Featured Experts

Steve Forbes is chairman and editor-in-chief of Forbes Media. His newest project is the podcast "What's Ahead," where he engages the world's top newsmakers, politicians, and pioneers in business and economics in honest conversations meant to challenge traditional conventions as well as featuring his signature views on the intersection of society, economy, and policy. Mr. Forbes helped create the highly acclaimed public television documentary, In Money We Trust?, which was produced under the auspices of Maryland Public television. The film was inspired by the book he co-authored, Money: How the Destruction of the Dollar Threatens the Global Economy - and What We Can Do About It. His latest book is Inflation: What It Is, Why It's Bad, and How to Fix It, co-authored by Elizabeth Ames and Nathan Lewis. Mr. Forbes writes editorials for each issue of Forbes under the heading of "Fact and Comment." A widely respected economic prognosticator, he is the only writer to have won the highly prestigious Crystal Owl Award four times. The prize was formerly given by US Steel Corporation to the financial journalist whose economic forecasts for the coming year proved most accurate. In both 1996 and 2000, Mr. Forbes campaigned vigorously for the Republican nomination for the Presidency. Key to his platform were a flat tax, medical savings accounts, a new Social Security system for working Americans, parental choice of schools for their children, term limits, and a strong national defense.

Rich Karlgaard is editor-at-large and global futurist at Forbes, one of the most popular business and financial magazines, reaching 80 million people per month. He writes a column about technology, entrepreneurship, regional and economic development, and the future of business and work called Innovation Rules. He is the author of The Soft Edge: Where Great Companies Find Lasting Success, Team Genius: The New Science of High-Performing Organizations, and Late Bloomers: The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed with Early Achievement.

Louis Navellier is one of Wall Street's renowned growth investment advisors. He is the founder and chairman of Navellier & Associates, a money management firm. Mr. Navellier specializes in behavioral finance and utilizes extensive quantitative and fundamental analysis to identify market-beating stocks. He is the editor of five investing newsletters published through InvestorPlace.

Mark Mills co-founded Montrose Lane, an energy-software venture fund, is founder and Executive Director of the National Center for Energy Analytics, a contributing editor at Manhattan Institute’s City Journal, and a faculty fellow at Northwestern University's engineering school. He writes for numerous publications, including the Wall Street Journal, and his PragerU videos have been viewed over 10 million times. Mr. Mills is the author several books: The Cloud Revolution (2021), Digital Cathedrals (2020), Work In The Age Of Robots (2018), and The Bottomless Well, (2005), about which Bill Gates said, "This is the only book I've ever seen that really explains energy." He served as Chairman/CTO of ICx Technologies helping take it public in a 2007 IPO. Mr. Mills served in President Reagan's White House Science Office, and earlier, was an experimental physicist and development engineer in microprocessors and fiber optics at Bell Northern Research (Canada's Bell Labs) and RCA Semiconductor. 

Dr. Lindsey Piegza is the chief economist for Stifel Financial. In her role, Dr. Piegza translates economic data and market-moving events to assist institutional and private wealth clients in better understanding today’s economy and making thoughtful investment decisions. She specializes in the research and analysis of economic trends and activity, world economies, financial markets, and monetary and fiscal policies. 

Prior to her role with Stifel, she was the senior economist for an investment bank in New York City for eight years, consulting clients in the US, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.  

A highly sought-after speaker across national and international forums, Dr. Piegza is often quoted in the business press. She is a contributor for the BBC World Service and a regular guest on CNBC, Bloomberg, CNN, Fox Business, as well as national radio and other business news outlets.  

In addition to her role with Stifel, Dr. Piegza is an instructor at the Pacific Coast Banking School (PCBS), a member of the Chicago Federal Reserve Advisory Committee, SIFMA’s Economic Advisory Roundtable Chair, and a well-respected author. She has published numerous academic papers in journals such as the Harvard Business Review and in textbooks from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Dr. Piegza is a member of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE), the American Economic Association (AEA), the Economic Club of Chicago, and the Economic Club of New York. Dr. Piegza was also named a 2019 Women of Influence by the Chicago Business Journal. She holds two degrees from Northwestern University in political science and economics and earned her PhD in economics from the City University of New York. 

Dr. Piegza volunteers, hosting quarterly regional events for the Stifel’s Women’s Initiate Network (WIN) and is also a volunteer court-appointed advocate for abused and neglected children (CASA). A native of Chicago, she is based in Stifel’s downtown Chicago office and resides with her husband and two small children in Wisconsin.