Rebecca Argyle is a director at London Investment Partners based in London. Prior to this, she worked in events management launching large scale healthcare innovation events. She has lived in New York, Sydney, Perth, Washington DC, New Haven and St. Andrews. Rebecca has worked in a variety of positions such as the GMAT product director for Kaplan and a toy/candy buyer for Toys "R" Us. She has an MA from University of St. Andrews and an MBA from Yale. She also volunteers for Panthera, leaders in wildcat conservation.

 

Chas Cowing is President of Access Talent. Formed in 1999, it is New York’s premier talent agency for Voice Over and the Spoken Word. Chas attended the Hotchkiss School and Colby College, doing graduate work at the Yale School of Drama and NYU’s SCPS. He has worked with Mabou Mines, both in residence at the Public Theater as well as on tour in North America, Europe and Australia. Chas performed onstage with Mabou Mines in addition to executing audio designs and live audio mixes for the company’s pieces, most notably a revolutionary sound design for JoAnne Akalaitis’ Dead End Kids, incorporating sound cues as diverse as a custom live recording of Philip Glass and a point-blank atom bomb detonation. Before opening Access, Chas was Vice President and Head of Voice Over for J. Michael Bloom and Associates for 17 years. While at JMB, Chas pioneered the industry’s use of Compact Discs for house VO demo compilations and created the first talent agency website in 1994. In 1995, he was the first to bring ISDN audio codec technology to the agency environment, allowing instantaneous, real-time, global transmission of hi-fidelity audio.

 

Nixi Cura read East Asian Studies at Yale University, then specialized in Chinese painting and Buddhist art at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She taught or held post-doctoral fellowships at several institutions in the US before becoming Course Director of the Arts of China postgraduate program at Christie’s Education London. She has also served as co-founder of the Arts of China Consortium, as visiting scholar at the Chinese Academy of Arts, Beijing, as visiting professor at Kansai Gaidai University, Osaka, and currently as Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow. While pursuing her research and professional interests around the world, she has remained engaged with the Yale community through its Alumni Schools Committees, in supporting rising juniors and seniors in the Yale Bulldogs internship programs abroad, by organizing events for Yale alumni and students in Beijing and London, most recently for the Yale Arts Network, LoNyLa and TimeWave.

 

Vic Garvey: As the former Senior Vice President of Olympics at NBC Universal, Vic Garvey worked on 9 Olympic Games for the television network serving in both Logistical and Client Marketing executive capacities. He has produced more than 80 live shows and events in over 20 countries worldwide. He also served as Executive Consultant to the Chairman of NBC Universal and the Vice Chairman of GE. Vic has helped raise over £5 Million ($8M) for children's charities internationally.

 

Chris Huntington was a member of the US Olympic Rowing Teams in 1984 and 1988, and rowed at Oxford in 1986 and '87. He is currently a Partner with New Energy Fund Advisors, a New York-based strategic consulting firm working with start-up and early stage renewable energy and clean-tech companies. Prior to forming NEF-Advisors, Huntington was one of six founders of SkyFuel, a leading utility-scale solar thermal power technology provider where he oversaw Business Development, originating and managing strategic projects and relationships. Before SkyFuel, Huntington was a Principal at Red Hook Renewable Energy Ventures which invested in and advised renewable energy companies. Huntington moved into renewable energy and clean technology after a 17-year career as a financial news Correspondent and Producer at CNN. Chris earned his undergraduate degree in Rhetoric (pre-law) from the University of California at Berkeley and a graduate degree in Social Studies (Politics, Philosophy & Economics) from the University of Oxford.

 

Timothy P. Harkness is a partner in Freshfield Bruckhaus Deringer’s litigation practice group, based in New York. Tim represents clients in complex commercial litigation matters including class actions, securities fraud matters, bankruptcy litigation, and matters pertaining to the liability of accounting firms in federal and state courts throughout the US, in arbitrations and in regulatory proceedings. He has served a prominent role in major cases including In re Parmalat Securities Litigation, New York v. Grasso, and litigation arising from tax shelter investigations and fraud related to the Bernard L. Madoff Ponzi scheme. Tim received his BA cum laude from Yale University in 1987 and his JD cum laude from the University of Michigan in 1995, where he was Contributing Editor of the Law Review. Tim is also a member of the Board of Governors of the Association of Yale Alumni.

 

Andrew Jaffe is Professor of Astrophysics and Cosmology at Imperial College in London. He studied at Yale and the University of Chicago and held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Toronto and the University of California, Berkeley. His main scientific interests are in deciphering the history and evolution of the Universe by analysing observations of the faint echoes of the Big Bang and to that end is a co-Investigator on the European Space Agency's Planck Surveyor Satellite. He has also collaborated with the Architecture Association in London as part of their Beyond Entropy research cluster, through which he exhibited a prototype reconstruction of Alfred Jarry's time machine in the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale.

 

Adam Leipzig is an entrepreneur, entertainment executive and successful producer. As president of National Geographic Society’s film division, he built the National Geographic Films label as a profitable brand, closed $125M in financing, acquired 7 films, put 2 into production, and co-managed distribution of films that received one Academy Award and one nomination. Previously, Adam was senior vice president, motion picture production for Walt Disney Studios and Touchstone Pictures where he was responsible for developing and supervising movies, and for the administration of creative talent. He then became a producer for Interscope Communications, a division of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment. Among the 25 films for which he has been responsible are March of the Penguins, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Dead Poets Society, Titus, Amreeka and The Way Back. Prior to his feature film career, Adam joined the Los Angeles Actors' Theatre, and with other artists in the company went on to found the Los Angeles Theatre Center, a four-theatre, 1200-seat performing arts complex. During his seven-year tenure as manager, dramaturg and producer with the company, he oversaw more than 300 productions of plays, music, dance and performance art. Collectively, Adam's projects have generated over $2 billion in revenue on $300 million production spending. Twice in his career he has been responsible for the year’s most profitable film. Adam currently publishes the popular website CulturalWeekly.com and is writing books on filmmaking and creativity.

 

David Lisi is a partner in DLA Piper's LitigationGroup. He represents U.S. and international technology companies in matters concerning securities litigation and counseling, antitrust matters and complex civil, technology and privacy litigation. Mr. Lisi advises corporate directors and defends individuals, companies and underwriters in shareholder class action lawsuits, merger and acquisition disputes and in proceedings before the Department of Justice, SEC and NASD. Mr. Lisi also has conducted numerous special investigations for audit committees and special litigation committees for Silicon Valley and international clients in connection with securities and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act issues. In addition to his securities practice, Mr. Lisi represents clients in complex matters involving a wide range of substantive issues including federal and state antitrust and unfair competition claims, patent and copyright infringement claims, trade secret misappropriation matters and privacy litigation. Mr. Lisi has been counsel for many Silicon Valley and Fortune 500 companies. A.B., Yale College, English Literature and J.D. Cornell Law School.

 

Bill Lipschutz is the Director of Portfolio Management for Hathersage. Prior to helping form Hathersage, Bill was President and Chief Executive Officer of Rowayton Capital Management Inc., an asset management firm that he founded in August 1991. Prior to that, Bill was President and Chief Executive Officer of North Tower Management Group, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. Prior to forming North Tower in September 1990, Bill was a Managing Director of Salomon Brothers Inc., where he was Global Head of Foreign Exchange. Bill Lipschutz received a BFA in Architectural Design from Cornell University and a MBA in Finance from the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University. Lipschutz is featured in The New Market Wizards: Conversations with America’s Top Traders, by Jack D. Schwager, 1992 and The Mind of a Trader: Lessons in Trading Strategy From The World’s Leading Traders, by Alpesh B. Patel, 1998. He was inducted into the Trader Monthly Hall of Fame in October, 2006.

 

J Dakota Powell was Producing Artistic Director of Brave New World on Broadway (NYC) in which over 150 major artists performed plays in response to 911 (see BBC press). As Head of Entertainment for KPE Europe, Powell was responsible for producing digital content across multiple platforms. Powell’s plays: Bliss Moon, The Impostor, Savage Light, Blackwater, Harry Black. Harry Black was produced in the Ensemble Studio Theatre’s New Work Series. Blackwater was selected for the National Playwrights Conference, O’Neill Theatre Center and the Lincoln Center Reading Series. Powell has been produced by the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, the Philadephia Theater Company’s New Works Series, Circle Repertory Theatre Lab, the Ensemble Studio Theatre and Duke University’s New Works Series; she has been commissioned by South Coast Repertory Theatre, Talking Wall Pictures and PBS Great Performances. AB, Economics/Political Science, Yale University. MPS, Interactive Telecommunications Program, New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

 

Daniel J. Stratton is a product of Yale University and a short stint at J. Aron and Co., which was purchased by Goldman Sachs in 1982. Dan traded various commodities using the spread strategies that he learned at J. Aron. He was entrepreneurial by age 24 and held seats on the COMEX, NYFE, CBOT, CSCE and the NYMEX. Currently Dan can be found leading philanthropic work through Faith Exchange, a church that weathered 9-11 and is located in TriBeCa, NYC and the ProVision Network – a group of inspired capitalists working to create opportunity while doing good. He has pioneered work in various nations and is currently working on many projects -- The Water Initiative, PATH Medical, JOBenomics and work with the Native American Indian tribes. Dan is the founder of both Faith Exchange and ProVision Network. Dan has one daughter, Danielle, who is a freshman at George Washington University. His wife of 25 years, Ann, works as pastor of Faith Exchange with Dan.

 

Melissa Wolff is an actress, producer, marketer and project manager. She has appeared in numerous productions in New York City (Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway) and has performed in regional theaters and in the Edinburgh, Washington DC and New York fringe festivals. She has also recorded numerous voiceovers for television, radio and film. Currently, she is the Director of Client Services and Marketing for Tierra Innovation, a leading strategy, design and software development firm. She also provides strategic marketing, project management and writing services for a variety of consulting clients. As a marketing executive, Melissa has extensive experience building brands and devising integrated marketing strategies for entertainment and digital media companies, including Showtime, MTV, Nickelodeon, Oxygen Media and Imaginova. Melissa is a graduate of Yale University and co-chairs the NYC Chapter of Yale in Hollywood.