This year’s DealBook Summit will include conversations with global leaders and powerful figures from Wall Street, Silicon Valley and Hollywood. Each of them has been in the news this year and will be at the center of some of the biggest events in the coming months.
Kamala Harris He was elected vice president of the United States in 2020, after having been a senator, attorney general of California and district attorney of San Francisco. Harris is expected to play a vital role in the 2024 presidential race. She will be tasked with helping win over voters concerned about President Biden’s age, pressured by inflation and bewildered by the administration’s policies, including strong support to Israel in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Tsai Ing-wen He has been president of Taiwan since 2016, after a career as a public servant and law professor. Tsai has recalibrated relations with the United States and China as rising tensions between the world’s two most powerful countries have put Taiwan at the center of a geopolitical struggle. He will step down as president in January, at the end of his second term.
Elon Musk He oversees some of the world’s largest and most consequential technology companies: Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink and X. Musk, the world’s richest man with an estimated net worth of more than $242 billion, is also a deeply divisive figure. . Mr.
Jaime Dimon He has been the CEO of JPMorgan Chase since 2006 and its chairman since 2007, making him one of the longest-serving banking leaders on Wall Street. This year, he led efforts to reach a bailout deal from the regional banking crisis that culminated in JPMorgan’s acquisition of First Republic.
Jensen Huang founded Nvidia in 1993 and is the company’s president and CEO. The Silicon Valley company has been a pioneer in manufacturing chips used in artificial intelligence applications, such as ChatGPT. This year, it became the first publicly traded chipmaker valued at $1 trillion.
Bob Iger He returned as Disney’s CEO last year, after stepping down in 2020. Long one of the media industry’s most prominent leaders, he spearheaded multibillion-dollar acquisitions of Fox, Marvel and Pixar that cemented Disney’s status as a Hollywood hit factory. But Iger now faces challenges at the box office, on key television properties like ESPN and on streaming. He also faces scrutiny from activist investors.
Lina Khan She was sworn in two years ago as chair of the Federal Trade Commission, where she has earned a reputation as one of the most active antitrust regulators in recent years. She was an associate professor of law at Columbia Law School, but she rose to prominence much earlier, when as a law student she wrote an article about the new antitrust threat posed by technology companies like Amazon, which offer consumers services without at no cost and instead benefit from them. the data they collect. As head of the FTC, Ms. Khan has tested her legal theories in a series of court cases, prompting accusations from business groups that she has “radically deviated” from the FTC’s mission. .
David Zaslav He orchestrated Discovery’s acquisition of WarnerMedia and became CEO of the new company, Warner Bros. Discovery, last year. The transaction helped transform his modest cable television company into an empire that includes film and television studios Warner Bros., HBO and CNN. However, his leadership of the media giant faces significant obstacles, including paying off billions of dollars in debt and managing turmoil at key properties, including CNN.
Jay Monahan He was forced to deal with an existential threat as commissioner of the PGA Tour: LIV Golf. Backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the upstart competitor began hosting tournaments last year. But in June, Monahan reached a tentative agreement to end the rivalry and took a medical leave days after the announcement shook the sports world. This will be one of the first in-depth interviews with him since his return.
Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, was speaker of the House of Representatives from January until October, when he was ousted by far-right members of his own party, the first time the House voted to remove its leader. McCarthy has found himself increasingly out of step with parts of the Republican Party and must soon decide whether he will run for re-election.
Shonda Rhimes is the CEO of Shondaland and the first woman to create three television dramas – “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Private Practice” and “Scandal” – to reach the 100-episode mark. In 2017, Rhimes left the television network to produce streaming content exclusively for Netflix, and her work has touched on important political issues, including abortion and gun laws.
