ACG Pittsburgh 2024 Economist Panel

Bill Flanagan serves as Host and Producer of  "Our Region's Business",  a weekly business public affairs program, now in its 18th year on WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh, PA, the Pittsburgh Cable News Channel (PCNC), and YouTube.  Bill also serves as Special Advisor to the  Allegheny Conference on Community Development.

In 2009, Bill served as president of the Pittsburgh G-20 Partnership, the public-private partnership that welcomed the world to Pittsburgh for the G-20 Summit. From 2004-2008 Bill served as the Executive Director of Pittsburgh 250, the 14-county commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the naming of Pittsburgh. An experienced broadcast journalist, Bill has told the story of the transformation of the Pittsburgh region’s economy for almost 40-years, as a general assignment reporter and “Money Editor” for KDKA-TV from 1982 to 2001, and has written about personal finance for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and KDKA-AM. Bill serves on the boards of Leadership Pittsburgh, Inc., and River of Steel, and as an advisor to the American Middle East Institute, the National Flag Foundation, and the International Free Expression Project.

Bill and his wife, Ann Devlin Flanagan, are the parents of two children, Will and the late Mara Catherine.

Sinead Colton Grant is the Chief Investment Officer of BNY Mellon Wealth Management.  Previously, she led the firm’s Investor Solutions business which creates customized investment solutions for institutional clients, and was Deputy Chief Investment Officer and Head of Equities for BNY Mellon Wealth Management, with responsibility for the Large Cap Equity investment group, the Equity Trading team and the Capital Markets Group.  She chaired the Equity Strategy Committee and was Vice Chair of the Investment Policy Committee.  Previously, she was Head of Global Investment and Product Strategy for Mellon, having joined the firm through Mellon Capital.  Prior to her role at Mellon Capital she was a Managing Director of Investment Strategy for the Multi Asset Client Solutions group at BlackRock in London.   Sinead holds an MSc in Finance from London Business School and a Bachelor of Business Studies from Dublin City University.

Charlie Dougherty is a director and senior economist with Wells Fargo’s Corporate and Investment Bank. Based in New York City, he provides analysis on the U.S. economy as well as commercial real estate, housing, construction and regional sectors of the economy. He regularly produces special commentary, writes indicator reports and contributes to the company’s Weekly Economic & Financial Commentary. His commentary on the U.S. economy has been featured in various regional and national media publications, including the CBS Evening News, Bloomberg, National Public Radio and The Washington Post.

Before joining Wells Fargo in 2017, Charlie worked as a regional economist and consultant for IHS Markit and more recently for CertainTeed, one of the largest building product manufacturers in North America.

Charlie holds a B.A. and B.S. in economics and finance from the University of Pittsburgh and a M.A. in economics from Temple University in Philadelphia.

He is a member of the National Association of Business Economics, Philadelphia Council of Business Economics and Charlotte Economics Club.

Augustine (Gus) Faucher is senior vice president and chief economist of The PNC Financial Services Group, serving as the principal spokesperson on all economic issues for PNC.

Prior to joining PNC as senior macroeconomist in December 2011, Faucher worked for 10 years at Moody’s Analytics (formerly Economy.com), where he was a director and senior economist. He was responsible for running the firm’s computer model of the U.S. economy, edited a monthly publication on the U.S. economic outlook, covered fiscal and monetary policy, and analyzed various regional economies. Previously, he worked for six years at the U.S. Treasury Department and taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was named senior vice president in March 2015, deputy chief economist in February 2016, and to his current role in April 2017.

Faucher is frequently cited in international, national, and regional media outlets including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He has appeared on ABC World News, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News and Nightly Business Report, and is regularly featured on CNBC and CNN. In addition, he appears regularly on CBS Radio, NPR and Marketplace.

He serves on the board of directors of The Economic Club of Pittsburgh - the local chapter of National Association of Business Economics (NABE), the of Veterans Place of Washington Boulevard and is on the Tocqueville Committee of the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Faucher earned a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, with concentrations in labor economics and public economics. He also has a B. A. in economics from Cornell University.

Risa Kumazawa is the Associate Dean for Academic Systems and Accreditation as well as Associate Professor of Economics in the Palumbo Donahue School of Business. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in Econometrics and Labor Economics. She has previously served as Department Chair of Economics and Finance at Duquesne, a Principal Investigator of an Office of Naval Research grant and a confidential data researcher with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Her research has been published in a number of scholarly journals including Applied Economics and Manchester School.

Dr. Kumazawa currently serves as President of the Economic Club of Pittsburgh. She is a member of the American Economic Association and the Eastern Economic Association.  Her recent speaking engagements have included the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, KPMG Banking Symposium, NACD Three Rivers, Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), Pittsburgh Venture Capital Association (PVCA), Turnaround Management Association (TMA), Commercial Real Estate Development Association (NAIOP) and Building Owners and Managers Association International (BOMA).  She has made media appearances for KDKA-TV, WPXI-TV, WTAE-TV, PCNC, KDKA-Radio, 90.5 WESA, WMBA Beaver County Radio, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Tribune Review, the Beaver County Times, and the U.S. News and World Report.

Ph.D., Economics, University of Texas at Austin M.S., Economics, Illinois State University B.A., Economics with Research Honors, Illinois Wesleyan University

Scott Love Executive Vice President – Wealth Management for WesBanco, leads the Private Client Services, Securities and Insurance, and Trust segments for the organization. He also serves as President and lead portfolio manager for the WesMark mutual fund family.

Mr. Love joined WesBanco 2012 and has over twenty-five years of experience in investments, research, and portfolio management. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration with an emphasis in Finance from Baldwin-Wallace University and a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Banking and Finance from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. In addition, he has earned the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA®) designation, and the Chartered Invest­ment Management Analyst (CIMA®) designation.