Mrinal Manohar

Chief Executive Officer, Casper Labs

Mrinal Manohar is the CEO of Casper Labs. Prior to this he was a principal and the Technology/Media/Telecom sector head at a ~$1b long only hedge fund, a private equity associate at Bain Capital in Boston and was an associate consultant at Bain and Company. He has an MS from Carnegie Mellon University and has been passionate about computer science ever since he began programming at age 11. He has been personally investing in the blockchain industry since 2012.

Joanne Lin

Principal, Newark Venture Partners

Joanne Lin is a Principal at Newark Venture Partners, an early-stage venture fund that invests in Seed/Series A stage B2B technology companies. The inaugural $45M fund is backed by seven large corporate LPs (among others) including Audible.com, Prudential, RWJBarnabas, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, TD Bank, Panasonic and Dun & Bradstreet. The fund operates out of a private co-working space in downtown Newark where it also runs a 3-month pre-seed accelerator called NVP Labs. in addition to capital, it aims to provide its portfolio companies with strategic support, through its focus on sales strategy & execution and the support of over 500+ corporate mentors from the LP network. A core mission of the fund is to establish Newark as an emerging tech hub and has shown early success in recruiting companies to grow a presence in the city.

As Principal, Joanne leads the fund’s direct investment strategy focusing on the sourcing and diligence of potential deals and on-going portfolio management. As a female investor and woman of color, Joanne is an active supporter of diversity in tech and venture capital.

Prior to joining Newark Venture Partners, Joanne was an education investor with University Ventures focusing on growth-stage companies transforming the higher education space. In this role, she leveraged 10 years of finance experience at JPMorgan, and past experience as a TeachForAmerica corps member. She was also co-founder of a Newark-based social enterprise aimed at expanding community access to digital manufacturing technology. Joanne has a M. Ed from Hunter College and a BA in Economics from Barnard. At home, she is the proud mother of a 1-year old son.

David Lyon

Managing Director, Neuberger Berman

David Lyon is a Managing Director of Neuberger Berman and Co-Head of the Private Credit business for NB Private Equity. He is a member of the Private Debt and Credit Opportunities Investment Committees. Prior to joining Neuberger Berman in 2014, he was the Director of Research at Ellis Lake Capital, a $500 million event-driven credit hedge fund based in New York. Before Ellis Lake, Mr. Lyon was one of three professionals responsible for the day to day management of the Credit Opportunities Group, a multi-billion dollar portfolio of credit and equity investments at D. E. Shaw. At D. E. Shaw, Mr. Lyon was also responsible for the private equity efforts in the Credit Opportunities Group and sat on several public and private company boards. Previously, Mr. Lyon was a Managing Director at The Cypress Group, a $3.5 billion private equity fund, where he was a member of the Investment Committee. Prior to Cypress, Mr. Lyon was one of five original professionals at Och-Ziff Capital Management and worked in the Mergers & Acquisitions department of Goldman Sachs. Mr. Lyon earned a MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame, where he graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

Joseph Lubin

Co-Founder, Ethereum

Joseph Lubin is a co-founder of blockchain computing platform Ethereum and the founder of Consensus Systems (ConsenSys), a blockchain venture studio. ConsenSys is one of the largest and fastest-growing companies in the blockchain technology space, building developer tools, decentralized applications, and solutions for enterprises and governments that harness the power of Ethereum. Headquartered in New York, ConsenSys also has a global presence, employing top entrepreneurs, computer scientists, software developers, and experts in enterprise delivery worldwide.

Lubin graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He worked in the Princeton Robotics Lab, at tomandandy music developing an autonomous music composition tool, and at private research firm Vision Applications Inc. building autonomous mobile robots.

As a software engineer and consultant, Lubin worked with eMagine on the Identrus project and was involved in the founding and operation of a hedge fund with a partner. He held positions as Director of the New York office of Blacksmith Software Consulting, and VP of Technology in Private Wealth Management at Goldman Sachs. Through these posts, Lubin focused on the intersection of cryptography, engineering, and finance.

Switching gears, Lubin moved to Kingston, Jamaica to work on projects in the music industry. Two years into his musical endeavors, Lubin co-founded the Ethereum Project and has been working on Ethereum and ConsenSys since January 2014.

Sunny Lu

Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, VeChain

Sunny Lu is co-founder and CEO of VeChain, China's preeminent enterprise blockchain protocol. He is passionate in his belief in the disruptive power of new innovations like blockchain. Today, VeChain is working with a variety of enterprise and government clients worldwide to develop the full potential of this technology.

Sunny has over 15 years of management experience and technical expertise related to computer, network, and communications activities. Prior to co-founding VeChain, he served as CIO of Louis Vuitton China (part of LVMH Group) and has created and implemented large-scale IT and information security projects

Sunny was educated at Shanghai JiaoTong University, where he studied Electronics and Communication Engineering.

Lara Logan

Correspondent

Lara Logan's bold, award-winning reporting has earned her a reputation as one of the world's best foreign correspondents. She was named a full-time 60 Minutes correspondent in May 2012. In 2018, she concluded her 13-year tenure with the newsmagazine.

Logan was named CBS News Chief Foreign Correspondent in February 2006 and Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent in 2008, all while contributing to 60 Minutes beginning in 2005, and to 60 Minutes II since 2001. During her time with the network, she covered some of the biggest stories of our time, including the Iraq War, the Ebola crisis, and the rise of ISIS.

In February 2011, Logan was almost killed in Tahrir Square in Egypt during the revolution there. She was sexually assaulted and beaten by a mob of some 300 men while reporting a story for 60 Minutes on the Egyptian Revolution. She broke her silence about the brutal attack on 60 Minutes to draw attention to the plight of men and women, as well as female journalists covering war zones.

Logan has received multiple Emmy Awards, several Murrow awards, an Overseas Press Club Award, the Daniel Pearl Award, Glamour’s Woman of the Year Award and five American Women in Radio and Television Gracie Awards, to name a few.

Chris Loeffler

Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Caliber

Chris Loeffler is Co-Founder and CEO of Caliber. As CEO, Chris is responsible for oversight of acquisitions, strategic relationships and investment services including fund manager for Caliber’s private investment funds. With Loeffler at the helm, he has created an avenue offering investors direct access to build wealth through a diversified portfolio of commercial, hospitality and residential real estate assets. His leadership and forward-thinking innovation has helped Caliber to emerge as a full-service real estate investment firm with a private equity portfolio valued at over $400 million in assets under management across the Southwest.

Loeffler is actively involved in Arizona’s civic/government/business community, serving as a member of Greater Phoenix Leadership and sharing insight into ways businesses can raise capital using Regulation A+.

Loeffler began his career as an auditor for PriceWaterhouseCoopers, LLP developing the Company’s business systems and received a BA in Accounting from California Polytechnic San Luis Obispo.

Andrew N. Liveris

Former Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, The Dow Chemical Company

Andrew N. Liveris is the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Dow Chemical Company and director of DowDuPont. He previously served as Executive Chairman of DowDuPont. A recognized global business leader with more than 42 years at Dow, Liveris advocates the criticality of manufacturing worldwide. He is the author of Make It in America and was tapped by the current U.S. Administration to help identify new ways to spur innovation, revitalize the U.S. manufacturing sector and drive economic growth and prosperity as chair of the manufacturing council and a member of the apprenticeship of the future task force. Previously he served as Co-Chair of U.S. President Obama's Advanced Manufacturing Partnership steering committee and a member of the U.S. President’s Export Council. He was recently named Senior Advisor to the Saudi Arabian Governments Sovereign Wealth Fund, PIF. He sits on the Board of Directors f IBM, Worley Parsons and Saudi Aramco, on the advisory board of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and NEOM. He is the past Vice Chair of the Business Roundtable, an Executive Committee Member and past Chairman of the U.S. Business Council, and a member of the Concordia Leadership Council and the Australian government’s Industry Growth Centres Advisory Committee.

Corey Lewandowski

Former Campaign Manager for Donald J. Trump

Mr. Lewandowski currently serves as a Senior Advisor to Vice President Pence’s PAC, the Great America Committee. Prior to this role, he was both Chief Political Adviser and Campaign Manager to Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. In those roles, he oversaw all aspects of a historic presidential campaign where Donald J. Trump won 38 Republican primaries and caucuses, and received more votes than any presidential candidate in the history of the Republican Party. Through Mr. Lewandowski’s leadership, Mr. Trump secured the Republican nomination for President of the United States while only spending a fraction of the money his competitors spent over the same period of time. Mr. Lewandowski is credited with running a skillfully disruptive political campaign and is often cited as a visionary on understanding the moods and pulse of the American people.

He previously served as the National Director of Voter Registration of Americans for Prosperity and Americans for Prosperity Foundation. He was also the former East Coast Regional Director for both organizations and served as the AFP and AFPF State Director for New Hampshire, starting the chapters for these groups in 2008.

Prior to his tenure at AFP and AFP Foundation, Mr. Lewandowski served as Executive Director of the New England Seafood Producers’ Association (NESPA), representing the vast New England seafood interests to state and federal government officials.

Mr. Lewandowski worked as the Legislative Political Director, Northeast Region, for the Republican National Committee (RNC), as well as in senior positions with several Members of Congress.

Mr. Lewandowski has made numerous, regular appearances on Fox News, Fox Business, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CBS and CNN, as well as serving as a on-the-record spokesman to major print outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the New York Times, USA Today, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, the Boston Globe, and numerous other print and on-line publications. He was also named “Power Player of the Week” by Fox News Sunday for his contribution to the Trump campaign.

Mr. Lewandowski received his M.A in Political Science from American University, Washington, D.C., and his B.A in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts. He also attended the Naval War College.

Mr. Lewandowski lives in Windham, New Hampshire with his wife and their four children.

Howard Levkowitz

Managing Director, BlackRock; Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, BlackRock TCP Capital

Howard Levkowitz, Managing Director, is a member of Blackrock's Global Credit Platform and Chairman and CEO of BlackRock-TCP Capital Corp.

Prior to joining BlackRock, Mr. Levkowitz co-founded Tennenbaum Capital Partners (TCP), where he was a Managing Member and Chairman of the Management Committee. TCP with its more than $9 billion in committed capital was acquired by BlackRock in 2018. Prior to co-founding TCP, Mr. Levkowitz was an attorney with Dewey Ballantine LLP, specializing in real estate and insolvencies. He has served as a Director of both public and private companies and has also served on a number of formal and informal creditor committees.

Mr. Levkowitz is actively involved in a number of philanthropic activities, particularly in educational initiatives, and serves as an executive board member for two private schools.

Born in Tucson, Arizona, Mr. Levkowitz earned a B.A. in History (Magna Cum Laude) from the University of Pennsylvania, a B.S. in Economics concentration in Finance (Magna Cum Laude) from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a J.D. from the University of Southern California.

John Lettieri

President & Chief Executive Officer, Economic Innovation Group

John Lettieri is responsible for the executive leadership of the Economic Innovation Group, where he oversees the organization’s efforts to study and address regional inequality and the decline of economic dynamism in the United States. Mr. Lettieri’s work and commentary have been featured in a wide range of outlets, including The Atlantic, Fox News, The Hill, NPR, The New York Times, The Daily Beast, The Washington Post, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, among others. He has a B.A. in political science from Wake Forest University and serves on the Board of Regents at The Fund for American Studies, the Board of Directors of Lincoln Network, and the Board of Directors for Friends of the National Zoo.

Linda-Eling Lee

Global Head of ESG Research, MSCI

As Global Head of Research for MSCI’s ESG Research group, Linda-Eling Lee oversees all ESG-related content and methodology. MSCI ESG Research is the largest provider of ESG Rating and analytics to global institutional investors. Linda leads one of the largest teams of research analysts in the world who are dedicated to identifying risks and opportunities arising from material ESG issues. She and her team have been widely recognised as the best SRI/ESG researchers by market surveys and awards.

Linda joined MSCI in 2010 following the acquisition of RiskMetrics, where she led ESG ratings research and was head of consumer sector analysis. Linda joined RiskMetrics Group in 2009 through the acquisition of Innovest. Prior to joining Innovest, Linda was the Research Director at the Center for Research on Corporate Performance, developing academic research at Harvard Business School into management tools to drive long-term corporate performance. Previously, she was a strategy consultant with Monitor Group in Europe and in Asia, where she worked with Fortune 500 clients in industries ranging from beverages to telecommunications.

Linda received her AB from Harvard, MSt from Oxford, and PhD in Organizational Behavior from Harvard University.

Linda has published research both in management journals such as the Harvard Business Review and MIT’s Sloan Management Review, as well as in top academic peer-reviewed journals such as Management Science and Journal of Organizational Behavior. She is frequent media commentator on ESG topics and sustainable investing in outlets including the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes and the New York Times.

Jor law

Co-Founder, VerifyInvestor.com

Having built out product and advised on strategy for some of the most prominent companies in the space, Jor is a pioneer in building out the ecosystem for digitizing and trading securities on the blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies. A finance and securities attorney, he is most well-known for his expertise in secured lending and alternative finance, including EB-5, venture capital, crowdfunding, and initial coin offerings (ICOs) or security token offerings (STOs). He is a co-founder of VerifyInvestor.com, the dominant accredited investor verification service in the world, and an expert on attracting and verifying accredited investors. Within the crypto space, he's most passionate about securities regulations affecting tokens, identity for regulatory purposes vs privacy and anonymity, and cross-ledger or cross-chain technologies.

Farrah Lakhani

Director of U.S. Growth & Operations, OakNorth Analytical Intelligence

Farrah Lakhani is the Director of Growth and Operations in the US for OakNorth Analytical Intelligence (“ONAI”). Prior to joining ONAI, Farrah was a senior investment banker at JPMorgan advising financial institutions and fintech companies for M&A and capital markets transactions. Farrah has over 13 years’ experience as an investment banker and private equity investor focused on financial services.

Julia La Roche

Host, The Julia La Roche Show

A veteran financial journalist, Julia has interviewed some of the world's top CEOs and investors. Julia dives deep into the lives and minds of her guests, uncovering their stories, experiences, and insights. She doesn’t shy away from the hard-hitting questions, and her guests always bring thoughtful answers.

Alexandra Krystal

Head of Origination and Distribution, Prime Services, CIBC

Alexandra Krystal joined CIBC in August of 2017 as Managing Director and Sales Head, Prime Services Group. Ms. Krystal’s responsibilities include the strategic development and implementation of CIBC’s U.S. Prime Brokerage Launch Initiative, including oversight of core activities involving product development and sales & marketing. In her current role, Ms. Krystal is also responsible for managing senior client relationships with alternative asset managers, overseeing the build-out of client-facing strategies and providing ongoing guidance with respect to structure, industry best-practices and forward looking trends in the Prime Brokerage market.

Prior to joining CIBC Capital Markets, Ms. Krystal worked in the Hedge Fund Consulting Practice at a professional services firm, where she led the Prime Brokerage Hedge Fund Strategy. Ms. Krystal developed their Prime Brokerage Advisory business, where she and her team worked along-side Prime Brokers to perform business assessments considering metrics across infrastructure, legal entity analysis, balance sheet, human capital, risk, client composition, and fixed / variable technology costs. She also developed an industry-leading Treasury Function Study to substantiate the evolution of the financing role, based on a detailed examination of collateral management processes, counterparty risk management practices, margin replication methods, Prime Brokerage relationships and funding technology solutions. Ms. Krystal chaired that same firm’s Emerging Manager Hedge Fund Strategy and was involved in emerging manager consulting, including start-up considerations and franchise-sized best practices across middle and back office functions.

Ms. Krystal also held senior sales and relationship management roles within the Prime Brokerage groups at two other financial institutions. In this capacity, she helped bring new clients to the respective banks, grow client profitability within Prime and was a conduit into the broader banking organization.

Ms. Krystal graduated from Colgate University with a Bachelor of Arts (Political Science & English) and from Columbia University with a Master of Business Administration (Finance).

Ms. Krystal spent 2 years as the Co-Chair of Hedge Fund Cares Committee of Hope and 7 years on the Committee, she is an Angel Member of 100 Women in Finance and a Board Member of The Adam Gaynes Foundation.

Daniel Kowalski

Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury

Daniel Kowalski currently serves as a Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury. In this role, Dan advises the Secretary regarding Treasury’s efforts to drive the Administration’s domestic policy agenda. His particular areas of focus are budget and fiscal policy; health, education and welfare policy; tax policy; and infrastructure policy. From June through November, 2016, Dan served in several roles in the Trump campaign in New York City with an emphasis on these domestic policy issues.

Dan has 30 years of experience in fiscal policy at the federal, state, and local levels of government.

Prior to Treasury, Kowalski was Deputy Staff Director of the Republican staff of the Senate Budget Committee. He also served as the Director of Budget Review for the Republican staff of the House Budget Committee. In those two positions, Dan helped shepherd several balanced budgets and reconciliation bills through the U.S. Congress.

He started in Washington in 1995 with the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) as a Principal Analyst in the unit responsible for preparing CBO’s baseline budget projections.

In state government, Dan worked as Director of the Legislative Budget Office for the Missouri General Assembly, and as the senior individual income tax analyst with the Republican staff of the Finance Committee for the New York State Senate.

He started his career as a management analyst for the Deputy Commissioner for Audit in the New York City Department of Finance.

Kowalski earned a Master in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a Bachelor of Arts from St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland.

Paul Kovarsky, CFA

Director of Institutional Partnerships, CFA Institute

Paul is a Director of Institutional Partnerships for CFA Institute, the leading global association of investment professionals. Responsible for design and implementation of Employer Partnerships and Executive Education, including CFA-Harvard Business School’s Investment Management Workshop, he is passionate about wider adoption of CFA Institute standards as well as distribution and use of educational resources for the investment management profession.

Frequent speaker on the topical industry issues, Paul has been featured in video interviews available on the RIAChannel, Real Vision TV and AdvisorAnalyst. His conference speaking engagements include events by Pensions&Investments, InsideETFs, Exchange Traded Forum and CFA New York. Paul also started Csuite Talks series for CFA Institute’s Enterprising Investor online publication with over 15 interviews of printed interviews of leading CIOs, Asset Owners and prominent academics from Harvard, Yale, Sorbonne and New York University.

Prior to joining CFA Institute, Paul led the Sales/Business Development for North American Financial Institutions for Australasia’s premier bank, Westpac. In addition to his buy-side experience as Investments Director for a family office, Paul worked for and Deutsche, Société Générale and ANZ Bank.

Karin Klein

Founding Parter, Bloomberg Beta

Karin Klein is a founding partner, leading east coast investing activities for Bloomberg Beta, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology companies that make business work better and has a focus on machine intelligence. Karin currently serves on the board of directors for Paramount Group (NYSE: PGRE), Harvey Mudd College, and L’Oreal’s Women in Digital. Prior to launching Bloomberg Beta, she led new initiatives at Bloomberg and oversaw Softbank’s venture capital team that reviewed new investments. She also was the co-founder and president of an educational training business for children and currently enjoys volunteering as a mentor with TechStars and the New York City Economic Development Corporation. She has been recognized on the Techweek100, Silicon Alley 100, Crain’s Women to Watch in New York Tech, and New York Business Journal’s “Women of Influence.” Karin has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is a summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the Annenberg School of Communications and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

David Klein

Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, CommonBond

David Klein is CEO and co-founder of CommonBond, a financial technology company on a mission to give students and graduates more affordable, transparent, and simple ways to pay for higher education. Prior to CommonBond, David worked in consumer finance at American Express, and started his professional career at McKinsey & Company, where he advised clients in financial services.

David started CommonBond when he decided to go back to school to pursue his MBA, having to pay his way 100% with student loans. That's when he experienced firsthand high rates, a confusing process, and poor service. He knew there had to be a better way, so he created one. To date, CommonBond has funded over $2B of student loans. The company is also first and only finance company with a "1-for-1" social mission: for every loan CommonBond funds, it also funds the education of a child in need. Additionally, CommonBond has been named to the World's 50 Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company, TIME's 50 Genius Companies, and the Forbes Fintech 50.

David graduated from Brandeis University with a BA in Politics, Economics, and International Business, and attended the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He frequently speaks on topics related to student debt, social impact, and personal finance, and can be seen on FOX Business, CNBC and Bloomberg West. David is also a contributor to Forbes, Inc, American Banker, The Hill and TechCrunch. He was named to Crain’s New York 40 Under 40 list in 2016 and is a 2017 Ernst & Young New York Entrepreneur of the Year award winner. For his work on student loan employee benefits, David was named a 2017 Benefits Technology Innovator by Employee Benefit News.