Professor of Operational Risk, Banking & Finance, University College Dublin

Professor Andreas G. F. Hoepner, Ph.D., is a Financial Data Scientist working towards the vision of a conflict-free capitalism. While the vision is unlikely fully achievable, Andreas’ view is that anyone can strive to make a regular contribution to reducing abusive conflicts of interests and thereby enhancing the fairness of our society and its financial system. Formally, Dr. Hoepner is Full Professor of Operational Risk, Banking & Finance at the Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School and the Lochlann Quinn School of Business of University College Dublin (UCD). Prof. Hoepner is also heading the ‘Practical Tools’ research group of the Mistra Financial Systems (MFS) research consortium (5 groups, total funding: SEK 58m ~ about US$ 7m), which supports asset owners with evidence-based tools for investment decision making. Since June 2018, Andreas is serving on the European Union’s Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance as one of three independent members (i.e. appointed in personal capacity instead of representing a legal entity), where his role specialises in developing low-carbon benchmarks. Before joining UCD in June 2017, Andreas was Associate Professor of Finance at the ICMA Centre of Henley Business School, where he remains a Visiting Professor of Finance teaching FCA staff on Ethics, Governance & Accountability. He is also Visiting Professor in Financial Data Science at the University of Hamburg, serves as a board member of the Financial Data Science Association (having been its inaugural chair in 2015-16) and educates investment professional in financial data science as Scientific Co-Director of the Certificate in Financial Data Science of the German Investment Association (DVFA). He is currently serving on the Finance Green Ireland Committee (hosted by the Department of Finance of the Republic of Ireland) and on independent assessment committees for the Investment & Pensions Europe (IPE) Awards (Categories: Climate Change Risk, ESG, Smart Beta), the Investment Innovation Benchmark (www.iib.io), and the RI Awards. He sits on advisory boards for various organizations including Bank J. Safra Sarasin (with former PRI chair Engshuber), the Deep Data Delivery Standards (www.DeepData.ai), the French Social Investment Forum (FIR), and the Future World Fund (with Lord Stern), and Kempen (with emphasis on boutique SDG investing). Andreas received his PhD from St. Andrews in June 2010, where he was on faculty from 02/2009 to 09/2013. He is co-founder and chair of two socially motivated enterprises: ReFine Research Project which gives social reporting awards to pension funds and Sociovestix Labs (SVL). Co-founded with Dr. Borth, Dr. Hees and Dr. Rezec as a spin-off from the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence [DFKI]), SVL is committed to fostering innovations in support of the Sustainable Development Principles while adhering to the Asilomar AI Principles and the ReFine Principles for Financial Data Science. Prior to taking up his MISTRA role in March 2016, Prof. Hoepner served over six years as lead academic advisor to the United Nations supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and consulted for organisations including the European Commission, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the University of Cambridge’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). Andreas is the sole inventor of a US patent titled ‘Investment Performance Measurement’ (No. US8751357 B1).