FIRN Key Documentation
FIRN Executive Committee:
Elvira Sojli – Managing Director, President and member of the board:
Elvira Sojli is an Associate Professor and Scientia Fellow in the School of Banking and Finance, the University of New South Wales. Her current work tries to understand the role of and determinants of women’s participation in innovation. She is particularly interested in the international aspect of differences across countries and disciplines. Her previous work has focussed on international finance and market microstructure.
Marco Navone – Vice President Conference:
Marco Navone is an associate professor at UTS. Prior to this, he was an Assistant Professor in the Finance Department of Bocconi University in Milan (Italy). He has also been a research fellow of CAREFIN the Center for Applied Research in Finance of Bocconi University and has a visiting Assistant Professor in the Finance Department of Red McCombs School of Business of the University of Texas at Austin. Marco received his Ph.D. from Bocconi University, his teaching experience ranges from advanced equity portfolio management to financial economics and he has also a broad experience in executive education.
Andrea Lu – Vice President FIRN Women:
Andrea Lu is an Associate Professor of Finance at the University of Melbourne. Andrea has a PhD in Finance from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, and her research focuses on empirical asset pricing, financial market frictions and international asset pricing.
Chelsea Liu – Vice President ECR:
Chelsea Liu is an Associate Professor at The University of Adelaide and previously worked as a Visiting Assistant Professor in Finance at Foster School of Business, University of Washington. Chelsea’s research on climate finance, corporate misconduct, corporate governance, and sustainability benefits from her industry qualification as a solicitor and barrister in Australia.
Neal Galpin – Vice President Education:
Neal Galpin is Professor, School of Banking and Finance at Monash University.
Ellie Chapple: Company Secretary
Professor Ellie Chapple holds the position of Professor of Accounting at QUT Business School, where she is the research leader in Forensic Accounting and the chief investigator in the research program Accounting For Social Change. Ellie is a member of AFAANZ, member of the Corporate Law Teachers Association and Legal practitioner admitted to the Supreme Court of Queensland.
Anna Bedford: Treasurer
Anna Bedford is an Associate Professor in the Accounting Department at the UTS Business School. Her research focuses on corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions and innovation. Her current research interest is on digitalisation and entrepreneurship.
BOARD MEMBERS:
Joakim Westerholm (Chair)
Joakim Westerholm is an Associate Professor of Finance at the University of Sydney. His teaching and research interests are in the areas of Asset Pricing: with focus on security market microstructure and behavioral finance topics; Corporate Finance: with focus on CEO and corporate insider trading strategies and acquisition decisions. Joakim has a PhD in Finance from the Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration (Hanken), in Helsinki, Finland. He has 9 years industry experience in broking, dealing and funds management.
Philip Gharghori is an Associate Professor of Finance at Monash University. Prior to joining Monash full time, he was a PhD student and tutor at Monash. His teaching has spanned all levels from undergraduate to PhD and has covered a wide range of fields including asset pricing, corporate finance, fixed income and investments. His areas of research are asset pricing and investments. He is Deputy Editor in Chief at Accounting and Finance, and he holds additional editorial roles at Australian Journal of Management and Pacific-Basin Finance Journal.
Robert Durand is a Professor of Finance at Curtin University. Robert’s work focuses on empirical work investigating asset pricing models and behavioural finance. Robert holds a BA (Hons.) from the University of Sydney, an MBA from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD from Murdoch University
Xiaoyang Li is an Associate Professor in the Department of Finance at Deakin Business School. Prior to joining Deakin, he was an Associate Professor of Finance at the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF), Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He received his PhD from the University of Michigan in 2011. He has published in the Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Finance, Strategic Management Journal, and Journal of Corporate Finance, among others. His broad teaching and research interests cover topics in mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and innovation.