EVENT:  Mohamed El-Erian, former PIMCO CEO and author of the newly released The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability & Avoiding the Next Collapse, will talk politics, policies and markets in a three-person panel at UCI. El-Erian is a frequent commentator on the post-2008 financial crisis, the sovereign debt and eurozone crisis, and political upheavals in the Middle East. His conversation with Bill Maurer, social sciences dean and director of UCI’s Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion, and Julia Elyachar, associate professor of anthropology and economics and director of UCI’s Center for Global Peace & Conflict Studies, is part of the School of Social Sciences Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series.

WHEN/WHERE:  3-4:30 p.m. Monday, March 7, in the Pacific Ballroom at UCI’s Student Center (bldg. 113, grid E8 on campus maphttp://communications.uci.edu//documents/pdf/UCI_14_map_campus_core.pdf)

INFORMATION:  Media planning to attend should contact Heather Ashbach at 949-824-1577 or hashbach@uci.edu. Attendance and parking are complimentary for media who RSVP in advance.

HIGHLIGHTS:  
2:30 p.m.   Limited copies of El-Erian’s new book will be available for purchase
3-4 p.m.     Fireside chat and Q&A
4 p.m.         Book signing

BACKGROUND:  Mohamed El-Erian is chair of President Barack Obama’s Global Development Council and chief economic adviser at Allianz, the corporate parent of Pacific Investment Management Co., where he was previously CEO and co-chief investment officer. He holds a master’s degree and doctorate in economics from Oxford University and received his undergraduate degree from Cambridge University. A former member of the Harvard Business School faculty and CEO of Harvard Management Co., which manages Harvard University’s endowment, El-Erian has served as managing director at Salomon Smith Barney/Citigroup in London and spent 15 years working with the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. A noted commentator and author, he writes regularly for Bloomberg, The Huffington Post, Financial Times, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal and other leading international publications. His previous book, When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change, was a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-seller and the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs 2008 Business Book of the Year. It was also named a book of the year by The Economist and one of the best business books of all time by Britain’s The Independent.