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
Academy Award-winning director and producer Ron Howard will headline the 18th Annual Finance Conference, to be hosted by the Seidner Department of Finance at the Boston College Carroll School of Management, on Thursday, May 8. The critically acclaimed filmmaker will offer insights into business and leadership through the lens of successful Hollywood productions.
The 2025 conference will also highlight talks by leading experts on topics including global markets and the broader economic climate. Among those presenters will be Marc Seidner ’88, P ’24, CIO for Non-traditional Strategies at PIMCO; Marvin Loh, a managing director and senior global strategist at State Street Global Markets; and Kenneth Rogoff, the Maurits C. Boas Professor at Harvard University and former chief economist at the IMF.
In addition, Apollo Robbins—a performer, consultant, and celebrated pickpocket—will offer a demonstration on deception and perception management.
Please note that this year, attendance at the daylong conference is by invitation only.
Featured Speakers
Ron Howard
The Academy Award-winning director and producer 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
