BRICS at 25

The Right Honorable Lord Jim O’Neill held senior roles at Goldman Sachs, where he spent the majority of his tenure as Chief Economist. Lord O’Neill later chaired the UK Cities Growth Commission, guiding its work through to its final recommendations, and is currently chairing a formal review on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), tasked with developing global solutions to this pressing challenge.

Lord O’Neill is honorary Chair of Economics at the University of Manchester, a visiting research fellow at Bruegel, and a member of the Economic Advisory Board of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the investment arm of the World Bank. He’s also a founding trustee of the UK charity SHINE and serves on the board of Teach for All, in addition to supporting several other education-focused organizations. Lord O’Neill has further contributed to public service as a non-executive director at the UK Department for Education and coined the BRIC acronym (Brazil, Russia, India, China) in November 2001.

Dr. Gemma Chenger Deng is CEO and co-founder with Lord Jim O’Neill of BRICS+ Thinking, an international policy platform bringing together leading scholars and policymakers to address global challenges through evidence-based research and dialogue. An international relations scholar specializing in Chinese foreign policy, Dr. Deng’s research focuses on China’s global role and its relations with the UK, Europe and the United States.

Dr. Deng completed her doctorate at King’s College London and is the co-author of “China Through European Eyes: 800 Years of Cultural and Intellectual Encounter.” Her forthcoming book explores Chinese strategic messaging and China’s role in the UK.

Andrew Karolyi is the Charles Field Knight Dean of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. He is a Professor of Finance and International Business as well as holder of the Harold Bierman Jr. Distinguished Professorship in the Johnson Graduate School of Management. Dr. Karolyi is also a Professor of Economics in Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences.

A scholar in the area of investment management, with a specialization in the study of international financial markets, Dr. Karolyi has published extensively in journals in finance and economics, including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies. He has also published several books and monographs, and his research is featured in print and electronic media such as the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Economist, Time, New York Times, Washington Post, Forbes, BusinessWeek, and CNBC. Dr. Karolyi recently completed a four-year term as executive editor of the Review of Financial Studies, one of the top-tier journals in finance. He has also served as an associate editor for a variety of journals, including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Empirical Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, Review of Finance, and the Pacific Basin Finance Journal.

Dr. Karolyi is a recipient of the Michael Jensen Prize for Corporate Finance and Organizations (2017), the Fama/DFA Prize for Capital Markets and Asset Pricing (2005), the William F. Sharpe Award for Scholarship in Finance (2001), the Journal of Empirical Finance’s Biennial Best Paper Prize (2006), and Johnson School’s Prize for Excellence in Research (2010). Dr. Karolyi leads various executive education programs in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia, and he is actively involved in consulting with corporations, banks, investment firms, stock exchanges, and law firms. He is president-elect/program chair of the Western Finance Association, has served as a director of the American Finance Association, and is past chairperson of the board of trustees and past president of the Financial Management Association International. Dr. Karolyi received his B.A. (Honors) in Economics from McGill University and worked at the Bank of Canada for several years in its research department. He subsequently earned his MBA and Ph.D. degrees in Finance at the Graduate School of Business of the University of Chicago.

Lourdes Casanova is the Gail and Roberto Cañizares Director of the Cañizares Center for Emerging Markets and a Senior Lecturer at Cornell University’s Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management. Formerly of the strategy department at INSEAD, Dr. Casanova specializes in international business with a focus on Latin America and multinationals from emerging markets.

In 2014 and 2015, Dr. Casanova was named one of the 50 most influential Iberoamerican intellectuals by Esglobal. She is a member of the board of directors of Boyce Thompson Institute.

Dr. Casanova is a Fulbright Scholar who holds a Ph.D. from Universidad de Barcelona and an M.A. from the University of Southern California.