IHS Construction Seminar

Rafael Amiel

Regional Manging Director, Latin America & Caribbean

Amiel is Regional Managing Director for Latin America and the Caribbean in the Country Intelligence Group. He is responsible for coordinating the analysis and forecasts of IHS economists and analysts who cover 42 countries in this region, including the Caribbean islands. He holds a PhD in economics from Florida International University (FIU), where he also served as adjunct professor of economics and was a research associate in FIU's Latin American and Caribbean Center.

Nariman Behravesh

Chief Economist, IHS

Dr. Nariman Behravesh is Chief Economist of IHS and author of Spin-Free Economics: A No-Nonsense, Nonpartisan Guide to Today's Global Economic Debates (McGraw-Hill). Directing the entire economic forecasting process at IHS, he is responsible for developing the economic outlook and risk analysis for the United States, Europe, Japan, China and other emerging markets. He oversees the work of over 400 professionals, located in North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa who cover economic, financial and political developments in over 200 countries.

Behravesh is a "Bloomberg Best" and ranked as one of Bloomberg's Top-10 economists for 2009 and 2010. MarketWatch designated IHS Global Insight "Forecaster of the Year" in 2009 and has bestowed several Forecaster of the Month accolades since. He and his team were designated #1 in USA Today's 2004 ranking of top economic forecasters, and in Reuters' 2004 survey of major currency exchange rate forecasters. In 2008, he was ranked #2 by USA Today. In The Wall Street Journal's annual ranking of US forecasters, Behravesh was ranked #3 (out of 56) for 2006 and was the only forecaster to place in the top six for 2003, 2004 and 2006. As the chief economics spokesperson at IHS, Behravesh is quoted extensively in the media on such topics as the outlook for the US and global economies, exchange rates, the budget deficit, the trade deficit, globalization, country risk and sovereign debt crises. He is cited frequently in leading business publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Financial Times, USA Today, Investor's Business Daily, Business Week, Newsweek, Fortune, Forbes and US News and World Report. He also regularly appears on national radio and television programs including BBC World Business Report, NBC Nightly News, CNN Headline News, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer (PBS), Fox News, CNBC, Bloomberg TV and Radio, and All Things Considered and Market Place on National Public Radio.

Behravesh was the host of the PBS television series "Inside the Global Economy." In addition to his recent book, he has authored numerous articles in such publications as European Affairs and Credit Week, co-authored two books-Economics U$A (now in its 8th edition) and Microcomputers, Corporate Planning and Decision Support Systems-and was a contributing author to a book on scenario analysis, entitled Learning From the Future. His op-ed pieces have also appeared in the Financial Times, Newsweek International, London Times and the Boston Globe.

Before joining IHS, Behravesh was chief economist for Global Insight (now an IHS company). Prior to that, he was chief international economist for Standard & Poor's. He also held a number of other positions, including president and CEO of Oxford Economics U.S.A. and Group Senior Vice President of WEFA. Early in his career Behravesh worked at the Congressional Budget Office and the Federal Reserve. He has been covering the global economy for over 35 years.

Behravesh holds PhD and MA degrees in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has lived in Europe and the Middle East and is fluent in several languages. He travels extensively to Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Erskine B. Bowles

Former Co-Chairman of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform and Former White House Chief of Staff

Erskine Bowles is a native North Carolinian, born and raised in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina and received his MBA from Columbia University in New York. After serving as an enlisted man in the Coast Guard, Erskine began his financial service career at Morgan Stanley in New York as an associate in their corporate finance group. While at Morgan Stanley, he saw what he believed was a void in the financial services market place and left to form a middle-market investment bank. This firm, Bowles, Hollowell, Conner, became the preeminent mergers and acquisition firm in the middle market. Bowles would later go on to form a venture capital firm, Kitty Hawk Capital; co-found a middle-market private equity firm, Carousel Capital and serve as a partner in the New York private equity firm of Forstmann Little. During Bowles’ business career, he also served on the boards of various companies including Morgan Stanley, First Union Corporation, Merck, VF, Cousins Properties, Norfolk Southern Corporation, General Motors, Belk and Facebook.

Bowles has also followed his father’s example of public service. In 1991, he joined the administration of President Bill Clinton as Administrator of the Small Business Administration. In 1993, he was brought to the White House to serve as President Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff and later as Chief of Staff. As Chief of Staff, he served as a member of the President’s Cabinet and on both the National Security Council and the National Economic Council. Working at the direction of the President and with the Republican House of Representatives and Senate, Bowles negotiated the first balanced budget in a generation. During his tenure in the White House, he also coordinated the Federal response to the Oklahoma City bombing. Erskine tried his hand at running for public office in 2002 and 2004. In both elections for the U.S. Senate, he won the Democratic Party nomination and lost in the general election. Later, Bowles was brought back into public service several times. In response to the terrible tsunami that struck Southeast Asia in December, 2004, Bowles was asked to join the United Nations as Deputy Special Envoy, with the rank of Under Secretary General, to coordinate the global response to the tsunami. In this regard, he once again worked with and for President Clinton. In 2010, President Barak Obama asked Bowles to co-chair with former Senator Alan Simpson the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. This bipartisan commission produced a plan to reduce the Nation’s deficits by $4 trillion over the next decade. The plan was supported by a supermajority of the commission with equal support from both Republican and Democrat members.

Bowles has also served his home State of North Carolina in numerous ways. From 2005 to 2011, Bowles served as president of the University of North Carolina. The University is composed of 17 campuses, 220,000 students, 40,000 employees and has an annual budget of approximately $8 billion. Bowles also served at Governor Jim Hunt’s request as chairman of the NC Rural Prosperity Task Force charged with developing ways to bring economic development to rural North Carolina. He also served on the Board of the Golden Leaf Foundation and founded a private equity company to bring investment capital to rural North Carolina.

Bowles has also found time to be actively involved in not-for-profit organizations. After seeing firsthand how his two sons dealt with juvenile diabetes, Bowles threw himself into the work of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, ultimately becoming the National President of the Foundation. After seeing his father and sister deal with the effects of Lou Gehrig’s Disease, Bowles and his wife raised the funds to start an ALS Center in Charlotte to provide a facility to care for all families in the Carolinas affected by this disease. Bowles has also served as vice chairman of Carolinas Medical.

Carolinas affected by this disease. Bowles has also served as vice chairman of Carolinas Medical Center and as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Duke Endowment.

Bowles has been married for over 40 years to Crandall Close, former chair and CEO of Springs Industries. They have 3 grown children and 9 grandchildren. They live in Charlotte.

Karen Blanford

Research Manager

Karen Blanford joined IHS Global Insight in July 2010 as Research Director for the Construction Industry Analysis and Forecasting group. She manages the team responsible for creating the Global Construction Outlook as well as the US Construction products.

Karen Blanford manages the team responsible for creating the Global Construction Outlook, as well as the US Construction Quarterly Briefing and the US Construction Quarterly Briefing: State & Metro Area Focus.

In her role as Research Manager for the Global Construction Service, Dr. Blanford analyzes the economic and policy events that affect residential and nonresidential construction markets across the globe.  In earlier roles she specialized in energy demand modeling and long term energy forecasting as part of the DRI Energy Group with a particular interest in fuel choice in residential and commercial structures.

Jeannine Cataldi

Senior Economist, Construction Services

Jim Diffley

Vice President and Chief Economist, US Regional Services Group

James Diffley, Vice President and Chief Economist for the IHS Global Insight US Regional Services Group, has overall responsibility for US Regional Services, including the Regional Core Macroeconomic Service and the IHS Global Insight Real Estate and Construction Service.

Since 1998, Dr. Diffley has supervised the quarterly economic forecast of the 50 states and over 300 metropolitan areas of the United States. He regularly makes presentations of these regional economic forecasts and analysis to clients, conferences, governmental bodies and the press. Dr. Diffley is also responsible for customized consulting projects. These have included long-term projections of cigarette consumption, forecasts of capital gains realizations, analysis of the economic impact of the securities industry on New York State, analysis of the impact of changing oil prices on local economies and the economic impact of various facilities locations.

Dr. Diffley came to IHS Global Insight through WEFA, Inc. Prior to joining WEFA, he was supervising tax analyst with the New Jersey Division of Taxation's Office of Tax Analysis from 1988 to 1996, where he was responsible for developing the state economic forecast for the state executive budget and for business tax revenue forecasting. From 1982 to 1987, he was on the economics faculty at Adelphi University in New York.

Dr. Diffley studied mathematics and economics at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University at Buffalo and completed PHD training in Economics at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. 

Jack Gerard

President and CEO, American Petroleum

Jack N. Gerard is President and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, the National Trade Association that represents all aspects of America’s oil and natural gas industry.

Gerard has led API since November 2008, expanding its membership and influence in all 50 states and globally,adding offices in Dubai and Singapore to its operations in eijing, enabling API to better inform the public and policymakers on important energy issues. API's Washington presence is the foundation for the oil and natural gas industry's advocacy and outreach at state, federal and global levels on public policy, standards and certification programs, and as the source for information on industry best practices.

Gerard is recognized by numerous publications and his peers as one of Washington's most influential advocates. Washington Life magazine named him one of the city's "Power 100" and a Fortune magazine profile said Gerard's effort to build a 50 state advocacy network for the oil and natural gas industry was "showing signs of success" through its outreach to workers and non-traditional allies.

Prior to joining API, Gerard served as president and CEO of the American Chemistry Council, and earlier held the same position at the National Mining Association. Gerard also spent close to a decade working in the U.S. Senate and House. He came to Washington in 1981, and worked for Rep. George Hansen. He also worked for Sen. James A. McClure, who chaired the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Sen. McClure retired in 1990, and Gerard joined him in founding McClure, Gerard & Neuenschwander, Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based government relations consulting firm. Gerard served as Chairman and Chief Executive officer and focused on issues such as international sports, telecommunications, energy and mining.

He serves as a board member and is a past Chairman of the National Capital Area Council - Boy Scouts of America, is co-chair of The George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management's Council on American Politics, is Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, and is a member of the Conservation Fund's Corporate Council.

As the industry's national trade association, API's over 500 members range from the largest major oil company to the smallest of independents and represents all segments of the industry.

Gerard was born and grew up in Idaho. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Juris Doctor from George Washington University. Gerard lives in Virginia with his wife, Claudette, and their eight children, including twin boys the family adopted from Guatemala.

Karen Harbert

President and CEO, US Chamber of Commerce Institute for 21st Century Energy

Karen Alderman Harbert is president and chief executive officer of the US Chamber of Commerce Institute for 21st Century Energy. In this capacity, Harbert leads the Institute’s efforts to build support for meaningful energy action nationally and internationally through policy development, education, and advocacy.

Under Harbert’s leadership, the Energy Institute has evolved into a premier national and increasingly international organization truly dedicated to advancing a constructive energy agenda and transforming the energy and environmental debate into a widely supported plan of action. At the Institute, she was instrumental in formulating 88 specific policy recommendations that were presented to President Obama and the members of the 111th Congress. Harbert frequently testifies in front of Congress and provides analysis to the media, policymakers and industry leaders.

The mission of the US Chamber of Commerce's Institute for 21st Century Energy is to unify policymakers, regulators, business leaders, and the American public behind a common sense energy strategy to help keep America secure, prosperous, and clean. Through policy development, education, and advocacy, the Institute is building support for meaningful action at the local, state, national and international levels.

The US Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation representing the interests of more than million businesses of all sizes, sectors and regions, as well as state and local chambers and industry associations.

Scott Hazelton

Managing Director, IHS Global Construction Services

Scott Hazelton, Managing Director, IHS Global Construction Services, is a senior principal in the IHS Global Insight Business Planning and Strategy practice and is responsible for the IHS Global Insight global, US national and state and metro construction forecasts and for directing the application of these forecasts to client-specific situations. He brings 25 years of experience in econometric modeling and data analysis to his clients' business solutions.

Mr. Hazelton began his career as a housing economist for Data Resources, a predecessor of IHS Global Insight. In addition to forecasting, he was the product manager for software tools for economists. After ten years, he moved to WEFA—another IHS Global Insight predecessor—as a consultant working extensively in the areas of industrial materials and consumer credit. He joined IHS Global Insight in 2001 and launched what has become the Construction Service in 2002.

Hazelton holds a BA with highest honors in economics from Bates College.

Laura Hodges

Director, Pricing and Purchasing Service

Laura Hodges, Director of  Global Insight Pricing and Purchasing Service, is currently responsible for the management and operations of the pricing research team. She also covers the analysis and forecasts of global labor and healthcare costs.

Ms. Hodges has managed several projects focused on global cost analysis, including projects for the Canadian oil sands region and South America. The objective of these projects was to recommend the most cost-effective and efficient action in the procurement of key materials and services. She also recently managed the release of a global compensation study for construction workers. The research, analysis and forecasts covered the wages, supply and demand of skilled and unskilled construction workers in over 30 countries.

Ms. Hodges has worked for IHS Global Insight for more than 15 years. She has also worked for Project HOPE and MEDTAP as a senior research director.

She received her MA in Health and Labor Economics from Duke University with the completion of her thesis titled "AFDC, Medicaid and their Effects on the Labor Supply". She also received her MBA from Rutgers University in Beijing, China and her BA in economics from the George Washington University.

Martin Indyk

Vice President and Director, Foreign Policy, The Brookings Institution

Simona Mocuta

Senior Manager, Asia Pacific Economics

Mocuta is Senior Manager of the Asia Pacific Group at IHS, overseeing the group's analytical content and forecasts for the entire Asia region while retaining direct responsibility for Southeast Asia. She has more than 12 years of experience in economic and risk analysis and macroeconomic forecasting. Mocuta regularly contributes to various special reports and other pan-Asia analytical pieces, and participates in consulting work and pan-IHS initiatives such as the Global Scenario Project. She has a Master's Degree in International Economics from Suffolk University and an undergraduate degree in International Economic Relations from the West University in Timisoara, Romania. She is fluent in English and Romanian and has working knowledge of French.

John Mothersole

Principal, Industry Practices Group

Mothersole is a Principal in the Industry Practices Group, where he is the nonferrous metals analyst. He also helps supervise the Pricing and Purchasing Service's price and wage forecasts and the construction cost and operation and maintenance costs forecasts prepared by the group's Power Planner Service. He has a graduate degree in economics from the University of Maryland.

Angela Stent

Director, Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies and Professor, Government and Foreign Service, Georgetown University

Angela Stent is Director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies and Professor of Government and Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She is also a Senior Fellow (non-resident) at the Brookings Institution and co-chairs its Hewett Forum on Post-Soviet Affairs. From 2004-2006 she served as National Intelligence Officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council. From 1999 to 2001, she served in the Office of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State.

Stent’s academic work focuses on the triangular political and economic relationship between the United Sates, Russia and Europe. Her publications include: Russia and Germany Reborn: Unification, The Soviet Collapse and The New Europe (Princeton University Pres, 1999); From Embargo to Ostpolitik: The Political Economy of West German-Soviet Relations, 1955-1980 (Cambridge University Press, 1981); “Repairing US-Russian Relations: A Long Road Ahead” (2009) “Restoration and Revolution in Putin’s Foreign Policy,” (2008), “An Energy Superpower? Russia and Europe” (2008) and “Reluctant Europeans: Three Centuries of Russian Ambivalence Toward the West,” (2007). She is currently completing a book about US-Russian relations since 2000. She is a member of the advisory panel for NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She is a contributing editor to Survival and is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Cold War Studies, World Policy Journal and Internationale Politik.

She has served on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council for Russia and Central Asia. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Eurasia Foundation and of Supporters of Civil Society in Russia. Dr. Stent received her B.A. from Cambridge University, her MSc. with distinction from the London School of Economics and Political Science and her M.A. and PhD. from Harvard University.

Ray Will

Director, IHS Chemical Consulting

Ray Will, Director for IHS Chemical Consulting, specializes in market demand projections, market research, opportunity searches and strategic planning for inorganic and specialty chemicals. He manages consulting projects for international clients from 12 countries.

For 24 years, Mr. Will contributed to various publications at SRI Consulting, including the Chemical Economics Handbook and Specialty Chemicals Update Program reports on: Specialty chemicals business overview, adhesives and sealants, color pigments, fluorine compounds, fluorocarbons, cellulose ethers, pesticides, silicones, specialty paper chemicals, water-soluble polymers, water treatment chemicals and commercial hazardous waste recycling treatment and disposal. He is a frequent speaker and has chaired chemical industry conferences, particularly on the topics of fluorspar and fluorochemicals as well as water soluble polymers and color pigments.

Daniel Yergin

IHS Vice Chairman

Daniel Yergin, IHS Vice Chairman, is a Pulitzer-Prize winning author and leading authority on energy, international politics and economics and is a recipient of the United States Energy Award for “lifelong achievements in energy and the promotion of international understanding.”

His latest book The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World, has been hailed as “a fascinating saga” about the “quest for sustainable resources of energy” and “the book you must read to understand the future of our economy and our way of life.”

The Quest is the follow-up to Dr. Yergin’s previous book, The Prize: the Epic Quest for Oil Money and Power, which received the Pulitzer Prize and became a number one New York Times best seller that has been translated into 17 languages.

Other significant works by Dr. Yergin include Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy; Russia 2010; Energy Future; and Shattered Peace. Dr. Yergin has also written for The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, International Herald Tribune, and many other publications. He is also CNBC’s Global Energy Expert.

Both The Prize and Commanding Heights were made into award winning documentaries. The eight-hour miniseries The Prize was aired on PBS, BBC, and NHK and viewed by 20 million viewers in the United States alone. The 6-hour documentary of, Commanding Heights that Dr. Yergin produced received three Emmy nominations, the CINE Golden Eagle award, and the New York Festivals Gold World Medal for best documentary.

Dr. Yergin serves on the U.S. Secretary of Energy Advisory Board and chaired the U.S. Department of Energy’s Task Force on Strategic Energy Research and Development. He is a Trustee of the Brookings Institution, on the Board of the New America Foundation, and on the advisory boards of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Energy Initiative and the Institute for 21st Century Energy. 

Dr. Yergin holds a BA from Yale University, where he founded The New Journal, and a PhD from Cambridge University, where he was a Marshall Scholar. He has taught at the Harvard Business School and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

For additional information, visit the Daniel Yergin press page.