Women, Diversity & Change on Wall Street [Virtual Summit]

Katy McArthur, co-head of S&C’s Securities & Commodities Investigations and Enforcement practice and the Firm’s Commodities, Futures and Derivatives practice, has advised some of the world’s biggest companies on major matters involving complex financial products and physical commodities, including enforcement inquiries, internal investigations and commercial litigation. Katy’s trading and markets expertise enables her to advocate effectively for clients facing even the most complex allegations of fraud or market manipulation, including proceedings brought by the CFTC, SEC, FERC and DOJ.

Ms. McArthur has been recognized by leading publications, including Chambers USA and Who’s Who Legal: Investigations, among others.  She was named to Global Investigation Review’s Women in Investigations survey and is a Fellow of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity. Katy earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School and received her B.B.A. degree from the University of Texas.

Katrina Dudley is a senior vice president, investment strategist for Franklin Mutual Series. She is the co-lead portfolio manager of the Franklin Mutual Global Discovery and Franklin Mutual European mutual funds.

Ms. Dudley has been a portfolio manager since 2007 and has been a member of the Mutual Series team since 2002. In addition to her portfolio management responsibilities, her research coverage includes global industrial and machinery companies. Prior to joining Mutual Series, Ms. Dudley worked at Federated Investors, Inc and Ernst & Young LLP.

Ms. Dudley is passionate about advocating for women in investment management and is Chair of the Networking & Events Committee for the NY Chapter of Women@FT. She authored the introduction to the Vault Career Guide to Mutual Funds, Second Edition and co-authored a book Undiversified: The Big Gender Short in Investment Management about the lack of diversity in investment management with Ellen Carr, Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School (to be released June 2021).

Ms. Dudley earned an M.B.A. from New York University's Stern School of Business, a Law degree (with first class honors) and a Commerce degree from Bond University (Australia), and an Associate of Science degree (Computer Science) from the University of the People. Professionally, Ms. Dudley is a board member of the CFA Society New York. Within her community, she is Vice Chair of the Board of The Children's Village, one of New York's largest social services organization. She is a member of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Leadership Network as well member of the Student Investment Fund Advisory Council at NYU. Ms. Dudley is also a guest lecturer at the Columbia Business School and the Stern School of Business and a frequent market commentator on Bloomberg and CNBC.

Janet is Head of Strategic Equity Solutions and Managing Director, where she is responsible for deal origination, structuring and execution of equity linked and equity derivative solutions for North and Latin American corporates and financial institutions. Her primary focus is on structured equity and liability solutions, including financings, monetization, risk management  and capital structure solutions.

Janet has over 30 years of capital markets experience in trading, structured products and derivatives. Prior to joining BNP Paribas, Janet held senior positions in equity derivatives at Citibank, Bear Stearns, Deutsche Bank and Bankers Trust. Janet led the team that advised Qualcomm on the $16BN Accelerated Share Repurchase transaction, the largest transaction of this type in history.  She also led the team that advised Intel on their $10BN ASR. 

Janet completed post graduate work at JL Kellogg Graduate School of Management at  Northwestern University and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Washington University. Janet is a contributing author in the Handbook of Structured Products and a member of Chief, a well known women’s leadership organization. 

Anne Valentine Andrews, Managing Director, is Global Head of Real Assets within BlackRock Alternative Investors. BlackRock Real Assets comprises the Infrastructure and Real Estate platforms, which have 400+ professionals across 30+ cities globally, and manage $65 billion in equity and debt assets and investor commitments.

Prior to joining BlackRock in 2014, she was Co-Head and Chief Operating Officer for the Morgan Stanley Infrastructure platform with $4 billion of assets under management. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in 2006, Ms. Valentine Andrews was a director at Macquarie Bank in both Melbourne and New York. She began her career as a corporate attorney in Australia.

Ms. Valentine Andrews earned a Bachelor of Economics degree and Bachelor of Law with Honors from Monash University, Australia in 1991 and 1994, respectively. She also received a Masters of Applied Finance degree from Macquarie University, Australia in 2004.

In 2016, she was recognized as a Fellow of Monash University, Australia.

Ms. Cotton is a member of the Investment Committee and Management Committee and oversees all of Madison Capital Funding’s underwriting and portfolio management teams. In addition, she is a member of the Executive Committee of New York Life Investments Alternatives.

Prior to joining the firm in 2007, she spent nearly eight years at National City Bank, primarily in the middle market where she served as a relationship manager for more than five years. Ms. Cotton earned a B.A. in Psychology from the State University of New York College at Geneseo, and an MBA in Finance and Corporate Accounting from the Simon Business School at the University of Rochester.

Business executive with over 20-years of experience in operational due diligence, SWOT analysis, process risk management, performance improvement, and change management. As head of Portfolio Management for WM Americas lending, Tanya manages a team focused on analyzing a structured lending portfolio, identifying existing and potential risks, monitoring exposures and covenant compliance, managing internal controls and management information systems related to loans in the portfolio. 

Jane Ma is a Managing Director at Moelis & Company where she specializes in advising clients in the Asset Management and Wealth Management sector. Ms. Ma has over 15 years of investment banking experience. Prior to joining Moelis & Company, Ms. Ma worked at both Greenhill and Deutsche Bank focusing on M&A.

Ms. Ma holds a B.S. in Applied Economics & Management from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.

Jamie Kocis advises securitization participants in both warehouse securitization facilities and term securitizations across all esoteric asset classes. She serves as deal counsel in market-leading transactions involving new and emerging asset classes, including in the solar asset and commercial PACE (property assessed clean energy) space.

Jamie represents issuers, underwriters, borrowers, lenders and service providers in structured finance transactions involving a variety of asset classes, including timeshare loans, solar assets, commercial PACE assets, structured settlements, lottery receivables, equipment leases, auto loans, consumer loans, small business loans, collateralized debt obligations, commercial mortgage loans, marketplace lending, distressed assets, government contract receivables, student loans, and trademark and licensing rights. She also counsels investment funds in their participation in tender option bond programs.

Jamie is co-chair of Kramer Levin’s Women’s Initiative Committee and is a member of the firm’s Attorneys of Color Affinity Group.

Ms. McGrail’s practice focuses on serving financial services firms and public companies facing civil litigation and regulatory enforcement matters, as well as counseling clients on compliance with industry regulations. A significant portion of Ms. McGrail’s practice has been dedicated to counseling and defending broker-dealers and investment advisors.  She has experience in matters involving equity, fixed income, and derivative trading; broker/dealer and investment adviser compliance system design and review; fiduciary investment issues; regulatory registration issues; transactional disclosure issues; cybersecurity compliance; employing big data analytics, and litigation in federal and state courts, administrative proceedings, disciplinary hearings and arbitrations.  She handles all stages of complex commercial litigation, from pre-suit investigations and counseling to motions practice, discovery and trial.

Ms. McGrail has also defended mortgage originators and residential mortgage backed securities sponsors in litigation and government investigation spawned by the 2008 financial crisis.  She was a member of a team that had numerous big wins, including the dismissal of monoline bond insurer plaintiffs from a $1.8B lawsuit, favorable settlements, and protection of sensitive client information in discovery.

In addition, Ms. McGrail advises companies concerning compliance with the emergent regulatory structure surrounding cybersecurity, including as it relates to policies and procedures, vendor due diligence, information governance, and incident response.  She has experience advising broker-dealers and advisors on efficient ways to use big data analytics to avoid and respond to regulatory inquiries.  In January 2017, she spoke on a SIFMA Conference Panel entitled, “Responding to Regulatory Inquiries in the Big Data Age: Is Your Firm Ready?”

Ms. McGrail is the firm’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, where she is charged with attracting, retaining, and championing top-flight, diverse, legal talent.  She is also the founder of the firm’s Women’s Initiative and hosts, sponsors, and participates in several efforts that advance the development of women in law.

Sarah Slaoui is a Director within Rothschild & Co Global Advisory Group focused on Consumer M&A. Sarah has over 10 years of investment banking experience: born and raised in France, she initially joined Rothschild & Co in 2010 as an analyst in the Paris office before moving to New York in 2014. Sarah has significant experience in private and public transactions including sell-side, buy-side, fairness opinion, spin-offs, financing and strategic advisory globally. During the course of her career, she has completed over $40 billon in M&A transaction volume, mainly in the Food & Beverages as well as Beauty & Personal Care sectors. Sarah holds a M.Sc. from HEC Paris where she studied Finance.

Pamela Brylski is a director at Blackrock and leads the institutional client business in the Southeast region. Prior to Blackrock, she was a senior vice president at Morgan Stanley. Previously she served as a vice president in the investment management division of Goldman, Sachs & Co. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs & Co, Pamela practiced as a corporate attorney in New York with global law firms representing private equity firms, hedge funds and international corporations in a variety of domestic and international transactions. She also worked as a transaction advisor for the global private equity firm, The Carlyle Group in Washington, DC. Pamela also served as a White House Intern. Pamela is actively engaged in the community serving a number of philanthropic and educational organizations including serving as a national board member for the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation, national board member and the founder and chair of the South Florida chapter for the Womens Association of Venture and Equity (WAVE), global board member of the Hedge Fund Association, term member for the Council on Foreign Relations and national council member of the Anderson Ranch Arts Center. She is an alumni of the Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO) career program. Pamela has been recognized as an honoree of the 40 under 40 by the South Florida Business Journal, an InvestmentNews Rising Star and both a Power 50 C-Suite and one of the Most Influential African Americans in Business by the National Diversity Council. She obtained a B.A. in Humanities Honours (Pre-Medicine) from The University of Texas at Austin and her Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center.

Courtney Statfeld has extensive experience handling complex commercial disputes. She is particularly skilled in crafting creative and strategic solutions for disputes arising out of structured finance, complex financial products, securities, and intellectual property matters, which have helped secure hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements for her clients.  Courtney has litigated in state and federal courts across the country. Her clients include leading hedge funds, private equity firms, investment advisors, institutional investors, international banks, and Fortune 500 companies. 

For nearly a decade, Courtney has focused on litigation involving complex financial products, including residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS). Her experience includes working on the preeminent case in the RMBS arena and obtaining a series of rulings, including at summary judgment, that set the basic framework for RMBS litigation nationwide. She has handled complex cases from inception to settlement, including on behalf of monoline insurers and several large financial institutions, as trustees and investors, in numerous federal and state court actions alleging fraud, breach of contract, and misrepresentations concerning pools of mortgage loans that underlie residential mortgage-backed securities that were securitized and sold to investors. She also handles motion practice, document and deposition discovery, expert discovery, trial preparation, and appellate briefing. She litigates aggressively for her clients such that many of her cases settle favorably in the middle of discovery.  

Courtney is known for her tireless dedication to client service, and building close, long-term relationships that enable her to proactively identify and address her clients’ needs. Her courtroom achievements have earned her recognition as a “rising star” by both Super Lawyers and Benchmark Litigation.

ANJANA D. PATEL is a Member of the Firm in the Health Care and Life Sciences practice, in the Newark and New York offices of Epstein Becker Green, and serves on the firm's National Health Care and Life Sciences Steering Committee. Her practice focuses on health care transactions and regulatory compliance counseling.

Ms. Patel represents a diverse group of health care providers, including hospitals and health systems, physician practices, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), ambulatory surgery centers, radiology facilities, specialty pharmacies, post-acute care providers (including nursing homes and home health agencies), private equity funds and their health care portfolio companies, MSOs, information technology companies specializing in health care products and services, and various other health care industry service providers and businesses.

Ms. Patel represents her clients in a variety of business transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, consolidations, recapitalizations, affiliations, joint ventures, physician-alignment transactions, MSOs, ACOs, IPAs, clinical integration networks, population health and direct contracting, and other strategic transactions designed to better position providers in the changing health care marketplace. She also actively represents clients in a variety of contractual matters, including professional services agreements, recruitment, and employment.

Ms. Patel provides guidance and compliance strategies with respect to issues involving federal and state anti-kickback and self-referral laws; corporate compliance; corporate practice of medicine and fee-splitting; HIPAA; licensure; certificate of need; and other federal and state health care regulatory compliance matters. In addition, she provides advice on the organization, governance, and operations of nonprofit and for-profit companies.

A frequent speaker on wide array of health care issues, Ms. Patel has authored numerous articles in various national and local health care industry publications. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Patel was Co-Chair of the Health Care Practice Group of a large regional law firm.

Chelsea Crowder is a Vice President and Banker with J.P. Morgan Private Bank in Los Angeles. She creates, implements and monitors investment planning strategies for wealthy individuals, families, foundations and endowments, with a particular emphasis on mission-oriented organizations and individuals focused on both social good and economic performance.

Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, Chelsea worked at Goldman Sachs, where she began her career in sales and trading serving institutional clients before moving to an investing role focused on social impact and ultimately becoming an advisor in the firm’s Private Wealth Management business. She earned a B.S. in Engineering Management Systems with a minor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from Columbia University. She holds FINRA Series 3, 7, 55 and 63 securities licenses.

Recently, Chelsea was awarded the Forbes “30 Under 30” recognition for 2021 in finance. She is extremely passionate about social justice and serves as a board member for the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles and as a Young Leadership board member for America Needs You.

Anjali Jolly is a Partner at ACON Investments. Prior to joining ACON in 2017, Ms. Jolly was the founder of DuMonde Management, LLC, an advisory firm that provided strategic and corporate development services to middle market companies and private equity firms. Previously, Ms. Jolly was a Managing Director and Member of the Investment Committee of Perseus, a $1.6 billion middle market private equity firm. Ms. Jolly was at Perseus for 10 years where she led the sourcing, execution, management and sale of several control growth equity and buyout investments. She also served as a board director of seven Perseus portfolio companies. Prior to joining Perseus, Ms. Jolly worked at JPMorgan Partners (now known as CCMP Capital), the $15 billion direct private equity investment division of J.P. Morgan. Ms. Jolly serves on the Board of Directors of Beauty by Imagination and IIMAK, each ACON fund portfolio companies.

Ms. Jolly holds a B.S., summa cum laude, in Systems Engineering and Finance from the University of Pennsylvania (M&T Program), and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.

Erin Summe is the founder of Thandeka Travel, an Africa-based company that connects impact investors directly with local organizations addressing clean energy, healthcare, education and employment. Through intimate immersions, Thandeka nurtures dialogues between funders and communities with the aim of better understanding the challenges and potential solutions of each unique context. In 2020 the she launched Thandeka Capital a platform that mobilizes capital into the green economy by connecting climate technology funds with like-minded investors looking to align their portfolios alongside the planet. Erin previously spent 5 years at Morgan Stanley as a trader in Equity Derivatives and 3 years in South Africa working with a non-profit in HIV prevention. She studied Economics at Georgetown University and received her MBA from London Business School in 2015.

Lale is Head of Credit at Swiss Re. In her role, she is responsible for steering the firm’s investments in global credit markets. She comes to Swiss Re after spending three years as  Senior Fund Manager and Head of Credit at J O Hambro Capital Management. Previously, she spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs in various leadership roles, where she invested across credit and equity markets. She started her career as a sell-side research analyst in 1999 at Goldman Sachs was named Managing Director in 2010. Lale earned a BA in Economics and Politics, cum laude, from Mount Holyoke College.

Marija Pecar is a partner in Paul Hastings’ Financial Restructuring group, and a member of the firm’s Global Finance practice. Marija is dual-qualified to practice both New York and English Law.  Her client base spans the finance industry, and includes leading investment and commercial banks, hedge funds, private equity sponsors, alternative asset managers, private credit providers, CLO managers, and BDCs.  She also regularly advises corporates operating in a broad range of industries and sectors in connection with raising capital in the capital markets and private credit sector, including clients in energy, industrials, healthcare, infrastructure, retail, technology and logistics.

Kira Mineroff assists borrowers and lenders with a full range of leverage finance, structured finance and distressed debt transactions. On the Leverage finance side, she represents alternative lenders, public and private companies at various stages in their lifecycle and private equity companies in connection with acquisition and working capital loans, including secured, unsecured, unitranche, first lien/second lien and senior/mezzanine structures, in the forms of term loans, revolving facilities and asset-backed loan facilities. Kira also represents debtors in connection with out-of-court restructurings and debtor-in-possession financings and represents sponsors and issuers in connection with structuring securitizations and loan asset sales.

Kira's experience extends across a variety of industries, including financial services, REITs, healthcare, gaming, and energy and natural resources.

Kira is a member of the firm's hiring, pro bono and associate evaluation committees and is a delegate to the New York office's Leadership Alliance for Women. She is also a firm liaison to the National Association of Women Lawyers and a member of Women in Funds.

Olga is a senior member of the Private Capital Markets team at J.P. Morgan based in New York. She has spent her career across Private Capital Markets, Investment Banking Coverage and Equity Capital Markets in London and New York, and has worked on over $100bn in transactions including a number of landmark deals in the industry.

Olga started her career in Morgan Stanley’s Equity Capital Markets team and has been with J.P. Morgan since 2010. Olga holds an MA(Hons) in Economics from the University of Cambridge.

Isela Rosales, CAIA, serves as a Managing Director of ESG and Sustainability at Bridge Investment Group. She leads the firm’s ESG Steering Committee to oversee the development, implementation and refinement of firm wide environmental, social and governance initiatives and practices, driving sustainable investments and operations. In addition, she is focused on expanding Bridge’s relationships across consultant and select institutional investors, including pension plans, foundations, Community Re-Investment Act groups, family offices, and impact-oriented clients. Isela also Chaired the Bridge Women’s Network (BWN) Inaugural Kick-Off, is a Committee Member of BWN, and an active BWN mentor.

Prior to joining Bridge, Isela worked at Brevan Howard in Investor Relations, managing corporate and public pension, endowment, foundation, private wealth, and investment consultant relationships. Previously, she was Head of Client Services for Lyxor Asset Management, Inc. and Director of Marketing & Investor Relations for Coast Asset Management in their New York offices, cultivating institutional level client relationships for each multi-billion dollar firm’s hedge fund and multi-manager products. She began her career at Cambridge Associates, serving on consultant teams for the firm’s endowment, foundation, and family office clients, covering traditional and hedge fund asset classes. Isela received her dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in International Relations and Spanish from Stanford University, graduating with honors distinctions.

She has moderated industry panels on Real Assets, Diversity & Inclusion, and Opportunity Zones as well as supported panels as a speaker on Real Estate and Opportunity Zone investing. Isela holds the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designation and is the Chapter Head Executive for the CAIA San Francisco Chapter. She is fluent in Spanish and has competed in Ironman, endurance cycling, and marathon competitions.

Amy Bartlett joined BMO in 2007 and is the Head of Global Markets Corporate Banking since 2019. In this role, Amy’s team has the responsibility for managing and underwriting counterparties and recommending the associated credit risk limits for several Global Market trading portfolios including Securitization, CMBS, Fund Managers, Hedge Funds, Broker Dealers, Commodities, Metals, Structured Products and Trading Portfolios. Before joining Global Markets Corporate Banking, Amy completed a 3-year rotation in the Special Asset Management Unit, which included identifying the best resolution strategy for distressed and high-risk credits. Other previous banking experience includes the Securitization Group, the Specialty Finance Group, and the Corporate Banking Group. Amy earned her B.A. in Business from Illinois Wesleyan University.

Noreen Kelly is the Managing Partner of the New York office and a part of the Diversity & Inclusion Committee at McGuireWoods LLP, a leading international law firm with 1,100 lawyers in 22 offices worldwide.

Noreen focuses her practice on commercial litigation and regulatory enforcement matters in the securities and financial services space. She has represented a variety of clients – financial institutions, broker dealers, investment advisors, and other businesses – facing regulatory and criminal investigations by the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, as well as state attorneys general. Noreen also has conducted internal investigations on behalf of major investment banks, audit committees and other entities involving allegations of securities fraud or other violations of securities rules and regulations, accounting fraud, violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and embezzlement.

Ms. Kelly received her B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin, cum laude, and earned her J.D. from New York University Law School.  Among her many honors, she was named a Distinguished Leader by the New York Law Journal.  

Elaine C. Greenberg has over 30 years of securities law experience, including a 25-year tenure at the SEC. Her practice focuses on SEC, FINRA, DOJ, State Attorneys General and other securities and financial services regulatory matters, examinations, investigations, enforcement actions, and litigation; white collar defense and corporate investigations; and public finance. She has represented, advised, and counseled: major financial institutions and other financial services firms and their associated persons, including banks, underwriters, broker-dealers, investment advisers, investment companies, and municipal advisors; issuers of securities, including public companies and their officers and directors, and state and local governmental entities and their officials; and other organizations and individuals.

Prior to entering private practice, Elaine served as a senior officer in the SEC’s Enforcement Division in dual roles. As the inaugural Chief of the Specialized Unit for Municipal Securities and Public Pensions, she built and led a nationwide unit to oversee the SEC’s enforcement efforts in the multitrillion-dollar municipal securities and public pensions marketplaces. As Associate Director of the Philadelphia Regional Office, she was responsible for overseeing the SEC’s enforcement program in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Elaine possesses deep institutional knowledge of SEC policies, practices and procedures. She is nationally recognized for producing high-impact enforcement actions, bringing cases of first impression, and negotiating precedent-setting settlements. Elaine has shared her vast experience through frequent speaking engagements and has been often quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg, Law360, Reuters and The Bond Buyer.

Tracy Castle-Newman is the COO for Global Institutional Equity Distribution and is a member of the Equity Operating Committee. In her role, she has specific responsibility for Client Strategy, Systematic Advisory Sales (SAS) Product Strategy, Commission Management , ETF Product Marketing, and the Equity and Fixed Income Division’s Institutional Client Joint Venture with MSWM.

Tracy joined Morgan Stanley in 1996 after spending her prior years at Bankers Trust and Bank of New York. She has held various roles while at Morgan Stanley, primarily focused on client strategy and business development. Tracy is involved in many of the talent initiatives of the Firm including recruiting and mentoring women. In 2007, Tracy was inducted into the YWCA Academy of Women Leaders in recognition of her contribution to women’s initiatives. In 2010, she co-founded the Morgan Stanley’s Women’s Business Alliance. In 2013, she founded Morgan Stanley’s Women’s Investment Roundtable which brings together women portfolio managers for a 2 day stock picking roundtable. In 2017, Tracy was named to Worth Magazine’s Power 100 List. In 2021, she was a WeQual Finalist in the Leadership Excellence category and was named to Crain’s Most Notable Women on Wall Street.

She is a graduate of Virginia Tech with a BS in Finance. She serves on the Pamplin Advisory Council and the Executive Committee for the Finance Advisory Board for the Pamplin School of Business. Tracy lives in Westfield, NJ with her husband Andy and both are supporters and fans of Va. Tech athletics. Tracy recently combined her support of athletics and women into the first scholarship for the VT women’s golf team

Tess Oxenstierna, Managing Director at Capstone Headwaters, has over 25 years of experience in the aerospace and defense industry, government policy arena and financial services sector. Tess holds deep domain knowledge and transaction advisory skills, especially in the high growth markets of Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR), Air / Land / Sea / Space Systems, Electronic Warfare, Unmanned Autonomous Systems / Robotics. Prior to joining Capstone Headwaters, Tess founded the Aerospace and Defense practice at a middle market boutique investment bank, focusing on private and public corporate clients with diverse products such as command and control software for aerial drones, satellite-based force tracking systems and electronic warfare devices used in Afghanistan and Iraq. She was Global Head of Equities Strategy at Lehman Brothers, responsible for strategy development leveraging competitive intelligence, market analysis and acquisitions across Americas, Europe and Asia. Transactions included investments in stock exchanges, a NYSE specialist market-maker and international broker dealers. Tess was also Director of Corporate Development and Strategy at Raytheon, with deal team transactions valued at over $3.4 billion in sensor automation/ information synthesis, geospatial mission support, network forensics, interoperable communications for homeland security, and commercial aviation/life cycle support. Prior to these transactional roles, Tess worked in the Reagan White House, U.S. Departments of State and Energy, and NATO Headquarters, complementing her combat operational experience as a Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve. 

A recognized industry expert, she was honored with deal awards, such as M&A’s Most Influential Women 2021, M&A Atlas Awards for Industrials (Mid-Market) 2019, and M&A Advisor, Corporate / Strategic Deal of the Year 2018.  She has also spoken at Thompson Reuters A&D Summit, Int’l AUVSI Conferences, New York Capital Roundtable and featured on a television interview on ABC’s Government Matters. She currently serves on the Board of the U.S. Navy League – CT Council. She holds a Ph.D. in War Studies from King’s College London; M.A. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy with studies at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard; and B.A. in International Relations from UCLA. In addition to her degrees, Tess studied Corporate Finance at Harvard Business School and British Political Thought at Cambridge University.

Amy Weisman has been on Wall Street for over twenty-five years and is currently a Managing Director at Sterling Investment Partners. In her role, Amy develops and manages the firm’s extensive network of deal sources and cultivates investment opportunities. As a former Wall Street research analyst and investor relations professional, Amy has always been passionate about the intersection of network building and investment opportunity development.

Amy is a leader in numerous initiatives which support women in the financial community. For 2020, she was named by The Wall Street Journal as one of ten “Women to Watch in Private Equity”. In 2020 and 2019, Amy was honored as one of the Most Influential Women in Mid-Market M&A, by M&A Magazine. Amy is a co-founder of Exponent Women, a networking organization for women dealmakers in the private equity eco-system. Amy is a speaker at many financial community conferences where she shares her insights on business development and diversity. She has served on the committee for the Women in Business Program at The Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University and the Och Women in Finance Initiative at The Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Prior to joining Sterling, Amy was a Partner at Colt Capital Group, a private equity fund where she sourced proprietary investment opportunities from CEOs. Amy spent eight years as a senior executive in the investor relations industry advising retail and apparel public company CEO’s on market positioning and communication. Prior to that she was an equity research analyst at Drexel Burnham Lambert covering the U.S. and British retail and apparel industries.

Earlier in her career, Amy was an investment banking analyst with Smith Barney in their retail and consumer practice.

Amy earned a BBA from The Stephen M. Ross School of Business at The University of Michigan

Erin Miles is one of the senior investors at Bridgewater Associates, the world’s premiere asset management firm. After ten years at the fund, she co-heads Bridgewater’s equity team, leading research to convert insights and investigations into systematic cause and effect investment algorithms. Beyond this, she is the lead investor pioneering Bridgewater’s systematic approach towards carrying out micro research at scale, overseeing and directing a task force spanning Bridgewater’s technology, engineering, and investment groups. Her views on trends in the financial markets and the implications for global economies have frequently been featured in the firm’s highly regarded daily research pieces, Bridgewater Daily Observations. Erin has always had both a passion and affinity for leadership, and at Bridgewater has played a growing role in building and shaping the firm’s investment community with an emphasis on promoting values of diversity and empowerment for women early in their careers. She studied neurobiology and economics during her undergraduate degree at Harvard, focusing on the intersection between human behavior and economics.

Colleen Pleasant Kline serves as outside general corporate counsel and advisor to clients ranging from business owners to entrepreneurs, including their officers, directors, and shareholders, for entities of all sizes covering a broad range of legal and business issues.

Ms. Pleasant Kline’s corporate experience includes mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and private placements and encompasses the more complex issues surrounding angel investment, venture capital financings, and leveraged recapitalizations. Her diverse client base includes privately held companies, portfolio companies, private equity firms, American subsidiaries of foreign owned entities and public companies, government contractors, manufacturers, distributors, and real estate entities.

Bianca is Partner in Pillsbury’s Corporate & Securities Group.  Her practice focuses primarily on mergers and acquisitions, private placements and minority investments, joint ventures, strategic alliances, related corporate governance advice and related corporate and securities law issues. Bianca advises a variety of clients across a multiple industries, including pharmaceuticals, energy, natural resources, technology and software, professional services, media, manufacturing and consumer products.

Patricia Lizarraga is the Managing Partner of Hypatia Capital, an asset manager focused on sponsoring and investing in women in leadership, most recently the Hypatia Women Hedge Fund Index – Powered by Wilshire. Hypatia is also the sponsor of two yearly events, the Private Equity CEO Roadmap Seminar as well as the Investing in Women in Leadership Summit. HypatiaInvests.com is a digital catalyst for women investing in women in leadership. Ms. Lizarraga is an experienced independent corporate board director, Audit Committee Chair and Financial Expert for NYSE listed companies. She serves on the boards of Credicorp Ltd. (NYSE:BAP) and Banco de Credito del Peru, the largest financial services company and largest bank in Peru, respectively. Ms. Lizarraga is the Chair of Credicorp’s Audit Committee as well as the Chair of Banco de Credito del Peru’s Audit Committee. She was previous chair of the Corporate Governance Committee of Credicorp Ltd. She is also a founding member of Sigma SAFI, a leading asset manager in Peru. She was previously President of the Privatization Committee of Toll Roads of Peru. Ms Lizarraga started her merchant banking career at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Citigroup and Allen & Company. She is a Trustee of the Museum of Art of Lima, Peru, as well as previous President of the Board of an educational non-profit in New York City. Harvard MBA, Yale BA.

In this role, she is responsible for developing and leading the SPDR ETF distribution strategy across all client channels in the Americas, including institutional, intermediary and strategic relationships.  

Prior to joining SSGA in 2018, she was at Thompson Peak Advisory where she was CEO and President of her own consulting firm.

Previously, Sue worked for BlackRock for eight years where she was responsible for growing the iShares Americas franchise with the intermediary and institutional asset manager channels.

Theresa Noriega-Lum is the Chief Financial Officer at Matthews Asia. Prior to joining Matthews Asia in 2018, she held a variety of leadership roles at BlackRock including Head of Business Initiatives for its ETF and Index investments division and Director of Financial Planning and Analysis for Global iShares. From 1990 to 2004, Theresa held several senior finance and business operations roles including at Charles Schwab as VP of Schwab Corporate Services Finance and Franklin Templeton as Manager of Investment Operations. Theresa is also an advocate and champion for diversity & inclusion at her firm and in her community.  She served on the inaugural Leadership Team of BlackRock’s Women’s Network, and currently serves as the Women’s Leadership Council co-Chair for the non-profit organization, Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center, and is co-Chair for Matthews Asia’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee. Theresa earned a B.S. in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley. 

Ivelisse Rodriguez Simon is a Managing Partner of Avante Capital Partners.  Based in Los Angeles, Ms. Simon is responsible for identifying, executing and managing investment opportunities.  She currently manages the fund’s portfolio and new deal activities. Ms. Simon joined Avante in 2009 as a founding member of the firm.  

Ms. Simon has over two decades of middle-market debt and equity investment experience.  Prior to Avante, she held positions at Palladium Equity Partners, Reliant Equity Partners and various investment banks including Salomon Brothers.  Ms. Simon serves on the board of several companies including Quest, LLC. 

Ivelisse is a longtime advocate and champion for women, minorities and the underserved and underrepresented.  She holds leadership roles in several local and national non-profit organizations, including The Robert Toigo Foundation, The Hispanic Scholarship Foundation and Westside Family Health Center in Los Angeles.  In 2019, the Robert Toigo Foundation honored Ivelisse with their prestigious Leadership Award recognizing her leadership in the advancement of diversity and inclusion in the financial industry. Ivelisse was also named to Mergers & Acquisitions magazine's 2020 Most Influential Women in Mid-Market M&A. In addition, Ivelisse and her two sisters launched a philanthropic organization called We Will to support and empower underserved women and minorities in the areas of healthcare, education and financial literacy. 

Ms. Simon graduated with honors from the University of Illinois and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.  She lives with her husband and three children in Los Angeles and enjoys taking adventurous trips with her family to far-flung places.

Anne is a partner in the Corporate & Financial Services Department. Anne’s practice includes capital markets transactions, including representing corporate issuers, financial sponsors and investment banks in public and private offerings of debt, equity and other securities, as well as general corporate, SEC and securities laws matters, corporate governance advice and mergers and acquisitions.