SALT iConnections New York 2023

Jen Wilson

Chief Operating Officer, Army Week Association

Jen Wilson was born and raised in Louisiana, the product of a National Guard town and the proud granddaughter of a D-Day & Battle of the Bulge survivor. Like many Americans, Jen's worldview shifted dramatically after September 11, 2001. While sitting in her dorm room at LSU on that fateful day, even though she'd never been to New York and knew no one there, she made the decision to move to NYC. She quickly earned a position at NBC's corporate fitness facility as their Senior Fitness Specialist. While training and rehabilitating their employees and their on-air talent, she also began concurrently learning the art and logistics of television production. Arguably, her favorite production experience came while traveling the nation and the world with Al Roker and his show, "Wake Up with Al", affording her the opportunity to be on the Vancouver and London Olympics production teams. She went on to be a freelance producer for NBC News, MSNBC, The Weather Channel, The TODAY Show, NBCSN, CBS, CBS Sports, ITN Productions, Keystone Productions, The Triumph Games, and SNY.

It was her grandfather’s legacy that instilled in her an appreciation for service members and their sacrifices. Then came 9/11. And it was the men and women she and her brother grew up with that went to Iraq and Afghanistan. They reignited the fire in her to serve those who answered our Nation’s call to arms. She was a co-founder of the NBC Veterans Network at 30 Rock during her tenure at NBC, and it was in that role that she met Chris Page. Soon thereafter, together, they founded Army Week Association.

As the Army Week Association Chief Operating Officer, she maintains close working relationships with local, state, federal, international governments, and military contacts to ensure an effective and efficient bridge of the allied civil-military divide. It is in this role that Jen has been working tirelessly for months on the evacuations of Americans and our allies out of Afghanistan from her living room in Manhattan, helping to evacuate nearly 2,000 to 9 different countries. She has also been to Ukraine 6 times since March 2022 delivering TCCC supplies to 3 pediatric trauma hospitals, the Ukrainian Army Medic Corps, the Ukraine Foreign Legion, AFU, and GUR. To date, she and Army Week Association have delivered over $700,000 worth of supplies, equipment, and training to Ukraine and our Allies.

She is an accomplished producer, a published author, a successful entrepreneur, and an American Patriot.

Kaitlin Malin, CFA, CAIA

Chief Operating Officer, iConnections

Kaitlin joined iConnections for the Funds4Food initiative and now leads development and event partnerships as Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining iConnections she was responsible for sourcing strategic partnerships across business lines at Zume Inc. Previously, she was a member of the Client Solutions team at MKP Capital Management, where she managed client relationships and co-covered North American fundraising across investor channels for discretionary global macro, fixed-income, and diversified credit strategies. Kaitlin is a CFA charterholder and holds the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designation. She received a BA in Public Policy and Law from Trinity College (CT). She is a member of 100 Women in Finance and Chair of the 100 Women in Finance NextGen New York committee.

Sanjay Gosalia

Chief Executive Officer, Nucleus Finance

With over 20+ years as a product executive at the cutting edge of finance, technology and innovation at Capital One, Google, Goldman Sachs and most recently SVB, Sanjay has established a track record of bringing novel solutions and vital products to market. As an intrapreneur, he has been at the forefront of adopting transformative capabilities such as Web2.0, mobile, payments and data to power digital transformations which have led to exponential revenue growth, operational efficiencies and enhanced client experiences.

Now, as the CEO of Nucleus Finance, he is on a mission to transform how trillions of dollars worth of financial contracts are created, tokenized, securitized, traded and continuously analyzed.

Sanjay holds an MBA from Kellogg School of Management, an MEM and BS from Washington University in Saint Louis in Operations Management and Chemical Engineering respectively. He is also an active investor and board member of several early stage companies.

Ivan Zhang

Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer, Cohere

Ivan Zhang is the co-founder and CTO at Cohere. Previously he founded FOR.ai (now, Cohere For AI), an independent AI research group and worked in the biotech and MLOps space as a software engineer. Ivan dropped out of his undergrad University of Toronto. He is a proud Torontonian, Chinese immigrant, and League of Legends player.

Mona Hamdy

Chief Strategy Officer, Sino Global Capital

Mona Hamdy is the Chief Strategy Officer at Sino Global Capital, a venture capital firm specializing in digital assets and blockchain infrastructure development. In March 2023, she founded SGCN, a research and publication platform dedicated to demystifying complex Web3 content, making it accessible and relatable to everyone, with a focus on education, knowledge-sharing, and amplifying underrepresented voices that help bridge emerging markets to the digital frontier. Current SGCN research focuses on understanding how financial companies evolve their technology stack using blockchain to build next generation business models in the network driven world.

Mona is a Harvard teaching fellow in Applied Ethics and the Co-Founder of the Al Baydha Project, a technology-forward development company aimed at creating radical market extension and regenerative economies through the eradication of poverty and the reversal of climate change. Before founding Al Baydha, Mona was the executive director of the Mosaic Foundation, a cultural nonprofit comprised of the spouses of Arab ambassadors to Washington, DC with an aim to improve the lives of women and children worldwide while increasing cultural understanding between the Arab world and the United States.

Mona's board memberships include serving as the Middle East ambassador for the Global Blockchain Business Council, the World Bank Senior Vice President's Council on the Eradication of Extreme Poverty, the Center for Democracy and Technology, focused on privacy and digital identity, the Harvard 3D: Women in Defense, Development and Diplomacy, and the Bretton Woods Committee.

Alex Rodriguez

Founder & Chief Executive Officer, A-Rod Corp; 2009 World Series Champion, New York Yankees

Alex Rodriguez is a businessman and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of A-Rod Corp, a broad-based investment firm that bets on world-class startups and partners with leading global companies across the real estate, health and wellness, technology, and sports & entertainment industries. While best known as one of the world’s greatest athletes (a 14x MLB All-Star and a 2009 World Series Champion with the New York Yankees), for more than 25 years, Alex leads a team of experts building high-growth businesses and enhancing the value of more than 30 companies in the A-Rod Corp portfolio.

Alex founded A-Rod Corp in 1995, purchasing a duplex apartment on the theory that investing his MLB earnings wisely would protect him from the kinds of financial struggles that afflict too many professional athletes. While he racked up extraordinary stats on the field (696 home runs and more grand slams than any other MLB player in history), Alex simultaneously assembled an impressive team at A-Rod Corp, bought apartment units across the southeastern U.S., and built a fully integrated real estate and development company. In 2020, Alex joined CGI Merchant Group's hotel investment fund to acquire and develop properties across North America and the Caribbean.

Following his success in real estate, Alex has invested in a variety of sectors where he has expertise. He looks for long-term opportunities to provide financial capital, work alongside founders and leadership, and amplify the growth of each company.

In addition to leading A-Rod Corp, Alex is CEO of Slam Corp, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) with Antara Capital Chairman Himanshu Gulati as equal partner. Slam Corp is seeking to acquire a leader in the consumer tech, media, entertainment, and health and wellness sectors.

In 2021, Alex joined the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx ownership group. In addition to his ownership role, Rodriguez serves as a strategic advisor to the Professional Fighters League (PFL) and is an investor in Blue Crow Sports. In the same year, Alex formed A-Rod Media, a strategic pillar within the organization to house all media activity. A-Rod Media offers scalable, multimedia capabilities, including original content creation, compelling narrative storytelling, and audience engagement across all marketing platforms.

Alex is an Emmy Award-winning MLB analyst for Fox Sports and ESPN. He has been a judge and investor on ABC’s Shark Tank, mentored financially distressed ex-athletes on CNBC’s Back in the Game, and co-hosted the podcast The Corp with Barstool Sports’ Dan Katz, interviewing CEOs, entrepreneurs, and sports legends. Committed to creating opportunities for young people to succeed, Alex serves on the Board of the Boys and Girls Club of America and is in the National Alumni Hall of Fame, and the Boards of Trustees of the University of Miami. His gifts to the University of Miami and Florida International University have provided scholarships to dozens of students. Alex resides in Miami with his daughters, Natasha and Ella.

Maria Woodman

Principal, RockCreek

Maria Woodman is a Principal at RockCreek focused on venture and growth equity investments across sectors including energy, transportation, agriculture, and the built environment.

Prior to joining RockCreek, Maria was a Senior Vice President at Energy Impact Partners, a climate focused venture fund, where she primarily focused on energy transition investments. At EIP, Maria worked closely alongside the fund’s portfolio companies to support strategy definition and growth execution. Before EIP she was a Principal at ADL Ventures, a boutique consulting firm focused on spinning IP out of legacy-sector corporations, where she led the power and gas utility practice.

Maria began her career at demand response provider EnerNOC, where she held a variety of roles in marketing, business development, and product management. She led the execution of strategic partnerships with SunPower and Tesla and supported EnerNOC’s forays into multiple new domestic and international markets.

Maria holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics from New York University.

June Ou

Co-Founder & President, Figure

June Ou is the Co-Founder and COO of Figure, where she oversees the firm’s operations and strategic direction.

Prior to Figure, June was the CTO of SoFi where she led all executive decisions with regard to the technological interests of the company, outlining vision and strategies and ensuring the tech resources aligned with the company’s business needs. Prior to that role, she was the CEO and Founder of CCO Solutions, and the VP of Engineering at Finaplex. June holds a Master of Science in Applied Economics from UCSC, and an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business where she was a Sloan Fellow.

Andrew Polk

Co-Founder & Head of Economic Research, Trivium/China

Andrew Polk is the co-founder and head of economic research at Trivium China, a Beijing-based strategic advisory firm. Before founding Trivium, Polk was China director at Medley Global Advisors, where he advised asset managers and hedge funds on developments in China's economy and financial markets. Previously, Mr. Polk was the resident China economist at The Conference Board's China Center for Economics and Business, where he conducted economic analysis on the Chinese economy for corporate clients. Polk is the co-author of The Long, Soft Fall in Chinese Growth (The Conference Board, 2015) and maintains a deep network of professional contacts in the official, academic, and business communities in China—built over a decade of living in China and working on China issues. Other research positions he has held include stints at the Institute of International Finance and the U.S. Department of Treasury. He holds an M.A. in economics and international relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Scarlet Fu

Anchor, Bloomberg Television

Based in New York, Scarlet Fu is an anchor for Bloomberg Television and Bloomberg Radio, as well as Editorial Lead for Bloomberg's video platform, Bloomberg Originals, with a focus on markets, investing and finance.

In addition, she moderates discussion panels, including the monthly CornellTech@Bloomberg speaker series with tech luminaries and entrepreneurs.

Previously, Fu co-anchored “Bloomberg ETF IQ,” the first program to focus solely on exchange-traded products, and "The Fed Decides," Bloomberg's special coverage of the Federal Reserve's policy decisions.

Before joining Bloomberg Television in 2007, Fu was a U.S. stocks editor for Bloomberg News. Prior to that, she oversaw Bloomberg News coverage of Asian equities, and reported on the handover of Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997. Fu began her journalism career at CNBC Asia in Hong Kong.

Fu graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Cornell University with a bachelor’s degree in history and concentration in Asian American Studies. She has also studied Mandarin at Peking and National Taiwan Normal Universities.

X. Rick Niu

Board Member & New York Chair, Committee of 100

X. Rick Niu is President of Starr Strategic Holdings LLC, part of a global insurance and investment organization chaired by WWII hero Maurice R. Greenberg.

A regular advisor to world leaders, Starr presents a superior global capability that meets the principal investment, wealth management, commercial insurance and other strategic needs of emerging-market investors doing business in the U.S. and around the world, as well as companies and local governments in developed and developing countries seeking international investments that support commercial growth, capital optimization and job creation.

Niu is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Committee of 100. He has been involved in numerous charitable efforts helping to develop the next generation of American leadership, and actively supporting Starr's historic commitment to U.S.-China relations.

Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Niu earned a B.S. from Tsinghua University in Beijing, and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School. He also attended INSEAD’s Senior Executive Leadership Program in Paris and Singapore.

Matthew Axelrod

Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement, Bureau of Industry and Security, U.S. Department of Commerce

Matthew Axelrod serves as the Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security, after being unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Matt leads a team of special agents and analysts dedicated to stopping exports of sensitive goods and technologies to foreign parties who would use them for malign purposes, including terrorism, military modernization, and human rights abuses. Matt has deep criminal and national security enforcement experience from spending nearly two decades at the Justice Department culminating as Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General, one of the Department's highest-ranking officials.

Matt previously served at the White House Counsel office and as a partner in an international law firm, where he did internal investigations and white-collar defense work.

Matt received his B.A. cum laude from Amherst College and his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was Notes Editor for the Yale Law Journal. Following law school, Matt clerked for the Honorable Ralph K. Winter, Jr. on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and for the Honorable Janet C. Hall on the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut.

Arvind Ramamurthy, ACA

Chief Market Development Officer, Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM)

Arvind Ramamurthy is the Chief Market Development Officer at ADGM responsible to drive Growth and Business at one of the regions leading International Financial Centers.

His role encompasses driving cluster development for the platform and also leading customer relationship management, Sovereign /Strategic relationship and Sustainable Finance.

He has over 17 years of strategic corporate finance experience across emerging markets in executing complex transformations, restructuring, M&A and principal investments

Some of the cos where he worked previously includes ADNOC, Abu Dhabi Department of Finance, Abu Dhabi General Secretariat of the Executive Council and Deloitte.

Mohamed Elkordy

Senior Investment Officer, New York State Common Retirement Fund

Dr. Elkordy is a Senior Investment Officer in the $240B New York State Retirement where he focuses on opportunistic Private Investments including direct and co-investments in equity, credit and venture. He joined from the $6B Texas Trust where he oversaw the Opportunistic and Independent return programs across private and public markets. Before joining Texas Trust, Mohamed spent 15 years on Wall Street as a derivatives trader at JP Morgan and as head of the multi-assets pension strategy Team at Barclays. Mohamed also served as Assistant Administrator for the $100B Michigan Retirement where he established the derivatives program across asset classes and assisted in building the external management program. He received his Ph.D. from the University of NY in Artificial Intelligence and an MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

John P. Carlin

Co-Chair, Cybersecurity & Data Protection Practice, Paul Weiss

John P. Carlin is co-chair of Paul Weiss’s Cybersecurity & Data Protection practice and co-chair of the Digital Technology Group. John is a deeply accomplished litigator who advises industry-leading organizations on matters involving privacy and cybersecurity, crisis management, Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), sanctions and export control, white collar defense and internal investigations. He has served as a top-level official in both Republican and Democratic administrations, including as the Acting Deputy Attorney General of the United States, as the top national security official for the U.S. Department of Justice, as the Chief of Staff of the FBI and as an experienced Assistant United States Attorney. Mr. Carlin has been featured or cited as a leading authority on cyber and economic espionage matters by numerous major media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, CBS’s 60 Minutes, NBC’s Meet the Press, PBS’s Newshour, ABC’s Nightline and Good Morning America, NPR, CNN and Vanity Fair, among others.

Elizabeth Burton

Managing Director, Client Investment Strategist, Goldman Sachs Asset Management

Elizabeth is a managing director and client investment strategist in the Client Solutions Group within Goldman Sachs Asset Management. In her role, she advises institutional clients on their investment strategy and portfolio objectives, working alongside global client advisors and product strategists across public and private markets. Elizabeth joined Goldman Sachs in 2022 as a managing director.

Prior to joining the firm, Elizabeth was chief investment officer at the Employees' Retirement System of the State of Hawaii. Before that, she served as a managing director in the Quantitative Strategies Group at the Maryland State Retirement Agency, where she was responsible for the agency's absolute return portfolio and oversaw risk management. Earlier in her career, Elizabeth held leadership positions as an investor, economist, and consultant in asset management as well as fixed income trading.

Elizabeth serves on the Board of Directors of the Chartered Alternative Investment Association (CAIA). In addition, she serves on the board of the Hill School.

Elizabeth earned a BA in Politics and French from Washington and Lee University in 2004 and an MBA in Finance and Econometrics and Statistics from the University of Chicago in 2011. She is a charterholder of CAIA.

Rob Toews

Partner, Radical Ventures

Rob Toews is a Partner at Radical Ventures, where he leads the firm's Bay Area office. He also writes a regular column in Forbes about the big picture of artificial intelligence. Prior to Radical, Rob was a VC at Highland Capital, where he led Highland's AI investment efforts. Previously, he spent several years in the world of autonomous vehicles, including leading the Strategy team at Zoox (acquired by Amazon for $1.3 billion) and working on autonomous vehicle policy in the White House under President Obama. He started his career in management consulting at Bain & Company. Rob holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, a JD from Harvard Law School and an undergraduate degree from Stanford.

Tobias J. Moskowitz

Principal, AQR

Toby contributes to research on asset pricing and investment issues related to domestic and international strategies for AQR’s Global Alternative Premia team. He holds the Dean Takahashi Chaired Professorship in Finance at Yale University, is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and was the Fama Family Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business from 1998 to 2016. He has won numerous awards for his academic research, including the 2015 Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy Award for the best article in The Journal of Portfolio Management. In 2007, he was awarded the Fischer Black Prize by the American Finance Association, recognizing the best financial economist under the age of 40, and the Kauffman Prize Medal for Distinguished Research in Entrepreneurship in 2012 by the Kauffman Foundation, recognizing the largest contribution to entrepreneurial research under the age of 40. His work has been cited in numerous print media, television appearances, and in a 2005 speech by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. Toby earned a B.S. in industrial management/industrial engineering with honors and an M.S. in finance from Purdue University, as well as a Ph.D. in finance from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Nadeem Meghji

Head of Real Estate Americas, Blackstone

Nadeem Meghji is a Senior Managing Director in the Real Estate Group and Head of Real Estate Americas, based in New York. Mr. Meghji has played a leadership role in Blackstone's acquisition activity in the Americas across opportunistic and core plus investing. Mr. Meghji is a member of Blackstone Real Estate’s global investment committee.

Before joining Blackstone in 2008, Mr. Meghji worked as an associate at the Lionstone Group. Mr. Meghji received a BS in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, where he graduated summa cum laude. He received a JD from Harvard Law School and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Mr. Meghji serves as a board member for the Lupus Research Alliance and is the Co-Chair of the annual Rally Against Lupus fundraiser. Mr. Meghji was named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader in 2018.

Lenna Koszarny

Founding Partner & Chief Executive Officer, Horizon Capital

Lenna Koszarny is Founding Partner and Chief Executive Officer of Horizon Capital, the leading private equity firm in Ukraine with over $1.2 billion in assets under management, backed by over 40 institutional investors with a capital base exceeding $570 billion. Under her leadership, in February 2022, Horizon Capital was honored as 2021 Firm of the Year for Central and Eastern Europe by Private Equity International, with 90,000 votes cast. Ms. Koszarny is also Executive Vice-President of Western NIS Enterprise Fund, a $150 million US-government backed fund; Chair of the Board of Directors of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine representing 600 members with over $50 billion invested in Ukraine; and a Board Member and Vice President of the Ukrainian World Congress, representing over 20 million Ukrainians worldwide. She is also a member of the Board of the Ukrainian Startup Fund launched by the Government of Ukraine; an Honorary Board member of the Ukrainian Corporate Governance Academy; a Supervisory Board member of the German-Polish-Ukrainian Society in Ukraine; and, served as the first Vice-Chair of the Advisory Council of Kyiv-Mohyla Business School.

On August 24, 2020, the 29th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded Ms. Koszarny with an Order of Merit for Service to Ukraine, third level, for her significant contribution to the country’s economy and investment climate. She is also a recipient of a Presidential Commemorative Medal on the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of Independence.

Under Ms. Koszarny’s leadership, Horizon Capital is committed to promoting gender equality in the alternative assets industry, inspiring greater investment sector engagement by women throughout their region. In July 2022, Ms. Koszarny was recognized in Private Equity International’s 2022 Women of Influence in Private Markets list, one of only 10 women selected in the private equity category. In July 2020, she was named as #2 Emerging Europe’s Female Business Leader 2020 by UK-headquartered online publication Emerging-Europe.com, whose independent insight is relied upon by more than two million people. She is a Member of the Private Equity Women Investor Network (PEWIN), bringing together 600+ senior women leaders in private equity with over $3 trillion AUM, and was named Empowerment Ambassador of the SheExports Platform launched by Ukraine’s Export Promotion Office. She is also a Member of the all-female Organizing Committee of Ukraine House Davos, promoting Ukraine for the fifth year alongside the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Ms. Koszarny is a CPA and a 1991 HBA graduate of the Ivey Business School in Canada. She is Canadian of Ukrainian descent and has lived and worked in Ukraine for over 29 years.