Jalak Jobanputra

Founding Partner, Future\Perfect Ventures

Jalak Jobanputra is Founding Partner of Future\Perfect Ventures, an early stage venture capital fund in NYC focused on next generation technology such as blockchain and machine learning. FPV’s portfolio includes Abra, Open Garden, Blockstream, Bitpesa, FuseMachines, Everledger and Blockchain. Jalak was awarded Institutional Investor’s Top Fintech Dealmakers in 2017 and 2016. In 2017, she was cited as a “Top 5 Investor Powering the Blockchain Boom” and CB Insights noted FPV as one of the top VC funds in blockchain “before it was cool”. Since founding the firm, she has spoken on blockchain technology at many global conferences, including the Milken Global Institute, Dutch Development Bank/FMO annual meeting, and The Economist Buttonwood Gathering.

Prior to FPV, Jobanputra was the Director of Emerging Market Mobile Investments at Omidyar Network, a philanthrocapitalist fund started by Pierre Omidyar, co-founder of eBay. Previously, she worked at Intel Capital investing in enterprise software in Silicon Valley from 1999-2003. as well as New Venture Partners and the NYC Investment Fund where she formed one of NYC's first seed funds and helped establish the Fintech Innovation Lab in 2010. She started her career as a media/tech/telecom investment banker in NYC and London.

Jobanputra is also active in supporting education reform and social entrepreneurship. She servedas a Trustee of Achievement First Bushwick Charter Schools (Brooklyn). She is on the Board of Directors for the Center for an Urban Future, Advisory Board of L’Oreal’s Women in Digital Initiative, member of Mayor DeBlasio’s Broadband Taskforce, and former Access to Capital Committee member of the US Secretary of State Clinton Women’s Leadership Council.

She is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, with a B.S. in Economics (concentration in Finance) from The Wharton School and a B.A. in Communications from the Annenberg School. She received her MBA from Kellogg in 1999.

Gosego January

Chief Executive Officer, Debswana Pension Fund

Mrs Gosego January was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Debswana Pension Fund (DPF) by the DPF Board of Trustees from 1st February 2011.

The Debswana Pension Fund (DPF) is the largest private pension fund in Botswana and a major player in the retirement services industry with assets valued at BWP8 billion and a total membership of 12 150 inclusive of active, deferred and pensioner members as at 31st December 2017. The DPF is a pension fund secretariat to the Debswana & De Beers family of companies namely; Debswana Diamond Company (Debswana), Diamond Trading Company Botswana (DTCB), De Beers Holding Botswana (DBHB), Morupule Coal Mine (MCM), De Beers Global SightHolder Sales (DBGSS), Anglo Coal Botswana and the DPF itself.

Prior to this appointment Mrs spent 20 years working at Debswana Diamond Company where she rose through the ranks from Accounts Trainee to key Managerial positions. The key Managerial positions held being that of Cost Accountant, Business Services Manager, Management Accountant, and Business Strategy Programme Manager for Orapa and Letlhakane Mines reporting to the General Manager and being a member of the Executive Committee, and lastly the Personal Assistant to the Managing Director, a position responsible for providing strategic and business advice to the Managing Director.

Gosego has just successfully completed her Global Executive Development Program with Gordon Institute of Business Science (RSA). She is also a Chartered Management Accountant with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) UK, and prior to that she obtained a three year Diploma in Business Administration-Accounting from the Cambrian College of Applied Arts and Technology in Sudbury, Canada. She prides herself with a sparkling track record in leadership and management positions.

In other professional appointments Gosego has served as Director on the Board of PEO Venture Capital Fund (Pty) Ltd, a private equity fund established as a joint venture between Debswana and De Beers Botswana to promote entrepreneurship in Botswana through venture partnerships with small to medium scale businesses. She has participated at national level as a member of the Central Transport Organisation (CTO) Fuel Privatization Steering Committee and the Botswana Confederation of Commerce Industry Management (BOCCIM) Capacity Building Project Team.

She is currently a Member of the Audit & Finance Committee for Sechaba Holdings and of the Advisory Board at Vantage Capital Investment.

Majid H. Jafar

Chief Executive Officer, Crescent Petroelum

Majid Jafar is the CEO of Crescent Petroleum, the Middle East's oldest private oil & gas company, and Vice-Chairman of the Crescent Group of companies which includes interests in port management, logistics, contracting, private equity and real estate. He is also Managing Director of the Board of Dana Gas (PJSC), the leading publicly-listed natural gas company in the Middle East, in which Crescent is the largest shareholder. His previous experience was with Shell International's Exploration & Production and Gas & Power Divisions.

In addition to his professional commitments in the energy sector, Majid Jafar is active with organisations promoting education, youth empowerment, healthcare and the environment. He serves on the Board of Trustees of Queen Rania Foundation (QRF), Kalimat Foundation, the Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED), and the Iraq Energy Institute; the Board of Fellows of Harvard Medical School, the Panel of Senior Advisers of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), and the International Advisory Board of the Prince's Trust International and The Atlantic Council. He is also a member of the GCC Board Directors Institute and the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), an Accredited Director of the Institute of Directors (IoD Mudara), and has been named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Majid Jafar attended Eton College and graduated from Cambridge University (Churchill College) with Bachelor and Masters Degrees in Engineering (Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics). He also holds an MA (with Distinction) in International Studies and Diplomacy from the University of London’s School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), and an MBA (with Distinction) from the Harvard Business School.

Guy Hurley

Chief Executive Officer, Abu Dhabi Catalyst Partners

Guy is the CEO of Abu Dhabi Catalyst Partners, with the brief to fund and co invest with entities who wish to set up inside the ADGM. Previously Guy ran HCM for 10 years, consulting to the likes of CQS, Albourne, Fidante, CSAM and Merrill Lynch. Additionally, he was a Managing Director at Merrill Lynch and Global Head of Manager Research at FRM. In his early career, he was a trader at Morgan Grenfell/Deutsche Bank, Barclays and the Chase London Diversified Fund. Guy Has a degree in Slavonic and East European History from University College London, and an MBA in Finance and Decision Sciences from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Peter Hughes

Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Apex Group

Peter founded the Apex Group, one of the world’s largest fund administrators, in September 2003. His vision was to create a company that provides a suite of services enabling managers to grow whilst running their businesses more effectively and efficiently. Under his leadership the Apex Group has grown rapidly and today delivers a full range of services from fund administration, middle office, Banking and Depositary to Corporate services. These services are delivered via 40+ offices worldwide by over 3000 staff. The Group now administers c.$650 billion (USD) in assets.

Peter has over 20 years of financial services experience having qualified as a chartered accountant in 1994. He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Chieh Huang

Chief Executive Officer, Boxed

Chieh Huang is Co-Founder and CEO of Boxed.com, a company that is disrupting the wholesale shopping club experience by enabling you to shop for bulk-sized items online or via mobile app and have them delivered directly to your door. Forbes Magazine has named Boxed one of the next “billion dollar startups.”

Started in Huang’s garage 5 years ago, Boxed now has hundreds of employees in facilities all over the United States. Since the garage, the company has sold hundreds of millions of dollars of products and has raised over a quarter billion dollars in funding to date.

Huang’s personal honors include being named to “Bloomberg 50”, Bloomberg Businessweek’s 50 people to watch in 2018, to National Retail Federation’s list of People Shaping Retail’s Future, as one of Crain’s 40 Under 40 and Goldman Sachs’ list of “100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs.” In addition, Entrepreneur Magazine included Chieh on their list of “The 50 Most Daring Entrepreneurs.”

You can read more about Chieh’s story in People Magazine’s profile of him for their “American Dream” series, tracking his growth from humble beginnings to running a fast-growing online retailer. You can also catch more of him at TED.com delivering a talk about his lifelong battle against micromanagers.

Simon Hopkins

Chief Executive Officer, Milltrust International Group

Mr. Hopkins has been a senior investment management professional for more than two decades, with a track record in building successful financial services businesses. He is the founder and CEO of Milltrust, overseeing investments across 32 developing public equity markets, as well substantial institutional allocations to farmland investments in Australia and New Zealand, and science and technology investments through the British Innovation Fund. Milltrust’s latest initiative, in collaboration with WWF-Hong Kong, is The Climate Impact Asia Fund, an active equity impact fund investing into the leading Asian-listed companies that make a positive impact against climate change.

Mr Hopkins has been a prolific capital raiser for single manager funds, funds of funds and listed closed-end funds. In 1997, he founded Fortune Group, a multi asset class advisory firm raising over 10bn USD of assets under management. The firm was sold to publicly-listed Close Bros Group plc. in 2006.

Mr. Hopkins started his career at S.G. Warburg, and held senior roles at UBS, HSBC and Nomura. He serves as a director of Swallowcourt, a UK care provider, Xoomtrip, a Gulf-based travel agent, and Roslin Technologies (University of Edinburgh), and is a member of NUS Medicine International Council. He graduated from the Faculty of Law, University of Bristol in 1986 and recently completed a Non-Executive Director postgraduate diploma in Hong Kong. Mr. Hopkins resides with his family in Singapore.

Ben Hindman

Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Splash

Ben Hindman is Co-Founder and CEO of Splash, the leading event marketing automation platform used by over half of the Fortune 500. Prior to Splash, Hindman was head of events for publishing giant Thrillist - where he produced everything from mystery fly-aways to full-scale concerts. He is also a co-founder of Summit Series, the renowned invite-only destination event for the greatest minds in tech.

Dominique Hatcher

Founder & Chief Executive Officer, PiiSec

Dominique Hatcher is a U.S. Military Veteran and cyber threat intelligence analyst of over ten years; having served during the height of the Global War on Terror. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Intelligence Operations and an associate degree in Mandarin Chinese, as well as multiple cyber security certifications. She excels in multi-faceted intelligence collection and espionage tactics. During her tenure battling cybercrime, Dominique advocated heavily for mandating stringent controls on PCI Compliance and Intellectual Property and data protection in the face of foreign entities. She made significant contributions to Executive Order 13694 in defense of U.S. citizens’ interests and assets. In response to the Sony Pictures hack of 2014, Dominique spearheaded efforts to create a dedicated cyber threat intelligence (CTI) team. As a Senior Intelligence Analyst and researcher, Dominique supports global resilience against emerging and on-going cyber threats to the critical infrastructure and financial sectors. Her adversary-profiling skillset and crime evolution predictions have been leveraged as vital assets in various capacities.

The Right Honorable Philip Hammond

Chancellor of the Exchequer (2016-2019)

Philip Hammond has been a UK Cabinet Minister and key member of the British Government for almost a decade. Leading four departments over nine years and rising to the second most powerful job in government, he is one of only three people to serve continuously in the UK cabinet from 2010 to 2019, serving under Prime Ministers David Cameron and Theresa May.

Taking on the role of Chancellor of the Exchequer shortly after the 2016 Brexit Referendum, Hammond took charge of the British economy at a time of unprecedented uncertainty.

He has always strongly held the view that nobody voted for Brexit with a view to becoming poorer or less secure, and thus believes the best way of delivering the result of the referendum is to negotiate a deal with the European Union that keeps the UK and EU close economically, even after the UK leaves the EU.

He fought strongly for this approach within the cabinet and has continued to do so since leaving government. He also focused on the needs of businesses and particularly the need to protect London’s global financial markets.

Hammond has focused on the challenges faced by developed economies, specifically: the technological revolution and how it is already transforming the way we work and live our lives; climate change and how to harness the market economy to deliver decarbonisation; demographic shifts and the challenges of an ageing population, and particularly in the UK, the challenge of raising productivity.

Through his roles as Chancellor and as Foreign Secretary, Hammond has considerable experience of working with China, and clear views about how to manage the integration of China as a major economic and strategic power into the global system. He also has strong connections in the Gulf region.

He was part of the “E3+3” team that negotiated the JCPOA nuclear arms control deal with Iran in 2015. During his tenure as Defence and then Foreign Secretary, Hammond built strong links with the US and other allied counterparts, both civilian and military, and was a frequent visitor to Afghanistan during the campaign.

Hammond retains a close interest in the strategic challenges facing the Western Alliance and then interrelationship between economic and strategic influences.

Hammond grew up in Essex, England, and studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at University College Oxford. Before entering Parliament in 1997, he ran a number of successful businesses. He stepped down as the Member of Parliament for Runnymede and Weybridge in November 2019 after 22 years serving the Surrey constituency.

Mohammed Hamdi

Chief Executive Officer, NV ADO Den Haag

Hamdi has completed the Dutch FA management course in professional football. He previously worked for Lagardere Sports, where he was responsible for UEFA EURO 2016 for the Netherlands & Belgium. After that he joined as an Associate Director at Infront Sports & Media, a subsidiary of Wanda Sports China. In 2017 he was appointed as Commercial & Marketing Director at Al Jazira FC based in Abu Dhabi. In September 2019, Mohammed joined historic Dutch Eredivisie club, ADO Den Haag, as the CEO.

Dr. Richard Haass

President, Council on Foreign Relations

Dr. Richard Haass is in his 17th year as president of the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, publisher and educational institution dedicated to being a resource to help people better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries.

In 2013, he served as the chair of the multiparty negotiations in Northern Ireland that provided the foundation for the 2014 Stormont House Agreement. For his efforts to promote peace and conflict resolution, he received the 2013 Tipperary International Peace Award.

From January 2001 to June 2003, Dr. Haass was director of policy planning for the Department of State, where he was a principal advisor to Secretary of State Colin Powell. Confirmed by the U.S. Senate to hold the rank of ambassador, Dr. Haass also served as U.S. coordinator for policy toward the future of Afghanistan and U.S. envoy to the Northern Ireland peace process. In recognition of his service, he received the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award.

Dr. Haass has extensive additional government experience. From 1989 to 1993, he was special assistant to President George H.W. Bush and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs on the staff of the National Security Council. In 1991, Dr. Haass was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal for his contributions to the development and articulation of U.S. policy during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Previously, he served in the Departments of State (1981–1985) and Defense (1979–1980), and was a legislative aide in the U.S. Senate.

Dr. Haass also was vice president and director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, the Sol M. Linowitz visiting professor of international studies at Hamilton College, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and a research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. A Rhodes scholar, Dr. Haass holds a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College and master’s and doctorate degrees from Oxford University. He has also received numerous honorary degrees.

Dr. Haass is the author or editor of thirteen books on American foreign policy and one book on management. His latest book is A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order, published in 2017 by Penguin Press.

Dr. Richard Haass was born in Brooklyn, New York, and lives in New York City.

Bill Gross

Founder & Chairman, Idealab

Bill Gross is a lifelong entrepreneur who has started more than 150 companies in his career, resulting in more than 45 successful IPO’s and mergers and acquisitions. 7 of those companies grew to be more than billion-dollar companies.

Bill created Idealab, modeled after Thomas Edison’s lab, after attending Caltech, in Pasadena, California, 23 years ago. Idealab is the longest-running technology incubator, focused on world-changing technologies including search, ecommerce, robotics, mobile monetization, renewable energy and climate change.

Bill holds more than 30 patents, and is the inventor of novel forms of energy storage, solar concentration, and of paid search, the business model that powers the internet.

Bill is a frequent speaker on technology and entrepreneurship all over the world, at TED, TechCrunch, Business Mastery, DLD, CES, XPrize, Verge, Davos and more.

Bill graduated from Caltech in 1981 and serves on the Caltech Board of Trustees and on the Board of the Art Center College of Design.

Alison Graham

Chief Investment Officer, Voltan Capital Management

Alison Graham is the Chief Investment Officer of Voltan Capital Management. She has over twenty years' experience in frontier and emerging markets finance. She traded through the 1995 Mexico crisis, the 1997 Asia crisis, the 1998 Russia crisis and the 2008 global financial crisis, giving her a depth of experience in managing assets during turbulent periods.

Alison began her career at Caspian Securities, an investment bank dedicated to emerging markets, as a senior equity analyst for Latin America. She later became the firm’s youngest partner and was part of a two-person team earning Institutional Investor’s first-place ranking for Latin American. In 1998, Alison joined United Financial Group in Moscow. She remained in Russia for seven years, managing assets and advising firms with interests in frontier markets.

For the past ten years, she has managed Voltan’s debt and equity investments across frontier markets, taking advantage of the high yields and strong growth these early stage economies provide. She holds a Master's degree from the University of California at Berkeley, is a Chartered Financial Analyst and is fluent in six languages.

Sonia Gokhale

Founding Partner, VentureSouq

Sonia is a Founding Partner of VentureSouq. VentureSouq is a UAE-based investment platform that invests into early-stage global tech and tech-enabled start-ups. Previously, Sonia was a Special Advisor to the Chief Investment Officer of Global Special Situations of Abu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC), a large sovereign wealth fund based in the UAE, focusing on venture capital and tech deals. Prior to this role, Sonia was an Actuarial Consultant at Mercer Human Resource Consulting in its Dubai and Toronto offices. Sonia is a qualified Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and the Society of Actuaries (USA). Sonia obtained a BSc from the University of Toronto (with distinction) and majored in Actuarial Science and Statistics.

Peter Gleysteen

Founder, Chief Executive Officer & Chief Investment Officer, AGL Credit Management

Mr. Gleysteen’s prior two employers were JPMorgan Chase and CIFC Asset Management. He has specialized in bank loans for over forty years and successfully navigated every economic cycle and market crisis since his career began.

At JPMorgan Chase, and antecedent entities Chemical Bank and Chase Manhattan, Mr. Gleysteen was the lead banker on many of the largest LBO, M&A and Restructuring financings in the 1980s and 1990s, ran global loan syndications as Group Head Global Syndicated Finance, was responsible for the global corporate loan portfolio as Group Head Global Capital Management, and served as Chief Credit Officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co. He was integral to the evolution of the bank loan asset class from inception including making the first “B-Loan” in 1989 and conceiving and instituting the “Market Flex” pricing convention in 1997. Mr. Gleysteen joined Chemical Bank in 1975.

Mr. Gleysteen founded CIFC and managed it as CEO from inception in 2005 to 2014. CIFC was sold and he then served as Vice-Chairman and special advisor until 2016.

He began forming AGL Credit Management in 2018 and launched it in 2019.

Mr. Gleysteen has a BA in History from Trinity College and a MBA, Executive Program, from the University of Chicago. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a board member of Mystic Seaport Museum.

Nancy W. Gleason, PhD

Director, Hilary Ballon Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, New York University Abu Dhabi

Nancy W. Gleason, PhD is the inaugural Director of the Hilary Ballon Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and an Assistant Professor of Practice in Political Science at New York University Abu Dhabi. Her research focuses on the Fourth Industrial Revolution’s impact on higher education, workforce training, and the future of work. She considers societal impacts of employment disruption, continuous reskilling, and the role of industry in supporting upskilling of adults. She has published and consulted widely in these areas and is the editor of Higher Education in the Era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution(Springer, 2018). She is the co-editor of the forthcoming (Palgrave March 2020) volume, Diversity and Inclusion in Global Higher Education: Lessons from Across Asia. Dr. Gleason holds a PhD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a BA from George Washington University. @NWGleason

Rick Gerson

Founder, Chairman & Chief Investment Officer, Falcon Edge Capital

Rick Gerson is the Founder, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Falcon Edge. Prior to Falcon Edge, Mr. Gerson was a Founding Member and Managing Director of Blue Ridge Capital, a New York-based investment firm started in 1996, where he was for 15 years. Mr. Gerson graduated from the University of Virginia, McIntire School of Commerce with a B.S. in Commerce with a concentration in finance. Mr. Gerson is a member of the Cleveland Clinic International Leadership Board, a founding member of the Board of Trustees of PAVE (a charter school in Brooklyn), a member of the Panthera Conservation Council, a founding board member of the Josh Waitzkin Art of Learning Foundation (JWF) and is a member of the board of 92nd Street Y (a leading cultural institution and community center in New York). Mr. Gerson is a member of the Belfer Center's International Council at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Troy A. Gayeski, CFA

Former Partner, Co-Chief Investment Officer & Senior Portfolio Manager, SkyBridge

Troy A. Gayeski, CFA is a Partner, Co-Chief Investment Officer and Senior Portfolio Manager at SkyBridge Capital.  As Co-CIO, Mr. Gayeski has oversight of all the firm’s investment activities. As Senior Portfolio Manager, Mr. Gayeski continues to manage the firm’s discretionary fund of hedge fund portfolios. He is also a member of the Portfolio Allocation and Real Estate Investment committees.  Mr. Gayeski’s responsibilities include portfolio management, manager sourcing, research and due diligence across a wide variety of alternative investment strategies. A regular speaker and commentator, Mr. Gayeski appears as a frequent guest on various broadcast networks including Bloomberg News, Fox Business Network, and CNBC. Prior to joining SkyBridge in June 2010, he performed similar duties in the Hedge Fund Management Group at Citigroup Alternative Investments (CAI), Bank of America and Yankee Advisers.  Mr. Gayeski received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from MIT and is a CFA charterholder.

Hadley Gamble

Anchor, CNBC

Hadley Gamble is CNBC’s Anchor based in Abu Dhabi. Hadley anchors Capital Connection from CNBC’s Middle East Headquarters based within Abu Dhabi Global Markets. The show, broadcast daily, gives you a reading on Asia's markets mid-day and sets you up for the Middle East and European trading day.

In addition, Hadley also fronts CNBC’s popular documentary franchise, Access: Middle East where she speaks to world leaders, international CEOs and philanthropists. Recent guests include Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir and HRH Princess Reema bin Bandar Al-Saud.

Hadley speaks to world leaders, international CEOs and philanthropists. Hadley has profiled some of the biggest names in business including the man behind the world's tallest tower, Emaar Chairman Mohammed Alabbar, bitcoin brothers Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss and the only Western investor to hold a telecom license in North Korea, billionaire Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris.

Hadley regularly reports for CNBC from the World Economic Forum in Davos, moderating panels on topics ranging from the geostrategic outlook for the Middle East to the future of education and infrastructure. Hadley is also a passionate advocate for women in the workplace and their advancement across the Arab world. She moderated the first ever women's business forum in Saudi Arabia and provided exclusive content to CNBC as the Kingdom lifted its decades-old driving ban.

An experienced journalist, Hadley has also worked for ABC News and Fox News in Washington, DC producing news programmes and covering national and international political events, including the 2008 Presidential Debates, Election Night 2008 and the Inauguration of US President Barack Obama.