NELSON GAYTON is an advisor and investor in a number of venture-backed companies in the media, technology and education. He has incubated and advised early-stage enterprises such as Passenger, PlaceVine, SpectrumDNA, NossaTV and PolyMedia Communications, just to name a few.

A published author at the Harvard Business School, Nelson is also a seasoned C-suite executive and a former merchant banker with HSBC. where he executed over $100 million of investments in emerging markets. Nelson has also served on the leadership team of Sony Pictures, where he served as Special Assistant to the CEO, driving the execution of divisional synergy opportunities in filmed entertainment, television, and computer entertainment. Since then, Nelson has founded and led several early-stage media tech ventures, successfully exiting from two digital media startups in the US and abroad.

Nelson holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School, an MFA in Film & Digital Media from UCLA Graduate School of Film & Television, and a BSM from Tulane University's A.B. Freeman School of Business. He also served as a Visiting Scholar to the University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology (UMIST) in the United Kingdom. In addition, Nelson is a former faculty member of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and UCLA Anderson School of Management, where he served as Founder and Executive Director of think tanks in media, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

A noted speaker and published author, Nelson is a frequent contributor to knowledge publications, like Knowledge @ Wharton, Forbes and National Public Radio. Recently, he was selected by a leading Hong Kong investment firm as a global “thought leader” in digital media and technology and has authored investor bluebooks on “Internet TV” and the "Metaverse' as well as advised global money managers on media and technology investments. Today, his interests focus on education, technology, and business design initiatives in frontier sectors throughout the Middle East and Africa, Europe and North America. He is also actively involved in a host of professional development and leadership initiatives, maintaining a client list that spans the globe and includes McKinsey & Company, Dell Computer, General Electric, just to name a few.

Born in Havana, Cuba, Nelson is fluent in Spanish, enjoys travel, running and fine art. He also enjoys hanging with his humbling, teenage daughter and his precocious young son.