SOAS receives €1m to appoint AXA Chair in Global Finance
Professor Victor Murinde has been appointed to the AXA Professor in Global Finance in the School of Finance and Management at SOAS University of London.
The AXA Chair in Global Finance is a new full-time permanent academic position, created by SOAS and endowed by the AXA Research Fund.
Baroness Valerie Amos CH, Director of SOAS, said “SOAS is delighted to be awarded the AXA Chair in Global Finance; it is a great opportunity to make a significant long-term investment in partnership with AXA to appoint Professor Victor Murinde to the AXA Chair in Global Finance and to establish the Research Centre for Global Finance. The investment will facilitate a long-term research programme and disseminate the research findings via the Centre’s global academic and policy-related networks consistent with SOAS’s ambitious research strategy.”
Professor Victor Murinde said: “I am honoured to accept the position of AXA Chair in Global Finance and founding Director of the Research Centre in Global Finance. The research programme will significantly extend the existing body of knowledge on finance, stability and growth by systematically exploring the role of price and non-price factors in shaping global trends in flow of funds, and by mainstreaming the study of finance in Africa and Asia within global financial analysis.”
Christian Thimann, Director of the AXA Research Fund, said: “This long-term research programme, headed by Professor Murinde, promises to improve the understanding of major structural shifts in the world’s financial and economic systems – or mega trends. This can help identify the drivers of growth in emerging economies, and the issues that lead to financial crashes. The AXA Research Fund is delighted to be able to support this important work.”
The investment of Euro 1 million from AXA Research Fund, along with equivalent funding from SOAS University of London, and from other sources, will finance a ten-year research programme and the Research Centre for Global Finance. The Research Programme includes the appointment of a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Global Finance and the creation of two full-time PhD Scholarships – one home and one overseas – every three years.
Professor Victor Murinde is a financial economist with more than 25 years’ expertise, post-PhD, mainly involving university research and teaching, but also including senior-level stints at practitioner, policy and consultancy roles for governments and leading international organisations. He is currently the Principal Investigator (PI) of a large research project (Euro 2.6 million) on “Delivering Inclusive Financial Development and Growth”, funded under the DFID-ESRC Growth Research Programme.
AXA, through its AXA Research Fund, encourages and supports research relating to major changes in modern-day society and the associated risks. The AXA Chair is a highly competitive scheme, designed to support research excellence involving significant advancement in a research field within a host institution. Only 13 Chairs have been awarded globally in socio-economic risks and the AXA Chair in Global Finance held by Professor Murinde is the first AXA Chair in socio-economic risks in the UK. Professor Jean Tirole, the AXA supported chair at Toulouse School of Economics, won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2014.
