Advisory Board
Ashley Keller
Finance & Legal
Ashley Keller is a Partner at Keller Lenkner, LLC. He is a seasoned trial and appellate lawyer with deep substantive knowledge across a wide variety of practice areas and types of claims. He is listed by Lawdragon as one of the 500 Leading Lawyers in America.
Ashley co-founded the litigation finance firm Gerchen Keller Capital, which grew to more than $1.3 billion in assets under management and was the world’s largest private investment manager focused on legal and regulatory risk before it was acquired by Burford Capital in 2016.
Before co-founding Gerchen Keller, Ashley was a partner at Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott LLP, The American Lawyer’s litigation boutique of the year, where he handled various trial and appellate matters involving multi-billion-dollar securities and patent cases, contractual disputes, mass torts, and class actions. Ashley also worked as an analyst at Alyeska Investment Group, a Chicago-based market neutral hedge fund, where he focused on investments in companies facing litigation and other complicated regulatory matters.
Before practicing law, Ashley was a law clerk for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy at the Supreme Court of the United States and Judge Richard Posner at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and received an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, where he graduated first in his class.
Stephen L. Hightower
Stephen L. Hightower President and CEO of Hightowers Petroleum Co. (HPC) leads a $400 million business enterprise consisting of five national and international businesses, all providing energy solutions. A self-made entrepreneur since 1979, Mr. Hightower grew his Ohio-based wholesale fuel supply company into an international energy solutions enterprise covering the entire energy value chain, from petroleum supply to power production. Mr. Hightower’s blue-chip customer base includes, Duke Energy, General Motors Corporation, The Kroger Company, Fed Ex, SCANNA, Ford Motor Company UPS, Honda, Con-Edison, Nissan, ATT, United Rentals, JLL Dominion Transportation, PEPCO Utility, and State of Ohio among others. Mr. Hightower has extensive skills in developing and operating business enterprises, managing global supply chains and rapid growth strategies while navigating governmental and regulatory approvals. Today Steve has penetrated the upstream markets and is delivering crude oil and marketing LNG globally. Hightower is also President and Chairman of HP Energy, an energy development company that engages engineering and technology to reduce energy consumption to create alternative power to combined heat and power (CHP), waste to energy, hydrogen fuel cells, and solar applications. Hightower has also been active in the development of clean power generation in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a recent focus on South Africa waste-to-energy projects.
Hightower serves at the pleasure of the President of the United States with two appointments; the Department of Interior’s, National Park Foundation and the Department of Energy’s National Petroleum Council. Those appointments have been continued under President Trump. Hightower was also involved with Power Africa, an initiative by Former President Barack Obama to increase the electrification on the continent of Africa and served in two trade missions with the U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Department of Transportation Secretaries, to Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Mozambique.
Les Ottolenghi
Technology
Most recently, as Executive Vice President and CIO of Caesars Entertainment Corp, a global gaming hotel and casino corporation with $4.85B in revenues, Les was significantly involved in driving the digital transformation strategy that fueled ~67% increase in EBITDA and doubled revenue growth in three years. He also developed the first cyber security readiness program and led corporate development and technology acquisition initiatives resulting in the gaming industry’s first global accelerator and the launch of a digital gaming business projected to grow to $1.5B in 2020. Les has also held CISO, CIO, and CTO roles at Las Vegas Sands, Carlson WagonLit Travel, and Holiday Inn. Les has been the CEO and Board Chairman for three technology companies: Plat4m Technologies, Intent Media Works, and AgentWare. All three resulted in successful, multimillion-dollar exits. He started his career as the Founder of Computer Innovations Corporation, where he achieved $13.3M in sales in three years.
Les is a cyber security and audit board advisor for Tandem Commercial Bank of Atlanta and is a Board Member for the TBM Council. He currently advises eight early-stage technology companies (FiscalNote, 802 Secure, Breadware, NeurRun, Certree, Rich Robotics, Zora Computing, and Skyworks Aerial) on capital raising, operations, and governance, and advises SolveforX on overall strategy. Additionally, he is an advisor to three universities (MIT, Duke University, and University of Las Vegas). Les received his MBA in Decision Information Analysis from Emory University’s Goizueta School of Business and his bachelor’s degree in History from Duke University. Les has been awarded Constellation’s Business Transformation 150, Evanta’s Breakaway Leadership Award for Impact and Influence, IDG Communication’s CIO 100 Award, and Greenspun & Cox Media’s Top Tech Executive for Hospitality & Gaming.
Dr. Clay Dickinson
Real Estate
Dr. Clay B. Dickinson, Assistant Teaching Professor, FIU Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Management (CSHTM) and the Hollo School of Real Estate of the Chapman College of Business. Dickinson earned his Doctorate in Business Administration from FIU Chapman College of Business, Master’s Degrees in the Management of Technology, Business Administration, and International Management from, respectively, the Georgia Institute of Technology, ESADE and ASU’s Thunderbird School of Global Management. He earned his BA in International Relations from The American University in Washington, DC.
Dr. Dickinson leads the graduate hospitality real estate program at CSHTM and is liaison to the Real Estate Advisory Board at the FIU Hollo School of Real Estate. Prior to joining FIU, Dr. Dickinson spent four decades in senior executive positions with real estate and hospitality global leaders like JLL, KPMG, IHG, IBM and EDS. Dickinson’s experience includes 15 years as the regional leader of JLL Hotels and Hospitality and Valuation Advisory Services groups in the Caribbean, Mexico and Latin America. Prior, he spent 10 years focused on the strategic use of information technology with IBM and EDS, and 15 years in regional leadership positions with KPMG and IHG hotels. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.
Jan Jones Blackhurst
Government Affairs
Jan Jones Blackhurst is a long-time political and business leader who spent most of the 1990s as the first woman mayor of Las Vegas – one of the most popular mayors in the city’s history. She then joined Caesars Entertainment, where she and her teams developed the industry’s first Responsible Gaming practices, advancing environmental stewardship and advocating for important social issues.
Jan speaks extensively at many universities and helped establish the International Gaming Institution Center of Excellence at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. After leading Corporate Social Responsibility and Public Policy at Caesars for two decades, she joined the Company’s Board of Directors in 2019. She also became Chief Executive in Residence at the UNLV International Gaming Institute, where she was a popular faculty member and key player in the “Expanding the Leaderverse” initiative.
Committed to education, Jan serves as Chairwoman for the Public Education Foundation; she has earned numerous awards and accolades while serving on several boards, including the Las Vegas Stadium Authority and the Nevada Resort Association. In 2014, she was one of the first women to be inducted into the American Gaming Association (AGA) Gaming Hall of Fame. Jones Blackhurst holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Stanford University.
Emma McClarkin
Food & Beverage
Emma has been the Chief Executive of the British Beer and Pub Association since 2019 and is also the Chair of the Worldwide Brewing Alliance. Emma was recently awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) award from King Charles for services to the hospitality industry. A passionate beer and pub lover, Emma has led the sector throughout the pandemic and into recovery, interfacing with Government and key stakeholders and secured vital grant support and economic stimulus to aid recovery. Emma has been a strong advocate to protect the future of the Great British Pub and our world-renowned brewers.
Emma is a former Member of the European Parliament for the East Midlands constituency in the United Kingdom. She has extensive experience in digital, technology and international trade owing to her prominent roles on the International Trade Committee (INTA) and Internal Market Committee (IMCO). After joining INTA in early 2012, Emma was appointed as the ECR Group Coordinator for the committee, tasked with leading the Group in all trade matters. In this role, Emma worked extensively to deliver free trade agreements and push for an open and transparent trade agenda in the EU. As part of her work on INTA, she was the first MEP to publish an Own Initiative Report that considers the use of blockchain in a specific policy area. Emma was also Chairman of the Commonwealth Forum, which is a Brussels-based association and a branch of the Royal Commonwealth Society, serving as the main forum for the Parliament’s relations with the Commonwealth nations. She also holds a number of international and advisory roles. Outside of work, Emma is a big fan of music and sport, closely following rugby and cricket.