"Future Scenarios for Industry and Economy"

Prof. Ricardo Hausmann is Director of the Center for International Development and Professor of the Practice of Economic Development at Harvard University.

Prof. Hausmann holds a PhD in economics from Cornell University. Previously, he served as the first Chief Economist of the Inter-American Development Bank (1994-2000), acting for the financing of sustainable development of Latin America and Caribbean countries, where he also created the Research Department.

He has served as Minister of Planning of Venezuela (1992-1993) and as a member of the Board of the Central Bank of Venezuela. He also served as Chair of the IMF-World Bank Development Committee.

His recent research has focused on understanding how countries change what they produce as they grow and what this implies for policy. He has also helped to develop a methodology to diagnose the growth problems of countries. He has made contributions to the understanding of global imbalances, of emerging market financial crises, of the sources of macroeconomic volatility, of the institutions for fiscal discipline and of issues of inequality and gender.

He has worked as an advisor or consultant for all major multilateral financial institutions including the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Inter-American Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and to over 30 governments in all continents.

He is the President of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association and member of the board of Acción International a nonprofit organization providing micro-loans to developing countries.

"Strategies for Competitive Firms"

As International Economy Editor at The Financial Times, Alan Beattie leads the paper's coverage of world trade policy and economic globalization.

He is a nimble, accessible writer who brings to life even the most difficult-to-grasp goings on in today's complex economic world. His expertise includes US and international economic issues, the Federal Reserve, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank.

Beattie has made a life-long study of the reasons why some country and regional economies and societies succeed and others fail, and he has written a highly-regarded book "False Economy" with fascinating insights into the choices nations make and how those choices shape their economic future. He challenges accepted wisdom, exposing ideas such as the currently fashionable explanation that certain countries and regions are "destined" to be poor or rich.KD

Influential forums at which he has appeared include; The World Bank (Washington, DC), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit (Hanoi, Vietnam), Pacific Economic Co-operation Council (Sydney, Australia) and Overseas Development Institute (London, UK).

He has appeared on MSNBC, Bloomberg Television, and C-Span, among others.

Colorful, enlightening, often unconventional - these are the hallmarks of Beattie's writing and speaking. He provides insights covering current economic events with a unique perspective that blends politics, global economics, and history.