Meet the 5 rising stars presenting their investment ideas at the world's highest-profile hedge-fund conference

For nearly a quarter century, the Sohn Conference has brought together the best and the brightest in the investment world to pitch their ideas in front of thousands of their peers, spring-boarding many into industry-wide name recognition.Six years ago, the conference began its “Next Wave” series, which features rising stars in the hedge-fund game.We profiled the five-person class — the most diverse yet.If you want to make a name for yourself in the hedge-fund game, you could start with presenting an investment idea at the Sohn Conference.The high-profile event has been attended by thousands of investors every year for the past 24 years. This year's headlining speakers include DoubleLine CEO Jeffrey Gundlach, D1 Capital Partners founder Daniel Sundheim, and Glenview Capital founder Larry Robbins.But for the past six years, the conference has put rising stars on the stage as a part of its “Next Wave” series to pitch their best investment ideas. Past participants include Tourbillon founder Jason Karp and former Blue Mountain Capital portfolio manager David Zorub, who is starting his own fund.See more: Inside the hellacious hedge-fund money-raising environment, where 'even the big funds have to get creative'For the first time, a majority of the “Next Wave” presenters will not be white men, in an industry where less fewer than 5% of hedge funds are owned by women and fewer than 10% are owned by minorities, according to a report from Bella Research Group and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.The five speakers are Angela Aldrich, the founder of Bayberry Capital; Todd Westhus, the founder of Olympus Peak Capital; Parvinder Thiara, the founder of Athanor Capital; Lauren Nicole Wolfe, the cofounder of Impactive Capital; and Matthew Smith, the founder of Deep Basin Capital.Learn more about them before you listen to their pitches.