James Chessen is the Executive Vice President, Chief Economist for the American Bankers Association. In this capacity, Mr. Chessen oversees two departments: Economic & Policy Research which monitors the financial performance and condition of the banking industry and studies legislative and regulatory issues as they pertain to the banking industry and the Benchmarking and Survey Research group that conducts primary research and publishes comprehensive industry survey reports to meet members’ information needs. Mr. Chessen writes on banking issues and he appears regularly in the print and broadcast media. He has also testified before Congress and federal regulatory agencies on economic and banking issues. Prior to joining the ABA in March 1988, Mr. Chessen worked as a financial economist at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and was an assistant professor of economics at Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, Illinois. Chessen has a Ph.D. and an MA in Economics from Virginia Tech and a BA from the University of Puget Sound.

Kenneth J. (Ken) Kies is Managing Director of the Federal Policy Group, a division of Clark & Wamberg LLC. The Federal Policy Group provides sophisticated strategic and technical tax advice on tax policy matters before the Congress, the U.S. Treasury Department, the Internal Revenue Service, and the OECD.

Mr. Kies has delivered significant legislative and regulatory results for his clients, which include major corporations, trade associations, and coalitions of companies with common objectives. Mr. Kies has led coalition efforts to enact legislation responding to the World Trade Organization’s ruling against U.S. foreign sales corporation benefits, to avert enactment of broad “corporate tax shelter” legislation that would have an adverse impact on legitimate business transactions, and to reverse Treasury regulations targeting “hybrid” arrangements of U.S. multinational corporations, among other projects.

Mr. Kies is married to Kathleen Clark Kies and has two daughters, Katherine and Kylie. They reside in McLean, Virginia. He is a golfer and runner, having completed eight marathons, including the Boston Marathon.