Biography of Antoine van Agtmael

Picking up where Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat left off, he persuasively demonstrates that the world’s center of gravity is already tipping decisively in favor of the emerging economies.  With this seismic shift, competitive challenges and investment risks are also being dramatically transformed, while new opportunities are arising for those who are alert to them

A new breed of world leading companies are catching their Western competitors off-guard.  House-hold names of today -- IBM, Ford, Wal-Mart, Sony and Shell -- are in danger of becoming has-beens as these more innovative new superstars in the emerging markets claim dominance. Understanding how they have become world-class market leaders, and where they are taking the world economy, is crucial to understanding not only the future of globalization, but the future of Western competitiveness. 

Each year we are buying more planes from Brazil’s Embraer, refrigerators from China’s Haier appliance maker, smart cell phones from Taiwan’s HTC, and gas from Russia’s Gazprom.  How have these relative unknowns come so far in the world markets so fast?  What are they doing right that their Western competitors are doing wrong, and how can Western companies face the intensifying challenges and survive?

With his indepth, inside knowledge of these emerging powerhouses, based on thirty years of working, traveling and investing in emerging markets and extraordinary access to the leading companies, van Agtmael trains his experienced analyst’s eye on twenty five of the top emerging giants, taking readers into the executive suites and labs where they are outmaneuvering their Western rivals.  Profiling these major players, such as Korean’s Samsung Electronics, China’s computer maker Lenovo, Brazil’s iron ore giant CVRD, and India’s Infosys, he divulges their strategies for growth, and also analyses how their rise to dominance will change our lives.   His unique insights point the way to how we in the West can capitalize on the opportunities these companies represent while also mobilizing a powerful response to the challenges they present.

The Emerging Markets Century is a compelling and necessary read for anyone who wants to understand the true magnitude of change underway in the global economy today.

Antoine van Agtmael is founder, president and chief investment officer of Emerging Markets Management, L.L.C.  He is known for coining the term “emerging markets.” He has held several senior level management positions at the World Bank Group, where he founded the IFC Emerging Markets Index and Data Base.  He is the author of Emerging Securities Markets and co-editor of The World’s Emerging Stock Markets.  He lives in Bethesda, Maryland.

speech topics
The Emerging Markets Century