Webcast with Dave

Michael Wilson is the Chief Investment Officer and Chief U.S. Equity Strategist for Morgan Stanley. As CIO, Mike is responsible for all investment and asset-allocation advice provided to the Firm’s $4 trillion in retail-client assets. Over the past 30 years, Mike has held various roles with increasing responsibilities, mostly within Institutional Securities. He started his career in 1989 in Investment Banking, before transitioning to the Institutional Equities Division in 1995, where Mike created and managed the sector specialist team while serving as a Technology sector specialist himself. In 2009, he became Head of Content Distribution for North American Institutional Equities and then CIO for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management in 2012. He was made Chief U.S. Equity Strategist in Research and CIO for Institutional Securities in February 2017. He is a regular guest on CNBC and Bloomberg and is often quoted in popular financial publications, such as Barron’s, the Wall Street Journal, and The Economist, and by various news services. He is on the operating committees of the Firm’s Wealth Management and Institutional Equities divisions. Mike holds a BBA from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

Niall Ferguson, MA, DPhil, FRSE, is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a senior faculty fellow of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard. He is the author of sixteen books, including The Pity of War, The House of Rothschild, Empire, Civilization and Kissinger, 1923-1968: The Idealist, which won the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Prize. He is an award-winning filmmaker, too, having received an international Emmy for his PBS series The Ascent of Money. His 2018 book, The Square and the Tower, was a New York Times bestseller and was also adapted for television by PBS as Niall Ferguson’s Networld. In 2020 he joined Bloomberg Opinion as a columnist. In addition, he is the founder and managing director of Greenmantle LLC, a New York-based advisory firm, a co-founder of Ualá (a Latin American financial technology company), and a trustee of the New York Historical Society, the London-based Centre for Policy Studies, and the newly founded University of Austin. His latest book, Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe, was published in 2021 by Penguin and was shortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize. He is currently writing Kissinger, 1969-2023: The Player and serving as a visiting professor at the London School of Economics.

Ed is the founder and CEO of Devlin Capital. He oversees the process to identify global opportunities and will be responsible for each strategy’s performance.

Ed’s most recent role was as a managing director, lead portfolio manager for US Total Return portfolios and head of Canadian portfolio management after almost 15 years at PIMCO. Ed co-founded PIMCO Canada and led the business to raise over C$50 billion from Canadian clients. From 2009-2014, Ed was based in London and responsible for all sterling and euro denominated Liability Driven Investing (LDI) portfolios, he was a permanent member of the European portfolio committee that oversaw $500 billion in assets. Prior to joining PIMCO in 2006, he worked in London, Tokyo, Toronto, Hong Kong and New York in progressively more senior fixed income positions at Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch.

He is a Senior Fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute.

Inflation Insights brings nearly two decades of experience forecasting and analyzing US inflation data, with a particular emphasis on the CPI. The CPI is a cornerstone of financial markets, and there is no better guide to understanding it than Omair Sharif, the founder and president of Inflation Insights.

Omair has 18 years of experience on the sell-side, including at Greenwich Capital/RBS Securities, where he began his career. Omair was tasked with spearheading the firm’s coverage of US inflation. His publication, Inflation Watch, was widely read among market participants and his unique bottom-up approach to forecasting and analyzing inflation trends won him a wide audience among inflation market participants. He continued building on his success at Société Générale and later at Millennium Management, where he was part of a team that actively traded inflation.

Throughout his 20 years, Omair has continually strived to better understand and accurately forecast the CPI. His experience and knowledge of the CPI’s methodology have given him a consistent edge in forecasting that is uniquely suited to benefit inflation market participants.

Omair’s views are widely sought out by inflation traders, money managers, and the media. He has been quoted in the WSJ, FT, Bloomberg, Barron’s, New York Times, Washington Post, Reuters, Marketwatch and has appeared on CNBC, Bloomberg TV, Yahoo Finance TV, and the Bloomberg Odd Lots podcast.

Steven is a Senior Portfolio Manager for the Eisman Group, within the firm’s Private Asset Management division. Prior to joining the firm, he was the founder and portfolio manager of Emrys Partners, L.P. Previously, Steven was a partner and the senior portfolio manager of the FrontPoint Financial Services Fund, which began operations in March 2004, and the FrontPoint Financial Horizons Fund, which began operations in January 2006. Earlier in his career, Steven also served as a managing director and senior financial services analyst at Chilton Investment Co. He held the same role at Oppenheimer & Co. within the Investment Bank, Asset Management and Specialty Finance divisions. Since 2004, he has been a Portfolio Manager. Steven holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and his JD from Harvard Law School.

Richard C. Koo is the Chief Economist of Nomura Research Institute. He is also serving as a Senior Advisor to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. and is a columnist for the German economic daily Handelsblatt. He is best known for developing the concept of balance sheet recession which is now widely used around the world to explain post-1990 Japanese and post-2007 Western economies. He has also advised successive prime ministers on how best to deal with Japan’s economic and banking problems.

Ronnie is managing partner of Incrementum AG and responsible for Research and Portfolio Management. He studied business administration and finance in the USA and at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, and also gained work experience at the trading desk of a bank during his studies. Upon graduation he joined the research department of Erste Group, where in 2007 he published his first In Gold We Trust report. Over the years, the In Gold We Trust report has become one of the benchmark publications on gold, money, and inflation. Since 2013 he has held the position as reader at scholarium in Vienna, and he also speaks at Wiener Börse Akademie (the Vienna Stock Exchange Academy). In 2014, he co-authored the international bestseller Austrian School for Investors, and in 2019 The Zero Interest Trap. He is a member of the board of directors at Tudor Gold Corp. (TUD), and Goldstorm Metals Corp. (GSTM). Moreover, he is an advisor to VON GREYERZ AG, a global leader in wealth preservation in the form of physical gold stored outside the banking system.

John Hathaway joined Sprott Asset Management USA, Inc. in January 2020. Mr. Hathaway is a Senior Portfolio Manager of Sprott Hathaway Special Situations Strategy and Co-Portfolio Manager of the Sprott Gold Equity Fund. Previously, Mr. Hathaway joined Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. in 1997 where he was a Co-Portfolio Manager of the Tocqueville Gold Fund as well as other investment vehicles in the Tocqueville Gold Equity Strategy. He was also the Portfolio Manager of private funds. Prior to joining Tocqueville, Mr. Hathaway co-founded and managed Hudson Capital Advisors followed by seven years with Oak Hall Advisors as the Chief Investment Officer in 1986. In 1976, he joined the investment advisory firm David J. Greene and Company, where he became a Partner. Mr. Hathaway began his career in 1970 as an Equity Analyst with Spencer Trask & Co. Mr. Hathaway earned a B.A. from Harvard College and an MBA from the University of Virginia. Mr. Hathaway was also the Chairman of Tocqueville Management Corporation, the General Partner of Tocqueville. He also holds the CFA^® designation.

Mike Rothman is the President and Founder of Cornerstone Analytics, a macro-energy research firm that analyzes key market fundamentals involving supply, demand and geopolitics that influence the price of energy commodities and investment instruments. Mike previously founded ISI’s energy research platform in 2005, where he was #1 ranked for Independent Energy Research by Institutional Investor Magazine. Prior, Mike was Chief Energy Strategist and Co-Head of the Global Energy Equity Team at Merrill Lynch, which was ranked #1 in the Global Research Survey by Institutional Investor Magazine. With 37 years of researching the global energy markets and 35 years of attending OPEC meetings, Mike has forged deep industry contacts and cultivated unmatched insights that are relied upon by clients that include asset managers, commodity traders, oil companies, OPEC nations, and government organizations. Mike is a frequent guest speaker on Bloomberg and CNBC, a contributor to leading financial publications, and a keynote speaker at industry conferences around the globe. Cornerstone Analytics publishes a daily report and helps clients with research requests through email, conference calls, and in-office visits.

Martin Fridson is “perhaps the most well-known figure in the high yield world,” according to Investment Dealers’ Digest. At brokerage firms including Salomon Brothers, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch, he became known for his innovative work in credit analysis and investment strategy. For nine consecutive years he was ranked number one in high yield strategy in the Institutional Investor All America Research Survey.

Fridson received his B.A. cum laude in history from Harvard College and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He has served as president of the Fixed Income Analysts Society, governor of the CFA Institute, director of the New York Society of Security Analysts, and consultant to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

The Financial Management Association International named Fridson the Financial Executive of the Year in 2002. In 2000, he became the youngest person inducted up to that time in the Fixed Income Analysts Society Hall of Fame. A study based on 16 core journals ranked Fridson among the ten most widely published authors in finance in the period 1990-2001. In 2013 Fridson served as Special Assistant to the Director for Deferred Compensation, Office of Management and the Budget, The City of New York. The CFA Society New York, presented Fridson with its Ben Graham Award in 2017.

In 2000, The Green Magazine called Fridson’s Financial Statement Analysis “one of the most useful investment books ever.” The Boston Globe said his 2006 book, Unwarranted Intrusions: The Case Against Government Intervention in the Marketplace, should be short-listed for best business book of the decade.

Fridson’s commentary on economics and financial markets can be found on forbes.com

Mark Yusko is the Founder, CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Morgan Creek Capital Management. He is also the Managing Partner of Morgan Creek Digital. Morgan Creek Capital Management was founded in 2004 and currently manages close to $2 billion in discretionary and non-discretionary assets. Prior to founding Morgan Creek, Mr. Yusko was CIO and Founder of UNC Management Company (UNCMC), the Endowment investment office for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before that, he was Senior Investment Director for the University of Notre Dame Investment Office.

Mr. Yusko has been at the forefront of institutional investing throughout his career. An early investor in alternative asset classes at Notre Dame, he brought the Endowment Model of investing to UNC, which contributed to significant performance gains for the Endowment. The Endowment Model is the cornerstone philosophy of Morgan Creek, as is the mandate to Invest in Innovation. Mr. Yusko is again at the forefront of institutional investing through Morgan Creek Digital Assets, which was formed in 2018. Morgan Creek Digital is an early stage investor in blockchain technology, digital currency and digital assets.

Mr. Yusko received a BA with Honors from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA in Accounting and Finance from the University of Chicago.

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.

Based in Fort Worth, Texas, Gordon Dee Smith is Founder and CEO of Strategic Insight Group, a private intelligence and research firm that serves a client base of large investors, operating companies, and law firms, and works in more than 100 countries. He has advised on over US $120 billion in investment transactions and has conducted projects in areas ranging from geopolitical and global change risk analysis to enhanced due diligence and transactional and market intelligence for the finance, technology, defense, energy, retail, transportation, and healthcare industries, among others. His clients include several of the world’s largest institutional investors.

Currently, he is: a board member of Global Americans (a think-tank on hemispheric issues based in Washington, DC), a board member and past president of the board of the Dallas Committee on Foreign Relations; and immediate past chair and a member of the Advisory Council of the Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies and Benson Library of the University of Texas at Austin. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York; of Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs) in London; of the Bretton Woods Committee in Washington, D.C.; and of the Advisory Board of the Houston Committee on Foreign Relations. He has been active on several boards in arts and cultural organizations in Texas, New York, and Wyoming, currently including the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, and the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming.

Mr. Gundlach is CEO of DoubleLine.  In 2011, he appeared on the cover of Barron’s as “The New Bond King.”  In 2013, Institutional Investor named him “Money Manager of the Year.”  In 2012, 2015 and 2016, he was named one of “The Fifty Most Influential” in Bloomberg Markets.  In 2017, he was inducted into the FIASI Fixed Income Hall of Fame.  Mr. Gundlach is a summa cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College, with degrees in Mathematics and Philosophy.

Trevor Greetham is an investment strategist and fund manager with 24 years of experience. Prior to joining Royal London in 2015, Trevor was Asset Allocation Director for Fidelity Worldwide Investment, where he was responsible for implementing tactical investment decisions across a wide range of institutional and retail funds. From 1995 to 2005, Trevor was Director of Asset Allocation for Merrill Lynch, advising fund manager clients on their multi asset investment strategy. Trevor qualified as an actuary with UK life assurer Provident Mutual and has a Master of Arts in Mathematics from Cambridge University.

Gerard S. Cassidy is a Managing Director of Equity Research with RBC Capital Markets. Gerard S. Cassidy was a Managing Director of Equity Research with Tucker Anthony Sutro Capital Markets, which was acquired by the Royal Bank of Canada in 2001. Mr. Cassidy joined Tucker Anthony Sutro in March 1988 as a bank equity analyst. He is responsible for providing bank and regional economic research to the firm’s clients. Prior to joining Tucker Anthony Sutro, he was employed by UNUM Corporation as a senior bank analyst. Mr. Cassidy began his professional career with Gulf+Western, Industries as a merger and acquisitions analyst.

Mr. Cassidy is the creator of the Texas Ratio, a ratio used by investors to determine whether a bank could be insolvent. He is often quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes, Business Week, The American Banker and other leading newspapers and periodicals regarding the banking industry. Additionally, he has appeared on CNBC, CNN, NBC, BNN, National Public Radio and other leading broadcasts discussing banking and economic issues and its impact on bank stocks. Mr. Cassidy earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Maine in accounting and finance in 1980. He received his Masters of Business Administration degree from St. John’s University in 1984. Mr. Cassidy is a former Board of Director and Secretary of the New York Bank and Financial Analysts Association. He is currently the President of the BancAnalysts Association of Boston, Inc. Mr. Cassidy was also on the Board of Directors of Tucker Anthony Sutro Capital Markets.

For over 30 years Lakshman Achuthan has been studying business cycles and working with clients to help them manage risks and opportunities around turning points. In 2004, he co-authored Beating the Business Cycle: How to Profit from Turning Points in the Economy. Lakshman met his mentor, Geoffrey H. Moore, at Columbia University in 1990. After working together for years, with co-founder Anirvan Banerji, the three left Columbia to start ECRI in 1996. He also serves on the Board of Governors for the Levy Institute of Economics of Bard College.

Joseph (Joe) LaVorgna is a Managing Director and Chief Economist for SMBC Nikko Securities America, Inc. Joe joined the firm in September 2022 and is based in New York. 

Joe has spent more than 25 years in the financial services industry. He was most recently Managing Director and Chief Economist for the Americas at Natixis, where he oversaw the firm’s economic research effort in the region and managed a team of economists who analyzed trends in the equity, fixed income, foreign exchange, and commodity markets. 

While with Natixis, Joe spent one year serving at the White House as Special Assistant to the President and Chief Economist of the National Economic Council. 

Prior to Natixis, Joe spent 20 years with Deutsche Bank Securities in the Global Market Division, where he was considered one of the leading Wall Street economists. Early in his career, he was with Lehman Brothers, Inc., UBS Securities, Inc., and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. 

Appearing regularly in the financial media, Joe has been a contributor for CNBC and a contributing opinion writer for The Hill. For more than a decade, he was also ranked as a top economist in the prestigious Institutional Investor All-Star Fixed Income Survey. 

Joe also holds a Senior Fellow position at the America First Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. 

Joe earned a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Vassar College and did graduate work in economics at New York University. 

Stephanie Pomboy is founder and president of MacroMavens, a boutique research firm that provides macroeconomic research and commentary to an exclusive swath of the institutional investment community. The firm takes an unconventional approach to economic analysis, eschewing the typical over-emphasis on short-term swings. Instead MacroMavens endeavors to identify major macro trends and to flesh-out the market risks/opportunities around them. Since its inception in 2002, the firm has earned a reputation for calling major macro developments well ahead of the curve. Stephanie was one of the few warning of the housing bubble’s bust — and a lone voice in identifying the inexorable hit to financials to follow.

Founder, Dreamium Labs and Founding Board Member, Kwaai.ai, Mike is a visionary leader with a passionate focus on innovation and execution. His background includes instrumental roles leading to multi-billion-dollar exits at Compaq (HP), AltaVista (Yahoo), Shopping.com (Ebay), and Broadcom that helped to shape the previous two major computer eras, the PC Era and the Internet Era.

He’s led breakthrough product introductions and market-shaping initiatives such as affordable color scanners, PC market segmentation, multimedia PCs, advanced 3D graphics engines, digitally connected device infrastructure, internet search advertising, e-commerce, DRM for digital media, wireless streaming, productizing EVs, and green Bitcoin mining rigs. His strategic and operational leadership led to the development of six separate #1 market-leading and profitable businesses.

He is the founder of Dreamium Labs which pioneered self-sovereign identity for Web 3 and AI applications. He is also the founding board member of Kwaai.ai, contributing the technology building blocks to standardize open-source AI that ethically solves issues of authentication, privacy, and personal intellectual property.

He’s a strong believer in the power of highly diverse teams aligned behind an aspirational purpose. He recently led a company in crisis to its first “Best Places to Work” award while delivering record growth and profitability. Success starts with a culture of respect, teamwork, and relentless focus on customer delight which he’s embedded in shaping the culture of Dreamium Labs.

Barbara is a former top-ranked sell-side Equity Analyst and the Founder of Brady Capital Research Inc., a leading-edge investment research firm focused on technological, societal and economic disruption.

Barbara ranked as an All-Star Analyst for four consecutive years, achieving top-three standing each year in the Business Trust Sector in the Brendan Wood annual institutional survey. Barbara’s analytical prowess is built on a rich foundation of over fifteen years in sell-side equity research across both Canada and the US, encompassing a diverse range of sectors. This multi-dimensional perspective is her secret weapon: a panoramic view that’s invaluable in today’s fragmented AI landscape.

Beyond numbers, Barbara’s written narrative unfolds across ten critically acclaimed books, including recent insights into technological paradigm shifts like The New Cyber Decade and Secrets of the Amazon. Her works have not just predicted disruptions but illuminated pathways for organizations to navigate and thrive amidst them.

But what truly sets Barbara apart? It’s her unwavering belief that the past informs the future. Drawing upon her vast sectoral coverage—from North American consumer trends to industrial products and energy landscapes—she translates historical data into future opportunities. It’s this rare blend of retrospective analysis and forward-thinking strategy that makes Barbara an indispensable guide for companies aiming to unlock unparalleled value through AI.

Barbara has a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) from the University of British Columbia (1993) and earned her CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) designation in 1997.

Peter is Chief Investment Officer of Bleakley Financial Group. In his role as CIO, Peter leads the team that is responsible for the development, management and oversight of Bleakley’s investment management program, managing the investment committee, and setting the firm’s overall investment philosophy, global investment outlook and asset allocation decisions. He also manages two internal portfolio strategies. Peter is also a CNBC contributor and Editor of The Boock Report.

Dana Telsey is the CEO and Chief Research Officer of Telsey Advisory Group (TAG). TAG’s research team covers U.S. and international companies across all market caps in the following sectors: apparel manufacturers, children’s and teen retailers, consumer electronics retailers, cosmetics, department stores, discounters, footwear, gaming and lodging, home furnishings retailers, home improvement retailers, internet, luxury goods, office supply retailers, off-price retailers, restaurants, specialty apparel retailers, sporting goods retailers, and supermarkets.

Founded in 2006, TAG has grown to be a leading equity research, trade execution, investment banking and consulting firm, focusing on the consumer space. TAG is also certified as a Woman-Owned Business Enterprise by several states, cities, the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council and numerous plan sponsors across the country. In 2015, Ms. Telsey also formed Telsey Consumer Fund Management LP, an asset management firm that manages a long/short hedge fund investing in consumer-based companies. Ms. Telsey has followed over 100 companies during her 34-year career and is the only U.S. based analyst to provide complete analysis of the European luxury goods sector.

From 1994 to 2006, she was at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. covering the retail sector as a Senior Managing Director. Prior to working at Bear Stearns, Ms. Telsey was the Retail Analyst at C.J. Lawrence and Vice President of the Baron Asset Fund at Baron Capital, Inc. In 2018, Ms. Telsey was elected to the International Council of Shopping Center’s (ICSC) Board of Trustees for an initial three year term. In 2016, Ms. Telsey won the Thomson Reuters award for “Number 1 Stock Picker for Multiline Retail”. In 2015, Ms. Telsey was selected, “from hundreds of nominees by the National Retail Federation (NRF) executive judging panel of top industry CEOs”, as one of the 24 winners of The List of People Shaping Retail’s Future. In 2014, Ms. Telsey was honored with the designation of Woman- Owned Brokerage of the Year by Traders Magazine for successfully growing her firm by developing and delivering top-notch research and trading tools. In 2011, Traders Magazine awarded her as Entrepreneur of the Year. Ms. Telsey is a thirteen-year member of Institutional Investor magazine’s “All-America Research Team” where she was ranked the Number One Specialty Stores analyst for seven consecutive years through 2005. Ms. Telsey is a regular guest analyst on both CNN and CNBC and has appeared as a special guest on such programs as Bloomberg Radio, World News Tonight – ABC News, Good Morning America, The NBC Evening News, The Today Show, BNN, and BBC amongst many others. Ms. Telsey graduated from Hobart-William Smith Colleges with a B.A. degree in History and Spanish and received her M.B.A from Fordham University.

Roger is an investment professional with over 4 decades of experience specializing in chain restaurants, franchisors and retailers. While financing, building and operating fifteen franchised fast casual (before there was “fast casual”) seafood restaurants in the late 1970s he returned to New York, and for the next 13 years (from 1980-1993) worked at Ladenburg, Thalmann & Co., Inc. where, in addition to his institutional research and sales activity, he sponsored an annual Restaurant Conference for investment professionals, featuring as keynote speakers friends such as Norman Brinker, Dave Thomas, Jim Collins (Sizzler & KFC), Jim Patterson (Long John Silver’s), Allan Karp (KarpReilly) and Ted Levitt (legendary Harvard Business School marketing professor, and author). Roger formed Lipton Financial Services, Inc. in 1993, to invest in restaurant and retail companies, as well as provide investment banking services. His website: www.rogerlipton.com was established in 2015 and today covers every publicly held restaurant company as well as selected non-restaurant franchisors. The Bottom Line: Roger Lipton is uniquely equipped as an investor, investment banker, board member or expert witness. He has studied great success stories, from McDonald’s to Panera’s to Shake Shack. Even more important he has watched scores of companies stumble and sometimes fail. His website. www.rogerlipton.com, is his platform for conversing with other professionals in the field, improving his own investment results, and remaining well informed on industry issues.

The Honourable John Manley, P.C., O.C., became Chair of Jefferies Financial Canada on December 1, 2023, having served as Senior Business Adviser at Bennett Jones LLP since September 2019. He is best known as a former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada. He served in the Canadian Parliament from 1988 to 2004 as M.P. for Ottawa South. From 1993 to 2003 he was a Minister in the governments of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, serving in the portfolios of Industry, Foreign Affairs and Finance, in addition to being Deputy Prime Minister.

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Mr. Manley was named Chair of a Cabinet Committee on Public Security and Anti-terrorism, serving as counterpart to Governor Tom Ridge, the first U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security. In recognition of the role he played following 9/11, which he refers to as his “moment of fame”, TIME Canada named him “2001 Newsmaker of the Year” (and gave him some free copies of the magazine).

After a 16-year career in politics, Mr. Manley returned to the private sector in 2004 where he has continued to be active in public policy, as a media commentator, speaker and adviser to governments of differing political stripes. He is Fellow of the CD Howe Institute, the Royal Canadian Geographic Society, and the Institute of Corporate Directors. He is a founding member of the Wilson Center Global Advisory Council, a past member of the Brookings Institution International Advisory Council and served as Chair of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI) Advisory Council from 2012-2023. He joined the Advisory Council of the MacDonald Laurier Foundation in 2023.

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During a distinguished career in the federal public service, Mr. Dodge held senior positions in the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the Anti-Inflation Board, and the Department of Employment and Immigration. After serving in a number of increasingly senior positions at the Department of Finance, including that of G-7 Deputy, he was Deputy Minister of Finance from 1992 to 1997. In that role, he served as a member of the Bank of Canada’s Board of Directors.

In 1998 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Health, a position he held until his appointment as Governor of the Bank of Canada.Mr. Dodge, appointed Governor of the Bank of Canada, effective 1 February 2001 for a term of seven years, retired on 31 January 2008. From July 2008 to June 2014, he served as Chancellor of Queen’s University. From 2009 to 2015, he was a member of the board of directors of Canadian Utilities Limited, ATCO Limited and the Bank of Nova Scotia.

Mr. Dodge is Senior Advisor at Bennett Jones LLP one of Canada’s leading law firms. He also serves on the board of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, and Chairs the National Council of the C.D. Howe Institute.

A. Gary Shilling, Ph.D., is President of A. Gary Shilling & Co., Inc., investment advisers, economic consultants and publishers of INSIGHT, a monthly report of economic forecasts and investment strategies.  Dr. Shilling is a columnist for Bloomberg View online, a Forbes magazine columnist since 1983 and a frequent contributor to the financial media. 

He received his bachelor’s degree in physics, magna cum laude, from Amherst College where he was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi.  Dr. Shilling earned his master’s degree and doctorate in economics at Stanford University. While on the West Coast, he served on the staffs of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and Bank of America.  Earlier, as a high school senior, he ranked 12th in the nation in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search. 

Before establishing his own firm in 1978, Dr. Shilling was Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of White, Weld & Co., Inc.  Earlier, he set up the Economics Department at Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith at age 29 and served as the firm’s chief economist.  Prior to Merrill Lynch, he was with Standard Oil Co. (NJ) (now ExxonMobil).

He has written eight books on the economic outlook and investment strategy.

Twice, the Institutional Investor magazine ranked Dr. Shilling as Wall Street’s top economist, Futures magazine rated him the country’s number one Commodity Trading Advisor and MoneySense magazine named him the third best stock market forecaster in the world, right behind Warren Buffett.  He is recognized as an effective and dynamic speaker.

He is Chairman of the Episcopal Preaching Foundation, which he founded in 1988, and is an avid beekeeper.

Marko is a Partner and Chief Strategist at Clocktower Group, an alternative investment asset management firm based in Santa Monica, California. He leads the firm’s Strategy Team, providing bespoke research to clients and partners on geopolitics, macroeconomics, and markets.

Prior to joining the firm, Marko founded BCA Research’s Geopolitical Strategy practice (GPS) in 2012, the financial industry’s first dedicated political analysis investment strategy. The GPS service generated geopolitical alpha by identifying gaps between the market’s political expectations and the firm’s forecasts. Marko was a Senior Vice President and the firm’s Chief Geopolitical Strategist.

Marko began his career as a Senior Analyst at Stratfor, a global intelligence agency where he contributed to the firm’s global geopolitical strategy as well as its analyst recruitment and training program. In his academic work, he helped create the Center for European Union Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Marko holds an MA in Political Science from the University of Texas at Austin and an MA from the University of British Columbia.

He is the author of Geopolitical Alpha: An Investment Framework for Predicting the Future, a book that introduces his constraints-based framework to investors. Born in Belgrade, Serbia, he has lived in Iraq, Jordan, Switzerland, Canada, and the U.S. When he isn’t writing research, you can find him coaching his kids’ basketball games or playing with locals on the neighborhood court.

Doug brings a combination of decades’ worth of experience and successful navigation through some of the most turbulent periods in market history along with time-tested analytical skills, essential for looking past the current noise and herd mentality.

• Doug first achieved prominence – in the late 1990s – through strong performance as a dedicated short-seller and subsequently as a long/short manager. His views are often at variant with consensus.
• He is currently the President of Seabreeze Partners Management LLC, the General Partner of hedge fund, Seabreeze Capital Partners LP (formed in late 2021).
• Doug received his bachelor’s from Alfred University in three years. He delivered the commencement speech to the graduating class of 2010.  Doug received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Laws and was Vice Chairman of the University’s Investment Committee and a Member of the Board of Trustees. Kass received his MBA in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1972 (graduating second in his class).
• While in his second year at Wharton, he co-authored “Citibank: The Ralph Nader Report” with Ralph Nader & the Center for the Study of Responsive Law. 
• Prior to founding Seabreeze, Doug was a portfolio manager and Director of Research at Omega Advisors.
• He was Director of Institutional Equities at JW Charles/CSG and First Albany.
• He was with Putnam Management (analyst and economist) and was a Partner at Glickenhaus & Co. 
• Doug began his career as a housing analyst at Kidder Peabody. 
• Companies continue to seek his guidance as a Director when faced with milestone events and/or seeking business alternatives
• Doug was a member of the Board of Directors of MVC Capital (NYSE) and is currently on the Board of Aspen Group (NASDAQ). He serves as a Board Observer for Twill Health. Previously he was a Director of Empire Resources, Federal Home Loan Bank of Palm Beach, Diversified Mortgage Group (the predecessor to Danaher) and from 2020-2022 he was a special advisor to the Board of Directors at Ocwen Financial. .
• Since 1997 Doug has been the principal contributor to TheStreet.com’s “Real Money Pro” (founded by Jim Cramer).
• He has been frequently interviewed by and written numerous articles for Barron’s (including several cover stories and five editorials), the New York Times and London Times. 
• Mr. Kass has lectured on short selling and economics at Harvard Business School, Tulane University, Florida Atlantic University’s College of Business and at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.  Since 2011 he has lectured in Dr. Robert Shiller’s Yale University Undergraduate and Graduate School of Management economics courses.
• From 2003-2016 Kass was a guest host of CNBC’s “Squawk Box” and appears monthly on Bloomberg’s “Market Surveillance” with Tom Keene and Paul Sweeney. 
• Kass was chosen by Warren Buffett to be the “credential bear” on Berkshire Hathaway – sitting on the dais at the company’s 2013 Annual Meeting for the purpose of asking questions of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger over the course of Meeting.
• Author of “Doug Kass On the Market: A Life on TheStreet”  – a best selling book on investing.

James Grant, financial journalist and historian, is the founder and editor of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, a twice-monthly journal of the investment markets. His book, The Forgotten Depression, 1921: The Crash that Cured Itself, a history of America’s last governmentally unmedicated business-cycle downturn, won the 2015 Hayek Prize of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. His new book, Bagehot: The Life and Times of the Greatest Victorian, was published in July 2019.

Liz Ann is Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Strategist at Charles Schwab. A keynote speaker at numerous industry conferences, Liz Ann is regularly quoted in financial publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Barron’s, and the Financial Times, and she appears as a regular guest on CNBC, Fox Business, CNN, and Bloomberg programs.

Liz Ann has been named “Best Market Strategist” by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance and one of SmartMoney magazine’s “Power 30.” Barron’s named her to the inaugural “100 Most Influential Women in Finance” list and Investment Advisor included her on the “IA 25,” its list of the 25 most important people in and around the financial advisory profession.

Harley is an industry thought leader and commentator on macroeconomic issues spanning decades. He spent 26 years at Merrill Lynch where he created OPOSSMS, GNMA, PRESERV, MOVE, and hedge strategies for MBS servers.

From 2014 to 2017, Harley was an Executive VP and Portfolio Manager at PIMCO. In 2011, he joined Credit Suisse’s Global Rates. In 2006, he built the RateLab, a full spectrum US Rates Trading Desk Strategy Group.  In 2001, he became the manager of North American MBS and Structured Finance trading where he created SURF (Specialty Underwriting and Residential Finance).

Presently, Mr. Bassman is a Managing Partner at Simplify Asset Management. He continues to pen an episodic macroeconomic Commentary as well as manage a “hedge fund of one”. Harley has a B.A. in management science from the University of California, San Diego and an MBA in finance and marketing from the University of Chicago.

Byron Wien is Vice Chairman of Blackstone’s Private Wealth Solutions group where he acts as a senior adviser to both the Firm and its clients in analyzing economic, social and political trends to assess the direction of financial markets and thus help guide investment and strategic decisions.

Prior to joining Blackstone, Mr. Wien was Chief Investment Strategist for Pequot Capital and before that served for 21 years as Chief (later Senior) U.S. Investment Strategist at Morgan Stanley. In 1995, Mr. Wien co-authored a book with George Soros on the legendary investor’s life and philosophy, Soros on Soros – Staying Ahead of the Curve.

In 1998 he was named by First Call the most widely read analyst on Wall Street and in 2000 was ranked the No. 1 strategist by SmartMoney.com based on his market calls during that year. Mr. Wien was named to the 2004 Smart Money Power 30 list of Wall Street’s most influential investors, thinkers, enforcers, policy makers, players and market movers. He appeared in the “Thinker” category. In 2006, Mr. Wien was named by New York Magazine as one of the sixteen most influential people in Wall Street. The New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA) presented Mr. Wien with a lifetime achievement award in 2008. Mr. Wien received an AB with honors from Harvard College and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School. He is a member of the Investment Committees of Lincoln Center. He is a trustee of the New York Historical Society, and Chairman of the Investment Committee of the JPB Foundation.

Michael Wilson is the Chief Investment Officer and Chief US Equity Strategist for Morgan Stanley. As CIO and Chair of the Global Investment Committee, Mike is responsible for all investment and asset allocation advice provided to the Firm’s $4 trillion in retail-client assets. Over the past 30 years, Mike has held various roles with increasing responsibilities, mostly within Institutional Securities. He started his career in 1989 in Investment Banking, before transitioning to the Institutional Equities Division in 1995, where Mike created and managed the sector specialist team while serving as a Technology sector specialist himself. In 2009, he became Head of Content Distribution for North American Institutional Equities and then CIO for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management in 2012. He was made Chief US Equity Strategist in Research and CIO for Institutional Securities in February 2017. Mike is a regular guest on CNBC and Bloomberg and is often quoted in popular financial publications, such as Barron’s, the Wall Street Journal, and The Economist, and by various news services. He is on the operating committees of the Firm’s Wealth Management and Institutional Equities divisions. Mike holds a BBA from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

Since the formation of Oaktree in 1995, Mr. Marks has been responsible for ensuring the firm’s adherence to its core investment philosophy; communicating closely with clients concerning products and strategies; and contributing his experience to big-picture decisions relating to investments and corporate direction. From 1985 until 1995, Mr. Marks led the groups at The TCW Group, Inc. that were responsible for investments in distressed debt, high yield bonds, and convertible securities. He was also Chief Investment Officer for Domestic Fixed Income at TCW. Previously, Mr. Marks was with Citicorp Investment Management for 16 years, where from 1978 to 1985 he was Vice President and senior portfolio manager in charge of convertible and high yield securities. Between 1969 and 1978, he was an equity research analyst and, subsequently, Citicorp’s Director of Research. Mr. Marks holds a B.S.Ec. degree cum laude from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a major in finance and an M.B.A. in accounting and marketing from the Booth School of Business of the University of Chicago, where he received the George Hay Brown Prize. He is a CFA® charterholder. Mr. Marks is an Emeritus Trustee and member of the Investment Committee at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He is a member of the Investment Committee of the Royal Drawing School and is Professor of Practice at King’s Business School (both in London). He serves on the Shanghai International Financial Advisory Council and the Advisory Board of Duke Kunshan University. He is an Emeritus Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, where from 2000 to 2010 he chaired the Investment Board.

Katie Stockton, CMT is Founder and Managing Partner of Fairlead Strategies, LLC, an independent research provider focused on technical analysis. Prior to forming Fairlead Strategies, Katie spent more than 20 years on Wall Street providing technical research and advice to institutional investors. Most recently, she served as Chief Technical Strategist for BTIG for four years, and prior to that Chief Market Technician at MKM Partners for nine years. She also worked for technical strategy teams at Morgan Stanley and Wit Soundview. Katie now provides research and consulting services to institutions and individuals as a registered investment advisor. Katie received her Chartered Market Technician (CMT®) designation in 2001, and later served as Vice President of the CMT Association from 2012 to 2016. In 2017, 2019, and 2020 she was honored by The Technical Analyst, a U.K. based publication, for her work. Katie graduated with honors from the University of Richmond and she now serves on the business school’s Executive Advisory Council. Ms. Stockton frequently shares her views on CNBC and other financial news networks.

Barry Habib is an American entrepreneur and the CEO of MBS Highway. He is a frequent media resource for his mortgage and housing expertise and widely credited with saving the mortgage industry in 2020 from margin calls due to Fed actions. Barry Habib was named 2019 Mortgage Professional of the Year and is a three-time Crystal Ball Award winner by Zillow and Pulsenomics for the most accurate Real Estate forecast out of 150 of the top economists in the U.S.

Peter is Chief Investment Officer of Bleakley Financial Group. In his role as CIO, Peter leads the team that is responsible for the development, management and oversight of Bleakley’s investment management program, managing the investment committee, and setting the firm’s overall investment philosophy, global investment outlook and asset allocation decisions. He also manages two internal portfolio strategies. Peter is also a CNBC contributor and Editor of The Boock Report.

Mr. Isenberg is the co-head of public fundamental credit at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (a $6 billion pool of capital), with a focus on investment grade, high yield markets and loan markets.  Prior to Ontario Teachers, he was a Partner and the Head of Research at RP Investment Advisors, a $7 billion investment firm focused on investment grade and cross-over credit.  Before RP Investment Advisors, Mr. Isenberg was a Portfolio Manager focused on equity long/short strategies in North America and the head of financials sector for Gluskin Sheff & Associates.  Prior to his time at Gluskin Sheff, Mr. Isenberg was a corporate lawyer and investment banker in New York City with Shearman & Sterling and Merrill Lynch, respectively (his focus at that time was Derivatives and Structured Finance).  Mr. Isenberg graduated with honors from University of Pennsylvania Law School and Cornell University. 

Fred Hickey is the editor of the newsletter The High-Tech Strategist, which he has published monthly for the past 34 years. The newsletter focuses on general macro issues, technology and precious metals. He was a member of the renowned Barron’s Roundtable for a decade. Prior to founding the newsletter, he was employed by General Telephone & Electronics (GTE) in various financial roles for over ten years. Fred graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in business administration/accounting. He resides with his wife Kathy in their homes in Nashua, New Hampshire and Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica.

Richard Christopher Whalen is an investment banker and writer who lives in New York. He is Chairman of Whalen Global Advisors LLC and focuses on the banking, mortgage finance and fintech sectors. Christopher is the author of several books, is contributing editor at National Mortgage News, and appears in a variety of other publications and media. He is a member of FINRA and is a Senior Advisor at J.V.B. Financial Group in New York.

From 2014 through 2017, Christopher was Senior Managing Director and Head of Research at Kroll Bond Rating Agency, where he was responsible for ratings by the firm’s Financial Institutions and Corporate Ratings Groups. He was a co-founder and principal of Institutional Risk Analytics from 2003 through 2013.

Over the past three decades, Chris worked as a writer and financial professional in Washington, New York and London. He has held positions in organizations such as the House Republican Conference Committee, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Bear, Stearns & Co., Prudential Securities, and Carrington Mortgage Holdings.

Christopher holds a B.A. in History from Villanova University. He is the author of three books, including his most recent work “Ford Men: From Inspiration to Enterprise” (2017), a study of Ford Motor Co and the Ford family published by Laissez Faire Books. He is the author of “Inflated: How Money and Debt Built the American Dream” (2010) published by John Wiley & Sons; and co-author of “Financial Stability: Fraud, Confidence & the Wealth of Nations,” also published by John Wiley & Sons.

Dr. Nela Richardson is ADP’s Chief Economist and the co-head of the ADP Research Institute (ADPRI), where she leads economic research and provides reliable and timely analysis for the public, global and local businesses, and policymakers. Her background and expertise cross many industries, including finance, technology, housing and labor. In response to the accelerated pace of economic change, Dr. Richardson led the launch of a high-frequency revamp of the renowned ADP® National Employment Report in collaboration with Stanford Digital Economy Lab.

Together with her team of researchers, data scientists and financial markets experts, Dr. Richardson drives the Institute’s mission to generate datadriven discoveries about the world of work through research initiatives, such as Pay Insights, Global Workforce View and Women at Work, among others. In addition to ongoing labor market analysis, Dr. Richardson provides insights on the dynamic shifts of the economy. She is a highly sought speaker and has delivered remarks at global thought leadership events, including the World Economic Forum Annual Conference in Davos.

Dr. Richardson is also a regular contributor to top-tier media outlets, including Marketplace from American Public Media. She frequently appears on CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox Business CNN, Yahoo! Finance, The Wall Street Journal, FORTUNE magazine, The New York Times, among others. Dr. Richardson’s MainStreet Macro blog offers insights on how economic conditions affect small businesses, workers and households. Prior to her work at ADP, Dr. Richardson was Principal and Investment Strategist at Edward Jones, a financial services firm, where she analyzed and interpreted economic trends and financial market conditions and recommended investment strategies. Dr. Richardson previously served as chief economist at Redfin Corp., a national real estate brokerage and technology company, where she led a team of data scientists, economists and writers to track trends in the housing market. She also worked as a senior economist for Bloomberg, L.P., covering housing and financial markets.

Thomas Hoenig is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Prior to joining the Mercatus Center, Mr. Hoenig served as Vice Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from 2012 until 2018. In that capacity, he oversaw FDIC operations and policy related to deposit insurance pricing, bank supervision, and financial stability and bank resolution. He served as Director of NeighborWorks America, which was established by Congress in 1978 to address housing issues nationwide. He also served as a member of the International Association of Deposit Insurers’ board from 2012 to 2017, and as the President and Chairman from October 2015 to October 2017.

Previously, Mr. Hoenig was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and a member of the Federal Reserve System’s Federal Open Market Committee from 1991 to 2011. Mr. Hoenig was with the Federal Reserve for 38 years, beginning as an economist and then as a senior officer in banking supervision. As President and Chief
Executive Officer, he led the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City during the Great Recession and the banking crisis of 2008 and 2009. During his time with the Federal Reserve, Mr. Hoenig chaired several key committees including the Conference of Presidents, the Committee on Bank Supervision, Regulation and Legislation, and the Information Technology Oversight Committee. Also, during his tenure Mr. Hoenig organized and hosted the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s Jackson Hole
economic symposium for global central bankers. Mr. Hoenig is from Fort Madison, Iowa and received a doctorate in economics from Iowa State University.

Joshua Rosner is a managing director at the independent research consultancy Graham Fisher and Co. and was among the first analysts to identify accounting problems at the government-sponsored-enterprises and to warn of the coming credit crisis. He advises regulators and institutional investors on housing and mortgage-finance-related issues. He lives in New York City.

Imagine if you could be a fly on the wall, able to listen in to the Merrill Lynch macro and market morning meetings for the sales and trading group, back in the day when the bank was a research powerhouse.  Well, you are going to have your chance!  I have assembled the best of the best from my former firm’s economics and strategy team – Bob Farrell, Chuck Clough, Richard Bernstein, Gary Shilling and … yours truly, for this upcoming Webcast on Thursday, on April 13th at 4p.m.!  We will be talking about the current and future state of the world, how to invest around it, and will also be taking your questions. An hour of your time to hear more than 230 years of combined experience in economic and financial forecasting sounds like a pretty good deal!

J. Marshall Adkins is the Sr. Managing Director and Head of Energy Investment Banking at Raymond James. Marshall Adkins joined Raymond James in 1995 and serves as the head of the firm’s Energy Investment Banking practice. Prior to this role, Mr. Adkins served as the director of Energy Research and focused on oilfield services and products. Prior to Raymond James, he spent 10 years in the oilfield services industry as a project manager, corporate financial analyst, sales manager, and engineer. He holds a B.S. degree in petroleum engineering and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.

Mr. Grantham co-founded GMO in 1977 and is a member of GMO’s Asset Allocation team, serving as the firm’s long-term investment strategist. He is a member of the GMO Board of Directors and has also served on the investment boards of several non-profit organizations. Prior to GMO’s founding, Mr. Grantham was co-founder of Batterymarch Financial Management in 1969 where he recommended commercial indexing in 1971, one of several claims to being first. He began his investment career as an economist with Royal Dutch Shell. Mr. Grantham earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Sheffield (U.K.) and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He is a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, holds a CBE from the UK and is a recipient of the Carnegie Medal for Philanthropy.

Mr. Barnes was BCA Research’s Chief Economist. He joined BCA Research in late 1987 and for 18 years he was responsible for The Bank Credit Analyst, the company’s highly respected flagship service. His analysis of the economic and financial outlook is widely followed around the world, and he is known for providing leading-edge research on a broad range of subjects of relevance to investors. He is quoted regularly in the press and speaks frequently at investment conferences. In his book The Ultimate Investor, the legendary investor Dean LeBaron featured Mr. Barnes as one of “The People That Make Modern Investment.” Prior to joining BCA, Mr. Barnes spent 10 years as Chief International Economist with Wood Mackenzie, one of the top U.K. brokerage firms. From 1973 to 1977 he was an economist with British Petroleum in London. Mr. Barnes is a member of the Conference of Business Economists, and the Montreal and Victoria Societies of Financial Analysts. From mid-2009 to late 2014, he was on the Board of Trustees of the University of Victoria Pension Fund. He received his economics degree from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow and moved from Scotland to Canada in 1987.

Lacy H. Hunt, Ph.D. is Executive Vice President and Chief Economist of Hoisington Investment Management Company (HIMCO), a firm that manages $5.5 billion for pension funds, endowments, insurance companies and others.

Lacy is the author of two books, and numerous articles in leading magazines, periodicals and scholarly journals.  Included among the publishers of his articles are Barron’s, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Business Economics, the Journal of Finance, the Financial Analysts Journal and the Journal of Portfolio Management.  The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank both published his research.    

The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, BusinessWeek, Barron’s, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, Investor’s Business Daily and many other domestic periodicals have quoted Lacy.  He has been a guest on PBS on The Nightly Business Report, The News Hour, and Wall Street Week.  He has been on CNN shows Moneyline, and Business Morning and on CNBC’s Squawk Box and World Business.  He has also appeared on CBS Evening News, NBC’s Today Show, and ABC’s World News Tonight.  Lacy has testified before various committees of Congress, including House Ways and Means, Senate Finance and Senate Banking.

Previously, Lacy was Chief U.S. Economist for the HSBC Group, Executive Vice President and Chief Economist at Fidelity Bank and Vice President for Monetary Economics at Chase Econometrics Associates, Inc. 

Lacy has served as Senior Economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.  While there, he served on two Federal Reserve System Committees: Financial Analysis and International Economics.  At the Fidelity Bank of Philadelphia, he had the responsibility for managing the Trust Department’s Comingled Fixed Income Fund in the 1970s and early 1980s. 

He earned his BA from Sewanee: The University of the South (1964), his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (1966), and his Ph.D. in Economics from Temple University (1969).  From Sewanee, he received an honorary Doctor of Civil Laws in 2013 and their Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2016. Lacy served on the Board of Trustees of Temple University from 1987 to 2010 and is now an honorary life trustee and received the College of Liberal Arts Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2018.

He received the Abramson Award from the National Association for Business Economics for “outstanding contributions in the field of business economics.” He is a life member of the American Finance Association.  He was a member of the Economic Advisory Board of the American Bankers Association and Chairman of the Economic Advisory Board of the Pennsylvania Bankers Association.  He served on the Monetary and Fiscal Policy Affairs Committee of the National Chamber of Commerce. 

Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer, Morgan Creek Capital Management Managing Partner, Morgan Creek Digital Assets

Morgan Creek Capital Management was founded in 2004 and currently manages close to $2 billion in discretionary and non‐discretionary assets. Prior to founding Morgan Creek, Mr. Yusko was CIO and Founder of UNC Management Company (UNCMC), the Endowment investment office for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before that, he was Senior Investment Director for the University of Notre Dame Investment Office.

Mr. Yusko has been at the forefront of institutional investing throughout his career. An early investor in alternative asset classes at Notre Dame, he brought the Endowment Model of investing to UNC, which contributed to significant performance gains for the Endowment. The Endowment Model is the cornerstone philosophy of Morgan Creek, as is the mandate to Invest in Innovation. Mr. Yusko is again at the forefront of investing through Morgan Creek Digital Assets, which was formed in 2018. Morgan Creek Digital is an early stage investor in blockchain technology, digital currency and digital assets through the firm’s Venture Capital and Digital Asset Index Fund.
Mr. Yusko received a BA with Honors from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA in Accounting and Finance from the University of Chicago.

Robert D. Kaplan is the bestselling author of twenty-one books on foreign affairs and travel translated into many languages, including The Tragic Mind, Adriatic,The Good American, The Revenge of Geography, Asia’s Cauldron, Monsoon, The Coming Anarchy,and Balkan Ghosts. He holds the Robert Strausz-Hupé Chair in Geopolitics at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. For three decades he reported on foreign affairs for The Atlantic. He was a member of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board and the U. S. Navy’s Executive Panel. Foreign Policy magazine twice named him one of the world’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers.”

Janice Gross Stein is the Belzberg Professor of Conflict Management in the Department of Political Science and was the Founding Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto (serving from 1998 to the end of 2014). She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a member of the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario. Her most recent publications include Networks of Knowledge: Innovation in International Learning (2000); The Cult of Efficiency (2001); and Street Protests and Fantasy Parks (2001). She is a contributor to Canada by Picasso (2006) and the co-author of The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar (2007). She was the Massey Lecturer in 2001 and a Trudeau Fellow. She was awarded the Molson Prize by the Canada Council for an outstanding contribution by a social scientist to public debate. She is an Honorary Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has been awarded Honorary Doctorate of Laws by the University of Alberta, the University of Cape Breton, McMaster University, and Hebrew University.

British-American labor economist and academic, Danny Blanchflower Ph.D (David Graham Blanchflower) is currently a tenured professor of statistics, labor economics, microeconomics, and econometrics at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire.

He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, part-time professor at the University of Glasgow, and a Bloomberg TV contributing editor. He was an external member of the Bank of England’s interest rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) from June 2006 to June 2009.  British-born, Blanchflower is now both a British and an American citizen, having moved to the United States in 1989. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2009 Birthday Honors.

Dennis Gartman is the editor and publisher of The Gartman Letter. He began his career in 1974 as an economist with Cotton, Inc., then trading foreign exchange for NCNB National Bank. Mr. Gartman was chief financial futures analyst for A.G. Becker & Company while an independent member of the Chicago Board of Trade.

David Zervos is currently Chief Market Strategist for Jefferies LLC and Head of the Global Macro Division of Leucadia Asset Management, LLC (“LAM”). David joined Jefferies in 2010 after spending 2009 as a visiting advisor at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C. Prior to visiting the Federal Reserve, he held a variety of research, sales and trading positions in the private sector, most recently managing global macro portfolios for Brevan Howard and UBS O’Connor. He began his career as an economist at the Federal Reserve Board in the early 1990’s. He received a B.Sc. from Washington University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Rochester.

For over 30 years Lakshman Achuthan has been studying business cycles and working with clients to help them manage risks and opportunities around turning points.

In 2004, he co-authored Beating the Business Cycle: How to Profit from Turning Points in the Economy.

Lakshman met his mentor, Geoffrey H. Moore, at Columbia University in 1990. After working together for years, with co-founder Anirvan Banerji, the three left Columbia to start ECRI in 1996.

He also serves on the Board of Governors for the Levy Institute of Economics of Bard College.

Dr Marc Faber was born in Zurich, Switzerland.  He went to school in Geneva and Zurich and finished high school with the Matura.  He studied Economics at the University of Zurich and, at the age of 24, obtained a PhD in Economics magna cum laude.

Between 1970 and 1978, Dr Faber worked for White Weld & Company Limited in New York, Zurich and Hong Kong.

Since 1973, he has lived in Hong Kong.  From 1978 to February 1990, he was the Managing Director of Drexel Burnham Lambert (HK) Ltd.  In June 1990, he set up his own business which acts as an investment advisor, fund manager and broker/dealer. 

Dr Faber publishes a widely read monthly investment newsletter “THE GLOOM BOOM & DOOM” report which highlights unusual investment opportunities, and is the author of several books including “TOMORROW’S GOLD – Asia’s Age of Discovery” which was first published in 2002 and highlights future investment opportunities around the world. “TOMORROW’S GOLD” was for several weeks on Amazon’s best seller list and has been translated into Japanese, Korean, Thai and German. Dr. Faber is also a regular contributor to several leading financial publications around the world. 

A book on Dr Faber, “RIDING THE MILLENNIAL STORM”, by Nury Vittachi, was published in 1998.

A regular speaker at various investment seminars, Dr Faber is well known for his “contrarian” investment approach.

Byron Wien is Vice Chairman of Blackstone’s Private Wealth Solutions group where he acts as a senior adviser to both the Firm and its clients in analyzing economic, social and political trends to assess the direction of financial markets and thus help guide investment and strategic decisions. Prior to joining Blackstone, Mr. Wien was Chief Investment Strategist for Pequot Capital and before that served for 21 years as Chief (later Senior) U.S. Investment Strategist at Morgan Stanley.

In 1995, Mr. Wien co-authored a book with George Soros on the legendary investor’s life and philosophy, Soros on Soros – Staying Ahead of the Curve. In 1998 he was named by First Call the most widely read analyst on Wall Street and in 2000 was ranked the No. 1 strategist by SmartMoney.com based on his market calls during that year. Mr. Wien was named to the 2004 Smart Money Power 30 list of Wall Street’s most influential investors, thinkers, enforcers, policy makers, players and market movers. He appeared in the “Thinker” category.

In 2006, Mr. Wien was named by New York Magazine as one of the sixteen most influential people in Wall Street. The New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA) presented Mr. Wien with a lifetime achievement award in 2008.
Mr. Wien received an AB with honors from Harvard College and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School. He is a member of the Investment Committees of Lincoln Center and The Pritzker Foundation. He is a trustee of the New York Historical Society, and Chairman of the Investment Committee of the JPB Foundation.

Ivy Zelman is Chief Executive Officer of Zelman & Associates holding roughly 30 years of experience covering housing and housing-related industries. In 2007, Ivy co-founded Zelman & Associates. The firm provides analyses across all aspects of the housing spectrum. Ivy’s concept for the firm remains strongly rooted in the ability to perform thematic research overlaid with proprietary surveys to produce unparalleled differentiated value-added research. Institutional Investors – America Research Team rankings placed Ivy and her team with eleven 1st place rankings (1999 – 2004, 2006 – 2007 and 2010 – 2013). Hanley Wood, a leading real estate media firm, ranked Ivy as 14th of the Top 50 most influential persons in housing. In 2020 & 2021, Ivy was included in Barron’s 100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance. As one of the most powerful women on Wall Street, Ivy Zelman is a sought-after expert on the housing sector, and what the overall housing market means for investors, homebuilders, industry executives and the economy at large. She frequently appears on television shows such as CNBC, in major publications including The Wall Street Journal, and has acted as a key witness in a congressional hearing. Jim Cramer, host of the CNBC’s show Mad Money, said “Ivy is the Ax of the homebuilders – the analyst who understands the group better than anyone else on Wall Street.” Ivy’s speaking requests by conferences, board meetings, podcasts or special events have included: Bloomberg, CNBC, TD Ameritrade Network, Bloomberg’s Master’s in Business, International Builder Show, MBS Highway, National Association of Homebuilders, NFX, National Association of Realtors, National Organization of Investment Professionals, Mortgage Banking Association, Moody’s, AmeriCatalyst, PropTechCEO Summit, Reality Alliance, Walker Webcast, International Mass Timber Conference, Inman. She received a Bachelor of Science from George Mason University and currently lives in Cleveland, Ohio with her husband David and their three children, Zoey, Zachary and Zia. Ivy is a special advisor to Laurel School, BBYO, NCJW Cleveland as well as mentors’ high school and college students.

Mr. Gundlach is CEO of DoubleLine.  In 2011, he appeared on the cover of Barron’s as “The New Bond King.”  In 2013, Institutional Investor named him “Money Manager of the Year.”  In 2012, 2015 and 2016, he was named one of “The Fifty Most Influential” in Bloomberg Markets.  In 2017, he was inducted into the FIASI Fixed Income Hall of Fame.  Mr. Gundlach is a summa cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College, with degrees in Mathematics and Philosophy.

Peter is Chief Investment Officer of Bleakley Financial Group. In his role as CIO, Peter leads the team that is responsible for the development, management and oversight of Bleakley’s investment management program, managing the investment committee, and setting the firm’s overall investment philosophy, global investment outlook and asset allocation decisions. He also manages two internal portfolio strategies. Peter is also a CNBC contributor and Editor of The Boock Report.

Liz Ann is Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Strategist at Charles Schwab. A keynote speaker at numerous industry conferences, Liz Ann is regularly quoted in financial publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Barron’s, and the Financial Times, and she appears as a regular guest on CNBC, Fox Business, CNN, and Bloomberg programs.

Liz Ann has been named “Best Market Strategist” by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance and one of SmartMoney magazine’s “Power 30.” Barron’s named her to the inaugural “100 Most Influential Women in Finance” list and Investment Advisor included her on the “IA 25,” its list of the 25 most important people in and around the financial advisory profession.

Michael Wilson is the Chief Investment Officer and Chief US Equity Strategist for Morgan Stanley. As CIO and Chair of the Global Investment Committee, Mike is responsible for all investment and asset allocation advice provided to the Firm’s $4 trillion in retail-client assets. Over the past 30 years, Mike has held various roles with increasing responsibilities, mostly within Institutional Securities. He started his career in 1989 in Investment Banking, before transitioning to the Institutional Equities Division in 1995, where Mike created and managed the sector specialist team while serving as a Technology sector specialist himself. In 2009, he became Head of Content Distribution for North American Institutional Equities and then CIO for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management in 2012. He was made Chief US Equity Strategist in Research and CIO for Institutional Securities in February 2017. Mike is a regular guest on CNBC and Bloomberg and is often quoted in popular financial publications, such as Barron’s, the Wall Street Journal, and The Economist, and by various news services. He is on the operating committees of the Firm’s Wealth Management and Institutional Equities divisions. Mike holds a BBA from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

Chuck Clough is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Clough Capital Partners L.P. He has been active in the securities and investment business for over 50 years.
Prior to founding Clough Capital, Chuck served as the Chief Global Investment Strategist at Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. He advised many of the world’s top institutions and investors on portfolio strategy and was named to the Institutional Investor All-America Research Team for 12 consecutive years. He earned a place as the top ranked strategist on Wall Street on three separate occasions and has been consistently recognized as a top strategist in areas such as U.S. equities, global investments, and fixed income.
Prior to his tenure at Merrill Lynch, Chuck was Director of Investment Policy and Chief Strategist at Cowen & Co. Previously, he had been the Director of Research and a Portfolio Manager at the Boston Company, a Portfolio Manager at Colonial Management Associates and a Vice President and Senior Research Analyst for both Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and Alliance Capital Management Company. Chuck serves on the boards of a number of hospitals, as well as educational and charitable institutions, including his alma mater, Boston College. Chuck graduated magna cum laude with a major in history and a minor in economics from Boston College and earned an MBA at the University of Chicago. He has maintained a Chartered Financial Analyst® designation since Chuck is an ordained permanent deacon in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston and serves in that capacity at his local parish in Concord, MA.

Megan Greene is a Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, where she is teaching and writing a book on the drivers of income and wealth inequality and how to address them. She is also a Senior Advisor and Global Chief Economist at Kroll, providing macroeconomic and policy analysis both internally and for Kroll clients. Ms. Greene also serves as the Dame DeAnne Julius Senior Academy Fellow in International Economics at Chatham House in London. 

Ms. Greene is a regular columnist in the Financial Times, writing on global macroeconomics. She also serves on RCRC (a group focused on fiscal and monetary policy solutions for the green transition) and is a Senior Advisor to NAEC (New Approaches to Economic Challenges) at the OECD. She serves as an advisory board member for the National Association for Business Economists (NABE), the Parliamentary Budget Office in Ireland, Rebuilding Macroeconomics, and Econofact. In addition, Megan is an Affiliate of the Rhodes Center at Brown University, a Non-Resident Fellow at Trinity College Dublin, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She regularly advises governments and central banks in the US, UK, eurozone, and Japan.

Marko is a Partner and Chief Strategist at Clocktower Group, an alternative investment asset management firm based in Santa Monica, California. He leads the firm’s Strategy Team, providing bespoke research to clients and partners on geopolitics, macroeconomics, and markets.

Prior to joining the firm, Marko founded BCA Research’s Geopolitical Strategy practice (GPS) in 2012, the financial industry’s first dedicated political analysis investment strategy. The GPS service generated geopolitical alpha by identifying gaps between the market’s political expectations and the firm’s forecasts. Marko was a Senior Vice President and the firm’s Chief Geopolitical Strategist.

Marko began his career as a Senior Analyst at Stratfor, a global intelligence agency where he contributed to the firm’s global geopolitical strategy as well as its analyst recruitment and training program. In his academic work, he helped create the Center for European Union Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Marko holds an MA in Political Science from the University of Texas at Austin and an MA from the University of British Columbia.

He is the author of Geopolitical Alpha: An Investment Framework for Predicting the Future, a book that introduces his constraints-based framework to investors.

Rich Bernstein is both CEO and CIO of Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC. A much-noted expert on equity, style and asset allocation, Mr. Bernstein was nominated to Institutional Investor magazine’s annual “All-America Research Team” eighteen times, and is one of only fifty-seven analysts inducted into the Institutional Investor “Hall of Fame”. He was also twice named to both Fortune magazine’s “All-Star Analysts” and to Smart Money magazine’s “Power 30”, and was a member of Registered Rep’s “Ten to Watch” for 2012.

Claudia Sahm is currently the Director of Macroeconomic Research at the Jain Family Institute. She is also the founder of Stay-at-Home Macro (SAHM) Consulting and a regular opinion writer at Bloomberg. She has policy and research expertise on consumer spending, fiscal stimulus, and the financial well-being of households. She is the author of the “Sahm Rule,” a reliable early signal of recessions that she developed as a way to automatically trigger stimulus payments to individuals in a recession. Previously, she was a section chief in the Division of Consumer and Community Affairs at the Federal Reserve Board, where she oversaw the Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking. Before that, she worked for ten years in the Division of Research and Statistics on the staff’s macroeconomic forecast. She was a senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisers in 2015-2016. Sahm holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Michigan (2007), and a bachelor’s degree in economics, political science, and German from Denison University (1998).

Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer, Morgan Creek Capital Management Managing Partner, Morgan Creek Digital Assets

Morgan Creek Capital Management was founded in 2004 and currently manages close to $2 billion in discretionary and non‐discretionary assets. Prior to founding Morgan Creek, Mr. Yusko was CIO and Founder of UNC Management Company (UNCMC), the Endowment investment office for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before that, he was Senior Investment Director for the University of Notre Dame Investment Office.

Mr. Yusko has been at the forefront of institutional investing throughout his career. An early investor in alternative asset classes at Notre Dame, he brought the Endowment Model of investing to UNC, which contributed to significant performance gains for the Endowment. The Endowment Model is the cornerstone philosophy of Morgan Creek, as is the mandate to Invest in Innovation. Mr. Yusko is again at the forefront of investing through Morgan Creek Digital Assets, which was formed in 2018. Morgan Creek Digital is an early stage investor in blockchain technology, digital currency and digital assets through the firm’s Venture Capital and Digital Asset Index Fund.
Mr. Yusko received a BA with Honors from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA in Accounting and Finance from the University of Chicago.

Katie Stockton, CMT is Founder and Managing Partner of Fairlead Strategies, LLC, an independent research provider focused on technical analysis. Prior to forming Fairlead Strategies, Katie spent more than 20 years on Wall Street providing technical research and advice to institutional investors. Most recently, she served as Chief Technical Strategist for BTIG for four years, and prior to that Chief Market Technician at MKM Partners for nine years. She also worked for technical strategy teams at Morgan Stanley and Wit Soundview. Katie now provides research and consulting services to institutions and individuals as a registered investment advisor. Katie received her Chartered Market Technician (CMT®) designation in 2001, and later served as Vice President of the CMT Association from 2012 to 2016. In 2017, 2019, and 2020 she was honored by The Technical Analyst, a U.K. based publication, for her work. Katie graduated with honors from the University of Richmond and she now serves on the business school’s Executive Advisory Council. Ms. Stockton frequently shares her views on CNBC and other financial news networks.

A. Gary Shilling, Ph.D., is President of A. Gary Shilling & Co., Inc., investment advisers, economic consultants and publishers of INSIGHT, a monthly report of economic forecasts and investment strategies.  Dr. Shilling is a columnist for Bloomberg View online, a Forbes magazine columnist since 1983 and a frequent contributor to the financial media. 

He received his bachelor’s degree in physics, magna cum laude, from Amherst College where he was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi.  Dr. Shilling earned his master’s degree and doctorate in economics at Stanford University. While on the West Coast, he served on the staffs of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and Bank of America.  Earlier, as a high school senior, he ranked 12th in the nation in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search. 

Before establishing his own firm in 1978, Dr. Shilling was Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of White, Weld & Co., Inc.  Earlier, he set up the Economics Department at Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith at age 29 and served as the firm’s chief economist.  Prior to Merrill Lynch, he was with Standard Oil Co. (NJ) (now ExxonMobil).

He has written eight books on the economic outlook and investment strategy.

Twice, the Institutional Investor magazine ranked Dr. Shilling as Wall Street’s top economist, Futures magazine rated him the country’s number one Commodity Trading Advisor and MoneySense magazine named him the third best stock market forecaster in the world, right behind Warren Buffett.  He is recognized as an effective and dynamic speaker.

He is Chairman of the Episcopal Preaching Foundation, which he founded in 1988, and is an avid beekeeper.

If you have read Dave’s work over the years, you will know what a profound influence Bob Farrell has had over his thinking. Bob is most certainly an industry legend. He became a household name during his years as technical analyst at Merrill Lynch. He has countless career highlights, to name a few: Bob was ranked # 1 Technical Market Timing analyst in 16 of the 17 years he participated in the Institutional Investor Magazine’s annual research poll. He was a frequent guest on the popular weekly TV show Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser and was voted by viewers to the Wall Street Week Hall Fame. In his last 10 years at Merrill, he authored the first regular report on Theme investing.

In September 1984, Brian Mulroney led the Progressive Conservative party to the largest victory in Canadian history, becoming Canada’s eighteenth Prime Minister.

Became the first Prime Minister in 35 years to win successive majority governments and the first Conservative Prime Minister to do so in 100 years.

His government introduced bold initiatives:

• Canada- U.S Free Trade Agreement
• The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
• The Canada- U.S Acid Rain Treaty and the Canada-U.S. Arctic Cooperation Agreement.
• A wave of Privatizations
• A low Inflation policy
• Historic tax reform
• Extensive Deregulation and expenditure reduction policies that continue to be the basis of Canada’s impressive economic performance today
• He was the architect of the Meech Lake Accord in an attempt to include Quebec in Canada’s amended Constitution
• He served as Co-Chairman of the United Nations World Summit for children
• His government played leading roles in the campaign against apartheid in South Africa and the creation of Le Sommet De La Francophonie, the Reunification of Germany and the first Gulf War

Present Work:

• He is chairman of the Board of Directors of Quebecor inc. (Montreal), and serves as a director of The Blackstone Group L.P. (New York) and acreage Holdings Inc. (New York)
• He serves as Chairman of the International Advisory Board of Barrick Hold Corporation (Toronto.
• He is a strategic advisor to Teneo Holdings (New York) and the ECN Capital (West Palm Beach).
• Trustee of the Montreal Heart Institute Foundation and the International Advisory Board of Hautes Etudes Commercials (HEC) Montreal.

Awards and Honours:

• Awarded Canada’s highest honour, Companion of the Order of Canada (1998) and the highest honour of Government of Quebec, Grand officier de l’Odre national du Quebec (2002)
• Presented with the Global Citizen Award by the United Nations Association in Canada (2001)
• Received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service and the Christian A. Herter Memorial Award for his leadership that contributed to “better international understanding.”
• Received the George Bush Award for Excellence in Public Service in 2018
• Delivered the eulogy at the funeral of President Ronald Reagan at the National Cathedral in Washington (2004) and one for President George H.W. Bush in the same venue (2018) becoming the first non-American in history to be so honored.
• Received the highest recognition from the following governments for his leadership in vital matters affecting their nations
• Haiti- Grand Croix de L’Ordre national Honneur et Merite (1994)
• Ukraine- Order of Kniaz (King) Yarslav the Wise, First Class (2007)
• South Africa- Supreme Companion of O.R. Tambo (Gold) (2015)
• France- Commandeur de la Legion d’honneur (2016)

Institutional Investor Magazine has called Marty Fridson the “Dean of the High Yield Bond Market.” He earned that title by pioneering serious research in what was then a controversial asset class, commonly derided as “junk bonds,” but which eventually entered the financial mainstream with his help.

Marty accomplished this as a research department head – first at Morgan Stanley, and later as a colleague of mine at Merrill Lynch. He contributed importantly to the professionalization of high yield research by applying analytical methods he had learned at Harvard Business School and in obtaining his Chartered Financial Analyst designation. 

Marty’s contributions to finance have not been limited to the study of speculative-grade bonds. In his current role as Chief Investment Officer of Lehmann Livian Fridson Advisors, he oversees investments in a wide range of income-generating securities such as preferred stocks, closed-end funds, and dividend-growth stocks. Marty publishes rigorous research on these asset classes and makes specific recommendations in his newsletter, co-published with Forbes and titled “Income Securities Investor.” His research on a variety of financial topics have appeared in various scholarly journals, as well as the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Barron’s.

Marty has also won recognition as an author of six books, on topics ranging from, financial statement analysis, to the conditions that launched the stock market’s very best years, to his enduringly popular “How To Be a Billionaire.” The McClatchy newspaper chain said his 2006 book, “Unwarranted Intrusions: The Case Against Government Intervention in the Marketplace,” should be short-listed for best business book of the decade. Marty has a reputation as a book reviewer and has been performing that function for the CFA Institute over the past thirty years – as well as for Barron’s, where he has also reviewed financially themed movies.

Marty has served as a governor of the CFA Institute, as well as a consultant to the Federal Reserve Board and the New York City employees retirement system. His professional accolades include election to the Fixed Income Analysts Hall of Fame and being named Financial Executive of the Year by the Financial Management Association. 

J. Kyle Bass is a Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Conservation Equity Management, LP. Bass is an avid landowner and conservationist in the state of Texas since 2003. He is also the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Hayman Capital Management since 2005. Bass is a founding member of the Committee on the Present Danger: China. Bass was the recipient of the 2019 Foreign Policy Association Medal for his responsible internationalism and is a current member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Bass has testified as an expert witness before the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. In 2015, Bass was recognized as one of the Top 25 Most Influential People in the Global Patent Market as named by Intellectual Asset Management magazine. Bass has lectured on global economics at various universities, including Columbia, Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley, University of Chicago, University of Texas, and the University of Virginia. Mr. Bass is the former Chair of the Risk Committee of the Board of Directors of the University of Texas Investment Management Company (UTIMCO), which manages approximately $50 billion. Before forming Hayman, Bass was a Managing Director at Legg Mason and a Senior Managing Director at Bear Stearns.

Mr. Grantham co-founded GMO in 1977 and is a member of GMO’s Asset Allocation team, serving as the firm’s long-term investment strategist. He is a member of the GMO Board of Directors and has also served on the investment boards of several non-profit organizations. Prior to GMO’s founding, Mr. Grantham was co-founder of Batterymarch Financial Management in 1969 where he recommended commercial indexing in 1971, one of several claims to being first. He began his investment career as an economist with Royal Dutch Shell. Mr. Grantham earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Sheffield (U.K.) and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He is a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, holds a CBE from the UK and is a recipient of the Carnegie Medal for Philanthropy.

Mr. Lewitt is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of Third Friday Management, LLC a hedge fund, private equity and merchant banking firm located in South Florida that invests exclusively on behalf of non-US investors. Mr. Lewitt has over 30 years of investment experience and successfully managed large credit portfolios through several credit crises. Mr. Lewitt is recognized as one of the few investors and strategists to forecast the credit crisis of 2001-2002 and the global financial crisis of 2008. Mr. Lewitt co-founded Harch Capital Management in 1991, where he produced strong risk-adjusted returns managing non-investment grade credit portfolios for large institutional clients. Prior thereto, Mr. Lewitt was an investment banker at Drexel Burnham Lambert, Inc. and a tax attorney. Mr. Lewitt is the editor and publisher of The Credit Strategist, a monthly newsletter covering economics, politics and markets read around the world that he founded in 2001. He is also the author of two books: The Death of Capital: How Creative Policy Can Restore Stability (John Wiley & Sons, 2010) and The Committee to Destroy the World: Inside the Plot to Unleash a Super Crash on the Global Economy (John Wiley & Sons, 2016). His writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic and many other publications.

David Kotok co-founded Cumberland Advisors in 1973 and has been its Chief Investment Officer since inception. David’s articles and financial market commentaries have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, and other publications. He is a frequent contributor to Bloomberg TV and Bloomberg Radio, Yahoo Finance TV, and other media. He has authored or co-authored four books, including the second edition of “From Bear to Bull with ETFs” and “Adventures in Muniland”. David has served as Program Chairman and currently serves as a Director of the Global Interdependence Center (GIC), www.interdependence.org, whose mission is to encourage the expansion of global dialogue and free trade in order to improve cooperation and understanding among nation states, with the goal of reducing international conflicts and improving worldwide living standards. David chaired its Central Banking Series and organized a five-continent dialogue held in Cape Town, Hong Kong, Hanoi, Milan, Paris, Philadelphia, Prague, Rome, Santiago, Shanghai, Singapore, Tallinn, and Zambia (Livingstone). He has received the Global Citizen Award from GIC for his efforts. David is a member of the National Business Economic Issues Council (NBEIC), the National Association for Business Economics (NABE), has served on the Research Advisory Board of BCA Research, and currently serves on the advisory board of RiskBridge Advisors. He has also served as a Commissioner of the Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) and on the Treasury Transition Teams for New Jersey Governors Kean and Whitman. Additionally, he has served as a board member of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority and as Chairman of the New Jersey Casino Reinvestment Development Authority. He has also written two monograph pamphlets. The first is, “Lessons from Thucydides,” which details information asymmetries and their implications for investors and world affairs. The second is, “Zika,” a work which compiles David’s research, interviews, and personal experience concerning the Zika virus and its potential for serious damage in the way of health and monetary costs. The expense for individuals can be devastating and in the case of governments, ballooning health budgets may affect municipal bond ratings.

The Hon. Dr. Malmgren is an economist who makes sense of the world economy by writing books, by founding tech businesses, by advising policymakers around the world and by public speaking. She is a Partner of The Monaco Foundry, a start-up incubator, and a Special Advisor to Avonhurst, a legal and consulting firm in the UK specializing in deals, policy and capital raising. She is the Chairman of Datifly, a firm that advises on the use of drones by industry and previously co-founded a drone manufacturing firm which won the Cog X Award for Autonomy, the 2020 National Technology Award and Power Product of the Year 2020. She served as the Chairman of the Drone/UAV Subcommittee on manufacturing standards at The British Standards Institute. She served President George W. Bush in the White House as Special Assistant to the President and on The National Economic Council. She was responsible for financial market issues and handled Enron and Sarbanes Oxley. She served on the President’s Working Group on Corporate Governance and The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets. After 9/11 she was also responsible for assessing Terrorism Risks to the Economy and technology as a source of geopolitical competitiveness. Before joining the White House, she ran the Bankers Trust Asset Management business in Asia and was then appointed as the Global Chief Currency Strategist. She was then named the Deputy Head of Global Strategy at UBS. Her most recent bestseller, The Infinite Leader, won the International Press Award for the Best Book on Leadership for 2021. Her previous book, The Leadership Lab, was named Business Book of the Year and Best Book on Leadership in 2019 and won the International Press Award 2020 and the NYC Library Big Apple Award. She is also the author of: Geopolitics for Investors (2015) and Signals: How Everyday Signs Help Us Navigate the World’s Turbulent Economy a crowd-funded Amazon best-seller (2016). She has been named one of the Fifty Top Inspiring Women in the UK and one of the Top 100 in Tech by @WATC_WeAreTech and longlisted by Computer Weekly as a Most Influential Women in Tech for 2019, 2020 and 2021. She serves as a judge on The Queen’s Enterprise Business Awards and was a member of the Board of Directors for The Department for International Trade in the UK from 2017-2019. She is a Senior Associate Fellow of RUSI. She is also an advisor to the BSA Huxley Summit. She has a BA from Mount Vernon College and an M.Sc. and PhD from LSE. She completed the Harvard Program on National Security. She lectures at Sandhurst and the Duke Fuqua Global Executive MBA Program and has lectured at the U Texas Austin and INSEAD. She gave the graduation address at the London School of Economics in 2013 and 2016. Firms like Google, American Express, major banks and military leaders retain her to speak. Institutional Investor says she was “voted the best/favourite” The Economist says they were “inundated with enthusiastic feedback” EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards “top rated speaker”

Stephen is a widely recognized economist with nearly 40 years of experience in financial markets, forecasting, and economic policy, including 35 years in the public sector. Prior to joining Osler, Stephen was the 9th Governor of the Bank of Canada, Canada’s central bank. Stephen was Governor of the Bank for seven years after having previously spent 14 years there during 1981-95 occupying a range of increasingly senior positions. Stephen is also the author of the upcoming book titled The Next Age of Uncertainty: How the World Can Adapt to a Riskier Future that maps out the powerful economic forces that are shaping our future and the ideas that will allow us to master them. Prior to joining the Bank of Canada, Stephen spent 14 years at Export Development Canada, as Chief Economist (1999-2008), Head of Lending (2008-2011) and finally as President and CEO (2011-2013). He also spent four years at BCA Research, where he was Managing Editor of the International Bank Credit Analyst, one of their flagship publications. Stephen is a Certified International Trade Professional and a graduate of Columbia University’s Senior Executive Program. He has been a visiting scholar at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C., and at the Economic Planning Agency in Tokyo, Japan. He is a frequent speaker and writer and has taught economics at the University of Western Ontario, Concordia University and Queen’s School of Business. At Osler, Stephen provides clients with his significant expertise and strategic guidance regarding the financial system, trade, and economic policy both domestically and on a global scale.

Stephanie Pomboy is founder and president of MacroMavens, a boutique research firm that provides macroeconomic research and commentary to an exclusive swath of the institutional investment community. The firm takes an unconventional approach to economic analysis, eschewing the typical over-emphasis on short-term swings. Instead MacroMavens endeavors to identify major macro trends and to flesh-out the market risks/opportunities around them. Since its inception in 2002, the firm has earned a reputation for calling major macro developments well ahead of the curve. Stephanie was one of the few warning of the housing bubble’s bust — and a lone voice in identifying the inexorable hit to financials to follow.
The firm’s clients include the largest mutual fund institutions and macro hedge funds, who have come to rely on MacroMavens’ unique and thought-provoking brand of analysis.
Although closely guarded, Stephanie’s views have been the subject of interviews in Barron’s and her work has been cited in major industry publications from the Financial Times to The Wall Street Journal. She is a regular guest on Fox Business and Bloomberg TV.
Ms. Pomboy started her career at CJ Lawrence, working with Ed Hyman and Nancy Lazar. In 1991 the team left to form ISI Group where, as Managing Director, Stephanie provided timely economic analysis to the country’s largest and most sophisticated investment institutions.
Stephanie earned her bachelor’s degree in economics from Dartmouth College while also competing as captain of the Tae Kwon Do team. She presently resides in New York City but spends her free time in the mountains of Colorado, where she is an avid hiker and telemark skier.

William C. Dudley is currently a Senior Adviser at the Griswold Center for Economic Policy Studies at Princeton University.  He also is a member of the Group of Thirty and the Council on Foreign Relations. 

Previously, from 2009 to 2018, Mr. Dudley was the 10^th president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and served as vice chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee.  During this period, Mr. Dudley was a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements and chaired the Committee on Payments and Settlement Systems and the Committee on the Global Financial System. 

Prior being President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Mr. Dudley served as executive director of the Markets Group at the NY Fed, which implements monetary policy on behalf of the Federal Reserve.  Earlier, he had a long career in the financial services industry, including ten years as the chief US economist at Goldman Sachs where he was a partner and managing director.

Mr. Dudley received his doctorate in economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1982 and his bachelor’s degree from New College of Florida in 1974. 

Danielle DiMartino Booth is CEO & Chief Strategist for Quill Intelligence LLC, a research and analytics firm. Prior to Quill, DiMartino Booth spent nine years at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas where she served as Advisor to President Richard W. Fisher throughout the financial crisis. She is the author of FED UP: An Insider’s Take on Why the Federal Reserve is Bad for America (Portfolio, Feb 2017).

Mr. Minerd is a founding Managing Partner of Guggenheim Partners and a member of its Executive Committee. In his role as Chairman of Guggenheim Investments and Global Chief Investment Officer, Mr. Minerd guides the Firm’s investment strategies and leads its research on global macroeconomics. Previously, Mr. Minerd was a Managing Director with Credit Suisse First Boston in charge of trading and risk management for the Fixed Income Credit Trading Group. In this position, he was responsible for the corporate bond, preferred stock, money markets, U.S. government agency and sovereign debt, derivatives securities, structured debt and interest rate swaps trading business units.
Prior to that, Mr. Minerd was Morgan Stanley’s London-based European Capital Markets Products Trading and Risk Manager responsible for Eurobonds, Euro-MTNs, domestic European Bonds, FRNs, derivative securities and money market products in 12 European currencies and Asian markets. Mr. Minerd has also held capital markets positions with Merrill Lynch and Continental Bank. Prior to that, he was a Certified Public Accountant and worked for the public accounting firm of Price Waterhouse.
Mr. Minerd serves on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Investor Advisory Committee on Financial Markets, helping advise the NY Fed President about financial market developments, risks to the financial system, and steps that can be taken to understand and mitigate these risks. He also serves on the International Monetary Fund External Advisory Group, which provides the IMF’s Managing Director with perspectives on global developments and policy issues, including effective policy responses to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. In addition, Mr. Minerd serves on the Board of Overseers at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and on the board of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.
Mr. Minerd is a regularly featured guest and contributor to leading financial media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Bloomberg, and CNBC where he shares insights on today’s financial climate. Mr. Minerd holds a B.S. degree in Economics from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and has completed graduate work at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

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.

Mike Rothman is the President and Founder of Cornerstone Analytics, a macro-energy research firm that analyzes key market fundamentals involving supply, demand and geopolitics that influence the price of energy commodities and investment instruments. Mike previously founded ISI’s energy research platform in 2005, where he was #1 ranked for Independent Energy Research by Institutional Investor Magazine. Prior, Mike was Chief Energy Strategist and Co-Head of the Global Energy Equity Team at Merrill Lynch, which was ranked #1 in the Global Research Survey by Institutional Investor Magazine. With 37 years of researching the global energy markets and 35 years of attending OPEC meetings, Mike has forged deep industry contacts and cultivated unmatched insights that are relied upon by clients that include asset managers, commodity traders, oil companies, OPEC nations, and government organizations. Mike is a frequent guest speaker on Bloomberg and CNBC, a contributor to leading financial publications, and a keynote speaker at industry conferences around the globe. Cornerstone Analytics publishes a daily report and helps clients with research requests through email, conference calls, and in-office visits.

Mr. Barnes is BCA Research’s Chief Economist. He joined BCA Research in late 1987 and for 18 years he was responsible for The Bank Credit Analyst, the company’s highly respected flagship service. His analysis of the economic and financial outlook is widely followed around the world, and he is known for providing leading-edge research on a broad range of subjects of relevance to investors. He is quoted regularly in the press and speaks frequently at investment conferences. In his book The Ultimate Investor, the legendary investor Dean LeBaron featured Mr. Barnes as one of “The People That Make Modern Investment.” Prior to joining BCA, Mr. Barnes spent 10 years as Chief International Economist with Wood Mackenzie, one of the top U.K. brokerage firms. From 1973 to 1977 he was an economist with British Petroleum in London. Mr. Barnes is a member of the Conference of Business Economists, and the Montreal and Victoria Societies of Financial Analysts. From mid-2009 to late 2014, he was on the Board of Trustees of the University of Victoria Pension Fund. He received his economics degree from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow and moved from Scotland to Canada in 1987.

Paul McCulley is arguably one of the most respected Fed-watchers and interest rate forecasters in the United States, with a storied career as a fixed-income Portfolio Manager and Chief Economist at PIMCO where he helped navigate the fund company through the Great Financial Crisis.

Prior to PIMCO, Paul toiled on Wall Street as the Chief Economist for the Americas at UBS. Paul is currently an Adjunct Professor at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, where he teaches an interdisciplinary macro seminar: Law, Money and Financial MacroDynamics.

He holds an MBA from Columbia Graduate School of Business and a BA from Grinnell College, of Iowa.

Barry Habib is an American entrepreneur and frequent media resource for his mortgage and housing expertise having frequent appearances on CNBC and FOX. Barry is also the CEO of MBS Highway – the industry’s most highly regarded and recognized tool for transforming salespeople into advisors. During his mortgage sales career, he personally originated over $2 billion dollars. As an innovator, Barry has founded many successful businesses across different verticals including Mortgage Market Guides, Healthcare Imaging Solutions, Certified Mortgage Associates and being a founding partner in Social Survey. Some of Barry’s notable awards include being a three-time Crystal Ball Award Winner for 2017, 2019 and 2020 by Zillow and Pulsenomics for the most accurate Real Estate forecasts out of 150 of the top economists in the US, 2019 Mortgage Professional of the Year by National Mortgage Professional Magazine, 2019 Finalist for the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, the St. Armand Ventures Businessman of the Year Award for 2021 and named to the esteemed Mortgage Global 100 list for 2021 by Mortgage Professional.

Fred Hickey is the editor of the newsletter The High-Tech Strategist, which he has published monthly for the past 34 years. The newsletter focusses on general macro issues, technology and precious metals. He was a member of the renowned Barron’s Roundtable for a decade. Prior to founding the newsletter, he was employed by General Telephone & Electronics (GTE) in various financial roles for over ten years. Fred graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in business administration/accounting. He resides with his wife Kathy in their homes in Nashua, New Hampshire and Playa Hermosa, Cost Rica.

Barry L. Ritholtz is co-founder, chairman, and chief investment officer of Ritholtz Wealth Management LLC. His focus has been how the intersection of behavioral economics and data affect investors. Ritholtz is also the creator and host of Masters in Business, the most popular podcast/show on Bloomberg Radio. These 60-90 minute conversation are with many of the most accomplished, fascinating people in business and finance. A regular guest in the media, Ritholtz has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal’s Quite Contrary column, and was the subject of several Barron’s interviews. Ritholtz was honored to be the dedicatee of Stock Trader’s Almanac‘s 40th Anniversary edition in 2007 and the Yahoo Tech Ticker’s Guest of the Year in 2009.

Byron Wien is Vice Chairman of Blackstone’s Private Wealth Solutions group where he acts as a senior adviser to both the Firm and its clients in analyzing economic, social and political trends to assess the direction of financial markets and thus help guide investment and strategic decisions. Prior to joining Blackstone, Mr. Wien was Chief Investment Strategist for Pequot Capital and before that served for 21 years as Chief (later Senior) U.S. Investment Strategist at Morgan Stanley. In 1995, Mr. Wien co-authored a book with George Soros on the legendary investor’s life and philosophy, Soros on Soros – Staying Ahead of the Curve. In 1998 he was named by First Call the most widely read analyst on Wall Street and in 2000 was ranked the No. 1 strategist by SmartMoney.com based on his market calls during that year. Mr. Wien was named to the 2004 Smart Money Power 30 list of Wall Street’s most influential investors, thinkers, enforcers, policy makers, players and market movers. He appeared in the “Thinker” category. In 2006, Mr. Wien was named by New York Magazine as one of the sixteen most influential people in Wall Street. The New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA) presented Mr. Wien with a lifetime achievement award in 2008. Mr. Wien received an AB with honors from Harvard College and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School. He is a member of the Investment Committees of Lincoln Center and The Pritzker Foundation. He is a trustee of the New York Historical Society, and Chairman of the Investment Committee of the JPB Foundation.

Stephen Roach, Ph. D., is a Senior Fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute of Global Affairs and a Senior Lecturer at Yale’s School of Management. He was formerly Chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia and the firm’s Chief Economist for the bulk of his 30-year career at Morgan Stanley, heading up a highly regarded team of economists around the world. Mr. Roach’s current teaching and research program focuses on the impacts of Asia on the broader global economy. At Yale, he has introduced new courses for undergraduates and graduate students on the “The Next China” and “The Lessons of Japan.” His writing and research also address trade policy, globalization, the post-crisis policy architecture, and the capital markets implications of global imbalances.

Stephen Roach has long been one of Wall Street’s most influential economists. His work has appeared in academic journals, books, congressional testimony and has been disseminated widely in the domestic and international media. Roach’s opinions on the global economy have been known to shape the policy debate from Beijing to Washington. His latest book, Unbalanced: The Codependency of America and China (Yale University Press, Jan. 2014) examines the risks and opportunities of the world’s most important economic relationship of the 21st century. His 2009 book, The Next Asia: Opportunities and Challenges for a New Globalization (Wiley), analyzes Asia’s economic imbalances and the dangers of the region’s excess dependence on overextended Western consumers. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in 1982, Mr. Roach served on the research staff of the Federal Reserve Board and was also a research fellow at the Brookings Institution.

He holds a Ph.D. in economics from New York University. Mr. Roach is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Investment Committee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the China Advisory Board of the Environmental Defense Fund, and the Economics Advisory Board of the University of Wisconsin.

Tobias M Levkovich has been the Chief US Equity Strategist for Citi Research since 2001. He is also a member of the firm’s Investment Strategy Committee. Tobias is responsible for assessing the direction of the market, setting the firm’s investment sector allocations, and compiling its Recommended List, a list of specific investment that he expects to appreciate in value. Prior to assuming his current role, Tobias spent 13 years analyzing the engineering, construction, and machinery industries. Tobias is a member of Institutional Investor’s (2009) All-America Research Team, a recognition that he has received previously. SmartMoney magazine has also recognized Tobias as one of its “Power 30 Thinkers” (November 2004), its “Best Market Seer” (December 2003) and its “30 Smartest People in Investing” (December 2002). Tobias has been recognized for his accurate investment recommendations and analysis by Institutional Investor, The Wall Street Journal, and Reuters. Tobias holds a Bachelor’s degree in commerce from Concordia University in Montreal and attended Boston University’s Graduate School of Management.

Lacy H. Hunt, Ph.D. is Executive Vice President and Chief Economist of Hoisington Investment Management Company (HIMCO), a firm that manages $5.5 billion for pension funds, endowments, insurance companies and others. Lacy is the author of two books, and numerous articles in leading magazines, periodicals and scholarly journals. Included among the publishers of his articles are Barron’s, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Business Economics, the Journal of Finance, the Financial Analysts Journal and the Journal of Portfolio Management. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank both published his research. The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, BusinessWeek, Barron’s, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, Investor’s Business Daily and many other domestic periodicals have quoted Lacy.

He has been a guest on PBS on The Nightly Business Report, The News Hour, and Wall Street Week. He has been on CNN shows Moneyline, and Business Morning and on CNBC’s Squawk Box and World Business. He has also appeared on CBS Evening News, NBC’s Today Show, and ABC’s World News Tonight.

Lacy has testified before various committees of Congress, including House Ways and Means, Senate Finance and Senate Banking. Previously, Lacy was Chief U.S. Economist for the HSBC Group, Executive Vice President and Chief Economist at Fidelity Bank and Vice President for Monetary Economics at Chase Econometrics Associates, Inc. Lacy has served as Senior Economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. While there, he served on two Federal Reserve System Committees: Financial Analysis and International Economics. At the Fidelity Bank of Philadelphia, he had the responsibility for managing the Trust Department’s Comingled Fixed Income Fund in the 1970s and early 1980s. He earned his BA from Sewanee: The University of the South (1964), his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (1966), and his Ph.D. in Economics from Temple University (1969). From Sewanee, he received an honorary Doctor of Civil Laws in 2013 and their Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2016.

Lacy served on the Board of Trustees of Temple University from 1987 to 2010 and is now an honorary life trustee and received the College of Liberal Arts Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2018. He received the Abramson Award from the National Association for Business Economics for “outstanding contributions in the field of business economics.” He is a life member of the American Finance Association. He was a member of the Economic Advisory Board of the American Bankers Association and Chairman of the Economic Advisory Board of the Pennsylvania Bankers Association. He served on the Monetary and Fiscal Policy Affairs Committee of the National Chamber of Commerce.

Don Coxe has 40 years of institutional investment experience and has navigated investors through every cycle since the onset of stagflation in 1972. He has worked on the buy side and the sell side in many capacities, managed both bond and equity portfolios, and served as CEO, CIO and Research Director. From his office in Chicago, Mr. Coxe heads up his own investment firm, Coxe Advisors. Prior to that, he was the strategy advisor for the BMO Financial Group.

Mr. Coxe has consistently been named as a top portfolio strategist by Brendan Wood International; in 2011, he was awarded a lifetime achievement award and was ranked number one in the 2007, 2008 and 2009 surveys. He also received the lifetime achievement award from Canada’s Financial Post. Prior to entering the investment business, his eclectic background includes serving as editor of National Review magazine in New York, practicing law in Toronto, serving as general manager of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, and as General Counsel of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.

Mr. Marks is Co-Chairman at Oaktree Capital and has been with the firm since its formation in 1995. From 1985 until 1995, Mr. Marks led the groups at The TCW Group, Inc. that were responsible for investments in distressed debt, high yield bonds, and convertible securities. He was also CIO for Domestic Fixed Income at TCW. Previously, Mr. Marks was with Citicorp Investment Management for 16 years, where from 1978 to 1985 he was VP and senior portfolio manager in charge of convertible and high yield securities. Between 1969 and 1978, he was an equity research analyst and, subsequently, Citicorp’s Director of Research.

Peter is Chief Investment Officer of Bleakley Financial Group. In his role as CIO, Peter leads the team that is responsible for the development, management and oversight of Bleakley’s investment management program, managing the investment committee, and setting the firm’s overall investment philosophy, global investment outlook and asset allocation decisions. He also manages two internal portfolio strategies. Peter is also a CNBC contributor and Editor of The Boock Report.

Liz Ann is Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Strategist at Charles Schwab. A keynote speaker at numerous industry conferences, Liz Ann is regularly quoted in financial publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Barron’s, and the Financial Times, and she appears as a regular guest on CNBC, Fox Business, CNN, and Bloomberg programs.

Liz Ann has been named “Best Market Strategist” by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance and one of SmartMoney magazine’s “Power 30.” Barron’s named her to the inaugural “100 Most Influential Women in Finance” list and Investment Advisor included her on the “IA 25,” its list of the 25 most important people in and around the financial advisory profession.

Leon Cooperman is the founder of Omega Advisors, Inc., which he ran for 27 years before converting it to a family office at the end of 2018. At its height, Omega Advisors managed more than $10 billion of client funds. Lee started his career at Goldman Sachs, spending his first 22 years in the Investment Research Department as Partner-In-Charge, Co-chairman of the Investment Policy Committee and Chairman of the Stock Selection Committee. In 1989, he became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs Asset Management and was Chief Investment Officer of the equity product line. While at Goldman Sachs, for nine consecutive years, Cooperman was voted the number one portfolio strategist in the Institutional Investor “All-America Research Team” survey

Felix W. Zulauf started his investment career as a trader for a large Swiss Bank, and joined UBS in 1977. Felix held several positions over the years, including heading the institutional portfolio management unit while acting as the global strategist for the UBS Group. He later founded his wholly owned Zulauf Asset Management AG in 1990. He sold the firm several years ago to focus on his own Family Office. Felix has served as a member of the Barron’s Roundtable for 30 years. Today, Felix publishes a global macro research service and consults investment firms and family offices around the world. He regularly publishes an investment report about his views on various macro topics and the financial markets.

James Grant, financial journalist and historian, is the founder and editor of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, a twice-monthly journal of the investment markets. His book, The Forgotten Depression, 1921: The Crash that Cured Itself, a history of America’s last governmentally unmedicated business-cycle downturn, won the 2015 Hayek Prize of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. His new book, Bagehot: The Life and Times of the Greatest Victorian, was published in July 2019.

Niall Ferguson, MA, D.Phil., is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a senior faculty fellow of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard. He is the author of fifteen books. In addition to writing a regular column for Bloomberg Opinion, he is the founder and managing director of Greenmantle LLC, an advisory firm.

Mr. Gundlach is CEO of DoubleLine. In 2011, he appeared on the cover of Barron’s as “The New Bond King.” In 2013, Institutional Investor named him “Money Manager of the Year.” In 2012, 2015 and 2016, he was named one of “The Fifty Most Influential” in Bloomberg Markets. In 2017, he was inducted into the FIASI Fixed Income Hall of Fame. Mr. Gundlach is a summa cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College, with degrees in Mathematics and Philosophy.

If you have read Dave’s work over the years, you will know what a profound influence Bob Farrell has had over his thinking. Bob is most certainly an industry legend. He became a household name during his years as technical analyst at Merrill Lynch. He has countless career highlights, to name a few: Bob was ranked # 1 Technical Market Timing analyst in 16 of the 17 years he participated in the Institutional Investor Magazine’s annual research poll. He was a frequent guest on the popular weekly TV show Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser and was voted by viewers to the Wall Street Week Hall Fame. In his last 10 years at Merrill, he authored the first regular report on Theme investing.

Richard Bernstein is both CEO and CIO of Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC. A much-noted expert on equity, style and asset allocation, Mr. Bernstein was nominated to Institutional Investor magazine’s annual “All-America Research Team” eighteen times, and is one of only fifty-seven analysts inducted into the Institutional Investor “Hall of Fame”. He was also twice named to both Fortune magazine’s “All-Star Analysts” and to Smart Money magazine’s “Power 30”, and was a member of Registered Rep’s “Ten to Watch” for 2012.

Dr. Shilling is President of A. Gary Shilling & Co., Inc., an economic consulting firm, and publisher of INSIGHT, a monthly report of economic forecasts and investment strategy. He has been a Forbes magazine columnist since 1983 and writes the “Financial Strategy” column. He is also an online columnist for Bloomberg View, and is on Investment Advisor magazine’s panel of investment strategists. He appears frequently on business shows on radio and television.