Bryan Cressey is a managing partner at Cressey & Company responsible for identifying, consummating, and monitoring new investment partnerships as well as developing relationships with talented healthcare executives. Bryan began his career with First Chicago Equity Group and was one of the founders of the firm that became Golder, Thoma, Cressey, Rauner (GTCR). He co-founded Thoma Cressey Bravo in 1998 and Cressey & Company in 2008. His industry consolidation leadership has been recognized by Fortune and Time magazines, and his particular expertise in the healthcare services field has been widely acknowledged. A member of the Chicago Business Hall of Fame, and the Chicago Area Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame, Bryan received his bachelor of science in economics at the University of Washington and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a JD from Harvard Law School.

Blair Jacobson is partner and co-president of Ares Management Corporation. He serves as co-chair of the Ares Operating Committee and is a member of the Enterprise Risk Committee and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council. Blair also sits on the boards of Ares Management Limited and Ares Management UK Limited, and on several investment committees across Ares’ Credit, Secondaries, and Sports, Media & Entertainment strategies. Previously, he was co-head of European Credit until 2025. Before joining Ares in 2012, Blair was a partner at The StepStone Group, leading European operations and overseeing private debt and equity investments. He also held senior roles at Citigroup Private Equity and Mezzanine Partners in London and New York, and earlier worked in investment banking and M&A at Lehman Brothers. Blair earned a bachelor of arts, magna cum laude, in political economy from Williams College and an MBA with honors from Chicago Booth.

Boris Rapoport is a senior partner and co-leads Vistria’s financial services practice. Currently, he serves on the board of directors of The Mather Group (TMG), Daybright Financial, FloresHR and Lumen Risk Services. Boris has served as a director of ProfitSolv, HealthPlanOne, Lendmark Financial Services, Therapy Brands, Datalot, Ed Broking, and Apex Fund Services. 

Prior to joining Vistria, Boris was a managing director and member of the investment committee at Lightyear Capital, a financial services focused private equity firm based in New York. Boris spent ten years at Lightyear Capital, where he invested in a range of financial services companies, including insurance, consumer finance, financial technology, and the intersection of healthcare and financial services. Prior to Lightyear Capital, he spent eight years at FTV Capital, a growth equity firm focused on investing in financial technology, software, and tech-enabled business services. He began his career as an investment banker in San Francisco, focused on emerging growth companies. 

Boris graduated from the huntsman program at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received a BS in economics from the Wharton School and a BA in international studies from the College of Arts and Sciences. 

Konstantin Sokolov is founder and chairman of the board at IJS Investments, a private equity firm focused on critical infrastructure, technology, and financial services. He began his career in telecommunications, serving as director of enterprise architecture at Qwest Communications (now part of Lumen Technologies), where he led modernization efforts for U.S. government telecommunications systems.

Konstantin later joined multinational energy company Centrica plc as managing director for strategy, mergers & acquisitions. Konstantin serves as the chairman of the Northern Pillar Energy Consortium, an initiative to connect Europe and Africa with clean energy and high-speed digital connectivity and is a major shareholder in Viva, Armenia’s largest telecommunications provider.

A philanthropist dedicated to transformational impact, in 2025 Konstantin made a $100M gift to the University of Chicago, in support of the Executive MBA Program. He also serves as a member of the Chicago Booth Private Equity Council, and as a trustee of the Munich Security Conference Foundation. Konstantin holds a master’s in mathematics and computer science from St. Petersburg State University and an Executive MBA from Chicago Booth.

Duane is the co-founder of Author Capital Partners. He has 20 years of experience investing in and advising closely-held businesses across the U.S.

Prior to founding Author Capital, Duane served as an investment professional at BDT & MSD Partners, an investment platform built to serve the distinct needs of business owners and strategic, long-term investors. His responsibilities at BDT & MSD included sourcing and executing middle market investments in closely-held businesses and leading research initiatives.

Prior to his tenure at BDT & MSD, Duane served as an investment professional at Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm focused on market leading enterprise software and technology businesses. At Vista, he evaluated and executed investments, including completing the take-private of an electronic health records company. He also supported the implementation of standard operating procedures within a Vista portfolio company, sitting in-house alongside the management team.

During the global financial crisis, Duane assisted U.S. Treasury Department officials in developing and implementing the government’s response, serving as a member of the Chief Investment Office for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

He began his career as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch, advising financial institutions and industrials clients on M&A and capital raising initiatives.

Duane earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BBA in finance and international business from the George Washington University. He has also completed several executive education courses at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

He serves as an Investor-in-Residence at the Polsky Center at Chicago Booth, offering insight and advice to MBA candidates, and believes in the power of education to transform lives, proudly serving on the Board of Trustees of his alma mater, Lake Forest Academy.

Steve Kaplan conducts research on private equity, venture capital, entrepreneurial finance, corporate governance and corporate finance. He has published papers in a number of academic and business journals.  He was elected to the Society of Fellows of the American Finance Association in 2025 in recognition of distinguished contributions to the field of finance.

He is the co-creator of the Kaplan-Schoar PME (Public Market Equivalent) private equity benchmarking approach. A Fortune Magazine article referred to him as “probably the foremost private equity scholar in the galaxy.”

Kaplan teaches advanced MBA and executive courses in entrepreneurial finance and private equity, corporate finance, corporate governance, and wealth management. BusinessWeek named him one of the top 12 business school teachers in the country.

Professor Kaplan co-founded the entrepreneurship program at Booth. With his students, he helped start Booth’s business plan competition, the New Venture Challenge (NVC), which has included over 800 companies that have raised over $1.5 billion and created over $10 billion in value including GrubHub, Braintree/Venmo, Tovala and Simple Mills.

Kaplan serves on the board of Morningstar and several fund and company advisory boards. He has been a member of the faculty since 1988.

He received his AB, summa cum laude, in applied mathematics and economics from Harvard College and earned a PhD in business economics from Harvard University.

Michael Minnis studies the role of accounting information in allocating investment efficiently by both managers and capital providers. His recent research focuses on understanding the role of privately held companies in the U.S. economy and how these firms use financial reporting to access, deploy, and manage capital. He particularly enjoys identifying unique data and methods to empirically examine issues in a novel way.

Effective January 2018, Minnis became a member of the Private Company Council, the primary advisory council to the Financial Accounting Standards Board on private company issues. In this role he helps FASB understand the effects of accounting standards on private companies and helps shape new standards as they relate to private companies. He has also been engaged in consulting projects, working with the investment bank Lincoln International to develop and launch the Lincoln Middle Market Index which tracks the value of private middle market companies.

Prior to pursuing his PhD, Minnis worked in a variety of professional roles. He first started in corporate finance at Eli Lilly and Company, Inc. and later at Fitzgerald | Isaac, p.c. as a certified public accountant. Building on his knowledge and experience, Minnis went on to found Controller Associates LLC. His firm provided part-time controller and Chief Financial Officer services to start-ups, small companies, and non-profit organizations, as well as a variety of financial statement analysis and consulting services. He sold the firm to Milestone Advisors in 2006.

“Having worked with and studied companies ranging in size from large multi-nationals to start-up ventures, I have seen the usefulness and the power of the information conveyed in financial statements. I want managers, investors, and students to be able to take full advantage of this information.”

Minnis received his PhD from the University of Michigan and his BS from the University of Illinois, where he graduated with Highest Honors.

Madhav Rajan joined the Chicago Booth faculty on July 1, 2017, as Dean and George Pratt Shultz Professor of Accounting, and began his second term in July 2022.

As Dean of Booth, Rajan has launched new master’s programs and reshaped the school’s footprint in Asia and EMEA. He has bolstered alumni engagement, resulting in significant support for faculty research and scholarships. Rajan has deepened the school’s ties to the University of Chicago via joint degrees and by initiating the Business Economics track, now the largest major in the College.

In June 2025, Rajan took on an expanded role as Chief Global Strategist for the University of Chicago. In this role, Rajan is responsible for shaping and implementing a strategy that reflects UChicago’s vital commitments to rigorous education and research globally. As CGS, Rajan oversees UChicago Global and the university’s international campuses.

Before joining Booth, Rajan spent 16 years on the faculty of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business where he was the Robert Jaedicke Professor of Accounting, with a courtesy appointment in the Law School. He served as senior associate dean for academic affairs from 2010-2016, overseeing the school’s MBA program. Previously, he served on the faculty at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, from 1990-2001.

While at Stanford, Rajan received the Robert T. Davis Award for Lifetime Achievement and Service (2017), and the Notable Contribution to Management Accounting Literature Award (2004). He also was the recipient of the David W. Hauck Award for Outstanding Teaching at Wharton (2000) and the Alexander Henderson Award for Excellence in Economic Theory (1990).

Rajan’s primary area of research interest is the economics-based analysis of management accounting issues. He has served as editor of The Accounting Review, the flagship journal of the American Accounting Association. Rajan is coauthor of Cost Accounting: A Managerial Emphasis, whose 18th edition was published by Pearson Prentice Hall in 2025.

Rajan received his Bachelor’s degree in commerce from the University of Madras, India, and an MS in accounting, an MS in industrial administration, and a PhD in accounting from Carnegie Mellon University.

He is a Director of iShares, Inc. and a Trustee of the iShares Trust, and also serves on the boards of CM Capital Corporation and WellBe Holdings.