Financial market losses and research gains

Institute Foundation Board member Dr Philipp Halbherr addressed this year's newly minted graduates of the Master in Advanced Studies in Finance today with a positive take on the credit crisis, - at least from a research perspective!

Addressing the graduates, he explained that he did not wish to add to the sense of financial gloom, and wanted instead to encourage talented people to research financial systems. "The crisis will provide a rich body of data and experiences, giving us a new basis for risk management in the future".

Recently elected as representative of the cantonal banks on the Board of Directors for the SIX Group AG, Dr Halbherr is Head of Investment Banking, and a member of the Executive Board, at Zürcher Kantonalbank.

Mathematician’s move to finance yields place at prestigious Duke University

More news of our doctoral graduates achieving the critical first rung on the finance faculty ladder as Lukas Schmid joins the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University.

With a background in pure mathematics from ETH Zurich, Lukas made the move to finance with a desire to apply quantitative methods to real-world problems. His research aims to integrate corporate finance and asset pricing literatures with a focus on quantitative aspects.

Lukas entered the job market at this year’s American Finance Association meeting in January following a similar path to Sébastien Michenaud, whom I mentioned in a previous posting.

At the Meeting, Lukas was invited for a staggering 38 interviews, which he managed to translate into 19 so-called “flyout offers”: invitations for on-campus interviews at top tier universities in Europe and North America.

I first met Lukas at the 2006 Doctoral Workshop just before he set off for a visiting scholarship at the Wharton School. He went on to win the 2007 Grandchamp prize for best PhD thesis.

Lukas completed his PhD at the University of Lausanne supervised by Professor Jean-Pierre Danthine.

He will take up his position at Duke on July 1.

Barclays Wealth, London, is the destination for recent Zurich doctoral graduate

Preferring the conceptual diversity and lateral mindset of wealth management to a traditional role in asset management, recent graduate Dr Benoit Metayer has been appointed as an associate director at Barclays Wealth in London.

Benoit (pictured), whose doctoral work was supervised by Professor Rajna Gibson in Zurich, is now working in a team of 13 Quants. 'In order to serve clients, the team develops cutting-edge methods in four major areas - risk profiling, portfolio optimisation, machine learning and the pricing of structured products,' explained Benoit.

‘From a quantitative point of view, the role is really exciting as we often have to provide sophisticated solutions in a completely bespoke way’, he said, pointing out that his employer is taking a highly scientific approach to the investment process.

‘In the current context of difficult markets, Quants bring significant value by helping private bankers and advisors to deal with clients more actively, accurately and efficiently,' he said.

Zurich Doctoral Dinner 2008

Zurich members of the Swiss Finance Institute Doctoral Program met for their annual dinner last Tuesday, April 15th.

NCCR-Finrisk managing director Eckart Jaeger was MC for the event, held at the Restaurant zum Grünen Glas in the centre of Zurich's Altstadt (old town).

As you can see from the photo gallery of the event, there was lively discussion throughout the evening and a presentation by former CEO of the Zurich Stock Exchange, Dr Richard Meier, charting the history of automated trading in Switzerland. More on that later.

Eckart congratulated recent graduate Dr Leon Stacescu for his appointment to a faculty position at the BI/Norwegian School of Management in Oslo and presented the doctoral students with their new SFI business cards (photo).

Connections with UC Berkeley and beyond for Graduate of Zurich Doctoral Program

A discussion with a visiting researcher last summer ultimately led Florian Peters (pictured), who graduated from the Swiss Finance Institute doctoral program at the end of 2007, to follow up his doctoral research at the Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley.

Florian's doctoral work had initially focused on so-called agency problems that arise when a company takes on significant debt. But more recently he shifted to another issue in corporate finance, namely executive compensation.

"My latest paper investigates whether part of the [rise in] CEO pay can be attributed to an increased risk of getting fired," explains Florian. Results from this work were included in a research presentation at the Swiss Finance Institute 2007 Annual Meeting.

A visit last summer to Zurich by UC Berkeley Assistant Professor Ulrike Malmendier marks the start of Florian's journey to the West Coast. Malmendier, who has published widely on the impact of senior executives on corporate decisions, advised Florian on his recent research work and invited him over to Berkeley earlier this year.

Florian will continue his research at UC Berkeley until the end of the year and start applying for US faculty positions in January 2009.

Swiss Finance Institute Doctoral Prize Winner Chooses Freely Among Top North American Schools

The job market for academic positions in finance is focused on the annual American Finance Association meeting in January. Newly minted Finance PhDs use the conference, which was held this year in New Orleans, to meet face to face with potential employers.

Sébastien Michenaud was pleasantly surprised to receive a positive response to roughly half his applications. Indeed, he received so many interview offers he could narrow his sights and focus only on the very top Schools in the US and Europe.

Those interviews resulted in no fewer than 7 offers for assistant professorships in North America alone. Sébastien set out on a 4 week interview tour before finally choosing the Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University in Houston.

How did he decide, given such a wide field of choice? "I preferred [the Rice offer] over the alternatives because of the young, dynamic faculty and the prestige of this small private university".

Last year, Sébastien won the Swiss Finance Institute Doctoral Prize for his work on the impact of financial analysts on corporate decision making. His doctoral work is supervised by Professor François Degeorge, Swiss Finance Institute Research Fellow and professor of Finance at the University of Lugano.