Speakers 
Jeff Bussgang
Jeff Bussgang is a venture capitalist, entrepreneur and professor at Harvard Business School (HBS). His venture capital firm, Flybridge Capital Partners, has made investments in over 100 technology-focused startups since inception fifteen years ago and over $600 million under management.
At HBS, he teaches Launching Technology Ventures, a popular class for MBA students starting companies or pursuing careers in startups. Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, Bussgang was an entrepreneur—serving as cofounder and president of Upromise (acquired by Sallie Mae) and an executive team member at Open Market (IPO 1996).
He is the author of a book for startup joiners, Entering StartUpLand: An Essential Guide to Finding the Right Job and Mastering the VC Game, an essential guide for entrepreneurs raising capital and building their startups. He has also authored well over twenty HBS case studies, teaching notes and book chapters regarding startup management and entrepreneurship. He started his career with The Boston Consulting Group and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in computer science from Harvard College.
Eric S. Rosengren
Eric S. Rosengren is president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, one of 12 regional Federal Reserve banks. Eric is a participant in the Federal Open Market Committee, the monetary policymaking body of the United States, and a 2019 voting member. As CEO, Eric leads the Boston Fed’s work, which includes economic research and analysis, banking supervision and financial stability efforts, community economic development activities, and a wide range of payments, technology, and finance initiatives.
Eric was appointed president in 2007 and has taken a rigorously data-driven approach in forming his views on the national and regional economy. His research and policy positions pay close attention to both aspects of the Fed’s dual mandate – labor market outcomes as well as price stability. Eric’s work as a researcher and now as a policymaker has often focused on financial stability issues and their impact on the real Main Street economy. He has led a number of efforts to expand the Boston Fed’s outreach and impact on low- and moderate-income communities – among them hosting sizable foreclosure- prevention workshops for New England residents during the Great Recession, and running a competition for postindustrial New England communities to develop cross-sector collaboration and ultimately help improve the lives of lower-income residents.
Eric holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Colby College, where he is the current chair of the board of trustees, and earned a master’s and doctorate in economics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Nick Stanescu
Nick Stanescu is Senior Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Business Executive of the FedNowSM Service, the new round-the-clock real-time payment and settlement service that the Federal Reserve Banks are developing to support faster payments in the United States.
He previously served as the Head of Payments Product Management of the Wholesale Product Office (WPO) at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Mr. Stanescu had business responsibility for the Fedwire Funds and National Settlement Services on behalf of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks. Collectively, these services clear and settle financial transactions exceeding $3 trillion per day and are a foundational underpinning of the United States financial system.
Mr. Stanescu began his career in 1994 in information technology at Rutgers University, where he later received his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. He holds an MBA from New York University, Stern School of Business with concentrations in management, economics, leadership and change management.
Jeffrey P. Thompson
Jeffrey P. Thompson is a senior economist and policy advisor in the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Research Department, where he is the director of the New England Public Policy Center. Prior to joining the Boston Fed in 2018, Thompson was a principal economist at the Federal Reserve Board and a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute. He specializes in household finance, income, wealth and consumption inequality, state and local taxes, and regional economics. Thompson earned his PhD in economics from Syracuse University.