Iceland-based investment bank Askar Capital hf. recently recruited Nobel Prize winner and US Columbia University professor Dr. Edmund S. Phelps (pic1) and Finnish economist and venture capitalist Dr. Pentti Kouri (pic3) to three-year positions in the newly founded advisor council of Askar Capital.
Other international experts in trade and economy will also be offered a seat in the council, which will be chaired by Milestone CEO Karl Wernersson (pic2).
The council’s goal is to lay the groundwork for a vision, enlargement and policy making for Askar Capital and the council’s members will meet with the management of Askar Capital regularly.
Dr. Edmund S. Phelps received the Nobel Prize in economics in 2006. He graduated with a PhD from Yale University in 1959 and has been a McVickar professor in economics at Columbia University since 1982.
Phelps has served as advisor in the US Finance Ministry, in the Finance Committee of the US Senate and the US Federal Reserve.
He was voted a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1981 and is an honorary member and vice-president of American Economic Association.
Dr. Pentti Kouri was the first Finn to receive a scholarship for the respected Atlantic College. After he graduated he went on to study economics at the University in Helsinki and graduated with a Master’s in 1970.
In the same year Kouri was hired to the International Monetary Fund at only 21. There Kouri undertook research with Michael Porter and together they developed the Kouri-Porter model.
Kouri graduated with a PhD from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in 1974 and has since been a professor in Stanford, Yale, Helsinki and New York. Today he is best known as an international investor.
Askar Capital, which specializes in risk investments, was founded in December 2006 and began operating early this year.
