February 2013 Conference

Paul Thomas is Chief Economist and Manager of Market Sizing and Forecasting at Intel Corporation in Santa Clara, California. He joined Intel in December, 2004, after working at Continental Airlines in Houston, Texas, from 1997 to 2004 and as Chief Economist from 2001 to 2004. Paul was Senior Economist at Douglas Aircraft Company in Long Beach, California from 1988 to 1997. Prior to that, he served on the economics faculties of Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, Illinois, and of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.Paul holds a Ph.D. in Business Economics from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He holds an M.S. in Social Science and a B.S. in Biology from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. Paul was a National Science Foundation Fellow in Economics. He also served as a Research Fellow in Economics Studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.

Paul and his wife, Kim, who is also an economist, live in San Jose, California. Paul is a member of the National Business Economics Issue Council, the Conference of Business Economists, and the Harvard Industrial Economics Group. Paul has served on an AEA advisory committee for the US Census Bureau and on an NSF advisory committee for research on Census data. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Global Interdependence Center.

Paul has published papers on regulation of scientific research, on social choice and organizational theory, and on the airline industry. He has given recent presentations on the PC and semiconductor industries, the financial crisis of 2007-2012, international trade, economic geography, and the role of ICT in productivity growth. His current research interests include the PC industry, economic geography, and economic growth.

Richard Yamarone is an economist who has more than two decades of experience and focuses on monetary & fiscal policy, economic indicators, fixed income, commodities, and general macroeconomic conditions for Bloomberg Brief: Economics, a daily newsletter that features analysis, data and news on the forces shaping the global economy. Mr. Yamarone and the Bloomberg Briefs economics team provide in-depth analysis of macroeconomic data, policy and trends and how they will impact financial markets.Mr. Yamarone forecasts U.S. economic statistics and trends, builds macroeconometric models, and analyzes possible outcomes. He is the creator of the Bloomberg Orange Book -- a compilation of macroeconomic anecdotes gleaned from comments CEOs and CFOs made on quarterly earnings conference calls. He travels extensively to speak to clients and corporate executives on the economic outlook, public speaking, and career and management coaching.

The Bloomberg Brief: Economics is one of several specialized newsletters that combine Bloomberg data and news with industry-specific original content and commentary. Bloomberg Briefs are a product of the Bloomberg Professional® service. Bloomberg Briefs are available to customers of the Bloomberg Professional® service at no additional cost at BRIEF . Non-Bloomberg users can subscribe to the newsletters at www.Bloombergbriefs.com.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Yamarone was director of economic research at Argus Research and a member of the firm's investment policy committee. He has consulted to monetary and fiscal policymakers and served as an economic adviser to major U.S. corporations. In addition, Mr. Yamarone has held senior positions for several international and domestic money center and investment banks.

He has taught numerous courses on macroeconomics and economic indicators at several colleges and institutions. He has served as president of the prestigious Downtown Economists Club of New York City.

The author of Trader’s Guide to Key Economic Indicators (Bloomberg Press, 2007), Mr. Yamarone is a member of the Glbal Interdependence Center, National Association for Business Economics, the American Economic Association, the National Eocnomics Club, the New York State Economics Association and the Money Marketeers of New York University. He has won numerous accolades for his work, including being featured as one of the top 10 economists in the U.S. by USA Today in 2007 and “Nostradamus of the Financial Industry” by Bank Advisor in 2008 for his prediction of the financial crises.

John Hunt is the founder and president of ViaSearch, Inc. and a Senior Analyst with Smart Numbers, Inc. Since 1995, ViaSearch has surveyed over a quarter of a million home buyers from Seattle to Washington DC and points in between. ViaSearch is the only company in the nation providing continuous, on-going consumer research for the housing industry. This allows for both short and long range trending on new home buyer demographics/motivation, product preferences and shopping habits.Smart Numbers provides residential real estate information, analysis and forecasting for brokers, builder/developers, and mortgage and banking professionals in six Southeastern markets. The data that Smart Numbers produces accurately predicted the housing downturn as early as September 2005, when letters went out to clients stating that a "Housing Downturn is Eminent!"

Smart Numbers was the only company to provide data to the Senate Banking Committee in October of 2009, helping Senator Johnny Isakson successfully extend the Home Buyer Tax Credit. Smart Numbers is regularly quoted in publications such as the Wall Street Journal and the AJC. The company has also been featured many times as an expert in housing on CNN, FOX and all 3 local Atlanta networks.

John has also co-produced the largest semi-annual event for the Atlanta Housing industry (The Atlanta Housing Summit) since 2006, with more than 500 leaders in Atlanta and national real estate in attendance.

After graduating from Samford University with a BA in Finance/Economics, John worked as a marketing executive in the Atlanta housing industry until starting ViaSearch in 1995. He has been with Smart Numbers since 2001.