Seventeenth Annual Automotive Outlook Symposium
On June 3-4, 2010, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago held its Seventeenth Annual Automotive Outlook Symposium at its Detroit Branch. The symposium began on Thursday afternoon with a tour of NextEnergy, a leading research and development center for alternative and renewable energy located in Detroit’s entrepreneurial TechTown. The tour included their hydrogen fueling station and their 18,400 sq ft research laboratory, where they develop alternative energy technologies. In addition, they heard how NextEnergy assists in improving Detroit's economy as well as their biodiesel research. Following the tour, a dinner was held at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's Detroit Branch where Ron Bloom, the Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the President’s Task Force on the Automotive Industry, gave a keynote speech. These events were sponsored by J. D. Power and Associates.
On Friday, June 4, the symposium convened at the Detroit Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The symposium focused on the near-term outlook for sales and the long-term landscape of automotive production. The topics included the perspective of the auto industry from the financial sector; the vehicle sales outlook from the OEM (original equipment manufacturers) perspective; medium- and heavy-duty truck industry outlook; dealers' perspectives on the sales outlook; the future of the supplier industry post-restructuring; and the consensus outlook of symposium participants.
Featured Speaker
Ron Bloom is Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the President’s Task Force on the Automotive Industry, a position he has held since February 2009. Prior to joining the Treasury Department, Bloom served as a Special Assistant to the President of the United Steelworkers Union where his responsibilities included the Union’s collective bargaining program in its core jurisdictions with an emphasis on the particular issues facing the Steelworkers in its dealings with companies facing financial difficulties. He also coordinated the Union’s relationships with investors in both public and private companies. Prior to joining the Steelworkers, Bloom was one of the founding partners of Keilin and Bloom, an investment banking firm, where he was involved in numerous transactions on behalf of the Steelworkers, the Auto Workers, the Teamsters, the Air Line Pilots Association and other unions. Prior to founding Keilin and Bloom, Bloom was a Vice President at the investment banking firm of Lazard Freres & Co. where he specialized in analyzing, structuring and raising financing for union-led employee-ownership transactions. Previously he served as a research and negotiating specialist for the Service Employees International Union. Bloom is a graduate of Wesleyan University and received an MBA with distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.
Transportation will be available. Please sign up on the registration page.
Last Updated: 06/09/2010
