2017 - 2018 Speakers

Speaker:

Dr. Michael Mandel is chief economic strategist at the Progressive Policy Institute in Washington, where he supervises PPI’s research and policy work across a wide range of topics, including the data-driven economy, the impact of regulation on innovation, and policies to improve production, investment and job growth in the United States and globally. Mandel was co-principal investigator for a Sloan Foundation grant on “Measuring the Impact of Globalization.” Mandel has testified before Congress on impact of regulation on innovation. ...

Full Bio Available . . . [ READ MORE ]

Speaker:

Jeff Gramm manages a hedge fund, and teaches value investing at Columbia Business School. His recently published book, Dear Chairman: Boardroom Battles and the Rise of Shareholder Activism was named one of the best books of 2016 by the Financial Times. ...

Full Bio Available . . . [ READ MORE ]

Speaker:

Rodolfo Araujo, CFA, is a Vice President on ISS’ Special Situations Research team, which covers contested economic proposals and fights for corporate control. He previously was a buy-side equity analyst at Sands Capital and at INCA Investments. ...

Full Bio Available . . . [ READ MORE ]

Speaker:

Ellen Safir is Chief Investment Officer of New Century Advisors and founded the firm in 2002. She is responsible for the overall investment and business strategies of New Century Advisors. An early adopter of TIPS, she has helped advance the firm's reputation as an expert in inflation-linked securities. ...

Full Bio Available . . . [ READ MORE ]

Speaker:

Bernard McGuire joined 57 Stars in 2008, and is a member of the firm’s Investment Committee. He participates in the sourcing, due diligence, and monitoring of fund investments and co-investments across all of the firm’s markets and represents the firm and its investors on multiple fund and co-investment advisory boards. ...

Full Bio Available . . . [ READ MORE ]

Speaker:

John Guinee joined the Stifel Nicolaus Research Team in connection with Stifel's acquisition of Legg Mason's Capital Markets Group in December of 2005. He joined Legg Mason in February 2005. From 2003 to 2005, Mr. Guinee was executive vice president and chief investment officer of Duke Realty, a $8 billion company that is the largest office and industrial real estate investment trust in the United States. He was responsible for leading the company's acquisition and disposition efforts. ...

Full Bio Available . . . [ READ MORE ]

Speaker:

Derek M. Scissors is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he focuses on the Chinese and Indian economies and on US economic relations with Asia. He is concurrently chief economist of the China Beige Book. ...

Full Bio Available . . . [ READ MORE ]

Speaker:

Katherine Molnar, CFA joined Fairfax County Retirement Systems in 2013 and currently serves as Chief Investment Officer of the Fairfax County Police Officers Retirement System, a $1.4 billion plan. Her responsibilities include all aspects of portfolio management and oversight...

Full Bio Available . . . [ READ MORE ]

Speaker:

Andrew Spellar is Chief Investment Officer for the $4.0 billion Fairfax County Employees' Retirement System located in the suburbs of Washington, DC. Mr. Spellar oversees all aspects of the DB Plan’s investment portfolio...

Full Bio Available . . . [ READ MORE ]

Speaker:

John Silvia is a managing director and the chief economist for Wells Fargo. Based in Charlotte, N.C., he has held his position since he joined Wachovia in 2002 as the company’s chief economist.

Prior to his current position, John worked on Capitol Hill as senior economist for the U.S. Senate Joint Economic Committee and chief economist for the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. ...

Full Bio Available . . . [ READ MORE ]

Speaker:

Bert Ely has specialized in deposit insurance and banking structure issues since 1981. As the S&L situation worsened, he became in 1986 one of the first persons to publicly predict a taxpayer bailout of the FSLIC. In 1991, he was the first person to correctly predict the non-crisis in commercial banking; in 1992, he predicted the forthcoming taxpayer bailout of the Japanese banking system...

Full Bio Available . . . [ READ MORE ]

Speaker:

Darron Dickinson, founded Overdrive AI on the principle that if you get smart people together any problem is solvable. He prides himself on the company’s ability to deliver innovative, timely, and cost effective solutions. As the leader of Overdrive AI, Mr. Dickinson balances his time on client delivery and strategic initiatives of the firm...

Full Bio Available . . . [ READ MORE ]

Speaker:

Kathy Bostjancic is the Head of US Macro Investor Services at Oxford Economics. Kathy has extensive experience providing insightful global economic and financial market analysis and forecasts to institutional and retail investors and Fortune 500 business leaders and professionals. She has a deep understanding of U.S. monetary and fiscal policy and its impact on the economy and markets, acquired through her years as a financial market economist. Kathy has worked at Citicorp Investment Bank, Union Bank of Switzerland, and Merrill Lynch as the Senior Director, U.S. economist. ...

Full Bio Available . . . [ READ MORE ]