RBA Annual Conference – 2011 Biographies of Contributors

Tamim Bayoumi

Tamim Bayoumi is a Senior Advisor in the Strategy, Policy, and Review Department of the International Monetary Fund. He has written extensively on issues of international finance, including the history of and prospects for the international monetary system, and is leading a project on US policy spillovers to the rest of the world. Dr Bayoumi received his first degree from Cambridge University and a PhD from Stanford University.

Jeff Borland

Jeff Borland is a Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Melbourne, where he has held a full-time teaching position since 1988. He was Visiting Professor in Australian Studies at Harvard in 2010, a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research at the Australian National University from 1996 to 1998, and has held visiting teaching positions at the University of Iowa and University of Wisconsin–Madison. His main research interests are program and policy evaluation and design, applications of microeconomic theory, analysis of the operation of labour markets in Australia and Australian economic history. In 1997 Dr Borland was awarded the Australian Academy of Social Sciences Medal for Excellence in Scholarship in the Social Sciences, and in 2002 was made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. He has acted as a consultant on labour market and microeconomics issues to organisations such as the OECD, IMF, ACCC, New Zealand Treasury and Productivity Commission, and is currently a member of the Australian Treasury's Academic Reference Panel. Dr Borland has a BA (Hons) in Economics and History from the University of Melbourne and a PhD in Economics from Yale University.

Trung Bui

Trung Bui is currently a Research Officer in the Strategy, Policy, and Review Department of the International Monetary Fund. His primary research interests are in the areas of international finance and open economy macroeconomics, and he has written papers on international asset portfolio dynamics and growth spillovers across countries. Dr Bui holds a PhD in Economics from Georgetown University.

Ellis Connolly

Ellis Connolly is Deputy Head of Economic Analysis Department at the Reserve Bank of Australia. He has previously served as Head of the Economic Activity and Forecasting section and as Senior Economist in the Prices, Wages and Labour Markets and Financial Conditions sections of the Economic Analysis Department. Mr Connolly has also worked in the Economic Research Department of the Bank where his research examined the impact of superannuation on household saving and the effect of monetary policy transparency on financial markets. He holds a Bachelor of Economics (Hons) from the University of New South Wales, a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from the University of Technology, Sydney, and a Master in Public Administration from Harvard University.

Kevin Davis

Kevin Davis is Professor of Finance at the University of Melbourne and Research Director of the Australian Centre for Financial Studies. His primary research interests are financial regulation, financial institutions and markets, financial innovation and corporate finance. He is co-author/editor of 16 books in the areas of finance, banking, monetary economics and macroeconomics. He is on the Board of the Melbourne University Credit Union and SIRCA, and has undertaken an extensive range of consulting assignments for financial institutions, business and government. Professor Davis is a Senior Fellow of Finsia, a Fellow of FTA and of AMI and holds a first class honours degree in Economics from Flinders University, South Australia, and a Master of Economics from the Australian National University.

Clinton Dines

Clinton Dines is Executive Chairman Asia for the Caledonia Investments group. He is also a Member of the Griffith University Council and a Visiting Fellow of the Lowy Institute for International Policy. He has lived and worked continuously in the Greater China Region for over 32 years, mostly in mainland China. During his career, Mr Dines has occupied senior management positions with the Jardine Matheson Group, the Santa Fe Transport Group and Asia Securities Venture Capital. He joined BHP in 1988, serving for 21 years as the Company's Senior Executive in China before retiring from the role of President BHP Billiton China in July 2009. Mr Dines was instrumental in the establishment of the Australian Chamber of Commerce in China and later chaired that organisation from 1998 to 2000. He holds a degree in Asian Studies from Griffith University and is a graduate of the International Management course at INSEAD in France.

Kathryn Dominguez

Kathryn Dominguez is Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the University of Michigan and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Her research interests include international financial markets and macroeconomics, and she has written numerous articles on foreign exchange rate behaviour. Prior to her position at the Gerald R Ford School of Public Policy and the Economics Department at the University of Michigan, she taught at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. She has also taught at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, the London School of Economics and the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and has worked as a research consultant for the Federal Reserve System, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Dr Dominguez teaches finance, macroeconomics and international economics at the Ford School. She has a PhD in Economics from Yale University.

John Edwards

John Edwards is Adjunct Professor with the John Curtin Institute of Public Policy at Curtin University, Western Australia, a Visiting Fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy and a member of the Reserve Bank of Australia Board. Dr Edwards was until recently Executive Director of Economic Planning and Development for the Bahrain Economic Development Board. He was also Chief Economist for Australia and New Zealand for HSBC Bank from 1997 to 2009, and Senior Economic Adviser to former Treasurer and Prime Minister Paul Keating from 1991 to 1994. Dr Edwards holds a PhD in Economics from George Washington University.

Saul Eslake

Saul Eslake is Chief Economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Australia. Prior to taking up this position in December 2011, he was Program Director, Productivity Growth, at the Grattan Institute, Victoria, and before that, Chief Economist of the Australia and New Zealand Banking Corporation (ANZ). He is currently a member of the Australian Government's National Housing Supply Council, Chair of the Tasmanian Arts Advisory Board, and a Non-executive Director of Hydro Tasmania. He has also been a member of the (previous) Australian Government's Foreign Affairs, Trade Policy and Tourism Forecasting Councils. Mr Eslake has an honours degree in Economics from the University of Tasmania and a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment.

Bill Evans

William (Bill) Evans is Managing Director: Economics at Westpac Banking Corporation, having joined Westpac as Chief Economist and Head of Research in 1991. He has also spent two years in New Zealand as Head of the Institutional Bank where he was responsible for Westpac's corporate and financial markets businesses. Prior to joining Westpac he was Director and Head of Financial Markets at Schroders Australia Limited. Other roles have included Research Economist for the Reserve Bank of Australia and various financial markets responsibilities at the Commonwealth Bank, including Domestic Treasurer. He is Westpac's economic spokesman and is responsible for all of the bank's economic research. He holds a BEc (Hons) from Sydney University and an MSc from the London School of Economics.

Hugo Gerard

Hugo Gerard is an Economist in the Economic Research Department of the Reserve Bank of Australia. His research interests are in the fields of applied macroeconomics and econometrics and he has written papers on inflation co-movement across countries and combining density forecasts using Bayesian methods. He holds a Masters degree from Pompeu Fabra University and the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics and a Bachelor of Applied Finance and Economics (Hons) from Macquarie University.

David Gruen

David Gruen is Executive Director, Macroeconomic Group, Australian Treasury. He joined the Treasury in January 2003. Prior to that, he was Head of Economic Research Department at the Reserve Bank of Australia, where he had worked for 13 years in both the Economic Analysis and Economic Research Departments. He was visiting lecturer in the Economics Department and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University from 1991 to 1993. Before joining the Reserve Bank, he worked as a research scientist in the Research School of Physical Sciences at the Australian National University. He holds PhD degrees in physiology from Cambridge University and in economics from the Australian National University.

Yiping Huang

Yiping Huang is Professor of Economics at the China Center for Economic Research, Peking University. He was previously Managing Director and Chief Asia Economist for Citigroup based in Hong Kong, General Mills International Professor at Columbia University in New York, Director of the China Economy Program at the Australian National University and policy analyst at the Research Center for Rural Development of the State Council in Beijing.

Jonathan Kearns

Jonathan Kearns is Head of Economic Research Department at the Reserve Bank of Australia. Prior to this, he was the Deputy Head of Domestic Markets Department and Deputy Head of Economic Analysis Department, and has also held various positions in Economic Group. He has published research in a range of fields, with a particular focus on international finance and international macroeconomics. Dr Kearns holds a PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Economics (Hons) from the Australian National University.

Philip Lowe

Philip Lowe is Assistant Governor (Economic) at the Reserve Bank of Australia, a position he has held since April 2009. In that role, he is responsible for the RBA's Economic Analysis and Economic Research Departments and is the Chief Economic Advisor to the Governor and the Board. Prior to holding this role, Dr Lowe was Assistant Governor (Financial System) responsible for overseeing the RBA's work on issues related to financial stability and payments system policy. He also spent two years with the Bank for International Settlements working on financial stability issues. Dr Lowe holds a PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a BComm (Hons) in Economics/Econometrics from the University of New South Wales.

David Orsmond

David Orsmond is Deputy Head of Economic Analysis Department at the Reserve Bank of Australia and heads the Bank's Regional and Industry Analysis Section. Prior to his appointment at the RBA, Dr Orsmond worked at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). From 1999 to 2001 he was the IMF Resident Representative to Ukraine, based in Kiev, where he helped oversee their reform program, and until he left the Fund was the Mission Chief to the Solomon Islands. His publications include articles on currency arrangements, global imbalances, growth in Asia and commodity markets. Dr Orsmond holds a PhD in Economics from Duke University and degrees in Economics from the University of Sydney and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

Michael Plumb

Michael Plumb is Deputy Head of Economic Research Department at the Reserve Bank of Australia. He has also held senior positions in the RBA's Economic Analysis Department, including as head of the Prices, Wages and Labour Markets section, and International Department. Prior to joining the RBA, Dr Plumb worked at the University of Sydney, the Economic and Social Research Council in Ireland, and the University of Oxford. He has published on a variety of topics relating to economic policy, including the labour market, inflation, exchange rates, asset price bubbles, and income distribution. Dr Plumb holds a DPhil in Economics from the University of Oxford, a MEc (Hons) in Economics/Econometrics and a BEc (Hons) from the University of Sydney.

John Quiggin

John Quiggin is an Australian Research Council Federation Fellow in the Schools of Economics and Political Science at the University of Queensland. Professor Quiggin's research interests include risk analysis, production economics and the theory of economic growth. He has also written on policy topics including climate change, microeconomic reform, privatisation, employment policy and the management of the Murray–Darling river system. He holds first class honours degrees in Mathematics and Economics and a Masters in Economics from the Australian National University, and a PhD from the University of New England.

Eli Remolona

Eli Remolona is Chief Representative for Asia and the Pacific at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Until September 2008, he was Head of Economics for Asia and the Pacific. He joined the BIS in 1999 and for six years served as Head of Financial Markets and Editor of the BIS Quarterly Review. Before that, he was Research Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he worked for 14 years. He has taught at Columbia University, New York University and the University of the Philippines. He is currently Associate Editor of the International Journal of Central Banking. Dr Remolona has published in leading journals in economics and finance and has a PhD in Economics from Stanford University.

Chris Richardson

Chris Richardson is Head of Macroeconomics at Deloitte Access Economics. Prior to taking up that position in early 2011, he was a Director of Access Economics where he has worked since it was established in 1988. He has also previously served at the Australian Treasury and the International Monetary Fund. He is an economic modeller and forecaster, with a particular interest in fiscal policy and demographics. Mr Richardson is also the author of the Business Review Weekly's Fundamentals column. He holds a Bachelor of Economics (Hons) with the University Medal from the University of Sydney, and a Master of Economics from the Australian National University.

Judith Sloan

Judith Sloan was appointed as a Non-executive Director of Westfield Holdings Limited in February 2008. She is Honorary Professorial Fellow at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research at the University of Melbourne. She has previously held an academic appointment at Flinders University and is currently the Chairman of National Seniors Australia and a Director of the Lowy Institute for International Policy. Her previous appointments include Chairman of Primelife Limited, Deputy Chair of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Director of Santos Limited and Mayne Nickless Limited, and Commissioner of the Productivity Commission. She is also a member of the Westfield Group Nomination Committee. Professor Sloan holds a first class honours degree in Economics and a Master of Arts in Economics, specialising in Industrial Relations, from the University of Melbourne, and a Master of Science in Economics from the London School of Economics.

Mark Thirlwell

Mark Thirlwell is Program Director, International Economy at the Lowy Institute for International Policy. Before joining the Lowy Institute, Mr Thirlwell was Senior Economist at the Australian Export Finance and Insurance Corporation from 1999 to 2003, where he worked on country risk issues with a particular emphasis on east Asia. Prior to that he was a Vice President in the Economic Research Department at JP Morgan, with responsibility for central and eastern Europe. Mr Thirlwell began his career as an Economist in the Bank of England's international division, where he focused on emerging market issues. He also spent some time in the Bank's UK structural economic analysis division. Mr Thirlwell is a graduate of Cambridge University and has an MPhil in Economics from Oxford. He has a postgraduate qualification in Applied Finance from Macquarie University.

Bijun Wang

Bijun Wang is a Visiting Scholar at the Crawford School of Economics and Government, Australian National University, and a PhD student at the China Center for Economic Research, Peking University. Her research focuses on Chinese outward direct investment, the east Asian economies and international finance. She has published several articles in journals such as China & World Economy, contributed to three book chapters and conducted three different fieldworks in China.

Judith Yates

Judith Yates is currently an Honorary Associate in Economics at the University of Sydney, following a career of more than 30 years in academia. Her research has been in the fields of housing economics, finance and policy and, in the past few years, has focused on housing affordability, the supply of low-rent housing, intergenerational sustainability of the housing system and housing taxation. She has served on numerous government advisory committees and on a number of boards and is currently a member of the Government's National Housing Supply Council and on the board of the not-for-profit National Housing Company. She holds a Bachelor of Economics from the Australian National University and a PhD in Economics from the University of Amsterdam.