Laurie Fuller

Venture Partner

Raiven Capital

Laurie Fuller is a Venture Partner, Strategic Advisor, Investor and Executive Coach. She is an accomplished leader who enjoys helping entrepreneurs scale by identifying growth capital, developing strategy and implementing operational models. She is skilled in working with entrepreneurs to hire, train, and manage diverse teams to achieve high performance. Currently, Laurie is a Venture Partner at Raiven Capital. Raiven Capital is a Canada-Silicon Valley Series A venture fund that concentrates on investments just before scaling begins. In a previous role in a Silicon Valley tech company, she was responsible for the development and implementation of operational models which enabled global revenue growth from $1.2B to $6.2B during her tenure. Her international work experience includes positions based in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. She brings a global perspective and builds strong partnerships that transform businesses. She has a Global Executive MBA from TRIUM (NYU/LSE/HEC); MA from Stanford University; and a BS in Decision Science.

Spencer Greene

General Partner

TSV Capital

TSVC is an early-stage venture firm that has seeded more than 150 companies over the last ten years, including notable successes like Zoom, Carta, Ginkgo Bioworks, and Lambda School.

Spencer Greene joined the firm in 2018 after more than 25 years as an entrepreneur, executive, advisor and investor in Silicon Valley technology companies. His investing interests include digital health and B2B SaaS companies.

Eleonore Jarry-Ferron

Principal

Brightspark Ventures

In addition to her role as Principal at Brightspark, Eleonore is very active in the tech community in Canada: she is the co-founder of Front Row Ventures, Canada’s first university-focused venture capital firm. Board member and advisor to Technovation, Founder Institute, and the Canadian Venture Capital Association. 2018 Connector of the Year, 2019 Canadian Women in Tech to follow. She holds a BBA and a graduate diploma from HEC Montréal (awarded Lieutenant Governor of Québec medal).

Prior to joining Brightspark, Éléonore worked in Assurance & Advisory at Ernst & Young LLP, focusing on alternative investment funds and private equity firms.

Éléonore developed a passion for helping entrepreneurs and financing innovation while studying technology entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley as part of Stanford University’s immersion program for international students.

Jayant Kadambi

Managing Director

Quain Investments

Jayant is a Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur, 2x founder, technologist, and business leader who exited his first company in M&A and led his most recent company, YuMe, from inception to IPO (NYSE: YUME) as a global leader in digital media technology.  He is an early backer of over two dozen tech companies including unicorns such as Triller and Boostup.ai and is currently an advisor and board member for many of these. He holds several domestic and international patents in the fields of video, semiconductors, and advertising technology. Jayant is also a writer for several business and tech publications, notably his weekly series of articles titled “Letters from Silicon Valley” for Moneylife.

Shez Samji

Managing Director and Head of Business Development

Silicon Valley Bank

Shez oversees SVB’s market-facing efforts and client acquisition strategy across Canada. As part of his role, Shez leverages SVB’s global innovation platform by connecting companies, market influencers, and both Canadian and U.S. investors who are looking for growth or value-add opportunities.  Shez also leads the origination of Canadian corporate and sponsor-backed financings for public and late-stage technology companies and assists with the structuring of complex senior and junior debt financings.

With more than 10 years of direct private and public market investing experience, Shez’s background includes originating, structuring and executing transactions across the capital structure and in a variety of industries and situations.

Prior to joining SVB, Shez was a Vice President at Third Eye Capital, Canada’s largest private debt and special situations investor. He began his career at BMO Capital Partners, the Bank of Montreal’s principal investing division.

Shez lives in Toronto with his wife and daughter. Outside the office, Shez serves on the Investment Committee for Community Development Venture Fund, a nonprofit microloan company founded to support entrepreneurship, particularly among immigrants to Canada.

Marcus Daniels

Founding Partner & CEO

Highline Beta

Marcus Daniels is a Founding Partner & CEO of Highline Beta where he leads visionary execution, strategic deals, corporate venture co-investment and startup funding. He has 21+ years as a serial tech entrepreneur & operating executive with a top decile pre-seed investing (34 startups) track record. 12+ years working with Fortune 1000 companies advising on corporate innovation models & building a pipeline of new corporate ventures beyond the core business. Formerly the Co-Founder & CEO of HIGHLINE.vc and Managing Director of Extreme Startups, Marcus continues to help evolve accelerator models to make corporate-startup collaboration work

Maria Pacella

Managing Partner

Pender Ventures

Maria has over 20 years of investing and operational experience in emerging growth companies, with a focus on technology businesses. She spent 11 years with one of Canada’s largest venture capital firms where she invested in multiple early-stage ventures and served on a variety of boards, in the areas of enterprise software and health-tech. Along the way, she worked at two start-ups assisting with operational activities and strategic initiatives. Prior to that, Maria worked in M&A for Deutsche Bank.

Current board roles include Clarius Mobile Health, Jane Software, Teradici, Librestream, and One45 Software. She is also on the SFU Beedie School of Business Advisory Board and St. Paul‘s Hospital Foundation Board. She holds a BBA from Simon Fraser University, is a CFA charterholder and an active member and a past President of CFA Society Vancouver.

As an investor in the rapidly changing world of early-stage technology, Maria invests in exceptional entrepreneurs and teams that excel at identifying business opportunities, develop world-class products and are dedicated to building great companies

Ajay Gopal

Partner

Framework Venture Partners

Ajay Gopal is a Partner of Framework Venture Partners. Based in Toronto, Ajay has over a decade of combined VC and alternative investments investing and capital markets experience. With an entrepreneurial background, Ajay is a partner of a healthcare services company currently in operation in Toronto. Ajay currently serves on multiple Boards of Framework portfolio companies including Paper, Countingup, FlipGive and Daisy Intelligence. As a student of engineering with prior operational technology experience, Ajay is keenly interested in meeting with technology companies across all verticals and focused on helping entrepreneurs with the scaling journey.

Scott Morrison

Founding partner, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Investment Officer

Wealhouse Capital Management

Scott Morrison is a founding partner, the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of Wealhouse Capital Management.  Scott is a Bay Street veteran with over twenty-five years of investment experience in the public and private global capital markets.  Prior to founding Wealhouse, Mr. Morrison led managed portfolios for notable firms such as Mackenzie Investments, CI Funds, Investors Group as well as Empire Life Insurance Company.  Mr. Morrison has been on the Board of Trustee of Boardwalk REIT (BEI-U) since May 2018 and also devotes his time as a member of the Investment Committee at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI).

John Ruffolo

Founder & Managing Partner

Maverix Private Equity

John is the Founder and Managing Partner of Maverix Private Equity. John’s focus will is on guiding the strategy of the firm, Chair of the Investment Committee and is deeply involved with sourcing and leading opportunities particularly within the technology industry. John is also the Founder of OMERS Ventures. Through John’s leadership as Chief Executive Officer, OMERS Ventures had invested over $500 million of capital in over 40 disruptive technology companies across North America, including growth investments in Shopify, Wattpad, Wave, Hootsuite, Rover, Desire 2 Learn, Hopper, DuckDuckGo, TouchBistro and League. During his tenure at OMERS, John also formed OMERS Platform Investments as its Executive Managing Director. He has led investments in Purpose Financial, PointNorth Capital, District Ventures, OneEleven and ArcTern Ventures. John is also the Co-founder and Vice Chair of the Council of Canadian Innovators, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping high-growth Canadian technology firms scale up globally. Further, John sits on a number of boards of leading innovative organizations in both the profit and non-for-profit sector. John’s work has been recognized by numerous organizations. He has been selected as Canada’s Most Powerful Business Person by Canadian Business Magazine and as one of Toronto’s most influential persons by Toronto Life Magazine. John has been awarded with the Outstanding Progress and Achievement Award by the Schulich School of Business, an award for outstanding career achievements in their respective field. In 2018, John was honored with the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic which made him a 5th Class Knight. In 2020, John became a Fellow of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario (FCPA).

Fun fact: John and his wife named each of their children after their favorite bottle of wine.

Randolph B. Cohen

MBA Class of 1975 Senior Lecturer of Business Administration

Harvard Business School

Randolph B. (Randy) Cohen is the MBA Class of 1975 Senior Lecturer of Entrepreneurial Management at Harvard Business School.

Cohen teaches finance and entrepreneurship at HBS, and has previously held positions as Associate Professor at HBS and Visiting Associate Professor at MIT Sloan.  He currently teaches Field X and Y at HBS, courses for students who are starting businesses while obtaining their MBA.  Last year he advised around 100 startup businesses in the courses.  He also co-created the Alternative Investments course for Harvard Business School Online, which is taken by thousands of students and professionals each year.

Cohen’s main research interests are the identification and selection of money managers who are most likely to outperform, as well as asset allocation, risk management, and anything else related to building great investment portfolios.  Cohen has studied the differential reactions of institutions and individuals to news about firms and the economy, as well as the effect of institutional trading on stock prices. Other research areas include municipal securities, cryptocurrency, and longevity insurance.

In addition to his academic work, Cohen has helped to start and grow a number of businesses, mostly but not exclusively in the area of investment management, and has served as a consultant to many other companies.  He is co-founder of PEO Partners, an asset-management firm which specializes in liquid private equity, a research interest of Cohen’s for over 20 years.

Cohen serves on the Board of the Massachusetts Association for the Blind and helped launch ExSight Ventures, a small VC specializing in therapies for vision loss.  His podcast, Dangerous Vision, in which he interviews fascinating people who have some connection to blindness, is available on iTunes and all other major platforms.

Cohen holds an AB in mathematics from Harvard College and a PhD in finance and Economics from the University of Chicago.

Rebecca Kacaba

CEO & Co-Founder

DealMaker

Rebecca is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of DealMaker, winner of Lexpert’s top 40 under 40 and named one of North America’s most innovative lawyers by the Financial Times. She practiced law on Bay Street for over 10 years, founded the startup practice group at one law firm, and was co-chair of the Toronto Venture Technology and Emerging Growth Companies Group at another. She works tirelessly in the pursuit of growth.

Alexandre Falin

Principal, Private Equity Team

Unigestion Asset Management

He joined Unigestion in February 2010. Alexandre started his career at BNP Paribas in Paris, developing systematic equity portfolios for private clients. He then worked at Harcourt in Zürich, as an operational due diligence analyst and subsequently as Head of portfolio risk. In this role, he was involved in the quantitative analysis of hedge fund portfolios and was the point of contact for key clients on risk management issues.

Alexandre holds a Master’s degree in Engineering from the Ecole des Mines d’Alès and a post-graduate degree in Financial Engineering from ESSEC in Paris. He is also a CAIA Charterholder.

Arthur Bushonville

Chief Executive Officer

DSC Quantitative Group

Art is the Founder and CEO of DSC Quantitative Group, LLC. He also developed the investable hedge fund index operation for Hedge Fund Research, Inc. (“HFR”) including index methodology, manager selection and structured product development and distribution. Prior to joining HFR, Art was the Founder/CEO of a venture backed Internet exchange operation focused on creating unique derivative markets for online trading. He managed the financial trading and investments group for Koch Industries and spent seven years in the Capital Markets Group at the First National Bank of Chicago (J.P. Morgan). He began his career at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange where he held various positions, including research and audit.
Art earned an M.B.A. from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a BBA from Loyola University of Chicago

Cameron Joyce

Vice President of Research Insights

Preqin

Cameron Joyce has 10 years of experience in the investment industry and is currently part of Preqin’s Research Insights team based in London. He previously worked on the international equity desk of one of the largest pension funds in Latin America where he managed a $5bn allocation to Emerging Market equities in Asia. Cameron later went on to work for a Vietnam based investment bank, writing investment research for global institutional clients. Cameron is also a CFA Charterholder and an Economics graduate from the University of Manchester.

Michael Bunn

Partner

Norton Rose Fulbright Canada

Michael Bunn is a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP. He practises corporate and securities law with an emphasis on the investment management sector. He regularly advises on the establishment and capital-raising needs of Canadian and international investment funds, including private equity funds, venture capital funds, hedge funds and retail mutual funds. Once a fund is launched, he remains on hand to advise on continuous disclosure, regulatory, corporate governance and other ongoing matters. He also provides registration advice for Canadian and international investment fund managers, investment advisors and dealers regarding their business activities in Canada. Prior to joining Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP, he practised at a leading offshore law firm in the Cayman Islands

Mark Shulgan

Managing Director

OMERS Growth Equity.

Mark Shulgan is Managing Director and Head of OMERS Growth Equity. Mark currently serves on the boards of TouchBistro, Dialpad and Coveo.

Prior to joining OMERS, Mark helped start and then led the Thematic Investing team at CPP Investments. At CPP, Mark oversaw a $5B investment portfolio comprised of public and private investments in high growth technology, healthcare and consumer companies located in North America, Asia and Europe.  Prior to CPP, Mark was a Vice President at Fortress Investment Group. He began his career as an investment banker at Scotiabank.

Mark is a graduate of Western University where he received a Bachelor of Arts and graduated with the Gold Medal and the University of Windsor where he earned an MBA.  Mark grew up in Windsor and now resides in Toronto with his family.

Jocelyn Blanchet

Partner, National Leader, M&A Tax Services

KPMG

Based in Toronto, Jocelyn is a Partner and the National Leader for KPMG’s M&A tax practice. He has more than 15 years of experience assisting private equity, venture capital and hedge funds and other financial sponsors to plan and execute acquisitions, reorganizations and divestitures. Developing solutions for complex situations has gained him recognition as an innovative tax planner.

In addition, Jocelyn has extensive experience working with financial institutions on the design of products and strategies in their highly-regulated and heavily-taxed industry. As a result, he understands the necessity of working with regulators and other business units (compliance, capital management, financial reporting) in the design and implementation of their tax-efficient structures.

Jocelyn has authored and spoken extensively on the design of investment funds and on other issues relevant to M&A. He is also the Chair of the Tax Policy Committee of the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (CVCA), advocating for positive tax changes in the industry.

Nicola Cowman

Director

Carne Group

Nicola Cowman is a Director at Carne Global Financial Services, where she oversees client relations and business development for the US. Nicola advises US asset managers on the establishment, structuring, distribution and ongoing operation of traditional, hedge, private equity, and real estate funds, within the AIFMD and UCITS framework. With an extensive background in AIFMD and UCITS, along with European distribution Nicola plays a key role in building Carne’s governance capabilities.

Ajay Gopal

Partner

Framework Venture Partners

Ajay Gopal is a Partner of Framework Venture Partners. Based in Toronto, Ajay has over a decade of combined VC and alternative investments investing and capital markets experience. With an entrepreneurial background, Ajay is a partner of a healthcare services company currently in operation in Toronto. Ajay currently serves on multiple Boards of Framework portfolio companies including Paper, Countingup, FlipGive and Daisy Intelligence. As a student of engineering with prior operational technology experience, Ajay is keenly interested in meeting with technology companies across all verticals and focused on helping entrepreneurs with the scaling journey.

Purvi Gandhi

Managing Director

Quain Investments

Purvi has over 20 years of professional work experience in institutional capital management in the United States and as CFO of a healthcare informatics company acquired by IMS.  Purvi has been board member / board advisor for tech and non-tech companies in Asia and Silicon Valley, served as CFO at public and private equity firms, was investment committee member for a PE division which spun out of JP Morgan Chase which was investing across Asia and United States and invested across 300+ companies during her time there.  In recent five years Purvi was key member of a team of an overseas investor, incubating a model to invest in tech venture at scale in Silicon Valley and was also on the investment committee of one of the funds they managed.  This portfolio of 300+ early and growth tech companies has generated 17 unicorns, 3 SPACs and 4 IPOs in 6 years.  In this role, Gandhi diligenced what became one of the company’s largest investment in 2016, in the Series D round of Stripe.  At her current firm, Quain Investments, Purvi and her co-founder have institutionalized this very strategy of investing in early and growth tech venture at scale.  They leverage a proprietary technology platform and partnerships with high volume of fragmented investors in the tech eco-system to access, assess and build a venture portfolio with higher probability of a strong alpha with a low beta.  Ms. Gandhi is an advocate for young girls to gain access to basic privilege of education.  She is on the board of Girl in Yellow Foundation which enables young girls in rural India to access high school education.

Mark Maybank

Co-founder and Managing Partner

Maverix Private Equity

Mark is a Co-founder and Managing Partner with Maverix Private Equity where he leads the collective team and firm operations. As an active investor, director, advisor and entrepreneur, he has a wealth of experience spanning across multiple industries and geographies. This includes financial services, technology, health and wellness, media, telecom, oil and gas, services, and advanced manufacturing. With a passion to drive growth with a focus on human elements, Mark strives to scale Canada’s strong and vibrant innovation-based ecosystem.

Prior to Maverix, Mark was the President and COO of Canaccord Genuity Corp, where he led the expansion of their wealth management and international capital markets businesses, positioning the firm as a global leader in commodity and technology financing.

In addition to being EVP, Corporate Development at Itemus Inc., a technology firm, he was also a Senior Technology Analyst with Yorkton Securities, and CFO of ECS Enhanced Cellular Communications, a US-based cellular services company. Mark earned his Chartered Accountant and Chartered Business Valuator designations at Deloitte in the audit, tax, and valuation advisory practices. Currently, Mark is the Chairman of Fleet Canada Inc. and serves on other boards including Forum Equity Partners and New Latitude Capital. Previously, he served on several boards including Executive Chairman (Advisory) of the Kirchner Group, Knix Wear, Entrec, Empire State Connector, Biologix, Moraine Capital, and Canaccord Genuity Financial.

Mark is an active philanthropist with former roles as Co-Chair of Gold Medal Plates, a Canadian Olympic Foundation program, Special Advisor to the Treasury Board of Canada, Ambassador for World Bicycle Relief, Advisor to SpiderTech cycling, member of the Corporate Advisory Board of the Art Gallery of Ontario and guest lecturer at the Director’s College.

Outside of the office, Mark and his family enjoy an active lifestyle which includes skiing, biking, running, and swimming. They enjoy travelling and spending time in Annecy, France and the Okanagan Valley, BC

Joseph Abramson

Co-Chief Investment Officer

Northland Wealth Management

Joseph is a world-class talent that has advised some of Canada’s most prominent ultra high-net-worth private investors, as well as many of the world’s most sophisticated institutions. His specialties include: asset allocation; risk management and providing unique, cutting-edge, money-making insights into global financial markets. Over his 25+ year career, Joseph consistently outperformed his benchmarks, including as a Research Analyst at Senvest, a prominent and highly successful Wall Street hedge fund.

Joseph was also a Strategist for BCA Research, the world’s leading provider of global macro strategy research to institutional investors. During his tenure, prominent BCA clients included: OMERs, TD, CDPQ, Goldman Sachs, Fidelity, Barclay’s, Bank of Switzerland, and China Life. At BCA, he co-launched its Global Asset Allocation service which provides high-touch, interactive services to select top global institutional investment firms on all asset classes across all of the world’s regions. More recently, Joseph was the Chief Investment Officer for a Montreal-based advisory, private equity and venture capital firm.

Select highlights of Joseph’s career include:

• Building a highly sophisticated, tax-efficient, cross border wealth management platform – including real estate, PE/VC, and alternative funds – for a $450 million Canadian single family office.
• Creating a cutting-edge risk-adjusted investment framework for a top 10 UK wealth manager
• Provided a regular, in-depth annual on-site outlook to top 50 Swiss pension plan
• Creating a one-of-a-kind global sector/country matrix using proprietary indicators selected from over 1000 variables.
• Presenting his global growth and currency views to a Special Parliamentary Committee.
• Being quoted regularly in prominent business publications such as the London Financial Times, Wall Street Journal and Barron’s.

Marcus Daniels

Founding Partner & CEO

Highline Beta

Marcus Daniels is a Founding Partner & CEO of Highline Beta where he leads visionary execution, strategic deals, corporate venture co-investment and startup funding. He has 21+ years as a serial tech entrepreneur & operating executive with a top decile pre-seed investing (34 startups) track record. 12+ years working with Fortune 1000 companies advising on corporate innovation models & building a pipeline of new corporate ventures beyond the core business. Formerly the Co-Founder & CEO of HIGHLINE.vc and Managing Director of Extreme Startups, Marcus continues to help evolve accelerator models to make corporate-startup collaboration work

Eugene Zhang

Founding Partner

TSV Capital

Eugene Zhang is a Founding Partner of TSVC, a WMBE early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2010. Since inception, TSVC has invested in 188 startups across primarily deep tech, fintech and health tech sectors with 6 unicorns ($1 billion+ valuation), including, Zoom, Carta, Ginkgo Bioworks, Quanergy, Plus and Iterable. Eugene’s investment focus is on emerging technologies and FinTech as he continues keeping his work on gender diverse teams close to heart for coming cohorts. He has led investments in over 70 startups including ZOOM, Quanergy, Lex Machina, Trusper, TrustGo, Carta, Ginkgo Bioworks, Iterable, Gaatu, EquityZen, 17Zuoye and GigaDevice while serving on multiple boards including Gaatu and Tsinghua Entrepreneur & Executive Club (TEEC).

Zack Ellison

Founder, Managing General Partner, & Chief Investment Officer

Applied Real Intelligence (“A.R.I.”)

Zack Ellison, CFA, CAIA, is the Founder, Managing General Partner, and Chief Investment Officer of Applied Real Intelligence (“A.R.I.”).  A.R.I. is a Los Angeles-based venture debt investment manager focused on providing financing solutions to innovative, high-growth, VC-backed companies in recession-resistant sectors and underserved regions.  A.R.I. has dual missions of: (1) democratizing the availability of capital for all types of founders, including women and minorities; (2) providing the fund’s investors with unique access to “innovation” as an asset class, superior risk-adjusted returns, security of capital, and strong portfolio diversification benefits.  Mr. Ellison leads A.R.I.’s investment activities, including sourcing, due diligence, structuring, execution, and portfolio management.

Previously, Mr. Ellison was Director of U.S. Public Fixed Income at Sun Life Financial, where he was responsible for corporate credit investing.  Prior to Sun Life Financial, he was a corporate bond and credit default swap trader at Deutsche Bank. During the Global Financial Crisis, he was a banker focused on leveraged loans within the media and telecom sectors at Scotiabank.

Mr. Ellison is a frequent speaker at financial industry conferences, where he has presented his views on how companies and the financial markets need to innovate, adapt, and evolve to optimize risk and return.  He has been a featured speaker at events hosted by CFA, CAIA, AIMA, Risk Magazine, Euromoney, Bloomberg, TABB Forum, 100 Women in Hedge Funds, Women in Fund Finance, WBR’s Fixed Income Leaders Summit, and Private Equity Wire, among others.

Mr. Ellison holds an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and an MS in Risk Management from New York University’s Stern School of Business. He has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designations and currently serves as a Board Member of the CFA Society of Los Angeles, a Board Member of the Southern California Chapter of the CAIA Association, and the West Coast Regional Director of the Hedge Fund Association.  Additionally, he is the Chair of the CIO Advisory Council and Chair of the University Relations Committee with CFA Society Los Angeles.  He sits on various leadership sub-committees of Tech Coast Angels (TCA), the largest angel investing group in the United States.

Raphael Bouskila

President

Mako Financial Technologies

Sudharshan Sathiyamoorthy

Vice President

Richter Family Office

Sudharshan Sathiyamoorthy is a seasoned investment professional with deep experience in the search, approval and monitoring process for alternative investment managers. He is Vice President and Head of Manager Research at Richter Family Office. Sudharshan has previously worked at some of Canada’s most respected institutions, including RBC Capital Markets, Diversified Global Asset Management, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and Alignvest Investment Management. Sudharshan holds a Ph.D. in Physics, and was a Post-Doctoral Investigator at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. 

Richter Family Office (RFO) is a multi-billion dollar multi-family office that provides independent and objective wealth management services to high net worth families and individuals. Established in 1999, and as one of the largest and oldest multi-family offices in Canada, RFO has gained an exceptional reputation for providing holistic advice to clients without the bias of affiliations with other financial institutions or wealth managers. RFO has offices in Toronto and Montreal.

Shannon Reaves

Partner

Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP

SHANNON REAVES is a Partner in the National Security/CFIUS/Compliance Group at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP in Washington, D.C. He focuses his practice in the areas of cross-border transaction reviews before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), industrial security, including Foreign Ownership, Control or Influence (FOCI) mitigation matters before the U.S. Departments of Defense and Energy, and export control compliance. Shannon has represented clients in hundreds of CFIUS reviews, performed industrial security due diligence on numerous transactions and investigated multiple regulatory violations, including FOCI mitigation, sanctions, and export controls violations.

Shannon represents clients in pre-CFIUS filing analysis conducting due diligence to determine potential national security issues; preparing for CFIUS reviews and investigations, including assessing whether specific transaction structures create CFIUS jurisdiction; negotiating deal terms with the government and preparing filings; and advising companies regarding FOCI mitigation/negation compliance issues. Shannon routinely negotiates and prepares FOCI mitigation/negation arrangements, including Special Security Agreements, Proxy Agreements, Security Control Agreements and FOCI Board Resolutions. Shannon frequently serves as a resource for various government officials looking for insight from the corporate viewpoint.

Michael Steinberg

Managing Partner

Reciprocal Ventures

Michael has been an institutional investor in the technology sector for the past 25 years. He currently is the Managing Partner of Reciprocal Ventures, a firm he founded in 2016 to capitalize on early-stage private opportunities in Fintech and Digital Finance.

Michael is responsible for the overall leadership and investing efforts at the firm. He is an active investor and presently sits on the boards of Reciprocal portfolio companies Peekd, MindBridge, Qwil, WorkRails, and Tallarium.

Michael concentrates on the capital markets, asset management and breakthrough technologies powering blockchains and machine intelligence. He has been an early backer of notable pioneers in these areas including DataMinr, MindBridge, Solana, and The Graph.
Prior to Reciprocal, Michael served as a Portfolio Manager at SAC Capital Management (now Point 72) from 1996 to 2012. Starting at SAC during the early commercialization of the internet, he managed public technology investments within the hardware, enterprise software and communication sectors, generating 15 consecutive years of positive returns. His focus shifted in 2012, where he led the firm’s first Fintech investment in the private markets. He started his career at boutique asset manager Sanford C. Bernstein.
Michael has a Bachelor’s degree from University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Charlie Morris

Co-Founder

CMCC

Charlie is the co-founder of CMCC Global, a blockchain asset management company that manages three digital asset funds as well as the Liberty Bitcoin Fund. CMCC Global was founded in Hong Kong in 2016 and today has offices in Asia and North America. It has a particular focus on Fintech innovation in Asia. Charlie’s background as both a software engineer and management consultant allows him to combine a deep technical understanding of blockchain technology with the ability to evaluate its business implications.

Charlie’s involvement in the blockchain space has included advising financial institutions, developing blockchain applications and investing in companies and protocols. He has given keynote addresses at the CLSA Investor Conference, Franklin Templeton annual offsite and the Global Investment Forum. He has also presented to senior management at many large institutions including Fidelity, Putnam Investments and Wellington Management.

Wei Xie

Director – Capital Markets Group and Co-Head of Multi-Strategy Investing

OPTrust

Wei Xie is a Director in the Capital Markets Group at OPTrust, one of Canada’s largest pension funds with assets of $20 billion and investment professionals in Toronto, London and Sydney.

Wei leads the management of the external public markets program that covers a broad spectrum of liquid strategies, which includes equities, credit and hedge funds. Wei also spearheads the investment innovation efforts at OPTrust by co-chairing the Incubation Portfolio Investment Committee, with a particular focus on Crypto and the application of Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence.

Wei held various progressively senior positions at OPTrust. Prior to this, Wei was the Chief-of-Staff to the Chief Investment Officer, when he supported and advised the CIO in his day-to-day management of OPTrust’s Investment Division. Prior to that, he served as an Investment Strategist for the Global Investment Strategy Group, and an Associate Portfolio Manager within the Private Markets Group.

Wei earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada.

Elizabeth Burton

Chief Investment Officer

Employees’ Retirement System of the State of Hawaii

 Elizabeth Burton is the Chief Investment Officer of the Employees’ Retirement System of the State of Hawaii (“HIERS”), where she oversees over $17 billion in pension fund assets. HIERS provides retirement, disability and survivor benefits for employees of the State of Hawaii (“State”) and its counties, including teachers, professors, police officers, firefighters, judiciary employees, judges and elected officials. The defined benefit plan has both contributory and noncontributory benefit structures. 

Prior to joining HIERS, Ms. Burton served as Managing Director of the Quantitative Strategies Group at the Maryland State Retirement Agency. In this role, Ms. Burton was responsible for the $4.5B Absolute Return Portfolio and for risk management oversight of the $55B Plan. Ms. Burton joined the Agency in July 2016. 

Previously, Ms. Burton owned William Street Advisory—a strategic advisory practice which she founded in 2013. Prior to that role, Ms. Burton was a Senior Economist and Expert Witness with Criterion Economics. Prior to that role, Ms. Burton was a Consultant at First Annapolis where she worked on M&A transactions and consulting the payments industry. Previous positions include: Co-Portfolio and Quantitative Risk Analyst with a South Africa-based fund of hedge funds, Trader (fixed income securities) for a risk management firm, and Portfolio Management Associate with a quant-focused fund of hedge funds. 

Ms. Burton received her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and French, cum laude, from Washington and Lee University, and her MBA in Finance, Econometrics & Statistics from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She is on the board of a private residential real estate investment trust and a Trustee of The Hill School, a private boarding school. She is also a CAIA charter holder. Ms. Burton was named one of Chief Investment Officer Magazine’s Top-40-Under-40 in June 2017. In 2019 Ms. Burton received the Industry Innovation Award for <$20B plan by Chief Investment Officer Magazine and was listed in the Power 100 in 2019. 

Benjamin R. Arnold

Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Meraki Global Advisors

As the Founder & CEO of Meraki Global Advisors, Benjamin Arnold is responsible for running all facets of the business. The concept of Meraki Global Advisors was a direct result of Ben’s determination to deliver asset managers a differentiated outsourced platform with an overriding objective of excellence.

Mr. Arnold has over 15 years of experience in the hedge fund and financial services industry spanning across the globe. Previously, he spent three years at Fillmore Advisors (acquired by INTL FCStone) where he was instrumental in growing the outsourced trading desk. Prior to his move back to the United States, Ben was an Executive Director on the Equity and Equity Derivatives Sales-Trading desk at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong and Mumbai, India. Before joining Goldman Sachs, Ben was a Vice-President on the Equity and Equity Derivatives Sales-Trading desk at BNP Paribas in Mumbai.

Ben began his career as a hedge fund trader with roles at Intrepid Capital Management and Asian Century Quest Capital in New York. He graduated from American University’s Kogod School of Business with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Finance.

John Christofilos

Senior Vice-President, Chief Trading Officer and Investment Management, Operations Strategy

AGF Investments Inc.

John Christofilos leads a team responsible for trading AGF’s Assets Under Management across its Retail, Institutional, High-Net-Worth and ETF portfolios. He is also a member of AGF’s Business Development unit with responsibility for reviewing and leading Capital Markets opportunities and technology advancements. John is also a member of The Office of the CIO, a leadership structure that encourages and further embeds collaboration and active accountability across the Investment Management team and the broader organization. His career has spanned more than 30 years, with experience on both the buy- and sell-side. Before joining AGF in 2014, John served as Managing Director at Canaccord Genuity, leading the firm’s efforts in electronic and program trading. Prior to Canaccord, he worked as Senior Managing Director for E*TRADE Institutional, a full-service financial services firm based in New York City. John is a member of the Canadian and U.S. Securities Traders Associations and is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian ETF Association (CETFA). He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from San Diego, California-based United States International University, where he played Division 1 Hockey.

Rahul Khasgiwale

Senior Investment Director for the Americas

Aviva Investors

Rahul is Senior Investment Director for the Americas across liquid markets and is based in Toronto, Canada. He works closely with our investment teams to represent investment processes, portfolio positioning and performance to prospects, clients and investment consultants. Rahul has regional management responsibilities for the Americas investment specialists and is also a member of the Americas client solutions leadership team and the global product leadership team.

Experience and qualifications

Rahul joined Aviva Investors from Manulife Asset Management where he was Investment Director for Global Investment Solutions. Prior, Rahul was an Absolute Return Investment Director at Standard Life Investments focused on retail and institutional clients and consultants in Canada. He began his career at HSBC Global Asset Management, where he held a variety of senior investment roles based in the UK, Switzerland, Middle East and Canada across a twelve-year period.

Theresa Shutt

Senior Vice President

Fiera Private Debt

Theresa Shutt is Senior Vice President for Corporate Private Debt at Fiera Private Debt. Prior to joining Fiera Private Debt in July 2019, she was the Chief Investment Officer of Private Debt with Integrated Asset Management.

Ms. Shutt is responsible for the overall strategic direction and operation of the Corporate Debt Financing Team. In this role, she provides leadership in support of business development, investment approval, fund strategy and portfolio management. With over 20 years of experience in corporate lending and capital markets, she contributes to the success of the business by growing AUM through strategic capital deployment and the development of innovative private debt strategies.

Prior to Fiera Private Debt, Ms. Shutt was a Managing Director with BMO Corporate Finance where she developed customized financing solutions for mid-market Canadian Companies. Previous to this role, she held a variety of roles at RBC and Scotiabank structuring fixed income and equity derivatives for corporations and asset managers. She began her career working as an economist for the Conference Board of Canada.

Theresa Shutt holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Economics (Honours) from the University of Alberta, a Master of Arts (MA) in Economics from McMaster University and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Rotman School of Management of the University of Toronto. Ms. Shutt is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder.

Maria Pacella

Managing Partner

Pender Ventures

Maria has over 20 years of investing and operational experience in emerging growth companies, with a focus on technology businesses. She spent 11 years with one of Canada’s largest venture capital firms where she invested in multiple early-stage ventures and served on a variety of boards, in the areas of enterprise software and health-tech. Along the way, she worked at two start-ups assisting with operational activities and strategic initiatives. Prior to that, Maria worked in M&A for Deutsche Bank.

Current board roles include Clarius Mobile Health, Jane Software, Teradici, Librestream, and One45 Software. She is also on the SFU Beedie School of Business Advisory Board and St. Paul‘s Hospital Foundation Board. She holds a BBA from Simon Fraser University, is a CFA charterholder and an active member and a past President of CFA Society Vancouver.

As an investor in the rapidly changing world of early-stage technology, Maria invests in exceptional entrepreneurs and teams that excel at identifying business opportunities, develop world-class products and are dedicated to building great companies

Grahame R. Lyons

President & Founder

Arbutus Partners

An investment fund industry pioneer in the growth and origination of many large well known investment funds over the past 25 years in financial services. Early adopter of major trends in mutual funds, ETFs and alternative investments. Leading role in the growth and origination of many large well known investment funds.

Senior and executive roles at Fidelity Investments Canada Ltd, Strategic Value Corp, Loring Ward Investment Counsel, Barclays Global investors Canada Ltd. and Claymore Investments.

David Sheng

Senior Portfolio Advisor

Aksia

David is a Senior Portfolio Advisor at Aksia, and is responsible for advising North America institutional investors on their alternative investment programs, in particular hedge funds and private credit. He is an active member of Aksia’s Diversity working group and the Association of Asian American Investment Managers. Prior to joining Aksia, David was a Senior Manager Research Analyst at Man Group, FRM focused on sourcing and evaluating hedge fund strategies. David spent the first half of his career within the Institutional Sales and Trading businesses at HSBC and Morgan Stanley, particularly within the Fixed Income divisions.

David graduated from Princeton University with a BA in Economics and holds an MBA from Columbia University.

Kirk Sims

Head of Emerging Manager Program

Teacher Retirement System of Texas

Kirk Sims heads TRS’ Emerging Manager Program. Since being established in 2005, TRS has committed $3.7 billion to one of the largest programs of its kind. An additional $2 billion has been invested directly with EM Program graduates. Each graduate was selected as a result of consistent outperformance among a group of more than 160 EM managers. Recognizing the Program’s success, in early 2019, TRS rolled out a plan to invest another $3 billion over the next three to five years.

Sims joined the Teacher Retirement System of Texas on March 1, 2019. Before joining Texas Teachers, he was a Senior Investment Officer for the Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois. Sims had oversight and management responsibility of TRS’s Emerging Manager Program, a $750 million evergreen pool of capital designed to identify and invest in emerging investment managers across all asset classes.

Prior, Sims worked at Prudential Retirement where he was responsible for a manager of manager’s retirement platform as well as an open architecture investment platform. He also has a background in asset management and has held various positions with both large and small asset managers.

Sims is a CFA charter holder and holds a Masters in Business Administration from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business. He received a Bachelor of Business Administration from Howard University in Washington, DC.

Sandy Rattray

Chief Investment Officer

Man Group

Sandy Rattray is Chief Investment Officer of Man Group and a member of the Man Group Executive Committee. He is also a member of the Man Group Responsible Investment Committee. He was previously CEO of Man AHL from 2013 to 2017, and CIO of Man Systematic Strategies from 2010 to 2013.

Before joining Man Group in 2007, Sandy spent 15 years at Goldman Sachs where he was a Managing Director in charge of the Fundamental Strategy Group. He also ran Equity Derivatives Research at Goldman Sachs in London and New York.

Sandy is a co-inventor of the VIX index. He is a board director of MSCI Inc and sits on the MSCI Advisory Council and the Jesus College Cambridge investment committee. Sandy is a governor of the Southbank Centre in London and is a founding patron of the London Cycling Campaign.

He holds a Master’s Degree in Natural Sciences and Economics from the University of Cambridge and a Licence Spéciale from the Université Libre de Bruxelles

Cara Nakamura

Managing Director, Financial Assets Division

Kamehameha Schools

Cara Nakamura serves as a Managing Director of the Financial Assets Division of the Kamehameha Schools, which represents a $12 billion globally diversified endowment. Prior to joining Kamehameha in 2016, Cara spent over a decade investing for Princeton University (the Princeton University Investment Company), focusing largely on the construction and growth of the endowment’s $6 billion+ private equity/venture capital porfolio. Earlier professional roles included economic research at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and a Fulbright Scholarship in Kyoto, Japan. Born and raised on Oahu, Hawaii, Cara earned an A.B. with honors in Economics and Certificates in both East Asian Studies and Japanese Language from Princeton University, and an M.B.A. in Finance from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Cara, her husband, and two children reside in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Racheal Wason

Director of Cross Asset Solutions

BMO Capital Markets

Rachael is currently a Director of Cross Asset Solutions at BMO Capital Markets where she provides structured investment solutions to institutional clients. Her previous experience includes alternative investments such as real estate and private equity.  Prior to BMO, she held investment related roles at Scotiabank, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, and OPTrust. Rachael holds an MBA from Ivey Business School at Western University.

François Rivard

Chief Executive Officer

Innocap Investment Management

As CEO, François leads Innocap Investment Management’s activities. During his 24 years in the investment industry, he has held various senior functions in capital markets and wealth management in Toronto, Montreal and London. Notably, in his role as Head of the Financial Products Group at National Bank of Canada, he was responsible for engineering and distribution of structured derivative-based investments globally. François is the recipient of Bishop’s University Top 10 Under 10 award, a standing YPO member, and has contributed or been featured in BLOOMBERG, the Globe and Mail, Derivatives Week, Structured Products Magazine as well as a featured speaker at various conferences in North America, London, Paris, Zurich, Abu Dhabi and Singapore. Since 2014 François has been a board member and active contributor to the CHU Sainte-Justine Foundation, one of the largest sick kids hospitals and research centers in North America. François received a BBA from Bishops University and his MBA from HULT Business School in London

Mario Venditti

Founding Partner & CEO

Innovobot

Mario Venditti is CEO and Co-Founder of Innovobot, a Montreal-based investment and innovation platform that funds innovative technologies that tackle critical social and environmental challenges.

Innovobot is the lead investor in carbon removal technology firm CarbiCrete and conversational AI company Heyday.

 Prior to founding Innovobot, Mario was COO of Above Security.

Under Mario’s guidance, Above Security acquired SecureIT in Switzerland and Seccuris in Winnipeg, and received international recognition from the Gartner Group as one of the Top 10 MSSP Vendors to Watch.

Mario was leader of the senior executive team that implemented a new global sales strategy and supply chain to service customers in 40+ countries. During his tenure, Above Security went from a small local start-up to a global company with clients in 40+ countries and multiple operations centres around the world, until it was acquired by Hitachi Systems in October 2015. 

Mario also spent 12 years working as a management and strategy consultant. He has Masters a Science, a Bachelor of Engineering and an MBA from McGill University.

Maria Rapin

CEO

Nephila Climate

Maria is CEO of Nephila Climate and a member of the Climate advisory board and firm ESG Committee. She is responsible for the strategy and overseeing the investment process for our climate strategies which aim to move scalable capital to support sustainable development. Before joining us in 2015, she was a portfolio manager at SCOR Alternative Investments in Paris, where she worked on insurance-linked investments. Maria began her career with Swiss Re capital markets team working on the structuring, distribution, and trading of catastrophe bonds in New York and London, working with institutional investors in North America, Asia, and Europe. She has a BBA in International Business/Information Systems from The George Washington University.

Pablo E. Calderini

President and Chief Investment Officer

Graham Capital Management

Pablo E. Calderini is the President and Chief Investment Officer of Graham Capital Management, L.P. (“GCM”), an alternative investment firm with approximately $17 billion in AUM as of May 1, 2021. Mr. Calderini is responsible for the management and oversight of the discretionary and systematic trading businesses at GCM, among other things. Mr. Calderini is also a member of the firm’s Executive, Investment, Risk and Compliance committees. He joined GCM in August 2010 and became an Associated Person and Principal of GCM effective August 13, 2010. Prior to joining GCM, Mr. Calderini worked at Deutsche Bank from June 1997 to July 2010 where he held positions of increasing responsibility, most recently the Global Head of Equity Proprietary Trading. Mr. Calderini commenced his career at Deutsche Bank as Global Head of Emerging Markets. During his tenure at Deutsche Bank, Mr. Calderini also helped manage several groups across the fixed income and equity platforms, including the Global Credit Derivatives Team. Mr. Calderini received a B.A. in Economics from Universidad Nacional de Rosario in 1987 and a Masters in Economics from Universidad del CEMA in 1989, each in Argentina.

Michael Hume

Partner and Head of Strategy & Research

MKP Capital Management

Mr. Hume is a Partner and Head of Strategy & Research. Mr. Hume is currently based in MKP’s London Office. Prior to joining MKP in 2016, Mr. Hume was Head of the Capital Markets Division at the Bank of England, where he was responsible for leading the Financial Policy Committee assessment of capital markets risks and policies. Mr. Hume was also a Senior Adviser on International Issues and Monetary Policy Adviser to the MPC. From 1997 to 2008 Mr. Hume was at Lehman Brothers where he rose to become Chief European Economist. Mr. Hume has published a number of articles in books and academic journals on the topic of financial imbalances and served on international policymaking committees at the G7, OECD, and Financial Stability Board.

Mr. Hume read Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the University of Oxford, received an M.Sc. in Economics at the University of Warwick, and is currently affiliated with the European Institute at London School of Economics.

David “Tiger” Williams

Founder & Managing Member

Williams Trading

Tiger is the Founder and Managing Member of Williams Trading. Prior to founding Williams Trading, Tiger was an Associate Director at Tiger Management where he was responsible for trading the domestic equity portfolio from 1993 through 1997. Tiger began his career on Wall Street in 1987 as a member of the Principal Training Program at E. F. Hutton. In 1989, he joined First Boston as an Associate and Generalist Equity Sales Trader. In 1990, Tiger joined Needham and Co. as a Vice President and in 1991 moved to Donaldson Lufkin and Jenrette, also as a Vice President. Tiger received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Political Science at Yale University in 1984 and his Masters in Business Administration from the Stern School of Business at New York University in 1989.

Mee Warren

President

Bodhi Research Group

Mee Warren is President at Bodhi Research Group. Her duties include portfolio diagnostics, trade execution best practices, due diligence, and risk management. She enjoys working with a diverse set of clients and projects focused on research and education in the alternative investment space. She is also committed to Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion in the workplace. Mee joined Bodhi Research Group after nearly 15 years at Two Sigma Investments, LP.

Mee joined Two Sigma in 2003 as its 30th employee. At the time, Two Sigma was a small emerging manager just trading US equities. For the first five years, she worked very closely with the CEO and built out the back and middle offices. In October 1, 2008, she joined the trading desk and eventually became Head Trader of their largest portfolio and traded global equities, currencies, commodities, and derivatives. In 2015, she was promoted to an elite 5-person team that strategized investment decisions and elevated the production environment for firm and equity strategies across all portfolios and regions worldwide. This team essentially served as the Investment Committee for Two Sigma Investments. She worked on proprietary execution tactics, portfolio construction research, and built risk monitoring tools. Mee was an important part of the team that was responsible for the tremendous success at Two Sigma. In 2018, Mee chose to leave Two Sigma which at the time had nearly 60 Billion USD in AUM.

Mee Warren won the “Women in Finance Outstanding Contributions” award from Markets Media and the Women on Wall Street Trailblazer” award from Traders Magazine. Mee is a graduate from the the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, and she holds both the CFA and CAIA charters. She is also a member of NOIP (National Organization of Investment Professionals), 100 Women in Finance, Women in ETFs, MM Women in Finance Advisory Board and also sits on the board of several non-profits. Mee is an ACBL Life Master in Contract Bridge Card Game and a competitive pool player.

Jason Campbell

Principal

Eckler

A Principal within Eckler’s Investment Consulting practice, Jason joined the firm in 2006. He provides investment strategy advice to a wide range of institutional clients, including DB and DC pension plans, endowment/foundations, single family offices, corporations and non-profit organizations.

In addition to consulting responsibilities, Jason is a member of the Investment Research Steering Committee which oversees investment manager and strategy research.

Jason’s specific area of expertise is alternative investments including infrastructure, real estate and private equity/debt strategies.

An active volunteer within the pension and investment community, Jason has authored several articles and presented on investment strategy at numerous conferences. He is currently a member of the Canadian Investment Review Advisory Board, a volunteer on the CNIB’s National Investment & Pension Committee and a director with the National Ballet School Foundation.

Jason graduated from the University of Western Ontario in 1999 with an Economics degree. He has also earned the designations of Chartered Financial Analyst and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst.

Laurie Fuller

Venture Partner

Raiven Capital

Laurie Fuller is a Venture Partner, Strategic Advisor, Investor and Executive Coach. She is an accomplished leader who enjoys helping entrepreneurs scale by identifying growth capital, developing strategy and implementing operational models. She is skilled in working with entrepreneurs to hire, train, and manage diverse teams to achieve high performance. Currently, Laurie is a Venture Partner at Raiven Capital. Raiven Capital is a Canada-Silicon Valley Series A venture fund that concentrates on investments just before scaling begins. In a previous role in a Silicon Valley tech company, she was responsible for the development and implementation of operational models which enabled global revenue growth from $1.2B to $6.2B during her tenure. Her international work experience includes positions based in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. She brings a global perspective and builds strong partnerships that transform businesses. She has a Global Executive MBA from TRIUM (NYU/LSE/HEC); MA from Stanford University; and a BS in Decision Science.

Gerry Brunk

Managing Director

Lumira Ventures

Gerry Brunk is a co-founder and Managing Director of Lumira Ventures, a North American healthcare venture capital firm whose Boston office he established in 2002.  Some of his past and current investment responsibilities include Pharmasset (acquired by Gilead Sciences), BardyDx, KAI Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Amgen), MAKO Surgical (acquired by Stryker), Endotronix, enGene, HistoSonics, Cyrano Therapeutics, Satsuma Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: STSA) and Engage Therapeutics (acquired by UCB).

Prior to his investing career, Mr. Brunk was an entrepreneur in the life sciences sector, founding and serving in a variety of management and board capacities at several venture capital-funded companies. Earlier, as an engagement manager in the healthcare practice of The Boston Consulting Group he advised pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms on strategic issues involving portfolio management, product licensing, R&D productivity, new product launches and acquisitions.  Mr. Brunk began his career as a member of the investment banking group of Credit Suisse First Boston in New York, where his clients included public and private healthcare companies.

Mr. Brunk serves on the Board of Directors of Southeast Life Sciences, the review board of the Ivy Foundation Biomedical Innovation Fund at the University of Virginia, and is a mentor for the Canadian Technology Accelerator in Boston and the Stanford University Biodesign program. He received an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a BA from the University of Virginia, where he studied biology and economics.

Amanda Outerbridge

Managing Director

HarbourVest Partners, LLC (Boston)

Amanda Outerbridge joined HarbourVest’s primary partnership team in Boston in 2000 and focuses on US partnership investments. She transferred to the London office in 2007, where she evaluated and monitored European venture capital and buyout partnership investments. She also spent two years in HarbourVest’s Hong Kong office, where she concentrated on partnership investments in Asia Pacific and emerging markets. Her previous experience includes internships with XL Capital Ltd and the Bank of Bermuda. She received a BS (summa cum laude) in Business Administration from Babson College in 2000.

Lionel Erdely

Co-Chief Executive Officer & Chief Investment Officer of Investcorp-Tages

Investcorp

Prior to joining Investcorp in 2013, Lionel worked for 11 years at Lyxor Asset Management, where he held the dual position of Chief Investment Officer (2004 – 2013) and Chief Executive Officer of Lyxor Inc. (2009 – 2013). Prior to joining Lyxor, he was a Vice President in the Equity Corporate Finance department at Société Générale, where he worked on several IPOs, capital increases and convertible bond issues.

Lionel has an MBA Degree in Finance from the École Supérieure des Sciences Économiques et Commerciales (ESSEC) in Paris.

Raj Lala

President & CEO

Evolve ETFs

Mr. Lala is President and Chief Executive Officer of Evolve ETFs. Evolve is one of Canada’s fastest growing ETF providers since launching its first ETF in September 2017. Evolve is a leader in thematic ETFs and specializes in bringing disruptive innovation ETFs to Canadian investors. Evolve’s suite of ETF products provide investors with access to: (i) long term investment themes; (ii) index-based income strategies; and (iii) some of the world’s leading investment managers. Established by a team of industry veterans with a proven track record of success, Evolve creates investment products that make a difference. Prior to founding Evolve ETFs, Mr. Lala served as Head of WisdomTree Canada – a division of WisdomTree Investments Inc., one of the world’s largest ETF issuers. Prior to this, Mr. Lala was Executive Vice President and Head of Retail Markets for Fiera Capital Corporation, a prominent Canadian investment management firm with over $100 billion in assets under management. Mr. Lala co-founded and served as President and CEO of Propel Capital Corporation (which was acquired by Fiera Capital Corporation in September 2014). Propel raised approximately $1 Billion in structured products in its five years of operation. Prior to Propel, Mr. Lala worked with Jovian Capital and held several roles at Jovian including President of JovFunds Inc., an asset management division of Jovian Capital. Mr. Lala holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Toronto.

Bob Williamson

Vice President, Sales

Battea Class Action Services

Bob Williamson has over 30 years’ experience in the financial services industry. Prior to joining Battea – Class Action Services, LLC, he held various sales and management roles in the financial technology space. While at Lava Trading, Bob marketed electronic trading systems and execution services to the sell-side brokerage community. He became the top-producing sales person, of which the company was later acquired by Citi. Bob spent 12 years with NYFIX, Inc. In his role as Senior Vice President of Sales for NYFIX’s trading products division, he was responsible for sales and for marketing the firm’s trading platform, which was utilized by the financial community and became the dominant player in the listed trading executions and management space. Bob began his career in financial services with VBand, a specialized telecommunications company. During his seven-year tenure as a Regional Channel Sales Representative marketing a highly specialized telecommunication system for traders at banks, brokerage firms and exchanges. Bob earned a BS in Business/Economics from the State University of New York at Oneonta and attended the University of Copenhagen, where he received a Certificate of Participation in the International Business Program.

Christian McCormick

Director, Senior China Equity Product Specialist

Allianz Global Investors

Mr. McCormick’s primary role is as a senior product specialist on our China equity platform, which oversees over $20 billion of long only equity investments. He also works on the firm’s $41 billion Systematic quant platform that includes multifactor research in China. He has presented at numerous industry conferences, written several white papers, and is a frequent investment resource and guest across multiple media platforms, including Bloomberg and CNBC. Mr. McCormick’s previous experience was as a managing director at quant firm INTECH and as an investment consultant for Meketa Investment Group. He has 22 years of investment industry experience. Mr. McCormick has a B.A. in Business Administration and Russian Studies from Principia College in Illinois. He is a CFA charterholder.

Stuart Bohart

President

FORT LP

Stuart Bohart, President, has more than 25 years of experience in the investment management business in various roles including portfolio management, risk management, and executive leadership. He is responsible for all non-research related functions at FORT. From 2010 to 2015, Mr. Bohart was president of the Liquid Markets Division at Fortress Investment Group. He served on the Management and Operating Committees of Fortress and was responsible for Liquid Markets business infrastructure, sales and marketing, and development of new investment strategies. Prior to joining Fortress, Mr. Bohart served in a variety of capacities at Morgan Stanley. He was hired by Morgan Stanley in 1997 as a portfolio manager in the investment management division and went onto serve as global head of Prime Brokerage, Head of Alternatives, and co-Head of the Asset Management Division with $600 billion of assets under his supervision. He was a member of the Morgan Stanley Management Committee. Early in his career, Mr. Bohart held trading and portfolio management positions at Cargill, Harvard Management Company, and Bankers Trust. He graduated from Northwestern University with a BA in economics and Asian studies.

Maxime Tessier

Formerly with Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA)

Maxime started his career at the Quebec Ministry of Finance and transitioned to investment as Editor at the Bank Credit Analyst Research Group (BCA) in the mid 1990s. He joined CIBC Asset Management in 2001 as a portfolio manager for currency and tactical asset allocation and has assumed increasingly senior roles in this field at Caisse de Dépot et Placement du Québec (CDPQ) and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA). In 2020, he moved back to Montreal, Canada.

Trevor Castledine

Senior Director, Private Market

bfinance

Trevor is a Senior Director in bfinance’s private markets team and leads our research efforts in bfinance’s Private Debt practice. He has a wealth of experience as a principal investor across a range of private markets strategies.  Trevor was formerly Deputy CIO and Investment Director at LPPI, the investment management collaboration between Lancashire County Pension Fund and LPFA.  Prior to that he was Deputy CIO at LCPF, with broad responsibility for alternative asset allocations which included Private Equity, Private Credit, Real Estate and Infrastructure.

Whilst at LCPF, Trevor oversaw significant changes in portfolio strategy which included the creation of a groundbreaking £1.5bn allocation to alternative credit.  He has long been a champion of the inclusion of alternative investments to create efficient investment portfolios and has been recognised by numerous industry awards including the Institutional Investor European peer-to-peer award for ‘Best use of Private Markets’.  In October 2018, PDI magazine named him as one of the 30 global most influential investors in private debt.  Trevor is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and holds an MA from Cambridge University.

Whilst at LCPF, Trevor oversaw significant changes in portfolio strategy which included the creation of a groundbreaking £1.5bn allocation to alternative credit.  He has long been a champion of the inclusion of alternative investments to create efficient investment portfolios and has been recognised by numerous industry awards including the Institutional Investor European peer-to-peer award for ‘Best use of Private Markets’.  In October 2018, PDI magazine named him as one of the 30 global most influential investors in private debt.  Trevor is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and holds an MA from Cambridge University.

Bryan Nunnelley

Chief Executive Officer

Crystalline Management

Bryan joined the firm in November 2011 and draws on 18 years of broad-based experience in the financial industry, including the management of alternative investment strategies, investment banking, mergers and acquisitions, and including corporate and business development with emerging businesses. Prior to joining Crystalline he was Director and COO at a Canadian hedge fund, and before that was VP – Strategic & Corporate Development, at a life-sciences company.  He holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs in Ottawa, and graduated with a B.A. in Sociology and Business & Commerce, from Dalhousie University. In 2021, he completed the Directors Education Program (DEP) offered jointly by the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) and the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.

Ed Fang

Director of Research

Man Numeric

Ed Fang is the Director of Research at Man Numeric and serves on Man Numeric’s Investment and Management Committees.

Prior to his current role, Ed has been overseeing day-to-day firm-wide research at Man Numeric in his capacity as the Deputy Director of Research since 2016. Ed joined Man Numeric in 2005 and has been actively engaged in a broad spectrum of research, ranging from bottom-up alpha models to top-down dynamic asset allocation. He has also been responsible for developing multiple innovation portfolios within Man Numeric’s absolute return and alternative risk premium strategies.

Ed received a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in Economics and Management Information Science from Fudan University in China. He also received a doctorate degree in financial economics from Duke University. Ed is a CFA® charterholder.

David Lowery

Head of Research Insights

Preqin

Dave Lowery has worked in a variety of roles within the finance industry in a career spanning more than 20 years. Dave gained experience as a multi-asset portfolio manager for UHNW private clients, as well as insurance companies and pension funds. He also worked as an equity analyst on both the buy-side and sell-side, has managed real estate portfolios and has covered geographies around the world, often appearing on CNBC Squawk Box and Bloomberg TV. More recently, Dave has worked for HM Treasury in its Infrastructure UK division, led Asia Pacific and alternative real estate research at AXA IM – Real Assets and set up a Strategy Research function at NTT Global Data Centers, the world’s third largest data centre operator.

Stuart Smith

Senior Vice President, Product Management, FIS’ Cross Asset Trading and Risk business.

FIS Global

Stuart Smith is vice president and product management group executive for FIS’ Cross-Asset Trading and Risk (CATR) business. A seasoned senior leader in capital markets risk management, Stuart works closely with his product management team and FIS’ senior architects to ensure FIS risk management technology continues to be positioned as the industry-leading engine for high performance trading and risk management. Stuart began his risk management career with FIS in 2010. Preceding this, Stuart was a senior scientist with QinetiQ, a global defense technology company headquartered in the UK.

Jeff d’Avignon

Sr Sales Executive, Cross-Asset Trading & Risk Solutions

FIS Global

Jeff d’Avignon is commercial sales lead for FIS Global’s Cross Asset Trading and Risk in North America. Supporting clients’ technology initiatives in Capital markets across Risk Management, Financial Engineering and Trading.

Jeff graduated from Simon Fraser University with a bachelor’s in business administration in Finance and Marketing.