Date: 13th May 2025 Time: 9.00am-5:15pm
Venue: London School of Economics
Organisers: Enrique Sentana (CEMFI) and Dimitri Vayanos (LSE Finance, FMG)
This exciting conference was held in honour of Sushil Wadhwani, and it consisted of two sessions corresponding to two main themes of Sushil’s work: monetary policy, and pensions, long-term investment and growth.
Downloads
Pensions, Bank Regulation and Financial Markets - click on title to download presentation slides
Keynote address by David Scharfstein (Harvard Business School)
Biographies
Dame Kate Barker
Dame Kate Barker is Chair of Universities Superannuation Scheme Limited. She’s also a member of the Investment Committee and Governance and Nominations Committee. Previously she was Chief Economic Adviser at the CBI before becoming a member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee. She has extensive pensions industry experience, having been Chair of the USS Board of the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme , and a pension trustee for the Yorkshire Building Society.
Sir Charles (Charlie) Bean
Sir Charles (Charlie) Bean is Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and Chairman of the Centre for Economic Policy Research. He is a former member of the Budget Responsibility Committee at the Office for Budget Responsibility, overseeing the production of the agency's economic forecasts and in 2016, at the behest of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, he also delivered a major review of the quality, delivery and governance of UK economic statistics. Previous to this, he was Deputy Governor for Monetary Policy at the Bank of England, serving on both the Monetary Policy Committee (Vice-Chair) and the Financial Policy Committee.
Torsten Bell MP
Torsten Bell MP is Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury) and Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions). He is has been the Labour MP for Swansea West since 2024. Previously, Torsten was the Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation from 2015 to 2024. Prior to leading the Resolution Foundation, Torsten worked in HM Treasury, as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers during the financial crisis, and as Director of Policy for the Labour Party. He is the author of Great Britain? How We Get Our Future Back (2024).
Stephen G. Cecchetti
Stephen G. Cecchetti is the Rosen Chair in International Finance at the Brandeis International Business School, Vice Chair of the Advisory Scientific Committee of the European Systemic Risk Board, a Research Associate of National Bureau of Economic Research, and a Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research. He has previously served as economic adviser and head of the monetary and economic department at the Bank for International Settlements and as Executive Vice President and Director of Research at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Amil Dasgupta
Amil Dasgupta has been Professor of Finance at LSE since 2016. He is Director of the Financial Markets Group and Academic Director of the Sustainable Finance Initiative within the Global School of Sustainability. He has a distinguished research track record in the areas of financial markets, institutional investors, and corporate governance and regularly publishes in top academic journals. He is a Research Member at the European Corporate Governance Institute, research advisor to the Reserve Bank of India, and academic visitor to the Bank of England.
Chris Giles
Chris Giles is the economics commentator of the Financial Times. He writes a fortnightly column and the weekly newsletter, Chris Giles on Central Banks. Previously, he was economics editor and served as a leader writer. He is an Honorary Professor of Practice at the UCL Policy Lab. Before joining the FT, he worked for the BBC, Ofcom and the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Juanita González-Uribe
Juanita González-Uribe is an Associate Professor in Finance at the London School of Economics. Her research focuses on entrepreneurship, private equity, and innovation, with a focus on Latin America, the UK, and the US. She is a research fellow at the Centre for Economic and Policy Research, where she co-organizes the WE_ARE Women in Economics seminar series. She is a Co-director of LSE’s Financial Markets Group and heads the consultancy Positive Impact MPG. She serves on the advisory boards of Startup Coalition and the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association.
Charles Goodhart CBE
Charles Goodhart, CBE, FBA was the Norman Sosnow Professor of Banking and Finance at the London School of Economics and Political Science until 2002; he is now an Emeritus Professor in the Financial Markets Group there. Before joining LSE in 1985, he worked at the Bank of England for seventeen years as a Monetary Adviser, becoming a Chief Adviser in 1980. During 1986, Goodhart helped to found, with Mervyn King, the Financial Markets Group at LSE, which began its operation at the start of 1987. In 1997, he was appointed one of the outside independent members of the Bank of England’s new Monetary Policy Committee until May 2000.
Rt Hon Sir Jeremy Hunt MP
Jeremy Hunt is the Conservative Member of Parliament for the Godalming and Ash constituency. He has been an MP since 2005 and previously represented South West Surrey. He has held many senior government positions, including most recently Chancellor of the Exchequer, and has previously served as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport.
Paul Johnson CBE
Paul Johnson CBE is the Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies. He is a visiting professor in the UCL Policy Lab and at the UCL department of economics. He was for 10 years a member of the UK Climate Change Committee, and has served on the council of the ESRC and of the Royal Economic Society. Previously he served as chief economist at the Department for Education and as director of public spending at HM Treasury. He is a columnist for The Times and in 2023 published the Sunday Times bestseller “Follow the Money”.
Huw Pill
Huw Pill is Chief Economist and Executive Director for Monetary Analysis and Research at the Bank of England where is also a member of the Monetary Policy Committee. Previously, Huw was Chief European Economist at Goldman Sachs (2011-18). Before that, he worked at the European Central Bank in Frankfurt (1998 – 2011). Huw was also a member of the faculty at Harvard Business School (1995-98, 2001-04, 2019-21). At the start of his career, he worked as an economist in the Bank of England’s then Economics Division (1990-92).
David Scharfstein
David Scharfstein is the Edmund Cogswell Converse Professor of Finance and Banking at Harvard Business School, where he has taught since 2003. He is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a Fellow of the American Finance Association. He has served as a senior advisor to the U.S. Treasury Secretary and was a member of the Financial Advisory Roundtable of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and president of the American Finance Association. From 1987- 2003, Scharfstein was a finance professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Enrique Sentana
Enrique Sentana has been Professor of Economics at CEMFI in Madrid since 1992. During this time, he has also been affiliated as a Researcher with the London School of Economics (LSE) Financial Markets Group and CEPR. Prior to that, he was a Lecturer at the LSE Economics Department. He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and a former President of both the Spanish Finance Association (2007-2008) and the Spanish Economic Association (2006). He holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Alicante, an MSc in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics from the London School of Economics and a PhD in Economics from the same institution.
Silvana Tenreyro CBE
Silvana Tenreyro CBE is Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics, Fellow of the British Academy and Fellow of the Econometric Society. She is a former External Member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, and former President of the European Economic Association (EEA). Currently, she serves as Director of the CEPR International Finance and Macroeconomics Programme and as member of the External Advisory Group of the IMF. She is the recipient of the 2022 Birgit Grodal Award, the 2021 Yrjö Jahnsson Award, the 2021 Banque de France and Toulouse School of Economics Junior Prize in Monetary Economics and Finance, and the 2018 Carl Menger Prize in Monetary Macroeconomics. In 2023 she was made Commander of the British Empire.
Dimitri Vayanos
Dimitri Vayanos is Professor of Finance at the London School of Economics, where he also directs the Paul Woolley Centre for the Study of Capital Market Dysfunctionality. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, a Fellow of the Finance Theory Group, a Research Fellow at CEPR and a former Director of its Financial Economics program, a Research Associate at NBER, a former Director and Managing Editor of the Review of Economic Studies, and a former Director of the American Finance Association. He is a co-editor of the book "Beyond Austerity: Reforming the Greek Economy," a member of the Pissarides Commission, which developed a growth plan for Greece at the request of the Greek government, a co-author of the European Safe Bonds (ESBies) proposal, and a Director of WWF Greece.
Sushil Wadhwani CBE
Dr. Sushil Wadhwani was Chief Investment Officer of PGIM Wadhwani until the end of 2023. Prior to joining PGIM, Sushil served as the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Wadhwani Asset Management. Previously, Sushil was a member of the Monetary Policy Committee at the Bank of England. He also served as the Director of Quantitative Systems at Tudor Investment Corporation, Director of Equity Strategy at Goldman Sachs, and as an academic economist at the London School of Economics. When at the LSE, Sushil was a founder member of the Financial Markets Group. In addition, Sushil served on the Chancellor’s Economic Advisory Council. Sushil earned a BSc, MSc and PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Sir Steve Webb
Sir Steve Webb is a Partner at Lane, Clark and Peacock LLP. He was a Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament 1997 to 2010, representing Northavon and subsequently, following boundary changes, Thornbury and Yate. He served as Minister of State for Pensions 2010 – 2015. After leaving Parliament he was Director of policy and external communications at the financial services mutual Royal London. He started his career as an economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (1986 to 1995). before being appointed Professor of Social Policy at Bath University.
