40th Anniversary M&T SUMMIT
Huntsman Hall
March 21st, 2020

SPEAKER BIOS

Cliff Asness M&T ’88

Cliff is a Founder, Managing Principal and Chief Investment Officer at AQR Capital Management. Prior to co-founding AQR Capital Management, he was a Managing Director and Director of Quantitative Research for the Asset Management Division of Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Cliff is a recipient of several awards for his research publications. He received Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy Awards from The Journal of Portfolio Management five times. Financial Analysts Journal has awarded him the Graham and Dodd Award for the year’s best paper, as well as a Graham and Dodd Excellence Award, the award for the best perspectives piece, and the Graham and Dodd Readers’ Choice Award. CFA Institute presented Cliff with the James R. Vertin Award in 2006, which is periodically given to individuals who have produced a body of research notable for its relevance and enduring value to investment professionals.

Cliff is on the editorial board of the Journal of Portfolio Management, the governing board of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Finance at NYU, the board of directors of the Q-Group, the board of the International Rescue Committee and the board of trustees of The National WWII Museum.

Cliff graduated summa cum laude from the M&T Program with a BSE from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and a BS in Economics from the Wharton School concentrating in Finance. He received an M.B.A. with high honors and a Ph.D. in finance from the University of Chicago under Eugene Fama.

 

Hital Meswani M&T’90

Hital Meswani is an Executive Director and Member of the Board of Reliance Industries ltd, a fortune 500 flagship company based in India.  The Reliance Group’s businesses include Synthetic fibers, Petrochemicals, Petroleum Refining and Marketing, Oil & Gas Exploration and Production, Retail and recently rolled out next-gen Digital Services.  He joined Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) in 1990.  He is on the Board of the company since 1995.  His overall responsibility spans the Petroleum Refining and Marketing Business and several other functions of the company, including Human Resources Management, Group Manufacturing, Research & Technology, and Capital Projects Execution.  He drives the implementation of several downstream petroleum and petrochemical projects at several locations.  He has also been instrumental in the execution of several mega projects of the group, including the Hazira Petrochemicals complex and the world’s largest refinery complex at Jamnagar.  He lead a company-wide business transformation initiative, which has resulted in the development of the constitution of RIL – the Reliance Management System.

Hital has been awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the Institution of Chemical Engineers, the international professional body for Chemical, Biochemical and Process Engineers, in recognition of his contribution to the process industries.  He is recipient of the D. Robert Yarnall Award – 2011 from the Engineering Alumni Society of the University of Pennsylvania.  He was also conferred the honorary CEPM-PMA Fellowship Award for Project Management Excellence.  He is a member of the Finance committee, Stakeholders’ Relationship Committee, Risk Management Committee, and Chairman of the Health, Safety and Environment Committee of the company.  He is also a Director of Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Limited and Reliance Commercial Dealers Ltd.

Hital graduated from the M&T program in 1990 with a BSE in Chemical Engineering from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and a BS in Economics from the Wharton School concentrating in finance.

 

Seth Berger C’89 WG’93

Seth is the Managing Director of the Sixers Innovation Lab, an 8000 square foot lab space in Camden to aid local startups. The lab provides mentorship, funding sources and resources for the entrepreneurs. Prior to the Sixers lab, Seth has been the CEO of several businesses in the consumer space, including founder of athletic apparel company AND1. He has also built an elite High school basketball program as Head Coach at the Westtown School.

Seth got his BA in Economics from UPenn’s College of Arts and Sciences &  and his MBA from the Wharton School. As an undergard at Penn, Seth was a four-year letter winner, captain and MVP of the Sprint Football team.

 

Richard Forman M&T’87

Managing Partner of Health Venture Group, LLC

Richard Forman is the CEO of Sagamore Management Co. a diversified investment advisory firm.  He is also the Managing Partner of Health Venture Group, LLC (“HVG”), a private investment company focused on technology and consumer related health care. Prior to HVG, Richard was the Co-Founder, President and CEO of Register.com where he grew revenue to over $115 million, over 500 employees and took the Company public. In 2002, Richard was awarded the prestigious Entrepreneur of the Year Award by Ernst and Young. He is also an active real estate investor with properties in NY and FL and has a Masters Degree in Real Estate from NYU.

Richard serves on the Board of Overseers of the UPenn School of Engineering. He is also on the boards of Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY and Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York, NY.

Richard graduated from the M&T program with a BSE in Electrical Engineering from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and a BS in Economics from the Wharton School concentrating in Finance.

 

Maneesha Ghiya M&T ‘00

Maneesha is the founder and Managing Partner at FemHealth Ventures, which is focused on helping women health-related companies develop and grow through investment capital and strategic guidance. She is also a co-founder and Strategic Advisor for ExSight Ventures, a healthcare-focused venture capital firm specializing in early stage investments in innovative ophthalmic drugs, devices, and diagnostics. Maneesha also conducts healthcare investment research for Guidepoint. She has been investing in healthcare for 20+ years both on the private side as a venture capitalist as well as a healthcare specialist at hedge funds. She has advised multiple healthcare start-ups and serves on the Board of the UPenn’s Metro Club of New Jersey.

Maneesha graduated summa cum laude from the M&T Program with a BAS in Computer Science from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and a BS in Economics from the Wharton School concentrating in Finance. She earnedt an MBA from Harvard Business School.

 

Jeff Horing M&T ‘86

Jeff Horing is the Co-Founder and Managing Director at Insight Partners since 1995. Under his leadership, Insight has become a premier venture capital and private equity firm with over $20 billion of assets under management. Jeff’s areas of focus include data, analytics, mobile, and infrastructure and SaaS software in Europe, North America, and Israel.

Jeff has invested in more than 30 companies, notably Alteryx (AYX), AirWatch (acquired by VMware), Shutterstock (SSTK), TeamViewer (acquired by Permira), WIX (WIX), Greenfield Online (SRVY, later acquired by Microsoft). Prior to founding Insight, Jeff worked at Warburg Pincus and Goldman Sachs.

Jeff serves on the Board of Overseers of the UPenn School of Engineering. He graduated with high honors from the M&T Program with a BSE from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and a BS in Economics from the Wharton School concentrating in Finance. He also has an MBA from MIT.

 

Jeffrey Keswin M&T ‘90

Jeffrey Keswin is the founder and managing partner of Lyrical Partners. Lyrical and its affiliates invest in and manage private equity, real estate, traditional equity, and hedge funds.

An unrepentant serial entrepreneur from the great, frigid-but-friendly state of Minnesota, Jeff has stirred the primordial ooze of dozens of companies. His passion for investing in and engaging with uncommon management teams has hatched a creative collection of businesses now overseeing billions of dollars and employing hundreds of people.

Jeff graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania’s Management & Technology Program in 1990, earning a Bachelor of Science in economics from the Wharton School and a Bachelor of Applied Science from the School of Engineering. He serves on the Wharton Undergraduate Executive Board as well as the M&T Program’s Executive Board.

Jeff lives in New York City with his wife, three children, and dog, Cruiser.

 

Angela Lai M&T ’94

Angela is the CEO of BetterOmics, a company she founded in 2019, building an AI data engineering platform for Life Science companies. Before that she was the Chief Technology Officer at GRAIL, a company developing a blood-based diagnostic for early cancer detection. Prior to her endeavors in the life science industry, she was a Vice President at Google, where she led the Product and Engineering teams that developed key Google products, including Search, Payments, and AdWords, building $100B+ platforms serving billions of users around the world.

Angela graduated from the program with a BSE in Computer Engineering from School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and a BS in Economics from the Wharton School concentrating in Finance. She also has a Master’s degree in Robotics from SEAS.

 

Ryan Limaye M&T ’93

Ryan is the co-head of Global Technology Investment Banking. Since 2014, he has been the global head of Enterprise Technology and previously was the head of Communications Technology and the co-head of Telecom. He is a member of the Investment Banking Division Technology Investment Committee. At Goldman, Ryan has focused on financing and strategic assignments for leading companies in the technology and communications sectors. He has worked on numerous technology mergers and acquisitions and has led the IPOs and financing of many technology companies. He was named Managing Director in 2001 and Partner in 2002.

Ryan serves on the Board of Overseers of Penn’s School of Engineering & Applied Sciences. He is a Trustee of the Episcopal Academy High School in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.

Ryan graduated from the M&T Program with a BAS from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and a BS in Economics from the Wharton School concentrating in Finance. He also received an MBA from Wharton where he was a Palmer Scholar.

 

Deven Parekh W ‘91

Deven Parekh is a Managing Director at Insight Partners and joined the firm in 2000. He manages investments in application software, data and consumer internet businesses. Deven is a global investor, having actively worked with investments in China, Latin America, Europe and Russia.

Deven was selected in 2014 by AlwaysOn as a Venture Capital 100 winner for his investments in Twitter and Chegg. He was also selected to be on the 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 Forbes Midas list. In 2016, 2018, and 2019 he was selected as a Top 100 Venture Capitalist by CB Insights. He is a Member of the Technical Advisory Council of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) which assists the Commission with developing informed technology policies supporting America’s competitiveness and job creation in the global economy. He was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2016 to be on the Overseas Private Investment Corporation Board. In 2006, Deven was named a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute. He is a Member of the Board of the Tisch New York MS Research Center. He serves on the Mayor’s fund to Advance New York City Board of Advisors and is on the Board of Overseers of NYU Langone.

Deven received a BS in Economics from the Wharton School.

 

Anand Sanwal M&T ‘97

Anand Sanwal is the CEO & Co-founder of CB Insights, a technology market intelligence platform that provides predictive intelligence into emerging technology trends, startups and corporate strategy. Prior to founding CB Insights, Anand managed the $50 million Chairman’s Innovation Fund at American Express and worked in VC and corporate M&A. Before AmEx, Anand worked at Kozmo.com, one of NYC’s most infamous dot com flameouts, where he learned that if you buy something for $2 and sell it for $1, you will not make it up in volume. He has climbed Mt Kilimanjaro and ran all NYC half-marathons.

Anand graduated from M&T Program with a BSE in Chemical Engineering from School of Engineering & Applied Sciences and a BS in Economics from Wharton concentrating in finance and accounting. He serves on the M&T Program’s Leadership Council.

 

Jeff Surges

Jeff is the CEO of RLDatix, a healthcare technology firm that builds tools and provides insights to drive safer and better care across the world. He is responsible for overseeing and driving the strategic growth of RLDatix globally and has over 20 years’ experience managing high-growth healthcare technology companies. Throughout his career, Jeff has been a co-founder of a successful business in the hospital-care management and discharge-planning software sector, CEO of a high-growth public company, and an entrepreneur / investor in the emerging wellness & analytics space. Before joining RLDatix, Jeff served as President and CEO of Connecture, a public company in the insurance enrollment sector that he took private during his tenure.

Jeff received a BA from Eastern Illinois University.

 

Azmat Yusuf M&T ‘02

Azmat is the Founder at Citymapper Limited, a company that promises to build the best transport apps in the world. He started the app in 2011 as a guide for Londoners to navigate the city’s bus network. Azmat previously worked at Google, as well as in the venture capital and equities fields for international banks. He is one of the Techstars startup accelerator mentors.

Azmat graduated from M&T program with a BSE in Electrical Engineering from School of Engineering & Applied Sciences and a BS in Economics from Wharton concentrating in finance. He also received his MBA from INSEAD in 2009.

CONTACT US

The Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology
The Larry Robbins House

3537 Locust Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104

215-898-4145
E-mail: mgtech@seas.upenn.edu