Private Equity
International
International
Women in Private Markets Summit North America 2025
May 13-14, 2025
Convene, 117 West 46th Street, New York
Shaping the future of private investment
Join us at PEI’s highly anticipated 3rd annual Women in Private Markets Summit: North America, returning to New York in May 2025. Join over 500 fund managers, investors and thought leaders for two powerful days of networking, collaboration, and actionable strategies across alternative investments.
Don’t miss the opportunity to break barriers, build connections, and walk away with exclusive insights alongside an audience of globally recognized industry leaders, including Allianz Capital Partners, IMCO, Lexington Partners, New York City Retirement Systems, Pantheon, Raymond James, Resolution Life US, StepStone Group and many more.
Uniting four forums across Private Equity, Infrastructure, Real Estate and Private Debt, this summit is your chance to forge meaningful connections, unlock new opportunities, and accelerate your success in private markets.
What can you expect at the Summit?
Connect with Leading Institutional Investors
Hear directly from institutional investors seeking to expand their private markets exposure and connect with our extensive global investor community. Previous investors include AIMCo, AustralianSuper, Barings, Desjardins Group, Manulife, Massmutual, PSP Investments, Temasek and many others.
Unlock Strategies Driving Growth
Gain actionable insights from industry leaders tackling critical challenges in their businesses and partnerships. Stay ahead with emerging investor allocation trends in private markets, expert perspectives from top fund managers, and strategies driving sustained growth in secondaries.
Build Meaningful Connections
Expand your network across private equity, infrastructure, private debt, and real estate. Engage in interactive workshops, exclusive roundtables, and curated networking opportunities – including invite-only breakfasts and an evening drinks reception. Gain valuable connections and insights to elevate your strategy.
Discover the latest developments
Annoucements
26/02/25
Keynote Interview: What's Next for Private Markets
"Private markets are evolving faster than ever, creating new opportunities and challenges for investors. I’m excited to join the Women in Private Markets Summit to explore what’s next and how we can all stay ahead of the curve."
Nicole Musicco, Ex-CIO, CalPERS
in conversation with
Mary Kathleen (MK) Flynn, Editor-in-Chief, PE Hub & PE Hub Europe
19/02/25
Brochure now live
Dive into real-life case studies, expert panels, and hands-on workshops tackling private markets' biggest challenges and opportunities, gain exclusive knowledge from the world-class speaker lineup for 2025, and explore a snapshot of the companies that you could meet in just a few months’ time to start identifying the connections that could shape your next investment opportunity. Visit the resources page to learn more.
13/12/24
2025 Agenda released
We’re excited to share a first look at the agenda for the Women in Private Markets Summit: North America 2025. This year, you can look forward to a comprehensive two days of strategies for fostering meaningful change and creating inclusive, forward-thinking in private markets, innovations in liquidity and shifting allocation strategies amid market challenges, and emerging investment trends. Plus, explore expanded asset class content across private equity, real estate, infrastructure, and private debt.
What's new in 2025?
- Investor perspectives: Hear insights from over 50 institutional investors as they share their perspectives on alternative investments across two days
- Future leaders networking: A dedicated session for junior and mid-level women to build career advancement strategies
- Expanded asset class content: Explore an expanded line up of sessions dedicated to Private Equity, Infrastructure, Real Estate, and Private Debt
- Focus on value creation: Discover how managers are driving returns despite a more challenging environment for exits
- Enhanced networking: Join dedicated networking spaces designed to bring together professionals within your asset class and foster meaningful connections with industry peers
2025 speakers:
Apply for a complimentary institutional investor pass
A limited number of complimentary passes are available for eligible allocators and institutional investors to join the event.
To qualify for a complimentary pass, you must meet the eligibility criteria in representing a pension fund, insurance company, sovereign wealth fund, private wealth manager, foundation, endowment, family office or corporate investment division.
Apply for a pass and a member of our team will follow up with you to secure your pass.
Testimonials from attendees
Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation
Lara Pollock
I really enjoyed participating at the conference and meeting and listening to all of the brilliant, accomplished women in the field of private markets.
Setter Capital
Kristina Kulikova
The conference had a great variety of educational content, thought provoking opportunities for discussions, well set up breaks to encourage networking and organ…
Manulife
John Anderson
I was delighted to join the event as a male ally. It gave me a high quality overview of different investment strategies in the current market, access to a wide…
Setter Capital
Kristina Kulikova
The conference had a great variety of educational content, thought provoking opportunities for discussions, well set up breaks to encourage networking and organic connection and a diverse line up of great professionals across various asset classes in their respective LP/GP/Founder seats.
Explore the brand new 2025 agenda!
For more information, please contact Charles Gould.
charles.g@pei.group | +44 (0) 203 879 3893
Agenda
Day 1 - Tuesday 13th
Coffee & registration
08:00 - 09:00
Coffee & registration
08:00 - 09:00
LP Breakfast Roundtable
Genie Cesar-Fabian
Discuss key challenges with the shifting landscape of organizational expense obligations over breakfast with other LPs as part of an off-the-record, facilitated group conversation hosted by ILPA
Facilitator:
Genie Cesar-Fabrian, General Counsel, ILPA

1 Speaker
Plenary
09:10 - 09:15
Chairs opening address
Laurie Mahon
Laurie Mahon, Senior Advisor, Infrastructure Markets

1 Speaker
09:15 - 09:45
Keynote Interview: What's Next for Private Markets
Nicole Musicco,
Mary Kathleen (MK) Flynn
09:45 - 10:30
Senior leaders’ discussion: driving meaningful change in private markets
Susanne Forsingdal,
Yana Watson-Kakar,
Isabelle Scemama
- An analysis of where the industry stands and what needs to be done
- Sharing personal experiences, challenges faced, and key takeaways from implementing diversity initiatives.
- Examining the effectiveness of mentorship and sponsorship programs: What strategies deliver the best results?
- Proactive strategies to navigate the anti-DEI narrative and drive progress
Susanne Forsingdal, Managing Director, Head of Americas, Allianz Capital Partners
Yana Watson-Kakar, Managing Director and Head of Americas, CDPQ Global
Isabelle Scemama, Global Head-Alts, AXA IM Alts



3 Speakers
10:30 - 11:15
Investor dialogue: how is the LP/GP dynamic evolving in an environment of lower distributions
Aiyu Nicholson,
Leslie Vargas,
Steven Meier
- Innovations in liquidity: What new liquidity options are emerging?
- Are LPs becoming more assertive in shaping liquidity decisions and strategies?
- How are terms, structures, and expectations shifting between GPs and LPs in today’s environment?
- How do LPs anticipate adjusting their private market allocations, and how will near-term performance impact these strategies?
Aiyu Nicholson, Partner, StepStone Group
Leslie Vargas, Head of Portfolio Management, Resolution Life US
Steven Meier, Deputy Comptroller-Asset Management & Chief Investment Officer, New York City Retirement Systems



Steven Meier
Deputy Comptroller-Asset Management & Chief Investment Officer, New York City Retirement Systems
Read bio
3 Speakers
Networking Break
11:15 - 11:45
Networking Break
Plenary
11:45 - 12:20
Blurring the lines: the convergence of asset classes in private markets
Maurissa Bell
- What key drivers are accelerating the integration of asset classes in alternative investments, including industry overlap, risk analysis and the interplay between public and private markets?
- What role does the growing pool of assets spanning public and private markets play in shaping allocation and performance strategies?
- What challenges and opportunities arise for GPs and investment managers in managing cross-asset investments internally?
- How should LPs adapt their allocation strategies to navigate these blurred boundaries?
Maurissa Bell, Principal, Direct Investments, IMCO

1 Speaker
12:20 - 13:00
Secondaries: navigating the market’s momentum and challenges
Sijia Cai,
Tori Buffery,
Janice Ince,
Boriana Karastoyanova
- Analyzing the dynamics between LP- and GP-led transactions: Where is the balance shifting?
- Assessing current trends: Is secondaries pricing becoming more favourable for buyers and sellers?
- Exploring the market’s evolution across asset classes: What parallels and distinctions are emerging?
- Forecasting growth: How large could the secondaries market grow over the next decade?
Moderator:
Sijia Cai, Partner, Davis Polk
Tori Buffery, Senior Director, Secondaries, Nicola Wealth
Janice Ince, Partner, Pantheon
Boriana Karastoyanova, Managing Director, Neuberger Berman




4 Speakers
Lunch
13:00 - 14:00
Lunch
Women in Infrastructure Forum
14:00 - 14:05
Opening remarks
Laurie Mahon
Laurie Mahon, Senior Advisor, Infrastructure Markets

1 Speaker
14:05 - 14:40
The state of play in infrastructure: navigating an evolving market
Hannah Schofield,
Anne-Laure Messier
- Core, core plus, value add, debt – which strategies are most popular in the current macro climate?
- How has the market reacted to a year of elections and geopolitical upheaval?
- What are the hot sectoral trends driving allocation and investment?
Moderator:
Hannah Schofield, Managing Director, DC Advisory
Anne-Laure Messier, Managing Director, Deputy Head of Energy Transition Infrastructure funds, Mirova


2 Speakers
14:40 - 15:15
Digital Infrastructure: what’s next for the hottest sector in the asset class?
Bethany Brantley,
Silvana Oliva,
Richa Singh
- How has AI gripped the digital infrastructure market, and particularly data centres, in recent months?
- Powering the AI economy – providing power generation and reducing emissions for this huge demand
- To what extent are investors concerned by technology risk, exacerbated by the emergence of low-cost AI models?
Bethany Brantley, Head of ESG, IPI Partners
Silvana Oliva, Independent Senior Advisor
Richa Singh, Director of Data and AI, Lexington Partners



3 Speakers
15:15 - 15:45
How will the energy mix evolve during the next administration?
Katy Lukaszewski,
Violeta Tostanoski,
Geraldine Barlow,
Seunghee Kang
- A New Energy Era: what role will natural gas play alongside renewables?
- Renewables 2.0 – investing in the next generation of renewable energy assets
- The importance of resilience for energy assets
- What does the future hold for the Inflation Reduction Act now, and how will this impact the transition landscape in the US?
Moderator:
Katy Lukaszewski, Partner, Simpson Thacher
Violeta Tostanoski, Vice President, Head of Corporate Development, Mitsubishi Power Americas
Geraldine Barlow, Managing Director – Head of Infrastructure, Affinius Capital
Seunghee Kang, Principal,KKR


Violeta Tostanoski
Vice President, Head of Corporate Development, Mitsubishi Power Americas
Read bio

4 Speakers
15:45 - 16:10
Coffee break
16:10 - 16:40
Allocator insights on investing in infrastructure
Anna Dayn,
Michael Felman,
Marina Schwartzman
- How are allocations to private infrastructure weighing up against other asset classes in investor portfolios?
- AI, energy transition & more – how LPs are seizing opportunities in market megatrends
- Continuation funds, co-investments, secondaries & more… how are investors embracing new strategies & vehicles?
Anna Dayn, Managing Director, New End
Michael Felman, President and Chief Executive Officer, MSF Capital Advisors
Marina Schwartzman, Vice President, Private Real Assets, Apogem Capital



3 Speakers
16:40 - 17:10
The growth of infrastructure secondaries: what should investors consider?
Ying Lin,
Christine Patrinos,
Ashley Marlow
- What are the drivers for growth in this area of the infrastructure market in a tough environment?
- Devil in the detail – what are the keys to success in this evolving competitive market?
- LP-led vs GP-led secondaries
Ying Lin, Vice President, StepStone Group
Christine Patrinos, Partner, Monument Group
Ashley Marlow, Regional Lead North America, Business Development and Client Solutions, Stafford Capital Partners



Ashley Marlow
Regional Lead North America, Business Development and Client Solutions, Stafford Capital Partners
Read bio
3 Speakers
17:10 - 17:45
The future of infrastructure: a concentrated landscape?
Irene Mavroyannis ,
Andrea Logan,
Danielle Hunt
- Flight to familiarity: to what extent is LPs’ prioritization of large funds sidelining mid-market GPs?
- The rise of mega fund managers in infrastructure: what does it mean for competition, innovation, and market diversity?
- Are big GPs driving value creation or concentration risk with their broadening investment mandates?
Irene Mavroyannis, Global Co-Head of Business Development for Infrastructure, Partners Group
Andrea Logan, Director, FirstPoint Equity
Danielle Hunt, General Counsel, Tiger Infrastructure Partners

Irene Mavroyannis
Global Co-Head of Business Development for Infrastructure, Partners Group
Read bio

3 Speakers
Women in Private Equity Forum
14:00 - 14:05
Opening remarks
Ali Humphrey
Ali Humphrey, Managing Partner, Arna Advisors

1 Speaker
14:05 - 14:40
The state of play in private equity: are the good times returning?
Lori Hall-Kimm,
Lauren Young,
Patricia Miller Zollar
- How are PE firms adjusting strategies to mitigate the financial impact of tariffs?
- To what extent might increased tariffs create opportunities for US based firms?
- Are there any signs of exits improving and the IPO markets opening up?
Lori Hall-Kimm, Senior Managing Director and Head of Global Private Equity, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP)
Lauren Young, Partner, Advent International
Patricia Miller Zollar, Managing Director, Neuberger Berman

Lori Hall-Kimm
Senior Managing Director & Head of Global Private Equity, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP)
Read bio

3 Speakers
14:40 - 15:15
Strategic Portfolio Management in a challenging environment
Monika Racz,
Cari Lodge
- Should portfolios be split into winners and underperformers?
- How can managers effectively derisk their portfolio and drive liquidity
- Which assets are hardest to sell, what kind of discounts are managers taking, and how do these factors shape portfolio strategy?
Monika Racz, Head of Private Equity and Co-Investments, Corebridge Financial
Cari Lodge, Managing Director, Head of Secondaries, CF Private Equity

Monika Racz
Senior Managing Director, Head of Private Equity and Co-Investments, Corebridge Institutional Investments (U.S.), LLC
Read bio
2 Speakers
15:15 - 15:40
Deal team discussion: navigating the current state of dealmaking
Dina Said Dwyer,
Lydie Hudson,
Cheryl Strom
- Exploring whether dealmaking is rebounding: what might tariffs mean for dealmaking in certain sectors?
- Evaluating how evolving economic conditions are impacting deal flow and opportunities
- Insights from recent deals closed in a challenging market landscape
Dina Said Dwyer, Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Investment Officer, Eden Capital
Lydie Hudson, Co-founder and President, Citation Capital
Cheryl Strom, Partner, Origination, The Riverside Company

Dina Said Dwyer
Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Investment Officer, Eden Capital
Read bio

3 Speakers
15:45 - 16:10
Coffee break
16:10 - 16:40
Allocator perspectives on a challenges and opportunities within the market
Anne Duggan,
Ya Tung,
Regina Cho
- Strategies for mitigating risk and optimizing returns in volatile market conditions
- How are investors dealing with overallocation issues and other challenges?
- Investor views on innovations managers are implementing
Anne Duggan, Managing Director & Co-Head of Custom Asset Allocation, TIFF Investment Management
Ya Tung, Chief Investment Officer, The Jefferies Family Office
Regina Cho, Investment Director, Crewcial Partners
Kaitie Gannett, Head of Investments, Atlantic Harbor Group

Anne Duggan
Managing Director & Co-Head of Custom Asset Allocation, TIFF Investment Management
Read bio

3 Speakers
16:40 - 17:10
How might evolving economic factors impact the exit environment?
Jaci Reed,
Agnieszka Rafalska,
Erin Edwards,
Zeena Rao
- Developing strategies to manage and reposition unloved assets.
- Exploring innovative approaches to address longer hold periods.
- Insights and lessons from funds achieving successful exits over the past year.
Moderator:
Jaci Reed, Senior Executive Coach and Strategist, Transcend
Agnieszka Rafalska, Head of North America Legal M&A, EQT Group
Erin Edwards, Partner, Velocity Capital Management
Zeena Rao, Managing Partner, ICV Partners




4 Speakers
17:10 - 17:45
Innovative emerging PE investment strategies
Remy Marin,
Ashley Marks,
Lucy Wilson,
Lauren Rich
- Exploring the rise of sports as a sub-asset class
- What other unique and emerging investment opportunities are managers considering?
- What’s next on the horizon for private equity investment strategies?
Moderator:
Remy Marin, Senior Vice President, Prosek Partners
Ashley Marks, Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner, Cordillera Investment Partners
Lucy Wilson, Vice President, Alignment Growth
Lauren Rich, Managing Director, Wafra




4 Speakers
Women in Real Estate Forum
14:00 - 14:05
Opening remarks
Gila Cohen
Gila Cohen, Partner, Chief Investment Officer, Vanbarton Group

1 Speaker
14:05 - 14:40
The state of play in real estate: perspectives on the market’s evolution
Kim Adamek,
Elizabeth Bell,
Tamara Lawson,
Laurel Durkay
- How is the industry evolving in a challenging phase?
- Which sectors and regions are investors seeing opportunities?
- How optimistic are US managers and investors? What does that mean for equity commitments?
Kim Adamek, Head of Portfolio and Asset Management, Managing Director, Madison International Realty
Elizabeth Bell, Managing Director and Co-Head of Real Estate, Hamilton Lane
Tamara Lawson, CFO, QuadReal
Laurel Durkay, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley

Kim Adamek
Head of Portfolio and Asset Management, Managing Director, Madison International Realty
Read bio


Laurel Durkay
Managing Director, Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing (MSREI), Morgan Stanley
Read bio
4 Speakers
14:40 - 15:15
The future of real estate debt
Sarah Schwarzschild,
Kate Mulcahy,
Cierra Taylor,
Lauren Kaufman
- What are the opportunities and challenges in real estate debt markets today?
- Are there any signs of traditional lenders returning to this space?
- What is the long-term outlook for real estate debt?
Sarah Schwarzschild, Chief Operating Officer, Mavik Capital Management
Kate Mulcahy, Director, 3650 Capital
Cierra Taylor, Vice President, Cerberus Capital Management
Lauren Kaufman, Managing Director – Capital Markets, JLL




4 Speakers
15:15 - 15:45
Alternative real estate strategies: where investors see opportunity
Stephany Chen
- Why investors are increasingly targeting healthcare real estate in 2025.
- With interest in hospitality investment gaining momentum—should the sector now be considered a core asset class?
- Student accommodation: where are the best opportunities for investors?
Stephany Chen, Senior Vice President, Acquisitions, Trinity Investments

1 Speaker
15:45 - 16:10
Coffee break
16:10 - 16:40
How allocators are viewing the asset class in more challenging times
Grace Bucchianeri,
Melissa Quackenbush,
Maria Surina,
Inna Khidekel
- How have investor real estate portfolios shifted amid significant challenges in the asset class?
- Considering appetite for new and emerging strategies
- What key factors will help build resistance for upcoming challenges?
Grace Bucchianeri, Managing Director, Americas Head of Global Portfolio and Investment Strategy, GIC Real Estate
Melissa Quackenbush, Senior Portfolio Manager, Private Markets, Public School Employees’ Retirement System Investment Office
Maria Surina, Managing Director, Real Assets Investment Group, Cambridge Associates
Inna Khidekel, Partner, Senior Managing Director & Co-Head, Client Solutions Group, Bridge Investment Group

Grace Bucchianeri
Managing Director, Americas Head of Global Portfolio and Investment Strategy GIC Real Estate
Read bio
Melissa Quackenbush
Senior Portfolio Manager, Private Markets, Public School Employees’ Retirement System Investment Office
Read bio

Inna Khidekel
Partner, Senior Managing Director & Co-Head, Client Solutions Group, Bridge Investment Group
Read bio
4 Speakers
16:40 - 17:10
To what extent is the U.S. office market finally waking up?
Monica O'Neill,
Leslie Himmel
- Is the market through the worst?
- Considering the office market in different U.S. cities and regions: what’s hot?
- How are GPs managing their unloved office assets?
Monica O’Neill, Chief Executive Officer, ENSO Advisors
Leslie Himmel, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Himmel + Meringoff Properties


2 Speakers
17:10 - 17:45
The future of data centre investing: navigating a rapidly evolving market
Lisa Strope,
Emily Azer,
Ji Zhang
- Identifying key risks and opportunities in a high-growth sector
- How shifting investor return expectations are influencing capital allocation
- What does the market for stabilized data centers look like now and how do you think about your exit strategy?
- Emerging trends shaping the next wave of data centre development and investment opportunities
Lisa Strope, Vice President, Research, TA Realty
Emily Azer, Director, Data Infrastructure, GI Partners
Ji Zhang, Portfolio Manager, Global Real Estate, Cohen & Steers



3 Speakers
Women in Private Debt Forum
14:00 - 14:05
Opening remarks
14:05 - 14:40
The state of play in private debt: private credit’s growth trajectory in 2025
Akila Grewal,
Christina Lee,
Susan Kasser
- How has the asset class performed in the last 12 months?
- Outlining macro-trends currently impacting the credit space
- Expectations for the next two years for the North American market
- Where are the next key growth areas for private credit?
Akila Grewal, Partner, Apollo Global Management
Christina Lee, Managing Director and Co-Portfolio Manager, US Private Debt, Oaktree Capital
Susan Kasser, Head of Private Debt, Neuberger Berman


Christina Lee
Managing Director and Co-Portfolio Manager, US Private Debt, Oaktree Capital Management
Read bio
3 Speakers
14:40 - 15:15
Why real asset debt is becoming increasingly attractive to credit investors
Sabrina Fox,
Mansi Patel,
Elana Mizrahi
- Why the risk and return expectations make real asset debt attractive
- Comparing the market in infrastructure and real estate debt
- Is the markets growth a trend of here to stay?
Moderator:
Sabrina Fox, Founder, Good Girl to Goddess
Mansi Patel, Head of Infrastructure Debt, Principal Asset Management
Elana Mizrahi, Managing Director, Business Development, Monarch Alternative Capital



3 Speakers
15:15 - 15:45
Co-operation vs. competition in the bank and private credit manager relationship
Michelle Noyes,
Dianna Carr-Coletta,
Tingting Zhang,
Annie Feng,
Sweta Chanda
- How are banks and private credit firms balancing collaboration with cutthroat competition?
- To what extent are banks innovating to compete with private credit?
- Will private credit’s flexibility or banks’ scale define the next era of dealmaking?
Moderator:
Michelle Noyes, Managing Director, Head of Americas, Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA)
Dianna Carr-Coletta, Managing Director and President, PGIM Private Capital
Tingting Zhang, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, TerraCotta Group
Annie Feng, Investment Director, US Private Placements, Aberdeen Investments
Sweta Chanda, Managing Director, Head of Business Strategy, Monroe Capital

Michelle Noyes
Managing Director, Head of Americas, Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA)
Read bio



5 Speakers
15:45 - 16:10
Coffee break
16:10 - 16:40
Portfolio allocation in private credit: bridging GP and LP perspectives
Judy Chou,
Eric Newman,
Sheryl Schwartz,
Lindsay Powers
- How to classify segments like direct lending, asset-backed strategies, and CLOs
- Exploring frameworks to evaluate these strategies and the influence of risk/return expectations on allocations
- Understanding how investors are implementing these strategies into diversified private markets portfolios
Moderator:
Judy Chou, Senor Advisor – Credit Strategies, Cooper Family Office
Eric Newman, Treasury Manager, City of Stamford
Sheryl Schwartz, Chief Investment Officer, ALTI Financial
Lindsay Powers, Senior Investment Analyst, Private Credit, NEPC




4 Speakers
16:40 - 17:10
Why asset backed finance is gaining momentum
Sophia Agathis,
Nicole Byrns,
Sara Casey
- Examining the scale of the opportunity in the U.S. and globally
- Highlighting the advantages for both sides in the asset-backed finance landscape
- How evolving regulations could shape the future of asset-backed finance
Moderator:
Sophia Agathis, Partner, Seward & Kissel
Nicole Byrns, Managing Director, Dumar Capital Partners
Sara Casey, Director, AB Private Credit Investors



3 Speakers
17:10 - 17:45
Private debt deal or no deal session
Nisha Haran
Two fund managers will present investment case studies in this exclusive, data-driven and interactive format. Hosted by two experts, you’ll have the chance to ask questions, share your thoughts and vote on the transactions in our very own investment committee.
Nisha Haran, Director, Origination, Deerpath Capital

1 Speaker
Cocktail reception
17:45 - 18:45
Cocktail reception
Agenda
Day 2 - Wednesday 14th
Coffee & registration
08:00 - 09:00
Coffee & registration
Invitation only think-tanks
08:30 - 09:30
Invitation only think-tanks
Sabrina Fox
These sessions will allow women to speak freely about the issues impacting their office and asset class. It is a closed door, open conversation where attendees can benchmark ideas and share best practices to gain solutions for common concerns.
Private Debt: Sabrina Fox, Founder, Good Girl to Goddess
Infrastructure: TBC
Private Equity: TBC
Real Estate: TBC

1 Speaker
Plenary
09:30 - 09:35
Chairperson’s Opening Remarks
09:35 - 10:15
Mapping Your Legal Risk in Private Markets
Andrea Griswold
- Analyzing the key drivers behind regulatory and law enforcement focus on private markets
- Knowing the agencies, departments and units focused on private markets
- Understanding substantive areas of focus in private markets: valuation processes, information barrier controls, pre-merger review and diligence, anti-money laundering, cybersecurity controls
- Protecting your firm from unwanted scrutiny as private funds offer increased access to private markets for retail investors
- Implementing risk mapping techniques to identify and pre-empt potential issues
- Preparing for the worst: having a plan in place to contain the damage in the event of an enforcement action
Moderator:
Andrea Griswold, Partner, Skadden

1 Speaker
10:15 - 10:25
PEI Data Presentation
Bill O'Conor
Bill O’Conor, Managing Director, PEI Group US

1 Speaker
10:25 - 10:55
Preparing your fundraising team for the next decade
Lisa Calhoun,
Callie Kourniotis,
Jennifer Ciullo
- Overcoming challenges in fundraising in the current landscape
- Considering how technology particularly AI can and is changing the IR function
- Understanding expectations and building lasting relationships with investors
- Comparing the fundraising environment in different parts of alternatives
Lisa Calhoun, Founder, Valor Ventures
Callie Kourniotis, Managing Director, Raymond James
Jennifer Ciullo, Senior Managing Director of Investor Relations, Greystar



3 Speakers
Coffee & networking
10:55 - 11:30
Coffee & networking
Plenary
11:30 - 11:50
Fireside Chat: Investing in a fragmented global landscape
Carmen Alonso
- Adapting to tariffs, trade restrictions, and geopolitical uncertainty
- Should institutions continue expanding internationally, or is a shift away from globalization inevitable?
- Evaluating geopolitical risks and their impact on portfolio strategy and asset allocation
- Exploring investment opportunities across Europe and Asia
Carmen Alonso, CEO for Europe and Middle East, Patria Investments

1 Speaker
11:50 - 12:30
How value creation is evolving across private markets
Marie Ffolkes,
Lane McDonald,
Jana Wayne
- Considering strategies for value creation in different segments of private markets
- To what extent are funds in different parts of alternatives hiring in-house value creation experts?
- The impact of macros shifts on investment and value creation playbooks
- How can AI play a part in value creation and what are funds already doing?
Marie Ffolkes, Managing Partner, GenNx360 Capital Partners
Lane McDonald, Managing Director, Strategy & Operations, Omers Private Equity
Jana Wayne, Managing Director, Head of Procurement, Hunter Point Capital



3 Speakers
12:30 - 13:15
Hiring talent when investing in emerging and niche areas
Andrea Dowding,
Ruchi Hazaray
- Explore the challenges firms face as they seek to expand into niche areas requiring specific expertise
- Sourcing, attracting and onboarding specialized talent or entire teams to meet emerging needs
- Building a Flexible Workforce in a fast-changing environment
- Real-world strategies and success stories in navigating talent gaps while aligning with investor expectations.
Moderator:
Andrea Dowding, Business Performance Consultant, Transcend
Ruchi Hazaray, Principal, Education and Impact Lead, Renovus Capital


2 Speakers
Networking lunch
13:15 - 14:15
Networking Lunch Roundtable Discussions Hidden risks: The impact of poor recordkeeping in Private Investments
Anna Chalker,
Hillary McNally
Join a dynamic working lunch where participants come together to exchange insights on shaping the next generation of private markets firms. Recordkeeping is a critical aspect of managing private investments. However, poor recordkeeping practices can lead to significant hidden risks that may not be immediately apparent. This topic explores the various consequences of inadequate recordkeeping and how they can impact private investment firms and their stakeholders, and a discussion on how to mitigate that risk.
Co-Facilitators
Anna Chalker, Vice President, Williams Lea
Hillary McNally, Chief Revenue Officer, Williams Lea


2 Speakers
Plenary
14:15 - 16:00
Inaugural Future Leaders Session
Cecilie Søndergaard Nielsen
A unique opportunity for the next generation to connect and discuss career advancement strategies. Hosted by esteemed industry leaders, this session will offer invaluable insights and guidance to help you navigate your career path. Engage in dynamic discussions, ask questions, and gain the knowledge and inspiration needed to advance in alternatives. Join us for this empowering experience and take the next step in your professional journey.
Cecilie Søndergaard Nielsen, Managing Director, Founder, CN8 Leadership Confidence

1 Speaker
16:00 - 16:00
Close of conference
Build your network across private markets
Join 500 attendees in May 2025 to connect with institutional investors, fund managers, and the private markets community for two days of high-level networking and expert insights. Access all four co-located forums: Women in Private Equity, Infrastructure, Real Estate, and Private Debt, offering a comprehensive view of the industry.
The in-person networking experience
Cross-asset class network
Learn from and meet with practitioners across private markets with an agenda covering all the topics impacting alternatives. Networking breaks take place together and delegates can move freely between individual forums.
Build connections
The agenda is curated to enhance networking opportunities with small group discussions. There will be interactive working groups, breakfast think tanks, roundtable discussions, cocktail receptions and a seated networking lunch.
Meet global investors
Attendees in 2024 included over 100 investors from Albourne Partners, APG Asset Management, CalSTRS, Cambridge Associates, CPPIB, HOOPP, MetLife Investments, OMERS, Osaka Gas USA, StepStone, and many more.
Testimonials from previous attendees
Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation
Lara Pollock
I really enjoyed participating at the conference and meeting and listening to all of the brilliant, accomplished women in the field of private markets.
Setter Capital
Kristina Kulikova
The conference had a great variety of educational content, thought provoking opportunities for discussions, well set up breaks to encourage networking and organ…
Manulife
John Anderson
I was delighted to join the event as a male ally. It gave me a high quality overview of different investment strategies in the current market, access to a wide…
British Business Bank
Marilena Ioannidou, Senior Investment Manager
This was a well organised event, balancing between sessions hearing from industry leaders on topics that are currently top priority, as well as allowing time for networking and engaging with other participants. Highly recommended.
Gallery
Connect with and benchmark against your investor peers. Take part in roundtable discussions, think-tanks and investor-focussed sessions to explore private market opportunities so you can come away with strategies to generate the highest returns.
Pre-Event Resources
Request Download
Loading form. Please wait.
Select which of the following you might be interested in:
By clicking submit you consent to our terms & conditions and privacy policy.
Request Download
Loading form. Please wait.
Select which of the following you might be interested in:
By clicking submit you consent to our terms & conditions and privacy policy.
Request Download
Loading form. Please wait.
Select which of the following you might be interested in:
By clicking submit you consent to our terms & conditions and privacy policy.
Request Download
Loading form. Please wait.
Select which of the following you might be interested in:
By clicking submit you consent to our terms & conditions and privacy policy.
Request Download
Loading form. Please wait.
Select which of the following you might be interested in:
By clicking submit you consent to our terms & conditions and privacy policy.
2025 speakers:
The 2025 Event Guide is now live, featuring a brand new world-class speaker faculty.
For more information about speaking opportunities for 2025, please contact Charles Gould.
charles.g@pei.group | +44 (0) 203 879 3893

Grace Bucchianeri
Managing Director, Americas Head of Global Portfolio and Investment Strategy GIC Real Estate

Bonnie Frank
Managing Director and Head of Private Investment and Enterprise Risk, Public Sector Pension Investment Board

Lori Hall-Kimm
Senior Managing Director & Head of Global Private Equity, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP)

Inna Khidekel
Partner, Senior Managing Director & Co-Head, Client Solutions Group, Bridge Investment Group

Christina Lee
Managing Director and Co-Portfolio Manager, US Private Debt, Oaktree Capital Management

Ashley Marlow
Regional Lead North America, Business Development and Client Solutions, Stafford Capital Partners

Steven Meier
Deputy Comptroller-Asset Management & Chief Investment Officer, New York City Retirement Systems

Michelle Noyes
Managing Director, Head of Americas, Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA)

Melissa Quackenbush
Senior Portfolio Manager, Private Markets, Public School Employees’ Retirement System Investment Office

Monika Racz
Senior Managing Director, Head of Private Equity and Co-Investments, Corebridge Institutional Investments (U.S.), LLC
Connect with investors focused on future private markets
Align your brand with strategic diversity and inclusion methodologies when you take part in the world’s leading Women in Private Markets events and gain unparalleled competitive advantage.
Don’t miss the opportunity to:
- Elevate your company’s profile within global private markets and become synonymous with placing diversity and inclusion at the forefront of your strategy to achieve strong commercial performance.
- Strategically raise your brands visibility amongst competitors as a thought leader, pioneering the diversity and inclusion agenda forward.
- Showcase women in leadership roles within your business and be recognised as a global thought leader and driver for diversity and inclusion.
For more information on available sponsorship opportunities please contact Tyler Mitchell or tyler.m@pei.group call +1 646 795 3279.
2025 sponsors
Institutional Investors at the Women in Private Markets Summit: North America 2025
The Women in Private Markets Summit: North America is the leading meeting place for institutional and private investors, and other members across alternative asset classes. Take advantage of this unique opportunity to connect with 150+ institutional investors, discover high-value opportunities in private equity, private debt, infrastructure, and real estate, and gain expert strategies to navigate today’s market with confidence.
A limited number of complimentary passes are available for qualified institutional investors – don’t miss your chance to attend!
Meet your next investor among 150 leading names in alternatives, including:
Crewcial Partners
Ford Foundation
GIC Private Limited
Hamilton Lane
HBS Club of Dallas
MSF Capital Advisors
QuadReal Property Group
StepStone Group
TIFF
Alti Financial
City of Stamford
Columbia University
Commonfund Capital
Crewcial Partners
Ford Foundation
GIC Private Limited
Hamilton Lane
HBS Club of Dallas
MSF Capital Advisors
QuadReal Property Group
StepStone Group
TIFF
Alti Financial
City of Stamford
Columbia University
Commonfund Capital
Crewcial Partners
Ford Foundation
GIC Private Limited
Hamilton Lane
HBS Club of Dallas
MSF Capital Advisors
QuadReal Property Group
StepStone Group
TIFF
Agenda
2025 Agenda Highlights - Tuesday 13th
Women in Infrastructure Forum
16:10 - 16:40
Allocator insights on investing in infrastructure
Anna Dayn
Explore how allocations to private infrastructure compare to other asset classes as LPs seize opportunities in AI, energy transition, and market megatrends, while adopting strategies like continuation funds, co-investments, and secondaries.

1 Speaker
Women in Private Equity Forum
16:10 - 16:40
Allocator perspectives on a challenges and opportunities within the market
Anne Duggan,
Ya Tung
Discover strategies for mitigating risk and optimizing returns in volatile markets, addressing overallocation challenges, and exploring investor perspectives on innovations introduced by managers.


2 Speakers
Women in Private Debt Forum
16:10 - 16:40
Portfolio allocation in private credit: bridging GP and LP perspectives
Eric Newman
Learn how to classify segments like direct lending, asset-backed strategies, and CLOs, evaluate them through risk/return frameworks, and integrate them into diversified private market portfolios.

1 Speaker
Women in Real Estate Forum
16:10 - 16:40
How allocators are viewing the asset class in more challenging times
Examine how investor real estate portfolios have adapted to challenges in the asset class, the appetite for new strategies, and the key factors needed to build resilience for future obstacles.
Hear from leading investors across Private Markets:

Grace Bucchianeri
Managing Director, Americas Head of Global Portfolio and Investment Strategy GIC Real Estate

Bonnie Frank
Managing Director and Head of Private Investment and Enterprise Risk, Public Sector Pension Investment Board

Lori Hall-Kimm
Senior Managing Director & Head of Global Private Equity, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP)

Steven Meier
Deputy Comptroller-Asset Management & Chief Investment Officer, New York City Retirement Systems

Melissa Quackenbush
Senior Portfolio Manager, Private Markets, Public School Employees’ Retirement System Investment Office
What to expect at the summit?
Connect with your peers
Enrich your network, build lasting relationships, and exchange valuable perspectives with your investor peers through investor-only breakfasts, networking breaks, lunches and much more.
Stay abreast of the latest trends
Hear from our industry-leading speaker line-up, discover the latest trends and stay aligned with future innovations in the market.
Meet with the best and brightest funds
Connect and arrange one-to-one meetings with the biggest influencers in alternative asset classes to maximise your returns.
Apply for a complimentary institutional investor pass
A limited number of complimentary passes are available for eligible allocators and institutional investors to join the event.
Complimentary investor passes are limited to foundations, endowments, trusts, insurance companies, single family offices, sovereign wealth funds and pension funds who are actively making fund commitments and do not engage in third-party fundraising activities or collect fees for advisory/consulting services.
Apply for a pass and a member of our team will follow up with you to secure your pass.

Kim Adamek
Head of Portfolio and Asset Management, Managing Director, Madison International Realty
Ms. Adamek serves as Managing Director of Portfolio Management, with responsibility for the asset management of Madison’s domestic and international investment portfolio. Ms. Adamek manages all aspects of the asset and portfolio management process, including oversight of Madison’s investment positions, monitoring financial performance, maintaining relationships with Madison’s counterparties, and providing strategic recommendations seeking to enhance investment returns. Prior to joining Madison in 2014, Ms. Adamek spent seven years with CBRE Global Investors. While there, Ms. Adamek served as an Acquisition Director in the Managed Accounts Group, responsible for sourcing, underwriting and closing over $1 billion in commercial assets. Prior to CBRE Global Investors, Ms. Adamek spent three years with Unico Properties as an Analyst and Associate, where she worked on the Investments team underwriting real estate transactions. Ms. Adamek graduated with an MBA from New York University and a BS in Finance from Northern Arizona University.

Sophia Agathis
Partner, Seward & Kissel
Sophia is a partner in the Corporate Finance Group at Seward & Kissel. Sophia joined the firm in 2016 and represents both lenders and borrowers in connection with debt financing and other credit transactions.
Sophia’s practice spans a wide array of debt financing transactions, including the representation of U.S. banks, foreign banks, credit funds, and other institutional lenders in secured and unsecured financing arrangements, in particular in the asset-based lending market. Sophia’s work negotiating and drafting credit agreements across all industries is informed by experience she gained while seconded to the New York office of DNB Bank, where she structured and coordinated secured loans. Sophia also has significant experience in structuring joint ventures in connection with a variety of U.S and cross-border business transactions.
Sophia has been honored as a Rising Star by Private Debt Investor, Legal 500 and New York Super Lawyers. Sophia received her J.D. from Fordham University School of Law and her B.A. from Swarthmore College, where she played NCAA Division III field hockey.

Carmen Alonso
Partner & CEO, Europe and Middle East, Patria Investments
Carmen currently serves as Patria Investments' Partner & CEO for EMEA, based in London. Patria is a global alternative investment firm with more than $40bn in AuMs in Private Equity, Credit, Infrastructure and Real Estate.
Prior to Patria, she was Country Head for UK & Iberia at Tikehau Capital since 2015. She was responsible for all investment strategies, Private Equity, Private Debt and Real Estate, and fundraising for private and liquid products in both regions. Before that, she was Managing Director at Morgan Stanley in their European Leverage Finance practice. She started her career in Zurich in Leverage Finance with UBS. She moved to London in 1998 to join Merrill Lynch. She also gained corporate experience managing GSK’s Corporate Finance activities globally.
With over 25 years of experience in asset management and banking, Carmen has an extensive background in all aspects of investment management, corporate finance, and capital markets, across geographies and industries.
Having worked in London, Madrid, Zurich, New York, and Boston, she brings a global and multicultural perspective.
Carmen holds degrees from Executive Program at Stanford Graduate School of Business, MBA from Babson College and BsBA in Finance and International Management from Boston University School of Management.

Emily Azer
Director, GI Partners
Emily Goergen Azer is a Director of GI Partners, where she focuses on investments in the data infrastructure sector. She currently serves on the board of Rise Broadband and previously served on the board of DR Fortress. Prior to joining GI Partners, Mrs. Azer was a Vice President at Stonepeak Partners in New York where she focused on infrastructure investments in the digital infrastructure sector. Earlier in her career, Emily worked in the North America Private Equity and Global Infrastructure groups at KKR in New York and was an investment banking analyst with the Blackstone Group in New York. Emily graduated with an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.S. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Geraldine Barlow
Managing Director, Infrastructure, Affinius Capital
Geraldine joined Affinius Capital as a Managing Director, Infrastructure in 2021. Geraldine has over 20 years of investment management and leadership experience gained in Australia and North America including over 15 years of board and investment committee experience across a range of infrastructure assets and investment management operating companies. Geraldine has extensive investment experience and has invested in and led investment teams across all major asset classes.
Prior to joining Affinius Capital, Geraldine was the Executive General Manager, Investments at Australian Unity (an 180 year-old mutual), where she had commercial, investment management and leadership accountability for the strategic direction of the organization’s (AUD) $8 billion platform of investments including a team of 50 responsible for the group’s balance sheet investments and investing multi asset, cash and fixed income, AREIT, hybrid property, healthcare, equities, venture capital and private equity portfolios. She also was a member of the Group Investment Committee. Prior to that she was the Head of Real Return and Real Estate at New Mexico State Investment Council, where she was responsible for the strategic direction of 25% of the endowment’s $US30bn portfolio. Prior to that she was one of the senior members of Hastings Funds Management North America in its formative years. Geraldine also previously held investment roles at Deutsche Asset Management, James Fielding Infrastructure and Jones Lang where her roles included a range of acquisition, asset management, portfolio management and capital raising responsibilities.
Geraldine holds bachelor’s degrees in Business (economics) and Applied Science from the Queensland University of Technology, Australia (QUT) and a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment from FINSIA. She is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) and has completed the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) company director's course.
Geraldine serves as a non-executive investment committee member for Future Super, an Australian Superannuation Fund, and Centric Wealth, an Australian wrap platform.
Affinius Capital
Affinius Capital® (previously known as USAA Real Estate and Square Mile Capital Management) is an integrated institutional real estate investment firm focused on value-creation and income generation. With a 40-year track record and $32 billion in net assets under management, Affinius has a diversified portfolio across North America and Europe providing both equity and credit to its trusted partners and on behalf of its institutional clients globally. For more information, visit www.affiniuscapital.com.

Elizabeth Bell
Managing Director, Co-Head of Real Estate, Hamilton Lane
Elizabeth is a Managing Director and Co-Head of Real Estate on the Real Assets team, where she is responsible for due diligence of primary, secondary and co-investment opportunities in real estate. She is a member of the Real Asset Investment Committee.
Prior to joining Hamilton Lane in 2022, Elizabeth was a Managing Director with Jaguar Growth Partners where she was responsible for leading Latin American real estate private equity investments. Previously, Elizabeth was an Investment Manager at Aberdeen Asset Management on the Property Multi-Manager team and was a Vice President at Equity International, responsible for investing in emerging markets real estate companies. Earlier in her career, Elizabeth was an Associate at real estate private equity firm, JER Partners, and an investment banking analyst at Deutsche Bank.

Maurissa Bell
Principal, Direct Investments, IMCO
Maurissa joined Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (C$80 billion AUM) investing in a cross-asset equity strategy from private equity fund, Clairvest Group (C$4.5 billion AUM), where she was involved in all areas of the investment process. Prior to Clairvest, Maurissa was an executive at George Weston Limited (TSX:GWL), Canada’s largest food and drug retailer, REIT and provider of financial services. Maurissa has also held various roles in investment and corporate banking where she assisted companies achieve their growth objectives through mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity financing and IPO’s. Maurissa is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Management and Organization Studies with a specialization in Finance from Western University.

Bethany Brantley
Head of ESG, IPI Partners
Bethany Brantley is a sustainability executive and ESG investor with over a decade of experience driving corporate action and investment strategy on climate change and ESG integration in private equity. As Head of ESG for IPI Partners, Bethany oversees all aspects of the firm’s responsible investment, sustainability, and portfolio stewardship activities.
Bethany is also a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs, where her work centers on complex ESG risk and opportunity areas within digital infrastructure private equity.
Before IPI, Bethany was SVP and Head of Investor Relations and ESG at Orion Infrastructure Capital. Earlier, she was a VP and Head of Fundraising and Impact Measurement at Energy Impact Partners. Earlier in her career, Bethany was a technical analyst in roles focused on renewable energy procurement and ESG at S&P Global, the U.S. DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
Bethany has a master’s in environmental management and sustainability from Harvard University and a BBA in finance and marketing from Texas Christian University.

Grace Bucchianeri
Managing Director, Americas Head of Global Portfolio and Investment Strategy GIC Real Estate
Dr. Grace Bucchianeri is the Americas Head of Global Investment & Portfolio Strategy at GIC Real Estate. In her role, she is responsible for investment strategy, underwriting guidance, and portfolio construction, and is a voting member of the investment committee. She also leads the Open-End Fund Program for Real Estate. Prior to her current role, Grace was the Deputy Chief Economist at Freddie Mac, and an Assistant Professor of Real Estate at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Her research has been published in top peer-reviewed journals and frequently cited by the media. Grace also serves as a board member of Store Capital, a private REIT.
She holds a PhD degree in Economics from Princeton University as well as MSc and BSc degrees in Economics (First-Class Honors) from the London School of Economics.

Tori Buffery
Senior Director, Secondaries, Nicola Wealth
Prior to joining Nicola in April 2024, Tori was a Partner at Morningside Capital and led the Firm’s single asset secondary strategy. While at Morningside, Tori was involved in over $400 million of GP-led secondary transactions. Prior to joining Morningside at its inception in January 2016, Tori worked in the Funds, Secondaries and Co-Investments team at CPPIB in Toronto and London where she gained extensive experience in private equity, investing $5.3 billion in the asset class including $1 billion in principal secondaries. Her experience spans North America, Europe and Asia in the mid, large and mega markets. Tori also served as a member of the Institutional Limited Partners Association’s Education Committee. In 2023, she was named as a Woman of Influence in Private Markets by Private Equity International. Tori serves on the Board of Urban Squash Toronto, a not-for-profit supporting at-risk youths, and the Finance Committee of the North York Harvest Food Bank. Prior to joining CPPIB, Tori worked at BMO Capital Markets in Investment and Corporate Banking. She holds an Honours Bachelor of Business and Administration degree from Wilfrid Laurier University.
Nicola Wealth
Nicola Wealth is a Canadian asset manager with over C$16 billion in assets under management and seven offices across the country.

Nicole Byrns
Partner, Dumar Capital Partners
Nicole Byrns is an accomplished asset-backed finance investor with 20+ year track record of private investing and financing experience at funds and financial institutions. Ms Byrns is currently a senior advisor to funds considering launching a structured finance strategy and to specialty finance companies looking to optimize their capital structure. Previously, Ms Byrns was Managing Director at Canada’s largest pension plan, CPP Investments (CPPIB). She was a senior leader in CPPIB’s Capital Solutions Group where she focused on developing and growing the fund’s private structured credit platform. She managed $3.5bn credit portfolio that focused on asset-backed lending, specialty finance, renewables, CLOs and fintech sectors. She also led the division’s financing practices that oversaw a $47bn leverage portfolio. She was a member of the Real Assets Credit, Capital Solutions and Leveraged Finance Investment Committees.
Prior to CPP Investments, Ms. Byrns was at Deutsche Bank’s Global Credit Trading group where she developed innovative financing solutions for her clients in the fintech, aviation, mortgage and esoteric industries. Previously, she was at Garrison Investment Group and Citi where she was responsible for originating and executing asset-based financings and whole loan purchase programs.
Ms. Byrns is a distinguished writer, contributor, and conference speaker, known for her engagements at industry-leading events such as the Kayo Women’s Group and ABS East. She regularly publishes insightful articles for "Credit Check," a forum dedicated to discussing trends in the asset-based finance industry. A strong advocate for women's advancement in financial services, Ms. Byrns frequently contributes to "Balancing the Books," where she explores themes affecting women in private credit. Additionally, she has collaborated with the Structured Finance Association on various research publications and is an editorial board member for SFA’s Structured Finance Journal.
Ms Byrns received a BA from Wellesley College and an MA from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. She also studied at L’Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) as a Rotary Scholar. She serves on the board of Jacob Riis Neighborhood Settlement.

Sijia Cai
Partner, Davis Polk
Sijia advises fund sponsors on the formation and operation of investment funds in a variety of strategies and asset classes, including private equity funds, hedge funds, real estate funds, “hybrid” funds and debt funds. She also advises fund managers on fund-related aspects of M&A transactions, including deal structuring and co-investment arrangements.
Sijia represents fund sponsors and investors in connection with a broad range of complex secondary transactions – including continuation vehicle transactions, portfolio sales, tender offers, structured secondaries, synthetic secondaries and fund restructurings across various sectors.
She also advises fund sponsors on internal operations and firm management matters, including governance, compensation, succession planning and separation arrangements, as well as regulatory and compliance matters.
In 2024, Law360 named Sijia a “Rising Star” in fund formation and Secondaries Investor named her among the “Next Gen Leaders of Secondaries.”
Sijia’s clients include Coller Capital, Citibank, CPPIB, Enfoca Asset Management, GHK Capital Partners, Morgan Stanley, Mudrick Capital Management, Pinebridge Investments, Rialto Capital, Rubicon Founders, TruArc Partners, Niobrara, White Deer Management and Whitehorse Liquidity Partners, among others.

Lisa Calhoun
Founder, Valor Ventures
Lisa Calhoun is a recognized and experienced leader in venture capital. Lisa was recently named Atlanta Investor of the Year by Startup Atlanta and highlighted among Business Insider’s Top 30 Women Early-stage Investors in the U.S. She is the founder of Valor Ventures, the South’s first woman-led, institutional venture capital firm, now investing its third fund. Valor funds are backed by notable institutional investors including Delta Airlines, Georgia Tech Foundation, and the Sisters of St. Joseph.
Under her leadership, Valor has built a high performance portfolio of AI and SaaS software companies based in the South. Valor is known for developing Vic, a visionary AI-powered investment management platform integrated with industry leaders like Salesforce, Carta, and PitchBook.
Lisa is a Kauffman Fellow (Class 23), recipient of the Kauffman Fellows Leadership Award, and frequent keynote speaker. She’s spoken recently for NASDAQ, SuperReturn, and the Kauffman Leadership Summit. Her insights have been featured in Forbes, Inc., and the Venture Capital Journal. She also shares insights as a co-host of the Atlanta Startup Podcast.

Dianna Carr-Coletta
Managing Director and Partner, PGIM Private Capital
Dianna Carr-Coletta is a Managing Director and Partner within PGIM Private Capital's Alternatives Direct Lending Group. Prior to this role, she was a Managing Director leading our Corporate and Project Workout team and oversaw the management and restructuring of non-performing investments. Previously, Mrs. Carr-Coletta was a Senior Vice President in PGIM Private Capital's Chicago Corporate Finance group. In this role, she led a team responsible for marketing, originating and managing private placement, mezzanine and structured equity investments in Michigan and Wisconsin, with prior geographies that also included Southern Ohio and Kentucky.
Mrs. Carr-Coletta received a BA from Michigan State University and an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.Dianna Carr-Coletta is a Managing Director and Partner within PGIM Private Capital's Alternatives Direct Lending Group. Prior to this role, she was a Managing Director leading our Corporate and Project Workout team and oversaw the management and restructuring of non-performing investments. Previously, Mrs. Carr-Coletta was a Senior Vice President in PGIM Private Capital's Chicago Corporate Finance group. In this role, she led a team responsible for marketing, originating and managing private placement, mezzanine and structured equity investments in Michigan and Wisconsin, with prior geographies that also included Southern Ohio and Kentucky.
Mrs. Carr-Coletta received a BA from Michigan State University and an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

Sara Casey
Director, AB Private Credit Investors
Sara Casey is a Director of AB NAV Lending, where she is one of the initial senior team members involved in the development of the net asset value (NAV) lending strategy. Her responsibilities include deal sourcing, structuring, underwriting and execution, and portfolio management. Prior to joining AB in 2023, Sara was a principal at Hark Capital, where she sourced and executed NAV loans. Prior to Hark Capital, she was an associate at Wells Fargo Securities. Sara is a member of the Fund Finance Association’s NextGen Committee and was the Fund Finance Association’s 2023 NextGen Member of the Year. She holds a BS in finance from Providence College.

Genie Cesar-Fabian
General Counsel/Chief Operating Officer, ILPA
Genie Cesar-Fabian joined ILPA in January 2024 as its first General Counsel. Her role expanded to include Chief Operating Officer in January 2025. Prior to joining ILPA, Genie practiced law as both outside and in-house counsel in the financial services industry for over 20 years, beginning as a securities/financial services litigator at AmLaw 100 firms. She later joined a middle market private equity firm as its first General Counsel/CCO, successfully building its legal and compliance department from the ground up. Having achieved partnership and been designated Head of ESG & Sustainability, Genie transitioned out of sponsor-side private equity and joined a tech-enabled asset manager as its first General Counsel, where she helped the leadership team lay the foundation for a legal department designed to scale. She then returned to private equity, heading to the LP side of the industry at ILPA.
In addition to her legal and financial services work, she has also served as a subject matter author for Thomson Reuters on topics relating to ESG and as a Strategic Advisor to BlueFlame AI. She is a founding member of both the St. John’s School of Law Alumnae Leadership Council, and its OUTLaws & Allies Alumni Association. Ms. Cesar-Fabian has been recognized by N.O.W. as a “Woman of Power and Influence,” by Mergers & Acquisitions as a “PE Innovator in ESG” and a “Leader in DEI,” and by Crain’s NY Business as a “Notable LGBTQ Leader & Executive.” She has also received her law school Alumni Association’s St. Thomas More award (for outstanding moral leadership over a career) and the Erica B. Fine ’82 Public Interest Champion Award (for commitment to public interest work). She regularly speaks at industry events on topics relating to women in financial services, US securities regulation, ESG, and DEI. Ms. Cesar-Fabian holds a B.A. in Politics from NYU and a J.D. from St. John’s University School of Law.

Anna Chalker
Vice President, Williams Lea
Anna Chalker leads Williams Lea’s business group for the Financial and Professional Services sectors in the Americas.
Anna, originally from England, has resided in the United States for the past 25 years. She began her career with Reuters in Sydney as an Account Executive for Business Information Products, serving the Asia Pacific region. She then transitioned to Reuters Singapore, where she spent three years as an Account Manager for the financial sector, collaborating closely with the real-time sales team managing global clients.
In 1999, Reuters and Dow Jones formed Factiva, a joint venture providing business information tools and a news research database. Anna served as a Major Account Manager in New York City for four years before being promoted to Regional Sales Manager in Washington, D.C., where she managed the sales function for the Southeast region of the United States for two years. Subsequently, Anna moved into a sales onboarding role, where she successfully developed a dynamic program for all new sales hires.

Sweta Chanda
Managing Director, Head of Business Strategy, Monroe Capital
Ms. Sweta Chanda is a Managing Director, Head of Business Strategy of Monroe Capital. She is responsible for firmwide strategy, product and corporate development, and new initiatives to expand Monroe’s global footprint. Ms. Chanda has over 15 years of experience in asset management and has achieved business growth through strategic stewardship, new product development and sourcing of M&A opportunities. Prior to Monroe, Ms. Chanda was a Director at New York Life Investment Management (NYLIM) within the Strategy and M&A team responsible for heading alternative investment strategy, where she helped launch a European Opportunistic Credit Fund, European CLO platform, GP Stakes Fund, and a Social Impact Fund amongst other strategic business development and growth opportunities for NYLIM. Prior to NYLIM, she was a Vice President at Blackstone, where she led initiatives related to cross platform mandates, relationship management, and operations across the firm’s Hedge Fund Solutions platform. Prior to Blackstone, she was an Assistant Vice President at Lehman Brothers in the Business Process Alignment Group working on strategy and process alignment for the investment banking division, and a Client Relations Associate, Management Consultant at Starpoint Solutions. Ms. Chanda earned her B.S. in TXA Management and Foundations in Business Administration from The University of Texas at Austin.
Monroe Capital
Monroe Capital LLC (“Monroe”) is a premier boutique asset management firm specializing in private credit markets across various strategies, including direct lending, asset-based lending, specialty finance, opportunistic and structured credit, and equity. Since 2004, the firm has been successfully providing capital solutions to clients in the U.S. and Canada. Monroe prides itself on being a value-added and user-friendly partner to business owners, management, and both private equity and independent sponsors. Monroe’s platform offers a wide variety of investment products for both institutional and high net worth investors with a focus on generating high quality “alpha” returns irrespective of business or economic cycles. The firm is headquartered in Chicago and maintains offices in Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles, Naples, New York, San Francisco, and Seoul.
Monroe has been recognized by both its peers and investors with various awards including Creditflux as the 2021 Best U.S. Direct Lending Fund; Global M&A Network as the 2021 Mid-Markets Lender of the Year, U.S.A.; Private Debt Investor as the 2020 Lower Mid-Market Lender of the Year, 2020 Lender of the Year, and 2020 CLO Manager of the Year, Americas; and Pension Bridge as the 2020 Private Credit Strategy of the Year. For more information, please visit www.monroecap.com.

Stephany Chen
Senior Vice President, Acquisitions, Trinity Investments
Stephany Chen is a Senior Vice President of Acquisitions at Trinity Investments. She is responsible for overseeing the identification and execution of acquisition opportunities and supporting the firm’s business development initiatives.
With 15 years of experience in the hospitality real estate sector, Stephany has played an instrumental role in nearly $5 billion of global transactions.
Prior to Trinity, Stephany was the U.S. lead for the Global Hotels Desk for JLL’s Hotels and Hospitality Group. She also worked at Burba Hotel Network (BHN).
Stephany graduated with a bachelor’s degree from The School of Hospitality Business at Michigan State University where she specialized in real estate.

Regina Cho
Investment Director, Crewcial Partners
Regina Cho is an Investment Director at Crewcial Partners. She also serves on the Investment Committee and co-leads the investment team. She has been with Crewcial since May 2011 and has over ten years of investment experience. Regina travels globally and is an integral member of the investment team, sourcing and conducting investment manager research across asset classes. Regina has a core focus on US and international public equities alongside experience investing in multi-strategy, credit, and private equity. She also plays a significant role in the firm’s diversity initiative and identifying emerging managers. Regina directly supports seven clients, which are all not-for-profit organizations. Regina works with clients to provide insights into asset allocation, manager selection, and performance. Prior to joining Crewcial, Regina was a Senior Research Analyst for Deerfield Partner's internal research firm and a Research Analyst for Gerson Lehrman Group on the healthcare primary research team. Regina has a BA in Biology from George Washington University.

Judy Chou
Senor Advisor – Credit Strategies, Cooper Family Office
Judy Chou joined the Cooper Family Office as a senior investment advisor for credit strategies with more than 25 years of experience including roles in investment management, buy-side business development, and mergers & acquisitions. Ms. Chou graduated from the Walter A Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, with a Bachelor of Sciences. She also holds the Chartered Alternative Investments Analyst (CAIA) designation.
Judy is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and is an avid golfer and tennis player.

Jennifer Ciullo
Senior Managing Director of Investor Relations, Greystar
Jennifer Ciullo is a Senior Managing Director of Investor Relations for the Global Investment Management business and is a member of the Greystar Executive Committee. Within the Office of the Chief Investment Officer, Jennifer leads the Capital Formation team, which is responsible for raising capital across the globe from Greystar’s institutional partners, cultivating and growing Greystar's global institutional investor relationships, and supporting investment strategy and venture formation efforts globally.
Before joining Greystar in 2017, Jennifer served as a Vice President at JP Morgan Asset Management – Global Real Assets, where she was responsible for capital raising and client advisory across the firm's Real Estate Americas investment platform. She was previously an Investment Associate at Court Square Capital, a private equity firm in New York City, and an Analyst in Citi's Global Investment Bank.
Jennifer graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Finance and International Business from Georgetown University and earned a Master’s of Business Administration from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Gila Cohen
Partner, Chief Investment Officer, Vanbarton Group
Ms. Cohen joins from Monroe Capital LLC, where she was the Global Head of Institutional Partnerships, responsible for fostering key partnerships and driving growth initiatives. Before her tenure at Monroe Capital, she held top leadership positions at Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (USA) (“MUFG”), including Chief Investment Strategy Officer. At MUFG, Ms. Cohen was responsible for advising, directing, and governing the strategic alternatives investment portfolio, as well as playing a strategic role in the Firm's ESG and DEI initiatives.
Additionally, Ms. Cohen has held senior investment banking and trusted advisor roles at J.P. Morgan, UBS Investment Bank, and Credit Suisse First Boston, where she honed her abilities in corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and client relations.

Anna Dayn
Managing Director, New End
Anna Dayn is a Managing Director and US head of New End, where she partners and invests in high-growth companies, sponsors and investment platforms in private markets. New End, launched in 2018 and undergirded by a multi-family-office, anchors asset managers and facilitates future access to institutional capital. Anna has over 20 years' experience in funding, designing, and implementing private equity investment programs. Before New End, Anna established the North American platform of XTP, a cost analysis platform serving institutional investors. Anna previously served as the head of Private Equity at Cardano, a UK pension consultant, where she built a private equity program spanning $2bn of invested capital. Prior to that, Anna worked at Capital Dynamics in Switzerland and Rothschild in New York.
Anna has served on the limited partner advisory boards of several private equity funds across North America and Europe, is a published author, media commentator, and a frequently featured speaker at investment industry conferences. She sits on the Executive Board of WAVE, the Women’s Association for Venture and Equity, and serves on the New York Steering Committee for PEWIN, the Private Equity Women’s Investor Network.
Anna received an MBA from the Wharton School and a BA in Economics from the College of Arts and Sciences, both at the University of Pennsylvania.

Andrea Dowding
Strategy and Executive Performance Consultant, Transcend
Andrea Dowding is a strategist and executive performance consultant for Transcend, a performance consulting firm delivering integration, strategy, execution, and executive team performance services.
Transcend currently has 20+ billion under current strategic advisory, a company NPS of 90+, and delivered billions in value creation for loyal clients and companies
As a former corporate leader with over 20 years of experience driving innovation, growth, and value creation across multiple industries, Andrea combines extensive C-suite experience with a proven track record in coaching high-performing leaders. She is particularly well-suited to support private equity firms and their portfolio companies in achieving accelerated growth and maximizing returns. She understands the unique challenges that portfolio executives face in achieving alignment across the business to deliver a performance culture focused on accelerated outcomes and profit optimization. Andrea currently has an NPS score of 95+ in both strategy and Executive performance.
Transcend
Transcend is a performance consulting firm focused on driving value creation for private equity firms and their portfolio companies. Leveraging our expertise in fast-paced, high-stakes environments, we also help public- and founder-led companies scale effectively. Transcend offers services in three main areas: strategic deal execution, portfolio company growth, and firm operations. We believe that leadership is key to PE success and our proprietary approach focuses on leadership transformation, talent optimization, and strategic alignment to accelerate returns for our clients.

Anne Duggan
Managing Director & Co-Head of Custom Asset Allocation, TIFF Investment Management
Anne Duggan joined TIFF in 2024 and serves as a Managing Director on the Client CIO team and Co-Head of Custom Asset Allocation. In this role, Anne collaborates with clients to develop investment strategies and construct portfolios that are designed to help them achieve their objectives.
Before joining TIFF, Anne was a Managing Director at Partners Capital, an Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO) firm, where she spent 7 years serving as the lead advisor to many of the firm’s endowment and foundation clients. Anne also sat on Partners Capital’s Client Committee, which reviewed client profitability and pricing and ensured best practices across all client teams globally.
Earlier in her career, Anne worked at Fidelity Investments in corporate strategy. She also worked in Credit Suisse private equity multi-manager business making fund, secondary and co-investment investments on behalf of institutional clients. She started her career at Morgan Stanley in investment banking.
She holds a BA with Honors from Brown University and an MBA with Distinction from Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, where she was named a Tuck Scholar. Anne is a CAIA Charterholder and is a member of TIFF’s Investment Committee.

Laurel Durkay
Managing Director, Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing (MSREI), Morgan Stanley
Laurel Durkay joined Morgan Stanley in 2020 and has 23 years of investment experience. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing as the Chief Investment Officer for the US core real estate strategy,
she was the Head of Global Listed Real Assets within Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) and the lead Portfolio Manager for U.S. and Global listed real estate strategies. Before joining MSIM, Ms. Durkay was a Senior Vice President and Global Portfolio Manager for Listed Real Estate at Cohen & Steers Capital Management for 14 years. Previously, Ms. Durkay held several positions at Citigroup, focused on asset allocation and manager selection within the alternatives space of the Corporate Pension Plan, and worked at Arthur Andersen as a valuation analyst. She has a BS from Tulane University and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. Ms. Durkay is an active participant and member of the CFA Institute, the New York Society of Securities Analysts, the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (Nareit) and the Real Estate Roundtable. Ms. Durkay was an appointed member of the Nareit Advisory Board of Governors, Nareit Real Estate Investment Advisory Council and the FTSE EPRA Nareit Americas Regional Advisory Committee.

Erin Edwards
Partner, Velocity Capital Management
Erin joined Velocity in 2025 as a Partner and has over 20 years of experience in both buyout and minority growth strategies. She is a member of the Firm’s Investment Committee and focuses her time on sourcing and deal execution, as well as advising portfolio companies on strategy execution and value creation. She was previously Partner and Co-Head of the Growth Equity strategy at TZP Group, where she led investments across various consumer products and services verticals. Prior to TZP, Erin spent 10 years at North Castle Partners, a small cap consumer focused private equity fund. During her time there, Erin focused on originating, executing and monitoring investments across a wide range of sub-sectors in the consumer industry and worked closely with the management teams including stepping in as CFO on several occasions to help those teams maximize shareholder value. Prior to joining North Castle, Erin was an investment professional at AEA Investors, where she focused on the execution and monitoring of investments across various B2B and B2C segments. While at Insight Venture Partners, she sourced, executed and monitored various investments across the software and technology verticals. She also worked as Director of Corporate Development at Acronis Software, where she helped lead various financial and strategic initiatives. Erin graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in Economics.

Lexi Fallon
Strategic Situations, JP Morgan
Ms. Fallon joined JP Morgan in 2024 as a member of the Credit Market Strategic Situations group. She was most recently Head of the Special Situations Group at CPPIB and formerly a member of the Special Situations Group at Goldman Sachs. Over her entire career, Ms. Fallon has focused on fundamental investments along the entire capital structure including capital solutions, distressed securities, loans, high yield bonds and equities. She began her career at Rothschild focusing on restructuring and advisory services. Ms. Fallon received a MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in the School of Public and International Affairs from Princeton University.

Michael Felman
President and Chief Executive Officer, MSF Capital Advisors
Michael Felman is President and CEO of MSF Capital Advisors, a global multi-family office. Besides his own family office, his firm advises other family offices and a select group of high net worth individuals. Mr. Felman began his investment career as an Angel Investor. He invested in real estate, film projects, technology companies and a restaurant. Mr. Felman received his B.A from Clark University and J.D. from Pace University. Winner of Acquisition International 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 Global Multi-Family Office award. Winner of Wealth & Finance International 2014, 2020,2021 Global Multi-Family Office Award. Winner of Corporate Live Wire 2020 Investment Advisory Firm of the Year. A member of the NYU Stern Family Office Council. Advisory Board member of Family Office Association. He is a frequent speaker at family office, hedge fund and emerging markets conferences.

Annie Feng
Investment Director, US Private Placements, Aberdeen Investments
Annie Feng is an Investment Director who leads US Private Credit and Infrastructure Debt for Aberdeen Investments. She brings specialist expertise in bank originations and private placements. Annie’s coverage includes utilities, infrastructure and structured debt and has a robust track record of investing in public private partnerships for her current portfolio under management. Annie joined abrdn in 2021 and brought with her extensive banking experience in Debt Capital Markets and US Private Placement syndications. She holds a B.Comm Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting and Finance from the University of Sydney. Annie is also a CFA Charterholder.

Marie Ffolkes
Managing Partner, GenNx360 Capital Partners
Marie Ffolkes joined GenNx360 Capital Partners as Managing Partner in 2023, where she is involved in all aspects of the investment process including sourcing, due diligence and execution of post-closing growth and operating initiatives. Prior to GenNx360 Marie founded and led a SaaS startup, Axxelist, Inc., (a Techstars company).
Previously, she served as Chief Executive Officer and Board member of TriMark USA, a
$2.4B PE sponsored company (Blackstone and Centerbridge). Prior, Ms. Ffolkes spent five years as President Americas, Air Products & Chemicals, and held executive and senior management positions at Tenneco, Johnson Controls International plc, GE Healthcare and GE Capital over 22+ years.
Ms. Ffolkes holds an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School. and a B.S. from the City University of New York.
She serves on the Boards of Valero Energy Corporation and Masco Corporation. She chairs the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and serves on the Compensation and Sustainability Committee and has served on the Audit Committee for 4+ years.

Mary Kathleen (MK) Flynn
Editor-in-Chief, PE Hub & PE Hub Europe
Mary Kathleen (MK) Flynn serves as the Editor-in-Chief of PE Hub, which covers private equity deals and dealmakers in North America and Europe. In addition to the pehub.com website, PE Hub produces the popular Wire daily newsletters, which have a circulation of 65,000 readers. MK joined PEI Group in 2021 and leads an editorial team of reporters based in New York and London. She has covered private equity for more than 20 years. Previously, MK served as Editor-in-Chief of Mergers & Acquisitions and held editorial positions at The Deal, CNN, MSNBC, U.S. News & World Report and PC Magazine. She graduated from Vassar College with a major in English.

Susanne Forsingdal
Managing Director, Head of Americas, Allianz Capital Partners
Susanne Forsingdal has been serving as head of the New York investment team at Allianz Capital Partners, GmbH since January 2015. Prior to joining ACP, she headed the New York team of ATP Private Equity Partners, which she joined in 2003. Previously she worked in equity research, strategy and investor relations with Copenhagen based banks and insurance companies. Ms. Forsingdal represents ACP on the advisory boards of a number of Private Equity Funds. Ms. Forsingdal received a Msc in Finance and Accounting from Copenhagen Business School.

Sabrina Fox
Founder, Good Girl to Goddess
For over 15 years, I have worked in the leveraged finance market as a lawyer specializing in high yield bond offerings and covenant analysis, spending most of my career in Europe. During that time I have worked to equip investors with tools to make sound investment decisions. Also Founder of women's empowerment program and collective providing a platform for members to live with more authenticity and joy.
Sabrina Fox, founder of Good Girl to Goddess, is an entrepreneur and empowerment advocate. Just a decade ago, she was working in a job that didn’t inspire her and she was exhausted from always doing things for other people and making no time for herself – sound familiar?
Almost every woman in modern society has a “good girl” inside who is putting others’ feelings and desires ahead of her own, using a self-critical voice in her head to motivate her, and striving to achieve her best, yet feeling that she constantly falls short.
Good Girl to Goddess is the women’s empowerment program comprised of the daily practices, mindset shifts and relationship tools that Sabrina used to turn her life around by channelling her inner “goddess.”
The GGTG Program and Collective is designed for busy women who want to hone their authenticity so they can show up stronger for the people in their lives. Find out more at www.ggtg.me.

Bonnie Frank
Managing Director and Head of Private Investment and Enterprise Risk, Public Sector Pension Investment Board
Bonnie Frank is Managing Director and Head of Private Investment and Enterprise Risk, at the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), leading a team of diverse risk professionals who oversee private investment risk management covering various asset classes. She is also responsible for ensuring a robust enterprise risk framework that includes non-investment and operational risk management, risk transfer solutions and the Corporate Global Insurance Program.
After earning a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University, she then earned her Bachelor of Law (LLB) from the Université de Montréal. Bonnie began her career at Aon Risk Solutions, eventually serving as Assistant Vice President. She then went on to work in Strategy Planning and Risk Management at the Business Development Bank of Canada before joining PSP Investments in 2011.
PSP Investments
The Public-Sector Pension Investment Board (“PSP Investments”) is one of Canada's largest pension investment managers with C$230.5 billion of net assets as of March 31, 2022. It manages a diversified global portfolio composed of investments in public financial markets, private equity, real estate, infrastructure, natural resources and private debt. Established in 1999, PSP Investments manages net contributions to the pension funds of Canada’s federal Public Service, the Canadian Armed Forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Reserve Force. Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, PSP Investments has its principal business office in Montréal and offices in New York, London and Hong Kong.

Kaitie Gannett
Head of Investments, Atlantic Harbor Group
Kaitie Gannett is Head of Investments for Atlantic Harbor Group, a single-family office with roots in the Boston area. Previously, Kaitie held investment roles at Mason Wells, a private equity firm and Northwestern Mutual Capital. Her earlier career includes roles as a Principal at Guidepost Growth Equity and an investment banking Analyst at William Blair. She earned her undergraduate degree from Hamilton College and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Kaitie currently serves as the Investment Committee Chair at Children's Wisconsin.

Akila Grewal
Partner, Apollo Global Management
Akila Grewal is a Partner at Apollo, where she serves as the Global Head of Credit Product and Lead of the Institutional Product Specialist team. As part of her role, Akila leads a global team of professionals who work closely with internal stakeholders and external partners on capital formation across Credit, Private Equity, Real Assets and Infrastructure. Akila is part of the Firm’s Credit Management team which helps set strategy for the credit platform and executes on key priorities. Akila sits on several committees, including the Firm’s Credit Allocations Sub-Committee and the Apollo Opportunity Foundation’s Council. Akila also serves on the not-for-profit Braven’s NYC Board as well as PK AirFinance and Stable Asset Management's Board. Akila graduated from New York University's Stern School of Business with a BS in Finance and is a CFA charterholder.

Andrea Griswold
Partner, White Collar Defense and Investigations, Skadden
Andrea Griswold is a partner in Skadden’s White Collar Defense and Investigations Group. She joined Skadden in 2024 after serving for 11 years in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), most recently as the Deputy U.S. Attorney (2022-2024) and previously as the Chief of the Office’s Securities Fraud Unit (2020-2022). As Deputy U.S. Attorney, Ms. Griswold oversaw all prosecutions in both the criminal and civil divisions as well as SDNY’s press office. As Chief of the Securities Fraud Unit, she supervised individual and corporate investigations concerning accounting and valuation fraud, market manipulation, insider trading, investor fraud and money laundering. Many of the investigations she led concerned potential fraud impacting the asset management industry, including private equity and hedge funds. Before leading the Securities Fraud Unit, Ms. Griswold served for seven years as an assistant U.S. attorney in the SDNY, where she investigated — and prosecuted through trial — securities fraud and other federal cases including several complex fraud trials, all of which resulted in convictions. Prior to joining the SDNY, Ms. Griswold worked for five years as a white collar litigator at a global law firm where she tried three cases to verdict, including two federal criminal trials, one of which ended in a hung jury and the other with an acquittal on the top charge.

Lori Hall-Kimm
Senior Managing Director & Head of Global Private Equity, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP)
Lori is currently the Senior Managing Director and Head of Global Private Equity at Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP). Since joining HOOPP in 2022, Lori leads the Private Equity team and is responsible for the strategic, operational and global investment activities for private capital across multiple strategies, including buyouts, secondaries, venture/growth and private credit.
Prior to joining HOOPP, Lori spent six years with CPP Investments, most recently as Managing Director, Direct Private Equity, where she led the Consumer sector team. Previously, she spent nearly eleven years in the Private Capital team at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, helping establish their London office and leading their European fund and co-investments. Lori also previously worked in the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs.
Lori holds a BBA (Honours) from the Schulich School of Business at York University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Nisha Haran
Director, Origination, Deerpath Capital
Ms. Haran is a Director on the Investment Team focusing on structuring, underwriting and executing new investments. She joined Deerpath in 2024 and has over 13 years of industry experience. Prior to Deerpath, Nisha worked at Adams Street Partners, involved in all phases of the investment process. Before Adams Street, she held investment and corporate banking roles, most recently on Credit Suisse’s leveraged finance team. Ms. Haran is a graduate of the University of Chicago's Booth school of Business (M.B.A.) and the University of California at Berkeley (B.A.)

Ellen Havdala
Managing Director Equity Group Investments (EGI)
For more than 34 years, Ellen has worked in a variety of capacities for Sam Zell’s affiliated companies. As a Managing Director, she serves on the boards of Ardent Health Services, a provider of hospital and healthcare services, and CraneWorks, a dealer of new and used truck-mounted and related mobile crane equipment. Additionally, Ellen sources and evaluates new investments. Ellen helped establish the Zell Global Entrepreneurship Network (ZGEN), an organization that provides continuing education and mentorship for students and alumni of three entrepreneurship education programs sponsored by the Zell Family Foundation. As part of her involvement, she also serves on the board of the Zell Lurie Institute at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.
Prior to joining EGI, Ellen was a financial analyst with The First Boston Corporation in New York City. She graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and earned a Master of Divinity from the University of Chicago.

Ruchi Hazaray
Principal, Education and Impact Lead, Renovus Capital
Ruchi is a Principal on the Renovus Capital investment team, where she leads the firm’s Education-focused investments and drives its impact program. With over a decade of experience in the Education sector, Ruchi has a deep understanding of the industry's landscape. Before joining Renovus, she spent six years as an investment banker at BMO Capital Markets, specializing in the Learning and Talent sector. Earlier in her career, Ruchi worked in the Education non-profit sector, and her passion for making a meaningful impact through education continues to guide her work today.
Ruchi holds an MBA from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business, an MPA from NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, and a B.A. in Political Science from Villanova University.
Company profile (approx. 150 words):
Founded in 2010, Renovus Capital Partners is a lower middle market private equity firm specializing in the Knowledge and Talent industries. From its base in the Philadelphia area, Renovus manages over $2 billion across its sector focused funds and other strategies. The firm’s current portfolio includes over 30 U.S. based businesses specializing in education and training, healthcare services, technology services and professional services. Renovus typically partners with founder-led businesses, leveraging its experience within the industry and access to debt and equity capital to make operational improvements, recruit top talent, pursue add-on acquisitions and oversee strategic growth initiatives.

Leslie Himmel
Founder and Managing Partner, Himmel & Meringoff Properties
Leslie Wohlman Himmel is the Co-Managing Partner of Himmel + Meringoff Properties, which she founded with Stephen Meringoff in 1985. The firm specializes in creating long-term strategic value through owning, operating and redeveloping office and industrial properties concentrated in New York City.
Known for her expertise in opportunistic acquisitions and financing, Ms. Himmel has also made targeted investments in some of Arizona and Florida’s most sought-after submarkets.
Additionally, Ms. Himmel serves as a Board Member of the M&T Bank Directors Advisory Council, M&T New York City Mortgage Committee, and the mezzanine debt fund Lionheart Strategic Management.
Ms. Himmel earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, graduating Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and she received her MBA with High Honors from Harvard Business School.

Lydie Hudson
Co-founder and President, Citation Capital
Lydie B. Hudson is the Co-founder and President of Citation and member of the firm's Investment Committee. Lydie manages all aspects of the day-to-day of Citation. Prior to launching Citation, Lydie was on the Executive Board of Credit Suisse through 2021 where she held a number of leadership roles, ultimately including oversight of over ~$240bn in fiduciary product solutions for the firm's individual, institutional and corporate clients.
Lydie serves as an Aspen Finance Fellow, a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network and for the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader. She also sits on the board of the Hudson Webber Foundation, a foundation founded by her family to support the economic and civic vitality of the City of Detroit, and Room to Read, a global not for profit focused on literacy and gender equality that has benefited the lives of over 39 million children in over 23 countries. Lydie earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Politics and Economics from Middlebury College, and a Master of Business Administration degree from the Harvard Business School where she was awarded the leadership award.

Ali Humphrey
Managing Partner, Arna Advisors
Ali is a Managing Partner at Arna, a private capital and sustainability advisory group, primarily focused on direct investments and fund strategy. She combines her unique experiences as a former sustainability investor, Fortune 500 operator and investment advisor to provide growth and capital raising strategy to sustainability technology companies and private asset managers.
Previously at PJT Partners, Ali advised alternative asset managers on fund formation and ESG strategies and strategy for impact capital raising. Ali also previously directed Sustainability and ESG for TPG where she developed an integrated, value-centric ESG approach across the investment cycle. During her time, she led ESG-related business building with over 200 portfolio companies, many from pre-investment to successful exit.
Ali spent her early career as an operator, leading sustainability strategies and advising companies like Apple, McDonalds, Bank of America and The Gates Foundation.

Danielle Hunt
General Counsel, Tiger Infrastructure Partners
Danielle Hunt is the General Counsel of Tiger Infrastructure Partners. She is responsible for legal, regulatory and corporate governance matters, as well as execution of Tiger’s private equity investments.
Danielle joined Tiger in October 2022 from Allianz Global Investors. At AllianzGI, she served as Director and Associate General Counsel, Head of US Institutional Legal and Global Head of Alternative Transactions Legal. In these roles, Danielle was responsible for the US institutional asset management business, transaction execution across the global private markets platform, and corporate merger & acquisition activities.
Prior to joining AllianzGI, Danielle was a Senior Associate at Milbank LLP in the Project, Energy & Infrastructure Finance Group. Her practice involved advising financial institutions and sponsors on transactions involving energy and infrastructure projects across various industries in the US and Latin America.
Danielle holds a JD from Cornell Law School and a BS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.

Janice Ince
Partner, Pantheon
Janice is a partner in Pantheon’s Global Infrastructure and Real Assets team. Since joining as a principal in 2019, she focuses on identifying and executing a wide range of infrastructure investments across secondaries, co-investments, and primaries. Janice was previously an investment specialist at SteelRiver Infrastructure Partners and Babcock & Brown where she diligence, executed, and managed direct infrastructure deals in North America. Janice started her career in the Power and Utilities banking group at Barclays. She holds a BA in Economics and Operations Research from Columbia College and is based in San Francisco.

Seunghee Kang
Principal, KKR
Seunghee Kang (New York) joined KKR in 2018 and is a Principal on the North American Infrastructure team. Prior to joining KKR, Ms. Kang was with The Carlyle Group as a member of its private equity team. Previously, Ms. Kang was an analyst in the mergers and acquisitions group at Evercore. Ms. Kang received a B.S. in Economics, Summa Cum Laude, from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where she was elected to Beta Gamma Sigma.

Boriana Karastoyanova
Managing Director, Neuberger Berman
Boriana Karastoyanova is a Managing Director of Managing Director and a member of the Secondary Private Equity Team. Prior to joining Neuberger Berman in 2019, Mrs. Karastoyanova was with Blackstone's Strategic Partners Fund Solutions where she focused on originating, evaluating, structuring and negotiating secondary private equity transactions, co-investments and primary commitments. She previously was with Strategic Partners while it was in the Asset Management division of Credit Suisse. From 2005 to 2008, she led Strategic Partners' European operations out of London. Mrs. Karastoyanova began her career in Investment Banking at Citigroup. She is a graduate of Middlebury College.

Susan Kasser
Head of Private Debt, Neuberger Berman
Susan Kasser, CFA, is Head of Neuberger Berman Private Debt, managing $19 billion in first-lien and unitranche loans for private equity-backed companies (as of January 2025). Prior to joining Neuberger Berman in 2013, Susan was an investment professional in the Direct Lending business of the Carlyle Group. Prior to joining Carlyle, she worked at Goldman Sachs as an investment banker in the Leveraged Finance group, a fund investor and direct private equity co-investor in the Private Equity Group, and as a financial analyst in Global Investment Research. Susan was named one of The Wall Street Journal's 2024 Women to Watch and one of Pensions & Investments' 2023 Most Influential Women in Institutional Investing. In addition to serving on the National Board of the Enterprise Club of the American Enterprise Institute, Susan serves on the Investment Committee and the Board of Directors for Vail Health, a nonprofit healthcare system in Colorado.

Lauren Kaufman
Managing Director, Capital Markets, JLL
Lauren Kaufman joins JLL as a Managing Director in the Capital Markets group in New York. Lauren advises clients seeking to raise debt and equity spanning a variety of asset classes, including multifamily, retail, office, industrial, and self-storage, for permanent, bridge, construction, acquisition and refinancing solutions. Over the past four years, Lauren has structured and placed over $5 billion of fixed and floating-rate debt with diverse capital sources, including mortgage REITs, commercial and regional banks, insurance companies, pension funds, debt funds and hedge funds.
Lauren brings over 15 years of experience in originating, negotiating, structuring and syndicating first mortgages, B-notes, mezzanine loans and preferred equity real estate transactions. Lauren began her real estate career at Alston & Bird where she represented commercial banks and other institutional lenders on the origination of commercial loans for balance sheet and capital market execution, as well as loan sales, loan modifications, warehouse facilities and subordinate financing transactions. From 2015 through 2020 Lauren worked in Deutsche Bank’s commercial real estate group where she was responsible for syndicating subordinate debt and originating loans for balance sheet and CMBS execution.
Lauren has a Juris Doctor from Fordham University School of Law and a bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from New York University’s Stern Business School.

Shamafa Khan
Managing Director, Bain Capital
Shamafa L. Khan is a Managing Director at Bain Capital.
Prior to joining Bain Capital, Shamafa was the Head of Investor Relations & Marketing at Crayhill Capital Management, a private credit manager focused on specialty finance and asset-based investments. Prior to joining Crayhill, she was a member of the Global Business Development Group at Babson Capital Management (now Barings), where she held various positions, the last of which was on the Institutional Sales team where she was responsible for client relationships and capital raising. She also served as a product specialist for Babson’s alternative investments platform, developing and implementing marketing strategies for hedge funds. Prior to joining Babson, Shamafa was on the Global Capital Introductions team at UBS and prior to that was a part of the alternatives research team at UBS. She holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering Operations Research from Columbia University.

Inna Khidekel
Partner, Senior Managing Director & Co-Head, Client Solutions Group, Bridge Investment Group
Inna Khidekel, CFA, is a Senior Managing Director and Co-Head of the Client Solutions Group at Bridge Investment Group and member of the Firm's Leadership Team. Inna serves on the Investment Committees of Bridge Workforce & Affordable Housing, Bridge Renewable Energy, Bridge Office, and Bridge-Newbury Partners Secondaries. She chairs Bridge Gives and the Bridge to Opportunity initiatives as well as the Bridge Women’s Network Leadership Exchange to advance newly promoted senior women and serves on the Bridge Sustainability & Responsibility Committee. Inna serves as Co-Chair of the PREA Alternative Real Estate Affinity Group and initiated Bridge’s partnership with the PREA Foundation and TOIGO, to support diverse leadership in finance.

Callie Kourniotis
Managing Director, Raymond James
Callie Kourniotis joined Raymond James in 2024 as a managing director in the Private Capital Advisory team. Bringing with her 20 years of extensive experience in capital formation, Ms. Kourniotis has successfully raised capital for numerous buyout, credit and real asset funds. Prior to joining Raymond James, Ms. Kourniotis was a senior distribution banker at Credit Suisse's Private Fund Group for 17 years. During this time, she cultivated strong relationships with limited partners across the U.S., contributing significantly to the successful track record established by the team.
Ms. Kourniotis started her career at Salomon Brothers Asset Management within their U.S./Canadian sales team. Ms. Kourniotis received a BA in business administration from Pace University in New York City and is fluent in Greek.

Tamara Lawson
Chief Financial Officer, QuadReal
Tamara Lawson joined QuadReal as Chief Financial Officer in September 2018. In her role, Tamara provides leadership to the finance team with a focus on business planning, data analytics, reporting, accounting, risk management and treasury and capital markets.
Tamara has accumulated considerable senior management experience in the areas of financial reporting, planning and analysis, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions and capital markets. Her real estate experience includes both domestic and international markets for public and private enterprises across all asset classes, where she worked on complicated transactions and structures to create value for stakeholders. Prior to joining QuadReal, Tamara was the Chief Financial Officer of Dream Global REIT, Starlight Investments and Westmont Hospitality Group/InnVest REIT.
Tamara currently sits on the board of the audit, investment and governance committees of American Hotel Income Properties REIT. She holds a Master of Business Administration Degree from the Schulich School of Business at York University and is a Chartered Professional Accountant and Fellow (FCPA).

Christina Lee
Managing Director and Co-Portfolio Manager, US Private Debt, Oaktree Capital Management
Ms. Lee is a managing director and co-portfolio manager for Oaktree’s U.S. Private Debt strategy. Her responsibilities include oversight of the team’s investment professionals, portfolio construction and overall management of the strategy. Ms. Lee joined the team in 2009, initially focused on the firm’s Mezzanine strategy. Prior to joining Oaktree, Ms. Lee spent nearly two years in the Leveraged Finance group at Citi. She received a B.S. degree in commerce with concentrations in finance and international business from the University of Virginia.

Ying Lin
Vice President, Stepstone Group
Ms. Lin is a member of the infrastructure and real assets team. She is also involved in the Firm’s diversity and inclusion initiative.
Prior to StepStone, Ms. Lin was a portfolio analyst in AMP Capital’s Global Fixed Income team for corporate bond portfolios of over A$13bn in funds under management for retail and institutional investors.
Ms. Lin received a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Sydney.

Cari Lodge
Managing Director, Head of Secondaries, CF Private Equity
Cari Lodge is Head of Secondaries, a member of the CF Private Equity Investment Committee, Board of Directors, and Senior Executive Group. She oversees the origination, evaluation, structuring and negotiation of secondaries transactions as well as the portfolio construction, monitoring and fundraising of the firm’s secondary funds. Additionally, Cari contributes to the firm’s buyout, growth equity, venture capital, and real assets and sustainability strategies. Cari has over 24 years of secondaries experience and has closed over 495 secondary transactions for greater than $3.3 billion in total exposure. She began her career at Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette (which merged with Credit Suisse in 2000) as an Associate in Investment Banking. She spent 12 years with Credit Suisse’s Secondary Team, Strategic Partners, since its founding in 2000, and served as a member of the Investment Committee. Prior to joining CF Private Equity, Cari was at Tulane University’s Investment Management Office where she was responsible for overseeing the private equity and private real assets investments for the endowment. She is presently a member of the advisory board of several private equity limited partnerships. Cari is also a member of the Investment Committee of her alma mater, The Hotchkiss School.
In 2022, she was recognized by PEI as one of the top ten women of influence in private markets1. In 2024, the WSJ Pro Private Equity named her as a “Woman to Watch.2" In 2025, Cari was recognized as one of the "Twenty Most Influential in Secondaries 2025" by Private Equity News3. Cari received an A.B. from Dartmouth College in both Economics and Government and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.

Andrea Logan
Director, FirstPoint Equity
Andie Logan is a Director at FirstPoint and has over a decade of experience in the financial services industry. Ms. Logan is based in New York and specializes in fundraising across institutional investors and advising General Partners throughout their firm’s lifecycle. Prior to joining FirstPoint, Ms. Logan was a Senior Vice President at MVision Private Equity Advisors, where she provided capital raising and advisory services to alternative asset fund managers. Previously, Ms. Logan worked at Grain Management in Washington DC in capital raising and investor relations. She has also worked as an Investor Relations Consultant within the Global Private Equity segment at The Carlyle Group, and held similar investor relations roles at Tailwind Capital, Goldwater Asset Management and Core Capital. Ms. Logan holds a BA from Louisiana State University.
First Point Equity
FirstPoint Equity is a global and independent private capital solutions advisor focused on fund placement and GP capital advisory services. FirstPoint offers a range of services, including primary, secondary, and co-investments with expert advice both on and off cycle.
Over the past two decades, our executives have completed more than 200 fundraising assignments totaling in excess of USD 125 billion.
FirstPoint provides a Bespoke, Experienced and Effective service to a select number of clients by leveraging our expertise, deep industry knowledge, and trusted investor relationships globally. Our reputation is built on delivering exceptional results as referenced by our clients and investors.

Katy Lukaszewski
Partner, Simpson Thacher
Katy Lukaszewski is a Partner in the Firm’s Energy and Infrastructure Practice. Based in the Houston office, Katy represents companies and private equity sponsors on a variety of corporate transactions, including mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures, with a focus in the energy, infrastructure and consumer products sectors. Katy was named a Lawyer “On The Rise” by Texas Lawyer. Additionally, she is recognized as a leading energy lawyer by Chambers USA, where clients have described her as “extremely bright and efficient.”

Laurie Mahon
Senior Advisor and Independent Director to infrastructure companies
Laurene Bielski Mahon is an experienced board member and an accomplished business executive with over 40 years’ experience in the infrastructure arena as an investment banker, management consultant, transportation and construction executive and project developer. She retired as Vice Chair of CIBC's global investment banking business in May 2023. She was recently named as an Executive Advisor to Bechtel (NEC and Canada) and continues to be a member of the North American Advisory Board of Transurban Inc., one of the largest toll road operators in the world.
Ms. Mahon served as a member of the Board of Directors of IEA, a specialized infrastructure construction company in the renewables and rail space, from November 2020 until its sale in October 2022, and sat on its audit and compensation committees. She also spent five years as a Trustee for Public Media NJ, a not-for-profit public affairs company also known as NJPBS, which is a subsidiary of WNET.
Ms. Mahon joined CIBC in 2013 to establish its global infrastructure platform, growing it from a small P3 execution team to a well-regarded financing and advisory practice encompassing the US, UK, Latin American and Australian markets across a broad array of products including balance sheet debt, M+A, ECM, DCM, rates and foreign exchange. From 1999 until 2011, she ran her own independent advisory practice, serving project owners around the world. She previously served as managing director, North America/ Infrastructure, in the Global Project Finance and Advisory Group for Chase Securities Inc. and as a director of CS First Boston’s international infrastructure practice. She began her investment banking career began at Bear Stearns in municipal finance and held positions at Kidder Peabody, in both the municipal and Latin American groups. During a 2-year hiatus from investment banking, she was chief financial officer for Labov, Inc., a Mid-Atlantic developer of specialized waste to energy projects.
Ms. Mahon’s roster of projects and clients spans the globe. Two notable transactions include directing the consultant team advising the Panama Canal Authority on its Third Lane Locks expansion project, an assignment that involved all aspects of the Canal’s operation, finances, and management. Additionally, for two years she served as the principal advisor to the Government of Puerto Rico for the establishment and initial implementation of its P3 program, including highways, maritime, airport and lottery assets.
Early in her career, Ms. Mahon spent five years at New Jersey Transit Corporation, where she held several executive positions including deputy Chief Financial Officer. She negotiated and closed the first safe-harbor leasing transaction done in the US and went on to close more than $1.2 billion in tax-driven real estate and equipment lease transactions. Ms. Mahon began her career as a transportation planner at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, where she was involved in various regional studies. She has also been a working journalist, at both The Boston Globe and the (Bergen) Record.
Ms. Mahon graduated from Boston University, summa cum laude, and received her MCP (Master’s in City Planning) from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. She is a frequent speaker at industry events, delivering one of the first keynote addresses on climate change to the IFC/World Bank’s Climate Change conference in Hong Kong in September 2016. She participated in the White House Council of Economic Advisors roundtables on transportation finance three times during the Obama administration. She has twice chaired a two-day global event in London for 600 of the most senior women in private equity, infrastructure, and real estate, and will reprise that role this year as well in both New York and London.

Remy Marin
Senior Vice President, Prosek Partners
Remy Marin is a Senior Vice President at Prosek Partners, a leading integrated marketing and communications firm, where she specializes in private markets, multi-asset credit and working with cross-industry leaders in the private and public sectors.
Throughout her career, Remy has built a strong track record of spearheading strategic communications programs that amplify private markets firms’ unique brand narratives across executive visibility, media, conferences, content and digital platforms to support their business development goals. She supports firms through issues management and significant announcements, ranging from portfolio company investments to working on some of the largest asset management consolidation deals of the last five years. Remy also works with many of Prosek’s cross-Atlantic private markets clients looking to build a cohesive global story with targeted regional campaigns that reach US investors.
Prior to joining Prosek in 2016, Remy worked in-house at Deutsche Bank managing PR for their Global Markets Research business in the Americas. Remy earned her BA with Honors in English Literature and Language from Skidmore College with a minor in dance. She also leads Give Back, Prosek’s internal corporate volunteer and charitable giving group, and volunteers with local cat rescue and foster organizations in Brooklyn, NY.

Ashley Marks
Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner, Cordillera Investment Partners
Ashley Marks is a Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner of Cordillera Investment Partners. She is responsible for directing Cordillera’s overarching investment strategy alongside her co-founders, and serves as a director of Cordillera portfolio companies.
Prior to founding Cordillera, Ashley was a Partner at Makena Capital Management where she was a senior member of Makena’s Real Estate investment team and served as the Portfolio Manager responsible for a Makena Real Estate Fund. She was also a member of the firm’s Investment Committee. Before Makena, Ashley was an Associate at MacFarlane Partners, a real estate private equity firm in San Francisco, and held previous positions at MacFarlane Partners and Robertson Stephens in the Technology Investment Banking group.
Ashley earned a BBA in Finance from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Ashley Marlow
Regional Lead North America, Business Development and Client Solutions, Stafford Capital Partners
Ashley works on the client solutions team in North America.
Prior to joining Stafford, she worked in business development and client relations with DW Partners, a multi-strategy/special situations credit firm. Previously, Ashley was Director of Investor Relations at Meritage Capital, a boutique investment management firm specializing in differentiated hedge fund solutions and was a Senior Associate, Business Development with Pine River Capital Management, a global alternative asset manager. Ashley began her career in alternatives as an Investor Relations Analyst at King Street Capital Management.
She received a Bachelor of Science in Entrepreneurial Management and Spanish Studies from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities.

Irene Mavroyannis
Global Co-Head of Business Development for Infrastructure, Partners Group
Irene joined Partners Group in April 2023 as Global Co-Head of Business Development, Infrastructure, and is based in NY. She has 30+ years of finance experience and prior to Partners Group was the Global Head of the Infrastructure Private Capital Advisory business for Sera Global, Brookfield’s real assets advisory platform. Irene’s previous roles include Managing Director in the Investor Solutions Group at Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA), Head of North America and Business Development at Hastings Funds Management and Global Product Specialist for Infrastructure & Energy at KKR. Irene also previously worked in investment banking at both Morgan Stanley and Citigroup in NY. Irene received a Master of Laws from the University of Chicago Law School, a JD (Magna cum Laude) from the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, and a Bachelor of Social Sciences (Econ/Math) (Summa cum Laude) from the University of Ottawa. Irene sits on the University of Chicago Alumni Board, the Board of the Philharmonia Foundation and is a non-executive director at Verdigris Inc.

Lane McDonald
Managing Director, Strategy & Operations, Omers Private Equity
As Managing Director, Strategy & Operations, Lane works with investment and management teams to assess new investments and define and execute value-creation priorities. Lane is based in New York and joined the OMERS Private Equity team in 2022.
Prior to joining OMERS, Lane was the Global Head of Financials, Business Services and Education for the Industry Value Creation team at Partners Group and before that, helped build the Portfolio Strategy & Operations team for DLJ Merchant Banking Partners. She also has held various operations and strategy roles at Ropes & Gray, JetBlue Airways, American Express, Delta Air Lines and Bain & Company.
She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she chairs the Advisory Board of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities.

Hillary McNally
Chief Revenue Officer, Williams Lea
A proven leader in tech-enabled business transformation, Hillary brings a wealth of experience driving growth for legal and corporate clients to her role as Williams Lea’s CRO. She is passionate about partnering with clients to deliver solutions that transform their organizations and drive success. Her background includes more than 25 years of progressively senior leadership roles at Thomson Reuters. Most recently she was General Manager, Corporates Legal for Thomson Reuters, which included Financial and Professional Services firms, and prior to that, Vice President, Sales and Client Management, Global Large Law Firms.

Steven Meier
Deputy Comptroller-Asset Management & Chief Investment Officer, New York City Retirement Systems
As Chief Investment Officer and Deputy Comptroller for Asset Management, Steven Meier oversees investments for the New York City retirement systems.
Mr. Meier brings over 40 years of experience, previously serving as Assistant Treasurer and Interim Chief Investment Officer for Connecticut’s Office of the State Treasurer, overseeing the investments of Connecticut’s $40 billion public pension system. Previously, Meier spent 17 years at State Street and State Street Global Advisors, where he rose to Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer for Global Fixed Income, Currency, and Cash Management, overseeing over $900 billion in assets. In addition, he served on SSGA’s Investment Committee.
His experience also includes roles at Credit Suisse First Boston, Oppenheimer Capital, Merrill Lynch Capital Markets, and Irving Trust Company.
Meier is a CFA Charter Holder and certified Financial Risk Manager. He holds an MBA from Indiana University’s Kelly School of Business and a BBA from Hofstra University.

Anne-Laure Messier
Investment Director, Mirova
Bio coming soon...

Patricia Miller Zollar
Managing Director, Neuberger Berman
Patricia Miller Zollar is a Managing Director of Neuberger Berman and a senior member of the Firm’s Private Investment Portfolios and Co-Investments team. She is a member of the Private Investment Portfolios and Co-Investments Investment Committee. Additionally, Ms. Zollar sits on the Limited Partner Advisory Boards of a number of funds. Before rejoining Neuberger Berman in 2004, Ms. Zollar was a vice president in the Asset Management Division of Goldman Sachs. Ms. Zollar began her career as a Certified Public Accountant in the Audit Division of Deloitte & Touche. She received her MBA from Harvard Business School and her BS, with highest distinction, from North Carolina A&T State University, where she is Chairperson Emeritus of the Board of Trustees and the recipient of an honorary Doctorate degree. Ms. Zollar is a member of the Executive Leadership Council, the Harvard Business School Alumni Board and was a former member of the executive board of the National Association of Investment Companies. She serves as Vice Chairman of The Apollo Theater and a member of the Investment Committee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Board of Trustees and the Neuberger Berman Foundation Board of Trustees.

Elana Mizrahi
Managing Director, Business Development, Monarch Alternative Capital
Elana is a Managing Director for Monarch. Prior to joining Monarch in 2014, Elana was a Sales Associate servicing institutional equity investment managers in the HOLT division of Credit Suisse Securities. Elana previously worked as an Underwriting and Structuring Analyst at Asset Management Finance LLC, a division of Credit Suisse, which focused on making principal investments in alternative and traditional asset managers. Elana graduated from the Wharton School and College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. and B.A. in Economics. Elana holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Kate Mulcahy
Managing Director, 3650 Capital
Kate Mulcahy is a Managing Director focused on SASB and Transitional Lending at 3650 Capital and brings 15 years of commercial real estate lending and capital markets experience.
Prior to 3650, Kate was Head of Capital Markets for BentallGreenOak’s (BGO) Value Add Lending strategy where she sourced, structured, and managed financing facilities including subscription lines, warehouse agreements and note-on-note financings. Previously, Kate held positions as a Director in Annaly Capital Management’s (NYSE: NLY) Commercial Real Estate Group focused on SASB investments and capital markets and as a Vice President at H/2 Capital Partners responsible for capital markets. Kate began her career in the Real Estate Finance group at Citi where she underwrote, structured, and syndicated large loans for REITs and other institutional clients.
Ms. Mulcahy holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (Finance) from Carnegie Mellon University.

Nicole Musicco
Managing Partner, Square Nine Capital
Nicole has recently founded Square Nine Capital, a credit fund focusing on opportunistic lending to mid-sized companies.
Nicole was most recently the CIO at CalPERS, a $500 billion US pension plan. She was previously a Partner at RedBird Capital Partners, a $10 billion private equity firm, predominately in Sports, Media, & Entertainment. Additionally, Nicole spent over 16 years in a broad range of senior investment leadership roles at Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (“OTPP”), a $200 billion Canadian pension plan, overseeing Private & Public Equity asset classes, and establishing OTPP’s presence in Asia by building out its Pan-Asian investment platform based in Hong Kong. At Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (“IMCO”), a $70 billion pension asset management firm, Nicole led the $20 billion Private Markets investment program, across Private Equity, Infrastructure, and Real Estate.

Eric Newman
Treasury Manager, City of Stamford
Eric is responsible for treasury, investment management, and pension fund accounting. He serves as a Trustee on the Classified Employees Retirement Fund Board, Other Post-Employment Benefit (OPEB) Board, Defined Contribution Retirement Plan Board and is a member of the City’s Investment Advisory Committee. Eric is a Trustee on the Town of Fairfield Employee Retirement Board and Joint Retirement Investment Board. He served as the Treasurer for thirty-seven special purpose funding entities.
Prior to entering government finance, Eric held finance positions at Royal Bank of Scotland, IBM Global Financing, Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder, Price Waterhouse and Soros Fund Management. Eric served as a member of the NYSSCPA Private Equity and Venture Capital Committee and Investment Management Committee.
Eric received his B.B.A. in Accounting from Adelphi University; Certificate in Investment Banking from New York University, M.B.A. in Finance from Sacred Heart University and is pursuing a Corporate Finance Certificate from Harvard University. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA).

Aiyu Nicholson
Partner, StepStone Group
Ms. Nicholson is a member of the private equity team, focusing on buyouts, special situations and co-investments.
Prior to joining StepStone in 2009, Ms. Nicholson was a credit analyst for Tudor Investment Corporation, an asset management firm, where she was responsible for performing credit, cash flow and liquidity analyses on emerging markets corporate debt. Before that Ms. Nicholson was a private equity analyst in Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking group.
Ms. Nicholson graduated magna cum laude with a BA from Georgetown University.

Michelle Noyes
Managing Director, Head of Americas, Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA)
Michelle Noyes joined AIMA in 2012 as Chief Operating Officer of AIMA's New York office and became the Association's Head of Americas in 2017. AIMA is the world’s largest membership association for alternative investment managers. Its membership has more firms, managing more assets than any other industry body, and through our 10 offices located around the world, we serve over 2,000 members in 60 different countries. AIMA’s mission, which includes that of its private credit affiliate, the Alternative Credit Council (ACC), is to ensure that our industry of hedge funds, private market funds and digital asset funds is always best positioned for success
Previously, she was Head of International Sales and Investor Relations for BRZ Investimentos, one of the largest independent asset managers in Brazil. While in Sao Paulo, she also served as the Brazil representative for AIMA and established the AIMA Brazil network. Michelle holds a B.A. and M.A. from New York University and is a CAIA Charterholder.

Monica O'Neill
CEO, ENSO Advisors LLC
Bio coming soon...

Silvana Oliva
Independent Senior Advisor
Silvana Oliva is a seasoned technology executive and board director with over 25 years of experience in AI, cloud infrastructure, high technology, and telecommunications. Between 2018 and 2023, Silvana led the expansion of Google’s digital infrastructure footprint, supporting the rapid growth of its cloud business across EMEA and the Americas. She oversaw strategic investments, formed international joint ventures, and drove operational efficiencies across those regions. Her expertise spans data centres, fibre optic networks (terrestrial and submarine networks) and energy.
Silvana has also held leadership positions at Alcatel-Lucent and BT Group where she led strategic initiatives globally related to the development of telecoms infrastructure and wireless technology. She has also been an advisor to governments on AI and infrastructure development policy. She currently serves as a board member of the International Data Centre Authority.
A recognized leader in AI infrastructure and cloud technology, she is a sought-after speaker on the future of data centers and digital transformation. She is based in New York and has worked across Europe and the Americas.

Mansi Patel
Head of Infrastructure Debt, Principal Asset Management
Mansi Patel is a senior managing director and head of infrastructure debt. Mansi is responsible for the growth, operations, and strategy of the private infrastructure debt investment team. She joined Principal Asset Management in May 2024 having previously spent 18 years at MetLife Investment Management as managing director, head of infrastructure debt and project finance—North America, Latin America, and APAC.
Prior to this role, she held a position at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Mansi earned a Master of Business Administration at Fairleigh Dickinson University and a Bachelor of Science at Rutgers University.

Christine Patrinos
Partner, Monument Group
Christine Patrinos, Partner, co-leads the secondaries team at Monument Group. Christine co-founded Mozaic Capital Advisors as an affiliate of Monument Group in 2015. Christine has over 20 years of experience in private equity investing, portfolio management and transaction sourcing. Previously, Christine founded a private equity consulting practice advising large institutional clients on divesting private equity interests, fund structuring and valuation. Prior to that, she worked as an investment professional at HarbourVest Partners. Previously, Christine worked at Citigroup where she had several roles including as a founding member of the infrastructure M&A advisory practice; founding member of the Public Sector Group which advised sovereign clients on large asset divestitures; and as a member of the Structured Corporate Finance group.
Christine has an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Business and a BS from Babson College.

Lindsay Powers
Senior Investment Analyst, NEPC
Lindsay joined NEPC in 2021. She is currently a Sr. Investment Analyst on the Firm’s Private Credit team, covering Direct Lending, Opportunistic Credit, and Niche Markets. She is a member of NEPC’s Credit Beta Group and conducts manager due diligence as well as market research and analysis. Prior to covering Private Credit, Lindsay worked as a Research Associate on the Marketable Securities team covering manager replacement searches for the client teams. Prior to joining NEPC Research in May 2021, Lindsay was an intern on the Healthcare Consulting team at NEPC.

Melissa Quackenbush
Senior Portfolio Manager, Private Markets, Public School Employees’ Retirement System Investment Office
Melisa A. Quackenbush is a Senior Portfolio Manager at the Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS), where she has been managing part of the global real estate portfolio since joining the fund in 2018. Before her tenure at PSERS, Melissa was an entrepreneur, running her own gourmet food business. Prior to that she served as Director of Real Estate for Honeywell International’s global pension fund. Her extensive real estate experience includes leadership roles at MetLife, where she established and led the commercial mortgage trading desk as well as positions at brokerage firms such as Granite Partners, HFF and LJ Melody. Earlier in her career she worked as a commercial loan officer at Citibank and Fleet Bank in upstate New York.
Melissa holds a BA in Economics and Spanish from the University of Rochester and Certificate of Management Studies in Finance and Accounting from the William E. Simon School of Business.

Zeena Rao
Managing Partner, ICV Partners
Zeena has over 25 years of experience in private equity investing, where she has capitalized and grown several companies that provide essential business services and consumer services. She joined ICV in 2001 as an Associate and is currently a Managing Partner. As a first-generation immigrant and a mother of two, she is passionate about supporting a diverse and inclusive culture in the private equity industry and the companies she works with. She is also a board member of Junior Achievement of Greater Miami, a nonprofit that prepares young people for success through financial literacy.
Ms. Rao holds a BS degree magna cum laude in Economics from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School.. She has been recognized as Wharton 40 Under 40, Opus Connect’s Top 25 Women in M&A, and CIO Views Top 10 Women.

Monika Racz
Senior Managing Director, Head of Private Equity and Co-Investments, Corebridge Institutional Investments (U.S.), LLC
Monika Racz has over 20 years of Private Equity related experience and she is currently a Senior Managing Director and Head of Private Equity and Co-Investments at Corebridge Institutional Investments (U.S.), LLC (FKA AIG Asset Management (U.S.), LLC). She has been with the Firm since 2010 with all her time spent in Alternatives. Before joining, Ms. Racz was briefly an Assistant Vice President in the Private Equity Fund Services group at JPMorgan. Prior to that, Ms. Racz spent 11 years at MetLife, where she held various positions, including managing a portfolio of bank loans, Associate within the Alternatives Group, and Analyst in the International Investment Unit assisting in the oversight and compliance of thirteen individual international investment portfolios. Ms. Racz earned a B.S. in Business Administration with a minor in International from The College of New Jersey, and a M.B.A in Finance from Seton Hall University.

Agnieszka Rafalska
Head of Legal M&A (North America), EQT Partners
Agnieszka Rafalska joined EQT Group in 2024 as the company’s Head of M&A Legal for North America. EQT is a global asset manager with Nordic roots and EUR 269 billion in assets under management as of December 2024. In her role Agnieszka is integrally involved in all aspects of transactions effected by EQT private equity and infrastructure funds. Prior to joining EQT, Agnieszka served as Senior Transaction Counsel, Private Equity at Apollo Global Management, a global alternative asset manager with approximately $751 billion of assets under management as of December 31, 2024. Agnieszka started her legal career at the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell where she maintained a broad practice, advising corporate and sponsor clients on a wide range of transactions. Agnieszka graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with an A.B. degree in Social Studies and received her J.D. from Yale Law School.

Jaci Reed
Sr. Business Performance Consultant, Transcend
Jaci has 20 years of experience providing strategic business advisory and coaching to executives and their teams with specific emphasis on high-growth startups, IPOs, family-owned businesses, and Fortune500 companies. This, along with her background in psychology and organizational effectiveness, allows her the unique ability to pinpoint an organization’s strengths and gaps, guiding its leaders to manage complexity through each business cycle. Jaci facilitates meaningful strategies while gaining deep buy-in across diverse teams that accelerate value creation and organizational performance. With her steadfast partnership and research-based approach, she embeds robust processes and tools that foster the essential mindset and behavioral shifts necessary to maximize executive team performance, enablement structures, leadership capacity, and growth.

Emily Ren
Principal, HarbourVest Partners
Emily Ren joined HarbourVest in 2016 and focuses on analyzing, structuring, and monitoring secondary private equity opportunities, including traditional and complex transactions.
Emily joined the Firm from RBC Capital Markets, where she spent two years as an investment banking analyst in the Leveraged Finance Group focusing on leveraged buyouts, acquisition financings, and dividend recapitalizations.
Emily received a Bachelor of Commerce (with first class honors) in Investment Management from McGill University in 2014.

Lauren Rich
Managing Director, Wafra
Lauren Rich is a Managing Director and serves on Wafra’s Management Committee. Ms. Rich helps lead Wafra’s strategic partnership investment mandates in both established and next generation asset management businesses. While at Wafra, Ms. Rich has completed several direct minority investments in alternative asset management firms, GP financings, secondary private equity investments as well as investments within closed end funds.
Previously, Ms. Rich was an Associate with Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York, where she advised clients on a broad range of financing transactions.
Ms. Rich earned a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and a JD from New York University School of Law.

Dina Said Dwyer
Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Investment Officer, Eden Capital
Dina Said Dwyer is the Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Investment Officer of Eden Capital Management LLC. Ms. Dwyer has more than twenty years of experience in the private equity industry. Prior to founding Eden, she served as a Managing Director at Unifund SA and was responsible for sourcing and executing transactions and oversight of Unifund’s portfolio companies. Prior to Unifund, Ms. Dwyer was an Analyst at the Blackstone Group in New York and trained at the Carlyle Group in London. She serves on the Board of Directors of Wall Street Prep, Edcetera, White Cup, and Intelvio. Ms. Dwyer received a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Gayatri Sarkar
Founder and CEO, Advaita Capital
Gayatri Sarkar is the owner of Advaita Capital, one of the few/only growth VC fund in the US owned by a woman-POC. We are investing in generative AI, deep tech and decarbonization advancing the human race. Our checks are $10-50M+ and we have invested in top names like Stripe, Epic Games, Neuralink, Cohere, Tenstorrent and other top generative ai companies as well.
Awarded Global Leader under 40 for championing $100B+ combined capital in gender advocacy through She-VC podcast. Former Federal Reserve Bank Manager- managed US Treasury’s assets for the US Military/ Navy, including managing big banks like JPM, PNC, G&D, and VISA. Founder of a consulting firm where US Treasury was first client. Founder of career networking tech startup, built at Harvard i-lab when Gayatri was a Harvard graduate student. Started her career as a data architect at HP, IBM, Goldman Sachs. Former GP of a TMT fund (acquired). Physics Honors, Math minor. Economics and Finance Major at Harvard. She completed 6years end of term as Board of Directors of Harvard Kennedy School NEA. She is also a crown patron of Princess Grace Foundation, USA, now Under The High Patronage of His Serene Highness Prince Albert II, Princess’s Grace’s son and ruling Prince of Monaco, is dedicated to the enduring legacy of his mother and the important mission of excellence in the arts. Advaita Capital is also official nominator of Earthshot Prize, created by Prince William Foundation, which grants 1M pounds to top 5 category climate tech startups through annual prize. Gayatri Sarkar is Bloomberg media trained and is a cohort of Bloomberg New Media voice in VC, AI, chips and other technology areas she is investing in.
She was featured in Forbes - https://www.forbes.com/sites/hessiejones/2024/04/30/advaita-capitals-mission-to-ignite-diversity-and-ethical-investing-in-venture-capital/

Isabelle Scemama
Global Head, Alts, AXA IM Alts
Isabelle Scemama is Global Head of AXA IM Alts. Isabelle oversees AXA IM’s €185bn+ alternative business unit, AXA IM Alts, which employs over 800 people located in 17 offices, serving the needs of more than 600 clients globally.
AXA IM Alts is a global leader in alternatives asset management, putting ESG at the heart of its investment approach, with an established position in real estate (#1 real estate investment manager in Europe, #9 worldwide), infrastructure (#3 global infrastructure debt capital raiser), private debt (#1 CRE debt capital raiser globally, #4 global private debt capital raiser) alternative credit and private equity.
In her role, she leads the definition and execution of AXA IM Alts global strategy as well as in the supervision of its day-to-day management. Isabelle also sits on AXA IM – Real Estate and Infrastructure Investment Committees and chairs the AXA IM Alts Management Board.
Isabelle joined AXA IM - Real Assets in 2001 to develop the third-party business. Notably, she launched the CRE and infrastructure debt lending platforms in 2005 and 2013 respectively, now firmly established as global leaders, before taking responsibility of the full fund management activity of AXA IM- Real Assets. She was later appointed CEO of AXA IM – Real Assets in 2017, a role to which was added the responsibility of the overall alternatives’ asset management activity of AXA IM, as Global Head of AXA IM Alts in 2020.
Isabelle has more than 32 years of experience in the alternatives asset management industry, out of which 21 years within AXA IM. Before joining AXA IM, Isabelle held various positions in corporate and real estate financing at Paribas.
Isabelle graduated from IEP Paris (Sciences Po) with a degree in Political Science in 1989.

Hannah Schofield
Managing Director, DC Advisory
Hannah is part of our global Infrastructure team, based in the US. Hannah has over 15 years’ experience within infrastructure debt both in the European and US market. She started her career at Lloyds Bank and most recently spent almost a decade on the buy side with BlackRock.
Hannah has deep experience across Infrastructure, Transportation, Media & Telecom, Energy & Power. Her track record includes infrastructure financings in both Europe and North America, with structures including senior, holdco and mezzanine positions.
DC Advisory
DC Advisory is an international investment bank committed to making a difference. As part of an established global business, we offer access to over 750 professionals in 24 locations throughout Asia, Europe, and the US. Across 11 industry focused teams, we offer tailored, independent advice on M&A, debt raisings and restructurings, private capital markets, secondary advisory and access to unrivalled Asia investment knowledge.

Sheryl Schwartz
Chief Investment Officer, ALTI Financial
Sheryl Schwartz is an accomplished asset management executive, institutional investor, and board member who has built and led teams and new asset classes for major institutional investors. She is the Chief Investment Officer of Alti Financial, a 1940 Act platform focused on democratizing private markets and currently serves on the board of Cartesian Growth II, a NASDAQ listed company, and for GAIA, a private REIT. Sheryl serves on the Audit and Governance Committees. Sheryl is a Qualified Financial Expert and able to serve as the audit committee chair and has an expertise in portfolio management, strategy, corporate governance, marketing and new product development experiences. Sheryl has provided advice on strategy, growth, management and organizational decisions, acquisitions, investments, ESG and financial matters. Over the course of her career as a lead investor she has developed financial acumen across asset classes, with deep sector expertise in alternatives, private equity and credit/fixed income.
Sheryl has successfully navigated investment portfolios and led teams through economic cycles in her senior leadership roles at TIAA, a Fortune 100 diversified financial services firm; at a subsidiary of Natixis, (Caspian), a large French asset management firm; at Perseus, a private equity firm and as the CoFounder and CIO of Alti Financial. Sheryl has been a portfolio manager and consultant for institutional investors and has built several private equity fund, co-investment, mezzanine debt and timber portfolios from scratch, including a $13B portfolio at TIAA and $3+B portfolios at Caspian. She has expertise in global co-investments, small and mid-market funds, emerging managers and has factored in ESG parameters in her underwriting. She has navigated internal and external audits, regulatory exams and SEC approvals. In addition, she has managed and led cross -functional teams, projects and new products that required the support and confidence of clients and departments including: risk, accounting, legal, tax, middle office, distribution, sales, marketing,
compliance, tax, audit and regulators.
Sheryl is also on the Board of a women’s private equity mentoring organization (“WAVE”), her longstanding membership in PEWIN and is an Adjunct Professor at Fordham Gabelli School of business. Amongst her many accolades, Sheryl has been recognized by Merger and Acquisitions Magazine “Most Influential Women in the Mid-Market M&A” in 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 and The Wall Street Journal’s “Six of Private Equity’s Most Influential Gatekeepers” in 2017.

Marina Schwartzman
Vice President, Private Real Assets, Apogem Capital
Marina Schwartzman is a member of the Private Real Assets investment team at Apogem Capital. She focuses on real assets fund investing, co-investing and secondary investments and is involved in all aspects of investment sourcing, due diligence, and monitoring.
Marina joined Apogem Capital from PA Capital, where she had worked since 2015. She began her career in the financial services industry in 2010. Before joining PA Capital, Marina worked in investment banking at JP Morgan and Bank of America Merrill Lynch on the leveraged finance teams where she focused on execution of high yield bonds and leveraged loans.
Marina graduated Magna Cum Laude from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business.

Sarah Schwarzschild
Chief Operating Officer, Mavik Capital Management
Sarah Schwarzschild is the Chief Operating Officer of Mavik, responsible for the strategy and operations of the firm, and sits on its Investment Committee.
Prior to joining Mavik, Sarah was the Co-Head of BGO Strategic Capital Partners, a global multi-manager platform currently owned by BentallGreenOak and formerly part of The Carlyle Group. Sarah was instrumental in building the secondaries business and scaling the global platform to more than $3 billion. Prior to joining Carlyle, Sarah led Partners Group’s real estate secondary team in the US and was an Assistant Vice President in the Global Opportunity Funds group at RREEF. Sarah started her career as an analyst at Rothschild.
Sarah received a BA, summa cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA with honors from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Sarah sits on the MBA Council for the Tuck School of Business and is Secretary of the Board of Trustees for The Mianus River Gorge, a land preservation not-for-profit.

Richa Singh
Director of Data and AI, Lexington Partners
Richa is Director and Head of Data and AI at Lexington Partners. Prior to joining Lexington, Richa was leading the AI Center of Excellence for Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs. Richa is Director and Head of Data and AI at Lexington Partners. Prior to joining Lexington, Richa was leading the AI Center of Excellence for Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs. Richa graduated from Columbia University with an MS in Operations Research.

Cecilie Søndergaard Nielsen
Managing Director, Founder at CN8 Leadership Confidence
Cecilie Søndergaard Nielsen is the Founder and Managing Director of CN8, a London-based leadership performance consultancy specialising in coaching, assessment, and advisory services for senior leaders in high-pressure industries. With nearly two decades of international experience in HR, and leadership roles across energy and financial services - including private equity - Cecilie has worked in diverse environments from oil rigs to trading floors, supporting leaders across the globe. Cecilie is a multi-certified executive coach, and holds a BSc in Economics as well as a Master's in Leadership, in addition to advanced training in subconscious bias and the neuroscience behind it. She is particularly passionate about advancing female leadership, and her coaching work focuses on providing her clients with the tools to facilitate transformative, permanent change.
CN8
CN8 is a specialist leadership coaching and performance consultancy, based in London, and focused on delivering neuroscience-backed leadership development and team solutions to leaders in high-pressure environments, globally.
CN8 offers tailored leadership coaching, talent development, and team performance processes, as well as advanced psychometric assessments, designed to unlock individual and organisational capacity and potential, and deliver measurable impact with exceptional results.
By combining deep insights from the psychology and neuroscience of human behaviour with two decades of coaching and leadership experience, we focus on helping our clients develop autentic and sustainable performance. Whether it’s strengthening team dynamics or guiding individuals to lead with clarity and resilience, CN8 is a trusted ally for leaders and organisations seeking meaningful transformation.

Cheryl Strom
Partner, Origination, The Riverside Company
Cheryl is a highly experienced private equity professional who brings depth of capital choices to business owners, their advisors, and management teams. Her experience spans growth capital, non-control capital, majority-stake equity investments, and full acquisitions, as well as debt for companies ranging in size from small businesses to the middle-market. With 26 years of private equity and capital raising experience, today Cheryl leads the firm’s Origination initiatives with deal source firms and referral sources based throughout the Midwestern United States. Cheryl works with a team of 18 Origination professionals globally to establish new stand-alone companies, or platform companies, for Riverside. In addition, she originates add-on acquisitions for Riverside’s many portfolio companies in order to help these companies expand and grow by adding new product lines or service offerings, or expanding their geographies.
Prior to arriving at Riverside in 2006, she worked in Debt Capital Markets at National City (now PNC), structuring and originating senior debt facilities. Cheryl earned her MBA from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, and BA from John Carroll University.
Cheryl is a past President, Board of Directors of the Association for Corporate Growth’s Cleveland Chapter. She is a past Managing Partner of the board for Promise Partners, a Cleveland-based non-profit organization that provides a network of support for individuals seeking to become first-time business owners through acquisitions of small businesses. She is a frequent public speaker on merger & acquisition market conditions and resources for family-owned businesses.
Cheryl is a supporter of Saint Joseph Academy, a Catholic all-girls high school in Cleveland and her alma mater. For consecutive years she has achieved “Big Wheeler” status as a fundraiser for VeloSano, a Bike to Cure initiative that provides critical financing for cancer research at Cleveland Clinic. Cheryl is a regular weekend volunteer at the St. Vincent de Paul Society’s Father Michael Wittman Ozanam Center food pantry and clothing center.
The Riverside Company
Founded in 1988, The Riverside Company is one of the largest and most active global investment firms providing capital and best-in-class support to small and middle market companies.
With over $13 billion of capital under management, a large global staff of over 300 professionals, and long-standing relationships with a global base of institutional investors, the firm has made more than 1,000 investments. Among Riverside’s investors since its founding in 1988 include the world’s leading pension funds, endowments, funds-of-funds, insurance companies and banks. Riverside has offices in North America, Europe, and Australia.

Lisa Strope
Vice President, Head of Research, TA Realty
Lisa Strope is the Head of Research for TA Realty. In this role, she works closely with senior leadership to craft the strategic house view, drive thought leadership initiatives and monitor domestic and international capital markets. She also partners with the firm’s investment and portfolio management teams to advance the firm’s analysis and forecasting across property types and regions.
She has over 20 years of experience in real estate research, investment, and development. Prior to joining TA Realty in 2020, she spent six years at JLL. Her responsibilities included oversight of the national research platform for life sciences, healthcare and seniors housing and the New England research team. Prior to JLL, she served as a Teaching Fellow at Harvard Business School where she focused on the study of investment trends in real estate.
She holds a B.A. from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from the Stern School of Business at New York University. She is a former Board Member, CREW Boston, and an Adjunct Real Estate Faculty at Babson College.

Maria Surina
Investment Managing Director, Cambridge Associates
Maria joined the firm in 2018 and has over 18 years of industry experience. She specializes in real assets with a focus on real estate investment idea generation and due diligence in North America and Europe. Her responsibilities also encompass managing real asset portfolios for clients and researching trends that impact the real assets industry. She works across various structures such as funds and co-investments, and collaborates with US pensions, endowments, foundations, and family offices.
Maria is also a member of the Real Asset Investment Committee, where she plays a pivotal role in sourcing and monitoring real asset investments, including real estate, infrastructure, and global natural resources. Additionally, she serves on several industry committees and advisory boards, including as Global Co-Chair of the CA Women Employee Resource Group and a member of the CA DEI Council. She is a frequent speaker at various industry events.
Before joining Cambridge Associates, Maria held positions at Bain Capital Real Estate (formerly Harvard Management Company’s Real Estate Investment Group), DESCO Group (real estate operator of the Schnuck Markets grocery chain), and Altus Group. Her experience includes direct real estate investment, portfolio management, and asset management. She also worked as a designated commercial appraiser, conducting property valuations, due diligence reports, and feasibility studies.
Maria earned her MBA in Finance from Washington University and her Bachelor of Commerce in Housing and Real Estate Management from the University of Guelph, Canada.

Cierra Taylor
Vice President, Cerberus Capital Management
Cierra Taylor is a Vice President at Cerberus Capital Management where she focuses on investments in the real estate private credit sector across all geographies, asset classes, and positions in the capital stack. Prior to joining Cerberus, Cierra was a member of the investments team at PCCP in a dual acquisitions and originations role where she was responsible for underwriting and execution of transactions across the United States.
Cierra graduated with B.S. in Engineering from Yale University.

Violeta Tostanoski
Vice President, Head of Corporate Development, Mitsubishi Power Americas
Violeta Rabanal is the Senior Director – Head of Corporate Development at Mitsubishi Power, where she leads capital raises and M&A across energy transition and conventional businesses.
Violeta has 13+ years of experience in financial services with a focus on infrastructure and energy. Prior to Mitsubishi Power, she was part of the Infrastructure Credit team at Global Infrastructure Partners (“GIP”). Prior to GIP, Violeta was a Vice President in Evercore’s Corporate Advisory business with a focus on infrastructure, power, renewables, utilities, and transportation. Previously, she was an investment manager at Rimac, Peru’s largest insurance company, where she led the short-term fixed income strategy, and was also an Adjunct Professor of Finance at Universidad del Pacifico.
Violeta holds an M.B.A with a concentration in Finance from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in Economics, Summa Cum Laude, from Universidad del Pacifico. She is a CFA Charterholder.

Ya Tung
Chief Investment Officer, The Jefferies Family Office
Ya Tung is the Chief Investment Officer for the Jefferies Family Office where she oversees the platform that invests capital on behalf of Jefferies senior executives and employee-partners. Prior to joining Jefferies, Ms. Tung was a Managing Director at GCM Grosvenor, an asset management firm with $70bn in AUM. While at GCM Grosvenor, she shared leadership responsibilities for overseeing the private equity business and team, including shaping investment strategy and portfolio construction. Prior to GCM Grosvenor, Ms. Tung was at Goldman Sachs, most recently as a member of the investment team and the Strategy lead for U.S. middle market in AIMS (Alternative Investments and Manager Selection) of GSAM (Goldman Sachs Asset Management). Prior to Goldman Sachs, Ms. Tung served in corporate functions that focused on cost control, operating efficiencies, and production. Ms. Tung earned her B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from Columbia University and MBA from Columbia Business School.

Anne Valentine Andrews
Global Head of Private Markets, Manulife Investment Management
Anne Valentine Andrews is the Global Head of Private Markets, Manulife Investment Management. In this role, she’s responsible for the strategy, business development, and growth of Manulife Investment Management’s private markets business, which includes real estate, infrastructure, timber, agriculture, private equity, and credit. She also leads the private markets investment teams, bringing together the chief investment officers from each asset class in the business and working closely with the global product group to drive private markets product innovation across the global institutional, retail, and retirement channels.
Based in New York City, Anne joined Manulife Investment Management from BlackRock, where she spent nine years in increasingly senior roles, most recently as Global Head of Infrastructure and Real Estate. Previously, she was Co-head and Chief Operating Officer for the Morgan Stanley infrastructure platform, and, prior to that, she was a Director at Macquarie Bank in both Melbourne and New York.

Leslie Vargas
Head of Portfolio Management, Resolution Life US
Leslie Vargas, CFA, is the Head of Portfolio Management at Resolution Life. Previously, Leslie held positions as a Vice President at Swiss Re in the Private Debt team and External Investment Mandates in New York, NY. Leslie also has experience at Bloomberg LP where they were a Team Leader in the Equity Capital Markets team managing analysts and vendors, as well as an Equity Capital Markets Analyst and Dividend Forecasting Analyst. With a background in finance and business administration, Leslie has a strong foundation in analyzing and managing portfolios.

Jana Wayne
Managing Director, Head of Procurement, Hunter Point Capital
Ms. Wayne is a Managing Director and serves as Head of Procurement at Hunter Point Capital.
Ms. Wayne has worked in procurement for over 15 years. Prior to joining HPC, Ms. Wayne was the Director of Portfolio Procurement at SK Capital Partners, a global private investment firm, where she built a leverage procurement program that drove significant savings for SK’s portfolio companies. Prior to that, Ms. Wayne was Vice President at Blackstone where she supported over 200+ portfolio companies in driving cost reduction through procurement optimization. Ms. Wayne has also held procurement leadership positions at J.Crew Group and Citibank and began her career at GEP, a leading procurement consulting firm.
Ms. Wayne earned her B.A. in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania where she graduated summa cum laude and received her M.B.A. from New York University.
Hunter Point Capital ("HPC") is an independent investment firm seeking to provide innovative capital solutions to middle-market alternative asset managers across private equity, credit, real estate, and infrastructure in North America, Europe, and Asia. HPC is dedicated to pursuing long-term strategic partnerships with proven asset managers who are poised to build enduring franchises and define the next generation of leading investment firms across the globe. HPC’s inaugural investment fund focuses on GP stakes investing. It recently launched its new strategy of GP Financing providing NAV loans and preferred equity financing to GPs.

Natascha Willans
Partner, Associate Portfolio Manager, ABS Global Investments
Natascha B.E. Willans is a Partner and Associate Portfolio Manager at ABS. She is responsible for sourcing and monitoring emerging markets equity strategies. Prior to joining ABS in November 2013, she was an Executive Director in Goldman Sach’s Global Portfolio Solutions group participating in the oversight of multi-asset class investment portfolios.
She holds a BS in Finance, Marketing and Italian Language Studies from Georgetown University.

Yana Watson-Kakar
Managing Director and Head of Americas, CDPQ Global
Yana Watson Kakar, Managing Director and Head of Americas. Based in New York, she is a member of the CDPQ Global Management Team, which develops and implements CDPQ’s international strategy. In addition to heading the New York office, Yana oversees the CDPQ offices in Mexico and Brazil. She works closely with the heads of the asset classes in developing CDPQ’s investment strategy and partnerships across the Americas region while strengthening the existing portfolio of constructive capital invested in private equity, fixed income, real estate, infrastructure, technology, and equity markets.
A seasoned executive, Ms. Watson Kakar has dedicated her career to generating economic and financial returns through the application of inclusive and sustainable business and investment strategies. Before joining CDPQ, she was the CEO of Growth for Good, a special purpose acquisition company with a strategic focus on decarbonization of the global economy.
Until 2020, Ms. Watson Kakar was Global Managing Partner of Dalberg Advisors, a mission-driven multinational consulting firm specializing in policy, strategy, and investment advisory. By the conclusion of her two terms in that role, she had led the firm to triple its revenues and grow to nearly 30 offices worldwide.
Ms. Watson Kakar sits on the Board of Directors of Oxfam America and is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization, the Women’s Forum of New York and 100 Women in Finance. She has been widely published, including in Bloomberg, The Economist, The Financial Times, Forbes, The Guardian, and Yahoo! Finance. She holds a Master’s in Business Administration from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University.

Lucy Wilson
Vice President, Alignment Growth
Lucy Wilson is a Vice President at Alignment Growth, where she is responsible for originating, evaluating, and adding value to the firm’s investments. Ms. Wilson joined the firm shortly after its inception in 2021 and focuses on investments in film and TV, live events, and the creator economy. Ms. Wilson currently serves as an Observer on the Board of Directors of Wheelhouse Group and Elefantec Global Holdings and maintains an active role in the firm’s investments in Fever and Spyglass Media Group.
Prior to joining Alignment Growth, Ms. Wilson worked in investment banking at UBS, where she advised on mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt financings, and leveraged buyouts.
Ms. Wilson graduated Summa cum laude from Boston College with a B.A. in Economics.

Lauren Young
Partner, Advent International
Lauren Young joined Advent in 2011 and is a Managing Director in New York. She advises on investments in the technology sector. Lauren has advised on 11 investments during her career, eight while at Advent.
Prior to joining Advent, Lauren worked at The Carlyle Group, where she was a member of the US buyout fund. At Carlyle, she focused on investing in software and financial technology companies. Previously, Lauren was an analyst at McColl Partners, a middle-market investment banking firm.
She received a BA from Davidson College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Ji Zhang
Portfolio Manager, Global Real Estate, Cohen & Steers
Ji Zhang, CFA, Senior Vice President, is a portfolio manager for global real estate portfolios. Prior to joining the firm in 2018, Ms. Zhang was an analyst on the real estate securities team at Neuberger Berman. Previously, she held equity research positions at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Macquarie Capital. Ms. Zhang has a BS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is based in New York.

Tingting Zhang
Founder & Chief Executive Officer, TerraCotta Group
Dr. Tingting Zhang is the Founder and CEO of the TerraCotta Group, where she is responsible for overseeing the company’s investment activities and managing portfolio risk. She manages the Credit Committee at TerraCotta and leads the research and methodology agenda at the TerraCotta Lab, the company’s research division.
Dr. Zhang founded TerraCotta in 2004 with the objective of applying academic insights, objectivity, and analytical rigor to commercial real estate lending in order to address real-world challenges. TerraCotta pioneered the use of predictive analytics in commercial real estate credit investments. In 2025, TerraCotta was selected as Runner-up for Real Estate Debt Manager of the Year (2024) by Private Debt Investor (PDI).
In 2021, Dr. Zhang was recognized as one of sixty global honorees in Private Equity International’s (PEI) special report on Women of Influence in Private Markets, which covered various sectors such as private equity, private debt, real estate, venture capital, infrastructure, and cross strategies. In 2022, 2023 and again in 2024, Dr. Zhang was listed in the LA 500, a compilation of the most influential individuals according to the Los Angeles Business Journal. In addition, GlobeSt. selected Dr. Zhang as a 2024 Woman of Influence in CRE, recognizing her as a woman that has driven the CRE industry to new heights.
During the Great Financial Crisis in 2008, Dr. Zhang co-founded the Special Assets Management Association (SAMA), the only trade association in the U.S. with over 100 membership banks dedicated to banking executives in special assets and credit risk management, which has positioned TerraCotta as a trusted partner with deep relationships in the banking community. Dr. Zhang currently sits on SAMA’s Board of Directors as its Chair.
Dr. Zhang earned her Master’s degree in Quantitative Methods and a PhD in Political Economy from the University of California, Los Angeles.