Events

Tim Kelly is a fintech entrepreneur. Tim’s passion lies at the intersection of technological expertise and outstanding team building.

Tim was the founder of Chatham Energy Partners, a specialized energy derivatives company, that was acquired by Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE) in 2007, as well as Forward Insight Commodities, which was acquired by INTL FCStone (Nasdaq: INTL) in 2014.

In Tim’s latest project, BitOoda Technologies LLC, Tim brings his institutional trading expertise and technological insight to the cryptocurrency space.??Prior to launching Chatham Energy and Forward Insight Commodities Tim held positions in commodity and fixed income derivative trading at several firms. Tim graduated from Tufts University in 1992.

Alejandro Laplana is an activist investor, tech transfer specialist & serial entrepreneur. He presently serves as founder and director of Horizon Latin America LTD, subsidiary of Nasdaq listed, One Horizon Group (OHGI). Laplana built a team of over 30 employees in five countries and promotes the company to various government entities, mobile operators and transnational enterprises. During this time, Laplana directly aided one of Venezuela’s largest mobile operators in returning roaming services back to Venezuela (after it had been widely suspended across the country) through innovative VoIP channels for postpaid and, more importantly, prepaid subscriber communities that have been historically underserved across emerging markets.

Previously, Laplana founded and served as managing principal of Nesting Partners LLC, a patent incubator and software company builder. Having created the company’s investment thesis and business model, Laplana played a key role as an investor, partner, and promoter in Nesting Partners various portfolio companies. To date, Nesting Partners has transacted in over 40 patent portfolios and founded over 9 companies, producing 2 successful exits for a 7.5X return.

Laplana continues to oversee Nesting partners as a principal and has, on an individual capacity, directly invested in and/or raised over $20 million in seed stage funding for over 15 start-ups. Laplana, his teams and partners (in orchestration) have additionally developed, designed and successfully commercialized over 150 products and technologies for internal portfolio companies, partners and clients.

Laplana currently advises the Venezuelan Congress on IP strategy and serves as a member of the technical steering committee that is tasked with reforming the country’s IP legislation. He and his companies have been invited to speak at forums hosted by: Amazon, the Venezuelan and Colombian Congress, the Metropole global forum, the IP Deal Makers forum, the Urban Land Institute, Harvard Business School and the Clinton Global Foundation.

Laplana holds a Bachelors (BA) in Economics and International Relations from Syracuse University and a Masters (Msc) in Management of Technology from New York University (NYU).

Ryne Miller is a key member in Sullivan & Cromwell’s Financial Services and Corporate and Finance groups. Mr. Miller represents financial institutions, hedge funds, proprietary trading firms and corporate and private equity clients in transactional, regulatory and enforcement matters.

Mr. Miller’s practice also focuses on the legal and regulatory implications of technology applications in the financial services industry.

Mr. Miller is a member of the executive committee of the Futures Industry Association’s Law & Compliance Division, and he is also a member of the Futures and Derivatives Committee of the New York City Bar Association and the Derivatives and Futures Law Committee of the American Bar Association.

Prior to joining Sullivan & Cromwell, Mr. Miller worked at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission as legal counsel to CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler.

Gary Pike is a quintessential trader who spent ten years trading within FICC with a focus on illiquid energy derivatives. His extensive experience includes the creation of consistently profitable trading models and leading quantitative research efforts in proprietary software development, quantitative trading tools and risk-adjusted stat-arb/relative-arb adjusted alpha.

His trading group was one of the top energy derivative traders by volume for CME and ICE exchanges within his respective space. He cut his real-world teeth from the ultra-competitive experience of being a pit trader on the NYMEX energy options floor.

Gary was the proprietary trading head, where he developed the multi-strategy scientific approach based upon real-world applications. The research produced consistent two sigma Sharpe-ratio based returns compared to the marketplace.

Gary earned a B.S. in Astrophysics and a minor in Mathematics. He made the First Team Academic All-Big XII and was the recipient of physics and astronomy scholarships. He continued his education working on Master’s research at Simon Fraser University where he received a Research Associate scholarship while studying High Energy Particle Physics. Gary researched under the tutelage of Dr. Dugan O’Neal. Dr. O’Neal was the first to prove the existence of the single top quark through the weak interaction using boosted Bayesian tree models from the D0 experiment data from Fermi Labs.

Garrett See is the CEO of DV Chain, a proprietary trading firm that makes markets in cryptocurrencies, both electronically and OTC.

Garrett has been a quantitative trader and data analyst his entire career. After trading derivatives successfully for several years, he helped launch DV Global Securities, which traded equities in over a dozen countries around the globe. As Head of Trading and Operations at DV Global Securities, Garrett built out the middle and back office infrastructure, designed and oversaw the creation of front office trading software, and developed trading strategies that continue to generate alpha.

DV Global Securities was eventually absorbed by DV Trading where the scope of Garrett’s role expanded to include the oversight of trading and operations of global trading in all asset classes including equities, fixed income, futures, options, and FX.

In 2016, Garrett co-founded DV Chain, along with the principals of DV Trading, to adapt the technology and trading strategies employed by DV Trading to bring liquidity to cryptocurrency markets.

Ziad K. Abdelnour is a Wall Street Financier, Author, Philanthropist, Activist, Lobbyist, Oil & Gas Trader & President & CEO of Blackhawk Partners, Inc., a New York based private equity “family office” that focuses on originating, structuring, advising and acting as equity investor in management-led buyouts, strategic minority equity investments, equity private placements, consolidations, buildups, and growth capital financing in companies and projects based both in the US and emerging markets and the trading of key physical commodities.

Mr. Abdelnour is also Founder & Chairman of the Board of the Financial Policy Council ; a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization designed to give its select group of supporters the opportunity to have direct face-to-face dialogue with the nation’s quintessential powerbrokers and policymakers.

Since 1985, Mr. Abdelnour has been involved in over 125 transactions worth in aggregate over $10 billion in the investment banking, high yield bond and distressed debt markets and has been widely recognized for playing an integral role in those three key market sectors.

Mr. Abdelnour is an astute market player who also serves on the Advisory board of DPG Investments, a recognized premier multi strategy global merchant banking, alternative investment, management and advisory firm.

On a more personal level, Mr. Abdelnour, former President of the Arab Bankers Association of North America, is the author of “Economic Warfare: Secrets of Wealth Creation in the Age of Welfare Politics” ; a best seller manuscript written for investors that need to navigate the troubled geopolitical waters of the post-crisis world and a prolific writer for 100+ entrepreneurial and financial publications advising and educating investors in private equity, hedge funds, crowdfunding, Sovereign Wealth Funds, fund-of-funds, angel networks, venture capital and family offices.

Mr. Abdelnour is also a regular speaker on Private Equity, Physical Commodities trading and Middle East geo-political analysis at industry conferences & TV outlets nationwide including but not limited to Fox News, Newsmax, etc…and a key “influencer” in his own right having a hard core constituency of over 2 million viewers having read his blog postings and analyses since January 2014.

Mr. Abdelnour holds an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Economics, Summa Cum Laude, from the American University of Beirut.

He was recently listed as one of the 500 Most Influential CEOs in the World.