RCOH Lunch Meeting - Jennifer Ablan

Few presidencies have sparked as much debate over economic policy as Donald Trump’s. Supporters credit him with historic tax reform, deregulation, and record-low unemployment before the pandemic. Critics argue his trade wars, ballooning deficits, and uneven gains exposed deep structural weaknesses. This session will explore the Trump economy—its short-term effects, long-term consequences, and what it reveals about America’s economic resilience. Attendees will gain insight into how Trump’s policies reshaped business, investment, and the labor market, and what lessons they hold for the nation’s economic future.

Jennifer Ablan is the Editor-in-Chief of Hawaii Business Magazine. She returns home to Oahu after 28 years in New York City covering finance and business news as both a reporter and editor. Most recently, she served as Editor-in-Chief of Pensions & Investments. Prior to that, she was U.S. Assistant Managing Editor at the Financial Times, where she helped drive editorial expansion across the United States.

Earlier in her career, Ablan spent a decade at Reuters as U.S. Investments Editor, leading a team focused on asset management and “big money” coverage. She also held positions at Barron’s and Dow Jones Newswires, consistently specializing in money management and investing.

Widely known across Wall Street for breaking major stories, Ablan has interviewed many of the world’s most influential investors, including billionaire activist Carl Icahn, DoubleLine’s “Bond King” Jeffrey Gundlach, Pimco’s Dan Ivascyn, Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett, Bridgewater’s Greg Jensen and Cathie Wood of Ark Invest, which invests in Bitcoin.

A proud graduate of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Ablan received the 2011 Rising Star award from the Women’s Bond Club and was named one of Business Insider’s “125 most important finance people you have to follow” on Twitter.