Context365 New York 2022

Bill Barhydt

CEO, Abra

Bill Barhydt is the founder and CEO of Abra, a premier digital asset financial services company.   Bill gave the first ever TED talk on Bitcoin in 2012 when Bitcoin was trading at $5. In 2015, he created the world's first synthetic dollar stablecoin based on Bitcoin. Bill is a keynote speaker and has presented at over 100 conferences, including The World Economic Forum, The Milken Institute, Tony Robbins Platinum Summit, The Mobile World Congress, TED, Consensus, Bitcoin Conference, and Token 2049, and The North American Bitcoin Conference.

Prior to Abra, Bill was CEO of Boom Financial and WebSentric. He was also VP at Goldman Sachs and served as a research engineer at NASA and the CIA. As one of the early team members of Netscape, Bill was involved in building some of the core infrastructure that helped grow the consumer Internet we all use today.  Bill is globally recognized as a technology pioneer and as an avid investor in companies across Web 3 and the broader technology ecosystem.

Carlos Betancourt

Founding Principal & CEO, BKCoin Capital LP.

Carlos is a Founding Principal and CEO of BKCoin Capital LP. He oversees the firm’s daily operations, including compliance, legal and strategy. He also manages the Funds research staff.

Prior to founding BKCoin Capital, Carlos was the Founder and Managing Director of Yorkville Commodities, a full-service physical commodities brokerage and consulting firm that offered financing services to small and medium-sized companies operating in the energy, mining, and natural resources sectors in North America and LATAM. His previous experience includes working at AMCI Group as a Commodities Manager, KCM Asset Management as an Equity Analyst, and The Newport Group as a Business Analyst.

Carlos is actively involved in helping current students from his alma mater’s prestigious Roland George Investment Program develop skills to become successful professionals. As a former Division I student-athlete, he enjoys an active lifestyle and participates in several sports leagues in NYC.

Carlos earned his B.A. in Finance and MBA with a concentration in Finance from Stetson University. He is fluent in English, Spanish, and Papiamento.

Gerald Brant

Director of Capital Formation, Pantera

Gerald focuses on capital formation and manages institutional investor relationships at Pantera.

Prior to joining Pantera in 2018, Gerald was a Director at Stonehaven, an award-winning global placement agent firm. He has extensive experience working with best-in-class alternative investment managers across multiple strategies including Global Macro and Telecom, Media & Technology. Earlier in his career, Gerald was Head of Marketing at CypressTree Investment Management in Boston. Gerald began his career as an analyst on the Global Investment Strategy Research team at Merrill Lynch.

Gerald graduated from Clark University with a B.A. in International Relations and received an M.B.A. from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. He is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst and serves on the Advisory Committee of the New York Chapter of the CAIA Association.

The Honorable Adam M. Cloud

Hartford, CT Treasurer's Office

Adam M. Cloud, a lifelong resident of the City of Hartford, brings to the City Treasurer’s Office more than 20 years of experience in financial services with leading institutions. A former Director within the Public Finance Group of Advest, Inc., Mr. Cloud structured several billion dollars worth of bond transactions which financed infrastructure such as schools, parking facilities and student housing. Locally, Mr. Cloud’s financings included The Bushnell, UConn and the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center.

The Hartford City Treasurer is an elected official who, pursuant to the Charter of the City of Hartford, is the custodian and investor of all City funds. As City Treasurer, Mr. Cloud is responsible for an investment portfolio of approximately $1.2 billion dollars. He also administers the City’s deferred compensation program and its pension benefits. He serves as co-issuer with the Mayor of all City bonds and he invests and disburses City trust funds. He oversees the City’s banking services, including investment of the City’s $540 million budget. Through the City’s Economically Targeted Investment program, Mr. Cloud maintains investments that promote economic growth, development and job creation in the City of Hartford.

Mr. Cloud was also a Managing Director of Loop Capital Markets, a leading minority-owned public finance and capital markets firm. Mr. Cloud leverages his deep experience in financial services in his role as Treasurer of the City of Hartford. Mr. Cloud’s personal commitment to service has included serving as Chairman of the Hartford Redevelopment Agency, Vice Chairman of the Hartford Economic Development Commission and Treasurer of the Democratic Town Committee. Mr. Cloud has also represented the City of Hartford as a Commissioner of The Metropolitan District Commission, as a Director at the Hartford Library and as an Incorporator of the Wadsworth Atheneum.

Prior to his 2011 election as the first African American male City Treasurer, Mr. Cloud served as Assistant City Treasurer. Mr. Cloud attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., earning both a bachelor’s degree and a law degree. He resides in Hartford with his wife and their three children.

Nili Gilbert

Vice Chairwoman, Carbon Direct

Ms. Gilbert has a background in investment management and is a leader in the international climate community. Ms. Gilbert is a board member and the Chairwoman of the Investment Committees of both the David Rockefeller Fund and the Synergos Institute, and she is a Senior Advisor at Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Ms. Gilbert is the Chair of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero Advisory Panel as well as a member of its CEO & Principals Leadership Group. Ms. Gilbert is the Chair of U.S. Policy for the United Nations-convened Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance, and is a member of the State of California’s Climate-Related Financial Risk Advisory Group. Ms. Gilbert is also a member of the Social Mission Board of Seventh Generation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Unilever. Ms. Gilbert was a Co-founder and Portfolio Manager at Matarin Capital. Prior to Matarin, Ms. Gilbert was a Senior Director and Senior Quantitative Analyst at Invesco. Ms. Gilbert is a permanent member of both the Council on Foreign Relations and the Economic Club of New York, where she sits on the Membership Committee. Ms. Gilbert holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA in a Special Concentration in Economics & Social Studies from Harvard University magna cum laude.

Steve Novakovic

Managing Director, CAIA Curriculum, CAIA Association

Steve Novakovic CAIA, CFA, is the Managing Director, CAIA Curriculum at CAIA Association.  Prior to joining CAIA Association, Steve was a faculty member in the Finance & International Business department in the School of Business at Ithaca College.  Steve began his career at his alma mater, Cornell University, in the Office of University Investments. During his twelve years with Cornell, he allocated across a variety of assets with a focus on alternative investments.  He received his MPS (Environmental Economics) from Cornell University, and BS (Applied Economics) from Cornell University.

Joe Sticco

Co-Founder, Co-Contributer; Cryptex DAO

Joe Sticco is a co-founder & core contributor of the Cryptex DAO. A lifelong equity trader and investment manager, Joseph brings immense knowledge of traditional market structure to the project. He founded Cryptex with the vision of blending traditional finance with world class blockchain development in building state of the art solutions for tomorrow.

Michael Oliver Weinberg

For nearly 30 years Michael has invested directly at the security level and indirectly as an asset allocator in traditional and alternative asset classes.  Most recently he was a Managing Director, Head of Hedge Funds and Alternative Alpha, and on the Investment Committee at APG, a world leader in Environmental, Social and Governance Investing.  Previously he was the Chief Investment Officer at MOV37 and Protege Partners.  Michael is also an Adjunct Professor of Economics and Finance at Columbia Business School, where he teaches Institutional Investing, an advanced MBA course that he created. 

Michael also testifies as an expert witness in financial and technology litigation.  He was a portfolio manager and global head of equities at FRM, a multi-strategy investment solutions provider.  Prior to that, Michael was a portfolio manager at Soros, the macro fund and family office, and at Credit Suisse.  Before that he was a Real Estate analyst at Dean Witter.

Michael is a board member of AIMA.  He is on the Milken Institute’s Global Capital Markets Advisory Council, the management advisory council for the Michael Price Student Investment Fund and a Special Advisor to The Tokyo University of Science’s Endowment.  Michael is a former co-founder of Project Punch Card, a not-for-profit organization, and The Artificial Intelligence in Finance Institute. He is a member of The Economic Club of New York.  Michael is a former Chair at CFANY, where he has received multiple awards, including Volunteer of the Year.  He has researched the impact of AI on Finance for The World Economic Forum.  

Michael is a published author, having written for The New York Times, The Journal of Impact & ESG, Institutional Investor and investment books. He has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, CNBC, Bloomberg and Reuters. He is a frequent panelist, moderator and lecturer for investment banks, institutional and family office organizations and business schools.  Michael has a BS from New York University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.