Speaker alumni

David Walsh is the creator of Mona (a museum in Tasmania which once received an honourable mention in an engineering award won by a toilet block in Launceston). He is an art collector, professional gambler and writer. He is a Virgo, ruled by Mercury and compatible with Pisces and Cancer. He despises astrology, and public toilets in Launceston. At present, Hollywood has no plans for a movie about his life.

Peter Attia, MD, is the founder of Early Medical, a medical practice that applies the principles of Medicine 3.0 to patients with the goal of lengthening their lifespan and simultaneously improving their healthspan.

He is the host of The Drive, one of the most popular podcasts covering the topics of health and medicine.

He is also the author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller, Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity.

Jeremy is a North-West Tasmanian who grew up on the family farm at Sassafras.

‍

After matriculating in 1987 Jeremy then went to work on a cattle and sheep property near Hagley in Northern Tasmania.

‍

Following a two-year period at Lincoln University in New Zealand, Jeremy received a Diploma in Farm Management and returned to Tasmania to manage his family’s property at Sassafras, which specialises in mixed cropping and prime lamb production.  In 2016 Jeremy received the Lincoln Alumni International Medal.

‍

Apart from his passion for farming and rural life, Jeremy has a strong empathy with public and community services and has worked with a number of organisations including Lifeline North West, Natural Resource Management, Landcare groups and Youth and Family Focus.

‍

In 2006 Jeremy was awarded Life Membership of Lifeline North West.

‍

Jeremy campaigned successfully in July 2002 to become an MP for Braddon in the House of Assembly and up until 2014 held a number of shadow portfolios.

‍

In 2014 under the newly elected Liberal Government Jeremy was appointed as Deputy Premier, Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Primary Industries and Water and Minister for Racing, Jeremy is currently the 47th Premier of Tasmania, Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing, Minister for Tourism and Minister for Trade.

‍

Jeremy is married to Sandra and they have three young daughters Ruby, Lucy and Holly.

‍

Daniel S. Loeb is CEO of Third Point LLC, a New York-based asset management firm founded in 1995. Third Point invests in equity and credit securities in U.S. and international markets.   

‍

Daniel is a trustee of the Mount Sinai Health System, where he established the Ronald M. Loeb Center for Alzheimer’s disease in memory of his late father. He is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the board of Success Academy Charter Schools, where he also served as board Chairman from 2014-2019. 

‍

He graduated from Columbia University with an A.B. in economics in 1983, endowed the Daniel S. Loeb Scholarship for undergraduate study there, and received the school’s John Jay Award for distinguished professional achievement. In October 2020, he was awarded the Alexander Hamilton Award for his philanthropic service by the Manhattan Institute. In 2022, he was honored with UJA Federation of New York’s Gustave L. Levy Award.

Peter led the South Australian Labor Party to victory at the March 2022 state election, becoming the 47th Premier of South Australia.

‍

He first entered state parliament as a member of the Legislative Council in 2015 before being elected as the member for Croydon in 2018.

‍

During the Weatherill Labor Government Peter held the portfolios of Minister for Police, Correctional Services, Emergency Services, and Road Safety (2016-2017) and Minister for Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse (2017-2018).

‍

As Leader of the Opposition (2018-22) he brought a constructive alternative approach to the challenges facing South Australia during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

‍

With a focus on health, education, jobs, skills, and the environment, Peter was elected with a plan not just for the next four years, but for the next generation of South Australians.

‍

In Peter’s spare time, he can often be found at a Port Adelaide game or out on the footy field playing with his beloved Adelaide Uni Blacks.

‍

His great love though is his family. Peter and his wife Annabel have four young children Sophie, Jack, Eliza, and George.

‍

William Ackman is the CEO and Portfolio Manager of Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P., an SEC registered investment adviser founded in 2003. Pershing Square is a concentrated research-intensive fundamental value investor in long and occasionally short investments in the public markets. 

Prior to forming Pershing Square, Mr. Ackman co-founded Gotham Partners Management Co., LLC, an investment adviser that managed public and private equity hedge fund portfolios. Prior to Gotham Partners, Mr. Ackman began his career in real estate investment banking at Ackman Brothers & Singer, Inc. Mr. Ackman received an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude from Harvard College.

Mr. Ackman is the Chairman of the board of The Howard Hughes Corporation (NYSE: HHC). He is also a member of the Investors Advisory Committee on Financial Markets for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, a member of the Board of Trustees at The Rockefeller University and a member of the Board of Dean’s Advisors of the Harvard Business School.

In 2006, Mr. Ackman co-founded the Pershing Square Foundation to support exceptional leaders and innovative organizations that tackle important social issues and deliver scalable and sustainable impact across the globe.

William Browder was the largest foreign investor in Russia until 2005, when he was denied entry to the country and declared “a threat to national security” for exposing corruption in Russian state-owned companies.

In 2008, Mr. Browder’s lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, uncovered a massive fraud committed by Russian government officials that involved the theft of US $230 million of state taxes. Sergei testified against state officials involved in this fraud and was subsequently arrested, imprisoned without trial and systematically tortured. He spent a year in prison under horrific detention conditions, was repeatedly denied medical treatment, and died in prison on November 16, 2009, leaving behind a wife and two children.

Since then, Mr. Browder has sought justice outside of Russia and started a global campaign for governments around the world to impose targeted visa bans and asset freezes on human rights abusers and highly corrupt officials. The United States was the first to impose these targeted sanctions with the passage of the Sergei Magnitsky Accountability Act in 2012, followed by the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act in 2016.

Since then, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Baltic states, the European Union and most recently Australia have passed their own versions of the Magnitsky Act. Mr. Browder is currently working to have similar legislation passed in other countries worldwide including New Zealand and Japan, to name a few.

Charlie was born in Omaha, Nebraska on January 1, 1924, graduated from Omaha Central High School in 1941, attended the University of Michigan and Cal Tech (under Air Force auspices), served as 2nd Lieutenant (Meteorologist) in the Air Force in World War II, and received a J.D. degree, magna cum laude, from the Harvard Law School in 1948. He practiced law in Los Angeles from 1948 to 1965, during which time he helped found the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson (in 1962). Since 1965, he has been engaged in a variety of businesses, after 1975 primarily as an officer and director of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and various subsidiaries but also at Daily Journal Corporation (publisher of California’s leading newspaper for lawyers). He is Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (under Warren E. Buffett) and Chairman of Daily Journal Corporation. The public companies of which he is a director are: Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Daily Journal Corporation, and Costco Wholesale Corporation.

Became a Trustee of Good Samaritan Hospital from 1979 and has served as Chairman from November 1987 to December 2020. Trustee (and former Chairman) of Harvard-Westlake School 1969 to date. Trustee and Chief Financial Officer of Planned Parenthood, Los Angeles, 1967-1993 (approximately). Founder and President of The Alfred C. Munger Foundation.

Angela is the Founder, Managing Partner, and Portfolio Manager at Bayberry Capital, an investment firm based in New York, NY.  Bayberry is a long / short equity firm that invests globally through a fundamental primary-research driven process.  The firm employs the same research process on both the long and short sides of the portfolio, and considers its focus on the short side to be a critical component of its strategy.

Prior to founding Bayberry, Angela spent almost six years as a Managing Director and Partner at Blue Ridge Capital.  Previously, she worked at Goldman Sachs in their investment banking division, and was a pre-launch member of the investment team at BDT Capital.  Angela holds a BS in Economics from Duke University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. 

Ray Dalio is the Founder, Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Investment Officer of Bridgewater Associates. Ray started Bridgewater out of his two-bedroom apartment in New York in 1975 and under his leadership, the firm has grown into the largest and most successful hedge fund in the world and fifth most important private company in the U.S., according to Fortune Magazine.

‍

As a result of Ray’s innovative approach to global macroeconomic investing and policymaking, Ray has been called the “Steve Jobs of Investing” by aiCIO and Wired magazines and was named one of the 100 Most Influential People by TIME Magazine.

‍

Ray holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from C.W. Post College and an MBA degree from Harvard Business School.

‍

He has been married to his wife, Barbara, for over 40 years and has four grown sons. He is an active philanthropist with a special interest in ocean exploration, microfinance and equal educational opportunities for underprivileged youth.

‍

Shane Finemore is the Managing Partner of Manikay Partners and serves as the firm’s Chief Investment Officer. Prior to founding Manikay Partners, Mr. Finemore spent seventeen years at UBS and predecessor firms. Mr. Finemore was Managing Director and Head of the UBS Fundamental Investment Group, UBS’s Proprietary Multi Strategy Arbitrage and Investment business in the Americas, from 2002 to 2007, and served on the UBS Investment Bank board from 2006. Mr. Finemore was Head of Australian Equities at UBS from 1999 to 2001. Mr. Finemore began his career with a predecessor of UBS in Interest Rate and Equity derivatives in 1990.

‍

He was a member of the board of the Australian Securities Exchange Limited from 2007-2013. Mr. Finemore graduated from the University of New South Wales with a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting and Finance) with distinction in 1989. Mr. Finemore is also a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Tom Anglin is a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, responsible for the firm’s Australian Prime Brokerage business which provides services to help hedge funds manage risk, monitor their portfolios, maintain liquidity and build their businesses. He is also part of the firm’s Prime Brokerage sales team. Tom moved to Hong Kong from New York in 2019 where he was on the Tactical Derivative Sales desk, focused on derivative sales to hedge funds and coordinating sales to quantitative/systematic clients. He joined Goldman Sachs as a Managing Director in 2015.

‍

Previously, Tom was a Managing Director and Head of Prime Services Origination and Co-Head of Prime Services sales at UBS in New York. Prior to that, he led the hedge fund sales team in Sydney for UBS and was previously an equities and commodities trader at New York hedge fund Ospraie Management. He moved from Australia to the US in 2000 with Macquarie Bank.

‍

Tom earned a Bachelor's of Commerce from Monash University in Melbourne in 1996 and was awarded the Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 2001.

Luke Harding is an award-winning foreign correspondent with the Guardian and a #1 New York Times bestselling author. Between 2007 and 2011 he was the Guardian's Moscow bureau chief; the Kremlin expelled him from the country in the first case of its kind since the Cold War. He is the author of numerous books, including Shadow State, Collusion, A Very Expensive Poison and The Snowden Files, as well as the co-author of WikiLeaks and The Liar (nominated for the Orwell Prize). Two of Harding's books have been made into films: The Fifth Estate and Snowden.

Robert Langer is one of 12 Institute Professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); being an Institute Professor is the highest honor that can be awarded to a faculty member. 

He has written over 1,500 articles, which have been cited over 355,000 times; his h-index of 295 is the highest of any engineer in history and tied for the 4th highest of any individual in any field. His patents have licensed or sublicensed to over 400 companies; he is a cofounder of a number of companies including Moderna. 

Dr Langer served as Chairman of the FDA’s Science Board (its highest advisory board) from 1999-2002. His over 220 awards include both the United States National Medal of Science and the United States National Medal of Technology and Innovation (he is one of 3 living individuals to have received both these honors), the Charles Stark Draper Prize (often called the Engineering Nobel Prize), Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, Albany Medical Center Prize, Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, Kyoto Prize, Wolf Prize for Chemistry, Millennium Technology Prize, Priestley Medal (highest award of the American Chemical Society), Gairdner Prize, and the Dreyfus Prize in Chemical Sciences. 

He holds 36 honorary doctorates and has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors.

Session description: Professor Langer presents his unique perspective on biotech research and investing, as well as his latest views on Omicron. He appears in-conversation with Lawrence Gozlan of Scientia Capital.

‍

Robert Langer is one of 12 Institute Professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); being an Institute Professor is the highest honor that can be awarded to a faculty member. 

He has written over 1,500 articles, which have been cited over 355,000 times; his h-index of 295 is the highest of any engineer in history and tied for the 4th highest of any individual in any field. His patents have licensed or sublicensed to over 400 companies; he is a cofounder of a number of companies including Moderna. 

Dr Langer served as Chairman of the FDA’s Science Board (its highest advisory board) from 1999-2002. His over 220 awards include both the United States National Medal of Science and the United States National Medal of Technology and Innovation (he is one of 3 living individuals to have received both these honors), the Charles Stark Draper Prize (often called the Engineering Nobel Prize), Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, Albany Medical Center Prize, Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, Kyoto Prize, Wolf Prize for Chemistry, Millennium Technology Prize, Priestley Medal (highest award of the American Chemical Society), Gairdner Prize, and the Dreyfus Prize in Chemical Sciences. 

He holds 36 honorary doctorates and has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors.

Scott teaches brand strategy and digital marketing at the NYU Stern School of Business.

‍

He was named “One of the World’s 50 Best Business School Professors” by Poets & Quants in 2012.

‍

A serial entrepreneur, he founded 9 companies, including Red Envelope, Prophet, and L2 Inc., acquired by Gartner (NYSE: IT) in 2017. Scott’s book The Four (Portfolio Penguin, 2017) debuted on the New York Times hardcover non-fiction list. His second book, The Algebra of Happiness: Notes on the Pursuit of Success, Love, and Meaning was published in 2019.

‍

Scott was elected to the World Economic Forum’s Global Leaders of Tomorrow and has served on the boards of directors of Eddie Bauer (Nasdaq: EBHI), The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), Urban Outfitters (Nasdaq: URBN), and UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

‍

He writes a weekly newsletter, No Mercy / No Malice, and hosts the podcasts The Prof G Show and Pivot (with Kara Swisher).

Josh Frydenberg was elected to the Australian Parliament in 2010 as the Member for Kooyong. He is the seventh person since Federation to hold this seat.

‍

In August 2018, he was appointed Treasurer of Australia and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, having previously served as Minister for the Environment and Energy, Minister for Resources, Energy and Northern Australia, Assistant Treasurer and Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister since the 2013 election.

‍

As a primary school student Josh attended Bialik College in Hawthorn and then completed his secondary schooling at Mt Scopus College in Burwood.

‍

Josh has Law and Economics degrees both with Honours from Monash University and completed his articles of clerkship at Mallesons Stephen Jacques.

‍

He went on to graduate with a Masters in International Relations from Oxford University which he attended on a Commonwealth Scholarship and a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

‍

Josh was a Senior Adviser to Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Prime Minister John Howard and was a Director of Global Banking at Deutsche Bank AG.

‍

Josh is a keen tennis player having represented Australia at the World University Games in England in 1991 and the United States in 1993.

‍

He currently sits on the Board of the Kids Tennis Foundation which provides coaching to disadvantaged kids.

Mike Baird was elected Leader of the NSW Liberal Party at a party-room meeting on Thursday 17 April, 2014, and was later that day sworn in as Premier by the Governor, Professor Marie Bashir. He was the 44th Premier of NSW.

‍

Mike Baird was appointed Treasurer of NSW after the election of the NSW Liberal and Nationals Government on 26 March 2011. In September 2012 he was also appointed Minister for Industrial Relations. Mike had served as Shadow Treasurer since December 2008 and previously as Shadow Minister for Energy, Finance and Youth Affairs.

‍

Mike was elected Member for Manly in 2007 after an 18-year banking career incorporating corporate banking, securitisation, debt capital markets and project finance in Australia, London and Hong Kong.

‍

Career highlights include managing corporate finance transactions across a range of industries for Deutsche Bank and Head of Originations, debt capital markets in London for the NAB.

‍

Prior to his election to Parliament, Mike was Head of Institutional Banking for HSBC in Australia and New Zealand.

Paul Keating served as Australia’s 24th Prime Minister, from 1991 to 1996, having been Treasurer between 1983 and 1991.

‍

His political legacy includes fundamental social and economic reform that laid the basis for Australia’s last quarter century economic performance and included the deregulation of the financial, product and labour markets.  Paul Keating also established compulsory superannuation – now with more than $2.1 trillion under management.  He worked towards an inclusive social policy, for Australia to become a Republic and established the Native Title legislation.  In foreign policy, he established the APEC Leaders’ Meeting and worked to forge Australia’s place in the region, especially with Indonesia.

‍

His book, Engagement: Australia faces the Asia Pacific (2000) was translated into Chinese and Japanese.  In October 2011, his book of post Prime-Ministerial speeches, After Words, was published and Keating, the book based on the 2013 four-part ABC interview series with Kerry O’Brien, was published in 2015.  Troy Bramston’s Paul Keating: The Big Picture Leader was published in 2016.

‍

Since 1996 Paul Keating has continued his interest in geo-political and foreign policy and urban design.  He is Chairman of Lazard Australia and is the progenitor of the Barangaroo project in Sydney, including and especially, its Headland Park.

Rikki Bannan is an Executive Director at IFM Investors, a global fund manager with over $215bn of funds under management. As a Portfolio Manager in IFM Investors’ Small Caps fund, Rikki is responsible for investment decisions across the consumer discretionary,  health care and technology sectors, as well as being actively involved in fund raising and investor engagement for the Small Cap product.

‍

Rikki also sits on the Advisory Committee of HEAL Partners, a growth Private Equity fund focused on investments within the Health, Education and Lifestyle sectors.

‍

Prior to joining IFM Investors in 2015, Rikki spent six years as a Senior Equities Analyst at Macquarie Bank. Over this time she held roles in the Equity Strategy team and as an Industrials Analyst.

‍

Rikki is a Chartered Accountant and commenced her career in KPMG’s Audit & Assurance division. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance & Accounting) from The University of Sydney.

Dan Ariely is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology & Behavioural Economics at Duke University. He is dedicated to answering questions to help people live more sensible – if not rational – lives. His interests span a wide range of behaviours, and his sometimes unusual experiments are consistently interesting, amusing and informative, demonstrating profound ideas that fly in the face of common wisdom.

‍

He is a founding member of the Centre for Advanced Hindsight, co-creator of the film documentary (Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies, and a three-time New York Times bestselling author. His books include Predictably Irrational, The Honest Truth About Dishonesty, Irrationally Yours, Payoff and Dollars and Sense.

‍

Gladys was first elected to the NSW Parliament as Member for Willoughby on 22 March 2003.

‍

She was elected Leader of the Parliamentary Liberal Party on 23 January 2017 and sworn in as the 45th Premier of New South Wales. Gladys had previously served as Treasurer and Minister for Industrial Relations in the Baird Government since April 2015.

‍

Prior to that, she was appointed Minister for Transport following the election of the O’Farrell Government in March 2011 and served in that role for four years.

‍

She is a Master of Commerce graduate from UNSW and prior to entering Parliament worked as a General Manager for one of Australia’s largest financial institutions. Gladys has also completed studies in Government and Public Administration (B.A., Uni. Syd).

‍

Gladys lives in Willoughby and has had a life-long association with the local area.

Paul is a Co-Founder and Partner of Square Peg. He is passionate about backing founders who are building the next generation of global startups that seek to improve our community.
‍
In 1997, he co-founded SEEK, which operates market leading businesses in the online employment and vocational education markets and became one of Australia’s first globally leading startups.
‍
In 2012, Paul co-founded Square Peg with a mission to support the next generation of founders seeking to build global businesses. At the time, there was no venture capital market in Australia and Square Peg has played an important role in transforming its startup ecosystem. He has led investments in Airwallex, Athena, Constantinople, Rokt, UpGuard, Zeller and others over the past 12 years and is inspired and energised by the dedication, talent and resilience of their founders and teams.
‍
In 2023, Paul founded AMPLIFY and serves as Chair. AMPLIFY is a non-partisan community organisation where Australian’s from all walks of life get to have their say on the most important issues facing the country. Paul has been a Commissioner of the Australian Football League (AFL) since 2012, served on the Wesfarmers board from 2012-2018 and, together with his wife and three children, serves on the board of the P&S Bassat Foundation.

Katherine Bennell-Pegg is an  Australian Astronaut and Space Systems Engineer. She is the first ever person to be trained as an astronaut under the Australian flag. Katherine was most recently a  Director of Space Technology at the Australian Space Agency, where she contributed to growing Australia's space capability through being technical lead on scoping the nation's first Moon rover mission, developing plans to capitalise on Australia's space strengths, and managing the Access to Space Team. She has more than a decade of experience developing space programs and strategies, technologies, and missions across Europe, the UK, the US and Australia. These include the Orion vehicle that is taking humans back to the Moon, space station facilities, earth observation missions and robotic satellite capture technologies. 

‍

Katherine has always dreamed of becoming an astronaut and in early 2023 took the giant leap to achieving that dream when she began astronaut training with the European Space Agency. Katherine currently lives in Germany with her husband and two young daughters while training at the European Astronaut Centre.

‍

Katherine  holds four degrees across science (physics major), space and aeronautical engineering. Katherine is a keen volunteer, having worked with the Australian Army Reserves, Surf Life Saving, State Emergency Service, and Engineers Without Borders Australia. Her hobbies include scuba diving, flying, reading, backyard astronomy, surfing, sailing, basketball, netball, tennis, hiking and cycling.

Ramez Naam is the Managing Partner of PlanetaryVC, which invests in startups addressing the world’s greatest challenges. Ramez has spent the past decade investing in climate and energy technologies and speaking around the world on innovation, exponential technology and the future of energy and climate in particular. He serves as the Co-Chair for Energy and Environment for Singularity University and was among the first people to forecast the exponential cost decline of clean energy technologies such as solar, batteries and electric vehicles.

‍

Ramez has advised the CEOs and executives of the world’s largest energy companies. He is also the award-winning author of 5 books, including the Nexus trilogy of science fiction novels. Before moving into energy and climate, Ramez spent 13 years at Microsoft, working on AI. He’s the author of more than 20 patents, several co-invented with Bill Gates.

Gerry Cardinale is the Founder, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of RedBird Capital Partners.

RedBird manages $6 billion of equity on behalf of a select group of blue-chip institutional and family office investors. The firm’s prior and current investment portfolio includes many of the world’s most iconic entrepreneurs, properties and brands across the sports, media and entertainment industries – including Fenway Sports Group (Boston Red Sox, Liverpool FC, Pittsburgh Penguins, New England Sports Network); the Yankees Entertainment & Sports (“YES”) Network (New York Yankees and Amazon); Skydance Media (Larry and David Ellison); The Springhill Company (LeBron James and Maverick Carter); the XFL (Dwayne Johnson and his partner Dany Garcia); and European football’s A.C. Milan which recently won Italy’s Serie A Championship. 

Since the firm’s inception, RedBird has also been an active investor and company builder in Financial Services - a core competency of the firm with a dedicated investment team that has invested over $1 billion across Insurance & Insurance Distribution, Asset & Wealth Management and Fintech & Insurtech. Notable investments include Aquarian, a diversified life and annuity insurance carrier with over $7 billion of assets and an affiliated asset manager; and Constellation, a managing general agent insurance distribution platform that RedBird scaled to a top 5 player in the industry in under two years before exiting to Truist in July 2021. 

Prior to founding RedBird in 2014, Gerry spent 20 years at Goldman Sachs where he was a Partner of the firm and a senior leader of the Merchant Bank’s private equity investing business. During his tenure, Gerry worked with entrepreneurs and family business owners to build several successful multi-billion-dollar companies, including the Yankees Entertainment & Sports (“YES”) Network, Legends Hospitality, and Suddenlink Communications. 

In addition to his broad responsibilities as Chief Investment Officer, Gerry is actively engaged in company-building activities across the firm’s portfolio in its core industries of Sports, Media & Entertainment and Financial Services. He is also active in driving RedBird’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion within the firm as well as within the investment portfolio. Accordingly, 50% of the firm’s investment professionals and 30% of CEOs in its most recent fund are either female or diverse.

Philanthropically, Gerry is a Trustee of the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City and leads one of the multistate Selection Committees that awards Rhodes Scholarships each year. Gerry received an Honours BA from Harvard University where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and an M.Phil in Politics and Political Theory from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

Ben Alexander heads Ardea and has delivered industry-leading relative value returns to fixed income investors since 1998.

‍

Ben co-founded Ardea, a boutique investment manager, in 2008 with the firm now managing $9.4bn in funds.

‍

Ben’s focus at Ardea is centred on relative value opportunities spanning the breadth and depth of the domestic and international fixed income markets. Ben’s philosophy is to identify subjective investment opportunities, underpinned by accurate and consistent measures of value. Under this approach, Ben develops consistent, reproducible measures of value across the entire suite of fixed income and inflation-linked instruments. With value measured on a truly consistent basis, Ben is able to assess and act upon the subjective factors driving any divergence from fair value.

‍

Prior to Ardea, Ben headed the fixed income team at Credit Suisse Asset Management in Australia, with responsibility for investment strategies in the Australian and Asian fixed income markets. Ben also held senior regional positions at Credit Suisse encompassing joint ventures in Asia. Ben began his participation in the fixed income markets with Credit Suisse in 1991.

‍

Ben graduated with Honours in Mathematics from the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand.