Global Financial Leaders Forum 2026

Date
Tuesday, October 13, 2026

Time
5:00 PM (EDT)

Venue
The Plaza Hotel New York
768 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10019

Access
By Invitation Only

Chairman, Fisher Investments

Ken Fisher founded Fisher Investments in 1979 and currently serves as Executive Chairman and Co-Chief Investment Officer. His Portfolio Strategy column in Forbes ran from 1984 to 2016, making him the longest continuously running columnist in the magazine’s history.

Today, he writes regular investment columns for leading business publications across more than 30 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, France, Germany, and Australia, reaching a global audience in multiple languages. He is also a frequent commentator on major international media outlets, including Fox News, Fox Business, CNN International, BBC, and BNN Bloomberg.

Ken is the author of 11 books, including four New York Times bestsellers, and is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading investment experts.

Head of the BlackRock Investment Institute, BlackRock

The institute leverages BlackRock’s expertise and produces proprietary research to provide insights on the global economy, markets, geopolitics and long-term asset allocation — all to help clients and portfolio managers navigate financial markets. Dr. Boivin oversees all of BII’s activities and is responsible for ensuring that BII integrates research insights on portfolio construction, economics and markets with the long-term, whole-portfolio perspective that BlackRock’s clients need today. Dr. Boivin, who is a member of BlackRock’s Global OpCo and the GEC Investment Committee, also is BII’s Global Head of Research. He is responsible for economic and markets research, and for developing the core principles and intellectual property that underpin BlackRock’s approach to portfolio design, such as capital market assumptions and optimization tools.

Prior to joining BlackRock in 2014, Dr. Boivin served as Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada and Associate Deputy Finance Minister, serving as Canada’s representative at the G7, G20 and Financial Stability Board. Dr. Boivin has also taught at Columbia Business School and HEC Montreal, and has written widely on macroeconomics, monetary policy and finance. Dr. Boivin earned a B.Sc. degree in economics from the Université de Montréal in 1995, an MA in economics from Princeton University in 1997 and a PhD in economics from Princeton University in 2000.

Global Head of Liquid Credit, Carlyle

Lauren Basmadjian is a Partner, Global Head of Liquid Credit within Carlyle’s Global Credit platform. She is based in New York and sits on the firm’s Liquid and Private Investment Committees.

Ms. Basmadjian joined Carlyle in 2020 after 19 years at Octagon Credit Investors, where she was a Senior Portfolio Manager and member of the Investment Committee. Prior to becoming a Portfolio Manager, Ms. Basmadjian managed Octagon’s workout efforts and oversaw the leisure & entertainment, retail, consumer products, business services, food & beverage, and technology industries.

She graduated cum laude from the Stern School of Business at New York University with a BS in Finance and Economics.

Global Chief Investment Officer, WisdomTree

Jeremy Schwartz has served as Global Chief Investment Officer since November 2021 and leads WisdomTree’s investment strategy team in the construction of WisdomTree’s equity Indexes, quantitative active strategies and multi-asset Model Portfolios. Jeremy joined WisdomTree in May 2005 as a Senior Analyst, adding Deputy Director of Research to his responsibilities in February 2007. He served as Director of Research from October 2008 to October 2018 and as Global Head of Research from November 2018 to November 2021.

Before joining WisdomTree, he was a head research assistant for Professor Jeremy Siegel and, in 2022, became his co-author on the sixth edition of the book Stocks for the Long Run. Jeremy is also co-author of the Financial Analysts Journal paper “What Happened to the Original Stocks in the S&P 500?” He received his B.S. in economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and hosts the Behind the Markets podcast. Jeremy is a member of the CFA Society of Philadelphia.

Managing Partner, Advent International

David Mussafer is Chairman Emeritus and Managing Partner of Advent International, one of the world’s leading global private equity firms, and has over 35 years of investment experience. David joined Advent in 1990 and served as a member of Advent’s global executive committee for 25 years and succeeded Peter Brooke as Chairman of Advent in 2015.

With more than $100 billion in assets under management, Advent invests in companies across a variety of industries in North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia via 17 offices around the world. David continues to serve as a member on Advent’s global investment committee and has led more than 35 investments across a range of industries. David has served on numerous public and private boards and currently serves as director of Fisher Investments and Shield AI.

David received his BS in Management from Tulane University and earned his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. David and his family are active with numerous civic and charitable organizations, and he currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Tulane University and previously served as a Member of The Business Roundtable in Washington DC. David lives in Boston and he and his wife, Marion, have four grown children and two grandchildren.

Partner, Paulson & Co

Andrew Kim is a partner at Paulson & Co, a leading event-driven hedge fund in NYC. Andrew is responsible for global risk arbitrage and event-driven investments across all sectors. Previously, he was an Investment Analyst at Perry Capital and an Investment Banking Analyst at Goldman Sachs. He graduated with an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BBA from the University of Michigan.