Welcome to the 25th annual Fixed Income Hall of Fame Ceremony, hosted by the Fixed Income Analysts Society. My name is Mark Howard and it’s my privilege to serve as the Chair of this year's event. Shortly, we will dig into our meals and continue the conversations for about 45 minutes. At that time, I will come back on stage to kick off the formal ceremony which will include 3 wonderful speeches by our distinguished honorees and an introduction by our Master of Ceremonies, Robin Wigglesworth. The event will conclude with some brief comments by FIASI's President, Monica Aggarwal of Fitch Ratings and her presentation of a special recognition award to a long-time contributor to FIASIs success.

And before we turn back to dinner, I want to give shout-outs to 4 very special members of our Hall of Fame who are celebrating anniversaries this year. As a coincidence, Dan Fuss of Loomis Sayles is being feted by his friends and colleagues today in Boston as they celebrate his 90th birthday!!

This year is the 10th anniversary of the inductions for Jim Grant and Rick Rieder. Rick is travelling and sends his very best wishes. Jim accelerated his publishing deadline so that he could join tonight - Jim do you mind raising your hand for everyone?

20 years ago, my former colleague and mentor Jack Malvey was inducted into the Hall with S&P's Leo O'Neil. And while Mr. O'Neil passed away the following year, Jack is still engaged and quick with a joke in his retirement. He is most disappointed not to be in attendance tonight but sent a special message for our honorees and all in attendance- I will do my best Malvey impersonation….

“Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good evening and congratulations to all attendees and especially the new HOF class of 2023.

Unfortunately, a couple of medical issues prevent me from attending in person this year.

But I am delighted to join you remotely on this celebratory occasion, the highlight of the annual FIASI calendar. 

On a personal basis, I still view my quite unexpected HOF selection 20 years ago as a major highlight of my career.  I harbored doubts about my worthiness to join this list of eminent academics and practitioners who laid the groundwork in the 1980s and 1990s for the rapidly approaching 21st century global capital markets.   

And these collective efforts proved helpful to those of us enlisted in the difficult market stabilization campaigns of the early to mid-Oughts.

I, along with many others, owe a great deal to FIASI.  By passing along some of our hard lessons learned, we enhance the knowledge pool for the next generation in our profession.  Hopefully, many of our mistakes might be avoided or bypassed altogether.  For example, to the detriment of their performance, how many times must our industry succumb to the siren's song of new product euphoria and marketing saturation.  Variations of ancient strategies and familiar recommendations can prove comforting but also hazardous. And undoubtedly highly significant, the incessant dissection of any and all central bank proclamations and the AI stampede can be greatly overdone and, at times, divert focus.

Thank you all, especially my friends for life, for this acknowledgement and including me on this special FIASI day.

I look forward to seeing you all in person at the 2024 HOF ceremony. I know we all have much to be thankful for.

Jack”

Last, I would like to acknowledge all 9 of our past Hall of Famers who are here tonight. When I call your name, please stand,

in addition to Jim Grant, joining tonight are……

• Marty Liebowitz- our first Hall recipient, 25 years ago!
• Marty Fridson –
• Laurie Goodman –
• John Finnerty –
• Andy Kalotay –
• Edward Altman –
• Mark Shenkman –
• and Glenn Reynolds –

Thank you for returning this year! A brief round of applause, please.

Current Board Member Joyce Chang sends her best as she recovers from a broken foot.

Now, I’ll invite everyone to enjoy their dinner and conversation and we'll be back in about 45 minutes.

Second speech:

I hope everyone has enjoyed their Dinner and conversation - Dessert and coffee should arrive shortly!

Before I introduce our Master of Ceremonies – Robin Wigglesworth – I want to remind everyone about FIASI’s mission and key activities.

We have been around since the 1980’s and will be having a grand 50th anniversary celebration in 2025.

We provide an independent and un-biased forum for the debate of all topics related to the Fixed Income markets. FIASI does not lobby or take sides in the debates it encourages.

We sponsor unique networking and mentoring for professionals of all ages.

And we recognize and celebrate leaders from all walks of the business.

Please look at the event brochure which explains some of the past and future events we have hosted over recently. We take particular pride in the Women in Fixed Income and Sustainable Finance pillars of our programming agenda – these provide wonderful opportunities for all the organizations in the room to put forward speakers and panelists.

We have pivoted our Hall of Fame ceremony format to something new this year, welcoming a fantastic Master of Ceremonies. Robin Wigglesworth was chosen for a number of reasons, not the least of which is his ability to command a large room.

He is a long-standing financial journalist with a stellar reputation at leading firms – Financial Times and Bloomberg.

His writing style is smart, deep, and insightful. FT AlphaVille is considered a must-read by investors of all stripes around the globe.

He had a stint here as editor of the FT in the US, where he got to know many of you in the room and 2 of our 3 honorees.

And he’s a renowned author, having penned the best-seller “Trillions” in 2021 and is currently working on something very important related to the Fixed Income markets and their importance.

Please join me in welcoming Mr. Robin Wigglesworth!!