2007 Business Forecast

The Thirteenth Annual Business Forecast was held on Friday, January 26, 2007 at the John Q. Hammons Convention Center in Rogers. The luncheon was a big success. Thank you to all who attended.

The video of the 2007 Business Forecast is available online for viewing.
[ video presentation ]

The Panelists

Julia Peck Mobley is chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Commercial National Bank of Texarkana. Mobley is also president of Commercial Bancshares Inc., an Arkansas bank-holding company. She develops real estate projects and manages a timberland operation in southwest Arkansas. An alumna of the Walton College, she serves on its Dean's Executive Advisory Board and the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame selection committee. She received the 1999 Citation of Distinguished UA Alumni award.

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J. Paul Horne is an independent market economist with 45 years of experience in Europe analyzing international economics and financial markets for multinational investors. In July 2001, he retired as the London-based European equity market economist and a managing director of Smith Barney of Citigroup. He joined Smith Barney in 1975 in Paris as chief international economist and member of the Investment Policy Committee. A managing director from 1987, he remained in Paris until Smith Barney acquired Salomon Brothers in 1997. Before joining Smith Barney, Horne was a specialized economic-financial journalist in Rome in the 1960s with Newsweek magazine and The Times (London). He subsequently worked with the Rockefeller-controlled IBEC financial services subsidiary in Rome and Brussels. Born in the United States, Horne earned a B.A. at Yale University.

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John E. Silva joined Wachovia in February 2002 as chief economist for the bank. Previously, he worked on Capitol Hill as senior economist for the U.S. Senate Joint Economic Committee and chief economist for the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. Prior to that, he was chief economist of Kemper Funds and managing director of Scudder Kemper Investments Inc. Silva holds a bachelor's degree and a doctoral degree in economics from Northeastern University in Boston and master's degree in economics from Brown University. Silva serves as a member of the Blue Chip Panel of Economic Forecasters and also on an informal advisory group for the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. In the past, Silva has served on economic advisory committees to the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the Public Securities Association.
 

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Tim Yeager the Arkansas Bankers Association Chair and associate professor of finance, Timothy J. Yeager's responsibilities include teaching, research and outreach to Arkansas community bankers. Prior to joining the Walton College in January 2006, he was an assistant vice president over the Supervisory Policy Analysis unit of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The unit conducted bank surveillance activities, regional economic and banking analysis, capital markets examiner training and banking research. Recently, his articles have been published in the Journal of Financial Services Review, the Journal of Banking and Finance, and the Journal of Economics and Business. Yeager received his doctorate in economics in 1993 from Washington University.