Introducing Our keynote Speakers
John Silvia is a managing director and the chief economist for Wells Fargo. Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, he has held his position since he joined Wachovia, a Wells Fargo predecessor, in 2002 as the company’s chief economist. Before his current position, John worked on Capitol Hill as senior economist for the U.S. Senate Joint Economic Committee and chief economist for the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. Before that, he was chief economist of Kemper Funds and managing director of Scudder Kemper Investments, Inc. John served as the president of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) in 2015 and was awarded a NABE Fellow Certificate of Recognition in 2011 for outstanding contributions to the business economics profession and leadership among business economists to the nation. For the second time in three years, he was awarded the best overall forecast by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, as well as the best unemployment rate forecast for 2011. John is on the Bloomberg Best Forecast list for his forecasts of GDP, the ISM manufacturing index, housing starts, and the unemployment rate. John holds B.A. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from Northeastern University in Boston and has a master’s degree in economics from Brown University. John is a Certified Business Economist (CBE). He serves as a member of the Blue Chip Panel of Economic Forecasters and also serves on an informal advisory group for the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. He served as chair for the Economic Advisory Committee of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) Economic Advisory Roundtable. John also serves on the finance committee for the Mint Museum in Charlotte and is a regular lecturer to the Cornell Food Executive Program. John is past president of the Charlotte Economics Club. He has also served on economic advisory committees to the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and the Public Securities Association.