Financial Literacy Day

Loretta J. Mester, PhD

President and CEO

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

As president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Loretta J. Mester participates in the formulation of U.S. monetary policy, and oversees 1,000 employees in Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh who conduct economic research, supervise banking institutions, and provide payment services to commercial banks and the U.S. government. She assumed her role as president and CEO in June 2014.

Dr. Mester was born in Baltimore, MD. She graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor of arts degree in mathematics and economics from Barnard College of Columbia University. She earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from Princeton University, where she was a National Science Foundation Fellow.

Prior to being named president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Dr. Mester had been executive vice president and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, where she was the chief policy advisor, attended meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee, and oversaw the economists and analysts in the Research Department, as well as professionals in the Financial Statistics Department and the Payments Cards Center. She joined the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia in 1985 as an economist, becoming senior vice president and director of research in 2000, and executive vice president and director of research in 2010.

Dr. Mester is an adjunct professor of finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and is a fellow at the Wharton Financial Institutions Center. She has also taught in the undergraduate finance and M.B.A. programs at Wharton and in the Ph.D. program in finance at New York University.

Her areas of research expertise and interest include the organizational structure and productive efficiency of financial institutions, financial intermediation and regulation, agency problems in credit markets, credit card pricing, central bank governance, and inflation. Dr. Mester has published numerous articles in refereed academic and professional journals on a variety of topics including economics, central banking, and financial issues. In addition, Dr. Mester is managing editor of the International Journal of Central Banking and co-editor of the Journal of Financial Services Research; and is an associate editor of several other academic journals.

Dr. Mester is a director of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, a trustee of the Cleveland Clinic, a trustee of the Musical Arts Association (Cleveland Orchestra), a director of the Council for Economic Education, a founding director of the Financial Intermediation Research Society, and a member of the advisory board of the Financial Intermediation Network of European Studies (FINEST). She is a member of the American Economic Association, the American Finance Association, the Econometric Society, and the Financial Management Association International.

Jay Bryson, PhD

Managing Director and Acting Chief Economist

Wells Fargo & Company

Jay Bryson is the managing director and acting chief economist for Wells Fargo Securities. He has been the acting chief economist since August 2018. Between 1998 and 2018, he was Wells Fargo’s global economist, a role in which he provided analysis on macroeconomic and financial developments in the major economies of the world.

Before joining the company, Jay was an economist in the Division of International Finance at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C. He started his career as an assistant professor of economics at the University of Alabama. He has also lectured on international economics and macroeconomics at the School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and Georgetown University. He has published in academic and popular economic journals, and his comments on the economy regularly appear in The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and USA Today. He makes frequent appearances on CNBC and Bloomberg TV.

Jay received his B.A. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Jay is a member of the American Economic Association and the Charlotte Economics Club. He is also a member of the National Association for Business Economics and served on its board of directors from 2010 to 2013.

Nicholas Colas

Co-Founder

DATATREK Research

 Nick is a 30+ year veteran of Wall Street with experience in equity research, money management and investment banking.

From 1991 to 1999 he was the senior equity auto analyst at First Boston (now Credit Suisse).  In addition to his duties advising clients on investments in the sector, he was also active in a range of equity offerings and M&A assignments.  These included several equity underwritings for Chrysler, as well as its eventual sale to Daimler Benz, along with IPOs in the auto parts, rental car, and Chinese auto industry sectors.

From 1999 – 2001, Nick was an analyst and portfolio manager at SAC Capital reporting directly to company founder Steve Cohen.

From 2003 – 2017 he was Director of Research and Chief Market Strategist for first Rochdale Securities and then Convergex Group. In the latter role he authored the firm’s Morning Markets Briefing, which became a daily must-read for thousands of Wall Street professionals.

Nick is regularly on CNBC and Bloomberg TV/Radio and is widely quoted in the financial press.

Nick received his MBA from the University of Chicago in 1991 and his undergrad degree from Haverford College in 1986, majoring in Near Eastern Archaeology.  He is a lifelong New Yorker, born and raised in Manhattan.

Kent Conrad

Senator Kent Conrad

Former Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee

Kent Conrad is a BPC senior fellow and co-chair of its Commission on Retirement Security and Personal Savings, which released its comprehensive recommendations in 2016. As a former senator from North Dakota, he was chairman of the Senate Budget Committee.

Conrad has earned bipartisan respect as an expert on the nation’s fiscal issues. Selected by TIME as one of “America’s 10 Best Senators” and rated by The American as one of the ten most economically knowledgeable members of Congress, he has played a vital role in shaping our nation’s fiscal policies during the last three decades. He was the father of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (Simpson-Bowles) and a key author of the Affordable Care Act. He is currently a part of the Campaign to Fix the Debt. A self-described deficit hawk, Conrad also served on the Gang of Six, a bipartisan group of senators that proposed solutions to the U.S. debt challenge.

Conrad began his career as an assistant to the North Dakota state tax commissioner, Byron Dorgan, who later became his colleague in the Senate. Conrad succeeded Dorgan as tax commissioner, a position he held until he successfully ran for the Senate in 1986.

Conrad holds degrees from Stanford University and George Washington University.

Michael Drury

Chief Economist

McVean Trading & Investments

Michael Drury is the chief economist for McVean Trading & Investments, LLC. He joined the firm in 1992, after serving for five years as senior economist with Allen Sinai at Shearson Lehman Brothers and its successor firms. Michael began his career in New York in 1982 as senior economist at A. Gary Shilling and Company. He received his B.S. in economics from the Georgia Institute of Technology and did his graduate work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Michael assesses macroeconomic developments around the world to help develop hedging strategies using futures markets in interest rates, currencies and industrial materials. He travels extensively in the United States and China, as well as to Japan, Europe and Latin America. Michael is the author of McVean Trading’s “Weekly Economic Update.” He is the chairman emeritus of the Global Interdependence Center, president of the Economic Club of Memphis, was the founder and first president of the MidSouth Association for Business Economics (a chapter of NABE), and is a member of the National Business Economic Issues Council (NBEIC) and a non-resident member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing. Michael lives in Germantown, Tenn. with his wife, Mahrou, and has three children.

Chris Hartshorn

CEO and Founder

Xibus Systems

Chris has helped to drive innovation as CEO and Founder of Xibus Systems, a developer of faster food safety solutions; as Chief Research Officer of Lux Research, an emerging technology subscription intelligence service to hundreds of the world’s most innovative companies and agencies; and as Chief Technology Officer at Callaghan Innovation, the government agency responsible for catalyzing innovation in New Zealand.

He brings first-hand experience in developing and growing information services businesses and commercializing multidisciplinary solutions drawing from physical, life and data sciences.

Karen A. Holbrook, PhD

Regional Chancellor

USF Sarasota-Manatee

Karen A. Holbrook, Ph.D., is the Regional Chancellor at USF Sarasota-Manatee, following a year as the Interim President for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Before assuming the position at Embry-Riddle she worked as a higher education consultant and the Senior Advisor to the President at the University of South Florida, where she was, until recently, the Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation then Senior Vice President for Global Affairs and International Research.  Dr. Holbrook served as the President of The Ohio State University from 2002-2007 and was previously the senior vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of Georgia; vice president for research and dean of the Graduate School at the University of Florida; and associate dean for research and professor of biological structure and medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine.  She has served on the boards of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), ACT, Inc, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the American Council of Education (ACE), the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (now APLU), the Association of American Universities (AAU), the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), and Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), Washington Advisory Group (WAG), among others.  Dr. Holbrook has also participated on advisory panels and councils for the National Institutes of Health (NIAMS) and was a member of the Advisory Committee to the immediate past Director of the NIH (Elias Zerhouni).  She currently serves on the boards of the Institute of International Education (IIE), CRDF Global, Bio-Techne, Academic Assembly, Inc., INTO USF, and is the immediate past board chair for Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) and until recently, served on the Board of Trustees for Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). She is a Distinguished Fellow of the Global Federation of Councils of Competitiveness (GFCC). Earlier in her career, Dr. Holbrook was a biomedical researcher and NIH MERIT Award investigator.  She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in zoology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and a doctorate in biological structure at the University of Washington School of Medicine, where she served as a postdoctoral fellow in dermatology, faculty member and research administrator. She is married to Jim Holbrook, a physical oceanographer who spent his career with NOAA at Pacific Marine Environmental Lab in Seattle, Washington and in Washington, D.C. They have one married son, James who is the Senior Art Director and Producer for ABC World News in New York City.

David R. Kotok

CIO

Cumberland Advisors

David R. Kotok cofounded Cumberland Advisors in 1973 and has been its Chief Investment Officer since inception. He holds a B.S. in economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, an M.S. in organizational dynamics from The School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.A. in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Kotok’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, Fox Business, and other media.

Mr. Kotok 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. Mr. Kotok chaired its Central Banking Series and organized a five-continent dialogue held in Cape Town, Chile, 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.

Mr. Kotok is a member of the National Business Economics Issues Council (NBEIC), the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) and served on the Research Advisory Board of BCA Research. Mr. Kotok has served as a Commissioner of the Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) and on the Treasury Transition Teams for New Jersey Governors Kean and Whitman. He has also 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 authored or co-authored four books, including the second editions of From Bear to Bull with ETFs and Adventures in Muniland. David has also written the monograph pamphlet, “Thucydides” detailing information asymmetries & their implications for investors and world affairs.

Michael McKee

International Economics and Politics Correspondent

Bloomberg Radio/TV

Michael McKee is the International Economics and Policy Correspondent for Bloomberg TV and Radio, covering market and political developments, economic trends and central banks in the United States and around the globe.

He was formerly co-host of Bloomberg Radio’s daily “Surveillance” program, and the weekly political program “Bloomberg View.” 

McKee covered Congress, the White House, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department for Bloomberg News, and has written for Bloomberg Markets, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Bloomberg.com.  He’s been a regular at many international economic gatherings, including meetings of the G-7, the World Bank and IMF, APEC, and the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Prior to joining Bloomberg in January 1995, McKee covered politics for 20 years for a variety of news organizations, including Newsweek. He covered Capitol Hill and spent 10 years at the White House reporting on presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton.

John Mousseau

President, CEO & Director of Fixed Income

Cumberland Advisors

John R. Mousseau, CFA, joined Cumberland Advisors in September 2000. He is currently President and Chief Executive Officer, and the Director of Fixed Income at Cumberland Advisors. In this capacity, Mr. Mousseau is a portfolio manager and has overall responsibility for portfolio construction, management, analysis, trading, and research for all tax-free and taxable bond accounts.

Mr. Mousseau has over 30 years of investment management experience. Prior to Cumberland, he was the Director of Municipal Bond Investments for Lord Abbett & Company. He also worked previously for Shearson Lehman Brothers and E.F. Hutton. His comments and analyses have appeared in The Bond Buyer, Barron’s, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Forbes, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and New York Times. In addition, he has appeared Bloomberg Television and Radio, Reuters, CNBC, and on Sarasota-Manatee’s local media for commentary on fixed-income and the broader financial markets. He continues to speak at various industry conferences, and has been a guest lecturer at Florida International University.

Mr. Mousseau holds an A.B. in economics from Georgetown University and an M.A. in economics from Brown University, and he is a Chartered Financial Analyst. He is a member of the Philadelphia Council for Business Economics (PCBE), the National Federation of Municipal Analysts (NFMA), the National Association of Business Economics (NABE), the Washington Association of Money Managers (WAMM), and the National Economists Club (NEC). He is a member, and past chair of the Municipal Bond Buyers Conference. He has also served as an instructor at the New York Institute of Finance and Bond Market Association.

Mr. Mousseau resides in Sarasota, Florida, is active in alumni affairs at Georgetown University, and is President of the Rotary Club of Sarasota Bay. He is a member of the Tampa Bay chapter of the CFA Institute. Mr. Mousseau co-authored the book, Adventures in Muniland.

Dave Nadig

Managing Director

ETF.com

Dave Nadig is the Chief Investment Officer and Director of Research of ETF Trends (ETFTrends.com) and ETF Database (ETFdb.com). Dave previously served as the CEO and CIO of ETF.com, where he spent 10 years helping build the editorial, analytics and conference business before those businesses were sold in 2015, when he briefly served as FactSet Research Systems Director of Exchange Traded Funds, the acquiror of the ETF.com Analytics business. 

Dave has been involved in researching, reporting and analyzing the investment management industry for more than 25 years, and recently co-authored a definitive book on ETFs, “A Comprehensive Guide To Exchange Traded Funds” for the CFA Institute.

As a Managing Director at Barclays Global Investors, Dave helped design and market some of the first exchange-traded funds. With partner Don Luskin, he went on to found MetaMarkets.com, a revolutionary transparent mutual fund company that pushed fund disclosure to the top of the SEC agenda. As co-founder at Cerulli Associates in the early ’90s, he conducted some of the earliest research on fee-only financial advisers and the rise of indexing.    Dave is widely quoted in the financial press, a regular speaker at finance conferences, and publishes a widely read blog at ETFTrends.com. He’s has an MBA in Finance from Boston University. 

Jessica Rabe

Co-Founder

DataTrek Research

Jessica started her career on Wall Street working as a research associate for a NYC brokerage firm when she was 19. She was Vice President of Market Strategy at Convergex Group prior to co-founding DataTrek Research. Jessica wrote economic and market commentary for the Morning Markets Briefing, a daily financial report widely followed by the investment community and media.

She conducts research and economic analysis on a wide array of topics, including the domestic legal marijuana industry, millennials and fintech, behavioral finance, US equity market volatility, labor markets and monetary policy. Jessica has been quoted in several publications, such as the WSJ, CNBC, Barron’s, Bloomberg, MarketWatch, Business Insider, and Zero Hedge, among others. She has also been interviewed live on CNBC about millennial finance, and on BNN (Canadian business television) regarding the US legal marijuana industry.

Jessica is the co-author of “Alts Democratized: A Practical Guide to Alternative Mutual Funds and ETFs for Financial Advisors”, published in 2014 by Wiley Finance. She started her career working at a Registered Investment Advisor in New Jersey, where she assisted the portfolio manager in portfolio analytics and construction and helped complete consulting studies for the mutual fund industry. Jessica graduated summa cum laude with a BA in economics from Gordon College.

Eddie Sanchez, Jr., PhD

Professor of Finance

USF Sarasota-Manatee

Eddie Sanchez, Jr. is a finance professor at the University of Sarasota- Manatee.  Currently, he is a Doctoral candidate in the DBA program at the University of Florida. He received a Master degree in Business Administration and Portfolio Management/Security Analysis from the Heider College of Business at Creighton University. He received a Master degree in Economics from Trinity College and Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Quinnipiac University.

Eddie’s research interests are in the area of Municipal Bonds, Hedge Funds, Mutual Funds, Capital Markets, and Financial Intitutions.

Eddie has over 20 years of experience as a hedge fund portfolio manager and securities analyst. He managed long/short Technology and Telecommunications portfolios at Citigroup Investments, First New York Securities, The Galleon Group, Credit Suisse, and the Blackthorn Group.

Kathleen Stephansen

Senior Economist

Haver Analytics

Kathleen Stephansen is an Independent Trustee for the AXA-Equitable Trusts, a Senior Economist for Haver Analytics and a Senior Economic Advisor to the Boston Consulting Group Henderson Institute Center for Macroeconomics. She is the former Chief Economist of Huawei Technologies, Chief Economist of the American International Group (AIG) and AIG Asset Management’s Senior Strategist and Global Head of Sovereign Research. Prior to joining AIG in 2010, Kathleen was Chief Economist at Aladdin Capital Holdings, Credit Suisse’s Head of Global Economic Research, and Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette Securities Corporation’s co-head of Fixed Income economic research and Chief International Economist.

Kathleen serves on the board of the Global Interdependence Center (GIC) as the vice-chair of programming. She is also a board member Economists for Peace and Security (EPS) and is a former board member of the National Association of Business Economics (NABE). She is a member of Chatham House and the Economic Club of New York.

Bill Strauss

Senior Economist and Economic Adviser

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

William A. Strauss is a senior economist and economic adviser in the economic research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, which he joined in 1982. His chief responsibilities include analyzing the current performance of both the Midwest economy and the manufacturing sector for use in monetary policy. He produces the monthly “Chicago Fed Midwest Manufacturing Index” and organizes the Bank’s Economic Outlook Symposium and Automotive Outlook Symposium. In addition, he conducts several economic workshops and industrial roundtables throughout the year.

Strauss has taught as an adjunct faculty member at Loyola University Chicago and Webster University in Chicago. He currently teaches at DePaul University Kellstadt Graduate School of Business and at the University of Chicago Graham School of General Studies. At the latter institution, he was named winner of the 2010 Excellence in Teaching Award in the Business and Professional Programs.

His research papers include analysis of the manufacturing sector, the automotive sector, the Midwest regional economy, the trade-weighted dollar, business cycles and Federal Reserve payments operations.

Strauss has been interviewed on numerous television and radio shows and quoted in the major business magazines and newspapers. He has also provided testimony concerning manufacturing issues to the U.S. Senate.

He is a past president of the Chicago Association of Business Economists; a past board member for the National Association for Business Economics; a member of the National Business Economics Issues Council; a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council for the University at Buffalo; a member of the Advisory Council for the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Center for Economic Education; a member of the Economic Advisory Committee for the Council on Competitiveness and a board member of Global Midwest Alliance.

Strauss earned a B.A. in economics and geography from the State University of New York at Buffalo and an M.A. in economics from Northwestern University.

Christopher Whalen

Chairman

Whalen Global Advisors LLC

Richard Christopher Whalen is an investment banker and author who lives in New York City. He is Chairman of Whalen Global Advisors LLC and focuses on the financial services, mortgage finance and technology sectors. Christopher is a member of FINRA and is associated with J.V.B. Financial 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 an author, financial professional and journalist 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 toEnterprise” (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.

Christopher is a member of the Economic Advisory Committee of FINRA. He serves on the board of directors of the Global Interdependence Center (GIC) in Philadelphia. Christopher previously served as a fellow of Networks Financial Institute at Indiana State University (2008-2014) and as a member of the Finance Department Advisory Council at the Villanova School of Business (2013-2016).

Christopher edits The Institutional Risk Analyst newsletter and contributes to other publications such as Zero Hedge, American Banker, Housing Wire, National Mortgage News and The National Interest. He has testified before Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on a range of financial, economic and political issues. He appears regularly in such media outlets as CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox News and Business News Network. Christopher is active in social media under the Twitter handle “rcwhalen”.

A partial listing of his TV appearances, speeches, articles and academic papers is available online at www.rcwhalen.com and on SSRN.