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Willis Sparks is a thought leader on risks, opportunities, and trends created by current geopolitical conflicts and political developments in major emerging market countries, as well as on US politics and foreign policy. He works directly with Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer on a variety of macro political risk projects.

Prior to joining Eurasia Group in 2005, Willis worked at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he wrote on transnational terrorism and US national security. He regularly gives speeches on market-moving trends in international politics for investor and corporate audiences in the US and abroad. Willis holds a master’s in international affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where he specialized in international security policy and the former Soviet Union. He also earned a master’s degree in international relations from the Institute for the Study of Political Science (Sciences Po) in Paris.

Paul Smith leads CFA Institute in promoting the highest standards of education, ethics, and professional excellence in the investment profession. Smith joined CFA Institute in 2012 as Managing Director for Asia Pacific, overseeing its expansion into China and India. He later assumed the leadership of its Institutional Partnerships division, which is responsible for engagement with key firms, groups, and associations in the global investment industry. He was appointed president and CEO in January 2015. He brings extensive leadership experience in the investment management industry, having held a variety of positions in major financial centers over 30 years. Smith started his career in asset management at Ermitage International, an alternative funds management company, progressively taking up roles of increasing responsibility across Europe (London, Paris, and Dublin) over 11 years — the last seven as the firm’s CEO. Smith moved to Asia in 1996, just as the region began to take off, to join Bank of Bermuda in Hong Kong as Asia head of securities services. In 2001, he was promoted to global head of funds services. After HSBC’s acquisition of the bank in 2004, he served as HSBC’s global head of alternative funds administration working in Hong Kong and New York, where he was responsible for the delivery of services to 2,000 investment funds with more than US$250 billion of assets. He has also pursued entrepreneurial roles, most recently as founder and CEO of the Hong Kong-based hedge fund investment management firm Asia Alternative Asset Partners for six years prior to joining CFA Institute. Early in his career, he worked as an auditor at Pricewaterhouse in London. With more than 20 years of experience in Asia, Smith is active in the region’s investment community and has served on the boards of a number of Asia-based funds over the years. He is a CFA charterholder and a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales. Smith holds a master’s degree in history from Oxford University.