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.

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).

Lia Matthow is an award-winning media and nonprofit executive and was appointed as the refounding CEO of Open to Debate, owing to her reputation  for innovating, launching or rebuilding institutions at moments of inflection.  As the organization celebrates its 20th anniversary, she is charged with reimaging and implementing a wide range of practices, including content, funding, AI augmentation, distribution expansion, and fundraising strategies, with the goal of scaling the mission and impact.

As a senior strategist and most recently Chief Content Officer, Ms. Matthow led the development of more than 275 debates and public forums, including 45 in the past year alone; 17 produced live. Her editorial leadership spans the defining forces of the 21st century—artificial intelligence, science and technology, education, culture, U.S. foreign policy, and global security. Under her guidance, the program expanded its global reach and ambition, including a landmark debate on Israel and Gaza that generated over 24 million online engagements and was cited by The Jerusalem Post as essential viewing for every member of the Knesset.

At Open to Debate, Ms. Matthow has built and managed high-impact editorial and strategic partnerships with some of the world’s most respected institutions, including the Council on Foreign Relations, Bloomberg, the Human Rights Foundation, the Aspen Ideas Festival, Johns Hopkins University’s SNF Agora Institute, FII, Mayo Clinic, and leading academic institutions such as Georgetown, Harvard, and Northwestern Law Schools.

She currently serves as Chair of Open to Debate’s Advisory Committee, an ideologically diverse body comprising former diplomats and policymakers, influential journalists and opinion writers, leading scholars, and a 2024 Nobel Laureate.

Earlier in her career, Ms. Matthow held executive roles at MSNBC and served as a senior advisor to CNN, helping guide coverage during the post-9/11 era and other moments of global consequence. She has also shaped flagship editorial initiatives and live convenings for globally respected brands including Scientific American, Macmillan Learning, Newsweek, and The New Yorker, to name a few. Ms. Matthow was also the founding Director of Grants and Special Projects at a private foundation endowed at $1 billion, where she designed and stewarded large-scale initiatives and high-level private convenings of former elected officials, former Secretaries of Treasury,  former President Clinton, as well as other high-profile experts. She also provided input into Board formation.

A sought-after speaker and trusted moderator, Ms. Matthow has appeared on NBC’s Weekend Today, ABC News, and CNN Primetime, and has spoken on leadership and institutional change at Goldman Sachs, the 92nd Street Y, and gubernatorial conferences in Massachusetts and Texas. More recently, she co-moderated Open to Debate book discussions with Justice Stephen G. Breyer and Jake Tapper, and co-led TED’s 2024 “Let’s Talk” series.

Ms. Matthow holds a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University and completed executive education at Yale School of Management in leadership, power, and influence, with a focus on authority, persuasion, and decision-making in complex political and organizational environments. In 2025, she was elected a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

She’s a proud wife, dog, and cat mom and grateful to be working with such an extraordinary new team at Open to Debate at this critical moment to restore constructive dialogue.

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.

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.

Catie is a producer who loves projects that entertain viewers while opening their minds. Hailing from CNN, Fox Business, and The Drew Barrymore Show, the Seattle native has produced in the TV, audio, theatrical, and digital worlds. Whether it’s breaking news in the control room or a live shoot from Times Square, she is passionate about improving people’s lives and promoting social issues. Catie holds BA degrees from Colorado State University in Journalism and Media Communications, and Communication Studies.