Leonard (Len) Berman is a Senior Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at First Manhattan Co. with more than 20 years of experience in the investment industry. He provides wealth planning and investment management services for individuals, families, professional partnerships, business owners, and charitable trusts. Prior to joining First Manhattan, Len was a Research Analyst in Lehman Brothers’ Principal Investing Group and at Eton Park Capital Management. 

Len holds a JD from Columbia Law School, an MBA from Columbia Business School, and an AB from Princeton University. 

Len is actively involved at The Jewish Center, where he was previously an officer and currently serves on the Administrative Committee and as a trustee. Previously, Len was a longtime board member of Princeton’s Center for Jewish Life/Hillel. 

Len, his wife, Lori Zeltser, and their three sons live on the Upper West Side. 

Christina Chiu is the President of Empire State Realty Trust. Prior to her appointment as President, Ms. Chiu served as Executive Vice President, CFO since May 2020 when she joined ESRT, and was then appointed to both COO & CFO in December 2022.

Prior to joining ESRT, Ms. Chiu had an 18-year career at Morgan Stanley where she served as Managing Director and COO of the Global Listed Real Assets Investing business, responsible for business development and capital raising efforts, institutional investor and consultant relationships, oversight of the day-to-day investing business, and execution of strategic initiatives. She began her career as a real estate investment banking analyst on both principal investing and strategic advisory transactions.

Ms. Chiu is a member of the Real Estate Roundtable Real Estate Capital Policy Advisory Committee, vice chair of the ULI Technology & Real Estate Council, member of the NYU Stern Real Estate Board of Advisors, and a David Rockefeller Fellow of the Partnership for NYC. She serves on the American Red Cross National Board of Governors, as well as the board of University Settlement Society of New York. Ms. Chiu earned a B.S. in Finance and Accounting summa cum laude from NYU Stern School of Business.

Steven Green is a Partner in the Corporate Department of the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.  Steven received a B.A. magna cum laude in English Literature and Cinema Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. He received his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was a forum editor of the Harvard Law Review.  Prior to joining Wachtell, Lipton, Steven served as a law clerk to the Honorable Sandra S. Ikuta of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. 

Hale Gurland is a multi-disciplined artist. His work in sculpture are monumental pieces that go from the figurative to the abstract. His paintings follow the works in sculpture and use heavy colors against bright to achieve his ideas. He has been photographing around the world for over forty years capturing diverse cultures, their daily lives, conflicts and religions. His work has been shown in Europe, Asia, India, South America and North America. Mr. Gurland lives and works in New York City.

Richard Médor is the Founder of 742 Ventures, a private venture firm focused on acquiring and operating diverse real estate assets and entrepreneurial owned companies. Previously, he was a finance executive at Viacom to help lead a global finance transformation effort. Prior to his time at Viacom, he was a Partner at EY serving Fortune 500 clients, which included time spent in New York, Paris, and Los Angeles. He was selected by EY senior leadership to build a consulting practice in Europe. As such, he spent 5 years based in Paris, and successfully built a multi-million dollar consulting practice from the ground-up that extended throughout Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Prior to his time with EY, he worked at Time Warner and began his professional career at KPMG’s New York office focused primarily on financial service clients. He is a graduate of New York University’s Stern School of Business.

PATRICK MICHEL is a partner at Sidley Austin LLP, where he has a wide range of experience advising investment managers and advisers of a variety of investment funds, including real estate funds, private equity funds, and hedge funds, as well as on commercial and regulatory issues. Patrick regularly acts as counsel to corporate, tax-exempt, pension fund, and sovereign institutional investors in connection with their investments in investment vehicles and co-investments with sponsors. He also has experience in structuring and advising emerging managers and start-up investment funds.

Patrick was named to Crain’s New York Business’s 2021 “Notable Black Leaders & Executives” list for his leadership and public service in diversity and inclusion. He is also recommended by The Legal 500 for his work in Investment Fund Formation and Management: Alternative/Hedge Funds and Investment Fund Formation and Management: Private Equity Funds. Patrick was also selected by The Partnership for New York City as a member of the 2022 David Rockefeller Fellows. This program prepares senior corporate executives for more active leadership in civic and public affairs.

Patrick serves on Sidley’s Accounting and Finance, and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committees, and is the founder of Friends in Alternatives, a network for lawyers and compliance officers of color in the asset management space. He mentors underserved young people through Legal Outreach, which prepares urban students for academic success through legal and educational programs.

Thomas Morgan has been a private equity investor and advisor for nearly 30 years.  After beginning his career in investment banking with First Boston, he spent most of the 90s with Bain Capital as it grew from a single strategy, single office firm with $300M AUM and 20 employees to a multi-strategy, multi-office firm with $5B AUM and over 100 employees.  He then joined New Mountain Capital at inception and over 15 years there New Mountain raised over $15B AUM and invested capital across three strategies: private equity, private credit and public hedge.  Mr. Morgan left New Mountain in 2015 to found Hycroft Capital, the first firm ever formed solely to make minority (non-control) investments into the management companies (GPs) of private equity and other private capital firms (“GP Stakes”).  He later merged Hycroft Capital into Magnetar Capital, a $14B multi-strategy asset manager, forming and heading Magnetar Strategic Capital.  Most recently, Mr. Morgan helped co-found Aviditi Advisors, an alternative investment bank focused on private capital firms and their investors, offering advisory services in capital formation, capital markets and other capital-driven firm initiatives.  Mr. Morgan is a partner and senior member of the management team heading Aviditi’s Liquidity Solutions business line.

Mr. Morgan grew up in Scarsdale, NY, and graduated Williams College in 1991 with a B.A. in History and Political Science, magna cum laude, and earned his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1998.  He lives in Manhattan’s Upper East Side with his wife and three school-aged children.

Aisha Oliver-Staley is Senior Vice President, General Counsel and University Secretary at New York University. In this role, Aisha oversees the Office of General Counsel and the Office of Compliance and Risk Management, which serve as strategic partners to NYU’s schools, administrative offices, affiliates, portal campuses in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai, and global academic sites on legal, compliance, and policy matters. As University Secretary, Aisha also oversees the Office of the Secretary and is responsible for providing guidance and resources to the University’s Board of Trustees.

Aisha has extensive experience advising on the broad cross-section of issues that affect a major research university, including international operations, compliance and ethics, real estate, finance and development, municipal finance, gifts, conflicts of interest, investigations, student and personnel matters. Currently, Aisha is a member of the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA) Finance and Audit Committee as well as the Association of American Universities (AAU) General Counsels' Steering Committee.

Prior to joining NYU, Aisha spent nine years at Georgia Institute of Technology, during which time she served as the Executive Director of the Institute's Affiliated Organizations and later as its Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer and Deputy General Counsel. Before she worked at Georgia Tech, Aisha was a corporate attorney at McKenna, Long & Aldridge LLP (now Dentons) in Atlanta; and also previously worked in banking and as a high school teacher in Trinidad and Tobago.

Aisha is a graduate of Morgan State University, where she earned a B.Sc. in business management. She received her JD from Howard University School of Law.

Marie-Laure S. Romney, MD, MBA, is Senior Vice President & Chief Operating Officer at New York Presbyterian/Lower Manhattan Hospital. In this role Dr. Romney manages day-to-day operations, oversees operating and capital budgets, and implements clinical strategy at NYP Lower Manhattan.

Dr. Romney joined NYP in 2018, and most recently served as Vice President of Operations at NYP/Columbia, where she directed the administration of clinical departments. She also served as Vice Chair of Quality and Patient Safety at Columbia University Department of Emergency Medicine.

Prior to joining Columbia, she served as Director of Quality, Continuous Improvement and Patient Safety in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Kings County Hospital Center and as Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at SUNY Downstate Medical Center.

Dr. Romney holds an undergraduate degree from Cornell University, a medical degree from Rutgers University Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Steven Schall is a partner in Schall & Russo Planning Works, a firm that helps non-profits and government agencies envision and implement change. To that end, Schall & Russo provides executive search, business consulting, consensus-building and real estate consulting. Prior to establishing Schall & Russo in 2002, Mr. Schall held positions as a non-profit executive overseeing child care, supportive housing, and HIV/AIDS services; a senior level consultant and planner for community-based human service programs; and senior level planning positions in the HIV/AIDS and healthcare fields. Mr. Schall began his social work career in the late 1970s, first as a counselor at University Settlement’s Beacon, NY summer camp, followed by several social work positions in children’s services, criminal justice, and emergency room services. He has a Master of City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Master of Social Work from Hunter College CUNY and a Bachelors degree from Swarthmore College.

Harly D. Stevens is a Senior Vice President at CBRE Group, Inc., the largest full service commercial real estate firm in the world. Mr. Stevens is a skilled practitioner in solving for the complex equation of corporate image, prestigious locations and economic deal terms for corporate Manhattan headquarters requirements. Mr. Stevens is the youngest executive to ever win the Real Estate Board of New York’s “Most Ingenious Deal of the Year Award,” the industry’s highest honor. Additionally, Harly was nominated for the same award in 2015 for representing MediaMath, Inc. in planning, negotiating and executing the technology companies new 4 World Trade Center Headquarters. Recent transactions and consulting services were concluded on behalf of: Anderson Kill & Olick, LLP, Aspen Insurance Holdings, Jazz at Lincoln Center, MediaMath, New York Magazine, Oscar de la Renta, LUKOIL, Rodale, The London Stock Exchange, Trimaran Capital Partners, Vinson & Elkins, LLP and Wells Fargo. Mr. Stevens joined the University Settlement Board in 2015.

Joanna R. Weiner has served as Senior Counsel at NYC Health + Hospitals since September 2018, and leads its health care regulatory practice.   She has worked as a health care lawyer for more than 20 years serving as in-house counsel for not-for-profit hospitals and outside counsel for a variety of not-for-profit health care entities.

Outside of work, Joanna sings in a treble choir and serves on its board.  Joanna received her BA from Harvard College and her JD from Boston University School of Law.

She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, two teenagers, and their dog.

Andrew is an Investment Principal, Private Equity at BC Partners, a leading international private equity firm. Prior, he advised on mergers and acquisitions transactions, most recently at Centerview Partners. Andrew Zhu graduated from Dartmouth College with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and is bilingual, fluent in both English and Mandarin.

Ian Zilla is Executive Managing Director at Savills, working on a team that bridges the worlds of commercial real estate, corporate finance and management consulting. His prior background in computer science, technology and finance compliments his team’s quantitative strategic planning approach and financial consulting services, particularly as it relates to clients’ mission critical facilities and complex headquarters transactions. He has been an active volunteer in the City since arriving in 2000. Mr. Zilla holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Columbia University.