Senior Vice President & General Counsel

Equinox

 

Yen D. Chu is Senior Vice President, General Counsel and leads the legal department of Equinox Holdings, a luxury lifestyle fitness and wellness company with a portfolio of brands or business interests in Equinox Fitness, SoulCycle, Blink Fitness, PURE Yoga, Furthermore (digital magazine), and Equinox Hotels.

 

Prior to Equinox, Yen was Senior Vice President, Associate General Counsel of Ralph Lauren Corporation where she oversaw all public company and Board of Directors governance and global regulatory compliance matters, including SEC/securities, anti-bribery/FCPA, consumer product safety, and trade/customs compliance. In addition, Yen and her team were responsible for legal aspects of corporate social responsibility and philanthropic matters as well as global transactions, including corporate financing, licensing, and distribution.

Yen began her career at the law firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP where she focused on capital markets, representing private equity firms, financial institutions, and public and private companies.

Yen is a graduate of Columbia Law School where she served as editor-in-chief of the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law and was the national Justice Harry A. Blackmun Scholar. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Columbia Law School Association and a mentor/workshop advisor for Columbia First Generation Professionals.

General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer

Arosa Capital Management LP

 

Jonathan Feiler is the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of Arosa Capital Management LP where he is responsible for managing the firm’s legal and compliance matters. Prior to joining Arosa, Jonathan worked in the Investment Management department at Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP from 2007 until 2015. While at Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP, Jonathan represented large institutional and entrepreneurial private investment fund managers and private investment funds (including hedge funds, private equity funds and hybrid funds) in connection with their structuring, formation and ongoing legal issues, as well as regulatory and compliance matters. Jonathan is a member of the New York State bar. He received his J.D. cum laude from Boston University School of Law and received a B.S. in Business Administration from the State University of New York at Albany.

Senior Managing Counsel

Oracle

 

General Counsel & Secretary

Rosetta Stone

 

Senior Vice President & Deputy General Counsel

News Corp

 

Genie Gavenchak is Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel of News Corp, a global media and entertainment company. Genie began working at News Corp in May 1995, where she manages litigation and other disputes domestically and abroad, assists in analyzing risks associated with mergers and acquisitions and advises on matters of corporate governance. Genie also serves as Senior Vice President of a number of subsidiaries and affiliates of News Corp. Prior to joining News Corp, Genie was a partner at Squadron, Ellenoff, Plesent & Sheinfeld, which she joined in 1979, after clerking for Chief Justice Edward F. Hennessey of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Genie has a J.D. from Boston University School of Law, where she was an Editor on Law Review, and a B.A. from Wesleyan University.

General Counsel

Clough Capital Partners LP

 

Mimi Gross is the General Counsel at Clough Capital Partners L.P., where she advises the firm with regard to a wide range of issues, including structural and fund formation matters, strategic initiatives, regulatory compliance and reporting, and other operations and management issues. Clough Capital is an SEC-registered investment adviser, providing investment management to hedge funds, mutual funds and separately managed accounts. Prior to joining Clough Capital, Mimi served as Counsel at Bingham McCutchen LLP, where her practice focused on the representation of both US and international investment advisors and funds, including hedge funds, funds of funds, private equity funds and real estate funds. Mimi holds B.C.L., LL.B. and B.A. degrees from McGill University. Mimi is a member of the Boston committee of 100 Women in Hedge Funds.

Public Sector Counsel

Verizon

 

Senior Vice President, Head of Legal Department

Popular Bank

 

Christopher Lalan is the SVP and Director of the Legal Division at Popular Bank in New York, NY, the U.S. mainland operating subsidiary of Popular, Inc., which ranks among the 5oth largest financial institutions in the U.S. Chris oversees all aspects of the Bank’s legal affairs and its team of attorneys and legal professionals and leads strategic initiatives, litigation, corporate and transactional matters and legal operations. Chris is also a member of the Bank’s Senior Management Team and serves as Secretary of the Board of Directors for the Popular Foundation, Inc., the institution’s charitable foundation. Prior to joining Popular Bank in 2009, Chris was affiliated with several major law firms, including Sidley Austin LLP and Hunton & Williams LLP. Chris received his law degree from Northwestern University School of Law and his undergraduate degree from Emory University.

Vice President & Senior Counsel

Fifth Third Bank

 

Jennifer advises Fifth Third on a variety of privacy, information security and intellectual property matters, including incident response, data governance, and vendor risk management. Jennifer provides interpretations and advice on federal, state and international privacy and data security laws, including (but not limited to) GLBA, GDPR, PIPEDA, CCPA, HIPAA, CAN-SPAM, TCPA, COPPA, FCRA, and applicable breach notification rules.

Prior to joining Fifth Third in 2014, Jennifer was in private practice, representing financial institutions in commercial litigation and class action defense.

Jennifer currently serves on the Board of Trustees for The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati.

Jennifer received a B.A. in Theatre from The Ohio State University in 2002, and a J.D. from Salmon P. Chase College of Law in 2007.

General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer

Semper Capital Management, LP

 

Christopher Mendez chairs the Firm’s Compliance Committee and serves on the Firm’s Investment and Risk Management committees. Prior to joining Semper, Chris was in the Business Law Department of Goodwin Procter LLP in New York. Prior to joining Goodwin Procter, Chris was in the legal and compliance group of Invesco's alternative investments business, responsible for the private equity firm WL Ross & Co. LLC, Invesco Private Capital and Invesco Senior Secured Management. Chris began his career over 12 years ago in Vanguard’s Legal Department following service as Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps. Chris is on the Board of Directors of Volunteers of Legal Service (VOLS) and previously on the board of College and Community Fellowship (CCF). Chris is also a Committee Member for the CFA Society New York’s Veterans Roundtable and served as a Deputy President, Region II (NY), of the Hispanic National Bar Association. Chris earned a BBA from Temple University and JD from Rutgers Law School.

General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer

NWI Management LP

 

Michael R. Schwenk serves as the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of NWI Management LP. Mr. Schwenk is responsible for all legal and regulatory issues affecting the firm and its advised funds, including compliance with securities and commodity future regulations. He joined NWI Management in May 2015. Before joining NWI, Mr. Schwenk was the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of Mizuho Alternative Investment, LLC from 2014 to 2015, and the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of Platinum Grove Asset Management, L.P. from 2001 to 2014. Mr. Schwenk received his juris doctor degree from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, New York, New York (1995) and his bachelor’s degree from The City College of New York (1992). He is a member of the New York bar.

Chief Compliance Officer

ZAIS Group, LLC

 

Karen Shapiro serves as Chief Compliance Officer and Managing Director at ZAIS and is a member of ZAIS’s Management Advisory Committee. Before joining ZAIS in June of 2013, Ms. Shapiro was Senior Compliance Officer and Compliance Consultant with Millennium Management LLC, CCO of Worldwide Life and Retirement Services with AIG, Inc. and CCO of International Insurance with Prudential Financial, Inc. She previously was an attorney with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in its Enforcement Division and practiced law with the firms Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver and Jacobson and Shaw, Pittman, Potts and Trowbridge (now, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman), in Washington, D.C. Ms. Shapiro has served as Chair of the Editorial Board of Business Law Today, a publication of the American Bar Association Section of Business Law and as a member of the Section’s Council, among other bar leadership positions and as a Visiting Professor of Law with the Central University of Finance and Economics Law School in Beijing, China. Ms. Shapiro received a J.D. from the Washington College of Law at The American University and her B.A. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Partner

Alston & Bird, LLP

 

Michael D. Saarinen is a partner in Alston & Bird’s Investment Management, Trading & Markets Practice. Michael represents a wide range of fund sponsors, from emerging managers to global financial institutions. He advises on the domestic and international aspects of fund formation, marketing and operations across many types of funds, including traditional PE buyout funds, hedge funds, VC funds, RE funds, infrastructure funds, credit funds, seed funds, hybrid funds, funds-of-funds and other innovative investment products. Michael also counsels clients on regulatory and compliance issues, examination and enforcement matters, compensation arrangements, succession matters and strategic transactions.