James H. Litinsky is the Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MP Materials (NYSE: MP). Mr. Litinsky is the Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of JHL Capital Group LLC, an alternative investment management firm. Before founding JHL in 2006, he was a member of the Drawbridge Special Opportunities Fund at Fortress Investment Group. Prior to Fortress, he was a Director of Finance at Omnicom Group, and he worked as a merchant banker at Allen & Company. Mr. Litinsky received a B.A. in Economics from Yale University, cum laude, and a J.D./M.B.A. from the Northwestern University School of Law and the Kellogg School of Management. He was admitted to the Illinois Bar. Mr. Litinsky also serves as a member of the Boards of the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
Connie K. Duckworth is a former Partner and Managing Director of Goldman Sachs, and retired in 2000, following a nineteen-year career. Ms. Duckworth was named Partner in 1990, the first woman sales and trading partner in the firm’s history. After Goldman Sachs, Ms. Duckworth founded ARZU in 2004 to empower destitute women weavers in rural Afghanistan and served pro bono as its Chairman and CEO until its merger with UK-based Turquoise Mountain in 2019. Ms. Duckworth is a director of Steelcase Inc. (NYSE: SCS) in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Previously, she served as a Trustee of Equity Residential and on the Boards of Directors of Northwestern Mutual, Russell Investment Group, Nuveen Investments, Smurfit Stone Container Corporation, and DNP Select Income Fund. In her philanthropic work, Ms. Duckworth is a Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, an Overseer of The Wharton School, and a member of the International Board of Advisors of the University of Texas at Austin. She serves on the Board of NorthShore University HealthSystem, in Evanston, Illinois, where she was the first and only woman Chairman of the Board. She is a founding member of the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council in Washington, D.C., and a member of the Bush Institute’s Women’s Initiative Policy Advisory Council in Dallas. The recipient of numerous awards for leadership, social impact and innovation, Ms. Duckworth holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School and a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin.
Mr. Gold is the Founder and CEO of QVT Financial LP, an alternative investment management firm, and the QVT Family Office. Prior to founding QVT he was a Managing Director at Deutsche Bank, where he managed the proprietary trading group which became QVT via a spinout in 2003. Before Deutsche Bank he worked at Daiwa Securities and Bear Stearns. Mr. Gold graduated from Harvard College with an A.B. in Physics.
Ms. Lavan is the Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT), a global security and aerospace company principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services operating in four business segments: Aeronautics, Missiles and Fire Control, Rotary and Mission Systems and Space. In this role, she is responsible for the legal affairs and law department of Lockheed Martin, including serving as counsel to its senior leadership and Board of Directors. She previously served as the Vice President of Corporate Internal Audit for Lockheed Martin, providing independent assessments of governance, internal controls, and risk management. She joined Lockheed Martin in 1990. Ms. Lavan graduated magna cum laude from the State University of New York at Albany with a Bachelor of Science degree. She received her juris doctor degree from the Washington College of Law, American University. Ms. Lavan is a member of the Public Contract Law Section of the American Bar Association. She serves on the governing bodies for the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, Equal Justice Works, Council for Court Excellence, University at Albany Foundation, and Fordham University.