Nowak, Dr. Eric (Professor at USI – Director of the Swiss Finance Institute Lugano)

Eric Nowak is Full Professor at Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) where he is Director of the Swiss Finance Institute (SFI) Lugano / Istituto di Finanza (IFIN). Since 2016 he is the Director of the Master in Financial Technology and Computing (Fintech). His research on corporate governance, private equity, and IPOs was published in leading international journals such as the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Business Venturing, and Business History, and he co‐authors a textbook on Corporate Governance. Prof. Nowak studied at the Universities of St. Gallen (HSG), Bocconi, and Chicago. He holds a Ph.D. in Finance from HSG and obtained his venia legendi in Business Administration from the Goethe University of Frankfurt. From 2010‐2011 he served as the Rock Center for Corporate Governance Visiting Scholar at Stanford University. From 2017‐18 he was Senior Visiting Professor in Risk Management at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Since 2016 he is Adjunct Professor at the Luxembourg School of Finance.

Eric has a wide range of practical experience in Hedge Funds and knowledge in entrepreneurship from Fintech start‐ups. Among the start‐ups he has co‐founded, he still is in the supervisory board of IRX Investor Relations Exchange formerly aktionaersforum AG, an online shareholder communication company, he was the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Swiss Rating Agency SA, and member of the
scientific board of CEPRES GmbH, a web‐interfaced private equity data provider. In 2010, he had cofounded Aurarius Fund, a Volatility Arbitrage Hedge Fund, which had been active in trading until 2013 and received the Investors Choice Award as Emerging Volatility & Tail Hedge Fund of The Year 2012.

Professor Nowak maintains close cooperative relationships with Swiss and European policymakers and regulators. He has frequently testified as an academic expert for SIX Swiss Exchange Regulation, the European Parliament, the German Ministry of Finance, and the German Parliament (Finanzausschuss und Rechtsausschuss des Deutschen Bundestages zu Fragen der Vorstandshaftung). He also was OECD Consultant on Corporate Governance of Non‐Listed Companies. He is frequently cited in the media and was referred to as “The Corporate Governance Specialist” by Manager Magazin and AFP.