Frank LoBiondo

Frank LoBiondo has represented New Jersey’s second congressional district since 1994. Congressman LoBiondo is a member of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, serves as the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Coast Guard & Maritime Transportation, and is on the Subcommittee on Water Resources and the Environment and the Subcommittee on Aviation. Prior to his election to Congress, he was elected to Cumberland County Board of Chosen Freeholders in 1984 and has served South Jersey on the county, state and federal levels ever since. After three years on the Freeholders Board, he was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly, representing the First Legislative District from 1988-1994. Congressman LoBiondo received his B.A. in business administration from St. Joseph’s University.

Matt Hougan

Matt Hougan is editor-in-chief of IndexUniverse.com and the Exchange-Traded Funds Report and senior editor of the Journal of Indexes. An expert on ETFs, Mr. Hougan is quoted regularly in the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Investor’s Business Daily, Fortune, Forbes, TheStreet.com, Marketwatch.com, and the Associated Press, and is a regular guest on CNBC. Prior to joining Index Publications, Mr. Hougan ran his own strategic communications firm providing PR and speechwriting services to Fortune 500 companies, U.S. and foreign governments agencies, and select non-profits. Earlier, he was the lead biotech analyst for MetaMarkets.com, which ran the world’s first transparent mutual fund. Mr. Hougan is a graduate of Bowdoin College.

Robert Andrews

Robert Andrews represents New Jersey’s first congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is the chairman of the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions (HELP). He has authored two laws creating the Income Contingent Repayment Plan and Direct Student Loans. Rep. Andrews also wrote laws to lower mortgage costs for rural families, to protect the child visitation rights of grandparents, to provide health and pension benefits for employees of religious organizations, cut administrative costs for small businesses, and to move more people from welfare to work. Rep. Andrews has served for his entire Congressional career on the Education and Labor Committee where he has responsibility for the health insurance, pension and labor laws of the nation. He graduated from Bucknell University and received his law degree from Cornell University. Before coming to Congress, he was an attorney and an adjunct professor at the Rutgers University School of Law.

Gerry Sweeney

Gerry Sweeney is the portfolio manager for Aqua Terra Asset Management LLC. Prior to becoming the portfolio manager of AquaTerra, Mr. Sweeny was the senior research analyst for Aqua Terra overseeing research and portfolio administration for the Praetor Global Water Fund, a Euro-denominated fund based in Luxembourg, and the Kinetics Global Water Infrastructure Fund. Preceding his position at Aqua Terra, Mr. Sweeney was vice president at Boenning & Scattergood. From 2000 through 2004 he was a member of Janney Montgomery Scott’s Syndicate Desk specializing in water related equity financings. Mr. Sweeney is a graduate of Temple University’s Fox School of Business with an M.B.A in finance and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

Jim McTague

Jim McTague has been Washington Editor of Barron’s since 1995. His primary assignment is to cover the White House and the Congress, and acts as a nexus between Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. He is a member of the White House press corps and is credentialed on Capitol Hill as well. He has worked for numerous magazines and newspapers including USA TODAY, Philadelphia Daily News, The Dallas Times Herald, and American Banker, where he was managing editor. He previously worked for Merrill Lynch as a broker. He has an undergraduate degree in English literature from St. Joseph’s University and an M.A. in English literature from The Pennsylvania State University.

George Friedman

George Friedman is the founder and chief executive officer of STRATFOR, a leading company in the field of private intelligence. Dr. Friedman is the author of numerous articles and books on national security, warfare, and intelligence, including his most recent book, America’s Secret War, which describes America’s covert and overt efforts in the global war against terrorism. His next book, The Next Hundred Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century, is set for a January 2009 release. He has been featured in Time magazine, The New York Times Magazine and The Wall Street Journal and quoted in reference to global issues in numerous news publications, including the New York Times, USA Today, Fortune, and the International Herald Tribune. Dr. Friedman received his bachelor’s degree from the City College of the City University of New York and holds a PhD in government from Cornell University.

Sean Egan

Sean J. Egan is a founding partner and president of Egan-Jones Ratings Company, which was organized for the purpose of providing timely accurate credit ratings. Egan-Jones was recognized as a rating firm by the SEC in late 2007 and in 2008 was identified by Fortune magazine as the number one firm for providing warning about the credit crisis. Mr. Egan earned an MBA from Harvard University and was employed as a commercial and investment banker before founding Egan-Jones.

Domenic D’Ginto

Mr. D’Ginto is a Senior Vice President for PNC’s Corporate and Institutional Banking Group in Philadelphia, PA. Mr. D’Ginto is responsible for providing corporate banking {credit and treasury management} and capital markets {syndicated loans, derivatives, asset securitizations, M&A advisory} solutions for both public and private companies whose annual revenues range from $30 million to $3 billion.

Previously, Mr. D’Ginto had originated and co-managed PNC’s Derivatives Products Group in PNC’s Eastern region, providing interest rate and equity hedging solutions to Corporate and High Net Worth clients. Specific transactions closed included Interest Rate Swaps and Options, Cross Currency Swaps, Equity Options and Equity Prepaid Forward sales.

Mr. D’Ginto was conferred the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 1998, and holds an MBA and a Bachelors Degree in Finance from Villanova University. Mr. D’Ginto is a Past President of the CFA Society of Philadelphia, where he also served as the Treasurer and as the Committee Co-Chair for Education and Community Outreach {focus on financial literacy}. Mr. D’Ginto remains active with the CFA Institute, serving as a volunteer for the CFA Progam and as a topical specialist for Derivatives. Mr. D’Ginto serves as a board member of the Global Interdependence Center, and is a member of its Executive Committee.

David Kotok

CIO of Cumberland Advisors and GIC Vice Chair

David R. Kotok co-founded Cumberland Advisors in 1973 and has been its chief investment officer since inception.

Paul Walsh

Vice President of Weather Analytics with The Weather Channel Companies

As vice president of weather analytics with The Weather Channel Companies, Paul helps companies integrate weather and climate information into their business processes.

Charles I. Plosser

President and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

Dr. Charles Plosser is president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. In his current role, he participates on the Federal Reserve System’s Federal Open Market Committee, which is responsible for conducting our nation’s monetary policy.