Speakers

David Abrams is Founding Partner and Managing Partner of Velocity, a private equity firm focused on sports, media and entertainment investing in the lower-middle market. Previously, he served as CIO of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, managing multiple investment verticals. Before HBSE, David founded and led the Apollo European Principal Finance Funds ($8.0 billion AUM). He spent 10 years at Credit Suisse in London and New York, where he founded the Specialty Finance Investment business and co-headed Global Distressed Sales and Trading. David has owned sports franchises including the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders and currently holds minority stakes in Crystal Palace F.C. and esports franchise Dignitas. He graduated cum laude with a B.S. in economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Andy Bernard is Partner and CIO at Left Lane Development, a landmarked building hotel conversion real estate fund. Andy's investment experience spans debt, equity, CMBS, existing assets, renovation, and ground-up development, with expertise in hospitality, residential, and office sectors. His capital markets background includes raising closed-end funds, transaction capital, EB-5, construction financing, and loan trading. Previously, Andy served as Head of Acquisitions and Development for Equinox Hotels, managing $2B in projects across the US, Canada, and UK while launching the brand. He held leadership positions at Witkoff Group, and he began his real estate career at Morgan Stanley. He holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Colgate University.

William Blank is Founding Partner and Portfolio Manager of Squadron Capital Management (SCM), investing in publicly traded micro- to mid-cap therapeutics companies. Previously, as a Principal at Aspire Capital, he led scientific, clinical, regulatory, and financial due diligence efforts, and participated in over 200 biotech-related equity capital market offerings. William began his biotechnology career at Integrated Genomics, Inc. He holds a B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Illinois, an M.S. in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University, and the CFA designation.

Bick Brooks is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Maritime Partners, a New Orleans-based inland marine transportation asset management firm with $4 billion in assets under management. Bick began his career as an analyst in the Corporate Credit Group at Guggenheim Partners Investment Management, a fixed income asset manager with approximately $68 billion in assets under management. From 2012 through 2015, he was a Vice President and the Senior Industrials and Transportation Analyst with direct oversight of $3.0 billion in assets. During his tenure at Guggenheim, Bick led the deployment of approximately $600 million of capital into fixed income and hybrid securities within the Jones Act and international shipping markets. He graduated with a B.A. in Economics from Trinity College.

Eli Broverman is Co-Founder of Treasury, which invests in early-stage fintech builders with a focus on modernizing financial infrastructure across tax, securities clearing, risk, cyber, compliance, real estate finance, insurance, and wealth. Eli also co-founded Betterment, the world's first robo-adviser, which has grown to over $55b in AUM with more than 900k customers. He earned an AB in Chemistry from Brown University and a JD from New York University School of Law.

Danielle Brown is General Partner & CEO of Altriarch, a private credit firm with expertise in factoring and asset-backed lending. Prior to founding Altriarch, Danielle was a Managing Director with Dyal Capital Partners, where she led strategic planning, fundraising and creation of operational efficiencies within portfolio companies. Prior to Dyal, she was Global Head of Investor Relations & Client Development at Round Table Investment Management Company, and was a Senior Research Analyst with the Alternative Strategies Group at Wachovia Bank (currently Wells Fargo). She began her investment career with Quellos Capital Management. Danielle graduated magna cum laude in Finance from Seattle University, and holds the CFA designation.

Henry Elkus is Founder and CEO of Helena, a global problem-solving organization implementing solutions to critical societal problems through strategic investments. Under his leadership, Helena has backed high-impact companies across healthcare, biotechnology, climate, and energy sectors. Key investments include Twin Health, Phaidra, Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Vivodyne, Matter Motorcycles, Cruz Foam, LOA Carbon, and Lykos. Helena operates alongside a membership community of exceptional leaders, including Nobel Prize winners, scientists, activists, artists, and business leaders who collaborate globally to share ideas and advance projects.

Joshua Herlands is Managing Partner at Rosemawr Sustainable Infrastructure Management, where he joined in 2020 to lead the firm's expansion into renewable energy project investments. Previously, he was Managing Partner at Stillwaters Management, focusing on renewable energy and collaborating with Rosemawr. Earlier, Joshua led the infrastructure and renewable energy investment team at ORIX USA and worked at Captona Partners and Lehman Brothers' Power and Project Finance group. He serves as an adjunct professor teaching renewable energy finance and development at Tulane University's Freeman School of Business. Joshua holds a B.A. and M.A. in International Policy from Stanford University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and is a licensed attorney.

Ava Kelley is the Director of U.S. research at Greenmantle, a geopolitical and macroeconomic advisory firm. At Greenmantle, Ava's recent research has focused on Trump's trade policy, tax negotiations, and intra-White House personnel dynamics. She is also a guest contributor for The Liberal Patriot. Before joining Greenmantle, she worked as a research assistant to economist Steve H. Hanke. Ava holds a BA with honors in International Studies and Economics from The Johns Hopkins University.

James Kelly is a Managing Director and Head of Hard Assets investing at Greywolf Capital, a New York-based alternative asset manager focused on hard asset, distressed and structured product investing strategies. Greywolf currently manages approximate $4b in assets and with partners oversees maritime operations around the globe. James is the Portfolio Manager for the firm’s maritime investment funds and has held previous roles in investment management at Goldentree Asset Management and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. James spent his early career in the transportation industry with the Boeing Company and with management consultancy A.T. Kearny. He earned his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BA from Northwestern University.

Jason Koenig is the Founder and Managing Partner of ITE Management, an investment firm dedicated to industrial transportation asset leasing. ITE has investments and operations throughout the United States and Europe, and currently manages approximately $10b in assets. Jason held prior roles in private equity and asset management at Hale Capital Partners, Avenue Capital and Versa Capital Partners, and was a corporate attorney at Kirkland & Ellis and Cooley Godward, specializing in mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts and bankruptcy acquisitions. He earned an MBA from the Wharton Business School, a JD from the University of Michigan Law School and a BBA from the University of Michigan.

Manish Kothari is the Co-Founder, together with former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, of First Spark Ventures, a venture capital firm active in pre-seed through to Series B opportunities within Deep Tech. Prior to First Spark, Manish was President at SRI International, a leading research institute in Silicon Valley and the birthplace of companies such as Intuitive Surgical, Nuance, and Siri, where he incubated and invested in over 25 Deep Tech startups. Prior to SRI, Manish was serial entrepreneur in medtech hardware and software, including by cofounding Mytrus, a software startup focused on direct-to participant clinical trials. Manish has a postdoc from UCSF in Medical Physics, a PhD from Cornell in Bioengineering, and undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai in Aerospace Engineering.

Beeneet Kothari is Managing Partner and Principal Portfolio Manager of Tekne Capital Management, a New York-based global technology investment manager he founded in 2012 that manages over $1 billion. Tekne Capital focuses exclusively on tech-related businesses with significant exposure to non-US/emerging markets, maintaining a concentrated portfolio with multi-year holding periods. The firm's flagship fund targets leading non-US technology companies that combine robust growth with depressed public market valuations. Previously, he served as Managing Director at PointState Capital and Duquesne Capital, the global macro hedge fund founded by Stan Druckenmiller.

Charles Labanowski is Founding Partner and President at Goodlander. At Goodlander, Mr. Labanowski’s investment responsibility is working with the CIO primarily on top-down subsector research. He also works with the CFO/COO on client-related activities. Prior to Goodlander, from 2015-2021, he was a Principal and member of the Senior Management Team at Ownership Capital, a long-term oriented global equity fund. Prior to Ownership Capital, Mr. Labanowski was a public equity Analyst and Investment Manager on the Responsible Equity Portfolio (REP) at PGGM, the Netherlands’ second largest pension fund with total assets of ~EUR 200 billion. Before his time at PGGM, Mr. Labanowski attended Stanford University, graduating in 2010.

Eric Lonergan is Head of Macro at Calibrate Partners, a London-based discretionary macro hedge fund. Previously, he was a portfolio manager at Eisler Capital and managed macro long-short and asset-allocation funds at M&G Investments, including co-managing the award-winning Episode Macro Fund and the top-quartile Episode Growth fund. Eric served as Managing Director and Head of Macro Research at JP Morgan Cazenove. He holds a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University and a Masters in Economics from the London School of Economics. Eric has advised central banks and governments, published influential papers on monetary policy, and co-wrote Angrynomics, a Financial Times book of the year in 2020.

Caroline Lovelace is Chief Investment Officer and Co-Portfolio Manager at Preserver Partners, LLC. She oversees all investments for the firm's managed portfolios, focusing on portfolio construction, manager selection, and risk management. Previously, Caroline served as a senior executive and Investment Committee member at Appomattox, a New York-based Outsourced Chief Investment Officer firm. She founded Rose Hill Park Alternative Asset Managers, was a founding partner and Co-Portfolio Manager at Pine Street Alternative Asset Management, and Managing Director at Provident Group Asset Management. Caroline earned a B.A. in Economics from Harvard University and an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She currently serves on the investment committee of a global social service foundation.

Mike Nixon is a Managing Director and Partner of Sundance Bay Capital, where he oversees the Sundance Debt Opportunities Fund. Prior to joining Sundance Bay, he was a Senior Associate at McKinsey and Company, where he advised private equity funds on investment strategies and operational controls at several Fortune 500 companies in infrastructure, healthcare and real estate. Prior to McKinsey, Mike was a project manager at KBR, a leading engineering and construction firm, where he focused on infrastructure and energy projects. Mike holds a bachelor's degree in Business and Russian from Brigham Young University and an MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Michael Pinewski is Partner and Co-Founder of Triangle Capital Group (TCG), an investment firm focused on distressed opportunities in commercial real estate. Prior to founding TCG in 2009, Michael oversaw over $800 million of public and private real estate transactions at Marathon Asset Management, a global multi-strat hedge fund. Before Marathon, Michael worked on real estate transactions at Granite Partners, and on real estate acquisitions and dispositions advisory at Ernst & Young. He graduated from NYU's Stern School of Business with a B.S. in Finance.

Paul Podolsky is Founder and CIO of Kate Capital, a discretionary global macro fund. He brings 16 years of experience as an equity partner at Bridgewater Associates, where he worked closely with Ray Dalio in research and client service roles. Paul publishes the investment newsletter "Letters from Paul" and previously served as Chief Strategist at BankBoston. Earlier in his career, he worked as a foreign correspondent in Moscow. He holds an M.A. in Economics from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a B.A. in History from Brown University.

Michael Schwartz is the Founder, CEO, and Co-CIO of Arena Digital, a digital asset infrastructure fund-of-funds. Prior to Arena Digital, Michael was a Partner and Portfolio Manager at Taconic Capital Advisors LP, a multi-billion dollar event-driven hedge fund, where he oversaw the merger arbitrage and event-driven equities portfolio. Michael began his career as an attorney at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP where he specialized in mergers and acquisitions and securities law. Michael received his AB in History and Science, summa cum laude, from Harvard College (1996) and his JD from Yale Law School (1999).

Matt Settle is Founder and Managing Partner of Third Space Capital, which provides structured, non-control equity capital to family, founder, and entrepreneurially owned businesses in the lower middle market. Previously, he served as Managing Director at Carlyle, where he was a founding member of Carlyle's Credit Opportunities fund and helped manage more than $17 billion across opportunistic credit strategies. Before Carlyle, Matt spent nine years as Managing Director at Guggenheim Partners and worked as an Analyst at MJX Asset Management. Matt received a Bachelor of Science in Finance and International Business from New York University's Stern School of Business.

Dan Slavin is the Founder of Chainview Capital, a volatility-focused discretionary cryptocurrency fund, which he founded in 2018. As an investor in Bitcoin since 2014, Dan has pioneered several directional options trading strategies in crypto and is among the market’s largest traders in options. As an investor at Chainview, Dan has navigated multiple crypto market cycles, including the Covid crash and the collapse of FTX, and has established one of the crypto hedge fund industry’s longest successful track records. Dan is a graduate of Dartmouth College.

Neil A. Smaldon is CIO of the Auxo Series at Valent Asset Management, a Strategy focused on opportunities in Agricultural commodities trading. Prior to joining Valent, Mr. Smaldon was Head of Discretionary Commodities at Marshall Wace, where he built and managed a repeatable, data-driven fundamental commodity investment process. Prior to that role, Mr. Smaldon was a commodity portfolio manager at Graham Capital Management and at Millennium Partners. In both roles Mr. Smaldon’s strategy focused on combining alpha from fundamental and quantitative strategies with event-driven overlays resulting from risks associated with weather. Prior to joining Millennium, Mr. Smaldon spent fourteen years as a commodity portfolio manager and commodity strategist/analyst at Tudor Investment Corporation. Mr. Smaldon graduated from the University of Vermont and holds the CFA designation.

Roselia St. Louis is Founder and Chief Investment Officer of ISAR Capital partners. Roselia St. Louis has over 20 years of strategic investment management experience growing portfolios emphasizing Technology and Healthcare. She began her investment career at the United Church Pension Boards, where she served as an Assistant Portfolio Manager of the multi-million dollar Large Cap Core Portfolio. She then moved to Lord Abbett after 6 years at the Pension Boards to serve as Portfolio Manager of a multi-million dollar Large Cap growth portfolio. Ms. St. Louis received her MBA in Finance from Cornell University and a Bachelor's degree in Economics from York University, Canada.

Steve Struna is President and CEO of Bayswater Exploration and Production, which he founded in 2004 after an extended career at BP Amoco, where he held various leadership positions including Vice President and General Manager for Onshore Gulf Coast USA and CEO of Central Alberta Midstream. Under his leadership, Bayswater has grown from non-operated partnerships to raising multiple institutional energy funds totaling over $1.2 billion, with current operated production of approximately 56,000 BOED in Colorado and Texas. Steve holds a BSc in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University, an MSc in Petroleum Engineering from Colorado School of Mines, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He serves on several industry boards including the Colorado Oil and Gas Association and Western Energy Alliance, and is a registered professional engineer.

Rina White is a Partner at Twain Capital, a SBIC lending fund focused on the U.S. Southeast. She transitioned to Twain Capital following her exit from Laundry South Systems & Repair, a commercial laundry equipment provider she acquired in February 2020 and sold in April 2022. Previously, Rina spent four years as a management consultant at McKinsey and Company advising Fortune 500 executives, after having worked in government at the Louisiana Economic Development agency. Rina holds a bachelor's degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, a JD from Harvard Law, and a diploma from L'Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. She is a member of the Mississippi bar.