As senior portfolio manager of the Wilmington International Fund, Clem develops and maintains close working relationships with a network of investment managers located in Europe, Japan, and Asia ex-Japan. He is a voting member of the firm’s investment committee and a non-voting member of its portfolio management committee. He is a frequent contributor to the firm’s Wilmington Wire publications.
Prior to joining investment management, Clement was a senior relationship manager with M&T Bank’s international trade division. He led a team of four relationship managers who financed transactions supporting foreign buyers’ purchases of U.S. exports, often from firms in M&T Bank’s business regions. He received the President’s Council Award for his sales accomplishments. Before joining M&T, Clem served in a variety of positions with the Export-Import Bank of the United States. As a relationship manager, he shepherded U.S. firms’ export finance transactions through the bank’s credit approval process. He served on the bank’s credit committee, which approved all loans under $10 million and managed the bank’s workouts division, working within creditor groups to renegotiate the debts of foreign and U.S. borrowers. He participated as the bank’s representative on a U.S. government delegation to inter-governmental trade financing negotiations organized by the OECD in Paris. Clem also served as a country risk economist, advising the bank’s board on country eligibility and sovereign loan pricing decisions and participating in inter-agency working groups. Earlier in his career, he served as an international economist with business consulting firm WEFA, providing economic advice to a range of business clients.
Clem holds an MBA in finance and international business from George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree in international economics from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He is a CFA® charterholder and served five terms on the board of the 600-member Baltimore CFA Society, including two as its elected president. Currently, he is serving as the M&T appointed board member of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce.
December 12, 2016—The incoming Trump administration is planning to propose a reduction in corporate tax rates in an effort to stimulate U.S. economic growth. We believe that much of the “Trump Rally” since the election can be attributed to his proposed policies which include a likely combination of lower corporate tax rates and infrastructure spending.One item on the tax agenda is a temporary reduction of the corporate tax rate (from 35% to 10%) to U.S.
November 29, 2016— On December 4, Italian citizens will vote on constitutional reforms proposed by the government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. These reforms would dilute the power of the country’s Senate, making it easier for the Italian government to get laws, including structural economic reform laws, passed through the lower house Chamber of Deputies.
November 22, 2016—Following up on our post from last week, The Transition Begins, as we continue to explore how the new administration will impact the economy and financial markets, we turn to a highly publicized topic, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). As a candidate, Donald Trump frequently cited NAFTA as a “disaster” that had hollowed out U.S. manufacturing, particularly in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
