Dr. Judith Banister is the Director of Global Demographics at The Conference Board, the world's leading business research and business membership organization.

Banister is responsible for leading The Conference Board's research and dissemination program on the demographic aspects of global economic and business issues. Among her current research interests are: population aging and the maturing workforce in Europe and elsewhere; labor force growth and development around the world; the global competition for and changing supply of skilled and talented workers; implications of labor migration for business and economies; the global workforce for the future; demographic change and consumer markets; demographic drivers of economic growth, business organization, and market strategies; demographics and business in India and China.

Dr. Banister specializes in global demography and the demography of Asia, in particular China. She is well known for her Stanford University Press book China's Changing Population and for her many publications on the demography, statistics, economies, labor force, population structure, social change, gender issues, and demographic impacts on the environment in Asian countries, especially China. Most recently her research and publications have focused on manufacturing employment and labor compensation in China, economic development and mortality decline, the shortage of girls and women in China, and workforce issues in Europe related to aging population, retirement age trends, skills shortages, and labor migration. She has recently developed expertise on national policies and programs for attracting talented immigrants to enhance economic competitiveness in many countries.

Before joining The Conference Board in 2006, Judith Banister was Chief of the Center for International Research and the International Programs Center at the U.S. Bureau of the Census, Washington, DC, until 1997; then Professor of Demography in the Division of Social Science, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, until 2001; and during 2001-2006, Senior Demographic Consultant at Javelin Investments in Beijing.

Dr. Banister earned her B.A. in world history at Swarthmore College and her Ph.D. in demography, economic development, and international trade from Stanford University. She is married to Dr. Kim Woodard and lives in San Francisco and Beijing. Their son Adrian is a software development specialist in San Francisco and daughter Dawn just received her Ph.D. in statistics at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and has just joined the faculty of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.