About me

Woon Sau LEUNG, CFA             

Professor of Finance

Banking and Finance Department                                             

Southampton Business School

University Road

Southampton

SO17 1BJ

United Kingdom

Email: w.s.leung(at)soton.ac.uk

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Woon Sau is Professor of Finance at the University of Southampton Business School. He is Fellow of the Advanced HE and a Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA).

Prior to joining the University of Southampton, he was Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at the University of Edinburgh and Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Finance at Cardiff University. He holds an IBBA degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and a MSc in Accounting and Finance and a PhD in Finance from Cardiff University.  

Woon Sau's research falls under three main themes: 

(1) ESG [ESG risk; Climate risk; Stakeholder governance; Diversity],

(2) Financial Markets [Reforms/Legal changes in financial markets; Pricing of intangible assets; Stock returns; Monetary policies], 

(3) Supply Chains [Shock/Risk propagation; Customer base concentration; Reshoring]

His research has been published in international, peer-reviewed accounting, business, and finance journals, including Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (ABS 4; FT50), Journal of International Business Studies (ABS 4*; FT50; UTD24), Production Operations and Management (ABS 4; FT50; UTD24), Journal of Corporate Finance (ABS 4), Journal of Banking and Finance (ABS 3), Journal of Financial Markets (ABS 3), Journal of Empirical Finance (ABS 3), among others. His work is featured and cited by the Harvard Business Review, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Regulation, the Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog, Reuters, Bloomberg, Institutional Investor, etc. 

His publication in Journal of Corporate Finance on gender diversity is one of "the most downloaded JCF articles." His work on bank stakeholder governance (Journal of Corporate Finance) was awarded Best Paper in Financial Institutions at the 2016 FMA annual conference. He was awarded the Sustained Excellence Contribution Reward at the University of Edinburgh in 2022 and was the recipient of the Sustained Outstanding Contribution Award from Cardiff University in 2017. 

He has presented his work in major accounting and finance conferences, including those organized by the American Economic Association (AEA), European Finance Association (EFA), Financial Management Association (FMA), American Accounting Association (AAA), among others. He has served as an ad-hoc reviewer for a number of international accounting, business, and finance journals, including Management Science, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, etc., and research funding bodies, such as the research councils in Iceland and Belgium. In 2024, he is guest-editing a special issue in the British Accounting Review, titled "The Role of Supply Chain in Accounting and Finance Research." 

He regularly visits and gives invited talks and seminars at institutions within and outside the U.K., including the U.S., Japan, and China. 

Woon Sau is enthusiastic about teaching and education. His teaching focuses on facilitating deep learning through encouraging student engagement, providing timely feedback, and aligning assessment with learning outcomes. His teaching includes UG and MSc courses in Corporate Finance and Econometrics. He was nominated for Best Supervisor Award by students; one of his courses was awarded Runner-Up Prize - the Innovation in Learning and Teaching Award. He regularly delivers guest lectures and teaching to institutions abroad. He is currently an external examiner for the MSc Finance and the MSc Economics programmes at Durham University in the U.K.