J. Kyle Bass is a Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Conservation Equity Management, an environmental sustainability private equity firm founded in 2021. Bass is an avid landowner and conservationist in the state of Texas since 2003. He is also the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Hayman Capital Management, an investment manager of private funds focused on global event-driven opportunities.

Mr. Bass is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the recipient of the 2019 Foreign Policy Association Medal for his responsible internationalism. Mr. Bass has testified as an expert witness before the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.

Mr. Bass has spoken on global economics, national security, geopolitics, and the architecture of the Chinese financial system at various universities, including Columbia, Yale, Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley, University of Chicago, University of Texas, and the University of Virginia. Mr. Bass is the former Chair of the Risk Committee of the Board of Directors of the University of Texas Investment Management Company (UTIMCO), which manages approximately $65 billion.

Formerly, he was a Managing Director at Legg Mason and a Senior Managing Director at Bear Stearns. He graduated from Texas Christian University with a degree in finance. Bass is an Advisory Board member of the Hudson Institute’s China Center, an Executive Advisory Board member of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, and an Investment Advisory Board member to RIA NewEdge Wealth. He also serves on the boards of the Texas Wildlife Association Foundation, Texas Department of Public Safety Foundation, and Melinda’s Foods.

Commissioner Bush serves as the CEO and Managing Partner of Pine Cove Strategies, drawing upon more than 30 years of executive experience in both government and business. Throughout his career, he has led high-profile initiatives, shaped strategic decision-making, and delivered impactful results for public and private sector clients alike.

Prior to co-founding the firm, Commissioner Bush served as the 28th Land Commissioner for the State of Texas where he led the largest housing recovery in State history in response to Hurricane Harvey, helping more than 60,000 victims rebuild their homes and their lives. As Chairman of the $8.6 billion Permanent School Fund, he helped to generate record revenues for K-12 education through innovative administration and implemented prudent stewardship measures over 13 million acres of state lands and natural resources.

Prior to his election to statewide office, Commissioner Bush co-founded Pennybacker Capital, a Texas-based private equity fund, and he practiced corporate & securities law with a national law firm in Dallas. He also proudly served for a decade as an Intelligence Officer in the U.S. Navy Reserves, where he earned the Joint Service Commendation Medal, Navy Achievement Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal and Intel Warfare Designator pin in recognition of his service.

Jeff Immelt joined NEA in 2018 as a Venture Partner working with innovative, growth companies in healthcare, industrial automation, clean tech and IoT. His primary focus is to help founders grow and win. He is the author of HOT SEAT, a memoir of leadership in times of crisis, and teaches a course on leading through disruption at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Jeff served as chairman and CEO of GE for 16 years where he revamped the company’s strategy, global footprint, workforce and culture. During his tenure, he led several innovative transformations that doubled industrial earnings, reshaped the portfolio, re-established market leadership, grew a strong share position in essential industries, and quadrupled emerging market revenue.

Jeff has been named one of the World’s Best CEOs three times by Barron’s. During his tenure as CEO, GE was named ‘America’s Most Admired Company’ by Fortune magazine and one of the ‘World’s Most Respected Companies’ in polls by Barron’s and the Financial Times. He has received fifteen honorary degrees and numerous awards for business leadership and chaired the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness under the Obama administration.

Jeff earned a B.A. degree in applied mathematics from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from Harvard University. He currently serves on the board for NEA portfolio companies: Collective Health, Radiology Partners, Tri Alpha Energy, and Transfix. In addition, he is on the public boards of Bloom Energy, Desktop Metal, Bright Health, Hennessy Capital V, and Twilio. He is also on the private board of Sila Nanotechnologies. Jeff is a member of The American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Ray Washburne is the Chairman of Sunoco, L.P., and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Charter Holdings, a private real estate investment company. Washburne is also the former President and Chief Executive Officer of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a self-sustaining US government agency that helps American businesses expand into developing markets by providing them with tools to manage risks associated with foreign direct investment. He served on the president’s Intelligence Advisory Board from May 2019 until January 2021 and the Board of the US Southern Command.

Washburne has a long history of working in business and has held several executive positions. Mr. Washburne is a member of the Advisory Council of the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center and he co-founded and co-owns M Crowd Restaurant Group, which owns and operates Mi Cocina and The Mercury restaurants, with various locations around the United States. Additionally, he serves as the president and managing director of Highland Park Village.

Mr. Washburne actively participates in a number of associations, including global business organizations, nonprofits, and real estate councils, such as the World Presidents’ Organization, The Real Estate Council, International Council of Shopping Centers, Urban Land Institute, SMU O’Neil Center Advisory Board, SMU Tower Center, Dallas Museum of Art Committee on Collections, Baylor Health Care System Foundation and the Council of Foreign Relations.

Mr. Washburne recently funded the new Washburne Soccer and Track Stadium at SMU. In 2023, he was inducted into the North Texas Real Estate Hall of Fame and was honored with the SMU Distinguished Alumni Award. He is a graduate of Southern Methodist University and has served as an adjunct professor at SMU Cox School of Business.

Jim has 30 years of experience in U.S. equity markets, alternative investments, and governance of large public retirement systems and endowments. He co-founded trading technology companies that developed early smart order routing technologies and an electronic trading firm that regularly transacted large percentages of U.S. daily equity volume. He started his career in mergers and acquisitions at First Boston and Lehman Brothers. Jim has held several leadership roles in the public sector, including as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas. Jim was named an EY Entrepreneur of the Year in eServices and is the chairman and president of the Houston Symphony Endowment. He holds an MBA and a BBA from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and graduated from the London Business School’s finance/hedge funds programmes. Jim also holds multiple FINRA licenses and certifications.

Michael Toth is a research fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin and publishes regularly on business law in the Wall Street Journal, The Hill, Real Clear Politics, Civitas Outlook, Newsweek, and other publications. Before joining Civitas, Toth served as general counsel for several venture-backed, early-stage companies. He also previously served as a justice on the Texas Third Court of Appeals.

Toth graduated from Stanford University with honors and received his law degree and an M.A. in history from the University of Virginia. Toth served on active duty in the Marine Corps and is currently a Lieutenant Colonel in the reserves. He also served as a speechwriter for White House Budget Director (and future Indiana Governor) Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr., and is the author of a biography of the early United States Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth.

Tim Draper is a prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist and founder of Draper Associates, DFJ, and the Draper Venture Network, a global network of venture capital funds. The firms’ investments include Baidu, Focus Media, YeePay, KongZhong, Skype, Hotmail, Tesla, SolarCity, Coinbase, Ledger, Robinhood, Athenahealth, Box, TwitchTV, SpaceX, Cruise Automation, Carta, Planet, PTC, and many others.

Tim is a leading spokesperson for Bitcoin, Blockchain, ICOs, and cryptocurrencies. He won the US Marshall’s auction in 2014 (where he bid on 50,000 bitcoins) and invests in over 50 crypto companies as well as leads investments in Coinbase, Ledger, Tezos, and Bancor, among others. He created viral marketing, a marketing method for exponentially spreading an electronic service from customer to customer, that was instrumental to the successes of Hotmail, Skype, and other applications.

Tim is regularly featured on major networks, in publications, and in social media as a proponent for entrepreneurship, innovative governance, free markets, and Bitcoin. He has received various awards and honors including the World Entrepreneurship Forum’s “Entrepreneur of the World.” He has also been highly ranked on several notable lists including one of the top 100 most powerful people in finance by Worth Magazine, the top 20 most influential people in Crypto by Crypto Weekly, #1 most networked venture capitalist by AlwaysOn, #7 on the Forbes Midas List, and #48 most influential Harvard Alum.

In his mission to promote entrepreneurship, Tim created Draper University of Heroes, a residential and online school based in San Mateo, California, to help extraordinary people accomplish their life missions. School alumni have gone on to build 350 companies including crypto leaders, QTUM, Spacecash, DataWallet, and Credo. He also started Innovate Your State, a non-profit dedicated to crowdsource innovation in government; and BizWorld, a non-profit that teaches young children how business and entrepreneurship work.

Tim is involved in California politics and education/organizations, having served on the California State Board of Education and starting a movement for local choice in schools that led to him becoming proponent for a statewide initiative for school vouchers. He also led a statewide initiative to create competitive governance with Six Californias, followed by an initiative for Three Californias.

Tim received a Bachelor of Science from Stanford University with a major in electrical engineering and a Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School. He also has two honorary doctorates from The International University and Trinity College of Dublin.

William T. Harris oversees the strategic direction of the space exploration learning destination, Space Center Houston. With approximately 450 employees and contractors, Space Center Houston is the No. 1 international attraction in the greater Houston area, generating a $241.3 million annual economic impact, 2,515 jobs. The center is a nonprofit, Smithsonian Affiliate, the Official Visitor Center of NASA Johnson Space Center, a Certified Autism Center and named “Best Museum in Texas” by USA Today.

Joining the foundation and center in April 2016, Harris has more than 38 years in nonprofit leadership including senior positions at museums and universities, where he led numerous multimillion-dollar fundraising campaigns, principal and major gifts, marketing, communications, government relations and strategy development.

Prior leadership roles include multiple positions at the University of California, Los Angeles; the RAND/UCLA Center for Soviet Studies; the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts in Boston; and the Boston University School of Medicine. He served in the Peace Corps in Paraguay and is fluent in Spanish. Harris holds a Bachelor of Science in psychology from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. He earned certificates in Community Health and the Delivery of Health Services at Tufts and in development from The Fundraising Institute at Boston University School of Communications.

Marc J. Sharpe is an experienced investment executive and board member with a distinguished career spanning family office management, private equity, venture capital, and investment banking. Known for his strategic insight, deep expertise in family office governance, and ability to foster innovation and value creation, Mr. Sharpe has built and led investment platforms that deliver sustainable growth while navigating complex financial and operational challenges. His leadership style emphasizes integrity, continuous improvement, and long-term partnerships that generate significant stakeholder value.

Mr. Sharpe is the Founder and Chairman of The Family Office Association, a premier global peer network of single-family offices. Since 2007, he has cultivated a community of senior family office executives and principals representing some of the world’s wealthiest families, promoting education, shared-best practices, and co-investment opportunities. Under his leadership, TFOA has become a trusted forum for collaboration, market insight, and proprietary investment deal flow on a global scale. He is currently an Operating Partner with Satori Capital, LLC, a multi-strategy investment firm founded upon the principles of conscious capitalism. Marc also teaches an MBA class on “The Entrepreneurial Family Office” as an Adjunct Professor at Rice University and Southern Methodist University. Mr. Sharpe holds an M.A. from Cambridge University, an M.Phil. from Oxford University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.