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2018 Speakers

Keynote Speakers

Barry Nalebuff

Milton Steinbach professor at Yale School of Management

Barry Nalebuff

Barry Nalebuff is the Milton Steinbach professor at Yale School of Management where he teaches strategy, innovation, game theory, and negotiation. Unlike most professors, he practices what he preaches (and preaches what he practices). Barry has written extensively on the application of game theory to business strategy. He is the coauthor of six books. International best-seller Thinking Strategically: The Competitive Edge in Business, Politics, and Everyday Life was the first popular book on game theory. It was the Financial Times’ Top Ten “Book of the Year,” a Book-of-the-Month Club best-seller, and required reading at the best business schools. Fortune said “Nalebuff sets out sure-fire rules for thinking about strategy.” Thinking Strategically and The Art of Strategy: A Game Theorist’s Guide to Success in Business and Life are two crossover books on game theory with more than 300,000 copies in print. Of The Art of Strategy, economist Steven Levitt said, “I am hard pressed to think of another book that can match the combination of practical insights and reading enjoyment,” and the Economist said, “Here is [a book] that is rigorous, fun, and extremely useful all at the same time.” The New York Times and BusinessWeek best-seller Co-opetition revolutionized the game of business. It looks beyond zero-sum games to emphasize the potential for cooperating as well as competing, with an emphasis on creating and capturing value. He also writes a popular Forbes column. Barry also has extensive experience consulting with multinational firms, from American Express, GE, and McKinsey to Google and Rio Tinto. A graduate of MIT, a Rhodes Scholar, and a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows, he earned his doctorate at Oxford.

Dave Sapenaro

First Vice President and COO, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Dave SapenaroDavid A. Sapenaro is the First Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis as well as the Federal Reserve System’s Payments Strategy Director. In his Bank role, he is responsible for directing operations and administrative support functions, leading strategic, tactical and financial planning and coordinating risk management activities. In his System role, he leads the Federal Reserve’s payments system improvement efforts related to faster payments, payments security, and stakeholder engagement.

Prior to being named to his current position in January 2006, Mr. Sapenaro led the Bank’s operations and initiatives in support of the U.S. Treasury’s financial operations. He also spent 10 years at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, holding a variety of positions in the Financial Services Division of the Bank, including lengthy stints as the officer-in-charge of the Bank’s Automated Clearing House and Funds Transfer operations.

Mr. Sapenaro received a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Missouri, Kansas City in 1985. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Greater St. Louis chapter of Junior Achievement.

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