John is an experienced investment management professional, having been an analyst, portfolio manager, and senior executive at some of the preeminent global asset management firms.  Prior to founding IGP, John was Managing Director, Head of Research for Fidelity Investments, where he was responsible for the strategic direction and priorities of Fidelity research and directly responsible for the performance of the following research teams: core technology, real estate, diversified analysts, international small cap and India.  At Fidelity, John managed over 45 analysts and portfolio managers investing over $550 billion in assets.  Prior to Fidelity, John was Senior Equity Analyst, Director of Research and head of consumer research for Pioneer Investments.  He outperformed the market by 300bps over his two years managing Pioneer’s research fund.  John was also a portfolio manager at Prudential and Montgomery Asset Management.  While at Montgomery, he managed over $3b billion in assets for institutional clients.  Earlier John was a Senior Global Equity Analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein for 6 years.

 

In 2009, John left Fidelity to start, incubate and invest in new ventures.  To date he has founded Cellucomp, Longbridge Financial, Education Funding Partners, and most recently Infusion Global Partners.  John holds a Bachelor of Arts from Colgate University and a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University with concentration in Finance and East Asian Affairs.  John is  fluent in Japanese.

 

CEO/Chief Investment Officer-CloudQuant Capital Management

Morgan has over 20 years of experience as a trader, portfolio manager, executive and entrepreneur in the financial services industry. He is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer of CloudQuant Capital Management LLC (www.CloudQuant.com), a crowd-researcher powered quantitative investment fund, with an impressive six-year track record, utilizing machine learning and other artificial intelligence research techniques to generate returns.

Morgan’s career has included leading roles as a Portfolio Manager, and executive of several of the world’s largest hedge funds, investment banks and CTAs. These include Millburn Ridgefield, Merrill Lynch, Carlson Capital LP, Penson Worldwide, Citadel Investment Group, Allston Trading and Wolverine Securities. His proven track record in quantitative investing, portfolio management and risk management made him ideal to lead the CloudQuant initiatives.

Chaya Slain is the Chief Investment Officer for AdCap Inc, a single family office based in Cleveland, Ohio. Prior to AdCap, Chaya spent more than a decade at Parkwood, a single family office.

Chaya spent the first five years of her career in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs. She attended Columbia University where she earned a BA in received a mathematics degree.  Chaya is a CFA charterholder and CAIA charterholder.   She is actively involved in her community and sits on the board of directors for a number of nonprofit organizations.

Brian Smiga is a co-founder and partner at Alpha Venture Partners, an innovative late-stage venture fund that invests growth capital in category-leading technology companies sourced from a network of 260+ early stage venture firms. Brian also serves as an advisor to Pritzker Group Venture Capital, a twenty-year old venture firm that’s invested in 180+ technology companies.

Prior to Alpha Venture Partners, Brian was the CEO and founder of Preclick, (sold to Smilebox), where he developed popular photo software licensed worldwide by HP, 3M, Sandisk, Walmart, Costco, CVS, and Walgreens. Prior to Preclick, Mr. Smiga was CEO at 3Path, (sold to Cadmus), an Intel and Goldman-Sachs backed early “Dropbox”, and the SVP of Product & Marketing at 1ClickCharge, an early “Paypal”, where his leadership resulted in a profitable exit to CMGi.

In the 1990s, Mr. Smiga began his career as a developer at Booz & Co, and in Silicon Valley, was cofounder and President of Portfolio Software and Actioneer, where he co-authored five collaboration software patents and licensed award-winning software to Apple, IBM, Lotus, Microsoft, AOL, 3Com, Acco, and Mastercard. Brian received a BA from Swarthmore College, and graduated first with a Masters of Philosophy from Trinity College, University of Dublin, Ireland. Brian is founder of         TEDxAsburyParkBrian Smiga

As Operating Partner, Brian builds and works with Alpha’s early stage venture network to source and evaluate investment opportunities and strategy. Brian also advises Pritzker Group Venture Capital on deal origination and relationships.

Prior to Alpha Venture Partners, Brian was the founder and CEO of Preclick, (sold to Smilebox), where he developed photo software licensed worldwide by HP, 3M, Sandisk, Walmart, Costco, CVS, and Walgreens. Prior to Preclick, Mr. Smiga was CEO at 3Path, an Intel and Goldman-Sachs backed startup, and the SVP of Marketing at 1ClickCharge, where his product launch resulted in a sale of the company to CMGi.

Since first working with Mr. Brotman at 1ClickCharge, Mr. Smiga advised Brotman-backed portfolio companies: Altruik, Headliner, Knovel, and Mobile Commons. In the 1990s, Mr. Smiga began his career as a developer at Booz & Co, and in Silicon Valley was cofounder and President of Portfolio Software and Actioneer, where he co-authored six collaboration software patents and licensed top-rated software to Apple, IBM, Lotus, Microsoft, AOL, 3Com, Acco, and others. Brian received a BA in Liberal Arts from Swarthmore College, and a Masters of Philosophy in Literature from Trinity College, University of Dublin, Ireland. Brian is the founder of TEDxNavesink, a top-ranked TEDx conference, hosted at Asbury Park Boardwalk.

 

 

Claire Smith is a vegan entrepreneur and impact investor based in Geneva, Switzerland. She created the humane investment platform Beyond Investing, which designs cruelty-free programs in public equity markets and undertakes venture capital investment in vegan, plant-based and cruelty-free businesses through Beyond Impact. Beyond Investing is the architect of the US Vegan Climate Index, a stock index which screens out all animal exploitation and fossil fuel from a US market benchmark, and which was listed on the NYSE as the US Vegan Climate ETF (ticker: VEGN) in September 2019. She is a co-founder of Beyond Animal, an online platform to accelerate the growth of a thriving vegan economy, and the chair of Beyond Cruelty Foundation, formed to campaign for zero animal exploitation and to fund safe havens for animals.

Previously, she was a research analyst, partner and shareholder at alternatives advisory firm Albourne Partners, covering managers globally across systematic quantitative equity, convertible and volatility and hedging strategies. Claire also led a project to expand Albourne’s proprietary database on alternatives managers and digitize the research process.

Prior to joining Albourne in 2004, Claire provided bespoke hedge fund research to London funds of funds and published well over 100 articles in the financial press. From 1986 to 1998 Claire was employed at various UBS group companies as a derivatives broker, marketer and structurer. Claire started her career in 1985 as a credit analyst at Chase Manhattan Bank after completing a Masters program in Chemical Engineering and Management at Imperial College, London.

Claire founded 100 Women in Finance in Geneva in 2007 and oversaw its growth in Switzerland through till 2014, as a member of the London Board, organizing over 100 events, including seven Galas which raised well over $1 million for charity.

Since 2013 Claire has served on the Board of AVVEC, a Geneva-based charity that provides support to victims of domestic violence.