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Sona Simran Kaur Rai is the Director of Communications at Quartz. Quartz (qz.com) is a guide to the new global economy for people in business who are excited by change. Before her tenure at Quartz, she was the director of communications at NYC’s Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. Prior to working for New York City, Sona’s experience includes roles at Porter Novelli, Columbia Business School, CreativeFeed, and the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF). Sona earned a Master of Public Administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and English from the University of Rochester.
Alka Banerjee is managing director and head of product management for S&P Dow Jones Indices. Since September 2013, Alka has also served as CEO of Asia Index Private Limited, a joint venture between S&P Dow Jones Indices and the BSE of Mumbai, India’s premier stock exchange. Alka has over 19 years of experience in the global indexing business, both at S&P Dow Jones Indices, and at the Bank of New York. She has pioneered a large number of initiatives at S&P DJI, ranging from developing global smart beta indices to the latest approaches in sustainability investing. Her latest work spans multi asset indices including equities, fixed income and commodities to create theme based indices. In addition to evaluating and improving existing market capitalization weighted benchmarks, Alka has led S&P DJI’s efforts for new index developments for Africa, China, Korea, India, Latin America, and throughout the Middle East. Alka frequently presents at indexing and investing events, and is widely cited in the press.
Ajay Banga is president and chief executive officer of Mastercard and a member of its board of directors. Mr. Banga is a member of President Obama's Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. He is chairman of the U.S.-India Business Council and a member of the U.S.-India CEO Forum. He is a fellow of the Foreign Policy Association and was awarded the Foreign Policy Association Medal in 2012. Mr. Banga serves on the Executive Committee of the Business Roundtable, and is vice chair of the Financial Services Roundtable as well as the Business Council. He is a member of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Economic Club of New York.
Mitchell J. Barnett has been a member of Cushman & Wakefield since graduating Northwestern University in 1984. As Vice Chairman of the firm, Mr. Barnett has represented many prestigious corporations, financial institutions and partnerships negotiating leases with an aggregate value of over $7.5 billion. Mr. Barnett specializes in tenant representation nationally, with particular emphasis on the New York Region. He has received Cushman & Wakefield’s highly coveted National Deal of the Year Award twice and is consistently recognized as one of the firm’s “best of the best.”
Amarpreet Sawhney is the President and CEO of Ocular Therapeutix, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCUL) and Chairman of Augmenix, Inc. Ocular Therapeutix is focused on solving unmet needs in ophthalmic drug delivery. Augmenix is focused on absorbable materials that can help improve outcomes and targeting of radiotherapy. Prior to this he was Founder and CEO of Confluent Surgical, a biosurgery company, based in Waltham, MA. Confluent was acquired by Covidien. Before Confluent, Dr. Sawhney was the technology founder of Focal, Inc. (acquired by Genzyme) and of Access Closure, Inc. (acquired by Cardinal Health). Dr. Sawhney’s innovations are the subject of over 120 issued and pending patents in biomaterials and bio-surgery. His inventions include several “first of a kind” surgical sealants to be approved by the United States FDA including DuraSeal for neurosurgery, FocalSeal for Lung surgery, and Mynx for femoral puncture sealing.
Savneet is the founder of GBI, the first electronic platform that allows investors to buy, trade, and store physical precious metals. The company is now one of largest providers of physical gold and silver in the world, and as a result Savneet has been named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list and Crain's 40 under 40. Prior to GBI, Savneet was an investment analyst at Chilton Investment Company where he covered investments in the technology space and prior to Chilton, Savneet worked in the investment banking department of Morgan Stanley. Savneet is also a successful private investor having made investments into Uber, LendingClub, SoFi and now runs a $125MM direct lending fund focused on emerging marketplace lenders.
He received his B.S. in Applied Economics and Management from Cornell University, and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Group, The Milken Institute, and The Economic Club of Manhattan.
Shamina Singh is President of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. In this position, she is responsible for the Center’s consistent achievement of its mission to advance sustainable and equitable economic growth and financial inclusion around the world. In her previous position as Global Director of MasterCard’s Government Social Programs, she worked to digitize social subsidy programs in over 40 countries.
In 2015, she was appointed by President Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to a six-year term on the Board of the Corporation for National and Community Service. Currently, she serves as Board Chair of this U.S. federal agency responsible for engaging more than five million citizens in community service through its core programs of AmeriCorps, Senior Corps and the Social Innovation Fund.