Speakers

Prof. Hamdan Amer Ali Al-Jaifi

School of Accounting & Finance

Faculty of Business & Law, Taylor'sUniversity, Malaysia

Introduction: 

Associate Professor Dr Hamdan Amer Ali Al-Jaifi is an Associate Professor of Finance and the Deputy Director of Digital Economy and Business Transformation Impact lab at Taylor's University, Malaysia. Associate Professor Dr Hamdan was the Director of Centre for Industrial Revolution and Innovation (CIRI) at Taylor's University and the Director for the dual award programmes (Finance and Economics & Banking and Finance).

Prof. Evan Lau Poh Hock

Faculty of Economics and Business, University Malaysia Sarwak, Malaysia

Introduction: Evan Lau is an accomplished Associate Professor in the Faculty of Economics and Business at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS). He has a wealth of experience in academia, having held several key positions within UNIMAS, including Deputy Dean for Research and Postgraduate, Director of the Centre for Business, Economics and Finance Forecasting (BEFfore) and currently serves as the Head of Strategy. Evan is also an internationally recognized scholar, having held visiting positions at the University of Cambridge and various universities in Indonesia. Evan has a strong research record, having published 106 journal articles and 90 research papers in books, conference proceedings, working papers, newsletters, and newspaper articles. He has been awarded numerous awards for his research excellence, including the Young Researcher Award in UNIMAS, the Excellent Service Award, research medals from Research Expos, best papers, and the Highest-Impact Journal Paper Award. As an active researcher, Evan has secured 30 research grants and has supervised 84 postgraduate students, examining 66 postgraduate theses and 142 undergraduate research projects. Evan speaks at numerous international conferences in countries like Indonesia, UAE, Sri Lanka, Italy, India, Philippines and Malaysia. Evan's research contributions have been recognized internationally, with him being listed among the Top 9% of economists in Malaysia and ASEAN while in the Top 10% for Asia by the Research Papers in Economics (RePEc) network. Top 9% of economists in Malaysia since 2008 and the Top 10% in Asia by the Research Papers in Economics (RePEc) network. He is also among the highly cited authors in UNIMAS. Outside of academia, Evan is passionate about running and travelling. Overall, Evan's achievements and contributions demonstrate his commitment to research excellence, academic leadership and service which bring sustainable impact to the academia world.

A. Prof. Thomas Andreas MAURER

The University of Hongkong, China

Introduction: Thomas Andreas Maurer is an Associate Professor of Finance at the HKU Business School, The University of Hong Kong. Before joining HKU in 2019, he was an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis from 2012 to 2019. Thomas earned his London School of Economics MSc in Finance and Economics degree in 2008 and his LSE PhD in Finance degree in 2012. During his PhD studies he has spent one year as a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

His research contributions are in the area of theoretical and empirical asset pricing, international finance and household finance. He regularly serves as a committee member for academic conferences and as an academic referee for many major economics and finance journals.

At HKU, Thomas is teaching classes on derivative securities to undergraduate students. In 2017, the graduating Master of Finance class at Wash U has chosen him as the best teacher and he was awarded the Reid teaching prize for the professor “whose enthusiasm and exceptional teaching most inspire, energize, and transform students”.

Speech Title:Unfair Benchmarks and Excessive Risk Taking of Mutual Funds

Abstract: We find that unfair peer group assignments in relative performance evaluations often lead mutual funds with disadvantaged styles to take on more risks in an effort to keep up with their peers with advantaged styles. Until June 2002, when Morningstar ranked all U.S. equity funds against one another, star ratings were highly correlated with the value premium, leading growth funds to take significantly greater risks than value funds. This excessive risk-taking was more pronounced among lower-rated funds and when the value premium was expected to be higher. The refinement of Morningstar’s peer groups in 2002 substantially reduced such excessive risk-taking.

A.Prof. Liang Wuchao

School of Economics and Management, Ningbo Universty of Technology, China

Research Areas: Marketing management, Human resources management, Strategic management