SPEAKERS

György H Matolcsy

Magyar Nemzeti Bank

Governor

Dr György Matolcsy is serving his second term as the governor of Magyar Nemzeti Bank, the central bank of Hungary. He was nominated to the position in 2013 and his tenure was renewed in 2019 for another 6 years. Since 2013 he is also a member of the Fiscal Council. Prior to his current position he was minister of national economy from 2010 to 2013. In 2007 he founded the Hungarian Economic Development Institute, which he headed for 3 years. Between 2000-2002 he was Hungary’s minister of economic affairs. Mr. Matolcsy is the author of the Széchenyi Plan, a comprehensive strategy aiming to promote economic growth in Hungary. He was director of the Institute for Growth (2002-2010) and its predecessor organisation, the Privatisation Research Institute from 1995 to 2000. Since the end of 1998 he has been a member of the economic advisory body of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Starting in 1991 he spent 3 years as a member of the Board of Governors at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) representing the Hungarian Government. In 1990 he joined the Office of the Prime Minister and served as the personal economic advisor to Prime Minister József Antall. Acknowledging his efforts in promoting economic development in Hungary, he was awarded the Barankovics Commemorative Coin in 2013. He graduated at Karl Marx University of Economics in 1977 and obtained his Doctorate degree in 1984.

Mr. Matolcsy is actively involved in educational activities. He is a frequent lecturer at top foreign and Hungarian universities. Since 2024, Mr. Matolcsy has been an honorary professor at Fudan University and John von Neumann University and an honorary citizen of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. In previous years, he has also received multiple distinctions, including honorary doctorates from the University of Debrecen and the University of Kaposvár, honorary membership of the Fudan Development Institute (FDDI) at Fudan University, and honorary membership on FDDI International Advisory Board of the Shanghai Forum.

Mr. Matolcsy is the author of numerous publications, articles, and books. His most recent publications include Hungarian Vision and Strategy, 2030/40 (2024) (Magyar jövőkép és stratégia, 2010-2030; 2023); Olvasó-Napló I.-II. (2023); Sustainable GDP - Global Discussion Paper (2024) published by the MNB; New Sustainable Economics – Global discussion paper (2022) published by the MNB, and the book titled On the Edge of Times (Az idő mintázatai; 2022) which collects his short thoughts written between 2019 and 2022 as feedbacks for articles of remarkable Western thinkers and journalists. His other books include Economic Balance and Growth (Egyensúly és Növekedés), for which the second edition was published in 2021 (first edition in 2015), The American Empire VS. The European Dream - The Failure of the Euro (Amerikai Birodalom vs. Európai Álom – Az euró kudarca; 2019), Bringing Up the Rear (Éllovasból sereghajtó; 2008), American Empire (Amerikai birodalom; 2004), and Our Living Memories (Élő emlékeink; 2003).

Christine Lagarde

European Central Bank

President

Christine Lagarde has been President of the ECB since November 2019

Between 2011 and 2019 she served as Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. Prior to that she served as French Minister of Economy and Finance from 2007 to 2011, having been Trade Secretary from 2005 to 2007. A lawyer by background, she practised for 20 years with international law firm Baker McKenzie, of which she became Global Chair in 1999. She was the first woman to hold each of these positions.

In 2022 President Lagarde was ranked the second most influential woman in the world by Forbes. She has also been recognised by TIME as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. She was named Officer in the French Order of the Legion of Honor in April 2012 and Commander in the National Order of Merit in May 2021.

Jeffrey D Sachs

Director of Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University

Professor of Economics

Jeffres Sachs is a world-renowned economics professor, bestselling author, innovative educator, and global leader in sustainable development.

Sachs is widely recognized for bold and effective strategies to address complex challenges including the escape from extreme poverty, the global battle against human-induced climate change, international debt and financial crises, national economic reforms, and the control of pandemic and epidemic diseases.    

Sachs serves as the Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, where he holds the rank of University Professor, the university’s highest academic rank. Sachs was Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University from 2002 to 2016. He is President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Co-Chair of the Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition, academician of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences at the Vatican, Commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Development, Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah Honorary Distinguished Professor at Sunway University, and SDG Advocate for UN Secretary General António Guterres. From 2001-18, Sachs served as Special Advisor to UN Secretaries-General Kofi Annan (2001-7), Ban Ki-moon (2008-16), and António Guterres (2017-18).  

Sachs has authored and edited numerous books, including three New York Times bestsellers: The End of Poverty (2005), Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (2008), and The Price of Civilization (2011). Other books include To Move the World: JFK’s Quest for Peace (2013), The Age of Sustainable Development (2015), Building the New American Economy: Smart, Fair & Sustainable (2017), A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism (2018), The Ages of Globalization: Geography, Technology, and Institutions (2020), and most recently, Ethics in Action for Sustainable Development (2022).

Sachs is the 2022 recipient of the Tang Prize in Sustainable Development and was the co-recipient of the 2015 Blue Planet Prize, the leading global prize for environmental leadership. He was twice named among Time magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders. Sachs has received 42 honorary doctorates, and his recent awards include the 2022 Tang Prize in Sustainable Development, the Legion of Honor by decree of the President of the Republic of France, and the Order of the Cross from the President of Estonia.

Prior to joining Columbia, Sachs spent over twenty years as a professor at Harvard University, most recently as the Galen L. Stone Professor of International Trade. A native of Detroit, Michigan, Sachs received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees at Harvard.

Robert Holzmann

Oesterreichische Nationalbank

Governor

Robert Holzmann is an Austrian economist, Governor of the Austrian Central Bank und member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (since 2019), and elected member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (since 2014). He holds honorary positions at the South-Western University in Economics and Finance, Chengdu, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur and Univer-sity of New South Wales, Sydney. Before his return to academia in 2011, he held various positions at the World Bank including for 12 years Sector Director and acting Senior Vice President. Before joining the World Bank in 1997 he was academic in Austria and Germany, and senior economist at the IMF and OECD. He has published 39 books and over 200 articles on financial, fiscal and social policy issues. He has travelled to over 90 countries in the world.

Peter Kažimír

National Bank of Slovakia

Governor

Peter Kažimír has been the Governor of the National Bank of Slovakia since June 2019 and, in this capacity, a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank. Prior to as-suming the role of Governor at the central bank, he served as Finance Minister from 2012 to 2019. During this period, in the latter half of 2016, as part of the Slovak Presidency of the Council of the European Union, he officially represented the European Union and the Eurogroup at the G20 and G7 meetings.

Boris Vujčić

Hrvatska narodna banka

Governor

In July 2012, Mr Vujčić became Governor of the Croatian National Bank for a six-year term of office, then he was re-appointed as Governor in July 2018 and re-appointed for the third time in July 2024.

He has been a Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Vienna Initiative 2.0 since 2016, a member of the General Council of the ECB and a member of the General Board of the ESRB since 2013. Since 1.1.2023. Governor Vujčić is a member of the Governing Council of the ECB.

Mr Vujčić won recognitions as the best governor in Central and Eastern Europe by Emerging Markets magazine in 2018, as well as the best world governor by The Banker (Financial Times) in 2019, and in 2021, he was rewarded with the Lamfalussy Award for lifetime achievement in the field of finance.

Boris Vujčić holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Zagreb. He has been an associate professor at the Zagreb Faculty of Economics since 2003. At the Zagreb Faculty of Science, Department of Mathematics, he has lectured as visiting professor since 2004.

Alan J. Auerbach

University of California, Berkeley

Professor of Economics and Law

Alan J. Auerbach is the Robert D. Burch Professor of Economics and Law, Director of the Burch Center for Tax Policy and Public Finance, and former Chair of the Economics Department at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and previously taught at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, where he also served as Economics Department Chair. Professor Auerbach was Deputy Chief of Staff of the U.S. Joint Committee on Taxation in 1992 and has been an adviser to several government agencies and institutions. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, having previously served as an Executive Committee Member and Vice President of that association and as Editor of its Journal of Economic Perspectives and American Economic Journal: Economic Policy. Professor Auerbach is a past President of the Western Economic Association International and the National Tax Association, from which he received the Daniel M. Holland Medal. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Econometric Society, and the National Academy of Social Insurance.

Jean Boivin

BlackRock Investment Institute

Managing Director

Jean Boivin, PhD, Managing Director, is the Head of the BlackRock Investment Institute (BII). He is responsible for harnessing BlackRock’s investment expertise and generating proprietary research to help portfolio managers and clients navigate financial markets. Dr. Boivin oversees BII’s collaboration with BlackRock portfolio managers and investment experts, helping drive the firm’s investment views and its research on macroeconomics, portfolio construction and mega forces including geopolitics and the energy transition. BII’s strategist network and publications team bring these insights to clients and the media globally. Dr. Boivin is a member of BlackRock's Global Operating Committee and the Global Executive Investment Subcommittee. Prior to joining BlackRock in 2014, Dr. Boivin served as Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada and Associate Deputy Finance Minister, serving as Canada's representative at the G7, G20 and Financial Stability Board. Dr. Boivin has also taught at Columbia Business School and HEC Montréal, and has published widely on macroeconomics, monetary policy and finance. Dr. Boivin earned a B.Sc. degree from the Université de Montréal, and a PhD from Princeton University in economics.

Sylvester Eijffinger

Visiting Professor of Economics at Harvard University

Professor of Financial Economics at Tilburg University

Sylvester Eijffinger is Professor of Financial Economics and Jean Monnet Professor of European Financial and Monetary Integration at Tilburg University and President of Tilburg University Society and as well as Visiting Professor of Economics at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA.

Professor Eijffinger has a keen interest in monetary and fiscal policy and European economic and financial integration, and was Visiting Scholar at the Deutsche Bundesbank, the Bank of Japan, the Banque de France, the Bank of England, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Wim Duisenberg Research Fellow at the European Central Bank, as well as Special Advisor to the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission. He has published widely in prestigious economics journals, such as the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, the Journal of Banking and Finance, the Journal of Public Economics, Oxford Economic Papers, the Journal of International Economics, the Journal of International Money and Finance, and the European Journal of Political Economy. Professor Eijffinger is editor of many professional journals and one of the founding fathers of the European Banking Center in Tilburg. Furthermore, he was many years the Programme Director of the CEPR European Summer Institute. He was during three years a member of the Council of Economic Advisers of the Dutch Parliament and he was fifteen years a member of the Monetary Experts Panel of the European Parliament for the formal Monetary Dialogue with the ECB.

Marcello Estevão

Institute of International Finance

Chief Economist

Marcello Estevão leads IIF’s world-renowned team of regional macroeconomists in the development, coordination, and production of IIF’s economic analysis. Dr. Estevão has many years of experience as a policymaker and researcher in international and national institutions both in the public and private sectors. He has led work in a wide range of topics, going from sovereign debt crises, fiscal policy issues, climate financing and economic forecasting to obstacles for higher emerging market and developing countries’ productivity growth, inflation risks, capital flow volatility, and macroeconomic stabilization strategies.

Before joining the IIF, Dr Estevão worked as Senior Advisor for Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions and Global Director of Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment at the World Bank; Deputy Minister for International Affairs at the Ministry of Finance in Brazil, serving as Brazil’s G20 Deputy and leader of numerous international negotiations and positioning at major multilateral institutions; Chairman of the New Development Bank's Board of Directors; Board member of Brazil’s third largest pension fund; Chief Economist for North America and Oceania at Tudor Investment Corporation; economist, researcher, and manager at the International Monetary Fund (IMF); researcher and member of the US forecasting team at the Research and Statistics Division of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board.

Dr. Estevão holds a PhD in Economics from MIT and Masters and BA degrees in economics from PUC-RJ, Brazil.

Jacob A Frenkel

Former Governor of the Bank of Israel

Chairman Emeritus of G30

Dr. Jacob A. Frenkel is Chairman Emeritus of the Group of Thirty (G-30) and Chairman of the financial firm Plus 500. Previously, he was Chairman of JPMorgan International (2009-2020), Vice Chairman of AIG (2004-9), Chairman of Merrill Lynch International (2000-2004), and two-terms Governor of the Bank of Israel (1991-2000). Previously, he was the Economic Counselor and Director of Research, at the IMF (1987-91), and Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago (1973-87). He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society, a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Distinguished Fellow of the CEPR, a Global Member of the Trilateral Commission, and a member of the Board of Directors of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He also served as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank (1995-96), and as Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (1999-2000). During 2009-19 he served on the corporate boards of Boston Properties Inc., and of Loews Corporation.

Dr. Frenkel is a Laureate of the 2002 Israel Prize in Economics, and is a recipient of several Honorary Doctoral degrees, decorations and awards from various governments and universities.

Harold James

Princeton University

Professor of History and International Affairs

Harold James, the Claude and Lore Kelly Professor in European Studies at Princeton University, is Professor of History and International Affairs at the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), and an associate at the Bendheim Center for Finance.

His books include a study of the interwar depression in Germany, The German Slump (1986); International Monetary Cooperation Since Bretton Woods (1996), and The End of Globalization (2001). He was also coauthor of a history of Deutsche Bank (1995), which won the Financial Times Global Business Book Award in 1996.

He has won the Helmut Schmidt and the Ludwig Erhard prizes. Recent books include:  The Euro and the Battle of Economic Ideas (with Markus K. Brunnermeier and Jean-Pierre Landau), Princeton University Press, 2016; Making A Modern Central Bank: The Bank of England 1979-2003, Cambridge University Press 2020; The War of Words: A Glossary of Globalization, Yale University Press 2021; Seven Crashes: The Economic Crises That Shaped Globalization, Yale University Press, 2023. His most recent book was published in Chinese, Korean, and German, and shortlisted for the 2024 Lionel Gelber Prize. He writes a monthly column for Project Syndicate.

Jacques de Larosière

former Governor of the Banque de France

former Managing Director of the IMF

Jacques de Larosière is a Former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (1978-1987). After beginning his career as a member of the Inspectorate General of Finances, he was Director of the Trésor (1973-1978), Governor of the Banque de France (1987-1993), President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (1993-1998), President of the Observatoire de l'Epargne Européenne and of the think tank EUROFI, is currently Advisor to BNP Paribas’s Chairman. Mr de Larosière is a former student of the ENA and a graduate of the IEP (Institut d’Etudes Politiques of Paris). He is a member of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques of the Institut de France.

Foreign Policy Institute of John Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)

Senior Fellow

Mr. Lipsky is a Senior Fellow of the Foreign Policy Institute of Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Previously, he was first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund during 2006-2011, and served as acting managing director during May-July, 2011.

Mr. Lipsky currently is the co-chair of the Aspen Institute's Program on the World Economy, and a vice-chair of the Bretton Woods Committee. He is a member of the executive committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research, of the advisory boards of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) and of the Rock Creek Group, is a director of the American Council on Germany, and is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Lipsky received a Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University.

Andréa M Maechler

Bank for International Settlements (BIS)

Deputy General Manager

Andréa M Maechler became Deputy General Manager of the BIS on 1 September 2023.

Ms Maechler was a member of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) from 2015 until 2023. At the SNB, she was responsible for the Money Market and Foreign Exchange, Asset Management, Banking Operations and Information Technology portfolios.

Prior to joining the SNB, she was Deputy Division Chief in the Global Markets Analysis Division of the International Monetary Fund. She has worked at other international organisations, including the European Systemic Risk Board and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Devel-opment.

She was Chair of the Global Foreign Exchange Committee of central banks from December 2021 to June 2023. Ms Maechler has a PhD and a master's degree in International Economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Diploma of Higher Studies (DES) in International Rela-tions from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland.

Ivo Maes

Université Catholique de Louvain

Professor, Robert Triffin Chair

Ivo Maes is a Professor, Robert Triffin Chair, at the Université Catholique de Louvain and a Non-resident fellow at Bruegel. He retired in 2021 as a Senior Advisor at the Economics and Research Department of the National Bank of Belgium. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and a M.Sc. in Economics from the London School of Economics. In 2003, he was a member of the Committee for Institutional Reform of the West African Monetary Union. From May 2015 to June 2018, he served as the President of the Council of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought. He has been a visiting professor at several universities, among them Duke University (USA) and the Université de Paris-Sorbonne. He has published extensively on European monetary integration and the history of central banking and monetary theory. His book Robert Triffin : A Life (with Ilaria Pasotti, Oxford University Press, 2021) received the Best Book Award of the Italian and the European societies for the history of economic thought. In May 2018, he was awarded the Camille Gutt Prize for his scientific publications on money and finance.

Univ.Prof. Dr. Dr.h.c. Ewald Nowotny

Former Governor of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank

DPresident of the Austrian Society for European Politics

Mr Nowotny is President of the Austrian Society for European Poilitics. Before taking on his current position in 2019, he was the Governor of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank and a Member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank between 2008 and 2019. Before 2008 Mr Nowotny held a number of high levelpositions in financial institutions. Mr. Nowotny was the CEO of the Austrian BAWAG P.S.K. banking group from 2006 to 2007, served as Vice-President and Member of the Management Committee of the European Investment Bank (EIB) in Luxembourg between 1999 and 2003. Mr. Nowotny was a member of the National Council from 1978 to 1999. He is a full professor at the Vienna University of Economics and Business since 1982 and was a full professor at the Technical University of Darmstadt. Between 1971 and 1972 he taught at the Harvard University and from 1967 to 1971 Mr Nowotny was the assistant to prof. Kurt W. Rotschild at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz.

Barnabás Virág

Magyar Nemzeti Bank

Deputy Governor

Barnabás Virág has been Deputy Governor of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank since 22 June 2020 Deputy Governor of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank responsible for monetary policy, financial stability, and international relations. From 2015 until his appointment as Deputy Governor he served as Executive Director of the MNB responsible for monetary policy and economic analysis. Between 2013 and 2015 he was Director of the MNB responsible for economic analysis. From 2003 he worked as an Analyst at the MNB. Prior to that he taught at the Budapest University of Economics and State Administration (today Budapest Corvinus University) and was an Analyst at the Ministry of Finance. In 2017 he was awarded the Popovics Award. He completed his studies at the Budapest University of Economics and State Administration.

Dániel Palotai

International Monetary Fund

Alternate Executive Director

Dániel Palotai is an economist. He earned his Master’s degree at the Corvinus University of Budapest. He began his professional career at Magyar Nemzeti Bank, the central bank of Hungary, then from 2007, he went on to work at the European Central Bank. From November 2010 he was Head of the Macroeconomic Policy Department of the Ministry for National Economy and was actively involved in the development of Hungary’s Structural Reform Program. In March 2013 Dániel Palotai re-joined the Magyar Nemzeti Bank to become Executive Director and the Bank’s Chief Economist. In 2015, he received the Popovics Sándor award, which is a prestigious recognition awarded to young economists under the age of 45. He was a member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the European Central Bank and a member of the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) of the European Union.

In 2020 Dániel Palotai was elected as Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and has represented the Constituency of the Central and Eastern European countries. Remaining a Member of the Executive Board, since November 2024 he continues to serve the same Constituency as Alternate Executive Director.

György Szapáry

Magyar Nemzeti Bank

Chief Advisor to the Governor

György Szapáry has a Ph.D. in economics from the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. In 1965-1966, he worked at the EU Commission in Brussels. From 1967 to 1990, he worked at the IMF in Washington, D.C., while between 1990 and 1993, he was the IMF’s Senior Resident Representative in Hungary. Between 1993 and 2007, with a short break as Adviser to the Governor, he was Deputy Governor of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank. In 2008-2010, he was visiting professor of economics at the Central European University in Budapest and served as a member of the Board of Directors of the OTP Bank. From January 2011 to January 2015, he was Ambassador of Hungary to the United States. Currently he is Chief Adviser to the Governor of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank. He is doctor honoris causa of the University of Miskolc, Honorary professor of Budapest Corvinus University and recipient of the insignia of Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, recipient of Central Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit.