David E. Altig is senior vice president and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. His responsibilities include advising the bank president on monetary policy and related matters, overseeing the bank's research and public affairs departments, and serving as a member of the bank's management and discount committees. Altig also serves as adjunct professor of economics at the University of Chicago's graduate school of business and for the Chinese Executive MBA program sponsored by the University of Minnesota and the Lingnan College of Sun Yat-Sen University. Prior to joining the Atlanta Fed, Altig served as vice president and associate director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, which he joined in 1991. He was previously a faculty member in the department of business economics and public policy at Indiana University. His research, focusing primarily on monetary and fiscal policy, has been widely published in such journals as the Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, the American Economic Review, and the Journal of Monetary Economics. Altig received a BA in business administration from the University of Iowa and an MA and a PhD in economics from Brown University.
Stephen M. Bainbridge is the William D. Warren Professor of Law at the University of California at Los Angeles, where he currently teaches courses on business associations and advanced corporation law. He has also taught courses in corporate finance, securities regulation, and mergers and acquisitions as well as seminars on corporate governance. Bainbridge's scholarly work covers a variety of subjects, with a strong emphasis on the law and economics of public corporations. He has written more than fifty law review articles, was a Salvatori Fellow with the Heritage Foundation from 1994 to 1996, and taught at the University of Illinois Law School and at Harvard Law School. He currently serves on the editorial advisory board of the Journal of Markets and Morality and on the executive committee of the Federalist Society's Corporations, Securities & Anti-trust Practice group. Bainbridge also runs one of the most widely read political and legal blogs on the Internet (ProfessorBainbridge.com). He holds an AB from Western Maryland College and MS and JD degrees from the University of Virginia.
Robert Barnes is managing director for equities, responsible for market structures, at UBS Investment Bank and chairman of the Securities Trading Committee of the London Investment Banking Association. He also serves on user advisory groups for a number of stock exchanges and pro-competitive initiatives and is a member of the Financial Services Authority's (FSA) Capital Markets Sector Senior Practitioners Committee and Euroclear's UK Market Advisory Committee. Barnes serves as a fellow of the Securities & Investment Institute, is the UBS high-level representative to the European Union Commission's CESAME (Clearing and Settlement Advisory and Monitoring Experts) group, and is a member of the FTSE Country Classification Committee. Previously he was with the proprietary trading team at Swiss Bank Corporation. Barnes holds a BA from Harvard University and a PhD from the University of Cambridge.
Ben S. Bernanke is chairman and a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. He also serves as chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee. Before his appointment as chairman, Bernanke was chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers. Previously Bernanke had served the Federal Reserve System in several roles: as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 2002 to 2005; as a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Banks of Philadelphia, Boston, and New York; and as a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's academic advisory panel. He has also taught at Princeton University, Stanford University, New York University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Bernanke has published articles on a variety of economic issues and is the author of several books. He served as the director of the Monetary Economics Program of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and as a member of the NBER's business-cycle dating committee. He received a BA in economics from Harvard University and a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
John Eatwell, president of Queens' College, Cambridge, is the director of the Cambridge Endowment for Research in Finance and a professor of financial policy in the university's Judge Business School. He serves as non-executive director for Cambridge Econometrics (an economic research firm), Rontech Ltd. (a producer of management software for the financial services sector), and for SAV Credit Ltd. (a credit card company) as well as an adviser to private equity firms. From 1985 to 1992 he was an economic adviser to Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock and was responsible for much of the work that led to a substantial realignment of the Labour Party's economic policies. In 1992 Eatwell entered the House of Lords and served as principal opposition spokesman on treasury and economic affairs from 1993 to 1997. In 1988, together with Clive Hollick, he set up the Institute for Public Policy Research, now one of Britain's leading policy think tanks, serving as chairman from 1997 to 2000 and remaining as a trustee. He was a member of the Regulatory Decisions Committee of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and a board member of the FSA's predecessor, the Securities and Futures Authority, where he developed his interest in securities regulation, especially risk management and systemic risk. Among his recent publications in this field are Global Finance at Risk: The Case for International Regulation, International Capital Markets, and Global Governance of Financial Systems: The Legal and Economic Regulation of Systemic Risk. Eatwell received a BA from the University of Cambridge and an AM and a PhD from Harvard University.
Phillip Goldstein is the cofounder of Bulldog Investors, a group of hedge funds investing primarily in closed-end funds, small cap operating companies, and special purpose acquisition companies. He founded Bulldog Investors in 1992 (with his partner Steve Samuels) after working for twenty-five years as a civil engineer for the city of New York. Bulldog Investors often employs investor activism to unlock the intrinsic value of its investments. The company has conducted more than twenty-five proxy contests and several “hostile” tender offers. Goldstein is a widely quoted expert on closed-end funds, hedge funds, value investing, investor activism, corporate governance, and securities regulation. He has served as a director of a number of closed-end funds and is currently a director of the Mexico Equity & Income Fund and Brantley Capital Corporation. In 2006 he and Bulldog Investors succeeded in a legal challenge to invalidate the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's controversial rule to register hedge funds. Goldstein holds a BE from the University of Southern California and an ME from the City College of New York.
Jeremy Grant is executive director of the Centre for Corporate Governance at London Business School, where his main focus is bridging the gap between academics and practitioners. His research focuses on corporate governance, hedge funds, private equity, and mergers and acquisitions, including antitrust regulation of mergers and takeover defenses. Grant has published widely in these areas and is author or editor of three books: Corporate Governance in the US and Europe: Where Are We Now? (with Sir Geoffrey Owen), European Takeovers: The Art of Acquisition, and Structuring European Private Equity. He previously held a research fellowship at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva and the London School of Economics, and he has worked in mergers and acquisitions (as well as private equity deals and IPOs) and equity strategy for JP Morgan. Grant holds a law degree and masters degrees in economics and management and international relations from the London School of Economics. He has also studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Chicago.
Paul M. Healy is the James R. Williston Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, where his primary teaching interests include corporate financial reporting and analysis, corporate governance and accountability, and equity research in capital markets. Prior to joining Harvard he spent fourteen years on the faculty at the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management, where he received several awards for teaching excellence. In New Zealand he worked for Arthur Young and ICI. He is a New Zealand certified public accountant. Healy coauthored a leading financial analysis textbook, Business Analysis and Valuation. His work has been published in the Accounting Review, the Journal of Accounting and Economics, the Journal of Accounting Research, and the Journal of Financial Economics. Healy received a BCA in accounting and finance from Victoria University, New Zealand, and an MS in economics and a PhD in business from the University of Rochester.
Albert S. (Pete) Kyle is the Charles E. Smith Chair Professor of Finance at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. His research involves mathematical modeling of informed trading in speculative markets. Known for his expertise in financial theory, Kyle is the creator of the Kyle Model, which provides a foundation for the modern theory of market microstructure. Before joining the faculty at the University of Maryland, he was a professor at Princeton University, the University of California at Berkeley, and Duke University. He is a fellow of the Econometric Society and a board member of the American Finance Association. He served as a staff member of the Presidential Task Force on Market Mechanisms (Brady Commission) after the stock market crash of 1987. He is currently a member of Nasdaq's economic advisory board. His work has appeared in various journals, including Econometrica, the Review of Economic Studies, the American Economic Review, and the Journal of Finance. He received a BS in mathematics from Davidson College. As a Rhodes scholar Kyle also received a BA in mathematics and philosophy from Merton College of Oxford University. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago.
Kenneth M. Lehn is the Samuel A. McCullough Professor of Finance in the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh, where he teaches courses on business valuation and corporate restructuring. Lehn is also an adjunct professor of law in the university's School of Law. Previously Lehn served as chief economist of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He has also taught at Washington University, the University of California at Los Angeles, Miami University, and the Georgetown University Law Center. Lehn's research focuses on corporate finance, including corporate governance and capital structure. He has published in leading academic journals such as the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Political Economy, the American Economic Review, and the Journal of Law and Economics. He is a founding editor of the Journal of Corporate Finance and serves on the Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee at the American Enterprise Institute. Lehn has also served as a consultant for numerous firms and government agencies, including JPMorgan Chase, Lehman Brothers, the Department of Justice, and the SEC. Lehn holds a BA in economics from Waynesburg College, an MA in economics from Miami University, and a PhD in economics from Washington University.
Richard R. Lindsey is president and chief executive officer of the Callcott Group LLC, a quantitative consulting group, where he is the principal responsible for directing research activities and advisory services. He is also the chairman of the International Association of Financial Engineers. Previously Lindsey served as president of Bear, Stearns Securities Corporation and as a member of the management committee of The Bear Stearns Companies Inc. Before joining Bear Stearns, Lindsey served as the director of market regulation for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and as its chief economist. Prior to that he was a finance professor at Yale University in the School of Management. Lindsey has done extensive work in the areas of market microstructure and the pricing of derivative securities. He has a BS in chemical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology, an MS in chemical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, an MBA from the University of Dallas, and a PhD in finance from the University of California at Berkeley.
Dennis P. Lockhart is president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. In this role he is responsible for all of the bank's activities, including monetary policy, bank supervision and regulation, and payment services. He also chairs the bank's management committee and serves on the Federal Reserve's chief monetary policy body, the Federal Open Market Committee. Prior to joining the Atlanta Fed in March 2007, Lockhart served on the faculty of Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service, teaching in the master's program and chairing the program's concentrations in international business–government relations and global commerce and finance. He was also an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University's Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. Prior to his academic career Lockhart was managing partner at the private equity firm Zephyr Management LP. He also worked at Heller Financial, where he served as executive vice president and director of the parent company and as president of Heller International Group. Previously Lockhart held various positions, both domestic and international, with Citicorp/Citibank. In addition to his professional activities, Lockhart was a member of the boards of directors of several companies and was chairman of the Small Enterprise Assistance Funds, a not-for-profit operator of emerging markets venture capital funds. He holds a BA in political science and economics from Stanford University and an MA in international economics and American foreign policy from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
Michael W. Mayhew is the chairman, founder, and global director of research for Integrity Research Associates LLC, an information and solutions provider specializing in the investment research industry. He also serves on the board of directors of Investorside Research Association, the nonprofit trade association for the independent research industry, and is a frequent speaker on research industry trends and developments. Prior to founding Integrity Research and its predecessor, Mayhew was chief executive officer and president of Garban Information Systems, a provider of fixed income, money market, and foreign exchange analysis. He also served as managing director for research at Maria Fiorini Ramirez Inc., an economic research firm, and as head of strategic planning for Standard & Poor's. Mayhew often serves as an expert source for the news media, including Reuters, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and the New York Times. He holds a BA in economics from Stanford University.
Thomas C. Melzer is a cofounder and managing director of RiverVest Venture Partners, a venture capital firm focusing on medical device and biopharmaceutical investments. He is also a director of Isto Technologies Inc., Kereos Inc., and Centerre Healthcare Corporation. He is a former director of Residential Capital LLC (a subsidiary of GMAC) and the Federal Farm Credit Banks Funding Corporation. Melzer was previously president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, representing the bank on the Federal Open Market Committee. He also chaired the committee that oversees the investment of the Federal Reserve System's pension and thrift assets. Prior to joining the St. Louis Fed, Melzer served at Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc. in a variety of management activities in corporate finance, real estate finance and investment, and securities sales and trading and became head of its U.S. government securities department. Melzer has a BS in electrical engineering and an MBA, both from Stanford University.
Michael G. Oxley is Of Counsel with Baker Hostetler as part of the firm's government policy group. He is also a vice chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market Inc., where he works with public company chief executives and board members on Nasdaq's behalf, oversees outreach to Nasdaq-listed companies on public policy issues, and serves as an adviser to the Nasdaq president and chief executive officer. A former U.S. congressman, Oxley chaired the House Financial Services Committee from 2001 through 2006 and is best known for his coauthorship of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which created a new accounting oversight board for publicly traded companies. Prior to his service in Congress, he was a special agent of the FBI and a member of the Ohio General Assembly. Oxley holds a BA from Miami University and a JD from The Ohio State University Michael E. Moritz College of Law.
Charles I. Plosser is president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Before joining the bank in 2006, he was the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and Public Policy and director of the Bradley Policy Research Center at the University of Rochester's William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration. He was also a senior research associate at the Rochester Center for Economic Research in the university's College of Arts and Science and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Previously Plosser was an assistant professor of business economics at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a lecturer in economics and econometrics at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. He also cochaired the Shadow Open Market Committee and served as a visiting scholar at the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Plosser's articles have appeared in numerous economic journals. He was coeditor of the Journal of Monetary Economics for more than two decades and continues to cochair the advisory board of the Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy. He holds an MBA and PhD from the University of Chicago.
Roberta Romano is the Oscar M. Ruebhausen Professor of Law at Yale Law School and director of the Yale Law School Center for the Study of Corporate Law. She is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a research associate of the National Bureau for Economic Research, a fellow of the European Corporate Governance Institute, and a past president of the American Law and Economics Association. Her research has focused on state competition for corporate charters, the political economy of takeover regulation, shareholder litigation, institutional investor activism in corporate governance, and the regulation of financial instruments and securities markets. She is the author of The Genius of American Corporate Law and The Advantage of Competitive Federalism for Securities Regulation and series editor of the Foundations of Law reader series of Foundation Press and editor of the series volume Foundations of Corporate Law. She holds a BA from the University of Rochester, an MA from the University of Chicago, and a JD from Yale University.
Michael J. Ryan Jr. is senior vice president and executive director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness and vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The center was established in March 2007 to advocate legal and regulatory policies for the U.S. capital markets to advance the protection of investors, promote capital formation, and ensure continued U.S. leadership in capital markets activity. He also served as executive director of the chamber's Commission on the Regulation of U.S. Capital Markets in the 21st Century. Previously Ryan was executive vice president and general counsel and a member of the Office of the Chairman of the American Stock Exchange, where he was responsible for all aspects of its legal functions and assisted with daily operations. Ryan also served as counsel to the chairman of the National Association of Securities Dealers Inc. and worked with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the divisions of market regulation and corporation finance. Prior to attending law school Ryan was a senior accountant with Price Waterhouse & Co. Ryan holds a BS in accountancy from Villanova University and a JD from the Catholic University School of Law.
Erik R. Sirri is the director of the Division of Trading and Markets at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where he is responsible for the administration of all matters relating to regulation of stock and option exchanges, national securities associations, brokers, dealers, clearing agencies, and credit rating agencies. He is currently on leave from Babson College, where he serves as professor of finance. His research includes the interaction of securities law and finance, securities market structure, securities trading, and the investment management industry. From 1996 to 1999 Sirri was chief economist of the SEC. Previously he was an assistant professor of finance at Harvard Business School. He has consulted for securities firms, stock exchanges, mutual fund companies, issuers, and information vendors on a variety of regulatory and business matters. Prior to his academic career Sirri worked on planetary astronomy missions for NASA and on space surveillance sensors in the aerospace industry. He received a BS in astronomy from the California Institute of Technology, an MBA from the University of California at Irvine, and a PhD in finance from the University of California at Los Angeles.
Chester Spatt is the Mellon Bank Professor of Finance at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University and director of its Center for Financial Markets, where he has taught since 1979. He served as chief economist of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and director of its Center for Financial Markets from July 2004 to July 2007. Spatt's research focuses on financial economics with broad interests in financial markets. His coauthored 2004 paper in the Journal of Finance on asset location won TIAA-CREF's Paul Samuelson Award for the Best Publication on Lifelong Financial Security. He has served as executive editor and one of the founding editors of the Review of Financial Studies, president and a member of the founding committee of the Society for Financial Studies, and president of the Western Finance Association. Spatt is currently an associate editor of several finance journals and a member of the Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee as well as the Financial Economists Roundtable and a fellow of the TIAA-CREF Institute. He also served as an expert for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in its investigation of market manipulation in the Western energy markets in 2000 and 2001. Spatt earned an AB in economics from Princeton University and an AM and PhD in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Louis M. Thompson Jr. is a managing director of Kalorama Partners LLC. In 2006 he retired as chief executive officer, president, and board member of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) after nearly twenty-five years of service. Thompson is an expert on corporate disclosure, governance, and corporate communications and authored NIRI's Standards of Practice for Corporate Disclosure. He has served as an adviser to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and is in his second term on the Individual Investor Advisory Committee of the New York Stock Exchange. Thompson is also a charter member of the PR Newswire Disclosure Advisory Board and a columnist for Compliance Week magazine. In addition he received the first lifetime achievement award in investor relations by Barron's and Investor Relations Magazine. He was assistant White House press secretary to President Gerald Ford and has held executive communications positions with the American Enterprise Institute and the National Association of Home Builders. He earned BS and MS degrees from Iowa State University's Greenlee School of Journalism and is a graduate of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business Senior Executive program.
Paula A. Tkac is a financial economist and associate policy adviser in the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Her research focuses on portfolio management, mutual fund flows, and stock market trading volume. Before joining the bank Tkac was an assistant professor in the department of finance and business economics at the University of Notre Dame from 1993 to 2000. Prior to that she was a lecturer in the finance and economics departments at the University of Chicago. A member of the American Economic Association, the American Finance Association, and the Western Finance Association, she has published articles in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis and Managerial and Decision Economics. She has also presented papers and served as a discussant at numerous professional conferences. Tkac earned a bachelor's degree, master's degree, and doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago.
Larry D. Wall is a financial economist and policy adviser in the research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. In addition to pursuing research in the areas of finance and banking, he gives policy advice, evaluates staff research, and provides counsel on research and professional activities. A certified public accountant, Wall is a past president of the Eastern Finance Association and a past member of the board and chair of institutional directors of the Financial Management Association. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Banking and Finance and has been an adjunct faculty member at Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology. He earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of North Dakota and a PhD in business from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Kevin M. Warsh took office as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in 2006. Prior to this appointment Warsh served as special assistant to the president for economic policy and as executive secretary of the National Economic Council. His primary areas of responsibility included domestic finance, banking and securities regulatory policy, and consumer protection. He advised the president and senior administration officials on issues related to the U.S. economy, particularly fund flows in the capital markets, securities, banking, and insurance issues. Warsh participated in the President's Working Group on Financial Markets and served as the administration's chief liaison to the independent financial regulatory agencies. From 1995 to 2002 Warsh was a member of the mergers and acquisitions department of Morgan Stanley & Co., ultimately serving as vice president and executive director. He received an AB in public policy from Stanford University and a JD from Harvard Law School. He also completed course work in market economics and debt capital markets at Harvard Business School and M.I.T.'s Sloan School of Management.
Timothy M. Weithers is an executive director at Chicago Trading Company, a proprietary derivatives market-making and trading firm. He is also associate director and a member of the faculty of the University of Chicago's master's of science program in financial mathematics. Weithers has spent the majority of his professional career in financial markets education (at O'Connor and Associates, Swiss Bank Corporation, and UBS), delivering internal courses to employees and seminars for clients. He also taught for several years at Fordham University at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He has written both academic and practitioner articles on derivatives. His most recent publications involve foreign exchange, credit derivatives, and volatility/variance products. He has also been engaged in consulting work with the Department of Justice. Weithers received a BA in economics from the College of the Holy Cross and a PhD in mathematical economics from the University of Chicago.
Marc Zenner is a managing director of the Capital Structure and Advisory Solutions team at JPMorgan Chase. Prior to joining JPMorgan Chase in 2007, Zenner was global head of the Financial Strategy Group, a corporate finance advisory group in Citigroup's investment banking division. Zenner was also the U.S. head of ABN AMRO's U.S. financial markets advisory group. Prior to his career in banking, Zenner was the chairman of the finance area and a professor of finance in the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also taught at Purdue University and Indiana University and consulted for large global corporations. Zenner earned a commercial engineering degree at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), an MBA at the City University in London, and a PhD in finance at Purdue University.