Michael Moe is founder of GSV, a modern merchant bank that invests, advises, and partners with the fastest growing, most dynamic companies in the world… the Stars of Tomorrow. He serves as the CEO of GSV Asset Management and the Chairman of GSV Capital Corp. (NASDAQ: GSVC). GSV stands for Global Silicon Valley. While it is based in the heart of Silicon Valley, GSV was launched with the belief that the mindset of innovation and entrepreneurship has gone global. Michael conceived of GSV Capital as an opportunity for public investors to access rapidly growing, late stage, VC-backed private companies — an asset class that has traditionally been limited to select venture capital firms and institutional investors. Driven by fundamental structural changes in the IPO market and in the characteristics of companies going public today, GSV Capital was the first publicly traded security enabling all investors to capture the dramatic growth and value creation taking place in the private marketplace. The fund invests across five sectors: Education Technology, Social/Mobile, Cloud and Big Data, Marketplaces, and Sustainability. Noteworthy investments include Spotify, Snapchat, Coursera, Facebook, Twitter, Palantir, Lyft, and Dropbox. Regarded as a preeminent authority on growth investing, Michael’s honors include Institutional Investor‘s “All American” research team and the Wall Street Journal‘s “Best on the Street” award. He was recognized by Business Week as, “one of the best stock pickers in the country.” In 2006, Michael authored the business best-seller Finding the Next Starbucks (Penguin Group), which has gone through three printings in five languages and has been lauded for its insights into investing in emerging growth companies. Michael published his second book in 2017, The Global Silicon Valley Handbook (Hachette), which highlights the top innovation hubs around the World. Michael is a member of the Board of Directors of Coursera (Observer), Curious, GSVlabs (Co-Founder), Course Hero, Class Dojo (Observer), Parchment (Observer), SharesPost, StormWind, and OZY Media. Prior to starting GSV, Michael co-founded and served as chairman and CEO of ThinkEquity Partners, an asset management and investment banking firm focused on venture capital-backed and emerging growth companies. Before ThinkEquity, he held positions as Head of Global Growth Research at Merrill Lynch and Head of Growth Research and Strategy at Montgomery Securities. Michael earned a B.A. from the University of Minnesota and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). Education & Talent Sector Pioneer Beginning in 1996, Michael began to publish a series of market-defining white papers predicting the emergence of education and talent as an investment sector. When he published his first white paper “Dawn of the Age of Knowledge” (1996) identifying the category as large, highly fragmented, and lacking in innovation, education and talent was just emerging as an investment opportunity. His work was widely followed and today it has catalyzed generations of innovators in the sector. Michael has continued to publish white papers defining the evolution of the sector over the last 21 years, including “The Book of Knowledge” (1999), “The Knowledge Web” (2000), “American Revolution 2.0” (2012), and “2020 Vision: A History of the Future” (2015). He is the co-founder of the ASU GSV Summit, the leading conference bringing together global leaders to catalyze exponential ideas in education and talent. Described by the New York Times as the “must attend” event in the sector, it attracts over 3,700 attendees and 400 presenting companies.