Bayes Business School awards staff new academic titles

Bayes Business School has announced the recipients of new academic titles for its staff.

Laura Ballotta has been promoted to Professor of Financial Mathematics; Aneel Keswani to Professor of Finance; Rosalba Radice to Professor of Statistics; and Daniel Beunza to Professor of Management.

The title of Reader is awarded to Paolo Aversa, Reader in Strategy; Annelore Huyghe; Reader in Entrepreneurship; Navid Izady, Reader in Operations Research; Nikos Papapostolou, Reader in Shipping Finance; Dimitris Paraskevopoulos, Reader in Operations and Supply Chain Management; and Janina Steinmetz, Reader in Marketing.

Martin Rich is named Associate Professor, while there have been four awards of the title of Senior Lecturer – Grace Augustine, Senior Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour; Angela Gallo, Senior Lecturer in Finance; Rui Zhu, Senior Lecturer in Statistics; Florian Lucker, Senior Lecturer in Supply Chain Management.

Below lies a biography of each recipient and their career highlight to date.

Laura Ballotta, Professor of Financial Mathematics

Professor Ballotta, an expert in quantitative finance and risk management, has made major contributions in a range of top journals in her field and acted as an associate editor. Professor Ballotta has received important teaching awards and a Marie Curie Fellowship.

“I was responsible for designing and launching the MSc in Financial Mathematics in 2003, of which I was the first Course Director until 2006. Since then, I contributed with my colleagues to the development of what is now known as the Quants MSc cluster. This is a relatively distinctive offer and, together with the Financial Engineering Workshops, it showcases Bayes expertise in the Quantitative Finance industry.”

Aneel Keswani, Professor of Finance

Professor Keswani, an expert in fund management, has been widely published in leading scholarly journals and plays an active role in bringing practitioners and academics in fund management.

“Being at Bayes has given me the platform to launch the Centre for Asset Management Research which continues to push the boundary as a discussion forum for academics and practitioners to explore the cutting edge issues facing the fund industry. It has given me the insight to empower my students to successfully navigate the ever-changing world of asset management.”

Rosalba Radice, Professor of Statistics

Professor Radice, an expert in statistical modelling, has published widely in top statistical journals and works on applied issues such as health and insurance. She was recently granted over £500,000 by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and has made an important teaching contribution in business analytics.

“My biggest achievement at Bayes has been the award of an EPSRC grant. In December 2020 I was awarded an EPSRC grant of the approximate value of £540,000 as lead Principal Investigator. This three-year grant allows me to build upon my already consolidated research and expand it in new, interdisciplinary directions of insurance and health care which will be strategic for the School and University’s vision and long-term ambitions.”

Daniel Beunza, Professor of Management

Professor Beunza, an expert in the sociology of markets, has widely published in the top journals in his field. His recent book ’Taking the floor’ won multiple awards. He trains bankers to become ethnographers and is the director of the MSc in Management.

“My biggest achievement at Bayes has been my recent monograph, "Taking the Floor: Models, Morals and Management in a Wall Street Trading Room,” which was given the 2020 George Terry Best Book Award by the Academy of Management, and the 2020 Best Book Award by the European Group for Organisation Studies. I am also very proud to have worked with City of London institutions such as the Financial Services Culture Board to enhance professional standards in finance, and have pioneered the training of bank executives in ethnographic methods to increase the awareness of bank culture.”

Paolo Aversa, Reader in Strategy

Dr Aversa, an expert in strategy and innovation, is best known for his research looking at insights into strategy we can gain from studying motorsport. He has published in the top journals in his field and was the director of Bayes’ Full-time MBA.

“I have created some profound human relationships with my colleagues and students during my 10 years at Bayes. Feeling surrounded by people I consider friends and team-mates has been very important for me to face the challenges encountered in the last few years. I am most grateful to those who fought to support my promotion case.”

Annelore Huyghe, Reader in Entrepreneurship

Dr Huyghe is an expert in entrepreneurship and social psychology. She has studied a range of industries including craft breweries. This work has been published in the very best journals and won various awards. She has also been an advisor to several tech start-ups.

Navid Izady, Reader in Operations Research

Dr Izady, an expert in using modelling techniques to improve healthcare operations, has published his work in the top journals in his field. He has also won several research grants to help improve operations processes in a hospital and led one of Bayes’ large undergraduate business degrees.

“I am proud of the research I carried out in collaboration with an NHS hospital on reconfiguration of inpatient services. This, along with other healthcare research I had done previously, enabled me to secure funding for two projects, both on improving the delivery of healthcare operations in hospitals in the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Nikos Papapostolou, Reader in Shipping Finance

Dr Papapostolou, an expert in shipping finance and investment, has published in both specialist and generalist journals. He is the Associate Director of the Costas Grammenos Centre for Shipping, Trade and Finance. He has also made an ongoing contribution to Bayes’ shipping programmes in the school.

Dimitris Paraskevopoulos, Reader in Operations and Supply Chain Management

Dr Paraskevopoulos, an expert in the design, development, and application of operation research methods to transportation problems, has published widely in key operations management journals. He has also worked with corporates such as Deliveroo, and recently took up the role of course director of the Full-time MBA.

“I am proud of my research work that has been recently published in Production and Operations Management (FT50 and ABS4). The paper presents practical constraints often used in manufacturing processes and it introduces one of the best performing algorithms in the literature for solving flexible job shop scheduling problems.”

Janina Steinmetz, Reader in Marketing

Dr Steinmetz, an expert in consumer psychology, is particularly interested in how people pursue their goals in social contexts. She has published in a wide range of top journals in psychology and has taught extensively on Bayes’ marketing programmes. She is the director of the Global Women’s Leadership Programme.

“It was a pleasure to supervise two PHD students, Nethal Hashim and Zaichen Li, to successful completion of their doctoral studies.”

Martin Rich, Associate Professor

Associate Professor Rich, an expert in information systems and management education, has taught widely across Bayes’ programmes and played an important leadership role in undergraduate degrees. He has created a range of novel approaches to teaching and learning and is currently the Associate Dean for undergraduate programmes.

“I am proud of the development of Bayes’ Business Management course to meet the requirements of a rapidly changing and uncertain world. Our students acquire a strong grounding in both theory and practice and can supplement this with a range of opportunities ranging from mentoring to micro-placements. I have encouraged colleagues to explore innovative approaches to teaching and learning to achieve all of this.”

Grace Augustine, Senior Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour

Dr Augustine, a specialist in the role that social movements play in changing organisations, has published work in the top journals in her field and has taught on Bayes’ undergraduate courses.

“I am proud of winning the 2020 Best Dissertation Award within the Organizations & the Natural Environment (ONE) Division of the Academy of Management.”

Angela Gallo, Senior Lecturer in Finance

Dr Gallo, an expert in banking, structured finance, and corporate governance, has published in finance, banking, accounting, and corporate governance journals. She works with the Centre for Banking Research and sits on the Board of Studies.

“My work has shown that gender diversity in the bank boardroom reduces the likelihood of misconducts, like money laundering, frauds and market rates manipulations. Bank misconduct has severe consequences on financial institutions, customers, and society at large, as it affects our trust in the banking system. The research has been featured on Le Monde, Harvard Business Review and S&P Global.”

Rui Zhu, Senior Lecturer in Statistics

Dr Zhu, an expert in statistical learning and high dimensional data, has applied her insights to problems in actuarial science such as analysis of driving styles to spot risk.

“I have published five papers on prestigious machine learning journals since joining Bayes in 2018 and am proud to have successfully developed the Machine Learning module for the MSc Business Analytics programme.”

Florian Lucker, Senior Lecturer in Supply Chain Management

Dr Lucker, an expert in operations and supply chain finance, has also studied supply chain disruption. His work is published in leading supply chain and operations journals and teaches on a range of Bayes’ degrees.

“I am pleased to have helped develop a concept that helps firms to build resilient supply chains while keeping costs under control. Given the need for resilience, we are glad to see our concept being applied in various industries.”

Professor Andre Spicer, Interim Dean at Bayes, said: “I would like to congratulate our colleagues for this most wonderful of achievement. These promotions are a testament to all the great work which each of them has put in over many years. Their new titles are a mark of their expertise and stature in their respective field.”

Ends