KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Professor BENJAMIN M. COLE

Professor of Strategy and Statistics

Fordham University, US

Benjamin M. Cole, Ph.D., is a Professor of Strategy & Statistics and holds the William J. Loschert Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship at Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business. Dr. Cole is published widely in the fields of technology and innovation, where he has examined the role that audiences play in increasing or decreasing the impact of technologies in the larger world. Dr. Cole’s research is published (or forthcoming) in several FT50 journals, including Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal and the Journal of Business Ethics. Dr. Cole serves on the Editorial Review Board of the Academy of Management Journal, the flagship empirical journal of the Academy of Management, where he has been recognized twice for Exemplary Performance as Best Reviewer (in 2020 and 2016).

Dr. Cole is a sought-after expert on blockchain/ cryptocurrencies. He has been featured in Fortune magazine (here and here) and Fast Company (here), and provided briefings to the likes of the Finance Minister of Luxembourg (H.E. Pierre Gramegna). In 2022, Dr. Cole was inducted as a Fellow of the British Blockchain Association and was invited to serve on the CNBC Disruptor 50 advisory council; he was named a “Top 40 Undergraduate Business Professor” by Poets & Quants in 2018 and a “Favorite Business Professor by the Class of 2022” in 2023. His recognition at the Gabelli School includes: the “Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research” (2023, 2020, 2015), the “Gladys and Henry Crown Award for Faculty Excellence” (2023, 2019, 2015), the “Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence” (2016, 2013, 2009), the “Dean’s Award for Impact” (2022 & 2018), the “Faculty Cura Personalis Award” (2022), the “DEI Achievement in Belonging: Faculty Curriculum & Teaching Award” (2021), and the “Stanley Fuchs Award” (2015).

Professor ARMAN ESRAGHI

Professor of Finance

Cardiff Business School, UK

Arman Eshraghi is a Professor of Finance and Chair of Finance and Investment at Cardiff Business School, UK. His academic research spans finance, accounting and psychology with interests including behavioural finance, financial technology and corporate governance. His work is published in some of the leading journals of the field, cited in the media including the Financial Times, Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, Forbes and Bloomberg, and contributed to handbooks published by Cambridge University, Wiley, Springer and Routledge. Professor Eshraghi is an Editor of International Review of Economics and Finance, Senior Editor of Finance Research Letters, Shimomura Fellow of the Development Bank of Japan, Fellow of the Centre for the Study of Decision-Making Uncertainty at UCL, Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury, Director of the Cardiff Fintech Research Group, and an Advisory Board Member of Fintech Wales.