ben bernanke gordon brown to join pimcos global advisory board dealbookgordon brown and ben bernanke to sit on pimco advisory board macdiarmidgetty images mark wilsongetty imagesdec 7 2015pimco the global bond giant said on monday that it was setting up a global advisory board featuring luminaries like ben s bernanke the former chairman of the federal reserve and gordon brown the onetime british prime ministermr bernanke who was hired by pimco as a senior adviser in april will be chairman of the advisory board other board members are jeanclaude trichet the former president of the european central bank annemarie slaughter a former top official at the state department and ng kok song who previously was the chief investment officer for singapores sovereign wealth fundpimco said the five experts would provide advice on global politics and economics to the firms team of portfolio managers meeting several times a year at the companys headquarters in newport beach calif as well as in other pimco offices around the worldthey are also expected to feature prominently at the firms socalled secular forum a talking shop held every may and lasting several days in which pimco economists and bond managers develop longrange investing themeswhile mr bernanke and mr trichet have maintained fairly active profiles in global policy and investment circles mr brown quite a private man for a politician has been less frequently seen except for his star turn in lobbying for scotland to stay in britain in 2014nevertheless as former heads of governments go mr brown who also served as chancellor of the exchequer under prime minister tony blair is as expert as they come in terms of international economics analysts have long thought that the ideal postpolitical job for him would be leading a global policy institution like the international monetary fundthe global advisory board is an unrivaled team of macroeconomic thinkers and former policy makers whose insights into the intersection of policy and financial markets will be a valuable input to our investment process said dan ivascyn pimcos chief investment officer