Halkin Events

Halkin is delighted to welcome back Dr Gerard Lyons, Chief Economic Strategist at Netwealth Investments and board member and chair of the risk committee at Bank of China (UK), to address the topic: “Looking under the mattress for the safe haven”.

Dr Gerard Lyons has spent over 30 years in senior roles in the City and public policy. From 1999-2012 he was Head of Global Research and Chief Economist at Standard Chartered Bank, where he was credited as one of the few economists to predict the 2008 global financial crisis. In 2010 and 2011, Bloomberg ranked his team as the most accurate forecasters globally. During this period, he was also the Lead Advisor to PM Gordon Brown’s 2008 Business Council, an inaugural member of the EU Commission’s Network on China Experts and sat on several Councils of the World Economic Forum. Before this he held other senior positions at large international banks, such as being Chief Economist at DKB International – then the world’s largest bank – and Chief Economist at Swiss Bank Corporation, beginning his career with Chase. 

He left Standard Chartered to become Boris Johnson’s Chief Economic Adviser, when he was Mayor of London, where he championed the City globally. During this time, he also wrote his first book ‘The Consolations of Economics’ published by Faber & Faber.

Currently Gerard is Chief Economic Strategist at Netwealth Investments, the discretionary wealth manager that he helped establish in 2016. He sits on the Boards of both Bank of China (UK) and BGC Partners, the global brokerage firm. He is also part of a project team at the Bretton Woods Committee looking at the green agenda and since its inception has sat on the Advisory Board of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. He is also on the Advisory Board of Warwick Business School and is a Senior Fellow at the think-tank Policy Exchange. In 2019, he was a candidate to be Governor of the Bank of England.

Gerard and his daughter, the comedian Elf Lyons, have also just started the second series of their economics podcast – Elfonomics.

We are delighted to welcome back David Marsh, chairman of OMFIF, to discuss the themes and conundrums contained in his recent book, “Can Europe survive? The Story of a Continent in a Fractured World”.

David Marsh is recognised as one of the foremost writers and commentators on European economics, finance and politics. Co-founder and chairman of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum economic research group, he is a former Financial Times European editor and the author of six books, including The New Germany, The Euro, Europe’s Deadlock and The Bundesbank: The Bank that Rules Europe.

In “Can Europe Survive?”, David argues that, since the end of the Cold War, “Europe has lost many of the new arguments, lost its leadership and lost its way”. Can Europe survive as a coherent political and economic force? The answer, as his book makes clear, depends less on Europeans knowing what to do than on finding the will to do it.

Alexander Chartres, partner and investment manager at Ruffer LLP, will present an overview of the geopolitical landscape and associated investment risks and opportunities, including references to Ruffer’s thematics work.

Alex joined Ruffer in 2010, graduating from Newcastle University with a first-class honours degree in history and politics. He was a manager on Ruffer’s private client team, becoming a long-standing fund manager in the investment team and a Partner in the firm. He is a Fellow of the CISI and specialises in geopolitics and its investment implications, with a particular focus on European politics and US-China relations. He is co-manager of two of Ruffer‘s flagship funds.