Carlos de Quesada is the founder of VeraCruz Advisory, LLC, which focuses on providing financial advisory and strategic consulting services to non-profit institutions. Prior to founding VeraCruz in 2011, Carlos spent four years as a managing director for a financial advisory and business practice consulting firm that focused on not-for-profit and faith-based entities. He led the origination, structuring, and closing of more than $500 million in financing and interest rate derivatives for not-for-profit clients across seven states. Before focusing on not-for-profits, Carlos served as a vice president and minority shareholder at the fastest growing Hispanic-owned company in the U.S., Liberty Power. He has also held positions with international banking institutions including Citigroup, Calyon (of France), and UBS (of Switzerland). He has served or is active in volunteer activities with the not-for-profit Advisory Board and Steering Committee for the World Fund, as well as the Stewardship and Development Committee of St. Francis College. He also collaborates with the American Bible Society’s Hispanic outreach initiatives through the Latino Advisory Council advising the ABS President. From December 2011-14, Carlos served on the Catholic Charities Board of Venice, Florida. He received a B.S. in finance from Florida State University in 1987 before serving as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1988-91. In 1993, he earned an M.B.A. from George Washington University. Born and raised in Miami, Florida, Carlos is a first-generation American of Cuban parents and is bilingual.

Samuel A. Di Piazza, Jr. served as Global Chief Executive Officer of PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited from 2002 until his retirement in 2009. Sam began his 36-year career with PricewatershouseCoopers (then Coopers & Lybrand) in 1973 and was named partner in 1979. From 1979 to 2002, he held various regional leadership positions with PricewaterhouseCoopers (and its predecessor firm). After his retirement from PricewaterhouseCoopers, Sam joined Citigroup, where he served as Vice Chairman of the Global Corporate and Investment Bank from 2011 until 2014. Since 2010, Sam has served as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Mayo Clinic and served as a Director of DIRECTV from 2010 until the company was acquired by AT&T Inc. in July 2015. Sam is a Director of AT&T, Inc., ProAssurance Corporation, and Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated. He also serves as a Trustee of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the Inner City Scholarship Fund, the National September 11th Memorial and Museum, and the Partnership for Inner City Education in New York City. He received a B.S. in accounting from the University of Alabama and earned an M.S. in tax accounting from the University of Houston.

Scott W. Hamilton is a social entrepreneur now focused on using all that has been learned about the brain in neuroscience to improve children’s learning. Before co-founding Seton Education Partners, Scott designed and for five years led the effort to grow the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) from two schools in 2000 to over 250 of the best known and celebrated inner-city public schools in America today. He guided the investment of over $100M from the Fishers, the founders of Gap, Inc., into KIPP and into the quadrupling of the Teach for America teaching corps, the creation the Charter School Growth Fund, and more. He has held posts in the White House, with the U.S. Secretary of Education, and as the Associate Commissioner of Education for Massachusetts, leading the Bay State’s pioneering investment of $325M in start-up public charter schools. Scott received his degree in Ancient Greek from the University of Pennsylvania, where he rowed heavyweight crew. He lives in London, with his wife, Stacey Boyd, and their two daughters.

Leo Linbeck III is a husband, father of five, and president and CEO of Aquinas Companies, LLC, the parent company of three values-driven enterprises: construction management, real estate development and acquisition, and a life science technology studio. Since Leo joined the leadership team at the company, its annual revenues have grown from $40 million to over $400 million. Aquinas’ unusual structure and business practices have inspired tremendous employee loyalty, with an average tenure among senior managers of more than twenty years, and have made a significant community impact through an annual tithe of its net income. In addition, Leo teaches at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business as a Lecturer, where he was named M.B.A. Class of 1979 Lecturer for 2008-09. Leo is very involved with PreK-12 education reform, especially the expansion of high-performing charter schools serving underserved communities. He has a close working relationship with KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) in Houston, where he led the effort to formulate a bold plan for growth. He also helped create REEP (Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program), a business-school-based program for developing school leaders, and currently serves as the Chairman of REEP. Leo serves on the board of Families Empowered, Competitive Governance Institute, Chantal Cookware, Free Enterprise Institute, and the Greater Houston Community Foundation. He is a Distinguished Alumni of the University of Texas Civil Engineering Department, and a member of the Positive Coaching Alliance National Advisory Board. He also founded and ran the largest non-partisan SuperPAC, the Campaign for Primary Accountability, during the 2012 election cycle.