From Interest Rates to International Conflict
The wide, wide world of finance was on display at Boston College this spring.
The 18th Annual Finance Conference
Internationally known as an Academy Award-winning director and less known as an entrepreneur, actor-filmmaker Ron Howard offered lessons in leadership and teamwork at the 18th Annual Finance Conference hosted by the Seidner Department of Finance at the Boston College Carroll School of Management.
The conference also highlighted sobering assessments of financial markets and the economy, with leading experts advising the audience to buckle up for a rough ride in the near term. Referring to business and political leaders around the world and how they’re reacting to tariffs and other abrupt policy changes in the United States, self-described conservative Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff said: “All they’re talking about is pulling out of the United States. They just don’t trust us anymore.”
More than 200 people, mostly alumni working in finance-related fields, turned out for the daylong gathering held on May 8 in the Robert J. Murray ’62 and Family Function Room of Yawkey Athletics Center. Among those assessing market trends was Marc Seidner, MCAS ’88, P ’24, a leader in the asset management industry who has helped guide the Finance Conference over the past decade. This past academic year, Seidner made a gift to the Carroll School—the largest in the school’s history—which led to the renaming of the Finance Department in his honor.
Featured Speakers
Ron Howard
The Academy Award-winning director is one of Hollywood’s most celebrated and prolific filmmakers. Howard’s critically acclaimed film, A Beautiful Mind, earned him an Academy Award for Best Director and Best Picture. In 2015, he was honored with a second star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, making him one of the select few to have been recognized with two stars. In 2023, Howard’s Apollo 13 was chosen for the Library of Congress National Film Registry, a prestigious collection of films that are selected for cultural, historic, or aesthetic importance. He is also cofounder of Impact, a content accelerator whose mission is to discover, cultivate, nurture, and connect creative storytellers around the world through its innovative talent identification and collaboration system. To date, Impact has built a community of over 75,000 writers across 140-plus countries.
Marc Seidner ‘88, P ‘24
Seidner is the CIO for Non-traditional Strategies at PIMCO and managing director in the company’s Newport Beach office. He rejoined PIMCO in November 2014 after serving as head of fixed income at GMO LLC; he was previously a PIMCO managing director, generalist portfolio manager, and member of the company’s Investment Committee. Prior to originally joining PIMCO in 2009, he was a managing director and domestic fixed income portfolio manager at Harvard Management Company. Before that, Seidner was director of active core strategies at Standish Mellon Asset Management and a senior portfolio manager at Fidelity Management and Research. Altogether, he has nearly four decades of investment experience and holds an undergraduate degree in economics from Boston College.
Marvin Loh
Loh is a managing director and senior global market strategist within the multi-asset research team at State Street Global Markets. He joined State Street in 2018 and focuses on rates, foreign exchange, and credit markets. Loh is also a frequent commentator in the financial press, regularly interviewed on numerous radio and television business programs. Recently, he has developed a global macro curriculum that he presently teaches as an adjunct professor to graduate students at the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. Loh received his Bachelor of Science degree and MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business.
Kenneth Rogoff
Rogoff is the Maurits C. Boas Professor at Harvard University and former chief economist at the IMF. His influential 2009 book with Carmen Reinhart, This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, shows the remarkable quantitative similarities across time and countries in the roots and aftermath of debt and financial crises. His forthcoming book is Our Dollar, Your Problem: An Insider’s View of Seven Turbulent Decades of Global Finance, and the Road Ahead. Rogoff is also known for his pioneering work on central bank independence, and on exchange rates.
Apollo Robbins
A pioneer in the application of deception to real-world environments, Robbins uses pick-pocketing and sleight-of-hand to demonstrate perception management, diversion techniques, and self-deception. Known as “The Gentleman Thief,” Robbins first made national news as the man who pick-pocketed the Secret Service while entertaining former US president Jimmy Carter. His thought-provoking presentations take the audience on an immersive journey where their attention is hijacked and their foundation of reality is called into question. Robbins employs deception and attention management as a way to teach critical thinking and perception skills.
Finance Conference Co-Chairs
Marc Seidner ’88, P ’24
Chief Investment Officer, Non-traditional Strategies
PIMCO
Daniel E. Holland III ’79, P ’07, ’08
Chief Operating Officer
Shield Capital
Jonathan Reuter
Associate Professor, Seidner Department of Finance
Carroll School of Management
Boston College
Andy Boynton ’78, P ’13
John and Linda Powers Family Dean
Carroll School of Management
Boston College
