Michael K. Farr, the founder and CEO of Farr, Miller & Washington, LLC, is the Chairman of their Investment Committee and is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day activities of the firm. Michael is the longest-running paid contributor for CNBC television and appears regularly on The Today Show, Good Morning America, NBC’s Nightly News, CNN, BloombergTV, Reuters, and the Nightly Business Report. He can be heard on Associated Press Radio, CBS Radio, and National Public Radio, and has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, The Washington Post, Businessweek, USA Today, and many other publications. Michael is a highly sought-after speaker who covers topics such as investing, retirement, the current economic situation, the Federal Reserve, and much more.

2014 Young Global Leader and Harvard University Nieman Fellow Souad Mekhennet has reported on radical Islamic movements since shortly after September 11th and has researched long-term strategies of terrorist organizations since the Arab Spring. It is through this work, and her Baillie Gifford Prize 2017 longlist recognized book, I Was Told to Come Alone, that she hopes to shed light on the troubling dynamics happening today between Islam and the West and what needs to happen to change them.

Peter Conradi has worked in national and international journalism for more than three decades. As the Paris-based Europe Editor and former Foreign Editor of The Sunday Times, he can speak authoritatively on many aspects of international affairs. In his present role, he covers the big stories in France, Germany, Italy and beyond, trying to make sense of events across the continent. Now based in Paris, Peter has a strong interest in European politics and in the implications of Brexit. It helps that he speaks fluent German, French and Italian as well as Russian. Russia is an area of specialism and he was based there from 1988 to 1995, during which time he experienced at first hand the end of Communism and the break-up of the Soviet Union. These experiences informed his book, Who Lost Russia? How the World Entered a New Cold War, which was critically well received on both sides of the Atlantic. The New York Times called it ‘a smart, balanced analysis of the internal developments that have shaped Russia’s course since the break-up of the Soviet Union’. A Russian speaker, he continues to follow events in Russia and the broader region.