Sam Altman is the co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, the AI research and deployment company behind ChatGPT and DALL·E. Sam was president of the early-stage startup accelerator Y Combinator from 2014 to 2019. In 2015, Sam co-founded OpenAI as a nonprofit research lab with the mission to build general-purpose artificial intelligence that benefits all humanity. The company remains governed by the nonprofit and its original charter today.

Elaine L. Chao was the 18th U.S. Secretary of Transportation, her second cabinet-level position. In 2001, she became the first Asian Pacific American woman in U.S. history to be appointed to a president’s cabinet when she was sworn-in as the 24th U.S. Secretary of Labor.  

An immigrant who arrived in America at the age of eight speaking no English, she received her citizenship at the age of 19. Early in her career, she was a banker with Citicorp and Bank of America and worked on transportation and trade issues at the White House. She then served as deputy maritime administrator; chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission; deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation; and director of the Peace Corps. She was also president and chief executive officer of United Way of America.   

The recipient of 36 honorary doctorate degrees, Secretary Chao earned her Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School and an economics degree from Mount Holyoke College.   

She is the eldest of six daughters born to Dr. James S.C. Chao and the late Mrs. Ruth Mulan Chu Chao.   

Marcelo Claure serves as CEO of SoftBank Group International and COO of SoftBank Group Corp.  Claure, alongside Chairman & CEO Masayoshi Son, oversees the company’s strategic direction of the Tokyo-based company.  Marcelo also serves as the Executive Chairman of WeWork.  In addition, he spearheads the $5B SoftBank Latin America Fund dedicated to investing in technology growth opportunities throughout the region and the newly-launched $100M SB Opportunity Fund focused on investing in entrepreneurs of color.

Previously, Marcelo served as President and CEO and then as Executive Chairman of Sprint, where he is widely recognized for delivering the best financial results in Sprint’s 120-year history and architecting its merger with T-Mobile U.S. Before that, Claure founded Brightstar, which he built into the world’s largest global wireless distribution and services company and the largest Hispanic-owned business in U.S. history, with revenues exceeding $10B.

Dr. Coles is a founding investor and the chairman and chief executive officer of Yumanity Therapeutics, a Cambridge, MA-based biotechnology company focused on transforming drug discovery for neurodegenerative diseases caused by protein misfolding such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Dr. Coles also serves as chairman and chief executive officer of TRATE Enterprises, LLC, a privately held company.

Previously, Dr. Coles was chairman and chief executive officer of Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which was acquired by Amgen in late 2013. Under his leadership, Onyx introduced two new innovative cancer medicines to patients and established the company’s international presence outside of the U.S. Prior to joining Onyx in 2008, he was president, chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors of NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Before joining NPS Pharmaceuticals in 2005, Dr. Coles was senior vice president of commercial operations at Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., and earlier, held a number of executive positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company. Additionally, from 1992 until 1996, Dr. Coles held a number of positions of increasing responsibility at Merck & Co., Inc.

Educated at Johns Hopkins University, he earned an M.D. from Duke University and a master’s degree in public health from Harvard University. He completed his cardiology and internal medicine training at Massachusetts General Hospital and was a research fellow at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Coles currently serves as chairman of the board of CRISPR Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing transformative gene-based medicines for patients with serious diseases. He also serves as a member of the board of directors of McKesson Corporation (NYSE: MCK), is vice chair of the board of trustees for Johns Hopkins University and is a member of the board of trustees for Johns Hopkins Medicine. In March 2015, Dr. Coles was named to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) working group tasked with charting the course for President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative, now part of the PMI Cohort Program Advisory Panel. Dr. Coles also serves as a member of the council for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.; a member of the board of trustees for The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank and publisher.

Stanley F. Druckenmiller is Chairman and CEO of Duquesne Family Office LLC. Mr. Druckenmiller founded Duquesne Capital Management in 1981, which he ran until he closed the firm in 2010. From 1988 to 2000, he was a Managing Director at Soros Fund Management, where he served as Lead Portfolio Manager of the Quantum Fund, Chief Investment Officer (1989-2000), and was responsible for funds with a peak asset value of $22B. In his early career, he worked at Pittsburgh National Bank and The Dreyfus Corporation.  

Mr. Druckenmiller is Chairman Emeritus of the Board of the Harlem Children’s Zone; Chairman of Blue Meridian Partners; a Board member for Memorial Sloan Kettering and the Environmental Defense Fund; on the Investment Committee of Bowdoin College; and is Co-founder and Board member of Kasparov Chess Foundation. He graduated magna cum laude from Bowdoin College with degrees in Economics and English, and holds graduate degree credits in Economics from the University of Michigan. 

Mary Callahan Erdoes is Chief Executive Officer of JPMorgan Chase’s Asset & Wealth Management line of business – one of the largest and most respected investment managers and private banks in the world, with $4.3 trillion in client assets and a 200-year-old legacy as a trusted fiduciary to corporations, governments, institutions and individuals. Since joining the firm 25 years ago, Erdoes has held senior roles across Asset & Wealth Management before becoming its CEO in 2009 and joining the JPMorgan Chase Operating Committee, the firm’s most senior management team.  

Erdoes serves on the boards of the U.S.-China Business Council and the Robin Hood Foundation of New York City. She is also a board member of Georgetown University, where she earned her Mathematics undergraduate degree, and serves on the Global Advisory Council of Harvard University, where she received her MBA.  

Erdoes and her husband, Philip, reside in New York City and have three daughters. 

Mala Gaonkar is co-portfolio manager at investment firm Lone Pine Capital. After graduating from Harvard College, she worked for The Boston Consulting Group and completed her MBA at Harvard Business School before Lone Pine’s inception in 1998. She is a founding trustee of Ariadne Labs, The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Technology, as well as Surgo Foundation, which provides data analysis tools for a smarter public health ecosystem. She is a trustee of RAND, CHAI and the Tate.

As the 75th secretary of the treasury, Timothy F. Geithner played a central role in formulating U.S. domestic and international economic policy during President Obama’s first term. He was a principal architect of the president’s strategy to avert economic collapse and to reform the financial system, while also tackling a broad set of international economic challenges. He served in this position from January 26, 2009 through January 25, 2013.

Geithner previously served as president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, between 2003 and 2009.

He first joined the Department of Treasury in 1988 and worked in a variety of positions in three administrations. From 1999 to 2001, Geithner served as undersecretary of the treasury for international affairs, under Secretaries Robert E. Rubin and Lawrence H. Summers.

He was director of the Policy Development and Review Department at the International Monetary Fund from 2001 until 2003. In 2001, he was also a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC. Previously, he worked for Kissinger Associates, Inc.

Geithner earned his undergraduate degree in government and Asian studies from Dartmouth College. He was awarded an MA in International Economics and East Asian Studies from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Kenneth C. Griffin is the founder and CEO of Citadel, LLC, one of the world’s leading alternative investment firms, and the founder of Citadel Securities, a leading global market maker. A passionate philanthropist, Griffin believes that a high-quality education is the on-ramp to the American Dream. Griffin funds transformative scholarships to empower students of all backgrounds to succeed. He is committed to strengthening humanity’s future by supporting initiatives that advance breakthroughs in science and medicine. 

Carl Icahn began his career on Wall Street in 1961 and has become one of the most well-known and influential investors in America. As a leading shareholder activist, his efforts have unlocked billions of dollars of shareholder value and have improved the competitiveness of American companies. He and his affiliated companies currently own businesses in a wide range of industries, including real estate, telecommunications, transportation, industrial services, oil refining, and manufacturing. Icahn Enterprises L.P. is Mr. Icahn’s flagship company through which he has acquired many of these businesses. Mr. Icahn is a graduate of Princeton University, with a degree in philosophy.  

Mr. Icahn funded the Icahn Medical Institute Building and the Icahn Genomics Institute at Mt. Sinai. He established seven Icahn Charter Schools located in The Bronx, New York. He endowed the Icahn Scholars Program and funded the Carl C. Icahn Science Center at the Choate Rosemary Hall boarding school. He also sponsored a genomics laboratory at Princeton University. In addition, Mr. Icahn has made significant donations to the Randall’s Island Sports Foundation for the construction of Icahn Stadium, a track and field stadium located on Randall’s Island.  

Paul Tudor Jones II is founder, Co-Chairman, CIO, and the controlling principal of Tudor Investment Corporation, engaged in trading across global fixed income, equity, currency and commodity markets for an international client base. His current philanthropic service includes among many others, Robin Hood, JUST Capital Foundation, The Everglades Foundation, African Community & Conservation Foundation, and the Advisory Board of the University of Virginia’s Contemplative Sciences Center. Jones holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Virginia and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Glasgow. He and his wife, Sonia, have four adult children. 

Ashton Kutcher is an actor, investor, entrepreneur and philanthropist. Kutcher has been investing in technology for over a decade, both as an angel investor and a founding partner of A-Grade Investments and Sound Ventures. His fund portfolio includes Airbnb, Uber, Flexport, Brex, Robinhood, Bird, Airtable and Affirm, among others. Kutcher has been named one of TIME magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World,” as well as being honored by Vanity Fair’s “New Establishment List.” Twice, Kutcher was named one of Forbes magazine’s “World’s Most Powerful Celebrities,” as well as one of Fast Company magazine’s “Most Creative People.” Kutcher is also the co-founder of Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children (www.thorn.org). Thorn drives technology innovation to fight the sexual exploitation of children. 

Philippe Laffont is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Coatue Management, an investment manager with approximately $8 billion in assets and offices in New York City and Menlo Park, CA. Coatue focuses on the global technology, media and telecommunications industries. Mr. Laffont graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology in 1991 with a BS and MSC in Computer Science. He worked as an analyst in management consulting for McKinsey and Tiger Management prior to founding Coatue. Mr. Laffont has served on the Board of Trustees of the Sacred Heart School and the Nantucket Dreamland Foundation.  He and his wife, Ana, reside in New York City with their six

children.

Henry M. Paulson, Jr. served as the 74th Secretary of the Treasury under President George W. Bush. As Treasury Secretary, Mr. Paulson led the nation’s response to the financial crisis of 2008, helping to stabilize the global financial system and avoid a second Great Depression. Prior to that, he had a thirty-two-year career at Goldman Sachs, eventually serving as chairman and CEO beginning in 1999. Today, he is chairman of the Paulson Institute, which aims to foster a US-China relationship that maintains global order in a rapidly evolving world. A “think and do” tank founded in 2011, the Institute operates at the intersection of economics, financial markets, and environmental protection. 

Condoleezza Rice is the current Director of the Hoover Institution and a Senior Fellow on Public Policy. She is the Denning Professor in Global Business and the Economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In addition, she is a founding partner of Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel LLC, an international strategic consulting firm. From January 2005-2009, Rice served as the 66th Secretary of State of the United States. Rice also served as President George W. Bush’s National Security Advisor from January 2001-2005. In 2022, Rice became a part-owner of the Denver Broncos as part of the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group. Rice currently serves on the boards of C3.ai, an AI software company, and Makena Capital Management, a private endowment firm. In addition, she is Vice Chair of the Board of Governors of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and a trustee of the Aspen Institute. 

Since joining Google in 2001, Eric Schmidt helped grow the company from a Silicon Valley startup to a global leader in technology. As executive chairman, he was responsible for the external matters of Google: building partnerships and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership, as well as advising the CEO and senior leadership on business and policy issues. 

From 2001-2011, Eric served as Google’s chief executive officer, overseeing the company’s technical and business strategy alongside founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Under his leadership, Google dramatically scaled its infrastructure and diversified its product offerings while maintaining a strong culture of innovation. 

Prior to joining Google, Eric was the chairman and CEO of Novell and chief technology officer at Sun Microsystems, Inc. Previously, he served on the research staff at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Bell Laboratories and Zilog. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University as well as a master’s degree and Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley. 

Past Speakers