Pablo Balan, Global Head of Portfolio Risk and Analytics, Coutts, British and American, 39

"The teaching quality is excellent compared to my experience - typically the best researchers do not make the best instructors, but EDHEC-Risk Institute has managed to assemble a team of highly respected scholars who yet manage to be very precise and didactic.." More...

Rodney Hoskinson, Manager, Actuarial, QBE Insurance Group, Australia, Australian, 42

"I looked at a few other institutions, but EDHEC-Risk Institute stood out because of its format, which makes it possible for executives to join, and for the outstanding quality and broad range of expertise of its faculty. Frankly speaking, there is no competition at the moment in this space." More...

Theodore Kokas, Managing Director, Global Head of Alternative Investments, SEI Investments, USA, American/Greek, 47

"This was not an easy decision to make at my age and at this stage of my career. However, not investing in developing these skills and acquiring this knowledge would slow down the rate of progress in the organisation. Research is paramount in the alternative investment space; for me to guide my organisation in the appropriate direction, I need to do a PhD." More...

Sitsofe Kodjo, Director and Senior Trading Strategist, Bank of America, United States, 33, Togolese

"The recent financial crisis has highlighted need for a higher level of theoretical knowledge on the part of finance practitioners. I think having more and more professionals with theoretical groundings of the sort provided by PhD studies will be a boon to the financial industry. Beyond acquiring knowledge, my expectation is to acquaint myself with ideas and practices that will shape the financial industry tomorrow and to help foster them." More...

Rachid Lassoued, Head of Financial Engineering, Bloomberg, French and Tunisian, 34

"The programme allows you to step back and approach new problems with a global view. I no longer see what I have done over the years under the same light: I am able to reinterpret my past work in a global framework and can think of extensions. Any financial institution – bank, insurance company, asset manager, etc. – will gain from having professionals with this type of training on board." More...

Igor Lojevsky, Chief Country Officer and Chief Executive Officer, Russia & CIS, Deutsche Bank, Moscow, Russian and American, 52

"It is extremely motivating to learn from the best in the field as well as to learn to learn. Faculty does not hand out lists of one-size-fits-all advice and recipes for success but instead opens doors by providing us with the concepts and tools to investigate our own questions. While very intense, the block-week setup of the courses is great. Each half-course delivered over the week gives us a concentrated overview of the key issues—the type of broad vision that is typically lacking in practice—and serves as a toolbox for in-depth work on the readings." More...

Sanjay Misra, Portfolio Manager, BlackRock Japan, Indian, 35

"The elective courses are taking core courses a step further by introducing us to the frontier of research. Once we started taking electives, we realised both the vastness and relevance of the material that we had covered in the first year and everything came together nicely." More...

Gideon Ozik, Head of Hedge Fund Solutions, SGAM AI, Israeli, 34

"The class forms an incredible pool of talented and experienced people. Some of my peers are already at the top in their field and many others have the shine of future leaders. The diversity in the classroom is also astounding: here is a group of men and women from all continents, with academic backgrounds ranging from math/physics to political science, and a wealth of professional experiences in investment banking, asset management, wealth management, and consulting. Interacting with people from such different backgrounds is very enriching, leads to creative ideas and can result in joint research projects. Through interaction, this collection of gifted individuals becomes a powerful learning community: the sum is much bigger than the parts." More...

Mario Schlener, Manager responsible for the Quantitative Modelling and Risk Analytics group, Deloitte Financial Services Industry Advisory, Vienna, 31, Austrian

"My expectations were exceeded. I knew of the research credentials of the faculty, but their pedagogical skills are extraordinary. The core courses give you very useful tools to look at problems; every single angle is reviewed with professors identifying what is available and what the areas for further research are. It is eye-opening.." More...

Rehan Syed, Head of Portfolio Management, ABN AMRO Private Bank, Dubai, American, 41

"I would recommend the programme to any experienced asset management officer aspiring to higher intellectual levels and career development, and to anybody who wants to function on the state-of-the-art boundary, which is way beyond where professional designations take you. Come to think of it, I would recommend the programme to any serious finance practitioner." More...

Christopher Taylor, Director at Black Pine Capital, Singapore, British, 50

"The programme is pretty much unique. First, it is deliberately tailored towards not only those who are working, but also people who are at a fairly advanced stage of their careers. The programme being offered both in Europe and Singapore was a significant plus for me and the ability to choose from a large portfolio of electives offered globally adds flexibility for everybody. Second, the quality and diversity of the core and affiliate faculty was extremely attractive – the wide range of faculty expertise is perfect for someone like me, whose chief problem is the large number of fields in which I am interested. I do not want to be involved in a monolithic project but instead explore different fields.." More...

Scott Treloar, Director, Head of Methodology & Models, Deutsche Bank Corporate and Investment Banking, Singapore, Australian, 45

"I have attended all electives offered to my class and have also used the online platform to view those from past years. These electives are great not only because the faculty is outstanding but also because each professor covers one of his areas of expertise and ongoing research: you get the faculty’s insights on what is key and what is not and that helps tremendously to structure your learning and research. You also get an advanced preview of where each field is going." More...

Yacine Aït-Sahalia, Otto Hack 1903 Professor of Finance and Economics, Director of the Bendheim Center for Finance, Princeton University, teaches Financial Econometrics of Jumps, elective seminar

"I was much impressed with what EDHEC-Risk Institute had been able to accomplish in less than ten years’ time. The concept of a doctoral program opened to executives was novel and very interesting and I wanted to find out what type of profiles students would have. I thus accepted Professor Garcia’s invitation and am glad I had this opportunity to teach in the program." More...

Ravi Bansal, J.B. Fuqua Professor of Finance, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, Research Associate, NBER, teaches Long-Run Risks in Asset Prices, elective seminar

"You know, the most difficult aspect of the dissertation exercise is to come up with a suitable topic. What makes it hard is that it should be both interesting and doable in some finite time, i.e. one or two years --- this is difficult for most students. Of course you can get great ideas reading articles, that can happen, but I think something that really helps the process is to go to seminars and listen to the interactions between faculty, the speaker and other participants. Listen to the questions that are being asked, because in those questions are topics for future dissertations.." More...

Tim Bollerslev, Juanita and Clifton Kreps Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics and Professor of Finance at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, teaches Volatility Modelling, elective seminar

"At Duke, I teach in both executive education and doctoral programmes. Here the students were a nice mix of the two as they had both a great academic interest in finance and real experience from the field – this was perfect for me since I strive to do academic research that is in sync with the industry.." More...

Rama Cont, director of the Centre for Financial Engineering at Columbia University, research scientist in mathematics at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), founding partner of Finance Concepts, a risk management advisory firm, teaches elective seminar on Monte Carlo methods in finance

"Usually, the doctoral students I teach are straight out of university; here we are talking about mature individuals with work experience who decided to do a PhD because they were curious about things they have been observing in their work. Such students have strong motivation, a clear idea of what they are here for; most have experience of the financial markets or other areas of finance. This makes it a nice group to teach, and it also makes teaching different from the typical experience you have in other doctoral programmes." More...

Jakša Cvitanic, Professor of Mathematical Finance, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, teaches Continuous Time Finance, Core Course

"Doctoral training provides you with knowledge and a set of tools which can be used in the industry. For example, we all read about the complex derivative products at the heart of the current financial crisis—it is useful for professionals in the finance industry to understand what models were used to price and manage these products and what went wrong." More...

Frank Diebold, Paul F. Miller, Jr. and E. Warren Shafer Miller Professor of Social Sciences; Professor of Economics (SAS); Professor of Finance and Statistics (Wharton); Co-Director, Wharton Financial Institutions Center, University of Pennsylvania, teaches Yield Curve Modelling, elective seminar

"It is tremendously important for students and all researchers to continuously think about the difference between what is important and what is merely unsolved. The sweet spot is to address unsolved problems that are simultaneously truly important. To make a powerful contribution, you need to anchor in the market and bring tools to bear on important issues. The programme’s students have the right combination of professional and academic background to do exactly that." More...

Harrison Hong, John Scully ‘66 Professor of Economics and Finance at Princeton University, Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research

"The students that I taught are unique in a number of ways. Some are already seasoned investment professionals and others have even had multiple successful careers. Their maturity and experience differ markedly from those of the typical PhD student who is fresh out of college or for that matter even of a typical MBA student who has had only a few years of work experience. Perhaps as a result, the students I had conveyed a more pure “learning-for-learning’s sake” enthusiasm for the class and the material. This was an unexpected and delightful experience for me." More...

Abraham Lioui, Professor of Finance, teaches Financial Economics, Core Course

"The programme allows participants to develop an integrated view of how financial markets and institutions operate, equips them with a thorough understanding of financial modelling, and trains them to do research. In a very competitive industry, heads of research and product development need this type of training to innovate." More...

Pierre Mella-Barral, Professor of Finance, teaches Corporate Finance, Core Course

"The executive track of the PhD seems to attract students who do not undertake the programme for short-term professional gains but much more for very pure personal and intellectual objectives. This makes the experience unique. Our PhD students are guided by a genuine thirst for knowledge and have demonstrated strong willingness to work and absorb difficult material; it is a pleasure to help them in their pursuits." More...

Raman Uppal, Professor of Finance, EDHEC Business School, teaches Continuous-time Financial Economics in the European chapter of the programme

"I was amazed to see how many top scholars from around the world were teaching in it. And, I was also very impressed by the students in this programme, many of whom are very senior executives at top financial institutions and corporations." More...

Pietro Veronesi, Professor of Finance, Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, teaches Recent Developments in Dynamic Asset Allocation and Macro-Finance

"I was definitely surprised by the quality of the students. I give this advanced doctoral seminar every other year at the University of Chicago. Knowing about the large proportion of executives in the class, I was worried that the material may be too difficult. It was a relief to find out that students not only were up to the challenge but also had very good questions for me, many of which were very different from those I get in Chicago. This is a pretty smart group of people and I had fun teaching them." More...