On January 15, more than 520 bankers and members of the business community joined us for the VBA/VA Chamber Financial Forecast. For the fifteenth consecutive year, the VBA and the VA Chamber of Commerce partnered to bring together hundreds of business community members to learn about the state and national economy’s outlook.

Thank You to Our 2026 Sponsors

2026 Speakers

Virginia Economic Outlook
Thomas I. Barkin
President & CEO | Federal Reserve Bank

Tom Barkin is the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. He has held this position since 2018.

Tom serves on the Fed’s chief monetary policy body, the Federal Open Market Committee, and is also responsible for bank supervision and the Federal Reserve’s technology organization. He is “on the ground” continually in the Fed’s Fifth District, which covers South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, D.C., West Virginia and Maryland. His engagement in the region has brought real attention to areas facing economic challenges.

Prior to joining the Richmond Fed, Tom was a senior partner and CFO at McKinsey & Company, a worldwide management consulting firm, where he also oversaw McKinsey’s offices in the southern United States.

Sarah House, Managing Director, Senior Economist
Wells Fargo Corporate & Investment Banking
Wells Fargo & Company

Sarah House is a managing director and senior economist for Wells Fargo’s
Corporate and Investment Bank. Based in Charlotte, N.C., she covers the U.S. macro
economy, including the labor market, inflation trends, and monetary policy. Sarah
frequently speaks about the economy to the national media, including The Wall
Street Journal, Bloomberg News, CNBC and National Public Radio. Prior to joining
Wells Fargo in 2010, Sarah worked as a research associate for the Federal Reserve
Bank of Richmond.

Sarah earned a B.A. in economics from Tulane University in New Orleans and M.Sc. in
local economic development from the London School of Economics. She has coauthored
two books, Economic and Business Forecasting (2014) and Economic
Modeling in the Post Great Recession Era (2017), both published by Wiley.

Sarah currently serves on the board for the Charlotte Economics Club, the local
chapter of the National Association of Business Economics (NABE), and was
president of the organization from 2020-2021. She is a member of NABE and has
previously served as chair for the association’s healthcare industry committee.

View Pictures from the 2026 Event