Michael (Mike) McDonnell is the Founder and Managing Director of MMD Global Advisory, established in Starnberg, Germany, and now based in Northern California. MMD focuses on country risk, the global capital markets and emerging market developments. Prior to forming MMD, Mike held positions at the global insurance company Allianz SE in Munich. At Allianz, Mike served as Head of Credit Risk Analysis in Group Risk, where he was responsible for the monitor of obligor credit risk quality in the AZ Group insurance investment portfolio. Serving then as an Advisor for the Allianz Group Public Policy and Economic Research team, GPER, he led the development of the EWS tool to support the AZ Euro-Monitor Index.

In addition to his tenure at Allianz, Mike has over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry. He has worked in the Corporate Risk Management group at Merrill Lynch in New York, where he was Director and Co-head of Country Risk. Mike was also the Founder and Research Director for Berkeley Global Advisory, an investment research firm focusing on the global equity markets. And, prior to joining Allianz, Mike was a Principal and Investment Risk Manager at Barclays Global Investors (BGI)/BlackRock in San Francisco. While at BGI, Mike focussed on investment risk management applied toward US HY and EM fixed income strategies, country risk analysis and risk policy. He has also lectured on country risk at the Ludwig Maximilians Universitaet in Munich, for the Institute of International Finance (IIF), and for the Professional Risk Managers International Association (PRMIA).

Mike received a Masters Degree in Applied Statistics from Columbia University in New York City as well as a Masters Degree in International Relations from the University of Chicago. Mike has also received course certifications from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Macro-econometric Forecasting, Debt Sustainability Analysis and Macroeconomic Diagnostics. In addition, Mike has a Financial Risk Manager certification (FRM). He is a native English speaker, and business proficient in French and German.