Laura Schnaidt is the leader of Women in Funds, which she founded in 2017 with the goal of uniting and supporting women in the private funds industry and providing them with outstanding opportunities to excel in their careers.

Laura has operated Women in Funds while working full time as an investment management attorney, from inception to date. Laura is also the founder and Managing Partner of Paradox Principals LLC, a consulting firm that provides strategic advisory and outsourced general counsel and COO services to private funds in periods of growth and transition, such as at inception, at the launch of a new fund, or during critical times.

Prior to launching Paradox Principals, Laura was counsel in the investment management group at Paul, Weiss from 2021-2023, where she advised fund clients on fund formation, operations and regulatory issues, as well as upper tier, management and dispute resolution issues. Prior to working at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, Laura served for many years as senior in-house counsel (General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer) at several multi-billion dollar fund managers, including credit manager Blue Torch Capital and long/short equity hedge fund manager Marble Arch Investments, where she developed a deep understanding of issues relating to fundraising, fund formation and operations, regulatory compliance, employment/HR, tax/ERISA, and structuring of credit, real estate and long/short equity funds.

Laura started her legal career as an attorney in the corporate group at Shearman & Sterling in New York. While in law school, she worked in the enforcement division of the SEC, asset management unit in New York. At the outset of her career and prior to law school, Laura worked at two multi-strategy, multi-billion dollar hedge funds, TPG-Axon and Ospraie Management.

Laura received a J.D., magna cum laude, from New York Law School and a B.A., from Columbia University. In law school, Laura was a member of the Center for Real Estate Studies, an editor on Law Review and the recipient of numerous merit scholarships, including the David Finkelstein Writing Award, the W/X Women Executives in Real Estate award, and the Harlan Scholarship.

Laura is admitted to practice law in New York and is a member of the NYC Bar Association, where she served as a voting Committee Member of the Private Funds Committee from 2020-2023. Laura is the recipient of the 2021 NYC Urban Debate League Champion of Speech and Debate Award and since 2022 she has participated as a panelist in PLI’s annual hedge fund management course.

Mary Beth is a Partner in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, and a member of Gibson’s Litigation, Financial Institutions, and Transnational Litigation Practice Groups. Her practice focuses on high-stakes complex commercial and business litigation, especially involving complex financial products. She is a trusted advisor to various alternative asset funds, managers, and portfolio companies. Mary Beth currently represents Ms. Lynn Tilton and her company, Patriarch Partners, in more than a dozen matters related to Ms. Tilton’s portfolio companies and funds. Mary Beth was a key member of the trial team that vindicated Ms. Tilton against the SEC’s fraud charges. She also currently represents Vale S.A., one of the world’s largest mining companies, in two different billion-dollar putative securities fraud class actions. Early in her career, Mary Beth was the most junior member of the trial team representing Chevron Corporation in what The American Lawyer called “The Case of the Century.” Mary Beth clerked for Honorable Alicemarie H. Stotler, then Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California. Prior to attending law school, Mary Beth worked for six years in the California State Capitol, as a legislative director. Mary Beth has a JD from the University of Southern California, where she was Editor-in-Chief of the Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal and a BA, magna cum laude, from Barnard College, where she was an Erica Jong Writing Fellow, elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Mary Beth is also NYC Regional Chair of the USC Could Alumni Association; Fund Chair for her class at Barnard College; and an active supporter of the New York Urban Debate League.

Kathryn is Senior Legal Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Rokos Capital Management (US) LP (a global macro hedge fund manager). Prior to this role, she spent 5 years as the General Counsel of Caspian Capital LP. Before moving in-house, she was counsel in the New York investment funds group at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, where she worked for hedge and private equity fund clients based in the United States and the UK. Before Akin Gump and sitting the New York State Bar Exam, Kathryn was a solicitor in England and Wales and was an associate at Simmons & Simmons in the Financial Services group, again focusing on investment funds and investment management work. During her time at Simmons & Simmons, she worked in the Düsseldorf office, as well as in New York at Simmons’ “best friend” firm, Seward & Kissel, during the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act, and she was seconded to an asset management client for a four month transition project. Kathryn has a BA and MA (Oxon) from Oxford in Law, with German Law, having spent one year at the University of Konstanz and she remained in Oxford to complete her legal practice course (the LPC). As well as speaking fluent German, Kathryn also speaks conversational French and enjoys traveling. Her current goal is to not only visit every continent (only one more to go!) but to run a marathon on each one. She is a keen triathlete racing all distances from sprints to full ironman distance and has represented her adopted country (USA) at the ITU age group World Triathlon Championships in Rotterdam, the Netherlands in 2017.

Ira Kustin is a partner in the Investment Management practice of Paul Hastings LLP and is based in the firm’s New York office. Ira focuses his practice on advising sponsors of, and investors in, complex hedge, private equity and credit funds, and regularly counsels private fund advisers on international investment platforms including in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. His clients range from market-leading global asset managers, to startups, mid-sized, and larger managers. Ira has extensive experience counseling established, global investment advisers as well as start-up managers in most aspects of their operations and regulatory compliance matters. He advises investment fund managers faced with complex restructurings, succession planning, crisis/conflict resolution, and consent solicitations. His practice includes advising clients on the structuring of arrangements between investment managers’ principals, seeding transactions, co-investment and secondary transactions, and LP-side investments in private funds. He also maintains an active pro bono practice which includes asylum and VAWA-related self-petition claims.

Jane is the founder of Perceval Associates, a consultancy focused on helping asset managers deliver more compelling messages to their investors. Jane occupies a special position in the institutional investment arena that comes from her ability to diagnose the underlying problems that get in the way of money managers, and provide successful solutions that help them attract and retain capital.

Jane is a former director of 100 Women in Finance, a global association of over 20,000 members focused on education, professional leverage and philanthropy. She has served as Charter Faculty for the Institute for Private Investors, as a member of the Investment Committee of Women’s World Banking, and as director of the Association for Investment Management Sales Executives (AIMSE). She is a former director of Green Cay Asset Management, a Bahamas-based alternative investment firm and of Shaking the Tree, a not-for-profit organization that uses interactive theater to illustrate family wealth dynamics.

Prior to the formation of Perceval Associates, Jane was an investment strategist with Citicorp Investment Management and held executive marketing positions at Bessemer Trust and Swiss Bank Corporation.

With an MBA in Finance and Investment Management from Fordham University, and a BA in Economics and Political Science from the University of Delaware, Jane earned an MA in Social-Organizational Psychology and Change from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2008.

Rachel Albanese is Chair of the U.S. Restructuring Practice and a partner in the New York Office. Rachel has nearly 20 years’ experience representing secured and unsecured creditors, debtors, equity holders, purchasers of distressed assets, and other parties in interest in a wide range of restructuring matters, including cases under chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code, out-of-court workouts and cross-border insolvency proceedings. In addition, Rachel has been involved in the current restructuring efforts in Puerto Rico since the earliest days when she participated in dozens of meetings with U.S. Congress members and staff to develop the law that ultimately became PROMESA.

Rachel is a co-chair of the Women in Bankruptcy & Restructuring affinity group of the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL). Rachel is an active member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, the International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation and the Turnaround Management Association. After law school, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of Penn Law’s Journal of International Economic Law, Rachel clerked for Hon. John W. Bissell, Chief Judge, United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. Rachel is a contributing author of the Bloomberg Law: Bankruptcy Treatise and has guest lectured at Penn Law School and Duke Law School. Rachel has a B.A., cum laude and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of International Economic Law.

Sarah Yao Schutzman co-founded Providence Heights Capital Management with a mission to achieve exceptional investment performance and principal protection through market cycles, investing in public equities and bonds, long and short, across the capital structure, with a focus on the U.S. Consumer & Services, Media & Communications, and Gaming & Leisure sectors. From 2009-2014, Mrs. Schutzman worked as a senior investment analyst at ICE Canyon, a joint venture with Canyon Capital Advisors. Canyon Capital Advisors is a Los Angeles-based global hedge fund managing approximately $23 billion in assets. While at ICE Canyon, Mrs. Schutzman sourced investments and assisted in the management of ICE Canyon’s portfolios, comprising over $4 billion in assets under management. Her sector coverage included consumer, media, and gaming sectors. At ICE Canyon, Mrs. Schutzman invested in both public and private debt issuances, as well as restructured equities. In addition to her focus on US investments, Mrs. Schutzman sourced and managed investments in developed international and emerging markets, including the United Kingdom, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and South Africa. Mrs. Schutzman also played a pivotal role in the firm’s business development and investor relations initiatives.

From 2008-2009, Mrs. Schutzman worked as a financial analyst in Houlihan Lokey’s Financial Restructuring Group in Los Angeles. There, she advised companies and creditor groups in complex in-court and out-of-court financial restructurings. Among these, Mrs. Schutzman advised creditors of RH Donnelley in its $10 billion pre-negotiated bankruptcy restructuring, which was the largest transaction in the media sector for 2010. In 2007, Mrs. Schutzman worked as an investment banking summer analyst in Goldman Sachs’ Mergers & Acquisitions Group in Los Angeles.

Mrs. Schutzman holds a B.S. with Honors from the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business in Business Administration, with a concentration in financial analysis and valuation. She also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. In 2019 and 2020, she served as a CFA Institute Research Challenge judge. Since 2019, Mrs. Schutzman has served on the Board of Directors of CFA Society Indianapolis, as Membership Committee Chair, Programming Director, and Education and Outreach Director. Mrs. Schutzman is actively involved in the CFA Institute’s Women in Investment Management Initiative.

Emily Clarice Ho Mathews is a Managing Director in the Legal & Compliance Group of Blackstone, focusing on Hedge Fund Solutions. Since joining Blackstone, Emily has been involved in the legal structuring and negotiation of the group’s customized multi-manager portfolios, seeding platform, direct trading platforms and other investment opportunities.

Before joining Blackstone, Emily was an Associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP in the Private Funds Group, where her practice focused on organizing and advising private investment funds, including buyout funds and other “alternative asset” investment vehicles. In addition to representing sponsors in their fund formation and management activities, Emily also advised institutional investors regarding their private equity investments.

Emily received a BA in Psychology from Yale University and a JD from Harvard Law School.

Anabelle Perez Gray is the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of Darsana Capital Partners LP, a long-short equity hedge fund. Prior to Darsana, Anabelle was the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of HealthCor Management, L.P., a long-short equity hedge fund. Prior to joining HealthCor, Anabelle was Legal Counsel at Man and Deputy General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Man FRM. Before joining Man, Anabelle was an associate at Katten Muchin Rosenman in the investment management group. Anabelle started her career as a reporter for Institutional Investor.

Anabelle actively volunteers for several charities, including American Corporate Partners and Catholic Guardian Services, for which she serves as a member of the Board of Directors.

Anabelle has a BA from University of Delaware in English, Business Technical Writing and Political Science. She also holds a Masters in Publishing from NYU and a JD from Boston College Law School.