Speaker biographies

J. Kyle Bass is the managing member and principal of Hayman Advisors L.P., which manages the Hayman Capital Master Fund and co-manages the Subprime Credit Strategies Funds I & II. Mr. Bass also acts as a mortgage credit portfolio advisor to several other asset management firms, and he manages or advises over $4 billion of investments in the residential mortgage-backed securities market. Mr. Bass is also a director of the Asset Backed Securities Credit Derivatives Users Association, a nonprofit organization that represents participants in the asset-backed securities market. Prior to launching Hayman Advisors, Mr. Bass formed the first institutional equity office in Texas for Legg Mason, Inc., where he was the managing director in charge of advising special situation accounts on investments. Prior to joining Legg Mason, Mr. Bass was employed at Bear Stearns & Co. Inc., where he was one of the youngest senior managing directors in the firm’s history. While at Bear Stearns, he primarily advised event-driven hedge funds on investment strategies.

Joseph R. Mason is an associate professor of finance at Drexel University and a senior fellow at the Wharton School. He researches liquidity in thinly-traded assets and illiquid market conditions, default risk, and default resolution costs. Mr. Mason consults on a variety of issues including mortgages, home equity loans, securitization, and valuing distressed securities. He has consulted for and advised many government agencies, research institutions, and corporations. Mr. Mason has also acted as a testifying or nontestifying expert for various firms and banks. In regulatory matters, he has testified before the House Financial Services Committee and the Federal Reserve Board and has advised the Government Accountability Office, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Federal Reserve Banks of Philadelphia and Richmond. His research has received hundreds of national and international press citations in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Times, and The Economist. He has made numerous live and taped appearances and has a weekly economic commentary on KYW NewsRadio Philadelphia.

Alex J. Pollock has been a resident fellow at AEI since 2004, focusing on financial policy issues, including government-sponsored enterprises, retirement finance, housing finance, corporate governance, accounting standards, and issues raised by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Previously, he spent thirty-five years in banking, including twelve years as president and CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, while also writing numerous articles on financial systems and management. He is a director of Allied Capital Corporation, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation, the International Union for Housing Finance, and chairman of the board of the Great Books Foundation.

Frank Raiter is a director of Clayton Holdings, Inc., an information-based analytics, consulting, and outsourcing firm servicing capital markets and fixed income investors. He is also a director of Luminent Mortgage Capital, Inc., a mortgage REIT (real estate investment trust). Prior to his retirement in 2005, he was a managing director at Standard & Poor’s and head of the Mortgage Backed Securities Ratings Group, where he was responsible for criteria and analytical modeling. During his tenure, he directed the development and distribution of the LEVELS, DACSS, and SPIRE models. Mr. Raiter was the chief investment officer and treasurer of Caliber Bank in Phoenix, Arizona, from April to September 1994, when Caliber was sold to Norwest Bank. From 1990 to 1994, he was the assistant director of the Office of Securities Transactions of the Resolution Trust Corporation, where he was involved in the structuring and sale of residential and commercial mortgage backed securities.

Glenn Reynolds is the CEO of CreditSights Inc., an independent credit research firm founded in October 2000. The firm currently has over 700 institutional clients with over 5,500 subscribers across those institutions. The company has over 100 employees and provides services to institutional investors, intermediaries, and private corporations. Mr. Reynolds has testified on the subject of rating agency reform in the past and has presented before a number of Senate and House Committees, as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission. Prior to CreditSights, Mr. Reynolds was a managing director at Deutsche Bank from 1997 to 2000 and served in a number of roles, including director of global credit research and head of global credit strategy, overseeing analysts in New York, London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Sydney. Prior to Deutsche Bank, Mr. Reynolds was managing director at Lehman Brothers from 1986 to 2000 and served in a number of credit roles, including director of global credit research and chief credit officer.

R. Christopher Whalen is the cofounder and managing director of Institutional Risk Analytics, where he is responsible for sales, business development, and editorial activities. He has worked as an investment banker, research analyst, and journalist for more than two decades and has covered a variety of industry sectors, including technology and financial institutions. In addition to editing the newsletter The Institutional Risk Analyst, Mr. Whalen contributes regularly to publications such as Barron’s, The International Economy, and American Banker. He is a member of Professional Risk Managers International Association, and he volunteers as a regional director of its Washington, D.C., chapter and chairs its speakers committee.

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