Members
(in alphabetical order:)
Mr. Wanxiang Cai
Wanxiang Cai is a PhD Candidate at Utrecht University since 2017. He currently focus on the topic of Chinese equity crowdfunding. His PhD proposal was titled: “The Herd Behavior in Chinese Equity Crowdfunding.”
Dr. Peter-Jan Engelen
Peter-Jan Engelen is Associate Professor of Financial Management at Utrecht School of Economics and the Director of the “Business Strategy & Governance” Research Group at Utrecht University. Earlier, he was Program Director of the Joint Bachelor Degree in Economics and Business with LUISS (Italy) and Program Director of the Master Program International Economics and Business at Utrecht University. He was a visiting professor at Sonoco Business School (USA), LUISS (Italy, 2011) and WU Wien (Austria). He also lectured at Antwerp Management School and TiasNimbas Business School. He holds a PhD in Applied Economics, an MSc in Finance and Tax Management, and an MSc in Applied Economics (with a major in Finance). He also holds an LL.B. and an LL.M degrees. For his doctoral dissertation on ‘Remedies to Informational Asymmetries in Stock Markets’ Dr. Engelen received the Belgian Albert Beken award in 2004. In 2002 he was awarded with the prestigious European Josseph de la Vega Prize and in 2006 he was awarded as Best Researcher in Economics at Utrecht University. In 2013 he obtained the Best Paper Proceedings of the AOM Conference. Dr. Engelen has published in several journals including the Journal of Banking and Finance, Research Policy, Technovation, Corporate Governance International Review, Financial Research Letters, Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, European Journal of Law & Economics and Journal of Business Ethics. His research and publications are situated within institutions-based corporate finance, comparative corporate governance and investment under uncertainty.
Dr. Rients Galema
Rients Galema is an assistant professor at Utrecht University School of Economics in the field of Finance and Financial Markets. His research focuses on empirical banking, socially responsible investment and alternative forms of finance. He holds a PhD from the University of Groningen on the topic of microfinance. Before starting in Utrecht, he spent half a year working on a project on international banking at the Deutsche Bundesbank.
Dr. Abdulkader Kaakeh
Abdulkader Kaakeh is a Lecturer at Utrecht University School of Economics (U.S.E.) in the field of Finance. His research focusses on behavioural finance, Islamic finance and Crowdfunding. He holds a PhD and from Universitat Autonoma De Barcelona. Abdulkader was an Academic visitor at the University of Oxford. He also holds an MBA from the America n University in Dubai. Before that Abdulkader worked for 10 years in the banking sector, managing and developing financial products.
Ronald Kleverlaan
Ronald Kleverlaan is a thought leader on Crowdfunding and Alternative Finance in Europe. He is currently chairman of the Stichting MKB Financiering, the alternative finance association in The Netherlands and managing director of the European Centre for Alternative Finance. Ronald is founder and senior partner at CrowdfundingHub, a consultancy firm, specialized in Community Finance, such as crowdfunding, (security) ICOs, Social Impact Bonds and community shares. Additionally, he is a senior advisor for the European Commission on Alternative Finance, co-founder of the European Crowdfunding Network and member of the advisory board of several industry associations in Europe, China, Africa and the USA. Finally, Ronald is also a member of the Alternative Finance Industry Leadership Board of Cambridge University.
Dr. Stefano Lugo
Stefano Lugo is an associate professor of Finance at Utrecht University. His research focuses on Corporate Debt, Credit Risk, and Credit Rating Agencies, and on the behavior and impact of Sovereign Wealth Funds. His work has been presented at several conferences, including the EFA annual meetings, and it has been published in leading academic journals. Stefano holds a PhD and an MSc from Politecnico di Milano and has been a Recognized DPhil Student at University of Oxford - Saïd Business School and a Visiting PhD Student at University of Oklahoma - Price College of Business. Stefano is also a CFA charterholder and a member of the CFA Society of the Netherlands.
Dr. Friedemann Polzin
Friedemann Polzin is assistant professor at Utrecht University School of Economics, Sustainable Finance Lab (SFL), European Centre for Alternative Finance (ECAF), and has been a visiting researcher at SPRU – Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex. Additionally, he works as a senior advisor to the Sustainable Business Institute (SBI) in Germany. His research investigates the financing of sustainable innovation and entrepreneurship, corresponding organizational, legal and institutional arrangements as well as the political environment required for a transition towards a green economy. His work has been published in leading innovation, entrepreneurship, sustainability and energy journals as well as practioner outlets.
Dr. Kostantinos Serdaris
Konstantinos Serdaris is Assistant Professor of European Economic Law within the Department of International and European Law at Utrecht Law School. He specialises in EU financial law, with particular focus on capital markets law and the regulation of alternative finance. Konstantinos is the author of several publications in the field of crowdfunding and one of the contributors to the Elgar commentary on the European crowdfunding Regulation (Edward Elgar 2022). Prior to joining Utrecht University, Konstantinos worked as Lecturer within the Law School of the University of Southampton. He is also an EU Qualified lawyer, admitted to the Athens Bar Association since 2015. Konstantinos holds a PhD in Law from the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence. His thesis entitled ‘Primary Market Law in the EU’s Capital Markets Union’ was conducted under the supervision of Prof. Grundmann and was fully funded by the Hellenic State Scholarship Foundation (IKY) and the EUI
Prof. Dr. Erik Stam
Erik Stam is the head of the Utrecht University School of Economics and full Professor of Strategy, Organization and Entrepreneurship. Moreover he is involved in the Bachelor program ‘Economics and Business Economics’ and in the Master programs ‘International Economics and Business’ and ‘Mulitdisciplinary Economics’. He received his PhD in 2003 from Utrecht University and has held prior positions at University of Cambridge and Erasmus University Rotterdam. His areas of expertise include business history, firm development, industrial dynamics, economic geography, innovation and innovation policy and more.
Dr. Helen Toxopeus
Helen Toxopeus is a researcher at the Sustainable Finance Lab and at the Impact Center Erasmus (Erasmus University Rotterdam). Since 2017 she works as a post-doctoral researcher at Utrecht University. Within the Utrecht School of Economics she is affiliated with the research group Strategy, Organization and Entrepreneurship. She is part of the EU project "NATURVATION" and investigates possible financing and business models of ecological urban innovation ("nature-based urban innovation").
Helen Toxopeus graduated cum laude in International Economics and Business at the University of Groningen. She worked at ABN AMRO, as a strategy analyst and as innovation manager, where she initiated a sustainable crowdfunding platform in 2008. She wrote two books about the sustainability of the monetary system, specifically Economy Transformers and the Social Trade Organization (STRO). In 2019 she received her PhD from the Erasmus School of Management.
Dr. Thomas Walther
Thomas Walther is an Assistant Professor of Finance (Tenure Track) with the Utrecht University School of Economics. Formerly, he was Assistant Professor for Energy Finance (Non-Tenure Track) at the Institute for Operations Research and Computational Finance, School of Finance, University of St. Gallen. He is also Research Fellow for Finance at the Faculty of Business and Economics, Technische Universität Dresden from which he received a B.Sc. (2010) and M.Sc. (2013) in Industrial Engineering and Management and a PhD (2017) in Business & Economics. He has been a visiting researcher at International University HCMC, School of Business (2016) and John von Neumann Institute, HCMC (2017). His research focuses on commodity/energy/climate finance and financial econometrics with applications to risk management. His work has been published in leading energy and forecasting journals. Since 2019, Thomas is Associate Editor for the journal Finance Research Letters.
See also the affiliate members.