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Event date 15 July 2021 -
Event location New York
Meet the Speakers
Mike Novogratz
Mike Novogratz is the Founder, CEO, and Chairman of Galaxy Digital. A pioneer in digital asset investing, Mike began buying bitcoin in 2013 and quickly established himself as one of the earliest and most active investors in the industry. In 2017, Mike founded Galaxy Digital: a leading diversified financial services, and investment management company in the digital asset, crypto, and blockchain technology sectors. Galaxy operates in the following businesses: Trading, Asset Management, Principal Investments, Investment Banking, and Mining. He was formerly a Partner and President of Fortress Investment Group LLC. Prior to Fortress, he spent 11 years at Goldman Sachs, where he was elected Partner in 1998. Mr. Novogratz served on the New York Federal Reserve’s Investment Advisory Committee on Financial Markets from 2012 – 2015. Mr. Novogratz is the Chairman of The Bail Project and has made criminal justice reform a focus of his family’s foundation. He also serves as the Chairman of Hudson River Park Friends and sits on the boards of NYU Langone Medical Center. Mr. Novogratz received an AB in Economics from Princeton University and served as a helicopter pilot in the US Army.
Nick Tran
Nick Tran is the Global Head of Marketing for TikTok. In his role as TikTok's first head of global marketing, he is responsible for all aspects of TikTok's global marketing efforts, including brand strategy, media and advertising, social media, and co-marketing partnerships, campaigns and activations across all regions. Nick led TikTok's first global marketing campaign, "It Starts on TikTok," to celebrate the global TikTok community for propelling unique and inspiring content into memorable cultural moments and movements.
Before joining TikTok, Nick was VP, Head of Brand and Culture Marketing at Hulu. During his time at Hulu, he reinvented the brand and worked on memorable campaigns like "Better Ruins Everything," "Hulu Has Live Sports" (including the Tom Brady Super Bowl ad), and the "World Record Egg."
Prior to Hulu he helped build the brand at Samsung Electronics, Stance, and Taco Bell in various roles including brand and culture, influencer and experiential marketing, social media and digital marketing.
In 2021, Nick was included in Forbes' CMO Next list, AdAge Top 30 CMO, Business Insider's Top 27 CMOs, Campaign's Top 50 CMOs, and Adweek's Top CMOs List. In 2020, he was included in Fortune's 40 under 40 as well as AdAge's 40 under 40 list.
He holds an MBA from The Paul Merage School of Business at University of California, Irvine and a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and psychology from the University of California, San Diego
Troy Batterberry
Troy is an engineering, product management, business, and people leader specialized in developing engaging experiences at scale through design and data.
Troy has a strong track record of driving technological innovation over a career spanning 30+ years spreading across Microsoft, Sony and the US department of Defense.
Troy most recently has been in charge of consumer and business innovation for the Microsoft Teams product line. Prior to which he spent over 2 decades on products like Dynamics 365, Microsoft Storefronts, Bing, Xbox, Windows and Hohm to name a few.
Troy holds a Bachelor's degree from North Dakota State University and a Masters in Information Systems Management from the University of Sothern California.
Silvio Micali
Silvio Micali has been on the faculty at MIT, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, since 1983. Silvio’s research interests are cryptography, zero knowledge, pseudorandom generation, secure protocols, and mechanism design and blockchain. In particular, Silvio is the co-inventor of probabilistic encryption, Zero-Knowledge Proofs, Verifiable Random Functions and many of the protocols that are the foundations of modern cryptography.
In 2017, Silvio founded Algorand, a fully decentralized, secure, and scalable blockchain which provides a common platform for building products and services for a borderless economy. At Algorand, Silvio oversees all research, including theory, security and crypto finance.
Silvio is the recipient of the Turing Award (in computer science), of the Gödel Prize (in theoretical computer science) and the RSA prize (in cryptography). He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Accademia dei Lincei.
Silvio has received his Laurea in Mathematics from the University of Rome, and his PhD in Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley.
Keith Grossman
A Keith A. Grossman is the President of TIME, where he oversees all business, technology and operational responsibility for the brand. Previously, Keith served as the Global Chief Revenue Officer for Bloomberg Media where he was responsible for the growth of their various media platforms. He was also part of the core team to launch QuickTake by Bloomberg, a 24/7 social, mobile news platform. Prior to Bloomberg, Keith was the Associate Publisher of WIRED as well as Ars Technica.
Keith is currently the Chairman of Adweek's Advisory Board and has been named to the Adweek 50, which recognizes the 50 most indispensable individuals in media, marketing and tech, from 2013 through 2018 and in 2020.
Under Keith's leadership at Bloomberg, the team won a Gold Dolphin at the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards in 2019 for their partnership with Hyundai on a series titled, Art + Technology, and his teams at WIRED and Ars Technica were each recognized with Project Isaac Awards, celebrating true invention across the media and marketing industry.
He is a Board Member of New York Cares, New York's largest volunteer network connecting individuals within their philanthropic passions and, previously, was an Adjunct Professor at NYU.
Keith is a graduate of Cornell University and currently resides in New York City with his wife, Catherine, and daughter, Ellie.
Kathleen Breitman
Kathleen is a co-founder of Coase, a software company that aspires to lower transaction costs using cryptocurrencies. She previously co-founded Tezos, a smart contract platform and cryptocurrency with an on-chain governance mechanism to coordinate and push upgrades to its network. Kathleen holds a degree from Cornell University and advises a variety of companies and venture capital firms, including several in the burgeoning NFT space.
Spencer Gordon
After starting in Anheuser-Busch InBev’s prestigious Global Management Trainee program in the summer of 2013, Spencer Gordon has progressed quickly through seven roles. He now serves as the VP of Digital and draftLine for Anheuser-Busch. In this role, he’s responsible for the digital strategy, owned properties, loyalty programs, content and innovation for the full portfolio of AB brands. Since assuming this position, Spencer also created and launched draftLine, AB’s first internal creative agency. draftLine is now a 120-person team working across 5 locations (NYC, LA, AUS, MIA, STL) and servicing over 50 brands in the Anheuser-Busch portfolio. As a result of the team’s creative efforts, draftLine was named as a top-5 in-house creative agency in the world according to the One Show. Spencer is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis where he triple majored in Finance, Marketing and International Business. He also received his from the MBA program at The Kelley School of Business.
Meghan Doyle
Meghan Doyle is a Cataloguer at Christie’s New York. She joined the Post-War and Contemporary Art Department in August 2018. She has been directly involved in a diverse range of specialized auctions of Post-War and Contemporary Art including a pivotal role in the sourcing, marketing and sale of Beeple’s EVERYDAYS: The First 5000 Days, the first digital-only artwork to be offered at a major auction house, which achieved $69,346,250 in March 2021, and continues to support the development of and education around the burgeoning NFT art market.
Ms. Doyle holds BAs in Art History and Italian, with a minor in Nonprofit Management, from Pepperdine University, where she graduated as valedictorian and was named the Art History student of the year in 2018. Prior to her work at Christie’s Ms. Doyle has served in positions at a variety of museums, including The British Museum, Tel Aviv Museum of Art and the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art.
Tim Kang
Tim Kang, also known as @illestrater, is a digital art collector and NFT thought leader. He has become known for setting records while collecting the works of Pak and Beeple and for being Beeple’s first major collector. Tim is passionate about expanding opportunities for emerging and underrepresented artists and through his non-profit, Sevens Foundation, he offers grants to such artists to help them mint their first NFT. With degrees in Computer Science and Business from the University of North Carolina, Tim has founded several platforms for artists, including Sevens Foundation, Universe.XYZ, and CUE Music.
Alissa Aulbekova
Alissa Aulbekova is a co-founder and Head of Fashion Tech at Auroboros, the first fashion house to merge science and technology with physical couture and ready-to-wear. Prior to founding Auroboros, Alissa held positions at Dazed Magazine and art partner. Alissa is a recent graduate of Central Saint Martins, where she received her degree in Fashion Communication and Promotion with First Class Honours and Distinction.
Paula Sello
Paula Sello is a co-founder and Head of Design at Auroboros, the first fashion house to merge science and technology with physical couture and ready-to-wear. Prior to founding Auroboros, Paula held positions at Chanel and Vogue. Paula graduated from Goldsmiths with First Class Honours and Distinction in Sociology & Media and studied Design at the London College of Fashion and at Fashion Technology Academy.
Ronnie Pirovino
Ronnie K. Pirovino is a recognized art collector, curator and appraiser; these pursuits have evolved to encompass entrepreneurial projects including NFTs. Notably, after his collection grew to prominence, he departed a successful career in digital advertising to focus on his passion for art. Currently, he has partnered with Christie’s on an ongoing series of auction sales, called Trespassing. On Instagram, @pirovino shares his collection and various endeavors to a wide range of audiences.
Amber Jae Slooten
Amber is co-founder and creative director of The Fabricant. She graduated from Amsterdam Fashion Institute (AMFI) in 2016, and was the first ever person to graduate from a fashion school with a fully digital-only collection that contained no physical garments whatsoever. Technology has always been a guiding line in her work as she combines a strong foundation of fashion design skills with several years of experience working with 3D software tools for her creations.
Nominated as young designer for the Dutch Design Awards and shortlisted as one of the most disruptive women in tech, Amber strongly believes in creating a more sustainable fashion industry through digital transformation. She never touches a single piece of physical material in her work, as 3D design tools provide her with a wider range of possibilities to endlessly express her creativity.
Scott Lawin
Scott M. Lawin is CEO/COO of Candy Digital, Inc., a next-generation sports and culture digital asset platform, providing authentic objects and experiences that deepen fan engagement and connect people to their passions.
Before launching Candy, Mr. Lawin founded Parametric, LP, a private investment and advisory firm focused on early-stage opportunities in fintech, construction tech, art and real estate. Previously he has held leading roles at Moore Capital Management, the Fortress Investment Group and at Goldman, Sachs & Co.
Mr. Lawin serves on the Boards of Srinidhi Investment Group and Art Money, and is an Advisor to Stonyrock Partners, Dore Partnership, the MIT MET Fund, Elefant Markets 24/7Office and Streetlinx. He is the Founder of Museum of the Street, Vice-Chairman and Director of Friends of Hudson River Park and an Advisory Board member of JUST Capital and The Kitchen.
Mr. Lawin earned his BS in Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1993 and is a Founding member of the Dean’s Advisory Committee for the School of Architecture and Planning.
Coin Artist
Coin Artist is an Artist, Creative Technologist and Game Designer in NYC who has created many firsts within the blockchain creator economy since 2014. She is internationally recognized for cultivating crypto art by BBC, MIT, NASA and Bloomberg. She is credited for inventing cryptopuzzles and is currently the CEO of one of the earliest NFT game companies, Blockade Games, since 2018. Her most renowned artwork is Torched H34R7S, a cryptopuzzle from 2015. She recently sold an interactive NFT called F473 during Christie's Proof of Sovereignty.
Jehan Chu
Jehan Chu is co-Founder and Managing Partner at Kenetic, a blockchain Venture Capital and cryptocurrency trading firm based in Hong Kong. A former front-end developer, he started investing in cryptocurrency in 2013 and has invested and supported over 100 projects. Jehan founded the Ethereum HK community (2014), co-Founded the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong (2014) and founded the Hyperledger HK community (2016). Jehan serves as co-Chairman of the Hong Kong Fintech Association Blockchain Committee, is enrolled in the Kauffman Fellows Program, is a Fellow of the Singapore University of Social Science and member of the Global Patrons Board of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He also sits on the Board of Para Site Art Space and is co-Founder and Board member of Social Alpha Foundation, a blockchain/social impact non-profit. Jehan holds a BA from Johns Hopkins University and MA from Hong Kong University.
Adam Levine
Adam M. Levine is a scholar of ancient art and the 10th Edward Drummond and Florence Scott Libbey director of the Toledo Museum of Art. Levine is the 10th director of TMA since its distinguished founding in 1901. Prior to embarking on his directorship at TMA in 2020, Levine was the George W. and Kathleen I. Gibbs director and chief executive officer of the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens in Jacksonville, Florida.
Levine graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College, where he majored in anthropology, art history, and mathematics & social science. He continued his studies as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, where he earned his master’s degree with distinction and D.Phil. in the history of art.
Combining his interests in mathematics and art, in 2009 he co-founded Art Research Technologies, a data and research company that was purchased in 2016 by a London-based finance company. He has founded or advised several other start-ups, including the Center of Visual Expertise at the Toledo Museum of Art. Levine has consulted widely for museums, universities, art market business, and think tanks.
David Nussbaum
David is an award-winning writer and producer who founded PORTL after 20 years in the entertainment industry, having spent time in sports radio, television, podcasting and live events, including major pop culture moments involving arena-sized holograms. PORTL has brought futuristic technology into the present--beaming people across the globe as interactive, volumetric, 4K holograms. Just recently, the L.A.-based startup has “beamed” the CEO of IWC watches from Schaffhausen to Shanghai, entertainment mogul Sean Combs from Miami to Hollywood, and hip hop group Migos to 4 cities simultaneously. PORTL is active in education, telehealth, sports, entertainment and retail and is the ultimate way to transport and display precious objects and NFTs. David’s vision for PORTL is to facilitate communication that adds the emotional element that previous virtual methods lack. He wants to see a PORTL in every home, streaming world class interactive hologram content and connecting people across every kind of divide.
Sarah Odenkirk
Sarah Conley Odenkirk is a partner in CDAS’s Entertainment group with a core practice in fine art. She is based in the firm’s Beverly Hills office where she spearheads the firm’s art law and NFT practice and advises clients on matters pertaining to intellectual property, business transactions, navigating the art market, public policy, and strategic planning.
Sarah provides advice to artists, collectors, dealers, and art institutions in art world negotiations and transactions. She works with creative entrepreneurs to guide them in business development, sustainable growth, and the protection of intellectual property assets. Sarah also works with municipalities to craft ordinances, policies, and procedures pertaining to public art in both public and private development.
From 2013-2017 Sarah was the Associate Director of Sotheby’s Institute’s Art Business and Arts Management Masters Degree Programs at Claremont Graduate University, where she was instrumental in developing the curriculum; organized conferences on art law and community engagement; and was the Professor for Legal Foundations, Public Art, International Transactions, and Cultural Property and Restitution.
Paul Budnitz
Paul Budnitz is an American entrepreneur, artist, designer, filmmaker, author, and programmer. He has founded over a dozen companies including global entertainment brand Superplastic; art toy & apparel company Kidrobot; luxury bicycle brand Budnitz Bicycles; and Ello, the social network for creators.
Over a dozen of Budnitz’ creations appear in permanent collection of MoMA, and his short films have won awards at film festivals around the world. He programmed the backend software behind most of his companies, is the author of four books, and lectures on creativity worldwide. Budnitz is often credited with launching the designer toy movement in the US and Europe.
Paul Budnitz studied art at Yale University and currently splits his time between New York City and his home in Burlington, Vermont.
Scott Gralnick
Scott Gralnick is a Serial entrepreneur who most recently co-founded Lago Frames. Previously, he co-founded Portis, a crypto wallet acquired by leading crypto exchange.
He is an investor, a mentor, and an advisor who enjoys helping others solve problems. Scott's biggest success is the relationships he creates across diverse ecosystems.
Greg Cross
Greg Cross is one of the original tech nomads, spending his career travelling to and living in every major tech market in the world. He now lives in New Zealand but creates businesses that compete on the international stage. Most recently PowerbyProxi, a wireless charging company he co-founded, was sold to Apple in 2017.
In 2016 Greg co-founded Soul Machines to build a HumanOS for Artificial Intelligence and explore the future of human-machine cooperation. Soul Machines is at the cutting edge of humanized AI research with its unique Digital Brain, based on the latest neuroscience and developmental psychology research. With global corporations, brands and celebrities as customers, Soul Machines is re-imagining what is possible in the delivery of highly personalized customer experiences and specialized knowledge for the digital worlds of today and the metaverse of tomorrow.
Mad Dog Jones
Michah Dowbak aka Mad Dog Jones is a multidisciplinary artist from Thunder Bay, Ontario. His works deftly interweave cyberpunk, dystopian imagery exploring themes of beauty, nature and technology. As a lover of the wilderness, which was ever present where he grew up, he brings a fresh thematic to the metropolitan aesthetic, done up in citrus and neon tones of technology somehow rendered as a space naturally human.
Over the last two years, Dowbak has created artworks for Run The Jewels, Deadmau5, Jabbawockeez, Conor McGregor for Reebok, Snowpiercer TV series and Maroon 5. His first and only IRL exhibit was AFTERL-IFE WORLD in Tokyo Sept-Nov 2019. Since then, Dowbak has risen to fame in the world of crypto art, with the recent success of his Crash + Burn series of NFT artworks. He is now a headliner in the first major NFT art exhibition at UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing. In Spring 2021, Dowbak and Phillips Auction collaborated on a ground-breaking crypto concept, REPLICATOR. This is the first NFT to be auctioned at Phillips, pioneering the space for future digital artists.
Lin Dai
Lin Dai is the CEO and Co-founder of OneOf.com, a Green NFT platform backed by Quincy Jones and built specifically for the music community to create an environmentally sustainable and artist & fan friendly experience. Minting an NFT on OneOf’s platform uses over 2 million times less energy than other networks, and has attracted major artists including Whitney Houston, Doja Cat, H.E.R., John Legend, Alesso, and more.
An entrepreneur and digital executive with two decades of experience, Lin previously co-founded TAP Network, a blockchain technology company powering white-labeled rewards for major enterprise clients such as Warner Music Group, Uber, and Brave. Lin founded his first company, a social network for teens, out of his dorm room in 1999 and later took it public. He spent over 10 years leading digital initiatives at major media companies such as Alloy (Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries) and Emmis Communications (Hot97, Power106). Lin is a General Partner at ChainLink Crypto Fund, a fund of funds in the digital currency and blockchain industry.
Matt Hall
Matt Hall is a co-founder of Larva Labs, a creative studio and an early innovator in blockchain art. In 2017, along with John Watkinson, he co-created the Cryptopunks, one of the earliest examples of NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. Along with a mechanism for digital ownership, they also include a fully decentralized marketplace which has processed over $370M worth of transactions this year alone. Nine Cryptopunks were also recently featured as part of Christie’s inaugural 21st Century Evening Sale, and in several subsequent sales at other major auction houses. Further work includes The Autoglyphs (2019): the first fully on-chain generative artwork, and The Meebits (2021): generative 3D characters with an integrated energy efficient trading system.
Evin McMullen
Evin McMullen is Co-Founder of Serto, whose tools make data more portable, private, and valuable. Serto makes decentralized identity and verifiable credentials easy and accessible for enterprise users, blockchain ecosystems and the web3 creator economy. Serto’s applications and decentralized search engine enable NFT creators to cryptographically sign their art, verify authorship directly, and manage rich contextual data at scale about individual artworks, collections and communities.
In addition to blockchain partnerships spanning from world-renowned university cybersecurity programs to traditional financial institutions, Evin’s work includes the world’s first interactive web3 wallet and NFT experience at a mainstream music festival, NFT VIP Concert ticket, NFT Livestream scavenger hunt, and NFT with Verifiable Authorship using W3C Identity technical standards. Evin also advises blockchain ventures in fine art, NFTs, identity, decentralized finance and entertainment.
Dan Heyman
Dan Heyman is a blockchain industry veteran with experience building and leading organizations through the design, development, and implementation of enterprise-grade blockchain protocols. Prior to co-founding Palm, Dan was the Co-Founder of PegaSys, which is now ConsenSys’ Protocol Engineering division. During his 3+ years at PegaSys, Dan built out a team that worked across Ethereum 1.0, Ethereum 2.0 and Enterprise Ethereum blockchain protocols, the last of which serves at the foundation for the Palm blockchain.
Justin Sun
Justin Sun is an early crypto pioneer and practitioner since 2012 and the founder of TRON. TRON, launched in 2017, is one of the largest and most popular blockchain protocols and global settlement layers in the world.
Sun is an avid art collector and NFT advocate. His collection includes Picasso’s Femme nue couchée au collier, Warhol’s Three Self-Portraits and renowned NFT artist Beeple’s Ocean Front, which were all donated to APENFT, an NFT project aiming to bridge the gap between world-class artists and blockchain technology.
Justin Sun received his bachelor’s degree from Peking University in 2011 and master’s degree from University of Pennsylvania in 2013. He is the first millennial graduate of Hupan University founded by Jack Ma.
Devang Thakkar
Devang is a multi-disciplinary product, technology, and business leader who currently advises a portfolio of companies in the luxury and tech space on a wide array of areas ranging from innovation, marketing to fundraising.
From 2015-2019, Devang Thakkar was VP of Consumer Marketplace at Artsy, the world’s leading and largest online platform for collecting and discovering art.
Where he lead Artsy’s efforts in enhancing the art buying and selling experience with the goal of increasing participation and expanding the overall art market. Devang also oversaw the build out of Artsy’s auctions business, which provides buyers and sellers access to art auctions across the globe presented by premier auction houses.
Before joining Artsy in 2015, Devang spent 11 years at Microsoft in Seattle where he contributed to the development of major operating systems from Windows XP to Windows 10 and product lines such as Bing apps, MSN. His last product at Microsoft was Microsoft Teams.
Devang holds master’s degrees in economics and Computer Science from Columbia University and an MBA in Finance from the University of Washington.
He is also an artist – he paints and maintains a studio practice.
Refik Anadol
Refik Anadol (b. 1985, Istanbul, Turkey) is a media artist, director and pioneer in the aesthetics of data and machine intelligence. His body of work locates creativity at the intersection of humans and machines. In taking the data that flows around us as the primary material and the neural network of a computerized mind as a collaborator, Anadol paints with a thinking brush, offering us radical visualizations of our digitized memories and expanding the possibilities of architecture, narrative, and the body in motion. Anadol’s site-specific AI data sculptures, live audio/visual performances, and immersive installations take many forms, while encouraging us to rethink our engagement with the physical world, its temporal and spatial dimensions, and the creative potential of machines.
Alex Atallah
Alex Atallah is the co-founder of OpenSea, the first and largest NFT marketplace. He was the CTO of hostess.fm, which was acquired by Beatport in 2014. He previously worked at Palantir building cybersecurity products and studied Computer Science at Stanford.
Jamie Lewis
Jamie Lewis is the CEO and Co Founder of Ioconic, a digital asset licensing business that integrates the world’s most iconic brands into the digital ecosystem. By curating digital strategies, Ioconic provide brand owners the opportunity to increase engagement, diversify risk and monetise an economy that was previously inaccessible to them. Prior to founding Ioconic with his partners, Jamie served as the Global Licensing Director for an international consumer products business overseeing licensing acquisitions, brand development and international distribution. Jamie has advised numerous technology based start ups across multiple industries and holds a degree in Finance from The University of Nottingham.
John Linden
John Linden is the CEO of Mythical, a next-generation game technology studio creating universal economies driven by player ownership of NFTs. The studio’s first game is Blankos Block Party, an open-world multiplayer game with a focus on player-designed levels, styled like a giant block party for collectible digital vinyl toys. Prior to Mythical, John was the President of Seismic Games (acquired by Niantic Labs), developer of Marvel Strike Force and Magic the Gathering: Valor’s Reach. Prior to Seismic Games, he was a Studio Head at Activision Blizzard on the Call of Duty and Skylanders franchises.
Before entering the games industry, John was the Co-Founder / CTO at Adknowledge and at OpenX and built his own startups, Planet Alumni (acquired by Reunion.com) and Litmus Media (acquired by Think Partnership).
John is passionate about video games, the future of NFTs and blockchain technologies, and bringing emerging technologies to the mass market.
Micah Johnson
Micah Johnson a former Major League Baseball player turned artist is on a mission to inspire the next generation of dreamers. His animated character Aku, which is inspired by his nephews question, “could astronauts be black”, is the first NFT to be optioned to become a major feature film.
His roots in the NFT World date back to 2019 and through close relationships with pioneers in the space, Micah saw an opportunity to build a film franchise crypto natively and allow direct participation from the audience to shape the movie they want to see.
Martin Wainstein
Martin Wainstein is the founder and Executive Director of the Open Earth Foundation, a research and deployment non-profit focusing on digital innovations and open collaborations around planetary-scale projects such as developing a global climate accounting system—Open Climate. He is also resident fellow at the Yale Center for Business and the Environment, where he leads the research efforts behind the Yale Open Innovation Lab. Martin held appointments at the Yale Department of Electrical Engineering, the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale, and is a research affiliate at the Digital Currency Initiative of the MIT Media Lab. He founded the Hyperledger Climate Action and Accounting SIG at the Linux Foundation, and actively advises deep tech startups.
Bonnie Brennan (Moderator)
Bonnie Brennan is President of Christie’s, Americas. In this role, Bonnie oversees Christie’s strategic business opportunities and client engagement efforts in the United States. She leads our team in the Americas and she is focused on driving new growth and building on Christie’s innovations while always maintaining the firm’s steadfast commitment to serving clients and meeting their needs in a fast-paced and evolving art world.
Bonnie has 24 years of experience in the auction business – the past nine at Christie’s, most recently serving as Chairman of Business Development in the Americas. She brings a history of successes in client development and enjoys strong relationships with both clients and their advisors. Bonnie has played a critical role in securing and managing the highly successful sales of The Barney A. Ebsworth Collection, The Collection of Jayne Wrightsman, and Property from Cleveland Clinic, among many others. Prior to her career at Christie’s, she worked in business development roles at Sotheby’s New York for 15 years. Bonnie is a graduate of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois where she was a double-major in Art History and Communications.
Cara Walsh (Moderator)
Cara Walsh, Regional Managing Director of the Post-War & Contemporary Art department, has worked at Christie’s for 15 years. She is responsible for the business management and regional strategy for the New York Post-War & Contemporary Art, Design, and Photographs teams. Cara studied Art History at Barnard and received her MBA from NYU Stern School of Business.
Jason Pollack (Moderator)
Jason Pollack is Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Americas at Christie's, based in New York. In this role, Jason oversees the legal function throughout the Americas and is a member of the Americas Executive team. Before joining Christie's in June 2015, Jason started his legal career as an associate in the Antitrust & Trade Regulation group in the New York office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and then joined AkzoNobel, a Dutch international paint and chemicals company, where he ultimately became its General Counsel of the Americas. Jason is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the Fordham University School of Law.
Neda Whitney (Moderator)
Neda joined Christie’s at the start of 2021, and in her role she develops marketing strategy for the Americas, while leading Creative, Content, Strategy and Communications teams. She oversees the marketing campaigns for the Specialist Art Portfolios in the Americas, with a focus on innovation, data and best in class creative execution. Prior to Christie’s, Neda spent 2 decades working agency side in NY, SF, London and Paris. Most recently she was SVP, Managing Director of Client Services at R/GA where her client portfolio included Verizon, L’Oreal, Tiffany & Co, Unilever, Uber, Planned Parenthood, Amazon and ESPN.
Lexy Schmertz (Moderator)
As Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships at Christie’s, Lexy creates innovative strategies and programs to build Christie’s brand, drive revenue, and fuel client acquisition. Lexy began her career in finance, working in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and as Director of Finance at the NYC Investment Fund, founded by Henry Kravis. Lexy lived in Tokyo for five years, where she worked as journalist for the Financial Times and as a restaurant critic for the Daily Yomiuri. After returning to New York, she became an online editor at Cookie, Conde Nast’s parenting magazine, and she co-founded CL Partners, a consulting firm. Lexy went on to become Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Business Development at Moda Operandi, an ecommerce start-up that disrupted the fashion industry by enabling consumers to shop-the-runway. Lexy received her BA in from Princeton University and her MBA from the Tuck School of Business Dartmouth College.
Samantha Margolis (Moderator)
Samantha Margolis is the Vice President of Digital Marketing at Christie’s. She is responsible for the paid media strategy for the auction house, focusing on building and engaging new audiences as well as providing innovative marketing solutions to promote the 350+ global auctions annually in over 80 categories. Samantha came to Christie’s in 2012, first working in eCommerce before moving to Digital Marketing in 2017. She holds an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business focused in Luxury and Digital Marketing.
Samantha Koslow (Moderator)
Samantha is a member of Christie’s Business Development leadership team, focused on efforts for Museums, Institutions and Corporations. She works with Christie’s specialist teams across categories to develop strategies and provide support for clients in these key areas of focus. She has also been leading Christie’s efforts for client engagement in the exciting new field of NFTs.
Across her 13-year career Samantha has held leadership roles in both the Marketing and Business Development fields, overseeing teams in the Americas and globally. She has worked on strategy for many of Christie’s most notable private and institutional collections sold at auction.
Matthew Rubinger (Moderator)
Matthew Rubinger has been with Christie’s for over 6 years and is the Global Head of Corporate & Digital Marketing, based in New York. In addition to his work on client experience; digital marketing initiatives, development, and innovation; and brand and auction campaigns, Matt also supports significant collection pitches.
In his previous role as Deputy Chief Marketing Officer, Matt launched programs pioneering augmented and virtual reality. This project, which he is advancing in his current role, allows clients to experience works of art and events from home. Furthermore, he continues to drive forward cutting edge initiatives using deep datasets, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to target the most relevant clients for the items being auctioned and to introduce new audiences to Christie’s.
Christine Aschwald (Moderator)
Christine Aschwald is a Vice President and member of the Client Advisory team at Christie’s. She advises many of the firm’s top clients as well as emerging collectors on buying at auction and privately across a variety of categories.
Christine was a member of the 2019 Christie’s Art+Tech Summit steering committee and is a member of the newly formed Christie’s NFT Task Force.
Christine also works closely with clients on consignments and appraisals and was a key contact for sale of the Collection of Anita and Arthur Kahn, the largest collection of works by Alexander Calder to ever come to auction, which realized $94 million, more than doubling its pre-sale estimate.
With over 15 years of art market experience, Christine collaborates with colleagues across all departments to ensure Christie’s most valued clients always have a trusted contact. Christine studied Art History and Political Science at Williams College.
Ian Bell (Moderator)
As a director of Avieco, an independent sustainability consultancy in London with clients that include Christie’s, Google, Dentsu, and the UK Government, I am excited by how sustainability will become a primary lens for how companies future-proof their business to address societal concerns about both their environmental impact and their ethical behaviour. With a background in strategy and planning, I help businesses to successfully navigate these challenges, assessing the risks and opportunities in this sustainability context, helping them to identify the areas of material risk where they need to act, but equally the opportunities for innovation, enhanced efficiency, and value creation, be it in their business model, their supply chain, operations and technology, or new products and services for their customers.
With a background in strategic marketing and communications, I also value the importance of communications in enabling sustainability-driven change to happen, how it can engage different stakeholder groups in support of that change, and how reporting progress can galvanise and inspire. Sustainability frequently provides opportunities for brands to enhance their reputation with new narratives around corporate responsibility, and engage consumers by meeting their evolving sustainability-driven wants and needs.
I have studied Business Sustainability Management at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Management, and I am a member of their community of global sustainability leaders. I have also studied sustainability and innovation at the Open University and Imperial College, and I have trained in systems thinking and change with Forum for the Future. I am a trustee for the UK charity, the Rural Refugee Network.