Nelson A. Carbonell, Jr., chairman emeritus of the Board of Trustees of the George Washington University, is an entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience. He has founded companies including Cysive, a software engineering services company he took public in 1999; Snowbird Capital, which provided equity and mezzanine debt to middle market companies; and Nelson Carbonell and Associates, which assists companies with strategy, financing, operations and technology. Mr. Carbonell has chaired several key committees of the George Washington University Board of Trustees, most notably, the committee that led the full board to approve the construction of the Science and Engineering Hall. He serves on the board of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, and is a former chairman of the Washington-Baltimore Young President's Organization, as well as a former member of YPO's International Board. Mr. Carbonell also serves on several corporate boards. Mr. Carbonell earned his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from GW graduating with distinction in 1985.

Nelson was born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area. He is of Cuban decent and speaks fluent Spanish. He resides with his wife Michele in Great Falls, Virginia. Nelson and Michele have four adult children: Carmen, Roxy, Dylan and Sophia. Nelson spends his free time skiing, golfing, hiking and relaxing at his vacation home in Deer Valley, Utah. He enjoys fine wine, good food and reading history and physics.

David M. Rubenstein is a co-founder and co-executive chairman of The Carlyle Group, one of the world’s largest and most successful private investment firms. Mr. Rubenstein co-founded the firm in 1987. Since then, Carlyle has grown into a firm managing $222 billion from 33 offices around the world.

Mr. Rubenstein is Chairman of the Boards of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Council on Foreign Relations; a Fellow of the Harvard Corporation; a Trustee of the National Gallery of Art, the University of Chicago, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins Medicine, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Brookings Institution, and the World Economic Forum; a Director of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; and President of the Economic Club of Washington.

Mr. Rubenstein is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Philosophical Society, Business Council, Harvard Global Advisory Council (Chairman), Madison Council of the Library of Congress (Chairman), Board of Dean’s Advisors of the Business School at Harvard, Advisory Board of the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University (former Chairman), and Board of the World Economic Forum Global Shapers Community.

Mr. Rubenstein has served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Duke University and Co-Chairman of the Board of the Brookings Institution.

Mr. Rubenstein is an original signer of The Giving Pledge, a significant donor to all of the above-mentioned non-profit organizations, and a recipient of the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, and the MoMA’s David Rockefeller Award, among other philanthropic awards.

Mr. Rubenstein has been a leader in the area of Patriotic Philanthropy, having made transformative gifts for the restoration or repair of the Washington Monument, Monticello, Montpelier, Mount Vernon, Arlington House, Iwo Jima Memorial, the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian, the National Archives, the National Zoo, the Library of Congress, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Mr. Rubenstein has also provided to the U.S. government long-term loans of his rare copies of the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Emancipation Proclamation, the 13th Amendment, the first map of the U.S. (Abel Buell map), and the first book printed in the U.S. (Bay Psalm Book).

Mr. Rubenstein is the host of The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations on Bloomberg TV and PBS.

Mr. Rubenstein, a native of Baltimore, is a 1970 magna cum laude graduate of Duke University, where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa. Following Duke, Mr. Rubenstein graduated in 1973 from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor of the Law Review. From 1973-1975, Mr. Rubenstein practiced law in New York with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. From 1975-1976, he served as Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments. From 1977-1981, during the Carter Administration, Mr. Rubenstein was Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy. After his White House service and before co-founding Carlyle, Mr. Rubenstein practiced law in Washington with Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge (now Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman).

Corinne McCormack is a seasoned executive and entrepreneur who conceived and created a brand of designer eyewear in 1993 that carved a new niche in the eyewear industry. In 2009, McCormack sold her company to Foster Grant (FGX International), the largest manufacture of popular priced reading and sunglasses. Her expertise in creating her own brand gives her a unique perspective on consulting for other businesses and professionals who want to grow their business.

Corinne developed her eponymous brand into a recognized leader in premium reading glasses. Today, Corinne McCormack Reading Glasses are sold in over 2000 stores in the U.S., including Bloomingdales, Nordstrom and Barnes & Noble.

When McCormack launched her eyewear collection, she was the first designer to see the potential in high end, optical quality reading glasses. Her prior professional background included executive positions with such best in class companies as Macy’s and Avon Products. With the start of her own company, Corinne designed a unique and fashionable line of eyewear accessories that was distinctive in the product design, quality and packaging. The packaging established her brand in retailers including LensCrafters and Sunglass Hut.

Corinne McCormack understands how to build businesses and make them profitable with limited resources. She is both creative and analytical with an intuitive understanding of future trends. Her ability to understand the needs and priorities of modern consumers has been translated into her innovative designs and also enabled her to receive 5 patents.

As the appeal and distribution of her collections has grown, Corinne McCormack has enjoyed prominent coverage in major national and influential print and broadcast outlets including Live with Kelly, the TODAY Show, CNN and Good Morning New York. Her products have been showcased in such major vehicles as In Style, Oprah, WWD, Good Housekeeping, Glamour and important trade publications.

While running her own company, Corinne McCormack has also been active in many high visibility industry organizations. She was the President and on the national board of the OWA (Optical Woman’s Association) for over 10 years. She received the OWA’s inaugural Pinnacle Award in March 2017 for her service and contributions in the industry.

McCormack has been consistently active with The Vision Council, the leading industry association, where she was the Chair of the Marketing/Communications Committee and served for over 10 years. She is also active in the Accessories Council, a major association promoting the profile of fashion accessories globally.

In 2010, McCormack was recognized as one of the Most Influential Women in Optical by Vision Monday, a leading trade publication.

A skilled presenter, McCormack is an accredited ABO (American Board of Opticianry) speaker and has developed and taught several Continuing Education courses for the Optical Industry. She has also been a speaker at Fashion Institute of Technology in NY and represented woman owned businesses at a press conference with Mayor Guilani in 1994.

Corinne holds a BS degree from George Washington University.

Justin Bakewell is an executive director and banker with the J.P. Morgan Private Bank in Baltimore. The Private Bank provides individuals, families, public and private foundations, and endowments with comprehensive wealth management strategies, ongoing guidance, and customized plans to address their balance sheet needs.

Before joining J.P. Morgan, Mr. Bakewell served as a Client Advisor at Brown Advisory where he led a number of client relationships and had a leadership role on the firm’s business development team. Prior to this, he was a Client Advisor at Bernstein Global Wealth Management. He also spent eight years in the U.S. Marine Corps serving in a variety of roles.

Mr. Bakewell serves on the Board of Advisors and as Chairman of the Finance Committee for Teach for America (D.C.), on the Board of Directors and as Treasurer for Rocketship Education (D.C.), and on the Board of Advisors of the George Washington University School of Business.

Mr. Bakewell was recognized by the Washington Business Journal as a top 40 Under 40 for both his professional and philanthropic leadership in the Washington, D.C. area. He holds an MBA from the George Washington University, a Graduate Certificate in Taxation from the Kogod School of Business at American University, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Maryland at College Park.

Lourdes Tiglao serves as the strategic partnerships officer for Team Rubicon Global, responsible for establishing relationships with the 50 most disaster-prone countries around the world. She is a U.S. Air Force veteran who served in the medical field as part of the 3-person USAF Critical Care Air Transport Team while also a member of the International Health Specialist Team for the US Air Force, using medicine as an approach to crossing cultural barriers. Her career in aerospace medicine deployed her to multiple countries, including Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and the Philippines until 2007. During those years, she assisted in launching the first Critical Care Medical Attendant Team in the Pacific for the US Air Force, helped standardize the aeromedical evacuation protocol for Camp Lester Naval Hospital in Okinawa, and integrated naval personnel into the specialized 3-person teams.

After her honorable discharge, Lourdes joined Team Rubicon, deploying numerous times with the organization to include Hurricane Sandy in New York and Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines and has been a staunch veteran advocate, speaking on various topics, ranging from Team Rubicon, non-profit management, medicine, veteran transition, humanitarian response, and volunteer mobilization at several venues including the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C., the New York and San Francisco Philippine consulates, the State Department, as a guest speaker by an international television network, universities, as well as academic and scientific conferences. Most recently, she has taught Civil-Military Coordination and preparedness to participants from 25+ countries in Germany as part of UN OCHA's facilitation team.

Ms. Tiglao has appeared on ABS-CBN News, The Loyolan, US News & World Report, Republic of the Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs, The Filipino Channel, GWToday, Stars and Stripes, Philippines News Central, CNN, The View, ChannelOne, and others.

She holds a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Maryland University College, a certificate in graduate medical education from Georgetown University, and her World Executive MBA degree from George Washington University.

David P. Paul has served as president and chief operating officer at JBG SMITH since the formation transaction. Mr. Paul has over 25 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry and worked at JBG from September 2007 until the formation transaction, serving as a Managing Partner and member of JBG's Executive Committee, Management Committee and Investment Committee. Prior to joining JBG, Mr. Paul worked in commercial and retail real estate development and investment with several firms, including WP Commercial, Archon Group, a subsidiary of Goldman, Sachs & Co (NYSE: GS), Starwood Urban Investments, and Trammell Crow Company, and has been involved in both domestic and international real estate investment. He began his career with the consulting firm Bain & Company. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Vanderbilt University and Master of Business Administration from The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Peter Chun leads SocialCode’s platform strategy and growth to maximize client performance, innovation, and drive revenue growth. He has over 15 years of experience in digital marketing, performance advertising, and consumer mobile, working with the world’s largest consumer Internet brands. Prior to SocialCode, he was the head of solutions at Clickable (acquired by Syncapse) and was a managing director at LinkShare (acquired by Rakuten.) Most recently he was the co-founder at Swaag, the first sneaker and fashion community featured by Apple.

Charles Bendit is the co-chief executive officer of Taconic Investment Partners, an owner, operator and developer of commercial and residential real estate. Prior to founding Taconic in 1997, Mr. Bendit founded CBC Properties and, earlier in his career, Mr. Bendit was a managing director at Jones Lang Wootton.

A graduate of George Washington University, Charlie is actively involved in the educational community serving on The George Washington University Board of Trustees, the GW School of Business' Center for Real Estate and Urban Analysis, and has served as a Regent of the New York State Board of Education as well as a board member and Principal for a Day for PENCIL. In addition, Charlie is a member of the Board of Governors of the Real Estate Board of New York.

As Mayor of her hometown, Muriel Bowser is committed to building pathways to the middle class and making sure every Washingtonian gets a fair shot. Washington, D.C. is a growing and prospering city—now more than 700,000 residents strong. To keep up with this growth, the Bowser Administration remains focused on making DC’s prosperity more inclusive, advancing DC values, ensuring that families and workers across the income spectrum can afford to live and thrive in D.C., and building safer, stronger, and healthier neighborhoods across all eight wards of the District.

On November 6, 2018, Muriel Bowser became the first woman ever re-elected as the mayor of Washington, D.C. and the first mayor to earn a second term in 16 years. During her first term, Mayor Bowser took bold steps to expand employment opportunities, build a health care system that meets the needs of residents in every corner of D.C., drive down homelessness, and invest in programs and policies that set more families up for success. Today, Washington, D.C. is a diverse and inclusive city, a leader in tech and innovation, and a place where residents and entrepreneurs of all backgrounds can thrive.

First sworn in on January 2, 2015, Mayor Bowser pledged to bring a fresh start to the District of Columbia and foster a culture of inclusion, transparency, and action. Prior to her time as Mayor, Bowser served as the Ward 4 Councilmember on the Council of the District of Columbia – first elected in a special election in 2007, and re-elected in 2008 and 2012. As a Councilmember, Bowser served as the Chairwoman of the Committee on Economic Development which created more than 5,000 units of affordable housing, passed legislation to build a new soccer stadium and secured from the federal government the best portion of the Walter Reed campus for DC. Bowser led her colleagues to pass comprehensive ethics reform and increased transparency in government contracting.

Bowser, who earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Chatham University and a Master’s degree in Public Policy from American University, entered public service as an advisory neighborhood commissioner in the Riggs Park neighborhood.

The Board of Trustees of the George Washington University unanimously elected Thomas J. LeBlanc as the university's 17th President on January 6, 2017. Dr. LeBlanc is an accomplished academic leader, who previously served as the executive vice president, provost and professor of computer science and electrical and computer engineering at the University of Miami.

Read President LeBlanc's full biography

Dave Zilko founded his first specialty food company more than 20 years ago with a $2,500 credit card loan. While today Dave remains an equity partner in several food-oriented enterprises, he recently exited active involvement in the industry when he engineered the sale of Garden Fresh Gourmet, makers of the number one brand of fresh salsa in North America, to the Campbell’s Soup Company for $231 million. Dave was a partner at Garden Fresh for 13 years, serving as Vice Chairman with primary responsibility for strategy and sales.

In 2016, Dave published a book, via Wiley & Sons nationwide, detailing his experience as an entrepreneur in general and his experiences with Garden Fresh in particular. The book, “Irrational Persistence: Seven Secrets That Turned a Bankrupt Startup Into a $231,000,000 Business,” has become a national bestseller.

Today Dave has invested in and assumed the role of CEO at FUEL Leadership, a digital media property that also organizes exclusive business events. He is an operating partner at Huron Capital, a Detroit-based private equity firm with over $1 billion under management, and serves on the boards of the $60 million Grow Michigan venture fund; Jimmy Buffett's charitable foundation, Singing for Change; and the executive board of the largest food rescue organization in the country, Forgotten Harvest. Dave graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in finance and earned a Master of Business Administration in Marketing from the George Washington University.

Within the industry and among his own team, Dan Simons is known for his energetic leadership style and passion for hospitality. An impressive career in the management ranks at several large, high-volume restaurants helped propel him toward starting his own firm, VSAG, which he founded in 2004 with mentor Michael Vucurevich. The two form a well-balanced partnership based on mutual respect and a shared vision, which proved critical in their formation of Farmers Restaurant Group (FRG) in 2011.

As co-owner and skilled communicator, Dan is frequently called upon to serve as the voice of FRG’s growing group of restaurants. Whether inspiring potential investors, accepting multiple awards for the socially conscious ways of the restaurants or sharing his knowledge at hospitality and educational events, Dan is a champion for responsible industry standards and takes great pride in being able to continually incorporate sustainability methods and local initiatives that give back to the environment and the community.

Brazilian-born and Miami-made, Romero Britto is an international artist who uses vibrant, bold and colorful patterns to reflect his optimistic view of the world around him. Britto has created a visual language of hope and happiness all its own that is relatable to all, inspiring millions. Self-taught at an early age, Britto painted on scraps of paper or cardboard or any medium he could find before coming into his own and traveling to Paris where he was introduced to the works of Matisse and Picasso. His appreciation of these masters influenced him to create an iconic style that, as The New York Times described, “exudes warmth, optimism and love”.

Britto’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in more than 100 countries, including the Salon de la Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts exhibition at the Carrousel du Louvre in 2008 and 2010. In 2013, Maria Elena and Carlos Slim Domit invited Romero to be the first living artist to exhibit at MuseoSoumaya. He has created public art installations for the 02 Dome in Berlin, New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, Cirque Du Soleil at Super Bowl XLI, and has been credited with the largest monumental sculpture in London’s Hyde Park history. Britto served as an official artist for the 2010 World Cup, Ambassador to the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil and was recently invited to be an honorary torch bearer for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Britto’s pop sensibility has since leant itself to many collaborations with international brands such as Audi, Bentley, Coca-Cola, Walt Disney, Evian, Hublot, and Mattel to name a few.

Romero is an activist for charitable organizations worldwide and most of all an artist who believes “art is too important not to share.” Britto has donated time, art, and resources to more than 250 charitable organizations. Not a silent activist, Britto was a selected speaker for the arts at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. In addition, Romero Britto is proudly an Inaugural Founding Benefactor of the Harvard International Negotiation Program. He holds a seat on several boards such as Best Buddies International, and St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, and was recently appointed to the board of HRH The Prince of Wales charity, The Prince’s Trust. A believer in the role of an artist as an agent of positive change, Romero Britto is committed to developing and supporting the role art will continue to play in world issues.

Since July 2011, Christine Lagarde has been the eleventh and first woman Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. She was reelected to a second five-year term in 2016. A lawyer by background, Christine Lagarde practiced for 20 years with the international law firm Baker McKenzie, of which she became global Chairman in 1999. In 2005, she joined the French Government as Minister for Foreign Trade. Two years later, she became the first woman to hold the post of Finance and Economy Minister of a G7 country.

Dr. Herman Aguinis is the Avram Tucker Distinguished Scholar and Professor of Management at the George Washington University School of Business (GWSB). Prior to joining GWSB, he was the John F. Mee Chair of Management and the Founding and Managing Director of the Institute for Global Organizational Effectiveness in the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. In addition, he has been a visiting scholar at universities in the People's Republic of China (Beijing and Hong Kong), Malaysia, Singapore, Argentina, France, Spain, Puerto Rico, Australia, and South Africa.

His research is multidisciplinary and addresses the acquisition and deployment of talent in organizations and organizational research methods. Dr. Aguinis is the recipient of the 2017 Michael R. Losey Excellence in Human Resource Research Award. The award is given for lifetime achievement in human resource research and recognizes an individual for significant past and ongoing research contributions that impact the HR management field.

Learn more about Dr. Aguinis

Dawn Cacciotti, founder of EngageHRnow, has more than 25 years of strategic HR experience. As a human resources strategist, co-author of Cultivating Culture, and passionate speaker, Dawn is an advocate for the importance of strategic HR to the success of all organizations. EngageHRnow, founded in 2014, is a human resources consulting and outsourcing firm specializing in employee engagement, organizational culture, and strategic human capital solutions for small to mid-size associations and for-profit business.

Dawn has won numerous honors for her leadership in the area of Engagement, Strategy and Well-being. In 2014, she was recognized by Employee Benefits News as the “Benefits Leadership – Judges Choice” award winner, led the strategic human capital change at the National Restaurant Association allowing them to be awarded the coveted Washington Post Top Workplace list in Washington, D.C., and was a Human Resources Strategic Alignment honoree for the HRLA awards.

Dawn has shared her strategic HR insights at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce small business summit, Association Trends events, BLR webinars, SHRM events, executive leadership retreats and has conducted numerous organizational training sessions on how to build a healthy culture and drive employee engagement. She holds certifications as a Senior Professional of Human Resources (SPHR), SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) and Human Capital Strategist (HCS) and has her Bachelors of Science in Human Resources Management.