Christopher M. Schroeder is a leading American entrepreneur and investor in interactive technologies and social communications. He co-founded HealthCentral.com, one of the largest content and social platforms in health and wellness. Backed by Polaris Ventures, Sequoia Capital, The Carlyle Group, Allen & Company, and Interactive Corp., the company was sold in 2012. He remains a board adviser. 

Schroeder was previously CEO and publisher of washingtonpost.newsweek interactive, which hosted washingtonpost.com, newsweek.msnbc.com, and slate.com, among other leading news sites. He also ran LEGI-SLATE.com, a leading B2B provider of information on federal and state legislation and regulation, which he sold.

Schroeder is an investor in and adviser for a series of technology startups and venture capital funds in news and media, education, social networks, eCommerce, and marketing. He is also the author of the best-seller “Startup Rising: The Entrepreneurial Revolution Remaking the Middle East”.

Schroeder serves on the boards of the American University of Cairo School of Business; the American University School of International Service; the American Council on Germany; Planet Forward, George Washington University's media platform on global environment; wamda.com, the leading entrepreneurship platform in the Middle East; and Oasis500, a Jordan-based startup incubator. 

He is a co-founder and former chairman of the Online Publishers Association, a leading research and information organization comprised of the CEOs of top online publishers. He also served as a board member of Interactive Advertising Bureau. He was named a LinkedIn top 50 Influencer.

Schroeder speaks extensively about the internet, consumer behavior, and entrepreneurship, and has written for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Fortune, Fast Company, AllThingsD, Pando Daily, TechCrunch, and the Harvard Business Review, among others. He has appeared regularly on television and on National Public Radio. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and, with honors, from Harvard Business School.

Susannah Gray was the executive vice president and chief financial officer of Royalty Pharma, the largest aggregator of pharmaceutical royalty interests worldwide, from January 2005 through 2018. In 2019, she took on the additional responsibility of heading strategy for the company. Prior to joining Royalty Pharma, she had a 14-year career in banking, working in various capacities within high-yield and structured finance departments at Chase Securities, Merrill Lynch, and CIBC World Markets. 

Gray currently serves on the board of directors of a number nonprofit and corporate organizations. She is a member board of Wesleyan University, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, Street Squash, and the German Marshall Fund. In addition, she serves on the board of directors of 4D Molecular Therapeutics and Maravai Life Sciences. She earned a bachelor’s degree with honors from Wesleyan University in 1982 and an MBA from Columbia University in 1990. 

Annie Maxwell has served in beneficial deployments at Anthropic since August 2025. She previously held the positions of Omidyar Network executive vice president and chief operating officer and president of the Skoll Global Threats Fund. She was a White House fellow in the office of US Vice President Joe Biden, where she focused on the implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. She also served as chief operating officer for Direct Relief, a humanitarian aid organization, during which time she was seconded to the UN’s Office of the Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery led by former US President Bill Clinton.

Maxwell is a board member of Muso, the world's first verified credit platform for music professionals and artists, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She holds a master’s degree in public policy and a bachelor’s degree in English and political science from the University of Michigan.

John Emerson works in global distribution as vice chairman of Capital Group International, Inc. He has 25 years of industry experience, all with Capital Group.

From 2013 to 2017, he served as the US ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2015, Emerson was awarded the State Department's Susan M. Cobb Award for Exemplary Diplomatic Service, which is given annually to one non-career ambassador. In 2017, he was awarded the CIA Medal and the US Navy's Distinguished Public Service award.

Prior to accepting the ambassadorial posting, Emerson spent 16 years as president of Private Client Services for the Capital Group Companies. Before joining Capital, he was deputy assistant to US President Bill Clinton, In that position, he coordinated economic conferences, served as the president's liaison to the nation’s governors, and led the administration's efforts to obtain congressional approval of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Uruguay Round Agreement and the extension of China's Most Favored Nation trading status. Additionally, he was appointed by US President Barack Obama to serve on his Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. Before working in the Clinton White House, Emerson served as Los Angeles Chief Deputy City Attorney, and was a partner in the law firm of Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg, and Phillips.

Ambassador Emerson currently serves as chairman of the American Council on Germany and on the boards of the Pacific Council on International Policy, the German Marshall Fund, the American Friends of the Munich Security Conference, the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, and the Music Center Foundation. Previously, he served as chairman of the Music Center of Los Angeles (2003-2011), vice chairman of the Los Angeles Metropolitan YMCA (2007-2013), and as chair of the first ever Los Angeles City Independent Redistricting Commission (2001). He is a long-serving member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Emerson holds an honorary doctor of laws degree from Hamilton College, a juris doctorate degree from the University of Chicago, and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Hamilton College.