Knowledge @Wharton: August 11, 2015

Robert Bonnie is the Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment. At USDA, Bonnie oversees the Forest Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service on a variety of natural resource issues, working closely with the Farm Service Agency. He also served as Senior Advisor to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack for environment and climate change. Prior to joining USDA, Mr. Bonnie was vice president for land conservation for the Environmental Defense Fund where he focused on developing incentives to reward farmers, ranchers and forest owners for stewardship activities on private lands. Mr. Bonnie has master degrees in forestry and resource economics from Duke University. He grew up on a farm in Kentucky and now lives in Virginia.
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Howard C. Kunreuther is the James G. Dinan Professor; Professor of Decision Sciences and Business and Public Policy at the Wharton School, and co-director of the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center. Professor Kunreuther has a long-standing interest in ways that society can better manage low-probability, high-consequence events related to technological and natural hazards. He is recipient of the Elizur Wright Award for the publication that makes the most significant contribution to the literature of insurance. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Distinguished Fellow of the Society for Risk Analysis, receiving the Society’s Distinguished Achievement Award in 2001.

Howard co-leads the Center’s multi-year initiative on the future of natural disaster protection and risk financing, and Wharton’s multi-year initiative on good practices for catastrophe risk management in the S&P 500. He currently serves on the National Academy of Science/National Research Council’s committees on “Analysis of Costs and Benefits of Reforms to the National Flood Insurance Program” and the “Roundtable on Risk, Resilience, and Extreme Events.” He is a Coordinating Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s newly-released report, “Integrated Risk and Uncertainty Assessment of Climate Change Response Policies.”

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Pinar Yildirim joined the Wharton School as an Assistant Professor of Marketing after completing her PhD in 2012. Pinar’s research can be categorized into three main streams: monetization of media platforms, politics in marketing, and advertising. She focuses on analytical modeling and in particular is interested in game theoretic models. Parallel to these interests, her current research focuses on two-sided networks, including innovation platforms, data markets, and social networks. Related to her interests of ‘political economy’ she is also conducting research on how beliefs about the role of government can be shaped. Professor Yildirim’s research appeared in top management and marketing journals including Journal of Marketing Research, Management Science, and Journal of Marketing, and received various grants. Yildirim has industrial experience in consumer electronics and automotive sectors, at firms such as Fiat S.P.A and Renault S.A. She also conducted research in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline and PNC Bank, and currently she is conducting research in collaboration with the American Red Cross (with Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative grant) and Social Bicycles. Professor Yildirim earned her Ph.D. in Marketing & Business Economics from the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh. She is teaching Marketing Research at the Wharton School and is a frequent contributor for Knowledge@Wharton and contributor for Google Think Insights
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Education – PhD, University of Warwick, 2004; MSc, University of Warwick, 1999; BSc, University of Lausanne, 1998

Recent Consulting

Workplace Incentives for a broad range of industries

Academic Positions Held

Wharton: 2008-present. Previous apointments: Essex University; University of Warwick

Professional Leadership

Research Fellow, Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR)

Research Fellow, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Sloan Research Fellow (2010-2014)

Affiliated Faculty Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics at the Leonard David Institute of the University of Pennsylvania.
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