Program

David Miliband

President and CEO of International Rescue Committee

David Miliband is the president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee. He oversees the agency’s operations in over 40 crisis-effect countries and its refugee resettlement and assistance programs throughout Europe and the Americas. The IRC’s mission is to help the world’s most vulnerable people, whose lives and livelihoods have been shattered by conflict and disaster, including the climate crisis, to survive, recover, and regain control of their futures. In 2023, the IRC served more than 34.5M people in countries affected by crisis.

Prior to joining IRC, David had a distinguished political career in the United Kingdom. From 2007 to 2010, he served as the 74th Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, representing the United Kingdom throughout the world. His accomplishments have earned him a reputation, in former President Bill Clinton’s words, as “one of the ablest, most creative public servants of our time.” In 2016 David was named one of the World’s Greatest Leaders by Fortune Magazine and in 2018 he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2016, he was one of the Guest Readers in the Grammy Award-winning recording of Presidential Suite: Eight Variations on Freedom by the Ted Nash Big Band.

David is also the author of the book, Rescue: Refugees and the Political Crisis of Our Time. As the son of refugees, David brings a personal commitment to the IRC’s work and to the premise of the book: that we can rescue the dignity and hopes of refugees and displaced people, and if we help them, in the process we will rescue our own values.

Dan Wang

Lambert Family Professor of Social Enterprise in the Faculty of Business and Co-director of the Tamer Institute for Social Enterprise and Climate Change at Columbia Business School

Dan Wang is Associate Professor of Business and (by courtesy) Sociology at Columbia Business School, where he is also the co-director of the Tamer Institute for Social Enterprise and Climate Change. His research examines how social networks drive social and economic transformation through the analysis of global migration, social movements, organizational innovation, and entrepreneurship. He teaches the core MBA Strategy Formulation course, an elective MBA course on Technology Strategy, a PhD seminar on Organizational Theory. He also teaches in several Executive Education programs on Social Networks and Technology Strategy. He earned his BA from Columbia University (Columbia College) and PhD from Stanford University.

He received the 2020 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Core and the 2018 Singhvi Prize for Scholarship in the Classroom, Columbia Business School’s top teaching honor conferred by the graduating MBA class. He was also named to Poets and Quants’ 2018 list of “Best 40 Business School Professors under 40.” In 2021, he received the Robert W. Lear Service Award, given by the graduating class for his commitment to the MBA student body.

Wang’s research lies at the intersection of business and society with a focus on innovation and entrepreneurship. One of his main research streams focuses on the global migration of high-skilled individuals. Specifically, Wang studies “reverse brain drain”, or how the return migration of skilled professionals spreads ideas, technologies, and new ventures to different parts of the world. Another research area focuses on how social protest and activism create an interface between business and society. In this work, Wang has analyzed collaboration networks across social movements to predict innovation, knowledge sharing, strategic choices, and protest scope across activist groups. Finally, in on-going work on entrepreneurship, he has analyzed the implications of different network structures of venture capital syndication for the innovation output and financial performance of start-ups. 

His work has been published in Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Annual Review of Sociology, Journal of Applied Psychology, Social Forces, Social Networks, Strategic Management Journal, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, and Theory and Society. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for the Strategic Management Journal and Special Issue Editor for Organization Science and has served as a Consulting Editor for The American Journal of Sociology. He is co-editor of the book series, Elements in the Structural Analysis of Culture, Social Organization, and History with Cambridge University Press. His work has been cited in The New York Times, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, and NPR and has been recognized with multiple awards from the Academy of Management. He has also been awarded both the Dissertation (2012) and Junior Faculty Fellowship (2017) from the Kauffman Foundation. He has also contributed to practitioner-oriented publications such as Strategy+Business, and written Op-Eds for CNN.

Jon Gordon ’06BUS

Founder and CEO of F|42

Jon Gordon is an entrepreneur, investor, and executive with 20 years of experience in health care at the intersection of strategy, innovation, and policy. He is currently founder and chief evangelist of F|42, a nonprofit designed to drive transformation in health care through a person-centered lens. Prior to launching F|42, Jon was co-founder and managing general partner at HC9 Ventures, an $83 million early-stage venture fund that provides deep health care expertise to emerging health care companies through an engaged LP network of leading health care executives and entrepreneurs. Earlier in his career, Jon served as senior vice president for innovation at Commonwealth Care Alliance, a nonprofit health plan focused on caring for vulnerable populations, and managing director of Winter Street Ventures, their corporate venture arm. He simultaneously served as interim CEO of LifePod, a portfolio company offering proactive voice-based remote patient monitoring and engagement.

Previously, Jon founded and secured $40 million for NYP Ventures, the strategic venture capital arm of NewYork-Presbyterian. In that role, he led investments in eleven digital health businesses, built strategic partnerships with leading national health care companies, and managed the hospital’s intellectual property portfolio. He co-founded the Strategic Venture Group, a collaborative network of more than twenty health system-based venture funds, and was a director in NYP’s Office of Strategy, where he worked on projects ranging from launching the hospital’s Medicare accountable care organization to building its telehealth program. Jon also co-founded and directed the NewYork-Presbyterian Health Policy Center, which advocated for the role of Academic Medical Centers in addressing systemic health care challenges. Before joining NYP, he was co-founder, president and COO of EveryDay Medical, an e-commerce provider of durable medical equipment.

Jon is an adjunct faculty member at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, previously taught at Weill Cornell Medicine, and serves as treasurer of costs of care and president of the Woodstock Day School. He is also an avid cyclist and hiker, having completed challenges such as the 3,000-mile Race Across America, the WOW Cyclothon around Iceland, and the Catskill 3500 High Peaks. He holds a BA, cum laude, from Princeton University and an MBA with honors from Columbia Business School.

Julia Iyasere

Senior Vice President of Health Justice and Equity at NewYork-Presbyterian; Executive Director of the Dalio Center for Health Justice

Julia Iyasere, MD, MBA is senior vice president of health justice and equity at NewYork-Presbyterian and executive director of the Dalio Center for Health Justice. In this role, she leads the center’s efforts to address longstanding health disparities due to race, socio-economic differences, limited access to care, and other complex factors that impact the wellbeing of our communities disproportionately. Established in 2020, the Center for Health Justice works collaboratively with representatives from NewYork-Presbyterian, Weill Cornell Medicine, and Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons to be a leader in the understanding and improving of health equity, and to drive action that results in measurable improvements in health outcomes for all. Dr. Iyasere brings more than a decade of experience in medicine to her role. She was previously the associate chief medical officer for service lines and the co-director of the care team office. She was also director of the Leadership Education and Development for Physicians (LEAD) Academy, associate designated institutional official for graduate medical education at NYPH, and the associate program director of the Columbia Internal Medicine Residency Training Program. An assistant professor of Clinical Medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Dr. Iyasere continues to see patients as an internist in the Section for Hospital Medicine.

Manmeet Kaur ’12BUS

Executive in Residence at Regenstrief Institute

Manmeet Kaur is a health care entrepreneur, builder, and operator with 15 years of experience leading mission-driven companies to strong financial, clinical, and operational outcomes. She has founded and scaled three organizations — nonprofit, for-profit, and venture-backed — guiding each through transformative growth, acquisition, or exit.

She believes human-centered design and disciplined execution can reshape healthcare. Manmeet specializes in building tech-enabled service models for working Americans — designed for cost, scale, and care quality without compromise. She has raised capital across the full stack (venture, debt, philanthropic, and research), led M&A, built diverse and high-retention workforces, and launched value-based care models that consistently deliver ROI.

In 2012, Manmeet founded City Health Works, pioneering a new care and workforce model for chronic disease management that achieved a 7:1 ROI, improved metabolic and pulmonary outcomes, and earned national recognition. In 2020, she and her team acquired a 20-year-old fee-for-service practice to launch CHW Cares, where they transitioned to value-based care and ultimately sold assets to Oak Street Health. Most recently, she co-founded Diverge Health, a venture-backed company partnering with independent Medicaid practices to deliver improved outcomes in full-risk arrangements. There, she led product and population health, building scalable protocols, tech-enabled delivery, and a workforce development engine across multiple markets.

In her next chapter, Manmeet is focused on driving clinical and financial performance through building, advising, and governance roles. She brings deep knowledge of tech-enabled frontline operations, a track record of transforming service delivery at scale, and a leadership style rooted in curiosity, candor, and respect for those closest to the work.

When she’s not building the future of care, Manmeet can be found boxing, biking, or singing kirtan with her husband and their three energetic boys.

Jason Torres

Managing Partner at Sana Capital

Jason Torres is a general partner at Sana Capital, specializing in health care venture capital with a strategic emphasis on addressing disparities in access and outcomes. His career trajectory in health care investing, marked by a foundational experience in New York City’s diverse socio-economic landscape and a sophisticated understanding of systemic inequities, has uniquely positioned him to impact the venture capital and health care sectors profoundly.

His professional journey includes co-founding Mansa Capital, a private equity firm with a significant focus on health care, where he deployed approximately $50 million into groundbreaking health care ventures.

At Sana Capital, Torres has been instrumental in steering the firm towards investments that promise substantial returns and drive meaningful social impact, particularly in underinvested communities. This focus aligns with his vision of leveraging financial mechanisms to foster systemic health care access and equity change.

Torres’s role extends beyond investing; he is a thought leader in health care policy integration, operational efficiency, and impact investing. His board memberships, including Comunilife and Acacia Network, reflect a commitment towards sustainable community support and health care innovation.

Jason graduated magna cum laude with a BS in information systems and finance from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and later earned an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is also a distinguished Kauffman Fellow, reflecting his deep commitment to innovation, leadership, and venture capital in the health care sector.

Caleb Ballou ’16BUS

Co-founder of Trimtab Impact

Caleb has spent over ten years as a joyous investor in (and fierce advocate for) fund managers piloting innovative, scalable, and replicable solutions to get capital flowing to the people and places that need it most and receive it least. He is a passionate believer in finance as an underutilized tool to serve the most neglected markets, underserved populations, and undervalued ecosystems. Currently co-founder and managing director at Trimtab Impact, Caleb previously managed innovative finance strategies at The Rockefeller Foundation (Zero Gap) and JP Morgan (Impact Finance). Trimtab seeks to bring the same strategic lens to serve private asset owners, building a community and a balance sheet to expand family office and HNW participation in impact finance. Caleb started his career at Eaton Vance and Marakon/Charles River Associates, and holds a BA from Dartmouth College, MBA and MIA degrees from Columbia, and is a CFA Charterholder.

Melissa Berman

Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School; Founding President and Former CEO at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors

From 2002 to 2024, Melissa was the founding president and CEO of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA), an innovative nonprofit whose mission is to accelerate philanthropy in pursuit of a just world.

An adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, Melissa teaches global philanthropy. She also serves as Distinguished Visiting Faculty for the Schwarzman Scholars program at Tsinghua University in Beijing. At Oxford University’s Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, where Melissa is a visiting fellow, she is launching a learning initiative incorporating a long-term perspective for philanthropy governance, management and systems. In 2023, she was a Bellagio Center fellow. Melissa holds a BA from Harvard University and a PhD from Stanford University.

Erin Phelps

Senior Adviser to the CEO at The Freedom Fund

Erin Phelps is senior adviser to the CEO of the Freedom Fund, a collaborative fund that identifies and invests in the most effective frontline efforts to eradicate modern slavery in the countries and sectors where it is most prevalent. Her current role focuses on advising senior leadership, organizational strategy, donor influencing, and global advocacy.

Erin has worked with a range of social justice nonprofits including GoodWeave International, Lutheran Immigration & Refugee Service, and Adhikaar. As a Fulbright student researcher in Nepal, she conducted qualitative research on the effects of labor migration on young people. She worked with the Nepal Institute of Development Studies and IOM Nepal and presented her work at Tribhuvan University and the Nepal National Conference on Migration.

Erin received her BA in sociology from Pomona College and lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Chris Wayne ’16SPS

Director of Agriculture at Acumen

As the director of agriculture , Chris shapes Acumen’s agriculture narrative, connecting fund and initiative-level outcomes to broader systems change for small and vulnerable farmers. He leads Acumen’s agriculture influence strategy with a specific focus on climate resilience, working closely with country teams and fund MDs to build synergies across the investment capital spectrum. Chris has spent his entire career working with small and vulnerable farmers, both internationally and domestically. Chris holds a master of science in sustainable management from Columbia University, and a bachelor’s degree from Ithaca College.

Preeti Bhattacharji ’14BUS ’09CC

Head of Sustainable Investing at JPMorgan Chase US Private Bank

Preeti Bhattacharji is the head of sustainable investing for JP Morgan’s US Private Bank. In this role, she works with advisors and their clients to incorporate sustainability into their investment portfolios, develops thought leadership, and works with portfolio managers and due diligence colleagues to expand the Private Bank’s sustainable investing platform.

Preeti has over a decade of experience stewarding sustainable investments across asset classes and return profiles. Prior to JP Morgan, she worked on post-investment engagement at Calvert Research & Management. Before that, she served as a vice president of Integrated Capitals at the FB Heron Foundation, working to better align the foundation’s endowment with its mission, informing Heron’s long-term strategic direction, and helping to steward its investments across asset classes. Preeti has also served as the assistant director for the Heilbrunn Center for Graham & Dodd Investing and a research associate at the Council on Foreign Relations, where she reported on global issues that included the global financial crisis and climate change. Preeti earned a BA from Columbia University and an MBA from Columbia Business School. She serves on the investment committee of the Nathan Cummings Foundation.

Bridget Realmuto LaPerla ’19BUS

CEO and Founder of Lion and Arc LLC

Bridget Realmuto LaPerla is a sustainable finance executive with over fifteen years of leadership experience across investment banking, impact investing, carbon/climate/impact fintech, government, and quantitative research. She reads markets through the lens of sustainable finance themes to help companies compete in a decarbonizing economy. With her client-centric approach and deep experience, she serves as a strategic advisor to C-Suite executives across EMEA and the Americas.

As a climate finance and impact investing thought leader, her research is published in top financial journals (i.e., the Financial Analysts Journal, Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, and the Journal of Impact and ESG Investing). Announcements of her work can be found in IRMagazine, Forbes, ESG Today, Securities Lending Times, and other financial news outlets.

Driven to facilitate and design robust sustainable economies, she is an active member of of the Boston Economic Club, chapter leader emeritus of Women Investing for a Sustainable Economy, and guest lecturer at leading universities. Previously, she served as an advisor to Columbia University’s Trustees as a voting member of the Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing and she sat on BSR’s Sustainability Principles and Objectives Framework Advisory Council, among other leadership roles.

Marieke Beeuwkes Spence

Executive Director of Impact Capital Managers

Marieke Spence is executive director of Impact Capital Managers (ICM) and the affiliated ICM Institute, with the joint mission of advancing member performance and scaling the impact investing marketplace with integrity and authenticity. Under her leadership ICM has grown its membership of leading private capital impact funds from 10 to over 140 members, and from ~$2B to over $80B in collective AUM; established network standards on impact measurement and management; published field-building reports on legal innovation in impact investing and financial returns and impact on exit; launched the Mosaic Fellowship, which to date has placed 100+ top graduate students from under-estimated backgrounds at ICM member funds as summer associates; and with Daniel Pianko, launched the Better Money, Better World podcast. With Mark Berryman of Capricorn, she created ICM’s LP Advisory Council. ICM is supported by membership dues and select corporate partners, and the ICM Institute, by leading philanthropic institutions including the Surdna, MacArthur, Ford, W.K. Kellogg, and Annie E. Casey Foundations, and the Tipping Point Fund on Impact Investing.

Prior to joining ICM, Marieke was a director of the global philanthropists circle at Synergos, a peer learning community of 400+ philanthropists and social investors, and launched affinity groups focused on impact investing and sustainable food systems. Before Synergos, Marieke was a senior consultant at TCC Group, a social impact strategy consulting firm. She has studied impact investing as a summer fellow at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and her thought leadership has been published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, the peer-reviewed The Foundation Review, and GrantCraft. She is co-author with Jacob Harold, Joshua Spitzer, and Jed Emerson of “Environmental Impact Investing: Co-Managing the Ecological and Economic Household,” published in Social Finance (Oxford University Press, 2016). Marieke was formerly director of corporate communication and strategy at The Kessler Group; producer of On Point, a nationally-syndicated news program on National Public Radio; and assistant director of communications at the Council on Foreign Relations. She holds a MALD in international business and communication from The Fletcher School at Tufts University and a BA from Brown University, and is an alumna of the inaugural impact investing program at Oxford University’s Said Business School.

Gernot Wagner

Climate Economist and Faculty Director of the Climate Knowledge Initiative at Columbia Business School

Gernot Wagner is a climate economist at Columbia Business School. His research, teaching, and writing focus on climate risks and climate policy.

Gernot writes a monthly column for Project Syndicate and has written five books, including, most recently: Geoengineering: the Gamble, published by Polity (2021); Stadt, Land, Klima (“City, Country, Climate”), published, in German, by Brandstätter Verlag (2021); Climate Shock, joint with Harvard’s Martin Weitzman and published by Princeton (2015), among others, a Top 15 FT McKinsey Business Book of the Year 2015, and Austria’s Natural Science Book of the Year 2017; and But will the planet notice?, published by Hill & Wang/Farrar Strauss & Giroux (2011).

Prior to joining Columbia as senior lecturer and serving as faculty director of the Climate Knowledge Initiative, Gernot taught at NYU, Harvard, and Columbia. He was the founding executive director of Harvard’s Solar Geoengineering Research Program (2016–2019), and served as economist at the Environmental Defense Fund (2008–2016), most recently as lead senior economist (2014–2016) and member of its leadership council (2015–2016). Before EDF, he worked for the Boston Consulting Group in Düsseldorf and New York and wrote for the Financial Times leader writer team in London. He has been a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a senior fellow at the Jain Family Institute, and is a CEPR research fellow, a CESifo faculty fellow, a faculty affiliate at the Columbia Center for Environmental Economics and Policy, a member of the New York City Panel on Climate Change, a coordinating lead author of the Austrian Panel on Climate Change, and he serves on the board of CarbonPlan.org.

Born and raised in Amstetten, Austria, Gernot graduated from high school in his hometown before moving to the United States for college. He holds a joint bachelor’s magna cum laude with highest honors in environmental science, public policy, and economics, and a master’s and PhD in political economy and government from Harvard, as well as a master’s in economics from Stanford.

Gernot lives in New York City with his wife, Siri Nippita, a gynecologist at NYU Langone Health and the chief of the family planning division as well as the director of Reproductive Choice at Bellevue Hospital, and their two young children.

Truman Lam

Owner of Jing Fong Restaurant

Truman is the third generation operator of Jing Fong Restaurant. He has been involved in Jing Fong since 2010. He initially got involved on a part-time basis to help his parents digitize some of the systems in place. However, over time his role grew and he became involved in all aspects of the business. Truman oversaw multiple renovation projects at Jing Fong’s location at Elizabeth Street, its first expansion project outside of Chinatown, apprenticed as a dim sum chef, as well as guided the restaurant through the COVID crisis, relocating from its iconic banquet hall to its current location on Centre Street. Prior to joining Jing Fong, Truman worked at an investment bank in the M&A advisory group.

Jan Lee

President of the Chinatown Core Block Association

Jan Lee is a third-generation Chinatown resident, business owner, and property owner. A licensed home improvement contractor, Jan currently builds custom cabinetry and furniture and manages general contracting work in his family’s buildings. For 18 years, he ran a ground-floor storefront on Mott Street, specializing in home furnishings, antiques, and interior design. He also founded the 70John art gallery in DUMBO, Brooklyn, where he represented artists and ran exhibitions in his loft space for over 20 years.

Jan’s roots in Chinatown are deep, and so is his commitment to it. His volunteer work spans over 30 years, focusing on improving the quality of life for residents, supporting small businesses, and promoting community health. He has served for over 15 years on the board of Hamilton Madison House, six years on the board of the Small Property Owners of New York. He is a co-founder of Neighbors United Below Canal, the grassroots group that has been fighting since 2018 to halt the construction of what would be the world’s tallest jail in Chinatown. He also co-founded the Chinatown Core Block Association to advocate for quality of life issues, address transportation concerns, and review liquor license applications in the area.

Born and raised in New York City, Jan is a proud product of the public school system, including LaGuardia High School of Music & Art. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business from Green Mountain College. When he’s not in the city volunteering or renovating spaces for clients, he and his partner, Shane, are off fishing on a beach somewhere.

Vic Lee

CEO and Co-founder of Welcome to Chinatown Inc.

Vic Lee is a lifelong New Yorker, a proud product of NYC’s public schools and CUNY, and the daughter of Chinese immigrants. Prior to Welcome to Chinatown (WtC), Vic was an industry recognized corporate travel and meetings strategist at The Estee Lauder Companies. Beyond WtC, Vic serves as a state committee member for Assembly District 65 and was the former district leader for 65D. She sits on the board of Gotham Park, working to bring park equity and reimagined public spaces to Lower Manhattan. Previously, she served on Alpha Kappa Delta Phi’s national board, mobilizing thousands of young AAPI women. In her free time, Vic enjoys afternoons with her German Shephard, Andy, recreating Clair Saffitz recipes, exploring government-led succession planning initiatives, and studying alternative food systems.

Alan Zhang

Assistant Professor of Business at Columbia Business School

Alan Zhang is an assistant professor in the Management Division at Columbia Business School. He is an organizational ethnographer studying production processes. His research examines the nature of contemporary production work, and how internal production practices are influenced by outsiders’ understandings of production. Current research streams focus on fine wine production, nuclear energy production, and the production of digital analytics.

Before joining Columbia Business School, Alan completed his PhD and MS in management (MIT Sloan), MS in customer analytics (WashU), and a BA in neuroscience and health care Management (WashU).

Diane D’Costa

Partnerships Lead at IDEO.org

At IDEO.org, Diane co-leads the Opportunity Portfolio and works to build relationships across designers, partners, and community members to co-create programs, experiences, and strategies for economic mobility and community thriving. Her favorite past projects include co-designing an alternative to exclusionary discipline alongside students, teachers, administrators, and community members in Texas and working alongside a cohort of youth co-designers to create a refreshed brand for a national youth organizing and activism platform. Prior to joining IDEO.org, Diane served as a high school and middle school teacher in Washington, DC and Tulsa, Oklahoma and has a passion for youth leadership. Currently, she sits on the board for Maryland Leadership Workshops and directs their senior high residential leadership program.

Diane also worked in local government and policy, most recently as the director of advocacy and community partnerships at the Prince George’s County Council, where she collaborated with community members and elected officials to design and implement programs including free community college, transitional housing and workforce development programs for returning citizens, and youth engagement programs for young people to advise elected officials on legislation. She graduated from the University of Virginia with degrees in leadership and public policy and youth and social innovation.

Heather Evans

Chief Information Officer at Uncommon Schools

Heather Evans is an accomplished IT and operations professional with extensive experience across various educational and corporate environments. At Uncommon Schools, Heather has held multiple leadership roles, including head of data and IT and senior director of IT. Prior experience includes director of operations and educational technology at Sonrise Christian School and director of operations at Liferay, Inc. Additionally, Heather’s early career included positions at O’Melveny & Myers LLP as an IT trainer and user support specialist, as well as serving as a senior call center operator at Pepperdine University. Heather holds a MA in educational technology and a BS in computer science/mathematics, both from Pepperdine University.

Demetra Mallios ’22SEAS

Founder and CEO of Puberry

Demetra Mallios is the founder and CEO of Puberry, a B2B SaaS company providing gamified and medically verified, AI-powered health curriculum for K-12 — think Duolingo for health. She’s a first-generation Greek-American and an ex-pro soccer player-turned-entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience in analytics, startups, and leadership. At 23 years-old, she led the global Adidas analytics team to define their five-year global women’s strategy at their HQ in Germany and the Netherlands. She also worked for mission-driven femtech and healthtech startups like Ellevest and Bundle Organics, and even created her own healthtech community platform during undergrad. She’s also mentored startups at the Columbia Startup Lab.

Demetra began researching, prototyping, and finding product-market fit for Puberry while studying at Columbia University’s MS in business analytics program, combining both the Columbia Engineering and MBA programs. After conducting a year of extensive research, creating several small-scale iterations, and receiving organic demand to enter school pilots, she immediately began working on Puberry full-time after graduating in December 2022. With just $40K in grants, Demetra built Puberry, securing 14 national partners (including Aunt Flow and Counseling in Schools NYC), four school pilots, and two paid school programs — earning more than 4x the average edtech rate. Puberry is the first and only holistic health education curriculum with three interfaces supporting its key stakeholders: students, parents, and teachers. She created Puberry to make health education fun, easy, inclusive, and empowering for everyone, because understanding our mental and physical health can literally change the trajectory of our lives. Puberry is now officially an NYC Department of Education Vendor, and they’re part of the Headstream Accelerator and Demetra is a one of eight global Halcyon EquityTech Fellows.

Nina Zhou ’26BUS

Co-president of the Social Enterprise Club and MBA Candidate at Columbia Business School

Bathsheba Asati

Principal Strategy Custodian at Amahoro Coalition

Mobilizing Africa’s private sector to create economic opportunities for forcibly displaced people.

Bathsheba Asati is the principal strategy custodian of Amahoro Coalition, a leading convener of private sector leaders in Africa dedicated to developing market-based solutions for forcibly displaced people (FDPs). The coalition’s four-pillar approach includes a fellowship program providing leadership training, business growth support, and funding to FDP-led enterprises; private sector engagement to promote economic opportunities for displaced individuals; building a pipeline of FDPs who can take up these opportunities; and generating insights and data on best practices. To date, the Coalition has secured over 35,000 job commitments from companies and mobilized over $220 million in financial and in-kind support for organizations that work with FDPs. Bathsheba aims to collaborate with private sector and government partners to develop a comprehensive initiative focused on increasing access to funding for FDP-led enterprises, including Amahoro’s Fellows. She is eager to leverage the scholars program to develop this cross-sectoral approach, helping FDPs secure sustainable business growth and support their meaningful integration into their communities.

Bathsheba holds a bachelor’s in law degree from Strathmore University in Nairobi, Kenya. She also holds a master’s degree in law and economics from Queen Mary University of London, in the United Kingdom.

Michelle Cartier

Team Lead – Territorial Component Internal Displacement Solutions Fund (IDSF) at OIM Colombia

Promoting the protection and reparation of conflict-affected populations by strengthening public policy implementation in transitional contexts in Colombia.

Michelle Cartier works with the International Organization for Migration, where she implements projects addressing the causes and consequences of internal displacement from armed conflict. As team lead, she runs field operations, working with local governments and communities across seven cities in Colombia to achieve lasting solutions for internally displaced people. Through participatory processes and facilitating engagement with local government, they take policy innovation to the local level to shift how government bodies address internal displacement and ensure that policies respond to the needs of IDPs. Through the scholars program, Michelle aims to deepen her understanding of participatory methods for program design, implementation, evaluation, and learning in post-conflict contexts to further support IDP groups and advocate for scaling up these inclusive policies.

Michelle holds a double bachelor’s degree in economics and political Science from Universidad de los Andes, in Colombia, as well as a master’s Degree in political science, with a focus on political economy of international development, from the University of Toronto. She also completed a certificate in peace and conflict studies at Makerere University in Uganda, as a Rotary Peace Fellow (2022-2023).

Khalid Hashi

Founder and CEO of OGOW Health

Advancing maternal and primary health through inclusive, human-centered digital health solutions that strengthen local systems and community agency.

Khalid Hashi is the founder and CEO of OGOW Health, a digital health organization advancing maternal, child, and nutrition outcomes through inclusive, human-centered innovation. Driven by his experience helping his grandmother navigate the challenges of accessing care within the health system, OGOW Health was founded to strengthen health systems by digitizing medical records, allowing physicians to access and update patient information more efficiently. They also promote public health interventions through digital reminders for lifesaving immunization and provide accessible, timely information to providers and caregivers to make informed decisions. OGOW Health’s platform supports over 700 maternal and child health clinics across 23 regions and 98 districts, with expansion underway into new contexts. Facing increased demand for their services in Somalia and beyond, Khalid plans to use the scholars program to further strengthen OGOW’s strategic approach, operational sustainability, and integration of emerging tools such as AI — while continuing to build sustainable, resilient health care systems in underserved settings and expanding into new contexts.

Khalid Hashi holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology with a minor in political economy from Concordia University. He was selected by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and OpenIDEO Accelerator, which supports local innovators in East Africa to strengthen caregiving and improve public health.

Khalid is also a graduate of Google’s Startups for Sustainable Development program and a fellow of the South Park Commons–Agency Fund Social Impact Fellowship.

Antonella Perrone

Chief Operating Officer at Xcapit

Developing digital tools to foster financial autonomy and deliver aid to underserved communities without internet access.

Antonella Perrone is the COO at Xcapit, where she leads the development and implementation of blockchain-based solutions to promote financial inclusion among communities with limited or no access to financial services and humanitarian aid. As a UNICEF-backed startup, Xcapit makes financial tools accessible for people who don’t have internet, smartphones, or bank accounts. This technology also enables local NGOs to deliver funds more transparently, efficiently, and at a lower cost to optimize last-mile delivery in cases of humanitarian crises. Antonella has overseen pilot programs, such as Xcapit’s SMS-based smart wallet that allowed remote, nondigital communities to receive funds in real time over SMS, successfully disbursing funds to 100% of their target community in Cusco, Peru. Antonella aims to scale Xcapit’s impact by expanding financial inclusion solutions and reaching more people across Latin America. As her work grows rapidly and garners the attention of high-level stakeholders in the region, she hopes the scholars program will help her develop systems-level thinking skills, enabling her to leverage this expanding network and position herself as a collaborative partner.

Antonella holds a civil engineering degree from the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina, where she also pursued an MBA. She later completed coursework in management engineering at Politecnico di Milano and the global management in Asia program at ESSEC Business School in Singapore.

Valentina Primo

Founder and CEO of Startups Without Borders

Empowering refugees and migrants to be agents of innovation through entrepreneurial training and support.

Valentina Primo is the founder and CEO of Startups Without Borders, which activates entrepreneurship ecosystems for refugees, migrants, and local communities in 15 countries across the MENA region and Europe. They aim to empower these communities through a three-pronged approach: entrepreneurship programs for capacity building and upskilling, curated events to catalyze network connections, and media platforms to change the narrative on migration. To date, Startups Without Borders has built a robust ecosystem with 20,000 entrepreneurs, mentors, and investors. By partnering with 400 organizations from the private, nonprofit, and public sectors, they have trained 7,800 entrepreneurs who have collectively created over 40,000 jobs. Its flagship event, the Startups Without Borders Summit, is now one of the largest startup events in North Africa. Through the scholars program, Valentina hopes to expand the organization’s impact by building a holistic approach to address funding needs, promote long-term entrepreneurial growth, and accelerate citizenship rights for migrant and refugee communities.

Valentina holds a bachelor’s degree in social communications and journalism from Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, in Argentina, and a master’s degree in peace studies and international cooperation, human rights, and European Union policies from Università degli Studi Roma Tre, in Italy. She was awarded the Women in Excellence Award by the Women Economic Forum.

Dan Wang

Lambert Family Professor of Social Enterprise in the Faculty of Business and Co-director of the Tamer Institute for Social Enterprise and Climate Change at Columbia Business School

Dan Wang is Associate Professor of Business and (by courtesy) Sociology at Columbia Business School, where he is also the co-director of the Tamer Institute for Social Enterprise and Climate Change. His research examines how social networks drive social and economic transformation through the analysis of global migration, social movements, organizational innovation, and entrepreneurship. He teaches the core MBA Strategy Formulation course, an elective MBA course on Technology Strategy, a PhD seminar on Organizational Theory. He also teaches in several Executive Education programs on Social Networks and Technology Strategy. He earned his BA from Columbia University (Columbia College) and PhD from Stanford University.

He received the 2020 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Core and the 2018 Singhvi Prize for Scholarship in the Classroom, Columbia Business School’s top teaching honor conferred by the graduating MBA class. He was also named to Poets and Quants’ 2018 list of “Best 40 Business School Professors under 40.” In 2021, he received the Robert W. Lear Service Award, given by the graduating class for his commitment to the MBA student body.

Wang’s research lies at the intersection of business and society with a focus on innovation and entrepreneurship. One of his main research streams focuses on the global migration of high-skilled individuals. Specifically, Wang studies “reverse brain drain”, or how the return migration of skilled professionals spreads ideas, technologies, and new ventures to different parts of the world. Another research area focuses on how social protest and activism create an interface between business and society. In this work, Wang has analyzed collaboration networks across social movements to predict innovation, knowledge sharing, strategic choices, and protest scope across activist groups. Finally, in on-going work on entrepreneurship, he has analyzed the implications of different network structures of venture capital syndication for the innovation output and financial performance of start-ups. 

His work has been published in Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Annual Review of Sociology, Journal of Applied Psychology, Social Forces, Social Networks, Strategic Management Journal, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, and Theory and Society. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for the Strategic Management Journal and Special Issue Editor for Organization Science and has served as a Consulting Editor for The American Journal of Sociology. He is co-editor of the book series, Elements in the Structural Analysis of Culture, Social Organization, and History with Cambridge University Press. His work has been cited in The New York Times, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, and NPR and has been recognized with multiple awards from the Academy of Management. He has also been awarded both the Dissertation (2012) and Junior Faculty Fellowship (2017) from the Kauffman Foundation. He has also contributed to practitioner-oriented publications such as Strategy+Business, and written Op-Eds for CNN.

Doug Bauer

Executive Director of the Clark Foundation; Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School

The Clark Foundation focuses on helping people out of poverty and assisting individuals to lead independent and productive lives and supports nonprofits and programs in New York City and Cooperstown, NY. Doug is also executive director of The Scriven and Fernleigh Foundations and senior vice president with The Clark Estates, Inc. Prior to Clark, Doug was a senior vice president with Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA) from 2002 to 2009. Prior to joining RPA, Doug held management positions at Goldman, Sachs and Co., SmithKlineBeecham (now GlaxoSmithKline), and The Pew Charitable Trusts. Doug co-authored, with Steven Godeke, Philanthropy’s New Passing Gear: Mission Related Investing, A Policy and Implementation Guide for Foundation Trustees. Doug serves on boards for The Trust for America’s Health, The Leatherstocking Corporation, The Melalucca Foundation, and is a past chair of Partners for Health Foundation and Philanthropy New York. He is also an adjunct faculty member at the Columbia Business School and the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice, where he teaches about philanthropy and the nonprofit sector. Doug is a graduate of Michigan State University. He also has an MJ from Temple University and a MS from Penn.

Danielle Moss Cox ’06TC

CEO of Oliver Scholars

Dr. Danielle R. Moss Cox brings over 20 years of experience in college access and education to Oliver Scholars, a 40-year-old educational nonprofit that identifies high-achieving Black and Latinx students for admission to selective independent day and boarding schools and supports them through graduation from competitive colleges. A vocal proponent of expanded educational access for underserved communities, she previously served as the inaugural chief of staff of the New York Civil Liberties Union, as the second Black woman to serve as president and CEO of the YWCA of the City of New York in its 150+ history, and as the award-winning CEO of Harlem Educational Activities Fund for ten years. She was previously appointed to the Mayor’s New York City’s Commission on Gender Equity and co-chaired the Young Women’s Initiative of the New York City Council. She currently serves as chair of the board of directors of The New York Women’s Foundation and as secretary of the board of Everyday Democracy. Her contributions to education and the social sector have been recognized by the New York State Education Department and The New York City Comptroller’s Office, among others. In 2015 The Network Journal named her one of the 25 Most Influential Black Women in Business. In summer of 2016, she was featured in The New York Times’ Corner Office column and in Crain’s New York. Dr. Moss Cox has contributed to The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post, Edutopia, The Amsterdam News, and City Limits Magazine. She is a contributing author to the leadership book “Everybody Paddles” edited by Charles Montorio-Archer and the LAMDA Literary Award Winning “LOVE With Accountability” edited by Aishah Shahidah Simmons. Her 2018 TED Talk on student potential has garnered over 2M views and has been translated into over 10 languages globally. In 2023, Crain’s NY named her one of 50 Notable Black Leaders. She holds MA and EdM degrees from Teachers College Columbia University, where she also completed her doctorate in organization and leadership, with a focus on education administration. She received her BA from Swarthmore College with a degree in both english literature and history, with a concentration in Black Studies. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and family.

Alison Overseth ’84BUS

CEO at Partnership for After School Education (PASE)

Alison Overseth is the chief executive officer of the Partnership for After School Education (PASE), a nonprofit which works with hundreds of community-based organizations, higher education institutions, and corporate partners to improve the quality of opportunities available to young people living in poverty in New York City. With over 30 years of experience in the youth serving profession, Alison directed a management initiative for the Fund for the City of New York to strengthen the nonprofit agencies that provide community support for young people, and served as the founding president of the board of directors of PASE for 12 years. Alisonserved until recently as the chair of the board of trustees of Smith College; is on the board of directors of The New York Women’s Foundation; has served on the advisory board of The Tamer Institute for Social Enterprise and Climate Change at Columbia Business School; and has taught leadership courses at Bank Street College of Education. Alison was a director at The First Boston Corporation, specializing in corporate restructurings, from 1984-1992. Alison is a graduate of Smith College and Columbia Business School.

Jhae Thompson

Executive Director of Hit the Books

Over the last 15 years, Jhae Thompson has provided strategic leadership and organizational vision, including leadership roles with Community Youth Advance, Horton’s Kids, Higher Achievement – Baltimore, and District of Columbia Public Schools.

Before working in the educational and nonprofit industries, Jhae spent five years working in corporate for Blue Cross Blue Shield and Aetna, Inc as a marketing professional supporting strategic sales and customer communication.

She holds a BA from Temple University and MA from LaSalle University, and completed the Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate Program at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University.

Erika Karp ’91BUS

President of Green Alpha Investments

As president of Green Alpha Investments, Erika Karp brings over three decades of Wall Street experience and leadership in sustainable finance to guide the firm’s strategic direction and impact investing initiatives.

Most recently, Erika served as executive managing director and chief impact officer at Pathstone from 2021 to 2024, where she led the firm’s impact investing practice. Prior to that, she was the founder and CEO of Cornerstone Capital Group from 2013 to 2021, building a leading independent research and advisory firm focused on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing. Her Wall Street career includes significant leadership roles as managing director and head of global sector research at UBS Investment Bank from 2000 to 2013, and as director of institutional equities at Credit Suisse from 1991 to 1999.

Erika’s expertise in sustainable finance extends beyond her executive roles through her extensive involvement in industry-shaping organizations. She served as a founding board member of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), was a member of the Global Agenda Council on Financing and Capital at the World Economic Forum, and acted as an impact investing advisor to the Clinton Global Initiative. She has also served as an advisor to the UN Global Compact and delivered keynote addresses as a General Assembly plenary speaker. Currently, she serves as executive director of the Finance Leaders Fellowship at the Aspen Institute.

Erika holds an MBA in finance from Columbia Business School and a BS in economics from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Bruce Usher

Professor of Professional Practice; Co-director of the Tamer Institute for Social Enterprise and Climate Change; Elizabeth B. Strickler ’86 and Mark T. Gallogly ’86 Faculty Director at Columbia Business School

Bruce Usher is a Professor of Professional Practice and the Elizabeth B. Strickler ’86 and Mark T. Gallogly ’86 Faculty Director of the Tamer Institute for Social Enterprise and Climate Change. Professor Usher teaches on the intersection of finance, social and environmental issues, and is a recipient of the Singhvi Prize for Scholarship in the Classroom, the Lear Award, and the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence.

Professor Usher has written numerous cases for use in business school courses, with a primary focus on climate change and business. In 2019, Usher published Renewable Energy: A Primer for the Twenty-First Century (Columbia University Press), the first in the Earth Institute’s sustainability series of books.

Prior to his work at Columbia, Professor Usher was CEO of EcoSecurities Group plc, which developed greenhouse gas emission reduction projects in developing countries. EcoSecurities was acquired by JP Morgan in 2009. Professor Usher was previously the co-founder and CEO of TreasuryConnect LLC, which provided electronic trading solutions to banks and was acquired in 2001. Prior to that, he worked in financial services for twelve years in New York and Tokyo. Professor Usher is an active investor and advisor to entrepreneurial ventures focused on climate change and clean energy (UsherWorks.com). He is a board member of Community Energy, OptiRTC, and CapShift, and is Chair of the Tamer Fund for Social Ventures. Usher earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Avika Agrawal ’26BUS

Conference Chair for the Capital for Good Conference and MBA Candidate at Columbia Business School