Employers

Michael Chao – Council Chair

Chief Financial Officer, Synack

Michael Chao is an experienced Chief Financial Officer for private equity sponsored organizations across multiple industries. Mr. Chao has over 20 years of experience in both public and private companies leading financial management, strategic growth planning and all aspects of organizational financial operations. Mike holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Arik A. Ahitov

Chief Investment Officer, Chapman Family Office

Arik is the founding Chief Investment Officer of the Chapman Family Office, managing the family’s portfolios across all asset classes, including direct public and private equity investments. Prior to Chapman, Arik was a Partner and Portfolio Manager at FPA, an institutional money management firm with over $30 billion in assets under management. During his ten-year tenure at FPA, from 2010 to 2020, he managed portfolios for public and corporate pension funds and endowments. Prior, Arik was a Portfolio Manager at Shamrock Capital Advisors (Disney Family office), where he managed investments for the Disney Family, public pension funds, and endowments. Arik began his career in strategy consulting and investment banking. Arik is a Professor of Practice for the MQE program, teaching stock market and fundamental equity research analysis. He has served on the boards of public and private companies. Currently, he is on the board of Forte Global and is a board observer of Cerebelly. Arik holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Northwestern University and a MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. He resides in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.

John Ailanjian, CFA

General Partner and Head of Investments, Next Play Capital

John is a General Partner and Head of Investments for Next Play Capital overseeing the investment and diligence processes for both fund and co-investments. He also plays an integral role in the programming and education of Next Play Capital’s Fellowship program.  John is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles with a B.A. in Economics.  John is also a graduate of the Stanford Executive Program and a Chartered Financial Analyst.  John currently serves as a Board Member at the CFA Society of San Francisco.

Ruchi Banerjee, MBA

Customer Success and Operations Executive

Dave Botkin

Dave Botkin Consulting, LLC

A former physicist turned data scientist, Dave Botkin built and ran analytics and data engineering teams in startups and Fortune 50 companies until “retiring” in 2018 to focus on Analytics Consulting and Advisory services as Dave Botkin Consulting, LLC.  DBC LLC has advised clients in ecommerce, mobile gaming, streaming audio, healthcare, and IoT on driving more value with their data.  Dave received his BA and Ph.D. (Physics) degrees from UC Berkeley and his MBA degree from the Haas School of Business.

Gilbert FitzGerald

Data Analytics Executive, Google

Gilbert FitzGerald is an analytics executive at Google. Gilbert holds a BA in Mathematics, Mathematical Physics and Computer Science and a Master’s in Mathematical Sciences from the National University of Ireland and completed PhD coursework (A.B.D.) in Social Research Methodology at UCLA.

Michael Fitzpatrick

Partner & Co-founder, Epic Funds

Michael is partner and co-founder at Epic Funds, a private market asset management company. He started his career as a management consultant at PwC Advisory, then he worked on the operations team at Uber Technologies. Michael graduated from UCLA with a BA in Business Economics.

Jack Kahler

Executive Director, Global Business Services, Ingram Micro

David Krein

Head of Central Pricing Research, CTO Office | Bloomberg

David has nearly 25 years’ experience in the financial markets, including electronic trading, algorithmic pricing, and indexing. Most recently, he had led a team of 20 quantitative research analysts to advance trading innovations in the global bond market. David holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University, and an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

“The Advisory Council is a unique opportunity to invest in the next generation of quantitative leaders by sharing my own experience and domain insights.”

Dickson D. Lee

Director of Finance and Operations, The Initiative

Dickson has worked across media, entertainment and video game industries for over 20 years. He currently oversees finance and studio operations for The Initiative, an Xbox Games Studio backed by Microsoft Corporation, located in Santa Monica, CA. Before Xbox, he was head of studio finance and operations for Sony PlayStation’s Santa Monica Studio, from inception through release of 2018’s Game of the Year – God of War. Prior to video games, he was in studio finance and operations management for over 10 years at Sony Pictures Entertainment. Dickson has a B.A. in Business Economics from UCLA and MBA from USC’s Marshall School of Business.

Bonnie Lemon

Vice President, Creative Production, Disney Television Animation

Bonnie Lemon is Vice President, Creative Production, at Disney Television Animation. She has deep experience leading large production efforts from inception to completion, allocating work among multiple studios around the world, and managing highly creative and technical talent.  Bonnie holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from UCLA.

Ellen Ma, ’17 MAE

Managing Director, UpHonest Capital

Ellen is a managing director at UpHonest Capital. Ellen also started Silicon Valley Race (硅兔赛跑), a Chinese editorial about innovation in Silicon Valley. Ellen holds a BA in mathematics and economics and a master’s in applied economics at UCLA.

Robin Milstead

Director of Human Resources North America, Visiativ

Robin Milstead is a graduate of Texas Tech University with a BA in English Literature and has spent over 15 years partnering with organizations to lead teams in their talent acquisition, talent management, and human resources programs. She has recruited and worked with The Walt Disney Company, Audible and PwC. She is currently the Director of Human Resources North America for Visiativ, a global publicly traded software and consulting company based in Lyon, France supporting ABGi USA and Canada.

Aneri Patel, ’22 MQE

Research Analyst, The Brattle Group

Aneri Patel is a Research Analyst at The Brattle Group in their Antitrust and Competition practice. Aneri holds a Masters of Quantitative Economics, and a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology, Sociology and Economics.

“As a recent graduate from the program, I wanted to continue being an active member in the MQE community and give back in whatever way I can.”

Jonathan Schmitz

Multi-Site Leader, Customer Fulfillment Operations, Amazon

Jonathan Schmitz manages the day-to-day operations of multiple Amazon Customer Fulfillment Centers in the US.  Prior to Amazon, he spent 23 years in uniform, as a Naval Officer. His military assignments include commanding a Destroyer, serving in the White House, leading our military-to-military relationship with the State of Israel, and managing the professional development for thousands of Naval Officers.  He is a graduate of the US Naval Academy and holds a Master’s Degree in National Security Affairs from the Naval Post Graduate School.

“Since moving from uniform to the private sector, I embrace every opportunity to support talented and purpose driven individuals, especially Veterans, find the best fit for their skill-sets.  The current industry landscape is complicated, but with value-added mentorship, the journey can be much less daunting and significantly more rewarding.”

Bernd Vindevogel

Chief Operating Officer, True Digital

Bernd started 20 years ago as an Academic Researcher at Ghent University (Belgium).  His research activities were focused on applying advanced econometrics on marketing problems and he also taught Machine Learning using MatLab to master’s students. He then moved to industry, and operated in 3 roles over a period of 7 years: Analytics Consultant at SAS Institute, Credit Risk at Private Equity and Credit Scoring Consultant at Dun & Bradstreet. He later joined McKinsey as Analytics Specialist and grew to Associate Partner over a period of 5 years.  At McKinsey he lead multiple projects across Europe, Africa and Asia driving digital transformations for their clients. Bernd joined CP Group in Thailand in 2017.  CP Group is Thailand’s largest conglomerate, active in Agriculture, Retail and Telecommunications.  He has had a diverse set of roles, amongst others he built a 150 FTE analytics team with a mission to develop software products to monetize our telco data and drive group-wide data sharing and led the international expansion of our retail business. Bernd currently serves as the COO of CP Group’s digital media business, overseeing Technology, Analytics, Sales, Ad Operations, HR and Finance. Bernd first became involved with UCLA’s MQE program as an applied project sponsor.

Yael Weinstock-Shemesh

Weinstock Consulting, Public Speaker, Investor

Yael Weinstock-Shemesh is a CPA with over 20 years of experience as a C-level executive in the Banking sector. Through her career, Yael has been committed to helping women unlock their potential and achieve their goals. As a public speaker and strategic consultant Yael supports female professionals in advancing their career. In her capacity as a Real Estate investor and entrepreneur, Yael is focused on helping women build their wealth by investing in Real Estate in the US. In collaboration with HSBC Bank, Yael developed the Networkship@HSBC program, designed to assist women 45 and older in exploring career opportunities in finance.

John Wilmarth

Principal, Technology Risk | KPMG

Josie Zhou

Associate Partner, McKinsey & Company (Shanghai)

Josie has over 5 years of consulting experience in Biopharma/biotech/Medtech serving clients in Asia and North America on ranges of topics including R&D and regulatory strategy, launch, growth strategy, commercial model innovation, analytics enabled solutions, digital partnership and post-merger management..  Josie holds a BS in Cell Bio from University of Science and Technology of China and a PhD in Diabetes from UCLA.