Thursday, August 28, 13:30 - 14:30, Palazzo dei Congressi

Since the financial crisis, the role of finance in society has been questioned by many and trust in the financial industry was eroded. Still, finance is key to support economic activity and to fuel growth and job creation. How can the industry help to restore trust and have society recognize the contribution it makes? What is the appropriate role for regulatory authorities and academia in this process?

Speakers

Sergio P. Ermotti
Group CEO, UBS, Switzerland

Sergio P. Ermotti was appointed Group Chief Executive Officer of UBS in November 2011, having held the position of Group Chief Executive Officer on an interim basis since September 2011.

Mr. Ermotti became a member of the GEB in April 2011 and was Chairman and CEO of UBS Group Europe, Middle East and Africa from April to November 2011. From 2007 to 2010, he was Group Deputy Chief Executive Officer at UniCredit, Milan, and was responsible for the strategic business areas of Corporate and Investment Banking, and Private Banking. He joined UniCredit in 2005 as Head of Markets & Investment Banking Division. Between 2001 and 2003, he worked at Merrill Lynch, serving as co-Head of Global Equity Markets and as a member of the Executive Management Committee for Global Markets & Investment Banking. He began his career with Merrill Lynch in 1987, and held various positions within equity derivatives and capital markets. Mr. Ermotti is a Swiss-certified banking expert and is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Oxford University.

Jean-Pierre Danthine
Vice Chairman of the Governing Board, Swiss National Bank, Switzerland

Jean-Pierre Danthine earned a Master’s Degree in Economics at the Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium) and a PhD in Economics at the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. From 1980 to 2009, he was Professor of Macroeconomics and Finance at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. He taught at Columbia University, New York, and was visiting professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Université Laval, Québec, as well as the universities of Aix-Marseille, Toulon and Dijon. Jean-Pierre Danthine is a Fellow of the European Economic Association and member of the Academia Europaea. He was Managing Director of the Swiss Finance Institute from 2006 to 2009. He has published numerous academic papers in leading international journals. With effect from the beginning of 2010, the Swiss Federal Council has appointed Jean-Pierre Danthine a member of the Swiss National Bank’s Governing Board and Head of Department III (Financial Markets, Banking Operations and Information Technology). On 18 April 2012, he was appointed Vice Chairman of the Governing Board by the Federal Council and thereby also Head of Department II (Financial Stability, Cash, Finance and Risk).

René M. Stulz
Professor of Finance, Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University, United States

René M. Stulz is the Everett D. Reese Chair of Banking and Monetary Economics and the Director of the Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics at The Ohio State University. He has also taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Chicago, and the University of Rochester. He received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was awarded a Marvin Bower Fellowship from the Harvard Business School, a Doctorat Honoris Causa from the University of Neuchâtel, and the Risk Manager Award of the Global Association of Risk Professionals. In 2004, the magazine Treasury and Risk Management named him one of the 100 most influential people in finance. He is a past president of the American Finance Association and of the Western Finance Association, and a fellow of the American Finance Association, of the Financial Management Association, and of the European Corporate Governance Institute. 

Moderator

Haig Simonian

Haig Simonian, born 1955, studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford. After writing a doctoral thesis on French and German politics (later published by Oxford University Press), he went briefly into investment banking before turning to journalism. He started as a financial journalist at The Economist in 1984, then moved to be Frankfurt correspondent of the Financial Times in 1987. Subsequent postings have been Milan and Paris. In 1999, he moved to Berlin as the FT’s chief German correspondent, before coming to Zurich to cover Switzerland and Austria in late 2003. In summer 2012, he stepped down to become a freelance writer. Haig Simonian has also undertaken extensive broadcasting and conference work, including a monthly column for Switzerland’s NZZ am Sonntag newspaper, regular slots on Swiss radio and television (German, French and Italian) as well as periodic appearances in Germany and the UK.