Sanjiv Das Keynote Speaker

Sanjiv Das is the William and Janice Terry Professor of Finance and Data Science at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business. He previously held faculty appointments as Associate Professor at Harvard Business School and UC Berkeley. He holds post-graduate degrees in Finance (M.Phil and Ph.D. from New York University), Computer Science (M.S. from UC Berkeley), an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, B.Com in Accounting and Economics (University of Bombay, Sydenham College), and is also a qualified Cost and Works Accountant (AICWA). He is a senior editor of The Journal of Investment Management, co-editor of The Journal of Derivatives and The Journal of Financial Services Research, and Associate Editor of other academic journals. Prior to being an academic, he worked in the derivatives business in the Asia-Pacific region as a Vice-President at Citibank. His current research interests include: machine learning, social networks, derivatives pricing models, portfolio theory, the modeling of default risk, systemic risk, and venture capital. He has published over ninety articles in academic journals and has won numerous awards for research and teaching. His recent book “Derivatives: Principles and Practice” was published in May 2010 (second edition 2016). He currently also serves as a Senior Fellow at the FDIC Center for Financial Research.

After loafing and working in many parts of Asia, but never really growing up, Sanjiv moved to New York to change the world, hopefully through research. He graduated in 1994 with a Ph.D. from NYU, and since then spent five years in Boston, and now lives in San Jose, California. Sanjiv loves animals, places in the world where the mountains meet the sea, riding sport motorbikes, reading, gadgets, science fiction movies, and writing cool software code. When there is time available from the excitement of daily life, Sanjiv writes academic papers, which helps him relax. Always the contrarian, Sanjiv thinks that New York City is the most calming place in the world, after California of course.

Sanjiv Das is now a Professor of Finance at Santa Clara University. He came to SCU from Harvard Business School and spent a year at UC Berkeley. In his past life in the unreal world, Sanjiv worked at Citibank, N.A. in the Asia-Pacific region. He takes great pleasure in merging his many previous lives into his current existence, which is incredibly confused and diverse.

Sanjiv Das’ research style is instilled with a distinct “New York state of mind” – it is chaotic, diverse, with minimal method to the madness. He has published articles on derivatives, term-structure models, mutual funds, the internet, portfolio choice, banking models, credit risk, and has unpublished articles in many other areas. Some years ago, he took time off to get another degree in computer science at Berkeley, confirming that an unchecked hobby can quickly become an obsession. There he learnt about the fascinating field of Randomized Algorithms, skills he now applies earnestly to his editorial work, and other pursuits, many of which stem from being in the epicenter of Silicon Valley.

Coastal living did a lot to mold Sanjiv, who needs to live near the ocean. The many walks in Greenwich village convinced him that there is no such thing as a representative investor, yet added many unique features to his personal utility function. He learnt that it is important to open the academic door to the ivory tower and let the world in. Academia is a real challenge, given that he has to reconcile many more opinions than ideas. He has been known to have turned down many offers from Mad magazine to publish his academic work. As he often explains, you never really finish your education – “you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.” Which is why he is doomed to a lifetime in Hotel California. And he believes that, if this is as bad as it gets, life is really pretty good.