Our Team
Paul Alivisatos
Daniela Fusco Alcaro
Katherine Baicker
David Booth
Ted Brandt
Arturo Brillembourg
Claudio Haddad
Rebecca Jarvis
Roy Kapani
Rohit Kumar
Chuck McQuaid
Guity Nashat (Becker)
Hank Paulson
Richard Ronzetti
Andrew M. Rosenfield
Richard Ryan
Álvaro Saieh
Jorge Andrés Saieh Guzmán
Steven Strongin
Hodson Thornber
MarrGwen Townsend
Jason Tyler
Donald R. Wilson, Jr.
Professor Y.C. Richard Wong
Paul Alivisatos
A celebrated chemist and accomplished administrator, Paul Alivisatos became the 14th president of the University of Chicago on September 1, 2021.
As President of the University, Alivisatos serves as Chair of the Board of Governors of Argonne National Laboratory and Chair of the Board of Directors of Fermi Research Alliance LLC, the operator of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. He is also the John D. MacArthur Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Chemistry, the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, and the College.
Alivisatos previously served as the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost (EVCP) of the University of California, Berkeley. In addition to his role as EVCP, Alivisatos was the Samsung Distinguished Professor of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, founding Director of the Kavli Energy Nanoscience Institute, and from 2009-2016 served as Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). A member of Berkeley’s faculty from 1988-2021, he held professorships in the departments of chemistry and materials science, and served in several administrative roles, including Vice Chancellor for Research.
A preeminent scientist and entrepreneur, Alivisatos has made pioneering research breakthroughs in nanomaterials. Contributions to the fundamental physical chemistry of nanocrystals are the hallmarks of his scientific career. His research accomplishments include studies of the scaling laws governing the optical, electrical, structural, and thermodynamic properties of nanocrystals. He developed methods to synthesize size and shape-controlled nanocrystals, and developed methods for preparing branched, hollow, nested, and segmented nanocrystals. In his research, he has demonstrated key applications of nanocrystals in biological imaging and renewable energy. His inventions are widely used in biomedicine and QLED TV displays, and his scientific advances have yielded more than 50 patents.
Alivisatos received his Bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1981 from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. in chemistry from Berkeley in 1986. He is a founder of two prominent nanotechnology companies, Nanosys and Quantum Dot Corp, now a part of Thermo Fisher. He is also the founding editor of Nano Letters, a publication of the American Chemical Society, and formerly served on the senior editorial board of Science magazine, a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Alivisatos has been recognized for his accomplishments with more than 25 awards including the National Medal of Science, the E.O. Lawrence Award, the Wolf Prize in Chemistry, the Dan David Prize, the Von Hippel Award, the Linus Pauling Medal, the Eni Award for Energy and Environment, the Wilhelm Exner Medal, the 2021 Priestley Medal, the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Basic Sciences, and the National Academy of Science Award in Chemical Sciences. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.
Daniela Fusco Alcaro
Daniela Fusco Alcaro is the co-founder and co-CEO of Stima Energia, a Brazilian energy trading company established in 2017, which reached more than USD 300 million in revenues in 2021. In 2022, Stima Energia received an investment from Mitsui & Co in exchange of 36% of the company.
Daniela is also a co-founder of two other clean energy startups in Brazil dedicated to solar generation and energy retail business and an angel investor of an energy tech dedicated to metering. She began her career in 1997 working in M&A, sales & trading and portfolio management roles in different financial institutions in Brazil, including Opportunity Asset Management and CCF-Credit Comercial de France. In 2006 she joined Walmart at the Treasury and Capital Markets team. In 2008, upon her return to Brazil, she started her endeavor in the energy sector as a trader in two different startups before launching her own energy trading company.
Daniela has a B.A. in Business Administration from ESPM and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business (2006). Daniela received a scholarship from Fundação Estudar to support her graduation degree and has a Brazilian portfolio manager certificate from ANBIMA (Brazilian Association of Equity and Capital Markets).
Katherine Baicker
Katherine Baicker’s areas of interest include health care policy and health insurance finance. Before coming to the University of Chicago, Baicker was the C. Boyden Gray Professor of Health Economics in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She holds appointments as a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research; as an affiliate of the Abdul Latif Poverty Action Lab; and serves on the Congressional Budget Office’s Panel of Health Advisers; on the Board of Directors of Eli Lilly; and on the editorial boards of Health Affairs and the Journal of Health Economics. Baicker is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine (IOM) and the National Academy of Social Insurance.
Baicker has been a member of the faculty of the Department of Public Policy in the School of Public Affairs at the University of California, Los Angeles; the Economics Department at Dartmouth College; and the Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences and the Department of Community and Family Medicine at Dartmouth Medical School. She has served as Chair of the Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission; Chair of the Board of Directors of AcademyHealth; Commissioner on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission and a nonresident senior fellow of the Brookings Institution. From 2005-2007, she served as a Senate-confirmed Member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, where she played a leading role in the development of health policy. Baicker earned her B.A. in economics from Yale and her Ph.D. in economics from Harvard.
David Booth
David Booth is Executive Chairman of Dimensional Fund Advisors, a firm he founded in 1981. Under David’s leadership, Dimensional has grown from a fledgling business operating out of the spare room of his Brooklyn brownstone apartment to a global investment manager with more than 1,400 employees and $660 billion in assets under management. David led Dimensional as CEO and later Co-CEO until 2017, when he stepped back from the daily management of the firm. He remains closely involved in strategic initiatives at Dimensional.
A trailblazer in the financial world, David helped create one of the world’s first index funds in the 1970s and launched the first passively managed small company strategy in the early ’80s. He has spent his career applying groundbreaking financial theory and research to the practical world of asset management, working closely with renowned academics to develop innovative investment strategies that he believed could outperform index funds, pioneering what would later be called factor investing.
David received a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1968 and a master’s degree in business in 1969 from the University of Kansas. In 1971, he received an MBA from the University of Chicago. Over the years, David has been a benefactor to both schools. Upon announcing a gift from the Booth family to the business school at Chicago in 2008, David cited his education there as being instrumental to his later success with Dimensional. The University of Chicago Booth School of Business is named in David’s honor, and the gift has helped to advance its field-defining research and to support the school’s faculty, a number of whom have had close ties to Dimensional. David has also donated to support athletics at the University of Kansas—as a boy, he ushered there at football games—and he is a vocal advocate of the role sports play in keeping alumni connected to a school.
An avid art collector and enthusiast, David has participated in and donated to artistic initiatives across the US, and the David Booth Conservation Center and Department is responsible for the preservation of the Museum of Modern Art’s collection in New York.
Ted Brandt
Ted Brandt is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Marathon Capital, an investment banking boutique founded in 1999, focused on the global Energy and Infrastructure markets. The firm provides financial advice in the areas of M&A, re-structuring, project financing and raising private capital. Marathon Capital is a four-time recipient of the “Best Renewable Asset M&A Adviser” Award, first-time recipient of the “Best Asset M&A Adviser” (2017) and first-time recipient of the “M&A Adviser of the Year” (2019) in Power Finance & Risk’s Annual Power Finance Deals and Firms Awards.
He spends the majority of his time working with his colleagues to deliver the Firm’s services to Clients and their Boards. Over the last number of years Marathon has been involved in over 100 major transactions across North America and more recently across Latin America. In 2015, Marathon advised on the 130 MW MPG LaBufa I wind project in Zacatecas, Mexico which was named “Renewable Generating Project Finance Deal of the Year” by PF&R in 2016.
He graduated in 1984 with a BA in Economics from Oberlin College, where he is now a Trustee. In 1987 he graduated with an MBA from the University of Chicago’s, Booth School of Business. He holds his Series 7, 24, 63, 79 and 99 securities licenses.
Arturo Brillembourg
Arturo Brillembourg, president of Farmington Asset Management Ltd., founded the firm in 1990 to provide investment advisory services in the world’s government securities, commodities and equity indices. It uses primarily quantitative management techniques to supplement the core holding using future markets.
A graduate of Harvard University, (B.A., cum laude, ’68) and University of Chicago (MA 1972), Mr. Brillembourg first worked at the International Monetary Fund, Research Department. In 1982, he joined the World Bank’ Treasury department specializing in internationally diversified bond portfolios. In 1987, Mr. Brillembourg moved to Drexel Burham Lambert to establish their international fixed income trading desks throughout the world.
Mr. Brillembourg has been a director on the following boards: Independence Federal Savings Bank, Harvard University- Dean’s Council and David’s Rockefeller Center For Latin American Studies, New Stoa – online Stoic Community and College (Chairman) and several Boards serving the Washington community. With his wife as Founding chair, he has been very involved with The Youth Orchestra of the Americas. He loves yoga, biking, rowing and skiing. He is an artist working in digital photography by producing highly manipulated, large format prints of nature and people.
Claudio Haddad
Claudio Haddad is the founder and chairman of the board of Insper, a leading not-for-profit business, economics and engineering school in Brazil.
Claudio is a member of the board of directors of Instituto Unibanco and Ensina Brasil. He is also chairman of the advisory council of the Brazil office of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies of Harvard University, member of the Global Council of Harvard University and of the advisory council of the Becker-Friedman Institute of the University of Chicago and of Nova de Lisboa School of Business and Economics.
From 1980 to 1982, he served as director responsible for public debt and open market operations for the Central Bank of Brazil. From 1983 to 1998 Claudio was partner and, from 1993 to 1998, chief executive officer of Banco de Investimentos Garantia SA, a Brazilian investment bank.
Claudio is now resident in Lisbon, Portugal, where he heads his Family Office and the activities of the Haddad Foundation, a charitable entity, based in London.
He has a B.S. in engineering from the Military Institute of Engineering, Brazil, holds a M.A. and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago and an OPM from Harvard Business School.
Rebecca Jarvis
Rebecca Jarvis is ABC News’ chief business, technology & economics correspondent; the creator and host of “The Dropout,” a top-rated podcast and documentary which chronicles the rise and fall of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes; and the creator and host of the “No Limits with Rebecca Jarvis” podcast which features in-depth interviews with female CEOs, founders, and innovators.
Jarvis reports across all of ABC News programs including “Good Morning America,” “World News Tonight with David Muir,” “Nightline,” “20/20” and “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” She has conducted news-making interviews with a broad range of subjects, and the biggest names in business, including Tim Cook, Warren Buffett, Jamie Dimon, Bill and Melinda Gates, Satya Nadella, Sheryl Sandberg, Richard Branson, Anne Wojcicki, Wendy Williams, Jessica Alba, Karlie Kloss, Chance the Rapper, and Mary Barra. Jarvis was the first reporter to interview a Facebook executive in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and the only reporter to interview United CEO Oscar Munoz, in a worldwide exclusive, following the controversy surrounding the airline’s forceful removal of a passenger.
She has covered the 2008, 2012, and 2016 presidential elections, Brexit, the Great Recession, Bernie Madoff scandal, GM Bankruptcy and the fall of Lehman Brothers. Jarvis’ investigation demonstrating the tracking capabilities of Android cellphones, often unknown to the user, was cited during a House Judiciary Committee Hearing by Chair Bob Goodlatte during the testimony of Google CEO Sundar Pichai. And “The Dropout,” her three-year investigation into blood testing startup Theranos and founder Elizabeth Holmes is being made into an original series for Hulu. Jarvis is an executive producer on the project.
Jarvis is a two-time Emmy award winner and a four-time recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award for Overall Excellence in Television and Radio. The Alliance for Women in Media named her one of the top business journalists in the country with its Women in Numbers Award. She is also the recipient of a duPont Award for her work covering the Newtown tragedy.
Before joining ABC News, Jarvis was co-host of “CBS This Morning: Saturday,” and business and economics correspondent for CBS News. Prior to CBS News, she spent three years at CNBC reporting on market news from the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ and the New York Mercantile Exchange. She contributed regularly to NBC News including the “Today Show” and “Nightly News.”
Jarvis began her journalism career writing for Crain’s Chicago Business and Business 2.0. She has also worked in investment banking and foreign currency trading.
A graduate of the University of Chicago, Jarvis holds a degree in economics and constitutional law. A recipient of the University of Chicago Dean’s Grant, she studied European banking and financial markets and the formation of the European Union at the Université Sciences Po in Paris, France.
Jarvis received national recognition for her work with Colin Powell, empowering children and improving communities. She was also named a National Point of Light, receiving accolades from Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush.
Roy Kapani
Kapani has over 25 years’ experience in the Defense and Government technology industry. He founded ECS Federal in 2001, with a focus on Computer Science, Engineering and Information Systems development. Over the past 17 years a corporate culture for a professional services firm focused on excellence, discipline and process was instituted and successfully advanced. This focus places an emphasis on customer satisfaction and methodologies to ensure the highest levels of quality. KapCo Holdings was formed in 2018, upon the sale of ECS Federal. KapCo Holdings is a private, family office investment firm managing the assets of Roy Kapani and his family.
Kapani previously held executive leadership positions with Computer Based Systems, Inc. (CBSI), and AverStar. Kapani was the recipient of the 2014 Ernest & Young (EY) Entrepreneur of the Year, Greater Washington, in Government Services. Kapani holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Maryland College Park. He earned his Master of Business Administration in Finance from George Washington University. Kapani is a trustee for the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress (CSPC), an advisor board member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a member of the Board of Trustees for Johns Hopkins Medicine, a member of the Executive Advisory Board for the George W. Bush Presidential Center and a member of the Advisory Council for the Becker Friedman Institute at the University of Chicago. He is also an active member of the Young Presidents’ Organization and the Economic Club of Washington, DC.
Rohit Kumar
Rohit Kumar is a partner at PDT Partners, a quantitative hedge fund in New York. He has been at PDT since 2007. Prior to PDT, he was in quantitative proprietary trading groups at Merrill Lynch and BNP/Cooper Neff. Rohit completed his Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Chicago in 2000 and received his AB (Economics) and MS (Statistics) degrees from Stanford University.
Chuck McQuaid
Mr. Charles McQuaid, also known as Chuck, worked as a securities analyst and equity portfolio manager for 40 years. From 2003 to 2013, he served as President and Chief Investment Officer of Columbia Wanger Asset Management, LLC as well as President of the Columbia Acorn Investment Trust and Lead Portfolio Manager of Columbia Acorn Fund. From 1992 to 2003, Chuck was Director of Research at Wanger Asset Management and co-manager of Acorn Fund. Prior to co-founding Columbia Wanger, he was an Analyst at Harris Associates, beginning in 1978. Chuck currently serves as a Trustee of The Morton Arboretum. Mr. McQuaid earned a B.B.A. from the University of Massachusetts and an M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Chicago.
Guity Nashat (Becker)
Guity Nashat (Becker) is a professor Emerita of history, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and has been a Research Fellow at Hoover Institution, Stanford University, since 1990. She has also taught at the Harris School, and the Loyola University in Chicago. Her teaching has focused on political and economic history of the Middle East since the rise of Islam in the seventh century.
She authored The Origins of Modern Reform in Iran, and co-authored Women in the Middle East, with Judith Tucker, Women in Iran from the Rise of Islam to 1800, Women in Iran from 1800 to the Islamic Republic with Lois Beck, and The Economics of Life with Gary Becker, and edited Women and Revolution in Iran.
Her articles have appeared in Encyclopaedia Iranica, Iranian Studies, International Journal of Middle East Studies, the Middle East Journal, the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, Iran-Nameh, American Historical Journal, Women’s Studies Encyclopedia, Blackwell’s Companion to Gender History, and the International History Review. Her work has been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish.
Nashat has presented papers at conferences in the US, Europe, the Middle East, China and Japan, and The World Economic Forum. She was a member of the World Bank’s ten year project: “Gender and Economic Research and Policy Analysis in MENA Countries” which sponsored research and conferences on women’s education and employment in the Middle East.
Guity Nashat is native of the Middle East: she was born in Baghdad and lived in Iraq, Iran and Egypt before coming to this country. She received her B.A. from Barnard College and her Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago.
Hank Paulson
Hank Paulson is the founder and chairman of the Paulson Institute, which aims to foster a US-China relationship that maintains global order in a rapidly evolving world. He is also the co-chair of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group, and co-chair of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum Advisory Board.
Paulson served as the 74th Secretary of the Treasury under President George W. Bush, from July 2006 to January 2009. Prior to that, he had a thirty-two year career at Goldman Sachs, serving as co-chairman and co-CEO beginning in 1998,and as chairman and CEO beginning in 1999. A lifelong conservationist, Paulson was Chairman of The Nature Conservancy Board of Directors and, prior to that, founded and co-chaired the organization’s Asia-Pacific Council. In 2011, he founded the Latin American Conservation Council, comprised of global business and political leaders, which he co-chaired until 2017. He also co-chaired the Risky Business Project from 2013-2017, a non-partisan initiative that quantified and publicized the economic risks of climate change in the United States. Earlier in his career, he was a member of the White House Domestic Council as well as a staff assistant at the Pentagon.
Paulson is the author of three books, most recently Firefighting: The Financial Crisis and its Lessons (with Ben Bernanke and Tim Geithner). Other books include the bestsellers On the Brink and Dealing with China. He graduated from Dartmouth College and received an M.B.A. from Harvard University
Richard Ronzetti
Richard K. Ronzetti is the Retired Partner and Global Head of Investment Analysis and Asset Management at Marathon Asset Management, an alternative investment firm, where he served on the Investment, Risk Management and Executive Committees of the firm and worked in the development of investment programs for institutional investors in the U.S. and worldwide.
At Marathon, Mr. Ronzetti oversaw investments in leveraged loans, securities, portfolios and private equity investments in restructurings and stressed situations across the corporate, bank and mortgage sectors in the U.S. distressed cycle of the early 2000s while leading the buildout of research and asset management groups. In several Latin American and European countries, Mr. Ronzetti led several of the first restructuring investments under new bankruptcy regimes in the media, utility, banking and real estate industries. In conjunction with the regulatory overhaul of the European banking sector from 2012-2016, he worked in building out the firm’s strategy and team for the acquisition and structuring of real estate and corporate loans. Blackstone made a strategic investment in Marathon in 2016.Mr. Ronzetti has been advising ventures on the formation of global dislocated credit investing funds and the formation of fintec-vehicles for the provisioning of emerging market sme/corporate financing in recent years.
Prior to his work at Marathon, Mr. Ronzetti worked in global investment banking with Morgan Stanley and Smith Barney; high yield and commercial mortgage securitization with Drexel Burnham; and private equity and structured investments with IFINT-USA, an investment office of the Agnelli family, the controlling shareholder of FIAT Worldwide.
Mr. Ronzetti worked with leaders of the Becker Friedman Institute to formulate the Ronzetti Labor Markets Initiative, which seeks to contribute to the achievement of broadly-disseminated gains from economic growth through rigorous research in labor economics. Mr. Ronzetti is a Founding Partner with his wife Elise in the Office of Personal and Career Development at Wake Forest University, which has developed nationally-recognized programs integrating career assessment and training with liberal arts undergraduate education. He serves on the Investment Committee of NYU-Winthrop Hospital where he is also a member of the Board of Regents. Mr. Ronzetti has also recently joined the Villa I Tatti Council of the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Fiesole, near Florence, Italy.
Mr. Ronzetti holds honors degrees from Harvard College in Government and Economics (A.B. 1982) and the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration (M.B.A. 1986).
Andrew M. Rosenfield
Andrew M. Rosenfield, an economist and lawyer, was educated at Kenyon College, Harvard University, The University of Chicago, and The University of Chicago Law School (from which he graduated with honors and was elected to the Order of the Coif).Mr. Rosenfield is President of Guggenheim Partners, a global financial services firm. He is also a Professor at the University of Chicago Law School whose faculty he joined in 1986. In his academic career he has taught the Antirust, Behavioral Economics, Securities Regulation and Corporate Finance courses, among others, and published articles in leading academic journals.
Prior to joining Guggenheim, Mr. Rosenfield, was for more than 24 years (through its sale to a public company), President of Lexecon Inc., a firm that he co-founded in 1977 with Richard A. Posner and William M. Landes. Rosenfield also founded UNext Inc. in 1998 and served as its CEO. UNext was an early online learning business that partnered with Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia University, The London School of Economics, Stanford University and the University of Chicago to provide high quality graduate business education via the Internet.
From 2008 until 2018 Rosenfield also was CEO of TGG Group, a firm he co-founded with Gary Becker, Daniel Kahneman and Steven Levitt among others. TGG was a pioneering behavioral science consulting firm. It harnessed the power of big data to help its clients combat cognitive bias and reduce noise. TGG also designed choice architectures and algorithms to enhance client’s productivity and profitability.
Mr. Rosenfield long has been active in a variety of philanthropic activities. Heis a long-standing member of the Board of Trustees of The University of Chicago whose board he joined in 1996 and of The Art Institute of Chicago whose board he joined in 1988. He is a past board member of The Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Opera Theatre, The Steppenwolf Theatre Company and St Nicholas Street Theatre.
Mr. Rosenfield and his wife Betsy Bergman Rosenfield have four children and live in Lake Forest, IL and Los Angeles, CA
UChicago Page: Andrew M. Rosenfield
Richard Ryan
Richard Ryan is the former President and Chief Operating Officer of DEKALB Genetics and the founding donor of the Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Quincy College in 1964 and his MBA from the University of Chicago in 1966. After graduation, he became an officer in the US army and served in Vietnam. Following initial employment with Armour & Co. and the Chicago Board of Trade, in 1979 he joined DEKALB Genetics as an M&A Manager. In 1990, he became President and Chief Operating Officer of DEKALB, and after its acquisition by Monsanto in 1998, Ryan served as Vice President in Global Product Management, overseeing worldwide seed operations. Since retirement in 2002, Ryan has served as a consultant and is involved with numerous philanthropic activities.
Álvaro Saieh
Dr. Álvaro Saieh Bendeck was Founder of CorpGroup and Vice President of SMU SA. He has chaired the Boards of Directors of other important companies such as COPESA, CorpBanca, Provida, CorpVida, CorpSeguros, AFP Protección, and is a former member of the Boards of Directors of SOFOFA and Santiago Stock Exchange.
After earning his M.A. and Ph.D. in economics at the University of Chicago, Dr. Saieh held various positions in the public sector, including advisor to the Ministry of Housing and Public Works and Chief Economist of the Central Bank of Chile. In addition to his work in the public sector, Dr. Saieh served at the University of Chile as Professor of Economics, President of the Department of Economics, Dean of Economics and Business, and Pro Chancellor. In honor of his academic achievements and 35 years of commitment, he was awarded the title of Professor Emeritus in 2005.
To further his support of education and building on his history with the University of Chicago, Dr. Saieh has been a dedicated member of the Board of Trustees since 2012. He is a devoted supporter of the arts and culture and has led numerous initiatives to promote and increase cultural capital at home and abroad. Currently, he is the President of CorpArtes Foundation, a non-profit family foundation, whose primary goal is to inspire and support the different cultural and artistic activities in Chile. Under his and his family’s stewardship, they have built the CA 660 Cultural Center, which is one of the most highly regarded and finest art centers in Chile. He is a member of the Board of Trustees at the Shed in New York and is actively involved in other cultural institutions such as Museo del Prado, Museo Reina Sofia, and Teatro Real (Royal Theater’s Foundation).
In recognition of his contribution to the growth and development of Chile as well as the region, Dr. Saieh has been named an economic leader by several international financial periodicals such as Business Week, American Economy, and Global Finance, and has been the recipient of numerous awards. Among them is the Chilean Engineering School’s 2011 Business Development Award, the Association of Manufacturing Chilean Exporters 2011 Business Development Award, and the North American-Chilean Chamber of Commerce Corporate Leader Award in 2011.
Jorge Andrés Saieh Guzmán
Jorge Andrés Saieh Guzmán serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Corpgroup Holdings, Itaú-Corpbanca Chile, Consorcio Periodistico de Chile S.A. and Vivocorp Real Estate Company. Mr. Saieh Guzmán also serves as member of the board of the Banking and Financial Institutions Association of Chile. Mr. Saieh Guzmán has also served as the Vice Chairman of the Board of AFP Protección and of the Chilean National Press Association, as a member of the board of AFP Provida, as member of the Board of the World Association of Newspapers, as member of the board of Telmex Chile, as member of the Council of Telmex Internacional Mexico, as member of the board of VTR Cable Co., as member of the board of Corpseguros Insurance Company, and as a member of the board of a former affiliate of Corpbanca, Corpbanca Venezuela. Mr. Saieh Guzmán also served as member of the Council of the Booth School of Business of The University of Chicago and serves similar positions on a variety of different business councils. Mr. Saieh Guzmán received a B.A. in Business and Administration and graduated from the Universidad Gabriela Mistral. Mr. Saieh Guzmán holds a Master’s in Economics and a Master’s in Business and Administration from the University of Chicago.
Steven Strongin
Steve is a senior advisor at Goldman Sachs, where he advises the firm on a number of important client-facing initiatives.
Previously, Steve was head of Global Investment Research for more than 12 years. He was a member of the Management Committee and Firmwide Client and Business Standards Committee. Steve was also co-chair of the Firmwide Technology Risk Committee. Additionally, he also served as global head of strategy research and co-chief operating officer of Global Investment Research, as well as global head of commodities research. Steve joined Goldman Sachs in 1994 and was named managing director in 1998 and partner in 2002.
Prior to joining the firm, Steve spent 12 years at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, most recently as the director of Monetary Policy Research. Before that, he was an economist at the Center for the Study of Economy and State at the University of Chicago and a researcher at PanHeuristics, a think tank focused on military strategy and energy policy.
Steve is a distinguished visiting professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School and a member of the Board of Directors of Ocean Conservancy. In addition, he is a member of the Advisory Council to the College at the University of Chicago, a member of the Jury of the World Resources Institute’s Ross Prize for Cities, and a member of the Becker Friedman Institute Advisory Council. Previously, he was a member of the Advisory Board of the RAND Center for Corporate Ethics and Governance.
Steve earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in economics from the University of Chicago and a graduate degree in management from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Professional Page: Steven H. Strongin
Hodson Thornber
Hodson Thornber retired in early 2008 as Managing Director in Renaissance Partners, the merchant banking arm of Renaissance Group, Moscow. Since retirement he has been an active venture capital investor in several British, American and Ukrainian companies. Hodson also serves on the Advisory Council of the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics at the University of Chicago. He and his wife live in central London.
Dr Thornber joined Renaissance in 2001 and led the firm’s principal investments in the utility and agriculture sectors. These activities included major investments in power companies Mosenergo and Kuzbassenergo, on the Boards of Directors of which he served in 2002-2004, and in Ukraine’s agricultural sector.
Prior to joining Renaissance, Hodson was a Moscow-based partner in Arthur Andersen where he advised senior management of Kazakhstan’s national railroad and its national oil pipeline company on restructuring and tariff matters and the Russian Ministry of Economic Trade and Development on power sector reform.
Before Anderson, Dr Thornber was a Managing Director in Putnam, Hayes & Bartlett where he established that firm’s international consulting practice in London in 1988. He had previously served as Vice President-Finance and Treasurer (CFO) for the United States Synthetic Fuels Corporation, where he led negotiations of loan and price guarantees for several multibillion-dollar synthetic fuels plants.
He also served as a director of the Continental Insurance group of mutual funds and of several privately held companies, and as trustee of several charitable institutions in the USA.
Dr Thornber earned BA and PhD degrees, both in economics from the University of Chicago, where he subsequently served on the faculty of the Graduate School of Business, now Booth Chicago.
* * *
Dr Thornber’s advisory experience falls into three broad areas: Industry Restructuring, Privatization and Financial Advisory.
INDUSTRY RESTRUCTURING
In his industry restructuring work Dr Thornber has done the following.
- In England and Wales, advised the Chairmen of the Area Boards, the buy-side, in creation of the UK’s pioneer wholesale market for electric power, established in preparation for the 1990 privatization of the electricity industry.
- In September 1991 conducted a seminal 2-day conference for the Soviet Ministry of Electrification on decentralization and market transformation of the Soviet electricity industry. It was attended by over 300 industry leaders from ministries, system operators and utilities all across the Soviet Union. Focus was on preparation for decentalized, market-based operation, building on recent experience in England and Wales, and on preparation for privatization of the resulting companies. This conference contributed directly to the massive post-Soviet reorganization and de-monopolization of the electricity industries of Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan in the 1990’s.
- Advised the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers, the Minister of Energy, the State Property Fund and the World Bank in the reorganization of Ukraine’s electricity industry around a competitive wholesale market. This resulted in the restructuring of the entire industry into 34 separate generating, transmission and distribution companies, along with an industry regulator and national wholesale market and system operator. The restructuring plan was conceived by Dr Thornber in 1992, and the international advisory team consisting of over 20 firms from 12 countries with a budget of over $30 million was led by him from its inception under World Bank auspices in 1994 through completion of the restructuring and startup of the wholesale market in 1997.
- Advised Russia’s Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Economy, Federal Energy Commission and state electricity industry holding company RAO UES from 1992 through 1997 in planning for decentralization and de-monopolization of the Russian power sector. This extensive series of technical assistance projects, funded largely by the British Know-How Fund, included analysis and reports which were the basis for the 1997 Yasin Commission report and Yeltsin decree which in turn lay the groundwork for subsequent restructuring of RAO UES and the entire Russian power sector.
- In 1997 advised Boris Nemtsov, then governor of Nizhny Novgorod, on potential restructuring of Nizhnovenergo, the regional electric utility, to create a competitive electricity market along Ukrainian lines in Nizhny Novgorod.
- Advised the RAO UES team which established Natsionaeny Energetichesky Rynok / IFO, a pilot wholesale electricity market in Russia, in 1997.
- Developed and managed a World Bank-financed team advising Russia’s Ministry of Energy on government policy in the Russian gas industry, from 1999 through 2001
- Advised the CEO of KazTemirZholi, the national railroad system of Kazakhstan, in the unbundling and market transformation of the railroad, including issues of both company strategy and organization and of industry structure, market arrangements and regulation.
- Advised the senior management of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and Trade during 2000 and 2001 on the Chubias Plan for restructuring and market transformation of the Russian electricity industry, which was based on the 1997 Yasin Commission report and decree noted above.
- Led a government relations team in a successful program to amend draft electricity laws in Russia to make them more effective tools for the government to use in restructuring the Russian power sector and to make wholesale market regulation and operation more transparent for investors.
- Developed unbundling and restructuring plans for major power and heat utilities Kuzbassenergo and Mosenergo in the context of industry restructuring plans which he had earlier helped to formulate. In both cases these restructuring plans were backed by acquisition of major stakes in the relevant company.
PRIVATIZATION
Dr Thornber’s privatization work, often in conjunction with industry restructuring projects, includes the following.
- Assisted the twelve regional electricity boards of England and Wales from 1988 through 1991 in the negotiation of the form and content of the licenses by which they would operate and be regulated within the new privatized British electricity industry. This included formulating the line of business structure subsequently adopted in the licenses and related agreements which contributed to the transparency of their operations and to investor confidence in the resulting light-handed regulatory process.
- Advised Scottish Power in the negotiation of its generation, transmission and sale license, which were quite different from those in England and Wales due to the vertically integrated structure of the relatively isolated Scottish power industry. This license was a major factor in the subsequent successful privatization of Scottish Power.
- In October 1990, with Sir Alan Walters, conducted a 3-day seminar in Moscow on privatization at the invitation of the Russian Federation Ministry of Finance. Several of the attendees became, not long afterward, the core of the state property fund of post-Soviet Russia.
- In Ukraine from 1992 through 1997 advised several parties as set out above on the future structure, regulation and operation of its electric power industry with emphasis on privatization and incorporation of private capital as a long-term driver of efficiency. The success of the arrangements is indicated by the sale of stakes in the resulting companies for substantial value through tenders and by the leading role which the resulting listed companies have played in development of capital markets in Ukraine.
- In Russia from 1992 through 2001 advised several parties as set out above on the creation of market institutions, regulatory arrangements and company structures which would attract foreign investment and expertise when the resulting companies were privatized. Due to serious but avoidable mistakes made by the Russian government, this restructuring and privatization process took far longer than in Ukraine. It finally emerged successful after a very complex and time-consuming restructuring process, and the resulting generation and distribution companies attracted major international investor interest.
FINANCIAL ADVISORY
In this area Dr Thornber has, among many assignments:
- On behalf of a US Government agency, in 1982-3 renegotiated a complex financial and contractual arrangement to avoid default by borrowers under a $1.4 billion Government loan guarantee.
- Negotiated the structure and detailed financing agreements for the world’s first commercial scale integrated coal gasification combined cycle (IGCC) electric power plant, a forerunner of today’s clean coal technologies.
- Conducted several competitive solicitations in connection with the financing of large energy projects having a cumulative value of over five billion dollars.
- Created, in 1985, the first competitive procurement system for selection of independent power producers for US electric utilities, a mechanism which was subsequently used across America in projects worth billions of dollars.
- Assisted a major British utility in negotiation of a multi-billion pound long-term nuclear power purchase agreement.
- Developed a substantial financial advisory practice serving electric utilities, which were in uncharted territory, compelled by regulators to enter into long term power purchase agreements with independent power producers.
- Advised secured creditors in the first bankruptcy of a US electric utility, which had leased a $500 million power plant from these investors.
- Advised the developers of a major chemical process plant on financial structure of the project and on contractual means to mitigate the risks inherent in the project’s fuel, feedstock and products markets.
- Advised KazTransOil, the Kazak national oil pipeline company, on tariff policy in the context of its potential entry into world capital markets.
TESTIMONY
Dr Thornber has given testimony in the United States before both houses of Congress and the public service regulatory commissions of the states of Massachusetts and Connecticut.
MarrGwen Townsend
MarrGwen Townsend earned her master’s degree in economics from the University of Chicago in 1976. She and her husband Stuart Townsend founded several financial technology firms including Townsend Analytics in 1985 and Archipelago, LLC in 1996.
Townsend Analytics’ product RealTick was the first real-time trading platform for the internet and is still used on trading desks for execution, analysis and order management. This led to their creation of Archipelago, an electronic communications network that, with its best execution model, revolutionized the way the stock market works. Archipelago became the first electronic stock exchange and is now the NYSE Group. She retired in 2007. She is on the Board of Directors of the Joffrey Ballet and has been affiliated with many UChicago initiatives, such as the UChicago Urban Education Institute and the UChicago Medical Center.
Jason Tyler
Jason Tyler is Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Northern Trust, a leading provider of wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking to corporations, institutions, affluent families and individuals. He is a member of the corporation’s Management Group.
Jason’s previous roles at Northern Trust include Global Head of Corporate Strategy, Global Head of the Institutional Group in the Asset Management business, and Chief Financial Officer for Wealth Management.
Jason joined Northern Trust from Ariel Investments, where he was Director of Research Operations and a member of the firm’s Investment Committee. Prior to his time at Ariel, he served in various leadership roles in Corporate Finance and Banking at American National Bank/Bank One.
Jason earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and an AB from Princeton University. He is a director of TreeHouse Foods (NYSE:THS), the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, Advance Illinois, Northwestern Memorial HealthCare Foundation, and the Joffrey Ballet where he formerly served as Chairman. Jason is a past contributor and guest market expert on Bloomberg TV, Bloomberg radio, ABC News, PBS, and Fox Business.
Donald R. Wilson, Jr.
Donald R. Wilson, Jr. is the founder and CEO of DRW, a principal trading firm with over 1,100 employees at its Chicago headquarters and offices in Amsterdam, Austin, Greenwich, Houston, London, Montreal, New York, Singapore and Tel Aviv.
Don started in the industry in 1989, focusing on capturing opportunities in the markets through technology, research and risk management, and founded DRW in 1992 while trading in the Eurodollar options pit at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. DRW has since expanded into real estate investment, venture capital and cryptoassets.
Don is an influential leader in the financial futures industry, and in 2010, he founded the FIA Principal Traders Group. He is the co-inventor of intellectual property used in Eris Innovations’ swap futures contracts, which provide straightforward access to trading swap risk in a capital-efficient futures form.
He holds an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Chicago, where he is now a trustee. He also sits on the board of the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago Foundation. An avid competitive sailor, Don is the founder of the Chicago Match Race Center and served as chairman of the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series Chicago.
Professional Page: Donald R. Wilson, Jr.
Professor Y.C. Richard Wong
Dr. Richard Wong (AB, AM, PhD in Economics, Chicago) is Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Chair of Economics,and Philip Wong Kennedy Wong Professor in Political Economy at The University of Hong Kong, where he served also as Founding Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics (2000-2007) and Provost (2004-2010). He was a Visiting Scholar at Hoover Institution at Stanford University (1989), a Senior Fellow at the National Center for Economic Research at Tsinghua University (1996-), and Distinguished Fulbright Scholar (2011).
His research includes public housing, household economics, informal labor markets, and regional economic development in China. He has led pioneering efforts in studying regional economic development in the Pearl River Delta and Yangzi River Delta regions. His current research is on the political economy of laissez faire and housing and labormigration in Hong Kong. His earlier published books include The Fifth Dragon: Emergence of the Pearl River Delta (1995) (co-author), On Privatizing Public Housing (1998), and Retaking Economic Center Stage-Integration and Transformation of the Yangzi River Delta Economic Region, 2007. Recent books include Diversity and Occasional Anarchy: On Deep Economic and Social Contradictions in Hong Kong, The Chicago School of Economics –Markets and the Social Order (in Chinese), Hong Kong Land for Hong Kong People: Fixing the Failures of Our Housing Policy, and Fixing Inequality in Hong Kong.
He had served on a number of public bodies in Hong Kong, including the Economic Advisory, Exchange Fund Advisory Committee, Housing Authority, Hospital Authority, and the Chief Executive’s Commission on Innovation and Technology. He serves as an independent non-executive director of a number of companies, including Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (2004-07) and The Link REIT (2007-17).
He was awarded the Silver Bauhinia Star in 1999 by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in recognition of his contributions to education, housing, and industry and technology development. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 2000.
He used to write a weekly political economy column for the South China Morning Post and Hong Kong Economic Journal and maintains a blog.
Katherine Baicker
Thomas J. Miles
Madhav Rajan
Robert Shimer
Pietro Veronesi
Amanda Woodward
Katherine Baicker
Katherine Baicker’s areas of interest include health care policy and health insurance finance. Before coming to the University of Chicago, Baicker was the C. Boyden Gray Professor of Health Economics in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She holds appointments as a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research; as an affiliate of the Abdul Latif Poverty Action Lab; and serves on the Congressional Budget Office’s Panel of Health Advisers; on the Board of Directors of Eli Lilly; and on the editorial boards of Health Affairs and the Journal of Health Economics. Baicker is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine (IOM) and the National Academy of Social Insurance.
Baicker has been a member of the faculty of the Department of Public Policy in the School of Public Affairs at the University of California, Los Angeles; the Economics Department at Dartmouth College; and the Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences and the Department of Community and Family Medicine at Dartmouth Medical School. She has served as Chair of the Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission; Chair of the Board of Directors of AcademyHealth; Commissioner on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission and a nonresident senior fellow of the Brookings Institution. From 2005-2007, she served as a Senate-confirmed Member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, where she played a leading role in the development of health policy. Baicker earned her B.A. in economics from Yale and her Ph.D. in economics from Harvard.
Thomas J. Miles
Thomas J. Miles is the Dean and Clifton R. Musser Professor of Law and Economics at the University of Chicago Law School.
Professor Miles is a leading scholar of criminal justice and judicial behavior and an expert in a wide range of contemporary issues such as race and immigration enforcement. He has been widely published in economics and legal journals, with extensive expertise on such varied topics as judicial diversity, immigration, mail fraud, and wiretapping. His work makes creative use of the tools of law and economics — an approach that originated at the Law School, which maintains leadership in the field through such initiatives as the Coase-Sandor Institute for Law and Economics. Frequently, Miles’ work uses the methods of law and economics to investigate social questions not conventionally thought to fall within that field, such as his recent work with Adam Cox at New York University School of Law that examined how African-American judges tended to decide voting rights cases differently than white judges and that the presence of an African-American judge on a judicial panel also tended to influence how white judges decided the case. Their research was the first to find robust statistical evidence that the racial identity of judges matters in how judicial panels decide cases, and highlighted the importance of diversity on the bench.
Miles has taught a wide variety of courses at the Law School including securities regulation, federal criminal law, economic analysis of law, and empirical law & economics, as well as first-year criminal law and tort law. In 2009, he received the Graduating Students Award for Teaching Excellence. Before joining the faculty, Miles was the Olin Fellow in Law and Economics at the Law School. He has served in several leadership roles during his time on the faculty, including chairing the appointments committee and the accreditation review committee.
Miles received his PhD in economics from the University of Chicago and his JD cum laude from Harvard Law School. Upon graduation, he served as a law clerk to the Hon. Jay S. Bybee of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. From 2005 to 2013, Miles was an editor of the Journal of Legal Studies. He graduated summa cum laude with a BA in political science and economics from Tufts University.
Madhav Rajan
Madhav Rajan joined the Chicago Booth faculty on July 1, 2017, as Dean and George Pratt Shultz Professor of Accounting.
His primary area of research interest is the economics-based analysis of management accounting issues, especially as they relate to the choice of internal control and performance systems in firms. He has carried out analytical, empirical, and field-based research on the role of information in incentive contracting, the value of nonfinancial and subjective performance measures, and the structural properties and usefulness of common financial ratios.
Before joining Booth, Rajan spent 16 years on the faculty of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business where he was the Robert K. Jaedicke Professor of Accounting, with a courtesy appointment in the Law School. He served as senior associate dean for academic affairs from 2010-2016, overseeing the school’s MBA program. From 2002-2010, he was area coordinator for the accounting faculty group. Previously, he served on the faculty at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, from 1990-2001.
While at Stanford, Rajan received the Robert T. Davis Award for Lifetime Achievement and Service (2017), and the Notable Contribution to Management Accounting Literature Award (2004). He also was the recipient of the David W. Hauck Award for Outstanding Teaching at Wharton (2000) and the Alexander Henderson Award for Excellence in Economic Theory (1990).
Rajan has served as editor of The Accounting Review, as well as Associate Editor for both the Accounting and Operations areas for Management Science. He has twice been a plenary speaker at the AAA Management Accounting Conference. He is coauthor of Cost Accounting: A Managerial Emphasis, whose 16th edition was published by Pearson Prentice Hall in January 2017. He is also coauthor of Managerial Accounting, whose first edition was published by Pearson in January 2013.
He is a Director of Cavium, Inc. and iShares, Inc. and a Trustee of the iShares Trust.
Rajan received his Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from the University of Madras, India, and an MS in Accounting, an MS in Industrial Administration, and a PhD in Accounting from Carnegie Mellon University.
Robert Shimer
Robert Shimer works in labor markets, search theory, mismatch between workers and jobs, private information, and duration dependence.
He is a fellow of the Econometric Society (2006), member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2010), Sherwin Rosen Prize for outstanding contributions in the field of Labor Economics, and the Society of Labor Economists (2010).
Pietro Veronesi
Pietro Veronesi is the Roman Family Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business. He is also the faculty director of Booth Ph.D. program, a director of the American Finance Association, a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a research fellow of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. He is also a former co-editor of the Review of Financial Studies.
Veronesi conducts research that focuses on asset pricing, stock and bond valuation under uncertainty, bubbles and crashes, return predictability and stochastic volatility. Most recently, he has been interested in studying, both theoretically and empirically, the interaction between government interventions and the behavior of asset prices. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including the Journal of Political Economy, American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies. He is the recipient of several awards, including the 2015 AQR Insight award, the 2012 and 2003 Smith Breeden prizes from the Journal of Finance; the 2008 WFA award; the 2006 Barclays Global Investors Prize from the EFA; the 2006 Fama/DFA prizes from the Journal of Financial Economics; and the 1999 Barclays Global Investors/Michael Brennan First Prize from the Review of Financial Studies.
Professor Veronesi teaches both masters- and PhD-level courses. He is the recipient of the 2009 McKinsey Award for Excellence in Teaching.
His undergraduate work was in economics at Bocconi University where he received a laurea magna cum laude with honor in 1992. He earned a master’s degree with distinction in 1993 from the London School of Economics. He joined the Chicago Booth faculty upon obtaining his PhD in Economics from Harvard University in 1997.
Amanda Woodward
Amanda Woodward is Dean of the Division of the Social Sciences and the William S. Gray Distinguished Service Professor of Psychology. She joined the University of Chicago faculty in 1993 and served as Deputy Dean for Faculty Affairs in the Division from 2015-2017 and as Chair of the Department of Psychology from 2013-2015.
Woodward has pioneered the development of experimental methods to investigate social cognition in infants and young children. Her research has yielded fundamental insights into infants’ social understanding and the processes that support conceptual development early in life. Her current work investigates infants’ sensitivity to interpersonal social structure, the effects of cultural and community contexts in shaping children’s social learning strategies, and the neural processes involved in early social-cognitive development. She was a founding member of the Center for Early Childhood Research and currently directs the Infant Learning and Development Laboratory and chairs the Developmental Program.
Woodward’s research has been recognized by a number of awards, including the Ann L. Brown Award for Excellence in Developmental Research, the APA Boyd McCandless Award for an Early Career Contribution to Developmental Psychology, and the John Merck Scholars Award. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Association for Psychological Science, and the American Psychological Association.
She completed her undergraduate degree at Swarthmore College in 1987 and her doctoral degree at Stanford University in 1992.
Faculty Page: Amanda Woodward
Fernando Alvarez
Veronica Guerrieri
Jacob Goldin
Ali Hortaçsu
Greg Kaplan
Magne Mogstad
Stefan Nagel
Konstantin Sonin
Amir Sufi
Chad Syverson
Fernando Alvarez
In 2016, Fernando Alvarez was a visiting scholar and advisor to the Board of directors of the Central Bank of Argentina. He won a grant from the National Science Foundation from 2016-2019 and was the Goldman Sachs, Global Market Institute (GMI) Academic Fellow from 2015-2016. He is on the editorial board of the Editor Journal of Political Economy, the Associate Editor of the Review of Economic Dynamics and the Quality Rated Journal of Macroeconomics. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.
Veronica Guerrieri
Veronica Guerrieri studies macroeconomics, search theory, labor and financial market frictions, dynamic contracting, and growth theory. “Coming from Europe, the malfunctioning of labor markets has always attracted my attention,” she says. “My research explores frictional labor markets and other market imperfections.”
Guerrieri won the “Bernácer Prize” in 2015, the “Carlo Alberto medal” in 2013, the “Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship” in 2011, the “Excellence Award in Global Economic Affairs” in 2010 from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the “Excellence in Refereeing Award” in 2008 and 2012 from the American Economic Review. Guerrieri is an associate editor of the American Economic Review and a referee for B.E. Journals in Macroeconomics, Econometrica, the Economic Journal, Economic Letters, the European Economic Review, the International Economic Review, the Journal of Economic Theory, the Journal of Political Economy, NSF, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Review of Economic Dynamics, and the Review of Economic Studies.
Guerrieri earned her bachelor’s degree summa cum laude and master’s degree in economics from Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi in Milan in 2000 and 2001, respectively, and a PhD in economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2006. She joined Chicago Booth in 2006, she has been a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research since 2013, and she has been a consultant at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago since 2014. She has been a visiting professor at MIT, Yale, LSE, NYU, CREI and EIEF and a Visiting Scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
Jacob Goldin is the Richard M. Lipton Professor of Tax Law. Trained as a lawyer and economist, much of Professor Goldin’s research focuses on US tax policy affecting low-income households. His research interests also include health policy, tax administration, and the application of behavioral economics to policy design.
Prior to joining the Chicago Law School faculty, Goldin was a professor of law at Stanford Law School. He has also previously worked in the Office of Tax Policy at the US Treasury Department, and clerked for Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. He holds a JD from Yale Law School and a PhD in economics from Princeton University.
Ali Hortaçsu
Hortaçsu’s work is focused on empirically assessing the efficiency of markets. He utilizes detailed micro-level data from the markets studied to estimate preference and technology parameters that rationalize individual behavior. He then uses the estimated preferences and technological parameters to construct (constrained) “efficient” benchmarks and assess how far observed market outcomes are from efficiency. This comparison also motivates discussions of how market rules can be altered to improve efficiency. He has applied the above framework to many market settings, including financial markets, energy markets, and the Internet, and a variety of market clearing mechanisms, including auctions, matching, and costly search.
Greg Kaplan
Greg Kaplan is Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. Greg was previously Professor and Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Princeton University, Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania and an Economist in the Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. He has held visiting positions at the University of New South Wales and the Reserve Bank of Australia. He is an Editor at the Review of Economic Dynamics, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a Research Fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Greg received a PhD from New York University in 2009, an MSc from the London School of Economics in 2002 and a BCom (Hons) from Macquarie University in 2000.
Magne Mogstad
Magne Mogstad is the Gary S. Becker Professor in Economics and the College, as well as the Director of the Ronzetti Initiative for the Study of Labor Markets at the Becker Friedman Institute at the University of Chicago. His work is motivated by the broad question of how to address market failures and equalize opportunities. Countless policies–taxation, subsidized education, social insurance – have been implemented in an effort to achieve those objectives. A key challenge is to distill each policy’s unique impact so that we can understand which ones actually work and which ones do not. This challenge motivates Magne’s work, which aims at providing credible empirical evidence that informs policymakers. This is made possible by combining theory and econometric methods with large administrative datasets that can be linked to supplementary data sources.
Leading the Ronzetti Initiative for the Study of Labor Markets at the Becker Friedman Institute, he investigates how firms, workers, and families are affected by, and adapt to, globalization and technological change, and how the process of restructuring is shaped by labor market institutions and regulations, tax and transfer policies, family policy, and the education system.
Magne has published extensively in leading scholarly journals. He is a current co-editor of the Journal of Political Economy, and he previously served as a co-editor of the Journal of Public Economics and a foreign editor of the Review of Economic Studies. He is the recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship and the IZA Young Labor Economist Award.
Stefan Nagel
Professor Nagel’s research focuses on asset pricing, investor behavior, and risk-taking of financial intermediaries. His most recent work explores the role of personal experiences in shaping expectations about the macroeconomy and financial market returns, novel approaches for measurement of bank tail risk exposures, and the application of machine learning techniques to understand the risk and return of investment strategies in the stock market. Nagel has won various awards for his research, among them the Smith-Breeden Prize of the American Finance Association for the best paper in the Journal of Finance in 2004 and the Fama/DFA prize for the best asset pricing paper in the Journal of Financial Economics in 2006 (first prize) and 2010 (second prize).
Professor Nagel currently serves as the Executive Editor of the Journal of Finance, one of the leading academic finance journals in the world. Previously, he was an editor at the Review of Financial Studies from 2014-2015 and an associate editor at various top journals. He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (Cambridge, MA) and a research fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (London, UK).
Before joining Booth, Nagel taught at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business (2013-17), Stanford Graduate School of Business (2004-13) and in the Economics Department at Harvard University (2003-04). He received his PhD from the London Business School in 2003 and his Diplom (M.S. equiv.) in Business Economics from the University of Trier (Germany) in 1999.
Konstantin Sonin
Konstantin Sonin is John Dewey Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. His research interests include political economics, conflict, development, and economic theory. His papers have been published in leading academic journals in economics and political science.
Amir Sufi
Amir Sufi is the Bruce Lindsay Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He serves as an associate editor for the American Economic Review, the Journal of Finance, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics. Professor Sufi was awarded the 2017 Fischer Black Prize by the American Finance Association, given biennially to the top financial economics scholar under the age of 40.
Professor Sufi’s research focuses on finance and macroeconomics. His research on household debt and the economy forms the basis of his book co-authored with Atif Mian: House of Debt: How They (and You) Caused the Great Recession and How We Can Prevent It from Happening Again, which was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2014. He earned a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was awarded the Solow Endowment Prize for Graduate Student Excellence in Teaching and Research. He joined the Chicago Booth faculty in 2005.
Chad Syverson
Chad Syverson‘s research spans several topics, with a particular focus on the interactions of firm structure, market structure, and productivity. His research has been published in several top journals and has earned multiple National Science Foundation Awards. He also coauthored (with Austan Goolsbee and Steve Levitt) an intermediate-level text, Microeconomics.
“My engineering background definitely spurred my research interest in productivity. I like to visit factories and investigate how things are put together, what can go wrong when they are, and what factors influence companies’ operating success (or lack thereof).”
Syverson serves as an editor of the Journal of Political Economy and is on the editorial board of several other journals. He is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and has recently served on National Academies committees and as the chair of the Chicago Census Research Data Center Board. Prior to his appointment at the University of Chicago, Syverson was a mechanical engineer co-op for Loral Defense Systems and Unisys Corporation.
He earned two bachelor’s degrees in 1996 from the University of North Dakota, one in economics and one in mechanical engineering. He earned his PhD in economics in 2001 from the University of Maryland. Syverson joined the Chicago Booth faculty in 2008.
Michael Greenstone
Erik Hurst
Sam Ori
Erin Adcock
Faidat Brimah
David Fettig
Tauresha Florence
Ava Gomez
Eric Hernandez
Abby Hiller
Quentin Johnson
Markeena O’Neal
Apryl Richard Paige
Maia Rabenold
Colleen Reda
Yasamin Sabeti
Reem Shammoka
Michelle Skinner
Jessie Snyder
Christine Spencer
Rekaa Thiagarajan
Faryn Thomas
Bryant Triplett
Vanessa Vaiphei
Jonathan Warren
Michael Greenstone
Michael Greenstone is the Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics, the College, and the Harris School, University of Chicago Director, Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics (BFI) and Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC)
Michael Greenstone is the Milton Friedman Professor in Economics, the College, and the Harris School, as well as the Director of the Becker Friedman Institute and the interdisciplinary Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. He previously served as the Chief Economist for President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, where he co-led the development of the United States Government’s social cost of carbon, and on the Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Board. Greenstone also directed The Hamilton Project, which studies policies to promote economic growth, and has since joined its Advisory Council. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the Econometric Society, and a former editor of the Journal of Political Economy. Before coming to the University of Chicago, Greenstone was the 3M Professor of Environmental Economics at MIT.
Greenstone’s research, which has influenced policy globally, is largely focused on uncovering the benefits and costs of environmental quality and society’s energy choices. His current work is particularly focused on testing innovative ways to increase energy access and improve the efficiency of environmental regulations around the world. Additionally, he is producing empirically grounded estimates of the local and global impacts of climate change as a co-director of the Climate Impact Lab. He also created the Air Quality Life Index™, which provides a reliable measure of the potential gain in life expectancy communities could see if their particulates air pollution concentrations are brought into compliance with global or national standards. Greenstone’s research suggests that particulates air pollution is the greatest current environmental threat to human wellbeing.
Greenstone received a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University and a BA in economics with High Honors from Swarthmore College.
Erik Hurst
Erik Hurst is a macroeconomist whose work focuses on housing markets, labor markets and household financial behavior. One strand of Hurst’s research explores the importance of home production in determining time series, life cycle, and business cycle variation in measured consumption spending. His contributions to this literature include “Consumption versus Expenditure” and “Deconstructing Life Cycle Expenditure” in the Journal of Political Economy, “Life Cycle Prices and Production” and “Time Use During the Great Recession” in the American Economic Review and “Measuring Trends in Leisure: The Allocation of Time Over Five Decades” in the Quarterly Journal of Economics. His work on these issues has been extensively covered in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Economist. In 2006, Hurst was awarded the TIAA-CREF Paul A. Samuelson Award for Outstanding Scholarly Writing on Lifelong Financial Security for the work examining how individuals use home production to maintain their consumption during retirement.
Recently, Hurst has explored how changes in the U.S. labor market have influenced U.S. macroeconomic outcomes. In his paper “The Allocation of Talent and U.S. Economic Growth”, he shows that upwards of twenty percent of U.S. productivity growth over the last fifty years can be attributed to improved labor market outcomes for women and Blacks. In one of his more recent papers, Hurst has shown that structural forces have contributed to the low levels of employment in the wake of the 2009 recession. Specifically, in his paper “Manufacturing Declines, Housing Booms and Non-Employment,” Hurst shows that roughly forty percent of the increase in non-employment during the 2000-2011 period can be traced to the secular decline in manufacturing jobs. Both of these papers have been covered extensively in the popular press.
In 2012, Hurst was also award the Ewing Marion Kauffman Prize Medal for Distinguished Research in Entrepreneurship. The Medal is awarded annually to a scholar under the age of 40 whose research has made a significant contribution to the literature in entrepreneurship. The award cited his papers “Liquidity Constraints, Household Wealth, and Entrepreneurship” in the Journal of Political Economy and “What Do Small Businesses Do” in the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity as being important contributions to understanding the nature of small business activity.
Prior to moving to Chicago, Hurst won two teaching awards while a graduate student at the University of Michigan. Additionally, in both 2008 and 2010, the MBAs selected him as the recipient of the Emory Williams Award for Outstanding MBA Teaching. In 2013, he was voted the Faculty Excellence Award by the MBAs in the evening and weekend program for his exceptional commitment to teaching.
Hurst is a member of the Economic Fluctuations Group, Aging Group, and Public Economics Group at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is currently serving as the editor of the Journal of Political Economy. Additionally, he serves as a consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
Hurst earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and finance from Clarkson University in 1993. He received a master’s degree in economics in 1995 and a PhD in economics in 1999 from the University of Michigan. He joined the Chicago Booth faculty in 1999.
Sam Ori
Sam Ori is the Executive Director of the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics (BFI). He also serves as Executive Director of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC). From 2013 to 2015, he served as Executive Vice President at Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE), a Washington, DC-based organization dedicated to reducing American oil dependence in order to enhance economic and national security. From 2007 to 2013, Sam led SAFE’s policy work on a variety of topics, ranging from global oil and natural gas markets to transportation technology. Prior to joining SAFE, Sam spent four years working in the federal government at the Broadcasting Board of Governors and Department of State, including at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India.
Staff Page: Sam Ori
Erin Adcock
Erin Adcock is Director of Development with the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics at the University of Chicago. She previously served as the Director of Development at Rutgers Business School and Director of Foundation Relations at Rochester Institute of Technology. Adcock is passionate about Promoting higher education and cutting-edge research through philanthropy. She holds an MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology, and a BA in English Literature from the University of Utah.
Faidat Brimah
Faidat Brimah is the Director of Finance and Operations at the Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics, responsible for analyzing and monitoring comprehensive financial activities within the BFI and its affiliated centers, including expenditure tracking and assisting faculty and staff with review and negotiation of contracts and data use agreements. Faidat has worked in higher education for more than 5 years. Prior to joining BFI, Faidat held the position of Finance Associate in Urban Labs at the University of Chicago, supporting faculty and staff, in procurement, grant administration, and account management for all five Labs. Faidat holds a BS in Finance from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and an MBA from Roosevelt University.
David Fettig
David Fettig is Senior Director of Policy, Communications, and Outreach at the Becker Friedman Institute. He previously served as Vice President and Director of Public Affairs at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, where he spent the bulk of his career. He has over three decades experience in communications, including stints as an award-winning journalist and financial writer.
Tauresha Florence
Tauresha Florence is the Finance Administrator at the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics, where she provides financial and analytical support for the department. She works closely with the Director of Finance and Operations and Senior Grants & Contracts Manager, monitoring and managing financial accounts. Tauresha comes to the BFI with many years of finance and accounting experience with previous positions held at the University of Chicago, along with a BA in Accounting.
Ava Gomez
Ava Gomez is a Communications and Events Marketing Coordinator at the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics. Ava received her BS in Advertising from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in May 2021. Her previous experiences include being a Communication Contractor for Whirlpool Manufacturing in Amana, Iowa as well as an internship with GiGi’s Playhouse Down Syndrome Achievement Center of the Quad Cities.
Eric Hernandez
Eric Hernandez is the Senior Digital Media Manager. Previously, he strategized and created content for Organizing for Action, a non-profit organization that advocates for former President Barack Obama’s political agenda. He also worked for Argonne National Laboratory to develop marketing campaigns for divisions inside the laboratory.
Abby Hiller
Abby Hiller is an economics writer at the Becker Friedman Institute. She previously served on the founding team at Opportunity Insights, a Harvard-based economics research institute, where she translated empirical microeconomics research for general audiences. Abby holds a BA in Government from Cornell University and is interested in increasing public understanding of social science research.
Quentin Johnson
Charged with managing the recently launched Expanding Diversity in Economics program, Johnson oversees an innovative University of Chicago Summer Institute designed to identify and support talented undergraduate students from a broad range of backgrounds interested in the study of economics.
Prior to joining BFI, he developed and managed diversity and inclusion outreach and recruitment for interns, research assistants, and economists as the first-ever Senior Economics Outreach Specialist for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors (Board). While at the Board, Johnson founded the Economics Outreach at the Federal Reserve Board program, where he launched a number of community engagement and mentoring initiatives. He also served as the Co-Chair for the African American Employee Resource Group, representing the over 580 African American Board Employees.
Johnson developed his human-centered approach to diversity, equity and inclusion over his international and domestic career experiences. After earning a Bachelor’s of Science degree in math and economics from Morehouse College, he spent his first several years out of undergraduate study teaching English to students in Japan. Upon returning to the US, he transitioned into an admissions position for his alma mater. Johnson continued his admissions work at the undergraduate and graduate level at American University, where he also earned a Master of Business Administration, specializing in consulting and leadership. He was no stranger to government service before his tenure at the Board, supporting the US Department of Defense as a management consultant after completing his graduate study.
Johnson is a highly regarded connector and dynamic network builder within the economics community, creating strategic partnerships with colleges, universities, professional and public organizations to motivate students and encourage them to study and pursue economics as a career field. He is the committee chair for partnership strategy for Pathways to Research and Doctoral Careers (PREDOC), a consortium of universities and research institutions that aims to foster a talented, diverse, and inclusive population in the quantitative social sciences. He also serves on the advisory board for the Sadie Collective, an organization dedicated to addressing the critical lack of Black women in economics and related fields.
Markeena O’Neal
Markeena O’Neal is the Human Resources Coordinator for BFI where she works in collaboration with the People Operations Manager assisting with the different aspects of human resources management. Before joining BFI, Markeena worked as a Student Admin for central HR at the University of Chicago as well.
Apryl Richard Paige
Apryl Richard Paige is the Administrative Assistant at the Becker Friedman Institute. Born and raised on Chicago’s South Side, Apryl holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from Drake University. Lauded during her career for her creativity, writing, editing, and proofreading, Apryl has an extensive and impressive background in a number of fields, including broadcasting, direct marketing, political campaigning, administrative assistance, and customer service.
Maia Rabenold
Maia Rabenold is the Senior Multimedia Associate and Expanding Diversity in Economics Program Coordinator at the Becker Friedman Institute. Maia graduated from Indiana University with a BA in Journalism. Previously, she has worked as an intern at NBC News, as a graphic designer at the IU Media School, and has written and designed for several other publications.
Colleen Reda
Colleen Reda is the Senior Grants and Contracts Manager at the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics, leading comprehensive hands-on administration and support for the research enterprise within the institute, including pre and post-award administration for all sponsored award activity. Before joining BFI, Colleen held the position of Business Manager/Grant & Contract Specialist in the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago from 2014 – 2017, supporting faculty members, chair, and others, including the Energy Policy Institute at Chicago (EPIC), in grant administration, procurement, and account management. From 2009 – 2014, she served as Business Manager in the Social Sciences Division Local Business Center at the University of Chicago.
Yasamin Sabeti
Yasamin Sabeti is the Senior Manager of Events at the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics. Yasamin previously worked as the National Expo Manager at Life Time, managing the operations of large scale athletic events. In her eight years at Life Time, she also held roles as the Senior Athlete Services Manager, Volunteer Recruiting Manager, and Hospitality Manager. Yasamin holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Florida, specializing in events and hotel management, and a minor in Business Administration.
Reem Shammoka
Reem Shammoka is the Assistant Director of Human Resources at the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics at the University of Chicago. Reem previously served as a Senior Human Resources Business Partner with the Biological Sciences Division at the University of Chicago. She completed her Bacherlor’s Degree in Management from DePaul University and later continued to get her Master’s Degree in Human Resources also from DePaul. Reem is passionate about shaping and executing HR initiatives that drive employee satisfaction, engagement, and organizational success.
Throughout her career, Reem has worked in various HR roles, gradually accumulating a wealth of knowledge and skills along the way. Her commitment to continuous learning and staying up to date with industry trends has allowed her to adapt to evolving HR practices and regulations, ensuring the organization she serves maintains compliance and remains at the forefront of HR excellence.
As the Assistant Director of HR, Reem collaborates closely with the Executive Director, Operations Director and other key stakeholders to develop and implement HR strategies that align with the institute’s objectives. She excels at managing the entire employee life cycle, from talent acquisition and onboarding to performance management and career development. Reem possesses a keen eye for talent, employing innovative recruitment techniques to attract high-caliber candidates who are the right fit for the organization’s culture and values.
Michelle Skinner
Michelle Skinner is the Program Director for the Pre-doctoral Fellows Program for the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics (BFI) and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC), responsible for the hiring and development of BFI’s and EPIC’s Research Professionals. Michelle has been at the University of Chicago since 2013 and worked in range of departments from the Humanities Division to College Housing. Before joining BFI, Michelle managed the Research Staff program at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Michelle is also the co-director of Pathways to Research and Doctoral Careers (PREDOC), a consortium of universities and research institutions working to foster a talented, diverse, and inclusive population in the quantitative social sciences. She is an alumna of the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Chicago.
Jessie Snyder
Jessie Snyder is an Events Manager at the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics. Jessie received her BS in Marketing and Management at Saint Mary’s College in May 2020. Her previous experiences include working as a Community Ambassador for Physician’s Immediate Care and as a Field Marketing Intern at Honest Tea.
Christine Spencer
Christine Spencer is the Senior Executive Assistant to the Director of BFI, Michael Greenstone. She provides high-level support in coordinating incoming requests, travel, media and speaking engagements, and other responsibilities.
Christine has over a decade experience in administrative support primarily in the private sector. She has extensive knowledge and experience in event planning, coordination, and management.
Christine holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia College Chicago and a Master of Arts degree from DePaul University.
Rekaa Thiagarajan
Rekaa Thiagarajan is the Senior Finance Administrator at the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics, where she provides financial and analytical support for the department. She works closely with the Director of Finance and Operations and Senior Grants & Contracts Manager, monitoring and managing financial accounts. Rekaa comes to BFI with many years of accounting and finance experience with previous positions held at the University of Chicago and KPMG Malaysia. She is a Chartered Accountant by qualification.
Faryn Thomas
Faryn Thomas is an Events Coordinator at the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics. Faryn graduate from the University of Chicago in 2021. Her previous experiences include working at the American Bar Association and as a Marketing Intern at Imagination Publishing.
Bryant Triplett
Bryant Triplett is the Operations Coordinator at the Becker Friedman Institute of Economics, responsible for a diverse set of critical administrative, operational, and strategic duties in support of BFI’s day-to-day operations. Bryant holds an Associate degree in computer science. Previously, he has worked at the University of Chicago’s Regenstein Library facilitating the international and domestic movement of books and historical data.
Vanessa Vaiphei
Vanessa Vaiphei is the Manager of Operations and Visitor Program at the Becker Friedman Institute. She has an MBA from Missouri State University and a bachelor’s degree in International Business and Marketing from Judson University. Vanessa has worked in the healthcare, real estate, and nonprofit industries.
Jonathan Warren
Jonathan Warren is the Senior Manager of Policy Communications and Outreach at the Becker Friedman Institute. Previously, he managed corporate, consumer and issues management campaigns for public relations agencies Weber Shandwick and Burson Cohn & Wolfe. He holds a BA in English from the University of Notre Dame and an MA in Public Policy Analysis from the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.