David Bronner, RSA Chief and the Man Behind the State’s Tallest Building, to Address UA’s 2007 Economic Conference

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Not many states can boast of a building that stands more than 744 feet tall, but Alabama can. The new RSA Battlehouse Tower in Mobile, at 745 feet, is the tallest building in the state and one of the tallest in the nation.

The man behind the tower is David Bronner, chief executive officer of the Retirement Systems of Alabama, who will be the luncheon speaker at the 2007 Economic Outlook Conference Jan. 23. The conference is presented by The University of Alabama’s Center for Business and Economic Research and will be held at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Montgomery.

Welcomes by Dr. Barry Mason, dean of the UA Culverhouse College of Commerce, and Dr. Michael Hardin, the incoming associate dean for research for the UA business school, will open the conference. Nigel Gault, managing director of Global Insight’s North American Macroeconomic Service, will present the United States economic outlook.

Dr. Carl Ferguson, former director of the Center for Business and Economic Research and now outreach economist, will cover the Alabama economic outlook.

Dr. Samuel Addy, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research, will give an Alabama Workforce Report update.

Conference sponsors this year include Alabama Power; BlueCross BlueShield of Alabama; Boeing Co.; Business Council of Alabama; Compass Bank; Honda Manufacturing of Alabama; Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama; Sterne, Agee & Leach, Inc.; United Parcel Service; and Vulcan Materials Company.

The conference registration fee is $95, which includes the Alabama Economic Outlook 2007, conference materials, and lunch. The registration deadline is Jan. 16. A conference brochure is available for downloading at http://cber.cba.ua.edu/Conference%20brochure.pdf

For more information call 205/348-6191 or email uacber@cba.ua.edu.

CBER is Alabama’s source for business, economic, and demographic data. Since its creation in 1930, CBER has engaged in research programs to promote economic development in the state, while continuously expanding and refining its broad base of socioeconomic information. To forecast the level of activity in Alabama, CBER developed an econometric model of the state. Beginning in 1980, output from the model has been published in the annual Alabama Economic Outlook series.

Visit CBER on the web at http://cber.cba.ua.edu.