The outlook for the euro, sterling and the dollar

Harald Benink

Professor of Banking and Finance

Tilburg University

Vítor Constâncio

Vice President (2010-18)

European Central Bank

Vice President, European Central Bank (2010-2018); Governor, Banco de Portugal (2000-2010)

Lord (Mervyn) King

Governor

Bank of England (2003-13)

Mervyn King served as Governor of the Bank of England from 2003 to June 2013. He is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics.  He was the Alan Greenspan Professor of Economics and Professor of Law at New York University from 2014-2022.

Born in 1948, Lord King studied at King’s College, Cambridge, and taught at Cambridge and Birmingham Universities before spells as Visiting Professor at both Harvard University and MIT.  From October 1984 he was Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics, where he founded the Financial Markets Group.  He is Chair of the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Yves Mersch

Member, Executive Board

European Central Bank (2012-20)

Yves Mersch was a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB)  from15 December 2012 until 15 December 2020 and vice-chair of the Single supervisory mechanism.

He was the first Governor of the Banque centrale du Luxembourg (BCL) from 1 June 1998 to 14 December 2012.As such he has been a member of the Governing Council and the General Council of the ECB since their creation in 1998,the longest-serving member of the Governing Council. After obtaining post-graduate degrees, first in international public law and then in political science at University Paris-Panthéon, he had a teaching assignment at the Université Paris-Sud. During this time he was admitted to the Bar of Luxembourg.

Mr Mersch started his career at the Luxembourg Ministry of Finance in 1975. He was seconded to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington in 1976 and joined the Permanent Representation of Luxembourg to the United Nations in New York in 1980.

Lord (Jim) O’Neill

Commercial Secretary

UK Treasury (2015-16)

Lord O’Neill is a cross bench peer in the House of Lords. He is Chair of Northern Gritstone, and Co-President of, and formerly Chair of, Northern Powerhouse Partnership.  He is a member of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Economic Advisory Council and is Chair of the NeoTest AMC working group launched by CGD.  His previous roles include, joint head of research at Goldman Sachs (1995–2000), its chief economist (2001–10) and chairman of its asset management division (2010–13); creator of the acronym BRIC; chair of the City Growth Commission (2014); chair of the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance [AMR] (2014-16); commercial secretary to the Treasury (2015-16); chair of Chatham House (2018-2021). He is a board member, and one of the founding trustees of educational charity SHINE.

Lord O’Neill is an honorary professor of economics, University of Manchester, and holds honorary degrees from the University of Sheffield, University of Manchester, University of Hull, University of London, University of Surrey and from City University London. He received his PhD from the University of Surrey and is now a Visiting Professor there.

Peter Praet

Member, Executive Board

European Central Bank (2011-19)

Former ECB Executive Board member and Chief economist from 2011 to 2019. He was responsible for preparing the monetary policy meetings and making the proposals for the policy decisions and communication. Previously he was Executive Board member of the central bank of Belgium, Chief of Staff of the Minister of Finance of Belgium, Chief economist of Générale de Banque (then Fortis Bank), economist at the International Monetary Fund, Professor of Economics at Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). He has served on several high-level international and European committees, in the BIS, the European Union and the OECD.

Peter Praet is currently Senior Fellow, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles. Distinguished Fellow CEPR.

Dimitar Radev

Governor

Bulgarian National Bank

Mark Sobel

Vice Chair and Chief Economist

OMFIF

Mark Sobel is Chief Economist and Vice Chair at OMFIF. Mark is a veteran US Treasury official, who was at the forefront of international financial diplomacy for two decades.

Mark, who represented the US on the International Monetary Fund executive board up to April 2018, has had a 40-year Treasury career with extensive around-the-world engagement.

He works with OMFIF in dealings with private and public sector organisations, speak regularly on international and US policy, and provide OMFIF members with insight and analysis.

Mark was Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary for international monetary and financial policy between 2000 and early 2015. He helped lead Treasury preparations for G7 and G20 finance minister and central bank governor meetings, formulated US positions at the IMF, and coordinated Treasury and regulatory agencies’ work in the Financial Stability Board.

Mark founded the US/EU Financial Market Regulatory Dialogue and chaired an international group of private and official sovereign debt experts that developed enhanced collective action clauses for sovereign debt restructuring. He managed the $100bn-plus Treasury Exchange Stabilization Fund and played a key role in US foreign exchange policy including coordinating the Treasury’s semi-annual foreign exchange report on China and other countries.

Ignazio Visco

Governor

Banca d’Italia (2011-23)

Ignazio Visco is Governor Emeritus of the Bank of Italy. After a long career with the Bank of Italy that began in 1972, Ignazio Visco was appointed Governor in November 2011 and renewed in November 2017; his second term ended on October 31, 2023. The following November he was awarded the title of Governor Emeritus by the Board of Directors of the Bank of Italy. 

As a governor Mr Visco was a member of the Governing Council and General Council of the European Central Bank, of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements and of the Boards of Governors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Asian Development Bank. 

From 1997 to 2002 he was Chief Economist and Head of the Economics Department of the OECD in Paris. Mr Visco graduated from the University of Rome and obtained a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. The author of numerous articles and books on economics and finance, he also taught Econometrics and Economic Policy at “Sapienza” University of Rome. 

Pawel Kowalewski

Senior Adviser

Narodowy Bank Polski

Mr. Kowalewski holds a Ph.D. and a Master of Economics from the University of Gdansk. His dissertation was on “The euro’s impact on the international monetary system”. He has been working in central banks for almost two decades. Currently he is affiliated with Narodowy Bank Polski. Previously he worked for the Deutsche Bundesbank and the Austrian OeNB (in cooperation with the scientific institute, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies.

Apart from the central banking community, Mr. Kowalewski also worked for the Ministry of Finance (where he was responsible for the management of the public debt), and in the academic world (University of Gdańsk and Vienna University of Economics and Business). In the 1990s he worked for the first private research institute, the Gdańsk Institute for Market Economics.

He is a native of Gdansk and Gdynia area in Poland, and speaks English, Spanish and German in addition to his native language.