Economic subjects | Finance » Profile Report for a Tenure Track Professorship in Financial Engineering and Management

Source: http://www.doksinet Profile Report for a Tenure Track (TT)/Full professorship in Financial Engineering and Management (1.0 FTE) 1. Introduction Financial Engineering and Management (FEM) is an active research field both in the Netherlands and elsewhere. At the University of Twente, we focus on the relationship between financial engineering and industrial and business processes. This is in keeping with our role as an engineering university and in line with the university’s general policy. While the latter policy focuses primarily on technology and business development, it also provides scope for the study of the societal phenomena that trigger such developments. It also addresses the impact of these technologies on society and the business community. A final – completely indispensable – aspect is an exploration of modern corporate finance and third-sector finance. The university has a very robust track record in translating new technologies into business opportunities.

In some cases, this involves spin-off companies and business incubators, but the university also makes use of its strong relationships and cooperative engagement with major industrial and business organizations. The University of Twente’s major domains include nanotechnology, medical and biomedical engineering, information and communication technology, mechatronics and robotics, industrial and mechanical/civil engineering, business administration, public governance and behavioural sciences. The full professorship in Financial Engineering and Management will be primarily embedded in the Industrial Engineering and Business Administration disciplines. However, the newly to be appointed professor is expected to build ties with other departments across the university, as well as with external partners in industry and in academic circles. Given the existing range of Business Schools and Finance Institutes in the Netherlands, we will clearly never be in a position to dominate the field of

finance and financial engineering in this country. Nevertheless, we feel that the portfolio of a modern University of Technology should include a modest but focused development of research and teaching capacity at the professorial level. For us, this is an absolute prerequisite and a basic requirement This capacity will be a major asset for BMS, in terms of its cooperative arrangements with the engineering faculties and technical programmes. The subject of finance in relation to risk management, technology development and modern tech-based entrepreneurship can and should feature in interdisciplinary educational programmes (whether Bachelor’s, Master’s, PhD, or post-doctoral). Efforts should also be made to generate interest in this topic among alumni and those engaged in professional learning and development programmes at the University of Twente. Surely any self-respecting university of technology would have to include a separate faculty, with a clear and prominent identity of its

own, to tackle financial and value-based strategy in relation to contemporary engineering systems, the development of modern technology and the management of future technology. Ideally, a modern university of technology’s portfolio should include a strategy to strengthen and consolidate the somewhat fragmented range of facilities and expertise that are currently scattered throughout the university in general and the faculty of BMS in particular. In practical terms, this process would be managed by a full-time, full professorship in financial engineering, with the assistance of a part-time professorship with high-level experience of industry or everyday practice, plus a strong background in, and wide experience of, the global FinTech sector. This would also enable us to develop a satisfactory teaching and research capacity in accounting and economics within the faculty, if not throughout the university as a whole. Such capacity is sorely needed by the numerous educational programmes

(both within BMS’s portfolio and elsewhere) that have been impacted by the reorganizations we have had to implement during the past few years. The ultimate goal of these proposed appointments (or re-appointments) is to restore and consolidate a basic capacity for high-level teaching and research in an area we consider to be an indispensable part of modern engineering and technology development. Vertrouwelijk 1 Source: http://www.doksinet 2. Research Allowing for future developments in industry and business, the chair of Financial Engineering and Management (FEM) will focus on the following – or closely related – areas: a. Financial Engineering Finance is an indispensable companion to engineering The strategic positions and mechanisms of public, corporate and private finance are changing. Digital transformation is rapidly altering the structure of financial institutions. It is also impacting their ability to fund technological and infrastructural development and innovation,

as well as technology-based business and entrepreneurship. Contemporary information technologies, such as data science, have had an enormous impact on financial products and services. The ‘Internet of Things’, artificial intelligence and machine learning are dramatically changing the context in which traditional financial institutions operate, and the way in which they do so. Under the influence of these new technologies, the emergence of blockchain applications (such as virtual currencies and smart contracting) has the potential to disruptively innovate financial markets. Given its focus on technology and business, the University of Twente is ideally placed to be at the forefront of these developments. From the standpoint of cutting-edge education and research in Industrial Engineering, risk management and infrastructure development (and in business administration in general), it is important to keep up with the latest developments in the finance and accounting sector. There is a

growing tendency for large and medium-sized companies to operate directly in financial markets. This requires a thorough understanding of how these model-driven markets operate. At the same time, model-driven risk management is a key determinant (in addition to expected revenue) for the success or failure of large-scale engineering projects or small-scale individual companies and start-ups. In the financial markets, private-equity funds, hedge funds, non-bank institutions (NBFI’s), peer-to-peer financing and crowdfunders have, to some extent, taken over the roles of more traditional players (e.g banks and insurance companies). This has the potential to trigger far-reaching changes, in terms of the options for financial strategies and funding campaigns involved in technological innovation and high-tech enterprise systems. The current legal framework and governance rules are still under-developed. As a result, the playing field is often anything but level These innovations merit a

renewed focus on one of the oldest public and private sectors in the world, by one of the first entrepreneurial universities in Europe. This involves the increasing relevance of finding new and innovative ways of funding the development of new technology. Perhaps even more importantly, there is a need to facilitate the adoption and implementation of new technology in business, as well as in critical societal sectors (e.g healthcare, energy transition, cyber-security, infrastructure development and climateresilient city development). The present Financial Engineering group has a fine track record of research into financial risk management models – a promising launchpad for research into the future evolution of the financial sector. This future would include new business models for the circular economy, in the context of the ‘4th Industrial Revolution’ or (intelligent) Industry 4.0 It would also involve the requisite governance rules and arrangements, adding new ones or upgrading

existing ones, as required. b. Valuation: A recent – and related – phenomenon in the area of Engineering, Infrastructure Design and Technology Development is the development of clear, contemporary valuation criteria. These enable society and the business community to find a balance between societal objectives and constraints on the one hand and economic objectives on the other. Value-based engineering is a rich field, with applications that are closely related to many of the university’s current fields of study. These include the financial analysis of investments that are intended to reconcile economic, social and environmental goals (People, Planet, Profit) in areas such as logistics and supply chain management, sustainable energy, ICT and business, health care economics, and – more generally – the move towards a circular and sharing economy. Potential candidates for this full professorship in Financial Engineering/Finance and Engineering must have a strong interest in

business technology (such as IT, robotics, or medical technology). Vertrouwelijk 2 Source: http://www.doksinet The emphasis must be on research into the financing of new technology, and on the use of technology to innovate financial processes and services (e.g FinTech) 3. Education The TT/professorship will have a prominent role in education at the University of Twente (in Bachelor’s, Master’s, PDEng and PhD programmes), with a special focus on Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM), and International Business Administration (IBA). Potentially, the chair will also be expected to contribute to Public Administration’s newly revised Management, Technology and Society programme. At Bachelor’s level, the FE group will design and run teaching modules in the recently developed Twente Educational Model. These will primarily be in management accounting and in financial accounting and control. There will also be an introduction to Financial Engineering. At Master’s level, the

focus will switch to Financial Engineering models for valuation, risk and decision making, involving specific areas that are closely linked to the research goals outlined above. In addition, the TT/professor will study FinTech innovations that are potentially disruptive to current financial services and markets. This work will involve building on the strong links that have already been established with researchers in computer science and engineering. The PhD programme will be entirely devoted to furthering the scientific development of Financial Engineering, in a technology and business context. 4. Embedding The chair in Financial Engineering and Management will be embedded in the Industrial Engineering and Business Information Systems (IEBIS) department, which is part of the Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences. The faculty is currently in the process of transforming itself into a faculty for Social Science and Technology. The department of Industrial Engineering and

Business Information Sciences has a number of other full professorships, each with its own focus (Business Information Systems, Production and Supply Chain Management, Healthcare Operations, and Security). The FEM chair will be assisted by one part-time full professor (0.2 FTE) with a strong background in risk management and treasury in the financial sector (at board level), an associate professor focusing on risk management, and an assistant professor working primarily on the use of game-theory methods in financial decision making. The appointment of a TT/full professor in Financial Engineering will create an opportunity to hire one or two assistant professors working in a domain related to the professorship. In addition to working with current staff and PhD students from the IEBIS department and elsewhere, the full professor will acquire new, externally-funded, full-time and part-time PhD students to expand FEM’s research activities. The chair will be expected to support the

transition towards a Circular Economy (renewable energy, sustainable logistics, mobility transitions) in close cooperation with other staff at the University of Twente. These individuals will include principal investigators, tenure trackers and full professors in fields such as Corporate Finance, ICT and Finance, Financial Models for Healthcare Systems Analysis and Design, and Financial Models. Work in these fields will also require close cooperation with researchers in Business Innovation (e.g the Netherlands Institute for Knowledge Intensive Entrepreneurship (NIKOS) on entrepreneurship, the Professor of Governance and Technology for Sustainability (CSTM) on sustainable technology development, Professors in Procurement in the public and the private/corporate sector) and in Public Governance, Technology and Law (the latter in relation to legislation on the sustainable use of public infrastructure). 5. Level The candidates should have a proven track record in the area of Financial

Engineering and Management, as evidenced by publications in highly ranked journals, teaching records, PhD supervision and professional services. The appointee should enjoy widespread international recognition and have an extensive international network, both in the business world and in academic circles. They must have a clear strategy on the future research agenda for the field, in Vertrouwelijk 3 Source: http://www.doksinet line with university and faculty policy. The appointment may involve a full-time (10 FTE) university job profile of professor, or a tenure track post leading up to the position of full professor within a period of 5-6 years. 6. Management Responsibilities The TT/professor will head the research, education and project acquisition and management effort in the area of FE, and will report to the head of the Industrial Engineering and Business Information Systems department. The TT/professor will contribute to the management of the IEBIS department, in close

cooperation with the other full professors and with the head of that department. He/she will work closely with the associate/assistant professors in FE and will actively initiate and manage inter-disciplinary cooperation within the department and the faculty, and between the university’s various institutes and faculties. 7. Double-appointment: NA, but position very relevant for educational programs jointly conducted with other Faculties 8. Inter-University Collaboration The appointee will pursue and extend existing cooperative ventures with counterparts at the other technical universities (Delft, Eindhoven, Twente and Wageningen) in this country, as well as with members of staff at various other Dutch universities (Tilburg University, Erasmus University Rotterdam, University of Groningen). In addition, he/she is expected to already have (or to develop) close ties with leading professional organizations in the Netherlands and with international scientific organizations. The group’s

part-time professor, who has spent his entire career in international finance/FinTech, has already developed a substantial network. The professorship may choose to build on this. 9. Impact of the chair on campus facilities: None envisaged yet Vertrouwelijk 4