The 2024 Economic Forecast featuring the UCI Paul Merage School of Business is presented by the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce and is an annual event that attracts hundreds of Orange County business leaders, media and government officials and promises to deliver a powerful program presented by an esteemed and unprecedented panel of experts.

Lunch and Valet Parking included.

For sponsorship information, please contact Steve Rosansky at 949-729-4404 or via eMail at steve@newportbeach.com.

Please register below.

Christopher Schwarz

• Professor, Finance, UC Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business
• Faculty Director, University of California, Irvine, Center for Investment and Wealth Management

Christopher Schwarz is a Professor of Finance at UC Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business as well as the Faculty Director for the Center for Investment and Wealth Management. During his time at UCI, he has been published in all leading academic and practitioner finance journals. His research has also been cited by the New York Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times and provided a number of economic forecasts in the community. Prior to arriving at UCI, Christopher received his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, during which he was also a Visiting Doctoral Fellow at Yale University’s International Center of Finance. He received his B.S. from Babson College in Wellesley, MA.

Marshall Toplansky

• Innovation Professor, Management Science
  Argyros School of Business and Economics
  Chapman University
• Co-Founder and Former Managing Director
  KPMG’s National Center of Excellence
  in Data and Analytics
• Director of the Harvard Business School
  Association of Orange County

Marshall Toplansky is an award-winning Innovation Professor of Management Science at the Argyros School of Business and Economics at Chapman University.  He is a research fellow at the Center for Demographics and Policy and is director of the school’s Analytics Accelerator program.   He and co-author Joel Kotkin recently published an economic and social policy brief entitled, “Nurturing California Industries”, which discusses the issues the state faces in maintaining home ownership for the middle class and rebuilding a positive business climate.  Marshall is also co-host of “The Feudal Future Podcast”, which is seen twice monthly by viewers around the world.

Co-Founder and former Managing Director of KPMG’s national center of excellence in Data & Analytics, Marshall also co-founded the big data company Wise Window, a pioneer in analyzing social media, blogs and news stories to track business trends and predict elections, which was acquired by KPMG in 2012.   Marshall was Chairman and CEO of Core Strategies, a technology industry marketing research and strategy consulting firm and formerly head of marketing for U.S. Robotics. 

He earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and is a Director of the Harvard Business School Association of Orange County.  In 2020, he was given a Global Humanitarian award from CWS for his work with the organization addressing the global refugee crisis.

Marshall was elected to the Computing Industry Hall of Fame in 2011` for his role in creating the industry’s largest technical service certification program, A+, which has certified more than 3 million computer technicians worldwide.