Charlie Lister Smith, PhD
Founder

Dr. Smith is an economist and financial historian, and a leading thinker on speculative bubbles. His doctoral work at the London School of Economics offers a new account of the Great Crash and the onset of the Great Depression that displaces the master narrative of Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz (1963). His current research introduces a reformulation of the Minsky-Kindleberger model to explain the speculative bubble phenomenon.

Previously, Dr. Smith operated a long-short hedge fund under the Mast-Head name from 2013 through 2019, compounding at 8.7% gross per annum. Prior to founding Mast-Head, he was a Vice President in the Special Investments Group at JPMorgan Chase & Co., where he received committee approval for $700 million of new equity and oversaw the firm's post-bankruptcy stake in Tribune Co.

Before joining JPMorgan in 2010, Dr. Smith was a Senior Associate at One Equity Partners, executing leveraged buyouts, take-privates, and bankruptcy carveouts. Prior to joining OEP in 2006, he served as an Associate at Gleacher & Co., having begun his career as an Analyst in the Investment Banking Division of Merrill Lynch & Co.

He holds a PhD, MPhil, and MSc in Economic History from the London School of Economics, an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and a BA in History from Colgate University.