Presenter’s Bios

Tucker Balch, J.P. Morgan
Tucker Balch is a managing director at J.P. Morgan AI Research where he leads teams of researchers investigating a number of topics ranging from Machine Learning and Cryptography, to AI applied to Finance. A focus is research in and simulation of multi-agent systems, especially high-frequency electronic markets. Tucker is a full professor (on leave) of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech. He spent a sabbatical year at a one of the first Machine Learning-centric hedge funds, and he co-founded a successful startup focused on alternative data for investing. He has published more than 120 peer-reviewed papers. In the 1990s Tucker flew F-15s in the US Air Force.

Sudheer Chava, Georgia Tech

Sudheer Chava received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 2003. Prior to that he has an MBA degree from Indian Institute of Management – Bangalore and worked as a fixed income analyst at a leading investment bank in India. He has held academic positions at University of Houston and Texas A&M University before joining Georgia Tech in 2010.

Dr. Chava has taught a variety of courses at the undergraduate and master’s level including Derivatives, Risk Management, Valuation, Cases in Financial Crisis and Credit Risk Analysis. He has also taught both theoretical and empirical finance courses at the doctoral level.

Dr. Chava’s research interests are in Credit Risk, Banking and Corporate Finance. He has published extensively in all the top journals in Finance including Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies. His research has won a Ross award for the best paper published in Finance Research Letters in 2008, was a finalist for Brattle Prize for the best paper published in Journal of Finance in 2008 and was nominated for the Goldman Sachs award for the best paper for published in Review of Finance during 2004. Dr. Chava is the recipient of multiple external research grants such as FDIC-CFR Fellowship, Morgan Stanley Research grant and Financial Service Exchange Research grant. His papers have been presented at numerous finance conferences such as AFA, WFA, EFA, FDIC and Federal Reserve Banks and at many universities in the U.S. and abroad.

Sanjiv Das, Santa Clara University
Sanjiv Das is the William and Janice Terry Professor of Finance at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business.

He previously held faculty appointments as Associate Professor at Harvard Business School and UC Berkeley. He holds post-graduate degrees in Finance (M.Phil and Ph.D. from New York University), Computer Science (M.S. from UC Berkeley), an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, B.Com in Accounting and Economics (University of Bombay, Sydenham College), and is also a qualified Cost and Works Accountant. He is a senior editor of The Journal of Investment Management, co-editor of The Journal of Derivatives, and Associate Editor of other academic journals.

Prior to being an academic, he worked in the derivatives business in the Asia-Pacific region as a Vice-President at Citibank. His current research interests include: the modeling of default risk, machine learning, social networks, derivatives pricing models, portfolio theory, and venture capital. He has published over eighty articles in academic journals, and has won numerous awards for research and teaching. His recent book “Derivatives: Principles and Practice” was published in May 2010. He currently also serves as a Senior Fellow at the FDIC Center for Financial Research.

Vasant Dhar, New York University
Vasant Dhar is a professor at the Stern School of Business and the Center for Data Science at New York University. He is former Editor-in-Chief of the journal Big Data, and the founder of SCT Capital Management, a machine-learning-based hedge fund in New York City. Dhar’s central research question asks when we should trust AI machines that learn from data. His research has addressed this question in a number of areas including financial markets, social media and healthcare. Dhar has authored over 100 research papers, as well as articles for publications such as the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Wired, and the Harvard Business Review. He has appeared on CNBC, Bloomberg TV, and National Public Radio. His recent TEDx talk, “When do we trust machines?” is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO9D6l_THhk 

Campbell R. Harvey,Duke University
Campbell R. Harvey is Professor of Finance at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He served as President of the American Finance Association in 2016.

Professor Harvey obtained his doctorate at the University of Chicago in business finance. He has served on the faculties of the Stockholm School of Economics, the Helsinki School of Economics, and the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. He has also been a visiting scholar at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Svenska Handelshögskolan in Helsinki. He is a Fellow of the American Finance Association.

Harvey received the 2016 and 2015 Best Paper Awards from The Journal of Portfolio Management for his research on distinguishing luck from skill. He has also received eight Graham and Dodd Awards/Scrolls for excellence in financial writing from the CFA Institute. He has published over 125 scholarly articles on topics spanning investment finance, emerging markets, corporate finance, behavioral finance, financial econometrics and computer science.

Harvey is a Founding Director of the Duke-CFO Survey. This widely watched quarterly survey polls over 1,500 CFOs worldwide. Harvey is Partner and Senior Advisor to Research Affiliates, LLC, who oversees more than $200 billion in client investments. Harvey also serves as the Investment Strategy Advisor to the Man Group plc, the world’s largest, publicly listed, global hedge fund provider.  Harvey edited The Journal of Finance – the leading scientific journal in his field and one of the premier journals in the economic profession from 2006-2012.

Over the past six years, Professor Harvey has taught Innovation and Cryptoventures at Duke University. The course focuses on blockchain technology covering both the mechanics of blockchains as well as practical applications.

Bryan Kelly, Yale School of Management and AQR Capital Management
Bryan Kelly is Professor of Finance at the Yale School of Management, a Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, Associate Director of SOM’s International Center for Finance, and is the head of machine learning at AQR Capital Management, LLC. Professor Kelly’s primary research fields are asset pricing and financial econometrics. He is interested in issues related to financial machine learning; volatility, tail risk, and correlation modeling in financial markets; banking sector systemic risk; financial intermediation; and financial networks. His papers in these areas have been published in American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies.

He is co-editor of the Journal of Financial Econometrics and associate editor of the Journal of Finance and the Journal of Financial Economics. Before joining Yale, Kelly was a tenured professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Chicago, a master’s degree in economics from University of California San Diego, and a PhD in finance from New York University’s Stern School of Business. Kelly worked in investment banking at Morgan Stanley prior to pursuing his PhD.

Alessio de Longis, Invesco
Alessio de Longis is a Senior Portfolio Manager and Head of Global Tactical Asset Allocation for the Invesco Investment Solutions team. In this role, he heads the group’s global tactical asset allocation and multi-asset factor rotation efforts, focusing on the development, implementation, and management of macro regime-based investment strategies across asset classes, risk premia, and factors. Additionally, he develops and manages active currency overlay strategies and solutions for multi-asset portfolios.

Mr. de Longis joined Invesco in 2019 when the firm combined with OppenheimerFunds, where he was team leader and senior portfolio manager of the Global Multi-Asset team. Between 2004 and 2013, he was a member of the OppenheimerFunds Global Debt team, where he served as currency portfolio manager and global macro strategist. He is a published author in the field of macro-based systematic factor investing and currency overlay strategies, and he isregularly featured across financial media outlets.

Mr. de Longis earned an MSc in financial economics and econometrics from the University of Essex, as well as an MA and a BA degree in economics from the University of Rome TorVergata. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA) charterholder.

Ananth Madhavan, Blackrock
Ananth Madhavan, PhD, Managing Director, is Global Head of Research for ETF and Index Investing at Blackrock, Inc. He is responsible for advancing thought leadership and innovation for iShares through research and analytics. Dr. Madhavan’s service with the firm dates back to 2003, including his years with Barclays Global Investors (BGI), which merged with BlackRock in 2009. At BGI, he was the Global Head of Trading Research and Transitions and CEO of BGI’s affiliate broker. He also worked closely with the alpha and trading teams to design and implement trading strategies to capture short horizon market opportunities.

Prior to joining BGI, Dr. Madhavan was a Managing Director of Research at ITG and a member of the firm’s management and executive committees. Previously, he was the Charles B. Thorton Professor of Finance at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California and an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Madhavan earned a BA degree from the University of Delhi, MA degree from Boston University, and a PhD in economics from Cornell University.

Robert C. Merton, MIT Sloan School of Management
Robert C. Merton is the School of Management Distinguished Professor of Finance at MIT Sloan School of Management, and the John and Natty McArthur University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University.

He was the George Fisher Baker Professor of Business Administration (1988–98) and the John and Natty McArthur University Professor (1998–2010) at Harvard Business School. After receiving a PhD in Economics from MIT in 1970, Merton served on the finance faculty of MIT’s Sloan School of Management until 1988, at which time he was the J.C. Penney Professor of Management.

He is currently resident scientist at Dimensional Holdings, Inc., where he is the creator of Target Retirement Solution, a global integrated retirement-funding solution system.

Merton received the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1997 for a new method to determine the value of derivatives. He is past president of the American Finance Association, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Merton is the author of Continuous-Time Finance and a coauthor of Cases in Financial Engineering: Applied Studies of Financial Innovation; The Global Financial System: A Functional Perspective; Finance; and Financial Economics. He has also been recognized for translating finance science into practice.

Merton received the inaugural Financial Engineer of the Year Award from the International Association for Quantitative Finance (formerly the International Association of Financial Engineers), which also elected him a Senior Fellow. He received the 2011 CME Group Melamed-Arditti Innovation Award and the 2013 WFE Award for Excellence from World Federation of Exchanges. A Distinguished Fellow of the Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance (‘Q Group’) and a Fellow of the Financial Management Association, Merton received the Nicholas Molodovsky Award from the CFA Institute. He is a member of the Halls of Fame of the Fixed Income Analyst Society, Risk magazine, and Derivatives Strategy magazine. Merton received Risk’s Lifetime Achievement Award for contributions to the field of risk management and the 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Financial Intermediation Research Society.

His research focuses on finance theory, including lifecycle and retirement finance, optimal portfolio selection, capital asset pricing, pricing of derivative securities, credit risk, loan guarantees, financial innovation, the dynamics of institutional change, and improving the methods of measuring and managing macro-financial systemic risk.

Discussants

Tarun Gupta, Invesco
Tarun joined Invesco as part of the IQS team in 2019 to focus on innovative research to enhance quantitative research strategies and spearhead development of investment technology. He also serves as a member of IQS’s management team responsible for strategic planning and direction. Prior to joining Invesco, Tarun was a Managing Director at AQR Capital Management where he led a global research team that focused on alpha research, including the development and ongoing management of global trading strategies. Prior to AQR, he worked at Goldman Sachs as a Vice President and lead portfolio manager for Global Equity portfolios, among other funds. In addition, he has contributed and reviewed academic articles for top finance journals, including the best paper award for the Journal of Portfolio Management in 2019. Tarun earned his Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in economics with specializations in asset pricing and macroeconomics from the University of Chicago. He also holds undergraduate degrees in mathematics and economics.

Wendy Harrington, Nuveen
Wendy is head of Nuveen Labs, driving its strategy, build-out, and growth. Nuveen Labs is an independent team that provides innovative ways to enhance and grow our business through the application of artificial intelligence, machine learning, analytics and Big Data. The Lab focuses on generating alpha for our global investment teams, giving them a competitive edge. The Lab will also seek to extend our leadership in responsible investing by developing proprietary data measurement standards and metrics for our impact investments. The goal is to develop industry-leading capabilities that can ultimately be commercialized and made available to others.

Prior to joining the firm in 2019, Wendy worked at McKinsey & Company and Franklin Templeton Investments along with start-up firms such as Figure Technologies, Inc. and Internet Capital Group. Her work in the consulting, fintech and asset management industries as well as her entrepreneurial experience building start-up companies provides critical strategic thinking and operational know-how.

Wendy graduated with a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in Management Information Systems from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Alex Hsu, Georgia Tech
Alex Hsu is associate professor of finance in the Scheller College of Business at Georgia Institute of Technology. He holds undergraduate and Master degrees from Brown University and Ph.D. in finance from the University of Michigan. His research focus is on bond yields, equity returns, and macroeconomics. He builds theoretical models to examine the impact of monetary policy and fiscal policy on interest rate term structure. He also studies the empirical effects of government policy and legislation on firm outcomes such as returns and investment. He has presented at annual meetings of the American Finance Association, the Western Finance Association, and the Society of Financial Studies Cavalcade. He has given invited talks at the Federal Reserve Board and many regional Reserve Banks. His work includes articles in the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Monetary Economics, and Management Science. He teaches finance theory to doctoral students and fixed income to undergraduate and Master’s students.”

Seoyoung Kim, Santa Clara University
Dr. Kim specializes in structured financial instruments, fixed-income pricing, the optimal restructuring of distressed debt, financial technology, and cryptocurrencies. She has provided expert consulting and litigation support regarding the structuring, management, and liquidation of various special purpose vehicles issuing collateralized debt obligations and asset-backed securities, as well as the standards applied to the assessment and rating of structured financial instruments. In addition, Dr. Kim is experienced in corporate governance issues pertaining to performance evaluation and incentive alignment, where much of her work is centered on the unintended byproducts of regulatory changes on board structure and executive compensation. Seoyoung Kim is an associate professor of finance and business analytics and teaches financial management in SCU’s MBA program. She joined the Leavey School of Business in Fall 2012 as an assistant professor.

Margaret S. Stumpp, Quantitative Investment Management Associates (QMA)
Margaret S. Stumpp is Senior Advisor to Quantitative Investment Management Associates (QMA), where she was co-founder in and Chief Investment Officer until 2014.

Margaret holds a BA with distinction in Economics from Boston University as well as MA and PhD degrees in Economics from Brown University. She is a frequent presenter on quantitative investment management in both domestic and international conferences, and she has numerous publications in a variety of popular publications as well as peer-reviewed finance journals. Current areas of research include ESG investing; investor skewness preferences, and the performance of short-selling.