Reaser, Wobbekind Will Lead Board in 2009-2010

NABE members have elected Lynn Reaser as their president and Richard Wobbekind as vice president for the 2009-2010 term.  New officers and board members will take office at the closing of the annual meeting in October.

In addition, members elected five new board members; four will serve three-year terms and the fifth has been elected to a two-year term.

Meet the new officers and board members in St. Louis at the business meeting scheduled for late afternoon Sunday, October 11, at the 51st Annual Meeting.

Reaser, chief economist at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, will succeed Chris Varvares, president of Macroeconomic Advisers LLC in St. Louis, as NABE president.  Wobbekind, associate dean of the University of Colorado-Boulder’s MBA and Executive Programs, will follow Reaser as vice president.

“It is an honor to be elected as NABE’s next president as we launch new initiatives to re-energize the organization and enhance its value and image,” Reaser said.  She also noted that the priorities of the board for the coming year reflect “the superior efforts of Chris Varvares, Ellen Hughes-Cromwick, the Board of Directors and other leaders.”  

Priorities Include Educational Programs

Reaser emphasized several priorities for the coming year, including:  launching NABE university as the organization’s major educational program, recruiting younger members through student chapters and developing close relationships with colleges and universities, developing relations internationally, expanding the Get Connected program for early and mid-career professionals, extending the value of NABE surveys to policymakers, and better integrating the network of NABE chapters.

Before joining Point Loma Nazarene University on August 1, Reaser served as chief economist for the Investment Strategies Group at Bank of America in Boston.  Earlier she was chief economist at Barnett Banks, Inc., and chief economist at First Interstate Bank.  The native Californian has been active in NABE since earning her bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. in economics at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Five Members Elected to Board

NABE members also elected five members to the Board of Directors.  Rajeev Dhawan, director of Georgia State University’s Economic Forecasting Center, was elected to a two-year term.  He was appointed to the board earlier this year to fill a seat vacated by Paul Bennett, who resigned due to new professional responsibilities.

The four members elected to three-year terms are: Lisa Emsbo-Mattingly, senior economic analyst at Fidelity Investments in Boston; Stuart P. M. Mackintosh, executive director, The Group of Thirty in Washington, D.C.; Chad Moutray, chief economist, U.S. Small Business Administration in Washington, D.C.; and Kevin Swift, chief economist, American Chemistry Council in Stafford, Va.

Seven current board members will return for the 2009-2010 term.  They are:  Parul Jain, chief investment strategies, MacroFin Analytics; Kim Flood, economist, Bank of Canada; Richard DeKaser, Woodley Park Research; William Strauss, senior economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; Doug Duncan, chief economist, Fannie Mae; Paul Thomas, chief economist, Intel Corporation; and Robert Fry, senior associate economist, DuPont Corporation.

The following members will be retiring from the board:  past NABE President Carl Tannenbaum, vice president, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; Charles Steindel, senior vice president, Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Rich Brown, chief economist, FDIC; and Sara Johnson, managing director, Global Insight, Inc.

Nominating committee chairman Hughes-Cromwick, chief economist of Ford Motor Company, thanked members of the nominating committee:  Chris Varvares, Richard Berner, Maurine Haver, and Carl Tannenbaum.

NABE’s board has 16 members: the president, vice president, two past presidents, and 12 directors.

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