Kai Li (Chair), 2022-2025
Kai Li holds Canada Research Chair in Corporate Governance and W. Maurice Young Endowed Chair in Finance at the UBC Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia. She was also Senior Associate Dean, Equity and Diversity between 2016-2021. Kai’s research focuses on the economic consequences of corporate governance mechanisms. Her current research projects explore: (1) gender, competition, and performance, (2) machine learning in finance, and (3) creditor governance. Her research has appeared in Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Management Science, Journal of International Business Studies, and many other leading journals in Finance and Economics. She is the recipient of the UBC Killam Research Award, the Sauder School of Business Research Excellence Award (both junior and senior categories), and the Barclays Global Investors Canada Research Award, a Senior Fellow of the Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research, a Research Member of the European Corporate Governance Institute, and a Research Fellow of the FinTech at Cornell Initiative. She is on the Editorial Board of Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Financial Intermediation, Journal of Financial Stability, and Pacific-Basin Finance Journal. She has also served on the Editorial Board of Review of Financial Studies, Review of Finance, Management Science, Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, and Financial Management. Her research has been featured in Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, The Time Magazine, Reuters, CNBC, Bloomberg, Dow Jones Newswire, New Yorker, BBC, BNN, CBC National, CTV National News, National Post, Globe and Mail, U.S. News & World Report, Harvard Business Review, and Yahoo! Finance. Read full profile
Laura Field (Vice-Chair), 2024-2027
Laura Casares Field is the Donald J. Puglisi Professor of Finance at the University of Delaware. Professor Field’s research focuses on empirical corporate finance issues, including initial public offerings and corporate governance. Some of her recent research examines diversity in corporate board leadership and corporate board diversity regulation. In addition to AFFECT, she serves on the AFA’s Committee on Racial Diversity (CORD). She serves as an associate editor of the Journal of Corporate Finance and the Review of Corporate Finance, an academic director of the FMA, and a research member of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI). She holds a Ph.D. in Finance, MBA, and BA in Economics from UCLA. Read full profile
Victoria Ivashina, 2022-2025
Victoria Ivashina is the Lovett-Learned Professor of Finance and Head of the Finance Unit at Harvard Business School. Professor Ivashina is also the faculty chair of the Global Initiative for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. She is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a Research Fellow at the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), a Visiting Scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and a member of the Model Validation Council at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. She co-heads Harvard Business School’s Private Capital Initiative and Private Equity and Venture Capital (PEVC) executive education program. Her research spans multiple areas of financial intermediation including corporate credit markets, global banking operations, asset allocation by pension funds and insurance companies, and value creation by private equity. Professor Ivashina serves a Department Editor at the Management Science, and a board member of the American Finance Association and Financial Intermediation Research Society. She holds a Ph.D. in Finance from the NYU Stern School of Business and a B.A. in Economics from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Read full profile
Anna Pavlova, 2023-2026
Anna Pavlova is Professor of Finance at London Business School. She is also an Academic Director of the AQR Asset Management Institute at London Business School, a Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research in London and a former Director of the European Finance Association. As of December 2018, she was elected a Director of the American Finance Association. Prior to joining London Business School, she was on the faculty at MIT Sloan School of Management. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, an MA in Economics from the New Economic School (Moscow) and an MSc in Applied Mathematics from Moscow State University. Read full profile
Mila Getmansky Sherman, 2023-2026
Mila Getmansky Sherman is a Professor of Finance and Judith Wilkinson O’Connell Faculty Fellow at the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst. Her research specializes in empirical asset pricing, hedge funds, performance of investment trading strategies, financial institutions, systemic risk, ecological finance, ESG, gender in finance, and system dynamics. She
received a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering and Minor in Economics from MIT and a Ph.D. degree in Management from the MIT Sloan School of Management. She was a post-doctoral fellow at the MIT Lab for Financial Engineering before joining UMass Amherst. Professor Getmansky Sherman is an associate director of the Center for International Securities and Derivatives Markets (CISDM) at UMass Amherst whose goal is to facilitate research in international investment and derivative markets, and promote interactions between the academic and business communities. Read full profile
Kelly Shue, 2023-2026
Kelly Shue is a Professor of Finance at the Yale School of Management. Her research is focused on behavioral finance, with applications to asset pricing, executive compensation, mergers and acquisitions, incentive structures, housing, gender and negotiations, social networks, and promotions. She is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and an elected director of the European Finance Association. She currently serves as an associate editor at the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Corporate Finance Studies. She previously served as an editor at the Review of Finance and associate editor at Management Science. Prior to joining Yale, she was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She holds a PhD in Economics from Harvard University and BA in Applied Mathematics also from Harvard University. Read full profile
Katharina Lewellen, 2024-2027
Katharina Lewellen is Professor of Finance at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Her research examines various aspects of corporate finance and corporate governance, including managerial incentives and compensation, the role of financial institutions in corporate governance, governance of nonprofit firms, and healthcare finance. Professor Lewellen currently serves as an associate editor at the Journal of Corporate Finance and Financial Management. Before coming to Tuck, Professor Lewellen was an assistant professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. She received a PhD from the University of Rochester and a doctorate from the University of Zurich. Earlier, she worked as an economist at the Swiss National Bank. Read full profile.
Ayako Yasuda, 2024-2027
Professor Ayako Yasuda is the Maurice J. & Marcia G. Gallagher Professor of Finance at the Graduate School of Management at University of California at Davis, and Fellow of the Private Equity Research Consortium. Professor Yasuda’s research focuses on venture capital; private equity; impact funds; environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues; social entrepreneurship; and long-horizon institutional investors. She has published her research in the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, and The Review of Financial Studies, and her expertise on entrepreneurship, private equity, and venture capital has been cited in news publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, the Nikkei, the Financial Times, and The New York Times. She earned a Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford in 2001, and a B.A. in Quantitative Economics (Dean’s Distinction, Phi Beta Kappa) from Stanford in 1993. Before joining the faculty of UC Davis, she was a faculty at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and earlier in her career, she was a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs. She co-authored an acclaimed MBA textbook Venture Capital and the Finance of Innovation (now in 3rd edition). Her paper “Impact Investing” (Journal of Financial Economics 2021) won the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University’s Moskowitz Prize for outstanding research on sustainable and responsible investing. Read full profile.
Veronika Krepely Pool, 2024-2027, Director of Mentoring
Veronika Krepely Pool is a Professor of Finance at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University. She is also an academic director of the Financial
Management Association. Veronika joined Owen in 2019 from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, where she was an Associate Professor and the Gregg T. and Judith A. Summerville Chair of Finance. She had been on the Kelley School’s faculty since completing her Ph.D. in finance at Vanderbilt University in 2006. Her main research interest is the economics of conflict of interest in delegated portfolios, such as hedge funds, mutual funds, and 401(k) plans. She teaches in the Vanderbilt MS Finance program and the Hoogland Undergraduate Business Program. Read full profile.
Advisory Committee Members
Brad Barber, 2023-2026 – Professor of Finance Emeritus, University of California, Davis.
Peter DeMarzo, 2022-2025 – Staehelin Family Professor of Finance, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford University.
Mariassunta Giannetti, 2022-2025 – Professor of Finance, Stockholm School of Economics.
Wei Jiang, 2023-2026 – Professor of Finance, Goizueta Business School, Emory University.
Michelle Lowry, 2024-2027 – TD Bank Professor of Finance at the LeBow School of Business, Drexel University, Former Director of Mentoring.
Heather Tookes, 2023-2026 – Professor of Finance, Yale School of Management, Yale University.
Manju Puri, 2022-2025 – J. B. Fuqua Professor, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University.
Ingrid Werner, 2022-2025 – Martin & Andrew Murrer Professor of Finance, Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University.
Past Committee Members:
Wei Jiang, Member 2020-2022
Manju Puri, Member and Chair 2019-2022
Ingrid Werner, Member and Vice-Chair 2019-2022
Adair Morse, Member 2019-2021
Renee Adams, Founder and Chair 2015-2019
Michelle Lowry, Founder and Vice-Chair 2015-2019
Francesca Cornelli, Founder and Member 2015-2019
Sydney Ludvigson, Member 2015-2019
Paola Sapienza, Member 2015-2019
Ulrike Malmendier, Member 2015-2018
Organization of AFFECT
- AFFECT is organized as a committee of the AFA. This organization largely follows that of CSWEP relative to the AEA.
- The Committee consists of six members: a Chair, a Vice Chair and four at-large members. Members serve three-year terms, with a maximum of two consecutive terms by any one member. As existing Committee members’ terms expire, the Committee is responsible for nominating new Committee members. These nominations are subject to AFA approval.
- A fraction of the initial board members will serve more than three years, as we evolve into a staggered committee structure. Organization-specific knowledge will be important, and continuity of at least some board members each year will facilitate this.
- A Committee member may serve a maximum of two consecutive terms.
- The Chair of the Committee will attend the January meeting of the AFA Executive Committee to deliver the annual report.
- An Advisory Committee serves to provide guidance and ideas on specific initiatives.