February 2009 Conference

Conference Program

Cancellation Policy: To cancel your registration and be eligible for a refund, call the Economic Forecasting Center at 404-413-7260 before 4pm the day before the conference. A stop payment of a check does not constitute a formal cancellation. Registrants who do not attend the conference and have not cancelled one day prior to the conference are liable for the entire registration fee but will be mailed conference materials.

Substitution Policy: If an annual subscriber cannot attend the conference, another person from the same company can substitute in the subscriber's place.

Industry Speakers

Loungani is an Advisor in the IMF's Research Department. His work experience includes stints at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington D.C, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and the University of Florida.

His research interests include: assessment of macroeconomic forecasting performance; understanding trade linkages among nations and regions; modeling the impact of oil prices on the macroeconomy. This research has been published in both academic journals (including Journal of Monetary Economics, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Applied Econometrics and International Journal of Forecasting) and in various policy outlets and newspapers (such as Financial Times).

Loungani received a B.A. in Economics from the University of Bombay (India) and a Ph.D in Economics from the University of Rochester.

Dr. Karsten Jeske is a Senior Quantitative Analyst at Mellon Capital Management in San Francisco. Previously, he worked as an economist in the Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and as a visiting economics professor at Emory University.

Dr. Jeske's academic research has analyzed the impact of government sponsored enterprises on the mortgage market, the economic effects of energy prices, and the market for health insurance. His work has been published in the Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Monetary Economics, Journal of Money Credit and Banking and Economics Letters and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal. Dr. Jeske did his undergraduate degree at the University of Bielefeld in Germany and received an M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Minnesota.

Commissioner Stewart was appointed to his post as Commissioner, Georgia Department of Economic Development, by Governor Sonny Perdue in January 2007. As chief marketing officer for the state of Georgia, he leads Georgia's efforts to recruit new businesses and expand existing ones; grow the state's tourism, international trade and entertainment industries; and support the growth of small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Mr. Stewart joined state government in September 2004, when he was appointed director of the Georgia Forestry Commission (GFC), where he focused the agency and the state's 24 million acres of forestland on new markets and products such as biofuels, as well as niche and specialty products.

The majority of Mr. Stewart's career was in private industry. He served as vice president of Unisource Worldwide, Inc., where he led the company's south-central sales and distribution division in addition to its retail and specialty manufacturing businesses. He also held several management positions at Georgia-Pacific, including director of enterprise development, senior director of strategic planning and analysis of G-P's distribution division, and director of state and local taxes. Mr. Stewart also worked for Weyerhaeuser Company and Mississippi Power & Light.

Commissioner Stewart is a member of the State Bar of Georgia, holding a Juris Doctorate from the Woodrow Wilson College of Law in Atlanta. He earned a B.S. in Business and a B.S. in Forestry from Mississippi State University, and he is a Registered Forester. Mr. Stewart also served as a company commander in the Army National Guard.

Present and previous affiliations include Board of Directors Chair for the Georgia Centers of Innovation, the Georgia Tourism Foundation and Governor Perdue's Growing Georgia Cluster group of state agency heads. Commissioner Stewart serves on the boards of the OneGeorgia Authority, the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and the Georgia Development Authority. He is a member of Georgia Tech's Board of Advisors and the CDC Foundation's Atlanta Advisory Council. Mr. Stewart is past Board Chair of the Georgia Justice Project and was a member of the Governor's Energy Policy Council.