February 29th Conference held at the Federal Bank of Philadelphia. Part One includes the Welcome by GIC Chair, Bill Dunkelberg, and the first panel on The Ratings Agencies Today, consisting of Jim Allen, Head of Capital Markets Policy for the CFA Institute, John Carbone, Principal at Vanguard, Natalie Cohen, Senior Analyst at Wells Fargo, and Pater Demirali, Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at Cumberland Advisors.

Speaker / Author

Bill Dunkelberg, Ph.D.

Chief Economist, National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB)

William Dunkelberg is professor emeritus of economics in the College of Liberal Arts, Temple University, where he served as dean of the School of Business and Management from 1987 through 1994 and as director of the Center for the Advancement and Study of Entrepreneurship. He served as the Global Interdependence Center’s Chairman for 20 years. He currently serves as chief economist for the National Federation of Independent Business (300,000 member firms; since 1971). His prior appointments were at the Krannert Graduate School of Management, Purdue University, the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University and the Survey Research Center at the ... Read More

James Allen

Head of Capital Markets Policy at the CFA Institute

James Allen is head of capital markets policy for CFA Institute, where he manages the Capital Markets Policy Group. This group develops and promotes capital markets positions, policies and standards for CFA Institute. Mr. Allen also coordinates and supports related educational and public awareness activities. Mr. Allen has worked as staff liaison to the CFA Institute Capital Markets Policy Council since its founding in 2005. The Council helps CFA Institute develop global perspectives on market-related issues. From 2002 to 2004 he worked with the former European Advocacy Committee, responding to policy initiatives of the European Commission and regulatory proposals of financial ... Read More

John M. Carbone

Principal, Portfolio Manager, The Vanguard Group

Mr. Carbone is a principal and portfolio manager with the Vanguard Group which is headquartered in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. John is a 25 year municipal industry veteran. His current management responsibilities include Vanguard's California, New Jersey and Pennsylvania Tax-Exempt Money Market Portfolios. The collective assets of these three portfolios exceed $8.5 billion. During his 15 year tenure at Vanguard, Mr. Carbone has managed many of the state-specific, tax-exempt, long-term, intermediate-term and money market portfolios. Prior to joining Vanguard in 1996, John was employed by Fidelity Investments for nine years. Mr. Carbone received his MBA from Southern Methodist University, and his Bachelor ... Read More

Natalie Cohen

Managing Director and Head of Municipal Research, Wells Fargo

Natalie Cohen is managing director and head of municipal research, a coverage area that launched in late 2010 as part of the Global Economics and Research group, at Wells Fargo Securities. She was previously president of National Municipal Research, Inc., an independent consulting company focused on state and local fiscal condition. Prior to National Municipal Research, she was managing director at Financial Security Assurance, a bond insurance company. She has also held positions in high yield municipal bond insurance at Enhance Financial Service Group, now Radian, and American Capital Access. In addition to bond insurance, Natalie was a vice president ... Read More

Peter Demirali

Managing Director, Cumberland Advisors

Peter Demirali joined Cumberland Advisors in 2002 as portfolio manager for the Taxable Bond style, and became a managing director in 2011. Mr. Demirali was a senior portfolio manager at6 Smith Barney Asset Management from 1990 to 1999. In that position, he initiated a corporate bond component for taxable fixed-income portfolios. From 1999 to 2002 he was a partner in Anval, Inc., a commercial real estate brokerage company, where he successfully developed new territories and clients for his firm. He traded zero-coupon bonds at Yamaichi International, a Japanese securities dealer, from 1987 to 1989. Mr. Demirali began his career at Chemical ... Read More