Speakers

Event

Title:: Executive Round Table Plenary
When:: 14.02.2009 09.45 h - 11.15 h
Category:: Keynotes

Description

The plenary session features three distinguished leaders from government, business, and law. The panelists will discuss their perspective on the financial crisis, what it means to Asia, and the particular risks and opportunities it poses from their perspective.

Takatoshi Kato

Deputy Managing Director, International Monetary Fund

Mr. Takatoshi Kato assumed office as Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund on February 2, 2004. Born in 1941, Mr. Kato has a B.A. from Tokyo University (1964) and M.P.A. from Princeton University (1968). Prior to taking up his current position, he was Advisor to the President, Tokyo-Mitsubishi Bank and a Visiting Professor at Waseda University. He was also a Visiting Professor at Princeton University (1998-99). Mr. Kato has held a series of senior positions at the Ministry of Finance of Japan. These include Vice-Minister of Finance for International Affairs (1995-97) and Director-General of the International Finance Bureau (1993-95). From 1985-87, Mr. Kato served as Executive Director for Japan at the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Previously, he held positions at the Ministry of Finance and the OECD Secretariat. Mr. Kato has served as a member of various advisory panels including the World Health Organization's (WHO) Commission on Macroeconomics and Health (2001) and an ADB panel on poverty reduction in Asia and the Pacific (1999-2000). In 2002, he published a book on exchange rate policy.

Toby S. Myerson

Partner, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP

A partner in the Corporate Department, Toby S. Myerson serves as co-head of the firm's Mergers and Acquisitions Group and practices in the areas of mergers and acquisitions of public and private companies, leveraged buyouts, corporate governance and advice to boards of directors. During the years 1989 and 1990, he left the firm and served as a Managing Director of the investment banking firm, Wasserstein Perella & Co., residing in Tokyo and heading the operations of that firm in Japan and Asia.

As counsel for major U.S. and international corporations, financial institutions, buy-out groups and other institutions, Mr. Myerson has advised them on their merger and acquisition, tender offer, investment banking and financial transactions. He frequently counsels boards of directors on strategic issues and corporate governance matters.

During his legal career, Mr. Myerson has served as an adjunct faculty member at Harvard Law School, Yale Law School and the Boalt Hall School of Law (University of California, Berkeley). He has chaired the Committee on Foreign and Comparative Law of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and is a frequent speaker on topics ranging from contested takeovers to corporate governance. Mr. Myerson is a member of the advisory board of the Harvard Law School Program on Corporate Governance, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Partnership for New York City and the World Economic Forum; and he serves on the Lawyers Committee for the New York Public Library and other civic committees. Mr. Myerson was selected as one of the leading Corporate/M&A lawyers in the United States by Chambers.

Jeffrey Shafer

Vice Chairman of Global Banking, Citi

Jeffrey R. Shafer is the Vice Chairman of Citi's Global Banking and Senior Asia Pacific Officer in New York where he is responsible for key Asia Pacific government and corporate client relationships. Mr. Shafer was previously the Head of Economic and Political Strategies, which was responsible for identification and analysis of key global economic and political issues.

Since joining the firm in February 1997, Mr. Shafer has worked with governments in Asia, Latin America and Europe on financial stabilization, liability management, debt issuance and privatization. In February 1999, he took on the role of Head of Privatization for the firm, and in 2003, became Vice Chairman of the Public Sector Group. While directing Citigroup's privatization effort, he has personally worked closely with governments around the world, including France (Credit Lyonnais), Japan (NTT), Korea (POSCO), India (VSNL), and China (China Life). He has also been involved in landmark sovereign and quasi-sovereign bond transactions including for
Korea, Turkey, China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.

From 1993 to 1997, Mr. Shafer was Assistant Secretary and subsequently Under Secretary of the U.S. Treasury for International Affairs. At the Treasury Department, he was responsible for international economic and financial issues, focusing on strengthening economic growth and financial stability in both developed and developing countries, fostering financial market development and liberalization, and strengthening the IMF and multilateral development banks. He was also responsible for the inter-agency CFIUS process to review foreign investment in the United States.
From 1984 until 1993, Mr. Shafer held a series of high-level positions at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Prior to the OECD, he served with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Federal Reserve Board and the Council of Economic Advisors.

Mr. Shafer holds a B.A. in Economics from Princeton University and M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees in Economics from Yale University. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

F. Warren McFarlan (Moderator)

T.J. Dermot Dunphy Baker Foundation Professor of Business Administration and Albert H. Gordon Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus, Harvard Business School

Professor McFarlan earned his AB from Harvard University in 1959, and his MBA and DBA from the Harvard Business School in 1961 and 1965 respectively. He has had a significant role in introducing materials on Management Information Systems to all major programs at the Harvard Business School since the first course on the subject was offered in 1962. He has been a long-time teacher in the Advanced Management Program: International Senior Managers Program, Delivering Information Services Program, and several of the Social Sector programs. He teaches currently in the First Year Financial Reporting and Control course, and Second Year MBA course "Doing Business in China in the Early 21st Century," as well as in several short Executive Education programs.

In 1973, shortly after his appointment to full professor he, along with four other faculty members, was sent to Switzerland to set up the School's International Senior Management Program. He returned from Switzerland in 1975 to become Chairman of the Advanced Management Program, a position he held until 1978; and Chairman of all Executive Education Programs from 1977-1980. He was Senior Associate Dean and Director of Research from 1991 to 1995, Senior Associate Dean and Director of External Relations from 1995-2000, and Senior Associate Dean and Director of Asia Pacific from 1999-2004.

Professor McFarlan's book, Connecting the Dots coauthored with Cathleen Benko appeared in 2003. Seizing Strategic IT Advantage in China coauthored with Professor Richard Nolan, and Professor Guoqing Chen of Tsinghua University, appeared in 2003 (available only in Chinese). Professor McFarlan's newest book, Corporate Information Strategy and Management: Text and Cases (seventh edition), coauthored with Professors Lynda M. Applegate and Robert D. Austin appeared in 2006. Creating Business Advantage in the Information Age coauthored with Professors Lynda M. Applegate and Robert D. Austin appeared in 2002. "Working on Nonprofit Boards: Don't Assume the Shoe Fits" appeared in the November/December 1999 issue of the Harvard Business Review, and "Information Technology and the Board of Directors" with Richard Nolan appeared in October 2005. He is editor of Information Systems Research Challenge, published by the Harvard Business School Press, 1984. He served a three-year term as Senior Editor of the MIS Quarterly (1986-1988). He is a member of several corporate and non-profit boards, serving for over ten years on hospital boards.