David McWilliams is ranked among the most influential economists in the world. Consistently accurate in his forecasts, he was the only economist in Ireland who accurately forecast a strong United Kingdom Brexit vote, the Trump victory and the 2008 global crash. With the objective to make economics easily digestible — and even fun — McWilliams draws on his unique sense of humour when he speaks on trends in growth, currencies, financial markets and geo-politics.

McWilliams is a young global leader with the World Economic Forum, is a regular contributor to Google’s famed zeitgeist conference and is the third most widely followed economist in the world with 238,000 Twitter followers. He is an adjunct professor of global economics at Trinity College Dublin and writes a weekly economics column for The Irish Times.

A bestselling author of four books, he has presented award-winning documentaries and brought a sell-out, one-man economics stand-up show to the stage at Ireland’s renowned national theatre, the Abbey. He is the founder of the world’s only economics and stand-up comedy festival, Kilkenomics, and the founder of Ireland’s premier literary and ideas festival, the Dalkey Book Festival. As a speaker, McWilliams has presented for companies on four continents such as Google, Erickson, Sony, Altgeris, Citywire, Casenove and the National Bank of Abu Dhabi.

McWilliams worked as an economist in the Irish Central Bank and later in the financial markets with UBS and Banque Nationale de Paris. He studied economics at Trinity College Dublin and the College of Europe in Bruges.