As the Chief Operating Officer for IFC, Ms. Stephanie von Friedeburg leads all IFC investment operations and advisory services, delivering private sector capital and solutions to create jobs, positive development outcomes, and opportunities in the world’s poorest and most fragile countries. In addition to overseeing new business, she manages IFC’s $55 billion debt and equity portfolio across 104 offices.

Ms. von Friedeburg began her World Bank Group career at IFC, spending more than two decades in IFC investment operations where she developed strong regional expertise in Africa and Central and Eastern Europe, as well as in numerous industry sectors, including telecom, media, general manufacturing, and technology. With extensive experience in business development, transaction execution, and portfolio management, Ms. von Friedeburg has helped deliver significant private sector impact in emerging markets, including the growth of mobile throughout the developing world and IFC’s first large financings in Russia and Eastern Europe in the post-Soviet era.

Most recently, Ms. von Friedeburg served as IFC’s Chief Strategy and Resources Officer, where she led the development of IFC’s new strategy and aligned the organization’s resources in support of it. Prior to this, leveraging her more than ten years of experience investing in telecom and IT start-ups in emerging markets, she served as the World Bank Group Chief Information Officer, fundamentally transforming the IT organization to equip the World Bank Group to fight poverty in the 21st century.

Ms. von Friedeburg is an advocate for the advancement of women and a champion of diversity and inclusion, serving as Co-Chair of IFC‘s Diversity & Inclusion Council, and founding women’s networks at two international finance institutions.

Ms. von Friedeburg holds a seat on the Global Business Initiative External Advisory Board for Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, as well as on the CIO Advisory Board for Greylock Partners. She is Director Emeritus of the Board of the Bank Fund Staff Federal Credit Union.

In addition to an MBA from the Wharton School, Ms. von Friedeburg holds a Master of Arts from the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania and an undergraduate degree from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

Dr. Sam Priyadarshi is Principal, and Global Head of Portfolio Risk and Derivatives at Vanguard and leads a global team responsible for market risk management of active fixed income funds totaling over $158 billion and for the trading of over $1.2 trillion annually in cash and derivatives instruments. He is chair of the Technology Steering Committee, member of the Market Structure Committee and the LIBOR Steering Committee.

Prior to joining Vanguard in 2009, he worked at the Lincoln Financial Group for 12 years, where he was Vice President, Derivatives and was responsible for hedging insurance products and portfolios. He was a member of Lincoln’s Derivatives Committee, Insurance General Account Assets Committee, and Alternative Investments Screening Committee.

Dr. Priyadarshi holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi. He holds a MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, and has a Ph.D. in finance from Virginia Tech. He has more than 23 years of investment experience, has spoken at several industry conferences, and has guest lectured at many universities. He is an active participant in many industry panels and working groups related to derivatives and fixed income markets. He is a member of CFTC’s Market Risk Advisory Committee and serves on the Advisory Board of UCLA Anderson School MFE program.

Eric Hylton is the commissioner of the Small Business/Self-Employed Division. He was appointed to the position in September 2019. He oversees taxpayer programs and services affecting the nation’s small business and self-employed individuals. He is responsible for providing executive leadership and direction to a nationwide staff of approximately 20,000 employees responsible for service and enforcement programs for taxpayers who file personal, corporate, flow-through, employment, excise and estate and gift tax returns.

Prior to this position, Mr. Hylton served as the deputy chief, CI. He assisted the chief, CI in directing worldwide programs for investigating potential criminal violations of the Internal Revenue Code and related financial crimes in a manner that fosters confidence in the tax system and compliance with the law. Prior to his assignment as deputy chief, Mr. Hylton was the executive director, Office of International Operations for CI. In that position, he was responsible for developing and implementing an evolving strategic vision to expand CI’s international presence in a challenging and rapidly changing global financial environment. He began his CI career as a special agent and held increasingly responsible positions including assistant director in the CI Office of Narcotics and Counterterrorism; assistant special agent in charge of the Washington Field Office; and special agent in charge of the Philadelphia Field Office.

Mr. Hylton is also the former chair for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development -Task Force for Tax Crimes and Other Financial Crimes and was based in Paris, France. As Chair, Eric led a multilateral commission of 40 international criminal tax organizations to develop methodologies and typologies on emerging global criminal tax and financial crimes threats.

Mr. Hylton completed the IRS Candidate Development Program in 2013. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in accounting from Morehouse College and is a native of Washington.

Larysa Kautz currently serves as Melwood’s Interim President & CEO, having previously served as Melwood’s Chief of Staff and General Counsel.

After receiving her law degrees from Yale Law School (JD) and the Georgetown University Law Center (LLM), Larysa focused her career on affordable housing development, venture philanthropy, and advising national and international nonprofits. Prior to joining Melwood, Larysa was a partner at the Schaner & Lubitz law firm. Before that, she served as counsel at Bingham McCutchen (now Morgan Lewis).

Larysa currently serves on the Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired (DBVI) State Rehabilitation Council and the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board. She has previously volunteered as a consultant for President Obama’s Office of White House Counsel and Virginia Governor Northam’s Transition Team on the Policy Council on Workforce Development. Larysa has also lent her expertise to the Foundation for the National Archives as pro bono general counsel. As the mother of a child on the autism spectrum, she is passionate about Melwood’s mission of inclusion.

Larysa was named one of the 2017 Leading Women in Maryland by The Daily Record, has been honored by the Association of Corporate Counsel with the 2019 In-House Innovator Award, and is an alumna of the Arlington Leadership Center for Excellence.

Outside of work, Ms. Kautz enjoys sailing and ballroom dancing. She lives in Alexandria, VA, with her husband, Ryan; their son, Symon; and their dogs, Lucky and Ziggy.

A. Michael Spence is an authority on growth in developing countries and on the convergence between advanced and developing economies. He is the Philip H. Knight Professor Emeritus of Management in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford and a Distinguished Visiting Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is an Adjunct Professor at Bocconi University in Milan, and an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford University. In 2001, Mike received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his path breaking work in the field of information economics.

Mike served on the Board of Directors of MercadoLibre, Inc. and a number of private companies, and formerly served on the Boards of Bank of America, General Mills, Genpact Ltd., Nike, Siebel Systems and Sun Microsystems. He was a member of the Board of the Stanford Management Company, which manages the Stanford University endowment, and the International Chamber of Commerce Research Foundation. He is a Senior Advisor to Jasper Ridge Partners and a Senior Advisor to General Atlantic Partners. Mike co-chairs (with Dr. Victor Fung) the Advisory Council of the Asia Global Institute, and was the Chairman of The Independent Commission on Growth and Development (2006-2010). He is a member of the Advisory Council for the Luohan Academy in Hangzhou. He served as Dean of the Stanford Business School from 1990 to 1999 and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University from 1984 to 1990.

Mike earned his undergraduate degree in Philosophy at Princeton summa cum laude, and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford, where he earned an BA/MA in Mathematics. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics at Harvard. Mike taught at Stanford as an Associate Professor of Economics from 1973 to 1975. From 1975 to 1990, he served as Professor of Economics and Business Administration at Harvard, holding a joint appointment in the Business School and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. In 1983 he was named Chairman of the Economics Department and George Gund Professor of Economics and Business Administration. Mike was awarded the John Kenneth Galbraith Prize for excellence in teaching and the John Bates Clark Medal for a "significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge." The Clark Medal was awarded, at that time, every two years to an Economist under the age of 40.

Baroness Joanna Shields is a tech industry veteran with over 25 years experience building and scaling global companies including Facebook, Bebo, Aol, Google, Real Networks and Efi. Prior to joining Benevolent AI, she served in UK Government as Under Secretary of State and Minister for Internet Safety & Security, Digital Economy Adviser and Chair and CEO of TechCityUK. Joanna is passionate about creating responsible technology that benefits humanity. She is a leading advocate for children's rights and safety online and founder of the WeProtect Global Alliance, and a Life Peer of the House of Lords.

Afsaneh Mashayekhi Beschloss is the founder and CEO of RockCreek, a leading global investment firm. Previously, she was Managing Director and Partner at the Carlyle Group. She was Treasurer and Chief Investment Officer of the World Bank and worked at Shell International and J.P. Morgan.

Ms. Beschloss has advised governments, central banks, and regulatory agencies on global public policy and financial policy. She led the World Bank’s energy investments and policy work on sustainable investing in climate-related renewable energy, power, and infrastructure projects. She founded its Natural Gas Group as a transitional fuel to reduce carbon emissions. Ms. Beschloss is on the boards of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the Council on Foreign Relations, the World Resources Institute, the American Red Cross, and is the Vice-Chair of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).

She is a recipient of the Institutional Investor Lifetime Achievement Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Ripple of Hope Award. She was recognized as one of American Banker’s Most Powerful Women in Banking.

Ms. Beschloss holds an MPhil (Honors) in Economics from the University of Oxford, where she taught international trade and economic development. She is the co-author of The Economics of Natural Gas and author of numerous journal articles on energy, finance, and impact.

Sandeep Dadlani joined Mars, Incorporated as Global Chief Digital Officer in September 2017, and has responsibility for working with Mars' global business segments to drive its digital transformation agenda, while delivering effectiveness and efficiency to existing business and technology platforms. In the last two years, he has driven a new wave of consumer and user centricity, unleashed the power of data, analytics, AI, and automation while driving new agile digital behaviors across the enterprise.

Prior to joining Mars, Dadlani worked at Infosys, a $10 billion global systems integration firm, where he was President, Head of Americas and Global Head of Infosys' Manufacturing, Retail, CPG and Logistic Practices. In this role, he managed a portfolio P&L worth US $3.5 billion and helped more than 300 global clients embrace digital technologies, including AI and Machine Learning. He co-incubated and eventually ran Infosys Edgeverve as Chairman, an AI and software company for Infosys.

Dadlani has 22+ years of experience in operations, consulting, business development and product management. He has been actively involved in helping organizations in the retail, CPG and logistics sectors become more competitive by embracing new emerging trends across digital consumers and emerging markets.

Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, CFP®, is a leading advocate for financial literacy and one of America’s most trusted sources for financial advice. She has devoted her career to helping men and women from all walks of life achieve financial security. In addition, she oversees Schwab’s corporate philanthropy and employee volunteer programs, which aim to strengthen the communities where Schwab operates.

Schwab-Pomerantz has served two White House administrations on financial capability policy. In 2010, she was appointed by President Obama to the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability, where she chaired the Partnership Committee until early 2013. In that role, she led the Council’s efforts to strengthen coordination between the public and private sector. She also advised the Council on Financial Literacy under President George W. Bush. In 2017, she was appointed to the San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women, which fosters the advancement of women and girls through policies and programs throughout the city.

Under her leadership, Charles Schwab Foundation has made important strides in promoting financial literacy. Through its national partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the Foundation created Money Matters: Make It Count, a best-in-class financial education program that has been completed by nearly one million teens nationwide. With AARP Foundation, Charles Schwab Foundation developed a program to improve financial outcomes for low- and moderate-income seniors. And most recently, the Foundation has partnered with DonorsChoose.org to support financial education in classrooms across the United States.

Schwab-Pomerantz speaks and writes extensively about personal finance. Her latest book, The Charles Schwab Guide to Finances after Fifty (Crown Business, 2014), was described by The New York Times as “overwhelmingly appealing” and “an excellent personal finance book.”  With her father, Charles R. Schwab, she co-authored It Pays to Talk: How to Have the Essential Conversations with Your Family about Money and Investing (Crown Business: 2002). She also writes a weekly column, Ask Carrie, which appears on schwab.com and schwabmoneywise.com, and is syndicated through Creators News Service and Parade. She is on Facebook and Twitter (@CarrieSchwab), and is a LinkedIn Influencer, offering insights on personal finance, leadership and philanthropy to a worldwide audience.

For more than ten years, the San Francisco Business Times named her one of the Bay Area’s 100 Most Influential Women in Business, and in 2015 included her in its “Forever Influential” Honor Roll. In 2011, Schwab-Pomerantz received the William E. Odom Visionary Leadership Award, Jump$tart Coalition’s highest recognition for contributions to financial education. And in 2015, she was nominated by the San Francisco Chronicle for its inaugural “Visionary of the Year” award, recognizing Bay Area leaders who drive social and economic change through innovation. She was also recognized by SIFMA Foundation in 2018 with its Education Champion award in recognition of her efforts to advance youth financial education.

Schwab-Pomerantz serves as director and board chair of Schwab Charitable, one of the country’s largest donor-advised funds. She is chair-elect and a member of the national board of governors of Boys & Girls Clubs of America and has chaired the board of trustees for the Pacific region.

Schwab-Pomerantz earned a BA from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from the George Washington University. She holds FINRA Series 7, 23, 63 and 8 securities registrations, and is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certificant. She lives with her husband, author Gary M. Pomerantz, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Together they have three grown children.

Ellen Zane is a nationally renowned health care leader who retired as president and chief executive officer of Tufts Medical Center and the Floating Hospital for Children in late 2011. She was the first woman to run the hospital in its 224-year history. Ellen remains involved at Tufts Medical Center as vice chair of the Board of Trustees. Ellen holds two faculty appointments at Tufts University School of Medicine, including assistant professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Clinical Care Research, and assistant professor of Public Health & Community Medicine. Additionally, Ellen holds a faculty appointment as adjunct assistant professor of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. From 2011 to 2013, Ellen was a distinguished guest lecturer in healthcare administration at the Sawyer Business School at Suffolk University.

From 1994 to 2004, Ellen held the position of network president for Partners HealthCare System, Inc. In this capacity, she was responsible for the development of a provider network featuring the Harvard affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham & Women's Hospital. The network encompassed 5600 physicians and represented $800+ million of managed care revenue. Today, this entity represents one of the largest physician networks in America. Prior to that, Ellen was the chief executive officer at Quincy Hospital in Quincy, Massachusetts. In this capacity, Ellen was an employee of HCA and then Quorum Health Resources.

Ellen holds an Advanced Professional Director Certification from the American College of Corporate Directors, has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. (1973) and has a Master of Arts degree from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. (1975). She holds the following honorary degrees: Doctorate of Humane Letters from University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth; Doctorate of Commercial Science from Bentley University, Doctorate of Business Administration from Stonehill College; and Doctorate of Humane Letters from Curry College.

Ellen is currently a director of Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX), a director of Brooks Automation (NASDAQ: BRKS), a director of Haemonetics Corporation (NYSE: HAE) and a director of Synchrony Financial (NYSE: SYF). She is also the vice chair of the board of trustees at the George Washington University, the current chair of the Board of Wellforce (the Parent Board of Tufts Medical Center), and a member of the board of the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency.

Kenneth Gannetta is an active duty officer in the United States Army and one of three co-founders of People Powered Products. Ken has served in various leadership positions within the Army including Platoon Leader, Company Commander, and will soon be joining the social sciences department at the US Military Academy at West Point as an Instructor of Economics. Prior to joining the Army in 2011, Ken worked as a special investigations unit analyst with Coventry Health Care from June 2009 to November 2011. He has an additional five years’ experience in the personal insurance industry having worked for Liberty Mutual Insurance Company from December 2004 to June 2009. Ken’s education includes a Master’s in Business Administration and Master’s in Human Resource Management from George Washington University, a Master’s in Engineering Management from the Missouri University of Science and Technology, and a Bachelor’s in Economics from the University of Connecticut.

Skye Kussmann is a GW class of 2020 Global MBA graduate with a concentration in strategic and financial management. At GW, Skye was a recipient of the Forte Fellowship and the Global MBA Outstanding Student Contributor award. She is a co-founder of People Powered Products, a sustainably focused start-up with a mission to implement energy conserving technology in the workplace. Skye and her team from People Powered Products received first place in the New Venture Track and the Opportune Clean Energy and Healthcare Prize in GW’s 2020 New Venture Competition. In addition to the start-up, Skye has over seven years of experience in financial management, operations and marketing across multiple industries. After graduation, Skye will be joining Liberty Mutual as a Senior Business Consultant, leading internal development at the headquarter office in Boston, Massachusetts.

Carrie Gannetta has a diverse portfolio of work that includes service, analytics, lean management, and sustainability. Carrie joined Liberty Mutual Insurance in 2008 working at the company’s customer response center in Springfield, MA. From there she transitioned to the local field sales offices where she focused on process improvement work. In 2012, Carrie moved into a role in analytics providing insight into the maturity and effectiveness of lean management initiatives. Earlier this year, Carrie transitioned into a Principal Sustainability Analyst role in the newly created Office of Sustainability. Her education includes a Bachelor’s of Arts in Political Science with a minor in Sociology from the University of Colorado, and a Master’s in Public Administration with a concentration in Emergency Management and Homeland Security from George Mason University.

Jane Mosbacher Morris is the founder and CEO of TO THE MARKET. Most recently, Morris was named as one of the World's 25 Greatest Leaders: Heroes of the Pandemic by Fortune magazine. She previously served as the director of humanitarian action for the McCain Institute for International Leadership, and currently serves on the institute's Human Trafficking Advisory Council. Prior to joining the McCain Institute, she worked in the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Counterterrorism and in the Secretary's Office of Global Women's Issues. Morris is a member of VF Corporation's Advisory Council on Responsible Sourcing. She is also a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations. Morris is the author of the Penguin Random House/Tarcher Perigee book, Buy the Change You Want to See: Use Your Purchasing Power to Make the World a Better Place. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Stephen J. Yalof joined Tanger Factory Outlet Centers in April 2020 as president and chief operating officer, and in January 2021, he will succeed Mr. Tanger as chief executive officer. Prior to joining the company, Mr. Yalof served as the chief executive officer of Simon Premium Outlets from September 2014 to April 2020. Mr. Yalof has more than 20 years of experience in the retail industry, previously serving as senior vice president of real estate for Ralph Lauren Corporation and senior director of real estate for The Gap, Inc. His responsibilities include the oversight of the senior officers responsible for Tanger Outlets operations, construction and development, leasing and marketing functions. Mr. Yalof is a graduate of the George Washington University, where he earned a B.S. in Business Administration.

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

Ashley Goodall is an executive, leadership expert and author, and has spent his career exploring large organizations from the inside. He looks for the lessons from the real world that help people and teams thrive and that make work a more human place for all of the humans in it.

His first experiences of teams and leadership were as a student musician and conductor. He was fascinated by the unspoken understanding between people playing together and carried this fascination into the corporate world. He currently serves as the senior vice president of Leadership and Team Intelligence (LTI) at Cisco, a new organization he has built to focus entirely on serving teams and team leaders and which aims to reveal the answers to some of the most challenging questions about work: What is special about the best teams? Why do we follow one leader and not another? How can we make more teams like our best teams, and more leaders like our best leaders?

The new approaches he has pioneered address everything from performance management to feedback, from team activation technology to real-time team intelligence, and from social network mapping to strengths-based leadership — and, together, these challenge much of the conventional wisdom of work today.

Ashley is the co-author, with Marcus Buckingham, of Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World (Harvard Business Review Press, April 2019), which was selected as the best management book of 2019 by Strategy + Business and is one of Amazon’s best-selling business and leadership books of 2019. He is also the author of two cover stories in the Harvard Business Review: The Feedback Fallacy (March/April 2019), which was Harvard Business Review’s most popular article of 2019, and Reinventing Performance Management (April 2015).

Kathy Korman Frey teaches Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership, a USASBE Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education national award-winning course, at the GW School of Business.

In 2010, Frey’s women’s leadership research venture, the Hot Mommas Project, became the world’s largest women’s case library. The project takes the stories of women in our lives and makes those stories teachable. The project fills a gap that exists in educational publishing: exposure to female mentors and role models. Such access is shown to increase self-efficacy, or the ability to set personal goals and control outcomes. The project has directly reached women from 138 countries with its Women’s Leadership Academies, is the winner of a Coleman Foundation Case Award, and measurably increases confidence from 21 to 300 percent (depending on length of class).

Frey's background is in the merger and acquisition and venture-funded start up field. She served as managing director for a strategic planning consulting firm and as COO for a venture arm of a major aging nonprofit. She recently served as special advisor to the U.S. Small Business Administration around a women's entrepreneurship learning platform set to launch in 2020. Frey earned her BA from the University of Virginia and MBA from Harvard Business School.

Major Jade Root graduated from the United States Military Academy in 2008, earning degrees in Civil Engineering and General Psychology as well as her commission in the U.S. Army as a human resources officer. Jade also graduated from the George Washington University in 2017, earning a Master's in Business Administration. She also holds a Master's of Military Studies degree.

Throughout her military career, Jade has served in various military organizations at several echelons. Maj. Root served as a platoon leader in the 18th Human Resources Company, 82d Sustainment Brigade at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Later, she served as the Essential Personnel Services chief as well as Rear Detachment G1 for the 82d Airborne Division. During her tenure with the 82d Airborne Division, Maj. Root deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Bagram, Afghanistan, as the Military Mail Terminal supervisor, providing mail services for the entire Combined Joint Operations Area - Afghanistan. Following her deployment, Jade went on to serve as the senior human resources manager with prestigious organizations such as the 81st Civil Affairs Battalion and the 504th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade out of Fort Hood, Texas, as well as the Joint Interagency Task Force – National Capital Region, where she currently serves as the human resources director in Arlington, Virginia.

Jade’s awards and decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters and the Parachutist Badge. Outside of her military career, Jade dedicates her time to her business as a health and wellness coach, fulfilling her passion to empower women and cultivate their self-worth by living healthy and balanced lives. Jade is married to Kevin Mumaw, a retired Army officer, and is the proud mother of three children, Jayla, Jason and Bryson.

Anna Stewart is the founder and owner of Gaucha Chica, LLC, a specialized product import initiative whose goal is to identify highly skilled artisans in Argentina to design and craft modern accessories and home products that reflect the native cultural traditions of the country while also providing a positive social and economic benefit to the native craftspeople and their communities. Gaucha Chica sources adventurous styles and exclusive designs made with the world’s highest quality leather and organic pieces to bring them into homes in the U.S.A.

Anna provides over 18 years of collective fundraising, strategic partnerships, cause marketing and Board management expertise from health focused non-profit organizations. Prior to her entrepreneurial ventures, Anna served as the Senior Director for Development at the Cancer Support Community (CSC) - the largest worldwide provider of free psychosocial and emotional support for cancer patients and their families - where she led the direction, planning, execution and evaluation of fundraising strategies for the organization.

Before joining the CSC team, Anna helped lead the development efforts for the nation's largest public health foundation dedicated to tobacco prevention and cessation, the American Legacy Foundation (currently the Truth Initiative). There she served as an integral part of the planning and implementation of a newly created Development component and subsequently helped manage the development strategic priorities for the organization. During the start-up years at Truth Initiative, Anna served as the primary liaison to external & internal partners on behalf of the CEO and Board of Directors, strategically managing these relationships to enhance partner relations and extend mission visibility.

Anna holds an MBA with a focus on strategy and organizational behavior from the George Washington University and a BS in Business Management and Marketing from George Mason University.

W. Russell (Russ) Ramsey is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Ramsey Asset Management (RAM), an alternative asset management firm with aggregate assets in excess of $500MM. Founded in 2001, RAM is an institutional firm which has a range of directional equity-hedging products which leverage a common research platform, fundamental analysis, and a proprietary approach to identifying investment opportunities. Key to the firm's approach is identifying those companies that exhibit either improving or declining business prospects for which the firm believes its view is sufficiently divergent from that of Wall Street.

Russ is also known for his role as Co-founder, President, and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group (NYSE: FBR) and its sister company FBR Capital Markets (NASDAQ: FBCM). After co-founding FBR in 1989, Russ helped the firm capitalize on the broad institutionalization of the capital markets, particularly during the downturn of the late 1980's and early 1990's by correctly analyzing the troubles and solutions faced by both the financial services and real estate industries at that time. Russ co-founded FBR's investment banking division, helping the firm become one of the nation's premier underwriters, and co-founded FBR's first venture capital fund focused on the Internet, e-commerce, and software, and simultaneously launching FBR's Technology Investment Banking and Research practices. Under his leadership, FBR completed tens of billions of initial public offerings, secondary offerings, private placements, and mergers and acquisitions.

Newsweek magazine has recognized Russ for his successes by naming him one of the four "people to see" in the Washington financial community. Russ sits on the National Geographic Society's Council of Advisors and serves as the Chairman Emeritus of The George Washington University's Board of Trustees. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has served on the Governor's Commission on Information Technology, was a Trustee for the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges, and is a founding member of One Virginia.

Mr. Ramsey is a native Washingtonian and has been an active philanthropist through the Ramsey Foundation, which has funded many causes including Knock Out Abuse Against Women, the innovative Venture Philanthropy Partners, four-year scholarships for the DC Capital Area's Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Make-a-Wish Foundation, Potomac School, Fight Night, Fight for Children, and the Inova Fairfax Hospital System.

Russ received a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the George Washington University and was named to the GWU All-Century Baseball Team and Athletic Hall of Fame.

Roger W. Ferguson, Jr. is president and chief executive officer of TIAA, the leading provider of retirement services in the academic, research, medical, and cultural fields and a Fortune 100 financial services organization.

Mr. Ferguson is the former Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve System. He represented the Federal Reserve on several international policy groups and served on key Federal Reserve System committees, including Payment System Oversight, Reserve Bank Operations, and Supervision and Regulation. As the only Governor in Washington, D.C. on 9/11, he led the Fed’s initial response to the terrorist attacks, taking actions that kept the U.S. financial system functioning while reassuring the global financial community that the U.S. economy would not be paralyzed.

Prior to joining TIAA in April 2008, Mr. Ferguson was head of financial services for Swiss Re, Chairman of Swiss Re America Holding Corporation, and a member of the company’s executive committee. From 1984 to 1997, he was an Associate and Partner at McKinsey & Company. He began his career as an attorney at the New York City office of Davis Polk & Wardwell.

Mr. Ferguson is a member of the Smithsonian Institution’s Board of Regents and serves on the New York State Insurance Advisory Board. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and co-chairs its Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education. He serves on the boards of Alphabet, Inc.; General Mills, Inc.; and International Flavors & Fragrances, Inc.

He is chairman of the conference board and serves on the boards of the American Council of Life Insurers, the Institute for Advanced Study and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He is a fellow of the American Philosophical Society and a member of the Economic Club of New York, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Group of Thirty and the National Association for Business Economics.

Mr. Ferguson served on President Barack Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness as well as its predecessor, the Economic Recovery Advisory Board, and he co-chaired the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on the Long-Run Macro-Economic Effects of the Aging U.S. Population.

Mr. Ferguson holds a B.A., J.D., and a Ph.D. in economics, all from Harvard University.

David Brickman is chief executive officer of Freddie Mac, one of the largest providers of mortgage financing in the United States. He is also a member of the company’s board of directors.

Previously, Brickman served as president of Freddie Mac and was responsible for all three of Freddie Mac's business lines – Single-Family, Multifamily and Capital Markets – as well as the information technology and operations areas that support these business lines. Prior to this role, he was the head of Freddie Mac Multifamily, where he presided over a remarkable period of growth – raising annual production from $16 billion in 2010 to almost $80 billion in 2018 and increasing the organization from 300 staff members in four offices to approximately 1000 employees in a dozen locations across the country.

He also firmly established the company's flagship K-Deal Securitization program as one of the leading securitized products in the structured finance markets. Brickman also drove significant innovation and an expansion in Freddie Mac's products and offerings – particularly those that serve the growing need for affordable and workforce housing.

Before serving as head of Multifamily, Brickman served as senior vice president and vice president in charge of the Multifamily Capital Markets business area. In these positions, he oversaw all functions relating to Freddie Mac's multifamily and CMBS investment and capital markets activities. He is the key architect behind several of Freddie Mac's innovative multifamily financing products, including the Capital Markets Execution and K-Deal program, Reference Bill ARM, fixed-to-float suite of products, and Performance-Based PC, for which he holds a U.S. patent.

Prior to joining Freddie Mac in 1999, Brickman co-led the Mortgage Finance and Credit Analysis consulting group at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Brickman completed all doctoral coursework for his Ph.D. in economics and real estate at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He holds a master's degree in public policy from Harvard University and a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He has held appointments as a professorial lecturer of finance at the George Washington University and as an adjunct professor of finance at Johns Hopkins University.

Andy Walker has consulted to communications, media and high tech companies for the past 20 years, focusing on helping them develop the strategies, operating models and roadmaps needed for them to make measurable strategic and financial improvements to their businesses.

His particular area of focus involves supporting companies as they establish and launch new businesses or substantially transform their existing ones. He has developed and launched multiple businesses for Global 100 CMT clients, and has helped a number of others make transformational pivots toward new products and services.

Prior to his career in consulting, Andy spent four years serving as a policy advisor to several Members of Congress. He is a frequent speaker at conferences, and has published in the M&A Journal, the Journal of Telecommunications, CFO.com and WSJ.com.

Dr. Mitchell is principal in Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Government and Public Services Practice (GPS) with more than 15 years of consulting experience. Throughout his tenure, Dr. Mitchell has demonstrated experience guiding security and law enforcement executives through strategic and operational transformations to address emerging security threats. Previously Dr. Mitchell also served as the Strategy Offering Lead within Deloitte GPS’s Strategy & Analytics Offering Portfolio.

As a leader, Dr. Mitchell is passionate about mentoring and developing the next generation of diverse leaders. Dr. Mitchell served in several talent leadership roles, including Diversity & Inclusion Leader for Deloitte Consulting, Federal Inclusion Leader, National Champion for Pro Bono and Skills-Based Volunteering programs, and is actively involved in campus recruiting efforts.

Dr. Mitchell served over 40 clients across Deloitte’s Federal and Commercial practices. More specifically, he has supported mission programs within the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, Department of Defense, & Financial Services, Telecommunications, Technology & Energy.

Kwasi holds a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from Northwestern University, an MBA from Drexel University, and B.A. from Kalamazoo College.

Andre Chen is Global CEO at Denham – Trendy International Group, a fashion and lifestyle retail corporation that provides leisure, jeans, luxury, and other fashion styles. Previously, Mr. Chen served as CEO at Miss Sixty and Superdry China at Trendy International Group and CEO at Pengda Sports.

Prior to this, Mr. Chen spent 18 years at NIKE where he held a number of positions, including Commercial Director at NIKE Greater China, General Manager at NIKE South East Asia (Singapore), Apparel Business Director at NIKE China, New Business (Golf/Equipment/Outdoors) at NIKE Taiwan, Sport Marketing Manager at NIKE Asia Pacific Headquarters (Hong Kong), and Sport Marketing at NIKE Taiwan.

Mr. Chen received an MBA from The George Washington University and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from National Taiwan University.

Mauricio Ortiz is the president of Latin American Operations at Boston Scientific Corporation and has under his responsibility all Latin American countries, divided into five regions: Brazil, the Southern Cone, the Andean Region, Mexico & Central America, and the Caribbean.

Mauricio joined Boston Scientific in 1997 and has held several positions since then, such as country manager of Colombia, country manager of Brazil, vice president of Brazil, and vice president and general manager of Latin America.

Prior to joining Boston Scientific, he was employed by Tyco International as the general manager of Andean Countries and by Abbott Laboratories as the director of Sales & Marketing.

Mauricio has a bachelor's degree in Economics from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana of Bogota.

George Cristian Maior has been accredited as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Romania to the United States, as per Decree no 583 of June 29th, 2015, signed by the President of Romania. He has officially commenced his mandate on September 17th, 2015, upon presenting his Letters of Credence to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of the United States of America.

Between 1992 and 1997, he was a diplomat in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, within the Department of Treaties and Department of Strategic Affairs. Between 1997 and 1999, he was Chargé D’affaires at the Romanian Embassy in Dublin, Ireland. In 2004, he was conferred the rank of Ambassador.

Between 2000 and 2004, he held the position of State Secretary and head of the Department for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Defense Policy within the Ministry of National Defense. In November 2004, Mr. Maior was elected Senator in the Romanian Parliament, where he held various positions, including Chairman of the Committee for Defense, Public Order and National Security; member of Joint Committee for the Parliamentary Oversight on the Foreign Intelligence Service Activity, and member of the Senate Committee for Human Rights, Cults and Minorities.

Following his nomination by the President of Romania and the vote received from the Romanian Parliament, on October 4th, 2006, George Cristian Maior was appointed the 4th Director of the Romanian Intelligence Service.

A Law graduate, Mr. Maior received in 1992 his LL.M. in International and Comparative Law at the George Washington University, Washington DC. In 1997, he was conferred a Ph.D. in International Law at the “Babeş Bolyai” University in Cluj Napoca. He is a university professor and Ph.D. coordinator at the Department of International Relations and European Integration within the National School of Political Studies and Public Administration in Bucharest.

The President of Romania awarded George Cristian Maior the National Order of “Faithful Service” in rank of Knight, the National Order “Star of Romania” in rank of Knight and the National Order “Star of Romania” in rank of Officer. In April 2014, he became a Knight of the “Legion of Honor” order, a title conferred by the President of France. In 2017, The Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) awarded George Cristian Maior the “Earl Warren Medallion” for the outstanding partnership with the United States and exceptional leadership during his tenure as Director of Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI). Additionally, he is a Doctor Honoris Causa of the Military Technical Academy in Bucharest, of the “Andrei Saguna” University in Constanta, and of the West University in Timisoara.

He was born on November 16, 1967, in Cluj-Napoca. He is married to Anamaria Maior and has two children.

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.

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.

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.

Dr. Vivian Wang is a founding partner of Beautiful Mind Capital (BMC) since 2018. BMC is a leveraged buy-out fund focused on acquiring European companies with synergies with China business. With Dr. Wang’s extensive China-Europe M&A and investment banking experience, most recently BMC has acquired Cordenka AG for Euro240M. Dr. Wang has previously worked at Fortis Bank, Commerzbank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, and Credit Suisse as chief representative of Credit Suisse Shanghai. Dr. Wang earned BS in Chemistry and Ph.D. in Economics from Fudan University. She is also a board trustee at Fudan University, the board director at the School of Medical Science of Fudan University, and the co-chairman of Fudan University China Financier Club.

As co-founder, COO, and head of product at Peloton, Tom Cortese is responsible for driving operational cohesion against critical initiatives to drive growth and further excite Peloton’s growing and loyal member base. In addition, Tom heads up Peloton’s Product Development teams, overseeing product definition, design, engineering, and quality — all with a dedicated approach to highly addictive, user-centered experiences across all Peloton member touch-points. Prior to Peloton, Tom held product management and executive roles at IAC/InterActiveCorp and Revolution Health Group. He holds a BA in Philosophy from the George Washington University and spends his free time chasing his three children around the yard, training for races with his wife, and racing up the leaderboard on his Peloton Bike & Tread.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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