Attendee Bios
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ATTENDEE BIOS Ejim Peter Achi, Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig Ejim Achi represents private equity sponsors in connection with buyouts, mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, restructurings and other investments spanning a wide range of industries and sectors, with particular emphasis on technology, healthcare, industrials, consumer packaged goods, hospitality and infrastructure. Rukaiyah Adams, Chief Investment Officer, Meyer Memorial Trust Rukaiyah Adams is the chief investment officer at Meyer Memorial Trust, one of the largest charitable foundations in the Pacific Northwest. She is responsible for leading all investment activities to ensure the long-term financial strength of the organization. Throughout her tenure as chief investment officer, Adams has delivered top quartile performance; and beginning in 2017, her team hit its stride delivering an 18.6% annual return, which placed her in the top 5% of foundation and endowment CIOs. Under the leadership of Adams, Meyer increased assets managed by diverse managers by more than threefold, to 40% of all assets under management, and women managers by tenfold, to 25% of AUM, proving that hiring diverse managers is not a concessionary practice. Before joining Meyer, Adams ran the $6.5 billion capital markets fund at The Standard, a publicly traded company. At The Standard, she oversaw six trading desks that included several bond strategies, preferred equities, derivatives and other risk mitigation strategies. Adams is the chair of the prestigious Oregon Investment Council, the board that manages approximately $100 billion of public pension and other assets for the state of Oregon. During her tenure as chair, the Oregon state pension fund has been the top-performing public pension fund in the U.S. The top-of-class performance was made possible by a series of strategic changes, overseen by Adams, that boosted returns and decreased risk. Adams serves on the board of directors of the Albina Vision Trust, the Self Enhancement, Inc. Foundation and Oregon Public Broadcasting, where she also serves on the investment committee. She has engaged in pro bono legal work on behalf of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, the Homeless Prenatal Program in San Francisco, and the Children’s Defense Fund. Her 2016 Ted Talk—A Homegirl’s Guide to Being Powerful—about her path to becoming a more thoughtful investor and the role of investment capital in achieving social justice has more than 10,000 views. Adams holds a BA with academic distinction from Carleton College, a JD from Stanford Law School, where she was on the law and policy review and the co-president of the law student association, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she served as the CEO of Challenge for Charity. She has received many accolades, but is most proud of being named a Woman of Distinction by the Portland Business Journal in 2017. 1 John Allen, President, John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum John Allen has been leading the transformation of the John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum for 7 years. Today, the museum is the fourth major attraction on Cape Cod, and has a robust civics focused education program for all grades of school. Additionally, they plan to open a Community Room in March 2020, where they will be hosting cultural programs as well as youth and adult civics education programs. Marissa Andrada, Chief Human Resource Officer, Chipotle Mexican Grill Marissa Andrada is CHRO of Chipotle, where she applies her strong skills in organization, management, HR development, strategy in turnaround, start-up, and high growth scenario to increase the efficiency of the company. Andrada comes to Chipotle from Kate Spade & Company, where she served as senior vice president of human resources and chief human resources officer. In this capacity, she was responsible for positioning the company and its culture for growth, including developing and implementing plans to recruit top-tier executive and design talent for the global, multi-channel lifestyle brand. Prior to joining Kate Spade, Andrada held several senior level positions in human resources at Starbucks, most recently serving as senior vice president, partner resources for the Americas, where she led innovation and strategy for retail employee programs including employee experience, engagement and compensation. Earlier in her career, Andrada was head of human resources for Red Bull North America and division human resources manager for PepsiCo/Pizza Hut. Andrada holds a BSBA from California State Polytechnic University-Pomona and an MBA from Pepperdine University. Caroline Atkinson, Senior Advisor, RockCreek Caroline Atkinson is a senior advisor to RockCreek and was most recently head of global policy for Google, where she advised Google’s leadership on policy issues and led Google’s work with policy makers, government officials, and key political stakeholders. Prior to joining Google, Atkinson served as President Barack Obama’s Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics. As the President’s senior international economic advisor, Atkinson supported the President at major international economic summits and coordinated the policymaking process for international economic affairs. During her tenure, she was the US “sherpa” at G7 and G20 summits, and helped drive global agreement on a diverse set of issues, including global trade, employment, climate change and the response to the Ebola crisis. Before working directly for President Obama, Atkinson held senior roles at the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. Treasury Department, and the Bank of England, and worked as a journalist for The Washington Post, The Economist, and The Times of London. She holds a BA in politics, philosophy and economics (PPE) from Oxford University. Robert Atkinson, President, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Dr. Robert D. Atkinson is one of the country’s foremost thinkers on innovation economics. He has conducted ground-breaking research on technology and innovation and authored three books, including Big is Beautiful: Debunking the Mythology of Small Business (MIT Press, 2018). Atkinson is a sought-after speaker and valued adviser to state, national, and international policymakers on topics ranging from tax policy to advanced manufacturing, productivity, and global competitiveness. As founder and president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), recognized as the world’s top think tank for science and technology policy, Atkinson leads a prolific team of policy analysts and fellows that is successfully shaping the debate and setting the agenda on a host of critical issues at the intersection of technological innovation and public policy. Before founding ITIF, Atkinson was vice president of the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) and director of PPI’s Technology & New Economy Project. He received his master’s in urban and regional planning from the University of Oregon and was named a distinguished alumnus in 2014. He received his PhD in city and regional planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1989. 2 Mark Attanasio, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Crescent Capital Group Mark Attanasio is the co-founder and managing partner of Crescent Capital Group, as well as chairman and principal owner of the Milwaukee Brewers. Founded in 1991, Crescent is an employee-owned alternative asset manager and SEC-registered investment advisor with approximately $25 billion in assets under management and over 160 employees. Attanasio holds positions on several nonprofit boards, including Heal the Bay, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and Harvard-Westlake School. In addition, Attanasio served on the President’s Leadership Council at Brown University for a decade. He is currently chairman of the Major League Baseball (MLB) Investment Committee, as well as a member of the executive council and labor and revenue sharing definition committees. He received an AB from Brown University and a JD from Columbia University School of Law. Angelita Baeyens, Program Director, Advocacy And Litigation, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Angelita Baeyens joined Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights as programs director of advocacy and litigation in June 2014. Baeyens is the lead attorney in over a dozen cases before the Inter-American system of human rights, including cases on freedom of expression, enforced disappearance of human rights defenders, and violence against women in the Americas. She previously served at the United Nations as the political affairs officer in the Americas division of the UN Department of Political Affairs in New York from March 2012 to May 2014. Baeyens also worked as a human rights officer in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Washington DC since 2006. In 2008, she became the special assistant to the executive secretary, and starting in 2009, she also served as the coordinator of the Office of the Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders of the IACHR. Baeyens has served as an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center since 2012. A dual Belgian and Colombian citizen, she holds a law degree from the University of Ibague (Colombia) and an LLM in international human rights law from the University of Notre Dame. Baeyens is fluent in Spanish, French and English. Ryan Bailey, Head of Investments, Children’s Health System of Texas Ryan Bailey is the head of investments at Children’s Health System of Texas, where he oversees $1.7 billion in assets. Bailey and his team