The Finance Speaker Series at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, will host a discussion with Bruce A. Gray ’80, senior vice president at Bank of America, at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7, in the Samuel P. "Pat" Black III Conference Center in the campus' Research and Economic Development Center (REDC). Parking will be available in the deck located off Jordan Road.
In his presentation, Gray will expand on features of the credit markets that have gone from being topics discussed primarily by financial professionals to daily newspaper headlines. Gray’s lecture is free to the public and intended for a general audience.
Gray is an Oil City native and graduate of Penn State Behrend’s accounting program.
"The intense focus on the credit markets has brought words like 'LIBOR' and 'credit default swaps' into the mainstream," Gray said. "It is hard enough to keep up with the changes taking place in the economy and the stock market. Introducing the new concepts and terminology of the credit markets can be overwhelming. By better understanding the credit markets and how interrelated they are, people will hopefully be able to make sense of what is taking place in the global capital markets, the steps being taken to restore them to normalcy, and most importantly, how the credit markets impact them."
"As a commercial lender and risk manager in the New York metropolitan area for over 25 years, Bruce offers a unique vantage point on the credit markets," Greg Filbeck, professor of finance and series coordinator, noted. "Bruce is a highly engaging speaker, and we are fortunate to have him on board for this community event because the topic is so timely and so important."
After graduating from Penn State Behrend, Gray joined Chase Manhattan Bank, holding credit policy and corporate lending positions that included short-term assignments in Europe, Asia, and Central and South America. He has worked at Bank of America for 18 years, first in corporate lending for Fortune 500 companies, and, for the past decade, as a risk manager. Prior to supporting the bank's commercial real estate operation, Gray was a risk manager for leveraged finance and specialty industries that included gaming and utilities, middle market, capital markets and private banking.
The Finance Speaker Series is an outreach of the Sam and Irene Black School of Business at Penn State Behrend. For information about Gray’s presentation, contact Filbeck at (814) 898-6549.