Mohamed A. El-Erian was born on August 19, 1958 in New York City. He is a businessman, and a chief economic adviser at Allianz, a multinational financial services company. He also serves as chair of President Obama's Global Development Council. He is a columnist for Bloomberg View, as well as contributing editor to the Financial Times. He is the author of The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Avoiding the Next Collapse published in January 2016. He has served as a member of the faculty of Harvard Business School. He is currently a member of the Harvard Global Advisory Council.