Clay Bavor is a co-founder of Sierra, which helps businesses build better, more human customer experiences with AI. A visionary product leader and technologist, Clay spent 18 years at Google, where he spearheaded some of the company’s most innovative efforts as head of Google Labs, including augmented and virtual reality, Project Starline, and Google Lens. Earlier, Clay oversaw the product and design teams for Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Drive, shaping tools used by billions worldwide.

Rick J. Caruso is a Los Angeles civic leader and real estate developer whose public service and private-sector work have shaped the city for decades. He began his civic career as the youngest Commissioner in Los Angeles history at the Department of Water and Power, where he resolved a decades-long water lawsuit that expanded the city’s water supply while protecting the environment. He later served as President of the Los Angeles Police Commission, leading a comprehensive overhaul of the LAPD and recruiting Chief William Bratton—an effort that helped drive crime to its lowest levels in 50 years. In the private sector, Caruso is the founder of Caruso®, the company behind landmark destinations such as The Grove, one of the highest-grossing shopping centers in the country. Following the devastating 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, he founded Steadfast LA, a civic nonprofit dedicated to accelerating recovery and rebuilding through public-private partnerships, reflecting his longstanding commitment to pragmatic, results-driven leadership for the city.

Barry Diller is the Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC and the Chairman and Senior Executive of Expedia Group. From 1995 to late 2010, Mr. Diller served as the Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer of IAC. Since December 1992, beginning with QVC, he has served as chief executive for a number of predecessor companies engaged in media and interactivity prior to the formation of IAC. From October 1984 to April 1992, Mr. Diller served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fox, Inc. and was responsible for the creation of Fox Broadcasting Company in addition to Fox's motion picture operations.

Harley Finkelstein is an entrepreneur and the President of Shopify. He founded his first company at age 17 while a student at McGill. Harley completed his law degree as well as his MBA at the University of Ottawa. He received the Canadian Angel Investor of the Year Award, Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 Award, Fortune’s 40 Under 40, was inducted into the Order of Ottawa, and received the King Charles III Coronation Medal. From 2014 to 2017 Harley was on the Board of Directors of the C100, and from 2017 to 2020 he was on to the Board of Directors of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). He is currently on the Board of Directors of the National Retail Federation, Operation Hope, and the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation. Harley recently co-founded Firebelly, a modern high-end tea brand, and created Big Shot, a project and podcast that archives the stories of the greatest Jewish entrepreneurs of the last century.

Brendan Foody is the co-founder and co-CEO of Mercor, one of the fastest-growing companies in Silicon Valley’s history. Under his leadership, Mercor has become a trusted partner to leading AI companies and built a network of tens of thousands of expert professionals who help train frontier AI models for top labs and enterprises.

Antonio is a proven investor and entrepreneur who partners with many of the defining founders and CEOs of our time as they seek to reimagine what is possible while making the world better. As Founder, CEO, and CIO of Valor Equity Partners, Antonio oversees one of the leading growth-focused investment firms in the US with an estimated $55 billion in AUM as of December 31, 2025. Antonio is recognized as an impactful and thoughtful contributor to the strategy and operations of businesses across industries. Notably, he served as a Director of Tesla from 2007 to 2021, helping take the company public and acting as Lead Independent Director for eight years. Antonio plays an important role in helping numerous Valor investments innovate and succeed, including serving on the boards of, among others, SpaceX, Chaos Industries, and Zipline. A longtime advocate for AI’s potential beginning with his 2013 investment in DeepMind and, more recently, xAI, Antonio leads Valor’s efforts to identify and invest in AI-driven companies to enhance competitive positions, drive product innovation, and add value to customers.

Van Jones is a U.S. media personality, entrepreneur and world-class changemaker. Jones has a rare track record of bringing people together to do hard things – in areas as diverse as clean energy solutions, criminal justice reform and racial inclusion in the tech sector. In 2007, Van was the primary champion of the Green Jobs Act, signed into law by George W. Bush. In 2009, he worked in the Obama White House as the Special Advisor for Green Jobs. In 2018, he helped pass the FIRST STEP Act, signed into law by Donald Trump; the New York Times calls that legislation the most substantial breakthrough in criminal justice in a generation.

In 2021, Jones was the first recipient of Jeff Bezos’ Courage & Civility Award. He has since founded Dream Machine Innovation Lab and launched RAPPORT.co, which uses A.I. to increase firms’ EQ. A Yale Law School graduate, Van is a CNN host, an Emmy Award-winning producer, a 3X New York Times best-selling author and the creator of the Van Jones Substack.

Michael Kratsios is President Donald J. Trump’s chief science and technology policy advisor.

As the thirteenth Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Michael oversees the development and execution of the Nation’s science and technology policy agenda. He leads the Trump administration’s efforts to ensure American leadership in scientific discovery and technological innovation, including in critical and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and biotechnology.

In the first Trump administration, he served as the fourth Chief Technology Officer of the United States at the White House and as Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering at the Pentagon.

Prior to the White House, Michael invested in, advised, and built technology companies in Silicon Valley. A South Carolina native, Michael graduated from Princeton University and served as a Visiting Scholar at Beijing’s Tsinghua University.

Ben Lamm is the Co-Founder and CEO Of Colossal Biosciences, the world’s first de-extinction company. He is a serial technology entrepreneur driven to solve the most complex challenges facing our planet. For over two decades, Ben has built disruptive businesses that future-proof our world. In addition to leading and growing his own companies, he is passionate about emerging technology, science, space and climate change. Prior to Colossal, Ben served as the founder and CEO to a number of companies, including Hypergiant, an enterprise AI software company focused on critical infractures, space, and defense acquired by Trive Capital; Conversable, the leading conversational intelligence platform that helps brands reach customers through automated experiences acquired by LivePerson; and Chaotic Moon, a global creative technology powerhouse acquired by Accenture. He was also the Co-founder of Team Chaos, a consumer gaming company acquired by Zynga. Ben is a fellow and on the Board of Trustees at the Explorers Club, whose mission is to promote the scientific exploration of land, sea, air, and space by supporting research and education in the physical, natural, and biological sciences.

Alfred Lin is a Partner at Sequoia Capital, working with founders from idea to IPO and beyond. He partners with companies across various industries, including consumer marketplaces, fintech, robotics, and healthcare. He sits on the boards of Airbnb, DoorDash, Citadel Securities, Clay, Cobot, Formation Bio, Found, Houzz, Kalshi, Nominal, Zipline, and more.

Matt Mahan is the Mayor of San José, running for Governor to get California back to basics. Raised in Watsonville by working-class parents, a public school teacher and a postal carrier, Matt went on to Harvard, where he graduated with honors and served as student body president. After college, he spent a year in Bolivia building irrigation systems with family farmers, then returned to San José to teach on the city’s East Side through Teach for America.

Geoff von Maltzahn, PhD is the Co-Founder and CEO of Lila Sciences, the world’s first scientific superintelligence platform and autonomous lab for life, chemistry, and materials science. He is among the most successful scientific entrepreneurs of his generation. Listed as an inventor on over 200 patents and pending applications, his technologies underpin more than 10 companies integrating biology and AI to transform human health and sustainability. Geoff’s groundbreaking companies have achieved over $10b in public and private market capitalization and include Generate:Biomedicines, Quotient Therapeutics, Tessera Therapeutics, Indigo Agriculture, Sana Biotechnology (NASDAQ: SANA), and Seres Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MCRB). Geoff was awarded a PhD from MIT; an MS in bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego; and an SB in chemical engineering from MIT.

On the court, Chris Paul was a force to be reckoned with, a fierce competitor, and one of the most talented, respected NBA players of all time. Off the court, he’s a father, husband, compassionate philanthropist and businessman, who has built a robust brand and made a huge difference in his community, all while creating a powerful legacy. He is greatly respected by his peers as a leader both in and outside of basketball.

After leaving Wake Forest University (who retired his jersey in March 2013) at the end of his sophomore year, Chris was chosen by the New Orleans Hornets as the fourth pick in the 2005 NBA draft, which led to NBA Rookie of the Year honors, and the first of his twelve All-Star selections.

Chris first joined the Los Angeles Clippers in 2011 becoming the face of the franchise and helped to lead the Clippers to their first ever Pacific Division title in 2013. After six years with the Clippers, Chris joined the Houston Rockets in 2017 and helped the team win a franchise-record 65 games in his debut season. Chris spent the 2024-25 season playing with the San Antonio Spurs where he played in and started 82 games – a remarkable feat ending the season turning age 40. He had previously played with the Golden State Warriors, Phoenix Suns, and Oklahoma City Thunder. In his final 21st NBA Season, Chris wore number 3 for the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Winston-Salem, North Carolina native is a four-time NBA First Team selection, a seven- time All NBA Defensive First Team selection, a twelve-time NBA All-Star, a four-time NBA assist leader, and a six-time NBA steals leader, who won MVP honors at the 2013 All-Star game. He is also a two-time gold medal winner with Team USA at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games. Chris and the Phoenix Suns became 2021 Western Conference champions and advanced to the 2021 NBA Finals where they competed against the Milwaukee Bucks. He ranks second place on the NBA all-time career assists and steals lists. He is the first player in league history to record 20,000 points and 11,000 assists in his career. He was named to the NBA’s 75th Anniversary team as one of the 75 greatest players in NBA history.

In 2021, Chris ended his tenure as President of the National Basketball Players Association, which began in August 2013. He played an instrumental role in making key decisions including the landmark decision to provide health insurance to retired players.

Chris currently serves on the Board of Directors for the NBPA Foundation and the Brotherhood Crusade. He is an Advisory Board Member for College Track Los Angeles and co-owner of The Basketball Tournament (TBT) and The Soccer Tournament (TST).

His memoir, Sixty-One: Life Lessons from Papa, On and Off the Court, is a New York Times best-selling powerful and unexpected story of family, faith, tragedy, and life's most important lessons.

Chris’s business partnerships and investments include the Jordan Brand, State Farm Insurance, AT&T TGL Golf and Jupiter Links, Angel City FC, TBT – The Basketball Tournament, Turner Impact Capital, PlayersTV, Good Eat’n, Koia, 1916 company, Koia, Greenfly, JustEgg, Buoy Hydration, Eastside Golf, Move Insoles, Umaro Foods, and more.

Chris teamed up with Turner Impact Capital to raise awareness for the importance of affordable housing for working-class families. He's also an investor in the Turner Multifamily Impact Fund, which aims to invest, preserve and enrich existing multifamily properties in densely populated, ethnically diverse, underserved urban communities.

Chris’s production company, Ohh Dip!!! Productions, creates content across multiple platforms. Ohh Dip!!! produced the three-part ESPN docuseries Chapter 3, which provides a behind-the- scenes look at Chris’s decision to leave the L.A. Clippers and join the Houston Rockets. Chris served as an executive producer of the ESPN Sports Emmy-nominated documentary, Crossroads, featuring a high school lacrosse team’s journey in overcoming adversity. He executive produced The Game Changers, an award-winning 2018 documentary about plant-based eating, and Quibi’s 2020 Blackballed, the inside story of Donald Sterling and the L.A. Clippers. He executive produced The Day Sports Stood Still, a documentary from director Antoine Fuqua and Imagine Documentaries about sports shutting down due to Covid-19 for HBO and streaming on HBO Max. Chris narrated the documentary, Big House, The Pearl & The Triumph of Winston-Salem State, which aired on the CBS Sports network. Chris appeared in a sports-themed episode of Nickelodeon’s animated show, Blaze and the Monster Machines. He executive produces the ESPN+ Why Not Us series including Why Not Us: NC Central Men's Basketball, Why Not Us: FAMU Football, Why Not Us: Southern Dance, Why Not Us: Howard Golf, and Why Not Us: Grambling Dance. In addition, he executive produced PlayersTV’s Front Office, a series featuring a behind the-scenes look at athletes making strategic investments in their fans’ business ideas. Chris joined the voice cast for the upcoming animated feature Sneaks, which centers around a pair of misplaced sneakers that are lost in New York City and must find a way to get back to their sole mates. Ohh Dip!!! co-produced Bloomberg Quicktake’s How I Got Here, an in-depth weekly one-on-one interview hosted by Paul and featuring guests from the various worlds he touches—sports, business, entertainment and politics.

In Spring 2025, Ohh Dip!!! partnered with Words + Pictures forming a joint venture to launch Ohh Dip!!! Entertainment, a new full-service media production company specializing in non-scripted and scripted content. The new venture aims to produce content across basketball, sports and broader entertainment culture and is backed by a substantial investment from Words + Pictures, which is led by founder and CEO Connor Schell and part of the North Road Company.

His CP3 Basketball Academy is a premier training academy in Winston Salem and Greensboro, NC. The Academy provides skill development, basketball education, and leadership opportunities for young athletes of all skill levels. Chris also hosts youth clinics and camps, as well as an elite camp for top high school and college students from around the country. Chris is an advocate for growing the game of basketball for females and recently added three CP3 Girls AAU teams to its successful organization, the CP3 Flame (ages 15, 16, 17).

In 2022, Chris became a minority owner of the Indian Premier League's Rajasthan Royals. In 2018, he became part owner of the Winston-Salem Dash, a minor league baseball team in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Chris hosted his inaugural Club 61 Leadership Alliance in the summer of 2019. The mission of the annual Club 61 is to provide experiences and opportunities for young adults to develop leadership skills.

Chris and his family established the Chris Paul Family Foundation in 2005, which continues to provide resources that enrich and strengthen underserved communities across the country. Leveling the playing field in education, the foundation provides technology opportunities for children in underserved communities across the United States. The foundation supports numerous organizations including the Boys & Girls Club, Shoes That Fit, Vision to Learn, the Brotherhood Crusade, Leaps n Boundz and Feed The Children.

The foundation donated $2.5 million to Wake Forest University to support their basketball program and transform the men's and women's basketball clubhouses with expanded and enhanced locker rooms, nutrition resources, and treatment areas. The new Chris Paul Locker Room for the men’s team is named in his honor.

The foundation’s impact in local communities has earned Chris the NBA Community Assist Award five times. He has also received the 2016 ESPYs “Humanitarian of the Year” award, the 2016 Mannie Jackson Human Spirit Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame for his community efforts, and most recently the inaugural Kobe and Gigi Bryant Advocacy Award for his significant contributions to the advancement of girls' and women's basketball, and advocacy for the WNBA.

Chris continues to be a vocal champion of HBCUs and in December 2022, he finished the degree he started at Wake Forest, graduating from Winston-Salem State University. He also partnered with Harvard Business School to bring its Entertainment, Media and Sports program to North Carolina A&T and future HBCUs, creating the Special Topics in Management course to develop a pipeline for students pursuing careers in those industries. He has raised awareness through his HBCU Sneaker Tour and the sneakers were auctioned off with all of the proceeds donated to the men’s and women’s basketball programs of each school represented. He launched HBCU voting initiatives to encourage students to vote this past election. He partnered with Sour Patch Kids and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund to create The Mischief for Change Scholarship, a college scholarship fund with a $1 million commitment over the next five years for students attending HBCUs. The Chris Paul Basketball Academy hosted HBCU CON, an event for elite players from historically Black colleges and universities that will be offering instruction embedded with skill development from former and current NBA professionals, professional scouts, and training for male and female HBCU student-athletes aspiring to play professionally. In 2022, he was appointed to President Joe Biden's advisory board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Chris continues to host the annual Chris Paul HBCU Tip-Off and HBCU Challenge in partnership with The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Together with Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony, Chris launched the Social Change Fund United dedicated to investing in and supporting organizations focused on empowering communities of color and advocating for the human rights of all black lives.

Chris hosted Nickelodeon's 5th Annual Kids' Choice Sports Awards in 2018. He teamed up with Nickelodeon in Houston for Worldwide Day of Play, a nationwide initiative to promote active, playful lifestyles in today’s young generation.

Chris is a Co-Chair of When We All Vote, a new national, nonpartisan not-for-profit shaping the promise of democracy through voter registration and participation.

Chris is married to Jada Paul and they have two children; a daughter, Camryn, and a son, Chris II. They reside in Los Angeles, CA.

David Singleton is the co-founder and CEO of Dreamer, a platform where anyone can discover, build, and enjoy personal agentic apps.

Before founding Dreamer, David spent 7 years as Chief Technology Officer at Stripe, where he led the company’s engineering and design teams through a period of massive global scale. Prior to Stripe, he spent 11 years at Google, serving as Vice President of Engineering and leading development across mobile platforms, product experiences, and partnerships with major hardware manufacturers. Earlier in his career, he built operating systems for early smartphones at Symbian.

A lifelong builder, David is passionate about making technology more accessible and personal. He grew up in Belfast, studied computer science at Cambridge, and now lives in San Francisco with his family.

Laela Sturdy is managing partner at CapitalG, the multibillion-dollar independent growth fund of Google parent company Alphabet. At CapitalG, Laela has invested in some of the world’s most consequential companies, including Stripe, Duolingo (DUOL), Gusto, Lovable, UiPath (PATH), Waymo, and Whatnot.

Michael Broukhim is the General Partner of Deep33, an Israel-focused deep-tech investment firm backing breakthrough innovation across advanced energy, AI infrastructure, quantum computing, and robotics. Deep33 partners with exceptional founders building frontier technologies with the potential to transform critical industries and deliver durable advantage.

Michael is also the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FabFitFun, a leading direct-to-consumer lifestyle membership and commerce platform that reaches millions of women through discovery, wellness, and community.

Michael also teaches entrepreneurship and media ethics at the University of Southern California, focused on how technology, incentives, and information shape markets and society. He holds degrees from Harvard University and Stanford Law School.

Ira Ehrenpreis is Founder and Managing Partner of DBL Partners, a leading impact investing venture capital firm, currently managing more than $1.5 billion of capital. DBL invests in companies that can deliver top-tier financial returns, while simultaneously driving social or environmental change.

Shirin Ghaffary is a technology reporter for Bloomberg News covering artificial intelligence. She chronicles the industry in her award-winning weekly newsletter, Q&AI. Previously, Ghaffary was a senior tech correspondent at Vox Media and Recode. Prior to that, she's worked at TechCrunch, the San Francisco Chronicle, and BuzzFeed News. Ghaffary was raised in Silicon Valley, went to UC Berkeley, and spent several years in her early twenties working at an enterprise software startup.

Joe Green is currently Chair of Matt Mahan for Governor, supporting a campaign centered on pragmatic problem-solving, public safety, and rebuilding trust in California government. He is also Chair and Co-Founder of the Psychedelic Science Funders Collaborative, a philanthropic initiative advancing rigorous research, clinical access, and evidence-based policy in mental health and psychedelic medicine. He is a native of Santa Monica and an alumni of Samohi.

Green is a social entrepreneur, technologist, and civic leader focused on strengthening democracy and expanding opportunity through innovation. He co-founded Causes, one of the earliest large-scale platforms for online civic engagement and philanthropy, which enabled millions of people to support nonprofits and social movements through digital networks. He later co-founded NationBuilder, a community-organizing and campaign platform used globally by nonprofits, advocacy organizations, and political movements.

In 2013, Green co-founded FWD.us, a bipartisan advocacy organization created with leaders from the technology community to advance immigration reform, education opportunity, and policies that support the American knowledge economy. As the organization’s founding president, he helped bridge Silicon Valley and Washington around long-term national challenges.

Joe is also co-founder of Treehouse, a mission-driven real-estate and community development company dedicated to creating human-centered, neighborhood-scale housing and gathering spaces that strengthen social connection.

Across his career, Green has worked at the intersection of technology, policy, and community building—seeking to translate innovation into institutions that expand participation, dignity, and shared prosperity.

Colin Greenspon is a Co-Founder and Partner at Narya Capital, a venture firm focused on backing founders building hard, consequential companies, often in places and sectors traditional venture has ignored. Narya invests across advanced manufacturing, defense and aerospace, energy, biotech, and software, with a core belief that the next generation of category-defining companies will be built at the intersection of technology, geopolitics, and real-world production.

Founder of Sourcery, one of the fastest-growing new media platforms in technology, spanning a weekly investing and technology newsletter and podcast interview series with a large and highly engaged following on X. Over the past seven years, Molly has built her career investing across family office multi-asset strategies and multi-stage venture capital portfolios, with a singular focus on technology.

Jason Rapp is an investment banker in Los Angeles and co-founder of Whisper Advisors, the boutique M&A and strategic advisory firm. Since founding the firm in 2018, Jason and his partners have advised dozens of founders as they pursue their M&A, capital and strategic goals. Prior to Whisper Advisors, Jason was a partner at Science Inc., the incubation firm. Prior to that, Jason was a senior executive in Barry Diller's IAC corporation (Nasdaq:IAC), having run the M&A group and then as CEO of Gifts.com. Before joining IAC, Jason was an executive at The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT).

Cody is Managing Partner at MCJ, a venture firm backing founders driving the transition of energy and industry and solving the inevitable impacts of climate change. MCJ’s portfolio includes Crusoe, Base Power, Heirloom, Twelve, The Nuclear Company, and other leaders advancing clean energy abundance, infrastructure resilience, and new industrialism.

As a Managing Partner and founding member of Felicis, Sundeep led Felicis' investments in several companies such as Mercor, Coalition, Plaid, and Komodo Health, as well as the following companies that have gone public: Ginkgo Bioworks, Matterport, Recursion Pharma, and Wish. Before joining Felicis in 2010, Sundeep joined Intel through the acquisition of Sarvega, where he was an early employee responsible for the security infrastructure design. Sundeep holds degrees in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and an MBA from Stanford.

Kobie brings to Upfront deep expertise in enterprise SAAS and frontier technologies including AR/VR.

Kobie joined Upfront in June 2016 after having previously been an investor at Accel. Prior to Accel, Kobie was the Chief Marketing Officer at LA-based REVOLVE, one of the largest global fashion e-commerce players. Earlier in his career, Kobie helped found OpenView Venture Partners and was an investor at Insight Venture Partners. Kobie graduated from Harvard College.

Nick is a general partner at Upfront Ventures. He focuses on early-stage investments in hard tech and national infrastructure sectors like advanced manufacturing and robotics, industrial automation, energy and utilities, aerospace and defense, and more. Prior to joining Upfront, Nick was at Crosscut Ventures leading seed investments. Before Crosscut, Nick was an early employee at Warby Parker, where he was the general manager of the Home Try-On business. Nick also served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Human Ventures and as an investor with the Dorm Room Fund, First Round Capital’s student-run investment fund.

Nick graduated with a degree in economics from UC Berkeley and earned his MBA from The Wharton School.

Mark Suster is a general partner at Upfront. He previously was the founder & CEO of two successful enterprise software companies, the most recent of which was sold to Salesforce.com where Mark became VP, Products. Prior to being a founder, Mark was a software developer at Accenture where he lived and worked in Europe, Japan and the U.S. Mark is a graduate of UCSD and has an MBA from the University of Chicago.