Robert Rosenkranz is Chairman of Delphi Capital Management, an investment concern with more than $35 billion in assets under management, and the founder of a group of investment and private equity partnerships. From 1987 until 2018 he served as the Chief Executive Officer of Delphi Financial Group, an insurance company with some $20 billion in assets. Delphi grew from one of his acquisitions and increased its value 100-fold under his leadership.

He is the Founder and Chairman of Open to Debate, a public policy debate series that provides a forum for reasoned public discourse. He serves on the board of directors for the Manhattan Institute and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in California; and the Serpentine Galleries and Policy Exchange, the center-right think tank, in London. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the Visiting Committees for the Departments of Photography and Asian Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A graduate of Yale University (A.B. summa cum laude 1962) and Harvard Law School (J.D. 1965), he was a tax lawyer with the New York law firm of Cahill, Gordon & Reindel and an economist with The RAND Corporation, where he was engaged in research on foreign policy issues and municipal finance. In 1969, he joined Oppenheimer & Company where he was a General Partner when he left to form Rosenkranz & Company, a private equity firm, in 1978. Mr. Rosenkranz is a longstanding art collector, with prominent collections of Asian art, modern design, and time-based media. He resides in East Hampton, New York and Aspen, Colorado with his wife Alexandra Munroe, Ph.D., Senior Curator of Asian Art at the Guggenheim Museum. He has two adult children, Nicholas and Stephanie, both constitutional law scholars.

Ian Bremmer is the president and founder of Eurasia Group, which he established in 1998 with just $25,000. The company is the leading global political risk research and consulting firm, with offices in New York, Washington, and London, as well as a network of experts and resources in 90 countries. Eurasia Group provides analysis and expertise about how political developments and national security dynamics move markets and shape investment environments across the globe. Bremmer created Wall Street’s first global political risk index (GPRI). He is the founding chairman of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Geopolitical Risk and is an active public speaker. He has authored several books including the national bestsellers Every Nation for Itself: Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World and The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations? Bremmer is a contributor to the Financial Times A-List and Reuters.com. He has written hundreds of articles for publications including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Foreign Affairs. Bremmer earned a PhD in political science from Stanford University in 1994 and was the youngest-ever national fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is a global research professor at New York University and has held faculty positions at Columbia University, the EastWest Institute, and the World Policy Institute.

Edward “Ed” Conard is the author of two New York Times top-ten bestselling books: Unintended Consequences: Why Everything You’ve Been Told About the Economy Is Wrong (2012) and The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class (2016); and a contributor to Oxford University Press’ United States Income, Wealth, Consumption, and Inequality (2020). He is an adjunct fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Previously, he was a founding partner of Bain Capital, where he worked closely with his friend and colleague, former presidential candidate Mitt Romney. In May of 2012, Conard published Unintended Consequences: Why Everything You’ve Been Told About the Economy Is Wrong. The book was featured on the cover of the New York Times Sunday Magazine and went on to become a New York Times top ten non-fiction bestseller. Because of the publicity surrounding the publication of his book, Conard was the tenth most searched author on Google in 2012. Since its publication, Mr. Conard has made over 250 television appearances in which he has debated leading economists including Paul Krugman, Joe Stiglitz, Alan Kruger, Austen Goolsbee, and Jared Bernstein; journalists including Jon Stewart, Fareed Zakaria, Chris Hayes, and Andrew Ross Sorkin; and politicians such as Barney Frank, Howard Dean, and Eliot Spitzer. Prior to Bain Capital, Conard worked for Wasserstein Perella Co., an investment bank that specialized in mergers and acquisitions, and Bain Company, a management-consulting firm, where he led the firm’s industrial practice. Conard has a master of business administration degree from Harvard Business School and a bachelor of science degree in engineering from the University of Michigan.

Clea Conner is CEO of Open to Debate. Clea has produced more than 150 award-winning public policy programs spanning technology, culture, economics, law, and global affairs, convening the world’s most influential voices on the most provocative questions of our time. Named one of Crain’s New York “40 Under 40,” Clea developed “Up For Debate” and “That’s Debatable” as television programs on Bloomberg, PBS, and Newsy, and produced the first debate between artificial intelligence and a human debater in partnership with IBM’s historic Project Debater. She holds more than two dozen awards for excellence in public affairs programming in radio, television, and podcasting. Her full bio is available here.

Domenico De Sole is an Italian-American businessman and recently retired chairperson of TOM FORD International, a role he held since the company was founded. Mr. De Sole is the former President and CEO of Gucci Group and former Chairman of the Board of Sotheby’s. Mr. De Sole graduated from the University of Rome law school in 1966 and received an L.L.M. from Harvard University in 1972. He became a partner at the Washington DC firm Patton, Boggs Blow. One of his clients in the early 1980s was Rodolfo Gucci, the son of Gucci’s founder, Guccio Gucci, who asked Mr. De Sole to join the company as CEO of Gucci America in 1984.

In 1994 Mr. De Sole became President and CEO of the Gucci Group, appointed Tom Ford as Creative Director, and guided Gucci from near bankruptcy to become one of luxury fashion’s largest conglomerates which would include Yves Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Boucheron, Sergio Rossi, Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen and Balenciaga. Following his departure from Gucci, Mr. Ford and Mr. De Sole founded TOM FORD International in 2006 which quickly became a leading luxury company and was successfully sold to Estee Lauder in April 2023.

Mr. De Sole serves on the boards of Ermenegildo Zegna, Thom Browne and Pirelli. Prior, he served on the boards of Bausch Lomb, Procter Gamble, GAP, Telecom Italia, Delta Airlines, Newell Brands, Sotheby’s and Conde Nast. He is currently a member of the International Council of the Museum of Modern Art and is on the Board of the Aspen Art Museum. He also is a member of the Advisory Board of Harvard Law School, his alma mater.

The National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) in 2001 recognized Mr. De Sole as a gala honoree for his contribution to “Fashion and Industry”. In 2004 he was presented with the Harvar Law School Association Award, and that same year was named the Georgetown University’s Wall Street Alliance Honoree. He received an honorary degree from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2015. And in 2016, along with his wife, he received the Service to the Arts Award from the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado. In 2023 he received the Founder’s Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) for his lifelong contribution to fashion.

Mr. and Mrs. De Sole live between Hilton Head Island, South Carolina and Snowmass Village, Colorado. They have two adult children who live in New York where they also spend time.

Merit Janow is an internationally recognized expert in international trade and investment, with extensive experience in academia, government, international organizations, and business. In addition, she has had a life-long involvement with Asia and is an expert in that region. Janow has been a Professor of Practice at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and an affiliated faculty member at Columbia Law School since 1995. She teaches graduate courses in international trade/WTO law, comparative antitrust law, and China in the global economy, among others.

In addition to serving as dean of SIPA, Janow is also co-director of the APEC Study Center. She has served as chair of the Faculty Oversight Committee of Columbia’s Global Center East Asia. Previously, Janow was director of the Masters Program in International Affairs and chair of Columbia University’s Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing. Janow has written several books and numerous articles, and she frequently speaks before business, policy, and academic audiences around the world.

Janow is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission. In 2003, she became the first woman to serve as one of the seven members of the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body. From 1997 to 2000, Janow served as executive director of the first international antitrust advisory committee of the U.S. Department of Justice that reported to the attorney general and the assistant attorney general for antitrust. Prior to joining Columbia’s faculty, she was deputy assistant U.S. trade representative for Japan and China (1989–1993). Early in her career, Janow practiced law at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher Flom. Before becoming a lawyer, she worked at a think tank focused on U.S.-Japan trade and economic relations. She grew up in Tokyo and is fluent in Japanese.

Vanessa Mendoza is the executive vice president of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research (MI), a domestic public-policy think tank. She joined the Institute in 2006 as a policy analyst for its legal policy division. She was recruited to work with the development team, was named vice president for development in 2009, and in 2012 was named executive vice president of the Institute. As executive vice president, Vanessa works with MI’s president to develop and manage the Institute’s strategic focus and projects. Additionally, she focuses her time on the Institute’s next-generation leadership initiatives including the Institute’s Young Leaders program and Adam Smith Society. She has broad oversight of the Institute’s development team. Prior to joining the Manhattan Institute, she worked at a New York City-based lobbying firm, for the 2004 Republican National Convention, and for a private-practice attorney. Vanessa earned her J.D. from Fordham University School of Law and her B.A. from New York University with a concentration in the fields of political science, history, and election law. She serves on the board of Teneo, an organization of young professionals committed to advancing ideas that promote human freedom and flourishing, and on the advisory board of Open the Books, a nonprofit that works to make government spending transparent to all. Vanessa lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. with her husband and two children.

Alexandra Munroe, Ph.D is the co-founder of Open to Debate and the Samsung Senior Curator of Asian Art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. She has led the Guggenheim’s Asian Art Program since its founding in 2006 and has organized several award-winning and top-attended scholarly exhibitions of modern and contemporary Asian art. Munroe is former Vice President of Japan Society, New York, and former director of its museum. She is a trustee of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and the United States-Japan Foundation, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, New York.

Ben Nelson is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Minerva Project. In 2012, Minerva Project received a $25 million seed investment from Benchmark Capital and has since launched the Minerva Institute for Research and Scholarship and the Minerva Schools, a reinvented university experience for the brightest and most motivated students that provides an interdisciplinary curriculum using an advanced interactive learning platform. Prior to Minerva, Ben spent more than 10 years at Snapfish, an online photo sharing and storage service, where he served as CEO from 2005 to June 2010. During his tenure as CEO, he lead Snapfish’s sale to Hewlett Packard for $300M. Previously, Ben was president and CEO of Community Ventures, a network of locally branded portals for America’s communities. Ben holds a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated with honors. It was at Penn that Ben first realized his passion for reforming undergraduate education.

Gerry Ohrstrom is a private investor in New York City and former chairman of the Ohrstrom Foundation. He is or has been a director of various corporations and nonprofit organizations, including the Reason Foundation, the Santa Fe Institute, Atlas Economic Research Foundation, the Gruter Institute, the Property and Environment Research Center, Africa Fighting Malaria, the International Policy Network, the Booker T. Washington Learning Center, the Museum of the Rockies, and the Yellowstone Park Foundation. He has been Co-Chairman of the President’s Council at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and is a member of the New York Academy of Science.

Daniel Shuchman is a New York-based investor. Most recently, he managed investment funds at MSD Capital, L.P., the investment office of Michael S. Dell, for almost 20 years. Previously he worked at Goldman Sachs Co. and Gotham Partners, L.P. Mr. Shuchman was a board member of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) from 2007-18, Chairman of the Board from 2016-18, and is currently on its Advisory Council. He is the Chairman of Let Grow, a nonprofit group he co-founded with Jonathan Haidt and Lenore Skenazy, dedicated to enhancing and promoting resilience, self-reliance, and independence in America’s kids, and is a board member of the Institute for Free Speech. He has written for The Wall Street Journal, Reason, Forbes, Real Clear Politics, Commentary and other publications. Daniel is a graduate of the Horace Mann School in New York and the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied history and philosophy. He is married to Lori E. Lesser, an intellectual property attorney, and has a son and a daughter.

Dr. David B. Allison is an award-winning obesity researcher, biostatistician, and the dean of the Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington. Funded by the NIH for over two decades, Dr. Allison has authored more than 700 scientific publications focused on obesity as a disease, nutrition, aging, and longevity, and edited five books. Previously, he was Distinguished Professor, Quetelet Endowed Professor, and Director of the NIH-funded Nutrition Obesity Research Center (NORC) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has received many awards, including the Harry V. Roberts Statistical Advocate of the Year Award from the American Statistical Association, the Lilly Scientific Achievement Award from The Obesity Society, the Andre Mayer Award from the International Association for the Study of Obesity, the 2009 TOPS research achievement award from The Obesity Society, and the National Science Foundation-administered 2006 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM). In 2020, Dr. Allison was awarded the Pfizer Award from the American Society of Nutrition, and the Don Owen Award from the American Statistical Association’s San Antonio Chapter for excellence in research, statistical consultation, and service to the statistical community. He has also been elected to the National Academy of Medicine of the United States National Academies.

Max Boot is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow in National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also a contributing editor to the Weekly Standard and the Los Angeles Times, and a regular contributor to the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Commentary, and other publications. He is author of the bestselling book, Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present (2013).

Nicholas Burns is Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He is faculty chair of the school’s Middle East Initiative, India & South Asia Program, and is the director of the Future of Diplomacy Project. He writes on foreign policy for the Boston Globe and Global Post and is director of the Aspen Strategy Group. During his career in the State Department, he served in a variety of positions, including as under secretary of state, ambassador to NATO and Greece and at the National Security Council.

Devon Cross is director of The Policy Forum on International Affairs. She was founder and president of The Donors Forum on International Affairs, was executive director of the Gilder Foundation in New York City, and president of the Donner Canadian Foundation in Toronto. From 1984-1993, she was director of the Smith Richardson Foundation in New York. Cross served on the Defense Policy Board, a civilian advisory board to the Pentagon, from September 2001-2008.

Mickey Edwards, a Republican member of Congress from Oklahoma for 16 years (1977-92), is a vice president of the Aspen Institute and director of the Institute’s Aspen-Rodel Fellowships in Public Leadership program. He was a member of the House Republican leadership and served on the House Budget and Appropriations committees. He has taught at Harvard, Georgetown, and Princeton universities and has chaired various task forces for the Constitution Project, the Brookings Institution, and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Richard Falkenrath is a senior manager at Bridgewater Associates and an adjunct senior fellow for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security at the Council on Foreign Relations. He was deputy homeland security advisor and deputy assistant to President George W. Bush. From 2006 to 2010, he served as the deputy commissioner for counterterrorism of the New York City Police Department. He was formerly a principal with The Chertoff Group and a contributing editor at Bloomberg LP.

David Frum, a senior editor at The Atlantic, is a contributing editor at The Daily Beast and a CNN contributor. He is the author of eight books, including Why Romney Lost, Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again, and Dead Right, described as “the most refreshing ideological experience in a generation” by William F. Buckley. In 2001-2002, he served as a special assistant to President George W. Bush, and in 2007-2008, he served as senior foreign policy adviser to the Rudy Giuliani presidential campaign.

Doug Hecox is a nationally recognized public relations expert and currently leads the Federal Highway Administration’s Office of Media Relations. He teaches journalism at American University and is an author, columnist and nationally touring comedian. Doug has worked for members of Congress, the White House, and the U.S. Departments of Justice, Transportation and Treasury.

Nick Gillespie is the editor-at-large of Reason, the libertarian magazine of “free minds and free markets,” and the host of The Reason Interview podcast with Nick Gillespie. A two-time finalist for the digital National Magazine Awards, he is co-author of “The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What’s Wrong with America” and holds a Ph.D. in American literature.

Full bio is available here

Margaret Hoover is a CNN political contributor and the bestselling author of the book, American Individualism: How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party, published by Crown Forum in July 2011. She is also president of the American Unity Fund, an organization that marshals GOP financial and political support to pass marriage and other LGBT rights at the state and federal level. Hoover is a veteran of the Bush Administration White House, two presidential campaigns, and a former staffer on Capitol Hill.

Randall Kennedy is the Michael R. Klein Professor at Harvard Law School, where he teaches courses on contracts, criminal law, and the regulation of race relations. He was born in Columbia, South Carolina. For his education, he attended St. Albans School, Princeton University, Oxford University, and Yale Law School. He served as a law clerk for Judge J. Skelly Wright of the United States Court of Appeals and for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court. He is a member of the bar of the District of Columbia and the Supreme Court of the United States. Awarded the 1998 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for “Race, Crime, and the Law,” Mr. Kennedy writes for a wide range of scholarly and general interest publications. His other books are “For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law” (2013), “The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency” (2011), “Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal” (2008), “Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity, and Adoption” (2003), and “Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word” (2002). A member of the American Law Institute, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Association, Mr. Kennedy is also a Trustee emeritus of Princeton University.

Simon Johnson is the Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is also a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a co-founder of BaselineScenario.com, a member of the FDIC’s Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee, and a member of the private sector systemic risk council founded by Sheila Bair. In 2014, he joined the Financial Research Advisory Committee of the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Financial Research (OFR). From 2009 to 2015, he was a member of the Congressional Budget Office’s Panel of Economic Advisers. Johnson has published more than 300 high impact pieces in New York Times, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and many other outlets. He is the co-author of several books, including White House Burning: The Founding Fathers, Our National Debt, and Why It Matters to You (2013). Previously, he was the International Monetary Fund’s chief economist and director of its research department.

Andrew Keen is one of the world’s best known and controversial commentators on the digital revolution. He is the author of three books: Cult of the Amateur, Digital Vertigo, and The Internet Is Not the Answer. He is executive director of the Silicon Valley innovation salon FutureCast, the host of the popular Internet chat show “Keen On,” a Senior Fellow at CALinnovates, a columnist for CNN and a much acclaimed public speaker around the world. In 2015, he was named by GQ magazine in their list of the “100 Most Connected Men.”

Michael Levi served as a special assistant to President Obama for energy and economic policy on the National Economic Council. Previously, Levi was the David M. Rubenstein senior fellow for energy and the environment at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies, and director of the CFR program on energy security and climate change. He is an expert on climate and energy, technology, and nuclear security.

Larissa MacFarquhar has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1998. Her Profile subjects have included John Ashbery, Barack Obama, Noam Chomsky, Hilary Mantel, Derek Parfit, David Chang, and Aaron Swartz, among many others. She is the author of “Strangers Drowning: Grappling with Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Overpowering Urge to Help” (Penguin Press, 2015). Before joining the magazine, she was a senior editor at Lingua Franca and an advisory editor at The Paris Review, and wrote for Artforum, The Nation, The New Republic, the Times Book Review, Slate, and other publications.

Ben Nelson is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Minerva Project. In 2012, Minerva Project received a $25 million seed investment from Benchmark Capital and has since launched the Minerva Institute for Research and Scholarship and the Minerva Schools, a reinvented university experience for the brightest and most motivated students that provides an interdisciplinary curriculum using an advanced interactive learning platform. Prior to Minerva, Ben spent more than 10 years at Snapfish, an online photo sharing and storage service, where he served as CEO from 2005 to June 2010. During his tenure as CEO, he lead Snapfish’s sale to Hewlett Packard for $300M. Previously, Ben was president and CEO of Community Ventures, a network of locally branded portals for America’s communities. Ben holds a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated with honors. It was at Penn that Ben first realized his passion for reforming undergraduate education.

Gerry Ohrstrom is a private investor in New York City and former chairman of the Ohrstrom Foundation. He is or has been a director of various corporations and nonprofit organizations, including the Reason Foundation, the Santa Fe Institute, Atlas Economic Research Foundation, the Gruter Institute, the Property and Environment Research Center, Africa Fighting Malaria, the International Policy Network, the Booker T. Washington Learning Center, the Museum of the Rockies, and the Yellowstone Park Foundation. He has been Co-Chairman of the President’s Council at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and is a member of the New York Academy of Science.

James Piereson is president and trustee of the William E. Simon Foundation. He is also a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute where he is director of the Institute’s Center for the American University. From 1985 to 2005, he was executive director and trustee of the John M. Olin Foundation. Previously, Piereson served on the political science faculties of Iowa State University, Indiana University, and the University of Pennsylvania, where he taught government and political thought. He serves on the boards of the Pinkerton Foundation, Thomas W. Smith Foundation, Center for Individual Rights, Philanthropy Roundtable, Foundation for Cultural Review, American Spectator Foundation, Hoover Institution, and DonorsTrust.

Niloofar Razi Howe has been an investor, executive and entrepreneur in the technology industry for the past 25 years, with a focus on Cybersecurity for the past 15. Ms. Howe is a Senior Operating Partner at Energy Impact Partners, a VC fund investing in companies shaping the energy landscape of the future. She serves on the Board of Directors of Morgan Stanley Private Bank, NA and Morgan Stanley Bank, NA (Risk Committee, Operations and Technology Committee), Pondurance (as Executive Chair), Tenable (NASDAQ: TENB, Comp Committee), Composecure (NASDAQ: CMPO, Audit Committee), Recorded Future, Swimlane and on the Board of Advisors of Dragos, Enveil, RangeForce, Noetic Cyber, and Picnic Threat. She is a life member at the Council on Foreign Relations and a Senior Fellow, International Security Program at New America, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank.  Her non-profit work includes serving as Board Chair of IREX, an international development and education organization working in over 120 countries focused on promoting social justice and lasting change, and as a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art. Ms. Howe serves on a number of US government advisory boards including on the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency’s Advisory Council.

Previously, Ms. Howe served as Chief Strategy Officer and SVP of Strategy and Operations at RSA, a global cybersecurity company where she led corporate strategy, corporate development and planning, business development, global program management, business operations, security operations and Federal business development. Prior to RSA, Ms. Howe served as the Chief Strategy Officer of Endgame, Inc., a leading enterprise software security company, where she was responsible for driving market and product strategy, as well as leading marketing, product management, corporate development, and planning. Prior to her operating roles, Ms. Howe spent twelve years leading deal teams in private equity and venture capital; first as a Principal at Zone Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm in Los Angeles, and then as Managing Director at Paladin Capital Group, a Washington DC based private equity fund focused on investing in next generation security companies. Ms. Howe started her professional career as a lawyer with O’Melveny & Myers and as a consultant with McKinsey & Co.

Ms. Howe’s previous board roles include serving on the Board Directors of Initiate Systems (acquired by IBM), Courion Corporation (acquired by K1 Investment), Command Information (acquired by Salient), Safeview (acquired by L-3), Neven Vision (acquired by Google), Global Rights, an international human rights organization, as Chair, Sibley Memorial Hospital (a member of Johns Hopkins Medicine), as chair of its Investment Committee, and Sibley Memorial Hospital Foundation, as Vice Chair. Ms. Howe graduated with honors from Columbia College and holds a JD cum laude from Harvard Law School.

Ms. Howe speaks regularly on national security, cybersecurity, technology, innovation, corporate governance, and corporate culture. She also created a TEDx talk entitled “The Gift of Exile” about the long-term opportunities that can arise from the most difficult challenges encountered in childhood for both the individuals who suffer the adversity and the communities that can accept and integrate such individuals. She is a regular judge at innovation competitions including the RSA Conference Innovation Sandbox Competition, the RSA Conference Launchpad Competition, and SINET16 Innovation Competition.

Nayeema Raza is a journalist and filmmaker whose work has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, and the Tribeca Film Festival. She frequently guest moderates “Open to Debate,” for which she won a 2025 Gracie Award. Nayeema also hosts “Smart Girl Dumb Questions,” which seeks to invite curiosity back into our broader dialogue, and is an adjunct professor at Columbia University, where she teaches a course on technology, media, and the end of trust.

Nayeema was previously the co-host of the podcast “Mixed Signals” and the on-air Executive Producer of the Vox Media podcast, “On with Kara Swisher.” Prior to that, she was a Senior Editor at The New York Times where she launched and ran the podcast “Sway,” was a video journalist in the Opinion section covering topics from immigration to internet privacy, and penned essays on modern culture.

Nayeema came to journalism with a background in documentary filmmaking and international development, spending her early career advising foreign governments in places like Libya, Vietnam, and South Africa on major policy reform. She is on the Board of Advisors of Open to Debate and the Young Patrons Leadership Committee of PEN America. She is also a member of the Writers Guild of America, a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a 2024 Henry Crown Fellow within the Aspen Institute.

Fiammetta Rocco is a writer and a critic. For 25 years, she was a senior editor at The Economist, covering books and culture. Her writing and criticism has won awards on both sides of the Atlantic. She grew up in Kenya in a Franco-Italian family and read Arabic at Oxford. She has been a judge of the Samuel Johnson Prize, the Booker Prize and the Royal Society Science Prize. In 2018 she chaired the judging panel for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. She is the author of “The Miraculous Fever Tree: Malaria and the Cure that Changed the World.” She is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Andrew Roberts is the bestselling author of Napoleon: A Life, The Storm of War, Masters and Commanders, Napoleon and Wellington, and Waterloo. A Fellow of the Napoleonic Institute, he has won many prizes, including the Wolfson History Prize, the British Army Military Book Award, and the Fondation Napoleon’s Jury Prize, writes frequently for The Wall Street Journal, and has written and presented a number of popular documentaries.

Jeffrey Rosen is the president and chief executive officer of the National Constitution Center. He is a professor at The George Washington University Law School, where he has taught since 1997, and the legal affairs editor of The New Republic. He is also a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he explores issues involving the future of technology and the Constitution.

Gail Saltz is clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the New York Presbyterian Hospital, psychoanalyst with the New York Psychoanalytic Institute, columnist, bestselling author, and television commentator, including frequent contributing to the Today Show, CNN, and MSNBC. She is the emotional wellness contributor to Health Magazine and Health.com, chair of the 92nd Street Y 7 Days of Genius Advisory Committee, and consultant and event moderator for the Clinton Foundation’s Health Matters Initiative

Allison Schrager is an American economist, author, and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, where she studies tax and monetary policy. Schrager is a regular contributor to The Economist, Reuters, and Bloomberg Businessweek, and her work has been published in Wired, National Review, Playboy, and Foreign Affairs. She is also the author of “An Economist Walks into a Brothel.” In addition to her writing, she has consulted for organizations such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the International Monetary Fund and is co-founder of a risk advisory firm, LifeCycle Finance Partners, LLC. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University.

Jonathan Soros is chief executive officer of JS Capital Management LLC, a private investment firm. He is also a senior fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, a think tank based in New York City, and co-founder of Friends of Democracy, a Super PAC and advocacy organization dedicated to reducing the influence of money in politics. Soros is a member of the board of the New America Foundation and holds several board positions affiliated with the Open Society Foundations.

Bret Stephens is an op-ed columnist for the New York Times. He previously worked at the Wall Street Journal, where he was most recently deputy editorial page editor and, for 11 years, a foreign affairs columnist. Before that, he was editor in chief of The Jerusalem Post. At The Post he oversaw the paper’s news, editorial, and digital operations and its international editions, and also wrote a weekly column. He has reported from around the world and interviewed scores of world leaders. Stephens is the author of “America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder,” released in November 2014. He is the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions, including two honorary doctorates and the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for commentary.

Lawrence Summers has held several senior policy positions, including Secretary of the Treasury under the Clinton administration and the Director of the National Economic Council for the Obama administration. He has also served as vice president of development economics and chief economist of the World Bank. Summers is a Charles W. Eliot University Professor and the president emeritus of Harvard University.

John Tierney is a contributing editor to the Manhattan Institute’s quarterly publication, City Journal, and a contributing science columnist to the New York Times.  His work has been published in The Atlantic, Esquire, New York, Reason, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. Tierney’s latest book, Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, was a New York Times best-seller and has been translated into 20 languages.  His website is JohnTierney
JOHN DONVANNYC.com.

Gillian Tett is a columnist and member of the editorial board for the Financial Times. She writes a weekly column on Friday, covering a range of economic, financial, political, and social issues. She also serves as Provost of King’s College, Cambridge.

Previously, she chaired the Financial Times’ editorial board, ran Moral Money, the FT’s sustainability newsletter which she co-founded, and wrote two columns a week. Gillian’s earlier roles included US managing editor for the FT; assistant editor; capital markets editor; deputy editor of the Lex column; Tokyo bureau chief; reporter in Russia and Brussels.

She has been named Columnist of the Year (2014), Journalist of the Year (2009) and Business Journalist of the Year (2008) in the British Press Awards, and received three awards from America’s Society of Business and Economic Writers Awards. She is a best-selling and award-winning author of four books, and received the Royal Anthropological Institute Marsh Award and the American Anthropological Association President Medal for her work in social science. She has received honorary degrees from Carnegie Mellon, Miami, and Baruch universities in America, and Exeter, Lancaster, Goldsmith’s, London in the UK.

The moderator of Open to Debate since 2008, John Donvan is an author and correspondent for ABC News. He has served as ABC’s White House Correspondent, along with postings in Moscow, London, Jerusalem, and Amman. John is the coauthor of In a Different Key: The Story of Autism (Crown, 2016). In addition to premiering his first one-man show, “Lose the Kid,” in 2013 in Washington, D.C., John is a four-time Emmy Award winner and was a National Magazine Award finalist in 2010.

Twitter: @johndonvan

Nick Gillespie is the editor-at-large of Reason, the libertarian magazine of “free minds and free markets,” and the host of The Reason Interview podcast with Nick Gillespie. A two-time finalist for the digital National Magazine Awards, he is co-author of “The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What’s Wrong with America” and holds a Ph.D. in American literature.

Full bio is available here

Nayeema Raza is a journalist and filmmaker whose work has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, and the Tribeca Film Festival. She frequently guest moderates “Open to Debate,” for which she won a 2025 Gracie Award. Nayeema also hosts “Smart Girl Dumb Questions,” which seeks to invite curiosity back into our broader dialogue, and is an adjunct professor at Columbia University, where she teaches a course on technology, media, and the end of trust.

Nayeema was previously the co-host of the podcast “Mixed Signals” and the on-air Executive Producer of the Vox Media podcast, “On with Kara Swisher.” Prior to that, she was a Senior Editor at The New York Times where she launched and ran the podcast “Sway,” was a video journalist in the Opinion section covering topics from immigration to internet privacy, and penned essays on modern culture.

Nayeema came to journalism with a background in documentary filmmaking and international development, spending her early career advising foreign governments in places like Libya, Vietnam, and South Africa on major policy reform. She is on the Board of Advisors of Open to Debate and the Young Patrons Leadership Committee of PEN America. She is also a member of the Writers Guild of America, a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a 2024 Henry Crown Fellow within the Aspen Institute.

Gillian Tett is chair of the editorial board and U.S. editor-at-large of the Financial Times, where she oversees global coverage of the financial markets. An award-winning journalist and best-selling author, Tett is also the co-founder of “Moral Money,” a twice-weekly newsletter on socially responsible business. Her most recent book, “The Silo Effect,” analyzes the financial system through the lens of cultural anthropology. She has been named Columnist of the Year (2014), Journalist of the Year (2009), and Business Journalist of the Year (2008) in the British Press Awards and received three awards from America’s Society of Business and Economic Writers Awards. She is a best-selling author and has received the Royal Anthropological Institute Marsh Award and the American Anthropological Association President Medal for her work in social science.

Xenia Wickett runs a geopolitical advisory and executive coaching business, Wickett Advisory, that helps organizations and individuals find clarity and direction amid uncertainty.

Previously, Xenia has held positions as VP of Political Analysis and Integrity Due Diligence at Equinor, Head of the US and Americas Programme and founding Dean of the Queen Elizabeth II Academy for Leadership in International Affairs at Chatham House, Executive Director of the PeaceNexus Foundation, which she helped found, and Executive Director for Research at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center.

Xenia served with the US government on the National Security Council and at the State Department. Shortly after 9/11, she was detailed to the US Office of the Vice President to help launch the Office of Homeland Security Affairs.

Among other volunteer activities, Xenia is a trustee of Transparency International UK and sits on the executive team of the Pilgrims. She has an MPP from Harvard’s Kennedy School and a BA from Oxford University. She is a qualified coach with the International Coaching Federation (ICF).

As the CEO of Open to Debate, Clea Conner is on a mission to restore civility, respect, and intelligence to the public square. Clea has produced more than 150 award-winning public policy programs spanning technology, culture, economics, law, and global affairs, convening the world’s most influential voices on the most provocative questions of our time. Named one of Crain’s New York “40 Under 40,” Clea developed “Up For Debate” and “That’s Debatable” as television programs on Bloomberg, PBS, and Newsy, and produced the first debate between artificial intelligence and a human debater in partnership with IBM’s historic Project Debater. She holds more than two dozen awards for excellence in public affairs programming in radio, television, and podcasting.

Lia Matthow’s tenure at Open to Debate spans many years and has included multiple editorial leadership and strategic development roles. As Chief Content Officer, Lia currently leads content expansion and strategy across debate topics, guest curation, radio and television broadcasts, podcasts, digital platforms, and partnership integrations. Prior to Open to Debate, Lia worked in television news in senior management positions at CNN, Court TV and MSNBC. Lia is also the President and Founder of Beacon Strategies Inc, where she has curated live events for numerous nonprofit and private entities and global media companies including Newsweek, Scientific American, Macmillan Learning and Bloomberg L.P. Lia provides bespoke media training programs for bestselling authors, C-Level executives and corporate leadership teams. Prior to launching Beacon Strategies, she served as the founding Director of Grants and Special Projects at a private foundation endowed at one billion dollars, where she managed strategic funding initiatives and a wide range of editorial events and summits. Ms. Matthow holds a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center and graduated magna cum laude from American University.

Elizabeth Kitzenberg is the Chief Advancement Officer of Open to Debate. She leads the organization’s efforts to garner philanthropic support that advances the mission of Open to Debate. Elizabeth works with individuals, families, and foundations. Prior to joining the team, Elizabeth launched Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Centers for Early Detection and Interception of Cancer.  She brings fundraising expertise from her time at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard University.   Elizabeth holds a law degree from University of North Carolina School of Law and a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Andrew Lipson is an experienced Production Manager and Executive having held positions for traditional broadcasters such as MTV, VH1, and Fuse as well as for digital media for Viacom New Media, Cablevision and Scholastic. He has also managed media production, operations, and distribution for Synaptic Digital/Definition6 servicing the PR industry. Immediately prior to joining Open to Debate, he was VP of Production for The Lighting Design Group where he was fortunate enough to work with Open to Debate. This inspired him to want to contribute to its mission to produce robust, respectful conversations about difficult topics.

Michele Debreceni is the Director of Marketing for Open to Debate, spearheading initiatives in audience development, digital media, and branding strategy. Prior to working at Open to Debate, Michele held senior leadership roles at Emursive Productions, Japan Society, Kidz Bop, and Razor & Tie Entertainment, and served as an independent media consultant for numerous organizations. She is passionate about connecting brands with targeted audiences through innovative, results-driven campaigns, and is driven by her relentless curiosity. Michele holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and Communications from Boston College’s Carroll School of Management.

Gabrielle Iannucelli worked on multiple Webby-Award-winning HBO properties in social media branding and broadcast media production before serving as Social Media Director for a New York State Senator, where she managed communications for large-scale public affairs campaigns. Prior to the New York State Senate, she worked at the Emma Bowen Foundation in communications. Gabrielle holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Mass Communications from Pace University, with a focus on engaging domestic audiences, optimizing campaigns for global audiences, and making complex content accessible.

Max Fulton is an experienced media professional. He has worked as a production coordinator on TV and film projects for industry giants such as HBO, Netflix and 20th Century Television. Max has also worked on a variety of smaller projects taking on many different roles, including video editor, sound editor, colorist and music composer. Max has a B.A. in Sociology and Emerging Media from Hunter College.

Gabriella Mayer is an experienced writer and editor, who has always been passionate about media’s ability to strengthen our society and have a meaningful effect on the world around us. At Open to Debate, she builds upon her marketing and digital editorial experience by researching and crafting written content for our debate program and social media. Before joining the team, she worked for TED Talks, where she wrote, edited, and published posts for their social media platforms. Her articles have been published in various publications, including the Palm Beach Daily News, Bookreporter.com, and My Jewish Learning, and her poetry has been published in anthologies and literary magazines. Gabriella holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature and M.F.A. in Creative Writing from New York University.

Linda Lee is an experienced accounting professional. She began her journey in the investment industry as fund administrator for hedge funds. She has also managed small business operations and became a leading financial advisor on numerous projects. Her achievements include streamlining accounting processes for efficiency. She now strives to optimize budgets and financial strategies in the nonprofit sector.

Alexis Pancrazi is editorial producer for Open to Debate. She’s an experienced producer with an interest in audio storytelling and public affairs content. Prior to Open to Debate, she worked at the documentary film production company Fork Films, and during her time there launched and produced the podcast All Ears with Abigail Disney. She got her start working for Bill Moyers on Bill Moyers Journal and his subsequent television program, Moyers & Company. She lives in New York City, only a short drive from where she grew up in New Jersey.

Julia Sirkin is an experienced video editor and historian who’s passionate about making history accessible for everyone. Prior to working at Open to Debate, she launched the social media presences of Academics for Peace, which helps scholars share their expertise about Palestine/Israel, and the Pink Triangle Legacies Project, which honors the memory of the Nazis’ LGBTQ+ victims. She holds an MA in Applied History from Erasmus University Rotterdam and a BFA in Film Production Editing from Chapman University.