Craig Smith

Dr. Craig Smith is the Adam Smith Senior Lecturer in the Scottish Enlightenment at the University of Glasgow. Prior to this he was a Lecturer in the Moral Philosophy Department at St Andrews. A graduate of Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities, he has written a number of articles on liberal political theory and is the author of Adam Smith's Political Philosophy: The Invisible Hand and Spontaneous Order (Routledge, 2006), was one of the editors of the Oxford Handbook of Adam Smith (OUP, 2013), and is co-editing the second edition of The Cambridge Companion to the Scottish Enlightenment. His current research projects focus on Adam Ferguson and the idea of civil society and on the marginalia in Adam Smith’s Library.

Alison Mangiero is the senior director for the Manhattan Institute’s Adam Smith Society. Since its inception she has grown the Society from one student group at Harvard to over 25 chapters and 6,500 members. She is also Director of the College of the Holy Cross's New York City Program, which allows students to spend a semester in New York combining experiential learning with an academic seminar and capstone project. She teaches courses on Leadership Studies and Public Policy for the group. Alison was previously an instructor of political science at Holy Cross, and managed the Manhattan Institute’s higher education reform efforts as director of its Center for the American University. Ms. Mangiero earned a B.A. from the University of Richmond, and an M.A. in political science from Boston College, where she is currently a Ph.D. candidate. She serves on the Executive Board of Advisors for the University of Richmond's Jepson School of Leadership Studies.

Sruti Balakrishnan is a Sr. Associate at McKinsey & Co. in Chicago, and a 2017 graduate of The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Before joining Booth, Sruti worked in the education sector, serving as the Deputy Director of Jobs Initiatives for Hope Street Group, an education and workforce development nonprofit. There, she helped Fortune 500 companies revamp their hiring strategies to attract and retain nontraditional candidates. Additionally, she served as the Vice President of Content at Kibbit, an education technology startup, where she created online courses designed to help college students land their first job. She graduated with distinction from the University of Virginia in 2011, majoring in Commerce and Economics.

Marcus Bellows

Marcus Bellows is an Associate at the investment bank Houlihan Lokey, where he is a member of the Financial Restructuring Group and advises companies and creditors on in-court bankruptcies and out of court reorganizations. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where he first became involved with the Manhattan Institute through the Adam Smith Society. Originally from Minnesota, Marcus is a resident of New York City and enjoys spending time with his wife and two children, running, cycling, and hunting.

Case Carpenter

Case Carpenter is a second year at the Yale School of Management where he is a leader of the Private Equity & Venture Club, Senator in the Graduate and Professional Student Senate, and leader of the Adam Smith Society’s SOM chapter. Before SOM, Case spent time as a TMT private equity investor at Second Alpha Partners and as an investment banking analyst at Houlihan Lokey. He spent last summer at Foxhaven Asset Management, a Long/Short investment fund. Originally from Connecticut, Case received a B.S. from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia and is a graduate of Choate Rosemary Hall.

Quinn Connelly

Quinn Connelly is a second-year MBA student at Vanderbilt University. Previously, he worked as a Legislative Assistant in Congress, where he advised on energy, environmental, and economic policy. This past summer he worked at Duke Energy, and he is interested in the utility sector. Quinn grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, before moving to the U.K., where he obtained an M.A. in Modern History at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Gilat Cutler

Gilat Cutler is an entrepreneur, strategist, and marketing professional with experience building business opportunities, launching new products, managing operations, and optimizing performance in multiple industries.  She has consulted with numerous companies over her career including Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Oceanspray, Mars, Colgate Palmolive, Chase, and Citigroup among others.  She has a passion for health tech, specifically focusing on empowering people to take control of their health through health education and online coaching.  Gilat has an MBA from The Wharton School and a BS from Cornell University.    

Andrew Donsbach

Andrew is a full-time MBA Candidate at Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business with a concentration in Marketing. He holds two B.S. degrees in Marketing & Management from Eastern Illinois University, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude. At Baylor, Andrew serves as a Business Plan Advisor for the Prison Entrepreneurship Program and as the President of both The Adam Smith Society and Graduate Business Association. He also works as a Marketing Graduate Assistant in both Baylor Campus Recreation and the Hankamer School of Business Office of Career Management. Before choosing to pursue his MBA, he worked extensively with brand development, creative strategy and social media marketing in several start-up environments for over three years. Most recently, Andrew worked as an MBA Intern in the Enterprise Strategy & Marketing department with USAA in San Antonio, Texas. When Andrew is not working or at school, he loves spending time with people. He enjoys running, playing tennis, exploring new cities and watching sports – especially Cardinals baseball and Cowboys football!

David Galiyas

David Galiyas is a second-year MBA Candidate and Booz & Company (now Strategy&) Scholars Fund in Business scholarship student at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, focusing in Economics, Finance, and Organizational Behavior. A native of Dexter, Michigan, he graduated with Cum Laude honors from the University of Notre Dame in 2011, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and was named to the Omicron Delta Epsilon Economics Honor Society. While at Notre Dame he was a Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) scholarship midshipman, and commissioned as an Ensign in the United States Navy upon graduation. He completed two active duty tours as a Surface Warfare Officer, deploying to the Western Pacific and representing the United States at the UNITAS multinational exercise in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. At the Tepper School he is a Vice President of the Graduate Finance Association and Veterans Association clubs, and an Executive Board member of the school’s Adam Smith Society chapter. Outside of school he is an Officer-inCharge of a Naval Reserve unit, and a member of the Steel City Vets and Service to School veterans organizations. He is an avid reader, hiker, and Pittsburgh sports fan.

Alex Gass

Alex specializes in data-oriented strategic problem solving, helping clients utilize their existing data systems to identify business opportunities, manage operational costs, and strengthen relationships with customers and strategic partners. During his time at AlixPartners, he has led client engagements across the United States and Europe in a variety of industries and specialties including advanced analytics, operational improvement, restructuring and litigation. His focus is in technology and retail, utilizing advanced analytics and tools such as SQL and Access to identify critical data-driven business insights. Alex holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

Peter Grace

Peter Grace is a second-year student and Co-President of the Adam Smith Society at UCLA Anderson. Prior to business school, he spent six years in the Washington, DC and Boston offices of Spencer Stuart, where he recruited CEOs for private equity backed companies that required a change in leadership after being acquired. In this role, he developed a deep understanding of how social capital and human capital can contribute to a sponsor’s outsized returns on invested capital. Peter joined Spencer Stuart after earning his A.B. in Philosophy, magna cum laude, from Georgetown University. While at Georgetown, he worked at the American Enterprise Institute for the late Michael Novak, a leading writer on the interaction between morality, politics, religion, and economy. Upon graduation from UCLA Anderson in 2018, Peter will join the investment bank Harris Williams & Co. at their headquarters in Richmond, Virginia.

Ashley Jacobson

Ashley Jacobson is currently a management consultant solving executives' most critical business problems from how to launch a new product to how to design an effective, international organization to meet future business needs. She also has extensive experience as a marketing leader, managing teams of agencies to deliver innovative, integrated campaigns that drive brand equity and sales for global brands. Throughout her life, Ashley has been passionate about having a global impact. She earned her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University with a focus in International Business. She has consulted with clients in Turkey and managed teams in India, and is looking forward to continuing to engage with diverse teams. Her interest in the global economy is what first intrigued Ashley about the Adam Smith Society. As a founder of the Boston Professional Chapter and current host committee member, she is excited to bring economists to Boston for events. Ashley's other volunteer efforts are focused on protecting the environment and promoting arts education.

Liliya Leontyeva

Liliya Leontyeva is a Co-President of Adam Smith Society at SMU Cox School of Business chapter is Dallas where she pursues MBA in Finance & Entrepreneurship.  She will graduate in May of 2018 and will be working at Goldman Sacs Investment Management Division in Dallas as an Advisor.  Prior to her MBA she worked as a consultant at Deloitte Consulting traveling around the world and helping companies to solve their talent issues.  In parallel, she also oversees her family business in Ukraine, the country she left 11 years ago to try her luck in the land of opportunities.  She is a strong believer in the free market and invisible hand of capitalism.  She considers it her duty to share the story of failed socialism that she saw in Ukraine with everyone who is willing to listen. 

Laura Miller is a full time MBA candidate from USC Marshall School of Business. She was born and raised in Toronto, Canada and graduated with a B.A. in International Economics and Finance in 2007 and an M.A. in Economics in 2008 from Ryerson University. Following her Master’s degree, Laura went on to work for a Non-Profit in Toronto that structured training programs for Financial Regulatory and Supervisory bodies internationally. Laura traveled around the world to areas in Africa, Europe, and Latin America to run these programs. Realizing the Non-Profit world was not the right fit, in 2010, Laura went on to start a company in the advertising technology space. After working internationally and living day and night on her BlackBerry, she realized there was a big need for out-of-home phone charging options. After validating the market and finding investors, she went on to launch a company that would address this need. The company designed, built and deployed free phone charging systems across Canada in areas where people would need to charge their phones while out of home and where advertisers would want to target a certain demographic. The stations were supported by digital advertising in networks on University College Campuses, Shopping Malls, and Resto-Bars. The company deployed thousands of units before selling its’ assets to a sales partner in 2016. Over the summer, she interned as a New Business Development Intern in Commercial and Industrial IoT at Qualcomm in San Diego, California.

Michael Pearson was born in Weston, Massachusetts and attended Tufts University where he majored in economics.  After graduation Michael remained in the Boston area where he held various positions in the hedge fund, restaurant and real estate sectors before a longing for adventure, and more personally fulfilling work, prompted a move to New York City.  Pursuing his passion for the craft beer industry, Michael worked his way up to become the northeast regional sales manager for Shmaltz Brewing Company.  After a trip to the Buddhist temples of Myanmar and a walk along the Great Wall of China, Michael saw a new career path and left Shmaltz to apply for business school to develop the skills to transition from sales to marketing.  He enrolled at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and spent the summer between his first and second year of study at United Parcel Service in Atlanta, Georgia where he worked in internal strategy developing a new go-to-market European e-commerce strategy.  Currently, Michael is a second-year MBA candidate with a concentration in marketing.  He loves his daily bicycle commute to school, cooking, reading, writing beer reviews and staying current with local restaurant news.  He lives with his girlfriend in Carrboro, North Carolina.

Seth Randall completed his undergraduate degree in business management at Brigham Young University with an emphasis in supply chain management. After graduation he worked at the headquarters of Walmart Stores, Inc. managing inventory for a $3.5 billion dollar category. He is currently enrolled in the MBA program at Brigham Young University. He loves economics and enjoys reading books from his favorite thought leaders which include Ayn Rand, Malcom Gladwell, Thomas Sowell, and Milton Freidman. His favorite podcast is NPR’s “Planet Money.”  His hobbies include: golf, tennis, wakeboarding, and mountain biking. His long term passion would be to teach economics at a world class university.

Valentin Schmidt is an engineer from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is passionate about technology and during this past summer he interned at Sprinklr, a big data company focused on providing enterprise social media management tools. He has previously worked as an Operations Engineer in different manufacturing industries (pharma, automotive and steel), specializing in logistics and maintenance. He is a trained engineer with a specialization in mechatronics and is currently going through his MBA program at NYU Stern of Business. He enjoys basketball, FPS video games and dogs.

Brian Sugrue is a Vice President at AB Bernstein, based in the Boston office. He advises ultra-high net worth individuals and families, foundations and endowments, on investment management, strategy, and international jurisdictional matters. Prior to joining AB Bernstein, Sugrue was Director of Strategy and Development at Boston 2024, working to bring the Olympic Games to Boston. Previously, Sugrue was an analyst and investment manager at Granahan Investment Management, a small cap growth firm in Boston, and was an analyst at Off Wall Street consulting group, a renowned investment research firm in Cambridge, MA. Formerly, Sugrue was a professional triathlete, representing Ireland at European and World Championship level. He current sits on the U.S. Advisory Boards of Concern Worldwide and Self­Help Africa, and is a representative on the North American alumni board of University College Dublin. Sugrue graduated summa cum laude from UCO with a degrees in Finance and in Law, and completed graduate studies at Harvard in Psychology and Behavioral Economics.