Daniel E. Feder, CFA
Dan is a Managing Director with the University of Michigan Investment Office and leads the endowment’s investments in private equity and venture capital. Prior to joining the University of Michigan, Dan was the Managing Director of Private Markets at the Washington University Investment Management Company. Dan’s career in endowment management began at the Princeton University Investment Company where he led the development of Princeton’s global private equity and venture capital portfolio. Dan has also served as the Managing Director of Private Markets for the Sequoia Capital Heritage Fund (an endowment-style investment fund sponsored by Sequoia Capital) and as a Senior Investment Manager in the endowment services area at TIAA-CREF. Dan is a member the Board of Directors (and Investment Committee) for the UMass Foundation. Dan holds a B.A. cum laude in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts, a J.D. cum laude from the Boston University School of Law, and an M.A. in Economics from Trinity College. He is a Fellow in the American College of Investment Counsel and has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.
Bruce Feldman
Bruce is an independent consultant focused on investment and legal education with over thirty years’ of experience in both law and finance. After beginning his career as an attorney in a large private practice, Bruce joined the Executive Offices of Pennsylvania Governor Robert Casey as a policy advisor and director of drug policy. From there, Bruce spent nearly a decade as deputy chief counsel for investments of the Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System. This led to his eleven-year tenure as managing director of the Pennsylvania SERS $6B private equity portfolio. Bruce holds a J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh, an M.S. in Counseling from Pennsylvania State University, and a B.S. in Biology from Albright College. Bruce also served as a military radio operator and a military intelligence analyst and was deployed on a NATO peace-keeping mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Sanjay Gupta
Sanjay is the founder of Rai 17, an independent platform engaged on a number of private capital projects. He most recently led the US private equity funds platform for CDPQ, a major Canadian pension fund. His experience there stretched beyond traditional fund investing and included deal origination and structuring, separately managed accounts, as well as close coordination with the firm’s direct private equity team. Prior to CDPQ, Sanjay headed Adveq’s US private equity platform across primary fund investing, secondary investing, and co-investing. Prior to Adveq, he was a leveraged finance investment banker at Lehman Brothers where he worked on a number of large and mid-sized buyout transactions. He was also an investment Associate at FLAG Capital where he invested in and monitored a portfolio of venture capital and private equity funds. Earlier in his career, he worked at a strategy consulting firm and an internet startup. He currently serves on the Strategy Board at Munich-based Yielco Investments AG. He was named as a 40-under-40 Top M&A Dealmaker in 2014. Sanjay holds a BS in Economics from George Washington University and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Peter Laib
Peter is a Partner and investment committee member of YIELCO, a Munich-based investment management and advisory company that focuses on infrastructure and private debt investing. He is also Chairman of Diamond Asset Advisors, a Zurich-based advisor for investments in physical diamonds and financing solutions for the diamond industry. Prior to his current roles, Peter was a Managing Director, investment committee member, and shareholder of Adveq, a global private equity fund of funds. At Adveq, Peter co-led the firm’s venture capital investment program and was instrumental in establishing and growing the firm’s investment products, including launching and directing Adveq’s special situation/distressed investment program. Over his career, Peter has participated in more than 250 commitments to alternative fund managers globally. Peter has also held positions as a Principal in the strategy consulting unit of A. T. Kearney and operating positions at Robert Bosch GmbH and Siemens AG. He holds a Diplom-Kaufmann degree from the University of Augsburg in Germany, an M.A. in Economics from Wayne State University in Michigan, and a Ph.D. in Strategic Management from LMU University in Germany.
Alessandro Piol
Alessandro is a managing partner and founder of AlphaPrime Ventures, a technology-focused venture firm. Alessandro has been a venture capitalist for over 25 years, most recently as President and co-founder of Vedanta Capital, a firm active in fund of funds as well as direct investments. He also was a General Partner with Invesco Private Capital where he was responsible for information technology investments. Before Invesco, Alessandro co-founded AT&T Ventures where he led numerous investments in new media and communications companies. He was a co-founder and VP of Marketing of Pixel Machines, an AT&T-backed venture in the graphics supercomputing business, and was later director of Strategic Partnerships for AT&T Computer Systems.
Alessandro is a prominent participant in the US entrepreneurial and venture community: he was a founding director of the New York New Media Association and has served as President of the New York chapter of TiE; he is Chairman of the Board of Visitors of Columbia's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, as well as a member of its Entrepreneurial Advisory Board.
Alessandro holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, and additionally a M.S. and B. S. degrees in Computer Science from Columbia University. He is also the co-author of Tech and the City: The Making of New York's Startup Community (Mirandola Press, 2013).
Anirudh Ravunniarath
Anirudh is currently serving as a Partner and President of Asgard Investment Partners at Carlson Capital, L.P. Prior to his current roles, he was a Managing Director at HN Capital Partners and earlier was head of client development at Carlson Capital, where he was primarily responsible for client development across institutional and private banking clients. Before joining Carlson Capital, he worked at Merrill Lynch and BlackRock. Ravunniarath holds a B.S. in finance and economics from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and is a member of both YPO and the Advisory Council of the Dallas Mavericks.