Samantha Kappagoda, Chief Economist and Co-Founder of Risk Economics was invited to speak on a panel jointly sponsored by 100 Women in Hedge Funds, Council for Economic Education (CEE) and Schulte Roth & Zabel. The topic of the event was The Economics and Psychology of Individual and Household Financial Decision Making, and was held during Financial Literacy Month. The other panelist was Brigitte Madrian, Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School. The event was held at the New York office of Schulte Roth & Zabel on April 28, 2015.
As Lead for the Risk Economics® macroeconomic and portfolio strategy advisory practice, Samantha Kappagoda provides bespoke advisory services as well as research and development (R&D) of rigorous analytics with applications to large-scale, real-world modeling and surveillance of global macroeconomic trends, socioeconomic and demographic conditions, and geopolitical events. Her areas of expertise include currency, fixed income, commodity and capital markets activity, as well as business cycle dynamics, econometric time-series and longitudinal analyses of consumer behavior, labor markets, wealth and income distribution, housing, population and immigration, political risk and international trade, resource allocation, environment, health, aging and retirement.
Samantha Kappagoda co-advises research activities at RiskEcon® Lab for Decision Metrics, established in 2011 at Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences NYU, in order to apply a range of computational methods to analyze commercial, consumer and population-related societal trends. She is also Visiting Scholar at Courant Institute, and associated with the Social Media and Political Participation Lab (SMaPP) at NYU, an interdisciplinary collaboration that investigates the relationships between social media and political behavior.
Brigitte Madrian is the Aetna Professor of Public Policy and Corporate Management at the Harvard Kennedy School. Before coming to Harvard in 2006, she was on the Faculty at the The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and the Harvard University Economics Department. She is also a Research Associate and Co-Director of the Household Finance working group at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Event Sponsors100 Women in Hedge Funds is a global, practitioner-driven non-profit organization serving over 13,000 alternative investment management investors and professionals through educational, professional leverage and philanthropic initiatives. Formed in 2001, 100 Women in Hedge Funds has hosted close to 500 industry education events globally, connected more than 250 senior women through Peer Advisory Groups and raised over $36 million for philanthropic causes in the areas of women’s health, education and mentoring.
The Council for Economic Education is the leading organization in the United States that focuses on the economic and financial education of students from kindergarten through high school, and they have been doing so for over 65 years. They do this by educating the educators: providing the curriculum tools, the pedagogical support, and the community of peers that instruct, inspire, and guide. All resources and programs are developed by educators and delivered by CEE’s national network of affiliates, with over 240 across the country, in addition to online content.
Schulte Roth & Zabel (SRZ) provides the investment management community with sophisticated legal counsel from offices in New York, Washington, D.C. and London. Working in tandem with other practice areas in the firm, the Investment Management Group has unparalleled experience advising hedge fund managers in all aspects and stages of their business including fund structuring and marketing, investments, compliance and litigation, and management issues. With a deep understanding of the hedge fund industry from both a legal and a business perspective, SRZ has been involved in the formation of every type of hedge fund, from long/short equity funds and event-driven funds to emerging markets funds and commodity pools. As one of the premier law firms serving the alternative investment industry, SRZ represents over half of the world’s largest hedge funds.
