Past Events 2007 - Speakers


William S. ("Bill") Thompson, Jr.
Bill Thompson is a Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of PIMCO in Newport Beach, California.  

Prior to joining PIMCO in April 1993, Mr. Thompson spent 18 years with Salomon Brothers - initially in Chicago followed by 10 years in San Francisco, where he served as Managing Director and regional head of the Western U.S.  Mr. Thompson later spent two years in Tokyo as Chairman of Salomon Brothers Asia. 

At the time Mr. Thompson joined PIMCO, the firm managed $41 billion in assets and employed approximately 125 employees at its Newport Beach headquarters.  During his 14 years as CEO, PIMCO's assets have grown more than 15 fold.  The firm currently manages over $800 billion in assets and employs more than 800 people in nine offices worldwide. 

Since 1993, the firm has successfully transitioned from a small, private investment boutique - first to a publicly traded NYSE company then to its present position as a global leader in investment management within the Allianz Group of companies.  Mr. Thompson is a member of the Management Board of Allianz Global Investors, PIMCO's parent company located in Munich, Germany.

Mr. Thompson supports numerous community groups.  He is particularly active with organizations that serve the interests of children, education and healthcare.

A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Mr. Thompson graduated from the University of Missouri, Columbia in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering.  He graduated from Harvard Business School in 1970 with a Masters degree in Business Administration.  He served in the U.S. Army and the Army Reserves, achieving the final rank of Captain.

He and his wife, Nancy, have two sons, a daughter and two grandchildren.  They currently reside in Irvine, California.




Mark J.P. Anson
Mark Anson is the Chief Executive Officer of Hermes Pensions Management Ltd. In London.  Hermes has a professional staff of 350 and manages over £70 billion for pension funds and other institutional clients across the asset classes of international equity, emerging markets, global bonds, real estate, private equity, activist funds, commodities and hedge funds.  Hermes is also a recognized global leader in Corporate Governance

Mark was formerly the Chief Investment Officer for the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) where he oversaw the growth in assets from $127 billion to $210 billion.  At CalPERS, Mark had full responsibility for the strategic plan for CalPERS' Investment Office including tactical and strategic asset allocation, risk management, business development, budget authority, new investment programs, trading technology, staffing, and back office operations.  His responsibilities included an operating budget of $410 million and the generation of $7 billion in annual benefit payments.  Mark successfully implemented the strategy of separating alpha from beta at CalPERS which lead to over $12 billion of excess returns.

Mark received a scholarship to attend the Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago where he received his law degree and graduated with honors as the Executive/Production Editor of the Northwestern University Law Review.  Mark also received a scholarship to attend the Columbia University Graduate School of Business in New York City where he received both his Ph.D. and Masters in Finance, again with honors, as Beta Gamma Sigma.  Mark graduated With Distinction from St. Olaf College in Minnesota with a double major in Economics and Chemistry.   Mark has also been honored with the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Institute of International Education and Fulbright Foundation as well as the 2004 Best Paper award from the Journal of Portfolio Management.

Mark is a licensed attorney and a member of the New York and Illinois State Bar Associations.  He has also earned the Chartered Financial Analyst, Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst, Certified Public Accountant, Certified Management Accountant, and Certified Internal Auditor professional degrees.   Last, Mark has received the Series 3, 4, 7, 8, 24, and 63 NASD securities industry licenses.

Mark is the author of  the Handbook of Alternative Assets which has been accepted as the primary textbook for the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst program.  In addition, he has published three other  financial textbooks as well as over 80 research articles on the topics of corporate governance, hedge funds, real estate, currency overlay, credit risk, private equity, risk management, and asset allocation.  Further, Mark sits on editorial and advisory boards for The Journal of Portfolio Management, The Journal of Alternative Investments, The Journal of Private Equity, The Journal of Investment Consulting, and The Journal of Derivatives Accounting.

Last, Mark is also the Chairman of the International Corporate Governance Network; the global organization that promotes better governance of public corporations.  Membership in the ICGN represents over $4 trillion of AUM.




Huw van Steenis
Huw van Steenis is Managing Director and Head of Morgan Stanley's Asset and Wealth Management and Diversified Financials Group, offering advisory and financing services to investment institutions.   Huw has advised on financial institutions for 15 years and was previously co-Head of European Banks and Financials research at Morgan Stanley.  As an analyst, he was seven times voted the number one individual analyst in the Extel and Institutional Investor polls for Diversified Financials for his coverage of asset and wealth managers, exchanges and investment banks.  As an investor, he was ranked as Starmine's #1 Stock Picker of 2005 for Banks and Financials, his second Starmine award, and City Editor of the Evening Standard Anthony Hilton, told his readers: 'It would be rash to bet against Steenis' London's leading expert on fund management. 

Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Huw was Diversified Financials and Banks Strategist for JPMorgan.  Before this he was a consultant for with Boston Consulting Group, where he advised a range of financials on strategy and post-merger integration, and an investment banker at CSFB in New York and London.    Huw has degrees from Oxford, where he won the Stirling Boyd Prize and INSEAD, where he was awarded the Louis Franck Scholarship.  He is married with two boys