2025 Participants

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.

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.

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.

Elizabeth Burton is a Managing Director and Client Investment Strategist in the Client Solutions Group within Goldman Sachs Asset Management, advising institutional clients on investment strategy and portfolio objectives. Previously, she served as Chief Investment Officer at the Employees' Retirement System of the State of Hawaii and as Managing Director in the Quantitative Strategies Group at Maryland State Retirement Agency. Elizabeth held earlier roles as an investor, economist, consultant, and fixed income trader. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Chartered Alternative Investment Association (CAIA) and on the board of the Hill School. Elizabeth earned a BA in Politics and French from Washington and Lee University and an MBA in Finance and Econometrics and Statistics from the University of Chicago. She is a CAIA charterholder.

Alexander I. Fishman is the Founder and Managing Partner of Empros Capital, a late-stage venture capital firm focused on high-growth companies. Previously, he was the Co-Founder and President of Disruptive Technology Advisers (DTA), a boutique investment bank that raised funds for late-stage technology companies and facilitated technology stock transactions. Before DTA, Alexander founded Delectable, a consumer data and mobile application company he sold in early 2017. Earlier, he spent over three years as an engineer and executive at Palantir Technologies, helping build key products and business units. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science and Economics with a minor in Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University.

Richard Golaszewski is a Managing Director at Hunter Point Capital and serves as Co-Head of Hunter Point Capital GP Financing Solutions. Prior to joining HPC, Richard was a Managing Director at 17Capital, a private equity portfolio financing firm, where he was responsible for originating, structuring, and executing preferred equity and NAV loan investments and co-led the firm’s U.S. investment team. Prior to 17Capital Mr. Golaszewski spent a decade at Nomura as a founding member of its Fund Financing & Solutions business. Mr. Golaszewski earned a BS in Business Administration, magna cum laude, from American University.

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.

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.

Naresh Kothari is Founder and Managing Partner of Alpha Alternatives, India's leading multi-asset class alternatives platform with operations in India and Singapore, employing 175+ professionals including 15+ partners across nine investment strategies. Previously, he spent 13 years at Edelweiss Financial Services, where as President he led the Alternative Asset business. With over 28 years in finance, Naresh has advised more than 100 corporates on capital market strategies and served in board-level roles driving strategic reorganization. He holds a PGDM from IIM Ahmedabad and a BE in Computer Science from the University of Mumbai, and is known as a fitness enthusiast with unconventional thinking.

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.

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.

Steve Pei is Chief Investment Officer and co-founder of Gratia Capital, a value and event-driven hedge fund focused on small and mid-cap companies. Previously, he was a portfolio manager at Canyon Capital, where he invested in real estate and its related sectors across the capital structure. Prior to Canyon, he worked at Bain Capital's private equity group focusing on the industrials and consumer sectors. Earlier, Steve held positions at McKinsey & Co and in strategic planning at DFI Holdings. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BS from the Wharton School and MA and BA degrees from the College of Arts and Sciences.

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.

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).

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.

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.

Jay Tatum is the Co-Founder of Valent Asset Management, and Chief Investment Officer of the Valent Fund Tatum Series, a $1b Strategy focused on opportunities in metals trading created by the ”renewables revolution”. Jay has over seventeen years’ experience as a metals trader, most recently at Blenheim Capital Management. Prior to Blenheim, Jay was a portfolio manager at Millennium Management, The Carlyle Group/Vermillion Asset Management and Susquehanna International Group. At Vermillion, he managed risk across the firm’s funds in base and precious metals and launched Vermillion’s Aeris Metals Fund in 2014. Jay holds a B.A. in Computer Science from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from Instituto de Empresa in Madrid.

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.