ALTSNY New York | June 20 - 22, 2023

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Jonathan Gray, President and Chief Operating Officer, Blackstone

Jonathan (“Jon”) Gray is President and Chief Operating Officer of Blackstone, and is a member of Blackstone’s Board of Directors. He sits on its Management Committee and most of its investment committees. Mr. Gray previously served as the firm’s Global Head of Real Estate, which he helped to build into the largest real estate platform in the world. He joined Blackstone in 1992. Mr. Gray currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Hilton Worldwide. He also serves on the board of Corebridge and Harlem Village Academies. Mr. Gray and his wife, Mindy, established the Basser Center for BRCA at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine focused on the prevention and treatment of BRCA related cancers. They also established NYC Kids RISE in partnership with the City of New York to accelerate college savings for low income children. Mr. Gray received a BS in Economics from the Wharton School. 

Catherine Wood, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Investment Officer, ARK Investment Management

Cathie registered ARK Investment Management LLC (“ARK”) as an investment adviser with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in January 2014. With over 40 years of experience identifying and investing in innovation, Cathie founded ARK to focus solely on disruptive innovation while adding new dimensions to research. Through an open approach that cuts across sectors, market capitalizations, and geographies, Cathie believes that ARK can identify large-scale investment opportunities in the public markets resulting from technological innovations centered around DNA sequencing, robotics, artificial intelligence, energy storage, and blockchain technology. As Chief Investment Officer (“CIO”) and Portfolio Manager, Cathie led the development of ARK’s philosophy and investment approach and has ultimate responsibility for investment decisions.

Cathie has been recognized as an influential fund manager across various outlets. In 2018, editors at Bloomberg acknowledged Cathie by selecting her to its second annual Bloomberg 50 list of people across business, entertainment, finance, politics, technology, and science who have defined global business. Additionally, Fortune named Cathie to its exclusive roundtable of experts in the annual Fortune Investors Guide: The Best Investing Advice for 2019 From Fortune’s Experts. In 2016, Cathie received the “Women in Finance – Outstanding Contribution Award” from Market Media. Cathie also has been a featured speaker at the World Economic Forum (China) in 2016 & 2017, the World Strategic Forum (Miami) in 2017, The Sohn Hearts and Minds Investment Leaders Conference (Australia) in 2018 and 2019, and Singularity University’s Exponential Finance in 2017 and Global Summit in 2019.

Thomas K. Lee, Executive Director & Chief Investment Officer, New York State Teachers’ Retirement System

Thomas K. Lee is currently responsible for the investment of plan assets totaling $132B. Reporting to a 10-member Board of Trustees, he oversees the work of NYSTRS’ investment staff in managing the internally-managed investment portfolios, developing and performing due diligence on potential external private and public investment opportunities, and monitoring and reporting on the activities and performance of third-party investment managers in which the System has invested. In his capacity as executive director of the Retirement System, Tom oversees the administration of retirement benefits to more than 442,000 active members, retirees and beneficiaries. He is also responsible for overseeing members’ service credit and salary information as reported to the System by it 822 participating employers.

As of June 30, 2022, NYSTRS paid approximately $8.0 billion in annual benefit payments, over 80% of which was distributed to New York residents. The Retirement System is among the best-funded public pension plans in the nation. Based on the market value of assets, our funded ratio at June 30, 2022 was 97%. Using the actuarial value of assets, the funded ratio was 99%.

Prior to NYSTRS, Tom was Executive Director of Maryland State Retirement and Pension System. He has various professional affiliations, such as serving as a member of the Investment Committee of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Board of the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF), the Board of the PREA Foundation, the Board of the International Centre for Pension Management, and the Council of Institutional Investors’ U.S. Asset Owners Advisory Council.

Mr. Lee has a BA in Political Science and Sociology from Dickinson College, a MA in Political Science from Temple University, and a MBA from George Washington University.   

Joan Solotar, Global Head of Private Wealth Solutions, Blackstone

Joan Solotar is the Global Head of Private Wealth Solutions. She serves on the firm’s Management Committee. Blackstone’s Private Wealth Solutions’ mission is to bring institutional quality products across a broad spectrum of alternative asset classes to high net worth clients and their advisors. Ms. Solotar also serves on the board of directors of First Eagle Investment Management. Before joining Blackstone in 2007, Ms. Solotar was Head of Equity Research at Bank of America Securities and a highly ranked Institutional Investor All Star financial services  analyst at Credit Suisse and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. 

Jenny Johnson, Chief Executive Officer, Franklin Templeton

Jenny Johnson is president and chief executive officer of Franklin Templeton. She joined the firm in 1988 and held leadership roles in all major divisions of the business, including investment management, distribution, customer service, fund administration, technology, and high-net-worth, before becoming CEO in February 2020. She led the historic acquisition of Legg Mason in 2020, with the newly-combined organization managing $1.5 trillion in assets globally. Ms. Johnson was named to Barron’s list of the 100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance in 2020 and 2021, and was named 2021 Woman of the Year by Financial Women of San Francisco.  

Scott Taylor, Chief Investment Officer, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Scott Taylor serves as the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's chief investment officer. Prior to joining the Foundation in 2018, Mr. Taylor was a managing director at Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) where he oversaw the investment process and monitored the organization's public market external manager program. He previously served as a senior member of CPPIB's private investments team where he focused on private equity fund investments and private equity secondaries. Mr. Taylor began his career in mergers and acquisitions at BMO Nesbitt Burns. He is a former member of the European Corporate Development team at Level 3 Communications. Mr. Taylor holds a master's in finance from London Business School and a BBA from Wilfrid Laurier University.  

Paula J. Volent, CFA, Vice President and Chief Investment Officer, The Rockefeller University

Paula Volent is Vice President and Chief Investment Officer at The Rockefeller University, the world’s leading biomedical research university. Prior to joining The Rockefeller University in August 2021, Ms. Volent served as Chief Investment Officer and Senior Vice President at Bowdoin College, a private, residential college in Brunswick, Maine, where she was responsible for the oversight and management of the College’s endowment. Prior to joining Bowdoin in July 2000, Ms. Volent was a Senior Associate at the Yale Investments Office.

Ms. Volent has a BA from the University of New Hampshire; a Master’s Degree in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University; a Certificate in Conservation from the Conservation Center at NYU, with a specialization in the conservation of works of art on paper; and an MBA from the Yale School of Management. Prior to focusing on endowment management, Paula worked as a paper conservator at the New-York Historical Society, the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts, the LA County Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. She also ran a private paper conservation studio in Los Angeles, California. She serves on the Board of Directors of MSCI, Inc.; the Board of Directors of 1st Dibs; a member of the Investment Committee of the Pritzker Family Foundation, a Trustee of the Skowhegan School of Art and Painting, and an Investment Committee Member of the Rockefeller Foundation. She is also Vice Chair of the Yale School of Management Advisory Board and a member of the National Gallery of Art Investment Subcommittee. In 2020 Barron’s named Ms. Volent as one of the “100 most influential women in U.S. Finance.” 

Bill Weld, Strategic Advisor, Baleon Capital and 68th Governor of Massachusetts

Bill Weld was appointed United States Attorney for Massachusetts by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and served for five years in that position.  In 1986 President Reagan appointed him as Assistant Attorney General of the United States in charge of the Criminal Division of the Justice Department in Washington DC. In 1990, Bill was elected the first Republican Governor of Massachusetts in twenty years.  He was re-elected in 1994 with 71% of the vote and was followed in office by four Republican Governors.

 After serving as partner in charge of the New York office of a large international law firm, Bill raised two private equity funds aggregating $600 million.  He currently serves as a Senior Advisor to Baleon Capital, a private equity firm focused on early growth investments in health care and technology. Bill returned to politics in 2016, receiving four and a half million votes as the Vice Presidential candidate of the Libertarian Party.  In 2019–2020, he ran in Republican primary elections against incumbent President Donald Trump. 

Bill was educated at Harvard College (BA, summa cum laude); Oxford University (Diploma in Economics, with distinction), and Harvard Law School (JD, cum laude).  He lives in Massachusetts and maintains offices in Boston, New York, and Washington, DC.

Michael Sonnenshein, Chief Executive Officer, Grayscale Investments

Michael Sonnenshein is CEO of Grayscale Investments, the world’s largest digital currency asset manager. Under his leadership, the firm has grown to be the definitive leader in crypto investing, offering a wide range of investments including single-asset and diversified products. Michael is regularly featured on CNBC and Bloomberg, and was honored in 2021 as one of 100 People Transforming Business by Business Insider and in 2018 as the publication’s Rising Stars of Wall Street. Michael serves as a member of the Grayscale Board of Directors. 

Prior to joining Grayscale, Michael was a financial advisor at JP Morgan Securities, covering HNW individuals and institutions, and an analyst at Barclays Wealth, providing coverage to middle‐market hedge funds and institutions. Michael earned his Bachelor of Business Administration from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University and his Master of Business Administration from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University. 

Tom Steyer, Co-Executive Chair, Galvanize Climate Solutions

Tom Steyer is an American investor committed to investing in the people and solutions driving climate progress.

Tom founded and ran Farallon Capital Management, a multi-strategy global investment business based in San Francisco, from 1986 until 2012. During that period, it grew assets from $6mm to $36bn. Over the same time, Tom was also a partner and Investment Committee member at Hellman & Friedman, a multi-billion-dollar private equity firm.

In 2012, Tom stepped away from Farallon to dedicate his time, resources, and energy to mobilizing bold climate action.

Tom invested in grassroots efforts to win clean air laws and to force big tobacco to pay its share of healthcare costs. Tom helped make California the largest jurisdiction in the world with a 100% clean energy law and prevented Big Oil’s effort to roll back California’s climate protections. He worked to prevent the construction of a new, gas-fired power plant in a community largely made up of immigrants, people of color, and low-income families.

Tom is also the founder of NextGen America, the largest youth voter engagement organization in American history, and co-founder of Beneficial State Bank, a triple-bottom-line community development bank focused holistically on justice and sustainability.

Most recently, Tom was a Democratic presidential candidate and in 2020 served as co-chair for Governor Newsom's Business and Jobs Recovery Task Force. He co-chaired Vice President Biden's Climate Engagement Advisory Council to help mobilize climate voters.

Today, Tom is the Co-Executive Chair of Galvanize Climate Solutions, a climate-focused global investment firm delivering capital and integrated expertise to accelerate climate solutions and create long-term value.