M.S.F. Faculty
Yuewu Xu, Ph.D.
Program Director
Yuewu Xu is an associate professor of finance at the Gabelli School of Business. His research interests are in theoretical and empirical asset pricing, financial econometrics, and investments and his research papers have been published in leading academic journals such as the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and the Journal of Econometrics. He has presented his research at leading academic conferences such as the annual meetings of the American Finance Association and the Western Finance Association. Xu is an associate editor for the journal China Finance Review International. He has taught graduate and undergraduate level courses at the Gabelli School of Business, including: Future and Options, Introduction to Auto Trading Systems (algorithmic trading), Advanced Financial Econometrics, Advanced Derivatives Pricing, Stochastic Calculus, among others.
Prior to joining Fordham, Xu was director of investment strategy and research at a major asset-management firm (TIAA) in New York, where he worked for five years. He also has had experience consulting for several financial institutions in New York City.
Prof. Xu holds a Ph.D. in finance and a Ph.D. in statistics from Yale University.
Ren-Raw Chen, Ph.D.
Professor of Finance
Ren-Raw Chen specializes in modeling term structure of interest rates and credit risks, automating pricing models for trading desks and rating agencies, deriving closed-form solutions, implementing lattice and Monte Carlo simulations, and complex calibrations.
Chen has published papers in major academic and professional journals including Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Fixed Income, and Journal of Derivatives. He has implemented pricing models for financial companies, including credit derivative pricing models for Lehman Brothers, structural default models for Moody's KMV, convertible bond and fixed-income derivatives models for Grand Cathy Securities Corporation, and a two-factor HJM model for Polypaths Software.
Chen has taught at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey; the University of Pittsburgh; National Taiwan University; and Hong Kong University.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from National Taiwan University and his master’s degree from the University of Illinois, where he also received a Ph.D. in Finance.
Andrey Ermolov, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Finance and Felix E. Larkin Distinguished Professorship
Andrey Ermolov is an associate professor of finance and business economics and a Felix E. Larkin distinguished professor in management. He holds a Ph.D. in Finance and Business Economics from Columbia Business School, and undergraduate degrees in computer and information science and in finance from Aalto University.
His award-winning research on asset pricing has been published in top journals in finance, econometrics, and macroeconomics. He teaches courses on financial markets, investments, and portfolio management. Before entering academia, he worked for Nokia.
Gayané Hovakimian, Ph.D.
Professor of Finance and Chair of the Area of Finance and Business Economics
Gayané Hovakimian is a professor of finance and the chair of the Area of Finance and Business Economics at the Gabelli School of Business.
Her research focuses on corporate finance, particularly financial constraints and their effects on firm investment, internal capital markets, capital structure, corporate restructurings, diversification, and corporate governance. She has presented at many international conferences and published in leading journals, including the Journal of Financial Economics; Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis; Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking; Journal of Financial Intermediation; Journal of Corporate Finance; and Journal of Banking and Finance.
Professor Hovakimian has been teaching undergraduate and graduate courses such as: Corporate Finance, International Financial Management, Data Analytics for Finance, and Raising Capital and Investing in Global Markets. She also has taught at Baruch College and Peking University.
Hovakimian earned a Ph.D. in Finance from Boston College, an M.A. in Economics from the University of Southern California, and a B.A. in Economics from the Armenian State University of Economics.
Robert Kissell, Ph.D.
Associate Clinical Professor of Finance
Robert Kissell is an associate clinical professor and the Finance and Business Economics area coordinator at the Gabelli School of Business. He has been with Fordham University as an adjunct professor since fall 2015. He teaches classes in Algorithmic Trading, Fintech, and Investment Analysis.
Kissell is the author of several leading industry books and has published numerous journal articles. His paper, “Dynamic Pre-Trade Models: Beyond the Black Box,” won the Institutional Investor’s paper of the year award in 2012, and his paper “Predictive Sports Analytics,” won the Northeast Business & Economics Association (NBEA) best paper award in 2019.
Kissell has worked with several Investment Banks including UBS Securities, JP Morgan Citigroup, and Instinet. He previously taught courses at Cornell University, Molloy University, and Baruch College.
Kissell holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Fordham University, an M.S. in Applied Mathematics from Hofstra University, and an M.S. in Business Management and a B.S. in Applied Mathematics & Statistics from Stony Brook University.
Xiang Li, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Finance
Xiang Li is an assistant professor at the Gabelli School of Business. He earned a Ph.D. in finance from Boston College's Carroll School of Management in 2024.
Li’s research focuses on the potential benefits of finance for households. Specifically, he examines the impact of market competition and disclosure on financial inclusion from various perspectives, including entrepreneurship and consumer lending markets such as mortgage lending.
His work has been published in top finance journals such as the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (JFQA), and also has been recognized and presented at numerous conferences, including those hosted by leading professional associations in economics and finance (AEA, AFA, SFS Cavalcade, FIRS, EuropeanFA, and CEPR), regulatory agencies (Bank of Canada, Bank of England, Federal Reserve Board, European Central Bank, Bank of Spain, FDIC, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, CFPB, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, and the Census), and top universities (LBS, Yale, Wharton, HEC-Paris, UNC, and USC).
Li teaches undergraduate courses in Financial Management.
Natalia Reisel, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Finance
Natalia Reisel joined the Gabelli School of Business in 2012 after serving on the faculty of Southern Methodist University.
Reisel's research interests are in the area of empirical corporate finance, with a primary focus on financial contracting, fixed income securities and strategic alliances. She has published in leading finance and law journals including Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of International Business Studies, University of Chicago Law Review, Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, Financial Management, and Journal of Fixed Income. Results of her research were used by practitioners and featured by the Economist in Executives’ Briefings, by the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, and at the NASDAQ/CFA ETF conference. Her papers won the FMA Best Paper Awards in Fixed Income, International Finance, and Corporate Finance.
Yusif Simaan, Ph.D.
Professor of Finance
Yusif Simaan is a professor of finance. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Haifa University, an M.Sc. in Statistics from Technion, Israel, and a Ph.D. in Finance from Baruch College, CUNY, 1987. He has taught courses in Investment Applications, Portfolio Management, Options and Futures, Computational Finance, and Machine Learning
The research areas of Yusif Simaan include portfolio theory, capital asset pricing theories, and capital market microstructure. He published research in these areas in leading academic and practitioner journals, including the: Journal of Finance, Management Science, Journal of Portfolio Management, Journal of Derivatives, and Operations Research.
For more than 20 years, Simaan has provided extensive experience on Wall Street. His consulting includes developing predictive technologies and pricing engines serving algorithmic trading for proprietary trading and executing trades for customer order flow. He served as expert witness on issues involving algorithmic trading and intellectual property and he has advised banks, hedge funds, and Fintech firms including ATD, Citigroup, AQR, Arxis Capital, and SoFi.
Yi Tang, Ph.D.
Professor of Finance
Yi Tang is a tenured professor of finance at the Gabelli School of Business. He earned a Ph.D. in Finance from Baruch College, City University of New York, in 2008.
Tang’s research spans asset pricing, behavioral finance, risk management, corporate finance, and international finance. His recent work explores the intersection of AI, behavioral finance, and asset pricing, investigating how AI can amplify behavioral biases and how multimodal AI can enhance decision-making for individual investors.
His research has been published in leading journals including: the Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Management Science, and Review of Financial Studies. He has presented at prestigious venues such as the American Finance Association and Western Finance Association.
Tang teaches undergraduate courses in Financial Management and Investments & Security Analysis, and graduate courses in Behavioral Finance, Financial Environment, Investment Applications, Large-Scale Data Modeling, and Portfolio Management.
Lin Tong, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Finance
Lin Tong is an Associate Professor of Finance. She earned a Ph.D. in Finance from the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa. She also holds an M.S. in Mathematics from Iowa State University and a B.A. in Mathematics from Nanjing University, China.
Professor Tong’s research focuses on institutional investors, including hedge funds, mutual funds, and high-frequency traders. She examines their performance, behavior, and trading strategies, as well as their impact on capital markets. Her research has been presented at leading academic conferences in the United States and Europe, including the annual meetings of the American Finance Association, European Finance Association, and Financial Management Association; the NYU Stern Conference on Market Microstructure; and the SEC Annual Conference on the Regulation of Financial Markets. Professor Tong’s work has also been featured in prominent media outlets, including The Economist and Barron’s.
An Yan, Ph.D.
Robert Bendheim Chair Professor in Economics and Financial Policy
An Yan is the Robert Bendheim chair professor in economics and financial policy. Professor Yan is also the director of the Doctor of Professional Studies in Business program in collaboration with Peking University’s National School of Development, and co-director of the Center for Research in Contemporary Finance.
Professor Yan earned an undergraduate degree from Tsinghua University, China, and a Ph.D. in Finance from Boston College. His main research interest is in theoretical and empirical corporate finance. He research has been published in the: Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis and other significant academic outlets.
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