Christopher Smart is the founder and managing partner of the Arbroath Group, a geopolitical risk and investment strategy practice. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Milken Institute and Principal at WestExec Advisors. Previously, he was Chief Global Strategist at Barings, where he founded and led the Barings Investment Institute, the firm’s macroeconomic and geopolitical strategy team. From 2013 to 2015, he served as Special Assistant to the President at the National Economic Council and the National Security Council, where he was principal advisor on trade, investment and global economic issues. Dr. Smart also spent four years as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, where he led the response to the European financial crisis and led U.S. engagement on financial policy across Europe, Russia and Central Asia. Before his government service, he worked as the Director of International Investments at Pioneer Investments where he managed top-performing portfolios. Early in his career, he was an advisor to the Russian Finance Ministry following the collapse of the Soviet Union and a journalist in Florida and France. Dr. Smart writes regular columns on global markets and international relations that have appeared in Barron’s, Bloomberg Opinion and Foreign Policy, and he is also a frequent guest on CNBC, BloombergNews and other major media. Leading Thoughts, his weekly column, is also published on Substack and LinkedIn.