Joel Prakken, Chairman

In 1982, Dr. Prakken teamed with Chris Varvares and Laurence Meyer to found the economic consulting firm of Laurence H. Meyer & Associates, Ltd. In June of 1996, when Dr. Meyer assumed a position on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the firm was renamed Macroeconomic Advisers and Dr. Prakken became its new Chairman.

Dr. Prakken completed his undergraduate degree in economics at Princeton University, and he holds a Ph.D. in economics from Washington University in Saint Louis. Prior to founding Macroeconomic Advisers, he held the position of Senior Economist at the World Headquarters of the IBM Corporation and, before that, he served with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He has held positions on the faculties of New York University's Graduate School of Business, the Economics Department of Washington University, and the Olin School of Business at Washington University. He is the past president and a current director of the National Association for Business Economics, the largest non-academic association of professional economists in the United States. He is also past president of the Gateway Association of Business Economists in Saint Louis.

Dr. Prakken has numerous publications to his credit, including papers written for the Council of Economic Advisers, the American Council for Capital Formation, and the Center for the American Study of Business on topics ranging from tax reform, to budget policy, to monetary policy, to the impact of technology on productivity. He has testified frequently on these topics before committees in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. He also participates regularly in the meetings of the Outside Consultants to both the Congressional Budget Office and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

Laurence H. Meyer, Vice Chairman and Director,

Meyer's Monetary Policy Insights

Laurence H. Meyer served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve from June 20, 1996 until January 31, 2002. He was widely recognized as an influential member of the Federal Open Market Committee and built a reputation for independent thinking and sraight talk about monetary policy.

Dr. Meyer was Chairman of the Boards Committee on Supervisory and Regulatory Affairs, overseeing the Boards regulatory implementation of Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and its participation in negotiations toward a new international capital accord. He also represented the Federal Reserve Board in several international forums, including the Financial Stability Forum, the Economic Policy Committee of the OECD, and APEC. He was responsible for monitoring developments in the Asia Pacific region and participated in U.S. bilateral dialogues with the central banks and finance ministries of Japan, China, and India.

Dr. Meyer is Vice Chairman at Macroeconomic Advisers (MA) and offers Monetary Policy Insights in cooperation with MA. Macroeconomic Advisers was co-founded by Dr. Meyer, Chris Varvares, and Joel Prakken in 1982 as Laurence H. Meyer and Associates and Dr. Meyer served as President and Chairman of LHM&A from 1982 to 1996. The firm was renamed in 1996 when Meyer joined the Federal Reserve Board. Dr. Meyer is also a distinguished scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. He operates out of his office in Washington D.C. In addition to his MPI service, Dr. Meyer is available for speaking engagements.

Dr. Meyer is recognized as one of the nations leading economic forecasters. He was honored by Business Week in 1986 as the top forecaster for the year on its forecast panel. He was similarly honored in 1993 and 1996 with the prestigious Annual Forecast Award, presented to the most accurate forecaster on the panel for the Blue Chip Economic indicators.

Dr. Meyer received a B.A. (magna cum laude) from Yale University in 1965 and a Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1970. He was also a professor of economics at Washington University in St. Louis from 1969 to 1996 and a former Chairman of the economics department and a Research Associate of the Universitys Center for the Study of American Business.

Dr. Meyer serves on the Board of the National Bureau of Economic Research, is a Senior Advisor to the G-7 Group, and a Fellow of the National Association of Business Economists. He also received the 2002 Butler Award from the New York Association of Business Economists for excellence in business economics and is a member of the Board of Scholars of the American Council for Capital Formation.

Chris Varvares, President

Chris Varvares is President of Macroeconomic Advisers, a company he co-founded with Joel Prakken and Laurence Meyer as Laurence H. Meyer & Associates in 1982. The firm became Macroeconomic Advisers in June of 1996 when Dr. Meyer joined the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

Mr. Varvares has over 25 years of experience in macroeconomic forecasting and policy analysis, both as a principal of Macroeconomic Advisers (1982 to present) and as a member of the staff of the President's Council of Economic Advisers (1981-1982). While at the Council, he served as a member of the U.S. delegation to the OECD in April 1982. Mr. Varvares is the president (10/2008-9/2009) and a former director of the National Association for Business Economics, served as President of the St. Louis chapter, and is a member of the American Economic Association. He serves as a member of Time Magazine's Board of Economists, is a member of the New York State Economic and Revenue Advisory Board, serves on the Bureau of the Census Advisory Committee for Economic Programs and has been a panelist for the World Economic Forum.

Mr. Varvares holds a B.A. in Economics from the George Washington University and received his graduate training in economics from Washington University in St. Louis.

Tim Pierce, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Tim Pierce joined Macroeconomic Advisers as Chief Financial Officer in August 2003. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1989 with a bachelors degree in business administration (accounting). While at Washington University, Tim worked as an accounting intern at Laurence Meyer & Associates. Tim received his CPA and was an auditor with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP for nine years. In September of 1998, he joined Bridge Information Systems as Assistant Controller. After Reuters America purchased Bridge in 2001, Tim became Director of Financial Reporting and subsequently Director of the Record To Report Group within the Business Service Center for Reuters America.

Ken Meyer, Vice President

Ken Meyer is the Director of Sales and Marketing for Macroeconomic Advisers. At MA, he has overseen the firm's dramatic growth over the past two years, including the introduction of the Monetary Policy Insights and Virtual Chief Economist services. Before joining Macroeconomic Advisers, Ken held sales and marketing positions at several Silicon Valley software companies. Previously, he was a management consultant at Booz Allen & Hamilton and KPMG Consulting in San Francisco. He started his career as an Economic Analyst at National Economic Research Associates in Cambridge. Mr. Meyer has a BA in Economics from Yale University and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Ben Herzon, Senior Economist

Ben joined Macroeconomic Advisers in June 1998 as a 'Mr.' and was upgraded to a 'Dr.' in May 1999 when he was awarded a Ph.D. in economics from Washington University in St. Louis. Ben's primary responsibilities at Macroeconomic Advisers involve utilizing monthly data to update MA's current-quarter forecast. This involves research into the construction of the National Accounts and modeling of interactions among monthly data series. Ben is a member of the National Association of Business Economics and a former member of the renowned rock group Lunker Buzz. Prior to his current stint with applied macroeconomics, Ben traveled the country in a Ford Econoline 150 with the band playing both known and unknown clubs for unconscionably low sums of money.

Ken Matheny, Senior Economist

Dr. Matheny joined Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC (MA) in 1997 as Senior Economist. He contributes to regular updates to MA's macroeconomic forecasts, monitors international developments that could affect the economic outlook for the United States, and conducts research on forecast-related issues. He contributes to the development of MA's proprietary macroeconomic forecasting modeling software and assists clients in the use of MA's economic models and software. He frequently authors, co-authors, or edits various regular and special publications, including the Weekly Economic Commentary and MAs Economic Outlook. He makes frequent presentations on the US economic outlook and other topics to MAs clients and to outside groups. Areas of interest include business cycles, inflation, dynamic macroeconomics, financial markets, financial intermediation, monetary policy, monetary theory, and experimental economics. His research has been published in several academic journals.

Prior to joining Macroeconomic Advisers, Dr. Matheny was on the faculty of the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, where he taught courses on macroeconomics, microeconomics, and money and banking. He was awarded a Ph.D. from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA in 1992 and a B.A., in Economics and German, summa cum laude, from Washington University in St. Louis in 1984. He is a member of the American Economic Association and the National Association for Business Economics. He currently serves as president of the Gateway Chapter (St. Louis) of the National Association for Business Economics. Prior to receiving his graduate training, Dr. Matheny was a commercial banker.

Antulio Bomfim, Senior Economist

Antulio N. Bomfim is a Senior Economist with Macroeconomic Advisers for the Monetary Policy Insights Service, in Washington, DC. He joined Macroeconomic Advisers in June 2009. From 2003 to 2009, Dr. Bomfim was a Fixed-Income Portfolio Manager, in Boston, MA, at OFI Institutional Asset Management, the institutional investments division of OppenheimerFunds, Inc., where he was also a Vice President and Portfolio Manager. He was Co-Head of Interest Rate Strategy and Head of Macroeconomic Analysis in the Core Plus team for both OFI Institutional and OppenheimerFunds. Prior to his experience in the asset management industry, Dr. Bomfim served for 11 years in the research staff at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, where he was a Senior Economist at the Division of Monetary Affairs and, earlier, an Economist at the Division of Research and Statistics. He was a frequent author of documents written in preparation for meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee and regularly briefed Members of the Board on financial market developments and analysis. Early on in his Federal Reserve career, he was a member of the group that developed and maintained the FRB/US model, the large-scale econometric model of the U.S. economy at the Federal Reserve. Before joining the Federal Reserve, he taught economics and served as a Statistical Consultant at the University of Maryland. He also served as a Consultant on Intergovernmental Relations at The World Bank, in Washington, DC. Dr. Bomfim has maintained an active research agenda throughout his professional life. His main area of research focuses on the interplay between asset pricing, monetary policy, and macroeconomics. He has published several articles on these topics and, in 2002, was a recipient of a Special Achievement Award by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System for "work applying asset pricing models in practical ways to extract information from financial market quotes." Dr. Bomfim is the author of Understanding Credit Derivatives and Related Instruments, an award-winning book published in 2004. He received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Maryland at College Park, and a M.Sc. in mathematical finance from the University of Oxford, in England.

Katy Femia, Economist

Katy joined MA in August 2008, after two years in the Monetary and Financial Market Analysis section at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. At the Board she worked with the section's economists, analyzing financial market developments and preparing research and policy materials for the FOMC. Originally from California, Katy graduated in 2006 from Claremont McKenna College, where she received a degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics and played on the women's soccer team.

Rene Aninao, Sales Manager

Rene Aninao works in Sales and Marketing for Macroeconomic Advisers. Before joining MA, Rene was a Director of Sales and Marketing at hedge fund, UBP Asset Management, where he was responsible for sales and investor relations in the USA, Western Europe, and Middle East regions. At UBP, Rene raised a distressed credit fund, as well as numerous other multi-strategy hedge funds in the event driven, arbitrage relative value, and global macro space. Prior to UBP, Aninao was a Portfolio Manager at Citigroup Global Markets, in addition to also working in the private wealth management unit at Citi. At Citi, Rene was responsible for the sales and marketing of middle market mezzanine corporate loans, as well as creating structured investment products in hedge funds, private equity, credit, derivatives, and other alternative investments. Rene started his career in the corporate finance group of the Commercial Distillate Fuel Oils Trading and Distribution desk at Shell Oil Products, USA. Rene holds a B.A. in Mathematical Economic Analysis and Statistics from Rice University in Houston, TX, where he also played football and earned WAC Academic All-Conference Team honors.

Debra Cason, Manager of Client Services

Debbie joined Macroeconomic Advisers in August 2001, and is the Manager of Client Services. She works with our sales and marketing campaigns, as well as provides customer service to clients.

Debbie is a national NABE member, a member of the national NABE Get Connected management team, and a member of the Gateway Chapter of NABE. She is working with the Get Connected initiative for NABE, and works as the team leader for the Get Connected Membership/Marketing and Communications teams. Debbie holds a B.A. in Business Administration from Northeast Missouri State University, now known as Truman State.

Tonya Cooksey, Office Manager

Tonya Cooksey joined Macroeconomic Advisers in November of 2002 as the Office Manager. In this role, her responsibilities include (but are not limited to) locating offsite venues for the MA quarterly outlook meetings, coordinating and managing the meetings, planning receptions, and holiday parties, providing administrative support to the economists (which includes travel arrangements, calendar maintenance, lodging, and working with various programs), client support, formatting various macroeconomic reports and brochures, ordering office equipment, furniture, supplies, and ensuring all equipment functions properly. Tonya is also responsible for arranging media interviews and operating the in-office camera.

Tonya is currently an undergraduate at Webster University studying media communications while pursuing a minor in political science.

Kristin Winkler Krapja, Economic Analyst

Kristin joined Macroeconomic Advisers as an Economic Analyst in February 2007. Kristin graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Statistics from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in December 2005. She also received a Masters of Science degree in Economics and Finance from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in May 2007.

Neal Ghosh, Economic Analyst

Neal Ghosh joined the MA staff as an Economic Analyst in May 2007. He will graduate with a B.A in Economics from Washington University in December 2007, and is scheduled to complete his M.S. Finance program in May 2009. Neal works a variety of research tasks including: model estimation and simulation support, data collection and analysis in support of special projects, and current macroeconomic analysis. He also serves as the office's interior decorator and chief botanic life technician.

Outside of MA's walls, Neal enjoys performing as a jazz drummer in the Washington University Jazz Ensemble as well as independent gigs in the greater St. Louis area. Apart from his musical ability, he is also infamously known for his virtuoso-like hip hop dancing and choreography skills. Neal is a regular member of the Washington University Hip Hop Dance program and can be found in several YouTube videos displaying his performances over the last three years.

Derek Tang, Research Analyst

Derek Tang joined the MA staff as a Research Analyst in July 2009. He graduated magna cum laude with Distinction in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania in May 2009. At Penn, he was part of the College Fed Challenge team that competed at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in the fall of 2008.