Speakers

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Brainard

Evans

Varian

Yellen

Confirmed speakers include:

Stefania Albanesi, Professor of Economics, University of Pittsburgh
Stefania Albanesi is a Professor of Economics at the University of Pittsburgh, a fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and a Research Associate at NBER. Albanesi's research interests are in macroeconomics, public economics, and labor economics. Her current research concentrates on understanding the determinants of household borrowing and default behavior, and on quantifying the impact of changing trends in female participation on aggregate business cycles. Prior to joining the University of Pittsburgh, she was a research economist at the New York Fed, an Associate Professor of Economics at Columbia University and an Assistant Professor of Economics at Duke University. Albanesi received her B.A. in Economics from Universita' Bocconi in 1996 and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from Northwestern University.

David E. Altig, Executive Vice President and Director of Research, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Dr. David E. Altig is executive vice president and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. In addition to advising the Bank president on monetary policy and related matters, Dr. Altig oversees the Bank's Research Division, which includes the Bank's team of economists, the Regional Economic Information Network, and the Bank's Community and Economic Development function. In this role, Dr. Altig leads the Atlanta Fed's research and engagement portfolio on benefits cliffs. He also serves as a member of the Bank's Management and Discount Committees and is the executive cosponsor of the Bank's Working Families Employee Resource Network. Dr. Altig is an adjunct professor of economics in the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. He is currently the vice president-elect of the National Association for Business Economics, for which he served as director from 2016 to 2019. He is also a member of the advisory council of the Global Interdependence Center and serves on the board of the Konstanz Seminar on Monetary Theory and Policy. He has past and pending published research in several prominent professional journals, including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Econometrics, the Journal of Monetary Economics, and the National Tax Journal. Prior to joining the Atlanta Fed, Dr. Altig served as vice president and associate director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. He joined the Cleveland Fed in 1991 as an economist before being promoted in 1997. Before joining the Cleveland Fed, Dr. Altig was a faculty member in the department of business economics and public policy at Indiana University. He has lectured at several other universities, including the Ohio State University, Case Western Reserve University, Duke University, the University of Iowa, and the University of Wisconsin, as well as in the Chinese Executive MBA program sponsored by the University of Minnesota and Lingnan College of Sun Yat-Sen University. Dr. Altig graduated from the University of Iowa with a bachelor's degree in business administration. He earned his master's and doctoral degrees in economics from Brown University. He and his wife, Pam, have four children, six grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter.

Stuart Andreason, Assistant Vice President and Director of the Center for Workforce and Economic Opportunity, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Stuart Andreason is an assistant vice president and the director of the Center for Workforce and Economic Opportunity at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. In his role he conducts research and works across the country to support Federal Reserve and partner organization efforts in workforce development, the labor market, and economic opportunities for low- and moderate-income workers. Andreason has been at the Federal Reserve since 2014 and previously served as a senior adviser on human capital and workforce development. In that role he has published articles on workforce development practice and policy and labor market trends, including deep analysis of opportunity occupations, or middle-skill jobs that pay high wages. He is the editor of Developing Career-Based Training and Models for Labor Market Intermediaries. Prior to joining the Atlanta Fed, Andreason was a research associate at the Penn Institute for Urban Research at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn IUR). There, he helped develop a set of indicators of livable and sustainable communities for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funded by the Ford Foundation. He was a fellow of the Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences at Penn and a Lincoln Institute of Land Policy C. Lowell Harriss fellow. Previously, he led two nonprofit organizations focused on economic revitalization in central Virginia and worked for the Pew Partnership for Civic Change. He is a reviewer for several academic and practice-based journals and publications. Andreason teaches economic development analysis at Georgia Institute of Technology. He has bachelor's and master's degrees in urban and environmental planning from the University of Virginia and a PhD in city and regional planning from the University of Pennsylvania.

Kate Bahn, Director of Labor Market Policy and Interim Chief Economist, Equitable Growth
Kate Bahn is the director of labor market policy and interim chief economist at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. Her areas of research include gender, race, and ethnicity in the labor market, care work, and monopsonistic labor markets. Previously, she was an economist at the Center for American Progress

Zoe Baird, CEO and President, Markle Foundation
Zoë Baird is CEO and President of the Markle Foundation joining as its President in 1998 after a diverse career as a prominent lawyer and business executive. At the start of her tenure, as the internet was just beginning to become mainstream, she and the Markle Board of Directors redirected Markle’s mission to focus on the potential of information technology to address some of the nation’s most pressing challenges in economic security, national security and health care. Today, Markle’s priority is advancing solutions toward a labor market that will enable workers to move into good, well-paying jobs in the digital economy. Most recently, Markle formed the Rework America Alliance, a nationwide collaboration to enable workers from low-and middle-wage jobs, particularly people of color who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, to move into better jobs. The Alliance has identified good jobs that are viable for people based on experience as well as degrees, are likely to be in demand, and can unlock economic advancement. Partners are civil rights organizations, major employers, labor unions, non-profits and government leaders.  Also under Baird’s leadership, Markle established a nonpartisan State Network in which 30 governors and the mayor of the District of Columbia engage to modernize the labor market at a scale and pace not possible through individual state actions. Previously, Ms. Baird led Markle’s collaborative efforts to reform our nation’s approach to intelligence and law enforcement after 9/11 to protect the country against terrorism while protecting traditional civil liberties. Markle’s recommendations have been embodied in law and moved a need-to-know framework to a trusted information sharing environment.  This work influenced the EU approach to terrorism as well. She originated and negotiated the G-8 Digital Opportunity Task Force in 2000 which was a public-private collaboration between the G-8 and developing countries to make the internet globally available. Ms. Baird established Markle’s Connecting for Health initiative which catalyzed improvements in the quality and cost-effectiveness of health care and framed implementation of the HiTech Act and the transformation of access to personal health information. 

Manuel Balmaseda, CBE, Chief Economist, CEMEX; NABE President, 2020-2021
Manuel Balmaseda is the Chief Economist at CEMEX, a leading global building materials corporation. Previously he served as Chief Economist for Spain and Europe at BBVA, Chief Economist for Capital Markets at BBV, professor of economics at CEMFI and visiting researcher at the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis. He has also taught at the IESE Business School in Madrid, the EOI (School of Industrial Organization) in Madrid and the Helsinki School of Economics. He collaborates with the IMF, the EU Commission, the OECD, the Secretaría General Sudamericana and other private organizations on topics related to the economics perspectives and policy action in the US, the Euro zone, Latin America and Spain, and particularly, issues related to the construction sector, real estate markets and fiscal and monetary developments. Mr. Balmaseda holds a Ph.D. and a Master’s degree in economics from Northwestern University and a B.A. in Economics, Government and Mathematics-Computer Science from Colby College. He is a member of several international organizations: the ECB Shadow Council, ICBE (International Conference of Business Economists), EMNET (Emerging Market Network), the Global Interdependence Council, NBEIC (National Business Economic Issues Council),  the Board of Directors of  NABE (National Association of Business Economics) in the US and Grupo de Expertos de Coyuntura in Spain, among other economic organizations. His current professional interests focus on international economic developments, construction and real estate market evolution, economic impact of fiscal consolidation, crisis resolution, and institutional and market reform. Mr. Balmaseda participates in conferences on these and other topics and has published numerous articles in academic journals and books and in the press.

Bryan Bezold, Senior North America Economist, Ford Motor Co.
Bryan Bezold is the Senior North America Economist at Ford Motor Company.  He is responsible for forecasts of auto industry volume, as well as GDP, inflation, foreign exchange, and interest rates in Ford’s markets in North America.  Bryan joined Ford in August of 2011, initially serving as the Senior Europe Economist, where he was responsible for forecasting economic and auto industry conditions during the European sovereign debt crisis.  Prior to joining Ford, Bryan worked as a Senior Economist at Ameren, an electric utility in St. Louis, Missouri.  Bryan has an M.A. in Economics from the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University (1997) and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology (1993).  He is a member of the American Economic Association and National Association for Business Economics, and is a past President of the St. Louis Gateway Chapter of the National Association for Business Economics.  

Olivier Blanchard, Robert Solow Professor of Economics, Emeritus, MIT
Olivier Blanchard is the C. Fred Bergsten Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and the Robert M. Solow Professor of Economics emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A citizen of France, Blanchard has spent most of his professional life in the United States.  After obtaining his PhD in economics from MIT in 1977, he taught at Harvard University and returned to MIT in 1982. He was chair of the economics department from 1998 to 2003. In 2008, he took a leave of absence to serve as economic counsellor and director of the research department at the International Monetary Fund where he stayed until 2015. He then joined the Peterson Institute. Blanchard has worked on a wide set of macroeconomic issues, including the role of monetary and fiscal policy, speculative bubbles, the labor market and determinants of unemployment, economic transition in former communist countries, and the nature of the Global Financial Crisis. In the process, he has worked with numerous countries and international organizations. Blanchard is the author of many books and articles, including two textbooks on macroeconomics, one at the graduate level with Stanley Fischer and the other at the undergraduate level. He is a past editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the NBER Macroeconomics Annual and founding editor of American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics. He is a fellow and former Council member of the Econometric Society, a past president of the American Economic Association, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Molly Boesel, Principal Economist, CoreLogic
Molly Boesel holds the position of principal, economist in the Office of the Chief Economist at CoreLogic. She is responsible for analyzing and forecasting housing and mortgage market trends. She has a depth of expertise in mortgage market analysis, model development and risk analysis in the housing finance industry. Boesel previously worked at both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. While at Fannie Mae she provided Fannie Mae’s official monthly forecast for the economy, housing market, and mortgage market stocks and flows, and provided analyses on trends in the mortgage market, including characteristics of borrowers, homeowners, and mortgage products. She earned her bachelor’s degree in economics from James Madison University and her master’s degree in consumer economics and housing from Cornell University.

Ethan A. Booker, Medical Director, MedStar Telehealth Innovation Center
Dr. Booker is the medical director of the MedStar Telehealth Innovation Center and MedStar eVisit. He received undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Michigan and completed residency training in Emergency Medicine at the University of Chicago. He joined the faculty at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in 2005. Dr. Booker has served as assistant medical director for MedStar Transport and director of Operations Improvement for the MedStar Washington Hospital Center Emergency Department. He is a core faculty member of the MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and MedStar Washington Hospital Center Emergency Medicine Residency program. Dr. Booker is a past president of the Washington, D.C., Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), sits on ACEP’s Reimbursement Committee, is an active member of ACEP’s Alternative Payment Model Task Force. He represented Emergency Medicine as ACEP’s advisor to the American Medical Association/Specialty Society Relative Value Scale Update Committee from 2011-2018.

Lael Brainard, Governor, Federal Reserve Board
Lael Brainard took office as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on June 16, 2014, to fill an unexpired term ending January 31, 2026. Prior to her appointment to the Board, Dr. Brainard served as Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury from 2010 to 2013 and counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury in 2009. During this time, she was the U.S. representative to the G-20 Finance Deputies and G-7 Deputies and was a member of the Financial Stability Board. She received the Alexander Hamilton Award for her service. From 2001 to 2008, Dr. Brainard was vice president and the founding director of the Global Economy and Development Program and held the Bernard L. Schwartz Chair at the Brookings Institution, where she built a new research program to address global economic challenges. Dr. Brainard served as the deputy national economic adviser and deputy assistant to President Clinton. She also served as President Clinton's personal representative to the G-7/G-8. From 1990 to 1996, Dr. Brainard was assistant and associate professor of applied economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management. She has published numerous articles on a variety of economic topics and is the editor or coeditor of several books. Previously, Dr. Brainard worked in management consulting at McKinsey & Company. She received a BA with university honors from Wesleyan University in 1983. She received an MS and a PhD in economics in 1989 from Harvard University, where she was awarded a National Science Foundation Fellowship. She is also the recipient of a White House Fellowship.

Elaine Buckberg, Chief Economist, General Motors
Elaine Buckberg is Chief Economist of General Motors. She is responsible for assessing the impact of worldwide economic developments on the corporation, and for providing advice on various competitive and economic policy issues.  She also heads long-term forecasting of auto segments and vehicles. Immediately prior to joining GM, she was a Principal at The Brattle Group, a global economic consultancy.  Previously, Elaine served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Coordination in the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Economic Policy. She also worked at NERA Economic Consulting, where she was a Senior Vice President as well as a member of the firm’s Board of Directors and the Chair of the Strategy Committee. Elaine began her career as an economist at the International Monetary Fund and worked in currency strategy and risk management at Morgan Stanley. Elaine holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.A. in Economics and English  from Yale University.

Carmelle Cadet, CEO, EMTech
Carmelle Cadet, Founder and CEO Emtech and is a passionate advocate of Blockchain and Digital Currency Technology for payment modernization and financial inclusion efforts. In her last role after a 10 year career at IBM, Carmelle led the Global Business Development efforts in IBM Blockchain for Payments. She is now the Founder and CEO of EMTECH, a fintech company helping Central Banks in Emerging Markets modernize their Financial Market Infrastructure with Blockchain, AI and Data Analytics. Her and the team are on a clear mission to build inclusive, safe and resilient financial infrastructures with digital currencies to unleash new markets and opportunities for everyone

Ronnie Chatterji, Chief Economist, U.S. Department of Commerce
Aaron “Ronnie” Chatterji, currently serves as the chief economist at the Department of Commerce and is principal economic advisor to the Secretary. He is on-leave from his position as the Mark Burgess and Lisa Benson-Burgess Distinguished Professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Chatterji has been published in top journals in strategic management, economics, finance and organizational studies. He received the 2017 Kauffman Prize Medal for Distinguished Research in Entrepreneurship, the Rising Star award from the Aspen Institute, and the Strategic Management Society Emerging Scholar Award. Chatterji has won numerous teaching awards and authored several articles for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. Chatterji was previously a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and worked as a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs.

Charlie Chesbrough, Economist, Cox Automotive
Charles is a seasoned quantitative analyst and researcher with over 25 years of experience utilizing data to identify industry trends and opportunities. Charles joined Cox Automotive recently and is focused on expanding the organization’s research and analysis initiatives, and on the economic and industry outlook for vehicle sales.  Charles comes to Cox after working as Senior Economist at OESA, the automotive supplier trade association, and IHS Automotive where he was Director of Industry Analysis and Senior Economist.  At IHS, Charles was responsible for developing and integrating statistical models and economic scenarios into IHS global automotive forecasts.  Charles has also worked for Ford Motor Company's marketing strategy group as well for a number of technology start-up companies.  He began his career as a floor trader at the Chicago Board of Trade.  Charles earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Michigan State University and a master’s degree in applied business economics from the University of Illinois at Chicago.  Charles has won many economic forecasting accuracy awards and is a board member and former President of the Detroit Association for Business Economics and a member of the National Association for Business Economics, the Federal Reserve Bank Automotive Roundtable, and the Society of Automotive Analysts.

Michael Chow, Research Director, National Venture Capital Association
Michael serves as Research Director for NVCA and Venture Forward. He equally splits his time between the two organizations and focuses on producing leading edge research that investigates the role and impact of venture capital on the economy, manages the production of the NVCA Yearbook and quarterly PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, and advises the NVCA policy team on key issues. Before joining the NVCA and Venture Forward teams, Michael was most recently Lead Data Analyst and Economist at the National Federation of Independent Business, the nation’s leading small business trade association, where he directed the organization’s cost-benefit analysis program and led research projects focused on finance, tax, health care, labor, and regulatory policy. He has previously worked for the Office of Economic Policy and Analysis at the Department of Labor and for the President’s Council of Economic Advisers in the White House. In recent years, Michael has Chaired or Co-Chaired the Small Business Roundtable for the National Association for Business Economics (NABE), the nation’s premier professional association for business economists. Michael has also served as past president and chair for the National Economists Club (NEC), a non-profit, nonpartisan professional organization founded in 1968 comprised of leading economists based in Washington, D.C. He is the recipient of the NABE Abramson Scroll and the NABE Contributed Paper Award, both awarded by NABE for outstanding papers in the field of business economics. In his spare time, Michael contributes his energy to a variety of volunteer activities which currently include serving on the Board of Trustees of the Treatment and Learning Centers, a private, non-profit organization dedicated to annually serving 2,000 individuals with special needs in the DC/MD/VA area, the Board of Advisors of the Asian American Alumni Association of Princeton, and the NEC’s Board of Governors. Michael received an M.A. in Applied Economics from the Johns Hopkins University, an M.Sc. in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics from the London School of Economics, and a B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University.

Julia Coronado, President and Founder, MacroPolicy Perspectives, LLC
Julia Coronado founded MPP because she believes independent research can provide the most objective and relevant analysis to inform decision making in an uncertain world. Julia is a Clinical Associate Professor of Finance at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. She has more than a decade of experience as a financial market economist including serving as Chief Economist for Graham Capital Management and BNP Paribas, and as a Senior Economist at Barclays Capital. After receiving her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin, Julia worked for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington D.C. for eight years where she regularly briefed the Board and contributed to the FOMC forecasts. Julia has published a number of scholarly articles on issues related to pension finances and market valuations, social security, retirement saving adequacy and behavior, the frontier of private and public data collection, and monetary policy. Julia has represented the US at OECD meetings on financial market issues and has testified before the US Congress on Social Security reform. She is a member of the Economic Advisory Panel of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Economic Studies Council at the Brookings Institution. Julia is also on the Board of Directors of Robert Half International and Dynex Capital and serves on the Advisory Boards of the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Pension Research Council at the Wharton School and the Cleveland Fed’s Center for Inflation Research. She has previously served on the New York Fed’s Treasury Market Practices Group, the Board of the National Association of Business Economists and been President of the New York Association of Business Economists. Julia is a regular commentator in financial media, including CNBC, Bloomberg, Marketplace, and the Wall Street Journal.  

Gregory Daco, Chief U.S. Economist, Oxford Economics
Gregory Daco is Chief US Economist at Oxford Economics. He is responsible for producing the US economic outlook using Oxford Economics’ proprietary Global Economic Model. Greg directs thematic research on the economy, the Fed and fiscal policy, and leads a team of high caliber economists producing intraday economic and financial market analysis. He conducts regular briefings on the global economy for corporate boards, trade associations and policymakers. Greg is often quoted in national and global publications and is a frequent guest of CNBC, Bloomberg, BBC and NPR. He is a recipient of the Consensus Economics Forecast Accuracy Award for 2019. Prior to joining Oxford Economics, Greg was Director of US Macroeconomics at IHS Global Insight. He also worked in the Economic Affairs Department of the Belgian Embassy in Australia and the Permanent Representation of Belgium to the UN in Geneva. Greg is a former Board Director of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE), former President of the New York Chapter of NABE as well as founder and former President of the Boston Chapter of the NABE. He holds a Master of Arts in economics from Boston University, and an MBA from Université de Louvain in Belgium. 

Steven J. Davis, William H. Abbott Distinguished Service Professor of International Business and Economics, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Steven J. Davis studies business dynamics, hiring practices, job loss, the effects of economic uncertainty and other topics. His research appears in the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics and other leading scholarly journals. He is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, senior academic fellow with the Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research, advisor to the U.S. Congressional Budget Office, visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, senior adviser to the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, and past editor of the American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics. He is also an elected fellow of the Society of Labor Economists. Davis is known for his influential work using longitudinal data on firms and establishments to explore job creation and destruction dynamics and their relationship to economic performance. He is a co-creator of the Economic Policy Uncertainty Indices, and he co-organizes the Asian Monetary Policy Forum, held annually in Singapore. He has received research grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Ewing Marion Kauffmann Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and other organizations, including several grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation. In 2013, he received the Addington Prize in Measurement, awarded by the Fraser Institute for Public Policy, for his research on “Measuring Economic Policy Uncertainty.” His teaching experience includes Ph.D. courses in macroeconomics and labor economics at the University of Chicago, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Maryland; MBA courses in macroeconomics, money and banking, business strategy, and financial institutions for Chicago Booth; and executive MBA courses in macroeconomics for Chicago Booth in Barcelona, London, and Singapore. Davis has also taught undergraduate courses in microeconomics, econometrics, and money and banking at Brown University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Juhi Dhawan, Senior Managing Director, Global Macroanalyst, Wellington Management
As a member of the firm’s Global Macro Strategy Group, Juhi leads our efforts in equity sector-based macro and profits research for the US and also focuses on thematic research. She is an active participant in investment strategy groups, and works closely with investors across the firm to translate her work into investable ideas and themes.

Michael Drury, Chief Economist, McVean Trading & Investments, LLC
Michael Drury is the Chief Economist for McVean Trading & Investments, LLC. He joined the firm in 1992, after serving for five years as Senior Economist with Allen Sinai at Shearson Lehman Brothers and its successor firms. Michael began his career in New York in 1982 as Senior Economist at A. Gary Shilling and Company. He received his bachelor’s degree in economics from the Georgia Institute of Technology and did his graduate work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Michael assesses macroeconomic developments around the world to help develop hedging strategies using futures markets in interest rates, currencies and industrial materials. He travels extensively within the United States and China, as well as to Japan, Europe, and Latin America. Michael is the author of McVean Trading’s “Weekly Economic Update.” He is the Vice Chair for Programs at the Global Interdependence Center, a board member of the National Association for Business Economics, President of the Economic Club of Memphis, and founder and first President of the MidSouth Association for Business Economics (a chapter of NABE). He is a member of the National Business Economic Issues Council (NBEIC) and a non-resident member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing. Michael lives in Germantown, TN with his wife, Mahrou, and has three children.

Charles Evans, President and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Charles L. Evans has served as president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago since September 2007. In that capacity, he serves on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the Federal Reserve System's monetary policymaking body. Before becoming president in September of 2007, Evans served as director of research and senior vice president, supervising the Bank's research on monetary policy, banking, financial markets, and regional economic conditions. His personal research has focused on measuring the effects of monetary policy on U.S. economic activity, inflation, and financial market prices and has been published in peer-reviewed journals. Evans is active in the civic community. He is a trustee at Rush University Medical Center, a director of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, a member of the Economic Club of Chicago board of directors, and a member of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago and Civic Consulting Alliance board. Evans has taught at the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan, and the University of South Carolina. He received a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Virginia and a doctorate in economics from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Michael Fors, Executive Leader of Corporate Development, Boeing
Michael A. Fors, Ph.D., is Executive Leader of corporate division and business unit development at Boeing.  His team works to transform the business and develop workforces systematically as part of the 4th industrial revolution.  Before Boeing, he was an Executive Leader at Microsoft, digitally transforming Microsoft divisions.  Michael led a P&L comprised of 350 ex-CIO consultants, who digitally transform Microsoft customers.  Michael also led a business strategy team working across Microsoft divisions. Before Microsoft, Michael was Chief Learning Officer of Intel University.  Michael is an adjunct professor at Stanford University, Columbia University, and the University of Washington, teaching innovation, entrepreneurship, the Future of Work, and Leadership/Executive Development.  Michael is a member of the World Economic Forum, the Global Engineering Deans’ Council, ReWork America, & the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies.  Michael is Chairman of the Advisory Board for the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, Division for Prosperity, leading United Nations programmes for post conflict and developing nations.

Spencer Glendon, Senior Fellow, Woodwell Climate Research Center
Dr. Spencer Glendon is a generalist with formal degrees in Industrial Engineering and Economics, and extensive training and experience in finance, history, and languages. He has lived and worked in Michigan, Chicago, Germany, Russia, China, and Boston. His work is inspired by the wealth of empirical data behind climate science, and its potential application for informing decisions.For 18 years, Dr. Glendon was a Macroanalyst, Partner, and Director of Investment Research at Wellington Management, an investment management firm with more than $1 trillion in client assets. In that role, he spent several years focusing on models in climate science and finance, and understanding the gaps between the two disciplines and their practitioners. Beginning in 2017, Spencer devoted himself exclusively to collaborating with Woodwell Climate and others to research the effects of climate change on civilization and share those findings publicly. In 2020, he founded Probable Futures – which aims to change how we think about, talk about, and plan for the future of our society and our planet. Probable Futures, in partnership with Woodwell Climate, is building better frameworks, tools, and storytelling to help people prepare for—and choose between—the futures that the climate offers us.

Jeffrey Gold, Chancellor, Nebraska Medical Center
Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., is a nationally recognized leader and tireless advocate for transforming higher education, academic medicine and health care delivery. He became the eighth chancellor of the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), Vice President of the University of Nebraska System and the chair the board of UNMC’s principle clinical care academic health system partner, the Nebraska Medicine Health System, in January of 2014. In July of 2021, Dr. Gold also was named the Provost and Executive Vice President of the University of Nebraska System in addition to his ongoing UNMC/Nebraska Medicine ongoing responsibilities. In this role, Dr. Gold is the chief academic officer of the University of Nebraska System and liaison to the Board of Regents for Academic Affairs. As UNMC’s chief executive officer, Dr. Gold is responsible for all aspects of campus leadership, program quality and operations, including 7 Colleges, numerous institutes, a staff and faculty of about 7,000 and its 4,300 health professions students. Additionally, Nebraska Medicine has over 8,500 employees and an operating budget of well more than $1.9 billion. The combined annual economic impact of the “500-mile campus” academic health center with 7 Health Profession Colleges in seven Nebraska cities, 2 Institutes, 37 Centers of Excellence exceeds $5.9 billion and employs in total more than 42,000. From May 2017- June 2021, Dr. Gold served as the Chancellor of the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO), the state’s public urban metropolitan university. The University of Nebraska at Omaha has seven thriving colleges, an enrollment of over 13,000 undergraduate students, 3,000 graduate students, a broad public service mission and an NCAA Division I-A athletic program. Following more than four highly successful years of growth and prominence at UNO, in 2021, Dr. Gold stepped down to assume the University of Nebraska System responsibilities. Dr. Gold holds a tenured faculty appointment at the rank of Professor in the College of Medicine Department of Surgery and as well, as a tenured Professor in the College of Public Health, where his research interests in health care policy, population health and epidemiology are concentrated. He also chairs several key economic development corporate boards for the University System including the University Technology Development Corp, The Medical Center Development Corp, the University Technology Transfer Corp, Nebraska Enterprises Corp, UNeTecH Corp, and several others.

Darci L. Graves, Office of Minority Health, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Darci L. Graves, she/her, self-identifies as an educator and lifelong student, cancer survivor, lover of art, human to Ella Jane, photographer, mentor, satirist, sister, daughter, niece, aunt, friend, and hopeful humanitarian. Her philosophy is that thought-provoking and inquisitive individuals can enhance the quality of people’s lives through a commitment to respectful understanding, a lifetime of learning, and a profound sense of community. This philosophy has served as the underpinning to her academic and professional career. Passionately curious about people’s stories and making sure they are heard, her professional, academic, and volunteer work has touched on areas of religion and spirituality, race and ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, gender identity, and socioeconomic status. Darci L. Graves holds graduate degrees in Communications, Religion and Sociology, and Public Policy and has almost 20 years of professional and academic experience in the fields of cultural and linguistic competence and education. A former faculty member at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, Darci aided in the development, implementation, and management of the diversity, spirituality, communications, and geriatrics curricula. Since then she has continued to develop cultural and linguistic competency curricula around topics including public safety, disaster preparedness and response, language access, domestic violence, and more.

Jesse Haines, Director of Grow, Google
Jesse Haines leads the Grow with Google program in the US. This initiative, which launched in October 2017, offers free training, tools, and events to help create economic opportunity for everyone.  During her 11-year tenure at Google, Jesse has worked across several of the company’s emerging products and platforms, while also being involved in the company’s social impact efforts. Prior to joining Google, Ms. Haines was the vice president of brand development for Tommy Hilfiger's womenswear division. She also worked as a consultant at Bain & Company. Jesse holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a bachelor's degree from Brown University.  Jesse serves on the board of directors of Literacy Partners. She lives in Manhattan with her husband and two sons.

Lyric Hughes Hale, Editor-in-Chief, EconVue
Lyric Hughes Hale is editor-in-chief of EconVue, a publisher of online economic news and analysis by independent experts. She is producer of the Hale Report, a Chicago-based podcast series on economics with featured guests from around the world. A consultant to multinational corporations, she has contributed to a range of publications including the Yale Books Blog, the Huffington Post, the Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Current History and Institutional Investor. China Takes Off, published in Foreign Affairs in 2003 and written jointly with her husband David Hale, is one of the most oft-cited surveys of China’s economic ascendency. Their book, "What’s Next? Unconventional Wisdom on the Future of the World Economy" was published by Yale University Press.  A noted speaker, Ms. Hale has addressed audiences at the World Economic Forum, the Brookings Institution, the Foreign Correspondent’s Club in Tokyo, and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, as well as Stanford, Northwestern, Harvard and the University of Chicago. She was founder and publisher of the pathbreaking daily publication China Online from 1998-2003, providing China business news in English on the web. She led a sixty-person bilingual editorial and technical team headquartered in Chicago with operations in China.  Ms Hale bought the rights and produced the first telecast of the Super Bowl in China in 1986, and was a pioneer of foreign advertising in major Chinese media. Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s, Ms. Hale served as CEO of Hughes International. The company developed market entry strategies and created and managed multilingual print and broadcast campaigns for technology-focused companies such as Hughes Aircraft, Microsoft, Hitachi, Motorola, AT&T, and Apple Computer in Asia. She co-founded Women in International Trade, now a worlwide organization, to help entry-level women pursue global careers. Ms. Hale studied at Northwestern University, and graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. She has studied six languages at the university level. She has lived in Europe, Japan, and Iran, and first went to China in 1979. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations,  Association for Asian Studies, American Economics Association, and the Bretton Woods Committee. She is mother to a blended family of five children, and has two grandchildren with musical names.

John Haltiwanger, Professor of Economics, University of Maryland
John C. Haltiwanger, is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Maryland. He is also the first recipient of the Dudley and Louisa Dillard Professorship in 2013. He received his Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University in 1981. After serving on the faculty of UCLA and Johns Hopkins, he joined the faculty at Maryland in 1987. In the late 1990s, he served as Chief Economist of the U.S. Census Bureau. He is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Economic Studies at the U.S. Census Bureau, and a Fellow of the Society of Labor Economics and the Econometric Society. He has played a major role in developing and studying U.S. longitudinal firm-level data. Using these data, he has developed new statistical measures and analyzed the determinants of firm-level job creation, job destruction and economic performance. He has explored the implications of these firm dynamics for aggregate U.S. productivity growth and for the U.S. labor market. The statistical and measurement methods he has helped develop to measure and study firm dynamics have been increasingly used by many statistical agencies around the world. His own research increasingly uses the data and measures on firm dynamics from a substantial number of advanced, emerging and transition economies. His work with the statistical agencies has been recently recognized in his being awarded the Julius Shiskin Award for economic statistics in 2013, the Roger Herriott Award for innovation in federal statistics in 2014,  and the Global Entrepreneurship Research Award in 2020. He has published more than 100 academic articles and numerous books including Job Creation and Destruction(with Steven Davis and Scott Schuh, MIT Press).

Misty Heggeness, Principal Economist / Senior Advisor for Evaluations & Experiments, U.S. Census
Over two decades of experience working with complex, nationally representative household survey data, decennial census data, and administrative files. My experience includes cleaning, merging, linking, restructuring, and organizing large nationally representative data, as well as multiple research projects using impact evaluation and econometric tools to analyze outcomes, policies, and procedures. Over a decade of experience in the federal government that includes leading economic research, as well as managing staff workload, large grants, contracts, and interagency agreements. Experience and established network with key stakeholders in the Department of Labor, the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

LaVaughn Henry, CBE, Banking and Regulatory Policy Analyst, FDIC; Chair, The NABE Foundation 
Dr. LaVaughn Henry is with the FDIC where he serves as a Policy Analyst in the Banking and Regulatory Policy section of the Division of Insurance and Research. In this role he assists in the interpretation, analysis, proposal and drafting of policy guidelines, existing and proposed statutes and regulations, and other relevant depository institution law. Dr. Henry has diverse experience in both the private and public sectors including roles at Fannie Mae, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, The PMI Group, Ford Motor Company, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and the Budget Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. Very active in the economic community, Dr. Henry currently serves as a member of the Board of Governors for the National Economists Club of Washington DC and chair of the Certified Business Economists (CBE) Development Committee for the National Association for Business Economists (NABE). Dr. Henry is the current Chair of The NABE Foundation. Dr. Henry earned both his doctorate and master’s degrees in economics from Harvard University, and a bachelor’s degree from Rockhurst University, located in his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri.

Selma Hepp, Deputy Chief Economist, CoreLogic 
Selma Hepp holds the position of executive, research and insights and deputy chief economist in the Office of the Chief Economist at CoreLogic. She is responsible for analyzing, interpreting and forecasting economic trends in real estate, mortgage and insurance. Prior to joining CoreLogic, Hepp was chief economist and vice president of Business Intelligence for Pacific Union International, Inc. as well as chief economist for Trulia. She earned her master’s degree in economics from the State University of New York, Buffalo and her doctorate from the University of Maryland.

Jan Hogrefe, Chief Economist, Boeing
Dr. Jan Hogrefe is Director of Market Analysis and Chief Economist for Boeing Commercial. In this role he leads a team identifying and analyzing key trends in the aviation industry. He is also responsible for all studies of global macroeconomic developments for Commercial Airplanes. Jan works with senior leaders and customers throughout the industry. Prior to joining Boeing in 2014, Jan worked as a researcher and project leader at the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Germany. He led economic policy consulting projects for governmental and private institutions from across Europe – most with a focus on issues regarding macroeconomics and international trade. Jan holds a doctorate degree in economics from the University of Tuebingen, Germany. He has conducted economic research work in Germany, The Netherlands and the United Sates and has published several articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Jan frequently speaks at industry events and economics conferences.

Jeffrey Holland, Vice President, Research, Peter G. Peterson Foundation
Jeff came to the Peterson Foundation in August 2017 after 26 years at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). For the previous 18 years, Jeff was Chief of the Projections Unit at CBO, where he oversaw the production and data compilation of large parts of publications such as The Budget and Economic Outlook and An Analysis of the President’s Budget. He brings extensive experience in fiscal and economic policy, budget process, and data analysis.

Michael Horrigan, President, Upjohn Institute
Michael Horrigan took over as the Upjohn Institute's president in March 2019. He served previously as associate commissioner with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Horrigan came to the BLS as a labor economist in 1986, after six years as an economics professor at Williams College in his native Massachusetts. He rose through the ranks as a division chief, the director of the National Longitudinal Surveys Program and assistant commissioner in two offices. He served as associate commissioner for the Offices of Prices and Living Conditions before taking his role of associate commissioner in the Office of Unemployment and Unemployment Statistics in 2014.

Helen Hughes, Associate Medical Director, Office of Telemedicine, Office of Johns Hopkins Physicians
Dr. Hughes serves as Associate Medical Director for Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Office of Telemedicine and Medical Director of Pediatric Telemedicine for the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. Dr. Hughes is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. After earning an undergraduate degree at Haverford College, Dr. Hughes attended medical school at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and received a Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She completed a residency in pediatrics and served as Chief Resident at Johns Hopkins where she stayed on to complete a research fellowship in General Academic Pediatrics. Dr. Hughes is the co-editor of the Harriet Lane Handbook, 21st Edition, which is one of the most widely used pediatric handbooks nationally and internationally. She previously served as Associate Program Director for Pediatric residency training and the director of the Pediatric Residency Program Health Equity Track. As an administrative leader, researcher, and clinician, Dr. Hughes wants to use digital health tools to improve access to care and quality of care for typically underserved patient populations and learn how telehealth can be used to enhance the patient-centeredness and timeliness of care delivery without sacrificing safety and effectiveness.

Constance Hunter, CBE, Chief Economist, KPMG
As the Chief Economist for KPMG, Constance Hunter is responsible for macroeconomic analysis and forecasting at the firm. She also serves the on the Growth and Strategy leadership team and is on the advisory board of KPMG’s pension committee. Constance’s expertise in macroeconomic and industry analysis allows her to provide an insightful perspective on the constantly evolving economic landscape and the impact it has on the firm and its clients. Because Constance has a unique ability to make economic data understandable, user friendly, and actionable, she is a sought after speaker on a wide variety of macroeconomic topics at conferences and by KPMG’s C-Suite clients. She regularly appears on broadcast media such as Bloomberg TV, Yahoo Finance, CNBC, and Fox Business, and is frequently quoted in marquee print media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and The Washington Post. Known for correctly identifying economic turning points, in January 2019 Constance was cited in the Wall Street Journal as one of first economists to officially forecast the Fed rate cuts that year. She was also one of the first economists to begin forecasting the extensive economic impacts of COVID-19 on the U.S. and Chinese economies in early February 2020. Previously, Constance called the Russian currency devaluation in 1998, the Dotcom bubble’s burst in 2001, the real estate and credit crisis in 2007-2008, the recovery of the housing market and persistent low bond yields in 2012 and beyond. Prior to joining KPMG in 2013, Constance held high-level positions in the asset management industry for nearly two decades. She served in the capacity of Chief Investment Officer or Chief Economist for over a decade before joining KPMG. Most recently she served as Deputy Chief Investment Officer at AXA Investment Managers, where she helped to manage over $500 billion in fixed income assets. Constance is the Past President of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE), has been honored as a NABE Fellow, and she currently serves as a NABE board member where she is a champion of diversity and inclusion. Constance has an extensive cadre of high-level, international economists, policymakers, business and trade experts with whom she regularly consults with and advises. She is passionate about her community and serves on the board of GallopNYC, a nonprofit organization that changes the lives of disabled New Yorkers by offering therapeutic horsemanship programs. Constance holds a BA in Economics and Sociology from New York University, and a master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). She also holds the Certified Business Economist designation.

Azhar Iqbal, Director and Econometrician, Wells Fargo
Azhar Iqbal is a director and econometrician for Wells Fargo’s Corporate and Investment Bank. In this role, Azhar provides quantitative analysis to the Economics group and modeling and forecasting of macro and financial variables. He is based in New York, New York. Before joining Wells Fargo in 2007, Azhar was an economist and course instructor at the Applied Economics Research Center at the University of Karachi in Pakistan, teaching econometrics, microeconomics, and urban economics.  Azhar received his bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Punjab and has three master’s degrees. He earned his master’s degree in economic forecasting from the University at Albany, State University of New York, where he also earned a Certificate of Graduate Study in economic forecasting. He also has master’s degrees in applied economics from the University of Karachi, and in econometrics and mathematics from the University of Punjab, Pakistan. Azhar won the 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2018 NABE Contributed Paper Award as well as the 2010 and 2016 Edmund A. Mennis Contributed Paper Award for best papers from the National Association of Business Economics (NABE). A strong supporter of education, Azhar has taught a graduate course, Advanced Business and Economic Forecasting, at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Azhar’s co-authored book, Economic and Business Forecasting: Analyzing and Interpreting Econometric Results, was published by Wiley in March 2014. His second book, Economic Modeling in the Post Great Recession Era, was published by Wiley in March 2017. His interests focus on forecasting, time series, machine learning and big data, business cycles analysis, and macroeconomics. Azhar has presented research papers at the American Economic Association, Econometric Society meetings, the Panel Data Conference, and other international conferences. He has published over three dozen papers in the Canadian Journal of Economics, Global Economy Journal, Business Economics, Journal of Business Forecasting, and others listed in the Journal of Economic Literature. Azhar writes economic commentary/special reports which have been excerpted or republished in print media sources such as The Financial Times, Forbes, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and NPR.

Sara Johnson, Executive Director – Global Economics, IHS Markit
Sara Johnson is executive director of Global Economics in the Economics and Country Risk business unit at IHS Markit. In this role, she helps clients assess worldwide business and financial opportunities and risks. Ms. Johnson co-authors the Global Executive Summary, manages the Executive Strategy Council, and presents the economic outlook to international conferences. She previously served as North American research director and chief regional economist with Standard & Poor's DRI, and managing director of global macroeconomics with Global Insight, predecessors of IHS Markit Economics & Country Risk that is now part of IHS Markit. Ms. Johnson is a former director of the National Association for Business Economics and the NABE Foundation and was named an NABE Fellow in 2014. She is past president of The Boston Economic Club and a member of the American Economic Association. Ms. Johnson holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Mathematics from Wellesley College, US, and earned her Master of Arts in Economics from Harvard University, US, with concentrations in Finance and Macroeconomic Theory.

Jerry Konter, CEO, Konter Quality Homes
Jerry Konter, a Georgia-based builder with over 40 years of experience in residential construction, is NAHB’s 2021 First Vice Chairman of the Board. Konter is the founder and president of Konter Quality Homes, which he established in 1977 in his home town of Savannah, Ga. The company builds a broad range of designs in production home communities and is also a custom builder. Over the years, it has constructed more than 2,000 single-family homes and 500 multifamily units in the Savannah area. Throughout his career, Konter has been active in NAHB’s leadership at the local, state and national levels. As a Senior Life Delegate, he has served as a leader of the Association for more than 20 years. Konter has also chaired several NAHB committees including: Land Development, State and Local Government Affairs, Meetings and Convention, and Federal Government Affairs. He has also served on the Resolutions and Budget and Finance committees. Konter was the 2013 State Representative for Georgia and the National Area 4 Chairman in 2010/2011 and 2016/2017. He has been a BUILD-PAC Trustee for over 15 years.
At the local level, Konter was president of the Home Builders Association of Greater Savannah in 1991 and was named the association’s Builder of the Year in 1993 and 2001. He received its President’s Award in 1994 and was inducted into the Home Builders Association of Greater Savannah's Hall of Fame in 2004. Konter was president of the Home Builders Association of Georgia in 1998 and was inducted into the Home Builders Association of Georgia Hall of Fame in 2009. He received the association’s President’s Award in 2014.
A graduate of the University of Georgia, Konter is also active in his community. He was a member of the Jaycees and served on the Board of Directors of the Savannah Humane Society. He also served as president of the Jewish Educational Alliance, on the Board of Directors of the Savannah Jewish Federation, and as a trustee of the Savannah Jewish Foundation. Konter was also a member of the Savannah Chatham Metropolitan Planning Commission. Konter and his wife, Marcy, have two grown children and two grandchildren. NAHB's senior officers serve on a multi-year leadership ladder. Konter will become Chairman of NAHB's Board of Directors in 2022.

John Leer, Chief Economist, Morning Consult
John Leer is the chief economist for Morning Consult, leading the global enterprise technology company’s economic research efforts. He is an authority on the effects of consumer preferences and purchasing patterns on economic and business trends as well as labor market dynamics. Prior to Morning Consult, Leer worked for Promontory Financial Group, offering strategic solutions to financial services firms on a range of matters including credit risk modeling and management, corporate governance and compliance risk management.  He earned his bachelor’s degree in Economics and Philosophy with honors from Georgetown University and his master’s degree in Economics and Management Studies (MEMS) from Humboldt University in Berlin. Leer’s graduate research assessed the effects of fluctuations in housing prices and credit flows on the European Commission’s measure of the non-accelerating wage rate of unemployment (NAWRU). His analysis has been cited in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, The Washington Post and more.  Follow him on Twitter at @JohnCLeer. 

Brian Lewandowski, Executive Director of the Business Research Division, Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder
Brian Lewandowski is the Executive Director of the Business Research Division at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder. Brian provides regional business and economic information and education, including economic and revenue forecasts, policy studies, economic impact analyses, and data workshops. Brian has 13 years’ experience conducting economic studies at CU Boulder. Prior to CU, he worked in both the private sector and government. He is past-president of the Denver Association of Business Economists.

Diane Lim, Policy Director, House Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth
DC-based Ph.D. economist with more than 30 years of experience in academia, government, and the nonprofits world, as a researcher and manager. My work has combined rigorous research skills, data-driven policy analysis, effective communication to a broad audience, extensive networking, significant fundraising, innovative management, and strategic thinking. Adept at interpersonal relationships from experience both at work and at home (mom of 4 adult children). Author of the "EconomistMom" blog, recognized by the Wall Street Journal as a top economics blog in 2009 (back then, the only female Ph.D. economist-authored one).

John Lipsky, Peter G. Peterson Distinguished Scholar at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs, Johns Hopkins University
Most recently, was first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund; previously held positions of vice chairman of JPMorgan Investment Bank, chief economist at JPMorgan Chase, chief economist and director of research at Chase Manhattan Bank, and chief economist and director of the European Economic and Market Analysis Group in London at Salomon Brothers; early in career, spent 10 years at the International Monetary Fund, helping manage the fund's exchange rate surveillance procedure, analyzing developments in international capital markets, participating in negotiations with several member countries and serving as the fund's resident representative in Chile; currently is co-chair of the Aspen Institute's Program on the World Economy; is an Executive Director of the National Bureau of Economic Research and serves on the advisory board of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research; is a Director of the Center for Global Development, and a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations; PhD, economics, Stanford University

Theodore Littleton, Associate Economist, Refinitiv
Theodore Littleton has been an economist with IFR Markets / Refinitiv for over ten years, forecasting, reporting, and analyzing a broad swath of macroeconomic data. Previously he was with Stone & McCarthy Research Associates in Princeton, New Jersey, and received his MA in economics from New York University.

Prakash Loungani, Assistant Director and Senior Personnel Manager, IMF’s Independent Evaluation Office
Prakash Loungani is Assistant Director in the IMF’s Independent Evaluation Office. He is a co-author of Confronting Inequality: How Societies Can Choose Inclusive Growth (Columbia University Press, 2019). Previously, he headed the Development Macroeconomics Division in the IMF’s Research Department and was co-chair of the IMF’s Jobs and Growth working group from 2011-15. He is an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland and a member of the Stekler Research Program in Forecasting at George Washington University. 

Susan Lund, Partner, McKinsey Global Institute
Susan Lund is a partner of McKinsey & Company and a leader of the McKinsey Global Institute. As a PhD economist, her research focuses on globalization and trade, and the impact of technology on work and workers. She is also a leader of McKinsey’s team modeling the impact of Covid-19 on economic growth. Her most recent research explores how global value chains and trade flow are evolving, and on how digital flows are transforming globalization and creating new winners and losers. Dr. Lund has an active travel schedule discussing research findings with CEOs and other executives at global Fortune 500 companies and she is a frequent speaker at global conferences. She has authored numerous articles in leading business publications, including Harvard Business Review, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and Foreign Affairs. Susan is on the Economic Advisory Board of the International Financial Corporation; a Board Director of the National Association of Business Economics; and a member of the Center for Global Development Study Group on Technology and Development Prospects. Susan holds a Ph.D. in applied economics from Stanford University and a B.A. in economics from Northwestern University. She has lived and worked in Africa and Asia and currently resides in Washington, DC.

Stuart Mackintosh, CBE, Chief Economist, Group of Thirty
Stuartt P.M. Mackintosh is the Executive Director of the Group of Thirty, an international financial think tank comprised senior figures from central banking, the financial sector, and academia.  His research focus centers on macroeconomic and systemic risks, global governance issues, and the international political economy. Dr. Mackintosh has served as President of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE), the largest professional organization of economists in the United States. He is an elected member of the Conference of Business Economists, and is a Certified Business Economist. Dr. Mackintosh has a B.A. and Ph.D. from Newcastle University and a M.Sc. from the University of Edinburgh. In 2018 Dr. Mackintosh was appointed a non-resident Visiting Fellow at Newcastle University. In 2020 Routledge published the second edition his book The Redesign of the Global Financial Architecture: State Authority, New Risks and Dynamics. Another book is in the process of gestation, and will be published in 2021. Dr. Mackintosh has written widely, and he speaks often to diverse audiences explaining complex topics in a clear and concise manner. When out of the office, Dr. Mackintosh can most often be found on his road or mountain bike.

Catherine Mann, External Member, Monetary Policy Committee, Bank of England
Dr Catherine L Mann joined the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England on 1 September 2021. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Economics Association, among others. Previously she was Chair of the Economic Advisory Committee of the American Bankers Association. And she was also a member of the Executive Board of the Committee on the Status Women in the Economics Profession, of the National Association for Business Economics, and of the advisory committees of the Federal Reserve Banks of Chicago, Boston, and New York, among others. Prior to her appointment, she was the Global Chief Economist at Citibank from February 2018 to May 2021, where she was responsible for thought leadership and cross-fertilisation of research. Prior to that she was the Chief Economist and G20 Finance Deputy at the OECD from October 2014 to November 2017. She has also held positions as the Rosenberg Professor of Global Finance at Brandeis University, Senior Fellow at the Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics and Assistant Director in the International Finance Division at the Federal Reserve Board. Dr. Mann’s research addresses the relationships between financial markets and real economies with a focus on spillovers, including climate; and structural policies and outcomes, with a focus on the nexus of globalisation, inequality and productivity. She has authored or co-authored seven books, 60-plus articles, and numerous shorter pieces and testimony. She has a PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an undergraduate degree with honors in Economics from Harvard University.

Taylor Marr, Lead Economist, Redfin
Taylor is a lead economist, data scientist, and visualization whiz on the research team at Redfin. He is passionate about urban planning and housing policy. Taylor went to graduate school for economics in Berlin, where he focused on behavioral economics and the housing market crash.

Ioana Mazare, Chief Economist, TTX
Ioana Mazare is Chief Economist at TTX Company, where she is responsible for economic research and analysis, and forecasting of rail freight volume. She has more than 15 years of experience in market analysis, advanced analytics and forecasting in the logistics industry, including UPS and Roadie Inc. Ioana Mazare has a Master’s degree and a Ph.D. degree in Economics from Western Michigan University.

Chris McReynolds, Head of US Inflation Trading, Barclays
Chris McReynolds is a Managing Director and Head of US Inflation Trading at Barclays. Based in NY, he has oversight for the firm’s market making operations in Treasury Inflation-protected securities (TIPS) and inflation linked derivatives. Mr. McReynolds rejoined Barclays in March of 2020 after spending four years at Jefferies as Head of US Rates. Mr. McReynolds originally joined Barclays in 1999 from Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and was named head of US Inflation trading in 2004 and subsequently assumed responsibility for the overall Treasury trading business in 2013. Prior to joining Barclays he worked for over 10 years a JP Morgan where he traded money markets, options on Treasuries and was responsible for non-yen fixed income trading in Tokyo. While at JP Morgan he also spent 3 years in their Sydney office where he was responsible for Australian Dollar fixed income trading. Mr. McReynolds holds a BSc degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy and Masters in Business Administration from UCLA.

Leland Miller, Chief Executive Officer, China Beige Book
A leading authority on China’s economy and financial system, Leland is the co-founder and CEO of China Beige Book International. Leland is a frequent commentator on media outlets such as CNBC, Bloomberg TV & Radio, CNN, BNN, BBC, and FOX Business, and he has served as a guest host of two of the financial world’s top morning news shows, CNBC Squawk Box and Bloomberg Surveillance. His work is featured regularly in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, New Yorker, The Atlantic, Forbes, Foreign Policy, The Hill, and South China Morning Post. Before co-founding China Beige Book in 2010, Leland was a capital markets attorney based out of New York and Hong Kong and worked on the deal team at a major investment bank. He holds a law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was Hardy C. Dillard fellow and editor-in-chief of the International Law Journal; a master’s degree in Chinese History from Oxford University; a BA in European History from Washington & Lee University; and a graduate Chinese language fellowship from Tunghai University (Taiwan). Leland is an elected member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and Economic Club of New York, an elected life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a board member of the Global Interdependence Center, and a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security at the Atlantic Council.

Mark P. Mills, Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute
Mark P. Mills is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a faculty fellow at Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, where he co-directs an Institute on Manufacturing Science and Innovation. He is also a strategic partner with Montrose Lane (an energy-tech venture fund). Previously, Mills cofounded Digital Power Capital, a boutique venture fund, and was chairman and CTO of ICx Technologies, helping take it public in 2007. Mills is a regular contributor to Forbes.com and is author of Digital Cathedrals (2020) and Work in the Age of Robots (2018). He is also coauthor (with Peter Huber) of The Bottomless Well: The Twilight of Fuel, the Virtue of Waste, and Why We Will Never Run Out of Energy (2005). His articles have been published in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Real Clear. Mills has appeared as a guest on CNN, Fox, NBC, PBS, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. In 2016, Mills was named “Energy Writer of the Year” by the American Energy Society. Earlier, Mills was a technology advisor for Bank of America Securities and coauthor of the Huber-Mills Digital Power Report, a tech investment newsletter. He has testified before Congress and briefed numerous state public-service commissions and legislators. Mills served in the White House Science Office under President Reagan and subsequently provided science and technology policy counsel to numerous private-sector firms, the Department of Energy, and U.S. research laboratories, and prior to that began his career as an experimental physicist and development engineer in microprocessors and fiber optics. Early in his career, Mills was an experimental physicist and development engineer at Bell Northern Research (Canada’s Bell Labs) and at the RCA David Sarnoff Research Center on microprocessors, fiber optics, missile guidance, earning several patents for his work. He holds a degree in physics from Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada 

Martha Moore, Chief Economist, American Chemistry Council
Martha Gilchrist Moore is the Chief Economist and Managing Director for Economics and Policy Analysis at the American Chemistry Council. Ms. Moore analyzes the impact of various policy initiatives and energy trends on the chemical industry, in particular recent developments in shale gas and the resultant surge of chemical industry investment. In addition, she produces forecasts for the economy and chemical industry. She also directs the Council's research on the direct and indirect economic contributions of the business of chemistry and the benefits to consumers. Ms. Moore has worked on chemical industry issues for more than 25 years and is an authority on the market dynamics for the chemical industry and its end-use customer industries.  Ms. Moore holds a master's degree in economics from Indiana University and is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a member of the National Association for Business Economics and the US Association for Energy Economics (USAEE) and serves on the board of the National Capital Area Chapter of USAEE.

Pia Orrenius, Vice President and Senior Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
Orrenius is a labor economist working on regional economic growth and demographic change. She manages the regional and microeconomics group in the Dallas Fed Research Department, is executive editor of the quarterly publication Southwest Economy and co-edited Ten Gallon Economy: Sizing up Economic Growth in Texas (2015, Palgrave MacMillan). Her academic research focuses on the labor market impacts of immigration, unauthorized immigration and U.S. immigration policy. She is coauthor of the book Beside the Golden Door: U.S. Immigration Reform in a New Era of Globalization (2010, AEI Press). Orrenius is affiliated with several academic institutions. She is research fellow at the Tower Center for Public Policy and International Affairs and the Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center at Southern Methodist University and at the IZA Institute of Labor in Bonn, Germany, as well as adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Orrenius is also adjunct professor at Baylor University (Dallas campus), where she teaches in the executive MBA program. Orrenius was senior economist on the Council of Economic Advisers in the Executive Office of the President, Washington D.C., in 2004–05, where she advised the Bush administration on labor, health and immigration issues. She holds a PhD in economics from the University of California at Los Angeles and bachelor degrees in economics and Spanish from the University of Illinois at Urbana—Champaign.

Karen Palmer, Senior Fellow, Resources for the Future
Karen Palmer is a Senior Fellow at Resources for the Future and an expert on the economics of environmental, climate and public utility regulation of the electric power sector. Her work seeks to improve the design of environmental and technology regulations in the sector and the development of new institutions to help guide the ongoing transition of the electricity sector. To these ends, she explores climate policy design, analyzes efficient ways to promote use of renewable and other clean sources of electricity, and investigates new market designs, new approaches to electricity pricing and regulatory reforms to pave the way for long-term de-carbonization of electricity supply and electrification of the energy economy. In the 1990s, Dr. Palmer spent six months as a visiting economist in the Office of Economic Policy at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission where she worked on wholesale market design in the nascent ISO markets. She has served on three National Academies study panels, including one on the future of electricity from renewables and one on the future of electric power in the US. She is President of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (AERE) and serves on the Environmental Advisory Council to the New York ISO and on the Future Power Market Forum Advisory Group. She is the recipient of the Public Utility Research Center’s 2015 Distinguished Service Award and was elected as an AERE Fellow in 2018. Her published papers have appeared in many academic journals including the American Economic Review, the RAND Journal of Economics, The Journal of Political Economy and The Journal of Environmental Economics and Management.

Theresa Parlato, Managing Director, HR Relationship Manager, Wellington Management
Theresa is responsible for the Human Resources generalist functions for the Investment Boutiques Group, Investment Science Group, Investment Platform COO Group, and the Investment Platform Early Career Investor Development program. In this capacity, she works with the business managers and their management teams to develop and implement the Human Resources strategies to support the business objectives of these groups. Theresa focuses much of her time on manager coaching, employee development, performance management, and diversity and inclusion globally to ensure we are attracting, retaining, and developing the firm’s talent. Prior to her current role, Theresa worked as the HR relationship manager for the Singapore and Sydney offices as well as for the Information Technology Group.  Theresa earned her BS in international business, magna cum laude, from Northeastern University (2010).

Nikhil Patel, Partner, McKinsey & Company

Adam S. Posen, President, Peterson Institute for International Economics
Adam S. Posen has been president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics since January 2013. Over his career, he has contributed to research and public policy regarding monetary and fiscal policies in the G-20, the challenges of European integration since the adoption of the euro, China-US economic relations, and developing new approaches to financial recovery and stability. He was one of the first economists to seriously address the political foundations of central bank independence and to analyze Japan's Great Recession as a failure of macroeconomic policy.  While at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York during 1994–97, he coauthored Inflation Targeting: Lessons from the International Experience with Ben Bernanke, Thomas Laubach, and Frederic Mishkin. During Dr. Posen's presidency, the Peterson Institute has won global recognition as the leading independent think tank in international economics, including repeated top rankings from the Prospect Think Tank Awards and the Global Go To Think Tank Index.  Under his leadership, PIIE has expanded to include 42 world-renowned resident and nonresident fellows and increased its endowment by 50 percent.  Since 2013, PIIE has developed high-level recognition and research partnerships in the People's Republic of China, while deepening longstanding ties with policymakers in other East Asian, European, and North American capitals.  The Institute also has broken new ground in providing accessible economic analysis to the general public.

Tonya Robinson, Vice Chair and General Counsel – Legal, Regulatory and Compliance, KPMG
Tonya Robinson serves as Vice Chair and General Counsel – Legal, Regulatory and Compliance at KPMG LLP. As a member of the firm’s management committee, she oversees the Office of General Counsel, Office of the Chief Compliance Officer, Office of Government Affairs, and Firmwide Security. She also serves as the Secretary to KPMG’s U.S. Board of Directors and, in that capacity, is responsible for firm governance matters. In addition, Tonya, as Head of Legal and Compliance for the Americas Region, serves on the Americas Management Committee. Before joining KPMG in 2017, Tonya served as the Acting General Counsel and, before that, Principal Deputy General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), serving as legal advisor to the Secretary and principal-in-charge of a legal office of nearly 600 professionals in HUD’s Headquarters, 10 Regional Offices, and 40 Field Offices. Prior to her federal agency service, Tonya was Special Assistant to President Obama for Justice and Regulatory Policy at the White House. As Special Assistant to the President, she focused on a broad range of civil and criminal justice policy matters, including, for example, fair housing issues, sentencing reform, voting and election reform, and workplace equality. She also managed several interagency processes, including convening the President’s National Equal Pay Task Force, which included the key federal departments and agencies focused on ensuring that American workers receive equal pay for equal work; co-chairing an interagency working group charged with addressing employment opportunities for individuals previously involved with the criminal justice system; and co-chairing an interagency roundtable to explore ways to leverage civil legal services to promote access to housing, education, employment, health care, and an array of other positive outcomes. Prior to her service at the White House, Tonya was a partner at the international law firm WilmerHale LLP. Her practice at WilmerHale focused primarily on complex civil litigation and investigations, including Congressional investigations, as well as discrete civil rights matters. Tonya started her legal career as a judicial clerk for the Honorable Francis D. Murnaghan, Jr. on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Following her clerkship, she joined Wilmer (then Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering), where she worked on a range of litigation matters, including the ground-breaking University of Michigan affirmative action cases, Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger. She left Wilmer in 2001 (and later returned) to work as counsel to then-Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs, where she focused on a mix of legal and policy issues, including corporate governance matters. Her work for then-Senator Biden marked Tonya’s fourth stint on Capitol Hill, having earlier worked as a legislative aide to Senator Terry Sanford (NC), Congressman David Price (NC), and Congressman Lloyd Doggett (TX). Among her community and philanthropic activities, Tonya serves on the Board of Directors for the National Women’s Law Center. Tonya holds a B.A. degree in Public Policy Studies and a Certificate in Women’s Studies from Duke University, where she also served as president of the undergraduate student body. She also obtained a post-graduate degree in African Studies from the University of Cape Town in South Africa as a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholar and her Juris Doctor Degree from Harvard Law School.

Jigar Shah, Director, Loan Programs Office, U.S. Department of Energy
Jigar Shah is the Director for the Loan Program Office at the U.S. Department of Energy. In his role, Shah leads and directs the Loan program Office focused on building a bridge to commercial financing for technologies that are ready to scale the transition to a global clean energy economy.

Charles Steindel, CBE, Editor, Business Economics
Charles Steindel is the Editor of NABE's quarterly journal, Business Economics.  Formerly, he was a professor at Ramapo College of New Jersey. 

Sophie Stern, Director, KPMG
Sophie Stern has over 15 years of Federal healthcare policy and program experience with extensive knowledge of ACA programs. Ms. Stern joined KPMG in 2017 where she serves as the Policy and Regulatory Leader for the Federal Healthcare practice, helping Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) clients maintain and improve health coverage programs and consumer protections. Prior to joining KPMG, Ms. Stern was the Health Policy Director for a national non-profit where she served as the policy liaison to the White House and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on the role out and implementation of the Health Insurance Marketplaces and Medicaid expansion. In this role she focused on health insurance eligibility and enrollment policy, with a specific focus on improving health coverage access for historically underserved populations. Ms. Stern has an MPH in Health Policy and a BS in Public Health from the George Washington University. 

Michael Strain, Senior Fellow, AEI
Michael R. Strain is a senior fellow, the director of Economic Policy Studies, and the Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he oversees the Institute’s work in economic policy, financial markets, international trade and finance, tax and budget policy, welfare economics, health care policy, and related areas. Dr. Strain is the author of “The American Dream Is Not Dead: (But Populism Could Kill It)” (Templeton Press, 2020). Before joining AEI, Dr. Strain worked in the Center for Economic Studies at the US Census Bureau and in the macroeconomics research group at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Dr. Strain’s research focuses on labor economics, public finance, and social policy, and his papers have been published in peer-reviewed academic journals and policy journals such as Tax Notes and National Affairs. He is the editor or coeditor of three books: “What Has Happened to the American Working Class Since the Great Recession?” (American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2021); “The US Labor Market: Questions and Challenges for Public Policy” (AEI Press, 2016); and “Economic Freedom and Human Flourishing: Perspectives from Political Philosophy” (AEI Press, 2016). He was a member of the AEI-Brookings Working Group on Poverty and Opportunity, which published the report “Opportunity, Responsibility, and Security: A Consensus Plan for Reducing Poverty and Restoring the American Dream.” He also writes frequently for popular audiences, and his essays and op-eds have been published by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, National Review, and The Weekly Standard, among others. He is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. A frequent guest on radio and television, Dr. Strain is regularly interviewed by news networks including CNBC, MSNBC, and NPR. He has testified before Congress and speaks often to a variety of audiences. Dr. Strain has a PhD in economics from Cornell University. He is a graduate of Marquette University and holds an MA from New York University.

Diane Swonk, CBE, Chief Economist, Grant Thornton
Diane Swonk is one of the most respected macroeconomists, who maintains a unique perspective on the inner workings of Main Street as well as Wall Street. She is an expert on the economics of the labor market, monetary policy and structural changes that are distinct from economic cycles. Her global network includes economists, industry leaders and geopolitical experts, which amplifies the breadth and reach of her analysis. She advises policy makers at all levels of government, including central bankers. Diane’s uniquely accessible approach to macroeconomic shifts has made her a highly sought-after expert quoted by local, national and international newspapers and broadcasters. For her outstanding contributions in the field of economics, Diane has been named a Fellow of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE). She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, serves on the Sitting Committee to the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago and advises the economics department at the University of Michigan. She has testified before Congress to improve the quality of economic data and on the causes and consequences of income inequalities. Diane has won many awards for excellence in forecasting and leadership in economics and the business community. She is deeply involved in nonprofit organizations focused on expanding access to education and increasing the quality and diversity of our country’s leadership. She earned her B.A. and M.A. degrees in economics with top honors from the University of Michigan. She received an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, also with top honors.

Fred Treyz, CEO, REMI
Frederick R. Treyz, Ph.D. is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Economist at Regional Economic Models, Inc. (REMI), a leading provider of dynamic economic and demographic modeling software and consulting. He is an authority on analyzing public policies and their regional macroeconomic and population impacts. Under Dr. Treyz’s leadership, REMI has shaped public policy debates by helping clients evaluate economic development, transportation, energy, immigration reform, and other topics. The company’s clients include federal, state, and regional agencies, metropolitan planning organizations, leading national associations, universities, and consultants who seek to analyze the implications of public policy. Dr. Treyz has overseen the research and development of REMI’s suite of regional policy models, and has academic publications in leading journals. He holds an A.B. in Economics from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Regional Science from the University of Pennsylvania.

Hal Varian, Chief Economist, Google
Hal R. Varian is the Chief Economist at Google, which he joined first as a consultant in 2002. He is also an Emeritus Professor in the School of Information, the Haas School of Business, and the Department of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. Hal Varian’s work has covered a wide-ranging group of topics during his 45 years of academic publications. He has made pioneering contributions in the area of industrial organization, including models of price discrimination, consumer search, and an important model of sales. In the area of public economics, he is the author of a very significant paper on optimal conditions for the public contribution to public goods. He also has published a series of influential contributions on nonparametric approaches to consumer demand, including developing a widely-used measure of consumer deviations from the Generalized Axiom of Revealed Preferences. Interestingly, this measure has been employed recently in an area Hal may not have envisioned, as a measure of deviation from rationality in laboratory experiments. He has also been a household name for generations of both undergraduate and graduate students studying economics, as his two textbooks Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach and Microeconomic Analysis have been read by many economists at the beginning of their career, distilling in his trademark voice the range of diverse topics which comprise the basics of economics. One could hardly find a better person to write such textbooks, given Hal Varian’s wide range of interests, his omnivorous curiosity and his clarity in exposition, including, to the delight of the reader, the well-placed witty remark. Remarkably, Hal Varian not only has established himself as a towering figure in economics, but has also contributed to other scientific disciplines. His book Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy (authored with Carl Shapiro) has become an influential early guide to the information economy. In this vein, Varian has also made a number of contributions to strategic choices at Google, including work on the design of Google’s IPO which was executed as an auction. His most recent research has focused, among other topics, on how the information embedded in Internet searches contains very valuable information for future outcomes. In his work on now-casting, Hal Varian (with Hyunyoung Choi) shows that the number of searches online for cars or unemployment benefits allows one to obtain measures, respectively, for car sales and jobless claims weeks ahead of the official data release. This research has spawned substantial interest in the area, including the now-widespread use of the Google Trends service. Hal Varian started his career as economist at the University of California, Berkeley where he earned his PhD in 1973. After teaching at MIT and at the University of Michigan, he returned to UC Berkeley in 1995 as the founding Dean of the School of Information in 1995. He has been a co-editor of the American Economic Review in 1987-90, is a fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation, the Econometric Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also holds honorary doctorates from the University of Oulu, Finland and the University of Karlsruhe, Germany.

Holly Wade, Director of Research and Policy Analysis, NFIB
Holly Wade is the executive director of the NFIB Research Center, where she conducts original research and studies public policy effects on small businesses. She produces NFIB’s monthly Small Business Economic Trends survey and surveys on topics related to small business operations. Holly is also a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE). She has undergraduate degrees in Political Science and Sociology from the University of Washington and a Masters of Public Policy from the University of Denver.

Jared Walczak, Vice President of State Projects, Tax Foundation
Jared Walczak is Vice President of State Projects with the Center for State Tax Policy at the Tax Foundation. He is the lead researcher on the annual State Business Tax Climate Index and Location Matters, and previously authored or coauthored tax reform books on Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Nevada, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Wisconsin. Jared’s work has been cited by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Politico, AP, and many other prominent national and state outlets. He previously served as legislative director to a member of the Senate of Virginia and as policy director for a statewide campaign, and consulted on research and policy development for a number of candidates and elected officials.

Kate Watkins, Chief Economist, Colorado Legislative Council
Kate Watkins is the Chief Economist for the Colorado state legislature’s nonpartisan research agency, Legislative Council Staff.  Kate leads a team of economists who provide economic, revenue, and caseload forecasts as well as fiscal policy and equity impact analyses.  These analyses inform the state budget and legislative decision making in Colorado. In the past, Kate served as a regional economist at the Denver Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, and as a consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton, where she provided economic and business analysis for various federal government agencies.  Kate holds a PhD from Cornell University, with research concentrations in economic and fiscal sociology. She holds a Master of Arts in Global Finance, Trade, and Economic Integration from the University of Denver, Korbel School of International Studies.

Ali Wolf, Chief Economist, Zonda
Ali Wolf is the Chief Economist for Zonda, the largest homebuilding prop tech company in North America. As head of the Economics Department, Ali manages and analyzes the content for Zonda, runs special research projects, acts as a go-to advisor for the nation’s largest homebuilders, and presents nationwide covering topics across the housing market and wider economy. Ali is the creator of Zonda’s proprietary indices, including the New Home Pending Sales Index and the New Home Lot Supply Index. Ali has focused much of her career on understanding prior recessions and led the charge on ‘Millennials discussing Millennials’ in the homebuilding space. Highly regarded as an industry expert, Ali is quoted frequently in national publications including CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Yahoo! Finance, and has also appeared on national and international TV and radio programs such as Bloomberg TV and Marketplace. Prior to joining the Zonda team, Ali worked for another consultancy firm and was a researcher for both the Canadian and UK Parliaments. Ali holds a Bachelor’s Degree from The Ohio State University in Economics and a Master’s Degree from the London School of Economics in Real Estate Economics and Finance.

Susan Woodward, Founder, Sand Hill Econometrics
Susan Woodward is a financial economist. She has served as the Chief Economist of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Chief Economist of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. She has taught finance at the Stanford Law School, the University of Rochester Business School, and University of California at Los Angeles. Before founding Sand Hill Econometrics, Woodward was Executive Vice President and Chief Economist of OffRoad Capital, an Internet-based investment bank specializing in later-stage private equity placements. At OffRoad, she designed a system for auction pricing of private equity offerings. Woodward received both her B.A. and Ph.D. in Financial Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Janet Yellen, Secretary, U.S. Department of Treasury
On January 26, 2021, Janet Yellen was sworn in as the 78th Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. An economist by training, she took office after almost fifty years in academia and public service. She is the first person in American history to have led the White House Council of Economic Advisors, the Federal Reserve, and the Treasury Department.   Janet Louise Yellen was born in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn in 1946. Her mother, Anna Ruth, was an elementary school teacher while her father, Julius, worked as a family physician, treating patients out of the ground floor of the family’s brownstone.  In 1967, Secretary Yellen graduated from Brown University and went on to earn her PhD at Yale.  She was an assistant professor at Harvard until 1976 when she began working at the Federal Reserve Board. There, in the Fed’s cafeteria, she met fellow economist, George Akerlof. Janet and George would marry later that year. They would go on to have a son, Robert, now also an economics professor.  In 1980, Secretary Yellen joined the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley, where she became the Eugene E. and Catherine M. Trefethen Professor of Business and Professor of Economics. She is Professor Emeritus at the university.  Secretary Yellen’s scholarship has focused on a range of issues pertaining to labor and macroeconomics. Her work on “efficiency wages” with her husband George Akerlof studied why firms often choose to pay more than the minimum needed to hire employees. These businesses, they found, are often making a wise decision.  Firms that offer better pay and working conditions tend to be rewarded with higher morale, reduced turnover and greater productivity.   In 1994, President Bill Clinton appointed then-Dr. Yellen to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Three years later, he named her Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.  In 2004, Secretary Yellen began her third tenure at the Federal Reserve, this time as President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. From that post, she spotted a worrying economic trend – a bubble in home values. When the housing bubble popped in 2008, Secretary Yellen helped manage the resulting financial crisis and recession. In 2010, President Barack Obama, appointed her Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve, before nominating her to succeed Fed Chair Benjamin Bernanke as the nation’s top central banker. Secretary Yellen would serve as Chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 until 2018.  On December 1, 2020, then-President-elect Biden nominated Dr. Janet Yellen to the post of Treasury Secretary. “She has spent her career focused on unemployment and the dignity of work,” he said, “She understands what it means to people and their communities when they have good, decent jobs.” Prior to serving at the Treasury Department, Secretary Yellen was a Distinguished Fellow in Residence with the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution.  During 2020-2021 she served as President of the American Economic Association.  She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations.  She was also a founding member of the Climate Leadership Council.  Secretary Yellen has served on the advisory boards of the Bloomberg New Economic Forum, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and Fix the Debt Coalition (CRFB), and the Washington Center for Equitable Growth Steering Committee.  She was elected to the Yale Corporation as an alumni fellow in 2000, serving until 2006. Dr. Yellen has received honorary doctorates from Bard College, Brown, the London School of Economics, NYU, the University of Baltimore, the University of Michigan, the University of Warwick and Yale from which she also received the Wilbur Cross Medal for distinguished achievements in scholarship, teaching, academic administration, and public service. 

Ellen Zentner, Chief U.S. Economist, Morgan Stanley
Ellen Zentner is Chief US Economist and a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, joining in 2013 from Nomura Securities International. Ellen serves on the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee (TBAC), as well as the Economic Advisory Panel for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the American Bankers’ Association. She is a former member of the Academic Advisory Council for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, past Chair of SIFMA’s Economic Advisory Roundtable, Director of the National Association for Business Economics as well as the NABE Foundation, and is a past president of NABE’s New York chapter (NYABE). In 2018 and 2020, Ellen’s team received the Lawrence R. Klein Award for the most accurate economic forecasts over the past four years. Ms. Zentner holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Colorado.

...more speakers will be announced in the coming weeks!