EDHEC Speaker Series
“The Future of Finance”
Is “green the new black” when it comes to Finance? How could the financial sector address climate change, retirement and other key economic issues in the coming years? Is Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence really the next frontier in investment?
EDHEC Business School has launched a new online monthly speaker series on “The Future of Finance”. The objective is to address the most recent advances in the financial industry and discuss how finance can be a powerful tool for tackling key economic and social challenges. To do so, this series gather all year long international renowned industry experts and academic scholars reflecting the research culture and intellectual commitment of EDHEC Business School #makeanimpact. The targeted audience is the current EDHEC Business School finance graduate students, the EDHEC alumni, and the members of the enlarged EDHEC community and guests.
Past Speakers
Topic Climate Finance: from Climate Risk to Financial Risk
Date Thursday, 5 May 2022
Time 6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. Paris Time
We will hear from Stefano Battiston - Professor of Finance at the University of Zurich, Professor of Economics at University of Venice, and Lead Author of the Chapter on Investment and Finance of sixth IPCC Assessment report - about climate stress test and the analysis of financial risks and opportunities of climate mitigation. The first climate stress-test of European banks will be published later this year. Will they make up for the expectations? The recently published IPCC report says it all: it's now or never. Humanity is at a road junction between starting now a low-carbon transition or facing irreversible and growing impacts of climate change. So what does this means for the financial sector?
Well, of course the low-carbon transition could take place in an orderly way, with no big changes on asset prices. But will it do so? In fact, there is a real possibility of large adjustments in asset valuation if market expectations come to internalise the implications of the decarbonization scenarios. Hence the importance of using adequately the climate scenarios when conduct climate stress-tests.
Speaker
Stefano Battiston, Professor of Finance at the University of Zurich, Professor of Economics at University of Venice
Moderators
Riccardo Rebonato, Professor, Researcher at EDHEC-Risk Institute
Emmanuel Jurczenko, Director of Graduate Finance Programmes, EDHEC Business School.
Topic Quant investing: today and tomorrow
Date Thursday, 28 April 2022
Time 6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. Paris Time
We will hear from Weili Zhou, Head of Quant Equity Research at Robeco, about the opportunities and challenges for quant investing in today’s world.
Next to that, from a practitioner’s perspective, she will share her insights on the added value of advanced technologies (e.g. ML and NLP) and alternative datasets (e.g. news flow and social network).
Speaker
Weili Zhou, Head Quant Equity Research, Robeco.
Moderators
Florian Pelgrin, Professor of Finance, Edhec Business School.
Emmanuel Jurczenko, Director of Graduate Finance Programmes, EDHEC Business School.
Topic DEFI: the Future of Finance?
Date Thursday, 31 March 2022
Time 6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. Paris Time
We will hear from Campbell Harvey, Professor of Finance at Duke University on the opportunities and risks of decentralized finance (DeFi). DeFi is a blockchain-based technology that seeks to disrupt traditional channels of savings, lending, exchange and insurance.
In the world of DeFi, all value is tokenized. DeFi is an integral part of both Web3 and the metaverse. While the opportunities are considerable, it is important to understand the risks that this new technology faces.
Links
Speaker
Campbell Harvey, Professor of Finance, Duke University
Moderators
Raman Uppal, Professor of Finance, Edhec Business School.
Emmanuel Jurczenko, Director of Graduate Finance Programmes, EDHEC Business School.
Topic Will Private Markets Kill Them All?
Date Thursday, 24 March 2022
Time 6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. Paris Time
We heard from Ludovic Phalippou, Professor of Financial Economics, Head of Finance Accounting and Management Economics academic area at University of Oxford Said Business School, about the complexity of private markets. Home to a stockpile of mythologies, war-stories and fantasies, private markets are shrouded in complex jargon, hard to penetrate, controversial, and yet partying like it is 1999. They are now everywhere. Taking the investment world by storm. Just passed the $10 trillion mark for Xmas, up from less than $1 trillion just 20 years ago. Went through 2008 and COVID-19 undented. Public markets are so last century – Can they actually die altogether? Or will a hybrid world emerge?
Speaker
Ludovic Phalippou, Professor of Financial Economics, Head of Finance Accounting and Management Economics academic area at University of Oxford Said Business School.
Moderators
Hamid Boustanifar, Associate Professor of Finance, Edhec Business School.
Emmanuel Jurczenko, Director of Graduate Finance Programmes, EDHEC Business School.
Topic SPACs: (almost) everything you need to know about SPACs
Date Thursday, 24 February 2022
Time 6:00 p.m.-7:15 p.m. Paris Time
We will hear from Jay Ritter, Professor of Finance, Warrington College of Business how Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) have boomed in the U.S., with over 600 SPAC IPOs raising more than $160 billion in 2021 alone.
These shell companies then search for a private operating company to merge with, in the process injecting cash and listing it on an exchange. Thus, a SPAC merger is an alternative to a traditional IPO for the operating company. SPACs have been very controversial, due to poor post-merger returns and the middlemen (the SPAC sponsor and underwriters) taking a big slice of the pie. Jay will discuss the economic rationale for some of the features that are used.
Speaker
Jay Ritter, Professor of Finance, Warrington College of Business.
Moderators
Enrique Schroth, Professor of Finance, Edhec Business School.
Emmanuel Jurczenko, Director of Graduate Finance Programmes, EDHEC Business School.
Topic The Odyssey of Sovereign Sustainability
Date Thursday, 17 February 2022
Time 6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. Paris Time
We will hear from Eric Bouyé, Manager and Head of Product, Knowledge and Research at World Bank Treasury about the integration of environment and climate risk for sovereign investors, including central banks’ reserve managers.
Most central banks or risk-averse investors still invest primarily in sovereign, supranational or agency bonds for the management of their assets, offering a limited scope to achieve sustainability objectives. Eric will talk about solutions, ongoing initiatives (e.g., NGFS), and how Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) – World Bank, EIB, etc. – have been playing a role in bridging the gap between sustainable and development finance towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
Speaker
Eric Bouyé, Head of Product, Knowledge and Research at World Bank Treasury.
Moderators
Irène Monasterolo, Professor of Finance, Edhec Business School.
Emmanuel Jurczenko, Director of Graduate Finance Programmes, EDHEC Business School.
Topic Sustainable Alpha: doing well by doing good?
Date Thursday, 27 January 2022
Time 6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. Paris Time
We will hear from Andrew Ang, Managing Director and Head of Factor-based strategies at BlackRock how sustainable datasets can be incorporated in style factors and generate alpha.
Sustainable data include non-financial data from social media, influencers, news flow, satellite images, web scraping, and other non-traditional sources. Additionally, Andrew will also discuss net-zero carbon portfolio alignment strategies that have become recently prominent in the investment space.
Speaker
Andrew Ang PhD, Managing Director, Head of BlackRock Systematic Wealth Solutions and Head of the Factor-Based Strategies Group.
Moderators
Abraham Lioui,Professor of Finance, EDHEC Business School.
Laurent Deville,Professor of Finance, EDHEC Business School.
Emmanuel Jurczenko, Director of Graduate Finance Programmes, EDHEC Business School.
