James Grant

Founder & Editor, Grant’s Interest Rate Observer

James Grant, financial journalist and historian, is the founder and editor of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, a twice-monthly journal of the investment markets. His book, The Forgotten Depression, 1921: the Crash that Cured Itself, a history of America’s last governmentally unmedicated business-cycle downturn, won the 2015 Hayek Prize of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. His new book, “Bagehot: The Life and Times of the Greatest Victorian,” will be published in 2019.

Among his other books on finance and financial history are Bernard M. Baruch: The Adventures of a Wall Street Legend (Simon & Schuster, 1983), Money of the Mind (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1992), Minding Mr. Market (Farrar, Straus, 1993), The Trouble with Prosperity (Times Books, 1996), and Mr. Market Miscalculates (Axios Press, 2008).

He is, in addition, the author of a pair of political biographies: John Adams: Party of One, a life of the second president of the United States (Farrar, Straus, 2005) and Mr. Speaker! The Life and Times of Thomas B. Reed, the Man Who Broke the Filibuster (Simon & Schuster, 2011).

Mr. Grant’s television appearances include “60 Minutes,” “The Charlie Rose Show,” “CBS Evening News,” and a 10-year stint on “Wall Street Week”. His journalism has appeared in a variety of periodicals, including The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs and The Claremont Review of Book. He contributed an essay to the Sixth Edition of Graham and Dodd's Security Analysis (McGraw-Hill, 2009).

Mr. Grant, a former Navy gunner's mate, is a Phi Beta Kappa alumnus of IndianaUniversity.He earned a master's degree in international relations from ColumbiaUniversity, began his career in journalism in 1972, at the Baltimore Sun, and joined the staff of Barron’s in 1975. He is a trustee of the New York Historical Society and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He and his wife, Patricia Kavanagh M.D., live in Brooklyn. They are the parents of four grown children.

Steve Glickman

Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Develop

Steve Glickman is the Founder and CEO of Develop LLC, an advisory firm exclusively focused on building and supporting Opportunity Funds and the broader Opportunity Zones (OZ) marketplace. He is also the Co-Founder, and former CEO, of the Economic Innovation Group, the bipartisan organization that was the chief architect of the $6 trillion OZ program.

Steve previously served in the Obama Administration as a senior economic advisor at the National Security and National Economic Councils, where he managed international trade, investment, manufacturing and small business issues. He was also Chief of Staff for the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service. Prior to the Administration, Steve served in legal roles on Capitol Hill, as well as at the Justice Department and Democratic National Committee.

Steve received his B.A. and M.A. from Georgetown University, J.D. from Columbia Law School, and LL.M. from the London School of Economics. He is an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown, and serves on the Board of The NewDEAL.

Steve’s work has been featured in the Atlantic, AP, Bisnow, Bloomberg, Chicago Tribune, Crain’s, Fast Company, Forbes, Fortune, Impact Alpha, Inc., LA Times, Marketplace, NY Times, NPR, Politico, San Francisco Chronicle, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Vox, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal.

Michelle Girard

Co-Head of Global Economics, NatWest Markets

Michelle Girard is the Chief US Economist and a Managing Director for NatWest Markets (NWM). Overseeing the US Economics team, Michelle evaluates and identifies trends across all sectors of the US economy, utilizing econometric models to predict key economic indicators. She is responsible for developing forecasts for growth, inflation and interest rates, and monitoring Federal Reserve and Treasury actions. While coordinating and collaborating with economists and strategists in London and Singapore, Michelle provides synergistic analysis for NWM's global customer base and keeps the firm's sales and trading desks up-to-date on market moving developments. Michelle is a regular speaker and commentator on the US economic outlook on various print, radio, and television news media including CNBC, Fox Business Network, Bloomberg TV & Radio, and Yahoo! Finance.

Prior to joining NWM, Michelle held roles as Co-Head of the Fixed Income Strategy & Research Group at Prudential Securities, Chief Economist at Sanwa Securities (USA) and Economist with Bear Stearns. Michelle began her professional career as a Research Assistant for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, DC.

As a member of the US Management Committee, Michelle works with other senior leaders to set and implement business strategy in the region. She is also an Executive Sponsor for the NWM Women’s Network and has taken an active role in helping to create and strengthen the talent development offerings for women across the organization.

Michael Gifford

Supervisory Special Agent, FBI

A former US Army officer and combat veteran of Iraq, Mike began his FBI career in 2007 working National Security investigations with the New York Field Office. Following his move to Los Angeles in 2015, he joined the Press & Media section, specifically focusing on community outreach, Congressional liaison, and the recruitment value of long form media projects. A graduate of Union College, he's currently pursuing an MBA degree at Pepperdine University.

Ron S. Geffner

Founding Member, Executive Committee, Sadis & Goldberg

Ron S. Geffner is a founding member of the firm's Executive Committee and also oversees the Financial Services Group. He regularly structures, organizes and counsels private investment vehicles, investment advisory organizations, broker-dealers, commodity pool operators and other investment fiduciaries. Mr. Geffner also routinely counsels clients in connection with regulatory investigations and actions. His broad background with federal and state securities laws, and the rules, regulations and customary practices of the SEC, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Commodities Futures Trading Commission and various other regulatory bodies, enables him to provide strategic guidance to a diverse clientele. He provides legal services to hundreds of hedge funds, private equity funds and venture capital funds organized in the United States and offshore.

Mr. Geffner began his legal career with the SEC, where he investigated and prosecuted violations of the federal securities laws with an emphasis on enforcement in connection with violations of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and the Investment Company Act of 1940. He also assisted federal and state criminal agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Attorney General's Office, in their investigations of possible criminal violations of federal and state securities laws.

Prior to starting Sadis & Goldberg, Mr. Geffner was associated with two other New York City-based law firms, where he represented domestic and offshore private investment vehicles, as well as broker-dealers, registered investment advisers and registered investment companies.

He began his corporate legal career as in-house counsel in the Investment Management Industry Services Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, where he provided legal advice regarding investment advisers, registered investment companies and broker-dealers.

Mr. Geffner is often interviewed as a legal expert in the securities industry. He has appeared on Fox News, CBS Morning Show, CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, Squawk Box, Power Lunch and Closing Bell on CNBC, British Broadcasting Channel and Bloomberg Radio. He is regularly quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, Barron's, Barron's Online, Reuters, Dow Jones, Financial Times, New York Newsday, London Daily News, TheStreet.com, Private Equity Week and other national and international publications.

Scott Gamm

Markets Reporter, Yahoo! Finance

Scott Gamm is a markets reporter for Yahoo Finance’s streaming video network, the Web’s largest business-news platform, with 75 million monthly visitors. Gamm provides stock market updates live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. 

Prior to joining Yahoo Finance, Gamm was a correspondent for TheStreet.com and hosted a live daily video segment with TheStreet’s founder and CNBC host, Jim Cramer, from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

As a journalist, he has interviewed some of the biggest names in business including billionaire investors Ray Dalio, Sam Zell, David Rubenstein and Ken Langone, along with politicians Carly Fiorina and Gov. John Kasich.

Gamm is a sought-after financial commentator and has appeared hundreds of times across outlets such as CBS News, NBC’s Today, MSNBC, Fox News Channel and others.

His first book, MORE MONEY, PLEASE: The Financial Secrets You’ve Never Learned in School, was released in 2013 by Plume/Penguin Random House.

He graduated from New York University’s Stern School of Business with a degree in finance and marketing. 

Emanuel J. Friedman

Chief Executive Officer & Co-Chief Investment Officer, EJF Capital

Mr. Friedman co-founded EJF in 2005 following his retirement from Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, Inc. (“FBR” ). Mr. Friedman is a founder and the former Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer of FBR. Mr. Friedman has more than 40 years of capital markets and asset management experience. At FBR, Mr. Friedman designed and raised capital for numerous innovative property and mortgage REIT vehicles. Throughout the 1990s, Mr. Friedman was active in building out FBR’s alternative asset management platform. He was instrumental in the creation of hedge, private equity and venture capital funds at FBR, and maintains an extensive network of contacts within the CDO, hedge fund and private equity fund communities. In April 1998, Mr. Friedman was awarded the CEO of the Year Award by George Washington University. He was honored for his outstanding leadership skills, demonstrated ability to meet organizational goals in the most challenging business environments, dedication to the community, and commitment to education. Mr. Friedman began his career in the securities industry in 1973 at Legg Mason Wood Walker, Inc. He received his BA in Education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his JD from Georgetown University.

Frederick P. Gabriel Jr.

Editorial Director, InvestmentNews

Frederick P. Gabriel Jr. is editorial director at InvestmentNews. He is an award-winning journalist who has served as both a reporter and editor for a number of financial publications over the past two decades. Mr. Gabriel has been recognized with numerous awards for his writing and reporting, including several by The Society of American Business Editors and Writers for his editorials and analyses of the financial services industry.

He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Marine Engineering with a concentration in Business Administration.

Matt Flannery

Chief Executive Officer & Founder, Branch International

Matt is the founder and CEO for Branch International, a leading machine learning-powered provider of fair financial services in emerging markets. Branch is one of the most popular financial apps in Africa and recently expanded to Latin America and Asia. Prior to launching Branch, Matt founded the ground-breaking microfinance non-profit Kiva.org, where he served as CEO for nearly a decade. Under his leadership, Kiva.org operated in 80 countries and lent more than $1B to low income entrepreneurs. Matt has been honored with The Economist “No Boundaries” Innovation Award and was named one of FORTUNE magazine’s “Top 40 under 40.”

Arnold Fisher

Senior Partner, Fisher Brothers

Arnold Fisher is Senior Partner at Fisher Brothers, a leader in NYC real estate. They constructed over 15 million square feet of space, such as 299 Park Avenue, 605 Third Avenue, 1345 Avenue of the Americas, Park Avenue Plaza, 50 Sutton Place South and more.

He was Chairman of the Fisher House Foundation until 2003. It has built 82 comfort homes for families of hospitalized military personnel and veterans on U.S. military bases around the country.

In 2000, the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund (IFHF), was created to provide financial support for spouses and children of fallen U.S service members. In 2007, IFHF constructed The Center for the Intrepid (CFI), a 65,000 square-foot, a state-of-the-art physical rehabilitation center at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, for military personnel with amputations and severe burns.

In 2010, IFHF built the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE), at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. The 72,000 square foot facility treats service members suffering from the Invisible Wounds of War, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS).

IFHF built 7 “Intrepid Spirit Centers”, satellites of NICoE on home bases, with a success rate of 90%, returning service members to active duty or a normal lifestyle. IFHF will build 3 additional needed Centers.

In 2005, he was made an Honorary Knight of the British Empire recognizing his contribution to families of British Armed Forces personnel killed in action.

Jean-Yves Fillion

Chief Executive Officer, BNP Paribas; Chairman, CIB Americas

Jean-Yves Fillion is Chief Executive Officer of BNP Paribas USA, overseeing the bank’s wholesale and retail activities in the United States, and Chairman of Corporate and Institutional Banking (CIB) for the Americas.

Mr. Fillion has been with BNP Paribas for 33 years, 26 of which he has spent in the United States between Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. He serves on the Board of Directors of BNP Paribas USA and on the Boards of its subsidiaries: Bank of the West Corporation, BancWest Holdings and BNP Paribas US Wholesale Holdings, Corp. In line with the Bank’s worldwide commitment to tennis, Mr. Fillion is a member of the Board of Governors for the International Tennis Hall of Fame. A former member of the French National Sailing Team, he is also an active member of the New York Yacht Club and American Yacht Club.

Since joining the bank in 1984, Mr. Fillion has served the bank in a succession of executive positions. Previous to his current role, he served as CEO of CIB Americas, COO of BNP Paribas Fortis and Co-Head of BNP Paribas’ CIB European Platform. Previous to those roles, he spent the bulk of his career in the US as Head of Client Coverage in North America, Head of Structured Finance Americas, Head of Acquisition Finance and Head of Media & Telecom Finance.

Mr. Fillion received a Master’s degree from Dauphine University and his MBA from Hautes Études Commerciales in Paris. He also studied at the Kellogg School of Management of Northwestern University in Chicago.

Sasha Favelukis

Co-Founder, CoPlace

Sasha (Alexander) Favelukis is an investor and innovator who has been disrupting the financial investments space for more than 20 years. Favelukis is currently a Co-Founder of CoPlace, an investment and advisory firm that focuses on activating distressed areas by revitalizing their local communities and business ecosystems.

CoPlace’s mission is to transform communities while generating positive ROI and propelling economic growth. Favelukis and his team have completed multiple socially and economically impactful CoPlace projects, which have received awards and garnered international attention from industry, governmental, and academic groups.

Favelukis’ work with CoPlace has allowed him to truly fulfill his lifelong mantra, “Live With Purpose,” and CoPlace’s success has motivated investment funds, developers, and municipalities to seek out Favelukis and his team members as advisors. Since 2008, Favelukis has helped facilitate over $250 million in private real estate investment transactions.

Favelukis believes that community-driven development creates positive social impacts for residents and builds long-term ROI for investors. He is focused on creating environments in which each resident owns their responsibility to their community and tries to develop their best self.

Christopher Dupuy

Managing Director, Rockefeller Capital Management

Chris Dupuy is a Managing Director for Rockefeller Capital Management and serves as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Rockefeller Private Wealth, based in the firm’s San Francisco Hub.

Chris joined Rockefeller in 2018 from Focus Financial Partners, where he was a Managing Director and President of Focus Independence.

Prior to joining Focus in 2014, Dupuy spent 29 years with Merrill Lynch. Beginning as a Financial Advisor in the 1980’s, Chris rose to senior leadership roles at Merrill Lynch, including National Sales Manager for Merrill’s 700 branches in the United States and Latin America. Chris would go on to become Chief Operating Officer of Merrill Lynch’s Americas Bank Group, Managing Director of the Merrill Lynch Global Investment Solutions businesses worldwide, and concluded his time at Merrill Lynch overseeing the firm’s Private Banking, International Private Client and Wealth Management business units in California and throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Chris and his wife Diane reside in the Bay Area and have two grown daughters. He is a graduate of James Madison University.

Robert Duggan

Partner & Senior Portfolio Manager, SkyBridge

Robert W. Duggan, CFA, is a Partner and Senior Portfolio Manager at SkyBridge Capital. As Senior Portfolio Manager, Mr. Duggan has oversight of the firm’s discretionary portfolios and institutional separate accounts. He is also a member of the Portfolio Allocation and Real Estate Investment committees. Mr. Duggan’s responsibilities include portfolio management, manager sourcing, research and due diligence across a wide variety of alternative investment strategies. Prior to joining SkyBridge in June 2010, Mr. Duggan performed the same function in the Hedge Fund Management Group at Citigroup Alternative Investments (CAI). Before joining CAI, he was a senior analyst at International Asset Management (IAM), where he was responsible for sourcing and monitoring the firm’s US based hedge fund investments across a broad range of investment strategies. Prior to IAM, Mr. Duggan held research analyst roles at Northern Trust Global Advisors and Alpha Investment Management.

Mr. Duggan received a B.A. in Economics from Fordham University and is a CFA charterholder.

David Dredge

Chief Investment Officer, Convex Strategies

Mr. David Dredge is Chief Investment Officer of Convex Strategies Pte Ltd, and previously CIO of Convex Strategies at both City Financial Investment Company Pte Ltd, and Fortress Investment Group Singapore Pte Ltd. Prior to joining Fortress, he was Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at Artradis Fund Management in Singapore from 2009-2011 where he was responsible for the fixed income aspects of their volatility based portfolio.

Mr Dredge is a long time Asian Financial Market participant, having originally come to the region in 1987 with Bank of America. He spent the next four and a half years performing various trading roles in Singapore, Jakarta, Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong during a critical period of market development and deregulation. Subsequently, Mr Dredge built and ran innovative Emerging Market Trading and Sales businesses for Bankers Trust through the 1990s and ABN Amro/RBS until stepping out of the banking side of the business.

Mr Dredge graduated from University of Utah with a degree in Finance, and completed an MBA at the University of California, Berkeley. David continues to be involved in market development activities, sitting as a main committee member of the Singapore Foreign Exchange Markets Committee (SFEMC), having previously served roles as the Main Committee Vice Chairman and as the Chair of the Market Development Sub-Committee.

Laura Doss-Hertz

Co-Founder, SkySource

Laura Doss-Hertz is the co-founder of Skysource, the Grand Prize winner of The Water Abundance XPRIZE. In partnership with her husband David Hertz FAIA, they created Skysource, a social impact enterprise focused on creating deployable atmospheric water solutions that address all aspects of global water issues.

Before starting Skysource, Doss-Hertz ran her own Advertising and Lifestyle Photography business and worked as a Photojournalist for The Detroit News, The New York Times Company, The Miami Herald, and Associated Press.

Doss-Hertz also serves on the board of The Bay Foundation, Venice Community Healing Gardens, Watts Tech Garden at LAUSD Edwin Markham Middle School in Watts, and The LA Mission Rooftop Garden Project.

Additionally, Doss-Hertz is a storyteller, an environmentalist, a humanitarian and a concerned citizen with the goal to educate and inspire others to leave this planet a better place.

Ambassador Edward P. Djerejian

Director, Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice University

Ambassador Edward P. Djerejian is the director of Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. His career in the U.S. Foreign Service spanned the administrations of eight presidents from John F. Kennedy to William J. Clinton. Djerejian is a leading expert on national security, foreign policy, and the complex political, security, economic, religious and ethnic issues of the Middle East and South Asia. He has played key roles in the Arab-Israeli peace process and regional conflict resolution. He is the author of “Danger and Opportunity: An American Ambassador's Journey Through the Middle East.”

Prior to his nomination as U.S. ambassador to Israel, he served both President George H.W. Bush and President Clinton as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs and President Ronald Reagan and President Bush as U.S. ambassador to the Syrian Arab Republic. He was special assistant to President Reagan and deputy press secretary for foreign affairs in the White House.

Djerejian’s assignments in the Foreign Service included political officer in Beirut, Lebanon, and Casablanca, Morocco; deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Jordan; and consul general in Bordeaux, France. He headed the political section in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow during the critical period in U.S.-Soviet relations marked by the invasion of Afghanistan. He served in the United States Army as a first lieutenant in the Republic of Korea following his graduation from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

He holds a Bachelor of Science and a Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, from Georgetown, as well as a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from Middlebury College.

Djerejian has been awarded the Presidential Distinguished Service Award; the Department of State’s Distinguished Honor Award; the Ellis Island Medal of Honor; the Anti-Defamation League’s Moral Statesman Award; the Award for Humanitarian Diplomacy from Netanya Academic College in Israel; the National Order of the Cedar, bestowed by President Émile Lahoud of Lebanon; the Order of Ouissam Alaouite, bestowed by King Mohammed VI of Morocco; and the Order of Honor, bestowed by President Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia. He is also a recipient of the Association of Rice Alumni’s Gold Medal for his service to the university. Djerejian is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies and independent policy research centers. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

At the request of Secretary of State Colin Powell, Djerejian chaired the congressionally mandated bipartisan Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy in the Arab and Muslim World. He also served as senior advisor to the Iraq Study Group (ISG), a bipartisan panel mandated by Congress to assess the situation in Iraq. The Baker Institute was an organizing sponsor of the ISG.

Djerejian is married to the former Françoise Andrée Liliane Marie Haelters. They have a son, Gregory Peter Djerejian; a daughter, Francesca Natalia Djerejian; and two grandchildren, Isabel Alessandra Djerejian and Sebastian Edward Djerejian.

Derek Devens, CFA

Managing Director & Senior Portfolio Manager, Option Group, Neuberger Berman

Derek Devens, CFA, joined the firm in 2016. Derek is a Managing Director and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Option Group. Prior to Neuberger Berman, Derek was responsible for both Research and Portfolio Management at Horizon Kinetics. Derek was a member of the Investment Committee and responsible for co-managing the Kinetics Alternative Income Fund and various separate account strategies. Prior to Horizon Kinetics, Derek was a Vice President with Goldman Sachs’ Global Manager Strategies Group where he was responsible for conducting investment manager research. Previously, Derek was a fixed income portfolio manager at both Fischer Francis Trees & Watts as well as Bond Logistix. He received a BS in Civil Engineering from Princeton University and an MBA from New York University. He has been awarded the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Terrence Dempsey

Product Manager, Fidelity Digital Assets

Terrence Dempsey is Product Manager at Fidelity Digital AssetsSM, which provides enterprise-grade digital asset solutions for institutional investors.

Prior to joining Fidelity Investments, Terrence spent nearly 5 years as the operations lead for the Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC) at Digital Currency Group’s asset management arm, Grayscale Investments. Terrence has also spent time in various trading and capital markets roles at SecondMarket prior to its sale to Nasdaq.

Terrence holds a BS in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from Marist College.

Clayton DeGiacinto

Founder & Managing Partner, Axonic Capital

Mr. DeGiacinto is the Founder and Managing Partner of Axonic Capital LLC, a $2.6 billion independent investment management firm focused on structured credit and systematic fixed income opportunities. He serves as the Chief Investment Officer for the firm’s investment funds and commercial lending business.

Prior to founding Axonic Capital LLC in 2010, Mr. DeGiacinto was responsible for building out the mortgage investment platform at Tower Research Capital and was the Senior Portfolio Manager for Split Level LLC, the predecessor fund to the Axonic Credit Opportunities Funds. From 2002 to 2008, Mr. DeGiacinto was Vice President in the Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities Group at Goldman Sachs.

He previously served as an Army Ranger and Captain in the US Army 25th Infantry Division from 1995 to 2000. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and holds an MBA from the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania. He serves on the Board of Directors of Team Rubicon, Inc.