Dr. Saifedean Ammous

Author, The Bitcoin Standard

Dr. Saifedean Ammous is the author of The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking, the best-selling groundbreaking study of the economics of bitcoin. The book was a pioneer in explaining bitcoin's value proposition, and the implications of its unique properties: Bitcoin's supply is completely irresponsive to demand, making it the hardest money ever discovered, and making hard money available to everyone worldwide. Bitcoin also offers the only working alternative to national central banks for international payment clearance. Dr. Ammous has been at the forefront of the study of the economic implications of this new technology, and he teaches and researches the economics of bitcoin on his online learning platform, saifedean.com. Dr. Ammous holds a PhD in Sustainable Development from Columbia University, where his doctoral thesis studied the economics of biofuels and alternative energy sources. He also holds an MSc in Development Management from the London School of Economics, and a Bachelor of Engineering from the American University of Beirut.

Saeed Al Mazrouei

Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Mubadala Investment Company

Saeed Al Mazrouei is the Deputy Chief Financial Officer of Mubadala Investment Company. In this role, he oversees the Group-wide finance function, supporting the delivery of the company’s growth strategy and ensuring the successful execution of strategic transactions and financing projects, as well as supporting the company’s business units in various acquisitive transactions and assets monetization.

Before his current role, Al Mazrouei was seconded from Mubadala to spearhead the launch of the Debt Management Office (DMO) within the Abu Dhabi Department of Finance. During his time at the DMO, he led a number of transactions valued at more than USD $30 billion and which aimed to provide support funding to a number of entities in the banking and real estate sectors, as well as various government debt issuances. Al Mazrouei was also instrumental in the completion of a USD $10 billion joint venture agreement between Russian Direct Investment Fund and the Department of Finance.

Al Mazrouei sits on the board of several companies, including: Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB), Compañía Española de Petróleos (CEPSA), Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar), Abu Dhabi General Services Company (Musanada), Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Modon Properties, and Abu Dhabi Retirement Pension & Benefits Fund.

He holds a BSc in Finance from Suffolk University, US, an MSc in International Securities Investment and Banking from the University of Reading, UK, and an MSc in National Security and Strategic Studies from National Defense College, UAE.

Jordan Gaspar

Co-Founder, LOLA

Jordana Kier is the co-founder of LOLA, the first lifelong brand for her body. Created for women, by women who have been there too, LOLA aims to address every reproductive life stage with a commitment to product transparency and a community built on candid dialogue about all of the things we don’t openly talk about. Before co-founding LOLA, Jordana received her MBA from Columbia Business School, during which she worked at Rent the Runway and Quidsi. She graduated from Dartmouth College in 2008 and was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2016 and Crain’s 40 Under 40 in 2019. Jordana also serves on the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network Advisory Board.

Jordan Gaspar

Managing Partner, AF Ventures

Jordan Gaspar is the Managing Partner of AF Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in high-growth consumer product companies. AF Ventures partners with visionaries who challenge the status quo, driving innovation for consumers on retail shelves and online in shopping carts. Launched in 2014, AF Ventures manages 35+ portfolio brands across a wide array of consumer brands in food and beverage, beauty and personal care, health and wellness, and pet.

Prior to founding AF Ventures, Jordan was an attorney at Morrison Cohen LLP where she advised venture and private equity firms and their portfolio companies on acquisitions, sales, mergers, and financings. Jordan graduated from Columbia College and received her J.D. from Fordham Law School.

Cameron & Tyler Winklevoss

Co-Founders, Gemini

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss co-founded Gemini, a cryptocurrency exchange and custodian, to empower the individual through crypto. Gemini is a New York Trust company that allows customers to buy, sell, and store cryptocurrency such as bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ether, zcash, and litecoin. They graduated from Harvard University with degrees in Economics in 2004 and earned their MBAs from Oxford University in 2010. Together, they represented the United States at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, placing 6th in the Men’s Pair event. Cameron and Tyler have been angel investors and entrepreneurs in emerging technologies since 2003. They began investing in bitcoin in 2012 and launched Gemini in 2015.

Melissa Kuipers Blake

Shareholder, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck

Dubbed "The Negotiator" by ColoradoBiz Magazine and a "power lobbyist" by Colorado Politics, Melissa Kuipers Blake is a leading lobbyist and seasoned political strategist with more than 20 years of national political experience at the local, state and federal levels of government. Melissa leads negotiations for her clients between elected officials throughout the country and in Washington, D.C., and is known for her issue knowledge, political strategy development and campaign fundraising prowess. When it comes to behind the scenes negotiations and subject matter expertise, Melissa is second to none.

In addition to her national lobbying practice, Melissa serves as co-chair of Brownstein’s Cannabis & Industrial Hemp industry group, which helps shape legislative policies for these industries. Having worked on cannabis issues since day one of legalization in Colorado, Melissa has a foundational perspective on the growth of the industry and its players. She regularly shares that expertise from a statutory, regulatory, compliance and workplace perspective.

Melissa also chairs the firm’s Emerging Regulated Industries (ERI) practice group, which assists state and local governments and employers throughout the country as they confront growth in emerging industries that are subject to intense public scrutiny and governmental regulation by mapping out a strategy based on practical experience and a proven legal framework.

At the core of Melissa’s government relations practice is her reputation for integrity, honesty and professionalism. Melissa is a close and trusted confidant to a number of key members of the Colorado Senate and House as well as several statewide elected officials across the country. She can often be found in the war rooms of multiple campaigns and has helped influence the outcome of many elections through her election advice and successful fundraising strategies.

While Melissa’s influence in the halls of the Colorado Capitol is extensive, she also maintains significant relationships in Washington, D.C., with numerous members of Congress from all parts of the country. Melissa spends a substantial amount of time in Washington, D.C., in addition to her state and local lobbying work in Colorado.

Melissa regularly provides insights to state and local media on a variety of legislative issues and is often tapped to speak at national conferences to share her political and legislative advice as well as her cannabis regulatory expertise. She is widely recognized by local and national media for her government relations successes, including being named one of the Denver Business Journal’s “Top Forty under 40” at the age of 29, being named a Rising Star in 5280 Magazine’s 2014 list of the most powerful people in Denver, being picked as a Top 25 Young Professional by ColoradoBiz Magazine in 2015 and being selected by her peers as a Top Lawyer in Government Relations/Lobbying in 5280 Magazine's 2016, 2017 and 2018 Top Lawyer's list.

Prior to joining Brownstein, Melissa was the vice president of government relations and communications for the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association, where she represented 270 new franchised auto dealers in Colorado. Prior to her work with the automobile industry, Melissa served as the legislative director for the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association, was a legislative aide in the Florida Senate and worked for several years in the Florida Legislature for the Rubin Group, based in Tallahassee. Melissa also practiced law for two years in Miami, Florida, representing P.F. Chang's and The Cheesecake Factory in their employment litigation matters.

In her personal time, Melissa serves as the CEO of Baking for the Troops, a Colorado-based nonprofit which prepares and sends homemade care packages of baked goods to members of the U.S. military deployed throughout the world. Since Melissa founded the organization in 2009, she and her team of volunteers have sent more than 2,000 boxes of cards and baked goods to military personnel in countless regions of the globe, including Afghanistan and Iraq.

Melissa is licensed to practice law in Colorado, Florida and Washington, D.C.

Michael Cammalleri

Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, BioSteel

Kelly D. Fair

Director of Legal, USA, Canopy Growth Corporation

Kelly is Canopy Growth’s US General Counsel, serving as an officer of the California courts since 2006. In her role, Kelly manages all day-to-day US federal and state legal engagements for Canopy Growth.

Prior to joining Canopy, Kelly was a Partner at Dentons US LLP, San Francisco office, where she led the Dentons US Cannabis Group since 2014, advising domestic and international cannabis and hemp industry clients in a broad range of state and federal regulatory risk assessments, and corporate and transactional matters, including investment transactions and financings, strategic mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and commercial agreements.

Axel Bernabe

Assistant Counsel for Health to Governor Andrew M. Cuomo

Axel Bernabe is Assistant Counsel to Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, overseeing legal and policy deliberations in the health portfolio. As part of his responsibilities, he oversees the implementation of all initiatives related to medical, hemp, and adult-use cannabis. Over the last four years he has supervised the expansion of the medical program and the launch of the State’s hemp program. Axel is also responsible for driving the administration’s proposal for comprehensive regulation of all segments of the cannabis economy, including the creation of a new Office of Cannabis Management that would permit the implementation of an adult-use program.

Dr. Vivek Murthy

19th Surgeon General of the United States (2014-2017)

Dr. Vivek H. Murthy served as the 19th Surgeon General of the United States from December 15, 2014 to April 21, 2017. As America’s Doctor, he called the nation’s attention to critical public health issues including the opioid epidemic, e-cigarettes, and emotional health and wellbeing. As the Vice Admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, he oversaw a uniformed service of 6,600 officers dedicated to safeguarding the health of the nation. Prior to serving in government, he conducted research on vaccine development and clinical trial participation and founded several organizations focused on HIV/AIDS education, rural health, physician advocacy, and clinical trial optimization. He received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard and his M.D. and M.B.A. degrees from Yale. He completed his internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School where he later joined the faculty. Dr. Murthy resides in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Dr. Alice Chen, and their two children.

Valerie Jarrett

Senior Advisor, Obama Foundation

Valerie Jarrett is a senior advisor to the Obama Foundation and Attn, a Senior Distinguished Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School, and President of the Board of When We All Vote. She also serves on the boards of Ariel Investments, 2U, Lyft, the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, and the Economic Club of Chicago.

Ms. Jarrett was the longest serving Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama. She oversaw the Offices of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs and Chaired the White House Council on Women and Girls. Ms. Jarrett worked throughout her tenure at the White House to mobilize elected officials, business and community leaders, and diverse groups of advocates in order to champion the creation of equality and opportunity for all Americans.

Before her White House service, Ms. Jarrett was the Chief Executive Officer of The Habitat Company in Chicago, Chairman of the Chicago Transit Board, Commissioner of Planning and Development, and Deputy Chief of Staff for Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley.

Zachary D. Carter

Senior Reporter, HuffPost

Zachary D. Carter is a senior reporter at HuffPost, where he covers economic policy and American politics. He is a frequent guest on cable news whose work has appeared in The New Republic, The Nation, and The American Prospect, among other outlets.

Zachary began his career at SNL Financial (now a division of S&P Global), where he was a banking reporter during the financial crisis of 2008. He wrote features about macroeconomic policy, regional economic instability, and the bank bailouts, but his passion was for the complex, arcane world of financial regulatory policy. He covered the accounting standards that both fed the crisis and shielded bank executives from its blowback, detailed the consumer protection abuses that consumed the mortgage business and exposed oversight failures at the Federal Reserve and other government agencies that allowed reckless debts to pile up around the world.

Since joining HuffPost in 2010, Zachary has covered the implementation of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law, political standoffs over trade policy and the federal budget, and the fight over the future of the Democratic Party. His feature story, “Swiped: Banks, Merchants and Why Washington Doesn't Work for You” was included in the Columbia Journalism Review’s compilation Best Business Writing.

Zachary graduated from the University of Virginia, where he studied philosophy and politics. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Ruston Smith

Non-Executive Chairman, Tesco Pension Trustees Limited

Ruston has over 35 years experience in the pension fund and investment industry.

He was the former Group Pensions, Insurable Risk and People Director at Tesco and CEO of Tesco Pension Investment Ltd - FCA approved in house investment manager.

Ruston is now the Chair of the Tesco Pension Fund (DB and DC) and Tesco Pension Investment Ltd, Non Exec Chair of JP Morgan Asset Management (EMEA), Non Exec Chair of Smart Pension Ltd, Non Exec Chair of PTL Ltd, Independent Trustee and Chair of the Funding and Investment Committee for the BAE Pension Fund, Governor of the PPI and Chair of GroceryAid (charity for the grocery industry).

Ruston was Co Chair of the DWP’s 2017 Auto Enrolment Review Board, led the Simpler Annual Statement initiative launched in 2018, chaired the cross regulator and industry ‘Standardised Assumptions Group’ and was on the Treasury’s Patient Capital DC Steering Group. He’s also a former Chair of the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association.

Robert Draper

Writer-at-Large, The New York Times Magazine

Robert Draper is a writer at large for the New York Times Magazine and a contributing writer to National Geographic. He is the author of several books, including the recently published To Start a War: How The Bush Administration Took America Into Iraq and the New York Times bestseller Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush. He lives in Washington, DC.

Ric Edelman

Founder, RIA Digital Assets Group

All three leading trade publications – Investment Advisor, RIABiz and InvestmentNews – have named Ric Edelman one of the most influential people in the financial planning and investment management profession.

Ranked three times as the nation’s #1 Independent Financial Advisor by Barron’s and among the Top 10 Wealth Advisors by Forbes, he’s in both Research magazine’s Financial Advisor Hall of Fame and Barron’s Hall of Fame. In 2017, Ric received the IARFC’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Ric is the founder of the nation’s largest independent RIA, with 350 advisors in 170 offices nationwide, managing $230 billion for 1.2 million individuals and households. The firm is also the nation’s largest independent provider of advice to 401(k) plans, serving thousands of companies, including 150 of the Fortune 500. The firm is also ranked #1 for quality by Consumer Reports. He is the firm’s largest individual shareholder, serves on its board and remains actively engaged in the firm’s investment management and financial planning strategies.

Widely known in the financial services industry for his thought leadership, Ric founded the Funding Our Future Coalition with the Bipartisan Policy Center. With more than 50 academic, non-profit, corporate and think-tank members, it’s now the largest coalition ever formed that focuses on attaining financial security for all Americans. Ric was behind the creation of the first exponential technologies ETF and has been awarded two patents inventing a product that allows newborns to save for retirement.

Ric is also a leading financial educator and champion of improving financial literacy for all Americans. TALKERS magazine named him among the 100 Most Important Radio Talk Show Hosts in the country; his show has been on the air for nearly 30 years, currently airing on 80 stations coast-to-coast, and Ric is the only licensed financial advisor and one of just two weekend-only hosts on TALKERS’ “Heavy Hundred” ranking.

Ric has also produced award-winning specials for Public Television, and he’s a #1 New York Times bestselling author of 10 books on personal finance, including a best-selling children’s book on money.

Ric taught personal finance for 9 years at Georgetown University and currently is Distinguished Lecturer at his alma mater, Rowan University, which awarded Ric an Honorary Doctorate in 1999. In 2020, Rowan named its communications school the Ric Edelman College of Communication & Creative Arts.

Ric and his wife Jean live in Northern Virginia. They serve on a variety of nonprofit boards and are benefactors of the Edelman Center for Nursing at Inova Hospital Foundation, the Edelman Indoor Arena at Northern Virginia Therapeutic Riding Program, and Rowan University’s Edelman Planetarium and Edelman Fossil Park.

Raoul Pal

Co-Founder, Real Vision

Raoul is the Co-Founder and CEO of Real Vision Group, one of world’s leading financial media platforms. Additionally, he publishes the Global Macro Investor, a renowned independent macro investment strategy service and is a founder of two other businesses, both in the digital asset industry - a Fund of Digital Asset Hedge Funds and a social token/NFT studio, which tokenizes the world’s largest communities for brands, music artists, sports teams etc. Formerly Raoul worked for Goldman Sachs and later ran a global macro hedge fund for GLG Partners. He lives in the Cayman Islands.

Rachel Bitecofer

Senior Fellow, Elections, The Niskanen Center

Rachel Bitecofer is assistant director of the Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University, where she teaches classes on political behavior, elections, & political analysis and conducts survey research and elections analysis. Her research has been featured in many media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, NPR, and she is a contracted commentator on CBC Radio. Her book, The Unprecedented 2016 Presidential Election (Palgrave McMillan) is available via Amazon.

Her innovative election forecasting model predicted the 2018 midterms five months before Election Day, far ahead of other forecasting methods. Her forecasting work argues that American elections have become increasingly nationalized and highly predictable; with partisanship serving as an identity-based, dominant vote determinant for all but a small portion of Americans.

PlanB

Institutional Investor

PlanB@100trillionUSD is a Dutch institutional investor with a legal and quantitative finance background. He created the bitcoin Stock-to-Flow (S2F) model where he uses scarcity to quantify bitcoin value. S2F model is not only applicable to bitcoin but also to gold, silver and other assets. PlanB is currently working as an investment manager in a team managing a multi billion dollar balance sheet.

Why the name? PlanB refers to an alternative plan for quantitative easing (printing money by central banks), negative interest rates and currency debasement in general. 100trillionUSD is a reference to the Zimbabwe 100trillion dollar note during the 2008 hyperinflation.

Philip Bagdasarianz

Managing Partner, Private Wealth Advisors (PWA)

For over 18 years Philip has been working with wealthy families from Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia. This year he joined PWA Private Wealth Advisors AG, a swiss multi family office boutique as a managing partner.

Prior to joining PWA Philip was a director at a family office in Liechtenstein for 6 years and between 2007 and 2014 a Senior Client Advisor with VP Private Bank. At VP he was a member of the advisory board for tactical investment decisions. Prior to that he worked for Credit Suisse Private Banking as a member of the strategy team and client advisor.

Philip received his Masters of Arts in Educational Science from the University of Zurich. He further is a Certified International Wealth Manager (CIWM) and holds a Federal Swiss diploma as an Expert in Financial Advisory.

Since 2010 he is on the faculty of the University of St. Gallen’s E.M.B.L. program for sustainable investment decisions and supervises master theses.

Philip leads the swiss branch of a not-for-profit organization that equips leaders and decision makers worldwide through identity based leadership. Above all that, he is the proud father of three adult children and loves mountains, sharing a table with friends and cycling.

Governor Phil Murphy

56th Governor of the State of New Jersey

Governor Phil Murphy, as he says, “grew up in a family that was middle class on a good day,” the youngest of four children with only one parent who graduated high school. His upbringing – where religion, a strong work ethic, education, and civic awareness were pillars of family life – shaped his values, his priorities, and the leader he is today.

Since taking office, Governor Murphy has focused on building a stronger and fairer New Jersey that works for every family. He has signed legislation putting New Jersey on the path to a $15-an-hour minimum wage, enacted the nation’s strongest equal pay law to combat gender wage discrimination, ensured all workers have access to paid sick days, and expanded the state's Paid Family Leave provisions.

Governor Murphy has put a new emphasis on restoring the state’s dominance in the innovation economy by reinvesting in workforce development and supporting the growth of innovative and start-up companies.

Under his leadership, New Jersey is also emerging as a leader in combatting climate change through the deployment of offshore-wind energy technologies and banning offshore fossil-fuel exploration and drilling, among other measures to spur growth in the clean and renewable energy sectors.

Governor Murphy has reversed prior years of budget cuts and increased funding for both New Jersey’s top-ranked public schools and NJ TRANSIT. And, he restored state funding for Planned Parenthood and women’s health programs, including family planning services.

He has made New Jersey a national leader in tackling gun violence, and has expanded protections for the state’s immigrant and LGBTQ communities, among others.

Prior to taking office, Governor Murphy had long been deeply engaged in civic life and philanthropic pursuits. He has led and supported charities to lift up troubled teens and domestic abuse survivors. Nationally, he served proudly as New Jersey’s sole representative on the board of the NAACP, the world’s oldest civil rights organization, and as Finance Chair of the Democratic National Committee. The Governor has also led national and state task forces, respectively, on education and public employee pensions and benefits.

In 2009, he answered President Obama’s call to service and, following his confirmation by the United States Senate, became the U.S. Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, where he served until 2013.

Governor Murphy and First Lady Tammy Murphy live in Monmouth County and are the parents of Josh, Emma, Charlie, and Sam.

A proud public-school product, Governor Murphy holds degrees from Harvard University and the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.