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ABOUT ME

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Research Interests:

Fixed Income, Credit risk, Financial Intermediation , Financial markets

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Background:

I am currently a Full Professor in Finance at the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada, and former Director of PhD and Research-based Master’s Programs in Management during 2016-2023, where I was in charge of the graduate research programs; and former Director of the Laurier Financial Services Research Centre during 2007-2013, where I was responsible for promoting research by facilitating workshops, seminars and annual conferences; and Equitable Life of Canada Research Fellow (2015-20). I am an affiliated member of the Waterloo Research institute in Insurance, Securities and Quantitative finance (WatRISQ), University of Waterloo, and MS2Discovery Institute  at Laurier, where I am a part of the mathematical finance models cluster, a Senior Fellow at International Centre for Economic Analysis (ICEA), and the Canadian Sustainable Finance Network (CSFN).

 

I hold a PhD in Finance from the Bauer College of Business, University of Houston, and MA degrees in Economics from Rutgers University and the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune, India.  Prior to joining Laurier in 2000, and I was a visiting Assistant professor at the Faculty of Management in McGill University. Laurier, in existence since 1911, has been consistently ranked among Canada's top comprehensive research universities. Waterloo located one hour west of Toronto is the top technology and insurance hub in Canada.

 

My research is broadly in the areas of fixed income, financial intermediation, international finance, corporate finance and financial markets. My research has appeared in premier finance journals such as Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Journal of Financial Intermediation, Journal of Financial Markets, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Empirical Finance, among others. My work has been cited in several FT 50 journals (Google cites). I am currently ranked in the top 10% of Authors on SSRN by all-time downloads. I have presented my work at over 170 venues including several prestigious institutions and top finance conferences around the world including AFA, WFA, EFA, FIRS, FDIC-JFSR Banking Conference, Indian School of Business (ISB)  Summer research conference, Fixed Income and Financial Institutions Conference, Mid-Atlantic Research Conference, and CICF, among others. I was awarded best paper awards in derivatives and risk management at the Mid-West Finance Association Conference (2003), Northern Finance Association (NFA) Conference (2004), and in Financial Markets and corporate finance  at the Research Symposium on Finance and Economics in (2023) and (2024) respectively, IFMR Business School, India. I co-organized the NFA conference in 2012 at Niagara Falls.

 

I have received nearly $815,000 (CAD) in grants to date, 85% of which were from external competitive sources such as Canadian SSHRC and CFI grants. I was awarded University-wide Merit Award seven times (2004, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2020, and 2023) based on exceptional contribution to research, teaching and service to the University. At Bauer School, in 1998, I was awarded the Clay and Lucy Carter (Marine Insurance Seminar) Award for excellence in research in the area of finance (awarded to the best PhD Student in the program).

 

At Laurier, I have taught -  in the PhD, MFin, MBA and undergrad  (honors BBA and double degree) programs - elective courses in  Fixed Income Analysis, Derivatives and Risk Management, International Financial Management, and ESG Finance. I have also taught courses at several institutions including Rutgers University, University of Houston, McGill University and Indian School of Business. I received on several occasions commendation letters from the Dean’s office for Teaching Excellence.

 

My industry experience includes various assignments in risk assessment at Bank United and Duke Energy, both based in Houston, and as a Quantitative analyst with the Fixed Income R & D Group at Bloomberg, New York.  I have held number of visiting positions including (a) Auckland Institute of Technology Business School, New Zealand (b) Risk Management Institute (RMI)  at National University of Singapore (NUS), (c) CAFRAL (Reserve Bank of India), Mumbai, (d) Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad and (e ) Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Vizag, India.

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