Speaker biographies

Alan Boyce is the chief executive officer of Absalon, a joint venture between George Soros and the Danish financial system that is assisting in the organization of a standardized mortgage-backed securities market for Mexico. He is also the president of Adecoagro, a food and renewable energy producing company that owns and operates more than 270,000 hectares of highly productive land throughout Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, and a consultant for Soros Fund Management, where he works to implement the Danish mortgage system in the United States. Previously, Mr. Boyce was the senior managing director for investment strategy at Countrywide Financial Corporation, where he was responsible for secondary markets, the hedging of mortgage servicing rights, and the balance sheet for Countrywide Bank and Balboa Insurance. Mr. Boyce was the director of special situations at Soros Fund Management from 1999 until early 2007, where he managed a portfolio of assets of the Quantum Funds and had principal operational responsibilities for the bulk of the Fund’s investments in Latin America. Before joining Soros Fund Management, Mr. Boyce served for fourteen years as the managing director in charge of fixed income arbitrage with Bankers Trust. Prior to that, he worked for the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C.

Jay Brinkmann is the chief economist and senior vice president of research and economics for the Mortgage Bankers Association, where his responsibilities include economic forecasting, mortgage industry analysis, benchmarking industry profitability, and providing support for legislative and regulatory initiatives. Previously, Mr. Brinkmann worked for Fannie Mae’s Portfolio Strategy Group and was on the faculty of the business school at the University of Houston, where he specialized in financial institution regulation and energy derivatives markets. He has also served as a commercial banker, as the deputy chief of staff to Louisiana governor David Treen, and as a Capitol Hill press secretary. Mr. Brinkmann has published articles in numerous academic journals and on the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal. He is frequently interviewed by newspapers and the major business networks on real estate finance topics.

Paul Miller is the managing director and head of financial institutions research at the Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group. He is well-known in the financial services investment community for providing in-depth, fundamental analysis and investment recommendations for mortgage finance companies. He covers many different institutions, including mortgage-banking companies, mortgage insurance, small-cap thrifts, and large-cap banks. Mr. Miller was recognized in the Wall Street Journal’s 2006 and 2007 “Best on the Street” awards for thrifts. In the 2008 Bloomberg and Forbes.com Blue Chip Analyst Awards, he ranked first for “Bearish Best Calls” among more than three thousand analysts worldwide. Mr. Miller is a former bank examiner for the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, where he worked for five years. As a bank examiner, Mr. Miller conducted financial analysis for more than thirty community banking institutions in the Philadelphia and Harrisburg areas.

Edward Pinto has provided credit and marketing consulting services to the mortgage-finance industry for the last twenty years. Mr. Pinto was the executive vice president and chief credit officer at Fannie Mae from 1987 to 1989 and the senior vice president of marketing and product management from 1985 to 1987. Prior to his work at Fannie, Mr. Pinto worked for the Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation as senior legal counsel and for the Michigan State Housing Development Authority as general counsel. Mr. Pinto’s consulting clients have included GE Capital Mortgage Insurance Company, Dime Savings Bank, Mellon Bank, and Home Saving Bank. Mr. Pinto worked with the LoanPerformance Corporation to develop their delinquency database, which is now the industry standard. He has appeared as an expert witness in real estate finance related litigation and has published or contributed to articles in various publications and on the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal. Mr. Pinto is frequently interviewed by newspapers and other news sources on real estate finance topics.

Peter J. Wallison holds the Arthur F. Burns Chair in Financial Policy Studies at AEI, where he codirects the Institute’s program on financial market deregulation. He previously practiced banking, corporate, and financial law at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, D.C., and New York. From June 1981 to January 1985, Mr. Wallison was general counsel of the U.S. Treasury Department, where he had a significant role in the development of the Reagan administration’s proposals for deregulation in the financial services industry. He also served as general counsel to the Depository Institutions Deregulation Committee and participated in the Treasury Department’s efforts to deal with the debt held by less-developed countries. During 1986 and 1987, Mr. Wallison was White House counsel to President Ronald Reagan. Between 1972 and 1976, Mr. Wallison served first as special assistant to Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller and, subsequently, as counsel to Mr. Rockefeller when he was vice president of the United States.

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