Alan Ruby

Independent Education Policy Consultant and Lecturer at Penn GSE

Alan Ruby is currently adviser to the President of Kazakhstan's administration on the creation of English language university and the establishment of a network of twenty schools for gifted and talented mathematics and science students. He also serves as adviser to the US Department of Education Institute for Education Sciences on cross national surveys in education and consultant to the World Bank on benchmarking education systems. At Penn GSE, he helped design and implement the School's International Education Development Master's program and served as academic adviser and course director. Prior to Penn, Alan served as senior vice president at Atlantic Philanthropies, overseeing an annual grant budget of $250 million in the United States, Ireland, Viet Nam, and South Africa. He previously served as director of the Human Development Sector for the East Asia Region of the World Bank, where he led the World Bank's programs in education, health, and social insurance in 12 countries, including China, Vietnam, and Indonesia. He also headed a World Bank team that designed and implemented a massive scholarship program to keep Indonesian schools open during the financial crisis of the late 1990s, for which he received the World Bank President's Award for Excellence. Additionally, Mr. Ruby served for over six years as Australia's Deputy Secretary of Employment, Education, Training, and Youth Affairs, where he was responsible for primary and secondary education, higher education, and vocational education and training.

Michael Clark

Managing Partner at Castle Hill Investors

Michael Clark is a Managing Partner of Castle Hill Investors, a real estate focused private equity firm, that invests in collaboration with skilled real estate operators -- providing capital, financial guidance, risk management, and strategic growth expertise. Previously he was a Partner with Meridian Development Partners ("MDP") a real estate development and private equity firm focused on redevelopment of challenging assets. Prior to joining MDP, he was a Partner in The Jamieson Group ("TJG"), an advisory firm focused on redevelopment, economic development and public-private partnerships. Prior to TJG he worked for the San Diego Padres as a manager of retail operations. Mr. Clark is Vice Chairman of Changing World Technologies, a leading renewable diesel company focusing exclusively on converting waste to fuel. Additionally he is on the management committee of GH Capital, one of the largest affordable housing companies in the U.S. Mr. Clark has been an adjunct professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Real Estate since 2006, where he currently teaches three courses. He holds a Masters Degree of Real Estate Development from Columbia University, and is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of San Diego with a dual degree in Economics and Accounting with an emphasis in Real Estate.

Jesse Lipson

CEO at ShareFile

A self-taught software programmer, Jesse has been involved in internet technologies since 1999. In 2001, he became President of Rapidata.net, a pharmaceutical market research company. In just two years, he helped grow revenues at Rapidata.net by over 500% and laid the foundation for the company's acquisition by Greenfield Online. Subsequent to Rapidata.net, Jesse co-founded and served as CEO for the web site development firm novelProjects. Jesse founded ShareFile in 2005. In just 5 years, he has helped grow ShareFile from zero to almost 15,000 customers, 50 full-time employees, and almost 2 million users. Jesse graduated Magna Cum Laude from Duke University with a degree in philosophy in 2000.

Casey O'Neill

Attorney at Sherman & Sterling LLP

Casey O’Neill is an attorney at Shearman & Sterling LLP, a global law firm with an on-the-ground presence on six continents, including a substantial presence in Africa. As a member of the firm’s New York litigation practice, Casey has represented both international and U.S.-based clients on a wide range of matters. Casey specializes in securities, white collar criminal, and complex commercial litigation, although he has also represented leading non-profit organizations on a pro bono basis concerning risk management and corporate governance matters. Casey received a Juris Doctor magna cum laude from Boston University School of Law and is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of San Diego with a dual degree in International Relations and Spanish. Casey has also studied at Georgetown University and at the Spanish-American Institute in Sevilla, Spain, and is an alumnus of Georgetown’s Institute on Comparative Political and Economic Systems. Prior to enrolling in law school, Casey worked as a primary school teacher in a remote village in Thailand as an affiliate of the Volunthai organization.

Amish Jani

Founder and Managing Director at FirstMark Capital

Amish Jani is a Founder and Managing Director of FirstMark Capital and focuses on seed and early stage investments in software, cloud computing, digital media, and Internet sectors. Prior to founding FirstMark Capital, Amish served as a Partner with Pequot Ventures. Amish sits on the boards of Aveksa, Bamboom Labs, Conductor, IMImobile, Knewton, Lumos Labs and Shopify. Amish holds an M.B.A. and a B.S. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Follow Amish on Twitter at @amishjani. Amish is an enthusiastic supporter of and leader in the New York City entrepreneurial community. He is a co-founder and Member of the Organizing Committee for the NYC Turing Fellows program, a new initiative designed to increase the flow of technical talent to NYC from leading schools around the country. He is actively involved with the Mayor’s office, including initiatives such as Media.NYC.2020 and NY Venture Fellows, and is a Mentor for the well-regarded incubator program TechStars NYC. Amish was named to the Silicon Alley Insider 2010 100 List, and regularly speaks at high-profile entrepreneurial events and is quoted by leading media.

Dan Sutera, President

• Executive Director, Impact Network
• Former VP of Products at Yext and Co-founder at ShareFile
• International Development MS, NYU and Computer Science BS, Duke University

Howard Lerman

• Chairman and CEO, Yext.
  Yext's mission is to become the world's greatest local advertising company.
• Former COO Datran Media, Former CEO Intwine

David Seidenfeld

• Research Analyst at American Institutes of Research, International Development in Zambia
• Ph.D Education Policy, UPenn / MA International Education, Stanford / BA Economics, Cornell
• Peace Corps 2 years in Zambia, fluent in native Zambian language, many local connections
• Built original community school, condom distribution program, & microfinance project in Zambia

Michael Weiss

• Currently at MDRC, a nonprofit research firm dedicated to improving social policy
• Serves as lead impact analyst on several multi-million dollar evaluations of education programs
• Ph.D in Education Policy and Evaluation, UPenn; MPS in Statistics, Cornell / BS in Statistics, Cornell