Presenter’s Bios

Hersh Shefrin, Santa Clara University
Hersh Shefrin is the Mario L. Belotti Professor of Finance at Santa Clara University. He is a pioneer in the behavioral approach to economics and finance. The January 2001 issue of CFO Magazine lists Shefrin among the academic stars of finance. A 2003 article in the American Economic Review listed him as one of the top 15 economic theorists to have influenced empirical work. In 2009, Shefrin’s behavioral finance book Beyond Greed and Fear was recognized by J.P. Morgan Chase as one of the top 10 books published since 2000.

His books span the entire financial landscape, describing asset pricing (A Behavioral Approach to Asset Pricing, 2005), how behavioral ideas impact investment (Beyond Greed and Fear, 2007), risk management (Behavioral Risk Management, 2015), and corporate finance (Behavioral Corporate Finance, 2017).

Shefrin received a B.S. (honors) in economics and mathematics from the University of Manitoba in 1970; a Master of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo in 1971; and a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics in 1974. He also holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Oulu, Finland.

Jeffrey Bohn, One Concern
Jeffrey Bohn is Chief Strategy Officer for One Concern, a California-based InsurTech focused on resilience modeling. He is also a board member and researcher at the Consortium for Data Analytics in Risk (CDAR) at U.C. Berkeley. Most recently, he was the Chief Research & Innovation Officer at the Swiss Re Institute in Zürich. In the past, he served as Chief Science Officer at State Street Global Exchange in San Francisco. Before moving back to California, he established the Portfolio Analytics and Valuation Department within State Street Global Markets Japan in Tokyo. Dr. Bohn often conducts seminars on topics ranging from risk & portfolio management to machine learning. He has published widely in the area of credit risk. He co-authored with Roger Stein Active Credit Portfolio Management in Practice (Wiley, 2009). His recent research focuses on ESG investing, socially responsible machine intelligence, causal inference to improve machine-learning interpretability, and machine-intelligence-enabled tools to assess company & urban resilience.

Guido Giese, MSCI
Guido Giese is MSCI’s Global Head ESG & Climate Solutions Research where he leads applied research and thought leadership on ESG integration, impact investing and climate investing. Recent publications include Climate Matters: Net-Zero Alignment: Objectives and Strategic Approaches for Investors, How Have Stocks Responded to Changes in Climate Policy and What’s in an ESG Rating and What’s Not. Prior to joining MSCI in 2017, Guido was responsible for the sustainability index solutions business at RobecoSAM, following his tenure as Head of Research and Development at index provider STOXX Ltd, where he was responsible for developing new index solutions. He has more than 20 years’ experience in research and product development in the asset management industry. Guido holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich and has authored numerous articles in international journals for quantitative finance and risk management.

Joshua Kazdin, BlackRock
Joshua Kazdin, CFA, Director, is a member of BlackRock’s Systematic Active Equity team (SAE). He is responsible for developing SAE’s ESG platform and conducting alpha-generating research on stock selection, top-down and thematic insights across active global long only and long short equity funds. Mr. Kazdin’s research on sustainability and finance has been published in academic and practitioner journals. Prior to joining BlackRock in 2011, Mr. Kazdin was a research analyst at Lazard Asset Management and a research associate at International Strategy & Investment Group

Mr. Kazdin earned a BS, with distinction, in Economics and Political Science from Duke University in 2008 and a Masters in Finance from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2011.

Lionel Martellini, EDHEC Business School and the Director of EDHEC-Risk Institute
Lionel Martellini s a Professor of Finance at EDHEC Business School and the Director of EDHEC-Risk Institute. He is a former member of the faculty at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, and has also taught at U.C. Berkeley and at Princeton University, where he has been a visiting fellow at the Operations Research and Financial Engineering department.

Professor Martellini holds Master’s degrees in management (ESCP Europe), economics and statistics (ENSAE), pure mathematics (Paris 6 University), probability and stochastic processes (Paris 6 University), as well as a PhD in finance from the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley. Outside of his activities in finance, he recently completed a PhD in Relativistic Astrophysics (University Côte d’Azur) and has become a member of the LIGO/Virgo international collaboration for the observation of gravitational waves.

Professor Martellini is a member of the editorial board of The Journal of Portfolio Management, The Journal of Alternative Investments, and The Journal of Retirement. He conducts active research in a broad range of topics related to investment solutions for individual and institutional investors, equity and fixed-income portfolio construction, risk management and derivatives valuation. His work has been published in leading academic and practitioner journals and has been featured in major European and global dailies such as The Economist, The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal. He has co-authored reference textbooks on topics related to Alternative Investment Strategies, Fixed-Income Securities, Goal-Based Investing and is preparing a new textbook on Investment Solutions.

Professor Martellini has served as a consultant for large institutional investors, investments banks and asset management firms on a number of questions related to risk and asset allocation decisions, and is a regular speaker in seminars and conferences on these subjects.

Daniel Ostrov, Santa Clara University
Daniel Ostrov is a Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Santa Clara University. He holds post-graduate degrees in Applied Mathematics (M.S. and Ph.D.) and Engineering (M.S.) from Brown University. While he has researched a number of phenomena in physics and engineering, his main research focus is on optimization problems from mathematical finance, publishing numerous articles on topics including investing in the presence of transaction costs, investing with taxes, valuing derivatives near expiration, and decumulating 401(k), Roth, and taxable accounts during retirement. He has also served as a consultant on derivative valuation and retirement savings, as well as won a number of awards for both his research and his teaching.

Jonathan A. Parker, MIT Sloan School of Management
Jonathan A. Parker is the Robert C. Merton (1970) Professor of Finance, Head of the MIT Sloan Finance Department, and codirector of the MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policy.

He has held numerous service positions and consulting positions, including Area Head of Economics, Finance, and Accounting at Sloan, editor of the NBER Macroeconomics Annual, and special adviser on Financial Stability for the Office of Financial Stability in the U.S. Department of the Treasury in 2009. He currently serves as an economic adviser for the Congressional Budget Office, a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, an academic advisor to the JP Morgan Chase Institute, a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a member of the Board of Editors of the American Economic Review. An expert in finance, macroeconomics, and household behavior, Parker has published widely on topics such as macroeconomic risks and asset returns, fiscal stabilization policy, national saving, household financial decisions, the measurement of business cycles, and modeling human economic behavior.

Anand Radhakrishnan, Franklin Templeton Investments
Anand Radhakrishnan is a vice president and head of digital products with Franklin Templeton Investments. Mr. Radhakrishnan is a leader within the digital solutions function and is responsible for product research, product development, product management and go-to-market for digital investment products and solutions including its flagship product, the Goals Optimization Engine (GOE) for which he also serves as the chief product architect. His role has a global remit and involves leveraging core skills encompassing Fintech including quantitative finance, data science capabilities and product development to bring personalized investment solutions to the market. In his prior role in Franklin Templeton, Mr. Radhakrishnan was the director for data analytics & strategies for eight countries in the Americas region. He is empanelled as a judge for various Fintech competitions across the world.

Prior to Franklin Templeton, Mr. Radhakrishnan served as an advisory consultant and engagement manager for IBM Global Business Services and as a senior consultant with Deloitte Consulting.

Mr. Radhakrishnan holds a Bachelor of Technology degree in chemical engineering from University of Kerala and an MBA from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. He also holds the Certificate in Quantitative Finance from the CQF Institute, UK.

Mr. Radhakrishnan is a co-author of five research papers including “A New Approach to Goals Based Wealth Management” which was published in the Journal of Investment Management and won the Harry M. Markowitz award in 2018.

Nicholas Savoulides, Invesco
Nicholas Savoulides is the Head of Solutions Research and Analytics. In this role, Mr. Savoulides leads the development of Invesco Vision – a cloud-based portfolio management and analytics platform that encompasses analytical and optimization capabilities that facilitate the construction of portfolio solutions that address client-specific investment objectives. As part of this effort, Mr. Savoulides works closely with both internal and external investors across both retail and institutional channels.

Prior to joining Invesco in 2016, Mr. Savoulides spent nine years with Loomis Sayles. During his tenure with Loomis Sayles, he built relative value tools, led the development of the firm’s LDI platform and also served as a portfolio manager for long duration fixed income products and custom strategies. Mr. Savoulides started his career working as a consultant for The Boston Consulting Group.

Mr. Savoulides earned his BS, MS and PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics, with a minor in Finance, from MIT. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA) charterholder and a member of the CFA Society of Boston.

Deep Srivastav, Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions
Mr. Srivastav is responsible for the development and deployment of Franklin Templeton’s investment solutions through digital channels. His role involves leveraging financial technologies, data science capabilities and investment capabilities related to Goals Based Wealth Management to bring Franklin Templeton’s personalized investment solutions to market.

Most recently, Mr. Srivastav was the global head of data & analytics for Global Advisory Services within Franklin Templeton. He has also held various leadership roles at the firm in the areas of client analytics, capital market research, data sciences, digital analytics, data engineering, business intelligence, and business strategy. He represented Franklin Templeton within Data Board (a board.org community) for 2020-21.
Prior to Franklin Templeton, Mr. Srivastav served as the head of operations at Oracle Financial Services, technology manager at GE Capital, and engineer at Tata Motors.
Mr. Srivastav holds a bachelor of engineering in electronics from The M.S University of Baroda in India and an MBA with a focus in quantitative research and marketing from Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. He holds the Certificate in Quantitative Finance by CQF Institute of Fitch Learning. He is also a GE Capital certified Six Sigma Black Belt and IBM certified in Python for Data Science and SQL.

Mr. Srivastav is the co-author of “A New Approach to Goals Based Wealth Management”, which was published in the Journal of Investment Management and won the Harry M. Markowitz Award in 2018. Another one of his papers, “Dynamic Portfolio Allocation in Goals Based Wealth Management”, was published in the Journal of Computational Management Science in 2019.

 Discussants

Sharon Hill, Vanguard
Sharon Hill, Ph.D. is a senior portfolio manager and Head of Alpha Equity – Global & Income within Vanguard’s Quantitative Equity Group. Her team manages active equity global and income-oriented mandates using quantitative methods. Prior to joining Vanguard in 2019, she was Head of Equity Quantitative Research & Analytics at Macquarie Investment Management. Earlier roles include working as a fixed income software developer at Bloomberg L.P. and teaching mathematics at Rowan University. She earned a B.S. in Mathematics from City University of New York at Brooklyn College and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Mathematics from University of Connecticut.

Galina Hale (Borisova), UC Santa Cruz
Galina Hale (Borisova) is a Professor of Economics at UC Santa Cruz. Previously she served as a Research Advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, and an assistant professor in the economics department of Yale University. She also taught a number of courses as a visiting faculty at Stanford and UC Berkeley.

Galina began to study economics in Russia, first in Moscow State University economics department and then at the New Economic School’s master’s program. When in Russia, she briefly worked as a consultant for the Russian Ministry of Finance and as a chief editor for a weekly newsletter of the Russian Central Bank’s news agency. She received her PhD in economics from UC Berkeley, under the supervision of Barry Eichengreen.

Galina’s research interests lie in three main areas: understanding patterns of international capital flows, stability of the financial system, and the nexus between ESG sustainability goals and financial system. Galina has published her work in such journals as the Economic Journal, Journal of Econometrics, Journal of European Economic Association, Journal of International Economics, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Banking and Finance, IMF Economic Review, Review of Financial Studies, among others. She co-wrote with Cheryl Long a monograph “Foreign Direct Investment in China: Winners and Losers.” In addition, Galina has been recently working on ways economists can inform policymakers on how to make the food system more sustainable.

Galina currently serves as a co-editor of the Russian Journal of Central Banking, associate editor of the Journal of International Economics, and a member of the editorial board of the IMF Economic Review and Pacific Economic Review. She has co-edited special issues of the Journal of International Economics and of the IMF Economic Review. Galina is a director of the CEBRA’s IFM program and a co-director of the UCSC Center for Analytical Finance (CAFIN). She serves on multiple boards and committees in animal welfare and animal agriculture space.

Simge Ulucam, Aperio by BlackRock
Simge Ulucam is a Quantitative Researcher at Aperio by BlackRock responsible for the research efforts in the assessment and development of equity strategies primarily in ESG research. She develops methodologies and analytics for enhancing current strategies, developing new product ideas and creating publications to support our clients. In her previous role with the firm, she worked as a Portfolio Manager in portfolio research. She has been with the firm since 2012 and overall she has 20+ years of industry experience. Before joining Aperio, Simge worked at Mathematica Capital Management, LLC for 8 years, building and managing models in the long/short market-neutral equity space for the hedge fund manager. She received her BSc in Mathematical Engineering from Yildiz Technical University in Istanbul, Turkey and holds a Master of Financial Engineering degree from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

Meir Statman , Santa Clara University
Meir Statman is the Glenn Klimek Professor of Finance at Santa Clara University. His research focuses on behavioral finance. He attempts to understand how investors and managers make financial decisions and how these decisions are reflected in financial markets. His most recent book is “Behavioral Finance: The Second Generation,” published by the CFA Institute Research Foundation.

Meir’s research has been published in the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, the Financial Analysts Journal, the Journal of Portfolio Management, and many other journals. The research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the CFA Institute Research Foundation, and the Investment Management Consultants Association (IMCA).

Meir is a member of the Advisory Board of the Journal of Portfolio Management, the Journal of Wealth Management, the Journal of Retirement, the Journal of Investment Consulting, and the Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, an Associate Editor of the Journal of Behavioral Finance, and the Journal of Investment Management and a recipient of a Batterymarch Fellowship, a William F. Sharpe Best Paper Award, two Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy awards, a Davis Ethics Award, a Moskowitz Prize for best paper on socially responsible investing, a Matthew R. McArthur Industry Pioneer Award, three Baker IMCA Journal Awards, and three Graham and Dodd Awards. Meir was named as one of the 25 most influential people by Investment Advisor. He consults with many investment companies and presents his work to academics and professionals in many forums in the U.S. and abroad.

Meir received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and his B.A. and M.B.A. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Eva Xu, Charles Schwab Investment Advisory
Eva Xu is responsible for multi-asset research and strategic asset allocation for Schwab’s model portfolios. In this role, she serves as a portfolio manager for Schwab Intelligent Portfolios™, an automated investment advisory solution. Eva serves as the chair of the Asset and Wealth Management Model Committee, which is responsible for the ongoing development, implementation, and governance of a variety of Schwab quantitative models.

Prior to joining Schwab in 2012, Eva spent seven years as the managing partner of the systematic global macro hedge fund Bayswater Asset Management, which she co-founded. Prior to that, she spent eight years at Mellon Capital Management in San Francisco, ending her tenure there as a director in the investment research department. Previously, she was an assistant professor of economics at the University of Maryland.

Eva holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, and a B.S. in Physics from Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Jing Zhang, Value Reporting Foundation
Jing is the Head of Climate Research at the Value Reporting Foundation, a global nonprofit organization dedicated to help businesses and investors develop a shared understanding of enterprise value.  He also sits on advisory boards of a number of data and analytics firms. Previously, he was the Global Head of Quantitative Research at Moody’s Analytics, where he oversaw research and analytics globally including the effort to quantify the financial impacts of climate change.  Jing has numerous published books and research papers on financial risk including the forthcoming book by Risk Publications, “Climate Change: Managing the Financial Risk and Funding the Transition”. Additionally, Jing serves as the Board Chair of Hack the Hood, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting economic mobility for the under-represented youth of color.   Jing has a Ph.D. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree from Tulane University.