Deniz Kent, PhD

Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Prolific Machines

Deniz Kent, PhD is the Co-founder and CEO of Prolific Machines. Prior to starting Prolific, Dr Kent spent his career working in the pursuit of improving human health. After studying Cellular and Molecular Medicine, he began researching in a tumour immunology lab, working to reprogram the immune system to fight cancer. After this, he went to GSK and worked to reprogram the immune system to respond to allergens with tolerance instead of inflammation. He did his doctorate in stem cell biology, and during his PhD he co-discovered a new liver stem cell, and conducted the world's first high throughput screen on hiPSC-derived hepatocytes. During his PhD, Deniz conceived of the idea for Prolific Machines, a cell type agnostic assembly line for biomanufacturing. Applications for Prolific Machines span cultured meat, biologics manufacturing, cell based therapies, and beyond.

Rabia Iqbal

Managing Partner, Nural Capital

Rabia Iqbal is Managing Partner of Nural Capital. Nural Capital is a web3 investing platform focused on providing access to top blockchain funds and direct investments. Nural's investors include FTX Ventures, executives from leading VC firms, global family offices, HNWs, and crypto natives like Kenetic Capital. Rabia began personally investing in crypto in 2017; she is excited about the power of web3 to build community and financial independence for a wide swath of the world.

Rabia brings ten years of experience from the traditional finance sector to web3 investing. Prior to Nural Capital, Rabia worked at Morgan Stanley, Mubadala Capital, and Coatue Management covering investments, business development, and operations. She holds a BS from Cornell University and is a member of the Milken Young Leaders Circle.

Sir Michael Hintze

Founder, Executive Chairman & Senior Investment Officer, CQS

Sir Michael is the Founder, Executive Chairman and Senior Investment Officer of CQS. He is a Senior Partner and serves as a Director on the CQS Board of Directors. Sir Michael is also a Senior Portfolio Manager.

Prior to establishing CQS in 1999, Michael held a number of senior roles at CSFB and Goldman Sachs. He began his career in finance in 1982 with Salomon Brothers, New York, after working as an Electrical Design Engineer in Australia, where he had also served as a Captain in the Australian army.

Michael is a fluent Russian speaker. He holds a BSc in Physics and Pure Mathematics and a BEng in Electrical Engineering both from the University of Sydney. He also holds an MSc in Acoustics from the University of New South Wales, an MBA from Harvard Business School, received a DBA (honoris) from the University of New South Wales and a DEng (honoris causa) from the University of Sydney.

Zack Guzmán

Founder, Trustless Media

Zack Guzman is a crypto journalist and founder of the Meta/Bulletin newsletter "Crypto Uncomplicated." He was the creator of Yahoo Finance's "Crypto Corner" and host of Yahoo Finance's millennial money show "YFi PM." He previously worked as a multimedia reporter at CNBC covering startups and technology. His reporting has been featured across multiple platforms including the New York Post, Washington Post, Huffington Post, NBC, Entrepreneur and AOL. Before graduating from Harvard, he was selected by a committee of his peers and alumni to address graduating seniors, family, and faculty at Class Day with a comedic oration.

Rembrandt Flores

Founder, 8Commas

Rembrandt Flores is the Founder of 8Commas, a marketing consultancy for NFT projects, cryptocurrencies, protocols, and other Blockchain-native businesses. With esteemed companies such as dYdX, Metacrafters, Xsolla, McLaren Automotive, ZINU, Forgotten Runes, Origin, Coach and Basic.Space, 8Commas continues to shift culture through its work within Web3. 

Flores is also a Partner at Flowing Ventures. He has served as both an investor and/or advisor to numerous startups such as Flip, Cameo, Proof of Learn, Casper, Versus Game, Away, MOSH, JPEGD, kumu, Feels, MOON, Iconic Hearts, PYM, Ape Water, and Hashflow.

Prior to that, he was Founder & Executive Director of Celebrity Partnerships and Events at Entertainment Fusion Group (EFG). At EFG, he had the privilege of working on a slew of recognizable brands to include Tinder, ASICS, Electronic Arts, Oakley, Fox, Diageo, VEVO, EMI, LG Mobile, Monster Energy, HTC, Capcom, sbe, Macy’s, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Generosity Water and Ubisoft as well as events for The Oscars, Emmys, Sundance Film Festival, Grammys, Coachella, SXSW, Toronto Film Festival and MTV Video Music & Movie Awards. Exceptional experiences are at the core of his ethos and consumer impact.

Rick Doblin

Executive Director, Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)

Rick Doblin, Ph.D., is the founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). He received his doctorate in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where he wrote his dissertation on the regulation of the medical uses of psychedelics and marijuana and his Master’s thesis on a survey of oncologists about smoked marijuana vs. the oral THC pill in nausea control for cancer patients. His undergraduate thesis at New College of Florida was a 25-year follow-up to the classic Good Friday Experiment, which evaluated the potential of psychedelic drugs to catalyze religious experiences. He also conducted a thirty-four year follow-up study to Timothy Leary’s Concord Prison Experiment. Rick studied with Dr. Stanislav Grof and was among the first to be certified as a Holotropic Breathwork practitioner. His professional goal is to help develop legal contexts for the beneficial uses of psychedelics and marijuana, primarily as prescription medicines but also for personal growth for otherwise healthy people, and eventually to become a legally licensed psychedelic therapist. He founded MAPS in 1986, and currently resides in Boston with his wife and three children.

Marcos Díaz González

Executive Vice President, STV

Marcos Díaz González is Executive Vice President of Advisory Services & Program Management Services at STV, a leading firm providing engineering, architectural, planning, advisory, environmental, and construction and program management services for clients in the transportation, infrastructure, buildings, facilities, and energy sectors. He has over 20 years of experience as an operations executive, project executive, program manager, mergers and acquisitions lead, and business developer.

His expertise ranges across multiple market sectors including institutional high-performance venues, transportation, planning, government-advisory, buildings, site development, environment, and sports, as well as multiple delivery methods including Design-Build, Design-Bid-Build, and Public Private Partnerships.

Marcos was inducted into the National Academy of Construction in 2021 and is also a leader in civic engagement. He is the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Gowanus Canal Conservancy, and the Chair-Elect of the ACE Mentor Program of Greater New York. Marcos is also the vice chair of the Board of Advisors for the Center for Buildings, Infrastructure and Public Spaces at Columbia University, where he is an Adjunct Professor.

Marcos was one of Engineering News-Record New York’s inaugural Top 20 Under 40 awardees. In 2020, he received the ACE Mentor Program of Greater New York Board Service Award.

Marcos studied engineering in Spain, received an AS in mathematics from Foothill College, graduated with Honors and Distinction from Stanford University (Phi Beta Kappa), and has M.Arch. and MBA degrees from Yale University.

Tim Chrisman

Executive Director, Association for Space Finance

Tim Chrisman is a space policy and geopolitics expert who writes extensively about the future of humanity in space. Tim founded the Association for Space Finance, the industry association representing space investors, and whose membership ranges from small family offices to Barclays Investment Bank. He also leads the Foundation for the Future, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. which is leading the policy conversation around space infrastructure.

Tim is a former Army officer, who spent nearly a decade leading intelligence teams in combat and special operations units through five deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. After his military service, Tim was selected to be a special advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff before joining the Central Intelligence Agency. He held multiple assignments at the Agency, including with the Directorate of Operations and Directorate of Analysis.

Tim studied at American University where he earned his Masters in International Relations and Affairs; the second of his two master's degrees (the other is in Intelligence Studies). Tim is the author of the book Humanity in Space.

Thomas Bohner

Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Credix Finance

Bio: Thomas Bohner is the Founder and CEO of Credix Finance, an institutional DeFi platform connecting investors with FinTech lenders in Emerging Markets. Mr. Bohner is an experienced financial technology executive and entrepreneur. He launched a blockchain and crypto business unit within IntellectEU, a global software engineering company. He was involved in building blockchain-based clearing & settlement systems for institutions such as the London Stock Exchange and Australian Securities Exchange, creating a global leader in blockchain advisory and professional services.

Dan Ariely

Co-Founder, Irrational Capital; James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics, Duke University

Dan Ariely is a co-Founder of Irrational Capital and a leading behavioral economist, author, and entrepreneur, and a James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University. For the past five years, Dan and the Irrational Capital team have researched the connection between deep elements of corporate culture and their impact on the ultimate measure of future equity performance for public companies – stock price.

Dan’s groundbreaking work in behavioral economics has led to the publication of several New York Times bestsellers including Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions. He contributes a regular column to The Wall Street Journal, “Ask Ariely,” and has delivered numerous TED Talks with over 10 million downloads.

Dan has been involved in a wide range of successful commercial ventures and is also a founding member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight.

Carlos Domingo

Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, Securitize

Securitize's mission is to disrupt, improve and democratize access to the capital markets. Leveraging blockchain technology, Securitize is the only end-to-end solution enabling companies to tokenize assets, raise capital, compliantly onboard investors, manage shareholders, and enable liquidity, all on one digital platform. Securize's all-in-one platform is comprised of Securitize Transfer (the only of the top 10 stock transfer agents to tokenize shares), Securitize iD (an identify verification passport for digital assets), Securitize Markets (a registered broker-dealer and Alternative Trading System), and Securitize Capital (one of the first digital asset management firms and a registered investment advisor).

In addition to leading Securitize, Carlos is a co-founder and Managing Partner of SPiCE VC, the first truly liquid, inclusive and transparent tokenized venture capital firm on the blockchain. He is also the author of Everything You Wanted to Know About Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies and 8/ockchain but Were Afraid to Ask. Carlos is a sought-after speaker on topics ranging from blockchain to digitization, Web3 to regulation and the long tail of more liquid capital markets.

Prior to co-founding Securitize, Carlos was Chief Innovation and Transformation Officer at Dubai-based telecom "du". Before that, he served as President and CEO of Research and Development, as well as CEO of New Business and Innovation, at the Spanish telecom Telefonica. He has also been CEO, CTO, or a board member at numerous additional tech startups in both the U.S. and Japan.

Carlos holds a PhD and Bachelor's Degree in computer science from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, a Master's Degree in computer science from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and an Executive MBA from Stanford University.

Carlos speaks English, Spanish and Japanese and is based in Miami, Florida.

Dr. Noubar Afeyan

Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Flagship Pioneering

Dr. Noubar Afeyan is founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, a company that creates bioplatform companies to transform human health and sustainability. An entrepreneur and biochemical engineer, Dr. Afeyan holds more than 100 patents and has co-founded more than 70 life science and technology startups during his 35-year career. He is co-founder and chairman of the board of Moderna, the pioneering messenger RNA company addressing the global COVID-19 pandemic through life-saving vaccines, and chairs the boards of several private and public companies.

Noubar entered biotechnology during its emergence as an academic field and industry, completing his doctoral work in biochemical engineering at MIT in 1987. He was a senior lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management from 2000 to 2016, a lecturer at Harvard Business School until 2020, and he currently serves as a member of the MIT Corporation. He teaches and speaks around the world on topics ranging from entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic development to biological engineering, new medicines, and renewable energy. In 2022, Noubar was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Dr. Afeyan has received multiple awards for his passionate advocacy of the contributions of immigrants to economic and scientific progress. He is the co-founder of the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity and a number of other philanthropic projects focused on Armenia.

John Wu

President, Ava Labs

John Wu is President of Ava Labs, an Andresseen Horowitz backed technology company building the next-generation blockchain platform: Avalanche. John’s objective is to open up financial services and products to all. In this role, he leverages his expertise from over 20 years as a fintech executive and technology investor to create a blockchain-enabled solution for originating, issuing, and trading financial assets.

John was previously CEO of the SharesPost Digital Assets Group, enabling compliant token trading of private shares and funds. Prior to that, he was a technology investor and the founder of Sureview Capital, a global hedge fund backed by the Blackstone Group.

John began his investment career at Tiger Management, before managing a global technology portfolio at Kingdon Capital.

Thomas Tull

Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Tulco

Thomas Tull is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Tulco, LLC, a private holding company that partners with companies employing cutting-edge ideas and technology in under-innovated industries. Sector agonistic, investments range from FIGS, the healthcare apparel company that uses data science and machine learning, to Acrisure, the leading insurance broker in the U.S. He is also the founder of the Tull Investment Group, a private fund that invests in startup and early-stage technology companies, including Colossal, IL MAKIAGE, Genies, Pinterest, Zoox and Oculus Rift. Previously, Thomas was the founder, CEO and Chairman of Legendary Entertainment, the film company that produced blockbusters including The Dark Knight trilogy, 300 and The Hangover franchise.

Outside of his investment work, Thomas is an active philanthropist and founder of the Tull Family Foundation, which supports causes focused on education, medical and scientific research, and conservation. He is also a member of the MIT School of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Council and a Visiting Innovation Scholar, and a trustee of Carnegie Mellon University, Yellowstone Forever, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and the Smithsonian Institution. Thomas is part of the ownership group of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He received his undergraduate degree from Hamilton College.

Akbar Thobhani

Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, sFOX

Akbar Thobhani is the co-founder and CEO of sFOX, a full-service crypto prime broker bringing together liquidity, best price execution, dark pool access, treasury management, custody and settlement services all together in one trading platform and API. Prior to co-founding sFOX, Thobhani served as Head of Growth & Business Development at Airbnb, where he managed payments for over 190 countries.

With vast experience in trading and payments, Thobani has developed several platform solutions for companies like ITG, Boku, and Stamps.com. He started his career as a software engineer at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Thobhani earned his MBA from MIT, where he started mining bitcoins before it was popular.

Tracy Stuart, CFA

Chief Executive Officer & Managing Partner, Corbin Capital Partners

Tracy serves as the Chief Executive Officer and is a Managing Partner of Corbin Capital Partners, a New York-based independent alternative asset management firm that specializes in multi-strategy and opportunistic credit investing for institutional investors and high-net-worth clients globally. As of July 1, 2022, Corbin has $8.27 billion in AUM.

With over 30 years of industry experience, Tracy is responsible for management of the firm and is a member of Corbin’s Multi-Strategy Investment Committee, Credit Investment Committee, and Operating Committee. Before joining Corbin in 2004, Tracy was Managing Director and Head of the Global Multi-Manager Strategies group at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, a Managing Director at BARRA/RogersCaseyStrategic Consulting Group, a consultant at Wilshire Associates, Inc. and a financial analyst at SEI Corporation. Tracy graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in Economics, received her M.I.M. from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird) and was awarded the CFA charter in 1992.

Tracy’s currently a Board member of Save the Children and chairs the Investment Committee. Former Board involvement includes High Water Women and Shepherd’s Inc. Recently Tracy has become an Advisory Committee Member of No Labels, a group committed to bipartisanship by bringing Congressional Democrats and Republicans together.

Rahul Singhvi

Chief Executive Officer, Resilience

Rahul Singhvi is a global leader in the Life Sciences industry and serves as the Chief Executive Officer of National Resilience, Inc.

Most recently, Rahul was an Operating Partner at Flagship Pioneering, a Boston-based life sciences innovation firm where he was responsible for founding and operating companies launched from Flagship’s innovation foundry, Flagship labs. Before joining Flagship, Rahul was the Chief Operating Officer of Takeda’s Vaccine Business Unit where he was responsible for worldwide vaccine CMC and manufacturing operations. During his six-year tenure at Takeda, the vaccine business grew to over 500 employees and created an industry leading late-stage pipeline of vaccine candidates against dengue, norovirus, and zika. Before Takeda, Rahul was President and CEO of Novavax, Inc. (Nasdaq: NVAX) where he transformed the company from a specialty pharmaceutical business to a vaccine development company with vaccine candidates against influenza (funded by BARDA) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Rahul’s professional career began at Merck & Co in 1994, where he held several positions in R&D and manufacturing.

Rahul serves on the Executive Advisory Board of the Leonard Davis Institute (LDI) of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania and on the Scientific Advisory Board of the anti-microbial resistance research group at the Singapore MIT Advance Research and Technology program. He is a mentor instructor in the Undergraduate Projects Opportunity Program (UPOP) at MIT and is a visiting lecturer at the University College London (UCL).

Dr. Singhvi graduated as the top ranked chemical engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India and obtained both his M.S. and Sc.D. chemical engineering degrees from MIT. He received an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated as a Palmer Scholar.

Margaret Vo Schaus

Chief Financial Officer, NASA

Margaret Vo Schaus was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on July 30, 2021, to serve as NASA’s Chief Financial Officer. As Chief Financial Officer, Schaus ensures the financial health of the Agency and oversees all financial management, budget, strategic planning, and performance activities relating to NASA’s programs and operations. Schaus manages the Agency’s budget and financial operations, directs the preparation and submission of annual financial and budgetary reports, and coordinates Agency financial management activities with other federal agencies.

Prior to this appointment, Schaus was a career member of the Senior Executive Service. She has held numerous leadership roles within science and engineering organizations with responsibility for advancing research, development and demonstration programs; financial management; and business operations. She has served in positions at the Departments of Defense, Energy and Treasury, and at the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Schaus has been recognized with several awards, including the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s

Exceptional Civilian Service Award, the Department of Energy’s Distinguished Career Service Award, and the Secretary of Energy’s Honor Award.

She received her Bachelor of Arts degrees from Stanford University in Science, Technology, and Society, as well as English, as well as a Master of Science degree in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University.

Brett Redfearn

Founder, Panorama Financial Markets Advisory

Brett Redfearn is the Founder of Panorama Financial Markets Advisory, an advisory firm focused on helping innovators navigate strategic, regulatory and operational challenges in the evolving market structures of digital assets and equity securities. Brett is currently working with asset managers, broker-dealers and other fintech companies. He is also Senior Strategic Advisor and Chairman of the Advisory Board at Securitize, a leading regulated platform for issuing and trading digital asset securities.

Prior to PFMA, Brett headed Capital Markets for Coinbase, where he focused on building the emergent ecosystem for digital asset securities and overseeing the Coinbase exchange.

Between October 2017 and December 2020, Brett led the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Trading and Markets where he oversaw groundbreaking rulemakings and market initiatives across U.S. equities, options, fixed income, security-based swaps and digital asset securities

Mr. Redfearn joined the SEC after a 14-year career at J.P. Morgan, where he was, most recently, Global Head of Market Structure for the Corporate and Investment Bank across asset classes.

Mr. Redfearn has served on the boards of Bats Global Markets, BATS Exchange, the National Organization of Investment Professionals, the Chicago Stock Exchange and BIDS Trading.

Claudio Parrinello

Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, PlanetWatch

Claudio is the CEO and Cofounder of PlanetWatch, which is building a global decentralized environmental data ecosystem by leveraging Web3 technologies and communities.

Claudio holds a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics. He is a former research physicist, international consultant and manager @CERN, Geneva. An Italian national, he has lived and worked in the US as well as in several European countries. In 2012 he cofounded Terabee, a French startup developing innovative 3D sensing solutions. In 2016, Claudio started getting involved in the blockchain ecosystem. In 2017 he led a project delivering the first NFT standard for the EOS blockchain. Finally, in 2019 he got the idea underpinning PlanetWatch, by blending his passions for the environment, citizen science and advanced technologies. PlanetWatch has since become the only company in the blockchain ecosystem to be an official CERN Spin-Off. The company is often featured in CERN Knowledge Transfer reports and environmental publications.