Teaching Team

LFS Faculty (surname alphabetical order)

At London Financial Studies we are able to attract prominent practitioners and academics all of whom have a clear and thorough grasp of their subjects and wide practical experience. They are all expert communicators with the ability to impart their knowledge in a clear and engaging way.

Simon Acomb

Dr Simon Acomb has over 16 years experience in quantitative finance. He started his career in finance at Barclays deZoete Wedd in 1992 in the Equities Derivatives Group and progressed to run the quantitative research team. This was followed by five years at Commerzbank where he established a derivatives proprietary trading team and then became head of the equity quantitative research group. Most recently Simon has been a managing director at Morgan Stanley as global head of the Equities Analytic Modelling Group. He now works as a consultant and trainer in mathematical finance.

- Volatility: Trading and Modelling

Carol Bell

Dr. Bell is a very experienced practitioner in the field of equity research. During the 1990s she was head of European equity research at JP Morgan and global head of JP Morgan's energy team. Carol combines teaching with non-executive directorships and advisory positions in the oil and gas industries. Carol also chairs the Investment Committee of Girton College, Cambridge, and is Treasurer of the British School in Athens, the UK's archaeological institution in Greece.

Cheryl Brown

Cheryl Brown is one of LFS’s most experienced lecturers.  Formally with Bank of America she spent ten years as a derivatives trader and client advisor and has subsequently had extensive experience of teaching at a senior level in the areas of fixed income derivatives, interest rate risk management and foreign exchange.  Cheryl graduated with a B.Sc. in Physics from University College London and before moving to the front office she developed Money Market processing systems for the bank.

- Interest Rate Derivatives: Hedging and Managing Risk

John Calverley

John Calverley is head of research for North America at Standard Chartered Bank and was formerly chief economist at American Express Bank. John is a renowned economist and an inspirational teacher. He is also a well-known commentator on economics, appearing frequently on CNN, CNBC and Bloomberg.

His books "Bubbles and How to Survive Them" and the 2009 sequel "When Bubbles Burst" are hugely popular, very readable and at the same time extremely rigorous accounts of the recent financial turmoil. His Investors Guide to Economic Fundamentals (Wiley, 2002) analysed the links between economic variables and financial markets.

John is a contributor to the CFA Institute Investment Series volume, Managing Investment Portfolios, edited by John Maginn and Donald Tuttle and an advisor to the CFA Institute on the CFA curriculum. During 2000-3 he was Chairman of the UK Society for Business Economists and from 1997-2007 a Council Member of SUERF, the European Money and Finance Forum. Born and raised in the UK, educated at Cambridge University and Washington University, he now lives in Toronto.

- Asset Allocation and the Business Cycle


Wiley Finance Published Author.

David Cox

Dr. David Cox has wide practical experience of the financial markets and an international reputation as a teacher of high-level short courses to the financial sector. His career includes ten years in banking, primarily with Bank of America Capital Markets. After leaving The City he joined the staff of London Business School, as part of LBS Financial Software Ltd, where he set up the financial markets seminar programme and engaged in doctoral research.

Dr. Cox runs regular seminars for the International Center for Financial Asset Management and Engineering in Geneva and specialises in quantitative techniques, risk management and derivative products. Clients include central banks, a wide range of international investment and commercial banks and broking houses. He is also a director of LFS.

- Using Inflation Derivatives in Today's Market
- Implementing Quantitative Techniques for the Financial Markets

Dan Crisan

Dr Dan Crisan is a Reader at Imperial College London. His expertise is in the area of Stochastic Analysis with applications in Engineering and Finance. He has published over 20 articles in journals world-wide and his current research involves developing high-order numerical algorithms for solving stochastic differential equations, approximating schemes for backward SDEs and particle methods for nonlinear filtering. His book on Stochastic Filtering will be appearing at Springer Verlag by the end of the year and he is currently involved in editing an advanced handbook on Nonlinear Filtering. Dr Crisan is a member of the editorial board of the LMS Journal of Mathematics and Computation. He has developed and is currently teaching a course on Numerical Stochastics within the MSc programme in Mathematical Finance at Imperial College London.

- Intermediate Mathematics: Understanding Stochastic Calculus

Werner De Bondt

Werner F.M. De Bondt is director of the Richard H. Driehaus Center for Behavioral Finance at De Paul University in Chicago. Between 1992 and 2003, he was the Frank Graner Professor of Investment Management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Werner De Bondt studies the psychology of investors and financial markets. His research is interdisciplinary. He is one of the founders of the field of behavioral finance. Werner De Bondt has examined key concepts of bounded rationality, e.g., people's tendency to exaggerate the true impact of new information, their bent towards wishful thinking, or their biased perceptions of risk. De Bondt's research articles have appeared in many scholarly journals. Werner De Bondt is a frequent speaker to academics and investment professionals around the world. He holds degrees in economics, engineering, and public administration, as well as a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Cornell University (1985).

- Behavioural Finance and Equity Investment Strategies

Hélyette Geman

Hélyette Geman is Professor of Finance at the University of Paris Dauphine. Professor Geman has been a scientific advisor to a number of major energy companies for the last decade, covering the spectrum of oil, natural gas and electricity as well as agricultural commodities origination and trading. She was previously Head of Research and Development at Caisse des Depots. She has published more than 80 papers in major finance journals and has written a book entitled 'Insurance and Weather Derivatives'. Professor Geman is also a Member of Honour of the French Society of Actuaries. Her research includes asset price modelling using jump diffusions and Lévy processes, commodity forward curve modelling and exotic option pricing, for which she won the Merrill Lynch Awards first prize. She was named in 2004 in the Hall of Fame of Energy Risk. Her latest book, 'Commodities and Commodity Derivatives' was published by Wiley Finance in January 2005. She was recently awarded the ISA Medal for Sciences - Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna (2008). Hélyette is also a hugely popular and inspiring teacher.

- Commodities and Commodity Derivatives


Wiley Finance Published Author.

Morton Glantz

Prof. Morton Glantz is an internationally recognized educator, author and banker. As a senior officer of JP Morgan Chase he specialised in credit analysis and credit risk management, risk grading systems, valuation models and professional training. He is a principal of Real Consulting and Real Options Valuation, firms specializing in risk consulting, training, certification, and advanced analytical software in the areas of risk quantification, analysis, and management solutions.

Glantz is on the finance faculty of the Fordham Graduate School of Business and has appeared in the Harvard University International Directory of Business and Management Scholars and Research.
Prof. Glantz is widely published in financial journals and has authored six books including The Bankers Handbook on Credit Risk: Implementing Basel II (2008). He was recently invited by Yale School of Management to join a working group to debate the future of risk management after the 2008 financial crisis.

- Problem Loan Management: Navigating the Credit Crisis

Jon Gregory

Dr. Jon Gregory has over ten years experience as a practitioner in quantitative finance. From 1995 to 1997 he worked in the Fixed Income division of Salomon Brothers. From 1997 to 2005 he was with BNP Paribas and worked on many projects across the interest rate, equity, credit, insurance and risk management divisions. From 2005 until 2008 he was global head of credit analytics at Barclays Capital and responsible for a team of around 30 researchers globally. Jon has published a number of papers and articles on risk management, modelling and credit derivatives subjects and is a regular speaker at international conferences. He was a co-author of the book "Credit: A Complete Guide to Pricing, Hedging and Risk Management", nominated in 2001 for the Kulp-Wright award for the most significant text in risk management and insurance. He holds a PhD from Cambridge University.

- Risk Management and Modelling

- Collateral and Counterparty Risk Management

- Convertible Bonds and Securities

Jeremy Hawkins

Jeremy Hawkins is a highly experienced and widely respected senior practitioner with a wealth of experience at the sharp end of economic forecasting. Until very recently he was Chief Economist for Europe and head of European FX and short term interest rate strategy at Bank of America. Situated in BoA's London dealing room, his numerous appearances on CNN the BBC provided practical and entertaining on-the-spot interpretations of a wide range of economic data and market sensitive events. Jeremy's ability at communicating ideas to his audience is well known and his reputation for "getting the numbers right" is legendary.

- The Impact of Economic Data on Financial Markets

Massimo Morini

Massimo Morini has experience in financial consulting and teaching in both academies and banks. He began working in mathematical finance as a financial modeller at IMI Bank; he then moved into academic research in Milan and London, while continuing to collaborate with IMI Bank, and in particular with Damiano Brigo and Fabio Mercurio. His publications deal with different aspects of quantitative finance, computational methods for Libor Market Models, correlation modelling, tractable models for smile and credit modelling. Massimo teaches interest rate modelling and credit modelling on various quantitative finance masters courses and on international courses in London, New York and Hong Kong. He also teaches mathematical finance at Milan University. He was formally a research fellow at London's City University, where he worked with Professor Nick Webber.

- BGM Market Models: Advances, Calibration, Smile, Pricing

Eleanor J. Morrison

Eleanor J. Morrison is a commodity trading professional with 15 years experience in international commodity markets. Most recently she has traded European commodity products for Lehman Brothers in London and New York and Goldman Sachs in New York. Prior to that, Eleanor worked in commodity trading as a portfolio manager, product structurer, and quantitative model developer with Powerex, the largest mover of physical electricity in North America. She has a BSc in Chemical Engineering from University of Waterloo, Canada and an MBA from University of British Columbia, Canada. She is an experienced international presenter on commodity markets.

- Introduction to Commodities

Rick Nason

Dr Rick Nason is a highly experienced practitioner and academic. Rick created the group and was Head of Credit Derivatives at the Bank of Montreal and he has extensive experience in all fields of derivatives. Rick is currently an Associate Professor of Finance at Dalhousie University in Canada and continues to be actively involved in derivative research, consulting and training. His particular expertise is in exotic derivatives, equity derivatives and corporate risk management.

Rick is an inspirational lecturer with an international reputation. An Associate Professor of Finance at Dalhousie University, he has also taught at The University of Toronto, The University of Western Ontario and The Rotterdam School of Management.

- Credit Derivatives 1: Risk Management, Trading and Arbitrage
- Credit Derivatives 2: Practical Implications of Pricing
- Equity Derivatives: Valuation and Management

Ser-Huang Poon

Prof. Ser-Huang Poon is a Professor of Finance at Manchester Business School and has held several visiting appointments at universities in the U.S., Canada, the Netherlands, and Singapore. She is internationally renowned for her volatility research. Her work, with Nobel laureate Clive Granger, was cited on Nobel web site as reference reading in volatility, and has won the Financial Analysts Journal Graham and Dodd Scroll Award for Excellence for 2005. She has published papers in international top ranking journals and has written three books, including a Wiley book on forecasting volatility.

- Volatility: Trading and Modelling


Wiley Finance Published Author.

Wim Schoutens

Professor Schoutens is a research Professor in financial engineering in the Department of Mathematics at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. He has extensive practical experience of model implementation and is well known for his consulting work in the banking industry. Wim is also the author of Lévy Processes in Finance: Pricing Financial Derivatives and co-editor of Exotic Option Pricing and Advanced Lévy Models both published by Wiley. His research interests cover all areas of financial mathematics, and recent publications cover jump driven credit models as well as equity models, model risks, hedging of exotics and multivariate financial modelling.

- Quantitative Techniques for Credit Derivatives
- Equity Derivatives: Advanced Models
- Structured Products: Design, Pricing and Implementation


Wiley Finance Published Author.

Tony Sims

Tony Sims has wide experience of teaching mathematical methods to students at all levels. He is an MA Course Director at Kingston University Business School and has been involved in delivering both short course and management development programmes for over 20 years. During this time he has acquired considerable practical experience through consulting projects in financial model development for business. Tony's teaching methods are both engaging and effective and he is well known for his skill in teaching mathematical concepts to people without a quantitative background.

- Maths Refresher

Ghulam Sorwar

Dr. Ghulam Sorwar is a highly experienced finance academic with a wealth of practical experience. Following a career on the derivatives desk at Abbey Life Investment Services, he joined City University Business School where he helped to develop the MSc in Mathematical Trading and Finance and taught the numerical methods course. He is currently a full time member of the finance faculty at Nottingham University and has published widely on financial time series simulation and options pricing for risk management. Ghulam is also an energetic teacher who puts across his subject matter in a relevant and entertaining way.

- Introduction to Financial Data Analysis
- Modelling Financial Risk

Radu Tunaru

Radu Tunaru has a PhD in Probability and Statistics and he has developed the MSc in Quantitative Finance at Cass Business School, City University in London. He worked in the City for Bank of Montreal (2006-2007) in Structured Credit Investments dealing with the cash-flow risk management models for two SIVs and the launch of one CDPC, and for Merrill Lynch (2007-2008) in Structured Finance, EMEA RMBS, dealing with prepayment models, default models, hedging products such as balance guaranteed swaps, property derivatives, equity release mortgages; working with model validation and quant teams for product development and testing. His expertise includes: probability and stochastic calculus, mathematical finance, Markov Chain Monte Carlo and Monte Carlo simulation methods for finance, derivatives pricing, credit risk, market risk, financial engineering applications for structured products, portfolio credit derivatives pricing, volatility modelling related to investment opportunities in emerging markets.

He is the recipient of Multinational Finance Journal Best Paper Award, vol 5, 2001, for the paper “Emerging Markets: Investing with Political Risk”, Eastern Finance Association prize for the Outstanding Paper in International Finance for the paper “Modelling Political Risk with a Doubly Stochastic Poisson Process”, Charleston USA 2001; and SMEED prize awarded for the best young researcher in the field, 31st UTSG Annual Conference, York 1999. He has published over 30 articles and book chapters.

- Advanced Mathematical Models in Finance

- Mortgage-Backed Securities: Assessment and Management of Risk

- Property Derivatives

Nick Webber

Nick Webber is Director of the Financial Options Research Centre at the University of Warwick. He was previously Professor of computational finance at Cass Business School, City University and Director of the Cass Centre for computational finance. Nick is a regular speaker at academic and industry conferences. His research interests are in computational finance, and in particular the development of fast lattice and Monte Carlo methods. He has also undertaken research into credit, interest rate and returns modelling, and Lévy processes and copulas. He is also co-author with Jessica James of the well-known book 'Interest Rate Modelling'.


Wiley Finance Published Author.

Uwe Wystup

Professor Wystup is an extremely experienced practitioner in the field of foreign exchange options, a senior academic and a highly engaging teacher. He has eight years of front office experience as financial engineer, trader and structurer at UBS, Sal.Oppenheim and Commerzbank and is also Professor of quantitative finance at Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. Uwe is well known for his many publications on FX exotics and related topics, and his 2002 book on Foreign Exchange Risk has become a market standard. His new book on FX Options and Structured Products appeared in November of 2006 as part of the Wiley Finance series and a copy will be available for delegates.

- FX Exotic Options


Wiley Finance Published Author.

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