Barry P. Barbash is a partner at Willkie Farr and Gallagher LLP and serves as the head of the firm’s investment management group. His practice includes advising financial services company clients on a wide range of transactions and regulatory matters. Among his areas of expertise are alternative investments such as hedge funds, regulated and non-regulated funds of funds, private equity funds, mutual funds, closed-end funds, exchange-traded funds; business development companies and other registered investment companies; fund governance matters; mergers and acquisitions in the investment management industry; and investment management distribution and marketing matters, and operational policies, practices, and systems. Previously he was a partner with Shearman and Sterling. For five years prior to joining Shearman and Sterling in 1998, he served as the director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Investment Management, where he had principal oversight responsibility for the U.S. mutual fund industry, U.S. and non-U.S. investment managers, and U.S.-based or sponsored private funds.

Robert E. Litan is the vice president for research and policy at the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City and a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution. Mr. Litan was formerly vice president and director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution (1996–2003), and he currently directs the AEI-Brookings Joint Center on Regulatory Studies. An economist and attorney who has practiced law and taught banking law at the Yale Law School, Mr. Litan is the author or coauthor of numerous books and articles on financial institutions, international trade, and regulatory issues. He has consulted for numerous public and private organizations and has testified as an expert witness in a variety of legal and regulatory proceedings. Formerly, he was associate director of the Office of Management and Budget, deputy assistant attorney general in the antitrust division of the Department of Justice, and a regulatory specialist for the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.

Kathryn Bradley McGrath is a partner in the law firm of Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP and practices in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. Ms. McGrath was director of the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Division of Investment Management from 1983 to 1990. She previously served as associate director of the SEC’s Division of Market regulation, assistant and then associate general counsel to the SEC, assistant director of the Division of Corporate Finance, special counsel and then executive assistant to SEC chairmen Ray Garrett Jr. and Roderick M. Hills; legal assistant to SEC commissioner Philip Loomis, and staff attorney in the Office of the General Counsel.

Paul F. Roye is a senior vice president with the Fund Business Management Group of Capital Research and Management Company. Prior to joining Capital Research in May 2005, he was director of the Division of Investment Management at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and was among the most senior financial services regulators in the United States, with principal oversight for the $20 trillion investment management industry and public utility industry. During his tenure, he received the Chairman’s Award of Excellence, the highest honor that can be bestowed upon an SEC Staff member. Prior to becoming director at the SEC, he was a member of the Washington office of the law firm of Dechert, where he was a partner in the firm's financial services, investment management and corporate securities practice group, specializing in institutional investor law. His practice provided advice and assistance to a wide variety of domestic and foreign investment companies, as well as investment advisers, broker-dealers, banks, and insurance companies.

Marianne K. Smythe has been a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr since 1993. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Smythe served for two-and-a-half years as the director of the Division of Investment Management of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). At the SEC, Ms. Smythe also served as executive assistant to SEC chairman Richard C. Breeden and was associate director of the Division of Investment Management from 1988 to 1990.  From 1981 to 1987, Ms. Smythe was a professor at the School of Law of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Peter J. Wallison joined AEI in January 1999 as a resident fellow and as co-director of AEI’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. Mr. Wallison has held a number of government positions. From June 1981 to January 1985, he was general counsel of the United States Treasury Department, where he had a significant role in the development of the Reagan administration's proposals for deregulation in the financial services industry, 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.