Mark Cuban

Mark Cuban is an American entrepreneur, television personality, media proprietor, and investor. He is ranked #179 on the 2019 Forbes 400 list and is a named inventor of 11 patent families and 23 distinct patent publications for his inventions. He also owns the Dallas Mavericks,  co-owns 2929 Entertainment, and is the chairman of AXS TV. He is also one of the main "Shark" investors on the ABC reality television series, Shark Tank. In 2011, Cuban wrote an ebook, How to Win at the Sport of Business, in which he chronicles his experiences in business and sports.

Manjula Dissanayake

Mr. Manjula Dissanayake is former investment banker and founder of Educate Lanka who spoke on private sector mobilization and his industry change from investment banker to non-profit founder.

Amir Dossal

Mr. Amir Dossal, 25-veteran at the United Nations and founder of the Global Partnerships Forum, spoke on his experience at the UN and his strategies for mobilizing private sector investment in sustainable initiatives.

Lucinda Sweazey

Lucinda Sweazey is a recruiter and member of the investment team at Bridgewater Associates. Previously, she worked as Director of Career Development at King’s College for three years helping students with job searches, offering resume advice, and assisting with employment applications. She has also interned at Gerson Lehrman Group working in the corporate markets department. She holds a Bachelor of Science from King’s College.

Gavin Walsh

Gavin Walsh is a portfolio manager at Bridgewater Associates, where he has worked for seven years. He has also worked at GiveDirectly as their Director of Finance and Information systems. He holds a BA in Economics and Psychology from Purchase College, an MS in Quantitative Finance from Fordham University, and the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Costis Maglaras

Costis Maglaras is dean and the David and Lyn Silfen Professor of Business at Columbia Business School. He received his BS in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College, London and holds MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. An expert in operations research, data analytics and quantitative finance, Dean Maglaras has served as chair of the Decision, Risk & Operations Division; as faculty director for the Risk Management course administered through Executive Education; and as a member of the Executive Committee of Columbia University's Data Science Institute.  He has received both the Dean's Award for Teaching Excellence and the Dean's Award for Teaching Innovation.  Prior to joining the School in 1998, Dean Maglaras was a research scientist at Canon Research Center America.

Mina Tadrus

Minda Tadrus is the founder and CEO of Tadrus Capital, a hedge fund which specializes in quantitative captial management. He taught JEC members about hedge funds and his approach to investing and also provided our members with an exclusive investment learning opportunity at his fund.

Orina Chang

Orina Chang is an Alternative Investments Director, Senior Portfolio Manager, and International Client Advisor. She has over 25 years of experience managing institutional and retail investments and has been with Morgan Stanley since 2016. After graduating Summa Cum Laude from Columbia University and receiving an academic award in Value Investing from Columbia Business School, Orina started a career in private equity and hedge fund investing where she amassed 20 years of institutional investment experience. She moved to Morgan Stanley in 2016 to help high-net-worth families and professionals manage their wealth. Orina has developed a unique approach to risk management from her experience in institutional investing. She believes that a properly defined investment time horizon, rather than reducing volatility, is a better way to manage portfolio risk without sacrificing potential returns unnecessarily.

Sheara Fredman

Sheara Fredman is Chief Accounting Officer and the firm’s Controller, responsible for the oversight of external and internal reporting, product control, and regulatory capital of Goldman Sachs. She is Co-Chair of the Firmwide New Activity Committee and the Firmwide Stress Test Committee, and a member of the Partnership Committee, Firmwide Capital Committee, Firmwide Asset Liability Committee and Allowance for Loan and Lease Losses Committee. Ms. Fredman is also an investment champion for Launch With GS, Goldman Sachs’ $500 million commitment to invest in companies and investment managers with diverse leadership.

George Van Amson

George L. Van Amson serves as a Managing Director in the Institutional Equity Division - Sales and Trading, Management. Head of North American Analyst and Associate Advising and Development Programs. Prior to assuming these responsibilities he was Head of North American Recruiting in the Institutional Equities Division (IED) of Morgan Stanley and Manager of Sales Trading Service Desk for Global Wealth Management clients. Earlier as a Senior Sales Trader he was responsible for managing Institutional Cash Sales Trading coverage of hedge funds, asset managers, pension funds and mutual funds. Prior responsibilities included senior position trader and sector trading head of cyclical equities, co-head trader of international equities managing the firm’s Latin American capital risk as well as supervising U.S. and London trading efforts in South Africa. FINRA Registrations Series 3,7,9,10,24,55,63. A 40+year veteran of Wall Street with experience in domestic and international markets, Mr. Van Amson was selected in 1993 as a World Economic Forum Global Leader and was named in 1992, 1996 and 2006 to Black Enterprise Magazine’s “Top African Americans on Wall Street.” He has served as Chairman of the International Committee of the Securities Traders Association of New York. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in 1992, Mr. Van Amson worked at Goldman Sachs as a Vice President, Equities – Trading and Arbitrage Division.

Chris Barrett

Chris Barrett is Stephen B. and Janice G. Ashley Professor of Applied Economics and Management, and an International Professor of Agriculture, all at the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, as well as a Professor in the Department of Economics and a Fellow of the David R. Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, as well as Deputy Dean and Dean of Academic Affairs at the College of Business, all at Cornell University. He has won several university, national and international awards for teaching, research and public outreach, and is an elected Fellow of both of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association and of the African Association of Agricultural Economists.

Jeffrey Hollender

Jeffrey Hollender is co-founder and former CEO of Seventh Generation, which he built into a leading natural product brand known for its authenticity, transparency, and progressive business practices. Hollender is also the founder of Sustain Natural, that develops and markets sustainable feminine are products for women. In addition, he is an Adjunct Professor of sustainability and social entrepreneurship at the Stern Business School, New York University. Hollender is a strategic advisor and former Board Chair of Greenpeace US; and currently CEO, co-founder and Board Chair of the American Sustainable Business Council, a coalition of 200,000 business leaders committed to progressive public policy. He is also the author of his seven books, including most recently, The Responsibility Revolution: How the Next Generation of Businesses Will Win and Planet Home. Visit him at JeffreyHollender.com

Rebecca Patterson

Rebecca Patterson is a Senior Investor at BridgeWater. Rebecca most recently served as Chief Investment Officer of Bessemer Trust and has more than 20 years of investment management experience. Prior to joining BridgeWater, Rebecca worked at J.P. Morgan, as Chief Markets Strategist for Asset Management, as Global Head of Foreign Exchange and Commodities for the Private Bank, and as an Investment Banking Research Analyst, based in New York, London and Singapore where she helped central banks and sovereign wealth funds, other institutional clients and high-net-worth families. Prior to J.P. Morgan, she was a journalist in the U.S. and Europe covering financial markets and politics.

Dan Altman

Dan Altman was an economics columnist for The Economist and The New York Times before becoming an economic advisor in the British government. He wrote several books on economics and economic policy, including the international bestseller "Outrageous Fortunes". Later he worked as a director at Dalberg, a consulting firm focused on international development. At that time he was also a frequent commentator on CNN and the BBC, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. After a stint as senior editor for economics at Foreign Policy and adjunct faculty at New York University's Stern School of Business, he branched out into sports analytics by founding North Yard Analytics and eventually creating smarterscout.com, the first publicly available advanced analytics platform for global soccer. He is now a part-owner of Rochdale AFC, an English soccer club, and a member of USA Weightlifting's performance service team.

Nancy Sheft

Nancy Sheft is the Managing Director and Head of External Managers at Bessemer Trust. She is also Portfolio Manager of the Old Westbury Large Cap Strategies fund and the Old Westbury Small & Mid Cap Strategies fund. In these roles, she is responsible for the selection and due diligence of external managers across all asset classes, including Hedge Funds.

Valisha Graves

Valisha Graves is an Executive Director on the Strategic Client Onboarding Product Development team at Morgan Stanley. She leads the One Client initiative and the use of client centric data to help drive the Advisory, Digital, Investment Solutions Wealth Management businesses. During her tenure at Morgan Stanley, she has been a Fintech Product Manager within Equity Research, Investment Banking, Global Capital Markets and Enterprise Computing.

Vijay Vaitheeswaran

Vijay is the US Business Editor of The Economist. He is also an award-winning book author and an accomplished public speaker. The Financial Times has declared him to be “a writer to whom it is worth paying attention.”Vijay joined the editorial staff of The Economist in 1992 as its London-based Latin America correspondent, and opened its first regional bureau in Mexico City in 1994. From 1998 to 2006, he covered the politics, economics, business and technology of energy and the environment. From 2007 to 2011 his portfolio encompassed innovation, global health, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. He has produced numerous cover stories and won awards for his reporting.

Matt Renner

Matt Renner, a sales and tech industry veteran of 25+ years, has joined Microsoft as President of US Enterprise Commercial Sales, delivering digital transformation to their largest customers with Microsoft’s suite of enterprise cloud offerings. Matt was most recently EVP of Cloud Sales at Salesforce, and also held several senior leadership roles in his 20 years at Oracle, including SVP of Sales. Renner is based in the Chicago area, out of Microsoft’s downtown and Downers Grove offices.

Linxin Wen

Linxin Wen is the co-founder and CEO of Chowbus, an online marketplace that delivers homestyle Asian dishes from independent restaurants and markets. 

Raj Thakkar

Raj Thakkar is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Service at NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. He is widely considered a national expert on charter school finance, is a social entrepreneur committed to the fiscal solvency of charter schools. In 2006, he founded Charter School Business Management (CSBM), proclaimed by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest growing companies of 2013, to prevent charter schools from being closed due to financial mismanagement. CSBM, a Certified B Corporation dedicated to using business to solve social problems, currently manages over $600 million in public funds providing over 150 clients with the financial “peace of mind” needed to focus on the crucial work of educating students. These services include management of a school’s accounting, bookkeeping, payroll, budgeting, financial reporting, forecasting and audit preparation responsibilities. For three years in a row, Crain’s New York named CSBM one of the Best Places to Work in NYC.

Ron King

Ron King is an Emeritus Professor of Accounting at Washington University. While at Washington University he has taught accounting courses in the Undergraduate, MBA, and Masters of Accounting Programs. He now focuses his teaching at the Executive MBA level. His current research interests are in the area of teaching and learning. He has held various administrative positions including Senior Associate Dean of Faculty, Senior Associate Dean of Programs, and the Director of the Center for Experiential Learning. Ron received the Distinguished Faculty Award at Washington University’s Founder’s Day in 2012.

Steven Robertson

Steven Robertson is the CEO of BOLD-Education, a premier organization offering cutting edge summer programming to high school students from around the world. Steven’s primary responsibility is to cultivate a culture that results in memories that last a lifetime. Steven oversees 20+ camps and programs including business, sports, medical, enrichment and internships. Naturally entrepreneurial, Steven draws on his diverse experience and interaction with this generation to focus his team, customize what the company offers, and strategically select partnerships to keep relevant and current in the Gen Z space.

Alden Richards

Mr. Richards has served as a visiting lecturer and instructor in entrepreneurship for Brown University’s Business, Entrepreneurship and Organization(BEO) concentration as well as the university’s graduate Program in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship (PRIME). Additionally, he teaches an intensive course in entrepreneurship within the Brown Summer Program and, in this role, has instructed hundreds of high school students from more than 30 countries. Mr. Richards is also a lecturer in the history of the Space-Age at Yale University and a special advisor to the Entrepreneurship Institute at Yale, where he has also been a fellow of Ezra Stiles College. Throughout his career, Mr. Richards has lectured and mentored students at many universities and high schools, including Yale, Brown, the Institute of Air and Space Law at McGill University, the University of Chicago, Princeton, Harvard and the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.

David D. Simons

David has spoken to and trained various organizations including, but not limited to: American Family Association, The College of New Jersey, Up Together Conference, Living Faith Christian Center, The U.S. Department of Defense, Calvary Christian Center, Kingdom Chamber of Commerce, The Alpha Academy, Destiny Church, TerraCycle and many others.

David’s work has been recognized and publicized by Entrepreneur.com, Dell Computers, CBS, Yahoo, Xerox Corporation, Business Insider, Social Media Today, Soshable and Hootsuite.

Joseph P. Price

Joseph Price is a Professor of Economics at Brigham Young University, a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Research Fellow at the Institute of Labor Economics, a Research Fellow at the Sutherland Institute, a Senior Fellow at the Austin Institute, a Fellow at the Wheatley Institution, a Co-Editor of the Economics of Education Review, and the Director of the BYU Record Linking Lab. Dr. Price loves mentored research with studenta and has over 40 undergraduate research assistants. Dr. Price has published over 50 articles including articles in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Human Resources, Journal of Health Economics, Demography, and Management Science. He received a B.A in Economics from Brigham Young University and a Ph.D. in Economics from Cornell University. He and his wife, Emily, are the parents of seven children (including one serving a mission in Washington).

Shivani Bafna

Shivani Bafna founded her online brand in 2018 when she took a gigantic risk to move from Cleveland, Ohio to work in Mumbai, India. She has interviewed 200+ celebrities, modeled for brands such as Lakme and Pizza Hut, acted in a Bollywood movie & featured in multiple YouTube sketches garnering 10+ million views.

Dr. Dietrich Vollrath

Dietrich Vollrath is professor of economics, and serves as Chair of that department beginning in Fall 2019. His research focuses on economic growth, and has appeared in the Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Economic Growth, Journal of Development Economics, and the American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, among others. He is a past recipient of the Ross Lence Teaching Award, and is the co-author of a popular textbook on economic growth. For more details on his current research, please visit his personal website (https://growthecon.com).

Seth Blumberg

Seth Blumberg is a project leader at Boston Consulting Group, helping companies apply data and analytics to improve healthcare. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago, where he researched behavioral economics and development, and a BA from Princeton University, where he studied math and public policy. His research and work have taken him from Kenya to Iowa, and lately his home office in Boston.

Rob Shesol

Rob Shesol began his career in the Real Estate Group of Salomon Smith Barney’s New York Investment Banking Division. He has a B.A. in Diplomatic History from the University of Pennsylvania, and he also completed the Bachelor of Science curriculum in Finance at Penn’s Wharton School of Business. Rob has spent 15 years in Central Europe and now runs his own company with activities in Europe and Asia. Rob currently teaches at Cambridge.