Vancouver 2010 | List of Speakers | Schedule of Events | Fairmont Hotel Website | Sponsor List
David Walker
David Walker is president and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. In this capacity, he leads the foundation’s efforts to promote federal financial responsibility and accountability today in order to create more opportunity tomorrow.
Prior to assuming his position with the foundation in March of 2008, David served as the seventh comptroller general of the United States and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) for almost 10 years. This was one of David’s three presidential appointments, each by different presidents from both major political parties during his 15 years of total federal service.
Dave also has over 20 years of private-sector experience, including approximately 10 years as a partner and global managing director of Human Capital Services for Arthur Andersen LLP. During this period, he also served as one of the two public trustees for Social Security and Medicare.
In addition to his leadership responsibilities at the foundation, Dave serves on various boards and advisory groups, including as chairman of the United Nations Independent Audit Advisory Committee, as a member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s Advisory Committee and as a member of the Trilateral Commission. Dave has authored three books. The most recent, Comeback America, shows how we can return to our nation’s founding principles and outlines a number of sensible solutions to get America back on track. He is a frequent writer and commentator, and is a subject of the critically acclaimed documentary I.O.U.S.A.
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John Mauldin
John Mauldin, President of Millennium Wave Investments, is a prolific author, recognized financial expert, and editor of the popular Thoughts from the Frontline e-letter which goes to over 1,500,000 readers weekly. His critically acclaimed new book, Just One Thing and previous best seller Bull’s Eye Investing, Targeting Real Returns in a Smoke and Mirrors Market cuts though the fog of information and gives concrete advice for structuring absolute return portfolios. John is primarily involved in private money management, financial services, and investments and research. His next book is called The End Game and will be out in the fall. He is a frequent contributor to numerous publications, and guest on TV and radio shows as well as quoted widely in the press. John lives in the Uptown area of Dallas, and is the father of seven children, ranging from ages 16 through 33, five of whom are adopted. Investors can visit his website at www.johnmauldin.com or get his free weekly e-letter by sending a request to john@2000wave.com.
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Addison Wiggin
Addison Wiggin is the executive publisher of Agora Financial, a multimillion-dollar financial research, analysis and publishing company based in Baltimore, Md.
He’s the creator and editorial director of Agora Financial’s daily 5 Min. Forecast and contributes regularly to The Daily Reckoning.
He is the executive producer and co-writer of the highly acclaimed documentary film I.O.U.S.A., which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and the 2009 Critics’ Choice Award for Best Documentary Feature and was also shortlisted for a 2009 Academy Award. The film made its first public screening at this symposium in 2008. He is the co-author of the companion book of the same title and a three-time New York Times best-selling author. He is considered one of the top financial experts, who not only predicted the current financial crisis, but called it early and called it right. Stephen Metcalf of The New York Times Magazine described Addison as one who “offered up his analysis with a confident and steady aplomb. And for good reason…”
His international best-sellers Financial Reckoning Day and Empire of Debt, which he co-authored with Bill Bonner, were re-released in 2009. Financial Reckoning Day Fallout, the 10th Anniversary Edition, is a timely guide to protecting and growing your wealth in this turbulent financial climate. Casting a wide-angle lens through history and into today’s economic reality, the second edition of The New Empire of Debt depicts the rise and fall of an epic financial bubble.
Addison also authored The Demise of the Dollar… and Why It’s Even Better for Your Investments, which hit No. 5 on The New York Times general paperback list and was revised and updated in 2008.
Despite spending a few of his more formative years traveling the world, attempting to find his inner essence while following the legendary rock band the Grateful Dead, Addison managed to gain a tremendous insight into free market capitalism… perhaps as an accidental consequence. Through it all, Addison has acquired a unique macroeconomic perspective on the markets. Addison has been a student, writer and commentator on financial markets and governments for more than 15 years. His body of published work has been translated in French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian.
He earned an undergraduate degree in English and French from Western State College of Colorado and a master’s degree in philosophy from St. John’s College in Annapolis, Md. He worked for the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., and spent several years living and traveling abroad. His vast body of published work offers truly contrarian ideas on many issues concerning domestic and international economics and financial markets.
His work has brought critical acclaim from The New York Times Magazine, Money, The Economist, Worth, The New York Times, The Washington Post and others. Addison has been seen on CNN, ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, Fox Business, CNBC, MSNBC, Bloomberg TV, BNN TV Canada, MTV Canada and many other places.
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William Bonner
William Bonner’s entrepreneurial savvy, unique and entertaining writings, philanthropic undertakings and preservationist activities have been recognized and awarded by some of America’s most respected authorities. Bill has found success and garnered camaraderie in communities and industries around the world.
He’s also a glutton for punishment, having painstakingly restored not one, but two French chateaux and numerous historic buildings in Baltimore, and he works a cattle ranch in Argentina, where he runs cattle through the “cepo” any chance he gets.
In 1979, Bill created what is now known as Agora Inc. Despite studying at Paris-Sorbonne University and earning a Georgetown University law degree and more exceptional academic achievements, and tremendous dedication to his work, he considered himself otherwise unemployable.
The rest is history. What began as a small publishing company based in Baltimore has grown to become one of the largest and most successful consumer newsletter publishers in the world. Agora Inc. is a holding company of various international publishers of financial, health, travel and special interest books and newsletters, which seek to serve as a modern marketplace for news and breakthrough ideas.
With Addison Wiggin, Bill has written two New York Times best-selling books, Financial Reckoning Day and Empire of Debt. Second editions of both books were re-released in 2009.
Both works, which warned of the unsustainable economic trends, have been critically acclaimed and internationally distributed.
He co-authored his third New York Times best-selling book, Mobs, Messiahs and Markets, which offers concrete advice on how to avoid the public spectacle of modern finance.
Bill has been a decade-long daily contributor and the driving force behind The Daily Reckoning, our flagship daily free e-letter that weaves information about the financial world, investing and everyday life into an educational and entertaining read.
Bill calls them like he sees them, and he was right. Unfortunately, it took a global economic crisis of epic proportions for the rest of the world to catch on…
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Doug Casey
Doug Casey is a highly respected author, publisher and professional investor who graduated from Georgetown University in 1968 as a classmate of Bill Clinton. He didn’t inhale either.
Doug literally wrote the book on profiting from periods of economic turmoil: His book Crisis Investing spent multiple weeks at No. 1 on The New York Times best-seller list and became the best-selling financial book of 1980, with 438,640 copies sold, surpassing big-caliber names like Free to Choose by Milton Friedman, The Real War by Richard Nixon and Cosmos by Carl Sagan. Then Doug broke the record with his next book, Strategic Investing, by receiving the largest advance ever paid for a financial book at the time. Interestingly enough, Doug’s book The International Man was the most sold book in the history of Rhodesia.
He has been a featured guest on hundreds of radio and TV shows, including those of David Letterman, Merv Griffin, Charlie Rose, Phil Donahue, Regis Philbin, Maury Povich, NBC News and CNN, and has been the topic of numerous features in periodicals such as Time, Forbes, People and The Washington Post. Doug, who divides his time between homes in Aspen, Colo.; Auckland, New Zealand; and Salta, Argentina, has written newsletters and alert services for sophisticated investors for over 28 years.
Doug has lived in 12 and visited over 175 countries. In addition to having served as a trustee on the board of governors of Washington College and Northwoods University, Doug has been a director of and adviser to nine different financial corporations. Doug is widely respected as one of the preeminent authorities on “rational speculation,” especially in the high-potential natural resource sector.
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Patrick Cox
Patrick Cox has lived deep inside the world of transformative technologies for over 25 years. In the 1980s, he worked in computer software development and manufacturing. By the mid-1990s, he worked as a consultant for Netscape — the company that handled 90% of all Internet browsing traffic at the time
He’s provided research for several public policy think tanks. For several years, he contributed to a nationally syndicated radio show, Perspective on the Economy. It had over 160 stations and 1.5 million listeners. InfoWorld and USA Today have featured Patrick’s research many times. He’s written for The Wall Street Journal and Reason magazine.
He’s also appeared on Crossfire and Nightline. Patrick was an adviser to Fred Thompson throughout his presidential campaign and continues to consult for his national radio show. He was a technical consultant for several Hollywood film producers. This expertise bought him to Agora Financial. He now heads Breakthrough Technology Alert, a premium service that identifies transformational technologies.
He regularly covers RNAi, various disease-curing biotechs, stem cell breakthroughs and other innovative technologies that could lead to exponential gains for early investors. Patrick has two beautiful, brilliant children.
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Dr. Marc Faber
Dr. Marc Faber is well known for his “contrarian” investment approach and legendary investment ideas.
He studied in Geneva and Zurich and finished high school with the matura. He studied economics at the University of Zurich and, at the age of 24, obtained a Ph.D. in economics magna cum laude. Between 1970–1978, Dr Faber worked for White, Weld & Co. Ltd. in New York, Zurich and Hong Kong.
Since 1973, he has lived in Hong Kong. From 1978–February 1990, he was the managing director of Drexel Burnham Lambert (HK) Ltd. In June 1990, he set up his own business, Marc Faber Ltd., which acts as an investment adviser and fund manager. Dr. Faber publishes a widely read monthly investment newsletter, The Gloom Boom & Doom Report, which highlights unusual investment opportunities, and is the author of several books, including Tomorrow’s Gold: Asia’s Age of Discovery, which was first published in 2002 and highlights future investment opportunities around the world
Tomorrow’s Gold was for several weeks on Amazon’s best-seller list and is being translated into Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai and German. Dr. Faber is also a regular contributor to several leading financial publications around the world.
A book on Dr. Faber, Riding the Millennial Storm, by Nury Vittachi, was published in 1998.
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Eric J. Fry
Eric J. Fry, Agora Financial’s editorial director, has been a specialist in international equities for nearly two decades. He was a professional portfolio manager for more than 10 years, specializing in international investment strategies and short selling.
Following his successes in professional money management, Eric joined the Wall Street-based publishing operations of James Grant, editor of the prestigious Grant’s Interest Rate Observer. Working alongside Grant, Eric produced Grant’s International and Apogee Research — institutional research products dedicated to international investment opportunities and short selling.
Eric subsequently joined Agora Inc. Eric directs and supervises the editorial and research processes of numerous investment letters and services. Eric also publishes investment insights and commentary under his own byline as editor of The Daily Reckoning.
Eric authored the first comprehensive guide to investing internationally with American Depository Receipts. His views and investment insights have appeared in numerous publications including Time, Barron’s, The Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, BusinessWeek, USA Today, Los Angeles Times and Money.
Eric is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, and lives in Laguna Beach, Calif.
He’s always insightful and charismatic, and we’re thrilled to welcome him to the podium this year as our new emcee.
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Frank Holmes
Frank Holmes is chief executive officer and chief investment officer of U.S. Global Investors Inc. The company is a registered investment adviser that manages approximately $4.8 billion for 13 no-load mutual funds and other advisory clients.
Frank, a Toronto native, bought a controlling interest in U.S. Global Investors in 1989, after an accomplished career in Canada’s capital markets. His specialized knowledge gives him expertise in resource-based industries and money management.
U.S. Global Investors’ funds have received numerous awards and honors during Frank’s tenure. The company’s Global Resources Fund is the 2005 and 2006 Lipper Fund Award winner in the natural resources category. U.S. Global’s World Precious Minerals and China Region Opportunity funds also won Lipper recognition in their respective categories in 2006.
The Global Resources Fund was also Morningstar’s top performer among all domestic stock funds in the five-year period ending Dec. 31, 2006. Also, the World Precious Minerals Fund was Morningstar’s top performer among all international stock funds for the five-year period ending Dec. 31, 2006.
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Vitaliy N. Katsenelso
Vitaliy N. Katsenelson, CFA, is director of research and a portfolio manager at Investment Management Associates in Denver. While his primary focus is discovering undervalued companies for his clients, he is also known for his uncommon common sense, which he expressed in his book Active Value Investing (Wiley, 2007), in articles that have been published in Financial Times, Barron’s, BusinessWeek, The Christian Science Monitor, Foreign Policy, New York Post, etc., and in speeches he has given around the world. Vitaliy was profiled in Barron’s in September 2009.
He was an adjunct faculty member (currently on sabbatical) at the University of Colorado at Denver, Graduate School of Business, where he taught practical equity analysis and portfolio management classes.
Vitaliy was born in Murmansk, Russia, and moved to the U.S. in 1991 with his family. He received both his Bachelor of Science and his Master of Science in finance degrees from the University of Colorado at Denver, where he graduated cum laude. This is how Vitaliy describes himself: “I invest, I educate, I write and I could not dream of doing anything else.”
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Byron King
Byron King practiced law for many years in Pittsburgh, Pa., and focused his efforts on litigation, bankruptcy and other contentious matters involving people and money.
Fortunately for us, Byron is now among the ranks of the “recovering attorneys.” In a moment of weakness, Byron sent a note to Bill Bonner, publisher of The Daily Reckoning. Fate intervened.
Byron is now the editor of Outstanding Investments and his exclusive investment advisory, Energy & Scarcity Investor. He is also a contributing editor to Whiskey & Gunpowder.
Byron is our resident geologist, an honors graduate of Harvard University. After Harvard, Byron went to work as a geologist for a major international oil company. Byron has followed developments in the oil and gas industry for more than three decades.
Byron also served for many years in the United States Navy. While in the Sea Service, Byron logged over 1,000 hours of flight time in tactical jet aircraft and successfully made 128 carrier landings. Among other assignments, Byron served on the staff of the chief of naval operations and as a field historian with the Navy in and around the “tough neighborhoods” of the Middle East.
Byron holds advanced degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and the U.S. Naval War College. Combining all of this background and extensive knowledge, Byron looks at current events, economics, politics and energy issues through the lens of history — and interprets it as he sees it.
Byron received his Juris Doctor from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
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Alan Knuckman
Alan Knuckman hails from the home of commodity trading, Chicago, where he began as a clerk on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT).
Alan has worked with all aspects of the commodity markets for the past 18 years — and now he brings his inside knowledge of energies, grains and gold to you. Alan is currently the editor of Agora Financial’s Resource Trader Alert, a trading service devoted to raking in profits from hard commodities, and is a go-to expert for major news organizations.
Prior to joining Resource Trader Alert, Knuckman served as the president and developer of GlobalTec’s Commodity Explorer product line. In that capacity, he oversaw all aspects of the decision-support software, the direct access trading platform and educational training and support.
He has been featured on daily Future Focus and Market Wrap programs on Wizetrade. Alan was also a frequent guest during CommoditiesTalk Live training broadcasts, where he answered live in-the-market questions for traders.
Before his stint at GlobalTec, Knuckman was a division partner for major commodities and stock brokerage firms. In 2003, he formed OneStopOption.com Group in Chicago, bringing together securities, stock option and futures brokerage. His prior developments included creating the PreferredTrade Live Division, where he complemented existing electronic option brokerage technology with the formation of his full-service, high-margin division to meet the needs of specialized traders.
Alan has appeared on Bloomberg TV, Fox Business Network, CNN, CNBC and Sky Business News in Australia and is a frequent guest on WGN Radio. He has been quoted in MarketWatch and had a featured interview in Stocks and Commodities magazine in March 2007.
His vast market experience has taught him that inevitably, everything is related to hard assets. As he says, “It all comes back to commodities.”
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Eric Krauss
A neurophysiologist by training, Eric Kraus stumbled into emerging markets finance in the early 1990s when he served as chief strategist of Societe Generale, Paris. He has been based in Moscow since 1997 where he has run fixed-income for a major German bank, managed the trading operations of two of the largest local investment banks, and enjoyed a ringside seat for the End of the World (August 1998) – followed by the birth of a new world over the ensuing decade.
This gives a unique perspective – having come to finance without the baggage of an MBA or any formal training in academic economics, his track record in Russia is unmatched. Eric’s hobby remains slaughtering sacred cows. He firmly believes that, as investors, we make money trading against bias, misinformation and prejudice, and that his markets regularly offer rich pickings for those who distrust the mainstream media and analysts.
Eric currently serves as Special Advisor for International Strategy for the Russian Investment bank Otkritie, and continues to author Russia’s best-known independent financial strategy monthly Truth and Beauty (and Russian Finance).
Eric’s been quoted by or published in The New York Times, Bloomberg, Reuters, Reuters Television, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Euromoney, Washington Post and various scientific publications. He is an engaging and provocative speaker who looks across asset classes, seeking misunderstood investment opportunities.
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Chris Mayer
Chris Mayer walked the Great Wall of China, visited the Taj Mahal and has ridden horses in the Pampas of Argentina, camels in the desert of Arabia and elephants up to the Amber Fort in Jaipur, India. He’s explored the world to unearth unique investment opportunities.
Chris began his career at the University of Maryland, where he studied finance up to the graduate level and received an MBA. He then began a decade-long career in corporate banking and served as the vice president of corporate lending at Provident Bank, where he was entrusted with a corporate portfolio of funds and deposits that totaled over a quarter of a billion dollars. He never lost money on a single deal.
Not one to take risks with other people’s money; Chris wasn’t your typical corporate banker. In fact, Chris is a history buff, a voracious reader who’s drawn to old books filled with ideas long forgotten by the mainstream.
Inspired by his interests and exceptional experience, he became a financial writer in his free time. His talent was soon discovered by the highly respected Ludwig von Mises Institute, for which Chris wrote on matters ranging from classical liberalism to the Austrian School of economics.
In early 2004, Chris began writing his own newsletter, Capital & Crisis. Focusing on finding stocks overlooked by the mainstream, Capital & Crisis gave its readers solid picks destined to pass the test of time. Prominent financial publisher Agora Financial soon discovered the newsletter and bought it, within months of its inception. Since then, he’s authored two new works.
Mayer’s Special Situations is a monthly report in which Chris exposes unique and unconventional opportunities in stocks and options. Each issue contains recommendations and theories on special situations, such as stocks selling below net tangible asset value, spinoffs, turnarounds, restructurings and much more.
Chris published his first book, Invest Like a Dealmaker: Secrets From a Former Banking Insider, which has become a best-seller.
Chris now serves triple duty as Agora Financial’s managing editor while continuing to write Capital & Crisis and Mayer’s Special Situations. Over the years, he has been featured in well-regarded print publications, been quoted several times in MarketWatch and appeared on CNN, Fox Business News and other places. He regularly offers refreshing and promising investment ideas, with a unique flair for historic perspective.
Chris enjoys the peace and quiet of working out of a home office tucked away in the leafy, Washington, D.C., suburbs, with his wife Carol and his two children, Calvin and Charlotte.
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Marc Mayor
“Marc Mayor’s writings have been called “a delicacy” by some long term readers, who appreciate his politically incorrect sense of humor.
In 1999, Marc created what is now known as Inside ALPHA, the first company to guarantee a given level of profits in the stock market for several of its strategies.
Inside ALPHA’s secret is threefold: a market neutral approach to investing which eliminates market risk, exclusively applying proven investments methods tested by academic scientists and the disciplined use of the Kelly criterion, a formula which some agree is the stock market equivalent of Albert Einstein’s E=mc2.
Six months after joining Inside ALPHA’s Investment Club, a client who describes herself as “a prudent investor” wrote to Marc: “My return appears to be 1’169% (gross, charges have to be deducted) and was achieved in exactly 84 days [...] There is no merit on my side for this once in a lifetime performance [...] Congratulations again [...] for this pick”. Hedge fund manager Juan Sartori agrees: “I have been following Marc’s recommendations for several years and believe he is one of the most talented stock pickers in the industry. This, coupled with a contrarian mindset and original thinking, make his thoughts an invaluable asset for any money manager. Marc’s track record at identifying emerging companies is impressive. Plus, his research is always written in an entertaining way”.
But it wasn’t always like this. In his early twenties, Marc suddenly lost his beloved father who died right after a convicted crook stole all of the family’s money (and then some); needless to say, the government’s so-called “justice” allowed the felon to get away with it.
Revenge is a dish best eaten cold: Inside ALPHA now teaches its customers to (legally and ethically) rip off Wall Street crooks and banksters, and to take advantage of the government’s financial illiteracy to pocket huge gains in the stock market, usually with neither market nor specific risk.
Every week, Marc’s columns in various publications are read by more than 50’000 investors; visit him at guaranteed-returns.com
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Marcio Rocha Mello, PhD
Marcio Rocha Mello, PhD, Petroleum Geologist and Geochemist, expert in petroleum geochemistry, petroleum exploration, and petroleum systems. Worked 24 years in PETROBRAS, most of them as the Head of the Petroleum Geochemistry Group. In 1996, foundered and headed the First Center of Excellence of Petrobras (CEGEQ) up to 2000.
From 1990-2000 he was responsible for the development of petroleum systems studies for most of the sedimentary basins of Brazil, West Africa and Latin America.
In 2000, Marcio Mello left Petrobras and founded Analytical Solutions (AS) and Petroleum and Environment Geosciences (PEG), in Rio de Janeiro, considered the leading private petroleum G&G services and laboratory companies in Brazil with more than 500 professionals. In July 2004 all the companies were sold.
In August 2004, he founded HRT-Petroleum considered to be the leading G&G and environmental services and laboratory company in the Southern Hemisphere. Marcio was the founder, first and actual president of the Brazilian Association of Petroleum Geologist (ABGP) and Former President of American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Section Latin America.
In 1998 he received the Distinguished AAPG Achievement Award and in 2000 the Robert H. Dott Sr. Memorial Award for the Petroleum System from the South Atlantic Basin, AAPG Memoir 73, considered as the best Memoir publication of AAPG, in North America, in the year 2000. He has published more than 300 papers, including extended abstracts and books about geology and geochemistry linked to petroleum exploration all around the world.
In 2009, Marcio incorporated, through a private placement, HRT Petroleum, the largest G&G service company in Brazil, in HRT Participações with two subsidiaries: HRT Oil/ Gas that is an E&P company and IPEX that is a G&G and environment service company.
Today, Marcio is the CEO of HRT Participações and HRT Oil & Gas.
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Rob Parenteau
Rob Parenteau edits the prestigious Richebächer Letter, started by the late Dr. Kurt Richebächer. Each issue is an in-depth examination of the world’s currency and credit markets — particularly, the growing debts and deficits in the United States.
Before taking over The Richebächer Letter, Rob spent 24 years as the chief U.S. economist and investment strategist for RCM Capital Management, an asset management company.
Rob holds a CFA and was appointed a research associate at the Levy Economics Institute in 2006. He has published chapters in three books on finance and economics, including the most recent on Hy Minsky. His research appears in various U.S. blogs like RGE Monitor and Naked Capitalism. He is currently contributing a chapter on financial stability indicators to a Ford Foundation research project on financial reform, and he is also preparing a chapter for the Oxford University Press Handbook on the Political Economy of Financial Crises.
Today, Rob is committed to continuing Dr. Richebächer’s groundbreaking analysis. Like Dr. Richebächer, he fearlessly wades into the thorniest debates of our time in the field of finance and economics — revealing dangers and probing solutions that most analysts have overlooked. If you want to know what’s really happening, Rob’s application and extension of Dr. Richebacher’s unique analytical framework is invaluable.
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Barry Ritholtz
Barry Ritholtz is the best-selling author of Bailout Nation, publisher and editor of The Big Picture blog and CEO and director of equity research at FusionIQ, a quantitative research firm that provides Web-based software services to individual investors and traders. Ritholtz makes frequent TV and radio appearances, including on Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN, Fox and PBS. He is regularly quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Forbes, TheStreet.com and other media.
When not bemoaning the New York Knicks’ all-too-frequent offensive lapses, Barry is a vintage sports car enthusiast. He and his wife, Wendy, an artist and teacher, live on the North Shore of Long Island, New York. …You are going to love this guy!
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Eric N. Roseman
Eric N. Roseman is the investment director of The Sovereign Society, a leading international publication focusing on global investments, asset protection and international tax planning since 1997 with over 27,000 paid monthly circulation. In 2002, Eric became editor of The Commodity Trend Alert (CTA), a weekly e-mail investment advisory service based in Delray Beach, Fla. CTA focuses on global commodity-linked securities and circulates to over 1,200 members each week worldwide.
Eric is also the president of ENR Asset Management Inc., a Montreal-based investment management and consulting firm specializing in global alternative and traditional asset management. ENR Asset Management was founded in 1992 and is a privately held company.
Eric serves as an investment adviser to several non-Canadian mutual fund companies, including the ENR Bullet Funds, domiciled in Liechtenstein, three European private banks, two European insurance companies and a Bermuda-based multimanager fund. He also provides discretionary asset management services to high net worth individual investors in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Japan.
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Rick Rule
Rick Rule began his career in the securities business in 1974 and has been principally involved in natural resource security investments ever since.
Distinguished financial newsletter writers — including several of the people speaking at the symposium — frequently recommend his research and brokerage capabilities.
Rick has been a prominent presence at this symposium, and his expertise in these markets is legendary. If you can catch up with him, introduce yourself. He could be the hardest-working man in Vancouver this week.
As the founder of Global Resource Investments Ltd., Rick specializes in mining, energy, water utilities, forest products and agriculture.
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Dr. Michael West
Dr. Michael West is the chief executive officer of BioTime Inc.(AMEX: BTIM) and Embryome Sciences Inc. of Alameda, Calif. The companies are focused on developing an array of research and therapeutic products using human embryonic stem cell technology.
He received his Ph.D. from Baylor College of Medicine in 1989, concentrating on the biology of cellular aging. He has focused his academic and business career on the application of developmental biology to the age-related degenerative disease.
He was the founder of Geron Corp. of Menlo Park, Calif. (NASDAQ: GERN), and from 1990–98 he was a director and vice president, in which positions he initiated and managed programs in telomerase diagnostics; oligonucleotide-based telomerase inhibition as anti-tumor therapy; and the cloning and use of telomerase in telomerase-mediated therapy, wherein telomerase is utilized to immortalize human cells.
From 1995–98, he organized and managed the research collaboration between Geron and its academic collaborators James Thomson and John Gearhart that led to the first isolation of human embryonic stem and human embryonic germ cells.
From 1998–2007 he was president and chief scientific officer at Advanced Cell Technology Inc. (OTCBB: ACTC), where he managed programs in animal cloning; human somatic cell nuclear transfer; retinal differentiation; and ACTCellerate, a technology for the multiplex derivation and characterization of clonal human embryonic progenitor cell lines.
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Mark D. Gordon
President and Chief Operating Officer, Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc., Mark Gordon believes in following one’s dreams. Starting in childhood he dreamed of a career in ocean and shipwreck exploration. Today he is among the fortunate few who make their living pursuing their passion.
Mark is the President and Chief Operating Officer of Odyssey Marine Exploration, a NASDAQ-traded company engaged in the exploration and archaeologically-sensitive recovery of deep-water shipwrecks. Odyssey utilizes innovative methods and state-of-the-art technology to conduct extensive deep-ocean search and recovery operations. The company has numerous shipwreck projects in various stages of development throughout the world.
Odyssey’s discovery and excavation of the Civil War-era shipwreck the SS Republic made international headlines, was featured in National Geographic, and resulted in the recovery of over 51,000 U.S. gold and silver coins as well as nearly 14,000 artifacts.
Odyssey again made international headlines with its recovery of a Colonial period treasure from a site code named “Black Swan”. Odyssey’s initial archaeological excavation of this site has resulted in the recovery of over 500,000 coins weighing more than 17 tons. This is believed to be the largest recovery of treasure coins ever made.
One of the world’s greatest maritime mysteries was solved by Odyssey when they announced the discovery of Balchin’s flagship HMS Victory, which perished in a storm 1744. Two bronze cannon were recovered from the site including a 42-pdr, the only of its kind in existence on dry lan.
Odyssey and its exciting discoveries was the subject of a prime-time Discovery Channel TV series which premiered 12 episodes worldwide in 2009.
Mark’s path to his dream has been deliberate. During his college days and through his MBA program at American University, Mark worked as a shipwreck diver with the National Diving Center in Washington, D.C. where he conducted hundreds of dives and explorations on shipwrecks along the Atlantic Coast and off the island of Bermuda. His underwater adventures include being the first person to discover and dive on the SS Proteus, a ship that had been missing since the early 1900s.
Prior to joining Odyssey, Mark owned and managed four different start-up companies, selling his most recent venture, Synergy Networks, to the Rockefeller Group.
As a longtime friend of Odyssey CEO and Co-founder Greg Stemm, Mark was asked to help mobilize Odyssey’s 251’ search and recovery vessel, Odyssey Explorer, leading him back to his true passion, the ocean exploration business.
Inc. Magazine selected Mark for the exclusive three year, MIT “Birthing of Giants” program. He has held several positions on the Executive Board of the D.C. Chapter of the Young Entrepreneurs’ Organization (YEO). Currently he is an active member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) where he has also served as an Executive Board Officer.
Mark lives in Tampa, Florida with his wife Sue and two daughters.
