Speaker alumni

Mr Alex Waislitz is Executive Chairman and Founder of Thorney Investment Group, a Melbourne Australia based diversified investor in public securities, private companies and property. Thorney specialises in emerging companies across a broad array of industries including Manufacturing, Technology, Mining Services and Resources. Alex has extensive business and capital markets experience and has been a member of several public company Board of Directors. Alex is also Chairman of Thorney Opportunities Limited, and Thorney Technologies Limited, both Australian  sharemarket (ASX) listed investment companies, and Vice President of Collingwood Football Club.

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In 2014 Alex established the Waislitz Foundation with the aim of donating $50 million to charity.  He is a graduate of Monash University in Law and Commerce and a Graduate of the Harvard Business School OPM Program.

Leah Joy Zell (PhD, CFA) is a nationally recognized expert in international investing, and a pioneer in the international small-cap category. From 1992 to 2005, she was a co-founding partner and portfolio manager at Wanger Asset Management, a global small-mid cap equity specialist.

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Ms. Zell is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the Global Advisory Council of Harvard University, and the Wilson Centre Global Advisory Council in Washington, D.C. Ms. Zell also serves as a Director of the Horton Trust Company LLC, and a member of the Investment Committee of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Previously, she was on the Harvard University Board of Overseers and the Board of Trustees of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Bachelor of Engineering (Hons), Graduate Diploma in Applied Economics, CFA Charterholder.

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Matthew has more than 20 years’ experience in investment analysis and funds management. Matthew manages the Greencape Broadcap Fund with around $2 billion in funds under management.

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Before entering the financial services industry, Matthew worked as a commodity buyer in the World Wide Purchasing Division of General Motors. In 1997 Matthew took on the role of Head of Research at Taylor Collison Stockbroking, based in Adelaide. Matthew was a highly rated sell-side analyst in both the small caps sector as well as the healthcare sector. He then moved to Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (since acquired by Blackrock). Initially in the role of Fund Manager, he then took on the responsibility of Director and Senior Portfolio Manager in 2003, responsible for managing his own fund with a similar mandate to the Greencape Broadcap Fund that is managed today.

Mor Assia, iAngels Founding Partner and Co-CEO, is an Israeli High Tech insider with over 15 years experience assisting global corporations define new corporate strategies, M&A activities and technological pivots, working on the corporate level of blue-chip companies such as SAP, IBM and Amdocs. Mor has in just 5 years, grown the VC firm from a startup to a mature global company with over US$150M assets under management in divisions and funds that specialize in top-tier tech industry sectors, including Frontier Tech, FinTech, Enterprise Software and Environmental Technologies. Mor holds an MBA from Columbia University (New York), a Mathematics and Computer Science Degree from the Technion, Israel’s Institute of Technology (Haifa), and is is a graduate of the IDF’s 8200 Intelligence Unit.

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Mor puts this same insight, discipline and influence through iAngels, knowing where to look for new technologies, vetting them for market potential and structuring deal terms and a management team that is poised to deliver the best possible returns.

Annabel Spring became Group Executive of the Wealth Management Division of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) in October 2011.

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She is responsible for Colonial First State, Colonial First State Global Asset Management, Wealth Management Advice and CommInsure, and is a member of the Group Executive Committee.

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Annabel joined CBA in 2009 as Group Head of Strategy where she was responsible for strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and government relations.

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Before joining CBA, Annabel was Managing Director and Global Head of Firm Strategy and Execution at Morgan Stanley in New York. Annabel has worked in the USA, Asia and Australia.

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Annabel is Deputy Co-Chair of the Financial Services Council (FSC), and Director of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute. She is also a member of Chief Executive Women.

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Annabel holds degrees with honours in Laws and Economics from the University of Sydney and a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard Business School, where she graduated as a George F. Baker Scholar.

Renee Lim is a medical doctor, performer, and educator. In addition to her work as the Director of Program Development at the Pam McLean Centre (one of the leading centres in Australia aimed at improving communication education in the Health sector), as a Senior Lecturer in Professional Development at Sydney University, and as a locum doctor in Emergency and Palliative Care Departments across NSW, Renee is also a well established performer, working on shows likes Pulse, Ask The Doctors, Food Investigators, Secret City, East West 101 and Please Like Me, and as a writer/director with KFilms.  She is the CEO of Changineers, a social enterprise focused on providing educational innovation for organisations that are creating positive social change, and consults in Health, Education and Engagement across the NFP space, most recently with the Paul Ramsay Foundation and MSF.

Bobby Yazdani is Founder and Managing Partner of Cota Capital, a firm investing in private and public technology companies. Bobby works full time on the development and support of entrepreneurs through Cota Capital. Through his family office Signatures Capital, Bobby has invested in over 100 private companies. In 2014, Bobby was ranked #1 out of 2000 angel investors for successful follow-on funding by CB Insights. Masimo Corporation was Bobby’s first angel investment in 1989.

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In 2015, Bobby endowed the Signatures Innovation Fellowship at University of California, Berkeley to support data science projects with commercial promise. Bobby also serves as a founding member of the Persian Tech Entrepreneurs network, and a National Advisory Board Member of The Reset Foundation.

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Bobby founded Saba in 1997, taking the company public in 2000. Today, Saba is the leading provider of Human Capital Development & Management Solutions, serving over 30 million people from 2,200 customers across 195 countries and in 37 languages worldwide. While at Saba, he was named a finalist for Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Saba also earned spots on InformationWeek’s Innovation 100 list and Computerworld’s 100 Emerging Companies to Watch.

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Prior to Saba, Bobby worked at Oracle in various R&D roles (‘88 –‘97).

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Bobby has successfully mentored entrepreneurs and invested in over 100 early-stage startups including Aardvark (acq. by Google), Addepar, Atheer Labs, Baarzo (acq. by Google), BaseHealth, Bina Technologies (acq. by Roche), Bonobos, Canary, Clearspring, CleverSense (acq. by Google), Dropbox, FundersClub, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), GuardantHealth, HomeJoy, inDinero, InstaEdu (acq. by Chegg), KeyChain Logistics, KissMetrics, Klout (acq. by Lithium Technologies), Masimo (NASDAQ: MASI), Medialets, NextBio (acq. by Illumina), OpenGov, PassBan (acq. by EMC/RSA), Qwiki (acq. by Yahoo), Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), SoundHound, SweetGreen, ThinkBig Analytics (acq. by Teradata), Uber, Wash.io, Webs.com (acq. by VistaPrint), ZenPayroll and more.

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Born in Tehran, Iran, Bobby completed high school in England, UK and received a B.A. in Applied Mathematics at UC Berkeley.

Danny Yong is the CIO and Founder of Dymon Asia Capital. Established in 2008, the alternative investment management firm has assets under management of US$5.7 billion across hedge funds, private equity and venture capital strategies as of June 2017. The Firm is headquartered in Singapore and has offices in Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and Malaysia. In May 2014, Temasek invested USD 500 million in one of Dymon Asia’s funds, and also took a minority stake in the company. Dymon Asia Capital has 142 employees, comprising of 72 investment professionals. Danny has traded FX, fixed income and futures for over 20 years. He was an MD at Citadel Investment Asia where he ran the Asia Macro trading business from 2005 to 2007. Prior to Citadel, he was Goldman Sachs’ Head of Trading for South East Asian FX and Derivatives from 2000 to 2005. Danny started his trading career at JP Morgan in 1997.

Dr Kaylene Young was a Sir John Monash Science Scholar who obtained her BSc (hons) from Monash University in 1999.  With the start of the new millennium she commenced PhD research at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, where she developed a method to allow researchers to visualize and purify brain stem cells, so that they could be studied. She also identified a key signal capable of directing brain stem cells to make new nerve cells.  Kaylene then helped with the successful establishment of the Queensland Brain Institute at the University of Queensland, before accepting a postdoctoral research position at University College London (UK).  At UCL, Kaylene identified a novel immature cell population in the brain, capable of producing new cells and repairing brain insulation to offset the damage caused by Multiple Sclerosis.  She is now leading a research team at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, to develop a new therapy that can direct brain repair in people with MS.  The importance of her research contributions are highlighted by her receipt of the Inaugural Metcalf Prize for Stem Cell Research, awarded to emerging leaders of stem cell research in Australia, and the Inaugural Macquarie Group Foundation, MS Research Australia Paired Fellowship, which supports research likely to make a significant impact on the lives of people with MS.

Dr Nikki Stamp is a cardiothoracic surgeon based in Sydney, Australia. Nikki is a graduate of the University of Western Australia and has completed training in cardiothoracic surgery with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. Nikki wants to share with people an approach to health and wellbeing that is backed up by science and good quality evidence. She has a particular interest in all things related to heart health and in particular, women’s heart health.

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Nikki is also a strong advocate for women in surgery and other professional positions. She enjoys mentoring and encouraging young women into roles that are traditionally occupied by men. Nikki enjoys education and thoroughly enjoys teaching young doctors and other hospital staff. She also is committed to advocating to doctor’s well being and prevention and management of mental health issues amongst doctors.

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Outside of work, Nikki is a Perth girl through and through, evidenced by a love of the beach and sunshine. Nikki is a (slow) runner and swimmer to help keep fit and healthy. Nikki also is an accomplished singer and can often be found belting out tunes from the music Chicago or Fleetwood Mac and hopes to one day make all four chairs turn around on The Voice.

Cathie registered ARK Investment Management LLC (“ARK”) as an investment adviser with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in January 2014. With over 40 years of experience identifying and investing in innovation, Cathie founded ARK to focus solely on disruptive innovation while adding new dimensions to research. Through an open approach that cuts across sectors, market capitalizations, and geographies, Cathie believes that ARK can identify large-scale investment opportunities in the public markets resulting from technological innovations centered around DNA sequencing, robotics, artificial intelligence, energy storage, and blockchain technology. As Chief Investment Officer (“CIO”) and Portfolio Manager, Cathie led the development of ARK’s philosophy and investment approach and has ultimate responsibility for investment decisions.

Prior to ARK, Cathie spent twelve years at AllianceBernstein as CIO of Global Thematic Strategies where she managed over $5 billion. Cathie joined Alliance Capital from Tupelo Capital Management, a hedge fund she co-founded, which in 2000, managed approximately $800 million in global thematic strategies. Prior to her tenure at Tupelo Capital, she worked for 18 years with Jennison Associates LLC as Chief Economist, Equity Research Analyst, Portfolio Manager and Director. She started her career in Los Angeles, California at The Capital Group as an Assistant Economist. Cathie received her Bachelor of Science, summa cum laude, in Finance and Economics from the University of Southern California in 1981.

Cathie has been recognized as an influential fund manager across various outlets. In 2018, editors at Bloomberg acknowledged Cathie by selecting her to its second annual Bloomberg 50 list of people across business, entertainment, finance, politics, technology, and science who have defined global business. Additionally, Fortune named Cathie to its exclusive roundtable of experts in the annual Fortune Investors Guide: The Best Investing Advice for 2019 From Fortune’s Experts. In 2016, Cathie received the “Women in Finance – Outstanding Contribution Award” from Market Media. Cathie also has been a featured speaker at the World Economic Forum (China) in 2016 & 2017, the World Strategic Forum (Miami) in 2017, The Sohn Hearts and Minds Investment Leaders Conference (Australia) in 2018 and 2019, and Singularity University’s Exponential Finance in 2017 and Global Summit in 2019.

In 2018, Cathie launched the Duddy Innovation Institute at her alma mater, Notre Dame Academy in Los Angeles. The institute offers a challenging educational experience for young women eager to stretch their learning beyond the boundaries of traditional acquisition of knowledge, while influencing a new way of thinking and learning throughout campus.