Gareth Shepherd, PhD, CFA

Co-Head of Voya Machine Intelligence & Portfolio Manager, Voya Investment Management

Gareth Shepherd is co-head of the Voya machine intelligence (VMI) team and a portfolio manager at Voya Investment Management. Prior to joining Voya, Gareth was a managing partner and co-founder of G Squared Capital LLP. Prior to that, he held various positions within risk and asset management in Australia, Switzerland, the U.S. and the UK. Gareth earned a PhD in applied expert systems and a Master of Applied Science from the University of New South Wales, and a BE from the University of Queensland. He also completed a World Economic Forum sponsored Executive Masters (INSEAD, London Business School, and Columbia University) and is a CFA® Charterholder.

Allyn L. Shaw

Chief Operating Officer, Global Information Security, Bank of America

Allyn L. Shaw is the Global Information Security (GIS) Chief Operating Officer. He is responsible for business operations as well as managing risk, strategy, finance, resources, performance and metrics management. Allyn and his team are also responsible for the development and implementation of an integrated GIS workforce strategy that delivers on future-state resource, location and learning goals.

Before moving to GIS, Allyn was the Workspace Services Chief Operating Officer in the Chief Technology Organization. In this role, he was responsible for aligning the technology initiatives of the workforce, marketing, and financial and risk controls. His team enabled the delivery of end-to-end technology and operations, which supported desktop platforms, productivity applications, mobility services, communication and collaboration technologies for the company.

Prior to joining Bank of America in 2004, Allyn led Enterprise Voice Network Services at Countrywide. He managed a team responsible for real-time communications, mobility, interactive response, contact centers, unified communications, trader voice, carrier transport services globally, and voice, web and video conferencing.

Allyn is a passionate advocate for inclusion, sponsorship and the creation of successful diverse teams. He serves on Bank of America’s LGBT Executive Council and the Black Executive Leadership Council. Allyn is the executive sponsor for the Charlotte, NC chapter of the bank’s Black Professional Group, a member of the Global Technology & Operations Diversity & Inclusion Council and a member of the Women in Technology & Operations Global Advisory Board. Within the community, Allyn serves on the board of Out and Equal Workplace Advocates.

Allyn is a California native, who currently lives with his husband in Charlotte, NC, where they enjoy music, tennis, travel, and spending time with friends and family.

Angelique Sellers, CFA

Senior Director, Portfolio Management, Penn State University

Angelique Sellers joined The Office of Investment Management at The Pennsylvania State University in October of 2011. She provides leadership in management of the University’s Long-Term Investment Pool, with primary responsibility for non-US public equity; diversifying strategies, including hedged and commodity related strategies; credit, and other opportunistic strategies. As the Sr. Director, she oversees global investment manager sourcing and due diligence, and is involved in all aspects of management of the University’s investment program.

Prior to joining the Penn State investment team, Sellers was co-Chief Investment Officer for Anchor Point Capital, LLC in Coral Gables, Florida, a multi-manager hedge fund investment firm.

Prior to Anchor Point Capital, Sellers served as an investment officer with the $2 billion John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Miami, where she was the team leader for a multi-manager, multi-strategy $600 million hedge fund portfolio.

Ms. Sellers attended Moscow State Linguistic University in Moscow, Russia, where she received a BA degree in Linguistics. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a member of the CFA Institute.

The Honorable Jeff Sessions

84th Attorney General of the United States

Mr. Sessions was born in Selma, Alabama as the son of a country store owner. After attending school in nearby Camden, Sessions attended Huntington College, a small liberal arts college, in Montgomery graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History in 1969. He taught in public schools one year before receiving a Juris Doctor degree in 1973 from the University of Alabama. In 1973, he received his U.S. Army Commission and served in the U.S. Army Reserve for over 10 years, ultimately attaining the rank of Captain.

Mr. Sessions served for over two years as an Assistant U.S. attorney (1975 – 1077) before being nominated by President Reagan in 1981. Confirmed by the Senate to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama, he held the position for 12 years (1981 – 1993). Sessions was later elected as Alabama Attorney General in 1995, serving as the State’s chief legal officer until 1996 when he was elected to the United States Senate (1997 – 2017). In the Senate, he was an active member of the Senate’s Judiciary and Armed Services Committees for 20 years. During this time, he served as ranking Republican on both the Judiciary and the Budget Committees.

Senator Sessions vigorously advocated for a restrained and objective Judiciary that follows the judicial oath to serve the Constitution and laws of our country. He fought for a frugal and balanced budget, a vigorous foreign policy and a strong military. Sessions strongly supported the War on Terrorism but acknowledges the need for realism and limits in our policies. Furthermore, he supports lawful immigration that serves the national interest and that the nation must stand firmly against unfair trade practices.

President Donald J. Trump announced his invitation to nominate Mr. Sessions on November 18, 2016 and he was sworn in as the 84th Attorney.

Laurie Segall

Journalist

Laurie Segall got her start identifying and interviewing founders of disruptive tech companies and bringing their stories to light. She has interviewed entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, and Bill Gates, giving her audience a behind the scenes look at tech companies like Twitter and Facebook during their meteoritic rise.

Covering technology for a decade, she has also interviewed the founders/CEOs of companies like Instagram, Twitter, Uber, Pinterest, Salesforce, Microsoft and more.

Segall was most recently a senior technology correspondent for CNN and editor-at-large for CNN Tech, where she covered the intersection of technology and culture for a decade. Her latest documentary for CNN, “Facebook at 15: It’s Complicated” provided unprecedented access to Facebook and top executives like CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg. Segall was also the executive producer and host of, Mostly Human with Laurie Segall, a six-part investigative docuseries, exploring sex, love, death - humanity - through the lens of tech.

An award winning storyteller, Segall specializes in investigative reports showing the impact of technology on our daily lives. Her investigations range from emerging forms of online harassment to an intimate look at the hacker community and drug use in Silicon Valley.

After a decade covering tech, Segall is launching a venture exploring technology through the most important lens of all: the human one.

Adam Seessel

Founder & Chief Investment Officer, Gravity Capital Management

Adam Seessel is founder and Chief Investment Officer of Gravity Capital Management, which runs money for both institutions and high-net worth individuals in a long-term, tax-efficient manner. He began his career at Sanford Bernstein and moved to progressively higher analytical responsibilities at Baron Capital and Davis Selected Advisers, where he ran consumer-products and media research. He started Gravity in 2003.

Gravity Capital Management manages money in both a partnership and a separate-account format. It has a long-term record of beating the market after fees, with special focus on capital preservation. In 2008, for example, the Gravity Long-Biased Fund lost only 5.5% of capital and returned 27% in 2009.

Seessel began his career as an investigative journalist, winning the George Polk Award in 1991 for environmental reporting. The award is generally considered the 2nd highest honor in American journalism after the Pulitzer Price. He remains active in journalism as an occasional contributor for both Barron’s and Fortune magazines.

Adam graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College in 1985 with a BA in Religion.

Todd G. Sears

Founder & Principal, Out Leadership

Todd Sears is the Founder and Principal of Out Leadership, the global LGBT+ business advisory company that partners with the world’s most influential firms to build business opportunity, cultivate talent, and drive equality forward.

More than 430 global CEOs have engaged in Out Leadership’s work, and the organization counts more than 65 major companies as members. Thousands of LGBT+ and ally executives share insights and best practices at Out Leadership’s annual Summits in New York, London, Hong Kong and Sydney. Many more engage with its global talent initiatives including OutNEXT, the first global development program for the next generation of LGBT+ executives; OutWOMEN, its groundbreaking effort to connect and celebrate Out LBT+ women in business; and Quorum, the first effort to place senior LGBT+ executives on corporate boards.

A former investment banker, Todd specialized in wealth management at Merrill Lynch, creating the first national team of financial advisors on Wall Street focused on the LGBT+ community, which brought over $1.4 billion of new assets to the firm. Todd then moved into diversity leadership, as Head of Diversity & Strategic Initiatives at Merrill Lynch and then at Credit Suisse, where he served as Americas Head of Diversity and Inclusion.

A graduate of Duke University and Woodberry Forrest School, Todd is also an active philanthropist and community leader. He is the founding co-chair of Jeffrey Fashion Cares, a fundraiser supporting LGBT+ civil rights, youth and HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention, which has applied an innovative cost-structure to raise millions of dollars since its inception.

Todd serves on the non-profit boards of The Williams Institute of UCLA, The Palette Fund, and Lambda Legal. In 2014 he received Aid for AIDS International’s My Hero Award; in 2015 he received the Minority Corporate Counsel Association's Paula L. Ettelbrick Award for achievements in advancing LGBT attorneys.

Marc Schultz

Partner, Snell & Wilmer

Marc Schultz is a partner at Snell & Wilmer LLP, based in Phoenix, Arizona. Marc's practice is concentrated in federal, local and state taxation matters, including complex transactions involving corporations, limited liability companies, limited partnerships, tax exempt entities, and real property. Marc regularly engages in advising clients with respect to mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, formation of private investment funds, tax credit financing, and energy transactions. Marc currently chairs Snell & Wilmer’s Tax Credit Finance Group and Renewable Energy Group, and founded and co-chairs the firm’s Opportunity Zones and Funds Industry Group.

Marc has represented investors, developers, and syndicators with respect to Low-Income Housing Tax Credit transactions, and has represented numerous parties with respect to transactions involving New Markets Tax Credits, Historic Tax Credits, and Renewable Energy. Marc is a regular speaker and panelist on the subject of tax credit finance and the Opportunity Zone incentive, and has written numerous articles and has been quoted in numerous publications with respect to these subject areas.

Marc is currently representing investors, fund sponsors, and developers with respect to the Opportunity Zone Program. Marc was involved in the advising and drafting of a number of comment letters that were submitted to the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service regarding the Opportunity Zone proposed regulations. Marc was recently a panelist and/or speaker at the State of Delaware’s Opportunity Zone Summit hosted by the Biden Institute, the Opportunity Zone Conference hosted by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the State of Rhode Island’s Opportunity Zone Workshop.

Marc received a Juris Doctor with highest honors from the Chicago-Kent College of Law, where he was elected to Order of the Coif, and received a Legal Masters in Taxation (LL.M.) from the New York University School of Law. He has also served as an adjunct professor, teaching taxation of business entities in the Graduate Program of Accountancy, at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Marc also served on the Board of Directors for the Arizona Housing Finance Authority, as an appointment by Arizona Governor Doug Ducey.

Chris Schultz

Chief Executive Officer & Creative Director, Launch Pad

Chris Schultz is a seasoned expert in high-growth startups and expansion in momentum markets. He’s an active angel investor and has spent 15+ years bringing together the “doers” of the world—startups that have raised hundreds of millions in venture capital and created 5,000+ jobs. He founded Launch Pad, a startup workspace and community for entrepreneurs, creatives, and professionals in New Orleans in 2009. As an early-stage investor in New Orleans, Chris was the first check in to Lucid and served as a board member as it grew from 1 to 220 employees and recently raised $60mm. In 2018, he guided the expansion to new markets in Newark, Memphis, and Nashville and plans to continue the expansion to 25 more locations by 2020.

Kristen Scholer

Senior Anchor, Cheddar

Kristen Scholer is Cheddar's Senior Anchor, hosting the business news network's flagship show "Opening Bell" live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange each weekday from 9 to 11 a.m. Eastern time. Before joining Cheddar as its first news anchor, Kristen was a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, writing a daily finance column and reporting across its digital and print platforms. Kristen was a producer and writer at CNBC prior to her work at the Journal. She graduated cum laude from Northwestern University, studying journalism, economics and politics.

Justin Schmidt

Head of Digital Asset Markets & Vice President, Goldman Sachs

Justin Schmidt joined Goldman Sachs as VP, Head of Digital Asset Markets in April of 2018. Prior, Justin spent ten years as a quantitative equities portfolio manager for hedge funds in NY and London. Justin is a graduate of MIT with degrees in Computer Science, specializing in artificial intelligence and distributed systems engineering.

Peter Schiff

Chief Economist & Global Strategist, Euro Pacific Capital

Peter Schiff is the Chief Economist & Global Strategist of Euro Pacific Capital, a division of Alliance Global Partners, an SEC-Registered Investment Adviser and a full service broker/dealer. He is one of the few widely known economists and investment professionals to have warned about the 2008 financial crisis before it began. His renown grew widely as a result of his forceful commentary on the U.S. stock market, the problems with the U.S. economy, the bubble in the real estate market, the value of gold, the fallacies of cryptocurrencies, and potential weakness of the U.S. dollar. He is a widely followed opponent of debt-fueled growth policies and activist central banks. He is a strong advocate for free market economics and is known for his advocacy for emerging market and commodity-focused investments.

Mr. Schiff has been quoted hundreds of times in leading news outlets around the world, including The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Die Zeit, Tokyo Shinbun, South China Morning Post, Investor’s Business Daily, The Financial Times, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post. He regularly appears on CNBC, CNN, The BBC, Al Jazeera, Fox News, and Fox Business Network. His best-selling book, “Crash Proof: How to Profit from the Coming Economic Collapse” was published by Wiley & Sons in February of 2007. His 2010 illustrated economics primer “How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes” has been translated in over 10 languages, won the 2011 Corrine book publishing award in Germany, and served as the basis for an animated educational series produced by the Motion Picture Institute (MPI). His fourth book, “The Real Crash – America’s Coming Bankruptcy” was published by St. Martin’s Press in May of 2012.

Mr. Schiff began his investment career as a financial consultant with Shearson Lehman Brothers, after having earned a degree in finance and accounting from U.C. Berkeley in 1987. A financial professional for more than twenty years, he joined Euro Pacific in 1996 and served as its President until December 2010, when he became CEO. An expert on money, economic theory, and international investing, he is a highly sought after speaker at conferences and symposia around the world. He served as an economic advisor to the 2008 Ron Paul presidential campaign and ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut in 2010. He resides Puerto Rico and Connecticut with his wife Lauren and two young children, as well as his son from a prior marriage. He and holds FINRA Series 4, 7, 24, 27, 53, 55, 63 & 65 registrations.

Erik Schatzker

Editor-at-Large, Bloomberg TV

Erik Schatzker is an editor-at-large with Bloomberg Television in New York, where he specializes in long-form interviews, enterprise reporting and special events.

Schatzker developed and hosts Bloomberg’s Front Row series of in-depth conversations with the most powerful, interesting and influential figures in finance — a dynamic cast of characters that ranges from innovation icon Cathie Wood to Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.

Since joining Bloomberg TV in 2007, he has reported from across the globe and gained exclusive access to heads of state and business leaders for stories on camera and in print. Schatzker landed the first interview with Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal after his release from detention in the now-infamous Riyadh Ritz-Carlton and played a key role in Bloomberg’s definitive coverage of the market-shaking collapse of investment firm Archegos. He also contributes regularly to Bloomberg Businessweek.

Previously, Schatzker was a reporter, editor, bureau chief and manager at Bloomberg News, where his coverage of Lucent, the onetime tech darling, and Refco, the failed commodity broker, won journalism awards.

A Canadian, he graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in history and began his career with the South Pacific Mail in Santiago, Chile.

AJ Scaramucci

Founder & Managing Partner, Kyber Capital

AJ Scaramucci is a Founder & Managing Partner at the SALT. Previously AJ was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence alongside Dr. Peter Diamandis building Cellularity, an allogeneic cellular therapies company focused on cancer immunotherapy (NASDAQ: CELU). AJ was also a Managing Director at ABG (successor of Tony Blair Associates) where he focused on advising and financing late stage technology companies like Hims & Hers, JUST, and SpaceX. Prior to that AJ held roles at Google, Tesla, Planetary Resources, Sinovation Ventures, HubSpot, and the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. Holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Sandro Salsano

President, Salsano Group

President Salsano Group, a private conglomerate investing in global real estate, private equity and technology. Chairman of Salsano Family Office and Chairman of Salsano Shahani Foundation, improving kids education in Latin America. Named by Forbes the Warren Buffett of Central America, nominated by World Economic Forum as Young Global Leader. Chairman of Global Dignity and Academy of Global Teacher Prize. Bocconi University graduate, also studied at Harvard, Oxford and Princeton University.

Shannon Saccocia

Chief Investment Officer, Boston Private Wealth

Shannon Saccocia is the chief investment officer at Boston Private, a leading provider of fully integrated wealth management, trust, and private and commercial banking services.

Ms. Saccocia is responsible for setting the overall investment strategy for the firm. She oversees asset allocation, research, portfolio management, external manager search and selection, portfolio implementation, trading, and investment risk management functions. She also works closely with both the business development team and the wealth advisor team to help construct and deliver customized wealth management solutions to meet clients’ specific needs. In her capacity as chief investment officer, she is a member of the firm’s executive team, as well as the Investment Policy Committee, and Asset Allocation Working Group.

Previously, Ms. Saccocia was the director of Manager Search and Selection for Silver Bridge Advisors, which was acquired by Banyan Partners in 2013. Boston Private Wealth acquired Banyan Partners in 2014. Prior to joining Silver Bridge, she worked at State Street Corporation, providing performance and attribution analysis for institutional investors.

Ms. Saccocia holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a Certified Investment Management Analyst® professional. She is also a member of the Boston Security Analysts Society, the CFA Institute, and the Investment Management Consultants Association. She earned a BA in economics and history from Brandeis University.

Ms. Saccocia is an official contributor to CNBC's “Halftime Report” and is regularly featured in the financial media. She resides in the Boston area with her husband and two children.

Riccardo Sabatini

Chief Technology Officer, Orionis Biosciences

Riccardo Sabatini is a world renown scientist and entrepreneur specialized in numerical modeling of complex system, ranging from material science, financial markets, computational genomics and drug design. In the past he's served as director of FoodCAST, EU research project on food commodity markets forecasting; founding member of Aiida and Quantum ESPRESSO, the largest open source suite for quantum modeling of materials; lead research scientist for Human Longevity, Silicon Valley unicorn working at the intersection of genomics and artificial intelligence. Active supporter of high impact projects, he’s co-founder of the Refugees Action HUB center at MIT, educational effort of MIT targeting displaced population around the world; chairman of the G7 for artificial intelligence; board member of the Fondazione ENI Enrico Mattei; advisor and supporter of the Human Code Foundation, charity focusing on scientific dissemination; angel investor and BoA of leading startups working in AI. Speaker at international events and conferences, including TED and WEF. Author in top ranking scientific journals, consultant for Fortune500 companies, inventor of several patents in biotech and IT, angel investor and board member for some groundbreaking startups in the field of artificial intelligence. Today he’s working on how to solve drug design at genomic scale with his company, Orionis Biosciences.

Stephanie Ruhle

Anchor, MSNBC; Correspondent, NBC News

Stephanie Ruhle anchors “MSNBC Live with Stephanie Ruhle” at 9 a.m. ET and “MSNBC Live with Velshi & Ruhle” at 1 p.m. ET on weekdays. Ruhle also appears across all NBC News and MSNBC platforms, including “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt,” “TODAY,” and NBCNews.com. Since joining MSNBC, Ruhle has interviewed numerous high-profile newsmakers and influential politicians.

Previously, Ruhle served as anchor and managing editor for Bloomberg Television and editor-at-large for Bloomberg News, where she co-hosted Bloomberg <GO>, Bloomberg TV’s flagship morning show featuring global thought leaders across business, tech and media.

Prior to Bloomberg, Ruhle worked at Deutsche Bank, serving as a Managing Director in Global Markets Senior Relationship Management. Ruhle began her career at Credit Suisse, where she was the highest-producing credit derivatives salesperson in the U.S.

In 2015, Ruhle produced and hosted the documentary Haiti: Open For Business?, which sheds light on the country five years after it was hit by a devastating earthquake and explores its viability as the next emerging market. Ruhle also participated in a short-form documentary, Sharkland: A Mission Blue & Fusion Expedition, which brings attention to the plight of sharks and the urgent needs to conserve our oceans.

Ruhle plays an active role in women’s leadership development, having founded the Corporate Investment Bank Women’s Network and co-chaired Women on Wall Street. Ruhle is a member of the board of trustees for Girls Inc. NYC and in 2016 was honored as one of their Women of the Year. Ruhle currently sits on the board and advises for "React To Film," an issue-based documentary film series, and formerly served on the corporate councils of iMentor and The White House Project.

Ruhle received a bachelor’s degree in International Business from Lehigh University and resides in New York City with her husband Andy Hubbard and their 3 children, Harrison, Reese and Drew.

Jack Ross

Managing Partner & Co-Founder, Waterfall Asset Management

Jack Ross is a managing partner and co-founder of Waterfall Asset Management. Mr. Ross has over 30 years of ABS and structured credit experience, having completed some of the earliest ABS issues at Drexel Burnham Lambert and co-founded Merrill Lynch’s ABS Group with Tom Capasse. Mr. Ross subsequently managed International Real Estate Debt at Merrill Lynch and founded Licent Capital, a specialty broker/dealer for intellectual property securitization. Mr. Ross began his career as a CPA with Laventhol & Horwath and received a B.S. from the University of Buffalo in 1978 and his MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1984.

David Rosenblum

Managing Partner, Prophet Capital

David Rosenblum joined Prophet Capital as a Managing Partner in 2009. Mr. Rosenblum began his career at Goldman Sachs as a junior trader in the Mortgage Department in 1992. For the next fifteen years, he structured and traded a wide variety of mortgage-backed securities. In 2005, Mr. Rosenblum was named head of Prime Residential Structured Mortgage Trading, with responsibility for the Agency CMO, Mortgage Derivatives and Non-Agency Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities businesses. In 2006, Mr. Rosenblum changed roles to head up the Collateralized Loan Obligation group. In early 2008, after two years running Goldman’s CLO business, Mr. Rosenblum left the securities division to join Goldman Sachs Asset Management as head of Structured Credit Portfolio Management. In this role, he built portfolios of distressed RMBS, CMBS and CLO securities. In December 2008, Mr. Rosenblum was additionally asked to be the sole GSAM professional dedicated to help implement and manage the U.S. Federal Reserve’s US$1.25 trillion Agency MBS Mortgage Purchase Program. He continued in both of these roles until his departure from GSAM in June 2009. Mr. Rosenblum earned a B.A. degree in Mathematics, summa cum laude, from Amherst College in 1992.