Daniel DiSalvo is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and an associate professor of political science in the Colin Powell School at the City College of New York–CUNY.

DiSalvo’s scholarship focuses on American political parties, elections, labor unions, state government, and public policy. He is the author of Engines of Change: Party Factions in American Politics, 1868–2010 (2012) and Government Against Itself: Public Union Power and Its Consequences (2014). DiSalvo writes frequently for scholarly and popular publications, including National Affairs, City Journal, American Interest, Commentary, The Weekly Standard, Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, and New York Post. He is coeditor of The Forum: A Journal of Applied Research in Contemporary Politics. DiSalvo holds a Ph.D. in politics from the University of Virginia.

Vik Bakshi is a 2008 graduate of the United States Military Academy and served as an Infantry officer for five years, during which time he completed Air Assault School, Airborne School, and Ranger School. In 2010, he deployed to Iraq for one year in support of Operations Iraqi Freedom and New Dawn. Following his service in the Army, Vik worked for Nucor Corporation in steel manufacturing as both an engineer and a supervisor. Recently, he graduated from the Harvard Business School, where he was co-president of the Armed Forces Alumni Association and spent a summer working in private equity with a focus on oil & gas service companies. Vik will be joining McKinsey & Company in Houston, TX, and plans to focus on the energy and industrial manufacturing sectors. Vik enjoys fitness, running, and -international travel, and is passionate about public service.

Charlie Beresford is the founder of Long Game Financial, LLC. Prior to founding Long Game, he accumulated 7.5 years of experience in equity long-only, equity long/short, and high yield investing at firms including MFS Investment Management and Citadel LLC. His experience spans a broad set of sectors, including consumer, financial services, real estate, and technology. Charlie holds an MBA with Honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a bachelor's degree in economics from Brown University.

Born and raised in China, Rob Li attended Yale University for his undergraduate degree, where he studied History and International Relations. While at Yale, Rob was a contributor to the Yale Daily News and on the school pistol shooting team.  He also organized a service trip to Yunan, China, as well as Yale’s first student-led China/U.S. conference in Washington, D.C. Rob received his MBA from Columbia Business School and is currently working at Stone Forest Capital, a global equity investment management firm. Rob is also the co-founder of Marengo and was a semifinalist on season 7 of Shark Tank.

James Lloyd is a corporate energy attorney whose principal areas of practice include mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, and private equity investments.  He was most recently appointed to advise the Presidential Transition Team on financial regulatory reform, leading the transition of the Securities and Exchange Commission. James has served at the White House as Senior Writer to President George W. Bush and a member of the national security staff, coordinating policymaking and oversight with senior officials among the Cabinet departments and agencies.  He was also a law clerk to Justice David Medina of the Supreme Court of Texas.

In 2016, James was a candidate for the Republican nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives in Texas’s Seventh Congressional District.  Taking on an entrenched incumbent, he earned the endorsements of prominent elected officials, business leaders, and the Houston Chronicle. He is a graduate of The University of Texas School of Law and Rice University, where he received the Joseph Cooper Prize in Public Policy.   

Sean Marshall is a 2018 candidate for a Master’s in Business Administration at Rice University in Houston, TX. He earned his undergraduate degree in Political Science and Philosophy from The University of Houston. He is a fifth generation Texan, native Houstonian, and father of two, Saige and Salvador Marshall. He is employed by Credit Suisse and works in their Investment Banking and Capital Markets group focusing on Oil & Gas acquisitions and divestitures. Sean has worked on two political campaigns, Barack Obama’s campaign for President in 2008 and Bill White’s campaign for Governor in 2010. He has served as a delegate at several state wide party conventions and became interested in politics at a young age. He has always been inspired by the founding of our great nation and hopes to one day give back by being in public service. 

Patrick McFawn is currently a full-time MBA and MSFS student at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and Walsh School of Foreign Service. Relocating to Washington, DC was a large factor in returning to school, as he continues to pursue a career in global project finance.

Originally from Orange County, California, Patrick has spent eight years in both institutional and entrepreneurial roles in distressed private investment management, particularly with opportunistic real estate, at Oaktree Capital Management and Arch Bay Capital, respectively. As both a financial and business analyst, his experience has been born from the need to continuously solve business problems and navigate tumultuous financial markets. He has also occasionally volunteered in the political arena and once drove in the presidential motorcade.

Patrick received bachelor degrees in Business Administration and Political Science from the University of Southern California in 2007. He also holds the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designation. While not studying, Patrick enjoys conversations over whiskey and cigars about history, economics, geopolitics, USC Trojan Football, and the power of free markets in a global environment.

Marc Orgass is an MBA Candidate at the SMU Cox School of Business with a focus on finance, strategy, and entrepreneurship. At SMU Marc has already accomplished a great deal, including winning the SMU Business Plan Competition and going on to launch the company after. Prior to seeking his MBA, Marc earned a Bachelor of Business Administration at Texas Tech University and studied Farsi at the Defense Language Institute. He used his skills in Farsi when he was enlisted as a Persian Farsi Linguist and Special Intelligence Analyst for the U.S. Army. In this role and on his 10 month deployment to Afghanistan he learned about gathering intelligence, leadership, and hard work. 

Kanika Pasricha is an MBA candidate at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Prior to this, she was a consultant at McKinsey & Company, where she advised large financial institutions on capital planning, return on capital and regulations post the financial crisis. Her other professional interests include real estate, infrastructure and capital projects. She was born in India, and attended college at Princeton University While at the Stanford GSB, Kanika has won the 10 week Berkeley-Stanford Golden Shovel Real Estate Investing Challenge as part of the Stanford team, worked on market studies in real estate (with the founder of Pacific Coast Capital Partners) and internet stocks (with the hedge fund Crescent Park), as well as worked to try to acquire a company (Aries Systems) through a search-fund esque project, and led the official study trip to India (having arranged meetings with the heads of all major conglomerates and investors), to understand the inflection and growth.

Kanika is also an avid distance runner (was on the winning Stanford team for the 200 mile Golden Gate Relay 2017), does improv theater, and loves hosting dinner parties and cooking for friends. 

Ahsan Rahim is a graduating MBA student at UPenn/Wharton, and upon graduation will be joining McKinsey & Co. in their Strategy & Corporate Finance practice in New York City (where he also interned this past summer). 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. At Wharton, Ahsan is a double major in Finance and Strategic Management.

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), 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 over 5+ years in his personal account.

Jim Royce has just finished his MBA at Georgetown McDonough School of Business and will be joining EY in Charlotte as a consultant later this summer.  He has run two businesses in his career to date, one in distribution and logistics, and the other a travel and tourism company based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Brenton Schiffer is an MBA Student at the SMU Cox School of Business and a Deans Scholarship Recipient. He currently serves on the Honor Council, is a member of the SMU Cox Leadership Forum, is pursuing a dual concentration in Finance and Real Estate, and is the Founding President of the SMU Chapter of The Adam Smith Society. He is a Vice President of the Veterans in Business Club and was recently part of a team which placed second in the 2016 NAIOP “Texas Shoot Out” Real Estate Case Competition. He completed a summer internship in commercial real estate with Jones Lang LaSalle as part of the Real Estate Investment Banking Team where he helped to underwrite over 25 deals in eight weeks. Before graduating from The University of Texas with a degree in Aerospace Engineering, Brenton had the honor of serving as the Proconsul and the Consul of the Alpha Nu Chapter of Sigma Chi. He was the Consul during the re-chartering process in the Spring of 2009. After graduation, Brenton joined the United States Navy and reported to Officer Candidate School in Newport, RI. He completed two deployments to the 7th Fleet AOR in support of missions vital to national security and was twice decorated with the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal. He completed a third deployment to the Arctic theater of operations in the spring of 2014. In his free time Brenton enjoys golf, running, and reading about free market economics.

Bob Valentine is a 2017 MBA candidate, and a Robert S. Kaplan Life Sciences Fellow at Harvard Business School.  Bob has spent over eight cumulative years in the biopharmaceutical industry, both tackling engineering problems as well as developing business processes for firms in growth and expansion phases.  In 2016, he did some of his first international work, consulting for a large food manufacturer in the Philippines in a project aiming to reduce physical waste in the capital city.  After school, Bob plans to join a consulting firm at which he will devise strategy for leading companies across multiple industries.  Bob is a strong believer in mentorship and coaching, and dedicates his time and energy to this cause, most recently with America Needs You.  Bob is a member of the Adam Smith Society and the Free Enterprise Club at Harvard Business School.

Jayson Weingarten is currently pursuing his MBA at the Wharton School after a series of roles in academia. Born and bred in the SoCal sun, Jayson attended the University of Pennsylvania for his undergraduate work where he received a Bachelors in Economics and Consumer Psychology. His studies of choice, data based decision making, and optimal efficiencies led to working in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. In addition to recruiting, evaluating, selecting, and matriculating students for undergraduate admission, he led the office’s digital marketing efforts. Simultaneous to his successful overhaul of the school’s digital strategy, he pursued a Masters degree, concentrating in Higher Education. While education remains a key passion and motivator for Jayson, he has moved out of a career in higher education to pursue his MBA in order to have a greater impact on a larger number of people. Jayson has been published in the New York Times, is a member of the Philadelphia Film Society, and hosts a top rated weekly bar trivia competition.