Boston Speakers

[Overview]   [Agenda]   [Venue] 


Jay Allen
Managing Director
Credit Suisse

Jay Allen is a Managing Director of Credit-Suisse in the Fixed Income Sales group, based in Boston. He is the sales manager for the Boston office and has responsibility for the distribution of fixed income products in the New England region of the US. In addition, Jay has responsibility for selling structured fixed income products and managing client relationships. As a senior salesman in the New England region, he provides coverage for money mangers, insurance companies, banks, and hedge funds.

Mr. Allen joined CSFB in July 1986 as an analyst in the mortgage sales group in New York. He relocated to the Boston office in 1992. 

Mr. Allen received his BA in Economics from Colby College.



Clive Crook
Chief Washington Columnist & Associate Editor
Financial Times

Niall Ferguson
Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History, Harvard University and William Ziegler Professor,
Harvard Business School

Niall Ferguson, MA, D.Phil., is Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University and William Ziegler Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at Jesus College, Oxford University, and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. 

His first book, Paper and Iron: Hamburg Business and German Politics in the Era of Inflation 1897-1927 (Cambridge University Press, 1995), was short-listed for the History Today Book of the Year award, while the collection of essays he edited, Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals (Macmillan, 1997), was a UK bestseller. In 1998 he published to international critical acclaim The Pity of War: Explaining World War One (Basic Books) and The World's Banker: The History of the House of Rothschild (Penguin). The latter won the Wadsworth Prize for Business History and was also short-listed for the Jewish Quarterly/Wingate Literary Award and the American National Jewish Book Award. In 2001 he published The Cash Nexus: Money and Power in the Modern World, 1700-2000 (Basic), following a year as Houblon-Norman Fellow at the Bank of England.

Niall Ferguson is a regular contributor to television and radio on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2003 he wrote and presented a six-part history of the British Empire for Channel 4, the UK terrestrial broadcaster. The accompanying book, Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power (Basic), was a bestseller in both Britain and the United States. The sequel, Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire, was published in 2004 by Penguin. His latest book is The War of the World, a global history of the Second World War, which was published to critical acclaim in September 2006. A television adaptation The War of the World will be screened by PBS in 2008. He is currently completing a biography of Siegmund Warburg and has recently begun researching a life of Henry Kissinger.

A prolific commentator on contemporary politics and economics, Niall Ferguson is a contributing editor for the Financial Times. In addition, he is a senior adviser to Morgan Stanley and GLG Partners.

Stefan M. Gavell
Executive Vice President, Head of Regulatory and Industry Affairs
State Street Bank

Stefan M. Gavell is executive vice president and head of regulatory and industry affairs. He was appointed to this newly created role in January 2005, which has responsibility for global regulatory relationships, capital deployment and legal entities.

Mr. Gavell joined State Street in 1990 as general manager of the Tokyo office. In 1994 he relocated to become general manager of State Street's global treasury operation in London, and from 1995 until 2000 had responsibility for State Street's Global Markets businesses in the United Kingdom and continental Europe. He returned to the United States in 2000 to head the international activities of the Global Markets unit. In 2002 he served as interim chief financial officer after which he assumed the role of State Street's treasurer. Mr. Gavell chaired the Investment Committee of State Street from 2000 to 2005.

Mr. Gavell began his career at Credit Industriel et Commercial in New York and Paris. Prior to joining State Street, he worked for Mellon Bank. He holds a Master of Business Administration degree in finance from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and government from Oberlin College.  

Susan Lund
Director of Research
McKinsey Global Institute

Susan Lund is Director of Research at the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), McKinsey & Company's economics research arm.

Dr. Lund's recent research has focused on the global financial and economic crisis. She has quantified the impact of the crisis on US household wealth and consumption, assessed the magnitude of deleveraging in the US and Europe, and is exploring potential sources of US growth during an economic recovery. She is a leader of MGI's research on global capital markets, with recent efforts assessing the implications of credit losses and regulatory changes on the financial sector and scenarios for how global financial markets may evolve after the crisis. Prior research has examined how the rise of hedge funds, private equity, petrodollars, and Asian central banks is shaping financial markets; assessed the sustainability of the US current account deficit; and analyzed the performance of national financial systems around the world, including those in China and India. Lund also leads research for an annual report on the state of the world's capital markets. She has authored numerous articles in leading business and academic publications, including Foreign Affairs, Far Eastern Economic Review, Journal of Economic Development, The International Economy, Milken Review, Newsweek International, and The McKinsey Quarterly.  She is a frequent speaker at conferences on economics and financial markets.

She joined McKinsey & Company in 1996 in the Washington, DC office as a consultant and worked with a range of investment banks, financial services firms, and international financial institutions. She became a member of the Board of Editors at The McKinsey Quarterly in 2000 and joined the McKinsey Global Institute at the end of 2004 as a Senior Fellow.

Prior to joining McKinsey, Lund held a variety of positions in other countries, including with the US Peace Corps in the Philippines, the Fulbright Fellowship program, and the UN Research Institute for Social Development in Southern China.

Lund holds a Ph.D. in applied economics from Stanford University and a B.A. with highest distinction in economics from Northwestern University.

She lives in the Washington, DC area with her husband and two daughters.

Michael Williams
Managing Director, Public Policy Americas
Credit Suisse

Michael Williams is a Managing Director of Credit Suisse in the Public Policy Americas division, based in Washington, D.C. He is responsible for maintaining and expanding the Bank's relationships with members and staff of the congressional tax-writing committees and other committees such as Financial Services, Banking and Foreign Relations. Mr. Williams is directly involved in the formulation and implementation of the Bank's legislative policies and strategies.

Mr. Williams joined Credit Suisse in February 2007 from The Bond Market Association/ Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association's Washington, D.C. office, where he was Senior Vice President. In this capacity, he was responsible for representing the Association's views to various congressional committee and regulators. In addition, he oversaw the Association's close working relationships with state and local governments and their representative organizations.

Mr. Williams also served a Special Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs during the Clinton Administration. He also served as a staff member of the New York State Assembly and Senate.

Mr. Williams holds a Bachelors degree in Sociology and Masters in Public Administration from the State University of New York at Albany. He also holds a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Maryland.