People

Hal S. Scott, Director

Hal S. Scott is the Nomura Professor and Director of the Program on International Financial Systems (PIFS) at Harvard Law School, where he has taught since 1975. He teaches courses on Capital Markets Regulation, International Finance, and Securities Regulation.

He has a B.A. from Princeton University (Woodrow Wilson School, 1965), an M.A. from Stanford University in Political Science (1967), and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School (1972). In 1974-1975, before joining Harvard, he clerked for Justice Byron White.

The Program on International Financial Systems, founded in 1986, engages in a variety of research projects. Its book, Capital Adequacy Beyond Basel (Oxford University Press 2004), examines capital adequacy rules for banks, insurance companies and securities firms. The Program also organizes the annual invitation-only U.S.-Japan, U.S.-Europe, and U.S.-China Symposia on Building the Financial System of the 21st Century, attended by financial system leaders in the concerned countries. In addition, the Program directs a concentration in International Finance for LLM students at Harvard Law School.

Professor Scott’s books include the law school textbook International Finance: Transactions, Policy and Regulation (18th ed. Foundation Press 2011); and The Global Financial Crisis (Foundation Press 2009).

Professor Scott is the Director of the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, which in May 2009 released a comprehensive report entitled The Global Financial Crisis: A Plan for Regulatory Reform. He is also Co-Chair of the Council on Global Financial Regulation that was formed in 2010. He is an independent director of Lazard, Ltd., a past President of the International Academy of Consumer and Commercial Law and a past Governor of the American Stock Exchange (2002-2005). He is also a member of the Senior Advisory Board of Oliver Wyman.

Don Kanak, Senior Fellow 

Donald P. Kanak is non-executive Chairman of Prudential Corporation Asia, Asia regional headquarters, and part of Prudential Group (United Kingdom), and non-executive Chairman of Eastspring Investments, Prudential's Asia investment organization.  He is also the 2011-12 Chairman of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Insurance and Asset management.  Don's research as a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Law School Program on International Financial Systems is focused on climate change policy, especially solutions for reducing deforestation and degradation of natural forests (REDD) and financial frameworks for achieving climate objectives.

Mr. Kanak has a BA in Economics with highest honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1975), a JD with honors from Harvard Law School (1980), and a Master of Letters degree in Management Studies from Oxford University (1989). He has been admitted to practice law in Massachusetts and New York.  After completing his graduate studies, Mr. Kanak began his career in management consulting, where he became a partner focusing on financial services. He moved to Japan in 1986 and has resided in Asia for most of the past 25 years working in senior roles in the insurance industry. Early in his career, Mr. Kanak worked at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and served as the Washington representative for a river conservation organization.

During the past decade, Mr. Kanak has held a number of outside leadership positions. He served as a director of the U.S.-China Business Council and the U.S.-Japan Business Council and as a member of the Executive Committee of the U.S.-Korea Business Council. He served as President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan in 2002 and as its Chairman in 2003. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Asia Society, the America-Japan Society, the Society of Financial Services Professionals.  He is the past Chairman of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) global Forest Climate Initiative, which aims to reduce deforestation as an essential part of a solution to climate change. He serves as a Trustee of WWF-Hong Kong and a member of the National Council of WWF-U.S.

Mr. Kanak's blog for Davos on creating the environment for financing solutions to climate change and recent op eds are available here:

http://www.forumblog.org/blog/2011/12/a-green-investment-revolution.html

http://news.mongabay.com/2011/1206-redd_kanak-mitchell.html

http://www.theredddesk.org/resources/reports/closing_the_redd_gap_the_global_forest_finance_facility

http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/4681-Jump-starting-forest-finance

James R. F. Shipton, Fellow

James joined PIFS as a visiting fellow in March, 2013.  He is currently on leave from Goldman Sachs Asia where he is a managing director in Goldman’s executive office and head of Government Affairs for Asia Pacific, a role he assumed in 2009.  Previously, James was head of the hedge fund consultancy team within Goldman’s Asian prime brokerage business.  James joined Goldman Sachs in 2004 and was named a managing director in 2007.

Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, James ran the hedge fund consultancy business of Eurekahedge in Singapore and was a cofounder of Compliance Asia, Asia's first independent regulatory consulting firm.  In both capacities, he advised Asian and international asset management firms.  Prior to that, James was head of Asian ECM transaction management for Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (now Commerzbank) and a vice president in its European ECM team.  James has lived in Asia for 20 years, having previously practiced funds and securities law with Linklaters in Hong Kong and Thailand.  

James has been on the executive committee for a number of bodies in Asia including the Asian Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (ASIFMA), the Hong Kong Treasury Markets Association, the Hong Kong & China Chapter of the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), the Hong Kong Securities and Investment Institute and the business advisory board to the United Nations Economics and Social Commission for Asia Pacific.

James earned a BA in Asian politics, history and economics from Melbourne University and a LLB (Hons.) from Monash University with component studies in Asian law at Hong Kong University.