Topic: Economics

Kenneth Rogoff

Ken Rogoff is the Professor of Public Policy and the Professor of Economics at Harvard University and was previously the Economic Counsellor and Director of the Research Department of the IMF. He is one of the world’s leading advisers on the economic crisis.

After studying at Yale and MIT (the latter being interrupted by a nascent professional career as a chess Grandmaster), Ken worked as a professor at Harvard (in economics) and Princeton (in international affairs). He then served as an economist at the International Monetary Fund and also on the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve.

A widely published author on fiscal and monetary economics and macroeconomics, Ken has become best known for his work on financial crises. His book This Time is Different (co-authored with Carmen Reinhart), has become essential reading for the world’s finance ministers and central bank chiefs. The award-winning book is noted as the definitive history of financial crises over the last eight centuries and highlights the wide variety of mistakes and flawed solutions that have marked major economic events and the stark similarities between them. Looking at examples from sixty-six countries across five continents, Ken points out the common causes of financial crashes in both rich and poor nations, and explains why they occur unexpectedly and in clusters, and why the same short-term policy errors are just as likely to happen again.

Ken has been consulted by US and European governments on the causes, effects and best routes out of the global financial crisis, although he is cynical about governmental influence in financial crises. He states recoveries from debt-driven recessions are slower than recoveries from business cycle recessions and that it could still take Europe a decade to resolve its debt issues. He argues that when a state’s debts exceed 90 per cent of GDP, they will reduce the economic potential of the country.

Tomas Sedlacek

Tomas Sedlacek is a Czech economist and university lecturer. He is the Chief Macroeconomic Strategist at ČSOB, a former member of the National Economic Council of the Czech Republic and an economic advisor to former President Václav Havel.

Sedlacek is a member of Yale University World Fellowship, selected as one of “The Five Hot Minds in Economics” by Yale Economic Journal in 2006 and co-author of various case studies for Harvard and Georgetown. He is a lecturer and PhDr. graduate at Charles University in Prague, one of the oldest universities in Europe. In his recent book, The Economics of Good and Evil, (which became a number one bestseller in Switzerland and Germany after 2 weeks of its release) Sedlacek radically rethinks his field, challenging our assumptions about the world.

He was an advisor on macroeconomic issues dealing with the general economic part of the Presidential responsibilities. The main areas of responsibility were affairs with the Czech National Bank, Securities and Exchange Commission, Ministry of Finance and EU related economic issues. Also he was a non-political advisor to the Minister of Finance, responsible for macroeconomic issues, fiscal consolidation, European affairs and communication with The World Bank. He participated at the first historical Czech Sovereign Eurobond Emission, and represented the country at the World Bank and IMF meetings in Washington DC.

Tomas is also a recognised specialist on fiscal policy, Euro and European affairs in the leading Czech bank CSOB, a unit of multinational financial group KBC. He is a regular weekly columnist of the top Czech business newspaper Hospodarske noviny since 2006 and a frequent commentator of public affairs and frequent panelist with over three hundred speeches since 2009.

Mohan Munasinghe

Mohan Munasinghe is a Sri Lankan physicist, academic and economist with a focus on energy, water resources, sustainable development and climate change.

As Vice-Chairman of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Professor Mohan Munasinghe shared the 2007 Nobel Prize for Peace, for work on global warming and sustainable development. More recently, he received the 2021 Blue Planet Prize, also called the "Environmental Nobel Prize". The Heads of five countries, including Bangladesh, Brazil, Dominican Republic, France, and Sri Lanka, have presented highest national awards to him.

Currently, he is Chairman of the Munasinghe Institue of Development, Colombo; Director-General of the Sustainable Consumption Institute (SCI) and Distinguished Professor at the University of Manchester; and Honorary Senior Advisor to the Sri Lanka Government.

Professor Munasinghe has earned post-graduate degrees in engineering, physics and development economics from Cambridge University (UK), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA), and McGill University and Concordia University (Canada). During 35 years of distinguished public service, he has served as Senior Energy Advisor to the President of Sri Lanka, Advisor to the United States Presidents Council on Environmental Quality, and Senior Advisor to the World Bank.

He has taught as Visiting Professor at a number of universities world-wide, and has won many international prizes and medals for his research and its applications.

He has authored over 90 books and several hundred technical papers on the environment.

Professor Munasinghe has made numerous keynote speeches at gatherings ranging from high level international conferences to community meetings. He has organised and conducted international training seminars on climate change, sustainable development, environment, economics, energy, transport, water resources, and information technology, in various parts of the world, for thousands of senior officials and corporations.

He is a Fellow of several international Academies of Science, and serves on the editorial boards of a dozen academic journals.

Howard Davies

Howard Davies is Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Prior to his current appointment he was Chairman of the Financial Services Authority, the UK's single financial regulator since 1998.

Howard Davies had previously served for two years as Deputy Governor of the Bank of England after three years as Director General of the Confederation of British Industry. From 1987 to 1992 he was Controller of the Audit Commission. From 1982 to 1987 he worked for McKinsey & Company in London and during 1985-1986 was seconded to the Treasury as Special Adviser to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He had previously worked at the Treasury and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, including two years as Private Secretary to the British Ambassador in Paris.

Howard Davies was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Merton College, Oxford, where he gained an MA in history and modern languages. In 1979 he was awarded a Harkness Fellowship and in 1980 took an MSc in management sciences at Stanford Graduate School of Business, California.

Since 2002 he has been a Trustee of the Tate. He is a member of the governing body, Royal Academy of Music; Patron of Working Families; and in 2004 was elected to an Honorary Fellowship at Merton College. In 2004 he joined the board of Morgan Stanley as a non-executive director. He was appointed to the Board of Paternoster in 2006 as a non-executive Director, and is chairing the Man Booker Prize in 2007. His book "The Chancellors' Tales" was published in November 2006.

From 2003 to 2011 Davies served as Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

In 2009 Davies was appointed as advisor to the Investment Strategy Committee of the Government Investment Corporation of Singapore. Two years later he joined its International Advisory Board. Davies resigned from both positions in September 2012, on appointment to the chair of the Airports Commission. In 2010 he became a non-executive Director of Prudential plc, and Chair of the Risk Committee. Also in 2011 he joined the board of the Royal National Theatre. From 2012 to 2015 Davies was a member of the Advisory Board of the SWIFT Institute. Davies is a Council Member of the Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research in Singapore.