Faculty and Staff

SFU faculty from finance, economics, and marketing are primary instructors in the Master of Financial Risk Management program, supported by visiting faculty and industry practitioners with special expertise on risk management topics. The collaboration infuses leading edge academic theory and research with current market practices.

Christina Atanasova, PhD (Leeds)

Assistant Professor, Finance

Dr. Atanasova joined the Beedie School of Business in 2007. Her research interests include empirical corporate finance, corporate governance, capital structure, corporate risk management, and pension economics and finance.

Avi Bick, PhD (Berkeley)

Associate Professor, Finance

Dr. Bick’s areas of specialization include the valuation of options and futures contracts, models of financial market equilibrium and mathematical finance. His research has been published in leading academic journals in finance, management science and mathematics. He teaches Derivative Securities II.

Phil Goddard, PhD (Cambridge)

Instructor

Dr. Goddard develops advanced numerical analysis and simulation software. As the President of Goddard Consulting he advises clients on techniques for optimizing their critical decision making software. He teaches Numerical Methods in Risk Management.

Robert Grauer, PhD (Berkeley)

Endowed University Professor, Finance

Dr. Grauer’s research interests include asset allocation, portfolio selection, asset pricing, performance measurement, and efficient markets.

His publications have appeared in leading academic and practitioners journals in finance, economics, and management science. He teaches Financial Economics II.

Mikhail Illiev, JD (NY Law School)

Instructor

Mr. Iliev is a corporate attorney in New York City. He specializes in securities laws, derivatives and secured finance. He is advises financial services companies.

He held the titles of Senior Vice President at KBC Financial Products, a subsidiary of KBC NV (Belgium), and associate attorney at Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP, a top 10 US law firm. Mr. Illiev teaches Law and Regulation of Financial Institutions.

Peter Klein, PhD (Toronto)

Professor, Finance

Prior to joining the Beedie School of Business, Dr. Klein held senior positions at CIBC/Wood Gundy Financial Products, including chief trader for capital markets and vice-president of investment banking. Dr. Klein’s research interests include return anomalies, taxation, credit risk, derivative securities and corporate governance. He has published in a number of leading academic journals in finance and economics.

Andrey Pavlov, PhD (UCLA)

Associate Professor, Finance; Academic Chair

Dr. Pavlov’s research interests include mortgage backed securities pricing and commercial and residential market risk management. He has also worked on the modelling of aggressive lending practices, risk management for publicly traded real estate companies, mortgage and equity securitization, and mortgage default risk modelling using non-parametric methods and spatial statistics. He consults for both the public and private sectors. He teaches the Math Review and Financial Econometrics.

Amir Rubin, PhD (British Columbia)

Associate Professor, Finance

Five years as an economist with the Israeli Security Authority regulating mutual funds and designing risk analysis tools were the prelude to Dr. Rubin’s academic research and teaching. His research includes corporate finance and governance, asset pricing and portfolio allocation, as well as corporate responsibility and its interaction with financial decision making. He teaches Financial Economics.

Daniel Smith, PhD (British Columbia)

Associate Professor, Finance

Dr. Smith teaches Market Risk Management and Fixed Income Security Analysis. His research, published in leading finance, economics and management science journals, focusses on econometric analysis of market risk, business cycle dynamics, bond returns and interest rate modelling.

Anton Theunissen, PhD (SFU)

Adjunct Professor, Finance

Dr. Theunissen is a financial consultant based in New York. His professional experience includes positions at Chubb Financial Solutions, American International Group and Wells Fargo Bank. At Chubb Financial Solutions he managed a USD 40 billion structured finance portfolio. He teaches Credit Risk Management and Fixed Income Security Analysis.

Derek Yee, PhD (British Columbia)

Adjunct Professor, Finance

Dr. Yee is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a Certified General Accountant. He teaches Equity Security Analysis and Portfolio Management. Dr. Yee is faculty liason for the SIAS.

Administration

Academic Chair: Andrey Pavlov

Executive Director: Melissa McCrae

Program Assistant: Brian Chand