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Tony Blair, Former Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 
Paul Volcker, Former Chairman of the Federal Reserve
Dr. David Blitzer, Managing Director & Chief Investment Strategist and Director of Quantitative Services for Standard & Poor's
John R. Block, Former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture
Dr. Stephen Bloom, Senior Vice President of NASDAQ Financial Products
Ian Bremmer, President, Eurasia Group
Phillip Falcone, Senior Managing Director of Harbinger Capital Partners
Dr. Paul Fisher, Head of Foreign Exchange Division, Bank of England
Nicholas Gendron, Managing Director of Lehman Brothers
Mark Gildersleeve, President and Chief Executive Officer of Weather Services International
Ken Griffin, Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Citadel
Dr. Burton Malkiel, Chemical Bank Chairman's Professor of Economics at Princeton University
James McGregor, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of JL McGregor
George Pickering, Chief Advisor, Financial Markets, Bank of Canada
Raghuram G. Rajan, Eric J. Gleacher Distinguished Service Professor of Finance
Robert Shiller, Stanley B. Resor Professor of Economics, Yale University
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Tony Blair served as Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from May 1997 to June 2007. He was also the leader of Britain's Labor Party (1994 to 2007) and the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield, England (1983 to 2007). He is currently serving as the Middle East Quartet Representative. The Quartet is made up of the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia.
During his ten years as Prime Minister, Tony Blair transformed Britain's public services through a program of investment and reform in schools and hospitals, resulting in more children achieving better school results and more people receiving faster access to health care, with improved survival rates for cancer and coronary heart disease.
In the United States, he received widespread recognition for his support for America after the tragedy of 9/11. Mr Blair has always been a strong advocate of a values-based, activist and multilateralist foreign policy — an agenda that combined tackling terrorism and intervention in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Sierra Leone, with action on issues like climate change, global poverty, Africa and the Middle East Peace Process.
Mr. Blair is widely credited for his contribution towards assisting the Northern Ireland Peace Process by helping jointly to negotiate the Good Friday Agreement and deliver a power-sharing government.
Mr. Blair is based in London with his wife Cherie Blair and their four children.
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Paul Volcker became president of the New York Fed on August 1, 1975, at the age of 47. As president, he also served as vice chairman of the FOMC. Previously he served in a variety of positions with the Treasury, Chase Manhattan Bank, and the New York Fed.
Mr. Volcker's experience with the New York Fed began when he worked as a research assistant in the research department during the summers of 1949 and 1950. He returned to the New York Fed as an economist in the research department in 1952, and became a special assistant in the securities department in 1955. Two years later, he resigned to become a financial economist at Chase Manhattan Bank.
In 1962, he joined the Treasury as Director of the Office of Financial Analysis, and in 1963 he was appointed Deputy Undersecretary for Monetary Affairs. In 1965, he rejoined Chase Manhattan as vice president and director of forward planning.
From 1969 to 1974, he was Undersecretary of the Treasury for Monetary Affairs. His five-and-a-half-year tenure covered a period of rapid change in international and domestic financial affairs.
After leaving the Treasury, Mr. Volcker became senior fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University for the 1974-75 academic year.
He was named chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System by President Carter, and was sworn in on August 6, 1979. He served until August 11, 1987.
Mr. Volcker was born on September 1927 in Cape May, New Jersey. He earned a bachelor of arts degree, summa cum laude, from Princeton in 1949, and a master of arts degree in political economy and government from the Harvard University Graduate School of Public Administration in 1951. From 1951 to 1952, he was Rotary Foundation Fellow at the London School of Economics.
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David M. Blitzer is a managing director and the chairman of the S&P Index Committee with overall responsibility for security selection for S&P's indices and index analysis and management. He is a member of Standard & Poor's Investment Policy Committee.
Prior to becoming Chairman of S&P's Index Committee, Dr. Blitzer was Chief Economist for Standard & Poor's. Before joining Standard & Poor's, he was Corporate Economist at The McGraw-Hill Companies, S&P's parent corporation.
Prior to that, he was a Senior Economic Analyst with National Economic Research Associates, Inc. and did consulting work for various government and private sector agencies including the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the National Commission on Materials Policy, and Natural Resources Defense Council.
Dr. Blitzer is the author of Outpacing the Pros: Using Indices to Beat Wall Street's Savviest Money Managers, (McGraw-Hill, 2001) and What's the Economy Trying to Tell You?
Everyone's Guide to Understanding and Profiting from the Economy, (McGraw-Hill, 1997). In the year 2000, Dr. Blitzer was named to SmartMoney magazine's distinguished list of "the 30 most influential people in the world of investing," which ranked him seventh, and in the year 1998, Dr. Blitzer was named the nation's top economist, receiving the Blue Chip Economic Forecasting Award for most accurately predicting the country's leading economic indicators for four years in a row. A well known speaker at investing and indexing conferences, Dr. Blitzer is often quoted in the national business press, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and various financial and industry publications. He is frequently heard on local and national television and radio.
A graduate of Cornell University with a B.S. in Engineering, Dr. Blitzer received his M.A. in Economics from the George Washington University and his Ph.D. in Economics from Columbia University.
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John Block has dedicated his professional career to the fields of agriculture, food, and health. His accomplishments in agriculture began with the building of a large and successful agriculture operation in his home state of Illinois where he also served as the Director of Agriculture from 1977-1981.
He was tapped by President Reagan to serve as the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 1981-1985, where he played a key role in the development of the 1985 Farm Bill. He was President and Chief Executive Officer of Food Distributors International (formerly National American Wholesale Grocers Association) from 1986-January 2003.
Mr. Block serves on the Board of Directors of The Farm Foundation and Digital Angel Corp. He is Chair of the Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs Agribusiness Alliance and a member of the Board for the Friends of the World Food Program. He is a Non-resident Senior Fellow with the National Center for Food and Agriculture Policy. John Block is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy.
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As Senior Vice President of NASDAQ Financial Products, Dr. Bloom oversees the development of new NASDAQ® indexes, financial products, and derivative securities, and the marketing of NASDAQ indexes and NASDAQ-sponsored exchange traded funds (ETFs). Dr. Bloom is also responsible for administering NASDAQ's index program, licensing structured products, and listing third-party sponsored ETFs.
Dr. Bloom was previously Principal of Capmark®, a firm specializing in financial product design and strategic marketing in the investment industry. Dr. Bloom has been recognized for innovation and integrity in the field of financial services, particularly regarding the development and launch of ETFs, indexes, and derivative securities.
Prior to joining NASDAQ, Dr. Bloom contributed significantly to the creation of the NASDAQ-100 Index Tracking Stock® (NASDAQ: QQQQ), the world's most actively traded ETF, and SPDRs® (Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts®), the world's first and largest ETF as measured by assets under management.
Dr. Bloom also contributed to the development of the NASDAQ-100 European Tracker® (Symbol: EQQQ), which is listed on markets in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and the U.K. He previously served as new product advisor to The Bank of New York, whose four international stock indexes underly the ETF family of BLDRS (Baskets of Listed Depository Receipts®; NASDAQ: ADRA; ADRD; ADRE; ADRU), and to J.P. Morgan Chase. In addition, Dr. Bloom assisted in the launch of the first ETF offering by Fidelity Investments based on the NASDAQ Composite Index® (NASDAQ: ONEQ).
He is the co-inventor of several patented and patent-pending financial inventions in the field of stock indexes, ETFs, derivative securities, and international arbitrage trading.
Prior to founding Capmark in 1998, Dr. Bloom served as Senior Consultant in the securities and finance practice of National Economic Research Associates, Inc. (NERA). At NERA, he served as a bank and securities industry expert, an options expert, and a program trading system expert in separate securities litigations.
Before NERA, Dr. Bloom was Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for Equity Research and Vice President for New Product Development at the American Stock Exchange (Amex). For ten years, he assisted in the design and launch of numerous derivative securities and stock indexes. As Vice President of Amex Commodities Corp., Dr. Bloom assisted in the design of an all-in electronic trading platform for on-the-run U.S. Treasury futures.
Dr. Bloom holds an A.M. and Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University and a B.S. from Cornell University, and has held Series 7 and Series 63 registrations. He has previously served as arbitrator for the NYSE, NASD, and National Futures Association.
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Ian Bremmer is a sought-after adviser on international risk management who reads the global political and economic landscape. Bremmer's expertise spans academic, investment, and policymaking communities. With a focus on global emerging markets, Bremmer is a groundbreaking visionary whose work applies the discipline of political science to global decision-making. He provides insights and strategies that help minimize both long- and short-term risk by taking into account both the political and economic factors that affect the global business environment.
Bremmer authored Wall Street's first global political risk index, which represents the first time political science methodology has been used to evaluate investments based on political risk factors. As head of Eurasia Group, Bremmer personally advises government leaders throughout the world and CEOs from dozens of multinationals and FORTUNE 500 companies.
In addition to five groundbreaking books on global politics, including his most recent, the critically acclaimed The J Curve, Bremmer has written over 100 articles for such publications as Harvard Business Review, The New Republic, FORTUNE, The Wall Street Journal, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times. Bremmer is also a columnist for The Financial Times, contributing editor at The National Interest, and a political commentator for CNN, FOX News and CNBC.
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Mr. Falcone is the Senior Managing Director of the Harbinger Capital Partners Funds. He has more than 20 years experience in leveraged finance and leveraged companies. Prior to joining the Harbinger Capital Partners investment team, he served as head of High Yield trading for Barclay's Capital. From 1998 to 2000, he managed all aspects of Barclay's trading operations, including trading distressed and special situations, managing risk exposure of the desk, and overseeing the desk trading and analytical team. Mr. Falcone held a similar position with Gleacher Natwest, Inc. from 1997 to 1998.
Prior to joining Gleacher, Mr. Falcone was a Senior High Yield trader at First Union Capital Markets in Charlotte, North Carolina. Before joining First Union in 1995, he structured the leveraged buyout of AAB Manufacturing Corporation, a Newark, NJ based consumer products manufacturing company.
He completed this transaction in 1990 and remained President and Chief Operating Officer of the company until 1995. Mr. Falcone began his career in 1985, trading high yield and distressed securities at Kidder, Peabody & Co. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Harvard University in 1984.
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Dr. Fisher oversees the active management of the Government's foreign exchange reserves, the Bank's operations in foreign currency-denominated financial instruments and surveillance of the international financial markets for monetary and financial stability purposes.
In addition, Mr. Fisher chairs the London Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Exchange and is a member of the G10 Markets Committee.
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Nicholas J. Gendron joined Lehman Brothers in 1992 and is a managing director in the Lehman Brothers Fixed Income Research Department where he manages the global index business. The responsibilities of his group include: development of new index products, the marketing and support of the Firm's Global Family of Fixed Income Indices, working with institutions on index replication strategies, and discussing portfolio management issues around the index with the investor community.
Prior to joining Lehman, Mr. Gendron worked at JP Morgan for five years in their systems development department. He holds an M.B.A. in finance from New York University and a B.A. in computer science and mathematics from Boston College. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the Fixed Income Analysts Society (FIASI) since 2004 and is currently in charge of the membership committee.
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Mark Gildersleeve is President and CEO of Weather Services International (WSI), a weather information services firm — and sister company of The Weather Channel and weather.com — based in Andover, Massachusetts. WSI serves over 5,000 clients in broadcast and cable television, airlines, business aviation, energy and agricultural commodity trading, utilities, insurance, retail, manufacturing, and government. WSI has clients in over 50 countries around the world.
Gildersleeve has previously led the start-up of two companies: Adesso Software, a document imaging company, and Emerge, an agricultural information service. Earlier in his career, Gildersleeve worked at Wang Laboratories in a variety of marketing, strategic planning, and financial management positions. He received a master's degree in economics from the University of Chicago, and graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. degree in economics from Colby College.
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Ken Griffin is Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Citadel Investment Group, L.L.C. Founded in 1990 by Mr. Griffin, today Citadel has approximately 750 employees, with offices in Chicago, London, New York, San Francisco and Tokyo. The firm currently manages nearly $11 billion of investment capital in two domestic and two offshore funds. Citadel's investors include leading endowments, foundations, families of wealth, international money center banks, insurance companies, pension plans and Wall Street firms.
Born in Daytona Beach, Florida, Mr. Griffin graduated with honors from Harvard College with a B.A. in Economics. While in college, Mr. Griffin was responsible, as general partner, for the investment and trading activities of two limited partnerships engaged in relative value investment and trading strategies.
In addition to Mr. Griffin's responsibilities at Citadel, he is a member of the Boards of Trustees of The Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association. He also serves as a Director of The Chicago Public Education Fund and is a member of The Chicago Public Library Foundation Investment Committee and the Harvard Financial Aid Task Force.
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Dr. Burton G. Malkiel, the Chemical Bank Chairman's Professor of Economics at Princeton University, is the author of the widely read investment book, A Random Walk Down Wall Street. The revised 9th edition of the book will be published in 2006.
Dr. Malkiel has long held professorships in economics at Princeton, where he was also chairman of the Economics Department. He was dean of the Yale School of Management and William S. Beinecke Professor of Management Studies there from 1981.
He is a past appointee to the President's Council of Economic Advisors. In addition, he currently serves or has served on the boards of several financial corporations including Prudential Financial and the Vanguard Group. He has also served on several investment management boards including the Investment Committee for the American Philosophical Association. He is a past president of the American Finance Association and is a member of the American Economic Association.
He is also the author or co-editor of eight other books, the most recent of which are The Random Walk Guide to Investing: 10 Rules for Financial Success and Global Bargain Hunting: An Investor's Guide to Profits in Emerging Markets, with J. P. Mei.
He holds a B.A. and MBA degree from Harvard and a Ph.D. degree from Princeton Universities and began his career in the investment banking department of Smith Barney & Co.
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James McGregor is the chairman and CEO of JL McGregor & Company, a China-focused research and consulting firm with offices in Shanghai, Beijing, and New York. He is author of the book One Billion Customers: Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China, a widely acclaimed bestseller published by Simon & Schuster.
Previously, Mr. McGregor was CEO of Dow Jones & Company in China, bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal in China and Taiwan, and the China managing director for GIV Venture Partners, a $140-million venture capital fund specializing in technology investments in China and India. He has served as a China advisor for dozens of multinationals and investment funds.
In 1996, Mr. McGregor served as chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, and he was a governor of that organization for a decade. He is a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the International Council of the Asia Society, and serves on a variety of China-related advisory boards. He has advised both the Chinese and U.S. governments on economic and trade policies.
He has lived in Beijing since 1990.
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Mr. Pickering is responsible for the areas of financial markets and debt management for the Bank of Canada. Having held economist positions at the Royal Commission on Corporate Concentration the International Monetary Fund, Mr. Pickering has had a distinguished career with the Bank of Canada.
Most recently Mr. Pickering was appointed Chief Advisor of Financial Markets at the Bank of Canada.
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Raghuram G. Rajan is a leading expert on India affairs and served as Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund between 2003 and 2006. His major research focus is on economic growth, and the role finance plays in it. Rajan believes there is no issue with greater urgency or moral imperative than economic development.
He has been a visiting professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Economics Department and Sloan School of Management, as well as the Stockholm School of Economics. He also has worked as a consultant for the Indian Finance Ministry, World Bank, Federal Reserve Board, Swedish Parliamentary Commission, and various financial institutions. His practical experience gives him a better understanding of what is economically important and what is not.
Rajan is the author, along with Luigi Zingales, of the book, Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists. Rajan's work has earned him a number of awards. He received the inaugural Fischer Black Prize in 2003, which is awarded by the American Finance Association for the person under 40 who has contributed the most to the theory and practice of finance.
Rajan holds a bachelor's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management and a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Robert J. Shiller is the Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics, Department of Economics and Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University, and Professor of Finance and Fellow at the International Center for Finance, Yale School of Management. He received his B. A. from the University of Michigan in 1967 and his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1972. He has written on financial markets, financial innovation, behavioral economics, macroeconomics, real estate, statistical methods, and on public attitudes, opinions, and moral judgments regarding markets.
His 1989 book Market Volatility (MIT Press) is a mathematical and behavioral analysis of price fluctuations in speculative markets. His 1993 book Macro Markets: Creating Institutions for Managing Society's Largest Economic Risks (Oxford University Press) proposes a variety of new risk-management contracts, such as futures contracts in national incomes or in real estate that would permit the management of risks to standards of living. His book Irrational Exuberance (Princeton 2000, Broadway Books 2001, 2nd edition Princeton 2005, and in 15 foreign language editions) is an analysis and explication of speculative bubbles, with special reference to the stock market and real estate.
His book The New Financial Order: Risk in the 21st Century (Princeton University Press, 2003, 2004, and in 8 foreign language editions) is an analysis of an expanding role of finance, insurance, and public finance in our future.
He has been research associate, National Bureau of Economic Research since 1980, and has been co-organizer of NBER workshops: on behavioral finance with Richard Thaler since 1991, and on macroeconomics and individual decision making with George Akerlof since 1994.
He is co-founder, with Karl Case and Allan Weiss, of Case Shiller Weiss, Inc., an economics research and information firm which was sold in 2002 and renamed Fiserv CSW, Inc. He is also co-founder and principal, with Allan Weiss and Samuel Masucci, of MacroMarkets LLC, a firm devoted to the development of innovative risk-management devices for our largest risks.
He served as Vice President of the American Economic Association, 2005, and President of the Eastern Economic Association, 2006. He writes a column "Finance in the 21st Century" for Project Syndicate, which publishes around the world and an "Economic View" column in the Sunday New York Times.
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