Speaker biographies
Richard A. Ciccarone is the managing director and chief research officer at McDonnell Investment Management, LLC, where he is responsible for managing the company’s investment research resources. Additionally, he is a majority owner of Merritt Research Services, LLC, a municipal database research company affiliated with McDonnell Investment Management, and a cofounder and past national chairman of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts. Previously, Mr. Ciccarone worked at Van Kampen Investments Inc., where he served as senior vice president and cohead of both fixed income and municipal investments and as director of research. He has also worked at Everen Securities Inc. and its predecessor firms as an executive vice president and director of fixed income research, at Van Kampen Merritt Inc. as a vice president and director of unit investment trust research, and at Harris Bank as manager of municipal research. Mr. Ciccarone has been recognized as the top buy-side research director and top municipal generalist analyst by Smith’s Research & Ratings and the Bond Buyer, and Institutional Investor magazine designated him as a first-team All-American Fixed Income Analyst.
David R. Kotok cofounded Cumberland Advisors in 1973 and is the company’s chairman and chief investment officer. He also serves as a director and program chairman of the Global Interdependence Center, a nonprofit organization that encourages the expansion of global dialogue and free trade. Mr. Kotok is a member of several professional organizations, including the National Business Economics Issues Council and the National Association for Business Economics. His articles and financial market commentary have appeared in many publications, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Barron’s, and he is a frequent contributor to CNBC programs such as Morning Call, Kudlow & Company, Squawk on the Street, and Worldwide Exchange. In the past, Mr. Kotok served as a commissioner of the Delaware River Port Authority and on New Jersey’s Department of Treasury transition teams for Governors Thomas Kean and Christine Todd Whitman. He has also served as a board member of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority and as chairman of the New Jersey Casino Reinvestment Development Authority.
Larry Lavender is the Republican staff director of the House Financial Services Committee. From 2001 to 2007, he served as the chief of staff to Representative Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.). Mr. Lavender was engaged in private business ownership and management from 1979 to 2001, including metal and plastic manufacturing for the heavy truck industry. Previously, he worked for the city of Birmingham, Alabama, where he ascended from intern to chief of staff for the mayor. Mr. Lavender was honorably discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1968.
Joseph Mysak Jr. has been a municipal bonds columnist at Bloomberg since 1999. From 1994 to 1999, he wrote and edited Grant’s Municipal Bond Observer and Grant’s Municipal Bond Issuer. Previously, he was with the Bond Buyer, where he began his tenure as a copy editor and finished as editor and publisher. Mr. Mysak is the author of the Handbook for Muni-Bond Issuers (Bloomberg Press, 1998); Perpetual Motion: The Illustrated History of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, with Judith Schiffer (Stoddart, 1997); and The Guidebook to Municipal Bonds: The History, the Industry, the Mechanics, with George J. Marlin (American Bankers Association, 1991). He received the “Industry Contribution Award” from the National Federation of Municipal Analysts in 1998.
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, and accounting standards. He has written extensively on the housing bubble and bust and is the author of the one-page mortgage disclosure proposal. Previously, he spent thirty-five years in banking, including twelve years as president and chief executive officer 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, and the International Union for Housing Finance and chairman of the board of the Great Books Foundation.
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 the Professional Risk Managers International Association and volunteers as a regional director for the association’s Washington, D.C., chapter and chairs its speakers committee.
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