Michel Leonard

Dr. Michel Léonard is Senior Vice President and Chief Economist for Alliant Emerging Markets, a risk advisory firm owned by the Blackstone Group of Companies. Dr. Léonard oversees credit and political risk rating, modeling and project finance services. His expertise focuses on increasing a firm's returns in high risk environments through custom risk transfer solutions bridging insurance and capital markets. Dr. Léonard came to Alliant after a decade of involvement in risk management, credit modeling and cross border risk analysis. He was Chief Economist and Head of Political Risk Consulting at Jardine Lloyd Thompson LLC and occupied similar positions at Aon. Prior to Aon, he was with Medley Global Advisors, a risk analysis firm founded by George Soros' former chief political strategist. Dr. Léonard started his career as an academic at the University of Virginia. He is a frequent commentator in the financial and news media on political risk assessment, financial risk modeling and terrorism. His work has been featured in the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, Business Week and Business Insurance amongst others. A graduate of McGill University, he holds an M.T.S. in Islamic Studies from Harvard University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Economy from the University of Virginia. He is fluent in French and English and has lived in Montreal, Paris, London, Charlottesville and Boston. (This is me - Update Profile)