SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Dr. Nasser H. Saidi Dr. Nasser H. Saidi is the Chief Economist of the Dubai International Financial Centre Authority (DIFCA) and Executive Director of the Hawkamah-Institute for Corporate Governance at the DIFC. He served as the Data Protection Commissioner of DIFC from January to August 2007.
He is a former Minister of Economy and Trade and Minister of Industry of Lebanon (1998-2000). He was the First Vice-Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon for two successive mandates, 1993-1998 and 1998-2003. He is co-chair with the OECD of the MENA Corporate Governance Working Group and established the Lebanon Corporate Governance Task Force. He was a Member of the UN Committee for Development Policy (UNCDP) for two mandates over the period 2000-2006, appointed as a member in his personal capacity by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
He has a recent book, “Corporate Governance in the MENA countries: Improving Transparency & Disclosure”, and a number of books and publications addressing macroeconomic, capital market development and international economic issues in Lebanon and the region. His research interests include macroeconomics, financial market development, payment systems and international economic policy, and ICT.
Dr. Saidi has served as economic adviser and director to a number of central banks and financial institutions in the Arab countries, Europe and Central and Latin America. Prior to his public career, Dr. Saidi pursued a career as an academic, as a Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics of the University of Chicago, the Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales (Geneva, CH), and the Université de Genève, and was a lecturer at the American University of Beirut and the Université St. Joseph in Beirut.
He holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Economics from the University of Rochester in the U.S.A, a M.Sc. from University College, London University and a B.A. from the American University of Beirut.

Shoaib Khan is Head of Portfolio Management of UBP Alternative Investments in Geneva. Prior to joining UBP in Geneva, he was with JP Morgan Alternative Asset Management, based in New York. At JP Morgan he was a Strategy Head, responsible for hedge fund research focusing on event driven and credit/distressed strategies. The team he oversaw was responsible for sourcing, diligence and monitoring of hedge funds in this space. Additionally, he was a Portfolio Manager for a number of multi-strategy portfolios for J.P. Morgan Alternative Asset Management. Prior to that, he was with LJH Global Investments as a Senior Vice President, responsible for research of hedge funds focused on convertible arbitrage, distressed securities and event driven and the Portfolio Manager for the flagship Fund of Funds product and several separate accounts allocating to all strategies. Prior to LJH Global Investments, he was the Chief Financial Officer at the City of Miami GESE Retirement Trust. Before that he served in governmental roles for the State of Florida. Mr. Khan holds a Bachelors degree in Finance and International Business from Florida International University in Miami, Florida, USA and a Master of Accounting degree from Nova Southeastern University, Florida, USA. He is a Certified Public Accountant in Florida and is also a CFA charter holder.

John Hathaway manages the Tocqueville Gold Fund, Tocqueville Gold Partners and separate accounts for individual and institutional clients following a gold strategy. He is a member of the Investment Committee and a Director of Tocqueville Management Corp., the General Partner of Tocqueville Asset Management. Mr. Hathaway began his career in 1970 as an Equity Analyst with Spencer Trask & Co. In 1976, he joined investment advisory firm David J. Greene & Co., where he became a partner. In 1986 he founded Hudson Capital Advisors and in 1988 became Chief Investment Officer of Oak Hall Advisors. He joined Tocqueville as a Senior Partner in 1997. Mr. Hathaway has a BA degree from Harvard College and an MBA from the University of Virginia.

Eric S. Lazear is Head of Operational Due Diligence for FIM, a leading alternative investment management company active in the creation, management and servicing of portfolios of hedge funds for institutions and private clients. Eric is responsible for assessing the operational and business risk of hedge fund managers globally and oversees all operational risk reviews for an array of hedge fund strategies worldwide. Eric regularly speaks at conferences around the world on various topics regarding operational risk, as well as maintaining an extensive network within the hedge fund community to further advance the industry’s knowledge of operational risk. Eric is a member of the Board of Directors for the Hedge Fund Business Operations Association.

Prior to joining FIM, Eric was Head of Operational Risk with IAM (International Asset Management), in a similar role. Eric joined IAM from JPMorgan Chase where he was AVP within the J.P. Morgan Performance Measurement, Analytics & Consulting Group between 1998 and 2005, specialising in performance analytics and manager searches.

Hilary Kramer, Founder & Chief Investment Officer, GreenTech Research LLC
Ms. Kramer is energy, natural resources and commodities specialist with more than 22 years of experience in equity research, asset allocation and portfolio management. Ms. Kramer is the best-selling author of “Ahead of the Curve” and appears weekly on PBS’s Nightly Business Report and CNN where she commentates on the economy and global markets. 
In 2005, Ms. Kramer founded GreenTech Research LLC, an equity long short global fund specializing in alternative energy, clean technologies, agriculture and environmental products and services.
Ms. Kramer received her MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1991 and a BA with honors from Wellesley College in 1986.
From 1986 to 1989, Ms Kramer was an analyst at Morgan Stanley covering natural resources and energy companies. After completing her Wharton MBA program in 1991, Ms. Kramer worked at Lehman Brothers covering power companies and the oil services sector. From 1994 to 2003, she was senior managing director of a family office with over $5.6 billion fund of private equity and publicly-traded securities. During her tenure, Ms. Kramer held the title of co-vice chairman of the $500 million Ibero-American Partners Fund (1997 to 2003), an investment vehicle which was also jointly owned by Hicks Muse Tate & Furst. From 2003 to 2005, Ms. Kramer invested in alternative energy and natural resources and was a consultant to financial institutions. This included her role as senior strategist at Montgomery Asset Management and Montgomery Partners (the hedge fund division). During this time she also worked at Freddie Mac providing consulting services regarding their retained portfolio ($600 billion) and policy.

Peter Halloran, CEO, Prior to founding Pharos Financial Group in 1997, Mr. Halloran was the principal contributor toward building the CS First Boston equity and fixed income brokerage businesses in Russia and the CIS. He has been a leader in the development of the Russian capital markets since their inception in 1994, bringing more than $8 billion to the markets through debt, equity and private placements including Russia's first local IPO and more than $2 billion of privatization initiatives. In addition to his activities with Pharos, from 2000-2002 he held a stake in and served as Chairman of Aton Capital Group, a leading investment bank in Russia which has since been acquired by Unicredito. Prior to this, while at CSFB in Moscow from 1995-1997, Mr. Halloran managed a $300 million proprietary trading account and was directly responsible for all equity trading, research and sales with more than 30 professionals under his direct supervision in Moscow, London, New York and Kiev. During his tenure CSFB became the top-rated broker as measured by research ranking, trading volume and profitability. Mr. Halloran has also acted as adviser to Soros Fund Management. Mr. Halloran has lived in Moscow since 1995. Prior to that he worked for 10 years in New York with CS First Boston, Salomon Brothers and Morgan Grenfell. Mr. Halloran is a graduate of Yale University (B.A. 1984) and is an American citizen.

Ron D’Vari - Chief Executive Officer, NewOak Capital
Ron is Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of NewOak Capital. He has 28 years of combined experience in fixed-income, engineering design optimization, and academics.  Prior to joining NewOak in August 2008, Ron was Managing Director and Head of Structured Finance at BlackRock.  He was a member of several key BlackRock’s governance committees (Fixed Income Business Management, Alternatives, and New Products Committees) and a senior member of the Investment Strategy Group.  Dr. D’Vari was directly responsible for BlackRock’s multi-sector Structured Finance CDO business and subordinated Structured Finance investments.  He was also instrumental in launching fixed income multi-sector alpha fund, BlackRock Mortgage Investors and setting up the new BlackRock distressed mortgage fund, PennyMAC.

Prior to joining BlackRock in 2005, Ron worked at State Street Research (SSR) for 12 years in various capacities heading the MBS/ABS/CMBS Portfolio Management and Trading team.  Ron was one of three members of the Bond Policy Committee that managed $27 billion of fixed income assets.  Ron also established and led the firm’s Structured Finance CDO business and Quantitative Research team. 

Concurrent with his SSR position, Mr. D’Vari was an adjunct professor at Brandeis University in the International Business School and a professor at the Harvard University Extension Program.  Prior to joining SSR, Ron served as Senior Principal Engineer and Scientist with McDonnell Douglas, Adjunct Professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Adjunct Professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Southern California.

Ron serves as the Chairman of the Board at Agire Mortgage Corporation, a mortgage information and advisory firm.  In addition, Ron serves on the Advisory Boards of the American Securitization Forum and Fixed Income Forum.  Dr. D’Vari has been on the Board of the Boston Security Analyst Society and a member of its Education Committee.

Ron holds MBA, PhD, MS and BS degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Martin Cornish, Managing and Senior Partner Martin is an acknowledged legal expert and regularly appears as such in the Legal 500 and Chambers’ Directories of leading lawyers, having acted for securities, commodities and derivatives brokers and dealers, banks, investment banks and investment managers for over 20 years.
Martin is the Managing and Senior Partner of Katten Muchin Rosenman Cornish LLP, the London affiliate of U.S. Law Firm Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP. Martin was previously the principal of M.W. Cornish, a niche financial services firm which he originally established in 1997; partner and head of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ financial services network of law firms, consisting of some 2,500 lawyers in over 40 countries; European Legal Director of a U.S. investment bank; and a partner of Simmons & Simmons, solicitors, where he qualified.