The Brain Surgeon's Take

Greg Shepard is a 20-year startup veteran and serial entrepreneur with 14 liquidity events under his belt, two of which were sold as part of a $925M transaction that won 4 Private Equity awards for transactions between $250M-$1B. Greg is also a ForbesBooks author and has written over 100 articles published in 25 national and international journals.  Mr. Shepard is a TEDX speaker and keynote speaker for universities, associations and conferences worldwide. He is the host of a Forbes Radio show and has been featured as a guest on over 25 popular podcasts as well as numerous network TV and radio shows. Greg founded BOSS Capital Partners, a global syndicate for investing in tech startups worldwide. Greg Co-Founded BOSSStartupScience, a learning center based on Greg’s Business Operating Support System (BOSS), which is an open source methodology developed to empower entrepreneurs while increasing startup success rate.

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Reaching the top of Mount Everest - the highest point on the planet at nearly 30,000 feet - is a legendary feat that less than 4,500 people have accomplished in human history. The trek to the summit takes months of physical preparation and weeks of acclimatization to get climbers used to the mountain's oxygen-starved altitudes. Climbing Mount Everest is among the most dangerous pursuits in the world, with a fatality rate of almost 9 percent of climbers who attempt to summit. To date approximately 400 people have died trying to climb the world’s highest mountain, and some 4,500 have summited. Avalanches, cracking ice flows and deadly crevices are just some of the obstacles faced by climbers. The chief impediment, however, is extreme altitude sickness. The “death zone” is above 8,000 metres.

Dr. Brockmeyer is Professor and Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery at the University of Utah. In his spare time, he scales mountains. Brockmeyer reached a longtime goal in 2005 when he summited Mount Everest. Brockmeyer kept up a regular rock-climbing routine for 10 years before attempting Everest, building his strength and experience at sites near his home in Salt Lake City. On vacations, he visited more challenging regions, such as Alaska or Peru. In total, after a decade of conditioning, 2 years of planning, and 3 months on location, he finally achieved the remarkable goal of reaching the summit and conquering Mount Everest.

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Dr. Cutler is currently Professor of Applied Economics at Harvard University. Professor Cutler holds secondary appointments at the Kennedy School of Government and the School of Public Health.  Professor Cutler was associate dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences from 2003-2008.

Professor Cutler's work in health economics has earned him significant academic and public acclaim. Professor Cutler served as National Economic Advisor during the Clinton Administration and has advised the Presidential campaigns of Bill Bradley, John Kerry, and Barack Obama, as well as being Senior Health Care Advisor for the Obama Presidential Campaign. Among other affiliations, Professor Cutler has held positions with the National Institutes of Health and the National Academy of Sciences.

Professor Cutler is also a best selling author on the topics of health care and other public policy topics, including “Your Money or Your Life: Strong Medicine for America’s Healthcare System” and “The Quality Cure”. Cutler has been named one of the 30 most powerful people in Modern Healthcare and one of the 50 most influential people in Healthcare Policy. Professor Cutler received an AB from Harvard University and a PhD in Economics from MIT.

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LaPook contributes to all CBS News broadcasts and platforms. Since joining CBS News in 2006, he has done more than 1,000 reports, contributing to the “CBS Evening News;” “60 Minutes;” “CBS This Morning;” “CBS Sunday Morning;” “Face the Nation” and Mo Rocca (“Mobituaries”). LaPook has won three Emmy awards for his coverage in 2012 of the national shortage of drugs, for team coverage in 2013 of the Boston Marathon bombings, and in 2019 for “CBS Sunday Morning” Outstanding Program. In 2018, The Alliance for Women in Media awarded him a Gracie Award in the News Feature Series category for two groundbreaking 60 Minutes reports that investigated a sexual abuse scandal involving American elite gymnasts, USA Gymnastics and Aly Raisman. LaPook was also named a George Foster Peabody Award finalist in 2018 for those two 60 Minutes investigative reports on the gymnastics scandal. He has won two Edward R. Murrow Awards for “Best Broadcast” in 2007 and 2013. He also won a 2015 New York Press Club Award for Journalism for “Eye on Ebola” WCBS-AM News Team Special. In 2010 he was recognized in the Webby Awards for his documentary series Doc Dot Com.

Dr. LaPook graduated with honors from Yale University and received his M.D. from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he was elected into AOA, the national medical honor society. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine and fellowships in Gastroenterology and Medical Informatics at Presbyterian Hospital, New York City.

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Dr. Tector is a leading U.S. liver transplant surgeon with clinical expertise in multivisceral and small bowel transplantation. He completed his undergraduate degree at Indiana University, doctorate degree at Saint Louis University, general surgery training at McGill University, and transplant fellowship at the University of Miami. Dr. Tector has distinguished himself as an externally independent and NIH-funded surgeon-scientist, building nationally recognized xenotransplantation programs at Indiana, then Alabama, and now Miami.

The Miami Transplant Institute is a unique affiliation between Jackson Health System and The University of Miami. Over its 51 year history, the Miami Transplant Institute has become the largest and most comprehensive transplant program in the United States. It remains the only center in Florida that provides every kind of solid-organ transplant and is consistently breaking new barriers in areas like multi-organ transplant and paired donations.

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Janine is a graduate of Yale University and Managing Director and Head of Real Estate at Republic, a leading alternative investment platform that serves more than 700,000 active users. With over 20 years of experience in the real estate sector, Yorio has managed over $2 billion in structured real estate investments - from CDOs and mezzanine loans to coliving and short term rental strategies. She is a recognized expert on the unique relationship between real estate investment, design, technology and brand.

Yorio was the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Compound, a real estate investment technology company that was named Inc. Magazine's 50 world-changing startups to watch. While at NorthStar Capital, she worked on hundreds of investments from origination to exit, five of which culminated in IPOs, including 4 publicly-listed REITs. She has served as a judge for the Harvard Real Estate Venture Conference. She has been featured and quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, New York Times, and The Atlantic. She has appeared as a guest on Real Vision.

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Joseph F. Zahralban was sworn in as the City of Miami’s 19th Fire Chief since the department’s inception in 1898. Chief Zahralban oversees a Class 1 Fire Department comprised of 789 uniformed personnel and 98 civilian employees. The City of Miami has a residential population of approximately 488,011 and a daytime population of approximately one (1) million. The Department of Fire-Rescue has an annual operating budget of $160 million.

He had the distinct honor of leading the Urban Search and Rescue Team on approximately 15 national and international deployments including the earthquake that devastated the island nation of Haiti in January of 2010.

In 2011, he was promoted to Assistant Fire Chief /Emergency Manager where he assumed command of the Office of Emergency Management, which is responsible for coordinating citywide emergency operations, readiness, training, and emergency management-related activities for all City Departments, as well as, directing the Public Information Office and Public Education sections.

In 2013, he was promoted to the rank of Deputy Fire Chief of Administration where he proudly served for three years overseeing the department’s budget as well as the divisions of Emergency Management, Technical Services, Management Services, Emergency Medical Services and Logistics.

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Dr. Frenk is the 6th President of UM. He is also Professor of Public Health, Health Sector Policy, and Sociology. Prior to joining the UM, he served as Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health and Professor of Public Health at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Julio was the Minister of Health of Mexico from 2000 to 2006. He was also the founding director-general of the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico, executive director at The WHO and senior fellow in the global health program of the Gates Foundation.

Dr. Frenk holds an MD from the National University of Mexico, as well as an MPH/PhD from the University of Michigan. His scholarly production, which includes over 180 articles, has been cited more than 23,000 times. In addition, he has written three best-selling novels. He serves on the board of the United Nations Foundation and the RWJ Foundation and has chaired the board of the Institute for Health Metrics at the University of Washington. Dr Frenk is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Medicine of Mexico. He was elected as a member of El Colegio Nacional, one of the most prestigious learned societies of Mexico.

He received the Clinton Global Citizen Award, the Yale University Bouchet Medal, the Welch-Rose Award, and the Columbia University Frank Calderone Prize. He has honorary degrees from Universities in the United States, Canada, Switzerland, and Mexico.

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Jorge Colina was sworn in as the Miami Police Department’s 41st Police Chief on January 26th, 2018. Chief Colina began his career with the Miami Police Department in 1990. Over his subsequent 29 years of service, he has earned more than 100 commendations and numerous awards, including repeated selections as Officer of the Month by the Miami-Dade County Chief’s Association.
 
He was promoted to the civil service rank of Sergeant in 2004, then to the rank of Lieutenant in 2007. He received his first executive staff appointment in December of 2009, when he was promoted to the rank of NET Commander of the Coconut Grove neighborhood. In 2011, he was promoted to the rank of Major and served as the commanding officer of several sections, including the Tactical Operations Section, Central District, and Internal Affairs. In 2015, Chief Rodolfo Llanes appointed him to the rank of Assistant Chief of Police.  He is Miami’s first Chief of Police to have served as an Assistant Chief over all three of the agency’s divisions: Field Operations, Criminal Investigations, and Administration.

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