Speaker | SALT Talks

Michael Frazis

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Portfolio Manager, Frazis Capital Partners

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

Nina Burleigh

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Author, VIRUS

Nina Burleigh is a national journalist and author of seven books including her latest, VIRUS: Vaccinations, the CDC, and the Hijacking of America's Response to the Pandemic, and the New York Times best-seller The Fatal Gift of Beauty: The Italian Trials of Amanda Knox, of which Tim Egan wrote: "Clear-eyed, sweeping, honest and tough .. sets a standard that any of the other chroniclers of this tale have yet to meet. This is what long-form journalism is all about." She most recently covered America under Donald Trump as national politics correspondent at Newsweek. She got her start in journalism covering the Illinois Statehouse in Springfield, has reported from almost every state in the Continental U.S., and has been based in Italy, France and the Middle East. A fellow of the Explorers Club, she has covered stories on six continents. Besides politics, she is interested in the tension between religion and science and her books have covered that in various forms, times and places, including 1830s American politics, among post-revolutionary French scientists in Egypt, Cold War era CIA conspiracy theories, fake Biblical archaeology in Jerusalem today, and the role of witch belief in a modern Italian courtroom. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications including Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, Time, New York, The New York Times Magazine, Slate and Bustle. She has appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher, Good Morning America, Nightline, The Today Show, 48 Hours, MSNBC, CNN and C-Span, NPR and numerous documentaries, podcasts and radio programs.

Nic Carter

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General Partner, Castle Island Ventures

Nic is a general partner at Castle Island Ventures, a Cambridge, MA-based venture firm investing in startups in the public blockchain industry, and the cofounder of Coin Metrics, a blockchain analytics firm. Previously, he served as a cryptoasset analyst at Fidelity investments. Nic holds an Msc Finance from the University of Edinburgh and a BA in philosophy from the University of St Andrews.

Jack Mallers

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Chief Executive Officer, Zap

CEO of Zap, a bitcoin investment and payments company that transacts over the Lightning Network. Zap recently closed a $3.5M seed round led by Greenoaks Capital and employs about 20 people. It recently announced it's working with Visa as the payments and credit card giant introduces clients to bitcoin. Mallers' father founded and sold one of the largest futures brokerages in Chicago and introduced him to bitcoin in 2013.

Jason Crabtree

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Chief Executive Officer, QOMPLX

Jason Crabtree co-founded QOMPLX in with Andrew Sellers 2014. As CEO, he guides the vision and long-term direction of QOMPLX, and oversees all aspects of company operations. Prior to QOMPLX, Mr. Crabtree served as a Special Advisor to senior leaders in the Department of Defense cyber community in support of operational cybersecurity missions including research and development, strategic risk management, and digital transformation initiatives.

Mr. Crabtree is a widely recognized expert on cybersecurity, data, and risk management. Jason has been featured on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOXNEWS, CNBC, Associated Press TV and quoted in the New Yorker, New York Times, Yahoo Finance, Forbes, Dark Reading, and more. Mr. Crabtree has been a speaker, panelist, or fellow with DARPA, RAND, National Academy of Engineering, Center for New American Security, Markle Foundation, Oxford Analytica, and the U.S. Naval War College. He’s been published by Cambridge University Pres and is a lead inventor on more than 40 patents. He received a B.S. in engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he was selected as the First Captain and Brigade Commander of the Corps of Cadets and later elected as a Rhodes Scholar. He received an M.Sc.(R) in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford before leading infantry troops in Afghanistan in 2012.

Lieutenant General Russel Honoré

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Leader, U.S. Capitol Complex Security Review

LTG Russel L. Honoré helps organizations develop a culture of preparedness and creates the mindset of problem-solving, take-charge leaders in the age of COVID-19 and the U.S. Capitol Complex breach. An American hero who helped a New Orleans recover from catastrophe, he has been chosen to lead the security review of the U.S. Capitol’s security infrastructure, interagency processes and procedures and command and control. Gen. Honoré now shares candid and colorful leadership views how government resources, the private sector and we as individuals can work together to overcome the current challenges facing the world.

As the commander of Joint Task Force Katrina, LTG Honoré became known as “The Category 5 Gen.” for his striking leadership style in coordinating military relief efforts in post-hurricane New Orleans. He is a decorated 37-year army veteran and global authority on leadership. When Hurricanes such as Harvey, Irma, and Maria approach, news networks like CNN, Fox, MSNBC, and CBS consider him their go-to expert on emergency and disaster preparedness.

Gen. Honoré developed his crisis-management expertise over an extensive military career. He planned and supported the United States military response to the devastating flooding which swept Venezuela 1999 and Mozambique in 2000. As Commander of SJFHQ-HLS under NORTHCOM direction, he planned and oversaw the military response to the Space Shuttle Columbia Tragedy and the DC Sniper Shootings.

Prior to commanding Joint Task Force-Katrina in which he led the Department of Defense response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, he served in a variety of command and staff positions. These roles focused on Defense Support to Civil Authorities and Homeland Defense. Lt. Gen. Honoré also participated in three Top Officials (TOPOFF) exercises, as well as the United Endeavor series of Homeland Defense exercises.

In 2004. LTG Honoré was appointed Commander of the oldest and longest established U.S. field army: the 500,000 troop First Army. The First Army World War pedigree includes distinguished names like John “Black Jack” Pershing and Omar Bradley. It serves today as a mobilization, readiness and training command. After 37 years of active service, Lt. Gen. Honoré retired from the U.S. Army on February 29, 2008.

Gen. Honoré uses his experience managing natural and man-made conflict to help companies and organizations build a culture of preparedness. On stage, his disciplined leadership shines. In our country’s new normal, change and unpredictability are constants, which mean resilience is mandatory. LTG Honoré offers his business audiences these impactful takeaways plus an instructive message: Don't Get Stuck on Stupid!, the title of his third book.

His uplifting dose of candor with real-world leadership lessons is designed to equip audiences with a preparedness mindset. He shares his no-nonsense approach to getting the job done and instills confidence in tomorrow’s leaders.

Kenneth Juster

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25th United States Ambassador to India (2017-2021)

Ken Juster recently completed his service as the 25th U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of India (2017-2021). He previously served in the U.S. government as Deputy Assistant to the President for International Economic Affairs, on both the National Security Council and the National Economic Council (2017), Under Secretary of Commerce (2001-2005), Counselor (Acting) of the State Department (1992-1993), and Deputy and Senior Advisor to Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger (1989-1992). As Under Secretary of Commerce, he co-founded the U.S.-India High Technology Cooperation Group and was a key architect of the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership initiative between the United States and India. In the private sector, Juster has been a partner at the global investment firm Warburg Pincus (2010-2017), a senior executive at Salesforce.com (2005-2010), and a senior partner at the law firm Arnold & Porter. For his service as Ambassador, he received the State Department's Distinguished Service Award, the Defense Department's Distinguished Public Service Award, the Director of National Intelligence's Exceptional Service Award, and the Energy Department's Excellence Award. Juster holds a law degree from the Harvard Law School, a master's degree in Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government (Phi Beta Kappa) from Harvard College.

Zach Dexter

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Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, LedgerX

Zach Dexter is CEO LedgerX, the first US-regulated bitcoin options platform. Zach developed and scaled the platform and custody system, and led all technical, systems, market surveillance, and controls aspects of the company's 3.5 year exchange and clearinghouse regulatory approval process. Zach is now leading the next phase of LedgerX's expansion into perpetual products, clearing for other exchanges, and international services.

In 2020, Zach’s first year back at the company, LedgerX saw 10x customer growth, futures approval, approval to clear products in arbitrary new asset classes, multiple new clearing relationships with startup exchanges in new product categories, and a completely new trading platform, rebuilt from the ground up to emphasize the company’s new combined retail and institutional focus.

Prior to returning to LedgerX as CEO, Zach led multiple engineering teams at MIRROR, the highly successful direct-to-consumer fitness brand. Prior to MIRROR, Zach served as CTO and co-founder at LedgerX.

Zach serves on the CFTC Technology Advisory Committee Cybersecurity Subcommittee.

Marc Polymeropoulos

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Former CIA Senior Intelligence Service Officer

Marc Polymeropoulos worked for 26 years at the CIA before retiring in July 2019 at the Senior Intelligence Service level. He was one of CIA’s most highly decorated operations officers who served in multiple field assignments for the U.S. government. He specialized in counterterrorism, the Middle East and South Asia, including extensive time in Iraq and Afghanistan. Prior to his retirement, Marc served at CIA headquarters and was in charge of CIA’s clandestine operations in Europe and Eurasia. He frequently comments on international events in the media, to include the Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN, and MSNBC. He also is a Washington Examiner contributor.

Marc’s book, "Clarity in Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the CIA,” will be published on June 8, 2021 by Harper Collins. Marc has honed a unique leadership style based on nine core principles. Each builds on the next and is designed for real world applicability, where one often operates under time constraints and with a lack of complete situational awareness. Marc describes how one must not fear but instead wildly embrace this ambiguity. Marc provides real work vignettes from the world of intelligence operations, yet also stresses that his principles can be used in any profession.

Michael Greve

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Founder, Forever Healthy Foundation

Michael is one of the most successful founders of the German-speaking Internet industry.

Together with his brother Matthias, he created numerous ventures including lastminute.de and turned it into the largest last-minute travel site in Germany. Most notably, the brothers founded WEB.DE, and after a successful IPO, grew it into one of the country's largest internet portals and online media businesses.

After the successful sale of his companies, Michael created the seed-stage venture capital investor Kizoo that came to fund and mentor some of Germany's most promising tech startups including Babbel, Staffbase, and Mambu.

Forever Healthy started out more than a decade ago as a personal quest to shed the extremely unhealthy lifestyle he acquired while building WEB.DE, and over time turned into the focus of his entrepreneurial energy: To enable people to vastly extend their healthy lifespan and be part of the first generation to cure aging.

Initiatives of Forever Healthy include the evaluation of new rejuvenation therapies, evidenced-based curation of the world's cutting-edge medical knowledge, the annual Undoing Aging Conference, funding research projects on the root causes of aging, and supporting the creation of startups turning that research into therapies for human use.

Michael Greenwald

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Director, Tiedemann Advisors

Michael is responsible for managing a number of Tiedemann’s client relationships and overseeing their advisors to provide solutions that address the challenges of stewardship of wealth over generations. As a member of the firm’s business development and strategy team, he is a referral resource for attorneys and accountants.

Prior to joining Tiedemann in 2017, Michael worked in senior roles within the United States Treasury working with Africa and Europe. He served as a financial diplomat in the Middle East spanning the tenures of U.S. Treasury Secretaries Geithner, Lew, and Mnuchin. Greenwald initially served as the United States Treasury Policy Advisor for Europe. In this role, he was appointed head of the United States Delegation to the Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism before the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France. Greenwald was part of the U.S. Treasury team that crafted U.S. sanctions against Russia, the largest U.S. sanctions program to date, and negotiated similar sanctions by Europe. Between 2015-2017, he served as the first United States Treasury Attaché appointed to Qatar and Kuwait and opened the Treasury Department’s office in Doha, Qatar. He also served in a variety of counterterrorism roles in the U.S. Intelligence Community and in the Office of General Council at the U.S Treasury. Greenwald worked closely with the National Security Council at the White House tackling issues and crafting sanctions programs related to countering ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran, Ukraine/Russia, Syria, and North Korea.

Michael is a frequent speaker, writer and commentator on international security, the Middle East and the global economy. He has been featured on CNBC; published in Barrons; and given lectures at The Council on Foreign Relations, Harvard, Yale Law School, Stanford, and Northwestern Business School, Doha.

Board experience and memberships include:

  • Visiting Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

  • Senior Nonresident Fellow, Atlantic Council Geoeconomics Center

  • Deputy Executive Director, The Trilateral Commission

  • Board Member, The Promise Fund of Palm Beach

  • Board Member, The Town of Palm Beach Investment Committee

  • Board Member, Halo Maritime Defense Systems

  • Member, Aspen Institute Vanguard Society of Fellows

  • Member, Concordia

  • Member, The Four Arts Contemporaries

  • Member, Jewish Community Foundation, Jewish Federation of Palm Beach

Michael earned a Juris Doctor degree from Boston University School of Law, a Master of Arts from Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, and a Bachelor of Arts in History from George Washington University. Originally from Brookline, Massachusetts, Michael resides in Palm Beach, FL with his wife.

George W. McCarthy

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President & Chief Executive Officer, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

Dr. George McCarthy (Mac) is President and CEO of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, MA. The Lincoln Institute strives to improve public dialogue and decisions about land policy through education, research, policy evaluation, and demonstration projects that integrate theory and practice. Before joining the Lincoln Institute in 2014, Mac directed Metropolitan Opportunity at the Ford Foundation which sought to alleviate poverty and reduce its concentration in metropolitan areas by providing disadvantaged people better access to good jobs and other opportunities through better regional planning, and coordinated transportation and housing development. Mac also has worked as a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at the University of North Carolina, a professor of Economics at Bard College, Resident Scholar at the Jerome Levy Economics Institute, Visiting Scholar and Member of the High Table at King's College of Cambridge University, Visiting Scholar at the University of Naples, and Research Associate at the Centre for Social Research in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Kathryn Lincoln

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Board Chair & Chief Investment Officer, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

Ms. Lincoln currently serves as the Board Chair and Chief Investment Officer for the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, an independent, global foundation focused on addressing significant policy issues through innovative land use and taxation methods.

Over the course of her 25-year tenure as the Institute’s Chief Investment Officer, Ms. Lincoln has led the endowment’s strategic asset allocation, policy development, investment selection process, and draw policies, all of which have contributed meaningfully to achieving the current $700 million asset base.

As Chair of the Board, Ms. Lincoln has played a crucial role in the strategic direction and planning of the Institute, with ongoing involvement in the development of education programs, demonstration projects, and impact measurement.

Ms. Lincoln also serves as a member of several other boards, including Lincoln Electric Holdings (LECO), a publicly traded company. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the HonorHealth Network and Claremont Lincoln University.

Additionally, she is Co-Chair of the Board of the International Center for Land Policy Studies and Training in Taiwan, the Republic of China. In 2019, she was named as one of Women Inc.’s most influential corporate directors.

Edward-Isaac Dovere

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Staff Writer & Lead Political Correspondent, The Atlantic

Edward-Isaac Dovere is a staff writer for The Atlantic and its lead political correspondent. He has covered Democratic politics for 15 years, beginning in his native New York City and carrying him through the Obama White House and then across 29 states during the 2020 election cycle. His reporting has won the White House Correspondents Association’s Merriman Smith Award for Excellence and the Society of Professional Journalists’ Daniel Pearl Award for Investigative Reporting, among other awards. He attended Johns Hopkins University and the University of Chicago.

Val Mosley

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Chief Executive Officer, Valmo Ventures

Valerie Mosley created Valmo Ventures to advise and invest in companies that add value both to investors and society. She currently serves on the board of Eaton Vance’s family of mutual funds, Dynex, a NYSE mortgage REIT, and Progress Investment Management Company, a privately held Fund of Funds. She serves on New York State’s Common Retirement Pension Fund Investment Advisory Committee and the UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust’s Investment Risk Advisory Committee.

Valerie was Senior Vice President, Partner, Portfolio Manager and Investment Strategist at Wellington Management Company, LLP, a $900 billion global money management firm. During her 20-year tenure at the firm, Valerie directly managed billions for clients. Valerie also chaired the firm’s Industry Strategy Group, comprised of thought leaders from across the firm charged with taking a long-term perspective to identify headwinds and tailwinds impacting industries. As a member of several investment strategy groups, Valerie helped established investment parameters to which team portfolio managers adhered.

Valerie began her career at Chase Manhattan Bank, where she was a Commercial Lending Officer for financial institutions (1982 – 1984). After graduate school, she worked in institutional corporate bond sales at Kidder Peabody (1986 – 1990). Prior to joining Wellington Management in 1992, she was Chief Investment Officer at P.G. Corbin Asset Management (1990 – 1992).

Valerie is on the board of New Profit, a philanthropic venture firm and a founding member of the American Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay Tiffany Circle Society of Women Leaders. As part of her mission to help others grow their self-worth and net worth, Valerie created financial fluency courses for high school teachers and students, and speaks about the “Parallels of Managing Money and Life”.

Valerie graduated in 1982 with a BA in History from Duke, where she served as President and Vice President of the student body. She received her MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in 1986 and served as President of The Wharton Club of Atlanta. Valerie was named UK’s Powerlist International Person of the Year 2017, and one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business and one of the Top 75 African Americans on Wall Street by Black Enterprise Magazine.

Ali Tamaseb

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Partner, DCVC

Ali Tamaseb is a partner at Data Collective (DCVC), a highly reputable venture capital firm in Silicon Valley with over $2 billion under management. He holds several leadership and board positions at companies both globally and across the U.S. He holds a degree in Biomedical Engineering from Imperial College London, and studied General Management at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Tamasebwas an honoree of the British Alumni Award, Centenary Enterprise Award, and Imperial College Medal for Outstanding Achievement. His work has been featured in BBC, The Guardian, Forbes, The Telegraph, among others, and he has given talks at major events and conferences. He lives in San Francisco, California.

Zach Karabell

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Author, Inside Money

Zachary Karabell is an author and columnist, the founder of the Progress Network at New America, and president of River Twice Research and River Twice Capital. Previously, he was Head of Global Strategies at Envestnet, a publicly traded financial services firm. Prior to that, he was President of Fred Alger & Company. In addition, he ran the River Twice Fund from 2011-2013, an alternative fund that focused on sustainability.

Educated at Columbia, Oxford and Harvard, where he received his Ph.D., Karabell has written widely on history, economics and international relations. His most recent book was The Leading Indicators: A Short History of the Numbers That Rule Our World, and his next book, Inside Money: Brown Brothers Harriman and the American Way of Power will be published by Penguin Press in early 2021. He is the author of eleven previous books, including The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election (which won the Chicago Tribune Heartland Award for best non-fiction book of the year in 2000); Superfusion: How China and America Became One Economy and Why the World’s Prosperity Depends On It (Simon & Schuster, 2009); and Sustainable Excellence: The Future of Business in the 21st Century, co-authored with Aron Cramer (Rodale 2010). He also sits on the board of New America and PEN America. In 2003, the World Economic Forum designated him a "Global Leader for Tomorrow."

As a commentator, Karabell is a Contributing Editor for Wired and for Politico, and the host of the podcast “What Could Go Right?” Previously he wrote “The Edgy Optimist” column for Slate, Reuters, and The Atlantic. He is a LinkedIn Influencer, and a commentator on CNBC, Fox Business and MSNBC. He also contributes to such publications as The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Daily Beast, The Atlantic, Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and Foreign Affairs.

Alex Bangash

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Co-Founder & Managing Partner, TI Platform Management

Alex is the co-founder and managing director of TI Platform Fund, a platform for backing founders building innovative venture structures. He is the founder and chairman of Trusted Insight. He is a founding investor in funds such as Initialized, Founders Fund, SaaStr amongst others and early investor of companies such as Truepill and Standard Cognition.

Trang Nguyen

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Co-Founder, TI Platform Management

Trang Nguyen is the cofounder of TI Platform Management, a venture capital firm that backs ambitious entrepreneurs creating the world’s most disruptive venture structures. Founded in 2015, TI Platform Management uses its $775M+ in AUM to invest in today’s most innovative companies and tomorrow’s category-defining leaders.

Since its inception, TI Platform has deployed nearly $475 million to numerous emerging venture funds, backed 47 funds founded by 56 entrepreneurs, and enabled entrepreneurs to raise over $1B from LPs. The firm has also invested directly in more than 35 companies. Proven entrepreneurs in the TI Platform network have created over $50B in market value ($25B+ in enterprise exits) and invested in companies with a total market cap exceeding $830B.

Trang is the former executive member of Trusted Insight, where she managed products and grew the institutional community to 35,000+ limited partners. Earlier in her career, Trang amassed years of investment, finance, and marketing experience at various tech startups and financial services organizations, including Merrill Lynch, Visa, Bank Of New York, and Sutter Health. Trang spearheaded investment initiatives and helped manage corporate and endowment portfolios for a hospital with more than $9 billion in AUM. She also has experience in trading and running a $1B credit portfolio.