An Uncertain Future:
Public and Private Asset Management and Retirement Planning

This panel will explore the volatility of the current economy and what implications today’s economy has on the investments, assets, and retirement plans of every day Americans. Join leaders from government, Wall Street, and the asset management community to address issues the salient questions on the minds of millions of investors and workers. How will the weakening value of the dollar affect portfolios in the future? Should investors be running to t-bills for security? How should the country support the millions of workers who aren’t planning for their retirement? Long-term, where are we headed with Social Security, and should employees plan for their own retirements instead of supporting older generation? What long implications do war spending and tax cuts have for the economy and for people’s retirement?

Moderator:

Laurence Seidman

Chaplin Tyler Professor of Economics, University of Delaware

 

Laurence Seidman is Chaplin Tyler Professor of Economics at the University of Delaware. After earning his BA from Harvard and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkley, Dr. Seidman served as Professor of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania before joining the University of Delaware. He is an authority on public policy and economics, with particular interests in taxation, social security, the earned income tax credit, and health care. He is a prolific writer, whose books include Economic Parables and Policies: An Introduction to Economics; Automatic Fiscal Policies to Combat Recessions; Funding Social Security: A Strategic Alternative; The USA Tax: A Progressive Consumption Tax and Saving for America's Economic Future. He has published economics articles in the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, and the Journal of Public Economics.

Speakers:

James Courtney

Deputy Commissioner for Communications, Social Security Administration

 

Jim Courtney is the Deputy Commissioner for Communications at the Social Security Administration. Jim is responsible for the full range of public affairs concerns at Social Security, including message development, media relations, public education, national outreach and liaison work. Jim's ties to Delaware are extensive. Prior to joining Social Security, Jim served as the Press Secretary to U.S. Senator Bill Roth of Delaware. From 1991 to 1999, he was the Dover Bureau Chief for WBOC-TV, the CBS-affiliate in Salisbury, MD. Jim grew up in New Castle and attended St. Mark's High School. Two of Jim's sisters are Delaware alumni, as was his former boss, Jo Anne Barnhart, who served as Commissioner of Social Security from 2001 to 2007. In April 2007, Jim received the Communicator of the Year Award from the National Association of Government Communicators. He holds a Bachelors Degree in journalism from New York University.

Valerie Sill

President and CEO, DuPont Capital Management

 

Valerie J. Sill, CFA, is president and CEO, DuPont Capital Management Corporation (DCM). She joined DCM in April 2004 from The Boston Company, where she was executive vice president, chairperson of the Equity Policy Group (EPG), and director of Large Cap Value Strategies. She was a dual officer with Dreyfus, also a Mellon company, where she managed the Dreyfus Premier Core Value mutual funds. In addition to her work at The Boston Company and Dreyfus, Ms. Sill was the chairperson of Mellon’s Research Forum, which comprised investment professionals from each of Mellon's investment management subsidiaries. Prior to becoming the director of Large Cap Value Strategies and leading the EPG, Ms. Sill served as a portfolio manager and was the director of research for The Boston Company. She started her career in asset management with State Street Research & Management Company as a Health Care and Utilities analyst and later joined Investment Advisors Inc. in Minneapolis as a senior analyst. Ms. Sill graduated magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Wellesley College. At Wellesley, she majored in economics and philosophy and was a Durant Scholar. She studied accounting in the UCLA Executive Management Program, holds an M.B.A. from Harvard University and is a CFA charterholder.

Daniel Strickberger

Co-Managing Partner, DSM Capital Partners

 

Daniel Strickberger began his career in 1979 as a credit analyst, first at Morgan Guaranty Trust, and later at Bank of Tokyo Trust. He joined Oppenheimer & Co. as a securities analyst in March 1982 and, when Oppenheimer & Co. was sold to Mercantile House in the summer of 1982, he joined Lazard Freres & Co. as a security analyst. Dan was appointed Director of Research of Lazard Freres Asset Management in the summer of 1987 and was made a general partner of Lazard Freres & Co. in December 1988. He later became one of two senior portfolio managers supervising Lazard's domestic equity investments. Dan also developed and was the senior portfolio manager of Lazard's international equities portfolio. Dan joined W.P. Stewart & Co. in April 1991. While there, he served as senior portfolio manager and equity analyst, managing a substantial portion of the firm's assets. Dan holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Finance from the University of Delaware and a Master of Business Administration in Finance and International Business from New York University.

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