Financial Advisor Summit 4Q 2023

Financial Advisor Summit

The CNBC Financial Advisor Summit brings together the country’s top advisory firms to explore the state of markets.

Forward-thinking advisors meet to hear from financial industry heavyweights about the state of the markets and the economy, and to discover new and innovative ways they can address the increasingly complex needs of their clients.

To read more about CNBC’s list of top-rated financial advisory firms, visit us here.

PAST SPEAKERS

Kyle Bass

J. Kyle Bass is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Hayman Capital Management, an investment manager of private funds focused on global event-driven opportunities. He is also the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Conservation Equity Management, an environmental sustainability private equity firm founded in 2021.

Mr. Bass is a founding member of the Committee on the Present Danger: China. Mr. Bass was the recipient of the 2019 Foreign Policy Association Medal for his responsible internationalism and is a current member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Bass has testified as an expert witness before the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.

In 2015, Bass was recognized as one of the Top 25 Most Influential People in the Global Patent Market as named by Intellectual Asset Management magazine. Mr. Bass has lectured on global economics at various universities, including Columbia, Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley, University of Chicago, University of Texas, and the University of Virginia. Mr. Bass is the former Chair of the Risk Committee of the Board of Directors of the University of Texas Investment Management Company (UTIMCO), which manages approximately $50 billion.

Before forming Hayman, Mr. Bass was a Managing Director at Legg Mason and a Senior Managing Director at Bear Stearns. He graduated from Texas Christian University with a degree in finance. Mr. Bass serves on the board of the Texas Department of Public Safety Foundation and Melinda’s Foods.

Jeffrey Gundlach

Mr. Gundlach is CEO of DoubleLine. In 2011, he appeared on the cover of Barron's as "The New Bond King." In 2013, Institutional Investor named him "Money Manager of the Year." In 2012, 2015 and 2016, he was named one of "The Fifty Most Influential" in Bloomberg Markets. In 2017, he was inducted into the FIASI Fixed Income Hall of Fame. Mr. Gundlach is a summa cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College, with degrees in Mathematics and Philosophy.

Heidi Heitkamp

U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp served as the first female senator elected from North Dakota from 2013-2019.

Senator Heitkamp grew up in a large family in the small town of Mantador, North Dakota. Alongside her six brothers and sisters, she learned the value of hard work and responsibility, leading her to choose a life of public service.

During her six years in the U.S. Senate, Senator Heitkamp quickly became a proven senator who worked across the aisle to fight for North Dakotans. Senator Heitkamp personally showed that if senators work together, it can lead to real solutions. She also came to work every day fighting for rural America and made sure others in the Senate understood the needs of rural communities.

Former Republican Senator Bob Corker called Senator Heitkamp “stronger than battery acid.” Democratic Senator Jon Tester said “she has been incredibly effective” in the Senate.

Senator Heitkamp courageously voted against Justice Brett Kavanaugh to serve on the Supreme Court after hearing testimony from Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Kavanuagh’s response testimony. Following the vote, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said Senator Heitkamp had, “become a bit of a feminist icon.”

Throughout her time in public service, Senator Heitkamp has stood up for tribal communities and worked to improve outcomes for Native American children, women, and families. The first bill she introduced in the Senate, which became law in 2016, created a Commission on Native Children. Her bill with former Senator John McCain became law to create Amber Alerts in Indian Country. She introduced Savanna’s Act to help address the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women. And she worked to help address the detrimental impact exposure to trauma can have on children and families – particularly those in Native communities.

Senator Heitkamp also worked to combat human trafficking in North Dakota, across the country, and around the world. She helped write legislation, which was signed into law, to crack down on human trafficking online, which led to the closure of Backpage.com.

A strong advocate for working families, Senator Heitkamp has fought to support North Dakotans throughout their lives. She helped introduce legislation to create a federal paid family and medical leave policy. She led the effort to get the Export-Import Bank up and running to boost American manufacturing and support American workers and businesses. She strongly backed legislation to prevent discrimination in the workplace against LGBTQ individuals. And she fought for retirement security for families and seniors by working to solve the pension crisis facing many retirees.

Senator Heitkamp has pushed to make health care more affordable and accessible. She fought back against efforts to repeal the health reform law and tried to make the law work better for families and businesses. She halted attempts to slash Medicaid and Medicare or privatize Social Security. She voted against the Republican tax bill and has called for a fairer tax system that doesn’t drastically increase the nation’s debt and deficit.

As a former director of the one-of-a-kind Dakota Gasification synfuels plant,Senator Heitkamp has a long record with energy development in North Dakota. She continued those efforts in the Senate, working to responsibly harness North Dakota’s energy resources, and successfully pushed to lift the 40-year old ban on exporting U.S. crude oil while expanding support for renewable energies, like wind and solar energy development.

Senator Heitkamp sat on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, where she fought for North Dakota’s farmers, ranchers, and rural communities to make sure they got the resources and support they need to continue to feed North Dakota, the country, and the world. She helped write, negotiate, and pass two long-term, comprehensive Farm Bills which Congress passed.

Through her leadership on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Senator Heitkamp pushed to reform the nation’s housing finance system, make housing more affordable, and provide relief to small financial institutions.

On the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Senator Heitkamp pushed to provide training and resources for first responders to keep North Dakota’s communities strong and safe, improve mail delivery and service in rural communities, help recruit and retain a strong federal workforce, and cut red tape to make the federal government more efficient and effective for North Dakota families and small businesses.

Senator Heitkamp previously served as North Dakota’s Attorney General, and prior to that as the state’s Tax Commissioner. She serves on numerous boards including the McCain Institute and the Howard Buffett Foundation. She is the founder and Chair of the One Country Project, an organization focused on addressing the needs and concerns of rural America.

Senator Heitkamp received a B.A. from the University of North Dakota and a law degree from Lewis and Clark Law School.She lives in Mandan, North Dakota with her husband, Dr. Darwin Lange, a family practitioner. They have two children, Ali and Nathan.

Barry Sternlicht

Barry Sternlicht is Chairman & CEO of Starwood Capital Group, the private alternative investment firm he formed in 1991 that is focused on global real estate, hotel management, oil and gas, and energy infrastructure. Mr. Sternlicht also serves as Chairman of Starwood Property Trust (NYSE: STWD), a leading diversified finance company.

For the past 31 years, Mr. Sternlicht has structured investments with an asset value of $235B+. Starwood Capital’s investment vehicles have invested in approximately 285,000 residential units, 4,000 hotels, 103M SF of office properties, 73M SF of Industrial, 56M SF of retail and 70,000 lots of land in residential subdivisions. The Firm currently manages approximately $125B of assets on behalf of its high net worth and institutional partners. Starwood Capital, its affiliates and externally managed public companies encompass over 4,500 employees. The Firm maintains offices in Arlington, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Greenwich, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., and affiliated offices in Amsterdam, Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, Sydney and Tokyo.

From 1995 through early 2005, Mr. Sternlicht was Chairman and CEO of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, a company he founded in 1995. During his tenure, he built Starwood Hotels into one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world, employing more than 120,000 people with 895 properties in 100 countries. Mr. Sternlicht created W Hotels, perhaps the world’s most successful “boutique” brand, and built the St. Regis Hotels brand from a single hotel to a global brand.

In 2008, Mr. Sternlicht founded SH Group, his new hotel management company. SH Group is the owner and manager of Baccarat Hotels & Resorts and 1 Hotels brands.

In 2016, Mr. Sternlicht was the recipient of PERE’s inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2015, he was named the Global Industry Figure of the Year by PERE, received the Cornell Icon of the Industry Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Hotel Investment Forum. In 2013, Mr. Sternlicht was named the Most Important Person in Commercial Real Estate Finance by The Mortgage Observer. In 2010, Mr. Sternlicht was named Executive of the Year and Investor of the Year by Commercial Property Executive. Mr. Sternlicht was also named America’s Best Lodging CEO by Institutional Investor Magazine. He is a member of the Interior Design Magazine Hall of Fame. He has received the Preston Robert Tisch Distinguished Industry Leadership Award from New York University, the CEO Diversity Award from Diversity Best Practices/Business Women’s Network, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Travel Marketing Executives, the Hospitality Heritage Award from the American Hotel and Lodging Association, and the Marketer of the Year Award from Brandweek. Mr. Sternlicht’s humanitarian efforts have garnered prestigious national honors such as JDRF’s Man of the Year, JDRF’s Living and Giving Award and JDRF’s Chairman’s Award.

Mr. Sternlicht serves on the Board of Directors of The Estée Lauder Companies and the Real Estate Roundtable. Additionally, he formerly served as Chairman of the Board and is currently a Board member of The Robin Hood Foundation, and also serves on the Boards of the Dreamland Film & Performing Arts Center, and the Executive Advisory Board of Americans for the Arts. He is a member of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Foundation Trustee Council, the World Presidents Organization and the Urban Land Institute.

Barry Sternlicht received his BA, magna cum laude, with honors from Brown University. He later earned an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.