Biography:

Lara Cathcart is Professor of Finance at Imperial Business School. She is Co-Deputy Head of Department and the Academic Director of MSc Finance and MSc Risk Management and Financial Engineering.

Lara earned a PhD in Finance from the University of London. Her current research interests encompass 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 has been interested in the impact of the media on financial markets.

Lara’s research has been presented at the main finance conferences (Western Finance Association, American Finance Association and European Finance Association) and published in high impact finance journals such as Journal of Money Credit and Banking, Journal of Corporate Finance and Journal of Banking and Finance and in more mainstream practitioner publications such as Risk and Professional Investor and has featured in Euromoney, Investment Europe, and Structured Credit Investor. Her research has been funded with grants from the Economic & Social Research Council. She has served as an Associate Editor at the Journal of Banking and Finance, is currently Associate Editor at the European Journal of Finance and is a repeat member of the program committee of the European Financial Management Association. Lara has also consulted for several investment banks and for HM Treasury.

Lara was awarded the Imperial Medal for her commitment to academic excellence, diversity, and inclusion and for her pioneering contributions to finance education.