A Sydney Harbour Rooftop Evening with Leading Experts

Dr. Arnold is a Senior Lecturer in the Data Science Group at the University of Queensland with almost 15 years of experience in software engineering and artificial intelligence (AI). Throughout his career, he has consulted to Australian organisations on AI, including with respect to AI workflows and custom tools, AI governance, and AI audits. He also developed AI tools in support of testifying experts at a litigation consulting firm.

More recently, Dr. Arnold founded Stones Corner AI, a start-up building social robots for aged care, which recently won the people’s choice award at the Queensland AI Hubs pitch night. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Queensland Brain Institute.

PhD in Artificial Intelligence | The University of Queensland
Bachelor of Software Engineering (hons.) | The University of Queensland

Professor Comerton-Forde has been researching the global exchange industry for over 25 years. Her research in market structure examines how the mechanics of the market, such as regulation and technology, impact prices, liquidity, and trader behaviour. Her research covers equities, corporate bonds, and Exchange Traded Funds. Professor Comerton-Forde’s current research interests include dark pools, fragmentation, the connection between the cost of raising capital and secondary market liquidity, and the evolution of public and private markets.  Her research has been published in the leading finance journals, including The Journal of Finance and the Journal of Financial Economics.

Professor Comerton-Forde is an economic consultant for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and an Academic Advisor to the Plato Partnership. She has previously served as a consultant for market participants, stock exchanges and market regulators around the world.  She is a co-founder of the Women in Microstructure research group and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research.

PhD in Finance | The University of Sydney

Associate Professor Jackson is a financial accounting expert with expertise related to financial statement analysis, business valuation, earnings guidance, and the disaggregation of earnings announcements into firm-specific and other components. Andrew is a former Editor-in-Chief of the Australian Journal of Management, and former President (Australia) of the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand (AFAANZ). Since 2019, he has served on the Academic Advisory Panel of the Australian Accounting Standards Board. Associate Professor Jackson has acted as an expert witness and provided written and oral testimony in the Federal Court of Australia.

PhD Accounting | The University of New South Wales
MCA | The Victoria University of Wellington

Professor Putnins is a financial economist with expertise in securities litigation, market manipulation, insider trading, materiality, market efficiency, and digital assets. He has served as an expert witness in proceedings before several courts in Australia (incl. Federal Court of Australia), the US, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Europe. His work has addressed issues including market manipulation (layering, spoofing, closing price manipulation), algorithmic trading, continuous disclosure violations, insider trading, cryptocurrency tracing, damages, trading halts, and economic characterisation of securities. He has also published widely on these issues and wrote his PhD on the topic of market manipulation.

Professor Putnins has consulted to regulators including ASIC, the Australian Treasury, the UK Financial Conduct Authority, the US SEC, and advised international organizations such as the OECD and CFA Institute. He is also Professor of Finance at the University of Technology Sydney and Co-CEO / Chief Scientist of the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre.

PhD in Finance | The University of Sydney

Associate Professor Sojli has published in leading academic journals on topics related to securities, capital markets, price impact and causation. She is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Financial Markets. She also has expertise in patents, intellectual property, industrial organisation, product innovation and international finance.

Associate Professor Sojli was previously a visiting scholar at the London School of Economics, HEC Paris, Rice University and the University of California, Berkeley. She has been the recipient of the prestigious Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship and research grants from the Australian Research Council and the Dauphine Foundation. She currently serves as the Managing Director, President, and member of the board of the Finance Research Network (FIRN).

PhD Finance | The University of Warwick

Stephen Taylor is UTS Distinguished Professor of Accounting in the Business School at the University of Technology Sydney, and Deputy Chair of the Australian Accounting Standards Board. He is a member of the Australian Accounting Hall of Fame and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, which he currently serves as Treasurer. Professor Taylor’s research has been published in leading international journals, including The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Review of Accounting Studies, Contemporary Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Corporate Finance, and Journal of Business Finance and Accounting.

Professor Taylor has been a Chief Investigator on many large Australian Research Council Grants, as well as receiving large research grants from the Capital Markets CRC and the Centre for International Finance and Regulation. He has had extensive consulting and advisory experience, as well as being sought as an expert witness in matters such as valuations and accounting standards in Australia and overseas.

PhD | The University of New South Wales

Professor Thorp is an expert in household and consumer finance and superannuation. She is a prolific author with over 50 articles published in leading academic journals. Her research spans topics such as retirement savings decisions, credit card delinquency, life insurance, mortgage brokerage, online financial advice, self-managed superfunds, and sovereign bond spreads. Professor Thorp is a member of the ASIC Consultative Panel and the Mercer CFA Global Pensions Index Steering Committee. She has been the recipient of numerous prestigious research grants from the Australian Research Council, ASIC, and the Centre for Excellence in International Financial Regulation. Professor Thorp’s research is regularly cited in major public reviews and inquiries regarding consumer finance and superannuation.

PhD in Economics | The University of New South Wales

Dr. Vansteenkiste is a financial economist and Senior Lecturer at The University of Sydney. Her expertise relates to mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, corporate debt and bonds, corporate social responsibility, corporate philanthropy, as well as Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG). Dr. Vansteenkiste has been the recipient of prestigious research grants from the Australian Research Council and the Sydney Horizon Fellowship Scheme. Dr. Vansteenkiste has also been a visiting researcher at Harvard University’s John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics, and Business.

PhD in Finance | Tilburg University

Professor Wee is a financial accounting expert with expertise related to capital markets, price discovery, financial and non-financial company disclosures, as well as analyst and management forecasts. Professor Wee has acted as an expert witness and provided oral testimony in the Supreme Court of Western Australia. He has experience working in the banking industry as an interest rate and foreign exchange sales dealer.

Professor Wee has presented his research to standard setters and regulators including the Australian Accounting Standards Board, US Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board, and the International Accounting Standards Board.

PhD Finance | The University of Western Australia
Certified Practising Accountant

Dr. Bagci has over 25 years of experience providing economic analysis and expert witness testimony for clients in in-depth competition and regulatory investigations, and in commercial litigation and international arbitrations.

Dr Bagci has particular experience with dominance and exclusionary conduct, including alleged foreclosure strategies and so-called raising rivals’ costs, including testimony at trial. She has submitted expert testimony in relation to liability and the estimation of damages for unilateral and coordinated conduct in a number of industries, including: digital platforms; financial benchmarks; retail banking and payments; interchange fees; energy markets; commodity refining; shipping; mining; industrial products; and consumer products.

She has submitted written and oral testimony in the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal, the London Court for International Arbitration (LCIA), the New York Court for International Arbitration, and the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague. She has also submitted economic analysis in antitrust, market reviews, mergers, and sectoral regulatory investigations before competition and regulatory authorities throughout Europe and in Australia and New Zealand.

PhD in Economics | University of Cambridge

Dr. Drummond is an Associate and financial economist at The Brattle Group with expertise in securities, financial valuation, capital market design and structure, market manipulation, insider trading, and behavioural finance. Dr. Drummond has worked on several securities matters, providing analyses relating to loss, causation, confounding information, economic equivalence, price inflation, fundamental valuation, and market efficiency. Dr. Drummond has acted as a consulting expert, providing advice for cross-examination. Dr. Drummond has also worked on class actions relating to fund management, as well as arbitrations requiring complex financial valuations. His research has been published in leading academic journals, such as the Journal of Financial Markets and The Journal of Finance. Dr. Drummond was previously a Lecturer at Monash University and an Associate Lecturer at the Australian National University.

PhD Finance | The Australian National University

Dr. Elliot has over fifteen years of experience in financial economics, applying statistical tools and data analysis across a variety of financial, economic, and policy contexts. His work focuses on the application of corporate finance principles to valuation disputes across a range of industries. At Brattle, Dr. Elliot has consulted on securities class actions, transfer pricing disputes, valuation disputes, and other matters. He has acted as a consulting expert in securities class action matters, including filing declarations relating to preliminary damage estimates. Dr. Elliot was previously a Principal Economist at NSW Treasury, a senior analyst at the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal of NSW, and an analyst at PwC.

PhD Finance | University of Newcastle

Ioannis Gkatzimas is the Practice Leader of Credit, Derivatives & Structured Products and the Practice Co-Leader of Cryptocurrency & Digital Assets. He has also been a member of the professional faculty at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business since 2013. He specialises in financial markets disputes related to trading, valuing, and investing in securities and portfolios across asset classes, including digital assets. Ioannis has worked on disputes involving venture capital investments; valuation of illiquid securities; options, warrants, swaps, and bespoke derivatives; cryptocurrency tokens and derivatives; fixed-income securities; and credit or structured products.  He has also advised on benchmark-related matters and other topics of market interest, securities class actions, and mergers and acquisitions.

MSc in Financial Mathematics | Stanford University

Dr. Herscovici is an economist with more than 25 years of experience consulting on commercial litigation and other complex matters. He specializes in analyzing economic evidence and estimating damages in competition, consumer protection, and other litigation matters involving disputes over copyrights, and quantifying damages. He has testified as an expert and supported academics in high-profile competition, consumer protection, music licensing, and copyright infringement cases. Dr. Herscovici has also worked with experts in designing surveys to evaluate product substitutability, consumer perceptions of product claims, and valuation and damages.

PhD in Economics | The University of Chicago

Mame Maloney is a financial economist specializing in securities litigation, internal and regulatory investigations, and matters requiring assessment of causation or damages. She has nearly 15 years of experience in securities litigation, analysing price impact and market efficiency, evaluating loss causation and materiality, and advising counsel in settlement negotiations.

Ms. Maloney has deep experience detecting and evaluating a broad range of alleged market abuse, as well as examining the economic effects of alleged unfair marketing and sales practices. She has served as an expert providing written and oral testimony applying event studies and assessing causation.

MS in Finance | Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management

Mr. Plastino is an expert in financial economics, with over 20 years of finance and consulting experience. He leads engagements related to bankruptcy, restructuring, tax controversy, and complex litigation. Mr. Plastino also regularly advises on corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations, and the formation and restructuring of joint ventures. He specializes in economic and financial analyses, with a particular emphasis on corporate valuation, credit analysis, transfer pricing, and complex financial modeling. Mr. Plastino’s clients include leading non-profits, corporations, investment funds, law firms, and government entities. In addition to his consulting practice, Mr. Plastino is a Lecturer in Finance at the Boston University Questrom School of Business, where he teaches an advanced course in corporate financial management. He is a certified public accountant (CPA) and is Accredited in Business Valuation by the AICPA.

MBA and MS in Information Systems | Boston University

Nicholas Powers is a Principal at The Brattle Group with 15 years of experience conducting econometric and economic analysis in competition, regulatory, and litigation matters. He specializes in applying industrial organization and regulatory economics concepts across industries, including energy, postal services, transportation, and rail. Dr. Powers has estimated cartel impacts in large-scale price-fixing cases, evaluated competitive effects of proposed mergers, and analyzed exclusionary practices, and he has served as an expert in proceedings in both U.S. and international courts. He has also provided expert analysis in regulatory proceedings on costing models, pricing programs, and rate design, and has advised on procurement processes in the electricity sector. His work includes coauthoring reports for the US Department of Energy on electric grid infrastructure and asset valuation.

PhD in Business Economics | University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business
BS Applied Economics and Management | Cornell University

Dr. James Reitzes has over twenty-five years of experience providing economic analyses and expert testimony pursuant to a variety of competition matters, including abuse of dominance, cartel, and merger matters. His expertise also includes the estimation of damages in consumer class actions and other types of litigation, and a variety of competition-related regulatory proceedings in the energy, transportation, telecommunications, and technology sectors.

Dr. Reitzes has provided economic consulting services to clients in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, Europe, South America, and the United States.  His experience in Australia includes, among others, matters of alleged price fixing, consumer actions in the automotive industry, regulatory matters affecting electric power and gas markets, a class action involving the taxi industry, and abuse-of-dominance matters with respect to platform markets.

PhD in Economics | University of Wisconsin

Dr. Roper is a testifying expert in securities litigation, class certification, internal or regulatory investigations, and disputes requiring valuation or damages. Drew is a former Lecturer of Law at Stanford University, where he taught a course in securities litigation. He also served in faculty positions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Duke University, where he taught courses in corporate finance and securities markets. Dr. Roper is the co-author of “Price Impact, Materiality, and Halliburton II” and the co-host of the two-part Brattle Exchange podcast on price impact entitled “Halliburton II: Then and Now.”

PhD in Finance | Duke University
MS in Economics | UC Davis

Mr. Sinha brings deep expertise in complex financial and valuation issues arising in securities class actions and disputes involving structured finance, private equity, and derivatives. A seasoned financial economist with over 20 years of experience, he specializes in the analysis of market efficiency, class certification, loss causation, valuation, and aggregate damages. Mr. Sinha’s experience includes multiple securities class actions – including those involving options and other derivative securities – as well as disputes related to mergers and acquisitions (M&As), structured products, private equity, and mortgage securitization.

MBA | The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
BS in Economics | UC Berkeley

Mr. Weemaes is a certified management accountant and chartered financial analyst with 25 years of expertise in forensic accounting, cost accounting, pricing, and valuation. His expertise includes cost allocation and estimation, but-for cost and profit estimation, causation and systems analysis, and financial forensic analysis. He has served as an expert witness in Australia and the United States on cases quantifying economic loss in reparation matters, analysing the profitability of financial services, and estimating but-for costs and profits in contractual and intellectual property disputes for corporations and government agencies.

Outside of litigation, Mr. Weemaes advises private, public, and non-profit organisations on cost analytics and pricing.

MBA | The University of Chicago
M.Econ | Australian National University
Certified Management Accountant
Chartered Financial Analyst