Chicago Booth European Conference 2010

Mr. Aznar became President of the Spanish Government (Prime Minister) in 1996, following the electoral success of the Partido Popular. Following the party's repeated success at the polls in the year 2000, this time obtaining an absolute majority, Mr. Aznar was re-elected. He held the presidency until the elections of 2004, at which time he voluntarily stood down in favor of a new candidate.
Throughout his time as President, he led a significant process of economic and social reform. Thanks to his liberalization and competition policies, budget control, rational public spending and tax cuts, almost five million new jobs were created in Spain. Spanish GDP increased a cumulative 64 percent over eight years. Throughout this time, the country advanced from 78 percent to 87 percent of the EU average income. The public deficit was reduced from 6 percent of GDP until the budget was balanced in the year 2002. Furthermore, during Mr. Aznar's time as President, Spain enjoyed its first two reductions in income tax since the advent of democracy. His changes increased Spain’s GNP by 68% and propelled Spain to the eighth largest economy in the world. 
He is the President of FAES (Foundation for Social Studies and Analysis). He is also a Distinguished Scholar at Georgetown University where he teaches various seminars on contemporary European politics at the Edmund A. Walsh School.
 

Yiannos Papantoniou is the main architect behind Greece's economic reforms in the late 90s that led to the implementation of the euro. 
Mr. Papantoniou started his political career in 1981 when he was elected Member of the European Parliament. In 1984, he was appointed Special Adviser to the Prime Minister on European Community affairs and also as Prime Minister’s representative on the ad hoc committee established by the European Council for the examination of the institutional problems of the European Communities. In 1985, he became Deputy Minister for National Economy and, in March 1989, Minister of Trade. In June 1989, he became a Member of Parliament. He was re-elected in October 1993 and was appointed Alternate Minister for National Economy. He became Minister for National Economy in May 1994. In September 1996, he was re-elected as Member of Parliament and became Minister for National Economy and Finance.Yannos Papantoniou is the author of several books and numerous articles on economics and politics.

Alessandro Motta entered the Diplomatic Career at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1992, where he was assigned to Directorate General for Cultural Relations and to the Spokesman Office of the Minister. He served also in the Department for Military Politics of Italian Joint Chief of Staff. From 1996 to 2000 he was appointed at the Italian Embassy in Mexico as Chief of the economic department. From 2000 to 2004 he was the Italian Consul in Brussels. From 2004 to 2007 he served at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Head of the Staff of the Director General for Human Resources. In 2007 he assumed his post as Consul General of Italy in Chicago.

Martin Rouine was born in Limerick, reared in Clare and was educated in Irish Christian Brothers School, Ennis, and obtained a BA at University College Dublin. 
He joined the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1973. Before his appointment to Chicago as Consul General, his diplomatic postings included New York, as Ireland’s Deputy Consul General, and Brussels, as a member of Ireland’s Delegation to the European Union. 
He also spearheaded a number of significant technological changes for the Department of Foreign Affairs. Most recently, these included the recent development and installation of Ireland’s new passport system.

Born in Madrid, Francisco Javier Rupérez Rubio has held the rank of full Ambassador within the Spanish Diplomatic Service since 1967. As a diplomat he has been posted to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Warsaw, Poland, Helsinki and Geneva. Between 1976 and 1977 he was Chief of Staff to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was Ambassador of Spain to the Madrid session of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, Ambassador of Spain to NATO and Ambassador of Spain to the United States of America. He was Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations in New York as Executive Director of the Counter-Terrorism Committee of the Security Council. From 2007 he has been serving as Consul General of Spain to the US Midwest.

Dirk Willem Schiff arrived in Chicago on 20 August 2005 to take up the position of Consul General of the Netherlands.  No stranger to the United States, Mr. Schiff was born in Bethesda, Maryland, during his father’s first diplomatic posting to the Netherlands Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Schiff joined the Dutch Foreign Service in 1974, after fulfilling his national military service in the Royal Netherlands Army. After a year's training, he was sent on diplomatic postings to Spain, Peru, Viet Nam, The Hague, the Holy See, Jamaica, Singapore, the Soviet Union/Russia, The Hague again, Luxembourg, The Hague a third time and Flanders/Belgium. His previous appointment was as Consul General in Antwerp, from 2001 to 2005. 

Anthony Smallwood is currently spokesman and press and cultural counselor at the European Union’s Delegation in Washington, where he leads the Press and Public Diplomacy team. He has spent most of his professional life either as a British cultural or development counselor, or with the European Commission at its Brussels headquarters and abroad. During his career he has traveled widely with postings in Europe, the Americas, the Caribbean, the Middle East and Africa. Although his principle responsibilities have been in external relations and development cooperation, he also played an important role in pioneering higher education cooperation during his time managing the European Commission’s ERASMUS program. 

Abe Tomas Hughes is currently Vice President Director of Business Development for the Americas (U.S., Canada and Latin America) of Case New Holland, responsible for mergers, acquisitions and new business ventures for the construction and agriculture equipment business lines as well as the Parts & Services and Capital organizations.
Abe has diversified international corporate experience, having worked in Brazil, Spain, California and Indianapolis in various roles from business development, mergers and acquisitions, marketing and sales at Eli Lilly and Company, R.R. Donnelley and within the investment banking sector.
Born in Arizona, Abe received his MBA from the Harvard Business School and his BA from Cornell University. 

Sekhar Bahadur is Vice Chairman of Global Banking in Deutsche Bank’s Financial Sponsors Goup and manages Deutsche Bank’s relationships with several key clients.  He has played an important role in many of Europe’s largest sponsor transactions. He was previously responsible for the European Leveraged Finance and Financial Sponsor Coverage groups at Deutsche Bank and the Sponsor Group at Bankers Trust.  Before joining Bankers Trust in 1992, he was a partner of a London-based merchant banking firm specialising in cross-border European M&A.  From 1983 to 1990, Sekhar was with Salomon Brothers, most recently in London as a Director in the M&A department responsible for Southern Europe, with previous experience in New York (1983 to 1987) in a wide range of M&A, equity and debt financing, advisory, capital markets and risk management assignments. Sekhar received an AB with General Honors in Chemistry in 1981 and an MBA from the University of Chicago in 1983.

Dr. Anthony Toussaint is Vice President of Research & Development for UV-curable materials leader DSM Desotech.  Since he started with the company in 1997, Anthony has held several positions in both R&D and New Business Development.  From 2007-2010, he headed Desotech’s UVention™ Group—an innovation platform dedicated to bringing the benefits of UV-curable technology to new market areas in both the U.S. and Europe.  Anthony received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from University College London, England and a MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Gerry Spahn is currently Senior Director of Investor Relations for CNH (Case New Holland), having joined the company in December  2009, with more than 20 years of experience in the field of Investor Relations in the United States, Asia and Europe.  Mr. Spahn has experience in the industrial and automotive sectors, working with capital markets and within large multicultural organizations.
Previously, Mr. Spahn spent  14 years with the Renault Nissan group, leading international  Investor Relations  programs for Renault from 2006 – 2009.  Prior to this position, he managed organizational development actions in Nissan Europe, including restructuring of the finance and purchasing organizations.  He worked in Japan  as part of a multinational management team responsible for Nissan’s global restructuring and was also a member of the management committee for Nissan’s International Operations from 2002 to 2004. Mr.  Spahn has been recognized by Institutional Investor and Extel as the top-rated IR Officer in his sector in Europe and Asia and has published articles on the subject of investor relations in a global world. Born in Rochester, New York, Mr. Spahn graduated from the University of Chicago in 1988, with a BA in political science. 
 

Martin Banks is Senior Vice President Strategy & Development at Aviva North America, based in Chicago. Aviva is listed in London and New York and is the world’s 5th largest insurer.  It has over 50 million customers in more than 25 countries served by 46,000 employees. Originally from the UK, Martin has worked in all four of Aviva’s geographic regions; the UK, Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific in a variety of strategic and operational roles.  He has worked across the P&C, life and health parts of the business and has been involved in Aviva’s entries into a number of markets, including India and Russia, and has worked on start-up, joint venture and acquisition based market entry  strategies.  Martin’s current role entails  strategy and development support to Aviva’s life & annuity business in the US and its property & casualty business in Canada.

Terrence Belton is managing director and global head of Fixed Income Strategy for J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc. A former economist for the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C., he was also a senior economist for the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, as well as first vice-president and director of research at the Discount Corporation of New York Futures in Chicago. Terrence Belton is an adjunct Professor of Finance at Chicago Booth.

J. C. Groon is Head of Innovation Programs for NAVTEQ, the world leader in premium-quality digital map data and content.  As part of this role, he runs i3, an internal effort designed to collect and implement high-value employee and customer ideas.  He joined NAVTEQ, now a Nokia company, in 2007 as part of their Corporate Strategy Group, where he was responsible for strategic planning and incoming M&A analysis.  Prior to NAVTEQ, J. C. was a Principal at Straylight Capital, a healthcare services focused private equity fund.
After receiving his BSE in Systems Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, J. C. spent 8 years with Accenture Technology Labs, where he led work in the Human Performance and Information Insight research areas.  He earned his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.  

Daniel G. Sullivan is director of research and senior vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Sullivan serves as chief economist and as a member of the Management Committee. He oversees the Bank's research in monetary policy, banking and financial markets, microeconomics and regional economics. In addition, he has supervisory responsibility for the Bank's consumer and community affairs unit and the public affairs department. Sullivan also attends meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the group responsible for formulating national monetary policy. Prior to his appointment as research director, Sullivan served as a senior economist and vice president and the team leader of the applied microeconomics group in the economic research department. His research is in the area of labor economics, especially issues related to displaced workers and alternative work arrangements. Prior to joining the Chicago Fed, Sullivan was an assistant professor of economics at Northwestern University and has also taught at Princeton University. In addition he is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy.

Brent Neiman conducts research on international finance, macroeconomics, and trade. He is a former staff economist for international finance on the White House Council of Economic Advisers and was a graduate summer intern at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Previously, he was a business analyst at McKinsey and Company and the McKinsey Global Institute

Emir Kamenica studies a variety of topics in applied microeconomics, including behavioral industrial organization, discrimination, and dating and marriage markets. He has published work in the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, and the Review of Economic Studies.

Pietro Veronesi conducts research that focuses on asset pricing, stock and bond valuation under Bayesian uncertainty and learning, and equilibrium models of return predictability. Veronesi is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a research fellow of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including the Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies.

Scott Meadow is the Faculty Director of Global Initiatives and since 2000 has held the position of Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He was designated by Business Week as one of the outstanding entrepreneurial professors in the country.
Scott has over 25 years experience as a general partner with four venture capital and private equity firms including William Blair Venture Partners, The Frontenac Company, The Sprout Group, and most recently with the Edgewater Funds, where he remains a Senior Advisor.