Imperial College Business School celebrates fresh round of academic promotions

Harjoat Bhamra has been promoted to Professor of Finance. He holds an MA and MMath in Mathematics from St John’s College, Cambridge and a PhD from London Business School.

His research focuses on financial markets, especially the importance of household heterogeneity for asset returns and the interconnections between asset prices, corporate financial decisions, and monetary policy.

Read more about his research on household investment.

Lara Cathcart has been made Professor of Finance. Lara earned a PhD in Finance from the University of London.

Her current research interests cover two key areas: credit risk and behavioural finance. She has a particular interest in the sovereign and corporate credit default swap markets and, more recently, she has been interested in the impact of the media on financial markets.

Find out more about her research into why credit ratings matter.

Cláudia Custódio is now Professor of Finance. She was awarded her PhD from the London School of Economics in 2010. Before joining Imperial College in 2016, she spent time in the US working for the Department of Finance at Arizona State University. 

Her research focuses on corporate finance and her work has been published in academic journals such as the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics and Review of Financial Studies.

Read more about her work on why soft skills are key in the age of AI. 

Ileana Stigliani has been promoted to Professor of Design & Innovation. She received her PhD in Management from Bocconi University in Milan.
 
Her research focuses on collective cognition in organisations. Her research has been published in leading management journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly and Journal of Management Studies.

Find out more about her research on building the right environment for innovation. 

Anne ter Wal has been made Professor of Technology & Innovation Management in the Department of Management & Entrepreneurship.

His research, often in collaboration with leading multinational companies, as well as startups, focuses on the role of networks in innovation and entrepreneurship. Specifically, Anne studies how individuals access new knowledge and ideas through networks within, and between, organisations, and the challenges they face when seeking to apply these ideas to the creation of novel products and services.

Read more about his research into innovation partnerships. 

Christiane Bode has been promoted to Associate Professor of Strategy. Her research focuses on the micro-processes underlying the corporate social engagement of firms.

Two broad questions shape her research agenda. She seeks to answer how employees acting as entrepreneurs drive the corporate social engagement of firms, and she analyses how firms can use the preferences of employees to create a strategic link between such engagement and firm performance.

Read more about Christiane's research into whether corporate social impact work could, in fact, damage your career. 

Laure de Preux has been made Associate Professor of Economics.

Her research interests lie in environmental and health economics and she is an academic member of the Centre for Health Economics & Policy Innovation. She works on climate change policy evaluation, the impact of health insurance on lifestyles, and the determinants of health with a particular focus on the effect of climate and pollution on individual behaviour and healthcare utilisation.

Christian Hampel has been made Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship & Social Innovation. Prior to joining the Business School, he completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge and was a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford.
 
Christian’s research interests lie at the intersection of entrepreneurship and organisation theory. In particular, he focuses on how new ventures manage social evaluations. Christian studies these dynamics with a focus on mission-driven ventures, especially in the social innovation and fintech spaces.

Read more about his research on integrating different views of history into your organisation.

HeeJung Jung has been made Associate Professor in the Department of Management & Entrepreneurship. She obtained a PhD in Management from INSEAD.
 
Her research focuses on social evaluations and non-regulatory factors that promote or hinder diversity and inequality in organisation. She is particularly interested in corporate leadership such as entrepreneurial teams and elite workers. She is also dedicated to applying scientific methods and interventions to promote the inclusiveness of historically marginalised groups in the corporate world.

Find out more about HeeJung's research on how underperforming companies derail diversity in the boardroom.

Omar Merlo has been promoted to Associate Professor of Marketing Strategy. He is also Associate Dean (External Relations) and Academic Director of the MSc Strategic Marketing programmes.

Previously, he was Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Cambridge, Fellow of St Edmund's College Cambridge, and Lecturer at the University of Melbourne. His main teaching, research and consulting interests are in the areas of strategic marketing, services and relationship management, customer engagement and brand management. 

Find out about his work on the multiple personalities of successful brands.