Juan Carlos Artigas leads Investment Research in the US for the World Gold Council. In this position, he is responsible for conducting proprietary research for the organization and publishing research notes on the role of gold in investor’s portfolios, its risk management characteristics and the fundamental drivers of gold’s supply and demand. He is a regular presenter at industry conferences and is a sought after speaker by institutional and private investors who seek his expertise on the strategic case for gold.

Juan Carlos previously worked for JPMorgan Securities, as a US and Emerging Markets fixed income strategist, where he oversaw the US cross-sector strategy first and he later led the Latin American sovereign debt and Mexico local market strategy effort. In this role he created a Latin American sovereign debt monitor and contributed to leading US and Emerging Markets strategy publications. Prior to his work at JPMorgan, Juan Carlos acted as Lecturer and Consultant at the University of Chicago, and before that he served as an Advisor to the General Director of Planning, Programming and Budgeting at the Ministry of Education in Mexico City.

Juan Carlos holds a BS in Actuarial Sciences from ITAM (Mexico), and an MBA and MS in Statistics from the University of Chicago. He is also a candidate for Doctor of Philosophy in Econometrics and Statistics from the University of Chicago.

 

Gerald Alain P. Chen-Young has been chief investment officer for the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) since 2002. He manages three investment portfolios totaling approximately $1 billion. The largest is a dedicated, fixed-income portfolio representing a special scholarship program created in conjunction with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and is managed using an active management strategy of immunizing cash flows, similar to that of a pension plan; the second is a traditional endowment portfolio that is fully diversified across multiple asset classes; and the third is a shortterm, treasury-type of portfolio that typically has staggered maturities across a variety of shortterm instruments. Prior to UNCF, Gerald spent just under seven years with UBS/PaineWebber, first in institutional sales and then in retail brokering. Before UBS/PaineWebber, he worked in the commercial banking division of Riggs National Bank in Washington D.C., and then briefly as a teaching assistant in the department of economics at York University in Canada. Gerald holds post-graduate degrees in economics from the London School of Economics (Dip. Econ.) and York University (MA in monetary economics), and in law from the University of Miami (JD) and the Washington College of Law (LLM in law and government). He completed his undergraduate studies in economics at American University in Washington, D.C. with honors.

 

Natalie leads the Government Affairs team, which works with policymakers and influencers globally, such as central bankers, politicians, regulators, academics and the financial services industry, to equip them with the tools and research they need to make an informed decision about the role of gold.

Prior to Government Affairs, Natalie worked in the World Gold Council’s Investment Research and Marketing team. Her responsibilities included augmenting the strategic case for gold in investment portfolios, catering for the needs of private banking professionals, family offices and endowments, institutional investors and their respective advisors.

Natalie has 10 years experience as an economist and has worked on the trading floors at The Royal Bank of Scotland and JP Morgan Chase. She began her career as a foreign-exchange trader at JP Morgan Chase on the emerging markets desk. Natalie holds a BSc in Economics from Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London and an MBA from City University Business School (CASS), London. 

 

Mr. Foster joined Van Eck Global in 1996 as a precious metals mining analyst. Since 1998, he has been the portfolio manager of the firm’s flagship fund, International Investors Gold Fund. From 1993 to 1996, Mr. Foster was a Senior Geologist at Pinson Mining Company where he managed an on-site geology department and conceived and implemented a comprehensive exploration program on a 35 square-mile land position, he has over 15 years of experience in geology and mining. From 1993 to 1996, he established an Autocad-based geologic information system that incorporates geological, geo-chemical, geophysical, topographic, and drilling data compiled over a twenty-year period. From 1988 to 1993, as a Mine Exploration Geologist with Pinson, Mr. Foster planned and supervised up to 30,000 feet of exploration drilling per year. Prior to this, Mr. Foster was an Exploration Geologist with Lacana Gold Inc. in Reno, Nevada.  

Mr. Foster graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. in geology from Tennessee Technological University in 1982. He received an MS in geology from the Mackey School of Mines and an MBA from the University of Nevada-Reno, both in 1988. Mr. Foster has appeared in Barron’s, The Wall Street Journal, The Wall Street Reporter, Reuters TV, CNBC, Fox News, Bloomberg TV, and CNN. Mr. Foster is a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts’ Non-ferrous Metals Group, The Society of Economic Geologists, The Society of Mining Engineers, and The Geological Society of Nevada.

 

John Hathaway, CFA, Senior Managing Director, is the Portfolio Manager of all Gold Equity products and strategies at TAM. Mr. Hathaway joined Tocqueville in 1997 and is also a Director of Tocqueville Management Corp., the General Partner of Tocqueville Asset Management. Prior to joining Tocqueville, Mr. Hathaway founded and managed Hudson Capital Advisors followed by seven years with Oak Hall Advisors as the Chief Investment Officer in 1986. In 1976, he joined the investment advisory firm David J. Greene and Company, where he became a Partner. Mr. Hathaway began his career in 1970 as an Equity Analyst with Spencer Trask & Co. Mr. Hathaway earned a B.A. from Harvard College and an M.B.A. from the University of Virginia. He also holds the CFA designation.

 

Richard Holliday joined the World Gold Council in 2001 and now leads the Technology sector, the remit of which includes research aimed at uncovering new technological and industrial uses for gold, as well as initiatives to protect the use of gold in the electronics industry.

Prior to joining the World Gold Council, Richard was Principal Engineer at Land Rover Design and Engineering, responsible for advanced materials and manufacturing technologies in new vehicles. A Chartered Engineer and Scientist, Richard has a doctorate in materials engineering from the University of Wales and is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, where he recently served on Council.

Richard is a regular speaker at international conferences relating to the industrial uses of gold.

 

Rodney Lake is a Senior Investment Officer in The George Washington University’s (GW) Investment Office.  The office is responsible for managing the University’s $1.3 billion endowment fund.  Mr. Lake’s responsibilities include identifying investment opportunities and recommending implementation strategies including the use of derivatives across all asset classes.  Additionally, Mr. Lake monitors existing investment managers, performs due diligence for new investment opportunities, monitors global economic, political, and geopolitical factors as well as tracks capital flows in the public and private markets.  Mr. Lake also serves as an instructor for Applied Portfolio Management in GW’s MBA program.  The focus of this course is a student-managed $1.4 million portfolio within University’s Endowment Fund.

Previously, Mr. Lake was a Senior Financial Analyst in the Executive Vice President and Treasurer’s Office at GW.  In this capacity he served as an internal consultant for projects ranging from financial and optimization modeling to developing spin-out strategies and valuations for internal businesses.  Prior to joining GW he was a Financial Analyst in the mortgage division of California Federal Bank performing portfolio valuations for acquisitions and divestitures. 

Mr. Lake graduated cum laude, from West Virginia Wesleyan College with a B.S. degree in business.  He attended graduate school at The George Washington University and received an MBA in finance.

 

David Lamb joined the World Gold Council in July 2010. David has overall responsibility for the strategic development of the gold jewellery market worldwide with a particular focus in building the premium market in the USA.

Prior to his appointment to the World Gold Council, David was an Executive Director of the Diamond Trading Company (DTC), the sales and marketing arm of De Beers, as Worldwide Marketing Director and subsequently Chief Strategy Officer. There he was widely credited with significantly increasing consumer demand for diamond jewellery, principally through a series of powerful global innovations such as the Trilogy concept (“For your past, your present, your future”), which he devised.

Previously David spent more than 20 years at leading international advertising agencies, notably JWT Worldwide where he was Executive Vice President and held various leadership positions including Head of Worldwide Account Planning and latterly Head of Multinational Clients.

 

Everett B. (“Skip”) Miller, III, Vice President – Alternative Investments, joined the YMCA Retirement Fund in September, 2003 with responsibility to design and initiate an ab-initio real estate investment program, using various funds as the investment vehicle.  Since then, Skip has also been assigned the responsibility for researching and initiating direct investment programs in other hard assets: oil, gas, commodities, and timber.  Previously, Skip was Chief Operating Officer at Commonfund Realty, Inc., where he also designed a program for the future investment needs of Commonfund’s clientele.  Prior to that time, Skip was the Principal Investment Officer for Real Estate and for Alternative Investments at the State of Connecticut Retirement and Trust Funds, also serving on the internal Investment Committee.  Skip spent 18 years with the Travelers Realty Investment Company (and/or its predecessors) in a variety of positions including heading the New York office as General Manager, and while in the Corporate Office, serving as the fiduciary for pension funds entrusted to the Travelers.  Skip holds a BA from Yale University.

 

Dr. Murenbeeld graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1972 with a PhD in international finance. He then joined the Faculty of Management Studies at the University of Toronto to develop the international business curriculum in the MBA program. He left the Faculty in 1978 to start M. Murenbeeld & Associates Inc. The company moved from Toronto to Victoria in 1989, where it continued to consult international clients on developments in the gold, foreign exchange and credit markets, and international economic trends before it was acquired by DundeeWealth Inc. in July, 2004.

The principals of DundeeWealth Economics have nearly 70 years of combined experience providing independent analysis and advice on economic and financial developments, with special emphasis on North American interest rate and currency market trends – and on trends in the gold market. Their reports include the Economic Monitor, which forecasts general economic trends occurring in North America and abroad, the Gold Monitor, which forecasts gold market trends, the Financial Monitor, which forecasts economic, interest rate and foreign exchange market trends, and the Bond and Stock Monitor, which assists with decisions related to asset allocation.

Frequently quoted in the financial press and a regular speaker at international precious metals and foreign exchange market conferences, Dr. Murenbeeld has over 30 years of independent consulting experience in the gold, currency and credit markets and is currently also an adjunct professor (international finance) in the Faculty of Business at the University of Victoria.

 

Liam Pleven is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, covering the commodities markets. He previously covered the insurance industry, including the near-collapse of American International Group Inc. amid the financial crisis in 2008. Before joining The Journal in December 2005, Mr. Pleven worked for Newsday, where he served in a number of positions, including Moscow Bureau Chief. He has reported from more than a dozen foreign countries, Afghanistan and Iraq among them. While at Newsday, Mr. Pleven was part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for deadline reporting for coverage of the destruction of TWA Flight 800. He is a graduate of Swarthmore College.

 

Alix Steel joined TheStreet in 2007 and has covered everything from small business to personal finance to general markets to gold and precious metals. Alix’s work as a multimedia reporter can be seen on TheStreet, T3Live.com, ABC Money Matters, WRKO radio and the John Batchelor Show. In addition to being a reporter, Alix has held positions in film production, theater direction, legal administration and teaching. Alix has a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University and has taken continuing education classes in business journalism at NYU. Follow Alix on Twitter @adsteel.

 

Jason Toussaint joined the World Gold Council in April, 2009. Jason is responsible for the World Gold Council’s US operations and Investment Sector. He is also the Managing Director and Principal Executive Officer of World Gold Trust Services, the Sponsor of the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), the world’s largest gold exchange traded fund.

Jason has worked in the investment management industry for more than 17 years with a focus on portfolio management and quantitative strategy. Most recently, he was Senior Vice President and Senior Investment Strategist at Northern Trust Global Investments (NTGI) based in London.

Jason previously was based in Hong Kong, where he managed the Asia Pacific region for Morgan Stanley Capital International. He was also a Fixed Income Portfolio Manager at JP Morgan Investment Management in New York.

Jason received a bachelor’s degree in Civil & Environmental Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and received an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School Of Business.

 

Joe Wickwire is a research analyst and portfolio manager for Fidelity Management & Research Company (FMRCo.), the investment advisor for Fidelity’s family of mutual funds. Fidelity Investments is a leading provider of investment management, retirement planning, portfolio guidance, brokerage, benefits outsourcing and other financial products and services to more than 20 million individuals, institutions and financial intermediaries.  Mr. Wickwire currently manages Fidelity Select Gold Portfolio, Fidelity Advisor Gold and Fidelity Global Commodity Stock Fund.  He assumed management responsibilities for Fidelity Select Gold and Fidelity Advisor Gold in August 2007 and Fidelity Global Commodity Stock in March 2009.

Prior to joining Fidelity in June 2007, Mr. Wickwire spent 20 years at Wells Capital Management (formerly Evergreen Investments) in Boston.  Most recently Mr. Wickwire managed a precious metals fund for Evergreen Investment Management Company from 2004 to 2007, now Wells Fargo.  Prior to that, he served as a director and an analyst from 1999 to 2004.  During his time in this role, his analytical responsibilities included the Canadian, Australian and New Zealand equity markets, as well as the precious metal, base metal and paper industries.

Born in 1964, Mr. Wickwire received a bachelor of arts degree in history from Boston College in 1986 and a master of business administration degree with a concentration in investment finance and international business from Bentley University in 1993.  He is a member of the Boston Security Analysts Society and holds his NASD series 7, 6 and 63 licenses.  Mr. Wickwire is a CFA charterholder.