Christopher Martin is an assistant professor of economics at Hillsdale College in Michigan. Previously, he has taught at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma and was a John Marshall Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Richmond's Jepson School of Leadership Studies. He is a 2012 graduate of George Mason University's doctoral economics program. Before his academic career Chris served for several years as an educational programs manager at the Institute for Humane Studies. A transplanted Southerner, he endures winters in the Upper Midwest with his wife and two children. 

Chris is passionate about free minds and free markets. After earning a history degree at Yale and a master's degree in European studies at Oxford, Chris moved to the D.C. area to spearhead innovative educational programs for students and academics. It was during his three years as Education Director at the Institute for Humane Studies that he was inspired to return to academia. He pursued a PhD in economics because of the discipline's ability to provide a very rational way of analyzing the world. His current research interests include economic history, constitutional political economy, and labor economics. Fittingly, his dissertation, "Sympathy in Economics," focused heavily on Adam Smith.

Kelly Barber is the Assistant Director of Programs at the Center for the Study of Liberty. In her role, she develops programs designed to engage people with an appetite for knowledge and a spirit of open inquiry. Before joining the Center, Kelly served as an On-Campus Education Program Manager at the Institute for Humane Studies and as Marketing and Communications Manager at Students for Liberty. She graduated with a BA in History from the University of Florida. Currently, she lives in Oakland, California. In her free time, she enjoys doing Crossfit, reading, traveling, and spending time outdoors.

The Center for the Study of Liberty is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the building of a free society by creating spaces for civil conversations among independent thinkers. They collaborate with individuals and groups across the country to organize events where un-likeminded people can come together to expand their perspectives through intellectual discussion about important political and social questions. By connecting people to world-class thinkers and doers, the Center empowers them to unleash their potential as leaders in making the world a better place.

Jordan is a fourth-year JD-MBA candidate at Yale Law School and Stanford GSB, where he is the chapter co-president of the Adam Smith Society.

In addition to pursuing his joint degree, Jordan also serves as a principal for a Silicon Valley Angel Investor Network and advises former Alphabet-Chairman Eric Schmidt through a newly-created venture philanthropy, Schmidt Futures. He leads the domestic prosperity portfolio, which focuses on fostering entrepreneurship, promoting workforce education and re-training, and building platforms for life-long learning.

Previously, Jordan served five years as a Marine Infantry Officer with two combat deployments to the Middle East.  He also served as a counter-terror advisor to former CIA Director General Michael Hayden and former DIA Director David Shedd. 

Jordan graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School.

Konstantine is a VP at Meritech Capital, the leading late-stage VC fund. Meritech is a small team of just seven investors including Konstantine. Konstantine focuses on data-first enterprise and consumer businesses.

Prior to joining the team he worked at tech startups including RelateIQ and Italia Innovation and also spent time at McKinsey & Company in New York and The Pritzker Group in Chicago. Konstantine’s entrepreneurial journey began at a young age, when he founded an internationally recognized emergency management organization. For eight years, he collaborated with companies and NGOs, spoke at conferences, and built software for the U.S.

Department of Homeland Security.

While serving as the Stanford VC Club President for 4 years, Konstantine did technical diligence for early-stage VC firms including Accel, DFJ, General Catalyst, and Redpoint. Konstantine conducted key diligence and sourcing for companies including Viz.ai, Tock, Tango, Contrast, and Bubbies. He actively advises several startups in Silicon Valley.

Konstantine holds a B.S. in Management Science & Engineering with a minor in Art History, an M.S. in Computer Science with an Artificial Intelligence concentration and an M.B.A., all from Stanford University. He is a recipient of the Terman Engineering Award, Mayfield Fellowship and is an Arjay Miller scholar. He is a member of the Tau Beta Pi and Phi Beta Kappa Honor Societies, received the top GPA in his engineering department, and was selected as the Stanford Baccalaureate speaker.

Konstantine likes to skateboard, play squash, and travel.

Michael Cherkassky is the CEO of Stratyfy, a funded start-up in New York providing analytics solutions to banks and lenders. 15 years ago, Michael flew planes in the Israeli Air Force and served in special forces. 10 years before that he stood in line for bread in Soviet Ukraine. In between, he was part of a startup in Israel, got Computer Science education and an MBA from Columbia Business School, worked at companies like Intel and McKinsey and became a father to Jonathan, his 2.5-year-old son.

Michael seen the impact of free markets first hand and, unfortunately, seen the impact of

non-free markets as well.

Michael is fortunate to be able to hike, trek and climb mountains on all five continents.

Paul Harraka is in his second year of the MBA Program at Stanford.

Harraka is a former NASCAR driver, having won 14 races and a NASCAR championship before retiring to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities. Those entrepreneurial opportunities, a unique equity platform and a predictive analytics company, led him to Verizon, where he ran a customer experience analytics engine.

Harraka received his bachelor's degree from Duke University in 2012 and is an ambassador for Childhelp, a nonprofit dedicated to abused, neglected, and at-risk children.

Julie is an entrepreneur in the healthcare field. She currently works with two other colleagues on developing a portfolio of drug delivery devices for treating cancer. Currently medications are delivered via an intravenous line or by mouth, however recent advances in medical technology have offered other means via drug delivery devices. The team is focused on delivering approved cytotoxic agents where the therapeutic window is limited by toxicity. They test various devices head to head in pre-clinical models and rapidly advance the prototypes that exhibit the most robust efficacy. Their target is directly the medical device companies and indirectly physicians.

Bhavesh Pranav is an MBA candidate at Southern Methodist University and Co-founder of Phylomics, a Maryland-based, biotech startup focused on the early detection of cancer. Bhavesh earned a dual Master's in Biophysics and Physiology from Georgetown University and completed a practicum and fellowship at Yale University.

As a startup co-founder and the President of the SMU MBA Entrepreneurship Club the development and promotion of entrepreneurship is central to his activities. Through his continued participation with the Adam Smith Society, Bhavesh hopes to expand his perspective and address how new business can generate prosperity across the socio-economic spectrum.

Emily Smith is enrolled at BYU's MBA program, and their entrepreneurship focus is magnifying her passion for

startups and training her to take her entrepreneurial energy and pour it into the roles that she is seeking in the VC & startup world.

Raised in the two hottest startup spots in America, it's no wonder she got bit. She spent her summer between 1st & 2nd years of MBA school at Peak Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and it was the perfect blend of startup strategy and energy. During her MBA, Emily has started two businesses: 1. Mentionables is a model-free lingerie company, 2. Tanlines Swim is a modest swimwear company. It’s challenging, thrilling, and she's addicted for life.

The startup bug bit young and deep. Between the late nights at her mom's startup and early

morning brainjamming sessions with her serial fatherpreneur Emily developed a hunger for

innovation that cannot be quenched. She had a fling with her first startup at 19 and built a little something: her first taste of the good stuff. She spent the years between undergrad and MBA working at a SF naming firm. You name it, they've named it - from robotics to food and beverage (Mac & Cheetos anyone?) Naming exposed her to both a killer brand-name-creation skill-set and so much more. She got to jump in at that exact moment when an entrepreneur’s dream transitioned to reality. They took their dreams and literally named them.

Chris is currently working on launching a venture fund investing in urban technologies (smart cities.) Prior to VC, he founded four startups, ran a venture accelerator for Northwestern student-founded companies, and most recently served as the first Head of North America for a high-growth affordable luxury brand from London. He co-founded the Harvard Real Estate Venture Competition, the first prop-tech venture competition in the US, and is an investor member of the Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of NY. He is an avid skier, amateur musician, and lover of food, wine, travel, and science.

Chris holds a B.A. in Physics from Northwestern University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Mark Weber is a Fellow at the MIT Legatum Center for Development & Entrepreneurship and a project manager at the MIT Media Lab's Digital Currency Initiative, a research group focused on shepherding the development of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. Focused on financial inclusion, Mark leads the DCI's research on blockchain asset registries and has developed a prototype for inventory-based lending. Mark also manages DCI's working groups, cross-functional teams of students from across MIT hacking on pressing issues connected to cryptocurrencies and related technologies.

Prior to MIT, Mark co-produced the critically acclaimed documentary, "Poverty, Inc." (available on Netflix), which has earned over 50 international film festival honors, the $100,000 Templeton Freedom award, TV broadcast deals in 12 countries, and praise across the political spectrum, from Michael Moore to Nobel laureate Angus Deaton. Drawing on over 200 interviews from 20 countries, the film critiques the Western development establishment and its tendency to undermine local markets, cultures, and governance. Learn more and see Mark's post-screening Q&A's at www.povertyinc.org.

Mark has served as a guest speaker at over 100 organizations including Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School, Stanford University, NYU (hosted by Bill Easterly), Cornell School of Management, Copenhagen Business School, Engineers Without Borders Annual Leadership Summit, Global Health Corps (hosted by Barbara Bush), IBM Watson Research Headquarters, and the MIT Tech Review.

Mark is a graduate of the "Great Books" program at the University of Notre Dame, an intensive curriculum heavy in philosophy and theology, history, economics, science, and literature.

Ahsan Rahim is an Associate at McKinsey & Co. in their Strategy & Corporate Finance practice in New York City where he primarily focuses on work in the private equity and principal investing space. He graduated from the MBA program at the Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania) in May 2017 with a double major in Finance and Strategic Management. Before beginning his MBA at Wharton, Ahsan worked for four years at AllianceBernstein, a large fund manager: initially in fixed income and then in global macro/asset allocation investing groups both in the New York headquarters. Ahsan graduated from Grinnell College in Iowa with a Bachelors (with honors) in Economics, Phi Beta Kappa.

In terms of interests, he loves food and trying out new restaurants and cuisines, boxing, soccer (having supported Arsenal since 2003), off-Broadway theater/comedy, European impressionist art from 1850-1900s (favorite artists include Rousseau, Hugo, Cezanne, Seurat, Boldini), NYC history, international travel and meeting new people from all backgrounds and perspectives. Openness of thoughts and ideas is fundamental to learning and growing, and Ahsan is pleased to be part of the Adam Smith Society that encourages open minds and free markets. Investing is a deep interest of his, and he has invested in equities, fixed income and derivatives for 6+ years in his personal account.