Annual Conference

This year’s Annual Conference will be held on Tuesday 1 December, kindly hosted by Bloomberg LP in their offices at 3 Queen Victoria Street, London, EC4N 4TQ.

Our event will be chaired by Stephanie Flanders, Head of Bloomberg Economics, and will feature a powerhouse lineup of speakers, including:

Sarah Breeden, Deputy Governor, Financial Stability, Bank of England

Rodrigo Valdés, Director, Fiscal Affairs Department, IMF

Ruth Curtice, Chief Executive, Resolution Foundation

Javier Blas, Opinion Columnist, Bloomberg

John Reade, Senior Market Strategist Europe and Asia, The World Gold Council

Lord Gus O’Donnell

Sir Chris Pissarides, Regius Professor of Economics, LSE

Professor Nora Lustic, Director, Commitment to Equity Institute (CEQ), Tulane University

Lord Jim O’Neill of Gatley

Professor Simon Dietz, Research Director, TPI Global Climate Transition Centre

Mallika Ishwaran, Chief Economist, Shell

With economics at a turning point, our leading experts will discuss policy, markets and global dynamics.

Registration and a light lunch will start at 12.00pm with the conference starting at 12.45pm. Networking drinks will follow the close of conference.

This conference is FREE to attend for SPE members and tickets will be given on a first-come first-served basis. Non-members wishing to attend can do so if they join the Society, for further info please click here or email us on office@spe.org.uk

Programme:

12:00   Registration and Lunch

12.45  Welcome address
             Stephanie Flanders, Bloomberg Economics & George Buckley, SPE

12.50  Opening keynote address: Economic Outlook
             Sarah Breedon, Deputy Governor, Financial Stability, Bank of England

13.30  Fiscal sustainability in a changing world
             Rodrigo Valdés, Director, Fiscal Affairs Department, IMF
             Ruth Curtice, Chief Executive, Resolution Foundation
             George Buckley, SPE (Moderator)

14.10  Are we in a commodities supercycle?
             Javier Blas, Opinion Columnist, Bloomberg
             John Reade, Senior Market Strategiest Europe & Asia, The World Gold Council
             Stephanie Flanders, Bloomberg (Moderator)

14.50   Tea 

15.10   Beyond GDP: how do we measure prosperity?
              Lord Gus O’Donnell
              Sir Chris Pissarides, Regius Professor of Economics, LSE
              Professor Nora Lustig, Director, CEQ, Tulane University 
              Filippo Gaddo, Managing Director, Alvarez & Marsal (Moderator)

15.50   State of the World   
              Lord O’Neill of Gatley

16.25   Economic and climate resilience
              Professor Simon Dietz, Research Director, TPI Global Climate Transition Centre
              Mallika Ishwaran, Chief Economist, Shell
              Filippo Gaddo, Managing Director, Alvarez & Marsal (Moderator)

17.00   Closing remarks    
              Stephanie Flanders, Bloomberg & George Buckley, SPE

17.05    Drinks reception

17.45   Close of event

Meet the Speakers:

Javier Blas is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy and commodities. Previously, he was the chief energy correspondent at Bloomberg News, and before the commodities editor at the Financial Times. A native of Spain, Blas graduated from the University of Navarra. He’s the co-author of the bestseller “The World for Sale: Money, Power and the Traders Who Barter the Earth’s Resources.” Over a 25-year career in journalism, he has reported from nearly 100 countries, from Iraq during the US invasion in 2003 to Libya during the civil war in 2011.

George Buckley is Chair of the Society of Professional Economists and Nomura’s Chief European/UK Economist. He has twenty five years of experience as a market economist previously working for Deutsche Bank, London, in a similar role. Prior to that George completed his PhD in the area of housing market economics at Bristol University where he also taught undergraduate courses in macroeconomics.

Sarah Breedon became Deputy Governor, Financial Stability, Bank of England on 1 November 2023. She is a member of the Monetary Policy Committee, Financial Policy Committee, Prudential Regulation Committee and the Bank’s Court of Directors. She is co-chair of the Financial Market Infrastructure Committee with the Governor. Sarah leads the bank’s work on financial stability, the supervision of financial market infrastructures, international issues, payments innovation and fintech. She also has responsibility at Deputy Governor level for our work on the monetary and financial stability risks from climate change. Sarah is the Bank’s Deputy at the G20 and its member on the Financial Stability Board.

Ruth Curtice has been Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation, an independent think-tank dedicated to lifting living standards in the UK, since January 2025. The Foundation focusses particularly on households with low and middle incomes; those on low pay or in precarious work; and those vulnerable to financial shocks. It also investigates fairness between the generations though its Intergenerational Centre. Ruth leads the Foundation’s rigorous analytical work and development of effective policy proposals. Ruth was previously Director of fiscal policy at HM Treasury (HMT) where she worked for over 15 years.

Simon Dietz is based at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where he is currently Research Director of the TPI Global Climate Transition Centre, and Professor of Environmental Policy in the Department of Geography and Environment, and the Grantham Research Institute. He is also co-editor of the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, a CEPR Research Fellow, a CESifo Research Network Fellow, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is a former Vice President and Council Member of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.

Stephanie Flanders has been Senior Executive Editor for Economics at Bloomberg News and head of Bloomberg Economics since October 2017. She was previously Chief Market Strategist for Europe at J P Morgan Asset Management in London (2013-17) and BBC Economics Editor (2008-13).  She served in the second Clinton Administration as speech writer and senior advisor to US Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers (1997-2001).

Mallika Ishwaran is Shell’s Chief Economist. She advises on macroeconomic issues, economic trends, and related policy matters to shape Shell’s long-term scenario outlooks. She leads strategic engagements on energy transitions with national and city governments across the world, notably a multi-year collaboration with the Chinese government. Mallika also advises on Shell’s strategic policy and advocacy approach to support the company’s energy transition strategy. She sits on a range of external advisory boards. Prior to joining Shell, she was Deputy Director at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs responsible for evidence and analysis across the environment, food, and green economy portfolio. She has held senior positions across the UK government, including at the Cabinet Office as Head of Policy Analysis for the 2009 G20 London Summit. Before that, Mallika worked in senior economics and policy roles in the USA. Mallika holds Ph.D. and M.S degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, and a B.A. from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University.

Nora Lustig is Professor in the Office of the President at El Colegio de Mexico and Professor Emerita and Founding Director of the Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Institute at Tulane University, whose methodology for measuring the impact of taxes and social spending on inequality and poverty has been applied in more than 70 countries. A leading scholar of inequality and fiscal redistribution in Latin America and other low- and middle-income countries, she has published nearly 80 academic articles and 20 books and ranks among the top 5 percent of economists worldwide by research citations.

Chris Pisarides is the Regius Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and the co-founder of the Institute for the Future of Work. He specialises in the economics of labour markets, economic growth and structural change, where his work has been internationally influential.  Recent work includes The Pissarides Review on the Future of Work and Wellbeing, with a focus on automation technologies in Britain. In 2010 Sir Christopher was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work on the labour market, and has since been honoured with several other awards, Prizes and Society fellowships. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2013.

John Reade is a Senior Market Strategist Europe and Asia at The World Gold Council.He joined the World Gold Council in 2017 and works closely with the research team; he is responsible for developing strategy about gold and engaging with all aspects of the gold market. He is also one of the principal spokespeople for the organisation. John has over 35 years’ experience in the gold industry and has worked for gold mining companies in production and project evaluation; for investment banks as an equity analyst and gold strategist; and at an asset manager as gold strategist and portfolio manager. 

Rodrigo Valdés, a national of Chile, has been the Director of the Fiscal Affairs Department (FAD) at the IMF since October 2025. Prior to this, he was a Director of Western Hemisphere Department. Earlier in his career, he was a professor of economics in the School of Government at the Catholic University of Chile and held the position of Chile’s Minister of Finance from 2015 to 2017. Mr Valdés spent more than 16 years in Chile’s public sector serving in various leading positions both at the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank, where he was Director of Research and Chief Economist responsible for producing the Bank’s Monetary Policy Report and overseeing macroeconomic analysis. He also served as deputy director in the WHD and EUR departments of the IMF. In the banking sector he worked at BTG Pactual, he headed the macroeconomic research team for Latin America excluding Brazil, and he was Board and Executive Committee President at Banco Estado, Chile’s sole state-owned bank. He also worked at Barclays Capital in New York as Director and Chief Economist for Latin America.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley is a cross bench peer in the House of Lords. He is Chair of Northern Gritstone, and is also Chair and Co-Founder of a new Policy Platform, BRICS+ Thinking.  He is Co-President and formerly Chair of, Northern Powerhouse Partnership.  He is a member of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Economic Advisory Council and is Chair of the NeoTest AMC working group launched by CGD.  His previous roles include, joint head of research at Goldman Sachs (1995–2000), its chief economist (2001–10) and chairman of its asset management division (2010–13); creator of the acronym BRIC; chair of the City Growth Commission (2014); chair of the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance [AMR] (2014-16); commercial secretary to the Treasury (2015-16); chair of Chatham House (2018-2021). He is a board member, and one of the founding trustees of educational charity SHINE.