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Robert J. Shapiro is the chairman of Sonecon, LLC, a private firm that advises U.S. and foreign businesses, governments and non-profit organizations. Dr. Shapiro has advised, among others, U.S. President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair; private firms including MCI, Inc., Amgen, Gilead Sciences, New York Life Insurance Co., SLM Corporation, Google, Nordstjernan of Sweden, and Fujitsu of Japan; and non-profit organizations including the American Public Transportation Association, the Education Finance Council, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He is also Senior Fellow of the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), director of the NDN Globalization Initiative, co-chair of Argentina Task Force America, and a director of the Ax:son-Johnson Foundation in Sweden. From 1997 to 2001, he was Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs. Prior to that, he was co-founder and Vice President of PPI. Dr. Shapiro also served as the principal economic advisor to Bill Clinton in his 1991-1992 presidential campaign, senior economic advisor to Albert Gore, Jr. in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004, Legislative Director for Senator Daniel P. Moynihan, and Associate Editor of U.S. News & World Report. He has been a Fellow of Harvard University, the Brookings Institution and the National Bureau of Economic Research. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard, as well as degrees from the University of Chicago and the London School of Economics.
Nam D. Pham is the founder and president of NDP Group, LLC, an economics consulting firm that specializes in assessing complex issues in finance, international trade and economics development, and an affiliated scholar of Sonecon. Clients of NDP Group include U.S. and foreign corporations, financial institutions, federal and local governments, trade associations and multi-national organizations. Prior to founding NDP Group in 2000, Dr. Pham was Vice President at Scudder Kemper Investments in Boston, where he was responsible for research, asset allocations and currency hedges for Scudder's global and international bond funds. Before that he was Chief Economist of the Asia Region for Standard & Poor's DRI in Boston. Dr. Pham's has over a decade of experience in multinational organizations and government agencies in Washington DC. This tenure includes time as an economist at the World Bank, as well as a consultant to the Department of Commerce and the Federal Trade Commission. In addition, Dr. Pham has been an adjunct professor at the George Washington University, where he has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in monetary economics, international trade and finance, macroeconomics and microeconomics. Dr. Pham earned a Ph.D. in economics from the George Washington University with concentrations in international trade and finance, economic development and applied microeconomics, a M.A. from Georgetown University and a B.A. from the University of Maryland.
Alan S. Blinder is the Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics at Princeton University and Co- Director and founder of Princeton's Center for Economic Policy Studies. He is also a partner in Promontory Financial Group, Vice Chairman of the Promontory Interfinancial Network, and Vice Chairman of the G7 Group. Dr. Blinder served as Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from June 1994 until January 1996. Before becoming a member of the Board, Dr. Blinder served as a Member of President Clinton's original Council of Economic Advisers from January 1993 until June 1994. During the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns, he served as an economic adviser to Al Gore and John Kerry. He also served briefly as Deputy Assistant Director of the Congressional Budget Office when that agency started in 1975. Dr. Blinder is the author or co-author of 17 books, including the textbook Economics: Principles and Policy with William J. Baumol, now in its 10th edition. Dr. Blinder is the immediate past President of the Eastern Economic Association, a member of the Bretton Woods Committee, the Bellagio Group, and the Council on Foreign Relations, and a former governor of the American Stock Exchange. He earned his A.B. at Princeton University, M.Sc. at London School of Economics, and Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.