Conference

Ardo Hansson is the Governor of Eesti Pank and a Member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank.

Before taking on his current position in June 2012, Ardo Hansson worked for the World Bank, where he served as the Lead Economist of the World Bank’s Economics Unit in China from 2008. He joined the World Bank in 1998 and before going to China he worked on several countries in Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans.

Between 1991 and 1997, he held several senior positions in the Republic of Estonia, including Economic Advisor to the Estonian Prime Minister in 1992-1995 and in 1997, and advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1991-1992. Hansson was also a member of the Monetary Reform Committee, and a member of the Supervisory Board of the Bank of Estonia in 1993-1998. During the 1990s, he was engaged on short-term consulting assignments for the governments of Mongolia, Poland, Slovenia and Ukraine.

Ardo Hansson was born in Chicago, in 1958. He graduated with first class honours from the University of British Columbia in 1980 and earned a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University in 1987. Since completing his studies, he has held faculty and research positions at several well-known universities in Canada, Finland and Sweden and published numerous articles on economic policy.

Ardo Hansson is married and is the father of two sons.

Pauls Raudseps is one of Latvia's leading journalists and commentators. He writes on a wide variety of topics, including economics, politics, international affairs, and history. Born in the United States, Mr. Raudseps received a degree in Russian and Soviet Studies from Harvard University. In 1990 he moved to Latvia to work for the Popular Front, the organization that led the fight for Latvian independence. He was one of the founders of Diena, which for many years was Latvia's leading daily newspaper. Having worked for almost 19 years at the newspaper as managing editor and editorial page editor, he left Diena in October, 2009, to found the weekly news magazine and website "Ir", where he is both a commentator and chairman of the supervisory council.

Mahmood Pradhan is a Deputy Director in the European Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and mission chief for the Euro Area. He was earlier a Senior Advisor in the IMF’s Asia Pacific Department and mission chief for Japan.

Prior to joining the Fund in 2007, Mr. Pradhan was Chief Emerging Markets Strategist at Tudor Investment Corporation and subsequently an Emerging Markets Portfolio Manager at Wadhwani Asset Management, a macro hedge fund in London.

In his early career, Mr. Pradhan was an economist at the Bank of England and at the IMF, as the senior desk economist on Indonesia during the Asian crisis in the late 1990s.

Erik F. Nielsen Erik F. Nielsen is Global Chief Economist and Head of Economics & Fixed Income/Currency, Commodity and Asset Allocation Research at Unicredit Bank. In this role Erik is responsible for forming and communicating the overall macroeconomic and policy views of UniCredit Group.

Prior to joining UniCredit in September 2011, Erik worked for more than 15 years as an economist at Goldman Sachs in New York and London, where his most recent role was Chief European Economist overseeing the European and CEE economics teams. Before joining Goldman he spent about ten years in Washington DC working as an economist for the IMF and World Bank in various capacities, including as country economist for Russia and Turkey, and as a debt expert working on sovereign debt workouts around the world.

Erik started his career as an economist at the Danish Central Bank in Copenhagen, where he worked mostly on European economic and exchange rate issues. He also taught for two years at the Copenhagen Business School. Erik holds a graduate degree in Economics from the University of Copenhagen. Erik is one of the most frequently quoted economists in the financial media with frequent appearances, including as guest host, on CNBC, Bloomberg TV and other channels. He lives in Chiswick, London.

Már Guðmundsson received a BA in economics from the University of Essex and studied economics and mathematics at the University of Gothenburg. He has a M.Ph. degree in economics from Cambridge University, where pursued doctoral study as well.

Since 2004, Már Guðmundsson has served as Deputy Head of the Monetary and Economic Department of the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland.

Prior to that, he was employed by the Seðlabanki Íslands for some two decades, including over ten years as Chief Economist. Már Guðmundsson served as economic advisor to the Minister of Finance from 1988-1991. He has written a number of papers and articles on monetary and exchange rate affairs and related topics.

Svein Gjedrem is a Norwegian economist. He is Secretary General of the Norwegian Ministry of Finance and former Governor of the Central Bank of Norway.

He graduated in economy from the University of Oslo in 1975, worked as a consultant in the Central Bank of Norway from 1975-1979 and in the Ministry of Finance from 1979 to 1998. He served two terms as Central Bank Governor from 1999-2010. In June 2011, Gjedrem got his position as Secretary General of the Ministry of Finance back.

Jukka Vesala is, since October 2004, Deputy Director General in the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (the Finnish Financial Supervision Authority until December 2008).

He is in charge of the Prudential Supervision Department, whose tasks include the on and off-site monitoring of banks', insurance companies’ and investment firms' financial condition, risks and capital adequacy and analysis of financial industry developments. He is also a member of the Executive Board of the Authority and the member of the Board of Supervisors of the European Banking Authority (EBA). He used to be also the member of the Members Board of the EBA.

As his other affiliations he is an Advisory Member of the Audit Committee of the European Investment Bank (EIB). Recently he has also been involved in SSM preparations extensively. He was previously employed as a Principal Expert in the Financial Stability Division of the European Central Bank. His tasks included, inter alia, the development of the financial stability analysis for the euro area and EU financial sector.

He was also the Secretary of the ESCB Banking Supervision Committee (June 2003 – September 2004). Previous to his employment at the ECB (1998-2004), he was employed as research economist at the Bank of Finland (1992-1998) and as lecturer in banking and monetary economics (Helsinki School of Economics).

He holds a doctoral degree (economics) from Helsinki School of Economics.

Mauro Grande is Advisor to the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB).

Since 1998 he has been working for the ECB in the area of prudential supervision and financial stability as Head of Division, Director and Director General.

Prior to the ECB, he worked for the Banca d’Italia (Banking Supervision Department), was seconded to the European Commission (Securities Markets Unit) and then to the European Monetary Institute (Banking Supervisory Sub-Committee).

Kristian Vie Madsen has been Deputy Director General of the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finanstilsynet) since mid-2011.

He is responsible for supervision of banks, mortgage banks and investment firms and Finanstilsynet’s analyses of the financial sector.

Kristian Vie Madsen joined Finanstilsynet in 2007 and was before that Head of Division at the Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs.

Ilmars Rimsevics was born on 30 April 1965 in Riga.

In 1990 he graduated from the Riga Technical University (1983-1990) with BA in economics and international trade relations.

From 1988 to 1989 Mr. Rimsevics studied at St. Lawrence University (USA), receiving an honours degree.

In 1992 he graduated from Clarkson University, USA (1991-1992), receiving an MBA degree.

Mr. Rimsevics has been Deputy Chairman of the Economics Committee of the Popular Front of Latvia (1989-1990).

Manager of Foreign Operations Department and Head of Securities Department at the commercial bank Latvijas Zemes Banka (1990-1992).

On 2 July 1992 the Supreme Council of the Republic of Latvia appointed Mr. Rimsevics Deputy Governor of the Bank of Latvia.

On 27 August 1992 the Council of the Bank of Latvia appointed Mr. Rimsevics Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Latvia.

On 12 February 1998 the Saeima appointed Mr. Rimsevics Deputy Governor for a second term of six years.

On 20 December 2001 Mr. Rimsevics was appointed Governor of the Bank of Latvia.

On 1 November 2007 the Saeima of the Republic of Latvia appointed Ilmars Rimsevics Governor of the Bank of Latvia for a second term of six years.

On 31 October 2013 he was re-appointed Governor of the Bank of Latvia for a third six-year term.

Ilmars Rimsevics has been a member of the General Council of the European Central Bank since 2005.

Uldis Cerps is Executing Director for banking supervision of the Swedish Financial Services Authority. Uldis joined the Swedish FSA in early 2008 as head of prudential supervision department. He is a member of Basel Committee since April 2012 and alternate member of the Board of Supervisors of the European Banking Authority. From 2011 to 2012 Uldis chaired the Anti-Money Laundering Task force of the Joint Committee of the EBA, ESMA and EIOPA.

Prior to joining the Swedish FSA, from 2001 to 2008 Uldis Cerps held the post of Chairman of the Board of the Financial and Capital Market Commission in Latvia. He was much involved in the capital markets related issues and actively participated in the work of CESR (predecessor to ESMA). From 2007 to 2008 Uldis Cerps chaired CESR Transparency Expert Group.

His private sector experience includes serving as a chairman of the management board of the Riga Stock Exchange (now a part of Nasdaq OMX) from 1996 to 2000 and a member of supervisory board of Central Securities Depository in Latvia from 1997 to 2000. He has been shortly employed by the Bank of Latvia during the build-up phase of the supervisory authority from October 2000 to mid-2001.

Uldis Cerps holds a university degree in mass communication from University of Latvia. In 1996 he started his PhD studies at the University of Umeå, Sweden, writing his dissertation on institutional factors affecting securities market development in Central and Eastern Europe.

Rodney Alfvén has been Head of Investor Relations at Nordea since November 2009.

Prior to that, he was head of the Stockholm Office for investment banking company Cheuvreux.

Mr Alfvén has also been an Equity Analyst at Alfred Berg and Swedbank.

Jonas Erikson,Head of Group Treasury. Born 1974.

In Swedbank as

Head of Group Treasury

Member, General Executive Commtiee

Employment experience

2009 - current, Swedbank

2007 - 2009 Brummer and Partners, equity analyst

2005 - 2007 JP Morgan, equity analyst, country manager equities Nordics

2003 - 2005 Credit Suisse, equity analyst

2002 - 2003 Cheuvreux, equity analyst

2000 - 2002 Swedbank Markets, equity analyst

Andres Sutt (46), a national of Estonia, has been Head of Banking at the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) since January 2013. He joined the ESM’s predecessor European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) as Senior Advisor to the CEO of the EFSF in June 2012.

Before joining the ESM, Mr Sutt was Senior Advisor to Executive Director and member of the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund. Prior to that Mr Sutt had a long career at the Bank of Estonia, where he held various positions and was Deputy Governor responsible for financial stability in 2001-2009.

He has extensive experience in bank restructuring and crisis management and played a key role in Estonia in coordinating cross-border crisis response measures with Sweden during the financial crisis in 2008-2009.

Mr Sutt has also served as a member of the supervisory board of the Estonian Financial Supervisory Authority. He was also a member of the Banking Supervision Committee of the ECB and a member of several economic and financial sector policy committees of Nordic-Baltic countries. Mr Sutt has also worked as consultant for the OECD and USAID. He is also executive coach and mentor.

He has master’s degree in economics (cum laude) from Tartu University, Estonia and has studied management in INSEAD, France.

Nemat Shafik is the Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund since April 2011

A national of Egypt, the U.K., and the U.S., Ms. Shafik is a global citizen with a global reputation in fields ranging from emerging markets, international development, the Middle East and Africa, to the financial sector. She has a wealth of experience in policy-making, management, and academia.

She was the youngest-ever Vice President at the World Bank, where she was responsible for a private sector and infrastructure portfolio of investments, and was part of the senior management team of the International Finance Corporation. She was the Permanent Secretary of the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID). Prior to serving at the World Bank and DFID, she worked in Cairo as a consultant on development issues.

After graduating from high school in Alexandria, Egypt, and attending the American University in Cairo, Ms. Shafik earned degrees from the University of Massachusetts—Amherst, and the London School of Economics, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Oxford University. She was a member of the Middle East Advisory Group to the Fund. She has published widely, especially on the Middle East and North Africa, and has taught at the Wharton School of Business and Georgetown University. She speaks Arabic, English, and French.

Francesco Mazzaferro has been the Head of the Secretariat of the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) since January 2011. Prior to that he was the Project Manager of the ESRB Preparatory Secretariat, which started work in March 2010.

He began his career in financial research in the Research Department of the Istituto Bancario San Paolo di Torino (today part of Intesa Sanpaolo) in Turin, Italy, in 1987. He joined the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium, in 1992, starting his international career in the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs, where his work focused on the European Currency Unit and preparations for the introduction of the single currency.

In 1995 Mazzaferro joined the European Monetary Institute – which later became the European Central Bank – in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, as the Officer of Policy Planning. In 1998 he became the Senior European Relations Officer in the European Relations Division.

From 2000 he worked as Principal in the EU Neighbouring Regions Division, becoming the Head of Division in 2003.

Ardo Hansson is the Governor of Eesti Pank and a Member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank.

Before taking on his current position in June 2012, Ardo Hansson worked for the World Bank, where he served as the Lead Economist of the World Bank’s Economics Unit in China from 2008. He joined the World Bank in 1998 and before going to China he worked on several countries in Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans.

Between 1991 and 1997, he held several senior positions in the Republic of Estonia, including Economic Advisor to the Estonian Prime Minister in 1992-1995 and in 1997, and advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1991-1992. Hansson was also a member of the Monetary Reform Committee, and a member of the Supervisory Board of the Bank of Estonia in 1993-1998. During the 1990s, he was engaged on short-term consulting assignments for the governments of Mongolia, Poland, Slovenia and Ukraine.

Ardo Hansson was born in Chicago, in 1958. He graduated with first class honours from the University of British Columbia in 1980 and earned a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University in 1987. Since completing his studies, he has held faculty and research positions at several well-known universities in Canada, Finland and Sweden and published numerous articles on economic policy.

Ardo Hansson is married and is the father of two sons.

Kerstin af Jochnick has been First Deputy Governor at the Riksbank since January 2012. Before joining the Riksbank Board, she was the Managing Director of the Swedish Bankers’ Association for two years.

Previously, Ms. af Jochnick chaired the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS), and has also held the position of Head of Department at Finansinspektionen (the Swedish financial supervisory authority), responsible for banking and financial stability supervision.

Vitas Vasiliauskas , appointed on 16 April 2011, is the fourteenth Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Lithuania. Before his appointment, Mr Vitas Vasiliauskas was a lawyer, specializing in financial law, and an associate partner at the law firm LAWIN Lideika, Petrauskas, Valiunas ir partneriai (2004–2011).

Prior to this, he was the Vice Minister of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania for 3 years (2001–2004), after being promoted from the position of Director of the Tax Department, Ministry of Finance (1998–2001). Mr Vitas Vasiliauskas started his career in the public sector as a Lawyer and Head of the Tax Recovery Division of the State Tax Inspectorate (1995–1998).

He completed his law studies at Vilnius University in 1996 and received his Ph.D. in social sciences (Law) in 2004. He has remained active in the academic world throughout his entire career and, currently, he is a Lecturer of the Chair of Public Law of Vilnius University Faculty of Law (since 2010). Previously he was a Lecturer of the Chair of Constitutional and Administrative Law of Vilnius University Faculty of Law (2004–2010) and an assistant of the Chair of State and Law Theory and History of Vilnius University Faculty of Law (1997–2004).