Cullen Buie is an Associate Professor in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and director of the Laboratory for Energy and Microsystems Innovation. His laboratory explores flow physics at the microscale for applications in materials science and applied biosciences. In 2017 Kytopen, a start-up Buie co-founded that offers a high throughput method of genetic engineering, was among the first start-ups to be backed by The Engine, a start-up ecosystem launched by MIT. Buie was honored with the NSF Career Award in 2012, the DuPont Young Professor Award in 2013, the DARPA Young Faculty Award in 2013, and the NSF Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers in 2016.  Buie received his BS from The Ohio State University. He earned his master’s and PhD in mechanical engineering at Stanford University and served as a postdoctoral fellow for one year at the University of California-Berkeley. He currently resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his wife and three children.

Ted is a Director at Intuit where he leads a cross-business unit team on behalf of their self-employed customer segment. Before Intuit, Ted worked in venture capital and management consulting: co-founding Elementum Ventures, a seed-stage venture fund and working at McKinsey & Company post-business school. Before business school, Ted served as the Executive Director of The Veritas Forum. Ted attended Stanford University for college and received his MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. He resides in Menlo Park, California.

Mark currently serves as the general counsel for The Veritas Forum. He previously served as the head of corporate tax at Pacific Life, TIAA, and McKinsey, and as a law clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court.  Mark received an A.B. from Harvard, a B.Litt. from Oxford, and a J.D. from Yale Law School. He lives in Miami, Florida.

Ben serves as the chair of The Veritas Forum Board of Directors. A San Francisco resident, Ben grew up in the midwest but moved to California in 1996. He took a leave of absence from his PhD program at Stanford to co-found Coverity, a software company that helps improve the quality of the world's software. He helped Coverity grow from 2 to 150 employees as COO and then later as CTO. In 2014, Coverity was acquired by Synopsys. Currently, Ben is a founding partner at Elementum Ventures, a seed-stage venture firm. He is married to Kim, a social worker who has spent time serving around the world with Opportunity International, International Justice Mission, and Empower International.

Dr. Nathan Hatch is an American academic administrator, active leader in higher education, and historian. He most recently served as President of Wake Forest University for 16 years, retiring in 2021. A graduate of Wheaton College in Illinois, he received his master’s and doctoral degrees from Washington University in St. Louis and held post-doctoral fellowships at Harvard and Johns Hopkins universities. He joined the faculty at Notre Dame in 1975 and in 1996 he was named provost, the university’s second highest-ranking position. He is regularly cited as one of the most influential scholars in the study of the history of religion in America. He received national acclaim for his 1989 book, The Democratization of American Christianity, in which he examines how the rise of religious groups in the early 19th century helped shape American culture and foster democracy. In 2014, Hatch was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina with his wife, Julie.

Andrea McDaniel Smith leads the Washington, D.C. practice for CarterBaldwin Executive Search and serves clients including nonprofit organizations, universities, and foundations.

Prior to entering executive search, Andrea gained extensive experience in public policy and non-profit organizations. At the U.S. Department of State, Andrea led new initiatives with senior U.S. business and government leaders to promote U.S. public diplomacy around the world. Earlier, she served in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, advising the President on political appointments to federal agencies including the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities.

Additionally, Andrea co-founded a non-profit organization focused on reconciliation and community-based development in Rwanda. She, her husband and their son split time between Washington, D.C. and Gering, Nebraska, and enjoy restoring their century-old home.

Ken is the Don H. and Edessa Rose Professor of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College, where he also serves as Director of the Rose Institute of State and Local Government. Ken’s research focuses on state politics, constitutional law, and political polarization. He was the Ann and Herbert W. Vaughn Visiting Fellow at Princeton University’s James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions (2011-2012) and a visiting scholar at the John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies at Southern Methodist University (2017-2018). He received a B.A. from Pomona College, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California at Berkeley. He lives in Claremont, California with his wife, Kimberly Miller, a marriage and family therapist, retreat leader, and author.

‍

Grace Chiang Nicolette is Vice President of Programming & External Relations at the Center for Effective Philanthropy, a national nonprofit that provides assessments, programs, and best practices to leaders of philanthropic foundations. Prior to joining CEP, Grace co-founded Social Venture Group (SVG), a philanthropy advisory firm in Shanghai that helps donors and corporations to identify high potential nonprofits and social enterprises in China. As a result of her work, the World Economic Forum named her one of its Young Global Leaders in 2011. Grace has an executive education certificate in global leadership and public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and graduated with honors from the University of Pennsylvania. She resides with her husband Tim and their two children in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Annie Y. Tsai is Chief International Officer at Tunghai University (in Taiwan) and Professor of Psychology at their International College. Before moving to Taiwan, she had served as Vice President for Vocation, Innovation, and Alumni at Azusa Pacific University where she launched the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship which was responsible for the success of Zuventurez.com, an in-house incubator for all students and alumni. Annie completed her BA in Psychology from UCLA and earned her Ph.D. in Social and Cultural Psychology from Stanford University. Prior to starting at APU, she was visiting Fulbright Scholar at National Taiwan University.