Marie Diron is global head of Moody’s Sovereign and Sub-Sovereign Risk Group, with responsibility for credit ratings on countries, regional and local governments, public sector entities and multilateral development banks. Marie is also Moody’s Investors Service lead coordinator on ESG monitoring and integration across asset classes. 

Marie has worked in various functions at Moody’s in the Sovereign Risk Group and (then) Credit Policy. In particular, she was lead sovereign analyst for a number of Asia Pacific credits including Australia, China, India and some frontier market sovereigns. She then managed the Asia Pacific sovereign team, before expanding her responsibilities to today’s global role. Previously, in Credit Policy, Marie co-ordinated Moody’s Global Macro Outlook and other credit research. 

Marie was previously Director at Oxford Economics, leading the company’s forecasting and scenario analysis service to financial sector and corporate clients, after a number of years at the European Central Bank and Brevan Howard LLP. Marie received a MPhil in Economics from the University of Cambridge and graduated from the Ecole Centrale Paris.

Sebastian Mallaby is the Paul A. Volcker senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). A two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, he is the author of six books, including More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite and The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future, which have become investment classics. His latest book is The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence; the Financial Times wrote that “Mallaby has done full justice to his kaleidoscopically interesting subject.” He also co-hosts a weekly CFR podcast, The Spillover, which examines the ripple effects of global events across policy, geopolitics, economics, technology, and financial markets.

An experienced journalist and public speaker, Mallaby’s interests cover a wide variety of domestic and international issues, including the technology sector, central banks, financial markets, the implications of the rise of newly emerging powers, and the intersection of economics and international relations. His study of American economic statecraft, The Man Who Knew: The Life & Times of Alan Greenspan, won the 2016 Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award and the 2017 George S. Eccles Prize in Economic Writing. His earlier works are The World’s Banker, a portrait of the World Bank under James Wolfensohn that was named as an “Editor’s Choice” by the New York Times; and After Apartheid, which was named by the New York Times as a “Notable Book.” An essay in the Financial Times said of The World’s Banker, “Mallaby’s book may well be the most hilarious depiction of a big organization and its controversial boss since Michael Lewis’s Liar’s Poker.”

Before joining CFR, Mallaby served eight years as a columnist and editorial board member at the Washington Post and spent thirteen years with the Economist. While at the Economist, he worked in London, where he wrote about foreign policy and international finance; in Africa, where he covered Nelson Mandela’s release and the collapse of apartheid; and in Japan, where he covered the breakdown of the country’s political and economic consensus. Between 1997 and 1999, Mallaby was the Economist’s Washington bureau chief and wrote the magazine’s weekly Lexington column on American politics and foreign policy. In 2015, he helped to found a startup, InFacts.org, a web publication making the fact-based case for Britain to remain in the European Union.

Mallaby was educated at Oxford, graduating in 1986 with a first class degree in modern history. After eighteen years in Washington, DC, he moved to London in 2014, where he lives with his wife, Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor in chief of the Economist.

Marie Diron is global head of Moody’s Sovereign and Sub-Sovereign Risk Group, with responsibility for credit ratings on countries, regional and local governments, public sector entities and multilateral development banks. Marie is also Moody’s Investors Service lead coordinator on ESG monitoring and integration across asset classes. 

Marie has worked in various functions at Moody’s in the Sovereign Risk Group and (then) Credit Policy. In particular, she was lead sovereign analyst for a number of Asia Pacific credits including Australia, China, India and some frontier market sovereigns. She then managed the Asia Pacific sovereign team, before expanding her responsibilities to today’s global role. Previously, in Credit Policy, Marie co-ordinated Moody’s Global Macro Outlook and other credit research. 

Marie was previously Director at Oxford Economics, leading the company’s forecasting and scenario analysis service to financial sector and corporate clients, after a number of years at the European Central Bank and Brevan Howard LLP. Marie received a MPhil in Economics from the University of Cambridge and graduated from the Ecole Centrale Paris.

Philipp Lotter is Managing Director – Global Ratings and Research, based in London. He is responsible for the development of MIS ratings and research opinions for global fundamental and structured finance ratings groups, and the delivery of services to issuers and the market.

Prior to assuming this role in November 2019, he was Global Head and before that EMEA Co-Head of the Corporate Finance Group.

Philipp has spent many years of his career abroad with strong Emerging and Developing Markets coverage experience. He spent more than 5 years in Asia, where he held the dual role of Country Manager for Moody’s office in Singapore, as well as Managing Director of the Corporate Finance Group responsible for companies across Southeast Asia and India.

Before that, Philipp spent more than 3 years in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where he was responsible for setting up the Moody’s office in Dubai and for the ratings of Middle Eastern corporate issuers across all sectors, including Islamic finance. Having joined Moody’s in London in 2003, Philipp started as an analyst covering utilities and the oil & gas industry.

Before joining Moody’s, Philipp spent 3 years in rating advisory at Citigroup. His career has also included positions at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in London and Frankfurt in rating advisory, bond and credit research, and leveraged financing. Philipp holds a Diploma from the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. He has also attended international semesters at the European Business School in London and University College Dublin.

Isabelle Mateos y Lago is Group Chief Economist at BNP Paribas. She has over 25 years’ experience in international economics, finance and public policy. Isabelle began her career in France at the Inspection Générale des Finances before joining the International Monetary Fund (IMF), where she held key positions in the Asia, Europe and Strategy departments, as well as at the Executive Board and as advisor to IMF Management. In 2015, she joined BlackRock where she stayed until 2024 serving in different roles notably Chief Macro Investment Strategist at the BlackRock Investment Institute, Global Head of the Official Institutions Group, and Chief Markets Strategist in the Financial and Strategic Investors Group, alongside serving as a member of the firm’s Geopolitical Risk Steering Committee.

Isabelle is a member of the Board of the Euro 50 think tank, and associate fellow of the Center For Economic Policy Research (CEPR), both leading European economic think tanks. She earned degrees from Sciences Po Paris and Cambridge University (Economics) and is an alumna of École Nationale d’Administration (ENA).

Mahmood  Pradhan is a Fellow at Bruegel and was previously the Global Head of Macro and Strategy at Amundi Asset Management. Prior to that he was Deputy Director of the European Department at the IMF (2011-20) heading the IMF’s bilateral relations with the Euro Area and the EU. And earlier Mahmood was the IMF’s mission chief for Japan and oversaw the Fund’s engagement with South East Asia, and as Assistant Director, Monetary and Capital Markets Department during the Global Financial Crisis.

Mahmood also spent 9 years in the asset management industry as an Emerging Markets Strategist with Tudor Investment Corporation, and as an Emerging Market portfolio manager at Wadhwani Asset Management. Earlier in his career, he worked at the Bank of England on monetary policy and financial markets.

Marie Diron is global head of Moody’s Sovereign and Sub-Sovereign Risk Group, with responsibility for credit ratings on countries, regional and local governments, public sector entities and multilateral development banks. Marie is also Moody’s Investors Service lead coordinator on ESG monitoring and integration across asset classes. 

Marie has worked in various functions at Moody’s in the Sovereign Risk Group and (then) Credit Policy. In particular, she was lead sovereign analyst for a number of Asia Pacific credits including Australia, China, India and some frontier market sovereigns. She then managed the Asia Pacific sovereign team, before expanding her responsibilities to today’s global role. Previously, in Credit Policy, Marie co-ordinated Moody’s Global Macro Outlook and other credit research. 

Marie was previously Director at Oxford Economics, leading the company’s forecasting and scenario analysis service to financial sector and corporate clients, after a number of years at the European Central Bank and Brevan Howard LLP. Marie received a MPhil in Economics from the University of Cambridge and graduated from the Ecole Centrale Paris.