout in 2013, David has built LMAX Group into a key player in both the traditional capital markets and the crypto trading industry. With a global client base and offices in 9 countries, in 2021 LMAX Group sold a minority stake to J.C. Flowers & Co. A former City banking executive and currency specialist, David is an outspoken industry commentator and a long-term champion of the UK’s technology sector as well as a passionate supporter of entrepreneurship.

Kevin T. Carter

Founder & Chief Investment Officer, EMQQ

Kevin T. Carter is the Founder & Chief Investment Officer of EMQQ. While he considers himself an active “value” investor first and foremost, he has collaborated with Princeton economist and indexing legend, Dr. Burton Malkiel, for more than 20 years. Their work together began in 1999 with the development of eInvesting, a pioneer firm in fractional share brokerage that was acquired by ETRADE in 2000. In 2002 they founded Active Index Advisors, a pioneer in so-called “direct indexing” that was acquired by Natixis Asset Management in 2005. In 2006, their efforts turned to China and Emerging Markets with Dr. Malkiel’s publishing of “Investment Strategies to Exploit Economic Growth in China” and the subsequent book From Wall Street to the Great Wall. Working with Guggenheim Partners, they launched several China focused ETFs on the NYSE.

Kevin launched EMQQ in 2014 after noticing how the smartphone was changing his personal consumption habits. He now lives in Lafayette, California with his wife and three children.

Afsaneh Mashayekhi Beschloss

Founder & Chief Executive Officer, RockCreek

Afsaneh Mashayekhi Beschloss is Founder and CEO of RockCreek, one of the largest women- and diverse-owned global investment firms. Previously, she was Managing Director and Partner at the Carlyle Group, served as Treasurer and Chief Investment Officer of the World Bank, and worked at J.P. Morgan.

Afsaneh has been a pioneer in financial innovation to benefit emerging market economies,

international financial institutions, and multilateral banks. She created and led the World Bank's financial advisory services, which built human capital and helped develop capital markets for central banks, sovereign wealth funds, and treasury departments in OECD and emerging market economies. And she developed and led the World Bank’s investments and policy work on areas including sustainable investing, renewable energy, power, and infrastructure to reduce carbon emissions, as well as leading groundbreaking investments in wind and solar energy.

She regularly advises governments, central banks, and regulatory agencies on financial policy and energy policy, and she helps lead organizations working toward a sustainable future and improved access to clean energy, health, education, and opportunity for all. She is Chair of PBS Foundation, a trustee of the Institute for Advanced Study, and serves on the boards of the Council on Foreign Relations; the Rockefeller Foundation – where she chairs the investment committee; the Bretton Woods Committee, where she cochairs the Future of Finance Working Group; Georgetown University; the World Resources Institute; and the Center for Global Development.

Afsaneh holds an MPhil (Honors) in Economics from the University of Oxford, where she taught international trade and economic development.

Sir Ronald Cohen

Chairman, Global Steering Group for Impact Investment

Sir Ronald Cohen is a pioneering philanthropist, venture capitalist, private equity investor, and social innovator. He is recognized as the father of impact investment and European venture capital, and is driving forward the global Impact Revolution. He serves as Chairman of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment, the Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative at Harvard Business School, and The Portland Trust. He is a co-founder and former Executive Chairman of Apax Partners Worldwide, a global private equity firm. He is also a co-founder of Social Finance UK, USA, and Israel, co-founder Chair of Bridges Fund Management and former co-founding Chair of Big Society Capital. Oxford and Harvard educated, Ronnie was born in Egypt and left as a refugee at the age of 11, when his family came to the UK. He is now based in Tel Aviv, London and New York. He is the author of IMPACT: Reshaping capitalism to drive real change, which was published in 2020 by Penguin Random House and is a Wall Street Journal Best Seller.

Sergey Young

Founder, Longevity Vision Fund

Sergey Young is a longevity investor and visionary with a mission to extend healthy lifespans of one billion people. To do that, Sergey founded Longevity Vision Fund to accelerate life extension technological breakthroughs and to make longevity affordable and accessible to all

Sergey is on the Board of Directors of the American Federation of Aging Research (AFAR) and the Development Sponsor of AGE REVERSAL XPRIZE global competition designed to cure aging. Sergey is also a Top-100 Longevity Leader, who is transforming the world, one workplace at a time, with Longevity@Work – the first non-profit corporate longevity program of its kind.

Sergey Young has been featured as a top longevity expert and contributor on CNN, Fox News, and Forbes. As the author of books such as ‘The Science and Technology of Growing Young’ and the mastermind behind the online life extension platform SergeyYoung.com, Sergey is passionate about sharing news from the exciting world of longevity

Justin Fishner-Wolfson

Founder & Managing Partner, 137 Ventures

Justin Fishner-Wolfson is a founder and the managing partner of 137 Ventures, a growth-stage venture firm founded in San Francisco in 2011. The firm has seen five portfolio companies go public since September 2020: Palantir, Airbnb, Wish, Coupang and Didi. Its largest private portfolio companies include SpaceX, Flexport, Gusto, Workrise (formerly known as RigUp) and Curology.

Prior to co-founding 137 Ventures, Justin worked on the investment team at Founders Fund. He was also selected as a Kauffman Fellow, a program responsible for the development of leaders in global innovation and the venture capital industry. Justin graduated from Stanford University with honors, received a BS in Management Science and Engineering, a MS in Computer Science, and was a Mayfield Fellow.

Damian Paletta

White House Economic Policy Reporter, The Washington Post

Damian Paletta is White House economic policy reporter for The Washington Post. Before joining The Post, he covered the White House for the Wall Street Journal.

Yasmeen Abutaleb

National Reporter, The Washington Post

Yasmeen Abutaleb is a national reporter at The Washington Post, covering health policy, with a focus on the Department of Health and Human Services, health policy on Capitol Hill and health care in politics. She previously covered health care for Reuters.

Eric Gleacher

Author, Risk. Reward. Repeat.

Eric Gleacher is a man with a compelling story. He has always been determined to excel in all that he attempts and has never failed to exceed the very high expectations he sets for himself. His autobiography is the story of a tournament-winning amateur golfer; an officer in the Marine Corps; an investment banker who became one of the half-dozen who dominated the M&A and takeover business that changed Wall Street and American business in the latter part of the last century; and a man who had the courage to leave a position as a senior partner at a famous and immensely successful investment bank to establish his own firm. It's as stirring and interesting as when we lived it. You won't want to stop reading until the last page.

Matt Hougan

Chief Investment Officer, Bitwise Asset Management

Matt Hougan is one of the world’s leading experts on crypto, ETFs, and financial technology. He is the Chief Investment Officer for Bitwise Asset Management, the world’s largest provider of cryptocurrency index funds, with more than $1 billion in assets under management.

He was previously CEO of ETF.com and Inside ETFs, where he helped build the world’s first ETF data and analytics system, the leading ETF media site, and the world’s largest ETF conference.

Hougan is co-author of two publications from the CFA Institute Research Foundation: “A Comprehensive Guide to Exchange-Traded Funds” and “Cryptoassets: The Guide to Bitcoin, Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies for Professional Investors.” He is a crypto columnist for Forbes, a three-time member of the Barron’s ETF Roundtable, a member of the ETFdb’s ETF Hall of Fame, and the eighth person to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from ETF.com for contributions to the ETF industry.

Hougan sits on the board of directors for Equbot, creator of the first AI-driven ETFs (in partnership with IBM Watson), and is a strategic advisor to multiple crypto- and financial advisor-related startups, including Blockworks, Stratifi, Advisor Circle, and Exchange.

Robert Breedlove

Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Parallax Digital

Robert Breedlove is a freedom maximalist, ex-hedge fund manager, and philosopher in the Bitcoin space. To him, Bitcoin is fundamentally a humanitarian movement exposing the greatest con in human history: central banking. By learning about the connection between honest money, entrepreneurship, and civilization, we are renewing hope for the future of humanity. To this end, Robert's mission is to restore freedom, truth, and virtue in our world by tenaciously asking the question: "What is Money?"

Mariana Mazzucato

Professor, University College London

Mariana Mazzucato (PhD) is Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London (UCL), where she is Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose (IIPP). She is winner of international prizes including the 2020 John von Neumann Award, the 2019 All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values, and 2018 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought. She was named as one of the '3 most important thinkers about innovation' by The New Republic, one of the 50 most creative people in business in 2020 by Fast Company, and one of the 25 leaders shaping the future of capitalism by WIRED. She is the author of three highly-acclaimed books: The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths (2013), The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy (2018) and the newly released, Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism (2021). She advises policymakers around the world on innovation-led inclusive and sustainable growth. Her current roles include being Chair of the World Health Organization’s Economic Council on Health for All and a member of the South African President’s Economic Advisory Council, the Scottish Government’s Council of Economic Advisors, and the United Nations High-level Advisory Board (HLAB) on Economic and Social Affairs, among others.

Sasha Issenberg

Journalist & Author

Sasha Issenberg is the author of three previous books, including The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns. He has covered presidential elections as a national political reporter in the Washington bureau of The Boston Globe, a columnist for Slate, and a contributor to Bloomberg Politics and Businessweek. He is the Washington correspondent at Monocle, and his work has also appeared in New York, The New York Times Magazine, and George, where he served as a contributing editor. He teaches in the political-science department at UCLA.

Kyle Samani

Co-Founder & Managing Partne, Multicoin Capital

Kyle Samani is a Cofounder and Managing Partner at Multicoin Capital, a thesis-driven investment firm that invests in cryptocurrencies, tokens, and blockchain technology. In his current role, Samani helps identify market opportunities and sets the strategic direction for the firm. Prior to Multicoin Capital, Samani co-founded Pristine, an enterprise software company that enables deskless workers with solutions for smart glasses. Under his leadership as CEO, Pristine grew to millions in revenue and raised over $5 million in venture capital before being acquired by Upskill in May, 2017. Based in Austin, Texas, Samani is widely recognized as a thought leader on blockchain and cryptoeconomics. He holds degrees in Finance and Management from NYU Stern and has been programming since he was 10 years old. Follow him on Twitter @KyleSamani.

Asiff Hirji

President, Figure

Asiff Hirji is the President of Figure Technologies, Inc. (“Figure”), a blockchain-based home equity lender. Prior to joining Figure, from November 2017 to June 2019, Mr. Hirji served as President and COO of Coinbase, Inc. Prior to Coinbase, Mr. Hirji was an Operating Advisor with Andreessen Horowitz from October 2016 to December 2017, Chief Restructuring Officer of Hewlett Packard Inc. (NYSE: HPQ) from November 2014 to March 2017, and served as President and COO of TD Ameritrade from July 2005 to October 2006. Mr. Hirji has also held senior leadership roles with TPG Capital, Saxo Bank A/S, Hewlett-Packard and Bain Capital, and has served on a number of public and private boards, including Citrix Systems from May 2006 to July 2015, Advent Software from September 2011 to July 2015, and Saxo Bank A/S from December 2010 to September 2018. Mr. Hirji has served as an Advisory Board Member for Nubank (Nu Pagamentos S.A.) since December 2019 and as a Director of Forge (formerly Equidate) since November 2019.

Gillian Tett

Editor-at-Large, Financial Times

Gillian Tett serves as the chair of the editorial board and editor-at-large, US of the Financial Times. She writes weekly columns, covering a range of economic, financial, political and social issues. She is also the co-founder of FT Moral Money, a twice weekly newsletter that tracks the ESG revolution in business and finance which has since grown to be a staple FT product. In 2020, Moral Money won the SABEW best newsletter.

Previously, Tett was the FT’s US managing editor from 2013 to 2019. She has also served as assistant editor for the FT’s markets coverage, capital markets editor, deputy editor of the Lex column, Tokyo bureau chief, Tokyo correspondent, London-based economics reporter and a reporter in Russia and Brussels.

Tett is the author of The Silo Effect, which looks at the global economy and financial system through the lens of cultural anthropology. She also authored Fool’s Gold: How Unrestrained Greed Corrupted a Dream, Shattered Global Markets and Unleashed a Catastrophe, a 2009 New York Times bestseller and Financial Book of the Year at the inaugural Spear’s Book Awards. Additionally, she wrote the 2003 book Saving the Sun: A Wall Street Gamble to Rescue Japan from its Trillion Dollar Meltdown. Her next book, Anthro-Vision, A New Way to See Life and Business will come out in June 2021.

Tett has received honorary degrees from the University of Exeter, the University of Miami, St Andrew’s, London University (Goldsmiths), Carnegie Mellon, Baruch and an honorary doctorate from Lancaster University in the UK.

In 2014, Tett won the Royal Anthropological Institute Marsh Award and was named Columnist of the Year at the British Press Awards. Her 2012 article “Madoff spins his story” won the SABEW Award for best feature article. Other awards include a President’s Medal by the British Academy (2011), being recognized as Journalist of the Year (2009) and Business Journalist of the Year (2008) by the British Press Awards, and as Senior Financial Journalist of the Year (2007) by the Wincott Awards. In 2017, Tett won the commentator of the year from Editorial Intelligence.

Before joining the Financial Times in 1993, Tett was awarded a PhD in social anthropology from Cambridge University based on field work in the former Soviet Union. While pursuing the PhD, she freelanced for the FT and the BBC. She is a graduate of Cambridge University.

Zac Prince

Chief Executive Officer, BlockFi

Zac is the Founder and CEO of BlockFi, a crypto-financial services company he founded in 2017 with Flori Marquez. With experience in multiple leadership roles at successful tech companies, his career started in adtech, where he was a part of two successful acquisitions: Admeld (acquired by Google) and Sociomantic (acquired by DunnHumby). Prior to starting BlockFi, he led business development teams at Orchard Platform, a broker dealer and RIA in the online lending sector, and Zibby, an online consumer lender. He graduated Cum Laude from Texas State University with a BA in International Business and a minor in Spanish.

Gary Ginsberg

Author, First Friends

Gary Ginsberg grew up in Buffalo New York, home to two US presidents. A lawyer by training, he has spent his professional career at the intersection of media, politics, and law. He worked for the Clinton administration, was a senior editor and counsel at the political magazine George, and then spent the next two decades in executive positions in media and technology at News Corporation, Time Warner and SoftBank. He has published pieces in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and was an on-air political contributor in the early days of MSNBC. He lives in New York City with his wife and two sons. First Friends is his first book.

Michael Frazis

Portfolio Manager, Frazis Capital Partners

Prior to founding the firm, Michael spent five years in private equity in London, after completing internships in Goldman Sachs Special Situations Group and the Boston Consulting Group. Michael read Chemistry at Magdalen College, Oxford University, and has an MSc Finance from the London School of Economics. At Oxford, Michael’s research focused on the scale-up of enzyme-catalyzed fuel cells in the same laboratory that pioneered lithium batteries. Michael came first in Australia in the 2006 Chemistry Olympiad.