Keren Pybus

CEO and Co-Founder | Ethical Apparel Africa

Keren is CEO and Co-Founder of Ethical Apparel Africa. Her company is a UK Limited Company that provides consultancy and sourcing support to brands wanting to develop their African manufacturing base with social and environmental impact. EAA provides intensive capacity building to factories to develop them technically and ethically to international export standards.

Justin Speer

Principal and Senior Analyst | Sovereign’s Capital

Justin Speer: Justin Speer is a Principal and Senior Analyst on the Public Equities team at Sovereign’s Capital. He possesses nearly 20 years of equity research and investment experience, including over a decade investing in small- and mid-cap growth equities as a Portfolio Manager and Senior Analyst at Invesco / Van Kampen and several years as a Managing Director at investment research firm Zelman & Associates. Before joining Van Kampen Investments in 2008, Justin worked as an equity research analyst with Credit Suisse. For over a decade, he has also served as a deacon in the church of Christ in Katy, Texas with responsibility for fostering World English Institute (WEI), a platform that promotes the worldwide spread of the gospel of Christ while teaching English. He was appointed as a board member of WEI in 2020. Justin has also served as a short-term missionary in Albania, Romania and Katy, Texas.

 

Jon Halverson

Links: 

Partner | Talanton

Bio:

Jon has 25 years of experience in international business leadership, investment, development and strategy consulting with two of world’s leading food and agriculture multinationals, Cargill and Land O’Lakes, where he served as a Vice President. He has lived and worked on three continents, most notably in Tanzania where he led a talented team in executing over 50 loans to SMEs across East and West Africa. Jon witnessed firsthand the transformational impact of a thriving business achieving scale in challenging contexts.

His areas of passionate interest outside of impact investing are mountain climbing, canoeing and skiing, both alpine and skinny skis! Jon has a BA from Wheaton College and an MBA – International Business from Regis University.

Jon Speed

Links: 

Founding Partner | LOOR.tv

Jon Speed is a founding partner at LOOR.tv, a new streaming start-up.  For 26 years he has been the sole proprietor of Jon Speed: The Book Scout, an online business selling used and rare books.  In 2019 his brick-and-mortar store in Syracuse, NY went viral for taking a stand against New York State’s Reproductive Health Act.  He appeared on Fox and Friends, Sean Hannity’s radio show and Glenn Beck’s radio show.  The action was praised by Franklin Graham, Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, Lila Rose and many others.

Jon planted Christ is King Baptist Church in Syracuse, NY in 2011.  He served as the pastor there until November 2019 when Jon became the Pastor of Missions and Evangelism at First Baptist Church of Briar in Azle, TX.  He has written a book called Evangelism in the New Testament (2009) and has co-produced (and is featured in) the films Babies Are Murdered Here (2014) and Babies Are Still Murdered Here (2019).
LOOR.tv will distribute cutting edge content from an implicitly Christian worldview.  The company will raise the bar on faith-based film on one hand while changing how it is funded and distributed on the other.  The platform plans on launching June 2021.

Jonathan Liao

Vice President of Operations | CrowdSmart.io

Bio:

Jonathan Liao is the Portfolio Manager for 500 Startups, Inc., an accelerator/seed venture capital firm operating in 20 countries across 6 continents. At 500 Startups, Jonathan helps manage the largest early stage investment portfolio in the world and is responsible for investment data analysis across the entire organization. Jonathan holds a BA degree in Music Composition and Economics from UC Davis and a MBA from Santa Clara University.

Life:

Jonathan has also been active in the Silicon Valley Christian community over the past fifteen years as a leader in youth and college ministry. He and his wife, Jessica, currently live in Santa Clara.