AUT business academics lead NZ role in GARP

23 June 2005

AUT business academics lead NZ role in GARP

Two AUT Business Faculty academics have been appointed co-regional directors for New Zealand for the world’s leading organisation for risk managers, the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP).

Professor Alireza Tourani-Rad and Associate Professor Ming-Hua Liu have been appointed to represent New Zealand by the 46,000-member association.

They will establish a New Zealand chapter of GARP for professionals and a college chapter for students. “We hope to promote best practices and provide a forum where risk managers and researchers from the financial industry, corporate sector, government and academic institutions can interact with each other,” Alireza and Ming-Hua said in a joint statement.

“We also hope to provide networking opportunities for students, to cultivate their interest in the risk field, provide research opportunities and a test location for all who are interested in seeking FRM certification.”

GARP is a non-profit independent association of risk management practitioners and researchers representing banks, investment management firms, government regulatory bodies, academic institutions, corporations and other financial organisations.

Its mission is to be the leading professional association for risk managers, managed by and for its members dedicated to the advancement of the risk profession through education, training and the promotion of best practices globally.

Dr Alireza Tourani-Rad joined AUT in April 2004 as Professor of Finance and Discipline Chair for the Faculty of Business, and has an extensive background in finance and investment.

Alireza has put together the faculty’s finance department with a team of nine other academics to offer a programme which is one of the largest in New Zealand, offering undergraduate and Masters level programmes.

Before joining AUT he held the positions of Professor of Finance at the University of Waikato and Associate Professor of Finance at the Maastricht University in the Netherlands. He completed a degree in planning and operation research at the School of Planning and Computer Applications in Tehran, a Masters degree at the Catholic University of Leuven, and his PhD at the Free University of Brussels in Belgium.

He is a senior associate of the Australasian Institute of Banking and Finance and has served as executive vice president of the European Financial Management Association and secretary of the Limburg Institute of Financial Economics. His vast research and writings, more than 50 academic articles, specialise in corporate and international finance. Dr Ming-Hua Liu is an Associate Professor of Finance at AUT and teaches fundamentals of finance at the undergraduate level and risk and portfolio management at the graduate level.

He has taught at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and served as an assistant vice president of assets and liabilities management at DBS Bank in Singapore. Ming-Hua attained his PhD degree from the University of Wales in Bangor and his MSc from the University of Wales in Cardiff.

He also holds an FRM (Financial Risk Management) Certificate, a GARP qualification which identifies risk professionals qualified to provide competent advice based on globally accepted industry standards and committed to personal professional development.

GARP president Richard Apostolik has welcomed their appointments and the new venture of building both a local and college chapter. “The opportunities that this combination presents are very exciting and should prove to be a very rewarding combination for all parties.”

ENDS

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