Manju Puri is the J. B. Fuqua Professor at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University. Prior to Joining Fuqua, Professor Puri was an Associate Professor of Finance at Stanford Business School, which she joined after earning her Ph.D in finance at New York University and MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Professor Puri has expertise in the field of empirical corporate finance and, in particular, financial intermediation. Her work spans the areas of commercial banks, investment banks, venture capital, entrepreneurship, behavioral finance, and FinTech. Her work on banking examines both traditional forms of banking, relationship banking as well as new developments such as the rise of payment firms, Buy Now Pay Later, the use of digital footprints in credit by fintechs, and implications for financial inclusion. Her research has appeared in publications such as American Economic Review, Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies. She has been the recipient of the Sloan Research Fellowship as well as multiple awards from the National Science Foundation. Her publication record includes over 30 refereed papers in the top finance and economic journals. Her research has won many awards including four best paper awards at the FMA Annual Meetings, two Western Finance Association best paper awards, an All-Star award from Journal of Financial Economics, the Brennan best paper award at the Review of Financial Studies, and three Fama-DFA /Jenson best paper awards in the Journal of Financial Economics. Professor Puri serves as Editor of Review of Financial Studies.

In addition to her academic achievements, Professor Puri has served in many leadership roles. These include serving as President of the Western Finance Association (WFA), Chair of the Academic Female Finance Committee (AFFECT), AFA, Director of the American Finance Association (AFA), and was named Fellow of the Financial Management Association. She has served as the President of the Financial Intermediation Research Society and as Director of the Financial Management Association. She is a senior academic fellow at the Asia Bureau of Finance and Economic Research (ABFER) and a Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

Professor Puri’s expertise extends beyond academia, she has consulted for governments, companies, and organizations in several countries. Professor Puri has given testimony before Congress, and worked with multiple regulatory authorities serving on the Financial Advisory Roundtable, Federal Reserve Bank of New York and on the Model Validation Council, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. She has also served on the Bose Committee on the commission structure of financial product distributors for the Government of India, and on the Advisory Board of CAFRAL, Reserve Bank of India. She currently serves on the International Association of Deposit Insurers (IADI) Advisory Panel, Basel, and as Senior Advisor, Center for Financial Research, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and on the Advisory Panel of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Basel.

Professor Puri teaches an elective she created on “Raising Capital and Financial Technologies” for the MBA students at Fuqua. She has also taught a Ph.D class on Empirical Corporate Finance and has taught Advanced Corporate Finance, and Venture Capital Financing at Fuqua and Stanford Business School. She has mentored a number of Ph.D students who have been placed at the leading schools and institutions including Board of Governors, Columbia, Cornell, McKinsey, MIT, Purdue, and Yale University.

Xiaoyan Zhang is the Xinyuan Chair Professor of Finance and Associate Dean at PBC School of Finance, Tsinghua University. She is also the Deputy Director of Institute of Fintech Research at Tsinghua University, and the director of Wealth Management Research Center. Currently, Professor Zhang is also a member of Academic Committee of the People’s Bank of China, a senior fellow of the Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research (ABFER), and a senior financial expert of the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Professor Zhang served on the CSRC 17th Issuance Examination Committee, and currently serves on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council, China Global Economic Governance 50 Forum, China Wealth Management 50 Forum, and Expert Committee of National Internet Finance Association.

Prof. Zhang received her B.A. in Economics from Peking University in 1997, and Ph.D. in Finance (with honor) from Columbia Business School in 2002. Before joining Tsinghua University, Prof. Zhang worked at the Johnson School of Management of Cornell University as an Assistant Professor, and the Krannert School of Management of Purdue University as Duke Realty Chair Full Professor of Finance, and Finance Group Head. As an overseas high-level expert, Prof. Zhang joined Tsinghua University as Cheung Kong Scholar Chair Distinguished Professor in 2016.

Professor Zhang’s research interests include Chinese capital market, Fintech, empirical asset pricing, and international finance. Many of her works have been published in Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies and other top tier academic journals, and she has won multiple best paper awards. Given her research excellence, Prof. Zhang is appointed as co-editor at Journal of Banking and Finance, and associate editor at Management Science, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Empirical Finance, and Financial Management.

Her team’s research on Chinese capital market and Carbon neutral financial markets receives multiple grants from the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China. With the support of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) and the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE), Professor Zhang's research on Chinese capital market has significantly contributed to the protection and education of retail investors.

Professor Zhang enjoys teaching in investments, global capital market, financial derivatives, risk management and empirical asset pricing for undergraduate, Master of Finance, MBA, EMBA, PH.D. and executive programs. She received many teaching awards from Cornell, Purdue and Tsinghua University. In recognition of her significant contributions to teaching and research, Professor Zhang was named one of the “Global Top 40 under 40” business school professors.