2025 IPO Summit

Partner, Two Sigma Ventures

Colin is a partner at Two Sigma Ventures, where he invests in a variety of companies building new products and solutions utilizing data and advanced computing, in industries including fintech, enterprise and consumer AI, robotics & devices, real estate, and others. 

Colin joined Two Sigma in 2005 to help set business strategy and enable the company to grow its product offerings. He began investing in private assets in 2007, and in 2011 started building Two Sigma Ventures. Prior to 2005, Colin was a technology investment banker and corporate strategist, and first came to New York to spend a summer working at Double click. Born in Ireland, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area at age 8, and fondly recalls summer internships at startups like Andro media during the height of the late ‘90s dot-com bubble. Current interests include data-driven healthcare, human-computer interfaces, and retail tech. 

Colin graduated with a dual BA in Economics and Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought from Amherst College and lives with his wife and three kids in Brooklyn.

Partner, Financial Operations, Connor Group

Lauren is a Partner in Connor Group's Financial Operations practice. She has a combination of industry and professional services experience in financial operations, controllership, business process improvement, accounting systems and internal controls. 

Lauren partners with clients’ senior finance executives in fast paced, high growth environments to provide strategic solutions to a variety of operational accounting challenges pertaining to people, processes and systems. Lauren has extensive experience introducing and improving business processes to prepare the finance organization for the public company environment. She works with clients designing and implementing practical recommendations that optimize the use of systems and improve the controls around a variety of key business areas, including financial close and reporting, procure to pay, order to cash, inter company and foreign currency transactions. Lauren has worked with both public and private companies in multiple industries with a focus in the technology space. 
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Prior to joining Connor Group, Lauren was a Manager of Accounting Operations and Compliance for Loews Corporation and started her career at Deloitte. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Providence College and is a licensed CPA in New York.

Partner and EY Entrepreneur Of The Year New York Program Co-Director

Noelle is a Partner in EY’s US-East Region Assurance practice serving public and private audit clients in the retail and consumer products industry. She has over 20 years of experience working with some of the world’s most prestigious retail brands.  

Asa leader in the retail accounting industry during an age of transformative-commerce developments, she advises clients on various retail-specific accounting matters and emerging retail strategies. She has served many clients that range from large SEC, private and multi-national companies to start-ups with a focus on retail and wholesale. Noelle brings to every engagement in-depth experience with SEC filings, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Section 404 and technical accounting matters, including revenue recognition, inventory related matters, lease accounting, equity and stock-based transactions.

Additionally, Noelle serves as Co-Director for the Entrepreneur Of The Year® (“EOY”) New York program. Founded in 1986, EOY is now held in over 50 countries and 140 cities and is one of the world’s most prestigious business awards programs for entrepreneurs.

Noelle actively participates in the New York chapter of the national EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women™ program, which honors high-impact women entrepreneurs and provides them with access and resources needed to succeed in the market. Noelle also played a critical role in the launch of the EY Entrepreneur Access Network – a program built to transcend barriers and scale the businesses of Black and Latinx entrepreneurs.   

Noelle serves on the New York board of directors for the NFTE (Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship), a nonprofit organization that activates the entrepreneurial mindset and builds startup skills in young people from underserved communities. She is a certified public accountant inNew York and New Jersey and holds a BS in Accounting from Lehigh University.

Vice President of Portfolio Impact, Thrive Capital

Yashoda Clark serves as Vice President of Portfolio Impact at Thrive Capital, a venture capital firm. Yashoda’s team is responsible for supporting the firm’s 120+ portfolio companies with strategic insights and operational expertise.  

Prior to Thrive, Yashoda served as the Chief Financial Officer of Ollie, and was responsible for the company’s overall financial and investment strategies. She previously held senior roles at Squarespace and Etsy, where she was intimately involved with the IPO processes. Clark received her MBA from Columbia Business School and her BA in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Chief Financial Officer, DocuSign

Cynthia has over 25 years of experience operating, scaling and advising global, high growth technology companies. Her industry expertise spans software, SaaS, cloud, internet, mobile, e-commerce and payments. Over the course of her career she has a proven track record working alongside countless management teams on their most strategic imperatives, achieving results, scaling businesses, building teams, navigating complexity, and sustaining financial and operating excellence at scale. 

Cynthia is currently the Chief Financial Officer at DocuSign leading a global team with responsibility for strategic finance, corporate finance, FP&A, accounting, tax, treasury, revenue operations, corporate development and ventures, investor relations, internal audit, business process and workplace. She formerly was on the Board of Directors at DocuSign and Chair of the Audit Committee. She also served as the Chief Financial Officer of Pivotal Software with responsibilities for leading the global finance and operations teams, including financial planning and analysis, accounting, treasury, tax, corporate development, sales and services operations, investor relations, workplace and real estate. She was instrumental in preparing the company to go public, leading the company’s IPO and ultimately the sale of the company toVmWare. 

Prior to Pivotal Cynthia ran corporate development at Twitter, leading the company through an intensive period of M&A. Prior to Twitter, Cynthia was most recently a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley in the technology investment banking group. Cynthia began her career at Hambrecht & Quist. Cynthia's investment banking experience includes leading equity, debt, and/or M&A transactions for clients including: Admob, Amazon, eBay, Electronic Arts, Facebook, GoldenGate Software, Google, Hyperion Software, Infoblox, Intuit, LinkedIn, Netflix, Palo Alto Networks, Rational Software, ServiceNow, Splunk, VeriSign, Websense, Workday and Zappos. 

Cynthia earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Partner, Senior Vice President, Woodruff Sawyer

Priya Cherian Huskins is a recognized expert in D&O liability risk and its mitigation. In addition to consulting on D&O insurance matters, she counsels clients on corporate governance, including ways to reduce their exposure to shareholder lawsuits and regulatory investigations.

Priya is a frequent speaker on D&O issues and a regular guest lecturer at Stanford’s Directors’ College. She has appeared on CNBC and been quoted in publications ranging from the Wall Street Journal to the Financial Times. She is also the author of the D&O Notebook, a blog that analyzes and summarizes issues as they arise in the areas of D&O liability, insurance and corporate governance.  

In addition to serving as a board member at Woodruff Sawyer, Priya is on the board of directors of Realty Income Corporation, (NYSE: O), NMI Holdings, Inc.(Nasdaq: NMIH), and Anzu Special Acquisition Corp I). She also serves on the advisory board of the Stanford Rock Center for Corporate Governance. 

Prior to joining Woodruff Sawyer, Priya practiced corporate and securities law at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Priya has worked with both public and private technology companies through all stages of their development. Priya was awarded her juris doctorate with honors from the Law School at the University of Chicago. She earned her undergraduate degree with high honors from Harvard University. Priya is a member of the California Bar.

Head of Capital Markets, NYSE

Bonnie is responsible for advising private technology companies on their IPO listing at the NYSE.  Bonnie brings 15+ years of senior finance leadership primarily within the technology industry and a unique end-to-end perspective from having taken companies public to managing investor communications and marketing post-IPO. Prior to joining NYSE, Bonnie held various roles within public and private technology companies as well as investment banking.  Bonnie is a CPA and received her M.B.A from Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

CEO, Postseason & Former NFL Player

Jelani Jenkins is a 5 year NFL Vet and Certified Mental Performance Coach. He is also the founder/CEO of Postseason – a social learning app that helps athletes continue their growth, success, and fulfillment beyond sports.

Jelani built his coaching practice in response to the challenges he went through after retiring from the NFL. Built on two key principles, his practice focuses on Self-Discovery and Self-Mastery. Through mindset training, he helps athletes and high-performers overcome their subconscious limitations to achieve their goals quicker, easier, and with more fulfillment.

In 2021, Forbes magazine highlighted Jelani and his company Postseason for their mission to empower athletes for life after sports. Postseason was also selected as a finalist out of 100+ applicants at the LA Sports and Innovation Conference sponsored by Startup Showdown LA.

Director of ESG & Compliance Services, DFIN

Frank Kelley is a Director and Head of ESG at DFIN. He is responsible for providing thought leadership on corporate governance, executive compensation, M&A, proxy disclosure & design, shareholder activism, and sustainability with an emphasis on corporate issuer ESG engagement. Frank specializes in taking a data-driven approach to sustainability, utilizing analytics and framework-modeling to enhance ESG reporting.

Frank was formerly a Senior Advisor at the largest proxy advisor, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), where he reviewed director independence, equity plans, ESG, say-on-pay, and shareholder proposals. Preceding ISS, Frank worked at MacKenziePartners, a leading proxy solicitor specializing in M&A, where he counseled boards, corporate executives, and shareholders on proxy contests, solicitations, tender offers and other complex corporate transactions. During this time, he was responsible for helping to implement campaigns and strategies for some of the largest proxy fights of the 2010s. Before MacKenzie Partners, Frank served as a Consultant forWillis Towers Watson (TWT) where he designed executive compensation programs for corporate issuers, notably within the electric utility sector—the first major industry to utilize ESG metrics in compensation programs.

Prior to entering the corporate governance & sustainability world, Frank was a sell-side analyst in equity research. Here sides in New York City and Tampa, Florida.

Managing Director, Head of U.S. Public Equity Advisory, Houlihan Lokey

Mr. Klausner is a member of Houlihan Lokey’s Capital Markets Group. He heads the firm’s Equity Capital Markets Advisory practice in the U.S., focusing on advising companies on equity capital market alternatives, investor sentiment, structuring, investment bank and equity research selection, and the IPO/equity raising process in general. Mr. Klausner advises companies as an “independent advisor” to provide clients within dependent and objective advice on equity capital markets decisions that are critical to navigating and positioning the company for success in the capital markets.

Mr. Klausner has advised 100+ clients on more than $150 billion of financings across a wide array of strategic financing activities, including IPOs, follow-on offerings, carve-outs, spin-offs, blocktrades, and equity-linked and private placements. He brings broad expertise across a range of industries, including technology, fintech, internet-enabled, healthcare/biotech, consumer and retail, financial institutions, industrials, and media.  

Prior to joining Houlihan Lokey, Mr. Klausner was the Capital Markets Advisory Leader at PwC, where he advised private and public companies in their monetization efforts. Before that, he was Head of Equity Corporate Finance, Americas in Equity Capital Markets Origination at UBS Investment Bank, where he led the origination and execution of lead-managed equity products. While there, Mr. Klausner was a permanent member of the Equity Commitment Committee, which approved all equity transactions. Previously, he worked as a senior member of the Corporate Finance Group in Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley, advising clients on equity, high-yield, and M&A; in global industries investment banking coverage at Lehman Brothers; and as an investment banker in industrial coverage at Merrill Lynch.

Mr. Klausner is frequently quoted in The WallStreet Journal, Bloomberg, PitchBook, Institutional Investor, Reuters and The Information on capital market topics and market activity. Mr. Klausner graduated magna cum laude with aB.S. in Economics from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania and holds an MBA from The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.

Co-Founder & CEO, Spring Health

April Koh is the CEO and Co-founder of Spring Health, a comprehensive mental health benefit for employers and health plans. Unlike any other solution, Spring Health uses Precision Mental Healthcare to seamlessly pinpoint and deliver exactly the right fit for each person — whether that’s digital support, meditation exercises, coaching, therapy, medication, and beyond. April was named one of the 15 Most Powerful Women in Startups by Fortune and is an honoree on Marie Claire's Power List, Forbes 30 under 30, and Crain's 40 under 40.

Chief Financial Officer, Stash

Adriel Lares is the CFO at Stash, dedicated to making investing easy for everyday Americans. Prior to Stash, Adriel was the CFO at Fastly, where he helped the company reach an annualized run rate of more than $300 million and led it through an IPO. Over 5 years he helped position Fastly in the top echelon of rapid-growth Silicon Valley companies. Previously, Adriel was the CFO at 3PAR, which he also led through a successful IPO, managed investor relations, and scaled the accounting, finance, and treasury functions. A Stanford graduate (’94) with a BA in economics, Adriel has a strong foundation in corporate finance from his investment banking roots at Morgan Stanley's technology banking practice in Menlo Park. He currently serves on the non-profit boards of The National Hispanic Institute, the schools of the Sacred Heart San Francisco and advisory Board of Family House in San Francisco. In his spare time, he moonlights as the co-founder of one of Napa’s most sought-after wines, Memento Mori.

In addition to Stash, Adriel currently serves as a Board Member for the Duckhorn Portfolio (ticker: NAPA).

Lastly, Adriel is the father of twin 9 year old girls who are joined by a 5 year old boy and the first daughter Mila, a 11 year old Weimaraner breed mix.

Vice President Global Capital Markets, DFIN

Meaghan Miller leads the DFIN Global Capital Markets sales teams in the Northeast region.  Meaghan's team partners closely with corporate issuers and advisory firms on a wide range of Capital Markets transactions and corporate compliance needs.
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Meaghan joined EDGAR Online, a DFIN company, in 2011 and has since held positions in capital markets sales, as well as managing the legal and private equity verticals at DFIN.  Prior to joining DFIN, Meaghan held senior pharmaceutical sales and marketing roles at GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer.  She received her Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Delaware.

Managing Partner, Connor Group

Jim is the Managing Partner at Connor Group, the #1 Accounting Advisory firm in the world for IPOs, SPACs, and high-growth companies.  

Connor Group has worked on over 200 IPO and SPAC transactions in the past decade, including Tesla, Spotify, Uber, Lyft, Palantir, Snap, Etsy, Survey Monkey, Stichfix, Mulesoft, and 1,000+ top tech, biotech, and growth companies. Our IPO and SPAC client base has raised over $35B in IPO proceeds at a $250B+ valuation when going effective.  

Jim is a guest lecturer and CEO mentor at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business where he graduated with a Master’s degree and launched a career as a lifelong entrepreneur.  

Jim is active with multiple NFL player initiatives, mentoring NFL players and business coaching with both the San Francisco 49ers and the Las Vegas Raiders.

Investor, Former NFL Player, Athlete in Residency at Next Play Capital

Marshall Newhouse is an eleven-year NFL veteran offensive tackle, Super Bowl Champion, investor, advisor and entrepreneur. He was originally selected by the Green Bay Packers in 2010 where he spent four seasons and was part of the Super Bowl XLV championship team. Marshall has also competed for the Cincinnati Bengals, New York Giants, Oakland Raiders, Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers, New Orleans Saints, New England Patriots, and Tennessee Titans. Off of the football field, the TCU alumnus (‘10) is an entrepreneur and investor focused on tech, consumer and real estate. He has spoken at SXSW, the Global Roundup Conference, the IPO Summit, and fireside chats. He’s currently on the NFLPA Athletic Advisory Board, serves as an advisor for Techstars Sports Accelerator, and is an Athlete in Residency at Next Play Capital. A Dallas native, Newhouse currently resides in Austin.

Partner, Class V Group

Leslie is a Partner at Class V Group where she leads the East coast practice advising companies as they prepare for and execute successful IPOs, navigate the markets once public and manage through future liquidity and public company events.  Prior to joining Class V Group Leslie spent 20 years on Wall Street, most recently building relationships with top institutional investors and leading the sale and trading of equity transactions including hundreds of IPOs and follow-on offerings in the public markets.

Leslie brings unbiased market perspective, deep institutional relationships and unique reach and influence in the public equity markets, as well as an insider’s knowledge of the underwriting and syndicate process to the companies Class V Group advises. Leslie’s team was the highest ranking of all global investment banks and the most experienced, having executed more IPOs than any other. Leslie sat on the Equity Commitment Committees at leading investment banks and is known for her insight into investor sentiment and investment process which is critical to advising companies on positioning and structuring equity deals to attract the best long-term shareholders. 

Leslie’s career includes time spent in investment banking where she led equity and debt capital markets deals, M&A and restructuring transactions. She is a securities attorney and Certified Public Accountant, and began her career as an auditor for Ernst & Young.

Senior Vice President & Senior Research Analysts, Neuberger Berman

Andrew J. Pritti, CFA, Senior Vice President, joined the firm in 2003. Andy is a Senior Research Analyst on the Core Equity and Sustainable Equity strategies. As a generalist on the portfolio, Andy’s research activities span multiple sectors with considerable expertise in consumer discretionary, energy, financials, industrials, technology and utilities. Within the context of fundamental analysis, Andy has done in-depth research and engagement with portfolio holdings on governance best practices, including executive compensation, board composition and effectiveness. Andy has spoken on industry panels with a focus on compensation best practices.   Prior to joining the firm, he worked in the Investment Banking Division of Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. working on mergers and acquisitions across industries and advising companies on strategic initiatives and capital structure optimization. Andy earned a BBA from Goizueta Business School at Emory University and has been awarded the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Chief Financial Officer, Arcadia

John serves as Chief Financial Officer at Arcadia. John is an experienced finance and operations executive with over 20 years of demonstrated leadership ability in helping companies define and achieve strategic objectives. He previously served as the CFO at Slice, General Assembly, and Rent the Runway.  

At Arcadia, John works with a diverse group of creative and curious folks who are determined to design a more equitable energy system. Together, they are building the 100% renewable future by empowering energy innovators and consumers to solve power’s biggest problems and flight the climate crisis.

Partner, EY

Derek is a Partner, US-East IPO Leader, and US-East Financial Accounting and Advisory Services (FAAS) Leader with expertise in various industries including technology, life sciences, media entertainment, industrial products, and real estate. Derek leads cross-functional teams in assisting companies through transformational events and the related technical accounting and reporting aspects. Derek has worked on numerous transactions including large M&A, spin-offs, IPOs, and sales.  

He has deep experience in accounting advisory services, project management, identifying and managing accounting issues for capital markets transactions —on the buy-side and the sell-side, preparation of financial statements, leveraging systems to facilitate consolidations and pro form as, Day 1 preparedness, business combinations, revenue recognition, stock compensation, reducing execution risk, financial statements, US GAAP, SEC reporting requirements and other complex technical accounting matters. 

He joined Ernst & Young in 1998 and is based in the New York office. Prior to his current role, he was in the audit practice for 12 years, including a three-year assignment in The Netherlands. Derek earned his B.S. in Accounting from Saint Francis College in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Derek is a CPA in the states of New York and Indiana and is a member of the AICPA and the NY State Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Managing Director, Technology, Media & Telecom Equity Capital Markets, Goldman Sachs

Becky focuses on the Technology, Media & Telecom sector within Equity Capital Markets in the Investment Banking Division. She has covered multiple sectors within Equity Capital Markets over the course of her career, including Healthcare, Financials, and Consumer and Retail. Becky joined Goldman Sachs asa vice president in Equity Capital Markets in 2014 and was named managing director in 2019.  

Prior to joining the firm, Becky worked in Equity Capital Markets at Barclays Capital. Earlier in her career, she worked at Lehman Brothers in Institutional Equity Sales. Becky earned a BA in French from Northwestern University. She is a CFA charter holder.

Partner, Gunderson Dettmer

Andrew Thorpe is a partner in Gunderson Dettmer’s San Francisco office. Andrew advises management teams and boards of directors on securities regulation, public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, and key corporate governance matters. In addition to extensive experience representing issuers and underwriters —including in over 40 initial public offerings to date — Andrew served for six years at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). While at the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance and in the Office of Rule making, he reviewed and commented on numerous public companies' SEC filings and played a significant role in drafting several landmark regulations under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. 

Andrew works extensively with leaders and innovators in a variety of industries, including software, fintech, life sciences, medical devices, clean technology and cryptocurrency. He has experience helping these companies navigate complex, technical and often novel issues in transactions. 

Immediately prior to joining Gunderson Dettmer, Thorpe was a Member at Mintz, and after his service at the SEC, he was a Partner at Morrison & Foerster and Orrick.

Vice President, Head of Listings & Services, New York Stock Exchange

Chris Taylor is Vice President of Listings and Services at the New York Stock Exchange. In this role, he leads the business and the team that works closely with the 2500 companies listed on the NYSE whose collective market capitalization tops $20 trillion.
 
Mr. Taylor, who has more than 30 years of experience working with listed companies, is a frequent speaker and thought-leadership contributor on capital markets topics that impact issuers.
 
Prior to joining the NYSE, Mr. Taylor led the Global Investor Relations business at Ipreo, a leading market intelligence and data firm, for close to ten years. Prior to that, he served as lead Managing Director at CapitalBridge where he oversaw the global operations of the firm.
 
Mr. Taylor holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Management & Organization from the University of Connecticut.

Chief Financial Officer, CAVA

Tricia Tolivar joined CAVA in November of 2020 as Chief Financial Officer. She oversees a team responsible for Accounting, Real Estate, Strategy, Financial Planning and Analysis and Supply Chain. Her team serves as trusted business advisors across the enterprise and maximizes value for all stakeholders. 

Before joining the CAVA team, Tricia was the Chief Financial Officer for GNC. She served in that role for nearly 6 years. She came to GNC from Ernst & Young, where she led the Americas Advisory Finance team. Before Ernst & Young, Tricia served in various executive roles at AutoZone. Tricia has more than 30 years of experience helping companies formulate strategy, drive improvements in financial returns and implement change to deliver results. She has spent most of her career with public companies focused on execution and improvements in share holder return. 

Tricia received her Bachelors of Business Administration from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School.