Inaugural Capstone Retreat

Palm Beach, Florida
January 21-23, 2023

The Adam Smith Society hosted its inaugural Capstone retreat in Palm Beach, Florida.

AGENDA   | DOWNLOAD PDF

SPEAKERS

Jeb Bush, 43rd Governor of Florida

Jeb Bush is the 43rd governor of the state of Florida and served two terms from 1999 to 2007. Governor Bush maintains his passion for improving the quality of education for students across the country by serving as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of ExcelinEd. Governor Bush was the third Republican elected as governor in Florida and the first in the state’s history to be reelected. During his two terms, Governor Bush championed major reform of government with the top priority of overhauling the state’s failing education system. Under his leadership, Florida established a bold accountability system in public schools and created the most ambitious school choice programs in the nation. Today, Florida remains a national leader in education and is one of the only states in the nation to significantly narrow the achievement gap. He is the Chairman of Finback Investment Partners and Dock Square Capital.

Charles Calomiris, Columbia University

Charles Calomiris is the Henry Kaufman Professor of Financial Institutions at Columbia Business School and director of the Business School’s Program for Financial Studies Initiative on Finance and Growth in Emerging Markets. He is currently moving to the University of Austin, where he will serve as director of the Center on Economics, Politics, and History. He recently served as chief economist in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. His research spans the areas of banking, corporate finance, financial history and monetary economics. He has published widely. His book Fragile By Design: The Political Origins of Banking Crises and Scarce Credit, received the American Publishers Award for the best book in Business, Finance, and Management.

Michael Eisenberg, Aleph

Michael Eisenberg is a General Partner at Aleph, an early-stage venture capital fund with $850M under management. Aleph focuses on partnering with great Israeli entrepreneurs to build large, meaningful companies and impactful global brands. Since its founding in 2013, Aleph has invested in over 50 companies including Lemonade, Frank, Melio, Healthy.io, JoyTunes, Fabric, Honeybook and Bringg. Prior to Aleph, Michael was a General Partner at Benchmark Capital, which he joined in July 2005, and where he continues as the partner responsible for Benchmark’s Israeli portfolio. Michael has focused on internet and software-enabled service investments since 1995. He has invested in and served on the boards of some of Israel’s leading companies and startups, such as Conduit, Gigya, Picturevison, SeekingAlpha, Shopping.com, Tradeum, and Wix. Since 2006, Michael has been writing the blog “Six Kids and a Full Time Job,” on topics from politics to technology, Judaism, and macroeconomics. He was a contributor to TheMarker, a Hebrew-language daily business newspaper, and is the author of the “Hummus Manifesto,” the seminal piece on Israel’s innovation scene. Michael has also published numerous books, including The Tree of Life and Prosperity, The Vanishing Jew, and Ben Barukh. distinguished speakers.

Keith Rabois, Founders Fund

Keith Rabois is a general partner at Founders Fund. He led the first institutional investments in DoorDash, Affirm, and co-founded Opendoor. During his venture career he also led investments in Faire, Ramp, Trade Republic, and Stripe. Keith has a unique and unparalleled track record as an entrepreneur, executive and investor. Over the last decade, he has forged several of the most important new social and commerce platforms. Keith began his career in the industry as a senior executive at PayPal and subsequently served in influential roles at LinkedIn and as chief operating officer of Square. He co-founded and currently serves as CEO of OpenStore, which acquires small direct-to-consumer businesses. As a board member, Keith guided Yelp and Xoom from inception to successful initial public offerings and served on the board of Reddit from 2012-2018. Simultaneously, he also invested in other like-minded entrepreneurs with early stakes in YouTube, Palantir, Lyft, Airbnb, Eventbrite, and Wish. Earlier in his career, Keith was a litigator at the preeminent Wall Street law firm Sullivan and Cromwell, after clerking for the United States Court of Appeals for the fifth circuit. Keith holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Stanford University and a Juris Doctor degree with honors from Harvard University.

Jamal Sowell, Former Florida Secretary of Commerce

Jamal Allen Sowell served as Florida’s Secretary of Commerce and Chief Executive Officer of Enterprise Florida from the beginning of the DeSantis administration and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. During his tenure as Secretary of Commerce, he was such an effective advocate for the Governor’s pro-business policies that the DeSantis administration called Sowell “indispensable” in making Florida “the beacon of opportunity and prosperity for the entire country.” Sowell is currently the President of Business Solutions at Indelible. Indelible is a national management consulting firm providing audit, regulatory compliance, emergency management, health education, and technology advisory services to public and private sector organizations. During law school at Indiana University Bloomington, he worked for Congressman Todd Young and Shurat HaDin, an NGO in Israel dedicated to fighting terrorist organizations through legal action. The Federalist Society selected him to be an editor for the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy Symposium. Sowell is a Pat Tillman Scholar and veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom Afghanistan. He was in the United States Marine Corps, enlisting as a Private First Class and completed his time in the Marines as a Captain. He currently serves in the United States Navy Reserve.