Echelon
The Private Dinner Series for Family Offices and Institutional Allocators
Echelon is our private dinner series. Invitation-only. Family office principals, institutional allocators, and fund managers sit down for real conversations about private market allocation. Not a conference. Not a networking event. So what is it? Senior speakers from institutional platforms, small groups, and venues like The Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City.
Format
What Echelon Is
Echelon is an invitation-only dinner series designed specifically for family offices, UHNW principals, and senior institutional allocators. Private and off-the-record. Service provider presence is strictly limited. A focused room of decision-makers discussing structural shifts in capital deployment, not a conference floor with 200 booths competing for attention.
Low noise by design. Partners do not compete for attention. They are positioned as expert voices in a room where every seat belongs to a capital allocator.
Current Theme
AI as an Asset Class
The current Echelon series explores AI as an asset class across three sub-themes:
Software & Models
Foundation models, vertical AI applications, and the software layer driving enterprise adoption.
Infrastructure & Compute
Data centers, GPU clusters, networking, and the physical infrastructure required to train and deploy AI at scale.
Energy & Power
The energy demands of AI compute, power generation, grid infrastructure, and the capital required to sustain exponential growth in electricity consumption.
Moderator: Lou Basenese
Inaugural Event
Echelon I
About the Speakers
Jim Kyung-Soo Liew, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Finance, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School
Jim Kyung-Soo Liew is an Associate Professor of Finance at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, where he pushes the boundaries of financial knowledge at the intersection of AI, machine learning, and capital markets. He is also President and CEO of SoKat Consulting, an AI advisory firm. Dr. Liew's research spans quantitative finance, AI-driven investment strategies, and financial technology. He holds a Ph.D. in Finance and brings both academic rigor and entrepreneurial experience as a FinTech data scientist to his work. At the Echelon dinner, he moderated the panel on AI as an investable asset class, drawing on his research at the intersection of AI deployment and institutional capital allocation.
Allen Duan
Venture Partner, Enterprise Tech & AI, B Capital Group
Allen Duan is a Venture Partner at B Capital Group, focused on Enterprise Tech and AI investments. He serves on the boards of Fishbrain, Odeko, Winmore, and other portfolio companies, and leads B Capital's strategic partnerships with leading AI organizations including OpenAI. Previously, Allen was Senior Vice President of Corporate Technology at Hearst, where he oversaw innovation across mobile, video, advertising, machine learning, and data analytics for more than 350 businesses. Earlier roles include Corporate Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at Viacom and MTV Networks, and Senior Director of Corporate Development and M&A at Sony Corporation of America. He holds an AB in Engineering Sciences and Economics and an MBA, both from Harvard University.
Yong Joe
Partner & Co-Portfolio Manager, Structured Credit, TPG Angelo Gordon
Yong Joe is a Partner and Co-Portfolio Manager on the Structured Credit & Specialty Finance team at TPG Angelo Gordon, where he also serves as Head of Research. He co-manages the residential and consumer debt securities portfolios and sits on the board of Arc Home LLC. Prior to that, he led quantitative research at CapitalSource and served as Principal Economist at Fannie Mae in Credit Policy Research. He holds a B.A. from Rutgers University, an M.A. from Fordham University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.
Jeff Baehr
Founder & CEO, Praxis Rock Advisors
Jeff Baehr is the Founder and CEO of Praxis Rock Advisors. He previously held roles at The Carlyle Group, Deutsche Bank, and The World Bank, and founded Empiric Asset Management and RueOne Investments. At Praxis Rock, he leads the firm's proprietary AI infrastructure for deal origination and institutional fundraising.
The inaugural Echelon dinner convened senior allocators from family offices and institutional investment firms for a private, off-the-record discussion on AI as an investable asset class. The panel examined where alpha is generated in the AI value chain, distinguishing between infrastructure-layer investments and application-layer opportunities. Speakers from TPG, B Capital Group, and Praxis Rock provided perspectives drawn from active deployment across growth equity, venture, and advisory.
Upcoming
Echelon II
About the Moderator
Lou Basenese
Founder, Disruptive Tech Research · President & Chief Market Strategist, Public Ventures
Lou Basenese is the founder of Disruptive Tech Research, an independent equity research and advisory firm focused on disruptive technology companies, and President and Chief Market Strategist at Public Ventures, a registered broker-dealer focused on public venture investing. He previously served as an Investment Consultant at Morgan Stanley, where he helped direct over $1 billion in institutional capital, and co-founded Wall Street Daily, one of the web's largest financial publishers with daily circulation exceeding 700,000 investors. He serves as an independent director on the board of Endra Life Sciences (NDRA) and The Roberto Clemente Health Clinic, and appears regularly on Fox Business and CNBC as a technology and markets commentator. He holds an MBA in Finance from the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College.
Additional details to be announced. For sponsorship and attendance inquiries, contact Genine Fallon at [email protected].
Partnership
Category-Exclusive Sponsorship
Thought Leadership
Partners are positioned as the expert voice in their category. One firm per vertical. No competition for attention in the room.
Direct Access
Every attendee is a capital allocator. Family offices and UHNW principals make up the core of the Echelon audience.
Strategic Alignment
Echelon themes are selected for institutional relevance. Partners align with a conversation allocators are already having.
Relationship Building
Private dinners create conditions for substantive conversation that conferences and cold outreach cannot replicate.
Reserve Your Category. Contact Genine Fallon, Managing Director, IR & Strategic Communications.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Echelon is not a conference. There are no panels with 500 attendees, no exhibit halls, and no badge-scanning. It is a private, invitation-only dinner for a curated group of family offices, senior institutional allocators, and investment professionals. Every seat belongs to a capital allocator. Service provider presence is category-exclusive and strictly limited. The format is designed for substantive conversation, not networking theater.
Echelon is invitation-only. Attendees are selected based on their role as capital allocators, primarily family offices, UHNW principals, endowments, and senior institutional investors. The room is composed of family offices, senior allocators, and investment professionals who are actively deploying capital. Praxis Rock Advisors curates each dinner to ensure the attendee composition supports focused, high-signal discussion.
Each Echelon dinner permits only one partner per industry category. If your firm sponsors an Echelon dinner as the AI infrastructure partner, no competing AI infrastructure firm will be present. This exclusivity ensures that partners are positioned as the expert voice in their category, not one of several vendors competing for attention in the same room.
Echelon dinners are held at private venues in New York City. The inaugural Echelon I was held at The Fifth Avenue Hotel, 1 West 28th Street, New York. Venues are selected for privacy, quality, and the ability to host substantive conversation in a setting appropriate for institutional decision-makers.
For sponsorship inquiries, contact Genine Fallon, Managing Director, IR & Strategic Communications, at [email protected]. For attendee inquiries, Echelon is invitation-only and attendees are selected by Praxis Rock Advisors based on their role in institutional capital allocation.