Thursday, March 28, 2024

458 Nassim Taleb
Senior Scientific Advisor - Universa Investments

Most famous for his 'Black Swan' analysis of the financial crisis - essentially a reminder to a financial services industry overly dominated by a Gaussian probability-distribution vision of financial 'service' - (that, to its cost, ignored the possibility of events beyond a standard deviation). When that unlikely and unprecedented 'Black Swan' event emerged from within the ranks, of all places, the financial services industry itself, in 2007-8, in the form of a viral collapse of the credit derivatives market, Taleb's global fame and reputation was established.

A quant, and mathematicial analyst who admits to Popperian philosophical influences, he was consulted by the UK Prime Minister David Cameron on policy (philosophy?) prior to the UK general election in 2010.

Nassim Taleb has helped the U.S. Department of Defense as well as top central banks and money management firms deal with tail risks, and his best-selling books are translated into 20 languages. Nassim has held senior trading positions at investment banks and founded Empirica Capital LLC. He also holds academic positions at the London Business School, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. Nassim received an M.B.A. from Wharton and a Ph.D. from the University of Paris.