Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Ryan D. Israelsen is an assistant professor of Finance at Indiana University.  Professor Israelsen’s research interests lie in explaining perceived anomalies in finance and real estate by developing novel measures of risk and information.  His research has been published in Real Estate Economics and the Journal of Investment Management.Before joining Indiana, he earned a Ph.D. in Finance and M.S. in Financial Engineering at The University of Michigan as well as a B.A. in Economics at Utah State University.  Prior to graduate school, he worked at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, Italy.

Alyssa Lee is the director of Pew’s American Cities Project, which focuses on the biggest city in each of the nation’s 30 largest metropolitan areas. The project provides essential data and analysis to policy makers to help them better understand the role of the economy, demography and policy on cities’ fiscal health, and how well municipalities are delivering core services. As the strategic lead on the project’s robust municipal fiscal health agenda, Lee directs the team’s original research which supports local policy leaders in implementing data-driven decision-making, identifying proven policy approaches, evaluating current programs, reducing costs, and improving overall government performance. She also speaks frequently with the media about national trends and local innovations.Before joining Pew, Lee served as president and CEO at Social Compact where she focused on removing barriers in investment decision-making and defining market solutions for individuals and communities. She brings expertise from the private, government, and nonprofit sectors and has worked with organizations from small consultancies to large organizations such as Cushman & Wakefield, as well as the federal government and the Brookings Institution. Lee is also a licensed investment professional.Lee holds a master’s degree in city and regional planning with distinction from the Georgia Institute of Technology and bachelor of arts degrees in sociology and urban studies from Northwestern University.

Emre Ergungor is a senior research economist in the Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and Adjunct Professor of Finance at the Case Western Reserve University. His research focuses on financial intermediation, information economics and housing policy. He has written on systemic banking crises and crisis resolution. His recent research examines the economics of mortgage lending in low-moderate income neighborhoods of Ohio. In particular, he has applied theoretical insights to the study of the impact of bank branch presence on the quantity, price and quality of credit in these neighborhoods. Born in Istanbul, Turkey, Dr. Ergungor earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Bogazici University and his MBA from Koc University, both in Istanbul. He earned his PhD in finance from the University of Michigan in 2000 and joined the bank in September of the same year.

Yaxuan Qi is an Associate Professor of Finance at the City University of Hong Kong. Her main research interests are law and economics, and corporate finance. She received competitive research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Fonds de recherche sur la Société et la Culture. Her research has been published in leading academic journals such as Journal of Financial Economics, The Accounting Review and Journal of Law and Economics.Qi received her PhD in finance from the Rutgers University in 2007. Prior to joining the City University of Hong Kong, she was an Associate Professor at the Concordia University in Canada.

Professor Z. Jay Wang received his B.A. in Economics from Peking University, M.S. in Statistics and Ph.D. in Economics from Iowa State University, and Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Michigan. He is now an Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Oregon. His main research interests are Investments and Asset Pricing, with a particular focus on mutual funds, hedge funds, and closed-end funds. He has written a number of empirical research papers on the strategies of mutual fund families, the introduction of multiple share class structure in the mutual fund industry, the payout policy of close-end funds, the side-by-side management of mutual and hedge funds, the labor market movement between mutual fund and hedge fund industries, and the dynamic changes of hedge fund fees. His work has been published in the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and the Journal of Financial Intermediation.

Dr. Smith (Brent) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Finance Insurance and Real Estate in the School of Business at Virginia Commonwealth University. He holds a Master in Business from the University of Notre Dame and holds a Ph.D. in Finance and Economic Geography from Indiana University. His research interests include commercial property markets, mortgage performance, housing finance, and valuation. Brent serves on the editorial board for Real Estate Economics, the Appraisal Journal, the Journal of Real Estate Practice and Education, the Journal of Housing Research and the Journal of Real Estate Literature, and regularly reviews articles for numerous journals in the fields of real estate finance and urban economics.   Brent was a recipient of the Outstanding Reviewer Award in 2010 and 2012 for Real Estate Economics, and received the Emerging Scholar’s Award in 2010 from the American Real Estate Society. In addition, he is a post-doctoral honoree at the Weimer School of Advanced Studies in Real Estate and Land Economics, Florida, USA. His research papers have received numerous grants and acknowledgements include two best paper awards from the American Real Estate Society.Brent was recently inducted as one of only 3 academic members into the Real Estate Councilors’ Group of America. Brent’s recent research is directed at issues of risk and valuation.  Within those themes the areas of study include commercial property markets, mortgage performance, investment finance, and public policy and tax influences.  His research in this area has been published or scheduled for publication in the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Real Estate Economics, the Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting and Financial Management, the Journal of Real Estate Research, Urban Affairs Review, the Journal of Property Tax Assessment and Administration, the Journal of Housing Economics, the Journal of Housing Research, and Economic Quarterly.