Nathaniel August

President & Portfolio Manager
Mangrove Partners

Nathaniel August is the Founder and President of Mangrove Partners. Prior to founding Mangrove, Mr. August was a Director at White Eagle Partners, a Senior Analyst at Brahman Capital Partners, an Investment Analyst at K Capital Partners, and an Analyst at Goldman Sachs in the Principal Investment Area. Mr. August received his bachelor’s degree from Brown University.

David Einhorn

President
Greenlight Capital, Inc.

David Einhorn is President of Greenlight Capital, Inc., which he co-founded in January 1996. Greenlight Capital is a value-oriented investment advisor whose goal is to achieve high absolute rates of return while minimizing the risk of capital loss.

Greenlight’s investment philosophy is to combine the analytical discipline of determining fair value with a practical understanding of markets. The firm believes that an investment approach that emphasizes intrinsic value will achieve consistent absolute investment returns and safeguard capital regardless of market conditions.

Prior to founding Greenlight Capital, Inc., David worked at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) as an analyst in the Investment Banking Group. After DLJ, David joined Siegler, Collery & Co., a buyout and investment management firm, as an investment analyst.

David is Chairman of the Board of Greenlight Capital Re, Ltd. (NASDAQ:GLRE) and Chairman of the Board of Green Brick Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ:GRBK). He is the author of Fooling Some of the People All of the Time: A Long Short Story, published in May 2008.

David graduated summa cum laude with distinction in all subjects from Cornell University, where he earned a B.A. from the College of Arts and Sciences.

Scott Ferguson

Managing Partner & Portfolio Manager
Sachem Head Capital Management LP

Scott is the Managing Partner and Portfolio Manager of Sachem Head Capital Management, a value-oriented investment management firm based in New York. Prior to starting Sachem Head, he spent nine years at Pershing Square Capital Management, which he joined pre-launch as the firm’s first investment professional. Prior to Pershing Square, Scott earned an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 2003 and was a vice president at American Industrial Partners, an operations focused private equity firm, from 1999 to 2001. Scott was also a business analyst at McKinsey & Company from 1996 to 1999. Scott graduated from Stanford University with an A.B. in Public Policy in 1996. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Henry Street Settlement and Episcopal Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, and is a former director of Autodesk, a leading design & engineering software company. Scott is also a member of the Robin Hood Leadership Council. He lives in New York with his wife and three children.

Jeffrey Gundlach

Chief Executive Officer
DoubleLine Capital LP

Mr. Gundlach is CEO of DoubleLine. In 2011, he appeared on the cover of Barron’s as “The New Bond King.” In 2013, Institutional Investor named him “Money Manager of the Year.” In 2012, 2015 and 2016, he was named one of “The Fifty Most Influential” in Bloomberg Markets. In 2017, he was inducted into the FIASI Fixed Income Hall of Fame. Mr. Gundlach is a summa cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College, with degrees in Mathematics and Philosophy.

Bill Gurley

General Partner
Benchmark

Bill Gurley has spent nearly 20 years as a General Partner at Benchmark, joining in 1999. Before entering the venture capital business, Bill spent four years on Wall Street as a top-ranked research analyst, including three years at CS First Boston.

Bill also maintains a blog on the evolution and economics of high technology businesses called Above the Crowd.

Over his venture career, he has worked with such companies as GrubHub (IPO: GRUB), Nextdoor, OpenTable (IPO: OPEN, Acquired by Priceline), Stitch Fix (IPO: SFIX), Uber, and Zillow.com (IPO: Z).

Education: BS in computer science from the University of Florida, and an MBA from the University of Texas. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst. Bill is a board trustee at the Santa Fe Institute, a research and education center focused on the study and understanding of complex adaptive systems.

Glen Kacher

Founder & Chief Investment Officer
Light Street Capital, LLC

Glen Kacher formed Light Street in 2010. Prior to forming Light Street, Glen was with Integral Capital Partners, where he joined as a Principal in 1998 and became a Managing Director in 2000. Integral typically invested 70% of each of its funds in public companies, with the remainder in private companies. At Integral, Glen developed portfolio strategy, researched companies, and executed trades. Areas of investment included software, internet, media, eCommerce, mobile hardware, PC hardware, security software, and networking. Glen led or co-led many of Integral’s venture investments during his tenure, including Agile Software (IPO, acquired by Oracle), Arcsight (IPO, acquired by HP), BlueNile (IPO), Epiphany (IPO, acquired by SSA), Extensity (IPO, acquired by Geac), Fortify Software (acquired by HP), Interwoven (IPO, acquired by Autonomy), LogMeIn (IPO), OpenTable (IPO), and Overture/Goto.com (IPO, acquired by Yahoo). Prior to joining Integral, Glen was with Tiger Management from 1993 to 1996 as a full-time research analyst and from 1996 to 1997 as a part-time consultant. At Tiger, Glen focused on investments in the software, hardware, and networking industries. Glen holds an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, 1998, and a B.S. in Commerce with Distinction from the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce, 1993.

John Khoury

Founder & Managing Partner
Long Pond Capital, LP

John Khoury is the Founder and Managing Partner of Long Pond Capital, LP. Long Pond is a value oriented investment management firm that focuses on investing in real estate and real estate related companies. The firm implements a rigorous, bottom up research process across a broad investable universe in an effort to identify asymmetry, which it defines as a material disconnect between stock price and intrinsic value. The firm, which is based in New York, has 22 employees, nine of whom are investment professionals. Mr. Khoury oversees the investment team and is responsible for managing all investment related efforts, including portfolio management and risk management. The firm’s culture, which is predicated on unemotional decision making and intellectual honesty, is critical to its investment process.

Prior to establishing Long Pond in 2010, Mr. Khoury was Co-Managing Member and Co-Portfolio Manager at Wesley Capital Management, a New York based real estate hedge fund. Previously, Mr. Khoury served as a senior analyst at DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners where he focused on real estate acquisitions, including apartments, offices, hotels and industrial assets, throughout the United States. Mr. Khoury began his career at Lazard Frères in the Real Estate Investment Banking Group where he worked on several notable REIT M&A transactions.

Mr. Khoury received a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Chamath Palihapitiya

Founder & CEO
Social Capital LP

Chamath Palihapitiya is Founder and CEO of Social Capital, whose mission is to advance humanity by solving the world’s hardest problems. Social Capital invests in and starts breakthrough companies in areas including healthcare, education, financial services and enterprise. Before founding Social Capital, Chamath was a member of the senior executive team at Facebook and a key driver behind its rise to one of the most important and impactful companies in the world.

Prior to Facebook, Chamath held leadership roles at Mayfield Fund, AOL and Winamp. He was born in Sri Lanka, grew up in Canada, and graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo. Chamath is also Owner and Director of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.

John Pfeffer

Partner
Pfeffer Capital LP

John Pfeffer is an entrepreneur, investor and author of “An (Institutional) Investor’s Take on Cryptoassets”. Recent entrepreneurial projects include co-founding Spanish discount retail concept, PrimaPrix, in 2014 and founding an oil workforce housing business in the Williston basin (exited in 2012). In the 2000s, John was a Member at private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, and in the 1990s, he was Chairman of the Executive Board of leading French IT company Groupe Allium S.A. Before that, he advised on turnarounds while with McKinsey in Europe and Latin America.

Li Ran

Chief Investment Officer
Half Sky Capital Ltd

Li Ran is the CIO of Half Sky Capital. Based in London, Half Sky Capital is a global investment firm focused on consumer related businesses, in particular hard-to-replicate franchises with big end-market opportunities, brand barriers, network effects, sticky customers, and strong unit economics.

Prior to founding Half Sky, Li Ran was a Partner and Managing Director of Lone Pine Capital. From 2004 to 2016, she was responsible for consumer & TMT investments in Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

Li Ran joined Lone Pine after three years as a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs in New York.

Li Ran grew up in Beijing, immigrated to New York at age 10. She graduated from Harvard College and received an MBA from INSEAD. She is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, English and Italian.

Larry Robbins

Founder, Portfolio Manager & CEO
Glenview Capital Management LLC

Larry Robbins is the Founder, Portfolio Manager and CEO of Glenview Capital Management, an $11.2B investment management firm in its 18th year of operation. Glenview is focused on delivering attractive absolute returns through an intense focus on deep fundamental research and individual security selection. Headquartered in New York City, Glenview has 72 employees, including 34 investment professionals.

Prior to founding Glenview, Larry spent six years as an analyst and partner at Omega Advisors on their US equity long/short team. He joined Omega after three years at Gleacher & Company, a merger and advisory boutique in New York.

Larry graduated with honors from the Wharton School and Moore School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1992, where he received his Bachelor of Science in Economics and Engineering, with majors in accounting, finance, marketing, and systems engineering. Larry became a Certified Public Accountant in 1991 in his then home state of Illinois.

Through their Robbins Family Foundation, Larry and his wife, Sarahmay, are active supporters of education reform both in New York City and on the national level. Larry serves as Chairman of the Board for The Robin Hood Foundation, KIPP New York and Relay Graduate School of Education. He is a member of the board of Teach For America (New York). In addition, Larry is the Senior Chair of the Wall Street Division of the UJA‐ Federation. Larry is also the proud coach of several New Jersey Avalanche youth hockey teams. Larry resides in Alpine, NJ with his wife and five sons.

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

New York Times Op-Ed Contributor, Visiting Lecturer at The Wharton School, Former Google Data Scientist

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz is a New York Times op-ed contributor, a visiting lecturer at The Wharton School, and a former Google data scientist. He received a BA in philosophy from Stanford, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and a PhD in economics from Harvard. His book Everybody Lies was a New York Times bestseller and an Economist Book of the Year. His research—which uses new, big data sources to uncover hidden behaviors and attitudes—has appeared in the Journal of Public Economics and other prestigious publications. He lives in New York City.

Bryan Fletcher

U.S. Nordic Combined Champion

When Bryan was just three years old, he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. It was this diagnosis that started his amazing journey as a Nordic Combined athlete. While still battling cancer, Bryan was introduced to the world of ski jumping and Nordic Combined by some influential people in the sport. He was hooked from day one.

Luckily Bryan was able to divide his time between chemotherapy treatments and ski jumping. Being able to participate in the sport is exactly what kept his spirits alive. Bryan would spend two weeks in Denver, CO undergoing treatments and a week in Steamboat throwing his body off a jump and into the air! But he didn’t stop at the jumps; he decided to push himself further by taking his ambition to the cross-country trails too. Bryan was fully immersed in Nordic Combined by age six.

For Bryan, skiing was a welcome distraction from chemotherapy. The leukemia did its best to keep him down. From an allergic reaction to a chemotherapy medication, to suffering a stroke, there were plenty of reasons to hang up his skis. Many would have argued that Bryan should have solely focused on every little medical thing he could do to get out of treatment alive. To Bryan, focusing on getting out alive was not easy or mentally pleasing. Skiing on the other hand was the exact opposite, and because of that, hanging up the skis would have been impossible. To this day Bryan believes that maintaining his passion for skiing is one of the biggest reasons he is still here today. That passion kept him striving harder to do exactly what the doctors said so he could get back to doing the sport he enjoyed so much.

That very passion and determination that kept him alive when he was a child has also led him to a World Cup Victory at Holmenkollen in Oslo, Norway. The victory was a historic moment in his career because he is one of only five Americans to win the event. Those same traits led him to five World Championships teams and helped him capture his first World Championships medal at the 2013 Championships. Finally, they led him to become an Olympian, a two-time national champion, and put 20 individual World Cup top ten finishes under his belt. So it’s fair to say that refusing to hang up the skis is what helped him thrive!

Gavin Shamis

U.S. Luge Youth Champion

Gavin was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia when he was eight years old. His treatment protocol was 39 months of the toughest chemotherapy. Throughout, he tried to stay as active as possible, continuing to swim competitively and moving up to a regional swim team, despite neurological problems in his legs caused by chemo. He was training ninety minutes a day just six weeks after beginning chemo and between blood transfusions. Unable to develop power in his kick for freestyle, Gavin focused on butterfly where the power is more from the core than the legs. Despite being out of the pool for months at a time, he won more then a few races during treatment.

Gavin was determined to do his best, whether it was in swimming, keeping up with schoolwork, in spite of being out of school for almost of three years, or being cooperative with his treatment. His attitude was – whatever it takes. The first year and a half of treatment was the usual hair loss, nausea, and cyclic vomiting. But then, it got much worse. Gavin endured six months of extreme complications, and ultimately, with his liver failing, he was forced to end his treatment a year early.

Coming off treatment, Gavin was determined to reach the highest levels as a swimmer. He quickly developed severe respiratory issues when swimming indoors, where most training and competition occur. Gavin was back for more doctors and medications, one of which made him clinically depressed. After three months, he was diagnosed, with a late effect of his chemo that made it impossible for him to swim indoors, and thus competitively. This realization was his lowest moment, after everything he had already been through cancer robbed him of what he held on to during his years of treatment.

Just five months after Gavin’s last chemo treatment, while still suffering from neurological issues, he participated in a USA Luge screening event near his home in Vermont. Just having heard of the event a few days before, he loved his first taste of sliding, on wheeled sleds down a nearby hill. Then came the physical testing, and he was embarrassed as he could not keep up with the other kids. He was eleven years old, but he ran like he was six. He left dejected.

The USA Luge coaches saw something different, in this coachable and determined kid, and Gavin was thrilled to soon receive an invitation to a screening camp at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid. Gavin grabbed every opportunity he could find to slide, traveling to Lake Placid whenever there was track time available. Just six months later, he was named to the USA Luge Junior National Development Team. In his first year on the National team, Gavin won silver at the 2015 Empire State Games, placed 5th at Nationals in Youth B (under 15) and won gold at the 2015 Les Mayers Memorial Classic.

In February 2016, just 32 months after his last chemo, Gavin won the USA Luge Youth B National Championship. Gavin completed the 2017 season as the fourth seeded Junior (under 21) in the country.

After luge, Gavin hopes to attend medical school and become a pediatric hematologist/oncologist. Now in eighth grade, Gavin is a top student and training for the 2022 Olympics.