Senior Managing Director & Head of Americas, Green Investment Group, Macquarie Group
Partner and Board Member, Insurance Recovery Group, Blank Rome LLP
Jorrell is a Senior Executive with over 15 years of experience developing and executing global corporate strategy and strategic plans, achieving profitability in business operations, driving growth in new markets and products, implementing corporate governance structure and processes, mitigating risk, and executing M&A transactions in Developed and Emerging Markets.
At Citigroup, Jorrell is a trusted advisor to the leadership team and addresses enterprise-wide high impact strategic issues across the company’s global portfolio of businesses. He guides and executes analyses of Citigroup’s markets, competitors, and clients, and drives corporate initiatives around growth, investments, capital, and expense optimization.
Jorrell is a first-generation college graduate, and holds MBA and BA degrees from Columbia University. Originally from Trinidad & Tobago, he enjoys golfing and traveling, and resides in New Jersey with his wife and son.
Joe is an accomplished operations and sourcing leader with a career-long history in driving cost reductions and supporting billion-dollar business growth. Analytical and resourceful executive who seeks out both direct and unconventional paths to success and makes shrewd adjustments to maximize opportunity.
In a 20-year tenure as SVP of global sourcing and purchasing at 21st Century Fox, Joe spearheaded strategic sourcing, vendor management, compliance, standards, and policy to drive major cost savings and support radical business improvement across distribution, IT, networking, travel, and financial services as expenses grew from $250M to $3B. Founded and spearheaded the company’s global sourcing program, which grew to 150 strategic vendors providing services for finance, IT, distribution, networking, travel, and administrative service and served 118 business units across six continents. Selected to participate in mentoring programs with Boston University, Fordham University, American Corp Partners, and 21st Century Fox, helping to nurture the next generation of leaders.
In addition to being on the board of directors for America Needs You, New York, Joe is on the Athletic Advisory Committee, and the regional leadership council for Boston University. Joe lives in NYC.
Wendy has over 8 years of experience in investment banking, asset management, education management, and financial planning/analysis at top bulge bracket banks, elite boutiques, charter schools, and startups.
Wendy currently serves as FP&A manager at Boxed, a wholesale grocery ecommerce company, where she is responsible for reporting operational and financial metrics and coordinating annual planning processes. Prior to Boxed, she served as FP&A Manager at GAN Integrity, a tech start-up focusing on integrated compliance solutions. Prior to GAN Integrity, Wendy joined Success Academy (SA) as a part of the inaugural class of Robertson Leadership Fellows. In that role, she experienced firsthand the joys and challenges of teaching as she taught first graders foundational concepts in math and phonics. Prior to SA, Wendy was a senior analyst at Evercore Partners, a New York-based investment bank offering premier advisory services. As a member of the Private Capital Advisory (PCA) team, she developed financial models for underlying portfolio assets and executed mandated deals and pitches across several LP-led, GP-led, and real estate capital advisory transactions in the secondary markets. Past transactions included facilitating a competitive auction process for a $1.4bn+ sale of limited partnership interests and also evaluating returns of acquisition and development assets in a $850mm senior housing recapitalization proposal. Prior to PCA, Wendy was an investment associate in the wealth management arm of Evercore managing the taxable fixed income platform, performing due diligence on traditional and alternative assets, and conducting capital market and valuation research. Prior to joining Evercore, Wendy was a rotational analyst at Citigroup providing customized investment solutions for high net worth individuals in both a client-facing and analytical capacity.
Wendy graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in Political Science and a B.S. in Economics and holds a CFA charter. As a first-generation immigrant, she has benefited immensely from the tutelage and guidance of mentors throughout her life and is happy to pay it forward as a working professional. Joining America Needs You in 2013, she has served as a three-time mentor coach (2014, 2016, 2020), Vice-Chair of the Mentor Leadership Council running programmatic events, and CFO Officer of the Associate Board managing fundraising contributions.
William Gerald Demas is a Vice President at Macquarie Capital, where he focuses on principal investment and advisory in the Energy Infrastructure & Renewables sectors. Before Macquarie, he focused on renewable energy advisory at Ewing Bemiss & Co. and cleantech private equity and venture capital at Good Energies. He began his career at Lazard Frères, in the Technology, Media & Telecommunications group, where he also helped form the firm’s Renewable Energy practice.
A common theme throughout William’s career has been a distinct interest in developing economies, particularly in the Caribbean, Latin America and Middle East. The son of a Trinidadian father and Guyanese mother, William was born in Brooklyn, New York. After his family moved to Northeast Ohio, Gerald grew up an avid Cleveland sports fan, which has led to many years of heartbreak.
William received an A.B. in Economics from Harvard University. While at Harvard, he led and was involved in several community-focused organizations. He currently serves as an advisor to a number of promising start-up and growth-stage companies in various sectors. He is also a 2011 Mentor Coach alumnus.
Charlene Perilla-Iqbal is the Deputy Program Director of the Strategic Communication program at Columbia University School of Professional Studies. In this role, she is responsible for leading the graduate program’s co-curriculum programming, industry partnerships, student/alumni engagement, marketing, and recruitment efforts. Having worked at higher education institutions in Switzerland and Saudi Arabia, she joined the School of Professional Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York in 2017.
Charlene has over 15 years of strategic management experience in the international development, higher education and social impact sectors. Throughout her professional career, Charlene has worked in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
Charlene holds a BA from Webster University in International Relations, an MS in Population & Development from the London School of Economics (LSE), and an MS in Strategic Communication from Columbia University.
As a first-generation college graduate, Charlene is passionate about education,
mentorship and women empowerment. Charlene lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and their three children.
Fitz Robertson is currently a Principal of Client and Partner Group at KKR & Co. Inc. and former Vice President within J.P. Morgan’s Global Asset Management unit, a global leader in investment management with $2.8 trillion in client assets. He is responsible for managing some of the largest strategic relationships within the unit and for positioning the firm’s Investment capabilities.
Mr. Robertson joined J.P. Morgan in 2010. He was previously the Head of Market Insights, Asia-Pacific. In this role, he led the strategy, execution, and distribution of the firm’s intellectual capital in Asia across the Global Funds and Institutional businesses. He also served on the leadership team for Investment Management Asia-Pacific and in Corporate Strategy functions in Global Funds and Investment Management Asia-Pacific. Outside of J.P. Morgan Asset Management, he held roles in Investment Banking and Private Equity at various firms.
Mr. Robertson received his B.A. from Hampden-Sydney College and his M.B.A. from Columbia Business School. He is a member of the Board of Trustees for the South Kent School in Connecticut.
After a 40 year career with Macys, Inc, in April 2019 Donna started an independent executive consulting business advising on both domestic and international retail strategies, specializing in Home products, leadership mentoring strategies, and team development. Appointed Executive Vice president at Macys Merchandising Group, February 2015 after serving in several roles before elevating to SVP Textiles, she started her career at Macy’s in sales, joining the Executive Training Squad in November of 1979, assuming many Home Store roles.
As EVP, Donna was responsible for the design, product development and sourcing of Home Private Brands. In this role she developed strong vendor relations worldwide including Asia, Europe as well as in the domestic marketplace. Her accomplishments include the successful Hotel Collection eventually expanded to all Home categories, originally launched in 2004 in bed and bath. She was responsible for the Martha Stewart Home Collection – the largest product launch in the history of Macy’s. She is also credited with building brands through a strong partnership with sister division Bloomingdales, the only business sourced through MMG. Known for building brands reflecting keen assortment building and merchandising skills that provide the customer with logical choices at strategic pricing tiers in an evolving marketplace.
A results oriented executive, Donna grew private label to #1 brand at superior margins through her strong leadership and thorough knowledge of Home product. She is particularly recognized for her cross functional and team building skills and strong leadership abilities, and has served as a leader in corporate sponsored ‘give back’ and diversity initiatives at Macy’s. She has also sat on numerous internal committees, including the Customer Strategy committee Co-leader of the millennial committee for Home, and the Home Reinvent.
Jared Zola is a partner in Blank Rome’s policyholder-only insurance recovery practice. One of the nation’s preeminent policyholder lawyers, Jared advocates for commercial clients in high-stakes, complex litigation and corporate transactions. He represents policyholders against their insurance companies as trial counsel in precedent-setting lawsuits across the nation and at the deal table as insurance counsel on multi-billion dollar mergers and acquisitions. Jared uses his courtroom and real world experience to provide clients with practical, business-focused solutions to complex legal issues. He has helped clients secure more than one billion dollars in insurance recoveries.
Jared is ranked highly in insurance by Chambers USA and Legal 500. Lexology named him the United States’ 2020 Client Choice Award winner in Insurance based on client nominations and recommendations. In 2019, the New York Law Journal named Jared a “New York Trailblazer” in its inaugural list. Law360 named him a “Top Attorney Under 40” in four consecutive years for his work on behalf of insurance policyholders—he is the only attorney to ever be named a “Rising Star” more than once in the insurance category.
Jared is a Fellow of the American College of Coverage Counsel, an invitation-only organization dedicated to improving the quality of the practice of insurance law and to increasing civility and professionalism in the field. The ACCC engages in a rigorous vetting process prior to inviting a lawyer to become a Fellow, with its members including many of the most prominent advocates in the insurance law bar.
Jared’s accomplishments for policyholders on a national stage has led to frequent invitations to share his thoughts on cutting-edge issues facing his clients. Jared is a frequent analyst for the Washington Post, NBC News, CBS News, Business Insurance, Insurance Business America, and Law360.
Matt Blank, along with his two business partners, founded BB Living in 2011 in Phoenix, Arizona. BB Living is a real estate development firm that specializes in building single family rental communities. BB Living operates in five states currently and is rapidly expanding in one of the fastest growing segments of the real estate industry. Matt is also a co-founder of Blank Property Group (“BPG”), which specializes in acquiring and redeveloping Multifamily properties in New York City. Prior to forming BB Living and BPG, Matt worked as an analyst at Long Pond Capital, which is a real estate focused hedge fund. He began his career at Morgan Stanley Real Estate, and has a JD/MBA from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the Wharton School of Business. Matt also attended the University of Pennsylvania for his undergraduate studies.
Matt lives in New York City with his wife, Lindsay, and their three elementary-aged children.
Leonard Bell (“Lenny”) is an Executive Director on the Investor Sales Macro desk at Standard Chartered Bank. He covers Hedge Funds, Real Money and Pension Funds. Prior to joining SCB, Lenny spent 8 years at Deutsche Bank, and a short time at Credit Suisse on the New York FX sales desks. He began his finance career in Chicago at JPMorgan Chase in banking, and has an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and a B.A. in Finance from Morehouse College.
Lenny enjoys travelling with his wife and 2 kids, golf, all things Chicago (except the Cubs), is a part owner of a CrossFit in Brooklyn, and has been on national television twice on HGTV and Oprah.
