Aileen Lee | Cowboy ventures

Aileen is founding Partner at Cowboy Ventures, a team that backs seed-stage technology companies re-imagining work and life through technology, what they call “life 2.0”. Cowboy Ventures works with a wide range of startups from modern enterprise-oriented companies like Guild Education and Lightstep to new consumer digital-native brands like Dollar Shave Club and Tally.

Aileen periodically writes about technology insights and is known for coining the business term “unicorn” for public and private companies valued at over $1bn. She has been named to the Forbes Midas List of best investors and Forbes Most Powerful Women, as well as to Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people.

Prior to Cowboy, Aileen was a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers for over a decade, was founding CEO of digital media company RMG Networks and worked at Gap Inc in operating roles. She has degrees from MIT and HBS, is mom of 3 and wife to a startup founder, and is an Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellow and co-founder of the non-profit All Raise, aiming to accelerate success for women in the technology ecosystem.

pam holding | Fidelity investments

Pam Holding is co-head of Fidelity Investments’ Equity Division. Pam and Tim Cohen, the other co-head, oversee all of Fidelity’s Equity portfolio managers, research analysts and trading teams. Fidelity Investments is a leading provider of investment management, retirement planning, portfolio guidance, brokerage, benefits outsourcing, and other financial products and services to institutions, financial intermediaries, and individuals. In addition, Pam serves as co-executive sponsor of Fidelity’s Women’s Leadership Group and the Asset Management lead for Fidelity’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) platform.

Prior to assuming her current position, Ms. Holding served as chief investment officer at Fidelity Institutional Asset Management (FIAM), an investment organization within Fidelity Investments’ asset management division that is dedicated to serving the needs of consultants and institutional investors, such as defined benefit and defined contribution plans, endowments, and financial advisors. In this role, Ms. Holding was responsible for FIAM’s equity portfolio management, investment research, and risk management functions.

Before joining Fidelity in 2013, Ms. Holding served as chief investment officer and senior portfolio manager on the Global Value Equities team at Putnam Investments. Previously, she was head of European and International Equity Research in Putnam’s London office and held several fixed income research and research management positions.

Ms. Holding also served as a senior high-yield bond analyst at both Kemper Financial Services and Franklin Templeton. She has been in the financial services industry since 1986.

Ms. Holding earned her bachelor of arts degree from Princeton University and her master of business administration degree from Harvard Business School. Additionally, she serves on the board of the Steppingstone Foundation and the board of trustees for New England Aquarium.

Carla Harris | morgan stanley

Carla Harris is a Managing Director and Co-Head of Morgan Stanley Next Level. She is also Vice Chairman of Global Wealth Management, Senior Client Advisor for the Firm and Co-Head of the Multicultural Innovation Lab. She formerly headed the Emerging Manager Platform, the equity capital markets effort for the consumer and retail industries and was responsible for Equity Private Placements.

In her over 30 year career, Ms. Harris has had extensive industry experiences in the technology, media, retail, telecommunications, transportation, industrial, and healthcare sectors. In August 2013, Carla Harris was appointed by President Barack Obama to chair the National Women’s Business Council. For more than a decade, Ms. Harris was a senior member of the equity syndicate desk and executed such transactions as initial public offerings for UPS, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Ariba, Redback, the General Motors sub-IPO of Delphi Automotive, and the $3.2 Billion common stock transaction for Immunex Corporation, one of the largest biotechnology common stock transactions in U.S. history. Ms. Harris was named to Fortune Magazine’s list of “The 50 Most Powerful Black Executives in Corporate America”, Fortune’s Most Influential List, U. S. Bankers Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Finance (2009, 2010, 2011), Black Enterprise’s Top 75 Most Powerful Women in Business (2017), and “Top 75 African Americans on Wall Street”, and to Essence Magazine’s list of “The 50 Women Who are Shaping the World”, Ebony’s list of the Power 100 and “15 Corporate Women at the Top” and was named “Woman of the Year 2004” by the Harvard Black Men’s Forum and in 2011 by the Yale Black Men’s Forum.

Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Carla received an MBA, Second Year Honors from Harvard Business School and an AB in economics from Harvard University, Magna Cum Laude. Carla has also received Honorary Doctorates of Laws, Humanities and Business from Marymount Manhattan College, Bloomfield College, Jacksonville University, Simmons College, the College of New Rochelle, St. Thomas Aquinas College and Fisk University, respectively.

C.S. Venkatakrishnan (“Venkat”) | Barclays

C.S. Venkatakrishnan (“Venkat”) was appointed Barclays Group Chief Executive in November 2021.

Prior to his appointment as Group CEO, he was Head of Global Markets, Co-President of Barclays Bank PLC (BBPLC), and a member of the Group Executive Committee of Barclays. He has also served as Chief Risk Officer at Barclays. Venkat is the executive sponsor for Embrace, the global multi-cultural network at Barclays.

Before joining Barclays in 2016, Venkat worked at JP Morgan Chase from 1994, holding senior roles in Asset Management, Investment Banking, and in Risk.

Venkat holds S.B., S.M. and Ph.D. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he is also on the advisory board of the Golub Center for Finance and Policy.

David Schmittlein | mit sloan

David Schmittlein is the John C Head III Dean and Professor of Marketing at the MIT Sloan School of Management. As dean, Schmittlein’s focus has been to broaden MIT Sloan’s global visibility, to work with the faculty in creating new high-quality management education programs, to develop enhanced educational opportunities for current students, and to develop and disseminate business knowledge that has impact and that will stand the test of time. He also has engaged the many members of MIT’s alumni community to gain their valuable insights on MIT Sloan and management education. 

Prior to his appointment at MIT Sloan, Schmittlein was the Ira A. Lipman Professor and Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania from 1980 until 2007. He also served as Interim Dean during July 2007 and as Deputy Dean from 2000 to 2007, and was chair of the editorial board for Wharton School Publishing. His research assesses marketing processes and develops methods for improving marketing decisions. He is widely regarded for his work estimating the impact of a firm’s marketing actions, designing market and survey research, and creating effective communication strategies. 

Schmittlein holds a BA in mathematics from Brown University and an MPhil and a PhD in business from Columbia University.