Ziad K. Abdelnour is a Wall Street investor and financier, author, philanthropist, activist, lobbyist, oil & gas trader and president & CEO of Blackhawk Partners, Inc., a New York-based private-equity “family office” that focuses on management-led buyouts, strategic minority equity investments, equity private placements, consolidations, buildups, and growth capital financing in the US and emerging markets.  He is founder and chairman of the Financial Policy Council and serves on the Advisory board of DPG Investments. Abdelnour has been involved in over 125 transactions worth over $10 billion. The author of Economic Warfare: Secrets of Wealth Creation in the Age of Welfare Politics, he is a regular speaker on private equity, commodities trading and Middle East geo-political analysis at industry conferences and TV outlets nationwide. Abdelnour is also president of the U. S. Committee for a Free Lebanon, member of the Board of Governors of the Middle East Forum, and former president of the Arab Bankers Association of North America.