Michael Milken

Chairman, Milken Institute

Mike Milken’s career has mirrored his four main professional passions: medical research, education, access to capital and public health. In each, he has been uniquely successful in creating value, whether measured in lives saved (Fortune magazine called him "The Man Who Changed Medicine"), students inspired (Forbes said he is an “education visionary”) or jobs created. Between 1969 and 1989, he revolutionized capital markets by pricing and rewarding risk more efficiently and democratizing access to capital. He financed thousands of companies that collectively created millions of jobs.

Mike’s philanthropy began in the 1970s and paralleled his business career. In 1982, he co-founded the Milken Family Foundation. He also chairs the Milken Institute, an economic “action tank” whose centers include FasterCures, a Washington-based organization that works to remove barriers to progress against all life-threatening diseases. The 22nd annual Milken Institute Global Conference in April brought more than 5,000 leaders from 60 nations to Los Angeles. The Institute hosts more than 250 events each year around the world, and major annual conferences are held in New York, London, Washington, Tokyo, Singapore and the Middle East. The Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University was renamed in recognition of a gift from the Institute.

Mike is also the founder and chairman of the Prostate Cancer Foundation, the largest private funder of prostate cancer research, and helped launch the Melanoma Research Alliance. In addition, the Milken Scholars program, which was established by Mike and his wife, Lori, has provided support and lifetime mentoring for more than 450 outstanding college-bound students who have excelled academically, served their communities, and triumphed over obstacles.

Mike graduated with highest distinction from Berkeley and earned his MBA at the Wharton School. He and his wife Lori are members of the Giving Pledge and Founding Donors of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. They’ve been married since 1968 and have three children and 10 grandchildren. More information is at www.mikemilken.com.

Steve Case

Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Revolution; Chairman, Case Foundation; Co-Founder, AOL

Steve Case is one of America’s best-known and most accomplished entrepreneurs and philanthropists, and a pioneer in making the Internet part of everyday life.  Case co-founded AOL in 1985 and under his leadership and vision, AOL became the largest and most valuable Internet company, driving the worldwide adoption of a medium that has transformed business and society.

Case is Chairman and CEO of Revolution LLC, a Washington, D.C.- based investment firm that backs entrepreneurs at every stage of their development. Revolution Growth has invested nearly $1 billion in growth-stage companies including Sweetgreen, Tempus, DraftKings, and Clear. Revolution Ventures has backed more than two dozen venture-stage companies, including Framebridge and PolicyGenius. The Rise of the Rest Seed Fund has invested in more than 200 startups in over 100 U.S. cities, in partnership with many of America’s most successful entrepreneurs and investors. 

Steve’s passion for helping entrepreneurs remains his driving force. Recently named co-chair of the National Advisory Council for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Council will advise on the development of a National Entrepreneurship Strategy and continue to support policies that will ensure America’s competitiveness globally. In 2011, he was the founding chair of the Startup America Partnership—an effort launched at the White House to accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the nation—and member of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness where he chaired the subcommittee on entrepreneurship. 

He is also the author of the forthcoming book Rise of the Rest: How Entrepreneurs in Surprising Places are Building the New American Dream as well as New York Times bestselling book The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur’s Vision of the Future.

Nikki Haley

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (2017-2019)

Nikki R. Haley is the former United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations. She served as a member of President Donald Trump's Cabinet and the National Security Council.

At the United Nations, Ambassador Haley ensured the American people saw value for their investment -introducing reforms that made the organization more efficient, transparent, and accountable. In a two-year period, she negotiated over $1.3 billion in savings, including rightsizing UN peacekeeping missions to make them more effective and targeted, while improving their ability to protect civilians.

In the UN Security Council, Ambassador Haley worked to defend Americans' interests and keep our country safe. She spearheaded negotiations for the passage of the strongest set of sanctions ever placed on North Korea for its nuclear weapons program, cutting off the regime's exports by 90 percent and its access to oil by 30 percent.

As UN Ambassador Haley championed human rights. She challenged human rights violators across the globe, standing up to oppressive regimes in Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, and Russia. During the U.S. presidency of the UN Security Council, she hosted the first-ever session devoted solely to promoting human rights. She traveled the world visiting people oppressed by their own governments to see firsthand the challenges they face and to work with them directly on life-improving solutions—from Syrian refugees in Jordan and Turkey, to internally displaced people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan, and Venezuelan migrants walking miles every day to cross the Colombian border for food and medicine.

During her time as ambassador, the United States stood proudly with its allies, repeatedly taking a strong and principled stand against the chronic anti-Israel bias at the United Nations. In the UN Security Council, she proudly issued the first American veto in six years defending the United States’ sovereign right to move our Embassy to Jerusalem—Israel’s true capital.

Prior to becoming the twenty-ninth U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Haley was elected in 2010 as the first female and first minority Governor of South Carolina. Reelected in 2014, she served as Governor until confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations in January of 2017.

Under Governor Haley’s leadership, South Carolina was a national leader in economic development. Known as the “Beast of the Southeast,” South Carolina’s unemployment rate hit a 15-year low, saw over $20 billion in new capital investment, and her administration announced new jobs in every county in the state, over 85,000 total.

Governor Haley also ushered in the state's largest education reform in decades—making education funding more equitable for schools in the state's poorest communities, prioritizing reading in early grades, and equipping classrooms with the latest technology.

Born in Bamberg, South Carolina, she is the daughter of Indian immigrants and a proud graduate of Clemson University. In her first job, Ambassador Haley kept the books for her family's clothing store—at the age of 13.

Ambassador Haley and her husband, Michael, a Captain in the South Carolina Army National Guard and combat veteran who deployed to Afghanistan's Helmand Province, have two children, Rena, 20, and Nalin, 17.

Roslyn Zhang

Managing Director, Head of Hedge Fund Investments, China Investment Corporation (CIC)

Roslyn Zhang is Managing Director & Head of Hedge Fund investments at China Investment Corporation. Prior to joining CIC in January 2009, she spent one year in a Fund of Hedge Funds in New York. Before that, she worked in Endowment funds in North America for 3 years. Ms. Zhang started her career in 2000 with Manulife Financial as a Senior Investment Analyst in Toronto.

Ms. Zhang holds a BA in Economics from the Central University of Finance and Economy in Beijing, China and an MBA from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. In 2013, Roslyn was named "50 Leading Women in Hedge Funds" by Hedge Fund Journal.

Jenny Zeng

Managing Partner, MSA Capital

Jenny Zeng is a serial entrepreneur in the Chinese private equity fund space with over 20 years of experience in the VC/PE sector. She has witnessed and actively participated in the development of the Chinese private equity funds ecosystem from inception to its growth. In 2014, she founded MSA Capital and serves as a co-founder and Managing Partner, leading all China based investments from the fund. Prior to founding MSA Capital, Zeng served as the first Executive Director of the China Venture Capital Association (CVCA) in 2002 and went on to establish Fenggu Investment in 2004, a leading investment bank in China, successfully raising hundreds of millions of dollars in financing for numerous rapidly growing companies across various industries.

Zade Zalatimo

Managing Director, Private Funds Group, Houlihan Lokey

Mr. Zalatimo is a member of Houlihan Lokey’s Private Funds Group.

Mr. Zalatimo is based in Dubai and will lead Houlihan Lokey’s capital raising and advisory capabilities in the Middle East & North Africa region.

Prior to joining Houlihan Lokey, Mr. Zalatimo was at The Carlyle Group, where he was the Senior Executive Officer of Carlyle MENA responsible for leading the firm’s business activities in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia. His responsibilities included developing and maintaining relationships with family offices, endowments, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds in the region. Prior to The Carlyle Group, he was a Partner and CEO for Investcorp in Bahrain, responsible for the strategic direction and deliverables for the business in addition to overseeing the majority of Investcorp’s institutional clients in the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Mr. Zalatimo holds a B.A. in Political Economy from the University of Michigan and an MBA in Finance from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

Hamed Ibrahim Zaghw

Chief Executive, Middle East & Africa, AECOM

Hamed has over 37 years’ management experience gained via leadership positions at several of the Middle East’s engineering and consulting firms.

As Chief Executive of the Middle East and Africa, Hamed is focused on advancing a culture of technical excellence and innovation with an emphasis on quality and responsiveness to client needs. His extensive industry knowledge and strong client insight ensure that AECOM delivers solutions that solve its clients’ most complex challenges.

Hamed has played a key role in the successful delivery of major infrastructure programs in the highways, rail, ports and aviation sectors across the Middle East and North America. He remains engaged in the technical delivery of projects by serving as a project executive sponsor as well as a JV board member for major programs across the region. Notable high-profile projects in which Hamed is involved include:

• Dubai Expo 2020 Interchanges, UAE

• Hamad Port, Qatar

• Midfield Terminal Complex, Abu Dhabi, UAE

• Saudi Customs PMO

• NEOM Bay PMC, Saudi Arabia

Hamed holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Cairo University and a master’s degree in Structural Engineering from the University of Cincinnati, USA.

David K. Young

Chief Executive Officer, Oxford Analytica

David K. Young (Davy) is the Chief Executive Officer of Oxford Analytica and a member of the Board of Directors. He leads the firm’s business worldwide ensuring Oxford Analytica continues to enable the world’s leading organizations to succeed in complex global environments by providing expert insights and trusted judgments. From 2014 to 2016, Davy served as the Director of Innovation, implementing a variety of internal and external change initiatives throughout the firm.

Prior to joining Oxford Analytica, Davy worked across the sectors of international security, technology, and emerging market development as a management consultant, as the European Director for a US-based, Africa-focused not-for-profit and at Canopy, a joint venture of Atos, EMC2 and VMWare, where he advised senior executives across a variety of industries how best to leverage emerging technologies to achieve strategic objectives. Davy is the co-Founder of a cloud-based, mobile payment company and a boutique due diligence firm, a Trustee of the Committee for Economic Development and continues to advise multiple early-stage and not-for-profit organizations.

Davy has a BA in Government from the College of William and Mary, a MA in Intelligence and International Security from King’s College, University of London, and a MBA from the McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University.

Min Yang

Chief Executive Officer, Greater China, Winton

Based in Hong Kong, Min is responsible for managing Winton’s investment, operations and business development in China.

Min was CIO of Winton’s China Diversified Program until her promotion to CEO of Greater China in 2017, having originally joined the firm as a Researcher in 2012, focusing on research of Chinese markets. Min has previously worked at Goldman Sachs where she specialised in derivatives pricing in commodities and currencies, and was a postdoctoral researcher at California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

Min holds a BS degree in physics from Beijing University and a Doctorate degree in physics from Caltech, where her research area was extragalactic radiation at the submillimetre wavelengths.

Guang Yang

Executive Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer, BrightSphere Investment Group

Guang Yang is the Executive Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of BrightSphere Investment Group.

Prior to joining BrightSphere in 2018, Mr. Yang served as the President of HNA Capital US from January 2016 through December 2017, and President of HNA Group Americas from January 2018 through August 2018. He is also the former CEO of Finergy Capital, a Beijing-based private equity firm. Mr. Yang previously spent 15 years as an Executive Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Research Analyst at Franklin Templeton Investments Global Equities, and served as the Chairman for Franklin Templeton China.

Mr. Yang also worked as a Research Scientist at Harvard Medical School and at Massachusetts General Hospital. He holds a B.S. from the University of Science and Technology of China, a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Australian National University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Mr. Yang is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder.

Peng Xiao

Chief Executive Officer, Group 42

Peng Xiao is a global technology and business leader with a track record of building breakthrough products, delivering customer successes, and achieving commercial results.

As CEO of Abu Dhabi-based Group 42 Ltd., Peng is responsible for crafting the Group’s business and product strategies, and overseeing the operating companies across numerous industry verticals, including smart city, healthcare, energy, finance and education. The Group has developed world-class solutions in Artificial Intelligence, Big Data Analytics, Mobile Technology, and Cloud Computing, and its offerings are delivered to a wide range of commercial and government clients.

Previously, as Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, and Chief Information Officer of MicroStrategy, Peng spent a decade in the enterprise software industry. Responsible for the management of over 1,000 engineers, Peng led the R&D of the company’s entire product portfolio, including Business Intelligence, Secure Identity, and Mobile Commerce.

Over the years, Peng established a partnership ecosystem to promote joint technology and business development with his counterparts at Facebook, eBay, Citigroup, PayPal, Alibaba and other Fortune 500 companies, rapidly creating and deploying cutting-edge analytics, security, and commerce solutions.

Ronald Wuijster

Executive Board Member, APG Group NV; Chief Executive Officer, APG Asset Management

Ronald Wuijster has been appointed as Executive Board Member of APG Group NV as of March 2018, and has also been a member of the APG AM Management Board since February 2010 and CEO APG AM since May 2017.

Ronald Wuijster has thirty years of experience in the investment world, including twenty years in executive and managing director roles. He has held a number of top positions at APG since 2006, including Managing Director Strategic Portfolio Management and Chief Investment Officer.

He is responsible for the asset management portfolio and as such is ultimately responsible for advising on and implementing the investment policy of the pension funds serviced by APG. The APG Group manages €475 billion in pension assets and ensures that over 4.5 million people can be confident that their accrued pension rights are being invested, administered, and paid out correctly.

Before joining APG, he held various managing directorships at Robeco, in the areas of corporate strategy, development, equities, private equity and research, among other positions.

Ronald Wuijster is currently a board member of DUFAS (Dutch Fund and Asset Management Association) and a member of the MSCI Advisory Council (Morgan Stanley Capital International).

Ronald Wuijster studied business economics and law at Erasmus University in Rotterdam and psychology in Leiden. He is married and has three children.

Seth Weingram

Senior Vice President & Director, Client Advisory, Acadian Asset Management

Seth heads Acadian’s Client Advisory function, which is closely aligned with both the Investment and the Global Client teams. Prior to joining Acadian in 2014, Seth was a managing director in Equity Derivatives Trading at UBS. Previously, he was a researcher at Barclays Global Investors, focusing on options and volatility. He also helped to establish and later ran Deutsche Bank’s award-winning Equity Derivatives Strategy Group. Seth holds a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University and a B.A. in economics from the University of Chicago.

Ran Wang

Founder & Chief Executive Officer, CEC Capital Group

Mr. Wang founded CEC Capital Group in 2000. Under his leadership, CEC Capital has emerged as one of the most prominent investment banks in China with a core focus on the TMT, consumer, and healthcare sectors.

In addition to its investment banking activities, the firm also has an asset management business that manages funds in both US dollars and RMB.

With headquarters in Beijing, CEC Capital has offices in Shanghai, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The firm is a registered broker dealer in the US.

Prior to founding CEC Capital, Mr. Wang had worked for JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs. He has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Jason Walker

Co-Chief Investment Officer ABS & Partner, CQS

Jason is Co-Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of ABS and jointly manages CQS’ global asset backed securities strategies across dedicated hedge funds, long-only funds and bespoke mandates. Jason is a member of the Firm’s Executive Committee, Long-Only Multi-Asset Credit Asset Advisory Committee, and together with his fellow Co-CIO, leads the eleven-strong team of dedicated ABS portfolio managers and analysts located in London and New York. Prior to joining CQS in 2010, Jason held a number of ABS Portfolio Management positions. Before CQS he was with Henderson Global Investors where he was a member of the team managing the Henderson European ABS Opportunities Fund. Before this, he held ABS Portfolio Management roles at Bank of Scotland Treasury, TD Securities and Abbey National Treasury Services, where he began his career as a graduate trainee in 1995. Jason holds an M.Sc. in Finance from the University of Strathclyde and a BA (Hons) Accountancy from Glasgow Caledonian University.

Michael Vranos

Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Ellington Management Group

Mr. Vranos founded Ellington in December of 1994 to capitalize on distressed conditions in the MBS derivatives market. Until December 1994, Mr. Vranos was the Senior Managing Director of Kidder Peabody in charge of RMBS trading. With Mr. Vranos as head trader and senior manager, Kidder Peabody’s MBS department became a leader on Wall Street in CMO underwriting for each of the three years between 1991 and 1993. Mr. Vranos began his Wall Street career in 1983, after graduating magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Harvard University. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Boys and Girls Harbor, Hedge Funds Care, and the Waterside School, and is an emeritus member of the Board of the Stamford Shelter for the Homeless. Mr. Vranos was raised in Ellington, Connecticut.

Stergios Voskopoulos

Chief Executive Officer, Kanoo Capital

Mr. Stergios Voskopoulos is the CEO of Kanoo Capital, the Investment Division within YBA Kanoo, one of the largest and oldest family conglomerates in the Middle East. As CEO of Kanoo Capital, Mr. Voskopoulos is responsible for the active management of direct and indirect investments regionally and globally.

Mr. Voskopoulos has worked in the Gulf Region for over 10 years, and has over 20 years of global experience in the areas of Asset Management, Private Equity and M&A, including AIG Global Investment Group, Barclays, Investcorp and Seera Investment Bank. Mr. Voskopoulos has also been a serial entrepreneur himself and a speaker in several global summits in topics around investment management, family offices, global affairs and business. He has an MBA in Finance & Investments from Zicklin School of Business in New York and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Athens and speaks six languages having lived and worked in seven countries.

Jean-Paul Villain

Director, Strategy & Planning Department, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority

Mr. Jean-Paul Villain is a Director in the Strategy and Planning Department and a permanent invitee to ADIA's Investment Committee.

Mr. Villain began his career as an Assistant Professor of Finance at Paris University, before joining Banque Paribas in 1971 as a Portfolio Manager and later Head of Investments in the Asset Management Department. He joined ADIA in 1982, as Regional Manager for Europe before being appointed as a Senior Fund Manager for all financial assets. He returned to Paribas in 1987 to become the first Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of the newly created Paribas Asset Management Company. In September 1992, he re-joined ADIA as Regional Manager for European Assets before being promoted in 1995 to the position of Advisor and then Senior Advisor for Investment Strategy.

Mr. Villain is a member of the Investment Committee of the Abu Dhabi Benefits and Retirement Fund, the pension fund of the citizens of Abu Dhabi. From 2004 to 2013 he was a Director of the Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) and a Governor of the British Community School in Abu Dhabi (BSAK). In April 2007, the President of the French Republic made him "Chevalier de la Legion d' Honneur". In December 2014 he was made Officer of the British Empire by Her Majesty the Queen of England.

He was educated in Paris in Politics, Economics and Sciences (Applied Mathematics).

Dino Varkey

Chief Executive Officer, GEMS Education

Dino Varkey serves as the Chief Executive Officer of GEMS Education.

He represents the third generation of an education family, driven by providing access to quality education for almost 60 years.

He is responsible for providing vision, insight and strategy across the organization, as GEMS Education looks to become the world’s most valued education company.

In his 14 years with the company, he has undertaken multiple leadership roles, serving as the Senior Director of Business Development, Group Chief Operating Officer, Group Executive Director and Managing Director until he was named Chief Executive Officer by the Board in February 2017.

He believes passionately that GEMS Education will be a “powerful catalyst to improve the state of our world”, a statement that has since been validated by the Telegraph in 2016, naming GEMS as “one of ten companies that can change the world.”

He is a frequent speaker and moderator at global conferences and gatherings. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Education, Gender and Work (2016 – 2018).He was also a Founding Board Member of the YPO Dubai Chapter.

He attended Winchester College, and is an Honours graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Studies from the University of Sheffield, UK.

Tolga Uzuner

Chief Executive Officer, Odyssey Infrastructure

Tolga has over 23 years of financial services industry experience, having most recently established and run the European arm of Apollo's European Asset Management business. He was responsible for managing 4 insurance companies and 2 banks, and a portfolio of $5bn of Multi-Credit Assets, $2bn of Insurance Capital Efficient Assets, $2.5bn of EM Assets and $1bn of Financials. Prior to Apollo, Tolga worked at JP Morgan Chase for 8 years, where he managed $34bn of Financial and Emerging Market Assets.

Tolga has a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge, an MSc in Finance from London Business School, and a BSc in Computer Science and a BSc in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.