Featured Speakers

Opening General Session Keynote Speaker

Michael Lewis
Best-Selling Author of Moneyball, Liar's Poker and The Blind Side

An observer of politics, finance and the American scene, Michael Lewis has combined keen insight with a signature sense of humor in becoming one of today’s leading social commentators. He is currently a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine, a columnist for Bloomberg and a visiting fellow at the University of California at Berkeley. His freelance writing appears in publications that include The New Yorker, Slate and Foreign Affairs. Hear Lewis brilliantly illustrate how the “Wall Street era” officially ended and his take on what went wrong.

In his newest book, Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity, Michael Lewis is our jungle guide through five of the most violent and costly upheavals in recent financial history: the crash of '87, the Russian default (and the subsequent collapse of Long-Term Capital Management), the Asian currency crisis of 1999, the Internet bubble and the current sub-prime mortgage disaster. With his trademark style and brilliant anecdotes, Lewis paints the mood and market factors leading up to each event, weaves contemporary accounts to show what people thought was happening at the time, and then, with the luxury of hindsight, analyzes what actually happened and what we should have learned from the experience.

As he proved in Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, and Moneyball, Lewis is without peer in his understanding of market forces and human foibles. He is also, arguably, the funniest serious writer in America.

Book Signing: 5:15-5:45pm (Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity)

Tuesday General Session Keynote Speaker

Robert B. Reich
Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkley
22nd Secretary of Labor for President William Clinton

Robert B. Reich is one of the nation’s leading thinkers surrounding work and the economy. Currently a Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkley, he previously served as the Secretary of Labor with President William Clinton and is currently serving on President Barak Obama’s economic advisory group. Professor Reich is an author of 11 books, including Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life; The World of Nations, Locked in the Cabinet and The Future of Success. He has also written more than 200 articles on the global economy, the changing nature of work and the centrality of human capital. Co-founder and contributing editor for The American Prospect, Professor Reich can be seen regularly on CNBC as an economic commentator.

Book Signing: 9:45-10:15am (Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life)

Alice Schroeder

Best-Selling Author
The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life

Alice Schroeder has been a CPA , FA SB regulator and analyst. While at PaineWebber, she was the first to follow Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett. She became the only analyst with whom Warren Buffet would speak. Early in 2003, she began what would become five years of research and writing for The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life, the first and only authorized biography of Warren Buffet, “the Oracle of Omaha.” The book gives a never-before seen look at his relationships, investing and philanthropy and is a #1 New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller.

Session #43: Monday, October 5 from 1:30-3:00pm in Hall E

Book Signing: 3:15-3:45pm (The Snowball: Warren Buffet and the Business of Life)

Gillian Tett
Assistant Editor, Financial Times

Gillian Tett is one of the world's preeminent authorities on capital markets and the role they play in the global financial crisis. She is widely credited with being the first to cover the credit crunch in the mainstream press and has won three prestigious journalism awards for her coverage of capital markets. She has been awarded three prestigious awards: the Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards 2009, British Business Journalist of the Year in 2008, and the Wincott prize in 2007.

Session #25: Monday, October 5 from 10:30am-12:00pm in Hall E

Book Signing: 12:15-1:15pm (Fool's Gold)