Mohamed El-Erian
Mohamed A. El-Erian (Egyptian Arabic: [mæˈħæmmæd elʕeɾˈjæːn]; born August 19, 1958) is Chief Economic Adviser at Allianz, a multinational financial services company. He is the former CEO and co-Chief Investment Officer at PIMCO, a global investment firm and one of the world's largest bond investors, with approximately $2 trillion in assets under management as of December 2013. PIMCO is a company of Allianz. El-Erian serves as chair of President Obama's Global Development Council. He is a columnist for Bloomberg View, as well as a regular contributor to the Financial Times and a member of their A List. He is also a regular contributor to Business Insider as well as Fortune/CNN and Foreign Policy. He is on the panel of experts that is judging the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year for 2014. As CEO of PIMCO, El-Erian was responsible for setting the strategic direction of the firm and leading its operations globally. As co-CIO with PIMCO cofounder Bill Gross, El-Erian oversaw investment policies and strategies for all of the company's portfolio management activities. He re-joined PIMCO at the end of 2007 after serving for two years as president and CEO of Harvard Management Company, the entity that manages Harvard's endowment and related accounts. He served as a member of the faculty of Harvard Business School. He is currently a member of the Harvard Global Advisory Council. El-Erian first joined PIMCO in 1999 and was a senior member of their portfolio management and investment strategy group. Before coming to PIMCO, he was a managing director at Citigroup in London. Before that he spent 15 years at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C., where he served as Deputy Director. On December 21, 2012, President Obama announced the appointment of El-Erian as the Chair of the president's Global Development Council.