Research Fellows

David Bard is a senior fellow with the Harris Program at the Wharton School where he teaches in the full-time and Executive MBA programs. He works as partner of Halifax, where he is responsible for assisting in sourcing, evaluation, execution, and monitoring investments.

Before joining Halifax, David was a principal at American Securities, a New York based private equity firm, where he invested across sectors and served as a director for several companies. Prior to that, David was with Bain Capital for nearly nine years and worked with the firm in several geographies. David began his career with McKinsey & Company.

David holds an MBA from the Wharton School, where he was the Ford Fellow.

Kevin Kaiser is an adjunct full professor of finance at the Wharton School. He was professor of management practice and on the finance faculty at INSEAD since 1992. Kevin holds a BA (Honours) in economics from the University of Western Ontario and a PhD in finance from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

Kevin’s research has focused on private equity, corporate restructuring, and financial distress, more recently oriented around corporate governance and management for value creation. In addition to his research in academic and practitioner journals and newspapers, he has co-authored two books, The Blue Line Imperative, with David Young, and Becoming a Top Manager, with Michael Pich and I.J. Schecter.

Anastasia Kartasheva is the Senior Fellow at the Harris Family Alternative Investments Program. Previously Dr Kartasheva was the Economic Adviser at the International Association of Insurance Supervisors and an Economist at the Bank for International Settlements where she contributed to the international financial regulation policy work on financial stability and macroprudential issues. In this capacity, she coordinated the working group on cross-sectoral issues of systemic risk assessment of banks and insurers joint with the Basel Committee of Banking Supervision and participated in the Financial Stability Board working groups on the assessment of G20 post-crisis reforms. Dr. Kartasheva research interests are in the areas of financial intermediation, regulation of financial institutions, financial stability and systemic risk. Prior to joining BIS in 2012, Dr. Kartasheva was an Assistant Professor of Insurance and Risk Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Kartasheva holds a PhD in economics from the University of Toulouse.

Asli Demirgüç-Kunt is a Turkish economist and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Global Development. Over her 30-year career in the World Bank, she was the Chief Economist of the Europe and Central Asia region, Director of Research, Director of Development Policy, and the Chief Economist of the Finance and Private Sector Development Network, conducting research and advising on financial and private sector development issues.

The author of over 100 publications, she has published widely in academic journals and is among the most-cited researchers in the world. Her research has focused on the links between financial development, firm performance and economic development. Banking and financial crises, financial regulation, access to financial services and inclusion, as well as SME finance and entrepreneurship are among her areas of research. She has also created the Global Financial Development Report series and Global Findex financial inclusion database.

She has been the President of International Atlantic Economic Society (2013-14) and Director of Western Economic Association (2015-18) and serves on the editorial boards of professional journals. Prior to coming to the Bank, she was an Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.  She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in economics from the Ohio State University.

Eric W. Leathers is a Founding Partner of Further Global Capital Management, a private equity firm focused on the financial services and business services sectors. Prior to co-founding Further Global, Mr. Leathers was a Partner at TPG Capital and led the firm’s investment efforts in the financial services sector. He has over 25 years of experience investing across the sector, including in the areas of insurance, asset management, specialty finance and depository institutions. Mr. Leathers currently serves on the board of Global Benefits Group, US Claims LLC, Coaction Specialty Insurance and AA Ireland and has previously served as a director of numerous privately held and publicly traded companies. Mr. Leathers was previously a Partner with both Pine Brook Partners and Capital Z Partners, where he shared responsibility for the management of those firms’ financial services investment activities. Mr. Leathers began his career in the investment banking division of Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette, where he specialized in mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance transactions for financial institutions. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where he received a B.S. in Economics from The Wharton School of Business and a B.A. in History from the College of Arts and Sciences.

Dan Zilberman leads Warburg Pincus’ Special Situations activities globally, and is a member of the firm’s Executive Management Group and Investment Management Group. Previously, he led firm’s European investment activities and also co-founded the firm’s Financial Services group. Mr. Zilberman joined Warburg Pincus in 2005. Mr. Zilberman currently sits on the Boards of Max (formerly Leumi Card) and McGill & Partners. Previously Mr. Zilberman sat on the Boards of a number of flagship investments including Aeolus Re, AION, Avaloq Group, Network International, Primerica Inc., The Mutual Fund Store, Reiss, Santander Consumer USA, Santander Asset Management, Sterling Financial (observer), and Singular Bank. Mr. Zilberman is a Senior Fellow and Lecturer at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and is on the President’s Council at Tufts University. Mr. Zilberman previously worked at Evercore Capital Partners and Lehman Brothers. He received a B.A. in International Relations from Tufts University and an M.B.A. in Finance from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Ziad Sarkis is the director of Financial Research at the Harris Family Alternative Investments Program. Prior to his current role, he worked for Zouk Capital, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Deloitte in the U.S. and EMEA regions. He advised private equity funds, family offices, and corporate groups on mergers, acquisitions, and capital market transactions. Ziad is a U.S. certified public accountant and holds a Master of Business Administration in Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science in Accountancy (summa cum laude) from Arizona State University. He is fluent in Arabic, French, and English.