Pursuit Bash Annual Gala 2024
Monday, June 10, 2024
The Glasshouse | 660 12th Ave, NYC
The Pursuit Bash returned after a six-year hiatus. The event highlighted the past decade of Pursuit’s impact and celebrated many members of our ‘One Big Team.’ Their work together creates a ripple effect of lasting change, not just in the lives of Fellows, but also in their families, communities, industries, and systems.
One Big Team. One Big Night.
Chair: Zachary Smith, Partner at Humans of the Internet
Vice Chairs:
Margot Edelman, GM at Edelman NYC
Dan Teran, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Gutter Capital
Paul Vizcarrondo, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
Host Committee:
Charles E. Schumer, Senate Majority Leader
Alex Atallah, Co-Founder at OpenRouter and OpenSea
Natalia Quintero, Former Head of Latin America at Silicon Valley Bank
Elias Roman, Senior Director of Product Management at Google Labs
Stuart Spodek, Managing Director at BlackRock
Kathryn Wylde, President & CEO of the Partnership for New York City
Planning Committee:
Alan Jones
Ritambhara Kumar, Managing Director at J.P. Morgan
Zohar Yardeni, Chief Product Officer at The Knot Worldwide
CBS News Senior Business & Tech Correspondent
Mads Refslund
Founder of Ilis, Co-Founder of Noma, Multi-Michelin Starred Chef
Bash Honorees
CEO & CIO of Inherent Group
President, CEO and Commissioner of Empire State Development
Pursuit Fellow and Senior Developer at United Parks & Resorts
Pursuit Fellow and Software Engineer at Dow Jones
Transformation Stories
During the evening, we celebrated the transformational journeys of Pursuit Fellows and this year’s honorees: Erica Stevens and Rook Soto.
Erica and Rook were Fellows of the very first training powered by the groundbreaking Pursuit Bond financing in 2016. They were also some of the first Fellows to complete their Bond contributions. What their transformation proves is that the Pursuit Bond can fuel good jobs to provide a long-lasting impact in the lives of Fellows, their families, and communities.
Our mission is to create economic transformation. By training low-income adults to launch and advance careers as software engineers, we help our Fellows go from earning $18,000 to over $90,000 starting salary on average, adding an estimated $2M in lifetime earnings.
Since 2013, Pursuit has created ~$1B in total lifetime wage gains, creating lasting economic mobility that spans generations.
