The winner and 1 guest will have private time over lunch in NYC and enjoy a candid conversation with true leaders and experts in economics, politics and finance.
Robert Wolf is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of 32 Advisors, LLC, a consulting and advisory firm and host of weekly webcast "Impact Players" on the Reuters Channel on YouTube TV. Prior to forming 32 Advisors Robert spent 18 years at UBS, a global financial services firm. There he held several senior positions including Global Head of Fixed Income, Group Regional CEO and Chairman, and President and Chief Operating Officer of the Investment Bank. He joined UBS in 1994 after spending approximately 10 years at Salomon Brothers in Fixed Income Sales and Trading.
In addition to his role at 32 Advisors, Robert is a member of President Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. From 2009-2011 he was a member of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board chaired by former Federal Reserve Chair Paul Volcker. He serves on the Undergraduate Executive Board of the Wharton School and on the Athletics Board of Overseers at the University of Pennsylvania. Robert also serves on the boards of a number of non-profit institutions including the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Social Justice & Human Rights, the Partnership for NYC, the Children's Aid Society and the Leadership Council for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy.
Robert graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. in Economics in 1984. He is married with 2 children and currently resides in Purchase, New York.
Marc Lasry is the Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and a Co-Founder of Avenue Capital Group. Distressed investing has been the focus of his professional career for over 28 years. Prior to co-founding Amroc as an independent entity, Mr. Lasry managed capital for Amroc Investments, L.P., the predecessor firm associated with Robert Bass Group, Inc. Mr. Lasry and Amroc Investments, L.P. were affiliated with Acadia Partners L.P., an investment partnership whose general partners include Keystone, Inc. (an investment firm that was associated with the Robert Bass Group, Inc.), American Express Company and the Equitable Life Assurance Society of America. Prior to that, Mr. Lasry was Co-Director of the Bankruptcy and Corporate Reorganization Department at Cowen & Company. Prior to that time, he served as Director of the Private Debt Department at Smith Vasiliou Management Company. Mr. Lasry also clerked for the Honorable Edward Ryan, former Chief Bankruptcy Judge of the Southern District of New York. Mr. Lasry has served and will continue to serve on the board of advisors/directors of both for-profit and not-for-profit public and private companies that are not affiliated with the firm.
Tony James (Hamilton ("Tony") E. James) is President, Chief Operating Officer of Blackstone, and a member of the board of directors of our general partner, Blackstone Group Management L.L.C. He is also a member of Blackstone's Management and Executive Committees and sits on each of the firm's investment committees.
Prior to joining Blackstone Mr. James was Chairman of Global Investment Banking and Private Equity at Credit Suisse First Boston and a member of the Executive Board. Prior to the acquisition of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette by Credit Suisse First Boston in 2000, Mr. James was the Chairman of DLJ's Banking Group, responsible for all the firm's investment banking and merchant banking activities. Mr. James joined DLJ in 1975 as an Investment Banking associate. He became head of DLJ's global M&A group in 1982, founded DLJ Merchant Banking, Inc. in 1985, and was named Chairman of the Banking Group in 1995. He is a Director of Costco Wholesale Corporation and has served on a number of other corporate Boards.
Mr. James is a Trustee and member of The Executive Committee of The Second Stage Theatre, Trustee of The Metropolitan Museum of Art , Vice Chairman of Trout Unlimited's Coldwater Conservation Fund, Trustee of Woods Hole Oceanographic, Trustee of Wildlife Conservation Society, Advisory Board member of The Montana Land Reliance, and Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Trustees of American Ballet Theatre. He is also a former member of the President's Export Council – Subcommittee on Technology & Competitiveness.
William Ackman is the CEO and Portfolio Manager of Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P., an SEC registered investment adviser founded in 2003. Pershing Square is a concentrated research-intensive fundamental value investor in long and occasionally short investments in the public markets, typically focusing on large-cap and mid-cap companies.
Prior to forming Pershing Square, Mr. Ackman co-founded Gotham Partners Management Co., LLC, an investment adviser that managed public and private equity hedge fund portfolios. Prior to Gotham Partners, Mr. Ackman began his career in real estate investment banking at Ackman Brothers & Singer, Inc. Mr. Ackman received an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude from Harvard College.
Mr. Ackman’s board memberships include Chairman of The Howard Hughes Corporation (NYSE: HHC), J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP), Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (NYSE: CP), the Board of Dean’s Advisors of the Harvard Business School, and a number of not-for-profit boards including the Pershing Square Foundation, a charitable foundation that he founded in 2007.