Our Mentors

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Kenneth Cukier is an award-winning journalist and author. He is the deputy executive editor of The Economist, and the coauthor of the NYT bestselling book “Big Data”. His latest book is “Framers” on the power of mental models and limits of AI. He has been a research fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and at Oxford’s Saïd Business School. He  is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Tom G. Palmer is the George M. Yeager Chair for Advancing Liberty and executive vice president for International Programs at Atlas Network He is also a senior fellow at the Cato Institute.

Before joining Cato, Palmer was an H. B. Earhart Fellow at Hertford College, Oxford University, and a vice president of the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University. He frequently lectures in North America, Europe, Eurasia, Africa, Latin America, India, Asia, and the Middle East on political science, public choice, civil society, and the moral, legal, and historical foundations of individual rights.

He has published reviews and articles on politics and morality in scholarly journals, including the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Ethics, Foreign Policy, Critical Review, Constitutional Political Economy, and Isonomia Quarterly, as well as in publications such as Slate, the Unpopulist, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Die Welt, Caixing, Al Hayat, the Washington Post, Global Policy, Global Citizenship Review, and the Spectator of London. His most recent books are Institutions and Economic Development: Markets, Ideas, and Bottom-Up Change (with Bryan Cheang, 2023), Development with Dignity: Self-Determination, Localization, and the End to Poverty (with Matt Warner, 2022) and Truth and Governance: Religious and Secular Views (co-edited with William Galston, 2021). He is the author of Realizing Freedom: Libertarian Theory, History, and Practice (expanded edition 2014) and the editor of The Morality of Capitalism (2011), After the Welfare State (2012), Why Liberty (2013), and Peace, Love, & Liberty (2014). Palmer received his BA in liberal arts from St. Johns College in Annapolis, Maryland; his MA in philosophy from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC; and his doctorate in politics from Oxford University.

John Mealy is the Director of Sustainability at MBB Architects. He is a LEED Accredited Professional and has over 20 years of experience specializing in sustainable design and construction. His project experience includes a range of educational buildings, cultural institutions, and residences. As Director of Sustainability, he has also expanded MBB’s in-house energy modeling capabilities, established standards for sustainable design, and managed the firm’s commitment to decarbonizing the built environment.

An active member of New York’s green design community, John serves on the Committee on the Environment of the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter, and previously served on the NYC Energy Conservation Code Commercial Advisory Committee. An advocate for architecture’s role in responding to the climate crisis, John has testified before the New York City Council and participated in a panel discussion about Local Law 97, New York City’s Climate Mobilization Act.

John holds a Master of Architecture from Parsons School of Design, where he was awarded the Henry Adams Certificate, and a Bachelor of Arts from Amherst College.

Dr Steve Davies is Senior Academic Fellow at the John Locke Institute and Senior Education Fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs. Born in Scotland in 1955, he attended the University of Saint Andrews for both his first degree and his PhD. A historian, he taught for thirty years in the Department of History and Economic History at Manchester Metropolitan University. He is the author of many articles and books, including The Wealth Explosion: The Nature and Origin of Modernity (Edward Everett Root, 2019); The Streetwise Guide to the Devil and All His Works (Edward Everett Root, 2021); Apocalypse Next: The Economics of Global Catastrophic Risk (IEA, 2024).

Justin Carrus is the Cofounder and CTO of Perygee (perygee.com), a software platform that enables businesses to automate and integrate their business tools and leverage AI to be more productive. Previously at Tulip (tulip.co), MIT (S.B. 2017 in Mechanical and Ocean Engineering, S.M. 2018 Mechanical Engineering under Alex Slocum), Justin was a 2025 Forbes 30 under 30 recipient. Justin grew up in Central Kentucky and now lives in Los Angeles with his partner Brittany and dog Leo.

Steven Corsello is a multi-disciplinary thinker, collaborator, and designer interested in the relationships between the built environment, urban conditions, and life-outcomes -- he believes that better cities start with better buildings.

With broad experience in sales and marketing, product management, and UI/UX in roles at early-stage startups and Fortune 50 companies, he brings a uniquely heterodox, results-driven background to architecture.

Steven holds a M.Arch and a M.S. in Real Estate Development from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Preservation, and Planning and B.A in Economics from Amherst College. He was twice awarded GSAPP’s Incubator Prize for his project De-Carceral Futures.

Anil Melwani is a founding partner of Melwani & Chan LLP. He has been practicing law since 2005 primarily in the areas of trademark law, copyright law, shareholder rights, and intellectual property litigation. Prior to founding Melwani & Chan LLP, Anil worked as in-house counsel for Royal Silk Direct, Inc. and as an associate with the Manhattan law firm Lee & Kelley LLP.

Anil is licensed to practice law in New York where he was born and raised. He received his Juris Doctorate from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law with a concentration in Intellectual Property Law. A lifelong cellist, Anil studied Music Technology as an undergraduate at New York University.