Shaping the - Milken Institute

p a n e l i s t s
Alexander Friedman is Chief Financial Officer for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, overseeing finance, financial
planning and analysis, strategic planning, impact planning and improvement, and a number of special initiatives.
Before joining the foundation in 2007, Friedman worked as an investment banker with Lazard Ltd., the international
investment bank. Prior to that, he led corporate development at Medarex Inc., a publicly held biotechnology company.
He also served as a White House fellow and as an assistant to the secretary of defense for special projects in the Clinton
administration. Friedman is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, serves on the finance committee of the
Seattle Art Museum’s board of directors and is a board member of several other national nonprofits. He received a
bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and a J.D. from Columbia Law
School.
Bruce Friend is Director of SAS Curriculum Pathways. Part of SAS’s Education Practice, this award-winning education
resource provides online lessons and engaging tools and activities at no cost to U.S. educators. Friend has spent the
past decade working in the field of online learning. He is a national pioneer in helping to establish the country’s
first statewide online program and has been the chief administrator of two state virtual schools. In 2003 the United
States Distance Learning Association honored him with the “Most Outstanding Achievement in Distance Education”
award. Prior to joining SAS, Friend was vice president of the North American Council for Online Learning, a nonprofit
organization that provides support to students, parents and online learning programs. He earned a bachelor’s degree
from the University of Pittsburgh and a master’s of education from the University of Central Florida.
Kevin Fromer is the former Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs at U.S. Department of the Treasury. In that
position, which he held for more than three years, he was responsible for managing Treasury’s interests before Congress.
Fromer assumed a lead role in helping develop and negotiate a number of major policy and legislative issues involving
financial services, tax policy, trade and terrorist financing, including the recent Emergency Economic Stabilization Act
(TARP), housing GSE regulatory reforms, foreign investment review reforms and the 2008 economic stimulus package.
Fromer served for 20 years in senior congressional policy and management staff positions, including budget and
appropriations policy adviser to House Speaker Dennis Hastert and oversight staff member for the House Appropriations
Committee. He is now a private consultant. Fromer received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia.
Roland Fryer Jr. is CEO of the Education Innovation Laboratory at Harvard University, where he is also a professor
of economics. As a former junior fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows, one of academia’s most prestigious research
posts, he has come to be known as an unapologetic analyst of racial inequality who uses theoretical and empirical
tools to squeeze truths from the data, wherever that may lead. He also holds a faculty research associate position at
the National Bureau of Economic Research and has published papers on the racial achievement gap, the causes and
consequences of distinctively black names, affirmative action, the impact of the crack cocaine epidemic and “acting
white.” Fortune named him a “rising star” and he was featured in Esquire’s annual “Genius Issue.” Fryer has been profiled
in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and AOL’s Black Voices.
Thomas Gackstetter is Director of Energy Efficiency Programs at the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power.
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Matthew Gamser is the Principal for Advisory Services at the International Finance Corp., the private-sector
arm of the World Bank Group. He focuses on private sector–driven economic development and poverty reduction,
promoting growth in the most impoverished countries of the East Asia-Pacific region. He has worked with commercial
banks and non-bank financial institutions to build profitable financial services for micro- and small enterprises, and to
extend access to financial services in general. Gamser has worked for governments and private businesses around the
world to create an improved policy and regulatory environment for private-sector growth and poverty reduction. He
has also assisted large corporations in improving their contributions to local economic development, and has edited
and authored several books and numerous journal articles. Gamser received both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from
Harvard University, along with a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Sussex (UK).
Victor Zhikai Gao is Executive Director of the Beijing Private Equity Association. He was recently elected as
the first Secretary-General of the China Private Equity Association, the principal self-governing body for the private
equity industry in China. He has extensive working experience in investment banking and corporate management,
including positions with Morgan Stanley and its joint venture, China International Capital Corporation. He also served
in a variety of senior management positions with the Chinese National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC). He has served
with the Chinese Foreign Service in Beijing and at the United Nations, and was an English interpreter for the late Deng
Xiaoping. In 1999 and 2000, he was the China policy advisor with the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission.
Gao received a bachelor’s degree from Soochow University (Taiwan), a master’s degree from Yale University and a J.D.
from Yale Law School.
Carlos Garcia is Superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District. Prior to his appointment, he served
for two years as vice president of national urban markets for the McGraw-Hill Education Group. He has been a K-12
educator for 30 years and has a reputation of being a catalyst for change. Before joining the private sector, Garcia served
for five years as superintendent of the Clark County School District in Las Vegas, which averaged opening a new school
every month. Before accepting the appointment in Las Vegas, he worked as a teacher, principal and superintendent in
several California school districts. Garcia received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Claremont Men’s College,
a master’s degree in education from Claremont Graduate School and credentials in educational administration from
California State University, Fullerton.
Michelle Gass is Executive Vice President of Marketing and Category for Starbucks, leading the company’s global
marketing and category-management functions. She leads the beverage, food, coffee and merchandise categories,
the pipeline of innovation, and the overall brand, creative and marketing initiatives. Prior to this role, she served in
a special assignment for Starbucks, leading its global strategy function, and worked with the senior team to drive
the “Transformation Agenda” that is now the company’s strategic blueprint. Outside of Starbucks, Gass serves on the
board of directors for Ann Taylor. She previously worked with Procter & Gamble for six years in marketing and product
development. Gass received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and an
M.B.A. from the University of Washington.
James Gellert is Chairman, President and CEO of Rapid Ratings International, a ratings, research and analytics firm
providing ratings of companies’ financial health for portfolio and risk managers, as well as counterparty risk managers.
Gellert previously ran Howland Securities LLC, a boutique investment banking firm focusing on financial technology
and independent research businesses. He was also CEO of a number of small technology companies. He was a capital
markets banker for Deutsche Bank (where he was Head of the Yankee Origination Group); at UBS Securities; and
Barclays de Zoete Wedd (now Barclays Capital). Gellert arranged financings for corporations, banks and sovereign
clients from Europe and Australasia in the global, SEC-registered, 144A and traditional private-placement markets. He
is also a member of various for-profit and nonprofit boards and corporate advisory boards. Gellert received a bachelor’s
degree from Connecticut College and attended Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan.
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