As the Chief Strategy Officer at SAP, Deepak Krishnamurthy leads SAP’s global corporate and innovation strategy and oversees it’s Customer and Market Insights function. Deepak also leads SAP’s Corporate Innovation Group which focuses on an ecosystem led innovation approach to drive strategic growth in Fintech and Healthcare tech. The Corporate innovation Group includes SAP.iO Fund & Foundry which is focused on venture investments and the acceleration of early stage startups through a network of accelerators, SAP Ariba Payables & Financing which is the fintech business unit focused on payments and trade finance, and SAP Health which is focused on healthcare technologies. Deepak also leads SAP’s inclusive entrepreneurship initiative – SAP.iO No Boundaries – aimed at empowering underrepresented entrepreneurs to scale faster in the B2B software space. Deepak is a member of the Board of Digital Europe for the World Economic Forum (WEF) to help foster startup innovation and job creation in Europe. He also serves on the WEF’s Global Future Council for Digital Economy and Society for driving social impact. Deepak is part of the leadership council for Tech:NYC, a non-profit focused on fostering a dynamic technology ecosystem in NYC, and was recently a David Rockefeller fellow for the Partnership for New York City, a non-profit focused on public-private partnerships to promote economic growth and innovation in New York City.
Vanessa is the VP of SAP.iO, a global organization responsible for building an ecosystem of startups around SAP. In her role, she is overseeing SAP.iO’s North American Foundries in New York and San Francisco, including programs devoted to women and diverse-led B2B enterprise tech companies.
Vanessa was most recently the Chief Operating Officer at Trigger Media Group, a $22MM digital media incubator. In her role, she co-founded, incubated and oversaw business operations and strategic initiatives of Trigger’s portfolio companies: InsideHook (the essential digital lifestyle guide for adventurous and discerning men) and Fevo (SaaS technology bringing friends and networks together for group experiences at live events).
Vanessa currently serves as a board observer of Fevo and is an advisor or investor in start-ups including Bounce Exchange, Grata Data, GroundSignal, Knotel and Narrativ. She mentors female founders through the Monarq Incubator and Parity Partners' Parity Program.
Previously, Vanessa was an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company’s Media and Entertainment Practice, based in Amsterdam, London and New York. In this role, Vanessa was responsible for serving clients in a variety of media and high tech sectors including online advertising, magazine and newspaper publishing, television, video content production, and information services, particularly on issues of digital media strategy, emerging market strategy, growth and innovation.
Eric Clement leads the Strategic Investments Group at the New York City Economic Development Corporation, where he directs day-to-day management of the New York City Industrial Development Agency (NYCIDA), Build NYC Resource Corporation, a New Markets Tax Credit program, and a suite of investment funds to principally invest debt and equity into select venture capital and private equity transactions. These efforts help to advance company-wide and policy initiatives to address issues of income inequality, while promoting both good paying jobs and economic mobility in New York City.
Eric has successfully led opportunities across multiple industries and product groups including investment banking, consulting, infrastructure, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and telecommunications.
Angela Matheny joined Colonial Consulting in July 2016 working with consultants and the research team to drive the firm’s diversity initiative to attract diverse managers, source, and monitor the internal vetting process of (MWBE) minority-owned and women enterprises. Ms. Matheny facilitates the constant communication between Colonial and diverse managers as the firm continues to build a robust pipeline of what it believes is a largely under-followed segment of the diverse asset manager marketplace. On the client level, Ms. Matheny acts as a conduit in tracking diverse managers through outreach when recommendations and/or introductions are made by clients, while also providing statistical data of manager meeting activity, allocations, and performance.
Aron Ping D'Souza is the Founder of Sargon, a technology infrastructure company for the pensions and superannuation industry across the Asia-Pacific region. Sargon operates across Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong and has over A$52 billion under management and supervision, 150 employees and nine offices. He is also a Senior Advisor to Trimantium Capital, a venture capital fund, the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Moldova in Australia and was a Senior Advisor to Palantir Technologies. Until 2014, he was a partner at Untitled Australia, a property development firm. Dr. D’Souza read law at the University of Oxford and was a member of Harris Manchester College. Since 2012, a prize for the best performance in the Second BA in Jurisprudence at Oxford has been named in his honour. Aron wrote his Ph.D. on the jurisprudence of intellectual property law at the University of Melbourne, where he taught in the economics and political science programs between 2007 and 2010. He also holds two undergraduate degrees from Monash University, where he was a tutor from 2005 until 2007. Together with the Foundation for Young Australians, Aron founded the Nexus Australian Youth Summit, a branch of a global movement of young philanthropists and impact investors convened by the United Nations.
Andrew Siwo is an Investment Director and Head of Mission Related Investments at Colonial Consulting, an investment consultancy to leading foundations and endowments. The firm has over $37 billion in assets under advisement. Prior to joining Colonial Consulting, Siwo was a manager at the Global Impact Investing Networking (GIIN). In his capacity there, he was responsible for the operation, sourcing, and development of ImpactBase, the largest platform of impact investment funds worldwide, which he grew by $10 billion and approved more than 100 new impact funds/products targeting a financial and social/environmental return. He also educated and fostered institutional investors seeking exposure to socially/environmentally responsible investment portfolios. Prior to joining the GIIN, Andrew spent five years in the investment banking division at JP Morgan--most recently in the Global Special Opportunities Group, a $3 billion proprietary portfolio of principal investments in private equity, debt, mezzanine, infrastructure, and real estate. He also held roles on the Rates Desk executing fixed income financing transactions as well as the Securitized Products Group valuing collateralized mortgage obligations.
Managing Partner and Chief Compliance Officer Top Capital Advisors, Inc.
Top Capital Advisors provides consulting and fund placement services to private equity fund managers.
For the last 23 years, Ms. Draughan has been dedicated to the private equity industry and brings to the table substantial understanding of the inner workings of the public pension investor community. In her capacity as Managing Partner, she is responsible for delivery of both consulting and fund
placement services to the Firm’s clients. In the performance of her duties with Top Capital, a FINRA member firm, Ms. Draughan holds the following securities licenses:
Series 22 – Limited Representative – Direct Participation Programs (Funds); Series 24 – General Securities Principal; Series 27 – Financial and Operations Principal; Series 28 – Introducing Broker-Dealer Financial and Operations Principal; Series 39 – Limited Principal – Direct Participation Programs
(Funds); Series 50 – Municipal Advisor Representative (needed to call on municipal and state pension funds); Series 63 – Blue Sky (covers states); Series 65 – Investment Advisor Representative; Series 82 –Limited Representative – Private Securities Offerings and; SIE - Securities Industry Exam.
Prior to co-founding Top Capital Advisors in 2012, Ms. Draughan founded The Process Management Group, LLC (“Process Management”) in April 2002. It serves both established and emerging firms with the preparation of their sample due diligence questionnaires, private placement memorandum, marketing
meeting presentation materials, and presentation skills training.
Prior to founding Process Management, Ms. Draughan was with LIATI Group, LLC. Prior to that time, she was a placement agent in Salomon Smith Barney’s Private Equity Group, responsible for private equity fund placement in thirteen western states.
Ms. Draughan’s private equity experience includes four years with Pacific Corporate Group, the private equity investment consulting firm based in La Jolla, California. She was Executive Vice President in charge of Business Development for the firm’s Alternative Investment Consulting and Discretionary
Management Services and Direct Investment Advisory Services.
Ms. Draughan's other professional experiences include the sale of both equity and fixed income (publicly-and privately-placed high grade and high yield) securities to institutional investors for Salomon Brothers, Bear Sterns, and Drexel Burnham Lambert. She also has experience as a public bond analyst of Latin American emerging markets domestic and foreign bank and finance securities with Aetna.
Ms. Draughan received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Government from Wesleyan University and her
Master of Business Administration Degree from the University of Virginia’s Colgate Darden School.
Lorine Pendleton is a seasoned business development executive and attorney with extensive experience in the legal, technology and entertainment industries. She was recently named by Worth as one of the “16 Financial Powerhouses,” Marie Claire as one of the “Most 50 Connected Women in America,” Business Insider as one of the 2 Angel Investors You Should Know,” Medium as one of the “200 Women of Color to Follow on Twitter,” and Black Enterprise as one of the “20 Angel Investors You Should Know.”
She is the NY Chair at TIGER 21, the most exclusive peer-to-peer membership network for some of the most successful and ultra-high-net-worth individuals in the US, Canada, UK and Europe. She works with and connects TIGER 21 members to one another to grow their business and personal network by providing a platform and personal Board of Directors to discuss issues such as wealth preservation, family dynamics and estate planning in a confidential environment with other members. She facilitates meetings with members, and curates speakers and topics around wealth preservation, philanthropy, family dynamics and investment opportunities.
Lorine is an active angel investor who invests in and advises women and diverse-led companies. Her investments include Cocomama (formerly Cisse), Hire an Esquire, Tastemakers Africa, TrakLight and Portfolia’s Rising Tide and Enterprise Funds. She is an Investment Partner in Portfolia, an innovative platform that brings together growth-stage companies and a collaborative network of investors in a unique combination of angel investing and micro-funding. Portfolia has invested in over 50+ companies since its inception in 2016. She is the lead investor and General Partner in Portfolia’s Diversity Fund which will make investments in companies with founders of color, women, LGBT and veterans and/or companies with products and services that address those markets.
She is on the Board of Directors of the Angel Capital Association (ACA), the largest angel professional development organization in the world, with 13K+ accredited angel investors, 260 angel groups, family offices and accredited platforms with 91K companies in ACA member portfolios. She is ACA’s first African-American board member in its history.
She is also an alumna and member of Pipeline Angels, an angel investing training program that trains women to become angel investors to increase diversity in the US angel investing community. Pipeline Angels has 300+ members who have invested $5.0 million in 50+ companies. She was a guest judge on BET/Centric TV's breakout series Queen Boss, a pitch competition show where African-American female entrepreneurs ompeted for a grand prize to fund their businesses. She is a frequent speaker on the state of women and diverse entrepreneurship, angel investing and diversity at organizations to drive innovation and growth. Previous speaking engagements include 500 Startups, Angel Capital Association Annual Summit, Merrill Lynch, GLG, UBER, Microsoft, Boston Consulting Group, Harvard University, Columbia Business School, Brown University, American Association for the Advancement of
Science, HR Uncubed, Evolve Law, Refinery29, SUNY Ulster, She Leads, Hera Venture Summit, Tech Inclusion (Google for Entrepreneurs) and CUNY/Baruch College.
Lorine previously worked as a business development executive for several leading global law firms (Dentons, Simpson Thacher and Morgan Lewis). Her startup experience includes stints at SelectMinds, developer of web-based social network programs for corporations acquired by Oracle, and Community Connect, publisher of leading ethnic social networking websites BlackPlanet, AsianAvenue, and MiGente, acquired by Interactive One.
She was an attorney at Londell McMillan PC, a leading entertainment boutique law firm, where she structured and negotiated multifaceted entertainment and media deals on behalf of her clients such as Prince, Spike Lee, Ruff Ryders Records, Faith Evans, Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, and the estate of the Notorious BIG. Lorine is a graduate of Brown University (B.A. Economics), New York Law School (JD), Kauffman Foundation FastTrac New Ventures Entrepreneurship (Graduate Certificate) and Lean Startup Machine.
Peter M. Lupoff is a Fordham University Fellow, at their Center for Research in Contemporary Finance, with a focus on Impact Investing and Sustainability. He was Fordham Gabelli School of Business, Executive in Residence (2018-19). A Fellow at think tank, World Policy Institute, Mr. Lupoff continues and expands his work on Impact Investing and Private Market Solutions. Peter is a Member of the Impact Investing & Sustainable Finance Faculty Consortium. Peter is also President of Clean Power for Humanity, a not-for-profit with the objective of bringing green power to rural developing world communities, to expand education and commerce, and an active participant with recidivism focused non-profit, Defy Ventures.
Peter is the managing member of Lupoff Friends and Family Interests, LLC, his vehicle for investing, as well as other advisory, research, teaching and writing activities. The Lupoff Family Office manages a 100% Impact portfolio is is a signatory to DivestInvest, committed to a fossil- fuel free investment portfolio.
Peter has worked for legendary investors. He counts both Marty Whitman of Third Avenue Funds (1990-98, Trader, Partner, Portfolio Manager) and Izzy Englander of Millennium Management (2007-09, Portfolio Manager, Managing Director) as mentors shaping his investment perspectives. In 2009, Lupoff founded registered investment advisor, Tiburon Capital Management, an event-driven fund manager. Peter was the Chief Investment Officer and Co- Portfolio Manager of Tiburon 2009-2017. Peter remains and advisor to Tiburon. Peter was formerly a Managing Director and Senior Portfolio Manager for Robeco Weiss Peck & Greer.
Funds Mr. Lupoff have managed or co-managed have achieved awards such as GAIM's Top Performing Emerging Distressed Manager, MARHedge's Event-Driven Manager and
an Institutional Investor nomination as Hedge Fund House of the Year.
Mr. Lupoff is a regular featured discussant on academic papers related to, and consultant to, The Federal Reserve Bank regarding market shocks and liquidity. Mr. Lupoff is an outside director of various unaffiliated investment entities and consults impact funds and enterprises, and traditional asset managers. Mr. Lupoff also provides expert litigation testimony on matters related to hedge funds, trading and areas of his specific expertise.
Jason is a healthcare investor with over eighteen years of experience, including eleven years in private equity and venture capital. He has a proven track record of successfully identifying and building high performing companies.
He is a current Kauffman Fellow making angel investments in healthcare and identifying an opportunity zone investment in Puerto Rico. Previously, Jason co-founded Mansa Capital Management, a private equity firm focused on early stage growth companies within the healthcare sector. He received his MBA at Stanford and worked at Deutche Bank and Salomon Brothers prior to business school.
Jason is a member of the Board of Directors at Comunilife, a not-for-profit organization that provides health and human services and supportive housing to New Yorkers. He served on the Board of Directors at Acacia Network, a large (~500mm revenues) community based organization in the healthcare, housing and substance abuse sectors. He co-founded the Amber Charter School Foundation and serves as the board treasurer.
Finally, since Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated Puerto Rico, he has activated his network to deliver healthcare relief to the island. Specifically, he organized a large, U.S. hospital system to deliver medications, supplies, and healthcare professionals to a distressed hospital in Puerto Rico.
Nancy Vailakis has over 15 years of alternative asset management industry experience as a business development, marketing and investor relations professional, and over 18 years of experience in financial services. She is currently a Business Development Director covering the Americas at IQ-EQ, a leading investor services group operating across 23 jurisdictions with a fund administration team in New York focused on private equity, venture capital, real estate, hedge, debt and credit strategies.
Prior to her tenure at IQ-EQ, Nancy was Vice President of Investor Relations at Cerberus Capital Management where she covered the co-mingled institutional funds and fundraises with senior partners at the firm. Ms. Vailakis previously worked in a similar capacity at credit firm, BlueMountain Capital Management.
Ms. Vailakis earned her MBA from the New York University Stern School of Business and her BA in English Literature from Binghamton University. Nancy continues to serve the Stern community as an Alumni Advisory Board Member of the Stern Private Equity Club.
Nancy is engaged with many non-profit and professional organizations in New York, including High Water Women, Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), 100 Women in Finance, New York Cares and Binghamton Women in Business. Ms. Vailakis is a regular speaker on industry topics.
Bahiyah is the Founder + CEO of VC Include, an advocacy organization that connects female and diverse emerging managers with LPs that care about returns, impact and inclusion across the lens of gender, ethnicity, sexual identity and race. VC Include has produced curated convenings in New York City, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and Silicon Valley, and is expanding to additional cities in 2019. These intimate gatherings are designed to create meaningful, longterm relationships through knowledge exchange and pattern matching, while creating a more diverse pipeline of investors in the alternative investments ecosystem.
Bahiyah is also the CEO of Robinson (+) Consulting Group, a New York City based company that provides insights, strategy and investor connections to corporations, NGOs and ecosystems of startups, with a focus on women, women of color, and the African Diaspora. She's lead multiple technology, investment, fundraising and social impact initiatives in the US, Brazil and across Sub-Saharan Africa since 2001. Her collaborations and investments have been recognized over the years by the Knight Foundation, Echoing Green, Entrepreneur, CNN and Forbes..
Mary is the Chief Investment Officer of Misha Investments and CFO & Director of a biotech company. She is also an investor and Senior Advisor
at Star Mountain and a board member of Community Access.
She has Extensive experience in investing and capital markets. Ms D’Souza has 20+ years of private credit, equity, real-estate, fund investing, commercial and investing banking and C-level operational experience through various
senior roles at GE Capital, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and Four M Investments.
Prior to Misha Investments, Mary worked for 3 years at Four M Investments where she was Chief Investment Officer and Chief Financial Officer for the family office. She was responsible for cash management, tax planning and investments in fixed income, equity, MLPs, Preferreds, real estate and funds.
Mary worked as a Managing Director at GE Capital Markets for 9 years where she was responsible for establishing and running the junior capital
business and helped set up the unitranche fund with Allied Capital (later sold to Ares). She built deep relationships with banks, private equity funds, hedge funds, distressed funds, mezzanine funds, insurance companies, BDCs and other alternate sources of capital. She placed over $13 billion in volume and 150+ deals, which included acquisition financing, refinancing, recapitalizations, restructurings (Radnet, CCA), DIPS (Delta DIP), EXITS (Delta, US Air), amendments and trading of loans.
Sarah Vickery has been an investor at Loeb.nyc for more than 3 years. She helps incubate new companies as well as invest in early stage start ups in the healthcare, technology and consumer industries. Sarah is passionate about supporting entrepreneurs and surrounding them with the resources they need to grow their companies for lasting success. Sarah graduated Amherst College in 2015 with a degree in physics.
The venture arm of Loeb Enterprises, Loeb.nyc is a startup lab and early-stage private investor built on the belief that aligning the right people with the right ideas creates successful companies.
Samantha Katz is the CEO & co-founder of Left Tackle Capital, the first asset management seed accelerator for women and diverse-led funds. Similar to accelerators that help start-up founders grow their businesses, the Left Tackle Capital accelerator will help asset managers grow and de-risk their funds by providing human, social and financial capital.
Prior to Left Tackle Capital, Samantha was known for being a corporate hippie. Inspired by her passion and concern for the environment, Samantha spent 15 years on Wall Street launching & brokering environmental markets and structuring transactions with over 6,000 companies globally. Her days were consumed by activities both on and off the trading floor launching new products, advising governmental agencies and training and managing talent in various markets including but not limited to carbon, renewable energy, water and air pollution.
Samantha is a graduate of Barnard College of Columbia University and the architect of the Environmental Policy major for the university.