Mark T. Williams

Mark T. Williams
Boston University Questrom School of Business
Born	(1963-08-19) August 19, 1963

Mark Thomas Williams (born August 19, 1963) is an academic, financial author, columnist and risk management expert. He is a faculty member in the Finance Department at Boston University where he teaches courses in banking, risk management and capital market activities. In 2015, he co-authored a report with Harry Markopolos, the Bernie Madoff whistleblower about the growing risks associated with the MBTA pension.^[1]

Career

In 1985, he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from the University of Delaware.^[2] He became a bank trust officer for Wilmington Trust Company and joined TD Banknorth in 1987. In 1993 he earned a Master of Business Administration from Boston University and joined the Federal Reserve Bank as an examiner in Boston and San Francisco. In 1997 he joined Citizens Power LLC, a Boston-based energy trading company and became a senior vice president, Head of Global Risk Management.^[3] Since 2002, he has been on the faculty of Boston University as Executive-in-Residence/Master Lecturer.^[4]

Williams is a member of the Standard & Poor’s Academic Council, a senior advisor at the Brattle Group^[5] and is on the advisory board of Appleton Partners, a Boston-based private wealth management firm.^[6]

Williams is a frequent guest contributor for the Financial Times,^[7][8][9] Reuters,^{[10][11][12][13][14][15][16]} Forbes.com,^[17][18] and Business Insider.^{[19][20][21][22][23][24]} He has also written articles for Bloomberg,^[25] the Boston Globe,^{[26][27][28][29]} Foreign Policy magazine^[30] and The New York Times^[31][32]

Bitcoin criticism

He said in the testimony, "to transform Bitcoin into a virtual currency would require regulation, centralization, creation of a legal framework and strong regulatory oversight." He raised concerns about Bitcoin, including lack of consumer protection, it being a high-risk virtual commodity, having an artificially inflated price, extreme hoarding, hyped demand, high potential for market manipulation, and fraud.^[33][34] On April 2, 2014, Williams provided congressional testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business discussing the 10 major risks associated with Bitcoin.^[35] On October 21, 2014 he presented on virtual currencies at The World Bank and on April 23, 2015 at the Bretton Woods Committee.^[36] The Bitcoin community remains critical of his concerns.^[37][38] Williams also continues to assert that the virtual currency is in a hyper bubble and will eventually suffer a price collapse.^[37] In 2013, after Bitcoin peaked at $1,200, Williams predicted that it was in a bubble and would trade for less than 10 dollars by mid-2014.^[39] On January 29, 2014, he provided risk testimony before the New York State Department of Financial Services hearing on virtual currencies.^[40] Bitcoin prices dropped by over 50% but bottomed out above $200 through 2014 and didn't reached $10 like he said it would.^[41] Other academics including Robert Shiller consider Bitcoin a speculative bubble.^[42]

Awards

• Beckwith Prize for Excellence in Teaching - Boston University, 2008
• New England Book Show Best Reference Book of 2013, New England Book Show, 2014

Publications

• Williams, Mark T. Uncontrolled Risk: The Lessons of Lehman Brothers and How Systemic Risk Can Still Bring Down the World Financial System. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010.^[43] Chinese Version Published McGraw Hill, 2014.
• Williams, Mark T. & Lawson, Alan. Longwood Covered Courts: And the Rise of American Tennis. Boston: 2013.

References