Speakers

Guy Raz is widely considered to be one of the pioneers of podcasting. He's been instrumental in creating some of the most iconic podcasts in the world including How I Built This, the kids science podcast Wow in the World and TED Radio Hour.

Guy is also the force behind the celebrity interview podcast The Great Creators and the business podcast Wisdom from the Top. The New York Times has described him as “one of the most popular podcasters in history.” Collectively, his shows reach 19 million listeners a month.

Guy is also the author of two New York Times bestsellers including How I Built This and a children's book The How and Wow of the Human Body (with Mindy Thomas.) He's co-authored four other children's books on animals and space.

He's the co-founder of two media companies including Built-It Productions and the kids and family studio, Tinkercast.

Guy has interviewed more than 20,000 people over a career in broadcasting spanning more than 25 years including presidents, Nobel Prize winners, iconic actors, athletes, musicians and business leaders. Forbes magazine has called him “the greatest interviewer of his generation.”

He's been profiled in the New York Times, has been named one of the 40 most influential podcasters by the Hollywood Reporter and one of the 40 most influential people in children's media. Guy has also appeared as a guest on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon half a dozen times.

In 2017, Raz became the first person in the history of podcasting to have three shows in the top 20 on the Apple Podcasts charts simultaneously.

Previously, Guy was a foreign correspondent for CNN and NPR where he covered news from more than 50 countries. During his six years abroad, Raz covered everything from wars and conflict zones to sports and entertainment. He reported from more than 40 countries including the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Macedonia, and the ongoing conflict in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Guy was also the weekend host of NPR News' signature afternoon newsmagazine All Things Considered. During his tenure (2009-2012), he transformed the sound and format of the program and interviewed figures such as Bill Gates, Condoleezza Rice, Jimmy Carter, Shimon Peres, General David Petraeus, Al Gore, Mark Zuckerberg, Eminem, Taylor Swift, and many, many others.

Raz has anchored live coverage on some of the biggest stories in recent years, including the killing of Osama bin Laden, the Newtown School Shootings, and the 2012 presidential election.

For his work in broadcasting, Guy has been awarded the prestigious Edward E. Murrow award and was part of the team that won both the Peabody and DuPont awards. He's also received the National Headliner award, the NABJ, the Gracie, the Daniel Schorr Prize, a Webby, an iHeart award among several others.

In 2008, he spent a year as a Nieman journalism fellow at Harvard University where he studied classical history.

He has also served as a Ferris professor of journalism at Princeton University, a Shapiro fellow at George Washington University, and an adjunct professor of journalism at Georgetown.

Guy lives in Marin County, California with his family.

Dara Pincas is a globally recognized executive leader with more than two decades of experience at the forefront of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. She has held senior leadership roles at Roche/Genentech, Pfizer, the Federal Trade Commission, and served in a prestigious Clerkship in The White House, Office of Counsel to the President.

As Head of Legal for Roche Pharmaceuticals and General Counsel of Genentech, Dara leads the legal department and strategy for a $60 billion global enterprise, responsible for complex regulatory, compliance, litigation, and corporate governance matters across one of the world's most influential and largest healthcare organizations. She is widely respected for her strategic judgment, operational rigor, and ability to navigate high-stakes environments at the intersection of science, business, and public policy.

Dara demonstrates an enduring commitment to Jewish communal leadership and global Israel engagement. She currently serves as Chair of the Israel Committee at the Bay Area Jewish Federation and sits on the Board of Directors of JCRC and Temple Beth Abraham. Her prior board leadership roles include the JCC East Bay, Contra Costa Jewish Day School, the American International School in Israel, and Tebeka–Friends of Ethiopian Jews, reflecting a sustained dedication to education, community resilience, and social equity.

Raised in an international academic environment, Dara attended international schools throughout her primary and secondary education, speaks four languages, and holds dual Israeli-American citizenship. Having lived and worked across three continents, she brings a uniquely global perspective to leadership, governance, and Israel advocacy.

Dara has been the recipient of numerous distinguished honors, including recognition as one of the Most Influential Women in Business by the San Francisco Business Times, one of the Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America by Savoy Magazine, the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association Rising Star Award, the Pfizer Innovation Award, and the Federal Trade Commission's Stephen Nye Award.

She earned her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, where she was a Dean's Scholar, and holds a B.A. from Tufts University.

Roy Bahat is the head of Bloomberg Beta, the early-stage venture capital firm backed by Bloomberg L.P. Bloomberg Beta was the first VC firm to focus on the future of work and the first to focus on artificial intelligence. Bloomberg Beta has invested in Replit, Shield AI, Air Space Intelligence, Lambda Labs, MasterClass, Flexport, and Campus among other companies.

Before starting Bloomberg Beta, Roy started a venture-backed company, was a corporate executive (at News Corp.), in government (at New York's City Hall), and in academia.

Roy chairs the Aspen Institute's Business Roundtable on Organized Labor, and was a commissioner on California's Future of Work Commission. He hosts a podcast called This Is Not Advice, and the [Going to Work] conference.

Roy is a member of the Alliance for Principled Tech, and of Democracy Takes Work. He serves on the board or has been an advisor to several non-profits including the Golden Gate Institute for AI, the Brookings Institution, the National Academy for AI Instruction, Abundance Network, Stanford's Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, and the Economic Security Project.

In his Jewish life, Roy is a member of and advisor to The Kitchen in San Francisco, and was the first graduate of the Abraham Joshua Heschel School in New York (and later on the board). He's been involved as a donor or in other ways with Federation, the American Jewish Committee, Camp Tawonga, and other Jewish organizations — and is a community builder in Jewish WhatsApp, especially in tech and in his neighborhood.

Roy graduated from Harvard College and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University.

Alison Pincus is an entrepreneur and nonprofit leader who has spent her career identifying unmet needs and building innovative solutions to address them. Three decades spanning e-commerce, media, investing and the nonprofit sector, she has brought creativity, optimism, and a human-centered approach to solving complex problems. She co-founded One Kings Lane, where she served as Chief Strategy Officer and helped transform how Americans shop for their homes. She later founded Allies for Allies, where she serves as Founder and Executive Director, reimagining how families of individuals with disabilities and complex needs find qualified care.

Allies for Allies operates a two-sided care platform connecting families with qualified caregivers who understand behavioral patterns, emotional needs, and complex medical care. A4A partners with state-funded agencies and leading nonprofits and provides financial assistance to families facing gaps between public benefits and the real-world cost of care.

In 2009, Alison co-founded One Kings Lane (OKL) and served as its Chief Strategy Officer. Inspired by the transformation taking place in fashion e-commerce, Alison and her co-founder saw an opportunity to reinvent how consumers discovered and shopped for their homes. One Kings Lane quickly became an industry leader and was acquired by Bed Bath & Beyond in 2016. Recently relaunched, OKL has found a new generation of devotees and remains a go-to destination for home décor e-commerce in the U.S.

In 2018, Alison joined Short List Capital, a group of women investors brought together by a shared passion for innovation and entrepreneurship. Alison holds a B.S. from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Jim is the Founding Managing Partner at Maven Ventures, a leading seed venture fund in Silicon Valley. He has been fortunate to have achieved several unicorn exits in his career in roles ranging from founder, executive, and investor. Jim is an early stage consumer growth expert and is credited for naming Zoom as one of its first investors.

In his Jewish life, Jim served on the board of the Bay Area Jewish Federation after his two years in the Wexner program, and is active in AIPAC and ADL; he and his wife Emily are also members of the Hartman Giving Society. Ten years ago, inspired by the Wexner program, Jim started and runs the exclusive Jewish VC Network which brings great speakers on Judaism and Israel to the Silicon Valley Jewish Community.

Jim graduated from Duke University where he studied NeuroPsychology, earned a J.D. from UC Davis, and currently lives with his wife of 30 years, Emily, in Los Altos Hills, CA, where they raised their 3 wonderful children, one of whom made Aliyah in 2023. You can listen to Jim’s short TED talk about Yosemite and living your life with passion.

Guy Miasnik is a serial tech entrepreneur, startup investor, and philanthropist, with a track record of building and scaling ventures at the intersection of security, public safety, and enterprise SaaS. He has founded and led four technology companies, spanning financial content, web services, and enterprise software, and co-founded two nonprofits in education and civic engagement.

He is best known as co-founder and CEO of AtHoc, the leader in emergency communications for public safety and physical security. Under his leadership, AtHoc — backed by Greylock and Intel Capital — captured over 70% of the U.S. federal market, sustained profitability with double-digit growth for over seven years, and was acquired by BlackBerry in 2015 for approximately $300 million. At BlackBerry, Guy served as Division President, Chief Strategy Officer, and a member of the executive team through the company's turnaround into security software.

Today Guy is an investor and Executive Board Chair of Impala — the data intelligence layer for the philanthropic sector, the “PitchBook for Philanthropy.” He is an investor via Miasnik Ventures, and an advisory board member and investor in several companies, including Hidden Level (drone detection) and Privaini (AI for privacy protection).

Guy's entrepreneurial drive extends to social impact: he co-founded two nonprofits — the Bay Area Center to Counter Antisemitism (BACCA) and the Center for Entrepreneurship and Social Impact (CESI). He serves on the boards of the Jewish Community Federation of the San Francisco Bay Area — a $2.2B foundation — and the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), and serves in advisory roles at Harvard Business School, including as a judge of its New Venture Competition.

Guy holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Technion, and a law degree from Tel Aviv University. He lives in Silicon Valley with his wife, Michal, and together they have three children, all active in Jewish life. Outside work he enjoys cycling, photography, and travel — Patagonia, Antarctica, and Iceland among his favorite destinations — and is a passionate private pilot.

Laura Lauder is a social entrepreneur and venture philanthropist dedicated to designing and launching strategic, high-impact initiatives. She has founded several innovative programs in the Jewish community — including Embark, a cohort-based, 3-month-long Jewish engagement program for interfaith couples that has spread to over 15 cities in the US, and the Center for Media and Democracy in Israel, a nonprofit and non-partisan independent news organization that promotes democratic discourse through investigative journalism. Laura also launched the Duke Gap Year Program in 2018, which funds incoming Duke freshmen to take an experiential growth year before enrolling at Duke, and with her husband, Gary, started the Socrates Program at the Aspen Institute for young leaders to engage in rich conversation about the most pressing issues of our age. To date, the program has engaged over 12,000 young leaders representing 60+ countries.

She currently serves as the Board Chair of the Jewish Federation Bay Area, and she previously chaired the Endowment Committee overseeing more than $2.5 billion in assets. Laura also sits on the boards of Social Finance — a leader in the impact investing space — the Aspen Institute, and the Service Year Alliance, focused on promoting National Service opportunities in the US. She serves on the boards of the Ronald Lauder Foundation in NYC and the Osher Foundation in San Francisco, and served for 9 years on the Jim Joseph Foundation, also in San Francisco.

A Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, Laura was named one of “10 Women to Watch” by Jewish Woman magazine and has received numerous leadership honors. An avid cyclist and 2009 Maccabi Games bronze medalist in cycling, she lives in Silicon Valley with her husband, Gary, and has two adult children and two grandchildren.

Read more about Laura’s work at lauderfamilyfund.org.

Raf Burde is a trust, safety, and public-private partnerships professional who has built a career at the intersection of technology, policy, and innovation. Professionally, he serves as Co-Lead for Global Search Policy at Google, where he enables responsible innovation and stewards user trust through principled product policies and frameworks. A passionate policy wonk, Raf brings extensive on-the-ground expertise in platform moderation, emerging mobility, and complex, highly-regulated initiatives.

Parallel to his tech career, Raf is a prominent Bay Area Jewish communal leader dedicated to using innovative programming to engage evolving demographics. He serves on the CEO Advisory Council of the Bay Area Jewish Federation, previously served on the board of Congregation Beth Sholom for seven years, where he helped launch the Youngish initiative, and is a leader of the Noe Valley Chavurah, a pluralist grassroots neighborhood community of over 500 adults.

Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Raf holds degrees in politics, philosophy, economics, and international policy from the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, Clara Brenner, and their two children, Max and Anya.

David Agger has over 37 years of experience in investment and finance. Since 1998 he has managed an investment partnership, Metropolis Partners, Inc. offering direct investment and financial structuring in the real assets industry. Direct investment and advisory activities focus on the acquisition of value added opportunities in solar energy, industrial and R&D real estate in Southern California, Colorado and the New England area. Mr. Agger is the Managing Member of DGEP Management, LLC an early stage developer of distributed solar projects throughout the United States.

He has a longstanding record of community service in the Bay Area where he currently serves as a Director of the Jim Joseph Foundation and is a Member of its Executive Committee and is past Chair of Board and the Investment Committee. He is also Director, Member of the Executive Committee and Chairman of the Investment Committee of the Bernard Osher Foundation, Chairman of the Investment Committee for the Foundation for California Community Colleges, is a Board Member of two private family foundations in the Bay Area and is a past Member of the Board and a current member of the Investment Committee of the Jewish Federation Bay Area.

Previously Mr. Agger was a Trustee, Member of the Executive Committee, and Chair of both the Investment and Development Committees of the University of San Francisco, was past President of the Mt. Zion Health Fund, and past Board Member of the Institute On Aging.

Sabrina Braham MD is a pediatric physician and innovator at Stanford School of Medicine and mother of 3 proudly Jewish young adults. She serves in advisory roles for health technology companies and is a national speaker on pediatric digital health and AI. She completed the Wexner Heritage Program for Jewish Learning and Leadership in 2019 and served on the Board of Directors of the Oshman Family JCC and the Advisory Board for Challenge Success.

She currently serves on the Board of the Mount Zion Health Fund, is building Georgetown’s first Jewish Alumni Organization, leads the Jewish Family Affinity Group at the Menlo School and is actively engaged with national organisations focused on improving balanced discourse and fighting antisemitism on American academic campuses. Her proudest achievement though is the creation of Jewish Girls Lunch, a virtual community 220+ women strong that facilitates connection and community for the Jewish women of Silicon Valley.

She lives in Palo Alto with her husband, three children, and a dog, and enjoys boisterous family meals, hiking, and ‘polar bear’ swimming in the San Francisco Bay.

Tye is a California LGBTQ+ Jewish community leader and serves as CEO of JCRC Bay Area and Executive Director of Bay Area Jewish Action (BAJA). Under his leadership, JCRC and BAJA advance a just world where Jewish identity is embraced and all people can thrive. Tye works closely with elected officials, law enforcement, and K–12 and higher education leaders to ensure the Bay Area and California remain places where Jewish communities can live openly and safely. In recent years, JCRC has become a leading Jewish organization addressing the rising threat of antisemitism in the Bay Area through public education, media engagement, and advocacy, as well as coalition building on issues of social justice and shared values.

Previously, Tye served as Executive Director of A Wider Bridge, an LGBTQ+ Jewish organization combating antisemitism, homophobia, and transphobia while advancing equality in Israel through international cooperation. He began his career at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

Joy Sisisky has served the Jewish community for twenty-five years as a professional dedicated to advancing philanthropy, social justice causes and women’s issues. Known as an optimistic thought-leader and innovator in progressive Jewish philanthropy, Joy was appointed President & Chief Executive Officer at the Jewish Federation Bay Area in 2022; previously, she served as Chief Philanthropy Officer. In the last ten years alone, Joy has stewarded more than $2 billion in philanthropic capital through the Federation, also one of the largest community foundations in the country with more than $2.6 billion in assets. Joy was the fifth woman to ever serve as chief executive at any large-city Federation in North America in the last 100 years.

Earlier in her career, Joy served as the Executive Director of the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York and is a former Ralph I. Goldman Fellow at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee where she spent a year living and working in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She is the founder of Do Good Ukraine! the first organization dedicated to building civil society through volunteerism. Joy was the first national co-chair of JDC Entwine, the organization’s young adult platform, and serves on the Board of JDC. Prior to that, she worked at AIPAC and Israel Policy Forum.

Joy graduated from Brandeis University and earned dual-master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Public Administration and Hebrew Union College in Jewish Communal Service. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from Hebrew Union College in May 2025 in recognition of her longstanding work. She grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and lives in San Francisco with her husband and two daughters.