Hunt CEO to be luncheon moderator

John Roberts III, president and chief executive officer of J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc., will serve as moderator for the 2013 Business Forecast Luncheon coordinated by the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas.

The quarterly luncheon will be 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Feb. 8 in the John Q. Hammons Convention Center at 3300 Pinnacle Hills Parkway in Rogers.

Panelists will include Kathy Deck, center director at the Sam M. Walton College of Business to give the state and local economic forecast; Adolfo Laurenti, deputy chief economist and managing director of Mesirow Financial for an international view; and Christopher Waller, research director and senior vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, for the national perspective.

Laurenti was selected as an emerging leader by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and was an Earhart Foundation Fellow. He lectures at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and is on the board of the National Association for Business Economics and the American Economic Association.

Before his appointment at the Federal Reserve, Waller served in the economics departments at Notre Dame University, the University of Kentucky and Indiana University-Bloomington, and has served as a visiting professor at numerous European universities.

Tickets are $50 for the luncheon, with a student rate of $25. Tables of 10 have priority seating for $600. Registration information can be found at cber.uark.edu/383.asp or (479) 575-4151 or cber@walton.uark.edu.