Amy Bunszel ’89, Executive VP, Autodesk

As Executive Vice President, Architecture, Engineering and Construction Design Solutions, Amy manages product strategy and execution for Autodesk’s 3D design portfolio including the Autodesk Architecture, Engineering and Construction Collection, AutoCAD family, Autodesk Revit, and more.

With more than 20 years’ of experience innovating software products across the architecture, engineering, and construction, manufacturing and media and entertainment industries, Amy inspires innovative strategy while driving large-scale agile software development around the globe. Amy combines her roots as a start-up co-founder with deep product management knowledge and large-scale product execution expertise to build high performing teams focused on delivering value to their customers.

Josh Wolfe ’99, Co-Founder, Lux Capital

Josh co-founded Lux Capital to support scientists and entrepreneurs who pursue counter-conventional solutions to the most vexing puzzles of our time in order to lead us into a brighter future. The more ambitious the project, the better—like, say, creating matter from light.

Josh is a Director at Shapeways, Strateos, Lux Research, Kallyope, CTRL-labs, Variant, and Varda, and helped lead the firm’s investments in Anduril, Planet, Echodyne, Clarifai, Authorea, Resilience and Hadrian. He is a founding investor and board member with Bill Gates in Kymeta, making cutting-edge antennas for high-speed global satellite and space communications. Josh is a Westinghouse semi-finalist and published scientist. He previously worked in investment banking at Salomon Smith Barney and capital markets at Merrill Lynch. In 2008 Josh co-founded and funded Kurion, a contrarian bet in the unlikely business of using advanced robotics and state-of-the-art engineering and chemistry to clean up nuclear waste. The company was among the first responders to the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. In February 2016, Veolia acquired Kurion for nearly $400 million—34 times Lux’s total investment.

Josh is a columnist with Forbes and Editor for the Forbes/Wolfe Emerging Tech Report. He has been invited to The White House and Capitol Hill to advise on nanotechnology and emerging technologies, and a lecturer at MIT, Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Columbia and NYU. He is a term member at The Council on Foreign Relations and Chairman of Coney Island Prep charter school, where he grew up in Brooklyn. He graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in Economics and Finance.

Kate Ryder, Founder & CEO, Maven

Kate Ryder is the founder and CEO of Maven, the largest virtual clinic for women’s and family health. Maven’s mission is to change the health of the world — one woman, one family at a time. Prior to founding Maven in 2014, Kate worked in venture capital and as a journalist, writing for The Economist from Southeast Asia, New York and London and for The New Yorker. In 2009, she worked with former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, helping him write his memoirs about the financial crisis. Kate has been named to Fortune’s 40 Under 40 and to Fast Company’s “Most Creative People” and has spoken on stage at industry events including the Forbes Healthcare Summit, Fortune Brainstorm Health, the Oliver Wyman Health Innovation Summit and HLTH. Kate received her B.A. from the University of Michigan and her MSc from the London School of Economics. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and three children.

Smoke Wallin ’88, Managing Director, STS Capital Partners, Exec Chair & Founder Taliera, Exec Chair & Co-Founder, Vertical Wellness

Smoke is a highly accomplished CEO, entrepreneur, leader, board member and philanthropist with leadership across the consumer products, beverage, cannabis, hospitality, health & wellness, distribution, M&A, and technology industries.  Smoke is Co-Founder & Director of DignityMoves.Org created to end unsheltered street homelessness in our communities by building Interim Supportive Housing with rapid, cost-effective, scalable solutions.

Smoke serves as MD/partner at STS Capital a global boutique investment bank focused on M&A. He serves as Chair of Taliera, a company he founded in 2006 to incubate and celebrate iconic beverage brands. He is Chair/Co-Founder of Vertical Wellness a health & wellness brand company. Smoke serves on the boards of publicly traded cannabis firms, Adastra and Vencanna (CSE: XTRX.CN and VENI.CN).

He has led >$1.7 billion in M&A, deals and financings, publicly and privately.  Smoke helped build National Wine & Spirits (merged into $12.5B RNDC) into one of the largest distributors of beer, wine and spirits in the US and served as Chair/Pres. of the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA). He has been an active leader in YPO  Young President Organization and is incoming Chair for YPO’s Pacific One chapter. He regularly contributes to CNBC’s Fast Money, Closing Bell and Nightly Business Report, Fox Business’ Varney & Co., and CNN Headline News.

Smoke earned an MBA @Vanderbilt and a BS in Ag Ec @Cornell,  wrestled and Sigma Nu. He is an Eagle Scout & father of two Eagle Scout sons and two amazing daughters, who all, most importantly, are good humans. He lives with his singer/songwriter wife Anitra in Ventura, CA.

Dr. Lara Sullivan ’94, President & CEO, Pyxis Oncology

Dr. Lara S. Sullivan is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Pyxis Oncology. Prior to joining Pyxis Oncology, Lara was Founding President of SpringWorks Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SWTX), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company she conceived of, founded, and spun out from Pfizer. As a biotech entrepreneur and advisor, Lara has leveraged her expertise in asset evaluation, portfolio management, and start-up financing to raise nearly $500 million of capital from seed stage through IPO. While at Pfizer, Lara held a variety of executive roles including Vice President, Pfizer Medical and Vice President, Worldwide Research & Development, where she led strategy, competitive intelligence and portfolio operations for the company’s early-stage R&D pipeline. Earlier in her career, Lara held a variety of roles in management consulting, private equity, and investment banking. Lara holds an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. in Comparative Literature from Cornell University.

Marcus Bullock, Founder & CEO, Flikshop

Marcus Bullock is an entrepreneur, justice reform advocate, and TED speaker. Following his 2004 release from prison, he launched a construction business that grew to employ other returning citizens. Bullock is also founder and CEO of Flikshop, Inc., a software company that builds tools to help incarcerated people stay connected to their families and build community. The Flikshop mobile app enables families and non-profit organizations to send personalized postcards to any person in any cell in the US, with the mission of using social connections to decrease recidivism. He also founded the Flikshop School of Business, a program that teaches returning citizens life skills and entrepreneurship via computer coding and software development. As Forbes writes, “Will Flikshop, the Instagram for prisons, solve all of [the mass incarceration] issues? No. But Flikshop typifies the sort of work that needs support to scale to address these issues from many angles.” Bullock is an inaugural cohort member of Techstars Anywhere and John Legend’s Unlocked Futures business accelerators. He was selected as one of The Root’s 100 Most Influential African Americans in the US. Shortly after, Bullock was named a 2020 Halcyon Incubator Fellow. Additional awards include: Aspen Ideas Award, WBJ 40 under 40, US State Park Distinguished 400 Award, and 2021 EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Finalist. He is a member of the Justice Policy Institute’s board of directors, Advisory Board member for Princeton University’s Prison Teaching Initiative, and serves as an advisor to the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business and Aspen Institute’s Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund. Married with two children, Bullock’s story has received coverage from Forbes, CNN, Washington Post, Black Enterprise, and NPR.