Speakers
Henry Aaron
Brookings Institution
Henry J. Aaron is currently the Bruce and Virginia MacLaury Senior Fellow in the Economic Studies program at the Brookings Institution. From 1990 through 1996 he was the director of the Economic Studies program.
He initially joined the Brookings staff in 1968. From 1967 until 1989 he also taught at the University of Maryland. In 1977 and 1978 he served as Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. He chaired the 1979 Advisory Council on Social Security. During the academic year 1996-97, he was a Guggenheim Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.
He is a graduate of U.C.L.A and holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.
He is a member of the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the advisory committee of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, and the visiting committee of the Harvard Medical School. He is a member of the board of directors of Abt Associates and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. He was a founding member, vice president, and chair of the board of the National Academy of Social Insurance. He has been vice president and member of the executive committee of the American Economic Association and was president of the Association of Public Policy and Management. He has been a member of the boards of directors of the College Retirement Equity Fund and Georgetown University.
His publications include: Reforming Medicare: Options, Tradeoffs, and Opportunities (co-authored with Jeanne M. Lambrew); Taxing Capital Income: Do We? Should We? Can We? (coedited with Leonard Burman and Eugene Steuerle); Can We Say No: The Challenge of Health Care Rationing (with Melissa Cox); Coping With Methuselah: The Impact of Molecular Biology on Medicine and Society, (co-edited with William Schwartz); Agenda for the Nation (coedited with James Lindsay and Pietro Nivola); Crisis in Tax Administration (co-edited with Joel Slemrod); The Plight of Academic Medical Centers; Countdown to Reform: The Great Social Security Debate (with Robert Reischauer); and Setting National Priorities: The Year 2000 and Beyond, which he co-edited. Other books include The Painful Prescription: Rationing Hospital Care (co-authored with William Schwartz); Can America Afford to Grow Old?, (co-authored with Barry Bosworth); Serious and Unstable Condition: Financing America's Health Care; Economic Effects of Fundamental Tax Reform (co-edited, with William Gale); and Behavioral Aspects of Retirement Economics (editor).
Jack Aernecke
Capitol Region Television
Jack Aernecke recently completed a 42 year broadcasting career in the Tech Valley, Capital Region area of upstate New York. His last 35 years was as anchor and business-technology reporter at WRGB-TV, a CBS affiliate.
In his reporting career Jack witnessed the start of the nations first college based business incubator at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and watched several entrepreneurs convert their research into businesses resulting in significant companies which settled in Tech Valley and are employing hundreds of area people in well paying jobs.
Since 2000 Jack has reported on the development of the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at the University at Albany along with the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars by high tech companies. That led to the creation of a world class research facility that now employs over 2000 people and is the new home to International Sematech. Researchers work in a number of areas involved with designing the technology to make computer chips of the future faster, more complex and more efficient. He also reported on how those education-business partnerships led to the successful effort to attract Advanced Micro Devices to the Luther Forest Technology Park in nearby Saratoga County where their subsidiary plans to build one and perhaps several modern computer chip manufacturing facilities. Those successes are largely credited to the business education partnerships that first started in the region in the early 80s.
Since retirement Jack has maintained his interest in the local high tech community and is providing voice overs and narrations for clients.
Sara Banaszak
Senior Economist, API
Sara Banaszak is a senior economist at the American Petroleum Institute (API) where she draws on her oil and natural gas policy expertise as an API spokesperson and policy analyst.
Sara’s knowledge of industry markets and related policy issues ranges across the upstream, downstream, international, domestic, and natural gas arenas. She has a strong background in liquefied natural gas (LNG), including global trade, pricing and contracts, and the North American market.
Since joining API in 2005, Sara has focused on natural gas issues, including the need for additional LNG terminals to facilitate natural gas imports. She has also worked on upstream issues, including access to domestic oil and natural gas resources and how the U.S. compares with other countries in its management and development of oil and gas resources. Her work on downstream issues has included research on the growing use of ethanol.
During 2005, Sara has played a major role in presenting industry information and views to the print and broadcast news media, providing hundreds of print media interviews, meeting with newspaper editorial boards, and making scores of radio appearances. She has addressed such topics as gasoline prices, industry earnings, and the industry’s response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Prior to joining API, Sara directed PFC Energy’s North American Gas Policy Service (GPS) and advised clients on international and North American natural gas strategies. Her consulting ranged from working with multinational and national companies on oil and gas marketing and importing options to helping multilateral organizations explore how to accelerate natural gas investments.
Sara has also worked at the U.S. Department of Energy as a manager responsible for international oil and gas programs and domestic gas issues in the international context, including natural gas-related analysis and policy-making activities. In the Office of Fossil Energy, she acted as a government representative on the National Petroleum Council’s 2003 natural gas study. In 2001, she received Department recognition for her accomplishments with the U.S.-China Oil and Gas Industry Forum, a high-level public-private partnership. In an earlier posting with the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Sara worked on international energy modeling, and, before that, conducted research at the East-West Center.
Sara has been a speaker, chair, and organizing committee member for major North American and international conferences, including Gastech. Her writing on energy issues appears in government and industry publications, and both industry press and the news media have interviewed Sara frequently. She is a member of the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE), an executive board member of its Washington, D.C. chapter, and a referee for The Energy Journal.
Sara holds a Masters degree in applied economics from the University of Hawaii and a Bachelors degree cum laude in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania. She is a native of St. Louis, Missouri.
Daniel Bean
FDIC
Daniel Bean is a Financial Analyst in the Risk Analysis Section in the Division of Insurance and Research at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). His role includes analysis of current trends in economic conditions, commercial real estate and banking issues. He is a member of the Risk Analysis Center’s Operating Committee and also the Risk Analysis Center’s Management Committee at the FDIC. He was VP for Programs at the National Economists Club during 2007. Currently, Dan is chairman of the Corporate Planning Roundtable for NABE.
From 1992 through 2002, Dan worked as a Financial Analyst at the FDIC in the former Division of Research and Statistics. He has worked with various real estate vendor data for over a decade. He joined the FDIC in 1990 at the former Division of Consumer Affairs. Prior to the FDIC, he worked for Sears, Roebuck & Co. in the Washington, DC area in several management capacities.
Dan completed an M.B.A. in Finance at the University of Maryland in 1989 and also a B.S. in Business and Management at the University of Maryland in 1986.
Nariman Behravesh
IHS Global Insight
Dr. Nariman Behravesh is Chief Economist and Executive Vice President for Global Insight (formerly DRI-WEFA). Directing Global Insight's entire forecasting process, he is responsible for developing the economic outlook and risk analysis for the United States, Europe, Japan, and emerging markets. He oversees the work of over 200 professionals, located in North America and Europe, who cover economic, financial, and political developments in over 180 countries.
Behravesh and his team were designated #1 in USA Today's 2004 ranking of top economic forecasters, and in Reuters' 2004 survey of major currency exchange rate forecasters. In The Wall Street Journal's annual ranking of US forecasters, Behravesh was the only forecaster to place in the top six for both 2003 and 2004.
As Global Insight's chief spokesperson, Behravesh is quoted extensively in the media on such topics as the outlook for the US and global economies, oil prices, exchange rates, the budget deficit, the trade deficit, globalization, country risk, and emerging markets crises. He is cited frequently in leading business publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Financial Times, USA Today, Investor's Business Daily, Business Week, Newsweek, Fortune, Forbes and U.S. News and World Report. He also regularly appears on national radio and television programs including BBC World Business Report, NBC Nightly News, CNN Headline News, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (PBS), Your World with Neil Cavuto (Fox News), CNBC's Closing Bell, Bloomberg TV's World Financial Report, and All Things Considered on National Public Radio.
Behravesh was the host of the PBS television series "Inside the Global Economy." He has authored numerous articles in such publications as European Affairs and Credit Week, co-authored two books– Economics U$A and Microcomputers, Corporate Planning and Decision Support Systems–and was a contributing author to a recent book on scenario analysis, entitled Learning From the Future.
Before joining Global Insight, Behravesh was chief international economist for Standard & Poor's. Prior to that, he was president and CEO of Oxford Economics U.S.A., Inc. He also spent ten years at the WEFA Group, where he held a number of positions, including group senior vice president. Early in his career Behravesh worked at the Congressional Budget Office and the Federal Reserve.
Behravesh holds Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.Sc. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has lived in Europe and the Middle East, and is fluent in several languages. He travels extensively to Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Michael Bird
National Conference of State Legislatures
Michael Bird is the Senior Federal Affairs Counsel for the National Conference of State Legislatures, an organization for which he has worked for 23 years. In his current capacity, Michael coordinates NCSL lobbying activities on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. He also serves as NCSL’s liaison to congressional leadership offices and the White House.
In his two decades at NCSL, he has worked on issues ranging from agriculture to Yucca Mountain, spending the bulk of his time on appropriations, budget and tax matters - and most recently on federal economic recovery legislation
Michael came to NCSL with a wide range of state legislative experience gained in his journeyman work that started with the Illinois General Assembly. He followed that with tours of duty with the Colorado, Arizona and U.S. Virgin Islands Legislatures. His on-the-scene state legislative career ended with the Oklahoma Legislature where he served three years as the Fiscal Director for the state Senate.
His past experiences are also checkered with a variety of campaign management activities, volunteer work and teaching.
Michael and his family reside in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He is a graduate of Loyola University of Chicago and is a native Chicagoan.
John Terrence Blake
Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy
Rear Admiral John Terence Blake was appointed to the United States Naval Academy from the state of New York, graduating in 1975. His sea duty assignments include: USS New (DD 818), USS Sarfield (DD 837), USS Joseph Strauss (DDG 16), USS John Young (DD 973), USS Chandler (DDG 996), USS Leahy (CG 16), USS Normandy (CG 60), and USS Nimitz (CVN 68).
Blake commanded the destroyer USS O’Brien (DD 975), served on the 7th Fleet Staff as current operations and assistant chief of staff for Operations, commanded the cruiser USS Normandy (CG 60) and as commander, Carrier Strike Group11/Nimitz Carrier Strike Group.
His shore duty assignments include: Flag lieutenant to Commander, Navy Recruiting Command; Naval Post Graduate School where he earned a master’s degree in Finance; Navy Staff (N80) head, Sea Control Section and program manager for the Navy Shipbuilding account; National War College where he earned a master’s degree in National Security; Joint Staff (J8) division chief and head of the Combat Identification Joint Warfare Capability Assessment Team; director, Programming Division (N80); director, Operations Division, Office of Budget in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Financial Management/Comptroller); director, Operations Division, Fiscal Management Division in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations and deputy director for Resources and Acquisition on the Joint Chiefs of Staff (J8).
Blake is currently assigned as deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for Budget in Washington. He is authorized to wear the Defense Superior Service Medal with oak leaf cluster, the Legion of Merit with four gold stars, the Meritorious Service Medal with two gold stars, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with two gold stars and various service and campaign medals.
Donald J. Boyd
Nelson J. Rockefeller Institute of Government
Donald J. Boyd is a senior fellow and the former director of State and Local Government Finance research group. Boyd has over two decades of experience analyzing state and local fiscal issues, and has written or co-authored many of the program’s reports on the fiscal climate in the 50 states. His previous positions include director of the economic and revenue staff for the New York State Division of the Budget and director of the tax staff for the New York State Assembly Ways and Means Committee. Boyd holds a Ph.D. in managerial economics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.
Andrew Brod
University of North Carolina, Greensboro
Dr. Andrew Brod is the Director of the Center for Business and Economic Research in the Bryan School of Business and Economics at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Dr. Brod is also a consultant in the field of forensic economics and litigation support. His forensic work has focused on lost profits, lost earnings, antitrust, and economic development.
Richard Brown
FDIC
Richard A. Brown is Chief Economist and Associate Director for Risk Analysis in the Division of Insurance and Research at the FDIC in Washington, D.C. His branch is responsible for identifying and analyzing emerging risks to the FDIC deposit insurance funds. This role includes analysis of current trends in the economy, the financial markets, and insured depository institutions, with a focus on bank risk management.
From 1996 to 2002, Dr. Brown was Chief of the Economic and Market Trends Section in the FDIC's former Division of Insurance. Prior to 1996, he served as a financial economist specializing in resolutions and asset disposition policy in the FDIC's former Division of Research and Statistics. He has also held research positions at the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC), the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC), and the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB).
Dr. Brown completed a Ph.D. in economics at The George Washington University in 1994 and a B.A. in economics at the University of Cincinnati in 1984.
Markus Brunnermeier
Princeton University
Markus K. Brunnermeier is the Edwards S. Sanford Professor at Princeton University. He is a member of the Department of Economics and affiliated with Princeton's Bendheim Center for Finance and the International Economics Section. He is also a research associate at CEPR, NBER and CESifo, and an academic consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He was awarded his Ph.D. by the London School of Economics (LSE), where he was also affiliated with its Financial Markets Group. He is a Sloan Research Fellow, an associated editor of the Journal of Finance, the Review of Financial Studies and on the editorial board of the Journal of Financial Intermediation. His research spans economics and finance. He is primarily interested in studying financial crises and significant mispricings due to institutional frictions, strategic considerations, and behavioral trading. His work shows that a bubble can emerge and persist since rational sophisticated traders prefer to ride it rather than attack it. His research also explains why liquidity dries up when it is needed most and has important implications for risk management. His research on belief distortions proposes a shift away from the rational expectations paradigm towards "optimal expectations.”
Charles Calomiris
Columbia University
Professor Calomiris is one of the country’s leading authorities on financial institutions. His research spans the areas of banking, corporate finance, financial history and monetary economics. He has advised numerous firms, agencies and governments on the performance and regulation of financial institutions. Calomiris is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and directs the American Enterprise Institute’s project on financial regulation. He teaches international banking and a case course on business and finance in emerging market economies.
He has a BA, Yale, 1979; PhD, Stanford, 1985.
Guy F. Caruso
former EIA Administrator
Guy F. Caruso Mr. Caruso is Senior Advisor to the Energy and National Security program at CSIS.
From 2002 until September 2008 Caruso was the Administrator of the Energy Information Administration (EIA), a statistical agency within the United States Department of Energy (DOE) that provides policy-independent data, forecasts and analyses regarding energy. Mr. Caruso has acquired over 30 years of energy experience, with particular emphasis on topics relating to energy markets, policy and security. Mr. Caruso first joined DOE as a Senior Energy Economist in the Office of International Affairs and soon became the Director of the Office of Market Analysis. Other leadership roles held by Mr. Caruso during his tenure at DOE include: Director, Office of Oil and Natural Gas Policy, Office of Domestic and International Energy Policy and Director, Office of Energy Emergency Policy Evaluation.
Prior to joining DOE, Mr. Caruso worked at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as an International Energy Economist in the Office of Economic Research. Mr. Caruso also previously served as the Executive Director of the Strategic Energy Initiative Project, under the Energy and National Security Program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) . CSIS is a private, nonpartisan organization dedicated to providing world leaders with strategic insights on, and policy solutions, to current and emerging global issues.
Moreover, before joining EIA, Mr. Caruso was also the Director of the National Energy Strategy (NES) project for the United States Energy Association (USEA). During this time, Mr. Caruso spearheaded the USEA publication "Toward a National Energy Strategy," which was released in February 2001 and a follow-up study entitled, "National Energy Strategy Post 9/11" which was released in July 2002. Mr. Caruso has worked at the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA), first as the Head of the Oil Industry Division where he was responsible for analyzing world oil supply/demand and developments in the oil industry; and later, as Director of the Office of non-members Countries where he directed studies of energy-related developments.
Mr. Caruso holds a B.S. in Business Administration and an M.S. in Economics from the University of Connecticut. He also earned a Masters of Public Administration from Harvard University.
David Crowe
National Association of Home Builders
David Crowe, Ph.D., is Chief Economist and Senior Vice President at the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). Dr. Crowe is responsible for NAHB’s forecast of housing and economic trends, survey research and analysis of the home building industry and consumer preferences as well as microeconomic analysis of government policies that affect housing.
Dr. Crowe is also responsible for the development and implementation of an innovative model of the local economic impact and fiscal cost of new home construction, which has estimated the net impact of new housing in over 500 local markets. Past research has concentrated on home ownership trends, tax issues, demographics, government mortgage insurance, local land use ordinance impacts and the impacts of housing on local economies.
Before becoming NAHB’s Chief Economist, Dr. Crowe was NAHB’s Senior Vice President for Regulatory and Housing Policy. Prior to NAHB, Dr. Crowe was Deputy Director of the Division of Housing and Demographic Analysis at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
He has served on federal advisory committees to the Census Bureau and to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Dr. Crowe holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Kentucky.
Dr. Edward M. Cupoli
Professor and Head, NanoEconomics Constellation
College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering
University at Albany – State University of New York
Dr. Edward M. Cupoli is Professor of NanoEconomics and Head of the NanoEconomics Constellation at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at the University at Albany, State University of New York. His research concentrates on the economic implications of nanotechnology and economic forecasting for nanotechnology, as well as the competitive position of New York State and the U.S. in the world economy.
Immediate preceding his joining CNSE he was Chief Economist and Director of Research of the New York State Assembly Ways and Means Committee where his responsibilities included advising the Speaker of the Assembly as well as the Chair and Secretary of the Ways and Means Committee in regard to the formulation and risks underlying the state fiscal plan as well as managing/overseeing research undertaken in support of the Committee's extensive responsibilities.
Dr. Cupoli earned doctoral and masters degrees in economics from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, and received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from LeMoyne College.
His extensive experience in government and academia, as well as his close ties with the business community throughout New York State, has provided Dr. Cupoli with a deep understanding of the interrelationship between academia, business, and government. Before entering public service, Dr. Cupoli was a faculty member at Michigan State University. He has lectured at the Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy at the State University of New York at Albany, the Economics Department at the University of Albany, State University of New York, the College of Saint Rose, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Notable among his achievements are:
- Creating a pioneering academic curriculum in nanoeconomics that focuses on the economics of nanotechnology leveraging on the unique academic-business government prototyping incubator at the CNSE-UAlbany complex
- Initiated in-house econometric analysis and forecasting of National and State economies, State revenues and State spending.
- Developed legislation establishing a public annual Consensus Economic and Revenue Forecasting Conference.
- Drafted a constitutional amendment to modernize State and Local debt provisions.
- Advised on legislation to facilitate deregulation of the electric energy industry.
- Assisted in creating the Economic Information and Research Function in the State Department of Economic Development.
- Initiated the Economic Update publication which has received two national awards.
Dr.Cupoli is Head of the Technology Roundtable of the National Association for Business Economics, a Member of the New York State Deferred Compensation Board, a Member of the New York State Assembly Speakers Board of Economic Advisors and a Board Member of the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy Committee of the Capital District Regional Planning Commission.
David Dismukes
Louisiana State University
David E. Dismukes is the associate director and a professor at the Center for Energy Studies, Louisiana State University. His research interests are related to the analysis of economic, statistical, and public policy issues in energy and regulated industries. Over the past 20 years, he has worked in consulting, academia, and government service. Professor Dismukes has given close to 100 energy-related presentations to civic, professional, and trade organizations over the past decade. His opinions on energy industry trends and issues have been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today, as well as a host of other regional and local newspapers and trade newsletters.
Professor Dismukes has been on the LSU faculty for over a decade and since that time has led a number of the Center's research efforts on topics associated with most all aspects of the energy industry including offshore and onshore oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) activities; the restructuring of natural gas and electric power markets; market structure issues in various energy industries; economic and policy issues related to renewable energy generation and market design, and the economic impacts of energy industry infrastructure development along the Gulf Coast.
Professor Dismukes has prepared over 120 publications including books, book chapters, articles, reports, and academic society conference papers. His academic and trade publications on energy and regulated industries have appeared in such journals as Resource and Energy Economics, Southern Economic Journal, Utilities Policy, Energy Journal, Studies in Economic and Finance, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Natural Resources Forum, Journal of Legal, Ethical, and Regulatory Issues, Public Resources Law Digest, Electricity Journal, Oil, Gas, and Energy Quarterly, Natural Gas Journal, Natural Gas Outlook, Public Utilities Fortnightly, Financial Times-Energy, and theAmerican Oil and Gas Reporter.
His conference papers have been published in proceedings sponsored by the Society of Mechanical Engineers (SME), the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the International Energy Foundation (IEF), the International Association of Energy Economics (IAEE), the International Association of Science and Technology for Development (IASTED), the Southwest Academy of Management, and the Academy of Legal, Ethical, and Regulatory Issues. He has contributed a number of chapters in books on energy and regulatory issues and is the co-author of a textbook on electric power restructuring and competition for CRC Press titled Power Systems Operations and Electricity Markets.
Professor Dismukes received his M.S. and Ph.D. in economics from the Florida State University. He is a member of numerous professional associations including the American Economic Association, American Statistical Association, Econometric Society, Southern Economic Association, Western Economic Association, and the International Association of Energy Economics.
He is also an adjunct Ppofessor in Department of Economics in the E.J. Ourso College of Business Administration at LSU and is a full member of the Graduate Research Faculty at LSU.
J. Bradford DeLong
University of California at Berkeley
Brad DeLong is a professor in the Department of Economics at U.C. Berkeley; chair of the Berkeley International and Area Studies Political Economy major; a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research; and a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. From 1993 to 1995 he worked for the U.S. Treasury as a deputy assistant secretary for economic policy.
While in the Clinton administration, reporting to Assistant Secretary Alicia Munnell, he worked on the Clinton Administration's 1993 budget, on the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, on the North American Free Trade Agreement, on macroeconomic policy, on the unsuccessful health care reform effort, and on many other issues.
Before joining the Treasury Department he was Danziger Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at Harvard University. He has also been a John M. Olin Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, an Assistant Professor of Economics at Boston University, and a Lecturer in the Department of Economics at M.I.T.
He has written on, among other topics, the evolution and functioning of the U.S. and other nations' stock markets, the course and determinants of long-run economic growth, the making of economic policy, the changing nature of the American business cycle, and the history of economic thought.
His best work extends from business cycle dynamics through economic growth, behavioral finance, political economy, economic history, international finance to the history of economic thought and other topics, including: "Is Increased Price Flexibility Stabilizing?" "Productivity Growth, Convergence, and Welfare," "Noise Trader Risk in Financial Markets," "Equipment Investment and Economic Growth," "Princes and Merchants: European City Growth Before the Industrial Revolution," "Why Does the Stock Market Fluctuate?" "Keynesianism, Pennsylvania-Avenue Style," "America's Peacetime Inflation: The 1970s," "American Fiscal Policy in the Shadow of the Great Depression," "Review of Robert Skidelsky (2000), John Maynard Keynes, volume 3, Fighting for Britain," "Between Meltdown and Moral Hazard: Clinton Administration International Monetary and Financial Policy," "Productivity Growth in the 2000s," "Asset Returns and Economic Growth."
He has taught finance, macroeconomics, economic history, and social theory. He holds a Ph.D. (1987), an M.A. (1984), and a B.A. summa cum laude (1982) from Harvard University.
He was born in Boston, Mass. on June 24, 1960.
William Gale
Brookings Institution
William Gale is vice president and director of the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution and the Arjay and Frances Miller Chair in Federal Economic Policy. He conducts research on a variety of economic issues, focusing particularly on tax policy, fiscal policy, pensions and saving behavior.He is co-director of the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute. He is also director of the Retirement Security Project, an initiative supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts, in partnership with Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute and Brookings
Prior to joining Brookings in 1992, he was an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a senior staff economist for the Council of Economic Advisers under President George H.W. Bush.
He is the co-author or co-editor of several books, including Aging Gracefully: Ideas to Improve Retirement Security in America (Century Foundation, 2006); The Evolving Pension System: Trends, Effects, and Proposals for Reform (Brookings, 2005); Private Pensions and Public Policy (Brookings, 2004); Rethinking Estate and Gift Taxation (Brookings, 2001), and Economic Effects of Fundamental Tax Reform (Brookings, 1996).
He has also written numerous scholarly research articles, including publications in the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, and Quarterly Journal of Economics, and has served as editor and editorial board member of several academic journals. He has also written extensively in policy-related publications and newspapers.
Gale has served on advisory boards for the Government Accountability Office, the Internal Revenue Service, the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Board of the Center on Federal Financial Institutions.
Gale attended Duke University and the London School of Economics and received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1987. He lives in Fairfax, VA, with his wife Julie, who is a psychologist, two children Danny, 19, and Becca, 16, and two golden retrievers.
Scottie Ginn
IBM Systems and Technology Group
Scottie Ginn is Vice President of Design Enablement and Packaging for the Technology Development organization at IBM. In this role, Scottie manages the development of tools to enable designers to use IBM’s semiconductor technologies and packaging development. Prior to this, she was in IBM Systems Group development for two years, and before that, she was Vice President of Standard Products in IBM Technology Group, where she was responsible for managing the business and P&L for PowerPC processors and other IBM designed standard products. Scottie managed the PowerPC business line between 1997 and 2003, expanding PowerPC from IT and networking applications to gaming and consumer segments.
Scottie began her career with IBM in 1982 as a DRAM circuit designer. In her 26 years
with IBM, she has managed DRAM and PowerPC microprocessor circuit design, technology development, test, packaging and the IBM mask house and several staff assignments such as secretary of the Corporate Technology Council and Manufacturing operations.
Scottie received her BSEE from the University of Virginia, her MSEE from MIT and an MBA from University of Vermont.
Morris Goldstein
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Morris Goldstein is the Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE). Prior to joining Peterson in 1994, Dr. Goldstein spent twenty five years on the IMF staff, the last eight as Deputy Director of the IMF’s Research Department. In 1999, he was the Project Director for the Council on Foreign Relations’ blue-ribbon task force on the international financial architecture. He is a member of the Bellagio Group and of the Council on Foreign Relations. He consults widely with central banks, ministries of finance, and private financial institutions. He holds an A.B. degree in Economics from Rutgers University and a Ph.D. in Economics from New York University.
Dr. Goldstein has written extensively on financial crises in both industrial and emerging economies, on international banking standards, on reform of the international financial architecture, on currency mismatching in emerging economies, on early warning indicators of currency and banking crises, on international capital flows, on exchange rate policies, and on empirical models of international trade. His latest book for the Peterson Institute was Debating China’s Exchange Rate Policy, co-authored in April 2008 with his Peterson Institute colleague, Nicholas Lardy. He is currently at work on a new book dealing with financial regulation after the global credit crisis.
Laurel Graefe
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Laurel Graefe is a Senior Economic Research Analyst in the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Ms. Graefe’s responsibilities include analyzing economic developments in the national economy and their possible implications for U.S. monetary policy. She has given numerous professional presentations and published articles on energy issues and international economic conditions. Ms.Graefe is the lead analyst for energy and commodity market developments and is also responsible for supporting general assessment of global macroeconomic conditions for FRB Atlanta’s president and directors.
Ms. Graefe is originally from Floyd County, Virginia, and holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Agnes Scott College.
Carl Hayden
Chair, Board of Trustees, State University of New York
Carl T. Hayden was appointed Chairman of the SUNY Board of Trustees October 22, 2007.
Chancellor Emeritus Hayden was born April 1, 1941. He attended public schools in Marathon, Cortland County, New York, and was graduated from Marathon Central High School with honors in 1959 where he was president of the senior class. In 1963 he was graduated from Hamilton College where he was president of his fraternity. In 1970, he earned a Juris Doctor degree from the Cornell Law School where he was president of the Law Student Association.
Chancellor Emeritus Hayden served in the U.S. Navy from 1963-1967. He was a Gunnery Officer aboard USS Boston, a heavy cruiser, and a Legal Officer at the US Naval Station, Treasure Island, San Francisco, California.
Chancellor Emeritus Hayden and his wife, Cindy, reside in Elmira, where he practices law. They are parents of a daughter Ashley and two sons, Matthew and Timothy. Ashley is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Matthew graduated in 1996 from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, and the Maine School of Law. Timothy graduated from Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, and the Dickinson College of Law of Pennsylvania State University.
Chancellor Emeritus Hayden is a former president of the Elmira City School District Board of Education; He is a past chair or president of numerous community organizations. He was a founder and for six years president of the Mark Twain Arts Council, producer of the “Mark Twain-The Musical!,” a Broadway scale musical celebrating Mark Twain’s life and writings in Elmira. He is also a director of Panelogic, Inc., a private corporation.
Chancellor Emeritus Hayden was elected to the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York (USNY) in 1990. He was elected Chancellor by his colleagues on March 16, 1995, and re-elected to that office on March 9, 1998, and again on March 16, 2001. He stepped down on April 1, 2002, when, after twelve (12) years of service, his second term as Regent expired. He was thereupon voted Chancellor Emeritus by his colleagues.
Chancellor Emeritus Hayden was awarded honorary degrees by his alma mater, Hamilton College (1996), Elmira College (1999), the City University of New York (2002), and Excelsior College (2003). He is an honorary member of the Seneca Nation of the Iroquois.
Kevin Hassett
American Enterprise Institute
Kevin Hassett directs economic policy studies at AEI. His research interests include tax policy, the U.S. economy, the stock market, and investments. He is also a weekly columnist for Bloomberg. Before joining AEI, Hassett was a senior economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and an associate professor of economics and finance at the Graduate School of Business of Columbia University. He was an economic adviser to the George W. Bush campaign in the 2004 presidential election and the chief economic adviser to Senator McCain during the 2000 presidential primaries. He currently serves as a senior economic adviser to the McCain 2008 presidential campaign. He has also served as a policy consultant to the Treasury Department during the former Bush and Clinton administrations.
LaVaughn M. Henry
PMI Group, Inc
Dr. LaVaughn M. Henry is the Director of U.S. Economic Analysis for The PMI Group, Inc., in the Economics & Corporate Strategy Department. PMI is a leader in the private mortgage insurance industry.
Dr. Henry is responsible for developing PMI’s econometric modeling efforts and projections of home prices (at the national, state, and metropolitan levels) and PMI’s U.S. Market Risk Index. In addition, he is in charge of producing regular analyses of the U.S. economy and housing and mortgage markets. He is an accomplished public speaker and regularly presents to various industry, government, and other professional organizations. Dr. Henry helped to develop and co-authors the company’s two regular economic publications: Economic and Real Estate Trends (ERET) and The Housing & Mortgage Market Review (HaMMR), and has led in the development of many of the company’s econometric models and various other predictive tools used in the assessment of risk in the housing and mortgage markets.
Prior to working at PMI, Dr. Henry was the Director of Midwest Regional Communications at Fannie Mae, in its Housing and Community Development Group. He has also held senior economic positions in the Budget Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (formerly the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight), the FDIC’s Resolution Trust Corporation, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Ford Motor Company.
Dr. Henry received both his Doctorate and Masters degrees from Harvard University in Economics, specializing in the areas of Finance and Industrial Organization.
Nayantara Hensel
U.S. Naval Postgraduate School
Dr. Hensel recently served as the Secretary of the Navy’s Pentagon Scholar-in-Residence. She is also an Assistant Professor of Economics and Finance at the Graduate School of Business and Public Policy at the US Naval Postgraduate School, where she teaches the MBA Core Finance course and the MBA Advanced Finance course. Dr. Hensel received her B.A. in Economics, magna cum laude, from Harvard University, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She received her M. A. and Ph.D. in Business Economics (Applied Economics) from Harvard University. Prior to joining the faculty at the US Naval Postgraduate School, Dr. Hensel taught at Harvard University and the Stern School of Business at NYU, was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the NBER, served as a Senior Manager at Ernst & Young and the chief economist for its Litigation Advisory Services group, served as managing economist in the New York City office of LECG, and served as an economist for NERA (part of Marsh and McLennan).
Dr. Hensel’s recent research has examined the efficiency of IPO auctions, economies of scale and density in the European and Japanese banking sectors, the impact of consolidation in the defense industrial base, policy concerns in the recent tanker competition between Boeing and Northrop Grumman / EADS, and the factors impacting personal discount rates. Her most recent publications have been in Business Economics, the International Journal of Managerial Finance, the Review of Financial Economics, the European Financial Management Journal and the Journal of Financial Transformation, and Harvard Business School Working Knowledge. She is the Chair of the Financial Roundtable for the National Association of Business Economists (NABE) and is one of 34 elected members to the National Business Economics Issues Council (NBEIC). Dr. Hensel has given a number of seminars at institutions, including the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, London Business School, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, RAND, and Harvard University. She has been interviewed on the housing market and the current financial crisis on CNBC, Bloomberg Radio, and CNNMoney.
Spence Hilton
Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Spence Hilton is a senior vice president in the Markets Group at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He is a Senior Policy Advisor focusing on monetary policy operations and market analysis. Mr. Hilton joined the Bank in 1981 as an economist in the Research and Statistics Group, and during his time at the New York Fed he has worked on a variety of monetary policy and economic issues. Mr. Hilton holds a Ph.D degree in economics from the University of Wisconsin.
Douglas Holtz-Eakin
DHE Consulting, LLC
Douglas Holtz-Eakin is President of DHE Consulting, LLC. He served most recently as Director of Domestic and Economic Policy for the John McCain presidential campaign. He has also recently been Senior Fellow at the Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics, and the Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies and the Paul A. Volcker Chair in International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. Prior to that, Dr. Holtz-Eakin served as the sixth Director of the Congressional Budget Office, where he was appointed for a four-year term beginning February 4, 2003. Dr. Holtz-Eakin previously served for eighteen months as Chief Economist for the President's Council of Economic Advisers. Prior to that, Dr. Holtz-Eakin served as a Trustee Professor of Economics at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University. At the Maxwell School, he served as Chairman of the Department of Economics and Associate Director of the Center for Policy Research.
Peter Hooper
Deutsche Bank
Peter Hooper oversees a team of economists that analyze and forecast developments in the US economy and financial markets. Dr. Hooper joined Deutsche Bank Securities in the fall of 1999 as Chief US Economist, and was appointed Chief Economist in 2006. Dr. Hooper frequently comments on US economic and financial developments in the news media. Prior to joining the firm, Dr. Hooper enjoyed a distinguished 26-year career at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C. He held numerous positions at the Fed, including as an economist on the FOMC and as Deputy Director of the Division of International Finance. In doing so, he developed an informed view of the Fed's policy making process.
Dr. Hooper earned a BA in Economics (cum laude) from Princeton University and an MA and Ph.D. in Economics from University of Michigan. He has published numerous books, journal articles, and reviews on economics and policy analysis.
Ellen Hughes-Cromwick
Ford Motor Company
Ellen Hughes-Cromwick is a director and chief economist at Ford Motor Company. She joined Ford in 1996, and now directs the corporate economics group with major responsibility for the company’s global economic and automotive industry forecasts. Prior to joining Ford, she was a senior economist at Mellon Bank from 1990 to 1996, and assistant professor of economics at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, during the late 1980s. She served for two years as a staff economist on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers during the Reagan Administration. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame, a master’s degree in international development, and a PhD in economics at Clark University in Massachusetts. She was recently appointed to the Congressional Budget Office Panel of Economic Advisers.
She is the immediate past president of the National Association for Business Economics. For four consecutive years, Ellen has served as co-chair of NABE’s Annual March Policy Conference held in Washington, DC.
Paul Hughes-Cromwick
Altarum Institute
Paul Hughes-Cromwick is a health economist with over 20 years of experience serving state, federal government, and private-sector clients. He is a senior analyst at Altarum Institute, a nonprofit health systems research institute. Until its sale in 2007, he was Chairman of the Board of Care Choices, HMO, Farmington Hills,MI. He is working to develop metrics to gauge the progress of the current US health systemagainst attributes of a transformed future system. He has a B.S. in mathematics from the University of Notre Dame, and an M.A. in Applied Economics from Clark University.
Kathryn Kobe
MRT Chair
Jeffrey Lacker
Federal reserve Bank of Richmond
Dr. Lacker took office August 1, 2004, as the seventh chief executive of the Fifth District Federal Reserve Bank, at Richmond. He is currently serving a full term that began March 1, 2006. In 2009, he serves as a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee.
Dr. Lacker was born September 27, 1955, in Lexington, Kentucky. He received his bachelor’s degree in economics from Franklin and Marshall College in 1977. Following graduation, Dr. Lacker joined Wharton Econometrics in Philadelphia. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin in 1984. Dr. Lacker was an assistant professor of economics at the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University from 1984 to 1989. He joined the Bank in 1989 as an economist in the banking area of the Research Department. He was named research officer in 1994, vice president in 1996, and senior vice president and director of the Research Department in May 1999.
Dr. Lacker is the author of numerous articles in professional journals on monetary, financial, and payment economics, and has presented his work at several universities and central banks. He taught at The College of William and Mary in 1992 and 1993, and in 1997 he was a visiting scholar at the Swiss National Bank.
Dr. Lacker is a member of the Maggie L. Walker Governor's School Advisory Council, and he serves as director for the board of the Richmond Jewish Foundation. He is also a member of the Junior Achievement of Central Virginia Advisory Board and is director of the World Affairs Council of Greater Richmond.
Billy Leung
Regional Economic Models, Inc.
Billy Leung holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and received his M.A. in Regional Economics and Social Development at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. His master thesis was on the research and development of incorporating transportation and land use with Input/Output economic modeling.
Mr. Leung has spent the last three years working on development of the REMI model and consulting on economic analysis. He has performed such economic impact studies as site selection for a pharmaceutical research and development facility. He advised the New Mexico State government on the economic impacts of legislative bills in New Mexico’s 2003 special legislative session and the 2004 legislative session.
As an associate economist and consultant at REMI, Mr. Leung has developed economic research and analytical skills in regional economies and public policy issues including emissions, taxation, transportation, energy, economic development, and counterfactual scenarios. He researched and developed the methodology to analyze the economic impact of Connecticut’s Bradley International Airport for the Connecticut Economic Development Community Department. He analyzed the economic impact of a new Bio-Diesel industry in New York State for the U.S. EPA and researched the economic impact of widening New Mexico’s US 54 for the New Mexico Department of Transportation.
Jeffrey Liebman
Office of Management and Budget
Liebman is currently Executive Associate Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President, The White House. Formerly, he was the Malcolm Wiener Professor of Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where he teaches courses in public sector economics and American economic policy. In his research, he studies tax and budget policy, social insurance, poverty, and income inequality. Recent research has examined the impacts of government programs such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, Social Security, and housing vouchers. He is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) where he is the Associate Director of the NBER Retirement Research Center. In the Clinton Administration, Liebman served as Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy in the White House National Economic Council from 1998-1999. Liebman received his BA from Yale University and his PhD in economics from Harvard.
Lawrence Lindsey
The Lindsey Group
Larry Lindsey is President and Chief Executive Officer of The Lindsey Group. He has held leading positions in government, academia, and business. Prior to forming The Lindsey Group, he held the position of Assistant to the President and Director of the National Economic Council at the White House and was the chief economic adviser to candidate George W. Bush during the 2000 Presidential campaign.
Dr. Lindsey also served as a Governor of the Federal Reserve System from 1991 to 1997, as Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Economic Policy during the first Bush Administration, and as Senior Staff Economist for Tax Policy at the Council of Economic Advisers during President Reagan's first term. Dr. Lindsey served five years on the Economics faculty of Harvard University and held the Arthur F. Burns Chair for Economic Research at the American Enterprise Institute. From 1997 until 2001 he was Managing Director of Economic Strategies, a global consulting firm.
Dr. Lindsey earned his A.B. Magna Cum Laude from Bowdoin College and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. He was awarded the Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award by the National Tax Association and named the Citicorp Wriston Fellow for Economic Research at the Manhattan Institute. He is the author of numerous articles and three books: The Growth Experiment, Economic Puppet Masters and What a President Should Know...but Most Learn Too Late.
Domenico Lombardi
President of Oxonia
Domenico Lombardi is President of OXONIA, The Oxford Institute for Economic Policy. Dr. Lombardi is an Associate Faculty Member at Nuffield College, a Research Member at Exeter College, a Senior Research Associate with the Global Economic Governance Programme as well as the Department of International Development at Queen Elisabeth House (Oxford University). He is a member of leading policy fora including the Brookings Institution, the Bretton Woods Committee's International Council and Aspen Institute Italia. Dr. Lombardi is a Managing Editor of World Economics and sits on the editorial boards of various journals. He has previously advised the Executive Boards of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Dr. Lombardi's academic research addresses a number of policy-related questions in macroeconomics and international economics. His recent work focuses on the reform of the international financial and monetary system, and the creation of a new aid architecture. His edited volume Finance, Development, and the IMF is forthcoming from Oxford University Press. Dr. Lombardi has an undergraduate degree in Financial Economics from Bocconi University, Milan, and he did his postgraduate studies at Harvard University, The London School of Economics and Oxford University (Nuffield College), from which he holds a Ph.D. in Economics.
Kenneth A. Minihan
Former Director, National Security Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, and Managing Director, Paladin Capital Group
Lt. General Minihan is a Managing Director of Paladin and is focused on the development and implementation of new investment opportunities for Paladin's Homeland Security Fund. Prior to joining Paladin, Lt. General Minihan was the 14th Director of the National Security Agency (NSA)/Central Security Service. While at the National Security Agency, he was instrumental in the definition and implementation of the National Information Assurance Program. During his military service, Lt. General Minihan developed extensive experience in making new technologies operational and implementing leading edge services and products in a competitive environment where lives were often at risk. During the last twenty years of the Cold War and the transition to the Information Age, he was instrumental in the definition and selection of technology solutions to solve many difficult national security information needs. Throughout that time, Lt. General Minihan helped set the performance standards for information enterprise operations. Lt. General Minihan was the most recent Chairman and President of the Security Affairs Support Association, which focuses on shared government and industry national intelligence and technology challenges. He also is a member of the Air Force Association, the National Military Intelligence Association and other national organizations. He has substantial experience in capital raising, enterprise operations, business development and business readiness assurance. He devotes considerable attention to and consults on national security affairs. Lt. General Minihan has a B.A. Degree from Florida State University, a M.A. Degree from the Naval Postgraduate School, and has completed executive development programs at the University of Illinois and Harvard University. Among his awards and decorations are the National Security Medal, the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Bronze Star, the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, and the Legion of Merit.
Lt. General Minihan represents Paladin on the boards of directors of Arxan Technologies, ClearCube Technology, GlassHouse Technologies and Nexidia.
Nigel Nagarajan
European Commission
Nigel Nagarajan is Economic and Financial Counselor and Head of Economic and Financial Affairs at the Delegation of the European Commission to the United States in Washington, DC. He is responsible for analyzing and reporting on macroeconomic developments in the US and European economies, and representing the European Commission on economic matters in the US. Before coming to Washington, he worked for the European Commission's economic service in Brussels, specializing in Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), exchange rate analysis and international economic issues. He has written on a number of economic issues, including the causes of slow growth in Italy and an assessment of EMU after its first five years, which he also co-edited. He holds a Master of Arts degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford, and a Master of Science degree in Economics from Birkbeck College, University of London.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
World Bank and former Finance Minister of Nigeria
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is currently a Managing Director of the World Bank.
From September 2006 to November 2007, she was Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Brookings Institution. From June to August 2006, she was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria, overseeing Nigeria’s External Relations and from July 2003 to June 2006 she served as Minister of Finance and Economy of Nigeria and Head of Nigeria's much acclaimed Presidential Economic team. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala is a member or chair of numerous boards and advisory groups, including ONE Campaign, the World Resources Institute, the Nelson Mandela Institution, Friends of the Global Fund Africa, and the African Institutes of Science and Technology as well as the Center for Global Development (CGD). She has served as the board of the Clinton Global Initiative and as adviser to several international investment groups working in emerging markets and lectured on Africa and development all over the world. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala was the founder of the first ever indigenous opinion research organization in Nigeria (NOI-Gallup Polls) in partnership with the Gallup organization, which strives to strengthen democracy and accountability in Nigeria. She was co-founder of the Makeda Fund, a US$50 million private equity fund designed to invest in women-owned and women-influenced small and medium enterprises in Africa. She founded the Center for the Study of Economies of Africa (C-SEA), a development research think-tank based in Abuja, Nigeria. She was recently named a member of the Danish-Government led commission on Africa and a member of the World Economic Forum Global Leadership Council on Transparency and Corruption. She is also a member of the renowned Commission on World Growth led by Nobel Prize winner, Professor Michael Spence.
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala was educated at Harvard and has a PhD in Regional Economics and Development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is fluent in French, Ibo and English with working knowledge of Yoruba. She has received numerous awards, including Honorary Doctorate of Letters from University of Dublin, Trinity College, Ireland, 2007, Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Colby College, 2007 and Brown University, USA, 2006, Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Northern Caribbean University, Mandeville, Jamaica, 2005, Time Magazine’s European Hero of the Year Award, 2004, for her work on economic reform in Nigeria, Euromoney Magazine Global Finance Minister of the year, 2005, Financial Times/The Banker African Finance Minister of the year 2005, This Day (one of Nigeria’s premier newspaper) Minister of the Year award 2004 and 2005. In 2006, she was named by Forbes Magazine as one of 100 most powerful women in the world. She has just been profiled in the Conde Nast International Business Intelligence Magazine called Portfolio as one of 73 “Brilliant” business influencers in the world of business and public service.
Carmen Reinhart
University of Maryland
Carmen M. Reinhart is Professor of Economics at the School of Public Policy and the Department of Economics at the University of Maryland. She is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research. She has served on the editorial boards of the American Economic Review and the Journal of International Economics, among others. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Reinhart held positions as Chief Economist and Vice President at the investment bank Bear Stearns and more recently, as Deputy Director at the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund. She has written and published on a variety of topics in macroeconomics and international finance and trade including: international capital flows, capital controls, inflation and commodity prices, banking and sovereign debt crises, currency crashes, and contagion. Her work has been published in leading scholarly journals, including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and the Journal of Economic Perspectives. Her work is frequently featured in the financial press around the world, including The Economist, The Financial Times, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. She is currently working (with Kenneth S. Rogoff) on a book on the history of financial crises entitled This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly.
Robert Reischauer
Urban Institute
Robert D. Reischauer, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and nationally known expert on the federal budget, Medicare, and Social Security, began his tenure as the second president of the Urban Institute in February 2000.
He had been a senior fellow of economic studies at the Brookings Institution since 1995. From 1989 to 1995, he was the director of the nonpartisan CBO. Mr. Reischauer served as the Urban Institute's senior vice president from 1981 to 1986. He was the CBO's assistant director for human resources and its deputy director between 1977 and 1981.
Mr. Reischauer serves on the boards of several educational and nonprofit organizations. He is Vice Chair of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.
He frequently contributes to the opinion pages of the nation's major newspapers, comments on public policy developments on radio and television, and testifies before congressional committees.
Mr. Reischauer holds an A.B. in political science from Harvard University and an M.I.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University.
Christina Romer
Chair, President’s Council of Economic Advisers
Christina Romer is Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.
Romer was the Class of 1957-Garff B. Wilson Professor of Economics at the University of California Berkeley. Before teaching at Berkeley, she taught economics and public affairs at Princeton University from 1985-1988.
Until her nomination, she was co-director of the Program in Monetary Economics at the National Bureau of Economic Research and served as Vice President of the American Economic Association, where she was also a member of the executive committee. She is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Romer is known for her research on the causes and recovery of the Great Depression, and on the role that fiscal and monetary policy played in the country’s economic recovery. Her most recent work, authored with her husband David Romer, also an economics professor, shows the impact of tax policy on government and economic growth.
Her working papers include "A Narrative Analysis of Postwar Tax Changes," "Do Tax Cuts Starve the Beast? The Effect of Tax Changes on Government Spending," and "The Macroeconomic Effects of Tax Changes: Estimates Based on a New Measure of Fiscal Shocks."
Romer is the recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, and the Distinguished Teaching Award at Berkeley.
Romer was born on December 25, 1958, in Alton, Ill., and received her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985. She is married and has three children.
Diane Rowland
Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
Diane Rowland is the Executive Vice President of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Executive Director of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. She is also an adjunct Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Bloomberg School of Public Health of the Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Rowland has directed the Kaiser Commission since 1991 and overseen the Foundation’s health policy work since 1993. She is a noted authority on health policy, Medicare and Medicaid, and health care for poor and disadvantaged populations and frequently testifies as an expert witness before the United States Congress on health policy issues. Her federal health policy experience includes service on the staff of the Subcommittee on Health and the Environment of the Committee on Energy and Commerce in the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress, as well as senior health policy positions in the Department of Health and Human Services in the Office of the Secretary and the Health Care Financing Administration (now Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services). Dr. Rowland is a nationally recognized expert with a distinguished career in public policy focusing on health insurance coverage, access to care, and health care financing for low-income, elderly, and disabled populations. She has published widely on these subjects and is the editor of several books, including Financing Home Care and The Medicaid Financing Crisis: Balancing Responsibilities, Policies, and Dollars, and is a co-author of Medicare Policy: New Directions for Health and Long-Term Care of the Elderly and Health Care Cost Containment: Lessons from the Past and a Policy Proposal for the Future.
Dr Rowland is a member of the Institute of Medicine, a founding member of the National Academy for Social Insurance, Past President and Fellow of the Association for Health Services Research (now AcademyHealth), a Senior Fellow of the Brookdale Foundation and a member of the Board of Grantmakers in Health. She is also co-chair of the Public Policy Advisory Group for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, and a member of the Campaign’s Board. Dr Rowland has served as a national expert on the Governor’s Health Reform Task Force in Louisiana, the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality, and the Commonwealth Commission on the Future of Health Insurance and Commission on Women’s Health.
Dr. Rowland holds a Bachelor's degree from Wellesley College, a Masters in Public Administration from the University of California at Los Angeles and a Doctor of Science in health policy and management from the Johns Hopkins University.
Brian Sack
Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC
Brian Sack is Senior Economist at Macroeconomic Advisers. He collaborates with Dr. Meyer on all aspects of Monetary Policy Insights. Dr. Sack will also be developing a number of additional products for MPI clients that focus on the implications of monetary policy developments for the fixed income markets as well as the impact of economic developments on monetary policy.
Dr. Sack joined the staff of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve in 1997 and became the head of the Monetary and Financial Market Analysis section in 2003. In that capacity, he directed the Federal Reserve Boards analysis of various segments of U.S. fixed-income markets, including Treasuries, swaps, and interest rate futures. Those efforts focused on interpreting and predicting the influence of economic and monetary policy developments on the yield curve and other asset prices, as well as on extracting information from market prices that was relevant for policy decisions.
Dr. Sacks position at the Board placed him as a crucial contributor to the staffs support of the FOMC. He and his section worked extensively on the Greenbook and the Bluebook prepared by the staff, and on numerous other documents addressing relevant topics for FOMC decisions. Dr. Sack worked closely with FOMC members, including extensive research projects with Governor Kohn and Governor Bernanke.
Dr. Sack has published a number of research papers on issues related to monetary policy decisions and the fixed income markets. Specific topics have included estimating monetary policy rules, measuring the effects of FOMC communications, assessing the impact of monetary policy decisions on asset prices, and evaluating the behavior of Treasury inflation-indexed debt. His papers have appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Journal of Monetary Economics, the Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, the Journal of Fixed Income, and the Journal of Futures Markets. Dr. Sacks research has been cited numerous times in the financial press, including the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and BusinessWeek. Dr. Sack received a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1997.
Jeffrey Schott
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Jeffrey J. Schott joined the Peterson Institute for International Economics in 1983 and is a senior fellow working on international trade policy and economic sanctions. During his tenure at the Institute, Schott was also a visiting lecturer at Princeton University (1994) and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University (1986–88). He was a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1982–83) and an official of the US Treasury Department (1974–82) in international trade and energy policy. During the Tokyo Round of multilateral trade negotiations, he was a member of the US delegation that negotiated the GATT Subsidies Code. Since January 2003, he has been a member of the Trade and Environment Policy Advisory Committee of the US government. He is also a member of the Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy of the US Department of State.
Schott is the author, coauthor, or editor of several books on trade, including Economic Sanctions Reconsidered, 3rd edition (2007), Trade Relations Between Colombia and the United States (2006), NAFTA Revisited: Achievements and Challenges (2005), Free Trade Agreements: US Strategies and Priorities (2004), Prospects for Free Trade in the Americas (2001), Free Trade between Korea and the United States? (2001), NAFTA and the Environment: Seven Years Later (2000), The WTO After Seattle (2000), Restarting Fast Track (1998), The World Trading System: Challenges Ahead (December 1996), The Uruguay Round: An Assessment (1994), Western Hemisphere Economic Integration (1994), NAFTA: An Assessment (1993), North American Free Trade: Issues and Recommendations (1992), Economic Sanctions Reconsidered: History and Current Policy (second edition, 1990), Completing the Uruguay Round (1990), Free Trade Areas and U.S. Trade Policy (1989), and The Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement: The Global Impact (1988), as well as numerous articles on US trade policy and the GATT.
Schott holds a BA degree magna cum laude from Washington University, St. Louis (1971), and an MA degree with distinction in international relations from the School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University (1973).
Robert Scott
Economic Policy Institute
Dr. Scott joined the Economic Policy Institute as an international economist in 1996. Before that, he was an assistant professor with the College of Business and Management of the University of Maryland at College Park. His areas of research include international economics and trade agreements and their impacts on working people in the U.S. and other countries, the economic impacts of foreign investment, and the macroeconomic effects of trade and capital flows. His research has been published in The Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, The International Review of Applied Economics, and The Stanford Law and Policy Review, and he has written editorial pieces for The Los Angeles Times, Newsday, USA Today, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Times, and other newspapers.
He has a Ph.D. Economics, University of California at Berkeley, 1989 and a B.S. Engineering, Washington University (St. Louis), 1975.
Ken Simonson
Associated General Contractors of America
Ken Simonson joined AGC of America on September 10, 2001. Ever since Day Two he has been provided insight into what was happening to the economy and what it implied for construction and related industries.
Ken’s weekly one-page email newsletter for AGC, The Data DIGest, provides 6000 readers with the latest economic news relevant to construction. He also sends out a variety of state-specific and tax news. He is interviewed and quoted almost daily by local and national media, including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Business Week, and CNBC. In addition, he has written eight booklets explaining tax provisions in plain English, and he contributes frequently to a variety of business and professional publications and conferences, including columns for Fleet Owner, a trucking magazine, and The Electrical Distributor.
Ken has 30 years of experience analyzing, advocating and communicating about economic and tax issues. Before joining AGC, he was senior economic advisor in the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy and 13 years. Earlier, he was vice president and chief economist for the American Trucking Associations. He also worked with the President’s Commission on Industrial Competitiveness, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, and an economic consulting firm.
Ken is a board member of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) and author of “Digging into Construction Data,” published in NABE’s journal, Business Economics. Since 1982, he has co-chaired the Tax Economists Forum, a professional meeting group he co-founded for leading researchers and policy makers among tax economists. He is vice president of Community Tax Aid, an organization that prepares returns for free for low-income taxpayers. He was one of the principal subjects of The Lobbyists, a bestseller by Jeffrey Birnbaum, now a writer for the Washington Post.
Ken has a BA in economics from the University of Chicago, an MA in economics from Northwestern University, and he has taken advanced graduate economics courses at the Universite de Paris, Johns Hopkins University and Georgetown University.
William Strauss
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
William A. Strauss is a senior economist and economic advisor in the economic research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, which he joined in 1982. His chief responsibilities include analyzing the current performance of both the Midwest economy and the manufacturing sector for use in monetary policy. He also produces the monthly Chicago Fed Midwest Manufacturing Index and organizes the Bank's annual Economic Outlook Symposium and annual Auto Outlook Symposium. He also conducts several economic workshops and industrial roundtables throughout the year.
Strauss has taught as an adjunct faculty member at both Loyola University Chicago and Webster University, Chicago. He currently teaches at the University of Chicago, Graham School of General Studies and at DePaul University, Kellstadt Graduate School of Business.
His research paper topics include analysis of the manufacturing sector, the auto sector, the Midwest regional economy, the trade-weighted dollar, business cycles and Federal Reserve payments operations.
Strauss has been interviewed on numerous television and radio shows and quoted in the major business magazines and newspapers. He is a past president of the Chicago Association of Business Economists and currently serves as a board member for the National Association for Business Economics and as a member of the Advisory Council for the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Center for Economic Education.
Strauss earned a B.A. in economics and geography from the State University of New York at Buffalo and an M.A. in economics from Northwestern University.
Charles Steindel
Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Charles Steindel is a Senior Vice President in the Macroeconomic and Monetary Studies Function. He oversees the Group's analysis and forecasts of U.S. economic conditions. His research interests include consumer spending and saving and productivity growth. He has served as president of the Money Marketeers of New York University and the Forecasters Club of New York. He received his bachelor's degree from Emory University and his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
His fields of interest include: Chain weighting measuring gdp, Consumer behavior, Cycle capital spending balance sheet, Growth and Productivity, Inflation estimates productivity growth, Investment, Manufacturing, Private saving, Productivity growth, Saving, Saving economic growth, Stock market consumption, Tax rebate.
Diane Swonk
Mesirow Financial
Diane Swonk is a senior managing director and chief economist for Mesirow Financial, a diversified financial services firm based in Chicago. As one of the most sought-after economists in the world, she is frequently called upon by policymakers and business leaders from Washington to Tokyo. Diane joined Mesirow Financial in 2004 after 19 years with Bank One Corporation and its predecessors. She started her career with the First Chicago Corporation in 1985 and quickly moved up the ranks, proving herself as a regional economist with her forecast for a renaissance in the Industrial Midwest just one year later. During her tenure with First Chicago, Diane published several nationally acclaimed studies as well as her first book, The Passionate Economist: Finding the Power and Humanity Behind the Numbers.
Diane sits on several advisory committees to the Federal Reserve Board, its regional banks and the Council of Economic Advisers for the White House. Most recently, she was re-appointed to serve on the Congressional Budget Office's panel of economic advisers. As one of the most quoted economists in the financial press, Diane is seen regularly on national and international television, and her commentary can be read in top financial news publications throughout the world. In addition, she serves as a clinical professor for DePaul University's highly-rated evening MBA program.
Diane currently serves on the Chicago Conservation Center’s Advisory Board, is on the sitting committee for the University of Chicago—Graduate School of Business, and is an advisor to the Economic Department for the University of Michigan. She is also involved extensively with the Economic and Executives' Clubs of Chicago. Diane has also served on the Joffrey Ballet Board and chaired the City of Chicago's Climate Change Finance Committee.
Diane is past president of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE), a title that Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and several other Federal Reserve presidents have also shared. Diane was the youngest to serve as president in the association's history and continues to dedicate much of her time to improving the quality and timeliness of economic data, a critical aspect of policymaking.
Diane has earned many awards throughout her career. She was designated "Business Leader of the Year" by the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago, named a "Fellow" of NABE for her outstanding contributions to the field of business economics and listed as one of the "top forecasters in the country" by the Wall Street Journal. In addition, Today's Chicago Woman named her "Top Woman in Finance in Chicago" and the Chicago Sun-Times crowned her "one of the most influential women in business in Chicago."
Diane earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in economics with top honors from the University of Michigan as well as a master's degree in finance and strategic planning with top honors from the University of Chicago.
Jim Thomas
National Visual Analytics Center
Jim Thomas is director of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Visualization and Analytics Center and a Laboratory Fellow at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. With a career spanning 30 years of contributions in information technology, Thomas specializes in the research, design and implementation of innovative information and scientific visualization, multimedia and human computer interaction technology. At PNNL, he has established investment directions for information technology, led major technology initiatives, mentored staff and spearheaded several major research programs.
Thomas is internationally recognized for his contributions to the field of information visualization. He has received several international science awards and been honored for transferring research technology to industry. Thomas sits on several national and international science and technology boards for universities, states and industry. He is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Thomas also was chair of ACM SIGGRAPH, former editor-in-chief for IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, and has chaired graphics and visualization conferences for both ACM and IEEE. He is on three editorial boards for journals and has presented more than 20 keynote talks at major conferences.
Chris Varvares
Macroeconomic Advisers
Chris Varvares is President of Macroeconomic Advisers, a company he co-founded with Joel Prakken and Laurence Meyer as Laurence H. Meyer & Associates in 1982. The firm became Macroeconomic Advisers in June of 1996 when Dr. Meyer left the firm to join the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Dr. Meyer returned to the firm in the summer of 2002 following his term at the Fed.
Mr. Varvares has over 25 years of experience in macroeconomic forecasting and policy analysis, both as a principal of Macroeconomic Advisers (1982 to present) and as a member of the staff of the President's Council of Economic Advisers (1981-1982). While at the Council, he served as a member of the U.S. delegation to the OECD in April 1982. Mr. Varvares is the Vice President (9/2007-9/2008) and a former director of the National Association for Business Economics, served as President of the St. Louis chapter, and is a member of the American Economic Association. He serves as a member of Time Magazine’s Board of Economists, is a member of the New York State Economic and Revenue Advisory Board, and has been a panelist for the World Economic Forum.
He and the other principals of Macroeconomic Advisers serve as consultants to key agencies of the U.S., Canadian, Japanese, and U.K. governments, major trade associations, and private corporations and are widely quoted in the business and financial media. The firm is recognized as among the most accurate forecasters of the U.S. economy. A 2006 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta found that Macroeconomic Advisers had the best forecasting track record of any forecaster in the Blue Chip Economic Indicators panel over the 19 years included in the study. The firm also won the 2006 Annual Forecasting Award of the National Association of Business Economics and twice has won the Annual Forecasting Award for the highest forecast accuracy among participants in the Blue Chip Economic Indicators, and would have been the only three-time winner of the award if not for a rule that precluded winning in two consecutive years. Macroeconomic Advisers is also a prominent participant in the debates over the macroeconomic effects of federal budget and tax policy, and monetary policy.
Mr. Varvares holds a B.A. in Economics from The George Washington University and received his graduate training in economics from Washington University in St. Louis.
Alan Viard
American Enterprise Institute
Prior to joining AEI, Alan Viard was a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and an assistant professor of economics at Ohio State University. He has also worked for the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Analysis, the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, and the Joint Committee on Taxation of the U.S. Congress. Viard is also a frequent contributor to AEI's Tax Policy Outlook.
He has a Ph.D., M.A., economics, Harvard University and a B.A., economics, Yale University.
Elizabeth Webbink
Inkweb.org
Liz Webbink, founder of inkweb, has had over 20 years of experience in corporate planning, finance, and economics and brings that experience to bear on the design of analytical systems to support decisionmaking.
She spent more than a decade with Exxon in various internal consulting positions in the policy, planning, economics, and treasury areas. She revamped the corporate cash forecasting system, developed an OPEC Balance of Payments forecasting model as well as visualization tools for U.S. macroeconomic forecasts, and received awards for developing a seminar for employees on discounted cash flow analysis and for improving productivity through financial process reengineering. She has provided professional seminars and implemented systems for project analysis, capital budget reporting, scorecards and performance metrics.
Liz held university faculty appointments at Rice, Montclair State and, Rutgers where she taught courses on Corporate Finance, Capital Budgeting, and the Economics of Multinational Corporations. As Academic Dean for the Rutgers undergraduate Business School, she instituted a system to ameliorate overcrowding of classes and assure places to qualified students. As a Vice President of the National Council on Economic Education Liz designed a Capital Formation Institute for high school teachers which received funding from the Goldman Sachs foundation, worked with State Farm to develop a major new national initiative to improve the economic and financial literacy of the nation’s youth, and managed a major project producing teaching guides and providing training for Well's Fargo's Hands on Banking® program
A past director of the National Association for Business Economics, Liz served as President of the Houston and Philadelphia Chapters. She earned a PhD in international economics and finance at NYU's Stern School of Business where she was elected to Beta Gamma Sigma and a BS in international trade from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.