About Us

Bill’s passion is information technology and how it can be used to improve people’s lives. Prior to Abra, he co-founded Boom Financial, where he also serves as Chairman. He gave the first TED talk on Bitcoin in 2012, and serves as an advisor and mentor to Boost.VC, a Bitcoin-focused incubator fund. Bill won the Technology Pioneer Award from the World Economic Forum in 2000 for his work at WebSentric, the first online meeting service that required no software install, and has consulted to federal and international regulators on the impact of digital currencies and decentralized transaction systems. In addition to co-founding and advising multiple start-ups, including m-Via, Sennari, Plaxo and KnowNow, Bill worked for Goldman Sachs, NASA and the CIA.

Arthur Levitt was previously the twenty-fifth and longest-serving Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). During his time at the SEC, he was widely viewed as a pro-investor advocate as he worked to educate, empower, and protect investors.

Currently an advisor of Abra, Levitt is also an advisor of Goldman Sachs, Director of Bloomberg LP, and an operating executive at The Carlyle Group.

Before the SEC, he spent 16 years on Wall Street, before becoming the Chairman of the American Stock Exchange. He later served as Chairman of the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

Jay Samit is a dynamic entrepreneur and intrepreneur who is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on disruption and innovation.  Described by Wired magazine as “having the coolest job in the industry,” he raises hundreds of millions of dollars for startups, sells companies to Fortune 500 firms, transforms entire industries, revamps government institutions, and for three decades continues to be at the forefront of global trends.

Everyone from the Pope to the President calls on Samit to orchestrate positive change in this era of endless innovation.  Samit helped grow pre-IPO companies such as Linkedin, held senior management roles at EMI, Sony and Universal Studios, pioneered breakthrough advancements in mobile video, internet advertising, ecommerce, social networks, ebooks, and digital music that are used by billions of consumers every day.  Combining innovation with commercial success, Samit is the consummate dealmaker; his list of partners and associates reads like a who’s who list of innovators, including: Bill Gates, Steven Spielberg, Steve Jobs, Reid Hoffman, David Geffen, Richard Branson, Paul Allen, and Pierre Omidyar. A proven trend spotter, Samit accurately predicts the future because he is constantly working with those who create it.

An adjunct professor at USC, Samit teaches innovation at America’s largest engineering school and is author of the book Disrupt You! Master Personal Transformation, Seize Opportunity, and Thrive in the Era of Endless Innovation. He is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal and host of its documentary series WSJ Startup of the Year.  Samit frequently appears on ABC, Bloomberg, CBS, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, NBC and tweets daily motivation to the over 100,000 business professionals who follow him on Twitter (@jaysamit). An expert on transformational corporate change, Samit has been quoted in The New York Times, The Economist, Businessweek, Forbes, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Variety, Fast Company and TechCrunch.

Jim is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of RRE Ventures, a New York-based venture capital firm focused on early stage technology investments. He is currently a Director of 21, 8i, Netsertive, Noom, OLO, and OpenPeak. Recent-year exits include Wisdomtree, Vocera and iCrossing. Jim has been recognized on the Forbes Midas List of Top 100 VC’s.

Wei is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Arbor Ventures, an Asia-based early stage venture firm focused on the intersection of financial services, big data, and digital commerce. Prior to Arbor, Wei was Managing Director and Head of Asia for Citi Ventures, Citigroup’s strategic venture investment and innovation arm. Wei is a founding member of the Internet Securities Services Committee established by the Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission.

Dan is a researcher in applied cryptography and computer security. He is a Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. Boneh is one of the principal contributors to the development of pairing-based cryptography from the Weil Pairing, along with Dr. Matt Franklin of the University of California at Davis.

Karen is adjunct senior fellow for Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Ms. Brooks is one of the top Southeast Asia experts in the United States, with a long career in the region that includes lecturing at universities, democracy building and conflict resolution work with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), policy-making with the U.S. government, advisory work with Fortune 500 companies, and direct investing with private equity and hedge funds.

Jason is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, podcaster and writer. He is the founder of Weblogs, Inc., which was sold to AOL, as well as Mahalo. He’s the founder and host of This Week in Startups, a long-running and popular podcast about interesting stories from the world of entrepreneurship. Jason also created the Launch Festival, to highlight unannounced startups.

Julian is an executive and business leader whose experience spans telecoms, media and payments sectors. As a co-founder and CEO of Eseye he has been passionately building out a global company to deliver on the expectations and full potential of M2M and the Internet of Things. Prior to this he was a co-founder of venture backed US company Sennari, which created cookies for mobile with its first of it kind asset based wallet. It deployed its technology across a number of areas/clients most notably for Qualcomm who bought most of the IP.

Amanda is the Chief Marketing Officer of EMC Corp EMEA based out of London and has worked in executive leadership positions for major software, hardware and telecommunications firms on both sides of the Atlantic. She is passionate about innovation, is a board member of StorMagic a start-up SDS company, ISG Plc and a board advisor to Eseye an IoT player. Amanda has been voted International Marketer of the Year & voted Top 100 Women to Watch in the UK by Cranfield Business School in 2014.

Hans is a Managing Partner at Nyca Partners, a venture capital and advisory firm exclusively focused on applying innovation in financial services into the global financial system.

He is a director of portfolio companies Lending Club, Payoneer and Cardworks. Previously, he was Managing Director at General Atlantic, a global growth equity firm, where he continues to serve as a director for KCG. From 2007-2009, he was President of Visa while it completed its reorganization and 2008 IPO, which remains one of the largest in history.

Matt is Co-founder, President, and CEO of 21, Inc., a company with a mission to build the full-stack infrastructure for Bitcoin, from silicon to software. He founded his prior company, identity-based encryption provider Voltage Security, out of his dorm room at Stanford. Voltage was later acquired by HP.

Jim (Sr.) is a General Partner and Co-Founder of RRE Ventures, focusing largely on Fintech deals. He currently serves as a director of OnDeck Capital, Nerdwallet, Chain, AvantCredit, and Coverhound. Jim is a former Director of Concur, Business Insider, and Novell. Jim also served as a Director of the Coca-Cola Company from 1975 to 2015, including as an Assistant to the Chairman and CEO, and as a Director of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company for thirty-five years. Prior to founding RRE in 1994, Jim served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of American Express Company from 1977 to 1993.

Ratan N. Tata was the Chairman of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group, and currently serves as Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, Tata Industries, Tata Motors, Tata Steel and Tata Chemicals. Mr. Tata serves on the board of directors of Alcoa and is also on the international advisory boards of Mitsubishi Corporation, JP Morgan Chase, Rolls-Royce and the Monetary Authority of Singapore. He is the Chairman of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust and the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, two of the largest private-sector-promoted philanthropic trusts in India. Additionally, Mr. Tata serves on the board of trustees of Cornell University and the University of Southern California.

Jack Lee is a Founding Managing Partner of HCM Capital. Mr. Lee is also currently the Co-Founder Executive Director of Chained Finance Ltd. (an automatic supply chain finance company based on Blockchain technology), and Founder & Executive Director of FnConn (Foxconn Finance Platform). Prior to his current roles, Mr. Lee was an investment director of Foxconn Technology Group since 2007.

Before joining Foxconn, Mr. Lee worked extensively in investment banking and capital markets for Taiwan-based Yuanta Polaris Financial Group, JPMorgan, and Citi, etc. He started his career with P&G. Mr. Lee received his MBA degree from UCLA Anderson in California, and a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from National Taiwan University in Taiwan.