Christopher Smart

Christopher Smart is an accomplished investor, economist and former senior policymaker, with demonstrated success in portfolio management and investment strategy, complemented by senior roles at the U.S. Treasury and the White House. He is the founder and managing partner of the Arbroath Group, the geopolitical strategy firm.

From 2018 to 2023, Dr. Smart was chief global strategist and head of the Barings Investment Institute, the macroeconomic and geopolitical strategy team for the asset management subsidiary of MassMutual.

He served as Special Assistant to the President at the National Economic Council and the National Security Council from 2013 to 2015, when he was principal advisor on trade, investment and global economic issues. Dr. Smart also spent four years as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, where he led the response to the European financial crisis and led U.S. engagement on financial policy across Europe, Russia and Central Asia.

Prior to his government service, he worked as the Director of International Investments at Pioneer Investments where he managed top-performing Emerging Markets and International portfolios. Early in his career, he was an advisor to the Russian Finance Ministry following the collapse of the Soviet Union and a journalist in Florida and France.

Dr. Smart writes regular columns on global markets and international relations that have appeared in Barron’s, Bloomberg Opinion and Foreign Policy, and he is also a frequent guest on CNBC, Bloomberg News and other major media.

He holds a B.A. in History from Yale University and a Ph.D. in International Relations from Columbia University. Fluent in French and Russian, he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.