Rob Chrisman has published Rob Chrisman’s Mortgage Daily News, a widely read daily market commentary on current mortgage events, since late 2008. He began his mortgage banking career in 1985 with First California Mortgage’s secondary marketing group. In 1988, Chrisman joined mortgage pipeline risk management firm Tuttle & Co., where he worked as an account manager and partner for eight years before moving to Scotland with his family for nine months.

In 1997, Chrisman returned to the United States to work in secondary marketing for Standard Financial, a subprime lender in northern California. Later that year, he was hired by CrossLand Mortgage as president of CrossLand subsidiary OnCall Mortgage. He managed OnCall until its parent company was purchased by Wells Fargo in 2000.

Since 2000, Chrisman has worked with wholesale mortgage bank CMG Mortgage and was named Director of Capital Markets for RPM Mortgage. He is currently a board member of financial services company IFC.

Bill Emerson is chief executive officer of Quicken Loans Inc., the nation’s largest online home lender. Emerson is responsible for the day-to-day leadership and growth of Quicken Loans. He joined Quicken in 1993 as a mortgage banker, and his passion and commitment for learning and growing, as well as his zeal for taking care of clients, helped him take on many roles at the company.

Emerson’s leadership ability afforded him the opportunity to run several business units at Quicken Loans including the early stages of the company’s web center. He also led all mortgage operations for the company, where he was responsible for driving performance within all Quicken Loans businesses. Emerson was promoted to CEO in 2002.

Emerson is an active spokesperson on the housing industry, and serves on the Mortgage Bankers Association Residential Board of Governors and the Housing Policy Executive Council. He is also a member of the board of directors of Xenith, Inc., a football helmet company dedicated to advancing safety and activity, and is a minority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Peter Leyden is CEO of Next Agenda, an innovative Silicon Valley start-up whose mission it is to help solve some of the biggest, most complex challenges of the 21st century. A future trends and technology expert, he began his career as the managing editor of the original WIRED magazine, and at the center of the Global Business Network's pioneering think tank on the future. Leyden recently served as director of the New Politics Institute, a think tank helping those in politics understand the transformation in new media and in the demographics of the United States.

Leyden is also the co-author of two books on megatrends: The Long Boom and What's Next? Also a respected journalist, he served as a Newsweek special correspondent in Asia, and now frequently appears as a commentator and analyst in the media, discussing trends and technology.

Zanny Minton Beddoes is The Economist’s economics editor, based in Washington, DC. She leads the paper’s global economic coverage, coordinating a team of writers around the world. Until November 2007, Minton Beddoes was The Economist’s US economics editor, focused on the American economy and its global impact.

Minton Beddoes joined The Economist in 1994 after spending two years as an economist at the International Monetary Fund. Before joining the IMF, she worked as an adviser to the Minister of Finance in Poland, as part of a small group headed by Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Harvard University.

Minton Beddoes has published in Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy, contributed chapters to several conference volumes and, in 1997, edited Emerging Asia, a book on the future of emerging-markets in Asia, published by the Asian Development Bank. In May 1998 she testified before Congress on the introduction of the Euro.