Charles E. Carnegie, CFA

Portfolio Manager, Context Capital Management

Mr. Carnegie started his career at Context and was with the firm until 2008. He rejoined Context in 2015 from Hutchin Hill Capital Management, where he was a Senior Credit Analyst and Trader focused on credit and relative value opportunities including convertible, high yield and distressed corporate bonds and convertible arbitrage. Previously, Mr. Carnegie worked at Graham Capital Management, where he worked in a similar role, and prior to Graham, Mr. Carnegie was a Director and Credit Analyst at Knight Capital Group. 

Jane Buchan, PhD, CAIA

Chief Executive Officer & Co-Chief Investment Officer, Martlet Asset Management

Jane is Chief Executive Officer and Co-Chief Investment Officer of Martlet Asset Management responsible for firm strategy, organization and performance. Martlet Asset Management, is an independently owned hedge fund based in Newport Beach. The firm is focused on delivering diversifying investment return solutions based on structural market anomalies. The firms strategies include alternative risk premia and liquid strategies.

Jane began her career at J.P. Morgan Investment Management in the Capital Markets Group where she was trained in quantitative fixed income portfolio management. She has been an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. After her academic career, she co-founded and led Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company (PAAMCO), a Fund of Hedge Funds focused on institutional investors for 18 years. Under her leadership first as CEO of PAAMCO and then co-CEO of PAAMCO Prisma, the firm grew to $32 billion AUM placing it third globally in the league tables by the time of her retirement in July 2018 (HFM InvestHedge Billion Dollar Club).

She recently served as chairwoman of the board for the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association (CAIA) and is a member of the Advisory Board for the Master of Financial Engineering Program at UCLA Anderson School of Management. Jane holds both a PhD and an MA in Business Economics (Finance) from Harvard University. She earned a BA in Economics from Yale University. Jane has thirty-three years of experience in investment management and portfolio construction with institutional investors.

Jane holds both a PhD and an MA in Business Economics (Finance) from Harvard University. She earned a BA in Economics from Yale University. Jane has thirty-three years of experience in investment management and portfolio construction with institutional investors.

John Bryant

Chief Technology Officer, Options-IT

John Bryant was named Options CTO in November 2012 having first joined the company in mid-2008 as Head of Technology for Europe, where he oversaw the development of the European Momentum and Velocity low-latency market data product portfolios in addition to managing the company’s European data centre expansion program.

John has a wealth of experience in capital markets technologies including trading, market data, data applications and straight-through processing. He holds a joint bachelor’s degree in French and Spanish from Liverpool University, holds a certification from the ITIL Foundation, and is a Prince II Practitioner.

Lesley Slaton Brown

Chief Diversity Officer, HP Inc.

Lesley Slaton Brown is the Chief Diversity Officer at HP, Inc. With over 20 years of experience in the technology industry, Lesley has a unique ability to align and build strategy across organizations and drive business outcomes within corporations, start-ups and non-profits. Coupling her global marketing, branding, communications and diversity and inclusion experience, with a deep passion for social entrepreneur and leadership development, she has led key efforts to address the digital divide and build sustainable enterprise in Senegal, West Africa. Most recently, Lesley served as the Principal Investigator for the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME), “Go West” Computing Project. This project focused on broadening representation of women and minorities in computing education and careers.

Lesley was recently awarded the 2016 Woman of the Year in Technology by Silicon Valley’s Chapter of National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc., in addition to the 2016 Multicultural Leadership Award by the National Diversity Council. Lesley was twice recognized by Black Enterprise as a Top Executive in Marketing and Advertising, Savoy Magazine as a Top Influential Woman in Corporate America and was featured in Diversity Journal’s Leaders Publication.

Lesley believes strongly in giving back to the community. As a former Big Brothers Big Sisters mentor, Charter Co-founder and Chairperson of Volunteer’s For Youth, Lesley has also sat on the Board of Directors for The Boise State University Foundation, Boise State University Alumni Association, and the Idaho Black History Museum.

Lesley holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications with an emphasis in Marketing from Boise State University. She was a NCAA Scholarship recipient where she lettered in Women’s Basketball. Lesley lives in Morgan Hill, CA, and works at HP Inc. headquarters in Palo Alto, CA

Bill Browder

Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Hermitage Capital Management

William Browder, founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, was the largest foreign investor in Russia until 2005, when he was denied entry to the country for exposing corruption in Russian state-owned companies.

In 2009 his Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was killed in a Moscow prison after uncovering and exposing a US$230 million fraud committed by Russian government officials. Because of their impunity in Russia, Browder has spent the last eight years conducting a global campaign to impose visa bans and asset freezes on individual human rights abusers, particularly those who played a role in Magnitsky’s false arrest, torture and death.

The USA was the first to impose these sanctions with the passage of the 2012 “Magnitsky Act.” A Global Magnitsky Bill, which broadens the scope of the US Magnitsky Act to human rights abusers around the world, was passed at the end of 2016. The UK passed a Magnitsky amendment in April 2017. Magnitsky legislation was passed in Estonia in December 2016, Canada in October 2017 and in Lithuania in November 2017. Similar legislation is being developed in Australia, France, Denmark, Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden and Ukraine.

In February 2015 Browder published the New York Times bestseller, Red Notice, which recounts his experience in Russia and his ongoing fight for justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

Scooter Braun

Founder, SB Projects

Scooter Braun is one of the entertainment industry’s biggest entrepreneurs and innovators and the founder of SB Projects, a diversified entertainment and media company with ventures at the intersection of music, film, television, technology, brands, culture, and social good. Today, Braun has a roster of the top pop culture icons under his management, record label, and publishing companies that include Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Zac Brown Band, and Karlie Kloss, to name a few.

Braun has broken more new artists than any other music executive in the last decade and has expanded his reach by establishing a fund, which invests in some of the largest management, media, and rights companies in the industry. SB Projects houses a film and television production division and also continues to impact new verticals under its tech incubator, Silent Labs, which holds investments in Uber, Spotify, Songza, Casper, Waze, and Pinterest. In 2018, Braun announced new ventures including, Mythos Studios, that will develop franchise films and Good Story Entertainment, that will build out unscripted, live event and documentary spaces.

As Braun continues to expand SB Projects, he remains committed to the company’s founding philosophy of giving back and designs a philanthropic element for each new initiative. Braun serves as Chair of the Advisory Board of Pencils of Promise, a non-profit organization that builds schools in developing countries. He is also on the board of Fuck Cancer, an organization focused on prevention and early detection of cancer, which his wife Yael Braun co-founded. Braun, his clients, and his companies have – together – granted more wishes for Make-A-Wish than any other organization in the history of the foundation. In 2017, Braun proved to be the music industry’s ‘first-responder’ when he organized the One Love Manchester benefit concert and Hand in Hand: A Benefit for Hurricane Relief telethon, within just months of one-another.

Richard Bradley

Editor-in-Chief, Worth Group

Richard Bradley is Editor in Chief and Chief Content Officer of the Worth Group. A respected author, journalist, and speaker, Richard is responsible for the Worth Group’s editorial print, digital, broadcast, and radio content. He sets the overall direction of Worth’s editorial voice as the “authority on excellence” and leads the team that creates Worth content that is distributed through the company’s platforms and those of its partners. Richard leads the editorial direction of the Worth Group’s award-winning print magazine, Worth, which is published quarterly. He spearheads Worth’s flagship franchise, the Power 100, which is Worth’s authoritative look at the most influential people in global finance, and oversees the Worth Group’s aggressive expansion into content distribution across multiple platforms. Richard identifies and secures thought leaders to participate in Worth Group events—Wells Fargo Chairman and CEO John Stumpf, California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsome, FOX Business journalist Trish Regan, and many others—and structures and moderates discussions among them.

Richard’s previous experience includes roles as the executive editor of George, the political magazine founded by John F. Kennedy Jr.; 02138, a lifestyle magazine for Harvard alumni; and Regardie’s, a Washington business monthly. He is the author of three best-selling books: American Son, a memoir of John Kennedy and George; Harvard Rules, an exploration of Harvard University during an important time of its history; and The Greatest Game: The Yankees, the Red Sox, and the Playoff of ’78. A graduate of Yale College and Harvard University, Richard has written for Boston, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone, Salon, Slate, The New Republic, The New York Times, The Washington Monthly, The Washington Post, Washingtonian, and Vanity Fair, among others.

Peter Brack

Founding Partner, Hypothesis Ventures

Peter Brack is a Founding Partner of Hypothesis Ventures, an early-stage venture firm focused on emerging ecosystems outside of Silicon Valley. Hypothesis aims to be the first venture firm with a dedicated Opportunity Zone vehicle.

Before his transition to venture investing, Peter was Chairman & CEO of a Hong Kong-listed public company, which he co-founded in 2003. One Media Group remains one of the largest content publishers in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Peter also co-founded Redgate Media Group, one of the most acquisitive Chinese media consolidators of the ‘00s, operating television, radio, advertising, and out-of-home media companies across the country. Redgate was acquired by a strategic investor in 2013.

Prior to co-founding Redgate Media Group and One Media Group, Peter was a senior executive at Time Warner in Asia, where oversaw Time Inc’s Asia operations.

Earlier, Peter was at Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., where he helped to launch CNN and Cartoon Network across the Asia-Pacific region.

Peter is a member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, has BA from Tulane University, studied at The American University of Paris, and has lived and worked in 5 countries.

David Bossie

President, Citizens United

David N. Bossie has served as president of Citizens United and Citizens United Foundation since 2001. Beginning in August 2016, Bossie took a five month leave of absence to serve as Deputy Campaign Manager for Donald J. Trump for President. He was then named Deputy Executive Director for the Trump Presidential Transition Team.

In 2016, Bossie was ranked number two in Politico’s top 50 most influential people in American politics and was elected to serve as the Republican National Committeeman from Maryland. In 2010, under Bossie’s leadership Citizens United won a landmark First Amendment decision at the United States Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The case, which saw the government assert during oral arguments that it had the Constitutional authority to ban political books, struck down two decades of unconstitutional restrictions on free speech.

As president of Citizens United Productions, Bossie has produced 25 documentaries since 2004. Bossie has co-produced six feature length films with Steve Bannon, most recently Torchbearer starring Phil Robertson in 2016. Some of Bossie’s other titles include Rocky Mountain Heist, hosted by Michelle Malkin, Occupy Unmasked featuring the late conservative icon Andrew Breitbart, Our Sacred Honor with Senator Rick Santorum, The Gift of Life with Governor Mike Huckabee, and the award-winning films on Pope John Paul, Nine Days That Changed The World and Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny, hosted by Callista and Newt Gingrich.

Bossie is the former Chief Investigator for the United States House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform and Oversight. During Bill Clinton’s two terms as president, he led investigations ranging from the Whitewater land deal to the transfer of dual-use technology to China and to foreign fundraising in the 1996 Clinton re-election campaign. He has authored four books, including the best- selling Intelligence Failure: How Clinton’s National Security Policy Set the Stage for 9/11.

Born in Boston, Bossie attended the University of Maryland. He proudly served for 20 years as a volunteer firefighter in Montgomery County, Maryland where he resides with his wife, Susan, and their four children.

Citizens United was founded in 1988, and is the leading conservative advocacy group in the country with over 500,000 members and supporters. Through its films, op-eds, videos, and grassroots organizing, Citizens United seeks to reassert the traditional American values of limited government, freedom of enterprise, strong families, and national sovereignty and security.

Perianne Boring

Founder & President, Chamber of Digital Commerce

Perianne Boring founded the Chamber of Digital Commerce building it into the world’s largest trade association representing the blockchain industry. Perianne was named among CoinDesk’s “10 Most Influential People in Blockchain 2016” and “Top Woman in Bitcoin 2015” for her public policy accomplishments. An avid public speaker, she has presented at leading industry events including the Consumer Electronic Show (CES), Money 20/20, South by Southwest (SXSW) and many others. She also contributes to Forbes through her column, “The Beauty of the Blockchain.” Prior to forming the Chamber, Perianne was a television anchor of an international finance program that aired in more than 100 countries to over 650 million viewers.

Perianne began her career as a legislative analyst in the U.S. House of Representatives, advising on finance, economics, tax and healthcare policy. She holds her bachelor’s degree in business administration and economics from the University of Florida.

Jennifer Boone

Special Agent in Charge, FBI

In January 2018, Jennifer C. Boone was selected by Director Christopher Wray as the Special Agent in Charge of the Los Angeles Field Office, Counterintelligence & Cyber Division.

Her previous assignment began in October 2016 when she was selected as the Deputy Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence Division. In April 2016 she was a Section Chief of the Counterproliferation Center at FBI Headquarters. Ms. Boone also served as Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Philadelphia Division's Counterintelligence and Cyber Branch. Ms. Boone entered on duty with the FBI in 1997. Following graduation from the FBI Academy, she was assigned to the Los Angeles Division.

Ms. Boone subsequently served in the Counterterrorism and Counterintelligence Divisions at FBI Headquarters, on detail to the U.S. Senate, and as a Supervisory Special Agent of a counterintelligence squad at Washington Field Office. She served as Director of Counterintelligence for the National Security Council at the White House from 2012-2014.

She is also certified as an FBI negotiator. Ms. Boone earned a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service and a Master of Arts from Georgetown University.

Iris Bohnet

Albert Pratt Professor of Business & Government, Harvard Kennedy School

Iris Bohnet, the Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government, is the Academic Dean of Harvard Kennedy School. She is a behavioral economist, combining insights from economics and psychology to improve decision-making in organizations and society, often with a gender or cross-cultural perspective. Her most recent research examines behavioral design to de-bias how we live, learn and work. She is the author of the award-winning book What Works: Gender Equality by Design, and advises governments and companies on the topic around the world. Professor Bohnet is the co-director of the Women and Public Policy Program and the faculty chair of the executive program “Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century” for the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders. She serves on the boards or advisory boards of Credit Suisse Group, Applied, Edge, genEquality, We Shape Tech, and the UK Government’s Equalities Office as well as numerous academic journals. She was named one of the Most Influential People in Gender Policy by apolitical in 2018, a Leading Thinker of Victoria, Australia, 2016-2019, and has received an honorary degree from the University of Lucerne, Switzerland, in 2016. She is married and the mother of two children.

Frank Bisignano

Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, First Data

Frank Bisignano has spent his 30-year career leading by example, serving in integral executive roles at some of world’s largest financial services companies, giving back to his surrounding communities, and providing support and opportunities for the men, women, and their families serving in the armed forces. Currently, Bisignano serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of First Data – one of the largest FinTech companies, providing commerce solutions to businesses and financial institutions across the globe.

Early in his career, Bisignano worked at First Fidelity Bank, where he was an executive vice president overseeing technology and operations, and later served as chief consumer lending officer. At First Fidelity, Bisignano earned a reputation for skillfully managing complex mergers and integrations, overseeing 13 acquisitions into the business and consolidating eight banks into one.

Following First Fidelity, Bisignano joined Citi in 1994. As he took on more senior roles at Citi, he played a key role in a series of historic transactions. These deals included the merger of Citicorp and Travelers and the acquisitions of Salomon-Smith Barney and Primerica Financial Services, among others.

Bisignano then held several roles at Citigroup that included serving on the bank’s management committee and roles as chief administrative officer for the Corporate and Investment Bank and CEO of Citigroup's Global Transactions Services business. While CAO, Bisignano also served as the firm-wide deputy head of technology and operations, a post he held during 9/11, when he deployed and ran Citigroup's business continuity plan. The plan required emergency relocation of 16,000 employees displaced by the loss of 7 World Trade Center, which was crippled by the terrorist attack. In later years at Citi, as CEO of the bank’s Global Transactions Services business from 2002–2005, Bisignano’s unit’s revenue grew to $6 billion from $4 billion annually, with bottom line performance swinging from a net income loss of $400 million to a profit in excess of $1 billion during his tenure.

After Citigroup, Bisignano was the co-chief operating officer for J.P. Morgan Chase and the chief executive officer of its Mortgage Banking unit. As co-COO, Bisignano's responsibilities included overseeing global technology, human resources, real estate, operations, procurement, compliance, regulatory control and oversight, resiliency, security and safety, and general services for all of J.P. Morgan Chase’s businesses in over 60 countries. Under Bisignano’s leadership, the Mortgage Banking unit reported 2012 net income of $3.3 billion, a turnaround that reversed a net loss of $2.1 billion in the prior year.

Bisignano joined First Data as Chief Executive Officer in 2013 and added the title of Chairman of the Board in 2014. Upon his arrival at First Data, Bisignano began to rapidly transform the 48-year-old company from its position as the world’s largest traditional payment processor into a technology innovator, industry collaborator, and commerce enabler for the 21st Century.

One of Bisignano’s first big moves as CEO was launching a company-wide equity ownership program, turning all of First Data's employees into shareholders. In his early days, he steered the rollout of Clover Station, a breakthrough point-of-sale platform designed for small and midsized businesses to track inventory, manage employees, build lasting customer relationships, and accept the full array of payments, from cash to Apple Pay. The spirit of a technology company soon took hold as Bisignano partnered with, or acquired, leading startups to further strengthen First Data’s portfolio of cutting-edge solutions and services.

In June 2014, First Data announced an historic $3.5 billion private placement of equity which began a deleveraging effort that continues today. The private placement was followed by a $2.6 billion IPO in October 2015, the largest U.S. IPO of the year. These transactions, along with substantial refinancing of First Data’s debt, ratified the transformation begun under Bisignano’s leadership and set the course for First Data’s future.

Today, First Data is the largest merchant acquirer in the world, enabling electronic payments around the globe, 3,000 times a second, for more than 6 million merchant locations, 3,700 financial institutions, and millions of consumers. As a payments industry leader, First Data gives its clients the tools they need to thrive in today’s fast-changing world. In 2018, the company processed approximately 100 billion electronic transactions worldwide, representing $2.6 trillion in transaction volume. Headquartered in Atlanta, First Data operates in 27 countries spanning the globe.

Throughout his career, Bisignano has worked to create career opportunities for men and women who served in uniform. While at J.P. Morgan Chase, he was a founder of the 100,000 Jobs Mission, an original coalition of 11 companies that has since grown to a roster of more than 200 firms, hiring more than 450,000 veterans. Bisignano’s commitment to veterans has continued at First Data, where the First Data Salutes program provides broad opportunities and support for returning service members, veterans and their families.

A strong supporter of diversity, Bisignano also helped create seven new employee resource groups at First Data, earning the company a roster of accolades for its efforts, ranging from veterans’ groups to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

Bisignano is a member of the Board of Directors of Humana Inc. Among his non-profit commitments, he serves on the boards of the Partnership for New York City, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, The Perelman Center for Performing Arts at the World Trade Center, the Mount Sinai Health System, the advisory board for the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF), St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and The Battery Conservancy. In addition to being a Centennial Society member of The Economic Club of New York, he also serves on the boards of the Metro Atlanta Chamber and The Commerce Club of Atlanta. Bisignano was previously vice chairman of the Options Clearing Corporation and a board member for the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, the Alliance for Downtown New York, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and PENCIL.

In 2010, Bisignano was awarded Syracuse University’s Chancellor's Medal for Outstanding Achievement for his innovation in technology and education. Bisignano received accolades in 2012 for his work leading the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project, which digitized hundreds of thousands of documents of Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders. In 2014, Bisignano received the Colonel Michael Endres Leadership Award for Individual Excellence in Veteran Employment from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The New York Institute of Technology honored Bisignano in May 2014 with a Doctor of Commercial Science degree for his achievements in business and his philanthropic endeavors. In 2017, Syracuse University bestowed Bisignano with an Honorary Doctorate of Law degree for his distinguished business career and his work in championing higher education and supporting the disadvantaged.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He has three children, Morgan, Alexa, and Henry. He and his wife, Tracy, reside in New Jersey.

Leslie D. Biddle

Partner & President, Serengeti Asset Management

Leslie D. Biddle is a partner and the president of Serengeti Asset Management where she heads the firm’s research efforts and risk committee. Previously, she was Global Head of Commodity Sales at Goldman Sachs and the CFO of the firm’s investments in the metals and mining sector. She was named managing director in 2004 and partner in 2006. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Ms. Biddle was a Vice President at The AES Corporation focusing on project finance and power plant development. She also served as a vice president at the Overseas Investment Corporation, providing political risk insurance and financing to U.S. companies expanding overseas. Ms. Biddle holds an A.B. from Colby College where she is vice chair of the Board of Trustees. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Empire State Realty Trust (NYSE) and CenterPoint Energy (NYSE).

Jim Bethea, CFA, CAIA

Vice President & Chief Investment Officer, The University of Iowa Center for Advancement

Jim Bethea serves as Vice President and Chief Investment Officer for The University of Iowa Center for Advancement. Before joining the Center for Advancement, he worked in investment manager research at RVK and Touchstone Investments. He has also worked on mergers, acquisitions, and leveraged buyouts at Mystic Capital and as a project engineer for Bridgestone. He received his B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from The Ohio State University and his M.B.A. from Case Western Reserve University. He is a CFA and CAIA charterholder and is on the Investment Advisory Committee for the University of Iowa’s Henry Fund.

Ken Bertsch

Executive Director, Council of Institutional Investors

Ken Bertsch was named Executive Director of the Council of Institutional Investors in 2016. He has more than 30 years of experience across a wide range of investment, consulting, management and corporate governance roles. He most recently served as a Partner at CamberView Partners. He previously was President and CEO of the Society of Corporate Secretaries & Governance Professionals; Executive Director for corporate governance and proxy voting at Morgan Stanley Investment Management; Managing Director for corporate governance analysis at Moody's Investors Service; Director of the governance engagement program at TIAA-CREF; and in various roles at the Investor Responsibility Research Center. He holds a JD from Fordham University School of Law and an undergraduate degree from Williams College.

Russel S. Bernard

Managing Principal, Westport Capital Partners

Russ Bernard is the Managing Principal at Westport Capital Partners LLC, an investment management company focused on opportunistic, distressed and core plus real estate investments. The company was founded in 2005, and invests in real estate through direct and indirect property ownership and through public and private real estate securities and financial instruments. It focuses on generating returns through a wide range of value-added transactions, distressed assets, financial securities, off-market situations, operating partnerships, development opportunities both domestically and internationally, and hands-on solutions to complex situations. Westport Capital Partners was Endowment and Money Management Magazine’s 2010 Real Asset Manager of the Year.

Prior to founding Westport Capital Partners, Mr. Bernard was a Principal at Oaktree and the Portfolio Manager for Oaktree’s real estate funds. He was responsible for the management of a series of closed-end real estate funds. Prior to joining Oaktree in 1995, Mr. Bernard was a Managing Director at TCW and Portfolio Manager of the TCW Special Credits Distressed Mortgage Fund. Prior to that, he was a partner at Win Properties, Inc., a national real estate investment company for eight years. Before joining Win Properties, Mr. Bernard was with Time Equities, Inc., a New York real estate company for three years. He began his career as a Staff Accountant at Price Waterhouse in New York. Mr. Bernard has been on several corporate, university and charity boards. Mr. Bernard holds a B.S. in Business Management and Marketing from Cornell University.

The Honorable Stephen K. Benjamin

Mayor of Columbia, South Carolina

At 29 years old in 1999, Benjamin was appointed to Governor Jim Hodges' cabinet as director of the state's second largest law enforcement agency, the Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services. Mayor Benjamin has continued his service to the community in serving on numerous boards for nonprofit organizations such as the Columbia Urban League, Benedict College, the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce and as a founding board member of the Eau Claire Promise Zone. He also served as a founding member of Choose Children First and chief legal counsel for Midlands Crimestoppers. In 2009, Benjamin drew national attention by representing prominent radio host Tom Joyner and securing a pardon for Joyner's great uncles wrongfully convicted in the death of a 73-year-old Confederate veteran and executed in 1913. In a landmark decision, the South Carolina Board of Paroles and Pardons voted unanimously to grant the posthumous pardon, the first for South Carolina in a capital case. Reelected by a 30 percent margin in November 2013, Mayor Benjamin's administration has been characterized by his firm belief in Columbia's potential and intense focus on job creation. In his first term alone, his leadership helped cut unemployment in the metro by roughly half and secured billions of dollars in new regional capital investment in the midst of a national recession.

Combined with the rebirth of Main Street, these accomplishments have drawn national attention and accolades including his being awarded an Aspen Rodel Fellowship and receiving an Honorary Doctor of Humanities from Francis Marion University. He has twice been named to The Washington Post's "The Root 100 List” (2011 and 2013) as well as the 2014 GRIO 100 and was honored to receive a 2014 Triumph Award from the National Action Network as their 2014 Public Servant of the Year. As part of his commitment to fostering a world class police department in the City, Mayor Benjamin introduced the “Justice for All” initiative in 2014, which implemented new training, competitive pay, diverse representation and community engagement to strengthen the foundation of trust and accountability that exists between our communities and law enforcement agencies.

President Obama’s administration has also commended Mayor Benjamin on his work on behalf of My Brother’s Keeper (MBK). The city’s MBK efforts, in addition to Mayor Benjamin’s leadership, have led to Columbia being seen as a nationwide leader in implementing and upholding the missions of the program. Mayor Benjamin was asked to speak at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, where he talked about the importance of instilling in his daughters that they can do anything they set their minds to, even becoming President of the United States. In December 2017, Mayor Benjamin initiated city ordinance 2017-109, which banned the attachment of bump stocks and trigger cranks in the City of Columbia, making Columbia the first city in the nation to do so. He is a firm believer in common sense bipartisan leadership and endeavors to implement policies and programming that provide the best course of action for city residents.

In addition to serving as Mayor of Columbia, Mayor Benjamin also serves as President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and as Chairman for Municipal Bonds for America. He teaches a class at the University of South Carolina Honors College and Columbia College titled “Columbia, South Carolina: Building a Great City” and is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi and Sigma Pi Phi fraternities.

Mayor Benjamin is married to the Honorable DeAndrea Gist Benjamin, Chief Administrative Judge (Common Pleas) for South Carolina's Fifth Judicial Circuit. The two are the proud parents of daughters Bethany (13) and Jordan Grace (11).

Anne Beagan

Office of Public Affairs, FBI

Special Agent Anne C. Beagan recently transferred to the Los Angeles Field Office (LAFO) of the FBI after 22 years in the New York Field Office (NYO).

SA Beagan has assisted on dozens of television series, feature films, books and magazine articles relating to the FBI or FBI personnel. She has also successfully developed liaison relationships with the media, publishing, motion picture, television and entertainment industries to promote FBI accomplishments and ensure that depictions of the FBI are accurate and factual in regard to FBI policies and practices.

SA Beagan curated two historical exhibits in the NYO to showcase the history and great work of the NYO to employees and official visitors.

SA Beagan coordinated the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) 35th Anniversary event and subsequent media stories surrounding the founding of the NYO JTTF.

SA Beagan has served as the NY liaison to both the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in New York as well as the Newseum in Washington, DC.

For 8 years she served as the Special Events Coordinator under the NY Counterterrorism Division responsible for the coordination of dozens of high-visibility NY Special Events including 3 National Special Security Events (NSSEs) - the 2002 U.N. General Assembly, the 2002 World Economic Forum, which was held in NY as a sign of solidarity to the United States after the events of 9/11, and the 2004 Republican National Convention.

She has served as the Protocol Officer to the NYO Special Agent-in-Charge of Counterterrorism managing and coordinating all official visits to the JTTF, including heads of federal and state agencies and foreign delegations. She also coordinated speaking engagements and presentations by, and to, the JTTF, and facilitated Executive Board Meetings.

After 9/11 SA Beagan was assigned as the FBI liaison to the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management.

Temporary assignments have included: assignment to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and the GTMO Task Force at FBI Headquarters (HQ), HQ International Operations Division and the HQ Office of Public Affairs Investigative Publicity and Public Affairs Unit.

Her initial assignment to the NYO in 1996 was in the Criminal Division working white collar crimes, civil rights and crimes against children matters.

Dr. Donald Basile

Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Monsoon Blockchain Storage

Dr Donald Basile is Founder and CEO of Monsoon Blockchain Storage. As an entrepreneur and venture capitalist he has spent more than 20 years immersed in the tech sector, working with a wide range of firms in hardware, software, IT, telecommunications, healthcare and private equity.

Dr. Basile was Co-founder, CEO and BOD member of two recent industry leading storage companies both of whom went public on NYSE: Fusion-io and Violin Memory. Leading both companies from conception through global operations and creating total peak market value over $5B. Don led partnerships with the biggest IT companies including HP, Dell, Microsoft, IBM and SAP and his clients have included the world' largest banks, media companies, retailers and technology companies such as Apple and Facebook.

Basile completed both his MS and PhD in electrical engineering at Stanford University, after graduating first in his class at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Basile was an early participant in the first Internet revolution of the 90's. As the 90's came to a close Don was part of the core Raza investment team backing over 30 broadband data center companies including four IPO's and over a dozen $100M+ acquisitions.

Don and his teams have raised over $1B for high tech startups and he has been an investor, executive or BOD member in over 30 Silicon Valley companies. Dr. Basile career has included working at industry leaders AT&T Bell Labs, IBM, Comcast (Lenfest) and United Health Group. His current interests include Blockchain, Digital Assets, Al, mobile, storage, 3D printing and security and future revolutionary technologies Graphene and other advanced nano-materials.