Michael Arone, CFA
Chief Investment Strategist, US SPDR Business, State Street Global Advisors
Michael is the Chief Investment Strategist for the SPDR® Americas Business at State Street Global Advisors. He is responsible for expanding State Street Global Advisors’ footprint and thought leadership effort through frequent contributions to the financial news media, speaking engagements and client interactions. Michael is a highly regarded speaker at industry conferences and is the author of several articles related to investment management practices. He is a member of the firm’s Senior Leadership Team.
During his more than 20-year career as an investment professional, Michael has served as State Street Global Advisors’ Global and EMEA Head of Portfolio Strategy as well as a senior portfolio manager in the Global Active Quantitative Equity Group. He has substantial experience developing long-only and long-short quantitative strategies and managing investment portfolios using quantitative disciplines. Michael has worked extensively with the firm’s global institutional and intermediary clients to help them identify investment solutions that enable them to meet their long-term financial goals.
Michael holds a BS in Finance from Bentley College. He has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a member of the Boston Security Analysts Society and CFA Institute.
Hortense Bioy, CFA
Director of Sustainability Research, Global Manager Research, Morningstar
Hortense Bioy, CFA, is Global Director of Sustainability Research at Morningstar.
Based in London, Hortense leads Morningstar’s ESG research efforts globally, with the objective of educating investors and providing them with the tools they need to evaluate funds through an ESG lens. Prior to assuming this role in February 2021, she was responsible for Morningstar’s sustainability research in EMEA for three years.
Before transitioning to a dedicated ESG focus, Hortense was European Director of Passive Strategies Research. She led an award-winning team that provides research on ETFs and index funds. Hortense joined Morningstar as an ETF analyst in 2010 from Bloomberg where she was a financial journalist. She began her career as an M&A analyst at Société Générale in Hong Kong.
Hortense holds a master’s degree in finance from Paris Dauphine University and a postgraduate degree in finance from Paris Sorbonne University. She is also a CFA charterholder.
Michael R. Bloomberg
Founder, Bloomberg LP & Bloomberg Philanthropies, 108th Mayor of New York City
Mike Bloomberg is an entrepreneur and three-term mayor of New York City whose innovations in business, government, and philanthropy have made him a pioneering leader on critical issues facing the U.S. and the world. He has launched major coalitions to save and improve lives, including America’s largest campaigns to prevent gun violence and fight the climate crisis, and he has championed efforts to fix our immigration system.
In 1966, after graduating from Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Business School, Bloomberg was hired by a financial services firm, Salomon Brothers, for an entry-level job. He quickly rose through the ranks and eventually headed up the firm’s information systems. When Salomon was acquired in 1981, he was let go. With a vision for an information technology company that would bring greater transparency and fairness to the financial system, he launched a small startup in a one-room office. Bloomberg LP has grown every year since it was founded and today employs some 20,000 people in 120 countries.
Just weeks after the attacks of September 11, 2001, Bloomberg was elected mayor of New York City and led the city’s resurgence. He spearheaded the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan, fought poverty with new programs that became national models, and turned around a failing school system. Bloomberg reduced carbon emissions by 13 percent, increased New Yorkers’ life expectancy by three years, and cut crime by a third while reducing incarceration by nearly 40 percent. Despite the Great Recession, he led the city to record job growth.
After his third term in City Hall, he resumed leadership of Bloomberg LP and expanded his philanthropic work. Bloomberg Philanthropies has now given away more than $11 billion supporting its five main focus areas: public health, education, the environment, government innovation, and the arts. Bloomberg has also launched a series of major efforts to help fight the coronavirus in the U.S. and around the world.
He is the father of two daughters, Emma and Georgina, and has two grandchildren.
Joe Cavatoni
Global Head of Sales & Regional CEO, USA, World Gold Council
Joseph (Joe) Cavatoni joined the World Gold Council in September 2016 to lead business strategy for the Americas which includes oversight of investor relationships, product solutions, research, and marketing as well as the global ETFs platform. He also serves as Principal Executive Officer for the World Gold Trust Services, LLC; President of WGC USA Asset Management Company, LLC; Board Member and President of WGC (US) Holdings, Inc.; and as a member of the Executive Committee.
During his three-decade career in the financial services industry, Joe has developed and demonstrated expertise in the areas of global capital markets, exchange traded funds, asset management, trading, and business/platform development. He also spent more than 15 years working in Asia. Prior to joining the World Gold Council, Joe was a managing director at BlackRock where he was responsible for iShares Capital Markets (Americas) and was a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. His responsibilities also included product development and management as well as running a global team. Prior to BlackRock, he held senior positions at UBS, Merrill Lynch and Bank of America focused on equity derivatives trading, securities financing and lending.
Joe holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from George Washington University and a Master of Business Administration degree jointly from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Katherine Jollon Colsher
President and Chief Executive Officer, Girls Who Invest
Katherine Jollon Colsher is the CEO of Girls Who Invest, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing gender diversity and inclusion in investment management with a focus on growing the pipeline of women in frontline investing positions.
Before joining Girls Who Invest, Katherine was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs and the National Director of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses, the firm’s largest-ever philanthropic initiative to help entrepreneurs create jobs and economic opportunity by providing access to education, capital, and business support services. Prior, Katherine was the Director of Organizational Development and Effectiveness at ONE, an advocacy organization co-founded by Bono and other activists to end extreme poverty and preventable disease, and a Manager in the government practice at Accenture. She currently serves on the board of the Center for American Entrepreneurship.
Katherine earned a BA in English, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Richmond. She is also a graduate of the 2016 Presidential Leadership Scholars Program.
Phil Dobrin
Senior Portfolio Strategist, Bridgewater
Phil has been with Bridgewater since 2008. He is a Senior Portfolio Strategist, a Partner at the firm, and a member of the research group with expertise in credit, interest rates, and equity markets. He has been responsible for leading research projects with the goal of impacting Bridgewater’s investment views with a primary research focus on understanding credit markets and financial institutions in the United States and Europe. Phil also works closely with Bridgewater’s clients to develop tailored investment strategies and share our best thinking on global markets and economic conditions. In addition to these responsibilities, Phil serves as a leader within our Investment Community with oversight of hiring, training and talent management for many of Bridgewater’s investment professionals. In 2020, Phil was named to "Business Insider's "Rising Stars of Wall Street," which recognizes up and coming leaders in finance.
Rana Foroohar
Global Business Columnist, Financial Times
Global Business Columnist at The Financial Times and Global Economic Analyst at CNN Rana Foroohar covers the intersection of business, economics, politics, and foreign affairs. Foroohar frequently profiles movers and shakers in finance and business, including Warren Buffett, Bill Gross, Howard Shultz, Mary Barra, and Carl Icahn. Her book, Don't Be Evil: How Big Tech Betrayed Its Founding Principles — And All Of Us (2019) "presents a sweeping indictment of technology companies and their reach into every aspect of our lives" (The New York Times).
A sought-after commentator for her high-level yet accessible analysis, Foroohar speaks on the shifts occurring in globalization, the political economy, and the digital economy. She draws from her weekly column to offer real-time analyses on emerging markets, women in the workplace, education, and the disruption of big tech. She has chaired panel discussions with world leaders, intellectuals, and economists at the World Economic Forum and elsewhere, including a Harvard Business School program on improving U.S. competitiveness.
With FT Editor Edward Luce, Foroohar writes the twice-weekly newsletter "Swamp Notes," which covers money and power in Trump’s America and the big themes driving politics, business, and markets. She recently appeared in the Frontline documentary, Left Behind America, about Dayton, Ohio's struggle to recover in the post-recession economy.
The former Economics Columnist and Assistant Managing Editor for TIME, Foroohar has penned numerous cover stories and essays on China and the next global recession, Europe’s economic crisis, and the rise of “localnomics” means for American business.
For 13 years, Foroohar served as the deputy editor in charge of international business and economics for Newsweek and headed up coverage for the annual Davos special issue. She spent six years as Newsweek’s European correspondent based in London, covering business news throughout Europe and the Middle East.
Foroohar's first book, Makers and Takers, was a finalist for the 2016 FT & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award.
In 2019, Foroohar was awarded a SABEW award for her tech and policy coverage at the Financial Times. The recipient of awards and fellowships from institutions such as the Johns Hopkins School of International Affairs and the East West Center, Foroohar is a graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University, and a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Malcolm Gladwell
Author of five New York Times bestsellers
Malcolm Gladwell is the author of five New York Times bestsellers — The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw, and David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants. He has been named one of the 100 most influential people by TIME magazine and one of the Foreign Policy’s Top Global Thinkers.
His newest book, The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War (April 2021), was inspired by the four-part series about General Curtis LeMay on his podcast “Revisionist History”. In it Gladwell weaves together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard to examine one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history.
He has explored how ideas spread in The Tipping Point, decision making in Blink, and the roots of success in Outliers. With his latest book, David and Goliath, he examines our understanding of advantages of disadvantages, arguing that we have underestimated the value of adversity and over-estimated the value of privilege.
Malcolm is the host of a 10-part podcast, Revisionist History, now in its fourth season. In the weekly podcast, Malcolm re-examines an overlooked or misunderstood aspect of past events.
He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996. He has won a national magazine award and been honored by the American Psychological Society and the American Sociological Society. He was previously a reporter for The Washington Post.
Malcolm is an extraordinary speaker: always on target, aware of the context and the concerns of the audience, informative and practical, poised, eloquent and warm and funny. He has an unsurpassed ability to be both entertaining and challenging.
James Grant
Founder and Editor, Grant’s Interest Rate Observer
James Grant, financial journalist and historian, is the founder and editor of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, a twice-monthly journal of the investment markets. His book, The Forgotten Depression, 1921: The Crash that Cured Itself, a history of America’s last governmentally unmedicated business-cycle downturn, won the 2015 Hayek Prize of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. Bagehot: The Life and Times of the Greatest Victorian, a biography of the muse of modern central banking, was published in July 2019.
Among his other books on finance and financial history are Bernard M. Baruch: The Adventures of a Wall Street Legend (Simon & Schuster, 1983), Money of the Mind (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1992), Minding Mr. Market (Farrar, Straus, 1993), The Trouble with Prosperity (Times Books, 1996), and Mr. Market Miscalculates (Axios Press, 2008).
He is, in addition, the author of a pair of political biographies: John Adams: Party of One, a life of the second president of the United States (Farrar, Straus, 2005) and Mr. Speaker! The Life and Times of Thomas B. Reed, the Man Who Broke the Filibuster (Simon & Schuster, 2011).
Mr. Grant’s television appearances include “60 Minutes,” “The Charlie Rose Show,” “CBS Evening News,” and a 10-year stint on “Wall Street Week”. His journalism has appeared in a variety of periodicals, including The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs and The Claremont Review of Books. He contributed an essay to the Sixth Edition of Graham and Dodd’s Security Analysis (McGraw-Hill, 2009).
Mr. Grant, a former Navy gunner’s mate, is a Phi Beta Kappa alumnus of Indiana University. He earned a master’s degree in international relations from Columbia University, began his career in journalism in 1972, at the Baltimore Sun, and joined the staff of Barron’s in 1975. He is a trustee of the New York Historical Society and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He and his wife, Patricia Kavanagh M.D., live in Brooklyn. They are the parents of four grown children and grandparents many times over.
Lori Heinel, CFA
Global Chief Investment Officer, State Street Global Advisors
Lori is an executive vice president and the global chief investment officer at State Street Global Advisors. In this capacity, Lori oversees industry-leading investment capabilities from index funds and exchange traded funds to active, multi-asset class solutions and alternative investments. She leads an investment team of more than 600 professionals globally. She is also a member of the company's Executive Management Group, Investment Committee and Global Product Committee. Prior to this, she was the deputy global chief investment officer at State Street Global Advisors, where she was responsible for various activities that impact the effective delivery of investment strategies and solutions to our global client base. Before joining State Street Global Advisors, Lori was the chief investment strategist and head of Investment Products for Oppenheimer Funds, Inc. In that role, she identified market opportunities, spearheaded new product development and created thought leadership aimed at helping clients navigate markets and position their portfolios effectively. Prior to that, she was a managing director and head of Investments for Citi Private Bank. She worked with high net worth clients, family offices, private foundations and institutional clients to develop investment strategies designed to meet financial, cash management and risk management needs. Before joining Citi, Lori ran the Global Investment Products Group for SEI Investments, where she developed innovative strategies to manage pension plans and other institutional assets. She also launched a series of investor portfolios designed to address specific client needs and pioneered integrated managed accounts with portfolio overlay functionality. Earlier in her career, Lori managed the new business development effort for Mellon Financial's eastern region and was a senior vice president at Parker/Hunter Incorporated running the equity and fixed income sales and trading departments. She began her career at Credit Suisse First Boston, where she analyzed investment and financing alternatives for institutional clients.
Lori received her Master of Business Administration degree from Carnegie Mellon University and her Bachelor’s degree in religion from Princeton University. She earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and is a member of the CFA Institute and the Boston Security Analysts Society.
Terry Heymann
Chief Financial Officer and Head of ESG, World Gold Council
Terry Heymann is CFO at the World Gold Council and has broad experience across the gold supply chain. In addition to his role as CFO and Company Secretary, Terry also oversees the World Gold Council’s initiatives on standard-setting, including development of the Responsible Gold Mining Principles, the Conflict-Free Gold Standard and the Guidance Note on All-In Costs, all of which support increased transparency and integrity in the gold industry. Terry also leads the World Gold Council’s programme of work around ESG, including supporting further progress by the gold industry in helping to deliver the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and address climate change.
Prior to joining the World Gold Council, Terry was a Principal at Marakon Associates, a leading strategy consultancy, where he helped clients in several industries on strategic issues and new product development.
Dr. Mark Mobius
Co-Founder, Mobius Capital Partners
Dr. Mark Mobius is seen by many as the founder of the emerging markets asset class. He has a reputation as one of the most successful and influential managers over last 30 years. In May 2018, with two ex-colleagues, he launched Mobius Capital Partners. The firm utilises a highly specialised active investment approach with an emphasis on improving governance standards in Emerging and Frontier Market companies.
Prior to this, Dr. Mobius was employed at Franklin Templeton Investments for more than 30 years, most recently as Executive Chairman of the Templeton Emerging Markets Group. During his tenure, the group expanded AUM from USD 100m to over USD 40bn and launched a number of emerging market and frontier funds focusing on Asia, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. His career and influence has earned him numerous industry awards.
Dr. Mobius received his Ph.D. at MIT and has studied at Boston University, University of Wisconsin, Syracuse University, Kyoto University and the University of New Mexico.
Dr. Dambisa Moyo
Co-Principal of Versaca Investments family office, Global Economist and Bestselling author
Dr. Dambisa Moyo is a pre-eminent thinker, who influences key decision-makers in strategic investment and public policy. She is respected for her unique perspectives, her balance of contrarian thinking with measured judgment, and her ability to turn economic insight into investible ideas. Dambisa has earned a strong reputation as a top-tier opinion former and trusted advisor on Macroeconomics, Geopolitics, Technology and Millennial themes. She is a Board member of The 3M Company and Chevron. She holds a Doctorate in Economics from Oxford, a Masters from Harvard, and is recognized for fresh and innovative ideas as the Author of four (4) New York Times Bestselling Books:
- Edge of Chaos: Why Democracy is Failing to Deliver Economic Growth and How to Fix It (2018)
- Winner Take All: China’s race for Resources and What it Means for the World (2012)
- How the West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly and the Stark Choices Ahead (2011)
- Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way for Africa (2009)
Dambisa is an honorary fellow of the Foreign Policy Association and member of the Bretton Woods Committee. Dambisa was named to the list of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World; has published in the Financial Times, WSJ, Barrons, Harvard Business Review and has travelled to over 65 countries. In her spare time, she runs marathons and practices Pilates.
Ronald P. O’Hanley
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, State Street Corporation
Ron is chairman and chief executive officer of State Street Corporation. Ron was previously president and chief operating officer of State Street Corporation, and before that president and chief executive officer of State Street Global Advisors, the investment management arm of State Street Corporation. He joined State Street in 2015.
Prior to State Street, Ron was president of Asset Management & Corporate Services for Fidelity Investments, responsible for all Fidelity asset management organizations and Fidelity’s corporate functions and enterprise technology. He served at Fidelity from 2010 to 2014.
Prior to joining Fidelity, Ron served as president and chief executive officer of BNY Mellon Asset Management in Boston, a position to which he was named in 2007. During this time, he also served as vice chairman of Bank of New York Mellon Corporation and was a member of its Executive Committee. Additionally, Ron oversaw all of Bank of New York Mellon's activities in Asia. Prior to the 2007 merger of Bank of New York and Mellon, he was vice chairman of Mellon Financial Corporation and president and chief executive officer of Mellon Asset Management. He served at Mellon and Bank of New York Mellon from 1997 to 2010.
Prior to Mellon, Ron was with McKinsey & Company, Inc., from 1986 to 1997 and was elected a partner in 1992. He founded the Investment Management practice worldwide and was co-founder and co-leader of the firm's North American Personal Financial Services practice. Additionally, he was a member of the Worldwide Property & Casualty Insurance practice. During his tenure with McKinsey, Ron served in the firm’s Boston, New York, and Stockholm offices.
Ron received his Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Syracuse University in 1980 and his Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School in 1986. Ron serves on the boards of Unum Corp., Beth Israel Lahey Health, The Boston Foundation, The Ireland Funds, IYRS School of Technology and Trades, Syracuse University and WBUR. Ron’s philanthropic and civic interests include corporate governance, retirement/healthcare policy and funding, education, and climate. He has led several initiatives on gender equality. Ron is a frequent speaker and writer, and an avid offshore sailboat racer.
Susan E. Oh, CFA
CFA, Director, ESG Research, Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System
Ms. Oh is the Director of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) Research for the Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System (PSERS), a $70 billion defined benefit pension plan. She is responsible for the ESG strategic initiative across the total plan and leading ESG/Sustainability research which focuses on long-term value creation. The priorities include development of Board policies and integrating a focus on culture and transformative innovation into the total plan. She is an advocate for gender and ethnic diversity in the investment management industry as the first female investment director in multiple decades at PSERS and the first Asian American Investment director ever.
Ms. Oh has been an innovator at PSERS, initiating its swap overlay program in 2006, advocating for a greater risk-balanced asset allocation after the Global Financial Crisis, and leading the Risk Parity initiative in 2012 and the currency hedging initiative in 2013. These innovations have grown to become large contributors to the diversification and alpha generation of the plan and led to a greater proportion of assets managed internally.
In Ms. Oh’s 26 years at PSERS, she previously served as the Chair of the Asset Allocation Committee and senior portfolio manager of the internally-managed Risk Parity, Non-US equities, and Strategic Implementation Portfolio. Prior to her current role, Ms. Oh was the Director of Risk Parity, Currency Hedging and Strategic Implementation managing $13 billion across three strategies.
Ms. Oh started her career with KPMG, where she performed audit and consulting services for corporate and government clients. She is a CFA charterholder and a CPA. She holds a B.S. degree, summa cum laude, in Accounting from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. In 2018 she was named as one of the 25 NextGen luminaries by the publication Chief Investment Officer. In 2019, she was inducted into the Hall of Distinction at the Eberly College of Business at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She resides in Hershey with her husband and two daughters.
Alexis Rosenblum, CFA
Chief Corporate Sustainability Officer, BlackRock
Alexis Rosenblum, CFA is BlackRock's Chief Corporate Sustainability Officer. She is responsible for driving connectivity and accountability across the organization to ensure the firm succeeds on its sustainability agenda. She partners closely with various functions including Human Resources, Social Impact, Technology & Enterprise Services, BlackRock Sustainable Investing and BlackRock Investment Stewardship to develop and implement BlackRock's corporate sustainability framework, policies, and disclosures.
Prior her current role, Ms. Rosenblum was a senior member of BlackRock's Global Public Policy Group where she engaged with regulators and legislators to encourage policy outcomes that increase financial market transparency, protect investors, and facilitate responsible growth of capital markets, while preserving consumer choice and properly balancing benefits versus implementation cost. Ms. Rosenblum was a regular author on BlackRock's public policy white paper series, ViewPoints, focusing on a wide range of topics including SEC regulations, market structure, ETFs, index investing, LIBOR, and corporate governance. Previously, Ms. Rosenblum was a relationship manager for BlackRock's Global Consultant Relations team, where she was responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with US institutional investment consultants.
Ms. Rosenblum earned a BA degree, with honors, in public policy studies from Duke University. She is a member of BlackRock's New York Green Team, an organization that seeks to engage and empower BlackRock employees to be environmental stewards - at work, at home, and in their communities. She is also a CFA charterholder and a member of the CFA Institute's Global Industry Standards Steering Committee, which is responsible for strategic development of the CFA Institute's industry standards. In addition, Ms. Rosenblum is chairing a working group that is aiding the CFA Institute in the development of its ESG Standard, which is currently under consultation. In her spare time, Ms. Rosenblum volunteers with Minds Matter NYC, a not-for-profit organization that helps prepare high-school students from low income families for college success.
David Tait
Chief Executive Officer, World Gold Council
David Tait was appointed CEO of the World Gold Council in November 2018.
During his 35 years in the financial services industry, David has worked for a variety of highly regarded firms, most recently as Global Head of Fixed Income Macro Products at Credit Suisse. Prior to that he held senior trading roles at both Credit Suisse and UBS Investment Bank.
David began his career trading at Goldman Sachs, and then moved to Credit Suisse before building considerable asset management experience as a Partner at Bluecrest Capital.
He is currently an Independent Member of the Bank of England’s FICC Market Standards Board and Chairs the Precious Metals working group.
David is also a major supporter of the NSPCC and has raised over £1.5 million by summiting Mount Everest on five occasions. He was the first person the traverse Everest from the North to South in 2007. He is an ex-trustee, Chair of the Rebuilding Childhoods Board and was awarded an MBE by the Queen for his services to the charity.
His life story has been made into the Julian Jarrold directed motion picture “Sulphur and White” starring Anna Friel, Dougray Scott, Mark Stanley and Emily Beecham. The Royal Premier was February 2020 and the proceeds will benefit the NSPCC.
Sue Thompson
Head of SPDR Americas Distribution, State Street Global Advisors
Sue Thompson is an executive vice president of State Street Global Advisors and serves as Head of SPDR Americas Distribution. In this role, she is responsible for developing and leading the SPDR ETF distribution strategy across all client channels in the Americas, including institutional, intermediary and strategic relationships.
Prior to joining State Street Global Advisors in 2018, she was at Thompson Peak Advisory where she was CEO and President of her own consulting firm, advising some of the world’s largest and most sophisticated investment managers on their growth and distribution strategies.
Previously, Sue worked for BlackRock for eight years where she was responsible for growing the iShares franchise with the intermediary and institutional asset manager channels in the Americas. Prior to BlackRock, Sue was at Vanguard, where she held a number of positions culminating in a senior role in developing their ETF business.
Sue is recognized for recruiting, developing and mentoring future leaders and has played a significant role in nurturing female talent across the ETF industry. She serves on the board of Women in ETFs, where she is a founding member. Sue is a graduate of the University of California, Davis School of Law and a Member of the California State Bar association. She holds a BA (Accounting) from the University of Washington.
Steve Wozniak
Inventor and Co-founder of Apple Computer Inc.
A Silicon Valley icon, technology entrepreneur and philanthropist for more than forty years, Steve Wozniak has helped shape the computing industry with his design of Apple’s first line of products the Apple I and II. He also influenced the popular Macintosh. In 1976, Wozniak and Steve Jobs founded Apple Computer Inc. with Wozniak’s Apple I personal computer. The following year, he introduced his Apple II personal computer, featuring a central processing unit, a keyboard, color graphics, and a floppy disk drive. The Apple II was integral in launching the personal computer industry. He is listed as the sole inventor on four Apple patents.
In 1981, he went back to UC Berkeley and finished his degree in electrical engineering/computer science. To date, Wozniak has received ten Honorary Doctor of Engineering degrees. Wozniak, founded the company Unuson, an abbreviation of “unite us in song”, which sponsored US Festivals in 1982 and 1983. Initially intended to celebrate evolving technologies, the festivals ended up as a technology exposition and a rock festival as a combination of music, computers, television, and people.
For his achievements at Apple, Wozniak was awarded the National Medal of Technology by President Ronald Reagan in 1985, the highest honor bestowed on America’s leading innovators. In 2000, he was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame and was awarded the prestigious Heinz Award for Technology, The Economy and Employment for single-handedly designing the first personal computer and for then redirecting his lifelong passion for mathematics and electronics toward lighting the fires of excitement for education in grade school students and their teachers.
Through the years, Wozniak has been involved in various business and philanthropic ventures, focusing primarily on computer capabilities in schools and stressing hands-on, experiential learning that encourages creativity and innovation by students. Making significant investments of both his time and resources in education, he adopted the Los Gatos School District, providing students and teachers with hands-on teaching and donations of state-of-the-art technology equipment.
He also founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and was the founding sponsor of the Tech Museum, Silicon Valley Ballet and Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose. In 2014, he was awarded the Hoover Medal, a prestigious honor given for “outstanding extra-career services by engineers to humanity,” and was inducted into the IndustryWeek Manufacturing Hall of Fame. In 2015, Wozniak received the Legacy for Children Award from the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose. The Legacy for Children Award honors individuals whose legacy has significantly benefited the learning and lives of children. The Cal Alumni Association (UC Berkeley’s Alumni Association) presented Wozniak with the 2015 Alumnus of the Year Award.
Wozniak is the author of iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon (Norton Publishing), his New York Times best-selling autobiography. His television appearances include: ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, The Big Bang Theory, My Life on the D List, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Conan, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Celebrity Watch Party.
Wozniak continues to pursue his entrepreneurial and philanthropic interests to this day. In October 2017, Steve co-founded Woz U — a postsecondary education and training platform focused on software engineering and technology development. He has also recently co-founded Efforce — which leverages disparate applications of blockchain technology.
When Woz and his wife, Janet, are not traveling the world trying to inspire the next generation or building sustainable businesses, they live a happy life in Los Gatos, California with their four Bichon Friese dogs Ziggy, Zelda, Jewel and Wozzie.