Speaker Biographies | Private Markets Group

Ronald Diamond

Founder and Chairman of Diamond Wealth

Ronald Diamond is the Founder and Chairman of Diamond Wealth, a syndicate of over 100 Family Offices ranging in size from $250 million to $30 billion, with whom he has invested for over 20 years. The firm focuses exclusively on private markets, including private equity, real estate, venture capital, credit, and special situations. He is also the Founder, Host, and CEO of Family Office World Media, a premier platform that fosters collaboration, innovation, and resource sharing for Family Offices. In addition, Ron helped create the Family Office Program for TIGER 21, where he serves as Chair for a national Family Office Group. TIGER 21 is the leading peer membership organization for ultra-high-net-worth entrepreneurs, investors, and executives.

Beyond his leadership roles, Ron is deeply engaged in academia and advisory work. He sits on the Advisory Board and Steering Committee for the University of Chicago Booth School of Business Family Office Initiative and has taught Family Office courses at Oxford, Stanford, Harvard, and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He was recently appointed Editor-in-Chief of The National Law Review’s first newsletter dedicated exclusively to Family Offices and is a member of the Leadership Circle at the Aspen Institute. He also holds advisory positions with numerous privately held companies and serves as Chairman for several. Previously, he chaired the Advisory Board for Stanford University’s Disruptive Technology and Digital Cities Program, where he helped launch the Stanford Family Office Initiative.

A TEDx speaker and recognized thought leader, Ron frequently shares insights through global speaking engagements and as a LinkedIn Top Voice. Earlier in his career, he founded Pinnacle Capital, a $250 million hedge fund that outperformed the S&P 500 for a decade, and held leadership roles at Bear Stearns and Drexel Burnham Lambert. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Northwestern University with a degree in Economics.

Committed to philanthropy and civic engagement, Ron serves on several nonprofit boards, using his expertise and network to drive meaningful impact. Through his work at the intersection of Family Offices, innovation, and purpose-driven leadership, he continues to lead and inspire.

Martin Schmalz, PhD

Professor of Finance, Economics, and Real Estate | Director, Oxford Future of Real Estate Initiative

Martin Schmalz is Professor of Finance, Economics, and Real Estate at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. He previously served as Chief Economist and Director of the Office of Economic and Risk Analysis at the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), the U.S. audit regulator. In that role, he led the economic analysis of audit rules protecting over $70 trillion of investor capital.

Martin brings over 15 years of experience leading international teams of economists, data scientists, and engineers across jurisdictions and institutions. His work spans corporate governance, finance, asset management, competition policy, and AI applications in business and regulation. He has advised regulators and enforcement agencies around the world, including the U.S. Department of Justice, the European Commission, the OECD, and numerous central banks and parliaments.

At Oxford, he has held several leadership roles, including Head of the Finance, Accounting, Management, and Economics Group, Director of the Future of Real Estate Initiative, Academic Director of the Blockchain Strategy Programme, and co - director of the Open Banking & AI in Finance Programme. Martin has deep transatlantic experience in regulation, investor protection, and corporate reform.

He consults with UHNW individuals and family offices on asset allocation and succession planning, advises firms on regulatory strategy, and has led major restructuring and data infrastructure consolidation projects. He is particularly known for designing and executing empirical research to support causal inference in policy and corporate contexts.

He is a member of the Family Business Network (FBN) , the Financial Experts Association — a network of independent directors serving on audit committees and advisory boards — and Atlantik - Brücke e.V. , a leading forum for strengthening transatlantic dialogue. He is also a Director of the Global Corporate Governance Colloquia in Brussels , and serves as Chairman of a large family office . He teaches finance, strategy, fintech, AI, and machine learning to executives, policymakers, and students in business, law, and engineering. He is the author of The Business of Big Data: How to Create Lasting Value in the Age of AI , and was named one of Poets & Quants’ “40 under 40” best business school professors worldwide at age 33.

Martin holds a graduate degree (Dipl. - Ing.) in Mechanical Engineering from the Universität Stuttgart and a Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University. His academic work was

supported by the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes. His prize - winning research has been published in the Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies, and was covered, among others, by The New York Times, The Economist, Wall Street Journal , Financial Times, Bloomberg, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Forbes, Fortune, Handelsblatt, and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Christophe Spaenjers 

Professor of Finance and the Michael A. Klump Endowed Chair of Real Estate at the University of Colorado Boulder's Leeds School of Business

Christophe Spaenjers is a Professor of Finance and the Michael A. Klump Endowed Chair of Real Estate at the University of Colorado Boulder's Leeds School of Business, where he also serves as Faculty Director of the Michael A. Klump Center for Real Estate. He earned his Ph.D. in Finance from Tilburg University (the Netherlands), and previously spent over a decade on the faculty of HEC Paris (France).

Christophe is an academic expert on the markets for real estate, art, and other “real and private-value assets”. He studies heterogeneity in investors’ valuations, trading behavior, and performance in these markets. He has also analyzed the long-run price dynamics—and the challenges with accurately predicting prices and estimating returns—for both real estate and collectibles. Some of his most recent work relates to important policy issues in housing markets, such as the drivers of mortgage refinancing behavior, the capitalization of energy efficiency into house prices, the impact of segregation on long-run urban change, and the effectiveness and social impact of non-profit housing investors.

Christophe’s research has appeared in leading academic journals such as American Economic Review, Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, and Management Science. He currently is an Associate Editor at Management Science. His research has been covered extensively in the popular press (e.g., The Economist, Financial Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal).

He has taught courses on financial markets, alternative investments, and real estate to full-time undergraduate and graduate students as well as working professionals. In his current role as the Faculty Director of the Michael A. Klump Center for Real Estate at CU Boulder, Christophe oversees the development of extra-curricular experiential learning activities in various academic programs, and serves as a liaison between academia (faculty and programs) and practice (alumni and other stakeholders in the industry). 

Current areas of focus for the Center include real estate sustainability and the growth of technology solutions to benefit the real estate industry.

Jonathan Gilmour

Partner and Head of Travers Smith LLP's Derivatives & Structured Products Group

Jonathan Gilmour is a Partner and Head of Travers Smith LLP's Derivatives & Structured Products Group.

Specialising in derivatives and structured products from both a transactional and advisory standpoint, he is widely regarded by peers and clients as one of the leading specialists in his field, and as a champion of 'buy-side' interests in the UK derivatives market. He counts among his clients some of the UK's largest and most sophisticated financial institutions, investment managers, alternative asset managers, challenger banks, fintech's and occupational pension schemes. Jonathan is rated as a 'Leading Individual' by both Chambers and Legal 500, and is 'Highly Regarded' by the IFLR.

Jonathan regularly negotiates and advises on ISDA, GMRA and GMSLA documentation as well as the impact of related regulation including EMIR and SFTR. He also advises on the structure and documentation of bespoke transactions, including in the form of sustainability-linked derivatives, to hedge exposure to key market risks, including interest rate, inflation, FX, carbon exposures and longevity; and advises on investment management, custody, clearing and collateral management arrangements, as well as pension scheme funding and risk transfer arrangements. Jonathan is also a member of the firm's ESG and Impact Group and its Diversity and Inclusion Board.