Speaker biographies

Pierre Bollon is the chief executive of AFG (Association Française de la Gestion financière), the French investment funds and asset managers trade association. He is also vice chairman of the French Study Center for Corporate Social Responsibility and a member of the board of the European Funds and Asset Managers Association. Mr. Bollon is a member of the support office of the International Investment Funds Association, secretary general of the European Savings Institute, and a member of the board of governors and treasurer of the International Corporate Governance Network. Before joining AFG in September 1997, Mr. Bollon worked from 1984 to 1989 as a civil servant in the prime minister’s office and then in the Treasury, and from 1990 to 1997 as advisor to the chairman and director of economic and financial affairs of the French Federation of Insurance Companies.

Rebecca A. Cowdery is a partner with the Investment Management Group of Borden Ladner Gervais (BLG) LLP. For the past twenty years she has worked in the investment management industry as a lawyer and a regulator. Her work at BLG focuses on the regulatory, compliance, and governance issues facing participants in the investment management industry. Ms. Cowdery joined BLG in November 2003 after nine years as a senior investment funds regulator with the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC). She was at the forefront of all major investment fund regulatory reform initiatives during her tenure at the OSC, and is an expert in investment fund public policy, regulation, and practice, both nationally and internationally. Her responsibilities at the OSC included leading the Canadian regulators’ projects to improve mutual fund governance and disclosure, establishing rules for the structure and operation of mutual funds, and setting standards for mutual fund sales practices. Before joining the OSC, Ms. Cowdery practiced corporate and securities law with a major Toronto law firm, where she became increasingly focused on investment funds. She is a current member of the Manager Issues Committee of the Investment Funds Institute of Canada, and speaks and writes regularly on topics of interest to the investment management industry.

Robert Hoffmann became vice president of PROFIL (Fédération des professionnels du secteur financier, Luxembourg) in June 2005. Since March 2001, he has been general manager of the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry. From 1999 until 2001, he worked as a lawyer and head of the investment funds department with the law firm Allen & Overy. In 1986, after various assignments in the Luxembourg financial sector (including the Luxembourg Bankers’ Association, Banque UCL, and Bank für Gemeinwirtschaft), he became a member of the executive board of Banque Générale du Luxembourg (Suisse) S.A., head of its private banking in 1990, and a member of its third party fund administration and global custody in 1995. Mr. Hoffmann is also a member of various institutions, including the committees on prudential regulation, pension funds, securities markets, and undertakings for collective investment at the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier. He has represented ALFI on the European Fund and Asset Management Association’s (EFAMA) board of directors, and since March 2005 has headed EFAMA’s “Distribution and Marketing” project as a member of the management committee. He is also a member of the Committee on Foreign Trade at the Ministry of the Economy and Foreign Trade, director of the Québec based support office of the International Investment Funds Association, and a member of the board of directors of CCLUX (Centrale de Communications Luxembourg SA).

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 is currently co-director of 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. He was formerly 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.

Richard Saunders has been chief executive of the Investment Management Association since its formation on February 1, 2002, by the merger of the Association of Unit Trusts and Investment Funds (AUTIF) with the Fund Managers’ Association. He had been director general of AUTIF since May 2001. Much of his earlier career was spent in the Treasury, where, among other roles, he served as press secretary to the Honorable Lord Lamont when he was chancellor of the exchequer, and headed the private finance unit in the mid-1990s. He spent two years as head of the Economic Department at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. He left the Treasury for the private sector in 1995, working at United News and Media, and later as a director of financial media consultancy at Cardew & Co.

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. From June 1981 to January 1985, Mr. Wallison 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. 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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