Business Forecast Luncheon

         Rupal Poltack

Moderator: Rupal Poltack is the chief executive officer of Walton Enterprises. She oversees the Walton family office, Walton Family Foundation and Private Family Trust Company for a single, multi-generational family. Poltack previously served as senior vice president of Fidelity Family Office Services and Fidelity Enterprise Technology. She has over thirty years of financial services experience, including 16 years of working with family offices and seven years at PricewaterhouseCoopers L.L.P. Poltack serves on the Board of Regents and Council for Women at Boston College, where she advises the college trustees and faculty and mentors young adults to define their impact and own success. She also serves as a member of the Northwest Arkansas Executive Council in support of the region’s long-term growth and development and on advisory boards for business families. Poltack holds an undergraduate degree in finance from her alma mater, Boston College.

       Dana Peterson

International Speaker: Dana Peterson is the chief economist and leader of the Economy, Strategy & Finance Center at The Conference Board. Prior to that, she served as a global economist at Citi. Peterson has worked at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C., with her research being featured by U.S. and international news outlets, including CNBC, FOX Business, Bloomberg, BBC, Thomson-Reuters, CNN Finance, Yahoo Finance, TD Ameritrade, Harvard Business Review, Barron’s, the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. Dana is a member of the Board of Directors of NBER and the Global Interdependence Center, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the New York Association for Business Economics, the National Business Economic Issues Council and the Forecasters Club. She received an undergraduate degree in Economics from Wesleyan University and a Master of Science degree in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

          Sam Khater

Domestic Speaker: Sam Khater is vice president and chief economist at Freddie Mac and is responsible for the research, analysis and forecasts of the macroeconomy with a special focus on housing and mortgage markets. Previously, Khater served as vice president of research and deputy chief economist at CoreLogic. Before joining CoreLogic, Khater was a senior economist at Fannie Mae and an economist at the National Association of Realtors^®. Khater holds a master’s degree in network economics from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s degree in economics and finance from George Mason University.

Mervin Jebaraj is the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas. During his time at the center, he has been instrumental in creating and executing economic studies for clients such as the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, Northwest Arkansas Council, Walton Family Foundation, Arvest Bank, University of Arkansas and many others. His work is regularly noted by the state's business media. Arkansas Business and the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal recognized Mervin in their 40 Under 40 lists and on the Arkansas 250 list. He is an exceptional source of business and economics-related expertise that journalists and businesspeople alike rely on to understand how national and regional issues impact Northwest Arkansas and Arkansas as a whole. He makes presentations that share the center's expertise directly to over 5,000 individuals annually and tens of thousands more hear and see his economic analysis and commentary through television, radio and print media. Jebaraj serves on the Community Development Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the Board of Directors of the National Association for Business Economics, and the Board of Directors of the Northwest Arkansas National Airport.