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.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.