Keynote speaker

Dr Jean-François Boulier, chairman of Af2i, France.

Jean-Francois Boulier is chairman of Af2i, the French association regrouping institutional investors. Prior to that, he was CEO of Aviva Investors France for 10 years. He joined Aviva Investors in 2008 and had several positions:  CIO in Paris, then CEO in Europe and Global CIO for Fixed Income. Between 2002 and 2008 he was heading Euro FI at Credit Agricole Asset Management. He started his career in finance in 2007 with Credit Commercial de France where he headed the Research and Innovation department, then the Market Risk Department and then became CIO of Sinopia asset management and deputy CEO. Polytechnician and Doctor in Fluid Mechanics, he was a researcher at CNRS in Grenoble. He is honorary chairman of AFFI as well of AFGAP. He is the founding and current Editor of Bankers Markets and Investors. He is (co) author of three books.

Professor Ephraim Clark, Middlesex University, UK.

Ephraim Clark (PhD and Doctorat d’Etat) is Professor of Finance at Middlesex University. He has taught at EDHEC Business School, the Catholic University of Lille, HEC Paris and Vrije Universitat. He is a highly regarded seminar leader and speaker and has delivered keynote speeches to groups such as The French Finance Association, Arthur Andersen Consultants, GARP, ISDA and Euromoney Plc.  Clark is the author of eight books and over one hundred academic and professional papers in journals such as Management Science, Journal of International Money and Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of Financial Markets, Journal of Financial Research, Garp Risk Review, Euromoney, Revue Banque, among others. Honours and awards include numerous research grants and best paper awards. He serves on the editorial boards of a number of scholarly journals and is the founding editor of the European Journal of Finance and Frontiers in Finance and Economics. He has been elected as president of the Multinational Finance Society, president of the International Society for the Intercommunication of New Ideas, vice-president of the International Association of Finance and Banking and is currently the vice-president of the International Society for the Advancement of Financial Economics(ISAFE). He is also a member of numerous professional organizations and is a permanent member of the Académie Européenne.

Professor M. Kabir Hassan 

Professor M. Kabir Hassan is Professor of Finance in the Department of Economics and Finance in the University of New Orleans. He currently holds two endowed Chairs-Hibernia Professor of Economics and Finance, and Bank One Professor in Business- in the University of New Orleans. Professor Hassan is the winner of the 2016 Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Prize in Islamic Banking and Finance.  Professor Hassan has over 342 papers published in refereed academic journals. Professor Hassan has also been cited as one of the most prolific authors in finance literature in the last fifty years in a paper published in Journal of Finance Literature. His publication record puts him among the top 5.6% of all authors who published in the 26 leading finance journals. He is among the top 5% authors according to number of Journal Pages at RePAC/IDEAS. Professor Hassan is the 2019 recipient of University of Louisiana System Outstanding Educator, 2019 Life-long Research Achievement Award, and 2018 UNO Nick Mueller International Leadership Medallion Winner and 2019 UL System outstanding Educator Award. Professor Hassan is the Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management, Associate Editors of International Journal of Emerging Markets and Review of International Business and Finance. 

Khaled Hussainey, University of Portsmouth, UK.

Khaled Hussainey is a Professor of Accounting & Financial Management at the University of Portsmouth.  He has published more than 100-refereed papers in academic journals and international conference proceedings.  He has a rapidly growing research reputation around his principal research area concerned with corporate narrative reporting. He has been awarded the prestigious 2007 Best Paper Award of the British Accounting Review for his paper “Loss firms’ annual report narratives and share price anticipation of earnings” and the prestigious 2012 Best Paper Award of the Journal of Risk Finance for his paper “Revisiting the capital structure puzzle: UK evidence”.  His publication appears top-quality journals such as Accounting and Business Research, British Accounting Review, International Review of Financial Analysis; Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting and Journal of International Accounting, Auditing, and Taxation. He is a Co-Editor-in-Chief of JFRA and Associate Editor of JAAR and IJAAPE.