Keynotes
Daniel Och is an American investor and philanthropist, best known for founding Och-Ziff Capital Management, a prominent hedge fund firm. Born in 1961, Och earned a degree in economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
He began his career at Goldman Sachs, where he worked on the risk arbitrage desk and later led proprietary trading. In 1994, he left Goldman to launch Och-Ziff Capital Management, which grew into one of the largest hedge funds globally. In 2019, the firm rebranded as Sculptor Capital Management, signaling a shift away from its founder’s legacy. After his departure, Och established Willoughby Capital, a family office that has backed companies such as Robinhood, Coinbase, and Instacart.
Dan currently serves as Chairman of Chegg’s Board of Directors. He is also an investor in Leeds United and in the new women’s basketball league, Unrivaled.
In 2010, Dan Rosensweig joined Chegg with a vision to transform the popular textbook rental service into a leading provider of digital learning services. By leveraging technology, mobility, and connected networks, Chegg has now become a 24/7 learning partner by offering a suite of high-quality, low-cost, personalized, and on-demand educational resources that help students maximize the return on their investment in education and support them on their journey from learning to earning. As former President, CEO, and Co Chairperson of Chegg, Dan committed the company to fulfill its mission – “always put students first” – by not only helping them succeed but also by helping them thrive. Under Dan’s direction, Chegg became the always-on, trusted, and affordable source of knowledge, guidance, and inspiration, helping learners achieve their educational and career goals.
Prior to Chegg, Dan served as CEO of Guitar Hero, COO of Yahoo!, and CEO of ZDNet. Dan received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Hobart and William Smith College in Geneva, New York.
When Dan isn’t attending a Springsteen concert or enjoying quality time with his wife and two daughters, he serves on the Board of Directors for Adobe Systems, Inc. and Yumi. He also serves as a Colgate University Emeritus Trustee, investor in LEEDS and Mercury13. Most recently he’s become an advisor and investor in Unrivaled, joined the board of Rent the Runway and played an integral part of Soho House going private.
Mr. Tisch served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the company from 1999 through December 31 of 2024. Prior to joining Loews in 1977, he worked at CNA Financial Corporation. In addition to chairing the Loews Board, Mr. Tisch serves on the Board of Directors of CNA Financial.
Mr. Tisch is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Cornell University where he majored in economics. He holds an MBA with Distinction from the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Tisch is Co-Chairman of the Boards of Trustees for the Mount Sinai Health System, and he serves on the Executive Committee of the Partnership for New York City. He is a Chairman Emeritus of the Board of WNET, parent of WNET Channel 13 and WLIW Channel 21, and is also a member of the Board of Directors of The New York Public Library. Mr. Tisch is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is an Honorary Member and past Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel, past Chairman of the Board of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, past Chairman of the Board of United Jewish Communities, past President of UJA-Federation of New York, and a former director on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Yakir Gola, co-founder & co-CEO Yakir Gola is the co-founder and co-CEO of Gopuff, the pioneer of the instant commerce category and go-to platform for immediate delivery of consumers’ everyday needs. Yakir sets the vision for the company and leads global business operations. Yakir and Rafael Ilishayev co-founded Gopuff in 2013 as students at Drexel University and made the first several thousand deliveries themselves, deliberately building the foundation of their business on the values they learned from their entrepreneurial families. Since then, they’ve expanded the platform’s product assortment, developed and introduced new verticals including Gopuff Kitchens and its own private label line of snacks and home essentials, launched an advertising platform for partners, and more. Today, Yakir continues to power unprecedented innovation as he and Rafael build the rails for the future of commerce. Yakir was named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list in the Retail & Ecommerce category in 2017, in 2019 received the Drexel University Founders Award and in both 2020 and 2021, Gopuff was named to CNBC’s Disruptor 50. Yakir is closely involved with Chabad serving Drexel University and spearheads many of Gopuff’s philanthropic efforts.
Speakers
Mr. Wassong has spent his career as a business builder, advising and partnering with entrepreneurs. Prior to founding Coventry Bay, he was a Co-Founder and Co-Managing partner at Newlight Partners, and Co-Head of the Strategic Investments Group at Soros Fund Management LLC, where he also served on the firm ‘s Investment Committee. He was previously a Partner at Soros Private Equity Partners and a Vice President at Lauder Gaspar Ventures.
Mr. Wassong serves on the board of Helios Towers Africa.
Mr. Wassong holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Jennifer Fleiss is an American businessperson and co-founder of Rent the Runway, a company focused on the renting of high-end clothing and accessories.[
Jeremy Lappin is a dynamic entrepreneur and CEO based in Miami, Florida, with a rich background in founding and leading multiple companies across various industries. He has extensive experience in the financial sector, having worked as an analyst at top firms on Wall Street and served as a special assistant to the CEO at a major medical device company. Jeremy's innovative spirit is exemplified by his creation of a solar-powered car, showcasing his passion for sustainable technology. His leadership at Candex, a B2B payments network, reflects his commitment to improving business services for small vendors. An active angel investor, Jeremy seeks out promising ventures and individuals with transformative ideas. With degrees from prestigious institutions like MIT, he combines technical expertise with a keen business acumen. His interests span recruitment, software development, and finance, making him a versatile leader in the tech and consulting sectors.
Joel Bergstein is the Executive Chairman of Lincoln Equities Group (LEG), one of the Northeast's leading full-service real estate companies.
Bergstein joined the company more than 32 years ago, spearheading the organization’s acquisition and development initiatives. He currently leads the firm’s large scale development platform, orchestrating major residential and industrial land development projects in the New York / New Jersey metro area.
Bergstein developed LEG’s current operating partner platform, leveraging domestic and international opportunities with private equity and pension funds. Bergstein is a founding partner and active participant in LEG’s $700M European property investment platform.
Some of his standout development projects include Halletts Point in Astoria, NY, where LEG transformed a seven acre waterfront site into 2,400 residential apartment units; 5 Giralda in Madison, NJ, a 431,000 square-foot property, that was modernized to become Allergan’s U.S. headquarters; and in early 2018, LEG closed on a 152 acre waterfront site in Bayonne, NJ, where 1.4M square-feet of e-commerce logistics warehousing will be developed to bolster trade with the Port of New York and New Jersey.
Lincoln has formed a partnership with Bruce Eichner’s Continuum Company to develop a mixed-income residential complex in Crown Heights, NY. It will be a 50/50 market and workforce development project to bring hundreds of needed housing units for middle and working class families in New York City. Bergstein is also leading the development and approval process for 1,500 new residential units in Jersey City including the construction of a light rail station.
Bergstein serves on numerous real estate advisory boards and is a speaker and frequent commentator in real estate trade and business media in addition to his philanthropic work.
Jordan Spring is the Chief Investment Officer & founder of the Spring Family Office (SFO), a premier single-family office headquartered in the Bahamas. While structured as a family office, SFO operates with the sophistication, agility, and rigor of a world-class hedge fund—yet uniquely distinguished by its exclusive focus on stewarding family capital with no external investors.
A highly accomplished financier, Jordan brings to the table more than 25 years of distinguished leadership across global capital markets, investment strategy, and corporate finance. Over the course of his career, he has earned a reputation as a trusted advisor and dealmaker, renowned for his ability to navigate complex financial landscapes and deliver transformative outcomes for stakeholders.
Jordan has played a pivotal role in structuring innovative financial transactions, from mergers and acquisitions to cross-border capital raises and sophisticated alternative investment strategies. His expertise spans public and private markets, traditional finance and alternative assets, equity and credit, as well as emerging asset classes such as digital infrastructure and blockchain-based finance.
At SFO, Jordan leads a disciplined, research-driven investment philosophy that combines institutional-grade rigor with entrepreneurial foresight.
Richard Wagman is the Managing Partner and Founder of Madison where he sits on the Investment Committee and Management Committee. He is responsible for overseeing all functions within Madison with a particular emphasis on the transaction sourcing, acquisitions and capital markets activities for all commercial properties in the U.S. He is also responsible for identifying and securing institutional joint venture partners for Madison. Richard has overseen the acquisition of in excess of $2 billion of retail, industrial, residential, hotel and office properties throughout the United States.
In 1994 he founded Principal Property Group LLC, a New York real estate investment company (“Principal”) that acquired close to 1 million square feet of commercial and industrial properties in the U.S. and Canada and sold the majority of the assets to a publicly traded REIT. Prior to Principal, Richard was an acquisition associate with Lend Lease International involved in advising public and private pension funds in real estate investments in the US and Europe. Richard worked in the New York, London and Paris offices for Lend Lease.
Richard is from Montreal, Canada and resides in Manhattan. He is actively involved in the Steering Committee for the Real Estate Division of UJA as well as other non-profit organizations in NY. Richard graduated from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce of the University of Pennsylvania with a dual concentration in Real Estate and Finance.
Slava is a founder and managing partner at humbition. He’s also the founder and chairman of Vincent, a FinTech platform specializing in alternative asset classes. Prior to humbition, he was the founder and CEO of Indiegogo.
Slava represented the crowdfunding industry at the White House during the signing of the JOBS Act and has helped navigate bringing equity crowdfunding to the American public. He also helped pioneer security tokens in the United States.
Slava has received numerous awards including Fortune 40 under 40, Observer 20 Heros under 40, and the Wharton Young Leadership award for 2015. He holds a B.S.E. from the Wharton School of Business.
Moderators
Co-Chair
