Harnessing the Power of Financial Markets for the Public Good

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MISSION STATEMENT

PREAMBLE

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Mission Statement

The Financial Policy Forum and Derivatives Study Center were created out of the concern that financial markets disruptions and inefficiencies have become a barrier to improvements in living standards in the U.S. and around the world. Our mission is to conduct economic policy research into financial markets, analyze how they impact the overall economy and then formulate policy recommendations for the most appropriate level of regulation and market oversight. We will disseminate this information to policy makers, journalists, academics and concerned citizens, and we will provide expert advice, training and policy briefings for policy makers, journalists, NGOs, labor unions and farmers.

Preamble

The Financial Policy Forum (FPF) is a non-profit educational institute established under section 501(c)3 of the federal tax code. Its principle funding is a grant from the Ford Foundation which allows it to maintain an independent perspective. The FPF does not receive funding from any Wall Street firm.

The FPF and the Derivatives Study Center (DSC) were established to engage in economic research and outreach activities in order to interject a new, critical voice into the policy debate over financial market regulation. Derivatives and other financial markets have become critically important to the U.S. economy and their presence and importance is growing throughout the world of developing economies. Financial markets have acted in recent years as major sources of economic disturbances and distortions, and have thereby raised instability and hampered the pace of economic growth. The rapid growth of derivatives markets, hedge funds and other aspects of financial markets, together with their continuous innovations and reorganizations, warrants on-going analysis and investigation into how this impacts overall economic prosperity and how to address such changes with the most appropriate level of regulation and oversight.

Board of Directors

Randall Dodd, President and Treasurer

Mr. Dodd is an economist with 20 years of teaching experience at the university level and 12 years of experience working on economic and financial policy at the U.S. Congress, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and presently at the Derivatives Study Center. He has a PhD in Economics from Columbia University.

Robert Tomkin

Mr. Tomkin, who has an MPP from Harvard University and another Masters in International Relations from Oxford, is a journalist and foreign policy expert. He currently writes for Congressional Quarterly, and he has worked previously for the Financial Times, Nikkei Shimbun, amongst others. He is also a former Congressional staffer and Foreign Service officer.

Emira Woods

Ms. Woods, a graduate of Columbia and Harvard Universities, works for Foreign Policy in Focus. She is formerly a Program Manager for Development Policy and Practice at InterAction and a Program Officer on Africa for Oxfam America. She has played a critical role in networking NGOs based in New York and Washington, D.C. around the Financing for Development process. Originally from Liberia, she has experience in supporting civil society in all regions of the continent- West, Southern, Horn, and Central. She also worked at the World Bank where she did research on Africa. She serves on the Africa Panel of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and is involved with the Association of Women in Development (AWID).

Sanjay Mongia

Mr. Mongia, who holds Masters degrees in both International Relations and Government Administration from the University of Pennsylvania, is a communications specialist and policy analyst on a wide range of international economics issues. He managed the public affairs and media relations at the Economic Strategy Institute, and he formerly managed the Washington office of the Levy Economics Institute.

There are two new board members, Susan Ervin and David Levine, and their bios will be posted soon.