James Glassman, the managing director and senior economist for JP Morgan Chase & Co., will be the keynote speaker at the 2009 Business Outlook Summit presented by Community Trust Bank.

The Business Outlook Summit will be held on Friday March 27 at 8 a.m. at the CenturyTel Headquarters in Monroe.

Glassman, who will speak about the national economic outlook at the Summit, works closely with the JP Morgan Chase’s chief investment officer, commercial banking, and government relations groups. He publishes independent research on the principal forces shaping the economy and financial markets. Glassman’s views are widely cited in the financial media, where he is a frequent commentator on economic policy issues.

From 1979 through 1988, Glassman served in a number of areas in the Research and Statistics and Monetary Affairs Divisions at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington D.C. He joined Morgan Guaranty in 1988 and Chemical Bank in 1993, which, through mergers with Chase Manhattan, JP Morgan, and most recently Bank One, is called JP Morgan Chase & Co.

Glassman earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois and a Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University.

In addition to Glassman, the Business Outlook Summit will feature Dr. John Francis, assistant professor of economics at Louisiana Tech University, and Dr. Robert Eisenstadt, associate professor of economics at the University of Louisiana-Monroe. The pair will speak about the local economic outlook.

The cost of the 2009 Business Outlook Summit is $50 and no tickets will be sold at the door. For more information call (318) 257-2771 or visit www.business.latech.edu/bos.

Written by Brian Miller