Board of Directors
Advancing the Organization
Kurt L. Davis
President
Kurt Davis Jr. is a Senior Director with Alvarez & Marsal. He advises companies and their boards as well as creditors across the globe on a range of transactions, including private and public debt financings, equity financings, and special situations (including financial restructurings).
Prior to joining Alvarez & Marsal, Kurt originated and led complex financings, debt restructurings and M&A transactions for Houlihan Lokey. Before Houlihan Lokey, he executed M&A, divestitures, and equity and debt transactions for Barclays Capital and, prior to Barclays Capital, was a Principal with Crescimento Inteligente, a PE firm focused on investments in Africa. Before Crescimento Inteligente, he worked with Cerberus Frontier (previously SGI Frontier), where he managed PE transactions across a range of sectors, including industrials, consumer goods, and oil & gas in emerging markets.
Earlier, Kurt worked with the African Development Bank in the Office of U.S. Executive Director to the Board of Directors and with the Private Infrastructure Finance Group and has previously served as advisor to Kukula Capital, a venture finance and PE firm. He also previously served with SPE Capital (a PE firm formerly part of Swicorp), where he focused on transactions in the Middle East and North Africa across a broad group of sectors, including consumer goods, real estate, and telecom, and has held positions with Bear Stearns & Co. and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.
Kurt has had the opportunity to travel to 120+ countries and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and Bretton Woods Committee. He has authored numerous articles exploring markets and politics in the United States, Europe, Middle East, Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
He has served on numerous corporate and nonprofit boards with his nonprofit efforts dedicated to education and economic opportunity. He was selected as a Young Leader for the Council for the U.S. and Italy in 2023, Marshall Memorial Fellow for German Marshall Fund (GMF) in 2023, Young Leader for the French American Foundation in 2020, and a Young Leader for the American Turkish Society in 2020.
Kurt graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Political & Social Thought Interdisciplinary (Distinguished Major) and a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Foreign Affairs. He earned a Juris Doctorate (J.D.) with concentrations in tax law and commercial law from University of Virginia School of Law and received a Master in Business Administration (M.B.A.) with concentrations in Finance, Operations, and Entrepreneurship from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
James Giuliani
Vice-President
James is the Chief Accounting Officer for GreenSky, a highly successful point of purchase financing platform. Previously, he worked in Ernst & Young’s financial services practice as an auditor for several years. James has a successful track record working on a variety of complex accounting and finance matters. He also volunteers his financial expertise to a not for profit organization, Hands of Love U.S.A, wherein he ensures their annual tax and financial statement compliance. He is a CFA Charterholder, CFP®Certificant and licensed CPA in the state of Georgia. James earned his M.B.A. with a focus in Strategic Management from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, where he was an Amy and Richard F. Wallman Scholar. He earned his B.B.A. with a focus in Accounting from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School.
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Dr. Sharon Chan
Board Member
Dr. Sharon Chan is the Head of JLABS @ Shanghai at Johnson & Johnson. In 2021, Sharon was given a Social Impact Leadership Award Honorees by Serica. In 2020, Sharon was recognized by Forbes China as one of the 50 Top Women in Science and Technology. Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, Sharon was Head of Asia at Aeras, where she established its Beijing office for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and focused on tuberculosis (TB) vaccines. Sharon has a business development background with a proven track record of establishing operations, building networks and translating organizational vision and mission into actionable and results-driven plans. Sharon received a MPH at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA; an EMBA at IE Business School, Madrid, Spain; a Doctorate Degree in Biochemistry and Cardiovascular Medicine (DPhil) at University of Oxford, UK; and a Master in Molecular Biology and Cellular Biochemistry (MBioChem) at University of Oxford, UK
Warwick Simons
Board Member
Warwick is the founder & director of Cogent Capitalism, an independent investment research services firm. Prior to starting Cogent in 2017, Warwick was an Executive Director in the Investment Research Division at Goldman Sachs, where he co-led the GS SUSTAIN team with a mandate to identify the highest quality and most sustainable businesses globally. Before joining Goldman Sachs, Warwick worked as a Research Director at GaveKal Research in Hong Kong, as an investment analyst at London-based hedge fund Pendragon Capital, and as a Consultant at Bain & Company in both London and Sydney. Warwick holds an MBA (with Distinction) from INSEAD, and Bachelor degrees in Commerce & in Law (with Honors) from The University of Auckland, New Zealand. Warwick has traveled extensively, and in addition to his native country New Zealand he has also lived in Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Singapore, Argentina, Hong Kong and the United States of America.
Taylor S. Cable
Board Member
Taylor is the Chief Operating Officer at AiX, a fintech firm intent on disrupting the Inter Dealer Broker market. Prior to that, Taylor spent over sixteen years at Moore Capital Management, a Global Macro Hedge Fund founded in 1989. He held a variety of positions there from FX Execution Trader to Macro Portfolio Manager, to his most recent role as Senior Trader and Project Manager for the CEO/Founder. Currently based in London, England he has also spent many years living and working in New York and has traveled between the two cities extensively. Taylor has an MBA from Columbia Business School, which he completed at London Business School via exchange. He earned a BBA from the College of Business at James Madison University, majoring in Finance while also having studied abroad at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. He was a member of the Madison Investment Fund, a student lead equity investment fund which manages a portion of the university’s endowment.