Welcome to my personal pages
I am an Associate Professor of Finance at Utrecht University and Maastricht University in The Netherlands.
For over two decades, my research has primarily focused on sustainable finance and investments. I study how sustainability (ESG) issues affect the financial market, investment portfolio management, active ownership, corporate behavior, and firm valuation. My research output appears in international peer-reviewed academic journals and has received attention in various international media. I co-organized several sustainable finance conferences, and serve as judge for the Moskowitz Prize. I am also co-founder of ECCE - The European Center for Sustainable Finance. Previously I held faculty positions at Tilburg University (Economics department and Tilburg Sustainability Center), RSM Erasmus University, and the Open University of the Netherlands. I have a PhD in Financial Management from RSM Erasmus University, the Netherlands.
I am founder of the Sustainable Finance Master's programmes at Maastricht University (2014) and Utrecht University (2022), and currently teach at Master's and Executive/Postgrad levels courses on sustainable finance and traditional finance. Beyond research and education, I am currently a member of the Academic Review Board of PGGM Systematic Equities Strategies (2022-2025), the Netspar Program Research Council (2024 - ), and I reside on the board of the Research Institute of Utrecht School of Economics.
Recent Papers and Publications (selection)
NEW! Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation: voluntary signaling or mandatory disclosure? with Lara Spaans, Joop Huij and Kees Koedijk, Working paper (updated Feb 2024).
NEW! Renaming with Purpose: Investor Response and Fund Manager Behavior after Fund ESG-renaming, with Kayshani Gibbon, Dirk Gerritsen, and Kees Koedijk, Working Paper 2023. BNP Paribas Asset Management Best Paper Award for best overall research at the 2024 GRASFI Conference (Singapore).
Climate Change Firm Performance and Investor Surprises, with Nora Pankratz and Rob Bauer, Management Science, vol. 69 (12), 2023. Publisher link.
Private Shareholder Engagements on Material ESG issues, with Rob Bauer and Colin Tissen, Financial Analyst Journal, vol. 79(4), pp. 64-95, 2023. Publisher link (open acccess); In practice brief (CFA Institute); Hear from the author (CFA Institute, open access)
Actief aandeelhouderschap, Engagement, en ESG. Rendement en Impact? KVS Preadviezen (in Dutch), 2022
Corporate Directors Learn from Environmental Shareholder Engagements, with Rob Bauer and Colin Tissen, working paper, 2021