Keynote Speaker

Ian H. Solomon
United States Executive Director, The World Bank

The Honorable Ian Solomon is the United States Executive Director of the World Bank Group. Solomon was nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate. As the U.S. Executive Director, he represents the United States as the largest shareholder on the executive boards of the World Bank Group institutions.

Previously, Solomon was Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the United States Department of the Treasury on international and domestic issues, including working on the Administration's global food security initiative as a member of Secretary Geithner's senior staff. From March 2005 through November 2008, Solomon served as Legislative Counsel to then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama working on issues relating to poverty, economic development, government reform, tax, budget, banking, and finance.

Before coming to Washington DC, Solomon was Associate Dean at Yale Law School overseeing finance and administration. He co-taught a popular seminar on negotiation and conflict resolution and was actively involved in urban economic development initiatives. Solomon served as Chairman of the New Haven, Connecticut Port Authority and as Treasurer to revitalize New Haven's world-renowned Shubert Theater. He directed an initiative to increase small and minority business contracting with the City of New Haven, and worked to grow businesses and create jobs through technology transfer by Yale University.

Solomon was a consultant with McKinsey & Company in New York, where he helped global financial institutions, media companies, and non-profit organizations realize strategic and operational opportunities. He advised the CEO of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, a major urban economic development initiative, and served as Acting Director of its lending subsidiary for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Originally from New York, Solomon lived in South Africa during the period of transition to nonracial democracy. He co-authored two chapters in "No More Tears..." Struggles for Land in Mpumalanga, South Africa (Africa World Press, 1997).

Speakers

George Allayannis

George (Yiorgos) Allayannis has taught in the First Year Finance program and elective courses in Portfolio, Valuation, and Financial Institutions and Markets as well as in programs in Darden's Executive Education, the CFA Institute, SNL Financial and the World Bank.

His primary research focus is on corporate risk management, exchange-rate risk, capital structure and corporate financial policies. Specifically, his work examines the impact of financial and operational risk management on firm valuation and risk, the valuation implications of cash flow volatility, and the determinants and evolution of a firm's exchange-rate risk. His recent work explores capital structure and liquidity as a way to manage risk and improve value, corporate governance, and earnings management. His research has been published in leading finance journals, such as the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics and Review of Financial Studies. He was the recipient of: the University of Virginia Alumni Association Distinguished Professor Award in 2011; the Outstanding Faculty Award in 2002, 2009, 2010 and 2012; was elected Faculty Marshal by the graduating classes of 2002, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2012; and was the recipient of the Wachovia Award for Research Excellence in 2002 for his article on corporate risk management and its impact on firm value.

Between 2005 and 2007, Allayannis was a director in Citigroup’s Global Financial Strategy Group in the Investment Banking Division. He worked extensively with clients in the financial institutions and industrials sectors advising on a broad range of issues such as capital structure, credit ratings, capital distribution policies, valuation and risk management. He was involved in several strategic and financing transactions. Allayannis also published several Citigroup reports on risk management in emerging markets, the impact of energy prices on corporate financial strategies and the value creation of divestitures in the financial services sector.

Stijn Claessens

Stijn Claessens is Assistant Director in the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund where he leads the Financial Studies Division. He is also a Professor of International Finance Policy at the University of Amsterdam where he taught for three years (2001-2004). Claessens, a Dutch national, holds a Ph.D. in business economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (1986) and M.A. from Erasmus University, Rotterdam (1984). He started his career teaching at New York University business school (1987) and then worked earlier for fourteen years at the World Bank in various positions (1987-2001). Prior to his current position, he was Senior Adviser in the Financial and Private Sector Vice-Presidency of the World Bank (from 2004-2006). His policy and research interests are firm finance; corporate governance; internationalization of financial services; and risk management. Over his career, Claessens has provided policy advice to emerging markets in Latin America and Asia and to transition economies. His research has been published in the Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Finance and Quarterly Journal of Economics. He had edited several books, including International Financial Contagion (Kluwer 2001) Resolution of Financial Distress (World Bank Institute 2001), and A Reader in International Corporate Finance (World Bank). He is a fellow of the London-based CEPR.

Janamitra Devan

Janamitra Devan is Vice President, Financial and Private Sector Development (FPD). FPD plays a vital role in operations, strategy and knowledge for both the World Bank and IFC. Devan brings a distinguished set of skills and experience to this key position.

Prior to this appointment, Devan, a U.S. national, was Director for Asia of the McKinsey Global Institute and Senior Fellow at McKinsey & Company's Shanghai office after 10 years as a senior executive with the company. Devan led a large-scale study on the urbanization of China; built a network of top Chinese economists to support McKinsey’s understanding of the Chinese economy; and developed a strong suite of proprietary knowledge products. He also advised senior executives and CEOs of more than 40 multinational corporations spanning the Fortune 1000 list of companies in airline, banking, food and beverage, consumer products, energy, mining, and infrastructure sectors.

Before his work in China, Devan was Director of Global Operations of McKinsey's flagship Strategy Practice with special expertise in global and corporate strategy for a broad spectrum of the firm's financial, consumer, and knowledge-based clients in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. While leading the Strategy Practice, he created and led the Institute for Corporate Excellence, an initiative to better understand the drivers of corporate performance.

Devan began his professional career as an economist at the Monetary Authority of Singapore. He subsequently worked as a consultant for Ernst and Whinney before teaching for several years at Middlebury College. From 1998-99 he was Program Manager of FIAS, where he managed the program for the Middle East and North Africa.

Devan holds a Ph.D. in Business Economics and Public Policy from Indiana University.

Eric Guichard

Eric Guichard is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Homestrings. He is also currently Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of GRAVITAS Capital Advisors, Inc. an asset management firm he founded in 1996 (www.gravitascapital.com) GRAVITAS Capital advises global and sovereign institutional assets. He runs the Sovereign Solutions Practice which includes innovative macro solutions such as the Sovereign Debt Redemption Fund Ltd and the Pension Support Fund Ltd. Guichard also manages GRAVITAS's Tactical Allocation Fund, LLC. He received a 2009 Risk Innovator Award for Finance from Risk & Insurance Magazine.

Prior to GRAVITAS Capital, Guichard was portfolio manager at the World Bank (1990-1996) where he also served as technical adviser to sovereign and multilateral institutions worldwide.

Guichard is a graduate of the University of Dakar (Cheikh Anta Diop), in Senegal; of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh; and of the Harvard Business School, where he earned his MBA (World Bank Scholar and Harvard Fellowship award.)

Guichard lectures internationally and has published articles on global finance and risk management. He lives in Washington, DC with his family.

Devesh Kapur

Devesh Kapur was appointed Director of the Center for the Advanced Study of India in 2006. He is Associate Professor of Political Science at Penn, and holds the Madan Lal Sobti Associate Professor for the Study of Contemporary India. Prior to arriving at Penn, Kapur was Associate Professor of Government at the University of Texas at Austin, and before that the Frederick Danziger Associate Professor of Government at Harvard. His research focuses on human capital, national and international public institutions, and the ways in which local-global linkages, especially international migration and international institutions, affect political and economic change in developing countries, especially India. His latest book, Diaspora, Democracy and Development: The Impact of International Migration from India on India, was published by Princeton University Press in August 2010, and earned him the 2012 ENMISA (Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Migration Section of International Studies Association) Distinguished Book Award. Kapur is the recipient of the Joseph R. Levenson Teaching Prize awarded to the best junior faculty, Harvard College, in 2005.

Kapur holds a B. Tech in Chemical Engineering from the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University; an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota; and a Ph.D. from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton.

William Kerr

William Kerr is an Associate Professor at Harvard Business School. Kerr teaches Launching Global Ventures for second-year MBA students; Launching New Ventures and Owners, Presidents and Managers for executive students; and Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives on Entrepreneurship for doctoral students. Kerr was previously co-chair of the first-year course The Entrepreneurial Manager at HBS. He has received Harvard's Distinction in Teaching award and was designated the HBS Marvin Bower Fellow.

Kerr's research focuses on entrepreneurship and innovation. One research strand examines the role of immigrant scientists and entrepreneurs in US technology development and commercialization, as well as the subsequent diffusion of new innovations to the immigrants’ home countries. A second research strand considers agglomeration and entrepreneurship, with special interest in how government policies aid or hinder the entry of new firms, cluster formation, and growth. A final interest area is entrepreneurial finance and angel investments.

Kerr is a Research Fellow of the NBER and Bank of Finland, has received several awards for his research papers, and serves on the editorial boards of multiple academic journals. Kerr has worked extensively with the World Bank, Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, and the National Science Foundation. Kerr received his Ph.D. in Economics from MIT and his B.S. in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia.

Kerr has worked with firms worldwide. Past projects include business plan development for start-up ventures in Hong Kong, establishing a corporate entrepreneurship and CVC unit within a Korean chaebol, and evaluating the acquisition of early-stage communications companies for a US multinational entering the Asian market. He also advised the governments of South Africa and Singapore on the economic benefits from telecom market deregulation.

Kerr and his family live in Lincoln, MA. They enjoy outdoor sports and trail running, are active members of their local church, and maintain close ties to his wife's home country of Finland. Kerr grew up in Alabama and remains a passionate college football fan.

Gheewhan Kim

Gheewhan Kim became the Minister for Economic Affairs at the Korean Embassy in Washington, D.C on August 25, 2011. Previously he was Director-General for Multilateral Trade in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT), dealing with WTO, APEC, OECD and G20 Trade matters. He was a senior official and a chief negotiator for various WTO Doha Development Agenda negotiations, including services and fishery subsidies. Kim was also involved in FTA matters as Deputy Director-General of the FTA Policy Bureau and was chief negotiator in the Korea-Japan FTA consultations.

As Head of Legal Service, Kim was responsible for WTO dispute settlement at the Ministry, where he successfully challenged countervailing measures imposed by Japan and the EU against Hynix DRAM semiconductors. He also served as Head of the Task Force for Hosting the 2012 Yeosu Exposition.

Since joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1983, Kim has served at various overseas posts, including the Embassy in Muscat, Oman, and the Korean Mission in Geneva, Switzerland. He worked as Counselor at the Embassies in the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation. Kim served as Director for Supporting North Korean Refuges at the Ministry of National Unification. He was awarded a Public Service Merit Medal in 2008. He completed military service as Lieutenant at the Judge Advocate General’s Office and at the Fleet Command of the Korean Navy.

He received his LL.B from the College of Law at Seoul National University in Korea, and graduated from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom with an LL.M and Diploma for International Law.

Leora Klapper

Leora Klapper is a Lead Economist in the Development Research Group, Finance and Private Sector Research Unit, at the World Bank. Since joining the Bank as a Young Economist in 1998, she has published articles on entrepreneurship, access to finance, corporate governance, risk of financial institutions, and bankruptcy and risk management. Her current research focuses on the impact of financial crises and civil conflict on entrepreneurship, and developing global indicators of financial inclusions. She has over 30 publications, and is currently a member of the Journal of Comparative Economics editorial board, the OECD Entrepreneurship Indicators Steering Group, and the G-20 Working Group on SME Finance Data Collection. Prior to coming to the Bank she worked at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Bank of Israel, and Salomon Smith Barney. She holds a Ph.D. in financial economics from New York University Stern School of Business.

He Ning

He Ning has been has been the Commercial Minister for the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China since May, 2012, and with the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFCOM) since 1987. He has devoted the past twelve years of his career to promoting bilateral economic and trade relations between the United States and China. Some highlights of his tenure with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs include being the first person to have been appointed Director-General of the Department for WTO Affairs, and serving as counselor for the permanent mission of China to Geneva. He Ning is a graduate of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.

Caglar Ozden

Caglar Ozden, a Turkish national, is senior economist in the Development Research Group's Trade and Integration team. He received his undergraduate degrees in economics and industrial engineering from Cornell University and his Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University. Prior to joining the World Bank six years ago, he was on the faculty of the economics department at Emory University. His research explores the nexus of globalization of product and labor markets, government policies and economic development. He has published numerous papers in leading academic journals which explored the dynamics of protectionist trade policies, adverse consequences of unilateral trade preferences, placement of highly educated migrants in unskilled jobs in the US labor market - the brain waste effect. His most current research explores the role of diasporas and social networks on migration flows and patterns, performance of migrants in the destination labor markets, linkages between migration, trade and foreign direct investment flows and causes of the migration decisions of physicians from sub-Saharan Africa. He has edited three books on migration, remittances, brain drain and their impact on economic development. The latest, International Migration, Economic Development and Policy, was published in 2007.

Lorena Palomo

Lorena Palomo is a senior officer on trade policy in the Economic Department of the Embassy of Chile to the United States. Palomo is responsible for supporting and implementing bilateral economic activities and promoting exports and investment.

Prior to working at the Embassy of Chile, from 2007 to 2010, Palomo worked on international economic issues at the Office of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile.

From 2004-2006, Palomo served as a Project Coordinator at Directorate General of International Economic Affairs where she was responsible for implementing the project Strengthening Institutional Capacity of DIRECON, financed by the Inter–American Development Bank.

In 2003, Palomo was assigned to the Embassy of Chile in Norway where she served as a Consul, a post that she held until 2004.

Between 2001 and 2002 she served as economic adviser at the Directorate General of International Economic Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile. She participated in the negotiation process with the European Union and European Free Trade Association (EFTA).

Palomo received her undergraduate degree in Commercial Engineering and her Master degree in Financial Economics from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, where she graduated with honors. She entered the Andrés Bello Diplomatic Academy in 1997, and graduated in 1998. 

Kislaya Prasad

Kislaya Prasad is a Research Professor at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland. He received his Ph.D. in Economics and M.S. in Computer Science from Syracuse University. Previous positions include Professor of Economics at Florida State University and Research Officer at the University of Cambridge. His principal research focus is on the computability and complexity of individual decisions and economic equilibrium, innovation and diffusion of technology, and social influences on economic behavior. His research has been published in leading economic journals such as Journal of Monetary Economics, Journal of Mathematical Economics, International Journal of Game Theory, and Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control. Current projects include medical treatment variations and diffusion of technologies in medicine, complexity of choice under uncertainty, and experimental tests of contract theory. His research is currently funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Prasad is also a Guest Scholar at the Center on Social and Economic Dynamics, The Brookings Institution, Washington D.C.

Lemma Senbet

Lemma W. Senbet is the William E. Mayer Chair Professor of Finance at the Smith School of the University of Maryland, College Park and Director of the Center for Financial Policy. He has been an influential member of the global community of finance scholars for over 30 years. His chief research interests are in the areas of corporate finance, international finance, agency, and financial contracting. He has advised the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, African Economic Research Consortium, and other international institutions on issues of financial sector reform and capital market development. He also served as an independent director for The Fortis Funds and currently is an independent director for The Hartford Funds.

Senbet is internationally recognized for his widely cited contributions to finance, which have appeared in such leading academic journals as the Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, and Journal of Business. He has published over sixty papers. He has served on more than a dozen journal editorial boards.

Senbet has received numerous professional honors and recognitions for his impact on the finance profession. He has been elected (twice) director of the American Finance Association and is a past president of the Western Finance Association. He was inducted into the Financial Economists Roundtable, a distinguished group of financial economists who have made significant contributions to finance and add their knowledge to current policy debates. In 2005, Senbet was awarded an honorary doctor of Letters Honoris Causa by Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia’s flagship institution of higher learning and his alma mater. In 2006, he was inducted as Fellow of the Financial Management Association International for his career-long distinguished scholarship and professional service.

Kenneth Smith Ramos

Kenneth Smith Ramos is currently the Head of the Trade and NAFTA Office of the Ministry of Economy of Mexico, in Washington DC. promoting trade relationships between Mexico and the United States and ensuring proper This office is in charge of Also, this office engages with relevant stakeholders from the academic, private, and public sectors on key trade issues that affect the bilateral relationship and addresses global issues that are relevant to the NAFTA region.

Prior to serving in his current post, Smith was Coordinator General for International Affairs at the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA), where he was responsible for agricultural trade negotiations and international cooperation. He managed six Foreign Agricultural Offices of Mexico that play a key role in the promotion of Mexican agricultural exports through the participation in international trade shows, and trade missions.

Previously, Smith worked at the Mexican Federal Competition Commission, as Director-General for International Affairs, as well as in the Ministry of Economy, where he was Director-General for Assessment and Monitoring of Negotiations.

He started his professional career working for Mexico’s NAFTA negotiating team. Smith has a Bachelor’s Degree in International Affairs from Georgetown University, and a Master’s Degree in International Economy from Johns Hopkins University.

Emirhan Yorulmazlar

Emirhan Yorulmazlar is Political Counselor at the Turkish Embassy in Washington since August 2012. He is also currently Foreign Policy Institute Fellow at SAIS. Formerly he was Fellow (2011-2012) at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University.

He previously served as the Deputy Special Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, H.E. Ahmet Davutoglu. Yorulmazlar previously was Third and Second Secretary at the Turkish Embassy in Tehran between 2005-2009.

Yorulmazlar completed double majors in Political Science &IR and History from the Bogazici University, Istanbul. He got an M.Sc. in European Politics and Policy at the London School of Economics as a Chevening Scholar of the British Council. He is currently a PhD candidate at the Bogazici University completing his dissertation on “Ideas and foreign policy: The role of the JDP-Davutoglu paradigm in Turkish foreign policy after 2002.”

Bennet Zelner

Bennet A. Zelner (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 2001) studies the strategies that firms use to manage the diverse political, social, and economic institutions they encounter when doing business abroad. Much of his research focuses on infrastructure industries recently subject to market-oriented reform—such as privatization, deregulation, and liberalization—and the challenges that such environments pose for private investors. Other projects focus on the role played by corporate groups—clusters of legally independent firms joined by multiplex economic and social ties—in Western Europe and the United States, and the comparative effects of national renewable energy policies on “green” innovation patterns in Western Europe. Zelner’s research has been published in such journals as Administrative Science Quarterly, Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, American Sociological Review and Harvard Business Review.