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Avid cyclist and believer that VR is the new frontier of fitness; Co-Founder & CEO VirZOOM; former VC and active angel investor; macro-economy and markets forecaster; Systems software hacker, product management director, VP Sales, and CEO of VC-backed start-ups; Portfolio Penguin economics book author; Harvard Business Review and Harper’s Magazine cover article author; Keynote speaker; Inventor: Audio cues process patent Aug. 2017.

Nadia Cheng, Head of Operations, has been with RightHand Robotics for almost three years and previously served as the Director of R&D at Empire Robotics (another Boston-based robotics startup). Nadia received her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of California, San Diego. At MIT, Nadia's research focused on developing squishy robots. She was also a National Defense Science and Engineering Research Fellow and has worked at the MIT Media Lab. Nadia has publications in robotics, air traffic management, tangible user interfaces, and nature-inspired cocktail garnishes, and has also worked in areas including medical devices, assistive technologies, and 3D printing.

Dr. Max Abrahms is among the world’s leading experts on the subject of terrorism. Currently, he is a professor of political science at Northeastern University and a member at the Council on Foreign Relations. Abrahms is also a frequent analyst in the media, especially on the consequences of terrorism, its motives, and the implications for counterterrorism strategy. Abrahms regularly briefs government agencies including the Central Intelligence Agency, National Intelligence Council, National Counterterrorism Center, and Department of Homeland Security. He holds a Ph.D. from UCLA, an M.Phil. from Oxford, and a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

Jim Braude is the co-host of Boston Public Radio.During law school, Jim ran a small retail business in Provincetown (HUBE - Help Us Break Even!). He started his professional career as a legal services lawyer in the South Bronx handling housing and prisoners’ rights cases. He was the founder and first president of the National Organization of Legal Services Workers, a union representing staff in civil legal offices for the poor in 35 states. NOLSW helped lead the fight to preserve the national program when President Reagan proposed its abolition.

Jeff Greenfield is a veteran political, media, and culture reporter who contributes to *The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric*, *The Early Show*, *CBS News Sunday Morning* and other CBS News broadcasts, as well as CBSNews.com. Prior to his return to CBS News in May 2007, Greenfield had been senior analyst for CNN since 1998. During that time, he served as its lead analyst for its coverage of the primaries, conventions, presidential debates and election nights, as well as presidential funerals and Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Greenfield also has reported on the media, culture, and trends for the cable network. Greenfield has won three Emmy Awards, two for his reporting from South Africa and one for a profile of Ross Perot. His work has appeared in many publications, including *The New York Times Magazine*, *Harper's* and *National Lampoon*. Greenfield is the author or co-author of 11 books. His first novel, *The People’s Choice*, was a national bestseller and was named by *The New York Times Book Review* as one of the notable books of the year. His most recent book was *Oh, Waiter, One Order of Crow*, an insider's account of the contested 2000 presidential election. **

Professor Alan M. Dershowitz is Brooklyn native. He is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Dershowitz, a graduate of Brooklyn College and Yale Law School, joined the Harvard Law School faculty at age 25 after clerking for Judge David Bazelon and Justice Arthur Goldberg. He has also published more than 100 articles in magazines and journals such as *The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post. The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The Nation, Commentary, Saturday Review, The Harvard Law Review and the Yale Law Journal*, and more than 300 of his articles have appeared in syndication in 50 national daily newspapers.

Harvey A. Silverglate is an attorney practicing in Cambridge, MA. He holds degrees from Princeton University and Harvard Law School. Along with Alan Kors he co-founded the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, and is a board member of the Massachusetts chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. He has taught at Harvard Law School, Cambridge Rindge and Latin, and in the University of Massachusetts College III program. In addition to his law practice and his teaching, he is also a regular columnist for *The Boston Phoenix* on matters relating to political, legal issues and civil liberties.

Loretta Napoleoni is the best selling author of Terror Incorporated and Insurgent Iraq. She is an expert on financing of terrorism and advises several governments on counter-terrorism. She is senior partner of G Risk, a London based risk agency. As Chairman of the countering terrorism financing group for the Club de Madrid, Napoleoni brought heads of state from around the world together to create a new strategy for combating the financing of terror networks. Born and raised in Rome, in the mid 1970s Loretta Napoleoni became an active member of the feminist movement and a political activist. She was a Fulbright scholar at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington DC and a Rotary Scholar at the London School of Economics. As an economist she worked for several banks and international organizations in Europe and the US. In the early 1980s she worked at the National Bank of Hungary on the convertibility of the florin that became the blue print for the convertibility of the ruble a decade later. Ms Napoleoni is also a journalist and has worked as a foreign correspondent for several Italian financial papers. Her work appears regularly in many journals and publications, including several European newspapers. She lectures regularly on the financing of terrorism. She has written novels, guide books in Italian and translated and edited books on terrorism; her most recent novel, Dossier Baghdad, is a financial thriller set during the Gulf War. She was among the few people to interview the Red Brigades in Italy after three decades of silence. Loretta Napoleoni lives in London and Whitefish, Montana, with her husband and their children.

Jeff Jacoby has been an op-ed columnist for *The Boston Globe* since 1994. Seeking a conservative voice, *the Globe* hired him away from *the Boston Herald*, where he had been chief editorial writer since 1987. *The Boston Phoenix* has dubbed his twice-weekly essays ''a must-read,'' describing him as ''the region's pre-eminent spokesman for Conservative Nation.'' A native of Cleveland, Jeff Jacoby graduated with honors from George Washington University in 1979, and from Boston University Law School in 1983. He briefly practiced law at the nationally renowned firm of Baker & Hostetler, returning to Boston in 1984 to work on a political campaign. He is also a frequent guest on radio talk shows across North America. He serves on the board of the New England chapter of the American Jewish Committee, and is a director of the Ford Hall Forum, the nation's oldest free public-lecture series. In 1999, Jacoby became the first recipient of the Breindel Prize, a $10,000 prize for excellence in opinion journalism. In 2004, he received the Thomas Paine Award of the Institute for Justice, an award presented to journalists ''who dedicate their work to the preservation and championing of individual liberty.'' Jeff Jacoby is married to the former Laura Weller. They live in Brookline, Massachusetts, with their sons, Caleb and Micah.

Noam Chomsky is a leading linguistic scientist and a longtime professor at MIT. His 1957 book Syntactic Structures outlined his theories of transformational generative grammar and made him a prominent and controversial figure in the field. Chomsky is also known as a political activist suspicious of big media, big business and big government. His books include Manufacturing Consent (1988) and Propaganda and the Public Mind (2001).