Dr. Marc Faber. Since 1973, Dr. Faber has lived in Hong Kong. In 1990, Dr. Faber founded his own company, Marc Faber Limited, which acts as an investment advisor and fund manager. Between 1970 and 1978, Dr. Faber worked for White Weld & Company Limited in New York, Zurich and Hong Kong. From 1978 to February 1990, he was the Managing Director of Drexel Burnham Lambert (HK) Ltd.
Dr. Faber publishes a widely read monthly investment newsletter “The Gloom Boom & Doom” report which highlights unusual investment opportunities, and is the author of several books including “Tomorrow’s Gold– Asia’s Age of Discovery” which was first published in 2002 and highlights future investment opportunities around the world. “Tomorrow’s Gold” is currently being translated into Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai and German. Dr. Faber is also a regular contributor to several leading financial publications around the world. A book on Dr. Faber, “Riding the Millennial Storm”, by Nury Vittachi, was published in 1998.
A regular speaker at various investment seminars, Dr Faber is well known for his “contrarian” investment approach. He is also associated with a variety of funds and is a member of the Board of Directors of numerous companies. Dr. Faber was born in Zurich, Switzerland. He studied Economics at the University of Zurich and, at the age of 24, obtained a PhD in Economics magna cum laude.
Dr. William W. Wilson. Dr. Wilson received his PhD in Agricultural Economics from the University of Manitoba in 1980. Since then he has been a Professor at North Dakota State University in Agribusiness and Applied Economics with periodic sabbaticals at Stanford University. Recently, he was named as a University Distinguished Professor at NDSU, an honorary position.
Dr. Wilson’s focus is risk and strategy as applied to agriculture and agribusiness with a particular focus on marketing, procurement, transportation and logistics, international marketing and competition. He teaches classes in Commodity Trading, Risk and AgriBusiness Strategy and has taught his Risk Class at Purdue University. He is also the Co-Director of the Center of Excellence in AgBiotechnology at North Dakota State University.
Dr. Wilson routinely has consulting projects for agribusiness clients in the US, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, China, Australia, and France. He regularly advises a number of large Agribusiness firms, several major railroads, and several major food and beverage companies and/or governments in other countries. He served as a Board member of the Minneapolis Grain Exchange for 12 years, on the FGIS Advisory Board, and currently serves as a Board member of several regional firms.
Thomas P. Olson. Mr. Olson is the Chief Investment Officer for the University of Wisconsin Foundation, the official fund-raising and gift-receiving organization for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which currently has $2.5 billion in assets under management. Prior to joining the University of Wisconsin Foundation in June, 2005, Mr. Olson spent eight years with the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB), most recently as the Private Equity Portfolio Manager of a $2.5 billion global portfolio. Prior to SWIB, he worked 12 years in the banking industry in various lending capacities.
Mr. Olson received his B.A in Agriculture Economics-Business/Industry Option from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is a CFA Charterholder. Mr. Olson is currently an Oversight Committee public member for University Ridge Golf Course and is active in youth basketball programs.