RMB FICC

Welcome

Alan Pullinger, CEO of Rand Merchant Bank

Alan Pullinger joined RMB as a dealmaker in the then Special Projects division after being a partner at Deloitte. He was appointed co-head of Structured Finance and was co-opted to RMB's Management Board in 2005. In 2006 he became co-head of the Investment Banking division after which he was appointed CEO in 2008.		  
 
     

Bruce Whitfield, Financial journalist

Bruce Whitfield presents the World at Six on Talk Radio 702 and 567 CapeTalk. The programme focuses on the day's breaking business news stories, market analysis and opinion and has been recognised in both the Citadel awards and the prestigious annual Sanlam awards for financial journalism.

Free State born and Grahamstown educated, Bruce cut his teeth in journalism at Talk Radio 702 in the run up to the 1994 democratic elections. Shortly after that he worked in London at Reuters and at independent radio stations for four years before returning to South Africa where he developed a taste for business and financial journalism.

In addition to his radio duties, Bruce covers banking and insurance for weekly business magazine Finweek, writes a weekly column for iafrica.com and presents “The Summit Investor”, a weekly personal finance programme on Summit TV.

  
 
     

John Mauldin, President of Millennium Wave Investments

John Mauldin is President of Millennium Wave Investments, a recognised financial expert and the author of the free Thoughts from the Frontline e-letter. His books, Bull's Eye Investing, Just One Thing and Endgame were all on the New York Times best seller list.

John received a BA degree from Rice University in 1972 and a Masters degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1974. He was CEO of the American Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. He serves on the board of directors of The International Reconciliation Coalition, The International Children's Relief Fund and Galectin Therapeutics Inc. He is the father of seven children (five adopted) and lives in Dallas, Texas.

  
 
     

Barry Eichengreen, International Economist of Berkeley UC, currency expert

Barry J. Eichengreen is one of the world’s foremost experts and historian on the international monetary system and global finance. His research and writings have illuminated the current financial crisis and uncovered many of its far reaching consequences. Barry’s current book, Exorbitant Privilege: The Rise and Fall of the Dollar, explores the future of the monetary system, the ramifications of the possible decline of the dollar on the system and on the US and world economies. An expert on financial crises, he has written extensively on their histories, causes and cures. He has written for The Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and Foreign Affairs and he currently has a regular monthly column at Project Syndicate. Barry is a George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Professor of Economics and Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He has a PhD from Yale University and is a Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, London.

  
 
     

Larry McDonald, President and Founder of LGM Group

Larry McDonald has written the New York Times best seller A Colossal Failure of Common Sense about the collapse of Lehman Brothers, with Patrick Robinson. Larry is President and Founder of LGM Group, LLC an asset management firm, specialising in Washington, DC policy research and trading, based in New York City.

From July 2004 through September 2008, Larry was a Vice President of Distressed Debt and Convertible Securities Trading at Lehman Brothers. He ran an extremely successful joint venture between the firm’s fixed income and equity divisions. He was the most profitable trader in the convertible securities department in 2006 and 2007. In early 2006, Larry was part of a faction that called the subprime crisis, then he made over $46 million for the firm during its implosion. He was also an integral part of a faction within Lehman Brothers that tried in vain to stop the firm from heading down the road to destruction. He also worked closely with Lehman’s credit derivatives team and saw first-hand the design and construction of what Warren Buffett termed as “Wall Street’s financial weapons of mass destruction.”

  
 
     

Kuben Naidoo, Acting Head of the Secretariat to the National Planning Commission

Kuben Naidoo is the Acting Head of the Secretariat to the National Planning Commission. He joined the National Treasury at the beginning of 1995 and headed up the Budget office for six years. Kuben also did a two-year stint at the UK Treasury, working on capital budgets and their biannual spending review.

Kuben has a Bachelor of Science degree, a Post Graduate Diploma in Public Management from Wits University and an MBA from the University of Birmingham, UK.

  
 
     

Daniel Silke, Political analyst and futurist

Daniel Silke is one of South Africa’s leading independent political analysts, and futurists. He has over 15 years experience in delivering stimulating and insightful lectures, and specialises in global future trends, international relations as well as South African and African political and economic developments. Daniel holds a Masters degree in International Politics from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He served six years in publicly elected office between 1995 and 2001 and served four years as a Member of Parliament in the Western Cape Provincial Parliament in Cape Town, after being re-elected in 1999. Daniel contributes widely to publications both in South Africa and overseas. He currently writes for the Australian Quarterly published by the Australian Institute of Policy & Science in Sydney. He has been the foreign correspondent for the Juluka magazine based in Los Angeles, California for over 10 years, and has co-authored academic chapters in publications on South African politics. Daniel is the author of the new book Tracking the Future: Top trends that will shape South Africa and the World. He is a regular guest commentator on both e-tv and the SABC and is often heard on Radio France International, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and many other leading broadcasting networks. He is Director of the Political Futures Consultancy based in Cape Town.		  
 
     

CJ Giddy, Head of Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities at Rand Merchant Bank

CJ Giddy joined Rand Merchant Bank in 2000 as the middle office manager for Debt Capital Markets. In 2002 he was appointed as the CFO for FICC, moving on to become the Head of corporate money market and foreign currency dealing in 2006. He was appointed Head of FICC in 2008.

CJ is a qualified chartered accountant (SA) and CFA.