Joe is the Global Head of Data, Digital and Innovation for Citi Securities Services, responsible for overseeing client data services, driving innovation efforts and developing the digital investment strategy. This spans Data, Cloud, AI, Block Chain, Analytics, Client UX, & Strategic Investments. Joe’s immediate goal for Data, Digital and Innovation is to provide an industry leading, best-in-class service experience for clients, while keeping platforms scalable and competitive in the long term. 

Prior to Citi, Joe was with Morgan Stanley where he was most recently Head of Analytics and Data Strategy, Architecture, and Platforms for their Wealth Management division. In this role, he managed the strategic development of cloud, data, analytics, digital, and machine learning platforms, that were key to serving Morgan Stanley’s 15 million clients. Joe brings over 20+ years of experience and a unique blend of leadership roles across technology, finance, and business, including a strong track record of providing robust data management and analytics capabilities, governance and controls while ensuring the delivery of cost-effective solutions across platforms. 

He has a B.S. from Fordham University and completed the Executive Development Program from the University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School. 

Joe lives in NY with his wife Kathleen and their 3 children Madeline, Charlotte, and Jake.

Jeb is Chief Administrative Officer, responsible for firm strategy, corporate development, and product management. He also oversees finance, legal and compliance.

Prior to joining Polen Capital in 2020 as Head of Corporate Strategy, Jeb was a founding partner of Casey Quirk (now part of Deloitte Consulting), where he spent over twenty-five years advising senior management of asset management firms on business strategy.

Jeb earned a BA in Computer Coordinate with English from Trinity College and an MBA. from the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. Jeb is a CFA® charterholder.

Katie Fischer, Director, is the head of the Equity, Fixed Income and Multi-Asset Pillars within US Wealth Advisory (USWA) at BlackRock. Katie is responsible for product management, development and strategy within USWA, across the spectrum of index and alpha-seeking solutions. She partners across BlackRock to deliver market and portfolio insights, develop commercial priorities, drive new product development and manage BlackRock's mutual fund and ETF product line for wealth. Katie’s prior experience at BlackRock includes helping to lead iShares sales strategy and driving iShares priorities cross sales channels in USWA.

Katie joined BlackRock in March 2017. Prior to joining BlackRock, she was a product strategist for three years with Allianz Global Investors, covering Sustainable strategies. Before that, she was a senior investment strategy analyst with UBS Wealth Management. Katie graduated magna cum laude from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a BS degree in Economics. She is Series 7 and 66 licensed.

Mr. Flanagan serves as a trustee of Southern Methodist University (SMU) and as a member of the Executive Board at the SMU Cox School of Business. He is a member of the International Advisory Council of the China Securities Regulatory Commission and serves as a Visiting Management Practice Professor at Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management in Beijing. Mr. Flanagan formerly served on the Board of Governors for the Investment Company Institute, where he also served as chair and vice chair of the executive committee.

Alex Goldsmith is Chief Strategy Officer at First Eagle Investments, responsible for helping to drive the execution of the firm’s overall strategy and leading growth initiatives, including both corporate development and organic opportunities. 

Prior to joining First Eagle in 2019, Alex spent nearly 10 years with Macquarie Group, most recently in senior strategy roles in Macquarie Asset Management. Before Macquarie, he worked in the management consulting industry where he led strategy projects for asset and wealth management firms and insurers. 

Alex earned an MBA in management from Columbia Business School and a BA in English literature from Connecticut College. He is a trustee of Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, an independent school in Philadelphia, and chairs the school’s investment and finance committees.

Clint Harris is Head of Wealth Management platforms and Institutional Consultant Relations at Invesco. In this role, he is responsible for executing Invesco's US strategic accounts, investment due diligence, consultant relations, and practice management teams. Mr. Harris is Executive Vice President and a member of the firm's Americas Distribution senior leadership team, where he works closely on numerous strategic priorities, including the evolution to Invesco Total CX, product development and rationalization, private markets, US wealth, separate accounts, and ETFs.

Mr. Harris joined Invesco in 1999, working in the firm's call center, helping participants achieve a secure retirement. In the years since, he has held numerous positions in Invesco's business units, including investment due diligence, separate accounts, national accounts, product management, and investments as senior client portfolio manager.

Mr. Harris earned a BA degree with a dual major in economics and marketing and a specialization in international business from Oglethorpe University. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA) charterholder and holds the Series 7, 24, 51, 63, and 66 registrations. Mr. Harris is currently serving on the boards of the Expect Miracles Foundation and Nicsa.

Edward Jones Principal Steve Harris leads Investment Advisory Strategic Initiatives, the department that drives the overall strategic direction of the firm’s advisory program, which enables branch teams to deliver tailored solutions to help individual investors work toward achieving their financial goals. He was named an Edward Jones principal in 2019.

After beginning his career outside the industry, Steve joined Edward Jones in 2008 as a product specialist. In this role, he was responsible for oversight and development of the firm’s advisory programs. He later joined the Investment Advice team and assisted financial advisors with asset allocation and portfolio construction guidance for Edward Jones Advisory Solutions. He led the Advisory Solutions Unified Managed Account (UMA) Models team before assuming responsibility for Investment Advisory Strategic Initiatives.

Steve has contributed to several major Edward Jones projects, including spearheading the development of the UMA platform and leading fee-based pricing initiatives in partnership with the Client Pricing Committee. He served as the associate chair for the 2016 and 2017 Summer Regional Meetings.

A graduate of the University of Alabama in Birmingham, Steve earned an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis. He is a CFA® charterholder and a member of the CFA Institute and CFA Society of St. Louis. Steve and his wife, Lauren, live in the St. Louis area with their two sons, Eli and Ben.

Prior to joining STP Investment Services, Dan spent over fifteen years serving in executive leadership positions at Northern Trust. Most recently he was Executive Vice President and Head of Asset Servicing for the Americas. Prior to Northern Trust, Dan was a founding partner of Citisoft, a leading advisory consulting firm to global financial services and technology firms. Dan served as President of Citisoft where he was responsible for their North American business.

Dan also had roles at Thomson Financial Services and investment operations and trading roles at Loring, Wolcott & Coolidge, a Trust Company in Boston. In addition to his direct work and leadership experience, Dan served as Chairman of Nicsa, sits on multiple non-profit Boards and is a frequent speaker and author on complex industry topics across operations and technology.

Yie-Hsin Hung is president and chief executive officer of State Street Global Advisors, the investment management arm of State Street Corporation. State Street Global Advisors provides disciplined investment exposures and solutions to many of the world's largest and most sophisticated investors. Yie-Hsin is also a member of the Executive Committee, the company’s most senior strategy and policy-making team.

Prior to joining State Street Global Advisors, Yie-Hsin was Chief Executive Officer of New York Life Investment Management (NYLIM), a role she held since 2015. While at NYLIM, Yie-Hsin led a multiboutique, global investment management business that provides a broad range of fixed income, alternatives, equity and ESG capabilities. During her tenure at the firm, Yie-Hsin led NYLIM to achieve a nearly four-fold increase in assets under management. Prior to assuming the role of CEO of NYLIM, Yie-Hsin held numerous senior executive roles including co-president and chairman of NYLIM International. Before joining NYLIM, she held leadership positions at Bridgewater Associates and Morgan Stanley.

In 2022, Yie-Hsin was featured on Barron’s list of the 100 Most Influential Women in US Finance for the third time and was selected by American Banker as one of the 25 Most Powerful Women in Finance for the sixth consecutive year. In 2021, she was also named by Forbes to its list of 50 over 50. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of Northwestern University; the Chair of the Executive Committee and Board of Governors of the Investment Company Institute (ICI)C200; The Women’s Forum of New York and the National Association of Corporate Directors.

Yie-Hsin earned her Master of Business Administration from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Northwestern University. She received a Distinguished Alumni Medal in 2019, the highest honor granted by the Northwestern Alumni Association.

Debora is a certified futurist and foresight and future studies specialist with years of experience in the discipline, responsible for introducing, scaling, and leading Strategic Foresight & Futures Thinking at JP Morgan. She is the lead faculty of global executive foresight & futures programs, having trained thousands of senior leaders and executives on the discipline’s methods. She also leads foresight research and advisory, with the goal of identifying emerging disruptions impacting several businesses, revealing critical insights for strategy, business development, executive leadership, innovation, policy-making and risk management.

She holds multiple postgraduate certifications in Strategic Foresight and Future Studies, having studies at the University of Social and Business Sciences, Institute for the Future, Parsons School of Design, Politecnico Di Milano, MIT, THNK School of Creative Leadership and Singularity University. She is a member of the Association of Professional Futurists and ambassador for Singularity University in Latin America, where she mentors entrepreneurs on radical innovation and exponential thinking. She is also a global keynote speaker, having facilitated hundreds of workshops, conferences and sessions on topics such as foresight-driven innovation, exponential and forward-thinking leadership, futures thinking and speculative design. Debora is also a fiction writer, having published her first book in 2015.

Amrit Kanwal is executive vice president and chief financial officer of MFS Investment Management® (MFS®). In this role, he oversees all aspects of corporate finance, strategy, fund treasury, corporate services and the firm's transfer agency.  

Before joining MFS, Amrit was senior managing director and chief financial officer of Putnam Investments. He previously served as vice president of corporate development and strategy for
Sequa Corporation, before which he held senior strategy and corporate development roles at PepsiCo and Miller Brewing Company. He joined MFS in 2009.

Amrit holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. He serves on the corporate Board of MFS Investment Management, as well as the Board of the MFS Investment Management Company (Lux) S.à r.l.

Matt Mackay is a senior client executive within J.P. Morgan’s Securities Services business based in Los Angeles. He leads business transformation and sales efforts with traditional asset managers, identifying and facilitating strategic partnerships across the firm’s global product suite. He is also a member of the firm’s AI Insights Advisory Board that sponsors and governs AI initiatives and solution development for the sales organization, partnering with the AI Research division. Previously, Matt held several positions within J.P. Morgan in the U.S. and Asia Pacific including the regional business head for both Performance & Analytics and Private Equity Fund Services. He has been with the firm since 2007.

Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, Matt worked at Morgan Stanley within their private equity real estate business. He started his career at Deloitte.

Matt holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Lehigh University. He is a CFA and CAIA Charter holder and a FINRA registered general securities representative. 

Professor Lucas Miller is a human performance researcher as well as the youngest faculty at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Lucas teaches one of the most popular MBA classes, called "Becoming Superhuman: The Science of Productivity and Performance", is the author of a best-selling book on the science of learning and behavior change, and has been featured in Wired and The Wall Street Journal,

Outside of the academic world, Lucas co-runs “Becoming Superhuman”, a training and consulting firm which teaches busy professionals who think for a living how to get their most important work done, in less time, with less stress. Lucas specializes in physiology and performance psychology and uses his background as a competitive powerlifter to help knowledge workers increase their daily energy levels, manage stress effectively, and optimize their work and home routines.

Since COVID began, Professor Miller has given over 300 talks and keynotes to knowledge workers in 50+ countries, has advised executive teams at Google, Coinbase, and Visa, and has even been invited to speak for the US Congress.

Megan Miller is the head of Systematic Edge Options and co-head of Custom SMA at Allspring Global Investments. In her role, she is responsible for portfolio and risk management for numerous derivatives-based investment strategies and oversees portfolio management for the firm’s options-based strategies. Megan leads the team’s option strategy research, focusing on topics such as volatility forecasting and expected return models, and engages with product teams and institutional clients in the design of nonlinear investment solutions. In addition, she co-leads Allspring’s retail custom separately managed account (SMA) capabilities and is responsible for setting and driving the strategic vision for Allspring’s Custom SMA platform, Remi. Remi is Allspring’s tech-enabled investment platform that delivers customized and tax-optimized SMAs at scale. Megan joined Allspring from its predecessor firm, Wells Fargo Asset Management (WFAM). She began her investment industry career in 2005. Megan earned a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a master’s degree in business administration with an emphasis in finance from the University of California, Berkeley. Megan has earned the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) designation.

Dr. Vinay Nair is the Founder and CEO of TIFIN, a fintech platform that drives personalization for wealth using AI and investment intelligence. TIFIN operates a collection of fully-owned subsidiaries in wealth and investments that are shaping the future of investor experience. He was also the Founder and Chairman of 55ip, which was successfully sold to J.P. Morgan. Vinay serves on multiple boards including Chairman of full-service fund administrator platform Paralel Technologies and as part of the Board of Advisors for the Center for Leadership at the University of Colorado Boulder.

A serial entrepreneur, investor, and academic, Vinay has taught at several business schools, has a portfolio of venture investments, and has started several companies in financial services. He started his career as a finance faculty member at The Wharton School. After launching and managing a quantitative hedge fund which led him to start 55ip, he started TIFIN to tap into the potential that science and technology have to deliver better investor experiences and outcomes. He continues to teach in the Wharton Executive Education Programs.

As a former finance faculty member at Wharton, with teaching experience at schools such as MIT and Columbia, he focuses on venture capital, private equity, and entrepreneurship. He is also a recognized expert in the areas of sustainable and responsible investing and has written “Investing for Change”, a book published in 2008 by Oxford University Press. His academic background includes a Ph.D. in Financial Economics from the Stern School of Business at NYU with an award for the best thesis, and a Bachelor of Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras with the Governor’s Gold Medal, an award for all-round excellence.

Penny Pennington is the managing partner of Edward Jones, a leading financial services company dedicated to helping its 8 million clients turn their life plans into financial plans. Under her leadership, the firm delivers on its purpose to partner for positive impact, to improve the lives of its clients and colleagues, and together, better its communities and society.

As Edward Jones begins its second century, Pennington, as the firm's sixth managing partner, is guiding Edward Jones through a cultural renewal and strategic transformation that is purpose-driven, leader-led and team-based. The firm's approximately 52,000 associates and nearly 19,000 financial advisors throughout the U.S. and Canada are committed to meeting clients' growing desires and expectations for a trusted advisor who deeply understands their goals and guides them to meet those goals with professional advice that reflects their unique situations. 

With more branch offices in more communities than any other financial services company, Pennington is seeking to lift more people up through three areas of focus: partnering for lasting financial strength, promoting healthier futures, and advancing inclusive growth. One way Edward Jones brings these priorities to life is by promoting financial wellness; through its Financial Fitness program, the firm is committed to educating 1 million learners by the end of 2025. Edward Jones believes that serving more clients in more communities, and helping them achieve more possibilities in their lives, invigorates families and futures for this generation and generations to come.

Pennington began her career with Edward Jones as a financial advisor in 2000 after a 14-year career in banking and was named a principal in 2006. She held various leadership roles in the firm's St. Louis home office before being named managing partner in 2019. She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and she was named No. 43 on the Fortune Most Powerful Women list ¹.

In 2022, Pennington was elected to serve a three-year term as a large-firm governor of the FINRA Board of Governors, which oversees management in the administration of FINRA’s affairs and the promotion of FINRA’s welfare, objectives and purposes. She is an active member of the St. Louis community, serving on the boards of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and the Washington University in St. Louis Board of Trustees.

¹ 2022 Fortune Most Powerful Women, published October 2022, data as of August 2022.  Compensation provided for using, not obtaining, the rating. 

Justine Phoenix is Head of Diversity Project North America and Vice President of Distribution & Broker Dealer Engagement at Nicsa. Justine joined Nicsa with over 30 years of experience in asset management and intermediary distribution in the areas of relationship and client management, business development and operations. In her current role, Justine is responsible for building and enhancing Nicsa programs that engage and support distribution and BD executives. Before joining Nicsa, she was Vice President, Senior Relationship Manager at Fidelity Investments. In this role, she was head of relationship management for Fidelity FundsNetwork® and was responsible for overseeing all functions related to managing relationships with over 600 asset managers. Prior to joining Fidelity Investments, Justine was Director of Operations for the Investment Company Institute (ICI). In her role, she was responsible for all activities associated with mutual fund operations and distribution, including the Transfer Agent Advisory Committee and the Broker Dealer Advisory Committee. She also held leadership roles at Massachusetts Financial Services and Boston Financial Data Services prior to joining the ICI.

Koren Picariello is an Executive Director at Morgan Stanley and Head of Generative AI Strategy and Execution for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.

Koren previously served as the Global Head of Risk and Business Control for Wealth Management Analytics, Data, and Innovation and has held a number of positions at the firm since joining in 2007. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, she worked in the Fixed Income, Banking, and Equity Strategies Division at Goldman Sachs and was Chief Administrative Officer at PTR Capital Management at the start of her career.

Koren graduated from Rutgers University and earned bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Communication and Media Studies.

A CNBC reporter since 1990, Bob Pisani has covered Wall Street and the stock market for over 25 years. Pisani covered the real estate market for CNBC from 1990-1995, then moved on to cover corporate management issues before becoming On-Air Stocks Editor in 1997. In addition to covering the global stock market, he also covers initial public offerings (IPOs), exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and financial market structure for CNBC. 

Mike is a leader within Accenture’s Strategy & Consulting practice specializing in capital markets. He works across the industry to drive strategic and transformational change for his clients. He has partnered with some of the largest asset managers, wealth managers, investment banks, and service providers globally. His work includes operational transformation, digital & data strategy, technology modernization, and innovation immersion. Mike also serves as the GenAI Lead for Accenture’s asset management industry practice and has been quoted in multiple publications on the use of GenAI across capital markets. 

Prior to joining Accenture, Mike worked at Federated Investors where he was responsible for the financial modeling of new products, proposed fund concepts, and corporate endeavors. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the Smeal College of Business at Penn State University.

Ben Slavin joined BNY Mellon in 2020, as the Global Head of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). Ben joined the bank with over 25 years of experience in asset management, focused on ETFs. Recently, Ben expanded his mandate to drive the Commercial Strategy across other financial products including Mutual Funds, Separately Managed Accounts (SMAs), Collective Investment Trusts (CITs), alongside ETFs. Role includes BNY’s proprietary Growth Dynamics team which provides distribution insights to clients globally. 

After graduating from Columbia University, Ben began his career with PwC which included an extended role with Barclays Global Investors, assisting the firm with the initial launch and development of the iShares business. 

Subsequently, he joined SEI Investments where he was responsible for the development of the Company’s ETF distribution platform designed for the iShares business. He subsequently joined ProShares (now a Top 10 ETF platform) as a start-up focused on building the firm’s leveraged/inverse ETF business. Ben returned to New York with Morgan Stanley Investment Management, responsible for product management for the firm’s open and closed-end mutual fund business. 

In 2007, Ben returned to ETFs joining WisdomTree as a start-up serving as the Global Head of Product & Business Development playing a key role in building the firm into another Top 10 global ETF platform. He focused on a wide range of responsibilities, which including leading global product for U.S., Canada, Europe, and Japan. He also worked to develop distribution relationships in Latin America, Asia, and Australia, and managed all key global firm-wide relationships including asset servicing. Ben served as a member of the WisdomTree Global Risk committee, Europe Operating Executive Committee, various corporate boards, and chairman of the ESG committee. Ben also established his own ETF consulting and advisory business, servicing large asset manager and start-ups on ETFs and digital assets. Ben frequently a appears on several media outlets such as CNBC, Bloomberg, Yahoo talking about markets, flows, and key trends in asset management.

Through flexible and innovative social architecture, SS&C ALPS Advisors is working to define itself as the leading boutique investment solutions provider in North America. With Laton’s encouragement to think creatively to find new ideas and strategies in the market, the SS&C ALPS Advisors team is engineering success by allowing great investors to interact on all levels, building and integrating distinguished investment technology and improving distribution relationships. 

Spahr has 25 years of investment management experience. Before taking the helm of SS&C ALPS Advisors, Laton led the Value and Income Team at OppenheimerFunds where he was Portfolio Manager for four different equity and multi-asset strategies. Prior to OppenheimerFunds, Laton was a leader at Columbia Management Investment Advisors, where he managed value and income strategies across institutional and retail investment channels. Over his career, Laton also conducted equity risk management, analyzed and traded derivatives, structured products and was a technology sector analyst.

Laton earned his MS Finance degree from the Applied Securities Analysis Program at the University of Wisconsin - Madison and a BS Finance degree from the University of Wyoming.

Drawing from his youth, experience and education, Laton believes deeply in the importance of financial and investment literacy for K-12 students. Throughout his career, he has done extensive volunteer work around this topic. 

Proud of his Wyoming roots, Laton and his family still enjoy spending time there, both in the summer and during ski season. His most passionate hobby is fly fishing, which he enjoys because it’s about improving knowledge and process more than the outcome.

Jeff has 20 years of experience in the asset management industry.  He is currently the Strategy and M&A leader for the Investment Management & Real Estate sector within Deloitte Consulting.   Jeff has led numerous engagements focused on strategic positioning, distribution strategy and product development and assessment.  In addition, he has a subject matter expertise in all stages of the merger and acquisition lifecycle from commercial due-diligence through post-merger integration.  Jeff contributes to the firm’s thought leadership and has authored several papers on focused industry M&A, consolidation and integration. He is based in Stamford, CT.

Prior to joining Casey Quirk, Jeff was an assistant vice president at AB, formerly AllianceBernstein, where he worked in the blend strategies group, managing U.S. and global equity portfolios for institutional clients. He also worked for Sanford C. Bernstein’s private client wealth management team, focused on high-net-worth individuals.

Jeff earned his master’s degree in business administration, with a concentration in decision sciences, from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and operations management from the University of Massachusetts.

Davis has more than 18 years of experience advising investment managers as a consultant and investment banker. He has partnered with managers to address strategic issues related to distribution, marketing, and product development. Prior to joining Broadridge, Davis led the Investment Management practice at Greenwich Associates and was a Director in Barclays Investment Banking FIG practice where he provided M&A and capital markets advice. Davis received his BS in Finance and Economics from Lehigh University and his MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Serge Weyland is the Director General of ALFI, the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry. He joined the association in December 2023. 

Before joining ALFI, Serge Weyland spent over 25 years in the financial services industry with firms operating in asset management, private wealth management, fund administration and custody, institutional banking and management consulting.

From 2010 to 2014, Serge was Head of Regional Coverage North America & UK at CACEIS group, and between 2014 to 2017, Head of Financial Institutions at Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (BIL). Prior to joining ALFI, Serge was CEO at Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management (Luxembourg). 

Serge is a member of the Board of the Luxembourg Supervisory Authority (CSSF). He is also a member of the High-Level Committee of the Financial Centre set up by the Ministry of Finance and a Board member of the Luxembourg Financial Industry Federation (PROFIL S.A.). In addition, he is a member of the Advisory Board of the Department of Finance of the Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance (University of Luxembourg). 

Serge holds a Master’s Degree in Finance from the Solvay Business School in Brussels (Belgium). A native Luxembourgish speaker, Mr Weyland is fluent in German, French and English.

Candida “Candi” P. Wolff is the Global Head of Citi’s Government Affairs. She is responsible for the company’s government affairs globally, including U.S. Federal, U.S. State, and international government relations. 

Ms. Wolff is responsible for identifying priority policy issues that may impact Citi’s structure, operations, clients and employees. She is charged with defining Citi’s position and developing advocacy and execution strategies on these issues. She also engages on geopolitical trends and risks. 

Prior to joining Citi in May 2011, Ms. Wolff was a partner in the Legislative and Policy Practice at the law firm of Hogan Lovells where she represented clients in legislative matters before the Congress and the Administration. Her private-sector experience also includes time as a partner at Washington Council Ernst & Young, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm, and as an Associate in the Public Policy and Law section of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, a Washington, D.C.-based law firm. 

Additionally, Ms. Wolff has more than 25 years of government relations experience in key public and private sector positions. Most notably, from January 2005 to December 2007, she served in the White House as the Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs – the first female to have ever held this position. 

As President George W. Bush’s principal liaison to Congress, Ms. Wolff had the primary responsibility for formulating and advocating the President's agenda in Congress. The position included advising the President and his cabinet on legislative strategy regarding economic, domestic, international and national security issues. 

Ms. Wolff also served as head of legislative affairs for Vice President Cheney and worked for eight years in the U.S. Senate in senior staff positions in the Republican Leadership and as tax counsel to former Senator Malcolm Wallop of Wyoming. 

Ms. Wolff has been recognized multiple times by American Banker Magazine as one of the leading women in the banking industry and by National Journal, Washingtonian, and The Hill as one of the most influential women in Washington, D.C. 

Ms. Wolff is co-Chair of the Nominations Committee of the Economic Club of DC; Chair of Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) Action; co-chair of the US Global Leadership Coalition; Vice Chair of the US German-American Business Council; and Emeritus Board Member of Easterseals DC MD VA.

Ms. Wolff earned her B.A. in mathematics and political science from Mount Holyoke College and her J.D. from the George Washington University School of Law. She is a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association.

Dr. Sahar Yousef is a cognitive neuroscientist and faculty at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. After spending over a decade doing Department of Defense research on neuroplasticity and how to improve memory, attention, and overall human performance in as little as 7 weeks, Sahar now researches and teaches busy leaders and their teams how to be more productive and effective at work.  

At Berkeley, Sahar runs the Becoming Superhuman Lab (featured in Forbes and Business Insider) and teaches one of the most popular MBA classes, called "Becoming Superhuman: The Science of Productivity and Performance". Sahar has become one of the world’s leading experts on cognitive training and is featured as a top scientist in the Headspace wellbeing app (used by over 2 million people every day). In 2021, Sahar produced a multi-part video series with John Legend on the science of music and its impact on our focus and emotions.  

Since COVID began, Dr. Yousef has given over 300 talks and keynotes to knowledge workers in 50+ countries, has advised executive teams at Google, Coinbase, and Visa, and has even been invited to speak for the US Congress.

Marc Zeitoun is the head of North America Product & Business Intelligence for Columbia Threadneedle Investments. He is responsible for developing and deploying the firm's insights, capabilities and solutions--along with data analytics and sales enablement--to best serve U.S. intermediary and institutional clients. Previously, he held various leadership positions at Columbia Threadneedle Investments, including chief operating
officer of North America distribution, head of strategic beta and head of private client advisory. He joined one of the Columbia Threadneedle Investments legacy firms in 2013 where he served as chief product and marketing officer, ultimately responsible for its product, sales and marketing activities. He has over 25 years of experience in asset management distribution and wealth management platform management/development./p>

Prior to Columbia Threadneedle Investments, he served as head of intermediary distribution for Guggenheim Investments, executive director for investment solutions (fee-based advisory platforms) at UBS and product manager at JP Morgan.

He received a B.A. in history from Vassar College and a M.I.A. in international business and finance from Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. He holds the CFA® designation.