Best Startup
At Best Startup US we track over 1,000,000 US startups and over 3 million people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top New York based CEO’ operating in the Finance space. If you think a CEO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.us.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Catherine Wood
Founder, CEO & CIO of ARK Investment Management
Cathie registered ARK Investment Management LLC (“ARK”) as an investment adviser with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in January 2014. Prior to ARK, Cathie spent twelve years at AllianceBernstein as Chief Investment Officer of Global Thematic Strategies where she managed $5 billion. Cathie joined Alliance Capital from Tupelo Capital Management, a hedge fund she co-founded which, in 2000, managed $800 million in global thematic strategies. Prior to her tenure at Tupelo Capital, she worked for 18 years with Jennison Associates as Chief Economist, Equity Research Analyst, Portfolio Manager and Director. She started her career in Los Angeles, California at The Capital Group as an Assistant Economist. Cathie received her Bachelor of Science, summa cum laude, in Finance and Economics from the University of Southern California in 1981. In 2016, Cathie received the “Women in Finance – Outstanding Contribution Award” from Market Media.
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About ARK Investment Management: ARK Invest holds a precision lens on thematic investing.
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Sheldon Xia
Founder & CEO of BitMart
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About BitMart: BitMart is a digital asset trading platform that focuses on cryptocurrency.
John Clark
Managing Partner & CEO of CVC Capital Partners
John Clark sits on the board of Wireless Logic as a non-executive director. John is Managing Partner and CEO of CVC Growth Partners, joining the organisation in 2014. He has extensive private equity investor knowledge having previously worked at Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe serving as a General Partner for the Information & Business Services group and as a Member of the Management Committee. John holds a AB Degree in Computer Science from Princeton University and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
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About CVC Capital Partners: CVC Capital Partners is a private equity and investment advisory firm that invests in retail, construction, consumer, and others.
Kevin Ryan
Founder & CEO of AlleyCorp
Kevin Ryan is the chairman and founder of MongoDB, Zola, Workframe, Nomad Health, CoEdition, and Truebird. He is one of the leading Internet entrepreneurs in New York, having founded and is Chairman of several businesses, including MongoDB, Zola, Workframe and Nomad Health. Previously he founded and was Chairman of Business Insider and GILT. Combined, these companies have raised more than $700 million in venture capital funding and currently employ almost 2,000 people. Previously, Kevin helped build DoubleClick from 1996 to 2005, first as President and later as CEO. He led DoubleClick’s growth from a 20-person startup to a publicly-traded global leader with over 1,500 employees. In 2013, Kevin was named one of “The 100 Most Influential New Yorkers of the Past 25 Years” by the Observer. Kevin is currently founder and Chairman of AlleyCorp, a venture studio and fund based in New York City. Aside from his professional responsibilities, Kevin serves on the board of Mercy Corps, is Vice Chairman of The Partnership for New York City, Chairman of the Partnership for New York City’s Innovation Council, is a member of the CFR Committee on Foreign Affairs, is on the Board of TECH:NYC and in Director Emeritus for Human Right Watch. He previously served on the boards of Yale Corporation, INSEAD, The Trust for Governors Island, the Direct Marketing Association, The Ad Council, HotJobs and the advisory board of Doctors Without Borders. He holds a B.A. from Yale University and an M.B.A. from INSEAD.
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About AlleyCorp, CoEdition, Department Studios, Gilt City, Kontor Inc, Nomad Health, Workframe, Zola: AlleyCorp is an early stage venture fund and incubator that founds and funds transformative companies, primarily in New York.
William Libby
CEO of Upper90
Billy is co-founder and managing partner at Upper90 which is fintech focused private equity fund based in New York. Previously, he ran electronic trading businesses at leading institutions working closely with technology, quant research and steams.
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About Goldman Sachs, Upper90: Upper90 is a hybrid fund that provides founder-friendly credit and equity to top disruptors in e-commerce, enterprise, and fintech.
David Foley
Sr. Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Blackstone Energy Partners of Blackstone Group
David I. Foley is a Senior Managing Director in the Private Equity Group and Chief Executive Officer of Blackstone Energy Partners. David Foley is based in New York and is responsible for overseeing Blackstone’s private equity investment activities in the energy & natural resource sector on a global basis. Since joining Blackstone in 1995, David Foley has been responsible for building the Blackstone energy & natural resources practice and has played an integral role in every private equity energy deal that the firm has invested in, including: Premcor, Kosmos Energy, Foundation Coal, Texas Genco, Sithe Global Power, OSUM Oil Sands, PBF Energy, Global Offshore Wind, GeoSouthern, Alta Resources, Moser Baer, Cheniere and LLOG Exploration. Before joining Blackstone, David Foley worked with AEA Investors in the firm’s private equity business, and prior to that served as a consultant for the Monitor Company. David Foley received a BA and an MA in Economics, with honors, Phi Beta Kappa, from Northwestern University and received an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.
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About Blackstone Group: Blackstone is an investment and advisory firm providing financial solutions for investors and clients.
Stephen Schwarzman
Chairman, CEO & Co-Founder of Blackstone Group
Stephen Schwarzman is Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of Blackstone. Schwarzman has been involved in all phases of the firm’s development since its founding in 1985. The firm is currently the world’s largest independent alternative asset manager with $218 billion Assets Under Management, as of March 31, 2013. Schwarzman is an active philanthropist with a history of supporting education and schools. Whether in business or in philanthropy, he has always attempted to tackle big problems and find transformative solutions. In 2013, he founded an international scholarship program, “Schwarzman Scholars,” at Tsinghua University in Beijing, to educate future leaders about China. At $300 million, the program is modeled on the Rhodes Scholarship and is the single largest philanthropic effort in China’s history coming largely from international donors. In 2007, Schwarzman donated $100 million to the New York Public Library, on the board of which he serves. Schwarzman is also committed to supporting education locally, sending over two hundred students per year to parochial schools in the New York area. Schwarzman is a member of The Council on Foreign Relations, The Business Council, The Business Roundtable, and The International Business Council of the World Economic Forum. He serves on the boards of The Asia Society, The Board of Directors of The New York City Partnership and The Advisory Board of the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University, Beijing. He is a Trustee of The Frick Collection in New York City and Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Directors of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In 2007, Schwarzman was included in TIME’s “100 Most Influential People.” In that same year, he was awarded the Légion d’Honneur of France and promoted to Officier in 2010. Schwarzman holds a B.A. from Yale University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He has served as an adjunct professor at the Yale School of Management, is on the Harvard Business School Board of Dean’s Advisors and Harvard University’s Global Advisory Council. In 2012, he was awarded an Honorary Degree from Quinnipiac University.
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About Blackstone Group: Blackstone is an investment and advisory firm providing financial solutions for investors and clients.
Molly Fowler
CEO of First Round Capital
A motivated group of people can do just about anything. I’ve seen it in action from a local barbecue that turned out an entire neighborhood to vote for the first time, to a city that wouldn’t stand for buildings that wouldn’t stand in an earthquake. When the energy of large, distributed communities is met with the hustle and dedication of people and organizations, we can come together and take on any and every challenge.
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About First Round Capital: First Round is a venture capital firm that specializes in providing seed-stage funding to technology companies.
Frank Bruno
Co-CEO and enior Managing Director of Cerberus Capital Management
Frank Bruno is Co-Chief Executive Officer of Cerberus and is responsible for leading the Firm’s global investment activities across credit, private equity, and real estate strategies, working closely with Co-CEO and CIO Steve Feinberg. Prior to this role, he was President of Cerberus Global Investments, where he was responsible for leading the Firm’s European, Asia, and Latin American businesses. Since joining Cerberus in 1998, he has overseen the investment of more than $32 billion in equity capital in Asia and Europe, alone. Under his leadership, Cerberus expanded its international presence significantly, opening global advisory offices across Asia, including Beijing, Hong Kong, and Tokyo; and across Europe, including Baarn, Belfast, Dublin, Frankfurt, London, and Madrid. He graduated Cornell University and received an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He currently serves on the Wharton School’s Graduate Advisory Board and the Cornell University ILR School Advisory Board. He is an active supporter of Hire Heroes, a U.S. military veteran transition resources organization and Save the Children. He is a member of numerous Cerberus committees, including the Firm’s Operating/Management Advisory Committee, Private Equity Committee, Real Estate Committee, Real Estate Debt Committee, Valuation Committee, and NPL Committee.
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About Cerberus Capital Management: Cerberus Capital Management is a private investment firm that focuses on operational private equity investments.
Stephen Feinberg
Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Cerberus Capital Management
Stephen Feinberg co-founded Cerberus Capital Management in December 1992. He also founded or co-founded the other Cerberus affiliates and Cerberus Funds. Prior to founding Cerberus Capital Management and its affiliates, he managed separate pools of capital for Gruntal & Co. and certain other accounts from 1985 to 1992. He began his career at Drexel Burnham Lambert, where he was actively involved in trading large pools of firm capital. He is a graduate of Princeton University. He is a member of the Firm’s Private Equity Investment Committee, Cerberus Business Finance Investment Committee, Valuation Committee, Real Estate Investment Committee, Allocation Committee, Brokerage Selection Committee, and NPL Committee.
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About Cerberus Capital Management: Cerberus Capital Management is a private investment firm that focuses on operational private equity investments.
Chris Burch
Founder & CEO of Burch Creative Capital
Christopher Burch is Founder and CEO of Burch Creative Capital. Mr. Burch is an active investor in a variety of businesses spanning a wide range of industries and is the co-founder of the luxury fashion brand, Tory Burch. Mr. Burch has always been devoted to the power of branding, and currently applies his keen sense of marketing and sales to business interests spanning apparel, financial services, hospitality, technology and consumer products.
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About Burch Creative Capital, Nihi Sumba Island: Burch Creative Capital is a Creative Capital Firm with a decidedly different approach to creating value.
Brandon Krieg
CEO and Co-Founder of Stash Financial
Brandon Krieg is the Co-Founder of Collective Returns, Inc. and has been its Chief Executive Officer since July 11, 2016. Brandon Krieg served as the President of Collective Returns, Inc. until July 11, 2016 and serves as its Executive Director.
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About Stash Financial: Stash is a personal finance app that combines banking, investing, and advice into one platform.
Keith McCullough
Founder & CEO of Hedgeye Risk Management
Prior to founding Hedgeye Risk Management, Keith built a track record as a successful hedge fund manager at the Carlyle-Blue Wave Partners hedge fund, Magnetar Capital, Falconhenge Partners, and Dawson-Herman Capital Management. He got his start as an institutional equity sales analyst after earning an economics degree from Yale University, where he captained the hockey team to a Division I Ivy League Championship. Keith regularly appears on financial TV and radio including CNN and Fox Business, and has been a contributor for CNBC and Bloomberg. He writes regularly for Fortune and Forbes and is the author of the popular book, Diary of a Hedge Fund Manager. He is currently co-chair of the NYC Bipartisan Policy Center, the only Washington, D.C.-based think tank actively promoting bipartisanship to address the key challenges facing the U.S.
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About Hedgeye Risk Management: Hedgeye Risk Management is a web-based financial research and media company providing investment information.
Amy Nauiokas
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Anthemis Group
Amy Nauiokas is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer at Anthemis Group.
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About Anthemis Group: Anthemis Group is a global platform that cultivates change in the financial system by investing in, growing, and sustaining businesses.
Rafay Farooqui
Founder & CEO of +SUBSCRIBE®
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About +SUBSCRIBE®: Powering alternative investments® with the leading electronic subscription document technology.
Benjamin Levin
Founder, Co-CEO of Level Equity Management
Ben Levin co-founded Level Equity and is a partner and the Co-CEO of Level Equity Management, LLC.
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About Level Equity Management: Level Equity Management is a growth equity firm that focuses on providing capital to software and internet companies.
Alliott Cole
CEO of Octopus Ventures
Alliott Cole serves as Chief Executive Officer at Octopus Ventures. He joined the Octopus Ventures team at the start of 2008 as the team began investing their first fund. He currently also serves as a Board Member at Secret Escapes, Cazoo, Swoon Editions and Big Health. He focuses on internet-enabled services, enterprise software, and consumer innovation. Alliott Chairs the Investment Committee at Octopus Ventures and sits on the Board of the Octopus Group Executive Committee. Alliott has also spent two years working in the US when he established Octopus Ventures’ office in New York. The key investments he has been involved in at Octopus include Antidote.me (a digital healthcare company); Conversocial (a B2B customer service software); the food e-commerce business Graze (acquired by Unilever), the ecommerce platform Rangespan (acquired by Google), the machine learning business Magic Pony (acquired by Twitter), Permutive (an edge computing company); Sofar Sounds (a global music company); the pet food company Tails.com (acquired by Nestle), and the property portal website Zoopla (acquired by SilverLake). Before arriving at Octopus, he previously worked as a lawyer at Ashurst, where he spent time working for IBM, Sporting Bet, UC Rusal, and NM Rothschild. Alliott has also held positions on the Board of the British Business Angel Association. He holds a Masters in Classics from Oxford University.
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About ACF Investors, Big Health, Cazoo, Graze, Octopus Ventures, Permutive, Secret Escapes, Secret Escapes, Sofar Sounds, UK Business Angels Association: Octopus is a multi stage European venture capital investor specializing in health, money, deep tech, and consumer.
Jonathan Kindred
CEO Morgan Stanley Japan of Morgan Stanley
Jonathan Kindred is CEO of Morgan Stanley Japan. He is President & CEO of Morgan Stanley Japan Holdings Co., Ltd. and Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities Co., Ltd., Chairman of Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co., Ltd. and a member of the firm’s Management Committee. Morgan Stanley offers a range of financial services in investment banking, sales & trading, research, real estate and investment management in Japan, including securities joint venture operations with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. Jon joined Morgan Stanley as an analyst in New York in 1983. In 1985 he transferred to the firm’s London office where he worked as a trader in the Fixed Income Division. In 1989 he transferred to Tokyo to assume responsibility for structuring private debt placements in Japan and then rose to increasingly senior roles including Head of Structured Transactions Asia from 1993 to 2000 and Head of Fixed Income Asia from 2000 to 2006. Jon holds a B.S. degree in Economics from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania where he was a Benjamin Franklin Scholar.
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About Morgan Stanley: Morgan Stanley is a financial services company that offers securities, asset management, and credit services.
Robert Garland
CEO of Morgan Stanley
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About JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley: Morgan Stanley is a financial services company that offers securities, asset management, and credit services.
Adam Dell
Founder & CEO of Clarity Money
Adam Dell joined Austin Ventures as Venture Partner in May 2010. Adam has been a successful entrepreneur, academician, and has more than 12 years of experience in the venture capital industry. He focuses purely on early-stage venture investments in the information technology and business services areas. Most recently, Adam was Founder and Managing General Partner of Impact Venture Partners, a venture capital firm focused on information technology investments. Prior to founding Impact, Adam was a partner with Crosspoint Venture Partners in Northern California, and a Senior Associate with Enterprise Partners in Southern California. Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, he worked as a corporate attorney in Austin, Texas, with the law firm of Winstead, Sechrest & Minick. His prior investments include OpenTable (OPEN), Buzzsaw (ADSK), Ingenio (T), and Hotjobs (YHOO). Dell founded and served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of MessageOne, which was acquired by Dell, Inc. in 2008. Adam teaches a class on the role of law in innovation at the University of Texas School of Law.
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About Austin Ventures, Clarity Money, SharedEarth.com: Clarity Money empowers and saves you money with transformative financial organization, transparency and advocacy.
Jon Winkelried
CEO & Partner of TPG
Jon Winkelried is the Chief Executive Officer and a Partner of TPG based in San Francisco. Prior to joining TPG in 2015, Jon was with Goldman, Sachs & Co. for more than 27 years, until he retired in 2009 as President and Co-Chief Operating Officer. Jon received a BA in economics from the University of Chicago and an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago. He serves on the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust and on the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Board of Overseers.
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About TPG, TPG Capital Asia: TPG is a private investment firm that manages capital across a family of funds.
Gal Krubiner
CEO/ Co Founder of Pagaya Investments
Former UBS investments & wealth management professional, UHNW biz dev having raised hundreds of millions of dollars in assets. Specializes in innovative & sophisticated credit structured products (ABS structures).
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About Pagaya Investments: Pagaya is a financial technology company that enables financial institutions to expand access to more customers through its AI network.
Sebastián Ceria
Founder, CEO of Axioma
Sebastian Ceria is Chief Executive Officer of Qontigo. He previously served as the CEO of Axioma, which he founded and led since 1998. Before that, Sebastian was an Associate Professor of Decision, Risk and Operations at Columbia Business School. He has worked extensively in robust optimization and its application to portfolio management, authoring many articles in industry and academic publications. He is a recipient of the Career Award for Operations Research from the National Science Foundation and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Sebastian holds a PhD in Operations Research from Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business, and a degree in Applied Math from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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About Axioma, Qontigo: Axioma provides enterprise risk management, portfolio management, and regulatory reporting solutions to financial institutions worldwide.
Jes Staley
Group Chief Executive Officer of Barclays
Jes has nearly four decades of extensive experience in banking and financial services. He worked for more than 30 years at JPMorgan Chase, initially training as a commercial banker, and later advancing to the leadership of major businesses involving Equities, Private Banking and Asset Management, and ultimately heading the company’s global Investment Bank. Most recently, Jes served as Managing Partner at BlueMountain Capital. Jes holds a BA in Economics from Bowdoin College.
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About Barclays: Barclays is a global financial services company that provides various financial products and services worldwide.
Ali Javid
founder and CEO of Wrapbook
Ali Javid is the founder and CEO of Wrapbook.
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About Wrapbook: Wrapbook provides digital profiles that facilitate onboarding, paying and insuring project workforces compliantly.
Mark F. O’Neil
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Dealertrack
Mark F. O’Neil is Chief Operating Officer of Cox Automotive, a position he has held since March 2016. Previously he served as Chief Executive Officer of Dealertrack, a position he had held since May 2005. From August 2001 to May 2005, he was Chief Executive Officer and President of Dealertrack. O’Neil began his career at Intel Corporation, where he first developed his knowledge of the technology industry. He subsequently worked for McKinsey & Co. before moving to the automotive industry in the late 1980s, where he was President of Ertley MotorWorld, a dealer group based in Pennsylvania. O’Neil went on to co-found and lead the development and rollout of CarMax, Inc. He was President and Chief Operating Officer of Greenlight.com, an online automotive sales website, from June 2000 through January 2001. He currently serves as a Director of DealerTire LLC, a privately held company. O’Neil holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
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About Dealertrack: DealerTrack is a provider of on-demand software for the automotive industry in the United States.
Herbert Allen
President & CEO of Allen & Company
Herbert Allen has been director of The Coca-Cola Company since 1982. Allen is President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Allen & Company Incorporated, a privately held investment firm, and has held these positions for more than the past five years. He previously served as a Director of Convera Corporation from 2000 to 2010.
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About Allen & Company: Allen & Company is a private investment and advisory firm.
Oren Bass
Chief Executive Officer of Fcancer Project
Oren Bass is Co-Founder of Pave, a funding platform for Millennials. Oren began his career as a lawyer at Clifford Chance in London before moving into structured finance at Goldman Sachs. Oren later joined GLG where he was responsible for co-managing an investment fund focused on distressed and special opportunities globally. Oren left to set up a family office where he served as COO until March 2012 when he left to start Pave. Oren holds a degree in history from the University of Leeds and UCLA, and a Law degree from London’s College of Law.
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About Fcancer Project: Online platform enabling volunteers to donate skills to Cancer charities
Dickson Nsofor
Co-Founder & CEO of Korapay
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About Kora Network, Korapay: Korapay offers a payment engine that enables local and global businesses to send and accept payments.
Keith Cozza
President, CEO & Director of Icahn Enterprises
Keith Cozza has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Icahn Enterprises L.P. and its general partner, Icahn Enterprises G.P., Inc., since February 2014, and as a director since September 2012. Mr. Cozza served as Executive Vice President from February 2013 to February 2014. Mr. Cozza has served as the Chief Operating Officer of Icahn Capital, a wholly owned subsidiary of Icahn Enterprises and Icahn Enterprises Holdings, since February 2013. Mr. Cozza has served as the Chief Financial Officer of Icahn Associates Holding LLC, a company controlled by Carl C. Icahn, since 2006. From 2004 to 2006 Mr. Cozza served as Controller at Icahn Associates Holding LLC. Prior to that Mr. Cozza was a senior assurance associate at Grant Thornton LLP. Mr. Cozza has been a director of: The Pep Boys – Manny, Moe & Jack, an automotive parts installer and retailer, since February 2016; a director of: FCX Oil & Gas Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Freeport-McMoRan Inc., since October 2015; IEH Auto Parts LLC, since June 2015; Tropicana Entertainment Inc., since February 2014; PSC Metals Inc., since February 2014; Herbalife Ltd., a nutrition company, since April 2013 and XO Holdings, a competitive provider of telecom services, since August 2011. Mr. Cozza has also been a member of the Executive Committee of American Railcar Leasing LLC since June 2014. Mr. Cozza was previously a director of CVR Refining GP, LLC, the general partner of CVR Refining, LP, from January 2013 to February 2014; and MGM Holdings Inc., an entertainment company focused on the production and distribution of film and television content, from April 2012 to August 2012. XO Holdings is indirectly controlled by Carl C. Icahn. Mr. Icahn also has or previously had non-controlling interests in Freeport-McMoRan, Herbalife and MGM Holdings through the ownership of securities. Mr. Cozza brings to his service as a director his significant experience in leadership roles as director of various companies as discussed above. In particular, his experience as the Chief Financial Officer of Icahn Associates Holding LLC enables him to understand the complex business and financial issues that we may face.
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About Icahn Enterprises: Icahn Enterprises L.P. (NASDAQ: IEP), a master limited partnership, is a diversified holding company engaged in nine primary business.
Ray Youssef
CEO & Co-Founder of Paxful
Ray is the co-founder and CEO of Paxful, the peer-to-peer global finance platform with over seven million users. Ray and his co-founder Artur started Paxful in 2015 to help everyone gain financial freedom through equal access to finance. Ray started out as an entrepreneur in 2001, when he founded a successful ringtone business and then had a series of start-ups before setting up Paxful. At Paxful, Ray is CEO and looks after growth, marketing, customer service and operations. Ray also founded the Built With Bitcoin Foundation that uses Bitcoin to create opportunity and thriving communities by providing access to clean water, quality education, and healthy food and a healthy environment via sustainable farming.
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About Paxful: The global peer-to-peer platform building a financial system for the 100%— one Bitcoin at a time.
Raymond Debbane
President and CEO of Invus
Raymond Debbane has been a director since August 2007 and became chairman of our board of directors in February 2012. Mr. Debbane is president and chief executive officer of The Invus Group, LLC, which he founded in New York in 1985 as the exclusive investment advisor of Benelux-based Artal Group S.A. In 1999, Artal became the controlling shareholder of Weight Watchers International, Inc., for which Mr. Debbane serves as chairman of the board of directors. He also serves as chairman or director of a number of other companies in which Invus and Artal Group S.A. have invested. Before founding The Invus Group, Mr. Debbane was a manager in the Paris office of The Boston Consulting Group, Inc., where he did consulting work for a number of major European and international companies. Mr. Debbane holds an M.B.A. from Stanford University, an M.S. in food science and technology from the University of California at Davis, and a B.S in agricultural sciences and agricultural engineering from American University of Beirut.
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About Invus: Invus recognizes that every company is unique and that extraordinary business performance cannot be achieved by following a formulaic
Aaron Schumm
Founder & CEO of Vestwell
Aaron is the founder & CEO of Vestwell, a digital platform that has re-imaged and redesigned the retirement solutions available to financial advisors, companies, and employees. The firm has created a completely new, independent 401(k) & 403(b) offering, that removes the barriers to saving as an employee in America, while always looking out for the best interests of employees, their employers and financial advisors serving them. Prior to founding Vestwell, Aaron co-founded FolioDynamix, a wealth management and advisory services company powering $800 billion in assets for over 100,000 advisors. At FolioDynamix, Aaron oversaw the strategy, revenue, marketing, customers, and product. FolioDynamix was sold to Actua, (NASDAQ: ACTA) in 2014. Before FolioDynamix, Aaron was a vice president at Citigroup where helped advance the Asset Manager Solutions global strategy efforts. Other past positions include the head of WealthSolutions products at BISYS (now part of Citigroup) and product manager at CheckFree Investment Services (now part of Fiserv) overseeing and the Unified Managed Account (UMA) platform. Outside of Vestwell, Schumm on the board of directors at Chalice Wealth Partners, as well as an advisory board member at Quovo, a financial services data science & performance analytics provider to advisors, Vestorly, an AI financial content marketing platform, and WorthFM, a women-focused financial advice and investment management platform. Aaron was named to the 40 under 40 Class of 2017 by Crain’s InvestmentNews. He holds a B.S. degree in finance from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and an M.B.A. degree from Duke University, The Fuqua School of Business.
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About Vestwell: Vestwell provides underlying infrastructure to power workplace retirement plans.
Satya Pemmaraju
CEO, Founder of Droit
Prior to co-founding Droit, Satya was a Managing Director of FICC Trading at UBS. Post 2008, he was instrumental in helping create UBS’s funding desk focused on aggregating, managing and optimizing secured and unsecured derivatives funding risk across FICC trading. Satya has held various cross-asset derivatives trading roles including structured/contingent repo, Latam derivatives and structured notes. Prior to trading, Satya was a fixed income derivatives quant building pricing and risk management systems. Satya has a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Northwestern University and a B.S. from MIT.
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About Droit: The Operating System for Regulation
Caitlin Long
Co-Founder & CEO of Avanti Financial Group
Caitlin Long is chairman and president of Symbiont, the market-leading smart contracts platform for institutional uses of distributed ledger technology. Caitlin previously spent 22 years on Wall Street in senior roles, working for Morgan Stanley (2007-2016), Credit Suisse (1997-2007) and Salomon Brothers (1994-1997). During her career she started and ran three new businesses, was a top-ranked equity research analyst for the life insurance sector, and worked directly for the co-CEOs on a business restructuring in Zurich. Caitlin has been active in bitcoin since 2012 and blockchains since 2014, and she served on Morgan Stanley’s internal blockchain working group in 2014-16. MarketsMedia awarded Caitlin its 2016 Women in Finance Award for Excellence in Blockchain, and Institutional Investor named Caitlin to its list of the most influential people in pensions during her final 3 years on Wall Street. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School (JD, 1994), the Kennedy School of Government (MPP, 1994) and the University of Wyoming (BA, 1990).
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About Avanti Financial Group: Avanti Financial Group is an operator of a crypto-asset banking company used to focus on providing regulated services for digital assets.
Ramzi Musallam
CEO of Veritas Capital
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About Veritas Capital: Veritas Capital is a private equity investment firm that invests in companies that provide critical products and services.
Rajinder P. Singh
Chief Executive Officer of BankUnited
Raj Singh assumed leadership of BankUnited’s Mortgage Banking and Corporate Development areas in May 2009. In this role, he oversees BankUnited’s mortgage banking activities, corporate strategy, and is the primary liaison with the FDIC’s loss sharing division. Mr. Singh has several years of experience in mergers and acquisitions, including the acquisition of BankUnited, Capital One’s acquisition of North Fork Bank and Bank of America’s acquisition of FleetBoston. Before joining BankUnited, Mr. Singh was managing director of Invesco’s WL Ross & Co., a private equity firm with more than $8 billion under management, where he led the firm’s financial services practice. Earlier in his career, Mr. Singh was executive vice president of Capital One Bank, where he managed product marketing and non-branch channels. Prior to that, he was the head of corporate strategy and development for North Fork Bank. Before North Fork, Mr. Singh spent nine years at FleetBoston.
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About BankUnited: BankUnited, Inc. (BKU) is a bank holding company with three wholly owned subsidiaries:
John A. Kanas
President & CEO of BankUnited
John Kanas was named chairman, president and chief executive officer of BankUnited in May 2009. Mr. Kanas led a group of investors in the purchase of the bank in a history-making transaction. Prior to joining BankUnited, Mr. Kanas was chairman, president and CEO of North Fork Bancorporation, the sixteenth-largest bank holding company in the United States. He held this position from 1977, when he was appointed at the age of 29, until North Fork’s acquisition by Capital One in December 2006. Mr. Kanas led the company in its initial public offering in 1982 to its membership on the NYSE and inclusion in the S&P 500 Index. During his tenure, the company completed 15 bank acquisitions and distinguished itself as one of the most profitable and efficient banking companies in the country.
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About BankUnited: BankUnited, Inc. (BKU) is a bank holding company with three wholly owned subsidiaries:
Suna Said
Founder and CEO of Nima Capital
Suna Said is the Founder and CEO of Nima Capital, a single family office with a flexible mandate to invest across various capital structures, growth stages, and industries. With significant experience and talent in global investment management and social impact, Suna brings her expertise along with an extensive network of investment partners, industry leaders, and world-class entrepreneurs as co-investors, advisors, and drivers of success. Suna spends most of her time on Nima Capital’s Blockchain vertical. She also founded the Suna Said Foundation, which works to support girls throughout the world through Blockchain technology applications. Prior to founding Nima, Suna was an Executive Director and Investment Officer of Unifund, Inc., a multi-billion dollar international investment firm. Suna is an active member of numerous charitable organizations and educational institutions, and was a speaker at the 2015 Milken Institute Global Conference. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Girls Inc., a national organization that inspires all girls to be strong, smart, and bold through direct service and advocacy, and was a 2015 Women of Achievement honoree for uniquely inspiring girls to set goals and achieve their full potential. Suna also serves on the board of directors of the Chopra Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to improving health and well-being, cultivating spiritual knowledge, expanding consciousness, and promoting world peace, as well as Pure Edge, Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to bringing scholars success through focus and mindfulness. Suna was previously a board member of the Harlem Village Academies, where she was honored for creating the Mindfulness program for K-12. Suna is on the Board of Trustees for the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, where she initiated the National Scholarship Program for Muslim Women, and has endowed the Maslin Scholarship Fund at Columbia Business School. Suna holds an undergraduate degree from the University of California, Los Angeles and an MBA from Columbia Business School. She lives in New York City with her husband and two children.
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About Nima Capital: Nima Capital is a single-family office global approach to identifying first mover companies disrupting large industries around the world.
Tricia Han
CEO of DailyBurn
Tricia Han is the CEO of Daily Burn, a leading on-demand fitness brand. Prior to Daily Burn, Han was the chief product officer at IAC’s Dotdash (formerly About.com). Before joining Dotdash, she was the senior vice president of product management at WebMD. Han has also served as GM and vice president at Daily Candy and has worked with a variety of technology startups, including Juno and Vindigo. She is a graduate of Cornell University.
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About Care.com, DailyBurn: DailyBurn offers a fitness and nutrition tracking app with features such as detailed tracking, online accountability, and motivation.
Everett Cook
Co-Founder / CEO of Rho Business Banking
Everett Cook is a Co-Founder at Rho Business Banking.
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About Rho Business Banking: Rho Business Banking is a digital banking platform for startups and high-growth companies.
Amit Baid
Founder and CEO of TradeFin
Amit Baid is the founder and CEO at TradeFin. Prior to joining TradeFin, Amit spent one year at Neuberger Berman as a managing director and Sr. analyst.
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About Coupa Software, MoEngage, TradeFin: TradeFin is a supply chain finance platform and e-invoicing platform for suppliers and corporations.
Barry Volpert
Founder & CEO of Crestview Partners
Barry Volpert is the Co-Founder and CEO at Crestview Partners.
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About Crestview Partners, Oxbow Corporation: Crestview Partners, a private equity firm, focuses on middle-market contrarian and distressed investments, and special situations.
Bharath Krishnamoorthy
Co-Founder & CEO of Axle
As CEO, Bharath applies his entrepreneurial intuition and enterprising spirit to oversee company sales, fundraising, and business expansion. He previously worked as a Mergers & Acquisitions and Investment Funds lawyer at one of the top 10 firms in the world. Bharath led business development for a real estate investment firm, and graduated with honors from both Columbia Law School and James Madison University.
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About Axle, BusBot: Axle helps freight brokers grow faster by automating their back-office and providing fast & affordable working capital.
Angelo Moratti
Chairman and CEO of Angel Capital Management
Angelo Moratti studied at Columbia University in New York City. He is currently Vice-Chairman of Saras SpA, the largest refinery company in the Mediterranean. He is Vice-Chairman and member of the Executive Committee of Special Olympics International. Founder and former Chairman of Sarlux – a company that built and managed an electrical power station with capacity of 550 MW (1996/2002). He was member of the Board of Inter Milan Football Club from 1995 to 2013 and Board Member of Olimpia Milano basketball club sponsored by Armani Jeans (2003/2008). He was Chairman of Associazione Dino Ferrari, which focuses on research for neurological diseases (2000/2005). He has been involved in Venture Capital investing since 1996, when he founded telecom company ePlanet which went public in 2000.
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About Angel Capital Management: Angel Capital Management is a leading private investment firm.
Nathaniel Harley
Co-founder & CEO of Mantl
Nathaniel Harley is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Mantl.
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About Mantl: Mantl is a banking technology company that provides workflow management and automation tools for banks and credit unions.
Chocko Valliappa
Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director of Vee Technologies
Chocko Valliappa comes from a family of entrepreneurs, pioneering India’s growth in textiles, agriculture, plantations and more. Recognizing the importance of new technology, he founded the Valliappa Software Tech Park launching Oracle, CISCO and VeriFone in 1995.
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About HireMee, SonaYukti, Vee Create, Vee FnA, Vee Protect, Vee Technologies, Vee Track: Vee Technologies is a transaction services company delivering total back-office processing solutions.
Andrew Wynn
Co-Founder/Co-CEO of Ascend
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About Ascend: Ascend is a modern, all-in-one payments solution purpose-built for insurance
Ronnie Mateo
Chief Executive Officer of Trumid
Ronnie is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Trumid. He has 20 years of experience in the credit market. Prior to Trumid, he started and ran the credit group of inter-dealer broker Trinity Brokers. He was an MD at Salomon Brothers/Citibank for 12 years where he traded corporate bonds and CDS, Emerging Markets, and CDX indices. He started Trumid in 2014 to make credit trading easier for all market participants. Away from Trumid, Ronnie is passionate about his family and coaching. He has a B.S. with honors from Cornell University and played for Cornell’s football team.
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About Trumid: Trumid is a financial technology company bringing efficiency to credit trading through data, technology, and innovative products.
Yaakov James Zar
Co-Founder and CEO of Lev
Yaakov Zar is the Co-Founder and CEO of Lev.
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About Dispatch, Lev: Lev is a commercial mortgage marketplace.
Rafael Pereira
CEO & Co-founder of Rebel
I am a tech entrepreneur with many years of expertise in building companies from the ground up across a variety of industry. Having learned how to program C at age 11, I still code to the day as a hobby (mostly burning the midnight oil) and my main areas of expertise are business development and product. However, I’ve found that my passion is to build amazing teams, which in turn create great companies. I now invest most of my time on listening to my teams and trying to figure out how I can best contribute with my experience and skill sets to their success. (worst case scenario they can at least learn from my mistakes…)
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About Open Co (Brazil), Rebel: Alternative Online Lending, FinTech, online credit, Personal financial management
Mickey Costa
Co-founder and CEO of Atlas Holdings
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About Atlas Holdings: Atlas provides mobile banking online.
Mazy Dar
CEO & Co-Founder of OpenFin
Mazy Dar is CEO and Co-Founder of OpenFin. He is responsible for setting the overall direction and product strategy of the company. Prior to OpenFin, Mazy was VP of CDS Strategy at IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) where he was responsible for ICE’s CDS strategy and managed the company’s CDS e-trading and processing platforms. He also led ICE’s launch of CDS central clearing for buy-side market participants. Before ICE, Mazy served as Chief Strategy Officer of Creditex which was backed by JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank and TA Associates and acquired by ICE in 2008. He joined the firm in 2000, prior to the company’s launch, and was a key architect of Creditex’s innovative products and services. Earlier, Mazy worked in information technology at UBS. He attended Cornell University where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and French Literature.
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About OpenFin: OpenFin enables financial desktops with the same app distribution, security, and interoperability capabilities as iOS and Android.
Dave Weisberger
Co-Founder & CEO of CoinRoutes
David Weisberger, CEO of CoinRoutes Inc has over 30 years of experience in market structure, quantitative finance, and trading automation. David Weisberger started his career in technology, where he built the first program trading system for Morgan Stanley before moving to the sales and trading business. He subsequently started the non-dollar program trading desk for Salomon Brothers, was the global architect of the firm’s equity trading platform where he designed their first trading algorithm and quantitatively managed central risk book before becoming responsible for the statistical arbitrage trading business. He later ran their smart order routing business before joining Two Sigma to develop their wholesale market making business, which he ran for several years. Most recently, David Weisberger joined ViableMkts to provide consulting services and co-founded CoinRoutes to provide Smart Order Routing and Consolidated market data for Crypto-Asset trading.
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About CoinRoutes: CoinRoutes is a crypto trading software provider.
Kumesh Aroomoogan
Co-Founder & CEO of Accern
Kumesh Aroomoogan is the co-founder and CEO of Accern, an NYC-based venture-backed AI startup whose mission is to accelerate AI for enterprise with a no-code development platform. Accern was named Forbes 30 Under 30 for Enterprise Technology.
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About Accern, Forbes: Accern accelerates AI workflows for enterprises with a no-code AI development platform.
Joseph Edelman
CEO & Founder of Perceptive Advisors
Joseph Edelman founded Perceptive Advisors, LLC in 1999, a hedge fund focused on supporting the progress of the life sciences industry. Under Joe’s leadership, Perceptive has grown into one of the largest and most successful life sciences funds with over $2 billion of assets under management by applying thorough due diligence and insights in assessing technologies for investment. The firm oversees a portfolio of investments in various therapeutic areas across all stages of development and commercialization. Perceptive has increasingly led seed and early financing rounds in private life sciences companies from company formation through the development life cycle. Previously, Joe was Senior Analyst at Aries Fund, a Paramount Capital Asset Management biotechnology hedge fund, from 1994 through 1998. Prior to Aries Fund, he was Senior Biotechnology Analyst at Prudential Securities for four years, after starting his career in the healthcare sector of the securities industry as Biotechnology Analyst at Labe, Simpson. Joe earned an MBA from New York University and a BA, magna cum laude, in psychology from the University of California, San Diego.
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About Perceptive Advisors: Perceptive Advisors is a privately owned hedge fund sponsor that finances the public equity markets across the globe.
Zuben Mathews
CEO & Co-Founder of Brigit
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About Brigit: A financial health app helping every American build a brighter financial future.
Karen Rios
Co-Founder & CEO of Lifesaver
Karen Rios is Lifesaver’s Co-founder and CEO. Prior to founding Lifesaver, Karen served as Chief Compliance Officer for Seminole Management Company. Karen was the first Latina and youngest C-level officer in the firm’s history. Prior to that role, she worked for an education technology startup. In another life, she worked as a beat writer in Paris while studying abroad at the Sorbonne, and would later return to the U.S. to work for the Obama Campaign. She holds a B.A. from Columbia University.
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About Lifesaver: We’re the first universal banking platform for managing, discovering and opening accounts across banks and credit unions.
Ahmed Moor
Co Founder & CEO of liwwa
Ahmed Moor is a Palestinian-American who was born in the Gaza Strip. He is a PD Soros Fellow, co-editor of After Zionism and co-founder and CEO of liwwa.com.
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About liwwa: liwwa is an intermediary that connects investors and small businesses.
Michael Carvin
Founder and CEO of SmartAsset
Michael’s expertise is in financial decision making. In the pre-SmartAsset days, Michael worked in Private Equity. He spent most of his time using financial models to help companies understand how to make better decisions. We believe the same models can help people improve their decision making. Michael is a graduate of Princeton University.
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About SmartAsset: SmartAsset is an online destination for financial advice that powers SmartAdvisor, a marketplace connecting consumers to financial advisors.
Kevin Ulrich
Chief Executive Officer of Anchorage Capital Group L.L.C.
Mr. Kevin Ulrich is the Chief Executive Officer and Senior Portfolio Manager at Anchorage Capital Group, L.L.C. Mr. Ulrich co-founded the firm in 2003.
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About Anchorage Capital Group L.L.C.: Anchorage Capital Partners is a specialised private equity firm that focuses on operational turnarounds and special situations investments.
Scott Kapnick
Chief Executive Officer of Highbridge Principal Strategies of Highbridge Capital Management
Scott Kapnick joined HPS Investment Partners as Chief Executive Officer in 2007.Founder and CEO of HPS Investment Partners, one of the world’s biggest alternative credit managers with $60 billion in assets.
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About Highbridge Capital Management, Highbridge Capital Management, HPS Investment Partners: HCM is a global alternative investment management firm launched in 1992. Since its inception, the company has developed a diversified
Divya Narendra
CEO & Founder of SumZero
Divya Narendra is the CEO & Co – Founder of SumZero. Before founding SumZero, Divya was an Associate at Sowood Capital Management, a $3.5B multi-strategy hedge fund located in Boston, MA. At Sowood, Divya analyzed investment opportunities across the capital structure. Prior to this, he was an analyst in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Credit Suisse Securities in NYC. Divya graduated from Harvard College in 2004 with a Degree in Applied Mathematics. He received a J.D. / MBA from Northwestern.
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About SumZero: SumZero is an investment website helping top tier investors share actionable ideas and grow their professional networks.
Gil Mandelzis
Founder & CEO of Capitolis
Gil Mandelzis co-founded Traiana in April 2000 and on his appointment as Chief Executive Officer of EBS BrokerTec in March 2012, was appointed Executive Chairman of Traiana. Gil led Traiana’s growth from a small start-up to a recognised global leader in post trade services resulting in Traiana’s acquisition by ICAP in 2007. Gil was appointed to the New York Federal Reserve’s Foreign Exchange Committee in 2012. Prior to Traiana, he worked in the M&A Group at Deutsche Bank Alex Brown (formerly BT Wolfensohn) in New York, where he advised companies in the financial and technology sectors. Gil holds an MBA from INSEAD.
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About Capitolis, EBS BrokerTec: Capitolis is a technology provider addressing capital market constraints in equities and foreign exchange.
Marc Lasry
Chief Executive Officer of Avenue Capital Group
Marc Lasry is Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of Avenue Capital Group. In addition to Avenue Capital Group, Mr. Lasry also Co-Founded Amroc Investments, LLC. Prior to that, Mr. Lasry was Co–Director of the Bankruptcy and Corporate Reorganization Department at Cowen & Company. Before Amroc, Mr. Lasry served as Director of the Private Debt Department at Smith Vasiliou Management Company. Mr. Lasry also clerked for the Honorable Edward Ryan, former Chief Bankruptcy Judge of the Southern District of New York. In 2004 Mr. Lasry co-chaired the Penn Parent Leadership Committee, together with his wife Cathy Cohen. The following year the couple donated $5 million to Clark University, which put the donation toward building the Lasry Center for Bioscience. Lasry serves on the board of the 92nd Street Y. He is also on the board of Trustees for the Mount Sinai Hospital, and is a Trustee of Beth Israel Medical Center and Continuum Health Partners Inc. He sits on the Board of Directors of The Clinton Global Initiative and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Lasry is married to Cathy Cohen and has five children. His son, Alexander, worked for White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett. Lasry’s daughter, Samantha, was a staffer for congressman Rahm Emanuel. Lasry’s hobbies include basketball, tennis and comics.
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About Avenue Capital Group: Avenue Capital Group is a global investment firm focused on distressed, and undervalued debt and equity opportunities across the world.
Benoit Brookens III
Founder & CEO of Accrue
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About Accrue, nuOctave: Accrue is a financial analytics company that builds deep learning technology.
Andrew Klein
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of BullsBridge Capital
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About BullsBridge Capital: Revolutionizing Real Estate Investing
Vijay Oddiraju
CEO and Co-Founder of Volante Technologies
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About Volante Technologies: Volante help clients integrate and manage the diverse and complex data message formats and protocols for firms in the financial industry.
Christopher J. Swift
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of The Hartford
Christopher J. Swift is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Hartford, a 200 year-old national leader in property and casualty insurance, group benefits and mutual funds. Swift is responsible for the company’s strategy and growth, its capital allocation and the Company’s performance, culture and leadership. As CEO, Swift has focused The Hartford’s portfolio of businesses, reduced the size and risk of its legacy variable annuity liabilities and transformed the operations of the Company. This resulted in creating industry-leading total shareholder return, increased financial strength and greater strategic and operational flexibility. Swift joined The Hartford in March 2010 and served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer through June 2014. In that position, Swift played a central role in the company’s financial turnaround and strategic transformation, strengthening the balance sheet and creating greater capital flexibility. During this time, the Company’s highly successful strategic Transformation Program reported to Swift. Swift also led the team that developed the company’s go-forward strategy, resulting in a sharply focused company with fast-improving businesses, as well as three strategically important divestitures, which were completed in nine months and at attractive valuations to highly-regarded counterparties. More recently, Swift managed the sale of The Hartford’s wholly-owned Japanese annuity subsidiary, which significantly reduced the company’s risk profile. Previously, Swift held senior leadership and finance roles at American International Group (AIG). He began his career in public accounting at KPMG LLP focused on financial services, and was eventually appointed head of the Global Insurance Industry Practice. Swift earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Marquette University and is a Certified Public Accountant. Swift has been a long-standing supporter of diversity and inclusion in the insurance industry, including his role as the former executive sponsor of the Professional Women’s Network at The Hartford and his current role on the board of Catalyst. He is Chairman of the Board of the American Insurance Association, sits on the board of the Insurance Information Institute and is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board at the Villanova School of Business. Swift is a member of the Business Council, The Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Financial Services Roundtable and the International Insurance Society.
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About The Hartford: The Hartford is an industry leading provider of property and casualty insurance, group benefits and mutual funds.
Paul Zepf
Chairman & CEO of Global Partner Acquisition Corp.
Paul Zepf has more than 25 years of private equity investment experience. He started his career in the Merchant Banking Department at Morgan Stanley and later became a managing director of Lazard, Lazard Alternative Investments and Golub Capital. While Paul has completed successful investments across the private equity spectrum, he has specialized in negotiated investments in public and private companies in which the injection of new capital into the partner company allows that company and its management team to take advantage of compelling opportunities or address significant challenges.
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About Global Partner Acquisition Corp.: GPAC is a special purpose acquisition company.
David Klein
Co-Founder & CEO of CommonBond
David is the CEO and Co-Founder of CommonBond, a leading marketplace lender that lowers the cost of student loans for borrowers and provides financial returns to investors. David is responsible for setting strategy on creating a superior borrower experience. Prior to CommonBond, David worked in consumer finance at American Express, as Director of Strategic Planning and Business Development. David started his professional career as a consultant at McKinsey & Company. David graduated from Brandeis University with a BA in Politics, Economics and International Business, and attended the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
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About CommonBond: CommonBond was founded in 2012 to help relieve the student loan burden, and since then we’ve funded over $4 billion in better loans.
Michael Bloch
CEO & Co-founder of Pillar Life
Michael is the CEO & co-founder of Pillar, a mobile app that helps people manage their student loans. Before Pillar, Michael was an early employee at DoorDash, where he was the General Manager of the New York & California regions. Michael graduated from UC Berkeley and dropped out of Stanford Business School in 2018 to found Pillar.
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About Pillar Life: Pillar is a digital platform that helps families better protect and care for their aging loved ones.
Lisa Manuele
Former – CEO of BNY International of BNY Mellon
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About BNY Mellon: BNY Mellon is an investment company that provides investment management, investment services, and wealth management services.
Sean Engelking
Co-Founder and CEO of Starship
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About Starship: Starship is mobile health savings account (HSA) with automated investing built for humans.
Lindsey Taylor Wood
Founder, CEO & GP of The Helm
Lindsey Taylor Wood is the Founder, CEO & GP at The Helm.
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About The Helm, The Helm: The Helm is an early-stage venture firm investing in game-changing companies founded by women through our fund and investor membership.
Nat Ware
Founder & CEO of Forte
Dr. Nat Ware is an award-winning entrepreneur, economist and speaker. At 16, he raised $100,000 to rebuild a school in Mozambique and an orphanage in Thailand. At 19, he founded 180 Degrees Consulting and built it into the world’s largest consultancy for non-profits and social enterprises, with over 120 branches across 35 countries and over 4 million hours of consulting services provided (www.180dc.org). At 21, he taught a postgraduate course on Innovation, Strategy and Global Business. At 25, he did a PhD at Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship where he invented a new way to finance education (Tradable Income-Based Securities, or TIBS), as well as new ways to measure poverty, social impact, and government performance. Due to these inventions, which use economic approaches to redesign human systems to improve social outcomes, Nat has been called “the father of social impact economics.” He is a Visiting Fellow at Princeton, Forbes 30 Under 30 list-maker, Australian State Young Achiever of the Year, Asia21 Fellow, Goldman Sachs Global Leader, World Economic Forum Global Shaper, winner of the Oxford Vice-Chancellor’s Social Impact Award, received the highest scoring speech at the World Debating Championships, and is only-ever Two-Time Global Winner of the St Gallen Wings of Excellence Award. He received ‘No Corrections’ for his Oxford PhD, the Saïd Prize for Top Oxford MBA Student, the Arthur Lewis Prize for Best Performance in Development Economics at Oxford, The University Medal for Top Economics/Business Student at Sydney University, and the Convocation Medal for Best All-Rounder at Sydney University (1/33,000 students). He has also swum the English Channel with friends to raise money for charity, completed a full Ironman triathlon, and given three TEDx talks on that have been viewed over a million times. Nat is currently the Founder/CEO of Forte, an innovative way to finance education at scale at no cost to individuals or governments.
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About 180 Degrees Consulting, Forte: There is a way to finance education and healthcare at no cost to individuals, governments or donors. That way is Forte.
Deborah Jackson
Founder & CEO of Plum Alley Investments
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About Plum Alley Investments: Plum Alley Investments is a venture firm investing in early stage technology and healthcare companies with at least one woman founder.
Ryan Sasson
CEO & Co-founder of Strategic Financial Solutions
Ryan is the CEO of Strategic Financial Solutions. He co-founded the company in 2007. A native New Yorker, Ryan has almost two decades of experience starting and growing businesses in the region. Before founding Strategic, Ryan was the president and founder of Timberline Capital, one of the largest Merchant Cash Advance companies in the country. Ryan is a member of YPO Metro and in involved with multiple charitable organizations. Ryan holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Marketing and Business Management from Tulane University.
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About Strategic Financial Solutions: Strategic Financial Solutions works for consumers in difficult financial situations to execute a plan to reduce their debt.
Charlie Javice
Founder & CEO of Frank Financial Aid
Charlie Javice is the founder and CEO of Frank.
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About Frank Financial Aid: Frank is a financial platform that helps college students manage their financial aid and student debt.
Brandon Gell
Co-Founder & CEO of Clyde
Brandon Gell is the Co-Founder and CEO at Clyde.
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About Clyde: Clyde is a platform that connects retailers to insurance companies to launch and manage product protection programs.
Nicole Van Der Tuin
Co-Founder and CEO of First Access
Nicole Van Der Tuin is the co-founder and CEO at First Access.
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About First Access: First Access is a FinTech company that offers a smart data platform for financial institutions in emerging markets.
Maria Gotsch
President and CEO of Partnership Fund for New York City
Maria is the co-founder of FinTech Innovation Lab. She is also the president and CEO of the New York City Investment Fund and serves as president of the Fund’s Civic Capital Corporation, which manages the Fund’s charitable investments. Prior to joining the Fund in 1999, Maria was a managing director at BT Wolfensohn (now part of Deutsche Bank), providing strategic and financial advice related to mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures and the development of business strategies. Before starting with Wolfensohn, Maria worked at LaSalle Partners in the New York area and for Merrill Lynch Capital Markets in New York and London. Maria has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.A. from Wellesley College.
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About FinTech Innovation Lab, NYC Seed, Partnership Fund for New York City: The Partnership Fund for New York City is the investment arm of the Partnership for New York City.
Jason Saltzman
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Relief App
Jason Saltzman is the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Relief App.
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About Alley, Entrepreneur.com, Relief App: Relief is a mobile app that delivers on debt-elimination commitment.
David Sosna
Founder & CEO of Personetics
Mr. Sosna has more than 20 years’ experience in the financial services arena. As co-founder and CEO of Personetics, he is responsible for the overall growth strategy of the company. Most recently, Mr. Sosna was co-founder and chief executive officer of Actimize, the leading provider of financial crime, risk and compliance solutions. Under his leadership, Actimize was recognized as a global leader in the financial services market. In 2007, Actimize was acquired by NICE systems, at which point Mr. Sosna joined the NICE management team. Prior to Actimize, Mr. Sosna founded Gilon Information Systems. Under his leadership, Gilon grew to become Israel’s largest business intelligence company, implementing large-scale data warehouse projects for many of Israel’s most recognized companies. Mr. Sosna graduated from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Ben-Gurion University.
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About Personetics: Personetics is a provider of data-driven personalization and customer engagement tools for banks and financial services companies.
Jim Nadler
President & CEO of Kroll Bond Rating Agency
James Nadler is the President and Chief Operating Officer of Kroll Bond Rating Agency, Inc. James was previously the Vice President for Corporate Development at General Re in the New England Asset Management Division. At General Re, James helped create a new platform for trading, settlement and reporting. His expertise in research and analytics at General Re was instrumental in maintaining client relationships while generating new revenue. Over the last two decades, James has held several roles in the world of financial analysis, working for mainstays in the ratings industry as well as independent research firms. As Executive Vice President at FitchRatings, he was responsible for strategy, budgets, hiring, product development, and credit rating criteria for the Structured Finance Group, which he led. He began his career as a senior accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers, then became a ratings officer at Standard & Poor’s. He received a B.A. in Economics from the University of Kansas and an M.B.A. from Rutgers University.
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About Kroll Bond Rating Agency: KBRA is a global rating agency established to restore trust in credit ratings and offer accurate and transparent ratings.
Alex Bangash
Founder. Chairman, Managing Director & CEO of Trusted Insight
Alex Bangash is the Founder, Chairman, Managing Director, and CEO at Trusted Insight, a platform for institutional investors in 2010. In 2003, he founded Rumson Consulting Group, an innovative asset management and advisory firm specializing in Venture Capital investments for institutional investors.
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About Trusted Insight: Trusted Insight is an LP network that provides institutional investors with curated news, jobs, rankings, events, and a forum.
Dmitry Norenko
CEO and Founder of upSWOT
Dmitry Norenko is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder at upSWOT.
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About bNesis, upSWOT: UpSWOT is a fintech platform that enables banks to connect, collect, and normalize data from business software tools they regularly use.
Jeffrey Zhou
Co-Founder & CEO of Fig Loans
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About Fig Loans: Fig helps you through financial emergencies and build credit towards a better future.
Mark Patterson
Chairman and CEO of MatlinPatterson Global Advisers LLC
Mark Patterson is co-founder of MatlinPatterson Global Advisers and co-founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board of Managers of MatlinPatterson Asset Management. He is also a member of the board of MPAM Credit Trading Partners, MP Securitized Credit Partners, and MP Senior Credit Partners. Mr. Patterson has almost 40 years of financial markets experience, principally in commercial, investment and merchant banking at Credit Suisse (where he was a Vice Chairman), Scully Brothers & Foss L.P., Salomon Brothers Inc., and Bankers Trust Company. Mr. Patterson holds degrees in Law (BA, 1972) and Economics (BA Honors – Economics, 1974) from South Africa’s Stellenbosch University and an MBA (with distinction, 1986) from New York University’s Stern School of Business. Mr. Patterson serves on the Investment Committee of MatlinPatterson Global Advisers.
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About MatlinPatterson Global Advisers LLC: MatlinPatterson Global Advisers.
Joshua Frank
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The TIE
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About The TIE: The Most Powerful Platform for Crypto Traders
Matt Harris
Co-Founder and CEO of BloomCredit
Matt is the Co-Founder and CEO of Bloom Credit, where he leads the team on product, customer development, operations and just generally trying to get things done. Previously, Matt has consulted with organizations ranging from LendKey Technologies, MIT and Emissary.
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About BloomCredit: Bloom Credit is a fintech platform that works to improve the financial eligibility of people declines for lending products.
Michael Mazzola
Interim CEO of Institutional Limited Partners Association
Mike Mazzola is a Managing Director and Head of MetLife’s Alternative Investment Unit. He has overall responsibility for a global portfolio of limited partnership investments in hedge funds and private equity funds as well as middle market finance activities including senior loans, mezzanine and equity co-investments. Mike originally joined MetLife in 1989 and was focused on private debt and mezzanine, direct private equity and fund investing. From 1999 to 2004, Mike was a founding partner of Inter-Atlantic Fund, a venture capital fund focused on early stage investments in financial services companies. In 2004, he joined Swiss-based Gefinor SA as head of private equity fund advisory activities based in New York City. He rejoined MetLife in September 2007 to head US private equity fund investments. Mike earned a BA in Economics from New College of Florida and an MBA in Finance and Accounting from the Simon School of the University of Rochester. Mike serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA), the leading global organization dedicated to the interests of Institutional Limited Partners in private equity.
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About Institutional Limited Partners Association: Institutional Limited Partners Association is a member-driven organization dedicated to advancing the interests of private equity.
Joseph Steinberg
Chief Executive Officer of HRG Group
Joseph Steinberg has served as Chairman of the Board since December 2014, as a member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee since November 2014, and as a director of HRG Group and a member of the Compensation Committee since July 2014. Mr. Steinberg is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Leucadia National Corporation (“Leucadia”). He served as a director of Leucadia since December 1978 and as President from January 1979 until March 1, 2013. Mr. Steinberg has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of HomeFed Corporation since 1999 and as a director since 1998. Mr. Steinberg serves on the board of directors of Crimson Wine Group, Ltd. Mr. Steinberg has managerial and investing experience in a broad range of businesses through his many years as President and a director of Leucadia and its affiliates.
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About HRG Group: HRG Group a diversified holding company seeking to own and grow attractive businesses that generate sustainable free cash flow.
Eric Fischgrund
Founder/CEO of FischTank PR
Eric Fischgrund is the founder and CEO of FischTank PR, a boutique communications and marketing firm headquartered in New York City. A career MarComm executive, Eric has worked both agency side and in-house prior to launching FischTank PR. The firm specializes in a number of corporate practice areas, including but not limited to B2B and B2C technologies, renewable energy and sustainability, financial services and personal finance products, and non-profits. Eric resides in North Jersey with his wife Monica and dog (Buddy), and enjoys spending time with family and friends, biking, golfing, hiking, reading, and writing.
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About Boom Local, FischTank PR: FischTank PR is a public relations and marketing firm specializing in media relations, content writing, branding, digital/social, & more.
Shams Karim
Founder and CEO of Nirvana Solutions
Shams is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nirvana. He has a strong entrepreneurial track record in the financial technology space. In 1999, he founded Advanced Financial Applications (AFA) and its broker/dealer subsidiary EGS. Prior to starting AFA, Shams spent over 10 years at Morgan Stanley as a Derivative Specialist, with assignments in New York, San Francisco and Asia. Shams received an MBA in Quantitative Finance & Economics from the Stern School of Business, New York University.
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About Nirvana Solutions: Nirvana provides front, middle and back-office solutions to asset managers, prime brokers, and fund administrators in a grow-as-you-need.
Atish Davda
CEO & Founder of EquityZen
Atish Davda is the founder of EquityZen. Atish was VP Product at Ampush, a big-data advertising technology firm. He launched SF-based Ampush’s New York office as first engineer and successfully procured the coveted Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer membership. Atish began his career as a financial engineer at AQR Capital. He serves as an Executive Board Member for PennPAC (Penn Pro-bono Alumni Consulting), a nonprofit that helps other nonprofits thrive. When not at the office, Atish can be found playing tennis and traveling.
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About EquityZen: EquityZen is a financial services company that provides an investment platform intended to connect shareholders of private companies.
Doug W. Naidus
Founder and CEO of World Business Lenders
Founder & CEO of World Business Lenders (WBL), an SME financing company based in Jersey City, NJ., as well as Vice Chairman of the Hispanic Chamber Fund and the African American Chamber Fund. Mr. Naidus has successfully executed and managed business activities on five continents, including high-profile transactions in the United States, Colombia and Saudi Arabia. Doug Naidus has a track record of more than 28 years of business-building and financial industry success. In 1988, Mr. Naidus founded IPI FINANCIAL, a start-up mortgage broker in New York, which later acquired Skyscraper Mortgage in 1998 to become the largest mortgage originator in New York state. In 1999, Mr. Naidus sold IPI Skyscraper for $18 million in a private transaction. In 1999, Mr. Naidus founded MORTGAGEIT, a residential mortgage lender. Between 1999 and 2004, Mr. Naidus grew MortgageIT to become the second largest independent mortgage lender in the United States. MortgageIT conducted a successful 270 million IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. In 2006, with over 3,200 employees in 58 branch offices, MortgageIT funded over 33 billion in loans. In 2006, Mr. Naidus sold MortgageIT to DEUTSCHE BANK for $430 million plus additional consideration and then remained with Deutsche Bank for more than four years as a senior executive running its global residential real estate lending and related trading businesses. In 2009, Mr. Naidus led Deutsche Bank into an agreement to establish a Shari’a compliant home financing company in Saudi Arabia under the name of DEUTSCHE GULF FINANCE. In 2011, Mr. Naidus founded and capitalized WORLD BUSINESS LENDERS as its sole shareholder and funded its first loan in August 2011.
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About World Business Lenders: World Business Lenders provides capital to small businesses.
Arcady Lapiro
CEO & Founder of Agora
Arcady CEO & Co-Founder of Agora Services was back in 2000 a founding member and member of the Executive Committee of the successful Group ProCapital – Fortuneo France & Belgium (2000-2008) acting as its Head of Compliance, Legal & Risk and co-responsible of the business development. From its creation to 2008, Fortuneo-ProCapital grew to more than 600,000 retail European clients, and over 40B$ Assets under custody with more than 40 institutional clients as Deutsche Bank Belgium, ING Direct Banque, etc. Arcady was instrumental in the sale of the Group in 2006 to Credit Mutuel Arkea. Arcady moved then to New York where he worked as an independent strategy consultant in the banking and financial sectors for European clients and mostly as a Senior Advisor to Blackfin Capital Partners for their growth funds and as a Venture Partner for Blackfin Fintech Fund.
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About Agora: Agora Services is a provider of digital platform banking solutions.
Carlo Cisco
Founder & CEO of SELECT
Carlo Cisco is the Founder and CEO of SELECT. Carlo is a serial entrepreneur and active investor who founded his first successful venture at 18.
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About Forbes Finance Council, SELECT, Tech.Co, YEC: SELECT is the first lifestyle-improving financial company & concierge.
Lance Smith
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Imagine Software
As a co-founder of Imagine Software, Lance Smith sets strategic direction, guides development of Imagine’s award-winning analytics, and lends his expertise to sales efforts. Lance Smith brings a rare combination of business and academic experience to his role as CEO, with thirty-plus years of direct involvement in trading and risk management practices, mathematical modeling, and system development. Lance Smith has a PhD in mathematics, and is a former Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Columbia University, as well as a former Courant Instructor at the Courant Institute. He began his finance career at Salomon Brothers in 1986, where he served as the chief quant for the equity derivatives business. He then headed Sakura Global Capital’s Equity Derivatives Trading desk, prior to founding Imagine in 1993.
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About Imagine Software: Imagine offers the power of a real-time, institutional-grade portfolio and risk management software.
Jay Bhattacharya
CEO & Co-Founder of Zipmark
Jay Bhattacharya is CEO & Co-Founder of Zipmark, an online payment platform that enables businesses to send and receive digital check payments without risk. Zipmark’s API and biller direct services are being used by thousands of payers for recurring billing, B2B and other invoice payments instead of ACH, paper checks and wire transfers. Jay’s last company, MMV, a mobile banking SaaS provider, was acquired by Intuit in 2011. During his tenure, as co-founder and head of business development, the company raised $28 Million of venture capital from Citi Ventures and SK Telecom, and implemented mobile banking services in 25 countries. Prior to that, Jay was at Citigroup for 7 years where he was responsible for their emerging payments strategy and helped launch Citi Ventures. – See more at: https://www.crunchbase.com/person/jay-bhattacharya-2#sthash.h2BI618G.dpuf
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About Zipmark: Zipmark is a mobile payments transaction platform enabling businesses to send and receive digital paychecks securely.
